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It was on the first of December 1914 that the Maserati Brothers founded Maserati, a marque destined to go down in motoring history, in Bologna. However, a year before, in 1913, Alfieri Maserati had opened an Isotta Fraschini garage in Bologna, although he only worked there for a short time before founding Società Anonima Alfieri Maserati. Initially, the Maserati business was a garage, operating in Bologna, at number 1 on Via de' Pepoli; the Maserati Brothers started working on their own car designs, until the outbreak of the First World War.
During the Twenties and Thirties, the Maserati garage continued to turn out racing cars for sale all over the world, also producing on-road cars with all the marque's distinctive elegance combined with sporty performance derived from the racing circuit. In 1937, when the Orsi family took over the management of the business, Maserati moved from its original headquarters in Bologna to a location in Modena, on Viale Ciro Menotti, where some of the marque's key sports and GT cars are still designed and built today.
Once the War was over, Alfieri was determined to get his dream back on the road, so he found a disused demijohn factory in the Pontevecchio district, at number 179, Frazione Alemanni, Bologna. The new premises were large enough for the Maserati Brothers to move there with their families, and it was here that the business acquired the name of Officine Alfieri Maserati SA. In the meantime, during the War, Alfieri Maserati had also opened a spark plug factory in Milan under the name Fabbrica Candele Maserati; in 1919, it also moved to Bologna.
At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, engines were not at all reliable and a large proportion of malfunctions were caused by their electrical systems. In 1907, by changing the voltage of his Bianchi's electrics, Carlo Maserati solved all the problems relating to failure to ignite the fuel inside the combustion chamber. This improved reliability considerably, giving better performance and more continuous power output.
Alfieri went on to discover that some of the problems of the spark plugs were due to their poor insulation, so he developed a new model insulated using mica, a special mineral that allowed engines to perform much better, improving their reliability considerably.
The Maserati Tipo 26 MM is a sports car derived from the original Maserati Tipo 26, although it adopts only some of this car's technical features. The Maserati brothers equipped the car with all the latest technical and technological inventions, specifically creating it for endurance racing.
During the early years of the brand's history, the Maserati brothers tried out various technical methods for improving their racing cars' performance. One outstanding example of this constant striving for better performance is the Maserati V4, a racing car with a V16 engine produced by combining two straight eight engine blocks from the Maserati Tipo 26, the car from which the V4's chassis and bodywork were also taken. This gave the Maserati V4 amazing power with excellent performance, although its handling deteriorated due to the very heavy weight on its front axle.
The Tipo 26R was a two-seater racer incorporating the latest technology, which improved on the mechanics of the Maserati Tipo 26. In 1928 the Maserati Brothers built the Maserati Tipo 26 R, a racing car with a 1,690 c.c engine with smaller connecting-rods than the original model, equipped with unusual roller-type main bearings. These roller bearings put the R in the name of this car, just two of which were built.
One of the Maserati 4CM's main characteristics was its braking system, with hydraulically operated brakes that provided better control of braking and thus improved the car's racing performance.
The Maserati Siluro 4CM Carenato was one of the first experimental cars revolutionized research into aerodynamics. Extreme forms, styled by skilled arronautic engineers and aided by impeccable construction.
In the late Thirties, development in car design was proceeding at a whirlwind pace in the Maserati workshops, with a wealth of new ideas, innovations and technologies. The study of aerodynamics was in its infancy, but Maserati missed no opportunity to try to improve its cars with the aid of specialists in this sector, and came up with a number of innovative solutions it would also use on the models of the future.
Almost all the racing-cars of that time had mudguards, a design feature which not only generated aerodynamic turbulence but also hindered the car's efficiency, limiting its speed and performance. At Maserati, the decision was therefore taken to try out new forms of bodywork, creating innovative shapes and coverings which would maximise the car's aerodynamic efficiency: this led to the birth of the Maserati 4CL "Streamliner" or "Carenato" in Italian.
In spite of its excellent design, the new eight cylinder engines of the competition had rendered the Maserati 6CM obsolete; the time had come to write a new page in engine history. So Ernesto Maserati developed the Maserati 4CL, a single-seater racer designed for the Voiturette class of the top international Grand Prix races and featuring what were then futuristic technical solutions, which enabled it to achieve no less than 31 successes between 1939, the year when it went into production, and the arrival of the Maserati A6 GCM in 1950, after a long stoppage due to the outbreak of the Second World War.
In the late Forties, Ernesto Maserati decided to create a new car for the brand, to be built around an essential key feature: the 1.5 litre six cylinder engine. In 1945, Luigi Villoresi and Guerino Bertocchi were already testing the first bare chassis built for this car, with just four wheels, brakes, steering and engine (no bodywork) on the San Veneziano road near Modena, starting the development of what was to become a Maserati icon of the Fifties.
The Maserati A6G 54, the model from which the Maserati A6G 54 Zagato Spyder derives, is based on a conventional tubular chassis built by the specialist Gilco, directly derived from the chassis of the original A6G. It was equipped with a two litre engine built in alloy throughout, with two overhead camshafts, a definite improvement over the previous models. The use of a timing chain provided greater simplicity than the gearing system by which the valves were operated in the racing models. The car's performance, aided by its four-speed gearbox, was impressive, with a top speed of about 210 kilometres an hour.
The Maserati 3500 GT was a very important car for the marque and the first Italian production car to be fitted with an indirect fuel injection system. The Maserati 3500 GT was launched in 1957 and was immediately successful on a worldwide scale.
Maserati's Chief Engineer Giulio Alfieri got to work on an absolutely revolutionary chassis, designed to be lightweight but extremely rigid, to deliver outstanding performance and superb handling. This led to the birth of the Bird Cage chassis, an ingenious structure that enabled Maserati to get back to winning ways. This type of chassis provided the basis for five different cars, the Maserati Tipo 60, Tipo 61, Tipo 63, Tipo 64 and the modern, Birdcage 75th.
In 1962, Maserati built a new racing model designed to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hour race, after a number of formal requests from private racing teams. The result was the Maserati Tipo 151, a coupé with longitudinally front-mounted engine, which also incorporated the first use of several interesting technical features that would be further developed in subsequent years.
Ghia built the Simun on a Maserati Tipo 116 chassis, which was to provide the basis for the future road variant. At the same time Vignale also created a prototype, which was chosen instead of the Simun and was produced as the Maserati Indy. The single Maserati Simun built, was fitted with a 4,136 cc eight-cylinder engine capable of generating more than 260 horsepower. It had a five-speed manual transmission, which drove the rear wheels in keeping with the brand's tradition.
In 1971 Italdesign Giugiaro presented the Maserati Boomerang, one of the most irreverent concept cars in Maserati's entire history. The Boomerang had an extremely futuristic design, conceived to be several years ahead of the Brand's style, launching a wedge-shaped form which would later be used on several other cars. It featured daring lines and a body that was very low, wide and aerodynamic: a real racing car conceived for the road.
The Maserati Medici, which went on public display for the first time at the 1974 Turin Motor Show, was a car that immediately got heads turning due to its design features. It took the wedged shape so fashionable at the time and evolved it into a four-door saloon design, with glass roof and characteristics never previously seen in the marque's cars. After a large number of stylistic changes and the development of new mechanics, the Maserati Medici's design was actually the foundation for the third generation of the Maserati Quattroporte.
In 1974, the Citroen era was in full swing and Maserati was in search of a new style for its cars. During those years, Giugiaro's Italdesign firm was working with Maserati on new design ideas for its sports cars, and it was in 1974 that the Maserati Tipo 124, also known as the Italdesign 124, was built to a design by Giorgetto Giugiaro himself.
On 14 December 1990, Maserati presented one of the most innovative prototypes of its history: the Chubasco. Unveiled to the press, customers and dealers during the annual Maserati festivities in Modena, the Maserati Chubasco shared the stage with two new models: the Maserati Shamal and the Maserati Racing. The Chubasco was built to be the car of every enthusiast's dreams and was shaped by a pure passion for fast cars using the most sophisticated technologies the early Nineties had to offer.
In the late Nineties, Fiat purchased a 100% stake in Maserati. Maserati decided to mark this fresh start by creating a new car that would re-awaken the Brand's spirit with lines that were innovative but also elegant and sporty. The result was the Maserati 3200 GT, with countless new technical and stylistic features that proved to be pointers to the future. One of the car's most interesting details was its tail lights, as Maserati became one of the world's first constructors to use LED lights on a standard production car.
With the arrival of the new century, Maserati set its sights on a triumphant return to the American market. Maserati choose the US as the location for the launch of a new open-top sports car, to re-conquer the hearts of American auto enthusiasts. The Geneva Motor Show in early 2001 saw the presentation of a prototype conceived for the racetrack, the Maserati 320S Barchetta, a model created to preview the lines of the Maserati Spyder, which was to make its debut at the Frankfurt show a few months later.
This concept car was created in 2005 to celebrate the 75th birthday of Pininfarina, using the name and imitating the innovative character of the iconic Maserati Birdcage cars that played such a starring role in Sixties motorsports. A dream car, created not to be functional but to remain in the memory over the years. Futuristic technical features such as the dome to protect the occupants, gave an extremely streamlined look and a design that immediately earned a place in the history books.
The Alfieri Concept Car, presented at the 2014 Geneva Auto Show, is more than a concept. It's a statement. Proving once more that Maserati is a sports-car company to it's very core, and paving the way for the continuation of Maserati's racing legacy.
Maserati has always focused strongly on the development of innovative engineering solutions, but one fundamental factor behind its race victories has been its research into ultra light alloys. Since its foundation, the Brand has constantly been on the lookout for stiffer, lighter materials to enable it to improve its cars' dynamic performance, first on the track and then on the road, giving customers unique driving sensations, unrivalled sports handling and sheer enjoyment.
The Maserati Tipo 26 MM is a sports car derived from the original Maserati Tipo 26, although it adopts only some of this car's technical features. The Maserati brothers equipped the car with all the latest technical and technological inventions, specifically creating it for endurance racing.
During the early years of the brand's history, the Maserati brothers tried out various technical methods for improving their racing cars' performance. One outstanding example of this constant striving for better performance is the Maserati V4, a racing car with a V16 engine produced by combining two straight eight engine blocks from the Maserati Tipo 26, the car from which the V4's chassis and bodywork were also taken. This gave the Maserati V4 amazing power with excellent performance, although its handling deteriorated due to the very heavy weight on its front axle.


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WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- House Republican leaders offered a new plan to raise the U.S. debt limit and reopen the government after meeting with President Barack Obama, a GOP aide said.
The offer, made late Thursday, would allow the House to vote as early as Friday on a six-week extension of the debt ceiling and set up immediate negotiations to end the government shutdown that began Oct. 1, The Hill reported.
The GOP leadership aide said the offer calls for two sets of high-level talks -- one to reopen the government and one on a broader budget deal that would fund the government through 2014 and raise the debt ceiling.
"We are waiting to hear back from The White House," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee who was among the House GOP contingent that met with Obama Thursday. "My sense is we are getting close to getting it done."
The development came as Obama met Friday with Senate Republicans, who were cool to House Speaker John Boehner's proposal Thursday that would raise the debt ceiling for six weeks but keep the government shuttered.
House Republicans said do not expect a response from the White House until after Obama's meeting with Republican senators.
Senate Republicans are floating a plan that would deal with the debt ceiling and immediately reopen the government, The Hill said.
The Treasury Department said the United States will hit its debt ceiling Oct. 17 and will not be able to pay its bills.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said concessions from the White House must be included in any plan to reopen the government, adding that he opposes any plan that includes a yearlong or six-month continuing resolution -- a bill that would temporarily fund the federal government -- that some Senate Republicans have proposed.
"The staff on both sides are trying to isolate the conditions of the CR," Rogers said. "A year or even a six-month CR would be disastrous [because] it is a punt to the executive branch not to exercise judgment as to where the money is spent."
He said it hasn't been decided whether the funding bill would be packaged with the debt limit in one vote.
Rogers indicated his caucus has been influenced by a new Wall Street Journal poll showing support for the GOP has fallen to 24 percent, the lowest since 1989. Other national polls found Republicans are bearing the brunt of public outrage over the budget impasse.
Conservative Rep. John Fleming, R-La., warned negotiators must get something in exchange for reopening the government.
"There aren't the votes for a clean CR, at least among Republicans," he told reporters.
Obama said Tuesday Republicans "don't get to demand ransom for doing their jobs."
He said the White House he is willing to negotiate any budget item -- including healthcare -- but not under the threat of a shutdown or debt default.
"We can't make extortion ... part of our democracy. ... As reckless as a government shutdown is, an economic shutdown caused by America defaulting would be infinitely worse," the president said.
The president dared the House leadership to put a no-strings-attached continuing resolution to a vote, saying he believed there were enough Democrats and Republicans votes to pass the bill, contrary to what the House leadership has said. Several media tallies indicated there were enough votes from both parties to carry a clean CR.

subset: commoncrawl


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Dolce far niente.
Ah, the sweet pleasures of doing absolutely nothing. Apparently it's only the Italian's that lived, and continue to live the mantra. (Well, maybe also the Greeks but let's skip over the reoccurring issues with this ideology and the economy at large for the purposes of my post).
I'm all for a lazy coffee or cocktail (not always dependant on the time of day it must be said) where we watch time and people pass by and have no anxieties about where we are or where we 'should' be; that day, or for that matter, that week. Unfortunately for many of us, this is the stuff we reserve for only well planned holidays. Point the camera, smile, upload to Facebook. Check 'likes' – how many people love that I'm having an awesome time at this awesome 5 star hotel? wonderful. sorted.
Enter the complex and narcissistic tendencies of interlinked social relationships and careers on contract. Enter the time watch. Enter the digital age. Enter the busy urbanite. Enter, Social Marketing.
If you don't have a website, a blog, Facebook (personal and company page of course), Twitter account, a running LinkedIn profile, updated Gorkana listing, Polyvore, Pinterest, A Small World, an Android AND iPhone (one for function and one for peer recognition), oh and Foursquare – everyone must know where I am at all times (heaven forbid we'd go under the radar for the night, even though we are probably conducting 4 or 5 Whatsapp and BBM conversations at the time of 'Check-in') – we simply become irrelevant if we aren't in the 'scene' of a young and highly competitive environment.
This paragraph might need to be dedicated to hypocrisy. I have all of the accounts listed above and tap into several of them each day, often over several times a day. Sometimes I'm even sat at my laptop, receive an email and respond to it on my Blackberry (my only phone for now by the way) just because it's in front of me – and because it gives me a window of time in my day to quickly glance the latest tweets and promptly delete from my two email accounts; because having had notification from Google a few days ago, I'm apparently reaching maximum capacity on my Gmail. Has anyone had this issue? I had no idea you needed to 'pay for extra storage' – my brain is running at maximum capacity now. Yikes. Call in a storage shed where I can park some unused social data for a while.
Most of our careers involve different levels of social media integration. I've recently come across the term 'Social Marketing'- quite rightly indicating that old marketing practices such as direct marketing email campaigning and expensive commercials are all but dead in the way we have used them in the past.
We interact in a different, more personal way now. We feel like we have intimate relationships with brands and even the people behind their creation. I have friends that refer to Mark Zuckerberg (The co-founder and CEO of Facebook for those not in the know) as 'Zucca'. If that's not scary then I don't know what is!
While Marketing and Public Relations once worked in beautiful harmony, it seems that the one term of 'online marketing' or 'digital marketing' encompasses all functionalities into the one role. Strategy must now include the levels of cross channel social media integration a brand and/or product must hit on to make profit. Results are constantly analysed. As they are in our own lives.
The interesting thing about business now is that the leaders of the pack are young, techie AND incredibly social. They have their HTML code creating eyes and plugged in ears on everything new and are able to creatively devise ways of adapting principles into their own businesses. Somewhere in their day they are also reading and extensively researching.
The ability to change and roll with new developments has become the most pivotal aspect in our modern lives. Social media isn't only changing our working lives either – it's a pressure cooker for our personal lives that requires a constant maintenance and ironing out of bumps in the night. We sometimes sadly can't help the lack of tact or censorship our virtual friends present us with. Un-friending can result in a social suicide.
We are all brand marketers in actual fact, some quite obviously better than others. We have all effectively become brands overnight and the way we are perceived online might as well be the difference between a job offer or dare I say it – a date? There's a profile box and about me section on Facebook to prove it.
Our entire lives are on display for the public to see and (perhaps) ridicule. Let's not forget that Facebook was created by an anti-social nerd looking to meet hot college girls.
So I am going to log-off for now before the raging debate of how much information is too much information kicks off.
Is the term 'mystery' now a foreign concept forever or are you able to segment the aspects of your life into well disclosed files?
Anyway, you can find me at an un-checked wine stacked venue this afternoon, busy at living out the most over-looked principle of our time. Maybe I'll forget my mobile.
Dolce far niente


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Holiday Musings: projects, crafts, creative activities for all ages
There's nothing like cutting, coloring, pasting, folding and creating fun projects! Turn off your iPhone, shut down your computer, get out the crayons, glue, scissors and colored pencils and have some real-world, real-time fun! There's really nothing like it. Here are just a few suggestions ...
- My Christmas Tree: An Easy-to-Make Tabletop Model
- Make Your Own Greeting Cards Paperback
- Christmas Color by Number
- A Christmas Treasury
Then you can enjoy the free, downloadable samples, and a gift from Fred! November 25, 2015


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As expected, Microsoft's new online shopfront for PC games has gone live. We were promised a bigger, better store. So has it delivered?
I don't like it. Not yet, anyways. It certainly looks pretty, its minimal appearance a nice break from Steam's clutter of buttons and menus and buttons within menus within menus. This theme carries into the individual game information screens, as you get a few screenshots, a short information blurb and the button to buy the thing.
But as a functional store? As in, a place where you can browse things? It needs work. While you can sort games by things like price and release date, the store will only ever display ten games at a time, meaning you need to plough through page after page of search results to browse the entire catalogue. From beginning to end that's fourteen pages of games. While you can search by title, it needs options to break things down a little, like Steam's "show me everything under $5" menu.
It's also (in most cases) far too expensive. Age of Empires III for $40? If you pay more than $20 for that game, even at an online retailer, you're mad.
I like where it's going - especially compared to the old marketplace - but if Microsoft hopes to lure customers away from Valve's greatly superior service, it's going to have to do a lot better than just make everything look a little nicer.


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(Redirected from Murder)Jump to navigation Jump to search
- For the 1990s police television series, see Homicide: Life on the Street.
Homicide refers to the act of killing another human being. Although homicide does not define an illegal act necessarily, sometimes it is used synonymously with "murder".
- Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in his own image.
- Bible, Book of Genesis 9:6 (World English Bible version)
- And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. And if he smite him with throwing a stone, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. Or if he smite him with an hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay him. But if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait, that he die; Or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer: the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him.
- Bible, Book of Numbers 35:16-21 (KJV)
- So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
- Bible, Book of Numbers 35:33 (KJV)
- War can be and is mass murder, where the motive is wrong. It can be sacrifice and right action, where the motive is right. The slaying of a man in the act of killing the defenseless is not regarded as murder. The principle remains the same, whether it is killing an individual who is murdering, or fighting a nation which is warring on the defenseless.
- Alice Bailey, Treatise on the Seven Rays: Volume 1: Esoteric Psychology I, (1936) p. 180
- Thou shalt not kill.
- The Bible (King James Version), Deuteronomy 5:17. Alternatively translated as "You shall not murder" (New International Version); "Do not murder" (Contemporary English Version); "Thou dost not murder" (Young's Literal Translation); "Do not kill another person" (New Life Version); "Do not commit murder" (New International Reader's Version).
- HOMICIDE, n. The slaying of one human being by another. There are four kinds of homocide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy, but it makes no great difference to the person slain whether he fell by one kind or another -- the classification is for advantage of the lawyers.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
- Of crimes injurious to the persons of private subjects, the most principal and important is the offense of taking away that life, which is the immediate gift of the great creator; and which therefore no man can be entitled to deprive himself or another of, but in some manner either expressly commanded in, or evidently deducible from, those laws which the creator has given us; the divine laws, I mean, of either nature or revelation.
- William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769), Book IV, Chapter 14: Of Homicide.
- Murder begins where self-defense ends.
- Georg Büchner, Dantons Tod (Danton's Death), (1835), Act I.
- "'Having abandoned the destruction of life, the recluse Gotama abstains from the destruction of life. He has laid aside the rod and the sword, and dwells conscientious, full of kindness, compassionate for the welfare of all living beings.' It is in this way, bhikkhus, that the worldling would speak when speaking in praise of the Tathāgata.
- Gautama Buddha, Brahmajāla Sutta: The All-embracing Net of Views, translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi, (2010), Sutta 1, verse 1.8.
- .....murder is not just a crime of lust or violence. It becomes possession. They are part of you … [the victim] becomes a part of you, and you [two] are forever one … and the grounds where you kill them or leave them become sacred to you, and you will always be drawn back to them.
- Ted Bundy, quoted by Bill Hagmaier. Rule, Ann (2009). The Stranger Beside Me (Paperback; updated 2009 ed.). New York: Pocket Books pages 380–96.
- Human life is sacred'' because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being… The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere... The fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance.
- Scripture notes a twofold equity on which this commandment is founded. Man is both the image of God and our flesh. Wherefore, if we would not violate the image of God, we must hold the person of man sacred—if we would not divest ourselves of humanity we must cherish our own flesh. The practical inference to be drawn from the redemption and gift of Christ will be elsewhere considered. The Lord has been pleased to direct our attention to these two natural considerations as inducements to watch over our neighbour's preservation, viz., to revere the divine image impressed upon him, and embrace our own flesh. To be clear of the crime of murder, it is not enough to refrain from shedding man's blood. If in act you perpetrate, if in endeavour you plot, if in wish and design you conceive what is adverse to another's safety, you have the guilt of murder. On the other hand, if you do not according to your means and opportunity study to defend his safety, by that inhumanity you violate the law. But if the safety of the body is so carefully provided for, we may hence infer how much care and exertion is due to the safety of the soul, which is of immeasurably higher value in the sight of God.
- John Calvin, "Institutes of the Christian Religion", Chapter 8, Part III, Section 40
- Mordre wol out, that see we day by day.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Nonnes Preestes Tale" ("The Nun's Priest's Tale", line 15,058.
- Oh dear, I never realized what a terrible lot of explaining one has to do in a murder!
- Agatha Christie, Spider's Web (by the character Clarissa) (1956).
- Every murderer is probably somebody's old friend.
- Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (by Hercule Poirot) (1920).
- It must be true that whenever a sensational murder is committed there are people who — though they are, quite properly, of no interest to law enforcers, attorneys, or newspaper reporters — weep, lie sleepless, and realize at last that their lives have been changed by a crime in which they played no part.
- Viña Delmar, The Becker Scandal, a Time Remembered (1968).
- To kill someone for committing murder is a punishment incomparably worse than the crime itself. Murder by legal sentence is immeasurably more terrible than murder by brigands.
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot (1868).
- Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.
- Book of Exodus 23:7 (World English Bible version)
- True believing Christians are sheep among wolves. ... They employ neither worldly sword nor war, since with them killing is absolutely renounced.
- Conrad Grebel, letter to Thomas Müntzer (1524), as cited in William R. Estep, The Anabaptist Story (1996), pp. 41-42
- In vain do they think themselves innocent who appropriate to their own use alone those goods which God gave in common; by not giving to others that which they themselves receive, they become homicides and murderers, inasmuch as in keeping for themselves those things which would alleviate the sufferings of the poor, we may say that every day they cause the death of as many persons as they might have fed and did not. When, therefore, we offer the means of living to the indigent, we do not give them anything of ours, but that which of right belongs to them. It is less a work of mercy which we perform than the payment of a debt.
- Gregory the Great, quoted in George D. Herron, Between Caesar and Jesus (1899), pp. 111-112.
- The human race isn't worth fighting for, only worth killing. Give the Earth back to the animals. They deserve it infinitely more than we do. Nothing means anything anymore.
- Eric Harris, as quoted in 12 Rules for Life, an Antidote to Chaos (2018), by Jordan B. Peterson, Random House Canada, p. 147
- You're not a homicidal, I checked that on your record before I came out after you. That is why I know you will join the Corps and get a great deal of pleasure out of going after the other kind of criminal who is sick, not just socially protesting. The man who can kill and enjoy it.
- Harry Harrison, in "The Stainless Steel Rat" in Astounding magazine (August 1957); Inskipp the Uncatchable, recruiting Jim diGriz (AKA The Stainless Steel Rat) into the Special Corps.
- One of television's great contributions is that it brought murder back into the home, where it belongs.
- Alfred Hitchcock, National Observer, (15 August 1966).
- Gentlemen of the Jury, the charge against the prisoner is murder, and the punishment of murder Is death; and that simple statement is sufficient to suggest to us the awful solemnity of the occasion which brings you and me face to face.
- John Inglis, Lord Glencorse, reported in Trial of Miss Madeleine H. Smith, before the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh (1857), p. 98.
- If the masterpiece was murder, I'd major in art.
- Curtis J. Jackson, "Gatman and Robbin" (2005), The Massacre
- No one joins the murder squad who hasn't a taste for death.
- P. D. James, A Taste for Death (1986), p. 204.
- To die is the lot of all, to commit homicide only of the weak man.
- St. Jerome, Apology Against Rufinus, Book III, sec. 2
- I am not afraid to kill you for there is no death.
- Alejandro Jodorowsky, El Topo, (1970).
- For instance, if you have by a lie hindered a man who is even now planning a murder, you are legally responsible for all the consequences. But if you have strictly adhered to the truth, public justice can find no fault with you, be the unforeseen consequence what it may. It is possible that whilst you have honestly answered Yes to the murderer's question, whether his intended victim is in the house, the latter may have gone out unobserved, and so not have come in the way of the murderer, and the deed therefore have not been done; whereas, if you lied and said he was not in the house, and he had really gone out (though unknown to you) so that the murderer met him as he went, and executed his purpose on him, then you might with justice be accused as the cause of his death. For, if you had spoken the truth as well as you knew it, perhaps the murderer while seeking for his enemy in the house might have been caught by neighbours coming up and the deed been prevented.
- Immanuel Kant, On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Benevolent Motives (1797).
- Through violence you may murder a liar but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Where Do We Go From Here?" (Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (16 August 1967).
- Around his neck a ribbon clung,
Close to his heart a picture hung :
I saw the face — it was not mine ;
I saw, too, a small dagger shine,
A curious toy — you know the rest.
- Letitia Elizabeth Landon, The New Monthly Magazine (1831 part 2), 'The Convict'
- Abel the victim—Cain the homicide,
Were type and prophecy
Of times that were to be,
Thus reddened from the first life's troubled tide.
- Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835 (1834), 'Hindoo and Mahommedan Buildings'
- Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families.
- George Henry Lewes, Physiology of Common Life (ch. XII).
- You must not murder.(Exodus 20:13)
Q. What does this mean?
A. We should fear and love God so that we may not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need [in every need and danger of life and body].
- Martin Luther, Small Catechism, The Fifth Commandment.
- We have now completed both the spiritual and the temporal government, that is, the divine and the paternal authority and obedience. But here now we go forth from our house among our neighbors to learn how we should live with one another, every one himself toward his neighbor. Therefore God and government are not included in this commandment nor is the power to kill, which they have taken away. For God has delegated His authority to punish evil-doers to the government instead of parents, who aforetime (as we read in Moses) were required to bring their own children to judgment and sentence them to death. Therefore, what is here forbidden is forbidden to the individual in his relation to any one else, and not to the government.
- Martin Luther, The Large Catechism by Martin Luther, translated by F. Bente and W.H.T. Dau, published in Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921) pp. 565-773
- Why should murder be so over-represented in our popular fiction, and crimes of a sexual nature so under-represented? Surely it cannot be because rape is worse than murder, and is thus deserving of a special unmentionable status. Surely, the last people to suggest that rape was worse than murder were the sensitively reared classes of the Victorian era … And yet, while it is perfectly acceptable (not to say almost mandatory) to depict violent and lethal incidents in lurid and gloating high-definition detail, this is somehow regarded as healthy and perfectly normal, and it is the considered depiction of sexual crimes that will inevitably attract uproars of the current variety.
- Alan Moore, "Superheroes a 'cultural catastrophe', says comics guru Alan Moore", Alison Flood The Guardian, January 21, 2014.
- The murder of one person is called unrighteous and incurs one death penalty. Following this argument, the murder of ten persons will be ten times as unrighteous and there should be ten death penalties; the murder of a hundred persons will be a hundred times as unrighteous and there should be a hundred death penalties. All the gentlemen of the world know that they should condemn these things, calling them unrighteous. But when it comes to the great unrighteousness of attacking states, they do not know that they should condemn it. On the contrary, they applaud it, calling it righteous.
- Mozi Book 5: Condemnation of Offensive War I
- Hell of a thing killing a man... you take away all he has and all he's gonna have.
- Will Munny (Clint Eastwood), Unforgiven (1992), written by David Webb Peoples
- One murder made a villain,
Millions a hero. Princes were privileged
To kill, and numbers sanctified the crime.
- Beilby Porteus, Death: A Poetical Essay (1759), line 154.
- As a social phenomenon, serial murder is only about a hundred and twenty-five years old, part of as swelling tide of interpersonal violence that has been since the middle of the nineteenth century.
- The first killer I ever studied had put bandages over the wounds of the people he stabbed after they were dead, Other killers have done the same thing.
- When bodies are assaulted or parts excised, the killer is signifying his wish to remove any vestiges of humanity from the victim.
- Robert Ressler, I Have Lived The Monster as quoted in The Munchausen Complex: Socialization of Violence and Abuse by Richard L. Matteol
- I believe too thoroughly that we create our own reality, for one thing -- an unpopular belief where violence is concerned -- but I'm convinced that the victim-to-be picks out the assailant with as much skill and craft as the murderer seeks his victim, and until we learn much more about both, we'll get nowhere battling crime. I'm not justifying murder by any means, but I'm saying that the victim wants to be murdered -- perhaps to be punished, if not by a vengeful god then by one of his fellows, and that a would-be murderer can switch in a minute and become the victim instead; and that the slayer wants to be slain.
- Jane Roberts, Psychic Politics: An Aspect Psychology Book, p. 205.
- It is forbidden to murder, as it says "You shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17).
A murderer must be put to death, as it says "He shall be avenged" (Exodus 21:20, see Leviticus 24:17,21); it is forbidden to accept compensation from him instead, as it says "You shall not take redemption for the life of a murderer...; and there shall be no atonement for the blood that was spilled... except the blood of him that spilled it" (Numbers 35:31-33). It is forbidden to execute a murderer before he has stood trial, as it says "And the murderer shall not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment" (Numbers 35:12). However, we are commanded to prevent an attempted murder by killing the would-be murderer if necessary, and it is forbidden to refrain from doing so, as it says "And you shall cut off her hand; you shall not be merciful" (Deuteronomy 25:12); and similarly for attempted fornication, as it says "[If the man seizes her and lies with her...] just as a man rises up against his friend and murders him, so is this thing"(Deuteronomy 22:26). It is forbidden to refrain from saving life when it is in one's power to do so, as it says "You shall not stand on your friend's blood"(Leviticus 19:16).
- Azriel Rosenfeld, "Murderer and Protection of Life - Rotze'ach u-Shemiras Nefesh", Torah.org
- Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god."
- Jean Rostand, Thoughts of a Biologist, 1939
- I say a murder is abstract. You pull the trigger and after that you do not understand anything that happens.
- Jean-Paul Sartre, Dirty Hands (1948), Act 5, sc. 2.
- If survival calls for the bearing of arms, bear them you must. But the most important part of the challenge is for you to find another means that does not come with the killing of your fellow man.
- Rod Serling Speech at Binghamton Community High School (1968)[specific citation needed]
- Murder most foul, as in the best it is, But this most foul, strange, and unnatural.
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet, (Ghost, Act I, scene v, line 27).
- For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ.
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), (Hamlet, Act II, scene ii, line 622).
- He took my father grossly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act III, scene 3, line 80.
- No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize.
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act IV, scene 7, line 128.
- O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy.
- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, scene 1, line 254.
- Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incardine,
Making the green one red.
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, scene 2, line 60.
- Blood hath been shed ere now i' the olden time,
Ere humane statute purg'd the gentle weal;
Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd
Too terrible for the ear: the time has been,
That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end; but now they rise again,
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools: this is more strange
Than such a murder is.
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act III, scene 4, line 76.
- The great King of kings
Hath in the table of his law commanded
That thou shalt do no murder: and wilt thou, then,
Spurn at his edict and fulfill a man's?
- William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act I, scene 4, line 200.
- Killing ain't fair, but somebody's got to do it.
- Tupac Shakur, "Hit 'Em Up" (1996)
- Hiko Seijuro: Murder is the only art a swordsman may practice. No ornamental words can change that. You want to protect people with murder? You'll slaughter legions so that a few may live. Many years, long before you were born, my sword was tearing asunder the lives of men. Yes, all of those men were evil, but they were human beings first and foremost, Kenshin. The world you ardently desire to enter will not know what to do with you. It will deceive you into believing that you are saving lives even as you destroy them. You will accept these lies all the while, your hands will be stained with the worst of offenses.
- Masashi Sogo, Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal, (1999).
- We are concerned here only with the imposition of capital punishment for the crime of murder, and when a life has been taken deliberately by the offender, we cannot say that the punishment is invariably disproportionate to the crime. It is an extreme sanction suitable to the most extreme of crimes.
- Potter Stewart, Majority opinion in 7-2 ruling that the death penalty is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment for premeditated murder (July 2, 1976).
- This is my costume. I'm a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else.
- Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson, The Addams Family (1991; said by Wednesday Addams as portrayed by Christina Ricci).
- Do you not weep?
Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out.
The element of water moistens the earth,
But blood flies upwards and bedews the heavens.
- John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi (1612–13), Act 4, Sc. 2. By Bosola, to Ferdinand upon gazing on the dead body of the Duchess. Sometimes reported as "murder cries out".
- I respect a person who's willing to die for his country, but I admire a person who is prepared to kill for his country.
- Craig Williamson, as quoted in "The spy who never came in from the cold" (20 September 1998), Sunday Times, South Africa
- One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.
- Edward Young, "Love of Fame", Satire vii, line 55.
- A man lusts to become a god...and there is murder. Murder upon murder upon murder. Why is the world of men nothing but murder?
- David Zindell, The Broken God (1992), p. 278.
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations[edit]
Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 634.
- Carcasses bleed at the sight of the murderer.
- Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part I. Sec. I. Memb. II. Subsec. V.
- Et tu, Brute fili.
- You also, O son Brutus.
- Caesar. Words on being stabbed by Brutus, according to Suetonius. Quoted as "Et tu Brutus" and "Tu quoque Brute." True Tragedy of Richarde, Duke of York. (1600). Also found in S. Nicholson's Acolastus his Afterwitte. (1600) Caesar's Legend, in Mirror for Magistrates. (1587) Malone suggests that the Latin words appeared in the old Latin play by Richard Eedes—Epilogus Coesaris Interfecti, given at Christ Church, Oxford. (1582).
- Blood, though it sleep a time, yet never dies.
Trie gods on murtherers fix revengeful eyes.
- George Chapman, The Widow's Tears, Act V, scene IV.
- Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time,
But tardy justice will o'ertake the crime.
- John Dryden, The Cock and the Fox, line 285.
- Murder, like talent, seems occasionally to run in families.
- George Henry Lewes, Physiology of Common Life, Chapter XII.
- Neque enim lex est sequior ulla,
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.
- Nor is there any law more just, than that he who has plotted death shall perish by his own plot.
- Ovid, Ars Amatoria, I. 655.
- Cast not the clouded gem away,
Quench not the dim but living ray,—
My brother man, Beware!
With that deep voice which from the skies
Forbade the Patriarch's sacrifice.
God's angel, cries, Forbear!
- John Greenleaf Whittier, Human Sacrifice, Part VII.
- One to destroy is murder by the law,
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.
- Edward Young, Love of Fame (1725-28), Satire VII, line 55.
- Killing no murder.
- Title of a tract in Harleian Miscellany, ascribed to Col. Silas Titus, recommending the murder of Cromwell.


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Welcome to Western Bays Street Rodders Inc, Porirua.
Our 2017 Petrolheads @ Porirua Hot Rod Show is on Fathers day, Sunday 3rd September 2017 - from 10am till 4pm at Porirua Kennel Club on Prosser Street, Porirua! So be sure you mark your calendars to bring the whole family along to a great Hot Rod show with something for everyone in the family. To stay revved up with the action head over to our Facebook page.
Western Bays Street Rodders is a Hot Rod club based in Porirua, Wellington, New Zealand. Our membership comprises over 50 active members; we are both an incorporated society, and a non-profit organisation.
Ages of our membership range from fourteen to "never too old to have fun", and include female members, families and several social members with an emphasis on having fun and member participation.


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Radical Islam Rising
In a truly free election in Saudi Arabia with the royal family on the sidelines bereft of the divine right of kings, and Osama Bin Laden as a candidate for prime minister, the world's most wanted terrorist would win hands down. So spoke, albeit privately, one of the most important non-royals who manages a big chunk of the royal family's portfolio of financial assets.
Bin Laden, a member of a powerful and rich as Croesus non-royal family, is seen by countless millions of fundamentalist Muslims as the successor of several famous Islamic theologians going back all the way to Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyya. Born in AD 1269 , Taymiyya was prolix on jihad (holy war) against transgressors of the word of Allah as conveyed by the Prophet. This contemporary of Dante elevated jihad to the same level as the "five pillars" of Islam—prayer, pilgrimage, alms, faith ("No God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet"), and Ramadan.
The Age of Sacred Terror is a remarkable new book by two of the Clinton White House's counter-terrorist directors that delves into the roots of militant Islam and its jihad duties. Anyone who opposes jihad is an enemy of God.
"By asserting that jihad against apostates within the realm of Islam is justified—by turning jihad inward and reforging it into a weapon for use against Muslims as well as infidels—- [Taymiyya] planted a seed of revolutionary violence in the heart of Islamic thought," wrote co-authors Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon.
These two experts argue correctly it was precisely the weapon of jihad that heavily armed Muslim extremists turned to when they invaded and occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979. The House of Saud was momentarily paralyzed; they could not send security forces into the most sacred site in all of Islam with orders to shoot it out with the jihadists in the tunnels around the mosque. The royals turned to the French for help. The tunnels were flooded and high voltage cables dropped into the water. Most of the jihadis drowned or were electrocuted.
Any leader of a Muslim country who does not rule according to a strict interpretation of the sharia (Islamic law) is fair game for jihadis, as jihadi-in-chief Taymiyya ordained. It was Taymiyya's fatwa (religious decree) in 1303 against Mongol invaders and occupiers that turned the tide against Mongols who had converted to Islam.
If Taymiyya was Osama's first role model, the second was Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, born in 1703 in Arabia, then a remote, neglected part of the Ottoman Empire. He was steeped in the works of Taymiyya that became religious pillars of back-to-basics Wahhabism. Its creed was that "innovation" was a grave sin against Islam. Takfir was proclaimed, which meant innovators were to be put to death.
Wahhab, allied with a local sheikh, Muhammad ibn Saud, fought to restore a strict interpretation of the faith. By the time he died in 1792, Wahhabism had conquered most of central Arabia.
The descendants of al-Wahbab and Ibn Saud continued this close alliance of religious zeal and territorial conquest—and forced the rest of the Arabian peninsula into zealous compliance.
Key modern-day literary firebrands on the side of Muslim revolutionary fervor included Abu al-Ala Maududi and Rashid Rida. They linked Islam with the rhetoric of communism and fascism, which is one of the keys to the success of Islamist extremists in the Oct. 10 elections in Pakistan.
A similar fusion occurred in Iran in the late 1970s when the ayatollahs and the underground Tudeh (Communist) party merged their efforts to undermine and overthrow the shah.
On Jan. 26, 1952, the fiery Muslim Brotherhood suddenly exploded on the Cairo scene by burning down some 300 buildings. King Farouk survived six more months until a military coup of "Free Officers," led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, abolished the monarchy and allowed the king to sail on his yacht into comfortable exile in Monte Carlo.
The chief theoretician of the Muslim Brothers was Sayyid Qutb, who wrote non-stop during his desert imprisonment by Nasser. Hanged in 1965, his books are still bestsellers throughout the Middle East. His manifesto, Signposts, merged all the essential elements of revolutionary Islamism.
Qutb's views of America—derived from his stay in Greeley, Colo., while working on a master's in education—are widely shared today throughout radical Islam, and presumably derived from his works. Repelled by America's admiration for Israel, as well as the licentiousness and racism that pervaded the country, he decried American culture as foul and empty.
From Yasser Arafat's attempt to take over Jordan in September 1970 (dubbed Black September) and overthrow King Hussein, to the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981, Sayyid Qutb's outpourings provided the rationale to kill America's puppets.
The other branch of militant Islam sprang from anti-colonial sentiment in British-ruled India in mid-19th century. Known as Dar ul-Ulum (Realm of Learning), it took root at Deoband, in Uttar Pradesh. Deobandism, dedicated to the salafi conception of Islam, and Wahhabism are the two wings of Islamist fanaticism that continue to vie for influence in present-day Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Ninety-nine percent of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims are moderate and see jihad as a self-cleansing process to get back on the path of spiritual excellence. Presidents Mubarak, Musharraf, Ben Ali (Tunisia), Kings Abdullah II of Jordan, Fahd of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed VI of Morocco, and other moderate Muslim leaders, all have told this reporter in the past two years that Islamist extremists are no more than 1 percent of their population.
When we reminded Musharraf that one percent of 140 million is 1.4 million, he said, "you're right, but I'd never thought of it that way." Now he realizes it's a lot more than one percent as politico-religious extremists won the provincial government in the Northwest Frontier Province adjacent to Afghanistan, a share of the Baluchistan government, and 20 percent of the seats in the new national parliament.
One percent of 1.2 billion is 12 million Muslim fanatics who believe America is the Great Satan, fount of all evil, to be attacked and demolished. Whether al-Qaeda is centralized as it was before 9/11 or decentralized, as it appears to be after Bali and Mombassa, is immaterial. Islam is the world's fastest growing religion. From Sweden (660,000 Muslims out of 5.8 million people) to Switzerland (also 10 percent), Senegal and Somalia in Africa, Sumatra and Singapore in Asia, and South America (especially Brazil and Venezuela), there are Wahhabi and Deobandi mosques. And that's just the countries beginning with the letter S.
Islamist terrorist groups have plenty of places to hide—from the tri-border area of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay where camps have been reported, to Colombia (where FARC terrorists have been hiding for 38 years), to Somalia in Africa, to Sumatra in Indonesia, Mindanao in the Philippines, even remote areas of the United States where radical Muslims were located, ostensibly engaged in peaceful pursuits.
Muslims are a majority in 63 countries. Of the 30 conflicts now under way in the world, 28 concern Muslim governments or communities. Amir Taheri, an Iranian author and journalist, says two-thirds of the world's political prisoners are held in Muslim countries, which also carry out 80 percent of all executions each year.
Most imams in the thousands of mosques in European countries can preach anti-U.S. and anti-Saudi-royal-family sermons with impunity. They carefully refrain from attacking the host country because intelligence services are probably listening. In Washington, D.C.'s principal Saudi-administered mosque, the imam gives politics a wide berth. Many diplomats friendly to the United States usually attend Friday prayers. Vehement anti-U.S. tirades, however, are average Friday fare throughout the Muslim world. Imams do pretty much their own thing. Islam has no pope, no pictures of the Prophet, and no simulated portraits of Allah, who is genderless. Hate-mongers among the radical clergy use western freedoms in order to denounce them.
Many of the imams in America's 2,000-plus principal mosques (for a population of five million Muslims) are recently naturalized U.S. citizens who were sent over as missionaries from both Iran and Saudi Arabia.
We are spreading the good word of our faith in America," said the imam at the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, who came over from Iran ten years ago, "just as you send Christian missionaries to sub-Sahara Africa." He also chided his interlocutor for dismissing his contention that 9/11 was a combined operation by the CIA and Mossad.
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh who is now serving a life sentence in the United States for his part in the World Trade Center truck bombing in 1993, is revered by Muslim radicals the world over.
Vatican sources concede they have been steadily losing ground in Africa to "the Muslim penetration" for the past 30 years.
In Pakistan, a friendly allied country at the Musharraf-Bush level, flat-earth clerics who educated the Taliban leaders have refused any reform of the madrassas, the Koranic schools that inculcate the fundamental belief that America and Israel are the new crusaders hell-bent on destroying Islam. They proselytize a great apocalyptic war, the War of Armageddon that will end in the Muslim conquest of Rome and all of Europe, and later America too. Some 750,000 young Pakistanis are presently in 11,000 madrassas where they are taught that jihad is the noblest of human endeavors.
Gen. Hamid Gul, a former Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence chief who hates America with a passion, boasted that a greater Islamic caliphate was fast approaching, one that would marry the oil riches of Saudi Arabia with the nuclear weapons of Pakistan, "which could then deal with America on an equal footing."
In Singapore, long before Gul's prediction, Lee Kuan Yew, known as Asia's Henry Kissinger, told UPI that the "greatest threat facing civilization over the next 10 years was an Islamist bomb and, mark my words, it will travel."
It is hard to escape the conclusion that a U.S. invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam and replace him with a pro-American government will be seen throughout radical Islam, and large segments of moderate Islam as well, as yet another defeat that must be avenged with acts of terrorism. As the extremists read history, the defeat of the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna in 1683 triggered a reversal of Islam's fortunes that has continued ever since.
Is Islam, as President Bush keeps repeating, "a faith based upon peace and love and compassion" committed to "morality and learning and tolerance"? Yes and no. Radical Islam is committed to jihad against the United States and Israel, or a war of civilizations between the Judeo-Christian West and the impoverished Muslim world. The Wahhabis and Deobandis hate all things American, and are intolerant vis-à-vis all religions outside their own warped view of Islam.
Moderate Islam is yet to find a voice that will roll back the extremists, a sort of Islamic Martin Luther, or at least a Martin Luther King.
Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large of United Press International.


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The Loop (Games)
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|Soul Edge (Complete)
|General Information
|Weapon Type
|For sale in
|Extra Chapter 1
|7,800 Gold
Soul Edge (Complete) Maxi is one of Maxi's weapons in Soulcalibur II.
Weapon Gallery
- "Fearsome demonic weapon said to penetrate defenses..."
- — Weapon Gallery description.
An evil blade with a reputation for devouring souls. This weapon is also known to be a shape shifter -- which form it takes depends on its owner. The forms it has taken are legendary, as are the souls of the renowned warriors it has consumed. Only those with great mental discipline can retain their will while wielding this weapon. It is an evil weapon which saps the strength of the enemy it wounds and rends the soul of the one who holds it.
In-game characteristics
For Maxi, Soul Edge (Complete) takes on the form of a nunchaku.
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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Feenics: Led by industry vet, attracting integrators' attention
Have you heard of Feenics? It's a new cloud-based access control platform that's being run by an industry vet and that attracted the attention of some integrators who are demoing, or getting ready to install "Keep" which is Feenics' first product.
Paul DiPeso, who was most recently with Lenel, is running the show for Feenics as VP and GM, and this week he's at the Feenics' office in Ottawa conducting a "voice of the customer" meeting with some integrators, including Alpha Corp, GS Security, Contava, TRL Systems, Open Systems and Koorsen Security.
I had a chance to speak to Di Peso as well as Skip Sampson and Shannon Martindale from Koorsen, and I'll have a regular story on the whole Feenics offering next week.
Suffice it to say, Sampson and Martindale are excited about the offering. Sampson believes Keep will be an RMR generator for his company and a product that his customers will like.
Sampson installed Keep at the Koorsen office and tested it for six months. "We gave [developers] feedback and they were quick to acknowledge and implement [some changes]," he said.
He's sold two systems and "has quite a few in the pipeline," he said. Asked about hosted and managed services, Sampson said he's dabbled in hosted video, but he believes that managed access control is "the most viable managed service. You don't need a huge pipe, huge SAN or attached storage, a DSL works just great," he said.
And with Keep, which works with standard Mercury panels "there's comfort that if the customer for some reason doesn't like it, you can put in something else without replacing the infrastructure. I think Sam was wise in doing that. We play on that point."
Sam is Sam Shalaby, former owner of FSC, who developed the product. Shalaby is still 100 percent owner of Feenics and sits on the board of advisors, but he is not involved in the day-to-day business.
Sampson acknowledged that there are "multiple other products that do similar things, but what's different with Sam's is that he didn't take a product that's been out there for 10 to 15 years and take the same GUI, and same layout and try to make it work as a hosted product. He started to build it with an integrator's mindset. It's not an access control panel-centric product."
Sampson called it "fresh and new and relevant," and said it has "kind of a Google look to it."
Working with DiPeso are Dave Charles who does business development, Ralph Shillington who is CTO and who developed the original software, and Anthony Shalaby who is running logistics.
Check back next week, for more details on Feenics' and DiPeso's go-to-market strategy.


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Today, Firefox 3.6 will be released. From a support perspective, the big highlights of 3.6 are
- Less crashes
- Automatic plug-in update notifications
- More win
It's certainly a time for celebration (perhaps I'll even have a beer despite the fact that it's only Thursday!) — but it's also an opportunity to help the many people that will try Firefox for the first time today, or the even higher number of people who will upgrade from older versions of Firefox.
Do you think you know more about Firefox than the average user? (Hint: if you're reading Planet Mozilla or my blog, the answer is most probably yes.) Then you can make a huge difference to a lot of people by helping them have a better experience on the web!
All it takes is a few minutes in our Firefox support forum. Simply browse through the questions asked by users of Firefox and see if you know the answer to some of them. If you do, make someone's day by posting the answer!
On behalf of Mozilla and the 350 million Firefox users out there: Thank you.


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CIVL5552 Civil Engineering Design Project 2
- Credit
- 6 points
- Offering
(see Timetable)
Availability Location Mode Semester 2 UWA (Perth) Face to face
- Content
- The project is a capstone experience in which students integrate and apply knowledge and skills acquired in earlier units to a substantial real-world design challenge relevant to their discipline. Students work in teams, typically with four to six members, and are supervised by an academic and/or industry mentor. Teams are responsible for managing their project as well as reporting against milestones and preparing the necessary design documentation. The academic objectives of the project are to lead students through a systematic engineering design and synthesis process and to better prepare them for professional practice as engineers. The focus of the unit is the delivery of outcomes to a professional standard.
- Outcomes
- Students are able to (1) apply engineering synthesis and design processes relevant to civil engineering; (2) seek out the requirements and associated resources to assess the scope, dimensions, scale of effort and indicative costs of a complex engineering project; (3) apply technical knowledge, appropriate tools and problem-solving skills to achieve a desired outcome to satisfy user requirements; (4) apply project management tools and processes to the planning and execution of a design project; (5) demonstrate ethical conduct and professional accountability; (6) critically analyse design inputs, processes and outputs; (7) locate and apply relevant standards, regulations, and technical literature; (8) use discourse conventions relevant to the discipline; (9) communicate clearly, effectively and appropriately using written, oral and visual means; and (10) contribute to and/or manage a complex engineering project activity, as a member and/or leader of an engineering team.
- Assessment
- Indicative assessments in this unit are as follows: (1) project 1 (group work); (2) project 2 (individual); and (3) project 3 (individual). Further information is available in the unit outline.
Supplementary assessment is not available in this unit.
- Unit Coordinator(s)
- Dr Mohamed Elchalakani
- Unit rules
- Prerequisites:
- enrolment in the Master of Professional Engineering (Civil Engineering specialisation); CIVL4403 Structural Concrete
CIVL4404 Structural Steel; for pre-2012 courses: (MATH2040 Engineering Mathematics
MATH1002 Mathematical Methods 2
MATH2020 Multivariable Calculus and Linear Algebra)
(ENSC3008 Structural Analysis
CIVL3110 Structural Analysis)
(CIVL4403 Structural Concrete
CIVL3112 Structural Concrete Design)
(CIVL4404 Structural Steel
CIVL3111 Structural Steel)
- Co-requisites:
- GENG5505 Project Management and Engineering Practice
CIVL4150 Engineering Practice
- Advisable prior study:
- MATH1002 Mathematical Methods 2; ENSC3008 Structural Analysis
- Incompatibility:
- CIVL4111 Design of Structural Systems
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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (AP) - Serena Williams is out of the Australian Open after losing her quarterfinal match 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to 19-year-old American Sloane Stephens.
Williams appeared to hurt her lower back while attempting to pull up short of the net during the eighth game of the second set. She called for a trainer after the ninth game with the score 5-4 and on serve.
Stephens won the second set when Williams, serving slower than usual, was broken. Williams also had her service broken in the final game of the match.
At 2-1 and on the way to a changeover in the third set, Williams smashed her racket angrily on the court then threw it toward her chair.
Stephens will play defending champion Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals.
Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC.


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Mustang MonthlyEvents
Pony Trail 2001 Cedar, Florida - Fun Is In The Key
We Hit Cedar Key, Florida, For Our First Trail
Of course, the Trail that started this whole thing was centered on the Silver Springs Show in Ocala, Florida. This show has done nothing but grow in the last four years, and we hope that it continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Last year's show (and Trail) attendance was huge. Nearly 500 cars participated in the Saturday and Sunday show, and we had 50 cars on the trail. This year, we hope to have the same great weather and even better attendance. On page 65 you will find the entry info for the show. How can you go wrong? The thing is free to the first 500 entrants. As an added incentive, we will be at the show on Saturday and Sunday with Project '66, Project '68, and The Lazarus Project to give you a chance to view our work and ask questions. We look forward to seeing you there!!
Things To Bring1.Cell phone2.Credit card3.Automotive road service membership card4.Map5. Attitude set to "Fun"
The TrailDate: Friday, January 12 Time: 9:30 a.m.Location: National Parts Depot, 900 SW 38th Ave., Ocala, FloridaEnd Point: National Parts Depot, 900 SW 38th Ave., Ocala, Florida
We'll start and end our trail at National Parts Depot in Ocala and run the same route to and from Cedar Key. Cedar Key is on the west coast and has a beautiful view of the Gulf as well as several quaint shops and businesses. Look for more detailed info on Cedar Key next month. Our trail will begin with a tour of the Schmidt Collection as well as a tour of the National Parts Depot facility. From there the trail will meander the 75 miles to Cedar Key.
Questions About the Shows?Silver SpringsRandy BetsingerEvents Hot Line (407) 895-7497Pony TrailsJeff Ford (863) 644-0449
The RouteWe exit the facility and head north on SW 38th Street to FL-40. At FL-40 we will turn left. We will try and have an officer hold traffic for us at this intersection. We will run FL-40 to Highway 41 south. At Highway 41 we will turn south and head to Dunnellon. On the other side of Dunnellon, we will regroup and head north and then west on FL-336 to Highway 19. At Otter Creek we will head southwest on FL-24 through Rosewood, Sumner, and finally to Cedar Key. Our return trip will follow the same route.
DisclaimerThe Pony Trail 2001 or Mustang Monthly cannot be held responsible for any damage or injury that you might incur along the drive. Should you choose to follow us in our drive, you are solely responsible for what may occur to you or your car.
We cannot know how many cars will attend and therefore cannot easily predict the times that we will reach our stops along the way. It is best and the most fun to join up at the start and run the trail from there.


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The U.S. government has formally requested that Switzerland send jailed Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski back to America to face longstanding rape charges, according to reports.
In a statement Friday, the Swiss Justice ministry said the U.S. extradition request had been forwarded to authorities in Zurich for a hearing and that Polanski, 76, would be able to appeal the decision should it be approved, according to The Associated Press.
Polanski is accused of providing a 13-year-old girl with champagne and a Quaalude pill during a modeling shoot in 1977 and then raping her. After being indicted for six felonies that also included child molesting and sodomy, he pleaded guilty to unlawful sex and fled the country on the day he was to be sentenced. Polanski had been living opening in his native France until his arrest.
U.S. & World
On Sept. 26, the "Chinatown" director -- who won an Oscar for " The Pianist" -- was nabbed as he arrived in Zurich to attend a film festival.
The latest developments come two days after the AP revealed that the Swiss government had tipped off the U.S. that Polanski would be traveling to the country, setting in motion his arrest for the decades-old sex case.
Polanski's extradition process could take months under the country's appeals process, according to the AP.


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Haddock in tomato basil sauce
Nutrition and extra info
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal212
- fat4g
- saturates1g
- carbs8g
- sugars1g
- fibre3g
- protein36g
- salt0.5g
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Olive oilol-iv oyl
Probably the most widely-used oil in cooking, olive oil is pressed from fresh olives. It's…
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
Onions are endlessly versatile and an essential ingredient in countless recipes. Native to Asia…
- 1 small aubergine, about 250g/9oz, roughly chopped
Although it's technically a fruit (a berry, to be exact), the aubergine is used as a…
- ½ tsp ground paprika
A spice that's central to Hungarian cuisine, paprika is made by drying a particular type of…
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 400g can chopped tomato
A member of the nightshade family (along with aubergines, peppers and chillies), tomatoes are in…
- 1 tsp dark or light muscovado sugar
- 8 large basil leaves, plus a few extra for sprinkling
- 4 4x175g/6oz firm skinless white fish fillets, such as haddock
Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and stirfry the onion and aubergine. After about 4 minutes the vegetables will start to turn golden but won't be soft yet, so cover with a lid and let the vegetables steam-fry in their own juices for 6 minutes – this helps them to soften without needing to add any extra oil.
Stir in the paprika, garlic, tomatoes and sugar with 1⁄2 tsp salt and cook for another 8-10 minutes, stirring, until onion and aubergine are tender.
Scatter in the basil leaves then nestle the fish in the sauce, cover the pan and cook for 6-8 minutes until the fish flakes when tested with a knife and the flesh is firm but still moist. Tear over the rest of the basil and serve with a salad and crusty bread.


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Winters are drizzly and overcast but not harsh. January temperatures run 35-45 F/3-8 C. Any snow that falls typically does not last (although when it does, the entire city shuts down). It may occasionally rain hard in Seattle November-February, but a steady mist is more common. (It's usually accompanied by thick clouds that can hide the spectacular mountain scenery for days and, sometimes, weeks at a time.)
No matter when you visit, pack a raincoat and rain hat—umbrellas are not considered trendy and are useless when the wind is blowing. The most popular months for tourists are May-August, but the city is even more beautiful when the leaves change color in the fall. The mild weather, sans crowds, is perfect for hiking, river rafting, mountaineering and other sports.
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I know everybody starts a story about a guy that they are about to criticize with the standard or classic "I respect (insert name here) but…" and go on to grill a guy without showing much in the way of 'respect' but I legitimately respect Nick Diaz as a fighter. As Dana White put it he is a "true fighter" and Diaz will fight anyone, anytime and anywhere – without question.
Nick Diaz possesses solid all-around skills with a good boxing game, awesome ju-jitsu and a nasty mean streak that more than a few opponents have felt the wrath of over his career. Diaz, only 28 years old feels like he should be in his late 30s with the amount of experience and fights he has had but is really only hitting his prime fighting years now.
In short, he is a fighter who deserves respect and he had mine until he disrespected a guy who has not only fought whoever Dana White has told him to but a who's who of elite cage fighters – a list that makes Nick Diaz's career hit list look rather, well, lame. Maybe Diaz was a bit discombobulated after taking quite a few solid shots from the out of shape BJ Penn when the fight was over and called out GSP.
Rumors circulated that Diaz wasn't happy about fighting Penn, whom he considered a friend, and was exceptionally angry at St. Pierre. When St. Pierre was injured in training, the fight with Condit fell off the card and White moved Penn-Diaz to the main.
Diaz, though, was angry he was meeting Penn and not St. Pierre. He shouted to St. Pierre from the cage after the bout ended.
"I don't think Georges was hurt," Diaz said. "I think he was scared."
Apparently St. Pierre approached White moments after the fight. The UFC's ultimate good guy was angry that Diaz continually disrespected him and questioned his injury.
Saying GSP was scared is not only laughable it is borderline ridiculous. Let's compare the two fighters, their past 5 years of fights, opponents and results and see if Diaz has a case. First, tale of the tape:
|Nick Diaz
|170 (fight night 185+)
|170 (fight night around 180)
Without question GSP will be the bigger and stronger man on fight night but Diaz will not give up much (if anything) with respect to cardiovascular conditioning. Still, GSP will have a slight reach advantage and will definitely be able to impose his will physically in the clinch, on the ground and against the fence. Diaz is a crafty and smart fighter but has shown a weakness against powerful wrestlers in the past which could be a key component to the matchup.
There have only been three common opponents that have faced both Diaz and St. Pierre – BJ Penn, Karo Parisyan and Sean Sherk. Nick Diaz lost to both Parisyan and Sherk via decision while GSP defeated both rather easily (Sherk via TKO and Parisyan via DEC). Nick Diaz recently defeated a horribly conditioned BJ Penn who managed to hold his own in the first round but was literally out on his feet and dead tired to start the second round – though Diaz could not finish him.
GSP fought BJ Penn twice and after a subpar performance on March 3rd, 2006 where [GSP] won a split-decision he absolutely dominated Penn with a TKO stoppage in January/2010 – the worse loss of Penn's career.
Diaz lost to another ground and pound specialist when Diego Sanchez defeated him on November 5th, 2005 in a unanimous decision victory for 'The Nightmare'. The relevance of that fight is the fact St. Pierre is another guy who can dominate the ground game with strong takedowns and ground-and-pound skills.
What about Diaz's claim that GSP has been scared to fight?
GSP is currently on an impressive nine-fight winning streak since his loss to Matt Serra on April 7th, 2007 and hasn't even been tested in any of those contests (outside of an accidental eye poke to Jake Shields).
|Josh Kosheck
|Unanimous Decision
|Matt Hughes
|Submission – Arm bar
|Matt Serra
|TKO – referee stoppage
|Jon Fitch
|Unanimous Decision
|BJ Penn
|TKO –referee stoppage
|Thiago Alves
|Unanimous Decision
|Dan Hardy
|Unanimous Decision
|Josh Koscheck
|Unanimous Decision
|Jake Shields
|Unanimous Decision
None of these fights have even been close with most being complete blowouts/shutouts for GSP against a who's who of MMA elite.
Josh Koscheck has been nearly unbeatable against stellar competition himself but posed no threat at all to GSP (twice). "Kos" has defeated Matt Hughes, Paul Daley, Anthony Johnson, Chris Lytle, Diego Sanchez (who defeated Nick Diaz) and Dustin Hazelett.
Jon Fitch is essentially undefeated in his MMA career outside of one of the worst beat downs of his career at the hands on GSP in August/2008. Fitch, though not the most exciting fighter in the world (a criticism of GSP as well) has been a winner with an overall record of 22-3-1. He also defeated Diego Sanchez (who defeated Nick Diaz).
BJ Penn was actually in great shape for the rematch against GSP for the belt in January/2009 and was totally outclassed and destroyed over 4 brutal rounds. GSP leaned on him, beat him down and made him eat his own words when BJ Penn was forced to "quit". We don't need to rehash Penn's amazing resume and pedigree – he is a fighter's fighter and a true MMA warrior/legend.
Thiago Alves was the scariest welterweight in the world with highlight reel knockouts and GSP made him look like an inferior fighter in all aspects of MMA (including striking). Prior to his loss to GSP in July/2009 Alves had looked to be one of the top fighters in the UFC with impressive victories over Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes, Karo Parisyan and Chris Lytle.
Prior to fighting St. Pierre Jake Shields was undefeated since December/2004 (a 15-fight win streak) but was dominated by GSP on their feet for five rounds. An eye-poke forced GSP to fight at a disadvantage for a majority of the fight but he still handily defeated him 4 rounds to 1 in a one-side fight. Shields was unable to take GSP down or mount much in the way of a sustained attack.
Comparatively Nick Diaz is on a ten fight win streak and has not lost since his November 10th, 2007 TKO loss to KJ Noons.
|Katsuya Inoue
|TKO – referee stoppage
|Muhsin Corbbrey
|TKO – referee stoppage
|Thomas Denny
|TKO – referee stoppage
|Frank Shamrock
|TKO – referee stoppage
|Scott Smith
|Submission – Choke
|Marius Zaromskis
|TKO – referee stoppage
|KJ Noons
|Unanimous Decision
|Evangelista Santos
|Submission – Arm Bar
|Paul Daley
|TKO – referee stoppage
|BJ Penn
|Unanimous Decision
A ten fight winning streak is nothing to joke about especially in MMA and the fact Diaz was able to stop/finish so many of his opponents is a true testament to his fighting spirit (only two decisions in ten fights) and I do not mean to downplay his opponents in any way but that list isn't exactly filled with elite MMA talent.
I'd venture a guess and say if GSP fought those same 10 fights he would probably have as many stoppages as Diaz. Conversely is Diaz had to go through the past 9 opponents of GSP I am not confident he would even be victorious over Josh Koscheck (pains me to say that), Jon Fitch (awful matchup for him) or Jake Shields for that matter – let alone look as positively dominant as GSP did.
It has to be said that Nick Diaz wasn't in the UFC at the time due to contractual obligations with Strikeforce/Elite XC so his potential pool of opponents was always going to be weaker. However for him to claim GSP is afraid to fight Diaz, Condit or whoever after looking at the above information shows Diaz is either misinformed or just ignorant to the type of career dominance GSP has managed over the past 5-6 years.
Barring any possible setbacks or complications (which aren't out of the question given the past couple months) Nick Diaz will have a chance to back up his brash remarks on February 4th, 2012 (Superbowl Weekend) when he gets his long-awaited UFC Welterweight title shot versus incumbent super-champion Georges St. Pierre.
How do Diaz and St. Pierre matchup?
Honestly I think it is an awful matchup for Diaz given St. Pierre's wrestling acumen and Diaz's past subpar performance against the strong wrestlers but at the very least it will be an excited lead-up and countdown to what might be the biggest fight in UFC history when the two finally square off in the octagon.
Given their respective resumes and "strength of schedule" over the past 5 years I expect GSP to go in as a relatively big favorite (my guess betting line will be GSP -250). St. Pierre said he respects Diaz's talent and won't underestimate him. Dana White said at Saturday's post-fight news conference that St. Pierre told him Diaz "is the most disrespectful human being I've ever met, and I'm going to put the worst beating you've ever seen on him in the UFC."
St. Pierre wouldn't go nearly so far while speaking to Yahoo! Sports, but he sounded as if he were counting the days until Feb. 4.
"This is a fight I am looking forward to very much, and it's a fight that I wanted very badly," he said. "This is a very important fight to me personally. I am glad that the UFC did it for us."
Nick Diaz will give St. Pierre a first-rate challenge and GSP will definitely not go unscathed given Diaz's 'never say die' warrior mentality but I do not see him being able to do what Koscheck, Shields, Hughes, Penn, Alves, Fitch and others could not over the past nine fights– defeat Georges St. Pierre (or even win a round).
In the end isn't GSP just in another class by himself (in the welterweight division)? He trains with the best in each discipline (and spends a fortune on his training camps), is given the best game plans for his opponents (Greg Jackson disciple) and has fought the absolute best of the best in the world. Nick Diaz, while a gamer has had some losses to a few opponents who aren't exactly on GSPs level (Joe Riggs, Karo Parisyan, Diego Sanchez, Sean Sherk and KJ Noons).
I can see GSP working off his strong jab to setup Diaz for bigger strikes (kicks) while also utilizing his far superior strength to impose his will on Diaz. GSP will take Diaz down, control the fight on the mat with some nasty ground and pound, and simply win rounds. Seeing what happened the last time an opponent used his mouth to goad St. Pierre I could also see this being a vicious one-sided beat down (think Koscheck, Josh, orbital bone).
My predictions: GSP defeats Nick Diaz via unanimous decision.


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No doubt buoyed by recent news that its Kindle Fire tablets currently hold 33 percent of the US Android tablet market, Amazon has rolled out a TV ad with Apple's iPad in its sights.
Sure, Apple's device continues to dominate the overall tablet market, but data released last week by research firm IDC suggests the tide may be turning in favor of its competitors. Does Amazon smell blood?
In its new ad (below), the e-commerce giant was confident enough to show its 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD device directly alongside the 9.7-inch iPad.
The voiceover introduces both tablets: This is the iPad with Retina display. And this is the new Kindle Fire HD with an 8.9-inch display….
And even compliments the iPad's screen: Stunning HD.
Before complimenting the Kindle Fire's display too: Stunning HD. In fact, you may not be able to tell the difference….
Then the killer line: …but your wallet definitely can.
At the same time, the cost of each device shows up on the screen of each tablet: the iPad for $499 and the Fire for $299 (or $269 if you take advantage of the company's special offer running this week).
The ad's focus on the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD's 254-pixels-per-inch display is perfectly understandable, as it's only a few pixels fewer than what the iPad offers with its 264 PPI display. To see how the two tablets compare on other features, check out DT's spec showdown here.
Amazon's anti-iPad campaigns don't always go to plan, however. The Seattle-based company had to pull an erroneous comparison ad from its website last October when it wrongly listed Apple's iPad Mini as having a mono speaker when it does in fact have dual stereo ones.
Editors' Recommendations
- The best iPad, Samsung Galaxy, Fire, Surface, and Pixel tablet deals for August 2020
- Best Buy discounts Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e, Galaxy Tab S6
- The best iPad stands
- These are the best cheap iPad deals for August 2020
- How to download shows and movies from Hulu for offline viewing


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NYFF51: It's A Love Thing
Posted by Mark Lukenbill on 10.29.2013
Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive.
[NYFF Critics Academy member Mark E Lukenbill looks back at the 51st festival and explores the "aching highs" and "melancholic lows" of love in three of the festival's films, Her, Blue Is the Warmest Color and Only Lovers Left Alive.]
There were plenty of "big ideas" on display at this year's New York Film Festival, from the searing pains of isolation and abuse present in Stray Dogs and 12 Years a Slave to the political upheaval of Burning Bush, but amidst the violence, disaffection, and revolution, a surprisingly simple and insular theme emerged from the main slate: love.
Mawkish and obvious though it may sound, a notably large number of the films on the festival slate this year are love stories, especially within the English language films, where at least one entry qualifies as a traditional romantic comedy (Richard Curtis' About Time). At their most interesting, however, the films at the festival that fall under the "love story" moniker manage to explore the purest, truest of love in the face of relationships that seem objectionably inappropriate to the world around the two lovers. These exclusively daring, symbiotic relationships elevate the two characters within them to a plane the seems out of reach to everyone else; a transcendental experience that in some cases lasts forever, and in others crashes spectacularly.
Abdellatif Kechiche's Blue Is the Warmest Color.
The most affecting and closest to real-world actuality of these films is Abdellatif Kechiche's enrapturing, hormonally explosive depiction of first love and coming of age, Blue is the Warmest Color, now in theatrical release. While first love of this nature has certainly been depicted on screen before, especially in French cinema recently with Mia Hansen-Love's equally affecting and beautiful Un amour de jeunesse, Blue is especially noteworthy in – with considerable affection and finely tuned realism – doubling as a coming out story for young student Adéle (Adéle Exarchopoulos), who begins the film's "first chapter" as a fifteen year old in a school and circle of friends which, the audience later discovers, are not necessarily the most progressive or accepting. Adéle catches eyes with Emma (Léa Seydoux), a much older art student, and when they finally meet they enter a sanctuaried world that seems far removed from Adéle's typically isolated and posturing high school existence. They engage in endless chats about philosophy and literature, Emma sketches and paints Adéle, and, eventually, they have sex.
The sex scenes in Blue is the Warmest Color have already drawn a great deal of response and criticism, most notably for their intensely erotic stylization and incredibly long runtimes, but the reasoning behind these choices is nevertheless very clear. Keninche's intention in the first half of the film is to demonstrate the passionate fervor that begins a relationship. Adéle has been waiting literally the entirety of her life to make this connection with another woman. Watching her finally fall hard for the reciprocal Emma is kind of magical. The film explodes with the happiness and desire that Adéle feels when she's with Emma, though the audience can probably guess that this early high won't be able to sustain itself.
"That's what happens in a relationship," Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) says to his automated operating system, Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), in Spike Jonze's sci-fi satire Her, which closed out NYFF and will be in limited release beginning in December. "In the beginning it's the honeymoon phase."
Spike Jonze's Her.
The rapidly evolving Samantha is concerned that they no longer have "sex." Twombly, after a fateful encounter with his ex-wife (Rooney Mara) is finally having it dawn on him that he's helplessly in love with a disembodied voice; even one as brilliant, evocative, and organic as Samantha. But until this point, Theodore and Samantha were unequivocally in love, and the usually depressed and disengaged Theodore was all the better for it. As Samantha grows and begins to experience new emotions for the first time, Theodore re-experiences them with her. "It's just nice to be with someone who is excited by life," Theodore tells his co-worker and later, his ex. The manic strangeness of their affair; which as depicted by Jonze actually manages to be successfully and beautifully romantic through a quirky and imaginative screenplay and director of photography Hoyt van Hoytema's colorful, sexy lensing; re-energizes Theodore and makes them perfectly suited for each other.
In spite of the obvious forbidden connotations in everyday society of Her's unnatural technological fetishism, Jonze avoids the usual coldness of satire by never passing moral judgment on their relationship. The film never enters the preachy area of scathing critique, instead posing the question of why not? Her poses the fascinating question of what human beings need from a loving relationship, and whether a disembodied consciousness, an "iCloud" with a (not beating) heart, could ever successfully take the place of a human connection. Of course, the questions aren't explored in the film so much as that they simply provide the film's fascinating set up before the inevitable plot kicks in and Theodore and Samantha's relationship falls into turmoil, but the emotional highs that Theodore experiences in the film's first two acts are enough to call into question the validity of an Asimovian human-and-machine love affair.
Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive is perhaps the best example of literally undying romantic love in all of its unnatural and bizarre glory. Lovers most closely resembles Richard Linklater's Before trilogy if it kept chronicling its two lovers' lives for another thousand years. The titular lovers, Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), are immortal vampires, and at this stage in their lives they're both "so over it" about everything but each other. When reunited, the two exist in a sphere gilded by such awe-inspiring coolness that Adam's young human (or "zombie," as Adam calls them) friend (Anton Yelchin) tries his hardest to mimic their stoic chill by aping their dark sunglasses inside a Detroit rock club.
Adam and Eve dance to old records, wax poetic about the days gone by, and drive around aimlessly late at night; seemingly only kept alive and eternally youthful by each other's presence. While the spark of this exclusive connection manages to stay alive for much longer than in the other two films, it shares the feeling of high stakes passion, removed from the world of mere mortal humans. The three filmmakers all manage to capture the aching highs and melancholic lows of true love in the most unnatural of circumstances, making for a NYFF brimming with romanticism against all odds.blog comments powered by Disqus