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Every week, A Paladin's Tale does a Monday Morning Breakfast Topic. I really enjoyed their latest topic: "Why 'epic' no longer means epic, & what the WoW Dev team could do to resolve the issue to bring back some meaning to gear."
I find this general fixation on loot/gear to be a fascinating phenomenon, mainly because it kinda goes over my practical, practical head. Kurn also recently wrote about how loot has lost its value (and when someone who doesn't even play the game is writing long dissertations on a topic, you know it's a good a topic), which triggered a reaction from me.
Here is my confused interpretation of our conversation:
Me: But gear matters! It took my guild months to get our first heroic Horridon kill! Now that we have gear, he just falls over. Gear still makes a difference.
Kurn: It does matter for killing things, but with upgrades and resets every patch, gear in itself doesn't matter.
Me: THAT MAKES NO SENSE!
What is "Epic"?
I vaguely remember in Vanilla, I'd sometimes find myself in trouble and some level 60 would stop and help me. Sometimes they would have purples. I would draw the following conclusions:
– They have a lot of time to play the game (it took me over a year to reach max level the first time).
– They have a lot of friends.
– They got lucky with the RNG.
Then I would thank them, be on my way and totally forget about the encounter.
Apparently that is the wrong reaction. The correct reaction should have supposedly been awe. But I don't understand why I should be awed by someone who plays a lot of video games, has friends and is lucky.
I am awed by people sometimes. People with strong personalities. People who are much smarter than me. People who work hard and don't give up. But I can't draw any connections between those traits and having fancy WoW gear.
A Paladin's Tale argues that LFR and crafting (and even normal mode raiding) should reward rare/blue gear instead of epic/purple (a side note on crafting, though, I find the higher level craftable gear a gazillion times harder to make than merely killing a heroic raid boss). Me, I really don't care either way. Blue, purple, they're just colours. What matters are the stats on them, how well those stats are used and how much those stats will assist me with a boss kill.
So, what is epic to me?
Facets of the game art, maybe. I mean, some gear pieces do look badass. (This is coming from someone who's never transmogged anything in her WoW life, ha!) But the only things in game that feel really "epic" to me have very little, if nothing, to do with players: huge mysterious dungeons, creative bad guys (and gals), brave heroes, and beautiful details that you only notice when you stop and look around (check out Katherinne's blog to see some of WoW's cool details spotlighted)
In my mind, then, those worthy of my awe were never the best geared players, but rather WoW's art, story and encounter design teams.
Motivation beyond gear
Conversation, circa the end of Dragon Soul, with a few interpretive liberties:
Healing lead: Do you need anything off Dragonwing?
Me: I thought we already killed the last boss this expansion.
Healing lead: Yeah, but do you still need anything off it?
Me: Why would I need anything? We already killed the boss.
Healing lead: You don't make sense.
Me: YOU DON'T MAKE SENSE.
An argument that A Paladin Tale brings up, and that comes up fairly often in other discussions around the topic, is that WoW centers around making your character as strong as possible and loot is kinda the only motivation toward that.
I suppose it shouldn't have, but the idea of the game being strong-character centric actually surprised me. I'd never thought about it in that way before.
Originally, WoW for me was just an escape from reality and thinking. Tired of writing stupid papers for school? Go kill 10 wolves. With some music playing in the background. In my early raiding days, playing the game became a fun learning experience (I love learning. It's one of my favorite hobbies. My goal in life to learn EVERYTHING.) and an activity to do with cool people. When I got more serious about raiding, the game became about teamwork and perfecting my WoW gaming skills.
If I make my character stronger, my end goal is never her strength. I want her strong so she can keep up with the team, I want her strong as a result of me discovering how to be a better player, I want her strong so we can see content faster. Without a team, without a kill and without learning experience, her strength is worthless. WORTHLESS.
While a lot of gamers cling to the outdated notion of "people are motivated by epic gear", I personally think that Blizzard is frontward thinking by moving away from archaically using player hierarchy as the ultimate motivator. Concentrating on making the game intrinsically fun to play and investing in potential teamwork situations (also known as "fun things to do with friends and maybe strangers who aren't annoying") will make the game far more adapted to the kind of gamer we want to be around in MMOs.
Me and my gear
The other day, I was in a heroic. You know, just Denouncing my way to easy VP, when the hunter whispered me.
Hunter: Sick gear!
Me (very awkward): Thank you….
Hunter: Have you been raiding long?
Me (still very awkward): Kinda. I love to raid.
I love to raid. I wanted to insist on that. Love it, love it, love it. I find working on raid days very difficult because I'm so excited to get home and raid. The hours just crawl by. The gear… The gear is nothing. I don't want people to look at my character and be all"OMG she has fancy ilvls!". I'd far, far rather people look at me and say "Wow, she sure loves what she does."
Some nights are rough. Raids have me in tears pretty often (one of the many reasons I'll never stream!) and I don't mind. In the end, I think getting through those tough moments just makes the experience more rewarding.
I love feeling us learn a new fight, I love that satisfaction when we finally "get it right" but above all, I love the teamwork. Discovering who my teammates are as people, adapting to more…difficult personalities and, most of all, sharing ups and the downs with fellow gamers from all walks of life. It's like magic.
And there's no loot colour in the world that could be more epic to me than that.


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I did something today that I might come to regret.
I've never really loved the name of my main toon. I chose it because it seemed like it suited her, and didn't give much thought to it beyond that. Over the years of playing WoW, her name has become my name. But it doesn't suit me. I don't like it when people call me that. And so today, I forked over the $10 for a name change. And now I feel guilty about it.
My main is almost the first toon I ever made. I say almost, because there was one other toon before her, a night elf druid with the name of Faylina. I instantly fell in love with this character. I liked her long purple hair and her athletic looking body. Her name suited her well, and it suited me too. I've long used variations of my middle name, Faye, as identities online, and I didn't see a reason for WoW to be any different there. As I ran through Teldrassil, I felt a wonderful connection with this character, even though I didn't know much about the lore of Warcraft or anything about MMOs in general. I was just looking for an escape into a pretty fantasy land for a few hours, and I thought I had found it.
A few days later, I told my friend I started playing WoW, and he said something to the effect of "No, don't do it! Save yourself now! Don't let yourself get sucked in by that game. But if you're going to play, roll up a horde character on Argent Dawn."
"Horde?" I asked. "But if I want to be a druid in the Horde, don't I have to be one of those weird cow things?"
"They're Tauren!" my friend replied, sounding quite put out by my words. "And they're the greatest race in WoW, totally noble and honorable, and…hang on, I'm going to re up my account."
Since the prospect of having a friend to play with was far too tempting, the next time I logged in, I switched servers and went to Argent Dawn and then clicked on the tauren for the race selection. I chose druid again for class, of course, and then I stared at the bovine avatar, a little line probably appearing between my brows.
"You are not a Faylina," I told her. "Faylina means graceful fairy or elf. You are none of those things."
The name that I was so fond of didn't suit this new character, and it felt wrong giving it to her. I wanted to RP in WoW. The whole reason I started playing was that I wanted a creative outlet again. I didn't know much about these tauren things, but I could see from the background on the character selection screen that it looked like they were part of some sort of Native American culture. My then boyfriend (now husband) is of Native American descent, so I really wanted to do the right thing for the culture. This character couldn't be Faylina. She had to be something else. I went to a wiki about WoW and read about the Tauren and their culture and their language. I read that:
The language of the tauren is often harsh and low sounding, which is reflected in the names of their children. The last name of a tauren is usually a family name, handed down through the generations.
So I sat there typing out names, choosing to start one with a K, since that sounded harsh and I tend to just like names that start with that sound. Another site had suggested that female names have "round" sounds in them, so I thought O's would be the way to go. And after messing around for awhile, I finally came up with Koloma. It suited the character. Ko seemed like a cute nickname for her. And most importantly, the name was actually available on the server. I hit done and zoned into the world, blinking at the plains of Mulgore and trying to decide if I liked it compared to the pretty night elf forests I had left behind.
Having a friend to play with was a good draw though, and so I stumbled my way through Mulgore and then the Barrens, leveling slower than I'm fairly sure anyone has ever done before. My friend eventually met up with me, playing a cute little blood elf paladin girl, and I felt a little jealous of how…not clumsy his toon looked. But I was getting used to my tauren girl, even if she did look goofy when she ran or emoted.
A few days later, I got a text from my friend.
"Hey," it said, "Were you being unintentionally hilarious, or did you know that Koloma means 'snort' in the Makonde language?"
"Uh…." I replied. "Unitentionally hilarious, but that kind of fits, huh?"
We both laughed about it, and a few days later, I made this picture.
What I didn't realize when I gave my character this name was that it would eventually become my name as well. WoW is my first MMO, and so I didn't really understand things like instances or raiding, or that eventually I would be talking to people on Mumble and they would actually be calling me Koloma out loud. For her, the name is perfect. For me, not so much. When people talk about Koloma doing something, there's always a disconnect there. It doesn't feel like they're talking about me. It feels like they're talking about my awkward but awesome tauren druid whose name means "to snort."
I came to realize that forcing myself to be Koloma felt just as wrong as forcing her to be Faylina. It's not fair to make either of us be something that we're not. And so I went searching for a new name, one that would suit us both. I looked up actual Native American names, ones that I could modify to include a little bit of myself. After searching through, I found two that I thought would work, Aiyana and Ayasha. Fayana, I discovered, is a name for some sort of fanfic shipping couple from some supernatural teen show that I have absolutely no desire to be attached to. Fayasha, on the other hand, seemed safe. I quickly reserved the name on my server, and then sat there for a month, trying to figure out if I really did want to change it. For some reason, changing Koloma's name made me feel guilty.
Okay, I know she's just pixels. I know that she doesn't actually exist and have feelings. But for whatever reason, I feel like I'm betraying her somehow. It's why I didn't turn her into a troll, despite generally liking that model better. I can't even change the color of her fur to get a different cat when I'm in kitty form. How did I think I was actually going to be able to change her name? She and I have been through so much together! We survived Barrens chat and the Scourge invasion before Wrath dropped! We experienced our first pug and discovered the need for a decent guild! We found that a mix of rest, cat, and balance talents do not make for a good leveling experience and then found out about the wonders of dual spec! We killed the Lich King! We killed Deathwing! I've written stories about her! How could I go and change her identity like this?
But in the end….I'm not Koloma. I'm me, and I want her to reflect that too. Fayasha seems a good compromise, and it's not that hard to go back and replace Koloma for Fayasha in her stories so she's still the same character. And rather than "to snort," Ayasha means "little one." It's ironic and appropriate, because in our raids, my druid is always the tallest toon, yet in real life, I'm probably much shorter than all of the people I raid with. So despite the weird guilt I felt, I typed in the name, then loaded up WoW and stared at my toon for a little while, trying to imagine her in game. "I think we can both be Fayasha," I told her.
And with that, I hit the "enter world" button, ready for both of us to be ourselves.

subset: commoncrawl


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We've always had a real Christmas tree; decorating it and wrapping presents to place under it has been half the joy of Christmas for me. A few weeks ago, I bought an Amazon Local deal: $20 for $40 to spend at a nearby Christmas tree lot and then I realised… we probably shouldn't get a real tree this year. I am reacting to everything lately and I've been bothered by the small tree in my meditation room and the soil it sits in. Last Christmas was the lowest point in my ME journey so far and I've gone downhill since the summer, so I really don't want to aggravate things by having a smelly, potentially moldy tree in the house for a month (most asthma and allergy sites I looked at recommended against a real tree). I even asked in my MCAD group and the vast majority of those that answered get a fake tree.
So, we bought a fat 7.5′-tall artificial tree from my friend for $150. He said it was used once and kept in a back bedroom all year. My husband opened it up and we let it sit and air out on the porch for 5 days and then he moved furniture and broke his back bringing it inside, setting it up, and tweaking every branch and twig for an hour to make it full and beautiful. When I came through my vapour barrier from upstairs, before I'd even looked into the room and seen it was up, I knew the tree was there. It was like walking into a wall of smell. I couldn't identify the smell. It wasn't a plastic smell and it didn't smell like dust or manufacturing stench, but it was a very large smell. I'd go into the kitchen to get something to eat and, as I walked back into the sitting room, I would stop short as I hit that fetor again. Over and over, the heaviness of it took me by surprise. My throat was burning, I got headachy… Normal issues for me, yes, but I felt like it was the tree. Or, at least, having those symptoms while being enveloped in that smell, correlated them in my brain. To add insult to injury, it is a really high quality, pre-lighted tree and the lights are SO INCREDIBLY BRIGHT in our small room, that it hurts both of our eyes and leaves spots in front of our vision. I thought bright lights were a selling point, but not in my world, of course. Central immune system sensitization is like an evil super power.
My husband, stony-faced, took it back outside while I apologised profusely for my fucked up body and my inability to do any of the heavy lifting. The guilt can be all-consuming.
I spent the next three hours shopping online for hypoallergenic artificial trees or green/healthy trees to no avail. Then I went on Ebay to look for metal trees and found these two for $100:
Scentless (hopefully), washable… I started to get hopeful again that there could be something pretty to hang our ornaments on and create a festive feeling. I emailed them to my husband, bothered him at work to take off his rain gear (he's a landscaper in Seattle) and look at the links (he hated the scroll one, but thought we might be able to do something with the spiral one)…
But then I found these metal trees on a different site:
Twice as much, but maybe a good investment? I texted my husband again. There are no gold spiral ones left and only 2 black ones! We have to hurry to make a decision! Then I realised that they didn't even guarantee Christmas delivery. So, best case scenario, we'd get it a few days before Christmas, which just doesn't seem worth it when the whole pretty and festive lead-up to the day is what I enjoy (plus, it takes me weeks to decorate a tree with my energy level — a few ornaments a day) and, worst case scenario, it'd arrive after Christmas and be useless to us this year… and then probably go on sale in January.
I told my husband forget it, we're shit out of luck.
Theeenn… I checked my emails. Somehow, while shopping for trees on my phone in my bed at 1am last night, my finger had hit "one click ordering" on Amazon (a really evil option that doesn't bring you to a different screen to look at your shopping cart or confirm your selection, it just orders it — in "one click") and we have an artificial "pencil" tree coming in the mail. I emailed the sellers because it said it hadn't been sent yet: "Accidental order! Please cancel!" They answered that it couldn't be cancelled and we'd have to pay to return it. To add insult to injury again, it's not even on Amazon Prime and won't get here until December 20th. And, of course, it'll probably smell. And it's made in China. So, we're out $320 and our porch will be crowded with fake trees and, even if I manage to sell them on Craig's List, my husband will be the one who has to deal with moving the trees, meeting the buyers etc. I honestly feel like I could take this all in stride, have fun getting creative and see the lighter side of this, except I'm just so guilty that my husband has to do all the work!
My new plan is this. I'm sure my landscaper hubby has a tall ladder:
Addendum: Just as I was about to hit publish on this blog post, my husband called me and said, "I'm in Home Depot. The artificial trees are all $300+ and most have fake scented pine cones. I'm standing in front of the tomato cages. They're 5′ tall and cost $3.97." Hahaha! Hell yes! I had sent him this photo as a joke:
We both laughed at the fact that we are going to have a wire tree that cost $3.97 and now I think this will actually be really ridiculous and fun. Happy Christmas! 🙂


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What you up to this weekend?! Way too many cool events happening - can't the weekend have 52 hours a day kthx.
♥ Sunday: Free Admission to California Academy of Sciences
CLIF® BAR "Fun Ride to the Academy" Gives Bike Riders Free Admission to California Academy of Sciences!!!
CLIF BAR is giving people a chance to pedal their way into one of San Francisco's greatest adventures for free. As part of its 2 Mile Challenge bike advocacy program, CLIF BAR is offering free admission to the California Academy of Sciences (valued at up to $24.95 per ticket) for the first 100 folks who arrive by bicycle.
The CLIF BAR "Fun Ride to the Academy" takes place on Sunday, August 22. More details are below:
•Free admission to California Academy of Sciences for first 100 people who arrive on bicycles •Free bike valet, offered by San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. to the first 100 people who arrive by bicycle
•Free CLIF BAR samples to the first 200 people who arrive by bicycle
♥ Sunday Streets
Great Highway 'Penguins to Penguins' route: JFK Drive in GG Park (CA Academy of Sciences) to Lincoln/Great Highway to Sloat (SF Zoo) route. Sunshine is on order this time.
sundaystreetssf.com »
♥ Sunday: Rock Make Street Festival
Mission District / Treat st. between 17th+18th
"We are pleased to announce the 3rd Annual Rock Make Street Festival will be held in
San Francisco's Mission District on Sunday, August 22nd 2010! The festival will be TWICE
the size of last year, with three stages featuring all local and kids' rock bands with over
100 arts and crafts vendors."
rockmake.com »
♥ Sunday:
The last gig for Stern Grove. Free bike valet parking, of course.
Stern Grove 2PM
Indie rocks Stern Grove Festival's season finale They Might Be Giants
take the stage for our season finale with their eclectic geek rock sound,
smart lyrics, and offbeat musical style.
sterngrove.org »
♥ Sunday: Pedal the Presidio with a Park Ranger
Crissy Field Center
Call (415) 561-4323 to make required reservation.
Ride along with Golden Gate National Park Ranger James Osborne as he bikes through a
roughly 2-hour tour of Park Presidio. Spin your pedals and explore the history, scenery and
wildlife (if you're lucky) on this six-mile, moderately strenuous bicycle ride through the many
hills and glorious views of the Presidio of San Francisco.
via sffuncheap.com - more details »
♥ Sunday: Northern California Bike Expo
10AM-4PM in Santa Rosa
"The Expo begins at 10:00, but you can come down to the park earlier than that to cheer on your friends who are riding, while you sip espresso and munch a scone from Fork Catering. Fork will be at the Expo all day to provide fabulous lunch." More details: bikesonoma.org
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Los events: weekendnittis
Labels: events in SF 2010, free, fun, music 2010, party
3 comments:
- AnonymousSaturday, August 21, 2010
Sweet! Thanks for rep-re-sentin' So.Co. Continually inspired by your posts and pics. ~HeatherReplyDelete
For free admission to a neat place like the CA Institute of Sciences, I would ride my bike (except I live a bit too far)!ReplyDelete
That's so cool and so are the other events!!
Hope you have a lotta fun!
Peace :)
soco in the house!!ReplyDelete
thx fr stopping by :D
chandra/ thanks as always chandra, enjoy the weekend!!
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Cognitive dissonance, Consumer Attitude, Costco, Fishbein Model, Gregory Dean, Kmart, Marketing Strategy, Marketography, Multiattribute Theory, Sam's Club, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has quickly become a worldwide retail behemoth. In the wake of their success, however, many of the Wal-Mart patrons have formed a love-hate relationship with the American-based juggernaut. Simply put, there are enough weighted advantages to shopping at Wal-Mart to dilute any ill feelings and incentives for consumers to shop elsewhere. A multiattribute attitude model exposes this phenomenon and helps explain the reasoning behind Wal-Mart's loyal following.
It Starts With Consumer Attitude
A Wal-Mart consumer—as with any consumer—establishes certain attitudes towards the companies they frequently shop. An attitude, as defined by Solomon (2008), endures over time.
An attitude takes years to evolve, but a moment to change.
Consumers are beginning to realize the impact to the local community and economic state of their neighborhoods resulting from the success of Wal-Mart.
Cognitive dissonance explains the healthy percentage of Wal-Mart patrons that feel the stores are bad for our country, but continue to shop there (Basker, 2007). With 46 percent of Americans living within five miles of a Wal-Mart store, it is easy to understand the mix of love and cynicism towards the company. Many people believe that Wal-Mart, while good for helping consumers save money, is bad for free and competitive enterprise. Small niche retail stores cannot compete with Wal-Mart's volume buying induced pricing.
The basic multiattribute approach for modeling attitudes uses attributes, beliefs, and weights as the basis for determining the propensity for a consumer to choose one option over another.
The Fishbein model also uses three components of attitude—salient beliefs, object-attribute linkages, and evaluation—for determining a measurable score representing a consumer's attitude. Several attributes needed to fairly assess the popularity of Wal-Mart over several competitors include environmental responsibility and local economic sensitivity.
Using the Fishbein model, a comparison of Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Sears, Costco, and Sam's Club against nine attributes shows which retail chains have the highest and lowest probability of success in a market based on specific weights assigned to the attributes. The priority, or importance, of each attribute weighted against the scored beliefs is used to calculate an overall score for each chain. The store with the highest score is recognized as having the most perceived differences in overall attitude. Table 1.1 shows how the multiattribute model can used to determine which entity has the most favorable attitude. The lowest score represents the company with a market of consumers with less disparate attitudes.
What does it mean?
The importance of each attribute carries the most impact compared to the other variables used in the Fishbein formula. Quality, variety, and product guarantees are the top three attributes in the hypothetical analysis shown in table 1.1. Companies, such as Wal-Mart, can use the results from a multiattribute analysis to help improve their image. In some situations, the information gleaned using a multiattribute model can be based on biased input. Before setting marketing direction based on multiattribute analysis, it is important to make sure the information is not skewed as a result of the halo effect (Beckwith & Lehmann, 1975).
Wal-Mart can capitalize on their advantages and perhaps add attributes to strengthen their position in the market. However, with the importance of customer loyalty and retention lurking in the shadows, it may just be smarter to concentrate efforts on the attributes deemed the most important by their target audience. There is a certain amount of tolerance with the shopping public which seems to be tested each time a new story is revealed regarding Wal-Mart's mistreatment of employees. Target is only a few discounted prices away from winning over several Wal-Mart loyalists.
Basker, E. (2007). The causes and consequences of Wal-Mart's growth. The Journal of Economic Perspectives [Electronic version]. Retrieved January 7, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30033740
Beckwith, N., & Lehmann, D. (1975). The importance of halo effects in multi-attribute attitude models. Journal of Marketing Research. [Electronic version]. Retrieved December 28, 2014, from http://www.jstor.org/pss/3151224
Solomon, M. (2009). Consumer behavior buying, having, and being (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.


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New fear: What happens in Ferguson if no charges?
FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Conditions calmed this week in Ferguson after nights of sometimes violent unrest stemming from the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old by a white police officer. But a delicate and crucial question lingers: What happens if the grand jury now considering the case doesn't return a charge against the officer?
The fear among some local residents and officials trying to maintain peace in Ferguson is that failure to charge the officer could stoke new anger among a community profoundly mistrustful of the legal system. Many say they just hope the grand jury's decision, whatever it is, has irrefutable facts to back it up.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill told The Associated Press she's pushing for federal and local investigations to be completed around the same time so that all evidence in the case can be made public — a step many consider important should prosecutors decide not to charge the officer. Her office said Friday that the Department of Justice hasn't given a timeline for the federal investigation, which centers on whether a civil rights violation occurred when officer Darren Wilson fatally shot the unarmed Brown Aug. 9.
McCaskill, a former prosecutor in Missouri, said she's hopeful the physical evidence in the case — including blood spatter patterns, clothing and shell casings — will provide "incontrovertible facts" about what happened during the shooting. She said whatever local prosecutors decide, it will be important to explain the decision by providing that physical evidence, and that won't be possible if the federal investigation is ongoing.
McCaskill said she urged Attorney General Eric Holder during a meeting earlier this week to speed up what is typically a lengthier federal process.
"What we want to avoid is a decision being made without all the information being available to the public also," McCaskill said, adding that not being able to do so could "create more stress and certainly much more fear that we would be back to worrying about people being able to protest safely."
"Obviously all of us are concerned not just about that this process be fair, but what does this next six months look like?" she said.
Many residents who live in the Ferguson, eager to end the disruptions to their lives caused by protests and police presence, say they fear the community's anger will explode anew if Wilson isn't charged.
"This officer has to be indicted. I'd hate to see what happens if he isn't. The rioting, the looting, man …," said resident Larry Loveless, 29, as he stopped at the memorial for Brown where he was killed.
St. Louis County prosecutors this week convened a grand jury to begin hearing evidence in the case, despite concerns among some in the community — including Brown's parents — that the office would not be impartial because of District Attorney Bob McCulloch's ties to law enforcement. McCulloch's father, mother and other relatives worked for St. Louis police, and his father was killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect. He has said he will not remove himself from the case.
Considering the racial tensions of the case, even the makeup of the grand jury was being closely scrutinized. Two black women and one black man are on the 12-member panel, along with six white men and three white women, said Paul Fox, director of judicial administration for St. Louis County Circuit Court.
Without specifically mentioning the grand jury's racial makeup, the Brown family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, said the panel "works perfectly" as long as the prosecutor presents the necessary evidence and doesn't withhold information.
Crump said the family doesn't believe the grand jury was necessary, arguing that the prosecutor had sufficient grounds to charge the officer on his own.
The Department of Justice opened a parallel investigation, sending dozens of FBI agents to Ferguson to question witnesses.
Finishing both investigations simultaneously would be unusual because federal investigators typically work independently of their state counterparts and at their own pace, said Paul Cassell, a former federal judge who is a University of Utah law professor.
"That is one of the advantages of a federal investigation. They tend to have a little more distance from the police officers who are being investigated. That provides some assurance of objectivity," he said.
He said prosecutors must avoid considering the potential reaction — even a violent one — on whether to file charges in any case. He said they must make "a dispassionate judgment uninfluenced by public opinion."
The most likely state charges that will be considered in such a case include second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, he said.
Associated Press writer Ryan J. Foley contributed from Ferguson.


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You might have been surprised to hear about a hiking trail in South Florida in my previous blogpost, but did you know that you could go canoeing in the Everglades for a week or so without seeing any settlements? That is the largest continuous mangrove forest in western hemisphere for you! On our latest trip to Florida, Tam and I didn't have quite as much time, but we ventured out to explore the southern part of the Everglades National Park for 3 days on a canoe. That's where the "river of grass" I was talking about in my previous post meets the sea, but at this point it is no longer dominated by sawgrass but mangroves, a unique group of trees that can grow in brackish and even sea water (I wrote more about them previously). The canoe trail goes from Flamingo Visitor Center in the south to Everglades city, and there are multiple campgrounds along the way. As you may wonder how one would be able to camp in the mangroves, it's better to reveal the solution right away – chickee.
These are simple above-water wooden structures consisting of raised floor and roof adapted from Seminole (local Native American tribe) design; porta-potty is an important modern addition, though. As we didn't have time to do the whole trail, we just planned our route based on availability of chickees in the vicinity of Flamingo visitor center. It turned out to be a good idea to arrive in the afternoon the day before, so we could reserve our spot on chickees and have 3 full days of canoeing. We were told that it would take about 6 hours of paddling to get to the nearest chickee, in Hells Bay, but rarely people did paddle there all the way from Flamingo and preferred to be rather dropped off at a closer location, from which they could use another path. We were happy to do all the way by canoe though, that was why we came there for. It's worth noting that the campground at Flamingo has the best kind of grass for camping, it felt very comfortable to sleep even without any mats. The night was pretty cold (by South Florida standards!), the first cold night of this winter, but the forecast looked promising for the next days. The morning was much warmer indeed, but there were some rain clouds around. Tam and I rented a canoe, and Peter, who could only stay for a day, got a single kayak. We also bought a very detailed map of the area, which is a must if you plan a trip like this. People at boat rental sounded a bit surprised that we were going to paddle to Hells Bay from there, but we trusted the park ranger who said we would be able to do it. Off we went, and it started raining. Luckily, I was clever enough to take my waterproof bike pannier "Ortlieb", where we could store the essentials. Our food provision consisted of dried cretan barley bread, banana bread, nuts and a box of tropical fruits that we bought at "Robert is here" farmer market.
It took us about an hour to go through the first canal, and somewhere midway I took off my shorts, as they got soaked in the rain and didn't serve any purpose. When we reached the first area with open water – Coot Bay, Peter decided to head back to Flamingo. The rain was losing power and turned into a calm warm drizzle. Then I briefly saw a fin sticking out of water, and I was quite speechless, as it was very close to us and I couldn't figure out whether it was a shark or a dolphin. But not for too long – we heard a sound of deep exhale and saw another fin, it was clearly a dolphin. We followed it for a while and saw that there were a few more closer to the shore. We even saw one jumping out of water in a distance. Then three of them were swimming towards the channel where we had to go too. It was amazing to see dolphins so close and hear how they breathed, thanks to quietness around.
After that, we went through another, even bigger, Whitewater Bay and then East River. We enjoyed navigational aspect of canoeing both in the open water and narrow winding river. Overall, it took us just 4.5 hours to reach Hells Bay chickee from Flamingo, but we weren't the only ones to arrive. Just when we entered Hells Bay, we saw a group of 5 canoes with 10 people approaching the chickee too. They docked all at one side and we took the other. I was still naked and decided to give it a try – I really didn't want to put on my wet shorts. I noticed a couple of stares and put on my sarong for a while, but it didn't hold well while we were pitching the tent. One guy from the group came to us though, and asked me to put on some clothes in a semi-awkward semi-appologetic manner, explaining his request by the presence of "college girls". Later he came back not but once but twice, as he wanted to stay on friendly terms with us. It turned out they were from Outward Bound School, and he said he and his fellow instructor were personally cool with nudity but the girls apparently weren't; we didn't feel like having a lengthy discussion as to whether girls of college age should be familiar with male anatomy and why the mere sight of a naked man doing random things like pitching a tent should be seen in any way offensive. On the second time, he gave us a compass; we had one too, but his was more convenient to use with the map. He gave us a couple of navigation tips too. Before the darkness fell, we went on a short trip to explore the surroundings and saw an alligator swimming not too far from the chickee.
Three more people came to the chickee in the evening, but apparently there was a mistake with reservations, as such chickees are not meant for more than 12 people. Luckily those guys seemed to know the area and didn't mind to go further to another chickee.
As we went to sleep, we realized that it was a big mistake not to bring any kind of padding to put under sleeping bags… Chickee floor is hard wood, and it's not something I'm used to when I go camping, so it didn't even occur in my head to bring something soft… Somehow, we managed to sleep well, probably due to tiredness from paddling, and by the time we woke up, the Outward Bound School team had already left. We started the day with planning out the route, Tam definitely liked to work with our new compass.
There were just a few clouds,
but one of them did produce a short rain.
It remained very warm, and we just enjoyed the sound of rain and the view of the bay from under the roof of the chickee.
As the sun came out, we gave it a proper salutation 🙂
We definitely needed some good stretching, and partner exercises worked great for us.
We were almost sad to say good-by to our first chickee, but we knew we had a great day ahead.
We stopped by for lunch at another chickee, in Lane Bay, and then continued our way towards Whitewater Bay. We noticed that for some reason one bank of the channel had smaller and younger mangrove trees than the other.
When we entered the Whitewater Bay, it was much more difficult to paddle due to wind and currents. It was also more difficult to navigate with few landmarks around. But at least the day was a perfect combination of clouds and sun.
We didn't see that many birds to our surprise (apparently, there are some bird colonies further up north of the Whitewater Bay), but there still was some variety.
A great heron let us approach it pretty close.
We saw quite a few american ibises but those were a lot warier. I managed to snap some nice shots of their profiles, though.
We also saw ospreys by their nests
One pair seemed to be happy: they were sitting together in the nest watching sunset,
whereas the other pair seemed to go through some issues, as one them was out of the nest and they looked in different directions. Well, I'm just making things up, but it'd be nice if could observe their behavior longer.
We also saw dolphins again, they passed by us very close.
As the clouds turned white, we finally saw that Whitewater Bay deserved its name. After that, we went through another channel, Joe River, and then entered its smaller branch that was supposed to bring us to the next chickee.
Our timing was just perfect,
a beautiful sunset view opened before us, and then we saw the chickee. We arrived just as the sun touched horizon.
We still had enough time to pitch our tent in light, but then mosquitos became quite brutal despite the repellent.
This didn't last too long, luckily, mosquitos mostly disappeared after nightfall. We saw an amazing starry sky. We also heard familiar breathing sound close to our chickee but we didn't see any fins sticking out of the water. So, my guess was that it might have been a manatee, which Florida is famous for but are not easy to spot in the wild. By the way, we were quite annoyed to see some speeding motorboats despite the signs warning about manatees. And even more so, it was annoying to hear how far their noise travels in otherwise amazingly tranquil environment. Here is another paradox for you, how come something like a speedboat is allowed in this national park, despite it is known to be hurtful to the endangered species the park is meant to protect, whereas something as innocent as a sight a naked human wouldn't be accepted… These were some topics we talked about before we had our early night sleep; again on the hard floor, but we seemed to be getting accustomed to it. We heard alligators or crocodiles grunting at night, so my first thought in the morning was to go around the bay and try to see any.
It was a nice quiet morning, mangrove trees with their white trunks reflected beautifully in the still dark water.
When we approached the place from where we thought the grunting was coming from at night,
we indeed saw a middle-size alligator! It was looking at us for while but dived when we approached closer.
When we got back to the chickee, we saw a few juvenile needlefish – mangroves are important fish nurseries after all.
We didn't linger much after breakfast, as we had a full day of paddling back to Flamingo and we didn't know how the wind and currents would be. On the way to Whitewater Bay, we went through another smaller channel where we were supposed to see marshes according to the map. However, both banks seemed to be entirely taken over by mangrove trees. This must be a recent change, as those were small trees.
The weather was just perfect again. We saw rain somewhere afar, but it didn't come to us.
Despite the wind, we were doing very well in terms of timing, so when we reached Coot Bay, I thought we should divert to Mud Lake, as it was connected by a very narrow channel, which sounded like fun to go through.
The sign saying "No motorboats" sounded promising. This was a path similar to the narrow kayak trail I took in Yucatan last year, but mangroves were much bigger here. It was quite a lot of fun to maneuver in this channel, challenging our coordination,
while we had to watch out for low branches
and mosquitos at the same time. As mosquitos couldn't reach us in the open water, they must have felt lucky that we decided to go deep into the mangrove forest.
We managed to pass through the channel quite fast and were rewarded with seeing the particularly peaceful Mud Lake with several herons ashore and young alligators swimming at the surface.
As we came back to the main route, we were still naked, but when a couple of tour boats were passing by we covered with shorts to avoid possible confrontation. But we couldn't really complain, as the previous day we spent naked entirely, and on that day we did 14 out of 15 miles of canoeing in the buff! Sadly, but our naked adventure was over. People at canoe rental seemed to be surprised that we made it 😀
We were happy to have a warm meal at the restaurant in Flamingo, although we both agreed that our self-proclaimed 'eat like a bird diet', consisting of mainly fruits and nuts, was just fine and we didn't get tired of it in three days. Now that I think of it, this was more like our ancestral 'monkey diet', no wonder it worked well for us. What we were really looking forward to was sleeping on that amazing soft grass of Flamingo campground! During night, the temperature plummeted as a result of the infamous polar vortex which brought freezing temperatures down to central Florida. It wasn't quite as cold in South Florida, which hardly ever gets freezing temperatures being at the tip of the tropical climate zone, but even 15˚C felt chilling after the previous three hot days. Wind was more of a problem though, as we had to cycle about 45 miles to Florida city. Because of the constant headwind, what could be a pleasant leisurely ride of 3.5h across the flat plane of the Everglades, turned into an exhausting 5h trip that felt like a never-ending uphill.
This part was no longer naked, of course, but it's worth mentioning that on one of our brief stops, at Nine Mile Pond, we
were almost eaten by saw a huge alligator,
which we noticed in the last moment… It seemed to be sleeping.
I wonder if those black vultures noticed it too, as they were coming very close to it, but we didn't have time to wait and see…
Actually, we had a chance to eat some alligator meat as we stopped at Gator Grill diner after exiting the Everglades, but I went for local frog legs instead and they were amazing (Tam had a veggie burger). We definitely would love to make another similar trip and do the whole canoe trail perhaps. Let's see who eats whom next time 😉
Well, after making this joke, I feel I need to refer to some of the comments made to my blogpost about hiking in the Everglades:
Wow… I could never venture to a place that had snakes alligators, and many other creatures that could KILL me, much less naked! Good on you, and awesome pictures! Thanks for sharing!
My reply was:
… thanks for your comments about my bravery, but here is some food for thought for you. So, you say you "would never venture to a place that had… many… creatures that could KILL" you, but I'm pretty sure you drive or at the very least cross streets where others drive. How many people did die from cars in Florida? 2500-3500 per year between 2005-2009. Now, how many people did die from alligators? Between 2000 and 2007, there were 0-3 fatal alligator attacks per year, and none at all between 2007-2014 so far! In the whole of US, on average 5 people per year die because of snake bites. Of course, you could argue that a lot more people drive cars than wrestle with alligators, but nevertheless these numbers show that many more people suffer from cars than from alligators, and yet it's only the latter that scare you!
And sadly, in the end of our vacation in Florida, well in the 'safety' of Miami urban jungle, I only confirmed the statistics with my own example – I was hit and run over by a car, but luckily not with a fatal result, or even, at least as it seems now, any lifelong injuries. I have a few fractures but they are supposed to heal fast… So, I don't think I'll stop hiking or canoeing anytime soon, just like I'll continue move around in big cities such as my current hometown New York.


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Three Reasons Facebook's TOS Data Policy Doesn't Worry Me
February 17, 2009 14 Comments
Facebook apparently updated their Terms of Service to assert perpetual rights any content you've ever shared on its site. This has understandably raised the ire of a lot of people, including Perez Hilton.
On Twitter, I posted this:
Trying to figure out if I care whether Facebook can do whatever it wants with my content or not. Leaning towards not caring.
Three reasons:
- I don't post things that will come back to haunt me
- Not convinced there's any commercial value to my content
- The first time Facebook crosses the ethical line will be its last
Let's do a quick breakdown of each of those reasons.
Not Posting Things that Will Haunt Me
My lifestream on Facebook is…how to put this nicely….sorta boring? I'm a married professional with two young children. I don't have crazy pictures on there. Well, check that. A high school classmate did post an old picture of me wearing the dress of one of our homecoming princesses. With a tiara and parasol.
But hey, what guy didn't wear girl's clothes in high school?
Anyway, as I've engaged more with this online world, I've grown comfortable with the idea that one day my kids may find old things about me. It's not that I live my life by the principle of "would if my kids found this?" But I am aware of that.
I also can't remove things from Google's cache. So this idea that you can retract something once published is a fallacy anyway. Facebook is just another place where things will live on.
No Commercial Value
Presumably, the only reason Facebook would use the stuff I've shared is for commercial purposes. Well GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!
Seriously, what will they do with my little notes about and pictures of my kids? My tweet stream which I pipe in as my Status Updates? My Google Reader shares? No one else has monetized that yet.
Perhaps they will include such information in aggregate for data mining purposes. Fine, because that's not using my content specifically.
If they do figure out a way, I'll write about their ingenuity most likely.
First Mistake by Facebook Will Be Its Last
Facebook is not some Twitter spam application site, stealing your login and password for nefarious purposes. It's a commercial entity with designs on being THE social graph platform for the world. I'm sure Facebook is thinking IPO somewhere in the next few years.
I believe this alone will curb excesses by the site. We don't need to overregulate the hell out of everything. Thus far, Facebook has experimented, but stayed on the right side of the ethical line. I don't see a lot of changes in that.
But let's say Facebook does cross the line, abusing the trust of its members in retaining and re-purposing their content? The very first time that happens, there will be an uproar in the blogosphere and Twittersphere. The mainstream press will pick up on it. At that point, state governments and the Federal government will investigate and hold hearings.
This is NOT what a public or wants-to-be-public company wants. If Facebook was some small start-up without its blue chip status, I'd worry more.
What, Me Worry?
That's why this particular Facebook TOS clause doesn't worry me.
How about you? Answer the quick poll below:
See this post on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/search?required=q&q=Three+Reasons+Facebook%E2%80%99s+TOS+Data+Policy+Doesn%E2%80%99t+Worry+Me


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New Zealander Mark Hunt said there's a simple reason he's digitally draped in an Australian flag on the fight poster for December's UFC Fight Night 33 event: His adoptive home has been far more supportive of his fighting career.
Hunt (9-8 MMA, 4-2 UFC) meets fellow heavyweight contender Antonio Silva (18-5 MMA, 2-2 UFC) in the headliner of UFC Fight Night 33, which takes place in the Queensland capital at Brisbane Entertainment Centre. The bout is slated for Dec. 7 (but airs live in the U.S. on Dec. 6 due to the time difference).
Hunt is the star attraction of the event and has featured prominently in the organization's promotional efforts. The 39-year-old "Super Samoan" had won four consecutive bouts and was on the brink of a title shot until a May loss to ex-titleholder Junior dos Santos. A win over Silva could get him back in the mix, and he'll surely be the crowd favorite.
He said that's a big reason he was OK with the fight poster featuring an Australian flag, rather than one for New Zealand.
As he wrote on Facebook:
Jus so u know I said It was ok to rep the Australian flag,even though I'm a kiwi.ive been living in Australia for nearly 20 years wife kids are Australian.i call Australia my home.and one of the main reasons Im really proud to rep the Australian flag is cause NZ has never recognized my achievements in my sport the only man to ever win the k-1 world title outside of Europe and will be the only one man to ever do it.i been fighting for 23 years 15 years at the top of the world,and what recognition does NZ give me nothing,so don't ask me why anymore,I have jus told u.
Hunt launched his MMA career in 2004 and fought primarily for PRIDE before signing with the UFC in 2010. Additionally, he became a fan favorite during a pro kickboxing career, which spanned from 1999 to 2008 and included a K-1 world title in 2001.
For the latest on UFC Fight Night 33, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.


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This is a great article by Eric Gakstatter on alternatives to NGS OPUS (Static, Rapid Static or Projects):
[ 7 Free Alternatives to OPUS GPS Post-Processing During U.S. Federal Government Shutdown ]
It is timely because all of the NGS websites, services, databases and tools are offline.
It is a great article because, well, I wrote most of it. (Check out my byline! I am published!)
Additionally, I sent out this [ newsletter ] this morning:
To stem the flood of calls, I want to warn everyone that the NGS OPUS system is unavailable (you know why.)It is not clear if observation data is being accumulated during the shutdown; nor is it given that it can be 'filled in' when the NGS comes back online.This means that all data that you collect during the Federal shutdown may not be processable in OPUS, even after the shutdown concludes.Don't despair, there are a number of similar online processing tools available. I have written a very detailed comparison of these tools, which was published in 'GPS World' online today:[ OPUS Post-Processing is Shutdown Along with the U.S. Federal Government, But You Have Other Options… ]Even without the current crisis, it is worth a read.Please be aware that most of the alternative services will not do well with 15-minute observation files. I STRONGLY encourage you to collect at least 1-hour of observation data during the government shutdown in case OPUS-RS can't fill in the gaps when NGS OPUS is reactivated!If you are using the iGage/CHC X90-OPUS GPS Receiver [ more information here ]:The latest X90 Download tool already supports direct submittal to RTX and AusPOS; two of the alternative services.If you are using the X90-OPUS receiver and find that you want to use the excellent GAPS service (from the University of New Brunswick); you will need RINEX files with standard 8.3 filenames. The current Beta X90 Download tool has a checkbox to force 8.3 filenames on export. If you want to use GAPS, drop me a note and I will get you a copy of this beta tool, it will save you the hassle of manually renaming the files.


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As we transition from summer to fall, the wild grasses are bone dry. Dead cedar boughs litter the ground; maple leaves are splotched with yellow and brown. Berries are ripe, and seeds are ready to spring from their tight confines. It's been a hot, dry summer, quickening the transition to fall. The paradox is this: as dry leaves crackle underfoot and trees are losing leaves earlier than usual, I am saddened and worried, but the color changes all around me are so very beautiful.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor every corner of our state (and neighboring Oregon and Idaho) has been touched by the drought. Conditions range from abnormally dry to extreme, so maybe I should be thankful that our corner is experiencing "moderate drought."
The drought seems to be putting an early halt to summer, resulting in color changes that are paradoxically sad and pretty at the same time. Burnished golds, rose-tinged rusts, and ghostly pale greens mingle harmoniously, like polite guests at a dinner party.
Many plants along the forest trails are covered with dust, spider webs decorate nearly every tree and bush, and crisply curled leaves litter the woods. Some forest patches remain verdant, especially alongside lakes where moisture lingers in the air, but I can't get away from the evidence: drought has taken hold.
Fall color tiptoes in early.
I walk, I look, and I wait for rain.
The Photos:
- So-called Himalayan blackberries (Rubus armeniacus) were introduced from Europe for fruit production, but got way out of control. They form massive, impenetrable thickets with thousands of berries that just sit there uneaten, because there are so many of them. In this case, just a few canes are working their way into a tree nursery outside La Conner, Washington. I thought the bright leaves and berries were striking against the soft browns and grays of the trees and grasses.
- A feather as plain and gray as this one is hard to tie to a specific bird. But did you know there's a Feather Atlas to help identify North American bird feathers? This one (which I still can't identify!) fell next to a trail on a bald on the western edge of Fidalgo Island. A fire ripped through here, damaging some trees and felling others. Look closely and you can see charred rock and burned fir needles.
- Beside the same trail a lichen-covered rock and a host of dried grasses compose themselves beautifully, without help or interference from humans.
- Near the edge of Fidalgo Island where cool, northern waters often create misty conditions on the land above, reindeer lichen (Cladonia rangiferina) grows in cloud-like clumps. I'm careful not to touch it because it is brittle from the drought, and it grows very slowly. I'm frustrated every time I see a broken clump but trails here usually avoid reindeer lichen growth to prevent damage from careless hikers. (I'll admit I stepped off the trail to take the photograph, but I tiptoed across rocks and bare ground). This photo was taken with a vintage lens I just found at a local thrift store for half the price it sells for online. It's a Super Takumar 28mm f3.5 from the early 70's. I have another Takumar lens so I knew this one could be good, and the adapter to fit it onto my camera is easy to find. I've been out with it several times, and I'm enjoying it a lot.
- Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium or Epilobium augsutifolium) is a familiar sight in the Pacific Northwest. Called Rosebay willowherb in Britain, the tall wildflower's magenta flowers produce distinctive, silky-haired seeds that float away on late summer breezes.
- The graceful shrub called Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor) often grows near water and bears sprays of creamy white flowers in late Spring. This specimen, on a hill at Cranberry Lake Park on Fidalgo Island, has a surfeit of pale green lichens growing on its branches. With leaves shifting from green to yellow to orange, dried, peachy-tan flowers and frosty green lichens, it was a striking sight.
- The cool blue-gray color of Stink currant berries (Ribes bracteosum) complements deep forest greens. I read that the whole plant is covered with glands that emit a skunky odor, but I didn't notice it. I'll have to check next time!
- At Mt. Erie, the highest point on Fidalgo Island, a species of Usnea lichen hangs from a tree whose leaves are losing their chlorophyll prematurely. Late day sunlight sets the leaves on fire, and fine web threads map a spider's domain.
- A Bracken fern frond has turned dry and golden for lack of moisture at Sharpe Park, Montgomery-Duban Headlands.
- An attractive flower that hangs on well in a drought is Gumweed (Grindelia integrifolia). This patch, framed by two huge logs, is between a small bay and a beach, a fairly wet location. The photograph was taken with the "new" 28mm Takumar lens, late in the day.
- The forest floor is littered with fallen branches, leaves, wildflower seeds, fir cones, mosses, and lichens. Quiet colors create a neutral palette that emphasizes texture – one advantage of the drought.
- At Cranberry Lake a smattering of trees still cling to their defiantly bright green attire but in the distance, the rusty colors are from cedar trees that have died, probably from too many dry summers.
- An insect is resting on the back of this pretty leaf at Mt. Erie. I didn't see it until I got home and looked closely at the photo. It's not the first time that has happened!
- Another photo taken with the "new" vintage lens, in low light on the edge of the woods. These branches are mostly on Madrone trees. The leaves may be from a Madrone too, but I'm not sure. In any case, the funky curves of tree trunks, dead branches and leaves draw an intriguing picture together.
- Spider webs are abundant in the forests these days. These are on a cedar tree. There may be more on my clothes…
- The intensely colored, winged seeds of this ornamental maple beam with joy in the afternoon sunlight at a town park in Anacortes, Washington.


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By James Kwak
A couple of weeks go I wrote an op-ed about a proposal in Connecticut to create a new tax-preferred retirement plan that would, by default, include almost all workers who don't currently have access to an employment-based plan (like a 401(k)). That proposal took some major steps forward when it was included in an end-of-session bill that was passed by the Connecticut legislature. As it stands, the bill authorizes a feasibility study and implementation plan for the new retirement option, which must contain a number of features (default enrollment, portability, default annuitization at retirement, a guaranteed return to be specified at the beginning of each year, etc.).
As I said in the op-ed, this is a decent step forward that will increase the amount of retirement saving by low- and middle-income workers, put those savings in a relatively low-cost, low-risk investment option, and spread some of the benefits of the retirement tax break to those workers (although you do have to pay income tax to benefit from the deduction). One of the claims made by the plan's opponents is that it cannot be managed for less than the 1 percent of assets mandated by the bill, but that seems laughable to me: the State of Connecticut's current retirement plans for its employees have administrative costs of 10 basis points, plus investment expense ratios as low as 2 basis points (for index funds from Vanguard). This is a slightly different animal, since the idea is to invest in low-risk securities and buy downside insurance, but still it doesn't follow that you have to pay more than 1 percent for asset management is.
Connecticut is one of several states, most famously California, that are in the process of implementing these public retirement plans to cover people who are left out by the current "system," which favors people who work for large companies. They can solve several of the common problems with 401(k) plans: nonexistence (at many employers), low participation rates, investment risk, pre-retirement withdrawals, lump-sum distributions at retirement, to name a few.
But they can't solve the underlying problem, which is that many people just don't make enough for saving 3 percent of their salary each year to make much of a difference. A big constraint is that the Connecticut plan was designed to not cost taxpayers any money: administrative fees will come out of plan balances, and the insurance is there to limit the chance that the state will have to bail out the plan in the future. If we really want to protect people against retirement risk, we need to actually spread risk by making either the funding mechanism or the benefit formula progressive, which means we can't regard the idea of the untouchable individual account as sacrosanct. (See my recent paper for more on this topic.) That's what Social Security does, and it's vastly popular. But in today's political environment of me me me me me, and so we're stuck with treating symptoms.


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The Chron E-Board continues to roll out their endorsements. Today's nods go to At-Large 1 CM Stephen Costello and former CM Brenda Stardig in District A. Commentary is not surprised.
Here is the Costello endorsement.
Here is the Stardig endorsement.
The most interesting part of the Costello endorsement is this:
Costello readily acknowledges he plans to run for mayor following his council service. We would recommend that the best way for someone in his position to reach the big office on the third floor at City Hall is to be the best at-large councilman he can be if elected to a third two-year term.
I guess CM Costello becomes the first declared 2015 Mayoral candidate. He better start voting in Dem Party primaries.
San Luis punched their ticket to the NLCS last night. Last year San Luis retired the Numero 10. Who wore the Numero 10?
Here is another exercise in exercising. RNC Hispanics and AG Abbott and former State Rep. Errant Pena are putting together a GOP outreach to Latinos voters – YAWN!
Here is the Tribune story on the outreach that is going nowhere.
It is about issues. It is about immigration reform. It is about health care. It is about voting rights.
Commentary received a Zeph Capo for HCC mailer yesterday.
Forty years ago today Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned.
Tony La Russa of course wore the Numero 10 for San Luis.
Here is from the 'Stros website:
Astros owner Jim Crane said last week the team would be in position to increase its payroll next year, and on Tuesday he provided the first indication of just how much money could be spent on players in 2014.
Crane said the Astros' payroll, which was at about $13 million to end the season, could be between $50-60 million next year regardless of whether the club is able to settle its dispute with television partner Comcast.
We will see.


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The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) concluded Google's cars gathered only fragments and that this information could not be linked to identifiable individuals. In May, Google told Congress that, while its Street View cars collected publicly broadcast Wi-Fi network names and MAC addresses from Wi-Fi routers as the vehicles drove about taking photographs, they did not gather payload data and the information was collected by mistake.
"The information we saw does not include meaningful personal details that could be linked to an identifiable person," the ICO said in a statement. "There is also no evidence as yet that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment. Nevertheless, it was wrong to collect the information."
Google apologized after the breach was discovered.
"We welcome the news that the data protection authorities in the U.K. have found that the payload data contained no meaningful personal information," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "As we said when we announced our mistake, we did not want and have never used any payload data in our products or services."
The British report likely will not affect investigations currently underway in Germany, the United States, France, and elsewhere.
"As we have only seen samples of the records collected in the U.K., we recognize that other data protection authorities conducting a detailed analysis of all the payload data collected in their jurisdictions may nevertheless find samples of information which can be linked to identifiable individuals," Britain's ICO said. "We will be alerting Privacy International and others who have complained to us of our position. The Information Commissioner is taking a responsible and proportionate approach to this case. However, we remain vigilant and will be reviewing any relevant findings and evidence from our international counterparts' investigations."
In June, Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal kicked-off an investigation into Google on behalf of several states. More than 30 states participated in a conference call, although it was unclear how many were actually involved in the inquiry.
"My office will lead a multistate investigation -- expected to involve a significant number of states -- into Google's deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy," Blumenthal said in a statement at the time. "Street View cannot mean Complete View -- invading home and business computer networks and vacuuming up personal information and communications."
Earlier that month, the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL) released the findings of its Google Street View investigation which found that Google had captured e-mail account passwords as it grabbed data from unprotected Wi-Fi networks. However, Google said it had not captured any e-mail content.


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Where To Build Cheap Credit Reports
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Find More Build My Credit Articles


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Wrote a new song and decided to try it clean, and then through the Strymon Big Sky reverb on a custom chorale setting. Used my Guild Westerly F-150CE. Will probably do a bit more arranging / rearranging and work on the pedal settings, but thought it might be interesting for people to hear..in-progress. Hope you enjoy it! Please hit the like button (if you did), favorite it and share it….it all helps.
Would be very cool if you supported the art by purchasing this or any of my songs on bandcamp!
Click here to buy and download any or all of my songs from bandcamp.
Thank you for your support! Rick
If you don't need to download a song, please consider donating using the paypal link!
1 ) Donate using the PayPal Donate button
Download "Little Martha" from iTunes, I'd sure appreciate it!
Little Martha – Rick McCargar
Think Outside The pentatonic Box t-shirt by LegendaryLicks
Make a custom t shirt at zazzle.com
Evolution of a Guitar Player Tee Shirts by LegendaryLicks
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What are the HDMI Dynamic Range settings?
- Use the Auto setting during normal operation. The Auto setting automatically selects the dynamic range Full or Limited based on dynamic range information coming from connected device.
- The Full setting should be used when you would like the signal range fixed to full range. An example may be a high-definition signal from a device connected using an HDMI cable.
- Limited: The signal range is fixed to limited range. This should be used when less color is desired.
There is small possibility that the connected HDMI device will send wrong dynamic range information. In this case, if Auto is selected the TV will default to a limited dynamic range and the picture may appear with either white saturation (no details in bright white areas) or black saturation (no detail in dark scenes).
Follow these steps if the image appears with either white or black saturation:
- Using the supplied remote, press the Home button.
- Select Settings.
- Select TV Picture Mode.
- Select Reset.
- Press the Enter button.
NOTE: If the image quality is not improved by following the steps above, it is possible that the connected HDMI device is sending wrong dynamic range information. Try changing the Dynamic range setting in the menu of the TV.


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The Secret Lives of Words column: Earth Day, earth mothers, and COVID-19
The world celebrated Earth Day on April 22 and has every year since the event was established in 1970, a half century ago. Coincidentally, the day before, April 21, was marked by the ancient Romans as the anniversary of their semi-legendary founding in 753 B.C., when Romulus ritually inaugurated the boundaries of what was then a tiny hilltop village of thatched huts overlooking the Tiber River.
So the 21st of April was for Rome a bit like our 4th of July and was one of about 150 festival days in their annual CALENDar (from Latin kalendarium). Although they didn't exactly have an Earth Day, the ancients did enthusiastically celebrate the Earth. Even before the advent of the Romans and their gallery of deities dominated by the masculine sky-lord Jupiter, ancient Mediterranean folk worshiped what they conceived of as a feminine spirit, an Earth Mother whose nurturing force gave birth to and sustained all plant and animal life vital to their agricultural societies.
The Venus of Willendorf, large-breasted and exuberantly pregnant, is the best known of numerous Palaeolithic figurines dating to 30,000 years ago and widely regarded as representations of the essence of the earth's fertility. The snake-goddess frequently represented in the second millennium B.C. Minoan culture on the island of Crete was another manifestation of the generative force of Mother Earth.
In his poem the Cosmogony, "The Origin of the Universe," the seventh-century B.C. Greek Hesiod called this goddess Gaia/Earth, source of our words GEography and GEology. In Hesiod's poetic conception, the sky-god Ouranos (Latin Uranus)/Heaven rained down upon Gaia his moisturizing, inseminating fluids, and out of her terrestrial flesh were born all the world's creatures.
This same Mediterranean earth-spirit was assimilated into Greek myth and ritual as the goddess Demeter, whose name seems to have meant "grain mother," de + meter, a word connected to the Romans' mater, as in MATERnal and MATERnity. Our similar-looking and - sounding Germanic word "mother" is descended in fact, like the Greek and Latin, from the same prehistoric Indo-European language, which dates back 10,000 years or more to the Neolithic period.
When Demeter's daughter Persephone was kidnapped by Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, the grain goddess went into mourning, Winter descended, and plants died or grew dormant. But when Persephone was permitted by Pluto to ascend into the upper world for six months every year, her mother relented, gave the world Spring, and annually renewed the planet's vegetative growth - a rebirth taken by her cultists as proof of their own immortality.
Demeter's Roman counterpart was Ceres, the primitive Italic guardian spirit of wheat, whose name is source for our word CEReal. In her evolved, anthropomorphic form the goddess was worshipped at a week-long festival called the CERealia, held in mid- to late April and thus overlapping our Earth Day. Chariot races were sponsored in the Circus Maximus and women, dressed in white and carrying torches, re-enacted Ceres' search for her daughter Proserpina (the Romanized Persephone).
From April 28-May 3 the Romans held yet another festival celebrating the natural world, the Floralia. The event honored Flora, goddess of fertility, of FLOWERs (from Latin flos/flora), and of springtime, a further embodiment of the Earth Mother.
Gaia, Demeter, Ceres, and Flora, as goddesses of birth and flowering served also as metaphors for the hope of reflowering and rebirth. The Romans throughout their history faced constant terror from incessant war and a host of incurable diseases, which on a personal level were every bit as frightful as our fears of nuclear war, pandemic, and the ravages of climate change. Many prayed to their divinities for reassurance and salvation even as people do today.
Others turned to philosophy. Stoicism in particular, which exercised a profound influence on early Christianity, advocated acceptance of the reality that certain destructive forces were beyond our control. The solution was commitment to a life of reasoned, moral behavior within the circle of family, friends, and associates over whom we can exercise some salutary influence.
One of the most compelling and reassuring expositions of this approach to sane living is in the Meditations of the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, written by him when the Roman Empire was itself in the throes of the "Antonine Plague." The disease, most likely smallpox, was transmitted by legionaires returning from a campaign in the near east. Spreading throughout the Roman Empire (and also eastward into China) between A.D. 166 and 180, the pandemic ultimately claimed an estimated 5 million lives, including perhaps that of Aurelius' co-emperor Lucius Verus.
Alice and I are closet Stoics. Like Aurelius, we understand that much of what happens to us is beyond our control and that worry can do us more harm, mentally and physically, than the things we worry about. The healthiest, most effective response to COVID-19 right now is to focus on what we do have the power to manage. Every day we reach out to some friend or family member, by phone, email, or social media. And we immerse ourselves in activities that give us joy and are also, in some small way, creative and productive.
Though retired from classroom teaching for nearly a decade, I work almost daily at my online tutorials with some marvelous students, aged 20-something to 70-something, who are every bit as eager to learn a bit about Latin as I am to teach them. I write these columns; when time permits, I make revisions to my next book; I tend our tiny vegetable garden, planting, weeding, fertilizing, watering - things the Romans labored over and rejoiced in millennia ago.
Alice, on the other hand, is my Flora, my personal, live-in Earth Mother. She also plants, and cultivates, and nurtures her peonies and amaryllis, her multi-colored Joseph's Coat, the bearded iris, gerbera daisies, and gardenias - all embroidered into the tapestry of our yard.
She reveres the deathless beech tree, which holds its lustrous leaves throughout the winter, dropping them only when its new springtime foliage bursts forth. Occasionally she prunes the live oak a nurseryman friend, ready to discard it, graciously gave her 10 years ago. It was no more than 6 feet high at the time, rootbound and moribund, but she resurrected and mothered the tree, which Romans viewed as sacred to Jupiter, and today it towers majestically to a height of nearly 50 feet.
Alice nurtures me as well, with her fervent hopefulness, which is after all, along with caution and hard work, what will sustain us through these terrible times. She is encouraged by reports that, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, air pollution is declining all around the world - a 30% reduction in the northeastern U.S., and in northern India the peaks of the Himalayan Mountains are now visible again for the first time in three decades. Paul Monks, a University of Leicester pollution scientist, has remarked, "We are now, inadvertently, conducting the largest-scale experiment ever … looking at what we might see in the future if we can move to a low-carbon economy."
The planet is now even vibrating less, shuddering less one might say, and there is less seismic movement in its outer crust as a consequence of the reduced hustle and bustle of human activity. And so every day Alice hopes, as we all might well do, that the worst of this crisis and loss of life will soon be behind us and that, with lessons learned, the future of our Mother Earth may be much brighter than the world had come to expect over this past generation.
Rick LaFleur is retired from 40 years of teaching Latin language and literature at the University of Georgia, which during his tenure came to have the largest Latin enrollment of all of the nation's colleges and universities; his latest book is "Ubi Fera Sunt," a lively, lovingly wrought translation into classical Latin of Maurice Sendak's classic, "Where the Wild Things Are," ranked first on TIME magazine's 2015 list of the top 100 children's books of all time.


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For our 5th anniversary in 2006, Andy & I toured Ireland, where we both have family roots.
We flew into Shannon Airport & started our tour on the rugged west coast of Ireland.
If you're a fan of traditional Irish music, a visit to the little village of Doolin is a must.
From Doolin, we headed north to explore "The Burren," a fascinating geological region, rich in ancient archeological & historical sights.
No matter where you go in Ireland, you're bound to see sheep. Lots and lots of sheep:
Next, we visited Sligo Town, on our way to Donegal, ancestral home of the Mulligans.
County Donegal is the least touristed part of Ireland, with fantastic natural scenery.
Luckily, we had gorgeous weather for our hike up the Slieve League cliffs, which are a breathtaking 1,972′ high. The little footpath would be treacherous in heavy wind or rain.
Next, we circled north and east to arrive at the Giant's Causeway, a World Heritage Site.
The repeating hexagonal columns boggle the mind. It's one of the coolest places, ever.
I took so many photos here… these are just a few!
We hiked all around and lingered near the water until sunset, when the park closed.
No trip to Ireland would be complete without a visit to the capitol city, Dublin.
There's lots to see in Dublin – live music, the Book of Kells, the shops on Grafton Street:
And we sampled our share of chocolate-y rich Guinness, too.
It was just a 2-week trip, but so grand! A wonderful visit to the Cahill Mulligan homeland.
Whew! That's it! Seventeen straight days of posting… something entirely new for me.
I hope you've enjoyed my 17 Days of Green, and had a very happy St. Paddy's Day!
If you missed them, you can read my previous 16 green posts here:
Day 1: From My House To Yours
Day 2: My Big Green Day Job
Day 3: Local Food is Green Food
Day 4: Up, Up Green Hornets
Day 5: My 2nd Embroidered Felt Hat
Day 6: The Green & Grey of the NPS
Day 7: Andy's 1st Handknit Hat
Day 8: Moss & Lichen
Day 9: Frozen Fenway
Day 10: Long Wind Tomato Farm
Day 11: Northern Lights
Day 12: Embroidered Hat Design Collage
Day 13: My Hat Studio
Day 14: Grow Your Own
Day 15: Pesto Fest
Day 16: Quinn & Cinder
With special thanks to FireMom who started this crazy green meme in the first place!


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Computer to Computer
International voice over internet protocol (VoIP) market to account for 50% industry share by 2025
Rising demand for affordable and reliable communication services worldwide will be one of the key trends driving voice over internet protocol (VoIP) market growth over the forecast period. VoIP is a rapidly advancing technology that uses internet to make phone calls rather than conventional telephone systems. The cost of using a VoIP service is relatively low, especially for long-distance communication. Companies are increasingly leveraging VoIP solutions to improve their productivity and enhance mobility.
APAC VoIP Market Size, By Country, 2018 & 2025 (USD Billion)
The voice over internet protocol (VoIP) market has garnered major share in developed nations owing to presence of high-speed broadband infrastructures which eliminate the need for maintaining a separate telecommunications network. In addition to making voice calls, VoIP can also conduct video conferencing calls, eventually allowing businesses to visually communicate with co-workers and clients to discuss deals, files, documents and agendas more effectively.
VoIP makes recording calls more efficient and easier, further enabling companies to integrate different communication services into a single device or software. With rapid technological advancements and recent innovations, VoIP market outlook has witnessed an immense transformation lately. For instance, in 2019, caller ID app Truecaller announced the beta-testing of its new app feature that allows users to make voice calls over IP. With such advancements, VoIP market trends are likely to expand and the industry players may garner a huge customer base, thereby augmenting business growth over the forecast period.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) market share is slated to record significant gains from the international VoIP call segment. Demand for international VoIP calling services is estimated to increase exponentially over coming years, on account of its low-cost service offering. Several affordable international calling plans are being offered by VoIP service providers that allow organizations to conduct business across borders at low calling rates. Credible reports also estimate international VoIP calls market to hold major share of over 50% by 2025.
Get a Sample Copy of this Report:@ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2989
VoIP providers also allow users to make calls to landline and mobile phone numbers without any restrictions. Being internet-based, the technology can effectively handle media types such as images, videos and texts along with voice. Rising technological advancements will propel VoIP industry growth. For example, VoIP service plans come with advanced features like caller ID with name, call waiting, conference calls and call forwarding among other.
An instance of initiatives that will effectively generate new growth opportunities in VoIP market include the one made by North Dakota Department of Human Services which recently awarded a $3.3 million worth call center contract to Noridian Healthcare Solutions. The grant will support North Dakota's Medicaid providers and customers by answering queries associated with Medicaid claims payment, submission of claims, and prior authorization.
Europe voice over internet protocol (VoIP) market will witness commendable growth over the coming years. Especially across Germany, the VoIP industry is recording lucrative growth on account of the region's strong telecommunication infrastructure. Consumer demand and adoption of broadband high-speed Internet services is also considerable within the nation. With rising demand for cheaper communications service and increasing use of VoIP solution, the region is forecast to be a major ground for VoIP market growth over the coming years.
Supportive government initiatives are also likely to expand Europe VoIP market size over coming years. For instance, as per Europe 2020 strategy, all Europeans are expected to own fast broadband services (over 30 Mbps) by 2020, a mission for which EU has implemented a series of regulatory measures and policies and has made around €15 billion available to Member States in the period 2014-2020.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an advanced communication technology that enables organizations to cost-effectively streamline different communication platforms to improve business productivity. International call centers are increasingly using VoIP to reduce cost expenditure and facilitate voice calls at affordable prices.
With growing traction in European countries and extensive use of internet-based voice communication apps worldwide, demand for VoIP solutions will increase significantly over coming years. Report from Global Market Insights, Inc., estimates voice over internet protocol (VoIP) market size to exceed USD 55 billion by 2025.
Author Name : Mateen Dalal


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So here it is the end of the year. I have been blogging since March (2009). I have posted 130 times. This is 131. I thought I would end the year with a review of some of my favorites and according to the numbers some of your favorites too. Here they are, not in any order:
Lyrics Gone Wrong . . . I had entertained the idea of doing this once a month, but after the second month I ran out of songs to play with.
Interesting Picture – Marilyn Monroe Albert Einstein . . . I LOVE optical illusions and this one is a doosey.
Hummingbird Tongues . . . they still fascinate me and I am still surprising people with the fact that the birds have tongues and use them more than the beak is a straw. And usually they tongues dart in and out so fast it is a rare treat to catch it out for a picture. Yay!
A Poem Says A Lot . . . Fabulous! We Have Come To Be Danced . . .
Nia Belt System . . . Before you can move onto the next belt they say a year must pass. You do not have to get involved. It is a great workout without being involved with the belts. The belt system only comes into play if you care to get that involved in Nia. Nia's belts mimic some Martial Arts; white, green, blue, brown, black. I am learning so much with my White Belt, I can see myself waiting at least another year before I move onto the next belt. There is so much to learn and enjoy in each belt, I am not in a hurry.
Say: "I Am Wonderful" . . . I like to say this, I like to hear this song. I like to remind people to go to iTunes each week to download the free song.
A Brief Look At Nia . . . still excited to share Nia with people. It is a great body-mind practice and a workout that can make you sweat yet not really feel like exercise. It is learning to follow the body's way.
Wrapping Tips . . . WHAT? I was shocked that everyone did not read my blog. On Christmas Day and the day after the bags and bags and bags and bags of wrapping trash that I saw on the curbs just blew my mind. In this day and in these times, I was just utterly flabbergasted that people don't re-use the wrappings. It amazed and saddened me.
My Favorite Mugs . . . so I found out that not everyone got my little joke. Ya know, back in the day (what day, I don't know), they used to call faces mugs . . . get it now?
The Seven Cycles Of A Nia Workout . . . The workout has cycles, somewhat like Jazzercise. I like to share this aspect of Nia so people have an idea of what a workout class will be like. We set a focus and an intent, step in, warm up and move all the way through the cycles to the floor, and then we step out.
Well, thank you so much for joining me on my blog. I hope that you continue to read, I hope you enjoy and learn. I learn from your comments so keep them coming. Thank you for a great year. Here is to the NewYear.
But . . .before we jump into the New Year, share with me what your favorite post from my blog was? AND/OR give me ideas on what you would like to see posted in the New Year.


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There are NO GOOD choices in this General Election.
We have:
The Devil We Know vs The Devil We Don't Know.
We also have:
Choosing the lesser of two evils is still a choice FOR evil.
Granted, someone WILL be elected, and granted further, s/he won't be liked by those whom didn't vote for the winner.
The two major party's candidates are almost universally disliked within and without the parties. And that is a very sad state of affairs. It is, in large part, why there was such enormous support for Bernie Sanders… who is the opposite side of the same coin as Trump.
What concerns me most about Trump is that he seems Read the rest of this entry »


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Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©
But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
(Psalms 73:2-5 (NIV))
Isn't it easy to be fooled by what we see that the world has to offer?
Sometimes it seems that the world has the better things, but we must remember that what the world has to offer is only temporary. These things can be destroyed by moth and rust.
When we are confronted with the temptations of the world, we must remember that we have a firm foundation, a solid hope that is not of this world. What we desire is not of this world. Our treasure is the very heart and Word of God. Through the Word made flesh, we have a treasure that moth and rust cannot destroy. We have a treasure that is eternal. We must simply keep our focus on Jesus when the world tries to distract us.
There will be many distractions that the world will send your way during your life. Like Paul wrote:
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 3:14(NIV))
Do you press on, or are you distracted by the worldly temptations?
Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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