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ECEN 5612 - Noise and Random Processes
Catalog Data ECEN 5612 (3). Noise and Random Processes. Review of probability theory; convergence and probability bounds; multivariable normal theory; sequences of random variables and stochastic processes; Bernoulli and Poisson processes; wide-sense stationary processes; correlation functions and power spectra. Also includes linear systems with random inputs and Gauss-Markov processes; first- and second-order properties of ARMA processes; Markov chains.
Credits and Design 3 credit hours. Elective course.
Prerequisite(s) ECEN 3300, Linear Systems
Recommended Prerequisite(s) ECEN 3810, Introduction to Probability
Textbook Course notes.
1. Probability, Random Variables, and Stochastic Processes, A. Papoulis, McGraw Hill.
2. Probability Theory, R.M. Gray.
Course Objectives Establish the theoretical foundations of probability and apply it to problems in signal processing and communications.
Topics Covered
1. Probability.
2. Multivariate normal theory.
3. Bernoulli and Poisson random processes.
4. Correlation and power spectra.
5. ARMA time series.
6. Markov chains.
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Strong American Schools for Obama?
Ed in '08 mastermind Roy Romer--whose lively career has also included stints as the L.A. superintendent, Colorado governor, and Democratic National Committee chairman--let it slip today that he thinks the Democratic candidate who amasses the most pledged delegates should get the nomination. USA Today's "on politics" blog reports that this standard
is likely to favor Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. [Romer] didn't pick up on a reporter's suggestion that the overall popular vote should matter, too. That's probably a disappointment to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign. Romer was a national co-chairman of her husband's presidential re-election campaign in 1996 and became general chairman of the DNC in January 1997, while Bill Clinton was president and the nation's leading Democrat....Romer also praised Obama's speech Tuesday on race relations in America. "When you get a hot one coming in, you don't duck it, you look at it right in the eye," Romer said. "I thought he demonstrated that."
Ed in '08 has thus far bent over backwards to protect its nonprofit status, being careful to avoid praising or criticizing specific candidates. Careful, Roy...
Michael J. Petrilli | dclm-gs1-102780000 |
Skip to main content /WORLD /WORLD
On The Scene
Rodgers: Troops hit the ground
CNN Senior International Correspondent Walt Rodgers reports from Pakistan on the U.S. acknowledgement that ground troops have entered Afghanistan.
Reporting from Islamabad, CNN Senior International Correspondent Walt Rodgers discusses with military analyst Rifaat Hussain the U.S. acknowledgement that ground troops have been inserted into Afghanistan.
RODGERS: The announcement that a handful of U.S. troops are on the ground in Southern Afghanistan means that they have entered an extraordinary and dangerous environment. Southern Afghanistan is an area where tribal loyalties shift regularly, but it suggests that the United States believes that perhaps it has co-opted at least one of the tribes, or perhaps several.
Also very important is the Pentagon announcement that it is Southern Afghanistan where those small numbers of special ops forces have been inserted. The largest city close to that area is Kandahar. That is a major Taliban political and military power center. It would suggest strongly that perhaps those troops are going in there to gather intelligence and to size up a larger military operation. But again, they have to see whether the ground is safe to expand any military operation at this point.
Joining me now is Rifaat Hussain , a Pakistani military analyst well-versed in military affairs in this part of the world. Mr. Hussain, when the Pentagon says they are inserting only ... a small number of troops, what are they telling us?
HUSSAIN: They are basically telling us that the special operations forces have gone in and they have created a niche in the southern part of Afghanistan, and most of the Taliban leadership -- particularly the high command ... hail from the southern part of Afghanistan.
So their going in essentially means they have some good intelligence that some members of the al Qaeda group -- I would not rule out the possibility of Osama bin Laden himself -- have got some hideouts there, and they will be launching, I think pretty soon, search-and-destroy operations.
This is not the kind of the ground troops commitment that ... people have been talking about. These are still special operations forces, and they obviously are working in close cooperation with the local commanders there.
RODGERS: So what are they doing?
HUSSAIN: Basically, I think it is intelligence (and) search-and-destroy operations. Also, in the eventuality that should there be a ... meltdown of the Taliban power, then in all liklihood, if they have to retreat from Kabul, their natural retreat would be to Kandahar. Once they (the Taliban) move backward (coalition troops) want to be ready to take them on.
RODGERS: If you were a hard-line Taliban commander, what would you be think of this news of U.S. forces on the ground?
HUSSAIN: It would mean that you would be paying attention to your home base of Kandahar, and try to take them on. I would expect that ... you would have some kind of an engagement between some elements of the Taliban forces and the special forces that the Americans have put in that part of the world.
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PLOS Biology: New Articles PLOS Publishing science info:doi/10.1371/feed.pbio This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License${webserver-url}images/favicon.ico${webserver-url}images/favicon.ico 2015-10-05T23:32:45Z Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Pageflakes Synaptotagmin-1 and -7 Are Redundantly Essential for Maintaining the Capacity of the Readily-Releasable Pool of Synaptic Vesicles Taulant Bacaj et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002267 2015-10-05T21:00:00Z 2015-10-05T21:00:00Z <p>by Taulant Bacaj, Dick Wu, Jacqueline Burré, Robert C. Malenka, Xinran Liu, Thomas C. Südhof</p> In forebrain neurons, Ca<sup>2+</sup> triggers exocytosis of readily releasable vesicles by binding to synaptotagmin-1 and -7, thereby inducing fast and slow vesicle exocytosis, respectively. Loss-of-function of synaptotagmin-1 or -7 selectively impairs the fast and slow phase of release, respectively, but does not change the size of the readily-releasable pool (RRP) of vesicles as measured by stimulation of release with hypertonic sucrose, or alter the rate of vesicle priming into the RRP. Here we show, however, that simultaneous loss-of-function of both synaptotagmin-1 and -7 dramatically decreased the capacity of the RRP, again without altering the rate of vesicle priming into the RRP. Either synaptotagmin-1 or -7 was sufficient to rescue the RRP size in neurons lacking both synaptotagmin-1 and -7. Although maintenance of RRP size was Ca<sup>2+</sup>-independent, mutations in Ca<sup>2+</sup>-binding sequences of synaptotagmin-1 or synaptotagmin-7—which are contained in flexible top-loop sequences of their C2 domains—blocked the ability of these synaptotagmins to maintain the RRP size. Both synaptotagmins bound to SNARE complexes; SNARE complex binding was reduced by the top-loop mutations that impaired RRP maintenance. Thus, synaptotagmin-1 and -7 perform redundant functions in maintaining the capacity of the RRP in addition to nonredundant functions in the Ca<sup>2+</sup> triggering of different phases of release.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Dual-Function Exocytosis Regulator Has Yet Another Job Richard Robinson info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002268 2015-10-05T21:00:00Z 2015-10-05T21:00:00Z <p>by Richard Robinson</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Meta-research: Evaluation and Improvement of Research Methods and Practices John P. A. Ioannidis et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002264 2015-10-02T21:00:00Z 2015-10-02T21:00:00Z <p>by John P. A. Ioannidis, Daniele Fanelli, Debbie Drake Dunne, Steven N. Goodman</p> As the scientific enterprise has grown in size and diversity, we need empirical evidence on the research process to test and apply interventions that make it more efficient and its results more reliable. Meta-research is an evolving scientific discipline that aims to evaluate and improve research practices. It includes thematic areas of methods, reporting, reproducibility, evaluation, and incentives (how to do, report, verify, correct, and reward science). Much work is already done in this growing field, but efforts to-date are fragmented. We provide a map of ongoing efforts and discuss plans for connecting the multiple meta-research efforts across science worldwide.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Map of Visual Activity in the Infant Brain Sheds Light on Neural Development Janelle Weaver info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002261 2015-09-29T21:00:00Z 2015-09-29T21:00:00Z <p>by Janelle Weaver</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> BOLD Response Selective to Flow-Motion in Very Young Infants Laura Biagi et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002260 2015-09-29T21:00:00Z 2015-09-29T21:00:00Z <p>by Laura Biagi, Sofia Allegra Crespi, Michela Tosetti, Maria Concetta Morrone</p> In adults, motion perception is mediated by an extensive network of occipital, parietal, temporal, and insular cortical areas. Little is known about the neural substrate of visual motion in infants, although behavioural studies suggest that motion perception is rudimentary at birth and matures steadily over the first few years. Here, by measuring Blood Oxygenated Level Dependent (BOLD) responses to flow versus random-motion stimuli, we demonstrate that the major cortical areas serving motion processing in adults are operative by 7 wk of age. Resting-state correlations demonstrate adult-like functional connectivity between the motion-selective associative areas, but not between primary cortex and temporo-occipital and posterior-insular cortices. Taken together, the results suggest that the development of motion perception may be limited by slow maturation of the subcortical input and of the cortico-cortical connections. In addition they support the existence of independent input to primary (V1) and temporo-occipital (V5/MT+) cortices very early in life.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Neuromodulation to the Rescue: Compensation of Temperature-Induced Breakdown of Rhythmic Motor Patterns via Extrinsic Neuromodulatory Input Carola Städele et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002265 2015-09-29T21:00:00Z 2015-09-29T21:00:00Z <p>by Carola Städele, Stefanie Heigele, Wolfgang Stein</p> Stable rhythmic neural activity depends on the well-coordinated interplay of synaptic and cell-intrinsic conductances. Since all biophysical processes are temperature dependent, this interplay is challenged during temperature fluctuations. How the nervous system remains functional during temperature perturbations remains mostly unknown. We present a hitherto unknown mechanism of how temperature-induced changes in neural networks are compensated by changing their neuromodulatory state: activation of neuromodulatory pathways establishes a dynamic coregulation of synaptic and intrinsic conductances with opposing effects on neuronal activity when temperature changes, hence rescuing neuronal activity. Using the well-studied gastric mill pattern generator of the crab, we show that modest temperature increase can abolish rhythmic activity in isolated neural circuits due to increased leak currents in rhythm-generating neurons. Dynamic clamp-mediated addition of leak currents was sufficient to stop neuronal oscillations at low temperatures, and subtraction of additional leak currents at elevated temperatures was sufficient to rescue the rhythm. Despite the apparent sensitivity of the isolated nervous system to temperature fluctuations, the rhythm could be stabilized by activating extrinsic neuromodulatory inputs from descending projection neurons, a strategy that we indeed found to be implemented in intact animals. In the isolated nervous system, temperature compensation was achieved by stronger extrinsic neuromodulatory input from projection neurons or by augmenting projection neuron influence via bath application of the peptide cotransmitter <i>Cancer borealis</i> tachykinin-related peptide Ia (CabTRP Ia). CabTRP Ia activates the modulator-induced current I<sub>MI</sub> (a nonlinear voltage-gated inward current) that effectively acted as a negative leak current and counterbalanced the temperature-induced leak to rescue neuronal oscillations. Computational modelling revealed the ability of I<sub>MI</sub> to reduce detrimental leak-current influences on neuronal networks over a broad conductance range and indicated that leak and I<sub>MI</sub> are closely coregulated in the biological system to enable stable motor patterns. In conclusion, these results show that temperature compensation does not need to be implemented within the network itself but can be conditionally provided by extrinsic neuromodulatory input that counterbalances temperature-induced modifications of circuit-intrinsic properties.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Seeing and Feeling Motion: Canonical Computations in Vision and Touch Christopher C. Pack et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002271 2015-09-29T21:00:00Z 2015-09-29T21:00:00Z <p>by Christopher C. Pack, Sliman J. Bensmaia</p> While the different sensory modalities are sensitive to different stimulus energies, they are often charged with extracting analogous information about the environment. Neural systems may thus have evolved to implement similar algorithms across modalities to extract behaviorally relevant stimulus information, leading to the notion of a canonical computation. In both vision and touch, information about motion is extracted from a spatiotemporal pattern of activation across a sensory sheet (in the retina and in the skin, respectively), a process that has been extensively studied in both modalities. In this essay, we examine the processing of motion information as it ascends the primate visual and somatosensory neuraxes and conclude that similar computations are implemented in the two sensory systems.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Insulator Protein Helps Organize the Gaps in the Axon's Insulation Richard Robinson info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002259 2015-09-25T21:00:00Z 2015-09-25T21:00:00Z <p>by Richard Robinson</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> HDAC1/2-Dependent P0 Expression Maintains Paranodal and Nodal Integrity Independently of Myelin Stability through Interactions with Neurofascins Valérie Brügger et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002258 2015-09-25T21:00:00Z 2015-09-25T21:00:00Z <p>by Valérie Brügger, Stefanie Engler, Jorge A. Pereira, Sophie Ruff, Michael Horn, Hans Welzl, Emmanuelle Münger, Adrien Vaquié, Páris N. M. Sidiropoulos, Boris Egger, Peter Yotovski, Luis Filgueira, Christian Somandin, Tessa C. Lühmann, Maurizio D’Antonio, Teppei Yamaguchi, Patrick Matthias, Ueli Suter, Claire Jacob</p> The pathogenesis of peripheral neuropathies in adults is linked to maintenance mechanisms that are not well understood. Here, we elucidate a novel critical maintenance mechanism for Schwann cell (SC)–axon interaction. Using mouse genetics, ablation of the transcriptional regulators histone deacetylases 1 and 2 (HDAC1/2) in adult SCs severely affected paranodal and nodal integrity and led to demyelination/remyelination. Expression levels of the HDAC1/2 target gene myelin protein zero (P0) were reduced by half, accompanied by altered localization and stability of neurofascin (NFasc)155, NFasc186, and loss of Caspr and septate-like junctions. We identify P0 as a novel binding partner of NFasc155 and NFasc186, both in vivo and by in vitro adhesion assay. Furthermore, we demonstrate that HDAC1/2-dependent P0 expression is crucial for the maintenance of paranodal/nodal integrity and axonal function through interaction of P0 with neurofascins. In addition, we show that the latter mechanism is impaired by some P0 mutations that lead to late onset Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> A New Role of the Mosquito Complement-like Cascade in Male Fertility in Anopheles gambiae Julien Pompon et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002255 2015-09-22T21:00:00Z 2015-09-22T21:00:00Z <p>by Julien Pompon, Elena A. Levashina</p> Thioester-containing protein 1 (TEP1) is a key immune factor that determines mosquito resistance to a wide range of pathogens, including malaria parasites. Here we report a new allele-specific function of TEP1 in male fertility. We demonstrate that during spermatogenesis TEP1 binds to and removes damaged cells through the same complement-like cascade that kills malaria parasites in the mosquito midgut. Further, higher fertility rates are mediated by an allele that renders the mosquito susceptible to <i>Plasmodium</i>. By elucidating the molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying TEP1 function in spermatogenesis, our study suggests that pleiotropic antagonism between reproduction and immunity may shape resistance of mosquito populations to malaria parasites.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Vibrissa Self-Motion and Touch Are Reliably Encoded along the Same Somatosensory Pathway from Brainstem through Thalamus Jeffrey D. Moore et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002253 2015-09-22T21:00:00Z 2015-09-22T21:00:00Z <p>by Jeffrey D. Moore, Nicole Mercer Lindsay, Martin Deschênes, David Kleinfeld</p> Active sensing involves the fusion of internally generated motor events with external sensation. For rodents, active somatosensation includes scanning the immediate environment with the mystacial vibrissae. In doing so, the vibrissae may touch an object at any angle in the whisk cycle. The representation of touch and vibrissa self-motion may in principle be encoded along separate pathways, or share a single pathway, from the periphery to cortex. Past studies established that the spike rates in neurons along the lemniscal pathway from receptors to cortex, which includes the principal trigeminal and ventral-posterior-medial thalamic nuclei, are substantially modulated by touch. In contrast, spike rates along the paralemniscal pathway, which includes the rostral spinal trigeminal interpolaris, posteromedial thalamic, and ventral zona incerta nuclei, are only weakly modulated by touch. Here we find that neurons along the lemniscal pathway robustly encode rhythmic whisking on a cycle-by-cycle basis, while encoding along the paralemniscal pathway is relatively poor. Thus, the representations of both touch and self-motion share one pathway. In fact, some individual neurons carry both signals, so that upstream neurons with a supralinear gain function could, in principle, demodulate these signals to recover the known decoding of touch as a function of vibrissa position in the whisk cycle.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Shifts of Gamma Phase across Primary Visual Cortical Sites Reflect Dynamic Stimulus-Modulated Information Transfer Michel Besserve et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002257 2015-09-22T21:00:00Z 2015-09-22T21:00:00Z <p>by Michel Besserve, Scott C. Lowe, Nikos K. Logothetis, Bernhard Schölkopf, Stefano Panzeri</p> Distributed neural processing likely entails the capability of networks to reconfigure dynamically the directionality and strength of their functional connections. Yet, the neural mechanisms that may allow such dynamic routing of the information flow are not yet fully understood. We investigated the role of gamma band (50–80 Hz) oscillations in transient modulations of communication among neural populations by using measures of direction-specific causal information transfer. We found that the local phase of gamma-band rhythmic activity exerted a stimulus-modulated and spatially-asymmetric directed effect on the firing rate of spatially separated populations within the primary visual cortex. The relationships between gamma phases at different sites (phase shifts) could be described as a stimulus-modulated gamma-band wave propagating along the spatial directions with the largest information transfer. We observed transient stimulus-related changes in the spatial configuration of phases (compatible with changes in direction of gamma wave propagation) accompanied by a relative increase of the amount of information flowing along the instantaneous direction of the gamma wave. These effects were specific to the gamma-band and suggest that the time-varying relationships between gamma phases at different locations mark, and possibly causally mediate, the dynamic reconfiguration of functional connections.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Mosquitoes Trade Fertility for Immune Defense against Malaria Caitlin Sedwick info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002256 2015-09-22T21:00:00Z 2015-09-22T21:00:00Z <p>by Caitlin Sedwick</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Sleep-Dependent Reactivation of Ensembles in Motor Cortex Promotes Skill Consolidation Dhakshin S. Ramanathan et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002263 2015-09-18T21:00:00Z 2015-09-18T21:00:00Z <p>by Dhakshin S. Ramanathan, Tanuj Gulati, Karunesh Ganguly</p> Despite many prior studies demonstrating offline behavioral gains in motor skills after sleep, the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. To investigate the neurophysiological basis for offline gains, we performed single-unit recordings in motor cortex as rats learned a skilled upper-limb task. We found that sleep improved movement speed with preservation of accuracy. These offline improvements were linked to both replay of task-related ensembles during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and temporal shifts that more tightly bound motor cortical ensembles to movements; such offline gains and temporal shifts were not evident with sleep restriction. Interestingly, replay was linked to the coincidence of slow-wave events and bursts of spindle activity. Neurons that experienced the most consistent replay also underwent the most significant temporal shift and binding to the motor task. Significantly, replay and the associated performance gains after sleep only occurred when animals first learned the skill; continued practice during later stages of learning (i.e., after motor kinematics had stabilized) did not show evidence of replay. Our results highlight how replay of synchronous neural activity during sleep mediates large-scale neural plasticity and stabilizes kinematics during early motor learning.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Time Adaptation Shows Duration Selectivity in the Human Parietal Cortex Masamichi J. Hayashi et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002262 2015-09-17T21:00:00Z 2015-09-17T21:00:00Z <p>by Masamichi J. Hayashi, Thomas Ditye, Tokiko Harada, Maho Hashiguchi, Norihiro Sadato, Synnöve Carlson, Vincent Walsh, Ryota Kanai</p> Although psychological and computational models of time estimation have postulated the existence of neural representations tuned for specific durations, empirical evidence of this notion has been lacking. Here, using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) adaptation paradigm, we show that the inferior parietal lobule (IPL) (corresponding to the supramarginal gyrus) exhibited reduction in neural activity due to adaptation when a visual stimulus of the same duration was repeatedly presented. Adaptation was strongest when stimuli of identical durations were repeated, and it gradually decreased as the difference between the reference and test durations increased. This tuning property generalized across a broad range of durations, indicating the presence of general time-representation mechanisms in the IPL. Furthermore, adaptation was observed irrespective of the subject’s attention to time. Repetition of a nontemporal aspect of the stimulus (i.e., shape) did not produce neural adaptation in the IPL. These results provide neural evidence for duration-tuned representations in the human brain.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Extremely High Mutation Rate of HIV-1 In Vivo José M. Cuevas et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002251 2015-09-16T21:00:00Z 2015-09-16T21:00:00Z <p>by José M. Cuevas, Ron Geller, Raquel Garijo, José López-Aldeguer, Rafael Sanjuán</p> Rates of spontaneous mutation critically determine the genetic diversity and evolution of RNA viruses. Although these rates have been characterized in vitro and in cell culture models, they have seldom been determined in vivo for human viruses. Here, we use the intrapatient frequency of premature stop codons to quantify the HIV-1 genome-wide rate of spontaneous mutation in DNA sequences from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. This reveals an extremely high mutation rate of (4.1 ± 1.7) × 10<sup>−3</sup> per base per cell, the highest reported for any biological entity. Sequencing of plasma-derived sequences yielded a mutation frequency 44 times lower, indicating that a large fraction of viral genomes are lethally mutated and fail to reach plasma. We show that the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase contributes only 2% of mutations, whereas 98% result from editing by host cytidine deaminases of the A3 family. Hypermutated viral sequences are less abundant in patients showing rapid disease progression compared to normal progressors, highlighting the antiviral role of A3 proteins. However, the amount of A3-mediated editing varies broadly, and we find that low-edited sequences are more abundant among rapid progressors, suggesting that suboptimal A3 activity might enhance HIV-1 genetic diversity and pathogenesis.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Cellular Defense Enzyme Drives Exceptionally High Rate of Mutation in HIV Richard Robinson info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002252 2015-09-16T21:00:00Z 2015-09-16T21:00:00Z <p>by Richard Robinson</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> The Fitness Effects of Love Roland G. Roberts info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002249 2015-09-14T21:00:00Z 2015-09-14T21:00:00Z <p>by Roland G. Roberts</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Fitness Benefits of Mate Choice for Compatibility in a Socially Monogamous Species Malika Ihle et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002248 2015-09-14T21:00:00Z 2015-09-14T21:00:00Z <p>by Malika Ihle, Bart Kempenaers, Wolfgang Forstmeier</p> Research on mate choice has primarily focused on preferences for quality indicators, assuming that all individuals show consensus about who is the most attractive. However, in some species, mating preferences seem largely individual-specific, suggesting that they might target genetic or behavioral compatibility. Few studies have quantified the fitness consequences of allowing versus preventing such idiosyncratic mate choice. Here, we report on an experiment that controls for variation in overall partner quality and show that zebra finch (<i>Taeniopygia guttata</i>) pairs that resulted from free mate choice achieved a 37% higher reproductive success than pairs that were forced to mate. Cross-fostering of freshly laid eggs showed that embryo mortality (before hatching) primarily depended on the identity of the genetic parents, whereas offspring mortality during the rearing period depended on foster-parent identity. Therefore, preventing mate choice should lead to an increase in embryo mortality if mate choice targets genetic compatibility (for embryo viability), and to an increase in offspring mortality if mate choice targets behavioral compatibility (for better rearing). We found that pairs from both treatments showed equal rates of embryo mortality, but chosen pairs were better at raising offspring. These results thus support the behavioral, but not the genetic, compatibility hypothesis. Further exploratory analyses reveal several differences in behavior and fitness components between “free-choice” and “forced” pairs.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> How to Turn On an Ancient Metabolic Enzyme? Add Insulin and Deacetylate Richard Robinson info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002244 2015-09-10T21:00:00Z 2015-09-10T21:00:00Z <p>by Richard Robinson</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Insulin and mTOR Pathway Regulate HDAC3-Mediated Deacetylation and Activation of PGK1 Shiwen Wang et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002243 2015-09-10T21:00:00Z 2015-09-10T21:00:00Z <p>by Shiwen Wang, Bowen Jiang, Tengfei Zhang, Lixia Liu, Yi Wang, Yiping Wang, Xiufei Chen, Huaipeng Lin, Lisha Zhou, Yukun Xia, Leilei Chen, Chen Yang, Yue Xiong, Dan Ye, Kun-Liang Guan</p> Phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) catalyzes the reversible transfer of a phosphoryl group from 1, 3-bisphosphoglycerate (1, 3-BPG) to ADP, producing 3-phosphoglycerate (3-PG) and ATP. PGK1 plays a key role in coordinating glycolytic energy production with one-carbon metabolism, serine biosynthesis, and cellular redox regulation. Here, we report that PGK1 is acetylated at lysine 220 (K220), which inhibits PGK1 activity by disrupting the binding with its substrate, ADP. We have identified KAT9 and HDAC3 as the potential acetyltransferase and deacetylase, respectively, for PGK1. Insulin promotes K220 deacetylation to stimulate PGK1 activity. We show that the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway regulates HDAC3 S424 phosphorylation, which promotes HDAC3-PGK1 interaction and PGK1 K220 deacetylation. Our study uncovers a previously unknown mechanism for the insulin and mTOR pathway in regulation of glycolytic ATP production and cellular redox potential via HDAC3-mediated PGK1 deacetylation.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> The Maternal Maverick/GDF15-like TGF-β Ligand Panda Directs Dorsal-Ventral Axis Formation by Restricting Nodal Expression in the Sea Urchin Embryo Emmanuel Haillot et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002247 2015-09-09T21:00:00Z 2015-09-09T21:00:00Z <p>by Emmanuel Haillot, Maria Dolores Molina, François Lapraz, Thierry Lepage</p> Specification of the dorsal-ventral axis in the highly regulative sea urchin embryo critically relies on the zygotic expression of <i>nodal</i>, but whether maternal factors provide the initial spatial cue to orient this axis is not known. Although redox gradients have been proposed to entrain the dorsal-ventral axis by acting upstream of <i>nodal</i>, manipulating the activity of redox gradients only has modest consequences, suggesting that other factors are responsible for orienting <i>nodal</i> expression and defining the dorsal-ventral axis. Here we uncover the function of Panda, a maternally provided transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) ligand that requires the activin receptor-like kinases (Alk) Alk3/6 and Alk1/2 receptors to break the radial symmetry of the embryo and orient the dorsal-ventral axis by restricting <i>nodal</i> expression. We found that the double inhibition of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type I receptors Alk3/6 and Alk1/2 causes a phenotype dramatically more severe than the BMP2/4 loss-of-function phenotype, leading to extreme ventralization of the embryo through massive ectopic expression of <i>nodal</i>, suggesting that an unidentified signal acting through BMP type I receptors cooperates with BMP2/4 to restrict <i>nodal</i> expression. We identified this ligand as the product of maternal Panda mRNA. Double inactivation of <i>panda</i> and <i>bmp2/4</i> led to extreme ventralization, mimicking the phenotype caused by inactivation of the two BMP receptors. Inhibition of maternal <i>panda</i> mRNA translation disrupted the early spatial restriction of <i>nodal</i>, leading to persistent massive ectopic expression of <i>nodal</i> on the dorsal side despite the presence of Lefty. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that Panda is not a prototypical BMP ligand but a member of a subfamily of TGF-β distantly related to Inhibins, Lefty, and TGF-β that includes Maverick from <i>Drosophila</i> and GDF15 from vertebrates. Indeed, overexpression of Panda does not appear to directly or strongly activate phosphoSmad1/5/8 signaling, suggesting that although this TGF-β may require Alk1/2 and/or Alk3/6 to antagonize <i>nodal</i> expression, it may do so by sequestering a factor essential for Nodal signaling, by activating a non-Smad pathway downstream of the type I receptors, or by activating extremely low levels of pSmad1/5/8. We provide evidence that, although <i>panda</i> mRNA is broadly distributed in the early embryo, local expression of <i>panda</i> mRNA efficiently orients the dorsal-ventral axis and that Panda activity is required locally in the early embryo to specify this axis. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that maternal <i>panda</i> mRNA is both necessary and sufficient to orient the dorsal-ventral axis. These results therefore provide evidence that in the highly regulative sea urchin embryo, the activity of spatially restricted maternal factors regulates patterning along the dorsal-ventral axis.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Resolving Conflicts between Agriculture and the Natural Environment Andrew J. Tanentzap et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002242 2015-09-09T21:00:00Z 2015-09-09T21:00:00Z <p>by Andrew J. Tanentzap, Anthony Lamb, Susan Walker, Andrew Farmer</p> Agriculture dominates the planet. Yet it has many environmental costs that are unsustainable, especially as global food demand rises. Here, we evaluate ways in which different parts of the world are succeeding in their attempts to resolve conflict between agriculture and wild nature. We envision that coordinated global action in conserving land most sensitive to agricultural activities and policies that internalise the environmental costs of agriculture are needed to deliver a more sustainable future.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Face Patch Resting State Networks Link Face Processing to Social Cognition Caspar M. Schwiedrzik et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002245 2015-09-08T21:00:00Z 2015-09-08T21:00:00Z <p>by Caspar M. Schwiedrzik, Wilbert Zarco, Stefan Everling, Winrich A. Freiwald</p> Faces transmit a wealth of social information. How this information is exchanged between face-processing centers and brain areas supporting social cognition remains largely unclear. Here we identify these routes using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in macaque monkeys. We find that face areas functionally connect to specific regions within frontal, temporal, and parietal cortices, as well as subcortical structures supporting emotive, mnemonic, and cognitive functions. This establishes the existence of an extended face-recognition system in the macaque. Furthermore, the face patch resting state networks and the default mode network in monkeys show a pattern of overlap akin to that between the social brain and the default mode network in humans: this overlap specifically includes the posterior superior temporal sulcus, medial parietal, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, areas supporting high-level social cognition in humans. Together, these results reveal the embedding of face areas into larger brain networks and suggest that the resting state networks of the face patch system offer a new, easily accessible venue into the functional organization of the social brain and into the evolution of possibly uniquely human social skills.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> A Change in the Ion Selectivity of Ligand-Gated Ion Channels Provides a Mechanism to Switch Behavior Jennifer K. Pirri et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002238 2015-09-08T21:00:00Z 2015-09-08T21:00:00Z <p>by Jennifer K. Pirri, Diego Rayes, Mark J. Alkema</p> Behavioral output of neural networks depends on a delicate balance between excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connections. However, it is not known whether network formation and stability is constrained by the sign of synaptic connections between neurons within the network. Here we show that switching the sign of a synapse within a neural circuit can reverse the behavioral output. The inhibitory tyramine-gated chloride channel, LGC-55, induces head relaxation and inhibits forward locomotion during the <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> escape response. We switched the ion selectivity of an inhibitory LGC-55 anion channel to an excitatory LGC-55 cation channel. The engineered cation channel is properly trafficked in the native neural circuit and results in behavioral responses that are opposite to those produced by activation of the LGC-55 anion channel. Our findings indicate that switches in ion selectivity of ligand-gated ion channels (LGICs) do not affect network connectivity or stability and may provide an evolutionary and a synthetic mechanism to change behavior.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Centre of the Cell: Science Comes to Life Frances Balkwill et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002240 2015-09-04T21:00:00Z 2015-09-04T21:00:00Z <p>by Frances Balkwill, Katie Chambers</p> Centre of the Cell is a unique biomedical science education centre, a widening participation and outreach project in London’s East End. This article describes Centre of the Cell’s first five years of operation, the evolution of the project in response to audience demand, and the impact of siting a major public engagement project within a research laboratory.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Correction: Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging: What Water Tells Us about Biological Tissues Denis Le Bihan et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002246 2015-09-03T21:00:00Z 2015-09-03T21:00:00Z <p>by Denis Le Bihan, Mami Iima</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> The Actin Nucleator Cobl Is Controlled by Calcium and Calmodulin Wenya Hou et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002233 2015-09-03T21:00:00Z 2015-09-03T21:00:00Z <p>by Wenya Hou, Maryam Izadi, Sabine Nemitz, Natja Haag, Michael M. Kessels, Britta Qualmann</p> Actin nucleation triggers the formation of new actin filaments and has the power to shape cells but requires tight control in order to bring about proper morphologies. The regulation of the members of the novel class of WASP Homology 2 (WH2) domain-based actin nucleators, however, thus far has largely remained elusive. Our study reveals signal cascades and mechanisms regulating Cordon-Bleu (Cobl). Cobl plays some, albeit not fully understood, role in early arborization of neurons and nucleates actin by a mechanism that requires a combination of all three of its actin monomer–binding WH2 domains. Our experiments reveal that Cobl is regulated by Ca<sup>2+</sup> and multiple, direct associations of the Ca<sup>2+</sup> sensor Calmodulin (CaM). Overexpression analyses and rescue experiments of Cobl loss-of-function phenotypes with Cobl mutants in primary neurons and in tissue slices demonstrated the importance of CaM binding for Cobl’s functions. Cobl-induced dendritic branch initiation was preceded by Ca<sup>2+</sup> signals and coincided with local F-actin and CaM accumulations. CaM inhibitor studies showed that Cobl-mediated branching is strictly dependent on CaM activity. Mechanistic studies revealed that Ca<sup>2+</sup>/CaM modulates Cobl’s actin binding properties and furthermore promotes Cobl’s previously identified interactions with the membrane-shaping F-BAR protein syndapin I, which accumulated with Cobl at nascent dendritic protrusion sites. The findings of our study demonstrate a direct regulation of an actin nucleator by Ca<sup>2+</sup>/CaM and reveal that the Ca<sup>2+</sup>/CaM-controlled molecular mechanisms we discovered are crucial for Cobl’s cellular functions. By unveiling the means of Cobl regulation and the mechanisms, by which Ca<sup>2+</sup>/CaM signals directly converge on a cellular effector promoting actin filament formation, our work furthermore sheds light on how local Ca<sup>2+</sup> signals steer and power branch initiation during early arborization of nerve cells—a key process in neuronal network formation.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> Short Lives with Long-Lasting Effects: Filopodia Protrusions in Neuronal Branching Morphogenesis George Leondaritis et al. info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002241 2015-09-03T21:00:00Z 2015-09-03T21:00:00Z <p>by George Leondaritis, Britta Johanna Eickholt</p> The branching behaviors of both dendrites and axons are part of a neuronal maturation process initiated by the generation of small and transient membrane protrusions. These are highly dynamic, actin-enriched structures, collectively called filopodia, which can mature in neurons to form stable branches. Consequently, the generation of filopodia protrusions is crucial during the formation of neuronal circuits and involves the precise control of an interplay between the plasma membrane and actin dynamics. In this issue of <i>PLOS Biology</i>, Hou and colleagues identify a Ca<sup>2+</sup>/CaM-dependent molecular machinery in dendrites that ensures proper targeting of branch formation by activation of the actin nucleator Cobl.<img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> From Friend to Foe: Toxicity Trade-Offs Govern Staphylococcus aureus Infection Severity Lauren A. Richardson info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002230 2015-09-02T21:00:00Z 2015-09-02T21:00:00Z <p>by Lauren A. Richardson</p><img src="" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> | dclm-gs1-102800000 |
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection – ICSI
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection - ICSIIntracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) uses micro-manipulation to isolate a single sperm that is then injected directly into the egg.
This technique, used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization, has been especially successful as a treatment for men who have a low sperm count and women who have a small number of mature eggs.
In the IVF-ICSI procedure, the oocyte is prepared by removing its outer layer of cells called the cumulus. The oocyte is held gently by a holding pipette under a microscope.
The sperm that has been prepared for microinjection is then injected through a very fine micropipette into the body of the oocyte. The holding pipette is 20 times thinner than the human hair and the injection pipette is 60 times thinner than human hair. The egg itself is no bigger than the tip of a pin.
| dclm-gs1-102810000 |
Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > What Happens After Class
It's only us, it's only me
by IcyBlues 23 reviews
Frank had been feeling sick all the way through his last class of the day, he wanted to just get out of school, get away from his grinning English teahcer and have to get that tricky subkect off his mind altogether. He left for his English room after the final school bell went off, dreading every step and counting everyone who went along the same corridor, eager to see if anyone was going to detention too. The cold corridors did nothing to comfort Frank as he made his painfully long way to his yet more painful detention period.
Frank took his normal seat for English near the back at the window, relieved if only the slightest bit, that the teahcer wasn't there yet. He was more interested who esle would be there though, so he wouldn't have to spend 3 hours with his self professed 'biggest fan'. Frank was especailly wound up this time from the comment Gerard dropped just before he left English earlier that day, accompained by that wink. It creeped him out, even made him shiver.
Gerard was up to something. Extra work perhaps? Even more excruciating tasks lined up? Perhpas some heavy admin work or a complimentary essay. The ideas in Frank's mind were endless.
He was sweating 10 minutes into his so far silent detention. Nobody else had turned up. Yep, it looked like he was the only one there. Gerard knew the time, he knew where he was meant to be but he wanted to make Frank that little worked up by time he turned up. As each mintue went by, Frank got more and more agitated.
At last, Gerard calmy strode into the dark room, holdall around one shoulder that contained dreadful things, neatly arranged into an innocent facade. Frank looked up, afraid to catch Gerard's attention at first. As much as his once occassional fantasies excited and thrilled him, the thought of being in a one to one situation scared him deeply.
"Hello Frankie." Gerard called out, not even bothering to look up from sorting out his bag that he dumped on his desk.
"Hi." Frank murmured. Again, 'Frankie'...
"Well... Sit at the front, won't you? It's terribly hard to hear your voice from back there."
Frank didn't move at first, unsure if Gerard was being totall serious. His sing-song tone was not uncommonly used but this time it sounded less held back, giving an even more obscure effect.
"Frank! Get over here, now." Gerard demanded once more, barking the order though with a soft edge to it, still rooting around in his holdall. Frank got up promptly, cradling his pencil case in his arms as he dragged his heavy schoolbag to a desk in the center of the front row. He took his seat, unsure of what Gerard wanted him to do next, waiting with his hands clutching his knees to stop him bouncing his foot - a bad habit he carried from an early age.
"Good boy." Gerard muttered, pulling out a thick wad of pages from his bag, giving them a quick glance before slamming them down in front of Frank. It was a mix of old physics, trigonometry and of course, english sheets. Frank's eyes grew wide as he took in the sheer amount of paper he'd been given.
Gerard slinked up to Frank's desk, grinning, as Frank leafed through the pages, a look of utter disbelief in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Gerard go hold of either side of Frank's desk, leaning over dangerously close, so close he could smell the faint scent of him, as if he were trying to interrogate Frank. Gerard rocked himself forward, he would have nudged Frank's head if he hadn't subtly got out the way with a slight gesture. "A little much?" Gerard laughed, stepping back only to stop himself going too far on the boy too early. He wanted to watch him work away for a while before the real fun started. he had it all planned, he had fantasied so long and tonight was not going to go wrong, not a single hitch. Every inch less between them excited Gerard that bit further, made him that little bit more viciously frenzied.
Gerard was hopeless really, he could feel that familiar bulge letting itself be noticed in his pants, sqeezing his work suit that little bit tighter. It was painfully obvious too as he stepped away and he didn't hide it either - Gerard wanted Frank to see it along with his smug smile.
The date was perfect, the timings were perfect, hell, he picked that very date as it was faculty meeting out of the school. He was going to be the only other person in the building apart from Frank after school finished. Mr Way had even been trusted with the electrics key and keys to lock up afterwards. Too perfect really. Sickly sweet.
Frank took a deep sigh, watching Gerard cautiously before he took out a pencil to get started. It was bad enough having detention, bad enough it being hosted by Mr Way alone but worse still was the sheer amount of work he was going to have to do. The dodgy lighting combined with the Winter darkness outside didn't help either, it kept making him think it was really late. Frank kept a steady eye on Gerard, especially with his odd behaviour that was unnerving him further. His almost popped out thier sockets when he had seen Mr Way back off with what could have been nothing else but a hard-on. Frank shook his head, shrugging the possible meanings out of his head, telling himself it wasn't for any devious reasons. He knew different but really, he was in such a state of trust and denial. He had to trust Gerard, going back to hating him would make life all that bit more complicated again.
Gerard watched him eagerly, standing right in front of Frank as he worked, his eyes were blazing with joyous glee knowing how fun it was going to be. After twnety minutes Frank allowed himself to stop, dropping his pencil in defeat, turning the paper over. It wasn't easy work either, the three subjects mixed in was both confusing and tiring. It hurt the eyes to sweep over the vast amounts of numbers and letters, it was hard to take it all in.
Gerard pretty much leaped at this chance, drawing close yet again. This time he walked around to the side of the desk and parked himself in the middle of Frank's way, sitting on top of the work Frank had only just stopped doing. He smiled and let out an odd, high giggle as Frank did nothing to stop him. Gerard held onto the sides tightly, so very tempted to reach out and touch the fifteen, (or was it sixteen, even seventeen now?) year old's cheek.
"Frankie, you can stop working now. There's other things you can be doing instead." Gerard caluclulated that just about everyone should be out of the school building by then.
Frank looked up to meet Gerard's acid-sweet expression, his smile gleaming and his eyes were just as enthusiatic. The scary thing was though that it looked more evil than comical or welcoming. This was working Frank up, he was starting to panic a little, though sat tight in his seat, afraid that it was all in his head yet again.
"What do I have to do then?" Frank stared up, now scared to break thier stares.
"Just wait, I'll get you something to do." Gerard got up quickly to retreive his large holdall, dumping it on the desk beside them before taking up his seat again, closer this time. Gerard dragged the desk over to himself as well so he could reach into it easily. It did not contain any schoolwork whatsoever, only instruments to experiment and play with. Play makes it sound too innocent though. More like torture.
Gerard smiled innocently and got closer than any teacher should, shuffling so close to Frank he practically had his hip to Frank's shoulder. He absentmindedly patted Frank's hair, feeling his slight trembling echoing through his fingertips. It filled Gerard with such delight that Frank was staying put, being such a good boy. Way truly had him it seemed. Frank was really scared now, this was nothing normal in any way. He was still to scared to do anything though. It would prove not just embarassing if he forced Mr Way away to find it wasn't anything as disgustingly fucked up as he thought.
Gerard suddenly swung a leg over the table, almost straddling Frank and stopping Frank's head from turning away by holding him firmly in place. Frank squirmed angrily, cussing and clawing out but Gerard held him still.
"Mister Way! G-get off me!! You freak!" Frank yelled, kicking wildly in his desparate attempts to get away.
"Oh shhh Frankie, what're you on about? Nothing wrong with this." Gerard grinned from ear to ear, removing a hand to test how Frank might react. As anticipated he started trying to shove Gerard away, to no previal of course. Gerard undid the zipper on his trousers, not caring if he was subtle or not anymore, this was the start of a long long detention for the both of them.
Frank shut up as soon as he noticed what Gerard was doing, froze up as one of his deepest, most pondered upon, thought about fears were realised right in front of him. Gerard pulled up one of his legs, then the other to kneel on the desk, undoing his button now, holding Frank down with one hand still.
"What... What... Mister Way...!" Frank stuttered, desparately trying to get away from the terrifying teacher who was seemingly undresing right in his lap. He was petrified though, stuck where he was, struggling to give motion to his lifeless limbs. Gerard pulled down his undone trousers just enough so it bore his bulging boxer shorts right in Frank's face. How Frank stared as well, pained tears welling up. He was too scared to move, bewitched and terrified, half calculating what to do, half dormant and completely shut down from the sudden shock of what was happening to him.
Gerard whined prematurely, just looking down at Frank in such a state was making him go wild. He had waited so long for that day, fantasised but never had he really understood how good it would feel just to sit there, crotch mere inches from the sweet boy. Gerard increased the force he was using on his hand, pushing Frank up to touch the material of his boxer shorts with his nose. The boy flailed hopelessly, protesting madly and fiercly trying to fight the older man off but to no previal. Gerard worked a finger into Frank's mouth, jamming it between his jaws and working another in to tease out his dry tongue. Gerard pulled at Frank's hair, dragging Frank's tongue across his boxers a few times until he rook out his fingers, now wet and indented from sharp teeth.
Frank screamed with all the air his lungs could suck in as he felt Gerard undo the smaller buttons on the front of his underwear, the warm skin burning away at his innocence as it made contact with his cheek and nose. "Fuck! Help! Get off me!" Frank sobbed through angry outbursts as he was pushed harder onto one of the few adults he was supposed to trust.
Though opening his mouth only left him more vulnerable, Frank only yelled louder and with more desparation as Gerard forced Frank's head onto his cock, jolted out of frozen fear and cast into an inferno of all out terror.
"Open wide, Frankie. Suck on it!" Gerard moaned, using all his weight against him, tipping Frank's head up, holding him still at long last so his lips were just touching the tip of his cock, hauling him up as he was so short. Gerard smiled down at Frank, sweat gathering on both of thier brows, sharing a sickly moment of silent pleas before thrusting himself into Frank's mouth. Frank flinched as he felt two strong hands pull down his jaw and gave in, letting himself be violated, seeing no other option. Tears streamed down his face as he heard his teacher moan in between wild curses and angry remarks, thowing his head back and jerking his hips forward in awkward, uncontrolled actions. Gerard tried best not to let too much sound escape his pained lips but it was getting too much, the boy's mouth was so small it seemed and it felt so good to fill it.
Frank's writhing calmed as he shakily accepted his fate. There was no way to ignore it, no way to escape from it, physically and in his head. Every inch of his body seemed to burn painully from shame, horror and disgust. It was painful and degrading on so many levels though he had no idea of what was to come from the tormented teacher. Gerard's plans were firmly rooted in his head, as firm as they had been that morning when he packed the bag. As firm as they had been days ago, months ago when they first spawned. Gerard had the stage directions for his final act thuroughly thought out, he knew where he'd take the boy next and what they'd do, and with what. It was crucial he remembered it, through the instense pleasure of it all, besides, it's not the type of thing he'd get to do again. Unless he ... No Gerard had to focus. Directions, ready. Go.
Gerard was just there, that familiar though amplified feeling building up inside until he could take it no more, letting out a gutteral growl as he came in his mouth with an unexpected force. Frank yelped, a muffled cry only just escaping his frozen lips as Gerard's load hit the back of the throat, setting off his delicate gag-reflex off once more. Tears streamed yet again as he felt it trickle down like acid, suprised and disappointed that he wasn't sick from it. He felt he was at his limit already. So early. They had only just started.
Frank's jaw didn't snap shut when Gerard pulled out, it merely hung open in shock and from a dull ache. Frank could barely see Gerard properly from the chair, unable to move or wipe his eyes. There was nothing he could do but try to beg with his thoughts and devastated facial expression. Mr Way beamed down, fully expecting such a response from the young boy and didn't bother doing up his trousers again, they were going to have to come off anyway a little later. He reached into the bag by his side and pulled out a long, ribbed, yellow-ish object. It was about ten, eleven inches long and solid in Gerard's firm hold. Frank's eyes suddenly grew wide once more, snapped back into reality as he realised that Gerard wasn't quite finished with him.
It was a vibrator. Frank tried to think of a repsonse but by time he had started to kick and fight once more, his head had been slammed down hard onto the desk, the chair swept away from underneath him so he was leaning over it and in a very, very vulnerable position. That, obviously, being the point.
"Get off me! Stop! What're.." Frank screamed, unable to twist his head around to see fully what was going on. Gerard held his head firmly down on the desk, facing out the windows and the dark outside. Gerard took Frank's wrists and to stop him in his flailing simply, lovingly, pressed his hips into the boys ass to remind him who had the control. Frank shut up as soon as Gerard did so, closing his eyes in a desparate attempt to try and stop himself anticipating waht would happen next. He knew what he was going to get and for him, he'd rather not know how close Gerard was to doing it. It would still hurt the same, still no doubt make him want to throw up and scream.
Gerard secured Frank's hands behind his back with what felt like handcuffs. How'd he get a hold of them? It must've been, the way they clicked and slid into a lock around the boys slim wrist was unlike anything he had known, it was unmistakable. Frank's short, wild pants got faster as Gerard gently ptried the boys legs open with soft, light hands. He was practically salivating now. It was all going to plan, so smoothly. With a quick movement, Mr Way shoved down Frank's jeans at which he started to kick out again, cursing wildly as if brought back to reality.
"No, God, Mister Way.... Stop! I'll do aynthing just..." Frank was sobbing onto the dirty desk, grinding his forehead against it in anguish and torment as Gerard ignored his pleas, yanking down his underwear with an almost robotic movement.
"I'll make you love it, Frankie. You have to. After all, I'm your teacher." A sly grin crept once more onto Gerard's face as he applied some scented lubrication to the phallic object in his right hand. "I'll make you cling to me, I'll destroy you inside but leave your pretty face intact." Gerard was almost talking to himself, the words tripping off his tongue with a deadly poetic impact. Frank didn't want to listen but there was no noise in the room apart from his breaths and the older man's quiet words.
"Now, take a little breaht after three, Frankie."
"No!" Frank screeched, struggling against the desk, flailing wildly in panic.
"Three...." Gerard traced a finger down Frank's bear back and ass, using a hand to hold one leg to the side so he had a better acess and angle. Frank couldn't get him off, he was suprisingly strong.
"Two..." Frank screamed out in horror as Gerard plunged the vibrator right up in him without even finishing his countdown. He only got about an inch in, only the very tip had slid in but it was still so painful to be violated so suddenly. "Oh, and I might lie to you too." Gerard added as an afterthought, struggling to stop himself plunging it further in. No, he had to stay composed and go slower, let him feel every inch.
"Fuck! Fuck -" Frank's screams continued and only heightened as Gerard silently pushed the device in further, antagonisingly slow. Tears were already staining the desk from his humiliation, his fear and pain. He couldn't take much more of it, it felt so far up inside him yet he knew without looking it wasn't over yet. "Ah, please..." Frank wept, still trying to stop reducing himself further into an even worse mess than he already was.
He choked out a twitsted sigh when finally Gerard stopped pushing though he could feel him still holding onto it with a hand that seemed to shake slightly. Frank's eyes slid shut, only to be bolted wide open once more when Gerard pressed the button on the end to turn it on. It wasn't pleasureable in any way, surely. He was being violated forcefully and painfully, even the vibrator's buzzing seemed violent, almost making Frank's teeth chatter.
Frank wailed uncontrollably, the new sensation though interesting was dominatingly alien, sending his legs into spasms.
Gerard simply laughed at the reaction and let the boy lean back for a second though sure to keep a firm grasp on him. He slammed Frank back forward, setting off yet more cursing intermingled with cries and sobbing. It didn't take much brains to notice that Frank's cock was, oddly, hardened by this treatment. It was clear that slamming him forward had it trapped between his stomach and the desk in yet more pleasureable pain.
"Why Frank, if you hate it so much, why's your little dick getting so hard over it?" Gerard chided, starting to move the vibrator up and down a little.
Frank growled in reply, unable to open his mouth to make anything resemblign any kind of answer or comeback. He wasn't enjoying it, he really wasn't Frank ignored the fact the vibrations actually felt better than they had five minutes ago. Frank refused to admit to himelf of the situation was pleasureable, that would be the end for him if he just gave in. Like filthy whore.
"Hm?" Gerard pushed in one last time, as deep as he could go and angling up so he should hit the boys prostate.
"Ah!" Frank yelled at this unexpected sensation, another spasm jolting down his spine. He felt like he was about to come, and it made him more than ashamed and frustrated. "No I don't!" Frank denied, gritting his teeth hard to try and divert his thoughts away form the impending orgasm being brought on by Gerard simply leaving the vibrator snug on his prostate. Frank let out whimpers, gently sobbing as he felt his body react to this, moaning half in involunary pleasure and half in complete shame. Gerard easily picked up on this, knew just what that moan signified, just what it meant with the boys now shaking, quiverying, energy-drained legs simply hanging limp like that.
Frank was left shuddering as Gerard slowly drew the vibrator out of his body after what seemed like hours instead of the minutes it really took. Frank stared wide-eyed out of the classroom windows, his ribs aching from the way he had collapsed on the desk. He was petrified into that position though, the only thing he was sure of was that staying still would perhaps be rewarded with a little less pain instead of futile efforts to hurt of break free.
"You're tired out, Frankie?" Gerard asked, putting on an almost childish tone, echoeing innocence, "But honey, we've only just begun!" Gerard put the vibrator back in the bag, not caring to wipe it beforehand and stroked down Frank's back and bare ass yet again.
Frankie. He hated being called that by him. He had no right, he was just taking him for his own. He wasn't ever going to accept it, Frank vowed it to himself. He was never going to give himself to this man, this pervert. This sick, twisted freak. No matter what his body did, Frank refused to give in. "Why aren't you replying anymore? Did I wash out all that shit in your throat or something? Reply, Iero!" Gerard dug his nails into Frank's flesh in anger.
"Just stop, leave me alone..." Frank whimpered, still shell-shocked at what he had gone through so far. There was more? How could there be... Oh god... Of dear God no, he didn't mean that... Frank groaned, tucking his head further back into his body in an attempt to hide at the thought of what more Mr Way had planned. It was all so sick, he had obivously had this thought out for a while. Just the way he airily handed out that detetion, it wan't unlike Mr Way but it was getting ridiculous. He'd once been given a detention for sneezing and Frank was barely given any work to do after school either. It was almost worse that way, Frank had to make sure to keep his eyes on the work he'd been given and was even unsure about drawing on it.
Gerard let out a snort, a silent 'as if' almost.
"You've got a ways to go yet, and we're not even past the halfway mark. Not even out of point-zero-zero-one of this is over yet, so you better stay focussed. You know how I like my students: responsive, polite and obedient otherwise... Well..." Gerard trailed off as if continuing the little comparison in his head, already back to virtually licking his lips at those thoughts again, despite the real-deal being presented in front of him. It was all he had wanted for so long, and he was finally in his possesion. He was tempted, sorely tempted now to take it further after he was done in that classroom. They'd both have to wait though to fine out plans for 'later on' as Mr Way had a very fickle mind, though when decisions were made they were kept strictly kept to.
Though in that moment, with the young lad spread right in front of him, Gerard knew what was going to happen next and the element of suprise was still of use, to some extent, thanks to what he had packed in that holdall with him.
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Can a Penalty Be Waived on an IRA if Unemployed?
by David Rodeck
As its name suggests, an Individual Retirement Arrangement, or IRA, is supposed to be used as a retirement plan. If you need to make a withdrawal before you turn 59 1/2, you will owe income tax plus an extra 10 percent penalty. However, if you lose your job, there are a few ways to take your money and avoid the penalty. You'll still owe income tax on the withdrawal, but at least you won't owe the extra fee.
Medical Bills
You can use your IRA to help pay some of your medical expenses. If medical bills for the year are more than 7.5 percent of your annual income, you can use your IRA funds to pay the excess bills. This penalty-free withdrawal exists whether you are unemployed or working. When you are unemployed, you can qualify for another exemption. If you have been collecting unemployment benefits for at least 12 weeks, you can use your IRA funds to pay for your health insurance premiums.
If you aren't working because of a disability, you can also take out your IRA money penalty-free. To qualify for this exemption, you must be collecting Social Security disability payments. When you are disabled, you can take money out of your IRA penalty-free for any reason and don't need to document your spending.
Education Costs
You can also use your IRA funds to pay for higher education expenses. This exemption applies whether you are working or unemployed. The penalty waiver applies to paying for your education as well as the education of your children and grandchildren.
Periodic Payments
There is one more way to take money out of your IRA penalty-free. You can request to take substantially equal periodic payments from your IRA. This turns your IRA into an annuity that gives you monthly payments. The IRS doesn't tax this distribution because you are turning your IRA into a stream of income, not making a one-time withdrawal. The IRS calculates your total payment based on your life expectancy. When you start taking periodic payments, you need to keep receiving payments until you turn 59 1/2 or for at least five years, whichever period is longer. This means you'll lose your IRA as a retirement account. However, if you have no where else to turn for income while you are unemployed, you can use the periodic payment option as a last resort.
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Topic: Custom character generator for 16x Freetronics LCD+keypad (Read 10880 times) previous topic - next topic
Ah hah hahah hah. Yup, busted!
Offensive? yes.
Poor form? yes.
Acceptable? nope.
Shameful? yes.
:walks away with tail between legs:
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Amazon Optimizes MP3 Store for Mobile Safari to Attract iOS Device Users
1. macrumors bot
Apr 12, 2001
Amazon today announced that it has optimized its MP3 music store for Safari on iOS devices, marking yet another step in the company's effort to eat into the iTunes Store's dominant position in the digital music market.
Amazon's move to optimize its MP3 store for iOS devices comes over five years after the store debuted, but seems to be part of a renewed effort by Amazon to challenge the iTunes Store. The company has invested significantly in its Cloud Player services as a competitor to iTunes Match, and Amazon has just launched its new AutoRip feature to provide free digital versions of tracks purchased on CD, including for many orders dating as far back as 1998.
Article Link: Amazon Optimizes MP3 Store for Mobile Safari to Attract iOS Device Users
2. macrumors 6502a
STiNG Operation
Aug 15, 2012
The Zoo
It takes a lot to get people to switch from what they like/know. People that have been using itunes since the beginning are used to the way it's done. Take att's exclusive contract with the iPhone, most people just stayed with att even though another carrier might be better.
3. macrumors 68020
Jan 22, 2009
I wish Apple would allow downloading MP3s from websites/apps to integrate into iOS's Music app.
I buy music from Amazon all the time and I can't put it into my Music app without using my Mac. How can I use an iPad as a computer replacement if it can't even do that!
4. macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
Canada, eh?
US only :( No help to the rest of us in other parts of the world.
5. macrumors 6502
Jan 9, 2008
Boston, MA
"The Amazon MP3 mobile website for iPhone and iPod touches is built on HTML5"
Bleh. I hate HTML-based "apps". They always feel so clunky compared to native apps.
6. macrumors member
Feb 28, 2011
7. macrumors regular
Sep 10, 2009
Amazon often has better prices and deal compared to iTunes (in my experience). It works seamlessly as well. You just buy, download, and there is an option to automatically add the music to iTunes. If you buy on your phone, you can just use the Amazon mp3 app to play your purchased music. Saves money and isn't a huge hassle. Its a win in my book.
8. macrumors 68000
Mar 7, 2012
US only? Hmm, itunes just launch to other 50 countries last december. Try to expand the market amazon!
9. macrumors 65816
Oct 7, 2010
Agreed, Amazon has always been my my main goto source for music, especially since they was the first to offer the higher bit rate. Now that itunes has matched it its now a toss up. Is songs in itunes still protected, and limited to certain devices?
10. macrumors regular
May 1, 2012
Athens, GA
I use Amazon Cloud Player on my iPhone and purchased music from Amazon all the time. Awesome! I look forward to one day having an Amazon MP3 store dedicated app to send my music I buy to my cloud app :)
11. macrumors 6502
Feb 26, 2010
They are DRM free Higher Quality AAC files
I use Amazon for the free music, then match in iTunes to get the higher quality iTunes version
12. macrumors regular
Nov 1, 2012
I know what you mean. If I could integrate them with the songs already on my phone then this would actually be useful to me. I only use iTunes because of the consistency across all of my devices.
13. macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
Canada, eh?
Yep. I'm no Apple apologist or fanboy. If someone else can give me the same music for cheaper, or a better selection, I'm all for it! The problem is iTunes is pretty much the biggest player -- possibly the only player -- in many countries outside of the US.
14. macrumors 601
Apr 3, 2003
Switch to AAC, Amazon, and we'll talk.
MP3 is so 1999.
15. macrumors Pentium
Jun 22, 2009
Given that MP3 is usable in far more devices, I'm not sure they would switch. Perhaps offer a choice.
16. macrumors 68030
Feb 17, 2009
Only a matter of time since Amazon just opened up that possibility iTunes will have to do the same to match that user convenience.
17. macrumors regular
Jan 13, 2008
Porsche-City, Germany
I believe the iTunes app is not completely native as well
Besides HTML5 inside a web browser is the only way to go
18. macrumors 65816
Oct 7, 2010
ah ok thanks, I just started getting songs from itunes recently and wasn't really sure about this..
19. macrumors regular
Sep 22, 2006
Good for them for deciding to add this feature for supporting MP3 downloads on iOS devices.
20. macrumors 6502a
Oct 5, 2003
You can't buy music from Amazon through it's cloud player yet.
Apple will not allow such in-app purchases unless Apple get's it's 30% "protection money" :D
Therefore you have to buy songs from Amazon through the web browser.
21. macrumors 601
Jul 5, 2004
That was true until a few years ago, but most of today's devices are also compatible with AAC. Heck, a Nintendo DSi can play AAC but cannot play MP3.
22. macrumors Pentium
Jun 22, 2009
Do people really listen to music on their Nintendo DSi? I ask sincerely. I'm not a gamer so I don't have those type of devices.
23. macrumors 6502
Sep 9, 2009
What devices are a large number of people using that don't support AAC?
Agreed though, having a choice of MP3 or AAC would be nice.
24. macrumors 601
Dec 8, 2011
East Central Florida
Another reason to jailbreak :eek:
...if one was available for iOS 6
Bridge allows importing into the music app.
25. macrumors 6502a
Oct 5, 2003
When Amazon released its Auto-Rip feature this week, I was thrilled. Now I have access to much of the music that I purchased, yet cannot play on my iOS devices.
Why can't I play those songs on my iOS devices?
Because Apple has limited the storage size for years now, with 64GBs being the largest you can get on your iPod or iPad. So I had to make choices about what I carry on my iOS device, and that means chopping down severely on the video and music.
I remember the iPod Classic had a 256GB capacity, but those days seem to be long gone. Apple just doesn't seem interested in giving us more storage, instead wanting to encourage iCloud storage it seems. Well I don't always have access to a Wi-Fi signal and certainly don't want to use expensive cellular access for downloading music, so downloading/streaming isn't always practical.
Apple, give us more storage capacity!!!
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MIMi1004 posted:
I have damaged kidney's from birth. They inserted a Artificial Euretheal (SPELLING)? when I was 7. I am 43 now and about to get another one to replace the existing one. However my ? is ... I aweat under my arms alot in the last few years. Would this have anything to do with this? and what can I use that is safe for my kidney's to stop it?
Thank for any advise
john-skpt responded:
Hyperhydrosis (excessive sweating) is rather common, and has many causes. It can be due to autoimmune conditions, or something as simple as nervousness, medications, or something as difficult to diagnose as nerve or even brain injury. So it is quite hard to figure out.
It happens often in diabetics, mostly due to fluid overload, and fluid buildup might be the cause in your case. But I suspect that it could be due to other factors if you haven't noticed any swelling in feet or ankles.
Ask your physician, since that is the person who has all your recent medical history available.
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After Being Diagnosed with Lead Poisoning
delaynieandellasmomma posted:
My 3 year-old daughter was diagnosed with lead poisoning a little over a year ago. Her initial lead level was 33. The previous residents of our home didn't follow regulations when they changed the windows, which filled the yard with lead. She hasn't had any symptoms, and her levels are within safe levels at this point, but I haven't been able to find much information for parents after children are diagnosed with lead poisoning. All of the information that I can find deals with preventing it.
My question is this: Does anyone know what her prognosis is? I've talked to her pediatrician, but he doesn't seemed very concerned, probably because there is absolutely nothing that we can do at this point. I have been routinely checking her development, and everything checks out fine, but I read in one place that lead poisoning at the age of two may not show developmental delay until a child is four! Is it inevitable that my poor baby is going to struggle for the rest of her life because of this? Is there a possibility it won't affect her, or has our ignorance sentenced her to a problematic future?
I have another five year-old daughter with autism. The idea of watching my healthy little girl deteriorate terrifies me. Is there a doctor or nurse who can give me some real information?
Roy Benaroch, MD responded:
I think what you mean my "real information" is a clear, unequivocal answer. Sorry, but there's no way to predict how at-risk your daughter is.
The effects of lead poisoning depend on many things other than the lead level. Different people have different susceptibility to the effects of lead (that seems to be genetic). Certain other health conditions, like iron deficiency, seem to have an additive effect on lead poisoning. Effects also depend on how long the level was elevated.
There is a very good possibility that a lead level of 33 will lead to no permanent harm whatsoever, but no one can predict that at age 3. Certainly you can already say that there are no severe or marked problems-- that you'd notice already. Subtle issues just can't be ruled out at this age, so continued watchfulness is something you're going to keep in mind.
I'm sorry, I know you wanted a clear 100% answer, but anyone who promises you that isn't being honest with you. The best way to ensure her continued normal development is to love your daughter and enrich her life with activities, language, and social experiences-- not TV.
Best of luck!
TKBaby replied to Roy Benaroch, MD's response:
I realize that this short thread is over a year old, but I also have the same questions and am looking for some hope. My son's first finger prick blood draw revealed a BLL of 84. We were told his level was so high that it might have been a lab error, so we needed to have him tested again, this time using an intravenous blood draw. We learned that false highs are common, but from what we could deduce, that high of a number would probably mean he still had a high level. His results came back yesterday, and he has a BLL of 54. I am not overly confident with our healthcare system as I have not experienced a true sense of urgency in this matter. We do have an appointment on Monday with our pediatrician to discuss a plan of action. So far on our own we have purchased some foods to help with natural chelation. We also removed our son and ourselves from our house, as it is an old house, and we suspect is the source of the lead.
Are there any longterm studies of children who measured high but are now doing well in school? I can't seem to find much online.
To the original poster, what did you do to bring down your daughter's level by that much in one year? Any insight is greatly appreciated.
delaynieandellasmomma replied to TKBaby's response:
my daughters pediatrician put her on mild chelation, which quickly reduced her lead level. Last spring she was given a developmental evaluation that put her in the top ten percent for her exact age. the information available online can be a little extreme because there is no cure for lead, only prevention. the average lead level in the 1960s was in the thirties. obviously, you should take it very seriously, but your son's life isn't hopeless at all.
Rachelweiruoyi responded:
I am doing a school project (Keep chemical stuff away from children) and I am trying to connect with some sick children's parents in order to make more people support my idea, because of it, I am writing this letter to you.[br>
During my research, I konw a lot of new thing, and I realize how serious the problem is. I already did some thing for this, I created a blog( and wrote letter to local government. I want to show my idea to you cause I agree with you, and I also want to know some imformation from you about the hramful chemicals. I just want to let you know that you are not alone. There are many people like me that have the same ideas like you. If you have some time, could you please tell me about your story? Did you connect to the media or government at that time? What did the hospital say, if anything? How were you treated and how did you feel? It is my pleasure if you can tell me more about your story, and this is my email:
momsaangell responded:
We got my little boy when he was 18 months old he is 8 now his counts where above 90 we have been dealing with so much . None talking ,signing until he learned to talk, non fine motor skills ,potty training all over again, anger, autism, ADHD , now seizes . It's really hard he now is peeing in his room ,he has busted 3 iPads . He pretends a lot like barking like barking like a dog. I'm also trying to get more info but if u need to ask me anything plz do.. Leslie
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Thyroid and seizures
Common Questions and Answers about Thyroid and seizures
The one that suggested the thyroid, I took my pet into right away, and do you know it was his thyroid. I am telling you all this because the thyroid controls so much of the body systems and my pet could have been a lot worst had I waited. Now he is a happy dog feeling ton's better and no more seizures ( right now, as long as this helps his thyroid).
Asprin, Atenolol, Digoxin, Diltiazem, Lasix Furosemide, Levothyroxine, multi-vitamin, Enalapril, Levothrozine, Caltrate, Fosamax, and Phenytoin. She has heart problems, a weak lung and is on oxygen all the time, thyroid problems, and celiac disease. After she started the seizure medication, we noticed how tired she has been. She has a hard time staying awake unless you are talking directly to her and even then she'll close her eyes and look very sleepy.
(friday night) That weekend both sat and sun i had fast heartbeat, lower blood pressure, different head pain than had before. with my fast heartbeat it went on for a while then i had a big thump and with one sec it started all over again as though my herat was trying to get back to normal rhythm. this kept continuing. I havent been right since i fell in the hospital bathroom banging my head several times which caused seixures and status.
Low thyroid can cause seizures as well and is worth while checking out with a full thyroid panel. Your vet is right, causes can be hard to determine but thyroid is a place I would always start off looking.
I got my dog to the vet he suggested using Phenobarbital 1g for 45 days, then take him off of it for a month and see if he has any seizures. If he does have seizures, then we will go back to using this medication. He will stay of the thyroid medication the whole time. He asked me if I had done anything different, all I could think of was I had given him some pumpkin, some canned dog food and some steak- no seasoning.
I have asked the neurologists, doctors, nurses if there is ANY correlation between the seizures and low thyroid reading and apparantly there is not.. I find this somewhat bizzare as it wasnt until i had had the seizure, my thyroid was low functioning?
What's interesting is that two months ago I quit taking the Synthroid as I associated taking the medicine with my seizures and tremors. However, a thyroid test last week showed my TSH level to be an almost perfect 3.832 UIU/ML. I am not sure why my thyroid would seem to be working appropriately after being off Synthroid for 2 months. I am also wondering why in the world the emotional and physical problems would persist when it seems like my TSH level is as it should be.
Hey any of you have thyroid disease and take medicine while pregnant? I didnt have any thyroid problems until my last pregnancy which i miscarried.. i have to take my medicine though and im worried that my baby is going to have hyperthyroid disease from my medicine. Im already high risk. I was deaf until age 4 , same age i started having seizures up until i was 13. (I was also told i wouldnt have kids/ride a bike/drive ect but ive done it all :) !!
However one of the symptoms of hyperthyroidism is seizures. What thyroid problem did you have? Also is your thyroid problem now under control? Take care!
I have been diabetic for 28 years and I have seizures when my blood sugar gets too low. I would discuss with your endocrinologist about the thyroid and its effects on metabolism and blood sugars. I have heard in the past that mood stabilizers can effect the thyroid but I don't remember how. I have been on both of those medications in the past. sorry I can't remember more. Good luck.
I don't have much experience with pediatric pituitary disease and its relationship to seizures, but know that thyroid dysfunction can influence the seizure threshold.
They cannot figure out why for 3yrs now I have horrible abdominal pain, my spleen is enlarged, and I have grown extra lymph nodes and my neck and abdomen and chest swell all the time, but on my blood tests it says I have no inflammation. I am in a lot of pain, and its gotten to the point where the doctors start out concerned then do a few tests and get frustrated and yell at me and say im making it up,(you cant make your spleen and neck swell) But my blood says im not inflammed?
She has had an EKG, Echocardiogram, EEG, MRI, 72hr EEG and numerous bloodwork checks for thyroid and other things. Everything came back normal. The first neurologist said it was her head, it was her heart, the cardio said no her heart is fine. The second neuro said PNES which makes no sense because she has had no traumatic events in her life and the seizures only started when her period started. I have kept a log and mentioned this several times and no one seems to make the connection but me.
They happen when he is playing really hard either inside or out. The doctors dont think its feveral seizures (neither do I), he doesnt have a temperature to begin with, but sometimes has a slight temperature after/during the seizure. He has had an MRI and EKG done, there is some evidence to a seizure disorder, but the doctors are not looking into the body temperature factor. When he has a seizure he doesnt sweat and just goes blank, and most recently has vomited.
I was unconssious for 17 days and on a ventilator for that hole time and the seizures still continued. To this day they still have no idea what caused them. I have been seizure free for 1.5 years now, but still have a host of medical problems. At this time I am going through gene testing for iron overload and high cortisal levels and really high ferritin levels. I am hoping they figure it out.
I will get this funny feeling in my hands and feet and start jerking. I know whats going on around me, I but at times I can't respond to whats being said. The last trip to the er had them saying they thought they were maybe stress related siezures or pseudo siezures. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated because they have deprived me of my abilty to work and drive. Thank you very much for your time.
He is toldly soaking wet after and so tired he must sleep. He can talk and answer questions and is aware. The length of the seizures varies. He is constantly nauseaed. He is 25 years old and had just lost his job then these seizures started. He's very tired all the time. Before this came on he was very active, almost to active. Never still. Now he lays around all the time. If he gets to tired he has a seizure. His moods go up and down. He has problems sleeping.
she has tremors, drools, and is unresponsive. The doctors have ruled out true seizures, and all tests by gastro, neuro, and cardio, are negative. They have referred her to psych. She was also diagnosed with shingles several years ago and has had 3-4 outbreaks the last few years. She occasionally has loss of vision in one eye that was previously affected by the shingles. She had an undiagnosed dizziness/rocking problem when she was 8 or 9.
An out of balance thyroid may aggravate neurological problems -- so yes, get the dose right and see if symptoms improve.
Make sure that you give the medication on time, like if it is 12 hours apart, then do it say 7am and 7 pm, it is very important. I have a dog with seizures, his is from a low thyroid. I would also suggeat that you read about the food a dog should have. Aviod giving the dog treats that increase his sugar in the blood, you might feed several times a day in small amouts? I have not dealt with this condition, just wanted to give you some thoughts to look into.
I also take anti depressants and phenytoin citalapram phenobarbital and levythyroxine for underactive thyroid
I'm lightheaded almost all the time and everything just seems sort of distant. I'm not sure if this falls into mini seizures or pre-seizure symptoms. My doctor thinks I'm dizzy because of depression but I am taking an antidepressant and still experiencing the dizziness, catching myslef before passing out, forgetting what was going on as it is occuring, pressure headaches... what do you think?
When the doctor took her off the sweeteners, she quit having the seizures. The first thought of things to cause such tiredness would be anemia, diabetes, thyroid, and sleep disorders. If you don't find a medical cause for your fatigue, consider checking your sleep to see if it can be identified why your sleep isn't restoring you.
He suffers from slurred speech, uncoordination, hand tremors, he has word aphasia, has impaired vision in the left eye ( which again, doesn't track correctly), sleeps only several hours at a time, fatigue and has short term memory problems. He has also recently been diagnosed with low thyroid and has been placed on synthyroid. His neurologist said that he was depressed and to "get some balls and go back to work".
have u been tested to see if u had an infection in ur system?...u had sinus meds..... and did u have labs done on ur thyroid, vitamin and mineral levels? stress can do many things to one's open to what ur dr says, but continue to ask questions. | dclm-gs1-102890000 |
British hero who seized key German port during World War II is honoured ... by Germany
Breaking News
A soldier who seized a key German port during World War II has become the first Englishman to be given the freedom of a city - in Germany.
Major Tony Hibbert, 92, led a team of 500 commandos as part of Operation Eclipse to take Kiel in May, 1945.
The men secured the port which led to the surrender of a large German garrison and stopped Kiel falling into Soviet hands.
It also allowed the Allied forces to secure the whole of Denmark and seize all the Nazis there.
Major Hibbert, of Falmouth, Cornwall, has now been awarded the Great Seal of Kiel for his part in the vital mission.
He said: 'This honour is one of the most important things in my life. Any of us who fought through five years of war were only too pleased get the peace going.
'I gather I am the first Englishman to receive it and the fact that I've received it for when I was fighting an action in the war against the Germans, I think it means so much.
'I never expected any particular 'thank you' from them, so this is beyond belief. It means a lot.'
Operation Eclipse's success meant the Western Allies captured a swathe of Germany's Baltic coast as the Soviet Union marched on central Europe.
It involved Major Hibbert's team operating deep behind enemy lines to seize the port, which then forced the surrender of the larger garrison.
The major - who has also been awarded the Military Cross - said he was on crutches at the time of the action because he had suffered an injury.
The award was presented to him at his home by Angela Spatz, the Honorary Consul for Germany in Devon and Cornwall.
She said: 'It was a great pleasure to present the award on behalf of the citizens of Kiel. He certainly saved many lives on both sides....
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Originally created for the '7 Days FPS' challenge, Deadlock is an FPS that features both puzzles and platforming. Here, the goal is to advance to the top of an enormous tower without being unceremoniously booted by the security system. Along the way, you'll be called upon to solve environmental puzzles, deal with A.I driven robots, turrets as well the fact you cannot actually destroy anything you encounter. At best, you'll be able to temporarily stun them.
Official site here or go on and play the current build of Deadlock for browsers, Mac, or Windows. | dclm-gs1-102920000 |
green design, eco design, sustainable design, Karin Matz, recycled windows, Blocket Mini, recycled building materials, guest house, boat house, Sweden
Developed as Matz’ senior diploma project at architecture school, the Blocket Mini house sits on the edge of a lush property behind a main house. Set beneath the thick canopy of a tree, the structure stands on a pier-like platform that protects it from flooding. The project’s elevated floor is made from the same natural beams as the dock, creating a visual continuation of the pier. The floor inside has been treated with a darker stain than the attached patio outside, delineating the space between the glass walls. The house’s back supporting wall is made from untreated cinderblocks, and a corrugated metal roof slopes back gently to shed snow and rainwater.
Inside, the space is divided into two distinct sections separated by a wall made from six stacked windows. Each area is accessible from the front patio via a set of custom French doors made from windows. The left section of the house features a simple bedroom furnished with a queen-sized Murphy bed. When the bed is folded up, a simple table and chairs can be set up in the space and the wallpapered underside of the bed serves as décor. The other side of the structure is lined with shelving that stores ropes, ladders and hooks for motor boats, and a canoe that hangs on the cinderblock wall.
The Blocket Mini house connects the visitor with the outdoors by repurposing outdated windows that would likely have gone to waste.
+ Karin Matz | dclm-gs1-102930000 |
If you also own a monster truck-grade lifted Diesel pickup, we don't recommend doing burnouts inside some warehouse. That said, hats off to you, Dodge driver, for laughing in the face of safety and respiratory health and smoking those '49s indoors.
We love that this daring burnout champion ventures forth for tire smoke in spite of all kinds of things that could go wrong, like sliding sideways into those shelves, or sliding the other way into what looks like a giant flammable gas tank.
Let us know if you see some other potential hazards involved in this hilariously bad feat of hoonage.
(Hat tip to TheKlic, two-wheeled Hoonstraordinaire!) | dclm-gs1-102940000 |
October 5, 2015
Partly cloudy
Root students get green
MEDINA — Tuesday night, the A.I. Root cafetorium was bursting with the excited chatter of students who had turned green.
No, these 94 students did not have a bout with nausea; rather, they’d become environmentally savvy after doing months of research on the environment and its impact on the world, said Terry Tye, a language arts teacher at the middle school who headed up the project.
As part of the assignment, students from four language arts classes had to team up and present what they’ve learned to the community during “Go Green, Root†night, from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
“The kids have gone through the entire research and writing process,†Tye said. “I really wanted the kids to focus on Japan because they are so environmentally progressive. (This project) is more than just stagnant research … they’re actually taking the research and applying it.â€
Matthew Brubaker (left), Austin Oshoa Webb (center) and Todd Turner work Wednesday evening on a special project at A.I. Root Middle School in Medina. The eighth-graders created a game from recycled products called “Recycle Rush.†(Shirley Ware | Photo Editor)
The students also were able to find out what the rest of the world is doing by using the Internet to communicate with other students around the world as part of the International Education and Resource Network, which focuses on “promoting world peace, world tolerance and preserving our planet,†Tye said.
Using their research, each of the students created individual family plans with three distinct self-selected preservation goals and implemented them in their homes, Tye said, giving examples like turning off the computer when it’s not being used or taking shorter showers.
“They’re presenting what they learned to the community, what it’s like in the world, how it affects the city of Medina, what their families are doing and what the community can do,†Tye said of the “Go Green, Root†event.
Several groups had PowerPoint or trivia game presentations which quizzed parents and family members on various environmental issues as they worked their way down the hall.
“Ours is ‘Go Green Trivia,’ which questions how much people know about what is going on in the world,†said eighth-grader Brittany Soltow. “You’d be surprised about what you didn’t know.â€
Brittany mentioned learning about how only 10 percent of the world is farmable land, how waste in the landfills has become radioactive and dangerous, and about the impending growth of the hole in the ozone layer.
“I didn’t know a lot of that stuff,†she said, adding she has started implementing her three goals at home, which include donating clothes and recycling and reusing various items.
Eighth-grader Emerson Buckland’s group took a more traditional approach, using “Jeopardy!†as their template.
Emerson explained one of two people had to pick a number, then an environmental question was read from a card and the first person to buzz in with the right answer received a certain amount of points. But if that answer was wrong, the other player would have the opportunity to answer. He said whoever won received a piece of candy.
Global warming and pollution were a couple key issues Emerson said stuck out to him when doing his research.
“I learned about all the different types of pollutions and about global warming, overpopulation and what that can do to the environment,†he said. “My three goals are to take shorter showers, turn off the water while I’m brushing my teeth and turn off appliances and lights when I leave the room.â€
He added: “Our environment is really in trouble and we need to save it or we won’t have an environment.â€
While students absorbed the information, it trickled down to some parents, too.
“I learned more about different kinds of renewable energy, such as wind, solar, hydrogen and biomass,†said Peggy Stacho, whose daughter, Erin, and her teammates presented their research in a news broadcast format. “And I learned which (types of energy) would suit best for which parts of the country.â€
What really piqued Erin’s interest was learning how Japan was doing a lot of things to help the environment, she said.
“They use hydrogen-powered cars and they recycle everything … things you wouldn’t think,†Erin said. She said she also enjoyed learning about the various types of renewable energy and using a giant world map to show where each type of energy is the most viable.
“It’s a lot easier to conserve energy than you think it is,†said Erin’s teammate, eighth-grader Sarah Kinch. “I’ve started conserving energy myself, like turning off the water when I’m not using it, or eating and cooking locally grown food … so there’s less traveling and gas and money used.â€
Being the first time Tye has done something like this, she said she believes the project has gone very well so far. The students will continue to implement their three goals, monitor their progress and update their plans at regular intervals throughout the rest of the year, she said.
“I’m so proud of them,†Tye said. “They’re great kids.â€
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I am talking here exclusively about insurance for items (not for health or other type of insurance where lives and liability are at risk).
Let's say I have a 1-year old Macbook (costs $2000+tax new) and the warranty is about to expire. Apple gives me the option to extend its warranty for $350+tax.
If my computer breaks by itself, I have enough money in the bank to buy a new one ($2000+tax). But at the same time, if I have AppleCare, I would have saved about $1650, but only if it breaks. If it doesn't break, I would have spent $350 for nothing.
Same thing with a car. I can buy a $10K car, and have the full coverage insurance, so that if another car hits my car and they don't have insurance, the car will be covered. But again, this may never happen, so I may be spending on something that I will never use.
How do I decide if it's worth it to get the insurance or not?
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Car insurance is a special case: it also covers you for damage done by your car to other people and property, which could be very expensive. It's mandatory to have some insurance in most jurisdictions. This makes the cost non-straightforward. – pjc50 Aug 8 '14 at 15:09
@pjc50, there's a distinction between liability coverage (which pays others for damages you cause, and is mandatory) and collision or comprehensive (which pays for damage to your vehicle, and is optional). You might have one policy that provides both, but you can get liability coverage by itself. – cjm Oct 24 '14 at 6:16
12 Answers 12
This entirely depends on two factors:
• What the insurance covers.
• What the likelyhood of actually utilizing the insurance to the full dollar amount.
Now let's look at what AppleCare gives you:
• Extended phone support from 90-days to 3 years (2 years for an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad)
• Extended hardware coverage from 1 year to 3 years (2 years for an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad)
What it covers is any manufacturing defect. It also covers you for phone support, as otherwise it's a $49-per-incident charge even for simple issues. It also covers any software issues that you may come across as long as the issues pertain to Apple software or the operating system itself.
What it doesn't cover is any damage caused by the user. If you snap the corner of the screen, drop it, spill liquid on it, modify it, etc... then you're responsible for paying the repair costs. If you're outside of phone support, then you're going to have to pay someone to fix any problems you come across.
Now if we're to trust this handy study done in 2009, then we can say that the 3-year failure rate for Macbooks and Macbook Pros is 17.4%.
We could go ahead and say that $350 / $2000 = 17.5% so the chances match up, but what's the likelihood that Apple is going to cover the full $2000? Only under extreme cases are you losing the full $2000 (theft, shock damage, etc...), and those are all cases that Apple won't cover anyways.
Instead we're looking at cases such as (Please keep in mind it has been several years since I worked for Apple, so these figures may be off):
• A failed hard drive (est. $150-$200 for Apple to fix)
• Failed memory (est. $200-$250 for Apple to fix)
• A failed logic board (Est. $500-800 for Apple to fix)
So this reduces our possible savings significantly. Let's then also look at what the warranty becomes after they fixed a part:
A replacement part or Apple Product, including a user-installable part that has been installed in accordance with instructions provided by Apple, assumes the remaining term of the Warranty or ninety (90) days from the date of replacement or repair, whichever provides longer coverage for you.
Which means in this case that you have a 90-day warranty after they've fixed an issue. This significantly reduces the likelihood of a same part going bad multiple times in a row.
Therefore the chances of that $350 being worthwhile are very much against you. Even if the system does fail in some way, it is likely that the repair would be cheaper than the AppleCare. The chances of running into a repair or series of repairs that pays for the AppleCare and then some are astonishingly low.
I would still get it if you were giving it to someone who was significantly lacking in any technology concepts (such as a parent or grandparent) as they are more likely to utilize the extended phone support, especially for smaller things that they might nag you about!
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assumes the remaining term of the Warranty or ninety (90) days from the date of replacement or repair, whichever provides longer coverage for you. – jcm Aug 6 '14 at 14:12
In general, if you can afford to replace something, you are able to "self-insure". You really want to understand a little of the statistics before you can make a generic call, but my rule of thumb is that insurance via "extended warranty" is rarely a good deal. Here is a simple expected value math formula you can apply (when the > is true, then you should buy it):
replacement cost x likelihood of using warranty % > cost of insurance
You can then back-compute, what is the likelihood that I'd need to lose this item to break even? Given your numbers:
$2000 x Y > $350 or Y > (350/2000) or Y > 17.5%
So if you think there is a 17.5% or greater chance that you'll need to have you system replaced (i.e. not just a simple fix) AND (as Scott pointed out) you'll be able to actually use the replacement warranty then the applecare is a good purchase. Note, this only applies to items you can replace out-of-pocket without significant burden, because if you didn't have the $10k to replace your car, it wouldn't matter if the insurance wasn't such a good deal (especially if you need the car to get to work, etc.)
So the obvious question is: "Why would a for-profit company ever offer insurance on something they are statistically likely to lose money on?" The obvious answer is "they wouldn't," but that doesn't mean you should never buy this type of insurance, because you may have statistically significant circumstances.
For instance, I purchased a $40 remote helicopter as a gift for my children. I also paid the $5 for a "no questions asked" warranty on it because, knowing my kids, I knew there was a nearly 100% chance they would break it at least once. In this case, this warranty was well worth the $5, because they did break it! Presumably they make money on these warranties because most of the purchasers of the plan are more attentive (or too lazy to make the claim) than in this case.
Edit note: I incorporated Scott's comment about likelihood of being able to utilize the warranty into a combined "likelihood of using warranty" term. This term could be broken up into
likelihood of needing replacement x likelihood of actually getting company to replace it
I didn't do this above because it makes it a little harder to understand, and may not be a major factor in all cases, but you can definitely add it after the fact (i.e. if there's only a 90% chance Applecare will pay out at all, then divide the 17.5% by 0.9 to get 19.4% likelihood of needing the replacement for it to be cost effective).
More complete formulas can be derived also (including terms for full replacement costs vs repair costs and including terms for "deductible" type costs or shipping), but I'm trying to keep things relatively simple for those who aren't statistics nerds like I am.
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In regards to purchasing full coverage on your car even if you can afford to replace it, consider the hassle you have to deal with an accident that is not just the cost. As an example, my sister's car was stolen and wrecked. It was her problem to go recover the car on the other side of the state such that she would not be paying the storage "fees" imposed by the sheriff of the other county. Had she had insurance they would have taken care of it call.
Another story is that I rented a car and side swiped in the parking lot by a hit and run. I was responsible for the minor damage. I started down the path of paying out of pocket because it was small enough that I did not want to submit a claim. The rental car agency started to pile on extra fees such that it was worth it to turn in a claim. My insurance company was savvy enough to be able to dispute the extra charges. After I submitted it to the insurance company I basically did nothing. They took care of everything.
So, in summary, when you buy full coverage on your car, it is not just a financial decision. It is also about not having to deal with a hassle.
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The answer to this question is very different depending on the type of item. From a purely financial perspective you would want to answer these questions which you may not have enough information to answer:
• How likely am to need this insurance compared to the average person in the insurance pool?
• How much of my insurance cost are going to the pool versus going to profits? Things like electronic warrenties are often almost entirely profits.
Realistically the question I prefer to ask are:
• If it breaks how likely am I to be satisfied with the company's handling of my claim?
• Are they going to require a recipt or proof of purchase?
• How likely is it to actually cover the aspect that broke?
• If they are just going to give me a replacement, how likely am I going to want that, versus the cash to go buy from someone else or get a completely different thing?
• How much time am I going to spend on the phone with them to make this claim?
• How much peace of mind does owning an insurance policy on this item bring me?
When something fails there is a big difference to me between having the cash and having an insurance policy that is suppose to cover it even if they are theoretically the same value. Some insurance policies may even be better than cash, like homeowners insurance might help take care of details like finding a contractor to fix the issue, finding temporary housing if your house burns down, etc.
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Another important question: How much time will I spend to find a successor device? For the the mental drain of comparing different devices and merchants is significant, so I thanks to the warranty I only need to do that after 3 years instead of 2, I consider that a big win. – CodesInChaos Aug 8 '14 at 13:55
Academic and generalized answer (see last section for final answer):
Insurance is for events that are both
• Unexpected
• Catastrophic
Unexpected and Catastrophic Examples:
Unexpected and, for many people, catastrophic events are, for example, sickness, disability, death, car accidents, house fires, and burglaries, for which you may buy health, disability, life, auto, home, and renter's insurance.
Catastrophic but Expected Examples:
It may be catastrophic for a family relying on a very old earner for that earner to die, and you can buy life insurance up to a very old age, but the premiums will reflect the likelihood of someone of that age dying within the covered period.
The more expected an event is, the more anything referred to as insurance is actually forced savings. Health insurance with no copays on regular checkups expects the insured to use them, so the cost of those checkups plus a profit for the insurance company is factored into the premiums ahead of time.
Unexpected but not Catastrophic Examples:
A wooden pencil breaking may be unexpected. Regardless of foreseeability, no one buys insurance on wooden pencils, as the loss of a pencil is not catastrophic.
What is catastrophic can be context dependent. Health-care needs are typically unforeseeable, as you don't know when you'll get sick. For a billionaire, needing health-care, while unforeseeable, the situation would not be catastrophic, and the billionaire can easily self-insure his or her health to the same extent as most caps offered by health insurance companies.
To the Question: Do I buy insurance on a Laptop?
If you're on a fixed budget buying a laptop, if it unexpectedly failed, that would be catastrophic to you, so budgeting in the cost of insurance or an extended warranty while buying your laptop would probably make sense. Especially if you need that $2000 laptop, spending an extra 17.5% would safeguard against you having to come out of pocket and depleting your savings to replace it, even though that brings you to a grand total of $2350 before taxes.
However, if you're in that tight of a situation, I would strongly recommend you to find a less expensive option that would allow you to self-insure. If you found a used laptop for much less (I can even see Apple selling refurbished Macs for less than $1000) you might decide that your budget allows you to self-insure, and you could profit from being careful with your hardware and resolving to cover any issues with it yourself.
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Extended warranty or insurance is a tricky thing. In general, the big screen TV, or other electronics are going to become obsolete before they fail. Laptops, even Macs, are at risk for higher failure rates than other electronics. The question remaining is whether after the item has reached its 3rd or 4th birthday, if you would already be in the market for a newer model.
In the big picture, if you have the money to buy a new replacement, or pay for a repair, you are better off to avoid the insurance. The highest failures are in the first year (aka 'infant mortality') and after N years, closer to 7-10, enough for obsolescence, than in years 2-5.
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As a rule, purchasing fairly priced (minus a spread) insurance on items you can afford to replace is a bad idea.
However, in addition to the points mentioned in the previous answers, one should note that many types of insurance are UNDERpriced because on average people do not make claims even though they are entitled to them. If you purchase something moderately priced at Best Buy and get the extended warranty and it breaks down a year later, you will be unlikely to even remember that you purchased the insurance much less go through the trouble of making a claim. More likely you will just go buy a replacement or whatever the latest and greatest iteration is. It's like homeowner's insurance--an amazing number of things is covered but no one ever makes claims, so it is cheap. If you are a person who remembers and utilizes warranties and insurance, there are many types of insurance that will save you money in expectation.
The other thing is that you know more about your own riskiness than the insurer does. I had a girlfriend who bought super comprehensive insurance on her crappy old car. I was quite stern with her about it but could not change her mind. She totaled it a few months later. They bought her a replacement. She got in a more serious accident with that car and got yet another one in addition to payment of her medical care, which did not even go to her health care insurance. Yes, her rates went up, but not fast enough to deal with how risky she was. Another example: I used to carry an e-book reader around in my shirt pocket and read it any time I had a chance. Cheap item and not that delicate, but since I had it with me all the time and used it constantly, it was a big risk for the store. The extended warranty would have been a great idea.
In short, avoid extended warranties and insurance on things you can afford to lose unless you know that you are high risk or are otherwise more likely than average to make a claim.
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As many other posters have pointed out, unless you know (and your insurer doesn't) that because of any reason you are more likely than the average to damage your computer, insuring it doesn't really make a lot of sense if you can comfortably replace it should the worst happen.
In this particular case of a laptop, insurance is especially unattractive because computers depreciate fairly quickly. If you break it...
• ...and you're insured, you will get the very same laptop you bought more than a year ago.
• ...and you're not insured, you can choose to either find the same laptop at a substantially lower price (Apple does not really lower prices that much but you can probably get a refurbished unit, just like you could get with AppleCare) or spend the original amount in a newer and more powerful laptop.
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Apple has been known to replace broken units with new models sometimes. Also, AppleCare is not just insurance — it also extends your tech support. – 200_success Aug 7 '14 at 4:16
Generically, like farnsy noted in the other answer, you will only come ahead in dollar terms when you are significantly riskier than the average insuree. Otherwise the insurance company would have higher rates to make a profit.
In the case of Apple Care there can arguably be other factors involved. If you did not insure your $2000 laptop and it broke (unfixably) just after the warranty period, would you replace it with a new Apple product? Maybe not, so Apple could lose a customer.
That means they have an incentive to keep you happy. If your product breaks but insurance replaces it, you are a happier customer and more likely to buy other Apple products. This is not an incentive for traditional insurance companies that only do business in insurance.
Now, with the profit margins Apple likes in general, I don't know if they've underpriced their insurance. I sort of doubt it even. But their margins on it are probably not high, meaning it's a closer call even if you are only averagely risky.
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Another factor to consider is that resale value of the laptop is quite bit more if it is still under warranty. This would apply to people who replace their laptop often.
It is higher because the purchaser can be assured they are not getting a lemon. I determined this by comparing prices on ebay before selling my computer.
Of course, if you keep your laptop longer than the warranty, this means nothing. But for me it meant I could sell my old laptop quickly and for a better price.
Because I used my laptop for work and totally depended on it, even one day of downtime would cost me a lot, so it was worthwhile to keep a relatively new laptop under warranty.
Also, for those using Apple Care, there is an undocumented perk: Apple covered an out of warranty repair on a time capsule under my apple care for my laptop even tho they were not purchased at the same time.
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The key point to answer the question is to consider risk aversion. Assume I suggest a game to you: Throw a coin and if you win, you get $5, if you lose nothing happens. Will you play the game? Of course, you will - you have nothing to lose! What if I suggest this: If you win, you get $10,000,005 and if you lose you must pay $10,000,000 (I also accept cars, houses, spouses, and kidneys as payment). While the expected value of the second game is the same as for the first, if you lose the second game you are more or less doomed to spend the rest of your life in poverty or not even have a rest of your life. Therefore, you will not wish to play the second game. Well, maybe you do - but probably only if you are very, very rich and can easily afford a loss (even if you had $11,000,000 you won't be as happy with a possible raise to $21,000,005 as you'd be unhappy with dropping to a mere $1,000,000, so you'd still not like to play). Some model this by taking logarithms: If your capital grows from $500 to $1000 or from $1000 to $2000, in both cases it doubles, hence is considered the same "personal gain", effectively. And, voíla, the logartithm of your capital grows by the same amount in both cases. This refelcts that a rich man will not be as happy about finding a $10 note as a poor man will be about finding a nickel.
The effect of an insurance is that you replace an uncertain event of great damage with a certain event of little damage. Of course, the insurance company plays the same game, with roles swapped - so why do they play? One point is that they play the game very often, which tends to nivel the risks - unless you do something stupid and insure all inhabitants of San Francisco (and nobody else) against eqarthquakes. But also they have enough capital that they can afford to lose the game. In a fair situation, i.e. when the insurance costs just as much as damage cost multiplied with probability of damage, a rational you would eagerly buy the insurance because of risk aversion. Therefore, the insurance will in effect be able to charge more than the statistically fair price and many will still (gnawingly) buy it, and that's how they make a living. The decision how much more one is willing to accept as insurance cost is also a matter of whether you can afford a loss of the insured item easily, with regrets, barely, or not all.
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I like where your second paragraph is going but I suggest you put a little extra thought into it. The first question is not "why" but "how". Also, consider even a well-capitalized company needs to evaluate its exposure and make appropriate business decisions. Stupid moves can be perilous. These companies, whether for profit or otherwise, need to be solvent as a condition of keeping their doors open. Finally, from the insurer's perspective there is more to consider in the premium than just the loss cost. They also incur expenses in the form of salaries, licenses, taxes, rent, etc. – andy holaday Aug 8 '14 at 1:08
@andyholaday Of course, you are right - surplus revenue is not the same as profit. Such costs apply to any kind of business. To be precise, one should also note that "administrative costs" also occur on the customer's side: In case of damage, you have to submit your claims, maybe supply some kind of evidence that you're not faking the loss or that the damage really occured within the conditions of the insurance contract, in some cases even go to court and so on, which all costs your time and nerves ... – Hagen von Eitzen Aug 8 '14 at 5:46
Can you afford to replace it? What does that mean?
• Take someone with $200K in the bank. He can afford to lose $2K without a problem.
• Take someone with $1000 in his bank account with a $2K credit option. He can pay a new laptop, but can he afford it? Insurance will be a good option.
Even if insuring means overpaying, it does spread the risk.
NB: This example is not about the Applecare program, which I think is a waste of money for many people. Others have explained very well if it would work for you or not.
I have a Macbook but no Applecare. I have an expensive smartphone with insurance for dropping and water damage, but not theft. After one year I cancel this insurance. I don't have $200K in my bank account.
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Tests were conducted in order to determine how the characteristics of a propeller are affected by cutting off the tips. The diameter of a standard 10-foot metal propeller was changed successively to 9 feet 6 inches, 9 feet 0 inches, 8 feet 6 inches, and 8 feet 0 inches. Each propeller thus formed was tested at four pitch settings using an open cockpit fuselage and a D-12 engine. A small loss in propulsive efficiency is indicated. Examples are given showing the application of the results to practical problems.
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
No. Just no.
Fucking pancreatic cancer. It is a goddamn awful diagnosis and an exceedingly difficult one to make until it's too late.
Perhaps that is why newFNP's patient received her diagnosis when the tumor was already unresectable and had metastasized to her liver, intestine and lymph nodes.
NewFNP took one look at her today and knew that something wasn't right. She had lost way too much weight for that amount of time, and not in a healthy-appearing way. NewFNP had seen her six weeks ago and noted scleral jaundice. At that time, she drew STAT labs. Her acute hepatitis panel was normal, her bilirubin, alk phos, AST and ALT were sky high. NewFNP's colleague sent her to the emergency room where, during the course of her three-week inpatient stay, she received her terminal diagnosis.
She was born the year after newFNP -- she in in her 30's. She has four kids under the age of eighteen.
She has three to six months to live. If that. Her oncology appointment is in four weeks -- too long a wait when every week is one of the last she has to spend with her family.
NewFNP is absolutely fucking heartsick about this. This is a woman who was abused by her former intimate partner, who suffers with symptomatic myasthenia gravis and who has diabetes. NewFNP cannot believe that after all this woman has gone through, she is going to die.
NewFNP couldn't bring herself to say this to her. She is, after all, not an oncology NP and she didn't have a quantified prognosis in the very well-organized three-ring binder of information from the hospital. She told her patient that this is a very serious diagnosis, that the physicians in the hospital had determined that the tumor was inoperable, that there is no cure. She referred her to the medical-legal partnership to seek out health insurance coverage and, horribly, to draft a will when she is ready. (As though someone could possibly be ready for this activity given the non-theoretical impetus for doing so.) She referred her and her children to counseling. She counted on the personal connections of a colleague to attempt to facilitate a more prompt oncology appointment. She found a clinical trial that accepts Spanish-speaking patients.
Who is going to take care of her children? How is she going to have hospice care without insurance? How will she afford her pain medications? Who will take care of her children? NewFNP cannot imagine what would have become of her if her aunt had not raised her after her own mother died when newFNP was fourteen. It wasn't the right time to bring this up with her patient today.
NewFNP doesn't know what else to do. She cannot do much of anything. She hates that.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Would it surprise anyone if newFNP were to say that she is a supporter of a public option for health care coverage? Because she is.
NewFNP does not understand the arguments against public health coverage. NewFNP thinks that Medicare is a pretty cool program -- certainly preferable to elderly people dying in the streets left and right. And although the reimbursement isn't great and the prescription drug coverage leaves something to be desired, if newFNP's 94-year old grandma needs to go to the emergency room, it's covered. If she needs to be evaluated for her hypertension, her doctor accepts her insurance -- her public insurance.
Another thing that oftentimes stumps newFNP is this vitriolic opposition to coverage for illegal immigrants. Um, sorry to be the one to tell you, but this country spends a shitload of money on the medical care of illegal immigrants. Lest anyone thinks that newFNP's clinic is full of native born Americans down on their luck, think the hell again. A large proportion of newFNP's adult patients are living here illegally. Some are applying for green cards and citizenship. Others are ineligible. For many, their children were born here. By and large, the parents were not.
NewFNP is very mindful that she is spending taxpayer money when she is ordering tests, referring to specialists and trying her damnedest to take good care of her patient's complaint within the walls of her clinic. But newFNP's time is well compensated -- those visits may be free to the patient but they are far from free.
In the absence of comprehensive and - let's be frank - rather harshly defined immigration reform, what exactly is the alternative?
Not treating someone's active TB because they are illegal residents? That makes little sense from a public health perspective as that adult living here illegally may spread TB to his child, who will in all likelihood go to a public school classroom where 30 other children may be exposed.
Or not treating someone's diabetes so that they can present to the emergency room in DKA or blind or with a necrotic Charcot? That's not going to save anyone any money and it sure as hell isn't going to prevent any suffering.
NewFNP doesn't know the answer. But she knows that bankruptcy due to medical debt is fucked. She knows that her patient today, a 40-something year old status post metastatic choriocarcinoma and a citizen, is scared to go to the emergency room for severe abdominal pain because she is already receiving daily phone calls over a $1500 outstanding debt.
And she sure as hell knows that preventing an illness is far, far superior a plan from an economic, an emotional and a future-oriented perspective than is treating a chronic illness, amputating a leg, tracking down an outbreak of communicable disease or treating anything other than an emergency in an emergency department.
Is there anyone at all protesting this plan who is uninsured? Seriously -- anyone? Have those who oppose a public option - even if it is only for citizens - ever met someone who suffered as a result of lack of insurance? Are they utterly lacking in empathy?
Not to be overly dramatic, but is this the America in which we want to live?
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Pura vida
NewFNP has been home from Costa Rica less than forty-eight hours and she already wants to go back.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Lost in translation
Misspelling is common is newFNP's clinic. Chlamydia is tough to spell. Gonorrhea is no picnic either. And don't even get newFNP started on Kwashiorkor or borborygmi.
Generally, however, the misspellings have an obvious translation. Thus, newFNP was thrown for a loop when she saw a chief complaint of "Cephalus Check."
Cephalus??? What happened during that hunting trip when Eos kidnapped him that he needs to come to a free health clinic for a check up?
But seriously... cephalus? Was newFNP asleep for that lecture? Is that a condition newFNP missed? It is hydrocephalus? Shouldn't this patient be at a neurologist?
What a sophisticated misspelling it ended up being.
The patient was requesting a test for syphilis -- just regular old syphilis. But newFNP likes the way this front-desk staffer was thinking! Use the 'ceph' root. Give newFNP a little taste of the 'ph.' Hell - make her think about mythology during a humdrum clinic day.
That's right, yo, you gotta class that shit up a little bit!
Friday, September 04, 2009
Dementia praecox et Cocoa Brown
Would it come as a surprise to anyone if newFNP disclosed that Cocoa Brown had serious mental illness? It pains newFNP to see her suffer.
Cocoa Brown has schizophrenia and boy does she ever struggle. When she feels like she needs a break from the world, she goes into the emergency room and tells them that she is suicidal. She has attempted suicide in the past, she is marginally compliant with her anti-psychotic because she frequently runs out before she makes it to the pharmacy for a refill, she has a history of drug abuse, she is precariously housed and, frankly, if she wasn't in psychiatric care, she would likely be actively suicidal again.
Cocoa Brown has also developed urinary incontinence, perhaps as a result of her anti-psychotic, perhaps her weight, perhaps a combination of the two.
Do. Your. Kegels.
During Cocoa's most recent inpatient mental health stay, she fell asleep in the day room and had an accident. To hear her tell it, a nurse kicked her chair and gave her a bit of shaming about the accident. Cocoa Brown described the conversation that subsequently ensued.
Cocoa Brown replied, "What the fuck are you waking me up for to tell me that. Everybody knows I can't control that!"
(NewFNP imagines that the nurse pauses at this point, wondering what her next move should be. Cocoa Brown, however, is undeterred.)
"You don't wake me up for that! You wake me up when it's fucking time to eat or take meds, but you don't fucking kick my chair and wake me up for that!"
(Amen to not missing a meal. On a roll now, newFNP imagine Cocoa Brown pointing an index finger at the nurse.)
"The next time you wake me up for something like that, I am going to knock you the fuck down!"
Lest anyone think that she is not serious, may newFNP remind you that Ms. Cocoa Brown previously attacked an ex-partner with an exposed-nail ridden board.
NewFNP could have given her a lesson about behaving properly. Instead she simply said, "Cocoa, I hope to never hear those words directed at me." To which Cocoa replied, "Aw, newFNP, you know I'd never say that to you."
However, the scenario does bring to mind several salient points:
- unlike Cocoa Brown, newFNP would like to be awakened if she is dozing off in a puddle of her own urine.
- mental illness causes people to behave in unpredictable, non-normative ways.
- mental illness has a devastating effect on people's lives.
Cocoa Brown will never have a normal life. Her schizophrenia will likely continue to affect her life in negative ways. She is poor, she is socially marginalized, she has not benefited from vocational therapy or social rehabilitation. The internal and external worlds in which she lives are very different from most people's.
But newFNP loves taking care of her -- as much as she can. Pill refilling, blood pressure monitoring, syphilis treating, and in offering a friendly and peaceful exam room where Cocoa can just be Cocoa.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Guiding Light
In newFNP's dreams, her clinic would utilize the in-speculum pap light. What a world of difference those lights make.
Alas, despite her pleas, newFNP's clinic employs the bulky swan-neck pap light and right now newFNP's clinic is experiencing an epidemic of pap light demise. The storage closet is a pap light graveyard. Is it simply an issue of a burned out bulb? Did the lights just collectively decide to throw in the towel after years of vag lighting? NewFNP doesn't know, but what she does know is that she needs to put some light on the subject when it's pappy time.
Twice today, newFNP sat down on her rolly stool and went to grab the light only to discover that it wasn't in its corner. (One may wonder what this says about newFNP's powers of observation that she was already ready to roll before she noticed that the light wasn't there.)
The first time, newFNP tasked her MA to scrounge up a light.
The second time, newFNP said "fuck it," put the speculum in place and grabbed the otoscope from the wall, aimed it towards the center and identified the cervix. After all, it's not as though the vagina is some vast cavern and one needs some type of spelunking light by which to guide the journey. The anatomy basically regresses to the mean. Thankfully, her patient today was no anatomical outlier.
NewFNP is nothing if not handy in a pinch. | dclm-gs1-102980000 |
175 F3d 1163 United States v. Deeb
175 F.3d 1163
99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3884, 1999 Daily
Journal D.A.R. 4959
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
Abdul Rahman Mohammed DEEB and Ahmad Naim Bayaa,
Nos. 97-50157, 97-50286.
United States Court of Appeals,
Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted Aug. 4, 1998.
Submission Vacated Aug. 31, 1998.
Resubmitted May 10, 1999.
Decided May 24, 1999.
Jerry L. Newton, Hermosa Beach, California, for defendant-appellant Bayaa.
Joel Levine, Encino, California, for defendant-appellant Deeb.
Barbara M. Scheper, Assistant United States Attorney, Los Angeles, California, for the plaintiff-appellee.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; Richard A. Paez, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CR-94-00872-RAP.
Before: REINHARDT, TROTT, and T.G. NELSON, Circuit Judges.
T.G. NELSON, Circuit Judge:
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Abdul Rahman Mohammed Deeb and Ahmad Naim Bayaa appeal their convictions for conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b) and 78ff, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, and 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm the convictions.1
Deeb and Bayaa are lifelong friends who grew up together in Lebanon and emigrated to the United States in the 1980s. In 1981, Bayaa founded Southland Communications, Inc. ("Southland"), which did business as National Paging and provided radio paging service to individuals and institutions. Although his title is not clear from the record, Deeb worked closely with Bayaa during the management of the business. In 1987, Southland went public and was thereafter traded on the NASDAQ market.
In 1988, Bayaa and Deeb met Shaw Tehrani, who was then a stockbroker at a firm in Atlanta, Georgia.2 This is when the conspiracy began. In January 1989, at Deeb's and Bayaa's direction, Tehrani opened several margin accounts3 in the names of individuals referred to him by Bayaa and Deeb. Apparently, Tehrani never communicated directly with these "clients," included false information regarding the accounts on the account opening documents, and signed these documents in the names of the "clients" whom he had never met. These accounts were used, with financing from Bayaa and Deeb, to purchase Southland stock.
In effect, Bayaa and Deeb controlled large amounts of Southland stock through these "nominee" accounts that were opened in the names of other individuals. From approximately June 1988 to May 1990, Deeb, who also controlled several bank accounts, acted as a conduit through which money was funneled to pay for stock purchased by Tehrani in these accounts. These transactions were often complex, involving a network of monetary transfers which ultimately ended with wire transfers of funds to Tehrani who then purchased Southland stock. The Government's theory at trial was that this elaborate purchasing network was designed to conceal the source of the funds used to pay for the stock accumulated in the various accounts.
In 1989, Tehrani moved to a different brokerage firm, taking with him the Southland accounts referred to him by Bayaa and Deeb. At the new firm, the network of purchasing continued until August 1989 when the firm informed Tehrani that it was no longer willing to carry margin accounts holding Southland stock because of the high concentration of Southland stock in those accounts. Tehrani therefore simply redistributed the accounts, without the permission of the "clients," to various other brokerage firms. By the beginning of 1990, however, all of these accounts had been transferred to the brokerage firm of Suplee Reed, who agreed not to loan out the margined portion of stock to short sellers.4
In March 1990, the conspirators became extremely concerned when they learned that an anonymous report had been circulated in the investment community recommending that Southland stock be sold short. To prevent Southland stock from plunging in value, Deeb, Bayaa, and Tehrani decided to purchase any Southland stock that came on the market in the name of the nominee accounts maintained by Suplee Reed (a strategy called "squeezing the shorts"). This created the appearance that there were loyal shareholders and other investors interested in the stock and willing to fight to maintain a good price. However, what the outside investor did not know was that the majority of Southland purchases were being made by these fraudulent nominee accounts controlled by Bayaa and Tehrani using financing arranged by Bayaa and Deeb.
The conspirators were successful in purchasing over 100,000 shares of Southland through the use of margin accounts set up in Deeb's name not only at Suplee Reed but also at Blunt, Ellis & Loewi and Paine Webber. After making the purchases through these nominee accounts, Deeb was unable to come up with the money he needed to cover his margin requirements. Bayaa recruited Imad Twal to assist him in coming up with money to cover Deeb's accounts. Twal arranged for several investors to send money to Deeb in return for Deeb's assurance that the stock would then be issued in their names. Either Bayaa or Deeb told Twal that the transfer would take place within two weeks of receiving the money. After receiving thousands of dollars from these investors, Deeb and Bayaa failed to transfer any shares into the names of the investors.
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During this buying frenzy, Tehrani recruited Eduardo Anton to help save Southland.5 Together, they opened two other accounts at Suplee Reed and purchased over $1 million worth of Southland stock. This purchasing binge ultimately resulted in Bayaa, Deeb, Tehrani, and Anton controlling 88% of Southland's stock. By controlling the supply of Southland stock available on the open market, the four conspirators effectively dominated the short sellers, inflating the price of the stock from approximately $9 per share on March 2 to $17 per share on April 3, 1990. On April 4, the Securities and Exchange Commission, casting a suspicious eye on the unexplained rise in the stock's price, ordered a ten-day halt on trading of Southland.
The suspension caused several brokerage firms, including Suplee Reed which was owed $7.6 million on its accounts, to issue margin calls for their clients to pay additional money into their accounts. The "clients," who were actually Deeb and Bayaa, did not have the money to cover these calls. On April 11, Tehrani met with Suplee Reed's clearinghouse in an attempt to prevent the firm from immediately dumping its accounts on the market. Tehrani claimed that Anton had a $10 million certificate of deposit drawn on a Swiss bank that could be pledged as collateral to secure the margin debt. Anton faxed a copy of the time deposit to the clearinghouse, who declined to accept it after consulting with its bankers. This turned out to be a wise move because the certificate was a complete forgery. When trading resumed, the stock's price plunged, ultimately forcing Suplee Reed into bankruptcy in 1994, due in large part to the losses taken on the Southland accounts.
On October 13, 1994, Bayaa and Deeb were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, securities fraud in violation of 15 U.S.C. §§ 78j(b) and 78ff and 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, and money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i). On May 22, 1996, Bayaa and Deeb were convicted of conspiracy, money laundering, and several counts of securities fraud. On February 21, 1997, Deeb was sentenced to sixty-three months' imprisonment. On May 27, 1997, Bayaa was sentenced to eighty-seven months' imprisonment. Both defendants timely appeal.
A. The Statute
The district court's interpretation of the money laundering statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1)(A)(i), and the scope of the conduct covered by the statute is a question of law reviewed de novo. United States v. Ripinsky, 20 F.3d 359, 361 (9th Cir.1994), amended by 129 F.3d 518 (9th Cir.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 870, 139 L.Ed.2d 767 (1998).
The money laundering statute makes it a crime for someone who, "knowing that the property involved in a financial transaction represents the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, conducts ... such a financial transaction which in fact involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity-(A)(i) with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity." 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1) (emphasis added). The phrase "specified unlawful activity" is defined, in relevant part, as "any act or activity constituting an offense listed in section 1961(1) of this title." 18 U.S.C. § 1956(c)(7)(A).
Section 1961(1) is the part of the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO") that defines "racketeering activity." Among many other forms of criminal activity, "racketeering activity" is specifically defined to include "fraud in the sale of securities." 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1)(D). Deeb and Bayaa argue that because their conduct, if criminally fraudulent at all, only involved fraud in the purchase of securities, the money laundering statute does not cover their activities. We agree that the money laundering statute only covers sales of securities and not purchases. We do not agree, however, that the conspirators' conduct only involved the purchase of securities.
By clear and unambiguous language, the statute's coverage is limited to "fraud in the sale of securities." If Congress had intended to include fraud in the purchase of securities in RICO's definition of "racketeering activity," it would only have needed to insert the words "or purchase" after "sale" as it did in 15 U.S.C. § 78j. It chose not to do so, and we will not punish the appellants in this case by torturing the explicit terms of the RICO statute to mean something more than the words can bear.6
The Government counters this argument by directing attention to the securities fraud statute and regulation, 15 U.S.C. § 78j and 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, which explicitly cover fraud in "connection with the purchase or sale " of any security.7 In Webster v. Omnitrition Int'l, Inc., 79 F.3d 776 (9th Cir.1996), we noted in a footnote that "[s]ecurities fraud violations under 10b-5 ... are predicate acts for RICO." Id. at 786 n. 7. The Government therefore argues, citing Webster, that "racketeering activity" must include both the purchase and sale of securities, despite the plain language of section 1961(1).
We are unconvinced. The Government has greatly inflated the importance of Webster to our decision in this case. Webster was a civil RICO case, involving allegations that one party had operated an inherently fraudulent pyramid scheme and illegally used the mails and wires in furthering the scheme. We reversed a grant of summary judgment for the defendant, holding that there was a triable issue of fact as to whether this fraudulent scheme existed. If it did, we further held that such acts of fraud were "predicate racketeering acts sufficient to allow plaintiffs to invoke civil RICO." Id. at 786. In discussing the scope of the federal mail fraud statute, we noted in a passing footnote that 10b-5 violations are predicate acts for purposes of RICO, citing two civil cases. This statement, taken out of its context, hardly constitutes a holding by this court, let alone a holding of statutory interpretation that can be applied to future criminal prosecutions. It also does not even come close to answering the question in this case: whether the phrase "fraud in the sale of securities" contained in § 1961(1) includes fraud in the purchase of securities as well. In short, Webster 's relevance to this case is dubious at best.
We further reject the argument that "fraud in the sale of securities" is somehow broader than "fraud in the selling of securities." While it is certainly true that every "sale" also involves a "purchase," it is also true that every "selling" also involves a "buying." That alone is not sufficient to read the statute more broadly than its terms will allow. If Congress had intended to include both fraudulent buying and fraudulent selling of securities in its definition of "racketeering activity," it would have copied the clear language it used in 15 U.S.C. § 78j and 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5 where the terms employed clearly intend to cover both sides of the fraudulent securities transaction.8
B. The Conduct
At oral argument, the Government argued that even if "sale" does not mean "purchase" for purposes of the money laundering counts, it had provided evidence at trial showing that Deeb and Bayaa engaged in fraudulent sales of securities. We ordered supplemental briefing to address this issue. There is sufficient evidence to support a conviction if, "viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
In its brief, the Government advances two arguments: (1) that the proceeds from the sales of stock were used to advance the fraudulent scheme, and (2) that the pair made fraudulent offers to sell stock in order to cover the margin requirements of stock purchases made in March 1990. We reject the first argument but agree that the Government provided sufficient evidence for a rational trier of fact to conclude that Deeb and Bayaa engaged in fraudulent offers to sell securities.
Regarding the first argument, the Government does not contend that any of the sales of stock were illegal, only that the proceeds from the sales enabled the fraudulent scheme to continue. This does not amount to "fraud in the sale of securities" as required by 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1)(D) and does not support the money laundering convictions.
The second argument entails facts arising out of the defendants' efforts to purchase large amounts of Southland stock in 1990. In order to cover margin requirements that were incurred when Deeb and Bayaa purchased over 100,000 shares of Southland stock in March 1990, Bayaa approached Imad Twal, who testified at trial that he understood Deeb was selling stock on which he could not cover the margin requirements. Bayaa informed Twal that Deeb was willing to sell the stock at a price lower than it was currently trading. When Twal presented this opportunity to several investors, they viewed it as a no-lose proposition and sent money directly to Deeb based on the belief that the stock would then be issued in their names. Instead, Deeb deposited some of the money in his girlfriend's account at Santel Federal Credit Union to cover a check he had previously written to Suplee Reed for $113,375. He deposited other money from the investors into his own account at Bank of Commerce to cover a check he wrote to Paine Webber in the amount of $90,000. Not one of the investors ever received stock certificates issued in their name.
Deeb and Bayaa contend that this was not a fraudulent sale of stock because they never actually owned the stock, having bought it on margin. Rather, the investors were simply providing money to Deeb to purchase stock for them. According to Deeb, he was not selling the stock. We do not agree with this characterization of the transaction.
When Bayaa and Deeb could not cover the margin requirements, Bayaa represented to Twal that if he could come up with investors, they would receive stock certificates once Deeb received their money. Several of the investors testified at trial and indicated that they believed that Deeb was the seller, or that Deeb was the broker, or that Bayaa was the seller. None of them believed that they were purchasing stock from Paine Webber or Suplee Reed. Regardless, the investors were enticed to provide money to Deeb and were told he would then ensure that stock was issued in their names. This never happened. It is no defense to a charge of fraudulent sale of securities that the defendant did not actually own the stock at the time of the false representations. This is the essence of many fraudulent sales transactions.
Deeb put the money into accounts he controlled and kept the stock he purchased on margin in his name. The investors received nothing. A rational trier of fact, faced with this evidence, could easily conclude that a representation that stock certificates will be provided to an individual upon receipt of payment from that individual constitutes an offer for the sale of securities, and use of money received from an investor to keep those certificates in the seller's own name constitutes fraud in the sale of those securities.
Because the Government provided sufficient evidence for a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the money laundering statute covers the appellants' conduct in this case, their convictions on those counts were proper. We therefore AFFIRM the appellants' convictions on counts 29 and 31. We AFFIRM the appellants' remaining convictions in all respects.
In this opinion, we address only the money laundering convictions. Other issues raised by Deeb and Bayaa are addressed in an unpublished memorandum disposition issued contemporaneously
Tehrani pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and was sentenced on December 9, 1996, to forty months' imprisonment. He is not a party to this appeal
Margin accounts allow the buyer to purchase stock by typically paying only 50% of the stock's price with the brokerage firm loaning the client the remaining 50% and charging interest on the loan
In a "short sale," an investor contacts his broker and borrows a particular stock from the broker and sells it on the open market. The investor receives the proceeds from the sale and then has a certain amount of time within which to return the borrowed stock to the broker. The investor expects to be able to repurchase the same stock for less than he sold it and keep the difference as his profit. Therefore, the short seller is betting that the stock price will go down in the short term
In a "long buy," the investor will give the broker cash in exchange for the security with the hope that the stock will rise in price. Most long-term investors "buy long" rather than "sell short."
Anton was tried at the same time as Bayaa and Deeb, but the jury was unable to reach any verdicts as to the charges against him. On May 22, 1996, a mistrial was declared, and as of this date, Anton has not been retried
Our interpretation is bolstered by the very next phrase in the definition of "racketeering activity," which includes "the felonious manufacture, importation, receiving, concealment, buying, selling, or otherwise dealing in a controlled substance." 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1)(D) (emphasis added). In describing narcotics activity, Congress had no difficulty detailing the specific conduct it intended to include in the definition of "racketeering activity," specifically including both buying and selling. There is no reason not to believe Congress could have done the same thing in describing the scope of securities fraud it intended to include in the definition
Title 15 U.S.C. § 78j makes it unlawful to "use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security ... any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance." Title 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5(c) makes it unlawful to "engage in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security."
Besides, in those sections, Congress used the language "purchase or sale of any security" to describe the scope of coverage. If "sale" were intended to cover both buyers and sellers to a fraudulent transaction, the word "purchase" in those sections would be redundant. It is clear to us that the word "sale" contained in all of these statutes and regulations refers only to sellers, not buyers | dclm-gs1-103000000 |
388 F2d 859 Sachanko v. Gill R
388 F.2d 859
Irene SACHANKO and William Sachanko, Appellants,
Joan GILL and John R. Gill, Appellees.
No. 16744.
United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.
Argued Dec. 19, 1967.
Decided Jan. 29, 1968.
Jerome L. Yesko, Yesko & Marcus, Paterson, N.J., (Harvey I. Marcus, Paterson, N.J., on the brief), for appellants.
Joseph F. Faccone, Jr., Williams, Willette & Faccone, East Orange, N.J., for appellees.
Before BIGGS, McLAUGHLIN and VAN DUSEN, Circuit Judges.
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In this automobile accident litigation there were two cars involved, that of plaintiff Irene Sachanko, driven by her husband William and defendant John Gill's car, driven by his wife Joan. Mrs. Sachanko was seated in the front seat of her machine and her three children were in the rear. Mrs. Gill's motherin-law was with her in the front seat and the Gill nine month old daughter was in a car seat between them. Both cars were proceeding in the same direction on Parish Drive, Wayne, New Jersey. There was evidence that the street was wet. It is undisputed that it was stop and go traffic during the critical time, caused by an accident somewhere ahead. Mrs. Sachanko did not see the Gill vehicle prior to the collision. Mr. Sachanko, the driver of his wife's machine, did not testify. Although he was seemingly in California where plaintiffs reside and medical depositions taken in that state were in evidence on behalf of Mrs. Sachanko, there was no deposition offered from Mr. Sachanko.
Mrs. Gill testified that the road was down hill in their direction just prior to the accident and that at the actual time of the collision the road was still a little down grade. She said that when she started up before the accident she was about three feet behind plaintiff's automobile; that the latter like all the other traffic was then moving and stopping; that her car was in first gear (it had a manual shift); she had moved about a length on the down grade, plaintiff's car was moving at the same time. As Mrs. Gill described it 'He stopped and I stopped.' The Gill machine slid approximately mately a half length and collided with the rear of plaintiff's car. Mrs. Gill said the impact was light. None of the Gills was injured, including the baby who had not been tied into her seat. Mr. Sachanko, the driver of the plaintiff automobile, and the three children in the rear seat were not hurt. Mrs. Sachanko claimed to have sustained injuries. Mrs. Lang, Mrs. Gill's mother-in-law, a passenger in the front seat of the Gill car, was a witness. She saw the plaintiff automobile just prior to the accident about a car length ahead of them. Asked, 'What happened to the vehicle ahead of you?' She answered 'They stopped suddenly.' She described the contact between the two cars as 'a slight bump.'
There were no other fact witnesses. There was no motion on behalf of the plaintiffs for a direction of verdict in their favor. There had been a motion to dismiss plaintiffs' suit at the end of their presentation. That had been denied by the court. The defense contention of contributory negligence was withdrawn.
The judge charged the issues on the merits. He said inter alia 'The accident was brought about during a collision between two cars, rear end collision. The mere fact that there was an accident and in the course of the accident someone was hurt does not mean standing alone that the plaintiffs are entitled to recover, because the burden is on the plaintiff of proving by a fair preponderance of the evidence that the defendant was negligent; that that negligence was a proximate cause of the accident.' After concluding his charge he asked both counsel 'Are there any exceptions to the charge?'. The defense attorney said 'No'. The plaintiffs' attorney said 'No exceptions your Honor.' The jury later requested further instructions on what constitutes negligence under the law. The court charged:
'Negligence is the violation of a duty which one person owes to another, and in this particular instance it was the duty of exercising such care in the operation of the automobile as a reasonably prudent person would exercise under the same circumstances.'
A juror requested that the judge repeat the instruction which the judge did. The jury thereafter returned a verdict in favor of the remaining defendant Joan Gill (her husband had earlier been dismissed from the case on motion and without objection by the plaintiffs).
Appellants argue (1) that the trial court erred in denying them a new trial. They categorically stated on their motion for a new trial that 'The jury was properly instructed that it must follow the law as laid down by the court.' And there was not the slightest contention that the law given the jury by the court was other than meticulously correct. The theory actually advanced for the new trial by appellants as being responsible for the verdict was 'So I say that the jury was misled, your Honor, not by itself, but by some one of its members. * * * The mere fact that a jury returns a verdict doesn't mean it is sacrosanct.' They now for the first time attempt to introduce into the case a part of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Law (N.J.S. 39:4-89, N.J.S.A.) which states 'The driver of a vehicle shall not follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, having due regard to the speed of the preceding vehicle and the traffic upon, and condition of, the highway.' Plaintiffs never charged defendants with violation of that law. As such it is no part of this appeal. The judge charged that the fundamental obligation of the two drivers to each other was 'to exercise such care as a reasonably prudent person would exercise under similar circumstances. That is the key of the whole situation.' As noted above, at the request of the jury he repeated that sound instruction. The jury had before it the conceded fact that the two cars were locked into a stop and go line of traffic with evidence that the road was wet and down hill in what became the collision area and that the plaintiff's car stopped short. Under all the circumstances whether the Gill driver was guilty of negligence which was a proximate cause of the accident was for the fact tribunal.
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Appellants' other point is that the court was guilty of plain error in charging that in this cause the mere happening of an accident does not entitle plaintiff to a recovery. In line with this plaintiffs assume another first time position in asserting that 'the fact pattern here lies within the protection of Res Ipsa Loquitur.' The completely unnecessary statement is made that where that doctrine is applicable the jury must not be instructed 'that the mere happening of an accident does not entitle plaintiff to a recovery.' The undeniable situation before us is that res ipsa loquitur was never even suggested prior to this appeal and that under the evidence the court's charge that the mere happening of the accident in this case did not entitle plaintiffs to verdicts in their favor was not only right but mandatory under the trial testimony. In short the evidential circumstances of the accident presented a substantial factual problem of whether Mr. Gill was in truth guilty of negligence which was a proximate cause of the accident. It was that problem which the jury had before it and properly resolved.
The judgment of the district court will be affirmed. | dclm-gs1-103010000 |
717 F2d 1481 United States v. Hines
717 F.2d 1481
14 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 26
UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
Ronald Doyle HINES, Appellant.
UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
Gary J. PEED, Appellant.
UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
Teresa ELEAZAR, Appellant.
UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
James Maurice JACKSON, Appellant.
UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
James C. CODDINGTON, Appellant.
UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
Jeffrey Craig BUMGARDNER, Appellant.
Nos. 82-5274(L), 82-5275 to 82-5278 and 82-5286.
United States Court of Appeals,
Fourth Circuit.
Argued July 14, 1983.
Decided Sept. 9, 1983.
William J. Sheppard, Jacksonville, Fla. (Elizabeth L. White, Jacksonville, Fla., on brief), and Gary S. Lawrence, Raleigh, N.C. (Steven D. Kupferberg, Baltimore, Md., Hugh Clifton Talton, Jr., Smithfield, N.C., Christine Witcover Dean, Raleigh, N.C., Edwin C. Walker, on brief), for appellants.
William E. Martin, Asst. U.S. Atty., Raleigh, N.C. (Samuel T. Currin, U.S. Atty., Wallace W. Dixon, Asst. U.S. Atty., Raleigh, N.C., James G. Lindsay, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., on brief), for appellee.
Before PHILLIPS, SPROUSE and ERVIN, Circuit Judges.
ERVIN, Circuit Judge:
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Ronald Doyle Hines, Gary J. Peed, Teresa Eleazar, James "Bubba" Jackson, James Coddington and Jeffrey Bumgardner appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina wherein they were tried for conspiracy to possess with intent to manufacture and distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1) and of using a communication facility to facilitate the cocaine conspiracy in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 843(b).
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, the prosecution's case at trial established the existence of a two-tier conspiracy. The first tier was headquartered in Apex, North Carolina, under the command of James "Jacques" Provost. Jacques had two investors or partners in the first tier, Gary Peed of Virginia and James Coddington of Orlando, Florida. The first tier had three employees who acted as drug couriers, Jacques's son Darryl Provost, Peter Stisser, and Bubba Jackson. Darryl and Peter turned government witnesses and provided the crucial trial testimony against their co-conspirators.
The second tier was the smaller and local operation in Jacksonville, Florida, including Ronald Hines, Jeffrey Bumgardner and Teresa Eleazar. Contacts between the two tiers were made by Bubba Jackson, Eleazar's brother.
The jury found appellants guilty of both counts, except that Eleazar was acquitted on the telephone facilitation count. Peed, Coddington, and Jackson were sentenced to four years imprisonment plus five years probation. Hines, Eleazar and Bumgardner received six months imprisonment with five years probation.
On appeal, the appellants claim nine reversible errors in their trial. Finding no merit to any of the challenges, we affirm.
In September, 1980, a double murder occurred in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. In July, 1981, two Jacksonville Beach police investigators, Officers Dorn and Maxwell, learned that "Bones" Merrill might have acted as a lookout during the murders. Bones was questioned and agreed to act as an informant in the investigation of Jacques Provost, who was suspected of having ordered the murders to avenge a delinquent drug debt and is now deceased.
Beginning on July 27, 1981, Bones made seven or eight consensually recorded phone calls from pay telephones in Jacksonville Beach to Jacques's home in St. Johns County, Florida, which was outside Dorn's and Maxwell's bailiwick. Since most of the information obtained concerned Jacques's ongoing drug operations, on July 29, 1981, the information was turned over to Agent Alford of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, an agency with statewide jurisdiction.
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On August 29, Alford obtained an electronic surveillance warrant for Jacques's St. Johns County home. Alford eventually learned that Jacques had moved the center of his drug operations to a house in Apex, North Carolina.
Alford passed the information on to Agent Johannesen of the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency ("DEA") in Raleigh, North Carolina. Johannesen used the information to obtain a wiretap on Jacques's telephone in Apex from September 29, 1981 to October 14, 1981. Information developed from the wiretap led to the indictments of the appellants.
Appellants complain that the Apex wiretap evidence should have been suppressed because it was the fruit of the Florida consensual monitoring and electronic surveillance, which appellants contend were illegal. See Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963). The consensual monitoring allegedly was illegal because officers Maxwell and Dorn were operating outside their jurisdiction. Appellants challenge the electronic surveillance on the grounds that it was issued based on an affidavit that contained intentional, reckless, and material misrepresentations.
Appellants contend that Maxwell and Dorn, Jacksonville Beach police officers, acted outside their jurisdiction by consensually monitoring Bones's nine pre-August 6, 1981 calls to Jacques's St. Johns County home. Maxwell and Dorn were not deputized in St. Johns County until August 6, 1981. Appellants rely on Wilson v. Florida, 403 So.2d 982 (Fla.1980), in which Lake City, Florida, police officers conducted an investigation into Wilson's possession of drugs outside the municipal limits of Lake City. In conducting the investigation, the officers employed an electronic listening device that was hidden on an informant who purchased drugs from Wilson outside Lake City. The court held that fruits of the electronic surveillance could not form the basis for the issuance of a search warrant because the officers were without authority to conduct the investigation.
Wilson, however, is distinguishable from the present case. In Wilson, the investigation was into the possession of contraband outside Lake City. The Wilson court indicated, 403 So.2d at 984, that it would have reached a different result had the investigation been into Wilson's illegal acts within Lake City: "a municipal police officer ... may conduct investigations outside the city limits ... where the subject matter of the investigation originated inside the city limits, State v. Chapman, 376 So.2d 262 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979); Parker v. State, 362 So.2d 1033 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978)." Here, the subject matter of the investigations, the 1980 double murder in Jacksonville Beach, did originate within the city limits.
Of the nine pre-August 6 telephone calls, the first seven or eight were made from Jacksonville Beach, so Maxwell and Dorn were within their jurisdiction. Furthermore, since Dorn and Maxwell brought agent Alford, who had statewide jurisdiction, into the investigation on July 29, the monitoring of Bones's calls from Jacksonville were under the direction of Alford; i.e. the officers acted "under color of law," 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2511(2)(c), or "under the direction of a law enforcement officer," Fla.Stat. 934.03(2)(c).1 Thus, the pre-August 6 calls comply with both the federal and state consensual monitoring statutes.2
Appellants contend that the application of agent Alford for the Florida wiretap contained material misrepresentations which were intentionally and recklessly made and which were necessary to the finding of probable cause and, thus, that the Florida wiretap evidence was illegally seized under Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978). The alleged misrepresentations are that (1) Bones was a collector of drug debts for Jacques, (2) Bones revealed that Jacques imported drugs and was putting together an airplane scheme involving 15 kilograms of cocaine, (3) Jacques told Bones that he had some "heavy business", wanted Bones to work for him, and was meeting with some business associates to plan a large transaction, (4) Bones and Jacques discussed the details of a trip down south, (5) Jacques told Bones that he was waiting for a phone call and would know more after he received it, and (6) Darryl Provost told Bones that there was a change of plans and Bubba Jackson was going up north to collect some money.
Our review of the record, however, indicates that the alleged misrepresentations either did not occur or were immaterial: (1) during an August 3, 1981 interview of Bones by Maxwell and Dorn, Bones indicated that he collected drug debts in New York and Atlanta for Jacques; (2) during the August 3 interview, Bones and the officers discussed the plane deal; (3) while Jacques did not say he had some "heavy" business, he did say "I got two business people with me" who are "real business" people and "ah man, if you could see all the [stuff] that Mike and Bang put me in its unbelievable," and arranged for Bones to come to Jacques's home to discuss work; (4) Jacques told Bones on July 30, 1981 that "I was thinking of sending you with [Darryl] down south" and "I don't know what time you guys be leaving, but I would around twelve"; (5) although Jacques did not say he was waiting on a phone call, he did tell Bones that for the moment he had nothing for Bones to do, but that he was "waiting for somebody to be here" so Bones should call back "around supper,"; and (6) Bones's telephone call of August 1 and August 5 interview, when read together, indicate that Jackson had traveled north and Jacques was waiting for him to bring back some money. Not only are there no material misrepresentations, but there is no indication that the minor inaccuracies were intentional or reckless. Thus, the Florida wiretap evidence was not illegally seized under Franks.
The Interstate Agreement on Detainers Act ("IAD") provides that if trial is not held within 120 days of the date a prisoner arrives in a receiving state, the charges are to be dismissed with prejudice. 18 U.S.C. Appx. Arts. IV(c), V(c). The running of the 120-day limitation, however, may be tolled by the district court "for good cause shown in open court, the prisoner or his counsel being present." Id.
The government brought Bubba Jackson to North Carolina for trial from Florida, where he was in custody, by detainer. The 120-day limitation began running on April 13, 1982, the date Jackson arrived in North Carolina. See United States v. Bryant, 612 F.2d 806, 810-11 n. 7 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 920, 100 S.Ct. 1855, 64 L.Ed.2d 274 (1980). The trial commenced on August 24, 1982, 133 days later. The parties dispute whether the running of the 120-day limitation period was tolled for at least 13 days.
In United States v. Odom, 674 F.2d 228, 230 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1125, 102 S.Ct. 2946, 73 L.Ed.2d 1341 (1983), this court held that a defendant waives the 120-day limitation by requesting to be treated in a manner inconsistent therewith. The Odom court also held that the periods excluded under the Speedy Trial Act, see 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3161(h)(1)(F) (e.g., period from filing to disposition of pretrial motion) likewise should be excluded under the IAD. Thus, the government seeks to exclude all days from the filing of pretrial motions to the prompt disposition of those motions, since on April 26 Jackson moved the court to allow him to adopt the motions of his co-defendants. Hearings alone on these pretrial motions took 16 days (May 20-31, June 11-12, June 21-22). Indeed, in rejecting Jackson's motion for dismissal under the IAD, the district court found that Jackson's joining in the motion to suppress the wiretap evidence, without more, amounted to a waiver of the 120-day limitation.
Of critical importance in the instant situation are defendant Jackson's motion to suppress evidence seized as a result of various electronic surveillances. Had the motion to suppress been allowed, it is doubtful that the government could have proceeded to trial since its case was based almost entirely upon this evidence. At least forty-seven days were required by the Magistrate to consider fully and make a recommendation concerning these motions to suppress. Since the trial commenced thirteen days after the running of the 120-day limitation, the 47-day delay caused by defendant Jackson's motions to suppress provides sufficient justification for the denial of defendant Jackson's motion to dismiss based upon the Interstate Agreement on Detainers.
The government also lists several continuances (i.e., requests to be treated inconsistently with the IAD) granted at Jackson's request: (1) at the request of Jackson's attorney, a pretrial hearing was delayed three days from June 7 to June 10; (2) the June 10-12 hearings were continued nine days until June 21 at the request of all attorneys, including Jackson's; (3) at Jackson's attorney's request, defense counsel were given ten days, from June 22 until July 2 to file additional memoranda; and (4) Jackson's attorney, as well as other defense counsel, indicated that the clerk's suggested trial date of July 19 was not satisfactory, and the trial eventually was set for August 16.
Jackson attacks the government's assertion that he sought continuances. He cannot, however, rebut the government's claim that he sought an additional ten days to file memoranda or that he indicated that a July 19 trial date was unsatisfactory. Furthermore, even without considering the continuances, Jackson must be deemed to have waived the 120-day limitation by joining in the co-defendants' motions, especially the motion to suppress the wiretap evidence.
It is not surprising that Jackson was held beyond 120 days given defense counsel's extensive pretrial motions. Jackson joined in those motions, which took a substantial amount of time to resolve, and then surprised the district court by moving for a dismissal under the IAD on the first day of trial. Jackson sought to benefit from the pretrial motions which necessarily resulted in delays, and cannot now claim that he is aggrieved under the IAD by those delays.
Appellants argue that the indictment did not charge possession of a controlled substance listed under 21 U.S.C. Sec. 812 Sched. II, and that the government failed to prove possession of a Sec. 812 Sched. II controlled substance. The arguments are meritless.
The indictments charge a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute "a schedule II narcotic controlled substance, to-wit: cocaine, in violation of the provisions of 21 United States Code, Sec. 841(a)(1)." Appellants note that possession of some cocaine isomers is legal and conclude that the use of the single word "cocaine" makes the indictment insufficient. The argument ignores the placing of "cocaine" in apposition to the phrase "a schedule II controlled substance." The indictment thus clearly contains a sufficient description of the "controlled substance" element of the offense.
Appellants claim that the government failed to prove that the cocaine here was the illegal kind of cocaine that is a controlled substance under 21 U.S.C. Sec. 812 Sched. II. Appellants point out that the government's expert testified that the seized substance was "cocaine" but that it was not a "narcotic." Since the statutory definitions of the narcotic cocaine and controlled substance cocaine are similar, see 21 U.S.C. Secs. 802(16), 812 Sched. II(a)(4), appellants conclude that the evidence was consistent with a conspiracy to distribute the legal kind of cocaine.
The government's expert, however, was unequivocal that the seized cocaine was a controlled substance within the meaning of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 812 Sched. II. Her statement that in chemical terms cocaine is "a stimulant or basic euphoriant," but not a "narcotic" did not affect her conclusion that the seized cocaine was a controlled substance within the meaning of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 812 Sched. II. Furthermore, she stated only that cocaine chemically is not a narcotic, not that cocaine is not a narcotic as defined in 21 U.S.C. Sec. 802(16). Moreover, the offense charged, violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a), requires proof of "possess[ion] with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, a [Sec. 812 Sched. II] controlled substance." Whether cocaine is a narcotic within the meaning of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 802(16) was irrelevant to the determination of guilt or innocence.3
Out-of-court statements by co-conspirators made "during the course of and in furtherance of the conspiracy" are not hearsay and are admissible. Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). Their admissibility turns on "the existence of substantial evidence of the conspiracy other than the statement itself." United States v. Dockins, 659 F.2d 15, 16 (4th Cir.1981). Whether such evidence exists is a question for the trial judge. Fed.R.Evid. 104; United States v. Jones, 542 F.2d 186, 203 n. 33 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 922, 96 S.Ct. 2629, 49 L.Ed.2d 376 (1976).
Appellants, relying on the Fifth Circuit decision in United States v. James, 590 F.2d 575 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 917, 99 S.Ct. 2836, 61 L.Ed.2d 283 (1979), argue that it was error for the trial court here not to hold a hearing to determine the existence of the conspiracy before any of the co-conspirator statements were admitted in the case-in-chief. This court, however, does not require the James hearing. Instead, a trial judge retains the option to admit conditionally the declarations of co-conspirators before the conspiracy has been independently established, subject to the subsequent fulfillment of that factual predicate. United States v. McCormick, 565 F.2d 286, 289 n. 5 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1021, 98 S.Ct. 747, 54 L.Ed.2d 769 (1978). The district court safeguards the defendant's rights by being prepared either to declare a mistrial or to dismiss the case if the government fails to prove aliunde that a conspiracy existed. Here, that declaration was unwarranted since the existence of a conspiracy was proved by a preponderance of the independent evidence. Indeed, appellants do not challenge the district court's finding that there was sufficient independent evidence of the conspiracy among Coddington, Jackson, and Peed. Rather, they claim a lack of independent evidence that Eleazar, Bumgardner, and Hines were part of that conspiracy. Our review of the evidence, however, indicates otherwise. The recorded conversations of Bumgardner, Hines and Eleazar with Jackson, the go-between of this two-tiered conspiracy, are replete with references by them to their cocaine dealings. See Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2)(E). Although Eleazar made only two comments during those calls, one comment--"Ronnie got all that stuff"--apparently informed Jackson that a cocaine delivery had been accomplished and she admitted sending money, which other evidence indicated was in payment for drugs, under a false name to Jackson. This independent evidence was sufficient to establish their participation in the two-tier conspiracy.
During the course of the trial, evidence of appellants' bad acts other than the cocaine conspiracy was introduced: (1) Stisser testified that he delivered cocaine to Coddington on a date subsequent to the period of the conspiracy charged; (2) references were made to marijuana dealings before the inception of the cocaine conspiracy; (3) Darryl Provost and Stisser testified that they dealt in quaaludes with Jacques Provost; and (4) Eleazar testified that Jackson was a bond jumper. Appellants argue that they were unfairly prejudiced by the other acts evidence because (1) the consideration of such evidence was not limited to the defendants involved in the acts, thus allowing the government to prove guilt by association, and (2) the evidence was inadmissible under Fed.R.Evid. 404 as allowing the government to prove guilt by bad character.
While other bad acts evidence is not admissible to show the character of the accused, it is admissible to show motive, intent, absence of mistake, and the like. Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). Thus, the district court here instructed the jury:
[I]f you, the jury, should find beyond a reasonable doubt, from other evidence in the case, that the accused did the acts charged in this indictment, then the jury may consider evidence as to some other act of a similar or like nature, on the part of the accused, in determining the state of mind or intent, with which the accused did the act which is charged in the indictment. And where proof of an alleged similar act, done at some other time or place, is clear and conclusive, the jury may, but is not obligated to, draw the inference and find that in doing the act charged in this indictment, the accused acted wilfully and not because of mistake or accident or other innocent reason. (emphasis added).
Not only did that instruction limit the jury's consideration of the other acts evidence to proof of wilfulness or absence of mistake, but it also limited consideration to the particular accused who performed the other act.
Furthermore, the specific other acts evidence admitted satisfied Rule 404(b) and the probativeness-prejudice balancing requirement of Rule 403. Stisser testified that he delivered cocaine to Coddington in late October, several weeks after the conspiracy alleged in the indictment. Nevertheless, this court has held that "subsequent conduct may be highly probative of prior intent." United States v. Hadaway, 681 F.2d 214, 217 (4th Cir.1982). The probativeness is especially great here given the closeness in time--several weeks--of the similar acts.
Although the marijuana conspiracy counts were severed before trial on the grounds that "evidence concerning the marijuana conspiracy may very well be prejudicial to the defendants not charged in those counts," that does not automatically require a finding of unfair prejudice because of the limited references to marijuana dealings in the cocaine trial. Presumably, if the counts had not been severed, a significantly higher quantity of evidence concerning the marijuana conspiracy would have been introduced, thereby increasing the possibility of prejudice. Here, the limited references to marijuana dealings in order to show intent concerning the cocaine dealings were proper under Rule 404(b). See United States v. Brugman, 655 F.2d 540, 543-45 (4th Cir.1981) (evidence concerning marijuana and hashish dealings admissible under Rule 404(b) on charge of cocaine conspiracy). The same reasoning applies to the references to quaalude dealings.
While Eleazar's testimony about Jackson being a bond jumper was not admissible under Rule 404(b), the evidence was elicited by Eleazar's defense counsel, not the government, and immediately struck by the district court as inadmissible hearsay with the instruction to the jury to disregard it. We discern no reversible error in the district court's handling of the inadmissible testimony. See United States v. Johnson, 610 F.2d 194, 197 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 911, 100 S.Ct. 1840, 64 L.Ed.2d 264 (1980), ("[a]bsent ... misconduct on the part of the government counsel, the courts generally have discerned no reversible error where the trial court has acted promptly in sustaining an objection and advising the jury to disregard the testimony").
The government bears the burden of proving the single conspiracy it charged in the indictment. On appeal, this court must determine whether the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 469, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942), supports the jury's finding of a single conspiracy. If not, reversal is required only where proof of the multiple conspiracies prejudiced the defendants' substantial rights. United States v. Coward, 630 F.2d 229, 231 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 946, 102 S.Ct. 2014, 72 L.Ed.2d 470 (1982).
Appellants argue that their convictions were flawed because the government proved ten conspiracies instead of the single conspiracy charged. Appellants view the evidence as showing a wheel conspiracy with Peed, Coddington, and Jackson at the center and Hines, Eleazar, and Bumgardner as one of the spokes. Since the government did not show that Hines, Bumgardner, and Eleazar knew of the other spokes in the conspiracy, the three could not be considered members of the overall wheel conspiracy. Absent proof of such knowledge, the evidence shows numerous separate conspiracies (i.e., unrelated spokes). We cannot agree.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, a two-tiered conspiracy was shown. The first level included Peed, Coddington, and Jackson and the second included Bumgardner, Hines, and Eleazar. Jackson was the link between the two tiers. The first tier was the wholesaler and the second the retailer. This chain conspiracy is not unlike other multi-level schemes that have been found to constitute a single conspiracy. See United States v. Agueci, 310 F.2d 817, 826 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 372 U.S. 959, 83 S.Ct. 1013, 10 L.Ed.2d 11 (1963) (chain narcotics distribution conspiracy extends several levels from importation through selling of drugs to user). This would be a different case if the government attempted to charge retailers, i.e., other spokes, other than Bumgardner, Hines, and Eleazar. Here, however, the evidence clearly shows that those three were part of a single retail operation.
The government proved at most two conspiracies, separate wholesale and retail conspiracies.4 Nevertheless, proof of those two separate conspiracies would not have prejudiced appellants under Coward since the jury would not have been confused into imputing guilt to members of one conspiracy because of the illegal activities of the other conspiracy. With only two conspiracies, each at a distinct level, and simple in operation, the jury was not likely to confuse evidence concerning one level as being relevant concerning the other. Cf. Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946) (proof of separate conspiracies with numerous defendants where conspiracies complex amounts to prejudice).
Agent Johannesen testified at trial against Jackson. His trial testimony accurately reflected the dollar amount and quantity of a certain transaction involving Jackson. Before the grand jury, Johannesen had overstated the dollar amounts and quantity. In order to impeach Johannesen's testimony, Jackson's attorney sought to introduce the entire written grand jury testimony of Johannesen. When Coddington's counsel objected to the introduction of the entire written testimony on the grounds of irrelevancy, the district court limited Jackson's attorney to introducing the inconsistent statements by having Johannesen read to the jury his prior inconsistent statements. Jackson now argues that the limitation was error and the written transcript should have been submitted to the jury. The argument is frivolous. The district court did not abuse its discretion. The jury was made aware of the prior inconsistent testimony and protected from other irrelevant (and perhaps prejudicial) evidence in Johannesen's grand jury testimony.
Eleazar and Hines argue that the evidence is insufficient to support their convictions. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, however, the evidence is sufficient to support both convictions.
Most of Jackson's calls were made to Eleazar's telephone in Florida. During one call, Eleazar indicated that a cocaine delivery involving Hines had been accomplished. Later during that conversation, Bumgardner informed Jackson that Eleazar "went by and picked it up," the "it" meaning "cocaine." In another conversation, Eleazar told Jackson, "Bumgardner needs to talk to you," whereupon Jackson and Bumgardner proceeded to discuss a cocaine deal. Eleazar also sent money to Jackson, under instructions to use a false name, and evidence indicated that the money was in payment for drugs. Although Eleazar offered her own version of events, the jury apparently did not accept her story, and viewing the evidence favorably toward the government, her conviction must stand.5
Ronald Hines claims a lack of proof as to his identity as a participant in the conspiracy because he was not identified pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 901(b)(6). That rule allows "[b]y way of illustration only" identification of a telephone caller by evidence that the call was made to a number assigned to him. Hines claims that the proof of his identity was inadequate because "the called party only identified himself as 'Ronnie'. The number ... is not subscribed to by a Ronnie." Hines also points out that there is no proof that he was at the residence at the time of the call. Nor was the recorded voice identified as his. His argument is completely without merit.
Not only did the conversant identify himself as "Ronnie," but the phone was registered in the name of his parents and Hines was at the house when a DEA investigator visited the house. That evidence is sufficient to establish Hines's identity as the conversant.
One day during the trial, an FBI agent photographed persons leaving the courthouse and was noticed by juror Denton. Juror Denton advised the court and was informed that the photographs were not being made of jurors, that there was no cause for concern, and that the matter should be disregarded. At a post-trial hearing on the possible prejudicial influence of the picture-taking episode, juror Denton indicated that after receiving the court's assurances, he was not concerned about the photographing and the incident did not affect his deliberations. Nor was the incident further discussed by him or the other jurors after he conveyed the court's assurances to the other jurors. The district court considered Denton's testimony credible and found that the episode had no prejudicial influence on the jury. That finding is not clearly erroneous. Under Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209, 102 S.Ct. 940, 71 L.Ed.2d 78 (1982), and Remmer v. United States, 350 U.S. 377, 76 S.Ct. 425, 100 L.Ed. 435 (1956), appellants were entitled to a hearing, which they received, on the possible prejudicial impact of the episode. Absent a showing that the district court's finding of no unfair prejudice was clearly erroneous, we cannot reverse.
For the foregoing reasons, the convictions are
18 U.S.C. Sec. 2511(2)(c) provides:
Fla.Stat. 934.03(2)(c) provides:
It is lawful under this chapter for a law enforcement officer or a person acting under the direction of a law enforcement officer to intercept a wire or oral communication when such person is a party to the communication or one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception and the purpose of such interception is to obtain evidence of a criminal act.
It is unnecessary to decide the government's claim that the Jacksonville monitoring was valid because Dorn and Maxwell were "special deputies" in Jacksonville. Fla.Stat. Sec. 30.09(4)(b) permits special deputies to conduct investigative work. The district court did not decide the question, but simply stated that "the officers may have had special deputy status [within Jacksonville] and, if so, the Jacksonville calls would have been within their jurisdiction."
We also do not reach the government's argument that the appellants have no standing since none of them had possession or privacy interests in the consensually monitored telephone calls and none of the conversations involved any of the appellants; i.e., they were neither victims nor targets of the consensually monitored calls. See 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2510(11); Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 89 S.Ct. 961, 22 L.Ed.2d 176 (1969). The district court did not address the argument and it is not clear whether it was raised below.
Thus, the trial court instructed the jury that whether cocaine is a narcotic is
not material to the guilt or innocence of any of the defendants in the charges as contained in the Bill of Indictment. Therefore, it is not necessary for the government to prove that the substance referred to in the indictment was a narcotic.
I instruct you that cocaine is a Schedule II controlled substance. It is a violation of the laws of the United States for two or more persons to conspire or join together in an agreement to commit an offense in violation of the laws of the United States relating to cocaine.
That view of the evidence requires disregarding the substantial evidence that Jackson linked the two levels
The verdict of not guilty on the use of the telephone count is not inconsistent because the jury could have convicted her on the conspiracy count for picking up the drugs, and sending the money, which did not involve her use of the telephones | dclm-gs1-103020000 |
Pelican Dreams: DVD now available!
Order the DVD (includes 80 minutes of Bonus Features)
See the theatrical trailer
Pelican Dreams Soundtrack Album
gigi on bridge
As I track this brown pelican—tired, hungry, and disoriented—from her “arrest” on the bridge (she was transported in a police car) to a nearby seabird rescue center, the film broadens to explore the implications of our urban world view, and how it affects nature.
close up eye“Gigi” (named for “Golden Gate”) was only about four months old when she landed on the bridge. The film re-creates her probable prior history: hatching in the Channel Islands, migrating up the coast with other juveniles, perhaps stopping over at the Farallon Islands before she made her drastic miscalculation at the bridge. Threaded with Gigi’s story from crisis to recuperation to release is my search for the person who knows pelicans best. Is it the scientist who has been studying them for 40 years? The fisherman who gets to know them at the dock and at sea? The rehab worker at the rescue center? Perhaps it’s the nutty lady who takes injured pelicans into her home. Who can truly “know” a wild animal? Do pelicans dream? As they soar gracefully above the waves and dive with an explosive crash, as they waddle awkwardly on land, these odd, pterodactylic birds begin to define themselves.
pelican flyingBy focusing on one species—the California brown pelican—that everyone knows and many love, and by following the story of an individual bird as she moves through human hands and back to the wild, I hope to create an unforgettable link in viewers’ minds and hearts to our magnificent, yet fragile bay and coastline. San Francisco is a marine city; it’s the perfect location for this film.
— Judy Irving | dclm-gs1-103030000 |
It’s not every day one is able to conduct an engaging interview via email. In fact, if we’re going to be real, it’s something I’ve never actually successfully achieved before (with apologies to everyone I’ve email interviewed in the past). Where I’m going with this of course is that I popped my engaging email interview cherry with VICE‘s Thomas Morton just now. And I feel like I’ve got to give full credit to Thomas, the Editor of VICE’s just released Dos & Don’ts book (the second volume), for being brilliantly weird, bold, smart, and sort of confrontational.
Indeed, Thomas talked fashion and editorial politics in a way that made both topics seem as interesting, if not more so, than Curiosity roving the face of Mars, and infinitely more so than anything to do with the Olympics. And one more thing: I am not a dude (you’ll see what I mean in a minute)…
Portable: Why was there a seven year gap between books, and can we expect another one?
Thomas Morton: It’s funny, the original book was a collection of the first ten years of the Dos & Don’ts. It’s even in its subtitle. It took us seven years to make the second book, which is even longer than the first one, so we shaved three years off our own record. Yet all anybody asks is “Why’d it take so long? Why’d it take so long?” Everybody’s gotten so conditioned by Twitter and Facebook for immediate gratification it’s turned them into impatient toddlers stamping their feet in line at Steinmart because Mommy has to pay for this dress before we can go to Ben & Jerry’s. Nobody appreciates the craft and toil that goes into making a book like this. Maybe we should call the next one “An Artisanal Compilation of Locally Sourced Street Fashion.” Maybe then everyone would hold their fucking horses.
P: How did you come to be the editor of the Dos & Don’ts book, and what does this entail?
Thomas Morton: Editing the Dos & Don’ts just means getting together the pictures, writing most of the captions, and harassing the other writers to turn theirs in on time/early to make up for the ones I’m late on. I was initially one of three editors who took over the Dos & Don’ts when their original writer left Vice. As happens in all triumvirates, one of the other guys got worn out (you have no idea how hard it is making fun of clothing day after day. I’m not really joking, it takes its toll. It’s like when you see a wizard shooting lightning out of his stave and it looks like he’s just kind of standing there, but then he collapses to the ground in agony and you realize how much strain went into making it happen), and so there was a violent power struggle between me and the other editor for control. Somehow I bested him (I think he “got tired” too), and this is my reward.
P: What makes a good Do or Don’t comment?
Thomas Morton: Holy shit. You are the first person to ask this instead of “What makes someone a Do or a Don’t?” It’s like you really get it. I can’t describe how excited I am right now. You aren’t a guy are you? This maybe a little weird to ask in an email interview, but I’m going to catch Chain and the Gang at 285 Kent tonight, you want to come? No pressure, obviously, should be a good time though. In answer to your (great and long awaited) question, the most important criterion for a caption is being funny. At the same time — and this is what most people who try to imitate us screw up — there needs to be some component that either comments on what the person in the picture is wearing or nods to the fact that the Dos & Don’ts is, in name and essence, a fashion column. It can’t just be a zinger. You have to stay in character for it to work.
P: Dos & Don’ts is an interesting take on street fashion, given that many of the comments actually don’t comment on fashion at all. How do you see fashion as fitting into a larger social dialogue outside of just talking about the clothes themselves?
Thomas Morton: Wow, does this question come with its own blue book? Do I have 40 minutes before “pencils down”? Clothing’s the most obvious marker to people’s personalities. This holds as true to people who keep up with “what’s in” each season and follow those rules (subcultures with uniforms like skins and goths are basically the same thing stretched over a longer timeline), as people who say they don’t give a shit. Your whole brain is written on what you’ve got on at any give moment. A lot of people get this backward, that “clothing makes the man” — the classic example is the Jack Daniels shirt. Putting one on doesn’t turn you into a gelled-up LA douchebag, you’d have to be one to put it on in the first place.
P: When I was living in London my friend worked for Vice and I gave him some ugly pictures of my ex for him to be mean about in the Vice Student Guide. How do you source your images in the first place these days? Do you get many complaints from disgruntled subjects?
Thomas Morton: Crap you are a guy. And a shitty guy at that. Oh well, que sera. We get most of our pictures in the States from a handful of “nightlife photographers,” a term and concept that both gross me out something awful. I should point out that our major contributors are folks like Vito Fun, Igor from, and Brenda Staudenmeier from Burning Angel — people who go to the dingy, interesting parts of New York and wherever and take pictures of real folk instead of the same corny Patrick McMullen-lite socialite shit you still see all over the place. So they take a bunch of the shots, then each international edition of the magazine has their own little photo crew who sends stuff to us, and to fill in the gaps between batches we take a few shots ourselves and obviously accept reader submissions from creepy pricks like you.
Complaints are pretty rare (9 times out of 10 they’re from someone who was in the Dos), and typically have less to do with what we said about the person than a general sense of grievance at having their picture taken in public. Which is lame. You put it on and wore it out, grow up and own it. Be a member of frikkin society.
Dos & Don’ts Book 2 is available for purchase wherever they sell books… or here. | dclm-gs1-103040000 |
The current generation has seen Koei rise up from the ranks of mid-tier game publishers on the strength of smash-hit games like Dynasty Warriors, and the Japan-based publisher shows no lack of ambition in its next-gen plans. It hopes to create new games that have a global appeal, and one of the first steps toward realizing this lofty goal is the opening of a new production studio in North America, aptly called Koei Canada. The new studio's first game will be a PlayStation 3 combat / racer called Fatal Inertia, which Koei debuted here at TGS.
The action takes place in the 23rd century, where rally racing, street racing and demolition derby have fused into an exciting and dangerous new high-speed aerial sport. Racing, precision flying and dogfighting will all play key roles as you zip through beautiful scenic landscapes in your sleek metallic aircraft.
Though it has the look of your average futuristic combat racer, the designers intend to use the considerable computational abilities of the PS3 to give Fatal Inertia a flavor all its own. A lot of that power will go into the physics simulation, which will be the keystone behind the game's combat system. Rather than use your ship's weapons directly against your competitors, you'll be able to use them in creative ways to affect the environment to your gain ... or your enemy's distress.
Though the game is still at a very early state, Koei showed both real-time and CG demos to help illustrate the concept. The main environment was a dusty, Grand Canyon-like region, where strategy centered around causing landscape-deforming rockslides with your machine guns. Another creative weapon was a grappling hook, which was used to tether an opponent to a rocky outcropping, leading to a rapidly spiraling death. There'll also be smoke screens, some sort of rear-firing gun, and remote-controlled rockets that can attach to your opponents' craft to provide unwelcome thrust at just the wrong time. Michael Bond, the game's lead designer, promises that you'll find new ways to use your arsenal each time you play. That's a tall claim, but it's nice to see Koei Canada is aiming high.
Fatal Inertia will support a full range of single and online multiplayer modes, including team-based racing and battle varations. There'll also be a detailed craft customization system, to let you tweak your ride as you see fit.
The real-time demo was brief and ran on PC hardware. The framerate was a bit stuttery and the geometry moderately detailed. It was very much a prototype than any sort of final game, so we'll have to reserve judgement for a real build. In the meantime, Koei's new studio seems to be on solid footing with its first project. We'll see just how solid when we finally get to check out a playable version closer to the PS3's launch. | dclm-gs1-103050000 |
Polyhedron Operations Package
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1994 Legacy wagon has been told it needs brakes but no symptoms.Now right... on 1994 Subaru Legacy
...after having new tires put on--suddenly there are major symptoms.Terrible squeaking noise when braking--squeaking with a "crunch" sound--and now similar sound when turning corners. It does this all the time now since new tires. Estimate is $900 for brakes alone. But are there times that cars do this after new tires when they don't need them? Last trip to mechanic for something else--was told "sometime you'll need new brakes..." Did the new tires create the "sometime"? Is this a stupid question?!
by in Eureka, CA on August 20, 2013
1 answer
ANSWER by on August 20, 2013
No such thing as a stupid question if you need to know something you don't already know! Take your car to another repair shop and get a second opinion/price. In other words it really needs to be looked at to answer your question.
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Bishop Bullwinkle popped up on YouTube and his single "Hell 2 the Naw Naw" went viral and has had over 3.5 million views over a period of two months. Bishop Bullwinkle is bringing a long overdue approach of telling
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So the Jade Helm operation to take over America is now over. Let's make sure we understand this correctly, but all of the constant gloom doom and gloom sites need to be held accountable. All of the radio
It looks like Hollywood is running out of ideas and decided to use ancient origins for Christmas. You see Yeshua was not born on December 25 because if you study the Scripture you will discover He was born
If you didn't know the Shemitah year ended today in Jerusalem, Israel at 11:48 AM at the blowing of a shofar horn. Jonathan Cahn, John Hagee, and Mark Blitz (I will leave out all of the other alternative
Before Mike Myers suited up to become the iconic Doctor Evil with his infamous pinky signature move there was an original Doctor Evil. We know him as Aleister Crowley and he was once known as the "World's Most Wicked
Bobbi Kristina Brown, passed away today in a hospice outside of Atlanta. She was placed there June 24th when her family took her off machines and medications keeping her alive. The families were informed by several doctors there
How would you like to make a quick $75,000? The website Deuteronomy is putting their money where the mouth is! How rare is that? Instead of trying to peddle you their books or make
If you ever saw the movie Rosemary's Baby it is unforgettable and timeless movie you can watch anytime. It was one of the first movies I saw which implicated everyday people who work in collusion to serve Satan.
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Where can I find details about the constellations and night sky characteristics of Toril? Is this information presented in any of the released books?
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1 Answer 1
up vote 6 down vote accepted
There's nothing published that I'm aware of. I have a reasonably good knowledge of the Forgotten Realms material presented in Living Forgotten Realms modules, and I don't know of any night sky material there, either.
Candlekeep has an unofficial article about the subject, which is based on official material. There is also a comprehensive discussion thread here, with links to a few visual resources and much discussion of Selune.
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Thanks. Do you have some guess about the reason behind this lack of information ? I had the need for planetary and constellation details for a quest involving time and alignments, but I had to invent everything from scratch, basically. – Stefano Borini Aug 27 '10 at 17:52
I got nothing. The Realms aren't the only setting missing this particular flavor of detail, though. Maybe game designers don't look up much... – Bryant Aug 27 '10 at 17:58
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My application uses Visual Studio 2010 to develop an application in SharePoint 2010. I created a visual webpart and added a <SharePoint:SPCalendarView ID="EventsCalendar1" width="100%" runat="server"></SharePoint:SPCalendarView> I also found that there are many other controls which appears in intellisense. How can I add these controls to the toolbox? Is there any documentation available on how to use these controls?
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1 Answer 1
1. In Visual Studio on the Tools menu, click Choose Toolbox Items.
2. Click Browse.
3. The Open dialog box appears.
4. In the My Places Bar, select My Computer to browse for items installed on your computer drives. —or— In Look in, select My Network Places to browse for items located on a network share.
5. Click OK.
enter image description here
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I was specifically asking for SharePoint controls like SPCalendarView, SPGridView etc – Suja Shyam Dec 10 '12 at 12:11
Inside the .NET Freamework Componets are SharePoint controls as well. The procedure to add is the same too. Are you getting reference issues while opening the control? – Benny Skogberg Dec 10 '12 at 12:28
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I have a new SP 2007 site which I have been loading about a terabyte of files into. File types include .doc, .docx, .ppt, .pptx, .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm, .jpg, .gif, .pdf.
What I need to do is add custom metadata for each file. Fields include project name and department. Since there are a large number of files, adding the data manually isn't an option.
How could I add it in bulk?
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thank you for the answers! I have to put my testing on hold as we are now upgrading to 2010. I will revisit this in a couple of weeks. Sorry for the delay! – user2404 Feb 23 '11 at 15:58
4 Answers 4
You could write a simple console application that would do it for you through the SharePoint Object Model. You could also do it with PowerShell.
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There are several third party tools that let you do bulk import and bulk metadata setting, with some automation, including DocKIT, RoboMETA, and Classifier.
Since you are adding metadata and importing a very large number of documents, do you really want to put them all in the same document library? There is a limit in 2007. You might look into in the routing capability of the Records Center site template in SharePoint 2007, or move to SharePoint 2010 and use the more flexible Content Organizer or the metadata navigation features.
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If you need to use Web Services, you can use UpdateListItem
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Console is better for 1 TB – Nat Feb 28 '11 at 21:19
you could import the metadata dorectly using a metadata file. Get the sample file from the metadata service application itself.
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Skype Addresses Visibility Concerns 188
An anonymous reader writes "TechWorld is reporting that VoIP pioneer Skype has finally decided to buckle down from their startup mentality and address some of the concerns about the 'visibility' of Skype by network admins. From the article: 'Problems started around the time that the version 2.0 beta appeared last year, the moment when a handful of software engineers started to assess a troubling issue thrown up by the program's new and evasive design: it was incredibly hard to detect using perimeter security systems. Skype's unofficial explanation for its extreme stealthiness has always been that this was necessary to avoid telcos threatened by its business model from blocking it. While this presents no issues for a home user, using "invisible" software capable of making and receiving voice calls, opening instant messaging sessions and exchanging files on a corporate networks, caused some to ponder whether the ever-more-popular Skype hadn't just turned itself into a huge security risk.'"
Skype Addresses Visibility Concerns
Comments Filter:
• ports (Score:3, Interesting)
by 56ker (566853) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:25PM (#15663692) Homepage Journal
Well wouldn't it just be possible to block the ports Skype uses on a corporate network?
• Re:ports (Score:5, Informative)
by houseofzeus (836938) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:28PM (#15663702) Homepage
Because as a last resort I believe it will use 443, so you would have to block SSL as well. That's why packet inspection is required.
• Re:ports (Score:5, Informative)
by baadger (764884) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:38PM (#15663747)
• by megaditto (982598) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @10:08PM (#15664355)
Let me be the first to state the obvious:
Corporate Security should not rely on well-behaving of fourth-party applications/protocols.
Sure, go ahead and demand that Skype's protocol be crippled to improve visibility, but the fact remains that if a random O.S.S. proggie can accidentally breach your perimeter, then your P.O.S. security will not stand up to a script-kiddie, let alone a corporate spy.
• In a year or two, any reasonably priced firewall will do sufficient packet inspection to identify and (block/allow) Skype. It's not that hard.
Of course, corporate IT departments still using 1999 technology will still have 1999 problems, and Skype won't be high on the list.
• Re:ports (Score:5, Informative)
by Oriumpor (446718) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:29PM (#15663705) Homepage Journal
Skype started using the default option "Use port 443 and port 80 for incoming connections" Unless you do layer 7 (basically content based) filtering of those packets you can't see them from regular web traffic.
• Re:ports (Score:5, Informative)
by ThinkingInBinary (899485) <thinkinginbinary.gmail@com> on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:30PM (#15663708) Homepage
No. The whole point of the article is that Skype purposefully intends to be invisible and sneaky. The reason is that it makes it easier to run Skype on firewalled and/or NATted networks, either at home or at work. Many home users have convoluted NAT setups, and most don't have the expertise (or reason) to poke holes in the firewall. Skype likes to advertise that it offers Internet phone service that "just works", so they need to make it work on every network. That may mean using random ports, using ports intended for other protocols, tunneling to remote servers or through peers, or other things that can be interpreted as resourceful or sneaky, depending on your point of view.
• Re:ports (Score:3, Interesting)
by DigiShaman (671371)
Which is why I use Skype to talk to my girlfriend located in China. The connection is encrypted for both voice and file transfer. Can't trust what's being filtered through the "Great Firewall of China" you know...
• Exactly the same here. Do you also usually have frequent dropouts and/or hangups and often quite some lag? I never used skype except to China, and don't know how reliable it is expected to work, and what the expected quality is.
I think we have to redial at least 5 times per hour because the connection simply dropped or we can't hear the other person anymore. We both use the Linux version on Ubuntu btw.
• I call Korea from Europe, and the connection drops only very occasionally. Quality is good, provided you give it enough bandwidth to work with (turn down those torrents).
• Lately, we haven't had any problems with dropouts for a few months now. I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, but I suspected packet loss between our connection. In fact, I suspect it was her ISP and/or cable modem connection to the ISP. She's always complaining of a slow connection and other issues when using her internet connection for other reasons.
Currently, we're both using the latest version of Skype (v2.5) for WinXP. Maybe this new version contains extra "stealth" to get past all the layers of f
• by Billly Gates (198444) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:30PM (#15663709) Journal
After all the teleco's have a vested interest to mod all VOIP calls to force you to get cell phones. Unless you pay them an extra fee of course.
Not to sound trollish but I would have sold stock immediately after the bill became law in the senate.
• Its ok! (Score:4, Funny)
by vancondo (986849) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:32PM (#15663722) Homepage
No Problem! They promise to DO NO EVIL!
..Oh, Thats not them?
well, maybe if we asked them nicely?
• by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:36PM (#15663744)
Skype has done a pretty good job of creating a protocol that works in almost all situations, unlike SIP or many other VOIP technologies. You don't have to worry about NAT full-cone, restricted-cone, port-restricted cone, STUN, or any other crap in a badly designed protocol.
However, if you want to block skype, it is very easy. Have a look at reports [grok.org.uk] using openbsd & squid.
Or do a quick search with google.
• by gnuman99 (746007) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:14PM (#15663878)
Have you ever stopped and think that maybe NAT, not the protocol that is the problem? The sooner we get rid of the cludge that NAT is and always was, the better it will be for all net users (hint: IPv6 + stateful firewall => better than NAT cludge)
• by LordLucless (582312) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @10:01PM (#15664326)
Great, but until then, software needs to work in the real world. What do you suggest, Skype just hold off on offering a product until the whole world adopts IPv6 and they can do it nicely? Yes, NAT is a hack, but it's so widespread it has to be dealt with when developing a product. You can't just code to standards and ship it when the real world isn't obeying the standards.
• NAT is a wonderful technology. First of all it really solves the issue with IP-addresses running low beautifully (and saying "well, IPv6 would work even better!" are lousy arguments, it will take an enourmous amount of time before IPv6 is fully implemented, probably atleast a decade). Actually since the widespread adoption of NAT routers, it isn't even really a problem anymore!
Secondly, it's the most important thing ever to happen to internet security. Bar none. Due to how the NAT protocol works (by mappin
• NAT is a wonderful technology.
You're crazy, right?
Not really - it temporarilly works around the problem and causes an enormous mess at the same time by breaking the peer-to-peer nature of the Internet. To some extent it's prolonged the problem because it has reduced the pressure to take decisive action and switch to IPv6.
I'm not sure what you mean by "ful
• Nifty trick, that- problem is, like the Great Firewall of China, it has the potential of collateral damage. That guy in the linked article was just lucky that nobody needed anything more than DNS mediated web surfing. It's a hack, and naught else.
• Don't allow it... (Score:5, Insightful)
by locokamil (850008) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:39PM (#15663754) Homepage
The gist of this article seems to be that unless you're doing complete content analysis on incoming packets, you aren't going to be able to detect Skype: it uses (on my system at any rate) port 443 (SSL?) and port 80 (HTTP) as its default ports. Any sysadmin that blocks those ports is going to get some very annoyed phone calls from pissed off users.
That skype is being devious and sneaky is not the issue here. I think the real issue here is that sysadmins don't have control over the machines they're supposed to be looking after. There are plenty of ways to make sure that Skype doesn't make it onto the corporate network-- don't give unauthorized users permission to install software, blacklist it on the company approved software image, packet analysis... the list goes on. I figure if the sysadmin is not paranoid enough to do these things to begin with, the use of Skype on his/her network probably isn't a major threat. Or the sysadmin is inept. Your call.
• by dj245 (732906) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:55PM (#15664046) Homepage
I may have a personal gripe here, but the network admin at my university has a thing for any program except web browsers. Huge tracts of ports are simply blocked off because people set their IRC programs to use those ports. All the popular ports of the Bittorrent programs, every obscure port that some worm uses (he even blocked 443, SSL when he heard a worm used it, but mass complaining removed the block).
It is good that skype uses common ports that can't be blocked without huge reprocussions or fancy expensive packet inspectors. There are bastards out there who would be happy if all their users only used cloned-on-reboot machines with only a web browser. The internet is more than a big blue E (or a big red O)
I'm currently sitting behind a university proxy where the only open ports are 1080, 8080 and the LimeWire ports. Go Figure.
• by cperciva (102828) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:40PM (#15663762) Homepage
... caused some to ponder whether the ever-more-popular Skype hadn't just turned itself into a huge security risk.
The fact that Skype is designed to be unfirewallable is not a security risk: Any site which wants to block Skype should have a policy prohibiting its use.
The security risk is users who ignore such policies, and system configurations which allow said users to install and use Skype.
• Top Level Problems (Score:5, Interesting)
by nbannerman (974715) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:44PM (#15663778)
I have a very simple policy; if a user wants something on a machine that is outside the core software I support, they have to get my permission.
This policy lasted all of 5 minutes during a meeting with the Senior Leadership Team, who completely ignored what I said and told me, in no uncertain terms, that Skype was going on their laptops.
Personally, whilst I understand that Skype want to be sneaky by design, I'm worried about allowing software on to the network that I can't monitor and disable at will. And as the discussion here has already mentioned, disabling 80 really is not an option.
• by epiphani (254981) <epiphani @ d a l . n et> on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:01PM (#15663833)
And thats exactly why I dont want skype to change. I dont want the ability for my ISP, or any other provider down the line, to be able to block skype. It is my personal long-distance telephone, and I dont doubt that there are plenty of providers out there that would jump at the opportunity to block it.
Imagine that you have just spent the last two years actively using an internet service for your telephone - at free or near-free pricing. You wake up one day, and it doesnt work anymore. You call up your internet provider, who also happens to be a telco, and say "my internet-based-replacement for long distance isnt working anymore".
You can bet what their responce would be.
• by nbannerman (974715)
Good point. Of course, if I used Skype, then I'd probably have a different viewpoint.
But there is a definate difference between allowing an application on a personal machine / network, and a corporate (or in my case academic) network. In the personal case, you can install what you like and you want your ISP to allow whatever you deem fit. In my case, I want to block certain software, and my ISP (in this case, my local education authority) to allow anything I deem fit.
• This problem wouldn't have existed if people like you didn't block everything you don't know. I'm at uni dorm network I'm right now. Whoever set it up must have takes the safe route and blocks everything except port 80, 22 and whatever. Skype works great. ICQ and MSN work too, but not as stable.
Please understand that the internet is not only for grandmas web surfing.
• Please understand that the internet is not only for grandmas web surfing.
The internet is for whatever your TOS say it is for. If your ISP (or uni) provides you with internet service with explicit instructions not to run certain services, you are not authorized to run those services. If you wish to run those services, pay for the extra bandwidth that you will be using. Their enforcement capabilities have been notoriously bad, but that doesn't make leeching proper.
I always find corporate networks overblock to the detriment of its users. Need to run SSH to get an informaiton packet from a remote computer? Sorry, only Admins can SSH. Need to FTP files from your home server where you were doing some work over the weekend? Sorry, no ftp. Need to use AOL instant messenger to harvest viruses? Of course AOL is OK, the pre
• Depends on your admin I guess.. mine investigated an issue of consistantly stuttering performance in Skype and it went away within a few days (packet analysis traffic shaping?). My torrents on the other hand...
• ", whilst I understand that Skype want to be sneaky by design"
I don't think that skype wants to be sneaky by design so much as they want to work by design. Skype works on any connection, on any network on any machine.
• Send them a document that says that the presence of unauthorized, uncontrolled software on the network may be putting the entire enterprise at risk, and that they need to sign off on it and absolve you from any blame when the network and all the orginazitions data is gone. Request they give you a paper copy, with a post-it to explain there won't be any electronic copies of anything after the electronic apocalypse. Be sure and sing your note, "have a nice day" Seriously. You can never be paranoid enough. Wh
• Having spent most of my career as an IS/IT guy, with the last 12 or so as an IT security
guy for a large company, I can certainly sympathize with the "if I don't support it, you
can't run it" attitude.
But in a company full of knowledge workers, I can't see how to make this actually workable.
I don't see how a person, or group of people, could possibly evaluate every piece of
software that some hardware/software/whatever developer wants to run on their
• Eh... (Score:3, Informative)
by realmolo (574068) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:50PM (#15663797)
If you run a corporate network and DO NOT have a firewall that does "full content inspection", then you aren't doing your job very well. Or your boss is cheap AND stupid.
Buy a Fortigate (or Packeteer, or whatever, but Fortigates are good and cheap) and configure the BUILT-IN filter for Skype traffic. Problem solved.
• by Sheetrock (152993) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:51PM (#15663801) Homepage Journal
Skype isn't creating a security hole. Skype is demonstrating that current firewalling practices are inadequate for blocking a determined entity from making an outgoing connection.
Perhaps they ought not to do that; I remember similar concerns about SOAP when it was first being proposed (and no doubt many on here still refuse to use it) and it showed that fewer were willing to blame the inadequacy of the protection than they were the people "bypassing" it. Rather, we should take away the lesson that firewalls in and of themselves are not an absolute solution and instead incorporate other methods and practices in developing secure environments.
• by Kaenneth (82978) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @07:56PM (#15663817) Homepage Journal
It's extra security for everyone when everyone uses encryption, someone sniffing the network wouldn't be able to tell a critical e-mail from a snippet of voice... Not being able to identify the data is the real reason 'Net Neutrality' is assured.
Since it's a good thing that the data can't be identified (in some ways) how about having your users, in a business setting, not run as Administrator on the desktop machines? Just disallow the installation of IP telephony applications, not as a policy, but as an account restriction.
Better yet, do it before the next worm ravages your network.
• Traffic shaping (Score:3, Interesting)
by Zygfryd (856098) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:08PM (#15663864)
As the admin of a small ISP's Linux routers I'd welcome very much the ability to classify Skype traffic. We do aggressive traffic shaping to let VoIP and games work nicely when the links are saturated with other traffic (mostly P2P garbage). The current l7-filter protocol definition doesn't work for skypeout traffic and it's not very pretty in general. When Skype decides to offer a conntrack helper or at least l7-filter definitions for their convoluted encrypted protocols I might consider suggesting it to our clients. At the moment we advise them to use other VoIP solutions.
Why do you hate network neutrality?
Who made you in charge of deciding that a P2P connection is garbage and a gaming connection is not?
• by AK Marc (707885) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:21PM (#15663905)
The most effective firewalling technique I've seen was a proxy set up as an internal host, the firewall blocking all traffic other than the firewall or other explicitly approved hosts. Then log all attempts through the firewall and audit those machines. No outbound packets would be send except from approved hosts, everything proxied and logged, all failures and direct connections logged, and nothing allowed in except to the approved hosts. Simple, effective, and pissed off everyone that wanted to run anything they shouldn't.
• Rate limiting. (Score:5, Insightful)
by Craig Davison (37723) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:29PM (#15663929)
Why not rate-limit outgoing TCP port 443? If Skype needs 100 kbps over a connection to maintain unbroken voice output, limit each connection to 50 kbps. You could also limit it to bursts of traffic - full speed for 0.5 second at a time, then 4.5 seconds at 50 kbps. Real HTTPS (small outgoing requests and large incoming responses) would still be responsive under these conditions.
• Somehow I doubt users will agree to let that happen. HTTPS is used by more and more sites and I don't think anyone would want their https web sites restricted to modem speeds.
• Re:Rate limiting. (Score:4, Interesting)
by petermgreen (876956) <plugwash AT p10link DOT net> on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @09:16PM (#15664149) Homepage
your going to have to go a lot lower than that to kill skype, standard PSTN voice channels use 64kbps GSM uses 14.4kbps and i bet some modern codecs can go even lower. It may still be feasible though.
it would also hurt file uploads and downloads over https (e.g. https based webmail apps) of course you may view that as a good thing and could possiblly avoid it by only limiting connections that had both sigificant upload and download (but then your increasing the complexity again).
• Hooray for Sneaky (Score:5, Insightful)
by saihung (19097) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:32PM (#15663945)
One important reason that Skype should be sneaky is so people using the software under corrupt/abusive regimes can continue to do so without easy interference on the part of the government. In comparison to your intranet's security, the security of dissidents wins.
• Anyone relying on the sneakiness of skype is in for a world of hurt. Skype traffic may be hard to detect automatically, but it is almost trivial to detect with a little human analysis.
• by TorKlingberg (599697) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:50PM (#15664031)
This is the natural response to to the unnecessary port-blocking that seems to be used everywhere now. Many places block every port except for the few you need for web surfing, so everything runs on port 80. It's sad because it negates the point of ports in the first place.
In the end, I think sysadmins need to learn that users aren't satisfied with only web surfing.
• by DoninIN (115418) <don.middendorf@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @10:26PM (#15664425) Homepage
Well... In what context? If the users on my corporate network aren't "satisfied" with just web surfing.. Is this some kind of problem? I mean hey, don't let me get in the way of their voice chatting, game playing IMing and P2P file sharing, 'cause hey we're just paying them to hang around the office for a few hours a day, not for actually accomplishing anything. Now in other contexts you may be correct, but for the most part I'm suspicious of my corporate users even using the web, much less anything else to connect to the internet, they need e-mail to do their jobs. Some of them need the web sometimes. We have a rather nice phone system. So why would they need skype?
• Maybe the only reason they need Skype (or any other "frivolous" application) is to ward off the depression that set in years ago that they were working for a company that would hire someone as short-sighted about humans as you to run their network?
No, seriously... treat your end-users like humans, not slaves. You have such a huge "us" vs "them" mentality going already, you're probably too far gone to realize that you're overhead.
If all your users REALLY need is e-mail and web browsers, I'm sure there's an
• Each person's immediate manager should be responsible for his productivity. The IT staff should not be the productivity police.
• At Tech-Ed last year I went to a security session by Jesper Johansson - He's Microrosoft's senior security strategy guy. He's very smart and an excellent presenter. Anyway, he called HTTP "UFTP".
After everyone wondered what he was talking about, he explained - Universal Firewall Transversal Protocol
• by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @08:50PM (#15664032)
...is another's ticket to freedom.
If Corporate firewalls can't block Skype, neither can China's.
• But hey, it makes me like using it all the more. I regularly used encrypted IM clients, or SSH tunnels to use instant messaging, now I'm extra stealthy and I didn't even know!
• I wish someone would make a peer-to-peer file sharing program that is just as hard to block.
• It's a bit harder then that. Whilst you could probably make a p2p program appear like skype does protocol wise, analysis of the traffic patterns of a skype conferance look very much like normal activity whereas a p2p program connects to many different hosts and generally hogs bandwidth and is therefore easier to spot.
• after all the wiretaps, phone bugs, analyzing phone records and whatever else the NSA has gone through, they find out the terrorists are using Skype to communicate?
• Newsflash! (Score:3, Funny)
by Progman3K (515744) on Wednesday July 05, 2006 @10:51PM (#15664535)
Companies are afraid of what their employees might say over a phone, what they might put in an envelope or carry out of the building.
• Companies are afraid of what their employees might say over a phone, ...
But I wonder: Of these companies that are trying to block Skype for security reasons, how many are also blocking outside phone calls? I've never seen a company do that.
I suspect that it's the old "There's a computer involved; we must throw out everything we know and relearn everything from scratch." I hope nobody tells them that their cell phones contain a computer. If they find out, they'll have to block cell phone access, too.
• Wrong focus (Score:5, Insightful)
by andrewman327 (635952) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @01:12AM (#15665066) Homepage Journal
If companies want to keep data safe, they need to worry more about their employees and less about obscure ways that said employees might be able to smuggle data out of the network. In my job I have access to files that should not leave the office. I know this, therefore I do not remove them from the office. However, I still have full access to everything on a specific database. If I really wanted to, just like any other employee, I could find a way to get the records out without using Skype. There are cases of credit company employees stealing personal info, and they did not need Skype to do it!
• I see many people saying that it is a good thing that it can not be blocked. Understand that you can also send files by skype.
So all I have to do is write a virus that uses skype to send a package with skype.
The other person gets the program with Skype. If you use something like LISA, you could even let it talk to the other person.
Filtering solution [grok.org.uk]
• Non-problem? (Score:2, Insightful)
by xenobyte (446878)
Excuse me, but I really can't see the problem. In every corporate setup I've ever seen all employees have a phone sitting on their desk. Almost all these phones are fully connected to the outside world, i.e. lines out are not restricted. It really doesn't matter which phone or communication device that are used - secrets will get out regardless if someone is bent on doing so, and Skype isn't anything special in that regard.
Sure monitoring is easier on wired phones but the main concern must be to contain sec
• by sentientbrendan (316150) on Thursday July 06, 2006 @04:22AM (#15665568)
to allow your peer to peer software to be blocked.
Really, I don't understand why more companies offering peer to peer software haven't made their traffic use common ports and do NAT piercing. I'm sure this will be a trend in the future.
The fact is that the current model of blocking all traffic until it is commonly used enough that it has to be let through causes some serious problems for uses and businesses marketing networked software. If administers must allow ranges of ports before software can be used, then it makes it difficult to bring software to market. Users are often prevented from using new software that administrators are unaware of.
Additionally, although blocking all incoming ports has obvious security benefits, blocking all outgoing ports except well known ports is pretty iffy. It's not like there aren't plenty of security vulnerabilities in client applications running on port 80... There's nothing about forcing users to keep all their traffic on port 80 that stops them from using an outdated version of internet explorer. Obviously if you think can force someone to use a recent version of some browser or another and no other, you are locking down their boxes entirely and blocking off peer to peer traffic etc, is a non issue.
Making it easy to rate limit certain kinds of traffic is an obvious reason for having traffic on seperate ports, but frankly I see no real benefit on rate limiting specific kinds of traffic over simply rate each ip address on the network.
Some network admins seem to think they can derive what software is critical for someone to use a priori. It may be the case that on some networks http is the only critical software used, but it is my impression that admins seem to assume that this is every network, when the reality is that most schools, workplaces, and public facilities have users who will need to access something like CVS, ftp, skype, aim on the spur of the moment, and their network will utterly fail them because their admins either didn't anticipate the need, or decided that it wasn't a "legitimate" use of the network (as if they could tell ahead of the time what purpose some protocol was going to be used for).
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All GPLed Code Removed From MonoDevelop 443
rysiek writes "A few days ago, Miguel de Icaza wrote on his blog that the whole of MonoDevelop is now 'free' of GPL-licensed code. 'MonoDevelop code is now LGPLv2 and MIT X11 licensed. We have removed all of the GPL code, allowing addins to use Apache, MS-PL code as well as allowing proprietary add-ins to be used with MonoDevelop (like RemObject's Oxygene).'"
All GPLed Code Removed From MonoDevelop
Comments Filter:
• by AlexBirch (1137019) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @11:34AM (#30544200) Homepage
To be fair, isn't GPL, yet that's the text editor / presentation software I use.
Are you going to stop that as well?
You'd be surprised at how many corporations are going with Sharepoint, it's the silent Apache HTTPD killer and yes, it uses .NET. That said, I've never heard of anyone using it with Mono.
.NET and C# are pretty amazing technologies, especially with LINQ and Lambda expresssions, couple that with IronPython and you have a cool system.
• by Nursie (632944) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @11:36AM (#30544230)
There's a huge difference between GPL tools (which we at HUGE_CORP I work for use lots of) and GPL code/components.
We use binaries only, source could potentially lead to allegations of copying. And we make sure not to use any GPL code or components in our products so that we don't need to open them.
But all-out avoid GPL? No way. We use linux as a dev platform (amongst others) and we use all sorts of FOSS tools with a huge variety of licenses in addition to some commercial stuff.
You'd be a fool to make avoiding the GPL some sort of mandate.
• by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24, 2009 @11:40AM (#30544260)
They are up to 3, and have a lot of 3.5 finished, but why let facts get in the way
• by Lumpy (12016) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @11:53AM (#30544380) Homepage
You mean the company you work for hates GPL. The last 5 I worked for, that includes fortune 100 companies like AT&T and Comcast, Loved the GPL and OSS. You should find companies that are nor run by undereducated management that is afraid of the GPL.
• Re:Use java instead (Score:3, Informative)
by Pecisk (688001) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:04PM (#30544470)
LGPL *is* free software.
• by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:11PM (#30544540)
Rumor is that he tried and failed.
• by miguel (7116) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:16PM (#30544588) Homepage
We removed the GPL code in MonoDevelop for a couple of reasons:
(a) to allow it to become a platform that third-party plugin and add-in developers can target.
(b) to allow us to consume open source code that would otherwise conflict with the GPL (MS-PL licensed code, Apache licensed code, and original BSD licensed code).
Notice that (a) is the norm for Eclipse and Visual Studio, and that the ecosystem of third party plugins relies on this, both Eclipse and Visual Studio would be severely limited if they limited the plugins to be all GPL licensed. As I explained on the blog post, there are current users that need to run their non-GPL code inside the IDE.
We want more third party developers to target MonoDevelop, and we want these third parties to consider MonoDevelop a platform that they can target without forcing a license on them. Similar to how the Linux operating system can run code licensed under any license.
The second reason is just a practical one. In the .NET open source ecosystem there are plenty of libraries and tools available under the MS-PL, Old and New BSD and Apache 2 licenses and we want to be in a position to use those libraries without rewriting it. We already do, and it has saved us a lot of time.
• Re:Use java instead (Score:0, Informative)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:27PM (#30544698)
This article was about the IDE, MonoDevelop. Do you refuse to use Eclipse for Java development because Eclipse is not GPL? Or are you just too dumb to understand what the article is talking about?
• Re:Richard Stallman (Score:1, Informative)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:29PM (#30544734)
You're welcome.
• by srh2o (442608) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:35PM (#30544790)
I keep hearing these kind of arguments but reality shows us that contrary to these claims that use of GPL code is growing. The fact is that companies are used to licensing code and complying with the GPL is trivial compared with many of the other licensing steps that the average company has to comply with.
• by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:46PM (#30544896)
Actually, if I need a portable app that runs on Linux and also on Windows/Mac, I just write stuff in C++ and Qt4.
The ultimate portability.
So my question is, whats the point?
• by shutdown -p now (807394) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:53PM (#30544952) Journal
It's not a rumor [].
• by jonbryce (703250) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:53PM (#30544960) Homepage
Sharepoint is an application that runs on IIS. IIS is what is replacing Apache here. Sharepoint replaces some of the content management systems you might run on Apache, whatever they might be.
• by gbjbaanb (229885) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:19PM (#30545210)
Yes, I am surprised at how many corporations are going with Sharepoint, yet its such a pile of w*** almost *everyone* at our corp thinks its pants (there are a few corporate yes-men lackeys who 'think' its good). Nobody can find anything on it, even adding search simply means we get thousands of hits for simple terms.
I can't understand why its spreading like an unfortunate rash at a sex party. Maybe the bosses will realise how bad it is and can it after it stops being used for a few months, but its always hanging in there, someone will post a document to it and suddenly its back to being a essential tool in everyday use.
• by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:26PM (#30545264)
Bullshit. By your logic, it's impossible to load proprietary binary modules in the GPLed Linux kernel. Linus specifically said [] he believes that kernel modules using only a limited, "public" subset of the kernel interfaces can sometimes be non-derived works, thus allowing some binary-only drivers and other LKMs that are not licensed under the GPL.
So you contend that the GPL won't allow proprietary plugins in a comparatively tiny project like MonoDevelop (and presumably that you couldn't possibly explicitly grant permission allowing them), but anyone with an Nvidia graphics card can run the closed source drivers under Linux.
Dude, seriously. Just give us the real reasons and let the chips fall where they may. Don't insult us with trivially refuted explanations and expect everyone to dance away happily amidst rainbows and unicorns.
• by shutdown -p now (807394) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:29PM (#30545302) Journal
That's the C++ API. Which is completely and utterly irrelevant if you are developing in Python rather than C++.
wxPython API has its own flaws, which are just as huge. For example, event handling via message maps [], which is directly ported from the C++ API (which in turn got it from the abomination that is MFC). I mean, seriously, this isn't idiomatic Python:
filemenu= wx.Menu()
filemenu.Append(ID_EXIT,"Exit", "Terminate the program")
wx.EVT_MENU(self, ID_EXIT, OnExit)
A numeric "ID_EXIT" in a supposedly object-oriented framework - WTF?
Meanwhile, in PyGTK, it's all just objects as it should be, with no manually defined numeric IDs:
file = gtk.Menu()
file_exit = gtk.MenuItem("Exit")
file_exit.connect("activate", OnExit)
And PyQt is even better:
file = QtGui.QMenu()
file_exit = QtGui.QMenuItem("Exit")
• by dghcasp (459766) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:42PM (#30545424)
The internet was basically built on the GPL, and most of the code that makes it go was built using the GPL
You mean built on things like TCP/IP (BSD 4-clause) and Unix (ATT License) that enabled communication between networks?
Or like sendmail (BSD Licensed) that facilitated adoption of email addresses, instead of the dominant mixed!bang!and!right%associative!email addresses and the X.400 C=US;A=IBMX400;P=EMAIL;G=firstname;S=lastname;O=engineering;OU=email;OU=internet-connectivity style of addresses?
Or like Usenet (various parts under various BSD licenses) that facilitated the exchange of information, software, and porn before the web even existed? The one that Linus posted his early Linux sources to?
Or like FTP (BSD license, and/or ATT License) that allowed archiving and known-distribution-points of software way before google made it easy to find things?
Or like web browsers (all derived, more or less from NCSA Mosaic) which was never open-source, but required paying license fees?
Or like web servers, like Apache, which had (has) a license that isn't GPL compatable?
Can you even name any important GPL software (other than emacs) that is in wide use, is important, and is non-derivitive of something already existing under a BSD or proprietatry license?
gcc: derivitive. Every company around provided c compilers.
linux: derivitive. Ever hear of Unix?
• Re:This makes sense (Score:1, Informative)
by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24, 2009 @02:10PM (#30545670)
The GPL is great for standalone applications but if you want to allow developers to make addons you really have to rethink it. Yes, it ensures that any addon made for the application will be free software however you have to consider the tradeoff; GPL it: everything is GLP'd, some companies/people won't develop or release addons;
Anybody who wants to write a non-free (as in speech) add-on for free (as in speech) software has failed to divine the reasoning for selecting the GNU GPL as the license for the original piece of software.
GPL software is shared in the community under terms that ensure equality for all end-users.
If somebody doesn't want to share, nobody is forcing them to do so.
However, we don't play this "I'll share but only under my terms" game; where said terms are slanted in favor of one party over another. (Usually slanted in favor of the person who wants to "share" with us.)
• by MasterOfMagic (151058) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @02:35PM (#30545926) Journal
Actually, they're just using the LGPL. If that bothers you, declare your copy to be GPL and follow the restrictions of the GPL, according to the LGPL:
ordinary GNU General Public License has appeared, then you can specify
these notices.
subsequent copies and derivative works made from that copy.
the Library into a program that is not a library.
• by Sax Maniac (88550) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @03:24PM (#30546268) Homepage Journal
Wha? Qt??!
You mean the toolkit that requires a goofy cfront-style precompiler and comes with their own string class? Sure, it uses templates, but it's hardly a shining star of modern C++.
• by miguel (7116) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @03:36PM (#30546338) Homepage
As the other poster said, the fact that we do not have 1:1 parity has never been a problem.
Some other technologies that are subsets and are wildly successful:
* Android's Java is not a 1:1 mapping to Java either, and that has not prevented it from being successful.
* iPhoneOS is not MacOS 1:1, and yet, it is incredibly successful.
* Chrome the browser, does not have every feature of Firefox, that did not stop it either.
* JBoss is a subset of the full J2EE stack, and for years it has been wildly successful.
* Linux for years was not even POSIX compliant, and yet, many of us jumped on it, and it became wildly successful.
In Mono we implement what makes sense, and what people are actually using in day to day applications, we do this using metrics that we obtain from our Mono Migration Analysis that helps us identify which APIs are used, by how many applications and we have collected this data from some 10,000 applications: []
Call this the data-driven prioritization of development.
Mono was born as a technology to bring the best that .NET had to offer to Linux, this was initially the c# language and the core libraries. As time went by, Mono evolved in two directions:
(a) Organica growth: as the Mono community grew, we identify missing features, we envisioned better ways of doing something and created tools, APIs, languages and extensions that mattered to us. In this category you can find things like Gtk#, Taglib#, Cairo#, Cecil, Mono.Options, Mono.Security, Mono.Data, Mono.Math, Mono.Management, Mono's C# REPL, Mono's SIMD extensions, Mono's large array support. Mono's dynamic JIT extensions, Mono's static compiler and much more.
For instance, today, more than 350 applications on the AppStore and 10 of the top 100 apps in there are built using Mono.
(b) Better compatibility with .NET: this is a simpler process than coming up with our own APIs. The .NET APIs are documented, there are thousands of applications to test the implementation against, the community is fed directly from the largest middleware stack in the world, so it made sense for us to implement these pieces.
Is it correct that we do not have a full implementation of .NET, there are a few reasons for this, now with numerals:
(i) Some APIs are Windows specific, and makes no sense to bring to Linux, in particular things like System.Management which is a thin wrapper around WMI. Our advise: replace that code with Linux and MacOS specific code and use one or the other at runtime.
(ii) Some APIs are too larger for us to take with our current community. This includes things like WPF and Workflow. If someone steps up, we will embrace them, but until that happens, we are focused on improving the other areas that have more users and that we have more requests to implement. Additionally, the WPF "lite" is a killer stack (also known as Silverlight).
(iii) Focus, we do not want to spread ourselves too thin.
As for .NET 4.0: we are not too far from having the core be 4.0 compliant, it is a nice upgrade to the solid 3.5 release. For instance, our C# compiler is already a full C# 4.0 compiler, and we already provide features that Microsoft wont offer until 5.0 (embeddable, reusable compiler, see C# REPL).
Moonlight is behind Silverlight, but I am not driven by despair, I am driven by the world of possibility. If I were driven by despair, I would not have written a single line of code.
If Silverlight never succeeds, then who cares how behind Moonlight is. But if Silverlight succeeds, and Linux users want to access that content, but the feature is either broken, not implemented or missing in Moonlight, those users will be in a position to contribute the code, and everyone wins.
• by steveha (103154) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @03:51PM (#30546468) Homepage
Please provide a link to the FSF claiming that the LGPL is "less free" than the GPL.
Are you trolling? They renamed LGPL from the "Library" GPL to the "Lesser" GPL, because they feel it is less free. It's baked right into the name that they feel it is less free.
But you asked for a link. Here you go:
Using the Lesser GPL for any particular library constitutes a retreat for free software. It means we partially abandon the attempt to defend the users' freedom, and some of the requirements to share what is built on top of GPL-covered software. In themselves, those are changes for the worse. []
Just in case that wasn't clear enough for you, let me rephrase it: according to this link, the LGPL does not protect users' freedom as well as the GPL. It does not maximize freedom as well as GPL. In short, it is less free, according to
Remember that GNU and FSF are all about the users' freedom. Freedom of any developer to make proprietary software is not viewed as a good thing. A license like GPL that restricts the ability of developers to make proprietary software is viewed as more free.
On the other hand, fans of the BSD license argue that it is "more free" because anyone may do anything with the software. GNU and FSF reject this idea.
• by Radhruin (875377) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @03:52PM (#30546480)
Actually, Mono is completely different from Wine, and not even Wine is an emulator. It's a native implementation of the CLR and other .NET tools that run on Linux/BSD/etc. If you want to compare it to something, compare it to the JDK.
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Comment Re:Cash and checks (Score 1) 117
Often, the rewards are paid out of the merchant's pocket, not even the credit card company or the bank that issued it. Merchants are charged a percentage ranging from about 1% to 4% on purchases. Rewards cards often take the highest percentages.
In effect, your "cash back" is paid by the person from whom you are purchasing merchandise/services. That results in higher prices, as merchants adjust pricing to meet their net profit needs.
It's correct that you, the account holder, are paying your own reward, but it's not so direct that it is paid out of interest+fees.
Comment Re:Retailers pay your visa rewards (Score 1) 732
The fee that is charged to merchants is called a "discount fee" because it typically is the amount "discounted" from the batch deposits into the merchant's bank account.
You may see articles that refer to the fees as 1-3% or so. Some cards have higher fees than others, and often even different transactions can have different fees even on the same card. Rewards cards have the highest fees, so yes, it is taken pretty much directly from the merchants. Your airmiles or whatnot are being paid to you by the people from whom you shop.
And the agreements with Visa/MC/AmEx state that a merchant can't refuse one Visa (or MC or AmEx) and accept a different Visa (or MC or AmEx). By accepting credit cards, the merchant has agreed to take it in the backside when a customer uses a rewards card.
It's nice for the CC companies because, like you, no one seems to realize that the merchants pay for the rewards.
Comment Re:Just use Postgresql (Score 1) 336
I have to start by saying I am not too familiar with MySQL Workbench. However, I have been using a tool called AquaData Studio which is a java-based (multi-platform) database management/development tool that interfaces with just about every database out there. It's not free, but for my work, it was well worth it.
Comment Re:A red state raising taxes!!??!!!??? (Score 1) 274
But isn't one of the primary goals of the "Fair"Tax to be more fair, where fairness here is defined to treat all equally regardless of status/race/etc? There necessarily has to be some shift in how much each group pays, since right now it's not "fair".
It's an appealing idea -- equal justice under the law translated to taxing. But if you believe a progressive taxing system is better, then of course you will think poorly of FairTax.
Comment Re:Simple solution (Score 1) 730
Abuse of tax deductions is a serious matter. However, it doesn't address the claim that 75% of homeowners would go bankrupt if the mortgage interest deduction were eliminated, and certainly someone with a $2M home should not go bankrupt by having to pay $25K more.
On a related note: I do think there are many misconceptions about tax breaks, especially the mortgage interest deduction. I think many folks mentally omit the "interest" part and think that you are deducting everything you pay on your mortgage, rather than the interest. As low as the IRS' audit rate is, I wonder how many people *do* deduct their entire house payment and get away with it...
Comment Re:Simple solution (Score 1) 730
That said, in the interest of kindness (which is different from "fairness"), I probably wouldn't object to a tax break for people whom taxes would bring below a "living wage" or something like that.
It is unfortunate that the folks who make such decisions about what a living wage is, or who is or is not currently making it will tend to select the group who needs the tax break to be just large enough to get themselves re-elected...
Comment Re:Simple solution (Score 1) 730
How much does the mortgage interest deduction really save people? Using one of the various mortgage calculators out there, I stuck in a $200,000 loan at 5% for 30 years. In the first year, the interest is about $10,000. So you would get to deduct that from your gross income, and do the other things to get your taxable income. If your tax rate is 25% (Seems reasonable for a $200k home), you save $2,500.
Does $2,500 "more" taxes in a year bankrupt so many people? And that's the most that a person with a $200,000 home would change. Each year after that, less interest is paid.
If I'm going to go bankrupt over $210/month, I bet I can cancel cable TV and go with a pre-pay phone, etc. to avoid going bankrupt. If that won't save me, then it wasn't the mortgage interest deduction that was the savior.
| dclm-gs1-103140000 |
Eleri's Tealog Eleri's tealog on Steepster http://steepster.com/ Cherry Cordial from Culinary Teas I wasn't crazy about it, to be honest. The first thing I noticed when I opened the bag was a medicinal smell, like cherry cough syrup. That was followed up with a medicinal taste when I brewed it. It didn't remind me of chocolate-covered cherries at all. Maraschino cherries don't taste like Tylenol. I tasted a little chocolatiness, but it wasn't very pleasant when combined with that fake cherry flavor. I'm glad I only bought a sample and not a 4 oz. bag. I wasn't impressed. If I want to taste a cherry cordial, I'll eat one. This tea doesn't measure up. Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:57:30 -0400 /teas/Cherry%20Cordial/8487-cherry-cordial?note=162811 | dclm-gs1-103170000 |
Daughter calls for national holiday to mark Mabo decision
14 November 2012
June 3 should be declared a public holiday in honour of Eddie Mabo, according to his daughter, Gail.
"On June 3, 20 years ago, he changed history and that is something to be celebrated," Gail Mabo said in delivering the 2012 Charles Perkins Oration at the University on October 25. "The Americans have Martin Luther King Day. Why can't we have Eddie Mabo Day?" she continued, to an enthusiastic audience in the Great Hall.
The Mabo decision by the High Court, made in 1992 after 10 years of struggle led by Eddie Mabo, rejected the doctrine of terra nullius and recognised the common law concept of native title, giving the Meriam people of Murray Island legal possession of their traditional lands.
"My father was a very powerful man. Short in stature but big in voice. He was a man who could speak to everyone, a man who could command a room," Gail Mabo told the audience.
"He forced a way for others to come through. But he said 'I am just laying a stone'. Yet the recognising of prior ownership allows us to move forward. He made us realise that people are not all the same ... and that not all indigenous people are the same."
Gail Mabo said that when she was growing up, her father stressed the importance of words and speech to her. "We have to learn to articulate out words," he told me, because he could not speak very well. English was his second language."
Gail was one of two speakers at this year's oration. She was followed by Brian Keon-Cohen AM QC, who was junior counsel for the plaintiffs throughout the Mabo litigation.
Brian began his address, about the complexity and conflict of the case, with an age-old question: "Did history make the man or did the man make history? Being a conservative lawyer, I think it is a mix of both."
He added that despite the historic nature and principle recognized by the Mabo judgement, it has not yet delivered great benefits to Aboriginal people because of problems within the Native Title Act.
The Dr Charles Perkins AO Memorial Oration was launched in 2001 in collaboration with the University's Koori Centre, and each year features an oration by a leading figure within the field of Indigenous and non-Indigenous race relations.
Established with the full support of the Perkins family, the oration acknowledges Dr Perkins' tireless dedication to human rights and social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. | dclm-gs1-103180000 |
Monday, April 14, 2008
Canada Continues Crackdown on Terrorism
Focusing this time on the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) terrorist group.
Behind the scenes, out of the public eye...
The counterterrorists are quietly looking for the enemy amongst us, gathering evidence via careful investigation and, when least expected, descend upon them.
...I'd suggest to other terrorist-supporting organizations that they might as well cease and desist and go away, lest they, too, be similarly "inconvenienced". Canada doesn't want terrorists or terrorist supporters carrying on subversive crap within her borders and is diligently keeping her eye on all who would dare masquerade as charities and businesses for the purpose of laundering funds to dangerous extremist groups such as terrorist organizations.
Crying the wolf of "racial profiling" is old already and isn't going to work anymore. We know that there's no "racial profiling" going on, for it's never been proven to happen. Besides, if it was happening, it'd be plainly obvious, as happens in such regimes as China, Iran, Saudi Arabia... all regimes connected to the facilitation of terrorism, racism, murder, genocide... | dclm-gs1-103190000 |
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Project dropped, heres the resource folder.
In addition to dropping Black Shadow 3d(contains resource files as well) I decided to drop this project too. I'll be focusing what little time I have on a new project code named OCD using the Duke3d, also a Total Conversion, but with a sci-fi theme.
Here is the complete resource folder for The Crawl that was being developed in Evaldraw at the time.
I also have several versions made using Game Maker 6.1 which can be given or posted on request. That version was just handling maps and some environmental effects. First versions of the project generated polygons and simply used Direct 3d while a later version used a 3d plugin form GM 6.1 which I'm unsure if its still supported.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Future thoughts, new methods.
Lately I've been devoting my free time to work on my conversion of Black Shadow into a 3d voxel based game using the Build engine, or more specificly Eduke32. The rendering method is still the original one though done by Ken.
Now working with build, I think the greatest revelation is been working with palettes and the CON scripting. Its given be a bunch of possibly ideas for creating the engine for The Crawl once I finish Black Shadow.
I've learned quite a few things on how the build engine operates and handles actors, counting, and frame animations which can prove very useful in creating the engine for TC.
Currently the method I used to create the AI in previous demos left much to be desired in terms of flexibility. However I got some experiencing working with A* pathfinding that also gave me some good ideas. I may never actually use it and do something similar though.
Getting to the point, I'm not actually considering a scripting system for this, but a detailed editor and just saving the data as numbers to save space and memory. I'll be basing it off how Ken developed the build script, just using byte data.
Another thing is I'll be planning to used a fixed palette like in 8bit, however the game would still operate in 16/32bit screen modes. The idea would be, like the build engine, have a fixed palette so shading and color blending calculations are reduced to look-ups. However instead of having a 256 color limit, it would be 1024, although I haven't decided on the amount of shade variations it should have. I believe build used 8 points per shade, I could use 4 for smoother transition.
Anyway this is all speculations, but working with the Build engine has given me a good amount of ideas on what direction to take when creating The Crawl's engine and editing system. I'd like to make the engine pretty flexible. If possible I'd like to eventually create it all in GLBasic, but getting voxel rendering at the level of Build or Evaldraw in opengl is a challange. Maybe theres something I can learn from the build source instead of working with evaldraw or voxlap. The benefit of using Glbasic is portability, as in I could have it accessibly to Linux, Mac, Mobile as well as windows systems.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Things on hold, what may planned in the future.
So it looks like this project will be on hold for a little while as I've gone into full speed developement of creating another voxel based project. I'll be created a 3d version of my Black Shadow game. Details will be posted on a new blog.
What does that mean for this project? Well there were a number of setbacks from the beginning. Although Evaldraw is perfect rendering wise, it's limited and wouldn't not make a very flexible engine to create this project. This left me with two choices, use Voxlap or create my own rendering.
The latter is a challange in itself and I've attempted a few goes, but nothing close to being quick enough.
I had limited time to work on figuring out Voxlap's source code, but that may be a route I'll take in the future.
Another programmer was working on a voxel display engine, has started work on a GLBasic compatible DLL, but haven't heard any future results. Last I saw it was displaying voxels, but it too had limits that would be too much for this project.
So in the mean time I'll still work on my Strip2Vox program for creating models for my voxel projects and plan on doing a Voxel To Poly for polygon alternatives.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Doom, or do it yourself.
It seems that voxels are starting to become a little more popular among the indie crowd, as I've seen some new activity in the creation of voxel engines and displays.
Lately I've been in contact with one such coder working on a voxel engine. However it's more suited towards a different style of games instead of a FPS. The limitations of sprite sizes will prevent me from being able to use it at its current state. However I proposed to do a future project with it, geared towards a NES style to it, most likely adapting one of my other projects to the style...
There are some new options for progressing this project from it's current slumber. Although I had iffy success getting the basics of Voxlap to work, and Evaldraw being not the ideal for creating a game such as this, I found that ZDoom has recently added a branch off project that supports voxel rendering.
What caught my attention was sample shots that some had of a wall and floor tile from Doom converted into a voxel object. So I may be able to get what I need from it's open source code to figure out my own voxel sprite system.
My other choices are to go back to Voxlap, create my own voxel rendering system or find someone to create a basic voxel drawing chunk that I can incoorperate into my project from the Zdoom voxel project.
When I think about it, I may be stuck with trying to figure my own method of rendering...but time will tell.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
New directions = new engine?
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
The Crawl RPG, game details continued, Kingdoms and climates.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Using old world map.
Here are three version of the map.
Here is the basic map.
| dclm-gs1-103200000 |
Cal Thomas
While critics of these mostly anti-religious rulings are right in scolding the court for its misinterpretation of the Constitution, are such persons also in violation of the will of the very God they claim to represent? Why, in fact, do such people feel the need for public displays representing what they believe? Isn't this a kind of false security, similar to airport security screeners?
Religious activists fool themselves if they believe public displays of the Ten Commandments reflect a more moral and less corrupt nation. One needs only to watch television to discern the level of our depravity.
God dismissed the visible sacrifices of the ancient Israelites when those sacrifices became rituals. In their hearts and behavior, they worshipped false gods. Their actions did not match their doctrines. Do those advocating for more public displays of religion privately practice what they publicly preach? If they did, the influence of their proclaimed righteousness might reach all the way to the Supreme Court. Whether it did, or not, it would reach all the way to their God.
In his teaching about prayer, Jesus said something instructive for those who advocate public religiosity: "When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men . when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:5)
Are there expectations in the Bible that God needs the state to promote himself and that such promotion should be visible? That's not the teaching of the Scriptures that advocates of public religion claim to believe.
Cal Thomas
| dclm-gs1-103210000 |
Jeff Jacoby
If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for Satan!" Keller raged. "There is no excuse, no justification for supporting and voting for a man who will be used by Satan to lead the souls of millions into the eternal flames of hell!".
"I honestly don't care if Mitt Romney wears Mormon undergarments beneath his Gap skinny jeans," the executive editor of The New York Times wrote in a smug essay for the Sunday magazine, "or if he believes that the stories of ancient American prophets were engraved on gold tablets and buried in upstate New York, or that Mormonism's founding prophet practiced polygamy. . . . Every faith has its baggage, and every faith holds beliefs that will seem bizarre to outsiders."
Yet demeaning someone else's faith can take forms other than calling it satanic. Keller the Times editor argues that presidential hopefuls should be asked "tougher questions about faith," since their religious views may be relevant to how they would perform in office. Yet from his mocking opening line -- "If a candidate for president said he believed that space aliens dwell among us, would that affect your willingness to vote for him?" -- to his sniggering reference to "Mormon undergarments," Keller suggests that he is less interested in seriously understanding how religion influences the candidates' political views than in caricaturing and sneering at the faith of the conservatives in the 2012 field.
It is time to stop being so "squeamish" about "aggressively" digging into politicians' religious convictions, Keller writes. He advises journalists to "get over" any "scruples" they may have "about the privacy of faith in public life." Republican public life, that is -- specifically the "large number" of GOP candidates who belong to churches that many Americans find "mysterious or suspect."
It isn't only Romney's Mormonism that makes Keller twitchy. He frets that Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are "affiliated with fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity" and that Rick Santorum "comes out of the most conservative wing of Catholicism." He has "concerns about their respect for the separation of church and state, not to mention the separation of fact and fiction." Above all, he wants to know "if a candidate places fealty to the Bible, the Book of Mormon . . . or some other authority higher than the Constitution and laws of this country."
Liberal elites like Keller are haunted by the specter of right-wing theocracy. When they see Christian conservatives on the campaign trail, they envision inquisitions and witch hunts and the suppression of liberty. They dread the prospect of a president respecting any "authority higher than the Constitution," and regard ardent religious faith as the equivalent of belief in space aliens. "I do care," says Keller, "if religious doctrine becomes an excuse to exclude my fellow citizens from the rights and protections our country promises."
Of course religion can be abused and religious belief turned to evil purposes. Yet far from threatening "the rights and protections" of America's people, religious faith has been among their greatest safeguard. Far from disavowing any book or authority "higher than the Constitution," our presidents place their hand on a Bible and swear to uphold that Constitution -- "so help me God." We have had our religious villains. But vastly more influential have been the American champions of liberty and equality -- from Adams to Lincoln to King -- who appealed to God and the Judeo-Christian moral tradition for the rightness of their cause.
For good reason, the Constitution bans any religious test to hold public office in the United States. No one need be Christian to run for president. But neither should being Christian -- even an enthusiastic Christian -- be treated as a kind of presidential disqualification. "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity," George Washington avowed in his Farewell Address, "religion and morality are indispensable supports." The sweep of American history bears out the wisdom in his words.
Jeff Jacoby
| dclm-gs1-103220000 |
One solution against a HeavilyArmoredMook is to use an AntiArmor attack or ability to easily defeat them. Unlike ArmorPiercingAttack, this does not just bypass defenses, but it does more damage to units than if they ''weren't'' armored and [[CripplingOverspecialization are most likely impractical against anything else]]. In other words, where armor is normally an advantage, AntiArmor makes it into a disadvantage. There is some TruthInTelevision to this: RealLife armour-piercing rounds have a tendency to overpenetrate and thus deal less damage to unarmoured targets.
Examples include:
* Concussive shock wave that slams the subject around inside the armor instead of him simply being thrown back
* Being cooked alive inside heat-insulating carapace armor by [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrowers]].
* Removing the armor off the Mook, ClothingDamage, or using TheNudifier.
* Striking at the gaps in the armor, usually after jumping on or swarming around the Mook.
* Using ElementalPowers such as SelectiveMagnetism and ExtraOreDinary to manipulate the armor.
Typically involves StuffBlowingUp. SubTrope of WeaponOfXSlaying. See also ArmorIsUseless. Compare AntiAir, AntiInfantry, AntiVehicle, and AntiCavalry.
[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has heavy weapons like lascannons and missile launchers that hit hard enough to damage the heaviest of targets, as well as weapon types with special properties that make them particularly powerful against armored foes:
** Melta weapons, either guns or bombs, are short-ranged but intensely hot and are doubly-effective at penetrating a vehicle's armor.
** [[SpaceElves Eldar]] "lance" weapons, such as the [[GoodWeaponEvilWeapon Bright lance or Dark lance]], aren't quite as powerful as a conventional lascannon, but are so efficient that they make enemy armor above a certain thickness redundant. This means that lances have an easier time piercing the heaviest of enemy tanks, but aren't quite as lethal against light vehicles.
** Graviton weapons are ideal for taking down infantry in PoweredArmor, as they increase the target area's gravitational field so that affected foes are crushed by their own equipment - the heavier the armor they're wearing, the more liable they are to suffer fatal damage.
* ''Franchise/{{BIONICLE}}'': the ElementalPowers [[SelectiveMagnetism Magnetism]] and [[ExtraOreDinary Iron]] are effective against armor. For this reason, the Brotherhood of Makuta closely monitor Matoran of those elements, as all Makuta, except Miserix, are AnimatedArmor.
[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'': There are a few infantry units which by unit-type are much tougher than other infantry units. Universally, the way to get through that are tank rounds or [[KillItWithFire flamethrowers]].
* ''Franchise/FireEmblem'': [[CoolSword Armorslayers]], [[BladeOnAStick Heavy Spears]], and [[DropTheHammer Ham]][[AnAxeToGrind mers]] are effective against armored enemies, as are [[RoyalRapier Rapiers]] and other such [[HeroUnit Lord]]-exclusive weapons.
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'': Units noted as being efficient against vehicles will do less damage against unarmored targets (though they may be able to cause {{Knockback}}).
* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series, the plasma pistol is considered one of the most useless weapons in multiplayer and the campaign unless you hold down the trigger to make a charged shot. If this charged shot hits the target, whether it's an alien or a Spartan, it will completely drain their protective [[DeflectorShields energy shields]], leaving them open to headshots from ballistic weapons. It will also disable the engine, though not the weapons, of any vehicle it hits.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} III'': the Fortified armor type is weakest against Siege attacks and resistant to all others. Heavy armor type (mostly having more innate armour value than other unit types) has no weakness except for Magic attacks.
* ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft II}}'': a variety of units have attacks that have a base damage and bonus damage versus certain armor class or other qualifiers like biological. Things that have bonuses against armored targets include the Protoss Stalkers and Immortals, the Terran Siege tanks and Marauders.
* ''VideoGame/WorldInConflict'' has Anti-Tank soldiers than can help crack buildings and land vehicles. They are liabilities against almost everything else, lacking a machine-gun like the Rifleman squad against infantry and being unable to attack air units.
* In ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'', lancers are soldiers carrying rocket launchers, which are so heavy that slows them, making them unpractical against other soldiers. However, they're the most useful units against tanks and other armored enemies.
* In the later ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' games, units can be given promotions that grant them an attack bonus against enemy armored units. Late-game units like the Anti-Tank Gun and Helicopter Gunship are dedicated anti-armor units, and have a 100% bonus against tnaks.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', Garrus has [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Armor Piercing Ammo]]. Also, there are some attacks (Incinerate, Carnage) that qualify for this.
* ''VideoGame/EpicBattleFantasy 3'': the Tera Drill skill does more damage the more buffed the defense of the target.
* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series has no straight examples, but the Dark-type strike "Punishment" inflicts greater damage in direct proportion to the number of {{Status Buff}}s the opponent has on them, including Defense and Special Defense.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'': the German Tank Destroyer is useful against tanks, but too speicalized for anything else.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} 2'' and ''Marathon Infinity'', the Zeus-Class Fusion Gun does extra damage against armored Pfhor, and they explode when killed with it. Described in-game as an upgraded model of the Mercury-Class Fusion Gun from ''Marathon 1'', specifically made to short-circuit the Pfhor hardware.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has a mechanic that fit this trope: the game's defences include armour and magic resistance for physical and magical damage respectively. The counters to it include flat and percentage reduction and penetration stats for both of the defences. As flat directly subtracts of the target's defences and commonly the most players will manage to get of flat armour and magic penetration is around 50 (possibly reducing armour by another 45 by an item and magic resistance by another 20 from an item) while armour and magic resistance on a player can easily rise above 200+ and 150+ if they build for it, flat penetration is better against targets with little to no defences, while the percentage armour and magic penetration items (which ignores 40% of your target's defence respective to the item) are AntiArmor that is more effective against targets which have more defences and less against those which have less. True damage also ignores your target's armour and magic resistance entirely, but is countered by (aside from a few examples) being a flat value that can be overcome by having more health instead. ''Annnnd'' high health can be countered by effects which cause attacks to do damage based off a percentage of the target's health, found in an item... the percentage being inefficient against targets which have a smaller health pool anyway.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the shotgun can fire sabot rounds, which are far more effective against bots than buckshot; but buckshot is better against soft targets. That's besides the more explosive means of dealing with bots, like rockets or grenades.
* ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline'' has the Ice Pick, a dagger-type weapon which not only completely bypasses an opponent's armor, but also does more damage the more heavily armored the opponent is.
** The Monk's Occult Impaction skill likewise deals higher damage to targets with high defense.
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'': The Magnet-shroom can steal metal objects that would raise the defense of certain zombies.
* ''VideoGame/DoubleOhSevenFromRussiaWithLove'' has the occasional HeavilyArmoredMook armed with a heavy machine gun. Bond's solution is to [[ImprobableAimingSkills shoot off the straps holding the mook's armor on]].
* The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series has [[RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth Regenerating Shields and Static Hull Integrity]]. Most weapons in the series do more damage to shields than armor since that's where most of most ships' {{hit point}}s are, but the [[ProudMerchantRace Teladi]]-designed Gauss cannon fares better against armor than any other weapon in the game. This becomes important in ''X3: Albion Prelude'' since every ship in the game received a major buff to armor.
* The aptly-named Armor Breaker Auto-Ability in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2'' is this. Available only to Feral Pack Monsters in Commando role (most notably Chichu), the Ability increases the wielder's strength if the target's physical resistance is "Halved" or "Resistant". The boost is such that killing a target with such resistance can be done faster than against a target that does not have any resistance at all.
* The 3D ''[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Legend of Zelda]]'' games require Link to remove the armor from [[BossInMookClothing Darknuts]] before he can kill them. For example, ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' forces him to remove the breastplate by getting behind the Darknut and slashing the straps, which can be done either with stealth or a parry attack, and the helmet requires a parry attack or the head.
* Gelyan's Armor Crusher in the flash turn-based strategy ''VideoGame/GeNeSis''. The higher the opponent's defense is, the more damage it deals.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games, most weapons with "pulse" in their name (pulse grenade, pulse gun) do little or no damage to most organic target but tremendous damage to robots and/or people wearing PowerArmor.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 2}}'', most attacks have their damaged decreased if their armor penetration is lower than the enemy's armor level, but energy weapons work the other way: they do ''more'' damage the higher the enemy's armor value is. The reasoning given behind this is that more armor means more metal, so more of the weapon's energy is absorbed by the target.
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': the Equalists use shock gloves to get around the armor of the [[ExtraOreDinary metalbending]] police. Their [[MiniMecha Mecha-Tanks]] also sweep them up and hold them in place with giant magnets.
[[folder:Real Life]]
* Jujitsu was invented in Japan so that samurai could fight with other heavily armored opponents in melee combat. The idea was that since melee weapons would be ineffective against armored opponents, the martial art used techniques that turns the opponents own weight against himself, and also used techniques that involved manipulation of locking techniques and pressure points to force the opponent into submission.
* Some anti-tank weapons don't penetrate armour but in instead rely on 'spalling', hitting the target hard enough to make pieces of the interior fly around and kill the crew. Most modern tanks are designed to prevent this though.
* Armor-piercing shells from the big-gun warship era during the first half of the 20th century qualify. The same projectile that's designed to punch through an opposing battleship's armor and go off inside might just as easily go all the way ''through'' a comparative "tin can" like a destroyer without so much as triggering its fuse. It would also have less explosive filler than a non-AP high explosive round, making it less useful for general bombardment purposes.
* The venerable [[ anti-tank rifle]] was born out of a need for weapons which would enable lightly-equipped infantry to take out attacking tanks on their own. Prior to their proliferation such units would have had to count on indirect artillery fire, which might be unavailable if the enemy had artillery superiority, or 'direct' artillery fire from a 'small' artillery piece that the infantry would have to lug around with them (disassembled or no). Most of them were developed just after WWI and some saw service during WWII, but against the much heavier armor of mid-late war tanks most were only effective at the worryingly short range of 50m ''or less''. Virtually all of them were out of service in their intended roles by the end of WWII, but some saw use as the first generation of [[ anti-materiel rifles]].
* A variety of weapons existed in the pre-gunpowder age for dealing with armor-clad soldiers and knights. Many of them were various types of [[DropTheHammer hammers]], which might have a head with a blunt end to bludgeon an opponent senseless with, and a spiked end to pierce through the armor once the enemy was on the ground. | dclm-gs1-103230000 |
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My saved-messages and sent-mail "folders" (actually Unix MBX files) are huge because of attachments, most of which I've saved to disk anyway.
I want to keep the messages, but replace the attachment w/ a text file saying "Attachment removed: /full/path/to/attach.txt".
How do I do this?
I'm using Alpine, but any tool that does this for Unix MBX is fine. Alpine does let me delete attachments from emails, but I can't replace them w/ a text file. Notes:
• I realize I can save the message to a file and edit the file using emacs, but that's kludgey and probably messes up "Content-Length" headers and stuff.
• I also realize I can forward the message, with headers, to myself after removing the attachment. Again, kludgey.
• I don't think Alpine lets me add attachments to stored mail (unless I want to send it somewhere [which messes up headers]), so I can't delete the big attachment and add a smaller one.
• I realize I could write a Perl script to do this, but hoping for an existing well-tested solution.
share|improve this question
Wow, you must be the other person in the universe that understands that email isn't a filesystem! – pboin Mar 25 '11 at 16:56
@pboin Unless, of course, you use M$ Outlook :( ... actually, some Unix mail programs use the Maildir/ format, where each message is a file, and mail folder is really a directory. – barrycarter Mar 25 '11 at 17:10
@forcefsck I know I can patch Alpine to use maildir but really don't want to. Plus, I still don't think that solves my problem. – barrycarter Mar 25 '11 at 17:15
2 Answers 2
OK, I poked aorund, and when Alpine "deletes" an attachment, it actually replaces it with something like:
X-Content-Type: image/jpeg
X-Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-ID: <>
[ The following attachment was DELETED when this message was saved: ]
[ A Image/JPEG segment of about 93,336 bytes. ]
I can then use emacs to edit this message (and it doesn't mess up any Content-Length headers or anything)
share|improve this answer
I use Thunderbird/icedove with the AttachmentExtractor add-on for this.
share|improve this answer
Your Answer
| dclm-gs1-103240000 |
Cherokee Phoenix logo
Cherokee Phoenix
Thursday, March 6, 1828
Vol. I, No. 3
Page 2, col. 5b
Mr. Penn, when he first arrived in Pennsylvania, in the year 1683, and made a treaty with them, makes the following observations, in a letter he then wrote to his friends in England. "Every king has his council, and that consists of all the old and wise men of his nation, which perhaps are two hundred people. Nothing of moment is undertaken, be it war, peace, selling of land, or traffic, without advising with them. 'Tis admirable to consider how powerful the chiefs are, and yet how they move by the breath of the people. I have had occasion to be in council with them upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade. Their order is thus; the king sits in the middle of an half moon, and hath his council, the old and the wise on each hand. Behind them, at a little distance, sit the young fry, in the same figure. Having consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to speak to me. He came to me, and in the name of his king, saluted me. Then took me by the hand, and told me that he was ordered by his king to speak to me; and that now it was not he, but the king who spoke, because what he should say was the king's mind. During the time this person was speaking, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile. The old were grave-the young reverend in their deportment. They spoke little, but fervently and with elegance. He will deserve the name of wise, who out-wits them in any treaty about a thing they understand. At every sentence they shout, and say amen, is their way."
Mr. Smith, in his history of N. Jersey, confirms this general statement. "They are grave even to sadness, upon any common, and more so upon serious occasions-observant of those in company, and respectful to the aged-of a temper cool and deliberate-never in haste to speak, but wait, for a certainty, that the person who spake before them had finished all he had to say. They seemed to hold European vivacity in contempt, because they found such as came among them, apt to interrupt each other, and frequently speak altogether.- Their behavior in public councils was strictly decent and instructive. Everyone in his turn was heard, according to rank of years or wisdom, or services to his country. Not a word, whisper or murmur, was heard while anyone spoke; no interruptions to commend or condemn: the younger sort were totally silent. Those denominated kings, were sachems distinguished by their wisdom and good conduct. The respect paid them was voluntary, and not exacted or looked for, not the omission regarded. The sachems directed in their councils, and had the chief disposition of their lands." | dclm-gs1-103260000 |
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Police disable 'Pepsi' machine that dispensed beer in Northeast
Photo: Jennifer Donelan/WJLA
It looked like a soda machine in front of an apartment building in Northeast D.C., but police say it wasn't as advertised.
The Pepsi machine on Meigs Place in Trinidad dispensed cans of beer for $3. When a neighbor alerted police, they checked and discovered the working beer dispensary.
If you put in your money, you could buy a Bud Light, Bud Ice or a can of the original Schlitz Malt Liquor.
Anyone, no matter their age, could buy if they had the knowledge and the money. It's still unknown as to who owned and operated the machine, who stocked it and who collected the money.
Vanessa Sowells, a local landlord, said she complained to the city for months. Later, after another resident alerted officers to kids who were buying beers, a sergeant tested the machine Tuesday night..
When a large can of beer popped out, he disabled the machine. It took six Department of Public Works workers to remove it.
"I knew it was beer because I saw big people going over there and then I saw little people over there, too," Sowells says. | dclm-gs1-103270000 |
If you’ve ever been to an ocean, you’ve probably seen sand dollars on the beach or in souvenir shops. You may have even seen live sand dollars moving around on the sandy ocean floor. But what exactly are these creatures?
Sand dollars — sometimes called sea cookies, snapper biscuits, sand cakes, cake urchins or pansy shells — are species of flat, burrowing echinoids that belong to the order Clypeasteroida. Sand dollars are related to sea urchins, sea cucumbers and starfish.
When sand dollars are alive, they live in shallow coastal waters along the sandy ocean floor. Unlike the white color of dead sand dollars, live sand dollars are usually green, purple or blue. Some people think live sand dollars look like fuzzy cookies!
Live sand dollars are covered with a dense, velvety layer of short spines and tubular feet. They use these spines and tubular feet to burrow into the sand and move around.
You may have noticed that sand dollar skeletons feature a pattern that looks like a flower. This pattern is where the live sand dollar’s tubular feet are located. In addition to helping the sand dollar move, these tubular feet also help direct food found on the ocean floor to the sand dollar’s mouth.
Wonder What's Next?
We might need some help with tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day. Can you lend us a hand? | dclm-gs1-103280000 |
'3D Studio MAX'
'The Making Of Porsche '
by Karabo Legwaila
Cut in the green edges and adjust vertices to round off the top of the light. Chamfer the red edges by about 0.7 or so.
You have to adjust the light so that it curves with the body of the car. Add an "FFD 4x4x4" modifier to the geometry. This creates a lattice around the object. You can use the lattice to adjust the shape of the object. Expand the lattice sub-objects and select "Control Points." Now as you move the control points, the geometry will change shape. Use the control points to adjust the shape of the geometry so that it lies perfectly on the car geometry. The reason I chose to use a lattice for this is because it's a lot easier than than moving vertices and also, if you mess it up or you don't like what it looks like, you can hit the reset button and it will revert the way it was so you can try again.
When you get it looking the way you want it, collapse the stack and then select the polys shown and delete them. Hide the detached polys, leaving just the base for the light.
Select the polys shown in light blue and extrude them inwards. Chamfer the blue edges. Now unhide the geometry you just hid and put a "Shell" modifier on it then chamfer the edges.
Modelling the Car
Making the Accessories
Page 15
Making the Interior
Modelling the Wheels
3D Total Homepage | dclm-gs1-103300000 |
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Man who killed and dismembered ex gets life without chance of parole for 18 years
“It may well be that his mother assisted him,” despite the Crown’s position that Jiang was the sole perpetrator, she said.
“Nothing in the sentence can bring Ms. Liu back,” Miller told the court. Rather, the ruling “is meant to express the community’s repugnance for this conduct.”
That Liu was killed in a “brutal attack” by a former boyfriend is considered an aggravating factor, the judge said, as are Jiang’s efforts to cover his tracks by destroying evidence and desecrating her body.
However, the judge dismissed the Crown’s argument that the attack showed “elements of planning,” which would justify a longer period of parole ineligibility.
During his trial, Jiang pinned the murder on his mother, testifying the 66-year-old woman stabbed and dismembered Liu in a fit of rage over allegedly stolen jewelry. He admitted to helping her dispose of Liu’s remains and cover up the crime.
His mother died of natural causes shortly after his arrest.
Asked outside court whether her client would appeal, Wells would only say that Jiang “is considering his options.”
“This was an attack that was prolonged, it was persistent, it was savage, it was heartless and it was cowardly,” he said.
| dclm-gs1-103310000 |
1. Agriculture tariffs to fall under TPP
TPP to cut agricultural tariffs across the board, but US sugar protections remain
2. Joyce visits Jakarta to argue for greater certainty for cattle farmers
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce is visiting Jakarta today to argue for greater surety for Australian cattle farmers and Indonesian consumers.
1. Better date pollination
2. The true free range story
3. Tackling rural mental health
CBH and Black Dog Institute take a different approach to farming mental health help
4. Mangoes slow down
Unusual weather splits the mango harvest in the NT, reducing supply and affecting prices to consumers.
5. 'Godzilla El Nino' on the way
6. Seaweed harvest opposition
Limestone Coast residents says no to Chinese seaweed harvest expansion, but PIRSA says they need evidence.
7. Cherry industry blossoms
8. Droning out pests
Rural Life
1. Kangaroo Island gin venture
2. CWA embraces bake revival
The SA Country Women's Association celebrates interest from younger women.
3. Nuffield to study spraying
4. 150 sheep in stampede
5. Challenges in pub game
6. Pigs on Twitter
7. Youth take over spring show
8. Aboriginal control the land
Best Rural Photos
Best of abc.net.au
The true free range story
Free-range egg producer Lachie Green says cage-free systems are not as picture perfect as consumers might think.
More - ABC Rural
World Beard Championships
Over 300 bearded gentlemen from 20 countries have competed in the World Beard Championships in Austria.
More - ABC News
Six habits for a happy life
How easy is it to just be happy? A Tibetan Buddhist Master shares his recipe for a happy life.
More - Australia Plus
The significance of 'big' icons
Big monuments are often sources of both pride and embarrassment for Australia's regional communities.
More - Blueprint for Living | dclm-gs1-103320000 |
Bard Challenge #24
Small (250 words)
Word Prompt: Elf
An original story
Santa's Little Helpers
by Wildcat Winnie
On her eleventh birthday Lily wept with joy and trepidation. This winter, she and all other eleven-year-olds everywhere would be taken from their homes to work in Santa's factory. It was, she had been told, a privilege; but some who had returned, although sworn to secrecy, had told different. It was hard work, long hours and Santa's overseers were very strict. If you made a mistake (the wrong label on the wrong present!) punishment was harsh. At night, many exhausted children cried themselves to sleep.
It had not always been this way. A long time ago, when the world was less knowing and there were far fewer 'things' to be had, children's requests had been (mostly) easy to meet and Santa's Elves had been able to cope. Now there were too many things; too many children had become too greedy; "I would like" was becoming "I must have." The Elves were overworked and threatening to strike.
The idea came to Santa in a house in Vienna, where a particularly impatient and obnoxious boy had waited for him. The boy eagerly ripped off the wrapping paper; his face fell and he hurled the presents away. They were the wrong things. Was Santa stupid? The boy absolutely had to have the new 3D console and the latest killing game. That was too expensive, Santa said, and anyway the boy was too young for such things. "Bin nicht" am not the boy shouted, I'm eleven "Ich bin elf".
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5 LGBT Characters We'd Love to See in a Justice League Movie
5 LGBT Characters We'd Love to See in a Justice League Movie
Why him?
Green Lantern of Earth 2
Why him?
Why her?
Ystin 633
Shining Knight
The original Shining Knight first appeared in 1941, but the current incarnation of the character is true rarity in comics – an intersex superhero. The current Shining Knight, known also as Sir Yestin, first appeared in the comic series Demon Knights in 2011.
Why this hero?
It would be wonderful to see a modern, positive intersex hero on the silver screen, one who isn’t confused or tormented by their identity. While this version of Shining Knight battles evil in medieval times, it would be fairly easy to bring the hero into the modern age – much like the former version of the character that existed in our modern times. Also, the Shining Knight wields a blade that can both cut through almost anything and is resistant to magical attacks. For a powerhouse like Superman, who has well-known weaknesses to magic, this ability would be key. Also, the Shining Knight rides a flying horse. How cool would it be to see a winged horse soaring across the screen in 3D?
The teenage Latino hero Bunker debuted in 2011 with the relaunch of the Teen Titans comic book series. From the get-go Bunker never hid or downplayed his homosexuality. For a time he was viewed by some fans as an eye-rolling stereotype, but he has since developed into an important, multilayered character.
Why him?
Bunker has the ability to create purple bricks in various forms (a subtle nod to Stonewall), which he can use to levitate himself and others, and also use defensively as a concussive force. Visually, Bunker’s brightly hued purple constructs would be an eye-popping element to a live-action Justice League movie. Character-wise, he could fill the role of the wisecracking comic relief, providing moviegoers with a much-needed dose of levity and what has thus far been a darker DC film universe.
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After last week’s cliffhanger, I was itching to find out what would happen to Shu now that he’s joined the Undertakers. Will he actually join them and forget about Makoto asked him to do? Or will he join with the pretenses to betray them all? Either way, things are about to get interesting! The episode starts off with Shu, Gai and Inori all returning to their headquarters, though Shu looks less than pleased about the whole idea. Once there, Gai asks about Kenji and his second-in-command says that he shows no signs of waking up, though they’re unsure of whether or not it’s because of the stress of having his Void used. Gai looks quite tired and irritated by this, but continues by introducing Shu to everyone again. He informs them all that since Shu has the Void Genome, all of their missions will be orchestrated around Shu’s abilities. Someone then asks him what their next step is and Gai tells them that they will be infiltrating the Leucocyte. He then brings up several hundred strategies based on patterns of what could or could not happen before instructing everyone to memorize all of them if they plan on joining them in the battle. One member pipes up and asks what happens if they don’t memorize everything and Gai simply states that they won’t have a place in the operation if they won’t take the time to seriously dedicate themselves to the plan. His second-in-command then addresses the worry of fatigue for the troops, but Gai rounds on him and is quite angry. He shouts at him, saying that he’d rather they be tired in the field than be fighting with their eyes blurry and glazed over from sleep. His second hand then backs off and leaves Gai to his business.
Meanwhile, Shu is scanning the room and notices a young girl in the balcony, happily chatting with another member. He seems surprised (as was I) to see someone so young as a member of the Undertakers. Shu’s attention is quickly drawn back to the matters at hand by Gai, who summons Ayase over to them. At first, Ayase is nervous but quickly becomes flabbergasted and possibly insulted when Gai asks her to train Shu for a mock battle. She finally relents when Gai tells her that she’s the only one he trusts to train Shu. Gai then tells Shu that he needs to pass the mock battle in order to become an official member of Undertaker, so he shouldn’t take the task lightly. Then, as quick as he was to give out orders, Gai leaves for his room to come up with a plan. Ayase then approaches Shu and tells him to get ready, but Shu tells her that he doesn’t want to make her feel obligated to train him since she’s in a wheel chair. She smiles and tells him that he’s sweet, but she can handle herself. When she holds out her hand, Shu grasps it, but is shocked when Ayase uses her wheelchair to knock his knees out from under him and slam him to the ground. She then angrily tells him that just because she’s in a wheelchair doesn’t mean that she can’t fight on her own. Shu apologizes and is ushered away to get changed, but as he leaves, we see the receiver that Makoto had given him lying on the ground. Uh oh! Some time later, we see Shu all dressed in the Undertakers’ uniform – and looking quite dashing, if I may say so – and meets Ayase in the hallway. He’s shocked to see her writing things in a notebook with the receiver he was given (apparently it also functions as a pen) and he tried to get it back from her. Instead of just giving it to him, Ayase makes a deal with Shu. If he can pass the mock battle in three days, he’ll get his pen back. If he doesn’t pass it, she gets to keep it. Unfortunately, Shu has no other option but to agree to her terms.
Su is then summoned to a small room where he meets Arugo Tsukishima, a second-year at a local high school. Apparently the boy is incredibly skilled at hand-to-hand combat and tosses a knife at Shu. Shu hesitantly asks if the blade is real and Arugo laughs, saying there would be no point in training with one that wasn’t real. He then tells Shu to come at him like he’s going in for the kill, but Shu promptly faints when Arugo charges at him. We then see a montage of Shu’s training, all of which highly amused me. When he’s running, Tsumugi scolds him for being so out of shape and Shu counters with the excuse that he’s into more cultural things than sports. He eventually becomes more accustomed to fighting, which is a good thing, since by the time the montage is done, all three days have passed and his mock battle is in the morning! As Shu wanders around the halls, he spots Inori sitting in a room overlooking the city, quietly singing to herself. He approaches her and comments on how it’s similar to how they first met. Inori doesn’t say anything, but Shu continues on about how he’s glad that he met her and that they’ll make a good team. As he reaches for her hand, she pulls her hand away and puts some distance between them. Shu is confused when Inori tells him that she’s not his friend and he shouldn’t get close to her. He asks her what she meant when she said that she was his and that they’ll be together forever. You can see his heart break when Inori says that Gai was the one who told her to say those things and she only did because she’s loyal to Gai. Shu tries to ask what she means by that and tells her that they can run away together, but Inori says that she can’t ever leave Gai’s side because he’s the one who gave her her name when she lost her memories. She then stands up and leaves, telling Shu not to get close to her. Shu sadly leaves the room and sees Inori entering Gai’s room. Upset, he runs down the hall towards his room but accidentally bumps into Ayase, knocking her out of her wheelchair. She shouts at him for not looking where he’s going, but quickly calms down when she notices how upset he is.
She asks him if he saw Inori and Gai and when Shu says yes, she tells him that everyone’s noticed them spending the night together like that two or three times a month, but no one wants to say anything. Shu asks her how she can stand it when she likes Gai, but she quickly denies any feelings for Gai other than respect. After a quick encouraging conversation, Ayase tells Shu that she doesn’t need help climbing into her wheelchair, but she’d like him to leave her alone since she doesn’t look very graceful doing it. Shu agrees and tells her good night before heading down the hallway. While Shu heads to his room, we see Gai and Inori together, but they’re not doing what everyone probably thinks they are. Gai looks like he’s getting a blood transfusion – for what reason, we don’t know yet – and he says that Inori looks just like “her”. Inori asks him if that bothers him and he says no. The next day, Gai and the young girl Shu saw when he first entered the Funeral Parlor head out to scout out an area to launch their attack and Shu gets ready for his mock battle. He’s facing Ayase, who is piloting her Endlave, and the whole goal of the mock battle is for Shu to get past her Endlave and safely into the building behind her without taking any hits. She warns him that even though they’re just using paintballs, they’re still hard enough to stun someone if hit. The battle begins and though Shu runs away at first, he spots Arugo and remembers that Arugo still has the ability to produce a Void. Ditching his paintball gun, he summons Arugo’s Void, which is a rod that surrounds the enemy in darknes. Using this, Shu is able to get to the car safely and wins the mock battle. Shu apologizes for cheating, but Ayase says that it’s alright because he just used what skills he has that makes him unique. After that, everyone congratulates him and welcomes him into the Undertakers; Ayase makes sure to hold up her end of the deal and gives Shu back his pen as well. The celebration is short lived as Tsumugi rushes in and informs everyone that the area Gai was scouting out was hit by a missile!
Opinions: As always, there was a good balance of plot, action and something to intrigue the viewer. I’m really curious about why Gai appears to need blood transfusions and how he’s able to tell what sort of Void people will be able to produce. Of course, there’s the ever-lasting mystery of Inori and her origin, though now I want to know who she looks like. Seeing Shu finally become part of the Undertakers was incredibly gratifying, but I wonder if he’ll turn on them and give Makoto the information he asked for or if he’ll betray Makoto. And of course, why does Gai want to take over that building so badly? Is there some sort of importance to it? Either way, it looks like we’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out what happens to Gai!
Score: A/A+
• FlareKnight
This was quite the episode. First it feels like Shu’s ability to trust others is broken down even further with Inori saying it was all orders. Of course hard to tell since she could have been ordered to say they were orders. Or it could be a mixed truth. Regardless if Shu had that pen they would have all been in trouble. Before that chat with Ayase he definitely would have used it.
I really liked Ayase’s character in this one. Went from simply the pilot who has a thing for Gai to a more full character. May have been teasing a bit much when Shu saw Inori go with Gai, but could just be payback from those two fooling around during the shooting training. In the end she didn’t blow up at him and helped give him the motivation to do what he could during that mock battle. At least during that moment she became one person he could accept and get along with. A long road to friendship, but I liked that scene.
The situation with Gai is full of mystery. Certainly doesn’t appear to be a good thing if he needs transfusions like that. And the identity of the girl that Inori looks like has to be key.
It was nice when Shu won and was accepted. People respond to actions and the more Shu proves himself the more people will appreciate him. Certainly seemed more likely as well that he wouldn’t use the pen since it’d betray those people who finally seemed to accept him.
In terms of why Gai wants to capture the building so badly I think it goes like this: The Leucocyte seems to be a weapon considering Tsugumi said it was fired at point delta. Looking at the insane damage to the area I can understand why Gai’s group would want to secure it or at least make sure their enemies can’t use it. It looked more like some kind of attack satellite from the image.
• nagicakes
It definitely was a pretty action-packed episode! I feel terrible for Shu; he finally found someone he could believe in and it may or may not have been a facade created by Gai’s orders. I don’t think that it’s completely has to do with Gai though. In episode 4, when Shu was arrested by GHQ, Inori was talking to Funnell and asking why she felt so cold before commenting on how Shu would probably know why. Coupled with the fact that she disobeyed Gai’s orders to rescue Shu, I think she does have some sort of feelings for him, even if she doesn’t understand them herself. Though it may not be romantic in any way, she definitely has strong feelings towards him.
I loved Ayase’s character! She’s sassy, witty and head-strong. The fact that even while she’s in a wheelchair, she can take someone down is awesome. I do think she was teasing Shu a bit too much, but I agree with what you said. It was probably payback for Shu trying to take it easy on her at first. It definitely feels like there could be a strong friendship between them, but we’ll have to wait and see how that goes. And you’re right; it was probably a good thing that Ayase had the pen with her when Shu saw Gai and Inori because he probably would have seriously contemplated using it right then and there.
As for Gai, I really want to find out what’s going on with him. He’s obviously not well, but he continues to push himself – and his team – daily. Inori is still a complete mystery, but maybe once we figure out who this girl she looks like is, we’ll have more of a clue as to who she is and where she came from.
The Leucocyte did look like a satellite instead of a building. 8|a I can see why Gai would want that under his control instead of letting GHQ have it, especially after seeing how much damage it can cause! I hope that we’ll find out what it’s all about in the next episode. And that Gai is okay! | dclm-gs1-103360000 |
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Doc put me on clomid for a reason I've never heard of.
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Do you like the baby name or no?
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Ok, I might be different than some, but I think both spouses should get veto power on names. He is just as invested in this baby as you ...
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what if i don't want to take the childbirth classes?
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does this happen to everyone and how can i stop it
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How exhausted will I be after giving birth, and how long will it take to get my energy back?
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Ideal for vigorous activities such as running and tennis, the Nike Women's Racer Sunglasses shine where other shades fail. Larges lenses and a sporty curve offer a huge field of vision, and Max Optics technology ensures a sharp and true view.
Max Optics lenses have a patented design that has zero distortion from straight ahead and minimal distortion across the entire curve of the lens for clear and accurate optics at any angle. The rubber nose and temple pads provide a comfy and secure fit to keep you shades where you want them without creating painful pressure points.
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For years, I taught a course on genetically modified organisms.
First, we covered the biology behind GMOs so that students had the science background. Then we described agricultural systems so that they understood the challenges facing food production.
Next, we reviewed the applications of GMOs so that they knew the products being used along with their benefits and risks. And last, we discussed the controversy surrounding GMOs.
The objective was to develop students’ critical thinking skills so that they could make informed decisions.
Those students had time to engage in civil discourse with professionals representing all viewpoints and fields of expertise.
Most of us do not have that luxury. Currently, we are faced with impending legislation regarding GMOs with real-world consequences. Here is information I believe is useful.
We eat trillions of genes a day. All living organisms have many cells. Each cell houses DNA. The DNA contains genes. When you eat a piece of fruit like a banana, or a fish like ahi, you are eating millions of genes.
These foods may also have bacteria, fungi or viruses on or in them.
So, every day we eat a smorgasbord of genes from plants, animals and microorganisms. Eating DNA and genes is nothing new.
What also is not new is that most plants we eat today are different from their wild ancestors. These domesticated plants were intentionally bred by humans to have specific traits. For example, we have selected for higher yields and better disease and insect resistance. These traits are controlled by genes that are passed on from parents to their offspring.
Although plant breeding has been wildly successful, it has limitations.
First, it is initially imprecise. One starts with parents that have the genes you desire, but Mother Nature randomly mixes the genes up during the production of egg and sperm cells, so that individual offspring have a limited chance of receiving them. Consequently, it takes years of breeding and selection to get a variety that is improved for a given trait.
Second, the trait you are looking for may not exist in any of your parents. Then you cannot rely on breeding to make that improvement.
Scientists discovered ways to overcome these limitations to crop improvement. As the field of genetics matured, it became possible to isolate a single gene, from any source, and put it into a plant. This “genetically modified organism” (GMO) was new and first reported in 1983.
Subsequently, novel foods developed by genetic modification have been studied, tested and regulated, and rightly so, as it is paramount that they are safe for consumption and do not cause environmental problems. That is why GM plants can require USDA, FDA and EPA approval.
The technique of GM itself is not harmful. Focus should be on the safety of a given GMO and its use.
Not all GMOs are the same nor should they be treated as such. It would be short-sighted to have a blanket ban on GMOs in Hawaii when we are faced with the enormous challenge of food self-sufficiency.
New GM traits are aimed at reducing water use through drought tolerance, reducing saturated fats and allergens in foods, and increasing disease-fighting nutrients in foods. There is immense value to be gained using these types of crops.
In Hawaii, we produce only 13 percent of our food, and import the remainder. Our primary goal should be to increase the food supply in an environmentally and economically sound manner. To do that, we need all the safe tools that organic, conventional and GM farming can provide. | dclm-gs1-103410000 |
End of an Era
Sunday, May 1, 2011, was a historical day in American history. I don't usually watch the news; it's predominantly depressing, and I have enough things to worry about in my life. But when I saw on Twitter that President Obama was going to make an annoucement declaring that the United States had killed Osama bin Laden, I flipped on the TV. Even though I was getting ready to go to sleep. Even though I was sick and needed my rest. This was huge. I ran downstairs to tell DH. Then I changed the channel for him to a news network, and he said, "Hey!...more
Bloggers React to Osama bin Laden's Death
Late last night (EST), United States President Barack Obama announced on television that American military forces located, fought with and killed Al Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden. Bloggers and politicians all over the world are reacting today....more
Oy - as you may have read somewhere else in here, I think I reference that my younger brother ...more
Regarding the death of an angry man
“Peace” by Mariam Askanani on Flickr Last night, we heard the news we’ve been waiting to hear for almost ten years. He’s dead. Immediate reaction? “Finally, the bastard’s dead. Is it Castro’s turn yet?” What do you expect?...more
Be A Better Blogger: What's Going On In the "Mosque at Ground Zero" Controversy
In case you have been on vacation from cable television and twitter for the last month or so, the summer's domestic political headlines have been dominated by a dispute over a proposed Islamic community center near the site of the World Trade Center attacks that has come to be known, variously, as Park 51, Cordoba House and, most popularly, the "Ground Zero Mosque." A Muslim organization has proposed building a 13-15 story community center on the site of a building that was damaged by debris fro...more
Ah the tyranny of Googlejuice! I confess to throwing the term into the meta-tags in a kind of ...more
Imagine a Different Experiment: Ted Kaczynski and the Murray Experiment at Harvard
I recently read an article from The Atlantic Monthly online titled “Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber.” The author, Alston Chase, has corresponded with Ted Kaczynski at length and also wrote the book A Mind for Murder: The Education of the Unabomber and the Origins of Modern Terrorism....more
How protected from terrorism are we?
The security/intelligence system is "so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work," The Washington Post says after a two-year investigation of the national security buildup following 9/11. What does that mean for us citizens?...more
Keep Calm and Carry On
Five years ago I was living in a lovely shared house in South East London with Husband and 3 other friends. Husband and I had been living together for over a year and we were engaged to be married that September. I was finishing up my internship as part of my masters course in central London. On that particular day, I was headed into my part time job in Chelsea. I was running late (as usual) and had to get a later train than husband did. As the train pulled up to Waterloo Station, people began to stir. Something was wrong in central London, but no one knew what yet....more
Aliou Niasse, a Muslim Immigrant, Alerted Police to Times Square Bomb
You could watch the major networks reporting on the Times Square failed car bomb for hours and possibly not catch this politically pertinent piece of information: The first person to alert the police about the smoking car was a Muslim immigrant from Senegal, Aliou Niasse. ...more
I heard Salmon Rushdie mention it and that was literally all I heard about it.
Deana ...more
Hot Burkas & Hot Bods
Times Square Car Bomb Case Broadens with U.S. Suspect Arrest and More Overseas
The New York Times and other sources report that the investigation of the Times Square failed car bombing has spread beyond the U.S. Not only has Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen from Pakistan been arrested and charged, but the Pakistani government has captured additional suspects. However, U.S. officials have not confirmed the arrests reported by Pakistani intelligence. ...more | dclm-gs1-103420000 |
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LB Conner Crowell (official thread)
Discussion in 'Buckeye Alumni' started by Smith, Mar 12, 2010.
1. OSU_D/
Tim May@TIM_MAYsports
Tim May@TIM_MAYsports
Both Crowell and O'Connor dealt with leg injuries this past year.
2. MONTbigBuck
MONTbigBuck Sophmore
Curious if Crowell is getting a medical waiver, and will still have his scholarship to OSU if he chooses. I hope this is the case. Sad news to lose O'connor as has been rumored. His potential will be missed.
3. jwinslow
Crowell received a medical waiver. I am not sure why Tim didn't feel like reporting that part of the press release.
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14 Rage-Inducing Photos Of People “Parking Like Twats”
The delightfully misanthropic Facebook group that shames crappy parkers.
1. Spotted: Parking Like A Twat encourages members to post photographic evidence of terrible parking.
2. Like this.
3. And this.
4. Range Rovers seem to figure quite heavily.
5. As do sports cars.
6. There are loads of sports cars.
8. The police, it seems, are particularly guilty.
9. As are people who definitely ought to know better.
10. Though admittedly some of the examples seem a little harsh.
11. Each week, the most heinous example is singled out.
12. There’s even an e-commerce element. The page admin is selling these window/bumper stickers for £3 a pop.
13. The success of the page has inspired a number of regional variants.
14. But the sentiment behind each one is always exactly the same.
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MK: Why Shouldn't Jews Pray on Temple Mount? - Inside Israel - CBN News - Christian News 24-7 - CBN.com
MK: Why Shouldn't Jews Pray on Temple Mount?
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JERUSALEM, Israel -- For decades, Jews and Christians have been prohibited from praying on the Temple Mount, but a new Israeli parliamentarian thinks that should change.
Newly appointed head of the Knesset Interior and Environmental Committees, Likud MK Miri Regev, says it's not right to prohibit Jews from praying on the Temple Mount.
Regev, 48, married with three children, served as a brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces.
"I don't understand why a Jew is not allowed to pray in the most sacred place for him -- the Temple Mount," Regev said in statement Wednesday.
The new committee chairwoman says she plans to tour the Temple Mount, where the First and Second Jewish Temples once stood, in the near future.
Warnings by left-wing politicians that such statements will undermine peace talks and could spark a third intifada don't seem to have deterred the former general.
The Islamic trust (Waqf), responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Temple Mount, prohibits anyone but Muslims from praying there.
During the Jordanian occupation from 1948 to the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews were prohibited from entering the Old City.
When Jerusalem was reunited under Israeli sovereignty, the government cleaned up the area in front of the Western Wall and built the Western Wall Plaza, where Jews come to pray every day.
Israel Police, responsible for security on the Temple Mount and the Western Wall below, keep a close watch on the area.
From time to time, Muslim worshippers riot on the Temple Mount and some throw rocks on the Jews down below.
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History & Disease Patterns
Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) was discovered in 1944 in a patient with “atypical” pneumonia. It was first thought to be a virus or fungus, which is why the name “mycoplasma” (Greek for “fungus-formed”) was chosen. It was eventually learned to be a bacterium, but unlike many other bacteria, it has many unique characteristics. For example, it does not have a rigid cell wall, which affects the types of antibiotics that work well against it. This is why it is classified as an “atypical” bacterium. It is also the smallest organism capable of living and reproducing on its own. Smaller germs, like viruses, have to live and reproduce inside cells.
Disease Patterns
M. pneumoniae infections are common in the United States. The number of infections varies over time, with peaks of disease every 3 to 7 years. An estimated 2 million cases of M. pneumoniae infections occur each year in the United States.1,2 However, many infections are not diagnosed, so the actual number is likely higher, and the true size of the health problem is unknown. This illness can happen any time during the year but may be more common in summer and early fall.3
1 Marston BJ, Plouffe JF, File Jr TM, Hackman BA, Salstrom SJ, Lipman HB, Kolczak MS, Breiman RF. Incidence of community-acquired pneumonia requiring hospitalization. Results of a population-based active surveillance study in Ohio. The Community-Based Pneumoniae Incidence Study Group. Arch Intern Med. 1997;157:1709–18.
2 Porath A, Schlaeffer F, Lieberman D. The epidemiology of community-acquired pneumonia among hospitalized adults. J Infect. 1997;34:41–8.
3 Winchell JM. Mycoplasma pneumoniae – A national public health perspective. Curr Pediatr Rev. 2013; doi:10.2174/15733963113099990009 | dclm-gs1-103460000 |
The radioactive nuclei 60Co iswidely used in medical applications. It undergoes beta decay,and the total energy of the decay process is 2.82MeV per decay event. The half-life of this nucleus is272 days. Suppose that a patient isgiven a dose of 6.9 μCi of60Co. If all thismaterial decayed while in the patient's body, what would be thetotal energy deposited there? (1 Ci =3.70x1010 decays/sec.)
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Not Good News on Cancer
One of the first ideas people had when attempting to come up with a drug treatment for cancer was to discover what was different between a normal and a diseased cell. This seemingly smart idea was totally stymied because at the molecular level a cancer cell is bafflingly complex with scads of measurable differences compared to its healthy counterpart. The result is that most of the effective therapeutic agents are nonspecific toxins with lots of side effects.
The modern solution to this problem is to design drugs that ferret out the “critical lesion” among the many biochemical changes observed in a neoplastic cell. Hence, Gleevec, Erbitux, Herceptin and a few other new drugs that target essential growth pathways gone haywire in cancer. These can be very effective in patients whose cancer contains the altered target, but this is not all patients and even for the “lucky” ones, the specter of acquired drug resistance is ever present.
And now comes worse news. A large collaboration involving both American and European institutions examined whether individual cells inside the same tumor mass had different underlying biochemical changes. They measured DNA sequence differences at several locations within a person’s cancer and found that in every case examined there is not homogeneity of genetic alteration at different parts of the tumor. In some patients there is even the simultaneous presence of both “good” and “bad” prognostication for therapeutic response in a single tumor.
Why does this matter? Because any attempt to design a personalized therapy based on a single biopsy is likely to fail if other un-sampled areas of the tumor have a different drug response pattern. What is the solution? The authors remain silent, suggestive of a very hard problem.
Tom Tritton is President and CEO of CHF.
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Why China Won’t Throw A Lifeline To The West
Hu Jintao with George W. Bush.
Image via Wikipedia
With all the chaos on world’s markets, it is easy to overlook developments in China. The biggest piece of Chinese domestic news is the decision to give limited rights to land use to China’s farmers. This decision came out of the Third Plenary Session of the 17th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (三中全会), which is now convening in Beijing.
The overall thrust of this meeting is to focus on the development of rural China, which has not fared so well as the east coast cities. If the cities continue to develop, and the countryside continues to stay poor, you have the recipe for social unrest on a large scale.
The salient points about China’s development are that China has about 1/3 the arable land of the developed economies for farming, and about 500M live in cities, while 800M continue to be rural Chinese. National development plans (many of which were formulated under Jiang Zemin, who came from Shanghai) called for the urbanization of China.
China’s first 30 years of reforms required the development of the eastern coast to attract foreign capital, and to make the companies and the westerners who came to China feel comfortable. Only when they had reached some level of comfort, and were attracted by the market potential would the capital follow. They became comfortable and the capital and trade followed.
And now the westerners living in Beijing, Shanghai and the west expect the Chinese with their nearly US2T in foreign reserves to bail out the western economies? Let me tell you why it won’t happen.
• Successive Chinese regimes have always lost power when they coddled the urban elite and ignored the needs of the countryside. This was how Mao rallied the Communists, surrounded the cities (the strategy was called “using the villages to surround the cities” or “乡村包围城市”), then threw out Chiang Kai-shek in 1949. Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao know this, and know that they need to swivel around and develop the countryside so that the wealth gap can be narrowed.
• The Chinese government will focus on developing a new size of town, which in Chinese is called the 城镇 or village town. This will be mainly a distribution, education and trading center for farmers and their families in the immediate vicinity. Population will be 250-500K.
• For the next 15-30 years, the cities will stagnate in growth. People will not lose their homes the way they do in the US since China does not have foreclosure laws, but their salaries will not go up. Many of the wishes new university grads entering the workforce hoped they had will just become dreams. Somehow they will have to learn to live in this new drastically changed environment.
• The Chinese government is already talking about the development of rural infrastructure including rural insurance, microlending, etc.
• Many young Chinese who would have scoffed at the idea of working in the countryside will now go there, simply because job opportunities in the east coast cities will be limited. This, in turn, will help to clean out the party apparatus in the countryside, which has been seen as generally corrupt.
• Western companies will not benefit too much from this next stage of development because they do not, for the most part, understand how to sell to the bottom 2/3 of the Chinese pyramid. Most only know how to sell to the top 1/3 in the cities. Companies which will prosper are those who sell to the “local local economy”, or bottom 2/3, as Jack Perkowski calls it, as opposed to the “local foreign economy”. The local foreign economy is city-based on China’s east coast; the local local economy is mainly rural and inland.
• The companies which will survive and prosper are the swift pivoters who can quickly learn how to sell to the “local local economy”. This means that they made some money in export manufacturing, but now switch to sell domestically to Chinese consumers in the new inland towns and cities. Not many companies can do this, but those that do will do well. Most will be entirely new businesses, and local Chinese brands will have an advantage.
• This next stage of development will require a lot of money. Those foreign exchange reserves of US2T will be needed by China. Now, if you ruled China and you had the choice of 1) lending the money to the west, which has just acted about as irresponsibly as anyone can imagine or 2) investing the money in China to narrow the wealth gap between rich and poor, city and countryside and keeping your regime in power for more than a half century, what would you do? I think that it’s a pretty easy choice.
China may now have the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves, but that is not what makes a country a superpower. The recent tainted milk scandal has shown that it is still lacking controls in many key areas, and it is far short of being a developed nation. Instead, China is a developing nation with rich reserves it needs for its own development.
In order to become a developed nation with a developed economy, it needs to spend that money on building its own infrastructure and narrowing the wealth gap between the developed cities on China’s east coast and the inland countryside. Any Chinese regime which acts otherwise would be making a very risky decision, and would be putting the future of its own rule in jeopardy.
China can manage without export markets, but it cannot survive if its own countryside is in turmoil.
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7 Responses to “Why China Won’t Throw A Lifeline To The West”
1. Matt says:
Why not suppose that there are enough reserves to go around and cover all the bases? Clearly if China can use its reserves to carry weight internationally, that is an important goal too.
2. Joyce says:
I’ve been working on the financial news desk for the last few months (great time to start THAT new job), so I’ve been reading stuff from all over the world about this crisis. I know more about the minutae than I ever wanted.
And the idea of China rushing in to save Western economies is just not discussed in any of the circles I move in, or read about.
The only person who brought this up with me was my dad, who always wants China to do well. There was an edge of indigence when he asked why China wasn’t playing a bigger role in all these fancy G-7-type talks. (China is part of the G-20)
I guess it’s because the root of the problem is with things like big old investment banks and major stock markets (the major ones being NY, London, Tokyo and HK, with Shanghai as only a very young, small player). China may hold alot of foreign reserves, but it’s not going to pour money into these financial institutions, or help Western governments to do the same. China is still much more manufacturing-focused than financial services-focused.
Your piece is right. China has to invest in China. And the more developed China becomes, the better it will be for the entire world in the long-run. Wall Street, Washington and Fleet Street have to solve their own problems — and hopefully prevent them from affecting everyone else quite so much.
3. lee says:
Please give sources for your points, particularly the third one.
Just like the title of the guardian article, the premise of this one is getting a bit ahead of itself. Nowhere is there evidence that westerners expect China to bail out their banks. Nonetheless the points made are interesting, if established on any fact.
Can China do fine without export markets? Their export markets aren’t going to completely disappear any time soon, but as I understand it the numbers don’t support that statement.
4. Matt says:
It’s true that there’s been very little mention of China helping to solve the financial crisis, but I think it’s inevitable that they will have some kind of role. For example, I think it will be politically much easier for Chinese to buy up American firms as the crisis progresses, and that will be crucial as American and European firms are unwilling or unable to throw capital around in this kind of situation. Whether this is “throwing a lifeline” I guess could be debated, but mostly it just seems like the smart thing to do. China could also help out by continuing to let its currency appreciate. This will also probably happen, as China makes big investments in developing the countryside. Honestly, China looks pretty well set up on all fronts, and I doubt they’re set on destroying western/global finance entirely.
Oh and did you see the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs has an article written by Henry Paulson himself? He also just headlined a fundraiser for the US-China Education trust.
6. […] China’s commitment to independent innovation, and with what Paul Denlinger expects will be a tsunami of government cash into neo-Keynesian infrastructure spending across the […]
7. nzxcmbvS says:
It has made me eat half of what I used to. , | dclm-gs1-103500000 |
Madonna turns 53 today, and her influence is felt now more than ever
Today is Madonna Ciccone's 53rd birthday. And while the eternal Material Girl has wisely ceded the pop spotlight of today to the younger generation of starlets, her influence is still felt in the way modern female musicians are viewed, regarded and accepted. In the early '80s, Madonna broke down a lot of the industry doors that young entertainers stride through so brashly and confidently these days, while also giving music fans a reason to dance and think at the same time.
But, for a testosterone-charged teenage boy that was only interested in classic rock and hip-hop in the '80s, Madonna held an entirely different appeal. She was a stone-cold sex symbol that opened everybody's eyes wide with her blatant disregard for society's conventions and inhibitions, flouting her sensuality and eroticism while single-handedly taking over the pop music world. I never owned one of her albums or really listened to her music by choice, but anytime one of her videos came on MTV I tuned in, transfixed by this audacious, brazen woman who seemed to be refashioning herself into one fantasy figure after another. She knew that there were other ways to win over an audience than just relying on her music.
But there was a power and authority to Madonna that appealed to me as well. The fact that she was making up her own rules as she went along, that she wasn't just a pretty puppet being manipulated by the industry--that aspect of her public image attracted me as much as her obvious beauty. She was dictating what direction MTV and the music world in general was going, and it was up to them to try and keep pace with her. She rattled plenty of big cages along the way, upsetting the Catholic Church, Pepsi, and tightly-wound conservatives alike, and that type of cheeky defiance clearly resonated with angst-filled young people everywhere who were tired of rules and restrictions in their own lives.
So, while her music didn't impact me nearly as much as her subversive message and raw physicality did, Madonna clearly knew how to get people's attention. And, once she had the spotlight fixed on her, she became an unstoppable creative force that dominated the charts and the headlines for well over two-decades. Any current pop-tartlet that denies that Madonna is an influence or an inspiration to them is either lying or simply ignorant of music history. For each new batch of pretty little faces that make a run up the pop charts are all doing a song and dance that Madonna perfected long ago. Cheers to you and your boundless blond ambition on your birthday, Madge!
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In Boston bombing, flood of digital evidence is a blessing and a curse
Story highlights
• The many cell phones and cameras on Boston streets give authorities a wealth of images
• Police: "We intend to go through every frame"
• Authorities are asking witnesses for photos and video that might offer clues to the bomber
• Vancouver police used video footage to identify criminal acts after 2011 riots in that city
As smoke clears from two deadly bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, focus turns to identifying those responsible. And that's no easy task. The massive number of cell phones and closed circuit cameras on the street provide an incredible wealth of video and photo.
"This is probably one of the most well photographed areas in the country," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. The wealth of photographic and video evidence available is both a challenge and an opportunity. "We intend to go through every frame."
The Boston marathon extends over 26 miles of streets and is largely open to the public. The crime scene around the bombing covers 12 city blocks. "This is the most complex crime scene we've ever had to deal with," said Davis at a press conference Tuesday about the bombings.
"We are processing all the digital photographic evidence we can," says Richard DesLauriers, the special agent leading the FBI's Boston Division. He asks that "the public continue submitting whatever they have to police." There's a huge amount of video evidence to process, he says, creating a logistics issue.
Grant Fredericks is a forensic video analyst and instructor at the Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Video Association (LEVA) in Indianapolis. LEVA is the only digital multimedia evidence processing lab in the world designed to train video investigators and analyze massive amounts of forensic video evidence, Fredericks says.
Connecting evidence in Boston bombings
Connecting evidence in Boston bombings
Connecting evidence in Boston bombings
Connecting evidence in Boston bombings 02:12
Prosecuting a terror case
Prosecuting a terror case
Prosecuting a terror case
Prosecuting a terror case 02:18
Expert: Cooker bomb easy to make
Expert: Cooker bomb easy to make
Expert: Cooker bomb easy to make
Expert: Cooker bomb easy to make 03:40
Which is exactly what's needed in Boston.
Fredericks says there's no standard in law enforcement to acquire video from the public in the wake of a tragedy such as yesterday's marathon bombings. But the best example of mass video collection for investigative purposes occurred in June 2011, when riots occurred after the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup finals to the Boston Bruins. The City of Vancouver set up a system in which the public could provide video evidence, such as photos and videos from cell phones, anonymously to police.
In response, Vancouver police received 5,000 hours of video from the public. Considering the size of the Boston Marathon and the growing prevalence of smartphone video cameras, the raw volume of footage after this tragedy could be much larger.
After gathering those 5,000 hours of footage, Vancouver police then contacted LEVA through the Forensic Video Analysis Response Team to go through all that video. Fredericks says 52 analysts then spent 14 days processing that footage, identifying 15,000 criminal acts perpetrated by 300 rioters.
The analysis is not magic, Fredericks says. Three shifts of video forensics experts distributed the raw video evidence to analysts, who then put the evidence into a single interoperable format, and uploaded it into a central management system.
From there, it was watched and coded — meaning that anyone perceived to commit a criminal act was profiled and then attached to a special code that would identify, for example, whether they were wearing a backpack or a hoodie, whether they were carrying anything with them, and any other physical attributes that could be identified. (CNN describes the first potential suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing as "seen with a black backpack and sweatshirt" and "trying to get into a restricted area about five minutes before the first explosion.")
The purpose of this is to tag people so they can be identified later — to say, "hey, this is the same person" identified in previous videos, he says.
Fredericks notes that Boston police are likely now going through a similar process, collecting every piece of digital media available from transit and nearly 600 closed circuit television cameras covering the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority alone.
According to the ACLU of Massachusetts, "Stored video can be easily shared with other [police departments] over standard web browsers using a system protected by a basic username and password."
In a post Tuesday, Popular Mechanics quoted the study, inferring: "If the bomber(s) took public transportation, there's a good chance those steps can be retraced through video footage."
But does this profiling open the possibility for wrongful arrests? Recall the tragedy of Richard Jewell, the security guard falsely accused of bombing Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics.
"The thing about profiling is that you're not profiling an individual, you're profiling a type," Fredericks says. In Boston, authorities are now combing video evidence for "anyone with a backpack." In other words, it's not the video analyst's role to worry about whether people are wrongly accused of involvement in the Boston marathon bombings; it'll be up to law enforcement to get evidence before they start arresting people.
"The video officer is just a technician," Fredericks says.
In an email to The Verge, Larry Compton, a video analyst with Forensic Video Solutions in Washington D.C., sees where improvements might be made in the future to make the process easier.
"What needs to be developed is a solution for governments to accept public video and images for such situations, as there were likely several Zapruders who captured evidence," he writes, referencing the famous film of the Kennedy assassination. "It needs to be far more comprehensive and useful than just random submissions to the 911 centers."
He suggests that such a system should accept wireless, web, and email submissions when activated. Each submission should include basic contact information, camera info, as well as a time sync reference.
"This would provide a quick bigger picture," Compton writes.
"The message is this: the most prolific source of evidence available to law enforcement comes from video evidence, comes from video sources," he says. "These kinds of cases really underscore that the general public is collecting video evidence every moment of every day. So when you have a major incident in a major area like this where you have a huge gathering of the public, everyone there with a cell phone now has an evidence collection device that can be used by law enforcement."
"Law enforcement just needs to get that video."
UPDATE: "The FBI has set up a tip line — at 1-800-CALL-FBI — for anyone who has information, images, or details relating to yesterday's explosions along the Boston Marathon route. We are particularly interested in reviewing video footage captured by bystanders with cell phones or personal cameras near either of the blasts. In an investigation of this nature, no detail is too small."
Read the original article on The Verge: In Boston bombing, flood of digital evidence is a blessing and a curse | dclm-gs1-103520000 |
Financial aid for rich people
Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum
Discus: What Are My Chances?: February 2003 Archive: Financial aid for rich people
By joe on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 02:40 pm: Edit
if my dad makes 200 grand + /yr, is it worth it to fill out FAFSA and apply for financial aid and all that crap? how much can i realistically expect to get from the ivies. on all my apps i responded no to whether i will be applying for financial aid. any thoughts?
By Incognito (Incognito) on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 02:43 pm: Edit
financial aid is for those who need it. I suggest you pay for school yourself, and let those who need it use it. HOWEVER, you can apply for merit scholarships if your grades are good...
By no one on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 03:23 pm: Edit
FAFSA only got me loans to cover tuition costs and my parents, in total, make over 100K/year. fill it out anyways and see what happens.
By nora on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 04:29 pm: Edit
i know colleges SAY they use "need blind" admissions and don't take into consideration how much someone makes. BUT in actuality does it help you if the college knows you'll be paying for it by yourself? wouldn't the Ivies prefer kids who don't file for financial aid? say there are two kids with the same stats and level of EC's, basically they are both borderline, one has filed FAFSA and the other has declined financial aid....who would have the edge???
By nobody on Sunday, February 09, 2003 - 05:03 pm: Edit
depends...for ivies, they don't make the majority of their money off of tuition fees; they get money from successful graduates eager to donate. So in essence it doesn't really matter, they can afford to be need-blind because they want successful candidates more than sub-par paying candidates.
By hot_dog on Monday, February 10, 2003 - 01:55 am: Edit
yeah, at an ivy, tuition would only be a problem if nobody ayed, along with alumni donations, hey get millions in endowments from the gov't and private corporations.
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Sir Elton John is to be celebrated for his musical talents at the upcoming Songwriters Hall of Fame gala.
The Rocket Man hitmaker and his longterm collaborator Bernie Taupin will receive the Johnny Mercer Award during the prizegiving in New York City in June (13), in recognition of their body of work.
Songwriters Hall of Fame Chairman Jimmy Webb says, "Some catalogues are more 'deep' and significant than others not only because of their pertinence to the times in which they were written, but because their sheer mass is overpowering. It's just not that easy to write 40 Top 10 records. It's kind of like swimming the English Channel with your hands tied behind your back.
Past recipients of the Johnny Mercer Award, in honour of the lyricist who co-founded the Songwriters Hall of Fame, include Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Billy Joel. | dclm-gs1-103550000 |
A fitness video featuring Jessica Simpson is set to go public, despite the pop star's efforts to keep it off shelves.
The singer fronted the project for exercise company Speedfit, but she didn't like the finished result and filed legal papers to keep the DVD from being sold.
But now a Hollywood producer has bought the rights to the video - and he's challenging Simpson and her handlers to stop him from making it public.
In a defiant letter to Simpson's lawyers, obtained by WENN, the new owner, Ed Meyer, writes, "After much due diligence, I have purchased rights to distribute the as yet unreleased Jessica Simpson Exercise Video from Speedfit.
"While your client Jessica Simpson believes that she has a valid New York court order preventing such a contract, she actually does not."
Meyer insists his contract with Speedfit is "valid", and he has threatened Simpson with legal action if she insists on moving forward with "any tortuous interference or restraint of trade".
The producer plans to re-edit the fitness film, which was shot in 2005, and release it. Simpson won an arbitration ruling to keep the exercise video from being distributed – a huge hurdle for Meyer.
She also won a ruling barring Speedfit from using her name and likeness to promote the video. | dclm-gs1-103560000 |
Teen pin-up Zac Efron is still waiting for the suit he was promised as a keepsake from the third and final High School Musical movie.
The young actor asked if he could keep the smart outfit his character Troy wears in the new film - but costume heads held it back just in case Efron had to re-shoot scenes.
But, after seeing the suit displayed at the film's premiere, Efron thinks it's time he gets what he was promised.
He tells WENN, "I actually asked to keep one of Troy's suits from the movie and everyone said, 'No, we might have re-shoots, so we have to keep it.'
"I was like, 'All right, that's cool.' But when we walked into the El Capitan theatre (in Los Angeles) and my suit was on a mannequin like, 'Please come touch the suit,' I was like, 'Are you kidding? Re-shoots?' It's still sitting in the theatre, I'm sure. I want that suit." | dclm-gs1-103570000 |
> > >
Curry Powder
Curry Powder, like Chili Powder, is a convenience for Westerners, and doesn't actually exist in the culture that inspired it.
Curry Powder comes in mild, medium and hot. Madras style is hot (as far as the commercial scale goes, at any rate.) It is a combination of several spices. Most Curry Powder mixes use coriander seed as a base, then include any of the following ground spices: cardamom, cloves, chili pepper, cumin, ginger, nutmeg, red and black pepper, and turmeric. Some mixes will go beyond that with caraway, cinnamon, dried basil, fenugreek seed, garam masala, mustard seeds, etc.
In India, you don't buy Curry Powder. It's something you mix up for a particular recipe or need. Some recipes will call for up to 20 different spices and herbs to be combined.
Curry Powders can also be bought in a paste.
Cooking Tips
If you are using commercial Curry Powder, you can wake its taste up by frying it lightly for a minute or so in some butter or oil before proceeding with your recipe and adding other ingredients to the pot.
Mix together equal parts of the following ground spices: cumin, pepper, turmeric, ginger, coriander. Other spices from the list in the first paragraph above as the fancy strikes you.
History Notes
British merchants, wanting to cash in on the curry craze back home in Britain, devised this powder to make the cooking of Indian-style dishes easier for British housewives. The idea for Curry Powder was probably inspired by Garam Masala. The benefit to British housewives was not only that it made curries easier, but that they didn't have to acquire all the expensive spices individually.
The first Curry Powder was made in Madras, India in 1780. It was exported to the UK and throughout the Empire.
Also called:
Poudre de curry (French); Currypulver (German); Polvo de curry (Spanish)
See also:
Spice Mixtures
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Bon mots
"The food here is terrible, and the portions are too small."
-- Woody Allen (1 December 1935 - )
Myth of the Day
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Argument | Do dollar coins have a future?
Jul. 7, 2011
By Matt Frassica
Who enjoys jingling a pocketful of change
Last week NPR reported that the Federal Reserve had $1 billion in dollar coins sitting around. It seems Americans have been reluctant to use the coins, even though they feature such presidential favorites as Martin Van Buren (sideburns included!) and Andrew Johnson.
This isn't really surprising — dollar coins with Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawea already failed to take off. But it's a shame. With a handful of dollar coins, you can see pretty quickly how much money you have. With paper money, you're stuck flipping through every crumpled single in your wallet, looking for a bill that will actually buy you something.
That's aside from the pure atavistic pleasure of handling large coins. They feel valuable, because they're big and brassy-looking. They carry the likenesses of obscure commanders-in-chief with eccentric haircuts. And they produce a pleasing confusion among waiters. After paying for an ice cream with dollar coins, a friend reported that his waitress asked what was with the "big quarters." Priceless!
The vending machines at the newspaper office dispense these coins when you pay with a large bill. I know I'll be stockpiling them against the day when the Mint stops stamping them out — a sad but inevitable result of our irrational fondness for the grimy old greenback.
By Jeffrey Lee Puckett
Who likes his money green
Social anxiety is this country's third-leading cause of not leaving the house, trumped only by ex-girlfriends and Kevin James movies. Take it from someone who has it: This is a real issue, and the evidence is all around us.
Just look at everything that has been invented because of social anxiety, which, in layman's terms, means you'd rather back over someone in a parking lot than talk to them. ATMs, self-checkout lanes at grocery stores, pay-at-the-pump gas stations — even the Internet, which gives you everything you need minus the people.
And that's why the $1 coins will never fly, because they only lead to painfully awkward social interaction. I've gotten stuck with these things a few times, and it's been a nightmare because of the inevitable conversation with the guy at Thornton's when I'm just trying to get out of there with my Yoo-Hoo and beef jerky.
"This ain't enough."
"That one there, that a $1 coin. Not a quarter."
"Looks like a quarter."
"Well, yeah, except for the part where it's bigger and says $1."
And then he stares at it, and then at me, and then at the coin. The people behind me in line are getting angry, but not at the moron who can't tell a quarter from a $1 coin. They're mad at me for using weird money, which inflames the social anxiety, which makes me not want to leave the house, which means the local economy suffers.
The chain reaction begins. All over the country, people stuck with $1 coins are refusing to spend them. The economic impact grows profound, all for lack of folding money. This tsunami of irony finally ends with a proud nation in ruins, buried under $1 coins and $2 bills. Don't say I didn't warn you.
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The 9 Most Typecast Actors of All Time
For an actor, getting typecast is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you can be fairly sure you'll always get work. On the other hand, if your breakthrough role was "guy with frantic diarrhea," you can look forward to a long career of feigned intestinal distress and people on the street yelling "Hey, diarrhea guy!" No one will care that you played Shylock in the Royal Shakespeare Co. or trained at Yale, only that you were hilarious in the straight-to-DVD movie Diarrhea Guy Saves Christmas. Below are nine actors who, for better or worse, are probably going to play the same part until they either die rich or get relegated to The Surreal Life, where they'll get sloppy drunk and bitch to their housemates about being typecast.
Reginald VelJohnson[/subtitle]
Role: Family-man cop with a bit of a weight problem, who often has to deal with idiots and is therefore exasperated
The Movies/The Shows: Ghostbusters, Kojak: The Belarus File, Plain Clothes, Die Hard, Perfect Strangers, Turner & Hooch, Family Matters, Die Hard 2
The History: There' no good reason why this openly gay, erstwhile short story writer, who dances and sings in his free time, should portray the same straight-laced, blue collar gumshoe every time he passes in front of a camera. Sure, he appeared as Sgt. Al Powell (Die Hard) early in his career, but before he was shooting German terrorists who had inexplicably come back from the dead outside the Nakatomi Tower, VelJohnson was donning a badge for bit parts in Ghostbusters, Kojak and something called Plain Clothes.
The Verdict: Some men are born with talents that just don't make much sense. We, for example, have the totally worthless ability to remember that Reginald VelJohnson is the guard who opens the jail cell in Ghostbusters. VelJohnson, on the other hand, just naturally looks like he should be wearing a police uniform and getting exasperated about something. So uncanny is his gift, that after only one season playing the bit part of Officer Carl Winslow on Perfect Strangers, ABC handed him a series that managed to fill nine seasons worth of the premise: "Officer Winslow expresses exasperation with his son Eddie and neighbor Steve." Sure he'd probably rather be playing the chubby girl in Hairspray-but trust us, there are worse gifts to have.
[subtitle]8. Julia Roberts[/subtitle]
The Movies Mystic Pizza, Pretty Woman, My Best Friend' Wedding, Notting Hill, Runaway Bride, Erin Brockovich, Ocean' Eleven, Mona Lisa Smile, Ocean' Twelve
The History: The goddess of plucky, scrappy, can-do women, Julia Roberts has made it in a man' world and not taken any crap enough times to form her own chapter of NOW. We get it: she' as good as any man and she' being blunt in a wry, humorous fashion designed to make Richard Gere/George Clooney/Albert Finney seem taken aback. But that' not all there is to Julia. Beneath that tough exterior, there' the softer side, where all her fragility and hurt is let out in a series of silent, puffy-lipped sobs that make her look revolting. By repeatedly packaging both of these extremes into a single role, Julia has achieved what idiots call "depth of character."
The Verdict: Judging by the critical acclaim and Oscar noms she' racked up, Julia' brand of empowered-but-not-too-empowered woman has served her quite well over the years. Not a lot of folks can be typecast and still be respected as a great actor, so all in all she should be thanking her lucky stars America' women need palatable, generally attractive role models.
#7. Kelsey Grammer
Role: Dr. Frasier Crane
The Movies/Shows: Wings, Cheers, The John Larroquette Show, Frasier, The Simpsons, X3
The History: Of everyone on this list, Kelsey Grammer is the only actor that, in four of the six shows listed, literally played the same person. It wouldn't be so bad if Frasier were a deep character. The fact that he' just a stock sitcom character means Grammer has spent a lifetime realizing little more than the ability to arch his eyebrows in befuddled wonder when someone tries to match a leather sofa with a white marble coffee table. And, whether he' animated or in a suit made of blue carpet, let' face it: All his other roles have been Frasier, too.
The Verdict: Grammer holds the distinction of being the only actor ever to win three Golden Globes for the same role. Sounds great, until you realize he has three statues at home reminding him every day that, as they lower him into the ground, there' a good chance the priest will accidentally refer to him as "the departed Dr. Crane." All in all, it' kind of a toss-up.
#6. Alec Baldwin
Role: Gravel-voiced, intimidating asshole
The History: Not since Hellen Keller has a celebrity' voice so defined their career. Sounding as if he' perpetually afflicted with the most awesome bronchial infection you could hope to contract, Alec Baldwin is the aural equivalent of pouring three fingers of whiskey over crushed ice. Throughout his career, he' used that swarthy voice to intimidate everyone from submarine commanders to realtors, Howard Hughes to his disrespectful pig of a daughter. Even in The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, the greatest of all Baldwins was cast as a giant, menacing, motorcycling fish. When all is said and done, Baldwin owes his entire career to the fact that his voice sounds like he just chewed and swallowed a set of guitar strings.
The Verdict: If being feared by those around you is any measure of success, then Baldwin' doing just fine. Plus, since landing his gig on 30 Rock, he' started to use his powers for comedy. While he still plays the same character as he always did, it' nice to see him surrounded by underlings who are intimidated by him in a funny way instead of a genuinely terrified way.
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Food fight! LAUSD vs. celebrity chef Jamie Oliver
The day after a national cooking show questioned the quality of food served at Los Angeles Unified schools, district officials insisted Wednesday that the meals prepared for students are not only good, but healthy.
Television chef Jamie Oliver's show "Food Revolution" took the LAUSD to task during an episode that aired Tuesday night. The district had refused to allow Oliver into its schools as part of the series.
On the show, he compared the meals served in LAUSD schools to "airplane food."
In response, the LAUSD invited the media into its Newman Nutrition Center, the district's central kitchen facility, to sample the food and review its upcoming menu options.
"The food that we serve is healthy and nutritious and very good quality," according to David Binkle, deputy director of the district's food services.
According to the district, new menus are being developed for the 2011-12 school year, with entrees such as Salvadorian beef stew, chicken Tandoori, Asian pad Thai, California sushi roll and teriyaki beef and broccoli with brown rice.
Dennis Barrett, director of food services for the district, said the LAUSD invited Oliver to "be a part of our menu development, but just leave the cameras away."
"I would say that his perspective is much different than my perspective," he said.
The LAUSD serves more than 122 million student meals a year.
LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines said he did not want cameras from the show disrupting schools and did not want the district to be inaccurately portrayed in a reality television show, saying the district has had a bad experience in the past.
"I feel that having camera crews for long periods of time at undisclosed schools would cause much disruption and impact the instructional school day," Cortines said in a letter to the LAUSD community.
He also said he offered Oliver the opportunity to help the district off-camera but never received any proposals.
Oliver issued a statement responding to Wednesday's LAUSD event.
"Good news that the `Food Revolution' has people talking about what Los Angeles schools are feeding our kids. Wouldn't it be great if we could find out what the kids are actually eating; where the food comes from; what's on the ingredients lists; and who is really doing the cooking," Oliver said.
"I am hopeful that LAUSD's efforts to educate the LA media is a signal that they're willing to work with concerned parents and local activists to make the system truly transparent. Our dialogue with LAUSD is ongoing and I'm optimistic that they will be able to implement real changes that have a long-lasting impact for LA kids." | dclm-gs1-103610000 |
Comments about ‘Robert Bennett: 'Obamacare' is rife with problems’
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Roland Kayser
Cottonwood Heights, UT
I preferred Senator Bennet's health care plan to Obamacare. But if I remember correctly, the plan was vehemently opposed by most of his own party.
Mike in Cedar City
Cedar City, Utah
Senator Bennett may have forgotten why the Medicare Advantage plan was dumped, but those of us who have looked at the reasons know that the plan was a give away to the health insurance industry. It was a move to privatize medicare that failed because it was not cost effective. The health insurers made good profits with it, but it provided few additional benefits and ramped up premium costs.
Far East USA, SC
Health care costs are skyrocketing. And have been for many years.
Medicare is a huge problem going forward. Healthcare costs and future viability of Medicare are closely tied.
Because of that, SOMETHING must be done to get our rising healthcare costs under control.
Only the uninformed or staunchly partisan can deny that.
I am not a huge fan of Obamacare, but we need to do something.
If only our elected officials would sit down in earnest together to tackle the issue. If only they would put politics aside and work on solutions.
Unfortunately, politics today means bashing the other side. It's primary goal is to insure party control. The best plan in the world would be panned by the other side.
Until we get past that mentality, nothing positive will ever happen.
This comment will be followed, not by those looking for solutions, but whose primary goal is to bash the other side. Just like our politicians.
salt lake city, utah
And yet Senator Bennett prior to Obamacare health care costs soared, millions didn't have coverage, and medicare marched down it's path to being broke and unworkable...and what did the Republicans do..nothing, absolutely nothing. In addition what would have happened if Obamacare had been "throughly debated"..it too wold have died, just look at gun regulation now. No Obamacare is far from perfect but it has moved the needle and started the work to health care reform.
Far East USA, SC
Both sides have touted combating medicare waste, fraud and abuse.
They agree on something. Hallelujah!
So, why dont they work together on this ONE THING. Start there. Baby steps.
Work on Waste, fraud and abuse without injecting partisan issues.
Hey, at least its a start. And a rare agreement.
Mike in Cedar City
Cedar City, Utah
JoeBlow. Medicare is not the "huge problem going forward" although, like every bill payer, it does have a problem going forward. Health care costs are rising because the health care providers (hospitals, Medical device companies, drug companies< are not responsive to market forces.
You might want to read a recent article in Time Magazine "Why Medical Bills are Killing Us" March 6 2013. In point of fact Medicare has been more effective than private insurers in holding down medical costs. In summary, heath care in this country is a "sellers market" Consumers in a sellers market can rarely shop for the cost effective health care. Find out what a "chargemaster" is and how it relates to Hospital costs. Find out how medical equipment suppliers are gaming the system, and how hospitals are able to charge ridiculous amounts for low cost mundane items.
Hayden, ID
Why are healthcare cost rising? Because you get what you pay for! Yes there is inflation but remember we have the most advanced healthcare in the world, best pharmaceuticals, the best trained doctors in the world and the best medical technology. If you want 3rd world medicine, well it will certainly be cheaper but you will get exactly what you pay for it. Ask yourself why a drug company is able to research, develop and market highly advanced medicines. The answer is because our medical system (capitalism) rewards them for doing so (profits). While some complain about high profits of medical devices and drugs, look at the fantastic return we are getting on our investments! Socialized medicine will remove the incentive for forward progress in medicine and will stop or at least retard future medical advancements. The largest cost of Obamacare will be limited advancements in medicine because it removes the incentive for investments and advancements. Why would anyone invest capitol if they know they will never get a return on it?
Overhauling the U.S. healthcare delivery system was always going to be a tremendous undertaking. Obamacare was developed over many months, in committees. Republican governors have shown they are willing to disenfranchise voters in their own states so why should anyone believe they aren't above playing politics with this issue?
Premiums will go up for some, particularly those in the individual market. But as was explained during the development and passage phase, people in the individual market will get better coverage--not the junk policies with high premiums and high deductibles that are all too common.
Drs. aren't quitting due to Obamacare. Dealing with multiple different insurance companies and multiple different plans within each insurance company is a major headache for healthcare providers. The Republican's idea to allow people to purchase policies from other states was merely going to add to the complexity.
Sebelius is very capable. There are going to be glitches and likely changes needed down the road but change we must. It seems to be working ok in Massachusetts. It would be better if all the governors were cooperative.
Far East USA, SC
"Because you get what you pay for!"
If only that were true. Your post is full of misinformation.
Now, if I had a very rare disease, then YES. Absolutely I would want to be in the US.
We do have the most advanced medicine.
Case in point. I had a routine, outpatient surgical procedure. I was in the hospital for a total of 4 hours. I was in the operating room for a total of 15 minutes. I laid around for 2+ hours waiting then over an hour in recovery sleeping.
The bill came to $26,000 (before insurance adjusted it). That did not include the surgeon or the anesthesiologist.
Did I get what I paid for?
Then you write "The largest cost of Obamacare will be limited advancements in medicine because it removes the incentive for investments and advancements."
Care to explain? We keep hearing that health care cost will go up (and I agree). So, how are we removing the "incentive for investment and advancements"?
Unless costs are dropping, where does the incentive go?
Mike in Cedar.
My thoughts are because people get roughly 3 times what they pay in. It can only get worse.
Ultra Bob
Cottonwood Heights, UT
Obamacare is not what the people of America wanted and expected from President Obama. And it doesn’t seem to be what some of the businessmen in Heath care wanted either. However some people seem to like it. Only thing is, the people who like it are not the people who profit from the Health Care scam.
If Obamacare was compared to the tax law in a poll, my guess is that more people hate the unfair tax law than the unfair Obamacare. And there would be a shift in the supporters versus the people in opposition.
The real problem is both cases is that the laws were created by businessmen for businessmen. Only in the case of Obamacare two sets of businessmen are pitted against each other.
Hayden, ID
@ Joe Blow. Then you should have gone to a "cheap" doctor! That way you would have gotten exactly what you paid for. There is no such thing as inexpensive AND excellent medicine! It doesn't exist and even Obamacare will not change that fact.
Fitness Freak
Salt Lake City, UT
Obamacare does absolutely nothing to address the EVER RISING healthcare delivery costs.
Pharmaceuticals/medical device manufacturers can raise their prices to whatever they want.
Hospitals/clinics can raise their prices to whatever they want. Doctors aren't limited much regarding "market forces" either.
Insurance companies will just keep passing on those costs until, at some point healthcare expenses equal greater than 50% of the family budget.
What we need is a thorough examination of WHY we're having to pay ridiculous amounts of $$$.
For instance: why can't I go to an independent lab, have my throat swabbed for strep, then if positive, go to the pharmacy and get a cheap prescription? Or, why can't a RN write a "prescription" for an innocuous medication like antibiotics?
We ALL think we should have "cadillac" medicine, but we all think someone/anyone else should pay for it.
Basically, forces outside our control manage every aspect of the system EXCEPT the price.
Obamacare doesn't even pretend to change that, it just takes "money from the left pocket, instead of taking it from the right pocket"!
Kent C. DeForrest
Provo, UT
Republicans have no right to complain about Obamacare. It is, in its most significant aspects, a Republican program. Why do we have it? Because the Republicans would not allow us to have a single-payer system patterned after any of 20 in the world that provide quality care for all citizens at half the cost of ours. They want some market-based program that would exclude half the population and allow the insurance industry and large health-care providers to soak in as much profit as possible. So, Bob, don't complain. We now have a Republican health-care system. If we really want to control costs, we need to follow the lead of the rest of the civilized world. Or maybe I shouldn't use the word "rest," because I'm not sure we're part of the civilized world. Our positions on health care and gun control put that proposition in question.
South Jordan, Utah
I just know our present system doesn't work very well. Senator Bennett and his republican friends had years to fix it and didn't. I'd prefer a single payer system, or a public option.
Cottonwood Heights, UT
Single Payer, Single Payer, Single Payer
Hayden, ID
One more important point (in my opinion) about Obamacare. When someone goes to the emergency room, they can not be turned away even if they can not pay. These costs are then passed on to "paying patients" by increased medical services they receive, hence, $10 aspirin tablets, etc. It was said by some that Obamacare would prevent these pass along cost of the uninsured from emergency room visits. What is not clear to me is that how Obamacare would change any of that. When I heard that Obamacare would decrease healthcare cost, I knew it was a lie.
Far East USA, SC
"When someone goes to the emergency room, they can not be turned away even if they can not pay"
Yup. The concept being that you cant turn away a dying patient. Not a bad concept.
Passed by Reagan with a GOP senate and a DEM house.
I agree mtnman. Business will find a way to outsmart government to insure that they will make more profits. Not that is really all that tough to do. Businessmen are smarter and our system allows them to contribute money (I call it bribery) to those who make the laws.
American Fork, UT
Yes, it has many problems. Mostly, it stopped far short of the creation of the single payer system we so need.
Irony Guy
Bountiful, Utah
Bennett's claim that Republican governors are not delaying ACA is totally disingenuous. Of course they're delaying it! Everybody knows it and so does Bennett. Meanwhile United Healthcare just raised my premium by 30 percent this year while its CEO walks off with $101 million payout. What do you think of that, Bob Bennett? Would you agree that is obscene or not?
HS Fan
Salt Lake City, UT
America has the best health care in the world, if you can afford it. For those who can't take two aspirin and have your family call the Doctor in mourning.
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To Figure 8 Barn from Philadelphia, PA
Figure 8 Barn
Bellevue State Park
720 Carr Road
Wilmington, DE 19809
Phone: (302)761-6952
1. I-95 South into Delaware
2. Exit 9 at Marsh Road (Rt 3)
3. Left at light at bottom of exit ramp
4. Go under overpass and go to the first light and turn left onto Carr Road
5. Go approximately .3 mile and you will see the Bellevue State Park main entrance sign on the right
6. Turn right into the park and go to the fee booth
7. They will direct you to the correct parking lot | dclm-gs1-103630000 |
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Recent Government Report on Social Security Disability Medical Exams and Records
Here's a video clip I've done, in which I discuss the highlights (at least from my vantage point) of GAO-09-149, a report to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Social Security. If you listen to it, you'll probably notice that I use "um" quite a bit (my spouse was happy enough to point this out to me).
If you'd prefer to avoid the many ums contained therein, this is what the GAO report had to:
1. There are 51 DDS agencies in the country (DDS or disability determination services, is the agency that renders medical determinations on SSD and SSI claims at the disability application and disability reconsideration levels).
2. Of those 51 agencies, 27 percent of them (14 agencies) reported that they did not receive medical records that they requested from doctors and hospitals 20 percent of the time. That's amazing. One out of five times that an examiner sends off a request for medical records, they don't get anything back. That certainly doesn't help disability claimants. Of course, you can't compel medical practices to send in records, not at the lower levels, though records can be subpoened at the social security disability hearing level.
3. 80 percent of the DDS agencies (41 of them) routinely attempt to have a claimant's own medical doctor conduct the consultative medical examination. Yet...34 of these DDS agencies report that the claimant's own doctor almost never agrees to perform the social security CE exam. Astounding. Very helpful doctors, wouldn't you say?
4. Over half the DDS agencies have implemented policies to either quicken their payments for medical records, or increase the amount they pay for medical records (meaning they have determined that they don't pay enough for records and/or pay for records too slow). Makes sense. As I say in the video clip, doctors and hospitals don't typically provide records for free. Why should they? Paper, time spent copying, ink, envelopes, postage---it all costs money. Why should a doctor's office simply be forced to eat that cost, which, considering the number of medical records requests that are generated, I'm sure is considerable. However, this brings up another issue which I think I will cover later--the expectation that records requested on a medicaid only claim should be submitted for free, which is ridiculous (if you don't know what I'm referring to, look for a following post on this).
That's basically the gist of what I say in the video.
Return to the Social Security Disability SSI Benefits Blog
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Update on a Social Security Disability Application
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Why are RAW processed files into JPEG better looking than JPEGs?
Started Mar 10, 2013 | Discussions thread
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Better noise reduction, sharpening, demosaic algorithms, etc.
In reply to YeoHoon Bae, Mar 10, 2013
YeoHoon Bae wrote:
Never really thought about this before. I always take RAW when I feel the condition is going to be challenging for the camera. I understand that RAW can store more info than JPEG files so I understand the quality of RAW will be better than JPEG.
But, once converted into JPEG, why would it be any better than camera in-processed JPEGs?
A curious person wanting to know more....
Assuming you know what you're doing, software matters. If you don't know what you're doing it doesn't matter. But even if current software isn't better than the camera's, the next rev of software might be. What LR 4 did for some of my photos is amazing.
Of course a lot of images aren't improved even if you know what you're doing. They're just different.
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Semantic web not very semantic
August 03, 2008
Recently, I've had the chance to learn about the current status of Web 3.0 aka the "Semantic" web. For those of you still working in Web 2.0, or heaven forbid, Web 1.0, the Semantic web is a vision of what the World Wide Web should be by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of much of the ideas behind our modern day web technology. I won't go into a deep expose on the Semantic Web - you can easily Google that up yourself.
Instead, I thought I'd give some impressions of what I've learned so far:
RDF and its cousin RDF Schema is an attempt to build on XML and XML Schema (conceptually) to create a means by which knowledge (ontology's) is specified in the Semantic Web. RDF, like XML, is verbose and at times very hard to read - odd for a supposedly human-readable format. So bad in fact, other more human-readable forms like Notation (N3). RDF is essentially a mechanical means to specify ontology "graphs" or relations (if you like database terminology). Imagine a hierarchy of animals with more specific creatures farther down the tree. The entire hierarchy with all of its rules, behaviors and assumptions forms the ontology of animals.
The problem is that 1) RDF for non-trivial ontologies is bulky and nearly impossible to create without tools 2) there are no high-quality tools available. There are a few research and marginally maintained open-source efforts. But I was surprised that with the amount of time that's passed around the Semantic Web, there are no good tools available for working with it.
SPARQL is essentially the SQL of the Semantic Web. It's an attempt to make querying graphs similar to querying tables except that in SPARQL you are quering RDF triples, not tables & columns. Instead of comparing values using a predesigned structure, you have to generate the RDF triples and query them. Imagine a highly complex series of RDF graphs maybe with hundreds or thousands of entities. You may end up with tens of thousands of triples or more. Now imagine trying to construct a "JOIN" across the graph to get what you want.
For the uninitiated, in SPARQL the goal is to establish a series of triple "rules" that when applied to the graph cause certain triples to "fall out" as the results. From those triples you can then extract whatever information you wish in addition to any information you extracted from the intermediate steps. So imagine these triples:
fruit,color,red / fruit, type, apple / basket, owner, bill / basket, contains, fruit
To query these tripes and find the name of the owner who has an apple, I'd do this:
SELECT ?owner
?item type "apple" .
?container contains ?item.
?container owner ?owner.
Run that query and it pops out the name "bill". Stare at the syntax for awhile. Notice how the ?item (a variable) is used in the first position in triple #1 and the third position in triple #2. This is essentially the "JOIN". Now imagine staring at a graph with thousands of triples and writing a query like this.
There is a bright spot in the Semantic Web - the Jena framework. This nice, robust and functional toolkit for Java allows a developer to load and query a graph by using either SPARQL directly, or an API that provides for querying using a series of Jena objects.
Another high note is the W3c RDF/S validator. This handy little site will not only validate your RDF/S but also generate optional RDF triples from the RDF, and create a graph showing the relationships.
The Semantic Web is highly complex and a vast shift from Web 1.0 and 2.0. The effort to create, maintain and update ontology's for domains is proving daunting and will likely be one of the roadblocks to pervasive use of the Semantic Web. Having said that, a "micro-Semantic Web" that is applied within a company to corporate knowledge bases where the scope of the ontology's and the effort needed to maintain them is manageable would seem to be an obvious candidate.
Keep your eye on this technology, but take any hype with a dose of caution, mixed well.
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Case Number 04993
Sony // 2001 // 108 Minutes // Rated R
Reviewed by Judge Joel Pearce (Retired) // August 16th, 2004
The Charge
"What is a ghost? A tragedy doomed to repeat itself time and time again? An instant of pain perhaps? Something dead that still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph, like an insect trapped in amber."
Opening Statement
In the years between Mimic and his more recent comic-book films, Guillermo del Toro directed The Devil's Backbone, one of the most satisfying horror movies I have seen in a very long time. This special edition proves once again that the best results on DVD happen when a director is directly involved with the transfer and special features.
Facts of the Case
In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, a young boy named Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is taken to a remote school that cares for orphans. The school is also friendly to the Republic, however, and the principal Carmen (Marisa Paredes, All About My Mother) is holding gold for the cause. There is much more happening than that happening at Santa Lucia school, though, which seems to involve the seemingly kind Dr. Casares (Federico Luppi, Cronos), an older orphan named Jaime (Íñigo Garcés), and a worker at the school that had been an orphan there years before named Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega, Open Your Eyes).
Somehow, there is a connection between these characters, the hidden gold, the bomb that fell in the courtyard but did not explode, and "the one who moans," a ghost that appears to the boys at night. With the end of the war approaching, however, tangible forces may be more dangerous to the safety of the school than the supernatural.
The Evidence
Because of when it came out, The Devil's Backbone has often been compared to The Sixth Sense and The Others. This film shares something of the tone of those more famous films, and it does involve ghosts, so I can understand why this comparison has been made. Both of those were gimmick films, however, a supernatural scare story that drives towards an all-important final twist. That's not to say that they are bad films, which they're not, but they don't offer as full or rich an experience as this creepy Spanish masterpiece. The biggest twist in The Devil's Backbone happens about two-thirds in, after which point all of the pieces of the story come rushing in toward a bigger conflict. The result is that I found myself on the edge of my seat during this film not just because there were scary things happening, because I was excited to see where the story was going to take me next.
It would be really hard to tackle a story with this many interconnecting facets and complex characters without ending up with a huge mess. A number of things work together to unify and balance these elements. The first is a tight, intelligent script. Twists and surprises that would seem preposterous in any other film make total sense here, and there is an unexpected unity between the supernatural and political elements of the story. The cinematography is also remarkable, creating a real sense of space both inside and outside of the school. It is immediately clear when we enter the school that we are entering another world, and yet it's a world that has been invaded by the political situation outside. The bomb in the courtyard acts as a constant reminder of the danger from outside, and it is always looming over the proceedings. The color design also helps to hold the film together, reinforcing the events of the film without becoming overbearing or blunt. The special effects are just as good, using a mixture of subtle CGI and practical effects to create a compelling and believable ghost.
The Devil's Backbone would have been a total failure if it wasn't for the stellar cast. In the documentary on the disc, del Toro admits that it's a real challenge directing children, especially when so much of the film rests on Carlos. Fernando Tielve reminded me many times of a young Matthew Broderick, with a level of innocence and charisma that immediately draws us in and makes us care deeply for what happens to him in this new place. His performance is matched by that of Íñigo Garcés, who makes us unsure of whether or not we can trust Jaime. The adult cast shares this ambiguity. Dr. Casares seems like a kindly old man, but there is something frightening about him, and he looks a lot like Christopher Lee. Carmen seems to have more secrets than she is immediately letting on and Jacinto seems to be the catalyst for the events that are about to unfold. With this many key characters and many more minor characters, it would have been easy for some of them to slip into the background. None of them do, though, and I think it's one of the best examples of an ensemble cast in a horror film.
I wish I could say more about what happens, some of the fascinating developments and surprising elements that show up throughout the film. I wouldn't want to ruin any of it for anyone though, so I am going to keep my mouth shut on that side of things. What I do want to talk about briefly is how well the notion of war has been integrated into a ghost story in this case. At the onset of the film, the war outside of the school seems like a perfect counterpoint to the ghost inside the school. It could be seen as a result of the fear and horror of war as well as a representation of the dark secrets that the school holds. However, as the film progresses, the war outside becomes more and more important to the main plot, which makes a comment about the Spanish Civil War in more specific terms. They were getting a head start on the Second World War, and at this point in the late 1930s, they were nearing the end of one war and the beginning of another. Del Toro chose the perfect time in history to place this tale of hopelessness and ghosts.
While I can't compare the transfer of this edition with the previous one, I can confidently say that this is one of the best DVD transfers that I have ever seen. The video transfer was supervised by del Toro, and it looks pretty much perfect. The colors are rendered perfectly, the dark levels are rich and impressive, the detail levels are razor sharp, and there are no digital flaws. Considering that this isn't a huge budget film, this isn't just reference quality, it's a miracle.
The sound is every bit as good. The LFE channel and surrounds are used to great effect with ambient noise and music, everything is mixed perfectly, and the dialogue is always audible. The subtitles are well-timed and easily read, giving us more time to concentrate on the visuals. The film has a rich orchestral score that sounds both crisp and rich. You can definitely add this disc to your home theatre show-off list.
In addition to a near-perfect transfer, this disc is also loaded up with great extra features. The most significant of these is the commentary with Guillermo del Toro, in which he does something different than I have ever heard before. Instead of talking about the film in general terms, he talks about the process of creating a film that is a hybrid between a Spanish Civil War movie, Gothic horror, and fairy tale. He does a great job with this track, demonstrating the amount of thought and synthesis that goes into a film of this nature. Del Toro is an extremely literate filmmaker, calling on a wide range of sources. He wanted to craft a film that built on these traditions but also stands on its own as a unique piece of art. Not everyone will be interested in listening to this track, but viewers who are interested in these sources of the film will find it one of the most fascinating commentary tracks ever. This is a different commentary track than was on the older disc, though that commentary has not been included on this disc. It's too bad that both tracks weren't included here.
There is also a documentary on the making of The Devil's Backbone, which sits squarely in between informative and fluffy. At the beginning, del Toro and a number of other crew members discuss some of the creative decisions that had to be made during pre-production. Del Toro talks about how difficult it is to direct child actors. After that, it becomes an overview of the cast, in which everyone says nice things about each other. Still, there is some explanation of why the cast was chosen, so it makes for an interesting watch. There are also a few deleted scenes, with an optional director's commentary. These are brief but interesting scenes, which could have been added in but were left out for good reasons.
The other extras explore the art design of the film, which is a great addition to this disc. There is a feature that shows the thumbnail drawings of del Toro next to both the finished storyboards and the final film in several key scenes. This gives an interesting perspective on how much (or little) a film changes from conception to presentation. If that's not enough for you, there is a thumbnail track that shows the original del Toro drawings though most of the film. There are also some galleries, including production photographs, more sketches, and a few pages from Guillermo del Toro's directing notebook. These are all cool, but as usual far too small to be valuable. A nice insert would have been a better way to display some of this information. Still, this is a lot of bonus features, making for a satisfying disc to explore. From what I can tell, it seems like mostly new material, with only the storyboards ported over from the old disc.
The Rebuttal Witnesses
If I were to make any complaints about The Devil's Backbone, it would be that it isn't really that frightening. Personally, I don't think it's a problem, because I would rather see a horror movie that's interesting and compelling, while only offering a few scary moments. Still, fright lovers and gorehounds may find it to be too slow and contemplative for their tastes.
Closing Statement
There's something timeless about The Devil's Backbone, combined with a feel that's decidedly contemporary and slick. While I am a fan of del Toro's more recent work, I somehow missed catching this until now. If you're in the same boat, pick up this edition right away, as it is probably his best film to date. If you already own the old edition, the choice may be harder. This transfer is perfect, so if you're a technophile, you will want to upgrade. Fans of ghost stories will definitely want to add this disc to their collections.
The Verdict
Not even remotely guilty. Columbia has actually produced a worthwhile double dip, and on a film that deserves it.
Scales of Justice
Video: 100
Audio: 100
Extras: 92
Acting: 95
Story: 96
Judgment: 97
Special Commendations
* Golden Gavel 2004 Nominee
Perp Profile
Studio: Sony
Video Formats:
* 1.85:1 Anamorphic
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (Spanish)
* English
Running Time: 108 Minutes
Release Year: 2001
MPAA Rating: Rated R
Distinguishing Marks
* Director's Commentary
* Making of Documentary
* Deleted Scenes
* Director's Thumbnail Track
* Storyboard Comparisons
* Conceptual Art Gallery
* Excerpts from Director's Notebook
* IMDb | dclm-gs1-103690000 |
We've already seen some evidence that Intel was still pushing strongly ahead with MeeGo despite Nokia's deal with Microsoft, and now CEO Paul Otellini has chimed in on the matter to reassure folks that the company is still committed to the mobile OS. Speaking with Bloomberg at Mobile World Congress this week, Otellini said that he doesn't see that "Nokia changing its strategy changes the industry strategy," and added that "operators still look for an open, operator-friendly operating system." Otellini further went on to say on a panel discussion that he "understood" why Nokia made the decision it did, and even said that if he were in the same position he would have made "the same or a similar call." That doesn't mean he wasn't disappointed by it though -- in fact, he revealed that he used a word that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz "has often used" when he first received the news from Stephen Elop himself (we'll let you look that up if you don't know it). | dclm-gs1-103700000 |
• JSG Universal FMC
JSG Universal FMC Flight Panel
By Don Filer (12 October 2008)
You just can't go wrong with a $15 flight management computer you can install in any of your FSX aircraft. If you're a purest, this probably isn't the FMC for you. If you refuse to pay for anything, ditto and if you have no experience with a FMC, you may be in for some serious study and experimentation.
The saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" has some relevance here. I have come to appreciate there are toy-like Flight Simulator add-ons and add-ons that are very realistic and challenging to master. The Universal FMC from JSG is somewhere in the middle on this scale. That isn't a judgment made from loads of previous FMC experience either. I had none with a FMC before reviewing this product. After a month of research here's what I discovered.
Two Basic Types
There are two basic types of FMCs for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Those that automatically load themselves with parameters right from Flight Simulator's flight plans and others that must have their data imported from external programs like FSBuild, or entered painstakingly by hand. Thankfully, JSG's product loads its parameters after selecting a departure and arrival airport and adding any waypoints you choose in Flight Simulator's flight planner. It can also import flight plans from other programs and accept changes entered using the FMC keypad. In order to add waypoints or change your destination however, you have to go back into the flight planner and make changes there. You can't just add waypoints or delete them from the FMC panel, the way you do in some FMCs.
Installation of JSG's Universal FMC was smooth and easy however the panel is only automatically added to the standard Airbus A321. It can also be installed in any of the FSX aircraft by editing the appropriate panel.cfg file. Practically speaking, an FMC is normally used in large jet aircraft for long distance flights.
What You Get In The Package
You get a very well designed FMC with VNAV, LNAV, HOLD and FIX functions. The pages include: ATC - flight number and aircraft ident; LEGS - displaying for each leg the waypoint, heading, distance and altitude; PROGRESS - the actual position, the previous and next waypoints and the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) at the destination airport as well as remaining fuel; APPROACH SPEED - useful information on the flap settings and corresponding speed limits required during an approach, speed and aircraft weight; NAV displaying radios, both active and standby, OBS and radials. The FMC searches and retrieves the NAV ILS and COMM codes when you enter the ICAO name directly in the FMC. The Universal FMC includes COMM - radios, both active and standby, transponder and ADF; POSITION - the current position of the aircraft at the departure.
You also get a sound package which adds a French co-pilot's voice for checklists, takeoffs, approaches, anti-ice activation and landings. A digitized voice announces anomalies that may occur during flight like wind shear, bank angle, glide slope or flaps alert. The documentation consists of a 48 page pdf file explaining each page in the FMC and a brief summary on how to set it up and how to add it to other aircraft in your hangar. You get a 747 sound package, a spreadsheet list of VORs and a checklist for the Boeing 747. The additional sounds are noteworthy since they add an element of realism when the co-pilot announces the flap positions, parking brake, spoilers, gear up and down, lights and autopilot on or off. A 4-bell gong alerts you when you arrive less than four miles from the next waypoint and a 1-bell gong sounds when the aircraft changes to the next waypoint. The 747 sound package may be something you want to add to your stock Boeing 747 which by default, is aliased to the 737 sounds. If you prefer a quieter 747, you'll like this free addition and it's easy enough to install and remove them if you care to.
In my attempt to figure out how to use the FMC I discovered an 8-part FMC tutorial on YouTube that does a very good job explaining how to use the PMDG 747 computer on a flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. I read a very useful article by Hans Fog on How to Program the FMC in the how-to section here on FlightSim.Com. I found quite a few articles and reviews of other products that include flight management computers, which led me to download and try the iFly 747 aircraft for FSX. Its FMC is quite authentic and may be more to your liking if you favor realism and have some experience with the FMC. I also purchased the Friendly-Panels add-on FMC which is comparable to JSG's at $15. I discovered a $29 manual by Captain Mike Ray on the Boeing 700 series
JSG Universal FMC installed in the Airbus A321
and bought it hoping to get a handle on managing flights with a FMC. By the time I was done, I spent over $100 trying to figure out how to use the FMC.
How To Master The FMC? Practice!
I sympathize with others who have come before with the challenge of explaining how to effectively use a FMC without previous training or experience. The best way to learn is to practice.
If you are an experienced FMC user you could tell if this one fell short or was adequate based on what you know. I on the other hand, just kept crashing, dusting myself off and trying again.
SIDs, STARs, and VORs
If you have an aversion to charts and acronyms you probably aren't a candidate for a flight management computer. On the other hand, if you want to learn what all those charts are and how they're used the FMC may be just the excuse you need to find out. A Standard Instrument Departure is a SID and a Standard Terminal Arrival Route is a STAR. These navigation aids are stored in a database and updated on a regular basis. VOR stands for VHF Omni-directional Radio Range. I spent another $30 at Navigraph downloading charts and routes and updated databases.
This was unnecessary because there are several internet sites where you can get much if not all the information free. Flight Aware for instance, has a pilot resource section where you can download airport diagrams and RFinder provides routes after inputting departure and arrival destinations. Terminal procedures and route paths are available at PlanePath for several specific Flight Simulator aircraft makers and AirNav also provides free navigation aids as well.
After many test flights and lots of experimentation, I was finally able to fly from Travis Air Force base in Fairfield, California and land safely on runway 28R at San Francisco using the JSG FMC. I used it in the default Airbus A321, Learjet 45 and Boeing 747 successfully.
Some Things I Learned Along The Way
Waypoints are not always saved in flight plans - at least not the way I intuitively expected. I found that on first loading, my previously saved flight plans loaded without waypoints. Upon clearing the plan and loading from within the flight planner, they appeared! I'm not sure where that bit of information is explained but I never saw it before. Since the JSG FMC relies on getting this data from the flight planner, I was somewhat confused that Flight Simulator saves the plans the way it does.
While VNAV (Vertical Navigation) may be great for saving fuel and adjusting altitude for efficiency sake, I had problems with it. On short flights it really wasn't practical and it had the tendency of increasing the speed to the point of over speed, took its sweet time getting up to cruise altitude, and decided to begin the descent long before the ATC gave me permission; so I climbed to 10,000 feet max and gradually descended to arrive lined up with the runway at 1800 feet and after completing all the waypoints, selected Approach hold on the autopilot and that worked. The autopilot would take off immediately after touching down however, so I found by switching to manual thrust at 1000 feet and disconnecting the autopilot at 500 feet made everything work successfully. From the videos I've seen, airline pilots don't land using the autopilot anyway.
On runway 27 at Ramstein, Germany in our Learjet 45 ready to fly to Frankfort. Entering the cost index allows the FMC to select the appropriate cruise speed. I found it necessary to select a slower speed for test flight purposes. We're set for a cruise altitude of 5000 feet and a speed of 250 knots.
The ATC was too distracting when trying to get the FMC to work so I didn't use it as I normally would. I wasn't sure if the changes I made at the Air Traffic Controller's request were making things work incorrectly. I also don't normally fly in the GPS mode and the FMC switches to that mode whenever the route is activated.
With more experimentation I was able to land without switching to Approach hold. I chose the approach suggested by the Air Traffic Controller, made sure my NAV1 radios were tuned to the correct ILS frequency, activated vectors and the FMC took it from there. The timing of selecting and activating the approach with the FMC made a difference too.
Some other unexpected results happened when I installed the latest A2A/ShockWave 3D runway lights. The installation program overwrote the panel.cfg files so the Universal FMC disappeared from my Learjet and 747 and I had to re-edit those files to get the FMC back.
We're ready for takeoff in the Airbus on runway 06 at Wheeler AFB, Hawaii. After taking off and retracting the landing gear, I will engage the autopilot and then the Speed hold button. I'll retract the flaps and engage the LNAV (Longitude Navigation) button at approximately 800 feet on the FMC which will take over the navigation of the flight and follow the waypoints I selected in the flight planner. Notice the execute button is lit. On some FMCs you have to click on the execute button when it lights up. That isn't the case on the Universal FMC. That just de-activates the selected route.
I found Captain Mike Ray's Boeing 700 Series manual to be an invaluable tool I would recommend to anyone who wants the straight scoop from a commercial pilot with more than 37 years experience. His manuals present very technical subjects in a light-hearted way with plenty of graphics and humor. He points out the stock airplanes in Flight Simulator do not have the required instrumentation to facilitate an accurate simulation with a FMC. If a more robust flight panel is what you wish for, you might consider JSG's 747 or 777 panels which include the FMC.
Mike's flight tutorials will not only get you up to speed using the FMC; it will also have you rolling in the aisles with laughter.
Here we're poised for takeoff in the Boeing 747 at Travis AFB in California. Our departure runway is 33R and our destination is San Francisco. You can see that I have entered 10 degrees of flaps and the FMC has calculated my V1, VR and V2 speeds automatically. Also notice the size of the FMC is 50% larger in the 747 than it is in the other two examples. If you want the FMC display/hide Icon to appear in the correct position, you'll have to do some experimenting to get it lined up correctly. Here it appears to the left of the GPS - NAV switch.
The Navigation log found in the flight planner provides some useful information regarding altitude, heading and distances on our route. The only waypoint from the flight planner I chose by hand that matches the "real" map plate for San Francisco is DARNE - 4.3 miles from the airport.
Mount Diablo and the San Joaquin delta region in the background. We'll cruise through the Livermore valley and descend to 3000 feet once we clear the east bay foothills. When we get to the bay itself we'll drop down to 1800 feet and catch the ILS approach glide slope to runway 28R at San Francisco.
Likes And Dislikes
One of the things I really like about the Universal FMC is it leaves the Garmin GPS available to use in conjunction with it. The other FMCs I tried eliminate the GPS using the primary flight display for a map view. The navigation display on some versions is an adequate substitute but for many stock FSX aircraft panels it isn't. The GPS icon would display and hide the FMC panel instead of the GPS.
Graphically speaking, the JSG FMC artwork is all right but most of the others I tried were even better. Feature-wise the JSG Universal FMC is fine. I also like the way the JSG model retrieves the flight plan in about 8 seconds. While it isn't as flexible for adding or changing waypoints from the keypad, it takes less setup time than the others. The push back feature is one I like a lot too allowing you to program the FMC from the gateway instead of sitting on the runway before takeoff. The additional sounds are a real plus and make the universal FMC fun to use.
You just can't go wrong with a $15 universal FMC you can install in any of your FSX aircraft. A definite must have to add to your aircraft and a critical piece of equipment to outfit your Boeing fleet. One thing this FMC could use is a comprehensive guide on how to use it. (The same can be said for the other FMCs too.) Answers to questions like: how to use the FMC on a visual versus a GPS or ILS approach would be helpful. Is VNAV a useful tool for takeoffs and landings? Alas, I am still figuring it out.
Don Filer
[email protected]
Learn More Here | dclm-gs1-103720000 |
1. Boards
2. Wii U
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1. Boards
2. Wii U | dclm-gs1-103730000 |
thumbnail Hello,
The striker who came within centimetres of eliminating hosts Brazil and taking Chile into the quarter-finals of the World Cup has had the image etched onto his back
Chile striker Mauricio Pinilla has had a tattoo etched into his back depicting his agonising miss against Brazil in the second round of the World Cup.
With the game tied at 1-1 and the clock ticking down in extra time, Pinilla took a pass from Alexis Sanchez and fired towards goal.
The ball flew beyond goalkeeper Julio Cesar, looking destined to hit the back of the net and eliminate the tournament hosts and favourites. The opportunity, though, ended in heartbreak for Chile as it struck the bar and bounced out.
With Chile losing the resulting shootout, that moment may be one most players would rather forget as soon as possible.
However, Pinilla, 30, not only has the image of that near miss etched into his mind, he also has it tattooed onto his skin, with the phrase "One centimetre from glory" written below a detailed picture of the moment the ball struck the bar.
The company who gave the former Inter forward the tattoo posted pictures of the incredible ink, | dclm-gs1-103740000 |
Ways to help kids unplug from technology
Our lives feel busier than ever. Cell phones, tablets and laptops can help us be more efficient, but they also can make us feel like we need to be accessible to everyone all the time.
- Out of sight, out of mind. Having the TV in the family room can make the television feel like the center of your family activities. If possible, put the TV in a hutch and close the doors when not in use.
- Set a limit for use of tablets or video games. Rather than battling over it all day, set a time and duration for when your kids will know they can play. Consider setting play time before dinner for 30 minutes. It gives the kids a chance to unwind while dinner prep is underway.
- Create off-limit times for all devices. For example, have everyone turn in their cell phones before mealtime. Use a dedicated drawer or basket where everyone can drop their phones before sitting down to eat.
- Monthly unplugged day. Each month, ask the family to take one day to "unplug." Have family members take turns planning a bike ride, nature walk or museum visit.
- Make learning fun. You can control what games/apps are on a tablet, so choose options that are interactive and educational.
- Curb the snacks. Try to avoid handing out empty calorie snacks while your kids are watching. Try a plate of fruit and low-fat cheese; and offset screen time with outdoor activities.
- Schedule a family game night. Replace watching TV with a game night. It's a way to encourage good sportsmanship, team building and cooperation, too.
The article requested cannot be found! Please refresh your browser or go back. (GE,20140327,APN,303279887,AR). | dclm-gs1-103750000 |
Philo and SophiaPhilosophicasl questions approached in ways that make them accessible to people who are not academics or intellectuals. Here are ideas, fresh perspectives on life and enough insight to enable you to take the advice of ?Brian in the Monty Python film and 'Think things through for yourselves.'
Mathematics and Reality
Contact us:
Mathematics, God and Reality
by Ian R Thorpe
25 April 2012
Marcus du Sautoy, Mathematician, Professor for the Public Understanding of Science (having succeeded Richard Dawkins in the Chair) last year presented a series of TV programmes about mathematics and nature entitled ‘The Code’. Advance publicity for the show led potential viewers to believe Prof. Du Sautoy would be presenting a mainstream view of mathematics in an attempt to demonstrate the subject is not really as difficult or nerdy as people think, rather than promoting his own very nerdy version of atheistic metaphysics. Du Sautoy is not so much a mathematician, he's a maths geek.
In the televised debate on why British pupils in the state education system are failing so badly in Mathematics, Marcus du Sautoy opened for the pro maths side and demolished his own case in his first sentence, saying: “When Wayne Rooney takes a shot at goal he first does a simultaneous equation.”
Now Wayne Rooney is one of our finest soccer players and probably the best goalscorer of his generation. But he is not the brightest light on the Christmas Tree. While a wonderful, instinctive athlete in his chosen sport it's doubtful he even knows what an equation is. So can we imagine him pausing to do complex algebraic calculations in his head in the split second he has to steady himself and strike the ball. I think not. Can you imagine a sports commentator raving: “ ... and the ball comes to Rooney. He does an equation, he shoots, he scores.”
It's laughable. Cats catching their prey, dogs catching a Frisbee in mid air and horses taking a fence so high they cannot see the ground on the other side would also have to do equations, not one but many. And if Wayne Rooney does not seem capable of such a mental exercise those creatures certainly aren't.
Few of us are taken in by Du Sautoy's hyperbolic overselling of mathematics. Having read articles and essays Du Sautoy has published, he seems to be a rather cranky academic who is totally besotted with his specialist subject. In his published work he has made such outrageous claims as because music can be mathematically analysed, without mathematics we could not have created music and that the Universe is constructed according to a very complex mathematical design (nothing outrageous about that you might think but he and his supporters deny this is just a version of intelligent design, dismissing intelligent design as religious nonsense).
Du Sautoy’s view of the physical dimension is that, as the Pythagoreans expressed it, ‘Number is everything.’ This is not as original as you might think, in fact it has been around since the ancient Geek Pythagoras (570 - 490 BC) floated it as an answer to the religious and naturalistic schools of philosophy. Pythagoras was a scientist, a mathematician in fact, so as far as Marcus Du Sautoy is concerned, QED. The idea that everything emanates from numbers and mathematics is clearly as undemonstrable as the Biblical creation story or Big Bang theory. This should make the proposition anathema to a mathematician and identify it as a faith-based religious concept. Philosophers of mathematics and informed students of mathematics know that there is, to date, no satisfactory understanding of the relationship, if any, between mathematics and reality; to suggest that there is a relationship, and what such a relationship might be, is an act of faith. And yet, more and more we see, especially among theoretical physicists and mathematicians (and of course among the Climate Science lobby who base their studies on mathematical models rather than observations of reality) that "Science" is becoming more and more like a religion.
It is very unfortunate that scientists working with speculative mathematics are behaving as though mathematics is the original reality to which the physical world ‘must’ conform through such things as ‘laws’. Science has been hideously corrupted in the last 80 years because of this and further corrupted through it's becoming a branch of government which has brought into it an element of The King's New Clothes". It is not politically expedient to question science.
Many Christians will be delighted to see and hear Du Sautoy suggesting that numbers are at the root of all reality, this is in some ways adds a of kind of scientific endorsement to the theory of Intelligent Design. However Du Sautoy is an avowed atheist who says he intends to is take a more gentle approach to undermining religious belief than Richard ‘The Rottweiler’ Dawkins (whom all can see is a bigoted fanatic) and is not citing design, or even apparent design, as the basis of everything but referring to some mysterious entity he calls ‘The Code’. A code at the very least implies information content, but The Code (as a proper noun and with the definite article) suggests something unique and powerful. God?
In his own words Du Sautoy puts it like this "…underlying everything that surrounds us, from the natural world to the cities we live in, there is a hidden code that explains why things look and behave they way they do. This hidden code (‘The Code’) has the power to unlock the laws that govern the universe. The Code is the truth of the universe, and its numbers dictate the way the world must be."
So, this hidden code, this entity that Du Sautoy calls ‘The Code’ is identical to Absolute Truth, The Oneness, The Ancient Of Days, and can lead us to All Truth, and is completely deterministic.
This is unquestionably a religious view of the Universe. In fact it is the old heresy of Pythagoras, the pagan Greek philosopher, re-worked by gnostics, Kabbalists, Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Illuminists, and now, it appears, New Atheists. What a great scam it will be if modern scientists s can pull it one off!
Most people know very little about Pythagorean philosophy other than the Pythagorean Theorem of the triangle, which was attributed to Pythagoras, but was most certainly known and used for well over 1000 years before Pythagoras lived. The man himself however was rather more complex than a triangle and apart from believing that the universe and everything in it was made out of numbers and mathematical formulas he also never ate beans because he believed every time we fart a little bit of our soul escapes. Bertrand Russell, the twentieth century mathematician and philosopher, whilst unsympathetic to Pythagoras' view of the nature of things, stated.
Pythagoras and his followers believed that all relationships could be reduced to numerical equations, that mathematics (holos) is the true reality, while the world (cosmos) with time and space and all other manner of artifice is a nothing more than a construct of human minds. Pythagorean metaphysics stated that ‘The Essence of Being Is Number’, number being understood to be ‘that which prior to all things subsists…by which and from which all things are coordinated, and remain connumerated in an indissoluble order.’ (Christians will notice a usurpation of the divine Logos therein). The Pythagorean philosophy was dominated by the ideal that numbers were not merely symbols of reality, but were the final substance of real things.
Aristotle fleshes this out in his Metaphysics, where he states that the Pythagoreans
"…believed that the principles of mathematics were also the principles of all things that be. Now, since the principles of mathematics are numbers, and they thought they found in numbers, more than in fire and earth and water, similarities with things that are and that become (they judged, for example, that justice was a particular property of numbers, the soul and mind another, opportunity another, and similarly, so to say, anything else), and since furthermore they saw expressed by numbers the properties and the ratios of harmony, since finally everything in nature appeared to them to be similar to numbers, and numbers appeared to be first among all there is in nature, they thought that the elements of numbers were the elements of all that there is, and that the whole world was harmony and number."
While pagans both modern and ancient, do not believe in their gods as followers of the Abrahamic religions, the Pythagoreans definitely believed in an omnipotent, omniescent God who is in fact a number or numeric code.
Allocated a generous budget by the BBC from funds generously but involuntarily donated by taxpayers Du Sautoy starts his series with an expensive jolly to Chartres cathedral, said to be first of the great Gothic cathedrals (in fact Durham Cathedral in north east England was begun first but not completed until after Chartres because of local problems about who was the rightful King of England. Chartres has become far more widely known in recent years thanks to a certain fictional work.
Chatres Cathedrsal south transept Durham Cathedral
In the Middle Ages the cathedral school at Chartres, like most of the religious communities, was the centre for learning and for a revival and development of Pythagorean ideas. The monastic orders were fiercely independent of the Vatican and openly defied Papal control freakery especially if it related to suppression of ancient knowledge deemed "ungodly" by The Holy Father. Chartes cathedral was built on the site of a Druid temple, the crypt beneath the cathedral being a dolmenic chamber. Diodorus Siculus, writing in 36 BC, describes how these Druids followed Pythagorean teachings although that is probably wrong - the Druids, like the Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians and Minoans were using Pythagorean mathematics long before Pythagoras was even a twinkle in his Daddy's eye. Thanks to such links to a mysterious era in human development, Chartres has become one of the main centres for people interested in the The Grail Mystery and certain lost arts and sciences. The cathedral contains a mass of Masonic, gnostic, pagan, astrological and Pythagorean symbols.
As this stuff is the bread and butter of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and the genre of revelatory fiction it spawned along with the speculative history books concerning The Holy Grail, The Knights Templar, Ark Of The Covenant, Freemasonry, Pagan symbols in Christian art and the secrets of the ancients perhaps Chartres was not the most helpful place to start a series that claimed it would reveal a great spiritual truth.
Down the centuries the Abbots of Chartres tried to ‘Christianize’ some of the Pythagorean ideas and make use of them in theology, hence as Otto von Simson (The Gothic Cathedral, Harper & Row, New York, 1956) states,
"The masters of Chartres, like Pythagoreans of all ages, were obsessed with mathematics: it was considered the link between God and the world, the magical tool that would unlock the secrets of both."
Mathematician David J. Stucki, in his published essay Mathematics As Worship (pdf) comments
"…from the dawn of Western Civilization and through the Middle Ages the heart of mathematics was strongly tied to religious thought. Eventually, however, the humanism of the Renaissance and the empiricism of the Scientific Revolution began to open the door for the breakdown of this marriage. Scientism, the granting of absolute authority to the empirical and objective, became the mistress of the modern mind. The resulting ‘mathematization’ of science and culture (Howell & Bradley, 2001) had a myriad of consequences. The Church was no longer perceived as having a monopoly on Truth. The success of mathematics in accounting for the structure and behavior of the physical universe ultimately led to a naturalistic version of the Pythagorean ontology that ‘Everything is number.’ The divorce of theology and mathematics in the modern age created the 20th century crisis of ‘Foundationalism’ in mathematical philosophy…[and] epistemological progress in mathematics is devastating to Christian theology under the Pythagorean legacy."
Stucki obviously thinks Pythagoreans mathematical theology still has followers; Du Sautoy, as we have seen, is one, but also an increasing number of physicists are being seduced into thinking that ‘the principles of mathematics are also the principles of all things that be’, that somehow mathematics is the primary reality or as some might say the supreme force of the universe.
Another example of a scientist who has lost sight of reality is I. V. Volovich, a physicist at the great centre for wasting taxpayers' money, CERN. In his paper Number Theory As The Ultimate Physical Theory Volovich concludes that: " ... the fundamental entities of which we consider our Universe to be composed cannot be particles, fields or strings but numbers ..." Obviously the man is daft as a brush, numbers are a construct of the human mind. Numbers are what we use for accounting and measuring. Many things can be said to have divine properties but not abstract concepts like numbers.
Others have dived into the same dark pool only to find on braining themselves on the bottom it was not as deep as they thought, for example Vasilios Gardiakos:
"That ‘all is number’ will allow us to create what many theologians thought only God was capable of…all can be numerated and computerized…Mathematics is the most basic requirement for existence. It has no mass, dimension and time and yet it can create these and many more phenomena.
The Thales era which brought us science is near the end. It is to be followed by the Pythagorean era with…the realization that ‘all is number’…we will gain the vision that ‘all is mathematics’…This is the point that we begin to perceive our existence as numerical."
The philosophy of mathematics is pure philosophy and not science as it's devotees like to claim, it proposes, but never resolves. Pythagoreans aim to cut through the debate between the Platonists and the Formalists, the Realists and the Nominalists by making both views redundant through asserting a radical third way, which aims to dominate the whole scientific enterprise.
Platonists and Realists believe that mathematical entities exist independently of the human mind, abstract and immutable; apart from this material universe in which absolute mathematical truths reside. In this view, mathematicians do not invent mathematics but discover it. New mathematical concepts are "revealed". But if these entities are not part of this universe, how can they be discovered and recognized? The standard answer to that it is by intuition or (divine?) revelation and illumination, thus we have a dichotomy. The scientists who most despise religion embrace the methodology of the religious thinker as their own. Christians might be attracted to such a view, in that such entities ‘exist’ in the mind of God, (or somehow in God himself, who is transcendently not part of this universe but something which, as one of the gnostic gospels puts it, is so great the entire firmament is contained within it and yet so small it's whole is contained within the smallest thing.
Formalists/Nominalists on the other hand deny the existence of mathematical entities, dismissing mathematics a purely a construction of the mind (whether the mind of man or the mind of God). In this view, mathematics is a very useful common language and tool that can help us try to make sense of the world, and can lead us towards beneficial discoveries and enhance our understanding, but which is for all that an artifice, a human invention. St Augustine had some interesting thoughts along these lines as well, that numbers are the universal language conveyed by God to us as confirmation of the truth.
Realists and Nominalists are agreed that there are no mathematical entities within this universe, but Pythagoreans assert that mathematical entities are not only within the universe, but actually comprise the universe. This has been an attractive idea for atheist scientists who take a reductionist approach in their efforts to avoid answering the unanswerable questions that are food and drink to philosophers. If everything can be reduced to numbers, everything can be explained by an equation. Except Wayne Rooney's goalscoring ability of course, or how a cat times it's leap to catch a bird that is about to fly away, or how a monkey swings with such apparent ease from branch to branch among the trees while so many humans struggle to solve even simple equations.
Realism then proposes that mathematical entities exist outside the reality of the physical universe. The connection, if any, between these entities and reality is an ongoing debate.
Nominalism holds that there are no mathematical entities; mathematics is a product of the mind apart from reality.
Pythagoreanism: asserts that there are mathematical entities within the universe, which constitute the whole of reality. All else is a product of the mind.
St Augustine said, "If you see anything at all that has measure, number, and order, do not hesitate to attribute it to God as craftsman."
With those things in mind, imagine the hysterical fury that would come pouring from the mouths and fingers of militant Atheists, if this TV series had been titled "Intelligent Design?" rather than the more cryptic "The Code." while highlighting the intelligence of the design underlying the patterns and numbers of which the universe is formed. ROTFLMAO.
One of the many sources I used in researching this artilce, (The Language Of Life, Keith Devlin, The Guardian, September 2004)attracted this letter in response (the article was published before online commenting was available in the newspaper.) The misrepresentation, bigging up, of mathematics the writer refers to is something I see more and more often. Swcience is becoming a religion, with dogmas, a creed and fanatical followers determined to convert or silence all infidels. Letter to The Guardian in response to Keith Devlin's article The Language Of Life. Keith Devlin should beware of misrepresenting the nature of mathematics (The language of life, September 13). Although many things in the real world can be described in mathematical terms, mathematics itself is part of our imagination rather than part of the physical universe. Devlin and others are in danger of falling into the same trap as the Pythagoreans, who thought the universe actually consisted of mathematics. After Pythagoras, the philosopher Zeno proposed several paradoxes, such as the one about Achilles and the tortoise, to show the distinction between mathematics and reality. One example concerns division: in mathematics it is clear that there is no limit to dividing. It is far from clear, however, whether the same applies to the real world; the apparent alternatives - that there is a limit to dividing the constituents of the universe, or not - seem equally hard to swallow. The universe is as it is simply because that is how things are. It is not because of mathematics. So, even though we may see the Fibonacci series in nature, that still does not mean that the maths existed before we thought of it. Michael Bulley Chalon-sur-Saône, France RELATED POSTS:
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Esther (Erna) Jay of The Jay Companies Dies
Posted on May 19, 2011 by HFN Staff
Esther (Erna) JayEsther (Erna) Jay
BROOKLYN, N.Y.-Esther (Erna) Jay, founder and matriarch of The Jay Companies, passed away May 15. She was 91.
Jay was born May 11, 1920, in Sanok, Poland. She escaped the invading Nazis in 1939 by fleeing east, but fell into the hands of the Russian Army. At the age of 19, Jay was forced to work in a Russian slave labor camp in Siberia until the conclusion of World War II. Esther and her husband Paul arrived in New York around 1950 and began to build what soon became a thriving family-based business importing and selling European tableware and giftware.
In the early days, the Jays would travel back and forth by boat to Europe for weeks, visiting factories and purchasing goods to import and sell back in the United States, the family said. "In an era when women were seldom seen outside the home, Mrs. Jay was pioneering the way for generations of women in the tabletop industry, and indeed helping to create this industry from scratch in the United States," said Melissa Hinton, vice president of sales, Jay Companies.
Jay instilled the importance of family and passed that culture on through generations, Hinton said, and her goal and driving passion was to create a company that would be a place for the family to work together, grow together, and prosper together. Her son, Harry serves as president and CEO, while grandsons Michael, David, Kalman and Adrian make up the executive board.
Jay is survived by her son Harry, daughter Susan Solny, as well as many grandchildren and great grandchildren. | dclm-gs1-103780000 |
The Horse Forum
The Horse Forum (/)
- Horse Riding (
- - How much does a thought weigh? (
tinyliny 03-06-2011 01:30 AM
How much does a thought weigh?
I got to spend two days in a row out at the barn; one in the round pen and today on the trails with Mac.
I had the most wonderful ride and all, I just felt this great connection to him. I am really starting to be aware of where his thought is, and being sure that I keep him "with " me in thought.
I start to see how the horse's thought is there for the reading, if you stay alert and look for it.
It is my job to watch his thought and to see when I need to bring it back to me. In order to do that, I have to know that it's going away.
So, how hard do I have to work to get his thought with me? Well, that depends on how much a thought weighs. If the horse gets that thought really strong and heavy onto something, like, "I wanna go home" or, "my friend is calling me back" or, "I think that dark red thing over there is going to eat me", THEN I will have to be strong to bring that heavy thought back.
But if I can catch my horse's thought while it's still feather light, then I can move it where I want it to be with a mear breath of my air.
Amazing lightness and connection can be felt. It's exquistiely beautiful.
AlexS 03-06-2011 01:41 AM
Those are the moments that we all aim for. I believe this is why we keep going despite the money woes or the other commitments we have. It is hard to explain to a none horse person, those moments of connection.
I am yet to feel it with my current horse, I have owned him for a year now, and I feel it on the ground, but not under saddle, but I am determined.
My previous horse it came in flickers and then came in floods and was wonderful, it will forever be my goal to chase that.
Congrats to you for feeling it with your horse, it is a huge deal and a huge training moment.
tinyliny 03-06-2011 01:46 AM
I have been riding Mac almost 3 years. He had and still does, the habit of spinning and can do it with lightening speed and NO obvious warning sign. For that reason, I began really watching him with my third eye , all the time and trying to feel when his thought was too far away. I ride a fine line of balance, though, because i was for awhile micromanaging him, so worried that he was going to spin. So, I watch to see when I feel that he can mentally handle something that troubles him (not sure) and when he goes into a mental fear void and I need to step in and create a "draw" to bring him out of the void.
Sound familiar?
AlexS 03-06-2011 01:51 AM
Yes, although when I experienced it, I was not as astute as you are, nor did I stick with my problem horse for as long. She would have made a great rodeo horse and was dangerous. I tried for a year and got nowhere so cut my loses.
It is a huge thing to relax enough to trust your gut, and to listen to your feelings. And those feelings are often better than the thoughts in our head.
tinyliny 03-06-2011 02:09 AM
Oh, I was really close to dropping Mac, he put me on the ground 5 times in less than three years.
But as I go along I am beginning to realize how very much the horse's brain is the most important thing to ride. I spent so much time listenging to this and that instruction of this and that aid to apply and how to sit and all, and throughout that time, I never ONCE stopped and listened and watched to see where my horse's thought was. And the thing is, once you start looking for it, you see it all over the place. It's like a silent world starts to get busy with "chatter". Well,, not chatter, but you start to see that like any moderately intelligent animal , horse's are very aware and their thought is always somewhere. They don't turn off, like a machine. And they are so honest about it, too. Watch their ears, eyes, shift of weight. You can tell so much. It's amazing. And when you have their thought ON you, you can move them with breathe, like I said.
The really good horse people have their horses thought really strongly attached to them. Me, I get a brush of it sometimes.
I think riding Western has helped me in this growth because I ride so much on really loose reins, and the horse can be spooky, I have to really be aware of where his mind is, and if he stays light to the bit, then I can regather his mind by just lifting one rein. I don't ride the bit, I ride his mind.
AlexS 03-06-2011 02:16 AM
I think it is more than just paying attention to them, I do that all the time but Lucas is dumber than a small rock, most of the time he is thinking 'la la la'.
It takes a connection, an understanding to get to that point, and while that is my goal, I am not there yet with this guy.
Hunterjumper7654 03-06-2011 02:45 AM
When you feel/hear this with your horse it's the most amazing feeling.
AlexS 03-06-2011 02:47 AM
Yes it is, it is what we all seek every ride, and when we get it, it is wonderful.
brackabrack 03-06-2011 06:30 AM
I have only had Bracken (4yo gelding) for 4 almost 5 weeks now, and our first hack out together was an experience I wont be forgetting in a hurry!! We only managed to get say 150 yards away from the yard after crossing a bus way, dozens of teenagers and pre teens, even a bus crossed his path.. not a blink!!! I tried to turn him down a quiet lane when a lorry was coming slowly towards us, i moved bracken back onto the corner so he wouldn't be rubbing his whiskers on the vehicle, then out of nowhere, chaos hit both of our worlds.. He was panicking from the lorry, the cars behind him (cars going uphill to stop at traffic lights at the school run time. but it was quiet never the less) but i could hear everything in his mind! Everything was elevated like i had super sensitive hearing!! It was all too much for both of us so i took him home and schooled a little... even when we both calmed down i was still inside his thoughts... A flock of blackbirds flew above us, but it sounded like they was flying around our heads it was so loud! ... Since having this connection with him we have had this respect and connection for each other.. but as youngsters go, hes taking advantage haha !!
tinyliny 03-06-2011 01:23 PM
That is wonderful that you are hearing him. For me, the purpose of trying to stay atuned is so that I may bend my horse's thinking to what I need it to be focussed on. And if I can feel when the horse's thought is leaving me and catch it early, then that thought isn't very heavy and bringing it back to me can be done softly. Once it becomes heavy, I might not be able to bring it back or if I do, it becomes "dramatic".
As for your experience, you Brits amaze me to how you ride on those narrow roads with trucks and cars and noisy people, dogs etc. I commend your bravery. I would be scared stiff to do that.
The only thing I can think of would be to take him out, and try turning back BEFORE he gets to the point of "I have to go back". But that is hard to do 'cause one cannot predict how and when traffic will appear.
So, the more he is trusting of you and the more he is willing to follow your lead in safe places the better he'll be when panic is present.
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RE: 'default' aorist
Somi Chuhon (
Tue, 29 Oct 1996 21:34:05 -0800
At 03:01 PM 10/29/96 -0800, you wrote:
>The perfect tense
>represents the results of the action, rather than the action itself. It does
>not mean that the action can never recur; in reality, all actions have results
>and the choice between aorist and perfect is just a matter of looking at the
>event vs. the results. In the case of Pilate's inscription, the permanancy
>and immutability of the event comes from the context, not the grammar.
>Don Wilkins
>UC Riverside
(This is just a comment and a question, not something that I am totally
affirming as my standpoint at the moment...well, at least, not yet)
The sense of the perfect that you are describing here seems to reflect the
English translation of the tense (e.g. "had walked", "had spoken"). My
question pertains to whether this MUST BE SO in the Greek as well. I agree
that context is crucial in understanding the fullest sense of the/a verbal
tense, but I wonder, perhaps, if there could be more of a sense of emphasis
or concentration on an action indicated in the perfect tense (as is it not
as common in occurence as other tenses) rather than a reflection of time as
you have indicated here.
Maybe someone with a more linguistical approach to the language could help here?
Graduate Student (Old Testament)
ACTS Seminary (Langley, B.C.)
For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future,
nor any other powers,
neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to seperate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38,39 | dclm-gs1-103800000 |
HOME » PROGRAMS/ACTIVITIES » Annual Thematic Program
Talk abstract
Quantitative Modeling of Bacterial Aggregation Based on `Energy Taxis'
Alexander Mogilner
Department of Mathematics and Institute of Theoretical Dynamics
University of California at Davis
(Collaborators: B. Mazzag, UC-Davis, and I.Zhulin, Loma Linda University).
Bacterial chemotaxis is the term for biased motion of bacteria toward chemoattractants. Mechanism of chemotaxis is well studied and is based on fast decrease of turning frequency when local conditions get more favorable and slow adaptation to a baseline frequency. As a result, bacteria alternate between longer "runs" up the gradient of chemoattractants and shorter runs down the gradient. Biochemically, this mechanism depends on fast phosphorylation and slow methylation reactions. Because time scale of methylation reactions is of the same order of magnitude, as that of the cellular movement, chemotaxis is the system with memory, and its mathematical description is extremely complicated, except in the case of shallow chemical gradients.
`Energy taxis' (attraction of cells to optimal level of energy related substances, such as oxygen or light) is an alternative bacterial strategy for sensory transduction that is less well understood, but is highly important for bacterial survival. Its two most notable features are:
(i) energy taxis is methylation-independent,
(ii) bacteria involved in energy taxis are able to aggregate into highly localized groups increasing initial density two orders of magnitude in a matter of minutes. Unlike the case of the conventional chemotaxis, signal transduction mechanisms of the energy taxis remain largely elusive. On the other hand, significant experimental data is gathered on the bacterial pattern formation and individual motions. This creates rare situation when mathematical modeling can help to test some plausible hypotheses about biochemical mechanism of the energy.
First, I will demonstrate with the help of Monte Carlo simulations that adaptation mechanisms cannot account for observed high densities of bacterial aggregates. Then a hypothetical protein signaling mechanism sensitive to temporal gradients in intracellular environment will be introduced. Based on this mechanism, we will present the results of analytical and numerical solutions of a model system of non-linear partial differential equations of energy taxis successfully describing the observed bacterial pattern formation. We will discuss how the novel mechanism of energy taxis suggests some clues about signal transduction mechanisms in more complex organisms.
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I'd rather trust a poet than a scientist
Who could forget the moment when, in the late 1980s, Martin Amis discovered astrophysics
IT IS a fair assumption that, when a number of high-profile novelists trill in unison about a new enthusiasm, the rest of us should be on our guard. Yet, not so long ago, literary interest in science had seemed so well-meaning and innocent. Who could forget the moment when, in the late 1980s, Martin Amis discovered astrophysics - the casual references to protons and Grand Unified theory, the equations dropped like tintacks into the busy carpet of his prose? In London Fields, the connection between black holes and his famous murderee Nicola Six was bewildering until, with one sentence - "Caught in the imploding geometry, the man and his rocket enter the black hole." - all became clear. Phew, after all that, it was only sex. What a relief.
Then the others joined in. Jeanette Winterson, William Boyd, Ian McEwan, A S Byatt, even, briefly and disastrously, John Updike. Perhaps, we thought, the problem was with fiction: the novel had lost confidence in itself and was seeking a bit of authority from the lab. Yet the ardour of these writers seemed quite genuine. "I get very excited about the nature of proteins - science is the most beautiful thing," Byatt announced a few months ago. "Revelations about the real world are mind-blowing... I substitute science for religion."
At this point, alarm bells began to ring. For not only was A S having her mind blown by the nature of proteins, but suddenly the rest of the population seemed to be following. Sales in magazines like New Scientist and Scientific American boomed. The bestseller lists were dominated by books by the geneticist or physicist of the moment.
The accepted wisdom is that there has never been a better time for science to become popular. When knowledge is increasing as never before, when the planet is keening for scientific solutions, the new enthusiasm is healthy.
But, if science, for the Byatt brigade, is now to be substituted for religion, does that explain why everyone is quite so in awe of its practitioners? Over the past few weeks, anyone who has expressed any degree of caution or scepticism about biotechnological advances has been pilloried for standing in the way of progress. Concerns about genetically modified crops being planted in Britain have been dismissed by the Prime Minister and his various flunkies and enforcers, as "media scares". It seems to have become assumed that modern-minded, patriotic Britons should put their trust in scientists.
Trust scientists? Quite frankly, I'd trust a poet before I trusted a scientist. Perhaps the ghost of ancient school prejudice is at work, but I regard those who specialise in a small and particular field as boffins - unreliable types when it comes to the world outside their laboratory. None of the scientific reasoning that has attended the recent debate about GM crops has done anything to convince me otherwise.
One argument, for example, is so flawed that surely even the densest non-scientist could see through it. The government's Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Robert May has repeatedly pointed out that an area one-and- a-half times the size of Britain has been under commercial GM cultivation for years. The argument sounds sensible until one realises that the area is in North America, where agriculture accounts for a relatively small proportion of the overall land mass. The millions of acres of land which cannot be farmed ensures a degree of environmental diversity. Here, on our little island where 75 per cent of the land is under agriculture, the landscape is utterly dependent on farming practices. To compare the two cases is, to put it politely, a sleight of hand.
It would be wrong to suggest that scientists simply suffer from the tunnel vision of the specialist. As the latest edition of Index on Censorship points out, research is compromised by its new dependence on funding from industry. When science is cross-pollinated with big business, awkward, unprofitable truth tends to be the loser.
Those who argue caution before the gene genie is let out of the bottle will doubtless continue to portrayed as backward-looking fanatics. In somewhat unscientific language, Sir Keith Mays has sneered at "the ayatollahs that run the Soil Association" describing organic farming as `the new theology".
It's that religious theme again. The question is, in which faith would you rather place your trust? | dclm-gs1-103830000 |
Eminem to retire his rap persona at end of tour, say associates
Whether Mathers will be retiring for ever or merely retiring the aggressive Eminem persona is unclear. And the rumours from Detroit may be nothing more than the usual hype and publicity-seeking spin. But according to the rapper Proof, who is Eminem's stage partner, "Em has definitely gotten to the level where he feels like he's accomplished everything he can accomplish in rap. He wants to kick back and get into the producing thing. Why not bow out while you're on top?"
Jeff Bass, the Detroit producer who won an Academy Award for co-writing Eminem's "Lose Yourself", said that while he would not rule out the possibility of further solo albums from Mathers, "the Eminem part of his career isn't going to be at the forefront anymore".
Eminem, 33, whose 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP sold 9.8 million copies, apparently feels burnt out by his success. He has madeeight albums and is the best-selling rapper of all time. His film 8 Mile, also shot in Detroit amid a real sense of social deprivation, won the Oscar for best song, and in it his character, Rabbit, succeeds to make it as a rapper in a black man's world.
Associates, including business partners and fellow rappers, said Eminem is ready to take a similar path to his mentor, Dr Dre, who since reaching his thirties has eased away from the microphone for a career as a producer. | dclm-gs1-103840000 |
'Viz' fizz wanes as readers bottom out
THE GUEST list for the Viz party on Thursday says it all. They've got Ray Davies of the Kinks, a couple of blokes from Aerosmith, Lionel Blair, and one of the Bay City Rollers; and Suzanne Dando is a possible. Usefully, the back of the invitation gives ordinary guests etiquette tips: 'DO NOT stare at the celebrities. DO pretend not to recognise them.' But there are no young celebs at all. Viz, the 'comic for older boys and girls', has become the comic for thirtysomething boys and girls.
'We don't want to write about Michael Jackson and monkeys,' says Chris Donald, its editor. 'Our references are to things that were on the telly in the Seventies - Mud, Sweet and John Noakes. The 14-year-olds with baseball caps turned round who listen to raves haven't heard of John Noakes. So they don't want to read Viz.'
That means Viz's circulation is falling. At the end of the Eighties Viz, founded in 1979, was selling 1.2 million copies. Its last audited circulation was 713,000. The two issues since then - the paper comes out every two months - have sold 750,000 each, Mr Donald says. Circulation is merely 'settling to a more realistic level'.
'The fact that we got to over a million was always a bit ludicrous. When we sold 240,000 in 1989 and overtook Private Eye I thought that was as far as it goes.'
Since the magazine needs to sell only 60,000 copies to break even, Mr Donald seems not unreasonably relaxed. He is, in any case, bored with people writing Viz off. The first recorded announcement that Viz 'isn't as funny as it used to be' came in 1986: 'Mark E Smith of the Fall said it in some fanzine.' For a time the magazine used the line on its cover.
The forthcoming Viz annual contains an introduction by 'Professor Humphrey Arseholes, Reader in Adult Comics, Keeble (sic) College, Oxford'. 'For today's car-thieving, flammable-tracksuit wearing, computer-illiterate younger generation of ignoramuses, it is hard to believe that Viz used to be funny . . .' it goes, harking back to days when 'the expletive-hungry magazine-buying public were snapping up rude words like 'beef curtains', faster than Viz magazine could think them up . . .'
Competition has arrived, in a form. Viz's great success inspired many copycats, of which only Zit has made any impression on the market. Zit borrows the same Dandy and Beano format, marrying it with jokes that are unprintable more for being unfunny than obscene. (The best Zit joke is the inclusion of a free sample of it in the November Face). But it does have pieces on Lemonhead and Teenage Fan Club.
It is not a road down which Viz will go. Middle-class dinner parties may no longer ring to the sounds of people trying out their Geordie accents ('Divvent taalk ya shite, Amanda]'), but the magazine remains obstinately unchanged. The current issue has Roger Mellie, the Fat Slags, Johnny Fartpants, Spoilt Bastard, Tommy and His Magic Arse - if anything the bottom jokes are increasing.
Top Tips, the favourite column of Viz's most surprising fan, the former Tory minister Alan Clark, still thrives. 'Why pay for expensive jigsaws?' asks B. Reastford of Ironville, Nottinghamshire. 'Just take a bag of frozen chips from the freezer and try piecing together potatoes.'
Chris Donald has made several millions from Viz: he is a former train-spotter who has bought two redundant stations. He admits that on his 'bad days' he gets 'fairly bored'. He and his team toy with ideas for new projects: more television, more books, and a stage show. 'I read Ben Elton's novels, and thought, 'I could do better than this'. But when I sat down the other day I found it was going to take longer than I thought.'
Issue 62 has one innovation, a full-colour cover. 'It's partly to look different from our imitators, partly because we've had a price rise and we want it to look as though we're giving people added value for their money. Which we're not.' Never lacking in honesty, Viz. The very small print at the back of the current issue goes like this: 'Readers respond to mail- order advertisements in this magazine at their own risk. The Publisher accepts no responsibility. He just pockets the advertisers' money and pisses off abroad on holiday. Mind, can you blame him? With the weather we've had this year. It's the ozones, you know.'
(Photograph omitted) | dclm-gs1-103850000 |
Worker killed in electrical accident at World Cup stadium
An electrical accident at a World Cup stadium has killed a worker in the Brazilian city of Cuiaba, temporarily halting construction and adding to setbacks in the rushed preparations for the tournament.
Muhammad-Ali Maciel Afonso, 32, was the eighth worker to die at one of Brazil's twelve World Cup arenas. He was working for Etel Engenharia to install a communications network, according to a state government official and an executive at the company. | dclm-gs1-103860000 |
From this wreckage on a Korean runway, all 160 passengers and crew escaped
SEOUL (AFP) - A Korean Airlines (KAL) Airbus A-300 careered off the runway and exploded in a fireball after trying to land on the island of Cheju yesterday, but all 160 aboard escaped without serious injury.
KAL and the 152 dazed but grateful passengers praised the heroism of the cabin crew, including five flight attendants who quelled panic and pushed passengers one by one from the burning plane just seconds before the whole fuselage exploded.
Witnesses said the crew marshalled all the passengers and had them chanting in unison, 'Keep order] One by one] Keep order] One by one]' as they pushed them down the escape chutes through the smoke and into the rain.
In the eight-minute drama, a steward, Kim Jae Jung, was the last to leave. He checked the inside of the plane to make sure all were safely out, then leapt through the flames, shouting 'No more passengers,' witnesses said.
The crash occurred shortly after 11am when the Canadian pilot, Barry Edward Woods, of Flight 2033 from Seoul to Cheju, made a second attempt to land on the seaside runway in blustering crosswinds of up to 64mph and driving rains spawned by Typhoon Doug.
In Paris, Airbus Industrie, maker of the A-300, said: 'The plane landed without problems. But the very difficult weather conditions made it slide and leave the runway.'
The Cheju medical clinic said it had treated seven passengers and one crew member for minor injuries. All had left for a KAL hotel on the island, a resort favoured by honeymooners off the southern tip of South Korea.
(Photograph omitted) | dclm-gs1-103870000 |
Middle East
The Dear World Project: Syrian refugees send their plea for help to the West
Portraits aim to empower people and tell their stories
A small boy holds his arms up with the words "I am losing my childhood" written in English and Arabic, while a man flexes his bicep with the phrase "Syria is in my heart" scrawled across it.
These are just two of the powerful images of Syrian refugees captured by American photographers Robert Fogarty and Benjamin Reece. The pair visited Jordan back in September to meet and photograph people who have fled Syria since fighting began back in 2011.
Click here or on 'view gallery' to see more images
The pictures are part of the 'Dear World' project run by Fogarty, who uses his photographs to give a voice to people and let them tell their stories. The photographers travelled with charity CARE International which is helping 110,00 Syrians and their families in Jordan.
The New Orleans photographer wrote about the trip to the refugee camp on his blog, he said: "The refugees seemed so different from me—their dress, their language and their customs."
"I felt like I knew them because I've heard stories like these before.
"Longing—that pit of your stomach feeling—is the same in any language."
The shots were taken in urban areas of Jordan where refugees are now living, including Amman, Mafraq, Zarqa, and the Zaatari refugee camp in the north of the country.
The images are beautifully shot but it is the simplicity of the messages that is likely to strike a chord and humanise the refugees, particularly the photograph of a man with the message: "My name is Muhammad and I am not a terrorist" written on his arms.
Fogarty rose to fame after photographing thousands of people forced to evacuate their homes when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans back in 2005. Most recently he has taken pictures of the victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York.
His colleague Reece is also making a series of films entitled We Are People following his visit to the Jordanian refugee camp, charting the lives of those affected by the Syrian conflict.
So far over 2 million refugees have been directly affected by the violence, while an estimated 6,000 people are fleeing the country every day. The UN is expecting a further 2 million people to be displaced in 2014.
To see the full project click here | dclm-gs1-103880000 |
Controversial Past of Eden Gardens Pitch
1. 4th ODI, India vs South Africa, November 2005
4th ODI, India vs South Africa, November 2005
2. 2nd Test, India vs South Africa, February 2010
Mahendra Singh Dhoni looked disappointed at not getting a turning track at the Eden Gardens in the second Test against South Africa in 2010 which India won in the last over of the final day. Mukherjee didn't give into Dhoni's demand of shaving the green off the 22-yard strip to suit the Indian spinners.
Mukherjee, however, denied having received any such request, and said, "Why should such a request be made? Cricket is a beautiful game and one should play on a sporting wicket. Why should teams want to play on designer pitches after practising through the year?"
2nd Test, India vs South Africa, February 2010
3. 5th ODI, India vs England, October 2011
During England's last appearance for an ODI in 2011, Dhoni had termed the Eden wicket as 'ugly'. He expressed his disappointment with the track at the post-match prize distribution ceremony, saying his team was fortunate to score 270-plus runs. India won that match for a 5-0 whitewash in the series.
Prabir Mukherjee hit back at the Indian skipper for terming the Eden wicket 'ugly looking', asking how could the Indian captain then bat for so long and top score in the match.
5th ODI, India vs England, October 2011
4. IPL Opener, KKR vs DD, April 2012
Gautam Gambhir, ahead of their IPL clash against Delhi Daredevils on April 5, 2012, apparently wanted a sporting wicket that would assist his pace attack and not a slow turner.
He spoke to the curator Prabir Mukherjee didn't oblige. The veteran curator told reporters, "I'm not paid by them (KKR). A franchise has no say regarding the fitness of the ground. It's the association (CAB) that takes care of the ground".
KKR lost the game but Gautam Gambhir praised the Eden Gardens pitch generously.
IPL Opener, KKR vs DD, April 2012
5. 3rd Test, India vs England, December 2012
Eden Gardens curator of 15 years, 83-year-old Prabir Mukherjee was reluctant to oblige Dhoni's 'unreasonable demand' for a square turner saying that Dhoni wanted the Test to end in 3 days.
"Dhoni has asked for a square turner. This is immoral because you (organisers) are selling tickets for a five-day Test. On a square turner, there's every chance of a match ending in three days. Why rob people of two days' play? It's immoral and illogical to tamper with the pitch. I've not done it in my life," Mukherjee added.
3rd Test, India vs England, December 2012
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If you believe some members of the Richmond City Council, the city's plan to seize underwater mortgages through eminent domain and repackage them at a discount will stave off foreclosures, keep homeowners in homes and make everyone happy. But not everyone is.
Constance Delaney, a 30-year resident who lives in a modest home near City Hall, thinks the city is eyeing a dangerous path, overstepping its authority, exposing itself to lawsuits and overstating the need for action.
"I take exception to the mayor marketing our city as falling apart," Delaney said. "Richmond has not been devastated by mortgages, and she's giving a distorted view of what's happening."
That mayor would be Gayle McLaughlin, foremost advocate of a plan called Richmond CARES, who says a sour economy has buried 50 percent of hardworking homeowners under debts greater than their homes' market values. ("That's just an emotional plea," said Delaney. "It's B.S.")
Whatever the percentage is -- it keeps getting smaller as property values go up -- the need for drastic action is only one of many questions about this program. Begin with the fact that it targets only 624 of Richmond's 19,000 owner-occupied homes. If half of them are underwater, why seize only 3 percent?
Why did none of those 624 include homeowners with second mortgages, who presumably most need help? Who will profit from this deal? Who will fund the new loans and at what interest rate? And if the city is so gung-ho, why hasn't it acted?
City Manager Bill Lindsay fielded those and other questions for the better part of an hour, acknowledging that not even he is sure the plan is legal. Attorneys have offered differing opinions.
He said the 624 homes represent only the program's first phase, and helping 624 is better than helping no one. Homeowners were not selected by need, and those with second liens were excluded because dealing with two lenders complicates things.
Mortgage Resolution Partners stands to get a $5,000 fee per transaction (the city also gets $1,500), but it will not fund the loans. Lenders will have to be located, and there's no guarantee on interest rates.
A major hurdle is locating cities to partner with Richmond in a Joint Powers Authority -- no one is knocking at its door -- because it doesn't want to act without someone sharing liability. (MRP has indemnified Richmond against legal action, but with no financial guarantee it's little more than a promise.) The City Council hasn't yet authorized the use of eminent domain because of that concern.
The city manager concedes that complexities abound. The city would control the program, but it has no staff to manage it, so that would fall to MRP. Assessors must value each mortgage, and lenders willing to fund 100 percent of that amount plus transaction fees must be located. Then there's the matter of getting a court to find merit in an eminent domain claim.
Because any action will be met with lawsuits, Lindsay believes it would take at least a year to seize the first mortgage -- well after McLaughlin is termed out of office, by the way. It makes a guy wonder why anybody would keep plowing this field, unless it's some sort of symbolic statement.
"This isn't about evil banks," Lindsay said. "It's a blight-abatement strategy. It's about preserving neighborhoods and encouraging homeownership."
Constance Delaney thinks it's foolish and unnecessary. I'm inclined to agree.
Contact Tom Barnidge at tbarnidge@bayareanewsgroup.com. | dclm-gs1-103900000 |
Finding Potential Short Squeezes for Big Profits
Marc Lichtenfeld
Most of you buy stocks. You hang on to them for anywhere from a few minutes to a few decades. You hope they’ll go up and then you sell for a profit. Buy low, sell high… that’s what we’ve been taught.
But there are other investors who do the opposite – they sell high and buy low. Sounds similar, but it’s a very different strategy. It’s known as shorting stock. A short seller sells the stock first and buys it back later. If the stock is bought back at a lower price, the investor makes money.
Here’s how it works…
Let’s say an investor shorts 100 shares of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) at $18.
If he buys Facebook back at $12, he’ll make $600, because he bought it at $12 and sold it at $18, even though he did it in the reverse order.
However, if Facebook rallies to $24, he’ll lose $600. He’ll have bought the stock at $24, but sold it at $18.
Remember, though, the sale took place first.
In order to sell a stock that an investor doesn’t have, he has to borrow it from his broker. Sometimes, stock isn’t available to borrow, in which case the investor can’t short the stock.
It’s an aggressive strategy, one that has unlimited risk.
Think of it this way: When an investor buys a stock, the most he can lose is the amount invested. The stock can’t go below zero. However, a shorted stock can go up indefinitely. Imagine what an investor would have lost if he shorted Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) at $30?
How to Profit From a Short Squeeze
Shorting is a way to take advantage of a stock that falls in price. But because of the extra risk, it’s not for everyone.
However, investors who are bullish on a stock can take advantage of short sellers in a move that’s known as a “short squeeze.”
When a stock that’s heavily shorted starts to rise, existing shorts “cover” or buy the stock back to avoid suffering big losses.
That extra buying by short sellers covering their positions leads to more demand for the stock and pushes it north in what’s known as a short squeeze. Investors who own a heavily shorted stock that gets squeezed sometimes find themselves with a stock moving sharply higher.
Here’s a recent example.
Repros Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RPRX) is a small-cap biotech company. Over 20% of Repros’ float is sold short. That’s a huge percentage.
So last week, when Repros’ stock was moving higher, it’s very likely that shorts started covering their shares, pushing the stock even further skyward…
Above is a chart of Repros. Look what happened on August 30th. There was no news on the stock that day, but as the stock advanced, buyers piled in, moving the price well above $12. Because there were so many shorts in the stock, it is likely that some of them bought back shares to close their position and limit their losses, which added fuel to the fire.
Today, the stock continued to advance above $14. The stock is up nearly 40% in five days – again on no news. That’s likely a short squeeze.
When I was an analyst at a contrarian research firm, the only stocks any of us were allowed to put a “Buy” rating on were those with at least 10% of the float sold short. It was a way of stacking the odds in our favor so that if the stock did start rising, there was another source of demand to push it still higher.
Let’s take a look at a few stocks that could squeeze the shorts if they get going in the right direction:
iStar Financial (NYSE: SFI), which offers financing to the commercial real estate industry, has 21% of its float sold short. The stock is near the top of its yearlong range. If it breaks out above $7.75, you might see short covering that would propel the stock higher.
Movie theater chain Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC) has a whopping 32% of its float sold short. That means one out of every three shares have been shorted.
Here’s an interesting figure – nearly 26 million shares of Regal have been shorted. Yet the stock only trades about a million and a half shares a day on average. What happens if the company has a strong earnings report or the stock makes a new high on its own?
With Regal also close to its 52-week high, a breakout could fuel a wave of short covering. And considering that 17 times the average daily volume has been sold short, it wouldn’t take that much short covering to ignite the stock higher.
Understanding the forces that can push a stock higher increases your chances of success. And when you own a stock, there’s nothing more satisfying that squeezing someone’s shorts. Well, you know what I mean.
Good Investing,
Editor’s Note: In the premium edition of today’s newsletter, Marc tells a select group of our readers about one of his favorite short squeeze candidates. It’s the stock of a small biotech firm with a 13.5% short float, which he’d be happy to own regardless of whether the short squeeze comes to fruition.
In fact, he told me its cash flow and profits are projected to grow 48% per year over the next five years. For more information on Marc’s recommendation today and how to upgrade your subscription for just $5, click here.
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