text:
About Jeff Masters
Dr. Masters co-founded wunderground in 1995. He flew with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters 1986-1990. Co-blogging with him: Bob Henson, @bhensonweather
By: Dr. Jeff Masters , 6:25 PM GMT on May 22, 2008
There is a 65% chance that year's Atlantic hurricane season will have above average activity, and only a 10% chance it will be below average, according to today's seasonal hurricane forecast issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In an effort to emphasize the uncertainties in their forecast, NOAA for the first time included a probability with their "numbers" forecast. The numbers NOAA predicts are 12-16 named storms, 6-9 hurricanes, 2-5 intense hurricanes, and an Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index 100%-210% of the median. They put the odds of experiencing those numbers at 60-70%. This probability is based on the numbers seen in past hurricane seasons that had May climate patterns similar to those of 2008. An average hurricane season has 10 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 2 intense hurricanes. The forecasters also call for a 70% chance of a below normal season in the eastern Pacific off the coast of Mexico, and a below normal season in the Central Pacific near Hawaii.
The forecasters considered two main climate signals to make their forecast:
1) Continuation of conditions that have been conducive to above-normal Atlantic hurricane activity since 1995, including above-average sea-surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean (Figure 1). Between 1995-2007, the Atlantic has averaged 14.5 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 4 major hurricanes, with an average ACE index of 167% of the median. NOAA classifies nine of the thirteen seasons since 1995 as above normal, with seven being hyperactive (ACE > 175% of median). Only four seasons since 1995 have not been above normal. These include the three El Niño years (1997, 2002, and 2006) and the 2007 season.
2) La Niña or neutral conditions during the peak months (August-October) of hurricane season. The current weak La Niña episode has substantially weakened the upper-level west-to-east winds over the tropical Atlantic. These winds create much of the wind shear that inhibits hurricane development. La Niña is expected to persist (or weaken slightly to neutral) by hurricane season, and these weak westerly winds are predicted to persist over the Atlantic, bringing low levels of wind shear.
Figure 1. SST image from NOAA's May 22, 2008 seasonal hurricane forecast.
Where will this year's storms hit?
NOAA does not present any forecasts of where the steering currents might take this year's hurricanes. In general, steering currents are not predictable more than 5-7 days in advance, although sometimes one can stretch this to two weeks. As far as U.S. landfalls go, I believe that the climatology of landfalls since 1995 offers the best forecast. Between 1995-2007, the U.S. experienced an average of 4.7 named storms making landfall, of which 1.9 were hurricanes and 0.8 were intense hurricanes.
How believable is the NOAA forecast?
Mathematical analysis of forecasts made in late May and early June by two groups--Tropical Storm Risk Inc., and the Colorado State University group led by Phil Klotzbach and Dr. Bill Gray--have shown that these forecasts had reasonable skill over the past decade or so. Unfortunately, NOAA has never performed a mathematical analysis of their May forecasts, so we don't know whether their forecasts have any skill. Their forecast did poorly last year, and the head of NOAA's forecast team, Dr. Gerry Bell, provides an interesting analysis of why last year's forecast failed.
NOAA's forecast is a reasonable one--but then, since 1995, it's always been smart to forecast an above-average hurricane season, barring an obvious El Niño event. I like that NOAA is looking to insert more uncertainty into their forecast by providing a percent chance of their expected numbers to verify. However, they really need to provide some verification numbers of how much skill these forecasts have, if they want to make them more useful. In addition, they should consider dropping the "numbers" forecast of named storms, since the number of named storms often does not give a true picture of how active a hurricane season is. For example, recall the 15 named storms from 2007, which was about 50% above average! Yet the ACE index, a more true measure of the destructive power of the storms, was 31% below average. ACE index is a better measure because it uses the square of each storm's peak winds, summed up over the lifetime of the storm. Wind damage from a hurricane is proportional to the square (and possible the cube) of the peak winds, and total damage increases by a factor of 5-10 for each Saffir-Simpson Category between Cat 1 and Cat 4. According to Pielke and Landsea (1998), a doubling of wind speed--from a 74 mph Category 1 hurricane to a 148 mph Category 4 hurricane--has historically resulted in 250 times more damage for U.S. landfalling hurricanes. This figure includes storm surge, flooding, and wind damage.
The Colorado State University group led by Phil Klotzbach and Dr. Bill Gray issues their seasonal hurricane forecast on June 3 this year, and I'll be sure to provide additional commentary then.
Jeff Masters
Comments will take a few seconds to appear.
Please sign in to post comments.
Sign In or Register Sign In or Register
Not only will you be able to leave comments on this blog, but you'll also have the ability to upload and share your photos in our Wunder Photos section.
Dr. Masters co-founded wunderground in 1995. He flew with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters 1986-1990. Co-blogging with him: Bob Henson, @bhensonweather


text:
Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians (Paperback)
"The Thousand-Mile War," a powerful story of the battles of the United States and Japan on the bitter rim of the North Pacific, has been acclaimed as one of the great accounts of World War II. Brian Garfield, a novelist and screenwriter whose works have sold some 20 million copies, was searching for a new subject when he came upon the story of this "forgotten war" in Alaska. He found the history of the brave men who had served in the Aleutians so compelling and so little known that he wrote the first full-length history of the Aleutian campaign, and the book remains a favorite among Alaskans.
The war in the Aleutians was fought in some of the worst climatic conditions on earth for men, ships, and airplanes. The sea was rough, the islands craggy and unwelcoming, and enemy number one was always the weather--the savage wind, fog, and rain of the Aleutian chain. The fog seemed to reach even into the minds of the military commanders on both sides, as they directed men into situations that so often had tragic results. Frustrating, befuddling, and still the subject of debate, the Aleutian campaign nevertheless marked an important turn of the war in favor of the United States.
Now, half a century after the war ended, more of the fog has been lifted. In the updated University of Alaska Press edition, Garfield supplements his original account, which was drawn from statistics, personal interviews, letters, and diaries, with more recently declassified photographs and many more illustrations.
About the Author
The author of more than seventy books, Brian Garfield (b. 1939) is one of the country s most prolific writers of thrillers, westerns, and other genre fiction. Raised in Arizona, Garfield found success at an early age, publishing his first novel when he was only eighteen. After time in the army, a few years touring with a jazz band, and earning an MA from the University of Arizona, he settled into writing fulltime.Garfield is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America and the Western Writers of America, and the only author to have held both offices. Nineteen of his novels have been made into films, including "Death Wish "(1972), "The Last Hard Men" (1976), and "Hopscotch" (1975), for which he wrote the screenplay. To date, his novels have sold over twenty million copies worldwide. He and his wife live in California.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Heavy rain and a sodden outfield caused a total washout on day three of Hampshire's LV= County Championship clash with Surrey at the Ageas Bowl.
Persistent rain ruined any chances of play in the morning session, and umpires Mark Benson and Russell Evans closed the day's action at 2.15pm after an inspection.
The Division Two contest is now almost certainly heading for a draw, with Surrey yet to bat.
Hampshire remain on 289 for three in their first innings, after James Vince fired an unbeaten 118 on day two, his second century of the season.
Reaction after play was abandoned on day three of Hampshire's #LVCC match v @surreycricket: http://t.co/vtMIXVBiga pic.twitter.com/LXwuF5l1Eg
— Hampshire Cricket (@hantscricket) April 29, 2014


text:
Hi There,
Thanks for this nice tool.
There is a bug when exporting to xls files. Some entries of phone numbers are missing the first 0. I can't find anything strange of different about the input. Also this problem does not occur with csv export.
Any idea what could cause that?


text:
Collected Novellas (Paperback)
Renowned as a master of magical realism, Gabriel Garcia Marquez has long delighted readers around the world with his exquisitely crafted prose. Brimming with unforgettable characters and set in exotic locales, his fiction transports readers to a world that is at once fanciful, haunting, and real.
Leaf Storm, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's first novella, introduces the mythical village of Macondo, a desolate town beset by torrents of rain, where a man must fulfill a promise made years earlier.
No One Writes to the Colonel is a novella of life in a decaying tropical town in Colombia with an unforgettable central character.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold is a dark and profound story of three people joined together in a fatal act of violence.
About the Author
Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in 1927 in the town of Aracataca, Columbia.Latin America's preeminent man of letters, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. Garcia Marquez began his writing career as a journalist and is the author of numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels The Autumn of the Patriarch and Love in the Time of Cholera, and the autobiography Living to Tell the Tale. There has been resounding acclaim for his life's work since he passed away in April 2014.
Gregory Rabassa is the recipient of multiple prizes and the translator of One Hundred Years of Solitude, among other classic works.


text:
Your 2014 VSL Cubs!
The VSL Cubs begin their 68-game 2014 season tomorrow morning with a game against the VSL Phillies.
The Venezuelan Summer League (known as the "VSL") was established as an MLB affiliated "Foreign Rookie League" in 1997, and was designed for players from countries in South and Central America like Venezuela, Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil, and Curacao. Players from the Dominican Republic can play in the VSL, although most Dominican players who haven't yet graduated to North American minor leagues play in the Dominican Summer League (DSL). Also, U. S. and Canadian players cannot play in a "Foreign Rookie League" (the VSL and DSL), and no more than two Puerto Rican players can be on a VSL team's roster.
The VSL started with just six teams, but by 2001 the league had doubled in size to twelve teams. However, the league struggled to survive the first decade of the 21st century, and after the Pirates and Reds transferred their VSL affiliates to the Dominican Summer League after the 2011 season (creating DSL Pirates #2 and a second DSL Reds team known as "DSL Rojos"), there were only four VSL teams left (VSL Rays, VSL Phillies, VSL Tigers, and VSL Mariners).
The Cubs established their first "Foreigh Rookie League" team (DSL Cubs) in the Dominican Summer League (DSL) in 1997 (they had been providing players to various DSL co-op teams 1991-96), but the Cubs did not participate in the VSL until 2007, when a Cubs/Twins co-op team existed for just one season, The Cubs then established a second DSL team (DSL Cubs #2) in 2008 as the VSL Cubs/Twins co-op team folded. The Cubs operated two DSL teams (DSL Cubs #1 and DSL Cubs #2) for five sesaons (2008-12), and Venezuelan players deemed not yet ready for the AZL Cubs (Arizona Rookie League) were assigned to one of the two DSL affiliates. But then (somewhat surprisingly) the Cubs decided to transfer their second DSL team (DSL Cubs #2) to the VSL (locating the team in Los Guayos), creating a "VSL Cubs" team in 2013 that added a 5th team to the VSL (bucking the recent trend of MLB clubs either folding their VSL team or transferring their VSL team to the DSL).
The 2014 Venezuelan Summer League (VSL) regular season runs from May 12th through August 4th, followed by a post-season championship playoff between the 1st and 2nd place teams (since it's only a five-team league, there are no "divisions"). Because the VSL season begins and ends about three weeks prior to the beginning and end of the DSL season (the 2014 DSL season does not open until May 31st, but it runs until the last week of August), last year the Cubs transferred two of their better VSL players (VSL batting champion Roney Alcala and INF Bryant Flete) from the VSL Cubs to the DSL Cubs after the VSL playoffs concluded, and Flete and Alcala remained with the DSL Cubs through the conclusion of the DSL playoffs.
Because there are currently only five teams in the VSL, the regular season schedule follows a very specific pattern that is peculiar to the VSL. Each VSL team plays four games in a row against the four other VSL teams in exactly the same order and then the team has a day off (a bye). For example, the VSL Cubs play the VSL Phillies-VSL Rays-VSL Mariners-VSL Tigers (always in that sequence) and then have a day off. This sequence repeats throughout the VSL regular season.
Eleven members of the 2013 VSL Cubs (RHPs Adbert Alzolay, Francisco Carrillo, Jesus Castillo, Greyfer Eregua, and Victor Salazar, LHP Alberto Diaz, catcher Eufran Vargas, 1B-3B Roney Alcala, 2B-SS Bryant Flete, and outfielders Arnaldo Calero and Ricardo Marcano) plus 17-year old Venezuelan SS Gleyber Torres and 17-year old Colombian RHP Erling Moreno (who are making their pro debut in 2014) are presently at Extended Spring Training in Mesa, and because most (if not all) of them will likely be remaining in the U. S. this summer, the 2014 VSL Cubs will feature a number of newly-signed players.
Only 17 of the 33 players presently assigned to the VSL Cubs Active List were on the squad last season. One player (18-year old LHP Carlos Rodriguez) spent the 2013 season with the AZL Cubs, and there are 15 players on the roster who are new to the Cubs organization, including 13 professional "rookies" and two others (RHPs Jesus Arias and Julio Sanchez) who were signed after being released by other MLB organizations. Infielder Humberto Garcia is presently on the VSL Cubs roster, but he may end up with the DSL Cubs since he is Dominican. (Garcia was signed by the Cubs last May after being released by the White Sox, and was assigned to the VSL Cubs last season only because the newly-formed VSL Cubs were short of infielders, but that should not be a problem this season).
One of the more interesting names on the VSL Cubs 2014 roster is Danny Gutierrez, supposedly a 17-year old hot-shot shortstop prospect signed by the Cubs to a substantial bonus in 2012 (reported to be $185K at the time) but who did not make his pro debut (as had been expected) in 2013. Now it turns out that Gutierrez is (apparently) actually 23 years old (at least according to information provided by the Cubs).
So here is the 2014 VSL Cubs Active Roster. Both the VSL Cubs Reserve List and Active List roster limit is 35. 30 players can be designated "active" for any one game (at least 10 of the 30 must be pitchers), The players listed as "INACTIVE" on the roster have either been released or will start the season on the 7-day or 60-day DL.
* bats or throws left
# bats both
VSL Cubs players making pro debut are in italics
Jesus Arias
Harrinson Bermudez
Alejandro Colorado
Enrique de los Rio
* Manuel Fuentes (INACTIVE)
* Victor Garcia (INACTIVE)
* Yapson Gomez
Salvador Jerez
Jose Leidenz
Gabriel Lima
Ivan Medina
* Angel Mejias
Yomar Pacheco
* Eugenio Palma
* Chris Pieters (INACTIVE)
Moises Ramirez
Brohiglyn Rivero (INACTIVE)
* Carlos Rodriguez
Cesar Romero (INACTIVE)
Julio Sanchez
Ramon Valera
Mauro Vides
Leonardo Gonzalez
Luis Hidalgo
Jhonny Pereda
Roberto Vahlis
* Delbis Arcila (INACTIVE)
Wladimir Galindo
Humberto Garcia
Jesus Gonzalez
Danny Gutierrez
# Andrews Monasterio
Henry Pedra
Miguel Rico
Luis Ayala
Moises Colasante
Victor Gomez
Jose Gonzalez
# Martin Hodwalker (INACTIVE)
Fidel Matos
Pedro Gonzalez
Franklin Blanco (Hitting Coach)
Angel Guzman (Pitching Coach)
Marlins DFA Carlos Marmol.
Marlins DFA Carlos Marmol. Closing another chapter of the book.
Well, he did give us a couple
Well, he did give us a couple really good years. His later self would last about a day on a Renteria team with his command issues. Lots of people bashing Renteria but one thing I do like is his low tolerance for walks.
Henry Rodriguez replaces
Henry Rodriguez replaces Marmol on the Marlins roster. Why bother, aka compare and contrast regarding pitches outside of the strike zone.
EJax being EJax
EJax being EJax
odd, Kane County has Mother's
odd, Kane County has Mother's Day off (scheduled).
Iowa game start delayed by Rain
Happy Mother's Day to Cubster
Happy Mother's Day to Cubster's mom and Little Cubster's mom, Angelfan wife and all the wonderful mom's out there.
So Ricky, you reluctantly put
So Ricky, you reluctantly put in hottest hitter in line up.
Then you bat him 7th, ahead of arguably the worst hitter on the Cubs in last two years.
Then when of the worst hitters on the team miraculously gets on base you have try to steal with Olt up.
d.barney's first 2-hit game
d.barney's first 2-hit game since sept. 25th 2013.
James Russell being James
James Russell being James Russell.
Dallas Beeler, for I-Cubs, in
Dallas Beeler, for I-Cubs, in the role of a Piñata
Live photo of Beeler pitching to Nashville hitter...
At some point I wonder how
At some point I wonder how long TheoCorp can keep saying, well, the kids are coming, the kids are coming. Year three and the record promises, right now, to be among the MLB's worst. Couldn't they have done at least something to get a real outfield? I'm not much of an armchair GM, I just know that if I was paying good money as an owner I'd be wanting better results than this charade.
Please don't give me the shit about the farm system being fixed. It's fixed when the kids are on the big league team and the team isn't in last place anymore.
What kind of consequences do
What kind of consequences do you foresee?
based on what's going on with
based on what's going on with attendance and a general lack of fans giving a shit on the internet (cubs boards seem to be slowing down every year, even the popular ones)...it seems the damage is done.
that said, this is the cubs and they're in the large chicago market. as soon as things get interesting the fans (old and new) will return in droves quite quickly.
Rob had a good point last
Rob had a good point last time I ranted that echoed what you are saying about them coming back but I am saying that the kids, the future fans, they won't come back because they simply won't be Cubs fans, and there's nothing to come back to. Older fans will come back, casual fans will come back, and if they actually win a World Series new ones will be created. But if this lingers on then all bets are off. And we all can't just assume that a world series is in the cards. We really don't know that. Lots of teams have good prospects.
Pretty fair odds on the No. 1
Pretty fair odds on the No. 1 pick in 2015, I'd say. Houston will definitely contend, but I don't expect them to drop off at the trade deadline the way the Cubs will when they trade Ninja and possibly Jackson.
The best we can hope for is
The best we can hope for is that Jackson keeps pitching decently. He's not dominating but he's got a steady past other than last year and he's durable. If Ninja doesn't bring Garza times two I'll be pissed.
But honestly, I'm getting tired of this game of how high can they draft.
If they can get somebody to
If they can get somebody to pay Jackson's $13M/per for 2015 and 2016, that would essentially pay for the next two years of ninja. After this coming draft and next years top 3 draft pick, the farm system should be in the top 3, if not number 1. I say fuck it, give him the Homer Bailey contract if you can unload Jackson on some sucker.
Jackson is certainly more
Jackson is certainly more replaceable than Samardzija. Ninja's never put it together for a whole season, as many have noted, but his stuff along with the potential to command it doesn't come along much. I'm dreading the Cubs trying to build a rotation with not a single pitcher on the staff that looks like a #1 or #2, which is what they'd have to do if they traded Samardzija.
If Ninja would sign for the
If Ninja would sign for the Homer Bailey contract, he'd be signed already. I think he's holding out for a Hamels/Felix contract, especially from this shitshow.
I don't think any pitcher is
I don't think any pitcher is worth that kind of money. They just get hurt too often. The awfulness will continue, and they'll trade him for a basketful of prospects.
Meanwhile, all the kids who were 8 when Hendry was in his last year are 12 now, and all the kids who were 12 are...you get the idea. The Cubs are in trouble as a franchise if they think they can ride on the existing fan base. The kids are the future, and I can't imagine the kids are flocking to their iPad to watch this team. If this keeps going, everyone in Chicago younger than 16 is going to have an Abreu jersey.
The kids can't flock to their
The kids can't flock to their iPads to watch the Cubs unless they are several states away from the Cubs...
Also, comparing Hamels and
Also, comparing Hamels and Felix to Samardzija is comical, at best.
Yep, you offer him #2 or #3 money. If some team wants to pay him ace money (and some team probably will), then fine, let him walk. It may be painful, and he may put in some good innings (also, overpaid innings) somewhere else.
i-cubs score 12 runs...baez
i-cubs score 12 runs...baez goes 0-4...he did have a walk, though.
c'mon baez...start your season already.
Jason [email protected]
Jason [email protected] hrs
#Cubs Javier Baez is hitting a robust .060/.190/.120 in night games (50 AB); .282/.333/.513 in day games (39 AB). Solution: More day games
Mitch Williams Ejected From
Mitch Williams Ejected From Child's Baseball Game For Arguing, Cursing
Wild Thing!
Wild Thing!
As a parent of two little
As a parent of two little leaguers, and as a coach- this kind of stuff really pisses me off.
If we use money saved by
If we use money saved by getting rid of Jackson to pay Samardzija, what money are we going to use to pay Jackson's replacement?
He is not earning his salary, but anyone that replaces him will cost 10 million per year anyway, and not likely to be any better.
Jackson can be easily
Jackson can be easily replaced by someone making $500k-$6M. He is nothing but an eater of innings for $13M.
I'm trying to imagine a Cubs
I'm trying to imagine a Cubs rotation sans Samardzija, Jackson, and Hammel. So far I have Travis Wood, Jake Arrieta, and Chris Rusin. The next in line would by Kyle Hendricks, Justin Grimm, and Neil Ramirez, with Pierce Johnson and CJ Edwards some distance behind developmentally. That's fairly slim pickings--the Cubs would have to get at least 2 young SP who slot in at AAA level or MLB ready in those trades to have any chance of being competitive in the next two years or so, and they'd really need 1 or 2 pitchers to come in via those trades who have ace and/or #2 potential, because Wood and Arrieta are 3/4 types and Rusin, Hendricks, and Grimm are #5/swingman types.
Don't think anyone is going
Don't think anyone is going to bite on Jackson. Otherwise similar to trading Garza/Feldman last season.
Let's just get this over with. Make the trades now and get a head start on getting a better draft pick. Send Samardzija to the Yankees for catching prospect Gary Sanchez and a couple of quality pitching prospects. McCann is blocking Sanchez (a top 50 prospect) so he is available. Cubs don't have a legitimate catching prospect. Yankees rotation is Tanaka, ???????.
Added benefit the Cubs could then trade Welly and further improve this season's odds of "beating" the Astros for the race to #1 (draft pick).
probably need a third team
probably need a third team with Yanks, Cubs probably want pitching prospects as you mentioned and Yanks are sorely lacking at the moment.
Similar to trading Garza
Similar to trading Garza/Feldman last season, except they still had Samardzija at that point. The selling off has a cumulative effect across multiple seasons, and it doesn't take long to deplete your MLB team of top of the rotation arms when you've only got two of them anyway.
Of course, if CJ Edwards proves durable and they get a #1/#2 type for Samardzija who doesn't fall victim to injury or wildness or something, that solves that problem. I just get nervous because it seems like we waited a long time between decent starting pitching prospects. Wood, Prior, Z in the late 90s-early 2000s, then nobody really until Samardzija who still hasn't settled in. Lots of disappointing pitching prospects in between.
"Cubs don't have a legitimate
"Cubs don't have a legitimate catching prospect."
Maybe not, but a couple of guys look interesting at this early stage of the season. Rafael Lopez might be having a breakout year (.994 OPS) at Tenn, while KC's Will Remillard (.966 OPS) has done nothing but hit as a pro. Lopez hits lefty, which is a nice feature.
Or what Jim Hendry calls them
Or what Jim Hendry calls them "future relievers"
Babe Ruth Bobblehead give
Babe Ruth Bobblehead give away at Wrigley
Looks more like Shitholts pointing to wear he's going to ground out.
Jose Fernandez to DL
Jose Fernandez to DL
CC going to see James Andrews
"unknown" injury, headed for
"unknown" injury, headed for MRI
pitched last game despite throwing up and feeling light-headed in first inning (got lit up against Padres), also seemed to have a big drop in velocity at some point during the game.
elbow strain for Fernandez..
elbow strain for Fernandez...awaiting MRI results.
impossible...he's only thrown
impossible...he's only thrown more than 110 pitches once in his career...similar to the 128343248937289 kids who have had TJ the past few seasons now that teams pay more attention to pitch counts.
well, his arm did break in his outing after the first time he threw more than 110.
110 is the new 120! science, bitch!
Mock Draft
Mock Draft
Has Cubs passing on Kolek and taking Beede with the surprise of Nick Gordon going #2.
3 and a half weeks away...
Recent comments
trevor clifton (high-A) could be interesting in a couple seasons...could even become a high/middle rotation guy. he's got a lot of pluses in his pitching except control.
eric leal's (high-A) progression through the minors should be worth watching even if only projects to be an mid/end-rotation starter.
we also gotta keep a long-distance eye on guys like jose paulino (ss-A) and preston morrison (A).
As Johnny Bach used to say when it was time for the MJ Bulls to crank up the defensive pressure: "Release the Dobermans!", and Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and Harper would just suffocate the other team.
I'd love to add Carl Jr. to that group - he's got the stuff.
Historically, the Moneyball guys have been great at identifying productive hitters. Not so much with pitchers.
Wow - Pierce Johnson with an ERA of 8.01 in 42IP!
What a stud prospect! Must be pitching with a pierced johnson.
Looks like Ryan Williams is the only legit prospect there. That is sad...
Well it would seem that's all they need now. "Stropy" can have his moments, but he's been more consistent post-asg.
Take THAT, Cardinals -- you beat Fernandez, we beat Sale.
I really like Lackey as a 6-inning pitcher.
Three amigos? Because the Dominican, the Venezuelan, and the Cuban?
Maybe the three-headed dragon?
Who says Contreras can't frame? Stone cold robbery of Eaton with that called third strike for the first out in the eighth
Three amigos time?
he should hit more of those. that would be an ideal outcome. /moneyballs
Russell with 19 RBI in July so far. Grand Slams help.
...and Familia with back-to-back blown saves. Blows a one-run lead vs. Rockies today, gets his 2nd consecutive loss.
I am OK with the Mets missing the playoffs and suffering crushing losses at home --- just want them to beat St. Louis.
He played with fire twice agains the Cubs -- unfortunately, the Cubs couldn't stop swinging.
How about Kyle Farnsworth? I know he was consistently upper 90s.
If he puts up Soriano numbers I will be ecstatic
I think Javy is learning--but he's learning to make contact, not learning to lay off pitches out of the zone. A quick glance at his plate discipline numbers on Fangraphs shows that his contact rate is up, especially his contact rate out of the zone, but his swing rate is up too, especially his swing rate out of the zone.
I definitely saw ballpark radar guns go up to 102 on Kerry Wood back when he was still a starter, but who knows how accurate they were.


text:
Reading Research & Reports
Browse our library of research and reports for educators, researchers, policymakers, graduate students, curriculum development specialists and school administrators. In this section, you'll find federal reports on reading as well as sources of reading research. You can also browse reading research by topic.
Recent research and reports
- Young Children's Knowledge of the Symbolic Nature of Writing
- Learning About Learning: What Every New Teacher Needs to Know
- Examining Teacher Effectiveness Between Preschool and Third Grade
- Science Achievement Gaps Begin Very Early, Persist, and Are Largely Explained by Modifiable Factors
- Frameworks for Literacy Education Reform
Federal reports on reading
Major federal reports on reading readiness, struggling readers and effective reading instruction. View >
Sources of reading research
Reading and literacy research from the U.S. Department of Education, journals, associations and others. View >
Reading research by topic
Whenever possible, we've provided a link to a free, online version of the research article, study, or book. Or, you'll find a link to a publisher, journal, or online bookstore where you can purchase the resource. You may also want to check with your university or public library, which often has access to online databases and journals where research articles and reports can be found.
General and more practitioner-oriented articles on reading can be found in the Reading Topics A-Z section.


text:
We've only had our long-term Honda HR-V for a few months, but we've already added 6,000 miles to the odometer. Here's how our little CUV is holding up.
Long Term
732016 Honda HR-V: The first three months with our jack of all trades
622016 Honda HR-V: Long-Term Introduction
552014 Jeep Cherokee: Long-term wrap-up [w/video]
27Hank the Autodog takes a ride in the long-term 2014 Jeep Cherokee
492015 Nissan Murano: Introduction [w/video]
462015 Volkswagen GTI: Driving into spring with just one regret [w/video]
44Daily Driver: Long-Term 2014 Jeep Cherokee
1382015 Volkswagen GTI: Introduction [w/video]
- Steven J. Ewing
- Feb 20, 2015
- 138
Autoblog has added a 2015 Volkswagen GTI to its long-term test fleet, in four-door S spec, with a six-speed manual transmission. We chose the base model for a good reason – read why we went light on the options for our latest long-termer.
19Daily Driver: Long-Term 2015 Subaru WRX
642015 Subaru WRX: Accident, wheels and tires
132014 Jeep Cherokee: Fall colors tour [w/video]
402015 Subaru WRX: Road trip to Maine [w/video]
592015 Subaru WRX: July/August 2014
- Steven J. Ewing
- Aug 13, 2014
- 59
Literally minutes after snapping the photo you see above, I was soaked – hit by the third round of storms that brought absolutely insane rainfall to Detroit this week. Amateur mistake, right there; if it looks like rain's a-comin', it's a-comin'. So if you're going to take pictures of the car, do it before it's too late.
952014 Jeep Cherokee: June 2014
- Steven J. Ewing
- Jul 9, 2014
- 95
I got a text message from Editor-In-Chief Sharon Carty one afternoon proclaiming that her new favorite SUV is our long-term 2014 Jeep Cherokee. And she's not alone. I'm not sure if anyone else on staff would go so far as to use the "favorite" descriptor, but after just over a month of honeymooning with our new long-termer, it's safe to say that the Jeep is quickly finding its way into the good graces of a number of Autoblog staffers.
952015 Subaru WRX: Introduction
- Steven J. Ewing
- Jun 10, 2014
- 95
"As far as street-legal rally cars go, there's still nothing better than a WRX." I wrote that line following my first drive of the 2015 Subaru WRX late last year – one of the better motoring experiences I had in 2013. Sure, a particularly involving drive route helped, but I don't want to sell the new Subaru short: it's a seriously good car – easily one of the sharpest, best-driving little turbos available today.
1542014 Jeep Cherokee: Introduction
162013 Nissan Pathfinder: Wrap-Up [w/video]
- Steven J. Ewing
- May 13, 2014
- 16
Despite our tendency as enthusiasts to clamor for things like wagons and hot hatchbacks, it's hard to argue with the buying public's increasing demand for functional crossovers. In fact, the great SUV craze of the late-1990s has all but faded in favor of the easier-driving, better-packaged, more-efficient crossover. That's even true at the larger end of the market – just look at what happened when Ford redesigned its body-on-frame Explorer into a stylish and well-equipped CUV. And now look
332014 Mazda6: Winter's End Update
- Seyth Miersma
- Apr 14, 2014
- 33
The Winter Without End is seemingly dead. Outside my office windows, my brown and yellow lawn is fully exposed to the increasingly powerful sunshine, the morning birdsong is louder than anything until the garbage trucks start rolling, and I'm seriously considering having the summer tires put back on my personal fleet. That last one is a little scary, as I'm a firm believer in the April Snow Jinx, but you get the idea.
332013 Nissan Pathfinder: July-September 2013
472013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo: July/August 2013
- Brandon Turkus
- Sep 4, 2013
- 47
If you've been reading the past several updates on our long-term 2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo, you may have noticed a trend developing. This is a flawed vehicle. Not critically so, but for many of our editors, this vehicle's annoying attributes are indeed outweighing the good. What may not be obvious, though, is that the deck is kind of stacked against the Turbo model.
332013 Nissan Pathfinder: June 2013
- Steven J. Ewing
- Jul 18, 2013
- 33
When we say that our long-term 2013 Nissan Pathfinder has been busy, we mean it. Want proof? In the past month, the big, brown Nissan was only idle enough for us to take it in for its 11,500-mile routine service and to shoot a couple of new photos of the long-termer in Detroit.
- Volvo shoots for self-drivers by 2021
- Jeep spends $1 billion on factories
- Find Parts & Accessories for your vehicle!
- Obama rolls out new EV plan
- Infiniti dealers ranked best, Tesla worst
- Compare Volvo XC90 and Lincoln MKX


text:
Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room
By William Wordsworth
a- Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room
b- And hermits are contented with their cells;
b- And students with their pensive citadels ;
a- Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,
a- Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
b- High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells,
b- Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:
a- In truth the prison, into which we doom
c- Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me,
d- In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound
d- Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground;
c- Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)
c- Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
d- Should find brief solace there, as I have found.
Restrictions and structure are supposed to limit the abilities of humans, specifically those who work for a living, but instead these confinements often help workers, especially writers, overcome obstacles and do their jobs to the best of their ability.
Nuns, hermits, students, maids, weavers, and bees all do their respective jobs, however tedious they may seem. Although there are restrictions in having these jobs, the subjects doing their jobs are all actually very happy. For the speaker in the poem, there are restrictions in the style he must write in (the Sonnet form), but he is grateful for this form because he believes too much freedom in writing style causes things like writer's block/the inability to write. Wordsworth enjoys using the Sonnet form because it gives peace and the ability of writing to him.
William Wordsworth uses the Sonnet form to explain why he uses the Sonnet form (that is, a poem in 14 lines with an octave and sestet, including a certain rhyme scheme. Obviously, the poem "Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room" is a sonnet, and William Wordsworth is explaining within context of the sonnet, how he uses and enjoys using the sonnet form). He explains that there are nuns, hermits, students, maids, weavers, and bees who are very content with their somewhat monotonous everyday lives and jobs. Also, he uses himself as an example in the ending couplet, saying that he has at last found solace (although "brief") in using the Sonnet form, and that he does not want the pressure of too much freedom in writing style.
In the first six~seven lines, Wordsworth is using his working class examples, saying that they are all very pleased with what they do. Given the time period (~1806, Romantic period) that "Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room" was written in, this is most likely true. Few people had aspiring dreams and ambitions, and if they did, they were noble, not "middle class" like writers and maids, etc.
At the volta (line 8~9), Wordsworth states that there is a "prison into which we doom ourselves". He's referring to vocations and how people generally view them. How often do people complain about going to work? (Several times a day, everyday) But Wordsworth realizes that no matter how much people really complain about working, in the end, people still enjoy going to work because it is something to do. It would be very problematic if people had nothing to do. Look what happens when people get bored. (Bad things happen.) Obviously, our jobs are not literally prisons, but they can be prison-like metaphorically.
In the last five lines, Wordsworth confirms that the Sonnet form, although it is extremely restrictive, is still a great way to begin a poetry writing project, and that Wordsworth himself enjoys using the Sonnet form. Wordsworth uses the phrase "sundry moods" which shows that there is a generally fickle mood in the poem. Perhaps he feels that he can use the sonnet form when he is feeling fickle, especially if he cannot concentrate. The next line "within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground" refers to the limitations that the sonnet form produces. "Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)" points out that anyone can feel the pain of writer's block, and also, anyone can use the sonnet form to produce a nice poem if they feel like it. And again, the last two lines of the poem explain how Wordsworth himself uses the sonnet form and how he is gratified by it.
Literary Devices/Tools used (they are explained in more detail within the Analysis section and links):
-Petrarchan Sonnet Form
-Dramatic Monologue
"Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room." PoemHunter.com. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/nuns-fret-not-at-their-convent-s-narrow-room/.
Picture taken from:
"Nun." Wikipedia. December 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nun


text:
Crossroads Food Court is located inside the International Center in the middle of campus on Shaw Lane, just west of Farm Lane.
Crossroads Food Court has five venues:
Sparty's Refresh - Get your favorite coffee, beverage or smoothie, plus quick snacks, pastries and sandwiches. Use your Combo-X-Change here.
UP Pizzeria - Pasta bakes, salads, daily featured pizzas and calzones. Use your Combo-X-Change here.
Panda Express - Full menus and an a la carte menu featuring your favorite Panda Express entrées with chicken, beef, pork or veggie. Kids' meals are available, too.
Woody's Oasis - A healthy alternative to fast food, featuring Mediterranean vegetarian and meat specialties, including their famous hummus.
Subway - Made-to-order sandwiches, from the Classics (cold cuts, meatballs, and tuna) to the Selects (Chicken Teriyaki and Southwest Turkey Bacon Subs).
All restaurants accept cash, credit and debit, and Spartan Cash. Sparty's and UP Pizzeria also accept Eat at State Bucks.
Summer Hours
All locations will be closed Memorial Day (May 30, 2016) and Independence Day (July 4, 2016)
Sparty's Refresh (517-355-0129)
Monday – Friday: 7:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday: CLOSED
UP Pizzeria (517-353-2144)
Monday – Friday: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday: CLOSED
Woody's Oasis (517-332-3332)
Monday – Friday: 10:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday: CLOSED
Panda Express (517-333-8893)
Monday – Friday: 10:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday: CLOSED
Subway (517-333-4111)
Monday – Friday: 7:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday: CLOSED
For more information on Crossroads Food Court, contact us at email@example.com.


text:
Reviewed By Steven A (Westbury, NY) Reviewed for a 2015 Acura RDX —12/27/2014 11:19 AM
Easy to attach, looks great!
Reviewed By Charles E. W (Baltimore, MD) Reviewed for a 2007 Acura MDX —3/26/2008 5:40 AM
I recently had a Draw-Tite hitch installed on my 2007 Acura MDX which fits the vehicle perfectly and saved over a thousand dollars compared to the Acura version. The Acura version has a built-in look but did not warrant the cost difference for the few times that I need to use it. I did not love the lower look of the Draw-Tite and also wanted to be able to reach the roof area when washing & waxing the vehicle. I looked at many other hitch accessories & steps and even purchased a different brand only to really hate that look. I saw the Rhino Hitch Step on a truck & realized that it would be perfect for hiding the area of the hitch that bothered me. I ordered the Rhino in black to match the hitch,I installed it in minutes and love it. I did add the locking anti rattle hitch pin which allowed me to eliminate the included anti rattle system, since I did not like the round knob hanging down under the receiver. This unit is very high quality, very good looking, stable, and provides a extra bumper to keep those close parkers from tapping your rear end. I highly recommend this product.
Reviewed By William T (Cleveland, OH) Reviewed for a 2007 Hummer H3 —6/27/2016 5:58 PM
Looked good on my 2007 Hummer H-3 until a person who was on their cell phone rear ended me at a traffic light. The Rhino Dominator Hitch Step took the brunt of the hit saving my vehicle from further damage.So bought a new Rhino Dominator Hitch Step to get back to square one so to speak.


text:
James Ashby's anger over Peter Slipper kissing comment
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- October 05, 2012
IT was the final straw for political staffer James Ashby - a suggestive comment from his boss, parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper.
"Can I kiss you both?" Mr Slipper asked Mr Ashby and a colleague.
The conversation was revealed in the Federal Court yesterday, shortly before Mr Ashby officially settled his case with the Commonwealth and pocketed $50,000.
His case against Mr Slipper is continuing, with Justice Steven Rares denying Mr Slipper's request to have the case dismissed, saying he was "locked in" and it was too late.
For Mr Ashby, the comment on March 20 this year was the "final straw" in what he regarded as a pattern of sexual harassment. He decided to sue.
Other evidence includes hundreds of text messages.
Mr Ashby alleges Mr Slipper sent him unwelcome, sexually explicit and flirty text messages and also touched him on his shoulder.
Mr Ashby said he felt "distressed and uncomfortable" when he received flirty text messages and approaches from Mr Slipper. He initially tried to "ignore or deflect" the sexual comments.
Mr Ashby said in documents before the court that he wanted to stop Mr Slipper from harassing others.
"This man (Mr Slipper) needs stopping, he has hurt too many people ... I know I have done the right thing," Mr Ashby said.
And in a late twist, Justice Rares indicated Mr Ashby and his legal team may have abused the process of the court by alleging Mr Slipper committed Cabcharge fraud.
The allegation of misuse of Cabcharge dockets was made by Mr Ashby in documents filed at the start of the case in April, but it was dropped a month later when further documents were filed.
Justice Rares said that the Cabcharge claims never came "within a bull's roar of reaching an illegal enterprise". The hearing continues today.


text:
Our other Bed and Breakfast was booked so we stayed here for a couple extra dollars got a great kitchenand had a really simple walk to downtown. One of the top 10 cities in the Northeast to go visit. I would definitely come stay here again.
We stayed at Brooks Sunshine in Lake Placid for four nights. We rented the entire 3rd floor (the Whiteface room and the New England). The kids had their room and we had ours, complete with a kitchenette. The kitchenette consisted of a sink, fridge, microwave, oven and stove. Each room had a television along with wifi. The accommodations were great!...
We stayed at Brooks Sunshine in Lake Placid for 2 days, visiting the sights in the area and enjoying the quietude during the off season.
The house is large and all the rooms or suites are huge. We stayed on the 3rd floor in the New England room. It was comfortable and very spacious, with private bath, a sitting area...
We bring a large group of skiiers (20 adults) annually to Lake Placid for Martin Luther King weekend and rent out the main house and the annex. Each property has it's benefits and negatives when travelling as a group. Those staying in the annex have the larger rooms and private bathrooms per couple but they must make the short (but...
I stayed in the Southwestern suite on my visit to Lake Placid. The location was completely unbeatable. The hosts were very helpful and friendly. The room was large and had a kithen and full sitting room. The price was the best part though. It was about 1/3 the cost of everywhere else. I would HIGHLY recommend Brooks Sunshine Cottage
My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the spacious , well decorated and perfectly situated Brooks Cottage. our hosts were wonderful and the service was excellent.
My wife and I visited Lake Placid, NY and stayed at Brooks Sunshine Cottages over the New Years holiday. The location of the B&B offers a short walk to the shops and restaurants on Main Street and an easy stroll to Mirror Lake. The breakfast spread put out by Joe and Bernadine Brooks is fresh and tasty. We stayed in...
Looking for a place to stay in the week between Christmas and New Year's is usually a pain. So many people are on vacation, and because of that, room rates are through the roof in most places, and most of the less expensive ones got terrible reviews as even the shoddy ones are able to jack up prices that week....
I was travelling with my 2 small boys on my own. we were tired from a long day coming from Arizona, but when we arrived the hosts Bernie and Joe took care of everything. They helped with the luggage and settled us in to a beautifully decorated room with a full kitchen and great TV and DVD player. The park...
Great Facility, Perfect Location....Friendly and Professional Hosts. Room were very comfortable with big TV's. LOVED the Breakfast. The 2nd "B" (Breakfast)was over the top! This B & B is located just off the Main Street right in the middle of everything!
It's our favorite place to stay in Lake Placid.....Thanks Joe and Bernie!
"The two rooms we rented were comfortable and very clean! We loved the fact that this bed and breakfast was walking distance into town and to many of the sights we came to see (e.g. the oval, the ice rink, the museum). Most important, it was minutes away from Whiteface Mountain where we skied for three days!"
"Southwestern Suite is the prettiest suite in the Annex but has only a Queen Bed. Southern Comfort is absolutely beautiful but with only a smaller living room. Whiteface room is also pretty but is the only room in the Annex without a sitting/living room....great view of the mountain!!!"


text:
Okay so I made a sidebar and used jQuery to make it work how I wanted. It all works fine... Except for one thing... If I insert the code I use to get the most popular posts it completely screws up the sidebar, somehow mimicing the entire website. I have no idea why on earth it's doing do but it's awful and I haven't a clue how to fix it.
The site in question is: http://tutshelf.com you'll see what I mean when you look.
the code being used is:
<?php $popular_posts = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT id,post_title FROM {$wpdb->prefix}posts ORDER BY comment_count DESC LIMIT 0,5);
foreach($popular_posts as $post) {
print "
id) ."'>".$post->post_title."\n";
I've checked if it's definitly the code and it is - when I commented it out everything was fine. Also I had to type that code out by hand on an iPhone because my internets died so if the code has any errors in it it'll just be a typo, unless it's something obviously wrong.
please reply as this is a very annoying problem and one I have no idea how to fix. Any help is appriciated, Alex.


text:
Read the Host Prospectus for information on the Knauss Fellowship for new and returning hosts.
Placement Week is a week-long event held December 5-9, 2016. All Knauss finalists will travel to Washington, DC, where potential host offices will give a short presentation summarizing the fellowship opportunities in their office. Host offices will receive a list of interested finalists to interview, and will then rank the finalists in order of preference. Finalists will choose their placement on Friday, December 9.
Placement Week Manual for Hosts (2015))
Submit to email@example.com by 5:00 PM Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Submit to firstname.lastname@example.com no later than 6:30 AM Friday, December 9, 2016


text:
In the "Add New Field Section" how can i add more than 2 options while using the "Select Option" ??
Right now it only displays the 2 options that are there ..
In the "Add New Field Section" how can i add more than 2 options while using the "Select Option" ??
Right now it only displays the 2 options that are there ..
Unfortunately this function is not part of this plugin.
There has to be some way, I can add the options ??
Some tweak in the code or something
yep, i helped you on the plugin forum. Glad that it works.
-- replied to clear topic as resolved
I also need to add more than 2 options in the 'Add New Field Section' please can you help as I can't see how you resolved it?
Many thanks,
resolved it in the plugin forum
i would need to provide you with code
Yes, i don't have access to the forum so could you provide the code here?
Please can you help with this??
I've tried to find the forum but every link i find takes me to a 'page not found'.
Now got onto the forum but the link you give for code isn't available so i'm stuck. It seems like it would be a fairly common need so i'd really appreciate some help.
available only in the pro version.
There is a quick tweak that can be implemented in the code, in order to add more than 2 options in the select option:
1) In your theme's functions.php you'll have to remove the
'woocommerce_after_checkout_billing_form' action associated with the 'wccs_custom_checkout_field' function, that is found in the plugin code. You can use the remove_action() WP function for this.
2) You then initialize this action with a modified copy of the 'wccs_custom_checkout_field' function as a callback function.
Right where the function code (#836) accepts the input values from Option A and Option B fields for the select box, you replace the input array ('options') with an array created using the explode() PHP function (use comma as its separator) and $btn['option_a'] as the string input. You then enter more than 2 values using the following notation: Option 1, Option 2, Option 3, etc. right inside the Option A input box. You also have to use a WP sanitize function for the input.
I hope this helps someone...
I hope so too @kostasx
Coding can be a bit confusing. If you are not familiar with and do not know how to implement this code, the WooCommerce Checkout Manager Pro can help with this and provide unlimited options. :)
@Emark May I know the pricing details of the checkout manager pro? Because I cannot find the link to the checkout manager pro page which would have the price details of this plugin. Because I also need to add more fields to the checkout form. Thank you for creating such a great plugin.
The plugin link is now working, please do check.
This topic has been closed to new replies.


text:
Assessing JPEG2000 encryption with key-dependent wavelet packets
© Engel et al; licensee Springer. 2012
Received: 3 June 2011
Accepted: 13 April 2012
Published: 13 April 2012
Skip to main content
We're sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly. Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact us so we can address the problem.
© Engel et al; licensee Springer. 2012
Received: 3 June 2011
Accepted: 13 April 2012
Published: 13 April 2012
We analyze and discuss encryption schemes for JPEG2000 based on the wavelet packet transform with a key-dependent subband structure. These schemes have been assumed to reduce the runtime complexity of encryption and compression. In addition to this "lightweight" nature, other advantages like encrypted domain signal processing have been reported. We systematically analyze encryption approaches based on key-dependent subband structures in terms of their impact on compression performance, their computational complexity and the level of security they provide as compared to more classical techniques. Furthermore, we analyze the prerequisites and settings in which the previously reported advantages actually hold and in which settings no advantages can be observed. As a final outcome it has to be stated that the compression integrated encryption approach based on the idea of secret wavelet packets can not be recommended.
For securing multimedia data--like any other type of data--full encryption with a state-of-the-art cipher, is the most secure option. However, in the area of multimedia many applications do not require the level of security this option provides, and seek a trade-off in security to enable other requirements, including low processing demands, retaining bitstream compliance and scalability, and the support for increased functionality, such as, transparent encryption [1] and region of interest (ROI) encryption, or signal processing in the encrypted domain (adaptation, searching, watermarking, ...).
JPEG2000 is the most recent and comprehensive suite of standards for scalable coding of visual data [2, 3]. JPEG2000 filled areas of application that JPEG could not provide for, especially where applications require a scalable representation of the visual data. Recently JPEG2000 has evolved into the format of choice for many specialized and high end applications. For example, the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI), an entity created by seven major motion picture studios, has adopted JPEG2000 as the compression standard in their specification for a unified Digital Cinema System [4]. As a second example, in 2002, the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) committee approved the final text of DICOM Supplement 61, marking the inclusion of Part 1 of JPEG2000 in DICOM (ISO 12052). Furthermore, in the ISO/IEC 19794 standard on Biometric Data Interchange Formats JPEG2000 is included for lossy compression, in the most recently published version (ISO/IEC FDIS 19794-6 as of August 2010) as the only format for iris image data.
Security techniques specifically tailored to the needs of scalable representation in general and JPEG2000 in particular have been proposed recently, e.g., [5–10]. An overview and discussion of the proposed approaches in the context of JPEG2000 can be found in [11]. JPEG2000 security is discussed in JPEG2000 Part 8 [12, 13]. This part has the title "Secure JPEG 2000" and is referred to as JPSEC. It "intends to provide tools and solutions in terms of specifications that allow applications to generate, consume, and exchange Secure JPEG 2000 codestreams" (p. vi). JPSEC extends the codestream syntax to allow parts which are created by security tools, e.g., cipher or authentication tools. Encryption is implemented with conventional ciphers, e.g., AES.
The approaches discussed in this article perform encryption by constructing a secret transform domain. The principal idea of such schemes is that without the key the transform coefficients cannot be interpreted or decoded and therefore no access to the source material is possible (or only at a very low quality). Other than with bitstream-oriented methods, which operate on a final coded media bitstream, these methods apply encryption integrated with compression. In terms of applicability they are therefore restricted to scenarios where the final media bitstream is not yet available (video conferencing, live streaming, photo storage, transmission, and storage of surveillance data etc.).
Transparent encryption was introduced in the context of TV broadcasting [1, 14] and denotes encryption schemes for which public access is granted for a preview image, i.e., anyone can decode an image of reduced quality from the encrypted stream, even without the key data. The difference to other media encryption schemes that guarantee a certain degree of distortion is that the preview image has to be of a (specified) minimum quality, i.e., apart from the security requirement, there is also a quality requirement[10, 15]. Broadcasting applications, for example, can benefit from transparent encryption, as they, rather than preventing unauthorized viewers from receiving and watching their content completely, aim at promoting a contract with non-paying watchers, for whom the availability of a preview version (in lower quality) may serve as an incentive to pay for the full quality version. The reason for considering transparent encryption as target application scenario is that it has been shown [16], that the lowest resolution contained in a JPEG2000 file encrypted using the techniques discussed in this article can always be decoded by an attacker. This makes the approaches suitable for transparent encryption only, but prevents usage in applications requiring a higher degree of confidentiality.
In [17] the authors suggest to use secret Fourier-based transforms for the encryption of visual data. Other proposals in the area of lightweight encryption [18] propose the encryption of the filter choice used for a wavelet decomposition. However, this suggestion remains vague and is not supported by any experiments, while [19, 20] propose encrypting the orthogonal filterbanks used for an non-stationary multi-resolution analysis (NSMRA) decomposition. The use of concealed biorthogonal parametrized wavelet filters for lightweight encryption is proposed by [21]. The use of key-dependent wavelet packet decompositions is proposed first by [22, 23]. The latter study [23] evaluates encryption based on key-dependent subband structures in a zerotree-based wavelet codec. Parametrized wavelet filters have been employed for JPEG2000 lightweight encryption by [24, 25], however, this approach was shown to be insecure in later study [26]. The scrambling of discrete cosine transform (DCT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coefficients is proposed in [27]. Recently secret DCT-based transforms have been proposed for image and video encryption [28].
Compression impact: KDWP encryption reduces compression performance, the actual decrease is evaluated in Section 3..
Computational demand: The main argument for introducing the general concept of secret transform domains in encryption has always been an improved runtime performance, as the conventional encryption step is not needed. This assumption is in-depth evaluated and analyzed in Section 4..
Security: The security of KDWP is in-depth analyzed in Section 5.. Special care has been taken to employ the suitable notion of security for multimedia encryption.
In Section 6. we combine the individual assessments of the previous sections and in-depth discuss other potential advantages of KDWP. Another potential advantage of KDWP encryption is the capability of performing signal processing operations on the protected data ("encrypted domain processing"), which are compared to the operations possible on a conventionally encrypted JPEG2000 bitstream. Final conclusion are drawn in Section 7..
The wavelet packet (WP) transform [32] generalizes the pyramidal wavelet transform. In the WP transform, apart from the approximation subband also the detail subband can be decomposed; an example is shown in Figure 1. The WP can be adapted to take the properties of the image to be transformed into account, for example by using the best basis algorithm [32–36]. In this article we refer to each such a WP basis by the terms "WP subband structure", "decomposition structure" or briefly "WP".
The anisotropic WP transform is a generalization of the isotropic case: whereas in the latter, horizontal and vertical wavelet decomposition are always applied in pairs for each subband to be decomposed, this restriction is lifted for the anisotropic WP transform (for an example see Figure 1c).
Note that for the isotropic WP transform a single decomposition refers to both horizontal and vertical filtering and downsampling. For the anisotropic WP transform, a decompositions refers to filtering and downsampling in one direction (horizontal or vertical). Therefore, a decomposition depth of 2 g in the anisotropic case is comparable to a decomposition depth of g in the isotropic case.
Part 2 of the JPEG2000 standard [29] allows more decomposition structures than Part 1. Every subband resulting from a highpass filtering can be decomposed at most two more times (either horizontally, vertically or in both directions).
In order to maximize keyspace size for the proposed encryption scheme, we have implemented full support for arbitrary isotropic and anisotropic wavelet decomposition structures in JPEG2000, based on the JJ2000 reference implementation.a The source code for the implementation underlying all results in this paper can be downloaded from http://www.wavelab.at/sources.
A WP can be derived by a sequence of random binary decomposition decisions. The seed s for the employed secure random number generator is the main parameter for the randomized generation of WP, i.e., comparable to the key in a symmetric crpyto system.
Subsequently, this distribution is referred to isouni.
Only the parameters, b, c and the seed of the random number generator need to be encrypted. Subsequently, these distributions are denoted/abbreviated by iso and further classified into a constrained (the LL is always further decomposed) and an unconstrained case.
Even more than in the case of isotropic WPs, there are anisotropic WP decompositions that are ill-suited for energy compaction. The compression-oriented selection method tries to eliminate these subband structures.
We use the case distinction introduced by [37] to construct a uniform distribution for the selection of a random subband structure: the probability for any case to be chosen is the ratio of the number of subband structures contained in the case to the total number of subband structures. Subsequently, this distribution is often denoted/abbreviated by anisouni.
where h and v are the decomposition depths in horizontal and vertical direction, respectively. If at any node during the randomized generation of an anisotropic WP subband structure, decomposition of the subband at this node in the randomly chosen direction would result in the degree of anisotropy exceeding the maximum degree of anisotropy, the direction of the decomposition is changed. The degree of anisotropy for the approximation and detail subbands influence both, compression performance and keyspace size.
The other parameters are used in the same way as in the isotropic case: The base value b sets the basic probability of decomposition, the change factor c alters this base probability depending on the current decomposition level l.
In previous study [16, 30] parameter settings for the compression-oriented distribution have been determined for a small number of test images. For the isotropic wavelet packet transform it is proposed to force a maximum decomposition depth for the approximation subband. For the anisotropic wavelet packet transform, in addition to forcing a maximum decomposition depth, the maximum degree of anisotropy for the approximation subband needs to be restricted to preserve compression performance.
The parameters proposed by [16, 30] were obtained empirically by a number of experiments. A large number of different parameter settings were used, but only on three test images. The parameters that were obtained for these three test images are a base value b of 0.25 and a change factor c of 0.1. For the isotropic case the global decomposition depth g has been set to 5. For the anisotropic case g has been set to 10 and the maximal degree of anisotropy of the approximation subband q has been set to 1. Recall that we follow the convention to give the decomposition depth of the isotropic wavelet packet transform in pairs of (horizontal and vertical) decompositions, whereas in the anisotropic case each (horizontal or vertical) decomposition step is counted separately.
We use these parameters in our experiments and evaluate their performance for a larger set of test images. We verify the compression performance of the compression-oriented selection method by an empirical study based on an extended set of images. For this purpose we use a set of 100 gray-scale images of 512 × 512 pixels (taken with four different camera models).
Pyramidal (1 subband structure, level 5),
Isouni: random isotropic wavelet packets drawn according to the uniform distribution with g = 5 (100 randomly selected subband structures),
Iso (constrained): random isotropic wavelet packets drawn according to the compression-oriented distribution with g = 5, b = 0.25, and c = 0.1 (100 randomly selected subband structures),
Anisouni: random anisotropic wavelet packets drawn according to the uniform distribution with g = 10 (100 randomly selected subband structures), and
Aniso (constrained): random isotropic wavelet packets drawn according to the compression-oriented distribution with g = 10, b = 0.25, c = 0.1, and q = 1 (100 randomly selected subband structures).
Ratio of header data to packet data for different compression rates (16 quality layers)
As regards the difference between uniform and compression-oriented selection, it can be seen that the compression performance of the latter is above the compression performance of the former. The difference is more evident for the anisotropic case, for which a predominant decomposition of the approximation subband in a single direction, which leads to inferior energy compaction for natural images, is possible. Restricting the maximum degree of anisotropy for the approximation subband in the compression-oriented selection leads to a compression performance that is closer to the pyramidal decomposition.
From an compression performance point of view, the compression-oriented distributions are favorable, although, even these distributions considerably decrease compression efficiency.
In order to compare the computational complexity of KDWP encryption compared to conventional compression and encryption it is sufficient to determine the difference. The main difference between KDWP encryption and conventional compression and encryption is the transform stage, a random WP is chosen for KDWP encryption, while in a conventional encryption approach the pyramidal decomposition is employed. In the commonly applied PCRDO coding approach (post-compression-rate-distortion optimization) the complexity of the remaining compression (labeled "RCompression" in Figure 2) is almost completely independent of the bitrate and thus the difference in complexity is almost completely due to the difference in the transform stage. In the conventional approach there is an additional encryption process after compression, which is linearly bit-rate-dependent. First we present experimental performance results in Section 4..1 and complement the findings with a theoretical performance analysis in Section 4..2.
Average compression complexity with our implementation
avg. t
avg. fps
0.643 s
1.55 fps
1.005 s
1 fps
1.147 s
0.87 fps
0.726 s
1.34 fps
1.891 s
0.53 fps
Runtime performance of encryption routines
AES encryption
with 2bpp
42.71 MB/s
0.0015 s
683.36 fps
The final question is whether it is at all possible to gain any performance benefits with KDWP (even with the most optimized implementation) compared to AES encryption. This question can only be answered with a theoretical analysis.
We determine the computational complexities on a random access machine with an instruction set of basic operations, such as ^, &, +, *, and %.
As we are only interested in the difference of the complexities it is sufficient to determine the complexity of the pyramidal wavelet transform, the average WP transform, and AES encryption.
The wavelet transform stage consists of iterated filter operations, the number of filter operations depends on the WP and the number of pixels. For every input pixel and decomposition level two filter operations are required for the isotropic case. A single filter operation with an n-length filter consists of n multiplications, n additions, n MemReads and a single MemWrite, which yields 25 operations for n = 8 (JPEG2000's 9/7 irreversible filter).
The expected average decomposition depth for isotropic WP distributions (b = 1/ 4, c = 0)
Iso. g
D g
The expected average decomposition depth for anisotropic WP distributions (b = 1/ 4, c = 0)
Aniso. g
According to [38] and backed-up by our own analysis 352.625 operations are necessary for the encryption of a single byte with AES with a 128-bit key in CTR-mode.
In order to assess the security of a multimedia encryption approach, we first need to define "security" of a multimedia cryptosystem more precisely. Conventional notions of security for cryptosystems require that the ciphertext does not leak any information (information-theoretic approach [39]) or any efficiently computable information (the approach of modern cryptography [40]) of the plaintext. This kind of security notions are also referred to as MP-security (message privacy) [41]. However this type of security is rarely met nor targeted by multimedia encryption schemes. Thus multimedia encryption is often analyzed with respect to a full message recovery, i.e., how hard is it for an attacker to reconstruct the (image) data. This type of security notion is referred to as MR-security (message recovery) [41]. However, a reconstruction of a multimedia datum (on the basis of the ciphertext) may have excellent quality and even be perceived as identical by a human observer, while the perfect recovery of the entire message remains impossible.
Thus in the context of multimedia encryption it is required to take the quality of a reconstruction (by an adversary on the basis of the ciphertext) into account. An adversary, who tries to break a multimedia encryption system, is successful if she can efficiently compute a "high quality" reconstruction of the original multimedia datum. Which quality constitutes a security threat highly depends on the targeted application scenario [11]. In [42] this multimedia-specific security notion is termed MQ-security (message quality), similar concepts can be found in the multimedia encryption literature [43, 44].
Commonly a multimedia encryption security analysis consists of counting the key space. The common conclusion is that if the key space is large enough the proposed approach is believed to be secure. The number of possible WP is huge even for moderate maximum decomposition depths (e.g., 2261.6 for isotropic g = 5, and 21321.9 for an anisotropic depth of 10). Thus the common conclusion would be to consider the scheme secure. Additionally the quality of a reconstruction with a wrong key is often analyzed in literature. However, if we try to decode a JPEG2000 codestream with a wrong WP the decoder will not be able to decode an image, as the WP is required for the decoding. Information, such as the subband/codeblock size and the number of codeblocks in a subband, which is required to make sense of the coded data, is missing. Thus a naive attacker would need to test half of the possible WP before the correct is identified (on average). A futile approach given the number of WP!
Entropy of the isotropic compression-oriented distribution (b = 1/ 4, c = 0) and the uniform distribution
Entropy (iso)
Entropy (isouni)
Still the numbers are sufficiently large such that we have to conclude that KDWP in JPEG2000 are secure. Since entropy values in excess of state-of-the-art ciphers key set sizes (128 bit) can be considered secure, security is sufficient for g > 5 in the compression oriented case and for g > 4 in the case of uniform WP distribution.
Since the number of anisotropic WP is by far greater than the number of isotropic WP (for comparable maximum decomposition depths, remember an isotropic decomposition depth g corresponds to an anisotropic decomposition depth of 2 g), the anisotropic case has to be considered secure as well.
Note that this analysis holds for every scheme that strongly requires the WP for decoding. However, the key question now is whether this requirement is strong for JPEG2000 or whether it can be weakened by exploiting specifically tailored attacks.
In the following we will argue that such specifically-tailored attacks can be designed for KDWP with JPEG2000 and that they will be even more effective if only the permissible WP of JPEG2000 Part 2 are employed.
Due to JPEG2000 coding the LL subband can be reconstructed by an attacker with a special-purpose decoder. The LL subband can be decoded, because the coded LL subband data is located at the start of JPEG2000 file. Thus an attacker can decode a low-resolution image, a fact that has already been highlighted in previous study [16]. The previous conclusion has been that KDWP in JPEG2000 are only suitable for the application scenario of transparent encryption.
In this study we pose a new question: can an attacker go further and decode subsequent resolutions, i.e., images with an higher quality than targeted? In fact resolution only loosely corresponds to perceived quality, but as every subsequent improvement an attacker can achieve (by image enhancement operations) starts from a previously deciphered lower resolution it makes sense to use resolution as sole quality indicator within the scope of this work. The quality of an attacked image is determined as the fraction of original resolution divided by the obtained resolution (given in the number of pixels).
Therefore, we first need to answer whether the next resolution can be decoded from the codestream (independently of the higher resolutions). This is the case in the coding framework of JPEG2000. A resolution can be decoded independently from the remaining higher resolutions (definitely for resolution progression and at least at the lowest quality for layer progression and always if SOP and EPH markers are employed which signal packet borders).
The next question is whether it is decidable that the employed subband decomposition structure is the correct one. It is also highly likely that it can be decided whether the correct decomposition structure has been employed in the decoding of a resolution: Firstly, the wavelet resolutions are not independent, i.e., statistical cross-resolution dependencies are highly likely to identify the correct decomposition. Secondly, the codestream syntax and semantics must also be met while decoding with a subband decomposition structure, i.e., decoding errors clearly indicate an incorrect decomposition structure.
Thus the decomposition structure of a resolution can be determined independently of the higher resolutions in JPEG2000.
Now, how hard is it for an adversary to decode a certain resolution? We first discuss the standardized case of JPEG2000 Part 2.
In JPEG2000 Part 2 a high frequency subband may only be decomposed two more times (either isotropic or anisotropic). In the case of isotropic WP, every next resolution may only be secured by possibilities. In the case of anisotropic WP, a subband has only R2 = 18 possibilities to be further decomposed. Thus the restrictions of Part 2 and both distinct cases do not offer security for each subsequent resolution. An attacker would need only 4913/2 or 18/2 trials on average to decode each subsequent resolution.
Three subbands (HL, LH, HH), which leads to 2873 = 23639903 possible WP.
One vertical subband, which has 287 possible WP.
One horizontal subband, which has 287 possible WP.
In summary there are about 224.49 possible WP for a subsequent resolution in Part 2. Though less than 224 checks are quite an effort, this number of checks is still computationally feasible.
Thus the application of a JPEG2000 Part 2 encoder and KDWP can not be considered secure (neither MR-secure nor MQ-secure) due to the restrictions in terms of admissible WP. For non-standard WP security is expected to be increased.
Entropy for the distribution on resolutions of the isotropic compression-oriented distribution (g = 5, b = 1/ 4, c = 0) and the uniform distribution
Res. at level
Entropy (iso)
Entropy (isouni)
Entropy for the distribution of decomposition structures of a resolution as induced by the anisotropic uniform distribution (g = 10, b = 1/ 4, c = 0)
Res. at level
Entropy (anisouni)
In the isotropic case the compression oriented distribution all obtained entropy values are below state-of-the-art cipher key-length (AES has at least 128 bit). The uniform distribution also results in entropy values below AES minimum key length, except for the highest resolution. The anisotropic case with uniform distribution shows higher entropy values, but at a quality of 1/16 security drops far below AES minimum key length. The anisotropic case with the compression oriented distribution is expected to be far below the security levels of the uniform distribution. In general an attacker can compute lower resolutions, while only the higher resolutions remain well-protected.
Compression impact: The KDWP approach obviously reduces compression performance. If all possible subband structures are equally likely, the approach is not be suitable for application due to the high variance of obtained compression results. The approach of pruning the set of all subband structures (compression oriented distribution) improves the compression performance, however, still with this technique, a significant loss exists. On the other hand, conventional encryption of course does not at all influence compression performance.
Computational demand: Although the additional complexity of encryption with KDWP in a compression framework, such as JPEG2000, seems to be negligible at a first glance, our careful analysis and our evaluation results clearly show that runtime advantages can not be achieved compared to state-of-the-art cryptographic ciphers (AES). In general we advise to carefully reconsider statements about an improved runtime performance of transform based image and video encryption schemes.
Security: From a security point of view, state-of-the-art cryptographic ciphers are superior to KDWP. The KDWP schemes cannot prevent access to lower resolutions and are thus less secure in terms MQ-security. Within the standardized framework of JPEG2000 Part 2, the KDWP approach is completely insecure, i.e., an attacker is able to reconstruct the entire image.
From the proposed KDWP schemes, the anisotropic compression oriented scheme is best performing. However, even this approach is overall outperformed by conventional compression and encryption, which shows no decrease in compression performance, better runtime performance and cryptographic security.
Apart from an improved runtime performance, image encryption schemes can offer an improved functionality. On the one hand improved functionality could be suitability for specific applications, such as transparent encryption. However, transparent encryption can also be implemented in the conventional approach [10], the small resolution portion of the JPEG2000 file is simply left in plaintext. A standardized tool, namely JPSEC, can be employed to signal all the meta-data (keys, plaintext parts). Even completely JPEG2000-compliant implementations are possible [10], which do not require special software for decoding, a great advantage for real-world deployment of transparent encryption. Transparent encryption with KDWP requires a special decoder, i.e., an attacker's decoder, that can cope with wrong or missing WP structure information, while JPSEC-based approaches require a JPSEC-capable decoder. Thus, the support of transparent encryption by KDWP is not an advantage compared to other approaches, which are more flexible. The conventional approach offers full confidentiality/cryptographic security (MP-security).
Image encryption schemes may also allow special encrypted domain processing, which may justify their application although there are disadvantages in compression, computational demand and security. A good example is encrypted content that can still be robustly watermarked; this feature would outweigh many disadvantages.
In fact for KDWP in JPEG2000, the encrypted domain is a scrambled JPEG2000 bitstream and only signal processing operations that can be conducted in this domain are possible. In fact the only possible processing is the truncation of the scrambled bitstream, which results in an almost rate-distortion optimal rate adaptation (in case the underlying bitstream is in quality progression order). However, truncation of an encrypted bitstream is also possible with conventional block ciphers if the are used in the proper mode, e.g., counter mode.
Signal processing operations which rely on transform coefficient data cannot be applied to KDWP protected data as these data can not be decoded. Given the results of our evaluation and analysis (decreased compression performance, increased computational complexity, decreased security, no other advantages) it has to be stated that hardly any sensible realistic application scenarios can be identified for KDWP-based encryption at the present time.
A primary argument for proposing KDWP-based encryption has always been its "lightweight" nature, introduced by shifting complexity from encryption into the compression pipeline. When comparing JPEG2000 encryption with key-dependent wavelet packets (KDWP) to the conventional approach (AES encryption), we have assessed an overall increase in computational complexity through additional complexity introduced in the compression step.
Signal processing in the encrypted domain, often used as a second argument favoring transform-based image encryption schemes, does not offer advantages compared to the appropriate application of conventional ciphers. The security of JPEG2000 encryption with KDWP has been analyzed in depth and has been found to be less secure than conventional encryption, as smaller resolution images remain accessible. Security can not be achieved at all if only permissible subband structures of JPEG2000 Part 2 are employed.
All these facts taken together with a slight decrease in compression efficiency as compared to classical (pyramidal) JPEG2000 make KDWP-based encryption approaches not suitable for most application scenarios.
The presented assessment should serve as guideline in the future development of image and video encryption schemes. The following general conclusions may be drawn: Computational complexity will need to be carefully (re)considered for transform-based image and video encryption schemes. Security has to be analyzed with respect to a multimedia specific security notion (MQ-security). Image and video encryption schemes have to provide conclusive evidence for improved functionality, such as encrypted domain signal processing.
A WP (wavelet packet subband structure) is derived by the following randomized algorithm (see Section 2..2.2): every subband at depth l is further decomposed with a certain probability p l , which may only depend on the depth l.
However, as the number of leaves at depth g is Q(g) the computation of the entropy of the distribution on WPs on the basis of this formula is soon infeasible with growing g.
The nodes can be uniquely identified by the path from the root, i.e., by tuple of edge labels. A node at depth g is a g-tuple of edge labels (x1,..., x g ). The set of all nodes at depth g is given by {(x1,...,x g )|x1 ∈ {0,1},x i +1 ≤ 4x i }.
ahttp://jj2000.epfl.ch/. bLinux binaries in version 6.3.1 from http://www.kakadusoftware.com.
This work was funded by the Austrian Science Fund under Project 19159. The authors thank Stefan Huber and Rade Kutil, and Roland Kwitt for the valuable discussions and contributions.
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


text:
After St. Clair Parks and Recreation Board members spent a good portion of their April meeting trying to decide how to best spend some available funds, the board of aldermen made the decision for them when it met for its regular meeting on May 6.
The aldermen opted to spend up to $30,000 to repair and repave the parking lot at Evergreen Park that will be used to accommodate vehicles when the new spray park opens later this month. Public Works Director Ed Bliss told the board the lot is in poor shape and recommended it be fixed.
You must login to view the full content on this page.
Or, use your linked account:


text:
Achievement Guide and Roadmap
View Single Post
Max Club's Super-Moderating Bard
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Shut up and Kiss me!!
Posts: 6,124
Gamertag: Scotty x360a
Awards Showcase
Total Awards: 29 (
more» ...
View My Profile
Story/mission related achievements
Explosive 40
Complete the mission ''Long Way To The Top''
Story related, cannot be missed.
This achievement is unlocked after completing the final story mission of the DLC, called, 'Long Way To The Top'. There are a total of 12 missions to complete including this one to finish the main story and unlock this achievement.
To start this DLC, go to any fast travel station on any map and travel to a place called 'Badass Crater of Badassitude'. Upon spawning in this new location, a cutscene will activate and begin the DLC.
Motorhead 40
Complete all Campaign of Carnage side missions
To unlock this achievement you must complete all of the side missions within the new DLC, Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage. There are a total of 21 side missions to complete to earn this achievement. 8 of these missions are replays of 4 main story missions, but each getting progressively more difficult. These are; 'Bar Room Blitz', 'The Death Race', 'Twelve O'clock High' and 'Appetite For Destruction'. You can play these 4 side missions more than 3 times each, but you only need to complete tier 2 and tier 3 for the achievement to unlock. You
need to complete the 'Rematch' version of each of these missions, as they are not necessary for the achievement.
You cannot miss this achievement as you can continue to complete missions after you have completed the main story. All side missions are easily found as they will appear on any map that you are currently on, shown as a yellow exclamation mark, or in your journal, as either an orange question mark for discovered missions or a white exclamation mark for undiscovered missions. All missions that are listed in your journal, whether known or unknown, are under a title which is the location of where the mission can be found.
Miscellaneous achievement
Obsessed 45
Collected 10 pictures of Moxxi in Campaign of Carnage
Whilst in any of the new locations introduced in this DLC, there is a small chance that any enemy with the words 'Bad-ass' before its name will drop a framed pictures of Moxxi, upon dying.
The picture has a purple glow when it has dropped, and is a rather large, rectangular, somewhat unmissable object, amongst all the weapons and cash dropped from dead enemies, so you won't miss them when they drop.
The most efficient way of finding these without wasting too much time is to travel to 'Pyro Pete's Bar', which can be accessed by travelling through 'The Beatdown' area. A lot of 'Bad-Ass' enemies spawn here if you activate the mission, 'Bar Room Blitz' within this area and you can activate the mission as many times as you want. Just start the mission, kill everyone inside the bar, including the large amount of 'Bad-Asses' that spawn here, hoping that 1 or more will drop a picture, if so pick it/them up, then save and quit. Then hit continue when you get to the main menu, and you will already be inside Pyro Pete's Bar when you spawn. You can then activate the mission again and continue the cycle until you have found 10 pictures to unlock the achievement.
*Note; This achievement is reportedly glitchy and may not unlock for some people after having found 10 pictures. Do not worry though, as it will unlock, you may just need to find more pictures. It may take somewhere in between 10 and 20 pictures to unlock the achievement, but it will unlock.
View Public Profile
Send a private message to Scotty
Find More Posts by Scotty


text:
I am working an affiliate driven member site and I am running into a challenge finding a solution that will display leads generated by affiliates to them so that they can use the leads as prospects for their business.
Basically the site has two parts...
- Member Site with content
- Replicated Web Sites (for the affiliates to generate leads and sales)
I recently find a membership site that handle the above, mixing WordPress + Optimizepress theme + Wishlist member plugin.
But i'm struggling to much to understand what plugin or third-part software handle affiliate link's, replicated websites and contact manager in the members dashboard.
Thank you
VĂtor Maia


text:
Noble Bird Returns to Form in Pimlico Special
John Oxley's Noble Bird rebounded from a disappointing effort at Churchill Downs two weeks earlier with a dominant victory in the $300,000 Pimlico Special (gr. III) May 20 at Pimlico Race Course.
John Oxley's Noble Bird rebounded from a disappointing effort at Churchill Downs two weeks earlier with a dominant victory in the $300,000 Pimlico Special (gr. III) May 20 at Pimlico Race Course.
Adam Staple and Jalin Stable's Page McKenney broke the million-dollar mark in career earnings with an impressive victory in the $75,000 Native Dancer Stakes Jan. 2 at Laurel Park.
J. Keeler Johnson handicaps the Charles Town Classic (gr. II) at Charles Town. read blog
Chad Brown-trained gelding is looking for his eighth consecutive win in the featured $250,000 New York-bred event Oct. 19 at Belmont Park.
Drawing Away Stables' hard-knocking Saginaw is back to defend his title in the Affirmed Success Stakes June 1 at Belmont Park.
Monmouth Park opens this Saturday, May 12, with a 12-race program attracting a total of 117 entries.
It Happened Again, making his first start in more than five months, wore down pacesetter Isthmus to capture the $138,000 Claiming Crown Jewel by 1 1/4 lengths at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots Dec. 3.
Trainer Mike Maker has half the field in this year's $150,000 Claiming Crown Jewel, the featured event of five stakes to be held for the first time Dec. 3 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in Louisiana.
Returned to the stakes calendar at Laurel Park after a one-year hiatus, the $150,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash drew a field of 10, led by two-time grade III winner Ravalo.
Locally-based pair Big Drama and Mambo Meister, with a combined 13 wins at Calder Race Course and both entering off wins over the track, are two of the horses to beat in the $350,000 Smile Sprint Handicap (gr. II) on July 10
Jockeys Garrett Gomez and Carlos H. Marquez Jr. were taken to a nearby hospital after separate incidents at Monmouth Park. Gomez was taken after the seventh race; Marquez after the eighth.
Together Indy rallied under Kent Desormeaux to win the seven-furlong Commonwealth Stakes (gr. II) by a length at Keeneland April 10, capturing his first graded race in his synthetic track debut for trainer George Weaver.
Trainer Michael Trombetta aims for a repeat victory April 10 in Keeneland's Commonwealth Stakes (gr. II) with a pair of entrants in the $250,000 event, Congressional Page and Not for Silver.
Graded stakes winners Cool Coal Man and Grasshopper drew the top weight assignments as part of a contentious field for the $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap (gr. II) March 13.
Even-money favorite Munnings shrugged off a more than four-month layoff and showed his class by recording a one-length score in the $150,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship Stakes (gr. II) on Feb. 13 in South Florida.
Munnings, who established himself as one of the nation's top 3-year-old sprinters a year ago, will make his first start as an older horse against a capable group in the $150,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship (gr. II)
In his first race since his famous starting gate tantrum prior to the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I), Quality Road was much the best in the $100,000 Hal's Hope Stakes (gr. III), winning by 2 3/4 lengths at Gulfstream Park.
|Breeder / Owner
|Congressional Page
|Michael J. Trombetta
|Crown Polis
|Ernest M. Haynes
|Flying Zealous
|Dimitrios K. Synnefias
|In the Fairway
|Jeff C. Runco
|Michael J. Trombetta
|Jade Prince
|Marilyn G. McMullen
|Manolo Mangual
|Stephen Got Bud
|Jim Tracy
|Damon R. Dilodovico
|Keith A. Brown
|Rainbow Connection S.
|Prince of Wales S.
|Real Good Deal S.
|Honorable Miss H. (gr. II)
|Eternal Search S.


text:
Rick Pitino inducted into Hall of FameUPDATED 6:15 PM EDT Apr 08, 2013
Pitino says he tries not to get too caught up in the highs or the lows of life. He simply appreciates the days as they come, and these days might be luckier than others.
More Video
CommentsThe views expressed are not those of this site, this station or its affiliated companies. By posting your comments you agree to accept our terms of use.blog comments powered by Disqus


text:
Stephen Gallacher fired two eagles on the back nine in a remarkable bogey-free round of 10-under par 62 to take a three-shot lead into the final day of the $2.5 million Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Gallacher, nephew of the former European Ryder Cup captain Bernard, rattled the pin with his second shot on the par-5 13th and then holed his bunker shot on the 18th from 30 yards.
That, along with six other birdies, helped him reach 21-under par 195 after three rounds.
The 195 total of the 38-year-old Scotsman was one better than the tournament record of 20-under par set by Tiger Woods during his first visit to the UAE in 2001.
The lowest winning total in the tournament is 22-under par by Thomas Bjorn that same year.
South Africa's Richard Sterne, leader after the first two days at 12-under par, added a solid third round of six-under par 66, but could only watch in astonishment as Gallacher sped past him.
Two shots behind Sterne's 198 was rising Danish star Thorbjorn Olesen (67), while Chile's Felipe Aguilar (66) and India's Jeev Milkha Singh (67) were tied for the fourth place at 14-under par 202.
World No8 Lee Westwood made a charge with a 66 that moved him to ninth place at 204, nine shots behind the leader, while No14 Sergio Garcia could only add a 71 to tie for 19th place at 206.
Defending champion Rafael Cabrera-Bello shot a third successive round of 69.
Gallacher, who shot a 63 on the opening day and has finished second and 10th the previous two years in the tournament, said: "I just think I've played this golf course a lot of times.
"I've come out on holiday here and I am quite familiar with the course. I came here over Christmas and a couple days earlier before the start of the season.
"You know your way around here, the lines, you know where to hit it and where not to hit it. It's obviously in great condition and kind of suits my eye as well.
"I'm excited and looking forward to tomorrow. I struggled last week in Doha and found out that my driver had a hairline crack. With the new one, I'm hitting more fairways and I've putted really good. On these courses, you have got to be hitting from the fairways."
While Gallacher, ranked 111th in the world, is looking for his first win since the 2004 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, his good friend Sterne is hoping end a title drought that started in early 2009.
"I'm quite happy. The weather was a bit dodgy in the beginning, but the weather kind of came around and it wasn't too bad," said 165th-ranked Sterne.
"The conditions are pretty good. As you can see, a couple of good scores. You know, shooting 66 and I'm three behind, which unfortunately can happen in this game."
"I've given myself a chance going into tomorrow, in the last group again which will be hopefully a lot of fun and put some good scores on there and put some pressure on Stephen."


text:
Corporation Bank CDs Deals: Indian Money Market
By Pooja Saraf
July 01.(Bloomberg) -- Following is a table showing certificate of deposits dealt by Indian companies. The data has been provided by SPA Securities Ltd.
Date Security Mty Date Qnty(Crs.) Rate Buyer Seller CTRB 01-Jul-13 CORPI 14-Mar-14 100 8.07 SPAS 01-Jul-13 CORPI 04-Mar-14 50 8.07 SPAS
Contributed via: Bloomberg Publisher WEB Service
Provider ID: ffed0c04869c4ad68ffaa8e5f0bc33ec
Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN MORE