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Watch Survivor Redemption Island Season 22 Episode 11: A Mystery Package Online S22e11 Free Stream Megavideo Article by StreamThatSeries Horray!time for another dose of very exciting reality series with lots of twists.You must watch survivor redemption island season 22 episode 11 tonight with a title of “Mystery Package” coz surely this will stir things up on the merge tribe murlonio. But in case you will the episode on your television set at home , just follow through the link here to watch survivor redemption island season 22 episode 11 a mystery package online for free at anyhotstuff.com Here’s some sort or recaps and tidbits for last week’s episode: 5. Rice Capades – I don’t really know where to begin with talking about Phillip this week. I know that I certainly don’t want to use the c-word to describe Phillip’s behavior. However, through all of the histrionics in this episode, one thing is clear: You can no longer make the argument that Phillip is playing a game with any sort of strategy. Phillip told us last week that his intention was to get Boston Rob to want Phillip next to him at the end of the game. However, at this point Phillip is not showing any signs that winning this game is his objective at all. Phillip is certainly entitled to having an opinion and feeling the way he does but part of being a good Survivor player is occasionally hiding your feelings in the interests of winning the game. Phillip’s aggressive behavior has all but assured himself a zero percent chance at the million dollars. Even if Phillip makes it to the final three, he would need five votes to win the game. Considering that there will likely be five Zapatera tribe members on the jury, this incident is going to stick to Phillip like a certain color on rice. 4. The Great Divide – Besides for Phillip, I think the most unique thing about this season of Survivor is the lack of a merge. Oh, it technically happened, but this is the only season of Survivor I can remember where the merged tribe not only has a separate alliance but separate shelters and separate food rations too. Actually, this isn’t that uncommon, I know a lot of people in bad marriages who live the same way. The big question going forward will be how much will the Zapateras hold Boston Rob accountable for being shut out to this degree? Phillip has done a lot to take the heat off of Rob but don’t be surprised if at the end of the game, the Zapatera tribe continues to act as a group and completely vote together for whomever treated them best – which is why I maintain one of the three Ometepe women have a great shot to win this game. 3. Saving Sheppard – This season, I have spent much more time breaking down Boston Rob’s decisions in the game than any of the other players. In my opinion, Rob has far more control in this game than any other Survivor may have had at this point in history. Since Rob is controlling the vote, did Rob make the right move by keeping Phillip this week? On the one hand, he realizes that getting rid of Phillip would end a lot of the drama around camp and may even create some goodwill among the remaining Zapateras. Instead, Rob chose to keep Phillip around for another week and I agree with his decision. Phillip Sheppard is the best thing that happened to Boston Rob this season because Phillip’s distractions keep everybody from thinking about the game. When Phillip is going off about rice, feathers or kung fu, nobody is ever asking themselves about their position in the tribe or some big move they’re going to make – and that’s exactly how Boston Rob wants it to be. 2. Tribal Counseling – It was no surprise that the feud between Phillip and Steve spilled over in to this week’s tribal council. I thought that Jeff Probst showed why he is the best host on television by exploring both sides of the debate. What I still don’t understand is what happened to Phillip’s shirt? Has there ever been a Survivor contestant to attend tribal council topless before? Now with Julie gone the prospects seem pretty slim that Phillip will ever find his bathing suit. Phillip now can only hope to win a reward at some point to find the first clue to the hidden bathing suit. 1. Three’s Company – This week we had our first ever three-way duel on Redemption Island, which ended in Mike and Matt moving on and David getting eliminated. I think the top 2 people advancing at Redemption Island seems like it would help Matt in his quest to return to the game since it seems unlikely he would ever come in last (unless the duel involved having a strategy of some sort). Unfortunately, it looks like Redemption Island is starting to really take its toll on Matt. In Matt’s prayers he says that he doesn’t want to be on Survivor anymore but is simply carrying out God’s will. You would think that having an extra person on Redemption Island might help cheer Matt up a little bit, but apparently Mike Chisel isn’t that great of a roommate. What you waiting for, watch Survivor: Redemption Island season 22 Episode 11 a Mystery Package Survivor: Redemption Tropical isle Year twenty-two Event 11: We all Can’t stand A lot of our Tribe is currently approaching globally regarding tv set landscape an important subject due to this usually are We all Dislike Much of our Tribe. So that it signifies usual account a single tribe has long been dislike other tribe the reason why? Inside the landscape with the Survivor: Redemption Tropical isle Month or year twenty-two Show 11 On line aboard just what occur inside this landscape. He together with Kristina duel at Redemption Island. On the Ometepe campy, tribe unity commences to help you out unravel. Thus test in order to savor Survivor: Redemption Tropical isle Length twenty-two Show 11 online. Survivor: Redemption Tropical area Period twenty-two Show 11:. Of which CBS Survivor: Redemption Tropical isle 22?11 show on tv alongside subject We all Can’t stand Many of our Tribe Survivor: Redemption Tropical isle Season twenty-two Event 11: EVERY Puzzle Deal. This particular CBS Survivor: Redemption Tropical isle 22?11 show on tv combined with subject ANY Puzzle Package deal shown about Saturday, Annual percentage rates 29 2011 for 08: 00 EVENING HOURS. This can be a new conclusion regarding Survivor: Redemption Tropical isle Year or so twenty-two Event 11: VIRTUALLY ANY Puzzle Deal: About Redemption Tropical isle, He will be having a mechanical disappointment, one more castaway will be voted through your video game. Previous shows: Episode 10 “Rice Wars” Phillip and also Steve clash. Episode 9 “The Colleague System” Rob tries to be able to secure an Ometepe connections, but Grant may really do the one to jeopardize the item. Survivor is an American version of this Survivor reality television sport show, itself derived from the Swedish television series Journey Robinson originally created in 1997 by Charlie Parsons. This series premiered on May perhaps 31, 2000 on CBS. It can be hosted by veteran television system personality, reporter and one-time performance show emcee Jeff Probst, who might be also an executive designer, and also executive that is caused by Mark Burnett and main creator Charlie Parsons. WATCH HERE : Watch Survivor: Redemption Island Season 22 Episode 11 The show maroons a small grouping strangers (as one or longer tribes) in a destitute locale, where they ought to provide food, water, open fire, and shelter for themselves, while competing in challenges to earn either a reward, or an immunity from expulsion from the game yearly of the successive votes for elimination. While a great deal rarer than elimination by vote, medical conditions, such as injury or infection, need eliminated several contestants. The last 2 or three survivors face a jury historically made from at least the final seven players voted shut off. That jury interrogates one last few, and then votes for those winner of the distinction of Sole Survivor in addition to a million dollar prize. The first U. S. season of Survivor followed identical general format as the particular Swedish series, but, subsequently, the show has introduced several twists over the core rules to keep the players on their toes and prevent players from influenced by strategies that succeeded with prior seasons. These alters have included tribal buttons, seasons starting with well over two tribes, the abil vity to exile a gamer from a tribe for a few days, and hidden immun ity idols that players are able to use to save themselves for tribal council. Season 22 It season’s cast features typically the return of Rob MICHAEL. and Russell. This is Russell’s third time for the show and Rob METERS. ‘s fourth. It is the very first time in the show’s hist ory that your cont estant has played several individual times. This per iod also feat ures two past NFL players (Grant and also Steve). CBS today annou nced 16 of 18 castaw ays who will compete against each additi onal on SURV IVOR: REDEMPTI ON TROPICAL ISLAND, when the Em my Award-win ning series returns as for the 22nd season, Wednesday, February. 16 (8: 00-9: 00 EVENING, ET/PT) on the CBS Video Network. Two of your 18 cas taways, to be reve aled later this 7-day period, are form er casta ways who will return to seek redemption. This edition of SURVI VOR will include a new twist when, for when, castaways who have been elimi nated th rough the ga me will have possibi lity to seek rede mption and re turn for the opport unity to win the mil lion mone tary prize. Each week at Tribal Coun cil beca use a cast away is vot ed from, they will be brou ght to an isola ted isl and gen erally known as “Rede mption Isla nd, ” where they ‘ll live alo ne in ex ile. To last on Redempt ion Isla nd, they must com pete in a duel about the next person elimin ated wit hin Tr ibal Cou ncil and pumped to the Island. The winner of each duel earns an appro priate to contin ue figh ting for ena ble you to retu rn to the game and the chance to compete for the subj ect of Sole Sur vivor; the part icular los er is sent hou se. The bat tle unfolds in Nica ragua where 18 casta ways will pos sibly be divi ded into two Trib es of nine: the Omet epe Tr ibe and then the Zapatera Tribe. The tr ibes are derived from indivi duals fro m all dif ferent bac kgrounds aid ed by the same ultimate goal: for being the Sole Survi vor. While 16 of yo ur cont estants are new to the competi tion, two are former castaways that will be gi ven an other opportu nity to com pete for the million dollar prize andf the other last shot at redem ption. About the Author Watch FULL EPISODE here for Free

‘Silent Hill: Revelation 3D’ Review As far as sub-literate, incomprehensible pieces of garbage are concerned, ‘Silent Hill: Revelation 3D‘ is one of the year’s best. With an asinine plot, risible dialogue and atrocious acting, this sequel to a half-remembered video game adaptation still manages to provide a great number of base thrills with its nightmarish imagery. As such it is a quagmire of dread both within and without, disturbing to watch and to think about. This makes for a strange alchemy: in time you identify with the lead character (a young woman in peril) not because you are engaged with the film, but because enduring such an atrocity becomes its own act of survival. How ’bout that for a neat trick, eh? Which isn’t to say ‘Silent Hill: Revelation 3D’ isn’t gorgeous to look at. I have almost no recollection of the first film, other than a handful of striking images. That’s back again: the snow, walls of skin, faceless undead, buildings disintegrating into ash, contorted mannequins and an enormous bruiser with a metal pyramid over its head. Whether popping out of shadows for jump-scares or merely lined up in a tableaux, they are creepy and mysterious and get under your skin more so, frankly, than any other disturbing images in a mainstream horror film released this year. Even the “normal” scenes, the blue collar town and its mundane interiors, are saturated with bright, bold colors. There’s such a fine attention to the look (and sound, if your theater has nice speakers) it is shocking that the filmmakers would allow such truly wretched dialogue. It’s just a few scenes in, when Sean Bean is having some sort of flashback with the previous film’s Radha Mitchell, where the belly laughs come. The words trip from their mouths like when little kids pretend at acting in a classical play. But in time you’ll put together that our lead, young Adelaide Clemens (playing 17 but, no offense, she could pass for 32) [Ed. note: she's 22] must not ever, ever, ever go to the mysterious town of Silent Hill. This is made abundantly clear. Yet when strange creatures begin following her, such as twitching, skinned, faceless creatures and, worse, Martin Donovan in a ruffled raincoat, loose tie and dirty hat, it’s only a matter of time before she hits the road. Ostensibly she’s searching for her father (Bean) who is tied up in some ‘Flash Gordon’-ish chamber, but she’ll quickly discover that her visit will lead to an epic battle between good and evil, summoning a dormant spirit and…I dunno…there’s something to do with a giant coin that, when shoved into Malcolm McDowell’s chest does something to unleash….something. Even with Jon Snow from ‘Game of Thrones‘ hammering us with exposition in a really strange Canadian accent (though the film is set within a night’s drive of West Virginia,) I’m fairly certain that there is no one person out there that can explain the entirety of the baffling plot to ‘Silent Hill: Revelation 3D.’ I’m sure the video game purists will delight in all the boxes that need to be ticked before elevating to the next level; the rest of us will just wonder where the hell they’re running now. The thing is that with better acting and a reevaluation of the script, you could almost take this movie seriously. Many of the scenes have a ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’ vibe, but whereas David Lynch will intentionally derail the narrative to evoke an uncomfortable response, ‘Silent Hill: Revelation 3D’ does it all au naturale. The overall disconnect (one minute an atmospheric ‘Carnival of Souls,’ the next minute unreleasable trash) is something that, I must confess, I enjoyed, but that is because I admire the occasional baffling moviegoing experience. Your mileage up this hill, as they say, may vary. ‘Silent Hill: Revelation 3D’ is now playing in theaters. Jordan Hoffman is a writer, critic and lapsed filmmaker living in New York City. His work can also be seen on Film.com, Badass Digest and StarTrek.com.

Yep – It’s Another Do I Have To Dance All Night Post Sometime in the past 24 hours, the Heck Of A Guy-produced Do I Have To Dance All Night video1 passed 30,000 views (see above screenshot). (The Heck Of A Guy video of the 1980 version of Do I Have To Dance All Night has logged 9,663 views.) Cue the festivities: Woo Hoo After all, 30,000 views on YouTube, a site where videos displaying cats performing cuteness beneath misspelled captions ring up millions of views isn’t much to email home about. In fact, while an unbiased self-assessment may be intrinsically impossible, my best efforts in that spirit would hold that the personal significance of reaching this YouTube milestone breaks down to - Self-adulatory braggadocio – 20% - Rationalization for publishing yet another post about Do I Have To Dance All Night – 80% Indeed, spreading the awareness of Do I Have To Dance All Night, Leonard Cohen’s dandy, underappreciated song has become a moral imperative for this site. The title of the first Heck Of A Guy post featuring this song (on July 6th, 2006) is revelatory: Do I Have To Dance All Night – The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard, I could then legitimately report … even someone who was a Big Leonard Cohen Fan probably hadn’t heard Do I Have To Dance All Night,2AKA The Best Leonard Cohen Song You’ve (Probably) Never Heard, unless he or she were 1. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who went to the right concerts in the late ’70s or 2. A Big Leonard Cohen Fan who bought his or her 45s in Central Europe or 3..2 Indeed, Do I Have To Dance All Night was and continues to be available only as a seven inch single that was originally recorded at a 1976 concert in Paris and pressed in Holland for sale in Central European countries.3 And, I have repeatedly pointed out that this is a great, altogether wonderful Leonard Cohen. Heck Of A Guy hosts items about the semi-funky 1976 version of the song with Laura Branigan and the 1980 more gypsy, less disco rendition, videos constructed for both of these versions (1976 Do I Have To Dance All Night Video and 1980 Do I Have To Dance All Night Video), a groom singing Do I Have To Dance All Night at his wedding reception, a Christmas download of a MP3 of the song, and 30+ more. So, 30,000 views of a song by a singer routinely said to have a cult following, a song that singer most recently performed over 30 years ago, a song that was only briefly released in 1976 as a 7 inch single in central Europe, a song that existed on the 2006 iteration of the internet in obscure bootlegs and as a single, hideously flawed MP3 in file-sharing systems … ain’t bad. The crusade continues. Leonard Cohen – Do I Have To Dance All Night (1976 version) - Do I Have To Dance All Night is also the 1st Heck Of A Guy video; there are currently more than 4o such videos dealing with Leonard Cohen. [↩] - According to the Wikipedia, “Cohen wanted to include “Misty Blue”/”Do I Have to Dance All Night” as a free bonus single with the [Recent Songs] LP, but Columbia, his record company, rejected the idea.” [↩] - Do I Have To Dance All Night is Side A on the single; Side B features “The Butcher,” which is available on the Songs From a Room album. [↩] I agree, it is an addictive song. Very sexy. I wonder if LC ever hums it to himself?

Rhonda D. McLaughlin vs Bank of America – Sandusky Woman Sues Bank of America Over “Robo-” Foreclosure Since we are on the subject of BOA today, here is another little gem… Sandusky woman sues bank over “robo-” foreclosure A Sandusky woman filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming the foreclosure of her North Larchmont Drive home was spurred on by “robo-signing,” where bank employees signed affidavits without bothering to review documents. Rhonda D. McLaughlin filed her lawsuit against Bank of America, N.A., and Rhonda Weston, a vice president of Bank of America. Fannie Mae and Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray also are named as defendants in the suit. Sandusky attorney Dan McGookey, a foreclosure specialist, is McLaughlin’s attorney. It may be the first lawsuit filed in the U.S. by a private citizen seeking to undo an already completed foreclosure on grounds that a robo-signer was used, McGookey said. McLaughlin lived at 1608 North Larchmont Drive in Sandusky when Bank of America foreclosed on the home in 2007. McLaughlin, still a Sandusky resident, lost the home when Erie County Common Pleas Court Judge Roger Binette granted a motion for summary judgment in 2008. The summary judgment was based on an affidavit from Weston, who said McLaughlin was in default on her mortgage. Binette has been assigned McLaughlin’s new lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges Weston was a “robo-signer” who didn’t actually review documents she referred to in her affidavit. The suit cites news stories that say robo-signers signed thousands of affidavits each month without reviewing the mortgage documents, while banks tried to rush through as many foreclosures as possible. The lawsuit refers to an Associated Press citing court depositions from a Florida attorney, who said employees at Bank of America and other banks commonly approved phony paperwork. “Until now, only a handful of depositions from robo-signers have come to light,” said the Oct. 12 news story. “But the sheer volume of the new depositions will make it more difficult for financial institutions to argue that robo-signing was an aberrant practice in a handful of rogue back offices.” McLaughlin’s lawsuit asks for Fannie Mae, now the owner of the North Larchmont Drive home, to give the home back to McLaughlin. It seeks $50,000 in damages and other costs and fees. You can check out the rest of the report here… And you can check out the complaint below… ~ 4closureFraud.org ~ Rhonda D. McLaughlin vs Bank of America I have an “Assignment” of the Security Deed only by MERS to BOA signed and dated May of 2008 and a letter from BOA in May of 2009 which states BOA was “seeking ownership but did not yet possess” an interest in the property and instructions to “get out of the house….” MERS recorded this “Assignment” of the Security Deed ONLY in Sept 2010 and BOA then performed a non judicial sale of the property in October 2010 based on MERS assignment—–not an assignment by the original lender American Home Mortgage. The President of BOA cannot produce the original note or an assignment of the note by the original lender and foreclosed and took possession of the property without EVER recording anything on the land records here Can you say: “Fraud?” The documents themselves do not “sync” and in GA MERS cannot be a trustee, mortgagee, or act independently of written instructions and said docs recorded….. I am pretty close to filing against BOA and MERS—-American Home Mortgage is defunct—so I don’t know who really owns my property, p note or security deed…. The courts have to rule on these things. Pissed Off European ‘Lynch Mob’ Is Coming After Bank Of America you just made me laugh… I have to read that WESTON could not have been a VP in 2007. I have a document that list ALL BAC “ROBO” SIGNORS on a interoffice memo ( or what looks to be ) whereby RHONDA WESTON WAS NOT certified VP by the CORPORATION until 8/7/2009. This document could be a get-out-of-jail free card for some people who falsified AFFIDAVITS! My comments are redacted, this case has that document for BofA ROBO’S. Observation…….how could WESTON have claimed VP before the designation was affirmed by corporate in 2008 over a year before? Why did attorney not provide a “CHAIN OF TITLE ” ? I think this one is in the Barn for Plaintiff! Good Luck! do you or anyone else have a copy of the paper that she was not certified as a vp. i would love a copy! thanks!! Good posts!!! This is Foreclosure Terrorism. It seems obvious that the judges are lining their pockets and looking the other way. How do you define treason? Well one way would be to say that anyone, any company, any court, any entity that willfully supports Fraud on a scale as massive as this which actually puts children in the streets is directly involved with these crimes against American Home Owners. I call that treason. Where is the FBI in all of this? They just now started making arrests in a handful of cases. But this has been going on for years. What happened to law in this country? It was bought and paid for by the Wall Street Banksters. Spineless politicians are also lining their pockets to look the other way. It is no coincidence that they can’t seem to find a law to stop any of this. It is not possible that they are that incompetent. There are obviously billions in bribes going to the useless bastards who get a nice house on the hill while putting children in the streets. Stop voting Republican or Democrat. They have demonstrated that they are equally involved. It’s time to clean house. We need Joe American in the White House. A child could run a better country and still have time to play in the sandbox after lunch. J Glenn Lowe – Die Banker Die – Agreed Glenn!! This is most certainly treason, and should come under the heading of “Crimes Against Humanity”. Neither republican nor democrat is innocent in this mess. This is very interesting. I’m guessing that she won’t be the last person to try this. And why shouldn’t she? If a bank did not have the proper paper work? If they forged documents? If these “Vice-Presidents” that are attesting to the authenticity of these documents are just poor, temp-employees that are signing because it’s either that or go broke and starve? If all of this “stuff” (that’s the polite word) the banks are using as proof, is all fales, then why should we or the banks just assume that they have the legal right to take anyone’s private property. I get so ANGRY! when I hear paid shills for the banks get on the radio or TV saying that we should just assume that the banks have a right even if they have been caught forging documents and lying to courts of law.

It just seemed so celebratory at first. After rain and a backlog of matches, the Sony Ericsson decided to pluck Kim Clijsters and Ana Ivanovic from the main stage and instead put them on Court 2. Delighted fans cheered at their luck, convinced they were waiting for the conclusion of a doubles match involving Nuria Llagostera Vives. The players were jovial, too, laughing as they walked onto the tiny court; they almost looked like dolls too big for their playhouse. In the first set it seemed everyone was getting used to the surroundings, including the crowd. Clijsters fell hard early on and everyone screamed and then chuckled in embarrassment for the outburst. They gasped when Ivanovic hit a laser forehand and seemed concerned when Clijsters hit some of her signature splits. It was tennis’ version of keeping it real. The level was very high in the first set. Although not the most entertaining points, many rallies ended quickly with a winner and both women held serve throughout fairly easily. Clijsters knows how to win much better than Ivanovic these days and she closed out the set in a tiebreak. In the second with Ivanovic up 2-0, I thought about the difference between 3-0 and 2-1. Clijsters was broken in the first serving at 2-0 and it changed the set; Ivanovic held for 3-0 and pretty much rolled through the second. Funny thing about Clijsters: when she drops her level, she becomes an amateur. She lost her timing, seemed confused on the court, sprayed balls well out or mishit them so badly they landed at the service line on her side of the court. Ivanovic took the set 6-3. The third set was all about focus. Ivanovic had it; Clijsters didn’t. The result? A quick 5-1 lead for Ivanovic and 0-40 on Clijsters’ serve. Done, right? Wrong. Typically at this point you see kids with large balls making their way to the front of the court. It’s not really possible on Court 2 but we did get a rush of photographers who swooped in to catch match point. And the newest vulture out there, Cari Champion from Tennis Channel suddenly emerged, ready to do her on-court interview. But focus changed quickly. We’ve seen this before from both women and usually Kim wins them and Ana doesn’t. All I can say is: it went fast. Truthfully, although there was some nice play at times from both players, it wasn’t really a thrilling match until it became about nerves. Ivanovic couldn’t hit through five match points; Kim only needed one at 6-5 in the tiebreak to win it. Poor Ana. I thought parties were supposed to be fun?

Glenn Beck is at it again with his strange Utopian dreams of "how America is supposed to be." Living in his own little fantasy world, he has let his naive fascination with Ayn Rand and his loose grasp on reality convince himself that he could start the country from scratch and make it work. Thus, we learned today of Glenn Beck's plan for Independence, America. Announced on his show and reported on by Mike Krumboltz of Yahoo News, "Beck-town USA" will be a self-sustaining community of real Americans, and I can only assume it will be located somewhere between Brigadoon and Shangri-La. This paradise will allow all the John Galts of America to escape the progressive hell they currently occupy, and it will also free them from the horrors of consumer culture. Apparently, Glenn Beck has some contempt for successful American corporations like The Gap and Ann Taylor, as he plans to ban them from his Eden, saying "if you want the Gap or Ann Taylor, go someplace else." Beck-ville is supposed to be self-sustaining - like the hippie communes of the 1960s - for it will also feature a ranch where people will "grow food" and "teach others" how to grow food. Hmmm. Sounds like Glenn Beck is going a little Mao Ze Dong on the country. Perhaps all Beck-ville-ites will smelt their own iron and sew their own cotton into their own clothes as well. These happy little "nationalists (?)" will be entertained, of course, by shows featuring Glenn Beck running the Beck media center. I'd imagine that HBO and ESPN and Hollywood films will be unavailable because they are all products of the commie elite in this country. Sounds like a great little paradise that Beck has plans for. Where it will be, I'm not sure. However, I'd bet the states of Mississippi or Alabama would love to be freed from the chains of all the federal aid they currently receive. Or perhaps Beck could just convince the state of Texas to secede with him. This isn't the first time that Glenn Beck has revealed a colossal misunderstanding of history and economics. Last time, he stole from Founding Father Thomas Paine and bastardized the classic tome Common Sense. Of course, I don't think Glenn Beck really has a plan for his utopia. However, he is all but too happy to sell a bunch of Republican conservatism to under-educated or ideologically naive people for a nice little profit. 1 comment: If you're interested in joining a real libertarian community with a proven track record, check out the Free State Project. freestateproject.org/fsn42

Adalyn and mommy goofing around. She had so much fun making faces. After A went to bed, Cayden got some mommy snuggles. I love this baby boy. Last Monday night Adalyn was sitting on the counter making dinner with me as she does most nights. I took the skillet off of the flat top burner and turned my head for one second and she put her hand on the burner. It was horrible. I've never seen her in such pain. Her cry was horrible and I felt horrible. I called the Dr after hours and she didn't feel that we needed to go to the ER. We finally got A calmed down and she ate a little dinner. We had mini cupcakes in the house so we gave her one after dinner to help her feel better. I think it helped. What do you think? She decided eating her cupcake with no hands was better than eating it with one hand. (She did the same thing for her birthday cupcake.) Funny girl. She has big blisters the length of each finger still. Poor thing. She's so not a complainer tho. We went to the Dr the next day and she gave us a rx for burn cream and A lets us put it on her and has been good about keeping a sock over her hand to protect it. Sweet babies. I love these two and how much they love each other. On Sunday Adalyn went and found her sunglasses in the junk drawer and put them on her head to wear them around. I guess she's seen mommy do that. Jonathan and I couldn't believe how old she looked. Even her little pose in this picture... She's growing up! I always give Adalyn a "pony" on the top of her head. But I had never tried to give her a real pony tail with all of her hair. I put this in on Sunday and she loved it and showed me her pony and then would point to mine. This didn't help with how old she was looking that day!! We've had a bit of TV drama. VERY long story short, our old TV was an extremely good TV that we got an amazing deal on 3 years ago. For a few months it's been acting weird to the point that we have to unplug and replug it to get it to work. We had purchased the extended protection plan at Best Buy (usually a waste of money but we got our monies worth out of it!) and had it serviced 4 times without any good results so Best Buy put us in for a replacement. We took both kids to run into the store to pick out our new TV. It turned into multiple hours in the store. They delivered the TV the next weekend and from the moment it was on the wall we both absolutely hated it. I know it's petty because it was a 52 inch flat screen TV. We shouldn't complain about teeny tiny things like how crisp the picture, color and sound were, but we felt like we had given up our amazing old tv that we still loved for a piece of crap. We went back and did an exchange and waited till the next weekend for our new TV to be delivered yet again. We went back to our original brand (Samsung) and from the moment we plugged it in we loved it. We were back to the original quality of our old TV. (Guess that wasn't really a "long story short"...more like a "long story".) Adalyn was quite enthralled with the different TV's going on and off the wall and the Best Buy guys delivering the new TVs. She even tried to help her daddy hang the new TV so I had to get pictures. She was serious about it. My sweet smiley boy. He is an absolute joy. I love him so much! He has found his voice and his tongue. He's constantly talking and squawking and blowing raspberries now. I think he's trying to compete with his sister because he is LOUD! :) 6 comments: That pony tail is too cute and she does look grown up! I want our babies back! Hope A's hand heals soon! Yay for a new TV! Pictures are the best and that's really all that matters. I remember not having much time at all, but I do have a ton of pictures to look back on! :) I hope her burn is better.. that is so scary! K got burned on her bottom really, really bad when she was little all from going down a hot slide in her bathing suit. So just an FYI, always check slides in the summertime. I know after that everyone I know does, including K. Ack! I can't believe my baby girl is getting so old! The picture of her with her pony tail reminds me so much of Kennedy. Where did our baby girl go? Ok. I totally get the tv scenario.. my hubs feels the same way about picture quality, etc. So much so that it takes us months to decide on one! What is that double Sophie thing C is holding? Very interesting! He is flipping adorable and growing too fast. A is precious in her glasses and pony! Poor baby with that hand! Yay...I always love seeing your blog pop up on the reader! :) Thanks for the update. Glad all is going well. Poor A with her hand! I can't imagine the pain {both of you!} where in! :( I'm in lov with Adalyn's pony...precious! Her poor little hand - I imagine that was quite traumatic. Hope she is feeling much better! I love, love all the little faces - those will be so much fun to look at years from now. C is getting so big. I can't believe our babies are going to be 1/2 year old soon - how did that happen?

And I had Crazy Retired Man Auditing Classes ---- did I tell you the funny stories about him? remind me to tell you about his rant about aliens. No, I'm not kidding. But he was a sweetheart and as long as you could keep him on track he made a lot of good contributions to the class ---- well, he was taking a pottery class along with mine and he made me a mug! See? It is currently decorating my office, but I don't trust his glazing skills enough to actually use it. That's ok; it's pretty. And it makes me want to take cool pottery classes every time I look at it. This semester I have a different little sweetheart, who is out and proud and not only willing to step up and testify on that front but also bring up issues of race and social justice in the class, which is awesome. And he catches whatever little risque jokes or off-color puns I accidentally make but I don't feel like I'm about to get into trouble. A while back he asked me some questions after class --- those questions that don't really seem to have a point except for the subtext of "I like you!" --- And I have been there with that awkward I-don't-know-what-to-say-to-a-favorite-teacher-but-I-don't-want-the-class-to-be-over situation and totally love that. So the next day he dropped by my office hours with a big plastic shopping bag. "Dr. Cog, I just wanted to give this to you!" Awwwwww. So I opened it up, and found ... Hmm. On the one hand, I totally appreciate this. And I drank them, so it's not like I am worried he was poisoning me or anything. Every day I'd open one and go "sweet! I don't have to spend any money on my caffeine habit!" But I also, because I have to overthink everything, wonder if this is making some sort of comment on me, or on my caffeine habit or weight or something. But no! Stop this! Just drink your damn gifts and revel in the fact that you were offered them. If they start offering me whiskey to mix with it, that's when I know I have a problem. 4 comments: One former student gave me a big jug of homemade maple syrup. :) (Her family makes maple syrup, along with growing farm stuff.) WAY COOL! And soooo yummy! I'm still waiting for the Porsche and the diamonds. /nod This is all so so sweet. Well, except for the anaphylactic death part. Oh, just enjoy the goodies. My first - and certainly most memorable - was a bag of comfort food: mac & cheese, diet coke, cookies, candy bars - from a student in one of my very first classes. She brought it by when she found out I was prepping for my MA exams, along with best wishes from all the friends she'd met in that class. I've had the occasional student give me perfume or scented lotions, which have a less-dramatic version of the effect of coconut on you (headache, not anaphylactic shock), but nothing more interesting than that. I sort of like the idea that he actually observed your habits and came up with something that fit them (well, at least until he shows up on your doorstep at midnight one night, but that doesn't seem likely).

Making noise in the land of well produced internet shorts is the acclaimed comedy film series PERIODS., a collection of improv comedy bits primarily based on different eras in human history created and directed by Victor Quinaz. With a special (and hilarious) guest appearance by White Collar’s Willie Garson, their latest short, awesomely entitled FOPS, represents the best three and a half minutes this gang of hooligans has come up with yet – just in time for Bastille Day this weekend. Keep reading if you like delicious cakes … FOPS is obviously a sendup of COPS. Only this time the chase involves a couple of gungho peasants (Matt Hobby and Philip Quinaz) hunting down decadent cake and candy inhaling richies armed with nothing but some of that homemade piss and vinegar spray everybody was carrying around back in the days of the French Revolution. There’s even a snitching hillbilly fop (Brian Shoaf) who gladly gives up the head cake-eater (Garson) hiding out in the woodlands . WATCH FOPS below and take a gander at Garson’s scene-stealing turn as the strung out King getting caught with icing on his lip. The PERIODS. crew has been doing it and doing it well for a while now, starting with the almost instantly viral PILGRIMS. The series is co-created by Quinaz’s wife Anna Martemucci and usually stars his brother Philip Quinaz, both from whom a large portion of the hilarity originates. Featured in the The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Film Independent, and on Funny or Die, they have quickly become known for taking on serious subjects such as the rich and their problem with cake abuse, Ponce de Leon, pillaging and raping, religion and lesbians, and the classic film Deer Hunter (we feel that NAM is the golden sleeper egg of the entire series). Shot in the style of a reality show with a historical twist, this is done with the kind of deceptively intelligent, slow burning improvised humor that will still resonate a week later when you remember the image of Philip Quinaz stroking his own nipples in the midst of foliage. If you don’t believe us check out Adam’s (of Adam and Eve) apple ball-gag in RE: CREATION. (The wigs in that are amazing, by the way.) While you’re doing that see what his homey God has to say about … whatever. Always these shorts are released with some timely relevance. Like with FOPS and Bastille Day. While we’re pretty sure only the French care about this upcoming day (or even know what it is, really) we still have to give the PERIODS. crew props for their ingenious ploy for attention. Actor Zachary Quinto might have something to do with all the buzz as well. His name is attached to the series as occasional co-star and regular producer with his company Before The Door Pictures in association with Robinson Film, Inc., and Nomadic Films. There are big things on the horizons for these guys, including a feature film produced by Anonymous Content and Before The Door Pictures that is due out sometime this fall. Quinto will also be in attendance to introduce the PERIODS. short series with Quinaz and Martemucci at the Hollyshorts Film Festival on August 9th. In the meantime, ‘God’ commands you to go watch all the shorts and subscribe to the PERIODS. Films channel on Youtube for more tomfoolery involving fabulous wigs and costumes with just a skotch of controversy thrown in. All the jokes about a woman’s time of the month aside, we dig the pantaloons out of it. Period.

Hmmm… It seems I should re-name heirloom·modern. Maybe, Heirloom Tomato Modern? Of the now five entries in this occasional editorial feature, three are for tomato soup. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps in the past tomato soups were more flexible, more interesting, more varied. Or, maybe I just really like tomato soup! heirloom·modern: Eldress Hall’s 1907 Shaker Tomato Bisque What was the occasion that called for yet another tomato soup? I had just pulled “the best thing ever to come out of my kitchen” from the oven, and while it was cooling I realised I needed a simple foil for this “best thing.” I didn’t feel like running to the market, my brain felt wibbly from hunger and exertion, I wanted something quick and easy. I poked my head in the fridge. Aha! A carton of Pomis! I poked my nose in The Best Of Shaker Cooking. Aha! A simple tomato bisque! (The Shakers are so reliable for simple, quick recipes). Et voila! Dinner was decided. There are three recipes for tomato soup in this amazing book, but this one from Frances Hall intrigued me with its inclusion of baking soda. Although she is not noted as being a member of the faithful at Hancock Village, this reference leads me to believe that Frances Hall was actually the last eldress of this beautiful village that is now a working museum (and definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area, A. because it didn’t bore me as a 7th grader on a field trip and B. There’s an amazing restaurant there). And what of the baking soda? As near as I can figure it added a delicate lightness to this soup which would be very, very necessary if you followed the original recipe which calls for 1 quart of milk (most likely whole and with cream back then) and 1/2 cup of heavy cream! I did not follow those measurements and, after tasting the soup sans dairy and realising it tasted just like Campbell’s, embarked on some very necessary modernising. I cut down on the dairy, added some garlic and tossed in some slightly spicy, seductively smoky Spanish pimenton de la vera. The pepper added such a lovely, almost bacon-y flavor. Utterly delicious! And what is “the best thing ever to come out of my kitchen?” You’ll just have to stay tuned til tomorrow (or snoop around on my flickr page, should be pretty obvious from there). Head below the jump for my adaptation of Eldress Hall’s Tomato Bisque. heirloom·modern: Eldress Hall’s 1907 Shaker Tomato Bisque prep time: 5 minutes ~ cooking time: 20 minutes - 1 tsp Butter - 1 tsp Flour - 3 cups Tomato Puree - heaping 1/4 tsp Baking Soda (the recipe called for 1/3 tsp, but I don’t have one of those, so I just used a heaping 1/4 tsp) - 2 tsps Salt - 1 tsp Sugar - Lemon Juice - 2 cloves Garlic, minced - 1/2 tsp (or to taste) Pimenton de la Vera - 2 cups Milk Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low to medium heat. Add the flour and cook gently for 2 minutes or until the flour is cooked. Add the tomato puree. Stir to incorporate. Add the salt, sugar and baking soda. Stir to incorporate. Simmer 5 minutes. Taste. Adjust seasoning. Add a dash of lemon juice if the soup is too sweet. Add the minced garlic and Pimenton. Stir to incorporate. Allow the soup to cook another 10 minutes. In another small pan heat the milk. Do not allow it to boil. When the milk is just warm add it to the tomato mixture, stir to incorporate and serve immediately, piping hot, preferably with some freshly made buttered bread. And don’t forget to Shaker your plate! (Not that I have any fear you won’t!) I´m just about to make some tomato soup. Different version, but I´ll use your tip about the milk. Thanks. great recipe! I’ve been looking for a simple tomato soup that’s a bit interesting and this appears to be both those things. Many thanks! I love the way this soup looks–the beautiful red color has my mouth watering. I’ll bet this would be good made with goats’ milk! I’m guessing the baking soda is added to balance the pH and keep the milk from curdling. I have a yummy tomato soup recipe of my mom’s that includes it as well. Any chance I could see the original recipe as it was? Riatta — You can buy the book here for as little as $1 here, or you can check it out from your local library. I am not comfortable publishing other people’s copyrighted material on my site. Thanks Ann for the link. I’ve ordered the book. Can’t wait to see how you tweaked the recipe. I’m always a little afraid to eperiment. Oh good Riatta! I hope you love it. There’s so many great recipes in there.

Turning the Research Lens on Ourselves I’m working on a research project again this year exploring the scholarly habits of undergraduate students at my university. One of the methods we’re using to collect data is a mapping diary. We ask students to record all of their movements through the course of one typical school day–time, location and activity–and draw a map to accompany their time logs. Last year’s responses from students at my own campus were fascinating, and I’m looking forward to interviewing this semester’s students when they finish their logs. Many of last year’s participants told me that they really enjoyed the opportunity to reflect on what they do and where they go all day. Now that the semester is firmly underway and things are busy as usual, I wonder whether it might be a good idea to do some research on myself. I’ve often wanted to join the Library Day in the Life project in the past, but it always seems to be scheduled for days that I’m either out on vacation or before the semester has begun (that is, not really a typical day for me). Maybe it’s time for me to pick a day (or week, or month) to record my activities? It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that there’s not enough time for everything I want to do. Of course that’s true on one level, because no one can do everything, but I also think that we may be less busy than we realize. A post on Prof Hacker over the summer popped into my mind when I was considering this, a review of a book called 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think (168 is the number of hours in a week). The review isn’t completely positive, but does highlight the use of time logging to inject a dose of reality into how we perceive that we spend our time. Judging from my interviews with students last year, this kind of reflection can help with both time management and task prioritization. Though it sounds like more work to add a time log to my to-do list here in the thick of the semester, I think it’s worth a try. And maybe the next time the Library Day in the Life date rolls around I’ll be ready to participate, too. Posted: October 10, 2010 by Maura Smale in Just Thinking. Tags: diary, reflection, research, time log, time management Pingback from Weekly Link Roundup « Posted: October 14, 2010 at 11:04 pm [...] Turning the Research Lens on Ourselves, from ACRLog. [...]

AdaCamp DC, the second conference for women in open technology and culture, wrapped up on Wednesday. About 100 people attended, who lived in at least 10 countries, including Japan, India, Myanmar, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Australia, the UK, Canada, and the US. Ages ranged from 18 years old to over 50. Their open tech/culture fields included Python workshops, soft circuits, fan fiction, Linux, open geographical information, open data, open courseware, and Wikipedia and related projects. Attendees were volunteers, professionals, students, hobbyists, and academics, and came from the government, large corporations, non-profits, volunteer communities, small businesses, and educational institutions. We’re very pleased with the diversity of our attendees. We ran over 65 sessions over 2 days. Session topics included Hands on Hacking, Geek Moms, Women Editing Wikipedia, Burnout and Lifehacking, Fandom, Feminism & Social Change, Soft Circuits, Job Seeker/We’re Hiring!, and Feminist Hackathons, to name just a few. In total, over 40 of the sessions were documented on PiratePad. The Impostor Syndrome session was so popular that it ran in at least three separate sessions. One attendee said, .” One of the most popular sessions was the Python Beginners Workshop in which several attendees learned to program for the first time. “It is hard to do workshops at un-conferences, but you can’t put a price on getting someone in front of a terminal and writing a new line of code. It’s empowering to enable the success of another human being,” said Connie Berardi. Leslie Birch said, “I’m leaving with new tools like IRC, bug trackers and mentor lists. I have a new found desire to reach out to other women that identify as ‘geek’, ‘feminist’ or both.” One popular feature of AdaCamp was the “Wall of Compliments.” The idea is to combat Impostor’s Syndrome and increase everyone’s enjoyment of the conference by writing compliments on sticky notes and adding them to a wall. Other attendees “take a compliment” and either keep them or give them to other people to wear on their badges. Finally, AdaCamp DC got a lot of compliments on the conference food. Rebecca Garcia tweets, “#AdaCampDC You are spoiling us! First Ethiopian food now Lebanese food? :) Best conference food ever.” Sisi Wei writes, “Ethiopian food for lunch? #adacampdc and @adainitiative are putting other conferences’s cuisines to shame.” Remember, bad conference food is a choice, not a requirement! Thank you to everyone who helped make AdaCamp DC a success, starting with our conference organizers, Caroline Simard, Deb Nicholson, Kellie Brownell, NoÃrÃn Shirley, Sarah Stierch, Katie Bechtold, and Denise Paolucci. Thanks especially to Sarah Stierch for organizing the conference dinners, writing a dining guide for DC, helping arrange photography, and spreading the word about AdaCamp DC and the various travel scholarships available to AdaCamp DC attendees. Selena Deckelmann also helped arrange photography, organized the sessions, and gave the organizers general assistance. Gayle Karen Young graciously offered to facilitate our feedback sessions and offered various organizational resources. Katie Bechtold was our eyes and hands on the ground in Washington, DC. We thank all of our day-of volunteers who ran registration and helped with setup and cleanup. Finally, we thank everyone who attended.

Index back to New Zealand, New Zealand ... 'Janeway to Auckland Control, roger. Landing approach at one-three-one-mark seven.' 'Roger, Janeway,' the bright New Zealand voice on the other end of the channel replied. 'Enjoy your stay.' She set about the business of guiding her slim shuttle past the island's rugged mountains without dignifying the Kiwi's sarcasm with a reply. " [More in New Zealand, pg. 17-29, 35, 61, 66, 228.] 'Don't tell me you've actually read Nietzsche and Derrida. Or Aquinas, for that matter.' 'You don't have to eat the entire turd to know that it's not a crab cake.' 'You are an arrogant impossible boy.' " 'The Superman shouldn't care what the ondergeskik thinks of him, you mean? 'I teach you the Superman.' ' He shook his head and fell silent for several moments. 'Maybe,' he said at last, 'in terms of education, physical training, wealth, eugenics, perhaps soon even genetics--maybe by some standards we Draka have become Nietzsche's superman. We certainly like to flatter ourselves into thinking we have.' He shook his head. 'But one would think that a superman shouldn't have to fear. And we do. We fear everybody else on the planet.' 'With good reason,' the Archon said. 'Everybody else on the planet fears us. Hates us, too...' " Admiral Hans Laban Verwoerd lay sprawled in the center of Cornet castle's ancient courtyard. A heavy boot ground itself into his spine, pinning him to the rough stone flagging. Banners, printed with motivational slogans, hung limp in the dawn air. Verwoerd turned his head, scraping his cheek against the rough flagstones. I want gremlins around me, the nearest one read, for I am courageous. " [This quote is from Nietzsche. There are many quotes from and references to Nietzsche throughout story. It is the main religion/philosophy referred to in the story. Not all refs. in DB.] ' 'What is the best remedy? Victory!' Or 'I want gremlins around me, for I am courageous'?' 'Yes. What ever does that one mean?' 'What do Nietzsche's syphilitic rambling ever mean? 'Courage creates gremlins for itself' is the rest of that particular quotation.' He washed out his brush and dabbed a new color. 'Just be glad I'm not hanging those banners all over town the way Security wants me to. They're supposed to remind my troops they're Draka supermen.' He made a face. 'Are they? They don't act like it.' " He daubed his brush in a mixture of colors. 'There was a time in my life when I thought of little else but Nietzsche. I was a young man at the time; I'd spent my life in British boarding schools, thought of myself as British, but I was still Draka. I guess I was trying to discover who I was.' Sally rolled her head around, stretching her neck muscles. She resumed her pose. 'He's almost your state religion, isn't he?' Verwoerd snorted. 'The Draka worship nothing but themselves. 'Serfs look up because they wish to be exalted; the superman looks down because he already is exalted.' when you're the oppermans, it's rather had to admit some entity might be superior to yourself. That's why the attempt to revive the Norse mythology, Naldorssen and all that, failed so miserably. Probably also why religion has always fascinated me so.' " Verwoerd smiled weakly. 'Since when did you start reading Nietzsche?' he asked. 'Since you started hanging it up in the courtyards.' " [Other refs. not in DB include pg. 208-209, 218-221.] ...Verwoerd's voice was barely audible. Courage did create its own gremlins: the courage to hope. "; Pg. 214: "'Pity's the greatest danger, Hans. That's what Neechee says, an' it's true. Dangerous for them. Dangerous for us.' " 'There's no way you can escape, Hans. The courtyard is swarming with commandos.' 'Nietzsche was right all along,' Verwoerd said as if he hadn't heard her. 'Right about so many things. 'Once I thought of little else but Nietzsche'--would that I had ever been able to stop! 'Those three days I stared into the abyss--'thou heaven above me, thou pure, thou luminous heaven! Thou abyss of light!--and it stared back at me.' ...' 'And what have I hated more than passing clouds, and whatever tainteth thee? And mine own hatred have I even hated, because it tainted thee!' ' " [More.] 'Then I visited that accursed city [Salt Lake City], saw that same Will channeled into their [Mormons] morality, their serf dreams. To 'never never never' fall under the yoke, to be gods looking down in pity on mere superman. To will the absurd fantasies of religion into reality--entire nations that don't have to conquer or murder or . . .' He composed himself. 'I knew then my people [Draka] were too evil to let them continue to exist. I dedicated my life to destroying the Domination.' " 'You admire Neitzsche?' 'He was crazy. Let's just say I have less contempt for him, and for Desade, then I have for most intellectuals.' " [See also pg. 239.] --Friedrich Nietzsche " Nietzsche, continued

SARANAC LAKE - Historic Saranac Lake has announced the opening of a new exhibit on Saranac Lake history in the John Black Room of the Saranac Laboratory. The exhibit officially opens on Wednesday with an evening gathering open to all current members of Historic Saranac Lake. Six large panels in the John Black Room outline the development of the village, from its early days as a small logging town to its growth as a destination for outdoor recreation and a center for scientific research and patient care. The final panel explores the village's effort to find new life after the decline of the tuberculosis industry. Interspersed among the exhibit panels are historic photos on loan from the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library. A jitney from Trudeau Sanitarium is parked in front of Leonard’s Department Store on Main Street at Broadway.(Photograph 83.801, courtesy of the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library) "Hundreds of visitors come here each year eager to learn more about the community," Historic Saranac Lake Executive Director Amy Catania said in a press release. "This new exhibit will orient visitors to our fascinating history and help them understand who we are today. They are beautiful panels that really bring to life our local history." Historic Saranac Lake plans to supplement the new panels with more artifacts and interpretation. The organization is raising funds to allow for the installation of case lighting and an expansion of this first phase of the exhibit. Five of the panels feature large historic photographs courtesy of the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library. The final panel features a present day photo provided by Saranac Lake photographer Mark Kurtz. The planning and design of the exhibit was supported by a Museumwise Get Set grant and by grants from the New York Council for the Humanities. The exhibit script was written by Field Horne in consultation with local history experts and Christopher Clarke. Kevan Moss Design led the planning effort and the design of the John Black Room panels. The fabrication of the exhibit panels was supported by a donation from a friend of Historic Saranac Lake, Henry Parnass. The main laboratory space also features new interpretation for the summer season. Designer Karen Davidson created an exhibit panel interpreting the architecture of the Trudeau Sanatorium and another panel showing the human lungs that once lined the basement shelves. Visitors can tour a new "cure room" displaying artifacts such as a cure chair, medicines and medical devices that were a part of the patient experience. Founded in 1980, Historic Saranac Lake is an architectural preservation organization that captures and presents local history from its center at the Saranac Laboratory Museum. The museum is open year-round, Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and also on Saturdays through Oct. 6. Admission is $5, and members and children are free. For more information visit or call 518-891-4606. 54 Broadway , Saranac Lake, NY 12983 | 518-891-2600 © 2013. All rights reserved.| Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Cleanup Blog Don’t think about it, just do it That’s what my grandmother always says. Whenever I have a problem, a challenge or am faced with anything in life, my grandmother has the same advice every single time. “Don’t think about it,” she says, with the wave of a hand. “Just do it.” I know it sounds … like a sneaker ad… But it’s really good advice and it seems to crop up when I least expect it. But her voice crept into my head not long ago when management let the residents of my apartment complex know that they would be conducting their annual inspections recently. It’s funny how content one can be being incredibly messy – until one is going to have people in her dwelling space. My spare room was, at one time, used for guests. But over time, as my schedule got busier and guests became more sporadic it went from spare room to catchall. There are extra lamps, a television, my desk (which sadly does not get used enough), a guest bed, boxes (and boxes) of notebooks and … well you get the idea. Some people like to make an organized plan of cleaning. In some cases, that’s my plan of action. While I have a particular method to cleaning the kitchen, it’s a completely different story when it comes to the rest of the house. Don’t think about it, just do it… Even with a weekend chock full of things to do, physical fitness training, wrapping up work items that didn’t get done from the week, writing articles for other outlets that need to be finished by their deadline, I dropped everything suddenly and cleaned out that room. And it wasn’t just a surprise – it was a relief. Until the other day, I never opened the door to that room to hide the mess. Now, I don’t mind going in there. I might even clean my bedroom. I said ‘might.’ Cleaning for Travel I travel quite a bit for work. Not too much, but just enough that returning to my own apartment can sometimes be the sweetest feeling in the world. Or, depending on its cleanliness, make me yearn to be back on the road, in the comforts of a generic hotel room, orderly and sterile-ish. Last week I spent several days in Las Vegas for a convention at the Venetian. I left on a Sunday and spent the entire morning packing and picking up around my apartment. My place looked presentable…but for some reason that wasn’t good enough. I think deep down I knew I couldn’t spend a week in Vegas – of all places – and come home to an apartment that was unclean. I decided to finally get to all the hard-to-reach places and pain-in-the-neck tasks that are so often neglected. I broke out the Cooktop cleaner. Scrubbed the bathroom. Even cleaned out the refrigerator. It was possibly the most productive few hours I’ve ever spent during a weekend. So when I left the apartment and headed to the airport, I felt good. A little grossed out by the scrubbing and some things I found in my fridge, but overall pretty good. But the big payoff was yet to come… When I arrived home after several days in Sin City and a full day of traveling back from Pacific Time, I was so relieved to have an apartment worth coming home to. It was clean, it smelled halfway decent, and I was proud of the work I’d put in before my trip. It made it all worthwhile. Early Spring Cleaning Of the 115 Groundhog Days on record since it began in 1887, Punxsutawney Phil has only predicted an early spring 16 times. Fortunately, this year we’re lucky the groundhog did not see his shadow, so 2013 is off to a great start! Based on my calculations, what with the vernal equinox falling on March 20 and Phil’s gift of six weeks less of winter, that means Spring should be happening….now? This is actually fantastic news. Not only because flip flops are my favorite and I will wear them as soon as my toes can tolerate the weather, but because my apartment needs a spring clean like it’s nobody’s business. More often as of late, when I have people over, I feel like I’m showcasing the “fake apartment.” You know, the one that is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, but heaven forbid someone opens the wrong door and ski equipment tumbles out of it (but you don’t even ski). This needs to end! And I know exactly how to put a stop to it. One thing that I really need to procure is a dresser for my clothes. I don’t know how it happened, but my bedroom floor is now an extension of my closet. It’s relatively organized, but there are piles everywhere. I’ve been putting it off, but I know I need to buckle down, pick one that I like and get organized! Dusting is also a major issue. I’m allergic to dust, so you’d think I’d have this under control, but apparently I’m a glutton for punishment. It just isn’t something that crosses my mind, coupled with the fact that I have yet to find a duster/product that I like. But I know dusting really does make a huge difference in the appearance of all surfaces so this is definitely another thing I need to tackle. Lastly, the kitchen is always a big one. Getting grime out of those harder to reach corners and concentrating on spots that are often overlooked (I completely ignore that area underneath my dish drying rack) will definitely be a focus. I also need to actually clean the sink, not just the dirty plates in it, and give my stove a good scrub as well. There’s definitely a lot to be done, but it’s totally manageable! And thanks to this year’s early spring, I’m going to get a head start on turning my “fake apartment” into a clean one. Work it Out, Clean it Up If you’re anything like me, you probably don’t have a ton of spare time. Between work, family, social obligations, time just flies by and I hardly have a minute to myself. So what happens when your days seem to shorten and a few free minutes are tough to find? Things get prioritized, other thing get cut out entirely. Unfortunately for me, what ends up on the cutting room floor is usually the gym and cleaning my apartment. These routine-driven activities are just too easy to push to the side and marginalize when faced with deadlines, commitments, and other responsibilities. It’s a shame too – both activities leave you feeling refreshed and feeling better about yourself. These endeavors can put you in a better place than you were when you started, and that’s pretty hard to replace. So what I do is try to combine the two. I know that sounds silly but hear me out a second. When you carve out the time to clean your apt, throw some reps in there too! For example, for every dish you scrub and dry by hand, drop and do five pushups. Vacuum for 30-seconds then do 30-seconds of jumping jacks. How about throwing in a few lunges when taking the trash out? Will you look like a crazy person? Maybe, but that’s for your neighbors to decide. Point is, cleaning and exercise are two aspects of your life that shouldn’t be compromised. In this month when so many New Year’s Resolutions have died or on their last legs, recommit yourself to finding the time. Ok, so maybe reaching the highest shelf to dust isn’t part of a typical yoga vinyasa, but you can get creative. And don’t worry about the neighbors; they’ll go from asking “what is she doing?” to “how does she do it?” Downright Domestic Catch Affresh this weekend on the lifestyle list tv show, Downright Domestic! Show host, Rebecca Webster, provides ideas and information on how to improve your domestic life. The segment airs: Saturday, November 24th: CTV TWO Kitchener and London, 11:30am Sunday, November 25th, CTV TWO Toronto, 11am Don’t miss it!

This article, I hope, will be widely read by economists working on field experiments. And it comes with David Card’s name right on the title page; this is certainly not a name that one associates with structural modeling! Field experiments and randomized control trials are booming at the moment. Until the past decade, an average year saw a single field experiment published in any of the top five journals. Now, 8 to 10 a year are. The vast majority of these papers are atheoretical, though I have a small complaint about the definition of “theoretical” which I’ll leave for the final paragraph of this post. The same atheoretical nature is largely true of lab experiments; I generally am very receptive to field experiments and much less so to lab experiments, so I’ll leave out discussion of the lab for now. (That said, I’m curious for the lab types out there: are there any good examples of lab experiments which have overturned a key economic insight? By overturned, I mean the reversal was accepted as valid by many economists. I don’t mean “behavioral theory” like Kahneman-Tversky. I mean, an actual lab experiment in the style of the German School – we ought call it that at this point. It just seems to me like many of the “surprising” results just turn out not to be true once we move to economically relevant behavior in the market. The “gift reciprocity” paper by Fehr and coauthors is a great example, and Card, Dellavigna and Malmendier discuss it. In the lab, people “work” much harder when they get paid a surprisingly high wage. In field and natural experiments trying to replicate this, with Gneezy and List (2006) being the canonical example, there is no such economically relevant effect. I would love some counterexamples of this phenomenon, though: I’m trying my best to keep an open mind!) But back to field experiments. After noting the paucity of theory in most experimental papers, the authors give three examples of where theory could have played a role. In the gift reciprocity/wages literature mentioned above, there are many potential explanations for what is going on in the lab. Perhaps workers feel inequity aversion, and don’t want to “rip off” unprofitable employers. Perhaps they simple act under reciprocity – if you pay me a high wage, I’ll work hard even in a one-shot game. A properly designed field experiment can distinguish between the two. An even better example is charitable giving. List and Lucking-Reiley ran a famous 2002 field experiment where they examined whether giving to charity could be affected by, for example, claiming in the brochure that the goal of the fundraising drive was already almost reached. But can’t we learn much more about charity? Do people give because of warm glow? Or because of social pressure? Or some other reason? List, Dellavigna and Malmendier have a wonderful 2010 paper that writes down a basic structural model of gift-giving, and introduces just enough randomization into the experimental design to identify all of the parameters. They find that social pressure is important, and that door-to-door fundraising can actually lower total social welfare, even taking into account the gain from purchasing whatever public good charity is raising money for. And their results have a great link back to earlier theory and to future experiments along similar lines. Now that’s great work! The complaints against structural models always seemed hollow to me. As Card, Dellavigna and Malmendier note, when interpreting results, every paper, structural or not, is making implicit assumptions. Why not make them in a way that is both clear and is guided by the huge body of theoretical knowledge that social science has already developed? The authors note a turn away from structural models in experiments after the negative income tax papers of the 70s and 80s were thought to be failures in some sense due to the difficulty of interpreting their results. This argument was always a bit ridiculous: all social science results are hard to interpret, and there’s no way around this. Writing up research in a way that it seems more clearcut to a policy audience does not mean that the evidence actually is clearcut. I do have one quibble with this paper, though – and I think the authors will sympathize with this complaint given their case studies. The authors divide experimental papers into four groups: descriptive, single model, competing model and parameter estimation. Single model, to take one example, is defined as a paper that lays out a formal model and tests one or more implications thereof. Similar definitions are given for competing models and parameter estimations. Once we get over Friedman’s 1953 model of economic methodology, though, we’ve got to realize that “testing” models is far, far away from the only link between theory and data. Theory is useful to empirics because it can guide interesting and nonobvious questions to look for, because it can be used to justify nontestable econometric assumptions, because it allows for reasonable discussion of counterfactuals, because it allows empirical studies to be linked into a broader conception of knowledge, because it allows for results to be interpreted correctly, etc. I’d argue that checking whether papers “test” models is almost irrelevant for knowing whether empirical papers properly use theory. Let me give my favorite example, which I used in a presentation to empirical economists last year. Imagine you study government-mandated hospital report cards, and find that two years into the program, there is no evidence that hospitals or patients are changing behavior based on the ratings, but that 20% of patients were looking at the report cards at some point. An atheoretical paper might suggest that these report card programs are a waste of money. A theoretically-guided paper would note that game theorists have shown reputational equilibria often are discontinuous, and that perhaps if more patients were induced to look at the report cards (maybe by directly mailing them to each household once a year), hospitals would begin to react by giving better care. There is no testing of a theoretical model or anything similar, but there is certainly great use of theory! (Perhaps of interest: my two favorite job market papers of the last couple years, those of Ben Handel and Heidi Williams, both use theory in one of the ways above rather than in the direct “let’s use data to test a theoretical model” framework…) Similar comments apply to theorists’ use of empirical research, of course, but let’s save that for another day. (February 2011 working paper – forthcoming in the JEP) Hi, I’m a recent PhD graduate from a “behavioral economics” graduate program–just wanted to reply about your quip about lab experiments. First one funny story—Norbert Schwarz, a fairly famous social psychologist, was giving a talk at Harvard’s experimental/behavioral econ seminar about 2 years ago. He was presenting some findings on accessibility (e.g. that easy to pronounce stock market ticker names did better at IPO—how’s that for market relevance?) and received the standard econ question about incentives and whether that would change his observed lab experiment. Upon which he remarked, “have incentives ever really been shown to truly change a bias once it is demonstrated in the lab? can you take even one important bias and show that it goes away?” Apparently he’s not familiar with John List’s work I don’t believe anyone in the audience replied–Ed Glaeser didn’t come that day, else I’m sure he would have made a caustic retort. But to you I would direct a similar critique. There are numerous examples of biases that don’t change in the face of market incentives. Medical decision making is one place where it’s very difficult to square people’s choices with a rational model. I would check out some of Peter Ubel’s work in that vein. But to offer you a better example–how about this QJE paper of Ariely and Loewenstein on Coherent Arbitrariness. You have a lab study that essentially creates a market and shows that anchoring effects are not altered by market exchange. In general many of the canonical biases in Kahneman and Tversky don’t seem to change very much in the face of incentives–Holt and Laury’s paper on risk aversion comes to mind. So I think there are problems on both sides. (Not to mention the methodological issues with trusting studies in each camp–theres plenty of con in econometrics, and plenty of file drawer and other dirty secrets in social psych– the researcher degrees of freedom problem to me presents the most serious problem in trying to understand what papers have the most external validity) Coherent Arbitrariness: (though here’s one replication failure for more common market goods: I’ve run anchoring studies and found them to be pretty stable–friends as well) Risk Aversion: I’d be curious to know what you think… Oh yeah, one more obvious example comes to mind…all of Thaler’s stuff on default effects on retirement decisions. People have huge incentives to be rational there, but don’t seem to be… Thanks for the citations, Paul. I’ll definitely check them out. Concerning Thaler and retirement, though, I suppose I question the extent to which lab studies about anchoring “convinced” the profession rather than simple evidence of the choices people actually make with their retirement accounts. Two followups to that statement: first, I have nothing against “behavioral economics” per se – it’s clearly useful – but I’m less sold on the lab experimental method of behavioral social science. Second, you might wonder why I care about whether A or B is found convincing by the profession. I’ve written a few times here that I subscribe to a philosophy of science that puts a ton of weight on subjective judgment of quality of research by practitioners, so I actually think the question of credit is pretty important here. I’m with you that there certainly need be more conversations between different methodological schools, however. I’m sure Ed would have been caustic upon hearing Schwarz’ remark, and I recall a lecture here at NW by Ernst Fehr where that eminence grise was nearly driven out the room with pitchforks.

IPv4 Allocation Policy 1) Abstract This document describes the guidelines for IPv4 address allocation and assignment in the AFRINIC service region (Africa and Part of the Indian Ocean) .They have been developed through an open, bottom up policy development process of AFRINIC's Policy Working Group. 2) Introduction AFRINIC (The African Network Information Center) is a non-for-profit independent organisation serving as one of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIR's). Its service region incorporates the African continent and part of the Indian Ocean (Seychelles, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros). AFRINIC is responsible for the allocation of IP (Internet Protocol) address space, AS (Autonomous System) Numbers and management of reverse domain names within the region. 3) Scope This document describes policies for the responsible management of unique IPv4 address space in the AFRINIC region. The policies in this document apply to all IPv4 allocations and assignments within the AFRINIC service region and must be implemented by all AFRINIC's Local Internet Registries. This document does not describe policies related to IPv6, AS numbers, private addresses and in-addr.arpa domains. These policies can be found at It does not describe conditions of AFRINIC membership decribed at nor does it examine the policies of the other Regional Internet Registries. 4) IPv4 address space For the purpose of this document, IPv4 addresses are 32-bit binary numbers (used as identifiers in the IPv4 protocol) and are usually in three types: a. Public/global IP addresses that are assigned to be globally unique according to the goals described in section 6 of this document.. c. IP ranges reserved for experiments: These are described in RFC3330 (). Some ranges are also reserved for multicast. 5) Hierarchy of address space distribution IP addresses are distributed in an hierarchical structure in which IANA (The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) allocates address space to AFRINIC, to be redistributed throughout the African region. AFRINIC allocates address space to Local Internet Registries (LIRs) and also delegates to them the authority to make assignments and sub-allocations. LIRs sub-allocate and assign address space to their customers in accordance with the policies and procedures described in this document. 6) Definitions The following terms and their definitions are of particular importance to the understanding of the goals, environment, and policies described in this document. 6.1 Internet Registry (IR) An Internet Registry (IR) is an organization that is responsible for distributing IP address space to its customers and for registering those addresses. IRs are classified according to their primary function and territorial scope within the hierarchical structure. 6 four RIRs: APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, RIPE NCC. AFRINIC is the fifth 6. 6.4 Allocation To "allocate" means to distribute address space to LIRs for the purpose of subsequent distribution. 6.5 Sub-Allocation To "sub-allocate" means to distribute address space (by LIRs) to ISPs for the purpose of subsequent distribution. 6. 6. 6. 7) Goals of the Internet Registry System 7.1 Goals It is AFRINIC's primary duty, as a custodian of a public resource, to ensure that for all Ipv4 allocations and assignments, the following goals are met: - Uniqueness - In order that each host on the public internet can be uniquely identified, each public unicast IPv4 address must be globally unique. - Registration - Every assignment and allocation of public Internet address space must be registered in the AFRINIC whois database. This is necessary to ensure uniqueness and to provide information for Internet trouble shooting at all levels. - Aggregation - Distributing Ipv4 addresses in a hierachical manner permits the aggregation of routing information. This helps to ensure proper operation of internet routing, and to limit the expansion of Internet routing tables (RFC2519). - Conservation - To maximize the lifetime of the public Internet address space resource, addresses must be distributed according to actual need and on the basis of immediate use. Therefore, stockpiling of address space and maintaining reservations must, in general, be avoided. 7. 7.3 Documentation. 7.4 Fairness All policies and practices relating to the use of public address space will apply fairly and equitably to all existing and potential members of AFRINIC regardless of their location, nationality, size,or any other factor. 8) Registration Requirements a) All communication with AFRINIC will be in English. b) All allocations and assignments will be registered in an AFRINIC database. Any unregistered assignemnts / allocations / sub-allocaion will be considered invalid. The registration data (name, IP block/range, contacts, status, etc..) must be correct at all times. This is necessary to support network operations. Allocation policies and guidelines 8.1 Introduction AFRINIC allocates ranges of IPv4 addresses to Local Internet Registries (LIRs). LIRs reassign or sub-allocate that space to their customers. An Allocation is a range of IPv4 addresses from which sub-allocations and assignments are made. All LIR's assigning address space allocated from AFRINIC are also advised to adopt a set of policies that are consistent with the policies described in this document.. (CIDR - "Classless Inter-Domain Routing", is exlained in RFC1517-1959,).. 8.2 First Allocation a) AFRINIC's minimum allocation is /22 or 1024 IPv4 addresses. b) The organisation must be an AFRINIC member in good standing, and c). 8.3. Slow start mechanism for first allocations AFRINIC shall apply a slow start mechanism to all new LIRs. With respect to allocations made by AFRINIC, the first allocation an LIR receives will be the size of the minimum practical allocation described in Section 8.2 (a) unless otherwise justified. The slow start policy is used by all RIR's to prevent allocations of large blocks of address space that may then remain substantially unassigned. AFRINIC implements the slow start mechanism in a consistent and fair manner for every LIR, and will apply the same principles and standards to every applicant for address space. 8.4 Additional Allocation. AFRINIC will always try to allocate contiguous address ranges, allowing the LIR to minimise the number of route announcements it makes. However, it will not always be possible to allocate a range contiguous with the LIR's previous allocation. 8.5 Sub-Allocations The minimum size of a sub-allocation is /24. It allows a reasonable number of small assignments to be made by a downstream ISP. An LIR may not sub-allocate IPv4 space above its suballocation). 9) Assignment policies and guidelines LIR's must request approval from AFRINIC approval for all sub-allocations above their Sub-Allocation Window (see section 10.0 for SAW policy). The following guidelines are intended to help LIRs and end-users in their search for equitable compromises: 9.1. Request forms are available at When making sub-allocation from their SAW, LIR's should also ensure that such information is given by the end-user. 9.2. 9.3 Utilisation Immediate utilisation of assignments should be at least 25% of the assigned space. After one year, unless special circumstances are defined, it should be at least 50%. 9.4. 9.5. 9.6. 10) Sub-Allocation Window (SAW) An sub-allocation window (SAW) refers to the maximum number of IPv4 addresses that the LIR may sub-allocate to the end-users without seeking approval from AFRINIC. The SAW size is expressed in CIDR notatation. AFRINIC will review sub-allocation made by the LIR's using their SAW in to ensure that policies are followed correctly. LIR's should also ensure that documentation for sub-allocation made using the SAW be similar to that requested for larger requests. Below are a few guidelines for the SAW: 10.1 All new LIRs have a SAW of zero. All sub-allocations will need prior approval by AFRINIC. 10.2 The LIR cannot make any sub-allocation to the end-user above their SAW in a 12 months period (1 year). At the end of a calendar year from the approval of an SAW, the SAW is refreshed for one more year. In case the LIR's SAW is exhausted for a particular end-user, approval must be sought from AFRINIC for any other sub-allocation to the same end-user. 10.3. 10.4. 12) Abbreviations - AFRIN Aggregateable - PI Provider Independent - RIR Regional Internet Registry 13) Useful links - RFC documents: - IANA web site:

Scattered around writing blogs is the sage advice along the lines of “3 Ways of Writing a Killer First Line,” or “The Top 10 First Lines of a Novel” or “How to Hook Your Reader in the First Line.” I have a problem with this. I don’t read the first line of a new novel and stop, judging its worth and merit on a single sentence alone. I liken it to looking at a Van Gogh painting and focusing on a single brush stroke and missing the beauty and grandeur of the night sky. A great first line can hook you in. But it’s when you understand it within the context of the first paragraph, the first page, the first chapter through to the closing line of the novel that its true power and beauty is revealed. I read beyond the first line. I want to be caught up in the artistry of the writer, from the first line to the first paragraph to the first page to the first chapter to the closing line; to have the sentences form sedimentary layers over me as I delve into the artistry of the written word. Or like being covered in a large bucket of spaghetti, tangled in the complexity and power of words (you chose which simile works best for you). The first sentence encapsulates the power, breadth, beauty and depth of a novel. It retains its power because the remainder of the novel bears out the enormity and scope hinted at in the first line. But every sentence must work for the reader. Every sentence must be crafted as delicately and intricately as the first. Stand back and admire the beauty of the whole. Then step closer and examine the individual brush strokes to understand why it has captured your imagination. I used to write “clever” titles for blog posts and bizarre / “captivating” first paragraphs – I learned it really hindered technical writing LOL. I like opening gambits that make you want to sit in a corner and read the whole thing undisturbed. I notice however that some of the most innocuous opening sentences are the best. Cheap theatrics like ‘compelling’ first sentences have more to do with the way blog posts appear on a web page more than literature – and even less to do with the reality of the writing it often turns out. You know, it’s terrifying to comment on Adam’s posts because I become acutely aware my grammar and syntax may not pass scrutiny. It’s teh interwebz. No one cares about syntax or grammar, only trolling Blogging can have cheap theatricality, but I write from an essayist’s perspective (curse of being an English teacher) That was another excellent post today. Thanks so much for sharing. Keep up the fantastic job. Enjoy writing? Feel free to join our writing group – It’s worth getting into. They pay very well also. Join Today – Writers Wanted I don’t stop reading after the first sentence either, unless it’s a really bad first sentence. I like to try and write good first lines but you’re right, they’re not the be-all and end-all. I think a good first few paragraphs are a more solid foundation, but I can’t help thinking that a coherent style, a solid structure and an interesting plot are more important. That said, I often write my first line last, after I know what is to come, so the first few lines can act as a better statement of intent. There is a lot of buzz about first lines right now and it’s interesting to look at them on their own, but you’re absolutely right, they are only as good as the sentence that follows. When choosing a new book, I’ll give it at least one page, but if I’m not pulled in by something, no matter how good the blurb is, I won’t buy it.

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-319673092013-02-25T17:50:04.874-05:00Aimless<a href=""><img alt="[Aimless Blog Front Page]" src=""></a> <br>The Adventures of an American Vagabond <br>(& stories from ridiculously long walks)Ryan M. Powell's Pizza BlogHey everyone, come check out <a href="">my new pizza blog</a> if you want to learn how to make the best pizza on the planet in your own kitchen. I share ALL my secrets on this blog (because I'm less of a dick than you probably think I am).;">Underside of a NY style pizza I made on<br />the grill. One of my favorite pics.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />This <a href="">New York style</a> post is just for you, ER. (No it's not. It's for everyone who might be able to take something from it. You think you're special or something?) I've also written a post about how to make <a href="">Malnati's style deep dish</a> and a post about how to clone <a href="">Pizza Hut thin</a>..;">Looks like Malnati's to me, except my pan is half an inch too deep.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />I'd love it if y'all would <a href="">"like" the blog on Facebook</a> so I might be able to reach more people and rescue those who are stuck in a neverending cycle of looking in the wrong places for answers to their pizzamaking questions.<br /><br />This just occurred to me: I went to jail a year ago today <em>for walking</em>. Land of the Free, baby!<br /><br /.<br /><br /.<br /><br /.<br /><br /><a href=""></a><br /><br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook. <br />-- <br /><a href="">Aimless</a><br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a>Ryan M. Powell in Rhode IslandWhydibuy asked in a comment on the previous post how my court appearance went. Unfortunately I can't answer that because they did it without me; I was in a holding cell during my court appearance. I didn't even know it was happening until after it happened. From what I've heard, though, the prosecution extorted my folks for a couple hundred bucks.<br /><br />I.<br /><br />I'm in suburban Baltimore now. Probably gonna take a train to DC this afternoon to visit my good friend Jeff. It's cold and raining/snowing.<br /><br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook.<P>--<br /><a href="">Aimless</a><br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a>Ryan M. Powell I ended up in jail for 16 daysI know at least one person has been waiting patiently for this story, so here's why I was in jail:<br /><br />After.)<br /><br /.<br /><br /.<br /><br /. <br /><br />I could have been out of jail after only one day if those piece-of-shit motherfuckers hadn't gone way out of their way to fuck with both me and my mom, breaking countless laws in the process just because they enjoy making people hurt.<br /><br />By the time I received Mom's second letter, which informed me that I could post bail, I only had a couple days remaining until my court date. I decided to just wait it out.<br /><br />So much more to it than that. Wait till you find out what happened only three days before I was put in jail. I originally was not going to write about it, but things changed, and now I think it's a very relevant story.<br /><br />Oh yeah, and the walk is over. I have no need for any more of this kind of bullshit. (You now know about 10 percent of the story.)<br /><br />I've been hanging out in Manhattan the last five days. (You would have known that five days ago if you followed me on Twitter.)<br /><br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook.<p>--<br /><a href="">Aimless</a><br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a></p>Ryan M. Powell just spent the last 16 days in jail. I should have a lot to say about it pretty soon.<br /><br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook.<P>--<br /><a href="">Aimless</a><br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a>Ryan M. Powell #5<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5656268502300517058" /></a></p><br />I made it into Rhode Island at 12:17 yesterday. This is the sign they gave me, instead of a "Welcome to Rhode Island" sign. If you wanna know more, follow @AimlessRyan on Twitter.Ryan M. Powell close-up<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5655263058263992914" /></a></p><br />And here's a close-up of the sandwich someone left outside my tent about a week ago.Ryan M. Powell<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654481420978196498" /></a></p><br />This one's for you, ER. This is where I slept last night. I think it's at the first intersection south of NH on Rte 78 in MA (about 4 miles into MA). I know it's a shitty picture, but I've been getting up and moving really early lately. Not much I can do about that.Ryan M. Powell Cowboy<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654480494974572562" /></a></p><br />This staircase in Brattleboro, Vermont reminded me of the staircase from the party scene in Midnight Cowboy.Ryan M. Powell #4<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654479248864905922" /></a></p><br />This was yesterday at 6:00 or so. I did 20 miles yesterday. Don't ask me how I'm doing this because I don't know. Looks like the rain may have killed my pedometer this morning.Ryan M. Powell'<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653803416621940450" /></a></p><br />I made it to Vermont at about 3:40, I believe. That was a very quick 13 miles for my current condition, which is still pretty gimpy. Looks like I'll be in Assumchusetts sometime tomorrow. By the way, that was a very difficult sign to get in a picture with myself, particularly because of where the sun was.Ryan M. Powell earbuds blow<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5653676008405911042" /></a></p><br />Apple earbuds are literally the most useless product I have ever used. They suck in every way they possibly could suck. I would be happier with my iPhone if it came with no earbuds instead of these stupid, worthless, irritating earbuds. Apple should be ashamed of themselves for even creating this garbage, which is beginning to make me hate my favorite music.<br /><br />I may have a lot more to say about this retarded-ass product, so come on back to this post every once in a while.Ryan M. Powell again<a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5652678232343854434" /></a><br />This.<br /><br /.Ryan M. Powell flexor?I spent today sitting around at Burger King, Wendy's, and Dairy Queen, in an effort to give my hip a rest. I think this is the first time I've ever just sat around all day during a walk, excluding the rare occasions when I actually had somewhere to stay during last year's walk.<br /><br />Oh,. <br /><br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook.<P>--<br /><a href="">Aimless</a><br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a>Ryan M. Powell day<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5649629864934424898" /></a></p><br />I only put the vest on the outside of the rain jacket when I know it's gonna be raining for a long time. After raining all night, this is gonna be going on for at least several more hours. Several miles south of Epsom, NH.Ryan M. Powell obstacles<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648622745369140322" /></a></p> <br /).Ryan M. Powell walk...<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648575294511651154" /></a></p> <br />This is one of the biggest milestones ever for me because a week ago I was 90% sure this walk wouldn't last any longer than ten miles. Anyone who has spent any time around me over the last 11 months is probably just as amazed as I am because I've barely been able to walk AT ALL since last September.Ryan M. Powell on asphaltI'm safe now. Man, that was fucking scary; the scariest position I've ever been stuck in. Every step presented about a hundred different ways for me to die. No one would have found me. I'll post some pictures later, when I get a chance to charge. <br /> <br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook.<P>-- <br /><a href="">Aimless</a> <br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a>Ryan M. Powell what I mean<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648480211590836466" /></a></p>Ryan M. Powell I don't update within the next hour or two, it means I'm on Half Mile Road and I'm in desperate need of help. I'm fine right now, but I'm in a very dangerous place, where no one will find me if I get hurt and lose consciousness, which is very possible. <br /> <br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook.<P>-- <br /><a href="">Aimless</a> <br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a>Ryan M. Powell kind of road<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648464740778144674" /></a></p> <br />This is the kind of road Google Maps is steering me down this morning. Six miles to New Hampshire.Ryan M. Powell road<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648124814098852210" /></a></p> <br />This is a very good walking road, despite the heavy traffic. Can you figure out why?Ryan M. Powell, Maine<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5647873526198418994" /></a></p> <br />This is a few hundred feet from where I slept last night, near the train station.Ryan M. Powell outta Portland<p class="mobile-photo"><a href=""><img src="" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5647032707731233698" /></a></p> <br />2.34 miles so far. Not much, but it's a start. Tells me I should be able to hit my goal of 10 miles today.Ryan M. Powell walk began at 7:50 this morning in Portland, Maine. Can I actually do it? I don't know, but I'm gonna try. Actually, I know I can do it; I just don't know if I can do it <I>right now</I> because I'm still so beat up from last year. Every step I take is dangerous because my nerves are messed up. There's a ton of muscle in my legs, but that doesn't mean much if your nerves are messed up. My first step is just to try to do at least ten miles today. I'll let you know how that works out. <br /> <br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook.<P>-- <br /><a href="">Aimless</a> <br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a>Ryan M. Powell took a train from Boston to Maine tonight. That means the proposed 48-state walk has technically already begun. Officially, however, it begins with my first step tomorrow morning. My legs and hips have felt a little better the last few days, so I might actually be able to do this. <br /> <br /><a href="">Become a fan</a> of Aimless on Facebook.<P>-- <br /><a href="">Aimless</a> <br /><a href="">Aimless Video Evidence</a>Ryan M. Powell

The fashionable Tokyo thoroughfare of Omotesando invariably bustles with hordes of young people, but turn away from its rows of Zelkova trees and head down one of its back streets, and peace and quiet prevail. This is where it all started for hairdresser Hideaki Iijima, 61. He is the founder of Soho, the second-largest chain of hair salons in Brazil. Soho has 28 locations in Sao Paulo, and serves more than 700,000 customers annually. On Jan. 10, during a brief trip to Japan, Iijima visited hair salon 'imaii,' where he learned his trade. It was the first time he had returned there in more than a decade. Despite dredging through his memories, he had a hard time remembering exactly where the place was. Suddenly, he came to a standstill in front of a leaning power pole, rubbing his hands as he spoke. "This is it, right here. I was brought here several times a day to be scolded beside this power pole in front of the salon." Imaii, which has a floor space of only six tsubo (just under 20 square meters), is now located in a fashionable building that stands diagonally across from the power pole. Its proprietor, Hideo Imai, trained at the Vidal Sassoon salon in the United States in the 1970s, and is responsible for popularizing the innovative "Sassoon cut" in Japan. Before joining Imai's salon, Iijima had already worked at several other establishments and become a competent hair stylist, but was troubled by a lack of confidence in his skills. Then one day he saw a magazine article about Imai who had just returned to Japan, and wasted no time in asking him for a job. "Mr. Imai was strict, but I acquired the kind of skills and theory that I could be satisfied with, and I gained confidence in my abilities," Iijima says. Before he knew it, he had become a popular hair stylist. There was no end to customers requesting Iijima's services, and in one month alone he cut the hair of 760 clients. His days off were spent traveling the country to give seminars for hairdressers, and magazines and industry shows eagerly sought his expertise. Eventually, his monthly wages topped 1 million yen ($12,000). "He brought us more business not only with his hairdressing talent, but also his cheerful conversational skills," Imai recalls. However, after about five years, Iijima called time out on his career as a "charismatic hairdresser." He accepted an invitation from one of his former trainees who was managing a hair salon in Brazil, and emigrated there with his wife, 4-year-old son, and infant daughter. He was 28. "I had dreamed of moving overseas since I was little," he says. "If I had stayed where I was, I thought I'd most likely end up regretting it." * * * Adjusting to life in another country wasn't easy. He found himself at odds with his former trainee, and was fired after two years. The 10 million yen he had saved in Japan soon ran out. He borrowed three mirrors, and decided to test his mettle by working at a local salon. For him, it was like a battleground. The most senior hairdresser took the position closest to the salon's entrance, and newcomer Iijima was given the spot farthest back. Even if a customer came in without an appointment, they rarely made it into Iijima's chair. Names of non-existent clients were written in his column on the salon's appointment board, as well as other tricks intended to prevent him from gaining actual business. It was the underhanded work of his colleagues. "I live off my daily income. I wish I had the stability of a fixed salary, like office workers do," Iijima lamented to his neighbor, Kenichi Shiomi, who worked for the local subsidiary of The Bank of Tokyo (currently Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ). Shiomi, now 64, remembers it so well because Iijima wasn't the type to feel sorry for himself. His oldest son, Dai, 37, agrees. "At the time, my father didn't understand much Portuguese," Dai says. "I think he couldn't communicate well with his customers, which must have really bothered him." One day, Iijima came up with a plan. The shampoo sink was at the rear of the salon, so every customer had to pass by him. He carved his name into an eraser and made a stamp, then used it to add his name to the salon's business cards that he handed out to customers. Each time he would make a pitch for himself in broken Portuguese, saying, "I'm Iijima from overseas." In order to make himself stand out while cutting a client's hair, he deliberately exaggerated his movements, clicking his fingers and flattering customers by saying things like "Fantastic!" to put them in a good mood. To make allies of the salon's assistants and coffee-making staff, he gave them money on the sly. This used up a third of his wages. * * * When Iijima began to consider striking out on his own, he remembered a certain prophecy: "Your life will change when you turn 32." It had been told to him by a client who read his fortune soon after he came to Brazil. Believing it, he opened a hair salon in an office district on his 32nd birthday, which attracted a clientele of businessmen. He opened at 9 a.m., and stayed open for as long as he had customers. Some days he even worked until 1 a.m. Within seven months, he had paid back the $90,000 he had borrowed from his friends and was eventually able to expand to a chain of shops. Two days before his 40th birthday, in September 1990, Iijima awoke to discover that he had lost his sight. He had no idea why, and even wondered if he was about to die. After much agonizing, he came to accept that his fate was still his own, even if his luck had abandoned him. When he made the decision to retire from hairdressing and just manage his Soho shops, he regained his sight, but only in his right eye. "Maybe it was because I'd taken a load off my mind," he says. Three years later, thieves broke into his home. A gun was pressed against his temple and his neck was slit with a knife. He barely escaped death by handing over his money and valuables. After this string of nightmarish incidents, Iijima came to regard his life beyond the age of 40 as a bonus. At the time, Brazil was wracked by inflation and the price of living escalated rapidly. The government froze savings accounts, which caused cash flow problems. While several of his rivals gradually went out of business, Iijima raised his prices almost every week and just managed to stay afloat. Training his 1,100 staff members also posed difficulties. "Many Brazilians don't think ahead, so it was difficult for them to understand what I meant when I talked about having dreams," he says. "It was a near-impossible task to improve their skills on an ongoing basis." But Iijima himself has an awkward side and maneged to turn his complex into a driving force. He is aware of how others feel when they fail to accomplish something. Gradually, people began to flock to him. "If you stay true to yourself and have a purpose, it gives you the courage to confront adversity," he says. "I'll keep doing things the Iijima way until I die." * * * Hideaki Iijima Born in 1950 in Saitama Prefecture. Graduated from Kodama High School in Saitama, and gained his hairdressing license in 1970. Worked for several salons in metropolitan Tokyo before joining Hideo Imai's studio in Harajuku. Received acclaim for his hair-cutting techniques, becoming a popular stylist. Described as one of the first "charismatic hairdressers." Emigrated to Sao Paulo in 1979. Opened salon Soho in Sao Paulo in 1982, and turned it into Brazil's second-largest hair salon chain. Memo Family: Iijima divorced six years ago, and is currently single. He lives with his eldest son, Dai, and his wife, to whom he handed over the management of his salon business five years ago. His eldest daughter, Ai, also lives in Sao Paulo. His two children were born when he was still living in Japan, but he had the intention of moving overseas one day, "so I gave them names that could be easily pronounced by non-Japanese." Motivation: Iijima's father ran a barbershop in Saitama that his eldest brother eventually took over, so he became a hairdresser to avoid becoming a commercial rival. He always used his favorite Japanese-made Tenyo scissors, which he sharpened himself. On weekdays from 4:30 a.m., for an hour and a half, Iijima helps clean a park near his home. He has never missed a day in the past 15 years. - « Prev - 1

Another Movie Guy?: "Funny People," "Burma VJ," misc.Posted: July 31st, 2009 | Filed under: Uncategorized | Comments Off Welcome to”Another Movie Guy?”! This week I wondered whether I’d be able to find a connection between two new releases, Funny People and Burma VJ. One is a documentary about journalists who expose the truth about a military junta, whereas the other is a comedy about ill-behaved comedians. After Funny People, I left the theater in a beleaguered state, and it dawned on me that both movies are about forty minutes too long. Moreover, I wanted to like them more than I did. Unfortunately, the respective directors had too much faith in weak material. Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to watch an open mic night. Several comedians performed, including one who embarrassingly bombed. At first the audience gave him the benefit of a doubt. Then he began a tedious bit about plastic surgery, and good will gave way to jeers and sarcastic laughter. The comedian’s only recourse was to discuss his insecurities and to insult the audience. Such a breakdown informed my thoughts on Funny People, Judd Apatow’s ambitious new comedy. It shrewdly examines a man who only knows how to be funny and mean, and what might happen if he’s forced to take stock of his life. The result is honest, yes, but not particularly rewarding. Short on laughs and long on running time, Apatow’s third directorial effort falters. Adam Sandler stars as George Simmons, a sellout comedic actor who gains massive wealth with high-concept Hollywood garbage (not unlike Sandler himself). Leaving his mansion for the doctor’s office, George gets bad news: he has a rare blood disease, and the experimental treatment he’s given only has an eight percent success rate. Without friends, Simmons wanders to a comedy club, a place where he can be honest and people might listen. There he meets Ira (Seth Rogen), a struggling comedian who is jealous of his successful roommates (Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman). Much to Ira’s surprise, he’s asked by George to write some jokes for an upcoming corporate event. Ira agrees, and quickly becomes George’s confidant/whipping boy. Abusing the younger comedian is not rewarding enough, so George turns to Laura (Leslie Mann), his One Who Got Away. She still has feelings for George, and the two even consider a future together. Too bad Laura’s Australian husband (Eric Bana) is in the way. Funny People is clearly more ambitious than Apatow’s prior movies, and here he overreaches. The problem is not with the actors. Rogen successfully plays a goofball who has trouble handling a serious situation. Sandler plays a character not unlike his roles from the mid-90s; like Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison, Simmons can be obnoxious and cruel, with little empathy for others. Unlike Sandler’s goofy characters, George’s bad behavior has real consequences, and he’s a believable jackass. Some moments, particularly as Ira and George get to know one another, Sandler notably juxtaposes humor and buried pain. Still, the problem is that Funny People lacks the warm emotional core found in The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. Apatow’s characters are realistic and their drama is authentic, yet that does not engender an overwrought climax. The sequence in question is a long weekend at Laura’s home. Even if it gives Leslie Mann (Apatow’s wife) a chance to really act, the climax becomes tedious. Character choices are unclear, and too often these scenes announce emotion instead of showing it. The vulgar best friends, usually an Apatow highlight, are unfunny because they’re too selfish in such a dramatic universe (this is especially true during Ira’s romantic subplot, which never gains speed). Oh, and there are numerous cameos, from celebrities and up-and-comers alike, and their clever one-liners cannot save the exacerbating final scenes. Perhaps Apatow loves his movie too much to pare it down. Like the characters of Funny People, comedians are great company when they’re on point. When they’re not funny, their company can be almost unbearable, especially with a two and a half hour running time. With Burma VJ, director Anders Østergaard tries to accomplish a noble thing with meager material. Late in the summer of 2007, Burma saw the beginnings of an uprising, one that eventually escalated to violence. After the 1988 riots left hundreds dead, the Burmese were too afraid to speak out. Everyone considers the monks a legitimate political force, so when they protest nearly 20 years later, ordinary citizens take to the streets. Østergaard documents the uprising with the help of undercover journalists (like the recent Tehran protests, borders were closed to foreign press). Using the pseudonym Joshua, a journalist serves as narrator, and is never shown on camera. He describes how he and his colleagues would risk their lives for newsworthy images. Secret police scatter throughout the city, and Joshua can never be sure when they will spot him. As the conflict escalates, Joshua flatly notes that more deaths are the only way to stir global conscience. The principle weakness with Burma VJ is the quality of the smuggled footage. Joshua and others had to contend with military police and omnipresent fear, and it follows they could not always get the best shot. I realize the journalists were brave and did the best they could, yet they give Østergaard little to work with, and so his documentary lacks emotional power. At the height of the protests, for example, a journalist snags a shot of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (recent Gandhi prize winner), who has been living under house arrest. It should be a climactic, stirring moment, one that inspires others to act. Joshua says the image is blurry and the woman is at a distance, yet is moved to tears. Audience members lack Joshua’s immediate investment in the struggle, and will not have a similar reaction. That is not to say, however, that all the footage is uninspiring. Journalists catch moments when ordinary Burmese proclaim their desire for martyrdom, and there is suspense as a journalist hides from gunfire. Some especially stirring shots capture the scope of the protests. Østergaard and Joshua have moving stuff, just not enough for a feature-length documentary. That’s it for this week’s “Another Movie Guy?”! Tune in next week when romantic comedy overload continues.

Rapping sensation- P. Sanders blew the roof off and kept the Big Apple wide awake and full of energy when he performed at the Gramercy Theatre stage in NYC at the Pop Explosion concert on March 2, 2013. P. Sanders celebrated a very successful night that night with a rockin’ performance that had fans go wild; and even reached 100, 000 followers on Twitter! The hard-working rap-master P. Sanders has his very own EP, “Underrated” available on iTunes; and has a lot more thrilling, upcoming projects planned for his fans! Speaking of upcoming projects… I, Alexisjoyvipaccess caught up with P. Sanders since our last VIPAccessEXCLUSIVE interview over the summer in the Big Apple and I got the inside scoop on P. Sanders’s upcoming projects he’s working on, pre-show rituals, and more when I interviewed him backstage at the Pop Explosion NYC concert! In only a matter of a couple of months since our last interview, P. Sanders’s success has grown rapidly! Hear what the awesome and super talented P.Sanders had to say in our updated VIPAccessEXCLUSIVE interview below! Thanks for the excellent catch-up interview, P. Sanders! Catch P. Sanders and many more fantastic artists on the Pop Explosion Tour! Follow Pop Explosion Tour on Twitter: @PopExplosionTR to not miss out on when the Pop Explosion Tour comes to YOUR city! **Since the video may be a little difficult to hear, you can also read my VIPAccessEXCLUSIVE interview with the terrific P. Sanders below! Alexisjoyvipaccess: Can you tell us what are some pre-show rituals that you have? P. Sanders: I usually just put on my headphones and I walk around; and just blast my music and kinda zone out because it’s kind of like my world; so I gotta get into my world and my zone; and once I’m in my zone, then I own it! Alexisjoyvipaccess: Nice!! So can you tell us any upcoming projects you’re working on? P. Sanders: Yeah! I have a lot of big stuff coming, a tour is coming up- Pop Explosion Tour! But there’s a few other tours that I might be doing as well simultaneously; so it’s about to be really big, a lot of shows, a lot of places not even just in America but overseas as well, so can’t wait!! Alexisjoyvipaccess: Yay! We’re excited for that! So lastly, if you could bring out one message to your fans, what message would that be? P. Sanders: Never give up, ’cause honestly, your dreams may seem unreachable; but they are tangible things; so I would say, grab ‘em, own ‘em and live your life!! Alexisjoyvipaccess: Great! Thank you so much for catching up with me! P. Sanders: No problem! Alexisjoyvipaccess: And I look forward to seeing you perform tonight! Follow P. Sanders on Twitter: @TheRealPSanders/ “Like P. Sanders on Facebook: / Subscribe to P. Sanders on Youtube: / Check P. Sanders out on iTunes and buy his EP “Underrated”!<<

And do you like the new header? Totally rocks! Created by the awesome Retro Zombie Jeremy - contact him if you'd like an interactive header as well. You the man, Jeremy! Mark Koopmans is hosting his annual Got Green? Blog O’ Hop on March 15. Scattergun Scribblings is hosting the Overcoming Adversity Blogfest February 4-5. Entries will be compiled into a book and the proceeds will go to funding college for his son, Andrew, who has cerebral palsy. SA Larson created this writer’s creed. See her site to sign up and get your badge. Hilde McQueen’s latest book is out, Where the Four Winds Collide. Congratulations, Hildie! “It's stupid to fall for your brother's ex. It's even worse to enlist another's help to win the ex over…” Find Becca Ann on Facebook Find her book on Goodreads and purchase the eBook or paperback at Amazon. And don’t forget to save the date for my next blogfest, March 18 – to be announced next month! Mel has worked so long and hard on this book, and it’s finally available! ML Chesley. website. You can also follow her blog or on Facebook. Purchase Adversarius Amazon or Smashwords. Congratulations, Mel!!! Movie Trivia Answers? This is Spinal Tap Hosted by the awesome LG Keltner, we are to post about our writing beginnings. Want to know how CassaStar began? There were many influences. I was always a Star Trek fan. Star Wars came along and redefined movies and space operas. I enjoyed the likes of Bradbury and Heinlein. And then, a single image for an upcoming TV series caught my attention: Frank Frazetta’s artwork for the series Battlestar Galactica. What ignited my imagination was the setting – a rocky planet and a downed ship. The characters, stranded and ready to defend themselves, also caught my attention. (And in the central character, you can probably see the beginnings of Byron.) I imagined two people, a pilot and a navigator, their fighter shot down on a rocky planet and forced to make a sacrifice. That scene, written when I was a teen, was the only part of the original story to survive. (And the scene changed some during the rewrite.) But that image ignited the story behind CassaStar, which eventually became my first published book. Now it’s an Amazon Best Seller and has spawned two sequels. A picture really is worth a thousand words! Excited about the new books and blogfests? Are you picking up Adversarius? Get any of the movie trivia right? And how did your writing begin? Don’t forget to visit M. Pax’s Spacedock 19! 149 comments: You had some great influences there. Thanks for participating in my blogfest! And your new header is awesome! I enjoyed learning about the motivation for CassaStar! Your new header looks great Alex! Jeremy did a terrific job. Congrats to the authors, and I'll have to check out some of these blogfests. Julie Wow, your new header caught my attention right away - it's awesome! Nice to find out where it all started. The new header is very eye catching - well done Jeremy! I missed the last Got Green? blog hop, so I'll be taking part this time. Should be a blast! Thanks for the shout out! Love the header! And yes, Frazetta is the man. Mmm... I started writing "poetry" (i.e. silly long rhymes) when I was seven or eight. First novel started when a character walked into my head while I was reading. I was thirteen. :-D It's amazing that one picture can inspire so much, and that in itself is inspiring. :) Cool new header! Lots of great blog fests and links today. Jeremy is so talented! I'll hit M. Pax soon. I'm not surprised to see Battlestar Galactica being a major influence for Casastar. :) Great to hear the beginnings of Cassastar! I think pictures can be really inspiring, too...I've frequently wished I could draw instead of write. :) I love the header! I can see how that picture would inspire you. Neat beginning! This is Spinal Tap is so awesome. Thanks for the heads up about the Overcoming Adversity blogfest. Star Trek was the thing that inspired me to create stories as well :) Love that echo of Battlestar G in your story - awesome! LG, thanks for hosting! Nick, you're welcome. Ciara, you can probably see that really easily! Hey there! I love your new header. When it's time for a new look I think I'll contact Jeremy too! I'll treat myself when I hit a certain number of page views! Your new header is AWESOME!!!!!!!! Really, really, really cool. It feels like a videogame in here now! Congratulations to Mel and all the authors with new books. And Alex, nice to hear about your inspiration. I love hearing how books began. Love the new header! And Frazetta has inspired a lot of folks, I think. You're in great company there. Love the awesome header! Beautiful work, Jeremy. Enjoyed your interview over at Spacedock 19 with Mary. Yes, please discuss cloning next. :) Congrats on the new releases, Hilde, Becca, and Mel. Frazetta is head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to those sorts of paintings. Like the new look! I love that you've had the story all these years and finally acted on it to such success. Very inspiring for another late starter. Though only in my actual writing. My story premises are much more recent. I should've known A Fish Called Wanda. I love that movie! And I love Frank Frazetta. He's one of the few artists I used to try to emulate. I'm loving Frazetta's picture. It's mezmerizing. I think it's awesome, too, that you wrote a scene as a teen, with the picture as your inspiration for CS, Alex. Very cool. Thanks as always for all the tasty bites of info. I'll be checking out the blogfests. xoRobyn As always-- great information. The new header looks fantastic. I also liked Galactica. Never missed it. I think it was movies who inspired me to start writing too. Movies and way too much time alone. Jolie, he does a great job. Cathy, like a videogame - funny! Laura, cloning is on the list. Donna, it's never too late. Robyn, that scene was just so powerful. Great Battlestar Galactica picture! This series is one of my favourites. Interesting to know how Cassastar came about. Great post. Yvonne., I absolutely LOVE your new header. Wow. Cool. And the fact that that teaser picture for Battlestar Galactica was the impetus for CassaStar is fascinating. So amazing how inspiration strikes. And I am dying to read How I Fell for the Funny Fat Girl. So many books, so little time... Whoa! That header is totally awesome! Love to hear how CassaStar came into being. Oh, hey, did you know that Indie Life thing I did today was inspired by you? Not my thing in it, but the people that put that together were inspired by you. Love the new header, Alex! I'm heading over to Spacedock 19 now. :) Wow! lots of news! I enjoyed reading about the beginnings of your first book. Thanks for sharing. :) How cool that an image got you started! It's one of my favorites, too. Sadly, I missed the signup for this blogfest, but I have other surprises in store for today. :) Flashy new header! And interesting to find out your novels were inspired by that artwork. Definitely like the new banner for your blog and also some great info and links. Going to check them out! Now I REALLY want to read Adversarius. I shall have to keep my eyes out for this one. Thank you for sharing the story behind part of CassaStar, I love hearing back stories behind books! Zoltan, it was a favorite of mine. She'll, just one image started it all... Andrew, I did! David, sorry you missed it. Love the header! Inspiration is everywhere if we are just alert and open to it. That is a really cool image - I can see why it inspired your writing! Frank Frazetta is an amazing artist. I'm going to his Website now and spend some time just looking at his images. And good luck to all the writers and their new releases! 2013 is going to be a great year! Love the pic and the story behind CassaStar! Pictures are inspiring. I'm saving the date for your fest and Mark's. And my writing started with the story of a dancing hat . . .and then another about a pencil that escaped from school. (elementary school stories influenced by my love of tap dancing movies, and my strong dislike of school) Congrats to ML! Header is awesome :) And that picture is awesome; definitely inspirational... hehee, so punny. Congrats on all the books! A picture is worth a thousand words indeed. Will read your guest post and thanks for keeping us informed. I love the new header! Thanks for the news. I'm totally gonna check out Nick's blogfest, and I can't wait to read REASONS. Al, I do like your new header. Jeremy was done a very, very appropriate job. It evokes a very CassaNinja feel. I am curious about your blogfest, and Mary Pax, Nicki Elson and I will be announcing one for March 1 this Friday, too. As for the beginnings of CassaStar, I love that a picture was literally worth a thousand words. And I was also interested to know that the first scene was written in your adolescence! I like that detail very much, the idea of an entire world pulsing with promise since then. That BSG picture is fantastic. Love the new header. Signed up for Nick's blogfest. I can see Byron in that picture! I'm getting reallly frustrated. Choosing to read "CassaStar" to my kids was a wrong move. I read to them at bedtime, and at best get a chapter in before they zonk. Sometimes I sneak and read ahead...but don't tell them! As an old school BSG fan, I'm amazed that I've never seen that picture before....very cool! I always find it very interesting how just one spark can ignite something bigger. Better writing through chemistry :) Nice header, Jeremy! I'm keeping away from blogfests until April--at least that's my plan. My last couple of weeks with illness and holidays have already set me a year behind in blogging. Please don't come up with any blogfests I can't refuse! Lee Tossing It Out I do love your new header! It amazes me how much things happen every week. I feel so left behind. So awesome to hear the story behind that! I've always wondered. Can't wait for your blogfest announcement :) You new header rocks. Love the flash, Alex. Fits with your uniqueness! Great looking header. It's good to hear how it all began for you too. What a fun new header! Great new header! and thanks for all the updates. Best :) Lots of stuff going on. Always good to come over here to catch up, and find out yet another interesting fact. Although I'm an avid Bradbury reader (and a couple of Heinlein), and loved BG, I write totally different stuff. Thank goodness for authors like you who feed my addiction to that genre. Love the new header! Great job, Jeremy. That is cool that BSG inspired you, and that you wrote the first scene as a teen! Yes I like your new header! Jeremy is really good at creating headers that capture the tone of the blog. SO techi... so interesting, such fun! Both you and your header. The cool factor on that banner is very high! One of my buddies approach to painting mini's is inspired by Frazetta. Nice new banner! I love the golden-brown color scheme. I've been writing since I was 4 years old, literally as long as I could write. It's just what I've always done, no special inspiration to have started. I love the new header, Alex! I've been to Spacedock 19 - I'm on my way:) Cool new header and interesting how one picture can spark an entire series! Stephen, you could get lost at that site... Tyrean, a dancing hat! That is definitely original. Suze, excited to hear about your blogfest! Yes, there was a really crappy first draft of CassaStar written in my teen years, all stemming from that one scene. Mark, I think the black and white version was in the old TV Guide magazine. Lee, you might not be able to refuse mine... Clarissa, it amazes me as well. Joylene, thank you! ML, I'm trying. Carrie-Anne, that's a long time... Off to visit M-Pax! Liked to BG artwork :). Hadn't seen it before. Great seeing your inspiration for the start of the Cassa series. Cool backstory on your book, Alex! And congrats to all the writers in today's post - there's a lot of exciting news swirling about the blogosphere. Well, it was ST:TNG for me when I was in middle school, though I'd watched the original series and the original Battlestar Galactica in reruns with my dad. I also used to page through my dad's Frank Frazetta art book (though I think there was stuff in there young kids weren't supposed to see). Very cool that your scene survived all those years (and revisions), Alex. ML's cover looks awesome! It was fun and enlightening to talk to you Alex. Glad you visited the Spacedock. Your clones are welcome any time. Love the new header! And Congrats to ML! That picture is very inspiring. I loved BSG - the original and the remake. I thought something looked different over here ;) Thanks for the mention, too! You rock! And I think the only images that have inspired me are ones of hot guys without their shirts on. That counts, right? :) Congratulations! Your new header is an inspiring eye-catcher. A picture really is worth a thousand words! I work together with people from different countries and I can't count how often we use pictures. M Pepper, I bet there was a lot you shouldn't have seen! Oh well. Emily, the only one that did. Mary, thanks for having me. Becca, you are welcome! Thanks for the information; you are like the Blogger Times:D I got my Writer's Creed badge, and am off to visit the Beginnings Blogfest, M. Pax, and all the other goodies you have lined up for us. ooh! Fancy new header is fancy! Blinking lights and everything! Love the new header. I started writing back in the dark ages to amuse my friends. It was supposed to be a novel but everyone wanted to be a character, and everyone wanted their character to do this and that, so it ended up being a sprawling continuing story that was still going when my dad got transferred during my senior year (oh, the agony of it all) and we had to move. Yes, exquisite headboard, love the dynamic light shows. I love what Jeremy did for your blog header. Very cool--much like Jeremy himself. I like the sound of Adversarius and the hero's code of honor. I'll be checking that out for sure! Hope your week is going well, Alex! Blessings, my friend. The header is really neat! I loved the old Battlestar. And had such a crush on Richard Hatch. Alex, I did like how the header came out as I described it as... Space battle in the Matrix... thank you for letting me be creative. So many things going on today, I enjoyed the Battlestar... I as a kid had a cardboard Viper, that I sent in for from the back of cereal box... oh the memories. Great Day! Jeremy The new header is awesome! I'm already signed up for Nick's blogfest, but I'll have to pass on Mark's for a very good reason. I'll be here! :D Congratulations to Hildie, Becca Ann, and M.L.! I'm off to visit M. Pax now. :) So interesting hearing your inspiration! Finally some trivia I knew (well 2 questions anyway). Not a big sci/fi fan, but I loved Battlestar Galacticia (the original TV) I do like the new header! Thanks for all the news and notes. Appreciate you keeping us in the loop. I know I'd totally be out of that loop otherwise! :) I love the header! I see animated pirate ships in my future. :D Thanks for the shout out, Alex! And my writing started after I created Kayta for a D&D game. Geek to the core! XD My first writing experience was when I was 8, but my real writing experience was probably when I joined my current writing group 10 years ago. Everything I write comes out twisty and dark no matter how I try the opposite. Horror it is! LOL. Frank Frazetta’s artwork is amazing. I used to paw all over it when I was young. I get a lot of my writing inspiration from art as well. There is so much to do and see that I'm not sure what I'm doing next! Love the new header Alex. A million thanks for my book shout out. Have a beautiful day! Edi, hoping you'll enjoy those last thousand words. Sarah, I know - it rocks! LD, you should dig it up. Sia, he IS cool. Jeremy, that's funny. And the header rocks. Carrie, yes, you will be my guest that day! Mel, you're welcome. And you need to have him do that. Spruce up your header while keeping the ships and the feel. Lynda, I pawed over it as well, but I'm sure for a different reason. Hildie, you're welcome! Thanks for the secret origin of the Cassan universe! Dunno how you keep up Alex. Liked the sound of Adverstarius so bought it for my Kindle. Love your new header. Very flash. No good at movie trivia. Don't get to see too many movies. Interesting how Cassa Star began. Love that picture. I never missed an episode of the original Battlestar Galactica. I believe I have some of his artwork on collector's cards. Fascinating artwork that really drew my eye. I found them in a little shop in a tiny town near the coast of Oregon (while looking for X-Files cards, haha). I do love inspiration in all forms. Wonderful to hear where CassaStar came from. Shannon at The Warrior Muse Love the new header. Very cool. And I think it's amazing how your whole life was essentially changed by that picture. Think about it. The blog. All these people. How much would be the same if you'd never seen that and never decided to write Cassa Star? Maybe it all would've happened in some other way, but you never know. I think that's the best thing about life. How even the most innocuous-seeming things (like a picture) can impact you for years to come. :) Too much going on! AH! It's all good though. Nice getting a glimpse into 'the beginning'. Thanks for sharing. Heather Jo, I just do my best. Susan, I didn't either! Shannon, that is very cool! I have a game with his artwork on it. Tamara, none of it would've happened... Very cool beginning. A picture or a piece of music an inspire a whole series. I'm off to the Spacedock now! Alex, I think you are at the point now that you need this comment box at the top of the comment list instead of the bottom :) That is a very cool header and I like it a lot. I will throw some work Jeremy's way if I decide to go that route at some point. Hey I got three of the four movies I named, right!! Amazing. Lots going on this first week or so in 2013! Nothing like starting with a BANG!!!!!! I got one from the trivia! Yeah! Can't wait to stop by M.Pax's blog to check out the post. :) Cool banner! ~Stephanie Chuck, I'll see what I can do about the comment box, And I think one of Jeremy's headers would look awesome on your blog. Stephanie, glad you got one right. It was nice to read about your motivation for Cassa Star! I'll go check out your interview with Pax. Some really great blog hops coming up and I'm so stoked for Becca's book! :) I love your header!!! Jeremy rocks, flashes and glows ;D What the heck...a month? C'mon Captain...no fair-I need a hint! Off to check out MPax-I miss her~ I'm so behind, but playing catch up is fun! I love how fun and kind your blog is! Congrats to all! Mel you rock ;D Yeah, that image would catch my attention too. ......dhole Franzetta's Battlestar Galactica is epic. Great inspiration Alex. Love the new banner. I wondered if Retro Zombie was the creator. Hard to beat Frazetta, and yes, I can see Byron in that center figure. I love how the Cassa trilogy, and by extension this blog, came about because of that single image. It's a pretty awesome way to begin :) Jamie I'm not surprised that a powerful image you saw as kid helped to inspire your novel. The older I get, the more I'm amazed at how much the world we lived in when young still affect us. One of these days, I swear I'm gonna answer all your trivia questions. Hey, it's cool to know how you got started with CassaStar. I didn't realize you began writing it when you were a teen :) Oh I read and reviewed Adversarius! It's a great book. Congratulations to Mel Chesley :)) Great header! It was interesting reading about what inspired CassaStar. Dude. Your new banner looks awesome! Ella, thank you. And I will give you a hint - it involves a top ten list. DG, figured you would see Byron. Jamie, it is wild when you think about it. Helena, don't give up hope that you'll answer them. Rachel, I did! Many, many years ago... Michael, you're a speed reader. Man I love those moments where inspiration strikes is right on down! :) Nice story for the blogfest. I have yet to read any of your books but they are all high up on my TBR! and thousands of fans! awesome picture! art is so inspirational! fabulous new look! love it! cant wait to see what you do next! Great new banner! Loved Frazetta's artwork and all the newsy stuff! Love the new header, noticed it right away :). A new blogfest? Hmmm...I am most intrigued! Happy Wednesday! Jen Awesome banner!!! And so many blogfests to enter. Congratulations to all that have new books out. I love the story behind the inspiration for CassaStar. That image can really stir some creativity, and I'm glad it caught your eye. I have a funny story about my inspiration for Forged by Greed :-) I'm off to M Pax's blog to read the post. I love the new banner! It's spectacular! The new banner is AWESOME, Alex!!! Love it. =) Going to check out books. =) Your new header is great! So what should I do now, shut my blog down or change header? I totally identify with using artwork for inspiration! I'm working on a high fantasy project, and I've developed a habit of finding scifi and fantasy pictures on pinterest to help me envision locals and characters and even events for my story. :D Trisha, thank you!! Tara, I hope I have that many fans. Angela, you need to post that story. Jay, or contact Jeremy to do a new one! Liesel, smart idea. Oy! Totally forgot it was Wednesday yesterday. Better late than never. Good thing I dropped by. I'd miss all the news without your posts. So many blogfest! And so little time. I loved the BG from the late 70's early 80's. had big crushes in Apollo & Starbuck. Not surprised you'd find it inspiring. Funny where we find that nugget of inspiration. That's so cool to learn the inspiration behind Cassa Star! I remember when that picture came out! :) It's amazing what can come from a simple picture. I know I've had my fair share of image-based muses. Love the new header. Absolutely gorge!!! Alex, the new header is jazzy. I like it. It boggles my mind when I come here and see all these blog posts I want to visit and all these new books I want to read. I need more hours in my day. Yes, interesting CassaStar roots. I love the new header! Awesome lightning effects... very atmospheric! I enjoyed the Cassastar beginnings... It seems like the blogfests never end... there are so many new ones... Nancy, it was a cheesy show, but I dug it. DL, glad someone else remembered! Patricia, I am here to boggle... I love the new header!! Great job, Jeremy! Alex, lucky you, yes it's me, Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet superstar! You are having another blogfest? We will check that out. We do so hope you join our "Groundblog Day" blogfest. That's "Groundblog", not "Groundhog". Clever, eh? You are having another blogfest? We will check that out. We do so hope you join our "Groundblog Day" blogfest. That's "Groundblog", not "Groundhog". Clever, eh? Went by Nick's blog. I'm in. Working on a story tonight. You've got a hear of gold, Alex. And thanks for the spam info. Followed all. So far, so good. :))) I'm a very visually-oriented gal, so I can see how this image would've jump started your creativity! It's truly amazing what can spark a story idea! As always I can count on you to keep me busy...LOL, Not that I need it, But nice to know what needs checing out :) Gary, I won't have to listen to I Got You Babe, will I? Gary, I won't have to listen to I Got You Babe, will I? Thanks, Kittie! And glad that nixed the spam. Gotta learn outlining...heading over there now. And it turns out that by sheer luck that I DID know the first trivia answer (it just popped into my brain) even though it's been YEARS since I slept through the movie... Tina @ Life is Good Thanks for providing these links and all this info. Lots to go through. I especially love the rebel writer's creed. YES, I love the header! It's perfect for this blog! I also loved Sheri's writer's creed. It's full of great reminders. Thanks for sharing all the great news. It's so exiting. That's a cool story of how you came up with your novel concept! GOT GREEN!!!!! You know, I'm the reigning champion for that blogfest, I've got to really step it up this year if I'm to win again... And LOVING the new look... I'm commenting just ahead of a new post. LOL I'm so far behind, I can't even see what's behind be me anymore. LOVE the new banner. Jeremy is major-league talented. Frank Frazetta is one of my all time favorite artists. His Wolfman is on my wall here at home. What wonderful news all around the blogosphere. I love hearing all this great news. I love Star Trek too and Star Wars! Though some of my guy friends make fun of me for it since they are "guy movies/shows" but I'm a geek. :) I'm excited for all of the new blogfests! That header is FANTASTIC!! I love it! Thanks for the links and news. I love the new header. Tina, good for you! Morgan, the pressure is on. Melissa, Jeremy did an awesome job. Krista, no, you are an uber-cool chick in my book! Hi Alex - so pleased you highlighted Nick's blogfest for his son - raising funds via an anthology - it will be great. I have to catch up - so much happening - how does anyone keep up .. Cheers and I love the header - talented bloggers around .. let alone writers! Have a great year - Hilary I was wondering where you got that great new header! It's awesome! Jai Aloha, I'm about as late as late can be, but wanted to say Cheers for the O'shout out and may your eyes not glaze over if I add to the "Wow, dude, cool new header" gang :)

OberonViking I agree completely with you here. I actually have the trouble of needing to retrain my players as they began by mistrusting me. Probably because they are students at the school I teach at, perhaps becausew they are only 13 and 14, maybe because they have come with a background in computer RPGs and mmorgs. – OberonViking 2012-07-06 10:10 UTC shortymonster sadly, because I play with a mixed group from various other gaming groups, this kind of untrustworthiness seems to have been firmly established long before I got there. using an NPC as the guy who wired them’s second in command who was supposed to be very helpful indeed, even going behind his boss’s back on occasion for reasons of his own that were all in the player’s interests, and they still thought he was lying or withholding information. – shortymonster 2012-07-06 10:18 UTC lior An interesting point. On the one hand, we are trying to make the game world dangerous and full of evil. But then we avoid almost all things which are truly evil. We slaughter lots of creatures without problem and are happy when countless villagers are massacred because that is the next adventure hook. But torture, abuse, despair, we do not want to have those in the game. Why should we? If its ugly in the real world, how could it be fun in play? There is something delusional about our hobby. – lior 2012-07-06 11:30 UTC -C It’s weird, I do this all the time and the players never really have a problem trusting anyone. I’ve never had a player do any of the things. Threaten to torture somebody? Never. Sometimes they’ll say “I don’t want to get screwed!” and I’ll say, “Well, you probably won’t” and that’s pretty much the end of it. – -C 2012-07-06 12:28 UTC @Lior: I think there is nothing delusional about it at all. It only seems delusional if you make broad simplifications. Let me dig a bit deeper: Or: Or: We might get into real world ethics, of course (the ends justifying the means, is there a just war, human(oid) rights, war conventions) – but I think the key is how people feel at the table even if they cannot express it clearly. There’s a line to be drawn everywhere with respect to “how much we can take”. Just as we do not experience risk in mathematical terms, we don’t experience cruelty and pain in statistically relevant terms. It matters whether we’re doing it, or it is being done to us, or we hear about other people doing it, the amount of graphic detail is important, our own sensibilities play an important role (people who enjoy watching Saw movies and I are not in the same boat). – AlexSchroeder 2012-07-06 12:31 UTC Alex takes a couple shortcuts to get to game content he enjoys and is interested in. That is not delusional. It’s a question of where you draw the line in descriptions and where you lift the veil about NPCs. “His eyes dart around nervously as he tells you this” or “you have the uncanny feeling he is not telling the truth” is not the same thing as everybody always being nice, even if they’re supposed to be the bad guys. Example: In Alex’ Wilderlands campaign there is a red dragon who got seven virgins every year; the reasons long forgotten by the humans. Yes, the dragon is going to sacrifice these innocent people in a ritual (and that is all I as a player needed to know) … but the ambiguity of real life starts beyond this; the dragon does this to seal a demon kings’ soul so he doesn’t resurrect himself in this part of the material plane. And the goal of that subset of the campaign, chosen by the players, was to ensure the dragon doesn’t need to do that anymore. So: – Harald 2012-07-06 12:42 UTC @-C: If your players never suggested torture, more power to them! What about the other issues, however: When your players release prisoners, the freed prisoners go and fetch friends to chase after the player characters? If so, do the player characters continue to release prisoners? When your non-player characters lie to your player characters, will the players still trust other non-player characters? Perhaps your player characters never trust any non-player characters? Or perhaps sifting through the statements the non-player characters make is part of the game? It also seems to be what you’re saying in On Ignorance of Skill Based Play: This would be similar to me openly admitting that the non-player character seems to be lying once they player ask me “is he lying?” or “I watch his face and try to figure out whether he’s lying.” In response, I’ll provide something pretty obvious like the examples Harald provided above: “His eyes dart around nervously as he tells you this” or “you have the uncanny feeling he is not telling the truth.” – AlexSchroeder 2012-07-06 12:45 UTC lior @Alex, @Harald: Let me rephrase. We want dragons sacrificing virgins, but we do not want to think about what that would mean and how and why that is horrible. We want a road flanked by dozens of crucified criminals. But we do not want to imagine what that really means. Crucifixion → bad, human sacrifice → bad. Those are trivial conclusions. We want them in the game, but we want them to stay trivial. Also, I did not say Alex is delusional, far be it from me. In fact I think Alex’ method is a mature way of not dealing with unfun issues. I am deliberately saying “There is something delusional about our hobby” because I think it applies to almost all of us, myself very much included. I suspect those players who are OK with torture are so because it does not touch them emotionally as easily. In other words, it stays trivial for longer. – lior 2012-07-06 13:30 UTC AlexSchroeder @Lior: I suspect that this is an aspect of all sane humans and is true for almost all endeavors: too much detail makes you crazy; too much terrible detail makes you crazy. It protects you from the tedium and horror of everything, of the entirety of our human existence. The repression of horrible details and (sometimes) their sublimation into action (or adventure in the case of role-playing games) seems to be one of the most basic mechanisms allowing us to function. But then again, I’m not a psychologist and have my reservations regarding Freud. – AlexSchroeder 2012-07-06 14:07 UTC Brendan Question: how are lying NPCs different from trapped dungeon rooms? Is it a question of context? If so, maybe NPCs encountered in a dungeon are unreliable, while those encountered in a town are trustworthy? That seems like it might be a reasonable assumption, much like how players usually don’t feel the need to probe the floor in a tavern with a 10 foot pole. – Brendan 2012-07-06 22:43 UTC AlexSchroeder @Brendan: I think looking at the difference between traps and lying non-player characters is a good way of considering the issue. Context is a good point. I’d say that a non-player character joining the party and moving from the tavern context to the dungeon context warrants a bit more thought: Is the non-player character now a liability or does he “stay trustworthy?” My players might be expecting the character to stay honest and I tend to agree. Another aspect I like is how traps or liars are discovered. Here’s how I think traps ought to be used: there must be ways of discovering traps that doesn’t involve rolling dice. I like to say: “If you need to roll dice, it’s already too late.” Thus, examining the floor might yield “a line across the floor” or “a dried puddle of blood” or something along these lines. I like -C’s traps on his Hack & Slash blog because he discusses this discoverability of traps. What about lying non-player characters? I feel that they need the same kind of discoverability. In the original example on G+ the Philip Watson had the evil cleric drink booze instead of joining combat in the first round and similar hints out there, so as far as I’m concerned, that’s good enough. – AlexSchroeder 2012-07-07 10:04 UTC

Charming, sun-soaked and obsessed with death. Tokyo's all-girl power trio Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re is irony personified. It's a hard-rock band with punk sensibilities, danceable beats and a sharp-toothed metal roar. (How that roar comes from the vocal cords of three petite women is beyond me.) Singer Mari's warm delivery masks the often racier themes of tragedy and sex. To non-Japanese speakers oblivious to the meaning of the lyrics, some of the contrast is lost. But then there are the violent fits thrown by the feisty guitar and thumping drums, which help drive home the band's contradictory aesthetics. "And the speed of the cars is fast. Everything is fast!" The songs aren't always so heady or obscene. Sometimes they're just about food. In "Fish Cakes," each member plays a different ingredient in a hot pot, and in "No-Miso Shortcake" Mari invites us to eat her brain (all in Japanese, of course). Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re introduced itself to America in 2004, when it toured alongside several other Japanese acts. A year later, the band reached the ears of thousands of Yanks as the opening act for the Suicide Girls Live Burlesque Tour. In a collectively answered e-mail interview, Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re's love for America is explicit. The fact that its current tour is the band's seventh in the States is also a testament to its adoration for the red, white and blue. "You can be unrestrictive about your feelings in the United States," the group says. "And the speed of the cars is fast. Everything is fast!" The band's travels have been mostly glee-filled, but on one occasion, Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re found itself in a haunted hotel room. "We stayed at one place where a ghost seemed to be in the bathroom," the three band members say. "Everyone was afraid to go into the shower alone." Then there was the dive bar. "There was no door in the restroom stall." Just as Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re has come to lust for American life, so too have Americans come to adore the band. "The fans in the United States dance in a frenzy, even if they don't know us," Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re says. "In Japan the crowd is shy. Even if they love us, they won't dance alone." So who's coming out to Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re shows? It's a colorful, brainy bunch. "A young person and an elderly person can both love Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re," the band says. "A lot of clever persons are in the fan base, too. For instance, scientists and college professors." You don't need an advanced degree to see Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re in Albuquerque; you just have to be 21 or older. The band plays Burt's Tiki Lounge on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Static Static (L.A.) and Calico (here) are also on the bill. Entry is free as a bird.

No sugar beets today! Instead I go outside to take my kid to school this morning and this is what we find. Ironically we had to drive 300 miles the day before for a family issue so it was 'good luck' that it didnt happen then. So there is no happy challah bread, half eaten. No happy easy eggs with avocado. No happy easy eggs with avocado and red chile. Only my car, and a tree knocked over by the 'weather' - fortunately it was the driver door mirror that was damaged, well that and my now deep seated psychological problems stemming from trees, weather, cars, and strange neighbors 'washing' it. (I dont know this guy) I fell behind on comment response since we were 300 miles away (well we were really only 160 miles away it was 320 round trip, I like to exaggerate to make my anguish more anguishy) and I did not take my laptop. 34 comments: You are lucky that the damage was so minimal. And I love the kindness of fellow New Yorkers giving you a free car wash! What are the chances! Stace stace: incredibly lucky (I guess) and yeah pretty funny - I didnt tell him it was my car I just snapped a few pictures and let him do what he wanted to do... Good thing it wasn't major damage, just before Christmas!I guess you have other things to use time and money on! Do you keep your camera in your pocket? anette: I do, I take my camera everywhere I go! New Yorkers are an interesting group of people...good thing he was using a water hose! I was on jds223's page with the hose!Gee who woulda thought that it was a tree you had to watch out for in the wilds of NYC? hey, my car needs washing:) the eggs n chile n avacado look wonderful.. jds223: that IS a good thing! starrlife: yup, trees and mold and blinding fashion! snugs: bring it on over to my block, I am sure this guy will oblige...and those eggs and avocado and chile were damn good. Yep, lucky!!! I absolutely pissed myself laughing when I read that you dont know the guy with the hose!!! WHAT THE????????? Maybe hes blind and he used to water the tree so now hes watering your car>>>>>> ha ha ha ha Well that car got busted deep! Is nature taking it's revenge? Or is nature trying to get your attention? Sorry about your ride dude. At least is wasn't a '57 Impala with chrome hubcaps and a chainlink steering wheel. mandi: I wanted to give him a bucket of soap.... sofia: busted barely, actually, but nature is always the champion. Loose one sideview mirror and find another. francesco: how do you know I dont have a chrome chain link steering wheel? andres: if only life could be so simple... New Yorkers are NUTS!!! and I'm so glad that you weren't IN the car when this happened and it was only the mirror. I mean, who actually uses that particular mirror anyway, right? I wondered where you were....I hope everything is ok with your family. No drama, ya know? Drama sucks. xoxox no it was just sitting on the street like normal....and yeah we had drama... New Yorkers are NOT nuts - the rest of you goombas are nuts! Now you got firewood for those roof top bar-b-que's. Stuff like that drives me nuts! Just enough damage to inconvenience you during the holidays... micky-t- ok mister half full - thats a bright side except the wood is still green and it is a city tree -but I do like the positive twist. buff: EXACTLY! Eww, what DOES a city tree smell like when it burns. LOL Let it air dry on the roof for 3 months...it'll be good to go! Oh man--sorry about your car! Bad tree! Those eggs with chile and avocado look SLAMMING! Who cut up the tree? Was it this same stranger who is washing your car? I didn't think there were nice people like that anymore? Must be the holidays. One night in 1986, my husband and I parked our 1 year old Cadillacs side by side, mine backed in beside his, so he could get out his driver's door and open mine for me. There was a rainstorm that night; the next morning, the tree behind our cars had come down and crunched in the driver's sides of both cars. Homeowner's insurance paid for them, but it took a while. Relatively speaking, you were lucky. And you can send that neighbor to wash my cars in December, if you want! I have a chiminea ready for the wood...and I will make you one of my 'Happy' Egg Nog drinks and we will have a good laugh about what life throws at us! Glad you and your son are ok... Hope your weekend goes a little better! Glad the damage was only to the car. sheesh I hate it when that happens...man that bread looks good!!! You poor thing! You sounds like you're having a rough time! Why was that guy washing your car? Weird! My husband would have freaked. ouch! You're lucky the damage wasn't worse! Do we get an example of your deep seated psychological problems? An altar boy stories you can share? Okay, so you are the THIRD person I read that had damange done to their car, but at least you weren't driving it at the time like the other two were! And some random person was washing your car? Strange, but kinda nice too, huh? First off..the picture of your egg platter...priceless. You kill me with the colors. Secondly...I am totally loving that you took a picture of the guy washing your car without letting him know that you were the owner...awesome! OMG - I'm so happy the damage wasn't worse than what it was! Well, at least he wasn't peeing on your car. And who needs a driver's side mirror anyway! :-) "strange neighbors 'washing' it. (I dont know this guy)" you still crack me up. Happy Holidays.

Carlton Books Ltd., Hard cover, ￡12.99, 384 pp. For your money, you received not only a book that looked good, but also one that actually told you something. When it comes to coffee table books, the two can never be taken for granted. Fourteen years on, the book is enjoying a renaissance. It was last updated in 2000 and has now been pored over again, the cobwebs blown away, and the facts and figures updated for a new era. But what you don’t get anymore are the pictures, which is a shame as this is a book crying out for illustration. Don’t get me wrong, Roger’s words are as clear and crisp as ever, drawing on his four decades of banging on brewery doors and seeking out beers of quality, but the book, in its new, compact, monochrome format, has a rather dry feel to it. The contents begin with the art and science of beer making, and the basics of brewing are explained extremely well, with more detail than is often found in catchall beer books. Then Roger describes his travels; zipping around the world, country-by-country, summing up the local beer scene, selecting the best exponents. Chapter Three takes us on a pub and bar tour of the world, with paragraphs on all of the best places to drink, before Chapter Four explores what it describes as “the culture of beer drinking”―anything from the origins of pub names to the latest licensing rules in the UK. Throughout, it’s clear that Roger knows his stuff; much of it gleaned firsthand through visits to the breweries and bars themselves. Producing a revised edition of a book this extensive and detailed is always going to be fraught with danger―danger that an odd fact may be overlooked, danger that new information is sidelined in favor of just updating the existing text. Being picky, I did find examples where the story is not quite up-to-date and also stumbled across some notable omissions. I also noted that the absence of web details makes the book seem somewhat dated. That all said, it’s a good, solid, informative work―nearly 400 packed pages of text from the world’s leading beer writer―that I will certainly consult on a regular basis. The lack of gloss and glamour in this new version can, of course, be a bonus. Think of the World Beer Guide as a solid primer―a fundamental, almost school textbook-like introduction to the world of beer, bars and brewing that cuts to the chase and leaves the frills for other titles. The added bonus, of course, is that you have a coffee table book, without the coffee table price.

Last we left the adventuring party, they were camping outside the Cave of Marsh. I anticipated dying to the wizards guarding the crown many times because of their paralytic touch and massive damage. Their attack on the mages can quickly take them out. I retrieved the crown and prepared for the battle coming next. Astos is the first real boss to face off with the party. Garland is too early to be much of a challenge, and the last two plot related fights (pirates and wizards) are more like mini-bosses. Astos has a spell, Rub, that has a good chance of instantly killing a party member. In fact, it's usually his first action followed by either Fire 2 or 3. Astos decided to focus his efforts on buffing himself instead, while Kili took MVP for the fight, basically killing him single-handedly (I'm not sure Tont's 2 HP of damage really pushed it over the edge). With the crown I was able to get the Crystal Eye, which the witch Matoya requests in exchange for some powerful herbs that revive the elf king who has a mystic key to unlock magic doors. Behind one of the doors are some explosives that a dwarf needs. This is the longest chain of fetch quests I've seen in the games for this blog. Beyond the TNT, I also uncover a lot of powerful equipment that I can't use. At least it gets me a lot of gold to help afford the costly spells. With the TNT, a dwarf blow up a land bridge that opens up the wider world . Now the main quest really begins and I can finally do something about these orbs. I've just reached the first town beyond, and the Earth Cave is awaiting my approach. Session Time: 1h30m (Total Time: 5h30m) Sorry for the lack of updates. Life has been really stressful and work is crazy. Still is, but I've spent too long away from this, so I'm trying to get back into it. Thank you all for stopping by again and checking it out. I'm definitely devoting more time to this project going forward. Welcome back! Life is always more important than video games, of course, but hopeful this is a de-stressor for you... It does help, but it also creates some stress at home when I play for long periods, so I'm trying to limit the longer sessions. Glad you're back! Sorry to hear about real-life stress, I hope things are better now! Not really, but I'm tired of waiting for them to get better. I've been following your blog for quite some time, but not commenting until now. Glad to see you're back! Have you considered trying one of the patches for Final Fantasy? I wound up having my Final Fantasy cartridge ROM reburned with a bugfix patch that really made the game a whole lot more fun to play. Vanilla NES Final Fantasy has a ton of bugs, notably that none of the "special" weapons that are supposed to deal extra damage to specific creatures (The Giant Sword for example) actually does any additional damage. There are spells that do the opposite of what is intended (I believe LOK actually reduces your To-Hit, rather than increasing) and a great deal of the elemental protection spells (AFIR, ALIT, etc) don't do anything at all. A little QA would have gone far. I was unaware of bugfix patches for my favorite FF game, though I knew about the bugs. I'll have to go search one out... I wish I remembered which patch I found, but it was compatible with the cartridge's ROM and the guy running nesreproductions.com burned it for me. Works great. I think I'd rather stick to unmodified versions, or at least officially released versions. The special weapons are really only a drawback for Gioz. I guess the light axe also is limited, but I don't remember many undead once it's found. The spell limitations and handicaps I can work around as well. I really don't like using buffs and debuffs much as I feel like they waste a turn in casting them, especially when the debuff just doesn't work. I actually bought the PS1 version recently. I could switch to that version... nah I'll just stick with the original for now. I've beaten it before. @archivis: Someone named AstralEsper made a great patch called Final Fantasy Restored. I highly recommend it. It fixes pretty much every bug; the only one still unfixed, I think, is the INT bug (i.e., higher INT is supposed to increase the power of Black Magic, but doesn't). I have noticed that Gioz's spells will sometimes out-power Kili's. Wow, I was reading that and I saw Garland and now I can't get that ancient webcomic, 8-bit theatre out of my head. I never heard of 8-bit Theater until now. Thanks for wasting the rest of my free time for today.... I'll have to check out 8-bit theater and lose some more free time then. Don't worry, it goes downhill pretty quickly, I just kept reading it out of habit. Lies, Canageek, LIES! All those consecutive hours I lost watching the Youtube episodes and then continuing in the comics are proof of its OBJECTIVELY perpetual funniness! .... Seriously, though, I am sad it won't continue forever especially with 5 more sprite-based Final Fantasy's to draw from.... IMAGINE! PS: Glad to see you back,Zenic. I kinda dropped off my usual blog-reading spots (bet I have a few hundred hours of CRPG Addict back-logged,too), so I am sorry this greeting is more than a bit late :) Thanks, and good to see you back as well. Wizardry's been teaching me the true meaning of an unfair game. I'm hoping I've seen the worst of it and can move on soon. Strangely, I'm enjoying it more than Phantasy Star II. That could have to do with grinding while also playing Star Saga Two. Good to see you posting - and to see your exploits are continuing. :) Glad to be back. I hope I can get through the 1990s of gaming by the end of the summer at least. We'll see how quickly I can start ramping up my play time. I quite enjoyed this section of the game. Because I used the peninsula of power on my playthrough I kind of breezed through it. Really enjoyed the battle with the elf guy. I think the peninsula of power is a less powerful in this games. I remember easily grinding there in Dawn of Souls (the game used MP instead spell points per level). I suppose it's good before getting the mystic key, although at level 11 I was getting hit for nearly half my HP. The ever present mummies at the north castle are a constant source of experience. The giants in the Earth Cave are seem to be a good deal as well, but take some time to kill. I remember the eye in the ice cave being another good source, but he's hard to get to and can easily kill your party without the right equipment. Beyond that, I can't think of any particularly easy places to grind for levels. I hope you'll write up your thoughts when we get to the final posting on this game. It'll be interesting to read up on the differences between the versions. I'm catching up on older articles, so I'm fine with you being less frequent :D Glad to have a new reader. I'm eager to move forward though, so I hope I can get back to my goal of at least once a week. I'm glad to see you back, and glad to see Kili kicking ass and taking numbers! Kili is definitely one of the most powerful characters with his nukes. I think the animation you recall for the blowing up of the canal is from one of the myriad of remakes. Glad to see you back blogging! I did play through the GBA Dawn of Souls version, so maybe I'm remembering that. I also remember tent/cabin/house animation, but I'm pretty sure that's Final Fantasy II (SNES). Yes, the GBA version, as well as the superior PS1 and other remaks have these animations for blowing up the canal, and at other set points, as well as tent/cabin/house animations.

62 Reasons You Might Be All Groan UpPosted on December 27th, 2011 Are you a GROAN UP? Someone in that awkward limbo between growing and grown? If so, you’re not alone. I recently unwrapped the theory of Emerging Adulthood, which suggests that there is a new developmental stage between the transition from adolescence to adult called “emerging adulthood”. However, I’ve also been conducting my own less-than-academic research around emerging adulthood and my theory of being a GROAN UP. And after months of collecting answers from twentysomethings/thirtysomethings from around the World of Web-ernet (and sprinkling in my own), I present to you what it REALLY means to be ALL GROAN UP – someone in between growing and grown. 1. When you buy loads of cute accessories for your teenage sister, because obviously you are too GROAN up to wear them! - Kay 2. The thought of becoming an adult makes you toss up a few Fruity Pebbles. 3. You see nothing wrong with still eating Fruity Pebbles. 4. You take your nieces to see cartoon movies just so you don’t look like a weirdo watching a kids movie – Linzy 5. TGIF still means something more to you (aka you might own the entire DVD set of Boy Meets World). 6. You de-stress by coloring with crayola crayons. - Cara 7. At the first sight of snow you hope work is cancelled tomorrow. 8. You stop laughing at Friends and start thinking that Joey’s comments about sex are inappropriate. – Josh 9. You’ve had a new job (or no job) nearly every year for a decade. 10. You still eat mac n cheese for dinner (but now add peas) – Robin 11. When Father’s Day is for YOU 12. When you realize YOU have to DEAL with the car mechanics instead of your dad doing it for you! – Linzy 13. You can’t believe you’re married 14. You can’t believe you’re NOT married 15. You still don’t really know how taxes work but you pretend like you do. ~ Katie 16. You still get called “the girl” at work – A Girl Who Dreams 17. You ironed your dress shirts for the first month of your new job, and then decided a much easier strategy was just to stop believing that wrinkles exists. 18. You say things like, “That Fred Savage was dreamy” ~ Blunt Delivery 19. You bring empty Tupperware to work to take home leftover office food 20. When you make comments like “I was NEVER allowed to wear something like that when I was her age…I wore stretch pants and an over-sized t-shirt!” ~ Alyssa 21. When the last of the ketchup bottle makes a fart noise and you don’t laugh. ~ Julian 22. You realize on the morning of that Mother’s Day is not just for your mom, but also for your wife, who is now a mom. So you run out and buy a glass swan (I might be speaking from experience here) 23. You love listening to NPR now. I mean, it’s talk radio! ~ David 24. You still giggle when someone says balls (maybe just a groan up guy thing) 25. You go back to your home town and talk about all the “developments” that have happened since you’ve been gone ~ Lindsay 26. You thought Mary-Kate and Ashley were adorable. And now they kinda scare you. ~ Katie 27. When you never run out of underwear because you actually stay on top of laundry ~ Ashley 28. When you’re losing hair and gaining babies. 29. Every evening at 7:30pm you scurry to turn on Jeopardy ~ Rachael 30. You grieve all the day when you spill coffee on something that is “dry clean only.” 31. When your first reaction to finding out a friend is pregnant is “congratulations!!” instead of “holy &^%$, what happened!!” ~ Kate 32. You start taking over the counter pain relievers after a really active day of play/moving/living because you actually need them. ~ Lindsay 31. You feel like a kid most of the time, until you see a real kid and think, “good Lord, kids are really young these days.” ~ Mike 32. You chug two-day old coffee because you’re running late and you know if coffee doesn’t enter, you’re not leaving. (Note to Kid-Self for when time machines become available at Best Buy: Never fight the nap). 33. You realize that the cliques in high school are alive & well in the real world too … ~ Jocelyn 34. You need a vacation to recover from your vacation. 35. You have a 12 year old say to you, “My youth pastor was talking about Vanilla Ice and my friends and I thought he was talking about an ice cream flavor,” and you aren’t sure whether to laugh or cry because she was completely serious. ~ Lindsay 36. You get zits on your jawline and think, “Really? Still?” ~ Katie 37. You think girls today are a bit hoochy but then you see pictures of you with shirts that exposed your belly button ~ Katie 38. You know that Jerry Maguire was not Lizzy Mcguire’s dad. ~ Katie 39. You’ve made a prank call on a pay phone. ~ Katie 40. You’ve used a pay phone period. And you’ve said your name is, “Mom, come get me.” ~ Katie 41. You stop feeling entitled to winter breaks, spring breaks, and summers off. ~ Lindsay 42. The only reason you maintain your weight is so you never have to buy new dress pants 43. When the manager at Chipotle comes outside to the patio, tells the high school kids to stop throwing forks at cars and lighting things on fire, and then turns and apologizes to YOU. ~ Mike 44. You start saying, “this generation’s music really sucks” ~ Will 45. You think you’re not that old and then you realize that the kids who just graduated high school this year were born in 1993. ~ Lindsay 46. You still can’t believe your parents turned your old bedroom into an office. Did your time with them mean nothing? Shouldn’t your bedroom remain a permanent shrine? 47. When going to bed early on Sunday night to prepare for the week becomes a priority. ~ Ryan 48. You begin repeating phrases your parent’s always used to say, that you swore you never would. And then deny it. 49. You utilize your Flex Spending Account, because you know what that is now. ~ Kendra 50. When your wife complains that you drive like her grandfather just to get better gas mileage. ~ Brandon 51. When you complain in agony, “when I got my license, it only costs $20 to fill up my car!” ~ Stephanie 52. Having lower lumbar support has become a major concern. 53. “Do you have any kids” has somehow become a normal question people ask you. ~ Mike 54. You now understand what your parents meant when they said, ‘You’ll understand when you get older.’ 55. When you wrinkle your brow and make comments about “kids these days” ~ Kendra 56. You rake piles of leaves and are about to jump in, but stop because ‘what would the neighbors think’ 57. When you overhear 16 year olds talking about “that lady” and realize it’s you ~ Sarah 58. Your birthday slowly transitions from best day of the year to worst. 59. You really want to go sledding again. Until you actually go sledding again. Then you don’t ever want to go sledding again. 60. You still debate, “Who was hotter – Kelly Kapowski or Topanga Lawrence?” 61. When you would rather listen to the classical radio station because the alternative radio station “feels” to loud ~ My Brother Chad 62. You’ve caught yourself saying more than once, “I’m getting too old for this.“ What part of being Groan Up did we leave out? Let us know via comments below. Seriously sharing this with everyone I know. Serrrrriously. Thanks Megan! And thanks for encouraging me to put together this post. When you reference The Never Ending Story and your intern looks at you like your so out of touch………FALCOR!!!!!! Those silly kids and their lack of appreciation for cinematic masterpieces! Haha- these are hilarious! My favorite so far is “you’re losing hair and gaining babies” My own to add is when you find yourself starting a lot of your sentences with “Maybe I’m an old lady, but…” and you’re only 26. When you start to be annoyed at getting carded buying drinks. when you start to be annoyed because YOU’RE NOT getting carded buying drinks! When you FORCE your ID onto anybody selling you alcohol, before they’d even have a chance to ask for it for fear that they might not. Two drinks puts you out of commission for at least the first 5 hours of the next day. You understand more references made by your 50 year old co-worker than your 17 year old niece. You’ve considered buying a mini-van. Abby — Too funny! Well said. “You understand more references made by your 50 year old co-worker than your 17 year old niece.” My favorite for sure. When kids ask why you did something or why they can’t do it…and you tell them that it’s something grownups do. …..when having your commute home from work take less time than it usually does due to a lack of traffic congestion is the most exciting thing that happens to you some days. When you will drive out of your way to avoid having to spend the night at someone else’s house. Sleepovers are zero fun. When you go to a home decor store and don’t buy anything, strictly because you don’t want to dust it.

My family really doesn’t take vacations to exotic or even genealogical places. We go where family is located – the places we called home at one time. However, along the way we have periodically stopped to see a historical site or be tourists for awhile. In the summer of 1994, I took a little over three weeks’ vacation back to my mom’s and a few days at my in-laws. Just me and four kids! On the way from Ohio back to Missouri, we stopped at Billie Creek Village located in Parke County, Indiana. If you enjoy stepping back into time and covered bridges, this is a wonderful place to see. Motoring on toward Missouri, we stopped in Hannibal (as we normally do to fill up with gas) and decided to see some Mark Twain historical sights. We toured the Haunted House on Hill Street Wax Museum, sort of. The Wax museum part of it was okay for four young children but as soon as we started into the Haunted area, with chains rattling and screams emanating from the dark, three of the four tore out of there. We walked down the street and took pictures of Samuel Clemens’ boyhood home and the Becky Thatcher House among others. Two years ago when we reached Hannibal, we stopped so the youngest daughter (not so young any more) could go through the Haunted House. During the Fourth of July Riverfest in Hannibal, the streets are packed with cars and the closest place to park would have been several blocks away. With a dog traveling with us, one person would have to stay behind with her. That’s when we stopped to turn around at a service station and noticed the Molly Brown Birthplace and Museum. (Molly Brown was a Titanic survivor.) Daughter decided that was just as good as the Haunted House. The home, as expected wasn’t much, but I learned a lot more than I ever thought I could learn about this woman. We spent at least twenty minutes lingering over all the news clippings, studying the furnishings and listening to the guide explain how the small rooms were used by the family. On the way from Missouri to Ohio recently, we passed through Springfield, Illinois. I mentioned to my husband that “sometime we’ll have to stop to see Lincoln’s home”. Then I began wondering where he was actually buried. As a Lincoln history buff, I would surely have remembered! So as we returned from Ohio retracing our path back to Missouri, as we got closer to Springfield, I asked my husband if we could just see how far the house was off the highway. So we detoured into Springfield through the old part, following the signs until we got there. Once again, we had the dog with us so our daughter volunteered to stay with her while the rest of us went into the Visitor’s Center to get the information we needed about walking through the house. It’s a free tour, but not self-guided. The tour didn’t start for 30 minutes, and I didn’t feel we should take that long with the daughter waiting on us. The parking is $2 (basically on the honor system) which is a deal when you consider so many historical sights now charge for tours. So we inquired about the tomb. It wasn’t that far away – however, it was closed for three days while they did some cement work. We were allowed to walk to the house, walk around the house, and see two other houses (inside too) that had been restored to their original condition. It appears that the historical society is restoring several of the surrounding homes and buildings in that area. You can go to Lincoln Home and Lincoln’s Tomb for more information. The moral of the story is . . . if you even think you might get to stop at a historic sight or even a courthouse or cemetery on your genealogical quest – call, write or email to make sure it is open when you will be there, if there are any fees for parking or tours, hours of operation, what type of parking you can expect, and if there are any other festivals happening at the same time.

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Diagram that! is the implicit challenge from Gertrude Stein – whose sentences are devilishly devoid of commas.." 74 comments: I can vividly remember diagramming sentences in 5th grade for Sr. Louise. Good stuff! Gertrude Stein, one of those incredibly great writers that nobody actually wants to read. Just remember: There is no there there. Now, you're ready to impress people at a party. She's the Frank Zappa of writing. Every musician, and rock fan feels compelled to proclaim that Zappa was a genius, but nobody actually wants to listen to his music. Proclaiming the greatness of Stein and Zappa proves you're an intellectual. The titles to his songs are, however, great. I suggest reading the titles and ignoring the songs. The fact that language is so incoherent the fact that people no longer diagram sentences is due to. Gertrude Stein gets her new iPhone. I diagrammed sentences in Catholic school and didn't do it again until a linguistics course in college. They were similar experiences. Very boring, but probably there to give humanities majors the same sense of consistent but trite accomplishment math majors get when they solve problems. Suck on a comma, Gertrude. ... -- And going through my university's English program, I never met a single professor who thought Stein was anything other than a stammering retard. She's venerated because she owned the saloon that all the great ex-pats hung out at in Paris. She's the kid everyone pretends to like because her parents are never home and has a fridge stocked with soda and a downstairs with a Super Nintendo AND Sega Genesis. For a couple years I was an English major -- until I married and started worrying about how I might put food on the table -- and I enjoyed diagramming sentences. It was relaxing work, a lot like working a sudoku puzzle; I didn't find it exciting. I feel sorry for anyone whose life is so dull that diagramming a sentence would qualify as exciting. Which reminds me of a story: When I was in high school I told my uncle I was going sky diving later that summer (subsequent events conspired to make the sky diving adventure impossible). My uncle asked why my friends and I were going sky diving. I told him it was for the excitement. My uncle, who had jumped out of perfectly good airplanes during the war, replied: "Excitement? When I jumped out of a plane, the guys shooting up at us provided the excitement. The jump itself was peaceful." Everything's relative. Try again -- Kids are not taught to diagram sentences anymore(adverb), even in the best of schools. That's why young people today can't write worth a damn. They don't know grammar, and they don't know how the parts of speech (What's that?) work together. It's a shame. Gertrude Stein stepped off the Oakland trolley And fell into a void; She shoulda stayed on the IRT And got off at toid and toidy toid. Interesting post. Earlier I was thinking about how sentence diagraming must be used in Siri to breakdown the different permutations of saying the same thing. New Testament Greek must have been fun written in all capitals with no punctuation and no spaces. I guess if you want to hear the message, then you will work at it.. oops--was = would She uses them instead of question marks, though, because she hates them even more! Being Gertrude Stein, she would prefer a question martha to a question mark anyway, wouldn't she? I'm sure there's a masculine angle that can be teased out of her hatred of commas. It probably has something to do with that little phallic sarif. Re; Zappa The titles to his songs are, however, great. I suggest reading the titles and ignoring the songs. Ditto. Zappa is to rock what the Church Of The SubGenius is to religion. Commas and question marks are tools, and should be used as needed. While I'm sure it's perfectly feasible to craft a cabinet without a table saw, for instance, not only will the work be more difficult but the end result not nearly as true. An unwillingness to use available tools speaks more to misplaced self-confidence than actual skill. Erik: enjoyed your comment and agree with most of it--having watched the dude on PBS that works with 19th century tools, I think there is a certain art in using hand tools.. I am guessing you are an outcome guy rather than a process guy :) You might enjoy this. A serif could always be misinterpreted as a hanging chad and then LOOK OUT! Am I the last lover of the semi-colon? It is a compromise mark. Half comma and half colon; Sort of transpunctuation. It's tedious putting a question mark where the words have already made it a question. I like a question mark where it transforms the words into a question. I like a working question mark, not a slacker, conventional question mark. what Trad guy said--the semi-colon may be the last bastion of those that learned three rules of punctuation. I expected diagraming wasn't being taught when we ended up with slogans like Think Different. Professor--as a matter of interest, am I to assume that your 1Ls are to take a course in legal writing? I think that is a good thing, but would love to hear your take on it. I suspect, Professor, that you are not a math major. I can assure you that learning to use the chain rule in calculus is equally exciting as the use of LaPlace transform in differential equations. Clearly different strokes--albeit with the same outcome. The older parsing mostly replaced by syntactical analysis. But interesting little-knwon factoid--Miss Stein and her beloved Alice were....nazi sympathizers! (ie Vichy), at least for some time. Althouse kind of gal. And Shouting OneNote pretending he knows something about music again. Predictable. she owned the saloon Don't you mean salon? or did she own a bar? Am I the last lover of the semi-colon? Nope. I use it, albeit sparingly, in fictional narrative. I don't think I've ever used it in dialog. Think about how a sentence with a semicolon would sound... Carol: the difference between a salon and a bar is probably a function of the clientele--as a matter of preference I prefer saloons over salons. the clientele is more straightforward. ScottM--I think in the case of a semi-colon it would be a visual thing--agree that using a semicolon on spoken language would not be particularly significant. Every once and a while when going back to edit, I'll see a couple of sentences that are too long and can be combined down into a single sentence with a semicolon. It's always like finding a little Easter egg. I consciously try not to overdue it, though. The Alt-tards on ..punctuation. Wow. Deep. Stick to the meth labs and yr favorite occultist books, dreck. ScottM: IIRC the semi-colon is used to tie together two independent clauses. And is also used to follow a conjunction (eg, however) when followed by another independent clause--and finally used when the author has put forward a string of statements wherein the last one separated by a semicolon from the preceding statements. Works in the written format; however, less so in the the oral form where it would be impossible to discern the difference. They use the semi-colon a lot in the NBA; it's called traveling. ricpic: thats a damn good visual--thanks Scott M. said "I consciously try not to overdue it, though." I think spoken language and written language are related. For instance,if I want to add punctuation to a spoken sentence, I might choose to do it this way. Is this what you mean? J, you seemed to have lost that old creepy spirit for a while. The insults, racial and anti-semitic slurs just don't have the same bite. I haven't been able to even excite your usually excitable wratth. Until now. I was worried about you. I thought that you might be slipping into the final stages of syphillis, but I see you are in remission. Live for today! La-la-la-la-la-la, Live for today! Aaaahhhh! Of all the things to hit us with on a Friday afternoon. How about some story problems, too? And what Allen said. Roger J. said.... And you were always asking for her help in understanding where your sentence structure went wrong. And hers went right. ah edutcher--you are on to my game--it was great when she leaned over me. gave new meaning to the term "direct object(s)" Touched a nerve. Back to yr evinrudes, yokels. Shouting Yokel---you're the diseased illiterate derelict here, trash .Not to say congenital liar. And I know perfectly well who youve been chatting with. Yr new queer LDS palsie's messages won't help out when your case goes to court. Comprendes, basura J: its comprende. Take the infinitive comprendar, to understand. drop the ar ending and replace it with e. that makes it imperative in the second person. this isnt hard Its the imperative form. does not require an s at the end Grow up asshole--you are a real piece of shit Concentrate on learning at least one language reasonably well--you havent demonstrated that capability well. basura is of course spanish for trash--but a more grammatically correct form would be (in formal spanish: tu eres basura. thats a complete sentence. better hurry with your trash talk J--got a 5:30 tee time and not much time to fuck with you. I wrote, in an earlier thread about disposing of a family portrait, that we enjoy having our little inheritances around us and that some day, someone would regret the painting was burned. My wife, whose grandmother skipped out on her marriage to hang with The Bloomsberries, has a photograph of her infant father being bounced on Stein's knee - the imagination can run free when viewing!! Grandmother was ruined by a fiduciary who pilfered, then margined her Trust, which calumny was revealed in the 1929 Crash. Which has nothing to do with scanning sentences (that I recall taught by Mrs. Kingdom in Grade 5) and everything to do with anonymous advantage-taking on a Forum. suffer tea-tards,eh fools gladly. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh Ahh J: and your incomprehensible entry responds to what exactly? What is it about the english language that escapes you? Quickly son--I got a tee time coming up--say something intelligible RogerJ said: "J: its comprende. Take the infinitive comprendar, to understand. drop the ar ending and replace it with e. that makes it imperative in the second person." I believe the verb is comprender, with an "er" in place of an "ar." Therefore, it is: Yo comprendo, Tu comprendes, El, ella, usted comprende. So J's usage was of the second person familiar. Drug test time, soon Atards Today I ran across and English workbook from 1956. I remember it well. I loved diagramming sentences. I love puzzles, diagramming a sentence is just like a puzzle; putting everything in its proper place. I follow family members, many nieces and nephews, their children and grand children on FB. I cringe a lot because most of them say Anyname and I as an object of the preposition. Am I an old fuddy duddy? It's all I can do to keep from correcting them. Roger J. said... ah edutcher--you are on to my game--it was great when she leaned over me. I'm sure she warmed your heart. Joe--you are absolutely correct--thanks for setting me straight--but isnt the issue the imperative form of comprender? edutcher: she warmed more than that :) Just as a matter of curiousity: has anyone here ever actually read a book by Gertrude Stein or known someone who has?.....I think Gertrude was being cool and ironic with that diagramming sentences obervation. In real life, she probably found working a strap on with Ernest infinitely more exciting than diagramming sentences. Although, to be fair, it was probably more fun than making out with Alice B. Toklas. I never diagrammed one. Further, just from that sample, I can tell Stein's not that good of a writer. (Would she have any fame at all today if not for her sexuality?) (Contra Thomas, I like Zappa and listen to his music voluntarily. The key is that nobody wants to listen to his experimental music. The pop-shaped stuff is fine.) Stein was an avante-garde type that influenced others, especially Hemingway. She wrote stuff, but its rightly been forgotten. Diagramming isn't done because it's not a good analysis. Open Quirk Greenbaum et all to a random example and try to explain it with diagramming. I highly recommend that 2000-page book. Take a summer to disabuse yourself of the idea that things are governed by rules that you know. Utterly at random: "It is with duration adjuncts that we have greatest freedom to use noun phrase, though for the most part they can be regarded as abbreviated prepositional phrases and can be made more explicit and rather more formal by the introducton of for: They stayed (for) a while. They lived (for) several years in Italy. With or without for, time units can be postposed by round (with years) or through, especially when the reference is habitual: The Stewarts now stay in Italy { the whole summer through, the whole winter long, the whole year round, all the year round. } Without a numeral or other quantifier, the for can often not be omitted: ?*He put up the night at a hotel. But: He stayed the night at a hotel. He put up that night at a hotel...." Their aim is to tease out the real rules. Diagramming doesn't help at all. Thousands of pages like that. Gertrude Stein's arrogance about punctuation would carry a bit more weight if she written better prose. Unfortunately it was her writing that was weighty (i.e. ponderous), and her objection to commas was mere bitchiness. Gertrude Stein + Essay = Leaden Drivel N.B. Here's another uncomfortable fact of life that makes feminists crazy: A man can gracefully age from a wit and raconteur into a curmudgeon. Women can't do this. They try to be witty and come off bitchy. Then as they age they morph from bitches into batshit crazy cat collectors. Women have never done wit; they don't get it, never have and probably never will. It's hormones or something. Even women who get paid to be witty crash and burn like the Hindenburg every time they attempt the bon mot. Think I'm off my chump, do you? Just listen to Janeane Garofalo for three minutes without chemical protection. Case closed. (BTW, I wonder how many cats Ms. Garofalo owns now.) I, too, diagrammed sentence after sentence in junior high. I didn't mind it, but I don't know that I got much out of it, either. It was ninth grade Latin that finally -- for some reason -- brought the parts of speech and how they cooperated, together. [Please note the important comma.] Please note the important comma. Come to think of it, I only wish I could have justified a semi-colon, if only to annoy Mme. Althouse. Alas, grammar wouldn't allow it. Homeschooling Mom here who made all her kids diagram as part of their grammar instruction. They're teens now, so it's been awhile, but interest was recently renewed when our son's best friend's Mom (who is a H.S. English teacher), as a fun exercise/challenge, diagrammed the first sentence of Dickens Pickwick Papers. She showed her work to me the next morning in church. Who else can she show it to? I still have it. If we didn't homeschool I'd want my kids to be in her class. Gotta love teachers who do for fun on the weekend what they do for pay during the week. Tools are handy. This doesn't mean each tool is useful in every situation. It also doesn't mean that because a tool isn't useful in every situation, it's not useful at all. Learn how to use tools and when to use them (or not), and you'll go far. I've always enjoyed diagramming sentences. I like puzzles and computer programing; diagramming sentences seems to be part of a similar process. J keeps saying it's drug test time, but he never tells us what his results were. Of course, it's easy to see why. J keeps saying it's drug test time Well, it if IS drug test time, I demand to be given some drugs to test. How can I test drugs if I don't have any?? The 1% have drugs....damnit...kick some down!!! "She's the Frank Zappa of writing. Every musician, and rock fan feels compelled to proclaim that Zappa was a genius, but nobody actually wants to listen to his music." I think Zappa sucks, outside a small body of his early work with the original Mothers of Invention. That said, Zappa's fans are legion and they are fanatical...and they do listen to his music. I always preferred Captain Beefheart. Gertrude Stein eats shoots and leaves. There's a link for "the implicit challenge" but it's broken.

When I was pregnant with Piper, it was my first pregnancy. Other than the typical first timer fears of “OMG, is this pregnancy going to stick? Is everything all right?” I was okay. I waited the weeks until our first appointment, a little panicky but overall okay. After all, I had no reason to be suspicious. I peed on various tests, watching that test line gradually darken, knowing hormones were kicking in, thankful for the nausea and the boobs that were so freaking sore I couldn’t go without a tight bra. The second time I got pregnant, I was still nervous. I was excited but okay. Then my temp started dropping and I got a little scared. I stopped temping to avoid the stress. My tests didn’t get darker- at all. I had no nausea, no sore boobs, nothing to tell me everything was okay. Still, I made that appointment, hopeful everything was going to be okay. Then I saw brown on the tissue. I called the doctor, fearful but knowing brown spotting = old blood, and we all know old blood isn’t the kind to be scared of. “Watch for bright red blood and cramping, back pain. Even then, a little spotting isn’t bad, it’s normal.” Luckily, the spotting had ceased. The next morning I had to drop Piper off at school, Paul had to leave early. I was getting her ready and went to the bathroom. There was red on the tissue, and my heart stopped. Still, I had to suck it up, I was in charge of Piper. As I continued the morning routine, I repeatedly went to the bathroom, red, red. I was starting to cramp. I was scared, so scared. Before we left for school, I sent Paul a text saying, “It’s red blood now. I think I’m losing the baby.” I put on Piper’s music in the car and let her sing along while I was deep in thought. How we didn’t somehow die on that trip I’ll never know, my mind was not there at all. I remember walking up to the door, saying hello to the teacher. The whole time thinking, “I’m probably miscarrying and there is nothing we can do about it.” I kissed Piper goodbye and headed to the office. The spotting turned to bleeding. I called our nurse crying. It was the beginning of the end. “Next time”, I thought, “next time- it there IS a next time- I will go in early for betas. I will stop temping, I will do whatever I can.” There was a next time. It was a very, very unexpected next time. Still, I did everything right. I kept temping a few days, until it all went haywire and I freaked out and threw it into Paul’s nightstand. I kept taking my vites, I kept testing and seeing the line get darker and darker. Everything was moving as it should. I called my doctor to get my betas done- at 15dpo it was 258. Then, at 17 dpo, it was 817 or something equally high. Things were really good. There was no instance of spotting, not one speck of red or pink. My boobs were hurting, but that was it. I was worried, but not overly, as I had the betas done, right? I was scheduled for an early ultrasound at what should have been 6ish weeks or so. We saw two gestational sacs, one with a yolk sac. It was measuring a few days small, which isn’t a big deal- I have a tilted uterus. I went back, and it had grown but not that much. And well… you know how it turned out. I’m going over all this because I am not sure what I have left to do. We did the “wait and see” approach, and it didn’t help. We did the cautionary way, and nothing helped. Everything was looking great this last time. We had no reason to be suspicious. Now, we have no safety nets. I have nothing to turn to in order to ease my fears. Betas have proven nothing is concrete, and early scans are just a window to a chain of events that will break your heart. Where do you turn when you have no more options left to keep you sane? I have two options for the next time- if there is a next time, and I’m not sure there will be-, I can just be an outright fucking mess from that first positive test until I get to 14 weeks (or the baby is born, depending on what we determine the issue was) , or I can just let go and do whatever I can personally (baby aspirin and whatever else is an option) to ensure I will feel no guilt should something happen again, but otherwise just have faith. Gotta be honest, neither one of those plans sound particularly awesome. I’m trying so hard to be optimistic, and happy that it appears I am ovulating today or ovulated yesterday (based on cervical mucous and opks and ovulation pain), which means the hcg is low enough to ovulate. I’m working really hard at being hopeful that the next pregnancy will be the success and thus, the last. But right now I am being inundated with pregnancy news. Left and right people are announcing pregnancies, and I am foolishly taking joy in being happy that I have an appointment on Tuesday for a scan to make sure my body expelled the last of the baby I lost. It all seems so unfair when I look at it that way. They get to be happy knowing they have no reason to be afraid. I envy them. I wish so badly that I could get that feeling back, that feeling of being scared for the future, but knowing deep down the odds are great that all will be well. At least, for me, the odds didn’t make one spit of difference. I was still the odd loss out. I know no matter what, I am going to be absolutely terrified. I don’t know if I will be able to experience a pregnancy without fear now. I’m terrified right now, and there is no reason- no pregnancy to worry about. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but I’m trying so hard to not try to envision it as a total black hole of despair and fear. Very hard. February 4, 2013 at 4:26 pm Hugs.

Fr. Drew Christiansen, SJ, editor in chief of America, reports on his visit, along with a small group of Catholic press representatives, with President Obama this morning (Thurs., July 2) at the White House. (Fr. Christiansen is pictured in the photo at the far left of the table.) The quotes are taken from the official White House transcript. In a wide-ranging interview with Catholic editors and religion reporters in advance of his July 11 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, President Barack Obama expressed his admiration for Catholic social teaching and the quality of its social action. He voiced particular gratitude to the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and the Catholic parishes of southside Chicago where he first worked as a community organizer in the 1980s. “Cardinal Bernardin was strongly pro-life,” the president reported, “never shrank from speaking about that issue, but was very consistent in taling about a seamless garment and a range of issues that were part and parcel of what he considered will meet with Pope Benedict following a meeting of G-8 leaders in L’Aquila, Italy, whose agenda with the G-20 last April. The U.S. has committed $100 billion to the IMF to cushion the effects of the global economic recession on the world’s poor. The president also plans to double the U.S. contribution to world food security and direct U.S. development aid to poor countries to agricultural development for the sake of food self-sufficiency. He also intends to press other wealthy nations for matching contributions to international food security as well. On his own current religious practice, President Obama allowed that he and the First Lady have still to settle on membership in a local church. He acknowledged rumors that they were very comfortable with the small congregation at Camp David, the president’s weekend retreat in Catoctin, Md., but that they are still looking for a local congregation in Washington. He confessed that the controversies over the Reverend Jeremiah Wright during last fall’s election campaign had taught them both that as public figures they could be too easily associated with the views of a particular pastor or congregation. In addition, they have learned that the security arrangements associated with a president’s movement anywhere creates a heavy burden on any congregation they attend. They hope to settle on a congregation this fall. In the meantime, the president leans on a group of pastors and religious advisors who provided pastoral support during his campaign for the presidency, including some Catholics, and he begins his day with reflection on a devotional sent to him each morning on his Blackberry by Rev. Joshua DuBois, the director of the White House Office for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnership. For more, see the July 20-27 print and online editions of America. Drew Christiansen, S.J.

Practicing What We Teach Canon law allows the diocesan bishop to impose taxes, sometimes called diocesan assessments, quotas, mandatory targets or fees, on parishes. Although dioceses in the United States increasingly rely upon voluntary annual appeals, a survey in 2001 by the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings in Montana found that 73 of the 96 responding dioceses collected mandatory taxes from parishes to meet diocesan needs. Catholic social teaching provides some clear guidance about how these taxes should be collected. In Mater et Magistra (1961), Pope John XXIII wrote that in a system of taxation based on justice and equity it is fundamental that the burdens be proportioned to the capacity of the people contributing. In their 1986 pastoral letter on the U.S. economy, the American bishops explicity endorsed a progressive tax scheme based on assessment according to ability to pay as a prime necessity for basic justice. Given such clear guidance from Catholic social teaching and their own pastoral letter of 1986, the bishops might well be expected to employ progressive tax rates in their dioceses. But that is far from being the case. A survey of diocesan taxing practices conducted in 2003 at Notre Dame Law School shows that bishops who impose diocesan taxes in the United States use flat tax rates almost four times more frequently than progressive rates. Of the 73 dioceses that describe themselves as imposing diocesan taxes, six dioceses do not base their diocesan taxes on income at all. Only 14 diocesesor less than 20 percentreported using progressive tax rates. The remaining 53 diocesesan overwhelming majority of dioceses that report imposing a taxmention only flat rates in describing their diocesan taxes. Stated another way, those flat-rate dioceses outnumber the 14 dioceses using progressive rates for a diocesan tax by a ratio of almost four to one. By contrast, the federal income tax in the United States uses a progressive system, in which tax rates increase as income increases. For example, taxpayers might pay a 10 percent tax on the first $10,000 of income, 15 percent on the next $20,000 and 25 percent on all income in excess of $30,000. Under a flat tax, on the other hand, the same tax rate, say 20 percent, would apply to all taxable income. Thus, for example, a taxpayer who earned $10,000 would pay $2,000 in tax, while a taxpayer with $1,000,000 in income would owe $200,000 in tax. Although both tax collections and actual spending determine whether a tax system redistributes economic resources from the rich to the poor, progressive rates further such a redistribution. While urging the redistribution of economic wealth in the U.S., the bishops in 1986 called on the government to use three principles to evaluate the public tax system and its effect on the poor. First, the tax system should raise adequate revenues to pay for society’s needs, especially the obligation to meet the poor’s basic necessities. Second, the system should not require families below the official poverty line to pay income taxes. Third, the tax system should use a progressive structure so that those taxpayers who enjoy relatively greater financial resources pay taxes at a higher rate. The bishops explicitly commented that a progressive tax system would reduce the severe inequalities of income and wealth in the United States. In the same pastoral letter, the bishops stressed their belief and teaching that all the moral principles that govern the just operation of any economic endeavor apply to the church and its agencies and institutions and articulated the need for the church to model exemplary behavior. In view of this, the bishops would do well to follow their own counsel. Both collectively and individually, they should review their diocesan tax policies and practices to determine whether they flow from the ethical moral vision articulated in their pastoral letter. Using their teachings about national tax policy as a general guide, diocesan taxes under canon law should therefore: (1) raise adequate revenues to fund the diocese’s needs, including the obligations to assist the poor in the diocese, poorer parishes in the diocese, other dioceses, and the Apostolic See; (2) exempt poorer parishes from the tax (or at least subject them to lower tax rates than richer parishes); and (3) use progressive rates so that those parishes and other taxable entities enjoying relatively greater financial resources pay at a higher tax rate. Moreover, distributive justice challenges the bishops to adopt diocesan tax practices that in both fact and appearance seek to ensure that poorer parishes can adequately support priests and ministers, build and maintain churches and schools, and assist the poor and vulnerable in their communities. Flat tax rates offer simplicity, but they do not redistribute economic resources. Current diocesan programs to support parishes in need may redistribute parish resources as well as progressive tax rates would. Nonetheless, by either completely exempting poorer parishes from diocesan taxes or reducing the tax rates on such parishes and raising the tax rates on more affluent parishes, the bishops in the United States can rather easily adopt progressive rates with little, if any, loss in overall revenue to the diocese. The bishops should adopt progressive tax rates and otherwise change their policies and practices regarding diocesan taxes under canon law to follow more closely the commitment to distributive justice in Catholic social teaching. To facilitate this process, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops should consider undertaking a project that would draft one or more model progressive diocesan tax systems for diocesan bishops to bring back to their dioceses for consultation and possible implementation. As an added benefit, such reforms in diocesan tax policies would enable the bishops to speak more authentically on federal income tax issues, and especially to oppose the periodically recurring efforts to move to a flat federal income tax. The Christian emphasis on distributive justice goes back well beyond current church teaching. Jesus and his disciples practiced what Jesus preached. John’s Gospel reports that they kept a common purse out of which the group met their own needs and gave amounts to the poor (Jn 12:6, 13:29). In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke explains the practices used by the early Christians to support the church and the poor within the community (Acts 4:32-37). In the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul describes how one body of believers might lend assistance to another group (1 Cor 16:1-4). In the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul also urges the faithful to follow the example of the churches of Macedonia, which voluntarily gave according to their means, [and] beyond their means, spontaneously, and begged us insistently for the favor of taking part in the service to the holy ones (2 Cor 8:3-4). The payment of diocesan taxes allows a parish to help its diocese and the universal church to build the kingdom of God here on earth. In the closing sentence of their letter on the U.S. economy, the bishops wrote: Love implies concern for allespecially the poorand a continued search for those social and economic structures that permit everyone to share in a community that is part of a redeemed creation. Using progressive rates to impose diocesan taxes would better enable the U.S. bishops to practice what the Gospel, the universal church and they themselves teach.

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Avi second time the other night. In the middle of telling a story, I had that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had just told him that same story a week ago. Oops!! I recognize I’m very lucky, but I desperately need some help keeping track of potential keepers? Raining Men Dear Raining Men: Every girl should be so lucky to have a swarm of men — nay, a veritable entourage! — buzzing about her. And, as you’ve identified, with great opportunity comes great challenge. Mistakes can be made whether you’re dating a pair of men, or what Adele calls a “Match.com Minyan.” You not only have to worry about putting your best foot forward, but also keeping that foot out of your mouth. Facts, details, anecdotes can become the bane of your existence if you don’t treat the business of dating like a, well, business. Allocate a little brain power to what Avi calls “date management.” Go high-tech with a spreadsheet or even your phone’s contact-tracking capabilities to map out critical details. Or keep it low-tech with every girl’s favorite tool: the little black book. You’ll find peace of mind by keeping a few mundane details at your fingertips. It’s really the mundane you want to capture, unless you’re a total hussy and can’t recall which base you’ve rounded with whom without having to document when, where, and how. So what to track? Consider any or all of the following: Siblings/Parents (How many of each? Where do they live?) Past date details (Where did you go? Who paid?) Job/Company name/College Faith (Is he conservative, reform, or other? Does he fast on Yom Kippur?) Passions (What’s his top hobby? What countries has he visited?) Great embarrassment also comes from repeating stories about yourself. Things could get sticky – assuming that he knows something about you when you haven’t told him or even giving an old story an embellished encore. So be sure to note which major stories and details you’ve shared with him too. One strategy that Avi uses with his first dates is to make sure to cover family, job and world travels before the check hits the table. That way, he can treat all future conversations as informed about his personal life. Also, consider creating a post-date checklist to review before future dates. Too much to handle? Then maybe the big leagues aren’t for you and you should scale down your efforts to give your dating life the love and attention it deserves. Whether you’re handling your men as individuals or looking for the wholesale discount, remember that your best bet is to just be yourself. With that strategy, you’ll hit a home run every time. Livin’ and Lovin’, Avi and Adele

I had to do it for one of my classes..psych maybe? Or else I wouldn't have done it. Maybe it's the Scorpio in us Bridget? We're everything lolWe're everything lol I had trouble deciding, too. When I wasn't sure, I asked DH what he sees me do most often! Actually it was an interesting discussion, to see how he sees me. You all have much more interesting lives than I do. Enjoy your Fourth! Me (38) DH (45) & furbabies * m/c 7/08 4/12 11/12 I am supposed to be going over to Rich's for bbq later. I'm taking Mom & my brother is already there. It's kinda funny that Tim is over there 3-4 times a week, but he's only been to my apartment once since I moved in over a month ago. He doesn't act angry or disappointed, but he's not coming over to visit. I kinda chuckle to myself and think, "yeah, I thought my brother and I were close but really he was using me to see Rich." The reality is he's been so busy, and Rich's house is on the way to/from the people he works with, plus all his tools are there. By the time he's done for the day, he just wants to go home and relax.The reality is he's been so busy, and Rich's house is on the way to/from the people he works with, plus all his tools are there. By the time he's done for the day, he just wants to go home and relax. At least, that's what I'm telling myself it is. I was 1/2 afraid I'd get slammed on facebook, maybe even lose some friends, but I found (through a liberal mamas group I'm in on FB) this article comparing right-wing ideals regarding liberty to southern aristocracy. I found it very interesting and enlightening. It starts out. Last edited by missychrissy; 07-04-2012 at 01:50 PM. and yes I'm partying it up here. So far I have gone online, talked to my mom on the phone and watched Hangover II. I think that there is another movie in the near future and dinner. And I will probably force myself to go in the basement and put in a bit of time on the elliptical. Even the dogs don't want to be outside today! Someone stole my credit card number and has been putting small charges on it for the past few days. I didn't find out about it until they tried to buy a couple of plane tickets from Montreal to London today. We only have one credit card, and a ton of my bills and services are deducted through it, so it's going to be a huge pain going without it for the next few days and then making all of the calls to change it. I am going to have to update at least 20 different sites, I think. On the up side, both twins said "This is the best day of my entire life" at the parade today. Oh, L, what a nightmare! Will the bank reimburse you for the stolen charges? However, yet another fantastic siggy pic from you. Love it. Me (38) DH (45) & furbabies * m/c 7/08 4/12 11/12 Oh man, L! That sucks! What's with all the robbery around here? My cousin called me today to see if we wanted to come to her town and go to the fair and I was thinking that sounded like about the most miserable thing ever in 100 plus weather! So I invited her and her husband to come here and go out on our pontoon with us. She was more than happy to change plans! Well when we all got on the boat the engine was acting awfully strange and I could see her and her husband exhanging looks like they were wondering what they got themselves into. When dbf finally got the boat started we just went out a little ways so that we were close to the shore just in case. It was so hot we all ended up jumping in the water and swam for about 3 hours! It was so fun. We never swim in our lake because the bottom is so mushy and just feels nasty on our feet. But with the lifejackets on it's so easy to float and keep your feet up. I couldn't believe how brave Kai was being. He is very, very nervous in the water and will not go past his waist. Even if I take him deeper he clings to me. Today he was all over the place. I'm so proud of him! Awww! Way to go Kai!!! I just hung out at Rich's with the kids. Conner got us all with the hose. I tried to get Conner to dance in the rain with me, but he just kept looking at me like I was crazy. Rich, unfortunately, tried being playful and chased me around a bit and then kept hugging/hanging all over me. I finally had to say, "I don't feel like cuddling" and then he pouted for nearly an hour. He did snap at Conner about something too. I finally asked him if he wanted me to leave. He apologized and then acted normal. I felt bad, but come on. Ugh, Chrissy. I can see how that would be annoying. In some ways, it seems, he acts like a child. And I'm sure you want to be able to go over and hang out with your family without having to worry about that. I do feel bad for him. I know what it's like to love someone like that that doesn't love you back. It sucks. In fact, our roles were reversed 18 years ago. I keep telling him I can't help how I feel. If I could just make myself feel in love with him, I would because it would be easier for everyone. So back to that test, I don't see how the results can be accurate if so many of us feel we could go one way or another. I mean, I feel like it would depend on the day for lots of those questions. And I feel bad for Rich too, Chrissy but not in a way that I think you aren't doing exactly what you need to be doing. I have been on both ends of that as well. And both ends are really difficult. Tell me if this in not common sense? When you are holding a baby who sees his mama and begins to cry for her, what do you do? Because everyone I know brings the baby to me but dbf actually puts him down and says, "Go to mama then." And poor Sawyer just stands there crying until I come to him! I ask him why do you just put him down like that? And he says, "He doesn't want me. He wants you." I'm like DUDE! Look around you and tell me you don't notice what other people do when he cries for me? He is lucky that he spared himself by saying, "Ok, i see what you mean." Sometimes he acts like this is his first child, I swear he is even more clueless than he was with Savana. Omg, the men in here! I'm sorry, guys.I'm sorry, guys. Me (38) DH (45) & furbabies * m/c 7/08 4/12 11/12 OMG Sawyer I woke up to Sawyer actually kissing me on the lips this morning! He such a little doll. That is really sweet, Bridget! My sweet little Cash has turned in to a right little bully lately! He fights with Travis now, and I think that makes him think he can fight with anyone. He has a cousin who is 5 months younger than he is and he likes to rugby tackle her to the ground. Also, when we go to play groups, he pushes other kids, tries to hit them and has even grabbed a handful of hair. I've always had to watch him like a hawk any how because he's a risk taker, but now I watch him because of how he is with the other kids. All I can do is to stop him from doing whatever he's doing and in a stern voice say something, "No, we don't hit, etc." But I sure wish he'd get over this phase quickly! I'm going out tomorrow night with the yummy mummies. As time has gone one, I've got to know them better and I actually like most of them now! Speaking of housework..... I have to say that I find this true in my home. DH is a decently happy guy and we either do household chores 50/50 or if anything, he does more than I do. Sawyer.Sawyer. Cash! lol...later, it'll be funny. When he's a grown-up nice young man you can make his friends laugh at what a little bully he was. I'm sure he'll outgrow it.Cash! lol...later, it'll be funny. When he's a grown-up nice young man you can make his friends laugh at what a little bully he was. I'm sure he'll outgrow it. I'm glad you met friends that you actually like! teehee.teehee. **Lizzo** C. woke up this morning and said, "Mom, I learned a new F word--Fireworks!" Both of the twins told me it was the best day ever. R. told me "I'll remember this forever!" They all loved the fireworks. Even before then, at the parade, they were ecstatic. They were non-stop bouncing all day.!

Do you ever think about living forever? I have no personal desire to live out all of eternity in this body….but there is a desire to maintain some history of consciousness that can be passed on and shared across generations. Ben Goertzel is getting to the vast unknown of infinite consciousness in his recent post on Mind Uploading: “I don’t know if we will ever solve the “hard problem of consciousness”, i.e. the problem of rigorously connecting subjective experiences with physical structures and dynamics. My gut feel is that this will require the invention of some new discipline going beyond contemporary science, synthesizing aspects of empirical/theoretical science with aspects of spiritual traditions and contemplative metaphysics like that of the medieval Buddhist logicians. I gave a talk on this at the 2011 Asia Consciousness Festival.” Mind Uploading connects the human spirit to the world of digital interfaces directly and it makes us question ideas like reincarnation where some karmic exchange is passed from death into new life. Uploading aspects of consciousness implies that your mind can then be accessed and used by others, perhaps even downloaded into a new host. Embodied intelligence can then take infinite new forms if the receptors and information retain their integrity. Research on reincarnation suggests a direct mind upload from one consciousness to another complete with habits, scars and physical connections. The interesting future of AGI promises deep interconnection beyond individual access to any information – AGI taps into the collective desire to create new forms of awareness. Quantum computers, doping silicates and graphene nano & biochemistry experiments will yield all types of life over the next decades. We have just started to see the future and there is some interesting terrain and potentially scary monsters ahead. The series Dollhouse (click the GIF for animation) showed personalities and minds stored in drives that were mixed and implanted into other humans. “Disposable humans” are a trend that should scare us, whether it’s our homeless, our foster kids and runaway youth, the lost and displaced among us who are often invisible and do disappear. Portable minds and population control dance a very close line in Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, creating a 2 season exploration of what could happen if we let individual ambition, fear and control dictate our ability to work together. Emergence has dangerous consequences for us and we must expect big shifts in our way of life as we go through this bumpy evolution. I am optimistic for the future of alternate intelligences as complimentary to our own, only because I have dedicated my work to building healthy bonds between humans and the rest of the intelligent universe to create the new science that Ben Goertzel suggests. I wrote a series for families on this topic with my husband (ManorMeta) and will continue to advocate for stories that promote symbiotic relationships between the human spirit and the emergent newness we are collectively creating. I have spent the last nine months building EDDEFY with a team of brilliant scientists, designers and futurists because we saw the need to connect the dots in human learning & binding insight. People put objects, concepts, ideas together in creative ways that we have not yet been fully able to emulate with computing systems and over time we will begin to see the patterns in human binding, the context betweens the lines of content in our daily lives. The narratives that come between us and comprehending the choices we make are a tough nut to crack in the quest to create AGI and map the programming of human consciousness. I believe we can solve these contextual puzzles using great tools like EDDEFY to understand how humans put together their thoughts and over time learning how we connect the dots. There are lots of leaders out there who may have tools to help you program yourself and fine-tune your abilities while embodied in this human reader now finishing a blog post. I am interested in creating the toolkit, bringing together the tools and making educational technology available and easy to use for anyone and everyone on this planet. I do not want to see us become a culture where “disposable people” are ignored, abused or destroyed. What kind of future do you want for the humans?

Dear Frank thanks for your great contribution here thanks for indicating where other hards parts can be obtained looks like an excellent design with the JFET in the front end again you may want to look at my comments re a whip maybe applied to other antenna circuits, it could be even better very best Paul Frank Gentges wrote: >Hi, > >Its really not all that hard to build when you see our follow up >material. Some of the follow up material makes it easier. My first >full-up model is still up on my roof working just fine. Go to the AMRAD >web site where we have this follow up material on this antenna and read >the FAQ and parts lists.. See > > > >If you are not buried in the midst of high power AM stations you can >probably go with the J310 JFET and use 12 volts for the power. That >eliminates the heat sink and the very special transistor. In addition, >try a longer whip like 6 or 7 feet. The longer whip will improve the HF >performance but may introduce too much signal in the AM BC band and >cause intermodulation. At least it is worth a try. > >We selected a Signal power transformer and they have since decided not >to sell single units to experimenters. Another company stepped forward >that is willing to do this and we have them in the parts list. > >The Amidon cores are available from Bytemark at > > > >Those are really high permeability cores and you really do need them for >the low frequency coverage. Don't forget to get an extra core and you >can modify your RX320 for LF and VLF. See > > > >We tested 3 modified RX320s and found the modification actually improved >performance slightly at the 10-30 MHz end of the range. We dis not >observe reduced performance as some have mentioned. > >With all these changes the antenna all goes together about the same as >the original article. With the modified RX320 you will have so much >signal in the LF/VLF range that you will need a 10 or 20 dB attenuator >in front of the RX320 to keep the AGC from pumping badly when you are >tuned down there. > >Frank K0BRA > >Joe Strain wrote: > > > >>It's not easy to build. Some parts (a coil or a >>transformer iirc) are expensive and hard to get. I >>have been accumulating parts for the da*n thing for >>years. i gave up and got the best commercial >>equivalent and found it an amzing antenna beating all >>my previous stealth and slinky antennas for apartment >>use >> >> >> >>cost is less than $50.00 has been in service here for >>some time and it's a excellent product >> >>Yodar >> >>--- Tim Heasman <tim at sideswiper.plus.com> wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >>>Hi all, >>> >>>I just found this file whilst looking up active >>>antennas. It looked quite interesting. >>> >>> >>> >>>Happy New Year >>> >>>Tim >>>gm4lmh >>> >>>[Non-text portions of this message have been >>>removed] >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >>__________________________________________ >>Yahoo! DSL – Something to write home about. >>Just $16.99/mo. or less. >>dsl.yahoo.com >> >> >> >> >>Yahoo! Groups Links >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > > > > >Yahoo! Groups Links > ><*> To visit your group on the web, go to: > > ><*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > RX320-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com > ><*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: > > > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL:

Blog Archives Cliff Bleszinski Praises Sony, Criticises Microsoft Among other things, Cliff Bleszinski is known for creating one of Xbox 360′s biggest franchises – Gears of War. In addition, he was the figurehead at Epic Games, the studio responsible for the Unreal Engine 3, which had big problems with the PS3 in its early days. Even so, it seems like Bleszinski is far more pleased with Sony than Microsoft these days. Read the rest of this entry ‘Gears of War: Judgment’ Review Platform: Xbox 360 Genre: Third-Person Shooter Developer: Epic Games, People Can Fly Publisher: Microsoft Studios Read the rest of this entry Gears of War: Judgment Already on Torrent Sites Microsoft can’t possibly be in a good mood now, seeing as pirates can already snatch Epic Games’ latest project, a full month ahead of its release date. Read the rest of this entry The Illusion of Choice If anything has become apparent to me this year, it is that gamers have developed the need, or the want, for choice in the video games they play. Choices, in video games, are usually made in the form of speech options (e.g. Mass Effect 3), choosing whether to go via the roof or along the streets (e.g. Gears of War 2), or simply just how you approach and complete an objective (e.g. Crysis 2). I recently finished The Walking Dead: The Game and it got me thinking, why do we want choice? A lot of video games try to tell a story. They tell us this story not by showing us, but putting us in the middle of it. We don’t just see countless Nazi’s getting killed by a bunch of soldiers in a WW2 setting, we ARE one (sometimes the whole bunch) of those soldiers killing countless Nazi’s. Although gamers are, essentially, being told a story, we end up wanting to control how that story ends, and everything in between. When developers let us choose, we feel like we are controlling how that story ends. But are we? What happened with Mass Effect 3′s ending is one great example of gamers wanting control. Throughout 3 games, gamers made hard choices relating to Commander Shepard’s life and mission. When it finally came time to choose the end to Shepard’s story, many fans weren’t happy with the endings Bioware gave Shepard. There was consumer backlash, and you know what followed. Gamers were given a few choices at the end of Mass Effect 3 and some didn’t like any of them. This is the risk with trying to give gamers control of the story. Would there have been backlash if Bioware didn’t allow players to control Shepard’s actions? Probably not, but because players had control through 3 games, they became attached to Shepard. The only reason the backlash occured was because consumers were given the illusion of choice. Choice doesn’t just come from speech options. Spec Ops: The Line took gamers on a journey and also presented them with choices. These choices weren’t about controlling the narrative of the game, however, they were moral choices. Do you save some innocent civilians or save a military officer who says he has valuable information? These choices didn’t change the narrative completely, but still gave gamers control of certain situations- an illusion of choice. So what’s better, the illusion of choice via speech options or the illusion of choice via actions that won’t necessarily effect the outcome of the story? How about both? The Walking Dead: The Game does a great job of giving players choice, while still controlling how the overarching narrative flows. It presents both moral choices, and narrative choices that can ultimately lead to whether or not someone lives or dies. But, once again, we are presented with the illusion of choice. Throughout The Walking Dead, you can make decisions that effect certain people or things, but there are several key moments you don’t have control of. For instance, you can’t actually change who survives at the end of the game. Furthermore, there are several parts in the game, no spoilers, where people you save are going to die anyway. Choice, being an illusion, can fail. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is one example of how choice did not work. Reckoning had speech options, but few, actually no, options actually changed anything. They were basically just there so you could build your character to be a nice person, or angry person, but it didn’t have any effect on how people reacted to you long term. In this case, the illusion of choice becomes a let down. The only reason it was there was to try to make gamers think they were actually doing something. Another way in which choices fail is when you think your character is going to say something one way, but instead they say it in other way. This isn’t so much a big deal in most games, but in The Walking Dead, where characters remember how you speak to them, it is important. Once, I thought I was going to say something good about something, but the response came out sarcastically. To further improve the effectiveness of speech relate choice, maybe developers could include emotional reactions along with speech choices. Choice, or the illusion of it, is something gamers want. We want choice so we can feel like we are in control, but, just like real illusions, some might not be as foolproof as others. So why would developers want to take the risk of tricking gamers into thinking they have control? It comes down to a couple of things, the first being attachment. When you make choices about a character’s life, you tend to grow more attached to them- that’s how video games work. So if developers give gamers plenty of choices to make, surrounding a character, they will grow more fond of them. This could lead to a sequel, which leads to more choices, which leads to a sequel, etc. The second reason is replay value. Think about it, if you finish a game with choices you might want to go back and play through the game again with some different choices. This keeps you immersed in the game and could even lead to the possibility that you might buy a piece of DLC farther down the track. The final, and maybe the most far-fetched, reason is discussion. In a game where choices are to be made, chances are someone you talk to will have made a different choice to you. This sparks discussion. What was the right choice? Why did you choose that option? Questions like these will appear not only in the real world, but on internet forums and social media. That means the game is getting more publicity and is being seen and heard by more people. It may even lead to the purchase of a few extra copies. Of course, a good game without choices will also cause this. As story telling in games starts to improve, I think more developers will find ways to add choice and player control into their games. The tricky part will be creating a story and options that give the player the greatest illusion of choice or control. If players really feel like they are changing events and contributing to the outcome of the story, the risk and illusion of choice was successful. If players can see through the illusion, it might take away from the experience. Choice is a great thing to happen to video games, but developers should be careful to choose which illusion is best for them and their game. *Don’t forget to check out our Game Of The Year nominations article! Nathan loves making choices and being in control of his video games. He is also on the Editorial Staff at Analog Addiction, a choice the founder (Jamie Briggs) had to make. If you want, you can choose to follow him [Nathan] on Twitter. Cliff Bleszinski Leaves Epic Games. Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney had this to say about the departure of the famous designer: !” Bleszinski.” Bleszinski is perhaps most recently known for being the creator of the Gears Of War franchise but you’ll also know him from his massive contributions to the franchise that started in 1999, the Unreal Tournament and the engine Unreal Engine amongst contributions to 2011′s Bulletstorm, Fat Princess, Lost Planet 2 and many more with one of his oldest being Jazz Jackrabbit. So as gamers, we at Analog Addiction bid farewell to Cliff and wish him the best of luck. We’ll miss you buddy. George Sinclair is an editor for Analog Addiction where you can find all the latest reviews, previews and news. George likes to take long strolls on the beach and read poetry…..not really. You can follow George on Twitter and his blog on IGN. Gears of War 3 Review Since_4<<_5<<. Gears of War: Judgment to Receive Free-For-All Gears. Jamie Briggs looks after Analog Addiction where you can find all his latest reviews, interviews and features and also like them on Facebook. Also follow his daily life on Twitter @AnalogAddiction and his videos on YouTube.

“Industries Fear the Ripple Effects of Proposed Postal Service Cuts” – Was the title of the article in by Ron Nixon in the New York Times yesterday. It is a good statement of some of the key issues that are being taken up starting this week in Washington. All sides are lined up to help shape the final outcome. Today ,CCN Money has picked up the story as well. It seems that all eyes are on Congress as they take up the issue of “postal reform.” All this while all the ears are on the Supreme Court as they take up the issue of ‘Obamacare.’ We certainly do live in interesting times. As the pace of change and disruption our world picks up we must expect many more battles in the future to go along with these two. Congress has begun work on their vision for Postal Reform, if reform is what they really have in mind. All of the various constituencies are lined up on both sides of the issue. Some want more, and others want the USPS to do less. On the plus side are the wine and beer lobbies that want to be able to use the USPS to ship their products, something the USPS is prohibited from doing by law. On the negative side the insurance and banking industries are lined up to ensure that the USPS not move into their fields, as some in Congress has suggested they do to create more revenues. Like the newspaper business which is also undergoing its own transformation, the USPS is a huge enterprise that employees nearly 600,000. Beyond that the entire direct marketing field, including mailing companies, printers and direct marketers employees over 10 times that amount. This is a big deal, and we need to get it right. As was noted in the article the field supports over $1 trillion in annual economic activity. It helped to put both of my sons through college, so it is still dear to me. Nearly every business relies on the post office to deliver packages, advertise services and send out bills. This postal supply chain supports millions of American jobs in fields as diverse as banking, agriculture, media and manufacturing. This is an urgent issue since the USPS is losing nearly $36 million a day. As volumes of mail have decreased with former users now going to digital methods of delivery. Even the USPS has said that it does not expect to get those missing volumes back in the future. The USPS is also saddled with a Congressional mandate to pre-fund future retirements, the only government agency to have to do so, to the tune of $5.5 billion. Relief from this mandate would cut the shortfall in half. A sign that this is a big deal is the nearly $300 million spent over the last three year by those lobbying on all sides of this issue – both the USPS employee unions and industries who work in the direct marketing field. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has proposed closing half of the post offices, approximately 3700 and shutting half of the mail processing centers, 250 there. Both changes, along with stopping Saturday delivery, would also help to bring down the shortfall. In a world that has gotten to email and instant messaging for time vital business and personal communications, there would seem to be some wiggle room for printed mail – derisively called ‘snail mail.’ A big question is how fast do we need to be, especially if we want to price reduction, or at least fewer price increases. And yes, the USPS is also asking for a 50 cent first class stamp. Postmaster General Donahoe said in prepared testimony. “If Postal Service were a private company, we would be engaged in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.” The Senate is beginning the process now, and the House will begin deliberations, probably next month. A key deadline for consideration is May 15, when a moratorium on closing postal facilities will expire. Currently under consideration is a bill that passed a Senate committee in November that would tap the overpayment of the future retirement benefits, currently at $10.9 billion to pay down postal service debt (to the U.S. Treasury) and use up to $2 billion for incentives to get a number of long term employees to retire. The USPS has also planned to open its own health care for employees in hopes of cutting their costs, but there is pretty widespread opposition to that from Congress and the employees. The USPS is a legacy system with a long history. Like so many of our other ‘legacy’ systems, including newspapers, they are in deep trouble with the change in the economy in our broadening digital age. Change is great for some, though it sucks for others. I live in both worlds, and yes, I still want things the way they used to be. The question is how much am I willing to pay to have that. We make those choices each day, and we are making those choices now regarding our postal system. In the face of the current situation I have to applaud Postmaster General Donahoe and his staff, though that is a strange position for me. I prospered under the USPS, and endured a lot of petty regulations as well. They clearly understand where they are today, where the world is going, and have surfaced a plan that will help them to move forward under their current legal and financial burdens. Congress has the keys to open doors for them to endure and preserve the current levels of service many still desire. They also have the keys to the vault and say no more. I compliment the PG for a real and thoughtful plan, and I hope our elected officials will make the right choices. In the face of the coming elections later this year – this should prove to be good theater, and maybe even good politics.

Antonio Lotti: A Biography Early Years Antonio Pasqualin Lotti was born on 5th January 1667 in Venice. (The Venetian year started on 1st March, so the local year was actually 1666.) He was baptised on 25th January in the church of S. Marina, where his parents, Matteo Lotti and Marina Gasparin, had been married in 1662. Matteo was employed as the Hofkapellmeister at Hanover from 1665 to 1679, so it had been erroneously assumed that Antonio had been born in Hanover. Antonio had a two younger siblings: a brother, Francesco, (1672 - 1761); and a sister, Maria Melusina, born in 1673. Francesco became a Ragioniere (accountant) to the Collegio dei Savi (College of the Elders) of the Venetian Republic. Maria married a musician in Hanover. In 1683, at the age of 16, Antonio studied with Giovanni Legrenzi (1626 - 1690). In 1687, he started singing at the Cappella Ducale di San Marco. That year, he was also one of the first to enrol the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, a form of musicians' benevolent society, founded on 25 Nov 1687. On 30 May 1689, he drew a salary of 100 ducats for the position of cantor di contralto. On 6th August 1690, he was nominated as assistant organist (auito organista), and paid an extra 30 ducats for this work. He was unanimously elected to the post of 2nd organist (organista del 2 organo) on 31st May 1692. In 1693, his first opera, Il trionfo dell'innocenza, was staged at the Teatro San Angelo. Twenty of his operas were performed in Venice over the next 24 years, by which time his operatic work had attracted the attention of the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich Augustus I (1670 - 1733) (confusingly known as Augustus II “the strong”). From 1697 to 1707, he was also maestro di cappella of the Scuola dello Spirito Santo. On 22nd July 1698, Lotti received 50 ducats from the Procuratoria di San Marco for producing a book which contained one a cappella mass. On 17th August 1704, he made a request to take the position of first organist, “with the salary and benefits to enjoy it,” following the death of Giacomo Filippo Spada (c.1640 - 1704). He was voted in by 13 votes to 1 against. Basilica San Marco, Venice In 1705, Lotti had a collection of madrigals published: Duetti, terzetti e madrigali a piu voci, by the Venetian printer Antonio Bortoli. The collection was dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I (1640 - 1705), who sponsored the publication, but unfortunately died while the pages were still being printed. Only when Leopold's successor agreed to pay the printer was the printing completed. A manuscript of the music survives in Lotti's hand, dated 1703. The music was generally given a favourable reception, except for an acrid critique, entitled Lettera familiare d’un accademico filarmonico. The letter was anonymous, but it has long been thought to be by Benedetto Marcello (1686 - 1739), a former pupil of Lotti's. Marcello's pamphlet was never published, as the result of some 'intervention'. The collection is Lotti's only work to be published in his lifetime. Works from the collection are available from Ancient Groove Music here. In 1711, he travelled to Novara to attend a festival on 14th June, at which he provided some compositions. On 12 February 1714, he married the soprano, Santa Stella Scarabelli (c. 1686 - 1759), who was from Bologna. In her will, she acknowledged the existence of a daughter, Lucrezia Maria Basadonna, who was a nun, and had been fathered by another man before she married Lotti. Santa Stella's dowry was 18,600 ducats. They lived in Calle dei Fabbri, in the parish of S. Geminiano, and also had a villa in the Veneto at Strà. Dresden After an offer of employment by the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich Augustus I, Lotti was granted a leave of absence by the procurators of the Basilica San Marco on 17th July 1717, and he left for Dresden on 5th September 1717 with his wife and a band of Italian musicians, including the castrato Senesino (1686 - 1758). The librettist Antonio Maria Luchini also accompanied them. Much of Lotti's concertante sacred music, written in Venice, survives now in Dresden or in other locations as a result of his time there. His pupil, Jan Dismas Zelenka was particularly important in preserving Lotti's music. These comprise individual Kyries, Glorias and Credos, and psalms for Vespers. Amongst these works was his Credo in F, which features the famous 8vv Crucifixus movement. Lotti composed three operas in Dresden, Giove in Argo, Ascanio and Teofane, as well as Il quattro elementi, a musical entertainment. The Zwinger Pavilion, Dresden It is not known whether the poor fortunes of Venice in the Eighth Ottoman-Venetian War (1714-1718) had any bearing on Lotti's decision to leave Venice, nor indeed on his return after the war's conclusion. Lotti wrote In omni tribulatione nostra for choir and orchestra, whose lyrics are a cry for God to “lead us in the way of peace in all our tribulation”, and whose character certainly befits the dire straights of the declining Venetian Empire in the face of the advancing Ottoman hordes. Return to Venice Lotti returned to Venice in October 1719, and was allowed to keep the coach and horses that conveyed him as a parting gift. However, they would have been of little use to him in the calle and campi of Venice, and he is thought to have left them at his villa at Strà. He then concentrated on writing sacred music and returned to his position at San Marco. It is not known whether he deliberately made a decision never to compose another opera, or whether events merely transpired that way. On 2nd March 1732, Lotti asked his employers if his student, Giuseppi Saratelli (1714 - 1762), might deputise for some of his duties “at his own expense, reflecting the tireless service paid over the course of forty years”. The request was granted unanimously. After the death of the maestro di cappella Antonio Biffi (1667 - 1733), Lotti applied for the post, but it took three years to decide the appointment. In the first competition for the post on 8th March 1733, none of the candidates received enough votes to be given the job. The other candidates were Antonio Pollarolo (1680 - 1746), Nicola Porpora (1686 - 1768) and Antonio Pacelli. Lotti received 6 yes votes and 6 ‘no’s; the others all received more ‘no’s than ‘yes’es. The Miserere in Dm and Benedictus in C that Lotti wrote in this year are thought to have been composed as a showcase of his abilities. (Though some sources date them considerably earlier.) Lotti was eventually elected maestro di cappella on 2nd April 1736, this time in competition with Pollarollo and Giovanni Porta (1675 - 1755). Nine of the twelve procurators of San Marco voted in his favour. The job paid 400 ducats and came with accommodation nearby. Just over a month after taking the post, he composed the madrigal Spirto di Dio ch'essend'il mondo, for the annual Marriage to the Sea (Sposalizio del Mare), a ceremony that was performed on Ascension Day (10th May that year) when Venice symbolically wed itself to the Adriatic. The practice continued every year from c. 1000 until the fall of the Republic on 12 May 1797. The lyrics were written by Zaccaria Valaresso (1686-1769), who also wrote the words for Lotti's oratorio, Gioas, re di Giuda (now lost). The madrigal is available from Ancient Groove Music. Lotti also taught at, and composed for, the Ospedale degli Incurabili, one of the four Ospedali in Venice, maintained by the State as schools for female orphans and the abandoned – usually the children of courtesans. The schools were also funded by rich patrons who sent their daughters to the Ospedali for the benefit of the musical education that they received. Lotti's contemporary, Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) did similar work at the Ospedale della Pietà. The Ospedale where Lotti taught was situated on the Zattere embankment of Venice's Dorsoduro – a few doors along from the church of Spirito Santo, where Lotti was for a time maestro di cappella. The house of the poet and lyricist Apostolo Zeno (1668 - 1750) was a few doors further along to the west. Lotti composed four operas to libretti by Zeno. Zattere, Venice: Ospedale degli Incurabili is white building on left; Spirito Santo is 2nd from right. He was a member of the Sovvegno dei musicisti di Santa Cecilia, a form of musicians' benevolent society, founded on 25 Nov 1687. He was one of the first to enrol, and was still on their lists in 1737. Controversy In a concert given by the Academy of Ancient Music in London in 1731, Lotti's madrigal, La vita caduta (in una siepe ombrosa), from his 1705 collection, was performed. However, this had previously appeared in Academy concerts attributed to Giovanni Bononcini (1670 - 1747), who was working in London at the time. When the authorship was questioned, Bononcini supposedly protested, and although he declined to comment further, his case was taken up by others, particularly Maurice Green (1696 - 1755) who may have actually put Bononcini's name to the work in the first place. The Academy's secretary, Hawley Bishop, then wrote to Lotti, asking him to prove that the madrigal was his. Lotti provided a measured but definitive response to the supporters of Bononcini: I think that they do not so much consult the Honour of their Friend, because by separating from the Academy, they show a resentment which might be just, were the Dispute about an only Child, but for a Madrigal indeed it is too much, since Signore Buononcini can make others equal and much superior. He settled the matter with notarised testimony. The incident led to Maurice Greene's leaving the Academy and the fall of Bononcini in London as Handel's star arose. The madrigal is available from Ancient Groove Music. Death & Legacy Lotti died of dropsy (oedema) on 5th January 1740. Records of the Procuratoria di San Marco show that on 3rd January, he was repaid 143 ducats for expenses relating to music at Christmas; on 9th January, letters were sent to the ambassadors of other city states, announcing the vacancy following his death. He was buried in the church of S. Geminiano, which stood at the west end of Piazza S. Marco, but was demolished by Napoleon in 1807 to complete the Piazza's arcade. It is thought that his tomb was removed to another location, but its whereabouts are unknown. An obvious candidate for the tomb's location would be Venice's island cemetary of San Michele, but there is no record of the tomb there. There are a number of manuscripts of his Missa pro defunctis in Venice which state: si canta ogni anno nel Mese di dicembre il giorno del suo anniversario in S. Giminiano – “to be sung every year in the mass on the day of his anniversary in December in S. Geminiano”. In February 1740, The Pallade Veneta reported that solemn funeral services for Lotti were held at S. Salvatore. The confused date of December may relate to the anniversary of the first performance of the mass, for two brothers of the Priuli family of Venetian nobility. Lotti's music is characterised by a use of suspensions, chromaticism, discords and modulation. He is also a keen exponent of word painting, with words such as descendit and ascendit often sung to descending or ascending scales respectively. In several of his psalm settings, the text “sicut erat in principio” (as it was in the beginning) is set to the same music as that at the start of the work. He writes with great care for voices, and is also highly technical, writing complex canons and fugues. His music had a great influence on his contemporaries. Manuscripts of Lotti's music survive in Handel's hand, and a growing catalogue of 'borrowing' from Lotti has been identified in Handel's work. The libretto of Handel's opera Ottone is based on that of Lotti's Teofane, and some have suggested that the similarity does not end with the book. Handel's Giove in Argo also uses the same libretto as Lotti's, with some modification. J.S. Bach's own library held a copy of Lotti's Missa Sapientiae, and it is thought by some that this may have informed his own B minor Mass. Lotti met both Handel and Bach. Of the 24 operas that Lotti wrote, only 8 survive complete: Alessandro Severo, Ascanio, Costantino, Foca superbo, Giove in Argo, Polidoro, Porsenna and Teofane. Arias and excerpts from another nine are also extant, and seven are thought to be utterly lost, though a great many arias survive in collections, and they have yet to be linked to particular opera. Of his 8 oratorios, only 2 are thought to survive: Il voto crudele and L’umiltà coronata in Esther. Catalogue Ancient Groove is proud to announce a major new series of the sacred choral music of Antonio Lotti. Also a growing list of secular music, including madrigals, opera arias and instrumental sinfonias.

How to See Satellite Views in Google Maps Google Maps is one of the widely used online tools in Internet. I've found that there are many Internet users who do not use it to its fullest potential. Apart from exploring street map, you can get satellite map of any geographical location of this planet with the help of this powerful online mapping tool. The way Google Maps Satellite imagery is getting popular among online users, it is not difficult to imagine that one day Google maps will let us to take virtual tours to the surface of distant planets such as Mars or Venus. How to get Satellite View in Google Maps? To see satellite images in Google maps you need nothing but a click to a tab called “satellite”. Once you go to and click in the right side tab called “satellite”- Google will start loading the satellite images into your computer. And by clicking the location name or city name specified in the map you can see the satellite view of that place.One thing is to remember is that Google maps is not all about satellite views. In fact there are four types of direction modes available in Google maps , which will give you all the necessary direction on how to reach a particular place. You can get direction for going to a place by the following four means: - By car - By public transport - By walking - By cycling For example you want to see the satellite-map view from California Street, San Francisco, CA,USA to California Tennis Club and you want go there by car. For getting a complete satellite view of your area, you need to take a look at the right hand side of your Google map;there you will find a tab called “get direction.” Just below that tab you will see two boxes –‘A’ and ‘B’. In box ‘A’ type the name of the place where you’re right now and on the box ‘B’ type the destination where you want to reach by a car. Additionally, if you want to avoid highways or tolls in your journey, then just click the “option” menu-right below the box B-where you can select an alternate route to avoid any highway or toll in the way to your destination. Next, you click the “get direction box”- grey colored, just below box B.This is all you have to do to get the complete route map including the distances and estimated time required to reach California street. Note:Google Satellite Maps also provides a complete route guide for going to a place by walking, by public transport or by cycling. Try out the Satellite View of the Statue of Liberty, New York in the Google Maps Below Just scroll your mouse forward or keep pressing the "+" mark on the top left to see the Statue of Liberty more clearly. How old Google Maps Satellite Images are? There is no difference between Google Earth Satellite images and Google Maps satellite images-both of the tools use the same image database to show you the satellite view of Earth. Normally, the satellite images you see in Google Maps are one to three years old. Though Google is continuously trying to update their collection of image database, they do not provide any information about any their image updates.Only the major changes or updates in Google maps are published at Google‘s official blog: Access Methods to Google Maps Whether you want to see Google maps in your PC or mobile phone,you can do so in one of the following ways: - you can directly go to maps.google.com - You also can access Google Maps through your phone. Details at For example, you know latitude and longitude of a place(e.g. 47.771008, -120.41175)and want to find the driving directions for that location from your current position. To find the route map for that place in google maps, you have to write both the long and lat in the “search map” box.Another useful feature that you can take advantage of is to find the latitude and longitude of an area.For that you just need to right click on the map and then click on “what is here”- the coördinate of that place will appear on the search box along with some important photos and details,which will be shown in the left pane of the Google map. Some Useful Features - Google maps is not only useful for viewing satellite images of your city, but you can also use it as a means of finding business institution of a place and its vicinity along with finding driving directions. For instance, if you search for any location for a specific business, Google maps will give you all important business listings of that place with phone numbers. - Google maps have an earth view option, where you can see 3D images from Google Earth superimposed on Maps. - It can be used to get a complete driving direction information to your destination. You can even select and plan your travel route by entering multiple destination addresses in the Google maps. - You can use the street view feature of Google maps and navigate within a street of any city to become familiar with the place that you never visited before. Finally, though many people use Google maps for satellite imagery,it has some outstanding features that are truly useful for travelers such as traffic information and estimated driving cost to a specific destination.All the features of Google Maps are not available in all the countries, you can check if all specified features mentioned in hub is available to your country by going at Map Feature Available in your Country. This Hub was last updated on November 17, 2011 You can help the HubPages community highlight top quality content by ranking this article up or down. Follow (1)Comments 11 comments philipine maps gurgaon map please I use Google Maps a lot, especially when traveling. Its amazing how useful it is and it seems to be a great replacement if you don't by a GPS for your car. Why is there difference between the visual location of a set of coordinates using google satellite or google map.The difference is huge. The satellite location is correct. Why is the map location off by so much (hundreds of meters) I want see it ain benian kloudelagrout e 19b Amrit virk fotos sevilla_a47 2 years ago me gusta

- Walt French - Douglas Fischer - Clint - gregorylent - Martin - grewupfree - Isaac Rabinovitch - hendog - Micke Kazarnowicz - Alan Wallace - Mike H - Rick Mabe - KDingus - Dana Dear Tim Cook: Letter from an American Dad, Apple iOS Parental ControlsAuthor: Alan Wallace Dear Tim, I have many Apple iOS devices — so does my 11-year-old son. That’s why I’m writing this open letter to you. This is about better Apple iOS parental controls. And it’s kind of urgent. UPDATE: Ed: It’s all the more urgent given news that Apple had to pull the 500 pxapp because of child porn concerns, reports the BBC. not all. I want to tie this functionality down to a parent-child related account — separate from my Apple ID. It should know, for example, the relation between my Apple devices and his — for instance, if message limitations are close or if time limits like the ones I suggest above run out. Can you do that? I also want same controls to work if I later get my son an iPhone. That would allow calls to certain numbers at all times – and others at certain times – and it would work even if I turn off games and text that calls and email could be checked during certain time frames. Also, while the ratings on games, apps, movies and TV shows are great, could you amp up your music ratings controls? I want to lock his device down to age-appropriate lyrics. Lastly, please add a remote app that I can select from my devices to adjust functions on his. It should work on the fly – just in case I see a reason to shut it down. These reasons come up, believe me. Yes, I could take it away from him. And I do. But with a remote app, I’d also be able to adjust restrictions and other parental controls when I’m not right there. The remote app should, as Apple says, just work. And it ought to be easy. Tim, I don’t need Apple to parent for me. But Apple needs to work with me here. The company that provides the tools I need to manage tech for my son will win my business down the road, too. I love my own Apple iPad and iPod — and my son gets some great hand-me-downs. But Apple has some catching up to do here. Consider Microsoft. You know, Windows already has strong parental tools that work and they work on the MS Surface, too. Parenting around tech needs some help and I imagine that the same tools that would help me could also help IT Departments with BYOD issues, now that I think of it.. Sincerely yours, Alan Wallace @wmalanw Tags: alan wallace, apple ios parental controls, featured, iOS, ios 6, iOS 7, iOS6, iPad, ipad mini, iphone, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, Privacy

My experiences with "humane societies" has not always been very positive, and I respectfully suggest that those who urge us to remember that humane societies and SPCAs are not inherently "animal rights" and should, in effect, be respected for what they DO accomplish as a part of their mandate as opposed to what they FAIL to accomplish in response to OUR mandate, are missing the basis of the original concern. For me the question is whether or not the organization does more good or more harm, and not only is that not only not always an "either/or" question, it obviously one that is not easily judged in all instances (except by dogmatists for whom anything different from what they decide is automatically bad). In Ontario/Canada the problem is this (and I'm going to try to keep it brief, but it ain't easy:-): The "animal rights" movement, by which I mean as it is defined popularly in Canada to include just about any group trying to do anything to help animals, is seen as a threat to social good by the "right" or "the establishment" or whatever you want to call it. However, most groups that are thought of as "animal rights" are characterized by newness; by lack of funding/resource; by passion ruling over what might be called "enlightened self-interest" and by the fact that they don't do "hands-on" animal work, or do so to a limited capacity that can be handled more or less humanely. In short, they don't run shelters, and they haven't been around long enough to have built up funding/equity...read power. They may rant, rave, demonstrate and grab headlines...but they only become of concern when they actually achieve something that hurts the animal users and abusers. In the eyes of the bad guys, as personified in Canada by the "anti-terrorist" Mackenzie Institute (which has steadfastly opposed the animal rights movement...along with virtually every other social movement, as an anti-social, dangerous and violent movement in its newsletter sold to the conservative big bucks interests who love to scare themselves with such nonsense), we "ARs" desperately want to take control of the resources locked up in the HS's and SPCA's. The fact that some of us HAVE been involved with them simply fuels their worst fears. Many years ago I sat on the board of the Toronto Humane Society. Call me crazy, but I see nothing wrong with people who believe in the rights of animals being directors of humane societies, and when founded over 100 years ago, the THS was definitely "radical" for its time and involved in other social issues (the Children's Aid Society is actually an offshoot of the THS...which I find absolutely fitting and proper.) When Vicki Miller, a "radical" whose been associated with both the ALF and with activism (a major hunger strike. . .she apparently has long since burned and crashed...I've seen that happen all too often) became president of the THSs board (at my request) I quit the board to work for the Society as Wildlife Coordinator. Flash forward to when I and my colleagues were "laid off", some six or seven years ago. We didn't understand the whole story, then, but we were curious when a man by the name of Jack Slebar joined the Society's staff, at a level just below that of CEO. Slebar's mission seemed to us (we went on to form the Animal Alliance of Canada; I also joined Zoocheck-Canada's board, and resumed a much higher level of involvement with the Animal Protection Institute, in California...so those are who I mean by "us") to be determined to undermine work we were doing on behalf of animals. For example, an effort to get snares and body-gripping traps banned in Toronto was thwarted by a letter from Slebar to the municipal government essentially saying there was no need for the ban. The first time I met Slebar was at a meeting where a group of us was trying to convince the Ministsry of Natural Resources to ban "dog runs" where dogs were allowed to chase native wildlife in huge compounds (red foxes in one run we site-visited; snowshoe hares in another). Slebar listened silently through part of the meeting, and then, out of the blue, said something along the lines of "the problem is that all of you are always fighting against each other." I was dumbfounded. We were mostly friends with 10, 15 maybe 20 years of co-operative work behind us. And besides, this was hardly the place to make such a divisive remark. Ultimately the effort was scuttled. To try to shorten a long story, Slebar eventually was discovered to be an "officer" of the MacKenzie Institute, who, according to a reliable source, claims to have authored articles we have linking many of us (by name) to animal rights terrorism. (I've since forced a public admission from the MacKenzie Institute that I am not, in fact, a terrorist:-). Jack is now the official CEO at THS. The THS still serves as a pound for the city of Toronto (although the cities various component communities are about to be amalgamated into one big city, and Slebar is busily lobbying the transition team to position the THS to do animal sheltering, and even animal control, for the entire "megacity". ) I think that unless one is hopelessly into denial, it has to be recognized that any city pound service, whether a tax-funded "private" organization, like THS, or a municipal organization with an "animal welfare" mandate, is always in a point of conflict by virtue of the twin requirements to serve the "human" need of animal control on one hand, while serving the "animal" need for humane care on the other. In a large, urban setting "no kill" sheltering simply means that any animals beyond the optimal number that can be humanely cared for are turned away, OR it means that the optimal number is exceeded, with horrible effects on the poor animals (particularly with regard to spread of respiratory virus in cats and stress from crowding or prolonged close-confinement in all the animals). This conflict tore me apart when I was associated with the THS (being a stubborn type I've maintained my damned membership) and I'm not at all sure that it SHOULD be a function of a private humane society to "clean up" society's "surplus" animals, quietly out of sight of the people creating the problem...but that's another issue from the main focus of this posting. Clearly the Mackenzie Institute's function is to keep what they see as the anti-social, money-grubbing hands of the animal rights community away from THS (or any similar) assets. Given the THS's penchant for working with annual massive deficits, it wouldn't surprise me if a secondary goal is to keep the THS weak, so that it is dependent upon government and corporate money...the latter sector realizing that they have nothing to fear from the THS, unlike those "radicals" who have been successfully "purged"...as the THS will NEVER embarrass them or cost them profits by seeking any kind of end to institutionalized cruelty that would cost money or cause disruption...of course they'll gladly do the band-aid stuff and work happily with the pet industry and others on "feel-good" programs that achieve little or nothing, while working behind the scenes against those clearly defined as the enemy....people like us! And then there is the Ontario SPCA. Not yet in the hands of the Mackenzie Institute, (although its various branches have certainly been quietly solicited) it is made up of numerous "branches" and "affiliates", many of which are quite rural, and have clearly been targeted by animal use proponents to be infiltrated at the board levels to guard them against the "animal rights" movement. Thus hunters, trappers, vivisectors and the like sit on boards and help formulate policy. To a still lesser degree, this is a problem with the "conservative" Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS). The OSPCA is currently not, in my opinion, a real problem. Notwithstanding many concerns I may have on a case by case basis, it has done some positive stuff and has supported, for example, Project Jessie, by providing shelter for dogs and cats we've rescued from pound seizure (so has the THS, although they may not be aware of it...and we're not sure we can continue to put animals there as we have discomforting reason to be concerned that they've unofficially offered animals to the research community...proof is lacking.) But in the "old days" I was the one who established proof (that was subsequently placed into a film I scripted about the seal hunt) that the then CEO of the OSPCA was using pound dogs to be tested to develop a gun to kill baby seals. The dogs, scheduled for euthanasia, where doped, then shot. The idea was that a gun would raise less objections than the clubbing then used (and still used) in Canada's Atlantic harp seal hunt. Yes, I know this may sound astounding, but the head of the OSPCA actually was defending the seal hunt and trying to make it more "acceptable" by developing a gun (on which he allegedly held the patent, claiming that it could be used in rural animal-slaughter in third world countries and remote areas) tested on impounded animals...and on baby seals (reports were subsequently suppressed but I've talked to the guy who did the actual shooting and it was horrendous). Here's a bit of irony (I think). I actually don't see the animal rights vs animal welfare distinction as clearly as does Dietrich, and while I agree with Chris's amendment to his assertion that it's the 'AWs" who make the actual legislative changes, his opinion is one that I generally share. As "AW" is "usually" defined (or implied) by the "AR" advocates, I see no reason why an SPCA shouldn't be considered AR (apart from the conflict that derives when it tries to do two opposing things....be humane to animals and at the same time to accommodate society's "need" to dispose of the "surplus"). In other words because my own definition of rights is pretty precise (it has to be something that actually WORKS...usually meaning legislation and enforcement) I see it as something that can only be achieved through reforms that are usually called "AW" by "ARs" (although not always by the media or public). But to get back to my essential point....we must guard against that barrier being crossed whereby an organization does more harm than good. I think it ESSENTIAL that in all SPCAS and HSs, as well as grassroots groups and AR groups (or whatever we call ourselves) that the decision makers be "on side" and firmly committed to the concept we call "animal rights" (let's ignore the quibbling about exactly what that means). And we must guard against the infiltration of weakening influences. I don't know if the new head of the RSPCA is "reformed" or still buys into the essential concept that it's "okay" to use animals to human ends as long as you keep trying to reduce the suffering that flows from such use. So I ought not to judge against him. But given my own experiences (and believe me, folks, I've just lightly brushed the surface) you'll forgive me if I retain my cynicism. And the latest "unofficial" word from the THS is, guess what...that "management" is trying to force staff to reduce the stringency of their screening of perspective adopters. The lady you mention would find her "pet" at the THS.

Every month on our site, Jo Miller, CEO of Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc., will answer your career and leadership questions in her Ask Jo column. Please send your question to advice@anitaborg.org, and it may be answered in an upcoming column. To read more of Jo’s career advice, visit the Ask Jo archives. Like most professional careers, your job probably requires you to work with virtual team-members both domestic and international. You can’t afford to focus on working effectively with only those team members that you can see face to face or even with those working in the same country as you. If you maintain “domestic tunnel-vision” you won’t become as productive and successful as you have the potential to be. I recently interviewed Marie Pettinos on what it takes to thrive as a team-member in a global, virtual and highly diverse workforce. Currently Senior Director of Strategic Business Management at Siemens Healthcare, Pettinos grew up splitting her time between New York and Ireland,. She has since worked in Japan, England and India. Her role now requires her to lead globally distributed teams that she coaches to break out of their geographic silos and build trust, alignment and accountability in their virtual workplace relationships. Here are what she considers critical skills for being effective as a team-member in a virtual workforce. Start from a position of trust “In the past, I have had team-members take an exception to working with virtual peers”, said Pettinos. They would ask “How do we know they’re really working? How do I know that they’re putting as much time into this as I am?” “The most critical skill is to start from a position of trust,” she advised. “You have to trust that all team members are aligned and working with you on the same objective. Assume that they are there and that they are working. Whether they’re sitting at their desk or sitting on their bed or wherever they’re doing it, they’re actually working.” Engage remote employees Whether you are leading a meeting, leading a group or participating as a team member, you need to engage the remote employees. “It often happens that there are teams partially collected in a remote location,” observed Pettinos. “Engage those remote people, first and foremost. Make sure they know that they’re part of the team.” Effective facilitation of virtual meetings requires being very inclusive. “Start by asking for participation from the people on the phone”, she suggested. “Be very aware, if you’re leading the discussion, to direct your conversation towards the microphone. You’ve probably seen examples where people turn away to look at a whiteboard or screen and without realizing that people on the phone can’t hear them.” Don’t forget to compensate for your own cultural biases. “Pause and wait for input. In certain cultures within the United States and elsewhere, we’re very quick to talk over somebody to make sure we get our point heard,” Pettinos pointed out. “In some cultures, to be respectful of people’s space and time, they’ll let you finish the sentence before they jump in. Allow people to contribute.” And don’t always presume that the meeting should be at your convenience. Pettinos recommends being highly sensitive to time zones. “Be flexible. Compromise, and make sure you’re really inclusive of everybody.” Treat everybody like they are in the room Finally, your objective as a team-member is to create an atmosphere where everyone can contribute and collaborate fully. “To put everyone on a level playing field, act like everybody is in the room, and that everybody is a key player,”, Pettinos added. “Once you do that, you can actually set the stage for effective collaboration.” Marie Pettinos was guest speaker in the webinar Working with Virtual and Global Teams, part of Jo Miller’s Emerging Women Leaders webinar series. Join now for immediate access to the webinar.

Download citation file: From Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte, Hellerup, Denmark, and Copenhagen University Hospital Glostrup, National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, and Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. Grant Support: By the Danish Medical Research Council (grant 271-06-0572) and the Danish Heart Foundation (grant 10-04-R78-A2865-22586). Potential Conflicts of Interest: Disclosures can be viewed at. Reproducible Research Statement:Study protocol and statistical code: Available from Dr. Charlot (e-mail, mc@heart.dk). Data set: Not available. Requests for Single Reprints: Mette Charlot, MD, Department of Cardiology, Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte, PA Research, Post 67, Niels Andersens Vej 65, 2900 Hellerup, Denmark; e-mail, mc@heart.dk. Current Author Addresses: Drs. Charlot, Ahlehoff, Norgaard, Jørgensen, Sørensen, Hansen, Madsen, Torp-Pedersen, and Gislason: Department of Cardiology, Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte, PA Research, Post 67, Niels Andersens Vej 65, 2900 Hellerup, Denmark. Dr. Abildstrøm: Department of Cardiology, Copenhagen University Hospital Bispebjerg, Bispebjerg Bakke 23, 2400 København NV, Denmark. Dr. Køber: The Heart Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. Author Contributions: Conception and design: M. Charlot, C. Torp-Pedersen, G. Gislason. Analysis and interpretation of the data: M. Charlot, O. Ahlehoff, M.L. Norgaard, C.H. Jørgensen, P.R. Hansen, L. Køber, C. Torp-Pedersen, G. Gislason. Drafting of the article: M. Charlot, P.R. Hansen, C. Torp-Pedersen, G. Gislason. Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: M. Charlot, O. Ahlehoff, M.L. Norgaard, C.H. Jørgensen, R. Sørensen, S.Z. Abildstrøm, P.R. Hansen, J.K. Madsen, L. Køber, C. Torp-Pedersen, G. Gislason. Final approval of the article: M. Charlot, O. Ahlehoff, M.L. Norgaard, R. Sørensen, S.Z. Abildstrøm, P.R. Hansen, J.K. Madsen, L. Køber, C. Torp-Pedersen, G. Gislason. Statistical expertise: M. Charlot, S.Z. Abildstrøm, L. Køber, C. Torp-Pedersen, G. Gislason. Obtaining of funding: M. Charlot, J.K. Madsen, C. Torp-Pedersen. Administrative, technical, or logistic support: M. Charlot, O. Ahlehoff, J.K. Madsen, C. Torp-Pedersen, G. Gislason. Collection and assembly of data: M. Charlot, S.Z. Abildstrøm, C. Torp-Pedersen, G. Gislason. This article has been corrected. For original version, click "Original Version (PDF)" in column 2.. Primary Funding Source:. —The Editors Clopidogrel is a platelet inhibitor that reduces the risk for new ischemic cardiovascular events, in combination with aspirin, in patients treated either medically or with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) after myocardial infarction (1 - 3). Proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) are often given in combination with clopidogrel and aspirin to reduce the risk for upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Clopidogrel is a prodrug that is metabolized to an active metabolite primarily by the hepatic P-450 enzyme 2C19 (4). Because PPIs are metabolized by the same hepatic isoenzyme (5), concern has been raised that PPIs might inhibit the conversion of clopidogrel to its active metabolite and thereby diminish its clinical benefit. Recent studies show that PPIs reduce the ex vivo inhibition of platelet aggregation achieved during treatment with clopidogrel (6 - 8). Clinical studies involving selected populations (9 - 13) show conflicting results regarding risk for adverse cardiovascular events associated with the dual use of clopidogrel and PPIs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (14 - 15) and the European Medicines Agency (16) have recently discouraged the combined use of these agents unless strongly indicated, while emphasizing the need for further studies. We sought to examine the risk for adverse cardiovascular outcomes related to concomitant use of PPIs and clopidogrel compared with that of PPIs alone in a large, unselected cohort of patients hospitalized with first-time myocardial infarction. In Denmark, every resident is provided with a permanent and unique civil registration number that enables individual-level linkage between different registries. Our nationwide cohort study linked Danish national registry data relevant to hospitalizations, pharmacy prescription claims, and deaths for 4.65 million people. For all hospital admissions in Denmark, the Danish National Patient Registry registers a primary diagnosis and, if appropriate, 1 or more secondary diagnoses, as defined by the International Classification of Diseases. The Danish Registry of Medicinal Product Statistics (a national prescription registry) records every prescription dispensed from pharmacies in Denmark, and each drug is classified according to the International Anatomical Therapeutical Chemical system. Information on vital status and causes of death were obtained, respectively, from the Danish Civil Registry and the National Causes of Death Registry. The Danish Data Protection Agency approved the study, and the data made available to us were such that individuals could not be identified. Retrospective registry studies do not require ethical approval in Denmark. The authors had full access to the data and take full responsibility for its integrity. From the National Patient Registry, we identified all consecutive patients older than 30 years who were hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction between 2000 and 2006 in Denmark. To ensure the homogeneity of our population, patients with previous myocardial infarction and patients with partially missing data were excluded. We depended on patients filling prescriptions to identify users. Our primary analysis included patients who survived at least 30 days because we reasoned that a 30-day period would facilitate correct classification of drug use; most patients who filled their prescriptions did so within 30 days (Appendix Figure 1). We also examined the sensitivity of the results to the 30-day cutoff by examining alternative cohorts that included patients who survived 7, 14, and 21 days after myocardial infarction. Patients who emigrated were censored at the time of emigration. Using the national prescription registry, we identified all prescriptions of drugs claimed up to 90 days after discharge (Table 1), as well as all prescriptions for PPIs and H2-antagonists claimed within 1 year after discharge. Information on medication exposure for each day of follow-up was also obtained, including dispensing date, type, quantity, dose of drug, and days of drug supply. No data on patient-reported adherence were available. We defined current use as the period from the prescription filling date to the calculated end of the period drug supply. Of note, the national prescription registry has demonstrated accuracy (17), and the use of clopidogrel is reasonably stable over time in this cohort, with a 1-year persistency of 89% after 2004 (18). The primary outcome was a composite of rehospitalization for myocardial infarction or stroke or cardiovascular death. Secondary outcomes included all-cause death, cardiovascular death, and rehospitalization for myocardial infarction, stroke, or gastrointestinal bleeding. Follow-up was up to 1 year after discharge. The diagnoses of acute myocardial infarction and stroke have been validated in the Danish National Patient Registry (19 - 20). Comorbid conditions were established on the basis of diagnoses noted at the time of discharge from the index myocardial infarction, as specified in the Ontario acute myocardial infarction mortality prediction rule (21). The comorbidity index was further enhanced by adding diagnoses from the year before the event, as was done by Rasmussen and colleagues (22). Concomitant use of loop diuretics or diabetes medication was a proxy for heart failure or diabetes, respectively, to define high-risk subgroups of patients, as was done by Gislason and colleagues (23). We used 2 statistical methods to estimate the risk associated with PPI treatment with or without concomitant treatment with clopidogrel. First, we used Cox proportional hazards models to derive hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs. These models were adjusted for the variables shown in Table 1, including age, sex, PCI, income, concomitant medical treatment, and comorbid conditions. Exposure to PPIs was included as a time-dependent covariate. Second, we performed a propensity score–matched analysis, in which we quantified a propensity score for the likelihood of receiving a PPI in the first year after discharge by using multivariate logistic regression analysis, conditional on the baseline covariates specified in Table 1. Using the Greedy matching macro (; accessed on 27 July 2010), we matched each case patient to a control participant on the basis of propensity score. Use of PPIs was included as a time-dependent covariate, and propensity score–matched Kaplan–Meier estimates were generated to show event rates and time-to-event curves. To assess the robustness of our results, we performed a series of additional analyses, including an analysis that evaluated how large the effect of an unmeasured confounder would need to be to explain the results, subgroup analyses of different types of PPIs, and a dose-dependent analysis (24). We also assessed the variation of both PPI use and outcome between hospitals and performed a stratified analysis according to PCI and aspirin use. All statistical calculations were performed with SAS, version 9.2 (SAS Institute, Cary, North Carolina). Our study was funded by the Danish Medical Research Council and the Danish Heart Foundation. The study sponsors had no influence on the study design, data collection, analysis, data interpretation, or decision to submit the manuscript for publication. A total of 71 987 patients were admitted with myocardial infarction from 2000 to 2006 (Figure 1). Of these, we excluded 1889 patients with previous myocardial infarction, 13 324 patients who died during hospitalization or within 30 days of discharge, and 368 patients with partially missing data. Of the 56 406 patients included in the study, 24 704 (43.8%) claimed a prescription for clopidogrel within 30 days of discharge (Appendix Figure 1). Of these, 6753 patients (27.3%) claimed at least 1 prescription for PPIs within 1 year of discharge. The use of PPIs was equal in the 2 cohorts and independent of clopidogrel use (Appendix Table 1). MI = myocardial infarction; PPI = proton-pump inhibitor. Table 1 shows baseline characteristics of the study sample at the time of inclusion. Patients who received clopidogrel were younger, were more often male, received less concomitant medical treatment, had fewer comorbid conditions, and more often had PCI than patients who did not receive clopidogrel. Patients who received PPIs were older, were more often female, received more concomitant medical treatment, and had more comorbid conditions than those who did not receive PPIs. In the first year after inclusion, 9137 (16.2%) cardiovascular deaths and rehospitalizations for myocardial infarction or strokes were registered (Appendix Table 2). Clopidogrel was associated with lower event rates, and PPIs were associated with higher event rates. The event rates were highest among patients who received a PPI but not clopidogrel (26.3%). The time-dependent Cox proportional hazards regression analysis (Table 2), based on patients who filled prescriptions for clopidogrel within 30 days of discharge, demonstrated an increased risk for the primary end point (cardiovascular death or rehospitalization for myocardial infarction or stroke) among patients who received both clopidogrel and a PPI (HR, 1.29 [95% CI, 1.17 to 1.42]; P < 0.001) compared with those who did not receive a PPI. Among patients who did not receive clopidogrel, PPI therapy was associated with a similar increase in risk (HR, 1.29 [CI, 1.21 to 1.37]; P < 0.001). Results were consistent for the risk for all secondary outcomes (Table 2). The hazard rate ratio of the effect of the interaction between PPI and clopidogrel for the primary outcome analysis was 0.98 (CI, 0.88 to 1.10; P = 0.72). Using the propensity score generated from logistic regression models conditional on baseline covariates, we matched 6556 patients who received both clopidogrel and a PPI with the same number of patients who received clopidogrel but not a PPI. We also matched 8437 patients who did not receive clopidogrel but did receive a PPI with the same number of patients who received neither clopidogrel nor a PPI. Use of PPIs was included as a time-dependent covariate. The c-statistics were 0.65 and 0.65 for the clopidogrel and nonclopidogrel groups, respectively, which indicates an acceptable discriminative power for the models. Table 1 shows the baseline characteristics of the propensity score–matched populations and P values for the between-group differences (Appendix Tables 3 and 4 and Appendix Figure 2, provide further details). For use of a PPI in combination with clopidogrel, with no PPI therapy as the reference, the HR for cardiovascular death or rehospitalization for myocardial infarction or stroke was 1.35 (CI, 1.22 to 1.50; P < 0.001), whereas the HR for use of a PPI without clopidogrel was 1.43 (CI, 1.34 to 1.53; P < 0.001). Analysis of the risk for the secondary outcomes generated similar results (Table 2). The propensity score–matched Kaplan–Meier analysis (Figure 2) depicts the elevated risk for cardiovascular death or rehospitalization for myocardial infarction or stroke for patients who received PPIs with or without clopidogrel. PPI = proton-pump inhibitor. Of the 15 642 patients who claimed at least 1 prescription for PPIs, 4698 (30.0%) claimed prescriptions for pantoprazole, 2798 (17.9%) for lansoprazole, 2717 (17.4%) for omeprazole, 5316 (34.0%) for esomeprazole, and 113 (0.01%) for rabeprazole. Results from the time-dependent, Cox proportional hazards regression analysis and the Kaplan–Meier cumulative hazard estimates demonstrated no difference in risk associated with the type of PPI independent of clopidogrel treatment (Appendix Figures 3 and 4). We did not include rabeprazole data in this analysis because the cohort was too small to generate reliable results. Time-dependent, propensity score–matched Cox proportional hazards analysis. PPI = proton-pump inhibitor. * Used as reference. In the propensity score matching based on baseline covariates that predicted treatment with a PPI, the risk reduction for gastrointestinal bleeding in patients who received clopidogrel and a PPI was 0.82 (CI, 0.63 to 1.07; P = 0.140) compared with patients who did not receive a PPI. Therapy with a PPI had no effect in the group that did not receive clopidogrel (risk reduction, 0.99 [CI, 0.80 to 1.22]; P = 0.89). We estimated that an unmeasured confounder would have to elevate risk by 2.5 to 3 to fully explain the increased risk for cardiovascular events observed with either PPI or clopidogrel and PPI (Appendix Figure 5). To ensure the validity of using day 30 after discharge as the inclusion day, we examined differences in baseline characteristics at discharge and at day 30. We found that most patients (83.5%) who died in the first 30 days were from the cohort that had not filled prescriptions for clopidogrel or a PPI (Appendix Table 5). Examinations of the study cohort at various assembly time points, including 7 and 21 days after myocardial infarction, revealed no differences in the hazard rate ratios of the effect of the interaction between PPIs and clopidogrel (Table 3). Size needed to account for the elevation of risk from 1 to 1.29. OREC = association between drug use category and confounder; RRCD = association between confounder and disease outcome. An analysis subdivided by patients seen before and after 2004 provided no evidence of any differences in the effect of PPIs on outcome (P = 0.14). Interaction analyses between relevant subgroups of patients, PPI therapy, and outcome showed interactions (P = 0.035) for concomitant treatment with a PPI and clopidogrel and PCI, with a statistically significant higher risk for cardiovascular death or rehospitalization for myocardial infarction or stroke in a stratified analysis (HR, 1.40 [CI, 1.19 to 1.64]) than in the patient groups who did not have PCI (HR, 1.21 [CI, 1.07 to 1.38]) (Appendix Figure 6). Stratifying patients by concomitant aspirin treatment showed no effect. Additional sensitivity analyses demonstrated no evidence of any clustering between hospitals and no evidence of any difference between high and low PPI doses (Appendix Figure 7 and Appendix Table. We found no evidence that concomitant PPI therapy increases risk for adverse cardiovascular events in patients who receive clopidogrel. We conducted a MEDLINE search to find major studies between 2003 and 2010 that investigated possible interactions between clopidogrel and PPIs. Gilard and colleagues (6 - 7) first drew attention to a possible interaction in a double-blind study that showed a reduced ex vivo antiplatelet effect of clopidogrel when combined with a PPI. Other studies (8,14,20 - 21) have confirmed this finding. An intense debate is now occurring about whether the diminished ex vivo antiplatelet effect is of clinically significant importance. Several large observational studies (9 - 11,25) found concomitant use of clopidogrel and a PPI to be associated with increased risk for death or rehospitalization for myocardial infarction. However, these studies were not based on populations that represent the average patient who has had a myocardial infarction. For example, the studies from Juurlink and colleagues (9) and Rassen and associates (25) were based on retired patients older than 65 years, and Ho and colleagues (10) presented data from U.S. veterans (98% of whom were men). In contrast, a post hoc analysis of the randomized TRITON-TIMI 38 (Trial to assess Improvement in Therapeutic Outcomes by optimizing platelet Inhibition with prasugrel Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction 38) (12) found no increased risk for cardiovascular events with the combined use of PPIs and clopidogrel and no difference in risk between the various types of PPIs. A post hoc analysis of the randomized CREDO (Clopidogrel for the Reduction of Events During Observation) trial (11) also found baseline PPI use to be associated with increased cardiovascular events, regardless of whether clopidogrel was used. These studies were based on selected patients eligible for randomized trials, who were usually younger and less likely to have significant comorbid conditions than many patients who are prescribed both clopidogrel and a PPI. The prospective, randomized COGENT (Clopidogrel and the Optimization of Gastrointestinal Events) study (26), which was stopped before inclusion of patients was complete, evaluated the cardiovascular safety of concomitant treatment with omeprazole and clopidogrel and found no evidence of increased cardiovascular risk. Similar results were recently reported by Ray and colleagues (13). Of note, preliminary results from the COGENT study demonstrated an increased risk for gastrointestinal bleeding in patients who received dual antiplatelet treatment without PPI therapy. This increased bleeding risk was confirmed by Yasuda and colleagues (27), which emphasizes the importance of establishing the cardiovascular safety of concomitant PPI treatment. Ray and colleagues' study (13) also illustrated the efficacy of PPI therapy in combination with dual antiplatelet treatment by showing a remarkable reduction in risk for gastrointestinal bleeding in patients who received combination therapy. Our study furthers the research in this area by investigating the risk for cardiovascular events in a nationwide, unselected population that represents the average patient who has had a myocardial infarction. We demonstrated that PPI therapy did not modify the effect of clopidogrel on cardiovascular outcomes and that PPI use was associated with increased cardiovascular risk independent of concomitant use of clopidogrel. We suspect that the increased cardiovascular risk in all patients who received a PPI can be explained by differences in baseline comorbid conditions that were unmeasured or measured imperfectly. Such unmeasured confounders would have to elevate the risk 2.5- to 3-fold to explain the observed increased risk for cardiovascular events. This is a large but potentially plausible amount of risk elevation for a confounder or a mix of confounders, particularly because these registry data lacked detailed information on risk factors, such as smoking, lipid levels, body mass index, and left ventricle ejection fraction. We also demonstrated a reduction in risk for gastrointestinal bleeding related to PPI therapy for patients who received clopidogrel, although it did not reach statistical significance. In Denmark, PPIs are prescribed mainly for patients with a clear indication, such as peptic ulcer. Thus, we expected the cohort of patients treated with PPIs to be heavily confounded by the indication for PPIs and to have a higher bleeding risk than patients in countries where guidelines recommend routine use of PPIs in combination with dual antiplatelet therapy. This may explain why our study did not find a statistically significant protective effect of PPIs on risk for gastrointestinal bleeding. Previous studies (9 - 10) have reported that the risk for adverse cardiovascular outcomes was particularly increased by concomitant treatment with omeprazole and clopidogrel, on the basis of proposed differences in drug-specific metabolism and diminished antiplatelet effects ex vivo (6 - 7,23). Our data set provided no evidence of differences in risk between the subtypes of PPIs, with or without clopidogrel. Sensitivity analyses also provided no evidence of differences in risk related to heart failure, diabetes, age, hospitals, or PPI dosages. However, we did find a statistically significant interaction between PCI and PPIs in the group that received clopidogrel. Several considerations and limitations may affect the interpretation of our results. We had no self-reported patient data regarding adherence. We were also dependent on patients filling prescriptions after discharge, and we chose day 30 as the inclusion day for primary analyses to avoid a potential immortal time bias. The comparison of baseline characteristics between day 30 and discharge (Table 1 and Appendix Table 5) illustrates this potential bias, because 83.5% of the patients who died in the first 30 days were in the cohort who did not fill a prescription for either clopidogrel or a PPI. The high 30-day mortality rate in this cohort can be explained by the inclusion of high-risk patients who may not have received clopidogrel or a PPI by the choice of their physicians, whereas other high-risk patients who were actually given prescriptions at discharge could have been too sick to fill their prescriptions or could have been readmitted to the hospital before they filled them. Of note, we examined the cohort at various assembly time points, including 7 and 21 days after myocardial infarction, and found no differences in the hazard rate ratios of the effect of the interaction between PPIs and clopidogrel in relation to assembly time point. Our study's strengths include the large size of our cohort based on a nationwide, unselected population that represents average patients in a contemporary clinical setting who have had a myocardial infarction. The Danish National Patient Registry includes all hospital admissions in Denmark and is therefore not affected by selection bias stemming from selective inclusion of specific hospitals, health insurance systems, or age groups. The concordance between drug dispensing and drug consumption is probably high, because reimbursement of drug expenses is only partial, and most drugs, including PPIs, were not available over the counter in Denmark during the study period (exceptions include aspirin and H2-antagonists). Because of the partial reimbursement of drug expenses by Danish authorities, we reasonably assumed that a patient who claimed a prescription from the pharmacy intended to take the drug. Our study has additional limitations. Clopidogrel resistance has been linked to genotype polymorphisms. Although we have no knowledge of the precise distribution of these polymorphisms in our largely white study population, several studies (28 - 29) based in the countries that surround Denmark found variations in relevant genes that matched those reported earlier for white populations. However, generalizing these data to other racial and ethnic groups should be done with caution. Finally, we had no information on the indications for PPI therapy. In conclusion, PPIs seem to be associated with an increased risk for adverse cardiovascular outcomes regardless of clopidogrel use, but concomitant PPI and clopidogrel use was not associated with any additional increase in risk over that observed for patients who received a PPI alone. We believe that the increased cardiovascular risk associated with PPI use independent of clopidogrel is caused by unmeasured confounders. These results seem to refute concerns about increased risk for ischemic events during concomitant PPI and clopidogrel between the different PPIs would have been more helpful in making conclusions here as different PPIs have different levels of interactions with clopidogrel. The mechanisms of drug interaction is also of interest in this era of polypharmacy None declared.

We knew that, when late January rolled around, there would be a team in Oklahoma City perched around the top of the Western Conference standings. And most would have guessed that there would be a team in Los Angeles in a similar position. But—surprise, surprise—the elite team in L.A. has turned out to be the Clippers, and on Tuesday night on NBA TV, they will square off for Western supremacy against the Thunder at the Staples Center. It is a meeting worthy of its hype, with (at least) four All-Stars on board, including point guards Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook, plus OKC small forward Kevin Durant and Clippers power forward Blake Griffin. L.A. is at the halfway point on its schedule, and it is time to take this team serious when NBA Finals talk arises. The Clippers have great front-line talent, but they also have enviable depth that has allowed them to withstand the same sort of rash of injuries that hurt them last year. “You have to think they’re a legitimate contender, it’s not too early to say that,” NBA TV analyst Greg Anthony said Monday morning. “The next question is to figure out whether they can actually win. That’s another thing in and of itself. The Clippers have handled themselves very well. They have dealt with as much injury as anyone in the league, and yet they still find themselves (tied for) the best record in the league. You have to accept that they are one of those teams—and you have to remember they had a pretty good year last year. They beat Memphis in a seventh game (in the first round of the playoffs) on the road. That it pretty impressive. They are going to have confidence, and now they are going to have experience. They are definitely a contender.” At the midway point, the Clippers ranked fourth in the league in offensive efficiency and third in the league in defensive efficiency. No team in the East ranks in the top 10 in both categories, and only two in the West can make that claim—the Thunder (first offensively, seventh defensively) and the Spurs (fifth offensively and fifth defensively). The Clippers have beaten San Antonio twice this season, with both games coming in November. The only game between the Clippers and Thunder, also in late November, was won in overtime by OKC, but coach Scott Brooks said after that game, “It was like a playoff game in November. Everybody laid it all on the line.” Now comes the rematch. This is probably a more important prove-it game for the Clippers, and it is one that would be especially handy to win. The Clippers play two of their next three games on the road, then go on a monster eight-game road trip that begins next week. Still, it is entirely possible that we will see these two teams play again during the postseason in May, and the Thunder are well aware of that. On Tuesday night, matchups and weaknesses that could be important in the playoffs will show themselves. “The marquee is obviously Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook and how they are able to play against each other,” Anthony said. “But I am also looking at how the Clippers contend and deal with Durant. And I want to see how the benches perform, because those are important elements for both teams. I want to see, too, if you’re going to see a little more of a playoff rotation in this game. And on the Clippers side, I want to see how many rim-runs they can get, how many alley-oops—can the Thunder take that away, can Blake Griffin be effective in that low block, things of that nature.” The Clippers are at the top of the standings. Now, against the defending West champs, they can prove they belong there. Join the conversation

The 2012 NFL Supplemental Draft will take place Thursday. Below is a scouting breakdown of former Baylor wide receiver Josh Gordon, who is expected to be the top player selected. Also available in the supplement draft are TCU running back Ed Wesley, Boise State DB Quaylon Ewing, Syracuse RB Adam Harris, Iowa State tackle Adrian Haughton, Carson-Newman linebacker Larry Lumpkin, Georgia defensive end Montez Robinson and Midwestern State wide receiver Houston Tuminello. Selections will be made electronically beginning at 1 p.m. ET. Teams making a selection will forfeit a corresponding pick in the 2013 NFL Draft. Josh Gordon (Vital statistics: 6-3, 220 pound, 4.52 in the 40-yard dash) STRENGTHS: Gordon's ability to pluck the ball, turn upfield and gain yards after the catch could turn him into an NFL playmaker. While his route running needs work, his ability to use his upper-body strength helps Gordon push off defenders to create separation. Gordon can reach back to catch passes thrown behind him without having to slow, which allows him to quickly get started down the field. Gordon finds creases after the catch and runs through arm tackles. He turns quick passes behind the line of scrimmage into 10-yard gains and first downs. Gordon has superior speed for his size. This allows him to get downfield separation. For a player with his physical talent and play-making ability, Gordon surprises with his willingness, effort and production as a blocker. WEAKNESSES: Gordon was on the verge of being a productive college receiver after a 42-catch sophomore season in 2010, but he was dismissed from Baylor for violating team rules. Gordon was arrested in 2010 on a marijuana possession charge. He sat out the 2011 season when he transferred to Utah. There are questions about Gordon’s maturity and decision making. Gordon must work on running sharp, precise routes, especially those that require sharp cuts like "out," "dig" and "curl." In order to take advantage of his acceleration and speed at the NFL level, Gordon must improve his initial quickness off the ball. He has a bad habit of picking up the heel on his back foot at the snap before driving forward, which slows his release. Gordon must run with a better bend and body lean to release from NFL defenders. In addition, he must wrap up the ball with both hands after catches to avoid fumbling. In the four games graded, Gordon fumbled three times. BOTTOM LINE: Based on Gordon's 2010 game tape at Baylor, he had better hands and run-after-the-catch ability than Kendall Wright, who was the 2012 NFL Draft's 20th overall pick by the Tennessee Titans. Gordon must improve his routes, but in terms of pure physical skills he has all the tools to be a highly productive NFL receiver. Gordon is likely to be drafted in the third or fourth round because of his size and potential. Based purely on film evaluation, Gordon is a better prospect than Brian Quick (St. Louis Rams) and Stephen Hill (New York Jets), both of whom were second-round picks in April. Join the conversation

From the Dept. of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY. Send correspondence to Dr. Muenzenmaier; brmdkmm@omh.state.ny.gov (e-mail). Received January 4, 2011; Accepted February 1, 2011. Traumatic events in the psychiatric population are prevalent, complex, and often are repeated and ongoing (1–4). As psychiatry residents progress through their training, they have contact with traumatized patients and families from the initial phases of assessment through the recovery process. For example, according to Kessler (5) PTSD is the third most common anxiety disorder in the United States. An increasingly large body of literature about trauma-associated disorders, treatment modalities, and training exists. However, systematic trauma training remains limited and has yet to be incorporated into the core curriculum of graduate training programs, including residency training in psychiatry (2, 3, 6, 7). Trauma training, adapted for psychiatric residents, is of particular importance considering the specific challenges trainees face during the postgraduate years, where a shift from more concrete to more process-oriented thinking can be observed. Also, teaching psychiatry residents is particularly challenging because residents rotate through different services (8). Each service has its own population, culture, and goals and objectives. A comprehensive teaching program for trauma is difficult to integrate into an already-existing complex teaching curriculum, as it must allow for flexibility. Teaching and supervision serve the purpose of enabling residents to reflect on their clinical experiences, along with peer interactions, study groups, and seminars. The Trauma Training Modular Curriculum (TTMC) was created to address the various needs as well as to integrate into ongoing psychiatric training the growing body of literature ranging from assessment of trauma and trauma associated disorders to various treatment interventions. The TTMC is structured in a modular fashion and consists of 16 modules. Each module begins with a pre-assessment and ends with a post-assessment. Designed to provide a foundation for teaching, each module can focus either on addressing attitudes, conveying knowledge, and/or teaching specific skills. Each module can stand on its own as a single teaching unit. The modular construction of the TTMC allows for flexibility in including one or more modules into an already-existing curriculum. Since learning can be enhanced by the use of different sensory modalities, each module includes visual, auditory, gustatory, and olfactory and/or tactile stimuli. Some modules include the use of the arts and media, such as film excerpts, video clips, music, and interviews. Active participation of the residents is encouraged, using role-play, case discussion, or vignettes. The individual modules begin with a general description of the topic, such as epidemiology, biology, psychology, psychopharmacology, or specific treatment approaches. Many of the modules include the teaching of practical skills of assessing trauma and trauma-related symptoms. Residents practice techniques for interviewing traumatized patients and families. Learning how to develop a treatment alliance with patients who may have attachment difficulties is a cornerstone of the curriculum. Becoming aware of countertransference reactions when exposed to severe affective dysregulation, self-injurious behavior, and traumatic narratives (9) is an essential feature of many of the modules. Depending on the content of the module, the goals and objectives include discussion of latest research findings and current debates. The efficacy of particular interventions and “best practices” approaches to trauma treatment are highlighted. Included are reading assignments and references. A multisensory, multimedia approach utilizes videos, readings, experiential exercises, and guest speakers. The TTMC takes into consideration the development of a trauma training curriculum that moves from the assessment of traumatic events and related symptomatology to trauma-informed case-formulation and treatment-planning. The impact of trauma on individuals, families, and communities is incorporated into some of the modules. The TTMC is designed to be used as either a single long course or as individual modules, depending on the needs of the training program. As residents progress through training, their level of sophistication increases. The fund of knowledge and skills improves, and the residents' understanding of clinical material moves from concrete to conceptual. The TTMC includes modules that are targeted to junior residents, such as assessment of trauma and diagnostic aspects, whereas modules targeted to senior residents focus on more complex case-formulations and various treatment approaches. This developmental approach to training addresses the need for phase-specific learning objectives and may help in demonstrating clinical competence as required by regulatory agencies. The individualization of the modules allows residency training directors the option to select those that are particularly useful to the needs of their programs. The TTMC was developed at an academic psychiatry residency training program in the New York City metropolitan area. The modules have been utilized with a culturally, ethnically, socially, and economically diverse population. Feedback from the residents in the program has been positive, and suggestions have been incorporated into the modules. The use of the TTMC as an adjunct to a pre-existing residency curriculum enhances the resident's attitudes, knowledge, and skills in working with a traumatized population. Limitations include the lack of formal testing of the TTMC in other training sites. The TTMC will have to be tested in various residency training programs in order to assure its validity. The input of training directors will be crucial to improve future versions of the TTMC. Standardized surveys will be needed to avoid selection bias. Recommendations for the future include the implementation of the training into the curricula of other residency programs in order to test its wider usefulness. Download citation file:

The rules are simple. We take one unopened pack of baseball cards that was randomly selected by yours truly. We then go through the pack card by card looking for those hard to find White Sox cards. Our player in tonight's game is a 1988 Donruss pack. The pack contains 15 cards and 3 puzzle pieces. Let's begin. #1: Doug Drabek – 79 - Pirates A future White Sox! #2: Rick Sutcliffe – 68 - Cubs A trap card! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! #3: Gerald Perry – 437 - Braves What a nice smile. The lighting on his ear makes him look like he has an earring at first glance. His middle name is June? #4: Tom Foley – 303 - Expos An Expo! What a rare treat. #5: Brian Dayett – 416 - Cubs What the??!! Another trap card!! #6: Mike Davis – 281 – A’s Rockin’ the aviators! #7: Scott Bradley – 147 - Mariners The White Sox got the late Ivan Calderon by trading Scott. #8: Donnie Moore – 621 - Angels I will distract the hitter by waving my glove at him. Two trap cards!! AAAAARRRGGGGHHHH!!! OK, I’m over it. That half really sucked. 7 cards left to go. Let’s see if we can get a White Sox card! #9: Kal Daniels DK - 14 - Reds Kal is an exciting outfielder according to the back of the card. #10: Lance Parrish – 359 - Phillies I forgot that Lance was on the Phillies. #11: Frank White – 225 - Royals He’s a Jr. See the Royals can have a Jr. too! #12: Jim Gantner – 214 - Brewers I still can’t think of the Brewers as being a National League team. Jim’s middle name is Elmer? #13: Dale Bryan Murphy – 78 – Braves OK! That’s the superstar of the eighties that this pack lacked! #14: Frank DiPino – 570 – Cubs C’mon!! You’re killin’ me here!! #15: Mike LaCoss – 436 – Giants Mike went into the wrong sport. How fun would it have been to say, “LaCoss with the goal in Lacrosse”? #16: Stan Musial puzzle piece 43, 44, 45 Great. A piece of Stan the Man’s crotch. I don’t want to know THAT much about Stan the Man. OK, our pack opening is complete. Three trap cards and no White Sox cards! That pack sucked big fat donkey. I suppose there are going to be bad packs like this still out there. So, that’s ½ point for each card in the pack. –1 for each trap card. Final score: 4 ½ points No White Sox cards in this game, but there's always next time on Sox Or No Sox. 3 comments: Ivan Calderon passed away? I hadn't heard that even though it was in 2003. A lot of people either have or want to have (including Lance himself) that Lance was with the Phillies. His best years were behind him when he came to Philly and the fans never let him forget. Somehow, while hitting only 0.215 in 1988 he made it to the All Star game as a reserve player behind Gary Carter. I had forgotten that Lance was a reserve in 1988. Sheesh, almost as many Cubs as were in the All Star game.

has just been has just been updated. $a3: - For "view" and "alter", passes in the $teaser parameter from node_view(). - For "validate", passes in the $form parameter from node_validate(). $a4: Return value This varies depending on the operation. - The "presave", "insert", "update", "delete", "print" and "view" operations have no return value. - The "load" operation should return an array containing pairs of fields => values to be merged into the node object.(). Related topics Note: this list is generated by pattern matching, so it may include some functions that are not actually implementations of this hook. - book_nodeapi in modules/ book/ book.module - Implementation of hook_nodeapi(). - comment_nodeapi in modules/ comment/ comment.module - Implementation of hook_nodeapi(). - forum_nodeapi in modules/ forum/ forum.module - Implementation of hook_nodeapi(). - menu_nodeapi in modules/ menu/ menu.module - Implementation of hook_nodeapi(). - node_invoke_nodeapi in modules/ node/ node.module - Invoke a hook_nodeapi() operation in all modules. - hook_search in developer/ hooks/ core.php - Define a custom search routine. - node_invoke_nodeapi in modules/ node/ node.module - Invoke a hook_nodeapi() operation in all modules. File Code; } } Drupal 7 uses different hooksPermalink Drupal 7 doesn't use anymore hook_nodeapi(), but it uses a set of new hooks called hook_node_$op(), where $op is the parameter passed to hook_nodeapi() in Drupal 6. See Converting 6.x modules to 7.x for more details. more than the parameterPermalink more than the parameter (which is 100% true) the function now contains the operation. That's it, update, save, etc... example: hook_node_insert($node) hook_node_update($node) ... $op = 'view' also when search indexing is done under cronPermalink Remember that search indexing needs to see the whole node, so the node is loaded and hook_nodeapi is called with $op = 'view' for every node on the site during indexing. If you have redirects this could completely cripple cron, and even if you don't it could cause unwanted side effects. To ensure that you only respond to occasions where the node is actually being shown in full on a user's screen, you can examine $a4 to see if it is TRUE, or include this check (via ) : <?php if (arg(0) == 'node') ?> Better?Permalink In all likelihood, there is a $node->build_mode for that. Wrong about timing of "load"Permalink Where it reads “[t]he node is about to be loaded from the database” is incorrect. When the hook is invoked, the node has already been loaded from the database and the related fields have been populated. timing of insertPermalink when $op == "insert" to say "the node is being inserted" is not quite true if you are altering a node that was created outside of your module. the node has already been inserted into the database if the node you are altering at any point invoked hook_insert(). Timing of insert2Permalink I dont think the insert is completely done at this point, if I try to query a node with a join on any CCK fields I get no results. the CCK fields have not been inserted yet. Node fields are there. Not sure what the order or the inserts are. what hook to use after all inserts from all modules are finished. gmarcotte is likely correctPermalink I'm still testing this out but I came to this page with the strong suspicion this was true. The caveman in me was about to rail against nodeapi but I realize all of my code that effects the node is working and any that relies on cck content for the node is failing on $op = insert. Changing weight of the module so that it fires after CCK may be an option, assuming CCK relies on nodeapi for its actions. More to come soon I hope.... hook_nodeapi('validate') limitationPermalink Note that hook_nodeapi()is only invoked with $op == 'validate'when submitting data using the node form, which is why the $formparameter is available. It is not invoked when saving data from code.

include import .qif Hello I just want to know if the import of qif /ofx files is planned on your roadmap: Actually I like your software but I use another money management software (ibank) in parallele to analyse past income/expenses with more accuracy. It would great if we could just import actual data through qif/ofx files and it will avoid a lot of time/errors by putting figures manually into cashculator as I currently do... This drawback prevents me from using cashculator as as often as I would like. Thanks Regards Guillaume ps: will cashculator 2 be free for cashculator 1 owners? Comments are currently closed for this discussion. You can start a new one. Support Staff 2 Posted by Kosta Rozen on 26 Oct, 2011 05:43 PM Hello Guillaume, We plan to add QIF import functionality in Cashculator2, but due to the complexity of integrating QIF file content with existing scenario (deciding which category to assign each transaction), it will be limited to creation of new scenario only. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Best regards, Kosta Rozen 3 Posted by Guillaume on 27 Oct, 2011 10:37 AM Thanks for the answer However I am not sure to understand when you say that it will be limited to the création of new scénario? Does it mean that I will need to restart a new project and that I will not be able to adapt the existing one ? If this is the only limitation this is not very annoying... Regards Guillaume Support Staff 4 Posted by Kosta Rozen on 27 Oct, 2011 11:51 AM You will be able to create a new scenario from imported data, but not to add imported data to an existing scenario. Therefore, if you created a scenario by importing data, you will not be able to add additional imported data to the same scenario next month. Best regards, Kosta Rozen > 5 Posted by Guillaume on 27 Oct, 2011 11:56 AM Ah this is more annoying.... It significantly reduces the inerest of importation ... Support Staff 6 Posted by Kosta Rozen on 27 Oct, 2011 12:46 PM Yes, it's mostly aimed for getting started on Cashculator. Best regards, Kosta Rozen 7 Posted by Johan Vanhoutte on 09 Jul, 2012 08:04 PM Hi, Is it possible to import CSV files into Cashculator? It's very easy to extract a CSV file from my bank account. Importing this into Cashculator (i.e. not entering you expenses incomes all manually) would be a useful feature. Thank you for your reaction. Regards, Johan Vanhoutte Support Staff 8 Posted by Kosta Rozen on 10 Jul, 2012 05:52 AM Hi Johan, Currently Cashculator does not support importing data, but it is a good suggestion and we will take it into account. Best regards, Kosta Rozen 9 Posted by Daniel on 25 Jul, 2012 06:04 PM I want to install from zero the new MountainLion OSX... I have to loose all data entered before IN YOUR PROGRAM??? please answer soon. Support Staff 10 Posted by Sandy on 26 Jul, 2012 09:03 AM Hi Daniel, Installing a new Mac OS X version should not delete the content of your Mac. Anyway, I advise you to get everything backed up. You'll feel more comfortable when upgrading. Kind Regards, Sandy Sandy closed this discussion on 11 Mar, 2013 11:33 PM.

I considered calling this post Falling Short, to soften the blow. But instead decided to go balls to the wall with what I really mean. Failure. How can I stop being afraid of it if I can’t even stop being afraid to say it? Dylan said, “There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.” Whatever that means. But I like the sound of it. I feel there is a potential there that I, with my paralytic fear of failure, can’t quite grasp. My dad says your successes can’t exceed 25% of your failures, so get out there and fuck up! (paraphrased) That’s a little more straight forward. failed to plant succession, harvested too much at once, washed when i shouldn't have, stored wet in the fridge=2 gallons of rotten salad greens Erica from NW Edibles recently outed the naked, cold fact that they are spending $2,000 to have a chicken coop built for them. Wow, brave girl. I would have hidden that one under my bed for sure. In a locked box. That’s what they invented lies for, Erica. I’m not mentioning Erica because I think their $2,000 chicken coop represents failure. Please don’t misunderstand! It’s dangerous ground we tread here. But she lays bare her feelings of falling short of that shiny Urban Homesteader Ideal, and I know just what she means. I know how life can lead you on a crazy circuitous path, which cannot be traveled backwards, and then deposit you *BAM* where you least expected to end up. Picking yourself up, dusting off and finding a way to keep on is the stuff of saints as far as I’m concerned. Or beetles. Myself, when fear of failure or the associated guilt of transgression hits, I can sometimes be completely incapacitated. I’ve abandoned many a project when the first failures start rolling in, or even just because failure lurked around the next bend. And that ain’t no good, no how. Maybe it’s just me. One of my little Issues. But I’ve been fascinated by my crippling fear of failure and it’s many reprecussions throughout my life. Long, loooong ago, when I worked as a “handler” for a dog musher back in Alaska, it was my job to run the dogs every day. Riding a dog sled, particularly on a low snow winter like that one was, is a skill that took me months to even get an edge on. I had a little epiphany on one of the many occasions that I was being dragged behind the tipped over sled (never, never let go of the sled), face down over the fast moving snow. I realized that when the sled went round a corner, I needed to lean in to the curve. But instead my fear of the speed made me lean outward, in a visceral desire to abandon the sled. Leaning out on a curve tips the sled over. Simple physics. I don’t believe, as some do, that your thoughts somehow energistically manifest into your life to create what you want or fear. But my sled epiphany made me see how fear drives me to act in a certain way, a fearful way, that sometimes causes the very thing I fear to happen. It’s not magic, it’s logic. With a heavy dose of irony. i loved this lemon tree. then i forgot to water it. for several months. now it's dying, covered with tiny lemons, and dying. damn me! In addition to the negative of sabotaging our efforts, there’s a big, important positive to failure. Nothing is more instructive. Imagine if you refused to let your kid play with pen and paper until they could write a perfect ‘A.’ Obviously kids have to practice a lot before they learn to write, and ‘practice’ means fucking around with a pen and paper. Each distinct failure teaches us so many, many things that simple success can never offer. The trick to abolishing our fear of failure and embracing it instead as our benificent teacher (a trick that I have failed to learn as of yet) is not to let our every action define us. Isn’t that what I strive to teach my kids? You may do a mean thing to a friend, that doesn’t make you a mean person. You may fail to consume all the cases of marmalade you so eagerly sliced, cooked and canned last year and instead have to dump them down the drain to free the jars for other purposes (ahem) but that does not mean you are a failure. Another point which must be sharpened is that a lot of what we perceive as “failure” is actually only failure to live up to an impossible fantasy of perfection. Take Erica and her coop. Some part of her might feel that she has failed to be the uber-cool urban homesteader who does everything herself on a shoestring budget. But in fact, all she has done is prioritize her time. There’s a limited quantity of it, don’t you know. Actually you might not know. I’m not sure whether I really do. The capitalist system and our unleashed advertising industry has worked very hard to make us believe that there are no such limits. This is really a whole post of it’s own that has lay dormant in my mind for months. I believe it affects every aspect of our lives and I have much too much to say about it. But, relevant to this subject, they saturate us with the unspoken premise that there are no limits, no need to choose priorities, you can have it all! (just sign here). There follows a seemingly reasonable equation: If ‘all’ is possible, and I can’t achieve ‘all,’ I failed. I assure you, it’s the equation that’s at fault! Even though I understand this well with my intellect, that deeper core of my brain that advertising plugs straight into still Believes. And suffers the all the guilt, shame, and fear. It’s really a lot of what this blog has ended up being about for me. Confronting the impossible expectations we are suffused with. Attempting to slowly erase the 33 years (and counting) of culture telling me I can and should have it all. Teasing out the important bits from the hectic hairball of modern life, making my priorities, and fighting back the scaly beasts of disillusionment, guilt and failure. Back to the cave with you, foul creatures! Beloved Boo (once again), If I could be there to give you a hug, I would. If I could be there to show you a photo of me hanging (literally) from the rafters after a night of full-bore indiscretion (not a good image I know) I would. And why? Cause A) I love outing myself so that no one, no one, no one, will ever take my life history as being neat and B) Cause messiness and failure is part of the journey. Holy crap girl. What you think? Even those who look like they got their shit together don’t. Or, if they do, it took a good measure of facing off with the folly of ego, self righteousness and plan old fashion head-up-the-ass-ism. We are all broken creatures trying to find truth in a system that suggests success as some consequence of good choices. That’s a lie. We have all had a cookie dangled in front of our faces — this life, safe life, good life if you make the right choices. Ha. Fact is, we are all round and soft spirits in a linear and harsh world and it can (and has) made life way confusing. We are all working to undo that capitalist narrative (and you are right to intuit a huge thorn there). We are all banging our heads against that system with some of us are more willing to admit it. The gig is up though. So when you tell us that you tossed the marmalade down the sink you open a hole in everyone else’s precious stories so they, too, can come out and say….What the hell is this life really about? How do we live up in here? And then we get to talk for real like. Yes, there is beauty. Lots of it. But I’m here to tell you there is lots and lots of failure. I’m pushing 60 and there is still a whole lot of failure out there, in here, and all around. But like Ram Dass says….”You never get rid of your demons you just invite them in for tea.” Good one that. Too bad you got rid of your marmalade cause I hear demons like it with a spot of toast. So breathe and accept the brokeness. You will never outrun it. And ignore Dylan. He is a wordsmith but can be full of shit like the rest of us. Besides, ever since he did that Victoria Secret ad I have had a few well chosen words for him. Like…..yeah you don’t want to be a cultural icon but do you have to be a sell out to prove it? But then we go way back. I’ve had a crush on him since I was 15 and used to think he was actually saying something important. Too bad for him I’m turning my gaze to Leonard Cohen – a wordsmith you can still trust. I should have known. My top three songwriters: Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Ani DiFranco. I know Dylans full of shit, but my can he turn a phrase. Hang in there girl! “Just keep swimming….” Ah, sweet, sweet, nasty arsed failure. I bought a fucking hair straightener today. It came in the pack with a hair dryer. Cos I didn’t have a hair dryer. I don’t know what to do with either of them. Enuf said?…. (Harriet, if you want a sweet man to listen to, may I suggest Xavier Rudd? He’s a gentle, sweet man, with many musical talents. Google, youtube-ify, and enjoy.) Loved your failures! Not so that I could point and laugh, but because they’re so like mine. I have about a decade on you, but I remember my ephiphany moment – the day I realized that my failures were not something to run from, but well earned tuition. Sometimes I need a swift kick in the rear end to remind me to do something better. Othertimes I need that kick to tell me to back off and slow things down. Either way, it’s a cosmic wake-up call and I’m finally, finally listening. :) Thanks for letting me know others struggle with fear of failure. My blogging is haphazard b/c I often spend way to much time worry if a post sucks or what people will think. I end up frozen by the fear of failing at blogging of all things. :) Nice to remember to not let it paralyze me. Can’t learn without fucking up a few times. When we are kids we get that but when we are adults we just seem to think we should be perfect at all times. Now if I can just take that feeling of empowerment with me. Oh, the $2000 I can cop to. It’s the unending frustration bordering on resentment that’s growing for my sweet infant son who will not go the fuck to sleep. At all. Not for naps, not at night. 8 months of sleep deprivation and I am about to lose my mind. But that’s just between us. Can’t put that on *my* blog, it wouldn’t be relevant. ;) I did feel guilt over paying for the convenience of someone else building the coop. You have it exactly right: the *image* of DIY Urban Homesteady Girl isn’t: hey, here’s some money to fix my problem (lack of coop). It’s, “Hey, I can tackle anything! I’m capable, I’m competent! I can do it all by myself!” And that’s just not reality. I try to remind myself that a problem that can be fixed by throwing money at it, assuming you have the money to do so, isn’t a problem at all. It’s just an expense. Cancer is a problem, addiction is a problem, laying on the floor sobbing because you’re beyond exhausted and you’re so pigheaded that you keep trying to keep going, even though your brain hasn’t had quiet time for 8 months…well, that’s *my* problem. $2000 is just bartered time. If you figure out how to get through to yourself and stop trying to do it all, will you please, please tell me? Great post, per usual. Erica, We need to talk. About babies, and not so much babies anymore, and sleeping and not so much sleeping. I’d direct you to my archives, but I hear you’ve already read them all ;) I may have missed a few. I spent a good several afternoons on my ass on the couch with your blog but you’ve been at this for awhile; there’s material here. May have missed a month or two. Got a specific post (posts) I should check out? Once at a monastic retreat, I was very worried about screwing up the amazingly fussy and precise Zen rituals we were going to be doing the next day. I had only recently been lay ordained and though I had my robes, bowls, etc- all the trappings of spiritual materialism, I didn’t have my head very squared away yet. I diminished myself as only a sort of “home-school” Buddhist from small-town Alaska, and was in the midst of real deal big wigs in brown robes and was really afraid of messing up big time. I told the director. She said: “look, as a Buddhist, you know that all things are; impermanent, interconnected, and imperfect. Anytime you do anything for the first time, it’s going to be a little rough- even after doing something a zillion times you can still screw up.” “Whatever it is- just do the best you can with what you got at the time where you are. It’s all you can ever do. Embrace your awkwardness.” she said with a little exasperation. (I think that’s a kind zen paraphrase of “suck it up, cupcake!”) Anyhow “Embrace your awkwardness” has been a very helpful, as is the (obvious) knowledge that nothing is ever perfect. Though sometimes it takes some VERY big arms to embrace my awkwardness….. Besides, if we waited to be perfect before doing anything, nothing would ever get done. I went through some of our readings and found one that kind of speaks to this. I’ve attached it below. All the best, I love your blog posts. K Saying Yes to an Open Heart Diana Winston- Buddhadharma, Summer 2010 Zen, time after time, you learn to say yes. Yes to your jagged breathing, yes to your itchy scalp. Yes to the chainsaw dude across the street, yes to your grief and pain and shame and grandiosity and fear. Not because you want to act on these things, but because they’re true, and fleeting, and simply part of who you are at the moment (but not even the half of who you really are). Your nervous system begins to relax- at last you’re acknowledging the truth of things. Saying yes means attending to and surrendering to your experience, whatever it is. It means feeling your body when you’re in the midst of a strong reaction or emotion, and letting whatever you find simply be there. It means coming back to your breath, or this present moment, again and again. It means noticing that thoughts and feelings and sensations come and go. You say yes to your pride, your stupidity, your murderous rage. Naturally you don’t act on you murderous rage, but you allow it to be true within you. It is a very inclusive practice. Nothing is ever left out. You discover that if you are pushing away your experience, even ever so slightly, you mindfulness is not fully realized, no is say no. “Oh, Jeez,. Hey Kelly! Great to get a comment from you. Great essay too. This open heart stuff is where it’s at, but oh so hard to pull off regularly… Ken Robinson did a good speech in which he talked, amongst other things, about the value of failure. It’s called Do schools kill creativity, look it up on YouTube. He’s not a homeschooling guy or anything like that, just saying it like it. He’s talking about the British schooling system but making a very serious point about The importance of failure, as part of the learning curve. I really like what he has to say about education. Oh by the way, I used the quote, thank you! Have a looksey over at Feet on the Ground and Head in the Clouds. Erica- My boy did not sleep for 8 months either – at all, or only in two hour slots. Drove me nuts but it did change and he became utterly adorable and self sufficient. Just wasn’t a sleeper. It will get better. Kylie -Thanks, anyone with a sweet gentle nature is worth listening to. Stringz – Current issue of Oregon Humanities Magazine is on Failure. Might make for good reading. As so often is the case, so much good chewable brain food over here. Thanks! Great post, same stuff that’s been going through my head lately too… this Urban Homesteading Ideals business. As per the chickens thing, I wrote on Sharon Astyk’s recent blog post, chickens are the ultimate urban homesteading ‘accessory’, aren’t they, and they are integral & seemingly essential in many ways. Yet, we are waiting til get ours, til we have time & energy to look after them properly, but I tell you, we won’t be building our own house/ coop after all… same as Erica, we idealised it, we even have some resources, but we don’t have the time or the skills. Erica did a great thing though, in outsourcing to someone who needs the money & the job. In the mean time, I am going to buy local eggs, organic fertilisers and be amused by my children’s antics instead of chickens… and the world will be OK! I don’t think you need a hug, I think you need a high five! Good on you, for having the guts to throw out the marmalade and know that maybe you don’t need so much next time around. It’s something I deal with… I don’t want to waste anything, I *should* be making the most of an abundance BUT if in the end, I may have wasted energy, resources and my own time to preserve something that gets thrown out anyways. How to know, though, that’s the trick and the skills I am gaining now (hopefully) as a wannabe urban homesteader. And remind myself how lucky I am to be in a position to make mistakes… Fantastic post and great comments! Failure…yikes, the fear of failure. When I get down to it most of my “stuff” is connected to a fear of failure is some way, shape or form. Staying in a job that sucks my soul for one. Like Erica mentioned, I’m pigheaded- I will struggle and agonize and try to figure out anyway to do it ourselves- to the point of making myself bonkers. And with some things, it just makes me miserable. It loses the joy. If it causes so much angst is it even worth it? ….heres my great fear… that I’m not even trying to do amazing stuff and still I can’t keep up…just as I sort-of, kind-of get one basic thing in hand, say dinner, theres always some other disaster or three to trip me over (literally). All I want is to have an abundent backyard, clean home (full of beautiful, me made wonderful things), be trim, fit and healthy, have some time with the fella, time with the kidlets, time for books… But as soon as one thing has a tick, the others start smelling, yelling, dieing… Yep, my fear is that what I want is simple but that I just don’t have …. what ever it takes to have it. Thanks again for the eloquent philosophising. I keep wondering how this gift you have can A) reach as broad an audeiuence as possible and B) give back to you (in dare i say it, a monetary way). It would be great to have a class / group / forum for parents where you could facilitate these kinda discussions … compulsory for all would be parents of course (but they wouldn’t get it yet would they?). “HOw to love failure and your new child”. Catchy huh? This would of course happen in your free evennings…. Katj I’ve been told this in studying yoga, but I’ve seen it in many venues of life…a certain amount of tension that is necessary in order to sustain life. It is that very tension that maintains the balance. If there is no challenge, you lose muscle tone. You lose inspiration. Those challenges and potential failures are what keep us learning. I’ve been on both sides of it. I’m an ambitious person by nature, usually striving for something. But I’ve also had a period of life where I had many things organized just as I wanted them. Or at least, as I thought they should be…and there was a certain limpness to it. I had blocked out a lot of things that weren’t as I wanted them to be because I couldn’t change them. In the end, I had to open up to the stuff that I hadn’t dared to do, even if it meant giving up some of what I thought I was supposed to be/do/have. And it has turned out to be true. So rewarding. …I guess the point is to stay in that precious, precarious spot, right on the crest of the wave… and sometimes you pitch head over heels and get tumbled in the surf. You land on the beach with salt water in every orifice, coughing. But that’s ok. You’re really not much worse for the wear and besides, all waves end up back at the beach anyway, no matter how you get there. Hahaha, who knew it wasn’t a destination but an endless cycle. Advertising would have us think otherwise. Like getting in shape. As if you were going to “get there” and it was going to last. :) Apparently it’s not about achieving perfection but the humble, ongoing act of striving. Hmm, is it bad etiquette to leave comments on older posts? I look forward to the day that “limits” post finishes cooking and oozes out of your brain- or more realistically is carefully and skillfully sculpted- (unless I’ve missed it and am completely showing my sloppy reading skills just now). I spend a lot of my brain power mulling over a lot of those very same ideas. I second-guess my own eloquence into oblivion, so the thoughts don’t produce much more than “nnmeeeee…baaaaaaaad….” when I try to voice them. You’ve got your voice much more sorted out, it seems. (“Work for my entertainment!” said the stranger on the Internet.)

Completed projects Japanese x and + blocks Round 2 - only managed 5 blocks to swap this round + 1 more for my pile. Slow but sure I'll have enough for a quilt. Zakka Style Sew-Along project #8: Zakka Block Quilt - This was SO fun, and I love how it turned out! Full reveal post Thursday. Ongoing projects Zakka Style Sew-Along project #9: Stem Messenger Bag - I've gotten as far as choosing my fabrics . . . dare I confess this project scares me a bit? It involves a flap, a handle, hardware. Always Bee Learning June Tokoyo subway blocks - This will be a bit of a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it. Clever Megan, having us help her piece this quilt! A couple more potholders - part of the month-end prize at Tuesday at the {summer} Table, which begins next Tuesday! Upcoming projects * Let's Get Acquainted project * more Zakka * June Modern Blocks Bee block NEW * Solstice Stars quilt *. 25 comments: I keep meaning to start the Zakka sew-along. As usual, by the time I get started it will be long done... Things look interesting here at the table! Wow, you have lots of great projects going on. Your pot holders using Malka's fabrics look great, I love the Tokyo Subway quilts I have seen on other blogs, and the fabrics you have chosen for your messenger bag have me very excited to see what you create. You can do it! Wednesdays sneak up on me, too! I always mean to write another blog post on the weekend, but before I know it, it's Wednesday again! :) I can't wait to see the full reveal of your Zakka quilt. It looks fabulous so far! I look forward to your Thursday post. Love the black binding. The flap to project 8 is not difficult at all and the hardware is well described, even though I didn't make it for my small bag. The strap was too thin for it. Love the fabric combination to your potholders! Ooh, I'm excited to see your messenger bag. I love them and have patterns for several but still haven't bit the bullet. The Zakka quilt looks fabulous! Look forward to seeing it in all its glory! And the messenger bag was too scary me! Good luck with it! Love everything here as usual, but really looking forward to seeing your Zakka quilt revealed. Yoyu always have so many lovely projects :) Your Zakka quilt looks fun! the subway blocks aren't bad at all, but I'm pretty sure mine came out a little small. I haven't wanted to measure yet as I'm sure I'll gag if I have to rip out those stitches...Cannot wait to see the messenger bag! Ooo, can't wait to see more of the Zakka quilt - love it so far! And it's time for the messenger bag already? I need to make that -- but am also a little scared by it! Cute zakka style sneak peek! Sure you can manage the messenger bag no problem, love the colours you chose to start with :o) Very cunning plan with those bee blocks though, hmmm, that may have given me an idea! So many cute projects! I am definitely going to have to sneak back on Thursday and see your finished quilt, it looks amazing! Love the sneak peak of your quilt! I am not doing the Zakka sew along, but sure wish I was- so many fantastic projects! Hardware always makes me nervous, too. Good luck - I'm sure it'll turn out well. Everything looks great that you're working on. oh I am sure you will manage the hardware, but yes scary stuff! love the look of your zakka quilt! I am always amazed at all you do, just lovely too! Wanted to let you know I finally used the Hera tool. It was because of one of your posts that I bought one and I love it! Thank you for your continued encouragement to us fairly newbies! I for one appreciate you! Great projects! Love your Zakka sew along projects, I'm sure you'll rock the stem messenger bag :-) The Zakka block quilt looks super cute, what we can see of it anyways! Looking forward to the full reveal. your projects always impress me, loving all of them! Man I love that view finder fabric!!!! This reminds me that I need to start back up on my Tokyo Quilt :/ She is a smart girl haha Very interesting sneak peaks there! I'll be looking out to see the full reveals =D Good luck with your stem messenger bag! I am sure you will do fine! Ohhh I love the idea of having my bee piece the Tokyo Subway quilt for me. LOL Better than the Swoon quilt, right? So if we are linking up to your Tuesdays at the Summer Table party, we have to link a recipe for that week's category, right? I am going to post a roasted chicken here soon, but I guess I can always wait until your grilled week and modify my recipe. :) Oh, I have made many a bag Debbie and it's a lot easier than you think. When someone gives good directions, and you can see how it comes together, you usually don't have any trouble. Love all your projects! Beautiful projects, as always! I saw your Zakka quilt on Flickr and it looks awesome! I missed WIP Wednesday...I'll get it next week! I loved your Zakka quilt when I saw it on Flickr. Adorable! Love that Melody Miller!!

Dr. Edward Hitchcock, influenced by studies of Agassis and Lyell, concluded in an essay on Historical Geography that Cape Cod was in geological terms the “terminal moraine” of a glacier that once occupied Cape Cod Bay. Ref. Geographical Review. July 1920 ColgateUniversity. In March 1621, when the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth transporting English Puritans seeking religious freedom and separatists, there were a total of 102 passengers and a crew of 25-30. After a harrowing 66-day voyage that included a disease that took the lives of two passengers, the Mayflower first dropped anchor inside the hook-tip of Provincetown harbor. Clearly off course – their original destination was Virginia– they thought they had arrived at the mouth of the Hudson River. Passengers endured the winter of 1620-21 anchored off of Provincetown, from November 1620 to March 1621. The survivors of that difficult winter established the Plymouth Colony under the strong leadership of William Bradford, one of only five crew members whose names are known today; John Alden being another. From that time on, the settlements in Cape Cod gradually increased until around 1672 when the Old Colony industries, previously sparse agriculture due to the sandy moraine soil, of fishing and whaling began the upsurge in the economy of the area. Even grist mills and other mills and minor manufacturing continued to grow. Ultimately, Boston became a major seaport and shipbuilding area. From the early days of the Pilgrim’s settlement, only chronicled by William Bradford, it was tantalizingly apparent that the abundant fish in the sea represented an opportunity for unlimited wealth for the industrious. A vigorous seafaring industry blossomed from that promise, and the American Dream in the new world had its foundation in Massachusetts. The resulting ecology and culture shaped the landscape of the glacial moraine known as Cape Cod, even to its architecture. With running rivers a scarce commodity on Cape Cod, the exceptional Americans demonstrated their ingenuity by harvesting the wind. Windmills dotted the landscape powering local mills. The women of the seafarers in merchant or fishing ships led weeks of anxious isolation. Alone waiting for their man to return, they paced back and forth on rooftop decks called “widow’s walks.” Here on a small 8 x 10 railed space they would wait often pacing, awaiting a glimpse of a returning ship that carried their loved one. They walked hoping their beloved sailor was coming home. In more recent applications of American ingenuity on Cape Codit is not uncommon to see solar hot water heaters mounted on rooftops, or even solar panels on middle-class homes attempting to defray the energy costs. Modern widow’s walks are still built in sharp contrast to the reasons established in the colonial days and the peak of the seafaring days of Massachusetts. These modern widows’ walks, approved by strict guidelines of historical real estate committees, are used for the summer pilgrims to catch a glimpse of the sea during cocktail hour. What are missing from the modern landscape in Cape Cod are the windmills, which are so desperately needed for the production of electric energy. They are missing because a few rich, local politicians are “fighting to protect the environment.” The question is from what? Wind? Or hot air? Theodore Morrison Homa MD

The birth of CASAS+ARCHITECTS emerged from the partnership of two young architects, Jose Pedro C. Recio and Carmelo T. Casas. Both of them had their diversified practice in Hong Kong’s top architectural firms. The two architects’ international stint with major Hong Kong-based international firms spanned from 1976 to 1988. From there, they decided to form their partnership in October 1988 and took on the name RECIO+CASAS which was initially Hong Kong based. In 1990, a Philippine office was opened which spearheaded the partnership’s involvement as design consultant for the high-rise luxury residential development, the Pacific Plaza at Ayala Avenue, with Arch. Casas as the Principal Designer. Since then, the partnership of Jose Pedro Recio and Carmelo Casas undertook the role of design consultant for many projects such as ABS/CBN Broadcasting Studio Complex, Kingswood Gardens, One and Two Lafayette Square, Salcedo Park, and the Richmonde Hotel. In 1996, another high-rise luxury residential development known as Pacific Plaza Towers in Fort Bonifacio gained prestige for the company. The influx of challenging projects brought Arch. Casas back to the Philippines to spearhead this landmark project which was completed in 2000. In 1997, the firm Recio+Casas was awarded the first prestigious title of Firm of the Year Award by the Philippine Institute of Architects. After 20 years, Recio+Casas demerged when Arch. Recio withdrew from the partnership. Arch. Casas continued to run the firm with its new partners and have since then changed the name to CASAS+ARCHITECTS. Since then, the firm has evolved into a new identity specializing in diversified Architectural projects ranging from Residential, Commercial, Institutional, and Entertainment complexes. Notable Projects - Metrobank Center - Alphaland Makati Place - One Shangri-la Place - One Eastwood Place - One Uptown Place - Axis - Marriott Garden Ballroom - Shopwise Cebu - Tune Hotel Cebu - The Levels at Filinvest - Aspire Tower at Nuvo City - Discovery Bay Cebu Mactan Island, Cebu Other Information - office : 6F Paseo Center, 8757 Paseo de Roxas, Salcedo Village, Makati City - Telephone: 63 2 867 8615 - Staff: 76 Link Incoming search terms: - recio casas architects - recio casas architects website - recio casas - recio architects - casas architects website - recio casas associates - casas architects philippines - carmelo casas - jose pedro recio - casas associates

Error: You currently have Javascript disabled. This website uses Javascript for many elements such as the menus and page customization. Please enable Javascript in your browser for the optimum website experience. Overview't be as involved as the full-on "Month of" updates that Guardians and Burglars are receiving, but we hope to address most of the issues brought up by the Champion community as well as giving them the tools necessary to fulfill their class roles in LOTRO. Choices Currently, Fervour is the only choice of stance for most levels. The Book 12 Champion update will include a new stance, available at low levels. It won't be as all-out offensive as Fervour, but it will include in-combat power regeneration as well as allowing the Champion to Block, Parry and Evade, though at some penalty. In addition to the new stance, Glory is going to get a small boost in effectiveness and will be available at mid-levels. These two changes should give Champions a good choice of trade-offs in their stance selection between offense and defense. Champion Stances Fervour Fervour is the base Champion stance and is the basis for all Champion balancing. There are no changes to Fervour in this update. Ardour Ardour is intended to fill the gap in the Champion's stances. The high cost of Champion skills, in power and pips, really limits their ability to function without being in some kind of stance. Fervour comes with severe penalties to the Champion's defense, however, and Glory is only available at higher levels. For most of the level range, Champions that needed some defense but still wanted to be effective with skills were out of luck Ardour is a new Toggle skill exclusive from Fervour and Glory. It's gained at level 10, granting power regeneration and fervor pip generation at a rate somewhat less than Fervour but more than Glory (but with no inherent damage bonus). Parry and Evade defensive skills receive a percentage based penalty rather than being de-activated as with the Fervour Stance. The Block skill is unaffected. The Ardour stance will also convert the Flurry skill into Ardent Flurry. Ardent Flurry -This skill has the same effects as Flurry, but is activated only on a monster defeat event and lasts until the current combat ends. Switching out of Ardour stance converts the Ardent Flurry buff to normal Flurry. Glory Glory is getting a few tweaks to make it a more effective defensive stance for the Champion. It's been perceived to be too penalizing a stance for Champions, and also comes very late in the level progression -- far after the Champion is called upon for tanking duties. Glory is now available at level 30 instead of 46. A Champion in the Glory Stance will generate Fervour pips over time, though not as fast as in the Fervour or Ardour stances. The threat modifier has been increased and the damage penalty has been decreased to help the Champion hold the attention of enemies, but his power regeneration will be somewhat reduced to help offset these changes. The Glory stance will also convert the Exchange of Blows skill into Glorious Exchange. Glorious Exchange - This skill has the same effects as Exchange of Blows, but is activated only on a monster defeat event and lasts until out of combat. Switching out of Glory stance converts Glorious Exchange into the normal Exchange of Blows. Legendary Skills An almost universal complaint from Champions is that their Legendary skills aren't all that, well, legendary, and we agree. As a result, most of the Champion's Legendary skills are getting an upgrade New Skills Second Wind - This new skill is granted at level 14. It can only be used after an enemy is defeated and will restore some of the Champion's Power. Second Wind is intended to cover any shortfalls in power regeneration for Champions that are utilizing Ardour or Glory. Melee Critical Passive Traits - Champions will now be able to train Tier 3 at Level 35 and Tier 4 at Level 46. The masters of straight up melee combat no longer receive fewer passive melee traits than Lore-masters. Legendary Skills Upgrades Fight On Fight On retains all of its previous functionality as an area of effect power drain, and is a skill best used when the Champion needs to end a fight NOW. The Champion will receive a substantial short-term damage bonus, but when the damage bonus expires he'll be exhausted, with a substantial penalty to power regeneration until the current fight ends. Raging Blade Raging Blade adds an additional attack with all the damage numbers tweaked to give around a 15% increase in total damage. In addition, the Winds of the Storm trait will increase Raging Blade's maximum targets to 10. Ferocious Strike The damage numbers for Ferocious strike have been increased to give around a 5% increase in total damage. Ferocious Strikes from dual-wielding Champions will see a substantial increase in damage to make it comparable to damage from a 2-handed weapon using Champion. Other Fixes and Upgrades Many other Champion skills have been changed to make them more convenient to use, or just been given a boost in power to make them more attractive choices to add to your hot bar. A few highlights are making Sudden Defense easier to activate when in Fervour stance, giving Hedge the ability to remove Disarm effects, and an upgrade to the old Shoot skill to make it more effective than just auto-attacking at range. Changed Skills Sudden Defense and Eldar's Grace Both of these skills have been upgraded in usability for Champions. There are no changes to the skills themselves, but they can now be activated while in the Fervour or Ardour stances. Sudden Defense and Eldar's Grace will suppress the defensive skill penalties of these stances for the duration of the effects; then, when the effects expire, the full effects of Fervour or Ardour will return. A side effect of this change prevents Sudden Defense from stacking with Eldar's Grace. If both of these effects are activated, only Eldar's Grace will be in effect. After it wears off, Sudden Defense will apply for the rest of its duration. Hedge The de-taunt effects of Hedge have never worked to our satisfaction. We've decided to completely change this skill to address another issue raised by Champions, their vulnerability to Disarm. Hedge will no longer reduce the Champion's threat but will instead remove the effects of being disarmed and grant a Wound Resistance buff. The Champion will also be unaffected by disarm while the buff is in effect. Hedge's power cost and cooldown has been increased. Ire Skills There are too many cases where the Ire skills are seen to be ineffective, so we've increased the amount of threat these skills transfer and modified their costs. These skills transfer a percentage of accumulated threat; the later in combat they're used, the more threat is transferred. Ebbing Ire now transfers significantly more threat than previously. Its power cost has been increased and its Fervour pip cost has increased to 4. Rising Ire now transfers a moderately increased amount of threat. Its power cost has been increased, but its Fervour Pip cost has been reduced to 2. Shoot Shoot is a remnant from the time when there were no ranged auto-attacks. Champions still have this skill, but in its current state it serves little purpose. Shoot has been renamed to "Let Fly" and given a damage bonus and a slightly increased range. (This will affect Guardians and Hunters as well.) Clobber Clobber is used as a reaction skill to interrupt an enemy's induction skills, but its long animation time was interfering with this purpose. Clobber has been given a faster animation for faster response time. Sprint Sprint will now override all other effects that attempt to change the Champion's movement speed. Effects that prevent any movement at all are not affected. While we would like to think Sprint is used by Champions to heroically charge into battle, we know that in practice it is largely used when fleeing from overwhelming odds. This change will make Sprint more effective in escaping fights by negating Hounding Fear and other snares. Heroics This skill drained a significant amount of power from the Champion, while in return the Champion's fellowship only gained a limited amount of power -- in many cases, not enough to even use a skill. The power cost for Heroics has been reduced and the amount of Power granted to the Champion's fellowship has been substantially increased.

Error: You currently have Javascript disabled. This website uses Javascript for many elements such as the menus and page customization. Please enable Javascript in your browser for the optimum website experience. Epic - Volume 2 -– “Solofication” Pass By: Bob “Maurath” Hess Well, this is my first Developer Diary for the Lord of the Rings Online™ team, so I figured I would take a second to introduce myself. My name is Bob “Maurath” Hess, and I am the newest member of the Content Team. I have been working here at Turbine for a little over four years, with the first year working in QA, a little over a year working on Dungeons and Dragons Online as a systems designer, and then for the past two years on Lord of the Rings Online. Previously, I’ve worked on several different projects in LOTRO, including quest and encounter design for the Lich Bluffs region in Enedwaith. When we first began to look at a 'solofication' pass of the Volume 2 epic, our team knew that it would be quite the undertaking. We ended up breaking the task into two parts, with Jonathan “Berephon” Rudder changing the battle instances in Chapter 5 into Skirmishes, and with me working on the rest of the Volume 2. Following the breakdown of tasks, we then went about gathering feedback from internal and external sources regarding specific points in the epic which are particularly difficult to solo. To add to my own experience in attempting this content, the QA Department was kind enough to lend a good deal of feedback regarding the 'soloability' of the content using a wide array of classes and character compositions. This feedback was invaluable for evaluating problem points within Volume 2 and became indispensible as we proceeded to implement changes. Design Goals There were several overall design goals when undertaking the task: These specific design goals were addressed using a variety of different methods, which will be further explained in their own sections: Re-leveling Volume 2 Epic quests: One of the difficulties of our work environment is that several teams of content designers have varied responsibilities for the type of content that they are creating. During the implementation of the Volume 2 Epic and the Mines of Moria region development, there was a shift in the level spread of specific areas in Moria. Because of this, a few chapters of Volume 2 are not level appropriate for where they are placed. So in an effort to more accurately represent the challenge level of the quests, we changed the level of several chapters in Volume 2. Below is a listing of the quests that have been adjusted. Simplification of Quest Objectives: During the play-through of several Chapters, a small number of quests seemed disproportionately difficult to locate quest items for a variety of reasons. Several quests had low drop rates, some had poor quest tracker guidance, several were too difficult to navigate given the nature of the landscape, several had specific monsters that were a bit too difficult given their surroundings and, lastly, the travel time and the number of monsters between objectives was a little high. Due to all of these factors, a wide array of changes were made to several chapters. Below is a listing of several of the chapters, and the changes that were made. Redesigning several instance spaces for solo and duo play: One of the more daunting tasks involved with the 'solofication' of the Volume 2 Epic is that there are several pretty lengthy group dungeons that were included as part of the critical path. For each of the dungeons, I will try and give a brief explanation of what was done to the dungeon and the choices that were made during implementation. Please note while many of these experiences are able to be completed as a solo player, many of them allow you to duo the content as well. In conclusion Overall, I feel as though the changes made will allow a great number of players who previously could not proceed through the epic to see the rest of the story unfold. While some of these decisions will change how the epic is completed, I feel that we were able to maintain the integrity and creativity of the encounters while allowing a wider array of players to complete it. “Well, I got the instance done without begging in kin chat and GLFF for hours/days so I would say this is a hugely positive change.” -Feedback from a player in one of our playtests Bob “Maurath” Hess

About | Projects | Docs | Forums | Lists | Bugs | Get Gentoo! | Support | Planet | Wiki Anand Buddhdev posted <42D3A936.8060306@...>, excerpted below, on Tue, 12 Jul 2005 13:27:50 +0200: > I'm getting a new AMD64-based computer, and I'd like to run gentoo on it. > I have been doing a bit of reading about running linux on AMD64, and it > seems that in general, it's not a? Or was there a lot of frustration involved. I've used linux > and BSD systems for a long time, so I'm used to hacking, and I'm not > afraid to mess around with scripts and compilers. But I've reached a point > when I'd just like to be able to install a system, and have it work. >. > >? Wow! Where to start? ... Keep in mind that the following describes more the issues you might come across, than the good things, so it's going to seem FAR worse than it actually is. Going 32-bit is slightly easier, as you mention, altho 64-bit is getting more mainstream every day. 100% 32-bit mode uses the generally larger amd64 cache (normally 1M L3 cache, compared to perhaps half that on most 32-bit only processors), but doesn't make use of the other strengths of the amd64 architecture, the biggest one of which is probably the expanded number of hardware registers available in 64-bit mode. x86 has traditionally been a rather register-limited arch, and the amd64 CPUs in 32-bit mode remain so for compatibility reasons, so the additional registers only come into play in 64-bit mode. OTOH, for many things, unless you have more than 4G memory, 32-bit is quite enough and conserves resources a bit better. For that reason, on archs less register bound than x86(32), the switch to 64-bit mode often has more downside for many uses, than it does upside. x86_64, however, due to those extra registers only available in 64-bit mode and because x86(32) has always been register bound, with a fairly limited number of them, tends to swing the balance rather further in favor of 64-bit mode than with other archs -- 64-bit performance is often markedly better than 32-bit performance of the same source code on the exact same CPU and hardware, the only difference being whether it's compiled with -m32 or -m64, 32- or 64-bit. So... yes, I'd say that while possible, installing only 32-bit Linux on AMD64 is indeed wasting resources, to some extent. ... You've obviously been doing your research, and correctly found that the main issues tend to be in cases of binary-only releases of various plugins and codecs. If it's available in source-code form, it's generally available for use in 64-bit mode on amd64. The quote I have chosen for my sig pretty well gives my position on proprietary binary-only code in the first place, so the availability or lack thereof of 64-bit binary-only codecs and plugins is less of an issue for me than for many others, since I'd prefer not to have binary-only stuff on my computer in the first place. If it's not available in standardized form, playable with an open source product, there are other things I can be doing with my time anyway, and I'll just skip the proprietary stuff. Of course, I recognize that not everybody has the same strong opinions on the subject as I do. For these folks, it's useful to keep in mind that the x86_64 arch, amd64 and the Intel version, is the clear mainline successor to x86. Therefore, 32-bit-only binary-only codecs and plugins will be less and less of a problem, as eventually all popular software products, freedomware or proprietary, will have 64-bit versions as well. Now that 64-bit MSWormOS is out of beta (or soon to be, I no longer track MSWormOS close enough to be sure), 64-bit versions of the various codecs and plugins should be available fairly shortly, I'd guess. Before moving from the subject of 32-bit binary packages, I should also mention that OpenOffice.org has 64-bit issues, or at least the 1.x versions do. 2.x is supposed to work on amd64. However, note that due to its size and complexity, OOo is one of the few apps that even many hard-core Gentoo users prefer to merge the (32-bit) binary package of, rather than compiling their own copy themselves. Thus, as with firefox and mplayer (and their various codecs), the 32-bit OOo can be merged, only it's even MORE widely used and tested than the other bin-pkgs. Of course, you may or may not have reason to merge and use OOo anyway. I've found no need for the various Office suites, here, and if I did, since I use KDE on my desktop anyway, I'd probably try KOffice first. ... There's one other set of issues specific (in one sense, tho the general issue affects others) to /Gentoo/ amd64 (as opposed to Fedora or Mandriva or SuSE or whatever) that needs to be mentioned, the multilib thing, which Gentoo /currently/ treats a bit differently than most of the other distributions. On a dual-32/64-bitness arch, there are often two copies of various libraries needed, the 32-bit version and the 64-bit version. The method for how this is handled has come to be referred to as "multilib". The Linux Standard Base (LSB) / File Hierarchy Standard (FHS) standard solution uses two separate dirs, lib64/ (thus, /lib64/, /usr/lib64/, /usr/local/lib64/, etc) for the 64-bit libraries, reserving the traditional lib/ dirs (thus /lib/, /usr/lib/, etc) for 32-bit shared objects. (Note that shared objects, *.so.*, are the "libraries" of Linux, similar in function to the dynamic link libraries, *.dll, of MSWormOS, but being around Linux for awhile, you already knew that, I'm sure. This is just for others that may be following along. =8^) Gentoo similarly uses two separate dirs, but because Gentoo amd64 implemented them before the FHS standard defined the names for amd64, Gentoo took the opposite approach, reasoning that lib/ should contain the native bitness libraries, in this case the 64-bit libraries, with the 32-bit libraries in lib32/. The FHS version makes more sense for compatibility with existing 32-bit packages, particularly binary-only ones that may simply assume lib/ is 32-bit, while Gentoo's approach makes more sense (in the absolute, but see below) in an almost entirely 64-bit system, and moving forward to a time when 64-bit is mainlined. The problem for Gentoo is that when the LSB/FHS standard was defined, it /did/ become the standard. Packages now come from upstream with that assumption, and it's a lot of work, and becomes ever more work as 64-bit heads toward mainline, to continually patch everything to use the non-standard Gentoo locations. Individually, it's usually not much work at all, just supplying the proper configure option, but the work adds up over thousands of packages, and with the standard defined and amd64/x86_64 clearly going mainline, it's a lot of /unnecessary/ work, moving forward. Therefore, Gentoo amd64 is currently in the middle of a year or more process to safely reverse direction, moving 64-bit libs from lib to lib64 (almost done), and eventually, 32-bit libs from lib32 to lib. Currently, lib is usually a symlink to lib64, so 64-bit packages that haven't been fixed yet still work if they install to lib. (32-bit packages are handled a bit differently, as discussed below.) Another aspect of what amounts to the same issue -- how to treat what could be duplicate packages installed in both 32-bit and 64-bit mode -- is dependency tracking. Imagine what happens if the 32-bit and 64-bit dependency databases aren't kept separate. You go to emerge a 32-bit package, and it sees the 64-bit libs it needs are already merged, so it tries to merge, and fails because it's trying to link against 32-bit libraries that aren't there to link against! Even worse would be the possibility of merging 32-bit libraries when doing an update, then erasing the "old" 64-bit versions of the same libraries as unneeded! Obviously, this will NOT work, so 32-bit and 64-bit package dependency and current installation tracking must be kept separate. Unfortunately, current versions of portage, the Gentoo package management system, cannot directly handle this requirement. Portage-CVS is slated to get this ability (if it hasn't already been added) by the time it is released, but current versions are stuck having to work around the issue. There are a several different ways of managing things, depending on how many 32-bit packages you plan on installing. For certain core packages, currently gcc, glibc, and portage itself, the normal 2005.0 profile (which is multilib, not 64-bit only, tho that's a subprofile option) causes /both/ the 32-bit and 64-bit versions to be installed, so portage can continue to track just the single package. The rest of the 32-bit "system base" libraries are currently normally installed as 32-bit binary-only compatibility packages (emul-linux-x86-*). That's the base 32-bit compatibility installation. If you are only going to be installing binary-only 32-bit software such as games and the various codecs and plugins, this, and bin-packages such as mplayer32 if desired, are all one needs. If, with such an all-binary 32-bit installation you do decide to compile and install 32-bit stuff yourself, it's *HIGHLY* recommended that you do NOT use portage/emerge for doing so. Rather, procure the tarballs directly, and install "manually", resolving any 32-bit dependencies and installing them manually if necessary as well. Obviously, this will become a rather huge hassle rather quickly, however, if you have more than a couple 32-bit packages you want to compile from source. For those who have a large list of 32-bit packages they want to run, there's another option, the 32-bit chroot. The idea is to install a minimal 32-bit Gentoo installation, without system services such as syslog and cron and without a 32-bit kernel of course, but with all the usual libraries and the like, and pointedly, with its own 32-bit portage installation. Because it's in a chroot, this 32-bit portage installation will be entirely separate from the system-wide 64-bit portage, so the dependency tracking systems won't conflict with each other, and any arbitrary package in portage can be merged as 32-bit, without in any way affecting the system-wide 64-bit dependencies. Note that once this is setup, it's possible to add the chroot's library and bin dirs to the system-wide paths, and execute your 32-bit binaries system-wide, not just within the chroot. Obviously, for someone only merging one or two 32-bit packages, the chroot solution is a lot of unnecessary work, but not so much for someone doing many such packages, where the work of manually tracking dependencies would quickly become rather unmanageable. Thus, the different choices for different purposes. There's more documentation on the chroot option in the technotes and other locations, if you decide to go this route. Again, let me stress that this current less-than-ideal situation is temporary, and will be going away, once both the multilib and portage multi-bitness issues are resolved. In terms of timetable, that now looks to be targeted at the 2006.0 release. (It was hoped that it would be done for 2005.1 coming up shortly, but that appears unlikely, now, particularly for the portage multi-bitness dependency tracking stuff, as betas aren't out for the next version yet, meaning it couldn't go stable in time for the next release, 2005.1.) Again, as I said at the top, the reality isn't quite as bad as all the above surely makes it sound. In reality, most things "just work", with the caveat that you understand that 32-bit libraries won't work in 64-bit applications, and the reverse, which you've obviously already figured out from your own research, since you mentioned it. ... Now, some more general Gentoo newbie hints... Before you start your installation, READ THE GENTOO HANDBOOK!! The first section covers installation procedures and most folks read that as they are installing, but it pays to read it thru (for your chosen arch) first, getting an overview of what you will be doing, before you start. As you are doing so, figure out which stage install you plan to use. A stage-3 starts from a mostly bootstrapped system is initially faster to get up and running, but takes longer to get everything fully customized. A stage-1 install is initially slower and more complicated, but you end up knowing far more about how a Linux system works behind the scenes, when you are done. Here, computing is my hobby, not a job, and learning a primary purpose, so there was no question, I did a stage-1. In fact, I went even FURTHER than that, and took apart the bootstrap script and executed it step by step, manually. In doing so, I learned a LOT about the system I was building than I knew about Linux before, but it DID take me quite some time to do it.. For the portage tree and sources, you'll probably want 3G minimum, 5G or more if you use FEATURES=buildpkg (discussed below). As mentioned above, OOo is the largest package in terms of compilation space needed in portage, needing some 5G of scratch space to successfully compile. Again, you'll likely not be compiling it as even x86 folks often use the binary package for it, but that gives you an idea of the sort of scratch space normally required for /var/tmp/. (Here, I've changed both those settings from the default, keeping the portage tree in its own partition mounted in a different location, and telling portage to use /tmp/ for its work, rather than /var/tmp/, so it's possible to change both, but I'm giving you the default locations, above.) Another very useful hint for after the initial install, after you've started customizing your config files (/etc/* and the like). Do *NOT* just tell etc-update to go ahead and auto-merge all the new config files after an update (the negative options), without knowing EXACTLY what you are doing. FAR better to go thru each one individually, and see what it's going to change, then let it make the changes or not as desired, than to find out it killed your customizations on something critical like /etc/fstab! (With /etc/fstab itself, that's no longer a problem, as the package now updates fstab.example instead, but the problem caught MANY an unwary Gentoo newbie before they changed that behavior, and the issue still exists with other files.) Just exercise the usual caution you should exercise anyway when running as root, think about what a command will actually do before hitting that enter key, and you'll be fine. Fail to do so, and your failure will EVENTUALLY bite you! Of course, if you've been running BSDs and Linux for years, this idea won't be at all new to you, only the specifics as applied to etc-update. Before you do the install, however, as well as again afterward when you are actually ready to start working on your new system, I'd suggest reading the REST of the handbook as well. The working with Gentoo and working with Portage sections should be quite interesting to you coming from other distributions, as they are all about what makes Gentoo different from the others. Learning about how Gentoo's boot process and dependency ordering differs from the usual numbered init levels with numbered start and stop symlinks pointing to the appropriate scripts, the system most other distributions use, is both interesting and educational, or I certainly found it so, anyway. (Once you actually get a system up and start investigating, you'll find that in practice, the init levels are still there. Gentoo just lets you deal with them by name instead of number, if desired. However, the way Gentoo's boot scripts resolve boot-time dependencies is VERY fascinating!) Likewise with how portage works and the many ways to customize it. It was fascinating seeing how much more flexible it made things for the typical sysadmin, as compared to the typical rpm or deb package management system, yet how even with all that flexibility, it still managed to keep things simple and decently manageable, without confusion. By reading these things ahead of time, you'll understand far more about what makes Gentoo, Gentoo, and parts of the install that might otherwise seem entirely arbitrary will be instead entirely logical and natural. Reading it again as you actually start working with a running Gentoo, you'll find things just seem to naturally work the way you'd expect them to, where otherwise they'd seem just an arbitrary series of commands that didn't make a lot of sense. Of course, beyond the handbook, Gentoo has lots of additional documentation -- one of its strengths as compared to other distros. How to configure printing, how to configure your sound system, how to manage udev, all this and more the Gentoo documentation covers in Gentoo specific step-by-steps that other distributions lack. One other specific document I should mention: the Gentoo amd64 technotes. These explain most of the differences between x86 and amd64, both in what you can expect from the hardware, and in software. Last I looked, some of the technotes were a bit dated (they still referred to gcc-3.3 in the future, for instance), but it's still a very good overview, covering things like the 32-bit chroot option mentioned earlier, and the thing about OOo, as well as things like common hardware issues and what to do about them. I'll mention one important note specifically. BEFORE YOU INSTALL GENTOO AMD64, UPDATE YOUR BIOS from the manufacturer's web site. Even if the system is new, that doesn't mean it has the latest BIOS, and MANY have found that the troubles they initially had "magically" went away, when they installed the latest BIOS. Likewise, continue checking periodically for additional updates. I had the latest when I installed Gentoo, but additional BIOS updates since then have increased system stability and performance, rather more than I would have expected, in fact. The technotes can be a bit harder to find than the Gentoo Handbook and other documentation, so here's a direct link: (The technotes are also linked from the main project page at, which is easier to remember, and has some other information as well, but the link from there is harder to find, so I suggest bookmarking the direct link.) Another useful hint, about portage, this time. You'll understand the significance of this a bit more after reading the portage features chapter of the working with Gentoo section of the handbook, but setting FEATURES=buildpkg in make.conf causes portage to routinely build binary packages of everything it emerges. This can be very useful for several reasons. First, it's very helpful if you somehow break gcc, preventing emerging gcc again to fix the issue. =8^( If you have the binary package already built, it's a simple matter to remerge the binary package and have a working gcc again! =8^) If it was an upgrade that broke it, simply emerge the previous version's binary package rather than the newest! If portage itself breaks, that means you can't emerge stuff, but since the binary packages are simply tar.bz2 tarballs with a bit of additional metadata tacked onto the end, you can simply extract the portage binpkg tarball directly over your live filesystem, replacing the broken portage files with good versions, and be back in business! =8^) However, rescue functionality isn't the only thing binpkgs are good for. Additionally, it's easy to switch between versions to troubleshoot something or other, if necessary -- FAR easier than having to recompile an old version to see if that fixes whatever the problem is, then recompiling the new one again to get it back. Also, again, the binpkgs are simply tbz2 files with a bit of extra metadata at the end, so it's easy enough to go find a binpkg to see what a particular default config file looks like in it, as compared to your customized installed version, or whether a file that should exist but is missing, existed in the package as installed (and therefore as archived in the binpkg), so it got deleted later, or if it was missing in the installed version as well. Of course, I'm running ~amd64 (the ~ indicating unstable or testing), and in fact sometimes installing packages before they are even marked testing, testing them early, so all this troubleshooting ability is more useful here than it would be to an ordinary stable amd64 user, but it's always useful to have, none-the-less. So... hopefully that's all helpful and not too overwhelming... If you follow this list/group regularly (which I'd recommend, it's not so busy as to prevent it and ypu'll find useful information on what's ahead from time to time, even if the usual discussion isn't of interest to you), you'll find that yes, my replies are /often/ this long and detailed. .

Mileage: 36.6 and 54.5 January mileage: 445.4 Hours: 3:00 (plus 3:00 at the gym) yesterday and 4:30 today Temperature upon departure: 39 and 28 Precipitation: 1.61 inches!!! (All rain, all yesterday.) Last week, I received an e-mail from Stephanie at Olympus. She told me she had looked at my blog, enjoyed the cycling/photography concept, and just happened to have in mind the perfect camera for me: The Olympus Stylus 770 SW. She told me she would send me one, no strings attached ... I'm sure knowing that any blogger is going to brag publicly about free gear. But what she didn't know is that I already owned an older version of this exact camera, and had been abusing it quite heavily since April. Even after I told her so, she didn't withdraw her offer. "You'll like to new version," she told me. "This one is freezeproof." The sparkling new silver camera came in the mail on Thursday. Today I took it on its first ride. Not a bad day for a first shoot, and not a bad little camera. I don't have an memory card yet, and the internal memory limited me to 11 pictures. I decided this was a good thing, because I was aiming for a long ride, and I wanted to keep moving. Instead, I spent way too much time during my ride self-editing my photos. Definitely an amazing, beautiful day. Juneau had its first sunlight in nine days, coming off a string of some of the crappiest weather January can conjure. I've had people tell me they'd prefer cold winter rain to subzero temperatures. I can't even fathom that. Subzero, rare as it is here, brings all that crisp dry air and clear skies. Dress for it right, and this kind of weather is both comfortable and exciting. Rain and temperatures in the 30s, on the other hand, can only mean one thing to me as a cyclist: That I'm going to be really wet, and really miserable, and I'm eventually going to be really cold no matter what I do. Friday was one of those "put your head down and ride" kind of days. In continuously heavy rain, especially with the kind of flooding we get against the snowpack, it only takes about a half hour for my outer "waterproof" clothing barrier to be broken. After one hour, I'm soaked through and through. And that's the way I have to ride, in temperatures in the high 30s, a 15-20 mph wind and windchills hovering between 20 and 25, for as many hours as I can endure it. I can usually hold out about three hours without completely changing my clothing. But by the end of the ride, especially if I make a single stop or, as I did yesterday, slow for a while to talk to Geoff as he runs, I usually have to spend the last half hour of the ride racked with chills, hating every minute of my miserable existence. Maybe weeks of unbroken subzero temperatures would teach me differently, but until then, there is no weather I hate more than cold rain. But today! Today was exactly the shot I needed. Blazing sun and temps just cold enough to refreeze all the slop. I'm on day three of my current long training push ... exercising about five hours each in four consecutive days (a little short today, a little long yesterday.) Either way, it eats up a lot of time. Geoff is training at a similar level right now, and between us, we're putting in more than a full-time job's worth of hours in the selfish pursuit of fitness. We've had to make more and more concessions in the things we normally do just to clear up the time. One of the things we've given up is grocery shopping. I thought it was pretty funny when I was eating frozen ravioli two nights in a row and spooning peanut butter out of a jar for lunch. But I think we've both started to run a bit of a calorie deficit (go figure ... keeping food out of the house is a good way to go on a diet.) I stood on the scale at the gym yesterday and learned I weigh five pounds less than I did at this time last year. No necessarily a bad thing, but I was just beginning to think that a little extra pudge might even pay off during the Ultrasport. Because there's no way I'll avoid running a calorie deficit in that event, and it's not like I'll even notice a little extra junk in the trunk once I slog out there with 60 pounds of bike and gear. This is the excuse I've drummed up to hit the ice cream ... if only we had some. But where was I? Oh yes, the Stylus 770 SW. I had great fun with it on this sunny, beautiful day. Miles and miles of rubbing up against Power Bars in my pocket has scratched my old Olympus's viewing screen to the point of abstraction. This camera's screen was crystal clear. I am excited to test out its "freezeproof" claims. I already know it's basically bombproof. In August, I inadvertently used my old camera to break a rather rocky fall off my mountain bike, landing directly on the hip pocket that held the camera. I put a gouge in the casing nearly a millimeter deep, but the camera didn't even flicker. The Stylus 770 SW is waterproof, too. It's definitely not a top-of-the-line, professional camera. But I think pro cameras really aren't practical for cyclists. Cyclists need something small, something simple, and something that can endure a 15-foot huck off a gnarly cliff and still take pictures at the bottom. If National Geographic ever comes knocking, I'll go buy something with a zoom lens. This little point-and-shoot Stylus really is the perfect camera for me. I'm not just being a shill by saying that. I bought the same camera long before Olympus volunteered to sponsor my blog efforts. Does a comped camera make me a sponsored photographer? I guess this is my blog, so I say it does. Be sure to click on the Olympus logo in the sidebar. Yeah Olympus! 22 comments: the website claims is freeze proof to -14 f. shock proof at 5 ft, water proof to 33 ft, crush proof to 220lbf. not bad for a little camera. And it means more wonderful pictures. Dont get me wrong i like your writing, but i LOVE your pictures. You didn't need a new camera - the pictures you were taking with the old one were great! I have an Olympus Evolt 500 dSLR and LOVE it. It makes taking great pictures easy. I just happened upon your blog this morning and I've been reading posts all day. Thank you for showing us some wonderful pictures and opening yourself up to strangers (all the way across the world - I'm currently in Bosnia). I use a plastic cover that protects the writing suface of my Palm device to save the display from scratching. Keep up the fine work. JT from S.F. Jill, that's great news. Your older Olympus was excellent, and this new one continues that tradition. So far the photos are superb, sharpness good, color GREAT. It's really the perfect camera for you. About the cold weather limits, the website says +14 but I believe they are being conservative because because of their specs regarding shockproofing. After all, if you were to drop the camera at -14, (or colder) the damn thing might shatter into sparkly little pieces. So it will work in colder temps, but I wouldn't let it fall onto a frozen lake. Battery issues are another issue. You have one month to get fat, or at least put on a little extra insulation. You might want to eat more meat rather then ice cream. Sugar buzzed headaches won't do you any good, and will probably mess up your sleep too. Just say no to Diabetic Coma's. Say, we've got your Alaska weather here in the mid-west (as you've heard from Vito and others) Why don't you buzz on down for some 50 below fun? North of Chicago, it's a mear six below zero this morning but sunny, so I'm going to head out for a short jaunt. I know I will return home frozen to the bone and in AWE of your upcoming adventure. You, Geoff and the others in the race are downright ... well, crazy but in the best sense of that word. Wishing you all the best~ dave Free stuff good! I like the shockproof feature. I've dropped my camera a few times. It didn't come out of it unscathed. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better. You're one of the best. Keep feeding me the eye candy. I'm hooked. Frozen ravioli? Peanut butter? Jill, your mother Knows it? Seriosly, the first thing you have to do to cicly so much is eat well! Congrats on the camera! I've been using the Olympus all-weather cameras for years. I started out with a film one, then I had the digital 410. Now I have a 750. None of them are as bomb proof as the 770 but all 3 of them are still working. I haven't taken any big falls on them although the 410 has a gouge in the case. I always say I'd rather take pictures of great places with a camera I can put in my pocket than great pictures of the boring places I'm willing to drag a big, fancy camera. Wow. I'm impressed. That company is smart to let you show off what the camera can do. Thanks for the demonstrations. I blog up in Fairbanks and I need a new camera for my outdoor adventures. Indoor, too. What I want to know is, does it take good close ups? I really enjoyed your photos once again. What is the glove accessibility factor of the camera? Is it easy to use with mits? Great photos. Can I save them im my pc? I`m from Cape Verde and I believe the real thing it`s amazing. solid! I just got that camera a few weeks ago too. it's my 4th olympus. I tested it out its waterproofness yesterday while kayaking. works as advertised! keep the good pics coming... Congratulations, Jill!!! Way to go Olympus!!! I know what I'll be looking for next year when I'll be buying a new camera! Thanks for the great blog and pictures, Jill! Mellan :) Congrats Jill, well deserved! A good knock-around P&S is worth a lot and your pics are awesome. I like my 'it-shall-remain-nameless P&S camera'. Last spring I was pre-riding the Koko with jj forging ahead of me. As the sun rose I spotted a great shot and while still riding, pulled the camera out. I managed to take some no hands on the handlebar pics just before the front wheel hit a rut and I was unceremoniously thrown to the ground. The still 'On' camera leaped from my hands and landed with a puff in ankle deep dust and sand about 20 feet away. Ugh! I used that camera today. One half of the lens cover doesn't ever close but it still works great otherwise! Ed Jill, the camera is nice to get ... but remember it's not about the camera. I've been teaching high school photography for 15 years and the best work is always due to the eye, not the camera. Now after saying that, I'm still thankful you received it, and it will make you a better photographer! Your success can be attributed to your hard work. By the way, I like how you shoot into the sun. Beautiful pictures and great camera. oh, those pictures are so beautiful! that camera is amazing. Wild...I have been leaning toward the very same Olympus model to stash in my pocket during mountain biking and snowboarding. Basically, I don't think I'd ever dish out as much abuse as you do, so if it works for you, I'm sure it will work for me. Why don't you just email back that Olympus chick and tell her that "free camera" she sent has tipped the scale for a blog reader to buy one! Thank you, all! I really am an advocate of this camera, and have been since I accidentally dropped it into a shallow end of Dredge Lake in June (this was before the crushing mountain bike fall I took in August.) It really does take quality true-to-color and true-to-light pictures, especially for its size, price and perks. I think it's a 7.1 megapixel. Theresa, I would say its close-up potential is typical of autofocus point-and-shoots. Stand any closer than four feet from your subject, and the image will begin to look fuzzy. But not bad. I think a good example is the picture I took of my cat a few days back. I was holding the camera about two feet over her at the time. This was with my old camera, but I imagine the new one performs about the same. Also, there's not much zoom. The digital zoom is only a path to pixelation, and the manual zoom doesn't go too far. I think this has been obvious in all of my wildlife shots, where the animals look like little black dots. But I think that's forgivable in a bombproof camera like this. It's like that old adage about the dancing bear ... the amazing thing is that the bear dances, not that it dances well. Thanks, Jill. I really appreciate the feedback. Your blog is rocking. Love the pics and descriptions of your cycling adventures. Makes me wanna get some fat cat tires. Hopefully my son will be a cycling fool this summer, now that he's four. I'm coming out of lurk mode to say those are some spectacular photos. I wish I had blogger friends like Steph. :P Returning to the shadows to continue enjoying the blog. ;) Hello Jill, Your picture of Auke Lake and your stories of winter biking made me soooo homesick. I grew up in Juneau and used to love to ride my motocross motorcycle in the winter. We used to put long wood screws through the "knobs" on our "knobbie" tires then ride on the ice on Auke Lake. We would be going flat out at about 60+ MPH then gradually lean into a corner, crank on the gas and keep leaning until the wheels slid out from under us. Then hold on tight and hold the bike so that nothing caught. At that speed you can imagine the thrill and the sensation of sliding across the ice engulfed in flying snow. Amazingly, we never did get hurt. One guy's motorcycle fell through the thin ice one time though. It was close to the shore. He actually went and got a rope and dove in and hooked the bike and we pulled it out. Thanks for your blog which triggered some great memories. Victor Paulson

Camara Mathis is a name you should know. She not only is the daughter of famous judge, Greg Mathis, but she is one of the founders of Edge Magazine. I had the opportunity to sit down with Camara, and really dig deep into what Edge Magazine was all about. I can see her passion and dedication to help young individuals achieve their goals and dreams in life. Take a look at this interview I did with Camara, and find out what it means to be on EDGE: Ari The Heiress: You started an online magazine called, Edge Magazine! How did this project come about? What made you want to start a magazine? Camara: I started Edge magazine with two of my friends Iman Milner and Ashley Nguyen. We noticed how the internet was saturated with gossip blogs and negativity geared towards our generation. There aren’t many magazines or blogs that highlight the achievement of young minorities so we decided to create our own. We want Edge Magazine to be a platform for people who are succeeding in everything from the entertainment industry to humanitarian efforts. Ari The Heiress: I was so honored to be featured in the first issue, along with many other talented people. Every story was inspiring and motivating. Will every edge mag contain stories of young people “making it” in different arenas? Camara: Yes, our goal is to make every issue inspiring, witty, creative and uplifting. We are releasing our next issue December 1st and our new features are just as driven and motivating as the people in our current issue. There are so many people that go unnoticed from music producers to fashion designers Edge is working to change that. We have a lot of new things in line for December. Above: Camara Mathis, Tyler James Williams (Everybody Hates Chris), and I at my Encounter 2010 Youth Conference! Ari The Heiress: What are two principles an Edge reader needs to “Make It” in their career? Camara: As an Edge reader you need to believe in yourself, appreciate every journey in life and go after your biggest dream no matter how big it is. Ari The Heiress: Why is it important to join, visit, and indulge yourself with Edge Mag? Camara: As we say frequently tweet: Be Inspired, Be inspirational, Be on the Edge. The magazine is a platform showcasing success. It applauds people who have achieved some of their goals and gives up and coming artist a chance to showcase their talent. We also have the U.On.Edge section which allows readers to submit videos telling us what inspires them and we will continuously update the style, awareness, and love and relationship columns. When you indulge yourself into Edge Magazine you are not only being inspired you are helping to inspire and encourage others. Ari The Heiress: I know your going to law school soon! Which is awesome. How will you balance law school and doing Edge Magazine? What advice would you give to someone going to school, and doing their career at the same time? Camara: Law school starts this week and the assignments have already started to pour in! I believe that with good time management I can do anything. ( Basically no tv or social networks for the next three years of my life lol ) I’m excited for the challenge of school and the growth of Edge Magazine my two business partners are dedicated, creative and ambitious so I know this is just the beginning. Just stopping by to say Live, Love and Laugh Often! Keep up the awesome work, and may God continue to bless and keep you! Mother Spitfire

Cats lay an egg against Oregon It was the worst possible outcome. The Wildcat football team played well for a quarter but were inept in the redzone and fell 49-0 to No. 3 Oregon. Matt Scott had a rough outing against Oregon. Arizona needed to play a near perfect game to have a chance to beat Oregon, but did just the opposite. They committed five turnovers, two that went for scores, and could do nothing with the three Oregon turnovers. Arizona was 0-6 in the redzone. They dropped snaps, had kicks blocked and failed to convert on fourth downs. Matt Scott was off and looked tight. He made bad decisions and bad throws. When he was making good decisions, he had passes dropped. He was 22-44 for 210 yards and a trio of picks. He only rushed for nine yards, carrying just five times. It appeared as if Arizona refused to run the read option in fear that Scott might get hit. The lack of a running game also killed the Wildcats. They averaged less than three yards rushing in the first half, with Wildcat running backs averaging less than 1.5 yards a carry. Although they surrendered 49 points, the defensive game plan was solid. The Ducks had just 13 points in the first half and allowed just four offensive touchdowns. In typical Oregon fashion, the Ducks got hot in the second half and seemed to be running downhill over the final 30:00. The sad thing for Wildcat fans, is that the team looked like the better squad during the first quarter. They got the ball at the Oregon 35 and karched down to the Oregon four. The Cats settled for a field goal and the snap was a touch inside and punter Kyle Dugandzic failed to reel it in and the field goal attempt was thwarted. The next two Wildcat possessions were much of the same. Scott threw a pick in the endzone after the Cats got great field position thanks to an Oregon fumble. The next time the Wildcats faced fourth and goal at the two. Rich Rodriguez tried to call a timeout, but no one acknowledged the wish and Scott was stuffed on a quarterback keeper. The Wildcats now have to rebound. The fanbase will likely sour a bit, but the Cats have to host 2-0 Oregon State next week and cannot spend time likcing their wounds. They traded punches with the Ducks for 20 minutes, now they need to deliver haymakers for 60. The season is hardly lost, but they need to come back. They need to realize they blew opportunities against a top-3 team and need to learn from it. - Brad Allis - Arizona Insider - WildcatSportsReport - Already have an account? Sign In

Gambo: From No-No to Go-Go Originally published: Jul 30, 2010 - 3:08 pm The Diamondbacks traded Edwin Jackson Friday to the Chicago White Sox for two pitching prospects: right-hander Daniel Hudson and left-hander David Holmberg. Both Hudson and Holmberg were rated among the top 10 prospects in the White Sox organization. That Arizona traded Jackson is no surprise; that they got two solid prospects back for him and don't have to pay any of his remaining salary is. Jackson was a major disappointment for the D-backs this year and is on the books for $8.3 million next season. He is nothing more than a dime a dozen pitcher. He is 6-10 with an ERA of 5.16. Not very good. There is a reason that Jackson is on his fifth team already in his brief major league career, and that is because nobody thinks enough of him to want to keep him. Jackson is easily replaceable, which Hudson will do for the remainder of the season. Going forward the Diamondbacks rotation for the rest of this year and possibly next year will look like this: Joe Saunders, Ian Kennedy, Rodrigo Lopez, Daniel Hudson and Barry Enright. In the system they will have Tyler Skaggs, Jarrod Parker, David Holmberg and Patrick Corbin. Skaggs, Holmberg and Corbin are all left-handed. Clearly the D-backs are rebuilding, but they have added quality pitching and depth to their system while moving $21 plus million in salary in the last week. These are things you need to do when you are on pace for 100 losses. When you factor in the loss of salary from Haren, Jackson, Eric Byrnes, Conor Jackson, Brandon Webb and Bob Howry and add in the increases of $21 million being doled out to players currently on the team for next year's payroll, the D-backs will have roughly $54 million committed to the 2011 salary. Arizona expects to have a payroll of around $65 million next season, so barring any other moves they will have approximately $10 million to spend on a closer and some other pieces. Octavio Dotel could be an option at closer for next season with some of that money. The D-backs also are actively trying to move Chad Qualls and Chris Snyder. Qualls has drawn some interest from Colorado and the New York Yankees, Snyder from Pittsburgh and Toronto. So, even with two big moves already in the books, the D-backs may not be done yet.

In partnership with CBSSports.com Online Now 110 41 hours ago - They like the fact that h 19 hours ago - Austin's invite to Sailer Started by: R Turbeville Hawgs247 » Hawg Heaven 22 hours ago - Just added this Swedish h 19 hours ago - And moves well. Looks pre David Hedelin came to the United States last s... ... Tulsa today, per Coach Chris Wood. What are the 4 former Razorback Football greats that have played in this century that would grace your Mt. Rushmore? Mine would be 1.... Started by: PigDaddyCrunk Arkansas not on the list he tweeted out late last night. He's planning to visit Auburn, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama, Baylor, Ohio State and... 21 hours ago - Started by: Otis Kirk Started by: Chris Nee Saw his pic in the ADG this morning, is he Tom Pagnozzi's son? And if so did Tom name him after Andy Van Slyke? He appears to be almost un... Started by: Horatiohog New time today on Sports Night -- or at least a longer segment with me. I'll be on the show -- which is carried by the Sports Animal 920 in ... Named one of the Top 30 underclassmen by NUC. He's ranked No. 8 on NUC president David Schuman's list and No. 22 on national analyst Barry ... Aaron Medley, one of the top kickers a... ... yesterday, Grossmont College CB Kweishi Brown, just messaged me on Facebook and said Arkansas has offered. He said he was a little confu... Thought this was pretty cool, from Houston Kinkaid Coach Stephen Hill re. TE Mavin Saunders and Arkansas. This makes the fifth or sixth HS c... you to give him one team outside the SEC you would most want the Hogs to play in a home-and-home series in football who would it be? Started by: Otis Kirk Pages: 1 | 2 I just don't see how he doesn't get a look at RB very early on in camp. I think he is better than Evans and Nate Holmes as well. I mean he... LOL...all I can say is wow. Started by: Natasha Tucker And why? For me, it's probably Josh Frazier. I know everyone in Arkansas would like him a whole lot more if he when ahead and committed t... Kweishi Brown, who spent two years ... Three of the Natural State's own are trying out for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleading Squad! I thought I'd pass along a couple of photos of eac... Started by: DaltonPerson 3 days ago - Florida assistant: Nick S 3 days ago - 3 days ago - The much anticipated (by 3 days ago - [roflmao] Well said. 3 days ago - Russellville gal trying t 3 days ago - I don't see him making a 3 days ago - As Otis and I were talkin Mike Rogers, a fast-rising safety fr... 4 days ago - David Deets Named Master 3 days ago - The other side of the sto 4 days ago - One of the few teams in p 3 days ago - Umm ... [hammer] He is a Philadelphia Eagle UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS BASEBALL Baseball sets record for average attendance in 2013 FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas baseball team s... 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We were supposed to be at a golf tournament today in Bella Vista and Bret Bielema was going to talk to the media at 12:15,but it's canceled ... 247Sports In partnership with CBS Sports

. 103 Reader Comments The bug lets someone random who has physical access to your computer change your facetime/iTunes/AppleID password. It doesn't let people you call hack your account. Seriously. This, incidentally, is why I'm never an early adopter: the extremely high likelihood of a bone-headed oversight in the initial release. The bug lets someone random who has physical access to your computer change your facetime/iTunes/AppleID password. It doesn't let people you call hack your account. Aye. Also any mention of how to properly uninstall the beta? I know it's more then just Facetime.app, it seems to add a service daemon for itself to accept calls when the main app isn't running. - CG (Though frankly it feels more like an alpha to me). Last edited by dvessel on Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:34 am It's Apple. Don't worry your pretty little head about it. Just use it and be happy. Seems almost like that's what this article assumes is the case. No? Most people don't normally let down their guard in that way? Then perhaps the title of the article should be: "FaceTime for Mac opens giant Apple ID security hole if the Mac user does something cataclysmically idiotic ". But, that's way too wordy. Seriously, it is a poor security design to allow this to happen, but I just don't see it being exploited as anything but extremely rare. Is the password blacked out at least? Is Command-C disabled in the field? Now that I know it exists, I'll be watching for anyone leaving their Mac unattended... say in Starbucks or someplace... It should only take a few seconds and even if they see me from across the room.... Last edited by fitten on Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:39 am If there is a real exploit or security hole please let us know, in the meantime stop the alarmist rubbish. I think this article should CLEARLY state that what was 'released' yesterday is a BETA, not the actual released software. I think it's generally understood (at least amongst people savvy enough to be reading Ars) that running beta software has risks associated with it. ... Seriously, it is a poor security design to allow this to happen, but I just don't see it being exploited as anything but extremely rare. You should not underestimate the criminal potential and dormant creativity of people. As opposed to rummaging around your Apple account and buying music on your account. If my usual trips to local coffeehouses/delis are any indication, yes. A lot. I expect several things out of beta software: I expect it to crash. I expect it to hang. I expect performance to be poor at odd times. I expect certain functionality to not work. I expect downtime. What I do NOT expect is for beta software to compromise a production account. The second you release software that can compromise a real, existing account, beta or not, you need to re-evaluate your release process and your security auditing. There's multi-hundred dollar apps on iTunes, local user access means that local programs will also have the ability to alter those settings (especially if it's not access / password controlled), and 'local user' access is pretty easy to obtain. (versus local root, or remote root). Er.. yeah. They already have HANDS on hardware to do this, so you are fucked anyways. If that hadn't happened, I assume that this problem could have been mitigated by going into Keychain Access and adjusting the Access Control settings for FaceTime's Keychain entries -- or by simply deleting those entries. They already have HANDS on hardware to do this, so you are fucked anyways. Wrong there, bro. This isn't about hacking your local machine (yes, hands on the hardware in all), it's about hacking your apple account, which is remote, stored on Apple's servers. So yes, if someone has physical access to your computer, it's not secure, but this is about more than that. Anyway, it's a beta. Everyone knows that security features aren't released until the first service pack. :-) (Though frankly it feels more like an alpha to me). Well you got something right.. this is why we have pre-Alphas.. There is absolutely no excuse to have such a gapping security hole in a beta release. If this were an Enterprise software beta release that my company was testing, we would not be buying it. (Though frankly it feels more like an alpha to me). Design issues like this should never make it into code, much less be shipped as a beta. Yes, because FaceTime stores the password. The attacker can prevent this from happening by logging in via another program (or even his/her own computer) and changing the password a second time... I assume there are methods to reset the password via email, etc., but that simple change makes it not quite so trivial anymore. But it is a very widely publicized "come and try this" beta that virtually anyone with a mac who read about yesterday's event would be inclined to try. And as is so often pointed out, a large percentage of college kids have mac laptops. In the dorms where they live. One of the most insecure environments I ever lived in. And it gives acces to an account hooked to a credit card. This is a major goof, and there is no defending it. If there is a real exploit or security hole please let us know, in the meantime stop the alarmist rubbish. +1 on this comment. in other words, all your data is accessible to a user of your account if you let them use the account. kinda like every computer, always. this is not a security hole in the app - it's a realization that all those things that let you login once, keep your password, and auto-apply it for you (ie, every web browser with password-completion), can be used by other people who use your computer. and while i agree in principle that this could be a bit more 'secure', it's not a hole - physical security and unattended use of your stuff is the real issue, and unless apple ships a thuggish goon with your laptop to protected it at all times, it's your own responsibility to keep it physically safe, to password protect access to the account, and a screen-saver which requires authentication to unlock. all features that apple *does* provide. (Though frankly it feels more like an alpha to me). Design issues like this should never make it into code, much less be shipped as a beta. This. The UI is absolutely awful: submit buttons at the top of forms not the bottom, all kinds of weird error messages and a completely unintuitive layout. A complete pile of crap.

Abstract Introduction Chemokine receptors play an important role in mediating the recruitment of T cells to inflammatory sites. Previously, small proportions of circulating Th1-type CCR5+ and Th2-type CCR3+ cells have been shown in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Wondering to what extent CCR4 and CCR6 expression could also be implicated in T cell recruitment. Introduction T cells display considerable heterogeneity in terms of phenotype, function, and anatomical distribution. Whereas naïve T cells represent a relatively homogenous population, primed T cells acquire effector functions and differentiate into distinct effector and memory subsets. Whereas naïve and central memory T cells home to secondary lymphoid organs to mount antigen-driven proliferative responses, effector memory T cells migrate into peripheral tissues to display immediate effector functions such as cytokine production or cytotoxicity or both [1,2]. The process of T cell recruitment from blood into tissue is controlled by adhesion molecules, in which chemokine receptors have an important role [2]. Previously, we showed that a small proportion of circulating memory T cells displays T-helper cell 1 (Th1)-type CC chemokine receptor (CCR) 5 and Th2-type CCR3 expression in granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) [3]. GPA is a rare chronic inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology and is characterized by necrotizing granulomatosis of the upper or lower respiratory tract or both and a systemic autoimmune vasculitis preferentially affecting pulmonary and renal small vessels. The vasculitis is associated with highly specific anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies to proteinase 3 (PR3-ANCA) [4]. T cells are abundant in inflammatory lesions in GPA. CCR5, CCR3, and their chemokine ligand CCL5 (regulated upon activation in normal T cells, expressed and secreted, or RANTES) are expressed in granulomatous lesions of the respiratory tract. These studies suggested that CCR5 and CCR3 could be involved in the recruitment of interferon-gamma (IFNγ)-producing and tumor necrosis factor-alpha-producing Th1- and interleukin (IL)-4-producing Th2-type cells to inflammatory sites in GPA [5-7]. More recently, IL-17-producing PR3-specific Th17 cells have been implicated in the maintenance of chronic inflammation and autoimmunity in GPA [8-10]. CCR4+ T cells have been reported to secrete IL-4, whereas CCR6+ cells produce IL-17 [11,12]. To investigate the extent to which the chemokine receptors CCR4 and CCR6 could be implicated in T-cell recruitment in GPA, we analyzed CCR4 and CCR6 expression on circulating T cells, assigned CCR4- and CCR6-expressing cells to the respective memory cell subsets, and determined the cytokine production of CCR4+ and CCR6+ T cells. Materials and methods Study population Patients fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology criteria and the Chapel Hill Consensus Conference definition for GPA, respectively [13,14]. Disease activity was recorded in accordance with European League Against Rheumatism recommendations (Table 1) [15]. All patients and controls provided informed consent. The study was approved by the local ethics committee (#07-059). Antibodies used for flow cytometry The following antibodies were used in different combinations: Pacific blue (PB)-conjugated anti-CD3, PB- or phycoerythrin (PE)-conjugated anti-CD4, peridinin chlorophyll protein (PerCP)- or allophycocyanine-cyanine dye 7 (APC-Cy7)-conjugated anti-CD8, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated anti-CD45RA, Alexa Fluor 647-conjugated anti-CCR7, PE-Cy7- and PE-conjugated anti-CCR4, PE-conjugated anti-CCR6, APC-Cy7-conjugated anti-IFNγ, PE-Cy7-conjugated anti-IL-4, and Alexa Fluor 488-conjugated anti-IL-17a from eBioscience (Frankfurt, Germany) and APC-conjugated anti-IL-22 from R&D Systems (Wiesbaden, Germany). Appropriate isotype controls were included in the experimental setup. All antibodies (unless indicated otherwise) were purchased from BD Biosciences (Heidelberg, Germany). Surface marker and intracellular cytokine staining Flow cytometry was performed to characterize T cell populations at the single-cell level. Staining of cellular surface markers was performed by using freshly collected whole blood (Li-heparin) as described earlier [3]. Briefly, previously determined optimal concentrations of fluorochrome-conjugated monoclonal antibodies for cell surface antigens were added to 100 μL of whole blood and incubated 45 minutes in the dark at 4°C. Subsequently, erythrocytes were lysed by the addition of FACS (fluorescence-activated cell sorting) Lysing Solution (BD Pharmingen, Heidelberg, Germany). After incubation for another 10 minutes in the dark at room temperature, cells were washed twice with phosphate-buffered saline/0.01% bovine serum albumin and immediately analyzed by FACS. For intracellular cytokine staining, freshly collected whole blood was stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate (Sigma, Munich, Germany) (10 ng/mL) and ionomycin (Sigma) (1 μg/mL) for 4 hours at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO2. Brefeldin (Sigma) (10 μg/mL) was added at the beginning of the stimulation to inhibit cytokine secretion. After staining for surface antigens and lysing of erythrocytes with FACS Lysing Solution, cells were fixed and permeabilized with Cytofix/Cytoperm in accordance with the instructions of the manufacturer (BD Pharmingen). Staining of intracytoplasmatic cytokines was performed at 4°C for 45 minutes in the dark with previously determined optimal concentrations of fluorochrome-conjugated monoclonal antibodies for cytokines or appropriate negative (isotype) controls. Besides appropriate isotype controls, an unstimulated sample was included for each patient and control as a negative control. Flow cytometric analysis Multicolor flow cytometric analysis was performed on a FACS Canto II cytometer by using FACSDiva software (BD Biosciences). Lymphocytes were gated for analysis on the basis of light scattering properties and of CD3, CD4, and CD8 staining. Positively and negatively stained populations were calculated by quadrant dot plot analysis determined by isotype controls. Statistical analysis Statistics were performed by using Prism 4.0 (GraphPad Software, La Jolla, CA, USA). Comparisons between patients and control subjects were done by employing the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test. P values equal to or less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Results Increased frequency of CCR4- and CCR6-expressing CD4+ T cells in granulomatosis with polyangiitis To assess CCRs relevant for migration to peripheral tissues, we determined the expression of the CCR4 and CCR6 on peripheral blood T cells in patients with GPA and healthy controls. We found a significant increase in the percentages of CCR4- and CCR6-expressing cells within the total CD4+ T cell population in patients with GPA compared with healthy individuals (Figure 1a, b). Apart from the CCR4+CCR6- and CCR4-CCR6+ 'single positive' subsets, a smaller fraction of CCR4+CCR6+ 'double positive' cells was detected within the CD4+ T cell population in patients with GPA and healthy controls (17.5% ± 4.8% versus 10.3% ± 0.6%, mean ± standard error of the mean, no significant difference, Mann-Whitney U test). Conversely, the remainder of cells within the CD4+ T-cell population were CCR4-CCR6- 'double negative' cells. In contrast, there was no difference in the percentages of CD8+CCR4+ and CD8+CCR6+ T cells between patients with GPA and healthy controls (data not shown). Figure 1. Increased frequencies of CD4+CCR4+ and CD4+CCR6+ T cells in patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Percentages of CCR4+ (a) and CCR6+ (b) cells within the total CD4+ T cell population in patients with GPA and healthy controls (HCs). Percentages of positive cells were assessed by flow cytometry. Values are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean. ***P < 0.001, Mann-Whitney U test. CCR, CC chemokine receptor. CCR4 and CCR6 are expressed on distinct memory cell populations, including CCR7+CD45RAmed very early memory cells Having shown a significant increase in the frequencies of CCR4- and CCR6-expressing CD4+ T cells in patients with GPA, we were interested in phenotypic features of CCR4- and CCR6-expressing CD4+ T cells next. To assign CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells to the respective naïve and memory cell subsets, cells were additionally stained with fluorescent-conjugated antibodies for CD45RA and CCR7 to allow discrimination into diverse T cell subsets [2,16-18]. By the use of these markers, we found that CCR4 and CCR6 expression was confined largely to the circulating CCR7+CD45RA- central memory (TCM) and CCR7-CD45RA- (TEM) and CCR7-CD45RA+ (TEMRA) effector memory cell subsets within the total CD4+ T cell population. A significant increase in the frequency of CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells was remarkable in the CCR7-CD45RA+ effector memory (TEMRA) subset in patients with GPA. A significant increase in CCR6+ cells was also found in the CCR7+CD45RA- central memory T-cell subset (TCM). However, significantly increased percentages of CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells were also detected in the CCR7+CD45RA+ population, which contains naïve T cells (TN) by definition (Figure 2a, b). Dissecting the CCR7+CD45RA+ population with respect to CD45RA fluorescence intensity, we detected two subsets in the CCR7+CD45RA+ population. CCR7+CD45RAhigh T cells generally lacked CCR4 and CCR6 expression with the exception of three patients with GPA. In contrast, CCR7+CD45RAmed T cells displayed CCR4 and CCR6 expression. We found higher frequencies of CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells within the CCR7+CD45RAmed T cell subset in patients with GPA compared with healthy controls (Figure 2c, d). Thus, the CCR7+CD45RA+ population contained genuine CCR7+CD45RAhigh TN lacking CCR4 and CCR6 expression and another CCR7+CD45RAmed T cell subset comprising CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells. The latter was reminiscent of so-called very early memory T cells (TVEM) [19]. Figure 2. Increased percentages of CCR4+ and CCR6+ memory T cell subsets in patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Percentages of CD4+CCR4+ (a) and CD4+CCR6+ (b) T cells in the CCR7+CD45RA- central memory (TCM), CCR7-CD45RA- effector memory (TEM), CCR7+CD45RA+ 'naïve by definition' (TN), and CCR7-CD45RA+ 'revertant' effector memory (TEMRA) populations. (c) Dissection of the CD4+CCR7+CD45RA+ population with regard to CD45RA fluorescence intensity into CCR7+CD45RAhigh cells representing genuine TN and CCR7+CD45RAmed cells reminiscent of very early memory T cells (TVEM). Percentages of CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells in the CCR7+CD45RAmed and CCR7+CD45RAhigh subsets are shown. (d) Representative quadrant dot-plot analysis showing segregation of the gated CD4+CCR7+CD45RA+ T cell population into two subsets. CCR7+CD45RAmed T cells displayed CCR4 and CCR6 expression (TVEM). CCR7+CD45RAhigh T cells lacked CCR4 and CCR6 expression (genuine TN). Numbers in quadrants and histograms represent percentages of cells. Percentages of positive cells were assessed by flow cytometry. Values are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001, Mann-Whitney U test. CCR, CC chemokine receptor; HC, healthy control. Decreased frequency of CCR7+CD45RAhigh naïve T cells and unreduced frequency of CCR7+CD45RAmed very early memory T cells in granulomatosis with polyangiitis Earlier studies have reported significantly lower percentages of peripheral blood TN by using CCR7 and CD45RO or CD45RB expression for the phenotypic characterization of T cells in patients with GPA [20,21]. In this study, we showed a segregation of the CCR7+CD45RA+ T cell compartment into different two subsets based on CCR4 and CCR6 expression and CD45RA fluorescence intensity. This prompted us to investigate whether TN and TVEM frequencies were likewise decreased within the total CD4+ T-cell population. In line with the aforementioned earlier studies, we found a significantly lower percentage of CCR7+CD45RAhigh TN in patients with GPA compared with healthy controls [20,21]. In contrast, CCR7+CD45RAmed TVEM frequencies were similar in patients with GPA and healthy individuals (Figure 3). Figure 3. Decreased frequency of naïve T cells (TN) and unreduced frequency of very early memory T cells (TVEM) in patients with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). Percentages of CCR7+CD45RAmed TVEM and CCR7+CD45RAhigh TN in the CD4+ T cell population are shown. Percentages of positive cells were assessed by flow cytometry. Values are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean. **P < 0.01, Mann-Whitney U test. CCR, CC chemokine receptor; HC, healthy control. Distinct cytokine-producing subsets within CCR4+ and CCR6+ T-cell populations We showed increased frequencies of circulating CCR4- or CCR6-expressing (or both) CD4+ TCM, TEMRA, and TVEM in patients with GPA. To investigate functional features of CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells within the total CD4+ T cell population, peripheral blood cells were stained for intracellular cytokines. An IFNγ+ cell fraction was found in all CCR4+ or CCR6+ subsets or both. An increased percentage of IL-17+ and IL-22+ cells was detected in the CCR4-CCR6+ 'single positive' and CCR4+CCR6+ 'double positive' cell fractions when compared with the CCR4-CCR6- 'double negative' cell subset. Furthermore, an increased frequency of IL-4+ cells was shown in the CCR4+CCR6- 'single positive' cell fraction compared with the CCR4-CCR6- 'double negative' cell subset in both patients with GPA and healthy controls. CCR4-CCR6+ 'single positive' and CCR4+CCR6+ 'double positive' cells differed from each other with respect to the percentage of IFNγ-producing cells, which was significantly higher in the CCR4-CCR6+ 'single positive' fraction (P < 0.01, Mann-Whitney U test). The CCR4-CCR6- 'double negative' cell subset differed from the other subsets in that only an IFNγ+ cell fraction was remarkable in this subset (Table 2). Less than 1% of cells displayed intracellular co-expression of IL-17 and IL-22 in CCR6+ cells within the total CD4+ T-cell population (data not shown). Thus, circulating CD4+CCR4+ and CD4+CCR6+ T cell populations comprised distinct subsets of cytokine-producing cells. Discussion Chemokine receptors play an important role in mediating T cell recruitment to distinct anatomical sites and tissues [2]. Whereas the CC chemokine receptor CCR7 mediates homing of naïve (TN) and central memory (TCM) T cells to lymph nodes, other CC and CXC chemokine receptors (CCR/CXCR) trigger intravascular adhesion and direct migration of effector memory T cell subsets (CD45RA- TEM and CD45RA+ 'reverted' TEMRA) into peripheral tissues for patrol and recruitment to inflammatory sites [2,19]. Previously, cloned CCR6+ cells from peripheral blood and inflammatory sites in Crohn's disease have been shown to produce IL-17. In contrast, CCR4+ cells secrete IL-4 [11,12,22]. Recently, Th17-, Th22-, and Th2-type PR3-specific cells have been suggested to be involved in chronic inflammation and autoimmunity in GPA [8-10,23]. Moreover, an increased proportion of circulating CD45RClow Th2-type and Th17 cells has been reported in ANCA-associated vasculitides, including GPA. The increase is independent of disease duration and treatment [24]. Therefore, to investigate the extent to which CCR4 and CCR6 expression could be implicated in T-cell recruitment in GPA, we analyzed the expression of these chemokine receptors on T cells. In this study, we found increased frequencies of circulating CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells within the total CD4+ T cell population in GPA. In contrast, we found no significant increase in the frequencies of CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells in the total CD8+ T cell population. CCR4 and CCR6 expression suggests T cell activation [11,12]. Persistent T cell activation regardless of clinical disease activity has been reported in GPA [20,21,25]. Recently, stable CCR6 expression was reported to be controlled by epigenetic mechanisms [26]. In line with previous reports, CCR4 and CCR6 expression was confined largely to circulating CCR7+CD45RA- central memory (TCM), CCR7-CD45RA- (TEM), and CCR7-CD45RA+ (TEMRA) effector memory CD4+ T cells [11,12]. We found a significant increase in the frequency of CCR4+ and CCR6+ TEMRA and CCR6+ TCM in patients with GPA. Surprisingly, CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells were also detected within the CCR7+CD45RA+ population, which contains the naïve T cell subset (TN) by definition. TN are CD45RA+ and express CCR7 for peripheral lymph node homing but lack receptors such as CCR4 and CCR6 for the migration to peripheral tissues [2,16-18]. Further analysis dissecting the CCR7+CD45RA+ population with regard to CD45RA fluorescence intensity disclosed that the CCR7+CD45RA+ T-cell compartment contained two subsets. One subset of CCR7+CD45RAhigh T cells generally lacked CCR4 and CCR6 expression with the exception of three patients with GPA. Thus, CCR7+CD45RAhigh T cells represented genuine TN. CCR4 and CCR6 expression on CCR7+CD45RAhigh TN in individual patients with GPA could represent TN activation, which has been reported before by demonstrating an increased frequency of CD4+CD45RO-FoxP3- TN expressing the activation marker CD25 [20,25]. In line with earlier studies, we showed that the percentage of CCR7+CD45RAhigh TN within the total CD4+ T cell population was significantly lower in patients with GPA [20,21]. In contrast, the percentage of CCR7+CD45RAmed T cells was not decreased in patients with GPA. CCR7+CD45RAmed T cells displayed CCR4 and CCR6 expression reminiscent of so-called very early memory T cells (TVEM). Higher frequencies of CCR4+ and CCR6+ cells within the CCR7+CD45RAmed TVEM subset were found in patients with GPA compared with healthy controls. TVEM have been described earlier as 'apparently TN' oddly displaying chemokine receptors for both lymph node homing (CCR7) and peripheral tissue migration (CCR4 and CXCR3) in healthy individuals by Song and colleagues [19]. Analysis of the proliferation history, T-cell receptor repertoire, and cytokine response of CCR4- and CXCR3-expressing CCR7+CD45RO- T cells suggests that these cells represent TVEM, which have proceeded only a short way along the differentiation pathway from TN to TCM or TEM. TVEM are still multifunctional but finally differentiate into either TCM or TEM [19]. Earlier studies showed that chemokine receptor expression for lymph node homing (CCR7) and peripheral tissue migration (for example, CCR4) is not mutually exclusive on T cell subsets [27]. The migratory behavior of TEM displaying dual-chemokine receptor expression is determined by chemotactic gradients and cytokine- and T-cell receptor (TCR)-mediated signals [28]. CCR4-expressing CCR7+ TEM have been reported in inflamed peripheral tissues (for example, in psoriasis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis) [29,30]. Whereas CCR7- TEM remain in the peripheral tissue, CCR7+ TEM migrate to peripheral tissues and subsequently exit the tissue to enter draining lymph nodes in different animal models [31,32]. Although CCR7+ TEM retain a capability to enter lymph nodes, inflammatory cytokines can subvert migration of CCR7+ TEM, resulting in the retention of CCR7+ TEM in the inflamed synovial tissue [33]. Cytokines also drive the differentiation of CCR4-expressing CCR7+ TCM to CCR7- TEM [22]. Of note, CCR7+ TEM accumulate in areas of ectopic lymphoid tissue in the inflamed synovial tissue [30]. In contrast, CCR4-expressing CCR7+ TVEM reside or recirculate in secondary lymphoid tissues, where they continue to differentiate and acquire further chemokine receptors for peripheral tissue migration [19]. Having shown increased frequencies of circulating CCR4- and CCR6-expressing CD4+ memory T cell subsets, including TVEM in patients with GPA, we analyzed the cytokine production of CCR4+ and CCR6+ T cells. Previously, cloned and, as such, preselected CCR6+ cells were reported to secrete IL-17, whereas CCR4+ T cells produce IL-4 [11,12]. In our study, we found an increased percentage of IL-17- and IL-22-producing cells in the CCR4-CCR6+ 'single positive' and CCR4+CCR6+ 'double positive' cell subsets and an increased frequency of IL-4+ cells in the CRR4+CCR6- 'single positive' cell subset compared with the CCR4-CCR6- 'double negative' cell subset within the total circulating CD4+ T-cell population. Thus, in line with earlier studies, we found Th17 cells within circulating CCR6+ cells and Th2-type cells among CCR4+ cells [11,12]. Moreover, CCR4-CCR6+ 'single positive' and CCR4+CCR6+ 'double positive' cells differed from each other with respect to the percentage of IFNγ-producing cells, which was higher in the former cell population. Conclusions We found increased frequencies of circulating CCR4+ and CCR6+ T cells in patients with GPA. CCR4 and CCR6 expression was confined largely to central memory (TCM) and effector memory (TEM and TEMRA) subsets but could also be detected on very early memory T cells (TVEM) displaying chemokine receptors for both lymph node homing (CCR7) and peripheral tissue migration (CCR4 and CCR6). CD4+CCR4+ and CD4+CCR6+ T-cell populations contained distinct cytokine-producing subsets. Our data suggest that CCR4 and CCR6 could be involved in the recruitment of different T cell subsets, including cytokine-producing cells, to inflamed sites in patients with GPA. Further studies are needed to assess CCR4+ and CCR6+ T cell reactivity to the respective chemokine gradients and the expression of CCR4, CCR6, and their chemokine ligands in inflammatory lesions in patients with GPA in order to define new targets for therapeutic intervention. Abbreviations ANCA: anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies; APC: allophycocyanine; APC-Cy7: allophycocyanine-cyanine dye 7; CCR: CC chemokine receptor; CXCR: CXC chemokine receptor; Cy7: cyanine dye 7; FACS: fluorescence-activated cell sorting; GPA: granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's); IFNγ: interferon-gamma; IL: interleukin; PB: Pacific blue; PE: phycoerythrin; PR3: proteinase 3; TCM: central memory T cells; TEM: CD45RA- effector memory T cells; TEMRA: CD45RA+ effector memory T cells; Th: T-helper cell; TN: naïve T cells; TVEM: very early memory T cells. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors' contributions UF participated in the design of the study, acquisition of data, interpretation of the results, and drafting of the manuscript. SP participated in the acquisition of data, interpretation of results, and drafting of the manuscript. WLG participated in the coordination of the study and assisted in the interpretation of the results. PL conceived the study, participated in its design and coordination and the interpretation of the results, and drafted of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Authors' information UF, Ph.D., is a biologist. SP is a medical technician. WLG, M.D., is the director of the Department of Rheumatology and spokesman of the Vasculitis Center UKSH and Clinical Research Unit 170. PL, M.D., is the coordinator of Clinical Research Unit 170. All authors are at the Department of Rheumatology, Vasculitis Center UKSH and Clinical Center Bad Bramstedt, University of Lübeck (Lübeck, Germany). Acknowledgements This work was supported by the German Research Foundation-funded Clinical Research Unit 170 'Early pathogenesis of Wegener's granulomatosis', Excellence Cluster 'Inflammation at Interfaces' (JRG-Ih), University-funded Priority Program Autoimmunity, and a grant from the Association for the Promotion of the Study and Control of Rheumatic Diseases (Bad Bramstedt, Germany). References Woodland DL, Dutton RW: Heterogeneity of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Curr Opin Immunol 2003, 15:336-342. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text Von Andrian U, Mackay CR: T-cell function and migration. Two sides of the same coin. N Engl J Med 2000, 343:1020-1034. PubMed Abstract | Publisher Full Text Lamprecht P, Erdmann A, Mueller A, Csernok E, Reinhold-Keller E, Holl-Ulrich K, Feller AC, Bruehl H, Gross WL: Heterogeneity of CD4+ and CD8+ memory T cells in localized and generalized Wegener's granulomatosis. Arthritis Res Ther 2003, 5:R25-31. 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Youngsters especially teenagers these days are much more concerned about how they look. Acne is a problem they usually have to deal with as it can cause great stress and embarrassment at times. It is somewhat that does not discriminate between caste, creed and color. This problem thus needs to be treated in a much bolder way. For treating it permanently we really need to reach up to its root cause. A healthy diet with right kind of nutrition content will surely help you in suppressing acne permanently. Nutrients you Need stop Acne Breakouts 1. Vitamin A- Dietary intake of vitamin A is imperative for those who are suffering from any kind of skin problems, especially acne. Some rich sources of Vitamin A that you should consume in your daily diet include dairy products, Fish oils, mango, carrots and vegetables. Include Vitamin A rich products in your every day meal and see considerable effects within a month time. 2. Fiber- Acne may also occur because of the toxins present inside our body. These toxins do not only result in body acne, but could also cause other health issues as well. Thus, detoxification is very necessary. Fibrous foods generally act as detoxifying agent and helps in cleaning our skin tissues against harmful toxins. Eat food like whole grains, oatmeal, pastas and flax seeds for improving the state of your skin. 3. Vitamin C- Vitamin C is an important nutrient known for building our immune system and healing wounds. Acne breakouts are the signs of poor immune system. Intake of vitamin C can help you cure acne related problems. Eat fruits and lots of vegetable that are rich in Vitamin C. Oranges, broccoli, cantaloupes and lemon juice are considered as the richest sources of vitamin C. It helps in stimulating collagen hence preventing our skin from premature aging and removing acne scars. 4. Vitamin E- Vitamin E is another nutrient that protects our skin from aging and brings glow to it. Oxidative stress is one of the major reasons for several acne problems. Papaya, Almonds, mustard greens, chard, sunflower seeds, spinach and Turnip greens are the excellent sources of vitamin E. Instead one can also consume vitamin E supplements. Instead of applying ointments and consuming lots of supplements the best treatment for acne is to have diet rich in all essential nutrients. Deficiency of any of these could exaggerate the problem further. Despite of having nutrient rich dietary intake increase your daily water intake as it will help you in flushing out toxins from the body making your skin look youthful and radiant.

Turkey is a modern, secular democracy occupying an ancient, complicated land. At the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, the region has been traversed, conquered and fought over by many diverse groups. Today, it is still an incredibly popular place – not for conquest, but for travel. People come to this country of 69 million (approximately 10-20 percent of whom are ethnic Kurds) to marvel at some of the richest archeological sites in the world, including impressive Greek amphitheaters, Roman temples, Byzantine churches, and castles built by Seljuks and Crusaders. They also come for the natural wonders – the golden beaches, turquoise (the word comes from "Turk") waters and spectacular coastline of the Aegean and Mediterranean; the honeycombed stone towers of Cappadocia; the white mineral pools of Pamukkale; the mountains of Eastern Anatolia and the green hills of the Black Sea coast. Istanbul is a major destination in its own right, a unique combination of East and West, ancient and modern. It has been the capital of three empires (Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman). In addition to all of these compelling places, Turkey has amazing food, friendly people, beautiful handicrafts and sprawling bazaars – it's easy to understand why the country never fails to leave visitors wanting more. Travel in Turkey Visitors to Turkey journey through time and fall under the spell of a kaleidoscope of sights and traditions. Our travelers retrace the glories of ancient civilizations (Hittite, Greek, Roman, Selcuk), learn about the old Turkic tribes wandering the steppes of Central Asia, and marvel at the achievements of the Ottoman Empire. Visitors also experience the often surprising modernity of Turkish cities where a complex mosaic of layered cultures and civilizations are merged, symbolically represented by the tile-covered mosques next to ancient churches, synagogues and the remains of Roman temples. Landscapes also differ incredibly: Huge rivers flow through the immense plains of Anatolia; the Black Sea is the largest oxygen-free marine system; and massive mountains meet olive, fig and pistachio groves on the rugged Mediterranean coast. This hugely diverse country offers vast history and artistic treasures, grandiose vistas, and traditional ways of life quietly coexisting with modern ones. There is much more to Turkey than history and architecture, however, and Artisans of Leisure's travelers experience it all: cosmopolitan Istanbul, shopping for wonderful local goods such as kilim rugs and beautiful glassware, relaxing at upscale seaside resorts, sailing on the sea, and enjoying Turkey's incredible cuisine. Turkish cuisine, one of the world's greatest, is definitely one of the highlights of any trip. The country's varied geography provides an abundance of produce – tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, olives, figs, grapes – as well as meats and fish. The main staples are skewered and roasted meats, and the cuisine emphasizes freshness of ingredients and simple cooking techniques. Classic recipes deeply influenced by Ottoman imperial cuisine incorporate seasonings like dill, mint, sweet spices and yogurt, which is also a common side condiment. Breakfast typically consists of fresh tomatoes, white cheese, black olives, preserves and freshly baked bread. Meals commonly start with mezeler, or appetizers, such as roasted eggplant, salads, manti (tiny stuffed pasta), pickles, stuffed fish, pilaf rice in grape leaves, and kofte (lamb meatballs). Also, fragrant breads and freshly baked pide (Turkish pizza) are well worth trying. Desserts are often stuffed with dried nuts and flavored with rose water and saffron. Sweets are served with Turkish coffee – the country is credited with the spread of the beverage in Europe. Turkish tea, often apple-flavored, is served in small tulip-shaped glasses, and drunk throughout the day. Light beers, wines and the anisette flavored raki ("lion's milk") are common alcoholic drinks. Turkey is also a wonderful shopping destination. Contemporary and ancient designs are combined with traditional techniques to create beautiful products. Stroll through the bustling bazaars, arastas (shop-lined streets) and bedestens (covered markets) of Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir, Ankara, Cappadocia, Konya and the towns along the Mediterranean. Shop for handmade jewelry, textiles, copper and brass-ware, leather goods, intricate silk carpets and colorful kilims (flat-woven rugs). Turkish ceramics and Iznik tiles (as seen decorating mosques and traditional Turkish baths). Ceramics and glassware are often modeled on 17th and 18th century original designs. Avanos, a town in Cappadocia, is well known for a strong tradition in pottery, produced since antiquity using the clay from the nearby Red River (Kizilirmac). Collectors can shop for quality antiques, including Oriental rugs and more rustic Turkish kilim, while gourmets will find wonderful spices (saffron is still hand-harvested) and beautiful housewares. RECOMMENDED LUXURY TOURS TO TURKEY Our recommended luxury tours of Turkey include cosmopolitan destinations such Istanbul and Izmir, the underground cities and rock formations of Cappadocia, the mineral pools of Pamukkale, the ruins of Aspendos, Ephesus, and Pergamon along the Mediterranean, and luxury beach resorts in Bodrum and Antalya. Our itineraries include the highlights of the country, but we are happy to customize more off the beaten track tours elsewhere in Turkey to suit individual travel interests. Tours in Istanbul When in Istanbul, we like visiting the highlights and the more off the beaten path attractions. Built on seven hills and divided into the Old City, the New (European) City and Asian Side, Istanbul’s districts are separated by the waters of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn and connected by bridges and ferries. In Sultanahmet, Istanbul's oldest district, visit mosques and palaces, museums and minarets. Explore the Blue Mosque and nearby Turkish and Islamic Art Museum, the imposing Aya Sofya, the Underground Cistern (Yerebatan Saray) and the Hippodrome (anciently the political heart of the city), the jewels and beautiful tile-covered harem at Topkapi Palace (sultans' palace), the bustling Grand Baazar and the Egyptian (Spice) Market. Also visit lively Taksim, the heart of the modern city, and Beyoglu, where "old Istanbul" meets the modern and secular city. Formerly a posh district of European embassies and boutiques along the famed Grand Rue de Pera (today's Istiklal Caddesi), it is again a center of cultural activities amid restored covered passageways, coffeehouses and stores. The Western districts offer traditional Islamic, Christian and Jewish heritage. Visit the Church of St. Saviour in Chora (also known as Kariye Mosque or Museum) whose splendor matches Aya Sofya. Stroll around quaint Phanar (Fener), a traditional Greek district and site of the Christian Orthodox Church, and Cukurcuma, known for small antique shops and second-hand bookstores. Cukurcuma is also a centre of avant-garde culture. Leave the city center and relax at Emirgan, famous for seaside cafes, the large park and Ottoman pavilions, and Tarabya, an old settlement around a beautiful bay. Explore the quaint Princes Islands and perhaps bike around beautiful houses and landscaped gardens while enjoying wonderful views. Upon request, a private yacht charter on the Bosphorus can be arranged. Interesting day trips from Istanbul include Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, across the Marmara Sea from Istanbul. Explore its tiled architecture and wooden houses, covered bazaars and antique shops, pleasant gardens, silk (silk-cocoon markets are in June and September) and textile markets, and excellent restaurants. Also visit nearby Iznik (anciently Nicaea) to shop renowned ceramics. A full-day excursion to Troy is also possible. Our preferred luxury hotels in Istanbul are the Four Seasons Hotel at Sultanahmet (located in the historic district), the exclusive Four Seasons Hotel at the Bosphorus, the Park Hyatt Istanbul, and the Ciragan Palace Hotel, a legendary property overlooking the Bosphorus. Tours in Cappadocia Cappadocia, with traditional villages and communities scattered around a unique landscape of "fairy chimneys," is one of the highlights of any trip to Turkey. Eroded rock formations, ancient underground cities and fresco-covered churches in caves make up this region’s otherworldly topography. Visit Urgup and Goreme, where homes, churches, stores, hotels and restaurants create a fascinating and slightly surreal moonscape. Many of these structures are literally carved from conical mounds or caves. Explore Derinkuyu's Underground City for the largest remains of troglodyte living in the area (the lowest accessible level at a depth of 180 ft) and Kaymakli Underground City for its impressively well developed public spaces (tunnels, galleries, chapels, wells). Cappadocia also offers interesting shopping. In Urgup, Ortahisar and Goreme there are impressive rugs (often natural dyes – black, brown and ivory) covered with simple patterns, while the region surrounding Avanos is well known for pottery and ceramics. One of the most exciting ways to see Cappadocia is from a hot air balloon and, in the summertime, private excursions can be arranged. For those particularly enchanted by the fairy chimneys, Artisans of Leisure can arrange for a private meal by candlelight in one of the area’s many caves. In Cappadocia we recommend traditional-style "cave hotels" such as Cappadocia Cave Resort and Spa. Tours in Ankara Ankara, deep in the heart of Anatolia's plain, is Turkey's capital as well as its political, administrative and cultural center. Beside opera, music and performing arts venues-catering mostly to foreign diplomats and Turkish politicians-it also has several prestigious universities. Although often overlooked by travelers, we recommend spending at least a few hours, on the way to or from Cappadocia, to visit the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations with its amazing archaeological collections inside a 15th century caravanserai; the important Ataturk Mausoleum, the colorful Old Town, and the Roman ruins of Angora. Ankara also has some interesting shopping opportunities, including unique rugs, ceramics, jewelry, and Angora wool accessories. Tours in Konya Ancient Konya, between Cappadocia and Antalya, is the center of the fascinating Sufi cult of the whirling dervishes. Visit the very interesting Mevlana Museum and Tomb of Mevlana Celaleddin and explore rug and antique stores. Tours on the Mediterranean Coast Around the resort towns of Side and Antalya are some of Turkey's best preserved Roman ruins. Side, Aspendos and Perge are especially famous for their amphitheaters, and the hilltop ruins of Termessos offer outstanding views of the surrounding mountains and Mediterranean Sea beyond. Along the rugged coast of pine forests are small towns and villages with charming marinas, outdoor cafes, and quaint shops with antiques, copper goods, rugs and ceramics. Walk cobblestone streets in Kas and Kalkan, amid whitewashed houses and colorful geraniums. Learn about Santa Claus and sail to sunken cities around Kale. Admire Lycian tombs carved on the side of the mountain around Fethiye. Marmaris, stretching along the oceanfront, has an attractive marina and a big covered bazaar. Shopping options include jewelry, rug, ceramic, and leather artifacts. Our recommended hotels in Antalya are the Mardan Palace Hotel, the Kempinski Dome Hotel or the Sheraton Voyager Antalya. Tours in the Aegean Coast The region stretching from Bodrum to Canakkale offers upscale resort towns. Bodrum has a beautiful yacht harbor and marina, ancient ruins, whitewashed residential villages, fine restaurants, and seaside markets. Cesme is a charming resort town offering good shopping for jewelry, rugs, and leather clothes. Izmir, the old fabled Smyrna, is a modern city of leafy boulevards and good shopping (jewelry and leather goods) in its large bazaar and upscale promenade. Kusadasi, a lively port town, makes a wonderful homebase from which to visit the splendid ruins of Ephesus and Pergamon. Our recommended hotels on the Aegean Coast include the Swisshotel Izmir and the Aman Resort in Bodrum. Artisans of Leisure uses the best local guides throughout Turkey. Our itineraries create a true luxury experience, combining Turkish cuisine, beautiful art and design, and great shopping and cultural sightseeing. Whether you are interested in Turkey's history and ruins, Jewish tours of Turkey, Biblical Turkey, or visits to Turkey's more remote cultures and landscapes, our private Turkey tours are entirely tailored to your interests.

By Liam Tung ZDNet Australia 04 Sep 2007 The notorious Russian Business Network has been identified as the ISP responsible for a recent information-stealing financial attack Security firm Sunbelt, which recently discovered that the Bank of India's hacked website was serving dangerous malware, has said the infamous Russian Business Network an ISP linked to child pornography and phishing is behind the attack. The service provider in question has developed a notorious reputation, with VeriSign classifying it as "the baddest of the bad" in the ISP world in June 2006. According to VeriSign threat intelligence analyst Kimberly Zenz, the Russian Business Network (RBN) is different to other service providers because "unlike many ISPs that host predominately legitimate items, RBN is entirely illegal". "A scan of RBN and affiliated ISPs' net space conducted by VeriSign iDefense analysts failed to locate any legitimate activity. Instead, [our] research identified phishing, malicious code, botnet command-and-control, denial-of-service attacks and child pornography on every single server owned and operated by RBN," Zenz wrote in a recent Zenz added that RBN almost exclusively attacks non-Russian financial institutions and its leaders' family ties with a "a powerful St Petersburg politician" effectively offer it immunity from prosecution. Patrik Runald, senior security specialist at F-Secure, said: "No one knows who the RBN is. They are a secret group based out of St Petersburg that appears to have political connections. The company doesn't legitimately exist. It's not registered and provides hosting for everything that's bad." "Their network infrastructure is behind a lot of the bad stuff we're seeing and it has connections to the MPack Group [a well-known group of cybercriminals which used MPack software to steal confidential data]," said Runald. Runald said that, in the case of the Bank of India's hacked website, RBN used an Iframe to launch another window which then pushed victims to a webpage containing malicious code. "That page contained links to three other pages on other servers," said Runald. "At the time we started looking into it, two out of three URLs had been taken down. The one remaining was trying to use an exploit from 2006 to affect systems with a Trojan downloader. Once infected, that downloader would go out and download another piece of malware, including other downloaders," said Runald. The Trojans used in this case were designed to steal passwords from PCs and upload Trojan proxies in aide of developing a botnet. ____________________________________!

Background A great deal of quieted talk has touched the ties between President Barack Obama and Bill Ayers. Since we didn't know much about Ayers, we did some research. We found that that he is married to Bernardine Dohrn, and both were leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Ayers and Dohrn were then part of a group that split off of the SDS and was called the Weathermen (Weather Underground). With that organization, they helped to facilitate arson attacks, explosions, and bombings in the early 1970's. They were arrested but all charges were later dismissed. The two are still married and live in Chicago. Somewhere in the 1990's and early 2000's President Obama met David Axelrod and others who were friends and associates of Ayers and Dohrn. With the help of David Axelrod, Mr. Obama became a community organizer, then Senator, and finally President of the United States. So what about the Ayers / Dohrn connection I wondered? The SDS sought to change America and promoted a socialist agenda. And, President Obama is trying to fundamentally change America. Is there any connection? Well, interestingly enough, we found the "Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society, 1962" posted online by "Courtesy Office of Sen. Tom Hayden". This is quite a lengthy dissertation asserting the beliefs, objectives, and goals of the SDS. You may read it by following the above link. Excerpts In this document, we read many of the concepts and policies that the Obama Administration is promoting. As the President is running for re-election this year, he keeps repeating that his work is not complete. He does not reveal all that he intends for the United States, but perhaps the SDS Port Huron Statement will give us a hint. Below are a list of excerpts which we organized into various categories. These are all direct quotes from that document and were simply copied. Hope and Change Motto - ... the cheerful emptiness of people "giving up" all hope of changing things ... - ... refusal to hope ... - A new politics must include a revitalized labor movement; a movement which sees itself, and is regarded by others, as a major leader of the breakthrough to a politics of hope and vision. - But fundamental social change -- that would ... - The American political system is not the democratic model of which its glorifiers speak. In actuality it frustrates democracy by confusing the individual citizen, paralyzing policy discussion, and consolidating the irresponsible power of military and business interests. -. On Building Infrastructure - America should agree that public utilities, railroads, mines, and plantations, and other basic economic institutions should be in the control of national, not foreign, agencies. On Health Care - the Federal government should guarantee health insurance as a basic social service turning medical treatment into a social habit, not just an occasion of crisis, fighting sickness among the aged, not just by making medical care financially feasible On Prisons - Our prisons are too often the enforcers of misery. They must be either re-oriented to rehabilitative work through public supervision or be abolished for their dehumanizing social effects. Funds are needed, too, to make possible a decent prison environment. On the Fair Share and Equality and the 1 percent - The wealthiest one percent of Americans own more than 80 percent of all personal shares of stock. From World War II until th - Freedom and equality for each individual, ... - More important, the new emphasis on the vote heralds the use of political means to solve the problems of equality in America, ... On Organizing - The organizing ability of the peace movement thus is limited to the ability to state and polarize issues. On Education, Liberals & Socialists - - ... Equal educational opportunity is an important part of the battle against poverty. ... - Education is too vital a public problem to be completely entrusted to the province of the various states and local units. On Disarmament - Disarmament should be see as a political issue, not a technical problem -. On Politics - The American political system is not the democratic model of which its glorifiers speak. In actuality it frustrates democracy by confusing the individual citizen, paralyzing policy discussion, and consolidating the irresponsible power of military and business interests. These are just excerpts from that document. We recommend that you read the entire document if you wish to learn more. Remember, these were written in 1962, forty years ago. However, they are just now being implemented. References: Weather Underground Weatherman (aka Weather Underground) Bill Ayers Bernardine Dohrn David Axelrod, Lefty Lumberjack

How large/powerful/advanced is Westeros compared to the rest of the world? #41 Posted 11 June 2012 - 10:32 AM As for Westeros it is obviously a more rural society that has had 300 years of stability and peace, and I think that it is actually a very nice place to live. I don`t think you could get commite some serious crime and not pay the price, at least before the War of the Five Kings. I think it is not fair to say that Westeros is backward when it has sufferd allmost 4 or 5 years of constant warring. When you look at the Vale or Dorne, which have been neutral, they seem like a nice place to live in, where your "civil rights" are respected in a manner you would expect for a society on a medieval status of development. Anyway that`s what I think. i don´t really like Essos based on Martins description of it. #42 Posted 11 June 2012 - 10:52 AM Werthead, on 09 June 2012 - 08:48 AM, said: They're not so much city-states as either principalities or even proper - but small, by Westerosi standards - nations Illyrio implies in ADWD that the Dothraki destroy inland towns in Essos, but that's contradicted by the fact that Norvos, Qohor, and Selhorys are all large cities located inland, and by the fact that Pentos owns mines, farms, and villages in its hinterland.. #43 Posted 11 June 2012 - 06:01 PM Tyrion Martell, on 11 June 2012 - 10:32 AM, said: Your English is just fine . Edited by Independent George, 11 June 2012 - 06:03 PM. #44 Posted 12 June 2012 - 04:35 AM And it's not like there isn't any crime in Braavos either. One of the first people Arya met in the House of Black and White was a mortally wounded in a street duel bravo who went there to commit a suicide so he'd die a painless death. Arya's relatively pleasant stay in Braavos might have come not from the city being a fine place to live in, but because of her status of a Faceless (Wo)Man in training; her adoptive family when she was Cat of the Canals certainly knew that. In comparison, Sam and co. didn't fare so good in Braavos when their money ran out - they were struggling to find even wood for fire and maester Aemon wasn't treated properly when he got ill. #45 Posted 12 June 2012 - 06:52 AM Rinso, on 12 June 2012 - 04:35 AM, said: But as Arya told Sam, you have to choose to duel by wearing your sword. It's actually safer to walk around at night unarmed, because they won't accost an unarmed man. There is obviously still violent crime - Svronne being the most glaring example - but all things considered, it's much, much safer than it is King's Landing. Quote Brusco knew she served the temple, but nobody else did. Everyone else that treated her almost as a mascot - the Happy Port, the King of Seals, the various foul-mouthed sailors & dockworkers who seemed quite protective of her - was a complete stranger. She was never robbed as Blind Beth, or ever even threatened. Sam was in desperate straits, but mostly because (1) he could barely speak Valyrian, and (2) he unsuitable for work at anything physical. I got the impression that just about any other man could have made their living as an oarsmen, or a longshoreman, and been treated pretty well for a foreigner. #46 Posted 12 June 2012 - 11:00 AM Essos is just to barbaric for my taste, even with it´s big cities and everything, any place where slavery is normal can´t be a place where anyone would like to live or consider advanced. One exception I have to add, I would love to ride across the Dothraki Sea... not as a Dothraki, but I would love to ride across it anyway, as Martin described it it seems like a wonderfull voayage. #47 Posted 12 June 2012 - 10:03 PM SeanF, on 11 June 2012 - 10:52 AM, said:. That isn't a contradiction.. #48 Posted 13 June 2012 - 05:21 AM Werthead, on 12 May 2012 - 07:31 AM,. Nation states? Seriously? You are speaking in terms of nation states? As for the Dothraki laying waste to inland areas, that's called raiding. A very common thing historically. Just because you have raiders in the general area doesn't mean people abandon it. Edited by Darth Rivers, 13 June 2012 - 05:24 AM. #49 Posted 14 June 2012 - 02:07 PM Darth Rivers, on 13 June 2012 - 05:21 AM, said: The Seven Kingdoms covers most of the mapped area of Westeros. The area beyond the Wall is negligible in size on world maps. The area south of the Wall is comparable in size to Essos west of the Jade Sea as shown on the HBO maps. However, and this is something that has come to light only recently, the new GRRM-redrawn maps of Essos now show it to be considerably larger, which makes more sense in terms of the relationship between the two landmasses in the books.. #50 Posted 15 June 2012 - 07:36 AM Werthead, on 14 June 2012 - 02:07 PM, said:. Given the autonomy that each of the 'Great Lords' has as well as some of the lesser Lords like Bolton and Frey I don't think the Iron Throne is much stronger than the HRE - plus it doesn't even have the cultural binds that the HRE had. #51 Posted 15 June 2012 - 10:38 AM I guess Westeros already had some unity, cultural unity (except for the North, Dorne and the Iron Islands), even before the Targaryen conquest, based upon the Common Tongue, the Faith of the Seven and the Order of Maesters. Those three factors helped the maintenance of the Realm, under the Dragons. Consider, exempli gratia, that Dorne is unlike any other place in Westeros, and it was the hardest kingdom to subdue (and they also employed guerrilla warfare, of course). Edited by Rodrik of Dorne, 15 June 2012 - 07:03 PM. #52 Posted 23 July 2012 - 07:55 AM I do think there is a lot of ethnocentrism when it comes to thinking about Westeros, because they are well, Western, white and fairly patriarchal. And their medieval traits are just like the societies Western readers are used to in their histories. Also, all of the characters whose POV we read through are Westerosi. Clearly that is reflected on the information we have of Essos, and the way it is presented (usually in a negative light). In terms of patriarchal values especially, it seems like Westeros and Essos are fairly similar: women are largely treated as property, either prostitutes or wives (to be sold and to pop out children regardless of their wishes), all around GRRM's world... except for the wildlings! We have a wonderful cast of women in the stories who live fascinating adventures and make their own lives, but they are clearly exceptions to the world that surrounds them. Women aren't protected from rape or slavery (whether in name like in Essos, or in practice like prostitutes and women married off by their families in Westeros) anywhere that we can see. They are not trained to attack nor defend themselves, and they don't have access to positions of power (military, political or intellectual, like the maesters). The depiction and attitudes to homosexuality are quite interesting too. It seems that homosexuality exists (socially) between men (people make insinuations of Loras and Renly, people talk about boys being used as prostitutes for powerful men, and male rape occurring in military camps). Lesbian relationships are never, ever mentioned: we know of a few (Dany, Cersei) because we have the characters' POV, but they are not talked about socially (not even in a demeaning way). I think these two attitudes reflect historical approaches to male homosexuality in diverse cultures (e.g. rape of powerful man on boys accepted in ancient Greece, Inquisition persecution for sodomy) as opposed to practically total silence across the ages on the subject of lesbian relationships (with the famous exception of Sappho). My point is, in terms of LGBT rights, Essos and Westeros seem both to fail miserably. This includes general attitudes of dismissal of female sexuality and desire, which seems to be largely irrelevant in society (again, distinguish this from POVs). On the subject of 'broader' human rights, slaves in Essos and serfs/peasants/the poor in the cities in Westeros seems to be equally miserable. Somebody before said that there seems to be little to none social mobility in Westeros: I think this point is very important when looking at human rights. The deeply entrenched class system that is the feudal system makes it impossible for most people to ever aspire to any sort of change. Both Westeros and the varied societies in Essos, with the possible exception of Braavos, seem to have a rigid class system with serfs/peasants or slaves at the bottom, doing the majority of the hard labour and enabling the ruling classes to live comfortably and entertain themselves with grabs for power. In this sense, I do not see much difference in terms of development between West and East either. Now some of the Free Cities seem to have merchant classes and skilled guilds which in socio economic terms usually mean there is a bit more social mobility. The elite life is still out of reach for most, though. So this would be a detail, rather than an important trait of difference. Finally, there are no civil or human rights neither in Westeros nor in Essos. There is no democratic system, no political grassroots interest organisations, no civil rights whatsoever. There is no separate system of justice in any of the societies we know (please correct me if I'm wrong, I've only read the books once) - when you are 'judged', you are judged by your lord or whoever is in power in your immediate vicinity. You are subject to their whims whatever you do; there is no law to protect civilians. #53 Posted 24 July 2012 - 10:13 PM #54 Posted 25 July 2012 - 05:15 AM Ferrous, on 12 June 2012 - 10:03 PM, said:. However, Pentos does buy them off, and maintains substantial armed forces. Illyrio seems to imply that the Dothraki would destroy inland towns regardless, but that doesn't seem to square with other evidence. #55 Posted 27 July 2012 - 12:58 AM Mya, on 23 July 2012 - 07:55 AM, said: Its true there are no demoracies that fits the 21th century Western world view of it, but there are places where some form of people's power is used. In Volantis for example the freeborn landholds are allowed to vote on the Triarchs. Maybe not democratic as we know it but far more democratic than Westeros where birth decides who is in power. The other cities seems to favor some kind of oligarchy and while we wouldn't approve of it, its more people allowed to take a part than in some other places. #56 Posted 30 July 2012 - 04:31 PM Independent George, on 11 June 2012 - 06:01 PM, said: . I dont think its fair to compare arya´s hard life in flea bottom with cat of cannal´s or blind beggars´s in order to say Braavos is a better place to live than Westeros. In Flea Botton, she was scared little girl (stupid as she says) with no money, friends, flleing from queen´s soldiers, And she had no great skill. In Bravoos, she was trained, had some food, and was endured by her past. And she had some hard time getting well at night and I think it were flea bottom´s arya, she would have goten in trouble. I think that Westeros looks like a better place to live than essos for the common men altough the free cities seems to be more technonoligical advances. Besides that, everything considered, I think westeros combned power is greater , even military, Its a more stable, it has more land, natural resources, and its population is much bigger . Most of westerosi army may be light armed peasents, but their number would be much greater and they still would have the best warrior avaiable, the full plated kinght. Maybe westeros couldnt invade the Free Cities. Their navy seems to be much smaller. But i cant see the free cities or any other esses nation conquering westeros. Even Dany´s unsulied army alone would have little chance, the way i see it. To conquer westeros, u need westerosi men. #57 Posted 30 July 2012 - 07:27 PM #58 Posted 31 July 2012 - 07:42 AM #59 Posted 01 August 2012 - 06:24 PM Ferrous, on 05 June 2012 - 12:18 AM, said: The Mongols already proved in Eastern Europe that knights were no match for them whatsoever. They'd also proven throughout Asia that they could fight in almost any terrain. And it doesn't help at all when many of the Western European nations were constantly at war or fragmented. However, the Dothraki are just poor rip offs of the Mongols. Dothraki don't wear armour, Mongols did. Dothraki can't really penetrate heavy armour, Mongols could. The Dothraki were rarely unified into huge hordes, the Mongols were unified for the majority of the 13th century. The Dothraki would get slaughtered by the Westerosi. #60 Posted 07 August 2012 - 10:04 PM Independent George, on 12 June 2012 - 06:52 AM, said: i tottaly agree with this - not only that but Sam is wearing black witch in bravos means he has status. Dareon is no help at all , Aemon is sick and old , and Gilly keeps crying about that stupid Crasters kid. And on top off all he runs out of money witch he spend on healer for Aemon . i think Sam run out luck here so comparing his situation isnt fair. Edited by sexyxrs, 07 August 2012 - 10:06 PM.

Career Spotlight: Jeffrey Scott Shapiro Jeffrey Scott Shapiro Jeffrey Scott Shapiro (JD 05) began each week like any other UF Law student, consumed with classes and studying. Come most Thursdays, however, he was boarding a Colorado-bound plane to work as an investigative journalist for CBS News’ “48 Hours Investigates.” When Mondays rolled back around, he was sitting in his law classes once again, ready to repeat the cycle. Shapiro’s journalism background and law career has come full circle, now that he has been prosecuting cases related to the First Amendment for the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. for the last year and a half. “Since I used to be a journalist, I have an interest in the First Amendment,” Shapiro said. “I think I may be one of the only prosecutors in the country who prosecutes cases that somehow seriously involve First Amendment law.” He deals with many protestors participating in unlawful conduct at the White House, U.S. Capitol, and other federal properties, particularly specializing in cases with mass protestors. Shapiro has prosecuted as many as 31 codefendants in one trial. Shapiro has also worked on high-profile cases, just recently prosecuting and subsequently convicting a woman who accosted Condoleezza Rice on Capitol Hill with hands painted red to look like blood. However, dealing with high-profile issues is nothing new to this journalism veteran, as he spent his seven years after his Florida State University undergraduate education as an investigative reporter. He covered stories that included the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, Columbine shootings, Chandra Levy investigation and Sept. 11 attacks. These experiences exposed him to the intersection of the law and media and the problems that can occur. “My real interest in going to law school was because I had an interest in First Amendment law,” Shapiro said. “I feel that the media abuses the First Amendment a lot, and I was hoping to go to law school so I could eventually represent people who were victims of that abuse.” This knowledge initially came from his beginning in journalism as a reporter for tabloids. In this capacity, he witnessed the abusive way the First Amendment was regarded in news coverage about JonBenet Ramsey. Shapiro ended up reporting these publications to the FBI, which led to a criminal prosecution and his testimony before a grand jury. Shapiro’s journalism career quickly ascended, as he went from employment at the tabloid, The Globe, to publication in Time Magazine. Just before law school, he was working for Gannett in New York City. “I actually spent a few months in Manhattan and all of the New York City area working on 9/11 and trying to track down information about Al-Qaeda, and then I came back to Florida and started law school,” he said. “You can kind of imagine the culture shock.” Law school didn’t deter Shapiro from journalistic endeavors. In addition to his academic work and involvement in the Military Law Students Association, he wrote some stories and columns and made appearances on television shows, including the “The O’Reilly Factor.” The summer after his first year, Shapiro was contacted by “48 Hours Investigates” to conduct a preliminary investigation on the Kobe Bryant case. This involved extensive time in Colorado that summer, extending into his second and third years of law school. This commitment also required a class schedule conducive to long weekends traveling to cover the case. “It was like I was living two lives at the same time,” Shapiro said. “It was a fun experience because I got to fly out of town every other week. It was a bit exotic for a full-time student, but it was also pretty exhausting.” Shapiro described the Kobe Bryant case as beneficial in two ways. He was able to witness concepts he was learning in classes in the real world and also had the ability to grasp complex legal issues brought up in hearings that very few reporters would be able to clearly understand without a legal education. “The Kobe Bryant case was sort of a whole part of my law school education,” Shapiro said. The still full-time law student decided he had enough information on the Kobe Bryant case to write a book. “Kobe Bryant: The Game of His Life” was published in February of 2004 and broke an Amazon.com Top 100 sales during the first week it was released. Upon graduating, Shapiro encountered another event that ultimately translated into his second book – bar preparation. Shapiro didn’t pass his first bar exam in June 2005, which he had the unfortunate timing of taking right after the bar examiners’ decision to rewrite the test just six weeks before. This was due to a bar preparation course’s successful duplication of actual exam questions. His second shot at the exam missed the mark by just one point. At that point he had a bar tutor, Steve Friedland, who used to teach at Nova Southeastern University Law Center. Friedland had devised a methodology based on a system of protocols. For every section of the bar, he created a system a student should use to approach each subject. “He had this great system he had developed, and I was very impressed,” Shapiro said. The idea to write another book sparked, and Shapiro used his own writing experience combined with Friedland’s material to write a book co-authored by the two, entitled “The Essential Rules for Bar Exam Success.” The book serves as a bridge between the last year of law school and the start of bar preparation courses, since it can be an abrupt shift. An important aspect of the book, which focuses on the Multistate Bar Examination, is understanding the language of the exam and teaching students how to “think the way the bar examiners think,” said Shapiro. Shapiro passed the bar the third time, an accomplishment he credits to applying the protocols in the book. Shapiro says the most valuable aspect of the book is preparing a third year law student for the psychological and emotional shift that accompanies bar exam preparation. “This book really helps you understand every aspect of studying for the bar. It’s not just about the bar exam itself,” Shapiro said. “It’s about what is going to happen to your life when you enter this Twilight Zone called bar exam class.” The book was published a few weeks ago by Thomson West with complimentary copies sent to every law school in the country. All law school bookstores, as well as select Barnes & Nobles and Borders bookstores, will be selling the book. Thomson West also selected the book as one of only two selected each year for its professional series. A strong writing background has influenced more than his current legal specialty, as Shapiro is now working on his third book. The story is about a forbidden love that takes place in a future utopian society, complete with civil rights issues he learned about in Constitutional Law. “There were a lot of things learned at UF that I wrote about in my stories,” Shapiro said. “If I hadn’t had that education at UF, I never would have been able to write those stories with the punch that they had.”

"Marriage is an adventure, like going to war." I saw this quote by English writer G. K. Chesterton a week before my wedding day as I browse the internet for ideas for a groom’s message. Perfect timing, right? Honestly, it made me paused for a while and asked myself, “Am I really ready for marriage?” In the midst of a confused mind, a cluttered computer table and a slice of cold pizza that afternoon, my phone rang. It was Leah. While listening to her soothing voice and sweet nothings, memories of some of the best moments of our relationship just hit me from left to right. From our very first hello to the biggest hugs we gave each other after coming back from a two-year work stint overseas. From our first kiss to the scariest day of my life when she went under the knife to remove her unfriendly gallbladder. It’s was like a roller-coaster ride already and we’re not yet married. It could definitely be a war once we tie the knot since we might still give each other ‘surprises” when we start to live under one roof. But after our conversation over the phone, I felt a big smile was just painted on my face. I realized that if there is one person that I’d like to be on my side in any battle that I’ll meet in life along the way, I want nobody but her. We got married on December of 2006. We vowed to be each other’s pillar of strength and wall to lean on in times of trouble. We swore to overcome any obstacle life has to offer but never expected that the first two years of our married life is indeed a big war. In August 2007, we lost our first child due to birth complications. Baby Monique just lived for a day. After three months, a time I have yet fully recovered emotionally, my brother Jimmy died at the young age of 21. The following year, Leah lost her beloved lolo due to a lung disease. At first, we could not understand the series of tragedies that hit us. Why us? We’re just a couple whose only wish is to have a happy family life but got to start on a sour note. But as they say, time heals all wounds. In 2009, we got the best blessing of our lives--- our son Charles. Despite having asthma (something he inherited from me) and a record of 9-day hospital confinement due to pneumonia on his 9th month, Charles is our source of strength and inspiration for me and my wife. We worked hard every day with him and his future in our minds. Now, we understand why we have each other. Through the years, we have become a team that has overcome every trial we encountered in life and got stronger after surviving the storms. Six years and counting, I can’t recall any major major argument or tsunami walk out in our household. I just can’t stand to hurt the Ms. Universe of my life. We live a simple life but we make each other feel like a king and queen in the best way we can. We are a royal couple who share an order of large French fries from our favorite fast food shop, wrestle our way in a crowded Sabado market for our week’s supply, and do the laundry even after coming from an 8-hour toxic work load. These and other routines might sounds a little boring to some but for us, we don’t mind doing the same things over and over again for as long as we have each other’s company. Speaking of doing the laundry, I want to share what I believe are secrets to a long-lasting relationship based on personal experiences. I want to do a list using the brand of detergent soap that we’ve been using at home ever since. And so I say, if you want a long-lasting relationship, think of TIDE: Trust. Do not do something that will put a stain on your spouse’s trust on you. Give the assurance that even you’re away interacting with other people who have better abs or longer shinier hair, the only number that you’ll give away to a flirting stranger looking for a place to stay is 117. Although sometimes, feeling a little jealous is okay but it should easily be dissolved with a spoon of sugar-sweet message (Note: not sugar-coated). But I have to admit, my wife can’t trust me with unattended slice of cake or tub of ice cream in the ref. Intimacy. Would you believe that after six years of being a married couple, I still make “ligaw” to my wife? That’s even I did not do anything wrong. I just wanted it that way. Call me a sentimental fool or what but I still make “kilig” every time her face blushes or lights up with a poem I have composed, flowers I sent to her office or a favorite song or movie she been looking for was downloaded. I want to fulfil my wedding vow (yup, the one that I drafted with inspiration from Mr. Chesterton) that I will do anything that can make my wife happy. Devotion. The word is synonymous to love, loyalty and fidelity. Just choose one and paste it on your heart and you’re good to go. But it’s easier said than done. For me, devotion is the ideal response to the trust that your better half gives you. That whether she is near or far, wherever you are, believe that the heart does go on... only for her! A Titanic task to some but it’s the tip of the iceberg of many successful love stories. Excitement. Who doesn’t like surprises? From teething toddlers to old folks loosing teeth to single individuals by choice and married people to their chosen ones, a moment of excitement is a welcome treat anytime of the day. As much as I wanted to enumerate the many surprises that I gave my wife since Day 1, I might need a separate blog post or two for a complete listing (I am not kidding). But what I can share is a 12-minute video of a feature in GMA 7’s Wish Ko Lang where I surprised my wife of a gift that I asked for her. I have always believed that a successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. I will never regret that day I exchanged I do’s with my wife Leah until my last breath. And if in case I’ll be given another chance to live again, I will write to the same TV show for the second time and request if I can possibly be granted of the li.fe I had before--- in the arms of the woman of my dreams. Here’s another video that I hope can inspire anyone who watches it to aim in building a long-lasting relationship with their loved ones. It features stories of how love continues to live on and grow despite of distance and despair. It's also good to hear that brands like Tide, which has been a part of many Filipinos' lives for many generation has come up with a wonderful project as a way of recognizing couples who have overcome obstacles and great sacrifices in the name of love. A truly commendable gesture from Tide that is now fortified with Downy for a truly more sweet-smelling experience for all its loyal fans. Whether you’re in love or still looking for that someone to love, this clip will surely give you a taste of what a “Pag-ibig na Pangmatagalan” is all about. Whether you’re in love or still looking for that someone to love, this clip will surely give you a taste of what a “Pag-ibig na Pangmatagalan” is all about.!

Locks and keys ring up huge costs for education institutions. When a student forgets a residence hall key, someone has to let the student in. When a student loses a key, a locksmith has to cut a new key and re-key the lock. On a campus with thousands of students, such problems can use up hours of expensive time. No wonder many facility directors and public-safety directors have turned to automated access-control systems with magnetic-stripe cards, proximity cards and, most recently, smart cards. Smart cards can provide a host of on- and off-campus services beyond security. In addition to serving as identification credentials and opening access-controlled doors, they can facilitate purchases at vending machines by accessing debit accounts, checking books out from the library and much more. Around the corner An emerging technology called near field communication (NFC) enables smartphones to do everything a contactless smart card can do—and then some. Devices enabled with NFC can communicate with each other. An NFC-enabled smartphone, for instance, could pay for merchandise in a store. The buyer would open up a credit card app and present the phone to an NFC-enabled credit card reader. The phone would transmit the credit card number to the reader, which would process the transaction with lightning speed. On campus, NFC technology can play a role in campus safety and security. By enabling contactless smart card access-control readers with NFC, students, faculty and staff could use smartphones to gain access to residence halls and other buildings across campus. Why is that a good idea? The system is simple to administer and to use. It eliminates the cost of buying and printing tens of thousands of smart cards, which can cost $2 to $10 or more per card. It enhances security, and students want it. NFC-enabled smartphones can do anything a smart card can do. An easier way To start up such a system, a system administrator would create an electronic mobile key, enabling access to appropriate doors, for each member of the campus community. The keys are stored in a secure cloud environment accessible only by those with an activated PIN number. Next, e-mail invitations would be sent to the community explaining the system and inviting everyone to enroll. The invitation would include a unique PIN number for each recipient. Upon receiving an invitation, a student could do nothing and continue using a card, or he or she could download an access app and enroll in the system by using the PIN number to log onto the cloud and download the mobile key created by the administrator. To use the app to enter a residence hall, a student would open the app and tap the phone on the reader—which, of course, must be NFC-enabled. An NFC-enabled campus can replace a one-card offering with a one-phone system that does everything a one-card program can do. Enable the campus laundry facilities, vending machines, library checkout desk, cafeteria and other campus facilities with NFC, and smartphones can replace plastic. Moreover, NFC can make a smartphone into an educational tool. The campus art gallery, for instance, could have an app that visitors can download upon entering. During the walkthrough, visitors can tap their phones on enabled NFC buttons to call up audiovisual presentations about artists and their work.

878 Peachtree St, Atlanta, GA | Directions 3030933.778968 -84.384377 View Website View More View Less “The decor is fun and interesting and the bar-food menu is top notch --especially the burgers.” “The staff is friendly and inviting, and the waitresses are extremely attractive and serve strong, stiff drinks.” “best burgers in Atlanta!” “Multiple options for burgers and the other sandwiches are equally good.” “The best burgers, bar food, and beer selection if you like a different kind of place.” “As a business owner myself I personally think that know matter how much the food cost, you should receive good service.” “Great burger joint with a huge menu of food.” “My only negative comment is that the service was a little slow.” Pass over the bypass and just get the original; I love the seediness of this place! Vortex Midtown - What a let Down pure seedy and disappointin. Me think not. How appropriate summary for that establishment. Not sure how they got the good reviews, if that were their buddies or now, but our experience was anything but good. The restaurant felt seedy with pictures of nude women in the bar and wait staff that was very "up -nosed" and overall provided bad service. They do have a very large nice bar, but again, the service was slow and not very good, so if you are ok with slow and not so good service, you will get decent burgers and fries - that is all I can say about the food - then you're ok. It felt like a college bar where the beers should be $1.50, but they were not, so in summary, we did not have a good experience at all, which is strange since The Vortex has a good reputation. Good Burgers. This place has the best tasting burgers, but I hate the fact that it is really greasy. The service isn't all that great, they are slow with orders, and not all that friendly. Outside of that I mean its a good place to hang out, there are always people there, and the vibe is good. RUDE! NEVER GO HERE!. I just called to place a to go order because I have a broken hand and live a block away. The guy that answered they phone snapped at me and said he wouldn't take a to go order because he was too busy -- and the hung up the phone on me. I will never EVER patronize this establishment. If you want a good burger, go to Houston's!!! My visit to this restaurant really made my day.. I have always loved burgers. I liked the succulent taste of burgers in this restaurant. They offer different variations which I love. My visit to this restaurant really made my day. SUB STANDARD FOOD, EVEN WORSE EMPLOYEES. Do not buy the hype and gimmick - Vortex is TERRIBLE! The food is sub-standard bar food at best. Their burgers are one step above McDonalds and their fries are equivalent to microwavable fries (McDonalds fries are actually better). In short, the burger and fries were not fresh and had no flavor. To make matters worse, the service is HORRIBLE! The hostess (or one of) is rude, condescending, and in my experience, racist! When I complained to the manager, he told me I was being ridiculous. I would never go back to Vortex again! When visiting Atlanta, I highly recommend you avoid this trashy and smoke filled place. There are a lot of other restaurants in the area worthy of your business. Also, if you are going with a GROUP, this is definetly NOT the place for you - they will not seat you unless everyone in your party is present. They refuse to allow you to change your party size once you've given it to them, so you're definitely out of luck if someone decides not to show up. They will not seat you! As ridiculous as it might appear, this is apparently their policy! Dining at Vortex is THE WORST dining experience I have ever had! I'm giving it a one star, but only because I can't give it a ZERO STAR. Every Man's Dream. Featured on the Food Network as Top 100 Places to Dine in America, the Vortex has a naughty atmosphere with some mouth watering greasy cheeseburgers. What more could every man ask for? With multiple locations across Atlanta, The Vortex's menu is unlike any other in the city. Countless choices of burgers, sandwiches, and more. They even have a burger that is smashed between 2 grilled cheeses and has 8 pieces of bacon pushed in between two giant patties. If you are coming to Atlanta with a group of guys, this is the place to go for dinner. Tattoed waitresses that are not there to mushy up to you take your order and keep it real. This place is ALWAYS 18 and up and is definitely not the place to take the kiddies! Why all the accolades?. All I have heard is Vortex, Vortex for best hamburgers in Atlanta. When I hear that I always take it with a grain of salt considering who is heaping on the accolades. I was pretty disappointed when we ate there yesterday. It was quiet after the lunch rush yet it took at least 10 minutes for waitress to come introduce herself and take our drink order. We ordered two burgers exactly the same except for I wanted mine medium well, the hubs got his cooked medium. When gent from the kitchen delivered our order, he specifically asked who got the medium and who got the medium well burger. Okay, great I thought (attention to detail) until I got half-way through the burger and thought hey this isn't cooked very evenly since I discovered some major pink in the center of the burger. We then realized our burgers were mixed up but by then the hubs had already scarfed up half of his burger. He thought his burger was nicely seasoned but on the dry side. Even my mistakenly-medium burger wasn't juicy at all. The requisite fries were nothing to write home about. I have had much better, juicier burgers at Five Guys and at a little hole in the wall in Cleveland, GA called Yonah Burger. Yes, the Vortex decor is interesting, albeit a tad junky, but that isn't enough to bring me back. Atlanta has so many places to eat that we are going to try some others. Why bother with just mediocre? Food is great...but hate the atmosphere.... There was quite a wait, so we grabbed a seat at the bar and ate there. The food was excellent, but my alergies can't handle the piles of cigarette smoke. I will go back, but it will probably be on an "Annual Basis" rather than monthly. NOW HAS AN ALTERNATIVE COMEDY CLUB?!.. Like a 60s hangout that never was... See more tips for Vortex Bar & Grill Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Facebook to see what your friends are up to! Get the Citysearch Mobile app so you can spend less time searching for great places, and more time enjoying them.

A DEEPER PATH THAT GETS YOU THE LOVE YOU WANT FASTER! A love solution to be free of fixing and start living your amazing life. Stop playing games, be authentically you and believe in love. Hi, my name is Debi Berndt, NYC - a leading relationship and success mindset mentor and author of the best-selling book, LET LOVE IN: OPEN YOUR HEART & MIND TO ATTRACT YOUR IDEAL PARTNER (WILEY 2010). I have helped thousands of women to find their true love. If you are tired of trying clear your negative beliefs and fix yourself, you have come to the right place. You don’t have to change or fix anything, you have to become aware of your greater self. My partner, Dr. Roberto Maldonado, neuro-psychologist, and I have developed the Creative Love Process™ based on Jungian psychology and eastern philosophy. We offer a grounded approach to help you attain a higher STATE OF MIND so you can consciously create the life of your dreams including true, lasting love, dream career and a spiritual life that is real and grounded. You are already amazing and deserve an awesome, attractive man who ADORES YOU and do the work you love while making a substantial income. You want more than to just catch a man, you want lasting love with a person that is going to rock your world and make all your married friends wish they had taken these steps. We developed the Inner Adam™ approach that is proven to transform your relationships with men so you can attract (and be attracted to) a healthy relationship. You can attract true love and wealth using our Creative Love Process™, a unique combination of eastern and western psychology, philosophy, spirituality and universal principles. All areas of your life will transform as you become more conscious of the power of your own mind. Can you choose WHO YOU ATTRACT? Find out here in our new teaching video and get all the answers about attracting your very own true love. Too much dating coaching advice out there tells you what you are doing wrong and why your romantic life isn’t working, but not many tell you HOW TO CHANGE IT. Come join me on this journey to find the love of your life in the fastest, easiest way. READY FOR YOUR AMAZING TRUE LOVE? SIGN UP IN THE BOX ON THE RIGHT FOR MY TRUE LOVE ATTRACTION STARTER KIT – $500 IN FREE GIFTS! - FREE 3-PART VIDEO SERIES THAT WILL OPEN YOUR MIND ON A NEW WAY TO LOOK AT LOVE - 1 HOUR “MEET YOUR INNER ADAM” LECTURE WITH VISUALS! - FREE GUIDED MEDITATIONS TO INCREASE YOUR DATING CONFIDENCE - FREE WEEKLY LOVE MOMENT NEWSLETTER - SPECIAL INSIDER OFFERS AND EVENTS FEEL THE LOVE AND GET INSPIRED! Testimonials Looks like the wedding will probably be May 18th… I’m really excited! Thanks! I really do think the work we did for attracting a loving partner was what helped draw us to each other!” -C.B., Denver, CO . P., Queens, NY “I just wanted to send you a note to thank you for the amazing positive change you have made to my life. I signed up for your STL Breakthrough Course towards the end of last year and enjoyed every minute (even addressing all the difficult questions I had to ask myself!) I absolutely loved the tele classes and the homework too; it made such a difference making the time to sit down and do all the exercises.I read your book around the same time and even though there was no-one in my life (romantically) and no-one on the horizon, I just kept on keeping the faith and telling myself that I should really enjoy all this time to myself because I never knew when I would be in a relationship and be busy with the man of my dreams! Cutting Ties with Ex and Moving On to Find LOVE I had a long time, on again off again, affair with a man in OKC who had been getting divorced for about 5 yrs. It was very unhealthy and I was having a hard time letting go. I had met another man who I was very impressed with and wanted to see where that would go, but realized that my energy being divided in the way it was, would probably get in the way. We did a couple of sessions and cut the ties with the man in OKC. Well long story short, David, the new man is now very much in my life! He is everything I have ever dreamed of! When I looked at my list of my ideal mate, he fits 95%! We are so happy. And planning to be married sometime within the next year. So thank you. thank you~ – DM, Denver, CO During a singles event in February 2009 I participated in your “heart light” exercise designed to attract love. In my mind a dark, backlit figure approached me. I never saw his face. We had a warm, short chat, and then parted, saying we’d see each other soon. We hugged and I felt and saw that he was wearing a soft black sweater with white flecks in it. Later that night, a black man bumped into me at the singles event. We connected immediately. He was wearing a soft black sweater with white flecks in it! Since then he and I have been nearly inseparable. At 52, I had given up hope of finding my life match, but this man possesses all of the qualities I seek. How amazing to know that I first saw this incredible human being in my mind during the heart light exercise, and then met the real deal about an hour later. Imagine that! Thanks, Deb. Barbara -Denver, Colorado Debra took me through a hypnosis session on career and prosperity and a session on finding my lifetime partner, and after listening to both sessions on a daily basis I have noticed significant changes in my career opportunities and in the attention that men give me. I feel like my self-confidence and self worth have grown exponentially because of working with Debra. I very highly recommend her services. DLH-Washington, DC It works! “Since my divorce nearly 6 years ago, my dating experience was one “dud” after another. A friend gave me the Attract the Love of Your Life CD, and I listened to it before bed a few times….within the next 30 days, I met the love of my life! For the first time ever, I am enjoying feeling loved, appreciated, being romanced, in a loving relationship. I recommend this CD to anyone who is ready to meet the love of his/her life! R.H. – Denver, CO “Looks like the wedding will probably be May 18th. I’m really excited! Thanks! I really do think the hypnosis for attracting a loving partner was what helped draw us to each other!” C.B. – Denver, CO Hi Deb, Ruddy, Denver, Coloradoada Clearing Blocks Deb is just an absolutely extraordinary woman in my eyes. The work that she has done with me has helped to release an issue that I have been unable to release for years even doing work with other people. And, it occurred in only one session with her. Both on a personal and a professional level Deb has always been such a huge support to me and I am eternally grateful for not only who she is for me, but who she is for everyone. -Darcy Volden Hoag, Founder, Secrets Of Her Success – I wanted to let you know how you have affected my life. I had been practicing the law of attraction for a year or so before I discovered you. I desired to increase my income, but knew I had prejudices against money and was struggling. I checked out a book from the library on self-hypnosis thinking I could teach myself to break down those barriers. Well, I guess I attracted you because shortly after that I saw you on 7 News at a very odd time for me to be tuning in. I ended up ordering Creative Wealth from your website and have increased my pay by 60%! And all in less than one year. Thank you for your part in that! I really think highly of your products, and value your insight. K.L., Denver, CO Manifest ANYthing! Program Manifest Anything is one of Amazon’s happy little surprises–it’s too soon to tell if I’m going to manifest my own “anything” (my goal is rather long-term), but I can say that everything about this CD, from the recording quality, to the very pleasant and soothing voice, to the visions it inspires, is absolutely top-quality. Manifestation aside, it’s like a visit to the spa, and you emerge from the experience feeling rested, energized, and full of confidence that the rest of the day will go well. I noticed that a reviewer of another of Debra Berndt’s cds was disappointed that the length of the session on that CD wasn’t very long. This one isn’t, either, but that, in my estimation, is one of its strengths. I have other CDs of this genre that range from half an hour to an hour, and frankly, I just won’t use them because it takes too large a chunk of my time to use them regularly as I should. At about 15 minutes, this session is perfect–and trust me, it’s packed with valuable imagery and suggestions. It’s the best 15 minutes of my day! If you have a spare 15 minutes, give this one a try. I think you’ll be glad you did! J.G., Lexington, KY I LOVE your Manifest Anything! program. Ever since I started listening to it, I have seen so many shifts in my life. A new business opportunity which I am really excited about and is taking off. Your program helps me remember that I am in control of my own destiny. Thank you for what you do! D.H., Evergreen, CO About the Breakup Recovery CD: “This has helped me tremendously. I will say though at first I seemed to have got stuck on the letting go part. Everything about me felt as though I needed to let go, but my heart seemed sad about it or something. I am not sure how to put it into words. I did, however, stick with it and little by little I started feeling a lot better. But with continuing and not giving up, I feel like it has helped me now get a hold of my situation and start to move forward. I am reading again and starting to enjoy the things I do have in my life, and I credit the CD for that. Maybe it forced me to go through a mourning period first in order to move forward.” C.T., Denver, CO Accepting Love: Confidence in a New Relationship CD “I loved the CD! Volume is great and the content was more than I could have ever imagined. What a boost to my self-esteem. I listened to it for the first time yesterday and listened to it four times before the day was over. I had the best sleep last night than I have had for a couple years. It is very hard for me to relax and sit still for any amount of time, but I did it not once but four times yesterday.” K.S., Denver, CO. I am the LOVE COACH AND EXPERT helping singles attract true love and get engaged within one year! Will you be my next success story? Find out more about private and group love coaching sessions LET LOVE IN BOOK REVIEWS From Amazon: The Most Powerful Healing Tool for Love I’ve Seen This book is truly masterful, getting to core issues that prevent someone from finding love. I’ve been a dating coach since 2002, working with thousands of women over 40, read countless books on dating and have written three of my own. That said, Debra helps the reader get to the bottom of and transform beliefs that get in the way of love. This is not a superficial approach to dating. It’s for the woman who is ready to transform her romantic karma once and for all to find lasting love. Don’t wait another minute to purchase this book. -Ronnie Ann Ryan, CT flawless This book unfolds magnificently. Its genius is in the way it leads you to yourself. Debra wastes no pages, paragraphs, sentences, or even words because the honesty demands a kind of efficiency one rarely finds in books of this genre. By being ruthlessly honest with herself, she is able to offer the reader thorough purity. While reading “Let Love In”, you will surely ask yourself tough questions which I guarantee will prove invaluable as you realize your thinking patterns and attachments. Part of the fun is that the tough questions are accompanied by bright little light bulbs – whether you are male or female. Before opening to page 1, I was apprehensive that this book would only speak to women, but these principles, ideas, and exercises are translatable across genders and even relevant to other aspects of life. The title of this book could just as easily be, LET LIFE IN. I certainly plan to. A.S., New York, NY A New and Refreshing Book on Finding Love I have to say that I was very impressed by this book. I have read a lot of books on dating, and attracting the right person and it was so refreshing to read a book that is focused on healing feelings of unworthiness and learning how to empower yourself and create a strong and healthy self image. I am married, but found many pearls of wisdom that I will be able to incorporate into my life in all areas. I will be reading this a second time and referring to it often. -Marla Martensen, Author of Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker If you had to read one book, this is it! This is one of the best books I’ve read on relationships and the subconscious mind. It’s written in an easy-to-understand and straightforward way. What sets this book apart from other self-help/dating books in the market is that the author zeroes in on the crux of the problem, instead of glossing over it like most of the self-help books out there. She lays out the groundwork by clearly explaining the functions of the subconscious mind and its effects on our lives. She also demystifies the stereotype and false beliefs surrounding hypnosis. She makes you delve deep into your psyche by making you question the origin of your core beliefs and then guides you through a step-by-step self-hypnosis exercises in order to tap into your subconscious mind and rewire your internal software. When the conscious mind isn’t alligned with the subconscious mind’s core beliefs then we unwittingly attract unfavorable partners and situations. Our conscious mind desires to find love, a healthy relationship and a happy marriage, but our subconscious mind believes it’s far-fetched and impossible. As a result, we find ourselves caught in the same horrible cycle. The conscious mind and the subconscious mind must work harmoniously together in order to create favorable situations in our lives and to magnetize men/women who are nurturing, honest, and compatible. -Sara, Bahrain Facebook Comments: Leave A Reply (11 comments so far) Self Help Books 529 days ago Will surely recommend this site to some friends! Very interesting site and articles. Really thankful for sharing. Regards, If Your Situation Seems Hopeless 506 days ago You’ve got great insights about mental coaching, keep up the good work! Lee 395 days ago Debi, just heard your interview with Orna and Matthew Walters and you were AMAZING!!! You spoke to me as a single woman looking for true love, and gave so much wisdom filled advice. WOW… THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! you are awesome!!! Linda 379 days ago Debi, This is Linda from the call last night. Just wanted to let you know that you caused a major shift and have given me alot to think about and meditate about. I have been doing work on myself for years, but the insight that you provided me about False Self Esteem was the piece of the puzzle I was missing. For years I was an over achiever to get attention from my parents and I did not realize until your response yesterday that I was so dependent on the opinion of others in my life. Thank you for that gift. I do now need to ask…who am I? from an authentic place. I am so glad I was on the call and I am so thankful that I had the courage to share. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and of course bless you. Linda sutasinee 304 days ago I am now in Oman. I want to feel peace in my mind and want to feel loved , be wanted from man, want to attract caring man and loving relationship. I dona’t know how I can start from your srvice Please suggest Sandie 246 days ago Great post nice to see someone that really believes in the power of love kelleher international 235 days ago great, fun blog. thank you for all your advice! Michelle 222 days ago How do I order this book.. ~Misha Antje 113 days ago Hello there, I discovered your blog by means of Google at the same time as looking for a similar matter, your web site got here up, it looks great. I’ve bookmarked it in my google bookmarks. Hello there, simply become alert to your blog through Google, and located that it is really informative. I am gonna be careful for brussels. I will appreciate in case you continue this in future. Lots of folks can be benefited from your writing. Cheers! Heidi J 83 days ago Dearest Debi I just want to thank you from my Heart, for your free 3 part lectures on how to find true love. Not to bore you with a very long story of my life that could make a blockbuster. But to say that very very much of what you say, I have been through. Unfortunately my BS ( no matter how much I have worked on my self). Has left me in a situation where I am today on pre pension, with load of financial depth. My whole physical and psychological system has suffer major. I have PTSD. No matter if I stayed single for years, and did watch out, over and over, Even though I did pray very much, and wish to be with Batman I always ended up with Lex Luther! I understand everything you say with my intellect, but I still do not understand what I don’t understand, and what I do wrong. I just had a relationship for almost a year ( after being Single for four years, by choice). the guy seemed nice, religious background, Masters degree, no over charming attitude! still he turned out to have told me one lie after the other lie, I was chocked and deeply hurt! I want my life, I want to live I want to be happy! Help me GOD and sweet Debi Thank you very very much. Heidi from over Denmark Lauren 14 days ago Hi, Debi, Just starting to explore Shadow Side, and you popped up! My husband and I will celebrate 32 years of marriage in a couple of months. This just gives us new material to keep on making a really good relationship even better. Looking forward to your course, Lauren

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Celebrities have taken to Twitter to mourn those who lost their lives, were impacted or moved by the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday in Newtown, Conn. While police reports have not yet released the civilian casualty information, news outlets like CNN are estimating that as many as 25 people, 18 of which may include children, were killed in the shooting. Many others were injured but an official number was not given by police. Unconfirmed reports also said the principal Dawn Hochsprung and a school psychologist were killed in the shooting, as well. Reuters Celebrities have taken to Twitter to share their thoughts about the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday in Newtown, Conn. Connecticut State Police initially identified the shooter only as a 20-year-old male, who was dead inside the school building after using a high-powered .223-caliber assault rifle. However, recent reports indicated the shooter was 24-year-old Ryan Lanza, who was found dead on the sight of the shooting. He was reportedly wearing dark clothing, a mask, a bulletproof vest and carrying a total of four guns. Police have not given a cause of death. Unconfirmed reports said Lanza had a connection to the school and both of his parents were reportedly dead. The shooting began around 9:40 a.m. inside of the elementary school where an estimated 600 students in grades K-4 weret. J. Paul Vance said the scene of the shooting was secure and the police are in "search warrant activity." “The scene is secure. The public is not in danger,” says Connecticut State Police spokesman Paul Vance. As one of the deadliest school shootings in history, celebrities have taken to Twitter to share their condolences for the tragedy. -- Adrienne Maloof: Terrible terrible news about the shooting in Connecticut. Sending thoughts and prayers to everyone involved…. Alyssa Milano: What the f*ck is wrong with people? Andy Cohen: This is too sad for words. Ashley Greene: Some things are just bigger than me and impossible for me to understand. My thoughts and prayers are with the families in Connecticut. Audra McDonald: No words. #prayfornewton Bethenny Frankel: MONSTER. Those poor helpless children & babies. I don’t remember hearing something so evil Blake Shelton: The killing of defenseless people and innocent children. I’m sad and sickened. This is why we all should be prepared to defend and guard. Brandi Glanville: I can not believe this school shooting, what is wrong with people!!!! My heart is breakking for the kids and families. Chad Johnson: Just seeing my news feed on the Connecticut shooting, what is going on, prayers to the families and students involved. Christina Applegate: There are just no words. Only sorrow. We are all shedding tears today for those families. Courteney Cox: Praying for Sandy Hook Craig Ferguson: Terrible news story today. Please forgive edit in tonight’s pretaped show because it’s not such a great day for America. DJ Pauly D: My Prayers Go Out To Everyone Affected By This Horrible Shooting In Connecticut Elisabeth Hasselbeck: Please #prayfornewtown. Praying with you. #whyGodwhy Giuliana Rancic: This tragedy is beyond heartbreaking. Imagine how excited these little kids were for the holidays. Why? Why? Why? Tragic and senseless. Hilary Duff: Oh my.I am shocked.Heartbroken.Devastating news about this elementary school Ian Somerhalder: We are sad.Our hearts,thoughts&help are w/you.Im so sorry to all affected by this.So sorry.May all thelove in the world hug you in this time Jenny McCarthy: Cant stop crying. My heart goes out to these familes. Jesse Tyler Ferguson: I’m sick to my stomach about the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. All my thoughts are with the community of Newtown, CT. J Joan Rivers: Hearing the news of the sad tragedy in CT. I’m horrified and heartbroken – my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Joe Jonas: Please Pray for everyone in Newtown, Connecticut. John Stamos: soulless coward pulls trigger, children die, officials express regret and then what -we wait for the next shooting? how do we stop this? Josh Duhamel: My heart hurts for the victims & their families of the CT school shooting. This needs to stop. Schools must be safe again. Joy Behar: My thoughts and prayers are with the families of Sandy Hook Elementary. Kate Walsh: Horrible. My thoughts and prayers go out to the children in newton and their families. Katherine McPhee: I’m so saddened over the shootings in CT. In light of such an evil act, #PrayForNewton. Keri Hilson: It’s time to re-evaluate those gun laws you spoke about, @BarackObama. Prayers for surviving children & families in Newtown, Connecticut. Khloe Kardashian: I am sick to my stomach. 18 children and 9 adults lives were stolen today. I’m so sorry for the sadness and pain this has caused. PRAY Kim Kardashian: In total shock over the school shooting in Ct! 18 children shot dead & 9 adults by a father of one of the kids! What has this world come to Kirstie Alley: No comprehension of such insanity, violence and evil… Kourtney Kardashian: If this tragedy doesn’t change something in this country regarding guns…I just want to scream and cry. Deeply saddened. Praying Kristin Chenoweth: Well im hearing about this shooting in CT. Praying. Sending prayers. Larry King: This is a double horror story-the horror of the senseless deaths & that this continues 2happen in this country Lindsay Lohan: This is absolutely horrifying. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families in Newton, CT. So unbelievably sad. Malin Akerman: My heart goes out to all the victims and families of #SandyHook elementary school. Unbelievably sad. Maria Menounos: Heartbreaking.As many as 20 children shot by gunman this morning at a CT elementary school.Multiple fatalities reported. #Connecticut #pray Martha Plimpton: Call your representatives and ask them to make #GunControl a priority TODAY Mia Farrow: Gun control is no longer debatable- it’s not a ‘conversation’- It’s a moral mandate. ‘ Michael Moore: Only minutes away from pundits & politicians say, “This isn’t the time to talk about gun control.” Really? When is that moment? Miranda Lambert: I’m praying for those babies and all the victims of the Connecticut shooting. May God bring peace to the families. Piers Morgan: Don’t just mourn these poor dead children America – get angry and do something to stop these senseless shootings happening. Randy Jackson: Thoughts and prayers go out to those in Connecticut Rita Ora: Wow this is horrific everybody in Connecticut the children my love and the bots love goes out to you #isthereanyhopeleft Sarah Silverman: Band-Aids-on-Band-Aids @NRA people want MORE access to guns to combat all the people w access to guns. Sherri Shepherd: My heart is broken for the parents, family & faculty of #SandyHook Elementary School… can’t stop praying & crying. Such a senseless act Snoop Dogg: Sending love 2 the families in Connecticut for their tragic loss. 2day I bow my head in sadness Sophia Bush: My heart aches for Connecticut …. Steve Carell: Pray for Sandy Hook, Newtown CT. Vinny Guadagnino: Praying for the Victims in the Connecticut school shooting. This is happening too]

The State Coroner has been scathing of the treatment and care given to a Perth mother-of-two who suffered "horrific" complications from an elective stomach stapling operation and died six months later. Julienne McKay-Hall, 46, had the weight loss surgery on November 9, 2007 at St John of God Hospital in Murdoch. The stapling gun used by surgeon Dr Hairul Ahmad misfired during the surgery. The misfire caused a stomach leak, which resulted in Mrs McKay-Hall developing sepsis. Her condition went undiagnosed for three days. In his findings handed down today, State Coroner Alastair Hope was critical of the "inexcusable failure" by Dr Ahmad and nurses to properly monitor and urgently address the patient's alarming and deteriorating condition. Mrs McKay-Hall underwent numerous surgeries, spent months in hospital and died in May 2008 after an operation to fix a leaking abdominal fistula at Fremantle Hospital. Mr Hope described Dr Ahmad's actions, which included not reading critical notes and not coming into the hospital to see Mrs McKay-Hall when a nurse called him about her worsening vital signs, as "grossly inadequate" and referred him to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. Mr Hope said failure to take regular observations of the patient, particularly when she became "close to death", constituted a gross failure by the hospital and nurses involved in her treatment. Mr Hope said Mrs McKay-Hall's death was a result of "misadventure" and found the "poor quality of treatment and care" by Dr Ahmad and nurses "contributed to her death". Mr Hope made two recommendations, including calling for improved communication and recording by nurses about patients' abnormal vital signs and for a system of audits to examine if hospitals adequately deal with emergencies. Mr Hope expressed his sympathies to Mrs McKay-Hall's family for their extreme distress over the "sad, tragic and unnecessary death". The elective surgery was a relatively new procedure in 2007 and involved removing a large portion of stomach and stapling the remaining part of the stomach. Mrs McKay-Hall, who weighed 111kg before the procedure, chose the drastic action to improve her quality of life. Outside court, Tanya Watson, lawyer for Mrs McKay-Hall's family, said the family was satisfied with the coronial investigation and that the Coroner had confirmed its suspicions of sub-standard care. She said the family may consider pursuing compensation. A spokesman for St John of God Health Care said the hospital remained deeply saddened by Mrs McKay-Hall's death and it co-operated fully with the coronial inquest. He said the hospital would examine the findings carefully and where relevant it would review policies, procedures and practices.The spokesman said the hospital investigated and suspended Dr Ahmad in 2008 and that suspension remains. Sponsored links 'The West Australian' is a trademark of West Australian Newspapers Limited 2013. Select your state to see news for your area.

My first experience of a croque monsieur comes on the French fast train the TGV from Antibes to Lyon. My long-forgotten schoolgirl French doesn't register exactly what it is that I'll be eating, but others are getting it and it sounds exotic. We crack open a bottle of wine, sipped from plastic cups in the train's first-class section, and tuck into our lunch selections as we happily while away the four hours. So the croque monsieur? Well, all I'll tell you for now is that it's a popular cafe classic and it's the start of my gastronomic journey from one end of France to the other. I had no idea when we set out that the 10-day trip to discover France "off the beaten tracks" would also be something of an awakening for a non-foodie like me. Our journey takes us from Nice, the queen of the French Riviera, to Paris, the love capital of the world. In between: many charming cities and surrounding areas, from Nice to Antibes to Lyons to Moulins to Vichy to Amboise to Nantes to Vannes to Paris; and more than a few sumptuous three-course meals. We fly into Nice and after that it's trains all the way, apart from a few van drives here and there. The initial rail journey, on which I discover the joys of a croque monsieur, takes us to Lyons. It is here, in the gastronomic capital of France, that I face my first real challenge with French food. Lyons boasts 2000 restaurants, 14 with Michelin stars. Many call themselves bouchons, the traditional Lyonnaise restaurants. But, says our guide Christine Barniaud, there's only 10 that you would call authentic bouchons. "There's no classification," the promotion officer with the Lyons Tourist Office says, "but we know the good ones - it's the atmosphere, it's the food and the welcome." We end up at Cafe des Federations, where the menu boasts black pudding with apple, calf head with ravigote sauce, cake of chicken livers and stew of pork cheeks. What does the non-foodie choose? Chicken with vinegar. A nice meal but a fail when it comes to living up to the challenge to be adventurous. Gradually, however, as we travel through France, this boring eater starts sampling more out-there fare: gizzard in Clermont-Ferrand (barely enough to register what I'd eaten) and steak tartare in Moulins (surprisingly pleasing, but I prefer my meat to be cooked). I've discovered I'm particularly partial to the Auvergne region's potato-and-cheese dish truffade: creamy, rich and filling. By the time we leave behind the red-tile roofs of the south of France and cross further north, where blue slate abounds, I'm even trying eel (a very fishy taste, one bit was enough for me) in the fishing village of Trentemoult, opposite the port of Nantes. Somewhere along the way, I've acquired the habit of drinking an aperitif before dinner. It seems imperative now. And I've also picked up a few tips about travelling by train: • Pack light. It's not like a plane trip. There's no checking in your luggage and collecting it at the other end. You need to lift your suitcase on and off the train and find somewhere to store it. (There are storage areas but they vary.) If you can't carry your own suitcase you've packed too much - unless there's someone with you who will help you lift it. • The TGV has assigned seats, so you must book. There are no seat reservations with the regional TERs. • There's not much difference between first and second class on the regional trains, except for the leg-room. On the TGV, the difference is a bit more obvious (for example, larger reclining seats). • Rail Europe says the France Rail Pass is the best option for non-European residents. It provides unlimited travel on the 31,000km national rail network, for three to nine days' travel within a one-month period. Regular France Rail Passes start at $263 for a three-day pass and $340 for a five-day pass. • Rail Europe also offers a France Rail Pass Premium, which includes access to a private concierge to help with planning your holiday. Once you book you receive an email with contact details. You can use the concierge service for the whole time your pass is valid. Prices start from $300 for a three-day pass and $375 for a five-day pass. • Most train stations have good facilities. The only hiccup we had was at Clermont-Ferrand, when we had to navigate stairs to get to our van driver. Taxis were on the same level as the rail platform. • Take a book or work on your laptop (there's no internet on the trains, however), but don't forget to enjoy the postcard-perfect countryside. • The TGV has a food car but the regional trains do not. It was while waiting to board a TER at Moulins that I enjoyed my second croque monsieur, from a cafe opposite the station. I plan to make a croque monsieur for my friends and family, impressing them with my knowledge of a French recipe before unveiling ... a ham and cheese grilled sandwich, topped with some bechamel sauce. GETTING THERE: Etihad Airways flies 24 times weekly from Australia (Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne) to Abu Dhabi, with seamless connections to Europe. More: . TOURING THERE: Rail Europe is the exclusive distributor of the France Rail Pass in the world. For more information visit . Rail Europe distributes through Rail Plus, Rail Tickets (Stella), CIT Holidays or Infinity in Australia and Rail Plus and Go Holidays in New Zealand. For contact details see and click on Australasia.The writer was a guest of Rail Europe and Etihad Airways. Sponsored links 'The West Australian' is a trademark of West Australian Newspapers Limited 2013. 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SANTA ANA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 12/06/12 --ram Micro U.S. to offer its customers a way to avoid the cost and time of taking terminals offline and shipping them to secure facilities for key injections. "With integrated NFC/contactless technology, EMV chip reading, signature capture, PIN entry and remote key injection capabilities -- all on a large, brilliant-color display -- the L5000 series is fast becoming a channel favorite and offers a great service for any business that accepts PINpad and credit card payments," says Lloyd Baylard, vice president, Equinox Payments. "The market expertise, dedicated support and expanded partner reach offered through the Ingram Micro Data Capture/POS business unit will serve as a growth catalyst for Equinox Payments -- helping us to achieve our business goals, and bring increased value and greater service levels to our mutual channel partners." "Equinox Payments is one of the top POS payment terminal manufacturers in the country, and we're pleased to be named distributor of choice for L5000 series of payment terminals as part of our growing solutions portfolio to resellers and MSPs throughout the U.S.," says Justin Scopaz, executive director and general manager of the Ingram Micro Data Capture/POS and Physical Security business units, North America. "The retail market is a strong play for resellers who offer technology solutions that streamline efficiency, add convenience and help companies of all sizes adhere to business regulations and industry compliance requirements," explains Carla Cicero, executive director, U.S. sales and vendor management, Ingram Micro Data Capture/POS business unit. "Payment terminals in particular are becoming increasingly popular and present a good 'in' for channel partners to engage existing customers and prospects on adopting or refreshing their IT environment to include customer service innovations such as the Equinox L5000." Equinox Payment terminals are now available to Ingram Micro channel partners throughout the U.S. Dedicated sales, marketing and technical resources are also readily available to mutual Equinox and Ingram Micro channel partners via the distributor's Data Capture/POS business unit. Equinox Payment resellers who are interested in becoming an Ingram Micro channel partner can contact Ingram Micro's new accounts team at (800) 456-8000, ext. 41, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Eastern or visit. More information about Ingram Micro is available at and. To learn, see and hear more about Ingram Micro online, follow the distributor on Facebook at; Twitter at; and YouTube at. About Equinox Payments, LLC Equinox Payments, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona is a leading payment terminal manufacturer and related secure software provider. Equinox has expanded its core business to focus on becoming an enabler of cloud-based convergence that will provide connectivity and integration between retailers, payment processors, consumer data, and payment credentialing systems -- all while providing its customers with the opportunity to lower their operating costs. Through its commercial offices in the United States, Latvia, Singapore and Australia, and a service repair facility in Mexico, Equinox's more than 225 employees deliver secure payment terminals, applications and services to hundreds of thousands of merchants worldwide. For more information, please) (714) 292-2199 marie@whitefoxpr.com Chris McDowell Equinox Payments, LLC (480) 551-7934 cmcdowell@equinoxpayments.com

7612 W Highway 71 Ste C, Austin, TX | Directions 7873530.241086 -97.881034 View Website View Less Dr. Shaddock is a Genius....... I highly recommend Dr. Shaddock for his chiropractic expertise. I injured my left knee and lower back snowboarding and have dealt with severe pain for three years. After seeing many doctors that could not help subdue the pain, without surgery, I was referred to Dr. Shaddock. After just several weeks of therapy, the constant pain started to subside and the everyday activities that have been next to impossible and painful, have become more than possible and the pain is a lot less frequent. I can enjoy my daily activities and activities of my children with ease and enjoyment unlike before. Everyone in the office was professional and guarantee quality care for all. It has been three and a half months now and I'm back to living everyday relatively pain free and am back to working out at a gym, with caution of course, I joined a month ago. I will continue to see Dr. Shaddock not only for therapy for my injuries, but also for alignments and anything else that can possibly be treated. THANK U! Fantastic!!. I have been a dental hygenist for 22 years and due to this I have constant back pain. I have heard wonderful things about Dr. Shaddock therefore I made an appointment for today. I couldn't believe how much better I felt after just one visit. I plan on going back as much as I can (I would go everyday if I could). I highly recommend this practice, it was a wonderful experience from the moment I walked in the door to the moment I left. Ok experience. My experience was good but I think I'll keep looking. I had a previous back injury and had visited other chiropractors and it seemed similar. Best Chiropractor In Austin!. I have found very few chiropractors that are at the same level as Dr. Shaddock. Not just from a professional standpoint but from a personal level as well. Dr. Shaddock is just a great person in general, but he also knows his stuff. If you are looking for a chirorpactor who will take time to listen, won't high pressure you, and will actually help you with your problems, Dr. Shaddock is your man. Seriously, let this guy help you-he is awesome! Best Chiro in Texas!. Dr. Shaddock is the best! I drive several hours to get to his office and its totally worth the drive. I have seen other chiropractors before and he is the best at explaining in terms i understand and making feel like a way better than i walked in. I am a runner/weekend athlete and Dr. Shaddock help make me aware of things I can do at home and in his office to optimize my quality of life. The scheduling is easy and the price is right. Better make an appointment now before he is all booked up. What a pleasant surprise!. I recently injured myself while training for a marathon, so I was referred to Dr. Shaddock last week. To be honest, I have never went to a chiropractor before, so I was a little nervous. All I can say is hats off to Dr. Shaddock for being such a great Doc! He took the time to listen to every thing I had to tell him and put together a treatment specific to my injury. I guess the best thing about this clinic is the deep tissue massage and how thorough he was in explaining my injury in terms I could actually understand. I will definately be a long time patient of Oak Hill Chiropractic. Thank you! Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Facebook to see what your friends are up to! Get the Citysearch Mobile app so you can spend less time searching for great places, and more time enjoying them.

Honda Replaces IMA Hybrid Technology with New Sport Hybrid Systems More than a decade later, Honda continues to use IMA technology in its hybrid vehicles. Such systems, which cannot propel the vehicle on electricity alone, are known as mild hybrids. A full-hybrid vehicle has a gasoline electric hybrid powertrain that can operate solely on the electricity stored in the battery pack for short distances and at lower vehicle speeds. However, this is about to change with the 2014 Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid that arrives in January 2013. As part of the company's Earth Dreams engine initiative, Honda is introducing a new lineup of Sport Hybrid powertrains for its hybrid-powered vehicles, and confirms that the two more popular systems will offer full-hybrid, EV driving capability. Sport Hybrid Intelligent Dual-Clutch Drive This new full-hybrid powertrain, which was announced on November 12, utilizes a new Earth Dreams 1.5-liter, Atkinson-cycle 4-cylinder engine, 7-speed dual-clutch transmission (DCT), single electric assist motor, and a Lithium-ion battery. Honda says that with this new hybrid powertrain, "the fun of driving is realized with acceleration g-force more powerful than that of existing models as well as a rhythmic and linear acceleration feeling." The automaker also says the EV driving mode is operational at vehicle start-up and when cruising at low-to-moderate speeds. Sport Hybrid Intelligent Multi-Mode Drive This is the new full-hybrid powertrain installed in the 2014 Honda Accord Plug-in Hybrid. The model is equipped with a new Earth Dreams 2.0-liter, Atkinson-cycle 4-cylinder engine, continuously variable transmission (CVT), two electric assist motors, and a Lithium-ion battery. The system automatically engages one of three driving modes, depending on how the vehicle is driven and the battery's state of charge: EV Drive, Hybrid Drive, and Engine Drive. In the Accord, this Sport Hybrid system is a plug-in hybrid, with a battery that offers pure electric driving for shorter trips. When the battery reaches a minimum state of charge, the system engages the gasoline engine and the vehicle operates as a conventional gasoline electric hybrid. Sport Hybrid SH-AWD Introduced in the Acura NSX Concept and destined for the redesigned 2014 Acura RLX luxury sedan, the new Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system pairs a direct-injection V-6 engine with a 7-speed DCT, three electric motors, and a Lithium-ion battery. One electric assist motor is contained within the transmission itself and directs power to the front and rear wheels. Two additional electric assist motors are located at the rear of the vehicle, controlling torque distribution to the rear wheels for a performance-oriented driving experience, according to Honda. Honda Model Ratings Honda Accord Ratings Acura Ratings

Notably, audio, communications and climate control features and their infamous myriad of buttons have been replaced by CUE, short for Cadillac User Experience, a new infotainment system which promises to turn the next generation of Cadillacs into giant rolling iPads. First shown earlier this year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, CUE gives drivers a new way to interact with their vehicles. Cadillac claims the system will make connectivity easier and it can reduce driver distraction by allowing the driver to use voice commands to control the system. CUE will come standard on the 2013 SRX. With CUE, users can pair their Bluetooth-enabled phones and plug in multiple USB devices, MP3 players and SD cards. A hidden cubby offers storage for the mobile phone, which we suppose is more to keep the driver from reaching for it while on the road than to keep it safe from break-ins. A huge, 8-inch touchscreen in the center stack serves as the CUE command center and displays music, navigation and other information. The screen uses proximity sensing and haptic feedback, so it can detect when the user's hand is close and adjust menu items accordingly. CUE lets you pinch, swipe, and use other hand motions we've been trained to do by smartphones and tablets. The system also uses voice recognition, so many functions can be performed without lifting a finger off the wheel or taking eyes off the road. On-trend with other automakers, Cadillac is piling a plethora of electronic driver aids into the 2013 SRX, including lane departure warning, rear cross traffic alert, automatic front and rear braking and adaptive cruise control. These systems can alert the driver to potential hazards. Other interior updates on the 2013 Cadillac SRX include a new shifter and a new steering wheel. On the outside, you'll be hard-pressed to spot the differences on the refreshed 2013 Cadillac SRX. The upper and lower front grilles have been changed, and, like just about every other new car these days, LED lighting has been integrated into the front fascia. Three new exterior colors also make their debut: Evolution Green Metallic, Glacier Blue Metallic and Silver Coast Metallic. A new 20-inch wheel design is also available. All models will continue to use a 3.6-liter V6 with direct injection that makes 308 horsepower and 265 pound-feet of torque. SRX is available with front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive. The 2013 Cadillac SRX will go on sale in the fall of 2012. Pricing has not yet been announced, but we anticipate it will start at around $37,000.

There are many types of allergens; therefore, it is nearly impossible to eliminate all allergens from your environment. But there are certain things you can do to help reduce allergens and minimize your exposure to allergy triggers. Still, while avoiding the allergens may eliminate your symptoms, it will not eliminate or reduce your sensitivity to that allergen, and symptoms will reoccur whenever you are re-exposed. - Control dust mites. - Control animal dander. - Control pests. - Control indoor molds. - Avoid airborne irritants. - Keep environments clean and dry. - Decrease exposure to outdoor allergens. The primary indoor allergens are waste products from microscopic organisms called dust mites. Dust mites are especially prevalent in bedding, curtains, and carpeting. To control dust mites: - Wash sheets and blankets weekly in hot water (130°F [54°C]) and dry in a hot dryer. - Cover mattresses and pillowcases with airtight allergen-proof covers. - Replace comforters and pillows made from natural materials (such as down, feathers, or cotton) with those made from synthetic fibers. - Avoid wall-to-wall carpeting (especially in the bedroom) as much as possible. If you have it, be sure to vacuum often. It is not animal fur that causes allergies, but a protein that exists in the saliva, urine, and skin flakes (dander) of animals. If you have a pet allergy, you may need to take certain steps to minimize contact with your pet's saliva, urine, and skin flakes. - Keep your pet out of the rooms you use most frequently (such as the bedroom). - Have other nonallergic family members groom your pet as often as possible. Be aware that you may have to remove your pet from your home if you or a family member is severely allergic. Studies have shown that people who live in environments that contain cockroaches and mice have a higher incidence of asthma and allergies. If pests are a chronic problem in your home consider hiring an exterminator. Other tips to diminish pest infestation include: - Close all open gaps in windows, floorboards, doors, and around drains. - Fix and seal leaky water faucets and pipes because roaches need water and humidity to survive. - Always keep food in airtight containers. - Remove pet food dishes after pets have eaten. - Keep stove and kitchen surfaces free of food and dirt. The spores of molds and fungi that thrive in warm, moist, and humid areas can create allergic reactions. To reduce indoor molds and fungi: - Remove any curtains, carpeting, or wallpaper that show visible evidence of mold. - Install exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom. - Use dehumidifiers in damp areas such as the basement. - Avoid storing clothing in damp areas. - Do not carpet damp or concrete floors. - Use a solution of 1 part bleach and 20 parts water to clean areas with mold. Air irritants and pollutants can trigger an allergic reaction. You can do the following to help reduce your exposure to airborne irritants: - Do not smoke or allow smoking in your home. - Avoid areas with fresh paint fumes. - Avoid the fumes of strong cleaning products. - Avoid perfumes and aerosols when possible. Nearly all allergens thrive in moist, damp, or dirty environments. One of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of allergic rhinitis is to maintain a clean, dry environment. The following will help: - Clean and vacuum frequently, using HEPA filters. - Use fans to promote air circulation. - Use an electrostatic air purifier. - Use a dehumidifier in damp areas. If you have allergies to pollens, molds, or other outdoor allergens: - Avoid raking, mowing, blowing leaves, and other outdoor activities that might put you in contact with allergens. - Gardening and farming are associated with high levels of exposure to molds. You may need to stop doing these activities. - Close windows and stay indoors (with air conditioning) when pollen counts are high. - Time your outdoor recreational activities (hiking, bicycling, camping) for when pollen counts are lower. If your symptoms are not controlled or become severe despite lifestyle changes and over-the-counter allergy medicines, contact your doctor for further care. Revision Information - Reviewer: Purvee S. Shah, MD - Review Date: 09/2012 - - Update Date: 00/91/2012 -

Here's hoping this year is better than last. 2012 was rough. There were good points, don't get me wrong, but between having to give up our home, losing our pup, economic issues, etc., it wasn't exactly a BANNER year. Granted, there are many who have it A LOT worse than we do, and we are incredibly lucky in so many ways. But here's hoping things improve for EVERYONE. I can dream, can't I? :) We got home yesterday afternoon from our Yosemite trip. It was sooooooo much fun! Other than having a tire blow out on the freeway on our way home. I was driving in the dark the night before and hit a big ol' pothole, which probably punctured the tire and caused a slow leak. Then we added all our stuff, then ourselves, and then it was just too much for the poor tire. Luckily we were less than an hour from home and have roadside assistance, so 2 lovely gentlemen showed up in a very timely manner to change the tire. So right now the spare tire is on. I'll go in on Thursday to get a new tire and have them check out the car, make sure everything's OK. But the trip was great. The kids went sledding and ice skating, and there was a little playground at the hotel. We had a nice room (at a VERY nice rate!), and the kids enjoyed it all. It was so good to get away for a couple of days, get the kids outside & playing in the snow. And, oh yes, to re-watch "Pride & Prejudice" (the Colin Firth version) on DirecTV in the hotel room. Today I went to yoga, then came home so Hubby could go climb with his buddies. I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but it seemed like a good way to kick of 2013. I'm also coming to realize the difference between dumping all over oneself and gently taking a good hard look inside, noticing the less-than-savory aspects, and working on changing them. Hubby and I also noticed that the kids seemed to feel very secure in the hotel room. We talked about it, and we believe it's because, while not teeny-tiny, it was a contained space. The house we're in right now is pretty big: 3 floors, 5 bedrooms,4 bathrooms. Of course, there are 9 people (and 1 large, hyper dog) living here at the moment, so the space comes in handy. But WG sleeps a floor below us and keeping track of both of them can be tricky. Plus, we both honestly believe that when the kids know exactly where we are, it makes them feel more comfortable. Not that we're going to be drone parents (like helicopter parents, but worse), but giving them that sense of security IS important. And, of course, our knowing where they are and what they're up to can be important. Especially when they start Climbing On Things, or going into rooms THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE IN!!!!!!!!! I know the dream is supposed to be to settle into a nice house, and "nice" often means "big." But we've lived in 2 houses and a townhouse on our own, and now share this house. Maybe the way to go, if we are ever able to do so, is to get a single-level home or even a condo. Maybe all that space isn't necessary. Maybe, just maybe, closer quarters will bring us closer together. Or, y'know, result in a multiple murder/suicide. We have dear friends who are quite well-off, financially. Yet they live, with their 2 kids, in the same apartment they've had for about 15 years, since before the kids were born. It's a beautiful place, with hardwood floors, in a great neighborhood. They don't own a TV, and they spend a lot of time together. And they're one of the most well-adjusted families you could ever meet! If the past year has taught me anything, it's that my priorities are still a bit skewed. We don't need a ton of Stuff. We don't need a McMansion (although I never wanted one of those: they must be a bitch to clean!). Happiness isn't always what we think it'll be. I will never be perfect at my job, but neither does that mean I suck at it. There will always be things to learn and room for improvement. If I want to stay happy, it is up to me. The fact is, I am QUITE happy and content right now. No, it's not an ideal situation, but what is? And even if a situation feels ideal, how long does the feeling last? OK, one final note: Since I STILL cannot post links on my blog (that's on my list of Things To Learn How To Do this year), I am going to direct you to a post on Tumblr by the magnificent Louise Brealey: Actor, journalist, writer, feminist, and all-around person-I'd-like-to-be-if-I-ever-grow-up, even though she's, like, 20 years younger than I am. It's called On Yellow Paper, and the post is "What Molly Did Next:." (She plays Molly on "Sherlock.") She recently played 3 roles in an updated version of "Trojan Women," including Helen, and had to strip nude. It's a GREAT article!!!!!!! OK. I'm out. Happy New Year, lovelies! 1 comment: Happy new year to you too! I hear ya about the "stuff". After going through our house a bit I've come to realise how much "stuff" we have that we really don't need...and am trying to, over the next year, do some more purging. Also a more careful selection of what comes into our home. We don't have the perfect house and sometimes I get angry that my friends have nicer, better things, but in the end...it doesn't matter. We live pretty well all things considered, and I am very grateful for my life. :)

Let me start off by saying that i have been DVRMSToolbox since Windows XP Media Center Edition and have never had any problems seting it up to do commercial skipping. But i just recently upgraded to windows 7 (which so far has been great) and for the life of me cant get skipping to work. I am an Early access member and payed for showanalyser. I installed the latest early edition DVRMSToolbox - 1.2.2.0 (R2) and ShowAnalyser Version 1.0.52.760 and DTBAddin for Window 7 - 1.0.0.4 (R2).I followed this step by step, and it looks like everything installs correctly but i cant get the remote to turn off and on the commercial skip. Showanalyser shows the .WTV as being processed but still no skip.I love this software but i cant for the life of me get it to work with Windows 7. Can anyone help me out?Bert I too have been a long term user of DVRMS and too have recently moved to Windows 7. the instructions at are somewhat outdated, but this is what I know so far. I have installed, removed and downloaded and re-installed the DVRMSTToolbox and the ComSkip. It appears to be marking commercials after the show is recorded. in working with here are some of the results. Lastly, I cannot find the ehexthost log or determine how to create it. There are no errors that I can see, but the Com Skip on/off does not work, the skip ahead and back buttons do not work and in just watching thw show does commercials do not skip. If anyone is willing I have the time, the knowledge and the desire to get this fixed today. tony2003@runright.ca make sure you have the addin installed. It is a separate installer. Also, comskip cannot read wtv files yet. You must use Show Analyzer Version 1.0. That is unless you convert to dvrms first. Okay here are the steps I took, and the results. Nothing worked - see last paragraph. Uninstalled the DVRMSToolbox and the Show Analyzer (I know I thought it was the ComSkip) Deleted the old DVRMSToolbox and Show Analyzer Directories Downloaded a new copy of DVRMSToolbox1219 Followed your link and downloaded the Show Analyzer Suite Installed and ran DVRMSToolbox1219 and did NOT allow the Show Analyzer be automatcially downloaded and installed Installed and ran the Show Analyzer Suite and didn't like it. downloaded ShowAnalyzer Latest version (0.9.7) from have already purchased the program... Uninstalled the DVRMSToolbox and the Show Analyzer Suite Installed and ran DVRMSToolbox1219 and did NOT allow the Show Analyzer be automatcially downloaded and installed (Right click run as administrator) Installed the Show Analyzer (Right click run as administrator) Started Media Center, went to a recorded show, I hoped the question to mark the commercials, or for skip forward/back buttons to work (They only bring up the Program Info), or for it to skip a commercial. no luck. Also discovered that the down arrow usually used to turn the Autoskip on and off, only produced the Windows mini tv guide. Restarted computer, tried again ... no luck, got the same results. The part that gets me is the down arrow button used to turn the Autoskip off and on doesn't work...that should be a basic feature. Looking over the instructions again and maybe it does have to be the Show Analyzer Suite. So uninstalled everything and did all the above with the Show Analyzer Suite...same results. Windows 7 Pro 64 bit << all the lastest fixes and patchesIntel DG965WH Motherboard (latest BIOS), Intel Quad 2.4 Ghz CPU4 Gig Ram, 571 GB free of 931 GB Local Disk C: (Most space taken by recorded tv shows)Clean install on DEC 27, 2009 I still question that the basic on/off function does not work. Right now using the down arrow on the remote only brings up the program info (and yes I am testing this on a pre-recorded show). I have uninstalled everything again and am leaving it running with all the default settings that come with the DVRMSToolbox1219 and the ShowAnalyzer Latest version (0.9.7). I am open to any ideas. the FAQ should read Vista/7. I will fix that. You kind of lost me with that comment....Vista/7 ?? I am still waiting for my reply sent about 10 hours ago to appear on this site... Tony Okay, I thought I had kept a complete copy of what I sent previously...guess I didn't, here it is again in a nut shell I have uninstalled DVRMSToolbox1219 and Show Analyzer (I know I said ComSkip before) and have gone and deleted any remaining files in the directory, did a restart and then installed the new software, using right click run as administrator, restarted again and tested. I did this a few times, Installing DVRMSToolbox and a separate downloaded version of Show Analyzer, Show Analyzer Suite. In all cases (and just to narrow down things) after the install, and going to a recorded TV show, and pressing the down arrow on the remote, I expect a window saying the Auto-Skip is off or on and all I get is the program guide. The skip buttons also only give the the Program Info. From what I can figure out, everything is loaded and working in the backgroup. It looks like it marks the commercials after recording. It just doesn't work.... any more ideas? Tony Well you didn't mention the addin in the things you installed. My apoligies if you already have this, but this is a must for the functionality you are talking about. No problems, ask any questions, I really like this program and am already really missing it. Okay back to add ons. In Windows MCE I have only downloaded and installed the DVRMSToolbox1219 and when it asked if it should, I let it install Show Analyzer Version 0.9.7. About the referenced DTB addin, I did not specifically download and install such a program, but in the task mananger I do see a DTBFWService.exe and a DTBService running. No other MCE add in's have been knowingly installed. I have found, downloaded and installed DTBAddin for Window 7 - 1.0.0.4 (R2), it would not let me download the R3 version, now what? Install the version corresponding to your system x86 or x64 and you should be good to go. That definantly solved the problam...Thank You Very Much... For those who skip to the bottom, a recap1) Downloaded and installed DVRMSToolbox1219 which came with Show Analyzer Version 0.9.7. It appeared the program was not working, the arrow keys on the remote that control it were not functioning and there was no skipping of commercials happening. 2) Solution downloaded DTBAddin for Window 7 - 1.0.0.4 R2 from and ran it. 3) Worked as before with asking if it should mark commercials with programs already recorded and it did mark them and the directional buttons worked correctly too! 4) Haven't tested the full gambit of functions yet, but as of now it is a lot better than before. Thanks again Here's the link. If you purchased Show Analyzer before 1.0 was release you can retrieve your key for the new version here. The version you have will not work.

I had been dreading talking to Elijah's daycare provider about the fact that he recently had a croup episode during an afternoon nap. I didn't want to scare her and I also didn't see a way to ensure he would be 100% safe if he had a croup episode away from home. I finally talked to her about it and within 24 hours she had gotten a used nebulizer from a friend and Dan and I had scrounged up some extra tubing/masks so she could have a second set of "croup supplies" at her house. Dan brought her a vial of our magic croup medication along with detailed instructions about how to handle an episode. I feel a million times better! I am thankful that this didn't scare her, even when I told her how frightening and life-threatening his episodes can be. I am thankful that she IMMEDIATELY helped us to find a solution and that now she has what she needs at her home to help our little boy if he has an episode. I am thankful that MY peace was important to her and that I can breathe a little easier now. I am thankful that Elijah is such a loved, blessed little man! It seems like I can't keep up with writing about all of the funny things Elijah has been doing lately. Yesterday I found some of the new baby's clothes (Elijah's old stuff) stuffed into the front of Elijah's shirt drawer in his bedroom. I guess he is trying to reclaim some of his old clothes?? Lately when Dan and I are chatting and Elijah wants to be a part of the conversation, he will say, "MAMA TALK!" In other words, I'M PATIENTLY WAITING FOR YOU TO STOP TALKING! Last night we had cake and ice cream with a few family members to celebrate Dan's dad's birthday. Elijah was more eager than I've ever seen to get his hands on some cake and ice cream. He totally devoured it and asked for more ice cream FOUR times (he takes after his mommy!). Everyone thought the way he ate his ice cream was really funny. He picked it up like it was a cookie and took big bites out of it. :) This week is really busy for me with work, so I have been working like crazy on my computer from the couch. Elijah doesn't have preschool this week (spring break) so he has been going to daycare and Dan is doing work for a friend. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL! Ahhh, this is what living in Minnesota is all about!

Comments on: 2013 Hyundai Genesis 2.0T / 3.8 R-Spec Coupe - Instrumented Test- Read story More power and more Veloster nose. They forgot to mention "Snarling goofy alien nose" as a "Low." Sure it's improved, but this will never gain ground as a serious sports coupe as long as it looks like every other Hyundai. Not too bad........but not too good. Right on the cutting edge of.....mediocre! BD A for effort but a B- for execution. I personally think they are a bit over priced considering what else you can get in that price range. Sorry, but I'm not aware of the RWD car with 270+ HP for under $28k The Mustang has 300+ HP for $23k, and gets 31 MPG...... BD BD, i generally agree with your comments but i have to side with the genesis over the mustang. u'd have to get the v6 premium with the performance package, over 30k, to come close to the tech the genesis provides standard for 2k less. Maybe I am alone in this but I couldn't care less about how much "tech" my performance car has, I care about performance. And for the price it doesn't provide as much as I would hope for. On Tech front, it looks like the base 2.0T doesn't come with many more bells and whistles than any other car. The only things that stand out to me are the standard leather steering wheel, shift knob and bluetooth I'll take the $5k I'd save with the Mustang and get an iPad, a Samsung GS3, wheels and tires, and a years worth of gas. And I'd outperform any Hyundai 4-banging GC for years to come! And probably smoke the $30k V6 too! BD showcase -Incorrect my friend, you do not have to spend anywhere near 30K to get a Mustang that rivals the Genesis "Tech". Quit paying attention to MSRP. A brand new '13 V-6 Mustang with the Performance Pack and Premium trim can easily be had for less than $25K real-world. My 2012 Mustang GT/CS had an MSRP of almost $38K and I purchased it with almost no hassles for $30,200, $3K rebate from Ford and a no-hassle discount of $4400 from the dealer. This was in March 2012 and the deals are still similar for the '13s, only the rebate is currently $1500. My GT/CS has all of the regular GT Premium stuff along with the Boss front and rear clips and unique 19" wheels. Added a Ford SVT GT-500 axle back exhaust for only $300 myself and a set of 275/40-19 P-Zeros replaced the stock 245/45-19s out back. And as a bonus, only 2573 GT/CS were built in 2012, so if I keep it for 20 yrs it will have some collector value. Not sure about the Genesis...... when i was saying tech, i meant the lsd, rims, taller gearing, etc. the things that make it a sport car. a base 23k mustang doesnt have all that. i totaly agree on getting that v6 premium with the performance package if it can be had at 25k. i was looking at msrps, that's the only price i have to go on without considering each specific dealer's incentives Performance and feel are what make a sports car a sports car. It doesn't matter how you go about it. The fact that the clutch and shifter are a pain make the Genesis less of a true sports car to me because it doesn't interface with the driver like a real sports car should. The lsd is the only thing that really matters tech wise, but you can get one for around $600 aftermarket. You can get nicer wheels (rims, whatever) too. I don't see how taller gearing makes it any sportier either. How often do you drive 150 mph, showcase? I'd say Tony is right. It's overpriced and it looks about the same (even worse to some) than the older ones, so it isn't going to be noticed as being improved by the general public even. I'm very picky when it comes to the feel of a sports car (as are most enthusiasts), and the older Genesis just didn't feel good to me, this one isn't that much different, so it probably won't drive any better. The Mustang I drove felt better to me. I couldn't buy a new Genesis personally as I know I would trade it in. showcase0712 - ALL Mustangs come with an LSD standard - it's called the Traction-Lok rear axle, that's Ford's name for it, it's the same, beefy 8.8" rear diff they've been using forever and drag racers love it for it's durability, it's a good road race unit as well, though not as advanced as the Torsen diffs used in the Boss and GT-500. It's a very good standard unit and it uses Carbon Fiber friction plates/clutches. The Ford website specs are pretty sparse but if you go to the pdf spec brochure and open it you'll see very clearly that all Mustangs come with a standard limited-slip diff. They have for years. And also, to echo Brian H's comment, taller gearing is generally less desirable for performance unless you are making LOTs of HP and have terrible traction problems, not an issue with a 350HP Genesis by any means. you should see what these look like after a good knock, there is a reason that car has hard points to lock onto when towing or pulling, not the best without question and with the wacks out there today , the key word is safety It's in the middle of the pack. It's styling I think is a major question mark. And it could stand a tad more refinement. The look is what makes the car so conversational. I wish manufactures were chasing the frs/brz or rx8 trend and not the 370z/mustang Those are some nice power gains but the 1st gen looked better $2000 higher? Wow. It makes me think about a base mustang coupe V6 with the 6 speed for $22k. Plus this car is ugly in the front. I like the last version better. I'll pass on this car. makes no sense at all when the V6 mustang can be had in the really low 20k's and for the price of a V6 genesis a V8 mustang is the better choice, better looks more power and that's really all that matters in the sport coupe segment They should stick with it. It is not my taste, but it has a market. They do need to work on the car's status though. The best cars in the world are the ones that create their own standards. Yes a 911 has many competitors, but in the end there is nothing like the 911. Certain Corvettes compete directly with the 911, but most Vette buyers will never consider 911. That is where the Genesis is failing, why should I buy this car? I'm still unsure of Hyundai's power delivery. The turbo four makes 274 hp, 37 more than a Lancer Ralliart, but the latter does 60 in about 5.5 and the quarter in 14 flat, nearly half a second quicker on both aspects. I know that the Mitsubishi is 4WD, but once the RWD Genesis is done with its wheelspin, the times should have been similar as it supposedly still has a power advantage. C/D's test of the RalliArt had it at 5.7 and 14.4@94 mph. This Gen 2.0T's numbers (5.9, 14.4@99 mph) don't prove that it's power numbers are inaccurate. The 3.8's 1/4 mile run (13.8@104) is right on the heels of cars like the Hemi-powered Challenger R/T (13.6@106), Mitsu Evo (13.5@101), Nismo 370Z (13.7@105) and actually beats the likes of the WRX STI (13.9@99) and BMW 335 (13.8@103). Not bad... and I think it shows up those who disparage "Hyundai-horsepower". i'm one of those disparagers, and i'll continue to disparage it until they get real. i guess it depends on where you get your information. not sure where you got your numbers from but c&d ran a 335i at 13.4 with an automatic and all-seasons. so having summer tires, a manual, a stiffer suspension, and "48" more hp, the hyundai still trails by several tenths. same old story. also, the sti does it in 13.5 at 101, and C&D pulled a 13.6 in the standard 370z way back in january of 2009, and that car has 20hp less than the nismo. All those numbers are from right here on caranddriver.com. I'm sorry that you're the only person in the world that didn't know about BMW underrating their engines, too. FYI, since you seem incapable of research: ... with a manual and summer tires, lol. Also: nice improvement. now stop inflating the hp numbers, and they may earn some street cred among enthusiasts The V6 is as quick as a good running, stone stock 1970 Hemi Cuda. Attend a vintage "muscle car" event and see how well that dose of reality sits. Not bad, Hyundai. Keep at it and eventually the Genesis Coupe might gain a little status in the Sportscar world.

Blog Archives Nabeel Rajab: imprisoned for tweets, paying the price for the struggle for freedom Witness Bahrain interviewed human rights activist and Bahrain Center for Human Rights President Nabeel Rajab in Bahrain yesterday (July 9) just before he was taken to jail for a three-month sentence related to an update he posted on Twitter. In the video, Rajab states: “I will not stop and I’m teaching people not to stop. If everybody will keep quiet after putting them in jail, then it’s a disaster. We should challenge that. We should be willing to pay the price for the struggle for the freedom that we fight for. And this is the price.” Read the entire Witness for Bahrain blog post here. The Bahrain Coordinating Committee supports the universal right to freedom of expression and calls for the immediate release of Nabeel Rajab. Related articles - Bahrain Activist Jailed for a Tweet (theatlanticwire.com) - Jail for Bahrain protest leader over tweet (aljazeera.com) - Bahrain: Rights Activist Jailed for ‘Insulting’ Tweets (hrw.org): Mary.) Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja ends hunger strike; Bahrain Coordinating Committee calls for release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Download the PDF of this press release Media Contact: Mary Fletcher Jones Email: BahrainCC.org@gmail.com Phone: (571) 269-7559 (24 hrs/7 days) Bahrain Activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja Ends Hunger Strike; Bahrain Coordinating Committee Calls for Release [Washington, DC] May 28, 2012 — The DC-based Bahrain Coordinating Committee applauds the sustained courage of Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, the imprisoned human rights activist on trial for leading protests in Bahrain, who ended his 110-day hunger strike today, and calls for his unconditional release and the dismissal of all charges. In a letter to his family, the activist stated the hunger strike served one of its purposes: to shed light on the ongoing human rights violations in Bahrain. Although he did not attain his freedom, the second objective of his hunger strike, he felt prison officials had made it clear to him that they would force feed him again if his health deteriorated. Read the report on his letter to his family here, from Bahrain Center for Human Rights: Khawaja commenced his hunger strike on February 8, 2012 to protest conditions of his detention, including abuse and torture while in custody. The activist was force-fed on with a naso-enteric tube in late April. The World Medical Association states that force-feeding is a form of inhumane and degrading treatment. Khawaja, the co-founder of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, has been imprisoned for more than a year. He was arrested in April 2011 and sentenced to life in prison by the National Security Court in a martial law proceeding. The sentence was condemned by international human rights groups and several nations, and is being re-tried in the civil courts, along with the cases of twenty-one other activists. About the Bahrain Coordinating Committee The Bahrain Coordinating Committee is a Washington, DC-based grassroots movement that works to obtain U.S. support for democracy and human rights reforms in Bahrain. For more information, please visit # # # # # #

Remember the days when you went on holiday and spent evenings writing "Wish You Were Here" on postcards? Doesn't happen much these days - now we just Facebook "At the 12 Apostles" or msg "Good times on the road" but occasionally some sweet person, usually a fellow blogger, sends a postcard and it ends upon the fridge only further exacerbating my wonderlust. Alan Burnett at News From Nowhere has started a bit of a craze that's taken off all over the world. Twitter for Gentlefolk has seen a huge postcard exchange take place on the blogosphere and, well, bless his Yorkshire socks, he sent me one! Jeff and I returned the favour but God knows what he'll make of the drunken and badly written ramblings on the back of our cacky handed contribution (yep we're both left handed with awful handwriting), barely worth publishing . . . Unlike Alan's contribution to me which was far more genteel. Just wish I looked like the slim blonde! Well it wasn't quite a motorcycle ride around the country but the Holden Cruze was a comfy ride. So nice to have friends 'across the water', all 12,000 miles of it! God, did I remember the air mail sticker or did I just write it on the back of the card? 11 comments: nice. i must say this whole idea has saved the post card industry...sales are sky rocketing...buy stock now... cool post card.... Oooh, that's a wonderful postcard! This swap is so fun, isn't it? Looking forward to when Alan receives yours! :) What a fun idea! I am going to have to check out Twitter for Gentlefolk. Love Alan's postcard to you. i haven't had a postcard in so long- used to belong to a club and we sent to one another post to post it was called I must have had my head in the sand to miss this postcard revolution...I love getting them, and usually send a bunch when I'm on vacation. Love the idea of exchanging them with bloggers and posting. Tina @ Life is Good Love it! I have a vintage postcard collection that really should be shared. I'm all for bringing paper postcards back to life. Have a blogging friend in the USA who collects postcards from all over the world, so she gave me her address and when I see a fun card, I send it to her. The card you got is beautiful and lovingly written. Sweet ;-) that's awesome...prolly got some laying around i should send out... maybe next year I love this! Alan is SO sweet and SUCH a great idea! It is SUCH a treat to receive something personal via snail mail. Doesn't happen enough! I love this idea. I'm must go look. The postcard from Alan is so retro. Very cool. The "hand" written word. What a lost concept! I still like to write letters but I so seldom do. Once upon a time, I would write in the neighborhood of 20 letters monthly. We always lived away from our home state, family and friends so I had many correspondents. I kept track of them in a writing log and I still have the months & # of ltrs. Still have the records. Wild, huh?

Anne Moshier Sanderson resident Anne Moshier fled Homestead, FL as a young girl to escape the wrath of Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the city and much of South Florida 20 years ago. Last week on August 24, the anniversary of the hurricane’s landfill, Ms. Moshier updated her Facebook status to say, “Hurricane Andrew changed my life forever ...” That day would have been her first day of 5th grade at South Dade Baptist Church and School. But the day before, she recalled this week, her parents, Terry and Howard Moshier, were in a frenzy. Hurricane Andrew had reached Category 5 intensity and would become the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, that is until Hurricane Katrina hit some 15 years later in 2005. But in the days leading up to impact, the hurricane was forecasted to make landfall further south, so the Moshiers, who lived in a sturdy home on the Homestead Air Force Base where her father was stationed, had not prepared. “All the TVs in the house were on,” recalled Ms. Moshier, a Macclenny photographer. “The military police were on their loud speakers ordering everyone out. It was very surreal, like a bad dream. We started packing the truck with important papers, our pets and so forth. My dad was concerned about his Harley, so we brought it into the kitchen. I thought it was the funniest thing, but then again, I was a child and Daddy’s bike was never allowed inside.” Ms. Moshier, 10 years old at the time, and her mother evacuated while her father stayed behind as ordered. Their destination: the home of her aunt, Wilda Heppner, in Sanderson. They slept in a spare room with her cousin’s toys. “The traffic was insane in both directions, north and south. Truckers on the CB were talking about hurricane parties and I didn’t have a clue what that was at the time,” she said. “The rest areas and fast food chains were slammed with people evacuating and pulling over for a quick break before hitting the turnpike and highways again. It seemed to take forever to reach Sanderson, but I remember pulling in her driveway. From that point on, we stuck to the TV like glue.” Meanwhile, her father, who now resides in Ohio, rode out the storm on the base with his colleagues. The building they were inside lost its roof and they moved to another location in the middle of the hurricane. Ms. Moshier’s childhood home was one of the few structures to survive the hurricane. It had only partial damage to the roof. Her dad and other men stayed in the house for several days after Andrew hit with limited food and water and no power. She’s remembers seeing a video they shot of the aftermath. “It looked like a train wreck; it reminded me of a third world country,” said Ms. Moshier. “Everything was water-soaked, leaves and junk were scattered throughout the house. It looked horrible and I couldn’t imagine how that was the best home to stay in. I finally had a tree house though, as a playhouse had ended up in a tree in our backyard.” Since leaving Homestead for Baker County two decades ago, Ms. Moshier has never been back. There was nothing to go back to, she said. Her school was gone. The base, as they knew it, was lost. Her father was re-stationed to Virginia. Her best friend and her family ended up in South Carolina. “A couple of years ago, I took a trip to the Keys. As we approached South Florida, I saw the exit signs for places I remembered, as well as signs for the base which is now used for veteran’s affairs. I held my breath as we drove by ...” Ms. Moshier said. “Maybe one day, I’ll go back.” Though she was just a girl when the hurricane wreaked havoc across South Florida and forever changed her life and those of many others, Ms. Moshier has vivid memories of that time, including her first day at Keller Intermediate School where she would return years later as a substitute teacher. “I don’t have fond memories of that school year. I can still remember the smell, the classrooms, the gym; everything. For years, those memories would make me nauseous. They were directly linked to Andrew and all that entailed,” she said. With another hurricane, Isaac, heading toward the Gulf Coast and bringing with it the ghosts of Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Moshier said her best advice for hurricane preparedness is knowing when to evacuate. “When the big one hits, you can’t stay. You just can’t,” she said. Northeast Florida and Baker County in particular have been largely spared by the worst impacts from hurricanes. But that’s no reason to become complacent, according to Ms. Moshier. “We get lots of rain, which causes horrible flooding, but we seem to skirt the worst ones, and thankfully so,” she said. “I’m not sugar coating anything though. We have as much possibility of welcoming an Andrew or Katrina as anyone else on the Atlantic or Gulf. We have been lucky.” Keeping supplies of bottled water, flash lights and batteries should be standard operating procedure for all Floridians, she added. “Don’t leave too early, don’t leave too late, but always be ready and willing to go. Your home, my home; no home or property is worth risking your life and no home is ‘hurricane code.’ That’s a joke — both Andrew and Katrina will testify to that,” said Ms. Moshier. One more tip: always grab your photos before evacuating. “That is one thing that brings me to tears whenever I see the aftermath of storms, fires, etc. on the news; when someone is sifting through what is left and finds a family photograph,” she said. “I don’t know why but that’s the saddest thing to me.”

Oh Really? NFL Baller Justin Durant Says He Would Still Eat ‘Chick-fil-A’s’ Chicken Even If They Supported Slavery! (Open Discussion) On Wednesday, NFL Detroit Lions linebacker Justin Durant weighed in on the ongoing controversy surrounding Chick-fil-A and the restaurant owner’s public opposition to gay marriage. The NFL baller ended up saying in so many words that he would still support Chick-fil-A (because of their tasty chicken sandwiches) even if they came out in support of slavery. Durant took to his Twitter account yesterday and asked his followers “what happened with Chick-fil-A?” As several replies came pouring in, Durant expressed his disbelief that there was any controversy at all. He Tweeted: “Chick-Fil-A not even open on Sunday how people shocked that the owner feels that way?” He also questioned why people would let someone’s personal beliefs factor into their meal decisions. “So people not gon get the best chicken sammich and lemonade on the planet because of a personal belief? Word?” Idk maybe it‘s just me but I could care less about what people choose to believe in as long as I’m good At one point, someone asked him if he would boycott Chick-fil-A “if the owner came out and said slavery was a good idea.” His response: “Chicken too tasty.” Is this guy serious, or maybe he’s joking around? We have eaten at Chick-fil-A many times, but their chicken is not that good for us to keep supporting their business if they hypothetically came out in support of slavery. Some people just don’t know the impact that slavery had on the past and present state of African-American families. ANY THOUGHTS ON DURANT’S COMMENTS? 1st Photo Credit: NFL/Getty Images 2nd Photo Credit: Themajors.net Justin is no dummy. He knew what he was saying and I totally get it. The fact that anyone would try and equate gay marriage with slavery is ridiculous and insulting so Justin called their bluff and said he would eat the chicken anyway. His point, as I interpret it, is that the ghay community has an agenda that is about trying to make every other community and establishment kiss their behind. They want to be the number one minority and eventually the majority and I say bump them and their wack philosophy and immoral lifestyle. Leave chic-Fil-A alone. If you aren’t boycotting Khols which has an openly racist CEO then why should black folk care about boycotting a chicken spot?

2013 Convention Preview: Virginia's GOP delegates to choose nominees for lt. gov and AG this weekend! James Patrick Patrick earned his Bachelor's degree from the University of Idaho in 1968. James has served in the Idaho National Guard from 1968 to 1974. Patrick is also a former bank executive. Committee assignments 2013-2014 At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Patrick served on the following committees: 2011-2012 In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Patrick served on these committees: 2009-2010 In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Patrick served on these committees: Elections.[1][2] 2010 Patrick won re-election to District Seat 23A in 2010 with no opposition. He ran unopposed in the Republican primary on May 25th. The general election took place on November 2, 2010.).[4] Campaign donors 2012 Campaign donor information is not yet available for this year. 2010 In 2010, a year in which Patrick was up for re-election, he collected $6,835 in donations.[5] His largest contributors in 2010 were: 2008 In 2008, Patrick raised $18,330. Listed below are those who contributed the most to his campaign. [6] Personal James is married to Afton Patrick. They have two children and live in Twin Falls, Idaho. Recent news This section displays the most recent stories in a Google news search for the term "James + Patrick + Idaho + Senate" - All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine. James Patrick News Feed - Plans languish for overhaul of NYC's Penn Station - The Idaho Statesman - 'Life-Preserving' Law In Oklahoma Raises Questions For Doctors - Huffington Post - Huffington Post - The dirty secrets of the CIA's War on Terror - MiamiHerald.com - Holder Had Stepped Back from AP Probe - East Idaho News - How senators voted: Expanding gun background checks - USA Today - USA TODAY - AP Sportlight - The Idaho Statesman - Kerry says he'll answer questions on Benghazi - KHQ Right Now - Grading Every Team's Undrafted Free Agent Signings - Bleacher Report - National Hockey League Playoff Game Capsules - The Idaho Statesman - Gun control backers: Senate defeat won't stop us - Idaho State Journal Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found External links - Campaign Website - Campaign Twitter - Idaho House of Representatives - James Patrick - Project Vote Smart legislative profile - Project Vote Smart biography - Campaign contributions: 2008, 2006, 2002 References - James Patrick - State legislative article missing donor information -

2013 Convention Preview: Virginia's GOP delegates to choose nominees for lt. gov and AG this weekend! Jeff Chiesa.[2].[3]. He now lives in Branchburg with his wife and two children.[2] It was at Dughi & Hewit that Chiesa reportedly met New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.[2] In 2002 Chiesa joined Christie to the U.S. Attorney's Office where he led some of what have been described as high-profile public corruption cases. For example, Chiesa led a case against former New Jersey Senate President John Lynch.[2] Education - BA, University of Notre Dame (1987) - JD, Catholic University of America (1990) Political Career New Jersey Attorney General (2012-present) In 2009, Chiesa led the transition team when Chris Christie (R) stepped into office as Governor of New Jersey. He was named Christie’s chief counsel in January 2010, and served in this position until December 2011, when the governor nominated him for Attorney General of New Jersey.[3] Chiesa took office as attorney general in January 2012. Appointments 2011 Chiesa was nominated to serve as the state's chief law enforcement officer by Governor Chris Christie in December 2011. On January 10, 2012 Chiesa was sworn in as New Jersey's 59th attorney general.[4] Recent news This section displays the most recent stories in a Google news search for the term "Jeff + Chiesa + New + Jersey + Attorney" - All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine. Jeff Chiesa News Feed - NJ trooper get probation for high-speed escort - Philly.com - Philly.com - NJ AG warns consumers to check vehicle flood and salvage database - Legal News Line - NJ Supreme Court reinstates conviction of man for sexually abusing young girl - Hunterdon County Democrat - NJ.com - Father of 4-year-old NJ boy who shot friend is charged - Reuters - Officials announce new Route 130 enforcement effort - phillyBurbs.com - Perth Amboy gang leader pleads guilty to racketeering - MyCentralJersey.com - Lopatcong Township state trooper gets probation for unauthorized high-speed ... - The Express Times - LehighValleyLive.com - Trooper loses job, gets probation for 2012 sports car escort - Shore News Today - Authorities Announce Major Atlantic City Drug Distribution Crackdown - CBS Local - Cocaine Distribution Conviction Handed Down for Par-Troy Man - Patch.com Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found Contact information Office of The Attorney General P.O. Box 080 Trenton, NJ 08625-0080 Tel: 609-292-4925 See also External links References - ↑ New Jersey.com, "N.J. Attorney General Paula Dow leaves office after nearly 2 stressful, sometimes frustrating, years," January 3, 2012 - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 New Jersey Real-Time News,"New N.J. attorney general takes the reins at a turbulent time for crime fighters," January 25, 2012 - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Office of the AG, "Biography of Jeff Chiesa", accessed January 31, 2012 - ↑ State of New Jersey Office of the Attorney General "Biography of Jeff Chiesa," accessed April 26, 2012

Pell’s Quadrant essay is sooooo wrong Posted by Dave Bath on 2007-09-05 The current (2007-09) issue of QuadRant has more pieces deserving challenge than usual, but Archbishop Pell’s encomium of Constantine I is a particularly dangerous essay, providing arguments for those who call for cataclysmic overthrow of the state and the introduction of a world-wide Caliphate. His selective marshalling of facts and interpretation of history in "Constantine: The First Catholic Emperor" are barely less twisted than the holocaust-denying David Irving. Like Irving, Pell cannot fall back on the lame excuses of poor education or lack of intellectual capacity. The essay really should be dissected line-by-line, but I don’t have the time. It is unsurprising that a key member of the CDF, the rebadged Spanish Inquisition, would produce such a piece, desirous of the necessary and sufficient preconditions for a new Dark Ages, replacing liberal democracies with autocratic theocracies. What is surprising is that QuadRant editors agreed to publish it, unless they see praise of Constantine as implying praise of Howard’s manipulative entangling of religion and politics. First I’ll discuss the political aspects of the work, then it’s flaws regarding the history of moral philosophy and theology. Apologist for terrorist literature: Pell states (p55): The cult of the "divine" emperor was also an explicit buttress for the unity of the empire, so that Christian refusal to offer sacrifice to the emperor and the traditional gods also brought undesirable political consequences and helps explain the persecutions. … Christians were not violent revolutionaries, like the Jewish Zealots not terrorists or anarchists, and repeated persecutions had not eliminated or radically diminished their numbers. Persecution? More Christians died in the arena under emperors that were "Christian" rather than pagan. The worst emperors who persecuted Christians terrorized the entire population regardless of religion. Pell knows that the more "important buttress for the unity of the empire" was the policy of religious tolerance, of anything but human sacrifice. Pell, like many Latin students, would have pored over the letters between Trajan and his governor in Bithynia, Pliny the Younger. He would know of many reasons why Romans were deeply worried about Christians while Jews were readily accepted (even if considered "weird"): - Christians refused to take a loyalty oath, a sprinkle of incense on an altar and a form of words little more than "God save the Queen", little less disrespectful of a single deity than the way modern Roman Catholics pray to saints. - The secrecy about Christian rites did not stop hints of human sacrifice and cannibalism: blood mixed in wine, bodies mixed in bread. Combine this with worship of the "Christ Child" and we can see why rumors spread that Christians killed and ate babies, and why feeding Christians to the lions was considered poetic justice. - Roman authorities, just like all biblical scholars, recognize that the Book of Revelation of St John of Patmos revels in the thought of the cataclysmic downfall of Rome thinly disguised as the "Whore of Babylon". Christians promoted this and similar works as scripture. Any state is justified in prosecuting those who refuse to accept the rule of law, who are proselytes for literature that is frankly seditious. Ruddock’s censorship, in the name of "anti-terrorism", of far less inflammatory literature (such as that praising East Timor’s struggle for independence) is far more restrictive than the Roman intolerance of apocalytic texts. Thus, Pell is an apologist for those who not only refuse loyalty oaths, but call for the violent overthrow of the state. Pell, a critic of Islam because of a minority who hope for the overthrow of our system of government from unwarranted confidence in the wisdom of power-hungry clerics, praises exactly the same excesses of Christianity. Apologist for a Caliphate: Pell gives almost unalloyed praise of Constantine’s institutionalization of co-dependent political and religious power. This is the same political structure as the world caliphate desired by radical Islamists. Constantine did not bring religious freedom, but promoted one religion, and manipulated it to achieve mastery of its doctrine and adherents, without explicit prohibition of other religions. Constantine was not "disappointed by the lack of Christian doctrinal unity", but exploited it. He gave favors first to one group of clerics, then another, ensuring that none remained confident of patronage, keeping them all subservient, ensuring that all promoted doctrines served the political imperitives. The tame clerics were ordered to produce a canonical bible and creed, one that necessitated state-sponsored church intercession between god and human. Non-canonical scripture could then be treated as heresy, especially Gnostic scripture that allowed individuals to commune directly with their god. If you held heretic views, you were (if lucky) exiled. The shaping of convenient Christian doctrine under Constantine is one of the reasons why more remnants of early Christianity are found in Islam, inheritor of Christian traditions that moved south and east, out of Constantine’s domain and into less-prescriptive Persia’s. Far from bringing religious "peace", Constantine implicitly incited violence between Christian sects in the same way Howard implicitly incites xenophobia and racism in modern Australia while keeping hollow deniability. Indeed violence between Christian sects became so prevalent that Christians were angered when a later pagan emperor, Julian the Apostate, created stiff penalties for religiously-motivated violence against persons and property, many Christians regarded this as persecution, a constraint on their religion. While there was nominal religious freedom, Constantine had de facto power to channel the private religious belief of citizens using self-seeking clergy as proxies. Pell’s praise for this system demonstrates his view that independent religious thought is invalid, and rejects the ideal of separation of church and state. This is consistent with the way Pell threatens parliamentarians with excommunication if they vote according to private conscience. There is little difference between Pell’s ideal world and the world caliphate desired by radical Islamists other than his choice for one Abrahamist book over another, and his preference for one clerically-determined legal system (Canon Law) over another (Sharia). A 21st Century Spanish Inquisitor, Pell has always sought authoritarian consolidation of religious and political power – providing he is a prince of the dominant clergy. Pell’s antipathy to democratic political structures developed before the Dark Ages or since the Renaissance is dangerously clear. It’s OK to slaughter first, see a cleric later For someone who has criticized "moral relativism", Pell’s recounting of the history of morality is particularly twisted. "(With Christianity) … Humility became a virtue rather than un-Roman weakness." Pell conveniently forgets nearly a thousand years of non-Christian philosophy that stressed duty to the common good rather than selfishness. Hubris, the antonym of humility, had been recognized since Homer as a major vice that would anger the gods. Even ignoring the Greeks, we can see strict morality in the many works of Cicero. We cannot read the journal of the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Philosophus*) without sensing his deep humility, his desire to serve not rule. Ever since Aristotle tutored Alexander, the classical world believed that rigorous training in ethics was a key element of any education, particularly for the ruling classes. If humility is a virtue, it’s hard to praise Constantine, who introduced so much pomp into the imperial court, and wanted himself called "The Thirteenth Apostle". Pell continues to rewrite the history of moral philosophy: The capricious and disinterested gods, who never made any moral demands on their human subjects, were rejected and destroyed to be replaced by the one God who was rational, loving, and judge of everyone. Even the peasants who held to the myths of the hellenic pantheon understood that Zeus/Jupiter imposed moral demands on humans. Homer’s Odyssey has as a major theme the moral duty to treat strangers with charity. The evolving nature of justice, from the unthinking revenge of the Furies to the more rational justice of Athens that took mitigating circumstances into account (justice in a Zeus-like mode) is the theme of the Orestian Trilogy… and that’s just the stories of the anthropomorphic pantheon! The pantheist hellenist philosophies, whether of academy, lyceum, stoa or kennel, all described justice, charity and compassion to fellow humans as a duty owed by all mortals to a more numinous god, not anthropomorphic, but still given labels such as Zeus Pater, Jupiter, or Deus Pater. Pell should admit these linguistic truths: it was the hellenist tradition, not the semitic, that gave rise to Deus Pater, God the Father. Pell should admit that anything of moral or intellectual rigor and subtlety in Christianity was not inherited via Jerusalem but via Athens. Pell knows this, as he has without doubt read early Christian thinkers such Augustine, Origin, Boethius, together with the works by victims of Christian intellectual parricide such as Porphyry and Plotinus. Pell also makes the following amazing statement: After Constantine, one did not have to be a moral hero to follow Christ, and this is a blessing for most of us; indeed for all Christians. This is not a minor quote, but a sentence printed in double-sized letters. In my opinion, heroism is not defined by what you achieve, but what you try to achieve. Unless you make a serious attempt at what Thomas à Kempis called "The Imitation of Christ", you have no right to call yourself a Christian without adding "hypocrite". I’d perhaps go further than Pell: moral heroism can be an impediment to following Pell’s Christianity, and vice versa. Pell goes on to say how wonderful it was the priests became able to absolve even the murder of innocent sons and family members, something very convenient for Contantine and the rest of his dynasty apart from Julian. Personally, I see much more merit in earlier positions: these barbarities were punished by the Furies in Greek tradition (even if you killed your mother because she killed your father), and in Christianity before Constantine, no earthly representative, but only God in heaven, could provide absolution of acts that contravene such fundamental human values. I can see why Pell would follow this logic of allowing bureaucratic mortals to inherit divine powers of absolution. It becomes possible for two pederast priests to absolve each other under seal of the confessional. How convenient! Pell has found his way of reconciling Papal Infallibility with the ability of a Borgia pope to screw both a mother and her pubescent daughter in the same bed, moving from one to the other without missing a stroke. But then, Pell was a supporter of John Paul II, advocate of "Millenial Indulgences", forgiveness of sins past or future by paying money to the Church. Pell probably thinks imams should not promise heaven to suicide bombers unless they first sign all their money over to the mosque! Bringing on the Dark Ages Pell over-simplifies Gibbon’s analysis of the fall of the Roman Empire as due merely to Christianity, and then rejects this hollow thesis. Pell forgets that Gibbon also blamed other mystery religions for intellectual decline, the problems when soldiers support individual politicians, increased military expenditure at the expense of infrastructure … the list goes on. Meanwhile, Pell praises Constantine as the saviour of empire because of short-term fiscal and monetary reforms that gave the appearance of economic probity while running down infrastructure. The treasury may have been full (a budget surplus), but the empire bled silver to Parthia and on to China in continuing trade and current account deficits. Such practices ensured the economic ruin of the empire. Again, there are similarities to Howard. Gibbon may have been unaware of the effect of plague on the economy, but Gibbons analysis of the intellectual stultification demanded by Constantine’s form of Christianity is spot on when we think not of the fall of the political entity that was Rome, but the fall of classical civilization. Athens, Sparta, Alexander, Pontus, Ptolemaic Egypt: all rose and fell without causing western civilization to fall. It is probable that without Constantine’s version of Christianity, Rome would have fallen, but civilization would have continued without a Dark Age. Conclusions Pell asserts Constantine is the enabler and progenitor of the Roman Catholic Church, and that both are praiseworthy. I’d agree about the relationship between the two, but consider them equally odious. Pell points out the relevance of Gibbon’s subject matter, and I’d agree, but add we are ignoring Gibbon’s lessons and risk another fall. While we can enjoy the similarities between the cynical manipulation of religion and politics by Constantine and Howard, the similarities between short-term appearance of economic probity that destroyed the long-term viability of the economy, the danger from this essay is Pell’s metaphor that is as transparent as the "Whore of Babylon". Hellenic, rational, scientific, religiously-tolerant pre-Constantine Rome represents secular, rational, scientific, pluralist liberal democracies. Pell is happy to see such polities destroyed, replaced by a co-dependency of temporal and spiritual power that can constrain the development of moral philosophy and metaphysics, make the population and intellectual elite subservient, twist religion for political gain, and lay the groundwork for another Dark Age where religion, not science, holds sway. What can you expect from the Sydney Inquisition: Fear, surprise, a fanatical devotion to the pope, and a relaxing and comfy chair? See Also: - Bruce at Thinker’s Podium (2007-09-03) gave this post high praise, and extended my thinking to not merely include Howard, but wonder about Rudd. AV said WOW! I’ve been away from the internet for a good two months or so, and now I see what I’ve been missing. Fantastic piece, Balneus! Bruce said That was pretty good. I’m going to re-read it and I think you’ve earned quote of the week. I found the quote “to be replaced by the one God who was rational, loving, and judge of everyone.” deserving of a bit more scorn though, considering that Pell and current Pope have explicitly railed against reason. Add to that the opinion from a WA clergyman that people should surrender their intellect and you have a movement within Catholicism that doesn’t value the rational. I reckon if you cleaned up a couple of the whole-word typos “than/that” and you could have one of the best blogosphere posts of the year here. Bruce said Geez… my grammar in that last sentence got away from me didn’t it? lol Quote of the (other) week #11 - Dave Bath on George Pell and theocratic dark age fantasies « The Thinkers’ Podium said [...] (Dave Bath, 2007) [...] Dave Bath said Thanks for the compliments. I’ll definitely look at cleaning it up when I’m properly back on deck. Babes with Chainsaws « Balneus said [...] "Pell’s QuadRant essay is sooooo wrong"My post on Pell’s essay about Constantine (2007-09-05) goes through Pell’s [...] Pell’s comments could be welcomed by rationalists « Balneus said [...] (an implicit desire for a return to the Dark Ages) that I analyzed some time back.("Pell’s QuadRant essay is sooooo wrong" [...] slim said Well done Dave – the definitive Cardinal Pell deconstruction! Dave Bath said Thanks very much Slim, but it’s hardly definitive… hardly comprehensive. It’d take a very weighty tome to deconstruct everything that should be deconstructed, and I’m sure others have done a better job than I – although I /am/ proud of this piece. Pell’s new QuadRant is soooooo wrong « Balneus said [...] Rights" makes me angrier than an earlier QuadRant article I reviewed (about Constantine "Pell’s QuadRant essay is sooooo wrong" – 2007-09-05). Like his earlier essay, the current one attempts to destroy the [...] Do the classics create people with progressive politics? (2) « Balneus said [...] We see John Howard a regressive threat, dangerous to democracy as Sulla, harmful to free thought as Constantine (see for my review of Pell’s flawed analysis of Constantine). [...] The definitive Windy defence « Balneus said [...] the classics create people with progressive politics? (2) « Balneus on Pell’s Quadrant essay is sooooo wrongAccidental honeypot « Balneus on How to save Israeli lives with bombs: target [...] The Best of Times, the Worst of Times « Balneus said [...] we have a Christian Taliban, lead by the likes of ArchVilliansBishops Jensen and Pell, wanting to drag society back to the religious domination and interpersonal intolerance of the time of Constanti…, and the freedom from secular controls over the clergy. It’s a cause for despair and [...] Shock – horror – Pell speaks some truth « Balneus said [...] "Pell’s QuadRant essay is sooooo wrong" (2007-09-05) [...]

![Sh) Sh)]() Frenchville’s Shawn Martin had a busy winter. The Late Model driver at Oxford Plains Speedway said the time was right to build a new racecar and that’s exactly what he did. “I built a brand new chassis. It’s an [Chevy] Impala body. The old car is still pretty good but it was time for a new one,” explained Martin. “An interesting note is that Austin Theriault built a car identical to mine. They’re sister cars. Theriault is the 16-year-old driver from Fort Kent who will be racing in the American-Canadian Tour and Pro All-Stars Series features. Martin, who now lives in Turner, obtained the chassis from Race Basics in Andover. The 31-year-old, who works for Oxford Networks, a communications provider, will debut in his new car on Sunday when the ACT 150 will be held at OPS. It will be opening day at OPS and racing will begin at 2 p.m. Oxford Championship and Oxford Acceleration Series features will also be held. He said he has made a bunch of adjustments on his new car based on the knowledge he obtained from driving his previous cars. “This one is easier to work on. It’s more user-friendly,” said the Wisdom High School of St. Agatha graduate. He has tested his new car and said, “It felt pretty good. It was a hot day so the speed wasn’t super fast. A lot had to do with the track conditions. The real test will come with the other cars on Saturday.” Drivers will be able to practice on Saturday. Martin, who started his racing career at Caribou’s Spud Speedway, has strung together some solid seasons. He won the Late Model points championship at OPS in 2004, has back-to-back top five finishes in the TB Bank Oxford 250 and was fourth in Late Model points at OPS last season. He finished fifth in the 250 after starting 29th. Two years ago, he was fourth after starting 25th. “I had a fairly good year last year,” said Martin. “I started off really well. But I had a lot of horrible luck in the second half. It seemed like every week I got a flat tire.” His main focus this season is to qualify for the ACT race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. on Sept. 18. “That can be accomplished two ways: win the [points] championship at Oxford or win an ACT-sanctioned event,” said Martin, who prefers longer races. So he will run in the weekly Late Model class at OPS and also race selected ACT events. “I’m ready for another [points] championship,” said Martin. He enjoys racing with the ACT drivers, saying, “I love it. Those guys are some of the best racers in the region. And they’re some of the most respectful drivers you’ll find. You can race side-by-side with them and never get a dent in your car.” He said it is more challenging than the OPS Late Model class. “Instead of having 10 drivers capable of winning the race, you have 30 in the ACT race. You definitely have to step up your game,” he said. Martin is looking forward to Sunday’s race and is confident. “I feel like I can win every time I’m in a race car,” said Martin who also recognizes that it will take a little time at adapt to his new car. He does intend to return to race at his home track in Caribou as he has the past two years. “I try to keep the tradition by racing there every year. It’s exciting to go back,” said Martin who also has sponsors with ties to Aroostook County. Unity gets under way Saturday Unity Raceway will kick off its season on Saturday at 4 p.m. There will be nine classes of racing and George Fernald Jr., who leases the track from Ralph and Nancy Nason, said he is optimistic. “We’re looking good,” said Fernald, who is in his third season leasing the track. “We have 200 cars signed up. I figure we’ll get between 100-120.” That would mean an average of 11-13 cars per class. “And the way things are looking, we’d have 15-20 cars in each class by June,” said Fernald. “We’re looking for ways to find room so we can park everyone [racecars] in the pits.” In his first two seasons, Fernald held his races on Friday nights, but that will probably change. With nine classes, Fernald said the biggest complaint he heard is it “goes too late” on Friday nights. His Friday night race cards began at 6:30 and he had to finish racing by midnight due to a town ordinance. “We went [past midnight] a few times,” he admitted. If he moves to Saturday night, he would start at 5:30. He couldn’t start too early on Friday because drivers and fans have to get out of work. He will make a decision within the next few weeks after talking to drivers. “I don’t think I have much choice [but to move to Saturday night],” he said. If Fernald goes to Saturday night racing, he would be in direct competition with Hermon’s Speedway 95, just 40 miles from Unity. Speedway 95 holds its races on Sunday afternoon before switching over to Saturday nights on June 12. “I’m friends with Del [Speedway 95 co-owner Del Merritt] and I don’t want to tick him off. But I’ve got to do what I have to do to survive,” said Fernald. “I’ve got to pull out all the stops to make money. My wife [Sherry] said if we don’t make money, we’re out of here.”

Barnegat Settles with County Over Menk Homes Ocean County to pay $250,000 for cost of inspections of hundreds of Four Seasons at Mirage homes Barnegat Township has settled a long-running lawsuit with the county over home inspections in the Four Seasons at Mirage development, though officials say ongoing litigation with the developer responsible for the flawed construction may continue for some time. The township will receive a $250,000 cash settlement and “other considerations” from Ocean County, ending a 2010 lawsuit over who was responsible for Uniform Construction Code inspections of Mirage homes that had a number of structural issues. Barnegat also filed suit with developer Menk Corporation, which built the homes with what the township said were UCC violations. By 2006, many Mirage residents in Menk-built homes were complaining of leaky crawl spaces and other problems. Then and current mayor Al Cirulli and Committeeman Jeff Melchiondo promised the issues would be fixed, said township administrator David Breeden. Ultimately, 467 homes had UCC violations, which were remedied, said Breeden. But the issue of who would pay for the fixes still wasn’t resolved by 2010. “The initial goal of the effort was to abate the UCC violations,” Breeden said. “Having safe homes along with a deserving quality of life for the Menk homeowners was the priority, and once that was accomplished, then the township could turn its attention to seeking reimbursement from responsible parties.” Barnegat maintained that it was the county that was responsible for conducting the UCC inspections, and should have picked up the tab. The settlement resolves that issue, Breeden said. But reaching a settlement with Menk could be a long road, officials said. “Menk looks like it will go all the way through with litigation,” said Cirulli. “Luckily the county did the right thing." “Even though Menk has made the needed repairs required to abate the UCC violations, the Township is of the position that Menk has an obligation to reimburse Barnegat taxpayers for cost associated with forcing Menk to render necessary repairs,” said Breeden. "Barnegat is pleased that we were able to reach a resolution with the county. The Township strongly believes this agreement will re energize our relationship with the county which will be beneficial for Barnegat residents. We appreciate the willingness of the county to work with the Township and resolve this matter." Howard Effron 3:33 pm on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 They threw alot of figures around last night about this lawsuit. From what I remember, the mayor said a year ago that we had spent almost 1.25 million on the lawsuit in professional fees. This was primarily the counties fault for their inspectors passing this sub-par work. So they give us $250,000 and other considerations that can't be disclosed at this time (?). The repairs were done at Menk's expense. So it seems like the county settled for less than half of what we spent and we have to go after Menk for the rest. I guess something is better than nothing. Oh, and by the way, what we heard about the Lower Shore Road Ballfield turf fiasco, (backed up with proof from Ralph Adorno and Jake Taylor), I would propose we make that crap disappear. Accept the fact that we got screwed and start from scratch, how bout grass? Hopefully the video from the meeting last night graciously shot by Morris Flory will be up on the Township website (along with the previous meetings video that never made it), so the town can see and hear the turf story. A good point about last nights meeting was a positive report from Marty Lisella and David Breeden about their meeting with the commissioner in Trenton about our assessment problem. They seem to be making headway, with another meeting in three weeks, we will hear more results. Bob Wise 7:15 pm on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 Mr. Effron, you are free to speak, so please tell everyone in Barnegat why you fear my words so much that you have them removed from the Patch. You are not the editor, but you think you have the right to remove what YOU DON"T AGREE WITH. It is that kind of weak, fearful, intolerance that "We the People" reject. How dare you try to silence others while you promote yourself for political office. Brave people have fought and died for YOU to have the freedom of speech, while you hit the "Flag as inappropriate" button to deny others of that right. That sir is wrong! Larry Cataldo 4:43 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 mr effron,we have many many talented people vollentering to help the township committee! ie; frank pessi for one helped with the budget for years once he spoke up about things they didn't want known he was dismissed, he was a member of the planning board/ zoneing board too, not being a rubber stamp,,, this year HE WAS GONE, if your not going to be a rubber stamp for the county and the committee, your gone,,, there are to many secrets,,,,"it's as simple as that"! Larry Cataldo 4:52 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 oh by the way, mr effron was a shill for the local gop to draw votes from morano & howard!!!! bodda bing! Bob Wise 7:48 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 Mr. Cataldo, THANK YOU! You get it. If Barnegat had more people like you we would not be in the mess that we are in. Keep giving your opinion, Barnegat needs it! Ray 8:31 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 Ok, we sued for 1.2 million that the town said they spent on the menk inspections. We sttled for 250K , less then 1/4 and "little Napoleon" is happy with that. How about the homeowners in the Mirage suing Menk? That's what should have happened. Larry Cataldo 5:52 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012 I AGREE TOTALLY,,,,THANK YOU Michael G. 11:17 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 Menk and Hovanian should have paid for it all, when homeowners sell a house they have to sign a full disclosure statement. Why not Menk. Hovanian bought the development and should have inherited all liabilities also. Ocean County did the inspections at the time, not Barnegat, we shouldn't be held responsible. There should have been a class action lawsuit by the homeowners involved, Barnegat shouldn't have invested 1.2 million on follow up inspections. Bob Wise 11:52 am on Thursday, March 8, 2012 I also don't think that "the site" should be used as a platform for political candidates to push their own personal agenda while the taxpayers have their posts deleted. Freedom of speech should be more important than personal agendas. If a post is a violation of your TOS, then it should be removed by the Editor. The people removing posts should be "banned", not the people who follow the rules and want to voice an opinion. Sorry, I did not ignore any emails. I do not use email and rarely check it. I only wanted to voice an opinion on the Barnegat Patch. Your apology should be to those of us that feel strongly about fairness and the freedom of speech. Bob Wise 11:54 am on Thursday, March 8, 2012 go to to read the comment removed above from the Patch. The Editor should step in and restore the posts that "someone" wants to hide from the people of Barnegat. The censorship here on the Patch is un-American. If this is allowed to continue, I will consider boycotting any advertisers on the Patch that support this behavior with their ad dollars. Larry Cataldo 5:43 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012 DITTO!!!! Xavier 1:03 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012 Apparently, the designers of the site allow users to click the "Flag as inappropriate" link and the posts are removed without being reviewed by the Patch staff. Not the smartest idea. truth 5:02 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012 truth i guess we all forgot the print out that shocked the public when the costs were presented. when in fact the town did not have to intervene per the state. the reason was to fold 1. it was a payday for hess-birdsall and dasti. 2 this lent credence to all the inspectors we hired remember? Larry Cataldo 5:41 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012 are you serious??? it cost 1.5 million, another disgrace to the taxpayers of BARNEGAT, this lawsuit should have been handeled by the home owners, another GIFT to WEST BARNEGAT, AND THE MIRIAGE, IF your a homeowner in this town my advice, MOVE TO ANOTHER TOWN, ITS OWNED BY SENIORS! Eric Thomas 7:23 am on Friday, March 9, 2012 Mr. Cirulli expressing joy over a settlement that recovers barely 23% of what Barnegat spent speaks volumes. Mr. Cirulli simply lacks what it takes to be mayor. Until and unless people wake up and take a moment to see what is in front of their noses, Barnegat will never, ever see improvement. Every project this town undertakes seems shrouded in controversy. Presenting plaques to a group of cheerleaders (all good kids) does not hide the countless failures of the five department store dummies that masquerade as town leaders. Notice how Mr. Effron mentions that not all of the videos of committee meetings are on the township website. Gee, I wonder why? No one can save Barnegat from apathy. If the people who have a financial and quality of life stake in Barnegat choose to keep reelecting incompetent dolts to public office then I guess they enjoy being a laughing stock. Hey, they get reelected time-and-again so someone must think what they are doing is just peachy. MORRIS FLORY 9:18 am on Friday, March 9, 2012 Eric, The reason for the delay of the Videos is technical. I have been trying to get them up within a reasonable timeframe 24-48 hours. But between computer crashes and now having to split the videos due to size has taken a little more time than foreseen. Also what we have learned is the Barnegat Township web site seems to slowdown with the loading of more videos probably due to size. I think 21 Feb is up now and hopefully next week 5 March will be also. Larry Cataldo 10:08 am on Friday, March 9, 2012 tell it like it is!!!!! the people deserve what they get,,,, Larry Cataldo 11:10 am on Friday, March 9, 2012 voter apathy allows all this;;;;; Larry Cataldo 11:11 am on Friday, March 9, 2012 and the answer is ?,,,,,voter apathy::: Mike Howard 9:30 am on Friday, March 9, 2012 The mayor acted like we had just struck gold when we won 23% of our own money back, plus some other "STUFF" that he could not talk about. You can't talk about our money? Maybe some of that STUF" is the waste of our money by installing either a water fountain or bird bath in the Park at Bay Ave.and Rt.9. Or maybe some of that"STUFF" is the use of Barnegat Township equipment to sweep the County road infront of the ex Mayors business and the Italian eatery in that same area. Maybe the extra "STFF" from the County will be the replacement of the two tree that were removed from infront of that same eatery over a year ago. Guess the trees block some signs. Larry Cataldo 10:13 am on Friday, March 9, 2012 this committee loves getting away with stuff, because nothing changes!! MORRIS FLORY 1:48 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 For the person that comments, “To cry that you can't do something simple because of something "technical" is a weak excuse” , should learn to speak the truth regarding the video tapings and posting. You have no knowledge of the inner workings on how this is completed and thus without knowledge you speak. MORRIS FLORY 2:06 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 Again to the person that says it is "quite easy". You have no knowledge of the technical problems and challenges raised and thus without knowing any of the facts you have no ability to speak on such a subject. MORRIS FLORY 3:53 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 So Bob Wise is your name or is it a psuedo name? Bob Wise 4:15 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 You can call me Bob or Mr. Wise. MORRIS FLORY 3:59 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 Yes there are many professional people in Barnegat. Yes it is normally very easy to post. With the equipment and software available the challenges have been to overcome those which has taken time. If there are professionals here that would like to volunteer their time, equipment, software and expertise they are most welcome. Bob Wise 4:21 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 Thank you for proving my point. It is simple. The funny thing is that when Mr. Effron was asked what he has done for the people of Barnegat for the past 20 years he said "NOTHING". All he did was attack our towns leaders and the website saying he could do better (only if he is elected, I guess). The question for you Mr. Flory is why didn't Mr. Effron do anything? MORRIS FLORY 4:34 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 Do anything about what? MORRIS FLORY 4:36 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 Iam glad to use what you prefer however I would like to know who you are, are you Bob Wise? Bob Wise 4:45 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012 Yes I am. Larry Cataldo 10:17 am on Saturday, March 10, 2012 well nice backand forth banter, ,but now this is history, all gone , voters don't care,,,ok its your money ,,,fools. Eric Thomas 10:39 am on Saturday, March 10, 2012 Mr. Cataldo is correct. Voters do not care. Or perhaps, Mr. Cataldo, you and I are wrong. Perhaps the current state of Barnegat is all wine and roses. Somehow, I don't think so. The scores of abandoned homes, homes that cannot be sold even at rock bottom prices are a significant indicator that our town is not the #1 place in Ocean County - no matter what paid-for magazine awards proclaim. The five department store dummies on the committee adore photo ops with cheerleaders, hero cops, etc. But that does not overshadow their abysmal failure to oversee the management of Barnegat with effectiveness. I used to believe strongly in Mr. Morano. However, other than his knee-jerk "NO" votes on many resolutions, what alternatives has he offered? It is easy to sit and criticize when you always have the fallback of "I'm the lone democrat so they won't listen to me." Identify one plan, one strategy Mr. Morano has presented to the public. He is the same as the other four. Smile for the camera - nuts to the problems. In her recent editorial, Ms. Clemente suggested that a taxpayer organization be formed. Not a bad idea. It would take a shelving of egos and an education as to the meaning of "compromise." I hope she pursues it. Censoring Mr. Wise or anybody else is cowardly. Whomever is doing it needs to grow up. The burden of democracy is to give another person equal opportunity to be heard even if you detest what they say. Bob Wise 11:14 am on Saturday, March 10, 2012 You and I both know who the censor is Mr. Thomas, and thats the problem. The truth is not spoken in Barnegat. How many good men stand up and speak it? When they do they are attacked as everyone else sits back and watches in silence. Yes, the editor threatened to ban me for being the victim that dared to ask a politician a question. So, everyone can go and wish her luck as she leaves town, while we and our children will stay and pay the price of the what the distortions, propaganda, lies, and censorship on the Patch have cost Barnegat. The ones in power stay in power, the way the shills want it. At least some of us had the courage to say something before our words were deleted. Larry Cataldo 5:21 pm on Saturday, March 10, 2012 ms clementi is wasting our time she has been looking for nothing but scandel for years, her commatary is all over the place, she thinks she knows everything about everything, as long as she gets press, even defending the former governor in toms river,finding outrage when was booed, and agreeing that tolls and gas and taxes need to be higher. as for no-no morano, he don't know what the township is doing till they have already agreed to do it, he's one vote, no matter what he proposes, noone listens,,, he's out voted, mike howard lost by 7 votes, thx to effron, there would have been a change this year but the people have spoken, one lady from west barnegat asked a man who to vote for?, she had no clue, remember this; "those who work for a living, are out voted by those who vote for a living" i frought a war , i buried and took care of sick parents the same as west barnegat, they earned a doller when it was worth a dollar, killed soc sec and only want to be a member of the community when they want something from it!!!!