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The Right's "bias" charade
Research ››› ››› JAMISON FOSER
At the end of the 1992 presidential campaign, there was a flurry of news reports about the possibility that the media had favored Bill Clinton over incumbent George H.W. Bush, and that the media's coverage of the race helped Clinton win.
At the end of the 1992 presidential campaign, there was a flurry of news reports about the possibility that the media had favored Bill Clinton over incumbent George H.W. Bush, and that the media's coverage of the race helped Clinton win.
Such complaints might seem a little odd, given the media's relentless focus during that campaign on Clinton's alleged relationship with Gennifer Flowers, his youthful marijuana use, and his purported "draft-dodging."
Still, complaints from conservatives about the media's coverage of the 1992 campaign worked to their benefit by complimenting their campaign to undermine Clinton's "legitimacy" as president. And they caused reporters, always sensitive to (typically bogus) charges of biased reporting, to bend over backwards to disprove their critics -- an instinct that, no doubt, contributed to the absolutely brutal media coverage Clinton received almost immediately upon his election.
How brutal? How quickly? The Los Angeles Times explained in a 1993 look back at the earliest days of the Clinton presidency:
Twelve days after President Clinton took office -- with only 1,448 days left in his term -- Sam Donaldson of ABC News was on a weekend talk show, saying, "This week we can talk about, 'Is the presidency over?' "
That same day, a Page 1 story in the Los Angeles Times warned, "The President must tighten his grip or risk disaster."
Later that week, a Page 1 story in the New York Times said, "The President desperately needs a victory, as soon as possible."
And that was barely six months in to Clinton's first term. Sure, by then reporters had suggested Clinton's presidency was over before it reached the end of its second week and inaccurately obsessed over his Air Force One haircut. But they were just getting started; the wall-to-wall coverage of Whitewater and countless other trumped-up faux scandals was still to come.
But no matter how hostile, how relentlessly negative, how scandal-obsessed the media were in their coverage of Clinton, conservatives kept right on going with their complaints of liberal bias. On October 26, 1996, The New York Times reported:
Sounding like a crusader, Bob Dole implored his audiences today to "rise up" against the nation's news organizations, which he said were protecting the Clinton Administration ...
"We've got to stop the liberal bias in this country," he declared ... "Don't read that stuff! Don't watch television! You make up your mind! Don't let them make up your mind for you!"
At another point he asked: "When do the American people rise up and say, 'Forget the media in America! We're going to make up our minds! You're not going to make up our minds!' This is about saving our country!"
Singling out The New York Times for the second straight day, Mr. Dole went on: "We are not going to let the media steal this election. We're going to win this election. The country belongs to the people, not The New York Times."
Mr. Dole's complaints against the news media -- reminiscent of those by President George Bush in the waning days of his losing 1992 campaign -- are greeted with wild cheers. Mr. Dole said today that President Clinton would be losing the election if he was not "getting propped up by the media."
A Nexis search yields 539 hits for "Clinton and Whitewater" in the The New York Times between January 1 and October 26, 1996 -- nearly two per day. And that focus hardly let up as the campaign reached the home stretch; there are 42 hits for "Clinton and Whitewater" in the Times from October 1-26. Nor was the Times alone in hammering away at Whitewater during the fall campaign: Expanding the search to all news organizations yields 2,412 hits for the month of October alone.
And that's to say nothing of the relentless media focus on Democratic fundraising controversies. Or the various other Clinton "scandals," most of which turned out to exist only in the fevered imaginations of the news media. Or the fact that the news media, having obsessed for years about Clinton's infidelity, buried a story about an alleged Dole affair that his campaign aides considered a "mortal threat" threat to his candidacy.
Let's stop there for a second: Just weeks after The Washington Post, which had reported on allegations of infidelity on Clinton's part, spiked a story about an alleged Dole affair, Bob Dole was running around accusing the media of being in the tank for Clinton. That's awfully reckless behavior -- if Dole actually believed the media were against him. Sincere or not, Dole's complaints ring hollow; I can't think of a presidential candidate whose alleged "scandals" received more election-year coverage than Clinton's in 1996. Such coverage isn't the whole story, of course, but it's awfully hard to justify claims that the media were in the tank for Clinton when they were running so many reports about Whitewater and other such nonsense.
But Dole's wasn't the most absurd conservative claim of media bias during the Clinton years. For that, we have to look to the pro: Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center. On February 9, 1998, the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an interview with Bozell in which he complained that the media weren't devoting enough coverage to the Monica Lewinsky story.
Given that most observers would likely agree that the Lewinsky saga involved the longest, most intense media feeding frenzy in modern American history, Bozell's claim should be self-evidently fraudulent.
On the off chance that it isn't: On February 9, the day the Bozell interview ran, there were 529 news reports mentioning "Clinton" and "Lewinsky," according to a search of the Nexis database. Those 529 hits include 59 television transcripts, eight hits in the New York Times folder, and 11 for USA Today. In just one day. And that was a typical day, not an unusual one.
Still, Bozell told the Star Tribune, apparently with a straight face, that the media had "stopped" covering the story -- "as they always do." Five hundred news reports a day, and Bozell thought the media had stopped covering the story. This is up-is-down, black-is-white, the-moon-is-made-of-green-cheese stuff. And it is typical of conservative media criticism.
Why do they make such absurd claims? Because it is clear that it works. (If, unlike many journalists, you understand what the goal is.)
Which brings us to 2008.
John McCain's campaign, and its conservative allies, have spent much of the year attacking the news media. No surprise there; that's what conservatives do, even conservatives who have been the beneficiaries of a decade of glowing, fawning coverage from swooning reporters.
McCain and his allies were attacking the media back in the Spring, when reporters were obsessively scrutinizing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- and openly acknowledging that they weren't giving McCain similar scrutiny. They attacked the media in late summer, when the media were breathlessly touting the "authenticity" of a Sarah Palin speech that was filled with falsehoods. And they have attacked the media throughout the fall, even as it has become clear that the scrutiny reporters promised back in the spring that they would eventually give McCain isn't coming. It isn't a coincidence that scrutiny never came: it is, in part, an obvious and intended result of the attacks McCain and his allies have been leveling on the media all year.
But if, as the polls suggest, Barack Obama is elected next Tuesday, those attacks will have ultimately proven unsuccessful, right? Wrong.
First, that's a silly way to assess whether a strategy has "worked"; a candidate can derive benefit from a strategy without winning.
Second, it ignores the long-term goals of the attacks: to delegitimize an Obama presidency in the eyes of many Americans, and to browbeat journalists into covering an Obama administration much more critically than they otherwise would.
Whether those goals are met depends in part on whether journalists take the attacks seriously, or recognize them as the predictable continuation of a right-wing work-the-refs strategy that is so fraudulent it even involved claiming the media were devoting insufficient attention to Monica Lewinsky. And it depends in part on whether progressives push back on the bogus narrative that the media handed Obama the election, or simply ignore it.
Unfortunately, the conservative complaints got some superficial support from a recent study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) that claimed that John McCain has received much more "negative" coverage than Barack Obama during the campaign.
The PEJ study quickly got significant attention from the establishment media and blogs.
But while the study lends rhetorical support to the conservatives' arguments, it is nearly useless as an actual assessment of how the media covered the campaign.
First off, it is worth noting this little nugget about the study's methodology, buried at the end of the PEJ report: "Talk radio stories ... were not included in this campaign study of tone." PEJ offers no justification for the exclusion of talk radio. Not a word. In what surely must be a coincidence, talk radio skews further to the right than any other medium.
Now, here's PEJ's description of how it assesses whether a news report is "positive" or "negative":
To examine tone, the Project takes a particularly cautious and conservative approach. Unlike some researchers, we examine not just whether assertions in stories are positive or negative, but also whether they are inherently neutral. This, we believe, provides a much clearer and fairer sense of the tone of coverage than ignoring those balanced or mixed evaluations. Second, we do not simply tally up all the evaluative assertions in stories and compile them into a single pile to measure. Journalists and audiences think about press coverage in stories or segments. They ask themselves, is this story positive or negative or neutral? Hence the Project measures coverage by story, and for a story to be deemed as having a negative or positive tone, it must be clearly so, not a close call: for example, the negative assertions in a story must outweigh positive assertions by a margin of at least 1.5 to 1 for that story to be deemed negative.
OK ... anyone want to guess what that means in practical terms?
Unfortunately, the few actual examples of "positive" and "negative" coverage PEJ offers do little to clarify its methodology, and less to inspire confidence. For example, PEJ notes:
Some of that positive coverage was related to evidence that the financial crisis was aiding Obama. "Recent economic woes have given Democrat Barack Obama a clear lead over Republican John McCain," declared a story posted on AOL News on Sept. 24, citing a 9-point lead for Obama in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll.
That's what counts as "positive" coverage of Obama? A fairly straightforward report that a poll finds Obama in a "clear lead" over McCain? And, it seems, much of Obama's "positive" coverage consisted of reports like that:
The data clearly point in this direction for some of the explanation. Of those stories that focused mostly on polls, a clear majority (57%) were positive for Obama, while less than a quarter (23%) were negative. Similarly, stories about the electoral map, swing states and campaign strategy were even more favorable (77% positive vs. 6% negative). These represent the most positive element of Obama's coverage.
So, if a candidate is winning, and the polls show that, and the media report that the polls show the candidate winning, that counts as "positive" coverage. Well, OK, it's true that such a story is "positive," but it tells us nearly nothing about the media.
Examples of "negative" coverage of McCain similarly fail to illuminate. Here's the first:
On Sept. 24, he announced he was suspending campaigning to return to Washington to work on a rescue bill and advocated delaying the first debate, scheduled two days away in Oxford Mississippi. ... [S]ome of the coverage depicted McCain's decision-making in an unflattering light, such as a Sept. 26 CNN.com piece stating that "some fellow lawmakers said McCain hadn't contributed much to the financial debate, and senior campaign advisors told CNN they believed it was politically crucial that McCain show up in Oxford, Mississippi."
Actually, that's the only example of negative coverage of McCain. As Bob Somerby noted, "According to Pew, McCain has been hit with a bunch of 'negative stories' in the six weeks under review ... But what do these 'negative stories' look like? In the age of the simple electronic link, it's incredible that Pew provides no examples."
To PEJ's credit, it says only that coverage of the candidates is "positive" or "negative," not "favorable" or "unfavorable" or that coverage is "biased" in favor of a given candidate. As a literal matter, describing news reports such as the CNN.com example as "negative" is defensible, though it doesn't really tell us much.
But many people interpret those descriptions as evidence of "bias" -- as PEJ must know they will do. Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz, for example:
Critics, including many conservatives, say the media have been too easy on Obama, and bias cannot be discounted as a factor. A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that from the end of the conventions through the debates, McCain's coverage was more than three times as negative than Obama's.
Such interpretations are simply not defensible. PEJ's explanation of its methodology suggests that a purely factual news report about McCain trailing in the polls constitutes a "negative" report -- as would a report debunking a McCain lie. Again, such a report could defensibly be described as "negative" for McCain, but interpreting that as evidence of media bias is absurd. Debunking a lie isn't "bias," it's what journalists should be doing every day.
PEJ made no effort to assess things that actually could give some indication of whether media coverage has been unfair - whether news reports were more likely to uncritically report false claims from one candidate, or whether similar controversies surrounding each candidate received disparate coverage, for example. (Media Matters has documented several such examples of double standards that have benefited McCain.)
PEJ did offer this intriguing statement:
Much of the increased attention for McCain derived from actions by the senator himself, actions that, in the end, generated mostly negative assessments. In many ways, the arc of the media narrative during this phase of the 2008 general election might be best described as a drama in which John McCain has acted and Barack Obama has reacted.
That seems to support my observation that the media have covered precisely what McCain wants them to cover:
The truth is that when John McCain says "jump," the media still ask, "How high?" Think about this: When was the last time McCain or his campaign has wanted the news media to focus on something, and they have refused? From "lipstick on a pig" to Bill Ayers, the media have scampered after whatever mud McCain has flung, like a puppy dog chasing a stick thrown by its master. Sure, sometimes they have pointed out that McCain is lying -- and that's tremendous progress for a profession that has spent a decade flatly asserting McCain's honesty. But -- as I've explained in the past -- even as they've debunked McCain's claims, they've too often privileged the lie by allowing those claims to drive their coverage.
Unfortunately, PEJ did not explain its assertion that "the media narrative ... might be best described as a drama in which John McCain has acted and Barack Obama has reacted." Examining that idea more fully could have actually told us something useful about whether the media have favored one candidate or the other, in effect, if not intentionally.
PEJ's analysis may have only limited academic value. But there's nothing academic about the need to rebut its flawed conclusions. If the media themselves perceive that Barack Obama benefited from favorable media coverage -- as is suggested by their uncritical citation of the PEJ study -- that perception could have ominous implications for the coverage he will receive if he becomes president.
As a 1993 Christian Science Monitor op-ed by a University of California-Irvine professor noted:
[H]ow the media treat a new president may have less to do with personality, personnel, perks, or pessimism than it does with how the media treated that president as a candidate. Treatment of a new president may be inversely related to their coverage of the president as a candidate for office. The easier the media's treatment of a presidential candidate during the campaign, the harsher will be their treatment once the candidate has become president. Conversely, harsher treatment of a presidential candidate during the campaign may precipitate a much longer media honeymoon for a new president.
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Free-roaming pigs lived on garbage
In June, 2007, I wrote in my tree blog that part of today's feral pig problem in the USA can be traced back to early farmers. Some pigs escaped into the wild from pens and pastures, but many were deliberately set free in unfenced forests to forage for nuts, wild fruit, etc. (See "Releasing pigs into the forest was a terrible idea".)
I wrote the post about feral pigs in forests after reading an article about raising pigs on mast in an 1864 magazine. Recently, I came across some information about feral pigs living in US cities during the same era (mid-1800s).
European travelers commented on the animals roaming the streets of American cities, eating from the gutter where unwanted food had landed, thrown from doors and windows. Scavenger pigs, goats, and stray dogs had the run of the cities before the Civil War, along with the many cows and pigs whose owners let them loose to graze on the streets... New York dispatched carts to round up pigs in 1830, but to little effect. "Take care of the pigs," Charles Dickens advised Manhattan pedestrians in American Notes, published in 1842; that year the New York Daily Tribune estimated ten thousand hogs on the streets. The roaming pigs consumed so much garbage and furnished so much food for the poor that efforts to ban them ran into political opposition.
Quoted from Chapter One, of Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash by Susan Strasser, (C) 1999 Susan Strasser. ISBN: 0-8050-4830-8. (Login required.)
It is interesting to browse through the results of a modern-day Google search for "feral pigs in US cities". Wild pigs are well-known in some urban areas. I'm amazed that feral pigs have even been caught in Kansas City.
Today's wild pigs won't find as much garbage in our cities as they did 150 years ago, so it's unlikely that they will become as numerous in urban areas as they once were. However, in my opinion, any number of feral pigs is too many.
Wild pigs are wily, aggressive animals that eradicate native species, destroy natural and cultivated areas with their rooting, menace pedestrians and pets, create traffic problems, carry tuberculosis, and spread livestock diseases such as pseudorabies and swine brucellosis. They reproduce at tremendous rates.
The population of feral pigs is increasing steadily in the southern U.S. (1988 map.) I have no desire to ever meet one face to face. I think there should be an open hunting season on them across the U.S., because they are an invasive species.
It can't be denied that pigs are fierce competitors in the natural order. I wonder if feral pigs will be survivors, along with the cockroaches, if the "big one" ever happens and life on earth suffers a major kill-back.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Rhyd-y-Groes plant on Anglesey has 24 turbines with a capacity of just 300KW each, which have been spinning since 1992.
The project, which is owned by TPG Wind, a join venture between E.on and Eurus Energy, is set to have 20 new wind turbines installed that will generate up to 18MW.
"While it's still early days, we're hoping to replace the current turbines with modern turbines capable of producing more energy. We will be conducting formal studies and hope to be a position to submit our planning proposals by spring 2014," said consents manager Paul Hunt.
Public information days will be held early next year in order for local residents to share their views.


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The co-branding between Telami and Rossana Orlandi creates an exclusive collection of director's chairs dressed with Dedar fabrics. The legendary director's chair is reinterpreted in a creative transformation process, of which Rossana Orlandi is the undisputed master. This version has a seat in a solution-dyed polypropylene houndstooth motif and the back in a pure linen twill, which is dyed and hand woven into a tartan pattern.
Availble in its reverse version or in a bundle.
Euro 400,00
Price VAT included
Euro 327,87
Price VAT excluded
Telami is an Italian manufacturer of beautiful and functional handmade furniture and accessories with an iconic design. Its mission is to bring product customization into the world of Italian tradition, creating a virtuous blend of fashion and design.View designer's page
Item Code : 28148


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VIDEO: Becky Hammon is introduced by the Spurs
Last week, when virtually nobody was looking, point guard Tony Parker signed a three-year contract extension.
That's usually the way the Spurs do business.
But for a franchise that usually goes out of its way to avoid creating even a ripple in the pool, the Spurs have made loud splashes this summer. The first was hiring longtime European coach Ettore Messina as an assistant coach. That was just a warmup.
The addition of WNBA star Becky Hammon to the coaching staff is nothing less than a cannonball.
Hammon, who is retiring as a player at the end of this season, will become the first full-time female assistant coach in NBA history.
Lisa Boyer was a volunteer assistant coach for the Cavaliers under John Lucas during the 2001-02 season, but she did not sit on the bench during games or travel with the team.
Make no mistake. This is big, potentially a game-changer and another milestone for women in sports and as professionals in general. Hammon will have the same duties as the rest of the coaching staff; scouting, writing reports, game-planning and offering her opinions in coaching sessions.
"In some ways it is trailblazing," Hammon said on a conference call Tuesday afternoon. "But so many other women have done so many great things. I'm just following in their path."
"I very much look forward to the addition of Becky Hammon to our staff," Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said in a statement from the team. "Having observed her working with our team this past season, I'm confident her basketball IQ, work ethic and interpersonal skills will be a great benefit to the Spurs."
Hammon is a 16-year WNBA veteran and was voted one of the 15 all-time best players in league history. Ironically, an ACL injury that forced her to sit out last season may have opened the door to coaching. While in San Antonio rehabilitating during the offseason, Hammon asked Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and Popovich if she could attend practices and sit in on meetings. A connection was quickly established and both sides were on the road toward making history, though with no intention of grabbing the spotlight.
"Coach Pop made it clear to me I was being hired because of my basketball IQ and my qualifications," Hammon said. " 'It just so happens you're a woman.' "
It is, of course, the Spurs' way to push at the envelope, leap outside the box of conventional thinking. They won their fifth NBA title in June with a roster consisting of 10 international players that came from eight different countries. Messina has spent more than a quarter century as perhaps the top coach in Europe and was widely regarded for years as one who could make the jump across the Atlantic to thrive in the NBA. It took the Spurs to actually make it happen.
Still, it is a quantum leap to make Hammon a woman at the highest level of the men's game.
"People have always asked me if a woman could play in the NBA," Hammon said. "I tell them no, because there is a difference. The men are too big, too strong. But when it comes to coaching, game-planning and scheming, there's no reason that a woman can't do anything a man can do."
So could a woman one day become a head coach in the NBA?
"I think anything is possible," Hammon said.


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Sentara RMH employees raise nearly $96,000
Sentara RMH employees have good reason to celebrate. They have raised $95,909 through the 2015 Employee Gifts Campaign, an annual fundraiser that supports general equipment and program needs at the hospital as well as the Employee Relief Fund, established to assist hospital staff members who are facing a financial crisis due to serious illness or other unfortunate personal circumstances.
"The campaign raised 120 percent of this year's goal of $80,000," said Janet Wendelken, development officer for the RMH Foundation. "More than 460 staff members gave to the campaign, which ran from May 27 through July 3."
The campaign theme was "Be the Spark!" inspired by the Katy Perry song "Firework." Employees gathered July 8 at 2 p.m. on the patio outside the hospital cafe to learn the total amount raised and to dance in celebration to the Perry song. Sentara RMH Wellness Center fitness instructor Kathe Scripture choreographed steps to the song, and a number of senior hospital leaders joined their co-workers for the celebration.
"This generosity shows that our Sentara RMH employees care about their patients, their co-workers, their work, and this hospital," said Sentara RMH President Jim Krauss. "These funds will go a long way to fulfilling our mission to improve health every day. The members of the Sentara RMH team truly understand that giving will make our hospital better for our community."
The Employee Gifts Campaign has been held annually since 1975.


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FaceySpacey.com necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 35 diseños de 16 diseñadores freelance.
Recently, we successfully had the logo done on 99designs.com. We've designed the rest of the site and can show a few pages for reference.
We need to make the following design match the design of the rest of the site:
That design was an attempt at the hompage, but it is bad. You will notice that we tried to change the colors into blue scheme for the homepage of a site that is primarily yellow. I'm thinking we should do something a little like twitter.com and mint.com in yellow.
The following is all the designs we are using for the site and they will not change:
What you come up with should match this stuff.
Otherwise, here is the last contest we did where we got the logo for this site:
Lastly, here's the .psd for the logo (which will be on all pages of the site):
and here's the .psd for one standard page of the site, which you should mainly use to get the top-nav bar:
Just check the links in the summary. Otherwise, just know that I'm an experienced 99designs contest creator. I also run my own Web 2.0 web development firm: http://FaceySpacey.com. I've received tons of comments from past designers for contests that I was extremely well-prepared, extremely active and ran one of the best contests they've ever done on 99designs.
All this means is expect me to help you with proper and timely feedback. Quality designers that are able to capture the vision of this site based on the provided designs will have a very good chance of winning this contest.
- something simple that conveys a "123" sort of feel so visitors will understand 100% what the site is about.
- something like twitter.com and mint.com
- yellow design with light blue
- Mint.com is actually a very good example of what we're going for. If we could make something like that but that matches our designs, we'd be in heaven!!!!!!!!
- non-web 2.0 designs
- garbage


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New? Signup for online access to enroll in courses, view your registration history, change your address and more.
Welcome to our On-line Registration System
CoursesView the list of currently scheduled courses
StudentsView/edit your personal information
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InstructorsAccess rosters and other course information


text:
Check out our Chrysler PT Cruiser Panel photo gallery
with HQ pics.
Last update in PT Cruiser Panel gallery: 2005-02-16
FCA and Google extend their cooperation beyond autonomous vehicles, as the producer is showing off an Android-powered infotainment set-up.
Surprise! Chrysler will not be presented as a new offering at the next year's Auto Show held in Detroit.
Chrysler has stated some facts about its 2017 Pacifica. The deal is that the model will offer one of the most significant fuel economy numbers in the class.
Chrysler Town & Country for MY 2017 has a lot of pleasant surprises in its pocket, which include hands-free doors operation.
The Chrysler 300 SRT may not be released in 2015, but do not count it out of America.
Chrysler and Ford announced that they are going to create the new-gen of U.S. Postal Service delivery trucks.
We select only big size chrysler pt cruiser panel photos
for our photogallery.


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Puppy Linux Discussion Forum
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Joined: 14 Sep 2008
Posts: 103
Posted: Tue 10 Feb 2009, 14:27
Post subject: Thread on:VMware Player 2.5.0 with Puppy and 188.8.131.52 kernel
Subject description: Running WinXP guest, Puppy Host with VMPlayer
In case anyone comes to this thread looking for info on using Puppy as host for VMware guest machines, I'd recommend going to:
WMware VMplayer 2.5.0
WolfPup has an excellent .sfs for VMware Player 2.5.0 with modules compiled for kernel 126.96.36.199. If you are using the new Puppy 4.1.2 (k22.214.171.124), you need to have the devx_412.sfs and <kernel_source>.sfs loaded so it can compile appropriate modules.
[ignorance alert! I think this is what the process is called. It's at least somewhat close.]
I have installed Puppy 4.1.2 on a Dell Inspiron 1525 as "frugal" install. After having it load the development tools and the VMware Player 2.5.0 .sfs file, ran VMware player. It then rebuilt the modules and ran just fine. Loaded a Windows XP virtual machine that resides in a separate NTFS partition.
** Problems occur when loading a VM that lives in an NTFS partition using a Linux host. **
There are some modifications to VMware Player's "conf" file, or to the guest machine's .vmx file before it will work. This is described in an entry to the thread, though.
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Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 100
Posted: Tue 18 Jan 2011, 17:43
Post subject: Puppy boot sequence changed?
Subject description: Running virtuabox, under puppylinux changing the pup's boot sequence?
Running Puppy 520 on a 16GB flash drive that has 2 ext3 partitions. One parittion for the system (2GB) and one for the save files (in a directory /puppy520). Running on a Dell Latitude D400 laptop, with 1GB RAM.
From the day that 520 was release, until last night, booting the flash drive always brought up the comforting puppy logo and the "boot:" command prompt.
Last night I installed, from the SFSget area of the PPM , the VirtualBox application. I used the SFS file, of course. Everything installed fine and ran fine. I was able to run Windows-XP in the VirtualBox environment.
The VirtualBox HardDisks are also located on that 2nd flash drive partition, in a separate folder (not the /puppy520/ folder).
Next time I booted the flash drive I noticed that the puppy logo and "boot:" command prompt were being skipped. Everything else is booting fine. Just that boot sequence is a bit different.
Then I copied the puppy save file from this strange flash drive to another 16GB flash drive's 2nd partition and booted that flash drive, using the save file I had just copied over. Same issue came up (the logo and command prompt gone).
Has anyone experienced this type of a behavior? Obviously the save file, that has the virtualbox installed on it, is having an effect on the boot sequence (for some reason).
Any ideas what is going on?
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Joined: 12 Jun 2010
Posts: 34
Posted: Fri 04 Mar 2011, 18:56
Post subject:
Hey ilanrab,
I'm trying to get XP running on 5.2 as well and am haveing a hard time finding anything that works.
VMware - d/l the tar from the VM site, installed but would not run - says im missing GCC 4.3.4. Found that, d.l it, it would not un-tar, just kept hang in "reading file" mode. Should I try d/l the 4.0 version and use the 4.0.4 as an upgrade? any ideas?
Just got the VirtualBox d/l from
So far it seems to be working well. OOOpps spoke too soon - system locked up and al I have is a black screen...anyone know why? gonna reboot and try again.
Thanks for the assistance in advance.
Kept searching and found 'TheAsterik's' post on the virtualbox. Downloaded it, installed it, and after fussing with the personal save file a few times
got it up and running (gawd M$ loads so slow) Got my program installed and running - it's slow due to the amount of ram - VB needs quite a few MB and I gots very little.
Anywho, I got that problem solved - time to move to another
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Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 100
Posted: Tue 08 Mar 2011, 00:49
Post subject:
fenex2004 wrote:
Hey ilanrab,
Kept searching and found 'TheAsterik's' post on the virtualbox. Downloaded it, installed it, and after fussing with the personal save file a few times
got it up and running (gawd M$ loads so slow) Got my program installed and running - it's slow due to the amount of ram - VB needs quite a few M....
The same version works for me, as well.
All of these virtual machines devour both memory and disk space. That's the tradeoff. Functionality is increased at the expense of drive space, memory, and speed.
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Frank Cox
Joined: 01 Nov 2009
Posts: 381
Posted: Thu 24 Mar 2011, 17:25
Post subject: does Puppy slow down?
I am running on a Dell 530 with the 2.4 gig dual core processor and 2 gigs of ram . Will this make puppy slow or just XP?
Will Xp be painfully slow? Should I configure it with Nlite and remove all the garbage from Xp i will never use anyway?. They make a tiny version of Xp that is on Hiren's boot disk, I am going to find out what all it allows. All I need it for is a few programs live Quicken and IE for certain test that will not work on anything else .
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Joined: 20 Jan 2012
Posts: 67
Posted: Sun 12 May 2013, 15:52
Post subject:
Instead XP use POS2009 Ready, way better!
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Joined: 24 Feb 2014
Posts: 3101
Posted: Mon 03 Mar 2014, 18:55
Post subject: Re: does Puppy slow down?
Frank Cox wrote:
I am running on a Dell 530 with the 2.4 gig dual core processor and 2 gigs of ram . Will this make puppy slow or just XP?
Will Xp be painfully slow? Should I configure it with Nlite and remove all the garbage from Xp i will never use anyway?. They make a tiny version of Xp that is on Hiren's boot disk, I am going to find out what all it allows. All I need it for is a few programs live Quicken and IE for certain test that will not work on anything else .
Single Core AMD64 3500 with 1.5GB. Slacko 5.5 Frugal with Oracle VM running XP SP3 new install and MS Office 2003. 750MB allocated to the XP guest and Slacko runs fine, as does XP for office type apps. For browsing/more graphic intensive apps (watching youtubes etc) the XP response is marginally sluggish (usable, but not instantaneous).
When I formed the XP install I turned compression on, which kept the VM file size down to around 2.8GB with XP, Office and a few other favourites (fully patched up to the most latest)
I've set the VM shared folder to a common 'documents' directory, so slacko on bootable DVD, XP in a VM that's image is also stored on the DVD (pristine version), and a hard disk for all data/music/etc (and frugal savefile, SFS's etc).
Slacko on one desktop, XP on the other, instant switching between the two. Or just full screen XP and move the mouse to the bottom of the screen and select the minimize pop up option to reveal the Slacko desktop behind.
If you 'save state' at each closure of XP/VM rather than powering off, then the next start is much quicker (re-enters exactly where it last ended in around 5 to 10 seconds).
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Labor Shorts, Vol. 1, Issue 2
Welcome to Labor Shorts, where we expose today's union bosses one skid mark at a time.
In this week's issue, we bring to you the following briefs…er…shorts:
- Harkin Hopes for EFCA in Fall. Union-mastered Senator Tom Harkin "hopes" for an EFCA vote this fall, reports the Hill. [For more information on the hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act go here.]
- Goodbye Norma Rae. EFCA pushers invoke the spirit of the late Cheryl Lee Sutton (aka 'Norma Rae') as a means to draw support of the job killing legislation. What the proponents of no-vote unionization neglect to mention is that the textile plant that 'Norma Rae' helped unionize closed in 2003 [Listen to the NPR report here.]
- Kiddie Indoctrination Part Deux. We've seen the videos of kids eerily singing praises to the President, but those are considered educational anomalies. On the other hand, Michelle Malkin is posting how union indoctrination (including union organizing, complete with the creation of "peer education program about workers' rights today") is built into the curriculum in the L.A. Unified School District.
- Boeing, Going, Gone? Despite its denial that it has made up its mind about transferring some of it 787 production to its recently union-free South Carolina facility, Boeing is seeking land clearing permits [perhaps to send a signal to its unionized workforce in Washington?].
- A Paper Tiger? The United Steel Workers (formerly the United Steel Workers of America) will learn tonight whether it will continue representation of 900 Virginia paper workers, many of them who are supportive of an independent union formed by former USW local officers.
- Let Them Walk and Carry Signs. Did you know that crossing guards are unionized in the State of Rhode Island? And, did you know the City of Warwick gave the crossing guards lifetime health care and pension benefits? No, really! Well, apparently the mayor of Warwick thought the same thing so he fired all the crossing guards. Problem is, the State Labor Relations Board ordered the city to rehire the crossing guards and pay them the salaries and benefits they would have been paid under the terms of their last contract. [Of course, at taxpayer expense.]
- Union Fundraiser: 'Raids Made Possible Only Through the Support of Members Like You.' The Willamette Reds report that the National Union of Healthcare Workers (the union formerly known as SEIU United Healthcare West) had a successful trip to the AFL-CIO Convention two weeks ago, receiving financial pledges from unions around the country. This will allow the NUHW to continue its fight against the Purple People Eater, otherwise known as the SEIU.
- Speaking of Union Raids… The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is raiding another union's 6,700 members in Suffolk, NY
- Goodyear's Steelworker Contract Saves 1/2 Billion+. The new contract covers 10,300 workers at plants in Akron, Ohio; Buffalo, N.Y.; Danville, Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Gadsden, Ala.; Topeka, Kan.; and Union City, Tenn.
- Everyone is NUTS over ACORN! Of all the czars and union stars proliferating the White House these days, Patrick Gaspard, former SEIU and ACORN front man and current White House Director of Political Affairs (think Karl Rove) has caught the attention of RedState.
- Where ACORN gets its Nutty Flavor. Union-Free America has posted where some of ACORN's green money making machine comes from. [Here's a hint: Unions.]
- Between a Rock and a Boulder. When teachers abandon school kids for picket lines, education gets short changed. However, in Boulder, CO, the school superintendent plans to use subs to keep schools open.
- Speaking of Rocky Relations in the Rockies. UFCW-represented grocery workers at Safeway and City Markets have rejected their employers' offers, setting the stage for a strike.
- Teamsters get a Time OUT. After representing workers at El Paso's Time Warner Cable for 30 years, the Teamsters were ousted (130 to 90) by TWC employees.
- …And Bombs with Plans for FedEX. Teamsters' most recent efforts to run FedEx (into the ground) by busting founder Fred Smith's job into two were shot down by shareholders.
- Take this Shot & Shove it! Hundreds of health care workers in New York protest mandatory pig flu shots: When asked if he's willing to lose his job, Frank Mannino, RN, said, "Absolutely. I will not take it, will not be forced. This is still America." [Um… okay…]
- Don't Do the Crime if You Can't Do the Time. Only in New Jersey. Anthony R. Ambrosio pled guilty to five charges, including embezzlement of an employee benefit program, tax evasion and conspiracy, and now faces up to 25 years in prison and $6 million in fines. One of his charges was paying $20,000 (+/-) to leaders of the Operating Engineers Local 825.
And, that, dear readers, concludes this week's Labor Shorts.
Best wishes for a productive and prosperous week's end.
For more news and views on today's labor unions, join LaborUnionReport's group on Linkedin or follow us on Twitter.
"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." — Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776


text:
Morzine is one of 14 resorts in the massive Portes du Soleil ski area, which spans the Franco-Swiss border. With 52 hotels and 41 bars and restaurants, it's a concentration of ski holiday facilities, but still manages to pull off that authentic mountain village feel. When it comes to the slopes, Morzine is a fine destination for beginners and intermediate skiers, with an abundance of gentle pistes. It's also a good place from which to explore the Porte du Soleil's many off piste options if you're feeling adventurous. Lifts often lead directly up to these areas, which mean less hiking and more skiing. Freestylers, however, may want to skip Morzine and head to neighbouring Avoriaz, since Morzine's park doesn't offer anything exceptional.
- 8091ftSummit
- 4810ftVertical Drop
- 3281ftBase
- 6
- 0
- 3
- 6
- 4
- 6
- 0
- 21
- 81Total
Beginner Runs
Intermediate Runs
Advanced Runs
Expert Runs
mi Pistes
66.5 mi
Terrain Parks
MI Night Skiing
0.6 mi
Skiable Terrain
840 ac
Snow Making
242 ac
mi Snow Making
19.9 mi
More Info
Morzine is just one of 14 resorts in the massive Portes du Soleil ski area. All in all, the domain offers 650 kilometres of pistes served by 195 lifts and 694 snow guns stretching across the French-Swiss border. If it all sounds mind-boggling, don't fret-Morzine has managed to maintain its mountain village feel, with wood chalets, slate roofs, and old stone buildings.
Morzine is sandwiched between Les Gets and Avoriaz. If you don't think you'll cover all 278 pistes of the Portes du Soleil Pass, you can opt for a Morzine-Les Gets Pass, which is good for 64 runs or an Avoriaz pass for 49 pistes.
These two passes are good for skiers up to advanced beginning level, or for anyone who just wants a gentle, relaxing ski holiday. Plus, many of the Morzine-Les Gets pistes run through forested areas, making for a pleasant backdrop to a quiet ski day. As for Avoriaz, the pistes are higher up, so the snow quality is better longer.
If you're intermediate and up, a Portes du Soleil Pass will be worth the money. It opens the way to 106 blue runs, 100 red runs, and 20 challenging black runs, including the Hauts Forts at Avoriaz and the Swiss Wall at Les Crosets.
Powder day
Morzine offers a good starting base for off piste skiing, since the Nyon and Chamossière lifts run to the top of the mountain and can get you away from the groomed areas without having to climb on foot. Nyon has a good choice of itineraries between the groomers, so you can choose depending on how adventurous you feel. Just be careful not to go through the trees leading to the Vallée de la Manche - on the other side is a drop off.
An alternative choice is the Pointe d'Angolon, on the left of the Chamossière lift. The arrival point offers a fantastic view of the Mont Blanc before skiing on the ridge to the Col d'Angolon. Just be careful, because this area is prone to snowslides when there is a lot of fresh powder. You can then ski down into the bowl and come out at the lift to ride back up and do it all again. Because it is so accessible, the area can get tracked out, but since it is so spread out, you should be able to do a few runs while the snow is still ideal.
In terms of challenging pistes, Morzine offers nine black runs and 29 red runs, some of which could actually be considered black if they didn't run right into the village. Pistes A, F, and R are pretty steep for red runs, but at the same time wide enough for making large turns.
The red Aigle Rouge is a sharp switchback slope but for an exciting variation, you can short cut the switchbacks by taking a steep off-piste drop that runs back to the piste afterwards. You can also choose to take the AIgle Noi, a bumpy black, or the red Combe, both of which run down to the Pointe lift.
Groomers and Family
With five green and 23 blue runs, Morzine is an ideal destination for beginners and lower-level intermediate skiers. Since easy slopes tend to be near the base village, natural snow conditions can be variable, but the resort makes up for this with a thorough network of snow guns.
On the Pleney side, you'll find a special beginner area, with wide tree-lined slopes where you can learn to ski in a pretty setting. This also runs into some gentle and easy enough blue runs that can be done after a few tries on the greens.
However, this area gets very crowded during the school holiday times, sometimes, with up to a 10 minute wait for some of the magic carpets. As soon as you progress beyond an absolute beginner level, it's a good idea to try the blue runs, which tend to disperse the crowds a bit better.
Piste B, C, and D are all good options, none of which are steep or tricky. Piste B is the longest and thus, the gentlest while Piste C has just enough slope to challenging advancing beginners.
Another option is the Proclou area, on the Super Morzine side of the resort. It is the largest and widest zone where you can learn to ski and is the base camp for the Avoriaz Ski School. But like the Pleney area, it gets crowded during peak weeks, so come here to build your confidence, then fan out to the less crowded runs.
Morzine is Avoriaz's next door neighbour, and as such is pretty light on park and pipe opportunities. If you are looking for some serious park time, you really should head over to Avoriaz, where you'll find different parks, including The Stash, which was designed by Burton and all features ecological modules.
Avoriaz groups its park and pipe areas collectively into the Avoriaz Snowzone, made up of five parks, a really big superpipe (120 metres long and six metres high), and two boardercrosses. All in all, these are some of the best and most varied area for freestylers of all levels and even kids, thanks to the Lil'Stash park.
The Chappelle park is good for practicing jumps, since they come in threes, meaning more jump for your queue time. It also has progressively difficult beginner to intermediate modules, you can ride at your level.
The Arare snowpark is for more advanced freestylers, with big modules and skiers rotating, flipping, and spinning in every direction. You'll want to build up speed to clear the modules, so this one is not for the faint of heart or lower intermediate levels. But they can always watch the spectacle put on by the other skiers and boarders.
Morzine itself does offer a 200-metre-long boardercross in the Nyonet area as well as a park accessible via the Nyon lift. Here, you'll find a few easy jumps and a rail or two, but nothing spectacular. It's good if you just want to test the park experience, but if you're looking for something special, head to Avoriaz.
Morzine is such a popular destination with English-speaking skiers that it has its own English-language magazine, Yodel. It comes out every month and provides a good rundown of what's going on in the resort, alongside quality articles, interviews, and photos. Plus, it's put together by locals who live at Morzine year round, so they really know the place. It's been so successful that the small British publishing team has even launched Yodel Les Gets and Yodel Avoriaz. Check out their website for a list of places where you can pick up a copy.
Another good thing to know about is the YouCanSki programme, aimed at beginners. There's no point in paying for a pass that covers the entire ski area when you want to ski just a few easy slopes and this package offers beginners a cheaper choice. For 269 euros, you get six half-day lessons, gear hire, and a lift pass. Morzine is a prime choice in terms of slopes if you are just learning, and now there's a special package that lets you get the most out of the gentle terrain.
If you just want a few lessons, try the Mint Snowboard School or the British Alpine Ski School, both of which specialize in English-language lessons and have consistently positive reviews.
A&D, on the rue de Bourg, opened in 2010 and since then has been a big success, notably due to the quality ingredients selected by owner Porl Denicolo. They serve full cooked breakfasts, complete with tea for around €9, which is about the best price you'll find for such hearty portions. Plus, in the evenings, they do a proper fish and chips for €8 if you miss the grub from back home.
For a quick coffee, head to Berits & Brown, with its comfy couches and selection of gourmet coffees. The coffee shop is in the back, where you can enjoy a fresh-ground cuppa, along with French- or Brit-inspired pastries if you need a little sugar in the morning.
La Pointe de Nyon sits right on the slopes and is accessible by taking the lift of the same name. The restaurant was recently reconstructed and re-opened in June 2011, with a spacious dining room and an outdoor dining area with a wide-open view of the surrounding slopes. As for food, you'll find a variety of salads, soups, pasta, and pizza, along with traditional Savoyard dishes and even a foie gras burger.
In the village, look for La Grange on the Chemin de la Coutettaz, where you'll find several different fondue varieties and local meat dishes, as well as surprising desserts like spice bread crème brulée. Everything is decorated in tasteful mountain style, with a cosy wooden interior and a flaming fireplace. The place is popular, so you may want to call ahead: +33(0)450.759.640.
L'Atelier, in the Hotel Le Samoyède, serves elegant dishes carefully dosed with spices as well as upscale terroir fare. Chef Alexandre Baud-Pachon has trained in several Michelin-starred restaurants in the region and came to Morzine in 2001 to open his own restaurant.
Fixed price menus start at €33 and may include specialties such as lobster and ginger ravioles, fera filet with truffle risotto, and Charolais beef with Beaufort polenta gratin. The menu changes with the seasons, ensuring impeccable freshness.
Le Mas de la Coutettaz, also known as the (more pronouncable) Farmhouse, is housed in Morzine's oldest building, a 1771 farmstead. Here, guests sit at convivial banquet-style tables in the traditionally decorated dining room, which used to be the cattle stable back in the old days.
Meals cost €40 per person and include at least four courses, with dishes like red onion and goat cheese tart, roast tarragon and mushroom chicken, and chocolate lava cake. After-dinner coffee is served in the bar, adding to the down-home atmosphere. Note: if you have children under 13 dining with you, mention it when you reserve, which you should do 24 hours in advance.
Le Clin d'œil, near the mayor's office on the Route du Plan, specializes in southwest French cuisine. Duck and foie gras dishes pepper the menu, which is a welcome change for the resort, but of course, the restaurant offers the regular Savoyard cheese dishes as well. Fixed menus run from €20 to €40.
Mamma's does low-key right, with a selection of freshly made pizzas, pasta and noodle dishes, and fish n'chips. They also do wraps, burgers, and salads, so pretty much everyone in your group will find something good, to enjoy on-site or to take away. Prices around €10.
Tibetan Café recently changed names from the Buddha Café, but the Asian-inspired atmosphere remains the same-lively and hip. Giant plasma screens show ski, board, and biking action, while fresh-off-the-piste guests lounge on comfy couches and nosh on tapas. The bar is open from 4 p.m to 2 a.m, but starts jumping around 9 p.m. You'll find the Tibetan Café between the tourist office and the Pleney.
Robinson Bar is an interesting après-ski choice for three reasons : no music, a single beer on tap, and an 8 p.m closing time. Not convinced? The only beer served is the locally-brewed Mutzig, of an unknown, but presumably powerful proof. Instead of thumping tunes, the owners prefer to let guests recount the day's slopeside exploits. And the bar closes early because otherwise, the Mutzig would do you in. Sounds intriguing, no? You'll find it at the end of the village, near the church and the mayor's office.
Snowfall History
Important Dates
- Projected OpeningProjected Closing12/15/201804/14/2019
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Morzine is tempting spring skiers to the slopes with its range of end-of-season ski deals.
Gallery: Morzine
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Contact Info
Place Baraty - BP 23
Phone: +33 (0)4 50 74 72 72


text:
May 1, 2006
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - On Saturday night, the men's tennis team elected Brandon Wai '07 to be the captain for the 2007 season. Wai, who went 7-0 in Ivy League singles play this year at No. 1, will succeed Matthew Feldman '06.
"I was very happy first of all, very excited to get elected," Wai said. "We had a great group of guys this year, and next year we're going to have just as strong a team, if not stronger."
Wai's college tennis resume has been impressive thus far. He finished the 2006 season ranked No. 71 in the nation in singles, the highest ranking of any Ivy League player. His No. 71 ranking was 22 spots higher than his No. 93 ranking at the start of the year.
Wai finished with a 29-7 overall singles record and a 17-12 doubles record in 2006. Last year's 31-8 singles record netted him first-team all-Ivy honors in singles, and he was named to the league's first team in doubles in 2005 as well.
Last fall was no less impressive. Wai received a bid to ITA Nationals by virtue of beating Penn State's Mark Barry in the finals of the ITA Eastern Regionals on Tues., Oct. 25. Though he said he had the personal goal of qualifying for the NCAA Championships in singles this spring, his main focus was on the team's play.
"I'm really proud of the way our guys performed this year," Wai said. "I know each guy in the lineup gave all they could every time they took the court. That's all anyone can ask for."
Wai said that though the Bulldogs are losing several strong seniors, including No. 2 Milosz Gudzowski and No. 6 Rowan Reynolds, a strong bevy of underclassmen bodes well for the team's chances of taking the Ivy title next year.
"I feel like next year [No. 3 Jeff Dawson '09] is only going to get better--he's one of the hardest workers on the team," he said. "And I've only heard good things about our incoming freshmen."
Indeed, Yale's 2006-'07 recruiting class was ranked No. 14 in the nation, and features none other than Dawson's brother Connor '10, Illinois's No. 3 overall recruit.
"I'm very excited to lead this team next year," Wai said.
Report filed by David Sherfinski '08, Yale Sports Publicity


text:
Undeniably, helper classes are one of the most useful resources found in a PHP developer's toolbox. They present several distinctive characteristics that make them look quite different from a typical full-blown library: on the one hand, they're built as small packages of logically-related methods, while on the other hand their functionality may be so remarkable, that they become a fundamental block in the development of web applications.
Fortunately, building helper classes with PHP 5 is a pretty straightforward process that can be tackled with only an average background in object-oriented programming. So, if you're a PHP developer who's searching for a friendly guide that shows you how to create different kinds of helpers through a hands-on approach, then this series of articles may be the material that you need.
And now that you know what to expect from this group of tutorials, it's time to review the concepts that were deployed in the previous one. In that second part of the series I explained how to improve the use of a basic text helper class by declaring all of its methods static, with the exception of the constructor.
In doing so, it was possible to take full advantage of the class without having to spawn any instances of it. Logically, a similar result can be obtained by declaring the class abstract, but as you know, abstract classes are intended to be inherited by children, while helpers generally aren't conceived that way.
So far, so good. At this point, I've summarized the topics discussed in the last article, so it's time to talk about the subject of this one. Since it's a common practice to build helpers that manipulate URLs in different ways, in the next few lines I'm going to show you how to create a class whose main task will be dynamically generating URLs via a basic API.
Want to learn how this brand new helper class will be developed? Then start reading right now!
{mospagebreak title=Review: the previous TextHelper class}
Before I proceed to develop the URL-handling helper class that I just mentioned in the introduction, it'd be helpful to recall the signature and text helper created in the preceding article, so you can quickly grasp how it was defined and how it can be used for filtering strings.
Having said that, here's the full source code of the text helper class, so examine it closely:
class TextHelper
// constructor not implemented
public function __construct(){}
// convert new lines to '
' tags
public static function newline_br($str)
if (is_string($str) AND empty($str) === FALSE)
return nl2br($str);
// convert new lines to '
' tags in string
public static function newline_par($str, $id = ", $class = ")
if (is_string($str) AND empty($str) === FALSE)
if ($id != ")
$id = ' id="' . $id . '"';
if ($class != ")
$class = ' class="' . $class . '"';
return '
' . str_replace("n", '

', $str) . '
';
// convert new lines to 'div' tags in string (id and class attributes can also be specified)
public static function newline_div($str, $id = ", $class = ")
if (is_string($str) AND empty($str) === FALSE)
if ($id != ")
$id = ' id="' . $id . '"';
if ($class != ")
$class = ' class="' . $class . '"';
return '
' . str_replace("n", '

', $str) . '
';
// uppercase all characters in string
public static function uppercase_all($str)
if (is_string($str) AND empty($str) === FALSE)
return strtoupper($str);
// lowercase all characters in string
public static function lowercase_all($str)
if (is_string($str) AND empty($str) === FALSE)
return strtolower($str);
// uppercase first character in string
public static function uppercase_first($str)
if (is_string($str) AND empty($str) === FALSE)
return ucfirst(strtolower($str));
If you're familiar with building PHP programs using an object-oriented approach, then you shouldn't have major problems understanding how the above "TextHelper" class does its thing. As you can see, it has some simple methods for applying different formatting processes to an inputted string.
However, the most important thing to note here is that since those methods have been declared static, they also can be called out of the object scope. The following examples show how to invoke the methods in question without creating any instances of the text helper class. Here they are:
// convert new lines to '
' tags
echo TextHelper::newline_br('The shinning ' . "n" . 'is a scary book of Stephen King!');
/*displays the following
The shinning

is a scary book of Stephen King!
// convert new lines to '
' tags
echo TextHelper::newline_par('The shinning ' . "n" . 'is a scary book of Stephen King!', 'pid', 'pclass');
displays the following

The shinning

is a scary book of Stephen King!

// convert new lines to '
' tags
echo TextHelper::newline_div('the shinning ' . "n" . 'is a scary book of Stephen King!', 'divid', 'divclass');
/* displays the following

the shinning

is a scary book of Stephen King!

// uppercase sample string
echo TextHelper::uppercase_all('The shinning is a scary book of Stephen King!');
/* displays the following
// lowercase sample string
echo TextHelper::lowercase_all('The shinning is a scary book of Stephen King!');
/* displays the following
the shinning is a scary book of stephen king!
// uppercase first character in sample string
echo TextHelper::uppercase_first('the shinning is a scary book of Stephen King!');
/* displays the following
The shinning is a scary book of stephen king!
Aside from bringing up some great memories from my distant childhood (yeah, Stephen King was my favorite writer by that time), the examples shown previously show how to use the text helper in a more efficient way.
Since these examples speak for themselves, I'm not going to waste your time explaining how they work. Instead, I'm going to continue discovering more useful things about building helper classes.
Therefore, in accordance with the concepts deployed in the introduction, in the following section I'm going create another helper class, which will be tasked with generating dynamic URLs.
To learn more about how this class will be built, click on the link that appears below and keep reading.
{mospagebreak title=Building a URL-handling helper class}
In reality, building a helper class that generates URLs dynamically is normally a no-brainer process, but in this specific case it'll be even simpler. The class that I'm planning to develop will be a simple wrapper for most of the elements of the $_SERVER superglobal PHP array.
Now that I've explained how this URL-handling helper class is going to work, I suggest that you look at its signature, which has been listed below. Here it is:
class URLHelper
// constructor not implemented
public function __construct(){}
// get web server root
public function get_document_root()
return $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'];
// get script URL
public function get_script_url()
return $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
// get script query string
public function get_query_string()
return $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];
// get request URI
public function get_request_uri()
return $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
// get script file name
public function get_script_filename()
return $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'];
// get request method
public function get_request_method()
return strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']);
Certainly, the definition of the above "URLHelper" class confirms exactly what I said a few lines before, because its methods are simple proxies for many of the values stored on the native $_SERVER PHP array. Naturally, it's possible to implement more complex methods, for instance, for building the breadcrumbs for a web site, but for the moment I'm going to keep the functionality of this URL helper class rather simple.
Having shown how this sample class looks, I'm going to code a few hands-on examples to demonstrate how to perform some basic tasks using some of the class's methods.
As usual, to see how these examples will be created, please read the section to come.
{mospagebreak title=Putting the URL helper class into action}
Now that there's a URL helper class available for testing purposes, it'd be useful to see how it can be put into action, right? With that idea in mind, below I coded a group of examples that show precisely how to use the helper for retrieving URL-related information about a PHP script running on a Windows web server.
Here are the corresponding code samples:
$urlhelper = new URLHelper();
echo $urlhelper->get_document_root();
// displays the following
C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs
echo $urlhelper->get_request_method();
displays the following
echo $urlhelper->get_query_string();
displays the following
echo $urlhelper->get_request_uri();
displays the following
echo $urlhelper->get_script_filename();
displays the following
C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs/helpers/helper_example.php
echo $urlhelper->get_script_url();
/* displays the following
As you can see above, the methods of the URL helper class have been utilized for retrieving some typical values about the script being executed, such as the request URI and the script's URL, the root of the web server and the eventual query string, and so forth, assuming that these parameters are available to be fetched from the web host.
Again, it's feasible to add more methods to the helper that perform more complicated tasks, but I guess the class in its current version should be enough to demonstrate how to create a URL helper in PHP 5.
Finally, feel free to edit all of the examples shown in this tutorial, particularly if you're planning to include different kinds of helper classes in your own framework.
Final thoughts
That's about it. In this third installment of the series, I provided you with the basic pointers for building a URL-handling helper class. Of course, the methods of this sample class should be improved to fit the requirements of production environments, but they should serve to demonstrate how to create a helper that generates dynamic URLs.
In the next article, I'm going to enhance the signature of this class by declaring its methods static, which is pretty similar to the process covered in the preceding tutorial.
Don't miss the upcoming tutorial!


text:
After more than three years of dating, Jason Statham is ready to take the next step with girlfriend Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. "I hear he'll propose soon," an insider reveals in the July 8 issue of Us Weekly. Adds a pal, "Their connection is very serious and physical."
PHOTOS: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's modeling career
The Redemption actor, 45, and the supermodel, 26, even have a saucy tradition to spice up red carpet duties. "Jason and I make each other laugh whispering in each other's ears," Huntington-Whiteley recently told Net-a-Porter's The Edit. "You know, naughty stuff."
PHOTOS: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's stunning red carpet style
Though Statham is 19 years her senior, Huntington-Whiteley isn't bothered about their age difference. "I'm not interested in hanging out with boys," she explained. "I have all the man I need!"
PHOTOS: Love lives of supermodels
In addition to planning a proposal, Statham is gearing up for the release of his latest thriller, Homefront, costarring Kate Bosworth, James Franco, Winona Ryder. Huntington-Whiteley, meanwhile, next appears in the movie Mad Max: Fury Road, costarring Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Zoe Kravitz, Nicholas Hoult and Riley Keough.
This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Jason Statham Planning to Propose to Rosie Huntington-Whiteley


text: The 14-story Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower commands a breathtaking view of Jefferson and the countryside of five counties. Visitors can take a glass elevator ride to the 120-ft. observation deck. $3 for adults, $2 for children 5 and under. Located on the southwest corner of the Greene County Courthouse plaza in downtown Jefferson, the tower was given to the people of Jefferson and Greene County in accordance with wills of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Mahanay. The tower is 168 feet 2 inches high and holds 14 bells that were cast at the world famous Petit & Fritzen Bell Foundry in the Netherlands. The bells chime on the hour, quarter and half-hour and music can be played from an electric keyboard. The tower has music playing daily. The tower was completed in 1966 at a cost of $350,000.00. The tower is open daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day 12 - 4 p.m. and weekends only in May and September. Other times by appointment by calling 515-386-2155. Submitted by Carole Custer, President, Mahanay Bell Tower Community Foundation


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Some book collectors choose to focus all of their attention on a single title by a particular author. This may sound simple but can become a monumental task depending on the book in question. A classic work - like Shakespeare's plays or Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - will have been republished hundreds of times in various formats, with different illustrators and different cover art, by different publishers, in different countries, by different translators, and so forth.
To determine how many different editions a single title might have it would be wise to consult a bibliography. AbeBooks itself is also very useful for researching the various editions of a particular title.
Research the bibliographic history with these websites:


text:
Hmm... IMHO The "keeping current"-problem will over time probably not only apply to external examples and links - it will most likely become equally relevant for our own excersises, our original content (and our translations) sooner or later... So - perhaps having procedures in place for (very visibly) assuring visitors that *we* keep our material current would also be a good thing... Imagine a "quality assurance stamp" on all published material stating "reviewed and updated at {date}" - or "this is a translation, the original text was revised {date} and the translation was updated to reflect that at {date}" .... or something similar (eg. "this is the translation of version 17 of the FED-100 excersise 7.1.2 Assignment 1: Class Homepage") With that in place - wouldn't revising external examples while we regurarily revise the material itself anyway be greatly simplified as well? .... just a thought :) /Åke J 2012/3/3 Adrian Roselli <email@example.com> > *Any* thoughts? > > When I interact with professors they (nearly) always ask about how to stay > current. Many don't know what resources to visit for current trends and to > see how things are evolving. I suspect we all know how radically different > many web dev aspects can be in any 6 month window. > > You may have considered this in your "reading lists" bullet, but I am wary > of the can of worms recommending specific blogs/sites can open. I, for one, > rail against any reference to W3 Schools. While I used to recommend > evolt.org, I think we all know its time has passed. > > Is it too early to identify a set of parameters for suggesting ongoing, > day-to-day online resources? > > > > Sent from my tablet and probably full of typos as a result. > > > On Mar 2, 2012, at 1:04 PM, "Chris Mills" <email@example.com> wrote: > > > Some thoughts I have put together over the course of today, detailing > how our learning material might fit in with educators and students involved > in web ed courses, and next things I am going to do. > > > > > http://www.w3.org/community/webed/wiki/Positioning_document_for_web_ed_learning_material > > > > any thoughts appreciated > > > > Chris Mills > > Open standards evangelist and dev.opera.com editor, Opera Software > > Co-chair, web education community group, W3C > > > > * Try Opera: http://www.opera.com > > * Learn about the latest open standards technologies and techniques: > http://dev.opera.com > > * Contribute to web education: http://www.w3.org/community/webed/ > > > > > >Received on Tuesday, 6 March 2012 01:56:32 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 19:52:03 UTC


text:
This week's writer is Beth Diamond, a regional resource specialist at Vermont 2-1-1 and a member of the Addison County Prevention Partnership.
Each year the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (NCADD) sponsors National Alcohol Awareness Month to encourage local communities to focus on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues. This year, NCADD highlighted the important public health issue of underage drinking, a problem with devastating individual, family and community consequences.


text:
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His office can be found along a congested road in Southern Louisville known as Dixie Highway. Nestled amid the many restaurant chains, gas stations and retail stores – it can be difficult for small businesses to stand out in a crowd.
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St. Louis Rapper Thi'sl - Black Rose (Prod. By Wit) [Label Submitted]
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text: Coping With Math Anxiety 1 2 3 4 5 What Is Math Anxiety? Social and Educational Roots Math Myths Taking Possession Strategies for Success What Is Math Anxiety? This article is from the book Math & Me: Embracing Success Available in the Math Store A famous stage actress was once asked if she had ever suffered from stage-fright, and if so how she had gotten over it. She laughed at the interviewer's naive assumption that, since she was an accomplished actress now, she must not feel that kind of anxiety. She assured him that she had always had stage fright, and that she had never gotten over it. Instead, she had learned to walk on stage and perform—in spite of it. Like stage fright, math anxiety can be a disabling condition, causing humiliation, resentment, and even panic. Consider these testimonials from a questionnaire we have given to students in the past several years: When I look at a math problem, my mind goes completely blank. I feel stupid, and I can't remember how to do even the simplest things. I've hated math ever since I was nine years old, when my father grounded me for a week because I couldn't learn my multiplication tables. In math there's always one right answer, and if you can't find it you've failed. That makes me crazy. Math exams terrify me. My palms get sweaty, I breathe too fast, and often I can't even make my eyes focus on the paper. It's worse if I look around, because I'd see everybody else working, and know that I'm the only one who can't do it. I've never been successful in any math class I've ever taken. I never understand what the teacher is saying, so my mind just wanders. Some people can do math—not me! What all of these students are expressing is math anxiety, a feeling of intense frustration or helplessness about one's ability to do math. What they did not realize is that their feelings about math are common to all of us to some degree. Even the best mathematicians, like the actress mentioned above, are prone to anxiety—even about the very thing they do best and love most. In this essay we will take a constructive look at math anxiety, its causes, its effects, and at how you as a student can learn to manage this anxiety so that it no longer hinders your study of mathematics. Lastly, we will examine special strategies for studying mathematics, doing homework, and taking exams. Let us begin by examining some social attitudes towards mathematics that are especially relevant. Next: Social and Educational Roots ContributorsWendy Hageman Smith, authorB. Sidney Smith, authorCitation Info[MLA] Hageman Smith, Wendy, B. Sidney Smith. "Coping With Math Anxiety." Platonic Realms Minitexts. Platonic Realms, 9 Apr 2014. Web. 9 Apr 2014. <http://platonicrealms.com/>[APA] Hageman Smith, Wendy, B. Sidney Smith (9 Apr 2014). Coping With Math Anxiety. Retrieved 9 Apr 2014 from Platonic Realms Minitexts: http://platonicrealms.com/minitexts/Coping-With-Math-Anxiety/ Advertisement


text:
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - The 16th-ranked Flagler Saints scored three goals in the second half to cruise past Georgia Southwestern, 4-0, on Wednesday evening at Saints Field.
Will Frandsen converted a penalty kick in the 43rd minute to give Flagler a 1-0 lead heading into the halftime break.
The Saints added scores in the 60th, 73rd and 84th minutes to put the match out of reach.
Flagler (11-3-1, 5-2 PBC) outshot the Hurricanes on goal, 15-2, and led 8-3 in corner kicks. A total of 39 fouls were called, with 23 coming from GSW.
GSW goalkeeper David Porley stayed busy and finished one save shy of a single-game school record with 11 stops on Wednesday. Matt Gilman made two saves for Flagler.
The Hurricanes (2-12, 1-7) close the 2010 season at home on Saturday against Alabama-Huntsville. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.


text:
This story appears in the August 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine.
The thing Silang is searching for, on hands and knees, 15,000 feet above sea level on the Tibetan plateau, is extraordinarily strange. The part that's above ground is a tiny, capless fungus—just a brown stalk, thin as a matchstick, poking an inch or two out of the muddy soil. Eleven hours a day, from early May to late June, Silang Yangpi and his wife and a large group of relatives and friends crawl along steep mountain slopes, combing through a dizzying tangle of grasses and twigs and wildflowers and sedge, seeking the elusive stalk.
When Silang spots one, he shouts with joy. His wife, Yangjin Namo, rushes over. Using a trowel, he carves around the stalk and carefully removes a wedge of soil. He brushes away the excess dirt. And there, in his palm, is what looks like a bright yellow caterpillar. Dead. Attached to its head, unicorn style, is the slender brown fungus. From his pocket Silang removes a red plastic bag that once held dehydrated ramen noodles. He places his find inside, along with the others he and his wife have unearthed, and carefully rolls the bag up. Silang is 25 years old; his wife is 21. They have an infant daughter. The caterpillar fungus represents a significant portion of their annual income.
Across the Tibetan Plateau, these creatures have transformed the rural economy. They've sparked a modern-day gold rush. In fact, by the time the contents of Silang's bag arrive at the gleaming shops of Beijing, they can easily be priced at more than twice their weight in gold.
The fungus is called yartsa gunbu. Translated from Tibetan, this means "summer grass, winter worm," although it is technically neither grass nor worm. It's the underground-dwelling larva of one of several species of the ghost moth that has been infected by spores from a parasitic fungus called Ophiocordyceps sinensis. The fungus devours the body of the caterpillar, leaving only the exoskeleton intact, and then, come spring, blooms in the form of a brown stalk, called the stroma, that erupts from the caterpillar's head. This process happens only in the fertile, high-alpine meadows of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya. All attempts at farming the fungus have failed.
For centuries yartsa gunbu has been thought to possess miraculous medicinal and libidinous powers. Yaks that graze on it, legend holds, grow in strength tenfold. One of the earliest known descriptions of yartsa comes from a 15th-century Tibetan text, titled An Ocean of Aphrodisiacal Qualities, which raves about the "faultless treasure" that "bestows inconceivable advantages" on those who ingest it. Just boil a few in a cup of tea, or stew in a soup, or roast in a duck, and all that ails you will be healed—or so it's said.
The worms, as they're colloquially known, have been prescribed by herbalists to alleviate back pain, impotence, jaundice, and fatigue. Also to reduce cholesterol, increase stamina, and improve eyesight. To treat tuberculosis. And asthma. Bronchitis and hepatitis, anemia and emphysema. They're billed as an antitumor, antiviral antioxidant. A treatment for HIV/AIDS. A balm for those recovering from surgery. They may even help with hair loss.
As the Chinese economy roars, demand for yartsa has intensified—it's become a status symbol at dinner parties and the gift of choice to flatter government officials. In the 1970s a pound of worms cost a dollar or two. In the early '90s it was still less than a hundred dollars. Now a pound of top-quality yartsa can retail for $50,000.
Such outsize demand sparks concern that the total annual harvest, now roughly 400 million specimens, may diminish as yartsa fields become overpicked. To harvest the worms sustainably, pickers would need to leave some stalks in the soil to mature and infect the next season's larvae, says ecologist Daniel Winkler. Instead, most villagers harvest every stalk they find and then move on to higher hunting grounds.
Due to the annual yartsa windfall, thousands of formerly impoverished Tibetan yak herders own motorcycles and iPhones and flat-screen TVs. Battles over worm-picking turf—most areas allow only licensed residents to pick—have resulted in violent encounters, including seven murders in northern Nepal, where a small percentage of the world's yartsa is picked. In the city of Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, burglars once tunneled, prison-break style, into a shop selling yartsa, making off with more than $1.5 million worth of product. The Chinese police have established numerous roadside checkpoints to prevent poachers from sneaking on to hillsides reserved for local villages.
There are now places, like the town of Serxu—home to Silang and his wife—where, when the ground warms and the grass sprouts, all else in life is abandoned to the pursuit of yartsa. Children, with keen eyes and low-to-the-ground statures, are often the best pickers. Some school systems, helpless against the lure of the worms, close for a one-month yartsa holiday.
At the end of the long picking day, Silang and Yangjin bring their worms to the local market. Serxu's market, during the height of the season, sprawls along the puddled sidewalks on both sides of the town's main street. It is customary, in this frontier-feeling place, amid treeless hills speckled with herdsmen's tents and strung with prayer flags, to dress up for market.
Many wear traditional Tibetan coats, the sleeves so long there's no need for gloves. Men sport wide-brimmed cowboy hats and leather boots. Knives are strapped to waists. Smiles flash with gold teeth. Women strut about in necklaces strung with amber beads the size of golf balls. A few have braided hair that nearly sweeps the sidewalk. There are even a couple of monks, swaddled in vermilion robes. Religious strictures forbid them from picking or eating yartsa, but it's fine to buy and sell.
Yartsa dealers carry tiny brass-colored scales and solar-powered calculators. The sides of their hands are often smudged with jotted calculations. Worms are piled in cardboard boxes and wicker baskets or spread on pieces of cloth. When a dealer is approached by someone like Silang—knees muddy, with a bag of yartsa fresh from the fields—the worms are carefully examined. Their value depends on a number of factors: size, color, firmness. The dealer handles each one, often scraping off caked dirt with a special yartsa cleaning tool that looks like a large toothbrush. A crowd gathers.
It is also common practice, when preparing to make a purchase, for a yartsa dealer to keep up a steady patter of mild insults.
"I've never bought such bad worms."
"The color's no good. Too dark."
"I'm going to lose money on these."
Finally, when it's time to do business, the dealer holds out his arm, the sleeve of his Tibetan coat dangling. The seller slips his hand inside. Then, using finger signals, the two haggle in the coat sleeve, shielded from the curious eyes of the crowd. It looks as if a thumb-wrestling match is going on in there—offers rapidly made and countered, the coat's fabric stretching and twisting. When the fingers settle and a price is agreed upon, the money is passed through the sleeve.
Silang and Yangjin approach a dealer they've worked with before, a man whose name is also Silang—Silang Yixi, 33, in business for eight years. He keeps photos of prized worms on his cell phone. The two Silangs conduct the ritual: the worm examination, the gibes—at one point the dealer returns the worms to the ramen bag and pretends he's no longer interested—and eventually the haggling. In the end, for their 30 worms, most too small to command top price, Silang and Yangjin are paid 580 yuan, about $90.
Zhaxicaiji steps from her chauffeur-driven Platinum Edition Toyota Sequoia, shoulders her Prada handbag, and strolls, high heels clicking, into the flagship store of her yartsa gunbu empire. She is founder and president of Three Rivers Source Medicine Company, one of China's best known yartsa brands. She manages 500 employees and 20 stores; annual sales can top $60 million.
Growing up, Zhaxicaiji, who's now in her late 40s, was like Silang and Yangjin. She crawled in the hills, picking worms. Her family raised yaks and sheep and lived in a yak-hair tent. She started the business in 1998 with $120 of her own money and rode the yartsa juggernaut to success. She plans to expand internationally, exporting yartsa to places like Japan, Korea, and Malaysia. Within a decade, she says, her worms will be sold in the United States.
Her store in the central Chinese city of Lanzhou occupies a full city block; mounted over the entrance is a giant video screen playing commercials advertising her worms. Inside are opulent chandeliers, a trickling fountain, uniformed security guards, and vases of fresh-cut flowers. Her yartsa is exhibited in dozens of museum-style glass cases, the temperature and humidity precisely controlled.
Before a worm arrives here, it may change hands a half dozen or more times. Dealers in frontier markets sell to midsize markets, and those businessmen usually head to China's biggest yartsa market, which operates year-round, bustling and loud as a stock exchange, encompassing an entire district in Xining, a city just west of Zhaxicaiji's headquarters. Many of the largest, firmest, most ideally golden worms are selected by Zhaxicaiji's buyers. Prior to being put on display, all are x-rayed—it's become common to hide bits of lead wire in worms to increase weight.
A black Mercedes pulls up to her store and four middle-aged men, wearing polo shirts and chunky watches, take seats in front of one of the glass cases. They're promptly served by a staff of young women in dark skirts, white button-front shirts, and cotton gloves. The men munch on walnuts and raisins and drink yartsa-infused water as they make their selections. The worms are then neatly packaged in maroon wooden boxes with felt interiors and brass clasps, transforming a startlingly unattractive product—a faintly fishy-smelling Cheez Doodle-colored caterpillar with a strange growth emerging from its head—into something practically regal. The boxes are stacked in cloth shopping bags. In a matter of ten minutes the men spend $30,000.
On the fifth floor of a modern high-rise apartment building on the east side of Beijing, resting on her sofa and flanked by her bichons frises—Quan Quan (Little Circle) and Dian Dian (Little Dot)—Yu Jian sips a cup of freshly brewed yartsa gunbu tea. Yu is 40 years old; she's wearing a cheery flower-patterned blouse and leopard-print slippers. Until recently, she was an executive at a health food company. But in October 2010 she was diagnosed with uterine cancer.
She pursued a modern course of treatment, including extensive rounds of chemotherapy. But she also decided to visit a traditional Chinese herbalist. He prescribed yartsa. She's been using it for about six months.
Each evening she places two worms in a glass of water and lets it sit overnight. In the morning she boils the water along with some dried dates. She drinks the tea and then eats the softened worms. Yu buys only the highest quality yartsa, from the Tongrentang chain of pharmacies—one of the few brand names more famous, and more expensive, than Zhaxicaiji's. A bag of 24 midsize worms, enough to last a couple of weeks, costs her more than $550. "I think it's worth it," she says, though she is aware of the skepticism surrounding its effectiveness. So far the proof for the power of yartsa gunbu is not in.
Some studies, conducted primarily in China, reveal that it does contain an immune system modulator known as beta-glucan and an antiviral agent called cordycepin. A few clinical trials suggest it can help alleviate many of the conditions it's long been prescribed for, including bronchitis, asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, high cholesterol, and sexual dysfunction. But critics say the studies have been small and the methodology suspect.
"Until someone does a large clinical trial using a high-quality product, the science we have to rely on so far is not suggestive of a significant effect," says Brent Bauer, director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, who has extensively studied herbal medicines.
What's more, says mycologist Paul Stamets, wild yartsa may be tainted by any number of unidentified fungal molds, some of which might be harmful. "People could be poisoned," says Stamets, who has written six books on mushroom cultivation and sells his own mushroom products. "For the inexperienced, it is a form of Russian roulette." Whether the worms are a potent elixir or an exorbitantly expensive myth, there's little sign the yartsa gold rush will be over anytime soon. The evidence may be far from certain, but the belief is pervasive.
Yu Jian claims she can feel the worm's effect—both physically and psychologically. She says it improves her spirits and revitalizes her "life energy"—what's known in China as qi (pronounced chi). Her actual energy, though, can be variable.
Though she's quite thin, Yu does have a soft ruddy color and a palpable vigor. On better days, it's easy to give the worms the credit. Other times, she's reminded that all cures, ancient and modern alike, have their limits. Yet on her most recent medical visit, she recalls, her doctor was shocked by the swiftness of her improvement. "He didn't even remember I was a cancer patient," she says.
EPILOGUE—Since the reporting for this article was completed, Yu Jian's cancer turned virulent and ended up taking her life.


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"It takes a team to make a talent" that was definitely the theme of the evening at the record release party for Chris Mann's new album "roads" held at Ron Fair's residence Monday, Oct 15, 2012 in Brentwood.
Chris Mann, a classically trained opera singer from Wichita, may not have won the second season of The Voice but he's won a creative dream team that is ready to see him rise to the top.
The story goes that Chris met manager Susan Markheim one evening at Nappa Grill. Susan has worked with big name artists such as: John Lennon, George Harrison, Robert Palmer, Bob Marley and Seal, and the list goes on and on. Soon after that night she invited a few important music industry people to hear Chris sing at a little café and by the end of the evening a two-year goal was made: to produce a record.
Susan was also the reason why Chris entered The Voice. He proved to be a shining star as a contestant on the reality show and his powerful voice rocketed him into the finals as the representative for Christina Aguilera's team. By the end of the show he had two songs on the iTunes Top 10 Pop Singles Chart and an exclusive worldwide deal with Faircraft/Universal Republic, a new imprint headed up by A&R executive Ron Fair. When the "record man" Monte Lipman, Universal Republic Records CEO and president who has shaped such artists as Taylor Swift and Florence and the Machine jumped on board, the dream team was almost complete. Lincoln decided to join Mann as sponsors and soon THX followed.
Mann previous work includes touring with Grammy Award-winner India.Arie and Tony Award-winner Idina Menzel. He's also performed at events including the Sundance Film Festival, the Academy Awards Young Hollywood Party and the American Film Institute Awards, among others.
Mann's debut album features a mix of 7 covers and 4 original songs. The covers include new recordings of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game," Damien Rice's "The Blower's Daughter" and "My Way." Also, Mann sings "Ave Maria," which he also performed on the NBC show. The two songs that are his own are "Falling" and "Cuore" the latter of which is in Italian and features Bach's Air on a G String.
A Chrismas CD called "Home for Christmas" has six classic songs, and is available exclusively at Walmart this month. The tunes include "O Holy Night", "White Christmas" and "The First Noel."
Chris performed one of his two original songs. "Roads" is a beautiful and emotional song about life's journey. Second was the classic song " My way", a song rewritten by Paul Anka who decided to tweak Frank Sinatra's original song to fit it to the bright future of this extremely talented singer.
To conclude the evening Chris performed a real tearjerker " Always On My Mind". There was so much heightened emotion in the room. His piercing eyes connecting with every one in the audience, a content smile on his face and the sound of his voice expressing so much feeling and gratitude one could barely keep the tears from coming.
After the performance agents, friends and media were able to sip on some wines and hydrate with alkaline supercharged water called Aqua Hydrate.
Outside, one could take a listen of the brand new 14-speaker system THX car audio system, with 14 amplified channels and a deadening THX Deep Note demo recognizable from the movies. You can find the audio system exclusively at Lincoln. The new Lincoln MKT and the Lincoln MKZ were showcased infront of the entrance of the residence and completed this intimate celebration of music industry people, friends and media.