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0.148339 | <urn:uuid:e79dd86e-392d-4bef-be2f-e97ad0bc9c4b> | en | 0.97241 | Take the tour ×
I would need to understand the difference here:
He was being beaten.
He was getting beaten.
I know "get" + ppt can be either passive voice or a change of state. What is that in this example? I guess this is the passive voice. But what about this:
He is getting ready.
He is being ready - obviously wrong but I cannot say why.
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Get is a very busy verb in English.
It's mostly an auxiliary verb, and it almost always is Inchoative in meaning -- i.e, it refers to a change of state, by referring to a state that is beginning.
Inchoative predicates (verbs and adjectives) often occur in sets of Stative, Inchoative, and Causative, which are often the same word, but sometimes not:
1. Stative predicate:
The gate is open (wide)/(wide) open.
The gate is closed (tight).
The dog is dead.
The dog is tired (out).
He is (located) at X.
They have (= possess) the book.
2. Inchoative predicate:
The gate opened (wide).
The gate closed (tight).
The dog died.
The dog tired. ~ The dog got tired (out).
He came/went to X.
They got (= received) the book.
3. Causative predicate:
We opened the gate (wide).
We closed the gate (tight).
We killed the dog.
We tired the dog (out).
We brought/took him to X.
They got (= acquired) the book.
Get is so busy because it's the inchoative of both the auxiliary verb be and the auxiliary verb have. And these auxiliary verbs participate in an awful lot of constructions. Therefore, so does get.
• Some examples of Inchoative uses of get (many idiomatic):
• He was tired. ~ He got tired. (get = 'come to be')
• He is moving. ~ He got moving.
• He is married. ~ He got married.
• He is being married. ~ He is getting married.
• He is tired. ~ He got tired.
• He has a cold. ~ He got a cold. (get = 'come to have')
• He had it done. ~ He got it done.
• He has the job. ~ He got the job.
• He has to retire. ~ He's got to retire.
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For your second sentence, the ‘Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English’ (and, I suspect, others) uses the term ‘get-passive’, commenting that it
. . . is rare in all registers, but is occasionally used in conversation. Only five verbs have a notable frequency with the get-passive . . . Many of these verbs have a different emphasis when used with the get-passive rather than the be-passive. With be, they express a state, such as the state of 'being married' or 'being involved.' With get, they are more dynamic, describing the processing of getting into that state . . . Get-passives are typical only in conversation. The written registers usually use become instead.
Get ready is a phrasal verb and, as such, has a progressive form as in your example. Be ready is not a phrasal verb. It is the verb be + the adjective ready. The progressive form of be is not used to describe a state, and that is why ‘He is being ready’ is ungrammatical. The progressive form of be can, however, be used to describe an activity. ‘He is stupid’ describes a continuing state, but ‘He is being stupid’ describes something he is doing now.
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Become married, Barrie? – Edwin Ashworth Feb 12 at 15:58
@Edwin Ashworth. The LSGSWE does say 'usually'. – Barrie England Feb 12 at 16:20
I've just done a trawl for "get-passive" and found several where the get-passive is semantically different from the be-passive, but become can be substituted: involved, frightened, tired. There are some where the become substitution doesn't work, but where the verb alone can be used: get changed / change; get married / marry. There are others where it's difficult to replace the informal register: get engaged, broken, caught (in a thornbush etc). Got killed / shot / was killed / shot are synonymous, as are got / was caught (by the police etc). – Edwin Ashworth Feb 12 at 16:40
Really, there should be a different analysis for structures where get is being used as a delexical verb (get washed, get involved, get going, get married) as opposed to 'receiving action from an outside agency' usages, such as get shot, get killed, get caught. I think OP suggests this. There are indeterminate cases (get / be frightened). – Edwin Ashworth Feb 12 at 16:49
Not sure how the grammatical "being readied" fits in here. – horatio Feb 12 at 17:25
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0.024633 | <urn:uuid:1d5e30ff-2550-401b-957a-5598fafd8247> | en | 0.95149 |
Monday, November 5, 2012
Author: Rosalie Lario
Plot Type: SMR
Ratings: V4; S4; H2
Publisher and Titles: Entangled Publishing
Blood of the Demon (7/2012)
Mark of the Sylph (3/2013)
Touch of the Angel (TBA)
Heart of the Incubus (novella,TBA)
Call of the Siren (TBA)
According to the author's web site, the first four books and the novella have all been previously published, but some of them appear to be out of print. This post includes an overview of the world-building and a review of book 1. Book 2 is being reprinted with a March, 2013 publishing date. I am not sure of the status of the other titles.
In this multiverse, supernatural beings live on other planets, or dimensions. Demons live in Infernum; Greek gods and goddesses live in Olympia; shifters live in Enevora; and water creatures live in their own undersea dimension. Together, these dimensions are known as the Otherworlds, and they are ruled by the Elden Council, a group composed of elders from each of the worlds. Travel between dimensions, including Earth, is supervised by the Council, and each major city on Earth has a portal. Although demons and angels exist in this multiverse, they have no connection with Christian theology, and there is no concept of Heaven or Hell.
The heroes of the series are four half-demon brothers, each of whom was fathered by the villainous and demonic Mammon, but they all have different supernatural mothers, each of whom was raped by Mammon with the specific purpose of creating half-breed offspring for himself. This means that each brother was born with a different set of powers:
> Keegan, the eldest: His mother was a dragon. His powers include healing as well as a few dragon powers. (Book 1)
> Taeg: His mother was faean air sylph. His powers include healing, teleportation, and the ability to charm others through a form of mind control. (Book 2)
> Dagan: His mother was a siren. His powers include a great singing voice, breathing underwater, and sex appeal. (Book 3)
> Ronin, the youngest: His mother was an angel. His powers include the ability to calm others and the ability to flywith wings. (Book 4)
The brothers' incubus friend, Cresso Taylor, helps them out from time to time, and his story is told in the novella, "Heart of the Incubus."
The brothers were raisedand constantly abusedby Mammon, who sought to turn them into replicas of himself. They escaped some years ago and are now employed by the Council as Detainors, which means that they are basically inter-dimensional bounty hunters who hunt down supernatural law-breakers and bring them to the Council for punishment.
Mammon is a stereotypically cruel and arrogant villain. He is a greed demon (an avaritia) who seeks world domination, and he'll let nothing and no one stand in his wayespecially not his sons. By the end of book 1, another villain emerges in the person of Leviathos, Mammon's demonic right-hand man, who was a boyhood friend of the brothers but who has turned against them.
BOOK 1: Blood of the Demon
The romantic protagonists in the series opener are Keegan and Brynn, who is the owner of an art gallery in New York City. As the story opens, Keegan kidnaps Brynn because she is supposed to be the heirthe only living ancestor of Iyri, an ancient Egyptian priest who concocted a secret spell to raise the dead. When the Council had Iyri killed, they buried the book containing the spell with his body and kept no records as to the location of Iyri's tomb. Before he died, Iyri impregnated an incubus named Sitha, and Brynn is the last one left in their bloodline. Only a direct ancestor of Iyri can open the book and read the spell.
Both the brothers and Mammon want the book. Mammon wants to use the spell to raise his own undead army, and the brothers want to destroy the book. The big problem for Keegan is that he falls for Brynn, knowing that the Council has ordered her death to keep Mammon from getting the spell. The romance plot follows the couple through their angst-filled romantic journey, and the action plot follows the brothers and Mammon as each tries to retrieve the book.
The plot has more than a few holes. For example, even though Mammon's use of the spell might cause the destruction of the population of the world, the Council sends only the four brothers to find it and refuses to give them any assistance. In another improbable scene, Brynn somehow knows that Keegan's brothers have been captured by Mammon even though Keegan makes a point of not telling her. Another problem is that Mammon is such a stereotypical, one-note villain who is violently cruel to everyone, even his supporters. In one scene, he kills one of his minions because she didn't ensure that his bed had 1,000-thread-count sheets. At one point, we learn that Mammon has fathered many more half-breed children, most of whom he's lost track of, and I'm sure that some of them will be turning up in later books.
When Jeaniene Frost had Cat and Bones make passionate love while soaring through the air above an Iowa cornfield (in One Grave at a Time), she unleashed a new paranormal romance trope, which Lario uses (but not as effectively as Frost) in one scene in this book. Although Lario is a good-enough story teller, there is nothing new or inventive in the world-building. We've seen this whole set-up many times before: the jocular, wise-cracking, alpha brothers; the evil, power-mad father figure; the corrupt Council; and the sassy-but-submissive heroine. The final outcome of the plot is predictable, although it does take some twists and turns along the way. If you've read many paranormal romances, you'll realize early on that at some point the hero and heroine will be forced to make life-threatening sacrifices for one another...and they do. So...although Lario is an above-average writer, her story has been told many, many times before. If you're crazy about paranormal romance, maybe this won't bother you, but for me, it was a turn-off.
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Post a Comment | http://fangfiction.blogspot.com/2012/11/rosalie-lario-demons-of-infernum.html | dclm-gs1-268930002 | false | false | {
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0.708229 | <urn:uuid:e35efd24-0a44-4b23-9be5-5c6370ffdf1b> | en | 0.9617 | Established Contributor
Posts: 905
Registered: 07-18-2009
llecs wrote:
Closed CCs w/ a balance still factor into CC util, as do open ones. Unfortunately, many consolidation companies will ask you to close the cards when entering their program and/or when you accept their check. Once the balance goes to $0, then they are forever removed from CC util. So, if closed and at $0, I can see a scenario where a FICO score can drop, especially if they have any other account(s) that still report a high balance and are hurting CC util. It may be out of his/her control anyway, but it's often a requirement they are closed.
If the accounts were late which led to the decision to consolidate, then that too can have an adverse result when the accounts show lates and/or derog comments.
Not too much they can do other than maybe ask 2-3 creditors if they can reopen the accounts. If not, I'd tell them to open a secured card or two. It also sounds like there are other things going on within the reports. 200 seems too high for changes in util alone. I suspect there are some lates factored in there somewhere, and/or they are comparing two different scoring systems (e.g. a FICO with a FAKO).
Sounds like it's not a debt "consolidation" but one of these marginal operations that tells you to stop paying your CCs but pay them instead and they will divvy some fraction out to the CC companies. The better ones do this in return for an agreement with the CC company to accept less than what is owed. The more scummy ones just rake off their cut and good luck Charley - hope you don't get sued as well.
They both will kill your credit just like a short sale is almost as bad as a foreclosure.
I have reestablished credit over the last couple years
so my moniker is, well, rather out of date.
WM Discover $1800, WF Plat 12k, Chase Freedom Siggy15k, Amex Plat (60k H/B), Citi AA EWMC 25k | http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/forums/forumtopicprintpage/board-id/ficoscoring/message-id/66533/print-single-message/true/page/1 | dclm-gs1-268950002 | false | false | {
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0.113534 | <urn:uuid:00406e6b-0d15-4fbf-865a-4926734cc6ef> | en | 0.962533 | Night Watch
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North Korea: For the record. North Korean official media clarified that Kim Jong-un is married to Ri Sol ju. She is the woman who has appeared in public with Kim.
Comment: The prominence given to the marriage of a Kim leader is refreshing, mainly because his father and grandfather were adulterers who hid their affairs. The deceased elder Kims had multiple girlfriends and wives and never gave prominence to any, except after they died.
The upside is that the new Kim leader appears more open than any of his forbears. The downside is that there probably will be more Kims to perpetuate a manifestly incompetent family dynasty.
Special Comment: The longstanding NightWatch position is that the North Korean people have deserved far better leadership than they have gotten from the Kim family. The achievements of the South Korean democracy and free market capitalism are the proofs of the concept. In other words, a democratically, capitalistic elected government would have outperformed the Kims exponentially, given the commitment to education, the work ethic and the energy of the North Korean work force.
North Korea-US: North Korea's Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling for the United States to end its historically hostile policies toward Pyongyang by signing a peace treaty, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The statement added that both parties must be on an equal footing and stop antagonizing each other before dialogue can be effective.
Comment: The idea that the US and North Korea would ever be equal parties is preposterous from the start, but Republican and Democrat administrations have been willing to accept that contention just to talk with North Korean negotiators. The North understands the game and that US administrations do not last as long as North Korean governments.
Pakistan: The Ashraf government informed the Supreme Court of Pakistan that it would not re-open the corruption case against President Zardari, despite the Court's clear order last month. The Swiss have indicated they have no intention or re-opening the graft case against Zardari, which is now over a decade old.
Comment: The key issue is whether the Pakistan government will follow orders from the judiciary. The Gilani government fell because it refused, and the Ashraf government has put itself in the same quandary. Thus far, Pakistan does not appear to be a country that follows its own laws at the highest levels of government.
Ashraf, like Gilani, swore to enforce and uphold the laws. Ashraf is following Gilani in deliberately refusing to uphold the laws that their parties enacted in the Pakistani National Assembly. Ashraf is liable to be held in contempt of the Supreme Court and required to resign.
Greece: For the record. The head of Greece's joint chiefs of staff, Lt. Gen. Constantinos Ziazias, resigned from his post on 25 July. Ziazias resigned in protest at demands to shuffle top-level officers as a measure to create savings, unnamed sources said. Apparently few Greeks are prepared to accept any real cutbacks, including the armed forces.
End of NightWatch ###
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0.275814 | <urn:uuid:58513c3f-d181-45ec-958a-fb8e5b0cc2ef> | en | 0.956417 |
Old Republic International Corporation Message Board
• irenderit irenderit Feb 11, 2004 11:17 AM Flag
pulled back to 100 DMA
bounced off 200 DMA.Chart looks horrible, regardless of how ORI has done in past, market is saying title insurance biz has peaked.I own 75 shares, and to say this is a screaming buy is to ignore the chart.I'm out when we hit 25 again.
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• Right. Same point as mine and more simply and elegantly put. Thanks.
• The absolute common sense truth is that you always make the most money by buying great companies when the stock price is down not up.
• Of course. You are exactly right, plea. This is the point that Mr. Chart Expert "irenderit" got 100% backwards. Downward sector rotation that incorrectly (and temporarily) drags along either the highest-quality stock in the group or the least pure-play (whichever you consider ORI to be) is a classic buy signal, not sell. But you can only recognize that if you actually know something about the stock you're investing in. Our Chart friend used a lot of what I'm sure he thought was oh-so-sophisticated chart reading to cover up the fact that he's just another sheep who got frightened by an itty-bitty decline and paid the consequences for it.
• Of course the title insurance business has "peaked" in a cyclical way. You don't need the market to tell you that. So why be a slave to the market?
BTW since you're a trader, what's your attraction to this? Where's the big short-term upside you presumably came in to try to grab? Even I wouldn't claim that. Is it something related to the stock split, which by now is really far off in the rear-view mirror? On the whole risk/reward thing, your whole mindset seems to be all this risk and very little reward -- that doesn't seem like a lot of fun. I'm serious, why are you even bothering with Old Republic International? Wouldn't Lucent and Nortel be more your speed?
• 200 DMA is $23.42 ORI is well above that.
16.16-0.2700(-1.64%)Dec 17 4:00 PMEST | http://finance.yahoo.com/mbview/threadview/?bn=106dcf42-d884-3644-8a4f-5c6455c4d2ee&tid=1076516260000-f176fb70-8271-3f2b-af50-acc8b8ebb9ed&tls=nm%2C%2C18 | dclm-gs1-268970002 | false | false | {
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0.445812 | <urn:uuid:b6e58479-d0fe-4f2c-befd-ea18ef9a23d7> | en | 0.949519 | Take the tour ×
I play Garry's Mod alot and I am over at a friends house who also enjoys games. I downloaded steam for her and I noticed that Garry's Mod is downloaded onto my harddrive.
I legally own the game, it is legally on this computer, so why can she, on a different account, Not play it? Or can she? Is there a way she can?
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5 Answers
I've noticed that some games available on steam will continue to run even if the underlying steam account is logged out for some reason. This can either be from a bad internet connection or from someone else on another computer logging into the same steam account.
These are typically older games that have no steam integration. I know this is the case with Trackmania United.
So it might be possible with older release games or third party games to get by the restriction by lauching the game on one computer, then logging into steam with the same account on another computer. If the game doesn't use steam for finding matches (and uses some other method) than it might work. That being said I am not advocating the 'theft' of games from steam. Particularly since your example game Garry's Mod only costs $4.99 right now.
You could always gift it to her account :)
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Yes, you can share your games with your family. Steam recently introduced Family Sharing, a system where a user can share his library with the rest of the family and others who use the same computer.
You simply need to enable Family Sharing on the computer you want to use:
1. Log in with the account that owns the game
2. Go to settings > Manage Family Sharing & Devices... > Authorize Device
Now any Steam users can play all sharing enabled games on that computer. List of unsupported games can be found here.
Note that two users still cannot play the same copy at the same time.
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Sharing might still be in beta, so you might need to follow the instructions on the Family Sharing page to sign up for it. – 3ventic Dec 12 at 12:41
Also note that you can held be responsible if the other person violates the terms of service in any way while playing your games on their account. – Sentry Dec 12 at 21:09
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I've noticed before that if my girlfriend logs into her steam account on my computer that often my games (that aren't on her account) show up as installed and ready, But she can't launch them.
The actual files will show up in the list as installed and ready to go, But unless your account is authorised to play the game it won't run.
TL;DR - It shows up on the local computer, But won't run unless you pull your wallet out.
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Just put your game file into Steam Apps and Common: I downloaded Call of Duty: Black Ops with my friend's account, and I was able to play it on my account in both single- and multi-player.
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It may not work, but try adding it as a non steam game. Otherwise, just log in your account in for her.
Just dont log into the same account on 2 computers at once. bad things happen.
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Logging in from one computer when you're already logged in from other computer works just fine and you're automatically logged out (with proper message) from the other computer. People sometimes travel, or have both PC and Laptop. – Shadow Wizard Oct 11 '11 at 11:06
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0.069225 | <urn:uuid:bff0a547-22d1-480d-a364-e15a18baf469> | en | 0.952733 | National Review: Why Didn't Hitler and Qaddafi Bag Hotter Chicks?
With revolution sweeping the Arab world and new photos of Hitler's mistress coming to light, murderous dictators are much in the news. Here's border control zealot Mark Krikorian raising a timely question, in National Review blog The Corner:
Those Eva Braun pictures reminded me of Qaddafi's "voluptuous blond," both of whom lead me to wonder—why can't dictators find better-looking mistresses? Hitler and Khadafy are (were) absolute rulers over millions of subjects, and these girls are the best they can do? It's not like either woman was ugly, but with all that money and power, you'd these goons could find a super-model willing to be their "nurse."
Dictators these days: Great at pillaging, but falling short when it comes to quality raping. But is this a fair evaluation of Hitler? Just because he wanted to build a master race of blond-haired blue-eyed people doesn't mean he's shallow. Eva Braun probably had a wonderful personality.
Unless, of course, Hitler's failure to sleep with hotties is actually proof of how monstrous he was. Quoth Corner commenter redsquare76:
The twisted mentally unbalanced loons who become dictators have a twisted view of everything including a different understanding of what beauty is from the rest of us.
Wasn't there a song about this? "If you want to be a fascist for the rest of your life / Make an ugly woman your wife." In fact, this is how we know Nicolas Sarkozy is a great leader—his wife is a total babe! The Holocaust was such a waste—of hot chicks!
Ugh. [The Corner, image via Images]
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0.041807 | <urn:uuid:00aa3728-4a62-4c2b-bec8-2901a7f86854> | en | 0.936482 | INSEAD Essay Questions Analysis 2012-2013
By - Sep 24, 09:54 AM Comments [0]
INSEAD’s essay questions cover a good deal of ground, giving candidates ample opportunity to discuss a variety of topics related to their interests and experiences. The first two “job essays” ask for a factual account of one’s current position (or lack thereof) and career progression, while the remaining five call for short reflections and discussion of topics that MBA appliance are used to. With careful thought and planning, you can use these seven essays to present your well rounded personality.
INSEAD’s Website: “We evaluate each applicant against four central criteria:: leadership potential and work experience; academic capacity; international motivation; and ability to contribute to the INSEAD experience.” Therefore,when narrating your stories, make sure they bring out these traits along with other qualities.
Job Description Essays
INSEAD’s first question requests a snapshot of the applicant’s career at present. Keeping in mind that this will be the Ad Com’s introduction to your materials, you might also provide the context necessary for the reader to understand your place within the organizational structure and the work that occupies your days. Please stay focused on the details of your present job and avoid drifting away to your greatest achievements. You will get opportunity to do that in other questions.
Essay 2: Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university.If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)
This question can be challenging and makes you wonder how can I give ” full description” of my professional career in just 250 words. Not only that, you are also required to be specific about your next step if you were to remain in your present job. Hence brevity is the key here. Your best bet is to focus on each full-time position you’ve held ,explain the reasons behind each move , increases and/or changes in responsibility , and the lessons/ skills learned. Remember to use your words as precisely as you can.
This question shows that INSEAD is not excluding unemployed candidates from admission, if they are utilizing their time productively. So INSEAD provides them an opportunity to advocate their case and discuss the new skills they are learning , the volunteer work they are involved in, any conferences and professional development workshops they are attending , and other efforts they are making to secure short-term employment before MBA. This would validate their growth even during the time they are unemployed..
Personal Essays
Personal Essay 1: Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors, which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (600 words maximum)
This question requires you to do lot of introspection. It is important to address all parts of the prompt: strengths, weaknesses , and main factors responsible for your personal development. However, it’s also in your best interest to focus as much as possible on the positive. So you may want to begin with two or three positive qualities and then comment on one or two weaknesses . Do not forget to substantiate your personal traits with real- life examples .This question gives applicants freedom to select examples from your personal, professional or extracurricular life , so try to select your examples with a view to presenting a balanced picture of your personality.
You may select either of the following two methods for discussing strengths or weaknesses:
a) Make statements about your character and back them up with example as ‘evidences’ of your statements.
b) Find a single story ( a work project , for example) that will illustrate all of your strengths, and, if possible, weaknesses .
When discussing your weaknesses, make sure to explain how they have affected you and what you are doing now to rectify them. If relevant, mention which B-school resources can help you get over these weaknesses
Note that for each personal characteristic introduced, you should reflect on the factors that have influenced your personality.
“The stories of hardships faced by my father during his childhood and later his success ingrained in me the importance of hard-work and sustaining through challenges.”
This is a straightforward question that clearly stipulates INSEAD’s requirement of one personal and one professional accomplishment. Instead of providing a laundry list of accomplishments weave one story around your accomplishment in personal life and another one around your professional life. Let your life experience tell the story of your accomplishments.
Also, these accomplishments should tie in to your “strengths” essay. That is, they should illustrate the “strengths” you have already discussed in your first essay.
Your accomplishment story should have the four components: the challenge, the achievement, the outcome/result, and the significance. That is, you should explain why this accomplishment is meaningful to you both in terms of the challenges you overcame ,the results you produced, , and the lessons you learned.
Example:( An example of Personal Accomplishment)
“Inter-caste marriages are considered taboo in the conservative Indian society. Therefore my decision to marry my girl friend Priya, , a girl belonging to higher caste, met with severe opposition.”
Personal Essay 3: Describe a situation taken from your personal or professional life where you failed. Discuss what you learned. (400 words maximum)
To fully address this question, you’ll need to reflect on a life experience when you could not live up to your expectations .You should describe the situation in detail what went wrong and why. Make sure to clearly address the second part of this question and discuss the personal growth that resulted from your failure/setback. You might also consider closing this essay with a brief comment about how this lesson has benefited you since the time of the initial failure.
Also, while selecting your failure story, make sure you select a situation when you faced a setback despite your sincere efforts . Dot not confuse between a failure and a mistake story because there is a difference between the two: You are responsible for your mistake, so you need to take ownership for it, whereas external factors are responsible for your failure which means you did you best, but things didn’t work out the way you had planned. However, the experience still taught you life lessons.
Lastly, tell your failure story in such a way that it presents you in a positive light, revealing your strengths.
“Last year, a similar situation developed, and despite clear briefing of motives, many teams again showed reluctance to follow the required measures. This time , I did not hesitate to warn the management who took proactive steps to steer the errant teams into place. Thus, the single setback that I faced in my professional life taught me valuable team- working skills that I am now practicing successfully.”
6. Personal Essay 4: a) Discuss your short and long term career goals. (300 words maximum) and b) How will studying at INSEAD help you achieve your vision? (250 words maximum)
This is the standard ‘goals’ essay expecting you to specify your short term and long term goals and INSEAD’s role in helping you achieving them. This question has two parts with specific word count. Therefore, you need to be extra careful in adhering to the prescribed word limit. INSEAD expects you to not only have a clear sense of your goals but also of their connection to INSEAD’s offerings. So you should have a thorough knowledge of the school’s curriculum, faculty, special programs and extracurricular activities, and explain how you will use them to achieve your goals.
Additionally, even though the prompt doesn’t ask you about your contribution, you may throw in a sentence about the value you will add to the school (if space permits).
“I am confident that with my academic potential, team-working abilities, innovative spirit, leadership skills , and global outlook I will add significant value to the INSEAD community.”
Personal Essay 5: Please choose one of the following two essay topics:
This question is designed to gauge an applicant’s cultural sensitivity and ability to conduct business in an international setting, because INSEAD, is a highly international program.
a) The first option asks you to recount a trying experience in another country that demanded significant amount of adjustment resulting in personal growth .
b) The second option asks you to reflect on the unique characteristics of your own culture that might not be acceptable to a visitor.
In both responses, you need to demonstrate cultural flexibility, offering examples/ evidence of your ability to operate well with teams of diverse cultures. Remember to outline the struggles you went through in the process of cultural adjustment, and the lessons you learned in the process.
(An example of culture shock an Indian applicant employed in a Middle East country received )
“I vividly remember that morning when as usual I went to office canteen for breakfast and found it closed. I was told that the canteen remains closed in the month of Ramadan. I was shocked to learn that even restaurants don’t serve meals in daytime during Ramadan.”
An optional essay is an opportunity for you to give the Ad Com relevant information that you could not give in other essays or other parts of your application. This question is also meant to shine a spotlight on an experience or side of your personality that has not been revealed in the other parts of your application: essays, recommendation letters and resume.
Even though INSEAD has provided you enough ground to cover about your candidacy, you may still use this essay in a variety of ways to further strengthen your candidacy. First, you may use this question to reveal your non-professional side. For example, if you have significant extracurricular accomplishments (sports, music, writing, painting etc.) or a community welfare activity that you initiated or led, you should share those stories. You can also use optional essay to address a weakness in your profile, like low GPA or GMAT , a gap in your job history, or your inability to get a recommendation from your current supervisor.
The private tutoring job that I had to take up to support mine and my sister’s education required me to spend 30 hours/ week and left me with hardly any time to focus on my studies. This eventually ended up pulling down my grades to 70%.”
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0.081862 | <urn:uuid:68be9d96-51e2-4ef0-8db1-7474a6b765fd> | en | 0.911427 |
You're welcome!
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0.038509 | <urn:uuid:a2aaa584-6b89-4231-bbff-6e2bb99e7640> | en | 0.964812 | Readers' Representative Journal
A conversation on newsroom ethics and standards
On Wisconsin, readers want to see more
The question from Bill Gibson echoed other readers' e-mails: Why does there seem to be so much coverage of the Middle East and so little on the protests in Wisconsin?
"There was another rally in Madison on March 5. I saw no item in The Times about it. Michael Moore made a speech. It was quite a rally. Why wasn't it mentioned?" Gibson asked. "Here is a 'local' uprising that may determine just what OUR country will be like."
An e-mail from Rob was similar: "Why are you barely covering this story? This is not just a Wisconsin issue; it's a war on families and the middle class, and your paper, among others, is failing to inform the public."
And Patty wrote: "You report on the unrest of the people in other countries. Why? Because their leaders have impoverished them, and they are fighting back. This country will also go down that road if this constant attack on the middle class continues and the middle class becomes beyond poor.... Americans like to know what is going on in AMERICA!"
The rallies in Wisconsin's capital began Feb. 16, when thousands gathered in Madison to protest Gov. Scott Walker's effort to restrict the bargaining process for most public employees. The Times posted a wire service article on the protest that evening on, and the story ran in the following morning's paper.
Since then, The Times has published 22 more news articles; four op-ed columns; and an editorial about the dispute, in which Democratic legislators have fled the state to avoid voting on the anti-union measure.
"We have been doing a lot of coverage in Wisconsin and intend to do much more," said The Times' national editor, Roger Smith.
Regarding filmmaker Michael Moore's speech, Smith said, "At this point in the overall story an individual rally may not clear the bar on news, even with celebrity speakers, if the message is the same one we've been hearing from previous rallies."
Egypt, Libya and Wisconsin all are important stories that will have effects beyond their borders. Readers can expect to see more coverage from Times reporters in the Middle East as well as in the Midwest.
Smith said, "We are watching the situation closely regarding the impasse between the governor and the Democrats in the state Senate and are eager to see what happens next."
-- Deirdre Edgar
Photo: Michael Moore speaks to a crowd in Madison, Wis., on March 5. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
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Greetings from Madison, WI. The protests are a daily occurence - there is a 24/7 protest going on, so I have some sympathy for media outlets. Last weekend was big, this weekend is predicted to far bigger. This protest movement is not going away, it is picking up a lot of energy from the frustrations of the middle class and working poor. Media likes to focus on unions, but it's really about social justice and economic fairness. The people of California are the best example in our country of what happens to working people when you have a radical redistribution of wealth. If you look at the portfolios of the wealthiest 1% of citizens, you will see it approximates your budget woes. That's where the money went. The unions don't have it, the poor don't have it, the immigrants don't have it, and certainly state government does not have it. Tax the uber-rich, recover our nation's wealth, and we can get our economic engine started. The Uber-rich aren't spending all that wealth on job creation - that's why they still have it! Arguments about 'trickle down' are outright lies.
You sir, sound exactly like a communist.
Jim Brown is right and GrandeAnde sounds like a tea-party no-nothing. Communism means that the government OWNS all businesses. Telling the truth about the wide income disparity in this country knows no political boundaries. And the truth is that the wealthiest people/corporations pay little or no income tax at all, while the vast majority of funds it takes to run any government comes from the fast-disappearing middle class. And more and more of them are slipping into poverty through no fault of their own. What will occur if nothing is done to stop this trend is call neo-feudalism. Only the very wealthy will own or control anything, while the rest of will be left with nothing. And that is the goal of the Republican party, so if you vote for them, you have nobody to blame but yourself if you end up a serf.
Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, was a union member. So does Sarah support the teachers in WI?
Todd Palin was a union member and belonged to the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (United Steelworkers).
I think it is time for the working middle class and poor to pool together and hit these Republican BULLIES right in their pocket books.
Each and everyone of us should withdraw any savings and extra funds they have (leaving only enough money to pay your debts).
It is your money that is funding big business and lining the pockets of these Republican Bullies. It is your money that they are using against you to take your rights away.
I hope that now, the people that were mislead by Republican liars will understand that this party is not a party for the people. They do not represent the middle class or poor. They are only for big business. The want to keep the rich, rich and the poor, poor.
Don't give them a piece of your pie! They have had enough.
RE: Coverage in your newspaper of the Michael Moore speech in Wisconsin
I read the "lame" article about readers criticizing lack of coverage of the Wisconsin protestors. Regarding the following statement:
What a crock of bull for your article to say that this individual rally was not covered because the message was the same!!!! This speech by Michael Moore was so far out different. Your paper is a disgrace to not cover it. This speech is going to spread like wildfire on YOUTUBE. The people of America are going to have to resort to social media to change this country, because corporate pigs like owners of your newspaper exist.
I heard about the Wisconsin protest exactly three weeks ago and have been captivated by it ever since. I used to watch CNN a lot, specifically Anderson Cooper who, I believed, was always on top of news. To my surprise, both CNN and Anderson grossly under-delivered by providing only one-liners about the protest.
I found out that MSNBC is the only news channel to provide decent and consistent coverage of day-to-day developments in Wisconsin, specifically The Ed Show and the Rachel Maddow Show. In addition, I found lots of news online by editing Google's "News For You": I added 4-5 news topics related to protest and selected "always" while at the same time selecting "never" for any other topic (i.e. world, business, etc.) For those who are just tuning in, that would be a good start to get a feel for what took place over the last three weeks in Wisconsin. To understand why the people of Wisconsin are protesting, google "20 lies (and counting) told by Gov. Walker" posted by Russ' Filtered News or copy and paste this link:
The union member that are flipping off the taxpayers in WI need to start embracing change instead of fighting it. The Gov. Of WI is trying to keep them employed instead of replacing them with much better qualified and more efficient private companies.
Quick quiz;
What do Michael Moore, Jesse Jackson, and all the protestors crowding the WI capitol building have in common? Two things;
1) they are being paid to be there
2) they will be gone on Monday or certainly by the end of next week
Congrats to the people of Wisconsin, their economic nightmare is almost over. Those of us in California...not so much.
I could never figure out what the tea party stuff was all about. The message appeared so diffuse even as they seemed to get a lot of coverage. Occasionally I would hear about certain monied interest who back the tea party, but it was not clear to me if they directed the tea party. In contrast the events in Madison Wisconsin & all the other states who are responding to similar legislation (I mean is there a conspiracy between the newly elected republican govs?) amount to something that it much easier for me to relate. I understand when the protestors say don't take away my rights they are speaking of collective bargining. This is clear as day. Yet despite the clear focus the uprisings in all these different states do not appear to match the media attention the tea party got? I find this curious, that's all.
glad to see this criticism of coverage. Wisconsin needs much more coverage than the mideast. MOst media is guilty of imbalance between these two stories. I wonder if the mideast is used as a distraction from a story that may truly challenge the wealthy corporate power holders in the U.S. They might even criticize media who cover it too prominently??? Safer to focus on rioting over there??? At least I know about moore's eloquent, dramatic truth telling because I saw it on Maddow's show!!! I'm thankful for that at least.
Case in point, today, Sunday March 13, the largest demonstration to date in Madison, Wisconsin, is listed way in the bottom of the page under "Environment".
The events in Wisconsin are what being an American is all about. This is democracy in action. It is all about a specific issue aimed at weakening a class of people. The opponents have managed to stir up jealousy about someone elses benefits. All of us have choices. I could no more have worked as a teacher or state or federal employee than I could fly, but I certainly do not begrudge those who did and did so for certain agreements. To those who rent instead of buying, should they be lamenting the wonderful write offs the people who have mortgages get? Homeowner get to write off all their interest payments. Renters can't. Should renters start carping about this imbalance?
This is another choice that one makes in life. Life is life, neither fair not unfair.
I'm not satisfied by this response to complaints about lack of coverage of the WI protests, but at least it's on their radar and they are being honest that it's something they are intentionally blowing off ("an individual rally may not clear the bar as news...").
To be perfectly honest, it's been weeks since I gave up hoping that mainstream newspapers like LAT or NYT would give this story its due.
People who are interested should just search twitter for "#wiunion." Often there are 1000s of messages per minute, but the tag is never "trending" because it's been a steady roar, not just a spike and flame-out, which is what the twitter algorithm is geared toward.
Saturday's protests (3/12/11) topped 100,000, and WI is not a particularly populous state: these peaceful protests are getting larger, not shrinking over time, so I think the Times's argument that "an individual rally may not clear the bar on news...if the message is the same one we've been hearing from previous rallies" should be reconsidered in light of their size and staying power.
Also, how or why should the protesters be expected to change their message just to clear the bar on news? The things they are protesting remain the same. I don't get this rationale at all. By that standard, there are has been no "news" coming out of either major political party for decades--same message=not news? How would you have covered the Civil Rights movement, then? MLK pretty much had the same "message" at every rally for over a decade....
As of Jan. 2010 with Roberts Supreme Court ruling of unlimited funds from corporatist to our politics, with no disclosure required has opened the door to a Fascism government. Mussolini once defined Fascism as the incorporation of corporate to the state. Now this allows the Chinese, Iranians, Russian, England, France, Mexican corporations to invest into the politicians of their choice. Presently Wisconsin is responding to the challenge.
As this will evolve to lower and middle class taking alarm to the prospects of a corporatism ruler ship. Seeking the demise of their domestic rights. Removing their voice, of their ability to share in the distribution of laborers productivity. A direct symptom of a Fascist state. Wealth to an Aristocratic class. Laws to change to support and strengthen their powers over the lower classes. History has shown what that leads to and it was not good.
Now that the unions, our only bulwark to corporatism, are told to shut up the media fades back on its coverage. Here where the fate of this nation is in the balance they, the media, fail us. Could it be another tentacle of the corporatist?
“We The People In Order To Form A More Perfect Union” is under a desperate assault for our freedoms and the echo’s of the sounds of silence do we hear. Where is Julian when you need him. Take a guess.
Have a story tip?
Please send to
Can I call someone with news?
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0.026149 | <urn:uuid:65e0fd90-8d10-4771-b5ce-0003f1f8233a> | en | 0.942817 | Gas suggests new problem at stricken Japan nuclear plant
Japanese officials detected an ominous radioactive gas that suggests the country's nuclear nightmare isn't over
REPORTING FROM SEOUL -– In the latest sign that Japan's nuclear nightmare at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant is not over, officials on Wednesday detected an ominous radioactive gas that suggested possible nuclear fission at one of the reactors.
Officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, acknowledged that they had detected signs of the gas xenon, which they said could be the byproduct of a nuclear reaction.
As a precaution, workers injected boric acid, a substance that neutralizes nuclear fission, through the facilities cooling pipes, the utility said.
The Fukushima Daiichi plant was damaged during a massive tsunami triggered by a March 11 earthquake that struck the coastal region several hundred miles northeast of Tokyo.
The rushing water sent three of the plant's reactors into meltdown, touching off fires and triggering several explosions –- prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of nearby residents who have yet to return.
Officials on Wednesday downplayed the discovery, insisting that it had not led to a rise in the reactor's temperature, pressure or radiation levels, and that there were no radiation leaks outside the facility. They added that the presence of xenon would not delay ongoing efforts to cool the reactor.
"We have confirmed that the reactor is stable, and we don't believe this will have any impact on our future work," said Tepco spokesman Osamu Yokokura.
The latest setback is untimely for Tepco and Japanese central government officials. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has in recent days lauded the nation's plan to build a nuclear power plant in Vietnam, insisting that Japan's safety standards are state of the art.
Critics have blasted the plan, citing Japan's new indecisiveness over its own future as a nuclear nation, but Noda's administration insists that the country has learned valuable lessons through its handling of the Fukushima crisis.
In recent months, Tepco claims to have made progress in stabilizing the plant. The utility says it has reached a "cold shutdown," meaning that temperatures at the reactors' cores are constant and under control. But officials warn that it might take three decades to safely decommission the facility, with plans calling for it to be encased in concrete.
Many nuclear critics insist that the disaster will continue to cause health hazards. An independent report released last month claimed that the plant had released twice as much radioactivity in the meltdown as Japanese authorities had estimated.
And utility officials raised eyebrows when they suggested a plan to build facilities in nearby towns to store radioactive waste from the cleanup effort.
There are also continued concerns about the level of radioactivity in Japan's air, water and ground. This week, the nation's forest agency tried to calm fears, announcing that levels of the toxic isotope cesium they expect to be found in cedar pollen next spring will be below the legal safety limit.
Japan's nuclear cleanup
Damage at two Japan nuclear plants prompts evacuations
Japan quake: 2nd reactor cooled with seawater to avert meltdown
-- John M. Glionna
Photo: A girl plays at a temporary housing complex for evacuees who fled the town of Namie near the crippled nuclear plant. Credit: Kubota Yoko / Reuters
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0.305588 | <urn:uuid:e002e4d1-15db-4271-9e48-44a2b9a01ee3> | en | 0.987387 | Civil War Money
During the Civil War, money was important. People needed to pay for things and eat just like they do now. The South decided that since they were a new country, they needed their own currency. Therefore they began printing their own paper money and minting their own coins.
The design of the Confederate coins was very similar to the design of the Northern coins. In fact, back then, the design of many denominations of coins were very similar. One of the reasons was that they were all designed by only two men: James B. Longacre and Christian Gobrecht. All of the Gobrecht coins are referred to as the Seated Liberty type.
Even paper money came in fractional amounts, such as four cents. Back then, paper money functioned as an I.O.U. for the equivalent amount of gold or silver. Each bank could print and issue their own money, but if the bank went out of business, the money was worthless.
Northern One Cent Piece
The Union One Cent Piece or the Penny as it was known was referred to as the Indian Head Cent. It was designed by James B. Longacre in 1859 and remained in use until 1909, when the Lincoln Cent began.
Northern Two Cent Piece
Yes, there was a Two Cent Piece. It was designed by James B. Longacre in 1864 and is the only coin to begin existance during the Civil War. This was also the first coin to have "In God We Trust" on it. It was discontinued in 1874.
Northern Three Cent Piece
The Three Cent Coin was nicknamed "the Trime." There were actually two types of Three Cent Pieces. The first were minted using silver (1851-1873), but as that metal became more valuable and people began melting the coins down for the value of the metal, the newer coins were made from nickel. This was also designed by James B. Longacre.
Northern Five Cent Piece
The Five Cent Piece was known as the Half Dime instead of the Nickel at this point as it was made from silver, not nickel This coin was designed by Christian Gobrecht and was in circulation from 1837-1873.
Northern Ten Cent Piece
The Ten Cent Piece or Dime was designed by Christian Gobrecht in 1837 and stayed in circulation until 1891.
Northern Twenty-Five Cent Piece
The Twenty-Five Cent Piece or Quarter Dollar was also designed by Christian Gobrecht and was in circulation from 1838 until 1891.
Northern Fifty Cent Piece
The Fifty Cent Piece or Half Dollar was designed by Christian Gobrecht and was in circulation from 1839-1891.
Northern One Dollar Coin
The Silver Dollar coin was designed by Christian Gobrecht in 1840 and remained in cirulation until 1873.
Southern One Cent Piece
In 1861, the Confederacy attempted to create its own coinage. Interestingly, they hired a Northerner, Robert Lovett of Philadelphia to design, engrave and mint it. Fearing repercussions, Lovett decided to stop making the coins after only twelve were produced. In 1873, copies of the coins were made from gold silver and copper in limited editions to sell.
Southern Fifty Cent Piece
In 1861, Jefferson Davis himself authorized the creation of a CSA Half Dollar. They were to be minted at the seized U. S. Mint in New Orleans using the U.S. design on the front. The backs were altered to say "Confederate States of America." Only four were ever made. | http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01591/coins-t.html | dclm-gs1-269700002 | false | false | {
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Jan 19, 2010
Jewish Library in Vilnius
A Guest Post by Wyman Brent, aka @JewishLibrary
After many setbacks, things appear to be heading in the right direction. There have been meetings this week with people with influence over the process of the library. One is Aage Myhre who is director of Vilnius International House. He is Norwegian and has lived in Lithuania since 1990. He is not Jewish but very interested in seeing the library become reality. There are now some real players involved. Three of them are members of Parliament. Another is the director of all libraries in Lithuania. Another is Professor Dovid Katz who teaches at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. Another is Rachel Kostanian. She is deputy director of the Vilna Gaon Jewish Museum. She is also a Shoah survivor.
After years of work, I feel like I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is one thing which still needs to be done. The Prime Minister is the one which will have the final decision in this matter. I was told the best way to influence things in a positive manner is to receive letters of support for the Vilnius Jewish Library. The letters need to be actually mailed as opposed to being sent by email. I am reaching out to you and to anyone you know in getting out those letters. The letters can be printed out or hand written but all must be signed and there must be somewhere their name printed so it can actually be read. If a person is uncomfortable in providing a home address, they are very welcome to use a P.O. Box or business address. This is not a call for donations of money or materials. They do not need to send money. All that is needed now are those letters. Something simple along the lines of one or two paragraphs will be sufficient. People can write whatever they like. I just ask that it be along positive lines and not accusing the Lithuanian government of not doing enough for the Jews. Please write all letters to Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius. Time is of the essence here. Below is the address to which to send all letters. Feel free to forward this email and/or my contact details to anyone you choose. While letters from Rabbis are very welcome, each and every letter from whomever will look good as we make the case for a new center of Jewish culture and learning in the Jerusalem of Lithuania.
P.S. Letters from Gentiles who are interested are also welcome. Below is the mission statement. There are also some links in regard to the library.
Mission Statement
The question is how to accomplish these lofty goals. To open a library in which all the books are in Hebrew and Yiddish is to guarantee failure. There is a small Jewish population in Vilnius. The purpose is not to convince Jews of the special nature of Judaism and Jewish culture. I am hopeful that they already know. So what will be done to guarantee the success of a Jewish library where there are not many Jews?
1. Have approximately 100,000 books in English written by any Jewish author on any topic, both fiction and non-fiction. This will guarantee that there is the widest possible range of books. That means that everyone who will walk through the door will find something which appeals to them.
2. Keep in mind that English is not the first language of Lithuanians. To help with reading comprehension, the library will be stocked with around 20,000 dictionaries and encyclopedias. Any reader who has trouble understanding a word or concept found in a book will have access to dictionaries covering everything from archaeology to zoology. In addition, there will be CDs and DVDs designed specifically to help students learn English. With a large collection of everything from children's books to the most scholarly, there will be something for every reading level.
3. Many believe that the time of libraries is past. After all, there are satellite dishes for television and high speed internet for computers. To draw people into the library, there will also be a big collection of CDs and DVDs. The music CDs will cover everything from the Beastie Boys to KISS to Streisand to Gershwin, Mahler, and the Klezmatics. This will be another way to highlight the significant contributions which Jews have made to popular culture. As for the DVDs, every Jewish library should have a copy of Schindler's List directed by Stephen Spielberg. However, since Spielberg is Jewish, I also will have Jurassic Park and Jaws. Harrison Ford is Jewish so there will be Star Wars included as well as any Ben Stiller film. Yes, there will be serious documentaries as well as thoughtful films made about the Shoah. The incredible variety of books, CDs, and DVDs is to show to the world the incredible breadth and depth of Jewish life and culture. I believe this is something which has never been attempted beneath one roof.
4. If all that is not seen as enough to bring them in, there is far more than that to attract visitors. Each night I plan to offer different events. There will be poetry readings, concerts, lectures, art exhibtions, as well as film nights. These events can be done by any person for any reason. The creator need not be Jewish and what they are doing need not have any Jewish connection. The idea behind this is that it will get people in the door who might not have otherwise considered visiting a Jewish library. Once through the door, they will be able to see for themselves the incredible array of material available to them. If everything mentioned so far seems still inadequate to bring them in, there will also be a cafe offering coffee, tea, and snacks.
It is one thing to open a Jewish library in a city where there are large numbers of Jews. This is not London or New York or Tel Aviv. This is Vilna which was the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Many will say that the time for Jewish culture in Lithuania is past. They will argue that all the Jews still here should move to Israel. I believe that the Jews here feel the same as I do. First, this is their home which nobody can deprive them of. Second, is that for Jewish culture to die in Lithuania is to provide a posthumous victory for the nazis. I will do all in my power to promote Jewish culture in Lithuania for as long as I am able.
Wyman Brent
Vilnius Jewish Library
Wyman Brent
Ausros Vartu 20-15A
Vilnius LT-02100
1 comment:
1. Not to be a cynic, but are Beastie Boys and Kiss cds really a part of depriving the Nazis of a posthumous victory? Secondly, why no mention of the Strashun library? Thirdly, is this the best they can communicate in explaining the value of this library? Believe me, I'm trying hard to get it and see why this is important, but I'm just not.
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0.039082 | <urn:uuid:84d15a59-889b-45d6-863b-44e218cbfbae> | en | 0.956489 | Published Fri, Dec 31 2004 18:27 | William
I remember a while ago I was reading a book (can't remember which one) where the guy was making the case that you should take action on things immediately once you've decided that you are going to undertake them. Since that's an awkward statement, his point was, for example, if you're going to quit smoking - start right now. If you're going to start running, start today. Because he believed that there were certain things people do to make it easier to fail. The dude had one of those Cortesian - burn all the boats philosophies. His thinking went something like “If I tell myself I'm going to start tomorrow, within less than 24 hours, tomorrow is going to be today - and if you are capable of starting today - then why not do it?” Sounds like motivational BS but I'm not doing it justice - his point was that all the wanting in the world isn't worth squat unless you take action on it and the longer you wait to get started, the less likely it is to ever happen - too many things you didn't factor in will take priority and your goal will get popped off of the stack.
This is my third pass at learning “Patterns” and it's going a little easier. I tried reading the GoF book but it might as well be written in Martian b/c while I can read it, I have a mental block or something because absorption isn't there. So my first goal of the new year (starting three days ago) is to get proficient with at least 20 Data Access Patterns. I've found that repetitively coding stuff and stepping through it can teach you how almost anything works - and that's fully what I plan to do.
I want to be able to build a fairly sophisticated Sharepoint portal without “Having” to look for help. That's not to say that I'd ever want to build anything without referring to some stuff I've read - but if I know I can do it if I had to - I'll be where I want to be.
Ditto for Biztalk -
I want to be able to run 10 miles comfortably.
I want to be able to bench press 225lbs for 10 reps.
I want to learn at least 200 more words that I don't already know.
I want to read at least 50 new books next year (although based on most years, that's a pretty lame goal).
I want to focus a lot more on architecture and be able to whip up complex solutions, with REAL UML diagrams, correclty and quickly.
List will evolve but for the time being those are the short term goals.
Filed under:
# William said on December 31, 2004 6:51 PM:
What about your #1 resolution? Bill's #1 resolution for the new year: To Be Less Patient.
And believe me, he's already WELL on his way to achieving that one!!! (Just kidding!!) <grin>
# William said on December 31, 2004 6:52 PM:
Yes, I forgot about that one - My most important one is to be a lot more impatient
# William said on January 1, 2005 12:35 AM:
200 words is a lot of words...unless you learn them in a new language!
Happy new year buddy! Now if it's worth doing, do it now. I expect you're hitting the gym and not blogging right this second :P
# William said on January 4, 2005 12:02 PM:
Happy New Year Bill and Kim :)
# William said on January 4, 2005 12:04 PM:
Same to you buddy - how's everything going?
# William said on January 5, 2005 11:30 AM:
Things are going pretty good for me and the wife - thanks for asking :)
Right now I'm in the middle of upgrading from Oracle 9i Lite to 10g's a little different and I'm wrestling with the Oracle documentation (which is BRUTAL for Lite) to try to figure out some stuff that's changed.
# TrackBack said on January 13, 2005 10:15 PM:
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(老紫, Rōshi)
• Rōshi of the Lava Release (熔遁の老紫, Yōton no Rōshi)[1]
Manga Chapter #353
Anime Naruto Shippūden Episode #121
Game Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Impact
Appears in Anime, Manga and Game
Voice Actors
Gender Gender Male Male
Status Deceased
• Part II: 149.5 cm1.495 m
4.905 ft
58.858 in
Tailed Beast Son Gokū (Forms)
Nature Type
Rōshi (老紫, Rōshi) was the jinchūriki of Son Gokū, the Four-Tails, that hailed from Iwagakure. The Four-Tails has been captured and sealed by Akatsuki, causing his death when the beast was extracted. However, upon his reincarnation, the Four-Tails was resealed within Rōshi.[2]
Rōshi became the jinchūriki of the Four-Tails over forty years before the Fourth Shinobi World War at a very young age.[3] He left his home town of Iwagakure at some point to better understand and control the power of the beast within him.[4]
Son Gokū mentioned that Rōshi was just as hard-headed as Ōnoki, the Third Tsuchikage, suggesting the two had been acquainted. Despite this, upon observing Naruto Uzumaki's battle against Obito and his Six Paths of Pain, as well as his knowledge of the tailed beasts final meeting with the Sage of the Six Paths, he came to regrettably believe that all the jinchūriki could have walked down the right path if they were more like the young man. Also despite being Son's jinchūriki for over forty years,[5] he never referred to the beast by its true name, stating that he had not become soft-hearted enough to do such a thing. Before Son was resealed into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, he revealed to the beast that he never forgot its name, making peace with the giant monkey.
Rōshi had red hair, moustache and beard which tapered off to a point. He was shown wearing a large headpiece consisting of a three pointed crown-like ridge, bearing both his Iwagakure forehead protector, a ring, and a prominent black piece of armour running across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. He wore a long-sleeved light-red shirt and pants, with mesh-armour shirt and fitted black suit underneath, along with calf-length sandals. Around his waist he wore a brown sash-like high-waist piece with a pouch in the front and armoured lapels falling to the sides. Interestingly, his headpiece, hair and beard seemed to model his tailed beast's.
Rikudou Roshi
Rōshi with a Sharingan and Rinnegan
He has been noted to be a very powerful shinobi. Kisame, a powerful Akatsuki member himself, stated that he was not one to play around with as he was a tough one to capture.[6] He was also seen using a curved kunai with which it can be assumed that he had proficiency wielding.[7]
After his reincarnation and serving as one of Tobi's Six Paths of Pain, Rōshi is seen with both the Sharingan and Rinnegan. Combining the perceptual and predictive abilities of the former with the shared field of vision ability of the latter, allowed Rōshi to use his attacks in a more precise and coordinated fashion as well as react to enemy attacks more efficiently, both individually and in conjunction and with the other jinchūriki.
Nature Transformation
File:Roshi Lava Release.png
Rōshi using his Lava Release: Scorching Stream Rock Technique.
By borrowing the Four-Tails' power, Rōshi was able to use its Lava Release ninjutsu, created through simultaneous use of fire and earth-based chakra, to create a torrent of lava that can melt almost anything. In the anime, Tobi referred to him as "Rōshi of the Lava Release" (熔遁の老紫, Yōton no Rōshi),[1] further indicating his prowess with it. He could spit multiple balls of lava at the enemy. He could also create an armour made of lava that not only has defensive purposes but adds lava to his taijutsu attacks increasing their potential damage.
Jinchūriki Transformations
Main article: Rōshi's Jinchūriki Forms
File:Roshi Full Transformation.jpg
Rōshi in his full Son Gokū form.
As the Four-Tails' jinchūriki, Rōshi is granted a significant amount of chakra and stamina from the beast. The full extent of his control is unknown, but he could form at least one of the beast's tails upon his reincarnation, further enhancing his power and strength. After being immobilised by B's clone, he transforms into his Version 2 form, in this form he was able to create an enormous torrent of lava, scorching the Eight-Tails. When Rōshi attacked Naruto and Killer B, Tobi forced him to transform into his full Four-Tails form. In this form, he displayed tremendous strength, being able to toss Killer B in his full Eight-Tails form a considerable distance away.
Part II
Itachi Pursuit Arc
After an unseen and difficult battle with Kisame Hoshigaki of Akatsuki, Rōshi was somehow defeated and captured by Kisame. He later died as the result of having the Four-Tails extracted from his body.
Shinobi World War Arc
The Jinchuuriki Revived
Rōshi reincarnated, alongside the other jinchūriki.
In preparation for the Fourth Shinobi World War, Rōshi was reincarnated by Kabuto Yakushi to fight against the Allied Shinobi Forces, before being mobilised alongside the other deceased jinchūriki.
File:Obito with four jinchuriki.png
Rōshi mobilises with Tobi as one of his Six Paths of Pain.
Rōshi later travelled together with Tobi, in pursuit of Naruto and Killer B. Encountering their targets, the reincarnated jinchūriki were sent into battle with Rōshi leading the offensive, using his Lava Release: Scorching Stream Rock Technique to pressure the enemy. When this initial assault failed, he, like the others, unleashed the power of their respective tailed beast by materialising the first of its tails.
Whilst Naruto and B conversed, Rōshi exploited this opportunity to attack the former directly, after covering his body in lava. Despite evading the strike, Naruto's face was still scorched by the heat, but when Rōshi attacked again, Naruto endured the blow in an attempt to destroy the chakra receiver embedded in Rōshih's chest. However, this was thwarted by Han. Incapacitated in the wake of the Eight-Tails' devastating attack, after B's recent transformation, Rōshi was then restrained by the latter's sealing technique. However, before the technique's completion, he managed to escape by adopting his Version 2 form, where he then proceeded to burn the Eight-Tails.
Regrouping with the other reincarnated jinchūriki, after Kakashi Hatake and Might Guy's intervention, Rōshi charged past the pair towards Naruto and B. When he clashes with the former, Tobi forcefully transformed him into his full Four-Tails form, where he then proceeded to assault the Eight-Tails. Grabbing one of the beast's tails, Rōshi hurled the two jinchūriki upwards and, after dislodging Naruto in the process, prepared to swallow him. However, despite Naruto's efforts to lodge himself between the beast's jaws, and B's attempts to restrain the ape, the former is ultimately swallowed whole.
While Naruto conversed subconsciously with Son Gokū, Rōshi resisted B's efforts to free his captive comrade, only to be forced to eject Naruto when the young man multiplied. He then tried to impede Naruto from removing the chakra receiver embedded in the beast's chest, but failed to do so thanks to a coordinated strike, leaving Rōshi's incapacitated body behind as Son Gokū was resealed into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
When a transformed Naruto's Tailed Beast Ball later clashed with the collaborative one formed by the other tailed beasts, Rōshi's unconscious body was protected by the Eight-Tails from the resulting blast. Afterwards, Naruto subconsciously met with the other beasts and their jinchūriki, where it was revealed that shortly before Son was resealed, Rōshi questioned his beast as to whether it thought they too had taken the wrong path during life. He then stated that despite not being considerate enough to have spoken it, he had not forgotten the beast's real name. As the two fade away, a smiling Rōshi asked the beast if calling it "Son" would be all right.
After Son was resealed into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Rōshi and the other jinchūriki's corpses were collected by B and held in the Eight-Tails' tentacles. With the release of the Impure World Reincarnation, Rōshi and the others are enveloped in a light of sorts before their bodies start to deconstruct and Rōshi's soul returned to the afterlife.
Video Games
Rōshi is a playable character in the following video games:
Game name Japanese release English release
• Rō (老) means "old age" or "elderly". Shi (紫) means "purple". It is possible Rōshi was named after the Dragon Ball character Master Rōshi, considering that the Four-Tails' design was also inspired by Dragon Ball.
• In order to prevent the jinchūriki from turning traitor, it is tradition for the host to be selected from the family of the village's own Kage. It might be that Rōshi somehow was connected with one of the Tsuchikage.
• In the manga Rōshi's headpiece is depicted as having a golden ring on the left side. The golden ring on Rōshi's headpiece was not present in the anime. This was later added as of episode 256.
1. 1.0 1.1 Naruto: Shippūden episode 205
2. Naruto chapter 565, page 1
3. Naruto chapter 572, page 8
4. Third Databook, page 183
5. Naruto chapter 572, page 10
6. Naruto chapter 353, page 3
7. Second Artbook, page 4
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editTorifu Akimichi
Torifu Akimichi
(秋道トリフ, Akimichi Torifu)
Manga Chapter #481
Anime Naruto Shippūden Episode #211
Appears in Anime and Manga
Voice Actors
Gender Gender Male Male
Torifu Akimichi (秋道トリフ, Akimichi Torifu) is a Konohagakure shinobi and a member of the Akimichi clan.
Torifu with his team during the First Shinobi World War.
During the First Shinobi World War he was part of a team consisting of Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado, Danzō Shimura, and Kagami Uchiha. When they were being chased by Kumogakure's Kinkaku Force and Kagami surmised that someone had to lure them away from the rest of the squad Torifu said whoever that person was would essentially be a sacrifice. Along with the rest of his comrades he witnessed Tobirama declare Hiruzen the Third Hokage.[1]
Konoha fights fox
Konoha fighting the Nine-Tails.
Decades later he was seen alongside Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu and other shinobi directly engaging the Nine-Tails after it was set loose on the village.[2] When they were finally able to drive the beast outside the village's limits, Hiruzen called for them to continue to attack the beast.
Torifu has short spiky brown hair and dark markings around his eyes. Like all other member of the Akimichi clan, he has a very robust build and markings on his cheeks - another custom of his clan. In his youth, he wore the standard black suit and armour of the time, hand-guards, forehead protector modelled to resemble a hat and carried a pouch tied to his back. Several years later during the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha, Torifu now noticeably older, wore a more modern style of armour with his clan's obligatory kanji for "food" (食, shoku) on it. He also carried a and a shield that was reminiscent of a sakazuki.[3]
Although the full extent of his abilities are unknown, as an Akimichi, Torifu can convert calories into chakra in order to perform his clan's secret techniques. He was also seemingly proficient with wielding a bō and also used a shield in battle.[3]
• When Torifu débuted in chapter 481, he had the custom marking on his cheeks that all known Akimichi have. However, when seen during the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha in both the Weekly Shōnen Jump and tankōbon release, these markings were not present.[2]
1. Naruto chapter 581, pages 4-9
2. 2.0 2.1 Naruto chapter 503, page 7
3. 3.0 3.1 Naruto chapter 503, page 10
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brenden 23rd-Jan-2013 05:51 pm (UTC)
i know it's weird to say, but i've tried to pull out of technology as much as i can.
it's so depressing to go ANYWHERE and see everyone buried in their own little iphone worlds
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0.059891 | <urn:uuid:53b33d63-ebdf-4edb-84fc-ca19340a0ef7> | en | 0.972889 | Leadership & Resolve
Grenada, 20 years later.
By Lawrence W. Reed
“Invade Grenada" implored an editorial headline in the Detroit News on October 24, 1983. To many who had previously read nothing about developments in the tiny, obscure, southern Caribbean island, dispatching American troops there must have seemed out-of-the-blue, if not reckless. But two days later, that's exactly what President Ronald Reagan did.
It was the opening shot of the Reagan Doctrine, a policy that contributed mightily to the demise of the Soviet empire. We ought to celebrate it as a triumph of leadership and a milestone for liberty.
Alarm bells sounded early in the Reagan administration when the Marxist regime of Grenada's prime minister Maurice Bishop nuzzled up to Moscow and Havana. The construction of a 10,000-foot runway that could accommodate the largest military transports, and the influx of hundreds of East-bloc advisers and military personnel, meant that Grenada was fast becoming another forward base for Soviet designs on the region. The Detroit News noted in its editorial that in his four years as ruler, Bishop "had censored the press, canceled elections, stifled opposition parties, and jailed numerous political detainees."
As bad as Bishop was, he wasn't bad enough for Bernard Coard, a hard-line Communist who staged a bloody coup on October 13. Bishop was quickly assassinated, and Coard's supporters showed every sign of moving to install a virulently anti-Western regime. Amid growing violence, the lives of nearly 1,000 American medical students on Grenada hung in the balance.
It's hard to imagine that, if Jimmy Carter had been president, there would have been any American response other than sweet talk, vacillation, and appeasement. Washington would not have considered military action unless the students had been rounded up and taken hostage. But Reagan was made of much sterner stuff. In his first year as president, he told an audience at Notre Dame University, "The West will not contain Communism, it will transcend Communism. We will not bother to denounce it; we'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written." Ronald Reagan understood the enormous geopolitical significance of rolling back the Evil Empire.
Defeating the Communist thrust in Grenada would do nothing less than kill the Brezhnev Doctrine in its tracks. Advanced by Soviet dictator Leonid Brezhnev in August 1968 when he mounted an invasion of Czechoslovakia, the doctrine held that once a nation had become Communist, it would forever remain so. The Reagan Doctrine of undermining the Communist agenda by supporting anti-Communist insurgencies could score its first big victory if Grenada were liberated. Such a development would send a powerful message to the forces fighting Communism everywhere, from the Solidarity movement in Poland to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan.
Peter Schweizer, in his recent book Reagan's War, recounts what happened in the White House on the same day the Detroit News urged action:
Six neighboring countries were now stepping forward and formally requesting U.S. assistance to deal with a mounting crisis. Aides came to Reagan with the outlines of an invasion plan.
One mentioned that there would be political fallout; the invasion would be controversial and probably not very popular.
"I understand that. I'm prepared for that," Reagan said.
Another mentioned it might cause anxiety in Cuba, creating fears that that nation might be next.
"That's fine," he said. "They might be."
Reagan then asked how soon the invasion could take place.
In forty-eight hours, he was told.
"Do it," he ordered.
In the early-morning hours of October 25, 1983, armed forces of the United States of America invaded the island of Grenada. Fierce resistance met the initial assault by 1,200 troops. Cuban military units fought hard for several days, but as the invasion force grew to more than 7,000, they surrendered or melted into the countryside. Every one of the American medical students was rescued. Casualties were minimal: 19 American soldiers and 49 of the enemy were dead. 110,000 inhabitants of Grenada were freed of a murderous, expansionist regime. American combat forces were home before Christmas. Soon afterward, Grenada held free elections, and when President Reagan visited the island on the invasion's first anniversary, throngs of grateful Grenadians welcomed him with what seemed like boundless enthusiasm.
Reagan biographer Dinesh D'Souza writes that "for the first time since the Vietnam War, the United States had committed ground troops abroad, sustained casualties, emerged victorious, and won the support of the American people." The invasion "helped to exorcise the ghost of Vietnam from the American psyche."
The doubting Thomases who dismissed the administration's claim that the medical students needed to be rescued were forever silenced when those very students returned to the United States. The first one off the plane fell to his knees and kissed the tarmac. At the White House, the students expressed their profound appreciation for what American troops had done.
We now know that there were many others cheering the Grenada invasion from more distant front lines of the Cold War. Reagan, already seen behind the Iron Curtain as a hero for the cause of liberation, had employed decisive action to back up his tough words. Those risking their lives fighting the Evil Empire in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Central America were emboldened. Freedom's friends knew he meant business. Communism was not the wave of the future. It could be transcended and eliminated. From that point forward, its demise was inevitable and swift. The Brezhnev Doctrine was as dead as its blowhard author, who had gone on to his "reward" the year before.
Always underestimated by opponents of far lesser note and character, Reagan proved by invading Grenada that leadership and firm resolve can make an enormous difference. On this 20th anniversary, let us be thankful that the man in the White House in October 1983 was not an indecisive accommodationist, but a giant of our age — Ronald Wilson Reagan.
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0.245697 | <urn:uuid:155b0ed5-0e93-4788-ad76-c8a40220de99> | en | 0.967432 | Listen up, California. The other 48 states—your cousin New York excluded—are sick of your bratty arrogance. You're the Lindsay Lohan of states: a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it.
After enjoying ephemeral highs and spending binges, you suffer crashes that culminate in brief, unsuccessful stints in rehab. This cycle repeats itself every five to 10 years, as the rest of the country looks on with a mixture of horror and amusement. We'd feel sorry for you if you didn't constantly flip us the bird.
Instead, we're making bets on how long it will be before your next meltdown. Oh, wait—you're already melting down.
Opinion Journal's Allysia Finley argues that California is suffering from spending addiction like starlet Lindsay Lohan.
You've racked up nearly $70 billion in general obligation debt, and that doesn't include your $500 billion unfunded pension liability. Your own analysts predict you'll face a hole of at least $80 billion over the next four years.
Your government's run by a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums. When they're not taxing or spending, they're creating regulations and commissions like the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology and the California Blueberry Commission. Many businesses would leave if it weren't for your sunny climate.
Which may explain why you're so obsessed with climate change. If your climate changes, no one, including your Hollywood friends, would tolerate you anymore. So you've created a law to tax carbon emissions—no matter that it will kill jobs.
It's not as if you don't recognize that you've got problems. Roughly three-quarters of you say you're headed in the wrong direction, according to a recent survey by the Public Policy Institute of California. You're even more depressed than Illinois and New York, and you've got sunshine 10 months of the year!
You appropriately give your government low marks—28% approval for outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 16% for the legislature—yet you continue to re-elect the politicians who got you into this mess. Not a single incumbent state legislator lost re-election this year, including one Democrat who died a month ago (no joke). What's scarier is that you've just given almost all of the keys to statewide offices to Democrats.
Gavin Newsom Associated Press
"We're nothing but a mirror of our consistent thoughts. You tend to manifest what you focus on. If you look around for what's wrong, you'll find it. But as all we know up here in San Francisco, when you focus on what's right, you see it all around you. . . . There is absolutely nothing wrong with California that can't be fixed by what's right with California. . . . If you're from another state, you'd love to have the problems of California."
You've also just re-elected Barbara Boxer (that's Senator Barbara Boxer) to a fourth term. She boasted on election night that it's her "eleventh straight election victory, and what a sweet one it is . . . [since] everything was thrown at us, including the kitchen sink, and the stove and the oven and everything, millions of dollars of negative ads from known and unknown opponents, millions and millions of dollars."
So here's our final warning: When you inevitably crash and burn, don't count on us to bail you out.
Ms. Finley, a lapsed Californian who still wears Birkenstocks, is an assistant editor of | http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703506904575592612400443370 | dclm-gs1-270310002 | false | false | {
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0.031814 | <urn:uuid:d3d4af8e-54bf-424f-b258-56d51121c749> | en | 0.739586 | squeeze ] [ wheezy ] [ jessie ] [ sid ]
[ 源代码: gl2ps ]
软件包: libgl2ps0-dbg (1.3.5-1)
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下载源码包 gl2ps:
Lib providing high quality vector output for OpenGL application
GL2PS is a C library providing high quality vector output for any OpenGL application. The main difference between GL2PS and other similar libraries is the use of sorting algorithms capable of handling intersecting and stretched polygons, as well as non manifold objects. GL2PS provides advanced smooth shading and text rendering, culling of invisible primitives, mixed vector/bitmap output, and much more...
GL2PS can currently create PostScript (PS), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) files, as well as LATEX files for the text fragments. GL2PS also provides limited, experimental support for Portable LaTeX Graphics (PGF). Adding new vector output formats should be relatively easy; you can also use the excellent pstoedit program to transform the PostScript files generated by GL2PS into many other vector formats such as xfig, cgm, wmf, etc.
This package contains the debugging symbols of the library.
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mipsel 42.1 kB140.0 kB [文件列表] | http://packages.debian.org/zh-cn/squeeze/mipsel/libgl2ps0-dbg | dclm-gs1-270390002 | false | false | {
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0.492597 | <urn:uuid:402484c6-eb36-428d-99ae-28781c5d3d09> | en | 0.911444 | Take the tour ×
I have a puzzle I can not even understand. A graviton is generally understood in $D$ dimensions as a field with some independent components or degrees of freedom (DOF), from a traceless symmetric tensor minus constraints, we get:
1. A massless graviton has $D(D-3)/2$ d.o.f. in $D$-dimensional spacetime.
2. A massive graviton has $D(D-1)/2-1$ d.o.f. in $D$-dimensional spacetime.
Issue: In classical gravity, given by General Relativity, we have a metric (a symmetric tensor) and the Einstein Field Equations(EFE) provide its dynamics. The metric has 10 independent components, and EFE provide 10 equations. Bianchi identities reduce the number of independent components by 4. Hence, we have 6 independent components. However, for $D=4$, we get
1. 2 independent components.
2. 5 independent components.
Is the mismatch between "independent" components of gravitational degrees of freedom (graviton components) one of the reasons why General Relativity can not be understood as a quantum theory for the graviton?
Of course, a massive graviton is a different thing that GR but even a naive counting of graviton d.o.f. is not compatible with GR and it should, should't it? At least from the perturbative approach. Where did I make the mistake?
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Does this help? -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… . I don't see any quantum mechanics in the question at all. It seems purely classical. – Ben Crowell Aug 16 at 0:11
This question (v3) is also addressed in e.g this and this Phys.SE answers. – Qmechanic Aug 16 at 8:22
@BenCrowell Well, I have certainly some confussion, that is why I asked. GR is a classical field theory for the metric (without torsion). Gravitational field is provided with the aid of a metric. Therefore, I am interested in the number of independent components of the "graviton" due to the Weinberg's formulae I wrote above. However counting independent d.o.f. does not match what I believed to. – riemannium Aug 16 at 15:37
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As far as counting d.o.f.s for GR, I believe it goes: Start with a symmetric tensor (10 d.o.f in 4-D). Throw out 4 because of the Bianchi identities (6 d.o.f left). Throw out another 4 because of invariance under space-time diffeomorphisms (in other words, GR is invariant under General Coordinate Transformations, so you have 4 unphysical d.o.f.s). Thus there are only two degrees of freedom left.
Regarding massive gravity, see: Theoretical Aspects of Massive Gravity by Kurt Hinterbichler [arxiv 1105.3735] which has a fairly readable introduction.
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Question: were not the Bianchi identities the 4 relationships due to Diff. invariance itself too? Anyway I think I understand this stuff better know... :). By the way, thanks for the reference. – riemannium Aug 20 at 10:27
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0.149823 | <urn:uuid:70f3bd3e-8c0b-4897-a516-742ef72f0c9a> | en | 0.942553 | Take the tour ×
While liquidity is one of the key figure of financial markets, It seems to be very difficult to measure. Volume is sometime used as a proxy but can sometimes be completly irrelevant.
Could you point to relevant research on what data to use and how to compute the measure?
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6 Answers
up vote 5 down vote accepted
Volume merely indicates how much buy-side interest exists in a stock. For liquidity, the sell-side interest is more relevant, which implies the quote characteristics (the limit-order book).
In addition to the bid-ask spread, I look at the top-of-book quote size. Here's an example from BATS:
sym | bid ask bidsize asksize
AAPL| 325.12 325.21 100 100
MSFT| 24.70 24.71 3900 5900
I can only buy \$32,521 worth of Apple without impacting price, as opposed to \$145,789 of Microsoft. So the slippage is smaller.
There are more sophisticated measurements for order book entries. I could look at the full book ("level II data") to see the depth of the order chain. I could look across multiple exchanges, which is what a smart order router must do anyway. I could even look at related asset classes if the investor's goal is merely to gain exposure to general risk.
To be really swanky, I could investigate dark pools, though that's harder since the quotes aren't displayed. For this, a quant would need historical data regarding how much has been executed in the past. That's one reason why the big banks have a competitive advantage in dark-pool aggregator algorithms: they have enough client flow to record execution patterns.
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AAPL's price is 13 times higher than MSFT's, but the spread is only 9x wider. So crossing the bid/offer spread in AAPL costs me less as a percentage of the fill than in MSFT. – Ted Graham Jun 22 '11 at 20:49
@Ted AAPL's lower basis-point spread only exists because sub-penny quotes aren't currently allowed. Also, my answer was about quote size; AAPL's unnatural "advantage" disappears once the client places larger orders. – chrisaycock Jun 22 '11 at 22:13
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For my master thesis, I used the bid-ask spread as a liquidity measure. Intuitively, it is the price to the have the liquidity (or even the price of liquidity); the bigger the bid-ask spread, the lower the liquidity.
I know that Carlo Acerbi of MSCI is also looking into liquidity risk management and has a very interesting model for liquidity which is explained in this presentation. Maybe it can give you some ideas.
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One problem with the bid-ask spread is that it doesn't necessarily reflect the "market". For instance, I was looking at Greek CDS bid-ask prices around the vote yesterday, and the spread was surprisingly tight. But just because quotes existed, doesn't mean that anyone would transact at that level. – Shane Jun 23 '11 at 1:49
Well it depends how you want to understand liquidity. To me it's more a measure of "possibility to trade" than a volume measure. – SRKX Jun 23 '11 at 7:32
@shane. If you hit the quote, there is a trade, no? Maybe there is no depth if you are able to trade only one unit, but I think that if there is a quote for both bid and ask and the spread is small it means that the market is there – RockScience Jul 11 '11 at 10:41
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You can have a look at what the guys at Nanex.
Here is an example of what they look at. The chart is colour coded for market depth (the colder the colour the less depth) Market depth
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Do you know any details of making of that chart od Nanex - is each colour a percentage of depth for given price level ? or mayby it's depth measured by quantity of assets ? – Qbik Feb 12 '12 at 19:02
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You may also be interested in a series of papers by Easley, de Prado, and O'Hara (2011), Flow Toxicity and Volatility in a High Frequency World. This paper follows up on a measure of the effect of trades on prices developed by two of the authors in 1987. They show that the new measure, which takes volume and concurrent price movements into account, can predict rapid changes in liquidity such as the "flash crash". From the abstract (published in JPM Winter 2011):
The ‘flash crash’ of May 6th 2010 was the second largest point swing (1,010.14 points) and the biggest one-day point decline (998.5 points) in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. For a few minutes, $1 trillion in market value vanished. In this paper, we argue that the ‘flash crash’ is the result of the new dynamics at play in the current market structure. We highlight the role played by order toxicity in affecting liquidity provision, and we show that a measure of this toxicity, the Volume-Synchronized Probability of Informed Trading (VPIN)*, captures the increasing toxicity of the order flow in the hours and days prior to collapse.
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I'd be cautious about trusting VPIN. There is nothing like a consensus on its validity or robustness. – Ryogi Nov 7 '12 at 16:45
The authors are highly respected and the paper certainly makes for interesting reading. Also the JPM doesn't just publish anything, they generally have a decently high standard. I'm just putting it out there so people are aware. – Tal Fishman Nov 12 '12 at 17:46
It sure makes for an interesting read. As to referring to highly respected (which they are) to hint at correct and valuable, you lost me at the 'hi'(gly). Here is a differing viewpoint. – Ryogi Nov 12 '12 at 18:39
Yes, I read that. I think the original authors disputed that the measure they were calling VPIN is not their VPIN. In short, a half-baked attempt at replication doesn't suffice (still useful to know, as quants don't always have the time or resources to devote to a full-blown replication). – Tal Fishman Nov 12 '12 at 18:53
Exactly, lack of consensus. – Ryogi Nov 12 '12 at 18:56
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A list of various liquidity measures is described in the paper:
Economic Valuation of Liquidity Timing
See page 11, starting with the paragraph
(...) We consider a variety of monthly liquidity measures which together capture all aspects of liquidity: Roll, Effective Tick, Zeros, High-Low, and Illiquidity Ratio (ILR).10 The first four measures proxy for the bid-ask spread and the fifth measure is a proxy for price impact. All liquidity variables measure illiquidity, i.e. higher estimates correspond to lower liquidity.
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The "Navigating Liquidity" serie by CA Cheuvreux's former quant research team addresses different means to measure liquidity in a post MiFID (in europe) and post Reg NMS (for US) world.
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0.095928 | <urn:uuid:172019aa-4a6a-4bd4-a1d7-6da0800579df> | en | 0.902186 | But the kick of my three-pound auto there's no tellin
His gun has a lot of recoil, so he can never be sure he’ll get a good hit
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0.020772 | <urn:uuid:2c51b295-3d4e-4c3f-95a0-a328f183e9b2> | en | 0.904239 | B.o.B – My Sweet Baby Lyrics
Caution: You are now annotating this song as
Lady (Um humm)
Oh baby (Um humm)
My sweet baby (Um humm)
You're the one (Fury)
Lady (Oh yeah)
Oh, baby (oh yeah)
My sweet baby (oh yeah)
You're the one
Uh huh... I know
[Verse One]
Well it's Mr. Obituary, put beats in a cemetery
I rip a beat to pieces, like sheets in a dictionary
The teachers try tried to teach me but I was sleepin' in every class
I never passed, it didn't seem necessary
I'm super psychedelic
I'm smokin' weed with the fairies
And if drugs are bad, throw away every CD you carry
Cause drugs have inspired every musical visionary
And this ain't even the album
So the thought alone should be scary
I do this for the geeks who feel they need to compare me
I swear I'll push this button, give me a reason or dare me
And everything gets blown and everybody gets buried
And there you have it, I shot the track like Berry
Lady (oh yeah)
Oh, baby (oh yeah)
Oh, baby (oh yeah)
Oh, baby (oh yeah)
My, my baby (oh yeah)
Oh, baby (oh yeah)
My sweet baby (oh yeah)
You're the one
I know, I know, I know, haha
[Verse Two]
They tryin' figure out, what's my business incentive
I'm simply tryin' speak to who or whatever will listen
And reach out to the kids who the doctor prescribed with Ritalin
So this for all of my aliens and all the Indigo Children
And anyone who said I would never see this position
Allow me to drop my pants and turn around for you to kiss it
But that was the motivation I needed for me to get it
And this has been a Bobby Ray Power Point presentition
I mean... presentation...
Aww, whatever you don't care
Edit song description to add:
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0.022813 | <urn:uuid:da77b036-ee9d-4428-9208-c90de836130d> | en | 0.944553 | SSX review (PlayStation 3)
6351163Mount Fuji is a PS3-exclusive environment in SSX.None
A few deadly descents require you to make active use of new equipment; the coolest example is Patagonia's Fitz Roy, where you need to employ a wingsuit to glide through the windy air and over some chasms. Some of the deadly descents work better than others; the freezing cold of the shadows on Antarctica's Mount Slaughter is a thrilling threat to avoid, while the constant encroachment of tunnel vision brought on by oxygen deprivation on Mt. Everest is more of an annoyance. But on the whole, these challenging runs are a great way to close out your time in each region in the World Tour, and they're a great place for multiplayer competition as well.
The World Tour is a good way to familiarize yourself with the environments and mechanics of SSX, but the action really heats up in the robust multiplayer modes. The Explore mode lets you aim for medal targets and compete against times and scores set by friends on any of the dozens of runs around the game's globe. The performances of your friends here show up as ghosts, and the ghosts leave glowing trails in their wakes, which look cool and are quite useful. If a rival of yours charts a particularly speedy and efficient path through a run, for instance, you can see the route he or she took. Deadly descent events here challenge you and your friends to see who can travel the farthest; when you make it to the bottom of a run, you're sent right back up to the top via helicopter to continue racking up distance.
The other multiplayer option is Global Events, which are competitions that have set time limits; they might last for a day or a week, and tens of thousands of players can compete in them. Depending on how your performance stacks up against other entrants, you're placed in a bracket--diamond, platinum, gold, and so on--and the higher your bracket, the more credits you earn when the event comes to a close. SSX constantly keeps you updated on pertinent happenings in both the Explore and Global Events modes, informing you when a friend shatters your time in a certain race or when your performance no longer qualifies for a certain bracket. And it makes it easy to jump right back to one of those events to try to improve your performance.
Benchmark ghosts let you see how you're doing on a Global Event race run at every step of the way.
Additionally, whether you're in Explore or Global Events, you can plant geotags in any spot you can reach, and they can be collected by other players. You want to make these as difficult to nab as possible, because the longer a geotag you plant goes uncollected, the more credits you earn. You might be inspired to approach a run completely differently than you otherwise would in the hopes of planting a geotag in a hard-to-reach spot or of grabbing one you can see but can't immediately figure out how to collect. With so many runs to conquer and so many ways to compete, it can be hard to walk away from SSX.
Still, the absence of a traditional simultaneous multiplayer mode is conspicuous. You can create a global event that's limited to just friends or friends of friends, but there's no option to create an event that places you and your friends at the starting line simultaneously. You might see your friends on the slopes in a global event, but without a coordinated start, it doesn't matter who actually crosses the finish line first; it matters who takes the least time to get there. You can always create a party and chat with friends as you hang out on the slopes, but it's still disappointing that the game doesn't have a built-in option for simultaneous social competition.
What do you do with the credits you earn for performing well across the game's various modes? Well, lots of things in the game cost credits. New gear for your characters--better boards or outfits that provide perks like a bonus to your trick multiplier--costs credits. Accessing many runs in Explore mode costs credits. Entering many global events costs credits. And it's conceivable that you might end up in a situation where you have to choose between doing some events you don't want to do to earn credits, or just shelling out actual money to acquire them. Yes, you can purchase them with cash. You're never forced to spend money, but the game may tempt you at times with a sweet new snowboard or other alluring item, and the monetization of credits makes the whole thing feel a bit tawdry.
100% pure adrenaline.
But when you're actually on the slopes, the action is so good that you can lose yourself in the moment, joyously tricking and speeding your way down some of the most majestic mountains in the world. Whether you just want to relax and carve some sweet powder in the Rockies or you prefer a grueling struggle against the terrain and the elements, SSX has you covered. It improves on its storied predecessors in every way, with outstanding tracks, intuitive controls, amazing visuals, a diverse assortment of challenges, and fantastic multiplayer options that may have you competing with your friends or the world for a long time to come.
Editor's note: This review originally misstated the total number of regions included in the game. The review has been amended accordingly. GameSpot regrets the error.
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• Release date02/28/12
• ESRB Everyone
• Developer EA Canada
• Genre Sports
• Elements Sports - snowboarding
• Context Realistic
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0.028166 | <urn:uuid:e19b530c-717a-4853-bc9a-0ebedc72c59b> | en | 0.95401 | Turok review (PlayStation 3)
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3.5 stars Very good
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Like the mindless Hollywood blockbusters that it emulates, Turok features plenty of dinosaur-hunting action and not too much else.
Considering that it's published by Touchstone, an interactive arm of Disney, it's not surprising that Turok comes across like it was based on a screenplay. This new Turok game is the first in the franchise in six years, and it feels like a reboot in many ways. Gone are the time-traveling aspects of the previous games, and in its stead is a sci-fi story that involves a ship crashing on an alien world inhabited by dinosaurs. The ensuing action and story unfold very much like a standard Hollywood summer blockbuster, complete with familiar and expected plot twists, cheesy dialogue, and plenty of mindless action.
You play as Joseph Turok, a Native American warrior who is part of a mission to hunt down a rogue military company of which he used to be a member. That fact doesn't exactly endear him to his fellow squadmates, who are voiced by actors such as Ron Perlman, William Fitchner, and Donnie Wahlberg. There's even a hilarious bit of dialogue when one soldier accuses Turok of being responsible for his brother's death; it's a line so cliché that you feel like you've heard it before in countless movies. In keeping with this, Turok liberally borrows from many other sources, and the plot feels like a mishmash of Unreal, Jurassic Park, The Dirty Dozen, and more. Even the visual design of the characters and vehicles feels taken from Gears of War.
Regardless, the heart of the game is battling dinosaurs as well as giant scorpions, flies, and lizards. It turns out that the planet is a strange laboratory where evolution has been put on overdrive, though whoever is responsible for this is a mystery; the game leaves that for possible sequels to answer. If you're a big fan of dinosaurs, there's plenty of dino action to admire from different varieties of lightning-quick raptors, docile vegesauruses, and, of course, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex.
At your disposal are your standard firearms, such as a pulse rifle, a shotgun, a rocket launcher, and more. You can carry only two weapons at a time, and you can also dual-wield many weapons. Nevertheless, the best weapon is your trusty knife. The game has many cinematic action sequences in which you're tasked with mashing a certain button or jamming a trigger rapidly to execute a kill move, from picking up a smaller dino and breaking its back across your thigh, to jumping atop it and jamming your knife into its cranium, and more. It's so well done that it's a bit unsettling just how exhilarating knife kills are to execute.
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• Release date02/5/08
• ESRB Mature
• Developer Propaganda Games
• Genre Action
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0.097316 | <urn:uuid:66b1584b-86d2-47fb-975c-0a0c8b9fb394> | en | 0.957708 | JFRS BRIXTON HARRINGTON photo nbutoninsidewithzipper.jpg
John Ferrish established since 2009 in Bandung, Indonesia. Is the first and the one brand that produced harrington jackets in Indonesia. Starting from the desire of the founders to create a famous brand that is able to collaborate on two different things, between fashion and music. And inspired by the legendary British indie music in the 1960′s, and subcultures are MODS victorious at the time. John Ferrish is a LIMITED product that is produced independently and only promote the brand through word of mouth, websites, social networking and sponsoring various music events, with the hope of this product can sell their products to penetrate into international markets. John ferrish always put a quality product, compared to deceive consumers with a poor quality but give him a very expensive price. In other words John Ferrish more priority to the quality of their products, so that customers become loyal to their products. “The Price is Right.†John Ferrish produce various kinds of clothing. Still jacket is a flagship product. Proven that consumers say johnferrish the best products in its class. And they’re loyal! So, prove it. | http://s1211.photobucket.com/user/ragamahardika/media/JOHN%20FERRISH%20JACKET/JFRS%20HARRINGTON/nbutoninsidewithzipper.jpg.html | dclm-gs1-270740002 | false | false | {
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0.083355 | <urn:uuid:b3aa2035-6059-4482-b811-4d130bec9e6c> | en | 0.872243 | Take the tour ×
What set of GCC options provide the best protection against memory corruption vulnerabilities such as Buffer Overflows, and Dangling Pointers? Does GCC provide any type of ROP chain mitigation? Are there performance concerns or other issues that would prevent this GCC option from being on a mission critical application?
I am looking at the Debian Hardening Guide as well as GCC Mudflap. Here are the following configurations I am considering:
-fstack-protector --param ssp-buffer-size=4
-fPIE -pie
-Wl,-z,relro,-z,now (ld -z relro and ld -z now)
Are there any improvments that can be made to this set of options?
We are most worried about protecting WebKit form attacks.
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gcc -x ada. Seriously, if you don't want exploitable programs, start by using a programming language that doesn't go out of its way to let programmers write exploitable code. – Gilles Nov 25 '12 at 19:28
@Gilles cool let me know when they write a browser in ada. – Rook Nov 25 '12 at 19:38
There was a Web browser written in Objective Caml, but the project has stalled more than ten years ago (thus not usable in practice): pauillac.inria.fr/mmm – Thomas Pornin Nov 29 '12 at 16:43
There is also Lobo which is more recent, and in Java. – Thomas Pornin Nov 29 '12 at 16:46
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2 Answers
up vote 11 down vote accepted
I don't code for gcc, so hopefully someone else can add to this, or correct me. I'll edit it with responses. Some of these will not work for all circumstances.
• -Wall -Wextra -Wconversion -Wformatsecurity
Turn on all warnings to help ensure the underlying code is secure.
• -Werror
Turns all warnings into errors so you can't ignore them.
• -arch x86_64
Compile for 64-bit to take max advantage of address space (important for ASLR).
• -fstack-protector-all -Wstack-protector --param ssp-buffer-size=4
Your choice of "-fstack-protector" does not protect all functions (weird huh). The warning flag here tells you of any functions that aren't going to get protected.
• -pie -fPIE
For ASLR
• -ftrapv
Generates traps for signed overflow
Buffer checks
• -Wl,-z,relro,-z,now
Mark various ELF memory sections readonly (GOT protection)
If compiling on Windows, please Visual Studio instead of GCC, as some protections for Windows (ex. SEHOP) are not part of GCC, but if you must use GCC:
• -Wl,dynamicbase
Tell linker to use ASLR protection
• -Wl,nxcompat
Tell linker to use DEP protection
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enabling warnings doesn't help prevent the compromise of a running system. Also, without -fstack-protector-all canary's are only added to functions that may incur a stack based overflow that contain an array larger than 4 bytes (as per ssp-buffer-size=4 ). Not every function needs to be protected by a canary, that is just a waste. Also I am on a 32bit system... So this post hasn't changed my build options. – Rook Dec 2 '12 at 19:39
@Rook He's using -Werror, so the warnings become errors. He can't compile it, unless he's fixing the source. – sfx Dec 3 '12 at 18:38
@sfx "he" is me, and "the source" is webkit. – Rook Dec 3 '12 at 18:39
Well maybe add some information about glibc 2.5 protections and anything else you can think of, and I'll awarded it. – Rook Dec 5 '12 at 20:29
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Those are good options, but you need to pay attention to your own source code. Make sure to use secure function when dealing with user inputs, filter them and when you use something like strncpy(), try not to give a lot of space to prevent certain attacks. OS itself provides security i.e. DEP (NX), ASLR and canaries to protect the stack, but you can't rely on them all the time. So, yeah, above is my suggestion. I hope that helps you a bit and you can also use source code auditing tools. Good luck!
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Comment: .NET Updates Clobber My System (Score 4, Interesting) 375
by ewhac (#45709267) Attached to: Exponential Algorithm In Windows Update Slowing XP Machines
I couldn't tell you why, but I haven't (yet) observed the described behavior on my XP system. The auto-updater ususally settles down in a matter of minutes.
No. In my case, it's trying to apply the .NET updates that completely murders my system. Apparently MS wants a gigabyte or so of free disk space on C:\ (and nowhere else) or the update will fail miserably. As it happens, my system partition has about 200MB free space, so the update disappears down a rabbit hole and never completes.
I used to think it was because it needed a bunch of temporary disk space, so last night I changed the TMP and TEMP environment variables to point to a volume with tons of free space, rebooted (because, you know, it's Windows), set just one of the several .NET updates running, then went off to see The Hobbit. When I returned some three hours later, the update had hung, the disk was idle, C:\ had zero bytes free, and the system log was corrupted.
Honestly, I don't know why anyone continues to be surprised by Redmond's rank incompetence...
Comment: ZFS is Not a Panacea (Score 1) 321
by ewhac (#45655049) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Practical Bitrot Detection For Backups?
FreeNAS and ZFS are indeed awesome. But before y'all go installing FreeNAS on some spare hardware and think your problem is solved, you need to be aware that ZFS is not a panacea. You can't just drop it on Any Old Box with default settings and expect it to magically keep your data safe unto perpetuity. You need to pay attention to what you're doing.
Some highlights:
• ZFS's design requires RAM to be perfectly reliable, or at least report imperfections. Undetected bitrot in RAM can and will destroy your entire ZFS pool. Thus, a machine with ECC RAM installed is a requirement.
• As if that weren't enough, ZFS eats huge amounts of RAM. The current guideline is 1 GiB of RAM per TB of disk spindles, with 8 GiB as a practical minimum.
• ZFS assumes it has perfect knowledge of disk writes in-flight, and as such doesn't play well with RAID controllers, which can silently re-order writes. If your machine has a RAID controller, the RAID features should be turned off. Don't worry, ZFS has its own RAID features. However:
• Because drive densities are now approaching drive error rates (10**13 bits of storage, with manufacturers quoting uncorrectable errors every 10**14 bits read), ZFS RAID-Z1 is no longer considered sufficient to ensure storage integrity, and you should plan for RAID-Z2 (two parity drives).
• For the same reason as turning off RAID, a "production" FreeNAS/ZFS installation should not be run in a virtual machine. It's okay if you're just test-driving it to get a sense of what it can do, but a live system should run on actual hardware.
• Using ZFS's de-duplication feature is officially discouraged. It may seem like a great idea, but it will gobble all your RAM and return very little benefit. On average, you're better off using compression.
When ZFS dies, it dies in a big and fairly comprehensive way, and ZFS will die if you under-provide it. In any event, you should RTFM before contemplating a build, and know the trade-offs you're getting in to.
Comment: Re:Megahertz myth and the 6502 (Score 3, Interesting) 179
by ewhac (#45645857) Attached to: The Real Story of Hacking Together the Commodore C128
I don't have time to correct all the errors in the parent post. So very briefly:
• The 6502 had three 8-bit registers: A, X, and Y. A was the accumulator, and received the result of all arithmetic operations. X and Y could hold temporary data, arithmetic operands, and be used as index registers for memory load/store. There was also an 8-bit stack pointer register, SP, hard-mapped to the range 0x0100 - 0x01FF.
• The 8080 had the 8-bit registers A, B, C, D, E, H, L, and a 16-bit stack pointer. In addition, the registers B & C, D & E, and H & L could be used to hold 16-bit quantities for some instructions.
• The Z80 had all the registers of the 8080, plus a shadow copy of the registers for quick use by interrupt service routines.
• The 6502's zero page (0x0000 - 0x00FF) got special treatment by the CPU, using only a single byte to address a location. As such, zero page usually got treated by software as a pile of "slow registers."
• No instruction on the 6502 executed in fewer than two clock cycles. The fastest 6502 I ever saw was 2 MHz.
• By contrast, 4 Mhz Z80 chips were widespread.
• The Z80 helped popularize dynamic RAMs by containing a very basic DRAM refresh counter. The 6502 had no such thing; DRAM refresh was usually provided by custom logic, usually part of the video controller.
• S-100 machines had huge power supplies because they had huge numbers of slots (eight or more being common), and had to have enough reserve power for all of them.
• There was nothing special about the 6502's memory access patterns, and 6502 would get starved out like any other CPU if another device held the bus. On the C-64 in particular, every eight video lines, the VIC would grab the bus for 40 uSecs to fetch the next row of character cells, holding off the 6502 the whole time. This led to all kinds of problems with timing-sensitive operations, and was directly responsible for transfers to/from the 1541 floppy drive to be glacially slow.
Comment: Re:Fine, just give us back the ThinkPad (Score 1) 106
by ewhac (#45096195) Attached to: Lenovo Shows Android Laptop In Leaked User Manuals
Agreed. I have a Z61t that is seriously starting to show its age. But the last ThinkPad I will seriously consider buying is the T420, which is no longer made. The current xx30 models (T430, X230, etc.) gratuitously changed the keyboard.
Seriously, Lenovo? You fscked with the ThinkPad keyboard?? The keyboard by which all other laptop keyboards were judged for well over ten years? You just threw that away?
I've been idly looking at "white box" laptops as a possible upgrade avenue, but I have no idea what's going to replace my Z61t. Hell, if I could upgrade its guts to something modern, I'd do it...
Comment: ABSO-FSCKING-LUTELY NOT! (Score 5, Informative) 1191
by ewhac (#45008557) Attached to: Come Try Out Slashdot's New Design (In Beta)
Does. Not. Work.
This is real, pathetically simple, Mr. S:
• Install Firefox.
• Install NoScript plugin. Leave at default settings.
• Surf to your site.
Comment: FUD, Microsoft-Style (Score 1) 230
by ewhac (#45005319) Attached to: The Next Big Fiber Showdown: Austin
A press release is not a fiber rollout. I seriously doubt they have any genuine plans for an actual fiber roll-out, except possibly to the most lucrative neighborhoods.
Also, this mealy-mouthed "up to 1Gb" sets off my bullshit meter, and leads me to suspect that AT&T are going to try and do this on the cheap. OTOH, GFiber starts at 1Gb, and there's plenty of upside built in to their backbone.
What I would be very careful of is the agreements AT&T manages to strong-arm out of Austin in "exchange" for promsing to think about maybe deploying fiber someday. I could easily see AT&T wresting an agreement that grants AT&T exclusive access for 50 years to municipal poles for deploying new information services (as an "incentive," of course). Oh, and the agreement will have no or an extremely vague performance clause. Once they get that agreement, they can shut out all competitors and then do nothing, or as close to nothing as they can get away with.
Comment: Where Have I Seen This Before? (Score 1) 271
by ewhac (#44951031) Attached to: Valve Announces Hardware Beta Test For 'Steam Machine'
This sounds curiously like the model that the 3DO console was supposed to embody 20 years ago (well, 20 years minus ten days or so). In fact, I'm having trouble identifying any significant differences from it.
The idea as presented was to create a common reference platform and get multiple HW vendors to build to the spec and compete on price, like they all were doing with VCRs at the time. The 3DO Company itself wouldn't build anything, getting its money from per-disc royalties ($3/copy). Ultimately, three manufacturers put out 3DO-compatible machines -- Matsushita (Panasonic), LG (nee Goldstar), and Sanyo.
However, the 3DO console famously released at a staggering $700 (1993) and, despite several price drops, never really lost the stigma of being, "too expensive." As a consequence, the installed base never really took off to the same degree as Nintendo and Sega (Sony's Playstation didn't exist back then). As such, 3DO started publishing its own games, and doubled the per-disc fees. Still not enough. 3DO eventually shed all of its platform development talent and become another game development house until it died around 2003.
It'll be interesting to see if Newell can succeed where Hawkins failed.
Comment: Re:Video Editing (Score 1) 226
by ewhac (#44803345) Attached to: Thought Experiment: The Ultimate Creative Content OS
Cinelerra works well - and has for years.
You have got to be kidding.
I have tried on several different occasions to get Cinelerra to do something useful, and have failed every time. The program is incredibly unreliable, and will crash or hang at the slightest provocation.
There are two versions in circulation -- the "original" Heroine Virtual version, still occasionally updated; and the "community" version. I have no idea what the alleged differences are.
It claims to accept a wide variety of video codecs, but in my experiments only appears to reliably support DV -- an uncompressed format that will quickly fill every disk you have.
Like Blender 3D, Cinelerra blazes its own trail for the user interface. In fairness, if you have some patience, it will gradually start to make sense. It's ugly as hell, but that ugliness could be forgiven if the program worked reliably and produced decent videos.
There are enough glowing reviews of Cinelerra out there to make me wonder if my setup is the problem, but I rather doubt it, since Kdenlive has worked just fine on the same machine. My current theory is that long-time Cinelerra users have learned over the years what bits are irredeemably flaky and just automatically avoid them.
The last time I tried Cinelerra in earnest was about two years ago. After about half a dozen crashes in an hour just trying to put together a slideshow-ish thing, I gave up and started using Kdenlive fairly successfully. But I still watch for updates to the Cinelerra packages. Given the number of updates I've seen over the past two years (very few), I'm not confident the warts have been addressed.
There are some nice things that Cinelerra (allegedly) does, and its timeline has a few advantages over Kdenline. If you know of some magical incantation that will get Cinelerra working crash-free, I will honestly give it another shot. But I'm not sanguine about the results.
Comment: Re:Too much bullshit from Canonical (Score 4, Insightful) 267
by composer777 (#44353195) Attached to: Canonical Seeks $32 Million To Make Ubuntu Smartphone
It works great if the risk taker is poor or middle class and cash strapped, and I think that's what it is (or should be) intended for. Otherwise, I agree, it's ridiculous for a billionaire to use this method for funding, but that's why he's a billionaire (along with all the other billionaires). It's because he knows how to work the system and has few scruples.
Comment: And Now Firefox Has Fallen... (Score 1) 778
by ewhac (#44157071) Attached to: Firefox 23 Makes JavaScript Obligatory
So people fiddle with the settings and the browser "breaks?" Is there some reason it wasn't possible to create a button reading, "Restore Factory Settings," in large, friendly letters? Or was that too hard?
The simple answer is that there is a growing movement to reduce user options that can break applications.
Please try to remember whose machine you're running on. You're a guest under my roof, and guests that behave badly do not get invited back. So no, you don't get to run code in my browser until you've earned a certain level of trust, and you certainly don't get to invite in your friends' code. (I mean, just who the fsck is rpxnow.com, anyway?)
For example, there are websites that not only don't work without JavaScript, but they fail in complex ways [ ... ]
The technical term for sites that behave this way is, "Broken."
Hence, once you remove the disable JavaScript option Firefox suddenly works on a lot of websites.
Firefox already works on a lot of Web sites. Is someone shipping FF with JavaScript turned off by default? What exactly is the alleged problem here?
Today there are a lot of programmers of the opinion that if the user has JavaScript off then its their own fault and consuming the page without JavaScript is as silly as trying to consume it without HTML."
These programmers are called, "Wrong."
Back in the 1990's -- in the days of sneaker-net, recall -- macros in Microsoft Word documents, originally thought to be oh so terribly clever, proved to be a monumental nightmare for their ability to spread viruses and generally wreak havoc. It was so bad that even Microsoft was forced to admit it fscked up, and no longer executed macros in a loaded document by default, but would ask first. So you'd think the lesson on embedding executable content in what was fundamentally a document would have been learned.
Then some allegedly clever person kluges together JavaScript in an afternoon, and suddenly executable content embedded in documents -- over a genuine network, mind -- becomes a fantabulous idea again.
Uh, no, it didn't. JavaScript was a stupid idea, and should never have been allowed to happen. Unless your site is trustworthy and useful, you DO NOT GET TO RUN JAVASCRIPT.
Comment: Re:Origin (Score 2) 204
Let's look at another example. Suppose there were a billionaire who made his money making crappy products and pushing those products on people. Suppose that man decided to then dedicate his life to wiping out a series of specific species completely from their native environments. Sounds like a supervillain, right? Well, that man is Bill Gates, and the species in question are the four species of malaria.
This is a tautology; everyone already knows Bill Gates is a super-villain.
And like most power-mad super-villains, I'm quite certain Gates hasn't bothered to consider the possible long-term downsides to putting his fumbling thumb on the scale of evolution and genociding several species of pathogen.
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Comment: If they were smart... (Score 1) 305
by cee--be (#27366181) Attached to: New Service Aims To Replace Consoles With Cloud Gaming
...they'd have made a small low res handheld system with a built in web connection like the Kindle, the naturally low resolution combined with the comparatively high connection speed (Compared to the resolution) would be perfect for playing current gen console games on the go. Maybe the idea isn't perfect, but it's a much better niche than going after people who are too cheap or too poor to afford a decent gaming computer or a console by offering a subscription service before the technology is there to support it.
Violence in Games, Once Again, Not That Compelling 191
Posted by ScuttleMonkey
from the chickens-and-eggs dept.
One of the great arguments of the digital age has been over the effects of video games on aggression — especially if you have ever heard the name Jack Thompson. A recent study suggest the counterpoint once again, that violent video games really don't have that much impact. "The authors performed six studies in total, but they were in broad agreement, so we'll only discuss the more compelling ones here. For the experimental portion, these involved playing an essentially identical game with different degrees of violent content. One group of participants was randomly assigned to play the game House of the Dead 3 on the different extremes of its gore settings, while a second was split between those who played the normal version of Half-Life 2, and a those who played a modified version that turned the adventure into an elaborate game of tag. In both cases, the primary influences on enjoyment were the sense of competence and satisfaction, along with the immersive nature of the game. Generally, females rated immersion as more important, while males went for competence (and consistently rated their own expertise very highly). Violence didn't register when it came to enjoyment, even for those with pre-existing violent tendencies."
Comment: Practical benifits (Score 2, Interesting) 148
by cee--be (#26396547) Attached to: AMD Plans 1,000-GPU Supercomputer For Games, Cloud
One practical use for this would be to run staggeringly complex real-time physics calculations in real time. One example would be doing the necessary calculations to render a physically realistic sea with weather conditions into an animation. You could then send this to users in a sea MMO for example. There are many other cool game related things you could do with it, rather than wastefully rendering some uncanny valley mobile phone game at 2 FPS.
Mediocrity finds safety in standardization. -- Frederick Crane | http://slashdot.org/~cee--be/firehose | dclm-gs1-270920002 | false | false | {
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Pavel Cvrcek
MozBackup is a utility for creating backups of Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey and some others applications. It allows you to backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, cache etc.
Project Members: | http://sourceforge.net/p/mozbackup/wiki/Home/ | dclm-gs1-270950002 | false | false | {
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0.047532 | <urn:uuid:6aa958a0-13ed-4c88-9916-248322e795f6> | en | 0.969151 | Special Report
Yes on Green But No on Green River
How Obama's environmentalism makes life harder for those who can least afford it.
By 9.10.12
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Barack Obama's muddled thinking, so typical of a radical environmentalist's hatred for oil and other things that improve human life, leaves him with an energy policy that only a Democrat (but not one from an energy-producing state) could find satisfactory.
This is not some sort of theoretical debate with unknown policy impacts. It is not a fundamentally trivial make-believe issue such as the "war on women."
Instead, there are few policy issues as critical as this to all Americans, especially to those of modest or fixed incomes: high oil prices function as a massive tax increase, and a tremendously regressive one at that.
Low-income Americans spend about 11 percent of their income on energy while the top 20 percent (by income) of households spend less than seven percent. Again, this is only direct energy spending. When you include the cost of other things people must buy, particularly food, whose costs rise with higher energy prices, the regressive nature of rising fuel prices becomes all the more dramatic.
Particularly in the northeast, oil prices directly correlate to the cost of heating one's home in winter. (That part of the country tends to use more heating oil where other areas use more natural gas, propane, or electric heat.)
For 25 years now, analysts have noted the devastation that high energy prices cause to our nation's least well-off residents: "On some days, many of America's poorest households must choose whether to heat or to eat. This kind of choice is beyond the comprehension of most middle-class Americans.… But for the poor… it remains a daily part of their lives."
According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, "For every 10-cent increase in the price of a gallon of gasoline, it costs the economy about $11 billion." Even the Obamaphile ABC News has noted that "A 10 cent rise in prices means that the average household spends $93.25 more on gas and diesel per year."
So it's not surprising that by one analyst's calculations consumer confidence "falls half a percentage point for every 10-cent rise in gasoline." Why shouldn't it? And these are just dimes, whereas the price of gasoline is up by about $2 per gallon since Obama took office. Multiply the numbers above by twenty and consider the financial devastation to the country, especially to the non-rich. And then think about Barack Obama's chilly indifference.
It makes perfect sense that the recent record-high gas prices for a Labor Day holiday corresponded to a decline in consumer confidence in August, leaving the leading consumer sentiment index at its lowest level since late last year. And yet Barack Obama remains ahead in political betting odds to win reelection (though I'm betting against him).
Is President Obama's soaring but vapid convention rhetoric supposed to get Americans to forget the near-daily pain at the pump? Republicans must make sure it does not.
The section of Obama's Thursday night nomination acceptance speech that discussed energy was a triumph of hope over reason and fact, but then why should energy be any different than his other policy positions or his supporters' Through the Looking Glass view of reality?
Obama noted that the U.S. is less dependent on foreign oil than in the past. However, some facts were conveniently missing: First, the decline of our use of foreign oil began under President Bush in 2005. Second, and more important, the reason is primarily the recession and weak "recovery" which has sapped demand for fuel to transport goods and people.
Obama claimed that he has "opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years" but didn't mention that essentially most new drilling on federal land was approved under the prior administration. This administration has been relentlessly hostile, and the issuance of permits to drilling on federal lands has plummeted under Obama. It's only on private land that drilling has increased.
One of the several political tin-ear remarks made by Obama on Thursday, unless he was only speaking to his radical base in which case he probably made sense in their miswired minds, was his list of the energy projects he supports, which includes wind turbines, long-lasting batteries, solar, clean coal, and biofuels.
Of course, we've heard it all before and know the results. (Can you say "Solyndra"?) It was hard to listen to the president and not wonder how life is on Planet Enviro, since he's clearly not interested in, nor concerned with life on, Planet Earth.
Obama did mention natural gas; generous of him since it may become the most important long-run energy source for the nation, something none of the left's favorite energy sources can ever hope to claim. And while some power plants are converting from coal to natural gas, and a few major firms are investing in natural gas infrastructure, for years to come we will be an oil-based economy.
Thus it would seem obvious that drilling for more oil under American soil is the most sensible way to decrease dependency on foreign oil sources, and especially oil coming from OPEC nations, some of which are enemies and none of which are friends of the United States. (Most people think of OPEC as comprised only of Middle Eastern nations, but it includes countries elsewhere in the world, including Venezuela.)
Obama's refusal to permit the Keystone XL pipeline (getting Canadian oil being second-best to using our own, albeit a distant second) was the clearest example of his disdain for the most energy-dense source of transportable power that we have. Some say it shows that he is completely beholden to radical environmentalist groups. I disagree. Yes, he likes and wants their support, but in his heart he is one of them.
Lest you disagree, if you think that Barack Obama opposes high energy prices (other than for political reasons), allow me to remind you of his famous statement that if he got his way with cap-and-trade and coal regulation, "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." Just another piece of the same ugly puzzle.
The failure of The One is further evidenced by his backing away from his own foreign oil-reduction promise of four years ago, despite having the dubious tailwind of a weak economy helping him achieve his stated (but not his true) goal.
On Thursday night, Obama said he aims to "cut our oil imports in half by 2020." Four years ago, during his 2008 acceptance speech, Obama said "in 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East." Fool us once…
OK, let's be fair: It's not a big a failure as his promise to cut the deficit in half, but then it's hard to top that one.
But as long as we're being fair, it's not fair to the word "failure" to use that term to describe Barack Obama's energy policy. He is doing exactly what he wants to do.
As with, and included in, his goal of increasing dependency on government, the president's actions reflect what he and his radical base believe: that the level of evilness of an energy source is proportional to that source's economic viability and current usefulness.
(This fits into a similar pattern where the degree of liberal opposition to an industry is proportional to the degree to which people depend on that industry. Consider the biggest recipients of leftist rhetorical venom: oil, finance, pharmaceuticals, and WalMart. The more you need it, the more Obama and friends oppose it -- though they still want their campaign contributions.)
Obama's pseudo-failure on energy policy, especially given the obviousness of the solution, is unforgiveable.
The Green River Formation covers mostly vacant land -- with oil-likely areas about 75 percent owned by the federal government -- in eastern Utah and western Colorado and Wyoming. In 2010, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office offered a report on "Unconventional Oil and Gas Production," which puts it plainly:
(O)il shale development presents the following opportunities for the United States:
• Increasing domestic oil production. Tapping the vast amounts of oil locked within U.S. oil shale formations could go a long way toward satisfying the nation's future oil demands. Oil shale deposits in the Green River Formation are estimated to contain up to 3 trillion barrels of oil, half of which may be recoverable, which is about equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves.
• Socioeconomic benefits. Development of oil shale resources could lead to the creation of jobs, increases in wealth, and increases in tax and royalty payments to federal and state governments for oil produced on their lands. The extent of these benefits, however, is unknown at this time because the ultimate size of the industry is uncertain.
Jack Gerard, President and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, reminds us that "America has been described as the next Middle East in what it has in the form of oil and natural gas. With pro-development policies, we could create millions of new jobs and provide billions of dollars of revenue to our government."
The GAO fairly notes that very large-scale oil resource development is not without issues such as water usage, potential pollution, and influx of large numbers of workers into areas not yet equipped to handle it.
But given these risks versus the potential of dramatically cutting the price of just about everything people buy in America, what do you think citizens would choose to do?
Actually, at least according to one API-sponsored poll, we know what they would choose: Seventy-one percent of respondents support "increased access to domestic oil and natural gas resources" with those who "strongly support" such access numbering twice as many as those who "somewhat support" it. "Somewhat support" alone swamps those who somewhat or strongly oppose drilling for domestic energy. Support crosses party lines, with 85 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of Independents, and 60 percent of Democrats offering some sort of support. Even among Democrats, "strongly support" exceeded "somewhat support."
It's not just about getting the price of gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil down -- along with the price of everything which is transported in a car, truck, or train. It's also about the nation's massive budget issues.
While we have a spending problem rather than a tax revenue problem, the revenue from developing the Green River Formation could have a dramatic beneficial impact on the federal budget. According to one analysis, "if only 30 percent of [potential] royalty revenues flowed into the U.S. Treasury, that would be enough to pay off the entire national debt without raising tax rates or cutting federal spending. Moreover, state taxes on oil and gas produced would enable state governments to keep tax rates low without affecting government operations. "
It's not just the Green River deposits that we should be exploiting to the benefit of all Americans. There is oil and gas across the western United States, such as in Montana, where, as the Spectator's Bradley Anderson has noted, energy development is far behind that of neighboring North Dakota. In that state, an energy boom has the state's unemployment rate at the nation's lowest because a combination of private land and a more business-friendly environment are allowing the most energy-transformative development in our nation since Edwin Drake struck black gold in 1859.
Obama's refusal to allow drilling on federal lands where we know there are enormous oil deposits (which we now have the technology to extract) is a of a piece with his desire to increase taxes and government dependency: Imagine the potential tax cuts (or, if you are a Democrat, imagine being able to avoid spending cuts) if the western United States were a literal gushing well of tax revenue to the federal government.
Again, this is not a theoretical issue, nor one that should divide Americans on class lines. This president's anti-real-energy policy is a disaster for all Americans, but especially the working poor and the middle class to whom Obama's every non-energy related utterance is a transparent pander.
It is time for Republicans to push hard on this issue, to remind voters that Barack Obama is costing them hard-earned cash every single time they fill up the car, shop at the store, or heat up their homes -- and that that's just how he likes it.
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About the Author | http://spectator.org/articles/34850/yes-green-no-green-river | dclm-gs1-270970002 | false | false | {
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0.018257 | <urn:uuid:7108e3b6-215b-4ba7-8cfe-19895e9c085b> | en | 0.974359 | Chisora, Gerber meet for Euro title
September, 20, 2013
Sep 20
Dereck Chisora, Malik ScottScott Heavey/Getty ImagesDereck Chisora believes a win over Edmund Gerber can propel him back into the world title picture.
There's not much boxing action this weekend, but one fight that could be fun -- because it's usually fun when heavyweight Dereck Chisora is in action -- is when Chisora and Edmund Gerber meet for the vacant European title on Saturday in London.
Chisora, the crazy-acting former world title challenger who gave a great effort in a 2012 decision loss to Vitali Klitschko, fights hard, talks hard and usually gives your money's worth when he's in the ring.
When he meets Gerber, it will be Chisora's second shot at the European title. The first time, he was blatantly robbed against Robert Helenius in a hometown decision in Finland in 2011.
"Yeah, I was robbed, but the guy I faced [Helenius] hasn't done anything since and is more or less done," Chisora said. "But I've had some huge fights since then."
One was against Klitschko, another was an exciting fight, albeit a knockout loss, with former titleholder David Haye in July 2012 and there was also an important victory against Malik Scott on July 20.
As usual, Chisora (17-4, 11 KOs), 29, of England, is predicting a knockout win against Germany's Gerber (23-1, 14 KOs).
"I don't know too much about the 25-year-old Gerber, but I've watched his Michael Sprott fight [a decision loss in a December rematch]. He has good hand speed but so do a lot of heavyweights nowadays. But despite this he's still going to get smashed up in front of 7,000 fans at a rocking and rolling Copper Box Arena."
Winning the European title is a means to an end for Chisora. He hopes to parlay a victory into a rematch with Klitschko or a shot at champion Wladimir Klitschko, who first faces Alexander Povetkin on Oct. 5.
"For me, winning the European title is a springboard to another shot at one of the Klitschko brothers," he said. "The belt opens door in the heavyweight game and that's what we're trying to do."
Gerber said he will remain calm in the face of any of Chisora's possible antics. Remember, Chisora slapped Vitali Klitschko at their weigh-in, split water in Wladimir Klitschko's face when he and Vitali were in the ring before their fight and brawled with Haye at a news conference.
"When people start talking about Chisora, they are first thinking about a madman who slapped Vitali Klitschko and spit in his brother Wladimir's face," Gerber said. "A big part of what he does before a fight is just hyping up the event and he is good at it, although he should not try to do those things to me as I would not react as calm as the Klitschkos did. From a sporting point of view, he lives up to his ballyhoo, already having challenged for a world championship. Therefore, he will be my biggest test to date.
"Ever since he slapped Vitali Klitschko and spit water on his brother Wladimir before he fought for the world championship, everybody knew that he has some serious problems with his head. I heard that he had to go to anger management classes but with his latest comments regarding our fight it seems that he still has the attitude of an anti-social man. Maybe I can resocialize him when we fight. I will be glad to serve as his therapist for free."
| http://sports.espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/post/_/id/5640/chisora-gerber-meet-for-euro-title | dclm-gs1-270980002 | false | false | {
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0.0379 | <urn:uuid:bd648e4f-c319-4eb6-92fb-613990a9a0f2> | en | 0.990297 | SI Vault
Frank Robinson
October 21, 1974
So says major league baseball's first black manager, speaking out here on race, player discipline, the Perry affair, job security—and the managers he himself has served
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October 21, 1974
I'll Always Be Outspoken
View CoverRead All Articles View This Issue
1 2 3 4 5 6
The manager can let off some steam by yelling at the umpires. If he hasn't been run out of a game all year he hasn't been doing his job. Bobby Winkles didn't believe in getting on umpires. He didn't even want his players to. But it's part of the game. And if you think you're safe at second and you jump up and start arguing and you look around and your manager's not there, the fans and the umpire and the opposition lose respect for you. They think, "It couldn't have been very close, if his manager's not out there backing him up." If I think my player's right I'll be arguing along with him, and if anybody's going to be run out I'll make sure it's me. If I think he's wrong, I'll go out there and tell him, "O.K., come on." I won't leave him to argue alone.
The main way I'm going to let off steam is by talking out the things that bother me with the players. I'll tell them, and then I'll feel better. As a player I was criticized for being outspoken. I'm always going to be outspoken. I'm going to put being outspoken to use.
I'll also be hitting, for one more year. I think being both designated hitter and manager will work. When I was just a DH, I got mentally stale. I'd sit there on the bench thinking so much about what I was going to do my next time up that by the time I did go to the plate I'd draw a blank. Now I'll have plenty to keep my mind occupied besides what I'm going to do against the pitcher. I don't think I'll get mentally stale next year. If I do have a couple of off moments, though, I won't be the first blank manager.
To tell the truth I don't want to think in terms of being the first anything anymore. I'm planning to put nine individuals on the field to win. If eight of them are black, I know I'll hear about it. I'm sure there have been quotas on clubs in the past—only so many black players on a team, only so many playing. I won't have any quotas. I do plan to do something about the fact, which is ridiculous, that there's never been a black third-base coach in the majors. He and the pitching coach are the only two who really do anything much on most teams.
I do know that black players and Latin players have often suffered from racial attitudes. When people see a black ballplayer dogging it they say he's lazy, like it's an inherent quality. When they see a white player doing the same thing they say he's not putting out what's in him. It may seem a subtle difference, but it affects people's careers.
Latin players—they're away from their country. They feel a little lost, a little withdrawn. What American people don't realize is that we expect them to adjust to us when they're over here, and also when we're over there. Where is their home? Where can they feel at ease? I've known managers to tell Latin players not to speak Spanish in the clubhouse. I'm glad for them to speak Spanish; then I don't have to worry about overhearing it. Though I have surprised a few Latin players by understanding more than they thought I could.
But I don't have any special ideas on how to handle black players or Latin players or white players. Jackie Robinson once said I wouldn't make a good manager because I didn't make enough waves. Well, he didn't start speaking out on civil rights until he got out of baseball. People have different ways of doing things.
I am black, and I don't ignore that fact. But I'm not going out there as a black manager, I'm going out there to manage. Judge me by how I do my job. If I don't do it, fire me.
1 2 3 4 5 6 | http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1089128/6/index.htm | dclm-gs1-270990002 | false | false | {
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0.19682 | <urn:uuid:a2e8bc2c-720a-4749-8cda-de3a3c85de61> | en | 0.927554 | Take the tour ×
Is there a way when using test manager to stop a test part of the way through close down test manager and continue the run at a later date with the attachments you have taken?
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Out of curiosity why would you want to do this? Are you trying to use the test to generate data you would use in later tests? – Dan Snell Feb 19 at 21:42
Dan the reason for this is sometimes a more 'important' test needs to be run and would like to park one you are halfway through and then pick up later on. – Teague Jun 5 at 12:10
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Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question. | http://sqa.stackexchange.com/questions/5089/ms-test-manger-not-able-to-stop-a-test-and-re-start-with-attachments-taken?answertab=oldest | dclm-gs1-271000002 | false | false | {
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0.312039 | <urn:uuid:adb47b29-01ca-4b7b-91c1-c81bedeabb82> | en | 0.920554 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
There´s a question in my mind for some time now, which hopefully can be cleared quickly by some of you:
I am a big fan of MVC, ASP.Net Mvc in my case.
What I have noticed is the hype about interfaces. Every video, tutorial and book seems to solve any kind of abstraction with interfaces. I have adapted these patterns, understood why and how and I am basically very happy with it.
But I just don´t get why interfaces are used everywhere. I´ve almost never seen some abstraction being done with abstract base classes, which I don´t understand. Maybe I miss something? I know that you can only inherit from one base class while multiple interfaces are possible. But interfaces do have disadvantages, especially when some changes need to be done, which breaks your implementations. In my projects so far, I only used to pick interfaces for completely different classes.
For example, the whole repository pattern could be done with an abstract base class, still providing testability and exchangeability, or did I miss something?
Please point me to the part where my brain laggs :)
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title make brains aplode – Anonymous Jan 29 '10 at 12:28
I am inconsolable :) – Steffen Jan 29 '10 at 14:45
In general, you want to favor composition over inheritance. – Esteban Araya Jan 29 '10 at 16:16
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6 Answers
up vote 6 down vote accepted
Interfaces are used in tutorials, blogs and elsewhere because those authors are particularly influenced by a group of methodology called "design for testability".
Primarily, design for testability school of thoughts used interface every way because they want to be able to mock any component under tests. If you use concrete class, then a lot of mocking tools can't mock those class, and hence will make it difficult to test your code.
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+1 to offset unfounded downvote. Yes, you can still test when you're using abstract classes, but testability through mocking is a legitimate and common reason to program to interfaces. – Jay Jan 29 '10 at 12:19
To allow mocking with tools like Moq is a good reason. – Richard Jan 29 '10 at 12:28
Yeah correct, I actually even use Moq and did not think so far. Valid point – Steffen Jan 29 '10 at 14:47
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A Story
I once attended a Java user group meeting where James Gosling (Java's inventor) was the featured speaker. During the memorable Q&A session, someone asked him: "If you could do Java over again, what would you change?" "I'd leave out classes," he replied. After the laughter died down, he explained that the real problem wasn't classes per se, but rather implementation inheritance (the extends relationship). Interface inheritance (the implements relationship) is preferable. You should avoid implementation inheritance whenever possible.
While using only or mostly Interfaces does have code reuse problems(as well as eliminating nice base classes), It makes it a lot easier to do Multiple Inheritance like things. As well as having widely different implementations that will work and where you don't have to worry about the base class changing or even what it does(you do have to implement the whole thing though so its a trade off).
P.S. I think the new Go language is based on interfaces rather then inheritance(looks sort of interesting).
share|improve this answer
You have to implement the whole thing, yes, but in cases where inheritance is warranted, of course, you can implement the interface in a base class and THEN inherit, so you get the benefit of being able to use the interface without having to reimplement all the members in every class that is logically related through inheritance. – Jay Jan 29 '10 at 13:25
Having said that, VB4-6 is a good example of what happens when this type of concept is implemented badly. COM did support interface inheritance, but lack of implementation inheritance (and therefore proper framework support) did verily lead to much boilerplate code in VB6 apps >-p – ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells Jan 29 '10 at 13:36
One major wish-list item of mine would be to let interfaces specify default implementations or some or all members, such that implementers would only have to implement members that differed from the default. Default members could do upon themselves actions provided by the interface, but something like IEnumerable<T> could e.g. provide a default Count() method which would call GetEnumerator() and count how many items the enumerator returned. Implementations which can return a count more efficiently could override that method with something suitable. – supercat Aug 6 '12 at 15:46
I think that is sort of similar to the idea of defender methods that are being proposed for java 8. Also to scala traits and haskell typeclasses. – Roman A. Taycher Aug 9 '12 at 1:25
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If the language doesn't support multiple inheritance or mix-ins abstract base classes are limited in scope compared to interfaces. E.g. in .NET if you must inherit from some other type such as MarshalByRef, you can't use an abstract base class to implement a pattern. Interfaces do not impose this restriction.
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Besides the fact you mentioned that you can inherit from a single base class only (which is pretty inconvenient if you want to use an existing class that already inherits from some class with the new framework base class), you also avoid the fragile base class problem if you use interfaces instead.
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Read about interfaces, abstract classes, breaking changes, and MVC here: http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2008/02/21/Re-Versioning-Issues-With-Abstract-Base-Classes-and-Interfaces.aspx.
One solution that is presented there (or somewhere else on Ayende's blog) is: do use interface but also provide abstract classes. Those who case about breaking changes can base their implementations on abstract classes. Those who need power of interfaces are also satisfied. But do make sure your methods accept interfaces, not abstract classes, as input.
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Coding against interfaces makes your design more flexible and extensible. For instance, plugin frameworks and dependency injection. Without interfaces, the extensibility of it is pretty much limited.
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2161751/why-does-any-kind-of-abstraction-use-interfaces-instead-of-abstract-classes?answertab=votes | dclm-gs1-271070002 | false | false | {
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0.020282 | <urn:uuid:c0760f6b-1488-4790-87e9-bde4e3cc6d58> | en | 0.854847 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have little problem with programming trigger for my dtb. I need to control 2 values in one 1 table. I have table called Concert and it has 2 foreign keys: 1 is the id of table Place. Second is not important for this I think.
Concert: id_concert, id_place<fk>, id_organizer<fk>, date, name, sponsor
Place: id_place, name, capacity, adress, town
What I want to eliminate is, that 2 concerts organized at same day cannot be on one place. So, I need to somehow control that user cannot insert the same date and same place for concert if there already concert with this values exists.
Thank you very much for your suggestions and sorry for bad english.
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What type of database is this ie MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server.... – JStead Jan 15 '12 at 15:51
Oracle database :) – JS_Diver Jan 15 '12 at 19:18
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1 Answer
You need to add a unique constraint on your Concert table that consists of the (id_place, date) pair. This would instruct the database engine to not allow more than one Concert in the same place at the same time.
For Oracle, information can be found here: http://www.techonthenet.com/oracle/unique.php
... (filled in with your existing table definition)
CONSTRAINT concert_place_unique UNIQUE (id_place, date)
or to alter an existing table:
add CONSTRAINT concert_place_unique UNIQUE (id_place, date);
Constraints are the proper way to handle this condition, not triggers. Constraints are database intrinsic and have no race conditions and prevent the data from being added in the first place.
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I just realized that I need also that the date should be today's or future. So, I should make a trigger for the date and a unique constraint for the two values? :) – JS_Diver Jan 15 '12 at 18:06
Can u give me some example? – JS_Diver Jan 15 '12 at 19:19
Oh yes, I already did it, it's pretty easy. Thank u for your time anyway :) – JS_Diver Jan 15 '12 at 20:20
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8870979/trigger-to-prevent-inserting-2-same-values-in-one-table | dclm-gs1-271100002 | false | false | {
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0.503611 | <urn:uuid:bf396621-101e-4720-a56b-bc2702b84072> | en | 0.783142 | Take the 2-minute tour ×
Any one have idea how can we correct indentaion in IntelliJ (Not Manually)
like in eclipse we just select the code > right click >source>correct indentation
is there's any method for the same in IntelliJ
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Looking through the various menus, perhaps? – skaffman Jan 28 '12 at 10:28
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2 Answers
up vote 13 down vote accepted
Code | Reformat Code... for the whole file or Code | Auto-Indent Lines for the current line or selection.
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Ok ,i found it
Just select the code and Ctrl >Alt>L
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consider accepting existing answer instead of answering yourself with exactly the same (Reformat Code... is Ctrl+Alt+L in the default Windows keymap). – CrazyCoder Jan 28 '12 at 10:53
In Linux you will lock the screen. WTH this shortcurt is in the linux version? hahah – androider Apr 16 at 17:36
It is the same... Ctrl-Alt-L (I'm using Android Studio)... which is a small shame among other shames. Hopefully, the adoption of Android Studio will provide more traction to the Linux version. – David Cesarino Jul 2 at 22:07
In Linux, you can use it with the 'Super' (or Windows) key. So, Ctrl + Alt + Super + L, does the required indentation. – rajatkhanduja Nov 12 at 14:28
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9044472/correct-indentation-in-intellij/9044686 | dclm-gs1-271110002 | false | false | {
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0.082836 | <urn:uuid:f8b00802-7f94-489d-9e2a-68810349010c> | en | 0.95321 | Antichamber > Genel Başlıklar > Konu Detayları
Toroko 4 Şub @ 3:07am
19 Euros for a 10 minute game ?
Just wondering what's going on here, is this a pricing mistake or ? I've seen playthrough of this game of literally 10 minutes and they finished the entire game, the price seems a bit steep ?
69 yorumdan 1 ile 15 arası gösteriliyor
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Pirateguybrush 4 Şub @ 3:09am
That's basically a speedrun from someone who's worked out every puzzle, and how to skip a lot of them. Portal can be completed in about 10 minutes if you speedrun it, but the first playthrough takes hours. Apparently the normal time for this game is 5-10 hours.
Schlepian 4 Şub @ 3:48am
Almost every game is speedrunnable and you can say the exact same thing about them all.
xx $$ for a xx minute game . GO head and play the game for yourself and then come back and be judgemental... on second thought, don't come back.
Iasakai 4 Şub @ 4:04am
This is a puzzle game, I would say you have ruined it for yourself by seeing the solution.
Krebsy 4 Şub @ 5:14am
I've just finished after a reasonable 8 hours of gameplay...
Gus the Crocodile 4 Şub @ 5:16am
You can finish Morrowind in 7 minutes. Speedruns don't really say much about game length.
Toroko 4 Şub @ 5:29am
While you can indeed speedrun most games, speedrunning through a game that claims to be 10 hours in 10 minutes is a bit odd, isn't it ? Sure doesn't make me want to buy it, not for 19 euros..
Schlepian 4 Şub @ 5:34am
If you didnt watch or remember the video - it will take you over 3 hors to beat, guranteed. And no it is not odd - and if you are to cheap to afford 19 euros for some fun then dont bother about it, it sounds liek the money is a big deal to you. - there are plenty of cheap free online games you can play
Toroko 4 Şub @ 5:37am
Schlepian tarafından gönderilen ileti:
Indie games have set a standard on Steam, most of them are around the price range of 10 euros (15 at most). This game is asking for 19 euros and is even shorter then most of them.
I'm sorry if you buy games without even blinking, no matter how much money you have, that is a poor decision. If a game is trying to rip me off by offering me limited game time for a bigger price than average, then I'm not going to go for it :)
Iasakai 4 Şub @ 5:43am
I played this game for around 10 hours, even after completing it I went back to explore even more. Now 10 hours of brilliant fun for the price of only 19 euro (14½ euro atm). If this is too expensive for you, then save your money - besides you ruined your fun by looking at the solution beforehand.
Eaxis 4 Şub @ 5:46am
You're not gonna finish this in 10minutes by yourself. I've almost completed everything in 10-11 hours. Take your time and enjoy it.
Ostin-Oskaros 4 Şub @ 5:53am
it took me years to open one door and i don't know how people can do this in 10 mins
Jukes of Hazard 4 Şub @ 6:19am
if you don't enjoy solving puzzles and having fun, I suggest you don't buy this game because its awful at being a non-puzzle platformer that isnt fun.
Cubey 4 Şub @ 6:32am
Its a pitty you think like that
Pokemon yellow, for example, can be completed in less than 4 minutes, including starup times.
If you plan to buy this game only to speed run it, then you should take into account that you are trying to beat the game. By yourself for the first few attempts, it would take you about 6 hours each time. Then once you figure out how to bypass some puzzles, you would shorten that time to about 2 or 3 hours. If you REALLY got good, then you might approach those sub hour runs.
So thats ... somewhere approaching 20-30 hours total ... i would say thats pretty good for 20 euros.
Why do you play video games? To unwind? to be challenged? to be told a story?
The fact you watched the speed run shows that you are atleast interested in this game, so why dont you take it for a spin. Im pretty sure that everyone above me, the other 200 odd people that contributed in this hub, and the several thousand that have played and (hopefully) completed this game can vouch for its value for money.
Just buy the game and enjoy it.
Zapmunk 4 Şub @ 6:44am
On the contrary, don't buy it. If you've seen the 10-minute solution, none of the puzzles or discovery will be any fun, and you'll be wasting your money.
69 yorumdan 1 ile 15 arası gösteriliyor
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Sayfa başına: 15 30 50
Gönderilme Tarihi: 4 Şub @ 3:07am
İleti: 69 | http://steamcommunity.com/app/219890/discussions/0/864958451668142915/?l=turkish | dclm-gs1-271120002 | false | false | {
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0.119224 | <urn:uuid:02f112aa-4da3-4051-aab9-e877844577cc> | en | 0.826935 | ArcaniA – Gothic 4 > Discussões Gerais > Detalhes do Tópico
tjhall1000 15 Ago às 17:02
no more gameplay after killing loam vermin queen???
so im killing the queen like the witch wants.... as soon as the queen dies, the gam eloads and im standing on a beach in another country talking to diego and them saying ivy is dead??? wtf?
what exactly did i miss??? is this spos to happen? i dont even wanna continue cuz this doesnt seem right, how do i go from killing queen to whole world changes instantly?
did the game glitch and cut out something after killing queen vermin? ive reloaded multiple times and rekilled queen, same result
A mostrar 1-2 de 2 comentários
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grimlog 16 Ago às 11:10
This is what happens.
Darq 20 Ago às 19:58
yeah there's vid that explains it.
The village gets raided and Ivy gets killed, Diego says that he'll bring you over to the continent
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0.046233 | <urn:uuid:5dea526c-102e-4a43-b436-8f067be3f176> | en | 0.814977 | Take the tour ×
When I launch tmux in the terminal, is causes my Linux Mint to play a sound in the speakers.
The sound is a Linux Mint system sound. Perhaps it's the "alert" sound, but I cannot identify it by name.
The same alert sound plays when I exit tmux.
Any ideas on how to disable this sound when tmux is launched?
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Do you have any of the bell settings in your .tmux.conf? – jasonwryan Jun 24 '12 at 7:00
No, my .tmux.conf file is empty. – eoinoc Jun 24 '12 at 9:59
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1 Answer
Try setting either bell-on-alert [on | off] (off) or bell-action [any | none | current] (none). There's visual-bell [on | off] also.
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Dang, none of them made a difference. For example, I set set-option bell-on-alert off in ~/.tmux.conf. – eoinoc Jun 24 '12 at 15:51
@eoinoc, oh, it does, alas. :) – poige Jun 24 '12 at 16:28
@eoinoc, It's really annoying issue looking like a bug, actually… – poige Jun 26 '12 at 14:31
Oh, interesting if that's a tmux bug. – eoinoc Jun 27 '12 at 17:33
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| http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/41492/tmux-makes-a-sound-when-i-launch-it-how-could-i-disable-that/41505 | dclm-gs1-271330002 | false | false | {
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0.050465 | <urn:uuid:78667d9d-6195-441b-95e1-b8eaa34f25a2> | en | 0.964697 | You're watching...
Why are Entrepreneurs Leaving China?
“The Coming Collapse of China” author Gordon Chang on the factors driving some entrepreneurs out of China.
This transcript is automatically generated
All right new developments in China whether raising concerns about the future of the world's second largest economy.
Rising manufacturing costs including wages could spell trouble for China's biggest customers like the United States.
Meanwhile China's young and wealthy who of those entrepreneurs.
They seem to be taken their talents in their money to other countries.
We've got Gordon Chang they offer -- the coming collapse of China.
He joins us now.
-- you always have another negative Chinese story to share with us if but -- I'm sorry Charles.
Didn't think these entrepreneur or is that that a leaving.
Why are they leaving China.
I think there's a couple things going on here first of all -- can see the economy is starting to turn.
You know growth is slowing but inflation remains very very high but more important there's the partial re nationalization of the economy that means a bigger state sector and a smaller its private sector.
Fewer opportunities for China's entrepreneurs that as I think starting to unnerve them.
So what Gordon that they -- -- -- there's is that this if you well were they gone.
Lot of them are going to Canada you know Vancouver had this incredible February where the real estate market increased by like 70% in terms of sales volumes.
You see the shopping tourism Chinese coming to the United States.
And so clearly young North America will benefit from this and I imagine Australia will as well because traditionally Chinese have going to Australia.
-- -- I mentioned her book in the -- the coming collapse of China so you have more or less had China to sort of imploded this time.
But almost everyone else the narrative is that this is a country.
With over a billion people.
They've they've grabbed on -- capitalistic ideas if you will in -- seem to be a long term growth juggernaut -- you disagree.
Well you know you can have a long term growth juggernaut which you can have some real problems in the interim and that's what's happening to China right now as the trends are going negative and as you have the political system start to Harden because of the transition.
The next set of leaders are probably gonna be even more nationalistic prominent.
Economy point of view and that's not really good because China is closing up that means fewer opportunities for foreign investors like us but also for domestic entrepreneurs who have really driven the Chinese economy over the last three decades.
Militants are seeing no I think you -- that though and I always argued have a billion people on bicycles and did you give my car you can never put him back on a bicycle what are they crazy.
For the government to go the opposite direction considering all the success they've had.
Yeah I mean it is crazy but you know sometimes governments do stupid things and and that's what we're seeing right now with Hu Jintao the current leader since 2006 has been trying to narrow the opportunities war.
Private -- to -- Norris for foreign investors because they want to build up the so called national champions they want fifty of the world's 500 largest companies to be Chinese.
By the middle of this decade and they're using the government took effect that result.
But I got to tell you want when Desmond revolution initially began the first official word from China when I read between -- lines it sounded to me as if they know that ultimately.
China will have to be a democracy.
And if anything they like the slow do you think it's that at the -- the realization for them now is that at some point.
Democracy will.
Be a part of China.
They -- I think most -- Chinese believe that a one party system is no longer appropriate for China's modernizing society and people on the Communist Party realize that but when you talk about the guys at the top the nine people on the Politburo standing committee.
They've been intransigent and that's really the problem because you -- Chinese society moving forward you got this political system moving backward.
That's an earthquake.
This earthquake short short lived do you think it's the beginning of something much -- that collapsing you know warning us about.
Yeah I really see problems for the Chinese economy and for the political system towards the end of this year but you know eventually you're right you know China with a billion.
For people is gonna do very well it just is gonna have some real problems bumps in the road due to -- President Obama -- They're gonna have those big bumps in the road I -- I gotta let you go about if you can quickly.
What does it mean for America than.
What -- okay because we got enormous internal market we got a strong economy and you know we've got a great system.
You have award we get our key goods from -- outlets got -- to go -- that though he'll answer that there's Gordon -- get a -- -- thanks a lot have a very we. | http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1000898183001/why-are-entrepreneurs-leaving-china/ | dclm-gs1-271370002 | false | false | {
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0.122166 | <urn:uuid:d6bcec11-a55e-49ae-a064-39b6d7430980> | en | 0.781696 | Difference between revisions of "Eclipse DemoCamps Helios 2010/London"
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(Who Is Attending)
Line 23: Line 23:
# Neil Bartlett, WWUK
# Neil Bartlett, WWUK
# Alex Blewitt
# Alex Blewitt
# Ian Skerrett, Eclipse Foundation
Revision as of 13:07, 25 May 2010
Eclipse-camp.gif What is an Eclipse DemoCamp?
SkillsMatter, 116-120 Goswell Rd, London EC1V 7DP (Google Map)
Date and Time
17 June 2010 from 18:30
Neil Bartlett, WWUK
Please let me know if you want to be a co-organizer.
If you would like to present at the DemoCamp, please feel free to add your name and topic to the list or email the organiser.
1. Your name, your topic
2. Alex Blewitt, (E)Git
3. Ian Skerrett, Eclipse Marketplace Client
Who Is Attending
1. Neil Bartlett, WWUK
2. Alex Blewitt
3. Ian Skerrett, Eclipse Foundation | http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php?title=Eclipse_DemoCamps_Helios_2010/London&diff=202359&oldid=202358 | dclm-gs1-271490002 | false | false | {
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0.184571 | <urn:uuid:46abafbe-a347-4d19-ac7f-77dc9ce66742> | en | 0.807405 | Difference between revisions of "Git"
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<div style="border: thin solid black; background-color: rgb(244, 255, 244); margin: 3px;"><div style="margin: 4px;">
== Git mirrors of CVS repositories ==
The CVS repositories at Eclipse.org are being mirrored to read-only Git repositories. Please see the [http://dev.eclipse.org/git/ git cvs mirror page] for the full list of repositories. Please note that while Git mirrors will eventually be deleted for those projects that migrate to Git, projects may exist in both places. So check the fully hosted [http://git.eclipse.org/ git repositories] first!
== Git repositories ==
Eclipse projects may use either CVS, SVN or Git. The project you are looking for may not be using Git. Please see [[CVS Howto]] and [[SVN Howto]] for more information. If you are unsure which type of repository a project is using, please go to that project's home page.
=== List of Git repositories available ===
=== List of Git repositories available ===
Revision as of 14:36, 15 January 2013
List of Git repositories available
My Eclipse project wants to use Git
Migrating from CVS/SVN to Git
Please see Git/Migrating to Git.
Committers new to Git
Before working on a Git repository, please:
git config --global user.email my_committer_email@address.com
git config --global user.name "John Doe"
git config user.email my_committer_email@address.com
git config user.name "John Doe"
Connecting, cloning a repo
Please see the list of Git repositories (above).
Committer access:
git clone ssh://committer_id@proxy.eclipse.org:443/gitroot/project/repo (possible workaround if you are behind a firewall)
Committer access via https is disabled (and discouraged), but it is available. Please ask Webmaster if you absolutely need commit access over https. Before this try if option no.2 (proxy.eclipse.org on port 443) works for you.
Anonymous, read-only access:
Committing and pushing
The wrong way
The right way
IP process implications of DVCS
Scenario 1
Jane Contributer pushes (publishes) to a committer's local repo.
Committer pushes code to git.eclipse.org will fail.
Committer cannot push code to us from a non-committer.
Scenario 2
Jane Committer pushes code to git.eclipse.org will fail.
Eclipse.org does not recognize jane@someisp.com.
Scenario 3
Committer A pushes code to git.eclipse.org will fail.
Scenario 4
Joe Contributor Authors code. Commits to his local repo.
Joe Contributor attaches patch to Bugzilla.
Committer pushes code to git.eclipse.org will succeed.
Scenario 5
Committer pushes code to git.eclipse.org will succeed.
Creating a new repository
initrepo /gitroot/project/org.eclipse.repo.name.git
Permanently deleting code from Git
Setting up ssh keys
To avoid having to type in your password for each interaction with the server when using git from the command line, we recommend using public key authentication. The easiest way to generate a key pair, and to upload your public key to git.eclipse.org, is to do so from within Eclipse. Please see this document for more details:
Or do it the manual way:
ssh user@git.eclipse.org "mkdir .ssh; chmod 700 .ssh"
scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub [user@git.eclipse.org:.ssh/authorized_keys
Setting up https for pushing
repositoryformatversion = 0
filemode = true
bare = false
logallrefupdates = true
[remote "origin"]
[branch "master"]
remote = origin
merge = refs/heads/master
proxy = http://proxy:8080
name = dtenev
email = dimitar.tenev@some.com
Do notice few things:
Referencing git repositories on the wiki
org.eclipse.ecf.git (browse, stats, fork on OrionHub)
GitHub mirrors
Git repositories hosted on eclipse.org are now mirrored at GitHub.
The Eclipse organization at GitHub is maintained by:
You don't need Git to get code from repository
As mentioned in bug 329841 you can use the cGit web interface to get code, if you just need the code, and do not need to clone the repository, say to prepare patches or commit changes back in to the main repository.
• This is useful for things like checking out test scripts, say to a hudson slave, there you just need the files to
start a larger test process, such as using Ant's get task to get a URL such as
• It can also be useful to refer to a single file for (temporary) reference or review, such as
Errors in Cloning
Recommended Practices
• Provide a description for your Git repository by editing the description file in the repository root. This description is used in a couple of different places to help the community understand the purpose of the repository. Keep the description concise (e.g. one line of prose).
• Provide a CONTRIBUTING file in the root of your Git repository. GitHub, for example, encourages this convention to help members of the community understand how to contribute to the project.
• TODO provide an example of this
• Note that an Eclipse project cannot simply accept a Git pull request. Before a pull request can be accepted, the contributor must have agreed to the Eclipse Terms of Use. A contributor who has an Eclipse account implicitly makes this sort of agreement. | http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php?title=Git&diff=prev&oldid=326569 | dclm-gs1-271500002 | false | false | {
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0.212992 | <urn:uuid:1c9f2904-ddf3-4f72-bf5f-c9530961ad68> | en | 0.923232 | Take the tour ×
On a themes site they stipulate, in the terms and conditions, that their themes inherit the GNU general public license from WordPress. I believe that this means that they can be copied and modified.
However the themes are being sold. Shouldn't they be free? Could someone enlighten me.
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1 Answer
up vote 2 down vote accepted
The GPL absolutely does not preclude selling code, for cost. In fact, the terms of the license explicitly allow for selling of code.
The GPL merely allows the end user, whether he received the GPL-licensed code for free or for cost, to use the code however he likes, to redistribute the code, to modify the code, and to redistribute the modified code - provided that any such-distributed code be licensed under the same license.
share|improve this answer
Thank you. That cleared up my misunderstanding – Stack 101 Jun 14 '11 at 23:56
If a user was to purchase a theme would he therefore be able to redistribute it freely, defeating the seller's intention? – Stack 101 Jun 15 '11 at 0:02
Stack 101: Yes, however you would have to wonder about the motivations of such a person, to spend his own money on software and to then give it away for free. – Otto Jun 15 '11 at 1:05
@stack the PHP code is GPL'd - however, it's possible that the CSS and any images are not. Therefore, the theme might not be redistributable as a single package – anu Jun 15 '11 at 10:13
So, I could take an HTML theme that was available for free as open-source GPLed software, modify it to my heart's content, convert it to WP, and promptly sell it somewhere, provided I included the same license? – Amanda Feb 16 '12 at 8:22
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| http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/20029/wordpress-themes-under-gpl-license | dclm-gs1-271530002 | false | false | {
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0.137749 | <urn:uuid:3f31a984-f273-40ce-b39b-02169e2529cc> | en | 0.965244 | Growth figure brings good news, or does it?
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 06/06/2012
Reporter: Chris Uhlmann
National accounts figures showed higher economic growth than expected, but can the national economic story be told by a single number?
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: A lot of Australians might feel like they're doing it tough, but on paper, the economy's going gangbusters. Today's national accounts figures reveal the growth rate is double what the market expected: 1.3 per cent for the first quarter of the year.
It was hard to wipe the smile off the Treasurer's face and Wayne Swan will be my guest in a moment.
But first, political editor Chris Uhlmann cautions that the national economic story can't be told by a single number.
CHRIS UHLMANN, REPORTER: Things are better than you think.
CHRIS RICHARDSON, ACCESS DELOITTE ECONOMICS: They really were beautiful numbers.
JOE HOCKEY, SHADOW TREASURER: The Coalition welcomes the extraordinary figure of the March quarter.
JOSH WILLIAMSON, SENIOR ECONOMIST, CITIBANK: I think it was a very strong result and it was certainly one that wasn't expected.
JULIA GILLARD, PRIME MINISTER: And this is a result that all Australians should be proud of.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Once every three months the nation's economic pulse is measured in the national accounts. And overall, it's in rude health.
JULIA GILLARD: We are surging ahead.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Australia galloped into 2012 with the economy growing at 1.3 per cent in the three months to the end of March. Over the year, growth was a heady 4.3 per cent. To put those numbers in context, the long-run average for Australian growth each year is a touch over three per cent.
JOSH WILLIAMSON: Well what they're actually showing is that the Australian economy actually was stronger than probably most people actually gave it credit for, at least in the first quarter of this year. The other thing that's come out of the data today is that that strength or that resilience, if you like, was actually across a number of sectors of the economy. It wasn't down to just one particular driver, and that's important 'cause it shows there is sustainability or breadth in this period of economic growth.
CHRIS UHLMANN: The national growth figure is double what the market expected and some of the surprise came from households.
CHRIS RICHARDSON: The strong bits of the economy were still strong. You saw it in mining, you saw it in the bits of construction that mining is dragging along. You saw it in Western Australia. That was great. But also in the areas that have been weak, that spending by families was stronger. We started to spend a bit more in retail and on cars, new cars as well. That combination was enough to drive genuinely very good growth in the opening months of 2012.
JOSH WILLIAMSON: We saw good strong growth in services sectors in the economy and this is labour intensive sectors of the economy, so this shows that it's not really a two-speed economy; I s'pose it's better termed a three-speed economy and that that - sort of that middle leg is actually doing very well at the moment.
CHRIS UHLMANN: But the patchwork economy is revealed deeper in the numbers. Western Australia led the charge with growth in the March quarter of 7.8 per cent, shading the Northern Territory. It's a long way back to the rest. The ACT growing just under three percent, with Victoria and South Australia both just under two per cent. But the economies of NSW and Queensland contracted And things were grim in Tasmania.
The numbers do show that benefits of the mining boom are being shared, albeit unevenly.
JOSH WILLIAMSON: I think the majority of the positive news from the data today comes back to obviously the strong story about mining, but then I think through the filtering down of mining into other parts of the economy, and this is something that the Reserve Bank's spoken about previously, but to an extent has fallen on deaf ears.
CHRIS UHLMANN: But As the economy shifts radically what's good for some sectors is bad for others.
MATT GRUDNOFF, ECONOMIST, THE AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE: The biggest problem with these figures is that one part of the economy is actually doing damage to another part of the economy, so the growth in the mining boom is actually forcing the exchange rate up which is then contracting the manufacturing sector. What we're seeing is a strongly growing one part of the economy and a contracting in another part of the economy.
CHRIS UHLMANN: Despite the wrenching change and the difficulties it brings, the Government does have a good economic story to tell.
JULIA GILLARD: Our economy's fundamentals are strong. We are seeing our economy grow. And I think these growth numbers today are proving some of the doomsayers and sceptics wrong.
CHRIS UHLMANN: The Prime Minister and the captains of mining still see the world very differently.
MARIUS KLOPPERS, CEO, BHP BILLITON: As a country and as an investment destination, arguably the biggest change has been the terms of trade, which is the impact on the currency and so on. But aside from that, all of the other things like increased operating cost, carbon taxes and so on have all conspired to turn this from a fairly low-cost environment and therefore competitive to a higher cost environment.
CHRIS UHLMANN: And today's beautiful set of numbers are only part of the story; others add up to a headache for the Government.
CHRIS RICHARDSON: We've seen share markets being very weak, housing prices - it hurts capital gains taxes, it hurts superannuation taxes. And even more importantly, coal and iron ore prices are looking a bit sick. That hurts company profits and the taxes on them and the MRRT. Add that up and it says if the budget had to come down tomorrow, it would be back in deficit. | http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3519784.htm | dclm-gs1-271590002 | false | false | {
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0.023793 | <urn:uuid:4615ee36-d878-455f-ab1c-0c1bdca7a14e> | en | 0.955596 | Day of reckoning for mortgagees
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Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 14/09/2011
Reporter: Andrew Robertson
Homebuyers who locked in record low interest rates at the height of the global financial crisis are facing a big increase in mortgage payments as their fixed rate periods end.
TICKY FULLERTON, PRESENTER: A day of reckoning could be imminent for home buyers who locked in record low interest rates at the height of the global financial crisis.
They're facing a big increase in mortgage payments as their fixed-rate periods come to an end.
Variable rate borrowers have already been feeling the pain in recent months.
Andrew Robertson reports.
ANDREW ROBERTSON, REPORTER: In the months following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, interest rates were slashed and the Federal Government introduced two stimulus packages.
First home sales soared, with many people stretching themselves to get in while mortgage rates were abnormally low.
Mark Bouris was the founder of Wizard Home Loans and now runs Yellow Brick Road Group. He says the chickens are coming home to roost.
MARK BOURIS, CHAIRMAN, YELLOW BRICK ROAD GROUP: They are the aspirational, middle Australia, the people who drive this nation, they are the backbone of this place, they responded to fiscal stimulus, they got the country back up and running, or partly helped get the country back up and running. Today, they are paying for it in the neck.
ANDREW ROBERTSON: The numbers explain why. For example, from April to October 2009, the typical variable home loan rate was 5.49 per cent. Today it's 7.87.
The three-year fixed rate over the same period in 2009 was between 5.99 per cent and 6.59. Today, it's 7.58.
Which means people who bought with a variable rate loan have seen their mortgage interest payments rise by 43 per cent. Those who locked in the low rates are also facing a hefty increase when their fixed-rate period ends.
MARK BOURIS: Yeah, $100-odd on an average $300,000 loans is going to be $100-odd a month extra. That's going to be a big hit.
ANDREW ROBERTSON: A big hit too for businesses who rely on discretionary spending as households struggle to make ends meet. And lenders are starting to feel the pinch as well.
BRETT LE MESURIER, BANKING ANALYST, BBY: There's been an increase in the rate of delinquency in those mortgages which started about six months ago. And they typically take out variable rate loans rather than fixed-rate loans. So we've already seen an increase in the delinquencies and Commonwealth Bank reported that last month.
ANDREW ROBERTSON: To make matters worse, there are two more dark clouds hanging over the housing sector. The first is the Reserve Bank, which is doing little to dispel fears interest rates might still go up.
MITCHELL WATSON, BANKING ANALYST, CANSTAR CANNEX: As interest rates increase it's going to place more pressures on everybody's income or on their monthly income. And that will just impact more so on people's arrears. And we probably see more impact from an increase from the Reserve Bank than what we would see from people coming out of their fixed-rate mortgages.
ANDREW ROBERTSON: The second dark cloud is the rising cost of money on international markets, as sovereign debt issues take their toll again, which means banks will have to pay more to borrow there.
BRETT LE MESURIER: The banks hold about six months of liquidity on their balance sheet, such that they don't need to go to the markets for about six months.
ANDREW ROBERTSON: However, if the price of money doesn't fall in that time, Canstar Cannex's Mitchell Watson sees only one outcome.
MITCHELL WATSON: We have seen precedents going back only, say, 24 to 12 months ago in that banks will pass on those costs should there be an increase which they're unable to maintain at their current interest rates.
ANDREW ROBERTSON: In other words, more rate increases beyond any from the Reserve Bank.
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0.031826 | <urn:uuid:17d323b6-edee-4430-b99a-ec4cc7359730> | en | 0.973492 | The Drum Opinion
Analysis and views on the issues of the day
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4 August 2009
File photo: Brick veneer (Flickr: EyeAmACamera
Demolishing history
Chris Fotinopoulos
Chris Fotinopoulos
Most Australians still consider securing a house early in life as a smart move. Those who chased work half way across the world after their family home was reduced to rubble by bombs would certainly agree.
My parents, as with most post-war migrants, still associate a home and a job with security and prosperity, which were virtually guaranteed by Robert Menzies on the condition that new comers to this country were not too fussy with where they lived and were prepared to toil in factories for a few years.
Most post war migrants hit the factory floor running, working long hours to ensure that enough money was earned to put a large slice of their pay aside for a deposit on their dream home. Apart from the aesthetic differences, the great migrant dream is not too different to the great Australian dream.
Luckily for many "new Australians", reasonably priced workers' cottages and terrace homes became available close to work around the time when much of the 'old guard' where escaping to the fringes of our capital cities in pursuit of a larger family home on a quarter acre block.
Given that newcomers to Australia were not going anywhere in a hurry, they had to ensure that their newly-acquired rickety abodes were sturdy enough to accommodate kids, parents, extended family, as well as distant relatives who had yet to secure a home of their own.
Many of these homes were therefore refashioned into solid and functional domiciles. Gypsum plaster embellishments such as ornate ceiling roses, cornices and picture railings linked to the "boom" style of the previous century were replaced with ICI plasterglass or paper-lined plasterboards.
After all, these products were manufactured on the fully automated production lines that many migrant workers were assigned to when they first took up work.
Some went as far as levelling their crumbling terrace homes and building new brick dwellings on their narrow strip of land. You can still find these homes nestled amid the renovated terraces and architecturally designed warehouse apartments in the inner city.
Although heritage purists may see these plain 1960s structures as a form of cultural vandalism, they nonetheless signify the arrival of what I call the Smart House. The Smart House is a no-frills, functional and eco-friendly structure that was built to last.
Clean, plain and simple angular lines were preferred to cast iron lace, stain glass and elaborate wood carved fittings. Timber pickets were replaced with brick fences and timber sash windows where substituted for wide aluminium sliders that let natural light into the gloomy rooms and corridors of homes that belonged to a different period and place.
I recall neighbours and friends stacking car trailers with irreplaceable moulds representing Australia's architectural design history and heading off to the outer reaches of Melbourne to dump them in tips that would eventually become parks where the kids of the "new" suburbs could kick a footy.
Heating was costly and there was no way that the new occupants were going to allow precious heat hover 12 feet above their heads while waiting half the night for the living room to warm up. Dropping the ceiling a few feet by covering the decorative plaster work with plain sheeting and cove cornice not only brought the heat to where is was needed, it ensured that the power bill remained low.
No matter how attractive or culturally significant the fireplace may have been to the heritage purists, it jarred with 'new' Australians on the grounds that it reminded them of their peasant heritage. Lugging firewood for the home hearth was something that my grandmother had done ever since she was a child living in Greece. Why should she continue to do so in a country that had the gas space heater?
I remember our reconfigured period home being bright and breezy by day and warm and cosy at night as the family gathered near the spot were the ornate fireplace once stood to watch television to the hum of our new Vulcan gas space heater.
Gas was the new clean energy. And in Melbourne, the 1967 Gas and Fuel building constructed out of 1950s brown brick with aluminium windows seemed to give a nod to the homes that the migrants were building at the time.
Wedged between the Victoria-era built Flinders Street station and the Neo-Gothic style St Paul's Cathedral, the Internationalist style of the Gas and Fuel building resembled, albeit on a grander scale, the Greek and Italian homes that sat amid period homes in the suburbs of Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton, South Melbourne and North Melbourne.
These days, for over a million dollars you can purchase an inner city period home that escaped the migrant touch. For half the price you can buy a modest 1960s brick home. For me, the smart money is with the Smart House. They are structurally rock solid, often well-positioned, secure, safe and cheap.
With some tweaking the 1960s brick home can become a comfortable, functional and eco-friendly abode. After all, the post war migrants did most of the heavy work in their effort to modernise homes that must have seemed old and impractical to their eyes.
These modest brick dwellings may resemble bomb shelters to the heritage snobs but they are prototypes to efficient, functional and eco-friendly living. It is for this reason they deserve a place in the Pantheon of Australian architecture.
Why are Victorian terraces more culturally important than the brick veneer homes built by migrants in the 1960s? And why are we sensitive to the demolition of buildings erected in the 1800s, yet do not bat an eyelid when structures such as the Gas and Fuel building, the Southern Cross Hotel and the CRA building are torn down?
Surely by now these examples of modern urban architecture are as culturally significant as the period homes and buildings that we go out of our way to preserve.
House Rules
Comments (53)
• sam :
11 Aug 2009 7:23:32am
Re: University of N.S.W. study of unit dwelling and happiness, health and wealth issues related to the same.
The government obviously believed skewed data and research and lobyists before passing the 2005 act.
Greed from developers and extreme mismanagement of resources was the only reason for passing legislation for 45% of the population to live in units.
Units make people fat. Fat people are a huge drain on the health system. People do not choose to be fat but lack of outdoor projects keep people sitting down. There is also a psychological shift in parents - not allowing kids to go to the park for whatever reasons.
Close quarter living brings anger issues with neighbours and family. Why is there such a rise in anger management issues and what are the consequences of that anger socially and economically?
More land is needed at prices people can afford.
This is a reality - not pipe dreaming.
People can whinge about urban sprawl but Australians are generally known for a laid back attitude that gets things done - precisely because it is laid back and that is being stolen from us because of cramped living quarters and no backyard.
What do Asians do when the get residency here. Live in a unit until they can buy a house. They know how precious space is.
• Jess :
10 Aug 2009 9:11:28am
Federation/Victorian architecture "is art".
Like a Bruegel perhaps. Ugly and overworked. They are pretty. There is a huge difference between pretty and elegant.
Perhaps you live in a terrace.
The lack of privacy, lack of area to grow any real vegetables or fruit trees, overshadowing, difficulty with water penetration etc. and
Lack of light in 90% of the terraces which exacerbates mould and damp problems are issues that people don't want to discuss.
I have lived in a fish tank for 30 odd years and have just had an energy report done. The guy could not get over how low the gas bill was especially as we have central heating. Same with electricity bill and the air conditioning here is one extremely tiny unit in 1 bedroom.
The deciduous trees allow for summer cooling and that wonderful free energy for winter heating from the sun. We have internal brick, concrete floors (suspended) and rooms can be closed off. The typical 70's house that everyone hates. It was built around the idea of saving resources and the planet and it has worked extremely well. When builders walk into it -( I was thinking of making a couple of changes - very little in size - just a rework of some of the rooms)- they - the builders cannot believe it is 35 years old.
So yes I like pretty houses but give me a house that works for the climate and land it is set on and more importantly for the people who live in it and I am happy.
• Nemesis ®:
09 Aug 2009 11:39:25am
>>Yes the Green design show is great. I wonder how many architects, builders and members of council planning divisions watch it. Not many I suspect otherwise housing garbage would stop being approved.<
"True" Federation/Victorian homes are expensive because of their intense highly skilled labour involved. These days much of the skills required are left to a handful of people and some lost forever. Australian Federation homes without the electricity hold some great solar passive technology which would substantially reduce our air conditioning electricity bills. The do have some costs mainly because of their age but really theyll be around long after many other designs because of their aesthetic consideration. They are art.
60s house tend to be all about strength but thats where it stops. The advent of the Salmon cream and chocolate brick brought us vomit.
In the 90s builders were allowed to build the fish tank. Massive glass thin as rice paper to build the affordable home which really only pushed up the price of land because first home buyers only buy what they can afford.
In the 60s a house cost more than the land. Now we pay 5 times more for the land than we do the house.
In the scope of the world our population is low and we have vast land yet still pay higher prices than much of the world. Our governments has a lot to answer for.
When the price of energy hikes the rice paper mob will begin a scream as they realise they have bought a poor economy V8 home with no power.
• Disraeli :
08 Aug 2009 8:38:00am
the simple answer is, 50s-60s housing is ugly.
Victoria/Federation housing isnt kept because its architecturally significant, but because they are beautiful.
Seeing some squat, bland orange bricked 50s house nestled in amongst a row of Victorian terraces is enough to make you wince, especially knowing some terrace house was bulldozed to make way for it.
• No Eno Gunh :
07 Aug 2009 4:08:20pm
I always wanted a victorian house but didn't want to live in Melbourne
• gerard :
07 Aug 2009 12:08:50pm
Here a practical and visually pleasing answer to student housing in Amsterdam.
After erecting and stacking disused containers, lifts and insulation, heating and balconies are added. It works brilliantly and is cost effective.
Of course, the idea is to provide student housing and is not dominated by having to be privately owned or make profit.
• Garibaldi :
07 Aug 2009 11:25:24am
I despise 1960s era brick veneer homes for one reason and one reason only. They are ugly. I did not grow up in this country and I do not associate them with any particular cultural group. What's more, I lived in one of these homes with my family when we first moved here. It is precisely because they are so grimly functional that I find them depressing. Surely there is a middle ground between the aesthetically pleasing but environmentally unsound terraces and the squalid but sensible brick veneer homes.
• bill :
07 Aug 2009 6:29:27pm
The brick veneer is an "eastern" phenomenon. In WA , brick makers made sure that both skins were brick. (Sold more product)
In Melbourne/Sydney you have the veneer with wood frames and plaster board, except the bricks are in the wrong place. They should be on the INSIDE acting as thermal mass with an insulated exterior. That way the warmth cannot get out so easily in winter. However, this does predicate decent ventilation for summer.
The homes that were built in Perth from the late forties -"war service" homes - were in five basic designs. Research done some years ago showed that only ONE design, IF insulated and IF correctly oriented to allow solar "gain" i.e. free heat in winter, could you say it was anything like "eco-friendly" whatever that means in this context.
So if it does not face the right way, have windows in the right places, insulation and good ventilation they ain't eco-friendly. Yes, can build houses where no purchased energy is needed for comfort - even in Melbourne.!
• Jess :
06 Aug 2009 9:13:29am
I agree that 60's architecture can be woeful - but I also know lots of it is reasonably stable. I have been looking for a unit for many months now and am appalled at how badly some of the new stuff built in the late 1990's and 2000's is just falling apart. The lightweight construction just isn't standing up. Neither is the rendering. I have several friends in those types of buildings and $2,500 per quarter strata fees are there for a reason and it is not only for the lifts and gyms.
And what is more most of the units are just as badly designed as the 60's buildings with NO CROSSFLOW VENTILATION.
• Jess :
06 Aug 2009 9:01:47am
you are angry, selfish and jealous aren't you.
I live in a green area that has the m2 right next to it.
So anybody who has a house in a green area should suffer?
Remember green transport if for everybody.
Less pollution is good for all childrens' brains and remember the buses that go through the green areas end up in some city eventually.
Those children with damaged brains will eventually make decisions about your welfare. So personally I would want those brains in as fine condition as possible if they were making decisions on my behalf.
Hope you feel better tomorrow.
• gerard :
06 Aug 2009 7:59:56am
I think we can be confident that we have some of the ugliest domestic architecture in the world.
The above photo proves the point and could only be taken in Australia, instantly recognizable as a typical Australian domestic abode.
Does anybody still remember Robin Boyd's book " The Australian Ugliness". It was compulsary reading for anyone doing architecture.
What has happened since?
Even, when we find something that catches our eyes as having some pleasing visual aspect, the proliferation of ugly signage soon intrudes and negates the short lived joy.
Why are we allowed to have such freedom to assault all and sundry with so much public ugliness and be given open slather with some of the worst signage anywhere in the world?
Does it make money?
• AArgh :
06 Aug 2009 10:46:18am
Have you noticed that today there aren't as many vividly colored cars as there were in the 70's?
I always thought the most garish and dischordant visual aspect of streetscapes were the duco colors of the vehicles parked there.
The actual "ugliness" of dwellings can be easily hidden by street trees, a common policy in some councils.
• Helvi :
06 Aug 2009 12:03:59pm
...i thought those vivid colours were coming back ..
• AArgh :
06 Aug 2009 4:39:19pm
OH dear - Doll pink cortinas, Orange chargers, Canary yellow Monaros, Lime green falcons, Sky blue little cars of indeterminate make....there should be a law against it !!
• granny :
06 Aug 2009 2:08:23pm
Gerard, Robin Boyd was given a chance to prove his mettle, and had input in the planning of a suburb. I think it was Fountain Gate, you know the spoof of Kath and Kim, what did he turn out - much of the same as everything else. I can't remember that far back but I think the big innovation then was underground electricity. It is the local council bylaws and insurance requirements to have a certain type of house constructed. It has to "fit in" with surrounding homes and not stand out.
• AArgh :
06 Aug 2009 4:47:34pm
Robin Boyd was great champion of asbestos cement sheeting!
• gerard :
06 Aug 2009 5:14:38pm
Robyn Boyd's architecture was ground breaking and I cannot find any supporting evidence that he was in any way involved in Fountain Gate. As I understand that suburb is a mecca for Westfield and Co and their deciples.
You are right that planning is in the hands of local councils and they are totally inept at planning anything apart from the time table for rubbish collection and the Friday night p##s-up.
We, the consumer meakly follow what is on offer without any alternative. The result is a mis- match of pretend styles of the past. Colonial, Edwardian, Tudor, Modern Mews and all that somehow rings a bell with something from the past or England.
It is all dishonest and it shows. We are good at building mock-ups, that's all.
We should be proud to build 'Australian' but while this is tentatively happening here and there, there is very little encouragement from the Government.
Housing is such a huge part of our (non producing) economy, it would taker another Paul Keating to change it for the better and into the present.
• granny :
07 Aug 2009 1:04:15pm
Gerard, I lived in Melbourne back then. Robin Boyd came back from his overseas jaunt and was promoting that book. The council in question, it has all changed since then, offered him the chance to design something different. We often used to drive past that housing estate, we noticed all the curvy roads, may have been his input also. The shopping centre came much later than the housing estate, as the population started to move in and took on a semblance of suburbia. I seem to recall, it was pretty pricey for the time too. Harry Siedlers' houses were a standout back then and they still are even today.
• granny :
11 Aug 2009 12:41:15pm
Mystery solved Gerard, a friend of mine in Melb is a bank manager, I asked him about the Fountain Gates project. He told me there were enormous cost blowouts, the council, planners and financial institutes were at loggerheads. The project went ahead, but Boyds references had been removed from the project, he was not willing to compromise.
• Ummm :
05 Aug 2009 4:03:15pm
I watched the last of the series 'Grand Designs' last night and I thought it was a fitting place to end. The guy built a big ugly house that probably 'p'd' off countless neighbours in the process. The stress of it gave him a heart attack and he said at the end of the show that he wished he had never built it (I suspect his neighbour would agree). There is another show at 6.00 on Thursdays about green homes. I think this show should replace 'Grand Designs'. Green homes are the way to go.
I grew up at a time when ugly 60's appartment building started covering up all of my suburb. I HATE 60s architecture. It is the ugliest in the history of the world IMO. I would be only too happy if it was all knocked down and the suburb was started again with green architecture.
Bring on the green revolution. And can we please have environmentally friendly public transport too. PLEASE!!!
• Polony :
05 Aug 2009 7:24:05pm
No. If you live in a nice green area with a lower population density than a sardine tin, good public transport costs too much.
If you want good public transport, live in appartments.
• gerard :
06 Aug 2009 8:35:01am
That's the ticket Polony.
You can't have a city and have public transport based on sprawl.
Higher density does not mean ugliness. On the contrary. It is sprawl that makes for unrelenting ugliness.
Have a look at other cities that have high density with good public transport and plenty of green areas.
• Polony :
06 Aug 2009 11:46:25am
"Have a look at other cities that have high density with good public transport and plenty of green areas."
Unfortunately, all the ones I can think of - London, Moscow,... -are cold, grey and wet.
Can habitable places have high density, good public transport and plenty of green areas?
• Garibaldi :
07 Aug 2009 11:30:34am
Ever been to Madrid? It's a high density city with great public transport and many beautiful parks. And the weather is outstanding.
• granny :
06 Aug 2009 2:15:27pm
gerard when we moved up here, I was taken on a guided tour by a real estate man, up on a hill he said, "All you can see from here is a sea of rooftops", it was a new suburb. Fifteen years later that suburb is now clothed in trees, palms, and from that same spot of 15 years ago, I am struggling to see even a rooftop. For myself I hate public transport, all those diesel fume spewing buses that foul the air. Sitting on a sidewalk cafe having a latte whilst a diesel spewing bus rumbles by is not idea of being green.
• gerard :
06 Aug 2009 6:21:48pm
Why does it follow that having a latte means sitting next to diesel fumes? Why are the buses spewing diesel?
Any city worth living in has cafes where people meet and exchange gossip without diesel.
The problem with suburbia, no matter how many rooftops are hidden by greenery, were do you go for a latte? I suppose to Westfield's 'Michelles'?
• granny :
11 Aug 2009 12:36:46pm
I must confess gerard I have been to a shopping centre once in five years. I met some friends at a "trendy" cafe, no indoor seating, right on the corner of a roundabout, buses came round the roundabout, accelerated, belching diesel fumes all over us.To add insult to injury, I nearly fell over at the price of a latte $7.50!!!! Next time we decided to go to a cafe that had indoor seating, lattes a lot cheaper too. How much is a latte in your neck of the woods.
• Jess :
05 Aug 2009 12:27:40pm
can I come and live with you. It sounds great.
Wollongong sounds as if it will end up like North and South Avoca. I remember when along the beach at Avoca they were all timber or fibro shacks and that is what made it so good. Now there are monstrosities that are inhabited occasionally.
OK so fibro was incredibly cold but so are brick and concrete houses.
One could still have a shack out of a product that needed very little heating and cooling.
I did say shack. What really p's me off is that one can only
sit in 1 chair at a time
sleep in 1 bed at a time
use 1 set of sheets a a time
use 1 toilet at a time
1 shower at a time
1 knife and fork or hashi at a time and yet people make buildings pretending they can use multiples of everything at the same time.
If anyone watched last night's GRAND DESIGNS on ABC at 8.30pm it was very evident these huge mausoleums are for someones damaged ego, not for living in. What does it say about someone's sanity when they design a 10 metre X 6 metre master bedroom?
On the other hand I know someone who had a great unit and also didn't meet anyone in that unit block for 2 years because of the way it was designed. He was constantly going out to see people because he hated the walls he was living in. Places can be both too big and too small.
Re: Social History - How dare anyone insist that a person's house be preserved and not pay full maintenance on it for the owner.
• seajay :
05 Aug 2009 10:41:49am
Chris, I am glad you have brought this issue up. I am also concerned about the loss of architectural heritage around the area I live, which is a beachside suburb in northern Wollongong. The older weatherboard and fibro beach houses and miners' shacks are all disappearing to be replaced by MacMansions or post-modern architectural monstrosities with the obligatory corrugated iron feature wall and ugly grey concrete exteriors. I have just bought my home which is a three-bedroom weatherboard cottage. During the inspection I overheard several moneyed-up couples from Sydney talking about their plans to knock down the place as soon as they could; my dander went straight up and I thought to myself 'bugger them, I am going to buy this place and change nothing just to spite them and their kind'.
Of course our local council has no interest in preserving the local heritage, in a street full of single story weatherboard cottages you can build whatever ugly, glorified toilet-block you like.
• AArgh :
05 Aug 2009 12:08:10pm
Don't you hate that bulldoze and rebuild mentality?
I went for a slightly aimless road trip recently along the coast from Brisbane to Sydney. The type of new development you mention is happening everywhere and I think it is quite sad.
Old cottages and "shacks", some of them very quirky and characterful, are being replaced by boundary line to boundary line minimalist "modern" homes. Invariably these new homes are much taller than the surrounding shacks and just look rude.
• Hudson Godfrey :
05 Aug 2009 10:39:32am
Setting aside the cultural relevance and heritage values for a moment important as I think that may be being overlooked here I think is the aesthetic value of any well designed piece of architecture. We routinely underrate it enormously when we enter into rational discourse about real estate and yet we build dreams around picket fences, rose gardens and splendid Victorian decorative features in ways that we too seldom openly acknowledge.
It is for lack of decorative detail as much as for their average utility and poor standard of construction that we disdain affordable tract housing and McMansions then. I think that if we don't occasionally recognise a preserve homes of real beauty and indeed endeavour to make them a liveable and efficient as we can then we sacrifice something we can ill afford to lose. Our dreams!
• Pun :
05 Aug 2009 9:37:12am
Remember when terraces and other older houses close to cities were places that students lived in because they were cheap?
Its true that they were the remnants of working class life and were probably unlivable if the one that I remember in an inner Sydney suburb was typical, with its near vertical steps to an upper floor, a minuscule lower floor with a large fireplace and an outdoor 'loo' set in a small courtyard that abutted the back lanes where the nightsoil carts used to trundle.The house sold for about $45,000 in an area where nothing can now be bought for less than millions.
A friend's family lived in a large house in Glebe, with outer buildings that had been stables,but considered themselves unfortunate to have had to move there after the Depression had forced them off their farm.The younger generation did indeed move to the outer suburbs (now described as the 'inner' west of Sydney), but only because the post World War II period meant, so I'm told, a shortage of building materials such as bricks, even if one did own a block of land closer to the city.
I'm not sure that I have a definite opinion on the modifications made by migrants to old houses.The definition of heritage is the moot point and if heritage listing is based on the notion that remembrance of our history is a value in itself that needs to be protected, then the changes made to Australia by migration need to be part of this heritage.
However, I don't think changes to dwellings are the migrant's only or sole contribution to Australian life, but include, for me, things like improvements to basic things like foods that we now take for granted.
I do regret the discarding of the old molds and cornicing and fireplaces stripped from old houses, but in that era, I believe that migrants were not the only ones doing this.The 'green bans'of the 1970s were necessary, not because migrants were modifying residential buidings, but developers were razing.Who decides what is worthy or unworthy of heritage protection is interesting and shouldn't depend upon the powerful.This is why we should be wary of legislation allowing developers' interests to override the interests of home owners.Similar schemes in places like Spain have been disastrous and in my view, undermine the democratic independence afforded by home ownership.
The green bans, in my view, protect the same principles at stake in protection of buidings erected or modified by migrants, that is, we have a connection with the people of the past and preserve their work and memory of them by not hastily destroying what they build and in doing so we are also being what we now describe as 'environmentally friendly'.
• pete :
04 Aug 2009 8:30:41pm
Well said:-
I renovated an 1860's terrace house that had a migrant treatment done in the 1960's to 1970's.
The fire places had been pulled out (there had been 9 people living in a single fronted terrace! No wonder they pulled out the fire places -they needed the space) and their workmanship on the extensions was not fantastic, but over time I began to appreciate the social history of the place I was living in, including the most recent additions. A Greek friend of mine suggested I needed to preserve some of it (the marble chip vinyl floor, the acanthus stencil that had been applied to every wall in the place)as a record of how people had responded to the conditions they found in Australia. Unfortunately I lost the argument for preservation with my partner. I can appreciate why people pulled down terraces, ultimately they were awful designs that said more about working class conditions in England than anything to do with the bright sunny environment of Australia.
• Dinah McCance :
04 Aug 2009 8:13:15pm
Get real, we don't preserve buildings with historical and architectural significance, what chance has your little slice of social history.
• gerard :
04 Aug 2009 4:49:28pm
One of the hardest tasks in Australia is finding suitable housing. I am not talking about money or finance.
Has anyone tried finding reasonable accommodation that feels good, looks good and is within walking distance of shops, rail station, library and the usual necessary infrastructures?
The sprawl has run amok and has now overtaken basic needs such as human contact and interaction.
Privacy is King and horizontal blinds and huge triple car garaging reign over and dominates homo erectus as never before.
Future archeologists will dig up bits of pebble crete and find tilta-door remotes and will shake their heads in utter disbelief. How could housing and society have gone so badly wrong?
We used to talk to neighbours. Now we stare at colour bond zinc alume and take another valium.
• AArgh :
06 Aug 2009 11:22:24am
OMG ! You're right gerard! I'm going to top myself immediately - no wait - I have to mow the footpath and polish the street numbers on my letterbox and get the roller door fixed....ok maybe tomorrow....
• Vivien :
04 Aug 2009 3:48:03pm
I understand your emotional attachment to the 60's houses, but everyone does to their homes. So should we preserve all of them? What are we going to do for the new arrivals and what about development?
• Somewhat perplexed :
04 Aug 2009 6:37:08pm
Should we preserve all of them?
In my opinion, no.
For eastern states based people, these houses are often fibro or brick veneer.
If I put a brick veneer house into my building energy rating software it performs at a certain level – usually not that good. If I change the wall type to reverse brick veneer (bricks on the inside) it improves out of sight. If I model a fibro house it is nearly always bad.
My view is there should be no brick veneer houses in Australia left after 2050. They will be a technology that is over a hundred years old by then and well past its use by date. Architecturally, there not much in them to preserve.
• vulcan :
04 Aug 2009 3:06:39pm
Why are Victorian terraces so expensive when
1. 99.9% of them grow mould at alarming rates
2. The fireplaces usually have falling damp
3. The walls have rising damp
4. Usually there is at least 7 square metres (at least) of hall which equals wasted space
5. Often there is no side access nor rear lane access, therefore making any renovations incredibly expensive
6. Bathrooms are usually out the back blocking access to light and sun and garden.
7. The toilet is often still separate to the house.
8. If renovated sometimes the toilet is located under the stairs making toilet smells the perfume of the day (revolting)
9. There is usually no parking
10. Upstairs balcony off the bedroom usually has only doors therefore making the person inside very vulnerable on a hot night if the doors are opened.
11. Usually they are located on main roads these days - so the noise and fumes are foul.
12. The lime mortar used in the bricklaying has to be constantly repaired.
13. The foundations are often unstable - therefore requiring huge work. (often the party wall to the next place is weakened if there is a problem with the neighbour's foundations.
14. The roof structure is often faulty.
15. And idiots buy them and are forced by councils to maintain them or build cheap crappy models of the originals.
16. Did I mention drainage and plumbing. Often holes have to be cut into the floor to gain access under the floor.
maintaining the worst of these structures show how uneducated councillors and council architects are. Living in the dark ages i.e. terraces, is exactly the same as living in the madrasses with no access to mathematics and science.
Technologies have moved on.
Tokyo is a great example of building where structures are renewed about every 20 years.
Yes, keep a row of 60's migrant houses.
Keep a row of terraces.
Keep a row of the McMansions and move on.
Australians are still desperate to be a mini Britain with their terraces.
God, give me an architect who really understands the climate he/she is building in and is not deluded about the past and
I promise to be good today.
• Helvi :
04 Aug 2009 5:27:23pm
Vulcan, you are right about the Victorian terraces, they have all the problems you list.
I believe the attraction of them is that they are in the inner city, where people, action , where the life is.
My friends bought them and put sky-lights, big glass doors opening up to the cosy courtyards, central heating and so on. They were willing to do that and pay big money to be away from the suburbs, to be where people matter more than the size of your garages.
Living in the same area, I was lucky to find charming stone or weatherboard houses that were wonderful as they were, just some face lifting needed. All this at a walking distance to shops schools, buses and ferries to city. What more do you want.
• Poll Hereford :
04 Aug 2009 2:03:06pm
Each housing type has its advantages and disadvantages. Many terraces are dark and cold and require serious gutting to make them livable for today's expectations, behind their heritage facades. They are very compact, if two-storey and make a good streetscape give high density and surprising privacy: they are also very flexible in commercial or domestic use. One big problem with terraces for many migrant families was the small gardens- things that now recommend the terrace to people with less time and water. The problem with the detached house is how greedy it is for land - usually arable land - on urban fringes and transport infrastructure.
It's interesting that you talk about the plainness of the Post-War migrant house, in contrast to all that inner city Victorian decoration, which most people barely see. Many Anglos look at the decoration as the sign of the migrant, no matter how starved the Corinthian columns, pine cones or lions. I grew up next to Italians in the South East suburbs, and the house had been stripped of all the Spanish Mission details and rendered flat and white, though it didn't really have Modernist pretensions or proportions. The carpets had also gone, replaced by tiles, something my mother has only learnt to do in the last ten years. The Pantheon has a place for every god, but I'm not sure about the hierarchy.
• Viking :
04 Aug 2009 1:40:35pm
This always puzzles me: why the houes here are so cheap (construction-wise), unliveable and not much better than weekend retreat houses in Europe, yet people have to live in them everyday and freeze every winter in Australia... Why the double-glazing is not used??? something that's been used in Europe for decades now... It retains the heat better, keeps the house cooler in the hot summer... Now Europe is switching even to triple glazing as it is more energy efficient - when at the same time NSW government is advising people (TV commercial with black balloons representing CO2) to cover the windows with... curtains (hoping it is OK to stay in the dark room and noone will switch the lights on).
Europeans could build better homes here and teach Aussies better building techniques. But migrants are rarely listended to and the local standards that are just plain wrong and backward in many instances do not allow for more solid, energy-efficient and aesthetically pleasant houses here.
• Big M :
04 Aug 2009 3:42:08pm
Every time I've purchased windows, I've asked for a quote for double glazing. No they say. Can't, won't, shouldn't do it.
There are companies in Australia who do double or triple glazing, one just needs to spend time tracking them down.
I love a lot of European renovation stuff. Copper gutters, stainless steel/copper roofing, etc. It's just so damned expensive here!!!
• Helvi :
04 Aug 2009 5:49:38pm
I will get stoned here for agreeing with you,Viking.
In Finland all houses are now centrally heated, but on my dad's farm we had good fire-places that were so built that a small good fire in the morning heated the fire-place that kept the house warm all day...same thing at night.
Here, hubby busies himself with fires all day , plus we have gas heaters, but it's not enough.
It's a beautiful house with cathetral ceilings, spacious rooms, aesthetically pleasing, silly unpractical (for a farmhouse) wall-to wall carpets have been placed with Italian tiles...
It's not an old house, central heating should have been the first consideration in the Southern American friend once said that Aussie homes are only windbreaks! Please don't shoot ME for that...
• Somewhat perplexed :
04 Aug 2009 6:30:47pm
Unlivable housing.
That is the realm of the project home builder. They, according to a designer I know, are building dreams and not houses. People get sucked into this. A project home builder in my state has spent $200K on a $350K house in merchandizing for the Alfresco area. He is selling a dream. Nobody said they are livable.
Double glazing
No, not the best. The best is single glazing with heavy curtains and pelmats or even better moving insulative shutters. A timber framed window with heavy curtains is thermally better than a double glazed window without curtains. The reason is there is no insulation barrier when you want all the heat that is available. When you want to block the heat you move the curtain. That is the best of both worlds. The NSW government is correct. Of course this all assumes you have eaves or horizontal awnings on the house to assist in preventing or accepting direct sunlight at the correct times of year.
Building Techniques
Yes we suck. Builders are not going to innovate when people turn around and sue them at the drop of a hanky. Consequently they stay with what they know. If the legislators will get the lawyers out of their faces then they might take a risk and learn something new.
Local Standards
Yes, they are backward. They are heavily influenced by the project home industry and in particular the HIA. They are currently driving at producing insulated boxes. The best explanation I have read is from Tone Wheeler and that is we need to be able to turn a house into a tent – that is open it completely … and … also turn it into an esky – say on a cold winters night. So we need regulations that allow for openness and closure at the same time.
In summation, it is wrong to judge an industry on the rubbish churned out by the project home industry. There are around 15% of us trying to do something different.
• Muz :
06 Aug 2009 1:37:40am
To add to the first bit; project renovators as well. I had a job in demolitions for a while and most of the jobs we had were assisting in remodelling homes in almost fundamental ways. Most of these looked hideous, were completely impractical and were exorbitantly expensive. The last is thanks to the alterations not paying any mind to working with the original structure of the house and the whole thing (or a large portion of it) having to be essentially rebuilt while its still standing (one frightening example had been remodelled three times in three years). These weren't call classic old 'character homes' either. Plenty of middle of the road places from every decade.
People are sold on this stuff by building firms whose consultants' job is to think of ways to sell more changes. I don't really understand why people don't just live in the houses they've got (most of the time it wasn't adding more room for the kids or a decent size kitchen from a bathroom sized thing. It was straight up vanity jobs).
This was a while ago so with any luck the bubble bursting has put a stop to this kind of thing. Or at least slowed it down. But still, with endless grabbing and filling of new areas and the constant flattening or remodelling of anything older, there is a kind of mania about Australian housing.
• VoR :
04 Aug 2009 7:25:37pm
That's really funny. You and gerard are both in agreement that houses in Australia are no good. But he thinks it's because we imitate houses in Northern Europe, you think it's because we don't.
Last time I was in Europe there was an enormous variation in European housing. It's one of the indicators of what country you're in really. Not to mention the prosperity of that country or of the particular area you are in. And its climate. And the period in which the houses were built. Have they knocked down all the crappy ones and rebuilt them in the last few years? Does Lisbon have as many centrally heated houses with double glazing as Hamburg?
Come to think of it, there's quite a variation here in Australia as well although not as much.
I'm pretty sure you'll find one of the determining factors is money. If you have the money for a 'weekend retreat house' you're more likely to have a good quality home with central heating.
The other is climate. Duh.
• chris m :
04 Aug 2009 1:08:14pm
Exactly! History seems to be only for polite people, approved by in-groups, when it comes to architecture. For example, there is a district of Sydney called the Hungry Mile. It is part of our cultural fabric. You can hardly sell funky new developments of old places 'where the un-washed used to toil' for gazillions if the address is "Hungry Mile" though, now can you. Big compromise was to let them call a street that. We have, instead,Barangaroo, a cute enough made-up Aboriginal name, which was apparently held by someone who did not live there, or perhaps ever go there. At least is sounds polite, though. Imagine if a living Aborigine tried to move there....
• Polony :
04 Aug 2009 1:00:36pm
The other side of having an old building is that it may be considered significant by some official heritage mob and you may have a lot of difficulties changing it or demolishing it.
This makes it prudent demolishing any building before it becomes significant. This may be bad for society, but those heritage mobs provide insufficient compensation for the encumbrances they place on your title.
• granny :
04 Aug 2009 12:31:53pm
I had many Italian and Greek friends in Melbourne, a few of them lived in the inner suburbs, they liked the close proximity of transport, shops etc. Then they started to move out to the suburbs, building houses that started out as "humble" abodes, but ended up two to three storey "mansions". One Italian family even had a room under the house to store food. Great strands of sausages, tins of olive oil, barrels of wine, (mostly home made), great jars of homemade tomato sauce, made from home grown tomatoes, friends and family were invited around to press the tomatoes and bottle them. Their humble vegetable gardens ensured that no famine would affect them, everything was bottled, no wasted food. Eggplants, zucchini, onions, vegetables that I had never heard of in those days were grown. Putting Gran away into a nursing home was unthinkable, she was there to support the family, look after the kids and helped tend the vegetable garden. Name days were celebrated with a roasting pig on a spit, accompanied by copious amounts of wine, Italian breads etc. Baptisms, First Communion, Confirmations all celebrated in much the same way. My Italian friends showed me how to cook Italian, to this day I am ever grateful. Then my Greek friends, not to be outdone, showed me how to cook Greek cuisine, then the men would dance "Zorba" after they had drunk lots of vino, we would be invited to join in, unfortunately I had 2 left feet and could not keep up with them. When it came my turn to entertain, they were very happy with my culinary efforts as I tried to emulate their food.
• foula :
04 Aug 2009 4:11:20pm
Yeah That's all us w-gs are good for hey, that's all we brought to skippy land-our food.
• Sean :
05 Aug 2009 9:09:47am
Foula dont underestimate the importance of food!
Australian cuisine was always simple and functional, based on the British meat and five veg. Australias first real steps towards embracing multiculturalism was to acquire a taste for Meditteranean cuisine.
I recall my mother telling me her first encounter with garlic in the 1950s - a 'New Australian' friend brought some salad to a party and had rubbed the inside of the bowl with one garlic clove - everyone was fascinated and almost overwhelmed by the taste... Now its in every kitchen and in many 'Aussie' meals.
Food is one of the best ways to foster friendships and respect - the way to someones heart is through their stomach, and I really believe thats true.
Sharing food helps to create understanding and trust...
• Somewhat perplexed :
04 Aug 2009 6:43:46pm
Now I know why there are so many name days on the christian calendar.
Easter must be a bit of bender though. 4 days of pig, wine and bread. Is this why Italian houses tend to have 3 and 4 toilets? | http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/29554.html | dclm-gs1-271690002 | false | false | {
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Why Isn't BP Under Criminal Investigation?
BP is a convicted serial environmental criminal. Why is there no criminal investigation?
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Why hasn't the government launched a criminal investigation into BP?
"If the company behind this disaster was Texaco or Chevron I would have likely waited a couple of days before I started to talking to people," West said. "And the reason for that is those corporations do not enjoy the current criminal history that BP does."
West, who Truthout profiled in an investigative report last week about the Bush administration's apparent scuttling of West's criminal probe into BP in 2007, was harshly critical of the way the disaster has been handled by the government. He said in an interview that BP and the oil conglomerate's executives are "known as liars" and the fact that the government has treated "and continues" to treat the company with kid gloves is "outrageous."
"BP is a convicted serial environmental criminal," West said. "So, where are the criminal investigators? The well head is a crime scene and yet the potential criminals are in charge of that crime scene. Have we learned nothing from this company's past behavior?"
Bob Wojnicz, a former EPA special agent who conducted criminal investigations into the Olympic Pipeline explosion in Bellingham, Washington, in 1999 and worked with West probing the oil spill in Alaska that resulted from a severely corroded pipeline, agreed.
In the case of the Olympic pipeline explosion, which killed three children, Wojnicz said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), one of the agencies involved in the investigation, treated it "like an accident." But EPA "got involved right away and we looked at the incident and found apparent crimes and were able to make recommendations for charges. You can't really get to that point unless you have preliminary criminal investigation into what happened."
"So how Is BP somehow above being treated like any other criminal suspect?" asked Wojnicz, who is also an attorney. "Recall that they are not just criminal suspects - they are convicted criminals still on federal probation. This whole affair needs to be aired out thoroughly. There is more than enough information available to justify initiating a criminal investigation. The fact that this has not yet happened is evidence of either gross incompetence by government officials or complicity by those officials in covering-up the true nature of BP's conduct. Either of those possibilities is completely unacceptable and should be dealt with immediately and harshly."
West said the EPA, along with, perhaps, the FBI, would be one of the agencies to lead a criminal probe because of possible criminal violations of the Clean Water Act.
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Case sealed?
David Corn shares some potentially bad news on the Fitzgerald investigation.
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David Corn takes a step back from Friday's big news, and explains that we might never find out the details of what he uncovered in the Plame affair:
Fitzgerald knows far more than what is in the Libby indictment. But the American public may never learn what he has uncovered. There might be no further indictments, and Fitzgerald dismissed the idea of writing a final report. He said that he does not have the authority to issue such a document -- and that he does not believe a special counsel should have that authority. Independent counsels used to have the obligation to craft a final report that detailed their investigation and findings and explained decisions to prosecute and not prosecute.
But the independent counsel law expired, and Fitzgerald is operating as a special counsel pursuant to Justice Department rules that do not provide for the production of a final report and that do compel prosecutors to keep grand jury material that is not used for an indictment or trial confidential. Feeling the reporter's pain, Fitzgerald remarked, "I know that people want to know whatever it is we know. ...We just can't do that. ...We either charge someone or we don't talk about them."
Which means that after the government has paid for a two-year investigation, the public may be left in the dark about much of what happened in the leak case. The leakers may never be held accountable.
Rove's role, Bush's knowledge, Cheney's potential involvement--all of that could remain a secret, even though Fitzgerald has apparently dug deep and unearthed much of the tale.
Read on...
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allvideo BluRay DVD VHSmanga e-manga bookCD
Title: Basilisk
Volume: GN 4 / 5
Pages: 208
Distributor: Del Rey
Release date: 2007-02-28
Suggested retail price: $13.95
Age rating: 17+
ISBN-10: 0345490460 0345490460
ISBN-13: 9780345490469 9780345490469
Meanwhile, the Kouga leader Gennosuke, also blinded, and his comrades - including the shapeshifter Saemon and the deadly seductress Kagerou - embark on a long journey to Sunpu to find out exactly why the truce was dissolved. They will face the fury of the calculating Tenzen and the whirlwind-wielding Koshirou. In the end, who will survive this bloody game of deception and politics?
Story and art by Masaki Segawa.
(added on 2006-06-25, modified on 2006-06-25)
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Excellent point Jonathan. You put it much more politely than a prior author on another site, called the Annotated Rant. It's called F%&k the South, and it's quite humorous, if you don't mind all the cursing. Written back in 2004, but makes the salient points that have been raised here.
@Johathan - Absolutely spot on! This state with our position as 4th highest in unemployment, couldn't make it a week without their federal funding and yet still we go round and round over issues concerning putting tolls on interstates (they own them since they run through the state dontcha know), rejecting federal funding for Planned Parenthood (no kidding they tried and sadly it looks like they're going to waste more taxpayer money going back to court on this same issue...), then there was the latest debacle of an unconstitutional amendment to the state constitution regarding marriage (I see that costing the state taxpayers a ton of money for litigation soon...)
Seriously they don't even respect state law enough to enforce it and protect the smallest of our citizens (long story), so federal laws down here... meh, they don't mean a thing to our legislators, pull their federal funding and watch the rats scamper back into their holes when the taxpayers come out with their pitchforks hungry and angry.
Curse you 15 minute edit!!! Sorry I flubbed your name Jonathan!
Jonathan, you're welcome, and thanks for your comment.
"It will never happen but I’d love to see the feds say that from now on any state can refuse to comply with federal rules in any area they wish."
i actually think it may happen. hell, it already happened with Texas. the Feds cut off their $35 million in funding for it's Women's Health Program b/c of Texas defunding Planned Parenthood. Texas Governor Rick Perry first said that he'd find the funding himself, and later said that if he couldn't find the funding he'd just drop the entire program. now all this is in the courts.
it's easy to drop a program that benefits poor folks. but would Texas take a similar stand on Education if the Feds threatened to remove their funding from that? if, for example, Texas wanted to teach Creationism (well, they kinda do) and told the US that they were going to do so whether the government objects or not.
Creationism isn't taught in colleges in Texas. I teach Evolution and Natural Selection in my classes. Some students do get upset by that though.
My biology professors always taught me evolution and nothing else.
The states could care less what the hell a woman does with her body! The states could careless how and where you educate your children!
What the states do care about are votes!! Power, and control of the Presidency, of congress and the house!
Did you notice the states who are cutting, planned parenthood, education and anything publically funded are RED states? REPUBLICAN states!
The republicans cannot run on accomplishments so they push these wedge issues!
Ever hear the one about Obama taking your guns?? Yeah 4 years and those constitutional rights are still very much intact!
How about the one about him implementing “Shariah Law”?? Still awaiting that one too! LOL
It's propaganda!
We are dealing with a very uneducated, uninformed electorate! That is the way they (REPUBLICANS) like it!
People are hiding behind their religion (WHICH KEEPS THEM DUMB AND UNINFORMED)to justify their racism!
The propaganda would only work, if there was some other driving force behind it!
How do you think people could possibly believe that Republican policies work after 8 years of them NOT working at all??
How does a person come to the conclusion that tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans create jobs when this country lost 750,000 PER MONTH under George Bush???
I think you are barking up the wrong tree. The subject of injecting religion into politics has been visited.
The founding fathers spoke on the subject of religion in the constitution when they wrote that there shall be a separation of church and state! Educated and informed electorate is the BEST defense!
i'm not sure i follow your logic. are you agreeing with my post or disagreeing? i can't tell.
I am not sure who you are talking to?? Me?
I'm sorry I don't know whats so presumptuous about an educated electorate?? Thomas Jefferson certainly didn't think so....:)
yes, sorry i'm just replying. i've re-read your post a few times and i'm still somewhat confused as to what your point is. i get much of what you're saying, but i guess i can't tie it together.
when i talked about the states telling the Gov't FU, i was giving examples (mostly) of red states. i assumed that was a given, but maybe i didn't explain it well.
when you say i'm "barking up the wrong tree" i'm not sure in what way. please explain. thanks.
agreeing....sorry. i was giving reasons they are doing what they are.
ok, thanks.
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• The Martian Chronicles
• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 14 mins)
• By Ray Bradbury
• Narrated By Stephen Hoye
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Leaving behind a world on the brink of destruction, man came to the red planet and found the Martians waiting, dreamlike. Seeking the promise of a new beginning, man brought with him his oldest fears and his deepest desires. Man conquered Mars - and in that instant, Mars conquered him. The strange new world with its ancient, dying race and vast, red-gold deserts cast a spell on him, settled into his dreams, and changed him forever.
David says: "The ghosts of Mars and Bradbury"
"The ghosts of Mars and Bradbury"
The Martian Chronicles has all the virtues and flaws of everything I've ever read by Ray Bradbury. He writes beautiful prose and he's particularly good at spooky and haunting imagery. He's in a different category entirely from other "golden oldie" SF authors — his stuff is deliberately thoughtful and crafted, and tends to be much more human-focused. Even when he's writing "hard" SF, it feels more like a science fantasy, sometimes edging closer to pure fantasy or horror. And you can read all kinds of metaphors into his work, often metaphors completely different from the ones he intended, if his reaction to interpretations of Fahrenheit 451 is anything to go on.
The Martian Chronicles is, as the title suggests, more a themed collection of short stories than a novel, chronicling humanity's exploration and exploitation of Mars. It starts with the first ill-fated Mars expedition, when the first Earthman on Mars is greeted by a Martian roused to jealousy by his dissatisfied wife's clairvoyant dreams, and continues through the inevitable follow-up expeditions and colonization effort, in which the Martians all but disappear, becoming ghosts haunting their own planet, and humanity brings its troubles and all its baggage to Mars. The final stories, in particular, after a war destroys life back on the home planet, are eerie, with vivid descriptions of robot houses on Earth still cooking breakfast for families that were long ago atomized in a nuclear war, and a few lone survivors trekking through the ghost towns and dry canals of Mars. There were parts of this book that were truly marvelous and timeless.
That said - the flaws. Ray Bradbury, like so many of his generation, writes like a cranky old white man and he always has. He seems unable to conceive of a family, a society, or a civilization that doesn't resemble Middle America circa 1950, when The Martian Chronicles was published. Even the Martians, despite their elegiac voices and physical descriptions — brown skin, copper eyes, psychic powers, and evolution into non-corporeal bodies — are first introduced to us as a bored married couple following behavioral tropes that would not be out of place in a 1950s sitcom. The Martian household is imaginatively described, with its magnetic dust to clean and its fire chariot for transportation and the mask worn by a Martian man going out to hunt, with his rifle firing bee-like cartridges, but it's essentially a Flintstones or Jeffersons-like mapping of suburban America onto an alien landscape.
That said, Earthmen behaving exactly as they did back on Earth, and trying to remake Mars in the image of Smalltown, America, was no doubt part of the point. The Martian Chronicles shows Earthmen ruining everything, like they always do, Mars being no exception.
This is a classic that deserves a good read, and there is a timeless quality about it, but there's also a datedness in Bradbury's characterization, an ability to imagine and illustrate themes beautifully but not characters, all of whom are as stereotypical and whitebread as those you'd have found on TV at the time of the book's writing.
3.5 stars for superior prose and imagination and vision, but dated tropes and characters who are simply mouths to voice themes.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
• One Second After
• UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 21 mins)
• By William R. Forstchen
• Narrated By Joe Barrett
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"Will make you want to stock up on bullets and bean"
As much as I like post-apocalyptic novels, zombies, aliens, and supernatural horrors are entertaining but not scary, because we know those type of end-of-the-world scenarios are not going to happen.
One Second After manages to be scary because it sounds very plausible. In fact, William Fortschen supposedly wrote this book in part to warn Americans about a threat he believes has been overlooked and ignored — hence the foreword by Newt Gingrich and the afterword by a military officer, both warning that "HEY, THIS IS REAL, YO!"
The apocalyptic scenario is an Electromagnetic Pulse. In this book, there are actually three EMP weapons detonated — one takes out the U.S. and Canada, another takes out Japan and South Korea, and a third takes out Russia. They never do find out for sure who launched them, though the obvious suspects — China, North Korea, a jihadi network — are all suggested.
EMPs of course are well-known side effects of atomic bombs. Is it possible that one well-placed missile, launched from a container ship in the Atlantic to detonate high in the atmosphere over North America, could fry most electronics in the U.S. and thus cause a breakdown in civilization in a matter of weeks? I am not quite convinced on that score, but it's one of the TEOTWAWKI scenarios that keeps certain breeds of survivalists and politicians awake at night. Fortschen's concern is that the U.S. government has taken virtually no steps to harden critical electrical and electronic infrastructure. The reason is that like so many preventative measures, it would cost a lot of money to protect against what most see as a remote, hypothetical threat.
Well, everyone has their hobby horse. But ignore the EMP as the delivery mechanism. There are other scenarios that might cause a SHTF event. And if something happens to disrupt electricity, food, and water, for days, weeks, or months, it will get very, very ugly, and that's the more convincing message this book gets across.
The main character, John Matherson, is a history professor and former Army officer. Despite having almost been promoted to general, his military career was largely that of a desk jockey. He is a widower living in a small town in North Carolina with two daughters and two dogs.
Then the EMP goes off. Instantly, virtually every vehicle, generator, and electronic device is dead. It takes them a few hours to realize it's not just a power failure (despite the puzzling fact that cars stalled on the highway), a day to realize it's serious, and a few more days to realize that the S has indeed HTF.
The rest of the book is a survival story. Matherson becomes a leader in their small town. First they have to deal with routine problems, very inconvenient and occasionally life-threatening (such as the fact that his daughter is a Type 1 diabetic who's going to die when the insulin runs out). As the refugees start pouring in, and it becomes evident how very unprepared they are, things get progressively worse, and worse, and worse.
By the climax, in which Matherson has trained a bunch of high school and college kids into a militia which is the only thing standing against a barbarian horde known as "the Posse," they've already lost most of their population to starvation and disease. They've had to implement rationing, shoot looters and hoarders, eat their pets, perform surgery without anesthetics or antibiotics, and make hard decisions about who they're going to let starve to death.
I found this to be a compelling read because the author didn't take any dramatic artistic licenses. I don't think everything would play out exactly as described in this novel — it might be worse, it might be not quite as bad (I do think the U.S. population being reduced to 30 million in one year is unlikely) — but other than the EMP scenario described as the precipitating event, nothing that followed seemed implausible.
One Second After is a book to get you thinking. There are a lot of things that disrupt modern civilization for varying lengths of time. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina showed just how bad things can get for people who are unprepared, and that was localized and everyone knew order and services would be restored eventually. What would you do if the power shut off right now and the trucks bringing food to the grocery store stopped running, and never resumed?
Even if you are not seized with an impulse to go out and buy guns and 10# cans of beans, One Second After is a realistic novel that might inspire you to start thinking realistically.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
• Sarum: The Novel of England
• UNABRIDGED (45 hrs and 41 mins)
• By Edward Rutherfurd
• Narrated By Wanda McCaddon
• Whispersync for Voice-ready
Gordon says: "Most enjoyable"
"One big fat sweet historical epic"
Sarum tells the entire history of England, from its ice-age prehistory when the first men arrived on the island to the 1980s, by focusing the passing of ages on the city of Salisbury, once known as "Sarum." Located on the edge of Salisbury Plain, at the juncture of five rivers, archeological evidence tells us it's been a trading settlement since prehistoric times (and of course, it is located only a few miles from Stonehenge). Rutherfurd uses a mixture of archeology and recorded history to tell us the complete history of Sarum from the arrival of Hwll the Hunter, seeking high ground as the ice melts, to the last in the line of the Shockleys and Masons, who have entertained us with their family dramas for centuries, trying to restore Salisbury Cathedral in 1985.
How historically accurate is this book? It would take a historian to criticize that aspect of Rutherfurd's storytelling, though obviously everything involving the neolithic settlers, followed by the bronze age settlers, ancestors of the Celts, and pretty much everything up to Roman times, has to be more speculation than known fact. To this day, we don't know for sure exactly when Stonehenge was built or for what purpose, and I remember an Irish history professor in college telling me "Don't believe anything anyone writes about druids - crazy people write about druids." So Rutherfurd's take on the bloodthirsty rites of these Bronze Age tribesmen is probably as likely as any other.
This is not primarily a history book, though, but a multi-generational (many, many, many generations) soap opera, through which history is told. Of the many families living around Sarum, Rutherfurd invents several — the Wilsons (descended from "Will's son" though actually present as fisher-folk living on Sarum's rivers since the Ice Age), the Masons (descended from a medieval mason, who was himself descended from an old Celtic craftsman who learned architecture from the Romans, who was himself descended from the architect of Stonehenge), the Porters (descended from a Roman officer named Porteus), the Godfreys (descended from a Norman knight), the Shockleys, the Forests (a branch of the Wilsons that renamed themselves something more noble once they got money) — who frequently change names and reverse fortunes and have interwoven lives, feuds, and marriages with the passing of centuries. The family that ruled Sarum in Roman times becomes in the 19th century the tenant farmers living on land owned by another family that were Anglo-Saxon peasants in the 11th, and so on. Naturally they don't know their ancient noble (or common) origins the way the reader does, other than as family tales passed down which they believe to be largely fictitious, like Doctor Barnagel, who laughs at his family's legend of being descended from a Danish invader known for crying "Bairn nae gel!" ("Don't kill the children!"), not knowing that it's actually true.
This is a historical epic told through the eyes of everyday people. Rutherfurd has each of his families passing down physical and personality traits through the generations that are more fanciful than genetic, but there is something pleasing and familiar in seeing what the scheming, "spider-like" Wilsons are up to in each century, or what form the next generation's incarnation of a buxom, Amazonish Shockley girl will take.
It sprawls across all of history. How are these families affected by the Roman invasion? The Anglo-Saxon invasion? The Danish invasion? The Norman invasion? The Black Death? The Reformation? The English Civil War? The New World? The Napoleonic Wars? All the way into the 20th century, where things became a bit rushed, covering the passing of time from World War I to 1985 in as many pages as earlier were spent on a single generation in the medieval era.
Stylistically, Edward Rutherfurd is a plain and unembellished writer and he often relies on cliches and tropes, particularly all the women with their "firm young bodies" from paleolithic times onward, and the aforementioned repetition of family traits, from the Wilsons' "long-toed feet," dating back to the Ice Age, to the precise fussiness of the Porters, dating back to their Roman ancestor. Chapters begin with a lot of historical exposition explaining what's going on in this era, then zooming into what our families are up to and which side they're taking. But none of this was a detriment to me; it was a long, long listen and very satisfying. The time spent to research and write an epic spanning over 10,000 years and yet get us personally invested in the lives of individual people made it well worth it.
I liked it enough that I am pushing Rutherfurd's New York epic higher on my TBR list. This is a big fat historical epic to satisfy anyone who likes these kinds of books. Wanda McCaddon's narration was steady and professional throughout - there were a few times when her voice sounded a little shrill, but she handled male and female roles with the perfect British accent. The only place she fell flat was, predictably, the American characters (hardly any Brits can drawl Yank believably), and they only show up briefly in the very last chapters.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
• Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas
• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 41 mins)
• By John Scalzi
• Narrated By Wil Wheaton
• Whispersync for Voice-ready
Cristina Hatfield says: "Quite an enjoyable read"
"A novel-length Star Trek joke"
I liked Redshirts. Fun. Entertaining. Quite funny at times. And yes, rather clever. Though clever more in a "Look at what I'm doing, isn't this cute, and you can feel clever too by getting all of the in-jokes (which are pitched low and soft)" way, rather than, say, a mind-blowing, genre-elevating, Big Idea, Hugo award-winning way.
Which is probably why I read this book with my eyebrows constantly going up and down. Because as the metaphysical pretension became outright self-indulgence, I just kept thinking... "Yeah, this is fun, but... a Hugo? Really?"
The main characters are redshirts on the starship Intrepid, the flagship of the fleet, captained by square-jawed Captain Abernathy, who is always seen with his excruciatingly logical Science Officer, and a good-looking but dim astrogator named Lieutenant Kerensky who has a disturbing history of surviving horrible wounds, diseases, maimings, and other catastrophes. Meanwhile, much of the activity aboard the Intrepid revolves around avoiding the attention of the staff officers, and especially, avoiding Away Missions.
Ensign Andrew Dahl is a newbie aboard the ship, and once he figures out what's going on, he also figures out that he is most likely to be the next sap sacrificed.
Okay. So, Redshirts is really, really meta. It's not even a little bit subtle, either. Once Dahl and his friends realize what's going on, they start researching early 20th century Earth television and refer to Star Trek by name.
Scalzi is not the first author to write about fictional characters discovering that they are fictional characters. And he knows it, and he makes sure you know he knows it, continuing his see-how-clever-I-am metaness by having other characters, whose minds are blown by the meta, researching and mentioning by name everything from Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo to Jasper Fforde.
Dahl eventually deduces that not only are they characters on a TV show, but the TV show isn't even real — it's actually a fictional creation in a novel!
Whoa, Scalzi, you are sooooo clever!
Joking aside, Redshirts was amusing. The characters are Scalzi's usual likable jerks tossing zingers at each other while eventually delivering heartfelt moral epiphanies. But most of the humor comes from "spot the genre reference," and much of the humor is diluted by the author making sure that dimmer readers don't miss the reference by having every dialog continue for a beat or two longer than necessary.
There is a lot of self-referential humor, about science fiction, about Hollywood, and about writing.
On an additional plus side, Wil Wheaton's narration was pretty awesome; Wheaton really "gets" Scalzi's voice and the voice of his characters.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
• The Snow Queen’s Shadow: Princess Novels, Book 4
• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 48 mins)
• By Jim C. Hines
• Narrated By Carol Monda
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When a spell gone wrong shatters Snow White's enchanted mirror, a demon escapes into the world. The demon's magic distorts the vision of all it touches, showing them only ugliness and hate. It is a power that turns even friends and lovers into mortal foes; one that will threaten humans and fairies alike.
David says: "The Princess series finale, a friend gone bad"
"The Princess series finale, a friend gone bad"
Jim Hines's Princess series is enjoyable light fantasy, the sort of thing that will appeal to fans of the early Xanth series (before Piers Anthony got really skeevy), but with more self-awareness. The first book was novel mostly for the premise: Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty turned into real, flesh-and-blood characters, not fairy tales but actual princesses with plausible backstories with just enough connection to the "fairy tale" version to make it understandable how the legends started.
The next two books were basically continuations of the adventure, adding the Little Mermaid and Red Riding Hood to the mythos.
In the fourth and last book in the series, there's little adaptation or subversion going on; it's just the final adventure of our three heroines, with some revelations about little details that have been running throughout the series (like just why is Danielle/Cinderella able to talk to animals?), and a resolution, of sorts, to the unfortunate Talia's crush on Snow.
Snow White, the flirty sorceress who's been the "fun" third of the trio for the past three books, becomes the Big Bad in this one, corrupted by a demon through the power of her mother's magic mirror. All of a sudden she's turning everyone evil, destroying armies, and toppling kingdoms. Danielle and Talia have to go after her, with the question hanging throughout the book being whether they'll be able to save Snow without killing her.
I won't say anything about the ending, other than that it was not unexpected, and I felt it was satisfying without being a cop-out.
There are a lot of magical battles, including battles of wits with faeries. While, as with previous books, it was rather AD&Dish at times, I think Hines made the action and the magic consistent enough for his setting without making me hear dice rolling in the background.
While this is the last book in the series (for now), there is certainly potential for Hines to continue the series in the future if he chooses to do so, and I would probably read them.
The Princess books wouldn't make my Best Fantasy list, but they're fine, enjoyable adventures with a surprisingly detailed amount of worldbuilding and character development. The Snow Queen's Shadow brings it to a bittersweet conclusion; I would definitely recommend reading the previous books first.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
• 14
• UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 38 mins)
• By Peter Clines
• Narrated By Ray Porter
• Whispersync for Voice-ready
Magpie says: "Super solid listen!!"
"A Call of Cthulhu adventure in Los Angeles"
So you have a diverse cast of poor to barely-middle-class Los Angelenos living in an old apartment building in which everyone is willing to ignore the occasional creepiness and green cockroaches because the rent is ridiculously cheap. When new guy Nate moves in, just another wage slave working in a dead-end temp database entry job, he actually starts taking an interest in the strange mysteries of the place, like the rental agent who turns out to be an actress, the doors that don't go anywhere, the absence of a connection to the city power grid, etc.
He makes friends with his neighbors, and slowly they all become involved in solving the mystery. Half the book is character spotlights, from Veek, the minimum-wage worker who has high-powered cluster computers in her apartment, to Xela, the nudist who dyes her hair in day-glow colors with matching carpet and drapes. Tim, the guy with all kinds of secret agent skills who says he used to be a small book publisher. And Andrew, the creepy Bible freak. There has to be a creepy Bible freak.
The other half of the book is plot, as the Scoobies go about solving the mysteries. And find it's turtles all the way down. All I need to do is drop the word "Lovecraftian" and I've pretty much told you all you need to know about the story and whether or not you're interested.
Is this a brilliant, genre-breaking, or Hugo-worthy novel? No. But it's a pacey adventure with a little romance, a little death, a little SAN loss. The big reveals make sense, given the necessary suspension of disbelief, and Peter Clines has created a consistent world in need of saving.
I've come to rely on Peter Clines to deliver good dark fun with straightforward prose and storytelling in gleeful genre mash-ups, and that's what 14 is. So: Lovecraftian adventure in a creepy old Los Angeles apartment building. You in or not?
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
• Steelheart
• UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 14 mins)
• By Brandon Sanderson
• Narrated By Macleod Andrews
• Whispersync for Voice-ready
"Not bad, better when it was called "Mistborn""
Brandon Sanderson only seems to have one story in him, but he's very clever about retelling it with different faces and settings.
Here is the story: plucky protagonist with a tragically heroic motivation is stuck in a crapsack world ruled by a villain with godlike powers. Protagonist teams up with a clever band of fellow underdogs who are dedicated to bringing down the Big Bad, even though it is utterly impossible, because it is the Right Thing to Do. The underdogs are largely a collection of personalities defined by quirks and catchphrases. They will banter their way through a series of Ocean's Eleven-escque escapades, using corny made-up swear words (because Brandon Sanderson has this Mormon no-swearing, no-sex rule) while the protagonist spends his time figuring out the rules of the magic system. Then they face the Big Bad and defeat him with the Power of Heart (and the protagonist finding a loophole in the rules).
This describes pretty much all Brandon Sanderson novels I have read so far.
But I liked Steelheart, even if I liked it better the first time I read it, when it was called Mistborn. Because yo, superheroes.
In Steelheart, a light appeared in the sky ten years ago. Called "Calamity," it gave people superpowers. The twist — there are no heroes. All "Epics" are evil.
David watched Steelheart, the most powerful of all Epics, kill his father. Steelheart then took over Chicago, and ten years later, the world is a dystopian hellhole, with "Newcago" being a marginally better place to live than most because there is actually food and an economy and electricity and running water. You just have to live with an invulnerable god-like ruler who randomly kills people to demonstrate his power.
So besides being a retelling of Mistborn ("Newcago" even replicates the sunless, plantless world of Mistborn, as Steelheart literally turned the environment to metal, and one of his minions has permanently blotted out the sun), Sanderson did one other thing in Steelheart: he makes Comic Book Guy the hero.
The nineteen-year-old protagonist, David, is a comic book geek, in a world where comic book characters are real. Despite growing up in a Dickensian dystopia, he manages to collect information about every Epic around and becomes an expert on their powers, tactics, and weaknesses. He's like that guy who memorizes everything in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Never mind that in this world, the characters he's memorizing are real and he has a practical reason for obsessing over them (he wants to kill them); even the other characters call him a nerd.
The fun in Steelheart is mostly figuring out the puzzles. Sanderson leaves clues throughout the story — largely related to how Epic powers work, what is Steelheart's weakness, and who the secret Epic(s) are. I saw all of the twists coming and figured out most of the clues, and I found the good guys' victory at the end to be a bit of a cheat (Lamest. Loophole. Ever.) but meh, it's Young Adult.
It is the first in a series. Of course. I may read the next one if it sounds interesting enough, but it's not a must-read.
Steelheart was a fun read. Brandon Sanderson doing superheroes will appeal to you if you like superheroes and/or Brandon Sanderson and are willing to overlook the limitations of both. It is not his best work, nor is it his worst, and likewise it's neither the best nor the worst superhero novel I've ever read.
9 of 14 people found this review helpful
• Hour of the Rat
• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 29 mins)
• By Lisa Brackmann
• Narrated By Tracy Sallows
• Whispersync for Voice-ready
Iraq War vet Ellie McEnroe has a pretty good life in Beijing, representing the work of controversial dissident Chinese artist Zhang Jianli. Even though Zhang’s mysterious disappearance of over a year ago has her in the sights of the Chinese authorities. Even though her born-again mother has come for a visit and shows no signs of leaving. But when her mom takes up with "that nice Mr. Zhou next door", Ellie decides that it’s time to get out of town - given her mother’s past bad choices of men, no good can come of this. An old Army buddy, Dog Turner, gives her the perfect excuse....
David says: "Get started on this series now"
"Get started on this series now"
"Rock Paper Tiger" was an unexpectedly good debut novel, and made Lisa Brackmann a crime fiction writer to look out for. I said that if she continued writing about the adventures of Ellie McEnroe I would be down for that, and lo and behold, here is a second book about Ellie. And while Hour of the Rat wraps up tidily, there were enough character issues left unresolved that more books seem very likely.
This is good, since I've liked the first two a lot, though I do fear that the Ellie McEnroe series will go the way so many crime/mysteries series do, eventually laboring under the weight of so many continuing characters and long-running plot threads that each book winds up indistinct and episodic.
So far, though, the series is still fresh. Ellie McEnroe was a medic in the U.S. Army. She got a chunk blown out of her leg in Iraq, and now she has physical and psychological issues to deal with. She settled in China, originally because her then-husband brought her there when he got a job as a "security consultant." Now she's peripherally involved with the Chinese art scene, living as a semi-permanent expat and trying to stay out of trouble.
A buddy of hers from the "sandbox" asks her to find his brother, who's somewhere in China and apparently in some trouble. Reluctantly, Ellie agrees. The brother turns out to be accused of eco-terrorism, and Ellie's hunt will bring her to the attention of powerful multinational corporations, the Chinese secret service, and an eccentric art-collecting billionaire. As with the previous book, it means she spends a lot of time running scared and getting beaten up and not knowing who exactly is after her.
There isn't much to the "mystery" — what makes the book enjoyable is, of course, Ellie's outsider's view of China. This is a modern look at China, with its odd mix of authoritarian statism and hyper-capitalism, beautiful country villages and cities so polluted that the air is practically solid. A GMO seed company is the primary villain, but there is of course the ever-present though mostly easy to pretend-it-isn't-there surveillance by various organs of the Chinese government. The Chinese characters are often more cynical than Ellie is about their country, but they are as proud and as ambitious and as nationalistic as any Americans.
Also, Ellie's mother, who drove her crazy last book with a constant stream of Jesus-loves-you emails, comes to China for a visit. Lisa Brackmann understands the value of comic relief characters.
An altogether enjoyable read. For any fan of crime fiction or expat adventures, go ahead and get started on this series now — it's my hope that it will be around for a while.
Normally narration is either "good enough" (i.e. transparent) or "annoying" to me, but I want to call out Tracy Sallows's narration as being particularly good. Her voice for Ellie made me really believe it was the character speaking, her voicing of Ellie's mother made me laugh out loud, and she handled the Chinese characters, with their accents, very well also. She actually made the book more enjoyable.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
• Blackout: The Newsflesh Trilogy, Book 3
• UNABRIDGED (17 hrs and 25 mins)
• By Mira Grant
• Narrated By Paula Christensen, Michael Goldstrom
• Whispersync for Voice-ready
Now, the year is 2041, and the investigation that began with the election of President Ryman is much bigger than anyone had assumed. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, the surviving staff of After the End Times must face mad scientists, zombie bears, rogue government agencies - and if there's one thing they know is true in post-zombie America, it's this: Things can always get worse. Blackout is the conclusion to the epic trilogy that includesFeed and Deadline.
Chris says: "Not with a bang but a whimper"
"Zombie. Grizzly. Bear."
Warning: BIG FAT SPOILERS!
Okay, I actually saw that coming, but I'm still kinda surprised she actually went there.
So, if you have read the first two books in Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy, you know that Georgia Mason died at the end of book one, and was brought back to life (as a clone) at the end of book two.
I'm not a big fan of "cheats" like this. Throughout the second book, Grant coped with having killed off one of her main characters in the first book by making Shaun "crazy," so Georgia becomes a permanent presence in his head, thus allowing the living main character to have conversations with his dead sister.
This continues in book three, even past the point where Shaun finally finds out about the cloned Georgia. I was expecting there to be some additional sort of "twist" to explain how the Georgia in Shaun's head could be telling him things Shaun didn't himself actually know. But nope, it was just crazy.
The Newsflesh trilogy, supposedly a zombie post-apocalypse series, aspires to be a political allegory as well. The "real" story is that in the wake of the unleashing of the Kellis-Amberlee virus, which causes the newly-dead to rise up again as viral-animated cannibalistic infection vectors, American society has responded to this terrifying change in the status quo by accepting a "new normal" that includes blood tests at every door, elevator, and vehicle, shoot-to-kill orders, safety protocols that make walking out in the open or doing pretty much anything but huddling within fortified enclaves unthinkable, and of course, listening to a government-coopted news media lie about everything.
Sound like Mira Grant might have an agenda here?
The point is pressed home hard in the concluding volume, in which Shaun and George and their surviving newsies find themselves on the run, working with mad scientists and crazy hackers with crazier gun moll sidekicks, swearing to unleash vengeance and The Truth. And they also kill a zombie bear. A ZOMBIE GRIZZLY BEAR!
Like the first two books, it's fast-paced adventure from start to finish. Whenever things start to get slow, you can bet something is about to get blown up or another horde of zombies will come moaning around the corner.
The Center for Disease Control, already revealed to be a little shady in the previous book, turn out to be an Evil Government Conspiracy that is literally holding the President hostage. And there are some new revelations about the Kellis-Amberlee virus, and of course, there is the whole cloning bit, where they managed to clone Georgia and perform a memory transfer from dead Georgia's brain, so that the clone is kinda sorta the real Georgia, at least real enough to convince Shaun.
Which is where things get really creepy, because you know how I commented in my review of the last book that these two are... disturbingly close, and it's kind of weird that neither of them seemed to have an actual love interest?
Yeah, the author went there.
I cannot say I was shocked or surprised, but between Shaun being a constant jerk even before Georgia died, and an even worse jerk after, and then when clone Georgia comes back, he is, as Becks points out so succinctly, "an incestuous necrophiliac"... this was sure a creepy twist to throw in the finale.
Mira Grant's writing is clever and full of banter, but sometimes the forced "punchiness" of it (like we are constantly being reminded how Irwins, in the face of imminent death, cope by making wisecracks) became wearying.
I also hesitated to label this series "YA" before, but there were too many points in Blackout where I felt talked down to by the author spelling things out through unnecessary dialog. For example, upon being told that they will not be allowed to continue without passing a checkpoint, Shaun asks: "And if we don't pass the checkpoint tests?"
Gee, what do you think? Three entire books have been spent hammering the point home. This is not even a question anybody living in this world would ask. Everyone knows what the "safety protocols" are in the post-Rising world.
Grant also gets a bit heavy-handed with some of the emails and blog entries that begin each chapter. Like: "Shaun is alive. Repeat, Shaun is alive!" Repeated in an email. Now, think about it. If you are telling somebody something really important in an email, you might underline it or use boldface or something, and you might say "Repeat: blah blah blah" once for dramatic emphasis. But you probably don't repeat it at the start and end like you are sending it out via radio broadcast on an uncertain transmission.
I know, small details. But they annoyed me.
For all that, I enjoyed the story and this was a pretty solid conclusion to the trilogy. Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire is not about to become my favorite author: this series was pretty much brain candy. But it's tasty brain candy, even if you aren't normally into zombie novels. I am docking book three a bit for the juvenile flourishes, so 3.5 stars, rounded to 4 because I liked the series as a whole.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
• One Man's Initiation
• UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 7 mins)
• By John Dos Passos
• Narrated By Jeff Woodman
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Springing from the author's first-hand experience as an ambulance driver and Red Cross worker during World War I, this autobiographical first novel is noteworthy for its vivid and colorful evocation of France at that time and for its passionate indictment of war. The author's disillusionment with war for a time turned him toward socialism and against capitalism.
Sam Motes says: "A gem in the anti war genre."
"War is hell, we know this"
This is one of those anti-war classics that emerged from the Great War, with boys marching off singing patriotic songs about whipping the Huns, and discovering war as it was to be fought in the 20th century: trenches, machine guns, grenades, endless shelling, poison gas.
It was probably very powerful in its day. It still is a powerful and harrowing description of war, but the narrative is a sadly familiar one. If you want to read another story about how horrible war is, this is another story about how horrible war is.
One Man's Initiation has the anti-war message of All Quiet on the Western Front and the starry-eyed socialist idealism of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Ending with a bunch of soldiers slinging philosophy and revolution in an atmosphere of alcohol and mortar shells, you can see how anything that might shake up the present world order must have appealed to them under the circumstances. Unfortunately, we also know how it turned out.
As a story, it's average, half-fiction, half autobiographical soapbox. I listened to it because it was an Audible freebie. Not a complete waste of time, but I find Upton Sinclair a much more compelling writer in this space than John Dos Passos.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful
• The Barbarian Nurseries
• UNABRIDGED (15 hrs and 58 mins)
• By Héctor Tobar
• Narrated By Frankie J. Alvarez
• Whispersync for Voice-ready
David says: "A modern classic for 21st century Los Angeles"
"A modern classic for 21st century Los Angeles"
Let me be bold here: I think this book deserves to be a modern classic.
Not because it's the greatest book I've ever read. I liked it a lot, but it falls short of true greatness.
I am, however, comparing it to a lot of other classics I've read in the past few years, and in particular, the great melodramatic social commentaries like Bleak House, Mansfield Park, Middlemarch, North and South, Can You Forgive Her?, The Age of Innocence and so on.
Note that while I liked most of those books, I didn't love them. And I'm not necessarily comparing Héctor Tobar with the likes of Charles Dickens or Jane Austen.
But he does exactly what Dickens and Austen and Trollope and Eliot, et al did — in telling a story about characters caught in a particular time and place in rather contrived situations, he tells us about that milieu. And by telling a good story with vibrant and detailed characters, he makes the story interesting.
The milieu here is 21st century Los Angeles. Like most of the above-mentioned social commentarians, Tobar centers the story in a well-to-do household, that of Scott Torres and Maureen Torres-Thompson.
There's a wealth of details just in their names. Scott is a computer geek paper millionaire working at a start-up. He's all but abandoned the Mexican half of his heritage, including his Mexican father who was banned from his household by his wife for making what she considered to be a racially insensitive remark. Maureen is the very model of a nice progressive white lady who thinks racism and sexism and other isms are just ever so awful, while enjoying her stay-at-home mom status with floors washed, toilets scrubbed, meals cooked, and lawns gardened by underpaid Mexicans.
They both are and are not sympathetic people. Scott and Maureen really are pretty ordinary upper-middle class Californians with major materialistic blindness. Scott is utterly emasculated, Maureen is utterly emasculating, without being deliberately cruel. When she goes out and orders an expensive landscaping job, just as Scott has let go all but one of their Mexican help because the recession has devastated their savings and his company is struggling, it precipitates a conflict that leads to the second half of the novel.
Araceli Ramirez is the Torres-Thompsons' cook/housekeeper. She gets paid $250/week plus room and board. Nannying and babysitting is emphatically not part of her job - she doesn't even like kids. But when a series of ill-timed miscommunications lead Scott and Maureen both to leave the house for several days, each believing that their two boys are with the other one, Araceli is stuck with them.
The specific circumstances that cause Scott and Maureen to be unaware that they left their kids with the housekeeper for four days, and that cause Araceli to decide that she needs to take them across L.A. to their grandfather's house, are a bit contrived, a comedy of errors engineered to be convenient to the plot. But once they get underway, it's an interesting journey, because Araceli is the real main character.
She is not a "heroine." She's not a "spunky protagonist." And she's certainly not a nice motherly Latina guardian angel. She's a serious, responsible, hard-working woman who has learned to live with bitterness and lost opportunities. To her employers, she's just the unsmiling housekeeper they dubbed "Ms. Weirdness." In fact, Araceli is an astute observer of human nature who only refrains from making sharp comments because her English isn't very good. She's a former art student who had to leave her university in Mexico City, and now here she is trying to keep these sensitive, imaginative gringa boys out of trouble.
Their adventure turns into an even more farcical comedy of errors involving the police, politicians, celebrities, political activists and race-baiters, with Araceli caught in a media firestorm.
Is there a profound message in this book? Not really. The Barbarian Nurseries doesn't tell us anything we don't already know. America assimilates, rich people tend to be privileged and entitled, rich liberals tend to think very highly of their never-tested principles, no one actually wants to get rid of illegal immigrants except a few politicized useful fools, and just because someone doesn't speak your language doesn't mean they aren't thinking thoughts.
But it's the situation and the characters that make this book. What did Dickens or Trollope ever tell us that we didn't already know? And no one who appreciates the old classics should criticize Héctor Tobar's occasional tilt towards absurdity.
This novel of modern culture and racial friction in Los Angeles doesn't get 5 stars because it didn't have the literary brilliance to make it one of my faves. I think what it was most missing, for me, was humor. There were times when it was almost a satire, but not quite. But still, definitely a recommended read.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
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| http://www.audible.com/listener/A38DBU5W4T8GJR/The-Martian-Chronicles/ref=pd_seeReview_1_9?asin=B002V0RIR0 | dclm-gs1-271860002 | false | true | {
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0.034382 | <urn:uuid:821fb911-775a-4654-8333-77c5437d63a4> | en | 0.974257 | My wife needs to make a plea on embezz charges--shes guilty, has cooperated and paid restitution--whats her -plea?
Asked almost 4 years ago - Covington, VA
She is under a psychiatrist care for depression and money has been tight for us. She did it out of desperation. She admitted the wrong doing after being brought in for questioning and we have cooperated fully with the police. We've also made full restitution. She has no priors. What do we do pleas-wise and what can we expect---time or probation? Thanks
Additional information
The amount was about 2800 and her employer is a lifelong friend of ours.
Attorney answers (1)
1. Contributor Level 12
Answered . In addition to what you have stated, other primary factors will be how much money was alleged to have been embezzled (felony or misdemeanor ($200)), and what was the relationship between your wife and the alleged victim. Mental health, etc will obviously be a sympathtic strategy as oppossed to the alleged crime being due to greed. The better play would have been to involve the Commonwealth's Attorney before fully cooperating with the police and making full restitution. Remember, the prosecutor controls the prosecution, not the police. In the end, cooperation and restitution may have been the best strategy, but after putting a plea agreement in place with the Commonwealth's Attorney.
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Browse our legal dictionary | http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/my-wife-needs-to-make-a-plea-on-embezz-charges--sh-193448.html | dclm-gs1-271880002 | false | false | {
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0.044716 | <urn:uuid:aa50473a-ebe5-4f16-9143-64c32f56a7b2> | en | 0.979277 | mamaluvsher4babies 36 kids; California 4230 posts
21st Apr
Quoting Carissa Biron:" thats what i was thinking to but if there a teenager arent they making there own decisions? lol"
exactly. I think she has mentally/ emotionally damaged him. The mother has issues. Its everything she is doing. Sorry but co-bathing with a teenage boy? If the roles were reversed and the father was co-bathing with his daughter, he would be labled a child molester.
mom of three 3 kids; Missouri 5018 posts
21st Apr
Quoting Carissa Biron:" you dont think a pre-teen bathing with his mom is unhealthy?"
I didnt say it was "healthy" I said I doubt if its causing damage. I mean, its not like they are doing anything in the tub together besides bathing. In Africa women walk around without shirts on in front of their older sons all the time, it doesnt damage them... I mean seriously. and I highly doubt shes sitting there in front of her son with her legs spread out so he can get a good look at her v****a... I mean, come on.
Vitameatavegamin 19 kids; League City, Texas 5828 posts
21st Apr
I don't particularly CARE if an older kid is breastfeeding if they still want it, but I'd be a liar if I sad I wouldn't be a bit uncomfortable if I saw somebody doing that in public with an older kid. I would never say anything to discourage it or make them feel weird, but for some reason I would feel awkward. But by all means, if the child wants the BM, give it to them if you want to, can't hurt! I think it just seems strange because it's so uncommon.
Supafly★ 2 kids; Poland 14109 posts
21st Apr
Not my business. I am stopping at 1 year for my own reasons that nobody needs to be thinking about. Whether one wants to breastfeed for 4 days or 4 years is not my concern.
♥Rach♥ Due February 18; 1 child; Arizona 12869 posts
21st Apr
I don't have a problem with it. My daughter will be two next month and I'm still breastfeeding. She has no interest in weaning. My personal limit is three (I think, lol), but it's not really my business if someone chooses to nurse longer. | http://www.babygaga.com/t-2485243/nursing-past-toddlerhood.html?page=4 | dclm-gs1-271900002 | false | false | {
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0.035177 | <urn:uuid:3d6a2453-e060-451a-9d72-f6e889366705> | en | 0.944441 | Sunday, December 11, 2011
Congress On Vacation
Congress is now on vacation for a month.
After all of the ranting and hyperbole about the deficit and how important a balanced budget is to the nation's future, Congress did nothing to cut the deficit or balance the budget.
In fact in the last two weeks it added to the deficit. Member of Congress are now back in their districts and this is your chance. Download The Pledge and confront your Congressmen and Senators. They represent you. They work for you. All you are asking is that they make a pledge to live up to their most basic responsibility. You are asking them to do their job.
If you confront a member of Congress, please videotape it and send it to me. I will air it on Television and on this site. Also, please take a moment to join the site by hitting the tab to the right. Together we can put pressure on Congress to work for us and not for themselves.
Ask them to balance the budget or quit.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Congress Ready To Spend More
The Super Committee was a scam. Sequestering is a scam . Now Congress has just four days to do something about the out of control federal deficit.
And guess what it is going to do? No, not nothing, but good guess.
Congress is set to SPEND more. $200 Billion dollars in four days! $200 Billion dollars more on top of the deficit that threatens to cripple America. And it could be more than that...
Here is a list:
• Lawmakers are expected to spend $120 billion or so to renew a Social Security tax cut cut that averaged just under $1,000 per household this year.
• They're ready to commit up to $50 billion more to continue unemployment benefits to those out of work for more than half a year.
• Doctors will be rescued, again, from promised cuts in Medicare payments.
Now all of those are worthy causes. And that shows the problem with cutting the deficit. They are ALL worth causes that no one has the political coyrage to say "we can't afford it."
And before you bring up the Bush tax cuts, they don't expire until the end of next year. That is just too long to wait. Congress needs to come up with a tax reform bill beore then. Don't fall for arguments over tax rates. Who cares what the rate is if there are so many loopholes, deductions and tax breaks that the biggest coprorations and richest American pay little or nothing anyway?
The tax code must be fair and right now it is not. Reform the tac code and you will have real deficit reduction. Then Congress can afford the obscene amount of money it is going to spend before Thursday.
There was a deficit reduction bill floating around Congress, but it was killed by special interests.
For instance, the chairmen and senior minority members of the Senate and House agriculture committees tried to add a five-year farm bill onto the deficit reduction bill that would end much-criticized direct subsidy payments to Southern rice and cotton growers whether they farm or not.
Sounds good right? Wrong.
Instead of banking the nearly $50 billion in savings, farm-state lawmakers maneuvered to channel much of the money to a new subsidy for locking in four-decade-high revenues for corn and soybean growers in the Midwest.
The new subsidy would act as a free revenue insurance and could pay out if a farm lost as little as 13 percent of its revenue in a year. They easily would end up costing the government double the current subsidies to cotton and rice growers. It was a cynical attempt to use deficit reduction into guarenteed prosperity for big agricultural interests.
That is why the Pledge is so important. No wiggle room. No slight of hand. Balance the budget or quit.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Here are just a few things Congress has done in this session instead of dealing with the deficit, a budget, a jobs bill, immigration reform or an energy policy:
1) VACATION Congress took a lot of vacation. Since the first of the year. the House of Representatives has been on vacation as much as it has been in session. They like to call it "in district constituant services," but it is really fund raising and vacation.
2) TRASH CONSTITUTION Both the Senate and House debated for some time over allowing the Federal Government to arrest citizens inside the United States and hold them in military custody indefinitely and without a trial. Finally they decided that darn Constitution just gets in the way.
3) TRASH CONSTITUTION TWO Both the Senate and House debated seperate bills that would allow the Justice Department to shutdown any web site for being "Rogue." They were promoted as anti-piracy bills, but the power was so broad they would have violated Freedom of Speech rights. The bills were fueled by corporate lobbyists that wanted to take out competition. Again, after much debate, the whole thing is on hold. Gee, what a shock. Congress ended up doing nothing.
4) VOTE FOR GOD Who says Congress can't come together to take on the tough issues of the day. In a 396-9 vote, Congress reaffirmed "In God We Trust" as the national motto. It wasn't in any danger. Congress just wanted to vote on something, Hmmm, I wonder why Congess likes "In God We Trust so Much." Oh that's right -
5) READ A CENSORED VERSION OF US CONSTITUTION You can't make this stuff up. Congress read aloud the Constitution, for the first time in history, but then ironically ruined the point of the whole thing by leaving parts of it out. So they censored a document that fights censorship in the very First Amendment. Later, the Speaker addressed Tea Party members and mixed up the Constution with the Declaration of Independence. Can't a guy ad lib?
6) GET PIT PASSES FOR LIFE This Congress was good to Nascar. First, it cleared the way for Governement money to be used to sponsor a Nascar Race. Then it okayed tax cuts for Nascar. Thank goodness in these days when veterans, the elderly and schools are seeing their money cut, NASCAR will be okay. Hey, wait! What a great idea! Maybe Senators and House Representatives should be required to wear the logos of all the companies and special interests that have bought their votes, just like Nascar drivers.
7) PIZZA IS A VEGETABLE Or as kids call it - "The Most Awesome Bill Ever!" As a way to derail an Obama Administration initiative to make school lunches healthier and with the prodding of food industry lobbyists, Congress declared Pizza is a vegetable because it has tomato sauce. I know, I know, tomatos are fruits, doesn't matter. Congress says they are vegetables. Hey, Big Mac's have lettuce and tomatoes AND pickles - a Big Mac is a salad!
8) RUIN THE FUNERAL OF AN AMERICAN ICON Frank Buckles, the longest living and lone survivor of Worl War I, died this year at the age of 110. He came to symbolize al the men who fought in that war. In his and their honor, veterans requested that his remains lie in honor in the Capital building. It was blocked by Congress.
There is a much longer list of Congressional insanity, but I don't want to ruin your day.
We need to force Congress to re-focus on the economy. Dowload the Pledge and ask them to sign it.
We will keep a running list of those who do and thos who refuse on this site.
We need to insist that Congress do its job.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Another Pledge I like
This is Matt Locker from New Jersey, known on Twitter as @MattLocker.
A solidaric companion campaign to your piece.
The Pledge on the Philadelphia Magazine site
Bums in Congress Work About as Much as the Unemployed
How we can force politicians to do some work next year
By Larry Mendte
Congress just got back from a week-long Thanksgiving vacation and is scheduled to start a month-long vacation on December 8th. When they return, it will be 2012, an election year, and if you think there was partisan bickering this year, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
This means that for another year nothing meaningful will get done. There will be no jobs bill to help the 14 million unemployed, no deficit-reduction bill after the Super Committee scam, and Americans will still be fighting and dying in Afghanistan, a war that has lost its purpose. You can forget a comprehensive energy policy or immigration reform, two things every politician promises, but no one ever really does.
Read the rest at PhillyMag.Com
Pizza First
Here is the kind of thing Congress has been doing instead of dealing with the economy: | http://www.balanceorquit.com/2011_12_01_archive.html | dclm-gs1-271910002 | false | false | {
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0.060253 | <urn:uuid:35da4534-7c78-4da2-a9e5-34258f41d383> | en | 0.830612 | This month's top rated scene!
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0.03197 | <urn:uuid:67dd5f8b-1bb7-47c0-ad52-5d7614b2657a> | en | 0.968619 | Dowlers back 'no-win, no-fee' legal system
Milly Dowler's family The Dowler family urged David Cameron not to change the law over 'no-win, no-fee'
Related Stories
The family of Milly Dowler says planned changes to "no win, no fee" cases would have stopped them seeking compensation from News International.
A letter from the Dowlers urges David Cameron not to take "rights away from ordinary people so that large companies could print whatever they like".
The government says its plans are intended to prevent "spurious cases".
It is understood the Dowlers are to receive a £2m settlement over the hacking of the murdered girl's phone.
The deal is thought likely to also involve a personal donation of £1m to charity by company boss Rupert Murdoch.
A government spokesman said: "We are absolutely committed to ensuring that people can access the justice system, regardless of their financial situation, which is why we are committed to maintaining 'no-win, no-fee' arrangements."
But in the letter to the prime minister, the Dowler family said they were "lucky" they were able to claim under the current system, and without the insurance that the conditional fee agreement provided, they "would not have been able to start a case or even threaten it".
In March, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke announced plans to change "no win, no fee" cases in England and Wales.
He said lawyers would no longer be able to claim "success fees" from the losing side, and should instead receive a share of the damages.
'Ordinary people'
The Dowlers said they understood the new law would "affect thousands of people who want to sue News International and other newspapers" and urged Mr Cameron not to change it.
"We had understood that you were on the side of the people, not the press. Please do not change the law so that the ability to sue the papers is lost.
"Although we may have received a sum that meant the cost of the insurance would have been affordable, most cases finish with settlements that do not cover the cost of insurance and so people will not bother," the letter said.
It went on: "We are sure that you do not want to go down in history as the prime minister who took rights away from ordinary people so that large companies could print whatever they like and break the law without being able to challenge them."
The Law Society, which has warned that the proposed changes seriously undermine access to justice, welcomed the Dowler family's letter.
Des Hudson, the society's chief executive, said: "After all they have been through, we welcome - and are humbled by - the intervention of the Dowler family in this debate.
"They have succeeded in making it clear to the prime minister that it is ordinary families with terrible life challenges that will be impacted the most. They will be the losers.
"As a society we need to protect them and their access to justice."
Levi Bellfield was jailed for life earlier this year for murdering 13-year-old Milly Dowler, who went missing in 2002.
In July, it emerged the girl's phone had been hacked for the News of the World.
The revelations that a private investigator had hacked into the phone after the murdered schoolgirl went missing and deleted messages, giving the family false hope that she was still alive, brought intense pressure on News International, which responded by shutting the paper down.
"So, in order to ensure that the no-win, no-fee cases continue to provide fair access to justice for all, we have to make changes.
"By balancing the costs more fairly between the claimant and defendant, these changes will ensure that claimants will still be able to bring deserving claims, and receive damages where they are due. Most importantly they will make the no-win, no-fee system sustainable for the future."
More on This Story
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0.107639 | <urn:uuid:2d3abde7-12d4-4c74-a334-240ea0e1a9c6> | en | 0.905815 | Celine Cousteau Movies
As emceed by Jean-Michel Cousteau - eldest son of the late French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and his wife Simone - this PBS documentary springboards from the assumption that one of the Earth's most immense bodies of water, South America's Amazon River, will dramatically reshape (and is now dramatically reshaping) the entire global climate and ecosphere. It is scarcely a coincidence, as Cousteau reminds us, that the said river flows through some of the planet's most immense rainforests - home to the broadest ecological diversity imaginable, where evolution has literally run rampant. Now, a quarter century after Jean-Michel and Jacques first visited the Amazon, destructive and potentially irreversible consequences have unfurled, including the "deforestation" of an immense area of land that can be equated geographically, with the size of Texas. Along with his children and the Ocean Adventures team, Jean-Michel travels to the Amazon and takes stock of the ecological damage wrought there by corporate and industrial expansion - both locally and on a global scale, above ground and under water - while surveying the aesthetic and biological glories of the said region. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
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Jean-Michel CousteauCeline Cousteau, (more) | http://www.blockbuster.com/catalog/personDetails/540001 | dclm-gs1-272030002 | false | false | {
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0.273515 | <urn:uuid:be6bec80-4dc5-4f46-8d3d-3e9d939020f4> | en | 0.980581 |
Tahawwur Rana did not address the court before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber imposed the sentence and did not react afterward. But his defense attorneys said the judge was right to reject prosecutors’ arguments that Rana deserved a stiffer sentence because the charges were related to terrorism.
But jurors cleared Rana of the third and most serious charge of involvement in the three-day rampage in Mumbai, India’s largest city, which has often been called India’s 9/11.
‘‘We think the judge made the right ruling,’’ defense attorney Patrick Blegen said, adding that he intends to appeal Rana’s conviction because the judge refused to separate the Denmark and Mumbai charges. ‘‘I had always been our belief that it would be very difficult to get a fair trial if he had to face charges for two separate plots at once.’’
Prosecutors, who had sought a sentence of up to 30 years, issued a written statement in which Acting U.S. Attorney Gary S. Shapiro called the 14-year term a ‘‘serious’’ sentence ‘‘that should go a long way towards convincing would-be terrorists that they can’t hide behind the scenes, lend support to the violent aims of terrorist organizations and escape detection and punishment.’’
Defense attorneys portrayed Headley as a manipulator and habitual liar who duped his friend. Jurors’ decision not to convict Rana on all counts could suggest they weren’t fully convinced by Headley, who is scheduled to be sentenced in Chicago next week.
‘‘There’s not much worse than mass murder of this scale,’’ he said of the plot, which was not ultimately carried out.
‘‘Seems to me that people determined to carry out terrorism really don’t care what happens to them,’’ Leinenweber said. He added, however, that a long sentence would help prevent Rana from taking part in any future terrorist activity.
The defense attorney, Blegen, also noted that there was no shortage of government targets in Copenhagen if they had wanted to strike at Denmark’s leaders.
He argued for a more lenient sentence for the 52-year-old Rana that would take into account his poor health and the emotional impact of his separation from his wife and children. He said the Pakistani-born Canadian citizen had suffered a heart attack while in the federal lockup. He also argued that Rana did not present a future risk.
‘‘Judge, he is a good man and he got sucked into something, but there’s no risk that he’s going to do it again. None,’’ Blegen said.Continued... | http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2013/01/17/chicago-man-who-backed-terror-group-gets-years/rx34ZtM11ChoS6rPVlWetI/story.html | dclm-gs1-272040002 | false | false | {
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0.997245 | <urn:uuid:55dbfb67-c5f6-4b7e-be3d-6acf133ee450> | en | 0.970572 | BrainyQuote Logo
You know, my family and friends have never been yes-men: 'Yes, you're doing the right thing, you're always right.' No, they tell me when I'm wrong, and that's why I've been able to stay who I am and stay humble.
LeBron James
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0.279349 | <urn:uuid:1e3f3663-4815-42fa-ad34-1abf6411ccac> | en | 0.96335 | BrainyQuote Logo
I tried, after I wrote 'Twilight,' to read 'The Historian,' because it was the big thing that summer. But I can't read other people's vampires. If it's too close, I get upset; if it's too far away, I get upset. It just makes me very neurotic.
Stephenie Meyer
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0.031436 | <urn:uuid:648cffe6-6b2e-47e1-9676-67a8eee792ec> | en | 0.934641 | Businessweek Archives
The Hellish Paradise That Is Los Angeles
Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster
By Mike Davis
Metropolitan Books 484pp $25
Los Angeles defies easy description. At times, it can be the ugliest place imaginable: Through the yellow-brown haze, one street crossing resembles the next--three gas stations and a strip mall, repeated as far as the eye can see. At other times, especially after a cleansing winter rain, L.A. makes good on all its hyped promise: Zip along its freeways, and behold a glistening jewel fringed with swaying palm trees and snow-capped peaks.
Hell or Paradise? The paradox of Los Angeles goes far beyond its architecture and weather patterns. With its movie stars, sun-tanned surfers, and tawdry scandals, L.A. has always loomed large in the American psyche as a place full of excitement and youthful vigor but also dangerous glamour and moral compromise. Common doomsday wisdom has long maintained that it's just a matter of time until a depleted Los Angeles, with its foul air, packed freeways, and partying celebrities, crumbles into the sea when the Big One hits.
It is the dark side of Los Angeles that fascinates author Mike Davis. In his widely acclaimed 1990 book, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles, Davis probed the deep social and racial divisions that then seemed destined to pull the city apart. Two years later, when riots rocked L.A., Davis' prophecies proved right on target. Now, in his astute new book, Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, Davis predicts L.A.'s coming environmental and spiritual collapse.
For Davis, a MacArthur Fellow who has taught urban theory, Los Angeles is already a lost cause, the sad result of a century's worth of civic hubris: greedy speculators and corrupt politicians rushing to destroy the once-bucolic "Land of Sunshine." Onto a semi-arid Mediterranean landscape, "Anglos" have swarmed from the East, ignorant of their new surroundings and eager to irrigate the parched land, level mountaintops, and erect endless rows of flimsy stucco houses. Now, Davis warns, Angelenos must reap the horrors of years of environmental arrogance.
It's a compelling thesis, made all the more persuasive by Davis' meticulous examination of the intersection of capitalism and the forces of nature. When firestorms engulf whole mountain ranges, taking with them million-dollar Malibu mansions, it's not some freak of nature, as the local TV news reports proclaim. Rather, asserts the author, it's the consequence of a misguided policy to protect those very same houses. Under natural conditions, parched underbrush burns frequently but briefly. Now, the chaparral accumulates for years, sometimes decades, only to ignite into uncontrollable firestorms. Similarly, rains that would have been harmlessly absorbed into the soil become dangerous, raging torrents as they funnel down streets and into the concrete-lined Los Angeles River.
In Davis' Los Angeles, nature bites back in ominous ways. By the mid-1940s, mountain lions were thought to be eradicated from the county. Then, beginning in the 1980s, lions began attacking hikers and picnickers, showing a particular fondness for small children. The lions, it turns out, never vanished. They simply receded into the rugged local mountains only to reappear as urban sprawl swept up the foothills.
The worst folly of all--the misguided belief that the cataclysmic movement of tectonic plates beneath the city can somehow be managed--will exact a far higher death toll, Davis insists. For 200 years, the plates have been in a quiescent period. Citing scientific journals, he argues that the 1994 Northridge earthquake could be the beginning of a new era of destructive temblors. And Los Angeles, despite what the boosters say, remains horrendously ill-prepared for the Big One--and not-so-big ones, too. Even modern skyscrapers, long promoted by architects as the safest place to be in a quake, "are poised to become rubble or towering infernos."
On the subject of environmental mismanagement, Ecology of Fear is an enormously convincing and terrifying work. Yet it suffers from a conspiratorial and overly polemical tone. L.A. is a big city with big problems. But its shortcomings are as much a result of simple careless planning as of corporate greed. Moreover, in many ways, the place is improving. For one thing, the air is much cleaner than it was 30 years ago, thanks to stiff federal regulations.
But where the author really misses the mark is in his economic analysis. For Davis, the wealthy live in idyllic gated communities, oblivious to environmental dangers, while the poor immigrants outside those gates live in squalor. Los Angeles has evolved into "a dystopian symbol of Dickensian inequalities and intractable racial contradictions." Economic hardship since the 1992 riots, moreover, has "only reinforced spatial apartheid." In truth, over the past three years, racial tensions have been greatly diffused by an economic rebound unmentioned by Davis.
Davis, though, is too busy mapping out the city's downfall to dwell on its current prosperity. In his chapter "The Literary Destruction of Los Angeles," Davis tells how writers and filmmakers have long enjoyed imagining the city's demise. Davis' book belongs squarely in that camp. In the real world, Los Angeles remains a vital if troubled place. It may not be perfect, but Los Angeles is still with us. And thank goodness for that.By ERIC SCHINEReturn to top
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blog comments powered by Disqus | http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1998-09-06/the-hellish-paradise-that-is-los-angeles | dclm-gs1-272120002 | false | false | {
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0.406762 | <urn:uuid:9541ca2a-003f-4599-972a-c53513092557> | en | 0.990355 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
QuestionAuthority writes:
in response to Corpus411:
To question: My Uh oh did not imply it was an accident. My Uh oh implied oh holycrap I'm in big trouble now for i am going to be found out what I really am. You are just trying to read too much into my words.
So you think she intentionally and knowingly held him down and force fed the boy the cajun seasoning, which until now has not been known to be fatal, and you also believe, without a doubt in your mind, that she intentionally and knowingly delayed getting him medical care? .. and you also believe that she intentionally took him to a medical facility, when he was still alive, that somehow she knew would be unable to save his life?...
... and after it was all said and done she sat back and rubbed her hands together and gleefully said.. This is great Larry, our plan worked and we finally killed that little jerk for being such a bad boy.
.... if you believe all that.. you need to have your head examined.
... If she intentionally gave him the seasonings knowing it would be the murder weapon, why tell the police she gave it to him? Guilty people don't do that. If she knowingly gave him the seasonings to intentionally killed him, she just would have said he must have gotten into it on his own without her knowing and he got sick, and they didn't know how serious it was until it was too late.
This was an accident.. plain and simple. Maybe Hannahs bears some responsibility, maybe the hospital bears some responsibility.
.. But incarcerating a person for capital murder when the event that took place was unintentional..., you are cheapening what it means to kill someone in the first degree.
Why did we even stop with Hannah? By your logic the nurse who administered the fatal dose of saline should be prosecuted for capital murder too.
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0.400726 | <urn:uuid:e80ea0fd-01a6-493c-89f0-88af368057f6> | en | 0.964547 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
ace26 writes:
It's because of you crazy right wing idiots who are sore losers that democrats have taken control. You idiots wouldn't let the man get a word in edge wise if he were to hold a town hall meeting. You are haters who spread hatred and lies and fear because you are not informed about the issues. It wouldn't matter if Obama gave evry American free health care you would still find something wrong with it. All of you government haters should get on a boat and go live in Cuba or some foreign country.
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0.038754 | <urn:uuid:75b0d2a7-62f8-436e-8a8e-86e76ed2f26c> | en | 0.918851 |
Cold Steel Brooklyn Crusher Bat Black 29" Polypropylene
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Manufacturer: Cold Steel 92BSS
Item: 2-CS92BSS
UPC: 705442006909
Cold Steel Brooklyn Crusher Bat Black 29" Polypropylene.
What kid, let alone an adult, wouldn't want an unbreakable bat? Now Cold Steel is proud to offer you our first forays into the manufacturing of athletic equipment, the Brooklyn Smasher.
Because they're precision injection molded out of heavy-grade polypropylene, these bats just can't be broken. There's no need to worry about shards of wood flying in your face. No matter what you hit or how hard you swing them, they just won't break. And they're durable too, they won't rot, crack, or splinter, or even fade. You can treat them as roughly as you choose. You needn't worry about dirt or the weather affecting them either since they're impervious to the elements and clean up with soap and water. Try that with a wood bat and you might damage it.
They're versatile too. Like any other baseball bat, croquet mallet, golf club or hockey stick, they can be used in an emergency, as an extremely effective self-defense tool. You can keep one behind the front door, under the bed, or in a car trunk and forget about it until you need it. They can be used as game bats, practice bats, warm-up bats, loaner bats, inclement weather bats, school or league bats or kid's bats. They can also serve as a cross over trainers to develop strength, agility and eye hand coordination for those studying Western Saber Fencing, Kendo, Kenjitsu, Filipino Stick and Sword Fighting and Chinese martial arts.
Weight: 2lbs. 1 oz.
Overall: 29"
Material: Polypropylene
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Cold Steel Brooklyn Crusher Bat Black 29 Polypropylene
Cold Steel Brooklyn Crusher Bat Black 29 Polypropylene | http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/product/2-CS92BSS | dclm-gs1-272220002 | false | false | {
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0.732905 | <urn:uuid:fa041a17-a735-40c7-974a-345c410c5391> | en | 0.839526 | Chegg Guided Solutions for Hands on Chemistry Laboratory Manual 1st Edition: Chapter 20
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• Step 1 of 1
Molecular formula: A chemical formula that indicates the actual number of atoms of each element in one molecule of the substance.
Isomers: Compounds whose molecules have the same overall formulas but different structures.
Structural isomers: Compounds possessing the same formula but differing in the bonding arrangements of the atoms.
Geometric isomers: Compounds with the same type and number of atoms and the same chemical bonds but different spatial arrangements of these atoms and bonds.
Select Your Problem | http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/hands-on-chemistry-laboratory-manual-1st-edition-chapter-20-solutions-9780072534115 | dclm-gs1-272240002 | false | false | {
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0.018503 | <urn:uuid:634afa13-e7e9-46e7-bee4-fd2fb3a896c3> | en | 0.892608 | Get the Most from Your Flexible Screw Conveyor
Consider several key factors to achieve optimum performance and efficiency
By Mike Zeluff, Hapman
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• causes low-to-moderate material degradation; and
• ensures a dust-tight system, with hopper options to ensure that product remains within the process.
• residual product left in the casing;
• height and length limits; and
• different screws may be required when conveying multiple products with the same conveyor.
Many factors affect capacity and power requirements. The most common elements to consider are material particle size, bulk density and flowability, conveyor length, diameter and incline angle, auger rotational speed and helicoid pitch. Optimal operation will strongly depend upon the conveyed material, the rpm of the auger, and what size hopper is being used. If the conveyor is inclined, tests must be run to determine capacity and power required. Capacity decreases as you increase the incline. The power requirement rises with speed at any slope.
You can increase or decrease material flow rate by:
1. the type of auger used;
2. its rotational speed;
3. the configuration of the feed hopper and tube;
4. the material's flowability and overall characteristics; and
5. the conveyor's angle of incline.
A general rule of thumb is to set a flexible screw conveyor at no more than a 45° angle. Taking into account the material's characteristics, you may be able to convey above 45° without risking backflow; when conveying heavier materials, you may need to decrease the angle to below 45° to prevent backflow.
With the exception of initial charging and emptying, you never should operate a flexible screw conveyor empty for extended periods of time unless it's specifically designed for that. Running without material in the hopper causes excessive fatigue on the system's components. To mitigate this potential problem, use sensors at the pickup point to automatically shut off the conveyor when material isn't present.
Dry operations occur when a conveyor has been running fully loaded or at a high fill percentage and then no longer gets material to convey. This typically happens in applications exhibiting increased slippage, visual material rollback and a steady decrease in output. A conveyor can be designed to run under these conditions by using the proper outer tube, screws and slower rpm levels.
During standard operation, all flexible screw conveyors will leave residual material in the inlet tube once the hopper is empty. You can quickly extract this material by removing the end cleanout cap at the bottom of the conveyor and reversing the rotation of the screw. Further cleaning can be performed with air, water or solvents with or without disassembly of the unit; if necessary, you can remove and thoroughly clean the outer tube and flexible screw.
An option that's ideal for applications where total evacuation of conveyed materials is essential is a high/low or tilt-style flexible screw conveyor. The high/low design allows the operator to lower the conveyor to a horizontal position to fully remove the screw (Figure 3). This greatly simplifies and enhances washdowns, cleanouts, auger changeovers and regular maintenance. Operators can clean and disassemble the conveyor safely on the floor in just minutes without using lifts or ladders.
A flexible screw conveyor can handle batch, intermittent and continuous services.
Batch operation. This is the easiest of all duties. When only one material is batched, it's relatively easy to maximize batch output; product left in the conveyor casing will make the first batch somewhat underweight, but successive batches will be more repeatable. When dealing with multiple materials, always consider residual product in the conveyor because it may contain various ingredients that may not completely transfer from the system as desired. By first introducing a portion of the major ingredients, followed by the minor ingredients, and then dumping in the remaining portion of the major ingredients, you can minimize loss. This is just one method of batching when delivering an exact weight isn't critical.
Intermittent operation. During this process, the conveyor starts and stops in a repetitive fashion under full load. Some heavy materials may cause startup issues. To mitigate this problem, special modifications to the conveyor can increase its structural strength or reduce the amount of material during startup.
Continuous operation. Units expected to perform nonstop for extended intervals must be specifically designed for this type of operation and should be sized to run at an average speed range.
Flexible screw conveyors are a cost-effective dependable choice for conveying a wide range of materials. Their rugged simple design fosters reliable service, provides user-friendly operation and keeps maintenance low.
By first considering several important factors — material characteristics (e.g., whether heavy granules or light powder, wet and sticky or dry and aerated, abrasive or corrosive) and process criteria (e.g., whether continuous or batch operation, necessary incline and run length) — you can ensure selection of a flexible screw conveyor that suits your application and provides proper operation and optimal service.
MIKE ZELUFF is a product manager for Hapman, Kalamazoo, Mich. E-mail him at
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0.094065 | <urn:uuid:4885a810-490d-4e5c-ad58-e8d6056994d0> | en | 0.967771 | The controversial sidewalk sitting ordinance takes effect Thursday, and a group of people took a stand against it by sitting outside of City Hall.
The protesters say they wanted to challenge the ordinance and see if Anchorage police would enforce it the first day it was in effect. About a dozen protesters sat in lawn chairs or on the ground to make their point.
APD says it's not ready to begin enforcing the sidewalk sitting ordinance, and says there is a lot to be done on the administration side. There is no estimate on when APD will be ready.
"There are still administration things that have not taken effect yet with the court system, to be able to process citations and things like that, on the ordinance. So it's not done at that level yet so we're not ready to enforce it even though the law is passed," said APD Lt. Anthony Henry.
Henry also says that APD will be more lenient with protestors and demonstrators since they're exercising their right of free speech.
But the protestors against the law say that the sidewalks are public property, and claim that police enforcement of the ordinance will lead to discrimination.
"They only want to use this law at their discretion," said John Heuerman, a protester "I don't believe it's right for them to pass laws to use at their discretion -- it's either this is illegal or this is not, not it's illegal if we feel like we want to enforce it today."
The group also protested against the use of politically correct holiday greetings by singing Christmas carols. Demonstrators call the use of the phrase "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" a "war on Christmas."
Contact Abby Hancock at | http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sidewalk-protest-ktuu-20111222,0,4385176.story | dclm-gs1-272290002 | false | false | {
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0.115084 | <urn:uuid:39c3d389-e853-46d2-bfb9-3dffd5155884> | en | 0.987849 | Winter storms are like heat waves; the longer they last the worse they get. Day III of the big storm was a battle for people playing and driving in the Sierra. And for added intrigue the U-S Forrest Service issued an avalanche warning.
Howling winds and heavy snows tore through the sierra for much of the day. At Sierra at Tahoe, the resort shut down well before noon after a tree limb fell onto a cable and bounced five people off a chairlift. Some fell as far as 20 feet says General Manager John Rice "The people were not seriously injured. Out of the five people that were injured, we had one fractured wrist. So, we're very lucky, very thankful that it wasn't a more serious incident."
High wind gusts may have played a role in an accident that shutdown Highway 50 near Twin Bridges. A 5 year old child was taken to the hospital after a heavy truck slammed into the small compact car he was in.
"I came up on him, he had his flashers going. Went to go around him and a gust of wind came up. Next thing you know he moved to the right, I tapped the brake pad, and HELLO!" says Charles Gilles, the man behind the wheel of the truck.
This was a fussy storm; if it wasn't snow, it was rain or hail. But some really paid the price, 16 year old Amanda Stewart had to turn around and buy snow chains. "Trucks and everything were tipped over, it was crazy. But it was hailing and it was kind of nasty."
The blustery conditions forced at least two other resorts to close early; among them Boreal Mountain along I-80 near Reno. Back at Sierra at Tahoe, not far from the South Shore, as many as five tree limbs fell after that morning accident; no injuries or chairlifts involved. And it didn't seem to shake the fun out of playing in the snow for a Steve Morgan and his 6 year old son Connor. "There's no snow down where we live. It's been raining and he's been stuck inside. So we decided to come to the snow. Let's go play."
With that Avalanche danger still in play; expect ski patrols to hit the ridges early Monday morning knocking down loose snow along ridges and canyons. In fact, the people who run Sierra at Tahoe say it was the wet, heavy snow this storm delivered that caused those tree branches to snap and send those five people crashing to the ground. | http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/ktxl-news-stormpacksawallopinday3,0,5359566.story | dclm-gs1-272310002 | false | false | {
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0.07701 | <urn:uuid:4f439546-5ae9-448c-bfd5-12ee453e6b3b> | en | 0.76601 | Content from CNET tagged with
Bill Gates [x] , Microsoft Corp. [x] , Microsoft Windows [x] , operating system [x]
1 | 2
News Stories
Showing 1-20 of 22 results found
Microsoft to invest $150 million in Apple
August 6, 1997 Unlikely bedfellows Bill Gates and Steve Jobs join to announce Microsoft's $150 million investment in Apple and extensive agreements. TAGS: Dwight Davis, CFO, Bill Gates, Apple Computer, programming language, Microsoft Office, investment, Apple Macintosh, Steve Jobs, Microsoft Corp., Java, operating system, Microsoft Windows
'Double-booked' Gates to launch Vista in London
January 8, 2007 Did Outlook let him down? The unexpected U.K. launch just happens to coincide with Gates' trip to a government confab in Scotland. TAGS: Bill Gates, London, chairman, U.K., Microsoft Windows Vista, event, leader, U.S., Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, operating system, Microsoft Windows
With Vista, seeing is believing, says Gates
January 29, 2007 On the eve of Vista's consumer launch, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates says that a short demo is all that's needed to convince doubters. TAGS: Bill Gates, Microsoft Windows Vista, chairman, P2P, TV, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Corp., PC, Microsoft Windows, operating system, Microsoft Windows XP
Bill Gates' to-do list
January 31, 2007 In the second part of a CNET interview, the Microsoft co-founder discusses Vista, the Xbox 360 and Windows Live. Video: Gates talks up Vista TAGS: Bill Gates, Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Xbox, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, operating system
Gates: Capitalist hero or monopolist villain?
June 16, 2006 As word spreads that he's stepping away from Microsoft, Bill Gates, as usual, elicits extreme reactions on blogs and message boards. TAGS: Bill Gates, villain, hero, Slashdot, reaction, message board, Microsoft Corp., blog, operating system, Microsoft Windows
Home sweet home for Microsoft
January 8, 2007 As the opening act at CES, Bill Gates and crew tout a new home server, Vista-based media PCs, TV via the Xbox and much more. TAGS: Bill Gates, NAS, Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft Windows Vista, Media Center PC, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Xbox, PC, HP, video, TV, Microsoft Windows, server, operating system
Vista steals the show
January 30, 2007 Gates tries to sell The Daily Show's Jon Stewart on the new operating system, as Office takes a backseat.Photos: What's in the Vista swag bag? TAGS: Jon Stewart, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, reporter, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., password, operating system, PC, Microsoft Windows
Year in review: Windows takes beating, '7' steps into view
December 19, 2008 Microsoft struggled most of the year over negative perceptions about Vista but broke its silence on the operating system's successor--Windows 7. TAGS: silence, Bill Gates, successor, perception, Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., operating system, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft security--no more second chances?
August 11, 2006 CNET's Charles Cooper says the software maker is running out of excuses for a history of poor security. TAGS: Bill Gates, patch management, security, Microsoft Corp., operating system, Microsoft Windows
Vista debut hits a delay
March 21, 2006 Microsoft puts back release date, meaning PCs with the Windows update won't go on sale in time for the holidays. TAGS: Jim Allchin, delay, PC company, Microsoft Longhorn, Bill Gates, holiday, Microsoft Windows Vista, development, Microsoft Corp., operating system, security, Microsoft Windows, PC
Show-and-tell for Microsoft
April 28, 2005 Redmond plans equivalent of flight data recorder for PCs. Also: Lots about Longhorn. Photos: A look at Longhorn TAGS: Microsoft Longhorn, minitablet PC, Bill Gates, 64-bit, Redmond, Seattle, tablet, Microsoft Corp., smart phone, photograph, operating system, Microsoft Windows, PC, laptop computer
This week in Microsoft
June 23, 2006 As summer heats up, the game of musical chairs at Microsoft is heating up as well. TAGS: Bill Gates, chief software architect, Microsoft Windows Live, reader, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows Vista, operating system, Microsoft Windows
Clouds over Redmond
March 23, 2006 With all the trouble getting Vista out, Microsoft must find a way to release future Windows updates on a reasonable schedule. TAGS: fate, Bill Gates, IBM Corp., Redmond, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., operating system, security, Apple Macintosh, Apple Computer, Microsoft Windows
Marketing campaign for Vista high-steps it in New York
January 29, 2007 Company begins two days of events to celebrate the launch of the latest version of its Windows operating system. Photos: Dancing for Vista TAGS: Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, Kevin Rollins, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Windows Vista, New York, CEO, event, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows XP, operating system
RSA: Microsoft to shelve token support in Vista
May 2, 2006 OS update won't include built-in support for SecurID, even though it's been tested for two years. TAGS: RSA SecurID, Art Coviello, RSA Security Inc., token, authentication protocol, Bill Gates, Sydney, Microsoft Windows Vista, password, Microsoft Corp., operating system, Microsoft Windows
1 | 2
Sponsored matches for "operating system" | http://www.cnet.com/topic-news/bill-gates/microsoft-corp/microsoft-windows/operating-system.html | dclm-gs1-272360002 | false | false | {
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0.956318 | <urn:uuid:26ed2535-8bba-4343-a4ca-8580c5ed5ade> | en | 0.910335 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
johntaf writes:
in response to papajim:
Nah. This is simple case of 'you can take folk outta da 'hood, but you can't take da 'hood outta folk' - know what am sayin?
You come through loud and clear.
Trash can live anywhere but why are they given positions that require honesty and integrity once you get outside Memphis.
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0.896581 | <urn:uuid:9fbce310-cfc6-46fa-9041-ab73915e88aa> | en | 0.922001 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
JohnnyRyall writes:
in response to ChrisP:
Mississippi and Oregon both have INCOME TAXES. Attracting new jobs means attracting taxable income.
And Memphis would recoup $105M how?
You're asking me how Memphis recoups taxes from its' own land? Answer: Property taxes
| http://www.commercialappeal.com/comments/reply/?target=61:320145&comment=1531424 | dclm-gs1-272410002 | false | false | {
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0.086235 | <urn:uuid:f7016cb1-71b4-4241-a999-51e7a2be36cd> | en | 0.982247 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
HappiestMeal writes:
in response to bonesnap:
Bush had been warned specifically about hijackings. He was briefed specifically about Bin Laden planning a terrorist attack.
Two months before the hijackings, FBI agents in Phoenix reported their suspicions about Arab students at a Phoenix flight school, and directly referred to the possibility of a connection to Bin Laden.
The FBI raised a very serious terrorism concern and threat to the United States, and it involved the use of training at aviation schools and terrorists from the Middle East.
While this isn't the subject being discussed, it seems to me that something was done about that. The attacks came from hijacked planes, the terrorists didn't fly the plans. I do think that if one of those reports President Bush was given had some real data that would have helped prevent the attacks, then yes he and his administration should be held responsible. However all we know from the information provided is that he should have been more critical of brown skinned people taking flying lesions or around planes.
What we're trying to discover is what President Obama and Clinton knew about the terrorist attacks, if they distorted what they knew, and if the incident was reasonably preventable. Without having access to all the information available in the investigation it's impossible to tell who knows what, but I don't think President Obama is to fault for this. I do think that Clinton or her staff could have done something to prevent this tragity.
My whole problem with this entire thing was that we were told the attack it was over a movie, and that Clinton has claimed responsibility for the incident but has not stepped down from her position. If Clinton is responsible then we should demand her job, she shouldn't just claim to take responsibility and not actually take the responsibility.
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0.179779 | <urn:uuid:1ee69247-6726-4022-8980-230a357e362a> | en | 0.933824 | Why cellular automata
Document Sample
scope of work template
Our Chia Jing En
Seow Josefina
Tay Yue Er, Joel
UQP2206: Simplicity
Project report
Prediction is better than cure
Section 1: Introduction
1.1) Background information on epidemics
1.2) Why cellular automata?
Section 2: Our model of analysis
Dynamic phases in a cellular automaton model for epidemic propagation
2.1) The model
2.2) Rules of the Game
2.3) Observations in the fully synchronized case, p = 1
2.4) Observations when P is varied
2.5) Perspectives
Section 3: Additional factors for consideration in CA modeling of epidemic spread
3.1) Recurrent Epidemics
3.2) The Case of Indirect Transmission
3.2.1) Case study of recurrent epidemics and indirect transmission: Epidemic
3.3) Effects on population movement on CA modeling
3.3.1) Case study on population movement: The spread of SARS
3.4) The effect of vaccination of the population
3.4.1) Case study on population vaccination: The polio epidemic
Section 4: Conclusion
Section 5: References
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Section 1: Introduction
1.1) Background Information on epidemics
Viruses are simple submicroscopic parasites of plants, animals, and bacteria that often cause
disease and that consist essentially of a core of RNA or DNA surrounded by a protein coat. They are
unable to replicate without a host cell and are typically not considered as living organisms.
Epidemics refer to a disease that spreads rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting
many individuals in an area or a population at the same time. Some examples of epidemics are the
influenza epidemic of 1918, the bubonic plague in the early 1330s and the most recent Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in Asia.
Whilst a single infected host might not be significant, a virus that has spread through a large
population of hosts brings about serious health and economic threats. Since the spreading of a disease
is such a crucial factor in the evolution of an epidemic, we have decided to investigate CA models of
epidemic propagation.
1.2) Why cellular automata?
Many existing epidemic models use differential equations which do not take into consideration
spatial factors such as variable population density and population dynamics. They tend to assume that
populations are closed and well-mixed – that is host numbers are constant and individuals are free to
move wherever they wish. Cellular Automata (CA) captures the probabilistic nature of disease
transmission as they are characterized by their discretization of space and time. As the CA evolves, the
update function, which takes into account a cell‟s current state and that of its neighbours, determines
how microscopic interactions can influence the macroscopic behaviour of the system. Also, one must
realize that CA models of epidemic spread all share one property: that the virtual world in which they
run is an idealized and approximate one and there is a trade-off between a model‟s degree of
abstraction and its usefulness; that is, which details can be excluded without devaluing the results.
In our project, we are concerned with the different considerations and factors involved in
modeling the spread of an epidemic. We will first analyze the distinct qualities and advantages of a
specific CA model dealing with epidemic spread. This model was developed by Rousseau and
colleagues and published in 1997 in Physica D. Next, using other models as references, we will
elaborate on other characteristics of an epidemic spread that were not considered in the Rousseau
model. Thus, the main aim of the project is come up with a comprehensive analysis of the different
components involved in the modeling an epidemic outbreak. Such essential information may assist
authorities in predicting an epidemic spread and allow them to recommend relevant procedures and
regulation in controlling the spread. For it is our firm belief that prediction is better than cure!
Section 2: Our model of analysis
Dynamic phases in a cellular automaton model for epidemic propagation 1
Unlike an entirely deterministic cellular automata model, this model is characterized by the
choice of the lifetimes of the infected and immunized states as external parameters, T I and TQ
respectively, and by the existence of a continuous control parameter determining the fraction of
synchronized infection vectors, defined by p.
In this paper, a study on directed epidemic propagation is made whereby a susceptible cell can
only be contaminated if the infection vector of an infected cell in its neighbourhood points in its
direction. This directed nature of interaction is introduced to model the epidemic propagation through
contact between neighbouring individuals and on a one on one basis of infection.
The introduction of a continuous parameter, p, measuring the proportion of synchronized
vectors allows for a more probabilistic approach towards epidemic propagation. Even in the fully
synchronized state, where all infection vectors are pointing in the same direction and p=1, a chaotic
evolution is obtained.
2.1) The model
Square Lattice, L2.
o Each lattice cell can take on one of the 3 different states: Infected (I), susceptible (S) or
Immunized (Q).
o Moreover, an infection vector is assigned to each cell, independent of its state.
o Each cell interacts with cells of its neighbourhood, consisting of N cells. As shown in (a).
* In this paper, we study the case N=4, which corresponds to the nearest neighbour interaction on a
square lattice, thus there are four allowed directions of the infection vector which coincides with
main axes of the square lattice.
2.2) Rules of the Game
R1 If an S-cell is pointed out by the infection vector of an I-cell, it becomes an I-cell at the following
time step.
R2 The infection (immunization) time of I (Q)-cells is increased by a unit step, so that after a period
of TI (TQ) steps, an I (Q)-cell becomes a Q (S)-cell.
R3 All infection vectors rotate clockwise to the direction corresponding to the following cell in the
Rules R2 and R3 determine the internal dynamics of the cell, which in the absence of R1
would lead to an uninteresting evolution towards a population of S-cells as there is no propagation of
the infection. These rules allow for a reset mechanism of each cell to an S-state as cells go through the
S I Q S cycle, depending on their initial state. I is the “excited” state while S is the “excitable”
States I and Q evolve depending on the activity period of an I-cell, TI, and the duration of an
immunized Q-cell, TQ, respectively. Their evolution is independent of their interaction with
neighbouring cells. The parameter, p, is the proportion of cells which initially share the same (given)
orientation of their infection vector, the other cell vectors being distributed equally and randomly
between the remaining orientations.
R3 preserves p since all vectors rotate in a given direction. P is well-defined only in an infinite-
size limit and it can vary in the interval [1/N, 1] i.e. in the p=1 fully synchronized state, the infection
vectors are all pointing in the same direction at any time.
2.3) Observations in the fully synchronized case, p = 1
Numerical stimulations of the model reveal a great variety of dynamical behaviour. In the
simulations, 5 distinct states (E, L, F, W, D) were observed. Table 1 shows the different dynamical
regimes observed when varying TI and TQ. The distinct and unique characteristics of each state is
described and elaborated in the following sections.
Figure 1: Extinction, E
E corresponds to the extinction of the epidemic. After a short transient, the infection vectors of
any I-cell are in the direction of the Q-cells, which are within their neighbourhood, thus preventing
further propagation of the infection.
This scenario happens for small values of TI (smaller than or equal to ½ N) and for TQ large
enough (at least larger then or equal to ½ N).
Figure 2: Localized Periodic Evolution, L
For smaller values of TQ, the I-cells front locks into a localized periodic evolution which
remains close to the position of the initial I-cell. The rotation of the infection vector allows for a re-
infection process (i.e. re-contamination of cells that have already gone through the I Q S cycle).
Figure 3: Ordered Front Propagation, F
F represents the class of solutions corresponding to an ordered propagation of the I-cell at
constant velocity. As in case E, the effect of re-contamination is absent, but TI is sufficiently long to
allow the propagation of the infection. On a finite lattice, the fronts collide with the boundary
conditions and are eradicated upon collision.
Figure 4: Stationary Waves, W
W symbolizes the appearance of stationary waves of propagating I-cell fronts separated by Q-
cell and S-cell regions. The re-contamination process affects only a small region localized around the
center of infection. Beyond this, the propagating I-cell fronts maintain a geometrical, ordered structure
which appears like waves in pool.
Figure 5: Disordered Evolution, D
In case D, re-contamination is no longer confined around the center of infection but produces
interferences among the propagating I-cell fronts resulting in a disordered evolution.
There exist two subcases of D: in case D, disorder is produced intrinsically from a single seed
whereas in case D*, disorder arises from interaction of “waves” produced by the initial seed.
2.4) Observations when P is varied
When p is varied, different, complex dynamical phases occur in the F, W and D regimes.
However, we shall only look at the D regime.
In the fully synchronized state, p=1, a chaotic evolution arises. To identify the
“unpredictability” of the dynamics, the Hamming distance, dH, between two configurations initially
close to each other is measured. For these “damage spreading” experiments, our definition of the
Hamming field does not take into account the infection vector thus, dH is defined as the number of
sites whose states differ in the two configurations. The Hamming distance can grow up to γL2, where
γ is the proportion of active cells between 2 uncorrelated configurations: γ = (1 – [I]2/TI – [Q]2/TQ –
[S]2). Another parameter of interest is the radius, R defined as the width of the smallest box centered
on the initial perturbation and containing all the active cells of the pattern.
Figure 6 shows dH and R for two cases where p = 1. The upper curve is evidence of a spreading
damage scenario and the lower curve is one of a localized damage. However, keeping TI = 6 and TQ =
2 and decreasing p from 1 to 1/N, one transits from a spreading damage to a localized damage regime.
2.5) Perspectives
This paper has some advantages in predicting the outcome of a disease given its T I and TQ.
Knowledge of TI and TQ can allow for the prediction of the various state (E, L, F, W or D) the
epidemic propagation will proceed. Authorities can thus take relevant precautions to combat the
distinct spread. For example, if TI and TQ of the disease predict that the epidemic will proceed by State
E, authorities can predict that after a short period, the spread of the epidemic will naturally be
extinguished. If TI and TQ of the disease correspond to a spread by State F, the epidemic will
propagate outwards in the population and authorities would need to implement a different set of
measures to control this form of propagation.
However, the directed nature of the interaction via an infection vector is still deterministic in
nature, and does not fully reflect real life scenarios accurately. The meaning of a phase transition,
when varying p, from the point of epidemiology is still not clear to Rousseau and colleagues at this
point of time. Also, there are also some other significant factors that account for the behaviour of an
epidemic propagation that are left out from this paper such as indirect infection of a virus through
water, air or even animals.
The states described in the model are representative of real life epidemic situations. In the case
of extinction, E, the disease has no way of propagating as there are no more susceptible individuals
left to support its spread. In the case of localized periodic evolution, L, might be reminiscent of what
we know as endemic, where the disease is concentrated in an area and keeps recurring over time.
Ordered front propagation, F is typical of an epidemic that has to potential to reach worldwide
proportions and hence be termed pandemic. The case of stationary waves, W is the case of an
epidemic being recurrent- where individuals get infected, recover, while susceptible again become
infected. This cycle propagates itself and allows for the disease to propagate. By varying various
parameters in this model, it is possible to study specific types of diseases to understand how their
spread may come about.
Therefore, since epidemic propagation is a crucial factor in but own determining the damage a
disease can cause, we will look at some models that consist of certain essential factors which
contribute to the propagation of an epidemic. These addition considerations are not covered in the
Rousseau model and include factors such as disease lethality, recurrent epidemics, population
movement and vaccination.
While the above model by Rousseau sounds reasonable and complete at first, the study failed
to consider certain aspects of epidemic propagation. First, the model fails in its treatment of the nature
of the disease in question. The outcome of the spreading of a disease into an epidemic relies heavily
on the nature of the disease and the initial conditions. A study in epidemiology has to consider whether
the disease is lethal to the infected individuals. Consequently, the study only models epidemics that
are not fatal to infected individuals, and does not take into account diseases in which some die and
others recover.
Second, the model assumes the perspective that the victim will recover and that each individual
recovers at the same rate, which may not necessarily mimic real life disease trajectories. Some
diseases affect individuals to different extents and recovery times can vary considerably. We will
consider the following CA model because of certain advantages it holds over the earlier model.
This model 2 , by Anders Johansen, investigates various factors affecting the propagation of
recurrent epidemics and also attempts to include the various factors that Rousseau left out. Similar to
the SIR model that is widely used in the study of epidemic propagation, each cell has a possibility of
being in a particular state- susceptible, infected and inactive. A cellular automata model was used with
the following rules:
1) The disease spreads to nearest neighbours with a probability of q. This is referred to as direct
2) Sites with infectious individuals become inactive at the following time step.
3) New susceptible individuals are introduced to inactive sites according to a probability
distribution for that inactive period.
4) Susceptible individuals become infected with a probability of c. This will be referred to as
indirect transmission.
An interesting component that Johansen added to his model can be interpreted in the second
and third rules of his CA model. These two rules are specific to the nature of the disease in study. The
second rule states that infectious individuals are inactive; this can be interpreted as isolation or
immunization of the individual, who no longer participates in the propagation of the disease. In this
case, new susceptible cases are introduced through recovery followed by a period of immunity. This is
similar from Rousseau model in describing TQ and TI. TQ corresponds to the period of immunity that
follows infection which Johansen interprets in his model. If the disease were lethal, then new
susceptible individuals are introduced through migration. This can be interpreted in real life as either
the actual migration of individuals or the movement of infected individuals through the environment.
This is advantageous in that it makes the model more dynamic and allows for studying different kinds
of diseases. By having this flexibility in applying the rule of lethality in the CA model means that the
total population can be either a dynamical variable or a constant.
3.1) Recurrent Epidemics
Johansen study mainly involved modeling different situations in which recurrent epidemics
occurred. This is an important aspect to consider since there are instances where epidemics recur.
Through his model, he found that epidemics recurred only if initial conditions- proportion of infected
and susceptible individuals, the immunization time and the rate of infection- were right. If so, then the
infectious individuals would organize themselves spatially, oscillating between periods of infection,
recovery and immunization. In other words, it was necessary for there to be a right amount of
susceptible and infectious in order for the disease to be recurrent. If there were too many of either,
then the contact rates would be too great hence infecting the entire population too quickly before more
susceptible individuals can sustain the disease.
The purpose of the paper was to investigate sufficient conditions for the occurrence of
recurrent epidemic behaviour; its focus was on spatial and temporal behaviour. It was noticed that the
oscillations were present in both deterministic and stochastic input of susceptible individuals. The
results of the modeling showed that recurrent epidemic behaviour can be persistent without external
forcing in terms of seasonal variations. Rule 3 states that susceptible individuals are introduced
through the probability distribution of that inactive period. This is inactive period in this case is
interpreted as the time where an individual is taken out of the equation either by quarantine, or
immunization against the disease. A stochastic input of these individuals accounts for different
recovery rates among the individuals, which might be the case in real-life scenarios. In other words,
not all the cells were assumed to be exactly the same. External forcing was considered by Johansen
because SIR models in general display damped oscillations, but not without having new infectious
individuals, which counts as an „external force‟. The problem with this is that the element producing
the desired feedback is introduced informally instead of being determined by the dynamics of the
model in the first place. Potentially problematic features can arise from SIR models because of
assumed homogenous mixing and in deciding which probability distributions to use. Johansen argues
that these assumptions are at best based on empirical observation and cannot be determined
3.2) The Case of Indirect Transmission
Unlike most CA, rate equations assume homogenous mixing and cannot be extensively applied
to many epidemics; however, in some specific diseases, homogenous mixing can be assumed.
However, in order to achieve higher levels of realism, Johansen included in his model the possibility
of indirect transmission (homogenous mixing). This is given by the probability c, as mentioned in rule
4, and is important in the consideration of epidemic propagation because it accounts for specific types
of diseases. Real life examples include diseases spread by water and food, which is an important
mechanism for some diseases as well. An example of this is water-borne cholera where almost
everyone in the population drinks from the same source. The next section gives a more detailed
description of the spread of epidemic cholera.
3.2.1) Case study of recurrent epidemics and indirect transmission: Epidemic cholera 3
Cholera is a severe diarrhea disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Transmission to
humans is by water or food. The disease progresses from the first liquid stool to shock in 4-12 hours,
with death following in 18 hours to several days. In extreme cases, cholera is one of the most rapidly
fatal illnesses known.
In 1817, the first long-distance spread of cholera to Europe and the Americas began and by the
early 20th century, six waves of epidemic cholera had spread across the world. In 1961, a new strain
of cholera (El Tor) reemerged in the Philippines resulting in a major epidemic. This initiated a major
spread of the disease (Figure 7) and since then this strain (El Tor) has spread across Asia, the Middle
East, Africa, and more recently, parts of Europe.
El Tor broke out explosively in Peru in 1991, and spread rapidly in Central and South America,
with recurrent epidemics in 1992 and 1993. From the onset of the epidemic in January 1991 through
September 1, 1994, over a million cases and 9,642 deaths were reported from the affected countries.
Several characteristics of the new cholera strain that confer upon it a high degree of "epidemic
virulence" allowing it to spread across the world as previous strains have done. The ratio of cases to
carriers is much less than in cholera due to classic biotypes (1: 30-100 for new stain vs. 1: 2 - 4 for
"classic" biotypes), the duration of carriage after infection is longer for the El Tor strain than the
classic strains and the El Tor strain survives for longer periods in the extraintestinal environment.
In the United States, imported cases and clusters of infections from imported food has been
reported. Fortunately, an epidemic outbreak did not emerge from these isolated cases. During 1993
and 1994, 22 and 47 cholera cases were respectively reported in the US, of which 94% of the cases
were associated with foreign travel.
The consequence of foreign travel on CA modeling is explored in more detail in the Sirakoulis
model where the effects of population movement in the spread of epidemic were taken into
consideration. This is described in the next section.
3.3) Effects on population movement on CA modeling
The Rousseau model also did not consider the movement of individuals as a factor contributing
to the epidemic spread. However with the development of many mass public transport (e.g. ships,
trains and planes), individuals are able to travel rapidly across sea, land and air. In addition, people are
also more affluent and able to travel across borders easily. Thus, with efficient transport systems
present in our global village of today, it seems indeed relevant to study how the movement of people
contributes in the propagation of an epidemic disease.
In a CA model4 developed by Sirakoulis and colleagues, the effect of population movement
was included in the algorithm. This resulted in amplification of the number of individuals infected and
an increase in the overall percentage of the infected population. Two important parameters, namely the
distance of movement and the number of individuals who are going to move are taken into
In the study, the infection and immune times were chosen to be T I=15 and TQ=30 respectively.
The movement of individuals was taking place after TM=30 time steps from the beginning of the
epidemic. The cells involved in the population movement and the possible direction of population
movement was decided randomly via a pseudorandom number generator. This not only attempts to
model the phenomena in the real world but also provided greater variability in the model.
Variable 1: Number of individuals who are going to move
In this model, the only variable considered was the percentage of the population that was going
to move (10%, 20%, 30% and 40%). The maximum distance of movement was taken to be:
max_distance = five array cells. The distance of the movement could be randomly different for each of
the cell (selected to move), with the single limitation that this distance cannot be greater than the
maximum distance. The rest of the parameters, TM, TQ, and TI are kept constant. (TI=15, TQ=30 and
As observed in the figures below, when the percentage of the moving population increased
from 10% to 20%, 30% and 40%, the epidemic fronts lose their symmetry and the spreading of the
epidemic disease is accelerated. This phenomenon can be observed in the diagrams below. The more
people move, the rapid the propagation of the epidemic. Logically, restricting the percentage of
population movement in times of an epidemic would definitely assist in reducing the spread, and this
strategy is always a consideration in a battle against any epidemic.
Variable 2: The distance of movement
Another important parameter to consider in population movement is the distance traveled.
When the value of max_distance was increased (from 5 array cells to 10 array cells and 15 array cells),
the propagation of the epidemic was observed to be faster. The distance of the movement could be
randomly different for each of the cell, with the single limitation that this distance cannot be greater
than the maximum distance. TI=15, TQ=30 and TM=30 was kept the same.
As seen in the figures below, the max_distance in Figure 9 was doubled that of Figure 8c and
max_distance in Figure 10 was tripled that of Figure 8c. In the figures, the percentage of population
movement was kept constant at 30% and the other parameters kept similar. The differences observed
in the figures are very obvious.
With an increase in the max_distance, the epidemic fronts lost their circular shape and the
epidemic spreading was accelerated. This showed that the greater the distance allowed for movement
during an epidemic would reduce in a greater spread of the disease. Once again, this is a strategy that
is already employed by authorities when there is an onset of disease which may be in danger of
becoming an epidemic. By discouraging travel during such times, authorities almost effectively
control the spread of the epidemic.
3.3.1) Case study on population movement: The spread of SARS
An example of the accelerated spread of an epidemic due to population movement is the spread
of the recent epidemic SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). According to the World Health
Organization5, the virus has infected more than 2,300 people worldwide and resulted in 81 deaths.
Believed to have originated from Guangdong province of China, the virus was thought to have
infected a doctor treating patients in China who then traveled to Hong Kong. He stayed in the
Metropole Hotel where he infected twelve other guests and set off a deadly global chain reaction,
affecting people in throughout Southeast Asia and several European countries.
In an effort to control the epidemic, the WHO issued an emergency travel advisory for
travelers and airlines. To reduce the number of new infections of the virus, WHO constantly updated
and issued the list of SARS affected countries. For example, in Update 376, the new areas listed (in
addition to advice previously issued for Guangdong Province and Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region, China) were Beijing and Shanxi Province, China, and Toronto, Canada. People planning to
travel to these affected destinations were advised to “consider postponing all but essential travel.”
These travel advisories attempted to reduce population movement during the SARS crisis. By
reducing the percentage of the population that traveled, these advisories were indeed successful in
reducing the percentage of new infections worldwide, particularly in the SARS affected regions.
However, the max_distance traveled by the population was not taken into account in the management
of the epidemic spread. There were no restrictions in the distance individuals were allowed to travel.
According to the above model, by restricting the distance traveled in times of epidemics, the rate of
spread of infection will be greatly reduced. Although these restrictions may be difficult to implement,
it may be necessary in situations of severe widespread epidemics. However, this method implies
confining individuals to travel within a restricted radius from their country of origin during an
epidemic crisis, which may not be economically viable. As such, authorities have left the
responsibility on the travelers themselves, using health declaration forms and so forth. Such methods
may not guarantee the containment of an epidemic outbreak, but it strikes a balance between what is
practical and what is necessary.
3.4) The effect of vaccination of the population
Another essential factor that was not considered in Rousseau model was the effect of
vaccination of the population. Vaccination of population is one of the means to reduce or prevent the
rapid spread of an epidemic. Vaccinated individuals do not get infected and hence do not participate in
the spread of infection in the population; hence population vaccination reduces epidemic spreading. In
a study by Sirakoulis and colleagues, the effect of population vaccination was taken into account in
their CA model. It was observed that the effectiveness of population vaccination against the spreading
of epidemic also depends mainly on the percentage of the population vaccinated.
To simulate the effect of vaccination, Sirakoulis and colleagues assumed that a small part of
the initial population was vaccinated (shown in Figure 4a). For greater variability, the location and
size of the vaccinated population was selected randomly. The infection and immune times were
chosen to be TI=15 and TQ=30 respectively.
The vaccinated cells were not infected by the epidemic and helps in the reducing the spread of
epidemic near the neighbourhood of the vaccination. A small irregularity in the development of the
epidemic is observed in the form of a distortion in the roundness of the circular epidemic front.
However, as the model only considered the case where a small percent of the population was
vaccinated, the vaccination did not dramatically alter the spread of the epidemic. As shown in Figure
4c, the epidemic front has almost regained its normal circular shape. However, this model does give a
good picture of how the vaccination effect is stimulated by the algorithm developed. It provides
satisfactory evidence that vaccination does in fact reduce the spread of the epidemic; however, more
research and modeling is necessary to confirm this. Mathematically in SIR models, only a certain
percentage of the population needs to be vaccinated in order to prevent the development of the onset
of disease to epidemic and pandemic proportions.
3.4.1) Case study on population vaccination: The polio epidemic7
One of the most successful vaccination strategies is that vaccination against the polio. Polio is
caused by a virus and is an infection that damages the nervous system. About 1% of the people
infected suffered paralysis or even death. Polio epidemics were common until the 1950's with the
introduction of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines.
Since the 1988 launch of a worldwide eradication campaign by the WHO, the Sabin oral polio
vaccine (OPV) has cut the number of new cases by 99%, saving some 3 million children from
paralysis. Sabin vaccine produces lifelong immunity without the need for a booster shot or vaccination.
By 2002 the number of polio cases had fallen to just 480 per year, compared with 350,000 when the
vaccination programme started in 1988.
Polio is now virtually unknown in the USA and Europe. It is still present in parts of Asia.
However with the intense international vaccination programme, it seems likely that polio virus is on
the way for eradication worldwide.
Section 4: Conclusion
Due to the complexities involved in modeling the spread of an epidemic, we have found that a
single model is insufficient to cover all the factors and parameters involved. The necessity to look at
the transmittance of disease from these three different perspectives is crucial for the understanding of
how to react to situations of viral threat and to reduce risks of infection.
Rousseau‟s model is characterized by the respective time periods of the infected (T I) and
immunized states (TQ). In the simulations of the model when varying TI and TQ, 5 distinct states (E, L,
F, W, D) were observed. These states stand for extinction, localized periodic evolution, ordered front
propagation, stationary waves and disordered evolution respectively. The model strongly suggests that
epidemic evolution is to a certain extent predictable, given the right conditions. It also implies that
with knowledge of the TI and TQ, the distinct state of the epidemic propagation can be determined
using the model. This predictability is an advantage from relevant government departments‟ point of
view as it helps them decide what measures to implement in order to curb or slow down the spread of
the epidemic.
Johansen included in his model the possibility of indirect transmission (homogenous mixing).
This, given by the probability c, is important in the consideration of epidemic propagation because it
accounts for specific types of diseases. This may be referred to as homogenous mixing and takes into
account diseases which spread by water and food. This is an important factor to consider in
epidemiology as the nature of the disease has consequential effects on the evolution of the epidemic.
Sirakoulis focused on how population movement and vaccination affected the spread of a
disease. By controlling two variables- the proportion of individuals who move and the distance they
can move- he found that both of these factors when increased would hasten the spread of the disease.
Vaccination is effective and is supported by at least two of the models: Johansen‟s and Sirakoulis‟.
Johansen‟s thrust was that epidemics only spread under certain conditions, and by varying the number
of susceptible individuals through vaccination, the disease does not have sufficient susceptible
individuals to feed it. Sirakoulis‟ model, though lacking in further empirical results supports the fact
that vaccination has an effect on epidemic propagation.
Although the three models we have studied covered many different parameters involved in
epidemic propagation, there are many other factors that have not been considered. For example, the
three CA models assume homogeneity in the population. This may not be realistic as individuals in the
population are genetically different and may have different infectious and recovery rates. For example,
an old man is more likely to recover slower than a healthy, young man. Also, some individuals are
immunocompromised, which simply refers to an innate immunity which enables them to not fall sick
as often and easily as others. Thus, it is unlikely that different individuals will be infected and be
immunized at a fixed time period. Thus, improvements to the models may include properties seen in
some agent based modeling (e.g. sugarscape) where agents are unique and the population is
The three models also did not take into account the existence of an „exposed‟ (E) phase in the
population. This „E‟ phase encompasses individuals that have been exposed to the disease but are not
yet infectious. It may also be regarded as the incubation phase. Members in the „E‟ phase may become
infectious in time; however they also have the probability of becoming immunized directly (without
being in the infectious phase). For example, the incubation or „E‟ phase of the recent SARS virus is a
10-day period of time. Individuals exposed to the SARS virus are not infectious during the incubation
period. If an individual was exposed to the SARS virus more than 10-days ago and has not fallen ill,
his chances of having SARS are essentially zero.
In conclusion, in the study of epidemiology and especially the study of epidemic propagation,
it is crucial to have at hand a few tools to manipulate in order to understand fully the nature possible
trajectory of that disease in different conditions. The CA model has its advantages over rate equations
as it allow for the study of spatial and temporal progression of the epidemic.
Yet, it is impossible to predict the onslaught of every epidemic that comes our way. If it had
been a disease that has been studied, then swift action can be taken. However, mutations are common
among viruses, and new, unknown diseases can sprout up, baffling scientists and medical experts. A
broad-spectrum approach to this field is most useful to handle the varied and still varying forms of
disease that appear. In such times, this approach would hopefully facilitate in studying the behaviour
of unidentified epidemics without having too much of a human cost. Surely, prediction (and hence
prevention) is better than cure.
Section 5: References
1) Rousseau G, Giorgini B, Livi R, Chate H. Dynamical phases in a cellular automaton model for
epidemic propagation. Physica D 1997; 103: 554-563.
2) Johansen Anders. A simple model of recurrent epidemics. Journal of Theoretical Biology 1995; 178:
3) Vibrio cholerae and Asiatic Cholera http://www.bact.wisc.edu/Bact330/lecturecholera
4) Sirakoulis G, Karafyllidis I, Thanailakis A. A cellular automaton model for the effects of population
movement and vaccination on epidemic propagation. Ecological Modelling 1999: 133: 209-223
5) World Health Organization issues emergency travel advisory. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) spreads worldwide. http://www.islands-directory.com/whopop.htm
6) Update 37 – WHO extends its SARS-related travel advice to Beijing and Shanxi Province in China and
to Toronto Canada. http://www.who.int/csr/sars/archive/2003_04_23/en/
7) Maybury Okonek B., Morganstein L. Development of Polio Vaccines
8) Shih Ching Eu, George Milne
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0.059137 | <urn:uuid:8d01313d-67fc-48f8-b2b5-26f8e36e13ba> | en | 0.958156 | Readers Respond: Perils of Going Offshore
By eweek | Posted 2003-04-14 Email Print this article Print
Readers respond to Lisa Vaas' recent column on offshore outsourcing.
In Lisa Vaas column, Perils of Going Offshore, she details the conundrum of the tech industry: loss of little over a half-a-million tech jobs, more companies outsourcing their tech departments and the inability of many people to find jobs in the field. The notion that government must "protect" the industry is a dangerous one. This will foster a system where weak performers are protected. Who wants that? Strong performers know that their tech skills must be continuously honed and developed, through formal classes, self-teaching and on-the-job training. They also know that certs alone mean little. Strong performers know that spamming companies with resumes (a la Bernard Shifman), responding to classified ads, or using one of the "job sites" is a lose-lose proposition. Strong performers know that they get a job when they can prove to an employer that they can provide value to that employers business. The heyday of the late 90s caused many people who were not serious about growing their skills and remaining competitive to enter the market. Why not? You take one of those guaranteed-passing-score classes, sit for the MCSE, and then make $50k per year. Fortunately, those days are over, and good riddance, too. People with a paper and no experience who expect the world to lay riches at their feet are hopefully going to go find some other industry to play in. IT workers who dont continuously update their skills and remain highly flexible when it comes to employment and compensation are going to be in for a rude shock when their positions are outsourced to a foreign company that can provide the same value for a fraction of the price.
The bottom line is that people provide value, organizations hire people who can provide value, and a paper cert alone does not provide value.
On the other hand, companies that still refuse to see tech as a strategic asset and instead look at IT as "cost center" are aging dinosaurs ripe for losing serious market share to more flexible companies that understand the value of technology. A company that uses tech to streamline the supply chain can handle many more orders for much less cost than a lumbering, inefficient and traditional operation. This brings us back to the protection issue again. If the government "protects" industry by preventing the companies that outsource a core strategic asset like tech, then those companies will not fail as fast as the market would have them. Our system is one of capitalism, yet there are those who would destroy the system by introducing additional corporate welfarism. Let those who have the skills and knowledge thrive; dont give those who cant or wont do what it takes to make it in todays environment a "fair shake" because they cant be bothered to run their business as if it must make a profit. Bryan
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EVONIK FIBRES GMBH Patent applications
Patent application numberTitlePublished
20130098242PROCESS FOR SEPARATION OF GASES - The invention relates to a specific apparatus, more particularly a chain of gas separation membrane modules, for separation of gas mixtures into two fractions each of elevated purity.04-25-2013
20120123079POLYIMIDE MEMBRANES MADE OF POLYMERIZATION SOLUTIONS - The invention relates to polyimide membranes and to a phase inversion method for the production thereof. The polyimide membranes can be used to separate different gas mixtures.05-17-2012
20100181253CROSS-LINKED POLYIMIDE MEMBRANES - The present invention provides a method for improving the performance of polyimide membranes as used in solvent-resistant nanofiltration. More specifically the method of the present invention allows to improve the solvent stability of the polyimide membranes to solvents or solvent mixtures that would dissolve polyimide under the conditions applied during the filtration, such as dimethylforrnamide (DMF), N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP), dimethylacetamide (DMAC), tetrahydrofuran (THF), y-butyrolacton (GBL), dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) and chlorinated solvents.07-22-2010 | http://www.faqs.org/patents/assignee/evonik-fibres-gmbh/ | dclm-gs1-272860002 | false | false | {
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Kentaro Morimitsu, Mississauga CA
Kentaro Morimitsu, Mississauga CA
Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20100041551THERMALLY GATED PHOTOCHROMIC MEDIUM - The presently disclosed embodiments are directed to image forming mediums useful for reimageable and transient documents. More particularly, the embodiments pertain to an image forming medium comprising thermally gated photochromic materials comprising diarylethene (DAE) photochromes which avoid problems with unwanted reduction in color contrast due to background coloration.02-18-2010
20100086768PARTICLES WITH LIGHT ABSORBING MATERIAL FOR REIMAGEABLE MEDIUM - A plurality of particles including: (a) a binder; (b) a photochromic material; and (c) a light absorbing material.04-08-2010
20100216635REVERSE WRITE ERASABLE PAPER - An image-forming medium and methods for forming and imaging the medium are provided. The disclosed medium can be strongly colored under room illumination (or deliberate UV) and can be selectively discolored at an appropriate light wavelength to form an image. In one embodiment, the image-forming medium can include a substrate (e.g., a sheet of paper), a photochromic material incorporated with the substrate, and a photo-absorbing material incorporated with the photochromic material. Exemplary methods for using the image-forming medium to make a transient image can include first forming the image-forming medium by applying a coating solution containing photochromic material to the substrate or paper. The image-forming medium can have a medium color and can then be selectively exposed to a radiation through a mask to convert the photochromic material from a colored form to a colorless form and thus to form an image having a color contrast with its background.08-26-2010
20100227760REIMAGEABLE AND REUSABLE MEDIUM AND METHOD OF PRODUCING AND USING THE REIMAGEABLE AND REUSABLE MEDIUM - The present disclosure provides a reusable and reimageable medium including a substrate coated with a photochromic polymer. The photochromic polymer has a glass transition temperature ranging from 30° C. to 150° C., such as from about 30° C. to about 100° C., and the coated substrate converts to a colored state when both UV light and temperatures ranging from 30° C. up to 100° C. are applied to the coated substrate. The present disclosure also provides a method for producing and using the reusable and reimageable medium.09-09-2010
20110056282SENSORS AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING WHETHER AN ITEM HAS BEEN EXPOSED TO AN ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITION - A method for determining whether an item has been exposed to an environmental condition during a monitoring period. The method includes placing a sensor at least in proximity to the item at the beginning of the monitoring period so that the sensor will be exposed to a level of an environmental condition that can be correlated to an exposure level of the item to the environmental condition; reading the sensor; and determining from reading the sensor whether the item has been exposed to the environmental condition. The sensor includes a detecting material comprising a photochromic or photothermochromic material, the detecting material selected so that upon exposure to the environmental condition the detecting material exhibits a detectable color change.03-10-2011
20110082035PHOTOCHROMIC MATERIALS INCORPORATED IN POLYMER BACKBONE - Exemplary embodiments provide compositions and methods for making and using an erasable medium that can include a photochromic layer disposed over a substrate. The photochromic layer can include one or more photochromic molecule-polymer systems, wherein each of the one or more photochromic molecule-polymer systems can include a photochromic molecule covalently bonded within a polymer main chain, the photochromic molecule including one or more photochromic moieties (PM) linked together via a linker.04-07-2011
20110092364OLIGOMERIC SPIROPYRANS FOR ERASABLE MEDIUM APPLICATIONS - Exemplary embodiments provide compositions and methods for making and using an erasable medium that can contain oligomeric photochromic materials such as spiropyran oligomers, wherein the oligomeric photochromic material can include a plurality of photochromic groups such as spiropyrans covalently connected together by one or more linkers.04-21-2011
20110130279ERASABLE MEDIA WITH BINDER - Exemplary embodiments provide compositions and methods for an erasable medium that can include a photochromic composite containing a photochromic polymer dispersed in a polymer binder, a similar type polymer of a backbone portion of the photochromic polymer.06-02-2011 | http://www.faqs.org/patents/inventor/kentaro-morimitsu-mississauga-ca-1/ | dclm-gs1-272870002 | false | false | {
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0.031578 | <urn:uuid:ee7c33a9-8bf8-4d7a-af33-4bc571b5c2d6> | en | 0.817895 | Inventors list
Assignees list
Classification tree browser
Top 100 Inventors
Top 100 Assignees
Murray Fulton Gillies, Eindhoven NL
Murray Fulton Gillies, Eindhoven NL
Patent application numberDescriptionPublished
20080218369Flexible Display Device - The present invention relates to a flexible display device (09-11-2008
20080252607Image Display That Moves Physical Objects and Causes Tactile Sensation - An image display including a touch-sensitive display, that creates tactile sensation and movement of an object (10-16-2008
20080267034(Re) Writable Disk with Electrophoetic Ink Label - A storage medium for storing digital information is disclosed. The storage medium comprises a label comprising a light addressable electrophoretic ink layer. Further, a method for labeling a storage medium provided with an electrophoretic ink label is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of applying a voltage between a first and a second electrode being arranged on mutual sides of a electrophoretic ink layer; irradiating selected pixel areas of the electrophoretic ink for addressing a change of visual state. Further, a recorder for an optical storage medium and a label writer for labeling an optical storage medium are disclosed. The recorder and the label writer comprise a light source and a charging device. The charging device is arranged to apply an electric field across an electrophoretic ink layer of the storage medium, and the light source is arranged to write a label on said storage medium by addressing pixel areas of said electrophoretic ink layer.10-30-2008
20090091522DRIVING AN IN-PLANE PASSIVE MATRIX DISPLAY - A driving circuit for driving an in-plane moving particle device has a pixel (P) comprising movable charged particles (PA). The pixel (P) has a reservoir electrode (RE), a display electrode (DE), and a gate electrode (GE) laterally placed in-between the reservoir electrode (RE) and the display electrode (DE). The driving circuit (DC) comprises a driver (DR), a controller (CO) which receives an input signal (OS) representing an image to be displayed on the moving particle device. The controller (CO) controls the driver (DR) to supply a first voltage difference (VD04-09-2009
20090263891DEVICE FOR ANALYZING SAMPLES INCLUDING A GAS EVOLVING MEANS - The invention relates to a device for analyzing one or more samples for the presence, amount or identity of one or more target molecules in the samples, comprising one or more capture sites whereby the device comprises a gas evolving means. The gas evolved by the gas evolving means moves unbound target molecules away from the capture site and therefore helps to increase the efficacy of the analysis.10-22-2009
20100001666MICRO-ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SYSTEM WITH ACTUATORS - The invention relates to a micro-electro-mechanical system comprising a ciliary actuator (01-07-2010
20100028969CELL LYSIS OR ELECTROPORATION DEVICE COMPRISING AT LEAST ONE PYROELECTRIC MATERIAL - The present invention relates to a cell lysis or electroporation device comprising at least one pyroelectric material.02-04-2010
20100038564MICRO-ACTUATOR DEVICE FOR THE USE IN A BIOCHIP OR BIOSYSTEM - The Invention concerns to a micro-actuator device for the use in biochip or bio-system. In order to achieve a micro-actuator device for the use as a micro pump in biosensors or bio-systems, or at least bio-chips, by which the actuation can be steered very precisely and effective, the solution is that the micro actuator consist of a photosensitive actuator element (02-18-2010
20100156444MICROELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH HEATING ELECTRODES - The invention relates to different designs of a microelectronic device comprising heating electrodes (HE) and field electrodes (FE) that have effect in the same sub-region of a sample chamber. By applying appropriate voltages to the field electrodes (FE), an electrical field (E) can be generated in the sample chamber. By applying appropriate currents to the heating electrodes (HE), the sample chamber can be heated according to a desired temperature profile. The heating electrodes (HE) may optionally be operated as field electrodes such that they generate an electrical field in the sample chamber, too.06-24-2010
20100163414MICROELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH FIELD ELECTRODES - The invention relates to a microelectronic device, particularly a microelectronic biosensor, comprising an array of field electrodes (FE) for generating an alternating electrical field (E) in an adjacent sample chamber (SC). The field electrodes (FE) are coupled to associated local oscillators (OS), which are preferably tunable and connected in a matrix pattern to an external control unit (CU). The local oscillators (OS) allow high frequencies of the generated electrical fields (E), such that for example dielectrophoretic forces can be generated.07-01-2010
20100165534MAGNETIC FIELD GENERATION DEVICE - The present invention relates to a magnetic field generation device comprising a magnetic field generating element (07-01-2010
20100171768MOVING PARTICLE DISPLAY DEVICE - A display device and a method for driving the display device is disclosed. The display device comprises drive circuitry (07-08-2010
20100248383COMBINED OPTICAL AND ELECTRICAL SENSOR CARTRIDGES - A sensor cartridge has a cartridge substrate comprising an optical substrate for optical detection of a target moiety in a sample fluid based on frustrated totalinternal reflection and at least one electric structure. This way, optical read-out and electrical functions, e.g. read-out, are combined in a single substrate, in a simple and cheap manner. Also a method of fabricating such sensor cartridge is provided.09-30-2010
20110020141MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE AND METHOD - The present invention relates to a microfluidic device and a corresponding method for pumping of high conductivity liquids comprising: —a microfluidic channel (01-27-2011
Patent applications by Murray Fulton Gillies, Eindhoven NL | http://www.faqs.org/patents/inventor/murray-fulton-gillies-eindhoven-nl-1/ | dclm-gs1-272880002 | false | true | {
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0.027766 | <urn:uuid:e2fed80d-f5af-4f23-a257-b2f265ce610b> | en | 0.986726 |
The two-time defending AL champions were so impressed that they have invested more than $111 million to acquire Japan's best pitcher. They made a record posting bid and then used just about every minute of a 30-day negotiating window to reach an agreement Wednesday with Darvish on a $60 million, six-year contract.
"The thing that stood out probably is just his passion for the game and trying to be the best he can possibly be," said Rangers President Nolan Ryan, a Hall of Fame pitcher. "He's probably the most upside player I've ever seen come out of Japan."
"It's all about winning," general manager Jon Daniels said. "We saw a guy that we felt was built to pitch innings. It's a classic pitcher's build. He has a real commitment to his conditioning and work ethic and a lot of intangibles that we think will lend him to pitch innings and at a high caliber for a period of time."
"He's really thrilled to be coming here," said Arn Tellem, one of Darvish's agents. "This is where he wanted to be, and he was hoping when the posting began that the Rangers would win the post."
"I will have a press conference first in America and then come back to Japan, at which point I will express my gratitude to my fans here in Japan," he wrote.
Though Daniels wishes the posting fee for Darvish was lower, he acknowledged, "That was our call. We didn't want to risk not getting him."
Daniels described the move as a "step-out deal" for the Rangers, and said negotiations were never contentious. He said there were good reasons for wanting a six-year deal.
"You tend to look at things a little differently when you look at somebody that age and the years of the deal take him into his prime," Daniels said. "And secondly, with the nature of the posting process and the size of the post, size of our bid, it made sense to amortize it out over a longer period."
"We feel like he's extremely talented, and probably one of the most talented young pitchers that we've seen," Ryan said. "So we feel like he has a very bright future ahead of him. What that equates to we really don't know, but we feel like once he gets settled in with our organization and spring training and gets into our routine, we'll start really seeing what he's capable of doing." | http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/01/19/darvish-texas-agree-to-60m-6-year-deal/?cmpid=prn_foxsports | dclm-gs1-272920002 | false | false | {
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0.345784 | <urn:uuid:716b3c61-ee23-4e51-8151-91cd2d57ec11> | en | 0.962714 | #229 - hypex ONLINE (02/01/2013) [-]
it should be checkmate christians since "pastafarism" was invented by a atheist just to **** with people and the religious system
#232 to #231 - hypex ONLINE (02/01/2013) [-]
it was?
User avatar #233 to #232 - benjaminbutton (02/01/2013) [-]
Yes, because when he says checkmate atheists, he is stating what a Christian would say, though in place of the Christian god it's replaced with the pastafarian god.
User avatar #234 to #233 - hypex ONLINE (02/01/2013) [-]
i thought it was more of a "lol pastafarism is silly and so is christianity/religion"
User avatar #235 to #234 - benjaminbutton (02/01/2013) [-]
It is an attack on the silliness of religion, which is why it is mirroring the line christians use which is "Checkmate Atheists," to make them seem foolish. Does that make sense. I took away your red thumb too, as it seems that you really didn't grasp the joke.
#236 to #235 - hypex ONLINE (02/01/2013) [-]
uhh thanks i guess
Friends (0) | http://www.funnyjunk.com/channel/pastafarianism/Touched+by+his+noodly+appendage/GffmGTs/234 | dclm-gs1-272940002 | false | false | {
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0.958593 | <urn:uuid:10276f4c-8430-4063-acd0-d97fff0b0767> | en | 0.937697 |
Some "Facts" about Starters from PGS
RTC3Posted 8/19/2013 8:03:28 AM
hi TC just wanted to say i freakin loved your FF6A character faq a couple years back when i played the game. thanks for that bruh
Lakers. Black Mamba. Steve Ca$h. "Boom boom" Pau Gasol "Train." Ryan "Dirk 2.0" Kelly. we. already. won.
RemixV4Posted 8/19/2013 8:13:42 AM
Were natures considered for speed speculation?
MeepleLardicle(Topic Creator)Posted 8/19/2013 8:21:22 AM(edited)
That would be one of those variables that makes it hard to be certain.
Worth noting though that if stat differences are significant, natures wouldn't affect much. To give a quick example:
Charmander has 65 base speed. Bulbasaur has 45 base speed.
At level 50, Charmander's Minimum w/ a hindering Nature is 63. Bulbasaur's minimum with a beneficial nature is 55, so Charmander still is faster.
It's true IVs and EVs could tip things, but I honestly don't think they put too much work into those factors, or traits. Given it's a demo, chances are they used some basic default value for simplicity of programming. Stats could be doctored, granted, to insure the given scenario in the match (it is a match, not a video; they're actually playing the game, though it's possibly choreographed to insure they use specific moves at certain moments.), but I think people are looking a tad too into this.
The site Meeple argues at for too much of his life! | http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/696959-pokemon-x/67021418?page=1 | dclm-gs1-273010002 | false | false | {
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0.153921 | <urn:uuid:a03ce927-8aa9-4ce6-a94c-23f9658e3718> | en | 0.809103 |
Shouldnsony add a spec ops/ or zombie mode to killzone games?
bulletproven50Posted 12/2/2012 7:46:07 PM
C'mon you got to have your alternate when multiplayer gets boring. Cod has zombies. I'm thinking some kind of fun survival horror mode should do the trick
PSN ID:Sprint4geyes_601
My Recent Purchases: PS Vita(9.5)Transformer Prime(9.5) HotS Golf Vita UMVC Vita(10), SMS Audio headphones(8.9) TwistM PS3.Ngaiden(8.7)
jubjub360Posted 12/2/2012 7:46:54 PM
Yes. Sony should add a game mode to a game they didn't make.
F*** yo' MLA! It's all about that APA!
zyrax2301Posted 12/2/2012 7:47:20 PM
Killzone has a campaign.
Why? Because **** you is why. | http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/927750-playstation-3/64809169 | dclm-gs1-273020002 | false | false | {
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0.203835 | <urn:uuid:03f5cb7d-80f5-4854-9047-cd59b208db39> | en | 0.968097 | Responses to groovyvegan's Review
Respond to Review of Follow Your Heart Restaurant and Market
by groovyvegan
Review: I think of FYH as a deli and vegan "IHOP." IMO, they excel at sandwiches, such as their club sandwich and reuben. However, I've generally found their entrees to generally be so-so including their curry "chicken" and wok stirfry. Their tacos aren't bad and my omni partner loves their spanikopita. Some of their holiday specials are good, but overall, their sandwiches are better than their entrees. I find their pizza mediocre. I especially like coming their for breakfast and find their wheat-free blueberry pancakes excellent. Their smoothies are tasty, but unfortunately do not use organic fruit. Their chocolate mint shake is quite good and can be made vegan. My favorite FYH dessert is their peach tart. Overall, I find the service friendly, helpful, and not flakey like I find in some veg restaurants. The menu is quite helpful and specifies which dishes can be made vegan. Link to menu:
You must login to post a response
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0.277656 | <urn:uuid:d28841a6-8ad4-417a-83da-2f7c4f803aba> | en | 0.922491 | Enemy: (enemies...foe...adversary... )
Beware of no man more than yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us. --- Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1834
In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior. --- Francis Bacon 1561
It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. --- Sally Kempton
There is only one way to defeat the enemy, and that is to write as well as you can. The best argument is an undeniably good book. --- Saul Bellow
To dream the impossible dream, To fight the unbeatable foe, To bear with unbearable sorrow, To run where the brave dare not go, To right the unrightable wrong, To love, pure and chaste, from afar, To try when your arms are too weary, To reach the unreachable star, This is my quest, to follow that star, No matter how hopeless, no matter how far, To fight for the right without question or pause, To be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause. --- Impossible Dream
When you reach real ability you will be able to become one with the enemy. Entering his heart you will see that he is not your enemy after all. (Japanese sword Master) --- Tsuji
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0.040302 | <urn:uuid:471a4a23-41a0-4217-b80f-feae0ca71c7f> | en | 0.932945 | Head-Fi.org › Forums › Equipment Forums › Gear-Fi: Non-Audio Gear and Gadgets › Help with my old iPhone...
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Help with my old iPhone...
post #1 of 2
Thread Starter
If anyone could help, I would appreciate it.
I have an old iPhone 1G running on 1.0.2 that I hacked for use on another network using one of the first wifi hacks that became available.
Is there any reason I should upgrade it to a new firmware?
If so, how do I go about doing it?
post #2 of 2
That's a very old firmware, the new ones will probably have significant updates and loads of extra things. I'd recommend that you upgrade to 3.1.2. I think the newest version is 4.0.2 or something like that but it runs rather slow in my personal experience so I downgraded back to 3.1.2.
I'm not exactly sure what the best way to upgrade is, but the way I've been doing it is by putting the iphone in dfu mode and then plugging into a computer. Itunes will then detect your iphone in recovery mode and says you need to restore it. You then have to shift+click the restore button, and then select the firmware file (3.1.2) to load onto the iphone. There are plenty of places to download the 3.1.2 firmware package online. If you just click restore without shift itunes will probably try to download the latest firmware and load that on, which could be bad. Once you have 3.1.2 installed, you're going to need another program to kick your iphone out of dfu mode. I forget what it's called though. After that your iphone will be successfully updated to 3.1.2 and you can proceed to rejailbreak and unlock it. You can use spirit and probably jailbreakme.com to easily rejailbreak, and unlock with ultrasn0w or blacksn0w or something like that.... I forget which one. It would be best to look up a guide online, and make sure you check the comments for ultrasn0w/blacksn0w. One of them commonly puts your iphone into a reboot cycle and the other one works fine, I'm sure you can figure out which is which by the comments.
That's what I'd do with a 3g or ipod touch 2g/3g. I don't have much experience with the 1g iphone but since it's an older model it should work about the same. It would probably be better for you to look up a detailed guide online, mine's just a sort of summary.
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0.136582 | <urn:uuid:927d55e6-059f-40e8-91e5-f9082c262e78> | en | 0.955739 | iOS app Android app More
Carl Gibson
Occupy the Dinner Conversation This Christmas
Posted: 12/25/11 01:32 PM ET
Like every liberal activist and preacher's son, I have arch-conservative family members who don't agree with my philosophies, whom I see every year on the holidays. This year, Occupiers have nothing to worry about. When that uncomfortable conversation starts at the dinner table, we can appeal to their religious upbringing this year and be fully justified.
Jesus was the first Occupier. Think about it.
He was an unshaven, sandal-clad vagrant who claimed no permanent address, fed thousands in public spaces, spoke against economic inequality and materialism, and was firmly committed to peace and nonviolence. The only documented act of violence Jesus committed was overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple, accusing them of turning a house of prayer into "a den of thieves," even chasing them out with a whip. And he's still venerated as the holiest, most perfect human being to ever walk the Earth.
James W. McCarty III's excellent piece in The Christian Century points out the fact that Jesus Christ was killed by the state for threatening the socio-economic structure of the Roman Empire. Jesus built a nonviolent movement that inspired the empire's subjects to question the very nature of the system's structure, exposing the hypocrisy of the religious ruling class. He preached not of violent rebellion, but of structural changes that would make society more equal. He even reminded followers who asked him about denying the payment of taxes to "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar."
Our movement, while filled with religious and non-religious activists alike, nonetheless espouses the same fundamental philosophies of Jesus in the Gospels.
At a time when 42 percent of all financial wealth is controlled by the top 1 percent; when 400 Americans control more wealth than 155,000,000 other Americans; when billionaire financiers who wrecked the economic well-being of millions for pure profit get off scot-free and have the audacity to sit in country clubs and call the people protesting them "imbeciles," a nonviolent movement has risen to decry those acts of greed as unjust and immoral. While none of us are perfect, sinless human beings like Jesus, we still have the same message. We aren't calling for violent insurrection, but fundamental structural changes to the way society has been built.
When the rich man asked Jesus how he could find salvation, he was told to give away all of his possessions and follow him. Our solutions aren't as radical: Occupiers have no problem with people attaining wealth, as long as that wealth wasn't attained by denying a fair wage to their employees or blowing millions on high-risk financial shell games that rook honest people out of their pensions.
Instead, we're proposing common-sense reforms, like removing corporate money from elections and instituting public campaign financing. We're demanding the return of a tax burden tilted toward the super-rich, instead of the poor and middle class. We want an end to a system that rewards and encourages reckless greed, unsustainable growth and endless profits for a few, done on the backs of the many.
The mainstream media, owned by the same corporations that have made their billions in financial finagling of the tax code, loves to ridicule and marginalize our movement. Fox commentators call us unwashed radicals and vagrants, drifters with a hatred and envy of the wealthy. If Jesus were alive today, the talking heads on Fox News would undoubtedly play video footage of his attack on the money changers while accusing him of being a violent, radical religious cleric who hates capitalism. Just as today's right-wing political commentators cheer the violent police crackdowns of nonviolent protesters at Occupy encampments, they would also likely cheer the crucifixion of Jesus, a rebellious socialist who dared to question the inequalities and injustices of Roman society.
So don't fret this year, Occupiers. Truth, facts and even Scripture are all on our side.
Follow Carl Gibson on Twitter: | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-gibson/occupy-the-dinner-convers_b_1169117.html | dclm-gs1-273310002 | false | false | {
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0.064241 | <urn:uuid:75a6d647-2667-46ec-a2ef-fcc408931e34> | en | 0.836923 | Dipper's Nuggets Chicken Recipe
Dipper's Nuggets Chicken is an irresistible side dish recipe. Once you try this effortlessly prepared simple recipe at your dinner party, I bet you would surely get a huge fan following.
MethodMain Ingredient
2 whole chicken breasts, split, skinned and boned
Vegetable oil
Water1/3 Cup (16 tbs)
All purpose flour1/3 Cup (16 tbs)
Sesame seeds2 Teaspoon
Salt1 1/2 Teaspoon
Dipping Sauces
Red onion rings, for garnish
Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces.
Heat 3 inches oil in large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until oil reaches 375°F; adjust heat to maintain temperature.
Meanwhile, beat egg and water in large bowl until well mixed.
Add flour, sesame seeds and salt, stirring to form smooth batter.
Dip chicken pieces into batter, draining off excess.
Fry chicken, a few pieces at a time, in hot oil about 4 minutes or until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels. | http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/dippers-nuggets-chicken | dclm-gs1-273370002 | false | false | {
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0.352231 | <urn:uuid:e7b030d8-5334-486f-8310-7742232e9ddf> | en | 0.896181 | Yoga Relaxation Breathing Techniques Guide video
Video Description
Mounting medical evidence supports yoga's mind-body healing powers. For example, after a yoga workout you will actually have more GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in your brain, a potent anti-anxiety chemical that improves your overall feeling of well-being. Yoga is helpful for improving your metabolism and weight loss. It's even good for chasing away the blues and boosting your mood. Yoga keeps your joints young and flexible, easing the pain of arthritis and helps you move more freely as you age. And, if you suffer from fibromyalgia the stretching and meditation involved in yoga can help relieve pain and even alleviate fatigue. People with multiple sclerosis will benefit from how yoga helps build strength, reduce stiffness, improve memory and balance.
Yoga Relaxation Breathing Techniques Guide | http://www.ifood.tv/video/yoga-relaxation-breathing-techniques-guide | dclm-gs1-273380002 | false | false | {
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0.019122 | <urn:uuid:8b97a799-e64b-4458-9721-50411dcc4823> | en | 0.917696 | Sharif v. Wellness International Network
What is the standard for dismissing a motion to compel arbitration?
The Circuit Court held that when a motion to compel arbitration is made, the Court is required to rule on it first, before proceeding to rule on any other aspect of the case. Sharif, a WIN distributor sued WIN, claiming that it was an illegal pyramid scheme. WIN moved to transfer the proceeding for lack of venue, and later moved to compel arbitration under the arbitration clause contained within Sharif's distributor agreement with the company. The District Court ruled the arbitration motion was superfluous because the motion to transfer venue was already before the court. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit ruled that the district court erred in not ruling on the motion to compel arbitration. The Federal Arbitration Act requires a judge to first consider any motion to compel arbitration before ruling on any other dispositive motions. Further, despite the district judges ruling, the claims of the multiple parties could not be aggregated to defeat the contractually imposed limit of $100,000 for claims subject to arbitration. Such limits only apply to the dollar values of individual claims.
Full case and case summary also available online at:
Reference Info: Federal, 7th Circuit, Illinois | United States | http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/what-is-the-standard-for-dismissing-a-mo-58008/ | dclm-gs1-273490002 | false | false | {
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0.326282 | <urn:uuid:4f1bcfe5-dbfe-44fd-b93d-60a61b3b3ac3> | en | 0.939619 | Crema and the laws of physics
August 9th, 2008
It took me a while to notice that one of the prettiest things about espresso was a little bit confusing.
Watch this video and perhaps you will see what I mean:
In theory it doesn’t make sense. The bubbles contain CO2, which is much less dense than coffee so they should be rising quite quickly and not falling. What would make a bubble sink instead of float? You’ll see the same thing happening if you watch a pint of Guinness settle out – and it was their research that gave me the answer to this question.
What is happening is that plenty of bubbles of crema are rising, but they are rising predominantly in the middle of the shot glass and the pressure they create as they rapidly rise effectively sucks down the smaller bubbles close to the walls of the glass. There is nice explanation of Guinness here (with pictures!)
Another mystery solved…..
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18 Responses to “Crema and the laws of physics”
1. [...] Original Film School Rejects | Movie News, Movie Reviews and Unsolicited Attitude [...]
2. Mark says:
Nice find, James. Brings another dimension to the “Guinness Effect” comment about settling crema. They look similar because they ARE similar.
3. hugo says:
Far be it for me to disagree with the Guinness marketiers….I think they’re wrong and something more simple and logical is happening.
I’ll try and explain, but I’ve had a beer so bear with me…
1-Crema is made of bubbles of various sizes, all very, very small and on exiting the pf spout, in a ‘suspension’ of sorts in the coffee liquid.
2-Coffee is a viscous liquid that drags bubbles with it and in the video liquid can be seen flowing down the glass edge, not because it’s being sucked down by bubbles rising in the centre of the glass (although this is happening) it’s merely moving relative to the bigger, less dense bubbles..
3-All bubbles are lighter than the coffee therefore all want to rise above the coffee and do.
4-A tiny bubbly is relatively heavy compared to a bigger bubble. The bubbles seen moving down are merely sinking relative to the bigger bubbles which can be seen as clumps of immobile crema. The important thing is it’s all relative. Tiny bubbles sink below bigger bubbles but all the bubbles stay above the liquid.
As proof.. try stretching milk badly (unevenly), let it settle for a minute, then dig a spoon in. As you dig down the bubbles get smaller and finer and the layers are even from the centre to the edges. Just next to the fully liquid milk you’ll find the smoothest, silkiest foam.
It got there by rising the slowest through the milk because it’s the heaviest relative to the bigger, faster rising bubbles.
Clear as mud, maybe, but right.
4. [...] I mean: A question of crema from James Hoffmann on Vimeo. In theory it doesn??t make sense. The b World Tech Web DesignAnother world Tech specializes in Web Design & Hosting, and we offer [...]
5. Matt says:
Hugo I completely agree with you, and was my theory before even reading your response. There is only so much espresso and the bubbles that are larger rise quicker too.
6. I’m not so sure the Guinness theory is correct either, or rather too simple to answer a much more complicated process that is espresso.
While technically they are correct, there is drag on the side of the glass, the surface area of the glass relative to the overall volume of liquid in the cup shouldn’t be significant enough to create a change in the potential energy of the movement of bubbles which are contained in a lubricant. Espresso is a much heavier liquid than Guinness with more resistance for the movement of air molecules within the crema.
The same is true of the smaller bubbles theory. Yes, smaller bubbles should fall if their overall mass is higher than the other components of the crema phase of the espresso. I believe the answer lies in the polyphasic nature of espresso and that liquid is being continually added to the espresso until brewing is completed. Adding liquid means heavy components of the liquid need to sink amid the rising components. Those heavy components might include mechanically unmixed oils and parts of the woody matrix of the bean which come to form the crema phase of the espresso. It is likely these components are influencing the motion. But to question the original premise, that air should always rise begets the definition of espresso as an emulsion of CO2, oils and brewing water. The specific gravity of the emulsified oils compared to the other components interacting in the crema theoretically should also influence the overall visual effect…
not an answer I am satisfied with either, but when it comes to crema in espresso I think a simple answer cannot account for all the processes :)
7. hugo says:
Erm… yeah. Matrix futtock orthodoxy theory me thinks…
8. [...] wondered why the bubbles in the crema sink as a shot is being pulled. James Hoffman, WBC 2007, answered this puzzlement in his blog, The ensuing article on the Guinness Effect is [...]
9. Richard Kirton says:
@Hugo, And there’s me thinking fluid dynamics is a complicated subject!
10. Arthur Wynne says:
so i was watching food network this evening and alton was talking about bernoullis principle,which i thought only involved how planes fly, low pressure-high pressure=lift….well he also has an equation that explains fluid dynamics on wiki so if you scroll down the page theres an explanation about viscosity,theres an in depth explanation of what hugo was talking about.theres a lot to read on the viscosity section.quite interesting.there are a load of links on liquids,gases and temperature which is all relative to espresso ,happy reading
11. Tomasz Nguyen says:
on a slightly different note, when are you going to rid of you records? I’m after one, badly :)
12. Chris Weybright says:
should we not also consider that many of the bubbles are in the process of bursting, and becoming part of the liquid portion of the shot/sinking to find their level?
13. Sarah Dooley says:
That was simple and really cool. Thanks.
14. i have to admit ; i miss your posts. i understand, but meanwhile i’m hoping to hear more about you in the future. always interesting.
15. Humberto says:
I was thinking along the same lines as Chris there. Surely some of what we’re seeing is the “coffee” draining off the surface of the bubbles as well as their “liquefying”.
16. Ishida says:
I think it’s not the bubbles that are sinking, It’s the liquid itself that’s sinking and the bubbles are rising, merging and acomodating…
17. Sebastian Storholm says:
Neat, another (almost) useless fact I can pester lesser minds with! ^^
18. alex says:
Hmm, I’m not convinced. The bubbles act the same way only in NITROGEN draft beer–they’re unusually tiny and flow down, unlike carbonation bubbles which are larger and rise. Most coffee containers are nitrogen flushed to preserve oils/flavor/prevent oxidation. Maybe this nitrogen is getting into the espresso, causing the same effect.
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T4vols writes:
Why can we not get enough money to keep our school teachers employed?? Ohh I see, Now I get it!!!
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Realist writes:
in response to realthingtn:
Of course casinos is the reason for the legislation. Why should NC get all of the tax revenue. Never leave a dime on the table. Let's have riverboat gambling.
The most expensive, biggest, and nicest buildings are always banks, insurance, and casinos in any city. All three are in the business of taking your money and screwing you! I will gladly thank all the people that lose their money and increase our tax revenue.
| http://www.knoxnews.com/comments/reply/?target=61:345964&comment=2147101 | dclm-gs1-273570002 | false | false | {
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DoctorWho (Inactive) writes:
"While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has supported the ban on gays"
It absolutely saddens and dumbfounds me that in this day and age, a phrase like that can even exist, a "ban on" an entire group of people, how sad that we still go around banning people simply because of who they are. Just imagine if they tried to ban black people, or red headed people or people of Italian heritage.
| http://www.knoxnews.com/comments/reply/?target=61:419261&comment=2540478 | dclm-gs1-273590002 | false | false | {
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0.120381 | <urn:uuid:60ad097c-876b-439f-af2c-d2aa5ac7365e> | en | 0.972937 | But what about artists who have tied themselves up for five or six albums and want to make a dramatic leap in royalty rate or guarantee amounts? Do they have any leverage?
If artists don't feel they are being paid enough, they could delay delivery of their next album--something that would hurt them financially but would also hurt the company because it wants the profits from that album.
If that doesn't work, there's always the threat of the controversial seven-year statute.
To challenge multi-album deals that could conceivably bind artists forever, attorneys pointed to provisions of a longstanding California law that stipulates that entertainers cannot be tied up by a company for more than seven years.
The statute was specifically designed about 50 years ago to free actors from long-term studio deals, but record industry attorneys have adopted it for their purposes.
"Artists looking for better terms who still owe the company five albums after seven years come to me and they say, 'I'll be dead and in my grave before I finish this contract,' " Engel says.
Though the statute is open to wide interpretation, it appears to be a powerful weapon because record companies don't want to test it in court. If they were to lose, it could trigger a wholesale exit of artists. So the companies often try simply to sweeten the deals.
Four years ago, the Recording Industry Assn. of America--the organization that represents most of the major U.S. record companies--asked the California Legislature to extend the duration of contractual obligations for entertainers to 10 years.
Although the lobbying effort failed, it did succeed in securing an amendment that grants record firms the right to sue and recover damages for any product still owed the company by a performer opting to break his or her contract by invoking the seven-year statute.
"Speaking from a company standpoint, I think the seven-year law is very unfair," says Capitol-EMI's Smith. "If I make a deal for a certain amount of records, and I pay the money to get that amount of records, I think the artist is under obligation to deliver those records. But nobody wants to test it. Everybody does their best to avoid it."
One way around the impasse, Smith believes, will be the adoption of one-album contracts for superstars, leaving them free to shop each new album around if they wish, the way an actor or actress can move from studio to studio for each movie.
"We've always had the advantage in this industry of having exclusive rights to artists' recordings for an extended period of time," Smith says. "But those days may be nearing an end--at least in terms of superstars."
In fact, Engel negotiated a one-album deal for the rock group Boston with MCA Records in 1986 and the arrangement worked well enough that the group and the record company just signed another one-album deal.
Despite all the talk about superstar deals, record industry executives seem united in one point: The healthiest way to build a company is to sign and develop new artists rather than to try to throw big bucks after superstars.
Even Virgin's Branson agrees:
"Over the years, Virgin has built a reputation for developing new talent . . . people from out in the streets who we feel have a unique talent: Lenny Kravitz, Neneh Cherry, UB40, the Divinyls, Paula Abdul."
Clive Davis, whose luring to Columbia of Neil Diamond from MCA Records in the early '70s is often pointed to as the first of the high-priced superstar signings, also emphasizes the importance of building new artists.
"Experience has shown that the major-dollar-guarantee deals that people have made--whether it was for Paul McCartney as a solo artist or the Rolling Stones--have lost money," says Davis, who now heads Arista Records. "I've always felt the only way to have a successful company was to sign artists from scratch or to reach out for artists who might be (underachieving) at another label. I've never done it by way of way outbidding other people. . . . Take the Neil Diamond deal for instance. I paid $400,000 an album for 10 albums, which was exactly what other companies were offering."
A&M's Cafaro, whose company lost Janet Jackson to Virgin, believes that sinking millions into superstar deals is counterproductive.
"The time, energy and money spent on these mega-deals detract from new artist development," he says. "Not only do they cause severe morale problems with other artists on the label, they can end up causing the superstar to be viewed more as a profit-and-loss statement on the company's ledger sheet than as a creative human being."
At the same time, most record executives acknowledge that they're not going to sit on their hands the next time a superstar free agent becomes available.
Tony Attanasio, a San Diego attorney who has specialized in sports contract negotiations for 20 years, says he sees a parallel between what is happening now in the record business and what happened in the sports world in the '70s and '80s.
"I heard precisely the same doomsday argument from the baseball team owners back in 1974," says Attanasio, who represents such baseball stars as Oakland pitcher Dave Stewart and St. Louis first baseman Pedro Guerrero. "The baseball owners say, 'Oh, the sky's going to fall. These prices are going to drive us out of business. The players are going to ruin the sport. The fans will stop coming to the games.' I've heard all the arguments, but the fact is, they're just not true. Free-agent deals in baseball have not destroyed the game, and they won't destroy the music industry. . . .
"In our society, the market dictates what an artist is worth. If the fans keep coming to the games and keep buying the records, then the companies will have to pay the artists the amount of money that they are worth. The owners may not like it, but that's how capitalism works." | http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-jackson-archive-big-deals-jun16-2001,0,7505653.story?page=5 | dclm-gs1-273630002 | false | false | {
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0.054068 | <urn:uuid:e0a4b52b-3593-4a38-8c28-252fc7e988c8> | en | 0.988555 | The Babysitter Spanks Jack and Jill
By harrylime
Original link:
Tags: Incest, anal, spanking, bisexual, masturbation, oral
Added: 15 Jul 2011 Views: 17667 Avg Score: -
Her Mom knew exactly where to touch her to make her tremble with sexual excitement every time.
Brandi had been a babysitter, like, forever.
Her Dad was a Gynecologist and had his own private practice in a Doctor's office park not far from their home. All her friends told her she was lucky to have a Doctor for a Father and Brandi knew it was true. Her Daddy had a library of books loaded with pictures of female and male private parts that made her feel all tingly down below between her legs. She had turned 17 on her last birthday and would be going to State University in the Fall.
Her two younger siblings were both 16. Only 18 months younger than her. Still, she was expected to be the responsible one and look out for Jack and Jill at all times. Jack was a handsome young boy. He was quite big for his age and played outside linebacker on the football team.
Brandi was still mad at him because he had tormented both her and his twin sister, Jill, incessantly bragging about his new "non-virgin" status. He delighted in giving the details of his nailing that stupid cheerleader slut, Cindi Johnson, after the game on Friday night. She had to admit the details were sordid but did serve to make her panties wet each time he described what he did to the 17 year old head cheerleader. Brandi had seen Cindi naked many times in the locker room and she was well aware of the dirty blonde's luscious tits and ass. One time she had peeked into the gym office and saw the little slut Cindi bending over the desk with the coach's huge cock sliding in and out of her pussy from behind. Brandi was ashamed in remembering how she had frigged her own slit watching through the blinds.
Jill had cried the last time Jack had regaled them with his sexual exploits. Brandi did her best to console the young girl, but Jill told her it was not the crudity of her twin brother's words; it was the fact that silly Cindi had taken Jack's cherry. Jill whispered in her ear that right after their dual 16th birthday party last month, she realized she wanted both she and her brother to lose their cherries together right after school was out. Now, because of that slut Cindi, it would not happen.
Brandi was not shocked. In fact, she longed to stroke Jack's beautiful cock herself. She wondered if poor Jack realized he had two sure things sleeping in the next room each and every night. She told Jill that Jack would quickly tire of Cindi as he would find out she was such a sleep with any one slut bitch.
Her Mom was a massage therapist and worked at the Serenity Spa on the other side of town. Sometimes, her Mom would give her a "deep tissue massage" that caused her female juices to spill out of her virgin pussy lips. Her Mom knew exactly where to touch her to make her tremble with sexual excitement and she would always give her a "Happy Ending" to each and every massage. They never discussed it and Brandi figured her Mom enjoyed it as much as she did. Brandi wished that someday she would learn how to do a good massage and she could make her Mother feel real good.
She decided to give a massage to Jill just like the ones her Mom gave to her. For some strange reason, Mom had never given a massage to either Jack or Jill. Brandi figured it was because they were so active and sports minded, they didn't need any special care like that.
Jill laid out on the table face down with her head in the hole to reduce strain on her neck muscles.
Brandi spread the baby oil all over Jill's nicely tanned back and began to massage the young girl's back and shoulder muscles. Jill groaned in pleasure at the touch of Brandi's firm hands rubbing deep into her skin. Soon, Brandi had worked her way down Jill's back to the base of her spine.
"Jill, I got to get these panties off so they don't get all oily, OK?"
Jill was breathing somewhat rapidly and grunted her assent. She lifted her hips off the table so Brandi could remove her panties. When Brandi slid them down her legs, she noticed they were dripping wet in the front. She brought them up to her nostrils and inhaled the scent of aroused femininity and sticky pussy juices.
She smiled and ran her tongue over the damp panties getting the taste of Jill's virgin pussy for the first time. Quickly, she oiled her hands and stroked Jill's hips and ran her fingers lightly up over her full ass cheeks pulsing them like a vibrator all over the heart-shaped perfect little ass. Jill was making little whiny sounds into the table hole and Brandi could see her pussy lips quivering like a bride waiting for her first insertion. The elder sister pulled her younger sister's ass cheeks apart exposing the throbbing pucker hole begging for attention. Brandi slid one hand under her sister and began to play with Jill's excited nipple. At the same time, she pushed her middle finger deep into her sister's anus and finger fucked her shaking ass.
Jill's whines had changed into a steady panting grunt as Brandi worked her ass hard with her finger. She slammed down into the massage table and rubbed her pubis to give relief to her convulsing clitoris. Jill went rigid and her panting grunts stopped as her orgasm made her howl like roiled up banshee at midnight.
Brandi clapped her hand over Jill's mouth and told her to be quiet.
It was too late. Jack stuck his head in the door and exclaimed,
"What the fuck is going on in here?"
He saw Jill naked on the table and could smell the overpowering scent of her squirting sex. Brandi could only stand there and look guilty as sin.
Jack came in and bent Brandi back over the table.
"What are you doing to my twin sister?"
Jill looked up, embarrassed at being naked in front of her brother.
"It's all right, Jack. Brandi is just giving me a nice massage. I feel so much better now."
Jack looked at Brandi standing there with oil dripping from her fingers. He looked at Jill in a state of complete sexual satisfaction and he figured out the rest.
"Well, girls. You are both going to have to give Jack boy his special massage or I will tell Mom and Dad. I want what Jill got and I want you both to give it to me."
Jack started to strip off without waiting for any answer. Both of his sister's could see his cock was excited and already dripping pre-cum making his boxer shorts wet. He laid face down on the massage table and Brandi and Jill looked at each other. Now was the time to get him for his "virgin" jokes at their expense.
They both oiled their hands up with the baby oil and started to work their way down Jack's back. Brandi on one side and Jill on the other. When they got down to Jack's bottom, Brandi dug her fingers in real deep and stretched her brother's ass cheeks wide open. Jill slid her fingers up and down Jack's hairless crack and probed his tiny anus with her thumb. Brandi felt underneath and got Jack's hard cock in her hand. She stroked it really fast and spanked him with her other hand. Jill started to spank his other ass cheek and he soon had a pair of very red ass cheeks. Jack was groaning now as Brandi's hand had brought him to the edge of his release. Quickly, he turned over and both girls could see his cock begin to spurt out long streams of white creamy cum. They were so close to him, that the sticky liquid shot into both of their faces and onto their swinging titties.
The sisters laughed and giggled at the sticky mess all over them. Even Jack had a good laugh. Jack took each of them over his knee and spanked them good and proper until they apologized for treating him mean.
Then Brandi put Jill over her knee for enjoying her massage a little too much. The sound of her hand slapping into Jill's springy ass was sheer music. Jack loved the show and stroked Jill's pussy until she went into a second orgasm over Brandi's knee.
In order to be fair, Brandi had Jack bend over and lick Jill's pussy as she administered the same discipline to his naughty ass cheeks. It was so nice to hear Jack's slurps as he went deep into her little pussy with his long tongue. The sound of her hard spanks on Jack's ass were meaty and nasty just the way they should be.
Both Jack and Jill promised Brandi that they would mind their manners from now on. In turn, she promised to give each of them special massages just the way her Mama had showed her. | http://www.lushstories.com/stories/incest/the-babysitter-spanks-jack-and-jill.aspx/print | dclm-gs1-273720002 | false | false | {
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0.021469 | <urn:uuid:a8b4780c-4c2f-44fc-9dfa-db8cdc324218> | en | 0.969308 | Increasing the Property Value
My wife and I have been trying to sell our house for a few months now. Even though we know the market is terrible we wanted to try and unload our house so that we can invest heavily in gold and silver. I had been fixing up the place for awhile so the property value could increase, but we have not had one single offer. We’re a bit dismayed buy my wife is also an eternal optimist. She decided to spruce up the lawn with some cool looking garden accents, which gave our home some instant increased curb appeal.
And wouldn’t you know it, our real estate agent got a few calls. No offers yet of course, but it seems that some tender loving care really does go along way. I also decided to put a new roof on the place, and since I know how to do this, I will be saving a ton of money. But my wife immediately decided that she wanted to do some shopping with these savings. She decided to buy more garden decor with the hopes that we would get even more calls about the house. All of our time and money is being consumed by this place, so we really hope that increasing the property value pays off.
Types of Dumpsters Indianapolis
Dumpster is a large steel waste receptacle designed to be emptied into the garbage trucks. The main purpose of the dumpster is to store rubbish until it is emptied by garbage truck and disposed of. It is used for all kinds of waste and for recycling purpose. Most of the business, buildings, schools, offices etc have one or more dumpster indianapolis to store the waste which is generated. It is emptied by front loading garbage trucks. There are also dumpsters which are small and are emptied by rear loading trucks. Dumpsters Indianapolis has different type of dumpsters for dumping different type of wastes.
Dumpsters are distinguished by their size, the method of loading and the method of transportation. Front load dumpsters are one type of dumpsters which are similar in size to rear load dumpsters. The difference is in the management by the dump truck. Front loader has a slot on each side that the dump trucks stick in front spikes into. The spikes lock in place, and the receptacle is lifted over the truck and dumped into the top of the rear garbage container. Rear load dumpsters have a more complicated mechanism which involves a hinge system and a winch. The two poles that extend laterally out of the front lip of the receptacle are locked in place right above the bottom lip of the opening in the back of the dump truck. A hook which is attached to a winch on the truck is then fastened to a hole on the back lip of the receptacle. The hook pulls it up until all the refuse falls into the cavity of the dump truck. Roll off dumpsters are another type of dumpsters which has large capacity and are loaded either with robotic arm or a winch or metal sled. The robotic arm system simply grabs a hook on the end of the receptacle and pulls it onto the bed of the truck.
Dumpsters Indianapolis also has residential dumpsters that are utilized for projects around the house, office or for any personalized situation. Dumpsters are rented by residents and it is left in the drive way of the home or in parking lot outside any business. Residential dumpsters are also used for environmental purposes such as waste disposal in high traffic area, outside the office, besides the building in order to reduce unnecessary litter in a specified area. Residential dumpsters are smaller in size in comparison to the construction dumpsters.
Saving money by buying used gym equipment
If you plan to establish your own home gym, consider buying used gym equipment as a means of saving money. As you might be aware, some new equipment like a treadmill can be quite costly.
Some people are under the miscomprehension that all the used pieces of gym equipment would not function properly or would not last long. In truth, if you check out some of the used equipment, which are on sale, they are more or less new. Not all of them have been used for years before being sold off as used machines.
The trick is to hunt for the more or less new equipment. With the advent of the internet, searching for any used exercise equipment, which is relatively new, is not at all difficult. There are many individuals and companies, which sell second hand equipment in the virtual world these days. It does not matter whether you are looking for a second hand treadmill, an exercise bike or any other piece of gym equipment.
You can find it in the virtual world. Simply spend a few hours of your time to check out a number of online advertisements or websites. Then, you might be able to find the equipment of your choice for a good price in spite of its pristine condition. | http://www.mama-press.com/ | dclm-gs1-273740002 | false | false | {
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