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Hand-Painted Talavera Ceramic Decorative Vase from Mexico, "Talavera Dream"
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For a dreamy addition to your home decor, this decorative vase is designed by Mexican artisan Pedro Tecayehuatl. Working in the style of Talavera handicrafts, he crafts the vase of ceramic and hand-paints it with intricate and colorful floral motifs.
Talavera is a distinctive art form brought to Mexico by artisans from Talavera de la Reina, Spain. The ceramic artisans of Puebla, Mexico then incorporated Chinese designs, thus creating the blue and oyster-white patterns traditionally associated with Talavera Poblana. Today there are also more "contemporary" designs that include yellow, green, orange, mauve, black and red.
National and international conventions require that a rigorous procedure be followed in the elaboration of authentic Talavera-style ceramics. Each individual piece will be slightly different, and therefore a unique work of art.
- 0.87 kgs
- 1.9 lbs
- 23 cm H x 16.5 cm Diam.
- 9" H x 6.5" Diam.
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Reviews by Customers
Verified Reviewer
"ceramic decorative Vase Talavera Dream"
Iloved the Vase I put on the table . It so great . And lookes so Beautiful o n my Table . Great workman ship
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Talavera Dream, Hand-Painted Talavera Ceramic Decorative Vase from Mexico
Verified Reviewer
"I love this appetizer dish"
I received this dish today and I am so pleased. I have always liked the aqua colors and the aqua on this dis is beautiful along with the other vibrant colors and the design is gorgeous. Thank you
Best Uses
- to put dips, vegetables, etc
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Verified Reviewer
"A cherished beauty!"
Thank you, this is such a beautiful plate, love the shape and all the different ways to use it. So creatively beautiful!
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I just received this today and could not be more pleased. It is absolutely beautiful! As all items from Novica, it came very well packaged and in perfect condition. I definitely recommend both this artist and Novica!
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Floral Hexagon, Ceramic Decorative Box with Colorful Floral Motifs
"Lovely Piece"
This is definitely a beautiful piece of art and a practical dish as well. It was well represented from the on-line pictures.
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Purchased Item:
Zacatlan Flowers, Floral Talavera Style Ceramic Platter from Mexico
"Unique and gorgeous"
At first I didnt think I was going to be able to purchase this beauty because it appeared to be out of stock, but I checked the next day and bought it. It is absolutely gorgeous and so different than other items I have purchased. I have it sitting by my TV so am able to enjoy it all the time. (Im retired.) Thanks Novica!
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This artist positively impacts their community through job creation and provides jobs for 2 or more people.
This artist uses traditional techniques handed down through the generations and/or creates culturally significant items, helping keep these traditions alive.
Pedro Tecayehuatl
Handcrafted ceramics
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Pedro Tecayehuatl Handcrafted ceramics
"I imagine that maybe 100 years will pass and some day someone will find one of my signed pieces and people will learn my name."
"I belong to the sixth generation of my family that is dedicated to the preservation of the plumeado ceramic technique. We employ more than 20 people, including women and men who assist us in different areas. We try to be conscious about sharing and transmitting to our artisans the value of preserving this beautiful tradition that is made in various regions of Puebla. We have continued changing with the preferences of our market, remaining avant-garde while also conserving the original technique.
"I dare say, my family has spent about 100 years dedicated to ceramic. When NOVICA arrived, it seemed to us an excellent way to showcase and export our work at the worldwide level with the best efficiency possible, for the good of our clients. We offer them a quality guarantee, and we promise that the piece will arrive in good condition.
"One of the most difficult challenges was adapting ourselves to the quality requirements. We have become more strict with ourselves and we have perfected our process even more. We have not participated in expositions or competitions, but the first time that we do we will win first place. We are focused on creating useful pieces for our clients.
"We continue innovating techniques. We have generated new pieces with new patterns, preserving the decorations that we love so much. We are very thankful for NOVICA. We have found a path to preserve our familial tradition through the popular market. Thank you."
Original Artisan Story
"I was 15 years old when I started my own workshop, thanks to my father's sage advice. He taught me everything there is to know about this craft, for he comes from a family of ceramists. I was a little boy when I started following dad around his workshop, getting familiar with everything in it, and learning the processes - from kneading the clay, to decorate the pieces and pack them.
"Staying focused on my dream proved to be a challenge. I had to learn how to split my time between learning my craft and being a responsible student. While my friends had fun or simply rested, I was always working.
"Little by little I learned the techniques and honed my skills under my family's watchful eye and enthusiasm. From dad I learned about dedication and responsibility to my work, and from mom I learned about perseverance, discipline and saving. From my dearest aunt Lupe I learned about the love with which one must craft each single piece, and about being consistent with everything I undertake.
"I love the folklore in each piece as well as working with the materials. We strive towards up keeping tradition and the high quality of our work. We only use clay from the state of Puebla and lead free enamels which are tested to ensure our products are safe.
"One must have an in depth knowledge of the techniques and the processes – they require control and discipline. All the preparation is done and supervised at the workshop. We're not only concerned with maintaining our high quality but also with preserving an enthusiastic and agreeable working environment. The way we work differs from other traditional ceramics workshops in Puebla, and I think that makes a difference.
"It was difficult at first showing my work and getting customers to trust me, but with the passing of time and the learned experiences I started earning their trust and recognition. I have learned from my mistakes and now I have the opportunity to let my imagination run wild, preserve the family tradition, and transcend in some way.
"It's exciting when people admire our work, and when they take one of our signed pieces I fantasize about what kind of destiny it will have. I imagine that maybe 100 years will pass and some day someone will find one of my signed pieces and people will learn my name.
"This is what motivates me to continue forward, regardless of the fact that all you hear in this line of work is how artisans are finding it difficult to stay afloat and believe we have no future. I've made up my mind to continue being enthusiastic, believe in my ability to ensure my own future, bet on innovation, and always keep in mind there's a whole world to be conquered."


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Haven't heard? Costa Rica is playing host to a Reality Show called, 'I'm a Celebrity, get me out of HERE!' If I'm not mistaken I believe it's being filmed in the Sarapiquí region of Costa Rica.
I'm thinking I'll be accused of nitpicking, but I'm sorry, I can't help it. Something is just 'wrong' with a 'reality show' being filmed here and I'm not sure I can put it into words but I'll try.
First, some of the so-called celebrities of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here: Janice Dickinson, Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt, John Salley, Duane Chapman, Patti Blagojevich, Torrie Wilson, Sanjaya Malakar, Stephen Baldwin and Lou Diamond Phillips. *Sorry, but not providing any links, so if you're not sure who some of these people are, I'll let you research them yourselves, although in my opinion it's not worth your time.
Before getting into this I should note: Celebrity doesn't mean anything to me and hasn't for years. I do happen to know who these people are and could walk right past any of them and not give a second glance... and in the case of Stephen Baldwin, I did at an Evander Holyfield/Riddick Bowe fight in Vegas, and THEN he WAS a celebrity. I may appreciate their 'talents' but I'm not a, "Can I have your autograph?' type of guy. Now, if Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Hermann Hesse, Erich Fromm, Ayn Rand, George Bernard Shaw, Dostoyevsky and Oscar Wilde, were competing, I would turn into a screeching, sobbing little–girl who's happy to even catch a glimpse of Justin Timerlake and 'NSync. Also, for those of you who may follow this blog, you know my family and I participated in a reality show, 'Under One Roof' and believe me, there is NOTHING REAL about a reality show- a total oxymoron… just sayin. Winning was cool though.
I don't claim to know who makes the decision to give the go-ahead to film a reality show here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the same person(s) who would give the go-ahead to build a ka-zillion dollar condo project in Manuel Antonio SMACK in the middle of the corridor where the mono-titi monkey's live.
To me, this Reality Show is a perfect example of Costa Rica selling itself OUT and trivializing the very thing that made the country attractive in the first place- its BEAUTIFUL innocence. Costa Rica can NEVER be described as a 'hidden gem' anymore, those days are GONE. This gem has been dug-up, brushed off, polished, re-polished and put in the display case (prices vary... depending). Once a diamond in the rough - NOW reduced to pimped-out BLING. Costa Rica has turned itself into a commodity, SOLD to the highest bidder piece by piece- and there doesn't seem to be anything here that can't be bought, regardless of consequences. Know this- you ARE over exposing yourself.
Nothing is sacred anymore, not the rainforest, the mono-titi, turtles, sharks, places like Tamarindo, Papagayo, Manuel Antonio, Jacó, the entire country is turning into ONE BIG Souvenir Shop.
I realize many of you think I'm making a big deal out of nothing…. after all, it's only a Reality Show. That's just it, a reality show- a stupid, meaningless bit of entertainment, with Pura Vida as its backdrop. This is Las Vegas material, hell, go to New York City, London, Cancun, Aruba, places where this almost makes sense. Why here?
I just wanna say to whoever made this happen, "F-YOU" I'd love to do the reality show of YOU sitting around the boardroom thinking up even more ways to EXPLOIT Costa Rica for your own gain. And there IS gain somewhere… at the expense of COSTA RICA, the country. Oh, and please don't tell me the very lame, "We're just showing the outside world how beautiful Costa Rica is- this Reality Show is for the good of Costa Ricans everywhere." PLEEASSSSSSSSSSSSSE.
I have an idea for a reality show. Let's use the same 'celebrities' and see who can train a margay or ocelot to use a kitty litter box first. WHAT… you think that's STUPID? Dog the Bounty Hunter stalking a Costa Rican margay and eating turtle eggs to survive… now that's fuckin ENTERTAINMENT.
Dear I'm a Celebrity- Get Me Out of Here, Watch this and see if you can catch the HINT.
Hey Everyone, we got TONS of Costa Rica Travel Information in our Travel Guide at Travel Costa Rica NOW and don't FORGET all our Costa Rica Travel Tip Videos, completely ORGANIZED so you can EASILY find what you're LOOKING for. ENjOY!

subset: commoncrawl


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|System: X360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS
|Review Rating Legend
|Dev: Blue Castle Games
|1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid
|4.0 - 4.4 = Great
|Pub: 2K Sports
|2.0 - 2.4 = Poor
|4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
|Release: July 8, 2009
|2.5 - 2.9 = Average
|5.0 = The Best
|Players: 1-4
|3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
|ESRB Rating: Everyone
|3.5 - 3.9 = Good
by Jonathan Marx
The Bigs franchise is 2K Sports' arcade twist on Major League Baseball. Last year's offering showed promise but was held back by features and options that were poorly implemented. This year, Blue Castle Games and 2K Sports went back to the drawing board in order to bring gamers a more comprehensive and polished experience for The Bigs 2 (TB2). While gameplay is still a lot of fun and the package is far tighter than what was brought to the plate last year, The Bigs 2 still seems to suffer from a number of inadequacies. Nevertheless, it's a good game.
Interested gamers will be happy to know that TB2 packs a whole lot of fun. If you enjoy over-the-top arcade features and dig baseball, then you're going to get your money's worth out of TB2. That's because gameplay in TB2 is worth the price of admission despite its shortcomings. The most important facet of any baseball game is the duel between the batter and pitcher. The team at Blue Castle Games has done a good job of enhancing this part of the game while still keeping it light through arcade trappings.
This year, pitchers will have to contend with glowing red zones in the batter's strike zone called the Wheelhouse. The Wheelhouse represents the batter's favored area to get pitches. If a pitcher throws a meatball into that zone, chances are overwhelming the ball will get smashed for extra bases. That being said, going after batters by bringing truly nasty stuff they can't hit despite being placed in their Wheelhouse will actually shrink the zone permanently. As such, it's important to test yourself and the batters early on (especially against big thumpers) in order to get their Wheelhouse zone to a more manageable size. Once you've gotten the Wheelhouse down a bit, all you'll have to do is throw toward the white zone with well-timed pitches. If done in this way, you'll be able to cruise through the opposition's lineup with ne'er a hiccup (that is, of course, till you crank up the difficulty setting).
In the interest of keeping things balanced, pitchers also have their analog to the Wheelhouse. As games wear on, pitchers actually run the risk of losing key pitches if they give up too many bases/runs with the pitch. As a batter, if you are able to key in on your timing, you can force the pitcher to start throwing secondary and tertiary pitches to you, or even force the skipper to make frequent pitching changes.
Further enhancing the pitcher/batter duel is that of Turbo usage. Both offensive and defensive players will have access to their team's reservoir of Turbo points, accrued by making nice plays from both the diamond and the batter's box. Players can tap into this turbo meter in order to put extra zip on their pitches, guarantee home runs, and even fabricate grand slams. While Big Heat (guaranteed strikeout) and Big Blast (guaranteed homer) are holdovers from last year, the Big Slam is new and it's a way for the offense to get an edge. If you fill your Turbo meter all the way, you will gain access to the Big Slam mechanic. This will allow you to load and clear the bases with four successive rapid-fire pitches. Though initially difficult to pull off, this eventually becomes a key determinant to winning and losing games. Being able to put four runs up on the board, seemingly out of nowhere, gives the offense a huge advantage. While I found the Big Slam to be a lot of fun to pull off, it felt too harsh on the defensive side. Besides, there is no parallel mechanic to combat it for pitchers. This definitely skews the game toward the offense, significantly unbalancing it.
In addition to Turbo, which can be used by players outside of pitching and hitting, you can also make exceptional grabs in the outfield to rob batters. Great Catches are pulled off simply by getting to the ideal spot on the field and activating the grab via the A (Xbox 360) or X (PS3) button. This will allow you to rob home runs and hold on to infield liners. Occasionally, players can make a Legendary Catch. These grabs are insane web gems that can only be pulled off by successfully executing a quick-time event. At first this can be quite difficult to pull off, as rocket-shot comebackers lead to a jarring QTE cutscene that can initially be difficult to cope with. After a few games, however, you'll be nabbing foul balls previously destined for the stands and rising up to grab a blistering liner like a champ.
As you can see, The Bigs 2 is loaded with arcade features that distinguish it from sim-baseball offerings. Of course, diehard baseball fans will still greatly prefer the intricacies other titles offer, but anyone and everyone will still enjoy the simple fun the arcade gameplay of TB2 brings to the table. Nonetheless, I did find the pitching, batting, and fielding to be a bit too straightforward. For example, making contact while batting is nothing more complex than timing your swing correctly. As a batter, pitch location is never an issue - you'll simply have to judge speed and, therefore, timing. As a pitcher, other than avoiding the batter's Wheelhouse, all you'll have to do is concentrate on the power meter - selecting your best-rated pitches and keeping them in the green usually leads to Ks. While fielding, all you have to do is get close to balls and the computer does all the work. This is made slightly more challenging by the infrequent Legendary Catch QTEs. All in all, if you're looking for a sim-like baseball experience, know that TB2 will not satisfy you.


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A few stories, blog posts, and interesting discussions in Chicago and beyond that are on my mind this week.
**Image credit: Shannon Keller, Knitter. Keller's work is currently on view at Show Cave in L.A. (via The World's Best Ever).
*CAA Study finds over-reliance on part-time faculty in American higher education.
*New York Times looks at how artists are adjusting to economic hardship.
*Edward Winkleman asks his readers why the view that art is 'unmasculine' still persists?
*Chicago artist and illustrator Lauren Nassef's "A Drawing a Day" still going strong.
*Joanne Mattera bites back after receiving a cease and desist letter warning her not to write about vanity galleries (a.k.a. 'pay to show' schemes).
*The architecture of 'evil lairs' at BLDGBLOG (via C-Monster). Makes me long for the days I still had time to play videogames.
*Chicagoist's report on the Society for News Design's conference and discussions about what's happening in the Chicago journalism scene. Very interesting write-up here, including follow-up comments.
*"The practice of art gets the criticism it deserves"–Great piece on how the internet is changing critics and art criticism by John Haber.
*Another good read on the above topic: "Arts Writing and 'The New Thing'" at Peripheral Vision. (Meg has also twittered numerous of-the-moment links on the topic of arts journalism this past week, make sure to check those out too).
That's all for now. I'm off to see Several Silences at The Renaissance Society.
Claudine Isé
Latest posts by Claudine Isé (see all)
- Michelle Grabner, Anthony Elms, Stuart Comer Named Curators of 2014 Whitney Biennial - November 29, 2012
- New Fielding Practice Podcast on the Art21 Blog! Episode 16: Summer Review-O-Rama! - July 19, 2012
- Tom Sanford is a Busy Man…Here's Why - June 12, 2012


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So I have bluetooth stereo headphones (Motorola s305), that, now with iOS 4.1 and AVRCP, are a delight with my iPhone 3GS, at least, unless I happen to turn them on when my Macbook Pro is around.
Then the MBP thinks it's a pairing request and the headset's command is lost (worse: this happens while the MBP is sleeping, causing it to wake). I think I once paired it with the MBP when I didn't have other headphones lying around, but I've tried to get the MBP to behave by
- Disabling "Discoverable"
- Unpairing, then removing the profile of the s305 on the MBP
- Telling my MBP to NOT allow BT devices to wake it up
Short of disabling bluetooth (would not be desireable - I like my Magic Mouse), what can I do to get my MBP to ignore the headset?


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5 Key Digital Media and Advertising Trends for 2012 [VIDEO]
The past year didn't see the emergence of the next Facebook or Twitter. Rather, it saw social and digital spread to new places and along the way enabled a wave of new opportunities for content creators and marketers.
Recently, I had an opportunity to speak about those opportunities at ThinkLA's Trends Breakfast, a gathering of media, entertainment and advertising professionals in Los Angeles.
While you can view my full presentation in the video above, here's a quick look at some of what I think lies ahead for 2012 in media and advertising (with some fresh updates since my presentation, which was given in early November).
1. Social Curation and Mobile Will Drive Growth for Media Organizations
The rise of mobile and tablets is having a profound impact on media consumption habits. At Mashable, for example, our average iPad app user spends 6 times as much time with the content as our average web user.
More broadly speaking, tablet apps that also take into account what your social network is sharing – like Flipboard, Zite and Pulse – are becoming important new distribution channels. And early signs point to Apple's Newsstand becoming a key driver of growth for traditional publications. Conde Nast, for example, recently reported a 268% increase in digital subscribers after launching on Newsstand.
Facebook's social news apps are also opening up Zynga-like opportunities for publishers. Just last week, The Guardian revealed that its app has been installed more than 4 million times and is driving more than 1 million additional daily pageviews for the publication.
2. The Impact of the Second Screen on Television
The growing ubiquity of mobile is being felt in the living room as well. According to data from Yahoo/Nielsen, 86% of web users now use a mobile device while watching TV. That creates new opportunities for marketers to launch more interactive campaigns, and we're already seeing startups like Into Now and Shazam create platforms for engaging with the second screen audience, with advertisers like Pepsi, Gap and Starbucks jumping on board.
The TV networks are also starting to leverage the second screen. Most networks are now offering up streaming content on mobile devices, and some, like USA, are building robust social experiences for the second screen – features the networks hope will result in stickier audiences and increase ROI for advertisers.
3. An Explosion of Content for Connected TVs
The promise of Internet connected television has lingered for several years – so much so that some might see the medium as a flop. But that's far from the case.
While current estimates suggest about 35 million people have an Internet connected TV (either via the device itself, a set-top box or a gaming console), 65% of TVs sold in 2012 will be connected TVs. Add to that the likelihood of an Apple–made television hitting the market within the next 18 months and suddenly the outlook looks much brighter.
At the same time, we're starting to see content providers open up their offerings to alternative viewing options. Xbox just added dozens of live TV channels to its programming lineup. And while that does still require a conventional cable subscription, it will help warm consumers to the idea of consuming content through their televisions via the Internet. Meanwhile, YouTube is investing $100 million in original web-only programming that will also be available on connected televisions, where YouTube is often a default "channel."
That will ultimately lead to the TV of the future: consumers enjoying the same diversity of choice in video programming in the living room that they currently enjoy on the desktop. And for advertisers, that means the biggest marketing medium of them all opening up to the same type of targeting that was previously only possible on the Web and more recently mobile devices. To that end, LG recently announced a partnership with YuMe to launch an ad network for the company's connected TVs, with Toyota as a charter sponsor.
4. Connectivity in the Car Makes Autos the Next Great Platform
In the same way the TVs of the future will be powered by the Internet, so too will the cars. And while that could impact everything from fuel efficiency to finding parking spots, its impact is already being felt on the radio dial.
With car manufacturers developing their own app platforms that can access the Internet – currently through a smartphone but eventually through built-in connectivity – the AM and FM worlds are ripe for disruption (check out how MOG works in a Mini in the video above for an example).
For example, Pandora users can now listen to their music through their car stereo in BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and GMC vehicles, among others. And the online music service now accounts for nearly 4% of all radio listenership in the U.S., with the majority of its $50+ million in quarterly ad revenue coming from mobile advertising.
As music shifts to the cloud – an undeniable trend – and cars increasingly add options for accessing online content, look for radio advertising to get an Internet-powered overhaul.
5. Mobile Commerce Brings it All Together
Adding to the intrigue of advertising being delivered via the Internet across media platforms is the rise of mobile commerce. Already, ecommerce juggernauts like Amazon and eBay are reporting billions of dollars in sales taking place via mobile. Overall, Jupiter Research estimates mobile transaction volume growing to $670 billion by 2015.
Meanwhile, you have products like Google Wallet, PayPal Wallet and Square — not to mention the oft-rumored prospect of Apple moving into the mobile payments space — promising to connect location, deals and purchasing all through your phone. When you combine that concept with ads that are integrated seamlessly across media platforms, you suddenly have the purchase process of the future on the horizon.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alikemalkarasu


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Story highlights
- A Palestinian lured and killed an Israeli soldier he knew, Israel says
- The killing was allegedly part of a plot to gain the release of a Palestinian prisoner
- The soldier's body was dumped in a well
- The Israel Defense Forces says the investigation is ongoing
A young Israeli soldier was killed as part of a macabre bargaining ploy, the Israeli military said Sunday.
The Palestinian who killed him knew the soldier, and wanted to use the body to secure the release of the Palestinian's brother, who is in prison for involvement in terror attacks, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Sgt. Tomer Hazan, 20, went missing Friday. Concerned, his family phoned police.
Soon, Israeli authorities brought in Nadal Amer, a 42-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank village of Beit Amin, for questioning, the IDF said.
The two men had once worked at the same restaurant.
"Amer confessed to leading the soldier to an open area, where he murdered the soldier and concealed his body in a water well," the IDF said in a statement.
Amer said he wanted to trade Hazan's body for his brother's freedom, the statement said.
In 2003, Amer's brother began serving a lengthy prison sentence for "involvement in several terror attacks."
Amer led Israeli troops to the body north of the village of Siniria, according to the IDF.
"Additional detentions of individuals suspected for involvement in the incident are anticipated," the IDF said.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted that the prime minister spoke to Hazan's family, saying, "This crime proves that the fight against terror never stops."
"This is a horrific terrorist attack carried out by one murderer trying to free another," IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in a statement. "The IDF will continue to battle the agents of evil wherever they are, to safeguard the Israeli way of life."
But the Israeli paper Ma'ariv quoted Amer's mother as saying, "I still don't believe he did it. He was a good kid who got mixed up in stupid things."
Ma'ariv also published a statement from the head of Beit Amin, Taki Omar, emphasizing his community's ties with its Jewish neighbors and condemning the killing.
"The village must not be given a bad name because of one crazy person," Omar said.
In a separate incident, an Israeli soldier died after he was hit by hostile gunfire in Hebron, the IDF said Sunday. The soldier was participating in "routine activities defending the Jewish Neighborhood of Hebron and approximately 11,000 civilians visiting the area during the holiday of Sukkot" when he was hit, the IDF said.
The wounded soldier later died at a hospital in Israel. The IDF launched a search for the attackers and movement in the vicinity of the shooting was restricted, the IDF said.


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Wednesday August 5, 2020
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Bonnie King
Jun-16-2014 06:00TweetFollow @OregonNews
Spurs Crush Heat Again to Win NBA TitleSalem-News.com SPORTS
LeBron James battled valiantly with his 31 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots,
(SAN ANTONIO, Texas) - It was a season that the Spurs attacked like the world was their piñata, determined to keep hitting and hitting it, smacking and banging it until one day it would burst open.
When the prizes finally fell at their feet on Sunday night, it was relief and release and redemption.
"It makes last year OK," said Tim Duncan.
He hugged his two kids. He wrapped Manu Ginobili up in a bear hug. He clamped a headlock on Kawhi Leonard. And he practically swallowed Gregg Popovich up in a grin that was as big as Texas.
Twelve months ago, there were the last 28 seconds of Game 6, Duncan's own missed put-back in Game 7, followed by a year that probably seemed longer than a journey across purgatory on a lawn mower.
It drove them, but not to distraction. It pulled them along, but never pushed them over the edge. It, OK, spurred them with just enough sharp pain in their flanks to know they never wanted to feel that again.
"We wanted to redeem ourselves," said Tony Parker.
It was a relentless, astonishing campaign of atonement through artistry, reshaping that ugly lump of lost opportunity into the basketball equivalent of Michelangelo's David.
The Spurs won a league-best 62 games during the regular season and then sculpted a playoff drive that only got better as it went on and culminated with this jaw-dropping masterpiece against the two-time defending champion Heat.
In the process, the Spurs reintroduced the world to what it means to play the game at its purest form, the linear descendants of the 1960s Celtics and the 1970s Knicks, who share the ball and take away the breath of anyone who has ever loved the game.
Quite fitting that the culmination came on the opening weekend of the World Cup. So often called "the beautiful game," futbol looks like a faded starlet with too much mascara when compared to these Spurs.
There are more passes in an average Spurs offensive possession than a singles bar on a weekend night, more cuts than a butcher counter, more bodies moving than in an earthquake. Their style of play practically comes with a musical score you can hear in your head.
They are the 38-year-old Duncan spinning in the paint to knock down turnaround jumpers, the 36-year-old Ginobili reaching into his past and rising up to throw down a thunderbolt dunk over Chris Bosh and the 32-year-old Parker conducting the symphony.
Now the Big Three have the 22-year-old company of Leonard as Finals MVP for a franchise that has stretched excellence over 15 years with five championships.
"Great coaches, persistence, drive and a love for the game," said Duncan.
They wanted LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Bosh and the rest of the South Beach spectacle that are the Heat precisely because they were the ones who benefited from the Spurs' mistakes a year ago and that loud backdrop would make the brushstrokes of the Spurs' collaborative game practically leap off the canvas.
This wasn't a mere beating of Miami. They couldn't have pulverized the Heat more by using a mortar and pestle.
The Spurs were the black velvet jeweler's cloth that shows off the flaws in a low-grade diamond. They shot the ball better than any team in Finals history against a team that prides itself in playing a disruptive, smothering defense. They won all four Finals games by 15 points or more and it was an NBA-record 12th time in their 16 playoff wins with such a margin.
After dominating the first quarters of the first four games of the series, the Spurs devilishly spotted the Heat a 16-point lead in the clincher and then stepped on their throats.
James battled valiantly with his 31 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots, but he might as well have been a lamb taking on a pack of wolves. By the middle of the third quarter, if his teammates were any deader there would have been guys in white coats standing around waiting to harvest organs.
The plight of the four-time MVP James trying to carry the entire Heat cause on his shoulders was in direct contrast to the Spurs roster that is deeper than a philosophy class at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.
They had Boris Diaw doing sleight-of-hand passing, rebounding and taking his turns playing defense on James. They had Tiago Splitter mixing it up under the basket and doing throwback Larry Bird impersonations with touch passes in the lane. They had Patty Mills from halfway around the world, the first Indigenous Australian to reach The Finals, slinging in killshot 3-pointers. They had the flinty Popovich to keep them looking ahead even while feeling the sting of the past like lashes on their backs.
With the exceptions of Marco Belinelli and Jeff Ayres, they were all there a year ago in Miami when the dagger went in and the blood of remorse first rose up their throats and gave them a hint of what rejuvenation, reinvention, redemption might taste like.
"Last year was a tough one for all of us," said Ginobili. "We felt like we had the trophy, that we were touching it, and it slipped away. It was a tough summer. We all felt guilty.
"Last year made us stronger."
Now the game is better for that.
Source: NBA.com
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text:
The Chicago Architects Group will be holding its next meeting on June 15th. Please come and join us and get involved in our architect community.
Presenter: Tim Murphy Topic: Document Generation Architectures Location: TechNexus 200 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 1500 Room A/B Chicago, IL 60606 Time: 5:30 - Doors open at 5:00
Sponsored by:
Scott Seely did a wonderful job this evening of explaining how cloud services fit into our application architectures and specifically how Azure is organized. He covered everything from Table Storage to code name Dallas (OData). The discussion continued well beyond the end of the meeting which was attended by members of all sectors of IT and multiple platforms.
Be sure to join us in the upcoming months as we cover the following topics:
Stay tuned.
My presentation on leveraging Open XML was a great experience and the attendees were very gracious. I was pleasantly surprised to have a full room. There was even one person sitting on the floor. You can check out some pictures here. I have posted my slides and code. If anyone has any feedback or questions feel free to contact me.
Tim is a Solutions Architect for PSC Group, LLC. He has been an IT consultant since 1999 specializing in Microsoft technologies. Along with running the Chicago Information Technology Architects Group and speaking on Microsoft and architecture topics he was also contributing author on "The Definitive Guide to the Microsoft Enterprise Library".


text:
Daniel hangs up on a call with Chloe after telling her Parker is settling in at his place. Nicole arrives with a gift. She's happy for him and blames herself for everything that went down. He disagrees. She's about to tell him about Chloe when Maggie arrives. Nicole goes. She cries outside. Maggie puts Parker down for a nap and Daniel displays frustration over being a stranger to Parker. Maggie calms him by reminding him how relations need time to flourish.
The Dull One.
Father Matt counsels Nicole, Daniel's frustrated, and John and Marlena share a tearful goodbye.
Chloe drops by Jenn's office uninvited. She notices a photo of Jack and Jenn on Jenn's desk and worries Daniel's her transition person and that Parker will get hurt if they don't work out. Jennifer rolls her eyes. Chloe brings up hooking and wants to explain her reasons. Jenn's not really interested and doesn't hold it against her. Chloe bemoans letting people ruin things for her with Daniel. Jenn can see Chloe wants Jenn to give up Daniel. Chloe brings up "someone" telling her Jenn asked for the number of CPS. Jenn denies it and is called away for a meeting.
Arm in arm, Kristen and Brady show up for their board meeting at the rectory. Eric cancelled it and asks them to step down from the board. Kristen offers to step down if he lets Brady stay and leaves. Brady and Eric get into it. Eric judges Brady, calling him tacky. Brady doesn't like being judged by a priest so Eric rips off his collar and says he's speaking as a brother. Brady doesn't even care that John and Marlena's marriage is falling apart because of his selfishness. They yell some more and Brady walks out.
Marlena meets John at the cafe and is stunned to learn he's leaving town today. He says his meetings were bumped up. They bicker about the Kristen and Brady situation, and he can tell Doc still has no faith in him. They argue and Marlena clings to him in tears. They share a passionate kiss. Kristen almost walks in on them but hides and watches as Marlena begs John not to go. He's not sure what's ahead for them but he'll return. He leaves and Kristen jumps up and down grinning.
Nicole spots Father Matt at the square and he offers to lend an ear regarding what's been happening in her life. She brings up a dilemma with "the dull one" and "the scheming one" fighting over a man she cares for. What should she do? Father Matt doesn't think she's being objective. It's not her business. She should focus on someone else's needs.
Kristen rushes after John to gloat about his and Marlena's spectacle at the cafe. John tells her to go to hell and leaves. John runs into Brady at the square and tells him he's leaving town and why. Brady tells him not to return on his account because he's not leaving Kristen.
Nicole finds Eric's collar on the desk at the rectory. Eric tells her what happened with Brady and Kristen and how it's tearing their family apart. Nicole's shocked that the world's most devoted couple is separating all because of Kristen. Nicole gets an idea and decides to take a break. John turns up to say a heartfelt goodbye.
Kristen returns home to call Stefano with an update. Stefano thinks it's time to dump Brady now that she has her victory but she doesn't have everything she wants yet. He wonders if that's all there is to her dating Brady. Kristen reassures him and they hang up as Nicole drops by.
Brady finds Marlena a mess and crying at the cafe. He's sorry that all this is happening because of him. Marlena blames herself and he asks what she did.
Back at the hospital, Maggie visits Jenn, who says she and Daniel made up but Chloe's been trying to make her look bad in order to get him back. Maggie thinks Chloe blew it but they should keep their eye on her.
Chloe picks up Parker at Daniel's. Since Parker is having a hard time getting used to being with a virtual stranger, she suggests they move in together.
Sneak peek!
Brady has to break up a fight.
Marlena confronts Kristen once again.
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- Christine Fix


text:
|[ << Build system notes ]
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12.5 Website build
Note: This information applies only to the standard
website from the normal build directory. The process is
different for
The rule for make website is found in GNUmakefile.in:
website: $(MAKE) config_make=$(config_make) \ top-src-dir=$(top-src-dir) \ -f $(top-src-dir)/make/website.make \ website
This translates as:
make config_make=./config.make \ top-src-dir=/home/phil/lilypond-git \ -f /home/phil/lilypond-git/make/website.make \ website
which has the effect of setting the variables
top-src-dir and then processing the file
git/make/website.make with the target of website.
website.make starts with the following:
ifeq ($(WEBSITE_ONLY_BUILD),1)
which checks to see whether the variable
was set to one on the command line. This is only done for
standalone website builds, not in the normal case. The result of
the test determines the value of some variables that are set. A
number of other variables are set, in order to establish locations
of various files. An example is:
CREATE_VERSION=python $(script-dir)/create-version-itexi.py
The rule for website is:
website: website-texinfo website-css website-pictures website-examples web-post cp $(SERVER_FILES)/favicon.ico $(OUT)/website cp $(SERVER_FILES)/robots.txt $(OUT)/website cp $(top-htaccess) $(OUT)/.htaccess cp $(dir-htaccess) $(OUT)/website/.htaccess
so we see that this starts by running the rules for 5 other
targets, then finishes by copying some files. We'll cover that
later - first
website-texinfo. That rule is:
website-texinfo: website-version website-xrefs website-bibs for l in '' $(WEB_LANGS); do \ if test -n "$$l"; then \ langopt=--lang="$$l"; \ langsuf=.$$l; \ fi; \ $(TEXI2HTML) --prefix=index \ --split=section \ --I=$(top-src-dir)/Documentation/"$$l" \ --I=$(top-src-dir)/Documentation \ --I=$(OUT) \ $$langopt \ --init-file=$(texi2html-init-file) \ -D web_version \ --output=$(OUT)/"$$l" \ $(top-src-dir)/Documentation/"$$l"/web.texi ; \ ls $(OUT)/$$l/*.html | xargs grep -L \ 'UNTRANSLATED NODE: IGNORE ME' | \ sed 's!$(OUT)/'$$l'/!!g' | xargs \ $(MASS_LINK) --prepend-suffix="$$langsuf" \ hard $(OUT)/$$l/ $(OUT)/website/ ; \ done
which therefore depends on
website-xrefs and
website-version: mkdir -p $(OUT) $(CREATE_VERSION) $(top-src-dir) > $(OUT)/version.itexi $(CREATE_WEBLINKS) $(top-src-dir) > $(OUT)/weblinks.itexi
which translates as:
mkdir -p out-website python /home/phil/lilypond-git/scripts/build/create-version-itexi.py /home/phil/lilypond-git > out-website/version.itexi python /home/phil/lilypond-git/scripts/build/create-weblinks-itexi.py /home/phil/lilypond-git > out-website/weblinks.itexi
So, we make out-website then send the output of
create-version-itexi.py to
create-weblinks-itexi.py to
create-version-itexi.py parses the file
VERSION in
the top source dir. It contains:
c-v-i.py parses this to:
@c ************************ Version numbers ************ @macro version 2.15.13 @end macro @macro versionStable 2.14.2 @end macro @macro versionDevel 2.15.12 @end macro
create-weblinks-itexi.py creates a load of texi macros (of
the order of 1000) similar to:
@macro manualStableGlossaryPdf @uref{../doc/v2.14/Documentation/music-glossary.pdf,Music glossary.pdf} @end macro.
It loads its languages from langdefs.py, and therefore outputs the following unhelpful warning:
langdefs.py: warning: lilypond-doc gettext domain not found.
website-xrefs: website-version for l in '' $(WEB_LANGS); do \
is the start of the rule, truncated for brevity. This loops through the languages to be used on the website, processing some variables which I don't fully understand, to run this command:
python /home/phil/lilypond-git/scripts/build/extract_texi_filenames.py \ -I /home/phil/lilypond-git/Documentation \ -I /home/phil/lilypond-git/Documentation/"$l" \ -I out-website -o out-website --split=node \ --known-missing-files= \ /home/phil/lilypond-git/scripts/build/website-known-missing-files.txt \ -q \ /home/phil/lilypond-git/Documentation/"$l"/web.texi ;\
There's a good description of what
extract_texi_filenames.py does at the top of the script,
but a shortened version is:
If this script is run on a file texifile.texi, it produces
a file texifile[.LANG].xref-map with tab-separated entries
of the form NODE\tFILENAME\tANCHOR.
An example from
web.nl.xref-map is:
Inleiding Introduction Introduction
e-t-f.py follows the includes from document to document.
We know some have not been created yet, and
known-missing-files option tells
e-t-f.py which
these are.
It then does this:
for m in $(MANUALS); do \
to run
e-t-f.py against all of the manuals, in each
language. Next:
website-bibs: website-version BSTINPUTS=$(top-src-dir)/Documentation/web \ $(WEB_BIBS) -s web \ -s $(top-src-dir)/Documentation/lily-bib \ -o $(OUT)/others-did.itexi \ $(quiet-flag) \ $(top-src-dir)/Documentation/web/others-did.bib
This is half the command. It runs
bib2texi.py on 2
.bib files -
others-did.bib and
This converts bibliography files into texi files with
Next the commands in the
website-texinfo rule are run:
for l in '' $(WEB_LANGS); do \
texi2html. This is the program that outputs the
progress message (found in
Processing web site: []
It also outputs warning messages like:
WARNING: Unable to find node 'Řešení potíží' in book usage.
website-css: cp $(top-src-dir)/Documentation/css/*.css $(OUT)/website
Copies 3 css files to out-website/website. Then:
website-pictures: mkdir -p $(OUT)/website/pictures if [ -d $(PICTURES) ]; \ then \ cp $(PICTURES)/* $(OUT)/website/pictures ; \ ln -sf website/pictures $(OUT)/pictures ;\ fi
which translates as:
if [ -d Documentation/pictures/out-www ]; \ then \ cp Documentation/pictures/out-www/* out-website/website/pictures ; \ ln -sf website/pictures out-website/pictures ;\ fi
i.e. it copies the contents of
build/Documentation/pictures/out-www/* to
out-website/website/pictures. Unfortunately, the pictures
are only created once
make doc has been run, so an initial
run of
make website copies nothing, and the pictures on the
website (e.g. the logo) do not exist. Next:
website-examples: mkdir -p $(OUT)/website/ly-examples if [ -d $(EXAMPLES) ]; \ then \ cp $(EXAMPLES)/* $(OUT)/website/ly-examples ; \ fi
translates to:
mkdir -p out-website/website/ly-examples if [ -d Documentation/web/ly-examples/out-www ]; \ then \ cp Documentation/web/ly-examples/out-www/* out-website/website/ly-examples ; \ fi
This does the same with the LilyPond examples (found at
https://lilypond.org/examples.html). Again, these are
actually only created by
make doc (and since they are
generated from LilyPond source files, require a working LilyPond
exe made with
make). So this does nothing
initially. Then:
web-post: $(WEB_POST) $(OUT)/website
which is:
python /home/phil/lilypond-git/scripts/build/website_post.py out-website/website
which describes itself as:
This is web_post.py. This script deals with translations
in the "make website" target.
It also does a number of other things, including adding the Google tracker code and the language selection footer. We're now at the end of our story. The final 4 lines of the recipe for website are:
cp $(SERVER_FILES)/favicon.ico $(OUT)/website cp $(SERVER_FILES)/robots.txt $(OUT)/website cp $(top-htaccess) $(OUT)/.htaccess cp $(dir-htaccess) $(OUT)/website/.htaccess
The first translates as:
cp /home/phil/lilypond-git/Documentation/web/server/favicon.ico out-website/website
so we see these are just copying the support files for the web server.
website.make summary
Recipes in 'website.make':
website:this is the "master" rule. It calls the other rules in order, then copies some extra files around - see below for further of the process it produces.
website-version: this calls the python scripts below:
This writes a @version, @versionStable, and @versionDevel based on the top-level VERSIONS file, to
This creates a ton of macros in
out-website/weblinks.itexi. Stuff like @downloadStableLinuxNormal, @downloadStableWidows,
@stableDocsNotationPdf{}, @downloadDevelSourch-zh.
It's quite monstrous because it deals with combinations of stable/devel, source/docs, lang/lang/lang*10, etc.
website-xrefs:creates files used for complicated "out-of-build" references to
If you just write @ref{}, then all's groovy and we wouldn't need this. But if you write @rlearning{}, then our custom texi2html init file needs to know about our custom xref file format, which tells our custom texi2html init file how to create the link.
GP: we should have a separate @node to discuss xrefs. Also, take a quick look at a generated xref file – it's basically just a list of @node's [sic teenager pluralization rule] from the file.
website-bib:generates the bibliography texinfo files from the .bib files - in the case of the website build these are 'others-did.bib' and 'we-wrote.bib'.
website-texinfo:this is the main part; it calles texi2html to generate the actual html. It also has a ton of options to texi2html to pass info to our custom init file.
The file actually built is called 'web.texi', and is either in the 'Documentation' directory, or a sub-directory specific to the language.
The options file is '/Documentation/lilypond-texi2html.init'. This contains *lots* of option and configuration stuff, and also includes the line:
print STDERR "Initializing settings for web site: [$Texi2HTML::THISDOC{current_lang}]\n";
This is where one of the console messages is generated.
We have somewhere between 2-4 different ways "to pass info to our custom init file". This is highly Not Good (tm), but that's how things work at the moment.
After texi2html, it does some black magick to deal with untranslated nodes in the translations. Despite writing that part, I can't remember how it works. But in theory, you could figure it out by copy&pasting each part of the command (by "part", I mean "stuff before each | pipe"), substituting the variables, then looking at the text that's output. For example,
ls $(OUT)/$$l/*.html
is going to print a list of all html files, in all languages, in the build directory. Then more stuff happens to each of those files (that's what xargs does).
website-css:just copies files to the build dir.
website-pictures, website-examples:more file copies, with an if statement to handle if you don't have any generated pictures/examples.
which, it adds the "this page is translated in klingon" to the bottom of html pages, and adds the google analytics javascript. It also has hard-coded lilypond version numbers, which is Bad (tm).
Here's a summary of what gets called, in what order, when we run
make website
website: website-texinfo: website-version: creates version.itexi and weblinks.itexi website-xrefs: runs extract_texi_filenames.py website-bibs: creates bibliography files, described above website-css: copies css files website-pictures: copies pictures website-examples: copies examples web-post: runs website_post.py Then some file copying
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|[ < Building a bibliography ]
|[ Up : Build system notes ]
|[ Modifying the Emmentaler font > ]


text:
Written by Jeff Nielson Tuesday, 17 August 2010 11:50
Old habits are hard to break, and in the United States of America, there are few "habits" as common as mortgage-fraud. In 2006, the world discovered that the U.S. housing market was the most-fraudulent market in history. However, since that time, even that level of fraud has been surpassed – by the U.S. housing market of 2010.
Incredibly, four years after learning that the U.S. housing market was the global fraud-capital, U.S. mortgage-fraud has continued to increase every year. There is simply too much material here to cover even a small portion. For inquisitive readers, I recommend doing a simple Google-search for "U.S. mortgage-fraud increasing".
In addition to coming up with an endless list of articles covering the last four years, one of the first "results" which readers will encounter is a Reuters article from June. That article reported a large haul of fraudsters: 1,215 people were charged in numerous frauds, totaling $2.3 billion in losses for victims. Thanks to the "magic" of search-engines, readers will also encounter a further list (on the left side of the page) of the recent Reuters articles on "U.S. mortgage-fraud increasing".
One of the more hilarious/disturbing search-results was a Reuters article from April 2009, where the U.S. Justice Department "urged Congress" to force U.S. banks to keep records of their mortgages. The Justice Department stated unequivocally that such record-keeping would make it much easier to crack-down on fraud.
Naturally, nothing has been done on that front – since the U.S. government likes mortgage-fraud. Here's why. A Reuters article released today on U.S. mortgage-fraud reported the case of a run-down Chicago home, which sold for $25,000 in a foreclosure auction, and then was quickly "flipped" in a fraudulent transaction for $355,000.
Pull out your calculator, and you'll discover that this phony transaction resulted in a (fraudulent) price-rise of more than 1,300%. Put another way, if there were 100 non-fraudulent transactions, each of which reported a 5% decline in prices, and we add in the one fraudulent "sale", suddenly those 101 sales show a "rising" U.S. housing market, once averaged-out (instead of the falling market which exists in the real world).
Of course, with U.S. mortgage-fraud steadily increasing (even though total sales in this market have plummeted to a tiny fraction of their bubble-peak), obviously the rate of fraud is much higher than merely 1% of transactions. This is especially true given that the vast majority of offenders are "insiders": "mortgage brokers, appraisers, real estate agents or loan officers". In other words, the supposed "rising prices" which the Obama regime and media-parrots cited to conclude that the U.S. housing market had "stabilized", were in fact nothing more than a fraud-induced mirage.
Equally disturbing, even in the FBI "crackdown" on mortgage-fraud, of the $2.3 billion in victim-losses, only a paltry $147 million was recovered – less than 10%. This is of tremendous significance to U.S. taxpayers, since their government has made them "guarantors" of all U.S. mortgage-debt – including this endless stream of fraudulent transactions.
Even the "detected" fraud is leading to losses of 90+% for taxpayers. Meanwhile, the much larger mountain of undetected fraud naturally means losses of virtually 100%. For readers who dispute the premise that mortgage-fraud is a "way of life" in the United States, I will simply refer them to a superb, PBS expose on the U.S.'s fraudulent markets.
"The Warning" is a PBS documentary which goes back to the roots of current, U.S. mortgage-fraud, during the years of the Clinton regime. Of principal note was the position of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan – who was adamant that "market fraud" should not even be illegal in the U.S. Greenspan's position was that the market should be left alone to "resolve" this fraud "in its own way" (i.e. through the fraudsters taking every last dime of the "sheep").
What more needs to be said when you have the government of the world's largest economy taking the position that rather than being a "problem", that mortgage-fraud was a "solution to problems" (i.e. the crashing U.S. housing market)? Let the fraudsters artificially pump-up the prices of U.S. homes through their phony transactions, et voila we have a "U.S. housing recovery".
Indeed, regular readers will be familiar with my previous articles on the "MERS" registry system. This was a fraud-facilitation entity created by Wall Street bankers during the mid-1990's. It's entire purpose was to replace the mortgage record-keeping of individual, financial institutions – so that it would be much easier to engage in serial mortgage-fraud via "mortgage securitization", as the U.S. financial crime syndicate commenced their housing-bubble crime-wave.
The "MERS" registry has been regularly rejected in numerous court-decisions for being woefully inadequate in its record-keeping. This has resulted in a number of U.S. homeowners who, instead of losing their property to foreclosure were handed free and clear title to their properties – because the MERS registry had failed to provide adequate documentation of title.
However, none of the previous documentation of fraud in this commentary can compare with the most-brazen admission of mortgage-fraud – by the banksters themselves. In a previous commentary, I referred to a Wall Street Journal article about yet another mortgage-fraud court case.
In that incident, the bankers of JP Morgan were asked to explain a mortgage document where, instead of a buyer's name appearing, there were the words "Bogus Assignee". The hilarious explanation of Michelle Kersch, the lawyer defending the case was that the "name" wasn't an indication of a fraudulent transaction in-progress. Instead, "Bogus Assignee" was merely a generic term, or a "placeholder", which had been used on "a few occasions".
In other words, instead of using the five-letter word "buyer" as its generic term on loan documents, we are supposed to believe that the substition of the two words "Bogus Assignee" was merely a random choice of words, to which we should attach no meaning whatsoever.
For market participants, the message is simple: invest in a U.S. bank and you are investing in fraud. Invest in a U.S. home-builder, and you are investing in fraud. Even though home-builders have not been directly connected to this fraud, when you create the "supply" for a fraud-saturated market, you become equally affected by that fraud – irrespective of the fact that these entities did not participate in this crime-wave.
As I have already demonstrated previously, even without mortgage-fraud, the U.S. housing market was doomed to a much worse, much longer collapse – now that this market has clearly begun another slide. However, as we become more aware of the massive levels of fraud in this market, it would appear that I have been guilty of understatement.
Simply put, there is nothing more that the Bush regime, and its successor the Obama regime could have done to destroy the U.S. housing market. This matters not at all to the U.S. government, which clearly believes that fraud is "good for business". This is the attitude of the Wall Street Oligarchs as well, who engage in serial-fraud as a basic ingredient of their "business model".
The Oligarchs defraud a client or business partner (generally numerous times). If the fraud becomes so obvious that U.S. regulators can't simply pretend it doesn't exist (any longer), then the bankster is taken to court by the U.S. "regulator". A sweetheart-settlement is reached where a) the banker isn't required to admit any "wrong doing" (since U.S. officials don't consider fraud a "crime"); and b) the fine levied against the Oligarch is generally only a tiny portion of the profits they obtained through the fraud.
The fact that U.S. mortgage-fraud continues to soar, four years after this fraud-saturated market was exposed tells us that the U.S. government is intentionally under-funding law enforcement in this area. Law enforcement officials must be extremely demoralized. Not only are they unable to obtain the necessary "resources" to properly police this crime-wave, but the "big players" (i.e. the Wall Street Oligarchs) are essentially "immune" to any law-enforcement actions.
Never in history, never in any other part of the world, and never in any other market have the words "caveat emptor" carried as much weight.
Source- BullionsBullCanada
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. GRG [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml]© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.


text:
I'm sitting here tonight celebrating two events. One is the second anniversary of my moving to Hawaii, and of course the second is Winter Solstice.
December 22 2009, I arrived "home" to Hawai'i Island and it has been an incredible adventure. At times it seems like just yesterday I stepped off the plane, but at other times it is hard to remember being anywhere else. My friend Frank DeMarco asked if it was 4 or 5 years since I had moved to Hawai'i, so it isn't just me apparently.
Winter Solstice is a time of reflection and sitting here tonight my thoughts can't help but turn toward what the coming years will bring, but crystal balls are notoriously foggy and as Yogi Berra said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.". I'm not even up on current events lately since I don't watch TV and only occasionally look at headlines on the internet. There are, of course, no shortage of dire predictions about the future, and some of it may very well be true to some degree, but I'm simply not going to focus on those things and lend my energies to them. In the latest SharedWidom newsletter, Hank Wesselman said:
No matter what happens over the next several years, we'll be at our best if we are grounded and heart-centered.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
To all my countless two or three readers that still stop by (ok, and everyone else too) I wish all of you the happiest of holidays and love and happiness in the new year, come what may.


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I wanted to tell you that I have some fun plans for the Holidays I am hoping to share many great reviews,Fantastic giveaways [Including Gift basket giveaways] & other Holiday posts I already have some fantastic companies on board that I look forward to sharing with you. Posts for the Holidays will begin mid to the end of October so that prizes reach winners in time for the Holidays. So what is todays giveaway? Below you will find a list of the Prize Package to be won along with retail price of the item [Taken from their websites] along with a Estimated total not including shipping. As you can see One very lucky girl is going to be winning a lot of great new makeup/Beauty items. All of these items are from some of my personal favorite companies so you know that these products work well & look great. Inside each jar of makeup is 1-20 grams of Eyeshadow/Blush which will last you for quite some time depending on how much of it you use,Normally a jar can last me 6-12 months before it is gone.All items that are to be won are show in the provide photos the only two not shown are nail file & nail polish.Products & Shipping are being provided by Me. That being said I am sorry but this giveaway is for USA RESIDENTS ONLY. There are MANY ways to enter so feel free to enter as much as you would like the more entries you have the better your winning chances are. Do you like the giveaways I put together myself? Let me know & I will keep hosting them.
Makeup bag by Littleworm on etsy - $7
Erno Laszlo Total Skin Revitalizer 1 oz - $80
Enfanti Natural Remedy Shampoo/Conditinoer samples - $ ?
Carmex Lime Twist Lip Balm - $4
OPI 1/8 fl oz Purple nail polish - $5
Abbet St. Clare Summer Solstice blush 20g - $14.50
Spray Hand Santizer - $1
Large Nail File - $1
Orglamix 2G Mineral Eyeshadow Wisteria [Light pink] - $7
Orglamix 2G Mineral Eyeshadow Amber [Golden Brown] -$7
Orglamix 2G Mineral Eyeshadow Sandlewood [Brown] - $7
Orglamix 2G Mineral Eyeshadow Ylang Ylang [Shimmer White] - $7
Orglamix 1G Mineral Eyeshadow Bare Rose [Red/Pink] - $4.50
Orglamix 1G Mineral Eyeshadow Vetiver [Moss green] - $4.50
Estimated Total: $149.50
RULES : To be eligible for this giveaway contest you MUST do the MANDATORY entry below. You only need 1 Mandatory entry to enter, but you could also have Additional entries to maximize your chances, please remember to leave each entry in a separate comment box or it won't be counted). For Twitter & Facebook entries please leave a Link or name to your page.Please remember to leave your email so that I am able to contact you if you win.You do not have to be a blog follower but I would love if you would become one it will help you keep updated on All of my giveaways. USA RESIDENTS ONLY
MANDATORY ENTRY: Visit Burning Moon & let me know your favorite item
*Be a blog follower -3 Entries
*Follow me on Twitter -1 Entry
*Add my blog button to your blog -3 Entries
*Blog about this on your blog - 3 Entries
*Tweet about this giveaway [Include @Burningmoonprod] -1 Entry Per day
*Leave a comment with Why you want to win -1 Entry
*Leave a comment letting me know one of Your favorite makeup items -1 Entry
*Enter one of my other giveaways [Let me know which you entered] -3 Entries Each
*Vote for my blog [In the lower left hand side click the "Were on the fence" button -2 Entries
*Leave a comment about my blog on the 'Were on the Fence' site - 2 Entries
*Comment on my Gears of War Review - 2 Entries
*Comment on my LoveSac Review - 2 Entries
*Comment on my Cool Gear review - 1 Entry
*Comment on my LingeriePlease Review -1 Entry
This giveaway will end on November 25th,2011.Winner will be picked using a Random Number Generator.


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Ravaged RIM Shares Rally 15 Percent
If Research In Motion's predicament is as dire as many have made it out to be, you wouldn't know it from looking at the company's stock.
Friday morning, investors emerged from their turkey-induced L-Tryptophan stupor to push RIM's stock into a remarkable rally. The company's shares, which have tumbled more than 20 percent this year, rose some 15 percent to $11.82 in early trading. The reason? Investor reaction to a bullish note from National Bank Financial analyst Kris Thompson, who raised his target on RIM to $15 from $12, citing the "positive sentiment" building ahead of the launch of the company's next generation OS, BlackBerry 10.
"We think there is more money to be made ahead of the C2013 launch of BB10," Thompson wrote in a research note to clients. "The new RIM management team is executing by maintaining the BlackBerry subscriber base, managing costs and cash, seemingly readying a February 2013 BB10 global platform launch."
Thompson's optimism echoes that of Jefferies analyst Peter Misek, who earlier this week upgraded RIM to "Hold" from "Underperform," noting developing carrier support for BlackBerry 10. "Preliminary results from our quarterly handset survey indicate developed market carriers have a much more positive view of BB10 than we expected," he wrote in a note. "With greater carrier shelf space and marketing support, we now believe BB10 has a 20 percent – 30 percent probability of success."
Two such votes of confidence, tentative though the second may be, seem to be dampening Wall Street's skepticism over a RIM turnaround. The company's shares have enjoyed a few days of consecutive gains now, and while they're still nowhere near the $148 price they commanded in 2008, they're at least headed in the right direction.


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Conditional Logic in JavaScript - 06
In this lesson, Bob demonstrates the use of the if ... else if statement, the ternary (or conditional) operator, and the case ... select statements. Along the way, we learn about the && and || operators as well as the Date object in JavaScript.
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The Discussion
Nice psychedelic shirt Bob!
@PeterNL: Yeah, bad choice. I'll never wear that one again on camera.
in my current language Objective-C the logical And operator in an If statement is a single &
You showed it as a && which was a surprise. Is the single & never used? Thanks. Great videos!
@riclf: The single & is not used often -- at least not in the type of coding *I* do often ...
Hi Bob,
Thanks for making these videos! They are very easy to follow along with :) I did find the switch statement was a little bit unexplained at first but after re-watching it I've found it was rather simple.
I am looking at making a start with writing Windows 8 Store Apps using Visual Studio Express 2012 and found that JavaScript is supported and with your help, easy to learn :)
I have shared a link to these videos to a few of my friends.
Thanks for the awesome videos, I look forward to watching the rest of this series!
@David Hartigan: Thanks David! Glad they help!
If you look into the shirt long enough, you'll see a sailboat!
Congrats! That is the single funniest comment we've received on any of these videos.
In retrospect, the wardrobe choice was ill-fated.
Hi Bob tanks again for the lessons. I had a problem when I pasted the code onto the validator page it spread out all over how do you word wrap it the way you did when you hit Ctrl c , Ctrl v into the validator.nu/sorry if this is a dumb question. John
@washerguy1: Hmm ... I don't think I did anything special. Have you made sure to turn auto-wrap OFF in Notepad? Are you using tabs or spaces? Those are the only things I can think of that would affect it.
@riclf In a c based languages (c, c++, java, objective-c, c#) & is the 'bitwise and' and && is the 'logical and', so condA & condB will also work, but the important difference is that there is no short circuit logic in the bitwise operators.
@BobTaylor Actually most script languages support some notion of 'falsey' or 'truthey'. For example in python an empty list will evaluate as a false condition. In a sense so do most of the c based languages because a lot of things implicitly convert to bool. The messed up part with the '==' operator in javascript is that the conversion is done before the comparison.
I would first like to say thank you for putting these videos together. I am inching my way towards taking my first crack at some freelance work and these videos have helped out a lot with connecting the dots.
I just wanted to see if you and/or anyone else was having an issue with the progress bar on the videos. It is not a big deal, but mine seem to stop progressing after multiple pause/restart actions.
@Kyle: Thanks Kyle. As far as the player ... yeah, I noticed that too. That would be good feedback for Microsoft -- and they don't monitor these threads like I do ... you may want to click the Feedback link (below, footer) and tell them so they can look into it. Best wishes!
Okay, this is where it starts to not make sense to me. In the last example, where you're trying to determine the time of day and write a message to the html page -- I have a bunch of questions about this:
1) Just to verify -- the Date function grabs the date and time stamp at any given moment, right? So the value that comes back from the Date function is put into the rightNow variable? Then you have to parse that value to find just the value of the hour, which is then put into the currentHour variable?
2) Why do you do the "switch" on the value "true"? Why wouldn't you do the switch on currentHour? Isn't that what you're testing the value of?
Hi Robin ... sorry for the delay.
re: Date() ... Yes:
var rightNow = new Date(); var currentHour = rightNow.getHours();
In that code snippet, Date() grabs the current date and time in the form of a Date object. See this for details, including reference about the getHours() (and other similar methods):
re: switch ... this is a trickier one ... honestly? I probably should have chosen an if statement instead. I think I wanted to explain the switch statement and show and advanced case. As I wrote to you in our email exchange (that others didn't see) it's a stylistic choice.
In this advanced (perhaps even absurd) example, I'm testing the value of true to find a match. It's a backwards notion ... again, "just because you can doesn't mean you should". I probably shouldn't have done that if it confuses people ... but you obviously CAN do it. In this case, prefer if.
Mr. Tabor,
Been writing code for 6 years. First in high school and now in college. NEVER through to do a switch statement on "true". Blew my mind. Fantastic idea!
These videos are amazing by the way. Been helping me out a ton with my capstone graduation project.
@zwarburg: Hi Zack, thanks ... I don't know if I would recommend that little trick other than to learn what is possible. I'd stick with an if..else. Good luck on your project!
Hi Bob,
New to JS, thanks for doing these. I was using code academy before but this is more my pace. Two quick questions:
1. Why do you use the break in the switch statement?
2. I can't seem to get my code to work, even though it seems to match yours perfectly. Any suggections?
<!DOCTYPE html>
<title>6. Conditional Logic in JavaScript</title>


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Forecasters expect the storm to pass over North Carolina's Outer Banks on Friday night.
Arthur is growing up so fast. The tropical storm graduated to a hurricane Thursday, picking up speed and strength as it moves north up the coast of the United States.
Arthur, the first hurricane of the season, is not expected to be a very strong one, but it sure looks menacing from space. This image, captured Wednesday by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites, reveals a large, swirling mass over the Atlantic Ocean.
Forecasters expect Hurricane Arthur to pass over the Outer Banks, a 200-mile string of barrier islands along the coast of North Carolina, on Friday night. On Thursday, officials ordered a mandatory evacuation of about 35,000 people from Hatteras Island, located at the southern tip of the Outer Banks. Forecasters expect heavy rains and winds, as well as dangerous rip tides.
None of this is good news for Fourth of July celebrants on the Outer Banks, a popular summer vacation spot that was expected to see more than 200,000 visitors this weekend.
But North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory wants residents to get their priorities straight. "This is no time to put your stupid hat on," he told CNN's New Day on Thursday, warning people to stay off the beach and out of the ocean
Leave your stupid hats at home, folks. And your party hats. Just stay inside.


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The BBC has just unveiled a new iPlayer Radio app for iPhone, with an Android version coming soon.
It adds to the BBC's portfolio of mobile apps and extends the iPlayer brand which has been a huge success for the broadcaster.
The BBC received deserved praise for its Olympic mobile app that gave users access to a huge range of video content and news from every event at the Games.
The iPlayer Radio app therefore has a tough act to follow, but how does it stack up…
The homepage allows you to access the full range of BBC radio stations by spinning a touchscreen dial.
It's a great way of scrolling through the various options, with each giving the information for what's on now and next. If you turn the phone on its side you can access the full schedule for the next three days as well as the previous week's shows.
Once you have selected the station you want to listen to the live stream loads very quickly and continues to play even when you navigate through different tabs.
However one problem I found was that the stream dropped out fairly regularly, which may have been an issue with my Wi-Fi connection but was very frustrating nonetheless.
Also, when it did drop out the app didn't automatically try to reconnect. You have to navigate back to the 'Station' tab and press play again – would it be that difficult to make it reconnect automatically?
If you want to listen to an old show, there are tabs that let you search for the programme by name or browse the BBC's selection of podcasts.
Alarm clock
The alarm clock feature is fairly self explanatory but also extremely handy.
For the alarm to work it has to keep the device 'awake' so you can only really use it while you are charging the phone, but this probably won't be a problem for most users.
The app also has a night mode that displays a big clock and has an adjustable brightness setting.
The alarm clock is a neat feature and means that users can have the pleasure of waking up to Nick Grimshaw every morning…
In iPlayer Radio the BBC has come up with a simple but useful app that is a good addition to its mobile portfolio.
My one major concern was that the live stream would drop off while you navigated around different tabs or searched for other shows but this isn't the case.
As a radio listener it's great to have access to all the BBC's content in a dedicated app, and the additional alarm clock function is a nice touch that gives people a reason to use the app on a daily basis.


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Authorized seller of Mossy Oak Camo!
Don't be fooled by eBay sellers selling knock off Mossy Oak camo's. Big Brain graphics is the only authorized seller of Mossy Oak Brand Camo Hydrographics film.
Mossy oak is a worldwide brand of camo, and before now was only available to licensed decorators. Forming a partnership with Mossy Oak, Big Brain Graphics has been afforded the honor of being able to sell the exact hydrographics film that the big guys use, in small quantities! What does this mean? It means that no matter what the size of your business, you will be able to offer Mossy Oak to your customers!
Mossy Oak Green Leaf Camo Requires: MOSSY OLDSCHOOL BEIGE Base
This is an exciting development in the hydrographics world! We will have all of the patterns that Mossy Oak offers in hydrographics film, as well as the same paint that their dipping facility in Murfeesboro, TN.
Any decorator is able to use Mossy Oak patterns, however it is a requirement that you use the required color recommended for the pattern. We will send a color chip with every pattern. We Currently offer all NanoChem Match Base Colors in READY TO SPRAY and NOT READY TO SPRAY FORMULAS
The required color will also be outlined in each listing. THIS IS A REQUIREMENT TO USE THE PROPER BASE COLOR. This is to protect the integrity of the Mossy Oak brand.
Any other Mossy Oak patterns that you find on eBay that is not sold by Big Brain Graphics is not authorized. The quality is poor and it is a fake. It does NOT work the same!
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A personalised picture of your fingerprint
Decorate your walls with your own fingerprints thanks to this original and astonishing design!
Choose the colour, size and medium of your picture and, in a few days, you will receive a Fingerprnt kit. A few weeks later, you will receive your personalised work of art
For gift orders, select the box marked gift to let the recipient choose the colour.
Click on the images to enlarge.


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Back in July, Microsoft was hit with a €280 million fine for not complying fully with a 2004 EU antitrust ruling. The company and its European allies have been pushing back, trying to convince regulators that their continuing investigation into Windows could result in Europe not receiving Vista on time.
Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes received a letter from several MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) which argued that the Commission's pursuit of Microsoft was harming European business. "It is alarming that one of the world's most successful technology companies considers the European Commission's attitude a 'risk factor' that might delay European companies' access to future Microsoft products such as Windows Vista," the letter said.
Microsoft has described the Commission's investigation as a "risk factor" in SEC filings.
While the Financial Times describes the letter's signatories as "a cross-party group of European Parliament members," that's putting it grandly. The letter was signed by four MEPS (out of 732), three of them from the UK and one from Poland.
One of them, Conservative MEP Chris Heaton-Harris, represents the East Midlands, where Microsoft maintains a game development center, and he's keen to keep the jobs there. After a recent meeting with Steve Ballmer, Heaton-Harris remarked, "innovation from companies such as Microsoft drives job creation in the East Midlands, and so we are keen to track these developments to ensure that users throughout the region can benefit from new IT developments."
Is this simply FUD designed to get the EU to back off, or is legitimate criticism? The Commission has already issued veiled warnings about Vista, and Microsoft is claiming that it may have to delay its European Vista release if legal uncertainty remains. Kroes is having none of it, though. A spokesman for her office said, "It is not up to the Commission to give Microsoft a definitive 'green light' before Vista is put on the market. It is up to Microsoft to accept and implement its responsibilities as a near monopolist to ensure full compliance with EU competition rules."
Any decision to delay the operating system's release in Europe would be a major blow to European computer makers and retailers, though the argument (found in the letter) that this would "put European companies at a competitive disadvantage with every other company around the world" rings hollow. Businesses around the globe won't be deploying Vista the day it's released, and few of the new technologies will automagically make a business more productive compared to one still using XP.


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Customizing Emacs Muse – Part 1
Part 2 (Updating Elements Within Association Lists) and part 3 (Emacs Muse Aliases).
Emacs has some extremely nice extension mechanisms. The most important of these are emacs hooks, but there is also advice and you can even redefine any functions that aren't behaving exactly as you want.
There comes a time in every emacs user's life where they are using a great extension, but the hook they want to use isn't there [where it should be]. The Emacs Muse HTML publisher has a function called
muse-html-src-tag that adds syntax highlighting to source code. The hook that I need was missing from the function.
The end of that function looks like this, only now I have added
muse-html-after-htmlize-hook. The reason the hook needs to be there, is that after the function returns, the narrowing has gone and we don't know which area to operate on any more.
(defvar muse-html-after-htmlize-hook nil) (save-restriction (narrow-to-region (point) (point)) (insert htmltext) (goto-char (point-min)) (re-search-forward "
]*\\)>\n?" nil t) (replace-match "
") (goto-char (point-max)) (run-hooks 'muse-html-after-htmlize-hook) (muse-publish-mark-read-only (point-min) (point-max))))))
Okay, so back to Squidoo – why do I need to generate custom HTML? Well, pretty simple – they've disabled a bunch of the tags.
,
 and  have gone. Well,
 and  I can pretty much replace with
 and , kinda, but I'm pretty sad to lose
. More on that shortly.
First, some helper functions. I need to run multiple regex replacements on the region and also it will be useful to have a function that repeats strings. I couldn't find a built-in function quickly and it took 20 seconds to write (the possibly inefficient)
(defun regex-replace (regex string) (goto-char (point-min)) (while (re-search-forward regex nil t) (replace-match string))) (defun string-repeat (str n) (let ((retval "")) (dotimes (i n) (setq retval (concat retval str))) retval))
The constants:
sq-code-prefix is the prefix for all source code regions;
regex-multi-space matches multiple spaces at the beginning of a line.
(defconst sq-code-prefix (concat "
")) (defconst cr (string ?\n)) (defconst regex-multi-space (concat cr " +"))
The hook function for source code regions needs to do a couple of things – it needs to replace the span and pre tags. It also needs to put non-breaking-spaces at the start of any lines with spaces as that is how a pre would behave. And finally, to reduce the amount of surrounding space it needs to remove the extra lines before and after the region.
(defun squidoo-htmlize () (regex-replace "<span style=\"" "<b style=\"font-weight: normal; ") (regex-replace "
" sq-code-prefix) (regex-replace "" "") (regex-replace "
" "
") (goto-char (point-min)) (while (re-search-forward regex-multi-space nil t) (let ((str (buffer-substring-no-properties (match-beginning 0) (match-end 0)))) (replace-match (concat cr (string-repeat " " (1- (length str))))))) (goto-char (point-min)) (beginning-of-line 2) (delete-indentation) (delete-char 1) (goto-char (point-min)) (insert "XXDELETE") (goto-char (point-max)) (beginning-of-line 1) (delete-indentation) (delete-char 1))
We also need another hook to clean up duplicate closing tags and style the  tag. Actually, I could just redefine one of the variables to fix the code tag, but where would the fun in that be?
(defun squidoo-fix-para () (regex-replace "
]*>XXDELETE" "") (regex-replace "" ") (regex-replace "" "") (regex-replace "

" "
"))
Finally, add the two functions to the hooks.
(add-hook 'muse-html-after-htmlize-hook 'squidoo-htmlize) (add-hook 'muse-after-publish-hook 'squidoo-fix-para)
Whew! After all that the result is: my squidoo lens on how to create a new emacs command. And why do I want to make squidoo lenses? That will have to wait for another post.


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A trio of senior UK judges have rejected George Lucas' claims that a propmaker for the original Star Wars film had breached his copyright by selling Imperial stormtrooper outfits.
Shepperton-based Andrew Ainsworth made the helmets for the original Star Wars movie - which was largely filmed in the UK. Over 30 years on, he now sells stormtrooper suits and helmets for up to £1800 a pop.
However, Lucasfilm objected to his trade, and won a $10m damages judgment against him in the US courts in 2006 for copyright and trademark infringement and unfair competition.
However, last year a British court declined to enforce the judgment over here. The case was swiftly moved to the court of appeal.
Today, the UK judges rejected Lucasfilm's appeal. They declared the suits were not works of art, and therefore not subject to copyright law. They also declined to enforce the US judgment in the UK.
More broadly, The Telegraph reports that the judges rejected Lucasfilm's claim that the English courts should allow the US courts jurisdiction in cases involving internet trading, even if the trader doesn't have a physical presence there.
This should leave Ainsworth free to sell his outfits to Stormtrooper wannabes throughout the universe - except the US.
However, every Lucas project spawns a sequel and this is no exception - the courts have yet to decide who will foot the legal costs for the case. ®