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Yesterday I got in a Blu-ray copy of The Big Trail, an early widescreen movie from 1930. The Big Trail has quite a fascinating history behind it. Starting in the late 1920s Hollywood began experimenting with widescreen and Technicolor, but the depression killed off interest in these technologies, especially widescreen because it required special theaters, screens and projectors. The Big Trail was filmed from April to August in 1930 in black and white using both 70mm and 35mm cameras, creating two unique versions from different camera angles. The whole production was also shot in five languages using different lineup of actors for each language.
Epic production doesn't begin to describe the making of The Big Trail. Seven different states were used for film locations, covering 4,300 miles, traveling in 123 baggage cars, with 93 principle actors, 2,000 extras at all the locations, 725 Indians from five tribes, 12 Indian guides, 22 cameramen, 1,800 cattle, 1,400 horses, 500 buffalo, 185 wagons and a production staff of 200. And they had the wagon train do everything wagon trains did back in those pioneering days, cross rivers, get lowered down cliffs, blaze trails through timbered lands, cross deserts, climb mountains, survive snow storms. All other wagon train movies since have been puny in scale. The Big Trail was a very gigantic production, but it's not as famous as Gone With the Wind from 1939. That's too bad, it should be better remembered.
I had to watch The Big Trail alone last night because none of my movie friends like old black and white films and I couldn't convince them to give The Big Trail a try. What a loss for them. It's a shame because as soon as I started up The Big Trail I was stunned by it's beauty. Old movies are in a square format and seeing this movie in widescreen format on my 56" HDTV made my heart ache. If only this 70mm widescreen format had caught on in 1930. All my favorite old films from the 1930s and 1940s would have been so much more grandeur looking. And that's what Fox called their experimental format, the "Fox Grandeur" process. What if Grand Hotel had been widescreen, or The Maltese Falcon, or The Wizard of Oz, just imagine how more magnificent they would have been.
[This screenshot is from Blu-ray.com – click for full size version]
Modern movie goers are used to high tech visual productions and when they see old movies, especially silent films and films from the 1930s, they think of them as primitive and crude, and often assume people of those days saw what we see today. Their technology was older and less sophisticated, but the prints we have are old and in bad shape compared to the original pristine prints audiences viewed in their day. Silent movie film goers didn't see jerky prints with faded splotches and lines running through them. They were sharp and vivid with wonderful contrast and the motion was as natural as modern films. Sure the acting style is strange to us, but the acting style was normal to them. It was great acting by the way they judged acting.
Old movies are being restored all the time now, especially for the Turner Classic Movie crowd and Blu-ray movie fans. The restoration of The Big Trail is far from perfect, but I found it impressive to watch visually. I expect someday that digital processing will clean up even more of these film defects, and created a print closer to the 1930 original. For the most part the defects weren't distracting. A couple of times I thought it was raining because of the tiny scratches.
The Big Trail was an experiment in many ways, not only for the widescreen filming. It was an early epic western about settlers crossing the country in a huge wagon train. The Big Trail was the first starring role for John Wayne, but many of the actors were from Broadway, because it was an early talky and they needed actors that could project their voices to outdoor microphones. Much of the dialog is stagey, and the cinematography is reminiscent of great silent films. Yet, the sets and costumes look very realistic. It would take another 60 years before citizens of the pioneering west looked so realistically dirty and grungy. Plus the Indians were real. Often the wagons were drawn by oxen and cattle rather than horses.
[Click for full size versions. From Blu-Ray.com]
Westerns weren't this good for a long time, not until Stagecoach, ten years later. Most westerns of that era were B movies, shot full of action, produced from very small budgets. As I watched The Big Trail, I wondered how many people living in 1930 had once traveled across the country in a wagon train. The heyday of the wagon train was from the 1840 to the 1860s, when the continental railroad was built. It was possible that some of these pioneers were still alive to verify the realism of the film. I wonder if any of them wrote about it?
Westerns today, 80 years later, often work hard to appear realistic and historical. It seems like every decade has a different view on how the old west looked. Just compare the two versions of True Grit. There's also a difference in how violence was portrayed. In The Big Trail, John Wayne only kills one of the bad guys, and with a knife. And the bad guys were on the hesitant and cowardly side, only willing to kill when no one was looking. Nobody was a great shot either. Today's westerns have heroes that kill as many people as a mass murderer.
The Big Trail was an innocent portrayal of pioneers. At one point the John Wayne character was telling a bunch of boys what all he learned from living with the Indians and one of the kids asked, "Did they teach you were papooses come from?" That's about as risqué as this movie got. But it was realistic enough to show a woman nursing a baby. And I thought the love conflict was reasonably sophisticated for a movie of its time. The plot of The Big Trail was gentile and slow. I'm not sure people only used to modern films would like it. Modern audiences are addicted to fast action, fast dialog, and lots of plot twists. I've seen The Big Trail three times now and I'm looking forward to seeing it again. It's a classic western, and a classic 1930s film, my two favorite genres.


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Parks Director: Laine Sletta
Brown County All Park Brochure (PDF)
Brown County Park System Map (PDF)
Day Use: Apr 15 - Oct 15
Brown County Park Commission Meeting will be held 6-5-2023 at 7 pm
The Brown County Park System includes a year-round park with campground and three seasonal, day-use parks. There are also four county maintained canoe access sites to the Cottonwood River and Flandrau State Park that resides within the county also.
The Brown County Park Commission is the advisory group that oversees the county park system and makes recommendations to the Board of Commissioners on park issues related to planning and development.

subset: commoncrawl


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First Official Florida Blog
In the photos above, you can see the front of the house as we rented it, and then again after we spent this past weekend trimming back plants that had not had attention for at least a couple of years. It gives the front yard that awkward got-a-haircut-today look, but that will remedy itself in short order, and it has vastly improved our view through the dining room window.
There are many, many, many lizards in Florida. And many of them live in our yard.
I am currently job-hunting. I have had a couple of interviews, and the last one is quite promising, but I haven't heard back from them yet, so I am still hitting the employment websites daily and sending my resume' on ones that sound like a good fit and aren't too far away.
Mom seems to be settling in nicely. We have cable that includes the Encore Westerns channel, and this is the one she watches most of the time. We had the movers put the comfy couch from Kerrville in the den, back by her bedroom and the office, but she prefers being in the living room, which is airier, has more light and windows from which she can watch for the mail carrier. So, we may be rethinking the use of half the rooms in the house, which will necessitate major furniture moving. Wheee!
Whichever of us gets up first gets the coffee pot started. If she gets up first, she lets me continue to sleep and does not turn on the LOUD TV until I am up. (Thank you, Mom.) If I get up first, I get the coffee started and when it is ready, I wake her up (at her standing request) for us to have coffee and read the newspaper together. By which I mean, we drink coffee, I read the newspaper, and she eats six to eight cookies and sometimes glances at the headlines of the newspaper before going into the living room to turn on the Western channel. At which point, I usually retreat to the office in the back of the house to play on the computer. The television is barely audible from back there, and if I shut the office door, I can't hear it at all!
I have found a program here similar to the Dietert Center's Take Five Club, but it is a little longer and costs $65 per day, so until I am working, I am reluctant to even introduce her to it, as I can't take her now, and if she knows it costs anything, she will refuse to go at all.
So, she gets dressed so she can get the mail from the streetside mailbox, and we go grocery shopping on the weekend. She has a sandwich and chips for lunch after the noon news, and I have whatever sounds interesting whenever I finally get hungry sometime later in the afternoon. I cook dinner, either for Mother, Steve, and myself or for just Mother and me on the days he is busy with Scouting activities.
I am gradually getting the last of the boxes unpacked and things put away as I continue to wait for my new employer to call, whomever that might eventually prove to be. I know my perfect job is out there – I just hate this darned waiting part.


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Finger foods, appetizers, fizzy cocktails and anything that is fun, fun, fun! We want you to get down with your bad self and whip up some party fare!
Make it and post it on or by January 2nd. Link up with Mr. Linky, below, and leave a comment so we don't miss any of your fabulous party creations!
In the meantime, we hope you had a fantabulous holiday, and that Santa was good to you. And that you have had a chance to check out the wonderful Potluck creations from last week!
Need more info on Mr. Linky or on how to participate in I Heart Cooking Clubs? Please refer to the Welcome Page for more information.
Remember, through to Aprilish we are cooking from Giada de Laurentiis's recipes. And remember to have an awesome New Year! Party on, dudes.
Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.


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The Reading Viaduct Spur took another step toward reality Wednesday morning when the Philadelphia Art Commission gave the project the blessing of final approval.
The Spur is a quarter-mile arm of the viaduct that stretches between Broad Street and Callowhill Street.
Wednesday's presentation described in detail how Phase 1 would incorporate plant material and path surface materials (think chip seal paving) into the project. It also addressed how structural elements (think bridges) would be rehabilitated; how recreational features (benches, swings, lighting) would be strategically placed on the site; how toxins (mostly railroad ballast, very little PCB presence) would be remediated; and how the entire spur would be maintained.
The Center City District is still raising money to complete the planned improvements on the first phase of the project. The group has raised about 65 percent of the $9 million it needs for the "SEPTA spur" and is pursuing a $3.5 million grant from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), according to John Struble, of Friends of the Rail Park. After the improvements are completed, the city would take over ownership of the park.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Art_Commission_grants_final_approval_to_Reading_Viaduct_Spur.html#RO5DAiaup6Gp7OgT.99


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Talbot student allegedly assaulted, former substitute summonsed on assault charges
Rhondella Richardson/WCVB
Rhondella Richardson/WCVB
FALL RIVER, Mass. — School officials announced revised school safety protocols at all elementary schools following a highly publicized incident two weeks ago at Mary Fonseca Elementary School during which two kindergarten students walked out of the building unnoticed during the school day.
The Herald News reported Wednesday that Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown outlined the revised protocols in a report released today. The report also included a timeline of the incident based on conducted interviews and previous reports obtained from the school and Fall River police.
Mayo-Brown's latest report calls for consistent procedures at all schools, including requiring that prekindergarten to second grade students walk to and from the nurse's office with an adult.
"At no time may students younger than second grade travel within the school without adult supervision," the new procedures state, including errands to the office or to other classrooms.
Older students may visit the nurse accompanied by another student, "provided the classroom teacher first notifies the nurse. Likewise, the nurse will notify the classroom teacher when students are to return."
Classrooms must utilize a sign-in and sign-out procedure. And students must travel "with a pass that clearly designates their intended purpose."
Mayo-Brown called for substitute teachers to be thoroughly briefed on procedures for maintaining student head counts, as well as transitions and visits to the nurse.
Both the building principal and substitute teacher are to sign a document indicating the review has taken place.
Mayo-Brown notes in her report that door alarms for all elementary schools are available, and cost $30,000.
Those door alarms would sound when an unauthorized exterior door opens during the school day.
In addition, signs would be placed at those doors to deter students. Elementary school principals would then be expected to conduct safety drills regarding the use of emergency exits.
A substitute teacher was in the kindergarten classroom on March 5, Mayo-Brown reported. One of the students requested to go to the nurse for the third time, and a second student was "randomly selected to accompany the first student as a 'buddy.'"
After going to the nurse's office, the nurse examined the first student for arm pain, saw no visible bruise or swelling, but determined because it was the student's third visit that she should go home. The nurse told the students to go back to class and said she would contact the first student's mother.
They went from the nurse's office to the main office. At this point, just before 1 p.m., the mother of the first student had not yet been contacted.
The students were instructed to go back their classroom at this point but reportedly did not return.
The nurse contacted that the first student's parents at 1:14 p.m. But, according to Mayo-Brown's investigation, the students had apparently exited the building before that phone call was made.
They left via the door located near the kindergarten classrooms.
Another fifth-grade student, a sibling of the second student, reported to the classroom, because she was also a volunteer classroom helper.
She asked on the whereabouts of her younger sister, with the teacher responding that she was absent. The sibling informed the teacher that it was not true. At that point, a search began. Fonseca Principal Teri White was alerted and radioed all staff around 1:20 p.m.
The mother of the first student reported to the school at approximately 1:25 p.m. and was informed that her student was missing.
White, after learning that one of the students had asked to leave school grounds earlier that day, began searching for students outside of the school in her personal vehicle.
The office clerk alerted police at 1:44 p.m.
The students walked around the rear of the school, to Wall Street, Tobin Street, onto Beattie Street — a nearly 10 minute trip, according to Mayo-Brown.
A woman, referred to as Citizen 1 in Mayo-Brown's report, was interviewed Monday.
She stated she saw the girls walking on Beattie Street, near Johnson Street.
She then exited her vehicle, approached the students and reportedly asked them where they were going. She was informed, "to their dad's" as they had lost their mom on the walk back from Burger King.
After a brief conversation, she drove them to an address on Chavenson Street, where it was discovered that the parents were not home.
The woman audio recorded her conversation with the students, asking them why they were alone and not wearing coats. The second said her mother's name and address and told the woman where she worked.
The woman informed them that she knew her mother and said she was going to call, although not doing so immediately. Instead she took the girls to the Dunkin Donuts shop on Milliken Boulevard, and staff alerted police of the girls' whereabouts at that time.
Mayo-Brown addressed the status of Fonseca's surveillance camera system at that point, explaining why there was no available surveillance footage of the incident.
The digital video recording system had been serviced in September 2013, with a second service call placed in December, which is when the system was deemed inoperable. A replacement was supposed to be found and installed, however it wasn't installed until March 8, three days after the incident.
Keri LaFleur, the mother of one of the two students who had left the building that day, seemed mostly satisfied with the superintendent's response to the incident.
Some of the protocols being enacted at the city's elementary schools came up during conversations with Mayo-Brown, said LaFleur, including alarming doors.
"That was a big one for me," LaFleur said.
LaFleur added that she's had conversations with her daughter since the incident.
She explained she's told her daughter, "'You don't ever leave school again'… I think she's gotten sick of hearing me say it," LaFleur said. "At that age, they're still learning. Their brains are growing every day. But it's just so scary."
LaFleur said she also suggested an assembly to emphasize "the safety concerns of students leaving the school. And they never should get in a vehicle with a stranger."
LaFleur said she was also informed that some disciplinary action had been taken. LaFleur said the substitute who had been in that classroom no longer works for the district. Other details were not immediately available from School Department officials, however.
"Students that small shouldn't be walking from classroom to classroom," LaFleur said. "I think this incident really hit home. No parent wants to get a phone call like that. It's a parent's worst nightmare."
PITTSFIELD, Maine — A central Maine school district has fired a substitute art teacher after she told her fourth-grade students they were stupid.
The teacher at the Vickery School in Pittsfield was fired last week.
Superintendent Dominic DePatsy confirmed the disciplinary action Thursday.
DePatsy said the teacher was a substitute and not on the full-time staff. The teacher's name was not made public.
DePatsy tells the Morning Sentinel the move was made to ensure that all students feel "safe and respected."
Parent Leah May, whose daughter is in the class, says the students were given a project and when some asked questions, the teacher started the insults. She says the teacher also called the kids "ignorant" and called one boy "retarded."
The children told their homeroom teacher, who told the principal.
|Suicide in our schoo… on 'It's not just a s…
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The Skills Guide for Facility Managers details 10 must-have traits for those new to the industry
This peer-to-peer networking session will cover best practices for working with young facility professionals
The problem with zombies is that they are already dead — they just don't know it. So you can't actually "kill" one. Then how do you deal with a zombie roof when you have one?
The first thing is to know exactly what you do have. There may still be a shred of life in the roof or at least a possibility of a resurrection of sorts. So the first step is to have a roof consulting architect or engineer thoroughly survey the condition of the roof. This survey, which should include a visual examination, core samples and a moisture survey, will identify roof problems.
The visual exam will provide an overall view of the roof and a starting point for more detailed analysis. The moisture survey will tell you where the worst spots are. Core samples will correlate the results of the moisture survey and provide snap shots of the subsurface conditions. It may be that only one side of the roof is causing the problems over the whole area. Breaking things down like this can help you bring the zombie under control and make it less of a threat.
Once you have analyzed the zombie and found its weakest parts, you can then embark on a plan to correct them. For instance, the situation may be that the flashings have deteriorated to the point where they are hanging in shreds from the parapet walls. That's an easy one: Replace the flashings and the zombie is subdued for a while.
But what if the roof itself is where the problems are? This is where that moisture survey has such benefits. Using the results of the moisture survey, you can look at which areas of the roof are in the most dire straits and replace them section by section. The next year, you can move on to the next worst area and so forth until you can replace the whole thing.
Two important points to remember here. One is that the new patches should be completely isolated from the existing roof by a water dam. Otherwise you will be getting water into the new patch from the old roof. The second item to remember is that whatever material you use to patch the existing roof should be a compatible with what is there now. Do not attempt to patch an asphalt base system with a single-ply membrane and vice versa.
There's another benefit to the moisture survey: It may reveal that it is possible to eliminate the zombie by recovering the existing roof. If the moisture survey shows that less than 25 percent of the roof is damp, it makes a re-cover roof economical because you can leave the dry parts of the roof in place. Code requires that the wet areas be removed, so the economic benefit of a re-cover gets smaller the more wet area you have. After the wet area reaches 25 to 30 percent of the total roof, the difference in the cost between a re-cover and a complete replacement reaches the point where complete replacement makes more economic sense.
Zombie Roofs: Reasons Roof Failure Is Ignored
Visual Roof Exam, Moisture Survey Can Help Spot Zombie Roofs


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Water war pits Georgia vs. Tennessee
It is feared that if today they come for our river, tomorrow they might come for our Jack Danie's or George Dickel. — Proclamation from Tennessee CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. Georgia is thirsty and is looking to sip some of Tennessee's water. It must be because of all of those crackers.
Georgia wants to take land on the Tennessee/Georgia border that it does not own and drain the Tennessee River. Tennesseans see no reason to give Georgians the straw through which they can drink the Volunteer State's milkshake.
Thus, the battle line is drawn. The dispute involves a government survey done by Georgia 200 years ago that it now says was a mistake. It seems that the survey was "good enough for government work" at the time, but it was off by a mile.
Thirty thousand Tennesseans live in the area that Georgia wants to take in this retroactive land grab. Those residents get to go from paying no state income tax to paying 6 percent in Georgia. And for what? Maybe Georgia could spend the money on a better surveyor.
I suggest Tennessee file a countersuit and charge Georgia with Grand Theft Irony.
Just like I meant to buy Google stock at $5 per share but did not, neither of us has a right to go back and recreate something we did not get right the first time. Maybe Georgia can use Apple Maps to help; it's good at helping users discover new places where things aren't.
Georgia barking these threats at Tennessee is like a poodle locked in a cage yapping at you as you walk by. You pay it a little attention because you think it is cute.
I have lived in both states; Tennessee is simply better run than Georgia. Tennessee is called the Volunteer State because it can't make people live there. Politicians know that, so they make the state desirable. Tennessee has zero income tax and is run with relative efficiency. Its citizens have a rugged independence that is appealing. Politicians once tried to institute a state income tax and angry mobs descended on the capital. Just the right amount of fear keeps elected officials at bay.
One Tennessee town knowingly elected a dead man as mayor. The people sent a message: They wanted an elected official who would not steal from them or cheat on his spouse. They also wisely put the UT dental school in Memphis rather than with the undergraduate college in Knoxville. They knew there were not enough teeth in Knoxville to support a dental school.
Northerners are attracted to the South in general and to Tennessee in particular. Some Northern retirees move to Florida, find it to be like New York with 100-degree temperatures, and relocate to Tennessee. They are called "half backers" because they have moved halfway back North. They love Tennessee's climate, people, low taxes and the possibility of secession.
Tennessee hosted the Scopes "Monkey" Trial, learned a lot, and now lets Darwinism take care of its problems. Once two guys got in a bar argument over who was the better shot. One said, "Bet I can shoot a beer can off your head." The other said, "Can noh't." So they went to the parking lot to try and one guy killed the other. Tennessee officials did not waste taxpayer money trying the survivor for manslaughter. He was allowed to plead to the lesser charge of being a redneck, which carries a $50 fine, the same as murder.
The U.S. Justice Department would have gotten involved and given him 20 years in prison — but there was no racial element in the crime, the defendant did not demand an ID from someone wanting to vote and he did not illegally download any music.
It is a fiercely independent state. It did get in trouble with the Justice Department for making Gibson guitars out of illegally harvested wood. Like moonshine, the guitars are handcrafted in Tennessee, where legally manufacturing anything takes all the fun out of it.
Tennessee has great tourist attractions including Graceland, the Jack Daniels Distillery and Dollywood. There is also Euro-Dollywood, which I think is in Kentucky.
Tennessee should stand firm and play hardball on this water kerfuffle. Maybe it could bring in Russian President Vladimir Putin. Now there is a leader who knows how to crack down on Georgians. Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, author and TV/radio commentator. Email him at email@example.com or visit RonaldHart.com.


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Indian Dancers And Indian Singers Are The Representative Of Indian Tradition
Indian dancers and Indian singers are highly being appreciated all over the world due to the originality and uniqueness they possess. Indian music requires promotion all over the world to enable a mark in the world history. Many Indian singers and Indian dancers give their performances in the different shows and events being carried on all over the world. Many institutions are also being set by them at different parts of the world for the individuals who are interested in learning Indian dance or music. Indian dancers and Indian singers can easily be recognized all over the world due to the uniqueness they possess.
Indian music is being considered as a genre of its own. Singers and dancers of India have their own specialty. Indian dancers are being considered as the most talented due to the completeness of the dance with appropriate expressions. Indian singers are known for singing all the ragas with no manipulation of their own rather with originality of ragas. These people represent India at the off shore places during different kind of events be it the music events or other events. Indian artists carry on the performances in the different parts of the world and promote the Indian tradition.
Indian people though now are very much influenced by the western music and western culture. They now dont understand the importance of the music of their own country; they dont understand the deepness of the music that can influence anyone. Some of the Indian singers have started teaching Indian music in the music institute settled abroad. These institutes were introduced for the foreign students who were and are keen to learn Indian music. Similarly many Indian dancers have set their institutes for teaching the Indian dances.
The Indian singers and Indian dancers are taking the Indian tradition to great heights and are promoting it across the world. Indian tradition is been considered the most wide and unique and people are always fond of anything that represents India. Many event management companies invite the Indian dancers, Indian singers and artists to give the performance for the people of any place and arrange events for them scheduling it at different places. People of different countries like the Indian tradition because of the originality and uniqueness of the culture. It is merger of many different cultures which make it more unique and wide. The Indian tradition is now being influenced by the western culture and the teenagers who are expected to promote and represent Indian tradition are more interested in the western culture and tradition.
Indian singers and Indian dancers are the ones who can save the originality and uniqueness of the Indian music and dances. Different cultures can be adopted but on the condition of losing the originality of own culture.
Comments are Closed


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New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane has a question for his readers today: "Should the Times Be a Truth Vigilante?" That is: should Times reporters "challenge 'facts' that are asserted by newsmakers they write about"? Our feeling is... no. No, the Times should just make shit up.
Brisbane wonders whether or not Times should give a reporter "the freedom to call out what he thinks is a lie." Uhhh... hello? No? Arthur?? Why would we want reporters to identify "lies" and "facts"? The Times should give reporters freedom to just write whatever the fuck they want.
Let's use Brisbane's example:
Another example: on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney often says President Obama has made speeches "apologizing for America" [...] perhaps the next time Mr. Romney says the president has a habit of apologizing for his country, the reporter should insert a paragraph saying, more or less:
"The president has never used the word 'apologize' in a speech about U.S. policy or history. Any assertion that he has apologized for U.S. actions rests on a misleading interpretation of the president's words."
Would you rather read Romney's assertion unchallenged? Or with the amending paragraph? Or would you rather read... this:
On the campaign trail, Romney often says that President Obama has made speeches "apologizing for America." But has the president ever apologized for America? A review of the president's statements reveals that yes, once, he apologized for America, in a dirigible high above the Pacific Ocean, while engaged in single combat with Wolverine for control of the East Asian heroin trade.


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By Joel Francis
The Kansas City Star
Chris Isaak has made a career working of the blueprint established by Elvis Presley. The debt is apparent in Isaak's music, hairstyle and demeanor, a cool, effortless charm to the humor and charisma that plays equally well in both music and acting. So it's only natural, then, that Isaak pay homage to Sun Records, the label that launched Presley.
After driving through some of his favorite originals -– including a stretched-out "Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing" and reliably hypnotic "Wicked Games" -– Isaak devoted the second half of the night to Sun. The arrangements stayed faithful to the original recordings, but the crowd's energetic response showed there is still a hunger for this material.
It takes courage to cover songs as beloved and well-known as "Ring of Fire" and "Great Balls of Fire." Isaak pulled it off, in part because those songs are right in his wheelhouse anyway, but also because of his obvious respect for, and love of, the material. The upbeat numbers also gave guitarist Hershel Yatovitz plenty of space to unleash several of his rowdiest solos.
Isaak performed most of the main set wearing a sparkly, sequined ensemble that looked like a Nudie suit designed by Lady Gaga. He poked fun of the outfit several times during the night and emerged for the encore in an even more outrageous mirror ball suit.
The tone was warm and casual. Both Isaak and Yatovitz ventured into the crowd. After winding through the main level during "Don't Leave Me On My Own," (with frequent stops for pictures) Isaak delivered "Love Me Tender" from the front of the balcony. Later, Isaak introduced pianist Scott Plunkett as the type of musician children could look up to. After the applause died, Parker promptly produced a large bottle from his piano and took a long swig.
Fans still shuffling to their seats three songs into the set probably regretted their truancy. Although Isaak performed a generous two-dozen songs, most of the songs delivered could have fit comfortably on the A-side of a 45. Isaak ended the night with a gorgeous solo acoustic version of "Forever Blue." The ending seemed premature, but at the same time it didn't feel like he'd left anything out.
Setlist: Beautiful Homes, Dancin', Somebody's Crying, Don't Leave Me On My Own, Love Me Tender, I Want Your Love, San Francisco Days, Wicked Games, Speak of the Devil, Let Me Down Easy, Go Walking Down There > American Boy, Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing, My Happiness > Ring of Fire, Dixie Fried, How's the World Treating You?, Live It Up, Miss Pearl, Great Balls of Fire. Encore: Blue Hotel, Big Wide Wonderful World, Can't Help Falling In Love, (Oh) Pretty Woman, Forever Blue.
Keep reading:
KC Recalls: Elvis Presley at Kemper Arena
Talking King Records with Jon Hartley Fox


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3D printers have become all the rage in STEM classrooms. I've been salivating over them since they first became affordable for schools. We purchased one at Walden School just before Thanksgiving and I've kept it busy ever since. However, like any new technology, if I didn't have a long-term plan for how to use it or a clear purpose in mind, it will be a new toy for a month or so and then sit idly in a corner gathering dust. They are great for someone who is willing to experiment to get print jobs to work consistently. I had quite a few failures at first, and still have them occasionally. The printers aren't cheap and neither is the plastic. But with these caveats in mind, they can be truly useful additions to your STEM classes.
I've taught 3D modeling classes for many years, and have incorporated 3D technologies into many of my science projects. I've written about several ways of doing this in previous blog posts, including the last post on modeling Greek philosophers in 3D. My students have become proficient at modeling any kind of object they need, so a 3D printer was the next logical step. Since I am teaching mostly engineering, computer science, and design classes this fall, we have need of a way for students to manufacture prototypes of their designs. For these reasons I convinced the powers that be to purchase a 3D printer.
After a lot of research, I decided to buy a Monoprice dual extruding printer – available for about $700. It came within three days of placing the order (woo-hoo!) and my IB Design Technology students had it assembled in about two minutes. Then came the process of learning how to use it to get consistently successful prints.
This isn't as easy a process as some may think – if you have the notion that it's like plugging in an ink jet printer and sending a print job from any software (in other words, plug and play) then you haven't studied up enough on how these printers work.
The process is called additive manufacturing and involves creating an object by extruding a thin plastic filament onto a flat print platform. The platform moves slowly downward (z-axis) as the extruder moves sideways and in and out (x and y-axes) to build one layer at a time. Think of using a hot glue gun to build up a contour map of a landform. For this all to happen, the 3D object must be split into layers by the printer's software and a pathway generated for the extruding nozzle so that it lays down the filament without it getting tangled or dripping. This pathway/layer split is referred to as g-code.
To get the 3D model into a form that can be split into g-code, it must be saved or converted into an STL format. There are online converters for doing this. Of course, even before that, you have to know how to make the 3D objects in the first place unless you are content to simply print out someone else's models, such as those found on Thingiverse or at the NASA 3D website. In that case, you aren't realizing the potential of this device for modeling, engineering, and prototyping of student-created projects.
If this process sounds complicated, it is. But that's not the half of it. If your models have overhanging parts, the printer will just create a lot of plastic "boogers" (see the failed print of Heraclitus and the "brains" hanging out of his disconnected skull to see what I mean). So the software creates supports or scaffolds to hold up the overhangs, which must then be removed and sanded down. The software also creates a raft or grid of plastic underneath the model to help it stick to the print plate. That is the grid you see under the failed Heraclitus.
There are many problems that can occur. If you print large, flat objects with square corners, then the plastic can cool too quickly with both sides exposed and the corners can peel up and curl. Although the print platforms are usually covered with a tacky tape such as Kaptan, you can still have print jobs come loose and start sliding around as the extruder nozzle moves. This is what happened with the failed Heraclitus – it did well up to his eyebrows, but the continued wiggling of the nozzle head caused the raft to break loose, so the printer continued the job off to the side as the model slid away in stages. Kind of cool looking, but the print wasted eight hours and some plastic. Now I have to start it over again and tape it down better.
I have also had an issue with the workflow itself. To make Heraclitus (and Democritus and Aristotle) I started with a free program called Make Human, which allows one to set morph targets on a generic human figure to make the features look a particular way. I loaded in photos of the philosophers to use as referents. Then I exported the model as an OBJ and imported it into Sculptris, another free program done by Pixologic, the same company that does the leading character modeler Z-Brush. It works like a ball of clay that you push and pull into shape. I used it to add the hair, beards, and eyebrows. Then I exported it again as an OBJ and imported it into my full 3D modeler, called Carrara by Daz3D (but you could use Maya or Blender, etc.). In Carrara, I decapitated the head from the body using a Boolean command, then added the base and letters. I finally exported it as a 3DS model, converted it to STL using Online 3D Converter, then loaded it into the ReplicatorG software for generating the g-code. By the time I was done, this model had been through five different software packages.
This is a complicated process, and the model can fail anywhere along the way. I've had some trouble getting Carrara to export the models correctly – it says they are there, but have no data in them. I think these are models that have too many polygons, such as those where the entire head and hair are done from Sculptris. Using Make Human keeps the head model's polygon count reasonable.
I've tried making 3D terrains of Mars and the Moon based on Mars Global Surveyor MOLA and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LOLA data. I load the grayscale heightmaps into Bryce (another Daz3D program), then export a 3DS file into Carrara to build a base and text. The final results have had issues with holes in the bottoms of craters, text that doesn't show up well, and insufficient vertical exaggeration to see any details. I also had trouble with the first attempt to print this terrain (of Mare Fecunditatis on the Moon) because I only had one shell and had the printer on fastest nozzle extrusion speed and travel rate, so the top was not solid enough.
But . . . with all these problems, I am succeeding now more often than failing. That is what engineering is all about, after all – you have to learn how to fail until you succeed. I've tried a variety of different print jobs, found out the trouble spots and (mostly) how to correct for them, and I am ready to start printing out student projects now that we are approaching the end of the semester.
On Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015, I presented a session at the Utah County Hackathon sponsored by the local 4-H Club. I took the 3D printer along as well as some laptop computers from my school and taught about 24 kids how to use Sculptris and how to do 3D printing. The session was a great success. There was a man named Colby there who had quite a bit of experience with 3D printing. He gave some advice that I will try out soon: First, I can get better resolution by standing my terrain models on their side. These printers have better resolution in x and y-axes than in the vertical z-axis. I just need to build some buttress supports to hold it up that can be removed later. He suggested using PEI (polyetherimide) tape, which becomes tacky when heated on the print platform, then less sticky when cool, so jobs won't slip while printing but still come off cleanly when cooled down. He gave me some ideas for better temperature settings – I might have my platform temperature too high. There are still many experiments to try.
So, to summarize the lessons learned:
1.) Don't expect a 3D printer to work perfectly right out of the box. There are a lot of tweaks to do, including calibration, print platform leveling, temperature adjustment, feedrate adjustment, etc, etc. to do before you will be consistently successful. Read up on the forums and ask lots of questions before deciding which printer to buy, and be prepared to experiment.
2.) Unless you are content with printing pre-created models, you should be ready to teach (or facilitate) your students learning how to do 3D modeling in the first place, and how to convert their models into the STL format needed for 3D printing. There are many fairly easy to learn 3D programs out there, including Sculptris, Sketch-Up, Tinkercad, and Make Human. Maya is also free for students and teachers, but the learning curve is steep. Blender is open source and free, but the interface is hard to learn even for experienced modelers.
3.) Try to get a printer with a heated print platform and variable temperatures and extrusion rates. One size does not fit all jobs here, especially if you want to print with more than one type of plastic. ABS expands more when heated than PLA plastic, so it tends to curl more as it cools down. It also requires a higher nozzle temperature to melt it.
4.) Keep an eye on print jobs. My failed Heraclitus started out well, so I taped the edges and left it overnight to print. Somewhere around six hours into the job, it detached from the print plate and caused the fatal print defects shown. Print jobs also sometimes stop for no reason. You won't be able to start them up from where they left off. It will just be wasted plastic. You must keep trying, and be patient.
5.) Have a plan and a purpose for why you need a 3D printer. Otherwise they can be frustrating and ultimately unsatisfactory for you. If you haven't integrated 3D data analysis or modeling into your classes already then a 3D printer will be useless for you. If you want some ideas how to do this, look at some of my other posts, such as this one on creating 3D models of periodic properties of the elements: https://elementsunearthed.com/2014/05/10/visualizing-periodic-properties-of-the-elements/ . Here is a photo of a 3D print job done from one such model, showing electronegativity, as well as a model of the molecule for Tyrian Purple dye.
6.) Some supplemental materials will help. Buy some Aqua Net Super Hold odorless hair spray (purple can) and spray it onto a paper towel, then rub it onto the tape on the print platform to improve the stickiness. Even with that, the jobs might still work loose. Some people use glue sticks or a gel adhesive. You will need a roll of Kaptan or PEI or blue painters tape to put on the platform if the tape starts to peel up.
7.) Avoid large flat objects with sharp corners. They tend to curl up when cooling. If you build in supports, you can print up to a 45° angle without scaffolding, and therefore take advantage of the better resolution of the x and y-axes.
Good luck. Let me know what types of projects you attempt, and we can swap ideas. As you can see from the photos here, there are many possibilities for chemistry classes alone.


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Haiti Earthquake (Updated Imagery)
Wednesday, 20th January 2010 by Alex Turnbull
Last week's catastrophic 7.0 earthquake in Haiti is estimated to have killed 200,000 people, injured 250,000 and left 1.5 million people homeless.
Following the quake, Google quickly released a KML file that included imagery taken by the GeoEye satellite within hours of the occurrence of the disaster.
Today brings the news that Haiti has within the last few hours been hit by a second, 6.1 magnitude earthquake. The extent of the damage caused by this strong aftershock is not yet clear.
This sad news coincides with Google's addition of even more up to date imagery to Google Maps and Earth. The new imagery was gathered on January 17th (Sunday), and must be aerial imagery, as the resolution is extremely high – somewhere around 15cm per pixel.
Here we can see a makeshift camp set up for survivors – and the SOS message they have scrawled on the ground nearby.
We saw the destruction of the presidential palace in our post last week, but this new imagery really hits home just how cataclysmic the quake was.
We can see a US plane at the airport which appears to be unloading supplies, but as is being reported widely, this aid isn't reaching the people fast enough. Aid group Partners in Health estimate that 20,000 people are dying each day who could have been saved with access to proper medical attention.
There are so many factors compounding Haiti's problems it's almost overwhelming. For example, Haiti's national prison was heavily damaged in the quake – allowing a reported 4,000 prisoners to escape. They're currently in the process of reclaiming old territory, starting gang wars, and attacking the police and UN forces.
A spokesperson for the UN called this "the worst disaster the UN has ever confronted", and reading through the continually updated Wikipedia page on the disaster gives some idea of what they're up against.
If you wish to donate to the efforts to provide aid to the people of Haiti, you may visit Google's Disaster Relief page.1
Additionally, if you're a Mac user, consider buying some independent software – all applications bought through Indie Relief will donate all proceeds to Haiti. Note that this only applies today, January 20th. ↩


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What's new in Version 0.99.4
Many new Level Editor Features were added ! Take a look :)
New Box
The New Box got new High Quality Graphics and can be Invisible and Empty.
Level Updates
Many Levels are now in the New Level format and are optimized or even rebuild.
Added Falling Platform
The Falling Platform does shake if Maryo touched it and will fall to the Ground after a short amount of time.
First Enemy Boss
The First Enemy Boss is now waiting in the last Castle and wants a Challenge :)
Better Savegames
Savegames now saves already activated Objects and collected Items.
Level Editor Optimized
The Level Editor now displays the Massivetype with a different Color and has a Help Screen viewable with F1.
You can download the new version here.


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The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will look into accusations by Mozilla that Microsoft is restricting access to important programming tools for browsers that will run in Windows RT, a political blog reported Friday.
The Hill cited unnamed aides to Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, as the source for its report.
[ InfoWorld's Woody Leonhard examines the Windows RT browser complaint in: Windows RT 'isn't Windows' | Get your websites up to speed with HTML5 today using the techniques in InfoWorld's HTML5 Deep Dive PDF how-to report. | Learn how to secure your Web browsers in InfoWorld's "Web Browser Security Deep Dive" PDF guide. ]
Last week, Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, said Microsoft was withholding access to APIs -- application programming interfaces -- that Mozilla considers crucial for building a browser that can compete with Microsoft's own Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) on ARM devices.
In a blog post last week, Harvey Anderson, Mozilla's chief counsel, raised the antitrust flag, saying that Microsoft's blocking of the APIs "seems to represent the very behavior the [Department of Justice]-Microsoft settlement sought to prohibit."
Microsoft is no longer under U.S. government scrutiny in the wake of the landmark 1998 antitrust case, but the eventual settlement required Microsoft to share its APIs with third-party vendors. Microsoft has repeatedly promised to continue that sharing.
In answer to follow-up questions Friday, however, Anderson seemed to back away from any legal recourse. "We think the most effective way to resolve this is through critical discussion and transparency of the issues rather than through legal action," he said.
Google has said it shares Mozilla's concern over the Windows RT browser situation.
Microsoft has declined to comment on Mozilla's accusations.
Kohl's office was unavailable for comment Sunday.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is firstname.lastname@example.com.
See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.
Read more about browsers in Computerworld's Browsers Topic Center.
This story, "Senate to look into Mozilla's Windows RT browser complaint" was originally published by Computerworld.


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Building Forrest
Getting the Forrest source
Step-by-step Subversion (SVN) instructions for developers
- Make sure you have a recent release of a Subversion client installed and properly configured.
- Read the ASF notes about source repositories and version control and see Forrest's developer notes about our SVN.
- At a command prompt, enter 'svn co http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/forrest/trunk forrest' (committers should replace http with https).
- This will create a directory called "forrest" where the Forrest source will be stored.
- Pay attention to README.txt and LICENSE.txt and NOTICE.txt files.
Whenever you want to update your Forrest source tree to the current version, change to the top-level "forrest" directory and invoke 'svn update'.
To see what changes you've made, invoke 'svn status'
SVN is really powerful. See Version Control with Subversion - the opensource SVN book.
Sources are also available in the release
Each release of forrest contains a copy of all sources as at the time of the release. So the building instructions below do apply to that. Of course the svn method described above will provide the most up-to-date version for developers.
Building and installing Forrest
To build Forrest, change directory to 'forrest/main', and then type 'build' on Windows or './build.sh' on Unix. (Requires Java 1.5) If everything is successful, you should see a message similar to:
*----------------------------------------------------------------- | Installation notice *----------------------------------------------------------------- | You have built the X.Y-dev version of Forrest. | Please set the environment variable FORREST_HOME point to | /svn/forrest | It is recommended to add | unix: $FORREST_HOME/bin: to your $PATH | win: %FORREST_HOME%\bin; to your %PATH% | Then do 'forrest -projecthelp' to list options for the 'forrest' command | More help at http://forrest.apache.org/ *-----------------------------------------------------------------
As the message says, you need to add the distribution's bin/ ("binary") directory to your PATH variable, so the 'forrest' command is available everywhere:
[~]$ cd /path/to/svn/forrest [/svn/forrest]$ export FORREST_HOME=`pwd` [/svn/forrest]$ export PATH=$PATH:$FORREST_HOME/bin
Run Forrest, run!
Forrest is now ready to go. To view and edit the local copy of Forrest core documentation, cd to site-author and do 'forrest run' to see the local webapp using the bundled Jetty server. Edit something in content/xdocs/*.xml see the immediate effect.
The document Using Forrest is your next step.


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South Carolina Upstate has 5 scorers in double figures as it obliterates Hiwassee 90-36
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Five South Carolina Upstate players scored in double figures as the Spartans rolled to a 90-36 victory over Hiwassee Monday night in a nonconference showdown.
South Carolina Upstate (1-1) jumped to an 18-0 lead, sparked by back-to-back 3-pointers by Torrey Craig. Adrian Rodgers capped the run with another 3 before Hiwassee finally scored with 13:37 left in the first half on Jeff Golden's layup.
Craig led all scorers with 16 points, while Rodgers and Bruce Haynes finished with 15, Ty Greene had 11 and Ricardo Glenn had 10.
Craig netted 14 of his points in the first half, when he was 5-of-7 shooting and 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.
The Spartans shot 55.7 percent from the field (34 of 61), going over 50 percent for the second straight game.
Rico Stanly led Hiwassee (1-5) with eight points.


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WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The Trump administration told lawmakers the US government has reached a deal to put Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp back in business after it pays a significant fine and makes management changes, a senior congressional aide said on Friday (May 25).
US President Donald Trump appeared to confirm the deal in a tweet late on Friday. "I closed it down then let it reopen with high level security guarantees, change of management and board, must purchase US parts and pay a US$1.3 Billion fine."
The reported deal involving China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker ran into immediate resistance in Congress, where Democrats and Trump's fellow Republicans accused him of bending to pressure from Beijing to ease up on a company that US intelligence officials have suggested poses a significant risk to US national security.
ZTE was banned in April from buying US technology components for seven years for breaking an agreement reached after it violated US sanctions against Iran and North Korea. After ZTE makes a series of changes it would now be allowed to resume business with US companies, including chipmaker Qualcomm Inc.
The deal, earlier communicated to officials on Capitol Hill by the Commerce Department, requires ZTE to pay a substantial fine, place US compliance officers at the company and change its management team, the aide said.
The Commerce Department would then lift an order issued in April preventing ZTE from buying US products. ZTE shut down most of its production after the ruling was announced.
Fox News said Trump told them on Thursday that he had negotiated the US$1.3 billion (S$1.74 billion) fine with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a phone call.
ZTE, which is publicly traded but whose largest shareholder is a Chinese state-owned enterprise, agreed last year to pay a nearly US$900 million penalty and open its books to a US monitor. The penalty stemmed from for breaking an agreement after it was caught illegally shipping US goods to Iran and North Korea, in an investigation dating to the Obama administration.
The company has lost over US$3 billion since the April 15th ban on doing business with US suppliers, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Trump on Tuesday floated a plan to fine ZTE up to US$1.3 billion and shake up its management as his administration considered rolling back more severe penalties that have crippled the company.
Responding to news of the administration's deal with ZTE, Republican Senator Marco Rubio tweeted: "Yes they have a deal in mind. It is a great deal ... for #ZTE & China. #China crushes US companies with no mercy & they use these telecomm companies to spy & steal from us." Rubio, as well as Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Chris Van Hollen, said Congress should act to stop Trump from letting ZTE get back into business.
"If the administration goes through with this reported deal, President Trump would be helping make China great again," Schumer said Friday on Twitter. "Would be a huge victory for President Xi, and a dramatic retreat by Pres Trump. Both parties in Congress should come together to stop this deal in its tracks."
US intelligence and US law enforcement agencies have serious concerns that ZTE and other Chinese telecommunications firms use their equipment to gather intelligence on US citizens.
The US Department of Defense has also stopped selling ZTE's mobile phones and modems in stores on its military bases, citing potential security risks.
William Evanina, the acting director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said at his May 15 confirmation hearing that he would not use a ZTE phone nor recommend that anyone in a sensitive position in government use one.
Chinese officials sought a pullback on ZTE as part of any broader deal to prevent a trade war between the world's two biggest economies. US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is scheduled to visit China next week for another round of talks. White House legislative director Marc Short told PBS on Friday that Ross "would be making that announcement in the coming day" of a resolution of the ZTE issue.
ZTE needs US components for its mobile phones and network equipment. US companies provide an estimated 25 per cent to 30 per cent of components in ZTE's equipment.
As part of the agreements ZTE made last year it dismissed four senior employees.
Shares of ZTE's US suppliers traded higher on Friday. Optical networking equipment maker Acacia Communications Inc, which got 30 per cent of 2017 revenue from ZTE, rose 4.4 per cent. Optical component company Oclaro Inc, which received 18 per cent of its fiscal 2017 revenue from ZTE, rose 2.7 per cent.
Reuters reported earlier this week citing sources that a proposed trade deal with China would lift the ZTE ban. In return, China would eliminate tariffs on US agriculture or agree to buy more farm products from the United States.


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Comments From the Other Side - Bobcats 12/11
I don't know why I just thought about this (I may have repressed it)
But it just dawned on me that Ray Allen will be getting clean passes from Rondo around the perimeter all night long. * checking the fridge for alcohol supply *
Please God, don't let Rajon Rondo destroy D.J
Rondo is good, but I think over rated
14 assists a game rates pretty damn high in my book
Does anyone else have a REALLY uncomfortable feeling about tonight's game?
They've only won their last 9 in a row...they are due for a loss, and we are due for all of our players playing in unison. Ok...dream over.
The question is, do we lose by 30 or not.
That's plenty of LB pictures. Where did you got them?
I just Googled "cranky old bastard who's best coaching years are well past him and who checked out over the summer and shouldn't have come into the season as head coach" and these are what came up.
I unfortunately have the Boston feed - which means that one eyed Celtics tool bag announcer all night.
Was KG just asking the ref to smell his arm pit?
A point guard like Steve Nash would put up crazy numbers with that offense too
"A point guard like Steve Nash" Not exactly lowering the bar, there
Is this TD garden or cable box? There are so many people cheering for the Celtics. Are we that bad?
KG, with his flapping gums, looks like one of those players you just end up punching.
Have obviously never met this Celtics tool bag announcer but I'm not sure I have ever wanted to reverse chop someone to the throat as much as I want to reverse chop him to the throat.
Tommy Heinsohn? He was a 19/9 player back in the day.
Really???? If he ran his mouth on the court anything like the way he runs his mouth in the announcers chair he would have made Gary Payton seem like Marcel Marceau.
Kwame has veeeery bad hands
DJ needs more minutes, and Livingston needs less. So why does it feel like the trend is going in the opposite direction? Just leave, LB. And take Wallace with you.
Somebody needs to check that backboard, the amount of bricks these punk kids have been throwing its sure to be damaged.
Najera seems like the kind of guy who might punch KG in the mouth. If he does, he becomes immortal in my eyes.
Seems like the Box is the Celts home away from home with the support they have tonight.
First team to 60 wins?
Why do we still have 23 points?
Cause this team Is one of the worst teams in the NBA
Classic Big Baby flop
32 points in half? What an awfense!
Kwame Brown NEeds Garnett's tenacity
This team needs Garnett's tenacity
LOL Diaw was too fat for Jesus Shuttlesworth to pass around
I love watching the offense when Jack and Diaw aren't getting any touches. A beautiful thing to watch.
They are handing tech's for everything this year, but after that travel call it was ok for Rondo to kick the ball away. Granted it was a soft kick but the ref still had to run and grab it.
Sad thing is,
It's not like Boston is playing awesome tonight
Rajon Rondo with the first 5x5 since 2006
7 pts 5 reb 8 ast 5 stls 6 TOs
So today's rotation has really just left me confused
It's the same as it's always been. Keep those with the potential to explode on offense planted firmly on the bench. Play the guys with a ceiling so low that their head has already crashed through the roof. Rinse, lather, repeat.
Marquis Daniels with the tip-in to make it 74-53 Cue Steve: "That's the killer."
Yes, that shot was the killer. Right.
Fire LB
Why cant he just retire and write an autobiography and die like most other old famous people.
This team is uglier than my mother in law
Nate Robinson with a "dagger" to a corpse long since writhe with rigomortis
Jordan is probably pissed and embarrassed which means somebody is gonna get the business
I still say the Bobcats will turn it around, I think this might be the final straw that leads to Tyrus starting, I expect DJ to comeback and play much better after this
By the way, the boss has left early......
Probably rigging the locker room with strategically placed C4
I think it bears repeating 92-59 against Boston last year
93-62 against Boston this year At this rate, my children will be senile by the time we make it a competitive game against the Celtics.
Boston is a better team, but the Bobcats played scared tonight
Like they were completely intimidated by this team, or like they gave up.
The Celtics bench is destroying us at home.
Just got home and guessed we lost by 50
Imagine my joy that we just lost by 31


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Another 21-day Meditation Series from the Chopra Center (link) was very inspirational for my Personal Spirituality exploration. Spirituality exploration is one of my action plan items this year; as I worked through the holistic life domains in my Retirement Transition Process (see my book on Amazon), this was a domain area I felt needed more attention.
While I have regularly practiced gratitude as part of my morning journaling, this recent meditation series on Gratitude really expanded my perception of how to practice gratitude and what the impact of doing that could be.
The Practice of Gratitude is a Spiritual Path of the Heart.
The core idea in the series was to activate gratitude with intention, in all things, at all times. Practicing positivity (acceptance, gratitude) changes brain patterns as optimism and resilience grows. Growing gratitude awareness and life acceptance is also building spiritual awareness.
Become more aware of what you are gratefulfor (writing it down, articulating it specifically) creates a feeling of abundance. Warmth and light flows as gratitude comes from the heart, bringing peace, calm, and joy. Gratitude awakens the bigness of the little things in life. Becoming aware of the beauty, vibrancy, and abundance around you brings more meaning to life. Live with a sense of amazement. Appreciate nature. Look at the world with wonder. Love life.
Gratitude is sincere thankfulness for the blessings you've received, independent of anything. Not earned, not entitled to, not received instead of someone else getting it. Entitlement is feeling you deserve it. The "what's in it for me" (which can also lead to feelings of envy and resentment) can be isolating. Gratitude expands you as it connects you to the Universe.
The meditation series spent time on recognizing that your individual worthiness does not need to be "deserved" or earned. I can be thankful for the goodness in my life even if I have not "suffered" for it. This concept was personally liberating!
An interesting and challenging question was, "What about myself am I grateful for?"
Your perception changes the experience. I have often used this approach when working and mentoring others, helping someone to see a situation differently. It's harder to do on yourself. However, thinking about a "negative" experience with gratitude was another way to intentionally activate gratitude. When dealing with that negative experience – feeling stressed, tired, annoyed, frustrated, angry – intentional gratitude can re-energize, renew, soothe. It's about meeting the negative with gratitude and recognizing there is a gift in every moment.
Gratitude in the moment also creates acceptance and compassion. I found this simple phrase compelling:
Accept. Appreciate. Act with Kindness.
Practicing gratitude means choosing compassion and not judgment. It's hard to be judgmental and grateful at the same time! We are all human beings. We all have bad days. Judgment is about feeling right and having the ego drive our thoughts. Instead, make space for empathy and find reasons for being thankful, not critical. Show a generosity of the spirit and speak with kindness.
This mediation series gave me some great insights (and challenges) into how to more intentionally practice gratitude in daily living. I continue to work on being kinder, being less judgmental, and verbalizing appreciation.
I know many bloggers actively express gratitude in their posts. How do you practice gratitude daily?
Picture Credit: Pexels


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In order to carry out the provisions of this chapter the Secretary may accept and utilize such voluntary and uncompensated services of Federal, State, and local officers and employees as are available, and he may appoint and fix the compensation of attorneys, engineers, and experts and he may, subject to the civil-service laws, appoint such other officers and employees as he may find necessary and prescribe their duties. The Secretary is authorized, from sums appropriated pursuant to section 906 of this title, to make such expenditures (including expenditures for personal services; supplies and equipment; lawbooks and books of reference; directories and periodicals; travel expenses; rental at the seat of government and elsewhere; the purchase, operation, or maintenance of passenger-carrying vehicles; and printing and binding) as are appropriate and necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter.
7 U.S. Code § 911 - Acceptance of services of Federal or State officers; application of civil service laws; expenditures for supplies and equipment
Provisions which authorized the appointment and fixing of compensation of attorneys, engineers, and experts "without regard to the provisions of the civil service laws applicable to officers and employees of the United States" were omitted from the Code as obsolete and superseded. Such appointments are now subject to the civil service laws unless specifically excepted by those laws or by laws enacted subsequent to Executive Order 8743, Apr. 23, 1941, issued by the President pursuant to act Nov. 26, 1940, ch. 919, title I, § 1, 54 Stat. 1211, which covered most excepted positions into the classified (competitive) civil service. The Order is set out as a note under section 3301 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. As to the compensation of such personnel, sections 1202 and 1204 of the Classification Act of 1949, 63 Stat. 972, 973, repealed the Classification Act of 1923 and all other laws or parts of laws inconsistent with the 1949 Act. The Classification Act of 1949 was repealed by Pub. L. 89–554, Sept. 6, 1966, § 8(a), 80 Stat. 632, and reenacted as chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of Title 5. Section 5102 of Title 5 now contains the applicability provisions of the 1949 Act, and section 5103 of Title 5 authorizes the Office of Personnel Management to determine the applicability to specific positions and employees.
1994—Pub. L. 103–354 substituted "Secretary" for "Administrator" in two places.
1949—Act Oct. 28, 1949, inserted "title I," in credit of act May 20, 1936.


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Hyperloop One is well on its way to developing the world's first fully operational Hyperloop transportation system. The company revealed its progress on Tuesday at the Middle East Rail conference in Dubai, sharing pictures and footage of its Nevada development site dubbed "DevLoop."
Taking Elon Musk's Hyperloop concept of a levitating pod in a low-pressure tube, Hyperloop One has developed what is so far the only full-scale, full-system Hyperloop test site. Back in May 2016, the company successfully tested its propulsion system and says it plans to test the entire apparatus this year. If successful, the first commercial application for the transportation system would be linking Dubai to Abu Duabi, a one-and-a-half-hour trip that would be reduced to just 12 minutes.
On it's website, Hyperloop One says that it hopes to be transporting cargo by 2020 and passengers by 2021.


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Tonight Mingle Media TV will be at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in the California Ballroom Downtown Los Angeles, CA interviewing the nominees for the 37th Annual Daytime Creative Arts and Entertainment Emmy Awards.
Now, we want you to know how excited we are not just because we'll be their covering it on the Red Carpet but because Robin Craig, writer of the Houston Chronicle Blog: Today's Widow and Host of Robin Craig LIVE on Mingle Media TV, is up for her 3rd Emmy. Yes, she has 2 Emmy's for her work in television and is up for a 3rd.
We wish her the very best as she flies in from Houston today and is going to rush over to the event in a few hours… don't worry, we'll be there and have lots of photos and video interviews to share with you later!!
About: The Creative Arts Emmys are a class of Emmy Awards presented in recognition of technical and other similar achievements in American television programming. They are commonly awarded to behind-the-scenes personnel such as art directors, costume designers, cinematographers, casting directors, and sound editors.
The Creative Arts category also includes awards for outstanding animated programs and guest acting.


text: On Wed, 15 Sep 2004, Geoff Galitz wrote: > > > Hello folks, > > > We have a strange problem. We have 20 nodes with SE7501CW2 > motherboards, and about 5 of them seem to fail their POST and reboot > only when the gigabit NIC is plugged into a gigabit switch. If we > unplug it, the node functions normally. If we plug it in after the > system > comes up, it crashes immediately. > > My only thought at this point is auto-negotiation, but I cannot seem to > turn off auto-negotiation on these motherboard/NIC combos. Ethtool > fails > to change the parameters on the cards. > > Any other ideas? It sounds like a BIOS problem, either on the mobo or the NIC. I'd a) contact the manufacturer(s) or at least look at their website to see if there is a FAQ or if this is a known problem with a known fix. I'd also suggest (if this doesn't yield useful fruit) reflashing to the latest BIOS if the systems aren't current, and maybe falling back a revision if they are. rgb > > -geoff > > > > > > http://www.galitz.org > > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


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Split ticketing or buying separate tickets for individual legs of a journey instead of a conventional 'through' ticket because it works out cheaper may be a little known quirk of the UK rail fares system but it's completely legal to use a combination of tickets under condition 19 of the National Rail Conditions of Carriage on the condition that the trains you travel on stop at all the places where the tickets are split.
Split ticketing fare anomalies normally occur because the prices for different sections of a route are set by different train companies. For this reason you will normally find the biggest savings on journeys going across the country, particularly on routes operated by CrossCountry Trains. That said split ticketing savings are available on direct trains, although less common, and on trains in and out of London too so it's always worth a look.
The train companies (TOCs) have long been aware of the savings from splitting tickets but none of them offer it as an option on their websites. This is probably because they have calculated that it would lose them millions in revenue if 'split tickets' became more generally available. Prior to the launch of raileasy.trainsplit.com travellers in the know who wanted split tickets would have to spend hours trawling through hundreds of fares and then book each leg separately. The new site puts money back into the pockets of the consumer by taking this insider knowledge and making it easy and available to the man in the street, who will now not need to work out anything themselves.
If you want to buy split tickets, the journey planner at raileasy.trainsplit.com is your best bet. Unlike rival apps it handles return journeys as well as singles and can handle multiple splits on a journey. Similarly it's the only place online that finds splits and also automatically books the correct combination of tickets for you ensuring you don't make a mistake, which could lead to a costly penalty fare. The ticket office at the station may be able to assist in splitting your train tickets but isn't obliged to and given the complexity of the rail network the staff may not even be aware of the best combination of tickets.


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Hello there, it has been a long time since I spoke to my readers directly. It has been since April that I have written an update article. So, yeah, it's time to talk about the rest of 2019 and what that means for my blog. Without further ado, let's get into the updates because there is quite a lot to talk about!
Personal things
I think that 2019 will be the strongest year so far. A lot has been changing in my personal life making my schedule and day to day life quite unpredictable.
In the past four months, my work schedule changed. I had to work on Saturdays, but I had Thursdays off.
Now, starting from next week, something quite big is happening in my professional career. I signed a contract to work as an administrative and IT guy in one of my local schools. This is a personal dream of mine. A lot of people in my family have worked or are working in the education sector. From science teachers to mentoring of new teachers. I'm 5 generations in succession. Now, yes, I'm the first who isn't going to be teaching… But, I'm honestly considering to start those evening classes again to get my teaching degree. But, that's something I'm considering. If I'm going to start classes again, I'll surely update you, readers.
You might have noticed that since late 2018 the number of articles that I'm writing and publishing is dropping. Usually, I write 4 articles each month, but lately, it's only three articles a month or even fewer.
On top of that, I'm still recovering from my bad mental health that started last year. A side effect of that bad mental health is that I actually had a writing burn-out making it even more difficult for me to focus on my writing. I have scrapped quite a lot of articles because they didn't turn out quite right or weren't up to the quality I wanted them to be.
While I could take a break from writing, I don't think that's the right solution for me. I just love writing a bit too much. Thankfully, I think I have a solution. You might have noticed that in the last few articles that I have written, that my writing style has changed a bit and that I'm experimenting with a few unique ideas to change things up. This is having a great effect on me and I'm getting back into writing.
Anyways, before I start talking about the blog updates, I want to mention that a lot has changed to my personal set-up in the past few months. I have upgraded my personal gaming rig with a new graphics card. I upgraded my GeForce 660 to a GeForce 1050. So, I now have a 4GB graphics card in my gaming rig. I also use a newer monitor that supports a newer standard of HDMI and things of that nature. Apart from that, I have bought myself a mouse mat and a wrist rest. This helps me to not have RSI issues while I'm writing or while I'm gaming.
In terms of my old retro computers, I have outfitted my Windows XP machine with an old WiFi card, so I now can mess around with those titles and get the latest version of all the drivers without having to use some sort of crazy setup. I also refurbished an old computer to a spare Windows XP machine. On top of that, I busted out all my computers and consoles to make them run more quite and have a longer life.
Blog updates
Before I get into the updates to my blog, I want to mention something about collabs. If you are interested in being a part of a big collab like my Zelda and Tomb Raider retrospective, I have good news. My friend, the Well-Red Mage, who organized the Final Fantasy retrospective together with OverThinkery is organizing a new one. It's almost like Red and I take turns in doing one big retrospective. I guess that it's my turn at the end of next year.
In all seriousness, the reason I'm talking about this is that I'm actually going to be a part of this big collab. It's going to be about Mario and we are still looking for writers. More information can be found in the linked article. But this time, I'll be helping Red with the admin and behind the scenes work in this whole collab. So, yeah.
Speaking off collabs, I'm also going to be a part of NormalHappenings' Characters That Define Us. I'm going to write a special article about my love for the character of Lara Croft. While I have sort of done that already with the Tomb Raider retrospective… I have an idea to make the article still quite interesting to read. More information can be read here.
More information about both of these collabs will come in the future. Because these two things are still in the works and are subject to change, I don't want to say things that might not even happen to avoid disappointment.
So, we are entering the final 4 months of 2019. As said earlier in this article, this year has been quite crazy for me. But, I still have a plan for the ending of 2019. Now, before I talk about that I want to mention like in every update article that the best way to keep up-to-date with me is to follow my Twitter feed.
With that said, here is a preview of the things I have been planning for the ending of 2019. For this week, I'm going to publish two reviews on two developers who requested my feedback. I have a couple of games I want to talk about in the final four months of 2019. As usual, I'll end the year with my top 10 games of the year and the games I'm looking forward to playing in 2020.
So, I'm planning to use the remainder of 2019 to write about games I love to reference but of which I haven't written an article yet. While also talking about a whole boatload of amazing new games I have been playing this year, it's going to be challenging.
Still, due to me still recovering from a writers' burn-out and my bad mental health, it's possible that I'm going to write and publish 3 articles each month, excluding guest posts or press kits. Yet, if I'm in the mood and when I have the time, it's possible that I'm going to publish more than 3 in a month. It all depends on the time and energy that I have. Yet, I'll be writing a minimum of 3 articles each month.
The final thing I want to talk about is something that also always returns in these articles. And that's the reorganization of my blog. I have been thinking about a lot of different things. From merging series into one to moving to a self-hosted website and changing the URL. Now, I have decided that the blog rework will be a focus of mine in 2020. This year has been so rough, I think it's best that I'm first going to settle in my new job and make a great plan of action so that I don't make mistakes if I decide to make major upgrades.
So, with that said, I think you guys and girls are up to date with the latest happenings in my life and the future for this blog. A lot of fun things are going to come to this blog and I'm already working on a few projects for 2020. It's going to be so much fun and I can't wait to see what you will think about it. Anyways, it's time for my usual last words to close off this article.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.


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One serious problem with American higher education is that the cost of a four-year degree is higher than ever—even when adjusting for inflation. The causes of this increase are well known and well understood—there is no mystery about this. One contributing factor is that universities tend to spend considerable money on facilities that are not connected to education. Critics like to, for example, point out that some universities spend millions on luxurious fitness facilities. These sort of expenditures are ironic (and stupid) given that education funding has been consistently reduced across the United States. To use the obvious analogy, this would be like a family putting in a pool, spa, and exercise room when they do not have enough money to pay for their actual necessities.
What seems to be the major factor contributing to costs is the ever-expanding administrative class at universities. This expansion occurs in terms of both individual salaries and overall numbers. From 2000 to 2010 the median salary for the top public university administrators increased by 39%. The top administrators, the university presidents, enjoyed a 75% increase. In stark contrast, the salaries for full-time professors increased by almost 19%.
The money for these salary increases has to come from somewhere and an obvious source is students. My alma mater Ohio State University is leading the way in milking students to pay administrators. Between 2010 and 2012 Gordon Gee, the president of OSU, was paid almost $6 million. At the same time, OSU raised tuition and fees to a degree that resulted in student debt increasing 23% more than the national average.
While some might be tempted to attribute this salary bloating as the result of the usual alleged wastefulness and growth of the public sector, private colleges and universities topped their public counterparts. From 2000 to 2010 private schools saw salary increases of about 97% for their top administrators and their presidents enjoyed a 171% increase. Full time professors also partook of the increases—their salaries increased by 50%.
What is even more striking than the salary increases are the increase in the number of positions and their nature. From 1978 to 2014 administrative positions skyrocketed 369%. This time period also marked a major shift in the nature of faculty. The number of part-time faculty (the analogues of temp workers in the corporate world) increased by 286%. The use of adjuncts is justified on the grounds that doing so saves money. While adjunct salaries vary, the typical adjunct makes $20,000-25,000.
However, the money saved does not translate to a lower cost of education—rather, it "saves" money from going to faculty so that it can go to administrators. Since the average salary of a university president is $478,896 and the number of presidents making $1 million or more a year is increasing, it should be obvious what is helping to drive up the cost of college. Hint: it is not adjunct pay.
There was also a push to reduce (and eliminate) tenured positions which resulted in an increase in full time, non-tenure earning positions by 259%. Full time tenure and tenure-track positions increased by only 23%. Ohio State University provides an excellent (or awful) example of this A&A Strategy: the majority of those hired by OSU were Adjuncts and Administrators. To be specific, OSU hired 498 adjunct instructors and 670 administrators. 45 full-time, permanent faculty were hired.
Interestingly enough, the Republicans who run many state legislatures rail against wasteful spending, impose micromanagement and inflict draconian measures on state universities yet never seem to address the real causes of tuition increase and the problems in the education system. Someone more cynical than I might note that the university seems to no longer have education as its primary function. Rather, it is crafted to funnel money from the "customer" and the tax payer (in the form of federal student aid) to the top while minimizing pay for those who do the actual work.
Tenure has been a target in recent years because tenure provides faculty with protection against being fired without cause (tenured faculty can be fired—it is not a magic shield). This is regarded by some as a problem for a variety of reasons. One is that tenured faculty cannot be let go simply to replace them with vastly lower paid adjuncts. This, obviously enough, means less money flowing from students and the state to administrators. Another is that the protection provided by tenure allows a faculty member to be critical of what is happening to the university system of the United States without running a high risk of simply being let go as a trouble maker. As you might guess, I am a tenured full-professor. So, I can use my freedom of speech with rather less fear of being fired. I also enjoy the dubious protection afforded by the fact that people rarely take philosophers seriously.


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The previous post described how some of Aunt Marian's items were donated to the Pennsylvania Military Museum in the early 1980s. When the donation was made, her sister Ruth wrote a letter that described Marian . Here's another portion of Ruth's letter:
She never married, which she explained by saying the man must have been killed in World War I. Therefore he must have been "the unknown soldier" in Arlington, Va! So she would make a point of visiting the tomb and drop a flower there every time she was in Washington, D.C. (We had a sister 2 years older than Marian whose husband was in World War I that lived in Washington, D.C.)
Florence was the sister who lived in D.C. I keep going back and forth on whether I think Aunt Marian actually had a boyfriend who died in WWI. I tend to think that she didn't, but that it was a fun way to joke around with her sisters. What do you think?