otpid/web huggingface dataset:
I have been watching Underbelly, I got the dvd set.  I only saw a few episodes on tv, enough to make me go read up about the whole gangland war which was apparently well publicised at the time in Victoria and nowhere else.  It's a good series, the story is interesting, the characters well played (whether they are true to life is open to interpretation).  In reading up about the real life events that inspired the series, I saw a lot of criticism for the way the criminal world is romanticised in the series.  Carl Williams receives a great deal of fan mail, and despite the fact that he is a convicted murderer, seems to have attained some popular celebrity.  This isn't necessarily a new thing.  There is precedence for Australia's fascination with Outlaws.  There was Chopper Read, notorious in the melbourne crime world.  There was Ned Kelly, the most famous of our bushrangers who was executed at Melbourne Gaol.  Ok, so maybe it's just Victorians.  Which is probably why the series was banned there, on account of their inability to watch criminal dramatisations and remain objective.  Or maybe it will just make them wonder why no one has offered to pay them off.  It's my birthday in 2 days, I'll be turning 30.
There is nothing quite like resting in your favorite lounge chair after a long day at work, and better still if there is a footstool to prop your tired feet up. Just make sure the socks don't stink, aye? The  RoboStool Footstool  could help make your life a little bit easier, as it is more than willing to support your feet whenever summoned. It will feature three modes - universal remote, beacon navigation, and thermal sensor following. If you have the DIY know-how to build one of these yourself, why not  check out the schematics  and immerse yourself in one interesting summer project?
Well, it is the end of July - August, the hottest month of the year, begins tomorrow.  I must say, I’m not looking forward to the heat.  Still, it brings us one month closer to Fall.  I’m not looking forward to winter but I am looking forward to Fall.  I’ve been in Iowa for four months now…pretty amazing.   I was watching a movie of mine that shows people swimming around in the ocean…ok, a few are being eaten by Jaws but that isn’t my point so I won’t mention it….and as I look at the crystal clear water, I find I don’t miss it one little bit.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the ocean but I no longer feel this desire to live by it or even to scuba dive anymore.  It is all gone from living there for the eight years.
I've been testing out  infoMed MD , a new website that provides personalized answers to medical questions based on short questionnaires. The technology isn't especially novel but I kind of like the approach and the way it's been executed.    The user starts by browsing a list of topics, such as anabolic steroids, bad breath, botox and cataract. After answering a few questions the user reaches a screen that summarizes the answers and provides personalized advice and links. What I like about it is that the answers contain real opinions, not just the usual WebMD stuff. One downside: it costs $6.95 to take each infoMed. I'm not sure how many takers there will be. However, the company also offers  custom infoMeds  that physicians can integrate into their practices.
I really want to write about  Margaret Allen  -- my former classmate, co-worker and friend.  But every time I start writing I find myself getting angry and discussing her senseless murder, the evil and cowardly murderer, and the fucked up system (I'm thinking society and the way we devalue life and God) that let this happen.  The newspaper reporter called me.  The TV reporters wanted to interview me.  They asked if I had anything to say. I did.  But what.  I didn't do it.  But I tried to put them in touch with her family.  See, I was afraid the lazy media would mess the story up if they didn't get the right interview.  Then I saw her neighbors on TV. I didn't like what they had to say.  They didn't know Margaret.  White woman is scared.  If they didn't have anything good to say, they should've declined to do the interview.  Maybe I should've done the interview after all.  Right now, I want to write about Margaret's life; the lessons she taught me; the reasons I admired her (I wonder if I ever told her that); and maybe even about how her death could and should serve as a reminder to all of us that life is short and we never know when it will end so we should spend time focused on important things.  I want to write about her... but I can't. At least not right now. Sorry.
from  The Politico  Ben Smith  It wasnt so long ago that John McCain was The New York Times' favorite Republican.  Now, the editorial board is apparently so fed up that they can't wait until next day's paper and is blogging about him in the middle of the day:     [T]here was something surreal, and offensive, about today’s soundbite from the campaign of Senator John McCain.     The presumptive Republican nominee has embarked on a bare-knuckled barrage of negative advertising aimed at belittling Mr. Obama. The most recent ad compares the presumptive Democratic nominee for president to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton — suggesting to voters that he’s nothing more than a bubble-headed, publicity-seeking celebrity.     The ad gave us an uneasy feeling that the McCain campaign was starting up the same sort of racially tinged attack on Mr. Obama that Republican operatives, some of whom work for Mr. McCain now, ran against Harold Ford, a black candidate for Senate in Tennessee in 2006. That assault, too, began with videos juxtaposing Mr. Ford with young, white women.     Mr. Obama called Mr. McCain on the ploy, saying, quite rightly, that the Republicans are trying to scare voters by pointing out that he “doesn’t look like all those other Presidents on those dollar bills.’’     But Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, had a snappy answer. “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck,” he said. “It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.’’     The retort was, we must say, not only contemptible, but shrewd. It puts the sin for the racial attack not on those who made it, but on the victim of the attack.     It also — and we wish this were coincidence, but we doubt it — conjurs up another loaded racial image.     The phrase dealing the race card “from the bottom of the deck” entered the national lexicon during the O.J. Simpson saga. Robert Shapiro, one of Mr. Simpson’s lawyers, famously declared of himself, Johnny Cochran and the rest of the Simpson defense team, “Not only did we play the race card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck.”
Filed under:  News     During a recent interview with ONM,  Masahiro Sakurai  talked about his latest game,  Super Smash Bros. Brawl , among other things. What might be of most interest to us all is that he's apparently willing to work on another  Smash Bros.  game.  "It's interesting, because after every  Smash Bros.  game I've made, I've always felt at that time that I've left nothing out," he says. "However, I also understand that there are millions of fans out there who love the series so if Mr Iwata came to me in a few years time and asked me to make another one, I'd have to give it some serious thought." A few years? You're kidding! We want another game  now . And can we get  less things cut out of the game  this time around, please?     Gallery: Smash Bros. Brawl Snapshots                    [Via  Go Nintendo ]        Permalink  |  Email this  |  Linking Blogs  |  Comments                          Ads by Google
Filed under:  Cellphones         We're not sure how this one got past Apple's App Store censors, but the clever kids at Nullriver have released what appears to be the first tethering solution for the iPhone. The $10 NetShare app is just a SOCKS proxy that links an ad-hoc WiFi network to the iPhone's 3G or EDGE connection -- and if we could get it to work, we'd probably think it was a fine, if hacky, solution to a major limitation of Steve's baby. As it stands, though, the instructions are pretty sparse, and while we can get the app to recognize a connection, we're not able to actually load anything. We're not sure how long this one's going to last -- anyone else willing to give it a shot before it gets yanked?  [Thanks, Zoli; Warning, link opens iTunes]   Read  |  Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments
(13 Feb 2003)   Fractal measures of images of continuous maps from the set of p-adic numbers Qp into complex plane C are analyzed. Examples of "anomalous" fractals, i.e. the sets where the D-dimensional Hausdorff measures (HM) are trivial, i.e. either zero, or sigma-infinite (D is the Hausdorff dimension (HD) of this set) are presented. Using the Caratheodory construction, the generalized scale-covariant HM (GHM) being non-trivial on such fractals are constructed. In particular, we present an example of 0-fractal, the continuum with HD=0 and nontrivial GHM invariant w.r.t. the group of all diffeomorphisms C. For conformal transformations of domains in R^n, the formula for the change of variables for GHM is obtained. The family of continuous maps Qp in C continuously dependent on "complex dimension" d in C is obtained. This family is such that: 1) if d=2(1), then the image of Qp is C (real axis in C); 2) the fractal measures coincide with the images of the Haar measure in Qp, and at d=2(1) they also coincide with the flat (linear) Lebesgue measure; 3) integrals of entire functions over the fractal measures of images for any compact set in Qp are holomorphic in d, similarly to the dimensional regularization method in QFT.
Tired and Thirsty   The Italian says, I'm tired and thirsty. I must have wine.     The Scot says, I'm tired and thirsty. I must have scotch.      The Swede says, I'm tired and thirsty. I must have aquavit.       The Russian says, I'm tired and thirsty. I must have vodka.      The German says, I'm tired and thirsty. I must have beer.     The Greek says, I'm tired and thirsty. I must have ouzo.      The Jew says, I'm tired and thirsty. I must have diabetes.                  *Although diabetes is now present in my family -- and perhaps in yours -- I still love this joke, and hope that nobody is offended by it.
A few 60GB Xbox 360s may have already slipped out to retailers (as evidenced above), but if you're not interested in running around trying to track one down, you can now snag one from Amazon and rest assured that it'll ship out post haste. If you've been following this SKU's every move, you'll notice that's a few days ahead of the August 4th date that Amazon once listed, and the August 6th date that Circuit City still does -- but hey, we're not complaining.
By Libby   Bush signed a new order on intelligence agencies  vesting almost complete power  in his national intelligence director,  Mike McConnell .  The CIA will no longer be in charge of intelligence policy. They will now be merely implementing the decisions of Bush's appointee.   The White House felt compelled to volunteer that no civil rights were abridged in the making of this drastic revamp of 50 years of tradition. A sure sign that there's something buried in the paper that does. I can hardly wait for the public release to find out, how.
Foster care advocates and stakeholders gathered at the State Capitol recently to provide testimony on the challenges and solutions needed to strengthen California’s foster care system, the largest foster care system in the nation. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, (D-Los Angeles) and the Assembly Select Committee on Foster Care, chaired by Assemblymember Jim Beall, Jr.,(D- San Jose), listened to foster care advocates outline best practices on helping families stay together, providing support for social workers and ensuring the well-being of foster youth and families. Here’s more in this Assembly Web Report.
Matt wants some measurement of organizing?Here's a simple measure.  Are people who were not previously privileged with the advantages of professional status, wealth or other social capital taking leadership?While the blogs and Moveon have undoubtedly done a good job of allowing educated, tech-savvy folks who were not active politically to gain important information to take action, those involved in the netroots are overwhelmingly those who were personally empowered in many ways and were  ----  link        LeftWord: The Best Liberal Blog Posts
Hi everyone, the  September  issue of  Ageha  is now out in  Japan !  It’s a jam packed issue of the latest Gal  styles  from the  Kansai  area which includes  Kobe ,  Osaka , and  Kyoto   Japan .  You can check out the lastest “best of” shots and photos on  Ricoche .net or view MySpace or Facebook and Add Me.  I’ll have more info and photographs there as well.  EnjoY!
Setting aside suppositions of  Lewis Carroll's  inappropriate attraction to little girls, Alice in Wonderland has, more than once, inspired dirty incarnations of itself.  Thanks to the vast uselessness of the internet, I have discovered the existence of  Alice in Wonderland  the porno musical comedy. Something for everyone. We found a few clips on Youtube, so these clips don't actually include any visible rude bits, but you can pretty much guess what may happen next. It may still offend delicate sensibilities and isn't really safe for work, so don't say I didn't warn you.          It looks to be a lot more lighthearted than the Alan Moore collection of graphic novels,  Lost Girls . God that was depressing. In case you haven't heard about it, it's the story of the grown up Dorothy, Wendy, and Alice of Oz, Neverland, and Wonderland respectively who meet up in a rather debauched hotel that hosts a fair number of orgies of very broken, sad people. The women share stories of their sexual awakenings, which rather controversially took place during their childhoods. It's not for everyone, and is quite disturbing, so don't say I didn't warn you should you be curious enough to pick it up. It's an exploration of dark erotic fantasies that arouse some and damage others, sometimes achieving both effects on the same individual within the context of the tale. Only Alan Moore would tackle a subject as dangerous as that. Despite his looking like a Charlie Manson follower, he's probably loads of fun down the pub.
Feminist bloggers are spotting them left and right. Keep up the good work, ladies!   Sarah Seltzer at RH Reality Check :    The movie, seen so close in proximity to the more acclaimed Batman flick, did have me thinking about the part gender plays in what we determine to be serious. While  The Dark Knight  dealt with themes of power and violence,  Mamma Mia!  was about the more domestic, but no less universal, themes of family and forgiveness -- but both films were primarily interested in showy visual sequences. Critics slobbered all over themselves heaping praise on the former, while many admitted being embarrassed by  Mamma Mia!  The contrast between the way the two have been received makes one wonder why, to start with, we consider singing and dancing showpieces to be "silly" while Batpods, metal suits, and improbably-rigged explosives are allowed be taken quite seriously. We're quick to forgive the tokenization of female characters as villain-bait in superhero movies, but critics whine when men in movies like  Mama Mia!  and  Sex in the City  are relegated to love interest status.    Pop Feminist :  The actual material content constituting girl culture is cheap and depreciates with time. With possibly clothing and being the greatest expense, its value does not exceed point-of-purchase, girl-centered magazines like 16 are printed on perishable black and white newsprint, disposable accessories like stickers and lip gloss litter her purse, dime-novels are tossed in with the other Wal-Mart appropriate merchandising that has only a prayer to turn a profit on the fringes of ebay. Although girls are considered to be the hyper-consumers, it is boy culture in which we must invest.   Though video games and gaming consuls must be upgraded constantly, the "cred" of having an Atari or arcade game is considerable, comic books carry the potential of "collectors editions" leering behind counter glass, same goes for baseball cards, same goes for action figures. Re-editions and special editions of Star Wars and Star Trek mark the originals as hot commodities. Though there are notable exceptions, like a fine wine, boy culture value increases with age, whereas girl culture is largely marked by its dispensability.    Jennifer Kesler at The Hathor Legacy :   In every walk of life, men are perceived as having a right to stand up for what they believe and/or “misbehave” - no matter how we disagree with what they’ve said or done. Women who step out of line are perceived as needing punishment - a good spanking to teach us our places. Additionally, our motives are more likely to be treated as suspect - it can’t be that we really believe what we’re saying. We must have an agenda.
Here's a good post idea: what constitutes a fanboy? Am I a fanboy because I am excited about about a sequel to a movie 26 years old? Am I a fanboy if I don't know whether fanboy is two words or not?  Anyway, here is a really shitty bootleg of the  Tron 2 Trailer  from Comic Con. I mean seriously, my four year old could have done a better job shooting than this dude. Okay, so watch the trailer and answer me this. Is Flynn the new MCP?  Thanks to Jeremy at  the martini shaker  for the link. Lazy Eye Theatre - Wandering Film Talk
The carp angler's bible! Over 270 pages of carp fishing advice from the home of carp fishing. Carp fishing Secrets. -  http://www. shop onlinefind.com/traffic/ Have you got a great product or service, plus an effective website that's professional and attractive, but you still can't generate the sales volume you know should be yours? If so, then your […]        Analysis & Review of  the Webinator Search Engine     In this review, I cover every aspect of the Thunderstone Webinator search engine, looking    at what's possible, what's special and what's missing. I've been much helped by the posts on the Webinator    support mailing list and the frank answers from Thunderstone's representative, as well as several working    indexes on one of their test appliances.   See my full review for details of indexing, access control, query processing, retrieval, relevance ranking, results page layout and search reports, and my conclusions.
From  National Geographic :  Though many of its functions remain mysterious, previous research found that the device tracked and displayed the date, a 19-year calendar, and the positions of the sun and moon.  The mechanism even predicted eclipses—though with limited accuracy—using an 18-year eclipse cycle, called the Saros cycle, that was known to Babylonian astronomers centuries before the mechanism was built.  Now members of an international collaboration called the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project have used high-resolution 3-D scans to examine "slices" of the mechanism's 82 fragments.  The scans allowed the team to read previously hidden text inscriptions that showed an unexpected feature: a dial for tracking the timing of the Panhellenic games. I blogged about the Antikythera mechanism before.  For many years it's purpose was unknown, but more modern technology has enable researchers to start figuring it out.  The more they discover, the more fascinating it becomes.
So, as I am sitting here looking on facebook and random other things I frequent, and I come across something. Have you ever seen something that makes your heart sink in your stomach? It’s something I can’t control. Yet my heart aches. Yet for some reason I can’t cry. The tears don’t come. Maybe another day. I find myself with a range of raw emotions…yet I’m not sure what to do with them. I can lay them at the foot of the cross….where Jesus said I could always take them.   Forgiveness doesn’t come easy. I’m learning it’s a daily thing. So why this overwhelmingness all of a sudden? Why did You want me to see what I saw tonight?  Jesus, is it okay to tell you that I ache? Is it okay to say that I’m hurt and mad? Is it okay to wish that this is all a dream? My dad encouraged me today and told me to focus on today, not the past or the future, today. Step by step. And mine are baby steps and minute by minute steps. Is it okay to go minute by minute and not put pressure on yourself to do it so quickly? Sure. Is it easy? No. Will He always be there? Yes. I’m not through the fire yet, I’m in it, yet not burned.
In just a few short weeks (August 22nd), there will be a St. Louis startup event called the  ITEN Elevator Pitch Intensive .  This event is an opportunity for IT startup founders or potential founders to come and practice your pitch.  We'll be doing this in a fun competitive manner.  It will be a great chance to hone your pitch and meet other startup founders in the St. Louis area.   Even if you don't have a pitch to give, you can come and see the winning pitches!
President Bush's Last Speech to the Radio and TV Correspondents 94th Annual Dinner President George W. Bush makes his last appearance as President at the 94th Annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. CBS Late Night Pres. George W. Bush makes his last appearance as President at this ever popular dinner. Bush had an amazing rapport with the press and this last dinner shows his relationship with  the press and the back and forth nature that they have had throughout his presidency.
We're back from Seattle, where we spent a week on vacation and   attended my cousin's wedding. I love Seattle! We always have so much   fun out there. This time was a bit different, Maya takes some extra   planning due to naps and feeding. Highlights include dinner at Mashiko ( sushiwhore.com ) where we each   ate a beautiful chirashi - sashimi on a bowl of rice - while Maya   slept.  Walking around the Fremont Sunday market. Running in Myrtle   Edwards Park on Elliot Bay. Dinner at Vios Cafe. Walking along the   piers with Steph and Maya. I'm happy to be home... But I can't wait to go back!
Filed under:  Interviews        What's that you say? Microsoft's new  Avatars  system for the Xbox 360 is just a rip-off of Nintendo's Miis? Poppycock and slander! Microsoft man John Schappert has explained to MCV that Avatars are merely a natural development of Microsoft's online strategy. Like,  obviously .  "It'd be remiss to say that we don't enjoy playing on the other systems and we have a lot of respect for the work that Miyamoto-san and Nintendo do," remarked Schappert, warming up for a "but," "but I think it's a logical extension of our Gamercard, Gamertag and Achievements." Commence reverse peristalsis!  Schappert's denial is kind of predictable, as nobody will  ever  be able to  absolutely prove  just how much Miis influenced Avatars. With Schappert's beloved Miyamoto admitting to being " quite flattered " by Avatars, we have a hunch about what Nintendo might think.
The New Jazz Thing is LIVE! Thursday, July 31, 2008 between 6 and 8 pm PT on Jazz 88.3, KSDS San Diego, 88.3 FM with World Wide Webcast at  http://Jazz88.org !  Quick Link:  Jazz 88.3 Playlist Archive for Thursday, July 31, 2008    Tonight on the show…Vocalist  Jesse Palter  chats with us near the top of the 7 PM PT hour about a couple of dates in San Diego next weekend, including a benefit for her foundation. And a ton of great New Jazz Music Things!
We were not able to attend the school orientation the other day due to some unavoidable issue. I was glad that we made it to the open house and met both teachers of the boys. We both like the new teacher of Zack because we’ve heard so much good things about her. Our Dylan is going to the same teacher that Zack had before. I can’t wait to buy all the school stuffs of the kids tomorrow to get over it. The school will supply all Dylan’s needs except the sleeping mat and book pack.  I wish they will supply the second grade too “hehhehe”. Anyway, that’s all for tonight folks.