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7 Questions – Poppy Ann
by Jen • • 2 Comments
Welcome Poppy Ann, a trans woman, grandmother, former British solider, and current sailboat resident.
1) What's your name? Chosen or otherwise.
My Name is now Miss Poppy Ann Lynagh-Smith. The 'Poppy' part was chosen by my daughter, who said it will make it easier on my grandchildren as they did know me as 'pirate popps' due to my living on a sail boat. I added 'Ann' as it was my sister's second name. She died at age 21, so I took it in memory of her.
2) Who has been most supportive of your transition?
Up to now everyone I have met has been very supportive. Only my ex-wife and son are not so, but it has been a very large shock to him and I understand how hard it must be for him to see his dad become a woman. My ex-wife understands what I am doing but wants nothing to do with my changing. My cross-dressing was one of the reasons she decided to leave me to start with. All my friends have said either "We have treated you as female for years", or "It's about time! We expected you to do this years ago."
3) What do most enjoy about your life since beginning transition?
That I can now dress and act how I have wanted to all my life, that I no longer need to hide who I am.
4) Who are your trans role models?
I don't have any role models. I do not know anyone who has gone through transition before me.
5) What change(s) would you most like to see in the world?
For people to be able to dress and act as they want to without any trouble or made to feel they are wrong for doing it. As long as it does not hurt anyone else, they should be able to do what they want and that other people should just accept them for who they are and not try to change them so everyone is the same.
6) What are you doing to make those changes happen?
I am very open about who I am and what I am. I don't try to hide who I am or what I have gone through to get here.
7) Tell us something, anything, special and unique about you.
Not a lot to tell. I served in the British army for 12 years but was injured in an accident which damaged my back and for the last 11 years have been living on a sail boat out in the Caribbean sailing around the islands. For the last 8+ years I have worn skirts or dresses and just told people that I feel better that way, and most people have been ok with it. I never tried to hide who I was but I have to admit I never understood what i was until recently. When I suggested to my doctor that I thought I may be transgendered, he told me he knows I am, and that was the first time I had considered it seriously.


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The October 09 release focussed mostly on some minor user interface updates, bug fixes and additional locale support. Even though the update was functionally minor there were a few minor interface annoyances the team will be looking into over the next few weeks. These include: Some fonts in the system are a little too large, such as the filter interface causeing some wrapping in the filter bars above thread listsCode snippet fonts became too large, we'll reduce them soonFor those beta testing the NNTP Bridge Client beta, no update this week. We plan to post an update the next release in mid November
October 16th Changes Include:
Substantial effort to support the MSDN Redesign and maintain visual consistency and user navigation contexts across our shared online properties Doubled the number of locales supported (bringing the total to 35 locales). The following are the new locales introduced with this release: Australia (English), Austria (German), Belgium (Dutch & French), Bulgaria (Bulgarian), Denmark (Danish), Greece (Greek), Indonesia (Indonesian), Kazakhstan (Russian), Netherlands (Dutch), New Zealand (English), Norway (Norwegian), Portugal (Portuguese), Romania (Romanian), Slovakia (Slovak), Sweden (Swedish), Ukraine (Ukranian)Forum feeds fueling the Community Activity control on the MSDN Home Page

subset: commoncrawl


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The three said they plan to campaign individually and as a group, citing a shared vision for the town. They praised the town's fiscal responsibility, protection of open space and transportation improvements, and noted future challenges such as maintaining a high level of service amidst state budget cuts and keeping Danville's small town charm despite a growing population.
They also discussed protecting the Urban Limit Line and warding off any attempt by San Ramon city leaders to try to develop the Tassajara Valley.
"We've decided we want to make it clear we've done a good job guiding Danville," said Arnerich, who has served on the council since 1995. Doyle has been on the council since 1991 and Andersen, the newest member, since 2003.
"I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish together as a council during my first term of office and look forward to serving another four years," Andersen said.
To file to run for the Danville Town Council, contact the Contra Costa County Election Department at 335-7800 or www.cocovote.us/.


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25% off Men's Classic, Tri, Long, Premium. Women's Relaxed, V, Scoop, Premium. Use TEES25
Sunrise, Newcastle Baths, NSW Australia
nsw newcastle baths australia sunrise east coast water
The colours in this one are magnificent Melina … beautiful image♥
Nice pic…..i was there but forget my tripod!!!
ah, I should have introduced myself….and thanks Bev.
Loading more work by Melina Roberts...
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I keep getting this error:
<ID:0/005> Added!!
<OSM> Enter CS for MD5..
<OSM> Check MD5.. Do not unplug the cable..
<OSM> Please wait..
<OSM> MD5 hash value is invalid
<OSM> cwm-22.214.171.124-b2-jena.tar.md5 is invalid.
<OSM> End...
Do you have the "CWM 220.127.116.11" ? Where can I get it?
btw I was able to get 22.214.171.124 by flashing clockworkmod-18.104.22.168.tar.md5 first using Odin then installing it as a zip
But 220.127.116.11 is useless for me because whenever I try flashing the rom that I want
I get error: can't mount storage/sdcard0
and If I try flashing the rom from the clockworkmod-22.214.171.124.tar.md5 it doesn't go through idk why
CWM 220.127.116.11 - http://goo.im/devs/thewhisp/jena-rec...uild-2.tar.md5
And that problem is error after updating CWM from 126.96.36.199 to newer version via old CWM :P
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The Hardball Tango
Brian Carson, the announcer on my WagnerOperas Podcast was the videographer on this new video that was just put up on YouTube. Enjoy!
The World of Composer Richard Wagner and his operas. www.wagneroperas.com with frequent forays into the world of art, culture, and film.
Vincent Vargas is a foreign language teacher at a private school in New York City. He runs websites dedicated to Casablanca (www.vincasa.com) and Richard Wagner (www.wagneroperas.com).


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Richard Barker, mortgage manager at N&P, said: "This reduction in the interest rates across our fixed rate mortgage range is very good news for first-time buyers, those looking to re-mortgage or move to their next home.
"This means they could save £2,200 over the course of a £150,000 mortgage compared to our previous rate.
"The next Bank Base Rate change will undoubtedly be an increase, but no-one knows when.
"Many commentators think this may not be until early next year but for those moving now, or looking for a bit of certainty over the amount they will be paying each month, these new lower rates, our lowest 3-year and 5-year rates since 2003, could be the perfect opportunity to make the move they have been looking at for a while."
The new 2-year fixed rate without incentives is available at 3.79% reduced from 3.95% with a maximum 85% LTV and £995 product fee. The valuation fee is paid by customer and early repayment charges of 3% apply.
The deal allows 10% penalty-free capital repayment per annum subject to a £10,000 cap.
The 3-year deal will be offered at a rate of 4.08% reduced from 4.38% while the 5-year fixed rate will be offered at 4.68% reduced from 4.98%.


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Relax should be the theme of S/S 2012. While the demand continues for the heaviness of tough built men's footwear, it is clear that the warm weather of the summer is pushing for more relaxed and lightweight takes. Of course, not everyone is rocking brogues in the heat, but we figured a reminder was in order. Keds and Pro-Keds showcased their lightweight and casual takes for the coming year. We showcase a bunch of the offering here.
Photography: Selectism.com
More looks after the click.


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Critics who warned of children begging in the streets were spectacularly wrong, but big problems remain
Welfare reform celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and celebrates seems the right word. As most readers know, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ended the much-despised Depression-era federal entitlement to cash benefits for needy single mothers, replacing it with short-term, work-oriented programs designed and run by individual states. Its success has surprised just about everyone, supporters and naysayers alike. So it seems a good time to remember the drama—make that melodrama—that the bill unleashed in 1996. Cries from Democrats of "anti-family," "anti-child," "mean-spirited," echoed through the Capitol, as did warnings of impending Third World-style poverty: "children begging for money, children begging for food, 8- and 9-year-old prostitutes," as New Jersey senator Frank Lautenberg put it. "They are coming for the children," Congressman John Lewis of Georgia wailed—"coming for the poor, coming for the sick, the elderly and disabled." Senator Ted Kennedy called it "legislative child abuse," Senator Chris Dodd, "unconscionable," Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "something approaching an Apocalypse."
Other Washington bigwigs took up the cry. Marion Wright Edelman of the Children's Defense Fund called the bill "national child abandonment" and likened it to the burning of Vietnamese villages. Immediately after President Clinton signed the bill, some of his top appointees quit in protest, including Edelman's husband, Peter, who let loose with an article in the Atlantic Monthly titled, "The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done."
It's worth recalling the outcry at this anniversary moment, not in order to have a gotcha-fest, pleasurable as such an exercise can be. The truth is that many of welfare reform's promoters were not spot-on in their predictions, either. But the apocalyptic scaremongering of reform opponents on the one hand, and the relative benignity of the bill's consequences on the other, prompt the obvious question: How is it that so many intelligent, well-intentioned people, including many experts who made up the late 20th century's best and brightest, were so mistaken—mistaken not just in the way a weatherman who overestimates the strength of a snowstorm is mistaken, but fundamentally, intrinsically and epistemologically wrong?
Four false fears
Before examining why so many people were wrong, let's look at exactly how they were wrong.
The most striking outcome has been the staggering decline in the welfare rolls, so large it has left even reform enthusiasts agog. At their peak in 1994—the rolls began to shrink before 1996, because many states had already instituted experimental reform programs—there were 5.1 million families on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the old program. Almost immediately, the numbers went into freefall, and by 2004 they were down by 60 percent, to fewer than 2 million. A lot of reform opponents—the unreformed, so to speak—tried to chalk this up to the booming economy of the later 1990s. But according to former congressional staffer Ron Haskins, author of a history of the reform due out this fall, that doesn't make sense. In the 41 years between 1953 and 1994, he points out, the welfare rolls had declined only five times, and only once (between 1977 and 1979) for two years in a row. Compare that with the present case, when the rolls continued their fall even after a recession began in 2001, and when 2004 marked the 10th continuous year of decline.
Caseload declines are all well and good, but what caused opponents—and many proponents as well—to lose sleep was what would happen to women and their children once they left the dole. There were four chief concerns: First, would welfare leavers find jobs? Second, would they sink even deeper into poverty? Third, would their children be harmed? And fourth, would the states take advantage of the wide flexibility the bill gave them on implementation to join what many anticipated would be a "race to the bottom"?
So let's consider concern number one: Did women who left the rolls actually go to work? The answer is: more than almost anyone had predicted. According to one Urban Institute study, 63 percent of leavers were working in the peak year of 1999. True, some studies showed numbers only in the high fifties, but even these findings were much better than expected.
Nevertheless, a lot of skeptics still weren't biting. It was the luck of a boom economy, they said; just wait until the job market sours. Well, the recession came in 2001, and though it was no picnic, it was— once again—nothing like what had been feared. As of 2002, 57 percent of welfare leavers continued to punch a time clock.
Average incomes went up
What about concern No. 2—that welfare mothers would sink deeper into poverty? Shortly before welfare reform passed, the Urban Institute released a report warning that it could impoverish an additional 2 million people. Reform Jeremiahs waved the report around as scientific proof of their worst fears. Even if some welfare mothers did find jobs, they argued, they would merely be stocking shelves or making hotel beds, the proverbial "dead-end jobs" that would leave them worse off than on the dole.
Though a lot of women did take low-paying service jobs, the unreformed got this one wrong, too. For one thing, they failed to consider the Earned Income Tax Credit, whose expansion in 1993 meant a 40 percent boost in annual earnings for a minimum-wage worker with two kids. Most leavers, though, were doing better than minimum wage. In 2002, the same Urban Institute that had predicted disaster found that the median hourly wage for working former recipients was about $8 an hour. Moreover, just as with most other people, the longer recipients were in the job market, the more they earned. Four years off welfare, only 4 percent of working single mothers were earning minimum wage or less.
As a result, most welfare leavers had more money than when they were on welfare. The poverty rate for single women with children fell from 42 percent in 1996 to 34 percent in 2002; before 1996, it had never in recorded history been below 40 percent. This was the first boom ever where poverty declined faster for that group than for married-couple families. Nor did leavers disdain their "dead-end jobs." Studies consistently found that former recipients who went on to become waitresses, grill cooks and security guards took pride in being salarywomen.
Still, it's fair to say that while post-reform America did not look like Calcutta, it was no low-wage worker's paradise, either, especially as the economy weakened in late 2001. Former welfare mothers were still poorer than single mothers overall. Some who worked had less income than on welfare. Many were not working full-time, and an estimated 40 percent of those who left the welfare rolls returned later on. In 1999, close to 10 percent of leavers were "disconnected"—neither working nor on welfare nor supported by a working spouse. By the recession year of 2002, that number had risen to almost 14 percent. From the beginning, studies from the Children's Defense Fund and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities warned of an increase in the number of families in deep poverty, and a steady stream of rumors claimed that soup kitchens and homeless shelters had crowds of ex-recipients clamoring at their doors.
But at least some of these warnings turned out to have been yet more crying wolf. Those who returned to the dole tended soon to find other means of support, getting a new job, signing up for disability or unemployment insurance or turning to employed partners.
Child poverty went down
And that takes us to concern No. 3—the kids. Children were the unreformed's most lethal weapon: the image of kids starving in the streets, begging from strangers, and neglected and abused by desperate mothers, was enough to make the most robust reformer queasy. But the predicted Dickensian purgatory also turned out to be wrong. There may have been an increase in the number of children in foster care, but child abuse and neglect numbers are, depending on what measures you use, either unchanged or down.
More striking was what happened to rates of child poverty. They not only went down; by 2001, they hit all-time lows for black children. And though the numbers drifted up again during the recession, they were still lower than they had been pre-reform. On other measures, the young kids of former welfare moms are no worse off than under the old regime. Though some studies find lower achievement and more problem behavior among adolescents, the big picture doesn't show teen children in more trouble post-reform. After 1996, juvenile violence and teen pregnancy continued to go down, as they had since the early nineties.
As for the anti-reformer's final concern—the states' "race to the bottom"—that dog didn't bark, either. True, the enemies of reform might point at the 20-odd states that introduced a "family cap," which sought to stem illegitimacy by denying any increase in benefits to women who had another child while on welfare. But there's little question that the unreformed were wrong here as well—for the fourth time. The states were, if anything, nicer than the feds. No state barred cash benefits to teen mothers, though the reform program permitted them to do so. Forty-seven states made it easier for leavers to keep some of their cash benefits when they first went to work. Many states, including New York, did away with the five-year time limit for all intents and purposes by using state dollars to pick up the tab for those still on the dole at the time and deemed unable to work.
Critics equated reform with racism
This, then, is where we find ourselves today, 10 years after reform: a record number of poor single mothers off the dole and the majority of them gainfully employed; less poverty among single mothers, especially black single mothers, as well as their kids; children adjusting well enough, and state governments taking care of their own. The situation is so far from what experts predicted that, as New York University political scientist Lawrence Mead has put it, it brings to mind the Sovietologists at the fall of the Soviet Union.
Progressive pessimists were blind to the promise of reform partly because they believed that the American discomfort with welfare was really a mask for racism. The term "progressive" may imply forward thinking, but in many ways the pessimists are still living in George Wallace's America. Welfare recipients were, and are, disproportionately black: African Americans totaled about 37 percent of the welfare rolls in 1996, though they were only about 12 percent of the population. If Americans didn't like welfare, pessimists reasoned, it was because they didn't like black people. Wags referred to welfare reform as "racism in drag." A perfect example of the left's assumption that racist motives prompted welfare reform is a 1999 book called Why Americans Hate Welfare, by Yale political scientist Martin Gilens. Far from being mean-spirited, Americans are actually a fairly generous people, Gilens argued. If they hate welfare, it's not because they are tight; it's because they don't want to help black folks. With the help of a subliminally racist media, they look at black welfare recipients as lazy freeloaders, just as they did in the Jim Crow South.
Progressive pessimists were especially gloomy when it came to the American economy. You can't blame them for not foreseeing the economic exuberance of the second half of the 1990s; few did. Less defensible was their deep-rooted assumption that poverty was "structural," as permanent a part of the American scene as the Appalachian Mountains. No matter how strong the economy, they asserted, there still wouldn't be enough jobs, employers wouldn't hire welfare mothers, and those who did would offer them only the most demeaning and temporary work.
From this vantage point, any talk about "personal responsibility" was only more evidence of racially tinged victim-blaming. Nothing distinguishes progressive pessimists from their pro-reform counterparts more than their attitudes toward self-sufficiency. For the pessimists, poverty in America was so severe, and dead-end jobs so demoralizing, that they almost invariably shattered the individual will (and, incidentally, led to such social pathology as child abuse). That's why, if manufacturing jobs moved out of the ghetto, the pessimists explained, the poor could not be expected to move where there were more opportunities—though throughout the '80s and '90s, millions of poor immigrants were doing just that.
But lives not transformed
For reformers, on the other hand, there was much to learn from "immigrant optimism," as it's sometimes called. People are capable of far more resourcefulness and resilience than welfare recipients had been given a chance to show, they contended. This understanding was one reason why Bill Clinton rejected the advice of most of his advisers and signed welfare reform in August 1996. "I've always known poor folks," he told Jason DeParle in an interview quoted in American Dream. "I've just never thought they were helpless."
Human beings tend to do pretty much what they are expected to do. When the culture expects self-sufficiency, people will try to achieve it. When the culture sends mixed messages about self-sufficiency, as it did during the old welfare regime—particularly to the minority poor—some will not try to become self-sufficient.
All of this might seem to lead to the conclusion that welfare reform has been a triumph for conservative thinking. That would be overstating things. The welfare reform bill was never simply about ending welfare dependency. As part of a larger bill called the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, it was designed to improve the lives of the formerly dependent more broadly by nudging them toward middle-class life.
The left always thought of moving up as a matter of money, not behavior: if people earned a middle-class income, they believed, middle-class conduct and aspiration would be sure to follow. Conservatives tend to see it the other way around: middle-class mores are necessary for economic success. If people adopt bourgeois habits and ambitions, they will work hard, save and plan, and eventually have the money to make a down payment on a house or pay parochial school tuition. In the case of larger bill, supporters took this idea a bridge too far. They imagined the work ethic as the engine that would carry all other virtues in its train. Jobs would bring discipline to the lives of poor single mothers and transform them and their children. Work would turn them into bourgeois strivers.
And you do hear stories that seem to support that theory. Take Jewel, one of the three protagonists of Jason DeParle's American Dream. After failing repeatedly, she finally got her GED after the book came out and is now studying for a nursing degree, even while she holds down a full-time job. She is still with her boyfriend of 10 years, and he, in turn, has kept straight in the six years since he was released from prison, working during most of that time. Though they haven't married, they are raising their son together, pooling their money, and behaving in most respects like a married couple—helping, as DeParle told me, to "stabilize and encourage each other."
But taken as a whole, you'd have to conclude that welfare reform has not been the extreme makeover that supporters had sought. And the reason is that it has barely touched the single-mother problem. Reform optimists predicted that by heightening women's self-respect and belief in their future, work would make them more marriage-minded. Reformers also hoped that work requirements would act as a deterrent: girls seeing their mothers and older sisters juggling a low-paying job, an apartment, and children, all without a husband's help, would shun such a life.
Perhaps without welfare reform, things would have been worse. After rising steeply for three decades, the increase in the rate of out-of-wedlock births did slow around 1994. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation points out that if the pre-reform trend line had continued, 42 percent of all babies would be born fatherless today; instead, the number is about 35 percent. "Something different happened in the 1990s that didn't happen in Europe," where illegitimacy rates continued their inexorable climb, he observes. Moreover, the marriage rate among black Americans was substantially higher in 1998 than the trend line from 1960 to 1990 would have predicted. The number of poor couples who were cohabiting at the time of their babies' birth also rose. Still, a slowdown in the spread of illegitimacy and more shacking up among poor men and women—a notoriously fickle domestic arrangement—are not what optimists had in mind.


text: ...cus I realsied I got £25 off the price of my motor. Why? Well... I ordered the bucket seats on my new S3, no great shakes there, but the online Audi configurator told me I had to have a first aid kit, strange I thought, would that be beacuse there was no lumbar support? (Actually there appears to be no need of it, but we will pass over that point as its covered in another thread elsewhere.) Anyway, I sat in the back of my new S3 yesterday, odd thing I know, and blow me if I have not got a rear central arm rest with through load and inside the arm rest is a storage compartment where there is a first aid kit!Especialy great as I did not order either! Blimey, i thought, quick check to see that the rear arm rest is indeed an optional extra. So can you guys please confirm for me that we all have, a) bucket seats b) a rear arm rest (for free) and, c) when you open the arm rest a fist aid kit inside! Cheers.


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OPINION: States justly reconsidering use of solitary confinement
By The Washington Post
The physical stresses of solitary confinement are bad enough. In the U.S., conditions can include windowless cells, nearly inedible food, extreme heat and cold and almost no time to exercise or wash. The psychological costs of extreme social isolation are worse; for many, in fact, they are unbearable. Solitary confinement can cause or exacerbate psychosis, hypertension, panic attacks, self-mutilation and suicide. Those who cope more effectively still may deteriorate in less obvious ways.
Damon Thibodeaux was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder. He now recounts that, near the beginning of his 15 years in solitary, he wanted to commit "suicide by state," ending his legal fight and allowing Louisiana authorities to execute him. Isolation, he told a Senate committee recently, kills "bit by bit, day by day."
Separating prisoners from human contact is abusive in all but the most extreme circumstances. Yet, as Rick Raemisch, the head of Colorado's Department of Corrections, told the committee, the practice is "incredibly overused," often to punish minor infractions of prison rules.
In Texas, inmates sent to solitary spend an average of four years there, reported Marc Levin of the conservative criminal justice reform group Right on Crime. Texas, though, is at least reviewing its practices. That might be because isolating prisoners is expensive — costing something like twice as much as keeping them in the general prison population. Or it might be because releasing psychologically damaged people from prison can produce disastrous results.
A few other states have made strides. New York just announced it would restrict or eliminate solitary confi nement for women, minors and the mentally ill, as well as adopt new guidelines on applying the punishment to others. Maine and Mississippi have drastically reduced the number of prisoners they keep in solitary; they report encouraging results. Raemisch recently shut Colorado's administrative segregation facility, and Illinois closed its supermax prison.
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., called on prison systems to follow New York's lead. That's the least prison authorities can do. To go further, Levin recommended eliminating rules that deny or restrict reading materials for isolated inmates, creating a range of punishments short of solitary that would more effectively and more humanely deter misbehavior and training prison staff to deal sensibly with prison conflicts and mentally ill inmates. Effectively applied, those measures would begin to reduce the number of people subjected to the hell of solitary without harming prison order.


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Liquid detergents
Direct contact with liquid detergents used for washing clothes can prove fatal for cats. International Cat Care was recently contacted by an owner whose four cats were accidently splashed when a bottle of Persil liquid spilled. The liquid caused caustic burns and fur loss on contact with their paws and legs and one of the cats subsequently died despite veterinary intervention. Should your cat come into contact with spilt liquid detergent, quickly wash paws or fur thoroughly with warm water. Seek veterinary advice immediately if the cat starts to appear ill or develop signs of skin injury.
While many animals find antifreeze sweet tasting, ingesting even the smallest amount can lead to kidney failure and death, especially in cats. Alarmingly, antifreeze has recently been recommended in the media as an excellent product for killing garden slugs and snails with little regard for the lethal effects to pets and wildlife. Antifreeze should always be kept in clearly labelled, robust, sealed containers, away from cats and their environment. Clean up any spills immediately, no matter how small and make sure cats cannot access the area until it is clean and safe.
For more information see our 'keeping your cat safe' section.


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Dubai, Sep 11 (IANS/WAM) Dubai's foreign trade growth has reached a new peak in the first half of 2013, as the value of its non-oil foreign trade has surged to 679 billion dirhams.
This represents a 16 percent growth from the same period last year, when the non-oil trade value was 584 billion dirhams.
This growth was powered by a rise in exports by 22 percent, which represents a climb from 69 billion dirhams to 84 billion dirhams.
Imports also registered a remarkable increase of 16 percent, rising to 406 billion dirhams compared to 349 billion dirhams.
Re-export trade recorded a growth rate of 13 percent, climbing from 166 billion dirhams to 188 billion dirhams.
Dubai's foreign trade growth accelerated from nine percent in the first half of 2012 to 13 percent for the entire year.


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Harrison Ford
What little boy out there didn't dream of being Indiana Jones or Han Solo? Enough said.
AppealWith the exception of that year a while back when he decided that a mustache was a good career move (he looked like a member of the Village People if you catch our drift), he certainly has a loyal following among women. With his good looks and fatherly demeanor, women see him as their knight in shining armor.
We see him as the guy that got to kiss Princess Lea and kill a couple of aliens.
SuccessHe needs an Oscar on his mantle but, other than that, he's a $20 million-per-movie man who took part in some of the most successful movies of all-time. He has very little left to accomplish...
Harrison Ford BiographyHarrison Ford was born July 13, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, to an Irish Catholic father and a Russian Jewish mother.
Growing up in the Illinois suburb of Des Plaines, young Harry (as he was referred to as a child) did not share the rugged, adventurous, heroic characteristics that he shares with most of his onscreen characters. While his high school years at Maine Township High were better, Harrison Ford was the scrawny, nerdy little boy who was the common target of neighborhood bullies.
Although Harrison Ford had no direction in life, not to mention no motivation to learn, he continued in his studies and attended Ripon College in Wisconsin. A conservative school with high expectations, Harrison Ford felt claustrophobic and not ready to conform to the College's rigidity.
A below average student, Harrison Ford took an acting class in an attempt to raise his grade point average. This didn't help since Harrison Ford was kicked out of Ripon just weeks before graduation -- but the acting classes did serve another purpose... they gave Harrison Ford a glimmer of direction in his life.
harrison ford on tvWith a summer stock-theater job on his resume and a new wife by his side (Harrison Ford married his college sweetheart, Mary Marquardt, however they later divorced), Harrison Ford left for Los Angeles with the hopes of pursuing an acting career.
Once in L.A., Harrison Ford received bit parts in television series such as The Virginian and Ironside, but this was not keeping him busy nor was it paying the bills. He took a job as a carpenter with the task of building a recording studio for Brazilian composer Sergio Mendes.
Producers and directors told Harrison Ford that he did not have what it took to be an actor, but he did have a knack for carpentry and taught himself about it with the help of a library book he borrowed.
harrison ford in star warsAnd then began the relationship with director George Lucas. Harrison Ford was offered a role in the film American Graffiti, but passed it up when he learned his salary was not half as big as what he was earning as a carpenter. When he was offered a slight pay raise, he finally accepted the role.
This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, which led to his historical role as Han Solo in Star Wars. Harrison Ford actually only ended up reading for the part when he was helping Francis Ford Coppola build an entrance in his office, where the Star Wars auditions were being held.
harrison ford is indiana jonesAfter his work in Star Wars, Harrison Ford performed in another star-turning role, this time for directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, in none other than the first installment of the Indiana Jones series Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 1982, Harrison Ford took on a role in yet another cult classic, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.
With dramatic roles in films such as Presumed Innocent (1990), Regarding Henry (1991), Patriot Games (1992), The Fugitive (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), The Devil's Own (1997), and Air Force One (1997), just to name just a few, it's no wonder Harrison Ford is one of the most respected actors of his time.
harrison ford in six days seven nightsToward the end of the '90s, Harrison Ford worked on Six Days Seven Nights (1998) with Anne Heche as well as Random Hearts (1999). In '98, he was also chosen as People's Sexiest Man Alive. Then, in 2000, he starred in the horror/mystery What Lies Beneath (2000) with Michelle Pfeiffer.
In 2001, the Guinness Book of World Records listed Harrison Ford as the richest actor. No wonder he took a break from Tinseltown for a few years before returning to the spotlight with projects that he chose to space out a bit more, acting in movies like Hollywood Homicide (2003), costarring Josh Hartnett and Firewall (2006). In 2003, he also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
harrison ford returns to indiana jones Nineteen years after the last Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford, at an impressive 65 years old, returned to one of his most treasured roles in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Up-and-coming actor Shia LaBeouf played his son, and the star-studded cast also included Cate Blanchett.
Harrison Ford got engaged to long-term girlfriend Calista Flockhart in April 2008. He was nominated for AM's Top 49 Men of 2008 as well. Wanna vote for Indy? Click here.
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Young Devils defensemen Matt Taormina and Alex Urbom, both of whom were recalled from Albany on Friday, will be in the lineup this afternoon against the Montreal Canadiens.
Injuries to Andy Greene (foot), Anton Volchenkov (hand) and the decision to make Mark Fraser a healthy scratch led to the move to go with the kids.
Interestingly, the pair with be teamed together. They were also partners in Albany.
"I think the reports out of Albany have been very good on both guys,'' coach Pete DeBoer said. "They've both played (NHL) games before. It's not their first time in the NHL. They've been in this situation before and have handled it well. We're excited to stick them in there."
Goalie Martin Brodeur, who has been pulled in two of his last three starts, will be in goal.
Mattias Tedenby, who played on the Patrik Elias line as of late, will return to the third line with David Clarkson and Ryan Carter, and Dainius Zubrus will reunite with the Elias-Petr Sykora line.
Former Devil Scott Gomez (groin) is a scratch. He has no goals and four assists in 13 games this season and is a minus 3. ... Carey Price (10-8-7) is expected to start in goal.
Dave Hutchinson: email@example.com


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Good Dentist In Philadelphia. 18 Dec 2008 Hey, I need a dentist cause I gotta get a yearly check up or whatever. Anyone have any good recs?
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SAN DIEGO – The Chargers have used 60 players in games this season, more than in any year since 2004.
Six different players have started at the three defensive line spots. Three different players have started at one inside linebacker position. There have been two starting centers, two starting right guards and two starting right tackles.
So this, the team's fourth straight division title and fifth in six years, has a certain special feel.
"Our core has stayed constant," head coach Norv Turner said. "Those are the guys you build on. But this year for me is different because we've had so many guys who've had to step up, so many guys people don't even know.
"I could ask a lot of people to name our 11 starters on defense and you might get half of them, and to name our starting offensive line, and there are a lot of people who don't know who those guys are, because we didn't know who they were eight months ago. I'm really proud of the way we've had so many different people contribute to what we've gotten done."
Turner praised the players and, mostly, his assistant coaches.
"It speaks volumes about our coaching staff," Turner said. " … Because those are the guys when a young guy like (Brandyn) Dombrowski steps up and plays, if Vaughn Martin steps up and plays, if James Holt becomes a real contributor on special teams, then someone is doing a great job getting them ready. I give that credit to the assistant coaches."
His story holds up
Turner was queried again yesterday about his comments following the season's second game and was actually asked if he was "sandbagging."
Responded Turner: "No, I wasn't. I know there is a lot of revisionist history being passed around and a lot of different theories. We were in a tough way after the Raider game. We had a lot of people hurt. Even the guys who weren't hurt weren't healthy. … My comments were we're not as good as people want us to be, but we can get there."
Turner is certainly correct that his comments were diced, shredded and taken completely out of context.
Here is his quote from the Monday following the Chargers' 31-26 loss to Baltimore:
"After two games, when I look at our football team I think I have a pretty good handle where our team is. I don't think right now we're as good as you that cover us think or expect us to be. I don't think we're as good as what our fans want us to be. But I believe we can get there. We have a lot of work to do to get there."
Nuts 'n' Bolts
• Sunday was LaDainian Tomlinson's first game this season with more than 100 total yards (59 rushing, 58 receiving) and his highest total in 22 games. His 36-yard gain on a third-quarter screen, while aided greatly by Scott Mruczkowski's block, was one of his finest plays of the season. Said Turner: "LT hasn't lost anything in terms of his receiving ability."
• The Bengals' ball control offense was on display Sunday despite their uncharacteristic 40 passes. While under their season average by more than a minute, the Bengals had the ball 31:46, had three drives of 12 plays (all for field goals) and two drives over five minutes.
• Turner acknowledged the Chargers should have been penalized for the play on which they spiked the ball in the final series. A player coming into the game must cross at least the numbers painted on the field. Darren Sproles ran off the field after losing a shoe, and Tomlinson sprinted on but lined up outside the numbers. The penalty would have been 5 yards and 10 seconds off the clock.


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In lieu of holiday cards and gifts to members, the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) established a $500 aviation maintenance scholarship through the Northrop Rice Foundation (NRF). The award will go to a student attending an FAA-certified Part 147 aviation technician school. The winner will be selected by the NRF's board of directors. "Rather than going the traditional route in holiday giving, ARSA felt it would be appropriate to help provide a quality technical education to a deserving student," said Sarah MacLeod, the organization's executive director. "The NRF's history of advancing aviation maintenance careers made it the perfect partner." MacLeod said the development of a qualified technical workforce has long been one of ARSA's top priorities as members routinely list a shortage of skilled labor among the industry's biggest challenges. In ARSA's 2009 member survey, 65 percent of respondents reported difficulties in finding skilled technical workers. "This gift will benefit one worthy student and aid the aviation community in developing and recruiting a highly trained technical workforce," MacLeod said. To be eligible for the award a student must be attending a Part 147 aviation technical school and submit all the materials listed on the general application.
ARSA Establishes Maintenance Scholarship
- January 26, 2011, 6:53 AM


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Japan Airlines will equip two government-owned Boeing 747-400s used to carry the country's emperor and high-ranking officials with the Connexion by Boeing mobile information service, the vendor announced here yesterday. Installation is due to start next February.
Ed Laase, director of government and executive programs, said that the executive services version of Connexion by Boeing featured here (Booth No. 600) involves the same fundamental hardware used to provide the service to airline passengers and crew. Currently there are 125 commercial aircraft in service with the system, which is used on around 180 flights every day and is demonstrating the performance and reliability of a superior product, he said.
Among the attractions Laase listed is the fact that the Connexion services are available at very high latitudes so coverage on intercontinental routes linking Europe and the U.S. with Asia is "excellent throughout the flight." Executive jet customers can receive direct broadcast television through the same antenna system, and in areas where there is no direct broadcast coverage they can fall back on the same live global tv service already offered to commercial customers.
"Global tv is unique to Boeing," Laase said. "It means that even if you are going to somewhere like Russia where there is no direct broadcast coverage you can continue to enjoy tv reception." The global tv service has been operational since January and provides access to BBC World, EuroNews, Eurosportnews, CNBC and MSNBC. "The service is available in all our satellite footprints, so people can stay connected to tv," he added. "Only Connexion offers it in either the commercial or the executive jet world."
Another service due to be rolled out this year is Executive Private voice. "It takes voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology from the terrestrial world, using Cisco phones," Laase explained. "And it's a product with superior quality of service. We give priority to voice packets so the quality is equivalent to that of a wired connection on the ground."
The system has been tested on the Boeing corporate BBJ, where Laase and other Boeing executives use it routinely, he said. "And it's a carry-on product, it simply plugs into an RJ45 port so it allows us to keep the technology current with the terrestrial world. You just have to plug in new phone sets as they become available."
That is a key difference between Connexion and satellite-based phone systems, Laase said. "But the real differentiator is that satellite phones use voice codecs at the lowest possible data rates. So on the best of them the speaker's voice sounds clipped, and on the worst intelligibility becomes a problem. On our system you don't have that because it's a high-quality VoIP service."
Best of all, Laase said, is that the phone access is part of the standard executive jet service offering. "There is no additional cost, so calls are essentially free," he said. And where calls to satphone systems normally involve an international dialing code with a special prefix, the executive private voice service can be accessed through a Seattle-area number or through local numbers provided in other parts of the world.
So far Connexion has targeted high-end executive jets such as Boeing 767s and 747s and Airbus A340s. To date a total of 14 private airplanes, including U.S. government aircraft and a Boeing 747-400 operated by Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Arabia, have been equipped to use the Connexion service.
However, there has been a growth in interest among the BBJ community recently, and Connexion started making proposals to BBJ operators.


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Its mission is to provide media professionals, advertisers and their agencies in attendance with the opportunity to make sure they "get it right" so that the applications developed meet the specific needs of marketers in their quest to provide the best possible platform for their messaging and consumer engagement. The technologists, distributors and researchers contribute engineering time, resources/content and technological wizardry to create prototypical models for the venture. In exchange, they ask that those who attend the forum contribute brainpower (marketing and media) and assets (video and branded).
The aim of The Collaborative Alliance is to help navigate the future of the consumer and advertiser relationship within the evolving televiusal landscape. If you are curious about its evolution or wish to attend our lunchtime gathering (12n-2pm) - food for thought and stomach - please let me know (firstname.lastname@example.com).
ESPN's SVP, Research & Analytics, Artie Bulgrin will provide an overview of the Disney Media and Advertising Lab, which is located in Austin, Texas, and share examples of how the emerging media lab has enhanced the company's approach to studying the emotional drivers of audience behavior and physiological reactions to content and advertising across multi-platforms.
Kevin McGurn, VP National Advertising Sales, will share learnings on the growth of online premium video, Hulu's ad performance and audience engagement. Also, the Huluian will discuss planning and buying online video as a compliment to television using traditional GRP metrics.
NBC Universal
Janet Gallent, VP of Consumer Insights & Innovation Research at NBC Universal, will share the results of a biometric research study that demonstrates how and why consumers remember commercials seen in fast-forward mode and offer advertisers suggestions on how to optimize their creative in a fast-forwarding digital video recording/ on demand environ.
YCD's Vice President, Business Development & Client Services, Josh Kampel, will demonstrate how new technologies, specifically facial recognition, will offer marketers the opportunity to deliver relevant advertising based on demographic information.
The Set Top measurement realm is clicking. Not referring to the zillions of streams daily but rather every couple of weeks for the last few months another company - whether researcher, dataminer, technologist, manufacturer, and/or vested third party such as advertisers, advertising agencies, and content providers - is jumping into the fray or what one might have perceived months ago, frolicking with consensual strange bedfellows. This panel will provide some directional guidance that the media community can utilize to move forward to help it in its quest to eventually standardize digital set top audience measurement and reportage. Participants:


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I've been using hydroquinone under my eyelids to make them brighter. However, I'm considering to do a fat grafting to them as well for the hollowness. For how long before the surgery should one stop hydroquinone and when can one start using it again?
Hydroquinone Before and After Fat Grafting
Doctor Answers 7
Hydroquinone and fat grafting
Hydroquinone is a skin bleaching agent. As such it has really nothing to do with the fat grafting procedure you are having to the lower lids. However, I would avoid rubbing the lower lids for 7-10 days to not disturb the fat as the blood vessels try to re-attach and help the fat survive. Motion is known to decrease graft "take."
Learn more: http://www.randcosmeticsurgery.com
Hydroquinone before and after fat grafting
If you have darker skin and seem to tan easily it may not be a bad idea to be on a hydroquinone (a skin lightening cream) before AND after fat injection to help reduce the risk of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
Learn more: http://www.seattleface.com/html/before_n_after_set.php?procedure=fat_injection&id=04
Hydroquinone for lower eyelids
Depending on how long you have used the hydroquinone, you might still develop an irritant dermatitis if you have not used it for more than a month. Some people who try it for a couple of weeks start to get stinging and irritation, redness and peeling. This can create the paradox of darkening of the skin from inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Provided that you have used it for a while without any problems, than you can continue the treatment up to a week before. There are some forms of hydroquinone that have a Retin A cream mixed in and this could cause greater reactive skin changes and make your skin more irritable during the fat injection treatment, so one week of avoidance prior to the procedure should be adequate. Resuming it two weeks after the procedure is certainly safe but discuss it with the doctor who is doing the fat injections.
You might also like...
Hydroquinone is a great cream for reducing melanin pigment in the skin and evening out the tone. It should have no effect on your planned fat grafting procedure. I see no reason to discontinue it for the surgery. Good luck.
Learn more: http://www.shaferplasticsurgery.com
Hydroquinone and eyelid surgery
Generally, there should be little effect of the HQ on the deeper subcutaneous tissues. However, as Dr. Rand has mentioned, the rubbing used during the application may interfere with the procedure. Therefore discontinuing the prduct for 1 week prior and 2 weeks after is a reasonable approach.
Stopping hydroquinone is surgeon dependent around fat grafting
As with all medications and surgery, I would consult that surgeon performing your fat transfer for his/her recommendations. As Dr. Rand points out, hydroquinone is a topical agent and should not interfere with fat grafting surgery. I would also recommend stopping for about a week to two weeks after surgery only because massage to the transplanted area can decrease the take rate of the fat.
Skin care after fat grafting
Fat transfer to add facial volume and reduce hollowness is a great option for cosmetic patients.
One must follow the plastic surgeon's pre and post procedure guidelines to help promote the best results with fat grafting. Usually, skin care products should be discontinued one day prior and avoided immediately following fat injections. Skin care products, such as hydroquinone, generally may be resumed after one week following the fat transfer procedure.
Speak with your fat transfer surgeon to determine the care instructions for your procedure. Best of luck.
Learn more: http://www.potomacplasticsurgery.com
These answers are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute or initiate a patient/doctor relationship.


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- Last Update: 17/09/2010
- Introducing the "Red Bull X2010 Prototype" Project with Red Bull Racing
- Gran Turismo®5
Sony Computer Entertainment today announced a unique partnership between Gran Turismo® and Red Bull Racing to create a virtual car which will push the boundaries of motorsports. The Gran Turismo development team at Polyphony Digital posed the simple question, "If you built the fastest racing car on land, one that throws aside all rules and regulations, what would that car look like, how would it perform and how would it feel to drive?" With the assistance of Red Bull Racing's technology, Polyphony Digital were able to produce the answer in the form of the "Red Bull X2010 Prototype" which will be playable in Gran Turismo 5.
Red Bull's aerodynamics expert, Adrian Newey, performed the role of technical advisor on the Red Bull X2010 Prototype project. Newey is renowned in the motorsports world for designing championship winning cars. Throughout the Red Bull X2010 design process by Polyphony, Newey contributed his vast experience, as well as a pure, child-like technical curiosity. As a result, the completed Red Bull X2010 Prototype became an extreme car, having a unique form and mechanism unlike any other racing car in history.
Performing the shakedown test and settings for this Gran Turismo 5 car was the world famous driver Sebastian Vettel. On his first virtual lap, Vettel achieved an unbelievable time on the Suzuka circuit, beating the course record by over 20 seconds.
Comment from Kazunori Yamauchi, President of Polyphony Digital Inc.
Every race in the world today conforms to some sort of regulations, and every racing car is built to fit within those various regulations. However the X2010 is something new, created from a "what-if" dream we have long held at Polyphony. We want to inspire racing fans and the industry alike by exploring the realm of possibilities for the future of motorsports.
Earn your chance to drive the Red Bull X2010 Prototype when Gran Turismo 5 goes on sale in November 2010.
Comment from Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer of Red Bull Racing added
We all have a dream about pushing the boundaries, where the performance of the car and the experience of the driver take precedence over the rules. Only with the technology of PlayStation®3 and the virtual environment of Gran Turismo 5 could that dream become a reality that millions can explore. This is the inspiration that brought the Red Bull team and Polyphony together. And as a result the Red Bull X2010 Prototype is dynamite to drive.


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zone running
What Is: Split Zone
Hello, this series is a work-in-progress glossary of football concepts we tend to talk about in these pages. Previously:
Offensive concepts: RPOs, high-low, snag, covered/ineligible receivers, Duo, zone vs gap blocking, zone stretch, reach block, kickout block, wham block, Y banana play, TRAIN
Defensive concepts: Contain & lane integrity, force player, hybrid space player, no YOU'RE a 3-4!, scrape exchange, Tampa 2, Saban-style pattern-matching, match quarters, Dantonio's quarters, Don Brown's 4-DL packages and 3-DL packages, Bear
Special Teams: Spread punt vs NFL-style
We've been using this offseason to learn about some of the tools in Harbaugh's inside running game toolbox, and have so far neglected one of my favorites: Split Zone. This play today is a mainstay of Rich Rod's offense and its derivatives, since the blocking is almost exactly the same as a base inside zone read right up until the guy who thought he was forming up to play an option gets blindsided by a large, laterally moving TE.
But it originated in under center two-back offenses, and remains an important curveball for I-form teams like Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan State. If you're going to be running inside zone, like, at all, and you're not in a 4- or 5-wide formation all the time, you probably run this play and variations on it at least 3 or 4 times a game.
Let's draw it up.
ignore McDoooooom—he's just there to get the fans yelling "McDooooooom" and distract from what's really going on
No, that line from the "T" to the "M" isn't Hurst blocking Devin Bush—it means the guard and center will combo the the DT and the middle linebacker. This is true for most zone plays so I might just start drawing things up this way from now on.
This particular example from the Spring Game had some motioning and a fake jet, and the defense threw a few curveballs at it that the blocking handled as they were supposed to. We're going to ignore those for now then come back and discuss them later when we've established the basics of what's going on here.
How it works
Split zone is a riff on inside zone but flips the attack order: rather than reading outside-inside-backside like on most zone plays, Split Zone wants to hit that north-south cutback lane first, only going to frontside gaps when that's not available. They do this by flipping the backside blocking tree, so that all of the usual gaps defenders think they're going to be defending are not really the gaps they're defending. That leaves an unblocked backside defender who gets whacked by a catchy-blocky fellow coming from the other side of the backfield.
Its strength is that at first blush it's inside zone, which threatens a bunch of gaps to the strongside, with a backside cutback. But split zone is attacking the backside first, leaving the frontside gaps as a Plan B.
looks like inside zone
The key difference occurs with the backside blocking. Rather than kicking out the EMLOS (end man on the line of scrimmage), the backside OT will ignore the edge and check the gap inside of him, moving downfield if nobody shows. The backside guard and center are still going to combo the nose tackle, but they're trying to get around the opposite side, so a nose tackle who tries to get to the frontside of the center is just putting himself in the wrong hole.
Now for the kicker. Remember how we left that EMLOS on the backside unblocked, right where the play design is going? Don't worry we've got a plan for him: a fullback or tight end should be coming across the formation, then using that latitudinal head of steam to bang open the hole (the orange block in the above gif).
If the offense is lucky, the defensive end, upon realizing that the tackle inside him isn't trying to kick, will think he's getting optioned and form up outside to force a tough read while the middle linebacker fears play-action and stays back to read the backfield action.
[Hit THE JUMP for what happens when they don't get lucky]
Neck Sharpies: Not Getting Even
This would not go over well.
After the injury to Ryan Glasgow Michigan has struggled to stop zone running. Indiana and Penn State tore the defense to shreds on stretch or outside zone, until Penn State decided the thing that got them two huge gains in three attempts wasn't worth using again (please keep James Franklin forever kthx). I drew that up last week and found Michigan was still trying to defend runs by shooting the DL upfield and dominating one-on-one matchups up front, as opposed to soundly preventing guards from releasing onto the linebackers.
With Urban Meyer, one of a few true masters of modern running attacks, doing the planning for the Game, we knew Michigan's defensive coaches would have to pull something out of our butts to stop it. Here's what we found in our butts:
Michigan broke out a 3-3-5 defense with an "even" front. Offensive coaches have different names for fronts but the basics are:
- Under: NT on the center, shaded to strong. DT on a guard. (aka Weak, 50)
- Over: NT on the center, shaded to weak. DT on a guard. (aka Strong)
- Even: DL are lined up over guards, none over the center. (aka Split)
- Okie: Center is covered, guards are not. (aka 30)
- Bear: Center and guards all covered. (aka 46, Eagle, Double Eagle)
These can be split into "Odd" (under/over) and "Even" (Even, Okie, Bear). It is usual for just about any defense to come out in multiple fronts over the course of a game, though Bear and Okie are more rare than the other three.
Anyway that's what that means. By putting guys over the guards it makes it tougher for them to release to the next level. Michigan State used to love their even fronts back when Bullough was their best run defender, and that tells you something about the design of this defense. Tweaking your defense is about making life hard on your better players so things are easier for the rest of your players. "Even" makes life hard on the MLB, since that center is getting a free release unto him.
There's nothing 100% unsound about this defense. Depending on the offense's play, one LB is likely to get a center on him but the other is often a free hitter. If your LB eating the block is good at beating those consistently, or your free hitter is a ninja who sniffs out the play and attacks ferociously, or your unblocked guy is coached to play aggressively against an option you can defeat a basic run play regularly.
[After the JUMP, we totally can't]
Hokepoints PSA: Always MIKE Before You Hike
Tom always MIKEs before he hikes.
We here at MGoheadquarters recently received some disturbing news about today's youth:
Devin Gardner on SiriusXM: "Before coach Nuss got here, I never had to identify a MIKE ... now I know where pressure's coming from."
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) August 20, 2014
Kids these days are running around playing three or four years of Division I FBS major conference Block-M-Michigan football without ever identifying the MIKE. !. This sudden revelation has caused widespread histeria. Al Borges has been fired 180 times in the last several hours, and right now Dave Brandon and key personnel are closed off with Rich Rodriguez, deciding whether he needs to get a superfluous extra axe as well. This is calamitous. Catastrophic. Grievous. Pernicious. Regrettable. And avoidable.
What in the name of Double-Pointing Brady Hoke are you people talking about?
MIKE (v.): The act of identifying the middle defender inside the box on the 2nd level for purposes of establishing protection assignments.
It's basically calling out the defense's alignment, using a very simple mechanism: declare one linebacker—the one in the middle of the defense—to be a fifth guy that the five linemen are responsible for blocking.
|Chad always MIKEs before he hikes.
This is often, but by no means always, the middle linebacker, which many defenses call a "Mike," which is where the term comes from. This is important: the [guy playing the defensive position called] Mike doesn't get to be all-time MIKE. In fact the very reason we MIKE is because Mike the Mike might not be the MIKE, and not knowing this might get your quarterback very badded.
Why is MIKEing important to my children?
Because if the MIKE blitzes there's no way for outside protection to pick him up, so the offensive line has to assign everybody's blocking with that guy accounted for somehow. Defenses LOOOOOOOOVE to screw with this because that's how you get unblocked blitzers, and unblocked blitzers right through the heart of the OL are the best!
When the defense screws with you, you don't have time to point at everybody and say "you block him; you block him." So ONE guy calls out the MIKE and everyone else in the blocking scheme already knows what that means. Usually they call out what sounds like a playcall—it's just a blocking call. "Tango!" "Lightning!" "Red!" "Green!" "Taupe Carpet!"*
|Brian always MIKEs before he hikes. [James Squire|Getty]
Like in running, pass pro can be man or zone (slide protection). Man makes sure every defender who could be blitzing has a guy assigned to block him (or as is often the case, a man who checks one guy then looks to another). In zone they're blocking gaps: A gap, B gap, C gap, etc. Whatever protection scheme, they have to "declare the MIKE." What they do from there depends on the scheme.
* My dad used colors/nonsense words for playcalls: Blue Jumbo, Yellow Turbo, Purple Eskimo etc. Since he didn't like to use the same "play" twice he got pretty deep into the crayola box before parents' complaints in re: his Lombardi cigar ended his coaching career.
[After the jump, Y U NO MIKE, DG?, and you learn to MIKE]
Hokepoints Reps Zone Stretch
This is a companion piece to last week's refresher on inside zone, Michigan's new base play. Outside Zone, also known as the Zone Stretch, is one of two very common complementary plays to IZ, because the technique for the offense isn't very different, but the way the defense has to defend it is (the other complementary play is Power-O, Michigan's extremely nominal base play the last few years).
OZ Resources: Smart Football, Roll Bama Roll, FishDuck (Oregon), BTSC (Steelers) Mile High Report (Denver Broncos), how to Mike.
Outside Zone Defined
The difference, as made obvious by the name, is the point of attack. Inside Zone blocks "downhill"; the running back aims for the first line defender past the center, and picks a lane to either side of the guards. In Outside Zone the back is running to a point outside the five linemen. Some coaches say run to the back of your tight end, others say run to the end man on the line of scrimmage (EMLOS); it comes to the same thing.
Here's Alex Gibbs (from the Elway-era Broncos), via Smart Football:
This is another "base" play. If the defense plays sound against it, the success of the play comes down to execution and talent. As with IZ, if the defense gets too aggressive the reaction to that is built into the play.
This isn't a play that attacks multiple sides; it threatens outside and can come back inside if the defense overreacts to that. Since we're coming into this from a fan perspective I won't get into the footwork you can't see, but you'll recognize Outside Zone immediately because the linemen start out by moving sideways.
As you can see, reps, reps, and more reps turn this into a possibly devastating play. The more you run it, the better the team will react to various things defenders do. In the video above Gibbs talks about the guards "making the read for him [the RB]". The big breaks from OZ come when a guard or center sees a defender reacting too aggressively, let that guy run himself out of the play, and then destroy a back-filling defender.
Recognize Alignment
Like inside zone, the offensive linemen have to read the defensive front to decide before the play begins who they're blocking. The "covered" rules still apply: if someone's lined up over you, you're covered; if not you're uncovered:
The general rule of coveredness still applies: if there's a guy lined up over you, you have to block him. But the whole idea of a zone stretch is it slides the line, so if you're uncovered that means you have to reach the next defender to the playside of you, and if you're covered you're looking to 1) get playside of that dude and 2) combo block him with your uncovered buddy, and 3) release and get downfield.
Combo Blocks
Combo blocking is one of the things that takes lots and lots of reps. The essential blocking rule is don't let anybody cross your visor, and block the guy in your zone. Outside Zone's strength against a base defense is it creates double-teams at the point of attack
How It's Defended
Outside Zone pairs well with Inside Zone because a defense used to IZ can get caught inside, but that should be rare with a well-coached defense because the play is quite obvious from the first step by the offensive linemen, and from what's going on in the backfield (the RB isn't coming downhill). As soon as the defense realizes this they have to get on their horses and prevent the offensive linemen from flanking them, but because of the threat of the cutback, the defense also has to maintain gap responsibility.
There's gonna be a huge temptation for the EMLOS, with the play headed right for him, to square up and end the play right there, but the most important thing (unless they've given him extraordinary safety help) for him is to keep the play inside. The offense knows this, and a good tight end who can get that EMLOS skating wide can create a big hole to run through; a bad tight end will let the EMLOS get leverage and hold him inside, squeezing the hole shut.
Keys to Success
Every little thing the offense does has a potential to make or break this play. The faster the RB makes his cut and accelerates through the decided hole, the bigger this can break.
A fleet-footed, quick-thinking, tough sumbitch of an interior lineman can really make this go. David Molk could consistently get playside of a guy lined up shaded strong on him, and could react so well to defenders that he'd often make the RB's job easy, abandoning a defender running himself out of the play to catch a chasing linebacker and create a gaping hole.
Outside Zone is where a great running back can really shine and a just-a-guy can make the play barely more than a side show. Mike Hart, with his great vision for a developing hole, his super-quick and decisive cut, his great acceleration, and his tiny stature in comparison to the mountain of flesh in front of him, was an awesome Outside Zone running back; if only he had stayed healthy the one year he got to run it consistently.
[One sample play and more coming, after the jump]
Upon Further Review: Bama Offense vs Oklahoma, a Hokepoints
Years ago, Brian posted a UFR of a West Virginia game in order to provide his readers with a feel for how the Rodriguez spread offense worked. Nussmeier's offense at Alabama isn't so different from Michigan's under Borges in 2013, and indications are he plans to be a little more dynamic than he was under Saban. But I wanted to get a feel for the subtle differences, for the kinds of plays he ran with the kind of talent Michigan has been recruiting. And I've been meaning to actually try my had at UFR-ing because I know a guy who learned an awful lot about football that way. So I put Nussmeier's last game under further review, in hopes of maybe separating what's Nuss from what was just the Tide.
I went with this year's Sugar Bowl since they faced a defense whose talent level was relatively close to their own. Unfortunately Oklahoma's 30-front defense is closer to Michigan's than any M opponents save Notre Dame, and things you do with a fake plastic tree at quarterback are not the same you do with Devin Gardner, Most Alive Man on the Planet. I've since been downloading some games from his time at Washington and might do one of those next week if this attempt doesn't put me off forever.
Meta note: UFR is really Brian's thing. I am an interloper here.
FORMATION NOTES: Nothing very fancy. Not a lot of fullbacks; when they went to a Pistol H-back formation usually it was just a U-back they motioned into that spot. They do have a hybrid Shotgun-Pistol formation that's Pistol (QB is 5 yards behind L.O.S.) with the RB offset like in the gun. This isn't uncommon:
Oklahoma spent a lot of time in the 3-3-5 nickel above that was sometimes more like a 4-2-4-1, by which I mean the Quick (Deathbacker, stand-up WDE, Thing-Roh-Was-And-Shouldn't-Have-Been) came up to the line, and they nearly always kept one safety deep. When Bama subbed in an extra TE they went to a 3-4 with a safety playing the backside OLB; I called this "3-3-5 Eagle."
…and later started cheating this (not like how Bama does) like hell to the field:
Later on they did this then audibled out of it, moving Striker to the other side of the line; Bama hit them with a 43-yard run down the middle.
Oklahoma also used lots of Okie and things like Okie, which led to this:
From top to bottom on the line of scrimmage that is a WDE/OLB rusher type, a 3-tech, the MLB, a 5-tech, and the box (not Spur) safety, and two more safeties in the LB area. I asked for help and decided to call it 3-3-5 Dime to differentiate it from the nickel look; usually the MLB backed off into coverage anyway.
[after the jump]
Dear Diary is in the Zone
So we've got ourselves a new offensive coordinator. I guess there's no use hiding that I'm on the more ambivalent end of the spectrum of Michigan fans, but I'm a spread zealot, and I admit another gorram transition is just too painful a prospect right this moment. At the very least it was the kind of PR coup that resets the countdown clock on Hoke's tenure. These days you only get to play the "it was my offensive coordinator's fault" card once per Rose Bowl trip, but this was the right time to do so. I'm probably just a cynic who's been sold a bill of Mariucci over Mornhinwheg to believe in any apparent upgrade. Let's see if the readers can convince me otherwise.
Eye of the TIger tried. He found some quotes by an ex-Bama player on how Inside Zone is repped to insanity, which can be taken as evidence of philosophical thinking, or taken as the zone version of Hoke's "Power" philosophy which admittedly never materialized under Borges anyway.
|The thing about Barrett Jones is you don't have to make tough decisions about what your OL can and can't do.
Tiger pointed out that Alabama's riches in offensive lineman size allowed them to depart from the typical suite of complementary plays and players that limits you to. It's supposed to be this:
Inside Zone has another advantage--flexibility:
The majority of the time in a zone blocking scheme the tailback will follow the design of the play, but occasionally the tailback will perform a cutback and change direction during the run. A cutback is when the tailback changes direction and runs away from where the linebackers are flowing (the tailback can only do this once and must not hesitate). This cutback made by the tailback is what makes zone blocking so dangerous because of how easily a cutback can lead to a big play. The cutback exaggerates the advantages of the zone-blocking scheme.
Watch this video highlighting Texas' use of Inside Zone to see this point illustrated nicely, not only for cutbacks, but for alternate read options.
Major advantages: You can run an offense with less experienced OL and opens up a bigger growth curve for RBs, who become more effective the more comfortable they get at reading the holes and cutback lanes.
Major disadvantage: It's way harder to run play-action from a zone running look. Reason is nothing gets defenders thinking run like a good running MANBALL (or inverted veer) team pulling a guard. Second reason is the small, cut-rate scatbacks that zone lets you get away with don't typically make very good pass blockers. I probably don't have to tell this to 2013 Michigan fans.
At Alabama they overcame the disadvantage by having massive/quick OL who are naturally difficult obstacles to a pass rusher, and with 5-star running backs who can cut, block, slam, juke, and jet, all for three easy payments of $3,995.95, plus shipping and handler's fee (order now and we'll throw in a free safety). At Michigan, well, actually, we've got just those kinds of guys on campus now. Maybe?
Also there's this:
@michiganinsider I think people don't realize how handcuff Nuss was at Bama, he called the plays, but Nick was in control, handcuffs are off
— Theus DeShon Sears (@Theist313) January 10, 2014
And here I am a quarter way through UFRing an Alabama game. Anyone got Washington tapes?
P.S. I purposely stayed vague on the Song of Ice and Fire references; you're not off the hook from a season recap.
Etc. A CoFoPoff refresher, Hockey poll update (Michigan is 8th), more on Mary Sue Coleman's heir (I vote Ken Whisenhunt for all openings).
[After the jump: the board goes Borges for Nuss]


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CNC Machine Noise Cures
After backlash, the second biggest source of frustration seems to be noise problems on home brew CNC systems. Noise can manifest itself in a variety of ways including uncommanded movements, servo encoder problems, and limit switches tripping unexpectedly. There are many noise sources, but motors and VFD's appear to be the worst. Any source of electrical sparks or arcing is going to make noise. In fact, the first radio transmissions were nothing more than great big sparks!
Noise suppression is often a matter of surrounding the noise producers and/or the noise victims with a grounded metal shield. With enough foil and grounding, you can shield anything from noise:
With enough foil and grounding, you can shield anything from noise!
Fortunately, there are easier ways, so put away your aluminum foil and read on. Below is a laundry list of tips I've come across that you can consider and try if you think you're having a noise problem.
Important Preventative Tips
These are the things you should always do as you're building the system to avoid having to deal with noise later on. They're either mandatory or so cheap and easy you may as well do them anyway.
Use an Opto-Isolated Breakout Board
Your CNC electronics and your PC are each a source of noise as well as being vulnerable to noise from the other. Putting each into its own grounded chassis will help keep them isolated and the opto-isolators help keep them isolated.
Use Shielded or Twisted Pair Cables
Shielded cabling for the stepper/servo motor wiring, encoder wiring, and limit switch wiring is ideal for noise resistance.
I bought a 500' spool of 6 conductor shield 22 AWG cable from Action Electronics (No longer in business, unfortunately). For connectors, I'm using some microphone connectors, also from Action Electronics:
6 conductors and a foil shield: this is the right cable for my step motors!
For others who may read this, you want to use shielded cables or noise will make your system unreliable. FWIW, when I first got my limited switches going, I did not ground the cable shields to the CNC cabinet. As a result, I had a bogus limit fire about every 2 to 3 minutes. Grounding the shields made that go away completely. If you didn't think you had noise in your system, maybe it was because you didn't have a way to check?
Other thoughts:
- You can use CAT-5 cable for encoders or limit switches, just be sure you use the twisted pair feature and pair each signal with it's ground to provide noise immunity. Apparently this idea has been blessed by none other than Mariss F., Mr Gecko, himself.
- DIN cables such as are used as MIDI patch cables in the music business and older keyboard cables (before the PS/2 and USB styles) in the PC business are another possibility. Even Radio Shack carries some DIN cable componentry. DIN for MIDI applications have 5 conductors plus a ground/shield and are supposed to be rated to 2 amps @ 100V. What's nice is you can get premade DIN cables in a variety of colors and lengths. If they'll serve the power needs of your system, they could be quite convenient. Mini-DIN is the PS/2 keyboard connector, and is also shielded. It might be useful for limits and encoders. Cables are available already made up. Note that Homann sells a mini-DIN breakout board that would make it easy to connect to your mini-DIN cables with point to point wiring.
MIDI DIN patch cable...
- Cinch connectors are another common type of connector used for motors. They will carry a bit more current than DINs or microphone connectors.
Cinch connectors...
Higher Voltage Control Signals Have Better Noise Immunity
3-5V DC is pretty marginal from a noise immunity standpoint. If you can run 12V or more to your limit switches you will find it is much less susceptible to noise. Unfortunately, this may be difficult to change as your breakout board will likely have made the voltage decision for you. My GRex uses 12V.
Sometimes you can use a Zener diode to run a higher voltage and convert it back to 5V for your breakout board. Run a 24V circuit and have the switch ground that. Then use a resistor in series something like 1K to the digital input, with a 5V1 zener diode across the input and ground. (Bar of diode to input). The Zener diode will clamp the digital voltage at 5volts.
There are also opto-isolators that allow differential voltages so you could have +5V to your breakout (actually may as well go to the parallel if you are using an opto-isolator--don't need 2 of them!) and 24V to your switch circuits.
Higher Current Helps Too!
If you can not up the voltage try putting some 100 ohm pull up resistors to +5 on the switch, this will give you 50 milliamps of current through the switch and may help increase reliability. This is .250 watts so get ½ watt resistors or they will get warm.
Wire Home and Limit Circuits Normally Closed
Noise spikes are usually positive, so a normally open circuit can see a noise spike as circuit closure. Wire the circuits normally closed and they're less susceptible. Most of the time normally closed is a good idea from a reliability standpoint too as any damage to the circuit usually opens it and trips the circuit.
Keep "Noisy" Wires Aways from "Quiet" Wires
For example, don't run the limit wiring in the same conduit as the cable from VFD to motor! When noisy wires must be near quiet wires, try to cross them at right angles rather than running them parallel. Parallel wires are good at passing noise to each other.
Separate Chassis for PC, Driver Electronics, and VFD
Put each of these components into its own chassis (don't just stick your VFD in a box next to a bare PC motherboard, next to a bare breakout board, next to bare servo drives), and then run a common ground to each chassis.
VFD Noise
If you were asked to produce a noise generator in order to sabotage a CNC or other sensitive electronic system, you couldn't ask for a more efficient one than a VFD!
A grounded flexible metal conduit is very desirable with the VFD connection to the motor. T&B SuperFlex also has a small copper wire wound with the metallic sheath for ground continuity. Use of twisted conductors inside the flex conduit will also help reduce the noise emissions from the VFD.
Keep the wiring length from VFD to motor as short as possible. Long lines can radiate more noise.
VFD manufacturers like Hitachi sell special filters called EMI, RFI, or EMC filters that cut out noise. They're installed on the AC mains side of the VFD. They also sell line reactors that go on the line between the VFD and the motor. A line reactor reduces noise by cutting out harmonics, and it will also increase the performance of the system since power is being lost through the harmonics. Outfits like AutomationDirect sell them, but they aren't cheap so I wouldn't necessarily add one unless you were running out of noise reduction steps to try.
Avoid Ground Loops
If you're familiar with ground loops and their impact on stereos and hi-fi equipment, you know they are a source of noise. Ground loops occur when all grounds are not quite a the same zero potential. The best way to avoid them is to use a common ground for all equipment. The exception to this rule is when using a plasma cutter you will want to keep the grounds for the plasma cutter separate from the rest of the equipment all the way back to the mains box if possible.
Diagnosis and Even More Noise Tips
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Monday, February 24, 2014 - 3:00am
In today's Academic Minute, the University of Connecticut's Nicholas Leadbeater starts a three-day examination of the chemistry of the hit television show "Breaking Bad." Today, he discusses why Walter White's product is so unique. Leadbeater is an associate professor of organic and inorganic chemistry at UConn. Find out more about him here. A transcript of this podcast can be found here.
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Woman arrested for burglary of Greenwood home
A Greenwood woman is facing burglary charges for breaking into a home over the weekend.
Police responded to the reported burglary on Tulip Lane Sunday morning. A homeowner told police someone entered his home by removing a screen from a basement window.
The man noticed a pair of his daughter's shoes were missing, but a pair of wet, grassy sneakers were left in their place. He also said his computer had been moved from the living room to the garage and a bike had been moved from the garage to the dining room.
An SUV in the man's garage had been rummaged through, but nothing appeared stolen, though the man's car and house keys were gone. A BMX-style bicycle was also taken from the home.
The homeowner also told police his wallet had been stolen, but a woman returned it before he called police to report the burglary.
A short time later, medics called police to Southland Community Church, where a woman wasn't injured, but seemed confused. The woman, identified as Alice Anne Stier, 27, was wearing shoes matching the description of the ones stolen and had a bicycle matching that which was stolen from the Tulip Lane home.
Stier is being held on a felony charge of burglary.


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Back to school season is here and with that comes shopping for back to school outfits, school supplies and gear and new school shoes. Having high quality shoes for your children is essential as they support children's feet plus if your children have PE daily like ours, they need a good shoe that offers traction. Although, high quality shoes usually cost more, they will last longer, make your child's feet happy and provide exceptional comfort. Umi Children's Shoes are a brand I recommend to everyone I know and for many reasons. Umi knows how to make a quality children's shoe, as they hand craft each shoe to provide the best quality, comfort and style. We have reviewed (and bought) many shoe styles from Umi and each shoe has lasted. Now, with back to school shopping season arriving, you'll want to take a look at their back to school fall styles that include adorable boots, stylish moccasins, Mary Jane styles and much more.
I had Zoe have a look at their styles and she immediately chose an ankle boot style. The Ravern boot in black multi is a chic ankle boot without shoe strings making them an easy choice for younger girls yet still a fantastic option for our big girls. The butterfly appliqué makes this boot fashionable as do the silver studs embellishments. There is an adjustable Velcro strap with silver detail and one for looks. The back pull straps are enhanced with X stitching and there is also a half flower detail near the toe of the boot. Each detail makes this a one-of-a-kind boot yet the quality is amazing. Because they are constructed from hand you can tell the detail is exceptional from the fine even stitching to the leather uppers to the high quality thick sole with grips. Even though a boot, the non-skid surface will allow your child to wear them out to play even in the gym without worry of slipping. The ankle has enough support to support the heel and they look fashionable with any outfit; jeans, skirt, leggings. Zoe has worn these almost daily since arriving. She doesn't care that it is hot out; she says they are "comfy", "cute", and "her favorite shoe ever." She absolutely adores them and I agree 100% with her reasoning. Umi tests each shoe for durability and uses child-safe materials including non-toxic drum dyed leathers even protecting them in recycled materials.
If you haven't had a chance to purchase a baby or kids shoe from Umi yet, you really are overlooking the best shoes for children. With many styles for infants, boys and girls there is something that will appeal to anyone. They are so trendy even celebrities put their children in them. I always purchase a size up for extended wear but in my opinion they run a bit big so be sure to print out the size chart before ordering your child's shoe. Umi offers free ground shipping on all their shoes and you'll want to check out their deal of the month! Don't run from the price, they will endure the day to day life of children!
For more information on their shoes visit www.umishoes.com
Disclosure:Umi sent a pair of shoes for review purposes, however all opinions 100% my own


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Beyoncé continues to dazzle with her maternity styles!
The pop star, who is pregnant with twins, posted on Instagram Saturday night new photos of her showcasing her baby bump in an off-the-shoulder, cleavage-baring, skintight indigo gown by Nicole Miller.
Some of the pictures were presented in a slideshow set to the The Isley Brothers' 1972 song "Pop That Thang." Jay-Z also makes an appearance alongside Beyoncé in one black and white image, while their 5-year-old daughter Blue Ivy hugs her mom in another photo.
The singer paired the look with purple and blue jeweled earrings, giant sapphire and diamond ring, a dainty sapphire necklace and black and gold, jeweled wedge heels.
Beyoncé announced her pregnancy on Instagram on Feb. 1, posting a photo from a maternity photo shoot, which shows her kneeling in lingerie amid a flower display. Other pics from the session, including nude images of her, were released the next day. She had since shared new maternity photos a few times.
A source told E! News last month that although Beyoncé is having a "harder time this pregnancy with keeping up her energy," she "loves being pregnant."
"She splurges when she wants to and hasn't taken her weight gain as a negative thing," the source said. "She is a confident women in her skin whatever size she is [and] embraces it."


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Youku Q1 Losses Surge 233%
Youku Inc (NYSE: YOKU), China's largest online video hosting site, posted $42.9 million in revenues and $24.8 million in net losses for Q1 2012. Revenue was up 111% from the same period a year ago, but net losses worsened much more, dropping 233%, after operating expenses skyrocketed 140% year on year to ¥144 million. Youku said its planned merger with Tudou Holdings Ltd (Nasdaq: TUDO), China's second largest video site, would save $50 million in operating costs 12 to 18 months after the new entity is formed.
China Telecom Said to Be Testing Cloud Computing Services
China Telecom Corp (NYSE: CHA, HKG: 0728) has founded its cloud computing division and is testing related services for commercial purposes, a person familiar with the matter said. China Telecom boasts the world's largest landline network and CDMA network, which were serving 170 million and 126 million users respectively as of the end of last year.
eLong Q1 Net Profit Rises 58%
eLong Inc (Nasdaq: LONG), a leading Chinese online travel service provider, posted $24.3 million in revenues and $1.9 million in net profits for Q1 2012, up 23% and 58.3% respectively from the same period a year ago. eLong's network covered 28,000 hotels as of the end of March, up 46% from a year earlier.
Dangdang Plunges into Loss in Q1
E Commerce China Dangdang Inc (NYSE: DANG), a Chinese online B2C retailer, posted $172.1 million in revenues and $15.8 million in net losses for Q1 2012. Revenue was up 58%, and the losses were compared to a $3.1 million net profit during the same period a year ago. Increased spending, which was equivalent to 90% of revenue, and compliance spending pushed Dangdang into negative territory.
BYD, Daimler to Launch Denza in China in 2013
BYD Co (SHE: 002594, HKG: 1211), the Chinese electric car and battery maker backed by Warren Buffett, and Daimler AG, said the Denza, a luxury electric car they specifically developed for China, will hit the market in 2013, and that they are confident the model would snare market share from BMW, Audi or Mercedes-Benz. The car comes with a tablet similar to the iPad. The Chinese government plans to sell a total of half a million electric vehicles by 2015.
Tencent Plans Restructuring
Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG: 0700), one of China's largest internet firms, said it will reorganize its businesses into six divisions, with focuses on social networking, online gaming and mobile internet services. Tencent is the operator of QQ, China's most used instant messaging tool, as well as a range of online games. Its net earnings were up 2.8% year on year to ¥2.95 billion in Q1 2012.
PICC Eyes Shanghai, HK Listing
PICC, a leading Chinese insurer, is choosing underwriters for its planned dual listing in Shanghai and Hong Kong, chairman Wu Yan said, without revealing a timetable. PICC Property & Casualty Co (HKG: 2328) is a listed unit of PICC, and may face delisting if PICC starts to float as a whole. PICC's net profit exceeded ¥10 billion in 2011, in which ¥8.5 billion came from PICC Property & Casualty Co.
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Block ciphers are more popular than stream ciphers, with several either in active use or recent enough to require supporting for legacy interoperability. I'll talk about the RC2 and DES algorithms today and cover the newer AES algorithm tomorrow.
DES was a widely-used and analyzed cipher algorithm developed for use by the US government. DES is a 64-bit block cipher with a 64-bit key. However, 8 bits of the key are parity bits that are discarded by the algorithm so the effective key strength is 56 bits. DES works by expanding the contents of an input block by duplicating some of the bits, mixing the expanded input block with key bits derived from the encryption key, applying a non-linear transformation to the mixed bits, and finally permuting the output bits of the transformation. This process is called a round and the overall algorithm uses 16 rounds on each block.
Although there's no trivial way of breaking DES, the small key space means that brute forcing a message doesn't require that much computer power. A variant called triple-DES consists of the same algorithm applied with three different keys in succession. Due to some cryptoanalytic properties, triple-DES only doubles the number of effective key strength bits to 112. However, this is still a considerable leap over normal DES. All variants of DES are now deprecated in favor of using AES.
RC2 is another algorithm by Ron Rivest (there's an entire product line of these things) that intends to be very similar in application to DES. RC2 also is a 64-bit block cipher but has a variable key size of up to 128 bits. The variable key size allowed RC2 to be used in a degraded mode that met the US encryption restrictions at the time. RC2 is faster than triple-DES and includes a key salt to prevent precomputing large tables of encryption keys. RC2 has a similar round system to DES but uses two different types of rounds called mix and mash. The details of these rounds were published as RFC 2268. Both RC2 and RC4 were secret algorithms until their source code was anonymously leaked in the mid-1990s.
Next time: Advanced Encryption Standard


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Artist description:
LOOK AT IT IN FULL SIZE PLEASE :>!!! This was a drawing made for an extremely nice and likable person. Hope you like it Kiara. PS: The bg sucks due to my lazyness. No reference used.
Java Draw Created Aug 06, 2010 460 x 640px Unless noted Copyright 2010 BiaChan.
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Post a comment
lovely Amazing drawing 5h
This looks so awsome! I like how you drew every thing so detailed! Your so talented... Im so jealous. 5/5 & faves
you have a b.oob fettish my friend C:
amazing draw!
you add so many little details! awesome work! shows a lot of effort 5h
wow, i can see so many beautiful details and such a cute draw, as always ur draws are so pleasant to watch 5/5
thats not a crappy bg at all >w<!! i like the details and those colorful colors =D
OMG, i love it !!!it's sooo cute !!! :3 3 X3
this is so detail and i love everything that u put in this pic. also kiara will luv this very much.5h n faves~!!XDD


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