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Take the 2-minute tour ×
Here what happened with me today. TimeMachine asked me whether I want to set a backup disk, I've answered yes, but then, when I've realized that in order to backup anything TimeMachine will clean the disk, I've changed my mind and canceled everything. And my disk suddenly became read only.
What I've tried before Googling:
$ sudo chflags -R nouchg Elements/
$ sudo chmod -R a+w Elements/
But I've failed with both of this, getting "read-only file system" messages.
What I've tried after Googling:
1. Open Disk Utilities
2. Click Repair Disk Permissions
But this button is disabled, and I have no idea what exactly should be done to enable it.
I have been using this disk for a quite a long time, and never had any permission issues with it. (Disk is formatted as NTFS, if that helps. Capacity is 2TB, of which 1.92TB are available.)
I'd really appreciate if someone will give me a hint how this can be resolved.
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Try booting from the Recovery HD and see if the button is still disabled. – rien333 Oct 7 '12 at 14:07
What exactly is it you need to do with the stuff on the NTFS disk? – segiddins Oct 7 '12 at 15:26
@SamuelE.Giddins I need to work with disk just as I've worked yesterday, 2 days ago, 3 days ago etc. It looks like very annoying bug to me - to find out that out of a sudden this disk is considered to be read-only. – shabunc Oct 7 '12 at 15:34
do you have any add-ons that would deal with file systems? if not, and you need to be able to write to an NTFS formatted disk, check out my revised answer. Otherwise, the disk has always been read-only, there is no built-in NTFS write support in OS X. – segiddins Oct 7 '12 at 15:36
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1 Answer
up vote 2 down vote accepted
You are getting the read-only file system error because on OS X NTFS is natively read-only. It was read-only before your Time Machine run in, and will stay that way unless you install a third-party driver, such as Tuxera NTFS.
Disk Utility's built-in repair commands are merely a GUI front-end for fsck and fsck_hfs. They are not meant to be used on an NTFS-formatted disk.
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thank you for this response, but if they are not meant for NTFS-formatted disks, then, what should I do? – shabunc Oct 7 '12 at 15:15
Do you have a Windows install handy? – segiddins Oct 7 '12 at 15:16
nope, I haven't ( – shabunc Oct 7 '12 at 15:18
This is great mystery why I've used to write to this disk previously, but it looks like you are absolutely right, NTFS is not fully supported on MacOS. Your answer gave me a hint, so I believe it should be accepted. – shabunc Oct 7 '12 at 16:46
thanks. i wish you luck – segiddins Oct 7 '12 at 19:43
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YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollections
(Page 2 of 4)
Kicking Out the Jams
The Trials and Triumphs of Barney Rosset's Grove Press
These same conditions were to give rise in the spring of 1970 to a conflict that marked the end of Grove's decade of remarkable success. A dissident group of employees sought to unionize the company, and a disciplined cell of feminists demanded veto power over Grove's editorial policy. The machinists' union quickly signed up half a dozen editorial workers, all of whom Rosset promptly fired. The women had other goals, including 24-hour free child care, for all profits from books written by black authors to be "returned" to the black "community" and for all profits from erotic books to be used to establish a defense fund for prostitutes. In keeping with the spirit of the times, the feminists occupied the executive offices at Grove and mounted a press campaign that made network television news. Rosset refused to acquiesce in what he saw as censorship and had them forcibly removed by the police. He had sat on his own sword.
The union lost the vote among the employees, but the demands of the radicals remained morally divisive. How could a man who had been a Communist in his youth, one who held in contempt any social policy that interfered with the freedom of the artist or the individual, not accede to the values of the women's movement? The writers and film-makers who saw in Grove a haven for expression and experimentation became disaffected. Readers, 200,000 of whom bought Evergreen Review every month and who sought out new books from Grove simply because they were published by Grove, began to desert the company.
These events, coupled with declining revenues from the film division and the excessive cost of renovating a new office building, combined to jeopardize Grove's financial future. But, more important, by the early 1970s, Grove's captive audience had been fractured. Books and magazine articles that only Grove would have published a scant five years earlier were now seen as safe commercial ventures by larger, more conventional houses, and Grove, at a moment of capital scarcity, was forced to compete with publishers who had far more money available to invest.
When I joined Grove in 1969, the company employed 140 people and had just moved into a lavishly restored office building at the corner of Bleecker and Mercer streets. Four years later, there were 14 of us working out of Rosset's home on West Houston Street, after an interim stopover on East 11th Street in a small building that housed a miniature movie theater and the Black Cat bar, which Rosset operated on the financially dubious policy of never charging friends or employees for their drinks.
During the 1970s, Grove lived on the income generated by its marvelous backlist. There was the occasional new book of note, even the rare momentary best-seller. But the halcyon days were gone, along with the money. Rosset's instinct had been to make Grove into what we would now call a multimedia company. And instinct it was, as his view of the future was always a bit light on planning or details and, later, on resources. He wanted a company that could publish a magazine to support its books and discover new writers, to run a book club that offered publications and short films (most of them in aggressive violation of just about everybody's "community standards") via the mail, so as to circumvent the regular, stodgy channels of distribution. He entered the feature film business to distribute movies such as Jean-Luc Godard's "Weekend" and the seminal, if banal, "I Am Curious (Yellow)." These and other films were, Rosset understood, a natural extension of the publishing operation (a number of them were made by Grove authors such as Marguerite Duras).
His idea of what America's future could aspire to--racial tolerance, free sexual expression--was based on morality and an acute sense of history. That some of his ideas were not much more than mental curlicues and that some of his behavior was awfully self-centered does not detract from his ethical impulse.
America has traveled some distance since the mid-1950s. Today it looks a lot more like what Rosset wanted it to be than it resembles the social order championed by those who would have delighted in attending his auto-da-fe. For his view of the future was not a "vision"; it was concrete, something one could stake reputation and private fortune on, which is what he did.
An inveterate child of the 1930s, he was a man whose true thoughts and emotions were closer to those of a precocious 16-year-old than to those of the charming sophisticate one first met. Rosset needed money but disdained what he believed it represented, as when, after his father's death, he sued the state of Illinois to return a prized charter to operate a private bank.
Los Angeles Times Articles |
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(Page 2 of 2)
High turnover reported among charter school teachers
With so many charter school teachers moving on each year, concerns arise about retaining quality educators and how stability affects student performance.
July 25, 2011|By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
Kavita Papneja, a math teacher, joined an Alliance College-Ready charter several years ago and doesn't regret it. In her prior work at a traditional school, Gompers Middle School near Watts, "you have more behavior issues," she said. "Here, most of the time, we just have to worry about what we are teaching and what kids are learning."
As far as the charter workload, "if I have to spend extra hours, I will," said Papneja, 43, who believes she's the oldest teacher in her school. "It's not like they force me."
She and history teacher Stephanie McIlroy, who joined Alliance at age 21, also left a charter school; but in their case, the purpose was to follow Principal Howard Lappin from one Alliance charter school to a newly opened charter, the Alliance Environmental Science and Technology High School in Glassell Park.
Some former teachers at Alliance schools and elsewhere were less enthusiastic, speaking of pressure to produce high test scores and arbitrary management.
"We got in trouble for taking our sick days and personal days," said a history teacher who entered the teaching profession at a charter while in her 20s. She requested anonymity because she recently accepted a position at a different charter school. "Teachers feel so beleaguered because everything is presented to us as a problem we have to solve. But we can't fix all those problems, like when a kid misses 60 days in a semester."
Despite her former school's solid test scores, she said, the teacher departures matter.
"It has a huge effect on student morale," she said, especially for students who lack needed stability in other parts of their lives. "By the time students graduated from my school, there was not a single teacher who had been there the whole time."
Los Angeles Times Articles |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I just installed Ubuntu 11.04 on my Netbook. I had to use a flash key and during the installation i tried putting Ubuntu on a separate partition, but it kept showing a no root file system is defined error.
I didn't really know what i could do to fix it, so i decided to install it alongside Windows. I have a windows7 installation, which works perfectly fine. So the installation goes through perfectly and i give both OS's 40 Gigs of space. The comp restarts and NOTHING!
The computer boots directly into Windows. During the install it said i am supposed to be prompted at boot, and nothing happened. Ubuntu partitioned the C: drive, but this partition doesn't show up in Windows. If i boot using the flash drive, it shows the partition with the Ubuntu installation. I tried reinstalling, but now i don't get the prompt to asking me to install Ubuntu.
Really confused ..
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1 Answer
up vote 1 down vote accepted
It sounds like you have two disk drives and the boot loader was installed to the wrong drive. Either tell your BIOS to boot from the other drive, or reinstall, and make sure you direct grub to the correct drive.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
When I used the exe file to install it it works on first start. Then when I restart it and boot from it, I get a purple screen then it flashes to the login screen what happend to the ubuntu logo?
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to put it simply, the graphic driver loads slower than the rest of the system. I fixed it with these directions.
Get your precious Plymouth splash screen back
I didn't not follow the directions from this particular website, I couldn't find the one I used but these are the correct direction. I have mine back and can now remove the "quiet splash" and see the boot messages if needed.
Edit: while there is an detailed explanation of why you might want to check out, I and going to copy and paste the instructions below in case the link expires.
Open a virtual terminal and type the following command:
sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
This file may not exist, so you may be creating it from scratch now.
Enter the following content on the file you opened on the previous step:
Close and save the file.
Now, run the following command to commit the change:
sudo update-initramfs -u
Reboot and enjoy your Plymouth splash screen.
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So i will need my gpu because mine isent working atm – winter4w Jun 13 '12 at 2:50
I'm not sure what you are asking here. The fix has nothing to do with which gpu you have. If you can get to the log in screen your gpu is working. The reason that you have no splash screen is that the new kernels load so fast that the DRIVERS load after the rest of the system. This fix will get the system to wait for the graphic driver to load, hence allowing you to see the boot screen or any boot messages if you Esc. the splash screen. The system will boot slightly slower with this fix but if you have a fairly new system you will not notice the difference. – TrailRider Jun 13 '12 at 21:39
Unless I misunderstood your initial question. after you installed you didn't see the boot screen but went to the log-in screen, you were able to log in and run Ubuntu correct?? If so then Ubuntu is installed and you can use this fix to get the boot screen to show again. – TrailRider Jun 13 '12 at 21:48
Yes i dont see the boot screen but I am able to go on the login screen i was just wondering if I can get the boot screen – winter4w Jun 14 '12 at 3:57
Then this should work for you. – TrailRider Jun 14 '12 at 22:48
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have used ubuntu for almost 6 months full time at home while using windows for almost 6 years,so I previously used ubuntu on separate hard drive while I have one attached hard drive with partitions having NTFS file system so I used data from those partitions also. Now I want to again shift to ubuntu as I am a web developer and want to use ubuntu and I have a hp probook. So I just want to know few things:
Should I use wubi? But I have heard it is on windows installtion mercy still that is not good. Should I use dual boot and configure it separately without any wubi e.t.c.? Or should I install separate ubuntu on whole hard disk?
It seems like 3rd option is good but main concern in that case is that how will my data be safe? Like if my ubuntu is corrupted or need to install again or uninstall in any case, then I will need to format whole disk and all my data will be deleted as it is on unpartitioned space. So this seems to be unsafe. Actually I am not sure, but another option I have is to have some partitions and some unpartitioned space and install ubuntu on unpartitioned space and if I will remove ubuntu at some time or it will be removed some how then I will have my data safe in partitioned space. The way I am thinking really make sense? I have been actually windows user so may be thinking in that way, and want to know that how mostly people use ubuntu while feeling safe about their data. What is best way to use ubuntu?
Please tell whatever you know so that I can understand the way better. thanks
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I would definitely recommend the third choice.
Like you said, the first choice is bad since you're basically running within Windows. The second choice is alright, but if you can run Ubuntu on a separate HDD that would be best in my opinion.
If Ubuntu gets corrupted, there's no need for you to format the drive or partitions before recovering your data. If you're going to be running Windows as well, you can access the Linux partitions, granted that you don't encrypt them (if you do I'm sure you still can I just don't know how)
WIndows 7 can natively read Ext2, 3 and 4. If you're using an earlier version of Windows you can download and use ext2fsd to view the linux partitions.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have installed Ubuntu 11.04 on 2 of my desktops PC's. I have not installed any addon packages or anything related to network. Please guide my on how to set up a LAN between these two machines. is there any GUI program to do this instead of Terminal? Because I am completely new to linux and am not very familiar with Terminal usage. I have the ethernet cable connected to a router which inturn is connected to my DSL modem to provide internet access to both my pc's.
Thanking you
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Ok, first things first: is internet working for both? Can both browse webpages, etc? Is your only issue on how to share folders and/or printers with each other? – MestreLion May 29 '11 at 10:38
What exactly do you want to use the LAN for? What you described already places the computers in a LAN. – Oxwivi May 29 '11 at 11:48
Your router may also be set up to not let the machines talk to each other. Usually that's only with wireless, but make sure the machines are able to ping each other. You can do that from the System -> Administration -> Network Tools menu. – Broam Jun 14 '11 at 20:27
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2 Answers
up vote 5 down vote accepted
If both are directly connected to the router and can access internet, then they already are in LAN. Maybe you want to share files and folders, right?
If so, its easy: right-click any folder you want to share, go to "Sharing Options", check the "Share this folder" box, choose a share name, and youre basically done.
If Samba support is not already installed by default, Ubuntu will offer you to install it on-the-fly. Just accept it. Oh, by the way: "Samba" is what enables Ubuntu (and other Linux distros) to share folders and files in a LAN, using the same protocol used by Windows. Meaning any folders you share will also be accessible by Windows machines in your LAN (if there is any)
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Thank you for the help. Does both the computers need to have samba installed? like comp1 shares file to comp2, i do your suggestion in comp1, do i have to perform the same on comp2 just to access comp1's files? Note: comp2 need not share files to comp1. – newforubuntulinux Jun 21 '11 at 11:55
@newforubuntulinux: Youre welcome. If comp2 will only access comp1's shared files, then no, no further setup is necessary. In File Manager (Nautilus is the proper name) just click Network in the left panel and browse till comp1's files. – MestreLion Jun 22 '11 at 15:05
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I'm a little unsure how far you want the guide to go. But if you simply want Internet connection / local file sharing:
With the computer you are connecting to your router:
Click on your network indicator (top right of your screen...) and select 'Edit Connections'. In the wired tab hit the button 'Add'. Give the connection a helpful name, and under the 'IPv4 Settings' tab choose "Shared to other computers" in the drop down 'Method' box. Save the chances and close the connection editor. Connected this computer to the Internet.
Connected up the second machine. On the first 'internet'ed' machine just make sure (using the network indicator) that the Wired Connection you've just created is chosen.
This GUI method should be able to cope with most more-complex setups too.
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As I have understood, both computers are directly connected to the router. So no need to share the wired connection, as they are probaly already "internet'ed" by the router. I think this is only a matter of SaMBa-sharing folders. – MestreLion May 29 '11 at 10:42
indeed - i think a little bit of confirmation is needed @newforubuntulinux please... – thomas michael wallace May 29 '11 at 10:50
Yes both Computers are able to browse internet web pages. I want to share folders between the 2 machines. Thanks everyone for the effort to answer my question. – newforubuntulinux May 30 '11 at 7:52
@newforubuntulinux: if any of the answers solved your issue, please choose one as the accepted answer. If not, feel free to edit your question and add more information on why they didnt work, and we well be pleased to help you further. – MestreLion Jun 2 '11 at 7:06
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I am attempting to filter every notification through espeak. However, I can't seem to find a way to get the notification body from a python script, or even what signal_name to listen to.
Trying to google for this only seems to yield results involving creating new notifications, so I am completely lost now.
Anyone can help me with this?
In short, what I want is to listen for incoming notifications using python, and obtaining the "body" attribute of the notification.
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It seems a notification doesn't produce a signal i.e., dbus-monitor "type='signal',interface='org.freedesktop.Notifications'" shows nothing but dbus-monitor "interface='org.freedesktop.Notifications'" shows notifications (type is 'method_call' not 'signal'). – J.F. Sebastian Sep 7 '12 at 21:34
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By notifications you mean the "OSD bubbles" that some software sends, like changing volume, IM chat, etc? You want to create a python program to capture those?
Well, Ask Ubuntu is not a programmer's QA, and software development is a bit beyond the scope, but here is a little code I did do capture notification bubbles:
import glib
import dbus
from dbus.mainloop.glib import DBusGMainLoop
def notifications(bus, message):
if message.get_member() == "Notify":
print [arg for arg in message.get_args_list()]
bus = dbus.SessionBus()
mainloop = glib.MainLoop()
Leave this running in a terminal, then open another terminal window and test it:
notify-send --icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/debian-logo.png "My Title" "Some text body"
And the program will output this:
[dbus.String(u'notify-send'), dbus.UInt32(0L), dbus.String(u'/usr/share/pixmaps/debian-logo.png'), dbus.String(u'My Title'), dbus.String(u'Some text body'),...
As you may have guessed, message.get_args_list()[0] is the sender, [2] for icon, [3] for summary and [4] for body text.
For the meaning of the other fields, check the official specification docs
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Why Would LeBron James Ever Want To Come to New Jersey?
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Why Would LeBron James Ever Want To Come to New Jersey?
Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
Looking at LeBron James' free agency options, why the heck would he want to come to Jersey?
For one, the team just got out of their arena that existed on a swamp, which basically describes what people think of when they think of New Jersey (unfairly so).
The Nets won 12 games in 2009-2010. If it were me, the Nets' situation wouldn't seem very appealing, and that's coming from a Nets fan.
But here's the thing that's keeping the New Jersey Nets in the hunt—mystique.
The Nets have a new Russian owner, music mogul Jay-Z, and two great players in Devin Harris and Brook Lopez. On top of that, they just drafted Derrick Favors and Damion James.
Doesn't sound like a 12-win team, does it?
Plus, the Nets are moving to Newark this season (not that Newark's all that enticing), but the Nets have the aura of Brooklyn in the future.
LeBron won't have to wait long until he gets to Brooklyn, which is just as good as Manhattan in certain ways.
Sure, he could go to L.A. and play for the Clippers, but I think the Clips may be the one team whose name rings a more sour bell than the Nets.
And barring a shocking move, I doubt he'll stay in Cleveland.
Yes, he could go to Chicago, Dallas, or Miami and party it up, but those cities aren't New York.
And as for the Knicks, who do play in New York, their core somehow manages to be worse off than that of the 12-win Nets.
With all of that being said, I still think it would be a wild card if LeBron landed with the Nets.
But it could happen. Is it a long shot? Yes. But is it possible? Definitely.
Who knows, maybe LeBron will surprise us and take a bite out of the Big Apple...I mean New Jersey.
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Dont Overlook Smaller College Football Programs!
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Dont Overlook Smaller College Football Programs!
Year after year, in every aspect of the game, smaller football programs are often overlooked.
Memories of a great Boise State team walking all over a highly ranked Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, Larry Fitzgerald (PITT) losing the 2003 Heisman race to Jason White (OKLA) supposedly based on team record not player performance as the Heisman should be.
Not to take away from White who was a great player, but he finished ranked 8th in passing yards, 26th in completion percentage, and 8th in QB rating.
Fitzgerald, on the other hand, finished first in almost every receiving category, but since his school was a lower profile (and ranked lower) many voters chose White instead, Basing there votes on team performance instead of individual stats.
If the Heisman was based on team performance then every year, the National Champions should pick one of there players to win it since they are the best team it would only be fair. Now how dumb does that sound?
Again this year, a small school player is setting the precedent nine games into the year, but still Jarrett Dillard of Rice is still never mentioned in the run for Heisman, although he is far ahead of leading receiver candidate Michael Crabtree of Texas Tech. Oh and by the way he has less receptions but still WAY better numbers than Crabtree.
Ever since the BCS was implemented, Strength of Schedule has become one of the biggest things in determining a team's grit and power.
I think this has contributed to the brainwashing of those voting on awards and polls. A small team like Ball State does not have the recruiting power of teams like Alabama, Penn State, USC, Ohio State, and Florida.
I think if you are going to incorporate Strength of Schedule into the Heisman equation then you should also calculate Strength of Recruitment!
If this were the case, we would find out that the small schools and players we are overlooking, if put on a level playing would probably walk all over 50 percent of the teams in the top 25!
People do not realize that Nick Saban, one of the best college coaches of the last 2 decades, came from a very small Toledo school, but as soon as he was given the chance to move up, he was an instant success at Michigan State, LSU, and now Alabama.
My point to this is, the coaches and kids who put up big numbers at small schools would still put up the big numbers if they were given a chance to play at a bigger school.
Most of your LaDainian Tomlinsons (TCU '97-'00) go to smaller colleges and Junior Colleges because of grade requirements or to stay closer to home. A kid that wants or in most cases NEEDS to stay close to home should not be punished for this decision.
I understand that you must incorporate Strength of schedule into the polls in order to determine which team is the strongest in the nation. My only concern is that this is going to continue to spew over into individual awards like the Heisman.
If this continues to be the case college sports, is going to be so predictable that all your team's best player would have to do to win the Heisman is lead his team to the national championship or at least the top 3 in the final standings.
What if Graham Harrell had lost to Texas and then later in the year loses to Oklahoma knocking Tech to No. 14 or 15 in the BCS polls? Does this mean he would be any less worthy than Colt McCoy if Texas were to win the Championship, but McCoy ends up with way less in every offensive category than Harrell?
Would this be right just because Harrell would have two team losses to McCoy's 0? I don't think it would be, and if it is not right for a high-profile team such as Texas Tech, then it should not be right for a smaller school!
Your comments are appreciate.
Thanks and please check out my football stats article it may help us all out!
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Baker Institute Blog
Family planning is a public health issue that shouldn’t be politicized
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
11 Responses
1. Ovbiously says:
The purpose of taxpayer supported “public health” is to prevent the spread of diseases that can be communicated without contact with the infected individual. The author and apparently the entire ‘public health’ special interest group is trying to convert ‘public health’ into whatever activity it thinks is a ‘good idea’ and it can bring within the scope of its bureaucracy. It is notable the ‘public health’ bureaucrats are identifying such non diseases as motor vehicle safety. This is another example of jurisdiction creep.
2. DDD says:
Very eloquently stated. Should meet the approval of your liberal following.
3. bigmoney says:
I agree 100%. Family planning is good public policy that has the added bonus of saving taxpayers’ money and giving people a choice and resources to plan their families. It’s a shame that it has become a political issue.
4. Mark says:
too bad you are located in Texas, where women’s health doesn’t count at public health.
5. Nancy Ford says:
I had forgotten that Title X which provided women with access to low cost contraceptives was signed into law by Richard Nixon. Clearly, family planning is something that makes sense to the majority of Americans and as such bridges political party divides–unless of course it is being used by the fringe elements as a weapon. I also appreciated the author’s “reality check”–contraception, family planning, is something we had debated and accepted decades ago. The fact that current research deals with emerging nations and not our own advanced society is a wake up call. Why is anyone doubting the benefits of family planning in 2012?
6. Emily says:
Eloquent and on the mark. Bravo, Elena Marks.
7. Kimberly says:
I couldn’t agree more. We spend so much time on international development and not enough time on the issues in our own backyard. Family planning is an important public policy. Contraceptives should be available and provided at a low cost to anyone who so chooses to use them. Every woman should have the right to choose how and when to plan for a family.
8. Patricia Snyder says:
Why is it these days that when people disagree, they label one another, closing the door to honest debate to help find the common ground? I personally believe that America dealt with this issue decades ago, but still have a lot to do to continue to keep our common public, healthy. And for me that means making contraceptives and education about contraceptives available for as many people as possible…
9. Karen1961 says:
The health benefits of family planning and widely available contraceptives are unquestioned in the scientific and health policy literature, as are the health benefits of many other public health tools cited by the author. We need to use the best tools available to us to achieve healthy babies, women and families.
10. Brian says:
I agree that it is good for a married couple to plan their family. However, if someone doesn’t want to pay for abortion or contraception for moral reasons, they shouldn’t be forced to.
Contraceptives have lead to higher divorce rate, higher rate of STD’s, and unplanned pregnancies are still an alarming high number.
Why don’t the statistics support your statements to show that we are reaping the benefits of contraceptives? Oh right, because they aren’t true.
It’s a much more complicated problem that just giving everyone a pill.
11. georgex says:
The directive from the Bible to populate the “four corners” of the earth has been fulfilled. Advocating that birth control should not be used puts the sustainability of the planet in jeopardy, families with more children than they can afford and spread of diseases that cause much misery and death. That is an immoral position. |
Could an Islamic sitcom be a hit in America?
Throughout the history of television, there have been several TV shows in which the original concept of the show – a comedy about being a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany, for example – might seem, on the top, a bit uncomfortable.
So how is it that one of Canada’s most popular homegrown television shows is a gentle situation comedy about the Islamic community in a small Saskatchewan town?
Welcome to “Little Mosque on the Prairie.” It’s a half-hour sitcom on the CBC, about several members of the Muslim community of Mercy, Saskatchewan and how they share a house of worship with the local Anglican church.
In fact, take a look at the premiere episode of “Little Mosque on the Prairie” and judge for yourself. It’s in two parts, as listed below.
A few things to consider. Since its premiere in 2007, “Little Mosque on the Prairie” has been one of the biggest homegrown hits in Canada, even surpassing the venerable show “Corner Gas.” It’s been syndicated around the world.
But despite all this success, the show has never broken through to the United States. Plans to bring the show in, or to create an American version of the show, have both stalled.
So here’s what I want to know from you. Watch the clips in this blog and you tell me -
1. Would you watch “Little Mosque on the Prairie” if it aired in America? Why or why not?
2. Do you think America is ready for a sitcom involving Islamic characters and culture? Why or why not?
Okay – discuss.
Categories: General
Chuck Miller
One Response
1. BL says:
Didn’t we already have “Allah in the Family” here? It was a huge hit. |
Can you ever win an argument with a teenager?
Of course your teacher doesn't go over homework. That makes sense.
I say no.
Case in point: My oldest and I went around in circles yesterday about studying for a math test. She argued she couldn’t begin studying until her class finished the unit because she “wouldn’t know what to study.” I suggested she start with finished and corrected homework, which seemed like a logical approach. She spent the next 10 minutes telling me why that couldn’t happen, which seemed nonsensical.
Here’s the conversation:
Me: Do you have a math test coming up?
Her: When we finish the unit.
Me: When is that?
Her: If we finish the unit Friday, the test will be Monday. If we finish Monday, it will be Tuesday.
Me: Maybe you can study a little each night between now and then.
Her: No, I can’t until we finish the unit.
Me: What?
Her: I won’t know what to study.
Me: You’re doing homework every night. Presumably, that is the material that will be on the test.
Her: I don’t want to study it if I’m doing it wrong.
Me: Doesn’t your teacher grade it?
Her: No, he just marks whether you’ve done it.
Me: Really? He doesn’t go over the homework? I need to know because I think maybe I need to talk to him then.
Her: He only goes over the ones you did wrong.
Me: Is there something you can go over, practice each night?
Her: No, I have to wait until the unit is done and do the review homework.
Me: (imagine, if you will, my raised voice) OK, Use whatever study method you want. If you bring home a C, the cellphone is gone.
Tracy Ormsbee
8 Responses
1. Kathleen says:
Good answer! I say you won the argument.
2. kvp says:
If you figure out how to stop the procrastination please, please please tell me how… I’ll pay you… a lot…
3. ChristineV says:
Ha! This reminds me of a conversation I had with our son while driving home from soccer last week. He and his Dad had come to blows over computer use and bedtime the night before.
Me: when I say 10:30 bedtime it doesn’t mean coming upstairs and getting ready at 10:30
He: that’s lame
Me: you need to be off the computer 1 hour before bedtime
He: owww, why? That’s lame (stupid, dumb – insert word here)
It wasn’t quite that bad, but you get the picture. We had a calm, quiet discussion and in the end I said “we have to agree to disagree. I can see my side and yours, as can you, but on this we are not going to agree”. But I won since the parents’ rules win. :)
4. lizzee says:
Oh,so have been there! Wish it was over when they hit a certain age but find those talks are still common with my married daughter and myself. Moms must talk in tongues to our children’s ears. And the best retort they give is’You just don’t know!”
5. KTT says:
When I was in high school, and even college, I had such a hard time studying for math tests! I could study for anything else and do well, but I had no clue how to approach studying numbers, it just didn’t make sense to me. I used to do well in math until I got to high school and I actually had to study. Since I didn’t know what or how to study, I fell behind. I would talk to her teacher anyway and ask if she/he can give you tips on studying at night. Maybe they have notes they take or some extra problems to solve.
6. Naomi Seldin says:
I’m having flashbacks to when I was in high school, Tracy. My father was a lawyer — he argued for a living. Can you imagine trying to win a case against that?
7. Tracy Ormsbee says:
@Naomi: I should change my headline to ask, Can you win an argument with a teenager without a law degree. :)
8. maggie says:
@Naomi – more importantly, does he give lessons?
9. john says:
You cant win an argument with a woman. Why do you think you could with a teenager? Why do you suppose dads leave it up to moms? |
The first rule of Fruit Fly Fight Club: Flies can't talk about Fruit Fly Fight Club. Because they can't talk at all. At least not to humans.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School took a break from studying lobster fighting and shifted their focus to fruit fly fights, and even mutant fruit fly fights.
(Via The Annals of Improbable Research.)
Fruit flies are strange creatures. Or perhaps it's that fruit fly researchers are strange creatures.
One of my cousins was a fruit fly researcher. She took fruit fly testicles and squashed them and then studied them under a microscope, looking for... something... I forget. I think just finding the fruit fly testicles in the first place was accomplishment enough.
Fruit fly researchers like to give their discoveries strange names. Typically, a gene is named after what results when you disable it. For example, a gene without which fruit flies die in two days is named Kenny, after the South Park character.
My favorite: The gene without which fruit flies get drunk really easily is called cheap date. (That last page has several more funny gene names.)
Yes, that's right. Fruit flies get drunk. There's a fruit fly drunk-o-meter, though I forget how it works. But one amusing aspect of fruit fly drunkenness is that just before they finally pass out, there's a big burst of activity.
Strange gene naming has spread beyond the fruit fly world. There is a human gene named sonic hedgehog after the Sega video game character. (It's related to the fruit fly gene "hedgehog", so named because disabling it causes the fly to develop into a ball with spikes.) |
Well the answer is easy ..... No!? Or is it..... This is really a two fold statement.
We do not have a sequencer for NT 4.0. So basically you cannot sequence your application from NT 4.0 directly and put them straight into your Windows XP SoftGrid environment!
So if that's the case, how do I get my application from NT 4.0 to Sequenced Virtual Application and then deployed? Well, I hate to say it but there is no easy route! The main thing to understand is getting a process behind you to bring your application up to a specific level and then sequenced on a supportable platform such as Windows XP.
Application Compatability
Application Migration Process from NT 4.0 (High Level)
The above show this process around taking an old NT 4.0 application and passing it through the application compatibility toolkit. Now I am not saying this is the be all and end all but it certainly can be used as a good guide, or flow process you can leverage off!
The Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) enables software developers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and IT professionals who work in a corporate environment to determine, before rolling out within the organization, whether their applications are compatible with a new version of the Microsoft® Windows® operating system. ACT also enables such individuals to determine how an update to the new version will impact their applications.
You can use the ACT features to:
You can download it from here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=24DA89E9-B581-47B0-B45E-492DD6DA2971&displaylang=en
Once your application is to a stable state you can look to run through the sequencing wizards as per normal and capture your application.
The core benefit is that you are just trying to get this one suite of applications working! Not regression testing it against many others 1,2,4,8,16,32,64, etc etc application along side it.
This can help save you and your business valuable time and stop massive amounts of pain with your upgrades from NT 4.0 to XP/Vista! We know that there are many companies still going through these migrations, and in my humble opinion I hope that this helps you migrate more dynamically from these older legacy platforms. (Good luck to the lads up North! You know who you are :-) ) |
• By
Roberto Rodriguez
As they keep interest rates near historic lows, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and other U.S. officials are a borrower’s best friend. But for retirees and other income-oriented investors, the super-low rates are a financial nightmare.
Portfolio mainstays such as U.S. Treasury bonds and investment-grade corporate and municipal debt just aren’t producing enough income. That has prompted—or forced—many income investors to look farther afield. |
The Motley Fool Discussion Boards
Previous Page
Financial Planning / Tax Strategies
Subject: Re: private loan - details, details... Date: 8/4/2004 2:16 AM
Author: JAFO31 Number: 72734 of 120439
Foolferlove: "I'd like to take a loan out at the first bank of Lorenzo too. 4 percent sounds real good to me! Where should I send the application?
Actually, I do have a real question...Can I loan money to a family member and charge zero interest with an indefinite repayment period? Or is this kind of loan somehow a no-no since it can be used to get around gift taxes?"
IIRC, it can create phantom income for the lender (and potential gift tax issues if the loan is relatively large). My recollection is a bit hazy, but a believe that there is a de minimis exception for loan below a certain size (mayber 10k?); but in any event, if the loan is has a below market rate --- by reference to some applicable "federal funds" rate --- then the IRS will impute additional interest until the rate is at the "federal funds" rate the the lender needs to recognize phantom income (as if the interest were paid and then gifted).
For example (all numbers hypothetical) if Daddy Warbucks loans Warbucks Junior $800k at zero interest when the applicable rate should be 4%, then Daddy Warbucks is deemed to have 32k in phantom interest income (800k * [4% - 0% charged]) on which income tax is due and is also deemed to have made a gift of the 32k interest not collected, which is larger than the 11k annual exemption (or 22k if Daddy Warbucks is married), so a gift tax return would also be due, unless Warbucks, Jr. is married, too - because 32k less than 44k available from a married couple to another married couple.
One fo the resident pros will need to add the exact details and citation.
Regards, JAFO
|
and the want to beable to rate them and add 22 more or something like that ... i em a union guy so have to side with refs...who in there right mind wouldnt want a pension plan....thats what they have...and they want to make it a 401k from what i read heard it costs each team about 150 grand its peanuts |
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Lester is stellar in first win of season
CHICAGO -- A week ago, there was panic and there was outrage in the land known as Red Sox Nation. Manager Bobby Valentine went to his bullpen with an eight-run lead against the Yankees on national television, only to witness an implosion of epic proportions.
In other words, it's amazing how much things have changed for a team that is suddenly among the hottest in baseball.
This time, Valentine went to his relief crew for the final six outs with the narrowest of margins.
And they came through, leading the streaking Red Sox to a 1-0 win over the White Sox on Saturday night.
Boston has won six in a row -- all six victories coming in the aftermath of that blown 9-1 lead against the Yankees last Saturday.
"That's what they're going to do all year," said Adrian Gonzalez, who had the only RBI in the game. "We know that. For the first couple of weeks, as the guys [struggled], especially on a team like this where everything gets overblown, overdrawn, you start pressing a little bit, trying harder. As the season goes and you get into the flow of things, you just stop thinking about that and do what you can. That's what these guys are doing."
For the first time this season, Valentine's team is at .500. This, after a 4-10 start.
The strong relief performances of Franklin Morales, Vicente Padilla and Alfredo Aceves gave ace Jon Lester his first win.
"They're coming together," Valentine said. "You play the season to build the little parts of your team. I think the bullpen is coming together pretty nicely. Even though it's been Padilla-Morales, tonight it was Morales-Padilla and they got through that [eighth] inning nicely. Alfredo finished it off. But the 1-0 game is the toughest game to go to the bullpen, we all know that, especially on the road. You don't win a lot of games 1-0 on the road."
It was Boston's first 1-0 win since a 16-inning thriller at Tampa Bay on July 17 of last season.
For Lester, it was his first victory since Sept. 6, 2011.
"Well, sometime, either last night or today, he asked what he had to do," Valentine said. "I just said, 'Pitch like an ace, like Jon Lester is', and he pitched like an ace. He had both sides of the plate. Two-seamer away, cutter in. Had a good changeup. Very competitive. He was terrific."
And he needed to be. Lester's opponent was Jake Peavy, who pitched a complete game, only to get the tough-luck loss.
"Those games are fun. It's just a battle," Lester said. "I've been on the other end of those. You feel like you do everything you can to put your team in position to win, and the other guy just does a little bit more or you don't get the timely hitting or whatever. That was big tonight, grinding it out. Our hitters did a great job. Defense played awesome tonight. Those are more or less fun. Every win is important for a pitcher."
The Red Sox have gone a full turn through the rotation with every pitcher earning a win.
"When Josh [Beckett] won his game, we said maybe we'll put a string together," Valentine said. "Now we have them all winning. That's how you start building a real foundation of a team. Those other little things are just parts of a team but foundation is what those starters can do day in and day out. They're pretty good. I'll take those five that we're running out there right now."
Lester went seven innings, allowing five hits and no runs while walking one and striking out seven. He threw 122 pitches, 78 for strikes.
Then there was Peavy, who gave up four hits and one run, walking one and striking out seven.
"The ball bounced their way tonight," Peavy said. "We did all we could do. Lester was mighty good."
When Peavy buckled ever so slightly in the fourth, the Red Sox made him pay.
Ryan Sweeney started it, blooping one into right and hustling out of the box for a double.
"I knew if he didn't catch it that I would have a chance," Sweeney said. "I was just going to try to make something happen."
With one out, Gonzalez fought off a 2-2 fastball against Peavy, his former teammate in San Diego, and punched it into right for the RBI single.
"Fastballs in," Gonzalez said. "We go to 2-2 with fastballs in and I had a feeling he was going to stay with a fastball in and I just told myself, 'Get on top.' If he makes a good pitch down, offspeed down, then you have to tip your hat. I wasn't going to let him go up top again."
Lester held it right there, and handed it off to the bullpen.
After Morales and Padilla navigated their way through the eighth, on came Aceves. He was magnificent, mowing through the White Sox 1-2-3 and ending the game by striking out A.J. Pierzynski on a changeup.
"He was great," Valentine said. "You know, we talked to him that he doesn't always have to throw it 97 [mph]. Tonight, he threw some very effective fastballs at 94, 93, and then had his 96, 97. He pitched. He got the final strikeout with a changeup. That's what you have to do." |
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I read that Pope Benedict XVI is resigning. I don't know much about Catholic/papal authority as it relates to leading the Church, but as far as I can remember, a pope dies before another one takes the reigns. Apparently, this has happened before, but how does the living pope confer that authority to a successor, since he's still alive? Since he resigned, is his authority to lead the Catholic church removed from him, or how does that work?
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2 Answers
up vote 8 down vote accepted
Yes, as the Pope said in his resignation speech, he gives up the office and it is for those whose duty it is to convoke the conclave and elect a successor — just as it would be if he had died.
As a cardinal, he's entitled to attend the conclave (but he probably won't) but he can't vote because he's over eighty.
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Additionally, his papal ring will be destroyed, just as if he had died. I forget the source, but the analogy of death while still breathing is wholly correct. – Affable Geek Feb 13 '13 at 13:38
Yes, after he abdicates he has no say whatsoever in where authority passes thereafter. – mxyzplk Feb 13 '13 at 22:24
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Jimmy Akin stated on his blog:
Pope Benedict may follow the pattern of previously resigned popes and spend the rest of his days in a monastery. Alternately, he may live quietly with his brother. Either way, he will do his best to stay out of the public eye so as to give his successor the freest hand possible. (This is the same thing that usually happens when a U.S. president leaves office; it’s traditional for him to more-or-less vanish, at least for a time.)
The papal authority is removed completely from the ex-pope. From wikipedia, I understood that his ring, seal etc. are destroyed as though he died, though it's not clearly stated there.
As Andrew Leach wrote, as a cardinal the ex-pope can attend conclave, but even if he was younger than eighty, he would be expected not to be very active in the election of his successor (part of the tradition of vanishing from public).
EDIT: according to what I found while researching answer for a related question, there is an aspect of the pope's role he maintains after resignation, or even after death: the obligation and authority to pray for the Church.
Another EDIT: as Cardinal Lombardi said, Joseph Ratzinger won't participate in the conclave. In Czech version the Vatican Radio goes to more details, such as that Ratzinger will no longer be a Cardinal, but I didn't find it in English.
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It's on Vatican Insider Because this is entirely new -- the circumstances are rather different from Gregory XII -- I rather think that no-one, including the Curia, knows precisely what the procedures and protocols are. – Andrew Leach Feb 15 '13 at 8:13
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Palestinian civilian death toll mounts as Israel targets militants in residential areas
• Article by: IBRAHIM BARZAK and KARIN LAUB , Associated Press
• Updated: November 19, 2012 - 6:24 AM
• 51
• Comments
• Results per page:
marketing guyNov. 18, 12 9:45 AM
How about making it clear that the Gaza Palestinian's hide the rocket launchers in schools, daycare centers, residential areas and places of worship? Israel is not indescriminate about these strikes.
budgrant00Nov. 18, 1210:13 AM
This is the sort of thing that happens when launching missiles from neighborhoods. Hamas makes the most of playing the sympathy card while using human shields. Also CNN and the BBC were showing falsified video of 'victims' yesterday, one guy was seen being carried aloft by rescuers only to to be seen later leading a demonstration none the worse for wear. Another poor 'victim' stopped the act a bit too soon and jumped off the stretcher before the director had called "cut" it would seem. Yes there are innocent victims in wars, but they are very useful victims for Hamas sadly.
money2145Nov. 18, 1210:52 AM
I think it's something that the US can have drones blast rebels and civilians and no one says much about it. But when Israeli rockets do the same thing, everyone gets up in arms. Hell, Israel has rockets being fired at it's people. What Nation on this earth would NOT fire back? Israel should tell the Government in Gasa that the first rocket that falls into any city and kills any people, the WAR will begin and Gasa will be totally taken over AND KEPT as Israeli land forever. NEVER to be given back. And if Egypt wants to join Hammus in the fighting, IT's territory will be kept too; NEVER to be given back. If they did that, Israel would be a LOT BIGGER NATION within a few years. And after those few years, Israel would be a lot safer because it's neighbors will realize they are going to lose ground and Israel will get bigger. There is NOT ONE OTHER COUNTRY that would allow rockets to be fired on itself without declaring war.
d434478Nov. 18, 1210:53 AM
Well...if hidden in homes, pick another target...there have to be plenty. Children are children everywhere...precious. ProIsrael...but also a elsewhere!
jjollmanNov. 18, 1211:53 AM
I suggest that people read the full history of the conflict before commenting.
budgrant00Nov. 18, 1211:54 AM
d434478..Target elsewhere? How does that work exactly when the targeted missiles are where the targeted missiles are placed amongst homes and schools? That said, last time Israel did refrain from taking out Hamas leadership when they were using human shields and arriving unannounced to sleep in random civilian homes.
owatonnabillNov. 18, 1211:55 AM
The fact that these brave jehadists need to hide behind womens' skirts and childrens' schools and day care centers says a lot.
budgrant00Nov. 18, 1212:05 PM
As for missiles in question they were smuggled in from Iran. Two ways into Gaza, through Egypt via the official entry points or the tunnels Israel took out a couple years ago. The other way is on relief and supply ships which Israel gets grief over searching. So we have Hamas and Iran going to great lengths to arm Gaza and launch randomly on Israel, and people can't understand why Gaza gets hit? So what would any other nation do in Israel's place when faced with a terrorist group backed openly by a soon to be nuked up Iran? I'm not sure what the anti Israel folks here expect? The settlement program is about creating defensible borders. If Israel could be assured they would never again need to defend it's self that land would be turned over, but the reality is that it will never be the case.
hobie2Nov. 18, 1212:08 PM
If you don't assassinate elected leaders and crow about it, you don't get rockets shot at you. You don't get rockets shot at you, you don't have to bomb apartment buildings... We knew this for decades, and we know that blaming the Palestinian family for their children dying for their allowing armed militants on their roofs is only done by fools and cowards, done by sociopaths so sick fools can swallow it and nod as to how it is justified.. but then, you are what you do. Little cowards will always be little cowards.
stingballNov. 18, 12 1:33 PM
And here we go again with the media falling into the hands of the Hamas terrorists, blaming Israel for killing civilians instead of accurately pointing out how Hamas provoked Israel into a confrontation. And not mentioning how the Hamas terrorists typically hide amongst civilians populations to keep from being target. The correct blame belongs on the Hamas terrorists who cowardly commit terrorist acts and hide within civilian populations, directly putting innocent civilians at risk. Interesting how often the media cannot scratch just a little bit beneath the surface and see the real truth.
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IR Atmospheric Windows
The Universe sends us light at all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, most of this light does not reach us at ground level here on Earth. Why? Because we have an atmosphere which blocks out many types of radiation while letting other types through. Fortunately for life on Earth, our atmosphere blocks out harmful, high energy radiation like X-rays, gamma rays and most of the ultraviolet rays. It also block out most infrared radiation, as well as very low energy radio waves. On the other hand, our atmosphere lets visible light, most radio waves, and small wavelength ranges of infrared light through, allowing astronomers to view the Universe at these wavelengths.
Most of the infrared light coming to us from the Universe is absorbed by water vapor and carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. Only in a few narrow wavelength ranges, can infrared light make it through (at least partially) to a ground based infrared telescope.
The Earth's atmosphere causes another problem for infrared astronomers. The atmosphere itself radiates strongly in the infrared, often putting out more infrared light than the object in space being observed. This atmospheric infrared emission peaks at a wavelength of about 10 microns (micron is short for a micrometer or one millionth of a meter).
So the best view of the infrared universe, from ground based telescopes, are at infrared wavelengths which can pass through the Earth's atmosphere and at which the atmosphere is dim in the infrared. Ground based infrared observatories are usually placed near the summit of high, dry mountains to get above as much of the atmosphere as possible. Even so, most infrared wavelengths are completely absorbed by the atmosphere and never make it to the ground.
From the table below, you can see that only a few of the infrared "windows" have both high sky transparency and low sky emission. These infrared windows are mainly at infrared wavelengths below 4 microns.
Infrared Windows in the Atmosphere
Sky Transparency
Sky Brightness
1.1 - 1.4 microns
low at night
1.5 - 1.8 microns
very low
2.0 - 2.4 microns
very low
3.0 - 4.0 microns
3.0 - 3.5 microns: fair
3.5 - 4.0 microns: high
4.6 - 5.0 microns
7.5 - 14.5 microns
8 - 9 microns and 10 -12 microns: fair
others: low
very high
17 - 40 microns
17 - 25 microns: Q
28 - 40 microns: Z
very low
very high
330 - 370 microns
very low
Basically, everything we have learned about the Universe comes from studying the light or electromagnetic radiation emitted by objects in space. To get a complete picture of the Universe, we need to see it in all of its light, at all wavelengths. This is why it is so important to send observatories into space, to get above our atmosphere which prevents so much of this valuable information from reaching us.
Since most infrared light is blocked by our atmosphere, infrared astronomers have placed instruments onboard, rockets, balloons, aircraft and space telescopes to view regions of the infrared which are not detectable from the ground. As a result, amazing discoveries about our Universe have been made and hundreds of thousands of new astronomical sources have been detected for the first time.
Due to the rapid development of better infrared detectors and the ability to place telescopes in space, the future is extremely bright for infrared astronomy.
Ground based infrared observatories, using advanced techniques such as Adaptive Optics are providing fascinating views of the infrared Universe viewed through our atmosphere's infrared windows.
Mauna Kea Observatories
Although these observatories cannot view at other infrared wavelengths, they can observe the near-infrared sky almost anytime the weather permits, providing valuable long term studies of objects in space.
New missions are being planned to get above the atmosphere to observe the infrared Universe with better resolution than ever before. SOFIA, an airborne observatory, is schedule to start operations in 2004. The Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in August 2003, is NASA's next great observatory in space.
In the next decade, you will probably hear much news about discoveries being made in infrared astronomy, as we now can see beyond our atmosphere's infrared windows!
Infrared Astronomy HOME PAGE | Discovery of Infrared | What is Infrared? | Infrared Astronomy Overview | Atmospheric Windows | Near, Mid & Far Infrared | The Infrared Universe | Spectroscopy | Timeline | Background | Future Missions | News & Discoveries | Images & Videos | Activities | Infrared Links | Educational Links | Getting into Astronomy |
What are the chances you think the Boys will bring in Norv as OC?
Discussion in 'Fan Zone' started by scrives, Nov 2, 2012.
1. scrives
scrives Member
197 Messages
0 Likes Received
You think the Boys would bring in Norv Turner as OC if he gets caned in SD?
He would have this offense rolling and Tony playing a heck of alot better!! I think Jones would go for this. Heck, would even give him the title of assistant head coach.
2. Hostile
Hostile Peace Zone Supporter
117,913 Messages
641 Likes Received
I've been wondering the same thing. Garrett and he are very tight, but Callahan is our OC here along with OL Coach, and Norv coming might upset that applecart. I personally would love to see it.
I'm not convinced he's done in SD though.
3. Idgit
Idgit Ice up, son. Ice up! Staff Member
26,054 Messages
2,331 Likes Received
I hate to interrupt this private thread, but I believe Norv said SD was going to be his last coaching job when he took that position originally, didn't he? I can't see him being OC in Dallas, and I can't see us moving Callahan over. I think the Garrett/Callahan relationship seems to be working pretty well.
4. Hostile
Hostile Peace Zone Supporter
117,913 Messages
641 Likes Received
No privacy needed. Change the title. Anyone can chime in.
5. craig71
craig71 Aut Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam
2,575 Messages
1 Likes Received
If Norv was cut loose he might be willing to come in to consult, as a consultant he wouldn't have any formal coaching title. Didn't Capers do that a few years ago for the Pats?
6. CCBoy
CCBoy Active Member
13,343 Messages
1 Likes Received
To answer truthfully, and not an extension of purely theoretical. Zero. First, he won't be leaving San Diego before the end of this season. And their team usually picks up about this part of the season anyways. So he should be good for one more season there.
A head coach usually has his call as to who are his Coordinators. Jason Garrett chose this format and Jerry wouldn't pull the plug on Jason before a full three years as the head coach to begin with.
7. Idgit
Idgit Ice up, son. Ice up! Staff Member
26,054 Messages
2,331 Likes Received
I kind of like it intimate like this. Candles. A tablecloth. Just a mature football discussion amongst friends. And then me, craig, and CCBoy hanging out in the background playing the fart-game.
8. Seven
Seven Messenger to the football Gods
10,784 Messages
213 Likes Received
He wont come here 'cause jerry's an *******!!!
Sorry. Just keepin' it real.................. :cool:
9. arglebargle
arglebargle Well-Known Member
4,935 Messages
82 Likes Received
I suspect that the 'consultant' gig mentioned by craig is the most likely scenario for Norv heading back Dallas-ways.
10. Jenky
Jenky Well-Known Member
2,743 Messages
230 Likes Received
What would Jason Garrett do then?
11. Doomsday101
Doomsday101 Well-Known Member
73,361 Messages
776 Likes Received
I don't expect Dallas to go after Norv, they brought in a quality coach in Callahan as the OC.
12. fifaguy
fifaguy Well-Known Member
3,824 Messages
428 Likes Received
chances of this are less than zero (if such were possible)
13. Yeagermeister
Yeagermeister Active Member
47,576 Messages
8 Likes Received
So you are saying there is a chance? :D
14. fifaguy
fifaguy Well-Known Member
3,824 Messages
428 Likes Received
15. AbeBeta
AbeBeta Well-Known Member
24,472 Messages
336 Likes Received
year after year I am shocked that he keeps that job.
16. Nunez21
Nunez21 Active Member
233 Messages
43 Likes Received
would be nice. garret has his hands full during the game i remember the commentators mentioning he was trying to argue a call then almost forgot to get a play in!
17. CyberB0b
CyberB0b Well-Known Member
2,562 Messages
655 Likes Received
No thanks.
18. perrykemp
perrykemp Well-Known Member
4,931 Messages
882 Likes Received
Sure, let's bring back another coach from the glory years...
I am about as impressed with Norv as I am with Chan Gailey....
19. jobberone
jobberone Orangutan for hire; blues and southern rock Staff Member
32,960 Messages
1,616 Likes Received
You could make Callahan asst HC along with Robinson although that may be prohibited or make Robinson mad. You could make him passing coordinator and a big salary. Getting him here would be a plus but I'd rather have someone who could mix in the West Coast variant more or even some more Martz. Turner and Red are a good bit alike but there aren't many people who know enough to really answer that question with any authority.
Jason needs to mix things up more using our RBs like Martz, our WRs more like Walsh, and use Hanna and Witten more like Jason Garrett. Use Witten underneath and intermediate some and use Hanna more like Gates. He needs to vary the tempo of the game more and even occasionally use the hurry up and no huddle offense.
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case `uname -r` in 6.1*) shellflags="-m+65536" ;; esac case "$optimize" in # If we used fastmd (the default) integer values would be limited to 46 bits. # --Mark P. Lutz '') optimize="$optimize -h nofastmd" ;; esac # The default is to die in runtime on math overflows. # Let's not do that. --jhi ccflags="$ccflags -h matherror=errno" # Cray floating point (cfp) CPUs need -h rounddiv # (It gives int((2/3)*3) a chance to be 2, not 1. --jhi) # (but IEEE CPUs, IEEE/ieee/CPE1 CPUs should not have -h rounddiv, # since the compiler on those CPUs doesn't even support the option.) if /etc/cpu -i | grep -q cfp then ccflags="$ccflags -h rounddiv" fi # Avoid an optimizer bug where a volatile variables # isn't correctly saved and restored --Mark P. Lutz pp_ctl_cflags='ccflags="$ccflags -h scalar0 -h vector0"' # Otherwise the unpack %65c checksums will fail. pp_pack_cflags='optimize="$ccflags -h scalar0 -h vector0"' case "$usemymalloc" in '') # The perl malloc.c SHOULD work says Ilya. # But for the time being (5.004_68), alas, it doesn't. --jhi # usemymalloc='y' # ccflags="$ccflags -DNO_RCHECK" usemymalloc='n' ;; esac # Configure gets fooled for some reason, these do not exist. d_getpgid='undef' d_setitimer='undef' # These exist but do not really work. d_setregid='undef' d_setreuid='undef' # No shared libraries. so='none' # Threads call-back unit. cat > UU/usethreads.cbu <<'EOCBU' # This script UU/usethreads.cbu will get 'called-back' by Configure # after it has prompted the user for whether to use threads. case "$usethreads" in $define|true|[yY]*) set `echo X "$libswanted "| sed -e "s/ c / pthread c /"` shift libswanted="$*" ;; esac EOCBU |
dealsjamaica vacation: flight + 3 nights @ all…
Please no more travel deals Woot, they aren't real deals for the vast majority.
@wisenekt: Travelzoo usually has pretty good deals imo. May I ask why you feel they are not? Not flaming, just curious as I happen to love the site and was wondering if you had found better deals elsewhere. If so, share! :)
Does Woot post travel offers as a scapegoat for downvotes to protect the other offers?
3 nights is not a vacation. just saying.
@kerowyn: Travelzoo tends to be an ad-plagued dungeon of forcing-you-to-search-on-other-sites-through-them-so-they-get-commissions... uhhhh... -itude.
Nine times out of ten, the travel deals posted here have been thinly veiled timeshare scams, very restrictive on location (Fly to Honolulu for $49!* *Only if departing from Oahu. From LA, $1,099. DC, $35,983), or ad-plagued dungeons of see-above.
This one seems to be another of the third category with some of the first mixed in. The price listed is if leaving from Ft Lauderdale. For me in DC, it was about double the listed... if I even had the right package, it was hard to be sure.
@jai151 You are right on the money there!
I clicked on it, and couldn't even tell where the real deal was. Also I saw several times "Airfare estimated" So this doesn't really mean much for the money its advertising...
@solo154: I was so lost trying to navigate the site I got my order mixed up in my comment. I meant to say third with some of the second, didn't see any timeshare stuff there but plenty of misleading rates, including one listed with New York in the search box under but the rate was from Florida.
@jai151: I got a Bahamas all inclusive deal from them and it was fine as well as several local deals. Yeah, I had to fly to Ft. Lauderdale to make it worth it, but it was still a good deal. 400 bucks for a 3 day thing, and an extra 200 for my additional airfare from LA. No timeshare talks were even mentioned.
The whole point of their site is so you don't have to search for vacation deals yourself. I don't think they are particularly deceptive about restrictions or anything. It seems a little harsh to call it a dungeon.
I swear to goodness...if there is ever a vacation deal that y'all don't vote down into oblivion, I'm going to have to jump on it because it'll be a deal for real!!! |
As a farmer, more money passes through your hands each year than goes through a local county official’s re-election campaign. So, if something tragic were to happen to you, who would pay those bills to the bank, the equipment manufacturer, and the chemical seed dealer? And, what would it take to settle those accounts in full?
The answer, according to one independent insurance agent, is as much a personal choice as it is a matter of finance.
While some industry experts advocate carrying life insurance policies equal to 10 or 15 times your annual income, Mike Anderson of Anderson Insurance in Indianola, Miss., said, "There is no particular formula to determine exactly how much life insurance you need."
In today’s environment, he said, owning a million dollars or more of life insurance is very common. But, to be truthful, it’s never really enough when something happens. You should base your level of coverage on your personal financial goals, which may include your children’s education or the desire to provide lifetime income security for your family.
"As a farmer, you should definitely choose a level of coverage that will, at the very minimum, cover your crop and equipment loans, so that if something happens to you mid-season, your family is protected and a fire sale is avoided," he said.
The first step in determining how much insurance is right for you, Anderson said, is to answer a few simple questions.
o Is someone, including your local lending official, requiring that you secure a set amount of life insurance in order to obtain a business loan?
o How much money does it realistically take you to farm each year?
o Are you married? How many children do you have?
o What are your concerns for your family if something were to happen to you? Do you want to guarantee your children’s education? Do you want to guarantee a lifetime income for your spouse?
o What is your greatest monetary concern if something happens to you?
Once you’ve taken the time to answer these questions and now know how much life insurance you want to purchase, the next step is determining what type of insurance best fits your individual goals.
Selecting a type of insurance, Anderson said, is based on three things: your budget, your comfort level for risk, and your desire to either rent or own your insurance.
"Do you want a return on your money or do you just want pure term insurance?" he asks. "Pure term will always be the most economical coverage available. However, the more expensive permanent coverage policies, including universal life, whole life and variable life, build equity."
"Each of the insurance products offers its own distinct advantages and disadvantages," Anderson said. "Some people purchase term policies because they feel like that’s all they can afford to spend. Some people have a difficult time saving money, and the whole, universal and variable life policies are a forced savings for them."
The primary advantage to term life insurance, whether you choose an annual renewal policy or a fixed 20-year policy, is price. "You are getting more bang for the buck because term policies offer the least expensive premiums per $1,000 in coverage," he said. "The disadvantage to term is that if you outlive the 10- or 20-year period of the term policy and still need the same amount of coverage, it will cost you more."
Whole life, variable life and universal life policies build cash values that can provide money for future needs. The consumer accepts the risk of cash value growth with the variable life product; the company accepts the risk with whole life and universal life contracts.
With both whole life and universal life policies, the policy’s "cash value" is determined by the company, based on either whatever measure the company is using to index the cash value or a minimum guarantee.
And, while the two types of coverage share many of the same characteristics, whole life policies offer a fixed premium, and universal life policies offer some flexibility in premium costs.
"The premium for whole life is generally more expensive, but this type of policy offers stronger guarantees," Anderson said. "The advantage to universal life coverage is that you can control the amount of premium you pay, as long as you pay the company’s minimum premium. However, that’s also the disadvantage to universal coverage because it’s human nature to pay as little as possible, which can jeopardize your insurance coverage down the road and can cause your premiums to increase."
In comparison, variable life insurance offers a greater opportunity for "cash value" growth. Along with this opportunity comes risk.
"We can all understand risk as we reflect over the past 18 months," Anderson said. "Variable means exactly what it said. Your cash value will vary according to your selections of stock market sub-accounts offered by that particular company."
The only guarantees offered by a variable life insurance policy are the maximum mortality charges and the maximum expenses of the policy.
"In the past few years, this type of coverage has been attractive to those people seeking greater opportunity for growth. There are many people who only want term and then there are those who believe cash value policies are the best. What is comfortable for me, may not be comfortable for you," Anderson said.
"We’ve all been told it’s better to own a house than to rent because when you own a house you build equity. It is equity that allows us to make a second mortgage when money is needed for education or a new car. If you hadn’t built that equity you might not have been able to come up with those extra dollars," he adds. "Also, if we knew when we were going to die, we would know exactly what coverage to buy. That is why they call it life insurance." |
I'm trying to generate an application information file with AIF builder. I have managed to set all the necessary paths and other things but when I try to generate files I get the following error message.
"Files cannot be generated - error occured creating AIF file. Check that aiftool.exe is accessible"
What is wrong? What means that aiftool.exe is accessible? I have aiftool.exe in <path>\Epoc32\Release\winc\udeb and in <path>\Epoc32\Release\winc\urel.
Posted by Markus Ritala, markus.ritala@tut.fi
on January 14, 2002 at 12:52 |
Cambridge Dictionaries online Cambridge Dictionaries online
Definición de “hold” en inglés
noun /həʊld/
[S] power or control over someone or something: a hold over sb/sth With the new law, Congress strengthened its hold over mortgage rates.a hold on sth They're keeping their strong hold on the smartphone market. a strong/tight hold keep/tighten/lose your hold
[C or U] STOCK MARKET a suggestion that someone should not sell the shares that they own in a company, but that they should not buy any new shares: Analysts changed "buys" to "holds" after the annual report appeared. We have recently downgraded our recommendation for the Forest Group to "Hold". → See also hold rating
[C] BANKING a delay by a bank to prevent money from being taken from an account: It took three days for the hold on the payment to be cleared.
[C] TRANSPORT the place on a ship or aircraft where goods are carried: Inspectors examined the hold to look for stowaways.
on hold not being done now, but perhaps being done later: Any new building has been put on hold until the economy improves. not changing or moving: The dollar is on hold at the same level it was at a year ago. COMMUNICATIONS waiting for someone to return to or to begin a phone conversation: Technical support had me on hold for 20 minutes while they researched my question. I'll just put you on hold while I ask my manager about this.
take hold to start to have an effect: New stimulus funds took hold in time to keep unemployment low.
(Definition of hold noun from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
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I am building a new patio/sunroom, and I have framed up a small shear wall, along with openings for 2 new 4x6 windows. As I tried to install the windows today, I realize that the openings are out of square. One opening is not allowing the top of the window to sit into the opening by 1/8 inch, and I don't have enough slack on the other side to bring it up.
The other opening next to it, is out of square too far to one side. So I will need to put in more than shims to make it attach.
Any practical suggestions?
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Rough openings are exactly as they are called, rough. Yours sounds extra rough though. All rough openings are made to have space to add shims, sometimes the rough openings, because of conditions, can only take shims on one side or the other.
As a rule of thumb I usually do not use no more than 2 shims on a side. If the rough opening (RO) has need for more, I usually add a piece of plywood to bring the opening down where 2 shims will work on a given side. There is no rule that says the plywood has to be the full length of the opening. I also rip my plywood filler 1/4" narrower than the RO material. Dimensional lumber shrinks, and this smaller dimension keeps the plywood from giving you trouble later on.
Edit 12-31-13 I need to clarify the shim statement. The 2 shims I refer to is, per placement. I use what is called undercoursing shingles used in roofing. They need to be made narrower, whether split, razor knifed, or table sawn. You get a lot for the money. The ones in the little packs aren't even uniform in their taper. There will obviously be a number of placements per side, depending on how large any given item is to be fastened.
On the opening that is too small at the top, if it is a non bearing wall, you may be able to remove the jack stud and replace it with thinner material. If it is a bearing wall, a picture would be handy to see what the conditions are. It may be as simple as using a chisel to trim the little you need to get the window in. It may only need a good smack with the hammer to shift the framing enough to get the window in. A couple well placed 12D-16D toenails may help too. Give it a whack, literally.
I can't determine anymore to do without seeing the conditions. Bearing, non bearing, jack studs, common studs etc...
Also check the ends of the wall that the windows are in, the wall may have racked, which in turn will make your ROs out of square.
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I am talking about those small and narrow screwdrivers with a thin handle. I can't get a tight enough grip on the handle to generate enough torque to remove a small screw. Do I have to use something else with it?
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This question belongs on SuperUser,with a title like "how do I remove the screws on a MacBook Pro? – Jay Bazuzi Oct 21 '11 at 2:11
No the question is still valid. How do you apply torque on needle like scewdriver? – Johny Oct 21 '11 at 6:36
Really Baz? Nothing better to do? – Evil Elf Oct 21 '11 at 14:04
Yea those screw drivers are used for clocks, watches and jewellery where very little torque is required! Those are tinkering screw drivers-- and as you have witnessed not designed for the job you want them for. Get those @Niall Suggested. – ppumkin Oct 21 '11 at 16:32
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up vote 4 down vote accepted
There are precision screwdrivers available that have larger handles, such as this one from Home Depot:
Home depot precision screwdriver set
In general, you press down on the tip while you screw in or out: this helps to hold the screwdriver in the slots in the screw head and allows you to use more force to turn the screw.
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I happened to buy the exact same one (without knowing about the answer). They did a great job. You need philip head #00. #000 wont do it. – Johny Oct 21 '11 at 6:32
I'd recommend against -interchangeable- precision screwdrivers with plastic parts, especially if you need extra torque. I've had sets like this break on me. I prefer the all metal sets now. – Hemm Oct 24 '11 at 0:10
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Use a pair of pliers to grab the screwdriver, and while applying downward force to the screwdriver (so it doesn't slip and strip your screws), carefully apply pressure using the pliers.
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I was thinking on the same idea but if you are working with laptop, avoid this method as it can easily scratch the laptop surface. The above pair does a very nice job. – Johny Oct 21 '11 at 6:35
I agree. It's better to have the right tools (bigger handles), but in a pinch pilers will work. You do absolutely have to be careful though, as you do no matter what tools you're using to work on anything you don't want to break. – gregmac Oct 21 '11 at 16:26
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Asymmetrical learning between a tactile and visual serial RT task
Abrahamse, Elger L. and Lubbe van der, Rob H.J. and Verwey, Willem B. (2007) Asymmetrical learning between a tactile and visual serial RT task. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 61 (2). pp. 210-217. ISSN 1747-0218
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Abstract:According to many researchers, implicit learning in the serial reaction-time task is predominantly motor based and therefore should be independent of stimulus modality. Previous research on the task, however, has focused almost completely on the visual domain. Here we investigated sequence learning when the imperative stimuli were presented tactilely to the fingers. Learning in this task was compared to sequence learning in a typical visual task, using very similar experimental conditions. The results indicate that sequential learning occurs in the tactile task, though to a lesser degree than in its visual counterpart. Furthermore, there was similar cross-modal transfer in both directions, meaning that transfer from the visual to the tactile task was partial. It is proposed that sequence learning involves a stimulus-specific component in the visual but not in the tactile task.
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Oracle® Grid Infrastructure Installation Guide
11g Release 2 (11.2) for Linux
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E How to Complete Installation Prerequisite Tasks Manually
This appendix provides instructions for how to complete configuration tasks manually that Cluster Verification Utility (CVU) and the installer (OUI) normally complete during installation. Use this appendix as a guide if you cannot use the fixup script.
This appendix contains the following information:
E.1 Configuring SSH Manually on All Cluster Nodes
Passwordless SSH configuration is a mandatory installation requirement. SSH is used during installation to configure cluster member nodes, and SSH is used after installation by configuration assistants, Oracle Enterprise Manager, OPatch, and other features.
Automatic Passwordless SSH configuration using OUI creates RSA encryption keys on all nodes of the cluster. If you have system restrictions that require you to set up SSH manually, such as using DSA keys, then use this procedure as a guide to set up passwordless SSH.
In the examples that follow, the Oracle software owner listed is the grid user.
If SSH is not available, then OUI attempts to use rsh and rcp instead. However, these services are disabled by default on most Linux systems.
The supported version of SSH for Linux distributions is OpenSSH.
This section contains the following:
E.1.1 Checking Existing SSH Configuration on the System
To determine if SSH is running, enter the following command:
$ pgrep sshd
If SSH is running, then the response to this command is one or more process ID numbers. In the home directory of the installation software owner (grid, oracle), use the command ls -al to ensure that the .ssh directory is owned and writable only by the user.
You need either an RSA or a DSA key for the SSH protocol. RSA is used with the SSH 1.5 protocol, while DSA is the default for the SSH 2.0 protocol. With OpenSSH, you can use either RSA or DSA. The instructions that follow are for SSH1. If you have an SSH2 installation, and you cannot use SSH1, then refer to your SSH distribution documentation to configure SSH1 compatibility or to configure SSH2 with DSA.
E.1.2 Configuring SSH on Cluster Nodes
To configure SSH, you must first create RSA or DSA keys on each cluster node, and then copy all the keys generated on all cluster node members into an authorized keys file that is identical on each node. Note that the SSH files must be readable only by root and by the software installation user (oracle, grid), as SSH ignores a private key file if it is accessible by others. In the examples that follow, the DSA key is used.
You must configure SSH separately for each Oracle software installation owner that you intend to use for installation.
To configure SSH, complete the following:
E.1.2.1 Create SSH Directory, and Create SSH Keys On Each Node
Complete the following steps on each node:
1. Log in as the software owner (in this example, the grid user).
2. To ensure that you are logged in as grid, and to verify that the user ID matches the expected user ID you have assigned to the grid user, enter the commands id and id grid. Ensure that Oracle user group and user and the user terminal window process you are using have group and user IDs are identical. For example:
$ id
uid=502(grid) gid=501(oinstall) groups=501(oinstall),502(grid,asmadmin,asmdba)
$ id grid
3. If necessary, create the .ssh directory in the grid user's home directory, and set permissions on it to ensure that only the oracle user has read and write permissions:
$ mkdir ~/.ssh
$ chmod 700 ~/.ssh
SSH configuration will fail if the permissions are not set to 700.
4. Enter the following command:
$ /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t dsa
At the prompts, accept the default location for the key file (press Enter).
SSH with passphrase is not supported for Oracle Clusterware 11g release 2 and later releases.
This command writes the DSA public key to the ~/.ssh/ file and the private key to the ~/.ssh/id_dsa file.
Never distribute the private key to anyone not authorized to perform Oracle software installations.
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 on each node that you intend to make a member of the cluster, using the DSA key.
E.1.2.2 Add All Keys to a Common authorized_keys File
Complete the following steps:
1. On the local node, change directories to the .ssh directory in the Oracle Grid Infrastructure owner's home directory (typically, either grid or oracle).
Then, add the DSA key to the authorized_keys file using the following commands:
$ cat >> authorized_keys
$ ls
In the ssh directory, you should see the keys that you have created, and the file authorized_keys.
2. On the local node, use SCP (Secure Copy) or SFTP (Secure FTP) to copy the authorized_keys file to the oracle user .ssh directory on a remote node. The following example is with SCP, on a node called node2, with the Oracle Grid Infrastructure owner grid, where the grid user path is /home/grid:
[grid@node1 .ssh]$ scp authorized_keys node2:/home/grid/.ssh/
You are prompted to accept a DSA key. Enter Yes, and you see that the node you are copying to is added to the known_hosts file.
When prompted, provide the password for the grid user, which should be the same on all nodes in the cluster. The authorized_keys file is copied to the remote node.
Your output should be similar to the following, where xxx represents parts of a valid IP address:
The authenticity of host 'node2 ( can't be established.
DSA key fingerprint is 7e:60:60:ae:40:40:d1:a6:f7:4e:zz:me:a7:48:ae:f6:7e.
Warning: Permanently added 'node1,' (dsa) to the list
of known hosts
grid@node2's password:
authorized_keys 100% 828 7.5MB/s 00:00
3. Using SSH, log in to the node where you copied the authorized_keys file. Then change to the .ssh directory, and using the cat command, add the DSA keys for the second node to the authorized_keys file, clicking Enter when you are prompted for a password, so that passwordless SSH is set up:
[grid@node1 .ssh]$ ssh node2
[grid@node2 grid]$ cd .ssh
[grid@node2 ssh]$ cat >> authorized_keys
Repeat steps 2 and 3 from each node to each other member node in the cluster.
When you have added keys from each cluster node member to the authorized_keys file on the last node you want to have as a cluster node member, then use scp to copy the authorized_keys file with the keys from all nodes back to each cluster node member, overwriting the existing version on the other nodes.
To confirm that you have all nodes in the authorized_keys file, enter the command more authorized_keys, and determine if there is a DSA key for each member node. The file lists the type of key (ssh-dsa), followed by the key, and then followed by the user and server. For example:
ssh-dsa AAAABBBB . . . = grid@node1
The grid user's /.ssh/authorized_keys file on every node must contain the contents from all of the /.ssh/ files that you generated on all cluster nodes.
E.1.3 Enabling SSH User Equivalency on Cluster Nodes
After you have copied the authorized_keys file that contains all keys to each node in the cluster, complete the following procedure, in the order listed. In this example, the Oracle Grid Infrastructure software owner is named grid:
1. On the system where you want to run OUI, log in as the grid user.
2. Use the following command syntax, where hostname1, hostname2, and so on, are the public host names (alias and fully qualified domain name) of nodes in the cluster to run SSH from the local node to each node, including from the local node to itself, and from each node to each other node:
[grid@nodename]$ ssh hostname1 date
[grid@nodename]$ ssh hostname2 date
For example:
[grid@node1 grid]$ ssh node1 date
The authenticity of host 'node1 (' can't be established.
DSA key fingerprint is 7z:60:60:zz:48:48:z1:a0:f7:4e.
Warning: Permanently added 'node1,' (DSA) to the list of
known hosts.
Mon Dec 4 11:08:13 PST 2006
[grid@node1 grid]$ ssh date
The authenticity of host ' (' can't be
Warning: Permanently added ',' (DSA) to the
list of known hosts.
Mon Dec 4 11:08:13 PST 2006
[grid@node1 grid]$ ssh node2 date
Mon Dec 4 11:08:35 PST 2006
At the end of this process, the public host name for each member node should be registered in the known_hosts file for all other cluster nodes.
If you are using a remote client to connect to the local node, and you see a message similar to "Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for X11 forwarding," then this means that your authorized keys file is configured correctly, but your SSH configuration has X11 forwarding enabled. To correct this issue, proceed to "Setting Display and X11 Forwarding Configuration".
3. Repeat step 2 on each cluster node member.
If you have configured SSH correctly, then you can now use the ssh or scp commands without being prompted for a password. For example:
[grid@node1 ~]$ ssh node2 date
Mon Feb 26 23:34:42 UTC 2009
[grid@node1 ~]$ ssh node1 date
Mon Feb 26 23:34:48 UTC 2009
If any node prompts for a password, then verify that the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on that node contains the correct public keys, and that you have created an Oracle software owner with identical group membership and IDs.
E.2 Configuring Kernel Parameters
This section contains the following:
The kernel parameter and shell limit values shown in the following section are recommended values only. For production database systems, Oracle recommends that you tune these values to optimize the performance of the system. Refer to your operating system documentation for more information about tuning kernel parameters.
E.2.1 Minimum Parameter Settings for Installation
During installation, or when you run the Cluster Verification Utility (cluvfy) with the flag -fixup, a fixup script is generated. This script updates required kernel packages if necessary to minimum values.
If you cannot use the fixup scripts, then review the following table to set values manually:
Parameter Value File
semmsl semmns semopm semmni 250 32000 100 128 /proc/sys/kernel/sem
shmmax Minimum allocation:
536870912 (512 MB)
Maximum allocation:
• Linux x86: At least 1 byte less than 4 GB, or 4294967295.
Recommended: More than half the physical memory.
• Linux x86-64: At least 1 byte less than the physical memory
Recommended: More than half the physical memory
See My Oracle Support Note 567506.1 for additional information about configuring shmmax.
shmmni 4096 /proc/sys/kernel/shmmni
shmall 2097152 /proc/sys/kernel/shmall
file-max 6815744 /proc/sys/fs/file-max
ip_local_port_range Minimum: 9000
Maximum: 65500
rmem_default 262144 /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default
rmem_max 4194304 /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max
wmem_default 262144 /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default
wmem_max 1048576 /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max
aio-max-nr 1048576 /proc/sys/fs/aio-max-nr
If the current value for any parameter is greater than the value listed in this table, then the Fixup scripts do not change the value of that parameter.
E.2.2 Additional Parameter and Kernel Settings for SUSE Linux
On SUSE systems only, complete the following steps as needed:
1. Enter the following command to cause the system to read the /etc/sysctl.conf file when it restarts:
# /sbin/chkconfig boot.sysctl on
2. On SUSE 10 systems only, use a text editor to change the /etc/sysconfig/boot.sysctl parameter RUN_PARALLEL flag from yes to no.
3. Enter the GID of the oinstall group as the value for the parameter /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group. Doing this grants members of oinstall a group permission to create shared memory segments.
For example, where the oinstall group GID is 501:
# echo 501 > /proc/sys/vm/hugetlb_shm_group
After running this command, use vi to add the following text to /etc/sysctl.conf, and enable the boot.sysctl script to run on system restart:
Only one group can be defined as the vm.hugetlb_shm_group.
4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 on all other nodes in the cluster.
E.3 Checking OCFS2 Version Manually
To check your OCFS version manually, enter the following commands:
modinfo ocfs2
rpm -qa |grep ocfs2
Ensure that ocfs2console and ocfs2-tools are at least version 1.2.7, and that the other OCFS2 components correspond to the pattern ocfs2-kernel_version-1.2.7 or greater. If you want to install Oracle RAC on a shared home, then the OCFS version must be 1.4.1 or greater.
For information about OCFS2, refer to the following Web site: |
System Administration Guide, Volume 1
How to See If a File System Needs Checking
1. Become superuser.
2. Unmount the file system if it is mounted.
# umount /mount-point
3. Check the file system.
# fsck -m /dev/rdsk/device-name
In this command, the state flag in the superblock of the file system you specify is checked to see whether the file system is clean or requires checking.
If you omit the device argument, all the UFS file systems listed in /etc/vfstab with a fsck pass value greater than 0 are checked.
Example--Seeing If a File System Needs Checking
The following example shows that the file system needs checking.
# fsck -m /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6
** /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6
ufs fsck: sanity check: /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6 needs checking |
]> <emph>The First Dixie Reader; Designed to Follow the Dixie Primer:</emph> Electronic Edition. Marinda Branson Moore, 1829-1864 Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title. Text scanned (OCR) by Jason Befort Images scanned by Jason Befort Text encoded by Melissa Edwards and Natalia Smith First edition, 1999 ca. 100K Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1999.
Call number VC375.428 M82f.1 (North Carolina Collection, UNC-CH) The First Dixie Reader; Designed to Follow the Dixie Primer.Mrs. M. B. Moore Raleigh:Branson, Farrar, & Co.1863
All em dashes are encoded as —
Indentation in lines has not been preserved.
Running titles have not been preserved.
Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998
Textbooks -- Confederate States of America. Readers (Primary) Education -- Confederate States of America. Confederate States of America -- Juvenile literature. 1999-11-30, Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition. 1999-08-31, Natalia Smith, project manager, finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing. 1999-08-31, Melissa Maxwell Edwards finished TEI/SGML encoding 1999-08-24, Jason Befort finished scanning (OCR) and proofing.
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FIRST DIXIE READER. LESSON I. Cat bat fat mat pat rat bet get fet met pet set bit dit fit lit pit sit cot dot got lot pot sot cut gut mut put nut sut A NEW BOOK.
2. I cannot read well; but I can spell.
3. If you love to spell you will soon read.
LESSON II. Ban can fan man pan tan ben den fen hen men pen bin din fin kin pin tin bun dun fun gun pun tun THE NEW SLATE.
3. Does he write with a pen?
LESSON III. Cab gab jab nab tab rab deb feb neb peb reb web bib fib jib nib rib sib bob cob hob job lob mob dub cub hub lub rub tub WHO MADE YOU?
1. Who made you, child?
2. God made me of dust.
3. For what did he make you?
4. To be good, and to do good.
5. Who loves good boys and girls?
6. Pa, and ma, and all good men.
7. Who else loves them?
8. God loves them.
9. Can you be good of yourself?
10. No, I must ask God to help me.
11. Will God hear a child pray?
12. He says he will.
LESSON IV. Ball Call fall gall hall pall bell dell fell hell sell tell bill gill fill hill pill mill doll coll joll moll poll toll dull cull gull hull mull null THE SUN.
LESSON V. Art dart hart mart part tart end bend lend mend send tend bone cone hone lone pone tone dine fine mine pine tine vine THE NEW HAT.
2. Who made it?
3. Jane made it of wheat straw.
LESSON VI. Ask bask cask mask task best jest lest pest test irk dirk kirk mirk quirk bunk hunk junk punk sunk THE FROG.
LESSON VII. Bale cale dale gale pale bale bile file mile pile tile wile bole dole cole hole mole pole use cuse fuse muse ruse tuse THE OWL.
5. The owl cries “who, who, who,” at night.
LESSON VIII. And band land mand rand sand end bend lend mend send tend bind find hind kind mind wind old cold fold gold mold sold THE COLT.
LESSON IX. Back hack jack lack nack pock beck deck check peck reck wreck dick chick kick lick pick sick dock hock lock mock pock sock THE MOON.
LESSON X. Bark dark hark lark mark park berk derk jerk merk perk yerk cork dork fork pork work york duck buck luck muck puck tuck THE PIG.
LESSON XI. Barn darn earn tarn varn yarn bern cern fern kern tern vern born corn born morn torn worn burn furn churn hurn spurn turn THE CROW.
LESSON XII. Arm charm farm harm marm warm end bend fend lend pend vend dine fine kine line mine pine cake hake jake pake wake yake TIME TO GET UP.
LESSON XIII. Deep keep peep sleep steep weep deed feed heed meed speed seed beer deer cheer jeer leer peer beet feet meet greet street weet THE EAR.
LESSON XIV. All ball call hall fall Pall ell bell cell fell hell mell ill bill dill hill mill pill doll coll holl goll loll moll dull cull gull hull mull THE CALF.
LESSON XV. Loud proud shroud ounce bounce trounce bound found hound mound pound round burn churn spurn turn fume plume OUR BABE.
LESSON XVI. Chair fair hair lair pair stair bain dain fain main pain vain bean dean lean mean pean wean car dear fear hear near tear OLD AUNT ANN.
LESSON XVII. Bang dang fang hang pang rang ding cling fling ring sing wing dong gong long prong song wrong bung clung hung lung rung sung HOW IT RAINS!
1. Ma, where do the rain drops come from?
2. They drop from the clouds, my child.
3. But how do they get up there?
4. Do you know what fog is?
5. It is fine drops of rain.
LESSON XVIII. Bare dare fare hare pare tare cere here fere mere vere were ire dire hire fire mire sire ore bore core fore more dore THE NEW CAP.
LESSON XIX. Daw caw haw jaw paw saw dew few hew mew pew sew bow cow how mow plow vow dog cat fox calf colt dolt DO NOT DRINK A DRAM.
LESSON XX. Bass cass glass mass pass rass bees cess less mess guess tress boss dross gloss loss moss ross buss fuss guss muss russ truss THE STARS.
LESSON XXI. Free tree spree flee glee boo coo loo moo too bush Cush push rush brush eye bye lye rye sye KA-TY DID.
3. No; please tell me, ma-ma.
5. How strange! Can I see her sing ?
6. No, she sings at night.
LESSON XXII. Com-pel dis-pel ex-pel re-pel pro rel co-pel dis-til ex-til un-til ful-fil un-fill re-fill ja-pan tre-pan tro-jan rat-an di van co-man A CROSS GIRL.
LESSON XXIII. Bri-ar fri-ar li-ar pry-or may-or pray-er sa-go bu-bo ty-ro ha-lo ne-gro un-to ci-der ri-der sni-der ud-der rud-der shud-der SPRING.
LESSON XXIV. Dap per clap-per flap-per lap-per tap-per sap-per sel-ler wel-ler shel-ler spel-ler tel-ler dwel-ler bet-ter let-ter fet-ter get-ter set-ter tet-ter THE GOOD GIRL.
4. When three years old, she would go to her mam-ma, and say, “'Ell me, mam-ma;” then she would put her head down in her lap, and say her lit-tle pray-ers.
LESSON XXVI. Bain dain fain gain lain pain bean dean jean lean mean wean loan moan groan roan moon spoon dume fume gume lume hume tume THE SHEEP.
LESSON XXVIII. Ca-ble fa-ble ga-ble ra-ble sta-ble ta-ble fid-dle mid-dle pid-dle gig-gle pig-gle wrig-gle nod-dle tod-dle scut-tle tut-tle tur-tle myr-tle OLD BALL.
3. He was so large that when the children rode him, they look-ed like frogs, and they often kept as much noise.
LESSON XXIX. A-base de-base in-case mis-place e-rase em-brace dis-claim pro-claim re-claim de-claim ex-claim en-chain com-mand de-mand re-mand fore-hand by-hand off-hand GOD SEES US.
LESSON XXX. Ban-quet gus-set rus-set pos set vel-vet pal-let bra-ver cra-ver do-ver tro-ver clo-ver ro-ver quiv-er riv-er shiv-er sil-ver un-der blun-der UNCLE NED.
2. They liv-ed near the Yan-kee lines, and when the Yan-kee ar-my come, old Ned and his wife and chil-dren, went a-way with them.
5. The mas-ter did not. know what to think of see-ing old Ned alone, so he said “Ned, how come you to leave Nan-ny and the chil-dren?”
6. Ned re-plied, Ah, mas-sa, dem Yan-kee no be good to poor nig-ger, can't stay wid nm. Ned lib wid you all his life.”
7. Then Ned and his mas-ter were both glad; he went to work; but he pray-ed ev-ery day for God to send Nan-ny and the ba-bies back. I hope they have come back ere this.
8. Ned says “he wants eb -ry nig-ger to stay at home and mind his work, and let dem Yan-kees do der own work.”
LESSON XXX. Prim-mer sim-mer trim-mer glim-mer swim-mer stem-mer ev-er clev-er nev-er riv-er quiv-er cov-er char-nel dar-nel chis-el hov-el nov-el mar-vel THE LUNGS.
2. They con-sist of two parts or lobes. When we draw breath, or in-hale, these fill up with air, and cause the chest to swell out.
7. Thou-sands have died from it. When the lungs can not take in e-nough, the blood be-comes bad, the face grows pale, and beau-ty is gone. O be-ware, girls!
LESSON XXXI. A-way be-tray al-way es-say un-say be-wray be-fit re-fit un-fit cow-fit out-fit sand-pit ad-mit re-mit per-mit trans-mit com-mit sub-mit THE CHATTER BOX.
LESSON XXXII. Bor-row mor-row sor-row el-bow fel-low mel-low minn-ow win now wid-ow meadow fal-low mallow tal-low wal-low bar-row far-row mar-row spar-row LEARNING TO SPIN.
5. Now my child, you have done well.— You may try a gain to mor row. I love to have you learn how to spin.
6. As soon as you are old enough you shall learn how to weave. Then you can weave your self nice dress es, and your pa pa a suit of clothes. How proud he will be to wear a suit which your lit tle hands have spun and wove.
7. I love to see girls use ful, and then spin ning, and weav ing are so health y.— You seldom hear of a girl dy ing of con-sump tion, who has been used to such work Then it does not pre vent girls from pass ing through the world.
LESSON XXXIV. Ca-ress du-ress e-gress in-gress pro-gress dis-tress a-mass re-pass un-pass sur-pass com-pass im-pass mo-rass cui-rass en-gross a-miss re-miss ad-miss THE FACE.
LESSON XXXV. House louse grouse mouse souse trouse loud cloud croud proud shroud crowd bout lout flout spout trout rout THE CANE MILL.
3. This is put in the large ket tles on the furn ace, and boil ed until it is fit for use.—The scum is fed to the hogs, and makes them grow fast. See! it takes one hand all the time to skim it well.
5. Chil dren who live most ly on sy rup, are not so sub ject to croup; and it is said that per sons us ing much of it are not apt to have fe vers.
LESSON XXXVI. A corn a down green horn for sworn ink horn in form re form per form trans form mis form' de form con form re turn sun burn con cern dis cern cis tern lan tern THE SABBATH.
1. This is God's day; in it, he has said, “Ye shall do no work, nor think your own thoughts.”
6. Well God has giv en us six days, and kept one for himself. In the six days we may do what we choose, if we do not break God's com mands.
LESSON XXXVII. Co coon dra goon la goon ra coon mon soon Mush room bride groom tran soon a gloom heir loom boon coon moon loom soon LULA'S PRAYER.
LESSON XXXVIII. Ap per tain en ter tain as cer tain su per vene in ter vene un fore seen de com pose re com pose in ter pose im po lite dis u nite re u nite GRAND MA.
LESSON XXXIX. Lo tion mo tion po tion no tion por tion to tion na tion ra tion sta tion ac tion fac tion frac tion lec tion dic tion fic tion unc tion func tion junc tion THE DEAD BABY.
9. When Je sus was on the earth, he took lit-tle chil dren in his arms and bless ed them and said “Suffer lit tle chil dren to come un to me' and for bid them not.”
LESSON XL. Sep tem ber no vem ber de cem ber en cum ber re mem ber dis mem ber in hab it co hab it pro hib it dis cred it de crep it in her it A GOOD DOG.
4. This con duct of his made them ver y an gry at him, so they shot at him sev er al times, and came near kill ing him.
7. They said “if Doc tor dies, we will trust in God.” But the dog got well, and still lives to guard his mas ter's house, and to be ca ressed by all the fam i ly.
LESSON XLI. Mis sive cap tive fes tive cos tive res tive mo tive some thing stock ing mid dling sprink ling twink ling sap ling dar ling star ling ster ling gos ling fat ling bant ling THE SELFISH BOY.
3. No mat ter who else suff ered, Fred would have his place; and in play he was the same way. When he was at home, and the chil dren had fr uit or an y nice thing, he would grab.
4. So you see Fred soon got the name of “sel fish Fred.” Well, when he be came a man he still took care of self.
God is in heaven; and can hear
A feeble prayer like mine?
Yes, little child, thou needest not fear,
He listens now to thine.
God is in heaven; and can he see
When I am doing wrong?
Yes, child, he can—he looks at thee
All day, and all night long.
God in heaven and would he know
If I should tell a lie?
Yes, if thou saids't it e'er so low,
He'd hear it in the sky.
God is in heaven; and can I go
To thank him for his care?
Not yet—but love him here below,
And thou shalt praise him there.
2. I have tried to teach you some-thing use-ful, as well as how to spell and read.—Is is ver-y im-por-tant to learn to im-prove what we read.
5. This much for these lit-tle boys, and girls who have kind friends to send them to school.— But what shall we say to those poor lit-tle chil-dren whose pa-rents are too poor to help them get an ed u ca-tion? Poor chil-dren!
Adieu, at present.
I'M NOT TOO YOUNG FOR GOD TO SEE. “I'm not too young for God to see, He knows my name and nature too; And all day long, he looks at me, And sees my actions through and thro.' He listens to the words I say, And knows the thoughts I have within, And whether I am at work or play He's sure to know it if I sin. O, how could children tell a lie, Or cheat in play, or steal or fight, If they remembered God was nigh, And had them always in his sight. Then when I want to do amiss, However pleasant it may be, I'll always strive to think of this— I'm not too young for God to see.”
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Michael Strogoff, by Jules Verne
Chapter XI
Between Two Banks
BY eight in the evening, the country, as the state of the sky had foretold, was enveloped in complete darkness. The moon being new had not yet risen. From the middle of the river the banks were invisible. The cliffs were confounded with the heavy, low-hanging clouds. At intervals a puff of wind came from the east, but it soon died away in the narrow valley of the Angara.
The darkness could not fail to favor in a considerable degree the plans of the fugitives. Indeed, although the Tartar outposts must have been drawn up on both banks, the raft had a good chance of passing unperceived. It was not likely either that the besiegers would have barred the river above Irkutsk, since they knew that the Russians could not expect any help from the south of the province. Besides this, before long Nature would herself establish a barrier, by cementing with frost the blocks of ice accumulated between the two banks.
Perfect silence now reigned on board the raft. The voices of the pilgrims were no longer heard. They still prayed, but their prayer was but a murmur, which could not reach as far as either bank. The fugitives lay flat on the platform, so that the raft was scarcely above the level of the water. The old boatman crouched down forward among his men, solely occupied in keeping off the ice blocks, a maneuver which was performed without noise.
The drifting of the ice was a favorable circumstance so long as it did not offer an insurmountable obstacle to the passage of the raft. If that object had been alone on the water, it would have run a risk of being seen, even in the darkness, but, as it was, it was confounded with these moving masses, of all shapes and sizes, and the tumult caused by the crashing of the blocks against each other concealed likewise any suspicious noises.
There was a sharp frost. The fugitives suffered cruelly, having no other shelter than a few branches of birch. They cowered down together, endeavoring to keep each other warm, the temperature being now ten degrees below freezing point. The wind, though slight, having passed over the snow-clad mountains of the east, pierced them through and through.
Michael and Nadia, lying in the afterpart of the raft, bore this increase of suffering without complaint. Jolivet and Blount, placed near them, stood these first assaults of the Siberian winter as well as they could. No one now spoke, even in a low voice. Their situation entirely absorbed them. At any moment an incident might occur, which they could not escape unscathed.
For a man who hoped soon to accomplish his mission, Michael was singularly calm. Even in the gravest conjunctures, his energy had never abandoned him. He already saw the moment when he would be at last allowed to think of his mother, of Nadia, of himself! He now only dreaded one final unhappy chance; this was, that the raft might be completely barred by ice before reaching Irkutsk. He thought but of this, determined beforehand, if necessary, to attempt some bold stroke.
Restored by a few hours’ rest, Nadia had regained the physical energy which misery had sometimes overcome, although without ever having shaken her moral energy. She thought, too, that if Michael had to make any fresh effort to attain his end, she must be there to guide him. But in proportion as she drew nearer to Irkutsk, the image of her father rose more and more clearly before her mind. She saw him in the invested town, far from those he loved, but, as she never doubted, struggling against the invaders with all the spirit of his patriotism. In a few hours, if Heaven favored them, she would be in his arms, giving him her mother’s last words, and nothing should ever separate them again. If the term of Wassili Fedor’s exile should never come to an end, his daughter would remain exiled with him. Then, by a natural transition, she came back to him who would have enabled her to see her father once more, to that generous companion, that “brother,” who, the Tartars driven back, would retake the road to Moscow, whom she would perhaps never meet again!
As to Alcide Jolivet and Harry Blount, they had one and the same thought, which was, that the situation was extremely dramatic, and that, well worked up, it would furnish a most deeply interesting article. The Englishman thought of the readers of the Daily Telegraph, and the Frenchman of those of his Cousin Madeleine. At heart, both were not without feeling some emotion.
“Well, so much the better!” thought Alcide Jolivet, “to move others, one must be moved one’s self! I believe there is some celebrated verse on the subject, but hang me if I can recollect it!” And with his well-practiced eyes he endeavored to pierce the gloom of the river.
Every now and then a burst of light dispelling the darkness for a time, exhibited the banks under some fantastic aspect — either a forest on fire, or a still burning village. The Angara was occasionally illuminated from one bank to the other. The blocks of ice formed so many mirrors, which, reflecting the flames on every point and in every color, were whirled along by the caprice of the current. The raft passed unperceived in the midst of these floating masses.
The danger was not at these points.
But a peril of another nature menaced the fugitives. One that they could not foresee, and, above all, one that they could not avoid. Chance discovered it to Alcide Jolivet in this way:— Lying at the right side of the raft, he let his hand hang over into the water. Suddenly he was surprised by the impression made on it by the current. It seemed to be of a slimy consistency, as if it had been made of mineral oil. Alcide, aiding his touch by his sense of smell, could not be mistaken. It was really a layer of liquid naphtha, floating on the surface of the river!
Was the raft really floating on this substance, which is in the highest degree combustible? Where had this naphtha come from? Was it a natural phenomenon taking place on the surface of the Angara, or was it to serve as an engine of destruction, put in motion by the Tartars? Did they intend to carry conflagration into Irkutsk?
Such were the questions which Alcide asked himself, but he thought it best to make this incident known only to Harry Blount, and they both agreed in not alarming their companions by revealing to them this new danger.
It is known that the soil of Central Asia is like a sponge impregnated with liquid hydrogen. At the port of Bakou, on the Persian frontier, on the Caspian Sea, in Asia Minor, in China, on the Yuen-Kiang, in the Burman Empire, springs of mineral oil rise in thousands to the surface of the ground. It is an “oil country,” similar to the one which bears this name in North America.
During certain religious festivals, principally at the port of Bakou, the natives, who are fire-worshipers, throw liquid naphtha on the surface of the sea, which buoys it up, its density being inferior to that of water. Then at nightfall, when a layer of mineral oil is thus spread over the Caspian, they light it, and exhibit the matchless spectacle of an ocean of fire undulating and breaking into waves under the breeze.
But what is only a sign of rejoicing at Bakou, might prove a fearful disaster on the waters of the Angara. Whether it was set on fire by malevolence or imprudence, in the twinkling of an eye a conflagration might spread beyond Irkutsk. On board the raft no imprudence was to be feared; but everything was to be dreaded from the conflagrations on both banks of the Angara, for should a lighted straw or even a spark blow into the water, it would inevitably set the whole current of naphtha in a blaze.
The apprehensions of Jolivet and Blount may be better understood than described. Would it not be prudent, in face of this new danger, to land on one of the banks and wait there? “At any rate,” said Alcide, “whatever the danger may be, I know some one who will not land!”
He alluded to Michael Strogoff.
In the meantime, on glided the raft among the masses of ice which were gradually getting closer and closer together. Up till then, no Tartar detachment had been seen, which showed that the raft was not abreast of the outposts. At about ten o’clock, however, Harry Blount caught sight of a number of black objects moving on the ice blocks. Springing from one to the other, they rapidly approached.
“Tartars!” he thought. And creeping up to the old boatman, he pointed out to him the suspicious objects.
The old man looked attentively. “They are only wolves!” said he. “I like them better than Tartars. But we must defend ourselves, and without noise!”
The fugitives would indeed have to defend themselves against these ferocious beasts, whom hunger and cold had sent roaming through the province. They had smelt out the raft, and would soon attack it. The fugitives must struggle without using firearms, for they could not now be far from the Tartar posts. The women and children were collected in the middle of the raft, and the men, some armed with poles, others with their knives, stood prepared to repulse their assailants. They did not make a sound, but the howls of the wolves filled the air.
Michael did not wish to remain inactive. He lay down at the side attacked by the savage pack. He drew his knife, and every time that a wolf passed within his reach, his hand found out the way to plunge his weapon into its throat. Neither were Jolivet and Blount idle, but fought bravely with the brutes. Their companions gallantly seconded them. The battle was carried on in silence, although many of the fugitives received severe bites.
The struggle did not appear as if it would soon terminate. The pack was being continually reinforced from the right bank of the Angara. “This will never be finished!” said Alcide, brandishing his dagger, red with blood.
In fact, half an hour after the commencement of the attack, the wolves were still coming in hundreds across the ice. The exhausted fugitives were getting weaker. The fight was going against them. At that moment, a group of ten huge wolves, raging with hunger, their eyes glowing in the darkness like red coals, sprang onto the raft. Jolivet and his companion threw themselves into the midst of the fierce beasts, and Michael was finding his way towards them, when a sudden change took place.
In a few moments the wolves had deserted not only the raft, but also the ice on the river. All the black bodies dispersed, and it was soon certain that they had in all haste regained the shore. Wolves, like other beasts of prey, require darkness for their proceedings, and at that moment a bright light illuminated the entire river.
It was the blaze of an immense fire. The whole of the small town of Poshkavsk was burning. The Tartars were indeed there, finishing their work. From this point, they occupied both banks beyond Irkutsk. The fugitives had by this time reached the dangerous part of their voyage, and they were still twenty miles from the capital.
It was now half past eleven. The raft continued to glide on amongst the ice, with which it was quite mingled, but gleams of light sometimes fell upon it. The fugitives stretched on the platform did not permit themselves to make a movement by which they might be betrayed.
The conflagration was going on with frightful rapidity. The houses, built of fir-wood, blazed like torches — a hundred and fifty flaming at once. With the crackling of the fire was mingled the yells of the Tartars. The old boatman, getting a foothold on a near piece of ice, managed to shove the raft towards the right bank, by doing which a distance of from three to four hundred feet divided it from the flames of Poshkavsk.
Nevertheless, the fugitives, lighted every now and then by the glare, would have been undoubtedly perceived had not the incendiaries been too much occupied in their work of destruction.
It may be imagined what were the apprehensions of Jolivet and Blount, when they thought of the combustible liquid on which the raft floated. Sparks flew in millions from the houses, which resembled so many glowing furnaces. They rose among the volumes of smoke to a height of five or six hundred feet. On the right bank, the trees and cliffs exposed to the fire looked as if they likewise were burning. A spark falling on the surface of the Angara would be sufficient to spread the flames along the current, and to carry disaster from one bank to the other. The result of this would be in a short time the destruction of the raft and of all those which it carried.
But, happily, the breeze did not blow from that side. It came from the east, and drove the flames towards the left. It was just possible that the fugitives would escape this danger. The blazing town was at last passed. Little by little the glare grew dimmer, the crackling became fainter, and the flames at last disappeared behind the high cliffs which arose at an abrupt turn of the river.
By this time it was nearly midnight. The deep gloom again threw its protecting shadows over the raft. The Tartars were there, going to and fro near the river. They could not be seen, but they could be heard. The fires of the outposts burned brightly.
In the meantime it had become necessary to steer more carefully among the blocks of ice. The old boatman stood up, and the moujiks resumed their poles. They had plenty of work, the management of the raft becoming more and more difficult as the river was further obstructed.
Michael had crept forward; Jolivet followed; both listened to what the old boatman and his men were saying.
“Look out on the right!”
“There are blocks drifting on to us on the left!”
“Fend! fend off with your boat-hook!”
“Before an hour is past we shall be stopped!”
“If it is God’s will!” answered the old man. “Against His will there is nothing to be done.”
“You hear them,” said Alcide.
“Yes,” replied Michael, “but God is with us!”
The situation became more and more serious. Should the raft be stopped, not only would the fugitives not reach Irkutsk, but they would be obliged to leave their floating platform, for it would be very soon smashed to pieces in the ice. The osier ropes would break, the fir trunks torn asunder would drift under the hard crust, and the unhappy people would have no refuge but the ice blocks themselves. Then, when day came, they would be seen by the Tartars, and massacred without mercy!
Michael returned to the spot where Nadia was waiting for him. He approached the girl, took her hand, and put to her the invariable question: “Nadia, are you ready?” to which she replied as usual, “I am ready!”
For a few versts more the raft continued to drift amongst the floating ice. Should the river narrow, it would soon form an impassable barrier. Already they seemed to drift slower. Every moment they encountered severe shocks or were compelled to make detours; now, to avoid running foul of a block, there to enter a channel, of which it was necessary to take advantage. At length the stoppages became still more alarming. There were only a few more hours of night. Could the fugitives not reach Irkutsk by five o’clock in the morning, they must lose all hope of ever getting there at all.
At half-past one, notwithstanding all efforts, the raft came up against a thick barrier and stuck fast. The ice, which was drifting down behind it, pressed it still closer, and kept it motionless, as though it had been stranded.
At this spot the Angara narrowed, it being half its usual breadth. This was the cause of the accumulation of ice, which became gradually soldered together, under the double influence of the increased pressure and of the cold. Five hundred feet beyond, the river widened again, and the blocks, gradually detaching themselves from the floe, continued to drift towards Irkutsk. It was probable that had the banks not narrowed, the barrier would not have formed. But the misfortune was irreparable, and the fugitives must give up all hope of attaining their object.
Had they possessed the tools usually employed by whalers to cut channels through the ice-fields — had they been able to get through to where the river widened — they might have been saved. But they had nothing which could make the least incision in the ice, hard as granite in the excessive frost. What were they to do?
At that moment several shots on the right bank startled the unhappy fugitives. A shower of balls fell on the raft. The devoted passengers had been seen. Immediately afterwards shots were heard fired from the left bank. The fugitives, taken between two fires, became the mark of the Tartar sharpshooters. Several were wounded, although in the darkness it was only by chance that they were hit.
“Come, Nadia,” whispered Michael in the girl’s ear.
Without making a single remark, “ready for anything,” Nadia took Michael’s hand.
“We must cross the barrier,” he said in a low tone. “Guide me, but let no one see us leave the raft.”
Nadia obeyed. Michael and she glided rapidly over the floe in the obscurity, only broken now and again by the flashes from the muskets. Nadia crept along in front of Michael. The shot fell around them like a tempest of hail, and pattered on the ice. Their hands were soon covered with blood from the sharp and rugged ice over which they clambered, but still on they went.
In ten minutes, the other side of the barrier was reached. There the waters of the Angara again flowed freely. Several pieces of ice, detached gradually from the floe, were swept along in the current down towards the town. Nadia guessed what Michael wished to attempt. One of the blocks was only held on by a narrow strip.
“Come,” said Nadia. And the two crouched on the piece of ice, which their weight detached from the floe.
It began to drift. The river widened, the way was open. Michael and Nadia heard the shots, the cries of distress, the yells of the Tartars. Then, little by little, the sounds of agony and of ferocious joy grew faint in the distance.
“Our poor companions!” murmured Nadia.
For half an hour the current hurried along the block of ice which bore Michael and Nadia. They feared every moment that it would give way beneath them. Swept along in the middle of the current, it was unnecessary to give it an oblique direction until they drew near the quays of Irkutsk. Michael, his teeth tight set, his ear on the strain, did not utter a word. Never had he been so near his object. He felt that he was about to attain it!
Towards two in the morning a double row of lights glittered on the dark horizon in which were confounded the two banks of the Angara. On the right hand were the lights of Irkutsk; on the left, the fires of the Tartar camp.
Michael Strogoff was not more than half a verst from the town. “At last!” he murmured.
But suddenly Nadia uttered a cry.
At the cry Michael stood up on the ice, which was wavering. His hand was extended up the Angara. His face, on which a bluish light cast a peculiar hue, became almost fearful to look at, and then, as if his eyes had been opened to the bright blaze spreading across the river, “Ah!” he exclaimed, “then Heaven itself is against us!”
Last updated Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 18:24 |
Imagine processing 400-billion pieces of information per second! Sound impossible? That's exactly how fast backbones used by today's Internet providers operate-at speeds of up to 400 gigabits of data per second. What's more, in a year or two, they'll be even faster. However, this state-of-the art technology does not exist everywhere. In the real world, our high-tech offices appear to "blaze" at a tortoise-paced 1.5 megabits per second, and the last link to the home struggles along at a snail-paced 30 or 40 thousand bits per second. So while the computer gurus of Silicon Valley want to provide many things to us, this "last-mile" problem continues to tie them down.
This situation continues because the government protects local telephone companies (Telcos) from competition. Since there's no reason to change, they continue to make big money leasing 1.54-megabit lines to businesses. (Called T1 lines, these can cost from several hundred dollars to more than $1000 per month). In addition to this lucrative leasing business, Telcos also profit from multiple phone lines in residences.
If the Telcos allowed prices for bandwidth (the amount of signal sent from one place to another) to keep up with technology, they'd lose a ton of revenue. Remember, you and I cannot go into the telephone business. If we tried to open up a second (and better) telephone company, the government would shut down our company, confiscate our assets, and possibly send us to jail! Since competition is forbidden, normal market forces are not at work here.
The coming "end-run" years. Because of this Telco bottleneck as well as the inherent inefficiency of the telephone network (designed for the world of 1930, not the 21st century), the new world wide Internet data network simply cannot push through the morass of local telephone company systems. Instead, it's leapfrogging the telephone systems any way it can. This occurs in the following ways:
Through-cable television systems. This is a very good method from a technological standpoint; cable TV is a large pre-existing system with the proper type of architecture. Nonetheless, it's still pretty questionable whether the cable TV system will provide a good last-mile link. There are two main problems: (1) Because the government regulates cable TV, Telcos will probably donate enough money to politicians to make sure restrictions on the cable companies never go away. (2) Cable TV companies themselves have been rather predatory, generating significant ill will among customers. In fact, many people would rather not do business with them at all (if they had a choice).
Via satellite. Right now, there are several high-speed data satellite systems under construction that can deliver data to a home or office at rates well into the megabit per second range (perhaps even into the gigabit range). However, these systems will probably not be fully operational until 2002. After that time, they should effectively make an end-run around the Telco system. Currently, it appears they have not been restricted by the government. Therefore, there's probably not enough time left for Congress to shut them out of the market.
DSL. This is a telephone technology (as opposed to a data technology) called Digital Subscriber Line. It uses electronic boxes on each end of a standard telephone line to achieve speeds of up to 1.5 megabits per second. This technology comes in several flavors (ADSL, HDSL, etc.); however, they all are somewhat similar. Whether this will ever by implemented is questionable. It's really not in their best interest to do so, and Telcos might not readily embrace the technology. For example, Telcos left ISDN, the predecessor of DSL, to die on the vine. The same fate may await DSL. We'll just have to wait and see. Digital power line (DPL). This new technology uses a spread-spectrum power-line carrier technology to send up to 1.5 megabits (and in some cases more) over standard power lines. This system will probably be too limited for use 10 years from now, but it could be a major factor for the next five to eight years. As far as this author knows, there is no legislation limiting the use of this technology. Besides, it operates over existing power wiring, which is an enormous advantage.
How the DPL works. To send over a million bits per second through power lines, DPL uses what is termed a high-frequency conditioned power network (HFCPN). Rather than trying to push one signal very fast through the power lines, it breaks the signal into multiple streams, each of which is sent through the power system on a different frequency. Special receivers combine the mini-streams of data back into the original signal configuration.
These networks are rather complex but extremely stable and tolerant of electrical noise. They can provide between 6 MHz and 10 MHz of usable spectrum to far-end customers and more than 20 MHz of usable spectrum to near-end customers, for peak signal power levels of between 1mW and 10 mW. The overall spectral efficiency of the network depends upon a number of things, including:
* Customer type and number per distribution unit (typically up to 50).
* Type of multiple access requirements (dedicated or switched).
* Service requirement (voice, data, still or moving pictures, etc.).
* Digital or analog transmission technology.
* Modulation, coding, and compression schemes (data bits per unit of available spectrum).
* Traffic density mean and peak.
Under this scheme, you terminate the network interconnection conductors in a three-port directional coupler, known as a conditioning unit (CU) (Fig. 1). The basic elements of the CU are shown in Fig. 2 and include both high- and low-pass filter sections interconnected to form a frequency sensitive directional coupler, which has a network port (NP), communication distribution port (CDP), and electricity distribution port (EDP)
These CUs provide for the following:
* Safe and efficient interconnection of signals at speeds greater than 1 MHz.
* Directional propagation of signals.
* A reduced noise floor above 1 MHz.
* Isolation of variable customer loads.
* Suitable network service termination points for electricity and telecommunication services.
* Optimum spectral performance of the cable network.
Implementation. To implement DPL, utilities will require an investment in equipment and training. However, this investment will allow utilities to get into the Internet provider market more quickly.
The number of electrical utilities who will want to jump on this bandwagon is questionable, but you can certainly make plenty of money in these markets. Because the electrical utility market in the United States is deregulating for the first time, there are plenty of changes on the horizon. Most notably, competition will enter the market for the first time. As power markets become competitive, taking advantage of new opportunities will become important, and utilities will take a careful look at technologies like DPL. Hopefully, they will implement them quickly.
The possible utility company end-run. Earlier, we discussed methods of making end-runs around the last-mile data bottleneck. If they choose to do so, electric utility companies could provide a terrific way to get high-speed data to the house or office. They already have cables entering every home and office, and they have plenty of expertise running cables over long distances.
There are a lot of reasons why it makes sense for electric utilities to deliver data to their customers. The tree-and-branch architecture of power distribution systems is perfect for Internet data transmission. In addition, it's now very economical to run optical fiber along long-distance transmission lines. Special optical cables are available that are either combined with transmission ground wires (the top wire on long-distance power lines), or wrap around the ground wire. Many utility companies have begun doing this in the past several years, and some have a lot of fiber already in place. Initially done for communication between substations, other users now rent out some of the fibers. If you install enough fibers, it could form a very significant communications structure. In fact, it's quite possible electric utility companies could challenge Telcos for all forms of communications business in just a few years-and win.
Telco technology is not an efficient way of delivering digital communications; it's built around large, expensive central switches. Remember, networks are routed rather than switched. In other words, each piece of data contains its own destination address and routes toward its final destination at several points during its travels. The Telco network is slow, expensive, and smart. The routed network is fast, cheap, and stupid. The necessary intelligence is not in the network; it's attached to each end of the network. Fast and cheap is better than slow and expensive. And distributed intelligence is better than centralized intelligence.
What does the future hold? How all of this actually plays out over the next decade will be fascinating. At some point, political demagoguery will inevitably come into play: "The communications infrastructure is a national asset-we can't allow it to be turned over to people who are interested only in profits," or "Preserve it for the children," etc. There will probably even be several personal and financial battles. The forces of regulation and control cannot hold out indefinitely. But, they won't go without a fight. So, stay tuned. |
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Talk:The Slaver Weapon (episode)
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Chuft Captain?Edit
whats the deal with Chuft Captain -- is it the normal Kzinti tradition to place the name before the rank, in this case making his name Chuft? Or is "Chuft" what he is captain of and he is an unnamed character ? -- Captain Mike K. Barteltalk 05:25, 4 Sep 2005 (UTC)
According to Niven's naming conventions, which weren't explained but followed in the episode, Kzinti are only given a name as an award for great achievement. This is kind of like the Kazon to an extent. The one difference is the Kzinti are not given names when they are born. They have to take the name of their position in society. So, Chuft Captain was originally just Captain and then earned the name of Chuft. It is also Kzinti practice to pair up your name with the position, in the order it's given. So, Chuft Captain would be his full Kzinti "name." Whether or not any of this applies to Memory Alpha is up to someone (like you) higher up than me to decide. I was able to get most of this information from the Kzinti article.--Tim Thomason 06:45, 4 Sep 2005 (UTC)
Not quite. As a captain, he has a partial name, followed by his title, which carries some rank. A fully named Kzinti of the highest rank has just a name. Think of it as serf vs thane vs nobility. The original story specifies that Chuft Captain has a "partial name."Mzmadmike 14:10, May 6, 2012 (UTC)
Non-appearance of KirkEdit
Does this episode still open with Shatner's "Space...the final frontier" monologue & is he still credited at the end? Igotbit 17:06, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
Slaver Weapon vs Star Trek (2009)Edit
Until the movie has opened, and everything confirmed, please keep mention of it, its cast, and relevance out of this episode article. Thank you. -- sulfur 04:01, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
But this doesn't make any sense unless all the other articles that mention Nimoy's appearance in Star Trek XI are purged as well. Saying that Nimoy has only appeared in three productions now without Shatner is now just flat out wrong when it's well known now that Nimoy is in the new movie. I just don't see how this hurts. Maybe there's something I'm missing, can you elaborate further? leandar 04:09, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
It is unnecessarily putting movie information that is essentially spoilers (you even put the spoiler warning) in articles that themselves have nothing to do with the movie. --OuroborosCobra talk 04:18, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
I understand that, but the other articles have nothing to do with the movie other than mentioning Nimoy's appearance. What I can't understand is how this episode's article is any different from "The Cage" and "Unification II?" leandar 04:27, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
They shouldn't have mentions either. --OuroborosCobra talk 04:40, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
And now they don't. --Alan 06:10, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
Ok, I think I get it. I'm going to put them back how they used to be saying something like "this is Nimoy's second of (to date) three appearances. That shouldn't be too bad, should it? leandar 06:18, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
Everythign is automatically "to date" until the information becomes invalid.... stating "to date" is just another way of stating a spoiler to a spoiler. --Alan 06:22, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
Ok, I get it now. I think I'm going to go bang my head against a wall now. I'll see you later. leandar 06:23, 20 November 2008 (UTC)
Removed TextEdit
Removed the following:
"The Kzinti race once controlled the entire empire but now is bound to keep peace.
"Many Kzinti still take part in raiding Federation shipping and seek Slaver weapons to regain control of their empire."
Those are both absolutely true in Known Space, but this isn't Known Space.--Ten-pint 06:31, October 12, 2010 (UTC)
• In one scene, the weapon morphs backward--it changes from the new shape to the previous shape, then is shown in the new shape when the cut occurs.
Removed the above comment as a nitpick. 31dot 10:51, May 6, 2012 (UTC)
So, please explain to me how some continuity errors (seeing Hadley at navigation, then seeing Sulu) are not nitpicks, while ones like this are? Or Kirk speaking without lip movement (Cloud Minders), vs this? It's a clear reversal of order, very obvious, and would be significant since the device changes from weapon to telescope, but then is used as a weapon.Mzmadmike 14:07, May 6, 2012 (UTC)
I'm not saying they aren't nitpicks; the nitpick policy came about relatively recently in the history of this site, and we likely haven't gotten rid of all of them yet. If you see any, feel free to suggest them for removal. A nitpick is permissible in articles if it is discussed by Trek production staff(as some are). 31dot 14:12, May 6, 2012 (UTC)
Well, there's no way I'm going to know what the production staff discussed. I'm not into it enough to buy such things. I'm following the guidelines used on IMDB, which makes continuity errors a matter of note, as well as "errors in fact." Apparently, MA is as shoddy as the show in such regards, and happy that way. So I guess I should just not waste my time. Peace, out.Mzmadmike 14:18, May 6, 2012 (UTC)
If you don't want to "waste your time", that's your choice, and would be unfortunate, but I would suggest following our own guidelines here, instead of those from another site which has a different scope and criteria than we do. 31dot 14:21, May 6, 2012 (UTC)
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Alphabet für Liège
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Situation 9: harmonize the seven centres of the body (using mantra technique)
Alphabet für Liège, for soloists and duos, is a composition (or a musical installation) by Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Work Number 36 in the composer's catalog of works. A performance of it lasts four hours.
The fundamental idea underlying Alphabet is the notion that sound vibrations can affect both living beings and inanimate matter (Maconie 2005, 341). There are thirteen scenes, or musical images, each illustrating the physical effects of sound, ranging from making acoustic vibrations visible to a demonstration of Asian mantra techniques. These ideas were developed in conversations with the British biophysicist and lecturer on mystical aspects of sound vibration Jill Purce, who also called Stockhausen's attention to the work of Hans Jenny (Kurtz 1992, 192–93; Jenny 1967). In a radio interview three months before the premiere, Stockhausen explained his purpose was to show "how sound waves always change the molecules, even the atoms of a being who listens to music, making them vibrate. And that is what we want to make visible, because most people only believe what they see" (Stockhausen and Lichtenfeld 1972).
Volker Müller and Karlheinz Stockhausen (standing), Karl O. Barkey and Hans-Alderich Billig (seated, left rear), Wolfgang Lüttgen, Günther Engels, Christoph Caskel (seated, right rear), Péter Eötvös, Dagmar von Biel, Gaby Rodens, Wolfgang Fromme, and Helga Hamm-Albrecht (front), during the Shiraz Arts Festival, September 1972, three weeks before the premiere of Alphabet für Liège
Alphabet was created as a commission from the City of Liège on the initiative of Philippe Boesmans, for the Nuits de Septembre festival, and was premiered during a "Journée Karlheinz Stockhausen" on 23 September 1972. Stockhausen envisaged the work for performance in a labyrinth-like building. The venue chosen for the premiere consisted of fourteen still-empty areas, all leading off of a central corridor, in the basement level of the half-completed radio and television building in the Liège Palais des Congrès, before the wall coverings, doors, and office partitions had been installed. The bare concrete and breeze-block surfaces were whitewashed especially for the performance, and the rooms were all open to each other through open doors and windows. In this world premiere, only eleven of the thirteen situations were included (Kurtz 1992, 193; Stockhausen 1978a, 193). Performers included members of the British group Gentle Fire (Hugh Davies, Michael Robinson, Richard Bernas, Stuart Jones), five of the six members of the Collegium Vocale Köln (Wolfgang Fromme, Dagmar von Biel, Hans-Alderich Billig, Karl O. Barkey, and Helga Hamm), Rosalind Davies, fish expert Dr. Johannes Kneutgen, Joachim Krist, Michael Vetter, Atsuko Iwami, Herbert Henck, Jill Purce, with Peter Eötvös as "musical leader" (Stockhausen 1971; Stockhausen 1978a, 185–92).
Form and content[edit]
Japanese kane gongs, used as time-markers by the "musical leader".
Stockhausen himself recognized in Alphabet a precedent for the theatrical conceptions he would explore later in Licht (Tannenbaum 1987, 82). The title originates from a programme of actions associated with the letters of the alphabet: Anrufen (call, appeal, implore), Begleiten (accompany), Chaos, Dudeln (tootle), Eintönig (monotone), etc. There are thirty "letters" in all: the familiar twenty-six of the English alphabet, plus SCHnell (rapid), SPringen (leap), STören (disturb), and Übergang zu (transition to) (Stockhausen 1978a, 195). Each is written on a little card, and the performers of each group draw two of these cards from the deck. These become the basis for excursions by the performers of each "situation" to visit one of the other situations and exchange tonal information—each group therefore does this twice in the course of a performance (Kurtz 1992, 193).
Events are coordinated by acoustic signals given by a "musical leader": Japanese chimes (kane and rin) mark each minute; sustained tones mark the sequence of moments (the ends of which are "erased" by the sound of shaken bundles of Indian pellet bells); twice in every hour the coordinator runs through the space shaking strings of camel bells, which causes all activity to cease (Maconie 2005, 342). These cessations occur five times over the four-hour span (Stockhausen 1978a, 198).
Rudolph Koenig's manometric flame apparatus (1862), a burning gas jet vibrating in response to pressure waves: situation 2 of Alphabet.
Chladni diagrams for quadratic plates (from E. F. F. Chladni, Die Akustik, 1802), as used in situation 3 to "make sound spectra visible in solid material".
Alphabet consists of thirteen "situations" (Stockhausen 1978a, 193–95):
1. No special function, a composition by Stockhausen, Am Himmel wandre ich, twelve songs on American Indian poems, for two amplified singers and sound projectionist
2. Tone vibrations made visible in liquids, light rays, and flames. Generate visible models in fluids by the influence of specific sound vibrations (play a polyphonic sound structure into two or three containers) and project them on a screen.
3. Make sound spectra visible in solid material (powder, iron filings, etc.) as a composed program with renewals and variation in duration of about half an hour:
4. With tones, cause glass to break.
5. Magnetize food with tones. Make the magnetization visible by means of a pendulum. Composition in the manner of the Indianerlieder, that is, a succession of melodies that produce a whole, if they are distributed over a period of four hours.
6. Massage a human body with sounds (vibrations of a musical instrument are translated by a dancer into her body. Her body is a living loudspeaker for the instrument).
7. Self-extinguishing tones (e.g., play a trumpet closely or at varying distances against a wall that is either bare or hung with a variety of surface materials, in order to achieve extinctions).
8. "Make love" with tones (e.g., with two recorders and/or voices generate beat frequencies and perhaps display the beat fequencies on oscilloscopes).
9. Using tones, harmonize the seven centres of the body (mantra technique).
10. Use tones to repel thoughts and keep thinking at bay
11. Use tones to speed up and slow down the respiration and heartbeat of living creatures (fish). Make the respiration rate of the fish visible on oscilloscopes, and at the same time make them audible. Project enlargements of the fish, from above and from the side, onto a screen (electronic camera, large-screen TV). In addition, hang up explanatory texts in large letters: Rhythm of gill movements, Rhythm of pulses (no conversing with the audience). An underwater loudspeaker in the aquarium; connect to it two pulse generators and two narrow-band tuned-resonance filter/amplifiers [abstimmbare Anzeigeverstärker] (a synthesizer with pre-programmed sound textures).
12. Invoke and supplicate the spirits of the dead in tones (until in a trance).
13. Pray using tones (sometimes intelligibly); study sung prayers of all religions (listen to tape recordings).
The verbal instructions for most of the scenes are either descriptions for physically inspired sound installations (e.g., situation 2: "Make sound vibrations visible") or appear to be intuitive music texts like those of Aus den sieben Tagen and Für kommende Zeiten, composed not long before Alphabet (Straebel 1995, §3.2.2). Situation 10, in particular, strongly resembles Es from Aus den sieben Tagen: "Think NOTHING … / as soon as you start to think, stop / and try to reattain / the state of NON-THINKING …" (Maconie 2005, 342).
Two performers each are required for situations 1, 5, 6, and 8. This brings the total number of performers, including the musical leader, to eighteen.
Potential hazards[edit]
In situation 11, Dr. Johannes Kneutgen "synchronises sturgeon fish by sound waves, by certain tones in the breathing rhythm, so that the fish move in the rhythm of the music" (Stockhausen and Lichtenfeld 1972).
Johannes Kneutgen, who performed situation 11 at the Liège premiere, was a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Seewiesen, conducting research on the physiological effects of music or rhythm on the body and nervous system. He reported that there was a physical danger in the case of fish:
For fish, the change of rhythm can be fatal. Normally fish breathe by opening and closing their gills. The lowest rate to which their gill movement can be reduced and still maintain life is 43 "breaths" per minute. If a clock ticks only 40 times per minute, the fish gill movement slows down too much, and the fish strives convulsively to breathe faster but cannot. It swims rapidly to escape the ticking noise, but if it cannot retreat to a quiet area, it expires. (Anon 1965)
Another writer has recalled an "infamous" French series of experiments with a "super-whistle" in the 1960s that demonstrated that very powerful low-frequency sounds (in the 5–8 Hz range) could interfere with the biorhythms of living creatures, to the extent of killing cattle, and warns that Alphabet's situation 9 ("harmonize the seven centres of the body") could prove similarly hazardous if done "scientifically … with physical vibrations coordinated to biological and brain rhythms" (Maconie 2005, 342 & 344).
The Indianerlieder (American Indian Songs)—also known by the opening words of the first song, "In the sky I am walking", and by their German translation "Am Himmel wandre ich"—constitute the only fully worked-out component of the Alphabet. It is also the only part capable of performance independent of the larger work, and the only part to have been published. The score is dedicated to its first performers, Helga Hamm-Albrecht and Karl O. Barkey, and bears the work Number 36½ in the composer's catalog of works.
The texts employed are (Stockhausen 1978b, 201):
1. twelve short poems, sayings, or prayers of various American Indian tribes, in English translations from an anthology called Indian Prose and Poetry (Astrov 1962)
2. Onomatopoetic vocal sounds (bird songs, wind, war cries, etc.),
3. "unusual vocal sounds" and "favourite names", freely chosen by the performers
4. heckling
5. free intimate texts (something erotic, whispered to a beloved, which could never be spoken directly)
6. a freely chosen fairy tale dealing with tones
7. names such as Jillina, Jika, Jillaika (all pet names for Jill Purce), or Eagloo (a bird-man name, one of many used by the composer)
8. purely sonorous vowel and consonant constructions, interspersed with finger snaps, claps, foot taps, etc.
It consists of twelve scenes, each of which includes one American Indian song, for a pair of singer-actors. The scenes follow one another without interruption (Stockhausen 1978b, 205). The first song is intoned on a single note, C, the next song adds a second note to the first, the F above, the third adds the G a semitone higher still, the fourth descends to E, and so on, until reaching a twelve-tone row in the final song, but with the notes in fixed registers: the basic formula of the work (Frisius 2008, 255; Kurtz 1992, 193). The songs were originally conceived for two women's voices, but then the composer decided they could be performed (as they were at the premiere) by a man and a woman. They have also been performed by two male singers (Stockhausen, Conen, and Hennlich 1989, 307).
In a long version, such as is used in the four-hour-long Alphabet für Liège, the twelve scenes are sung straight through four times (with a pause of about fifteen minutes between each performance), with variations each time in dynamics and tempos. For an extremely long version (possibly alternating two different pairs of singers or exchanging singer combinations), the twelve scenes can be sung twelve times each, in the sequence: 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, … 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12, and then 2–12, 3–12, etc., down to 10+11+12, 11+12, and ending with 12. In such a performance, each song should be varied upon each repetition in dynamics and tempo (Stockhausen 1978b, 208).
Performance history and reception[edit]
"The music flowed into the evening air in a light aura all splashed with echoes" at Sainte-Baume, site of the third performance of Alphabet für Liège in 1974.
The full Alphabet has been performed only rarely. After the 1972 world premiere in Belgium, the first French performance took place in the context of a cycle of eleven Stockhausen works at the La Rochelle Festival during the two weeks before Easter 1973. In contrast to the basement Liège premiere, this performance was presented in a long attic gallery, with the "situations" presented in individual recesses (Griffiths 1973). A third performance, also in France, took place in June 1974, at the second festival of the International Centre of Sainte-Baume in Provence, with the theme "Music and Magic". This performance was in a particularly beautiful natural setting:
At the foot of the great cliff of Sainte-Baume, high above a Provence cut up by highways, magic took precedence over futuristic technology. A calm, gentle, tender magic, in agreement with the Mediterranean night, all fragrant with the scent of the garrigue. A reassuring magic speaking primarily through music.
Very soon, indeed, from one to another of the twelve "cells" where the musician-celebrants were operating, sounds converged, answered one another, intersected, developed, weaving an unpredictable and subtle symphony of space. From the barn which opens onto the fields, fields that abut on the mountain, the music flowed into the evening air in a light aura all splashed with echoes. It was, revealed to the ear, like the very breathing of nature. And there were many of us there, lying prostrate for four hours on end, inside this music that had neither beginning nor end, nor any function other than to generate itself in the cyclical process of eternity. (Fleuret 1974)
The component Indianerlieder, on the other hand, had many successful performances in the years following the Liège premiere by the artists who had premiered the work, Helga Hamm-Albrecht and Karl O. Barkey. For example, they performed them in 1973 at the Metz Festival, in 1974 at both the Allgemeinen Deutschen Musikfest in Stuttgart and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, and in 1978 in Luxembourg. They also recorded the work several times for various German radio stations (Frisius 2008, 253). The Indianerlieder have also been recorded twice commercially, and have been viewed as the "key piece" within Alphabet (Kurtz 1992, 193–94). However, one critic who had previously heard the Indianerlieder in the context of Alphabet found, after hearing them separately at the Metz festival in November 1973, that the "somewhat artificial religiosity and falsely naïve Indian Songs suffer from being given in a theatre, without the 'mystical' atmosphere and ambulatory meditation of Alphabet" (Lonchampt 1973).
Discography (Indianerlieder)[edit]
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. "Am Himmel wandre ich …" (Indianerlieder) / "In the Sky I am Walking …" (American Indian Songs) /"Dans le ciel jeme promène …" (Chants indiennes) . Helga Hamm-Albrecht (mezzo-soprano), Karl O. Barkley (baritone), Karlheinz Stockhausen (sound direction). Recorded February 1977. LP recording. DG 2530 876. Hamburg: Deutsche Grammophon, 1977. Reissued on CD, Stockhausen Complete Edition CD 20. Kürten: Stockhausen-Verlag, 1992.
• Voxnova (musical group). In the Sky I Am Walking: Songs of the Native Americans. Isabelle Soccoja (mezzo-soprano), Nicholas Isherwood (bass-baritone) in the Stockhausen, with Valérie Chouanière (soprano) and Thierry Fouré (tenor). CD sound disc. Mode 68. New York: Mode Records, 1998. [With nine pieces of Native-American music, and Pascal Dusapin, Red Rock, the scene "Après" from the opera Roméo et Juliette.]
• Anon. 1965. "Ticking Speed of Clock Influences Heartbeats". Science News Letter 88 (31 July): 78.
• Astrov, Margot (ed.). 1962. Indian Prose and Poetry: An Anthology, fifth edition. New York: Capricorn Books. First edition, titled The Winged Serpent. New York: The John Day Company, 1946. Reprinted under the original title, Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8070-8105-1.
• Davies, Hugh. 2001. "Gentle Fire: An Early Approach to Live Electronic Music". Leonardo Music Journal 11: 53–60.
• Fleuret, Maurice. 1973. "Les Eaux troublées". Le Nouvel Observateur, no. 441 (21 April).
• Fleuret, Maurice. 1974. "Grand-messe sur la montagne: Quand Stockhausen nous convie à faire l'amour avec des sons". Le Nouvel Observateur, no. 508 (5 August): 50.
• Griffiths, Paul. 1973. "Festivals: La Rochelle, Royan". The Musical Times 114, no. 1564 (June): 629.
• Griffiths, Paul. 1977. "Stockhausen: Queen Elizabeth Hall". The Times (13 June): 13
• Groat, Andy de. 1973. "Stockhausen: Alphabet pour Liège". Chroniques de l'art vivant, no. 40 (June). Numéro spécial: le corps (première partie). Paris: Imprimerie Arte.
• Jenny, Hans. 1967. Kymatik: Wellen und Schwingungen mit ihrer Struktur und Dynamik / Cymatics: The Structure Dynamics of Waves and Vibrations. Basle: Basilius Presse. Second volume, Basle: Basilus Presse, 1972.
• L[onchampt], J[acques]. 1973. "Les Deuxièmes Rencontres de Metz: Dans l’esprit du Domaine musical". Le Monde 30, no. 8982 (Friday, 30 November): 21.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz, and Monika Lichtenfeld. 1972. Interview for the Deutschlandfunk, on the occasion of the WDR Festival "Sieben Tage elektronischer Musik", broadcast in June. Recording published on "…ich werde die Töne" (1971); Zugvogel für ensemble (1970); "Sieben Tage elektronische Musik" (1972). CD sound disc. Text-CD 22. Kürten: Stockhausen-Stiftung für Musik, 2008. [NB: Interviewer's name is consistently misspelled "Lichtenfels" in the CD booklet] English translation.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1978a. "Alphabet für Liège (1972): 13 Musikalische Bilder für Solisten und Duos". In his Texte zur Musik 4, edited by Christoph von Blumröder, 185–99. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag. ISBN 3-7701-1078-1.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1978b. "'Am Himmel wandre ich …' (Indianerlieder) (1972)". In his Texte zur Musik 4, edited by Christoph von Blumröder, 200–211. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag. ISBN 3-7701-1078-1.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz, Hermann Conen, and Jochen Hennlich. 1989. "Vor und nach Samstag aus Licht". In Stockhausen, Texte zur Musik 6, edited by Christoph von Blumröder, 247–320. DuMont Dokumente. Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag. ISBN 3-7701-2249-6.
• Straebel, Volker. 1995. "'What I Hope Is That the Europeans Will Become More American': The Mutual Influence of Europe and North America in the History of Musikperformance". Translation from the German by Melissa Thorson Hause. Original Publication: Volker Straebel, "'...that the Europeans will become more American'. Gegenseitige Einflüsse von Europa und Nordamerika in der Geschichte der Musikperformance". In Das Innere Ohr: Festivalbuch Linz, Austria 1995 (special issue Ton), edited by Thomas Dészy and Christian Utz, 80-94 . |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Gaziosmanpasa)
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Location of Gaziosmanpaşa
Gaziosmanpaşa is located in Turkey
Coordinates: 41°04′34″N 28°54′02″E / 41.07611°N 28.90056°E / 41.07611; 28.90056Coordinates: 41°04′34″N 28°54′02″E / 41.07611°N 28.90056°E / 41.07611; 28.90056
Country Turkey
Province İstanbul
• Mayor Erhan Erol (AKP)
• Kaymakam Seddar Yavuz
• District 216.63 km2 (83.64 sq mi)
Population (2012)[2]
• District 488,258
• District density 2,300/km2 (5,800/sq mi)
Gaziosmanpaşa (pronounced [ɡaːziosˈmanpaʃa]; old name: Taşlıtarla) is an impoverished working class municipality (belediye) and district of Istanbul, Turkey, on its European side. With a population of 400,000 plus, it is one of the most populous districts. In 2009 Gaziosmanpaşa district were the divided to three districts: Gaziosmanpaşa, the central; Sultangazi, the northern part and Arnavutköy, the northernmost part. Esenler and Bayrampaşa are at west, Sultangazi is at north and Eyüp is at south and east of district.
This was empty, stony pasture until the 1950s when immigrants from the Balkans (especially from Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Western Thrace) were settled here. Much of their housing was illegally built, primitive tiny cottages. Gaziosmanpaşa expanded rapidly during the 1970s and 80s due to migration from eastern Anatolia. The population is still growing with half the people under 20 years old. NBA's Orlando Magic star, Hedo Türkoğlu, who played in the 2009 NBA Finals, was born in the district. The NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers center Semih Erden was also born in the district.
Gaziosmanpaşa today[edit]
The centre of Gaziosmanpaşa is still inhabited by the descendents of the 1950s and 1960s Balkan immigrants. Now most of the original illegal houses are being pulled down and replaced with semi-legal blocks of flats, to house the children and grandchildren.
Other areas, often isolated communities far out of the city, are dominated by populations of migrants from Anatolia. These areas are an ethnic, religious and political melting pot. In particular, one area of Gaziosmanpaşa has a substantial population of migrants from Tunceli Province, a province mainly populated by people who claim both Kurdish and Zaza identities. The mixture of people plus the number of young people in the communities has at times given Gaziosmanpaşa the unfortunate reputation for being the centre of crime and of left and right wing violence in Istanbul, with many Istanbul people referring to the area as 'little Colombia'.
The city council is trying to spend its way out of this situation by putting in sports facilities, theatres, shopping centres and better transport to the city. But still more and more housing is being built. As the area has grown without sufficient control or regulations the city is still struggling to put in schools and other infrastructure throughout Gaziosmanpaşa to support the population, while industrial development is taking place too.
The area itself suffers from unemployment despite the industry coming in, and the main employers are small workshops producing light fittings, electrical goods, clothing, lathe and metalwork and car repairs.
The district was named after Gazi Osman Pasha, a prominent Ottoman general who had been active in the Balkans.
External links[edit] |
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Naddod (Old Norse: Naddoðr or Naddaðr, literally "studded")[1] was a Faroese Viking who is credited with the discovery of Iceland. Naddod was also one of the first settlers on the Faroe Islands after Grímur Kamban became the first to settle there around 825. Naddod was born in Agder, which comprises the two Norwegian counties of Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder.[2]
Landnámabók, a medieval Icelandic manuscript, describes in considerable detail the settlement (Icelandic: landnám) of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th century. According to Landnámabók, Iceland was discovered by Naddod, who was sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands, but got lost and drifted to the east coast of Iceland. Naddod came upon the shore of a land with a bay and mountains near what is today the Icelandic town of Reyðarfjörður. Although he climbed a mountain to look for smoke rising from fireplaces he saw no sign of humans. Naddod decided to continue his journey to the Faroe Islands, but as he returned to his boat it started to snow and so he named the land Snæland (Snowland). The island later became known as Ísland (Iceland). (See names of Iceland).
Naddod is probably the father of Ann Naddodsdóttir from Shetland.
1. ^ Icelandic: Naddoður, Faroese: Naddoddur
2. ^ Iceland: The First Settlers
Other sources[edit]
• O'Donoghue, Heather Old Norse-Icelandic literature: a short introduction(Published by Wiley-Blackwell, 2004)
External links[edit] |
Second Temple
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The Second Temple was an important Jewish Holy Temple (Hebrew: בֵּית־הַמִּקְדָּשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי: Bet HaMikdash HaSheni; Arabic: بيت القدس: Beit al-Quds) which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon. Jewish eschatology includes a belief that the Second Temple will in turn be replaced by a future Third Temple.
The accession of Cyrus the Great of Persia in 538 BCE made the re-establishment of the city of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the Temple possible.[1][2] According to the Bible, when the Jewish exiles returned to Jerusalem following a decree from Cyrus the Great (Ezra 1:1-4, 2 Chron 36:22-23), construction started at the original site of Solomon's Temple, which had remained a devastated heap during the approximately 70 years of captivity (Dan. 9:1-2). After a relatively brief halt due to opposition from peoples who had filled the vacuum during the Jewish captivity (Ezra 4), work resumed c. 521 BCE under the Persian King Darius the Great (Ezra 5) and was completed during the sixth year of his reign (c. 516 BCE), with the temple dedication taking place the following year.
Flavius Josephus records that Herod the Great completely rebuilt the Temple in 20-18 BCE, even going so far as to replace the foundation stones and to smooth off the surface of the Temple Mount. This Temple became known as Herod's Temple.
The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 CE under Titus, decisively ending the Great Jewish Revolt that had begun four years earlier. The lower levels of the Western Wall form part of the few surviving remains of Herod's complex.[3]
Traditional rabbinic sources state that the Second Temple stood for 420 years and based on the 2nd-century work Seder Olam Rabbah, placed construction in 350 BCE (3408 AM), 166 years later than secular estimates, and destruction in 70 CE (3829 AM).[4]
Rebuilding the Temple[edit]
Based on the biblical account, after the return from Babylonian captivity, arrangements were immediately made to reorganize the desolated Yehud Province after the demise of the Kingdom of Judah seventy years earlier. The body of pilgrims, forming a band of 42,360,[5] having completed the long and dreary journey of some four months, from the banks of the Euphrates to Jerusalem, were animated in all their proceedings by a strong religious impulse, and therefore one of their first concerns was to restore their ancient house of worship by rebuilding their destroyed Temple[6] and reinstituting the sacrificial rituals known as the korbanot.
Seven years later, Cyrus the Great, who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, died,[10] and was succeeded by his son Cambyses. On his death, the "false Smerdis," an imposter, occupied the throne for some seven or eight months, and then Darius I of Persia became king (522 BCE). In the second year of this monarch the work of rebuilding the temple was resumed and carried forward to its completion,[11] under the stimulus of the earnest counsels and admonitions of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah. It was ready for consecration in the spring of 516 BCE, more than twenty years after the return from captivity. The Temple was completed on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius, amid great rejoicings on the part of all the people[12] although it was evident that the Jews were no longer an independent people, but were subject to a foreign power. The Book of Haggai includes a prediction that the glory of the second temple would be greater than that of the first.[6][13]
Roman triumphal procession with spoils from the Temple, depicted on the inside wall of the Arch of Titus in Rome
Since some of the original artifacts were, according to the biblical account, lost after the destruction of the First Temple, the Second Temple lacked the following holy articles:
In the Second Temple, the Kodesh Hakodashim (Holy of Holies) was separated by curtains rather than a wall as in the First Temple. Still, as in the Tabernacle, the Second Temple included:
According to the Mishnah (Middot iii. 6), the "Foundation Stone" stood where the Ark used to be, and the High Priest put his censer on it on Yom Kippur.[2]
The Second Temple also included many of the original vessels of gold that had been taken by the Babylonians but restored by Cyrus the Great.[6][15] According to the Babylonian Talmud (Yoma 22b),[2] however, the Temple lacked the Shekinah, the dwelling or settling divine presence of God, and the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of Holiness, present in the first.
Rededication by the Maccabees[edit]
Following the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great, it became part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt until 200 BCE, when King Antiochus III the Great of Syria defeated King Ptolemy V Epiphanes of Egypt at the Battle of Panion.[16] Judea became at that moment part of the Seleucid empire of Syria. When the Second Temple in Jerusalem was looted and its religious services stopped, Judaism was effectively outlawed. In 167 BCE, Antiochus IV Epiphanes ordered an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. He also banned circumcision and ordered pigs to be sacrificed at the altar of the Temple.[17]
Following the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid empire, the Second Temple was rededicated and became the religious pillar of the Jewish Hasmonean kingdom, as well as culturally associated with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
Herod's Temple[edit]
Model of Herod's Temple at the Israel Museum
Reconstruction of the temple under Herod began with a massive expansion of the Temple Mount. Religious worship and temple rituals continued during the construction process.[18] Following the Great Revolt of the Province of Iudaea, the Temple was destroyed by Roman troops under Titus during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE (74 years after Herod died). The most complete ancient account of this event is The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus. Later Roman governors used the remains to build palaces and a Temple of Jupiter, and the Byzantines a Church. It was not until the Dome of the Rock was built between 687 and 691 that the last remnants of the Temple were taken down. In addition to the platform, some remnants of the Temple remain above ground, including a step leading to the Dome of the Rock that is actually the capstone of the pre-Herodian wall of the Temple Mount platform.[19]
The Temple itself was located on the site of what today is the Dome of the Rock. The gates let out close to Al-Aqsa.[18]
James Tissot - Reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod - Brooklyn Museum
2A model of the Southern wall and Royal Colonnade
Herod's Temple was one of the larger construction projects of the 1st century BCE. Herod was interested in perpetuating his name for all eternity through building projects, and his construction program was extensive. He had magnificent palaces in Masada, Caesarea and Tiberias. Herod built temples for various pagan gods to serve the gentile populations, which were paid for by heavy taxes on the local Jewish population.[20] But his masterpiece was the Temple of Jerusalem. The old temple built by Zerubbabel was replaced by a magnificent edifice. An agreement was made between Herod and the Jewish religious authorities: the sacrificial rituals, called offerings, were to be continued unabated for the entire time of construction, and the Temple itself would be constructed by the priests. Later the Exodus 30:13 sanctuary shekel was reinstituted to support the temple as the temple tax.
Mt. Moriah had a plateau at the northern end, and steeply declined on the southern slope. It was Herod's plan that the entire mountain be turned into a giant square platform. The Temple Mount was originally intended to be 1600 feet wide by 900 feet broad by 9 stories high, with walls up to 16 feet thick, but had never been finished. To complete it, a trench was dug around the mountain, and huge stone "bricks" were laid. Some of these weighed well over 100 tons, the largest measuring 44.6 feet by 11 feet by 16.5 feet and weighing approximately 567 to 628 tons,[21][22] while most were in the range of 2.5 by 3.5 by 15 feet (approximately 28 tons). King Herod had architects from Greece, Rome and Egypt plan the construction. The blocks were presumably quarried by using pickaxes to create channels. Then they hammered in wooden beams and flushed them with water to force them out. Once they were removed, they were carved into precise squares and numbered at the quarry to show where they would be installed. The final carving would have been done by using harder stones to grind or chisel them to create precise joints. They would have been transported using oxen and specialized carts. Since the quarry was uphill from the temple they had gravity on their side but care needed to be taken to control the descent. Final installation would have been done using pulleys or cranes. Roman pulleys and cranes weren't strong enough to lift the blocks alone so they may have used multiple cranes and levers to position them.[23] As the mountainside began to rise, the western side was carved away to a vertical wall and bricks were carved to create a virtual continuation of the brick face, which was continued for a while until the northern slope reached ground level. Part of the Antonian hill to the north of Moriah was annexed to the complex and the area between was filled up with landfill.
The project began with the building of giant underground vaults upon which the temple would be built so it could be larger than the small flat area on top of Mount Moriah. Ground level at the time was at least 20 ft. (6m) below the current level, as can be seen by walking the Western Wall tunnels. Legend has it that the construction of the entire complex lasted only three years, but other sources such as Josephus say that it took far longer, although the Temple itself may have taken that long. During a Passover visit by Jesus the Jews replied that it had been under construction for 46 years.[24] It is possible that the complex was only a few years completed when the future Emperor Titus destroyed the Temple in 70 CE.
Pilgrimages to Jerusalem[edit]
Robinson's Arch - remains of the entrance built by Herod to the Royal Colonnade
A Jew from distant parts of the Roman Empire would arrive by boat at the port of Jaffa (now part of Tel Aviv), where they would join a caravan for the three day trek to the Holy City (a trip that only takes about an hour by automobile today), and would then find lodgings in one of the many hotels or hostelries. Then they changed some of their money from the profane standard Greek and Roman currency for Jewish and Tyrian money, the latter two considered religious.[25][26] The pilgrim would purchase a sacrificial animal, usually a pigeon or a lamb, in preparation for the following day's events.
The gleaming white marble of the edifice was visible from well outside the walls of the city. The scale of the building was designed to impress, and it dominated the landscape, effectively becoming the focal point of Jerusalem. Even the three great towers near Herod's palace seemed small in comparison.
The first thing a pilgrim would do would be to approach the public entrance on the south side of the Temple Mount complex. They would check their animal,[clarification needed] then visit a mikveh, where they would ritually cleanse and purify themselves. The pilgrim would then retrieve their sacrificial animal, and head to the Huldah gates. After ascending a staircase three stories in height, and passing through the gate, the pilgrim would find themselves in the "Court of the Gentiles."
Court of the Gentiles[edit]
This area was primarily a bazaar, with vendors selling souvenirs, sacrificial animals, food, as well as currency changers, exchanging Roman for Tyrian money because the Jews were not allowed to coin their own money and they viewed Roman currency as an abomination to the Lord,[27] as also mentioned in the New Testament account of Jesus and the Money Changers when Jerusalem was packed with Jews who had come for Passover, perhaps numbering 300,000 to 400,000 pilgrims.[28][29] Guides that provided tours of the premises were also available. Jewish males had the unique opportunity to be shown inside the temple itself.
The priests, in their white linen robes and tubular hats, were everywhere, directing pilgrims and advising them on what kinds of sacrifices were to be performed.
Behind them as they entered the Court of the Gentiles from the south was the Royal Porch, which contained a marketplace, administrative quarters, and a synagogue. On the upper floors, the great Jewish sages held court, priests and Levites performed various chores, and from there, tourists were able to observe the events.
To the east of the court was Solomon's Porch, and to the north, the soreg, the "middle wall of separation",[30] a stone wall separating the public area from the inner sanctuary where only Jews could enter, described as being 3 cubits high by Josephus (Wars 5.5.2 [3b] 6.2.4).
Inside the Soreg[edit]
According to Josephus, there were ten entrances into the inner courts, four on the south, four on the north, one on the east and one leading east to west from the Court of Women to the court of the Israelites, named the Nicanor Gate.[31] The gates were: On the south side (going from west to east) the Fuel Gate, the Firstling Gate, the Water Gate. On the north side, from west to east, are the Jeconiah Gate, the Offering Gate, the Women's Gate and the Song Gate. On the Eastern side, the Nicanor gate, which is where most Jewish visitors entered. A few pieces of the Soreg have survived to the present day.
Within this area was the Court of the Women, open to all Jews, male and female. Even a ritually unclean Cohen could enter to perform various housekeeping duties. There was also a place for lepers (considered ritually unclean), as well as a ritual barbershop for Nazirites. In this, the largest of the temple courts, one could see constant dancing, singing and music.
Only men were allowed to enter the Court of the Israelites, where they could observe sacrifices of the high priest in the Court of the Priests. The Court of the Priests was reserved for Levite priests.
Temple sanctuary[edit]
Between the entrance of the building and the curtain veiling the Holy of Holies were the famous vessels of the temple: the menorah, the incense-burning altar, and various other implements.
Destruction of the Temple[edit]
In 66 AD the Jewish population rebelled against the Roman Empire. Four years later, in 70 AD, Roman legions under Titus retook and subsequently destroyed much of Jerusalem and the Second Temple. The Arch of Titus, located in Rome and built to commemorate Titus's victory in Judea, depicts a Roman victory procession with soldiers carrying spoils from the Temple, including the Menorah; which were used to fund the construction of the Colosseum.[32] Although Jews continued to inhabit the destroyed city, Jerusalem was razed by the Emperor Hadrian at the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE when he established a new city called Aelia Capitolina.
The destruction date according to the Hebrew calendar was the 9th of Av, also known as Tisha B'Av,[33] (29 or 30 July 70).[citation needed]
Archaeological findings[edit]
In 1871, the Temple Warning inscription was identified by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau.
Second Temple Judaism[edit]
The period between the construction of the Second Temple in 515 BCE and its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE witnessed major historical upheavals and significant religious changes that would affect most subsequent Western (or Abrahamic) religions. The origins of the authority of scripture, of the centrality of law and morality in religion, of the synagogue and of apocalyptic expectations for the future all developed in the Judaism of this period.
See also[edit]
1. ^ Samuelson, Norbert Max. Revelation and the God of Israel, Cambridge University Press, 2002. pg. 226. ISBN 0-521-81202-X
2. ^ a b c d e f "Temple, The Second". Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.
3. ^ Porter, J.R. The Illustrated Guide to the Bible, Oxford University Press US, 1998. pg. 91. ISBN 0-19-521462-5
4. ^ Goldwurm, Hersh. History of the Jewish people: the Second Temple era, Mesorah Publications, 1982. Appendix: Year of the Destruction, pg. 213. ISBN 0-89906-454-X
5. ^ Ezra 2:65
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Temple, the Second". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.
7. ^ Ezra 2
8. ^ Haggai 2:3
9. ^ Zechariah 4:10
10. ^ 2 Chronicles 36:22-23
11. ^ Ezra 5:6-6:15
12. ^ Ezra 6:15,16
13. ^ Haggai 2:9
14. ^ Maimonides. "Mishneh Torah, Sefer Avodah, Beis Habechirah, Chapter 4, Halacha 1". Retrieved May/20/13.
15. ^ Ezra 1:7-11
16. ^ De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) The Battle of Panion (200 BC)
17. ^ Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews Jewish War i. 34
18. ^ a b Secrets of Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Leen Ritmeyer, Kathleen Ritmeyer, 1998
19. ^ The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, Gershom Gorenberg, Oxford University Press US, 2002, 78
20. ^ Flavius Josephus: The Jewish War
21. ^ The History Channel cited the 16.5 depth 567 ton estimate in "Lost Worlds of King Herod"
22. ^ Dan Bahat: Touching the Stones of our Heritage, Israeli ministry of Religious Affairs, 2002
23. ^ "Modern Marvels: Bible tech" History channel
24. ^ Gospel of John 2:20
27. ^ Beasley-Murray, G. (1999). Word biblical commentary: John (2 ed., Vol. 36). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson.
28. ^ Sanders, E. P. The historical figure of Jesus. Penguin, 1993. p. 249
30. ^ In verse 14 of Ephesians 2:11–18
31. ^ Josephus, War 5.5.2; 198; m. Mid. 1.4
32. ^ Alföldy, Géza (1995). "Eine Bauinschrift aus dem Colosseum". Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 109: 195–226. JSTOR 20189648.
33. ^ Simmons, Shraga. "Tisha B'Av – Ninth of Av". Retrieved May/20/13.
34. ^ Gaffney, Sean (2007-09-24). ", Report: Herod's Temple quarry found". Retrieved 2013-08-31.
External links[edit] |
It's 7 a.m. at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Chef John Difilippo is in front of his baking and pastry class, explaining the difference between a pie and a tart. “This is not a pie, it’s a tart,” he tells the students, who are surprisingly alert and maybe even a little hyper for so early in the morning. They lean forward in their seats. “A tart is more refined than a pie, while a pie is more rustic,” he tells them. RECIPE: Pear ...
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July 8, 2011
Graham, Hyde grabbing attention
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - Because Ohio State faces perhaps its biggest quarterback uncertainty in a decade, fullback Zach Boren was asked Wednesday what he feels a quarterback can do to make the team confident in him.
"Take charge. That's the big thing," Boren responded. "If a quarterback comes in, even if you're young, a freshman or sophomore or a senior, if you come in and take charge you have my respect. Someone who opens up their mouth and says let's go, this is my offense and let's roll with it.
"It's kind of nice when you have a quarterback back there who is directing everyone," Boren continued. "That's the quarterbacks job to know what everyone is doing and direct them. I wouldn't say he has to be a leader, but he has to be vocal."
With the early departure of Terrelle Pryor - who left the program prematurely as the target of an NCAA investigation, one would thing Ohio State would be hard-pressed to have such a leader given all the candidates to replace the standout are limited in experience.
Aside from Joe Bauserman - who has little in-game experience despite being 25 years and old a senior - none of the other candidates to take over the job in 2011 have been around long enough to ever be considered for ample playing time.
That didn't matter. To Boren, one unexpected quarterback has filled the above criteria.
"Taylor Graham did a little just because he knew everything, he was out directing people and stuff like that," Boren said. "Which is a breath of fresh air, especially with a young guy like that."
Graham has been considered by few as a reasonable option for Ohio State heading into fall camp, specifically because the two leading candidates are Bauserman, the veteran, and the to-flight recruit coming out of high school in Braxton Miller.
Since the competition began, which also includes Kenny Guiton, the quarterbacks have had only spring practice to compete directly against one another.
In the culmination of that competition - the spring game - it was Miller who was perhaps the most impressive, using his legs to extend plays and move the chains. Bauserman, on the other hand, struggled much like he did in some mop-up time during the regular season the year before.
Though not unnoticed, Graham had a touchdown strike that showed off his impeccable arm strength and sported a calm demeanor in pockets that were deteriorating.
Those skills have seemingly translated into summer workouts, which were enough for Boren to come away impressed.
"Yeah I could. I definitely could," Boren responded when asked if he could see Graham as the starter for the Buckeyes. "He's a great football player - very, very smart. He has a great arm and stuff but I could also see the other three starting out there behind us.
"He can throw the ball. He's very smart. Usually I'll have to yell out stuff when we're back in the backfield, but Taylor took control (in the spring)," Boren said. "He knew everything and knew exactly what he was talking about."
Perhaps the biggest thing that can take the burden off a quarterback are the running backs, and Ohio State is missing its best one in Dan Herron for the five games of next season.
Though a lot of the other options in the backfield are inexperienced, the Buckeyes running back room sports perhaps the most depth, which is probably why Carlos Hyde's name was somewhat forgotten this spring.
With guys like Jaamal Berry and Jordan Hall in front of him on the depth chart, Hyde's role seemed to be reserved for short yardage situations, which was appropriate considering his 6-foot and 235-pound frame.
But his name was quickly remembered when Boren spoke about the team's summer 40-yard dash sessions, where Hyde reportedly ran it in 4.42 seconds - the fastest of any of the running backs.
"Carlos, who we call 'Cheese,' is a big running back," Boren said.. "He's huge but he's the fastest of them all. You don't really realize how fast he is until he gets out in the open."
The Buckeyes are looking for new faces to step on the offensive side of the ball this offseason. Perhaps most have been too quick to decide who those faces will be.
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AnimeSuki Forum (
- Suggestions (
- - trying something new (
tedybearsoka 2013-06-27 00:21
trying something new
anybody know of a hacking anime. ide like it to involve a person who is a legendary hacker or something like that.the only other thing is can the anime be dubbed (well actually ide prefer it to be dubbed) :)
SeijiSensei 2013-06-27 08:07
Watch the movie Summer Wars. It's been dubbed by Funimation.
All the kids in the extraordinary Dennou Coil are hackers of varying skills. It's only subtitled, though.
Shirow Masamune's Real Drive also has hacking, but it's presented in an very unconventional way. Also subtitled.
Of course, there's always the .hack series based on the video game franchise. It was dubbed by Bandai, but since they have left the US, copies are pretty expensive. I found the PS2 game rather boring and watched very little of the anime. I'm just including it here for "completeness."
kitten320 2013-06-27 12:56
I'll second Summer Wars and Dennou Coil.
Tenzen12 2013-06-27 14:28
Battle programmer Shirase - is about legendary hacker who for rare hardware parts do any job btw his name is Shirase...
tedybearsoka 2013-06-27 18:42
sounds interesting ill try summer wars and a few others
Tougarashi 2013-06-28 05:20
Try Steins;Gate, there is a hacker named Doru. Not so legendary but can help building time machine.
tedybearsoka 2013-06-29 11:41
didnt think steins gate really applied to this but i already watched it :D
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Hello all,
I had a thread a week ago about solving some knee pain, well it isn't solved, I'm seeing doctors.. Butttt I've decided that getting a proper bike fit and better shoe is in order for my long term knee health. (and everywhere health..) I talked to my LBS and they are a Spec dealer, they recommended there BG Fit system and some of Spec's MTB shoes which have body ergonomic fit systems in them apparently.. maybe just a gimmick. My question is, do you recommend BG Fit? And are Spec shoes a good buy for knee alignment and body ergonomics on the bike? Or skip all the body ergonomic stuff and get another shoe? Any thoughts and recommendations are greatly appreciated! |
Jude Law Will Hurl Oranges at Any Girl Watching Him Do YogaS
Marble-eyed Englishman Jude Law made the mistake of moving into a condo right next door to an NYU dorm. What are you, Jude Law—dumb? Heh. He deals with female fans by throwing produce at them.
Freshman NYU ladies come running to windows of their dorm every time Jude Law comes out on his balcony. The reason for this, again: Jude Law lives in a condo with a balcony that is towered over by a dormitory full of 18 year-olds. He has not made friends with his neighbors, according to the NYP:
"He noticed we were there and we started waving at him. Then he went inside and came back with two oranges," freshman Neha Najeeb told The Post. "He threw them at our window, but he missed." Law then went back inside and returned with two additional oranges, she said.
In four tries, he landed two oranges on the windows next door. I see several problems here:
1. They don't play baseball in England. Try kicking the oranges next time, Jude. Heh.
2. Jude Law goes out on his balcony to exercise with a personal trainer, then gets upset when people look at him. Go to a gym, you bizarrely attractive yogi. Rich people seem to enjoy Equinox.
3. Look at these pictures of his totally comical workout outfit. Heh.
4. Just be thankful you're not located next door to a state school dorm, Jude Law. Your balcony would be covered in shattered beer bottles at all times. It's not as bad as you think. Your every move is an object of fantasy for dozens of young women, just enjoy it. God. |
Police Ordered To Return $1 Million An Exotic Dancer Saved In $1 BillsS
A stripper just won a lawsuit against Nebraska police who confiscated over $1,000,000 in $10,000 bundles tied with hair ties after a routine traffic stop.
Tara Mishra, 33, had stripped for 15 years and managed to save $1,074,000. So she gave the cash to friends to open a New Jersey nightclub. But when those friends were pulled over in Nebraska, the cops suspected the money was tied to drugs and confiscated all the cash.
This week, a judge ruled that since the police failed to find evidence of drug activity, and since a canine search revealed only trace amounts of illegal drugs on the money, the cash had to be returned.
[via, image via Shutterstock] |
Next: , Previous: DTIME, Up: Intrinsic Procedures
8.48 EOSHIFT — End-off shift function
EOSHIFT(ARRAY, SHIFT[,BOUNDARY, DIM]) performs an end-off shift on elements of ARRAY along the dimension of DIM. If DIM is omitted it is taken to be 1. DIM is a scaler of type INTEGER in the range of 1 /leq DIM /leq n) where n is the rank of ARRAY. If the rank of ARRAY is one, then all elements of ARRAY are shifted by SHIFT places. If rank is greater than one, then all complete rank one sections of ARRAY along the given dimension are shifted. Elements shifted out one end of each rank one section are dropped. If BOUNDARY is present then the corresponding value of from BOUNDARY is copied back in the other end. If BOUNDARY is not present then the following are copied in depending on the type of ARRAY.
Array Type Boundary Value
Numeric 0 of the type and kind of ARRAY.
Logical .FALSE..
Character(len) len blanks.
f95, gnu
transformational function
ARRAY May be any type, not scaler.
SHIFT The type shall be INTEGER.
BOUNDARY Same type as ARRAY.
DIM The type shall be INTEGER.
Return value:
Returns an array of same type and rank as the ARRAY argument.
program test_eoshift
integer, dimension(3,3) :: a
a = reshape( (/ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 /), (/ 3, 3 /))
print '(3i3)', a(1,:)
print '(3i3)', a(2,:)
print '(3i3)', a(3,:)
a = EOSHIFT(a, SHIFT=(/1, 2, 1/), BOUNDARY=-5, DIM=2)
print *
end program test_eoshift |
Gizmodo Exclusive: Burning Stuff with a Green Wicked Laser
My wife is curious.
"So what do you do with it?"
"It's a laser."
"Very powerful, and fits in your hand."
"So, you can use it giving presentations and stuff."
"Not really. The beam is so bright, you could hurt someone if it reflected into their eye."
"So what do you do with it?"
"...pop balloons..."
I am not a laser expert, unless you count watching Real Genius five times as any sort of real world schooling. Sure, I've done my fair share of field-testing with a magnifying glass and the sun, but tagging a massive green dot on a building from 100 yards away is a different beast entirely. I'm just a simple guy who wanted to hold what may be the most powerful consumer laser in the world - and burn something with it.
For those who haven't seen their ads, Wicked Lasers makes very powerful handheld lasers. Their newest model, the Spyder II, is what we're looking at today. It's the newest model they have to offer and among their most powerful, which justifies the hefty waistline. This Spyder II is much bigger than the pen-sized Nexus model I was using for comparison, more along the lines of a flashlight. In fact, it's the perfect size to hold with two hands for lightsaber battles better grip. It looks dangerous, like a Mag-lite from the wrong side of the tracks and has excellent build quality with its anodized black aircraft-grade aluminum casing.
Gizmodo Exclusive: Burning Stuff with a Green Wicked Laser
A texturized, rubber button on the back toggles the laser on and off, which proves to be a nice feature when you want to run the laser for an extended period of time. The spec sheet claimed 60 minutes of runtime from one of the two packaged rechargeable lithium ions.
The laser itself is sun bright. Seriously. I wore packed protective glasses for most of the testing, not only because of the danger of a directly reflected eye shot, but because looking into the laser's point of contact will leave spots in your eyes. While initially testing outdoors, the Spyder II was in no way intimidated by daylight, and appeared roughly 2-3 times brighter than the extremely bright Nexus model. (Note: for some reason while testing Spyder II, its laser stopped shooting brighter than the Nexus. I swapped the batteries, and still I don't know why, but I doubt that it's my imagination). In darker rooms, you can make out the beam of light, which almost sparks when contacting particles in the air.
Gizmodo Exclusive: Burning Stuff with a Green Wicked Laser
But enough with the glamour shots, you want to know how this bad boy performs.
Test 1
Leaf Burning
Gizmodo Exclusive: Burning Stuff with a Green Wicked Laser
Results: SUCCESS
Gizmodo Exclusive: Burning Stuff with a Green Wicked Laser
Braving the arctic winter that is my backyard fire pit, I shot a dried leaf from about 2 feet away. Within 5 seconds there was a tiny plume of smoke, though I could never start a fire. Maybe such is the nature of lasers - to char instead of burn.
Test 2
Results: SUCCESS
With the balloon about 4 feet away, I turned the laser on and then reached over to the camera to record. It was too late because the balloon had already popped. Then...well, just watch the video.
Yes. That is my sissy hand.
Test 3
Results: FAILURE
Gizmodo Exclusive: Burning Stuff with a Green Wicked Laser
I've been thinking of new materials to test for a week before my epiphany: a laser popping a kernel of popcorn. I imagined such a video distributed to the masses as families huddled around their computers and corporate execs referenced the image for small talk during power lunches. Unfortunately, while the lighting effect was striking as the shell enveloped the light, after 5 minutes there was still no delicious snack. I touched the kernel, and while part of the shell was warm, it was not burning hot.
Test 4
My Hand
"Did you try it on yourself?"
"Ok, I did."
"I knew you couldn't help it. And?"
This is just another day at the office for Gizmodo writers, risking life and limb for the Big Story. I didn't hold my hand long enough to smell charring flesh, but after about 7 seconds there was an odd sensation: not heat, but very light almost stinging feeling. The hand is fine, or it's red and filled with pus, so I'm not showing it here.
The Verdict
Gizmodo Exclusive: Burning Stuff with a Green Wicked Laser
I enjoyed playing with the $1,700 Spyder II, and even as I type occasionally pick it up to watch a faint green beam of light shoot across the room. But I would probably never buy one for the reason that makes it great: the Spyder II is completely inappropriate for most purposes, sitting on a bubble between "gift for mom" and "seal the metal door shut before the Klingons get us" that my wallet can't justify. That being said, Wicked's newest laser is still an incredible product, and I can't wait to see what their next model can do.
Product Page
[wicked lasers] |
HomeCelebs › Chad Kroeger
Chad Kroeger
Chad Kroeger Bio
Date of Birth: November 15, 1974
Height: 6'1"
Hometown: Hanna, Alberta, Canada
In a Relationship With:
Avril Lavigne
Best Quotes:
I'm always at the opposite end of the spectrum, and I enjoy that.
I believe in karma.
I'll never be the best guitar player.
Chad Kroeger (born Chad Robert Turton on November 15, 1974 in Hanna, Alberta, Canada) is a Canadian musician, the lead singer of the band Nickelback. He joined the band in the 1990s after his grunge cover band broke up. Nickelback has released seven albums and is one of the most commercially successful Canadian bands in history, selling over 50 million albums in their career. Besides working with Nickelback, Chad has also co-written many popular songs by bands like Daughtry and Santana. In 2002, Kroeger started 604 Records, which represents bands such as Default and Bo Bice.
Best Known For:
Chad Kroeger is best known for being the lead singer of Nickelback.
Personal Life:
Chad Kroeger was born and raised in Hanna, Alberta, Canada. He started playing guitar at the age of 13. In August 2012, Chad announced his engagement with musician, Avril Lavigne. The two were married in June 2013, and they are reportedly working together on an album. |
Gallery: FIRST PHOTOS: Incredible Recycled 747 Airplane House Completed...
+ Studio of Environmental Architects/David Hertz Architects
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1. trainlover July 9, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Totally sustainable. I think if more Americans lived in 55 acre properties there would be less homeless people, less crime, more endangered species, all good things. Where is the banner that reads ‘mission accomplished’?
2. gregb June 17, 2011 at 1:45 pm
Words matter. The four “R”s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Re-purpose) are a great, simple guide to going green. But often these words are used inappropriately, and we miss chances to education the public.
For example, in this article:
The plane wings are claimed to be “recycled”, but actually they are “Re-purposed” as a roof. A Recycled wing would either be used a wing on another plane, or melted into new aluminum.
Not a small issue- if everytime we look at “trash” and see all of the Four R’s, much of that trash would become treasure.
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How To Read Someone's MindS
Impress your friends and terrify your enemies, by pretending to read anyone's mind. It's not as hard as it looks — there are some well-worn tricks that can make you appear telepathic. Screw magicians and their lame fire tricks — we're way more impressed with someone who can guess your favorite movie just by staring into your eyes.
We spoke with Las Vegas' resident Mentalist Gerry McCambridge and he broke down the basic steps to wowing people with your powers of telepathy.
McCambridge, who has spent the last 7 years at The Planet Hollywood reading throngs of tourists, doesn't just pull information from your brain — he'll also tell you exactly how he got there as well. So we asked him to break down his methods step by step.
Select the right subject.
You can't just grab any old victim for a good mind sucking off the street. Rather, you should select your prey delicately. McCambridge elaborates:
"Some people want to be the center of attention. So, if I'm asking for people to come up on stage a lot of times it's those type of people. And they tend not to be the best assistants because they want to have their 15 minutes of fame at my expense. So I'm looking for people who may not come up on stage at the drop of a hat, but aren't [so] overly shy that they're going to stay in the audience. The first thing I'm looking for is somebody who is smiling and laughing at the jokes that I'm putting out there. There you have someone who wants to interact. Then you have the over-responders and that's someone I don't want necessarily right away. That's what you look for first, the type person."
Mirror the subject (make them comfortable).
Once you've snared your subject, woo them into a sense of security, by mimicking their ways.
"Make sure you try something that they are comfortable with. Do you have any artistic abilities? Then you can do something where you using drawing. You feel them out based on what you're going to ask them to do. Then you use an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) technique called mirroring. Where you get them comfortable with you by mirroring the way that they're responding to you. People can pick up on that and they feel more relaxed around someone they feel is close to them. If they're a shy person and you're loud and obnoxious, they're not going to feel comfortable standing next to you. If they are a little shy and you back off and act a little timid yourself, introduce yourself nicely, it puts everybody at ease."
Know the statistics.
Know your stuff. In order to become and excellent Mind Reader, you need to up on the latest trends and tendencies of the mind. McCambridge has spent years documenting his shows, taking notes of the different ages of people in the audience, the cars parked in the parking lots, what kind of event it was. And he makes good use of all this statistical data.
"I know statistically how people are going to respond to certain situations. When I offer you a choice of 4 different objects I know 92% of the time you're going to choose the third one on your own. When you tell someone to think of a number between 1 and 10, statisically they are going to gravitate towards 7. If you ask someone to respond to a question very quickly, that changes the response. If I asked you to think of a color very quickly 1, 2, 3 — red is the statistical first choice. Blue is the second choice. If you ask for a color quickly, people go for red. If you ask for a color and you give someone a three or four second space, they will go for blue, because they will change their mind thinking red is the obvious choice."
Look for signs.
But you've got to be aware of basic responses!
"Look for reactions. For example [something I might try] is instruct the person to respond to what I say with the word no. No matter what I say, you respond with no. Then I'll say think of a number between 1 to 10, and I ask is it the number 1? No. The number 2? No. We go through the entire thing with No and I tell them that it's the number 6 because of the fact that they looked at me different when they were actually lying to me. They couldn't make eye contact [or something similar to that]."
Utilize the body.
Learn the art of muscle reading.
"Without the people realizing it, I'm touching them in a very relaxed way that they don't realize what I'm doing. Based on the questions that I'm asking them, I can tell what the answers are by feeling the difference in their muscles. You body echoes what your brain thinks. And I've learned how to pick up on the echoes. An example is I tell the person to think of a letter in the alphabet, and then the audience sing the Alphabet Song. By the time their finished I can tell what letter they have because the second the audience said their letter, their brain thinks to itself "that's it!" That changes the physiological response in your body and I can pick that up, it's different than the other 25 letters."
Don't be afraid to admit failure.
If you fall flat on your face, pick up and try again. The audience will love you even more for it.
"[If the trick doesn't work] I usually try it a second time. If it's an important part of the show I may send the person back to their seat and say, 'OK let's try something else.' There is no sure-fire way, things go wrong, it actually adds more credibility to the show when the audience sees that sometimes it fails. What a mentalist does, it doesn't always work, and that's OK. "
The easiest trick in the book.
We'll tell you the name of the trick after you do it, because it spoils the reveal!
• Pick a number between 1 and 10.
• Multiply it by 9.
• If it's a 2 digit number, add them together.
• Now subtract 5.
• Map the result to a letter of the alphabet, where A=1, B=2 and so on.
• Think of a country which begins with that letter.
• Take the second letter of the country and think of an animal which begins with that letter.
• Think of the color of that animal.
• Are you thinking of a grey elephant from Denmark?
Obviously this is titled the Grey Elephant from Denmark. We tried this on 3 people in the office and, one out of three guessed Grey Elephant. Our suggestion, do it in big group and the odds will be in your favor.
Here's a clip of Gerry in action. Check him out over at his Mentalist website or live at the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
Top image via Notre Cinema. |
Another Totally Not Gay Republican Can't Figure Out Who Took All Those Gay Pictures of Him
A male escort is claiming that he had a sexual encounter with Chris Myers, the Republican mayor of Medford, New Jersey, and he's offering photos as proof. The mayor vehemently denies the allegations, but can't explain how in tarnation that gay male escort got hold of pictures of a guy who looks kind of exactly like him in his skivvies. Magic, I suppose. Gay magic.
The sordid tale allegedly unfolded in October of 2010, when the then-congressional candidate was visiting Orange County, California. The politician allegedly used to find an evening companion, and paid the male escort $500 for sex, showing the escort photo identification and town business cards as proof of his identity (which: why?). There were promises made, emotions ran high, and when the mayor didn't deliver on a promise issued to the escort, the escort took his revenge to the web, dedicating an entire website to the fact that the mayor of Medford is gayer than a cat pageant.
It wasn't until the city government started getting strange, vaguely threatening emails that the case got really wacky. Phillly Burbs reports,
The first email provided no other information, except to call Myers a "mischievous politician" and to give a link to a BCT article from March 2011, where Myers explains his workload would keep him from accepting a post on the Burlington County Bridge Commission...
A second email, sent Oct. 10, included another photo and this text: "Chris Myers is a lying, manipulative, egotistical hypocrite and escort enthusiast. I am proof."
That was followed by an email Wednesday that included a link to the website featuring the photos and a narrative by the man who says he's a male escort and contends Myers was a client. In addition to the photos in the earlier emails, the website has a photo of an ATM receipt for $500 the escort says was his fee. The ATM receipt also shows the balance of the bank account.
The anonymous email sender also shared two phone numbers, one of which belonged to Mr. Meyers.
In his own defense, the mayor said that it was easy for people to find his personal information, as he is a public official. To the story told on the website about the incident, the mayor said that people were crazy! Crazy! for going as far as this crazy man did to try to discredit him. And the pictures? The ones of him wearing only teal skivvies, glasses, and a smile? Uh, Photoshop? He said,
I've been down that road before, where a photo has been photoshopped to look like something it wasn't,
When pressed, he didn't provide any more specifics.
It's possible that everything was fabricated; Myers has had his hands in some projects involving scads of money, and when money's at stake, people will embark in all sorts of craziness. Attempting to blackmail public officials into giving you land contracts is the official state sport.
Website alleges mayor paid for sex [Philly Burbs]
Image via |
For most of us, 22 was less about sitting poolside at a mansion while making flower crowns with Jessica Szohr and more about working a shitty job, freaking out about debt and drowning your sorrows in cheap beer. That's not a dig on Taylor Swift's version of "22." She's just singing her reality and her reality happens to be a lot better (and more fun to watch) than the majority of ours. Still, that doesn't mean that we can't appreciate Conan O'Brien's response to the video/song. Someone needs to speak the truth for us St. Elmo's Fire watching/ramen eaters out there. |
Data Shows Girls Around The World Underestimate Themselves In Math
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has gathered data comparing countries all over the world on their track record of gender differences in various skills, degrees, work, and wages. It's an interesting cross section of opportunity, gender imbalance, and culture. The OECD even took into… » 3/09/14 12:30pm Sunday 12:30pm
How to Be Good at Math as a Woman: Pretend You're Someone Else
Do you know how, in the education system, everyone is always saying that women are terrible at math and then if you make a math mistake when you're called up to the board everyone's like, "THAT'S IT; GET YOUR UTERUS OUT OF HERE; SWING THOSE CHILD-BEARING HIPS OFF TO A HUMANITIES LESSON." No? Well, ok, it happens all the… » 7/04/13 12:30pm 7/04/13 12:30pm
All the Characters on Friends Were Suicidal Caffeine Junkies, FYI
It may seem pointless to discuss the coffee-drinking habits of television characters that faded away in 2004, but the Internet is a repository of pointless stuff, and, anyway, you’ve probably always wanted to know if Chandler’s caffeine consumption was physically dangerous. Didn’t it seem like everyone on Friends drank … » 4/29/13 10:30pm 4/29/13 10:30pm
Sara Volz, Teenage Scientist of Tomorrow, Turned Her Room into a Lab
In the not-so-distant future, when humanities majors (the unskilled laborers of academia) become so commonplace that they make Falstaff’s birthday a national holiday on which people are only allowed to talk to each other in heroic couplets, anyone who studied a hard science (i.e. not sociology) will be treated like a… » 4/28/13 12:30pm 4/28/13 12:30pm
‘Grandma Got STEM’ Challenges the Stereotype of Technologically…
Denigrating grandmothers for their supposed lack of technological prowess is bullshit because a) big fucking deal you can use a computer — your grandmother was probably old enough during the moon landing to roll her eyes when Neil Armstrong read his cheesy "one small step" line, and b) grandmothers are really crafty, so… » 3/24/13 2:30pm 3/24/13 2:30pm
Science to Women: Try Literature Instead
Could these AP exam prep books from the Princeton Review be any more obvious? English and history are for ladies, and math and science are for boys. Since many text books now overcompensate with science covers that feature ladies (please see: every stock photo of a girl looking into a microscope ever — honestly, it… » 3/11/13 9:30am 3/11/13 9:30am
Senator Ron Johnson Sure Hopes Tammy Baldwin Can Understand Math
Senator-elect Tammy Baldwin was among the most progressive members of the US House of Representatives during her tenure as a Wisconsin Congresswoman. Wisconsin's senior Senator Ron Johnson is a Tea Party idiot. But so far, everything is hunky dory! Baldwin is confident that the two can work together in Washington, and… » 11/08/12 6:30pm 11/08/12 6:30pm
Science Cheerleaders Invite Children to Admire Their Perky, Bouncy…
One of the challenges in convincing little girls to want to be smart is that they've been indoctrinated by society and princess culture into thinking that being smart is a thing that ugly mustachioed chicks do because no one wanted to marry them and they're too allergic to hoard cats. Enter the Science Cheerleaders —… » 7/13/12 3:30pm 7/13/12 3:30pm
Girls More Likely to Freak Out When Faced with a Math Problem, Says…
If the phrase "word problem" still provokes vivid night terrors of you sitting in a dystopian future classroom as uniformed classmates jeer at you for not being able to figure out how long it will take some imaginary fucking train to get to some imaginary fucking destination quickly enough for your totalitarian eighth… » 7/09/12 10:00am 7/09/12 10:00am
For a Super-Smart Baby, Leave It in Your Uterus Forever
As medical technology has gotten amazingly advanced, and we've gained more and more control over how and when babies are born, we tend to think that as long as you're not extremely premature, it doesn't really matter exactly how long a baby cooks in its mother's womb. Well, think again. Two new studies have found that… » 7/03/12 1:00pm 7/03/12 1:00pm
Game Theory Might Solve Your Marital Problems! (Whatever Game Theory…
Normally I hate articles and books about how "Men do this, women do this, relationships are like this, and unless you're like this you're going to wind up like THIS," because typically they are boring, disingenuous, never effective, dehumanizing, cash-grabby, and dumb. But though obviously all relationships are different … » 6/13/12 4:00pm 6/13/12 4:00pm
Regardless of Performance, Teachers Assume Girls Are Worse at Math
Exhibit number one billion in the case of Stupid People v. Yes, Sexism Is Still a Thing: turns out, no matter how good girls are at math, teachers still might be biased against them in the classroom. Data from a national 2002 study indicates that a small but significant percentage of teachers believe that math is just… » 4/11/12 2:50pm 4/11/12 2:50pm
Moms Don’t Frazzle Their Daughters with Fancy Math-Speak
It turns out there's a perfectly reasonable explanation behind the glaring under-representation of women in science- and math-related fields and, despite what Larry Summers would have you believe, it has absolutely nothing to do with aptitude — it's all about conditioning, specifically, the manner and frequency with… » 2/26/12 5:00pm 2/26/12 5:00pm |
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Water Safety
When the weather turns warm, everyone wants to be in or around the water. Hanging out at the pool or the beach on a hot day is a great way to beat the heat.
Between having fun and checking out the lifeguards, most people don't think much about water safety — but they should. For people between the ages of 5 and 24, drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death.
It doesn't have to be that way, though. Most water-related accidents can be avoided by knowing how to stay safe and following a few simple guidelines. Learning how to swim is essential if you plan on being on or near water. Many organizations provide swim instruction to people of all ages, check to see what classes are available in your area.
Swimming Smarts
Get skilled. Speaking of emergencies, it's good to be prepared. Learning some life-saving skills, such as CPR and rescue techniques, can help you save a life. A number of organizations offer free classes for both beginning and experienced swimmers and boaters. Check with your YMCA or YWCA, local hospital, or chapter of the Red Cross.
Swim in safe areas only. It's a good idea to swim only in places that are supervised by a lifeguard. No one can anticipate changing ocean currents, rip currents, sudden storms, or other hidden dangers. In the event that something does go wrong, lifeguards are trained in rescue techniques.
If you do find yourself caught in a current, don't panic and don't fight the current. Try to swim parallel to the shore until you are able to get out of the current, which is usually a narrow channel of water. Gradually try to make your way back to shore as you do so. If you're unable to swim away from the current, stay calm and float with the current. The current will usually slow down, then you can swim to shore.
Swimming Smarts (continued)
Watch the sun. Sun reflecting off the water or off sand can intensify the burning rays. You might not feel sunburned when the water feels cool and refreshing, but the pain will catch up with you later — so remember to reapply sunscreen frequently and cover up much of the time. Don't forget your hat, UV protection sunglasses, and protective clothing.
Getting too cool. Speaking of temperature, it's possible to get too cool. How? Staying in very cool water for long periods can lower your body temperature. A temperature of 70°F (20°C) is positively balmy on land, but did you know that water below that temperature will feel cold to most swimmers? Your body temperature drops far more quickly in water than it does on land. And if you're swimming, you're using energy and losing body heat even faster than if you were keeping still. Monitor yourself when swimming in cold water and stay close to shore. If feel your body start to shiver or your muscles cramp up, get out of the water quickly; it doesn't take long for hypothermia to set in.
At the Water Park
OK, so you do more splashing than swimming, but it's just as important to know your skill level at the water park as it is at the pool. Take a moment to read warnings and other signs. Each area in the water park can have different depths of water, so make sure you pay attention.
If you don't know how to swim be sure to wear a Coast Guard-approved life jacket when necessary, and be sure there is lifeguard supervision. And make sure you do slide runs feet first or you'll put yourself at risk for a ride that's a lot less fun — one to your doctor or dentist.
Boating Safety
Alcohol and water still don't mix. One third of boating deaths are alcohol related. Alcohol distorts our judgment no matter where we are — but that distortion is even greater on the water. Because there are no road signs or lane markers on the water and the weather can be unpredictable, it's important to be able to think quickly and react well under pressure. If you're drinking, this can be almost impossible.
Also, the U.S. Coast Guard warns about a condition called boater's fatigue, which means that the wind, noise, heat, and vibration of the boat all combine to wear you down when you're on the water.
Weather. Before boating, be sure the weather conditions are safe. The local radio, internet or TV stations can provide updated local forecast information.
Stay in touch. Before going out on a boat, let somebody on land know your float plan (where you are going and about how long you'll be out). That way, if you do get into trouble, someone will have an idea of where to look for you. If you're going to be on the water for a long time, it's a good idea to have a radio with you so you can check the weather reports. Water conducts electricity, so if you hear a storm warning, get off the water as quickly as you can.
Now Have Fun!
Reviewed by: Yamini Durani, MD
Date reviewed: July 2011 |
Sony's Interest in Augmented Reality Gaming ExpandsS
Sony's interest in augmented reality gaming shows no signs of fading.
The console company has already brought a number of titles to their console that blend video game graphics with real images streamed from a camera to your television. And the publisher has high hopes for games that will put an interactive, 3D digital pet on people's coffee tables through the PS3 and allow children to capture the invisible animals in their homes with the PSP. But that could be just the beginning.,
"Ten years ago we embarked on a project involving cameras," said Mike Haye, senior director of Sony's London Studios. "The culmination of all of that experience in terms of technology and marketing was augmented reality."
For this holiday, augmented reality for the Playstation means the EyePet and Invizimals.
The EyePet, heading to the Playstation 3, will allow people to care for a virtual pet that appears to be in the room with them with the help of a video camera.
The furry, big-eyed cross between a tiny dog and a monkey, can interact with your hands, real toys and even draw and create its own toys to play with. We were told about a bubble machine, tennis and football sets and a treadmill and singing set. You can also use the card to take the creature to a virtual outdoor setting to fish and garden.
The biggest potential for the EyePet to become a money-maker, it seems, is through the introduction of downloadable clothing and toys, all of which will be sold through the Playstation Store, the developers said.
With Invizimals people will use the PSP and a camera to search their home, yards, anywhere for virtual invisible creatures. Once they are found and captured, they can be used to fight one another, in Pokemon-like battles.
There will be more than 125 of these creatures to capture, finding them will take a bit of exploration and perhaps a knowledge of the creatures. The developers told us that certain creatures like certain colors and times of the day. The creatures are captured in different ways, like by shouting at them, whistling a tune and causing an earthquake by shaking the PSP. There will be more than 30 ways to capture creatures, they said.
While the EyePet is announced as a PS3 title and Invizimals a PSP title, it seems like either could work on either platform.
When I asked if it was possible that the EyePet could come to the PSP as a sort of portable augmented reality space the developers said, "watch this space."
The folks behind Invizimals say that with augmented reality such a broad and relatively untapped genre, they think they could find better fits for the PS3 than their PSP title.
"I think in the future augmented reality is going to explode," an Invizimals developer said. "This is just the beginning." |
Where Do You Buy Your Video Games?S
The daily Speak-Up on Kotaku doesn't have to be an essay. Sometimes all it takes is a simple question. Commenter Rueli is fed up with GameStop, and wants to know where everyone else goes for their retail gaming fix.
Gamestop finally broke the last straw. I've dealt with their crap for too long and now turn a new leaf...
So now the question: Where do you guys suggest I buy my games? Amazon?
|
The Video Game Industry's Lobbyists Support SOPA, But They Understand Why You Might NotS
The Entertainment Software Association, the video game trade group that puts on the huge E3 show each year and successfully defended video games' status as protected speech in the United States Supreme Court, supports the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act.
Today, they explained why.
"As an industry of innovators and creators, we understand the importance of both technological innovation and content protection, and do not believe the two are mutually exclusive," the group said in a statement. "Rogue websites—those singularly devoted to profiting from their blatant illegal piracy-–restrict demand for legitimate video game products and services, thereby costing jobs. Our industry needs effective remedies to address this specific problem, and we support the House and Senate proposals to achieve this objective."
Both SOPA and PIPA are currently working their ways through the U.S House of Representatives and Senate, respectively. Neither is law yet. Both are designed to choke non-U.S. sites that sell pirated intellectual property—pirated video games, for example. (Here's a primer.) They are supported by major movie and music companies and organizations.
But both pieces of legislation have come under fire from legal scholars, search engine companies and an angry online community that believe these bills enable Internet censorship. The specific complaint involves clauses in SOPA and PIPA that would require the people responsible for the servers that make the infrastructure of the Internet possible to start blocking access to sites that allegedly host pirated content. They would have to block those sites upon issuance of a court order—prior to the complained-about site having the opportunity to defend itself.
This is that controversial part, from PIPA (page 38 of Senate bill 968, if you'd like to read the whole thing):
(I) such operator shall not be required-
(bb) to take any measures with respect to domain name lookups not performed by its own domain name server or domain name system servers located out- side the United States; or
The ESA is aware of the complaints about the bill. In its statement today, the group noted: "We are mindful of concerns raised about a negative impact on innovation. We look forward to working with the House and Senate, and all interested parties, to find the right balance and define useful remedies to combat willful wrongdoers that do not impede lawful product and business model innovation."
The ESA is funded by its membership, which consists of most of the biggest publishers of video games in the world. The group stages the massive Electronics Entertainment Expo each year, the biggest showcase for new video games in the United States and an annual show of strength for the likes of Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, EA, Activision and the rest of the biggest players in the world of handheld and console video games. |
Every closet can hold two bodies, so if you knock out another guard and stuff him in there with the first guy, he'll slump forward so his rear is end up against the first guard's crotch. The effect is such that the two men appear to be mid-coitus.
Funny, right? Well…
On its face, it's a dumb, easy joke. If it happened one time, maybe to characters who were defined, or who spent the game loudly asserting their heterosexuality, it could even work. As it stands, it elicits a bit of a titter the first time, but then it happens again, and again, and again.
It combines with other things to give Absolution—a relatively sophisticated game, in terms of design—an air of lowbrow nastiness that it would've been better without. As I mentioned in my review, the women in the game are all either prostitutes, killers, wank material, or some combination thereof. The sole female occupants of an early-stage hotel are: a mean old woman who spends all of her lines berating men and calling them dickless losers, and a maid who is later grabbed and brutally throat-slit in service of the plot. In a later scene, a developmentally disabled man, derisively referred to by his friends and father as "limp dick," is goaded into murdering an unarmed nun.
The "Saints," the much talked-about assassin nuns from that now-infamous commercial, are explained via overheard dialogue as the product of domestic abuse, which… I guess eventually led them to dress up in latex S&M garb and become killers? It's not really explained. They're like Metal Gear Solid 4's Beauty and the Beast unit, but one tenth as interesting.
I'm not on a politically correct crusade here. Off-color, exploitative jokes are generally fine, if they're done well. My gripe isn't so much that this stuff is potentially offensive, it's just that it's kinda lazy and bad. The game features a lot of gleefully ridiculous, well-performed and good writing (more on that later today), so it's a shame that some of it misses the mark.
Hitman: Absolution frequently features offensive or disgusting content of the enjoyable sort, but just as often an undercurrent of dumb nastiness detracts from what's an otherwise very fun, sadistic stealth game. It feels miscalculated and not very self-aware, like the game is trying too hard.
"See? See?" The game says, "It's like they're gay even though they're not. Isn't that hilarious?"
No. Now quit distracting me, I'm trying to kill people over here. |
Google Tablet
Yesterday, in All Your Tubes Are Belong to Googlizon, I blogged about the Google-Verizon proposal for regulating the internet and why libertarians should oppose both it and any net neutrality laws and regulations. Today, I came across a post on CrunchGear, a tech and gadgets site, by Nicholas Deleon, that criticizes the Tea Party for opposing net neutrality on the basis that it will violate the right of ISPs to free speech. I left a comment on his post, but I’ll reproduce it here.
I’m a libertarian, not a Tea Partier, but I’ll take a stab at explaining this.
Both free markets and the right to free speech are based on the right to private property. Net neutrality, insofar as it involves regulation, violates private property rights. That said, not every violation of the right to property is a violation of the right to free speech.
If they could? Maybe. Maybe not. But in a free market, they could not. Restrict competition through regulations, monopoly franchises, and whatnot, and then maybe they could.
“But to oppose Net Neutrality in order to defend the free speech of ISPs is pretty laughable.”
Umm… I don’t see in the letter where they defend the free speech of ISPs. I don’t see it in the quoted soundbite either.1 More likely the speaker was concerned about the free speech of users who could be prevented by net neutrality regulations from purchasing services that otherwise might have been available, services they could have used to express themselves more effectively.
In any case, the fundamental reason to oppose net neutrality laws or regulations is that they constitute a violation of property rights.
Then I realized I had made a small mistake, so I left a second comment:
Okay, I see that in the linked article on Radtke’s quote, the reporter writes:
“The free-speech objection to net neutrality has also gained some ground recently. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and AT&T began citing First Amendment objections to net neutrality in public discussions and in filings with the FCC this year.
This is the reporter’s interpretation, but let’s say it’s accurate. Is it not possible to imagine how net neutrality regulations could interfere with even the free speech of ISPs? And as “browse” at 1:58 pm UTC pointed out:
“The EFF has some great pieces on Net Neutrality. One of the issues is the Trojan Horse issue: whereby a more activist commissioner could abuse powers won in the aims of Net Neutrality to stifle free expression online. Even if they current FCC has no inclinations to regulate the Internet beyond Net Neutrality, regimes do change pretty frequently, and agendas change with them. If you look at it from that perspective, the argument you quoted above sounds a bit less crazy.”
In any case, as I mentioned in my previous comment, the fundamental reason to oppose net neutrality laws and regulations isn’t free speech but private property.
To wrap things up: That Nicholas finds the Tea Party’s free speech argument so laughable on its face betrays a leftist anti-corporate bias. Corporations are often not the good guys, such as when they seek government protection from competition. But at least corporations are not intrinsically evil. To turn to government as our savior, when it is government that is the primary enemy and source of man-made problems in the world, now that’s more than slightly misguided. In any event, Nicholas hardly gives the Tea Party a fair shake, focusing on their free speech argument as he does and not even bothering to give that a charitable interpretation or serious counterargument.
Cross-posted at Is-Ought GAP.
1. Jaime Radtke, chairwoman of the Virginia Tea Party Patriot Federation, said, “I think the clearest thing is it’s an affront to free speech and free markets.”
{ 1 comment }
Recommended podcasts: |
CLICS (CUNY Libraries Inter-Campus Services)
CLICS is a service that allows you to have books delivered from almost anywhere in the CUNY library system to the Hunter campus. Go the official CLICS page for more information.
For questions or concerns, contact Jocelyn Berger-Barrera, Evening/Sunday Supervisor, 212-772-4175; or David Donabedian, Head of Access Services, 212-772-4176. |
"It Didn't Happen If You Didn't Write It Down"S
Borrowing an idea from a Tom Clancy novel, software developer and blogger Christopher Schanck explains why he writes everything down, then suggests a handful of worthy tools for the job.
Photo by Jacob Bøtter.
If you think of a good idea and don't record it somewhere, you'll forget it. Inevitably. If you need something done by a certain time and don't record it somewhere, you'll miss it. If you learn something while roaming through code, or exploring a new tool, write your experiences down. You'll thank yourself later.
As far as his write-it-down tool suggestions go, Schanck discusses everything from the classic text editor Emacs and reader favorite mind-mapping tool FreeMind to Evernote and pencil and paper. Ultimately, Schanck doesn't prescribe anything in particular—it's really an individual choice based on what works best for you—because it's not really about the tool you use to do the job, but the benefits of writing things down and taking notes in the first place.
So what about you? Do you prescribe to the "It didn't happen if you didn't write it down" philosophy? Tell us about it in the comments. |
Chrome: There are buttons and bookmarks you can click to share links, images, and videos, but the Cortex extension makes them seem so slow. Click and hold for half a second, and you can share to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or Instapaper.
Video courtesy of Good Morning Geek.
You have to set up your sharing networks in the settings for Cortex, but after that, it's really a single click to send neat stuff out to your social networks. You do get to choose specific Facebook friends to send to, if you'd like, and you can type out a pretext for your Twitter or Tumblr entries. Instapaper just stashes away the link for reading in your queue.
Cortex Makes Sharing Pages, Images, and Videos from Chrome a Two-Second ProcessS
Does it bump up against your other click-and-hold routines? Maybe, sometimes. Having it installed for an hour, I discovered that when clicking to select text, or drag images or links to the desktop, I usually move faster than the half-second delay that activates Cortex. If you're the same way, Cortex could be a really handy way to send stuff out. Then again, there's something to be said for giving your social sharing a second's thought.
Cortex is a free extension for Chrome browsers on all systems. It supports four networks at the moment, but the developer's images imply more options are coming in the near future.
Cortex [Chrome Web Store] |
We've shown you a couple of methods for creating a hollowed out book stash before, but it's not too often that somebody takes the time to document their own effort on video. It turns out there's a reason for that; it takes about 15 hours of hard, paper-cut-laden labor to build one out of a larger book, which is what you'd need to store anything more substantial than a couple of CDs.
The Ultimate Instructional Video for Turning a Book into a Secret Stash
Making a Book Safe | YouTube via Instructables |
Subject: Re: what to put into cryptosrc-intl tree
To: None <>
From: Michael C. Richardson <>
List: tech-security
Date: 06/23/1999 12:43:45
Thor> Um, how does Open *SSL* work with -DNO_RSA?
TLS 2.0 defines DH/DSS methods. They aren't widely supported, but outside
of the USA, this doesn't matter.
Home: PGP key available. |
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Ouro Prêto,city, southeastern Minas Gerais estado (“state”state), Brazil. It lies occupies a hilly site on the lower slopes of the Serra do Oro Prêto Mountains, a spur of the Serra do Espinhaço Mountains, at 3,481 feet (1,061 mmetres) above sea level, in the Doce River drainage basin.
Within a decade of its founding in 1698 as a mining settlement, Ouro Prêto became the centre of the greatest gold and silver rush in the Americas to that date. It still resembled a boom town when it was given city status in 1711 with the name Vila Rica. It was made capital of the newly created Minas Gerais captaincy in 1720. In 1823, after Brazil’s independence was won Brazil had won its independence from Portugal, Ouro Prêto was named capital of Minas Gerais province. In 1897, however, because of transportation difficulties the capital was transferred to Belo Horizonte (40 miles [65 km] northwest), worsening the economic decline that had already begun in Ouro Prêto. The opening of an Alcan aluminum factory at nearby Saramenha in 1979 helped to revive the city’s economy. The Federal University of Ouro Prêto (1969) is located there. The city is linked to Belo Horizonte by highway and railroad.
Ouro Prêto lives largely in the past. In 1933 it was decreed a national monument and the surrounding region a national park, so that the city’s elaborate (mostly late 18th-century) public buildings, churches, and houses might be preserved or restored; they make the place a veritable open-air museum. In the late 1970s a federally funded restoration project was begun, and in 1980 the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. The old colonial governor’s palace houses a mining school (founded 1876) and a museum that contains an outstanding collection of minerals native to Brazil. The massive colonial penitentiary contains the Museum of the Inconfidência, dedicated to the history of gold mining and culture in Minas Gerais. The colonial theatre, restored in 1861–62, is the oldest in Brazil. The city has many Baroque churches. Religious architecture and sculpture attained great perfection in the city under the skillful hands of António Francisco Lisboa, better known as Aleijadinho (“Little Cripple”). The Church of São Francisco de Assis and the facade of the Church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo are his masterpieces. The Oratory Museum contains a notable collection of portable altars. Pop. (1985 2005 est.) mun., 61,41758,300. |
Should people be required to either accept an answer or delete the question if it has been live for a certain period of time (say 1 month) without any traffic (i.e. comment or answer)?
share|improve this question
What problem does forcing an accept solve/address? – Mat Dec 22 '12 at 12:14
Some questions are automatically deleted after 30 days; see Auto-deleting old, unanswered zero-score questions after a year? – Arjan Dec 22 '12 at 12:37
People having a 0% accept rate – Ed Heal Dec 22 '12 at 12:50
Again, how's that a problem? What would having everyone at 100% accept rate solve/improve? Having bad/wrong answers accepted because people are forced to sounds like a really bad idea. Questions that don't have an accepted answer don't hurt anything, votes rate the content. – Mat Dec 22 '12 at 12:51
Closely related and just asked today: How should users handle unanswered questions? – Tim Post Dec 22 '12 at 13:09
Some problems got.resolved after a few releases of library/framework, taking more than one year... – Łukasz 웃 L ツ Dec 23 '12 at 13:15
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3 Answers
I disagree with this idea. We can't force OP to accept our/anyone's answer. It totally depends on OP whether to accept the answer or not. And why to delete a question if it is a real or a constructive question?
share|improve this answer
How can a person maintain their accept rate then? – Ed Heal Dec 22 '12 at 13:05
Why should we try to force everyone to have a high accept rate? If someone has a poor accept rate then I'd rather have that clearly visible than try to hide it by deleting their older posts. If everyone has a high accept rate all the time then it's not possible to distinguish between those who accept answers and those that don't. – Mark Byers Dec 22 '12 at 13:10
This furthers my accept-rate-should-just-go-away stance even more. – Tim Post Dec 22 '12 at 13:12
I second Tim on this. I'm really getting tired of people being badgered about their accept rate. In some cases, it's caused people to accept outright wrong answers just so they don't get yelled at by others. – Brad Larson Dec 22 '12 at 16:18
@TinyTimPost <jk>You're just saying that because yours is so low?</jk> I guess one could make a case for keeping it as a private field in the profile. But it should definitely be removed from the public. – Daniel Fischer Dec 22 '12 at 16:43
@TinyTimPost I've given it one last push... – Bart Dec 23 '12 at 22:12
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No, this makes no sense. I've had a few questions receive an answer which doesn't actually answer the question correctly or for whatever other reason don't solve the problem.
Accepting that "answer" is actually worse than not accepting an answer.
share|improve this answer
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One question may answered again in the future, also existing answers can be reference to what they try to this question - and maybe some of them work even if they not have been accepted.
Also there is the case that many users hit one two questions, and then disappear from the site and not accept the answer that they have get.
I disagree also with this idea.
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Two interactions with comments over the last couple days have led me to believe that the overall user experience on SE concerning comments and just general user interaction could be improved.
The first was on this post:
Not a great question, but I answered as I had some spare time. I quickly got upvotes and an accept, from all but one user. Who for some reason felt it was his civic duty to make sure that everyone was aware that JavaScript isn't equal to ECMAScript...(I digress but basically refer to this xkcd for his behavior).
This led me to quickly flagging 3 of his comments, one with not constructive, one with chatty, and the last one with an other flag explaining that the user had something stuck in his craw. All 3 flags were validated and the users comments were deleted which led to these comments:
(I didn't respond, but I was annoyed that he didn't take the hint and go away).
Which leads to my first request:
• If someones comments are deleted from a post by a moderator give the person a cool down timer before they can interact with/post comments on the post again.
I think this would accomplish two things:
• Let the user cool off, in which case he could then come back and have a positive interaction with the post again. (If the user feels so inclined)
• Give a user that doesn't feel inclined to act properly a wake up call that his actions won't be tolerated, and he should go away.
My second request actually comes from one of my own comments being deleted today. I posted a comment on the answer to this question. While I was away someone replied to that comment and I got a notification when I came back.
However when I clicked on the notification it took me to the question but both my comment and the reply had been deleted because of this scope question on the particular SE site.
I can say this because of what I read from the notification:
@ryan - I'm not disagreeing with you, but your comment is addressing what is True - something...
Which is why my second request is this:
- Please allow me to see comments and comments directed @me when clicking on the notification in my inbox, even if they have been deleted, for a limited amount of time.
On a site like the one my comment was made on, my comment and the reply could actually have made for a lively and academic debate in the chat. However now there is no record of either. And I don't even know what the rest of the reply said.
I see this as different from other requests to see deleted comments in two ways. First, I don't want to see all deleted comments. I don't even want to see all of my deleted comments. I just want to see my comment that has a reply I haven't seen yet for a little bit of time. (It's super annoying to see that someone took the time to reply to you, good or bad, and not be able to see it!)
Heck once I've viewed it from clicking on the notification the comments could be hidden again on page refresh.
I think that this is feasible only in conjunction with my first request. Because then even if it's a flame on me and it ticks me off, my comment was deleted so I can't just fire back, I would have to sit and think on the comment(cool my head) or forget about it and move on.
EDIT: I removed the original part of this suggestion and am only asking for the alternative which I proposed.
Alternatively I would suggest:
• Getting rid of notifications (which have not been seen yet) which are generated by reply's to comments that have been deleted.
As no matter what your stance is on deleted comment viewing, I think we can all agree that having some sort of UX interaction that does nothing (except hint at content you won't ever be able to see*), is not good UX design.
EDIT: As has been discussed a little in comments, I would be happy if either of the second requests were implemented. I think that either one would be an improvement to the overall UX.
*Unless of course you become a mod on that site.
share|improve this question
Isn't this already done? – Richard J. Ross III Jun 7 '13 at 18:59
Regarding the first suggestion, what about cleanup of obsolete comments ("Please add code to your question")? That commentor did nothing wrong and may still have something useful to add to the conversation, so a cooldown would be unwarranted. – George Cummins Jun 7 '13 at 19:02
@GeorgeCummins I think 2 things, really those should be cleaned up by the comment poster, which then wouldn't trigger this. Since that rarely happens (heck they rarely get cleaned up anyways), SE could make this apply only for rude/offensive/spam/not-constructive/other, flags (other of course being at the mod's discretion). – ryan Jun 7 '13 at 19:08
+1, especially for the part of letting us read the comment in the inbox. Either allow us to read the comment, or remove it from the inbox as well. – user213634 Jun 7 '13 at 19:08
@AndersUP Yeah, I kind of agree, even if a comment has been deleted, I'd still like to know what it said. In the inbox super-collider thingy the text gets truncated, and there's no other place to see it (because it's been deleted, of course). If it's been deleted, why bother teasing me with half of what it used to say? – Aaron Bertrand Jun 7 '13 at 19:10
@RichardJ.RossIII different situation, my situation is that someone replied before my comment was deleted, at which point I was notified, then between the notification getting to my inbox and me clicking on it a mod deleted both comments. – ryan Jun 7 '13 at 19:10
@AaronBertrand exactly why I requested this. I hate now that there is a notification that I can't ever read. I would way rather I had never seen the notification. This is very much a area where either they should let me see the content, or they should implement a "ignorance is bliss" policy. – ryan Jun 7 '13 at 19:12
@AaronBertrand - Just to say that there are certainly comments I don't want to ever see. – Oded Jun 7 '13 at 19:18
@Oded sure, then that leans more toward deleting it from my inbox super collider thingy immediately. – Aaron Bertrand Jun 7 '13 at 19:20
@Oded Your comment doesn't compute... If there are comment's you never want to see, and they have been cleaned up then why would you like the supercolider thingy to tease you about them? If the comments are that bad, wouldn't you rather of never known about them? – ryan Jun 7 '13 at 19:33
@ryan - Exactly. I parse your request to do show them, even if they have been cleaned up. – Oded Jun 7 '13 at 19:35
@Downvoters, I fully understand that downvotes are different on meta, they indicate that you disagree, as this is also tagged discussion I would love to hear what you disagree with. – ryan Jun 7 '13 at 19:35
@Oded ok I think I understand what your saying, but then, that's why I included my alternative request from the get go. I would be happy if either were implemented. – ryan Jun 7 '13 at 19:37
@Oded I updated the alternative suggestion to try and make it more clear. What do you think of that? – ryan Jun 7 '13 at 19:49
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1 Answer
I didn't respond, but...
Good. That was the right choice.
I would like to see deleted comments...
Why? Don't worry about them. Sometimes I say something that was ill advised, and I delete my comment. Fortunately, it doesn't ping anybody once it is deleted, so I don't have to worry about it coming back to bite me. I like it that way.
If a user's behavior is causing a persistent problem, the usual methods apply; flag one of their posts, and explain the problem.
share|improve this answer
But it does ping after it is deleted. I have, in my inbox, the following snippet '@AndersUP: that's not "SQL Server syntax". That's standard ANSI SQL which is su...' But the question itself (not mine) has been removed due to moderation (which was probably fair, I can't remember). The comment was probably not that important, either, but it does bug me to have something in my inbox that I cannot look at. – user213634 Jun 9 '13 at 10:52
Since no one seems to see my alternate request and seeing comments is unpopular I have removed that part and am just requesting the alternate now. Also as @AndersUP said, it does ping you with notifications that something is there to see, but which are deleted. Which is very annoying. Finally it wasn't about seeing deleted comments it was about seeing content SE is telling me I should see but that I can't. – ryan Jun 10 '13 at 14:11
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IN HOT PURSUIT OF HIGH-TECH FOOD The health craze, the growth of two-career households, and increasingly sophisticated palates have technologists scrambling to concoct new edibles. They're supposed to be nutritious, non-fattening, and convenient. And, by the way, taste good.
By Anthony Ramirez RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Sarah Smith
(FORTUNE Magazine) – BIG FOOD-PROCESSING companies guard their technical secrets with all the zeal of defense contractors. Last year, after Keebler, Nabisco, and Frito-Lay marketed cookies that were crisp on the outside and soft at the center, lawyers for Procter & Gamble marched into court to accuse them of infringing P&G's patents. The competitors deny the charge; the suit is pending, and no trial date has been set. But one thing is clear: P&G and its rivals were all hoping to pull off a bit of legerdemain by using the fruits of newfangled industrial research to make people think they were eating old-fashioned cookies as good as Mother used to make. Because the commercial stakes are high, many of the 22,000 professionals who belong to the Institute of Food Technologists toil in hush-hush conditions worthy of Star Wars research. The science of preparing, preserving, and reshaping packaged food is a bigger business today than ever: food-related companies and the government allotted some $1 billion to research and % development last year. General Foods, the biggest private spender, accounted for $115 million. Food technology owes a lot of its current importance to the growing health craze and the increasing numbers of two-career and single-adult households, which demand high-quality food that can be prepared simply and quickly. In addition, processors want food that doesn't spoil rapidly; distributing a product nationally takes so long that any packaged food made in one place and sold throughout the U.S. has to have a long shelf life. For meat products, it's a minimum of about four to eight weeks; for frozen foods, six months. It's the food technologists' job to reconcile the conflicting demands for food that's nutritious, tasty, fresh, convenient, and resistant to spoilage. An example of the trade-off problem: canned orange juice is easy to use and has at least a six-month shelf life, says David Erickson of Technomic Consultants, an Illinois-based firm that works with the food industry. But the juice is bland, he says, because it's either cooked in cans or poured into them at near-boiling temperature in order to sterilize them. ''Excessive treatment has been routine,'' says Harry C. Mussman, executive vice president of the National Food Processors Association, a trade group in Washington, D.C. ''But as palates have become more educated, everyone in the industry is trying to bring foods to the public like the ones you'd get from the garden or cooked from scratch.'' Among the products and processes designed to meet these needs are convenience foods that can be prepared quickly in a toaster or microwave oven; substitutes for salt, fat, and sugar; cold-pasteurization techniques like irradiation; the use of carbon monoxide to preserve beef without discoloration; the ''restructuring'' of irregular pieces of beef to make them look more like porterhouse than hamburger; and a technology that could virtually eliminate the need to refrigerate chocolate and other fat-based foods. While much of the food industry's R&D money goes to increase the efficiency of huge, sophisticated production lines, a lot is devoted to developing new products and adapting them to the appliances in the family kitchen -- the toaster, the refrigerator, and especially the microwave oven. Processing techniques that consumers take for granted are often more complex than they seem. Frozen foods, for example, present several problems. Keeping ingredients from separating in General Foods' Jell-O Pudding Pops requires a patented way of using emulsifiers to control ice crystal formation and maintain a creamy texture. Moreover, no frozen food is really completely frozen. Dissolved sugars, starches, salts, and fats reduce the freezing point of water in parts of the food to below the temperature of most freezer compartments. Though it moves at a glacial pace, the water is still liquid -- so flavors gradually migrate and textures slowly change. That's why something thawed six days after freezing tastes better than it would if thawed six months later. Pillsbury had to meet a surprising number of technical challenges when it set out in 1980 to tap into the $120-million-a-year toaster pastry market with a frozen strudel that could be cooked in a toaster. Pillsbury found the ordinary toaster no cinch to work with. For the consumer's convenience, the precooked strudel had to go directly from the freezer to the toaster for heating. The solid filling had to be warmed quickly, something toasters aren't designed to do. And if the product is too heavy, the toaster won't pop it up when it's done. After tests on 2,000 different toasters, the Pillsbury scientists decided on a strudel weighing 1.8 ounces. NEXT CAME the complicated task of outfitting a plant to make it. The Toaster Strudel production line at Pillsbury's plant in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is 1 1/2 miles long and includes eight stages of processing that take one hour all together. It makes 2,000 strudels a minute, a volume that allows Pillsbury to get the retail price down to $1.49 for a package of six. ''If you had a strudel that costs three times as much,'' says John Dixon, Pillsbury's vice president of research and development, ''you'd have a nonproduct.'' The result of all this technical fuss and finesse? The strudel, introduced nationally this year, is one of the company's most successful new products and is expected to ring up a total of over $35 million in first-year sales. Adapting products to the microwave oven is an even hotter field of research. At least half of America's 86 million households now have a microwave oven, and the proportion could reach 70% by 1990. Unlike conventional heat, which dehydrates the surface of food and cooks from the outside in, microwave energy cooks from the inside out, releasing moisture and turning the oven into a mini-steambath. As a consequence, many foods developed for the microwave are soggy, like lasagna. People want more texture, especially crispness, but it's ) hard to make food cooked in a microwave go crunch. Such exotica as microwave tempura may well be impossible. Nonetheless, food companies are trying, if not with tempura then with breading for, say, chicken. Clorox Co., the laundry-bleach maker, has patented a coating mixture it says has an ''affinity'' for microwave energy. The mixture, which includes such unlikely sounding ingredients as potassium acetate, potassium chloride, and potassium bicarbonate, gets hotter than the food it coats and turns crisp. Clorox has yet to introduce products using the mixture, and won't say why. Dow Chemical has developed food gums that form a gel barrier between the batter and the food they coat. The gel is designed to keep moisture in, dehydrating the batter. When the food cools, the gel barrier softens and becomes more palatable. Richard Rakowski, president of Princeton Technologies, a food-consulting firm in Glen Rock, New Jersey, thinks most of these products haven't really resolved the crispiness crisis. ''They're ersatz crispy,'' he says. ''They're unquestionably not soft, but they're missing the crunch.'' An exception: Pillsbury's microwave pizza, already on the market, which takes an innovative packaging approach to the problem. Pillsbury adds crunch by prefrying the crust and attaching an ingenious hot plate called a susceptor, made of metalized polyester film, to the bottom of the pizza box. The consumer takes the pizza out of the box and puts it in the oven on top of the inverted box; the film beneath the pizza heats the crust by conventional conduction to a crispy 435 degrees F. Technologists are also working hard on substitutes for ingredients that taste good but can have unhealthy consequences. The sodium in common table salt can contribute to high blood pressure. The most common alternative is bitter- tasting potassium chloride, which comes from a chemical family similar to that of regular salt (sodium chloride). The problem with salt substitutes is that nothing yet discovered tastes like salt except salt. By contrast, people perceive a wider range of substances as sweet, notes Michael O'Mahony, a food scientist at the University of California at Davis; sugar substitutes include saccharin, aspartame, and a mirror-image form of sugar that isn't fattening because digestive enzymes can't break it down (FORTUNE, December 9). RESEARCHERS AT Hiroshima University led by Hideo Okai, a professor of fermentation technology, claim that two naturally occurring amino acids, . ornithine and taurine, have a salty taste when combined. But the scientists haven't tested the compound for safety, and it may lose its savor after a day or so in such slightly acidic solutions as fruit juices. (They declined to provide FORTUNE with a sample.) Many food companies are doing long-term research on a salt substitute -- among them Campbell Soup, which uses lots of salt. A high-quality natural salt substitute, says James R. Kirk, vice president for research and development at Campbell, would be a ''motherhood and apple pie product.'' Another seemingly irresistible product would be a no-fat fat that could be used in substitutes for butter, salad oil, mayonnaise, and cooking oils. It would eliminate weight gain from eating fats and cut consumption of cholesterol, which accumulates as fatty plaque deposits in the circulatory system and causes arteriosclerosis. Procter & Gamble has been working for more than a decade on a fat substitute called sucrose polyester. SPE, as it's known, contains eight fatty acids instead of the three in ordinary fat; that makes SPE too tough for the digestive enzymes to break down, so it appears to pass out of the body without being metabolized. In a paper published this year, researchers at the University of Cincinnati reported that 13 obese patients with high blood cholesterol levels were given SPE in the form of a margarine-like bread spread and a mayonnaise-like salad dressing. They lost weight and lowered their blood cholesterol by 15%, more than twice the amount observed in two other groups that weren't given SPE but also followed low-calorie, low-saturated-fat, low-cholesterol diets. So far the Food and Drug Administration has not approved SPE for general use. Food technologists aren't looking for fat substitutes for health reasons alone. Because most fats begin to melt at room temperature, they must be refrigerated. A chocolate bar, which is 35% fat, turns into goo on a hot summer's day. Gilbert Finkel, a technologist, has developed a way to modify fats so they don't need refrigeration and don't melt even at high temperatures -- yet still liquefy in the mouth. Using this modified fat in chocolate results in candy that keeps its shape up to 400 degrees F, around the point at which sugar caramelizes, instead of 91 degrees, at which ordinary chocolate melts. Finkel, founder of Food Tek Inc., a contract research laboratory in East Hanover, New Jersey, invented the process. It uses two to five additives in different applications, but he doesn't fully understand how it works. He speculates that the structure of his modified fat resembles a honeycomb that keeps its shape at high heat; inside the honeycomb, however, the fat is liquid. In the mouth, chewing and saliva break down the honeycomb. Besides eliminating refrigeration, the additives retard ''bloom,'' the whitening that occurs as chocolate ages and fat migrates to the surface and hardens. Finkel's additives may also be useful in the cosmetics industry for producing nonsmear makeup. Finkel has a patent pending; he doesn't need FDA approval, since the FDA has already cleared the additives he uses. He says several major food companies have expressed interest in licensing the technology. Finkel estimates that the potential market could easily exceed several hundred million dollars. SOLVING ONE PROBLEM can create others. Because aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar, it takes only 1/200 as much to produce the same sensation of sweetness. In diet baked goods it's necessary to replace the lost volume with a bulking agent; polydextrose, a low-calorie agent made by Pfizer from corn sugar and approved by the FDA in 1981, is now showing up in many diet products. Sweet Victory, a New York City company that plans to go national with its reduced-calorie desserts, uses polydextrose in 75 frozen dairy products, popcorn, cakes, and biscuits. Another chore for food technologists -- preserving food by slowing down or stopping the growth of microbes -- has enormous commercial importance. Many processed foods are bland because they are heated past the boiling point to kill dangerous microorganisms. A cold-pasteurization technique would make preserved food taste better. So-called aseptic packaging, employing hydrogen peroxide to disinfect the package and more heat for a substantially shorter time than traditional canning, is now widely used for those fruit drinks in squat paper boxes. Some food technologists advocate irradiating food with low doses of gamma rays to kill microorganisms. Little if any heat is applied to the food, so flavors remain intact, and the process can extend shelf life significantly. So far the FDA has approved only limited use, principally with spices. Because the technique employs radiation, even some supporters of it have called for labeling that indicates irradiation has been used. A similar preservation method, pulsed power, is in the early stages of research. Maxwell Laboratories, a San Diego company that specializes in pulsed-power applications, is experimenting with using electricity at tens of thousands of volts in bursts as brief as millionths of a second to kill bacteria that shorten the shelf life of a wide variety of foods. The company is also investigating ways to use pulsed electromagnetic fields to do the same thing. How to preserve beef without changing its color has long vexed the food industry. Beef and other foods spoil on extended contact with oxygen in the air, which encourages the growth of some microorganisms. When meat is transported in refrigerated trucks, one common technique is to replace some of the air with carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide stops microbial growth but turns the meat gray, so the beef must then be trimmed to make it look appetizing. TransFresh Corp., a Salinas, California, company specializing in controlled-atmosphere transportation of beef, vegetables, and other perishables, has patented a method of adding carbon monoxide to the carbon dioxide. Carbon monoxide doesn't change the color of beef, and TransFresh says that the trace amounts used -- which never exceed 5,000 parts per million -- are harmless. The company has applied for FDA approval, but doesn't have it yet. The beef market is sizable: sales in supermarkets last year were $21.4 billion. Food processors are sure to welcome any innovation that lets them charge more for something they sell already. Glenn Schmidt, a meat scientist at Colorado State University, has found a way to assemble beef pieces so they stay intact at ordinary temperatures, unlike other so-called restructured beef, which won't hold together long unless it's frozen. Schmidt's beef thus can be sold as fresh in the supermarket meat case. Using lactic acid (found in muscle), sodium alginate (from kelp), and calcium carbonate (from limestone) as binders, irregularly shaped pieces of meat -- from the beef shoulder, for example -- that would otherwise be turned into ground beef can be reshaped into a rib-steak-like slab. The result is a more profitable product. All this technical wizardry has its limits, to be sure, as General Foods found to its chagrin. In the mid-1970s the giant food company, now a unit of Philip Morris, introduced Lean Strips when bacon prices were skyhigh -- and so was concern over its fat content. Lean Strips were a technological tour de force, an inexpensive, no-cholesterol bacon substitute made principally from soy protein and natural and artificial flavorings. ''It was tough making vegetable protein act like animal protein,'' recalls Al Clausi, senior vice president for research at General Foods. It was even tougher persuading consumers that it tasted like bacon. General Foods estimates it lost several million dollars on Lean Strips. Pillsbury was similarly burned some years ago by ''space food sticks,'' a high-protein meal originally designed for astronauts. Sales tapered off, says Jay Morgan, a Pillsbury research and development official, because ''the bottom line was it's not real food.'' But in the age of nonsugar sweeteners, nonbutter spreads, and nondairy creamers, what is ''real'' food anyway? |
Go Down, Moses
The New York Times Sunday Magazine put out a special end-of-year edition, "The Lives They Lived," featuring profiles of a couple of dozen significant personages who passed away in 2008, and named 21 others in a one-page list. Among those who merited naming but not a full profile were conservative icons William F. Buckley, Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, and Jesse Helms.
Among those who got the full profile treatment: Turncoat C.I.A. agent Philip Agee, considered a traitor for his 1974 book in which he revealed the names of every C.I.A. officer he could think of. Agee, who died in exile in Havana, was profiled by liberal historian and journalist Rick Perlstein, who went soft on Agee in "Unspooked - The spy who turned his back on the C.I.A."
The saga of Philip Burnett Franklin Agee, who died this year in exile in Havana, was one of the signal melodramas of what pundits called the "Year of Intelligence." Americans were reeling from the resignation of Richard Nixon. The Watergate story was itself thick with C.I.A. shenanigans; then, in December 1974, Seymour Hersh published a blockbuster Times exposé revealing that the agency spied on American antiwar activists. Senate and House committees were impaneled to investigate C.I.A. abuses, including attempts at assassination of foreign leaders. Agee's book became available in the middle of the mess.
The C.I.A., Agee explained to interviewers abroad (he would never return to live in the United States), was "promoting fascism around the world."....In his book, he arrived at a typically New Left solution: the institution must not be reformed, for "reform" is the very myth by which the Leviathan nourishes itself. It must be destroyed. This root-and-branch determination turned what might have been a noble, if controversial, vehicle for intelligence reform into something destructive. Amid its overwhelming welter of details ("It almost takes the stamina and interest of a Soviet spy to get through," Walter Pincus wrote in the Times review), the book included the real names of every C.I.A. officer, agent and asset Agee could recollect. Shortly after its publication, Richard Welch, a C.I.A. officer not named by Agee but whose name was published by a Greek newspaper in the worldwide fad for agent-outing that followed "Inside the Company," was murdered by anti-American militants. The year began with strong momentum for intelligence reform; the C.I.A. took advantage of Welch's martyrdom to defend the status quo.
Contrast that treatment to the pretty hostile remembrance of legendary actor and conservative activist Charlton Heston, from novelist and playwright Anthony Giardina, who was saddened by Heston's gradual shift to the right.
"What does it matter what you say about people?" Marlene Dietrich asks at the end of Orson Welles's "Touch of Evil." Dietrich is standing over the bloated corpse of Welles, eulogizing him as "some kind of a man" who nevertheless, in the movie, suffered a bad decline. But the fact that she's shared the scene with Charlton Heston, whose life had a similar trajectory, gives her words an unintended irony.
Heston was an actor about whom what we say, now and forever, is likely to be determined by the huge, looming bookends of his career. Barely out of his 20s, he put on a beard, dyed his hair gray and descended Mount Sinai carrying the tablets in "The Ten Commandments" (1956). Some 40 years later, Heston carried a different set of tablets for the N.R.A., extolling its members' rights with a passion that edged close to zealotry.
With liberal myopia, Giardina doesn't see Heston's early support for civil rights and his later supportfor Second Amendment rights for citizens as similar embraces of freedom, but instead as a sour turninto bitter conservatism. Employing as ammunitionleft-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's ambush on a mentally ailing Heston is particularly lacking in class:
The look of disgust [Heston] wears in [sports movie] "Number One" seems, finally, directed less at the male sportsman than at a society going haywire.
That look - bitter, hardened, unwelcoming - was the one we began to associate with the later Heston. Only in an unthreatening political atmosphere do certain liberals feel comfortable enough to throw their weight behind social change. In the 1970s, Heston, like others, seemed to seize up against a too-quickly-moving tide. In 1972, he justified his vote for Nixon, his first for a Republican for president, with a critique of the Democratic Party's leftward tilt: "America is not spelled with a K." His acting choices devolved into a series of low-risk disaster movies like "Airport 1975" and "Earthquake." Over time, his concern turned to those rights he saw as endangered. Having once stood up against "the wild-eyed screamers" opposing gun control, he eventually became the wild-eyed screamer in chief. In 2000, as president of the N.R.A., he delivered the peroration: "I'll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands." Two years later, in "Bowling for Columbine," the man who had fought to make films suggesting the limits of masculinity revealed his own limitations; faced with the evidence of mounting gun violence, a visibly weakened Heston clung to a defense of the constitutional rights vouchsafed by the "dead white guys that invented this country." |
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Debugging with Internet Information Server 4.0
Philip Carmichael
Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation
October 10, 1997
Successfully Enabling Debugging
Debugging Tips
Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 now enables you to debug the Global.asa file, .asp files, .cdx files, and ActiveX™ components written in Java. With IIS 3.0, debugging usually meant typing in Response.Write statements, which would send the necessary information to the browser to determine scripting errors. Using the new Microsoft Script Debugger, which ships with IIS 4.0 and Internet Explorer 4.0, it is possible to debug client-side and server-side scripts. This article outlines what you need to know to start using the debugger with Active Server Pages (ASP).
ASP requires an application (a virtual directory marked as an application) to support debugging, which means that you must create an application to enable debugging. Creating an application also has the nice side effect of instructing ASP on where the Global.asa file exists and setting up an entry point for your application.
To create an application, you need to create a new virtual directory in the IIS Management Console:
1. Open the Properties page by right-clicking the Web site icon in the tree view.
2. Select the Create button to create the application and type in the application's path.
Figure 1. Creating a virtual directory in the IIS Management Console
Successfully Enabling Debugging
To maximize performance, debugging is not enabled by default for ASP-based applications. Never enable debugging for an application in production, that is, a site being used by others.
1. To enable debugging, click the Configuration button on the application's Properties page.
2. Under the Application Debugging tab, select the Enable ASP server-side script debugging check box. Note that this is the first check box listed. Do not select the second check box; it is reserved for a future feature.
3. Click OK in both dialog boxes to save your application's settings.
Now that you are set up to debug, here are some useful debugging methods:
1. Request any .asp file from your application, using your browser.
2. From the Start menu, choose Microsoft Script Debugger.
3. When the Script Debugger is started, the Running Documents window should display. If it does not, select Running Documents from the View menu. Active Server Pages should appear as one of the entries in the Running Documents window.
4. Expand the tree under the Active Server Pages entry until you find the .asp file that you requested. When you double-click the file, Microsoft Script Debugger will display the source for the .asp file.
5. To set a breakpoint, click on a line in your source file (either HTML or script), and press F9 on your keyboard (the shortcut keystroke for Toggle Breakpoint). The nearest debuggable line in your .asp file should now display a red background.
6. To have your breakpoint hit, request your .asp file using your browser. The Script Debugger should automatically get focus when the line with the breakpoint is reached. Congratulations! You are now debugging. F8 is the keyboard shortcut that I use most for Step Into, which executes the next executable block in your .asp file.
Figure 2. Microsoft Script Debugger
Sometimes when you set a breakpoint in an HTML file, multiple lines are highlighted by the debugger. This is because these lines are sent to the browser as a single block by ASP, which is done to increase performance. To debug an include file you can use Step Into or you can expand an .asp file node that contains an include and set a breakpoint.
Using Step Into through an .asp file is useful, but you should also know how to display and set values using the Command window. If the Command window is not already displaying in the Script Debugger, select Command window from the View menu. In this window you can do things like display values using script. If your current script language is Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript), you can type "? variablename", or "? object.propertyname". In JScript™, you need only type the variable name or "object.propertyname" and press ENTER. The value is then displayed. To set a value, use an assignment statement such as x = 1 or y = 2. In VBScript, you can also use:
Set myObj = Server.CreateObject("someobject")
In JScript, an object assignment statement is just like any other:
myObj = Server.CreateObject("someobject")
Debugging Tips
The Global.asa file was difficult to debug before, but now you can debug any of the three events: Application_OnStart, Session_OnStart, and Session_OnEnd. I find it easiest to edit the Global.asa file and type a Stop statement (for VBScript) or debugger statement (for JScript) in either the Application_OnStart or Session_OnStart events. By the time the Global.asa and requested .asp file appear in the Running Documents window, they have already been run once, and it is too late to debug the Application_OnStart event because it has already occurred. Also, the Session_OnStart event has already been run for the user's browser. However, setting breakpoints can be convenient for Session_OnEnd because it doesn't execute until later.
Debugging an out-of-process application is just like debugging an in-process application. If you have selected the Run in separate memory space (isolated process) check box, your .asp files and the components they call will be run in a process other than the IIS 4.0 process. To find the application in the Running Documents window, you can expand each entry for Active Server Pages. A more technical approach would be to determine the process ID for the application and find the Active Server Pages entry in the Running Documents window that has the corresponding process ID. Expand the entry by adding the process ID in parentheses, as a suffix.
The Script Debugger is read-only, so you will have to use an editor to make changes to Global.asa, .asp, and .cdx files that you want to modify as a result of debugging.
Using the new Script Debugger can save you a lot of time. Whether a compiler, run-time, or logic error occurs, the debugger can show you exactly what is occurring. The Command window can assist in determining, for example, just what the value of some variable really is. And, most importantly, once you are finished debugging, always remember to turn this feature off. It limits an application to process requests singly, and the application is no longer concurrent.
Peer support is available through the Script Debugger newsgroup on msnews.microsoft.com: microsoft.public.inetsdk.programming.scripting.debugger.
In the next IIS debugging article for the MSDN Library, I will write about how to debug an ActiveX component written in Java. Stay tuned!
Author Philip Carmichael is the IIS team's Program Manager dedicated to ASP features and design, including debugging and the addition of new components.
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If you have an instrument with only a few tones(say 9), so less than to make a whole chromatic octave, what would be a good tuning that would make the instrument able to play an as large as possible variation of 'emotions'
(with emotions I mean different scales that bring different-sounding tunes.For instance mayor is used most to play happy-sounding melodies, Minor for sad-sounding melodies, Minor-Harmonic to play something that sounds a little eastern, etc. However, since there's only a limited amount of tones, I would have to choose one of them. So I guess a combination would be best?)
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Is this a purely theoretical question or you have an instrument in mind? It's hard to answer it, but I'll post my try at it shortly. – lfzawacki Jan 16 '12 at 12:15
I asked this question because of pure curiousity, but I first started thinking about this while trying to re-tune a small Kalimba(wich has 11 tones) of a friend. – Qqwy Jan 16 '12 at 17:23
Voting to close. This question is a purely theoretical musing that's obviously not based on any real problem (by the author's oqn admission). The answers it's invited are pure speculation. – neilfein Jan 16 '12 at 18:17
@neilfein I don't think that "purely theoretical musings" are necessarily off topic. Further, the author did provide a real problem by comment, and it would not have been difficult for others to come up with instruments in which a limited number of notes are available (since, actually, all acoustic instruments fit that category by virtue of having a range, and there are more specific examples such as Orff instruments usually intended for children). – Andrew Jan 16 '12 at 21:30
might be worth checking out the tones on a diatonic (as opposed to chromatic) harmonica – jon_darkstar Feb 13 '12 at 18:22
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4 Answers
up vote 3 down vote accepted
I think you could use a "modal" approach. And by this I mean to focus less on the key you're palying, e.g. A minor, and more on the notes and the mode they imply.
For example, assuming A is your lowest note, if you want the minor (aeolian) feeling you could go for the notes A, C and E present in the Am chord and add B, D and F to develop some melody. But then if you wanted to switch to C (ionian) or D (dorian) you'd soon fall short of notes in the higher register, and some wouldn't be present, like G for the C 5th.
The solution would be to switch to A major instead of to C major and thus imply a new scale made of A, B, C#, D, E which fits the extension of the instrument and can evoke this different feeling. The same could be said for the other modes.
A nice lesson about modes and the method I describe here can be seen here. It's played on guitar but the overall idea and demonstration serves this purpose well.
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I assume that by "tones" you mean pitches, and that you're talking about an instrument that can only produce nine fixed pitches -- like a toy piano or glockenspiel.
The conventional approach is to have notes corresponding to the white notes on a piano; that is the notes of C major, choosing a range such that a whole octave of C major can be played, perhaps with some spare notes on either side.
This makes many conventional Western tunes possible to play, although with only nine notes, you're likely to run out of notes for lots of tunes. When this happens you can either give up, or play the problematic note an octave lower, or substitute some other note.
But with those notes, you are not restricted to the Ionian (major) scale. Play a scale starting on the D, and you're playing a Dorian scale. Start with E, and it's a Phrygian, and so on. Of course, you run out of keyboard earlier, but again you can go to the corresponding note an octave down.
Each of these modes has the "feel" or "emotions" you refer to.
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I did actually encounter this as a real problem. I had a break-in and all of my instruments and gear were stolen. All, except the 'Third Man" zither.
To play my rock songs on a zither, I had to re-tune it to the key of the song. Fortunately, everything recent had been written using an Open-F guitar tuning, so the songs were all in C, C-minor, F, F-minor.
But one tricky song needed to flip from F-minor to F-dorian for a chromatic mediant. I tried devoting a string to it, but it was too confusing to play. So I had to leave the tuning-key hanging on the peg and quickly re-tune after striking the chord.
I'd suggest leaving it in C as a home base. And be prepared to quickly change tunings. 9 notes is not a lot, so you might even start with a pentatonic scale to get more range.
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+1 for the pentatonic suggestion. More range, and surprisingly flexible. – Alex Basson Jan 17 '12 at 13:29
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The pentatonic scale has always been a common scale choice when the number of notes is limited.
• It offers the largest range for the fewest number of pitches
• The scale allows you to play in multiple keys (most importantly, tonic and dominant)
• All the notes of the tonic and dominant chords are present within the scale
Therefore, the pentatonic scale allows you to play both melodies with a wide range and support them harmonically.
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Stream of consciousness
From Narrative
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Stream of consciousness is a method of narrative representation of "random" thoughts which follow in a freely-flowing style.
Primarily associated with the modernist movement, stream of consciousness is a form of interior monologue which claims as its goal the representation of a lead consciousness in a narrative (typically fiction). This representation of consciousness can include perceptions or impressions, thoughts incited by outside sensory stimuli, and fragments of random, disconnected thoughts. Stream of consciousness writing often lacks "correct" punctuation or syntax, favoring a looser, more incomplete style.
The coining of the term has generally been credited to the American psychologist William James, older brother of novelist Henry James. It was used originally by psychologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to describe the personal awareness of one’s mental processes. In The Principles of Psychology, Chapter IX, The Stream of Thought, James provides a phenomenological description of this sense-ation of consciousness: “Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as ‘chain’ or ‘train’ do not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. It is nothing jointed; it flows. A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life” (239) [emphasis in the original]. It is helpful at the outset to distinguish stream of consciousness from free association. Stream of consciousness, from a psychological perspective, describes metaphorically the phenomenon—the continuous and contiguous flow of sensations, impressions, images, memories and thoughts—experienced by each person, at all levels of consciousness, and which is generally associated with each person’s subjectivity, or sense of self. Free association, on the other hand, is a process in which apparently random data collected by a subject allow connections to be made from the unconscious, subconscious and preconscious mind(s) to the conscious mind of that subject. Translated and mapped to the space of narrative literatures, free association can be one textual element used to signify the stream of consciousness.
As a literary term, stream of consciousness appears in the early twentieth century at the intersection of three apparently disparate projects: the developing science of psychology (e.g., investigations of the forms and manifestations of consciousness, as elaborated by Freud, Jung, James, and others), the continuing speculations of western philosophy as to the nature of being (e.g., investigations of consciousness in time by Henri Bergson), and reactionary forces in the arts which were turning away from realism in the late nineteenth century in favor of exploration of a personal, self-conscious subjectivity. The psychological term was appropriated to describe a particular style of novel, or technique of characterization that was prevalent in some fictional works. This technique relied upon the mimetic (re)presentation of the mind of a character and dramatized the full range of the character’s consciousness by direct and apparently unmediated quotation of such mental processes as memories, thoughts, impressions, and sensations. Stream of consciousness, constituting as it did the ground of self-awareness, was consequently extended to describe those narratives and narrative strategies in which the overt presence of the author/narrator was suppressed in favor of presenting the story exclusively through the (un/sub/pre)conscious thought of one or more of the characters in the story. Although examples of stream of consciousness techniques can arguably be found in narratives written during the last several centuries, it is British writers who are generally most often cited as exemplars of the stream of consciousness technique associated with the high modern period of the early twentieth century; they are Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Dorothy Richardson.
Bearing in mind the origin of the term, it is easy to see why some Anglo-American literary critics and theorists have subsumed all textual manifestations of the mental activity of characters in a narrative under the overarching term stream of consciousness. While convenient, this tendency belies the rich range and depth of narrative methods for (re)presenting a character’s consciousness, often best described by the terms originally naming them. Consider, for example, the French term monologue intérieur, rendered obviously enough in English as interior monologue. In this instance, a running monologue—similar to those we all experience inside our own minds but, importantly, cannot experience in the minds of others except in fictional narrative—is textually rendered as the unmediated but articulated, logical thoughts of a fictional character. That this monologue is unmediated, presented to the reader without either authorial or narratorial intervention or the common textual signs associated with narrative speech (e.g., quotation marks or attributive verbs), is crucial to establishing in the reader the sense of access to the consciousness of the character. That it is logical and respects grammatical form and syntax, as opposed to appearing a random collection of disconnected thoughts and images, distinguishes it from another textual rendering of the stream of consciousness, that of sensory impression.
Sensory impression occurs as simple lists of a character’s sensations or impressions, sometimes with ellipses separating the elements or lists. These unconscious or preconscious sensory impressions (re)present the inarticulable thoughts, the image-inations of a character not experienced as words. To prevent free associations stemming from such sensory impressions running away with and destroying the flow and integrity of the narrative, a story must somehow be anchored within the stream of consciousness. One method is a recurring motif or theme. The motif appears on the surface of a character’s thoughts, then disappears among the flow of memories, sensations and impressions it initiates only to resurface some time later, perhaps in a different form, to pull the story back up into the consciousness of both the character and the reader. Consider, in particular, the example of Virginia’s Woolf’s short story “The Mark on the Wall.” The story begins as a meditation—which could easily be read as a spoken monologue—on a series of recollected events but quickly turns, through the motif of a mark seen by the narrator over a mantle piece on the wall, to a near random stream of loosely connected memories and impressions. As the story progresses, the mark and speculations as to its nature and origin appear and disappear as a thread running in and out of and binding the loose folds of the narrator’s recollections. The narrator’s stream of consciousness ranges widely over time and space whereas the narrator quite clearly remains bound to a particular place and time, anchored—seemingly—by the mark on the wall.
While not generally considered a textual manifestation of stream of consciousness in the conventional sense—in part because associated with third person rather than first person narration—another method of (re)presenting the consciousness of characters is free indirect discourse (in French, style indirect libre) or reported or experienced speech (from the German term, erlebte Rede). Consider the following, from the ending paragraphs of Joyce’s short story “The Dead”: “He wondered at his riot of emotions an hour before. From what had it proceeded? From his aunt’s supper, from his own foolish speech, from the wine and dancing, the merry-making when saying good-night in the hall, the pleasure of the walk along the river in the snow. Poor Aunt Julia! She, too, would soon be a shade with the shade of Patrick Morkan and his horse” (222). The first sentence is clearly the narrator telling what the character, Gabriel, is thinking; but with the second sentence a transition in the form of a series of sensory impressions moves the reader to Gabriel’s own conscious thoughts. In the end, it is not the narrator who thinks, “Poor Aunt Julia!”
-Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
Critical Debates
Gerald Prince contests the term's frequent association with "interior monologue in his Dictionary of Narratology, writing:
"Though interior monologue and stream of consciousness have often been considered interchangeable, they have also frequently been contrasted: the former would present a character's thoughts rather than impressions or perceptions, while the latter would present both impressions and thoughts; or else, the former would respect morphology and syntax, whereas the latter would not...and would thus capture throught in its nascent stage, prior to any logical connection" (94).
Related Terms
Prince, Gerald. Dictionary of Narratology. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
Cohn, Dorrit. Transparent Minds: Narrative Modes for Presenting Consciousness in Fiction. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.
Bowling, Lawrence Edward. “What is the Stream of Consciousness Technique?” PMLA. 65.4 (1950): 333-345.
Friedman, Melvin. Stream of Consciousness: a Study in Literary Method. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955.
Humphrey, Robert. Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1954.
James, William. The Principles of Psychology. 1890. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1950.
Joyce, James. Dubliners. 1916. New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1967.
Woolf, Virginia. The Complete Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf. 2nd Ed. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 1989.
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Some might say Taco Bell can't catch a break – much less a rodent. Just months after an e-coli outbreak sickened 71 people in four Eastern states last fall, rats videotaped at a New York City Taco Bell unit sent the company scurrying for damage control."We are absolutely committed to our customers and have worked with ADF [a franchisee of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut] to close their uninspected restaurants in New York until they are fully inspected by the health department and given ...
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Forum Post: OWS Forum Participants Fighting Each Other....
Posted 2 years ago on Jan. 1, 2012, 6:35 p.m. EST by hchc (3297) from Tampa, FL
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
It's official proof from this site- the people cannot govern themselves. Just look at how they interact.
This is why I say its a two pronged fight for OWS- One against the .01%, the other against the stupidity of the 99%.
The a pretty tough mission.
Read the Rules
The internet is a much more stressful media than meeting face to face. In face to face meetings people naturally tend to be more civil.
Like Poltergeist, they're back. They're back with a new methodology: piggy-backing on a post.
[-] 0 points by LongDaysnight (354) 2 years ago
Don't get mad at trolls that is what they want, just talk to them rationally and work with others to stop spamming. The tools are provided to MOD on our own through like and dislike, work with others to keep yours and there thread from being attacked by spam.
[-] 0 points by GreedKilIs (29) 2 years ago
I think it is very obvious who the antagonists are.
the GirIFriday that stole the real GirlFriday's prior user accont
The GreedKills that stole my prior user account
and there are several other equally egregious sluggards that need to be put in a flash freezer
This made me laugh. A sad laugh. Seeing the replies - ugh. Yuk . This is ridiculous.
I believe you're right. Rules are good. Rules need to be enforced. I don't think we should blame people in general. Most people follow the rules. It's just a few that ruin it for everyone else. Which is why rule enforcement is necessary. Hmmm. Reminds me of some larger issues in recent times.
I don't think we're such a hopeless bunch. We just need to work together, help and support eachother.
There's just a few bad apples. We need to stick it out together. The worst thing that could happen is to lose more good supporters or potential supporters of the movement because of a few bad apples. We need to work to make sure the few rules that there are - are enforced properly.
The anarchists need to go.
Anarchists started this movement. The movement is based on anarchist principles. I think the movement is getting a little more moderate in it's tone. But the form of the movement is still anarchistic. So the results have little chance of being anything other than anarchy.
I think this is part of the reason for the lack of moderation of the forum. It's been left to a kind of anything goes attitude, that is indicative of the entire movement. Anarchists aren't really big on rules and authority. Or even enforcing their own evidently.
Tell your "friends" to stop bumping my posts with deleted messages. This site is DONE. Seen enough around here to know, mods are either infiltrators, or clueless anarchist/Libertarians. ASK me how I know.
I already understand that the mods probably are anarchists. The programmer for this site is a self professed anarchist.
I don't know the mods here or whether they are anarchists. I'm just guessing yes. How do you know?
I'm sure Thrasymaque will leave your legit posts alone if you stop attacking him. He really is trying to help. Give him a chance. At this point, there really is no downside to let Thras and NEP try to help. The forum has been a horrible mess. You PM'd me a while back. I know you care about this place and this movement and about other people. You were so sweet to message me. Please just give them a chance.
OH YES INDEED Trashy is trying to help! He's trying to HELP DESTROY OWS. He has been ANTI-OWS from the get-go and he's told us time and again that he is a government mole, a psyops ("psychological operations") specialist.
But lately, he's decided to change his act and pose as an OWS sympathizer and the Saviour of this Forum... LMAO Heaven save us from such Saviours! That's what psyops DO: they try to create havoc, confusion and chaos...
Yes, of course he's trying to help. In what way do you feel has has been anti-OWS?
If he has ever said he's a government mole or psyops he was being sarcastic because it makes no sense. If there was a government mole or psyops here, you wouldn't know it. It would probably be someone very stealthy. Maybe a female, sometimes seen as weak and inferior by many, looking very sweet and innocent, not drawing attention to themselves. Like me perhaps. : )
The fact is, this movement is a tiny little fraction of people. Hopelessly and completely disorganized. Hardly a big concern for the government at large in the grand scheme of things. This movement cannot get its act together to maintain its own forum. It's turned into a complete disaster. If this movement cannot even do that much, it's hardly anything major for the government to worry about.
This movement by its very nature is what is causing havoc, confusion and chaos. That is the goal of OWS and the anarchists running this movement. The results of anarchy is anarchy.
DON'T WASTE your valuable time arguing with TROLLS such as hchc, simply serve them "The American's Creed", as it drives them batty because they are Un-American TRAITORS opposed to OWS' efforts to uphold the Constitution and restore the rule of Law.
(The American's Creed is the national creed of the United States of America. It was written in 1917 by William Tyler Page as an entry into a patriotic contest. It was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives April 3, 1918.)
Wow, Im not sure what I did to piss you off, but I have nothing against what you just posted.
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PUEBLO, Colo.—In his six years in Congress, Democrat John Salazar has delivered on some key local priorities for his sprawling rural district.
Often working with Republicans, he blocked the Army from expanding a maneuver site across ranchland, pushed for a veteran's cemetery to be built, and secured federal funding for a water pipeline that had been stuck in the planning stage for 40 years. Even the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party said Mr. Salazar was well-liked and respected in the district.
Scott Tipton, the Republican candidate hoping to unseat Democratic Rep. John Salazar in Colorado's 3rd District, speaks at a rally in Pueblo. Chris Schneider for The Wall Street Journal
But in this autumn of discontent, where incumbents are taking heavy fire and Democrats are struggling to reconnect with an angry electorate, Mr. Salazar is fighting for his political life.
Mr. Salazar, a potato farmer by trade, is locked in a battle with Republican Scott Tipton, a state legislator who owns a pottery business. Four years ago, Mr. Salazar crushed Mr. Tipton, winning by 25 percentage points. The rematch, however, is a nail-biter.
A recent poll commissioned by the National Republican Congressional Committee—but also cited by Mr. Salazar's campaign—found the race tied at 45% each, prompting the Republican group to announce Wednesday that it was committing $700,000 to the race. An outside group that doesn't disclose its donors, Americans for Job Security, recently bought nearly $500,000 of ads attacking Mr. Salazar.
Republicans see the district, which stretches across Western Colorado, as fertile ground. Its voters backed the Republican presidential nominee in the last three contests and the Republican Party has gained more than 6,000 registered voters just since February, while Democrats have lost 700. Voter registration now stands at roughly 38% Republican, 33% Democrat and 29% unaffiliated.
Wearing blue jeans, a checked shirt and ostrich-skin cowboy boots, Mr. Tipton made a point of telling voters at a recent campaign stop here of his deep local roots. Then he pivoted to his campaign's central theme: tying Mr. Salazar to the unpopular Democratic leadership in Washington, D.C. Mr. Tipton repeatedly points out that Mr. Salazar has voted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about 97% of the time.
Mr. Salazar emphasizes that he broke with his party on several key issues, opposing the cap-and-trade energy bill and the bank bailout and calling for a year-long extension of the Bush tax cuts for all income groups. He has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association and rated a centrist by the National Journal.
"I've never voted with Nancy Pelosi," Mr. Salazar says, adding that "every vote I've taken" has been with and for his constituents.
John Salazar, left, beat Scott Tipton by 25 points in 2006. Associated Press
But the constituents who skipped a crucial high-school football game in Pueblo to talk with Mr. Tipton at a recent town-hall meeting weren't buying it. They were angry at what they see as runaway federal spending; at the health-care overhaul, which Mr. Salazar supported; and at a sagging economy.
"I can't vote for Mr. Salazar. He's spending too much money," said Yvonne Lopez, who described herself as a lifelong Democrat and retired union member. "I'm so sick of the way things are going right now," said Rick LaLonde, a case manager at a private prison.
Mr. Tipton echoed that anger. "The government has overtaxed, overreached, overregulated and we're paying the price," he said.
For his part, Mr. Salazar, an older brother of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, has tried to paint Mr. Tipton as an extremist. He points out that earlier in the campaign, Mr. Tipton called for cutting government by 50%. Mr. Tipton now says he supports a 10% cut in all non-military discretionary spending. A spokesman called that "the first step" to fiscal responsibility but wouldn't say whether a 50% cut remains the goal."It's tough out there," Mr. Salazar said. "The way things are going, I could walk on water and be criticized for not swimming."
The two candidates have also clashed in increasingly nasty TV ads.
In one, Mr. Salazar calls his rival a "multi-millionaire banker" and implies he profited from the bank bailout. Mr. Tipton did sit on the board of a financial institution several years ago—as did Mr. Salazar—but didn't have direct involvement with the bailout. As for the label "multi-millionaire," Mr. Tipton acknowledges his small business has been successful. "We've done OK," he says. "I hope that's not a sin in America."
Mr. Salazar, meanwhile, has come under fire in $490,000 worth of ads purchased by an outside group, Americans for Job Security, which does not disclose its donors. The spot depicts a burglar pilfering a home, then likens Mr. Salazar and Ms. Pelosi to thieves.
Write to Stephanie Simon at stephanie.simon@wsj.com |
WASHINGTON—The federal government's foreclosure-prevention effort continued to sputter, as the number of homeowners leaving the program exceeded those who received new loan modifications for the second straight month.
More than 91,000 homeowners cancelled their government loan modifications in June, while just 38,728 received new modifications, according to data released Tuesday.
Almost 530,000 of the nearly 1.3 million government modifications have been cancelled since the program began last March. Dropouts climbed as homeowners missed payments on their modified loans or failed to turn in required paperwork.
Nearly half of the homeowners who cancelled their trial modifications have found mortgage relief outside the program, the administration said, while less than 2% of cancellations have resulted in foreclosure.
The Obama administration said the effort would help up to 4 million people hold onto their homes. But critics say the program isn't on track to meeting its goals as foreclosures continue to mount.
Under the program, homeowners who qualify can have their mortgage payments cut to 31% of their monthly income by extending their loan term to 40 years or slashing their interest rate to as low as 2% for five years. Participants must make three monthly payments during a trial period before they receive a permanent modification.
Write to Jessica Holzer at jessica.holzer@dowjones.com |
When the Associated Press releases its 2009 preseason college football poll this weekend, it's all but guaranteed that Florida will be ranked No. 1—and that the Gators will collect a fat majority of the first-place votes. Florida already received 90% of first-place votes in the recent coaches' poll.
Florida quarterback Tim Tebow Associated Press
It's no mystery why. The Gators are the defending BCS national champions and their quarterback, Tim Tebow, and their entire starting defense is coming back. Rarely has a defending champion enjoyed such riches.
But there's some evidence that Florida's fans should think twice before ordering their commemorative "Repeat Champions!" T-shirts.
Bad Omen for the Gators
Here are the 10 teams that received the highest percentages of first-place votes in the preseason AP football poll since 1968—and how they finished the season.
1. USC, 2007 (95.4%)
11-2 (3rd) 6. Florida State, 1991 (81.7%) 11-2 (4th)
2. USC, 2005 (92.3%) 12-1 (2nd) 7. Ohio State, 1969 (78.8%) 8-1 (4th)
3. Oklahoma, 1987 (91.7%)
11-1 (3rd) 8. Nebraska , 1996 (74.6%) 11-2 (6th)
4. Oklahoma, 1975 (90%)
11-1 (1st) 9. USC, 1979 (74.6%) 11-0-1 (2nd)
5. USC, 1973 (87.3%)
9-2-1 (8th) 10. Oklahoma, 1986 (74.6%) 11-1 (3rd)
Since 1968, 10 teams have received at least 75% of the first-place votes in the preseason AP poll. Like Florida, seven of them were defending national champions.
But only one of those teams, Oklahoma in 1975, actually won the national championship. None of these teams went undefeated—in fact, their average finish in the final polls was a mediocre 3.6.
Two years ago, USC received 95.4% of the preseason No. 1 votes but saw its championship hopes derailed by a shocking regular-season loss to 41-point underdog Stanford.
The Gators do have one thing going for them. In today's college football landscape, where the national champion has lost at least one game in each of the past three seasons and where the BCS computers emphasize strength of schedule, it is highly likely that a one-loss Florida team would still find its way to the BCS title game.
Whether they'll manage to win is an open question.
— Bill Connelly |
• cell adhesion;
• fibrin sealants;
• fibrin structure;
• fibrin(ogen);
• wound healing
Summary Fibrinogen and fibrin play an important role in blood clotting, fibrinolysis, cellular and matrix interactions, inflammation, wound healing, angiogenesis, and neoplasia. The contribution of fibrin(ogen) to these processes largely depends not only on the characteristics of the fibrin(ogen) itself, but also on interactions between specific-binding sites on fibrin(ogen), pro-enzymes, clotting factors, enzyme inhibitors, and cell receptors. In this review, the molecular and cellular biology of fibrin(ogen) is reviewed in the context of cutaneous wound repair. The outcome of wound healing depends largely on the fibrin structure, such as the thickness of the fibers, the number of branch points, the porosity, and the permeability. The binding of fibrin(ogen) to hemostasis proteins and platelets as well as to several different cells such as endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, leukocytes, and keratinocytes is indispensable during the process of wound repair. High-molecular-weight and low-molecular-weight fibrinogen, two naturally occurring variants of fibrin, are important determinants of angiogenesis and differ in their cell growth stimulation, clotting rate, and fibrin polymerization characteristics. Fibrin sealants have been investigated as matrices to promote wound healing. These sealants may also be an ideal delivery vehicle to deliver extra cells for the treatment of chronic wounds. |
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I've recently been introduced to the basics of finite-dimensional quantum mechanics from a purely mathematical point of view (with a quantum-information theme to it). When discussing quantum teleportation, the professor made a remark about how the fact that the probability of each Bell state measurement outcome is 1/4 independently of the measured state is fundamental for the protocol to work.
However, I fail to see what the mathematical reason for this is. Is there an easy explanation for this fact?
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When the probability is the same for all teleported states, the Bell state measurement does not give us any information about the teleported state. That is an important feature of the quantum teleportation protocols. If we got some partial information about the state, the teleportation fidelity would be lower than in the case of no information being revealed.
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Certainly it is not allowed for the measurement to gain information about the state. However, this by itself doesn't necessarily require equally likely measurement outcomes. – Dan Stahlke Nov 5 '12 at 13:25
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10 Questions for Terri Clark
by: COURTESY OF Margaret Malandruccolo,
Canadian country music artist Terri Clark performs Oct. 19 at the Wonder Ballroom.
Most country music fans know Terri Clark as the sassy, cowboy hat-wearin' starlet with hits such as 'Girls Lie Too,' 'Poor Poor Pitiful Me' and 'You're Easy on the Eyes.'
On her current tour, which stops in Portland at the Wonder Ballroom Oct. 19, fans will see a softer side of the Canadian-born Clark.
Her mother, Linda, fought cancer for three years and recently passed away, in April. It influenced her latest album, 'The Long Way Home.'
The Tribune caught up with Clark, 42 and the maker of six No. 1 hits with five million albums sold, for some questions and answers on a variety of topics:
Tribune: Thoughts on the passing of your mother?
Clark: She was gracious, a fighter. With cancer, the whole family has to fight it. It's a grueling struggle for everybody. You can't help but grow through that experience. She was only 60 years old. A tremendous loss for me.
Tribune: You've toured extensively. Thoughts on Portland?
Clark: I've been through Oregon quite a bit in my travels, played a lot of fairs. It's one of my favorite states, one of everybody's favorite states. It's gorgeous scenery, such a beautiful state. I visited Crater Lake a couple years ago, and that was gorgeous.
Tribune: You've been across Canada and the U.S. on tours - does it get tiring?
Clark: Yes, at this point it has gotten a little tiring. I used to tour nonstop, all year round, but the past three or four years I've settled down a little bit.
Tribune: The 'Unplugged and Alone Tour' is all acoustic stuff - why?
Clark: We started off testing it out last February, and tried about eight of these shows. Everybody was so excited about it. They went so well and sold out, so we extended it. It's kind of how I first started out. My first job in Nashville I didn't have a band, it was mostly solo.
Tribune: The Wonder Ballroom is a small venue …
Clark: I like the intimacy of a smaller venue. With acoustic, you can't get more intimate. It's casual. … It's more rare for a woman doing it. You have to put your best foot forward.
Tribune: Which of your songs are your favorites?
Clark: I really like the songs that deliver a message - 'No Fear,' 'I Just Wanna Be Mad,' 'If You Want Fire,' 'Gypsy Boots,' 'A Million Ways to Run.'
Tribune: Like MTV, CMT doesn't show many actual music videos anymore. Does that bother you?
Clark: Not a lot. It's a little bothersome, but I'm not bitter about it. Anybody can watch my videos on YouTube. The Internet has helped out musicians.
Tribune: You're known for your songs, obviously, but your cowboy hat - what inspired the look?
Clark: When I got a record deal (Mercury Records, 1995), I decided that I looked good in a cowboy hat. I thought it was an interesting concept. I had worked in a western store. All the male acts of the late 1980s and early '90s wore them. I've taken mine off here lately - I'm more revealing with my music.
Tribune: You were born in Montreal, Quebec, lived in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and have family in Ontario, and you've been named Canadian Country Music Association Fan's Choice Entertainer of the Year eight times - is Canada still home?
Clark: Yes, but I'll always have a place in Nashville. I'm a member of the Grand Ole Opry. I have friends there.
Tribune: What does the future hold?
Clark: I'm going to continue touring, making records, writing songs, making a difference musically as long as I can. |
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I've read on resetting one's biological clock and clearing my mind before bedtime (and I do most of the things there, using F.lux, being physically active mostly every day), taking melatonin (0.5-1mg), BUT...
I still don't want to go to bed at 2am, when I should. I feel I still have energy, and indeed get work done, and end up going to bed at 5am. Sleep is not interesting to me. Btu then I wake up at 11, can't fall asleep again (or if I do, it's after 90 minutes - a sleep cycle - then I sleep another 90 minutes and it's 2pm), so I only get 6 hours of sleep. Bad.
I don't drink caffeine or eat chocolate or sugar, and I follow largely a slow-carb diet. I've been tracking my sleep for more than two years, and I've never woken up refreshed, ready to jump out of bed; just "ok". I use earplugs and an eye mask, and my bedroom is pretty dark (though not pitch dark) and cool.
The problem seems to be one of discipline, less so of sleep hygiene. How do I just put myself to sleep at 2am, and get 8 hours of sleep and be productive (and in sync with the rest of the world in my time zone), when there's so much interesting stuff I could be doing after 2am, and while I probably have a non-24-hour sleep/wake pattern ?
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I never felt any effect from melatonin until I've used 10 mg. – alex Dec 21 '13 at 20:31
If this habit is not interfering with your productivity, personal or professional life, then what is the problem? – user221287 Dec 25 '13 at 17:12
My personal preference would be to just go to sleep when I can't stay awake any longer. But this ultimately means that I continually stay up later until I am actually going to sleep in the morning. And since I am not Howard Hughes living in my bedroom in a Vegas casino, I have to adapt my sleep to the world. But surprisingly, I read that most people would do this as well if, for example on a submarine without clocks. They would stay up more than 24 hours. Anyway, I think I have melatonin does have an affect on me with regard to sleeping. The other suggestion is to read a technical book. – Scooter Jan 12 at 23:39
@alex excessive and/or overuse of melatonin can have adverse effects of its own, it is not recommended for long term use or large doses. – user6505 Feb 2 at 17:11
@user6505 Just eat some sweet cherries, pineapple, bananas and oranges and you'll have more. – alex Feb 2 at 18:15
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If you, like me, dont like to waste you time with sleep, I think you should try Polyphasic sleep.
Steve Pavlina has an interesting blog series about his exprerince on the matter. He did it successfully and was so happy with the results.
Hope it helps.
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You have nailed it, discipline is not replaceable. Go to sleep before midnight. I am not sure how you got the idea that 2AM is the sleep onset time for you - it is just about time when most people's cortisol levels are starting to climb slowly, which means - the body is starting to get ready for the next day. Best go to sleep around 10 PM or other time before midnight. The fact is that the interesting stuff will still be there tomorrow and you will be better able to deal with it if you take good care of yourself. Don't watch anything with a flickering screen (not even a plasma TV or a computer monitor) when you are trying to go to bed. With your day's activities see that you get yourself tired during the day. If you cannot fall asleep, then read. The cognitive activity of reading is pretty intense on the brain, definitely more challenging than any flickering screen activities. Maybe do not read detective stories, if you find yourself excited and glued to the pages for long. Do read something which is still of value and interest to you, but is somewhat more challenging - a book on accounting or evolutionary psychology or whatever is educational and valuable enough for you. Once you change this habit that you have you will be able to go to sleep with whatever book. Of course, you will need to move your wake-up time correspondingly.
With respect to sleep hygiene that you mention - most people do a few things from it, but it is better and may be necessary to do all of them, if you are struggling with sleep. You could see for yourself - here are 2 good PDF files for you:
Both these are research based, but they are not research papers.
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Your case might be special - it's possible that you're one of the lucky few who can sleep very little without suffering from cognitive or emotional issues.
That aside, it seems that the difficulty you have in going to sleep at a regular time is related to an impulsive desire to stay up and get stuff done. A few things that would help counteract this impulsiveness:
1. Make going to bed a routine - set an alarm for when you need to start doing your nightly routine and keep sticking to it so it becomes a habit
2. Develop mindfulness skills to deal with your impulsive thoughts. You could do mindfulness/insight meditation as part of your nightly routine and kill two birds with one stone (gain the benefit of improving mindfulness while also clearing your mind to make that night's sleep easier).
I got most of these ideas from this chart based on "The Procrastination Equation". If my suggestions aren't helpful enough, take a look at the chart and try to apply some other techniques it suggests to this situation.
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In my personal case, go to bed at fixed time point everyday does not work for me at all. So I have developed another strategy that I thought worth sharing:
Instead of going to bed at fixed point (e.g 2am), I would wake up at fixed time point (e.g 6 am). By doing that I can easily adjust to my situation everyday. For example sometimes I had a really busy day and I am really tired, I would just go to sleep earlier that day (it's quite natural since I wake up at 6am everyday and I would instantly fall asleep). If I am not tired at all that day, I would just stay up late that night and have several hours less sleep (but I do get up at 6am the next day).
The important thing is that you have to stick to the plan long enough to set your bio-clock waking you up 6 am everyday morning. For the first week I adapted this, it is really painful. But I just forced myself to get out the bed immediately at 6am no matter how tired I was.
I have read about similar strategy in productivity Stackexchange somewhere but I can't find it anymore. Maybe someone who has read about it can link it.
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A better approach might be, rather than making yourself go to bed when you're not feeling tired, making yourself get out of bed, regardless of how refreshed or tired you feel.
This might be difficult at first, but shortly, your body will know to feel tired at the right time at night, and will do so.
However, this doesn't the address the 'winding down before I go to bed' issue - that is - you can't just go to bed as soon as you feel tired, you should be winding down before that.
For this, I suggest keeping at eye on the clock. You know that you're going to feeling tired at around 10:30, so at 9:30-10:00 start brushing your teeth, get your things ready for the morning, and hop in bed to read.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I'll preface this with I don't know if anyone else who's been programming as long as I have actually has this problem, but at the very least, the answer might help someone with less xp.
I just stared at this code for 5 minutes, thinking I was losing my mind that it didn't work:
var usedNames = new HashSet<string>();
Func<string, string> l = (s) =>
for (int i = 0; ; i++)
var next = (s + i).TrimEnd('0');
if (!usedNames.Contains(next))
return next;
Finally I noticed I forgot to add the used name to the hash set.
Similarly, I've spent minutes upon minutes over omitting context.SaveChanges().
I think I get so distracted by the details that I'm thinking about that some really small details become invisible to me - it's almost at the level of mental block.
Are there tactics to prevent this?
update: a side effect of asking this was fixing the error it would have for i > 9 (Thanks!)
var usedNames = new HashSet<string>();
Func<string, string> name = (s) =>
string result = s;
for (int i = 1; ; result = s + i++)
if (!usedNames.Contains(result))
return result;
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Why are you calling .TrimEnd('0')? What happens when you get up to 10? – SLaks Oct 31 '11 at 17:28
Kind of like asking: Is a way to prevent me from doing subtraction when I meant to do addition? – mikerobi Oct 31 '11 at 17:28
I find explaining the algorithm to someone else, will quickly make me realise where I've gone wrong. – Ray Oct 31 '11 at 17:31
@Slaks - good point - its so the first iteration doesn't doesn't append a number - it won't make it to 10 :) – Aaron Anodide Oct 31 '11 at 17:31
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4 Answers
up vote 6 down vote accepted
A unit test likely would've / should've caught this omission.
Assert.AreEqual("NEXT", obj.GetNextName("NEXT"));
Assert.AreEqual("NEXT1", obj.GetNextName("NEXT"));
It would also catch the likely bug you'll have when i = 10.
Assert.AreEqual("NEXT9", obj.GetNextName("NEXT"));
/* your TrimEnd call could be a bug */
Assert.AreEqual("NEXT10", obj.GetNextName("NEXT"));
Test-driven development is proactive by its definition. In your example, you would immediately see that it wasn't working as designed and you would get feedback as to what it was returning.
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You could ask someone else to look over your code.
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Experience is the best defense here.
Over time, you should become more adept at spotting these omissions from the observed behavior.
(You should also become more adept at not making them in the first place)
Stepping through the code line-by-line in the debugger should also highlight what's missing.
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I personally find it helpful to describe my methods in comments before writing the implementation code. That way, if I forget something, or if someone else picks it up in two weeks time, they will know what was 'supposed' to happen and should be able to implement it themselves without needing to some and ask me!
MyMethod() {
//setup vars
//perform complex function
//set flag for something or other
//save changes
It won't prevent the 'I've made an error in the algorithm' type issues, unless you really go low level with the commenting, but it should prevent the 'forgotten to save changes' type errors.
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its funny, i stopped doing that when i got wind that hip developers don't comment every line - but it's probably something that would help me to go back to – Aaron Anodide Oct 31 '11 at 17:49
There is a fine line between commenting things for the sake of it and adding useful annotation, but I try to think of it like a comment interface, if you will! That way when I satisfy my comment contracts I may remove them, but sometime they are useful for others to see what was going through my mind at the time! – dougajmcdonald Oct 31 '11 at 18:12
@Gabriel Also, nothing personal as I'm aware you're not making this statement. But from a personal perspective I resent the arrogance of certain developers who make comments like 'A good developer should just 'understand the code'' and the such like, in my opinion, anything which makes code easier to understand when you come back to it in say 2 years time, is worth adding in. It should save time/money in the long run. This is especially true in team environments when experience levels in certain areas may vary vastly. – dougajmcdonald Oct 31 '11 at 18:15
You picked up on the undercurrent of my comment - I jokingly think to myself that "EDD", ego driven development, will be the next big thing :) – Aaron Anodide Oct 31 '11 at 18:23
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
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"Java object creation is the most expensive operation you could perform". Mind sharing the source of that claim? – Songo May 22 '12 at 9:23
And - most expensive operation as compared to what? Compared to calculating pi to 900 digits or compared to incrementing an int? – jasonk May 22 '12 at 9:55
Most expensive (primitive) operation is actually creating a very large array... – Mehrdad May 23 '12 at 6:20
This is one of the most funny things I've ever heard about programming .) – Mert May 24 '12 at 8:58
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11 Answers
up vote 210 down vote accepted
Your colleague has no idea what they are talking about. Your most expensive operation would be listening to them, they wasted your time mis-directing you to information at least a decade out of date as well as you having to spend time posting here and researching the Internet for the truth.
Hopefully they are just ignorantly regurgitating something they heard or read from a decade ago and don't know any better. I would take anything else they say as suspect as well, this should be a well known fallacy by anyone that keeps up to date either way.
Current GC algorithms are actually optimized for creating many many small objects that are short lived, that is basically the 99% heuristic for Java objects in every program. Object Pooling will actually make the JVM preform worse in most cases. The only Objects that need pooling today are Objects that refer to finite resources that are external to the JVM; Sockets, Files, Database Connections, etc.
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+1: "Your most expensive operation would be listening to them ...". Best I've heard for some time. – Cwan May 22 '12 at 8:16
@DeadMG, even with the cumulative GC overhead, Java can be faster than C++ (e.g., due to the heap compaction, minimising cache misses for certain data structures). – SK-logic May 22 '12 at 8:43
@DeadMG, what are you talking about? There are no extra indirections. And no, you cannot match the proper GC performance with the custom allocators, pools and all that. Please do not come back to this topic unless you're able to prove that you can infer a region-based memory management scheme for any possible program in, say, simple lambda calculus. You cannot compactify manually a custom binary tree coming from runtime-dependant data. – SK-logic May 22 '12 at 8:52
@Matsemann that is exactly the false information that the OP is referring to. It hasn't been accurate for a decade. Object polling is relevant for resources external to the JVM and that are finite, like DB Connections/Network Sockets. All that old mumbo jumbo about Object pooling in any other context is voodoo now. – Jarrod Roberson May 22 '12 at 18:06
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+1 Even though the garbage collector "just works", every Java programmer should learn about the generational garbage collector. – benzado May 22 '12 at 13:16
An the next step for escape analysis is to "allocate" memory for small object purely in registers (for example a Point object could fit in 2 general purpose registers). – Joachim Sauer May 23 '12 at 5:34
@Joachim Sauer: That's kind of what is done in the newer implementations of the HotSpot VM. It's called scalar replacement. – someguy May 24 '12 at 15:02
@someguy: I've read about it some time ago as the next thing, but didn't follow up to check if it's already done. It's excellent news to hear that we already have this. – Joachim Sauer May 24 '12 at 19:31
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Wow! 20+ MB to process 50 rows of data? Sounds crazy. In any case, are those objects long-lived? Because that's the case that would matter for GC. If on the other hand you're merely discussing memory requirements, that's unrelated to garbage collection or object creation efficiency... – Andres F. May 22 '12 at 23:52
Objects are short-lived (less than 0.5sec in the general case). That volume of garbage still affects performance. – jasonk May 23 '12 at 23:17
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Its worth noting that escape analysis will allow short lived (bounded life) objects to be stored on the stack, these objects can be deallocated for free ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp09275/index.html – Richard Tingle Jun 27 '13 at 10:36
@Richard: great point - escape analysis provides some very good optimisations. You have to be careful about relying on it though: it isn't guaranteed to happen in all Java implementations and in all circumstances. So you often need to benchmark to be sure. – mikera Jun 27 '13 at 11:43
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Most modern JVM's support better garbage collection algorithms than "stop the world". The amortized time spent in garbage collection is frequently less than what is spent explicitly calling malloc/free. Also does C++ memory management run in a separate thread? – user1249 May 22 '12 at 6:59
I don't think any of the standard garbage collectors shipped with the JVM support pauseless GC yet - the pause is shorter but not gone. Some are working on pauseless GC: infoq.com/news/2010/09/bigmemory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azul_Systems Also here's a StackOverlow thread that mentions the deallocation method I referred to: stackoverflow.com/questions/390102/… – greg May 22 '12 at 12:05
Depends on which JVM you use. We use a non-x86 IBM JVM for production, which can do pauseless gc. – user1249 May 22 '12 at 12:07
The newer Java versions from Oracle can do escape analysis, which means that objects that don't escape a method are allocated on the stack, which makes cleaning them up free - they are automatically deallocated when the method returns. – Jesper May 22 '12 at 14:37
@Mehrdad - it runs in parallel without pausing the JVM. It does - however - stop the world if the gc cannot keep up (a gc is requested before the previous gc has finished). This usually happens only when swapping badly. – user1249 May 23 '12 at 7:48
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Other than that, the above answers hold true.
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Read the question again. It does not specify JVM anywhere including the tags. It only mentions Java. – Peter Kelly May 22 '12 at 15:08
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the GC is tuned for many short lived object
that said if you can trivially reduce object allocation you should
String str = "";
str+= appendingString;
you can easily rewrite this into:
StringBuilder strB = new StringBuilder();
String str = strB.toString();
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the biggest advantage in this StringBuilder approach is the pre-size the StringBuilder so that it never has to reallocate the underlying array with the StringBuilder(int) constructor. This makes it a single allocation, rather than a 1+N allocations. – Jarrod Roberson May 22 '12 at 18:11
@JarrodRoberson StringBuilder will at least double the current capacity or in other words the capacity will grow exponentially for only log(n) allocations – ratchet freak May 22 '12 at 19:09
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If the additional cost is moved to the 'if (firstTime)', than recreating class in a loop is still more expensive than reusing the class. – Alex May 24 '12 at 14:19
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It would be very constructive if people put comment also while down voting any answer. After all we are all here to share knowledge, and simply passing judgment without proper reason is not going to serve any purpose. – AKS Aug 2 '13 at 11:33
Stack exchange should have some mechanism to notify users who down vote any answer, when comment is posted on that answer. – AKS Aug 2 '13 at 16:46
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protected by Yannis Rizos Aug 2 '13 at 5:39
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I have big dreams of writing the next Facebook (unrealistic I know) and I'm in the planning stages as we speak and I'm umming and ahing about using a php framework for this and how many development hours it would actually save me. If any? Also is it unrealistic for one person to hand code an entire social network solo? Whats the largest application anyone has written on their own? I should also point out that I have a day job, so late nights and evenings it is. And pregnant partners to deal with :)
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Whether or not you succeed, attempting something like this will definitely make you a better programmer - so, I offer my encouragement. However, it's difficult to say how many man hours it will take. Getting a minimally functioning social-networking site up and running using today's frameworks isn't so difficult - you're looking at a week or so tops. But getting it polished, usable and scalable is another story entirely. That could takes months or years. You also need to ask yourself: what is your competitive advantage? Why would someone use your service over Facebook? – Charles Salvia Jan 26 '11 at 0:08
Thanks Charles, it's good to hear some encouragement, some people on SE are fairly negative. I hope I had a competitive edge over facebook but would be foolish to divulge that information :) I see what you mean though, if I can get a bare bones site up functioning correctly within a couple if weeks I'll be happy! – benhowdle89 Jan 26 '11 at 0:14
I hear there is just one guy who created and maintained the dating website plentyoffish: highscalability.com/plentyoffish-architecture – James Santiago Jan 26 '11 at 5:34
Do not even consider this without talking it over with your pregnant partner. If I were pregnant and my spouse decided to take on a project of this nature just when I was going to need his help the most, I'd be divorced very quickly. You need to consider the needs of your child to have interaction with his daddy and your wife to have the help a spouse is supposed to give. Having a baby is a full-time job on it's own. Your life as you know it is about to radically change, personal projects are often a thing of the past if you do parenthood right. – HLGEM Jan 26 '11 at 18:07
@job, child is on the way, that means less than 8 months to go (unlikely she would know she was pregnant for at least a month) and lots of things to do to get ready for the event now as well as the 24-hour care afterwards. And people aready pointed out this is a huge project probably in excess of 10000 development hours done part time and at night and not counting the marketing hours (another full time job for the next several years). The chances of it being done and making money before he is a parent are roughly 0. – HLGEM Jan 26 '11 at 22:15
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7 Answers
up vote 12 down vote accepted
Somehow, I think writing a webapp is not the main concern.
Much more important is thinking about how to make the damn thing gain traction.
Other than that, your question doesn't probably make a lot of sense. Writing something as complex and big as Facebook is not something you can do all by yourself, and I am pretty sure that nobody has the resources to start out that big anyway, even without a day job and offspring and stuff.
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What do you mean by traction, in this context? – benhowdle89 Jan 25 '11 at 23:51
@benhowdle89 I mean people using it, of course. Everything else, such as people willing to invest money to have their ads appear on your social network, will come as a consequence. – s.m Jan 25 '11 at 23:52
@benhowdle89 Traction, as in, getting people to join and marketing it and getting the word out. Facebook has 500 million people and is used by celebrities and media outlets. When Facebook first started becoming popular/mainstream, they had the huge advantage of not sucking like MySpace did, so there were tons of users that switched over. – Corey Jan 25 '11 at 23:55
@Corey +1. Facebook may suck according to some individuals, but since millions around the world seem to think otherwise, I don't see a serious Facebook competitor having a chance to succeed any time soon. As of now, FB is probably "good enough" for a lot of people. That being said, everything can happen. – s.m Jan 25 '11 at 23:58
It's not enough that I think your site is better than FB, I would have to convince all my 'friends' and future friends to switch as well. – JeffO Jan 26 '11 at 1:46
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My instinct on this is no - simply because you said the "next Facebook" and the nature of a social network is many, many users. If you were putting together a team to do this, and you hired a CTO worth anything at all, and you asked what PHP framework (if any) should be used, he'd tell you to back up and consider what language should even be used. The language must be:
• Popular. If you become the next Facebook, you're going to need a lot of developers. Facebook reportedly has nearly 500.
• Scalable. Nearly any language can be scalable - if you have the know-how to mess with the internals. That article is all about how Facebook writes PHP extensions in C++, has rewritten parts of the Zend Engine, and eventually wrote a compiler which transforms PHP into C++ code and then compiles it.
If you are going to need scale like this, it's unlikely that any framework is going to help you unless it's already an open-source social network platform (maybe), or you plan on just dumping it and rewriting everything as soon as you've got a few hundred thousand users.
But, what exactly does "an entire social network mean"? What features is it going to have? The original Facebook was obviously easy enough to write by a single person. But what it has now has been developed by teams of hundreds of developers for years:
• News feed. pulling in data from all features of the application for hundreds of connections per user, scoring it for importance, and displaying it in real-time. Realize that the uniqueness per user of the scoring relevance and sheer number of concurrent users makes caching of any kind an insanely difficult problem.
• Photos. Not just your average photo sharing site. How/when are thumbnails generated, stored, and served? What about full size images? These must come from a CDN of some kind otherwise you'll quickly be overloading the bandwidth of your average data center plan. How do they get there? What about user interface? Multiple uploads, invalid images, live editing (rotating, etc.)? What about tagging?
• Permissions. This one is a beast. Just the architectural concepts alone, let alone coding it in a way that doesn't bring down your servers the first time you need a complicated check (All wall posts and photos and comments that I can see from a friend of a friend). On Facebook, not only can every category of data have custom permissions, but almost every post can too! In the end, the UI must also know ahead of time what the permissions will be so you don't present the user with invalid links.
• Likes. If you thought the graph you created with friend connections was insane, now extend it to the ability for every one of your users to "like" anything on the internet. Create a full-fledged API for this, and allow content-owners to come into Facebook after the fact and access the page created by this data.
• And so on... Too many more features to name.
Whats the largest application anyone has written on their own?
Impossible to know, but I guarantee if they did any good at it, they weren't on their own for long. If you are successful, then you're going to need more hands to continue building.
Good luck :)
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Renesis, thanks for this very helpful. I think i am going to start it and see what happens! – benhowdle89 Jan 26 '11 at 9:12
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Writing a functional social network that people would actually want to use would require many many thousands of hours. Probably 10,000 At minimum.
Having 5 programmers work full time for 1 year would consume 10,000 man hours. Facebook for example most likely required many more times that for its first two years of operation.
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Really? What are you basing this on? – benhowdle89 Jan 25 '11 at 23:49
This isn't just coding, you know. To make a Facebook clone using PHP, MySQL and jQuery as your tools, it probably wouldn't take very long. The design is rather simplistic. Rather, most of the work is probably spent making it scale. They have some ridiculous amount of servers that require many man-hours to install and maintain. – Corey Jan 26 '11 at 0:03
@Corey: scaling probably isn't even remotely close to the most significant and difficult problem that a budding social network developer will have to face. There is a humongous amount of work that goes into all the polish that makes a service like facebook or stackoverflow work well. Even then, twitter had significant uptime and scaling issues early in its life. That didn't prevent it's success. Scaling is a problem that can be dealt with after you have a few ten or hundred thousand users. Throwing some more expensive hardware at the problem will suit you well for quite awhile. – whatsisname Jan 26 '11 at 0:07
@Corey also scaling isn't just installing more servers. For a site the size of Facebook, it's going to touch every tier of the service, fundamentally changing the nature of the DB layer and server layer, and even affecting UI/front-end architecture. – NickC Jan 26 '11 at 0:20
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So practically whatsisname's man hour number is right, if maybe even a little low. Facebook, according to Wikipedia:
Facebook has over 1,700 employees, and offices in 12 countries.
A lot of man hours has gone into the Facebook as you see it.
Having said that, two things:
1. Looks like the original launching site took about a month to write. However, something that takes a month for a programming genius who had been programming for 12 years (wikipedia, again). Someone with less experience or talent would take considerably longer
2. The state of the art has advanced since 2002, a lot. We have things like SocialEngine (PHP), Pinax (Python), and CommunityEngine (Ruby). Thousands of hours have already gone into the development of these frameworks, so you will save yourself a significant amount of time by using things people have already written. Because, unless something's really special about your "users should be able to send messages to users" functionality, you save yourself all that time you would spend writing the messaging functionality... and that's just a small bit of the site.
3. It'll still be a lot of work. Using a framework will speed this up a lot - even just writing to a database can be annoyingly frustrating without a framework... but even beyond normal web frameworks and the frameworks I listed will be the secret sauce that makes everyone care about your site. Maybe it's design, maybe it's some wizbang feature, maybe you just do things differently... but that differentiating factor will still take time.
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There's a catch though to those frameworks and the functionality they provide: users expect that capability right from the beginning. So you will have to expend effort adding onto that with some new spiffy feature. – whatsisname Jan 26 '11 at 0:20
excellent point: users will ask, "What's so special about this?" when every site has (messaging, friending, following, etc). So it boils down to a marketing question: highlight your differences, and be different somehow – RyanWilcox Jan 26 '11 at 0:28
"programming genius"? Not necessarily. Experienced yes. Genius. No evidence. – S.Lott Jan 26 '11 at 2:10
@S.Lott Zuckerberg was what, 8 when he started programming? I wouldn't bother counting that as experience unless he WAS a genius and actually learned something beyond basic BASIC. – Matthew Read Jan 26 '11 at 4:37
It's true there's a difference between experience and professional experience. On the other hand, it sounds like Zuckerberger had at least a fundamental grasp on the basics (and Wikipedia paints it like he had a very strong grasp)... vs "I'm going to write a social network to teach myself programming" – RyanWilcox Jan 26 '11 at 19:07
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To get a recent example of a social network creation effort, you should have a look at the Diaspora social network project, which is an open source, decentralized, privacy friendly social network.
Regarding the man-hour aspect, I think they have started around May, last year and have just reached the Alpha stage, with 4 core developers and 200,000 US $ of donation. You can even have a look at their work on Github and see the number of active contributors.
Only counting 4 core developers they have probably already invested at least 7,000 man-hours and they are far from completion so I think whatisname's estimation of 10,000 man-hours sounds reasonable to get something basic, by today standard, working.
And they are also trying to be The Next Facebook.
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I'm sure Mark Zuckerberg didnt get this sh*t when he said he wanted to make a better MySpace lol :) – benhowdle89 Jan 26 '11 at 16:05
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If I were going to write the next social network, I would begin by considering not using server side code at all. I would do it in HTML5 and only invite people who are clever enough to use browsers that can interpret it fully.
If you write the script to the sequel to the Social Network, please include the part where I sued you for taking this idea that I gave you on programmers.SE and you gave me an undisclosed amount of money in excess of 65 million dollars.
Oops, forgot to answer the question.
That'll take you about a week and there are no security concerns at all.
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Well Peter Turner, you make a fair point. A million upvotes to kicking Internet Explorer in the groin. – benhowdle89 Jan 26 '11 at 17:07
Peter Turner you are either extremely sarcastic and have a big humourous nature or you're an angry man! Ha :) – benhowdle89 Jan 26 '11 at 17:09
@benhowdle89 Yeah, that was using the <sarcasm> tag profusely, it renders ok on my machine, but I understand if it doesn't work everywhere. :0 – Peter Turner Jan 26 '11 at 17:12
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Writing a chat site and declaring it social network isn't difficult nor much coding effort. Hundreds of programmers are doing that right now, and all will fail to gain traction no matter how many features are coded in or how stylish it looks.
There is no user base to gain unless you can build a robust technical and usability interface to Facebook. That's a coding effort few are capable of, and some fail on proxy implementation willingness (Diaspora) to create a factual social network.
Btw, there might be easier target groups than Facebook users. (Though I'm probably not entitled to comment, since I have it cached in /etc/hosts as ever since those tracking buttons appeared.)
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Use m file from console from other directory
enedeneenedene Posts: 1Member
I use Linux.
Here is the problem. I need to run Matlab from console and calculate some things that use my functions contained in m files. When the m file (for example myfunction.m) is in the directory where I start matlab then I do it like this:
matlab -nojvm -r myfunction
This command calculates the myfunction at start, and that is what I need.
The problem is if I need to calculate something that is not inside the directory where I start matlab. I've tried:
matlab -nojvm -r /somedir/myfunction, but that doesn't work. Is there a solution for this?
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Qual Saf Health Care 19:e8 doi:10.1136/qshc.2007.024547
• Original research
Skilful anticipation: maternity nurses' perspectives on maintaining safety
1. A Lyndon
1. Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, School of Nursing, San Francisco, California, USA
1. Correspondence to Assistant Professor Audrey Lyndon, University of California, San Francisco, 2 Koret Way, Box 0606, San Francisco, CA 94143 USA; audrey.lyndon{at}
• Accepted 4 June 2009
• Published Online First 8 February 2010
Objective To describe maternity nurses' perspectives on how they contribute to safety during labour and birth at two urban academic medical centres in the United States.
Design Grounded theory: data were collected using semistructured, open-ended interviews and participant observations with registered nurses (RNs) in two inpatient maternity settings. Data were analysed simultaneously using constant comparison, and dimensional and situational analysis.
Participants Purposive sample of 12 RNs working in the two maternity units.
Findings Safety was broadly conceptualised by RNs as protecting the physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing of a woman and her family. During labour and birth, safety was maintained by RNs through “skilful anticipation” of situational potential. This required integration of medical and technical knowledge and skill with intimate knowledge of the woman and the operational context of care to achieve accurate situation awareness and appropriate future planning. Conditions and processes promoting skilful anticipation included being prepared, knowing, and envisioning the whole picture.
Conclusions In the two settings, maternity RNs made active contributions to safe birth in the context of constrained resources through preparing the environment, anticipating potential problems and trapping errors before they reached the patient. The contributions of maternity nurses to team situation awareness and to creating safety need to be appreciated and administratively supported. Continued research with RNs may reveal previously unrecognised opportunities for safety improvements.
Rochlin1 and others2 proposed that a narrow focus on systems risk reduction interferes with maintaining safe operations by obscuring ongoing individual and collective actions that detect and correct emerging safety threats. Rochlin's analysis suggests that high reliability is achieved through an emergent social construct of collective agency for safety, and that supporting this collective behaviour is essential. Knox3 and Henneman4 similarly conceptualised patient safety as a dynamic process of healthcare providers creating safety by identifying and deflecting potential threats to patients. Opportunities for increasing safety may be irretrievably lost when we focus primarily on the incidence and mechanisms of error at the expense of focussing on clinicians' safety-creating actions.2 Consideration of safety as an active front-line process suggests the need to understand clinicians' experiences of how patient safety is both created and challenged in healthcare settings.5 This is particularly important in maternity care, in which severe adverse events are believed to be substantially preventable,6–10 yet the infrequency of catastrophic outcomes creates considerable space for normalisation of deviance.11 ,12
Breakthroughs in aviation safety were based in part on understanding challenges to performance from the pilots' perspective.13 Few studies have explored healthcare providers' perspectives on how they maintain safe operations. Even fewer have focused on nurses. The purpose of this article is to describe maternity nurses' perspectives on how they contribute to safety during labour and birth. These findings are from a larger exploratory descriptive study of facilitators and barriers to interdisciplinary teamwork and effective communication in two inpatient maternity settings in the western USA.14
Design and methods
Grounded theory, a qualitative method for studying social processes,15–19 was chosen for this study given the conceptualisation of safety as a social construct and the interest in uncovering participants' experiences of working to promote safety. Data were collected between September 2005 and January 2007 using individual semistructured, open-ended interviews and participant observation with a purposive sample of 12 maternity registered nurses (RNs) from two teaching hospitals. Interviews lasted 60 to 90 min. They were recorded, transcribed verbatim and crosschecked for accuracy.20 Forty-four hours of observations with RNs were conducted across day, night and weekend shifts by shadowing participants conducting their clinical duties. Other staff and the patients receiving care gave verbal consent for observations. Field notes were taken during observations and transcribed as soon as possible thereafter.21 This report focuses on the perspective of the 12 RN participants; however, physicians and certified nurse midwives were also sampled to obtain a broader perspective on team function, interdisciplinary communication and collective practice.14 Participants were selected for clinical experience and likelihood of being able to respond to the study questions. Five RNs participated through interviews only. Seven RNs participated in both interviews and observations. Observations balanced the retrospective nature of interviews by capturing real-time data about communication patterns, work conditions and teamwork. The interview guide and observation protocol are presented in table 1.
Table 1
Interview guide and observation protocol
Participating institutions gave ethics committee approval. Participants were recruited at staff meetings and by peer nomination, gave informed consent before enrolment and received a US$15 gift card for interviews and observations. Reflexivity, attention to interaction quality, data and analytic triangulation, and use of an audit trail maintained rigour, as described elsewhere.14
RNs were recruited from the maternity units of two urban teaching hospitals in the western USA. In both units, staff cared for medically and socially complex populations of antepartum, labouring and postpartum women. Both services offered midwifery, generalist and maternal-foetal medicine care; intensive care nurseries; and 24-h in-house obstetric (“labourist”) and anaesthesia services. They had between 1200 and 1800 annual births.
This sample included 12 experienced RNs. The mean duration of their maternity experience and the mean tenure in their current position were both 10 years (range 0.5 to 41 and 2 to 20 years, respectively). Six RNs worked permanent day shift. Three worked day shift but rotated regularly to nights. Three worked evenings or nights. Shifts were 12 h (n=8) or 8 h (n=4). Mean age was 42.7 years (range 29 to 61 years). All the RNs were women. Self-reported ethnicity was 75% European American, 17% Latina and 8% Asian Pacific Islander.
Data analysis
Data were collected and analysed simultaneously using the constant comparative method, and dimensional and situational analysis.14 ,16–18 Open, focused and theoretical codes19 were used to identify and label dimensions of participants' experience,16 which were then saturated through theoretical sampling to develop and differentiate their properties.16 ,17 ,19 ,22 Data were managed with Atlas.ti V.5.0–5.2.23
In dimensional analysis, the central action process is determined by organising the important dimensions of experience in an “explanatory matrix”. The dimension that best explains the central action process is placed in the defining position, called “perspective”, and other important dimensions are then evaluated for their fit as context, conditions, processes or consequences.16 ,22 Thus, the central action process provides the perspective for understanding relationships between important concepts in the data set. Context is the set of dimensions representing the situation in which the phenomenon is embedded. Conditions are dimensions that facilitate, block or shape central actions, interactions or processes. Processes are actions (intended or unintended) set in motion by conditions, and consequences are outcomes of these processes.16 ,22
RNs in this study conceptualised safety broadly: a woman was kept safe when she experienced coming through the birth process intact physically, emotionally and psychologically. This did not necessarily mean that the woman's birth met all her expectations. It meant that a woman had the information and time needed to make her own decisions, her physical and emotional needs were met, and she and her family members were treated with respect and consideration. The dimension “skilful anticipation” was the action process with the greatest power to explain the RNs' perspective on their work to prevent harm and promote “coming through the experience intact”.
Skilful anticipation
Skilful anticipation describes the active, accurate consideration of the potential embedded in clinical situations: it includes accurate situation awareness and appropriate future planning. Skilful anticipation required integration of experience, medical and technical know-how, and knowledge of both the individual woman and the operational context of her care. It involved both grasping the current situation and active consideration of (1) what may evolve in the future under this particular set of clinical conditions? (2) What is necessary to prepare for the situational possibilities and support the desired physiologic, psychological and emotional outcomes for this family's birth process? Participants used being prepared, knowing, and envisioning the whole picture (figure 1) to develop a projected future state for women that allowed them to anticipate needs and predict outcomes of care.
Figure 1
Skilful anticipation: the central action process supporting women coming through the experience intact.
Skilful anticipation allowed nurses to prepare independently for patient safety: RNs frequently described and demonstrated being prepared for action before other clinicians recognised or communicated the urgency of a situation. They also described persisting with essential preparations when they perceived an urgent need for intervention and their judgement was initially discounted but ultimately validated.I alerted the doctors, who kind of pooh-poohed me and didn't come in there as fast as I wanted them to… I just threw in an IV and drew the bloods and got her ready…did everything I knew needed to be preliminary before we could even get into the OR [for caesarean birth] (RN, discussing a case resulting in emergent caesarean birth).
Conditions promoting skilful anticipation
Being prepared: preparing self and preparing the environment
Both mental and physical preparedness were required to maintain a state of readiness for birth. Most nurses described specific strategies for maintaining mental sharpness, including getting enough sleep, taking breaks in specific locations and minimising distractions. Some denied being affected by stressors such as fatigue, reporting that adrenaline kicks in to keep them sharp when needed.
Birth is a natural process that usually occurs without need for specific intervention. However, catastrophic complications requiring rapid intervention are possible. Preparing the environment entailed arranging the room for action and readying safety supplies. This meant ensuring that equipment was immediately at hand and the bed could quickly be removed to transport the woman to the operating room: untangling monitor cables, IV lines and phone cords; moving furniture to maintain a clear path to the door; and assessing the position of family members to simultaneously support their participation and keep pathways clear. RNs check all emergency equipment in detail to ensure correct functioning. Attention to baseline preparation required integration of technical knowledge of equipment with medical knowledge of birth and potential complications to understand the purpose of the equipment, how it would be used and the consequences of improper set-up. This field note typifies the RNs I observed caring for labouring women:[Field note] She checks [the mother's] ambu bag and shows me how the holes on the valve are set too far open for fast inflation. She adjusts the bag to fill quickly so “you're not wondering what's going on and fiddling with it when you need to use it”. She checks the suction regulator, setting the continuous suction to 100 mm Hg so it will be ready for suctioning meconium from baby's airway. She reviews the delivery table set-up. She checks the baby warmer…rearranges [jumbled] supplies in the drawer, sorting ET [endotracheal] tubes by size most often used to the front. She removes extraneous supplies…checks laryngoscope blades. The long blade does not work, there is no bulb. She replaces the blade…She checks the baby's ambu bag and suction…setting valves so bag inflates quickly and has a cpap [continuous positive airway pressure] setting of 5…She checks that tanks have oxygen…checks emergency medication supply.
These “routine” tasks frequently trap errors. In each of the five times I observed RNs checking a baby warmer, there was a mistake in some part of the set-up, usually the ambu bag. Maternal ambu bag set-ups were faulty during two observations. This produced a sense of urgency about checking equipment immediately for each patient:Time is of the essence when you're doing an emergency resuscitation for baby or mother…one of the worst things is going into a situation fast and not having enough time to make sure those things are in place…and you're grabbing for the bag and it's not hooked up (RN).
In most cases, this urgency about being prepared was safety promoting: it sets the tone for methodical, advance preparations promoting smooth team function at birth. However, at times, the urgency to prepare, coupled with lack of confidence in the systems supporting that preparation, results in an obsessive focus on organising equipment. In a least one case, failure to follow-up on critical laboratory results appeared causally related to the intensity of the nurse's focus on preparation. This incident was aggravated by a heavy patient assignment and distraction by missing supplies and broken equipment.
Skilful anticipation was enhanced when RNs had time to gain a complete understanding of the woman's situation. Knowing the patient was a function of information (knowledge of the patient's history and plan), temporality (time spent with the patient to obtain knowledge of her responses) and assessing family dynamics. Knowing the patient laid the groundwork for addressing potential problems by allowing RNs to anticipate complications with labour, birth, postpartum, breastfeeding or family. Most importantly, time at the bedside promoted successful rescue from complications. When RNs were able to engage in direct continuous surveillance, they identified subtle changes in condition and mobilised the team to respond to emergent issues such as a high epidural block and an unusual medication reaction.
For these nurses, knowing the patient meant understanding the whole of the plan, not mechanically executing ordered care:Making sure I'm aware of who's seeing her [each patient], what orders are being written about her, what's being asked of me, what everything means as far as orders and plans, and keeping communication open (RN).
RNs were keenly aware that MDs and CNMs looked to them to be very familiar with a woman's immediate situation in labour and to provide up-to-date information. To know the patient well, RNs needed quality hand-off reports, time to review the history and the chart, and time to spend at the bedside. Time was almost universally constrained, requiring integration of preparations with getting acquainted with a woman and her family. RNs were adept at this integration, but high acuities, high census, and problems with equipment, supplies or medication could disrupt safety by disrupting this process.
Knowing the colleague
Familiarity with specific clinicians and variations in levels of expertise were important to all participants. RNs gained insight about what to expect from understanding individual practice styles and used this to project how others might manage specific situations. RNs varied their communications and their acceptance of specific plans based on their perceptions of an MD's or a CNM's skills, collegiality and experience. RNs were very directive with inexperienced clinicians, especially at birth and in urgent situations:[Field note] The intern comes to recheck the patient. She is unsure whether she feels cervix or [umbilical] cord and asks the nurse to get the chief. [The nurse] reminds the intern to keep her hand in the vagina and put pressure on the foetal head. She calls out on the intercom, requesting both the chief and attending come to the room. She immediately checks the bed for tangles and lines [thinking about getting the patient out of the room in a hurry].
Envisioning the whole picture
The key process enabling skilful anticipation to occur was envisioning the whole picture. One RN remarked, “It's like, switching gears from just doing what's in front of your nose, and seeing that what's in front of your nose has wings. And you have to anticipate, prepare and follow through on a bigger thing going on”. This was easier when RNs had resources and time to prepare the environment and get to know the patient. A collegial relationship with the MD or CNM also enhanced information flow and contributed to anticipating situational potential. Envisioning the whole picture was not always dependent on knowing the patient or situation, “I could tell by just looking on the floor, even though I didn't have the full picture of what was going on. This was an excessive amount of blood she'd lost”. However, it was enhanced when time and information were available. It was facilitated by awareness of the operational context of care, meaning the RN's understanding of the whole of what was happening on the unit, especially under the common circumstances of competing demands and limited staff.
Although RNs were skilled at obtaining resources and expertise to address problems, they were clear that at times, keeping patients safe meant new activities could not be initiated due to resource constraints. In both interview and observational data, RNs demonstrated a heightened awareness relative to MDs regarding the operational and surveillance demands of patient care.So I said, “The person will be admitted, but she cannot have miso [prostol] or Pitocin”. [uterotonic agents for induction of labour] [The doctor] was shocked because [to the doctor they are] just giving some medication. I'm thinking, “No, there has to be a nurse to watch that [foetal heart monitor] strip and make sure that baby is handling whatever's going on in response to mama receiving the miso, plus mama”. And that would be me. And that is not safe. It's not safe to have me [doing three jobs] at the desk as charge, in triage, and watching somebody who just got miso. So no, we're not doing it (RN).
This study aims to describe maternity nurses' perspectives on their contributions to safety during labour and birth. Skilful anticipation emerged as the central action process RNs use to actively promote safe birth. They demonstrated using being prepared, knowing, and envisioning the whole picture to prepare the environment, anticipate problems and trap errors in the context of multiple problems with basic resources for staffing, supplies and equipment. Knowledge of individual women and the operational context of care were needed for skilful anticipation of physical, psychological and emotional safety needs. Even “checking equipment” used critical medical and technical knowledge to anticipate and mitigate potential safety threats, and contributed to situation awareness. These behaviours illustrate some of the RNs' contributions to maintaining safety and team situation awareness. They are consistent with descriptions of RN engagement in error trapping, surveillance and serving as a “firewall and protector” in the critical care and emergency departments.24 ,25 ,30 They support the concepts of safety as an active process and of the healthcare provider's role in creating safety through scanning for, detecting and correcting potential sources of harm.
The limitations of the study include small sample size, selection bias, recall bias and attribution error. The study was conducted with 12 nurses and cannot be construed as representative of maternity nurses in general. Non-participants may have different conceptualisations of the meaning of safe care and their role(s) in providing it. Interview data are subject to recall bias. Clinicians' knowledge of case outcomes influences perceptions of contributing factors 26: clinicians are more likely to attribute successes to their own disposition while attributing failures to situational factors.27 Most participants frankly discussed their own mistakes and clinical mishaps, diminishing concern for social desirability bias. The investigator's maternity nursing background also may have biased analysis. Mitigation strategies included journaling, exposing taken-for-granted meanings and testing experiential data against grounded field data.14 ,17 ,28
The behaviours and constraints described in this study may not be unique to maternity care or to RNs. The study highlights some of the complexity involved in maintaining situation awareness in inpatient settings and suggests the need to spend more time studying action on the front line where safety is ultimately threatened or maintained. Institutional support in the form of time and functional equipment are essential for clinicians to engage in safety-promoting behaviours consistently and effectively.29 ,30 Effective support requires valuing contributions to safety from all clinicians and attending to practice infrastructure. Instituting systematic interdisciplinary updates throughout each shift could help all maternity providers maintain awareness of the operational context and availability of resources on the unit.31 Before making resource allocation decisions, upper-level managers could combine executive walk rounds32 and shadowing33 to conduct “executive work rounds”, where directors work side by side with clinicians to gather first-hand evidence of vulnerabilities, strengths and threats to resilience at unit and system levels.
Interdisciplinary research is needed to better understand how nurses and other clinicians contribute to patient safety, and to link these contributions to safety outcomes. Research on front-line safety perspectives may reveal unrecognised opportunities for safety improvements, identify how to support collective safety behaviours without creating new gaps in communication and teamwork,34 and point to ways that behaviours and systems thought to be safety promoting can present threats to safety when they alter team behaviours34 or suppress reporting.14
The author thanks the participants for their time, energy and trust; the editors and reviewers for their constructive critique; and Drs K Lee, H P Kennedy, B Davies, K R Simpson and L Fischer for comments on previous drafts. The study was funded by the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, and supported by the Nursing Initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
• Funding Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (2000 L Street, NW, Suite 740, Washington, DC 20036, USA), and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Presidio of San Francisco, PO Box 29910, San Francisco, CA 94129-0910, USA).
• Competing interests None.
• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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Kevin Ryde > Math-NumSeq-65 > Math::NumSeq::PowerFlip
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Module Version: 65 Source Latest Release: Math-NumSeq-69
Math::NumSeq::PowerFlip -- prime exponent flip
use Math::NumSeq::PowerFlip;
my $seq = Math::NumSeq::PowerFlip->new;
This sequence is i with primes and exponents flipped in the prime factorization.
i = p^e * q^f * ...
value = e^p * f^q * ...
which gives
1, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 1, 9, 8, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 1, 16, 1, 8, 1, 4, ...
starting i=1
For example i=1000=2^3*5^3 becomes value=3^2*3^5=3^7=2187.
Any i=prime has value=1 since i=p^1 becomes value=1^p=1. Value=1 occurs precisely when i=p*q*r*etc with no repeated prime factor, ie. when i is square-free.
The possible values which occur in the sequence are related to square factors. Since value=e^p has prime p>=2, every e,f,g etc powered up in the value is a square or higher power. So sequence values are a product of squares and higher.
$seq = Math::NumSeq::PowerFlip->new ()
Create and return a new sequence object.
Random Access
$value = $seq->ith($i)
Return $i with the prime powers and exponents flipped.
$bool = $seq->pred($value)
Return true if $value occurs in the sequence. As noted above this means an integer $value with at least one squared prime factor.
Math::NumSeq, Math::NumSeq::PrimeFactorCount
Copyright 2012, 2013 Kevin Ryde
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Solid-state storage selection offers performance boost
IT shops face many options when considering solid-state storage, whether it's cache or primary storage; the hard disk drive or PCI Express card form factor; and array, appliance or server.
The good news is that users will likely see a substantial performance boost no matter which choice they make, according to Dennis Martin, president at Demartek LLC, an Arvada, Colo.-based industry analyst firm that operates an on-site test lab.
In this podcast interview, Martin offers up tips on how to choose the right solid-state storage option and under which conditions one type or form factor might be a better choice over another.
You can read the transcript or listen to the MP3 file found below.
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Solid-state storage selection offers performance boost
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SearchStorage.com: You use solid-state storage in your test lab. What sort of results have you seen? Any surprises?
Martin: I guess the first surprise, if you can call it that, is that we didn't need a lot of solid-state storage to get a really nice bump in performance. We've tested disk drive form factor [and] we've tested other kinds. In general, you get a very nice bump in performance. Things are faster. And of course, you have the benefits of lower power, lower heat, low noise, that sort of thing. So we like 'em, and I'd tell people to go for it.
SearchStorage.com: IT shops interested in using solid-state storage have a number of options. Can you outline the major decision points they face?
Martin: The first option with SSD is to decide whether you want to deploy it in a caching sort of configuration or more in what I would call a primary storage configuration. [A caching configuration involves] letting the controller or the disk array or whatever the host is for the solid-state do caching and let it determine where the hot spots are and then make the best choices for hot data; [in a primary storage configuration, you need to decide whether] to put specific things directly on there.
Then the second decision point to face is, of course, what kind of form factor are you looking at? Are you looking at a disk drive form factor? Are you looking at something on a PCI Express card?
SearchStorage.com: In which scenarios are solid-state drives in cache a better choice than solid-state drives in storage arrays?
Martin: You would choose caching if you have data that's variable as far as the hot data concern. It's not always the same data that's hot, but it's a lot of different data that's hot sometimes and not hot other times. Or, if you have a wide variety of data that you want to accelerate -- if it's not just from one application, but from multiple applications -- you might go the caching route.
If you decide [on] what I call the primary storage [route] -- or put the drives directly in and place the data on them yourself -- that works better if you have very specific data that you know you want to accelerate, and you just want to focus on that.
SearchStorage.com: You mentioned form factors of SSDs. What sorts of things do people need to think about when deciding between PCI Express and hard disk drive form factors?
Martin: The first thing is the overall amount of capacity. If you're going with PCI Express, then of course you're limited by the number of slots in your server. So, although you can get quite a bit of storage on a single card -- I've seen 1.2 TB on a card -- if you only have five slots, then the most you can put in there is [approximately] 5 TB, for example. In the disk drive form factor, you can fill racks and racks full of disk drives, in theory at least, with SSDs. So, you've got a lot more headroom for capacity in the disk drive form factor.
SearchStorage.com: What factors should an IT shop weigh when deciding between solid-state storage in arrays, appliances or servers?
Martin: Of course, cost will be the key with all of these. It also depends on how much you want to do and where you want to do it. You can go with solid-state in the arrays; that works well. You can replace some number of spinning disk drives with solid-state drives. As I said before, it doesn't need a lot of capacity to do that. If you do it in an appliance, then you have the option of having that solid-state storage accelerate multiple disk arrays behind it, for example, whereas if you're in a single array, then it only accelerates the data in that array. If you put it in the server, then of course you're going to get some benefit across multiple storage targets because now the server has it inside of itself. It depends on what you want to accelerate.
SearchStorage.com: What should an IT shop do to determine which applications or which workloads will see the greatest performance boost from solid-state storage?
Martin: The first thing you have to do is measure what you're getting right now. You need to measure your raw performance -- IOPS and megabytes per second. You also need to be aware of the latency because some applications are a little bit more sensitive to latency.
Assuming you've done that measurement, then you can say, "Here's an application we want to use to put in solid-state." For example, you could put a database index in solid-state storage, and you'll get a very nice performance bump just by putting the index in there because the index is accessed relatively frequently and isn't terribly large. Some other applications really benefit if you put the entire application on solid-state. If you only put part of it, then you'll get a minor bump in performance. The key thing is to have measured what you're already getting and know where your pain points are, where those bottlenecks are that you want to improve.
SearchStorage.com: In closing, what's the single most important piece of advice you'd like to leave with IT shops considering solid-state storage?
Martin: You don't need a lot of solid-state storage to get a nice performance boost. For example, we've seen very significant performance improvements with only 5% or 10% of the total capacity allocated to SSDs. And we've seen 300%, 500% or more with a relatively small amount of SSD.
This article was previous published on SearchStorage.com.
This was first published in November 2010 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have to choose a topic for my end-of-year school project and I need some advice. I was thinking of implementing an online tutorial materials (digital files) project. I have been researching on cryptography and read on symmetric/asymmetric algorithms. Here is what I have so far:
1. The idea is about creating a system where the course materials are encrypted and can only be decrypted by students of the school's course.
2. The course materials would be encrypted by AES algorithm and the AES key would be stored in the database.
3. The database would contain a table with column "Course" and its corresponding "AESKey". Since it is insecure to store the AES key in clear text, I was then thinking about encrypting it using a password-derived key PBKDF2 (the password of which would be given to the students by the teacher of the course).
4. Then, when the student requests the materials, he would simply provide the password for that course and then be able to retrieve the AES key.
What do you think of that idea? AND how can I make it more secure? Because I wanted to achieve some kind of multi-factor authentication but then it would be infeasible to give smart cards to each and every student! I had been thinking of encrypting the AES key using RSA public/private key method, but then there will be lots of students (Do I create a public/private key pair for each student? Sounds infeasible...) Or maybe there is some other way I can implement the RSA encryption scheme in there? I will be using C# as implementation language.
Your advice is most welcome! Thanks
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I like the idea! RSA encrypted AES key for each student is the safest way to send out the key. – Henning Klevjer Jan 22 '13 at 8:05
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1 Answer
My first question is why? What are you hoping to gain by encrypting the material and adding the overhead of managing and distributing encryption keys?
There needs to be clear goals defined before you can assess whether the proposed solution is adequate. While your general plan sounds like you have thought it out a bit, it isn't clear what you are trying to do. For example, if all of this encryption is because of some kind of digital rights concerns over the learning materials, then I suspect you are only creating additional overhead and inconvenience for both teachers and students with no real benefit.
Issues you need to think about
How do you verify the student you plan to give the password to is really the student?
How do you know the student won't share their password with others?
How do you know the person using the password is the person they claim to be?
The key problem you have is in establishing levels of assurance. This is almost impossible to do using just passwords. There are lots of other questions - for example, after the student has obtained the materials and used the key to decrypt them, what stops them from distributing the unencrypted versions? Once this occurs, how would you identify who released them?
It seems to be you are facing two problems - establishing identity level of assurance (nearly impossible when based solely on a password) and DRM - nearly impossible without imposing considerable inconvenience on the users.
Sorry if this is sound really negative. I'm not trying to be discouraging. However, from the short description you provided, I think you need to get some greater clarity on exactly what the objectives or business case is you are trying to solve and exactly what the constraints are
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Are you worried about Greece failing to come to some kind of agreement with its bondholders? If so, you’re far behind the curve. Because the new big worry is that Greece will fail to come to some kind of agreement with the Troika — the official-sector entities which are going to fund its deficits for the foreseeable future.
To understand what’s going on here, you really need to read two different things. The first is the latest paper from Mitu Gulati and Jeromin Zettelmeyer, entitled “Engineering an Orderly Greek Debt Restructuring”. It’s clear, it’s clever, and it explains exactly what Greece’s options are. The second is the leaked document from Germany, which has effective veto control over the Troika, laying out proposed conditions under which it’s willing to continue to fund Greece.
The mechanics of a Greek debt restructuring, as laid out by Gulati and Zettelmeyer, are absolutely fascinating to a sovereign-restructuring geek like me. But I’m not going to get into the details here. Suffice to say that in order for the restructuring to work, the Greek bonds currently held by the ECB need to be tendered into the exchange, somehow. There are various ways that this can happen: the ECB can tender its bonds directly; it can sell them to the EFSF, which would then tender them; or it could even sell them to Greece, which would tender them. But what it can’t do is sit back and continue to collect interest on those bonds while expecting all the private-sector bondholders to voluntarily take a massive haircut. Too many hedge funds own Greek debt now; if the old bonds continue to get paid out, then the hedge funds will simply refuse to tender, and the exchange offer will fail.
The point here is that the Greek bond exchange has to be worked out in very granular detail with the Troika, because the ECB is going to have to play a central role in making it work. If the markets think for one minute that the ECB’s bonds won’t be tendered into the exchange, the deal is almost certain to fail. On the other hand, as Gulati and Zettelmeyer explain, if the ECB’s bonds are certain to be tendered into the exchange, then Greece can structure a deal where it makes no sense to hold out at all, since holdouts would end up with illiquid and hair-cut Greek-law bonds, while anybody tendering would end up with English-law bonds which had much stronger bondholder protections and much greater liquidity.
So, what’s the Troika going to demand, in return for cooperating with the exchange and helping to ensure its success? More of a fiscal union, that’s for sure — which means real European control over how and where Greece spends its money. As the leaked document explains, “Greece has most likely missed key programme objectives again in 2011,” and “will have to significantly improve programme compliance in the future”, by “shifting budgetary sovereignty to the European level for a certain period of time”. That’s the reality of how bankruptcy works: if you run out of money, then anybody willing to lend you money can generally call whatever shots they want. And the fact is that monetary union, as we’ve seen, simply can’t work if there’s no fiscal union, with Europe having some kind of fiscal control over its member states.
The big problem with the leaked document is not the violation of Greek sovereignty, then. Rather, it’s the manner in which Greece’s new fiscal overlords are intending to treat the country’s debt burden. “Greece has to legally commit itself to giving absolute priority to future debt service”, it says, which is fair enough — California does something similar. Some bondholders like such things. But they don’t mean much to me: as I said in the Californian context, if you can break your promise when you default, you can break your promise to privilege bonded debt over other obligations, as well.
But the document goes significantly further than just giving Europe a say in Greece’s fiscal decision-making and asking for largely-meaningless promises from Greece. Check this out:
In English, what this means is that Greece has to open itself up to a double fiscal whammy. Greece is going to be running deficits for the foreseeable future, and needs to get the money to cover those deficits from the Troika. Now, what happens in future, post-restructuring, if Greece gets into a fight with the Troika, and the Troika doesn’t give Greece the money it needs? As things stand, that would be a very bad outcome indeed. Greece could default on all its debt obligations, but it’s still running a primary deficit, so it would need to make even bigger fiscal cuts, or try to raise taxes even more, in order to bring its budget into balance. The result would be worse austerity, and an even deeper recession.
Under the German proposal, things get significantly worse than that, for Greece. Essentially, if the Troika cuts off funding, then Greece still needs to make all of its debt payments, on top of its primary deficit. The resulting austerity would be devastating — as Germany, of all countries, should know. After all, the burden of crushing German obligations after the Great War was largely responsible for the rise of… OK, enough. I’m not going Godwin here. But the point is that Germany is trying to take away Greece’s option to default. Interfering with Greece’s fiscal sovereignty is one thing, but this goes way too far.
I can see how Europe might want to give itself some kind of control over total expenditures and revenues in Greece. But the relative priority of expenditures — whether Greece wants to spend its tax revenues on debt repayment or on hospitals, for instance — must be left to the Greeks.
The reason all of this is going on, of course, is that the Troika’s interests and Greece’s are far from aligned. The Troika wants to stop having to fund Greece, and therefore wants Greece to regain access to private markets as soon as possible. Greece, on the other hand, is more interested in domestic growth at this point, so long as the Troika will continue to provide funding while private markets are closed. At the margin, then, the Troika wants more fiscal constraints (and hoped-for access to bond markets in future), while Greece just wants to get out of recession and start seeing some kind of light at the end of the tunnel.
Or, put it another way. Greece wants long-term debt sustainability, which means growth. The Troika, on the other hand, is less interested in the long term: it just wants the private sector to take over in terms of funding Greece as soon as possible. And the private sector, while it does care about long-term debt-sustainability calculations, also cares about many other things, like governing law and the constitutionality of default and the probability that Greece will continue making bond payments even if Troika funding dries up.
All of which means, weirdly, that bondholders would be better off lobbying the Troika than they are negotiating directly with Greece. After all, the Troika is really calling the shots here. And the Troika wants bondholders treated extremely well — after the restructuring. So if bondholders want things like English-law bonds and constitutional amendments, they should probably be asking the Troika for them, rather than Greece. Greece has no real reason to give them such things. But it can easily be forced to, if that’s what the Troika demands.
Source: The Troika Vs. Greece |
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I have a domain (.se) that I have "own" for years, I've been pointing out a dyndns domain as the nameserver for my .se domain to be able to use my top domain with a dynamic ip internet connection. This has been working for over 5 years, but now It has stopped working
The DNSCheck v1.0.1 response is this:
No name servers found at child. Superfluous name server listed at parent: A name server listed at the parent, but not at the child, was found. This is most likely an administrative error. You should update the parent to match the name servers at the child as soon as possible.
How do I resolve this?
This is how it's setup:
domain.se NS domain.mine.nu
There is NO dns-server running on domain.mine.nu and have never been. And thats it, it has worked flawlessly for over 5 years, but now it has stoped, can anyone figure out why?
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I realize you're concerned about privacy, but you'll get a definitive answer rather than wild guessing if you just let us know what the domain is. – Stephen Jennings Jul 8 '10 at 7:19
the domain is kuseman.se if that would help – Marcus Jul 8 '10 at 8:08
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4 Answers
This means that your nameservers (NS records) are not in the zone configured on your DNS server.
You should be able to do:
$ dig yourdomain.se NS @yourdnsmaster
and get NS records as a result.
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I don't host a DNS-server and have never had, my .se domain have worked anyway "some how". – Marcus Jul 7 '10 at 17:14
One other wierd thing is that I cannot access my domain.se but running a whois on it, that service can access my system, it tells me what server-os im running etc. – Marcus Jul 7 '10 at 17:37
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Try this:
dig se NS
Take one of those results, say a.ns.se, and do this:
dig @a.ns.se domain.se ns
This will give you the "parent" list of nameservers. Now, take one of those results (let's say foons), and do this:
dig @foons.domain.se domain.se ns
This will give you the "child" list of nameservers. You need to make these two lists equal by finding who is hosting your DNS (probably the site where you registered the domain) and fixing the problem there.
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Hi, the first one gives my my dyndns nameserver, works! The second one time outs. I'm suspecting that I need to host my own nameserver (and thats why it's time out), but the thing is that I have never ran my own nameserver, it has worked anyway. – Marcus Jul 7 '10 at 19:22
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You need to look at the settings from your domain vendor (like Network Solutions or GoDaddy) that you purchased your domain from. There should be settings for DNS as part of your domain. Make sure that the DNS settings are pointing to dyndns DNS servers.
Follow the instructions here:
Custom DNS
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The Custom DNS service would probably solve my issue, but the thing is that it have worked without it, why has it stoped working now? the nameserver for my .se-domain points at my dyndns-domain (NOT dyndns nameserver), and I don't host my own nameserver. – Marcus Jul 8 '10 at 6:53
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Usually this kind of error is the result of an NS record mismatch. For example, you have ns1/ns2.somedomain.com listed as the DNS servers with the registrar, but the actual DNS zone file lists ns1/ns2/ns3.otherdomain.net in the NS records. Updating the NS records in the DNS zone file at the DNS service provider to match what you're using at the registrar (or the other way around) will generally correct these kinds of problems.
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I am working for a small shop where we want to provision all the hosts from one single location. Right now, we use Legacy RIS on Win server 2003 to deploy hosts via PXE boot. Though this method works, but I wanted to know if the community has a better way of handling this.
Though we don't use any Configuration management tool but my assumption (or rather plan to use one) is it will kick in during the last step of provisioning and will install packages/configs to bring it up to desired state.
Any good tools or methods that I can consider in a multi-OS environment?
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3 Answers
up vote 0 down vote accepted
Thanks for the great responses. Since I will end up using the existing insfrastructure, I am going to answer my own question. :) I am not sure if this is a valid method but I gave points for all possible solutions.
In short: I will be using SCCM for deploying Windows OS and packages. MDT for managing and testing images. When a client PXE boots, it will have two options: Install Windows/Install RHEL. After the authentication, the OS installation is automated. SCCM is used for post deployment operations and for linux I am going to test puppet/bcfg2.
Thanks again.
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Have a look at this: http://www.ultimatedeployment.org/
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If you want to stick with the Microsoft flavor, WDS is the replacement for RIS. Unfortunately, it's still stuck on distributing Microsoft flavored setups only. If you wish to look towards a more generic strategy... look at the FogProject. This isn't a "drop-in" replacement, but there are ways to integrate RIS/WDS in with Fog, as well as being able to deploy just about any flavor of OS across the network. Additionally, it has some very nice "imaging" utilities that you may find useful.
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I am trying to move away from image concept,as that needs maintenance when a new version is out. Instead I am looking at something that can deploy from an ISO. Like in Windows SCCM/MDT, we can create a task sequence for things to-do pre/post deployment. – Prashanth Sundaram Apr 21 '11 at 19:59
All doable with the WDS, or for that matter just building an answer file can do that. 1 word of warning, in 99% of cases I've seen... the amount of work it takes to build your own custom install framework... does not outweigh the effort of simply installing the OS+applications. That remaining 1%... is typically either enterprise deployments where you have 50+ identical machines that need to be reloaded on a regular schedule or OEM installs where you need to build a custom install image to deploy thousands of times. – TheCompWiz Apr 27 '11 at 20:50
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How to Shop a Sample Sale: 8 Tips to Know Before You Go
By Perrie Samotin, StyleCaster
Sample SaleWhen it comes to sample sales, your goal is presumably simple: Get the best stuff at the absolute best prices. However, pretty much every other girl attending that same sample sale has the same goal, making for some stiff competition. The good news is that there are ways to triage your way to the front of the line, and score killer merchandise. Read on for 8 tips on how to shop a sample sale.
Related Article: See Marilyn Manson's Shocking Make-Under
1. Know about the sample sales.
The first step to scoring the best merchandise? You have to actually know about the sample sales. Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be enmeshed in the fashion industry to get wind of top sales, as you can sign up for various alerts, invites, and newsletters via sites like,, Clothingline, 260 Sample Sales, or Got a pal who works in fashion? Ask them to keep you posted on private invites.
Related Article: 50 Fashion Rules to Break Right Now
2. Know the exact address.
Some sample sales aren't held in easy-to-spot storefronts-many are are in office buildings, so knowing cross streets isn't enough. Make sure you know the exact address and floor number.
3. Know currency rules.
Worst scenario ever: You're on line waiting to pay for those seriously jaw-dropping [insert brand name here] heels, only to throw down your AmeEx and hear "sorry, cash only." What's worse: There's no guarantee that sale staffers will hold your goods while you run to the ATM.
4. Get up early for big sales, and go back at the end.
It's common knowledge that the frist day of certain sample sales (ahem, Alexander Wang and Manolo Blahnik) draw insane crowds-we're talking Thanksgiving Day Parade insane-so being at the back of the line won't do you any good. In order to get first pick at the good stuff, its imperative to arrive way before the sale starts. Odds are, there will always be some maniacal shoppers ahead of you, but better to be the fourth person in line, than the 94th.
That said, if it's a brand you adore, it might pay to go back during the last day of the sample sale, as most things left will be discounted heavily (sometimes up to 75%) The big-ticket or coveted items will probably have sold out (bags at Wang, boots at Rag & Bone) but you can bet there will be plenty of other items left.
5. Leave vanity at home.
Most sample sales don't have formal dressing rooms, and those that do are communal with a capital C. Meaning, you'll be stripping down in front of a lot of ladies, so leave vanity at home (do not, however, leave you underwear at home.) You also might want to wear thin layers like tank tops and leggings that allow for easy try-ons.
Also: many sample sales require you to check your bag, so choose clothing with pockets to store you cell phone and your wallet.
6. Understand the difference between samples and overstock.
Some brands will sell actual samples, but most sell overstock. The difference: Samples are items that the designers made strictly for sample purposes or items that never made it into production, and are usually made in sizes 2-4, if it's clothing. Samples often feature no labels inside, and could feel a bit flimsier than the version you've felt in the store (for Example, silk shirt brand Equipment will often sell samples of their shirts at sales but they're not all rendered in silk.) Overstock is actual merchandise that was produced but didn't sell.
7. See an imperfection? Speak up.
If you notice a tiny hole, missing button, or busted zipper, it pays to ask the sales associate for a bigger reduction. Try something like: "Hi, I just noticed there's a missing button on this blouse, but I'd like to buy it anyway. Is there anything you can do on the price?" They might say no, but it can't hurt to ask.
8. Don't love stuff? Walk away.
If you don't see anything you're really loving, walk away. Yeah, items cost less than they do at retail, but in most designer sales' cases, they're still not cheap. Even if you waited for two hours to get into that Phillip Lim sale and nothing catches your eye or looks on you, walk away. And remember that there's a reason why most sales have so much overstock-there's not much demand.
More from StyleCaster:
8 Weird Things You Never Knew About Your Eyebrows
How to Wear Thigh-High Boots: 5 Tips for Looking Totally Chic, Not Totally Cheap
Test-Drive a Different Hair Color Before Committing |
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Specializing in producing the brightest and tightest sublimation t-shirts possible, LATHC, aka Los Angeles Tree House Club, apparel will leave you with unmistakable steeze. Prevailing themes of ancient cultures, psychedelic animals, and explosions dominate LATHC's entire line of sublimated t-shirts, tanks, and crewneck sweatshirts. Their philosophical graphics portray some of the world's most iconic symbols with a creative twist. Scenes that date back to ancient history are remixed into a kaleidoscope of aesthetic displays. Claiming to be "an embodiment of the Los Angeles scene street-style," LATHC compiles what it means to be cool, calm, and collected.
The highly saturated visuals are created to withstand the wear and tear that an active lifestyle puts out. This high-intensity printing process delivers a vibrantly bright graphics that won't fade or crack over time ? like the screen-printed t-shirts of yesteryear. Use the past to think to the future and impress all the haters with your sick style.
2 results for: LATHC [x] » Graphic [x]
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Walker Ryan Pacific Drive Party Photos
Pacific Drive, the San Diego-based shop that Walker Ryan rides for, threw a small party to celebrate Organika‘s newest pro. All the SD locals rolled by, crushed pizzas and beer supplied by the ever-generous Kayo Corp, and partied the night away, all while Walker’s 11-1-11 part played on repeat. Good times!
(image 9 of 12)
Remind Insoles' John Makens. I was tellin' him that since skating's 90% mental, and 10% in the feet, he should look into making radioactive hats. He wasn't havin' it. |
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Comment: Re:You laugh, and we profit. (Score 1) 247
by Domini Canes (#37906366) Attached to: New Mac OS Trojan Produces BitCoins
Sigh.... there is no -1/Wrong moderation....
Dude, you have serious reading comprehension problems.
The original parent wrote (reemphasizing different word in quote):
some of us are pulling in 20-30% profits per day *TRADING* these "silly" Bitcoins
He was talking about trading bitcoints, not mining for them. Trading is not energy-intensive process (mining is).
And in trading, you can have profits during the crash as well as during the rise.
That said however, doubt the OP is profiting that much each day - average profit margin i probably less (and speculating on the wrong side can make nasty cuts in this volatile market)
Comment: Re:will he go to jail? (Score 1) 280
by Domini Canes (#35589350) Attached to: Google Engineer Releases Open Source Bitcoin Client
Criminal laws do no not require an injured party to claim damages. You are confusing them with civil laws and contracts.
True. However if the law is unjust - punishes people who did not do any reasonable harm - it is a moral imperative to struggle against such law.
But you are a "libertarian": a corporate anarchist. You don't understand government; you want to eliminate it and take your chances with corporate powers. But we have a government, because we've seen how those autocratic orgs abuse the rights and property of the people.
Baseless ad-hominem attack; also prescribing qualities and wantings for the person from thin air - he has not said anything about eliminating government in his post.
You also don't understand the most basic economics: the ounce of silver in those "dollars" was worth $10-19, averaging about $14, through 1999, but was sold for $20 (legitimate dollars). If the fake dollar's silver were worth "quite a bit more than the face value of US coin", this crook would have been losing money on every sale. Which qualifies him to be a "libertarian".
It's you who does not understand the (economics of the) situation. Those (liberty) dollars were not stamped with face value of 20 Dollar, they were stamped with face value of 1 Dollar (if I am not mistaken here; if I am - see the end of the argument) - and your argument above unravels because of this simple fact.
Think about it. The basic premise of grand-grand-parent (metlin) was that the man tried to deceive the users by making his liberty dollars (LD henceforth) very similar by design to the fed dollars (USD henceforth). So the supposed issue here is that somebody will be confused and accept LD instead of USD.
There are two cases:
EITHER the confusion/deception occurs during the original maker X-->initial buyer Y transaction.
OR the confusion/deception occurs during the intermediate holder Y -->another person Z transaction.
In the first case there can be no confusion: Y pays X a sum of 20USD (form you post - I am not sure for what price LDs were sold) and receives a coin of 1LD. He can not be confused to believe 1USD == 1LD because he would then demand 20LDs for his 20USD.
In the second case confusion may occur - the receiver Z may confuse 1LD for 1USD, but in this case Z obtains 1LD coin, silver content of which is valued "10-19 USD, averaging about 14 USD" (according to your post) instead of 1USD.
The fact that 1LD was sold above the spot silver price is normal. Coins always command some seigniorage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seigniorage) above spot bullion prices - to cover expenses of the minter.
PS In the unlikely case that LDs were stamped with the face value of 20 Dollar, there again can be no deception. AFAIK there are no official, government issued coins of 20USD denomination .
Comment: Re:A real shame (Score 2) 394
by Domini Canes (#35514300) Attached to: US Reneges On SWIFT Agreement
what guys like Lenin did, from the barbaric stuff that people like Stalin did.
That made me laugh. Care to enlighten us what barbaric stuff Stalin did, what Lenin did not
(or to put more correctly: what barbaric stuff was being done in Stalin times and in Lenin times).
a quick note, to take some options from the table: concentration camps existed in both Stalin and Lenin times, and are even older. I don't know who invented this concept, but if I am not mistaken, they were already known as concept and operational in Anglo-Boer War times (~1900ies)
Porsche Unveils 911 Hybrid With Flywheel Booster 197
Posted by timothy
from the yeah-well-I-get-better-mileage dept.
Comment: Re:Update (Score 1) 456
by Domini Canes (#29379723) Attached to: China Considering Cuts In Rare-Earth Metal Exports
Ah, you think in the right direction here my friend, however there is one more step you are missing.
Actually those 300m people could get to US (provided that there is enough water along the route) if they resort to cannibalism.
In such setup quite a few people would get through, eating their fellow-travelers.
It's a little bit like a rocket equation - rocket goes up, carrying rocket fuel and spending that rocket fuel along the way.
You just need to plug the right constants into equation.
I would SWAG that some 50m (1 out of 6) would get through to USA.
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Comment: Re:Can a bitcoin advocate explain.... (Score 1) 149
by Richy_T (#46203345) Attached to: Florida Arrests High-Dollar Bitcoin Exchangers For Money Laundering
As a Bitcoin advocate, I think it's more likely that people fear what they don't understand. There's this new thing out so people (news services) are looking for the scary stories. Criminal activity in Bitcoin usage is dwarfed by that in the USD, even proportionally
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