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(Pocket-lint) - When you see the XPS 15z your first thought is likely to be about how much it resembles the old titanium MacBook. Its rounded corners, silver metal finish and slot-loading DVD drive all remind us of the Apple machine. Open the XPS up and start using it and not only is the resemblance not as close as you first thought, but your attention will be on other things, like the fantastic screen.
The case is anodised aluminium with a matte finish that looks good and shrugs off fingerprints. It's a full metal case too, no plastic undercarriage here with even the generous palm rest finished in magnesium. Apart from an unobtrusive matte black plastic screen surround, the slightly darker grey metal covers the whole interior and dips down to form the keyboard tray.
The screen is set slightly forward from the rear edge, giving the same suggestion of a shelf as in the previous XPS model, but there are no lights or controls trapped behind the screen. The speakers on either side of the keyboard have an unusual grill perforation that looks familiar from the Adamo. While the silver-grey keytops match the grooved circular hinge that runs most of the way across the case. One of the grooves is the charging light; little touches like that show a real attention to detail. The design is understated and the build quality is fantastic; barely any flex even when you twist the screen, no flex at all on the keyboard. And despite the all-metal chassis and serious spec, the XPS 15z is thin for a 15.6-inch laptop at under 25mm although, its weight is nothing remarkable at 2.54kg.
Keyboard and trackpad
The backlight keyboard looks as if it's more about style than efficiency. We didn't expect to like the rounded keys in the now-common isolated, island-style, keyboard but the spacing is good and the action is smooth and positive with good travel. There are drawbacks - the Caps Lock key is large and it's too easy to hit instead of the A key. The inverted-T of arrow keys is nicely spaced away from the other keys but it's disappointing not to get dedicated home, end, page up and page down keys on a notebook of this size. Instead, Dell has them as secondary functions on the arrow keys. The secondary controls on the function keys, however, are exactly the options most people need and they're logically arranged. Battery information is next to the Wi-Fi control, the control for the backlight keyboard is next to screen brightness and mute, volume controls and media controls are together, next to the DVD eject button.
The trackpad is large but thanks to the size of the case, and the generous palm rest, it doesn't look oversized. The surface has enough texture to make it accurate as well as smoothly responsive and there are two separate, physical buttons again with firm, positive action when you click. The only problem is the inch of space between the edge of the case and the buttons; most notebooks have far less of a gap here and we found we were expecting the buttons to be further forward so we were trying to click on the palm rest instead.
Cypress trackpads aren't as common as Elan and Synaptics models but Dell get the most of them now it includes the full control panel. Two-finger gestures for zoom, scroll and rotate work well. You can choose the size of the scroll areas for vertical and horizontal scroll and while the three-finger back/forward flick isn't any more useful here than on other systems, the four-finger gestures stand out. Swipe four fingers down to show the desktop, swipe up to show the Alt-Tab list of running programs - and then swipe with one finger to pick the window you want. Swipe four fingers to the left or right to switch the focus between different windows (not including minimised windows). This is a combination of the best gestures from the Mac's Expose and Microsoft's Touch Mouse and makes controlling windows a breeze; something that can feel like an effort on a big screen.
The screen size leaves plenty of space for a sensible layout for the ports. Power and gigabit Ethernet are at the back where you won't get tangled up by cables - separated by an air vent with the same quirky pattern as the speakers. Everything else is arranged along the sides. On the left are the HDMI and mini DisplayPort, a combined USB 2 and eSATA port that charges devices when the XPS is turned off and two USB 3 ports. There's also an unusually stylish memory card slot (SDHX/XC) with a pop-out blank and slot that have rounded corners to match the power button and the battery meter button. On the other side are separate headphone and microphone jacks and the slot-load DVD burner.
Super screen
The XPS 15z has the best screen we've seen in any notebook since the last time we looked at an XPS with an HD screen. Colours are rich, vivid and saturated without looking unnatural, the contrast is superb, even in dark areas of images, and the brightness is good. Viewing angles are excellent from every angle; you'd have to pick the notebook up and tilt it in mid-air to lose any visibility. You'll see new detail in videos you thought you knew by heart; streaming 1080p video from the Web was stunningly crisp and detailed, playing smoothly with accurate colours and great contrast. 720p video looks just as good, although the quality of the screen will show up any imperfections in the video if you watch it full screen.
With a 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 525M graphics card partnering the 2.7GHz Core i7-2620M, 8GB of RAM and 7200rpm 750GB hard drive, video performance is good. The Nvidia Optimus graphics switching gives you a good balance between performance and battery life too.
There's also an £899 Core i5 version. This is a multimedia system rather than a gaming rig but you can get reasonable frame rates at medium detail at 720p. Avoid the full 1,920 x 1080 resolution for gaming and save it for movies; the XPS can pump out full HD to external screens and the HDMI 1.4 port can also send 3D video to a 3D-compatible screen or TV. Dell says the chassis is just too thin to fit a slot-load Blu-ray drive instead of the DVD burner, so don't expect 3D Blu-ray movies. Even the HD Webcam is good quality capturing crisp detail and accurate colours, although there's a little lag if you move too quickly.
The previous XPS might have a slight edge on sound quality; you have to crank the volume closer to full than we prefer to get the full richness of the audio system on the XPS 15z but when you do it's impressive. You can hear a huge amount of detail in the mid-range, the treble is clear rather than sharp and there's plenty of bass. The position of the speakers makes for great stereo separation too. We have heard one or two notebooks with even better audio quality (and significantly higher price tags), but you'll really enjoy listening to music on the XPS 15z.
Battery life
The battery life is better than many notebooks of this size, helped by the second generation Core i7 and switching graphics. In light use we saw well over seven hours and even with screen brightness high and Wi-Fi in continuous use we had nearly four hours of battery life - stretching to five and six hours as we turned off some power-hungry options. That's good enough that we're not complaining that it's not removable.
The bundled software includes the usual favourites of Office Starter, Windows Live Essentials, Skype and the rather intrusive McAfee SecurityCenter, plus Nero 10 and Roxio Creator Starter. It's nice to see Internet Explorer 9 rather than the IE 8 standard with Windows 7. There's also a host of Dell utilities which are easiest to find from Dell's own on-screen launcher, which is part of the latest version of Dell Stage. This is now a more comprehensive media organiser and player and we like the option to use an Android phone as a DLNA remote control, picking music from one PC and playing it on another. The Dell Stage apps are still painfully slow to load, which makes them far less useful.
The Dell XPS 15z is a really impressive combination of design, features, performance, battery life and all-round appeal. It's a good multimedia system with an excellent screen and the 3D output option, a workhorse system that will deliver performance with demanding software and a designer system that barely compromises to get its good looks unless you were dead-set on a Blu-ray drive.


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Road map emerges for saving state park system
There is cause for hope in the 122-page report last week from the Little Hoover Commission, which detailed the pathetic mismanagement of California's crumbling park system and suggested a complete overhaul.
The report blames some woes on declining revenues as lawmakers siphoned cash for other priorities. And recent bond-fueled expansions didn't create additional operating funds.
But much of the problem boils down to chronic mismanagement. Officials lack basic accounting systems to tell them how much a park makes in fees and how much it costs to operate.
And the system is top heavy with administrators, a fact driven home by Gov. Jerry Brown's threat last year to close 70 parks – a quarter of the state's total – to cope with a $22 million budget cut, which amounted to just 5 percent of the operating budget.
Great management is possible; in 1997, when former San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson was governor, this department won a prestigious Malcolm Baldrige award. Last year, Brown wisely appointed Anthony Jackson of Fallbrook, a retired Marine major general, to engineer a turnaround.
Our once-magnificent state parks are worth restoring to glory. This report calls for closing marginal parks, transferring others to local agencies and finding private partners to run many. Now it falls to Brown and the Legislature to muster sufficient ambition and courage.
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subset: commoncrawl


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A major injustice is about to be redressed.The ground-breaking cyberpunk TV series Max Headroom is finally coming out on DVD — and the extras may include the original British short film 20 Minutes Into The Future.
You may finally be able to throw away your VHS copies of Max, which probably have sentient entities growing on them at this point. Shout! Factory has scored the rights to do a complete box set, including all 14 episodes as well as unspecified extras. Home Media Magazine reports:
"Max Headroom" starred Matt Frewer as a reporter whose mind is downloaded into a computer to create a virtual clone who exists in the digital world. Amanda Pays, Jeffrey Tambor and W. Morgan Sheppard also star in the series, which ran for 14 episodes on Cinemax and ABC in 1987 and 1988. Set in the near future, "Max Headroom" depicted a world of television run amok.
Shout! Factory has a "Max Headroom" complete-series DVD set slated for August, according to a spokesperson. Episodes are being transferred from their original elements to provide the best quality, and Shout! Factory is planning a robust range of extras for the set. Bonus content may include the original U.K. telefilm 20 Minutes Into the Future, upon which the series is based, though nothing has been confirmed. Max Headroom also appeared in a series of Coca-Cola commercials in the 1980s, raising speculation such content may also be fodder for bonus material, but Shout! Factory said planning the extras is in the early stage.
[Home Media Magazine, thanks Javi!]


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http://www.sploder.com/games/members/appendix/play/sugar/Thoughts? Feature? Review?
http://www.sploder.com/games/members/ethan2009/play/time-warp/feature, and wouldnt mind a review
http://www.sploder.com/games/members/plam3n/play/trapped-together/Would be nice if I got it featured.
I've given you some feedback on the game on if I think the game is feature worthy or not.I'm not an editor but I still gave you some nice feedback and advice.
www.sploder.com/games/members/rockyroad797/play/wave-of-domination/ - feature and review request, probably do one of themwww.sploder.com/games/members/rockyroad797/play/space-tatooine/ - already featured, REVIEW request
I could review space tatooine but I will be busy up until EGD. I don't think it's feature worthy tbh, so I could review it
It is. The parts you finished were lesser than 1/8th of the whole game
The fact that you already know and acknowledge how broken the difficulty is in that part proves it's not feature-worthy.
It's already featured. I think Mat did it
Mat did not feature it, Konni did, and even if a game is featured, that doesn't make it good. I also recall konni featuring boom hill, a plat that was spammed rocks. The game still is not feature worthy either way.
Moustachemachine said it is.
Moustachemachine doesn't have a featured game.
Boom Hil had a great concept behind it, and was fun too, if it were polished and packaged as a game rather than a proof of concept I would have featured it as well.By the way Ethan, Moustachemachine having no featured games shouldn't decide whether or not he can hold the opinion that games are feature worthy. Everyone can, but the only people who can act on that opinion are Editors.
Boom Hil had a great concept behind it, and was fun too, if it were polished and packaged as a game rather than a proof of concept I would have featured it as well.
Even if it was polished, the game was still a chore to play with no actual gameplay other than throwing nades at rocks for a year
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St Lucie Cherry Yamadori Bonsai Material
- A superb powerful trunk prunus with good bark quality
- An easy little winter project
- Collected in Spain
- 25" tall from the top of it's bonsai pot. 19" wide overall. 5" diameter root flare
- Planted in a plastic nursery pot
- In stock and available for delivery within two or three working days
St Lucie Cherry Yamadori Bonsai Material
Latin name: Prunus mahaleb
Just perfect for cultivation as bonsai. Small bright green leaves, dense twigging, small white scented flowers and delicate fruit. The plant quickly develops a fine root system. New shoots break from anywhere on the trunk giving the chance to select branches for the future of the tree. Fully frost hardy in the U.K, treat just as you would a blackthorn or hawthorn. A superb subject for bonsai and simplicity itself to cultivate and develop as bonsai. Nice yellow autumn colour.
A nice chunky trunk prunus collected in Spain. Great bark quality and a good nebari. Now well established and growing strongly. Basic further styling and a little carving over next winter will really improve this promising tree.
25" tall from the top of it's bonsai pot. 19" wide overall. 5" diameter root flare
Planted in a plastic nursery pot.
The subject pictured is the EXACT plant we will send you. Appearance may vary depending upon the season.
In stock and available for delivery within two or three working days.
Price including secure packaging and U.K delivery* £365.00
*Price includes delivery to any U.K mainland address (except Highlands and Islands).
Fast Safe Delivery to E.U countries see our shipping rates as a guide and contact us for a shipping quote (before purchasing) and further details. firstname.lastname@example.com
Not available for shipping outside the European Union (ie: the USA). Importing plants without correct permissions can land you with a VERY big fine or prison time.
We do not provide cultural information for this tree other than the above (relevant to the UK climate only). Please ensure you have the skills and facilities to care for this plant in your location before you decide to purchase.


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COLUMBUS -- Any team that lost going into an extended break for the World Cup will say that the respite from practices and games comes at a good time. And the Crew is no exception.
Looking for positives from Saturday's 1-0 loss at Colorado that extended their winless streak to three, defender Andy Iro hopes history repeats itself.
"Going into the last two years we've had a similar break," he said. "We lost both games going into it then came back energized and focused and went on a tear. Hopefully, we'll come back renewed and refreshed. We've got a home game against D.C. United (June 26), so maybe we'll go on a roll from there."
Last season, the Crew lost a CONCACAF Champions League match 5-0 at Mexico's Cruz Azul on Aug. 26 and followed four days later with a 1-0 defeat at last-place New York.
The Crew had a bye week and returned to go 3-1-1 in the next five league games to ensure their second straight Supporters' Shield.
In 2008, the Crew lost 2-0 at Houston on Aug. 2 to enter an off-week on a 1-2-2 stretch. They came back and won four in a row and lost once in the final 15 games to win the MLS Cup.
After a 2-0 home loss to Los Angeles, a 2-2 tie at San Jose and the setback at Colorado that came when Drew Moor scored off a free kick in the 85th minute while the Rapids were down a man, many of the Crew players scattered until training resumes on June 14.
"It's nice to have a little break and try to come back with a little momentum," midfielder Adam Moffat said. "On the other hand, when you lose a game you always want to come back straight away. The fact that it's going to be three weeks before the next game will weigh on a few guys' minds."
But Columbus should take advantage of their time off because there's little rest after that.
The Crew (6-2-3) have 19 MLS games remaining. Starting June 26, their longest stretch without a match is nine days. There will also be six Champions League games and at least one U.S. Open Cup match penciled into Columbus' schedule in the second half of their campaign.
For the team
Assistant coach Mike Lapper answered questions following Saturday's match in the absence of head coach Robert Warzycha, who attended his daughter's high school graduation.
When asked if the loss would be credited to him, Lapper laughed, "It goes to the entire staff. I wouldn't take the credit for us winning the game or for the loss. Robert would say the same thing. We're all in this together. If I have to take it, I'll take it. I have big enough shoulders."
Strike force
Among the more frustrated Crew on Saturday was forward Steven Lenhart. Sure, he drew Pablo Mastroeni into a red card --Mastroeni retaliated after Lenhart fouled and knocked the ball into his midsection--, but the numbers show it was a tough night all around for Lenhart.
He had as many cautions (one) as shots and committed five of the Crew's 10 fouls while suffering only one in return.
Despite being fourth on the team in minutes (867), Lenhart leads with 22 fouls and is third in fouls suffered with 17.
A number of things
Comparing the bench after 11 games to the same benchmark last season, Warzycha has used 20 players so far, with 17 starting at least once. Three of the reserves --Duncan Oughton (24), Sergio Herrera (1) and Kevin Burns (1)-- have combined for only 26 minutes.
In 2009, 23 players saw action and 19 started. Three had less than 90 minutes through 11 matches --Andy Iro (59), Oughton (56) and Cory Elenio (17).


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Are You Watching?
All of us here at Supernatural Sisters love Supernatural, sing its praises, and wish more people were watching. So when I stumbled onto some fan-made promo clips on YouTube tonight while trying to come up with a topic for today's blog (I'm doing about 10 things and have a big case of brain fry), I was intrigued by them and started watching. What fun! They all are tied together under the theme "Are You Watching?" and each gives great clips, reasons for watching the show.
This is the one I saw first, which led me to the others. Great combination of clips, music and just general awesomeness.
You can click through on YouTube and find them, or you can go to their site and click either on the "download" or "youtube" links for each of the 61 different promos to view them. The one linked above is the 61st one, called "The Famous Winchester Boys." I haven't watched them all, but a couple of others I liked were:
No. 10 -- "Sharp-Dressed Men"
No. 41 -- "Dean's Geek Brother"
And for more fun on YouTube...
If you haven't seen the gag reel from last season, here it is in its entirety.
But I honestly think these clips from it, shot at ComicCon, are funnier because of the crowd's reactions.
So, seen any good Supernatural-related vids lately that we haven't already discussed here before?


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Your pregnancy and baby guide
If antenatal screening tests find something
Open all pages about Your pregnancy and baby guide
Main navigation
Getting pregnant
- Secrets to success
- Am I pregnant?
- Problems
I'm pregnant
- Early days
- Week by week
- Twins
- Preparing for the birth
- Work out your due date
- Tests scans and checks
- Your pregnancy (antenatal) care
- Vaccinations
- Your health and wellbeing
- Existing health problems
- Common pregnancy ailments
- Pregnancy-induced conditions
Labour and birth
- The start of labour
- The birth
- Emotions and worries
- Premature babies
Your newborn
- How to breastfeed
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- Weaning and solid foods
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Most antenatal screening tests will not find anything, but there's a chance you'll be told your baby could be born with a condition.
If this happens to you, there's always support available.
Get as much information as you can
It can help to find out as much as you can about the condition your baby may have.
A specialist doctor (obstetrician) or midwife will explain what the screening results mean and talk to you about your options.
Your appointments
Your appointments should take place in a private and quiet space. But this can sometimes be difficult in a busy hospital.
You can bring your partner, a family member or friend with you.
It might help to write down any questions you have before you go. Ask the doctor or midwife to explain anything again if you need them to.
You could ask things like:
- Can you explain what my baby may have?
- What would that mean for my baby?
- Will we need any special care or treatment before birth?
- What would life be like for my baby if they have this condition?
Read more about conditions screened for in pregnancy
Next steps
You may be offered further tests (sometimes called diagnostic tests).
These tests check if your baby definitely has the condition screening tests have said they might have.
The tests you may be offered are:
You may also have further scans.
It's up to you to decide if you want to do any further tests. You can discuss this with a doctor or midwife.
In most cases, you'll find out if your baby has the condition they were tested for. But in some cases this may not be possible.
Read more about getting amniocentesis results or CVS results.
Making a decision to continue with or end your pregnancy
This can be a very difficult decision. You may find you feel differently from one day to the next.
You do not have to make this decision on your own. Speak to your doctor, midwife, family and friends about your options.
You have time to think about your decision – whatever you decide, you'll have support.
Read more about what may happen if you:
- continue with your pregnancy
- end your pregnancy (have a termination)
Support is available
It can help to speak to:
- your partner, family or friends
- a midwife or specialist doctor
- a local support group
- charities that support families with your baby's condition
- a counsellor – you do not need a referral from your GP (find out more about how to see a counsellor)
Charities you can contact
- Antenatal Results and Choices (ARC) – a charity who can support you in your decision
- Down's Syndrome Association
- Sickle Cell Society
- SOFT – for families affected by Patau's and Edwards' syndromes
- UK Thalassaemia Society
Listen to other people's experiences
Some people find it helps to hear from people who have been in the same position.
Healthtalk.org has videos of people talking about:
- early pregnancy scans
- decisions about further tests
- waiting for the results of tests
- continuing a pregnancy
- ending a pregnancy
- having a child with a long-term condition
Page last reviewed: 04/10/2019
Next review due: 04/10/2022


text:
Laboratory Equipment 2013 - Market Report
22 Feb, 2013, 14:30 GMT
MUMBAI, India, February 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Bharat Book Bureau presents "Laboratory Equipment 2013 - Market Report"( http://www.bharatbook.com/market-research-reports/medical-devices-market-research-report/laboratory-equipment-2013-market-report.html)
This report analyses the market for laboratory equipment in the UK. Laboratory equipment refers to instrumentation, equipment and consumables used in science laboratories; routine testing; monitoring; reference and quality-control laboratories; and in hospitals, universities and schools.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130128/590935 )
The laboratory equipment market is supported by a broad customer base, ranging from public-sector organisations such as the National Health Service (NHS) and local education authorities, to Government organisations, private hospitals and clinics, and industrial companies. Public-sector laboratories, such as university science departments and Government research institutes, receive support from the Government. Major UK-based pharmaceutical companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, also spend heavily on laboratory equipment.
The UK laboratory equipment market has been growing consistently over the past 5 years, driven by a fast-growing life sciences industry; an ageing population; and the rising demand for medical care and clinical research, in addition to growing sophistication and cost of these types of equipment. Between 2008 and 2012, sales of laboratory equipment, instrumentation and laboratory consumables, grew by an estimated 9.3%. Instrumentation and equipment continues to form the largest sector in this market and accounted for 60.1% of the total market value in 2012, with the remaining 39.9% taken up by laboratory consumables.
Figures from National Statistics showed that, in 2010, the UK's gross domestic expenditure (GDE) on research and development (R&D) decreased by 0.8% in real terms. Despite the Government's promise to protect spending on science from its austerity measures, a recent study by the House of Commons showed that Government spending on science and technological innovation fell by 7.6% in 2010/2011.
The UK laboratory equipment market is projected to grow by 11.3% between 2013 and 2017. Growth will be sustained by R&D activities in the science and technology sectors, while the UK's expanding and ageing population will drive demand for medical and laboratory equipment and consumables.
To learn more about "Laboratory Equipment 2013" - Market Report please visit http://www.bharatbook.com/market-research-reports/medical-devices-market-research-report/laboratory-equipment-2013-market-report.html for details.
Request for Sample pages - http://www.bharatbook.com/RequestSample.asp?pid=200313
Table of Contents
- Foreword
- Executive Summary
- Market Definition
- Market Size
- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
- Current Issues
- UK Research And Development
- Expenditure Falls
- Mergers And Acquisitions
- Forecasts
- Company Profiles
Abbott Laboratories Ltd
- Agilent Technologies UK Ltd
- Beckman Coulter UK Ltd
- Becton, Dickinson UK Ltd
- Carl Zeiss Ltd
- Fisher Scientific UK Ltd
- Millipore (UK) Ltd
- Perkinelmer (UK) Holdings Ltd
- Whatman Ltd
Get an overview of the report at or request for sample pages at -
Complete Range of Related Reports:
Laboratories - http://www.bharatbook.com/market-research-report/Laboratories.html?da=Y&sortby=dd
Medical Devices - http://www.bharatbook.com/market-research-report/Medical-Devices.html?da=Y&sortby=dd
Pharmaceutical & Healthcare - http://www.bharatbook.com/market-research-report/Pharmaceuticals-and-Healthcare.html?da=Y&sortby=dd
About Bharat Book Bureau
Bharat Book Bureau is the leading market research information aggregator that provides market research reports, industry analysis, company profiles, business reports, country reports, newsletters and online databases. Our clients include Corporate, Consulting firms, and Academic Institutions and Government departments across the globe. Bharat Book Bureau provides over a million reports from more than 400 publishers around the globe. The market research reports we provide, help global companies examine the different markets before setting up a business or expanding into different countries across the world. They give a complete perspective on the current market scenario, trends, segments and future outlook.
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SOURCE Bharat Book Bureau


text:
I'm taking a cryptography class and I come across these terms dense and sparse key space allt he time. What do they mean?
As far as I can I understand, dense key space means that there are more combinations of the keys in that particular space and sparse the opposite. If yes, assuming I use elliptic key cryptography i.e.
y^2 = x^3 + ax^2 + bx + c,
How is it that elliptic key cryptography is more dense(less sparse) than the RSA cryptography?
Please tell me if I need to be clearer.


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Arielle was my super chill, destination bride from New York. She married her long time love Perry at Empire Canyon Lodge back in spring of 2013. Their friends came up with their clever nickname "Perielle" which they used throughout their wedding. Too cute.
Arielle wanted a true mountain retreat wedding with loads of birch, moss and mountain greens. I'd say we achieved just that!
Beautifully captured images courtesy of Bacio Photography.
Perry's boutonniere was my favorite boutonniere to date. It was made up of a single succulent, snowberries, china berries, russian olive, and wrapped in moss.


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If you're tired of your Internet connection dropping out at certain points in your home, or the signal strength getting weaker as you move away from the router, then it's time to look at our range of Wi-Fi access points. With these innovative little devices you can extend the reach of your wireless signal right across the home - and even out into the garden if you wish, which is great for hosting parties in the summertime. Check out the wireless access points from brand including NetGear, Cisco and Dell; along with our BT whole home Wi-Fi range at BT Shop today
Which Whole Home Wi-Fi is right for you?
Answer a short series of questions in our selector tool and we'll recommend the best model for you.


text:
Jeter stays stoic in face of impending farewell tour
Shortstop says 'I have feelings,' but continues to keep them close to the vest
TAMPA, Fla. -- We don't really know Derek Jeter.
We know his feats and his impressive lack of public foibles. We know all about the World Series rings, the stats that will make him a first-ballot Hall of Famer and the moments that will make up whatever highlight reel serves as the standard.
We know that nobody who has played with or against him has even a harmlessly unflattering word to say about him. We know he's got a huge waterfront home down here with an annual real estate tax bill likely larger than your total mortgage, and, yes, we know he's dated or otherwise befriended some gorgeous girls over the course of two decades on the big league stage. Even in an era of unfathomable finances and TMZ and 24/7, well, everything, he's been one guy you can feel pretty good about your kids adoring and emulating. That's legacy enough.
But we don't really know the man, and that certainly wasn't going to change Wednesday morning, in a big room full of reporters and cameras and teammates and 27 minutes' worth of questions and something resembling answers.
"I still have a season to play," Jeter told us, reminding us this was no ordinary retirement press conference.
Even that phrase -- "press conference" -- was not to be embraced. "Media availability" was the preferred terminology, because that's something Jeter is annually accustomed to on the position-player report date, and no Facebook retirement announcement was going to change that.
And so they poked and prodded him with queries about any emotions that might be bubbling beneath the surface here on the eve of his final season in pinstripes. But nobody honestly or realistically expected the curtain to suddenly be pulled back and the inner "Bachelor" contestant -- the tears, the fears, the sneers -- to be revealed.
"I have feelings," Jeter said, believably. "I'm not emotionally stunted. There's feelings there. I just think I've been pretty good at trying to hide my emotions over the years."
An understatement if ever there was one, and that's probably what makes Jeter's particular exit strategy so surprising.
"I was shocked he was doing it on Facebook," teammate Ichiro Suzuki said through an interpreter.
Well, sure, that's part of the intrigue. Who knew Jeter had a Facebook page, for one? It's not like he's going to use the medium to show us vacation photos or share his "feeling" status, with accompanying emoticons.
But what's most shocking of all, perhaps, is that Jeter is willingly subjecting himself to the Mariano Rivera-like farewell tour and all the attention, glad-handing, marketing ("Captain's Final Voyage" seems to be the working title), and, yes, the gifts it's sure to contain.
All Jeter has ever wanted is a career free of undue distractions from his annual goal of winning a World Series, and that's why he was so adamant at controlling the tone and tenor of this -- ahem -- media availability. The reason he used Facebook as his parting platform, he said, was to have his message heeded in full and his charitable foundation highlighted, two worthy goals.
But there will be so many elements of this endeavor that are sure to be out of Jeter's scope of comfort, because, as you might have noticed, we tend to like to overdo things here in the land of the free and the home of the Super Bowl.
"I can't comment yet [on what the farewell tour will be like]," said Jeter, "because I don't know what that means. I don't know what's going to happen. I really don't know."
We should thank him, then, for the opportunity to say thank you and providing the heads-up that 2014 would be an awfully good time to come to the yard and see No. 2, if you haven't already.
For the Yankees, though, it's a situation that is not without its potential pitfalls. The prevailing pleasantry about Jeter's adieu has been that he's "going out on his terms," but that's a little on the presumptive side. His physical condition will dictate the terms, and that condition is a constant concern for the rare animal that is the 40-year-old shortstop. There will be days when Joe Girardi rests him for the betterment of the bottom line, and some kid in the stands who has never seen Jeter in action will be robbed of that pleasure. Backup shortstop Brendan Ryan has said he's already preparing to "embrace the boos" that will come with his job.
"[Jeter] has always made my job difficult when you want to give him a day off," Girardi said. "I remember him always yelling at Mr. [Joe] Torre when he wanted to take him out of games and [asking] how was he ever going to break Cal's [Ripken] record if Torre kept pulling him out of games. We want him in the lineup as much as possible. But we also have to make sure he's productive."
It says here that Jeter has been blessed with too charmed a life to run out of good mojo now. Maybe his career won't end with another World Series trophy in hand, because there are far too many variables at play. But all any of us can reasonably hope is that the final ride is free of physical potholes. He's earned at least that and probably much more.
Jeter has also, whether he wants to embrace it or not, earned all the applause and adulation and alms and awards sure to come his way over the next seven-plus months. At some point, there will be a farewell speech, there will be a final tip of the cap, there might even be a few tears from the otherwise stoic shortstop.
For now, though, all we know is that Jeter will soon venture into a life after baseball centered on his foundation's work and his hope of starting a family (no, we don't know with whom). And we know, most importantly, that he still has one more season in him, which is why, on a dais reserved for him and him alone, and on a day assumed to serve as celebration of all that was and all he is, Jeter paused mid-availability, pointed to his teammates assembled on one side of the room and said this:
"If these guys got to go to work, go work."
We don't really know Jeter. But we do know that's what's most important to him.


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AAVSO Councillor Kevin Paxson has completed and presented the results of the AAVSO's survey of the professional astronomical community. The AAVSO solicited participation from professional astronomers in an online survey early this year, and the results are now available in both raw and summarized form, with commentary and analysis from Kevin. The results were presented at the 2013 Spring Meeting of the AAVSO, and the final reports are now available here.
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) invites the participation of professional astronomers in our "Professional Astronomer Survey of 2013."
Your opinions and comments about the AAVSO's data offerings, services, software, and other activities are being solicited. Responses to our survey will be used to improve the offerings and services that the AAVSO provides to the global research community. We will collect responses to the survey through April 15, 2013, and will post results and analysis on the AAVSO website in mid-May 2013.
Rebecca and I have put together a 8-item survey about AAVSO meetings. The goal of this survey is to give us information about what is important to you when you make decisions about meeting attendance. It includes questions about preferred locations, meeting structure, content of talks, etc. If you have a moment, please give us 5-10 minutes to take the survey. We would like everyone interested to take the survey, whether you have attended a prior meeting or not.


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"NCIS," "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "Vegas" All Post Week-to-Week Growth in Adults 18-49
"NCIS" is Tuesday's #1 Show in Viewers, Sweeping the Time Period in Key Demos
"NCIS: Los Angeles" Places First in Viewers Opposite Live "The Voice" Finale
"Vegas" Also Up at 10:00 PM in Adults 18-49
CBS placed first in viewers on the night of "The Voice's" live finale, paced by week-to-week growth by NCIS, NCIS: LOS ANGELES and VEGAS, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for Tuesday, Dec. 18.
NCIS was first in households (12.2/19), viewers (19.41m), adults 25-54 (4.8/12) and adults 18-49 (3.3/10) at 8:00 PM. Compared to last week, NCIS was up +10% in households (from 11.1/17), +12% in adults 25-54 (from 4.3/11), +18% in adults 18-49 (from 2.8/08) and added +1.76m viewers (from 17.65m, +10%).
NCIS: LOS ANGELES was first in households (9.6/15) and viewers (15.36m), and was second behind "The Voice's" finale in both adults 25-54 (3.9/09) and adults 18-49 (2.9/08). Compared to last week, NCIS: LOS ANGELES was up +3% in adults 25-54 (from 3.8/09), +12% in adults 18-49 (from 2.6/07) and added +240,000 viewers (from 15.12m, +2%).
At 10:00 PM, VEGAS was second in households (6.4/10), viewers (9.78m), adults 25-54 (2.2/05) and adults 18-49 (1.6/04). Compared to last week, VEGAS was up +7% in adults 18-49 (from 1.5/04).
For the night, CBS was first in households (9.4/15) and viewers (14.85m), and was second in adults 25-54 (from 3.6/09) and adults 18-49 (2.6/07).


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FACETIME- Color them happy: Bright future for dark band?
Bella Morte bassist Gopal Metro is excited about the band's new album, Bleed The Grey Sky Black, and not just because it was released this week. Even while they were still working on it, he found it invigorating to write without a lot of tweaking and editing every step of the way.
"That's how it's supposed to be done, I think," he says. "A lot of people tend to forget that these days, including me." That suggests they'll probably work that way from now on. "It was so much more akin to how we started that it reminded me what was good about music again," he says.
Singer Andy Deane, at 32, is a little more pragmatic about the October 10 release: "It's the first album I think could break through to radio," he says. "The big thing is just putting a budget together to hire a radio promotion company."
Things are already taking off. Bella Morte has just set out for their next tour, having landed a sponsorship from makeup and hair dye manufacturer Manic Panic, which Metro says is going to make them more visually outlandish than ever.
"Right now it's just blonde and black," he says of his own hair, "but I've got a whole stack of dye just waiting."
The sky's the limit, according to Deane. "A Taco Bell endorsement would be excellent. That would save us a ton of money, thousands of dollars a year," he says, "and something like Six Flags, so we could stop on tour and ride roller coasters for free. I'm sure they have strippers in the VIP lounge at Six Flags."
One of the more ambitious promotional tools they wield is BMTV, a series of Internet-only video shorts shot by Shawn Decker, the HIV-positive author recently highlighted in the Hook for his new book, My Pet Virus.
Decker says it started when he shot a music video for Bella Morte's last album: "We did zombies killing the band members; one of them takes a hammer to the head while sitting on the toilet," says Decker. "We couldn't end it there, so we just started kicking around ideas about an MTV knockoff."
In other news, it was recently revealed that one of the students arrested in January for plotting to blow up Western Albemarle High School put Bella Morte as the top of his favorite band list. Deane voices frustratration.
"We find it funny that everytime someone wants to commit a crime and they happen to listen to Goth, the media has to mention it," says Deane. "I think Chris Rock said it best– 'What the f–- was Hitler listening to?'" (Well, Richard Wagner, most likely, but, being really dead, he's not nearly as marketable as these guys.)
In seeking encouragement, Deane points to the mainstream success of fellow Goth-rockers A.F.I., although they're actually subject to a bit of a backlash, having been sniped in a recent Rolling Stone article with the suggestion that lead singer Davey Havok ought to autograph boxes of Count Chocula for fans.
"You look at how they did it– they did it the same way we did: grassroots, good performances, and actually giving a d*mn about your fans," says Deane. "We're where they were four years ago."
It probably wasn't Wagner who said "the past is prologue," but what the hey– it's apt.
Andy Deane


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This prequel blog post is part of an ongoing trilogy. The trilogy consists of three posts—the prequel, the "quel" and the sequel—plus a bonus paraquel post. The first post to appear, the paraquel, can be found here; the "quel" post can be found here; the prequel post you're reading right now; and the sequel post is in process. All of these posts provide a window into our thoughts about pathways—past, present and future.
You may have noticed that these posts have come out of order. Why is this so? For a simple reason. Because they've occurred to me in this order. And somewhat poetically, their order underscores the exact ideas that I argue in all of these linked posts—that there are few simple linear trajectories, even with blog posts.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away
We started down the road toward making Open Badges a reality about 3 years ago, so it's possible (and useful!) for us to take a look back to our inception to make sense of the past and provide us with clues about where we might head.
Episode IV: A NEW HOPE
In the beginning, the Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI) was focused on the development of software that allowed people to develop their own badges—badges without traditional definitions or parameters—and with little to no input from socially prevalent hierarchical organizations. Mozilla cheered badge systems that did not hew to limiting linear learning paths, badge systems that investigated new and dynamic ways to recognize learning regardless of where and when and how it occurred. And yet, in those early days we spoke about the OBI only as a sort of plumbing, as a tool that would privilege the earner rather than the badge issuer. By linking people who wanted to create badges with people who chose to earn badges with people who wanted to display and consume badges, we gambled that a meaningful marketplace would arise. This marketplace would foster new types of skill, learning, and competency acknowledgement and encourage new forms of assessment. And all of this would begin to occur in a new way thanks to the space of possibility created by this new tool, the OBI. And so it has.
The force is strong, or the power of disjunctive and conjunctive tasks
In retrospect, it's easy to see that in addition to creating a dynamic and effective tool we were creating a community-driven movement as well. How did we arrive at that social movement? By alternately marching to the drumbeat outlined above and finding serendipitous alignments with other folks seeking similar objectives. Through the confluence of disjunctive / conjunctive tasks. But what exactly are disjunctive and conjunctive tasks?
The organizational theorist, I.D. Steiner distinguished between disjunctive tasks, those in which only one person needs to succeed and conjunctive tasks: those in which everyone's contribution is critical. (Page, 2007, p. xv)
The OBI began as a disjunctive task. In other words, the disjunctive nature of the task required that Mozilla succeed at developing a functional technical implementation of the OBI. The success of the OBI as a tool was of primary importance. And I'm pleased to say that we have built a robust and dynamic, fully functioning tool.
And yet, Open Badges operates as both a tool (and soon a series of tools) and an ecosystem—an ecosystem that houses a series of other systems: individual badge systems created by many different issuing organizations as well as a variety of badge consuming organizations. Each of those systems acts in a conjunctive way in reference to the larger open badges ecosystem. They're important for the growth, continuity, and development of the ecosystem.
Wheel within wheels
Given that they're conjunctive for the ecosystem, here's a bit of a mindbender: each of the individual badge systems operate as disjunctive tasks. They need to depend only on their own systemic integrity to thrive. Consequently, those systems are free to explore, consider and attempt various criteria, assessments, and systems design. Even more of a mindbender? All of those badge systems are in turn, conjunctive: the success or failure of them is dependent upon the individual badges—that are their own disjunctive tasks. And yes, this can all seem a bit fractal.
Indeed, this systemic plasticity creates a space of possibility and is one of the primary reasons why we (Mozilla) encourage so much developmental experimentation and why we support so many alternative approaches to assessment. The Open Badges ecosystem can accommodate significant speculative load. All this is to say that together, as a community, we've developed a truly distributed information project.
Setting the stage for growth
Or how we rely on the kindness of our community member to develop, improve, and police our system.
As the economic historian Paul David pointed out to [Scott Page], one of the great challenges in constructing distributed organizations is transforming conjunctive tasks into disjunctive tasks. For example, the success in open-source software development requires an initial template that modularizes the problem into a collection of disjunctive parts.
(Page, 2007, p. xvi).
Et voilà! Here you have the Open Badge Infrastructure. A loosely designed system rooted in this precise theory: distributed co-creation. And by direct and indirect extension, really any badge system that operates within the open badges parameters and framework.
Resilience as a result of a conjunctive system
It may seem obvious, but on the off chance that it's not, let's discuss what we've been somewhat indirectly addressing here: resilience. As I've noted in previous blog posts, there is great value to having an extremely resilient system. In its current iteration, the larger system (the Open Badges ecosystem) can accommodate failure because all of the systems can act both independently and interdependently. We might consider the open badges ecosystem's ability to withstand failure—its resilience—to be one of its absolute strengths.
Some of this may have come from extremely savvy planning, some of it may have come from working with the community to build an agreeable tool and some of it may have come from luck. To quote from George Lucas, "when Star Wars first came out, I didn't know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you've planned the whole thing out in advance."
All this talk about what's come before, what about pathways? As noted above, these posts are stitching together our experiences thus far, seeking a narrative for our ecosystem pathway. Along similar lines, we've been finding some resonance with Bitcoin (open source P2P money) as an analogue to the development of a new system possessing social value. Of course that product also includes actual financial value as well and so is a whole other kettle of fish. (As for the conceptual trajectory Bitcoin has been tracing, now there's an interesting pathway worth examining closely. Possibly more about that in a future post.)
To be continued…
Distributed problem solving can be thought of as a form of innovation. This opening up of innovation activities is sometimes called distributed co-creation. The diverse toolboxes that people bring to problems enable large populations to enable novel breakthroughs. (Page, 2007, p. xvii)
Using distributed problem solving as our lodestone, we'll continue to move ahead. We're creating new opportunities as we go, charting new directions for other organizations to follow, and encouraging the development of the badge universe to continue to expand. We're embracing emergence and encouraging novelty.
Much more soon.
Page, S. (2007). The difference: how the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools and societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Available from: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8757.html
Hibbard, J. (2010). George lucas sends a letter to lost. Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars#Prequel_trilogy


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In Ubuntu this worked out of the box, in LMDE I received an error upon clicking "Create Share" that went something like this.
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'net usershare' returned error 255: net usershare: cannot open usershare directory /var/lib/samba/usershares. Error Permission denied
You do not have permission to create a usershare. Ask your administrator to grant you permissions to create a share.
First, I checked to make sure I actually had the directory mentioned.
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sudo su
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cd /var/lib/samba/usershares/
Code: Select all
Code: Select all
chown root:sambashare on the /var/lib/samba/usershare
Since I was trying this as a user I edited it, and in place of root I put my username so that it read
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sudo chown dave:sambashare var/lib/samba/usershare
If I understand correctly this sets you as the owner and sambashare as the group of /var/lib/samba/usershare
This needed to be run with root privileges so it might be necessary to add a 'sudo' in front of it for you as it was for me.
Following this step I was able to successfully create the share and view it on my Windows box, however, I was not able to get in as it said I had the wrong password.
To fix this I used 'smbpasswd'. From their man page:
Running plain old smbpasswd in terminal asks you for your Old password which, of course, I did not know. Run with the -a switch smbpasswd adds the username to the local smbpasswd file. If the user already exists in that file then the command is treated as a regular request to change the password. Note: this requires sudo in front of it, as I have done, or else it will fail as noted in the man pages.The smbpasswd program has several different functions, depending on
whether it is run by the root user or not. When run as a normal user it
allows the user to change the password used for their SMB sessions on
any machines that store SMB passwords.
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sudo smbpasswd -a dave
Enter your new password twice and you should be all set!
Notes, please read.
Following this I was successfully able to browse my home directory, not just the "Public" directory as I originally requested. I'm unsure of why it didn't. Perhaps (and this is only a guess) Samba had shared my home directory by default and changing the password as we just did above allowed me to access it. The first part of this guide, chowning /var/lib/samba/usershares, may actually be completely unnecessary if you can view your machine in network locations but just cannot access it. As I said though, for me this works perfectly.
I hope this helps someone setup sharing quickly and easily. Tips, suggestions on how to make this more secure or better are of course welcome. I'm no master here by any means, however, this got me up and sharing without breaking anything so I deem it a success!


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Have-It-Your-Way Hot Pots and More at Uway Malatang in Seattle
Despite its share of desirable free parking, Seattle's commercial-residential Pacific Rim Center has struggled since opening. But there's a lot going on inside one particular restaurant in the quiet, largely abandoned mini-mall. While other restaurants continue to close, the evolving Uway Malatang is giving food lovers a good reason to swing by this stretch of the city's International District for a meal.
A friend who has studied Chinese language extensively tells me that the tang that accompanies mala (numbing and spicy) in the restaurant name means "hot and scalding" (it would mean "soup" in a different tone), but says that uway looks like fake, nonsense characters. He guesses that uway is actually short for "you way" as in "have it your way," hinting that the restaurant name advertises design-your-own-hot-pot. In fact, when Uway Malatang first opened, this was the crux of the business. Now the buffet-like hot pot part of the operation has been polished up, and the menu has expanded to reflect the chef's new skills in noodle-making.
Immediately upon entry you'll find a self-service cooler area with an incredible array of ingredients. Here, you fill a bowl with the raw ingredients you'd like in your hot pot. At $8.99 per pound (with a one-pound minimum), you can get meats like beef tendon, lamb, pork belly, sole, and mussels. There are also plates and bins full of a variety of mushrooms, vegetables, tofu, noodles, quail eggs, and more. Bring your bowl to your table, and the server will collect it and ask how you'd like it prepared. Options include cook-it-yourself Hot Pot and Hot & Spicy Dry Hot Pot, but I selected the namesake Malatang "Mini Hot Pot" ($11.69 for my 1.3 pounds of ingredients).
For the Malatang option, the ingredients come back cooked in a choice of soups: hot and spicy, bone, pickled vegetable, satay, curry, Thai flavor, Japanese miso, and Korean kimchi. Given the Sichuan influence of the restaurant and my desire for fiery heat, I went with hot and spicy, asking for it as pepper-packed as possible. While not as spicy as other Sichuan hot pots I've had, there was good zing to the broth (you can further spice up your food at the sauce station), and I enjoyed the satisfaction of my customized bowl, containing exactly what I wanted: a wide sampling of the aforementioned ingredients that kept the hot pot alive with all kinds of flavors and textures, giving me pride of ownership!
While contemplating hot pot options, you'll note that menu has a good number of "regular" dishes, largely Sichuan, plus the increasingly ubiquitous bubble teas and smoothies to garner the youth vote. My eye immediately spotted pictures of burgers, so I couldn't resist the Pig's Ear Szechuan Burger ($4.95) as a starter. The homemade "bun" is crumpet-shaped and pita-like, though not quite as dry as other Chinese burgers I've had previously. The crispy and chewy pig's ear is simply adorned with chili oil, cilantro, and green onion. The sandwich offers a slightly tangy and slightly spicy start to the meal.
You can't sit long, though, without noticing the chef making noodles in the glass window, designed, I believe, to entrance diners with showmanship and entice an order of stir-fried or soup noodles. Having enjoyed the hand-shaved noodles in my hot pot, I wanted to give a nod to the deftness of the dough-handler and try one of the pulled noodle dishes, too. The soup options range from beef noodle and lamb noodle to dan dan noodles and Sichuan pork rib.
I went with the Pickled Vegetable Pork Noodle Soup ($8.95), hoping for some sour notes to contrast with the rest of my meal. The soup, featuring cabbage, green onion, daikon (I don't typically see this in Chinese soups, but it worked well), and a generous amount of cilantro, highlights good, strong flavors. And I especially enjoyed the springiness of the made-to-order noodles—something that's sadly often missing with thinner noodles.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Dancing by numbers
Dancing by Numbers explores numbers, fractions and shapes through dance activities developing knowledge, understanding and skill in dance and mathematics.
Working physically with ideas and concepts appeals to different learning styles enabling those who struggle academically to engage with mathematics in a different way. Other outcomes include developing communication and team skills, and improving concentration and self-esteem.
My favourite part was learning maths like that because it was fun but we were learning at the same time.
Dancing by Numbers participant
Comprising of three 2-hour workshops led by a dance artist and musician over three consecutive weeks, the sessions will use the Number and Shape, space and measures units from Key Stage 2 National Curriculum as a stimulus. Each session includes a warm up and creative tasks exploring numbers and shapes. The aim of each session is to develop dance skills through the study of this part of the curriculum.
A resource pack for teachers accompanies the project consisting of lesson plans, worksheets, suggestions for working with music and information on how this relates to the National Curriculum.
I have been teaching for 13 years and what you do inspires me, inspires the children... our thanks can never be enough. Wonderful.
Year 6 teacher


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Fire destroys Rainbow Beach cafe, threatens whole town
THE owner of Rainbow Beach's one-stop Foodworks has declared the shop as good as 'ruined' , after a blaze tore through the Coloured Sands Cafe that adjoins it last night.
Unable to open for business today, owner Ruth Modine said there was smoke damage to the store and it was closed for business until further notice.
"Things aren't good. I'm still waiting for the insurance assessor," she told The Gympie Times today.
AN INFERNO that gutted the Coloured Sands Café at Rainbow Beach last night has left the owners devastated and seven staff members instantly out of work.
"It's 20 years up in flames," owners Andy and Alison Stiefler said standing near the back of the charred and twisted café where a fire is believed to have broken out in an ice cream freezer at 8.30 last night.
Two staff members, who were cleaning inside the café when the fire started, escaped unharmed before the building was fully engulfed.
When fire crews from the Rainbow Beach auxiliary arrived they averted a "disaster for the whole town" by containing the fire before it reached two large gas cylinders at the back of the business, Mr Stiefler, who arrived at the scene just before fire officers did, told The Gympie Times.
"If they'd blown up it would've flattened the whole main street," he said.
"That gas line...right above the door...was red hot. They took a fair amount of risk to go in there and do what they've done."
Rainbow Beach fire auxiliary officer Greg Haring said when the three crews arrived, the outcome of the burning building was not clear.
The fire was extinguished by 9.10pm, while it took another hour and a half to search for and dampen down hot spots.
"When we arrived I wasn't actually confident we would save the structure.
"We're delighted with the outcome."
As a hot spring day began to make itself felt at Rainbow Beach this morning, Mr and Mrs Steifler were assessing the damage of the business they've put "20 years of hard slog into".
The brick structure still stands, but the tin roof and beam that supported it are bowed and buckled and the entire inside is a mess of twisted metal and debri, still emanating a smell of smoke.
Mr Steifler believes they may need a clean start; the building too damaged to survive.
"We've got three young kids and that's all they've known - us working here. We've been here for so long. There will be a lot of people pretty upset about it - they know how hard we've worked."
"And the staff are instantly out of a job."
He said the timing could not be worse - leading into the summer holiday period; the café's busiest trading time.
"It's sad. Life throws some crazy things at you sometimes, that's for sure."


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Wine's Tom Hanks: Why Everyone Loves Sancerre
CELEBRITIES, consumer brands and countless TV shows are deemed successes or failures based in part on their "Q Scores," which measure familiarity and mass appeal. (Tom Hanks, for example, is a perpetual high scorer, while Lindsay Lohan ranks unsurprisingly low.) If wines were accorded similar ratings, I'm certain that Sancerre would top the list.
Consider its attributes: The name is a singsong syllabic pleasure ("San-SER"), the grape is the popular Sauvignon Blanc and it's made in the ever-fashionable France, in the Loire Valley. And no matter how often Sancerre might show up on store shelves and wine lists, it has managed not to seem commonplace—unlike, say, Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay.
Sancerre has actually been considered desirable for centuries; ancient French royals were said to be among its fans, although the Sancerre they drank was more likely red than white. Indeed, until the late 19th century, most vineyards in Sancerre were planted to Pinot Noir and Gamay. Then the dreaded phylloxera louse struck, devastating the vineyards. When Sancerre producers replanted, they did so mostly with Sauvignon Blanc. Pinot Noir is still grown in Sancerre, but it's very much in the minority. (And Gamay is pretty much gone altogether, as is the previously planted white grape Chasselas.)
These new white Sancerres quickly became popular in 20th-century Paris bistros and bars. Lively and uncomplicated, they were considered Beaujolais's white counterpart.
Oenofile: Sancerres Worth Seeking Out
Sancerre also became popular in the U.S., although it took a bit longer for it to become truly ubiquitous. Today, Sancerre is so ever-present and ever-popular that Michael Madrigale, head sommelier at Boulud Sud and Bar Boulud in New York, calls it "the salmon of wines." He can't offer it by the glass because, he said, "Sancerre would outsell everything else." When appropriate, though, Mr. Madrigale does describe other white wines as "Sancerre-like" to boost sales.
The popularity of Sancerre has had a bit of a downside: It has contributed to the creation of some less-than-impressive wines from producers seeking to capitalize on demand, choosing quantity over quality. They're turning out wines that are dilute and/or overwhelmingly herbaceous (an aroma that can intensify when Sauvignon Blanc is excessively cropped).
Sancerre's popularity has also meant that its more ambitious producers can be overlooked or underrated—their wines may be considered less seriously than their counterparts in a more prestigious region such as Burgundy. Sancerre is synonymous with pleasure and not profundity, after all. On the other hand, a great Sancerre can be a comparative bargain, costing a fraction of the price of a grand cru white Burgundy. The most expensive Sancerres I've seen cost well under $100 a bottle at retail.
Yet the soils of Sancerre can be quite similar to the soils of Champagne and Burgundy, especially the Burgundy region of Chablis. Indeed, Sancerre is physically closer to Chablis than many other regions in the Loire Valley, and the best of its wines have much in common with those flinty white Burgundies.
There are three distinct Sancerre terroirs: the terres blanches, or white soils, that are composed of clay and limestone; the limestone and gravel soils of les caillottes (which means "small stones"); and the flinty soil called silex. Each soil contributes to a different style of Sancerre. For example, wines produced in vineyards on terres blanches soil are bigger, richer wines; wines from the caillottes tend to be fruity and lighter; and the silex wines are considered capable of extended aging.
There are also several key communes within Sancerre where the best vineyards and some of the best producers are located. Bué and Chavignol are the two most important, and they show up on the labels of prestigious producers such as Edmond Vatan, Lucien Crochet and Thomas-Labaille.
" One New York sommelier calls it 'the salmon of wines. "
All of this may sound a bit complicated for those who love Sancerre chiefly for its capacity to refresh. (In fact, "refreshing" was one of the words that was mentioned most often by the Sancerre drinkers that I polled—along with "crisp" and "fresh.") Of course, these three words could very easily be employed to describe Sauvignon Blancs from other parts of the world, such as New Zealand, Chile, South Africa or the U.S., although there are marked differences.
For example, Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand tends to be racier than Sancerre, with generally higher acidity and less-pronounced mineral notes, while Sauvignon Blancs from the U.S. are often fruitier, with or without the influence of oak. (Sancerre is most commonly fermented in stainless steel rather than oak.) A Sancerre from a top producer also has the capacity to improve with age—although Sancerre is ready to drink on release and most are best consumed within a year or so of the vintage.
I bought about 20 Sancerres from the current (2011) vintage and tasted them with two groups of friends, all of whom, with one exception, were professed Sancerre fans. The 2011 vintage was considered good but not great, and most of the wines have lower acidity levels than they did in the superior 2010, making them a bit more approachable and easier to drink. (We had one 2010, too.)
There was a lot of good news and very little bad. In fact, the worst that could be said of the worst Sancerres was that they were neutral and rather bland, with some rather high ($25) price tags for their quality. They weren't aggressively terrible, just "crisp" and little else. (The non-Sancerre fan said this lack of character was what often kept her away.) And yet, the mediocre wines were outnumbered by some truly good wines—none of which cost more than $35 and most of which were closer to $25 a bottle.
Among the pleasingly bracing, bright wines were the 2011 Sancerres from Reverdy, Sauvion and Lucien Crochet (whose impressive La Croix du Roy bottling was our 2010 wine), as well as more elegant, nuanced examples from producers such as Pascal Cotat (La Grande Côte), Philippe Raimbault (Apud Sariacum—the ancient name of the village) and Thomas-Labaille, whose "Cuvée Buster" from the prestigious Les Monts Damnés vineyard had perhaps the silliest name and the most profound profile of all the wines—richly textured with a shimmering acidity and distinctly chalky finish.
The enthusiasm for these wines was so high that two friends immediately bought bottles of their favorites. They were just that delicious. No wonder Joe Salamone, a buyer at Crush Wines & Spirits in New York, said that even his most serious wine collectors make sure they have some bottles of Sancerre in stock. "It's difficult for people not to have a soft spot for Sancerre," said Mr. Salamone. Just like Tom Hanks.
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