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Why we are nihilists not fatalists
25 08 10 - 07:32Life is sacred:
As for ethics, they are elemental in Bradburyâs fiction and screenplays, and even in his horror stories (every devotee of ghostly fiction should read his collection of early stories titled The October Country). Moral truths appear not in obvious nuggets, like raisins in a raisin cake, but blended among the basic ingredients.
They bespeak Bradburyâs beliefs that human beings are more than the flies of summer â they are in fact made for knowing beauty, truth, and eternity â and that each movement toward political centralization, materialism, sham intellectualism, and needless destruction of the natural environment endangers all that makes life fulfilling and worthwhile, rendering man little more than a trousered ape. - National Review
Every time we try to reduce reality to convenience, safety, equality and peace, we make a hell of boredom, irreverence, resentment and stupidity.
If parents all around us are clutching their children close, itâs easy to understand why: Itâs what pop culture is telling us to do. Stories of kidnappings swamp the news. Go online, and you can find a map of local sex offenders as easily as the local Victoriaâs Secret (possibly in the same place). Meantime, if you do summon the courage to put your kids on a bus or a bench or a bike, other parents keep butting in: An unwatched child is a tragedy waiting to happen.
We have to be less afraid of nature and more willing to embrace the idea that some rashes and bites are a fair price to pay in exchange for appreciating the wonder of a cool-looking rock or an unforgettable fern.
When we watch TV, we have to remind ourselves that its job is to terrify and disgust us so that weâll keep watching in horror. It is doing an excellent job on both fronts.
We have to learn to remind the other parents who think weâre being careless when we loosen our grip that we are actually trying to teach our children how to get along in the world, and that we believe this is our job. A child who can fend for himself is a lot safer than one forever coddled, because the coddled child will not have Mom or Dad around all the time. Adults once knew what we have forgotten today. Kids are competent. Kids are capable. Kids deserve freedom, responsibility, and a chance to be part of the world. - The Week
Everywhere there is fear, there is control.
Control works from the negative -- what is the biggest fear? Who is most likely to screw up and become a victim? -- which turns society inside out.
Instead of focusing on goals and the people most likely to be a credit to our society, we focus on fears and those who are hopeless.
And who are the fear preachers?
Osama abhors the vision of interfaith harmony that the proposed Islamic center represents. He fears Muslim clerics who can cite the Koran to denounce terrorism.
Itâs striking that many American Republicans share with Al Qaeda the view that the West and the Islamic world are caught inevitably in a âclash of civilizations.â - NYT
If you don't want us all to be one big happy family, one human race -- then you're afraid. Right? Well, that's what the professional idiots want you to think.
But if you analyze it, the "one big family" and "equality/everyone wins" outlook is fear of life itself. Fear of different abilities, or different decisions.
Given the number of British writers who have been attracted to the camels and tents and desolation of Arab tribal life it is tempting to reduce it to an infatuation with the noble savage. But this is misleading. As Ernest Gellner points out in Muslim Society, it was more often the aristocratic ranking of a feudal order that appealed to those drawn to the Arab world:
The European discovery and exploration of Muslim tribal society occurred in the main after the French Revolution, and was often carried out by menâlong before T.E.Lawrenceâwho were possessed by a nostalgia for a Europe as it was prior to the diffusion of the egalitarian ideal ⦠They sought, not the noble savage, but the savage noble.
Thatâs an interesting twist. Savage nobles aplenty can be found waving their swords and daggers throughout The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a work some regard as one of the important books of the twentieth century. - Roger Sandall
The egalitarian ideal means that we must all be forced to be equal, at the expense of all else. Naturally it includes control, because nothing in nature is equal, and humanity won't be "equal" until we're equal in abilities which means either (a) lowest common denominator or (b) let the best beat the rest into submission and rape them.
But we live in a false reality, because our thinking starts with that post-1789 egalitarian-control fiction, so we're completely oblivious to reality:
"If you're a Westerner, your intuitions about human psychology are probably wrong or at least there's good reason to believe they're wrong," Dr. Henrich says.
After analyzing reams of data from earlier studies, the UBC team found that WEIRD people reacted differently from others in experiment after experiment involving measures of fairness, anti-social punishment and co-operation, as well as visual illusions and questions of individualism and conformity.
Others punish participants perceived as too altruistic in co-operation games, but very few in the English-speaking West would ever dream of penalizing the generous. Westerners tend to group objects based on resemblance (notebooks and magazines go together, for example) while Chinese test subjects prefer function (grouping, say, a notebook with a pencil). Privileged Westerners, uniquely, define themselves by their personal characteristics as opposed to their roles in society.
Moreover, WEIRD people do not simply react to the world differently, according to the paper, they perceive it differently to begin with. Take the well-known Muller-Lyer optical illusion, which uses arrows to trick the viewer into thinking one line is longer than another, even if both are the same length. (See the diagram on this page.)
"No matter how many times you measure those lines, you can't cause yourself to see them as the same length," Dr. Henrich says. At least that's true for a Westerner. For some hunter-gatherers, the Muller-Lyer lines do not cause an illusion. - National Post
We see only the surface of appearance, because we're so used to controlling each other socially. Our means of control are guilt, obligation, passive aggression and most of all, punishing those who are not egalitarian. It's a perfect perpetual witch-hunt.
If you want to know why the West is dying, it's this kind of "we must all be one" thinking that prevents anyone from climbing above the mass of clueless humanity. It has made us into a society of obedient sufferers beholden to the lowest common denominator.
No wonder Islam appealed to those who saw what 1789 portended.


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I'm looking for a new Rumbelle/OUAT wallpaper. Can anyone recommend any?
The good and the bad, from my POV, for whoever cares to know.
Edit: I recommend the Kingfiles one. Best speed.
The problem with going back in time, of course, is how do you justify not having Neal and Graham live again (even if the time spell doesn't last long). When dead no longer means dead you've got a problem in your hands.
Under the cut for spoilers everywhere.
Happy OUAT Sunday!
One of the things that struck me most about Bleeding Through is Eva. It's not that she's some bratty princess who tattles on Cora (who, btw, is not a victim. She was going to lie to a guy about fathering a baby and steal and she didn't get away with it, that's hardly a tragic story) but that she then proceeds to try and cheer Leopold up by promising him that he will one day have a pure child. That is some fucked up, weird thing to say right there. A pure child.
Then I got to thinking. Who's the patron fairy of Eva's family? Wanna say it with me? The Fucking Blue Fairy. Eva has been promised since her birth to Leopold. So far that's the only time we've seen a betrothal of that kind. Makes me wonder if it wasn't a suggestion from the Blue Fairy herself.
Moreover Eva seems dead-set on marrying Leopold even before they meet. Days after they meet she's adoringly promising him some pure child, looking at him like he's the sun and stars? Leopold might be the guy you choose once you get to know him but he's no looker and not really into marrying Eva either, though Eva seems 100% in love already. What happened to her growing up to make her think it's her destiny to marry Prince Baldy?
I'm calling it right not that this is part of the ultimate master plan of the Blue Fairy to create a pure child that would give birth to a child of True Love who would then give birth to the Truest Believer, all part of some plan that has to do with magic (saving it or something).
For research purposes, what's the cheesiest line from OUAT you can remember?
Oh, wank. Thou populest mine dash. Several people have asked me my thoughts on the highly controversial Bleeding Through stills and I thought I'd oblige in a post:
a. No, nothing in those stills comes even close to being a threat to Rumbelle. Besides this show giving us the ultimate reassurance regarding shipping (True Love's kiss and the idea that true love trumps everything) Zelena is the reason why Rumple's 300 year quest to get his son back has failed miserably. So no, nope, nothing to fear on that front.
b. Most people (myself included) are not disturbed about the pics because of the idea that this affects Rumbelle. We are disturbed because Rumple is being forced to kiss someone he doesn't want to (and no mere peck either, it seems) and that, furthermore, has killed his son. And used HIM to do it (it's all sorts of horrible, the way Zelena kills Bae so that Rumple can sort of indirectly blame himself for it). Even if it turns out to be a trap set out by Rumple it's still all sorts of squeak.
c. The show has a horrible history of handling male sexual assault horribly. Like… the worst possible way. They should get a prize for that because I cannot think of worse ways to handle it. So I don't look forward to Rumple being Zelena's sex toy. Specially if A&E ever talk about it.
d. It's an over-used plot, at this point. Cora already did it (no, not in the past, but when she formed a "truce" with Rumple to give him the globe) and Regina did it with Graham. I am tired of female villains being over-sexualized and everything having to do with people wanting to get into other people's pants (Hook and Rumple… fighting over a woman, Hook and Bae with Emma, etc.).
e. What I like about Zelena is her obsession with Regina and the place she "stole" from her. That's what I want the writers to focus in. Abandonment issues and how familiar love is just as important because look what happens when people are rejected by family. Instead we get Zelena playing the evil vixen.
f. It's telling that Rumple is the only villain that doesn't exhibit that need to sexually subjugate others or use sex or his sexuality to get something (he plays the flirt but it's all an act). I think it's demeaning to women that all female villains (with the exception, so far, of Maleficent) all exhibit this hyper-sexuality and the trope of "using sex as a weapon". Women are more than that.
g. Despite all of this the episode was written by the one writer in the show that has openly discussed how horrible Regina's treatment of Graham was so I am more than hopeful this will be handled well (at least in this episode). And I hope after this the focus can shift once more to Zelena's obsession with Regina, which I find 100% more interesting.
Is there a link to next episode's promo yet?
I love that the fandom's general reaction to "It's not easy being green" is "Get over yourself, Zelena!"
This might be the thing that unites all oncers.
Links are up, people! Have a nice OUAT Sunday!
Asked by Anonymous
No worries! Basically there are two amazing sites that are likely to have it as soon as it begins to air in Canada, so with a fast internet connection you can be watching it almost as soon as they do.
First Site: Scene Source
Almost guaranteed to have it first. Also it'll provide a fuckton of links. Try to find Billionuploads, Putlocker (now called Fire something), bitshare or netload, those are the fastest.
Second Site: DDValley
Might take a few more minutes than the other but they usually have a lot of links from the get go. Best one's usually the "Direct Download" from Multiuploads.
For any and all series those are the go-to sites. I recommend both. Usually the first links to appear are for MP4, but if you wait because you want really, really good quality you can get a MKV relatively fast too. Those are a lot heavier, though, so they're not for the impatient people!
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subset: commoncrawl


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SAS training soldier suffered multiple organ failure
A soldier who died following an SAS training exercise in the Brecon Beacons suffered multiple organ failure, an inquest has heard.
Corporal James Dunsby was pronounced dead in hospital 17 days after collapsing on South Wales's highest mountain on one of the hottest days of the year.
Fellow reservists Edward John Maher and Craig John Roberts also died in the incident.


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Routes Sorted
L to R R to L Alpha
Stellar route, one of the best in Maryland. Begin 10' left of Air Show, climb this fantastic corner crack system up to the roof. At the roof, follow the crack out and step left, reaching up to either a ledge or a jug, depending on your ape index. Power up to the top. Pumpy route, a solid lead that takes mostly medium to big gear. A rack of #0.5 to #5 camalots with some long slings is about perfect. (Indy)
This is the dihedral/corner near the center of the cliff.
Trad protection (see description). Fixed Top anchors, hidden from view from above, visible to the leader when they are topping out.


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Best Quotes About Quality
List Criteria: Must be a famous or well-known quote. If a quote is cut off you can hover over the text to see the full quote.
This list answers the questions, "What are the best quotes about quality?" and "What are inspirational quality quotes?"
This list includes notable quality quotes by various authors, writers, playwrights, speakers, politicians, athletes, poets, and more. Vote on your favorites so that the greatest quality quotes rise to the top, as the order of the list changes dynamically based on votes. Don't let your favorite quality sayings get to the bottom of the list.
- 1Up 14Down 1
When you're out of quality you're out of business.
- 2Up 9Down 0
If you don't have time to do it right you must have time to do it over.
- 3Up 6Down 0
There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.Henry Ford More
- 4Up 5Down 1
new! Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds, shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.Juvenal More
- 5Up 6Down 2Napoleon Bonaparte More
- 6Up 3Down 0
If you think of standardization as the best that you know today, but which is to be improved tomorrow; you get somewhere.Henry Ford More
- 7Up 5Down 2
It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.Mahatma Gandhi More
- 8Up 2Down 0
One of the rarest things that a man ever does, is to do the best he can.Josh Billings More
- 9Up 2Down 0
Produce great pumpkins, the pies will follow later.
- 10Up 2Down 0
The artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like the bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.Ralph Waldo Emerson More
- 11Up 3Down 1
Unionism, seldom if ever, uses such powers as it has to ensure better work; almost always it devotes a large part of that power to safeguard bad work.H. L. Mencken More
- 12Up 3Down 1
By the work one knows the workmen.Jean de La Fontaine More
- 13Up 3Down 1
Quality is value to some person.Gerald Weinberg More
- 14Up 4Down 2
If you want work well done, select a busy man; the other kind has no time.Elbert Hubbard More
- 15Up 2Down 1
We are never so ridiculous by the qualities we have, as by those we affect to have.François de La Rochefoucauld More
- 16Up 2Down 1
Make the workmanship surpass the materials.Ovid More
- 17Up 3Down 2
Quality will be prized as a precious possession.
- 18Up 1Down 1
No good book or good thing of any kind shows it best face at first. No the most common quality of in a true work of art that has excellence and depth, is that at first sight it produces a certain disappointment.Thomas Carlyle More
- 19Up 1Down 1
Whether for life or death, do your own work well.John Ruskin More
- 20Up 1Down 1
What is the cheapest to you now is likely to be the dearest to you in the end.John Ruskin More
- 21Up 1Down 1
Permit no hour to go by without it due improvement.Thomas à Kempis More
- 22Up 1Down 1
There is no labor a person does that is undignified; if they do it right.Bill Cosby More
- 23Up 2Down 2
When a man is no longer anxious to do better than well, he is done for.Benjamin Haydon More
- 24Up 1Down 2
Ninety percent of everything is crud.Theodore Sturgeon More
- 25Up 0Down 1
Quicker by taking more time.
- 26Up 0Down 1
Pay beforehand if you would have your work poorly done.
- 27Up 0Down 2
Could everything be done twice it would be done better.
- 28Up 0Down 2
The best is the cheapest.Benjamin Franklin More
- 29 +
items 1 - 28 of 28
think you can do better?
Rerank This List
got a blog or website?


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PRINCETON (WVVA) - A Mercer County magistrate is under investigation for allegedly showing favoritism to certain defendants, Prosecutor Scott Ash tells WVVA News.
Magistrate Rick Fowler is under investigation by the county prosecutor's office. And a spokesman for the Mercer County Sheriff's Department confirms that an investigator from the Judicial Investigation Commission was also in Princeton earlier this week looking into the allegations.
No charges have been filed thus far.
WVVA News will have more details on the investigation this evening on WVVA News at 6.


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Military branches: Spanish Armed Forces: Army (Ejercito de Tierra), Spanish Navy (Armada Espanola, AE; includes Marine Corps), Spanish Air Force (Ejercito del Aire Espanola, EdA) (2013)
Definition: This entry lists the service branches subordinate to defense ministries or the equivalent (typically ground, naval, air, and marine forces).
Source: CIA World Factbook - Unless otherwise noted, information in this page is accurate as of December 6, 2013
© 2013 IndexMundi. All rights reserved.


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Accessing the GroupWise System
You can only access the new system through a WebAccess portal specially designed for GroupWise. You start GroupWise WebAccess as you would any other home page on the Internet. To access your GroupWise account
- Use your Web browser and go to URL http://bearmail.uca.edu (this no longer takes you to the old email system)
- On the GroupWise WebAccess login page, enter your username and password.
- Select you connection speed:
- High (Broadband), which has all the features that are available in GroupWise WebAccess. Use this default setting if you have a high-speed Internet connection.
- Low (Dial-up), which looks the same as the default high-speed interface but does not autoupdate your message list and calendar.
- If using a mobile phone to connect to the system, you may wish to select "Use the basic interface". The basic interface has limited functionality and graphics. It is designed to perform the most basic tasks in GroupWise WebAccess.
- (Optional) If you use the same browser to log in to GroupWise WebAccess every time, select Remember My Settings to save your preferences.
- Click Login.
Understanding the GroupWise Web Access Timeout
Specific actions, such as opening or sending an item, generate a call to the Web server. Other actions, such as scrolling through items in the Item List, composing a message without sending it, or reading Help topics, do not generate a call to the Web server. If, for a period of time, you leave GroupWise WebAccess alone or perform actions that do not generate a call, WebAccess logs you out. Doing so provides security for your e-mail and ensures that the Web server and GroupWise WebAccess run efficiently.
The timeout period is 20 minutes. If you try to perform an action after you have been logged out, you are prompted to log in again.
To ensure that you have the latest information in your Mailbox and to prevent frequent timeouts, click Update.
Setup Instructions to POP GroupWise Account to a Mobile Device
iPhone – Setup Instructions for Student POP
Android – Setup Instructions for Student POP


text:
By Chris Nay
In 2006, Pluto was still a planet, your mom wasn't on Facebook, and IBM Research started to publicly outline five technology predictions that would pan out over the following five years. Some are right on track, like 2008's "you will talk to the Web, and it will talk back to you." Some might take a little longer than five years, like 2010's "batteries will breathe air for power" (but the Battery500 project is making great progress).
Other predictions didn't need five months, much less five years. When scientists in IBM Research's Services Lab revealed their virtual chef as the tech behind last year's 5 in 5 Taste prediction, it quickly captured the minds and palates of the public. It also nudged the idea of cognitive computing, made real by Watson, to the question: Could a machine be creative?
This virtual chef can create original, tasty and healthy recipes because it has digested thousands of recipes, knows what people like to eat, and understands the chemistry behind thousands of ingredients that could combine for more than one quintillion possibilities.
Bam! A Dish No One Has Ever Seen Before
"We chose food because we needed a domain to explore this idea of computational creativity, and because food is visceral. Everyone eats," said Lav Varshney, the project's lead scientist with a background in information theory, neuroscience, and signal processing.
The system uses text mining, analytics, and statistical reasoning similar to that of the Watson system. Where the virtual chef differs with its cognitive cousin is not only in its understanding of food chemistry, but its ability to generate results not found in any data source. With existing recipes as a starting point, the team began weaving in algorithms that could one, select ingredients, and two, generate entirely unique recipes for we humans to then creatively cook.It also uses principles of hedonic psychophysics to predict what we may perceive as "surprising" or "flavorful" when considering ingredient combinations. Hence, like Watson's ability to rank clue responses, the virtual chef knows that the ingredients in "Swiss-Thai Asparagus Quiche" score well together, and will taste good before we so much as light a stove top.
According to Varshney, flavor compounds, down to the citrols and 2-tridecanones, are more useful to the system than complete recipes. "It's amazing that we can predict how flavorful something is just by knowing that the more molecularly complex a food is, the more flavorful it is." So, unlike when Mom said "try it, you'll like it" when you asked what was for dinner, you can trust this virtual chef.
Here, Lav and his colleagues test the program on his parents:
From Lab to Kitchen: A New Kind of Man-Machine Pairing
Varshney now needed partners who could creatively cook the ideas that their system was baking up. So, last year, team member Florian Pinel, also a graduate of New York's Institute of Culinary Education, arranged a meeting with his alma mater over dinner – a dinner catered by a computationally creative machine. And to put a made-for-TV twist on the meeting, IBM Research Services Vice President Mahmoud Nagshineh challenged the team to come up with the menu, based on a secret ingredient (turmeric) he would deliver 24 hours before dinner.
On a dark and stormy November night in Manhattan, the team gathered to cook Indian Turmeric Paella.
Frankenfood it was not. The dishes "were good enough to eat," Nagshineh said. "More importantly, our guests from ICE saw the potential."
Using the software program is a three-step process. First you choose a key ingredient; then a geographic region of the globe; and finally a dish style, such as soup, baked, or fried, among many others. There's no pretense that the machine works on its own. This is a true collaboration of computer with chef. In this case, chefs at ICE began working with IBM on improving the recipe steps, and offering their expertise in cooking preparation and method.
Expanding the Creative Domain
A commercial virtual chef will need some serious horsepower. But as a service on the cloud, any number of industries could customize it. From institutes like ICE, to flavor houses and food manufacturers, they all have servers stuffed with proprietary data that could be customized for industrial applications.
So, just as Watson moved into mobile app development, the team is already thinking about how diverse domains ranging from user experience design, to fashion, and others could use the virtual chef's computational creativity. What about a new cologne scent?
Taste was just one of the cognitive computing ideas explored in last year's IBM 5 in 5. Check back here on December 17 for the eighth iteration of the 5 in 5, and see where IBM researchers think computing will take us next.
If you want to learn more about the new era of computing, read Smart Machines: IBM's Watson and the Era of Cognitive Computing.
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Posted by: Bryant C.
8:19 pm
The whole idea is gob-smacking (and lip-smacking too!!) , but with all that technology at hand , why, oh WHY are the captions so incorrect! The voice recognition software cannot deal with accents and language differences. Really, it's a shame.
Posted by: usha
3:31 pm
Some recipes are available at http://www.research.ibm.com/cognitive-computing/computational-creativity.shtml
Posted by: Lav Varshney
11:24 am
It would be great see the recipes posted. Let all of us try Watson cuisine!
Posted by: Diana Zwart
12:07 pm
[…] idea of building a virtual chef was especially appealing for me because in 2005 I earned a Culinary Arts degree. After working at […]
Posted by: See What's Cooking in the Cognitive Kitchen A Smarter Planet Blog
8:31 am
[…] in 5 on Smarter Planet Blog – #1 (Virtual Chef), #2 (Innovations), #3 (5 in […]
Posted by: IBM's 5 in 5: In Five Years Everything will Learn | IBM Official Alumni Group: The Greater IBM Connection
1:43 pm
[…] To read IBM's take on this exciting project, click here. […]
Posted by: IBM & ICE: The Future of Culinary Innovation | The Institute of Culinary Education
11:30 am
[…] When Machines Get Creative « A Smarter Planet Blog A Smarter Planet Blog […]
Posted by: What I'm Reading on 12/12/2013 | Blog | Bob Sutor


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Ornamental Turning
The online resource for "OT" enthusiasts
Related topics
- Turners of the past
- 19th C. makers of ornamental turning equipment
- Videos on ornamental turning
- Articles on ornamental turning
- Books on ornamental turning
Coburg ivory at the Getty
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles features an ornamental turned ivory object created by the German scupltor Marcus Heiden in the early 17th century. Heiden's fragile and intricate ivory objects were plundered as spoils of war in Coburg in 1632, and were placed in the Florentine treasure house of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, today called the Museo degli Argenti (Museum of Silver Objects). It appears at least one of them has been spirited off to the United States as part of the Getty Museum collection in Los Angeles, California.
Ornamental Turning Craft
How long has this been going on?
How are ornamental turnings made?
What is ornamental turning?
The term ornamental turning (often referred to as "OT") is used both as a verb and noun – the act of creating and the objects it produces. Ornamental turning describes several different kinds of lathe work, combined with various tools and techniques unique to the craft, that create a decorated surface.
Historically, ornamental turning lathes utilize a variety of specialized attachments and cutting tools that create complex forms such as elliptical, eccentric, rectilinear, swash, "rose" patterns, as well as other kinds of geometric shapes and designs. Some of the same results can be achieved by simpler means: a dividing plate of some sort, a slide rest to control the cutting tool, and a rotary cutter of any type. And recently, computer controlled lathes and machines are being programmed to produce "OT" work.
To create an ornamental turning, the work is usually fixed in place (or sometimes turned very slowly) while a fly-cutter or drill is used to make a cut. A series of cuts are made across the surface of the work by either repositioning the cutter or the item being cut. This is generally referred to as "indexed" work. This is quite a different approach from general woodturning – in which the work spins rapidly on a lathe between two centers while a handheld tool is used to make a cut – and it produces strikingly different results.
Objects with ornamental turning often display a variety of finely cut lines that create beautiful reflective patterns, although sometimes simpler, broadly carved shapes are the result. The finished pieces are sometimes functional and other times purely decorative. Although a variety of materials may be used, including horn, plastic, and (historically) ivory, the main ones used today are wood and metal.
Ornamental turning in metal is called "engine turning" or guilloché. This is a type of engraving that produces repetitive patterns of parallel or intersecting lines – circular, oval or straight – on the surface of various objects, such as fancy pocket watches, cigarette cases, and pens. Guilloché patterns were also printed on bank notes and currency to protect against forged copies. Guilloché can be produced on other materials that hold finely cut edges besides metal, such as plastics, bone, stone, and some wood. When done in silver, it is also sometimes combined with enamel to produce a dramatic and beautiful pairing, such as the pieces by the world renowned Fabergé, whose products included boxes, cigarette cases, compacts, picture and mirror frames, vases, knives, letter openers and, of course, the famous, extraordinary Easter eggs.
Engine turning is typically produced on either a straightline engine or a rose engine. In rose engine turning, a hinged headstock pivots back and forth and follows a cam-like disk (called a rosette) as it rotates. Straightline engines use a pattern bar which has bumps, similar to those on a rosette, but on a flat piece of metal. Engine turning machines can also be used to produce other kinds of ornamental turning. Depending on the tool used to make a cut – a fixed tool set to a precise depth for guilloché patterns in metal, a rotary cutter to create broad cuts in exotic wood, or a large formed cutter fixed in place to shape detailed forms – each will produce significantly different results.
Today, ornamental turning is often a combination of turned work on a standard lathe with additional decoration using OT tools and techniques applied to a piece of work.
Articles and websites that further detail the craft of ornamental turning
- MDF Rose Engine Overview, by Jon Magill, recently published in 2007, provides an excellent overview of ornamental turning. Download from AAW page for Spring 2007 issue of Amercian Woodturner magazine (pdf).
- Ornamental Turning Lathes and their Accessories, by John Edwards, available in PDF format from the SOT web page devoted to the craft.


text:
NASA Mars rover Opportunity reveals geological mystery
Pasadena, Calif., Sept 15 (IBNS) NASA's long-lived rover Opportunity has returned an image of the Martian surface that is puzzling researchers.
Spherical objects concentrated at an outcrop Opportunity reached last week differ in several ways from iron-rich spherules nicknamed "blueberries" the rover found at its landing site in early 2004 and at many other locations to date.
Opportunity is investigating an outcrop called Kirkwood in the Cape York segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.
The spheres measure as much as one-eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) in diameter. The analysis is still preliminary, but it indicates that these spheres do not have the high iron content of Martian blueberries.
"This is one of the most extraordinary pictures from the whole mission," said Opportunity's principal investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
"Kirkwood is chock full of a dense accumulation of these small spherical objects. Of course, we immediately thought of the blueberries, but this is something different. We never have seen such a dense accumulation of spherules in a rock outcrop on Mars."
The Martian blueberries found elsewhere by Opportunity are concretions formed by action of mineral-laden water inside rocks, evidence of a wet environment on early Mars.
Concretions result when minerals precipitate out of water to become hard masses inside sedimentary rocks.
Many of the Kirkwood spheres are broken and eroded by the wind. Where wind has partially etched them away, a concentric structure is evident.
Opportunity used the microscopic imager on its arm to look closely at Kirkwood. Researchers checked the spheres' composition by using an instrument called the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer on Opportunity's arm.
"They seem to be crunchy on the outside, and softer in the middle," Squyres said.
"They are different in concentration. They are different in structure. They are different in composition. They are different in distribution. So, we have a wonderful geological puzzle in front of us. We have multiple working hypotheses, and we have no favorite hypothesis at this time. It's going to take a while to work this out, so the thing to do now is keep an open mind and let the rocks do the talking."
Just past Kirkwood lies another science target area for Opportunity.
The location is an extensive pale-toned outcrop in an area of Cape York where observations from orbit have detected signs of clay minerals. That may be the rover's next study site after Kirkwood.
Four years ago, Opportunity departed Victoria Crater, which it had investigated for two years, to reach different types of geological evidence at the rim of the much larger Endeavour Crater.
The rover's energy levels are favorable for the investigations. Spring equinox comes this month to Mars' southern hemisphere, so the amount of sunshine for solar power will continue increasing for months.
"The rover is in very good health considering its 8-1/2 years of hard work on the surface of Mars," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Energy production levels are comparable to what they were a full Martian year ago, and we are looking forward to productive spring and summer seasons of exploration."
NASA launched the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity in the summer of 2003, and both completed their three-month prime missions in April 2004.
They continued bonus, extended missions for years. Spirit finished communicating with Earth in March 2010. The rovers have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life.
JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./ USGS/Modesto Junior College
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How many carries should Carlos "El Guapo" Hyde get next week?
Hyde got 87 yards tonight. What's that leave him needing for 1000, about 180?
I vote however many carries that takes!
You can kill a fly with your slipper or a cannon. Either way, the fly dies. -Ramzy


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HUFFINGTONPOST.COM - The movie "Battleship" may feature alien encounters, but there was a whole different encounter on board a battleship on "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" (Tue., 9 p.m. ET on Syfy). The latest episode saw them get on board the USS North Carolina, which was reportedly haunted by the spirit of a man who died on board.
While they didn't necessarily see the ghost, they did nevertheless get some mysterious occurrences. At one point, one of the guys was certain that he heard someone running across the deck, but another team member was up there and there was no one else around. click here to read more


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Evil Genius
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Includes author's interview.
Reading Counts RC 39 10320
Reading Counts RC 6-8 3.9 32.0 Quiz: 41290.
Science fiction.
Young adult fiction.
Identity (Philosophical concept)
Good and evil
Mystery and detective stories.
Good and evil
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I love this book, and I sometimes wish I could be as smart as Cadel.
Good book, good book
This is the kind of book which gets called 'zany,' but what it is, is brilliant. The prose flows perfectly, literate but quick and light. The premise and a lot of the characters are a bit cartoon-like - a little flat, brightly colored, larger than life: if you want a gritty, realistic book, or the 'written for you to be sure to relate to' pap that's so common in YA fiction, this novel is definitely not for you. If you want a fast-paced, engaging, complex, highly enjoyable ride that turns out to be a lot more nuanced than it initially seems, sign up now.
The two-dimensional quality does lead to some stereotyping which I disliked at times and almost lost my interest early on in the novel. However, since this book is like living inside the wildest conspiracy theory ever, pretty much nothing is as it's initially represented, and it was well worth reading long enough to find that out.
I'll be reading the sequels as soon as I get my hands on them. I hope they live up to the same standard.
Even though most of words in the book I didn't understand, for example the word "binary", the book is still good. Keep me reading day'n' night!!
Wow. Great start to an amazing series. Catherine Jinks hits the jackpot
i can symmpathise jedi. for some unknown reason this book cannot be put down easily. this book reminds me alot of artemis fowl. although i have to admit cadel piggot is nowhere near as engaging as the young artemis fowl.
This books surprised me. I've seen better writing, better developed characters, and better plots, but rarely has a books kept me reading it for six hour stretches, and this book did.
While some of the research behind the book is of dubious quality, and there's something about it that just doesn't quite hang together, this is just such a fun read that you can ignore all that, and enjoy it anyway.
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Lev Vygotsky ("the
Mozart of Psychology")
For most of his
adult life Vygotsky lived in Communist Russia, as a result his work
shows definite Marxist influences emphasising the role of social
interaction and culture. Vygotsky died of tuberculosis at the age of
37, as a result his theory never went through the later developments
that Piaget's and others were afforded.
Vygotsky is regarded by many to have been a genius and well ahead of
his time.
Vygotsky believed
that a child's cognitive development cannot be seen as occurring in a
social vacuum. In Vygotsky's view, our ability to think and reason by
ourselves and for ourselves (what he terms inner speech or verbal
thought) is the result of a fundamentally social process. At birth, we
are social beings who are capable of interacting with others, but able
to do little either practically or intellectually by or for ourselves.
Gradually, however, we move towards self-sufficiency and independence,
and by participating in social activities, our capabilities become
transformed. For Vygotsky, cognitive development involves an active
internalisation of problem-solving processes that takes place as a
result of mutual interaction between children and those with whom they
have regular social contact (initially the parents, but later friends
and classmates).
Vygotsky's process
of internalisation is the reverse of how Piaget (at least initially) saw
things. As Rogoff (1990) has noted, Piaget's idea of 'the child as a
scientist' is replaced by the idea of 'the child as an apprentice', who
acquires the knowledge and skills of a culture through graded
collaboration with those who already possess such knowledge and skills.
According to Vygotsky (1981):
'Any function in
the child's cultural development appears twice, or on two planes. First
it appears on the social plane, and then on the psychological plane.'
Tools, functions mediated activity and
Elementary mental functions.
These are present at birth and
include sensation and attention. They only show minor development by
experience. Elementary mental functions are present in all animals.
Higher mental functions.
These include problem solving,
mathematical ability, language and thinking.
Cultural influence.
This is required to take us from
Elementary to Higher functions. By cultural influence Vygotsky meant
books, teachers, parents, experts or anything capable of passing on the
knowledge of previous generations.
If, as Vygotsky suggests, higher mental
functions are shaped by culture then different cultures should develop
different higher mental functions; Gredler (1992) studied children in
Papua New Guinea who learn a counting system of 1 to 29 based on
different parts of the body. Clearly this is not going to be good for
dealing with large numbers and as a result adults in the culture
struggle with problems involving larger numbers.
Vygotsky regarded higher mental
functions such as thought, language, mathematical ability and problem
solving as the "tools" of the culture in which the child lives. Tools
are passed down from the older generations so are culturally mediated.
There is some
confusion in the texts as to the difference between a 'tool' and a
'sign.' According to most texts a 'tool' is something that causes a
physical change in the World, whereas a 'sign' creates an internal,
psychological change. However, generally the word 'tool' is used now to
represent both. Imagine me emailing you to complete a piece of
homework. Is that a tool (it causes you to do something physical) or is
it a sign (since it creates a psychological state of unhappiness)?
Once passed on these concepts become
internalised by the child so essentially become part of the child's
cognitive repertoire. The child can then bring about change itself, not
directly but through use of these tools, hence the term mediated
activity. The change has been mediated via a tool.
Getting to the point!
The simple example Vygotsky himself
provides is how the child learns to acquire to tool of pointing.
Initially this begins as an attempt to grasp something out of reach and
is directed at the desired object. A parent or local friendly person
seeing the child's attempts will kindly put the object of its desire
closer so it can be reached. Gradually the child internalises this
grasping behaviour realising it can get results so that it quickly
becomes a deliberate action in its own right. The grasp is now weakened
so it will have no chance of reaching the object and is instead directed
at a local person rather than the object. It has become the tool of
Language is essential for the
communication of knowledge and ideas and as a result is crucial to
Vygotsky's theory.
To understand the theory it is
important to understand the role language plays in thinking. In fact
the two are closely linked. Try to imagine thinking without the use of
words. Vygotsky believed that thought and language develop through a
number of stages:
Ages 0 to 2 years
Language and thought develop
independently of one another. Children have pre-verbal thought and
pre-intellectual speech.
Ages 2 to 7 years
Language has two functions:
Monitor and direct internal
thoughts (inner voice we talk to ourselves with).
Communicate thoughts to
others (talk out loud).
When children at this age talk out loud
to themselves, Vygotsky saw this as a sign that the child is unable to
distinguish between the two.
Age 7 onwards
The child distinguishes between the two
functions of language. Private language is used for thinking and
becomes central to cognitive development. Vygotsky believed that
language and thinking developed in parallel to each other. As our
ability to use language improves this increase our ability to think and
vice versa.
Language is crucial both for thinking
and communication. A child that has developed language is better able
to understand that other children think differently (intersubjectivity).
Convincing evidence of the important role played by inner speech was
reported by Berk (1994). She found that 6-year-olds spent an average of
60% of the time talking to themselves while solving problems in
mathematics. Those whose speech contained numerous comments about what
needed to be done on the current problem did better at mathematics over
the following year. This confirmed Vygotsky's view that self-guiding
speech can make it easier for children to direct their actions.
Presumably this self-guiding speech made it easier for the children to
focus their attention on the task in hand.
Vygotsky argued that private speech diminishes and becomes more internal
as children's level of performance improves. Berk (1994) discussed a
study in which 4- and 5-year-old children made Lego models in each of
three sessions. As predicted by Vygotsky, the children's speech become
increasingly internalised from session to session as their model-making
performance improved. Thus, as Vygotsky assumed, private speech is of
most value to children when they are confronted by novel tasks that they
do not fully understand.
usefulness of Vygotsky's theory of diminishing speech depends on what is
meant by "speech". For example, some children with learning difficulties
are unable to speak but can perform quite well on many types of tasks.
Children who are born profoundly deaf and whose families are hearing
often find speech difficult or impossible to acquire but their
intelligence is sometimes unimpaired. It is interesting to speculate
whether deaf children of deaf parents who grow up using sign language
can use signs as their own private "speech" in the way intended by
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).
'…what is the zone of proximal
development today will be the actual zone of development tomorrow. That
is, what a child can do with some assistance today she will be able to
do by herself tomorrow.' (Vygotsky 1978).
The ZPD is the difference between what
the child can achieve on its own and what it can achieve with help from
others. For learning to occur the adult must provide a challenge that
is beyond what the child is capable of, but within its capabilities with
help, i.e. within its ZPD. Therefore the child can only reach its full
potential with help from others. The help given by adults is referred
to as scaffolding. It is important that the child is challenged
without experiencing failure.
Goodman and Goodman (1990), writing about how teachers teach in the ZPD,
offer five guidelines. They say that teachers should:
Interfere as little as possible.
2. Ask
a question.
Offer a useful hint.
Direct attention at an anomaly.
Direct attention at an overlooked bit of information.
Research evidence
Moss (1992) found that parents,
particularly mothers, provide scaffolding. Moss observed three
Mother instructs the child
with strategies it would not otherwise know.
Mother encourages child to
keep using useful strategies.
Mother persuades the child to
drop inappropriate strategies.
et al (1997) found that fathers are as good at scaffolding. They also
found that children that have received scaffolding show longer-term
improvements in skills as well as immediate improvements.
Freund (1990) conducted a study in which children had to decide which
items of furniture should be placed in particular houses of a dolls
house. Some children were allowed to play with their mother in a similar
situation before they attempted it alone (zone of proximal development)
whilst others were allowed to work on this by themselves (Piaget's
discovery learning). Freund found that those who had previously worked
with their mother (ZPD) showed greatest improvement compared with their
first attempt at the task. The conclusion being that guided learning
within the ZPD led to greater understanding/performance than working
alone (discovery learning).
Greenfield and Lave (1982; see PIP p.540) found that experts teaching
Mexican girls to weave structured their assistance so that girls stayed
within their ZPD, with successful outcomes.
and Strayer (1990) also suggest that mothers of gifted children tend to
encourage the use of metacognitive strategies more than mothers of
children within the normal range of
Development. What is more, Bouffard-Bouchard and Gagne´ -Dupuis (1994)
say that the educational practices of mothers with low social status are
less directed towards stimulating their children's zone of proximal
development than those displayed by mothers with high social status, and
that this influences pre-school children's cognitive development.
researchers e.g. Wertsch (1985) show that more successful adult
scaffolders adapt their scaffolding strategies to both their children's
development and the difficulty of the task. Wertsch (1985) reported that
adults adjust their speech to children's language skills, and that when
they use demanding cognitive expressions that are beyond the child's
current skills they tend to be ineffective.
Learning through play
(courtesy of Wikipedia)
Through play the child develops abstract meaning separate from the
objects in the world which is a critical feature in the development of
higher mental functions.
famous example Vygotsky gives is of a child who wants to ride a horse
but can't. As a child under three, the child would show outward signs of
frustration, but around the age of three the child's relationship with
the world changes:
"Henceforth play is such that the explanation for it must always be that
it is the imaginary, illusory realization of unrealizable desires.
Imagination is a new formation that is not present in the consciousness
of the very young child, is totally absent in animals, and represents a
specifically human form of conscious activity. Like all functions of
consciousness, it originally arises from action." (Vygotsky, 1978)
have all seen children stand astride a stick and pretend they are riding
a horse. For Vygotsky the stick is acting as a 'pivot.' A pivot is a
way a child learns to separate words from the objects they represent. A
young child thinks 'horse' and can't imagine anything other than a real
horse. Through play sticks can also represent 'horse.'
children get older, their reliance on pivots such as sticks, dolls and
other toys diminishes. They have internalized these pivots as
imagination and abstract concepts through which they can understand the
Another aspect of play that Vygotsky referred to was the development of
social rules that develop, for example, when children play house and
adopt the roles of different family members. Vygotsky cites an example
of two sisters playing at being sisters. The rules of behavior between
them that go unnoticed in daily life are consciously acquired through
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text:
Ravioli With Peas and Crispy Bacon
Serves 4| Hands-On Time: | Total Time:
- 16 to 18 ounces fresh or frozen cheese ravioli
- 6 slices bacon
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 10-ounce package frozen peas, thawed
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 1/4 cup grated ricotta salata
- Cook the ravioli according to the package directions. Reserve ¼ cup of the pasta water, drain the ravioli, and return them to the pot.
- Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel–lined plate. Let cool, then break into pieces.
- Add the garlic to the skillet and cook, stirring frequently, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the peas and cook until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Gently mix the ravioli with the peas, reserved pasta water, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Sprinkle with the bacon and ricotta salata.
Quick Tip
Salty, dense ricotta salata is perfect for grating and shaving onto pasta. Parmesan or Pecorino Romano also works in its place.
Did you try this recipe? How did you like it?
High in vitamin C, these hard, tart berries are grown in bogs in colder regions of North America and Europe. They're almost always eaten cooked, as in the classic Thanksgiving relish.


text:
Since I am coming from the BizTalk world, I feel very comfortable in implementing Workflows, using the Microsoft Workflow 4.0 runtime. The engine comes with a lot of similar activities and capabilities as the XLANG engine provides us for more than 6 years already.
One of the typical patterns that involve long-running processes is correlation and more in specific; convoys. Each time different messages or calls have to be related together in order to achieve something, we are using convoys. Convoy processing is a typical design pattern.
There are two types of convoys, which I will demonstrate both:
The main difference in the two types of convoys is the order of receipt of the items.
This blog post shows two scenarios in an online travel website, where users can rate hotels and where hotels can be added, by consuming workflow services from any mash-up application.
The source code of my example can be found here.
The concept of correlation is when various messages or calls need to be linked to the same instance of a long-running workflow. These calls are typically related, based on content in the message, or based on context of the call (endpoint, for example).
An example would be where a workflow creates a user task on sharepoint and waits until the task is completed. Multiple instances of that workflow can run in the same time and tasks can be completed in a different order than they were created. Therefore, we need to make sure that the task completion event is sent to the correct instance of the workflow that created the task. This is called correlation.
Setting up correlation in workflow is done by defining a variable of type System.ServiceModel.Activities.CorrelationHandle This variable needs to be scoped to make sure it is available for all receive and send activities that need to participate in the correlation.
Correlations are initialized or followed on the messaging activities.
The first scenario is a workflow service that processes the user rates that is given for a certain hotel. A requirement for the web site is that the rating for a hotel should only be published when at least 5 user ratings have been received for that specific hotel. This is needed to prevent influences of one specific rating.
This is why we implement a sequential convoy.
For this, we have a sequential workflow that exposes a web operation: SubmitHotelReview. This operation accepts a message of type HotelReview (a datacontract class with some basic parameters). All calls to this workflow service will be correlated to the same instance, based on the hotel ID.
The most important settings of the Receive activity are shown in the following table.
A common mistake is to also specify an entry in the CorrelationInitializers property to initialize the content-based correlation handle (hotel id). But doing this, would result in the following exception: An instance key of value {Guid}' already exists. This could be because there are multiple MessageQuerySets defined that evaluate to the same CorrelationKey. The reason for this is that the correlationkey would be initialized twice, which results in this exception.
To have the sequential convoy implemented, we need to correlate all receives together and therefore we can add a loop, using the DoWhile activity. Here we just add the receive activity in the 'Do-body' and define a condition, making sure we continue processing (publishing the hotel rates), once five reviews have been received.
The entire workflow service is displayed in the following screenshot. (click to enlarge)
The second scenario is a workflow service that adds new hotel information to the web site. Data for these hotels is coming from two different sources. One consumer of our workflow service will pas in the general hotel information, where another consumer application will provide pricing information for a hotel. The sequence of these events is unknown and can differ from one hotel to the other.
This is why we implement a parallel convoy.
For this, we have a sequential workflow that exposes two web operations: SubmitGeneralInformation and SubmitPricingInformation. Both receive activities correlate on the same correlation handle that is correlating on the HotelId.
The settings of the receive activities are similar to the settings listed in the sequential convoy sample.
To make sure we can accept both pricing and general information, we add the receives in a parallel shape, which will make sure we will only continue the flow if all branches have been successfully completed (and thus all messages have been received).
Implementing convoys in Workflow 4.0 is rather straightforward and does not require very complex tricks or configuration. The magic is all in the correlation handling.
In comparison with BizTalk, I really like the sequential convoy implementation, since we now only have the need for one single Receive activity, where in BizTalk the initializing and the following receives need to be two different shapes.
Something I curious about is if there would also be the concept of zombie messages that are typical in the convoy scenarios. (when a message is being received at the exact same time as the looping condition of the sequential convoy completes.)
Sam Vanhoutte, CODit
Posted in: AppFabric | BizTalk | Workflow
Tags: Workflow, AppFabric, Correlation, Convoy
I was building a test solution for my next blog post and I started to create a new workflow service in Visual Studio. But apparently the designer came up with an exception for me:
Workflow Designer encountered problems with your document Please check the document for invalid content, namespaces, references or reference loops.
'\' is an unexpected token. The expected token is ';'. Line 3, position 99.
After opening the XAML view, I noticed the full path of the xamlx file was added to the xml in the sad:XamlDebuggerXmlReader.FileName attribute of the sequence (main element). And there it appeared that the fileName was not well-encoded, resulting in invalid XML, because of the usage of '&' sign. (I added my blog tests in a folder with name R&D …)
The solution to this issue was to manually escape the R&D with R&D string.
Off course, one could argue why the 'source code' or 'model' of a Workflow service needs to maintain a reference to a physical file on a developers machine (in source safe, everyone on the same project can check out to different locations…)
Just wanted to share this one.
Posted in: AppFabric | Workflow
Tags: Workflow, AppFabric, XAML
As described in the following wiki white paper on the social technet site (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/biztalk-appfabric-better-together.aspx) there is a nice new feature that gets installed through the released beta of BizTalk 2010. Two capabilities of BizTalk Server are made available to WF 4.0! This is about the BizTalk mapper and the Line of Business adapters (like SQL, Oracle, SAP…).
These features are also described in the blog post of Richard Seroter: post of Richard Seroter, (http://seroter.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/using-the-new-biztalk-mapper-shape-in-a-windows-workflow-service/).
This is a first article in a series of three that is about these features. Three articles will be posted in the coming days:
1. Using the BizTalk mapper in Workflow
2. Using the LOB Adapter functionality in Workflows
3. Performance impact of the mapper shape, compared to code mapping.
The BizTalk mapper used in workflow services.
It happens a lot that data structures that are exposed through web services are different from the contracts and object types that need to be consumed by that service.
During one of the demos I gave lately, I showed how an AppFabric workflow service was used to compose and consume three different other web services. Allthough the customer really liked the pattern and the performance, he felt it was a bit too technical and too much code was involved to instantiate the web service requests and objects for the different services. They were right (I needed to use too much assign shapes and different variables).
Luckily, we have a good answer to this at this moment, through the BizTalk mapper workflow activity. It makes these workflows more model-driven and less code-oriented.
Installing the activities
It is important to know that the activities are only available in the Workflow designer toolbox, when installing the BizTalk LOB Adapter pack! They are not part of the BizTalk 2010 installable and it looks like the installer of the adapter pack is checking if BizTalk 2010 is available to see if he should make the activities available.
Sample workflow service
The scenario I'll be working out in this post is the exposing of a service that will call another web service. This service will implement some specific logic and will also hide and abstract the actual names and contracts of the 'backend-service'. The functionality we provide through this service is a loanrequest, where a consumer can request a loan and gets response with a result.
The exposed contracts
public class LoanRequest
public string CustomerName { get; set; }
public long Amount { get; set; }
public int Duration { get; set; }
public LoanPart[] Parts { get; set; }
public class LoanPart
public LoanPartType PartType { get; set; }
public long Amount { get; set; }
public enum LoanPartType
Standard = 0,
Budget = 1,
Green = 2
public class LoanResponse
public double Intrest { get; set; }
public double Variance { get; set; }
public bool Approved { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
Designing and beginning the workflow service
1. After adding a new workflow service, I changed the action and namespace on the ReceiveRequest activity.
2. I also defined two variables: loanRequest and loanResponse that apply to their corresponding DataContract message types. These are linked to the ReceiveRequest and SendResponse activities.
Adding a service reference to the 'backend service'.
1. Right-clicking the project and selecting Add Service Reference, pops up the dialog where I am linking to the WSDL of my web service.
2. After a rebuild of this project, a new custom activity is added to my toolbox that can be used to call the web service operation. If my web service would have had multiple operations, multiple activities would have been added, one for each operation. They totally hide the implementation of doing this web service call.
3. Now, two new variables get defined that represent the request and response to the backend service. (notice the uppercased host-like names J)
4. Dragging the LOANSIM activity to the designer canvas allows us to link the variables to the Activity Parameters of this web service operation call.
Use the BizTalk mapper activity to map request and response variables
1. The Mapper activity is available in the BizTalk category in the Workflow Toolbox. I just dragged two instances of this activity to the canvas, just before and after the LOANSIM activity.
2. Once the mapper is dragged to the canvas, the input and output data types need to be configured, using the type picker dropdown. This will be used to define the BizTalk map inputs and outputs.
3. After this, the correct variables need to be linked and configured to their corresponding parameter.
4. Clicking the Edit button on the activity, allows us to automatically generate a new BizTalk map that will use these types or we can reuse an existing map.
5. Creating a new map, results in a new Biztalk mapper being opened. Various schemas are being generated and added to the project in a specific sub folder. The nice new BizTalk mapper can be used to make the mapping between both objects. If required, custom XSLT functionality can also be used for this.
6. The above logic has been done for both the request and the response messages.
Resulting workflow
The resulting workflow looks like the following:
The AppFabric + BizTalk better together story is a compelling offering that brings the BizTalk features closer to the AppFabric and Workflow runtime. Considering that WF will be more and more important in the future of BizTalk and AppFabric, I believe this is a good step forward and we might see more of these things happen in the future.
Does this make AppFabric a free BizTalk Server? No, it can be used to implement various scenarios that were done in BizTalk previously, but it still does not provide the rich management, deployment capabilities. We still cannot accept flat file messages or EDI. There is no pub/sub or direct binding. Yet?
Sam Vanhoutte,-
Posted in: AppFabric | BizTalk | Mapping | Workflow
Tags: AppFabric, Workflow
Last PDC, a very interesting session was given about the future and vision of BizTalk Server. The content of this session can be downloaded on the following location: http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/SVR15
Posted in: BizTalk | Workflow
Tags: BizTalk, Workflow
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South Carolina ETV
State Organization Helps Economic Developers to Succeed
Wednesday - August 08, 2012 at 07:52 am
For 47 years, our next guest's organization has been helping our state's economic developers to become better at what they do, attracting and retaining jobs in South Carolina.
Mike Switzer interviews George Wolfe, president of the S.C. Economic Developers Association. He is also a partner of the Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough law firm, where he practices economic development, governmental, and corporate law, and he chairs the firm's economic development practice group.
PODCAST HELP - If you can't view the flash player, click here to open the mp3 file OR subscribe to the podcast feed.


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Jack LaGrand wasn't just a cabbie, he was a friend.
"You knew he was a veteran here. A lot of people looked up to him," said Yellow Cab manager Ross Steinberg.
LaGrand was also a husband. But five years ago, someone took him away from his wife Donna, and all who knew him.
It happened behind a strip mall parking lot near U.S 19. Surveillance video showed his cab pulling into a parking lot and almost out of nowhere, a man showed up. He robbed, shot and killed LeGrand.
Then the suspect disappeared just as quickly.
Police said a witness who they won't name tipped them off to 24-year-old Tisen Washington.
Detectives said he admitted to calling Yellow Cab for a ride, but the rest of his story did not add up.
"He said the cab took him 15 minutes driving in the opposite direction to a friend's house," said Detective Tom Dawe.
But detectives knew he wasn't at a friend's house. They had video of him at a bar.
"When I showed it to him, I think he was shocked," said Detective Dawe.
Washington was already behind bars at the Pasco County jail on drug charges. Now he is being charged with first-degree murder.
His wife Donna stood by detectives as they read a statement on her behalf.
"Finally, the familiy will have closure to all those families facing similar circumstances never give up hope," it read.
Legrand spent four years working at Yellow Cab.
"It is just a relief for the cab drivers the industry and more importantly what should never be forgotten is the family Jack had," said manager Steinberg.
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Get out of Afghanistan (From Oxford Mail)
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Get out of Afghanistan
10:50am Wednesday 18th April 2012 in Letters
Why do we have to fight other people's wars?
In 1939, although not threatened by the Germans, we declared war on them, because they had invaded Poland.
This resulted in six years of war in which we lost hundreds of thousands of people, both civilians and in our armed forces.
We should bring home our forces from Afghanistan and leave the Afghans to fight their own battles.
KSJ HILL, Trinity Road, Headington, Oxford
Comments (12)
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12:43pm Wed 18 Apr 12
MadleyResident says...
Of all the wars Britain has fought over the centuries the Second World War has to be one of the most important and just.
Is it really being suggested that we should have stood to one side and let the Nazis take over the whole of Europe?
The policy of appeasement in the 1930s almost allowed it to happen.
Afghanistan was invaded because of 9/11. On balance, I think that the original invasion had to happen but the subsequent failures in that country have been dreadful and continue to cost the lives of our servicemen.
I hope that when our troops are finally withdrawn Afghanistan might be a better country than when they went in. Unfortunately, I have a horrible feeling that the country will fall into chaos.
9:27pm Fri 20 Apr 12
Zaxharias Ziegla says...
While no supporter of Hitler Germany, I'm not sure where you get the evidence for a Nazi plan to "take over" Europe. It is much more likely that Stalin intended to laubch an attack and overrun the entire continent. It was only because of certain errors of judgement, due to pressures within the soviet terror regime, that the Russians delayed and changed plans. Hitler and his general staff, sensing how critical the situation was, seized the oportunity, and launched the pre-emprive Operation Barbarossa.
German forces (vastly outnumbered, faced huge Soviet Forces and were hardly
prepared) inflicted grievous, but not completely critical blows; they greatly weakened the soviets but underestimated Russian military/industrial caoacity. Thus Germany's fate was sealed.
But it was Hitler, plus America's atomic bomb threat, that saved Europe from complete Communist domination. Thus we remain able to exchange views in this forum. But, with an increasingly leftwing EU bureaucracy, for how much longer?
You are, of vourse, completely correct in saying that the effects on European Civilisation of the war in Afghanistan does not compare with the C20 world wars, or fot that matter the devastation and horrors of the Thirty Years War of 1618-48. The first World War was particularly devastating in terms of genetic inheritance.
11:02pm Sat 21 Apr 12
morgeo says...
Throughout the Cold War period Russia made threats but was wise to do only that as they also like Germany would have had many problems against a determined British Commonwealth, European and American forces plus other allied countries should not be underestimated.
As for Afghanistan, it seems to be a country determined to ruin itself and Madley resident is probably right. Until the instil some form of democracy and respect the women in their country nothing will change.
1:25pm Mon 23 Apr 12
MadleyResident says...
I have never actually read the book but I know that it sets out in plain English (or at least German!) Hitler's plans to provide "living space" for the German people in Eastern Europe. Indeed I understand that when translated into English in the 1930's many of these paragraphs were left out of certain editions to avoid worrying Chamberlain and the British Government.
In 1939 Nazi Germany was heading for economic meltdown by spending far more than was being earned. Hitler needed war to divert attention from these problems. Hence the invasion of Poland.
In 1941 there was no way that Stalin would have contemplated attacking Germany. The Soviet armed forces, although huge, were no match for the Germans.
In Operation Barbarossa the German Army was principally defeated by the Russian winter. First the rain turned the roads into quagmires and then when winter proper arrived much of the German equipment literally froze.
However, you are right that The Germans underestimated Soviet Russia's ability to recover from the enormous losses that they suffered in 1941.
You are also right that Hitler might have inadvertently saved Western Europe from Communism by inflicting such large losses on the Soviets.
Sadly and rather ironically, the country we went to war for was not saved that fate.
2:47pm Mon 23 Apr 12
morgeo says...
2:54pm Thu 26 Apr 12
Zaxharias Ziegla says...
morgeo wrote:Morgeo I've no wish to offend, but you are only pointing out the obvious regarding WWII. Of course Germany fought on too many fronts, and certainly occupied much of Europe, which as KSJ Hill points out was mostly because Britain had declared war on her. My main concern is the cause of the war.
I think that you are also wrong ZZ. have you looked at a map of Europe at the time of the war and seen how much territory Hitler had gained and was well into Russia. His big mistake was operating on too many fronts and also the weather in Russia. His supply lines were stretched too far as a result, don't forget he was also in N.Africa as well. He was taking a pounding from the UK with all of her allies as well. Plus he was fighting a battle in the atlantic to prevent supplies getting in. Italy changed tactics and that also must be taken into account. Too much , too quick and he failed to get the UK which was a big mistake.
Throughout the Cold War period Russia made threats but was wise to do only that as they also like Germany would have had many problems against a determined British Commonwealth, European and American forces plus other allied countries should not be underestimated.
As for Afghanistan, it seems to be a country determined to ruin itself and Madley resident is probably right. Until the instil some form of democracy and respect the women in their country nothing will change.
Like MadlyResident you neither supply evidence of German designs on all of Europe, nor appear to recognise ongoing invertigation into the causes of the war, especially Stalin's desire to spread Communism by arned might, backed by immense resources. Much has been written by Rusian historical revisionists, some even before the demise of Soviet Communism.
You repeat the standard historical line of the victors, especially America the major world power since 1945, which has sought to impose, by no means always wrongly, its domintaion and righteousness ever since. Their constant view that Germany launched a sudden atack upon an unprepared Russia, you sensibly omit. The work of Viktor Suvorov (enjoy him on YouTube) and Wolfgang Strauss (see his "Operation Barbarossa and the Russian Historians' Dispute") and many others, has shed considerable light in this area.
Although not wishing to discount the bravery and patriotism of other combatants, the main theatre of war was in Russia, wre Germany was defeated beyond quwstion. In the final analysis, it was a war of tyranical ideologies.
Stalin in 1941 was poised to attack and defeat Germany, and export Communism. This can be gauged by the build-up, size and type of Soviet armaments developed throughout the 1930s.
Here are some figures, given by the Russian historianMikhail Meltiukov, for Red Army and Wehrmacht forces in 1941, on the eve of Operation Barbarossa: Divisions Red Army 128 Wehrmacht 55; Troop strength RA 3,400,000 W 1,400,000; Field Guns RA 38,500 W 16,300; Tanks RA 7,500 W 900; Aircraft RA 6,200 W 1,400.
Although Germany entered the war in 1939 with 3,195 tanks these were spread all over Europe and N. Africa. The Russians in one factory in Kharkov turned that many out in a year! Another surprising fact is that while Germany had
only some 5,000 paratroops, Russia had 1,000,000!
Stalin, caught on the hop by Operation Barbarossa, resurrected the notion of Mother Russia because the masses had nowhere to direct their adoration, other than towards the Party; and Germans relied on make-beieve invicibility (Deutschland uber alles), and the Fuehrer's will.
Your remarks about the Cold War would take us into a whole further realm, which I think I'll moetly skip; but Curchill's Futon speech would hardly have made sense had not Soviet forces, despite the devastation of war, remained puissant and deployed to overrun Europe, having made a good start in Eastern Europe (thank God for America's nuclear advantage); and it might be worth remembering the most dangerous moments such as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Indeed, wherever Communism gained ground it was always by misuse of people's concerned: China, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia; not to mentionthe incalculable damage done through fellow-travellers infiltrating labour unions, social democratic parties, universities, etc.
1:47am Fri 27 Apr 12
morgeo says...
1:54pm Fri 27 Apr 12
MadleyResident says...
This clearly set out Hitler's plans, certainly for Eastern Europe. I think this well known book is as conclusive as evidence of Hitler's intentions as the archives of Soviet Russia are of Stalin's intentions.
I would accept that Hitler did not necessarily want to invade Western Europe in 1940 but was forced to by Britain and France declaring war in 1939. However, given what we know of him now, do you seriously suggest that if Eastern Europe had been conquered he would not have turned his attentions to the West?
Britain's very successful policy over centuries had been to never let one nation dominate Europe and to fight with other nations to stop that happening. Hence why we have upset so many nations over the Centuries! Attempting to stop Hitler was a continuation of that policy.
Britain and France should have taken earlier opportunities to stop Hitler, such as the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936 when Germany was not ready for war.
When it comes to Barbarossa your figures differ significantly from figures I have seen. However, it is certainly true that Russia had significantly more troops, tanks and aircraft.
However, in general, their quality and training was no match for the Germans and the tactics employed led to huge losses as Stalin effectively bought time by sacrificing his troops. War is not simply a matter of numbers.
The Russians did have a very significant advantage in the quality and quantity of their tanks, especially in the famous T34 Tank.
However, their equipment was porrly maintained and when Germany launched operation Barbarossa less than half of their tanks were available. Indeed the official Soviet history states that only 29% of the Russian tanks were available for immediate deployment in June 1941.
However, You are certainly correct that the war was unquestionably won on the Eastern front.
Indeed you may also be correct that if the USA had not had the Atomic bomb in 1945 the Russians might well have carried on rolling Westwards.
That is at least one reason to be grateful for the atomic bomb!
No matter how much we debate this I do not think that I am going to change your mind and you will not change mine.
However, the bottom line for me is that of all the wars that Britain has fought through the Centuries the Second World War has to have been the war that we we were right to fight. Wars were no longer ended by agreeing to exchange a few provinces. Defeat meant a life "under the jackboot" and if you were of the wrong race it probably meant death in a concentration camp.
I am proud that my country tried to stop this happening to people in Europe and did not stay out of it because it was "other people's war".
To compare the Second World War with Afghanistan is just plain wrong.
9:58pm Sun 29 Apr 12
Zaxharias Ziegla says...
Your argument that the invasion of Poland was because the German economy was in "meltdown", seems on a par with your view that Germany planned to "take over" the whole of Europe, for which you produce no evidence.
The need for appeasement should nnever have been.A great nation and empire should have remained puissant and confident; it should have been consistent and decisive and never be cowed by threats and intimidation--but then there was the Left.
Finally you seem not to realise the relative military strengths of Germany and the Soviets; so may I refer you once nore to ny reply to morgeo. Interestingly, because of restrictions on post-WWI German rearmament, I thik you will find the Soviets gave secret training to German military personnel in the 1920s
The causes of WWII remain vitally important, and fresh evidence increasingly exposes politicians of the 1930s, and offers insight into their present-day descendants.
9:30am Mon 30 Apr 12
MadleyResident says...
I have read widely on the subject and come to my own conclusions. You have quite obviously read widely on the subject and come to your own conclusions.
In many basics we appear to be pretty much in agreement.
Unfortunately, we are unlikely to agree on everything and will not persuade the other that they are wrong.
New historical evidence coming from Russia is undoubtedly important, but it does not negate the enormous amount of evidence captured by the allies with the fall of Germany, or indeed, our own evidence.
It can add to the historical evidence we had and give us new perspectives. However, it does not mean that all previous histories were wrong.
4:51pm Wed 2 May 12
Zaxharias Ziegla says...
I would however like it noted that whenever this sort of discuddion takes place, those on the left (mostly academics) almost without exception, somehow manage to avoid condemning Stalin and Communism. I wonder why?
Of all the millions of words and thousnds of documents I could quote in support of this, I shall conclude with one from Count Jerzy Potocki, the Polish Ambassador to Washington in 1939, to the Polish Foreign Minister:
"It is interesting to note that in this extremely well-planned campaign, which is above all conducted against National Socialism, Soviet Russia is almost completely excluded. If mentioned at all, it is only in a friendly manner and things are presented in such a way as if Soviet Russia were working with the bloc of democratic states. Thanks to the clever propaganda the symapathy of the American public is completely on the side of Red Spain."
Some thigs, it seems, never chage!
Try redreshing your memory of Stalinist horrors by reading (on mises.org) Ralph Raico's brief article, Marxist Dreams and Soviet Realities.
5:39pm Wed 2 May 12
MadleyResident says...
I would not defend Stalin in any way and he certainly vies with Hitler if there was to be an award for worst dictator of the 20th Century!
I have no doubt at all that if the opportunity had arisen Stalin would have tried to conquer Europe by force.
As far as I can see the only thing we fundamentally disagree on is whether Hitler had plans to dominate Europe.
It was good to have a discussion with somebody who knows their history.
Comments are closed on this article.


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Vegas back in next Benidorm series (From St Helens Star)
Send us news by text, start your message Star News and your send photos and videos to 80360
Vegas back in next Benidorm series
Updated 8:20am Friday 21st March 2014 in News © Press Association 2014
Johnny Vegas is to return to ITV sitcom Benidorm for its next series, along with actresses Crissy Rock and Elsie Kelly.
Comedian Johnny was last seen playing his character The Oracle in the third series but will make a comeback for series seven which goes into production this month.
Elsie's character Noreen sat out the most recent run of the show and Crissy (who plays Janey York) will return to the Solana resort after last appearing in series four.
Show favourites Sherrie Hewson (who plays Joyce Temple Savage), Tim Healy (Les/Lesley) and Jake Canuso (Mateo) will return to the show as usual.
ITV director of entertainment Elaine Bedell said: "After another successful run on screen we're thrilled that a new series is about to start shooting on location in Spain. We're equally pleased that some familiar faces from the Solana's past will be making a welcome return to the sunshine."
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NEWPORT, KY (FOX19) - Newport Police are investigating a possible shooting at Newport on the Levee.
Police say around 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, a security officer at the Levee walked up to a Newport Police officer and said he'd heard something that sounded like shots fired in the parking garage.
Both went to the garage, but found nothing.
About 10 minutes later, a 26-year-old man showed up at University Hospital, shot in the leg.
Newport Police questioned the man, but he was uncooperative and would not say what happened or where it happened.
Anyone with information should call Crimestoppers at 513-352-3040.
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AS Roma and AC Milan have had unusual and surprising seasons so far. Roma have surprised by not being quite as bad as everyone had expected, while Milan have surprised by being a whole lot worse.
But, the rossoneri have recovered their form impressively, buying Max Allegri and his ever more workmanlike approach time to linger for longer. Roma have bounced back from a shaky run too, and they now sit a place above Milan and a place below Napoli and a European spot.
Should Milan win, they would leapfrog their Roman opponents and extend their run of straight league wins to five -- in no small part down to the emergence of Stephan El Shaarawy, the division's top goalscorer -- as one of Italy's most prized assets. Roma, meanwhile, have begun to look excellent in Zeman's 4-3-3.
Aside from goalkeeper Mauro Goicoechea (try pronouncing that) -- who is expected to be favoured in goal over Maarten Stekelenburg -- Erik Lamela and Pablo Osvaldo have impressed in netting eight goals each, while Francesco Totti shows no signs of slowing down in his 37th year. Il capitano has chipped in with six goals of his own, crafting out five more.
This trio is expected to spearhead Roma's attack as they look to overturn their recent poor home record against Milan, having not beaten them at the Olimpico in the last four attempts. The last time they did was almost five years ago, in a 2-1 win in 2008.
These sides both rank amongst the most free-scoring of all Serie A sides, with Roma having netted more times than anyone, and Milan just six goals in arrears. If I wasn't so cynical, I might even suggest this was going to be an exciting match. However, we've been here before. Expect a 0-0.
AS Roma Injuries and Suspensions
Marquinhos (injured). Stefano Guberti and Leandro Castán (suspended).
AC Milan Injuries and Suspensions
Alexandre Pato, Bakaye Traoré, Didac Vila, Djamel Mesbah, Nigel De Jong (injured). No suspension concerns.
Match Date / Time: Sunday, December 22 at 8:45 p.m. local, 2:45 p.m. ET
Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy
TV: RAI Internazionale(U.S.), ESPN (U.K.), Premium Calcio, Sky Calcio 1 (Italy)