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I started out Toronto 2012 with my first Jason Reitman screenplay read-through--his first in Toronto--Alan Ball's Oscar-winning "American Beauty." I'd missed his series of live reads at LACMA, from "The Breakfast Club" to "The Apartment." Reitman lines up the talent, without any rehearsal or direction (although they can prep their multiple roles from the text). Sitting in a line with the actors onstage, Reitman reads the script descriptions as the actors take off, falter at first, then hit a groove.
Bryan Cranston ("Argo") was hilarious in the Kevin Spacey role as the put-upon Dad who gets liberated, smoking pot acquired from his younger next door neighbor ("Girls" star Adam Driver in the Wes Bentley part), who is interested in his daughter ("Perks of Being a Wallflower" star Mae Whitman). The Dad gets in shape, quits his job, talks back to his dominating wife, well-played by "Mad Men" star Christina Hendricks as a money-grubbing status-climbing adulterer who is bewildered by her husband's changes. And Sarah Gadon ("Cosmopolis") as Angela was sultry and sharp in the Mena Suvari teen temptress role.
Reitman (whose father Ivan actually has a street named after him near the TIFF Bell Lightbox) loves coming back to Toronto when he can, to the festival that launched his career with "Thank You for Smoking," followed by awards-contenders "Juno" and "Up in the Air." He's wrapped "Labor Day," starring Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet and Tobey Maguire, based on a Joyce Maynard novel.
In a way "American Beauty" was apt preparation for the festival's crowning glory, David O. Russell's ultimate audience award winner, "Silver Linings Playbook." They are in the same vein--a flinty-edged picture of who we are now, laced with dark comedy and self-recognition, with romance and hope still a possibility. That's why "American Beauty" won best picture.
While there are those who complain that there are too many choices to make at the sprawling fall festival, with countless screenings and back-to-back parties and dinners each night (Sony Pictures Classics and IMDb's were standouts), that's always been the nature of the beast. And after that over-packed first weekend, crammed with acquisition hopefuls and press junkets, the festival settles into a pleasant rhythm.
The business of the fest provides a picture of where we are now:
Clearly the Weinsteins have regained their moxie: not only did "Silver Linings" score with audiences and critics alike, but Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" was the talk of the fest; Dustin Hoffman's opera flick "Quartet," with "Downton Abbey" and "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" star Maggie Smith on hand, wowed Oscar-watchers. And Cannes entry "The Sapphires" and fest closer "Song for Marion" played well to Toronto film fans.
Sony opened up the festival with "Looper," which was an unexpected choice for TIFF of a violent sci-fi thriller. But the entertaining film starred a winning trio: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. The fest's gamble paid off.
Sony Pictures Classics came into the fest with nine movies and is continuing to pursue other buys. Cannes award-winner "Amour" solidified its place in the Oscar derby; Israeli "The Gatekeepers" will be one to watch in the doc race; Jacques Audiard's "Rust & Bone" is not the French Oscar entry but Marion Cotillard could still make her mark in the Best Actress race; Susanne Bier's "Love is All You Need" played well in Toronto and is vying to be the Danish Oscar pick with Magnolia's "A Royal Affair," starring Mads Mikkelsen, who has heat from winning Best Actor at Cannes for Magnolia's "The Hunt" (2013).
Warner Bros. made a big splash with Ben Affleck's likely Oscar contender "Argo" and Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski siblings' "Cloud Atlas," a glorious weaving of six tales starring top actors (Hanks, Berry, Grant, Sarandon, Weaving, Broadbent) in multiple roles that divided festivalgoers and media. I can't wait to see both again.
The Scandinavians continue to turn out top-notch commercial movies; they are doing something right, as Norway's Oscar choice, "Kon Tiki," also played well, along with Danish Somali pirate thriller "A Hijacking."
Lionsgate launched Martin McDonagh's Midnight Madness title "Seven Psychopaths" to roars of laughter and should have a hit with the movie, which was stolen by Sam Rockwell; Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions' terrifying reality-based horror flick from Barry Levinson, "The Bay," could also scare up some business. And Lionsgate/Summit launched J.A. Bayona's intense survival thriller "The Impossible," starring Oscar-worthy Naomi Watts with support from Ewan McGregor, to solid results. This well-made movie could either be a commercial winner with awards potential or a tweener that fails to lure audiences to theaters. Marketing will be key to its success.
The Lionsgate investment in specialty distributor Roadside continues to bear fruit as new Lionsgate motion picture heads, ex-Summit chiefs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger, joined acquisitions exec Jason Constantine and Roadside co-heads Howard Cohen and Eric D'Arbeloff on the ground in Toronto, where they hustled and landed three major buys: "Imogene," starring Kristin Wiig; sex addiction comedy "Thanks for Sharing," starring Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow; and Joss Whedon's well-liked self-financed take on Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."
On its own, Roadside entered the fest with the superb Sarah Polley documentary "Stories We Tell," which had pleased the crowds in Telluride.
ASIFUR | November 1, 2012 6:03 AM
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rajni | October 26, 2012 7:10 AM
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Residential Projects in Lucknow
Property in Lucknow | October 4, 2012 6:00 AM
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daveylo | September 19, 2012 10:52 AM
I saw most of the films you listed above in Toronto. One surprise for me was the Spanish film Ghost Graduation which should play well to art house audiences. Very funny and a sweet tribute to '80s films and John Hughes movies in particular. Also striking was Dangerous Liaisons with Zhang Ziyi.
Michael | September 18, 2012 8:16 PM
Thanks, Anne. Terrific blog as always.


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LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. —
Over the years, the landscape of sports has shifted. More and more young players are devoting time to just playing one sport instead of taking part in various athletic endeavors. Whether this is good or bad is debatable.
Travel teams for almost every team sport (football being the exception) have grown over the last 10 years, especially baseball. The reason I bring this up is because I recently read an interview on cleveland.com with Dr. James Andrews, the world-renowned orthopedic surgeon that almost every professional athlete goes to when they need to be put back together. Andrews has gotten rich doing this. In 2010, Sports Illustrated named him one of the top 40 most powerful people in the NFL. He specializes in knees, elbows and shoulders. He was the one who operated on the right knee of Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. So he knows a thing or two about sports injuries.
Andrews said he started seeing a sharp increase in youth sports injuries, particularly baseball, starting around 2000. He feels like there are two main reasons why this is happening: Specialization and professionalism.
Specialization is playing one sport year-round. Professionalism is working children at a young age like they are pro athletes in terms of training and year-round activity. In both cases, more is definitely not better. And in many of these cases, it's because parents have a dream of their child earning a college scholarship or becoming a pro athlete. What most parents don't realize is that it's a small percentage who actually attain either. As Andrews said, "the odds against it (becoming a pro) are so very, very high. Even the ones who get college scholarships comprise a much smaller percentage than parents think."
He's right.
Let's look at a local example.
Last school year (August 2012-May 2013) Laurel County had around 25 athletes signed to play various sports in college. Not bad. But consider that more than 650 athletes compete in all the high school sports the county has to offer, and the percentage of athletes signing to play in college is very minuscule.
But back to the gist of this column. Avoiding injuries in young athletes.
When asked what the best advice he would parents of a young athlete, Andrews replied: "The first thing I would tell them is, their kid needs at least two months off each year to recover from a specific sport. Preferably, three to four months." He was using youth baseball as an example here.
He added they don't need to do any kind of overhead throwing, any kind of overhead sport, and to let the body recover in order to avoid overuse situations.
So that pretty much means, if they are playing middle school or high school baseball, that would all but kill summer travel ball, if parents are really interested in keeping their child injury-free.
Andrews referred to Tommy John surgery, which is an adult operation designed for professionals. But he said in his practice now, 30 to 40 percent of the ones he's doing are on high schoolers, even down to ages 12 or 13. Imagine that. Children that young coming in with torn ligaments.
As for pitchers throwing a curveball, Andrews said his rule of thumb is, don't throw the curveball until you can shave, until your bone structure has matured and you have the neuromuscular control to be able to throw the pitch properly. And most youngsters don't throw with good mechanics. I have seen pitchers during the 11-12 year old tournament throwing curves.
Remember, this is a man who makes a living off of operating on athletes, so for him to want to see less and less injuries says something.
He has a lot of other good points in the article for young pitchers, such as don't play one sport year round, use proper mechanics and avoid the radar gun. If you play just one sport year round, you are overusing certain muscles, which can lead to injuries. Play multiple sports so all your muscles are used.
It's a really good read, and an eye-opener. If you want to read it yourself, go to http://www.cleveland.com/dman/index.ssf/2013/02/noted_surgeon_dr_james_andrews.html.
Direct Kick: Some interesting advice from Dr. James Andrews
LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. —
Over the years, the landscape of sports has shifted. More and more young players are devoting time to just playing one sport instead of taking part in various athletic endeavors. Whether this is good or bad is debatable.
- Opinion
- On The Rebound: Let Jeter get his own hits
- Direct Kick: WWE drops the ball again
- On The Rebound: Will fight bears for food
- Direct Kick: A whole lot of nothing
- On The Rebound: Cedar Creek
- Direct Kick: Goodell shows little guts in Rice situation
- On The Rebound: An almost completely true fish tale
- Direct Kick: Did Lana cross the line with her remark?
- On The Rebound: All Star Game less important than Wiffle Ball
- Direct Kick: A very eventful week in sports
- More Opinion Headlines

subset: commoncrawl


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A crop of American cockroaches brings in serious cash.
The deadline has passed for those wanting to run in this year's Toledo mayoral and at-large council elections.
Seven candidates filed petitions in hopes of becoming Toledo's next mayor. Mike Bell is running for re-election, while Anita Lopez, Mike Collins, Joe McNamara, Alan Cox, Mike Kronwinski and Opal Covey are challenging. Don Gozdowski has declared himself to be a write-in candidate.
Eighteen candidates filed for the council race: incumbents Steve Steel, Adam Martinez and Rob Ludeman, Shaun Enright, who was appointed to the seat vacated by Phil Copeland, Sandy Spang, Bill Delaney, Ron Johns, Theresa Gabriel, Ernest McCarthy, Alfonso Navarez, Sean Nestor, James Nowak, Jack Ford, Joshua Fowler, Larry Sykes, James Martin, Joseph Celusta, and Alex Rivera.
Lucas County Board of Elections staffers will now verify petition signatures to certify candidates for the September primary election.
The top 12 candidates in the council race, and the top two in the mayoral race will move on to the November election.
Mobile users, click on the "Video" button in the app to watch this story. Download our app here.
Copyright 2013 Toledo News Now. All rights reserved.
730 North Summit Street
Toledo, OH 43604
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ANDERSON — The St. Mary's-based Ballet Folklorico dance group is all about diversity.
And on Sunday, the dancers got to show off their traditional Mexican moves at one of the group's favorite venues, the Paramount Theatre in downtown Anderson as part of the theater's Festival of Trees, which continues throughout the week.
The group features Latin-style dancing and music, but director Tanya Gonzalez said that since she started the group 11 years ago at her local church, she's had the goal of helping the children from Hispanic families learn more about themselves, and the children from other families learn more about the world.
"It started off at Mass back in 2002. My sister and I put this together just as a one-time thing, but it grew as parents and people at church started wanting more and wanting it to grow. I'd say we've trained more than 100 kids over the years," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez runs the group with her sister Yaris Mujica and with the help of parent coordinator Annie Keller. The women currently teach about 30 children several different kinds of traditional Mexican dance styles, including Jalisco and Chiapa. The dancers also wear authentic garb that Gonzalez and Mujica purchase either from the Internet or have specially made by seamstresses.
The group tours around the state, but the dancers said their favorite venue is at home at the Paramount.
"It's a good opportunity to make friends and meet people we probably wouldn't have met otherwise," said 16-year-old Siouxzanna Keller. "It's something good to do after school to keep kids out of trouble."
The group boasts three different dance groups, divided into ages from 3 to 18. Once the operation started to take off, Gonzalez arranged for Folklorico to perform yearly as part of the holiday-themed Festival of Trees. She said the goal is to pass on traditions to younger generations and share Hispanic culture.


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Battery Box - Lesson Learned
Farmall Cub Forum -- Questions and answers to all of your Cub related issues.
Moderator: Team Cub
Forum rules
Notice: For sale and wanted posts are not allowed in this forum. Please use our free classifieds or one of our site sponsors for your tractor and parts needs.
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
My battery box top and front have not been on the tractor in years, but I would not even think of operating a Cub without a secured battery. Even flat, level land has an occasional large bump!
Last edited by danovercash on Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." -Epictetus
252646 & 221525. 195897 (Gone but not forgotten!)
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
Hi Rudi - the box is built well and it is original looking. I just wish it had been 14ga. like the original. It's gonna be a lot better than holding the battery there with a piece of baling twine.
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
Why not return the box to OEM and ask for a refund? Then buy an original box or the heavier gauge one. Hope you aren't losing sleep over this!
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
I'm gonna use it - not going to lose any sleep over it. The "Correct Police" will ding me on it if they mic it. It's a nice well built box. I saved $50 - next time perhaps I'll be more flush with expendable capital.
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
The OEM box material probably is within the tolerance range of 16 gauge. Yes, the originals are 14 gauge. For small shops, shears and brakes for 14 gauge represent big bucks compared to those for 16 gauge. And they do form the box bottom with a die.
I have patched holes in the original boxes with 16 gauge. Prepare the hole by trimming to sound metal, cut and form patch to fit, clamp patch in place for flush on the outside, weld with MIG from the inside first, then weld outside. Grind flush outside, grind inside just enough to prevent battery scuffing. Prime outside with sandable primer. Sand and use glazing compound if necessary to get smooth surface, prime again, sand primer and then apply finish. Paint inside as desired. The patch should be undetectable from the outside.
Luck favors those who are prepared
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
Seems to be some good stuff on patching a battery box. I will follow your lead on "cut and patch" . Where can I go if I don't have an OEM box. One tractor I will be able to patch. Another Cub has a plastic battery box, like one that folks haul batteries to their boat when going fishing. I want to replace it. Two ideas I am thinking of: 1) buy a new box, cover, gromets, and etc..... TM Cub Parts no longer sells them.... who does? 2) build a box and cover.... has anyone reverse engineered one of these little sap suckers, and if yes, would you share the specs? Does OEM mean the battery boxes can be purchased from IH?
Chet sends
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
Hi Chet,
Original equipment manufacturer (an organization that makes devices from component parts bought from other organizations).
To be clear, the box I purchased from OEM (http://www.oemtractorparts.com/shop4/pc/home.asp is a well built box and very complete. I was just disappointed it was not has heavy as the original which was 14ga. Others have posted several years of great service from the OEM box.
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
Chet, if you want a good box here is the info you need;
Unique Design Workshop
830 South Main Street
DeGraff, OH 43318
Telephone: Norm Quay: (937) 585-6475
Go with anything less and you get what you pay for.
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt -
Barnyard Bash CubFest May 30th - May 31st, 2014
Click here for info http://www.barnyardbash.com
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
If you will look at your post you will see that the gauge was given
All others pay cash
Boss Hog
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely byJohn Emerich Edward Dalberg
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
Hi Ken, Sorry about your Battery Box but on the positive side I just bought a General No.21 Sheet metal gauge on amazon for 12.00, thanks to the picture posted by Rob in NH.... By the way, there are a lot of dump trailers running around with 16 ga sides and floors, I'm sure you'll be fine with your purchase...However it probably won't last as long or be as tough as your Dad
In Memory of 58,286
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
It is IMPOSSIBLE to get to ORIGINAL! Unless you have a canister of 1947 air to inflate your tires with!
I just don't understand the distress over 0.0149 of an inch and what's original or not. The gas you're using, whatever brand of oil, actually having antifreeze, paint technology, the foam in the seat padding and covering, electric wire insulation, etc. are a whole lot better than 60 years ago. Are you going to NOT use any of those? They aren't "original"!
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
What gauge is it Ken, 14 or 15.5?
Re: Battery Box - Lesson Learned
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Free Software Projects
Projects on the Move: Gramps and Puppet
The Gramps genealogy program takes Linux fans on a tour of their family trees and helps evaluate data connected to ancestors. Puppet helps administrators automate regularly occurring tasks.
Where are my roots? Who were my ancestors, and where did they live? These and other questions are what genealogy researchers try to answer.
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Read full article as PDF:092-094_projects.pdf (4.23 MB)
Tag Cloud
Tool Predicts Which Websites Will be Compromised
Carnegie Mellon researchers say 3 million pages could fall down the phishing hole in the next year.
SSH Key Management Guidelines
The US government rolls new best-practice rules for protecting SSH.
Knoppix 7.4 Released
Klaus Knopper announces the latest version of his iconic Live Linux system.
PHP Attack Puts WordPress and Drupal at Risk
All websites that use these popular CMS tools could be vulnerable to denial of service attacks if users don't install the updates.
Heartbleed Bleeds On
According to a report, many potential victims of the Heartbleed attack have patched their systems, but few have cleaned up the crime scene to protect themselves from the effects of a previous intrusion.
Drone Brain Goes Open Source
DARPA and NICTA release the code for the ultra-secure microkernel system used in aerial drones.
Password Management Services Vulnerable to Attack
Should you trust an online service to store your online passwords?
New Raspberry Pi Adds Two USB Ports
New B+ board lets you build cool things without the complication of a powered USB hub.
Microsoft Grabs No-IP.com Domains
Redmond rushes in to root out alleged malware haven.
Firefox Steps into 3D
New initiative will bring futuristic virtual reality effects to the web surfing experience.


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This was the era in which the band were moving away from progressive rock and tightened up their sidelong suites and rhythmic abstractions into balled-up song fists, art-pop blasts of angular, slashing guitar, spatial keyboards and hyperpercussion, all resolved with forthright melodic sense.
This album is licensed for download from Universal Music Group.
Power Windows contains eight tracks, each one very different in its own way, spanning over a duration of almost fifty minutes with no song being under the five minute mark and two over six minutes (Marathon, Territories). These lengths are not like their older records like 2112 and have a tolerable length and most have continuous changing riffs and tempos, making it seem almost like a couple of songs into one, although some may feel some do go on for too long. Power Windows's recording is as good as it gets, as every instrument is clearly audible with the overdubbing working well. However, some may find the record sounding too polished or clean sounding. As previously mentioned, the synthesizers are dominant here, and no song goes without it, but the famous trio still gives solid performances in their respective instruments. It is a perfect example of them in the prime of their 1980's daze. It may not be the most accessible Rush album or may not be the best to get if you are a new comer to the band, but with time, this album will grow on you. The lyrics are intelligent, the music is powerful, and the songs are well put together, even if a little polished. It may seem a bit outdated as it has that classic eighties feel to it, which is a good or bad thing, depending on what you like. If you don't let the heavy use of the synths and the whole 80's deal get in the way, it is actually an enjoyable album. It blends a nice mix of hard rock, progressive rock, pop, techno and other types as well making for great variety, as well as the showing the different styles of the band. Although it may not be the best Rush has to offer, Power Windows is a solid album, and one that is often underrated in the Rush catalogue.


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West Riding Cup quarter-final places up for grabs (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting TANEWS to 80360, or email
West Riding Cup quarter-final places up for grabs
7:31pm Thursday 9th January 2014 in Sport By Philip Rhodes
Following last weekend's postponement of their West Riding County FA Challenge Cup game, Steeton and their Keighley-based rivals Oxenhope Recreation will make a second attempt to clinch a quarter-final place.
The winners will face a home game against Brighouse Old Boys or Brighouse Town Reserves, who are also in action on Saturday
Campion meet Huddersfield YMCA in round two of the Premier Division Cup at Manningham Mills (1.45pm). There are also two round one Division One Cup games taking place, with Wibsey hosting Storthes Hall Reserves, while Salts Reserves travel to Lower Hopton.
With a few rearranged fixtures having to be made due to Steeton's involvement in the County FA Challenge Cup, Salts now entertain Premier Division leaders Ovenden West Riding at Saltaire. Tyersal could ease their relegation fears if they beat fellow strugglers Halifax Irish at home.
The top two sides in Division One, Hunsworth and Ventus Yeadon Celtic, will both be bidding to increase their promotion prospects with home games, against Campion Reserves and West Horton respectively.
Comments are closed on this article.


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Wrenn Middle School represented Edgewood I.S.D. at this years Jr. Vase Competition
Welcome to the 2013-2014 school year! I am excited to be at Edgewood ISD, especially E.T. Wrenn. I want to welcome all students, parents, faculty and staff to the new school year! The faculty and administrative team have been working diligently all summer to prepare for this year. We have been attending professional development and planning sessions to make sure that this year we continue to improve instruction and our relationships with students so that they will be academically successful and be ready for high school and beyond.
click here for Wrenn Uniform Policy for coming school year
The kids did a great job Saturday at the GEAR robotics competition. Even though we had very little time to practice and prepare they adapted on the fly and made adjustments in order to enter the semi-finals round of competition. We were the only Edgewood middle school to make it into the top 8. However, due to some techinical difficulty we did not advance to the final round. We did receive the Programming award in the end however, and the kids did an amazing job overall.
Programming Award
This award is presented to a team who demonstrates successful techniques in one or more of the following:
-Use of unique programming techniques to successfully demonstrate the game challenges.
-Evidence of good software documentation and revision control.
-Ability to describe in detail how their program works and how it helps solve the game's challenges.
-Demonstrate that the implemented programs perform successfully on the playing field.
-Employ the use of at least two robot sensors to assist with the robot function on the field.


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Related Stories
Cam Newton / QB / Carolina Panthers
The Falcons had no answer for Newton in Carolina's 30-20 win, which was Newton's first career victory over his hometown team in four tries. "I think this game allows me to have a little chip on my shoulder," the second-year quarterback said after scoring three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing). Newton completed 23-of-35 passes for 287 yards with TD passes of 25 and 53 yards. However, the highlight that will be played over and over again was his 72-yard run for a score on a zone-read option play, which gave the Panthers a 23-0 lead over the NFC South-champion Falcons. Newton rushed for a career-high 116 yards on nine rushes (12.9 average) and gave Panthers fans something to smile about in what has been a disappointing season for the club.
Stevie Brown / S / New York Giants
Brown's breakout season took a historic turn in Week 14. He set a Giants record for interception-return yardage after adding 91 more to his total (now 259 for the season) on two picks in the Giants' 52-27 win over the Saints. Brown forced a fumble that was recovered by teammate Antrel Rolle in the first quarter, too, but his two picks — one in the third quarter and one in the fourth quarter — really grounded a Saints team that was trying to battle its way into the game after falling behind. "(Brown) was in position again, the one he picked in the fourth quarter, boy was that timing right," Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said. "They had flipped the momentum on us almost completely. We weren't doing much about it at that time. But thank goodness he makes that play and we end up kicking a field goal."
David Wilson / RB / New York Giants
Wilson starred on offense (100 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 13 carries) and special teams for the Giants as they fought to keep their lead in the NFC East. They were on their heels early, when Saints CB Elbert Mack returned an interception 73 yards for a touchdown to put the Saints on the board first. Wilson returned the ensuing kickoff 97 yards to tie the score, though, and he continued to give the Giants good field position throughout the game — the Giants' average drive start was the Saints' 49-yard line. Wilson, a rookie, finished with four kickoff returns for 227 yards (56.8 average) and became the first player in NFL history with 200 kickoff return yards and 100 rushing yards in a single game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He also set a Giants single-season record for kickoff-return yards (1,321) on Sunday.


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IE shocker: Microsoft's browser gains share in 2012
Analyst credits IE9 for starting the turnaround
Computerworld - Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) turned things around in 2012, posting an annual usage share gain for the first time in the last eight years, according to data published earlier this week by a Web analytics company.
Net Applications, which tracks browser usage by monitoring unique visitors to customers' websites, said IE ended 2012 with a 54.8% share, up 2.9 percentage points from the start of the year.
The uptick was in stark contrast to nearly a decade of decline. In each of the years from 2005 through 2011, IE lost major chunks of usage share, with several of those years recording decreases of seven or more percentage points.
The years of contraction turned the once-dominant IE -- in early 2005, it accounted for nearly 90% of all browsers by Net Applications' count -- into one of just three browsers that fight for users. Battling first with Mozilla's Firefox, which celebrated its seventh anniversary last November, then with Google's Chrome, a browser launched in September 2008, IE flirted with ceding its majority position in December 2010, when it hit a low of 51.9%, but edged back from the precipice.
"It stands to reason that Microsoft's IE fortunes would begin to look-up," said Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC, in an email today. "The turnaround can be traced back to the launch of IE9 and the pivot around HTML5 support, especially the Canvas functionality."
Canvas is an HTML5 element that allows for dynamic rendering of two-dimensional images. IE9 not only supported Canvas, but accelerated its rendering by calling on the PC's graphics processor.
"IE9 was a superb browser and was only improved by IE10, essentially closing the gap with the fast-moving Chrome and FireFox efforts," Hilwa added.
IE's turnaround didn't start with IE9's March 2011 release -- Microsoft's browser lost 6.5 percentage points between then and its December 2011 low point -- but others beside Hilwa have cited that edition for reversing Microsoft's browser fortunes.
It seems virtually impossible that IE will reclaim the supremacy it once enjoyed, not with players like Mozilla and Google having entered the fray since Microsoft's heyday.
Hilwa agreed. "The browser shares will roughly map out to devices' installed base and browsing abilities of these devices," Hilwa argued.
And that may be a problem going forward for IE. With Apple's insistence that the technology industry is now in the early days of a "post-PC" era -- a characterization Microsoft executives have contested, or at least modified to "PC-plus" -- possible disruption of Windows' influence, and thus IE's, may loom in the future.
"The shift to tablets and the early dominance of iPad -- and now the proliferation of Android-based tablets with the Kindle line and others in the $200 to $300 range -- means that we are facing a more fragmented world of browsers for the foreseeable future," Hilwa said.
In fact, Net Applications painted a gloomier picture for IE away from the desktop. In the mobile browsing space -- defined by the analytics firm as smartphones and tablets -- Apple's Safari browser dominated with a 61% share in December 2012. Safari is the default browser on iOS, the Apple operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad.
On mobile, IE9 accounted for just 1% of all usage last month, with IE10 adding a minuscule 0.06%, both numbers reflecting the very minor impact Microsoft's made so far on the smartphone and tablet markets.
What IE has going for it, of course, is its maker's very strong position on desktops -- Windows runs nearly 90% of all personal computers -- and its lock on the business market. Both bode well for Microsoft's browser.
"[IE's] enterprise focus is very important for Microsoft ... [and] is a key differentiator and one that other browser makers are not as well aligned to support," said Hilwa. "As long as the Microsoft client platform remains strong and IE browser innovation continues, Microsoft will do well."
Some, however, would argue today that that's a big "if," considering the inroads made by non-Windows devices through BYOD (bring your own device) programs and enterprise purchases of tablets like the iPad as replacements for some workers' mobile hardware -- including Windows-powered notebooks.
But for now, Microsoft can celebrate its 2012 gains.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His email address is email@example.com.
See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.
Browser wars
- Workarounds to purge search bar from Firefox's new tab page are available
- Mozilla ships Firefox 31, adds search to new tab page
- Microsoft's IE steps back from the brink of irrelevance
- Firefox falters, falls to record low in overall browser share
- Firefox risks user backlash by adding search box to new tab page
- Google unseats Microsoft as the U.S. browser powerhouse
- Safari, Chrome push to mask URLs
- Chrome on Windows champs at the 64-bit
- Google pulls trigger, cripples some Chrome add-ons
- Microsoft shoots to shorten Internet Explorer's long tail
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- 3G/4G Digital Signage Guide Today, the widespread availability of 3G and 4G cellular or wireless broadband networks enables digital signage to be deployed virtually anywhere.
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- Cloud BI in Action: Recorded Webinar of Customer, Kony, Inc. See how Kony, Inc., a leading enterprise mobility company, is using TIBCO Jaspersoft for Amazon Web Services and Redshift to achieve embedded analytics...
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Updated Nov 10, 2012 - 5:23 pm
85-year-old Sun City man booked in wife's shooting
By Associated Press
Originally published: Nov 10, 2012 - 5:22 pm
Originally published: Nov 10, 2012 - 5:22 pm
SUN CITY, Ariz. Maricopa County sheriff's detectives have arrested an 85-year-old Sun City man on an attempted murder charge after they were called to a home and found his 81-year-old wife shot in the head.
Sheriff's spokesman officer Christopher Hegstrom says George Sanders is being held at the Fourth Avenue Jail.
Hegstrom says Virginia Sanders was taken to a hospital for treatment after Friday night's shooting. He did give her condition on Saturday.
No information was released on the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
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5 Vices That Aren't So Bad After All
Find out which bad habits might actually be good for you in the long run—in moderation, of course.
Eat Meat
Experts claim that there are environmental and health reasons not to eat meat, but an all-or-nothing approach is impossible
for some people. I'm one of them. So I've chosen to be a weekday vegetarian instead. For those five days, I eat meatless meals
with healthy fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. On the weekends, I yield to my cravings for pork, beef, and chicken. Once
I started eating a pork chop or a hamburger only occasionally, it became something special. Now I appreciate meat's flavor
and its ability to satisfy me even more.
Graham Hill is the New York City–based founder of the eco-blogs TreeHugger.com and LifeEdited.com.
Enjoy Schadenfreude
Religious and secular scholars alike agree that envy is awful. It hurts to be jealous of people who are wealthier or more
beautiful than you are. But schadenfreude—the pleasure you get from the misfortune of someone else—can feel great. For example,
you're ecstatic when your mean boss is caught cheating on her taxes and faces a penalty, or when the demanding movie star
who belittles everyone around him is caught in an embarrassing situation. You're not rejoicing that these people are suffering,
but rather that the karmic system works. We all want to believe that what goes around comes around.
John Portmann is a professor of moral history at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, and the author of When Bad Things Happen to Other People ($32, amazon.com).
Be Lustful
While I was growing up, my mother made it clear to me that sex was supposed to happen only within the context of marriage
and was not to be spoken about. Still, I began reading romance novels at age 12, and by the time I was in college, I began
questioning the absurd duality of what I'd been taught: If sex is healthy and normal, why can't we talk about it? Even today
we have to fight the conventional thinking that says good girls aren't lustful. Sex is an essential and pleasurable component
in any intimate relationship, and it goes hand in hand with the natural desire for love. Not acknowledging your desires is
as damaging as acting on them impulsively.
Sabrina Jeffries is the best-selling author of 34 romance novels, including 'Twas the Night After Christmas ($20, amazon.com), out this month. She lives in Cary, North Carolina.


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Haunted Houses, Spook Walks & Other Halloween Attractions in Pennsdale
Whether you're from Pennsdale, or you're simply visiting this Halloween Season, there are plenty of festive fun to enjoy this Halloween Season. If you're looking for a day of family fun in a pumpkin patch, or spending the evening Haunt hunting with friends is more your speed, Pennsdale has plenty of exciting Autumn activities to enjoy this October. Halloween comes around but once a year, so if you're passing through Pennsdale this Fall, make sure to not miss out on the thrills, chills, and scares this year!
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Roberta "Bobbi" Cordano leads strategic initiatives and operations for Wilder Programs at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. Her work supports school, home, and community based services to assist low income children, families, and older adults residing in Saint Paul. The Foundation directly serves more than 8,000 individuals. Its programs and services help children succeed in school, older adults age gracefully in the community, vulnerable youth and families create healthy futures, and individuals and families maintain long-term, affordable housing.
Cordano's extensive and diverse career spans the non-profit, government, higher education, and healthcare sectors. Before joining the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, she served as interim president of the Center for Healthcare Innovation at Allina Health System, and as president of Park Nicollet Institute. Cordano brought her talents to the University of Minnesota, first as director of disability services for the Office of Equity and Diversity, then as assistant dean at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. She worked for a decade as assistant attorney general for the Minnesota Attorney General's Office.
Cordano is an active member of the community. She founded, and 17 years later led the merger of, the Metro Deaf School (grades K-8) and Minnesota North Star Academy (grades 9-12), the first bilingual charter schools for deaf and hard of hearing children in the country. She also served as a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Court Interpreters, which worked to increase access to the courts for non-English speaking people, including deaf and hard of hearing individuals. She has been active in politics and represented the state of Minnesota at a national political convention in 1996. She is a board member of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, a co-chair of the Minnesota Leadership Council on Aging, a member of the St. Paul Children's Collaborative, and a member of the board of trustees of Charles Thompson Memorial Hall as well as the non-profit organization Ecumen.
In 2003, Cordano was the recipient of the inaugural Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs' Public Leadership Award. In 2005, she received the Access Award from the Minnesota State Council on Disabilities.
Cordano holds a BA with honors from Beloit College and a JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Inside the Boardroom™ is a rare glimpse into the experiences that shape
America's female business leaders. Through this unique forum, chief executives
and local business experts share and discuss their understanding of core
business principles and experience in building a successful enterprise.
Janeé Harteau is the first woman to hold the position of Minneapolis Police Chief, and one of only three women police chiefs serving in large U.S. cities today. The Minneapolis Police Department provides public safety services that
elevate the quality of life of 380,000 residents in Minneapolis. Appointed to chief in 2012, Harteau leads the organization by demonstrating commitment, integrity, and transparency.
Harteau's experience in law enforcement began in 1987 when she joined the MPD where she worked as a beat cop in north, south, and downtown Minneapolis. She has served in the narcotics, organized crime, and license investigation units. From 2006-2009, Harteau led the First Precinct in downtown Minneapolis, where she helped launch the Downtown SafeZone Collaborative and Downtown Court Watch program. The initiatives tapped the power of private security workers and concerned citizens to cut crime. In the same role, she was credited with improving relations with the Cedar-Riverside Somali community and enacted the position of Somali Liaison Officer.
Former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak favored Harteau's approach to the "human side" of crime. Instead of pressuring officers to simply make more arrests, she takes a holistic approach to crime prevention and engages social services to strengthen communities and solve long-term issues.
Harteau holds a BA in police science and an MA in public safety administration from St. Mary's University. She is also a graduate of Northwestern University's School of Police Staff and Command. She is an adjunct instructor at both institutions.
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14 CFR 1206.204 - Records of interest to other agencies.
If a NASA record is requested and another agency has a substantial interest in the record, such an agency shall be consulted on whether the record shall be made available under this part (see § 1206.101(f)(3)). If a record is requested that is a record of another agency, the request shall be returned to the requester, as provided in § 1206.604(c) unless NASA has possession and control of the record requested.
Title 14 published on 2014-01-01
no entries appear in the Federal Register after this date.
Title 14 published on 2014-01-01
The following are ALL rules, proposed rules, and notices (chronologically) published in the Federal Register relating to 14 CFR 1206 after this date.


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CATEGORIES MoviesWhat does it take to create a haunting, nightmarish opening film sequence? According to Entertainment Weekly, you need David Fincher, an "uncomfortable" storyline and Tim Miller, the creative director for design studio Blur.
On EW.com, Miller gives an inside look on how the credits for Fincher's "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" were made.
"[Fincher] wanted to do everything photo-surreal, instead of [using] traditional film effects," said Miller. "The first time [David and I] talked about it he said, 'Imagine James Bond if he was a 22-year-old bisexual cutter' and I think that was his vision for the [Lisbeth Salander] character ... David said right up front, 'I want to do the whole story of all three books in two-and-a-half minutes.'"
The final product turned out to be a gorgeously dark moment and one of the movie's highlights -- not surprising for Fincher, whose films have always included memorable opening credits.
"We were going to search for sort of a visionary artist like [H.R.] Giger did for 'Alien,' but that didn't really work out and what we wound up doing instead was gathering a fuckload of references from all over the world," Miller said. "And we all looked at it together and we all kind of gravitated towards black on black look and David said, 'Yeah, lets do it all blacker.'"
"Dragon Tattoo" is nominated for four Oscars this year, so all that hard work toward the sequence, and the film as a whole, ended up paying off.
You can read more about Miller's work on the credits over on EW.
[via EW]


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Topic Page
Nation Topics - World
Arab Awakening Foreign Policy War and Peace World Leaders Global Organizations Regions and Countries
News and Features
From the hours immediately after 9/11 to the present, Washington's policies in the Middle East have created the conditions for more—not less—jihadist terror.
Why you should expect more bombs to be dropped everywhere.
A tale of the twentieth century, from Stalin to Barbie
President Obama must seek authorization for any further military action from both the UN Security Council and Congress.
To reject the "Long War" doctrine, the American left first has to understand it.
US fallacies may be leading to war with Russia.
The bill reads like a wish list for NATO and Kiev.
The US and Israel passed on chance after chance to avoid the deadly war in Gaza—and prevent the deaths of thousands.
Our fickle immigration system leaves many families stuck between violence in their home countries and an aggressive enforcement regime across the border.
The Western consensus of an imperialist Russia is flawed.
Nation Media
Also From The Nation
- A Former Marine Explains All the Weapons of War Being Used by Police in Ferguson
- How the War on Terror Created the World's Most Powerful Terror Group
- The Major Problem With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Powerful Essay on Ferguson
- Strange Fruit in Ferguson
- Tear Gas Is an Abortifacient. Why Won't the Anti-Abortion Movement Oppose It?
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Mitt Romney Jokes
Mitt Romney Humor Roundup
A roundup of the best humor about GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, including funny late-night jokes, cartoons, quotes, and other humor.
Mitt Romney Cartoons
A collection of political cartoons on Mitt Romney's campaign for president.
Funny Mitt Romney Pictures
Funny captioned photos and parodies poking fun at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Best Mitt Romney Jokes
A collection of the best late-night jokes poking fun at Mitt Romney.
Best Anti-Romney Memes
A collection of the best Internet memes, humorous slogans, and devastating quotes mocking Mitt Romney.
Top 10 Dumbest Mitt Romney Quotes
A roundup of Mitt Romney's dumbest quotes of all time.
More Ridiculous Romney Quotes
Read our complete collection of Romney gaffes and stupid statements.
Recent Mitt Romney Jokes
A roundup of recent late-night jokes about Mitt Romney and his 2012 presidential campaign.
Mitt Romney Jokes From the 2008 Campaign
Late-night jokes about Mitt Romney from his 2008 run for president.
David Letterman Mocks Mitt Romney
Read a series of amusing riffs in which David Letterman mocks Mitt Romney for his matinee-idol looks.
More Funny Mitt Romney Pictures
View a collection of funny captioned pictures, cartoons, and parodies poking fun at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney Flip Flops
A complete record of Mitt Romney's biggest flip flops.


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Fix header in iframe HTML document
Hey all could use some help again,
working on a site that has two iframes that scroll up and down. By selecting the items in the 'display' frame you insert a row into 'register' frame bellow. The 'register' frame bellow 'display' only shows two rows. One the fixed 'header'. The other row[0] as all inserted rows are inserted at [0] index. I had it working fine with the CSS heights written in pixels but when I changed height to % percentages the fixed 'header' covers the row[0] while only ocupying half the 'register' window. I can only see
row[1], row[0] is covered by the fixed 'header'. I did not use any cloneing to achieve this with pixel heights in the CSS.
'register' iframe contains 'checkout.html' with these divs
1.content(contains all)
2.welcome(inside content outside others)
3.checkoutcontainer(under welcome contains tablecontainer)
4.tablecontainer(contains form around table and other divs)
The 'tablecontainer' height is set at 98% while the tables height is not set. it only has a width of 100%.
I've never cloned a header to fix it's position. the 'header' position isrelative top 0% left0% and once the 'welcome' div display style is set to none tbody style posTop should get the table to drop but it dosen't and
row[0] is still covered by the fixed 'header'.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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Last spring I took an atmospheric science class. I still have the book, because it was too interesting to sell back. I was looking through it, and read this:
"Although solar radiation travels in a straight line, the gases and dust particles in the atmosphere can redirect this energy. This process, called scattering, is responsible for illuminating a shaded are of a room when direct sunlight is absent. Scattering also produces the so-called diffused light that accounts for the brightness of the daytime sky. In contrast, bodies like the moon and Mercury, which are without atmospheres, have dark skies and "pitch black" shadows, even during daylight hours." [all bold, italic and quotations are from the text, not added by me]
Wow. I had forgotten about that. Apparently, though, I had stumbled across that almost a year ago, because, for the benifit of the next owner if I sold it, I had written, "Not true. Dust and gases are not responsible for shadow illumination. Illuminated objects around the shadows are responsible. The moon and Mercury do have black skies, but not all the shadows are pitch black."
If anyone cares, it's from the textbook "The Atmosphere" by Fredrick K. Lutgens and Edward J. Tarbuck, sixth edition.


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Friday, October 31, 2008
Groundwater Map of India and Farmer Suicides
The Himalayas are categorized as having local and shallow aquifers, the Indus-Gangetic plains belong to one homogeneous groundwater basin and the southern peninsular region is a complex hydrogeological province. These are somewhat misleading categories in that they are not mutually exclusive. For example local and shallow aquifers are found all over India. And the Himalayas have plenty of regions of complex hydrogeological structures. But combined with recharge potential the map gives on a broad scale the likely patterns of aquifer yield across the country.
Looking at Maharashtra I could not help noticing that areas of complex hydrogeological structure and medium to low recharge potential spatially coincided with the vast majority of cases of farmer suicides in the state. This is the region north of Hyderabad and east north east of Bombay. Over the last 6-8 years more than 2000 farmers have committed suicide. The immediate explanation for most of these cases is indebtedness. Farmers borrow money to meet high farming input costs or for other personal reasons and fall into a debt trap if crops fail or give a low yield. The Maharashtra government compiled the results of several studies of farmer suicides and identified conditions that made farmers in these regions particularly vulnerable. These were:
Disruption in regular rainfall cycle since 2001. Long dry spells, deficient monsoon.
Single crop a year, and Cotton the dominant crop. About 70% of farmers who committed suicide had planted cotton.
93 percent of land rain fed. 98 percent of the farmers who committed suicide had no irrigation.
Yield limited by rain, but regular rise in cost of input lowered margin of profit.
Volatility in market price further lowered return.
Commitment to money lender did not leave anything with the farmer.
Farmers are heavily dependent on monsoon rains to water crops. But how does complex hydrogeology figure in this. This agricultural region sits on top of the Deccan basalts. Aquifers are local, shallow, deep, all sorts and show lateral and vertical heterogeneity in their water storage capacity and transmissivity. I have seen this in the field. The situation can change from high yield to bone dry over a distance of tens of meters. So a farmer with a small landholding of a hectare or so - and there are plenty of them in this region- may just have the bad luck of farming on top of an unyielding basalt. He then has to rely entirely on the rains or get into a groundwater sharing agreement with a neighboring farmer who might have a yielding aquifer under his farm. But during times of water stress there is too little water to go around resulting in crop failure or low yields.
Another problem is that not enough attention has been paid to managing the available groundwater resource. Farmers use dug wells as a primary water extraction method but using the dug well to replenish the aquifer during times of good rain is not practiced widely. This has led to aquifer overdraft and a steady diminishing over the years of the groundwater resource. Not all cases of farmer suicide can be linked to water problems. Crops can get wiped out by pests, yields could have been low due to soil degradation, some instances where Bt Cotton seeds failed and then there are probably cases where despite decent yields farmers simply made irresponsible financial commitments. But the link of low yields to ready availability of water is real.
Tushaar Shah a groundwater expert with the International Water Management Institute has made a strong case that focusing on groundwater replenishment will go a long way in preventing crop failure and improving yields. He gives an example:
Over 86 million hectare of India's rain-fed areas, mid-season or terminal droughts regularly take a toll on the kharif crop. At such times, using around 1000 cubic metres per hectare of water from wells just-in-time to water a wilting crop just once can raise crop yields by 30-230 percent over rain-fed yield levels.
Off course if the wells themselves are dry then there is no backup for failed rains. A Tata Institute of Social Sciences report on farmer suicides found that farmers had little or no groundwater available to them during times of rain failure. A combination of complex hydrogeology and poor management of groundwater resources has exerted a powerful influence on the lives and livelihoods of Maharashtra farmers.
Mr. Shah makes the following recommendation for complex hydrogeological terrains:
What hard-rock India needs is a new mindset of managing dug wells as dual-purpose structures, for taking out water when needed and putting water into the aquifers when the surplus is running off. Recharging aquifers needs to get the first charge on monsoon run off. Unfortunately, government planners give it the last priority.
Water available for recharge is estimated after allowing for the requirements of existing and planned surface reservoirs. This is absurd in a country where 70 percent of irrigated areas and 90 percent of drinking water needs are met from groundwater.
Is the government listening? The Prime Minister of India's special relief package for Maharashtra farmers wants to attack the problem on a broad front which includes tinkering with the economics of cotton farming, encouraging a diverse array of crops and reducing dependence on pesticides and fertilizers. But water underlies any successful agricultural strategy. In terms of water it lists irrigation development as the only long term solution to the water problems faced by farmers and doles almost 10 times more money to irrigation development than to watershed development. Irrigation development in the language of the government of India means canal irrigation (read mega infrastructure projects) and not local groundwater irrigation.
This despite the revealing statistic that even though thousands of crores of Rupees have been spent on canals, they irrigate just about 15% of arable areas over the landmass of India and marginal farmers and farmers with small landholding benefit most not from canal networks but through groundwater irrigation.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Landslides Trace Kashmir Earthquake Fault
This earthquake was unusual for the Himalayan region as it occurred along a shallow fault and caused a surface rupture. i.e the cracks and deformation was visible at the surface. Deformation due to earthquakes is usually mapped by spotting offsets in artificial and natural linear features like walls and fences or gulley's and streams. That is incredibly hard to do in remote steep terrains like the Kashmir Himalayas. So the researchers used before and after earthquake images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) aboard the NASA Terra satellite to try and spot this rupture. A team of geologists had mapped this fault using ground surveys but this is a time consuming process and so a complimentary image analysis was done to evaluate whether imagery can provide a reliable way to quickly identify zones of deformation to aid rescue efforts after an earthquake.
The images below are ASTER false color composites which clearly show the fault trace highlighted by a linear zone of white color. These are landslides that occurred along the hanging wall of the fault. Only a small section of the trace is seen in the images.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory
False Color Composites are prepared by assigning the three primary colors red, green and blue to the three wavelength bands which analysts feel contain the maximum information about surface features. This arbitrary assignment of colors to bands results in features appearing in colors unnatural to the human eye. Hence the term False Color Composite. Depending upon sensor design a range of wavelengths from the visible part of the wavelength spectrum (reflected energy) to the thermal part of the spectrum (emitted energy) can be collected for study. ASTER the sensor used in this study as the name implies senses energy in both the thermal and reflected part of the spectrum. Only the reflected portion of the spectrum was used to process the images in this study.
Satellite sensors break up the reflected or emitted energy coming from the earth's surface into discrete regions or bands to allow better discrimination of surface features. This works because different surface features reflect or emit efficiently in different wavelengths. A judicious selection of bands can then be used to create maximum contrast between different surface features.
When using reflected energy, usually this wavelength combination as is in this image is near infrared, red and green. The wavelength range is from about 0.5 microns (green) to about 1 microns for near infrared. In this case red color has been assigned to the near infrared band since healthy vegetation reflects a lot of near infrared. Water appears blue and built up areas and landslides which are zones where vegetation has been stripped off and fresh rock and soil exposed appear gray and white respectively, indicating a very high reflectance in the smaller wavelengths.
The surface rupture of the Kashmir earthquake extends over 75 km. Another paper which studied the tectonics of this earthquake has concluded that the rupture has occurred along some subsidiary faults and not along the major boundary fault where strain is apparently still accumulating.
This does not bode well for the Kashmir region.
Update: Robert Simmon a NASA researcher in an email to me points out an error in my post. I gave the impression that the fault trace was mapped using landslides as a guide. This is not so. The fault trace was delineated by mapping the ground deformation i.e the offsets caused by the slip along the fault were mapped by correlating the before and after images. Landslides in fact obscure the fault trace such that the before and after images can't be correlated along such patches.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Beginnings of India
To my pleasant surprise Michael Wood took the story way back to Africa and the late- Pleistocene migration of Homo sapiens from Africa around 80,000 years ago. These humans migrated into India soon thereafter taking most likely the coastal route from Arabia into India. There are still relict populations in India which have believed to be descendants of these early settlers. I wrote a post about this some time back. These include the mainland tribals like the Korku and the Kuruba and those in the Andaman chain of islands like the Sentinelese. Mitochondrial genetic analysis supports this contention as the Korku and the Kuruba have one of the oldest mitochondrial genetic markers outside of Africa. The figure below shows migration routes of Homo sapiens reconstructed from genetic analysis.
Source: Univ. of Texas
Wood meet some of these tribal communities and discussed rituals that may be holdovers from very early times. There were some silly moments like when he asked one of the tribals "how does it feel to be the first human in India", but he did highlight the genetic work that is being done to unravel the history of early human presence.
From early Pleistocene settlers the show moved on to the Holocene and the enigmatic Indus valley civilization which lasted from around 3500 B.C to 1800 B.C. Wood talked a lot of town planning and trade between the Indus valley people and centers of civilization in what is now Iran and parts of the Middle East and then talked a little about the demise of this civilization caused most likely due to an increased aridification of the western Indian continent beginning around 2500 B.C. The show then moved on to the arrival of people starting 1500 B.C., speaking an Indo-European language, proto-Sanskrit. The locus of Indian civilization migrated eastward to the Gangetic plain but Wood emphasizes that there is a continuity in the cultural transition from the Indus valley to the Gangetic plains. The focus was on how these Sanskrit speaking people developed the Vedic culture and complex societies around the Gangetic plain. Using linguistic and archaeological evidence he traced the origin of these Sanskrit speaking people to central Asia.
What was left out from this rather predictable but decently presented sequence was any mention of where and when did Dravidian speaking people originate. This is the other big language family in India today, spoken mainly in the south of the country. Dravidian is considered by many linguists as part of the Dravidian-Elamite family of languages that once were spoken all over the northwestern part of Indian subcontinent extending into Iran. Exactly where the center of origin of this language family was is still uncertain but geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforva suggests that it could have been the northwestern part of India or it could be farther west towards Iran and the Caspian region.
What is clear is that Dravidian or proto-Dravidian speakers were in India before the arrival of proto-Sanskrit speakers. Linguists like Colin Renfrew suggest that it is likely that the entry and spread of Dravidian languages in India coincided with the farming dispersal and agricultural expansion that began in the Middle East and which expanded into north western parts of the Indian subcontinent around 8,000 years ago. Dravidian languages entered India through demic diffusion of agriculturists and Dravidian speaking people were the first Neolithic farmers of India. This extended history of Dravidian language origin and dispersal was given no attention in the show. These people are the likely candidates who built the Indus valley civilization and Wood missed out on exploring this thesis further. I've noticed this in many documentaries about India. The attention is always on the arrival of the "Aryans" a term used to describe people speaking Indo-European languages. They in fact arrived much later than Dravidian speakers. Today Dravidian is spoken mostly in the south, an example of language displacement by latter arrivals. There is however a northern enclave in Pakistan where Brahui, a Dravidian language is still spoken.
This is not really a rant on Dravidian vs Indo-European languages. I mentioned that Indo-European speaking people displaced Dravidian languages to the south, but Dravidian speaking farmers too must have displaced or made extinct Austro-Asiatic languages or other unclassified languages spoken by the earlier hunter-gatherer settlers of the continent. The history of India is one of immigration and emigration and superimposition of layer upon layer of language, culture and ethnicity.
I particularly liked one sentence Michael Wood said about India:
India is a country where all the pasts of the human species are still living.
That is a very evocative description of the country and its people. It makes you imagine the great antiquity of human habitation in this part of the world.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
NPR Steals My Line on Climate, Well Almost
NPR no doubt taking my cue has a similar "How To Be Conversant About Climate" conversation with Michael Oppenheimer, faculty in geosciences Princeton University, about how to convince Uncle Sal at the dinner table that global warming is not only real but is primarily caused by human activity. Oppenheimer is of the view that while the debate about whether warming is taking place is over and settled, there are differences which are quite genuine and not as easily dismissed on how to deal with this problem. That problem has economic, political and cultural roots and needs to be confronted without taking a "I am right and you are wrong" stance.
There is a second good talk on the show. This explores the broader question of why people find it hard to believe in science and scientists. Uncertainty in interpreting data and the results of an experiment, dissent and debate is built into the scientific process. It is the nature of the beast. But it is often bewildering to people that even after say 2-3 decades of work, there is no certain answer from scientists on a problem. People take that as a weakness of the system, a signal that science may not give them ready answers. Maybe we want that certainty, maybe we need closure on a problem, maybe we need to be reassured that yes this is the one correct answer, that we all too readily succumb into believing a confidently told but scientifically unsupported story.
And again how easily available information on the Internet can be at once a boon but also a hindrance and sometimes has dangerous consequences when people in responsible positions choose to believe wild assertions. Harry Collins of Cardiff University gives the example of parents refusing to vaccinate children with the MMR vaccine because they fear that it may cause autism in their child, something that has been refuted by solid scientific work.
Then there is the case of Thabo Mbeki, ex-President of South Africa, who after reading articles on the Internet announced publicly that retro-viral drugs to combat AIDS don't have any helpful effect. The media too bears some responsibility of spreading disinformation through their insistence on giving both sides on the story equal weight even though one side is just illogical and is not supported by any body of evidence and simply does not warrant such attention.
Both a good listen.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Indian Geosciences And Thoughts On Bengali Geologists
Here are some stats:
In 1985, the number (number of papers indexed by Thomson Reuters) was approximately 12,500, and for the next 15 years the total never much exceeded 14,000. Around the year 2000, however, the number began to tick upwards, rising to nearly 17,000 in 2001, reaching 20,000-plus in 2003, and winding up at more than 27,000 in 2007.
and regarding citation stats...
Physics, as it happens, features prominently in the next set of graphs(2), which plot the nation's relative citation impact (that is, India's citations-per-paper average compared against the world average in each respective field) in 14 main fields in a series of overlapping periods from 1985 through 2007
. ...although the impact of India-based research lags the world average in the fields shown, the nation has been on a discernible upswing since roughly the year 2000, with notable gains in, for example, Geosciences(3), Neurosciences(4), and Biology & Biochemistry.
Geosciences citations have improved from being 30% of the world average to around 50% of the world average.
Source: ScienceWatch
A slight improvement I guess over the last 20 years or so, but the condition of a lot of geoscience departments, especially those in state universities leaves a lot to be desired in terms of quality research output. I don't want to analyze this to death. Yes we are improving, but still far behind the U.S, Europe, Britain, Japan and China. A lot has been written on what ails Indian science. Here is a polemical view. And here is a more detailed and critical analysis.
I want to digress and write on a different matter.
I survey the research literature in sedimentary geology quite a bit and all along there has been only the rare publication by India based geologists in the leading geology journals on sedimentary topics. With one peculiar exception. Bengali geologists mostly based in eastern Indian Universities have been consistently publishing papers on sedimentary geology in internationally recognized journals.
I've often thought about this on and off and a number of reasons come to mind.
1) Proximity to sediments. Jadhavpur University Kolkata, Presidency College, Kolkata, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, IIT Kharagpur and School of Mines, Dhanbad, where a lot of Bengali geologists are based are all within a days driving distance from a variety of sedimentary terrains. These include the Ganges-Brahmaputra fluvial- estuarine-delta complex, the Mio-Pliocene Himalayan foreland and the late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic Gondwana continental rift basins. But proximity cannot be the only reason. Plenty of other Indian universities to the west and south and north sit right on top of Proterozoic and Mesozoic basins.
2) Institutional support. The east is where the systematic study of geology began in India. Kolkata was the seat of British administration until the capital shifted to Delhi in the early 1900's. The Geological Survey of India was established in Kolkata in the late 1800's. There is a long tradition of geology in this part of the country reflected in well funded geology programs in various universities.
3) Economic incentives. There is coal in the eastern rift basins and oil was discovered early in the eastern state of Assam. There was a requirement for expertise in sedimentary geology and eastern universities developed strong sedimentary geology programs to provide it.
4) But Universities are only as good as the people who work in them. Geology frankly has never been a field which attracts the brightest students in India. Parental, social and economic pressures lead to Medicine, Engineering and Management being preferred. Among sciences, Math, Physics and Chemistry suck in the best. But there has been strong social and cultural support in Bengal for pursuing any kind of an intellectual career. So maybe many more bright Bengali students become geology researchers than elsewhere in India.
I remember my first ever meeting with my graduate adviser in the U.S. Meet me at 8.00 am sharp, he barked on the phone. And so I went to his office, braving a bitterly cold mid-west January morning. He was a Bengali sedimentary geologist and a fine one too. Winner of the SEPM paper of the year award for 1986 for his seminal work on alluvial sandstones from the late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic rift basins of eastern India.
Maybe there is a germ of truth to my thesis :-)
Monday, October 13, 2008
Some Very Strange Maps
Strange Maps is one of these sites. A wonderful collection of weird, creative and humorous ways of depicting the world in "maps".
Having spent long late afternoons in Appalachia sipping sweet tea after a day's fieldwork this one I could relate to all too well; the north to south distribution of McDonald's selling unsweet and sweet tea in Virginia.
Source: Eightoverfive.com via Strange Maps
I am not sure how many geo-bloggers have this site on their blogroll. It's a refreshingly different spot. You can't really categorize it as a geoscience blog although there are posts on geology related topics. But it's just the spatial depiction of information that caught my interest. Maps always give you a different perspective, makes you ponder over previously unrecognized connections. You can create your own story of places visited, geology observed, people you have met. Definitely worth a regular visit.
Hat Tip: Geology News
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Are Most Papers in Nature Likely To Be Wrong?
In Economic theory the winner's curse refers to the idea that someone who places the winning bid in an auction may have paid too much. Consider, for example, bids to develop an oil field. Most of the offers are likely to cluster around the true value of the resource, so the highest bidder probably paid too much.
The same thing may be happening in scientific publishing, according to a new analysis. With so many scientific papers chasing so few pages in the most prestigious journals, the winners could be the ones most likely to oversell themselves—to trumpet dramatic or important results that later turn out to be false. This would produce a distorted picture of scientific knowledge, with less dramatic (but more accurate) results either relegated to obscure journals or left unpublished.Marginal Revolution has a more detailed debate in the comments section.
I don't read much geosciences in Nature or Science. But should I now pay more attention to papers in Carbonates and Evaporites instead of Journal of Sedimentary Research?!
Apologies to the Editors.
More importantly, is some of my unpublished PhD work really the real deal!?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Was September 08 Earthquake Month?
Just a quick recap for those who have not been following this thread. Some astrologers claim that they can predict big earthquakes based on the alignment of the moon with the sun and other planets in the solar system. Mr. Amit Dave who lives in Mumbai is one such astrologer. He claims that certain alignments of the moon and sun (and other planets) exert tidal stresses on earth. No one doubts this. Nothing new here. The relevant question is whether these tidal stresses acting alone i.e. without input from internally generated tectonic stresses are enough to cause big earthquakes. The answer is clearly no.
In two earlier posts I exposed Mr. Dave's lack of understanding about geology and earthquakes and explained just why tidal stresses acting on their own are incapable of causing big earthquakes on earth. He never gave me a single substantive reply to my questions but kept making foolish claims about his "predictions" in the comments sections of my posts. So in this post I will try to explain what is a scientific earthquake prediction and whether Mr. Dave's "predictions" measure up to this standard.
The main confusion among people is between making the rather mundane claim that earthquakes will occur on any particular day against the more meaningful exercise of predicting a earthquake. Astrologers are unable to grasp this distinction or more cynically ignore it since the laypersons they are trying to reach certainly don't make this distinction.
When geologists make a prediction about a earthquake it is in this format:
An earthquake of magnitude ...6.5-7 magnitude (range).. will strike (with a probability) ...time range..(usually in the range of the next few years) at location... Longitude X and Latitude Y due to ... hypothesis of how and why an earthquake is due /imminent in the declared region.
Astrologers ignore the third requirement of the location and are puzzled by the fourth. Why give a hypothesis of how and why an earthquake is imminent.
Here's why. Geologists studying earthquakes and working in a particular area have a hypothesis on how geological stresses may cause an earthquake. This hypothesis describes for example the rates at which strain is accumulating along a particular fault based on say the motion of the earth's plates. Or take tidal forces. Ultimately they can only act or trigger earthquakes by imposing stresses on the crust. So even a theory of earthquakes like Mr. Dave's which relies solely on tidal forces needs to explain in terms of the imposed stress and accumulating strain how , why and where these tidal forces are likely to cause a rupture. If an earthquake does occur in that region, this hypothesis can then be validated against what actually happened. It gives geologists a chance to test how good their understanding of earthquake mechanisms is.
Here is a great example of this process from the September issue of Geology in a paper that studies the big Kashmir earthquake of 2005:
.... We thus conclude that the 2005 event did not occur on the plate boundary megathrusts, but on intraplate active faults within the Sub-Himalaya. Consequently, the accumulated elastic strain around the complex northwestern margin of the Indo-Asian collision zone has not been significantly released by the 2005 earthquake.
What this means is that the earlier hypothesis that a big earthquake in Kashmir will likely take place along a major boundary fault zone was wrong. The earthquake instead took place on a subsidiary fault system. This however warned geologists that strain is still accumulating along the major fault and another big earthquake in that region is likely.
Science is a self correcting process. If we are to improve our understanding of earthquakes, a prediction must include a declaration of a hypothesis which can then be validated against what actually took place.
Alright, on to Mr. Dave's "predictions". Here it is
1) 7th September 2008 -- 2020GMT ---- 7.2 On Richter scale at 12 Degrees East or/168 Degrees west ( Precise location both longitude and latitude is not possible as of to day)2) 10th September 2008 --1950 GMT ---7.3 on Richter scale-at 66 Degrees east or 114 degrees West3) 15 th September 2008 --0910 GMT----More than 7.5 on Richter scale -at 147 Degrees East or 33 Degrees west4) 16 th September 2008 ---2015 GMT---- 7.5 on Richter scale -at 87 Degrees East or 93 Degrees West
The original prediction he gave me did not have even the incomplete location information. It is only when the USGS insisted that a location is necessary (he forwarded me a mail from the USGS) that he put in just the longitude.
But that's not it. These dates are way too specific and Mr. Dave then provides a hedge.
As per my theory the dates of September 2008 are already published in my blog. However one more thing required to be noted is that , the dates shown are the peak force dates ,and have maximum potential of triggering the quakes. However , the quakes follow a sinusoidal pattern. As the dates mentioned approaches nearer the quake intensity and frequency keep on increasing. After the dates have passed the tidal force slowly fades away.
And then not satisfied that his sinusoidal wave will cover enough ground, a few more dates:
Thus , there are fair chances of quakes of 6.5 to 6.8 Richter scale on following dates also. places not known.27 th August 2008----0415 Hrs IST31 th August 2008-----0115 Hrs ISTAlso 22 nd and 23 rd September 2008----up to 7.0 on Richter scale
So, he has covered so much time with his spread of dates that he has ensured himself a high degree of "prediction" success.
Why is that? Because of the high frequency of moderate to big earthquakes, something most people are unaware of. 7-8 magnitude earthquakes occur at a frequency of 1-2 per month, 6-7 magnitude earthquakes occur 10-12 per month, 5-6 magnitude earthquakes occur 2-4 per day, and 4-5 magnitude earthquakes occur 20-25 per day.
As expected Mr. Dave claimed earthquakes of varying magnitudes on dates before, between, on and after his peak potent period. Not a single 7+ earthquake occurred on any of these days, but Mr. Dave blatantly misstated the magnitudes of these earthquakes. It is a comical list of claims, but one that speaks to his disingenuity. He seems incapable of reporting accurately even the most basic of facts.
You can check for yourself all this earthquake information by going on the USGS earthquake search.
But my main quibble is not with these reporting inaccuracies. I put that down to over-excitement. My objections are over procedures.
What is the justification for claiming that tidal forces caused the earthquake that was claimed and not one of the dozen others that took place on that day? All Mr. Dave is doing is choosing post facto from a list of earthquakes that occurred on the day, the earthquakes that is closest to the magnitude he gave or one he deems significant in some way.
I like to call this retrospective coronation.
Again, how does he know that tidal forces caused the bigger earthquake he has claimed and not a smaller earthquake that took place some where else? He doesn't know, but you see without a prior declaration of a location and a hypothesis it is impossible for anyone to verify his claim. And that suits the astrology community just fine.
That is why astrologers never give a location.
Mr. Dave will deny that he chooses earthquakes after they occur, but here is an example which gives his game away. He had "predicted" that an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 or so will occur on September 16th. Unfortunately for him there was no earthquake larger than 6 on that day. So what did he do? He claimed a 5.0 magnitude earthquake (he gives the mag. as 4.9) that occurred in the Satara district of Maharashtra as proof of his "predictions"!
It is stupid claims like this one that lays bare the intellectual bankruptcy of these bogus earthquake prediction schemes astrologers concoct from time to time.
Remember earthquake frequencies? There were 26 earthquakes on September 16 of magnitudes 4-6. There were 4 earthquakes of magnitude greater than the one he choose. How does he know that tidal stresses caused the Satara earthquake and not any one of the other 25? He doesn't. The only reason he choose to claim this particular earthquake is because thousands of people in the Mumbai-Pune area felt it. Humans react to and remember events that occur close to the place they live and Mr. Dave knew he could fool people into believing that he actually predicted that earthquake.
So astrologers are not really predicting a earthquake. They are simply just highlighting after the fact one out of the many that occur on any given day.
Location and a hypothesis, Location and a hypothesis, Location and a hypothesis. Without these any claim to a prediction is meaningless.
Did I mention even the incomplete location information given by him was wrong for all the earthquakes he has claimed?
I find this non-disclosure of location information most revealing! Mr Dave and other astrologers argue that they too are trying to save lives by coming up with a prediction system. That is as strange an argument as I have even come across. How on earth can you save lives if you don't specify where an earthquake is going to strike?
One last requirement of a scientific prediction is the complete disclosure of negative results. Mr. Dave has never admitted that his location information is missing or wrong in all the cases. Another type of negative result is earthquakes that occur on days other than those given. Ambuj pointed this out sometime back. Mr Dave claims that big earthquakes occur solely due to tidal stresses and there are potent days when they will occur. Since his September prediction which appeared on my blog on July 13 to the date of this post, leaving aside the entire month of September, there were 25 earthquakes of magnitudes 6 and above. How does he explain these earthquakes which all fell on days when the heavenly bodies were not engaged in a destructive tango?
In fact how does he explain not just these biggish earthquakes but the hundreds of smaller earthquakes that occur every day?
Here is my suggestion for what Mr. Dave's next prediction should look like:
Magnitude X (range) , Time range , location in Longitude and Latitude and a hypothesis of how and why tidal stresses will cause strain to build up and rupture rocks in the region he has indicated. This is to be followed by a full disclosure of negative results.
If he does this I am sure the seismology community will follow his claims with interest. But just rolling the dice and jumping up in excitement whenever an earthquake happens to coincide with a full moon, new moon or quarter moon day is not acceptable.
I predict Mr. Dave will not accept this qualifying criteria.
I am sure because:
Gustav ,Hanna and Ike three major storms in first week of September08Vanuattu quake of 6.5 on 8th September 2008 ,at 0305 Gmtkeep counting pleaseDave
Astrologer / Engineer
Yes hurricanes too. With this mindset Mr. Dave will continue to fool himself and other ignoramuses who are already convinced that their destiny has been decided by the alignment of distant planets.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Killer Limestones And The American Civil War
From Earth magazine summary:
Then, on Sept. 17, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Battle of Antietam began. The armies blasted each other with gunfire from dawn until nearly dusk. That day proved to be the single bloodiest day of the American Civil War, with more than 23,000 men lying dead or wounded in the valley's fields by nightfall.
But in addition to the bullets and cannonballs, soldiers in both armies had another common enemy that day: carbonate rock.This was from an era where soldiers just used to line up on opposite sides and let go with their muskets and then charge at each other. The battle of Antietam in 1862 took place in the area surrounding the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland.
The fields are underlain by limestones and associated sedimentary rocks of Cambrian to lower Ordovician in age. Way back around 500 million years ago that area was part of a complex of Cambro-Ordovician marine sedimentary basins that stretched along the length of the now eastern U.S. Thousands of feet of carbonate sediments accumulated in these basins over time.
As with any depositional system the composition of the sediments varied over space and time. So there were depositional sub-centers where relatively pure carbonate sediments were being produced, other sub-centers which could be just a few 100 meters away accumulated a mix of carbonate and terrigenous clastic mud and sands. At places the original calcite sediments were replaced by the mineral dolomite.
Now these compositionally different sedimentary rocks respond differently to chemical weathering. Sediments composed of calcite (limestones) are most susceptible and over millions of years such areas will get worn down to relatively flat terrains. Areas with a mix of shale, limestone and dolomite respond differently. Limestone gets weathered faster than shale and dolomite and the results is a more uneven, undulating topography.
When the geologists mapped the casualty rates at Antietam to the underlying geology they found a correlation. The highest casualty rates were in those portions of the battlefield which were underlain by pure limestone and which had weathered down to a relatively flat terrain. On a plain, the opponent is in plain sight and there is nowhere to hide. The image below is a tilted view of an area known as Cornfield just north of Sharpsburg, where the casualty rate was especially high.
Here are a couple more images. The one below is a shaded relief map of the battlefield.
Source: Military geology of Antietam battlefield
The red circle in the upper part of the image is the Cornfield area. You can see the terrain is less dissected by streams and appears flat. The outlined area to the bottom of the image is more dissected by streams and shows a marked relief. This is the Burnside Bridge area which is a couple of miles from Cornfield and where soldiers could find cover in the deeply dissected gulley's and streams. Here casualty rates were three times lower than Cornfield.
The image below is a terrain profile of Cornfield and Burnside Bridge.
Source: Military geology of Antietam battlefield
Given time even granite terrains can wear down to a flat featureless plain. So the important factor here was not the composition of the rock by itself, but the difference in facies heterogeneity. Both sides during the Civil war used the terrain to their advantage. But studies which specifically try to draw out a connection of geology to a particular battle are rare and I enjoyed reading this one.


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