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Precautions for Feeding Frosted and Drought-Stressed Forages
to animals before turning them out to graze. Use heavy stocking rates (4 to 6 head of cattle/acre) ...
Aging: A Natural and Beneficial Part of Life
a highly individualized experience and age-related changes occur at different rates for different people. ... often used interchangeably. When trying to predict someone's survival rate for a disease or their ...
Management Considerations for the Cribbing Horse
a way horses cope with stress. Cribbing horses experience a slowing heart rate during cribbing (Lebelt, ... being prevented from cribbing for some time, may increase their cribbing rate (McGreevy & Nicol, ... 1998b) as if to make up for lost time. Not all cribbers increase their cribbing rate after being ...
2020 Fulton County Agricultural Hall of Fame Inductees Announced
involved in the annual Junior Fair, the epicenter of Fulton County's top-rated fair. Jill offered herself ...
Double-Cropping Soybean Following Small Grains
photosynthesis Seeding Rate. Harvest population for mid- to late-June plantings should be between 130,000 to ... per acre. Harvest plant population is a function of seeding rate, quality of the planter operation, ... contact, and disease pressure. Figure 1 shows the partial economic return by seeding rate (grain price of ...
Oats as a Late Summer Forage Crop
yield changed based on plating date and nitrogen rate. Similar to previous studies, applying 46 lb/acre ... recommended nitrogen rate for summer oat forage is to apply 50 lb/acre of nitrogen at planting. When planted ... planting date and nitrogen application (lb/acre). Not only does nitrogen rate affect yield but also the ...
2020 Fulton County 4-H Winners Announced
48% participation rate, displaying their resiliency in the face of adversity. Congratulations on a job ...
Post Corn, Going to Soybean: Use Cereal Rye
expensive. Start with VNS (variety not stated) seed with a good germination rate purchased from a reputable ... tag. Seeding rate calculations are based on one of two factors: pure live seed (PLS) or seed count. The ... county. Seeding rate—Drilled seeding rate: 40–60 pounds/acre PLS. Broadcast with shallow incorporation: ...
Post Soybean, Going to Corn: Use Oats/Radish
VNS (variety not stated) seed. Start with VNS seed with a good germination rate purchased from ... radishes (daikon type), be sure to purchase a single variety from a reputable seed dealer. Seeding rate ... www.mccc.msu.edu. Seeding rate in oats/radish mix—Drilled: oats,30–60 pounds/acre PLS; radish, 2–4 pounds/acre PLS. ...
Late Summer Establishment of Perennial Forages
guidelines on timing and rates before applying any product. For conventional tillage seeding, prepare a firm ...


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FOR NEARLY TWO CENTURIES, generations of Martins farmed their land and
marveled at the miracles it could produce. But it was many decades before young
Leighton Martin saw the apple of his eye and planted the first acre of the Martin's
Orchard. With the sale of the first 4-1/2 bushels at the Waterloo Farmer's Market, his
prediction of the sweet, tart and juicy apples that would make the Farm famous came
true. The dream continues to grow; from 100 trees in 1971 to over 700 acres today. At
Martin's Family Fruit Farm, our pride is in every apple that leaves our orchard.

subset: commoncrawl


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Nowadays, I'm not so quick to want to pull the trigger when it comes to making assessments. Confidence can be a fragile thing in sports, and a player who looks lost one day may be a very different athlete a month from now—and a lot of that comes down to health, confidence and being in the right spot at the right time, and being with a coach that appreciates what you do as a player.
They can all skate and make plays at high speed. Right now, they are causing trouble for whoever is trying to contain them.


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UN-SPIDER's Regional Support Office in Romania, the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA), announced the prizes of the European Satellite Navigation Competition - ESNC 2015 – Romania Challenge. The competition will award the best ideas for innovative applications in satellite navigation, offering winners the necessary support and advice to open or develop a business based on their competition ideas. ROSA became the regional partner with Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen (AZO) for the ESNC 2015.
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Item Description
Letter, Eli Thayer to Friend [John] Brown
Author: Thayer, Eli , 1819-1899
Date: March 19, 1857
In this brief follow up to his March 18 letter, Eli Thayer wrote Brown to say that "next Monday" would be a good time for Brown's speech on "the free State Cause of Kansas which is the Cause of mankind" in Worcester.
Location of Original: KSHS Call Number: John Brown Collection, #299, Box 1, Folder 21
Item Number: 102597 Number of images: 2
Keywords: Brown, John, 1800-1859; Free state cause; Speeches, addresses, etc.; Thayer, Eli, 1819-1899; Worcester, Massachusetts
pg. 1
pg. 2


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Welcome to the final installment in the one hundred part weekly New York State of Mind (NYSOM) Amoeblog series that began two years ago. For this 100th Amoeblog I want to run down some events happening in the coming days/weeks ahead as well as include a random series of NYC themed music videos that I have not yet included in the many NYC music videos already posted to this Amoeblog series. Ongoing events of interest include the Greenpoint, Brooklyn weekly No Lights No Lycra (NLNL) which is happens Tuesday evenings for a little over an hour in a church basement hall is the total antithesis of the overpriced bottle-service night clubs of Manhattan. Founded in New Zealand and with satellite parities like this one in Brooklyn dotted round the globe (Chicago and San Francisco are the other two spots in the US), the rules of NLNL are simple and straightforward and posted by the door upon entry. "No watching, no cell phones, no breakdancing" is what is not allowed. What is allowed/encouraged is to make a dancing and having fun - in near darkness except for a dimly lit ceiling light show that takes your eyes a couple of minutes to adjust to.
On the night I attended NLNL the dance music played by the non-billed DJ (a guy dancing who routinely ran over to hit play for the next song off his iPhone that was plugged into the decent sound system) ranged from trap to deep house to past decades pop hits such as Dexys Midnight Runners' "Come On Eileen," Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al," Dr. Dre & 2Pac's "California Luv," Men Without Hats' "Safety Dance," and The Cardigans' "Love Fool." NLNL, NYC happens every Tuesday from 8.15pm – 9.30pm at 129 Russell St, Brooklyn, NY 11222. No alcohol. All ages. $5 donation. More info here.


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You can spend hours washing the floor, dusting the furniture, and vacuuming the nooks and crannies in any given room, but so long as its baseboards are dirty, they are going to attract attention and create an overall impression of shabbiness and neglect. It's by no means difficult to learn how to clean baseboards; this is not one of the great housekeeping challenges that you will face in life. Indeed, the trickiest bit is overcoming inertia. So if you're actually reading this, the hard part is over!
MATERIALS AND TOOLS Available on Amazon
- Vacuum (with brush attachment or duster)
- Sponge
- Dish soap, vinegar, or wood cleaner
- Cotton swabs
- Dryer sheets
Rather than set out to clean the baseboards in every single room of your house all at once, make an agreement with yourself: Each and every time you break out the sponge and plastic gloves, you will clean the baseboards thoroughly in one room only. That way, the task of cleaning baseboards never becomes overwhelming. Also, remember that baseboards accumulate the dust and dirt that housework stirs up. Save them for last-don't waste effort cleaning the same thing twice.
Begin the process by removing as much dust and dirt as you can from the area. If your vacuum has a brush attachment, use it to suction along the length of the baseboards, paying special attention to the crevice where the trim meets the floor. In lieu of a vacuum, you can rely on a duster to do a decent job of freeing up debris, which you can then corral and remove with a broom and dustpan.
Once you've removed all loose dirt and dust, you can begin to address stains and stuck-on grime. (Particularly in the kitchen, baseboards are the notorious hosts of unidentifiable splatters.) Dip a sponge into a mixture of warm water and dish soap (vinegar works well too), then go about scrubbing any marks that you can find. Note that if the baseboards in the room you are cleaning are stained, not painted, it may be preferable to use a cleaning solution formulated specifically for that application.
As you're already crouched over wiping away the grime, you might as well do as good a job as possible. Here's how to clean baseboards in those hard-to-reach-spots, like the crevice between the trim and flooring. Just grab a cotton swab from the bathroom and dip it in the cleaner, gently wiping away the dirt. The swab is small enough to fit into those tight spaces and corners, and absorbent enough for cleaning.
Protect the baseboards' newly acquired cleanliness by rubbing them with a fresh dryer sheet. Not only will this leave a fresh laundry scent that lasts a few days, but also-and more importantly-the sheet's antistatic properties actually repel dust. Perhaps it sounds like overkill, but going this one step further can really pay off.
Unless you live in a fraternity house, you're unlikely to find that your baseboards need to be cleaned weekly. In the grand scheme of housekeeping, baseboards are rather low maintenance. If you're like me, you probably notice baseboards only when they are not clean. So if on each occasion that you clean, you live up to the promise of doing the baseboards in one room only, you may never notice them again!


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Centric 121.99050 - Standard Brake Rotor
Centric Standard Brake Rotors are attached to a wheel hub to better controls the motion of your vehicle when you apply the brakes! The rotors are E-coated to prevents possible rusting and sticking. They feature a double disc ground finish to ensure reduced rotor vibration and to improve your braking performance! The rotors are OE styled and guarantee superior durability and reliability!Note: TDot Performance is an authorized dealer of all Centric products, so your new product will include the full factory warranty. What more? We are proudly Canadian but have warehouses in both Canada & USA, so whether you are Canadian or American, you WILL NOT pay any Custom, Duties or Brokerage fees!
Centric Parts is well known as one of the industry leaders for manufacturing and supplying high quality aftermarket brake components and systems for everyday cars, work duty vehicles and high performance vehicles. The company owns several labels including StopTech, C-Tek and PosiQuiet, among others. Since its founding, Centric has continually innovated significant improvements to brake technology and has earned 4 patents along the way.
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Mount Sinai Genetic Testing Laboratory Launches More Accurate Carrier Screening Test for Spinal Muscular AtrophyFebruary 11, 2014
February 11, 2014 – The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai today announced the launch of a more accurate carrier screening test for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), one of the most common and severe autosomal recessive disorders. This new test will help prospective parents more effectively identify whether they carry the mutation that will affect their offspring. The test screens for genetic variation discovered by Mount Sinai researchers, which has been demonstrated to identify silent carriers of SMA in certain populations with higher accuracy and offers more accurate risk estimates than existing tests in all ethnic groups tested. Mount Sinai will be licensing the new test to other clinical laboratories to facilitate access to more accurate SMA carrier screening for as many people as possible.
SMA is an autosomal recessive disease that affects about 1 in 10,000 people and is one of the most deadly genetic diseases among infants and toddlers. It is transmitted by carrier parents who have no symptoms themselves; as many as 1 in 35 people may carry an SMN1 gene mutation, which is the gene that is defective in SMA. The disease kills nerve cells in the spinal cord, causing progressive degeneration among patients and diminishing capacity for walking, breathing, and swallowing. Severe forms of SMA are fatal, and there is currently no cure for the disease.
Scientists at the Mount Sinai Genetic Testing Laboratory recently used next-generation DNA sequencing to discover a new SMN1 genetic pattern that more accurately predicts the risk of having children with this disease. Current SMA carrier screening tests may result in false negative results due to their inability to detect silent carriers with two copies of the SMN1 gene on one chromosome and no copies on the other. The Mount Sinai Genetic Testing Laboratory's patent-pending enhanced SMA test identifies a novel haplotype that successfully distinguishes those duplicated genes. This work, which was conducted by Mount Sinai scientists and published in Genetics in Medicine in June 2013, significantly improves detection rates in the Ashkenazi Jewish population and improves risk estimates after a negative carrier screen for SMA in all ethnic groups.
"People who choose to undergo carrier screening for spinal muscular atrophy do so to ensure that their future children will not suffer from this debilitating disease. It is important to provide patients with the most accurate risk estimates possible," said Lisa Edelmann, PhD, Director of the Mount Sinai Genetic Testing Laboratory. "Launching this enhanced test based on our recent scientific findings on SMN1 will provide more meaningful answers to these prospective parents, and it can also provide new information to people who have previously been screened with existing SMA carrier tests."
The new test will be performed by the Genetic Testing Laboratory for all patients undergoing carrier screening for SMA. In addition, Mount Sinai will actively license the test to as many third-party clinical laboratories as possible.
"This enhanced SMA carrier screening test shows the tremendous value in Mount Sinai's approach to translational research," said Robert Desnick, MD, PhD, Dean for Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Professor and Chairman Emeritus of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "What began as a basic research project to identify founder alleles for Ashkenazi Jewish SMA carriers has resulted in a test that outperforms existing screening methods and offers real clinical benefit to the hundreds of thousands of people who will be screened by Mount Sinai or any of our licensees around the world."
About the Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health system committed to providing distinguished care, conducting transformative research, and advancing biomedical education. Structured around seven member hospital campuses and a single medical school, the Health System has an extensive ambulatory network and a range of inpatient and outpatient services—from community-based facilities to tertiary and quaternary care.
The System includes approximately 6,600 primary and specialty care physicians, 12-minority-owned free-standing ambulatory surgery centers, over 45 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island, as well as 31 affiliated community health centers. Physicians are affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which is ranked among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health funding and by U.S. News & World Report.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org/
Find Mount Sinai on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mountsinainyc
Twitter: @mountsinainyc
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/mountsinainy


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Help Flubby to create new and rare alien species in one of the zaniest free online games! Alien Bio Lab is like some of the other free matching games such as Candy Crush or Bejeweled, except with a nice little twist. Instead of swapping gems or other items, you have to move and shift paired aliens around the board via tetris style gameplay. Combine aliens 3 of a kind to morph them into a new species à la traditional match 3 games! Be careful though, because if you fill up the board with clutter it's game over! How many different aliens can you make in this charming online puzzle game?
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Galactians 2
The aliens are back but this time – with a vengeance! Shoot the aliens as they drop down from the heavens and collect any bonus or useful item they drop to improve your chances! The faster your wipe them out the more bonus points you score. Get a high core and compete with your friends in this addicting and fun space shooter!
Skill, Action Games, Arcade Games


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Brazen daylight drug deal at Warrawong units
The ghost-like junkie, reed-thin with soulless eyes, stares right through me before silently disappearing into the darkness of a nearby stairwell.
It's a sunny afternoon in February and it takes me a few seconds to realise that I've just witnessed a drug deal as I exit the Todd Street units on the Warrawong public housing estate.
Having heard the three men in the stairwell and wanting to avoid an exchange, I had waited until they were at the bottom of the landing before making my own way out of the building.
But as I walk into the light there they are, not three metres away, brazenly divvying up their drugs, out in the open.
With a fresh face in the ghetto, the three men scatter. The hooded man bolts to the concrete dividing fence, built a few years ago to stop criminal elements from gaining easy access to other parts of the estate. After a few heavy attempts he manages to hurl himself over.
The older man sprints in the opposite direction and the ghost-man, with his pale, pasty skin and dark eyes looking like death, slips away sideways. He is young - perhaps not yet 20.
It's just another day on the housing estate and one of countless drug deals that will take place here. The hallways are filled with a steady stream of junkies. While some of the addicts reside within the estate, most have come here specifically to buy their drug of choice.
Which door they knock on will depend on which drugs they want and can afford on any given day.
"These are not homes, they are drug dens," confided one resident, who fearing for his safety asked not to be named.
On a return visit to the same block of units earlier this week I look out a window and see a junkie preparing a syringe in the front seat of his car, his front seat passenger assisting him.
The vehicle is parked in a secluded car park at the side of the building, near the same concrete wall the hooded man had hurled himself over seven weeks before.
I begin to video the two men on my phone, but am spooked as the passenger suddenly looks in my direction.
I tell the person I'm with to lock the front door. I'm scared the men, having seen me, will confront us and cause us harm. When it seems safe, I continue filming and capture the driver of the car using a syringe to shoot drugs into his arm. He then stashes something under or into the glove box and drives away. I'm surprised it was so quick.
Although they are long gone, I feel frightened as I walk to my car. I've seen the needles and the filth they leave behind, I've witnessed a drug deal, I've even interviewed some of the addicts, but seeing them shoot up in broad daylight somehow unnerves me.
I now understand why some of the residents, many trapped in a cycle of poverty, live their lives locked away in their tiny units, isolated and afraid. This is no place for a child.
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It's an interesting world we live in, where games with titles such as Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and the near-future Call of Duty: Black Ops II end up looking more "out there" when it comes to future warfare than something titled Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
While Future Soldier takes place in the future, it's one that rings much closer to home than any futuristic military shooter we've seen to date. It may come as a surprise to those who lost interest in the Ghost Recon franchise after GRAW 2, that this latest title has ended up as one of the finest military shooters in recent years.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [reviewed])
Developer: Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Red Storm
Publisher: Ubisoft
Released: May 22, 2012
Much of the slow-paced careful planning and executing of tactical engagements in the original Ghost Recon was lost in the console versions of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, while the Rainbow Six: Vegas series cannibalized the franchise with its beloved co-op tactics. Future Soldier attempts to take the franchise back to its roots, but in a modern fashion. In more ways than one, it's also somewhat of a stylistic reboot in the way Conviction changed the way we look at, and play, Splinter Cell.
The influence of Ubisofts last installment of the spy thriller series is evident through Future Soldier's bountiful visual aids -- such as overlaid text on top of the 3D scenery -- and the action in general is much more dynamic and in-your-face than before, largely helped by a competent camera system that appears to be handled by by a shaky hands cameraman directed by someone like Paul Greengrass. If Conviction was the Bourne Ultimatum of Splinter Cell, Future Soldier is The Hurt Locker of the Ghost Recon series.
Perhaps the biggest change to the formula is the way the artificial intelligence now works with the player, instead of being delegated to a position where it constantly looks at the telephone every five minutes, desperately waiting for your call. Computer-controllerd squad-mates can no longer be assigned to move to specific locations, nor ordered to a specific placement to get ready to breach a room. Instead, the AI takes care of a lot of these aspects on its own, which works much better than a potential lack of freedom would suggest.
AI direction still plays a major role when it comes to stealth squad tactics, however. Up to four enemy targets can be tagged with the press of a bumper button, leaving the player free to either aim at the fourth target yourself so your team-mates eliminate their assigned tangos on your shot, or you can simply command your three brothers in arms to execute their shots in sync by holding down the same bumper. Remaining undetected is often rewarded, but sometimes open engagement is inevitable. In that case, targets can no longer be quietly lined up and silenced, and the bumper becomes a "please kill this guy here please" button.
Between running around from place to place and stealthily walking in a crouched position -- which enables an active camouflage system that renders you largely invisible -- various locations require the team to work in unison. Breaching a door is now simply a matter of getting to an appointed location, waiting for the team to get ready, and pressing a button, which leads to the breach and a slow-motion sequence of shooting down bad guys. Likewise, you'll need to move to a pre-determined spot to get the team ready in yoga-like positions before sliding open a panel door. Occasionally, you'll automatically form up in a diamond formation around a VIP, which leads to an "on rails" section where you take care of all the enemies in your field of view, as the team makes its way through a hostile environment as a single unit of capable of 360 degrees of devastation.
Perhaps some fans of the traditional Ghost Recon experience may lament the more scripted approaches, but it never feels like player freedom is taken away in favor of added variety. In no small part, this is because the style of careful planning and tactics has made a big return, largely thanks to the toys of the future which provide you with the necessary situational awareness.
Sensor grenades can be tossed in the field to highlight enemies, a magnetic view vision mode allows you to discriminate armed soldiers from civilians through walls and terrain, and the ever-popular quad-rotor UAV drone can be used to scout the terrain ahead from the skies. If running into the action isn't your thing, this drone allows you to tag enemies and let the rest of your team take care of them, provided you only select those targets that won't be spotted by patrols if they go down. In some of the twelve very lenghty missions in the campaign, you can rely on this drone and the resulting tactical disposal puzzles without firing a single shot yourself.
Those in favor of getting down to business themselves can rely on their AI squad-mates to take smart positions, lay down effective fields of fire, and generally make you feel like you are part of a team consisting of equally qualified members. The same can't always be said for the enemy AI, which tends to run between the same positions or pops out of cover in predictable ways, and which seems designed to turn any engagement into either a scripted event or a balanced-yet-fluid standoff between your team and countless enemies. Having said that, the missions' linear nature and the ease with which you can be shot down by enemy fire means the lacking enemy AI never becomes a big detriment.
If you prefer the human approach, all of the campaign missions can be played cooperatively with up to four players -- something that is all too evident when you are supposed to move into breach positions in solo mode. Each mission also includes specific weapon challenges (make 12 kills with one SMG clip), and tactical challenges (reach location X without alerting any enemies), that affect your final "Ghost" score for that mission. A few of these challenges make co-op partners a necessity, although these are few and far between, and many of the challenges won't likely be completed on your first run through the game, which adds a lot of replayability if you're not into multiplayer.
For its part, multiplayer is an expansive affair. A Guerrilla "horde" mode pits you against up to 50 increasingly hard waves of enemies on five maps, alternating defensive action with a stealth wave whenever you switch to a new HQ location to defend. Surviving waves unlocks wavestreaks, such as becoming invisible, using a sentry turret, or calling in an airstrike, and surviving successive waves upgrades your wavestreaks' potency. While Guerrilla mode can be played with two players in split-screen, you'll want at least one extra player to join online since the waves become pretty damn hard around the midway point.
Traditional multiplayer comes in the form of "Conflict" mode, and this mode can best be described as a mix between Gears of War and Call of Duty (or any other online military shooter) with the addition of gadgets and goals. Your gadgets allow you to do things like planting claymores, throwing sensor grenades, and placing fixed cameras, while each mode has certain goals on the map to create a dynamic between the two teams as a round progresses. Capture and hold an EMP location goal, for instance, and the enemy team loses its HUD to make it very hard to distinguish between friend and foe. It turns regular team deathmatch into a more tactical affair than running and gunning, although there's still plenty of that on offer if you tailor your character to that style of play.
Other modes include "Decoy," in which a team has to locate the real target out of a potential of three without either team knowing which is the real one, "Saboteur" which is your typical place-the-bomb mode, and the hardcore "Siege" mode, which requires the attacking team to complete an objective without respawns.
A big part of multiplayer is leveling up our character and unlocking and tailoring weapons. This "Gunsmith" system is more effective at changing your playstyle in multiplayer than it is during the campaign. A huge amount of weapons can be easily customized at the component level, meaning you can change barrel sizes, types of triggers, scopes, muzzles, ammunition, and parts of a weapon that most people won't even know had names. Each weapon component costs "attachment credits" in multiplayer, which are gained by leveling up, forcing you to focus on specific weapons in order to get the most out of them. On Xbox 360, the Gunsmith system can be used with Kinect if you want to, but while the Kinect integration isn't intrusive, there really is no point in doing so when it's faster to use a controller.
While the different multiplayer modes are a lot of fun depending on how much you care about this aspect of any military shooter, they are unlikely to surprise anyone. It's a carefully crafted and polished component, but despite the added variety in terms of both classic game types and customization, it largely boils down to the tried-and-trusted methods of online play with the addition of a bunch of toys to spice things up. The campaign, though, is a completely different affair, surprisingly enough.
Future Soldier's story sends our team of Ghosts to a hugely varied set of current hotspots of international tension. From the Niger delta, to Dagestan, and Pakistan's Peshawar, the slightly traditional Tom Clancy fair fits better into the current post-War on Terror era than any other ridiculous near-future military shooter. Strip away the advanced hardware at your disposal and the overarching storyline, and each mission could've taken place in a fictional version of today's world.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the campaign is how it shifts the flow of shooting people in the head to create variety, both inside and between missions, and keeps you continuously pressing onwards. One mission you are sneaking around, the next you are going in guns blazing, and suddenly you find yourself without your toys or playing as a lone ranger. An early mission, reminiscent of Call of Duty 4's excellent "Ghillies in the Mist" Chernobyl sniping level, is particularly noteworthy: you are sent into an African refugee camp to stealthily kill patrols and guards, while civilians go about their business and are often harassed by militia.
There are times when Future Soldier's mechanics and pacing fall into place masterfully, and in the process creates some of the most enjoyable tactical shooting on offer at the moment. Just when you're starting to get tired of using the methods you've come up with, the game throws you a bone in the form of a mobile weapons platform with which to absolutely annihilate a winter landscape with infinite mortars.
Outside of the advances in the streamlining of the mechanics and its approach to a total package of singleplayer, co-op, and multiplayer modes, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier displays a level of content maturation that has been evident in some of Ubisoft's big-budget action games, and which has served to set the publisher's games apart from the competition in recent years. From the biting social commentary of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood's database info, to the gritty Bourne-esque and visually distinct Splinter Cell: Conviction, to even the concept of using homegrown terrorism in the upcoming Rainbow Six: Patriots, there is a prevalent sense that Ubisoft doesn't shy away from threading off the safe and beaten path.
It is somewhat disappointing that Future Soldier doesn't fully evolve the series along this trend as much as it shows it's capable of doing. When one mission reduces your team from save-the-world heroes to government-sponsored assassins with the simple objective to commit sanctioned murder, you can hear a target's wife scream as you execute your orders and riddle the invisible family's rustic safehouse with bullets. You never know why the cries are silenced, and there's nothing else to do but carry on with the job.
The masses of civilians you encounter are almost always at the receiving end of militia and soldiers who have rape and torture on their mind, and saving them from their plight is often optional and extremely satisfying. At other times, you find yourself in situations where it's very hard not to accidentally create collateral deaths while trying to stay alive, as hundreds of civilians panic and flee the sudden eruption of violence you bring to a town.
The manner in which these moments offer a level of self-reflection, making you think about just how you're feeling about actively going through events you have little control over, due to both your orders and shifting circumstances, are great, and it's something we need to see more of in modern mainstream gaming. It's just too bad that such moments, while worthy of praise, are still sparse in Future Soldier when they are so effective.
To offset the aspects that shine, attempts at humanizing the members of the Ghost squad are not very effective, and it's hard to care about the members of your squad when it's so hard to know who is who behind their masks. Being a Tom Clancy game, the actual story is of course a bit cliché and ends rather abruptly, yet it does a great job at placing the diverse scenarios at play in a wide enough context to care.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is the type of title that might be easy to overlook if you're not partial to the franchise, or even if you are tired of warfare in post-modern times, but it's a great title nonetheless. Between the impressive campaign, the myriad of co-op options and the added replayability of the mission challenges, as well as the expansive multiplayer component, it's as solid a package as military shooters provide.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier reviewed by Maurice Tan
A hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage.
How we score: The Destructoid reviews guide


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In 1990 the LP Gala[?], which combined the material from their first three EPs, was released by Reprise in the United States, the first exposure of Lush in North America. Their first LP made up of completely new material was Spooky[?] in 1992 (1992 in music). Produced by Robin Guthrie, Spooky featured a sound very similar to Guthrie's band Cocteau Twins, with walls of sound and a great deal of flange. Reviews were mixed and critics of the album hold that Guthrie's production brought the sound away from the band's original creative vision. Rippon left the band at this stage in order to concentrate on writing, though his book Cold Turkey Sandwich - a fictionalized chronicle of his time in touring - was rejected by publishers. He was replaced by Phil King[?].
Split was released in 1994 (1994 in music) and featured a more industrial sound. Split sold poorly, however. After adapting to the newly popular sounds of Britpop, Lush's Lovelife[?] (1996 in music) became the biggest hit of their career, including the hit singles "Ladykiller" and "Single Girl".
In 1996 (1996 in music), Chris Acland hanged himself in his parents' house after months of depression over the limited success of the band. In 1998 (1998 in music) the three remaining members decided to disband.
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Wednesday, December 14
Day 14: Holiday Wall Art
13 comments:
the link doesn't work...:(ReplyDelete
Sorry, I think the PDF isn't working correctly right now but I'm working on getting if fixed. You can also print from the jpg in the post just fine though and it should print nicely.ReplyDelete
PDF should work now!ReplyDelete
Just found your blog and I'm so excited to read more! :)ReplyDelete
Hi Sharon, thank you so much for the beautiful printables! I've just printed this one and I am so pleased with it! Will be following you on Pinterest from now on!ReplyDelete
Happy Holidays!
sharon, this is beautiful. thank you ♥ReplyDelete
Thank you, I'm glad everyone likes it!ReplyDelete
I'm so glad I found your blog- I will definitely be following it! Awesome print! Thank you!ReplyDelete
beautiful - thank you for sharing!ReplyDelete
Sandra ltb
Beautiful. Thank You.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 11, 2013 at 12:59 PM
This is a beautiful image, thank you!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 18, 2013 at 11:19 PM
Thank you so muchReplyDelete


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Tag Archives: christmas tree
The holidays are always bright and cheerful and tend to bring a coziness into the home. This holiday while busy prepping, keep your Little Pnuts entertained with a tree they can decorate on their own.
What You Will Need:
- Green Construction Paper
- Pom Poms in a variety of shapes and colors
- Glue
- Scissors
Get Ready…
Draw or trace a Christmas tree shape onto the green construction paper. If your Little Pnut is able, have them cut out the tree with the scissors. If your Little Pnut is not using scissors yet go ahead and cut out the tree for them ahead of time.
Create invitation for your Little Pnut to decorate their Christmas tree by setting out your materials in an inviting manner. I set our tree on our table on top of some paper towels to protect our work space. Putting the pom poms in a small bowl makes them inviting to little hands.
Trim Your Tree!
Let your Little Pnut glue and stick pom poms onto their Christmas tree until their little heart's content.
If you want to challenge your Little Pnut, give them some tweezers or tongs to manipulate and place the pom poms with.
If your Little Pnut is still not ready to use a bottle of glue try pouring a little glue into a small bowl or cup and allowing them to dip the pom poms into the glue prior to placing them on the tree.
Finally, sit back and admire their tree. Don't forget to find the perfect spot to hang it for the holiday season!
Happy Playing!
Developmental Milestones:
This activities focuses on the following Developmental Milestones for your Little Pnuts:
Fine Motor Skills, Focus and Concentration, Strategic Thinking, Color Recognition, Hand-Eye Coordination, Cognitive Development, Creative Play, Free Play, Imaginative Play.—Jennifer Haas, founder of Plain Vanilla Mom.


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Memory Testing Concept
Depending on customer requirements X-FAB can support different test flows ranging from low cost to extended test options. We offer test solutions suitable for automotive products, but can also provide test for consumer products.
We provide a comprehensive NVM test specification which:
- supports high reliability needs
- ensures that only required features are tested
- ensures that test is under control of the IC owner
Fully Embedded Test
- no additional logic or pads
- inefficient due to exhaustive pattern,
- complicated debugging and failure analysis
Full Access Test
The full access test can be described as the "golden" way for testing embedded IPs.
- test pattern are unique
- only small logic overhead for multiplexer
-additional pads required if pin-count is low
Fully Embedded Test Incl. Serial Access with ATF*
- Customer is in charge of test
- X-FAB support possible for diagnostic purposes
- additional area required
- slower test due to serial access
*ATF = Advanced Test Features


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In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) called a meeting of lesbian HIV experts to request input on policy, prevention and outreach to women who have sex with women (WSW). An article written by CDC staff members (Meaghan Kennedy, Margaret Scarlett, Ann Duerr and Susan Chu) in the May/August 1995 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association concluded that data on HIV risk faced by WSW are scarce. The authors advised that while the biologic risk of female-to-female transmission is unknown, such transmission is biologically possible, but likely to be uncommon. The article focused attention on other risk behaviors of WSW, including unprotected sex with men, injection drug use and alternative insemination. Surveys continue to verify that some groups of WSW engage in multiple high-risk behaviors. Those that do have higher than expected seroprevalence of HIV and experience difficulties when trying to communicate with health care providers.
This group of CDC researchers has apparently continued to be concerned about issues related to WSW. The CDC recently (April, 1997) published a two-page fact sheet, entitled "HIV/AIDS And Women who Have Sex with Women (WSW) in the United States," that includes prevention recommendations for sexual contact between women. The CDC National AIDS Clearinghouse provides resources and literature on the subject of WSW.
At the National Conference on Women and HIV in May 1997, Kennedy reported on a recent survey of 700 HIV-positive women. The survey found that 22% reported a history of female sexual contact and 5% reported such contact within the last eight months. By self-report, none of these latter women had receptive oral sexual contact while menstruating, 22% said they "always" use a barrier, 15% claimed to "sometimes" use a barrier, and 63% reported "never" using a barrier. Kennedy concluded that decision-making about use of barriers is strongly related to varied perceptions of the barriers' ability to decrease risk of HIV transmission.
Susan Chu presented behavioral and prevention aspects for WSW in a "state-of-the-art" lecture. The CDC AIDS Surveillance Report (April 1997), stated that the CDC prioritizes for investigation AIDS cases whose only reported risk of transmission is WSW. As of December 1996, the CDC had not identified any AIDS cases with the transmission category of WSW, but said that surveillance programs are instructed to ask about WSW behavior, and that female-to-female transmission of HIV could be masked by other risk behaviors. The report further stated that "in some convenience samples of WSW, the prevalence of multiple high-risk behaviors is very high," including anal sex, sex with high-risk male partners, injection drug use, needle use for piercing and tattooing, and use of unscreened semen from sources other than licensed sperm banks."
This information may not be new or surprising at this point, but there is now a paradigm for tracking risk behaviors and HIV seroprevalence in WSW. The job is to get that tracking implemented at the state and local levels, where WSW are often ignored.


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Levitating cars with lightning bolts, Porsches with CGI machine guns, drivers on fire — this is the most hilarious racing promo vid we have ever seen.
The Daytona 24 is coming up so it's no surprise that the defending GT class winners, Magnus Racing, would put out a promo vid. We just never expected it to be like a YouTube Poop version of itself. We're amazed.
(Hat tip to nascarcasm !)


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Butler National considering layoffs to cut costs
Company records $755K loss in 1st quarter
Officials with Butler National Corp. say they are considering layoffs after the Olathe-based company reported its first sustained losses in more than a decade.
Two of the company's top executives -- Clark Stewart, president and chief executive, and chairman Warren Wagoner -- have taken 40 percent pay cuts. Officials said others also might have their pay reduced.
Stewart said the company would rather reduce pay than lay off employees. He said the financial problems had eased recently when some employees left voluntarily.
Butler employs about 100 people who modify, repair, maintain and overhaul aircraft in Newton, Olathe and Tempe, Ariz.
The Kansas City Star reported that Butler recorded a $755,000 loss in its first quarter, which led to the first nine-month loss at the company since 2001.


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Gossip Girl actress Kelly Rutherford on a stroll with her cute daughter Helena Grace 11 months old, their adorable family dog and her new beau in West Hollywood, CA yesterday (May 18).
John Travolta and Kelly Preston expecting a baby!
Actor John Travolta and his wife Actress Kelly Preston, who have recently lost their son January 2, 2009 caused by a seizure at age 16-years old. The pair announce today that they are expecting a baby People Magazine reports. It's impossible to keep a secret ... especially one as wonderful as this," John and Kelly say in a statement. "We want to be the first to share this great news with everyone that we are expecting a new addition to our family. Love, John, Kelly and Ella"Kelly Preston and John Travolta are also parents to Ella Bleu, 10.
Posted by Alisa / Labels: Matthew McConaughey and family / Comments: (0)
Girlfreind of Matthew McConaughey and her beautiful 1 1/2-year-old son Levi shopping at Planet Blue in Malibu, CA today (May 18).


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Model #917273640 Craftsman lawn tractor
Here are the repair parts and diagrams for your Craftsman 917273640 lawn tractor.
The diagram(s) below can help you find the right part. If you'd like help, we invite you to call our customer service number at the top of the page, or click chat.
On this page, you can also find any manuals, installation guides and error code tables associated with this model.
For advice on diagnosing problems with appliances, lawn & garden equipment and other products, check out the videos, repair guides and articles in our DIY section.
Showing 10 of 548 parts
Mower deck Diagram
Lawn tractor 42-in deck high-lift blade
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Lawn tractor ground drive belt, 1/2 x 82-in
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Steering assembly Diagram
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Recommended maintenance parts and accessories
Symptoms common to all riding mowers & tractors
Repair guides common to all riding mowers & tractors
These step-by-step repair guides will help you safely fix what's broken on your riding mower or lawn tractor.
If you hear the solenoid click but don't hear the starter motor spin when you turn the key, follow these steps to replace it.
If the engine is hard to start or if the spark plug electrode is burnt or cracked, take 15 minutes to replace it.
Help your mower run better by replacing the fuel filter during your riding mower's annual tune-up.
Articles and videos common to all riding mowers & tractors
Use the advice and tips in these articles and videos to get the most out of your riding mower or lawn tractor.
Troubleshoot fuel, spark and compression issues.
How often and tall you mow your lawn has a big impact on its health. Check out these 3 rules.
See how to unlock the factory default start code so you can set your own passcode.


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I just came across a story today about Pfc. Ricardo Peralta, who joined the Marines to carry on the legacy of his brother, Navy Cross Recipient Sergeant Rafael Peralta.
Sgt. Peralta died very much like Michael Monsoor when he led a group of other Marines through a series of house clearings, during the November 2004 Battle for Fallujah. They were successful in the first three house, but things went bad in a hurry as they charged the fourth.
The Landstuhl Hospital Care Project describes how Sgt. Peralta "found two rooms empty on the ground floor, but upon opening a third door he was hit multiple times with AK-47 fire that left him severely wounded. He dropped to the floor and moved aside in order to allow the Marines behind him to return fire."
Moments later terrorist inside the room threw a grenade at the Marines. Sgt. Peraldas describes how "The two Marines with Sgt. Peralta tried to get out of the room, but could not. Sgt. Peralta was still conscious on the floor and reports indicate that despite his wounds, he was able to reach for the grenade and pull it under his body absorbing the majority of the lethal blast and shrapnel which killed him instantly, but saved the lives of his fellow Marines."
In a Newsweek article about the event, Cpl. Robert Reynolds explained how Sgt. Peralta collapsed onto the floor in a "pool of blood," after being shot. "Then Reynolds spotted what is the dread of every infantryman: a grenade bouncing toward the squad. "It was yellow and it came from a room to our side," he says. Reynolds says he watched Peralta reach out and drag the grenade under his body."
Pfc Ricardo Peralta was only 14 when his brother died in such a selfless way, but is quoted in the above article as saying, "I knew what I had to do, and that was to enlist in the Marine Corps."


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Friday, August 12, 2011
Melbourne Laneways and Other Things
Just when we thought it was an early Spring the cold weather came back. This week I went to the
Melbourne Gift fair and topped up with a few extra goodies for the coming Christmas shopping period.
Found some French resort wear that were colourful and made from easy to wear cotton, imported by a lovely French girl who followed her heart and shifted to Sydney.
Afterwards we went to Degraves to get a bite to eat and a coffee. Loved the display on the building using paper lanterns, it just looked like bubbles.
Some more of the wonderful cushions made from vintage carpets arrived this week in store. This is one of them made from a vintage Persian carpet.
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September 04, 2009
Why your Web content will look darker on Snow Leopard
If you're a Web designer, expect your CSS colors & your untagged/unmanaged images to look darker on Snow Leopard than on previous versions of the Mac OS. You'll also see less of a visible color shift when going from Photoshop to Flash or other unmanaged environments (e.g. Internet Explorer).
Why is that? Apple has switched to a default gamma of 2.2, which is what Windows has used for years. Colors that aren't color-managed are going to look darker on the whole. Your whole display will now be closer to what Windows users see*.
Apple's marketing materials (and reviews of Snow Leopard) say only that the change is "to better serve the needs of consumers and digital content producers." Not really knowing what that means, and wondering why Apple would change the Mac to match Windows after 25 years of using gamma 1.8, I sought out more info.
Adobe Principal Scientist Lars Borg provided some perspective. Lars has spent the past 20 years at Adobe defining & driving color management solutions, and lately he's been focused on digital cinema standards. Here's what he said:
In the distant past, the computer world was colorless, bleak, stark black and white. No one cared about their display gamma, as gamma is irrelevant for displaying only black and white.
Macintosh, in 1984, introduced us to desktop publishing and to displays with shades of grays. Publishing at that time meant printing presses, and the dot gain of a typical press (then and now) corresponds to a gamma of 1.8. As color management was non-existent at the time (the first color management solutions did not appear until early 1990s, when color displays became more available), Apple's pick of a 1.8 display gamma enabled the Macintosh displays to match the press.
In early 1990s, the TV industry developed the High-Definition TV capture standard known as ITU Recommendation 709, using a net gamma of around 2. Later, in 1996, IEC put forth a CRT-based display standard (sRGB) for the Web that would match the HDTV capture standard, having a net gamma of around 2.2. sRGB was slowly adopted first in the PC display market, next in the burgeoning digital camera market, and 2.2 became the dominant display gamma.
Is 2.2 the ultimate gamma? No. In 2005, leveraging color science research, the movie studios' Digital Cinema Initiative selected a gamma of 2.6 as providing the best perceptual quality for 12-bit cinema projection. Today, few can afford a true Digital Cinema display at home, but as always prices are falling. Yes, that's what I'll have in my next home theater.
But, recall VHS versus BetaMax. The VHS format finally died with the last video tape. Gamma 2.2 will not be unseated easily. However, calibrated displays and functional color management will make gamma a moot point. Gamma will be for the Luddites.</blockquote
>Interesting stuff. Despite the Flash Player now supporting color management, I'm not holding out hope for Web developers suddenly starting to give a damn about the subject. At least now we'll be less likely to hear complaints about colors "getting screwed up" when going from Photoshop to the Web.
* For what it's worth, when I was a Web designer I'd always set my Mac monitor to gamma 2.2, the better to match the darker Windows environments on which my designs were most often viewed.
- ≪ Adobe revises Snow Leopard FAQ re: CS3, Flash
- Home
- Feedback, please: Mobile authoring with Photoshop ≫
Fascinating read. Had a "duh" moment realizing there were more gammas beyond 1.8 and 2.2.
re: changing gamma to 2.2 on the Mac, I keep a Windows laptop around for the same reason (that and IE6).
Any idea if all the UI elements of the OS uses color management? The 2.2G on SL seems to make all windows and other UI widgets slightly darker. It's not a big deal really. I'm already used to it.
When I first started using SL, I also notice the anti-aliasing on text used more contrast. Made the text look sharper. Now it's transparent to me as I'm accustomed to it and I might have been imagining things.
At first I thought it would bother me but I think this was a good move by Apple.
BTW, I remember when some Photoshop users would use a gamma of 1; complete linearity claiming edits became more accurate. I tried it for a while but it came with more headaches and ultimately wasn't worth it. And I guess it wouldn't apply to the whole OS since it's simply being displayed with little internal blending of colors outside of composited windows which don't matter.
As usual, Apple's simply copying Microsoft!
[To be clear, I didn't say or imply that, and sRGB/gamma 2.2 aren't in any way specific to MSFT/Windows. –J.]
Sorry, John, but that's not the story I got… I think I got it from as near the "horse's mouth" as you can- Bill Atkinson, who not only pioneered ColorSync, but built QuickDraw and helped develop the first laser printer for Apple. (I had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet him at his home studio only a few years ago…)
The story he tells is that they were trying to get the Laserwriter to print close to what the screen was showing- in monochrome, mind you, and the only way they could get it to work was to jack the gamma to 1.8.
In his words… "it was the silliest thing."
Color Management wasn't even a thought at the time, and it set the stage for decades of Color Management mismatch and confusion.
I asked him about it because I read a story about gamma, and that, back in the mid-90s this team took a bunch of cards and tested them- Mac and PC, and they all tested out to around 2.1 – 2.2.
If the Main Display setting si defaulted to 2.2 then everything is going to look darker!
"JN said:* For what it's worth, when I was a Web designer I'd always set my Mac monitor to gamma 2.2, the better to match the darker Windows environments on which my designs were most often viewed."
Same here – I've been using 2.2 on Macs as a standard since forever. Also it allows for better contrast adjustments.
Ah, Ted's probably right.
The laser printer and the printing press have about the same gamma. The 1.8 setting works OK with both, and at that time, both were driven with uncorrected data.
Adobe PostScript, Aldus PageMaker and Apple LaserWriter came out in 1985.
The Adobe history (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/timeline.pdf) says the first PostScript image setter (Linotronic 100 and 300) and printer (Apple LaserWriter) came out in 1985.
I work with photos that I will be sending to a lab, and am setup so I do color correction and all that, not them. What gamma should I use? I calibrate my display, so I can choose the gamma I am using.
I had no idea Snow Leopard was going to do that — thanks for the detailed update.
Thanks Lars- with a teenager at home, those are words I rarely hear! LOL!
Bill was so funny telling that story… almost embarrassed, but you could taste the excitement and enthusiasm they had, doing everything they could to make this stuff work. …must have been heady times.
[Bill was over here a couple of years back and talked about the challenges of getting the mouse to work. He vented to Steve one day about a particular engineer's "can-don't" attitude, and when he came in the next day, the problem guy was gone. Hard core. –J.]
I understand that part. I was asking if the UI was color managed since then it would prevent the change in the mid-tone.
Silly thing to ask though since it's easy to check by picking a profile calibrated to 1.8G. And to answer my own question, it isn't managed with a color profile. Might not make sense to do so at all.
And to add clarity about the anti-aliased text. I mentioned that because it seem to be related to the more contrasting gamma.
I seem to remember hearing Bill Atkinson tell that story when he was lecturing at my workplace. He donated quite a few images from his book "Within The Stone" which are now hanging in the hallway outside my department. Amazing stuff.
I also have been upping my Macs' gamma to 2.2 for years. For one, it's simply better to go along with the Windows-dominated world.
Apple in this case isn't copying Microsoft (as if). Not to mix joke genres, but it's because they're the proverbial chicken crossing the road – because it was chained to the elephant.
I have noticed many problems with Snow Leopard and Photoshop CS4. My program crashes when trying to open images even in tiff. I am also having problems with some 3d party plugins.
I have noticed many problems with Snow Leopard and Photoshop CS4. My program crashes when trying to open images even in tiff. I am also having problems with some 3d party plugins.
What does that have to do with Snow Leopard's display gamma?
For compatibility's sake, this was a good move by Apple. Still, though, I prefer the more subtle palette of 1.8 gamma. I'm used to the contrastier 2.2, but feel that a lot of detail in the highlights and shadows is harder to see. It's a shame that Apple was not able to convince the rest of the world to move to 1.8 instead.
Its a sad day, 2.2 kills a whole spectrum of dark grey that I love deeply
Seems pretty reasonable to me dude!
It's misleading to say that Apple is changing to 2.2 to match the darker Windows environment. The entire computer world has been 2.2 except for Apple. 2.2 is superior to 1.8.
For those that think that 1.8 offers superior grays and a "more subtle palette", you are wrong. As was already mentioned in the article, gammas even higher than 2.2 are proven to be a better match to the eye. If you wanted a better palette you'd be using 2.6 or other alternatives.
All video encodings use gamma values far higher than 1.8 (higher than 2.2 actually). One of the benefits of Snow Leopard's changes will hopefully be that Quicktime's color rendering for default video won't be so horribly bad with a 2.2 gamma. Quicktime's color rendering was always asinine.
As for Apple's selection of 1.8 originally, it was already mentioned in the comments that it was simply to match the Apple printer and nothing more grand than that. I suppose if you believe the entire printing industry was defined by the Apple laser printer then the two stories would be the same. Typical Apple revisionist history…
If one is using a calibrated display, does gamma matter? I.e., if a designer generates the content on a display set to 2.2 and the user views it at 2.2; how does this differ from content generated at 1.8 and displayed at 1.8?
(I can see how content generated at one gamma and displayed at another value would be impacted.)
I think the move to 2.2 was a good move for my new MBP. It was as the screen had a grey overcast before SL. (And trying to correct that with creating a new color profile using the calibrate option has no happy ending, at least not for me).
I'm happy with how things displays now.
iirc gamma correction.. this seems like a bad move. Resulting in less precision in the upper intensity range. Giving more precision in the lower range of intensities that cannot be sensed by the human eye. With 256 intensities per color component the useful intensity range becomes more narrow.
hopefully I'm wrong so the effect is that precision is increased for the brighter intensities.
What really puts me off is that Apple didn't manage to color-manage their GUI. I like the light colors of all the windows. Now with a default Gamma 2.2 and Apple not doing their homework, everything looks darker. Why, Apple?
It is worth mentioning here that the Adobe Photoshop Mac Forum has been recommending Gamma 2.2 for years, for professional use. I always use Gamma 2.2 because I do graphics for the web. After a while of using Gamma 2.2, 1.8 looks too bright & washed out.
I think people are missing the point here. There is no superior Gamma. 2.2 is not better than 1.8, it's just different.
The main motivation for the change most likely has everything to do with the iTunes store. It now offers a wide range of digital video, something more suited to a gamma of 2.2 which provides more contrast in low light conditions, making it better for watching a movie on your computer in the dark. Why 2.2, and not 2.6 or whatever. Could be because that is the standard for PCs. More likely because that is the standard for televisions which iTunes videos are calibrated for in the first place.
I think the move to 2.2 is a really good one, it will go towards the standarization of the web on a higher level and introduce a higher level of conformity amongst web designers and their colour swatches! I'm sure long-term Mac users will take some time to get used to it, but hopefully it will work out for the best.
…I'm not holding out hope for Web developers suddenly starting to give a damn about the subject. At least now we'll be less likely to hear complaints about colors "getting screwed up" when going from Photoshop to the Web.
That is not entirely fair. There are plenty of web designers/developers who want to get it right–to understand and use color management. But color management is a very complicated set of technical calibrations. And frankly, Adobe still has failed to make their portion of the process straight forward.
So as difficult and necessary as it is for users to learn color calibration and management, the same is true of software companies that need to continue to improve the ease of use and understanding of the same.
I wondered about the UI when I first heard about the gamma change.
I assumed Apple would want the change to visibly affect the appearance of the UI, so I guessed they would have to re-draw all the 10.6 UI elements *lighter* to maintain the same appearance when rendered with the new 2.2 gamma as 10.5 did with 1.8.
Anyone know if this is the case?
Where by, "would", I of course mean, "wouldn't".
You have that backwards. Human vision is most sensitive to value changes in dark regions, and less sensitive in light regions. That's why we use gamma encoding in the first place: to make the best use of the bits in representing what we see. Without gamma encoding you'd have too many bits dedicated to lighter colors that the human eye can't distinguish.
Gamma 2.2 and 1.8 aren't really that far apart, but 2.2 is closer to being visually uniform.
Then this is great news. Thanks for clarifying. :-)
As a webdesigner I've been using 2.2 on Macs/OSX for years now.
"I suppose if you believe the entire printing industry was defined by the Apple laser printer then the two stories would be the same. Typical Apple revisionist history…"
Nobody's made that claim here. Drop the immature BS or get lost.
The calibration and proof preview tools available in Photoshop today mean that it no longer matters whether the gamma setting used for a properly calibrated display is 2.2¥ or 1.8¥. But reliable soft proofing tools weren't available in early versions of Photoshop or other applications. So, photographers, artists and designers of the early 1990's doing professional pre-press work for print, calibrated their displays to the known pre-press standard (1.8¥) — to help foresee, and compensate for, the "mid-tone dot gain" that invariably occurred in press reproductions. In those early days, Apple's ColorSync color management tools and the use of the 1.8¥ setting made Macs the superior platform for color pre-press work — by far.
For some years, if photographers of the day needed to create reproductions for TV or computer displays, they would have to temporarily re-calibrate their displays to the 2.2¥ setting. With today's software calibration and proofing tools, you can easily generate and proof images for any reproduction system.
That said, two separate International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidelines governing gamma settings still exist. The oldest standard (with 1.8¥), was defined for darkened pre-press workplaces; a newer international standard (with 2.2¥) wasn't officially established until 2002 — for typical (and much brighter) office environments with mixed window/daylight and fluorescent lighting.
Really, these two ISO-standards should be thought of as recommendations for setting up a controlled color editing workspace. The computer gamma setting is just one factor in doing this. While the default gamma setting in Mac OS X Snow Leopard has changed, the need to precisely control light in your computer editing room has not.
The existing ISO 3664:2000 (1.8¥) standard long has been used for ideal, tightly-controlled editing environments in which a measurably precise illumination level in the editing room is lower than the light emitted from the display. The walls are painted a color neutral gray and changing window light is not allowed to affect illumination levels throughout the day. In this darkroom-like editing environment, no reflective room colors would be visible in the display glass and even the computer's desktop background ideally would be set to a neutral color. The computer operator would wear color neutral clothing and even avoid chocolate or drink coffee, because, it is said, caffeine can change your color perception. Proof prints are analyzed using special, calibrated color-neutral proofing lights (ideally not fluorescent, which have undesirable color spikes at certain points in the visible spectrum).
In reality, if you work in this type of controlled editing environment, you WILL see colors and tonal values that just aren't discernible in other editing environments. Fortunately, the software calibration and soft proofing tools in recent versions of Photoshop, mean you can use the 2.2¥ setting in this editing environment.
The other standard, ISO 12646, defines a set of less-stringent viewing standards for image editing facilities. It defines the proper the conditions and settings, lighting levels, that can help you work successfully with the 2.2¥ setting that produces darker mid-tone values on a computer display.
Back in 2001, I wrote a couple of stories on all this for http://www.creativepro.com. Most of the details remain relevant. See the two-part story here:
[Really interesting stuff, George. Thanks for contributing these details to the discussion. –J.]
Note that an upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard will not reset the Gamma from 1.8 to 2.2. Users will need to make the change in the Displays control panel.
I believe this is simply because Apple's future business is focussed on using the mac os (whether on macs, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, ?tablet/remote …) for video playback.
It needs to look more like a TV display. That's it.
Any visuals?
When I set my gamma to 2.2, the black pattern on the sides of this site nearly disappears – it becomes almost solid black. They're much more visible at 1.8. At 2.6, about half of the torn paper type effect along the edges of the white area is gone and the image behind the menu on the right is almost invisible.
Interesting. Personally, as a web designer, I always set my Mac's display gamma to 2.2 anyway to match Windows – it's just easier that way. If I use 1.8, I end up designing something that looks good on my screen but then often shows up too dark on a Windows PC.
Now for the user perspective – I don't need to fit with Windows or any professional publishing and calibrate the display to my personal preference. What gamma am I using on my late 2007 aluminium iMac? 1.4 ! Maybe things are better on LED displays, but this is quite a depressing prospect for me. I haven't upgraded to Snow Leopard yet, because I'm waiting for my audio interface manufacturer to get the message that a new Mac OS is coming (don't know where they've been for the last 18 months). Sure I can just re-calibrate to 1.4 if necessary, but 1.8 didn't show enough detail for me, and 2.2 just plain sucks, much less 2.6!! Might as well buy a Windows computer and hack OS X onto it. I feel sorry for you guys in the pro world. And here was I hoping that televisions would improve their quality to the standard of a Mac monitor, not the other way around. I feel like Marvin the paranoid android…
I was ignorant about this..but thanks for this great explanation….
Poynton's gamma faq is a must read for anyone that cares about the subject. The true reason for this "gamma" business has to do with two factors:
1. Humans do not percieve brightness linearly. In other words, if one light is measurably twice as bright as another light, it will not look twice as bright. As someone else mentioned, human eyes are adapted to see dark things more clearly.
2. A CRT monitor does not produce linear light in response to linear voltage. Twice as much voltage does not produce twice as much light. In fact, the function which describes the relationship between voltage and light in a CRT monitor is nearly the inverse of the function between light, and human perception of brightness.
An uncorrected video signal (gamma 1.0) would appear quite dark to the human eye, but the perception of the image would fairly accurately reflect the actual amount of light present in the original scene.
A gamma of 2.2 or 2.4 is applied in camera, or via some kind of signal processing equipment before it's sent to a television set. The idea is to make the image produced by the television match what you'd see in reality. 2.2 is around the right value.
As mentioned before, if your goal is to match what comes out of a printer, 1.8 might be better. I never knew that's where that value came from, but it makes sense now.
By the way, in case you didn't know, gamma is a power function. If you map your brightness values to between 0 and 1 (x), the output values are x^gamma, roughly, so gamma 1.0 is a linear relationship since x = x^1
As to which is better, 1.8 or 2.2? Depends on what you're doing. It's better to know where the numbers come from and understand why you'd use one or the other than turn it into a religious thing for no reason.
As for web developers caring about gamma, I would if any color management software actually made sense. As it stands, it's a bunch of UI voodoo. Photoshop makes it far from easy, frequently demanding the user answers questions about color management they can't possibly know the answers to.
Do I want to apply the workspace color profile, or convert to it, or do nothing? How should I know? Most designers (PRINT DESIGNERS) I know have no idea what the question even means, let alone how to answer it, and just answer randomly, hoping to just quickly get down to the business of doing something useful. A random choice is worse than no color management at all. This is why, I truly believe that despite their best intentions, adobe has made the color management problem 10 times *worse* than it was before, not better.
Color management can't exactly work transparently either. I know that apple has this color sync technology built into the operating system, in addition to adobe's color management. Does this mean that my images are getting corrected TWICE? How should I know, and where would I even begin to find out?
I think I read once that colorsync once had a show stopping bug for about 5 years, and nobody noticed? It's not that nobody cares about consistent color, just none of these color management solutions are really solutions, I think they just add to the confusion.
Oh yeah, and I forgot that despite having all these color management "features", none of the adobe software that I know of, nor any color sync software, provides any way to create a calibrated color profile for any device. In order to do that you need to shell out on some expensive photometry equipment and software. How many print designers, let alone webdesigners are going to think it's a worthwhile investment? I'm guessing *some*. As for webdesigners, that's a whole other mess. Thanks not only to variations in manufacturing, but the random and haphazard way various displays get calibrated, there's pretty much no way to garauntee anything about any color on any particular display that you're not in control of. This is why I have to laugh whenever color management systems are proposed for web browsers.
Precisely what color space would images be corrected from, and what space would they be corrected to? The answer? From whatever random choice got the designer/photographer to some useful work fastest, to whatever the default operating system setting is, which probably doesn't bear any resemblance to the monitor's actual behavior!
Imagine putting a note on your website saying that in order to optimally view the images on this site, you must first purchase some monitor calibration equipment, go through the multistep process for creating an accurate color profile, correctly install it in the color management system of the OS, and then hope that you're not just seeing things.
And to think, people used to complain about having to download the flash plugin to see a site!
In some circles, sRGB is known as 'stupid RGB' because of its smashed gamut of colors. For some purposes it is simply terrible, as is using a gamma of 2.2. For surfing the web, however, it is an adequate standard. The challenge is to use color management properly for the work at hand. If your work is going to go to press, stick with a gamma of 1.8, etc. As for the comment about gamma eventually becoming a mute point, I find this very misleading if not flippant. Understanding in depth color management is required in order to comprehend why the statement was made. I wish he had not bothered.
At times I've used a gamma of 2 to try fit somewhere 'acceptably' inbetween the two camps, so that I can begin designing (for web) at a suitable compromise of colours and contrast for screen. I do hate walking over to a Windows machine only to see my designs lost in darkness. For TV work I'm using a broadcast monitor to proof anyway. However a gamma of 2.2 always looks blurry and dirty to me, especially in the greys – Apple should then colour manage their UI elements, 'cos the crispness is lost otherwise.
As far as colour management is concerned, Breton is right. Folks in the graphics software industry talk about it as if it's used by everyone – but really I have never met a print designer (never mind web/broadcast designer) that specifically made colour management part of their workflow or even professed to understand it. Pro software has a long way to go to make this intuitive to users – it's not something that is regularly taught in college and it raises too many questions in the users' mind for them to bother with it: "I have 12 images in this document, from five different sources – do I match their profiles? change their profiles? what if they're different and don't print right? What IS a profile? Which is the 'right' one to use? Do I use ColorSync or Adobe's tools? Do they clash? …
A bit of a mess really – even a simple tutorial built into pro software including some of the obvious FAQ's would go far to addressing this. Going to a Colour-Management Seminar is not in the budget or time-plan of many designers.
I was ignorant about this..but thanks for this great explanation…..
I'm programmer and somewhat photographer and changed my color settings completely as I like it just a bit darker than default. I've just looked it up and my gamma is at 2.08 on my MacBook pro. 1.8 feels too bright for me.
TV makers let customers set a wide variety of color settings, some features should better be inaccessible. Customers love to set their TV colors totally off and crazy saturated. I can put 10 TV's in front of you, CRTs, Plasmas, 10 computer LCD displays and none of them will show an image the same or even comparable. Changing the default gamma in Snow Leopard's generated profiles to 2.2 will not help at all in making it "more like a TV display". Not at all. What's a "TV display"? Even your TV out of the box was set very incorrectly from TV maker and nowhere at all it matched gamma 2.2.
I guess this was not even that neccessary. Maybe more of a psychological step towards what the "standard" is. Low end displays and TVs are all totally off on arrival, and most graphic designers were using 2.2 for years anyway.
I think this is a good move in the long term. The plain and simple fact is that web content is viewed by FAR more Windows users, and since Macs are still highly regarded in content creation it just seems like an ongoing disparity people don't need.
And we just KNOW there's a snowball's chance a lot more apps will become color-managed anytime soon!
Anecdote: Just two nights ago I was working with my chief software engineer and was trying to show him how one part of a window wasn't being updated to white but was remaining the light gray of the background of the dialog. He didn't understand what I was saying because he couldn't see the difference in the remote view of my Windows desktop he was seeing on his Mac. In the future, when he moves up to Snow Leopard that should longer be a problem.
Of course, by then I'll be on Windows 7 with its freshly washed out colors…
In the near term I'm SURE that there will be a whole host of difficulties for Mac users as programs that just *know* Mac is gamma 1.8 will present new problems. Sigh; progress is painful sometimes.
I was completely ignorant about gamma and color profile issues until I've got myself Wide Gamut montior without knowing what I was getting into. On that monitor graphics without proper color management look like acid trip.
I'm not sure that a change in the default gamma will make any difference to the majority of users. Most people don't even know where to find the gamma settings — they just play with the brightness control on the display (thereby defeating any color management intent).
I would like to heartily agree with the post about "stupid RGB" (sRGB), however. Talk about "lowest common denominator" — as I recall this was invented to reflect the color capabilities of a cheap PC monitor from the mid-90s. In what way is this relevant to any contemporary viewing situation? Even in the day it was a far cry from a professional-quality Trinitron CRT, and now that everybody uses LCDs, it is utterly irrelevant and functionally obsolete. Yet it persists as some kind of misguided "standard", enforced by digital camera makers and ignorant web producers.
[It remains a baseline, like the 216-color "Web-safe" palette before it. Knowing what you can count on for a wide audience has real value. That doesn't mean it has to be a constraint. –J.]
I know many of the folks involved here, and just want to add a bit of additional info.
2.6 on the desktop is not preferred now, and even in a 'clean-slate' universe would likely not be preferable.
The DCI spec Lars refers is based upon a series of contrast modulation
experiments done by Glenn Kennel and Tom Maier. The chart is
available as Figure 4-2 (Color + Mastering for Digital Cinema – Glenn Kennel).
The interesting thing to note is that gamma 2.6 is only maximally efficient for a *theatrical viewing environment*, which is notable in
that it has an overall image intensity of approx. 50% of the typically
desktop CRT (100 cd/m^2 vs 48cd/m^2), and a dark surround (instead of a light-surround).
In a common 'traditional' viewing environment
workstations) gamma 2.2/2.4 is much more appropriate.
If I had to come up with a 'hacky' rule of thumb…
2.2 — good for normal (lights on in room) surround.
2.4 — good for dim surround (lights off in room)
2.6 — good for dark surround (and lower luminance)
I would also add that " calibrated displays and functional color management will make gamma a moot point. Gamma will be for the Luddites." is not strictly accurate. A 'reasonable' gamma value is necessary for an efficient use of bits between the graphics card and the display. Even in a world of transmitting 10 bit data straight to DLPs (which are inherently linear), we still choose to use a gamma != 1.0 for this reason.
I know many of the folks involved here, and just want to add a bit of additional info.
2.6 on the desktop is not preferred now, and even in a 'clean-slate' universe would likely not be preferable.
The DCI spec Lars refers is based upon a series of contrast modulation
experiments done by Glenn Kennel and Tom Maier. The chart is
available as Figure 4-2 (Color + Mastering for Digital Cinema – Glenn Kennel).
The interesting thing to note is that gamma 2.6 is only maximally efficient for a *theatrical viewing environment*, which is notable in
that it has an overall image intensity of approx. 50% of the typically
desktop CRT (100 cd/m^2 vs 48cd/m^2), and a dark surround (instead of a light-surround).
In a common 'traditional' viewing environment
workstations) gamma 2.2/2.4 is much more appropriate.
If I had to come up with a 'hacky' rule of thumb…
2.2 — good for normal (lights on in room) surround.
2.4 — good for dim surround (lights off in room)
2.6 — good for dark surround (and lower luminance)
I would also add that " calibrated displays and functional color management will make gamma a moot point. Gamma will be for the Luddites." is not strictly accurate. A 'reasonable' gamma value is necessary for an efficient use of bits between the graphics card and the display. Even in a world of transmitting 10 bit data straight to DLPs (which are inherently linear), we still choose to use a gamma != 1.0 for this reason.
2.2 Gamma is the standard for sRGB displays. It has nothing to do with Mac/PC or your personal preferences. Web designers should set their displays to 2.2 gamma regardless of what the default gamma is of your OS.
This is a very interesting post. Its mad to think that there are issues in today's internet world that are about because of the printing presses of old. I do think something needs to be done to bridge the gap between Mac and PC, as a web designer i work on a mac where all my customers own PC's this present obvious problems.
The gamma changed automatically for me when I upgraded to Snow Leopard. It was not a clean install.
Seems like Mac had it's eye on matching the printing press, and PC's/windows were going for modern HD content by adapting more quickly. And then mac didn't want to change. In this case, by being more matched to HD, windows may have done mac a favor. No mac fan will accept that without twisting it and claiming it's false, but actually I really think it may be true. What I really find funny is that some web designers think you need a mac to get good results because they've drunk the kook aid. Mac if fine! But it's not like it's necessary to get great results on that or even video editing. So they all run out and buy macs based on what they are told. But then they end up making all these funky adjustments to create contenet that matches what most of the world will see. I'm glad they've finally decided to change the gamma to 2.2. And as for the "ultimate" gamma, I don't think there is such a thing. At least not worth getting in a fight over. Instead I think there is a range which our eyes better respond to, and the electronics can deliver. Whether it's 2.1, 2.2, 1.9 doesn't matter, as long as it's close and every one agrees on something.
But also add that I think the gamma has more to do with the initial hardware, rather than the OS. In other words the way monitors were made in part. It's just up to the OS to adapt it. But then that could partially lead to the platform and what kind of monitor. Maybe there were also some differences in the monitors early on between platforms. But again, either way, now they are all going to be 2.2 which is useful.
this was great deal of information. i also use gamma 2.2 to match my windows specification. it makes my designs look the way i make them.and clients are satisfied too.
If this website's background disappeared when you set gamma to 2.2, your display is waaay out of calibration or outright bad. You have probably contrast too high. I am using 2.2 on a calibrated monitor, and I can see the patterns completely correctly (nice art, btw).
[Thanks. :-) –J.]
How does this apply to actual photo-editing?
I tried changing my mac from 1.8 to 2.2 and found I had to add .67EV to get back to normal
And with OS10.6 set to its then correct 2.2, what will happen to ones previous 20k images?
PS…er I don't use CS, I use Nikon NX2
As long as you are using a color managed application, it won't make any difference at all.
If you are using a non-color managed application, you haven't been seeing accurate color anyway – so what's the difference?
>If one is using a calibrated display, does gamma matter?
No and yes .
No in that in an ICC aware application, the Display Using Monitor Compensation architecture will compensate and the net result is, we see the same previews (if not, Mac and Windows users of Photoshop would be seeing different previews of the same data). Yes in that the native TRC of most displays is closer to 2.2 than 1.8, so if you calibrate to 1.8, there has to be an adjustment in the preview path, that's usually being done 8-bit and the net results are more banding. This is why better, higher end, displays built for color work use a high bit path in the panel. There's no downside to using 2.2 calibration on a Mac who's OS assumes 1.8 other than a slightly darker preview outside ICC aware applications. The possible downside of a 1.8 TRC calibration is banding hence the reason for so many years, pro's have been advised to calibrate to either a native gamma (if the software supports this) or 2.2.
I was told the gamma in OS should match the monitor's native gamma. LCDs do not have native gamma of 2.2 or 1.8, they just designed to simulate a CRT gamma response. A gamma 1.8 OS + a simulated gamma 1.8 LCD should look the same as a 2.2 OS + simulated 2.2 LCD. Am I right?
When I Export a layout from InDesign CS4 to PDF/X-1a:2001 or PDF/X-4:2008 choosing as destination a ICC v4 class, I receive a notification, at the end of process, that ICC profile v4 has been converted to ICC v2.
What about "conversion"? There is a possibility that "some" info are converted with some limitations because icc v4 and v2 are different?
In our workflow we have a mixed v2 and v4 profiles.
The message is "generic" so we don't know if we can forget it and enable the check box "don't show again" or considering it seriously.
My understanding is that the Mac U I is color managed through ColorSync, which handles color management for displays, printers, cameras & all peripheral devices. This could explain why I noticed a dramatic color shift immediately after upgrading to Snow Leopard & have been unable recalibrate my display to my satisfaction
Cheers !
As if us developers don't have enough to contend with! The sooner the big companies realise that cooperation goes hand in hand with competition, the better.
I don't know how much it matters, I calibrated my Mac when I did the upgrade, but then I test my websites on an old PC and all the colour renditions are dreadful. From a web design point of view I reckon you have to design for the lowest possible denominator. People with Macs just see the perks. Seriously, surf the web on cheap PC and it is a dreadful place.


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