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Recently I was re-reading passages from Parker Palmer's book, A Hidden Wholeness, when I ran across one that seemed pertinent to the question, "What is diversity at Marquette?" Palmer was ruminating about conditions for a circle of trust, and suggested that one condition was "the creation of common ground on which people of diverse beliefs can explore issues of the inner life." He continued, "But as we create open ground that welcomes diversity, we cannot allow people to wander aimlessly. The soul wants hospitality, but it also wants honesty, wants to engage challenging questions that we would prefer to avoid."
We often want to define diversity through a single lens when in reality it is far more complicated. The abovementioned meditation frees us to dive deeply into the ways that our community looks at diversity. At the surface we actively seek to keep the doors of our institution open across demographically defined diverse cultures and communities, or as we say in our university's Statement on Human Dignity and Diversity, "regardless of age, culture, faith, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, language, disability or social class." Diving to greater depths, our community comprises an even greater diversity of beliefs, and we are even more challenged to find and maintain common ground to "explore issues of the inner life."
This may be the point of real distinction for Marquette and other Catholic Jesuit colleges and universities. We are continually challenged to seek common ground for divergent beliefs, or to put it another way, as an educational community following the path of St. Ignatius of Loyola, find a place at the table for all of us who share a common commitment to justice and a genuinely transformative education. This is reflected in the second part of our Statement on Human Dignity and Diversity, where our commitment to "a diverse university community helps us to achieve excellence by promoting a culture of learning, appreciation and understanding." Not only do we respect differences, we "value and treasure" them.
I have come to understand this as our determination to deliver transformative learning experiences to our students during their years as undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at Marquette. Our students come from all walks of life, differing communities and cultures, a host of national origins, and different challenges to get to college. Part of the transformative experience of learning in the Marquette community is to come to understand the meaning of St. Ignatius, who said, "Love ought to manifest itself more by deeds than by words." Through this experience I believe that we develop an appreciation for generosity of the spirit. Again we consider the question, "What is diversity at Marquette?" It is that exposure our students have to the other by studying together and performing acts of service alongside one another that prepares them to contribute to a complex world.
Those of us who are employed by Marquette not only support our students' journeys but are called upon to serve as examples of diversity and inclusion in practice. To do so requires us to work together with a sense of openness and mutual respect if we expect our students to learn from our own example.
The need for a genuinely transformative experience is more important now than ever before. This leads me to my third attempt to answer to the question, "What is diversity at Marquette?" Our focus on diversity and inclusion is in many ways our strategy to address a society that continues to struggle with the legacy of separate and unequal as a practice. Part of the infamous "separate but equal doctrine" that defined the last century in the United States also accommodated several forms of incivility. From our vantage point today, the idea that it was perfectly okay to be segregated in jobs, housing, education, and the use of public facilities seems archaic, as do the brutal acts of retaliation against those who publicly marched and protested against conditions of inequality. Yet today we see other acts of incivility on our campuses that appear as hurtful statements and behaviors and other micro-aggressions that seem to reinforce exclusion. Just this past year, numerous articles and postings in social media have pointed to difficulties in intercultural behavior as the perceived visibility of cultural diversity has increased on college campuses throughout the United States. For the past several years, students have taken to emerging media to voice their concerns, as evidenced by student-initiated projects at Fordham University, UCLA, Brown, Harvard, and the University of Michigan. One blog, the Microaggressions Project, which was initiated several years ago at Columbia University, has accumulated more than 15,000 comments from students and university employees, including such statements as "Are you sure you have the right room number? This is the 'honors' section" and "My black friends:You aren't really black though, you act like a white girl. My white friends:You aren't really white though, you're like dark."
These kinds of transgressions are nothing new to college life or the broader society. Yet when aggregated they form a compelling reason to make the quest for civility an integral part of diversity at Marquette. This is how we "value and treasure" difference in our community.
There are many other ways to answer the question, "What is diversity at Marquette?" These three ideas – who we are, how we work and learn together in our shared community, and our civility toward one another are all key among the many ways that we can respond to the question, "What is Diversity at Marquette?" Yet how does diversity translate into a strategy for building an inclusive community at Marquette? Drawing from the experiences of colleges and universities around the United States, consider the following: (1) how well are different populations represented among our students and employees, (2) are they able to achieve their aspirations at Marquette, whether it is a degree in a desired area of study or long term job satisfaction, (3) has our university made space for diverse scholarship and learning, especially as our students are positioned to meet the complexities of our world in the 21st century, and lastly (4) how we as a university reach out to and remain relevant to communities beyond our campus, in Milwaukee, the Midwest and beyond.
In the end, we strive to be a welcoming environment at Marquette for all who want to put the university's mission into everyday practice. Along with that, diversity at Marquette is an opportunity to engage in questions that are difficult at times, but whose answers are rewarding and to the betterment of the society in which we live.
William Welburn, PhD


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subset: commoncrawl


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Not all workouts are heart healthy. Here's which exercises one cardiologist says guarantees a lifetime of cardiovascular fitness.
Some days it seems I answer more questions about sports injuries than I do about heart health. It's partly because my patients know I'm pretty active (golf, tennis, Pilates...), but also because many people don't realize that while some activities are good for your heart, they can be hard on your body. To me, the key is to find what works well for both.
Here's how I rank a variety of exercises in terms of their benefits to both your heart and overall health.
Interval training: This is unrivaled for preventing heart disease and diabetes, losing weight, and efficiently improving fitness. The strategy: Combine short bursts of high-intensity exercise with slightly longer periods of active recovery. So if you're a walker, you might alternate 3 minutes at normal speed with 1 minute at a brisk pace. Continuously raising and lowering your heart rate improves vascular function, burns calories, and makes the body more efficient at clearing fat and sugar from the blood.
Total-body, nonimpact sports: The more muscles involved in an activity, the harder your heart must work to fuel them all—thus, it grows stronger itself. Rowing, swimming, cross-country skiing, walking with poles...all recruit muscles throughout the body without beating it up. Add some intervals and you have the ideal workout.
Weight training: In a sense, this is just another form of interval training. You increase your heart rate during reps and recover between sets. By efficiently handling the demands placed upon them, strong muscles ease the overall burden on the heart. Use free weights, which recruit more muscles, engage your core, and build balance.
Core workouts: The reason I like Pilates, which strengthens my core muscles and improves flexibility and balance, is that it doesn't just help me play golf and tennis better, it helps me live better. In order to exercise vigorously—as well as carry groceries upstairs and weed the garden—you need a solid foundation.
Yoga: The calm it provides lowers blood pressure, making blood vessels more elastic and promoting heart health. It also strengthens your core.
Being active all day: People who are active in little ways the entire day (cleaning, gardening, running errands) burn more calories and are generally healthier than those who exercise for 30 to 60 minutes and then sit at a computer. Wear a pedometer to measure how active you are outside of your exercise time.


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OMG rave that poem is soo good it has soo much emotion in it but its quite sad i cryed near the end of this it was real good great work
I don't know where to start, the story just ended.
Your life, your dreams, your warmth now turned into coldness.
The moments we shared, the laughs we enjoyed,
Oh your everlasting asssurance-
Just gone, everything is so..
Why did it happen so quickly? Why did you love me so much?
I wish I never met you..
But I was lucky that I did.
I can't explain how much I miss you!
Looking deep into each others' eyes, smiles wide,
Lips locked together, your smooth skin against mine
The love, the joy, the warmth, your exultant touches
Kept me so occupied being with you
I never expected this to happen
NOR did I EVER want it to occur
WHY you of all people!
I'm crying, the sorrow holding me tightly
My hands cold, tears flooding out of my wet eyes
Grieving for your return...
I want to be alone
I don't want to do anything with anyone anymore
You're gone
I hope you're in a better place,
A place far reliable and comfortable than this hellish world
I won't forget our times
Nor your Last words
That you typed during your last 4 minutes...
"I'm sorry I lied
yes i was hit ,but I was not gettng better and the docters said
i don't have much time
but all you need to know ish
I lov.... "
Dead in her world, dead in her heart.
That is where she choose to start.....
For you, Noni
OMG rave that poem is soo good it has soo much emotion in it but its quite sad i cryed near the end of this it was real good great work
That was very good yet so sad, I feel were you come from on that note, it was very good.
Shippo is determined to become a lvl higherI'm a solider of Pen and Paper!<3 Atomik_Sprout <3
Rave I know how you feel. I have that kind of experience when my friend died as well. I know it is hard to let go someone you love so deeply in your heart. But I hope that Noni will find a beautiful place with God. I felt sad with the poem because I remember my childhood best friend he also died. And it was too late for me to say how I feel. Still in my dreams I still see him with his warm smile. And that will also happen to you.
How deep! How sad! How beautiful!!!! I like this poem cause right now it just made my sister cry right now and I love the emotion in this! Hope to see more!
「When I'm sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead」
nice poem rave very deep of sad emotion ...oh my god what i will say ...i will start to cry ...
that's beutiful i know what you feel ?...good job ...
Foolish beating


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Is it possible there could be an episode of "The Bachelor" where the tears flow more freely and the tantrums are explosive? Why yes, yes there could be. It's called "The Baby Bachelor"! It's segment on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," starring his very own preschool-aged nephew Wesley, who is the sweetest bachelor that series has ever seen. [Hulu]
Zergnet: Simply Irresistible
- Popular


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10 Impressively Anguished Cry Faces in Film
Cinematic Listology By Samantha Wilson on June 3, 2014 | Be the First To CommentThere's a way to do sadness in film, and there's a way to make sadness all about you. Many of our favorite films feature a heartbreaking scene or two that tug at the emotions ever so gently, but there are some that take that premise and run with it all the way to the cry bank by using the supreme talents of their actors and their abilities to tear-up like there's no tomorrow. Can you scrunch up your face and look like death's just arrived? Excellent, Claire Danes, we'll see you tomorrow. From Danes to Brando, here are some truly impressive cry faces.
With less than a week left before Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity hits theaters, you're likely to see an increase in the already heaping mound of raves claiming it's the best original sci-fi film of the year, if not years. The problem is that this is not sci-fi. I've been having minor debate about this for weeks now, and there are numerous critics and non-critics, both people who have seen and haven't seen the film yet, on each of the two sides of this argument. At the end of the day, you can say I'm being too stubbornly semantical. That the genre doesn't even matter these days. But this is a movie involving science, and science itself deals a lot in classification and semantics, so I feel it perfectly appropriate to stand firm on genre categorization with this one. And I keep cringing every time I see the term sci-fi or words science fiction applied to this film. Gravity features no aliens, no interstellar space travel, no time travel, and it doesn't take place in the future. In fact, given that it involves a space shuttle as its method of travel into space, it would seem to be set in a past. And while I don't know all the technological accuracy evident on screen, I do know the production aimed for this to be a realistic film of the world and science that is or was existing. To me, that's not sci-fi. Just like Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff, never mind their […]
The Ingredients: 'Life of Pi' Recalls Cameron, Hitchcock and Chaplin Films
Discussion By Christopher Campbell on November 24, 2012 | Be the First To CommentThe Ingredients is a column devoted to breaking down the components of a new film release with some focus on influential movies that came before. As always, these posts look at the entire plots of films and so include SPOILERS. Even the most visionary and original films can seem derivative, especially to those of us who watch tons of movies on a regular basis. Occasionally it's intended for the audience to spot certain allusions and apply them to our experience with this new work, as in the case of Holy Motors. Other times it's not so deliberate, and the fact that new movies trigger memories of older movies (and vice versa depending on when they're seen) is all on us, yet not totally without reason given how there are really only a few base plots and themes in existence and also given that our comprehension of things, particularly imaginative things, has to be relatable to other things we've comprehended previously. That's why a movie like Avatar can be "like nothing we've ever seen before," but only to an extent. For it to be accessible to a wide audience — let alone be one of the biggest worldwide hits of all time — it has to "unfortunately" resemble other movies. And now Life of Pi can be likened by critics to Avatar for similarly giving us spectacle like nothing we've ever seen before. It sounds ironic but it's not. Even if the magical island in Pi may even further remind us of […]
Culture Warrior: Men in Tight Spots
Culture Warrior By Scott Beggs on November 9, 2010 | Comments (1)Editor's Note: Normally it's Landon Palmer hustling your brain through the mental gymnastics of popular culture and film theory, but he's grading papers or something, so Cole Abaius is taking the reigns to drop kick your mind (instead of completely blowing it). Check back next week for the brilliance if you survive the completely adequate. It's dark. Not the kind of dark where you strain to make out figures in the near distance or the kind of dark that sends a thrill through you in a movie theater. It's the kind of darkness that your eyes never adjust to because there's no light, and there never will be. I'm at the bottom of a cave near the small town of Bustamante, Mexico, and after passing graffiti from the 19th century, my friends and I have all decided to turn off our headlamps before heading into the grand hall. With the lights gone, the cool of the room becomes more tangible, and the walls begin to creep inward. Fortunately, this seems to be the latest trend in movie-making: shoving someone into the solitary confinement of life threatening danger, and seeing if they can work their way out.
Neil Miller
Scott Beggs
Rob Hunter
Kate Erbland
Christopher Campbell


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Students Create The General Lee
Pulaski Technical College Collision Repair students are working together to create a replica of the "General Lee" car from the hit 1980's TV series "The Dukes of Hazard." Once the replica of the "General Lee" is completed it will be used in a Special Olympics Fundraiser on May 7th 2005, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Below are pictures of the progress that Pulaski Technical College students have made on the "General Lee." Tom Sarmento, the original Dukes mechanic is set to install the engine and build the cage. Keep checking back on this page for progress pictures of the "General Lee."
>Back to the Technical & Industrial Division


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Cari Boasberg, Career Coach and Administrative Coordinator
Cari is a Career Coach and Administrative Coordinator for Jewish Employment Services. Cari is also a certified teacher and employment specialist. She has an extensive background in providing support and guidance with all aspects of a successful job search. Cari has worked in the non-profit sector for most of her career. Cari holds a BS in Journalism from the University of Kansas.
Telephone: 913-730-1449, Email: email@example.com
Dana Schwartz, Career Coach
Dana Schwartz is a Career Coach for Jewish Employment Services. Dana designs and facilitates workshops and provides individualized coaching for JES clients. Dana, along with the JES team, offers a comprehensive and customized plan to job seeking resulting in the potential for a more efficient and successful outcome for her clients. Dana brings a variety of skills to her position including employee and client relations, performance consulting, curriculum design, facilitation, research and analysis, and training & development capabilities. Her work experience stems from a career in various corporate environments. Dana has a Master's Degree in Human Resources from Loyola University of Chicago and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology, Concentration in Business from Indiana University.
Telephone: 913-981-8814, Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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After guests relay their orders and best knock-knock jokes to the accommodating cashier, they settle behind a dining table within China Hut's circle of influence. The chef then wields his magic wok to cook up diners' choice of chicken, beef or fish dish with steaming rice or smoking tendrils of noodles. Groupies get to accompany the delicious Chinese meal with ice cold soft drinks and a resolve to come back really soon.
Vouchers from Groupon | Restaurant | Fast food | Chinese fast food | Abu Dhabi Restaurants | Fast food Abu Dhabi | Chinese fast food Abu Dhabi


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He should b missing u and thanking you that you're there if I'm honest you don't deserve the way he's treating you there must b some sort of explanation you don't deserve stuf of like that especially with what your taking on
if you want him" seriously", then your the one to take a step just go and give a" smile" which shows him" how much you love" him or give give a kiss at the chin and come back that s enough, as being his gender i guess it s the easiest way to get back him. "lets knock the door once before we turn back"
where is he like?
but why are uz apart and where is he tell me where he is and might be abel to help
Most guys don't put time and effort to express their feelings. Mostly about missing someone. Unless he is acting super distant to you while in person there is no reason to worry. When I text my husband 2 or 3 sentences and he writes me back with one word it irritates me. But in person he hugs me and shows me how much he loves me. I don't need a well thought out email or text to know that.
I don't care in the slightest.
Nope...you need to find a new BF
Related Questions
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Because as far as I can tell, "I'm not interested" likely means "You need to improve anything you can about yourself to impress me better and do so for at least a week before...IsshunGa 26-30, M 5 Answers 3 Feb 17, 2011
we had already been seeing each other for a couple of months, he was persuing me...tammygee 36-40 5 Answers 1 Sep 25, 2011
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Engine: 383 V8 Transmission: Automatic Exterior Color: Orange Interior Color: Tan... More
1923 Ford T Bucket Roadster. Finished in fresh Mean Green paint with a clean black interior. This hot rod is powered by a 350CI... More
1924 Dodge Pickup. This pickup is an incredible replica of the popular The Beverly Hillbillies television show. Recreated in almost exact specifications of the... More
6 Cylinder / 468 cu. in 3 speed Manual Transmission Custom Locke Body Odometer reads 36,943 miles... More
1923 Ford Model T T-Bucket871 Super Chager1050 dominatersPower glide transBlack wheel bar swing on the back555 Big Block ChevyCar Custom BuiltStreet Legal1000 milesV8Unit is... More
1929 Ford Model A Tudor- 383 Cubic Inch Chevy Motor Dynoed 401 Horsepower-Chopped 2 12"-Filled Roof-9" Ford Rear with New 383 Posi Chunk-All new... More
350 Chevy Automatic 4 brl Holley carb Polished chrome exhaust Very nice paint and interior Runs strong and sounds great!... More
This 1929 Mercedes Piper Replica is for sale in our Louisville KY showroom. The Mercedes SSR was designed by Ferdinand Porsche and is still... More
1922 Ford T-Bucket Tribute To The Movie "American Graffiti" Northwest Classic Auto Mall advertises this vehicle for the owner. If you are interested in this vehicle or... More
1925 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Springfield Riviera Town Car Chassis Number: 390XH This model was delivered to W. H. Harley with a Pall Mall body. In 1929... More
1929 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750SS Spider Chassis Number: 0312901 In the 12 editions of the Mille Miglia held before World War II, Alfa Romeo won 10... More
1929 Model 135 Franklin Victoria This is a perfect example of a 1929 Model 135 Franklin Victoria. At this time, the Franklin company had hired... More
The Type 35 is quite simply the definitive prewar Bugatti Grand Prix car. Technically sophisticated and extremely successful in racing the Type 35 is... More
Showcased here is a wonderfully restored Early 20's Buick 22-44 roadster. The 22-44 series was just introduced for this model year, powered by the... More
This is a 1929 Nash 460 Advanced Six Coupe, Ground up restoration, rumble seat car. Pictures are coming!... More
This is a 1929 Nash 460 Coupe that was just restored. It comes complete with new leather interior, inlaid German silver in the wood trim.... More
Neat fire truck re-creation with period accessories and exceptional attention to detail. Runs and drives well. What could be more fun than this? Built in... More
When it comes to old street rods there just isnt another car that exudes raw power quite like a T-Bucket. These cars strip the... More
1927 Marmon Model L Cabriolet ConvertibleThe 1927 Marmon model L Collapsable (convertible) rumble seat coupe has been 90% restored. The body is in excellent... More
A simply stupendous motorcar! Supremely rare, imposing and elegant Imperial L80 Club Coupe with Rumble seat coachbuilt by Le Baron, one of the 25 produced... More
1923 Ford Model T1923 Ford Model T in mint conditionClassified as a 'Hot Rod' model with several options includedTurquoise metallic exterior with a Tan... More
One family owned since new. driven from 1928 to 1958 and then restored with sincere effort to raise and measure its value of one... More
Tudor, nice older resto, good body and paint, nice redone int, newer tires, 4cyl, manual trans, runs/drives good.... More
For sale in our Chicago showroom is a rare 1924 Ford Model TT C-Cab. This is the heavy-duty truck version of the Model... More
For sale in our St. Louis showroom is a 1923 Ford T-Bucket. This car is a very recent build with only 110 miles... More
Engine: 383 Stroker ZZ4 Transmission: 400 Turbo Automatic Exterior Color: Chrysler Orchid Interior Color: Black... More
The T-bucket is one of the most enduring and endearing styles in all of hot rodding. Generally acknowledged to be the creation of Norm... More
"Mercedes-Wagen mit Gebläse" -sport-phaeton. "Matching numbers"- engine, and original body. Early supercharged Mercedes- car, but one of the late deliveries out of this series. Extremely expencive... More


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Indicative Rate* $155.00 to $450.00 Accommodation Only
Located in the heart of Kings Beach, Shearwater Resort is a stylishly appointed resort with 66 rooms catering for both leisure and business travellers. This four and a half star property features great recreational facilities. Located just a 50 metre stroll to the patrolled surf beach, Shearwater also features six retail shops and restaurants on ground level.
... moreThe apartments at Shearwater all have balconies with stunning views over the Caloundra waterways and are spaciously appointed with modern facilities.
Shearwater has its own conference centre, The Vue Room catering for up to 150 delegates and is the perfect venue for weddings and boutique events.
... less
Children are welcome. Children's wading pool available.
Cancellation Policy
A refund of the deposit less a AUD35.00 administration fee will be made if more than 14 days notice is given in high season, or seven days notice at all other times of the year. If notice isn't given within the specified time the entire deposit will be forfeited.
How To Get There
From Brisbane Airport, head north along the Bruce Highway. Caloundra is the very southern suburb of the Sunshine Coast.
From Sunshine Coast Airport, head south along the Sunshine Motorway and Caloundra is about 30 minute drive.
Shearwater Resort is opposite Kings Beach.
Spacious hotel style room, with ocean view balconies overlooking Kings Beach. Queen or two single beds, spa bath, kitchenette with microwave and fridge.
One bedroom or motel room
From | To | Inclusions |
$155.00 | $240.00 | Adult Room Only |
One Bedroom fully self contained apartment with one queen size bed. Featuring spacious living area and balcony with ocean views over Kings Beach.
One bedroom or motel room
From | To | Inclusions |
$170.00 | $265.00 | Adult Room Only |
Modern two bedroom, one bathroom self contained apartment with balcony/patio overlooking stunning Kings Beach, spa bath subject to availability. Perfect location opposite beach and park with restaurants attached to complex. One queen and two single beds.
Two bedroom with lounge
From | To | Inclusions |
$210.00 | $320.00 | Adult Room Only |
Modern two bedroom, two bathroom self contained apartment with two balconies/patios overlooking the stunning Kings Beach. Most apartments are dual key with one queen and two singles, or two queen beds. Perfect location opposite beach and park with restaurants and cafes attached to complex.
Two bedroom with lounge
From | To | Inclusions |
$225.00 | $345.00 | Adult Room Only |
Modern three bedroom, two bathroom self contained apartments featuring two ocean facing balconies/patios overlooking stunning Kings Beach, a great location for families. Most are Dual Key apartments.
Three bedroom
From | To | Inclusions |
$270.00 | $450.00 | Adult Room Only |
* Please note: These rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available costs of listed products and services. To obtain a firm price from the provider, please use the contact the operator. All prices are quoted in Australian dollars.


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alphaOS 16.1 Build 20141107
- GPL (GNU General Public License)
- simargl
- sourceforge.net
- ROOT \ Linux Distributions
Distributed as a 64-bit Live CD
Having under 150MB in size, the Live CD of the alphaOS operating system will start in only 30 seconds, on a "modest" computer. It features the lightweight Openbox window manager. alphaOS has a modular design, which makes it easy to add desired functionality. On top of that, it is simple, extremely fast, as it uses only 40MB of RAM on boot, and supports only the 64-bit architecture.
Openbox is the default desktop environment
The desktop is composed of four widgets powered by Conky, and a semi-transparent taskbar that contains four shortcuts, for the file manager, terminal, Control Center, and web browser. A clock with integrated calendar, and a volume manager are also present on the taskbar. Just like in any other Openbox implementation, the main menu is accessed via the right mouse click.
This time it uses bigger fonts, icons, and custom actions, which allow users to quickly take a screenshot, configure Openbox and Conky, as well as to logout, reboot and shutdown the computer. The taskbar is called Tint2 and can be easily configured from the main menu. An interesting feature is the ability to restart the entire session on the fly, without the need to logout and log back in.
Default applications
QupZilla is the default web browser, SpaceFM is used for file management and navigation, Taeni is the main terminal emulator, Voyager is there for viewing photos, and Emendo is a good tool for quickly editing some text files. Additionally, alphaOS includes the Audacious music player, Evince document viewer, GMP video player, PlayTV for watching online TV channels, Simple Radio for listening to online radio stations, and a task manager.
Installing alphaOS
Some handy documentation about how to install alphaOS on your local disk drive, configure various aspects of your system, modify or add kernel parameters, as well as a comprehensive manual for the Pacman package manager utility, are provided on the main menu. Overall, alphaOS is yet another tiny Linux operating system, but packed with modern technologies, a small collection of useful applications, and some needed eye-candy for your low-end computer.
alphaOS was reviewed by Marius Nestor, last updated on November 7th, 2014


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Archive for category Articles
Verizon is either very dumb or they think you are
[as always, my personal technical opinions here]
Verizon Wireless sells out customers with creepy new tactic – latimes.com.
The LA Times author laments helplessly for most of the linked article. First, he claims Verizon is more evil than Google or Yahoo (who also effectively sell your data) because Verizon charges more up front. Well, I do agree companies that make money off our personal data should give us a cut or a discount, assuming we opt-in at all. It's our data, right?
But the issue isn't how badly Verizon is ripping us off relative to other companies. That's a whole other box of lame.
Here the author gets closer:
Customers may be hard-pressed to understand fully what's going on with the "enhanced" program. The Verizon Wireless notice is decidedly short on details.
Again, none of the companies listed in this post do a good job of "informed consent" IMO. If what Verizon is doing is not so bad, then people should be able to come to that conclusion given the honest facts, explained in terms they can understand, and then agree.
Were you aware of this? Probably not. Did you agree? Probably not.
But it gets better:
Debra Lewis, a Verizon Wireless spokeswoman, explained to me that when a customer registers on the company's "My Verizon" website to see a bill or watch TV online, a "cookie," or tracking software, is downloaded onto the customer's home computer.
Most cookies are benign, allowing websites to provide better service to frequent visitors.
Verizon Wireless' cookie allows a data-collection company working on Verizon's behalf — Lewis declined to name which one — to gather information on which sites you visit after you leave "My Verizon."
Hint: it could be any of these trackers, found by visiting the offending site with Ghostery installed.
- Acxiom
- Adobe Test & Target
- Bazaarvoice
- BlueKai
- DoubleClick Floodlight
- ForeSee
- Gomez
- Monetate
- Omniture (Adobe Analytics)
You may want to install Ghostery and start blocking almost everything like this. These trackers do you no good, and you can put the few exceptions you need in the settings. You will be surprised to see how many tracking turds are quietly slipped into your pocket. The worst part is, if I go to Verizon's site to find out how to opt out of this bullshit, I apparently get tracked for it…
Here's the actual opt-out information, btw. FWIW, I collected the above list of trackers after ensuring I was opted out on the site. I guess they promise, on behalf of these random third party trackers, the data won't be shared…
But it gets even crazier:
That information is "anonymized," Lewis said, to mask the Verizon customer's identity and is then shared with marketers, which can use the info to provide ads on the customer's Verizon Wireless device that match his or her home-computer interests.
What makes this all potentially class-action-worthy IMO (IANAL) is that Verizon claims that by simply replacing your name with a unique ID, the service is anonymous and therefore safe.
"In addition to the customer information that's currently part of the program, we will soon use an anonymous, unique identifier we create when you register on our websites."
Does anyone else remember when AOL put their carefully anonymized search logs out on the internet…
It took almost no time for someone to figure out a lot of who was who despite the obfuscation, because the same "anonymous" IDs were used for each search by the same person, over and over, and could therefore be accumulated and cross-referenced. Simple deduction, Watson.
How hard will it be for a 3rd party marketer, given a list of your most frequent locations and your "double secret anonymous" ID, to look up the address of said frequent locations, and a few ownership records of your most frequent location (where you spend roughly half your life) and forever associate your real name and secret ID?
When combined with other websites that you may sign into, how hard would it be to discover your other usernames, some already tied to your real name, and tie them all together into a single linked identity and activity file you never get to see?
Not at all. It's already common.
There is an actual body of research behind anonymizing people and GPS coordinates that Verizon seems to be [negligently, IMO] ignoring. There are viable techniques to present targeted ads (based only on what Verizon knows about you) without leaking that data to any third party.
Any claims of effective anonymity after sharing this kind of data with third parties are IMO false and misleading. They're counting on everyone being dumb. Don't be.
The New Rift
This post by Peter Berkman gets closest to the meat of our collective concerns over the Oculus sale to Facebook. John Carmack even responded in the comments, while Palmer took to reddit. Raph Koster and Blair McIntyre do pretty good analyses in their own rights, putting the pieces together.
Disclaimer: I know many of the people mentioned here and consider them friends. I'm sticking to only what is publicly revealed information. And I am of course happy for these individuals who are getting to work on dream projects and making lots of money as a side benefit.
Here are some collected facts that are out in the open:
1. Industry Legends John Carmack and Michael Abrash have each talked publicly about wanting to build the Metaverse (of Snow Crash fame). I totally get what's in this deal for them: build it with the right tech, the right people and at Facebook scale. Got to love the opportunity to realize that dream.
2. Cory Ondrejka (kick-ass VP of Mobile at Facebook) was formerly CTO of LindenLab/Second Life. He's built a slightly less scalable version of the Metaverse already. Notice a "Mark, Chris and Cory" named in Palmer's blog post. I have no doubt they're completely sincere about wanting to see VR succeed in its own right.
3. Peter is also right in assuming that Oculus will add real gaze tracking. Palmer hints (skip to just before 19:00) about it here. Oculus is not alone, I expect. While there are many patents (of various quality) on this, there are still many viable ways to determine a user's gaze, and many reasons to do so. Facebook has even more on its wishlist, I bet, beyond the basics of providing better visuals or more Natural UI.
4. Companies like Tobii make their living today by (effectively) enabling mind-reading via a user's gaze. Your supermarket shelves were probably arranged with this kind of tech strapped to willing users. Your favorite website's layout was probably tested using this tech in a lab. Just imagine the power of knowing what everyone is looking at and why, of being able to read subtle emotion in the face, including those micro-expressions that always reveal the truth.
5. Blair is also right that Zuckerberg's AR long-term vision isn't a typo. For all the arguments about VR vs. AR vs. camera-based vs. see-through being better for this or that, the bottom line is that VR sucks for mobile. That's based purely on the old "wall meets face" principle, if not the geek factor of walking around talking to people with a brick over your eyes.
Facebook needs to win on mobile. Yes, it'll take a few years just to get consumer-friendly seated VR right. But when Oculus eventually gets their glasses down to sunglass size and adds forward-facing cameras that mix real and virtual, then watch out[side]. Here's the key part of Zuckerberg's quote again:
But this is just the start. After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home.
This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more.
One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people. [emphasis mine]
6. I've heard Oculus folks also talk about telepresence as one of the killer apps for VR too, esp. when one can solve the "eye gaze" problem. You've probably experienced that in crappy modern video chat, which is generally how I'd imagine women feel when you stare at their chests. Interestingly, Cory's old boss from Linden, Philip Rosedale, has announced he's working on the eye gaze problem in his new startup too, and using some cool software called FaceShift to get a jump on the harder problems there.
[For full disclosure, I did some work on avatar-based telepresence as well, but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the result. FWIW, I found a better approach, which works with no hardware sitting on your face.]
7. Finally, Facebook makes its money by selling its users. Let's not be coy. It's a lot of money and a lot of users. To be fair, is it really any worse than how NBC offers up its users to advertisers (since before I was born)? Well, no and yes. It's the same "ad, ad" world as before. We learn by age four to distrust the loud man on the TV. But the key difference is that NBC can't see you, can't really know your thoughts, except via gross statistics (think Neilsen ratings). Facebook really wants to know you, individually, and forever.
Now, companies like Facebook and Google provide immensely desirable services for free too, more so than NBC IMO. The problem lies in the concept of "informed consent." Both tech companies still suck at the human stuff IMO, esp. in terms of giving users clear information up front to make that decision wisely, and then giving full control of their data after. It's still mostly one-sided today, and it has to change.
Ideally, they'd start to emulate companies who've adopted an obsessive customer focus. It's not about what people will tolerate, but what they really need. Earning our trust can't be an afterthought or a win by attrition.
[for a positive comparison, TV's "Neilsen families" give truly informed consent and the company promises not to market to them as well.]
So we come back to Peter's insightful post. The problem with the Oculus sale is not that we all supported Palmer's fortuitous kickstarter and got no share of the spoils. I got the product I ordered, still sitting in its box, alas. It's not that he and Brendan Iribe "sold out" the indie gaming dream for big bucks. There are plenty of reasons to seek this level of protection and financial support in the light of Sony (and others) gearing up for a big fight. Gamers should be happy to have more viable options to choose from at the lowest prices.
Hell, I joined the so-called "evil empire" in 2008 to try to use their massive scale to do some good in the world, so who am I to judge? (jury is still out on my contributions, fwiw)
No. The heart of the problem is that VR is the most powerful means ever invented to pipe external ideas into your internal world. It's pushing remote-controlled information almost directly into your brain via every sense possible. Consider that people believe a lot of crap they can't even see. You'll believe this crap on so many levels. That's why it's called virtual reality, ok? It's as close to real as it gets, while still being entirely artificial.
The Facebook purchase highlights the reverse of that flow as well, reminding us that VR may become one of the best ways to pipe your internal world out — via data mining, classification and onto untold dissemination. That's actually one of the reasons I got into the field, 20 years ago: to more easily tell stories that were rattling around my brain that would have taken millions of dollars and hundreds of people to produce as movies or games. But it has a dark side too, like when the information is sucked out of us without our informed consent or control.
Just think what the headlines would have said last week if Facebook had instead bought a brain-sensing startup like Emotiv, or invested in fMRI brain scanning tech to extract your thoughts. See what I'm talking about? VR doesn't work quite the same way as those, but it gets to the same place in the end. The protective walls between you and the world come down in favor of more bandwidth in and out.
So closing that loop, even crafting individually designated virtual worlds using all of your private information, Facebook will own the most potent means available, short of mind-control drugs, to read and write to your private inner world, your thoughts, your actions, your dreams. It can free you, or it can enslave you.
What they do with it is entirely up to them (plus certain market and "other" forces). And if that doesn't scare you, at least a little, then you may already be sold.
Head Gears
Most head mounted VR gear brings me back to my teenage years, where my orthodontist tried to make me wear a night brace to straighten my teeth.
It works while you sleep, he said.
You try sleeping with your head in a vice, I said.
He didn't care. He got paid $40/month regardless of how long it took. Needless to say, I soon got a new orthodontist. And I've kept trying on various VR gear too.
I originally favored the CAVE projection kind of display and built a few variations of my own, including a six-sided one at Disney. The main benefit is zero latency (ignoring stereo parallax changes) — in other words, the image is already there when you turn your head. No blurriness. The main downside, of course, is who has room or money for an 8′ cube in their living room. Not practical until we get digital wallpaper or big flexible roll-up screens.
But even still, I happily bought into the Oculus Rift's kickstarter, eager to try again. I love seeing people so enthusiastic about this stuff, especially new blood.
Though I've personally used the Rift for many minutes at a time, my own purchased dev kit is still sitting in its box, alas, waiting for me to find time to build something useful. The head-tracking latency was actually very good, but the original display felt much like the world was made of LiteBrite. If you've never tried it, here's a good oculus rift simulator to try.
I just pre-ordered the 2nd gen dev kit too, which fixes much of the resolution issue, and I'm sure comes in an even nicer box.
I'm hopeful that Carmack can solve some of the rendering latency issues that fast OLED displays alone can't. I did some research in this area too, fwiw. There's a lot that can still be done to wring the delays out of various pipelines.
Some friends and I also got to try out the new Sony Morpheus HMD at GDC this week. We had to get in line the moment the expo doors opened, just to get a ticket to stand in line to wait to try. But it was worth it, I keep telling myself.
The resolution was impressive. The persistence of their LCD displays was not as good as the Rift's. Now, I can't be sure what they're using inside, but I would have thought they'd throw some 4k SXRD panels in there, just like they use in their nicest projectors.
I thought those were akin to DLP in terms of super-fast switching time, but I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe there isn't room for front-reflection in the optical path. I can say that the LCD-like images we saw seemed to be over-driven and washed out a bit, mostly suffering from slow switching times. Brightness was great, but black blacks were in short supply.
In any event, no one got nauseated, which is a small victory for those of us who can't watch the Blair Witch Project without dramamine. The Rift also does well on that front. But in both cases, using a simple laptop trackpad or arrow keys to navigate puts me back on the vomit comet.
A nice omni-directional treadmill might do the trick. Someone had one of those on display too, but I didn't get to try it — seems to need special slippery shoes. But if we're going through the trouble of a 4′ treadmill, why not just go back to using CAVEs? If it's just a matter of integrating your furniture, my friends in MSR solved that nicely.
For what it's worth, I still have my money on real see-through AR displays as the ultimate winner. Let me walk in the real world, augmented with new content. Yes, indeed.
Whats Amazing?
It's not the $19B price tag of Facebook's WhatsApp acquisition that's most amazing to me. That's just math (lots of math). More users * more engagement * a wealthy/desperate suitor = bigger deals.
It's not most amazing to me that the deal works out to over $250M per employee, if evenly split. For comparison, Google seems to be worth about $8.5M per employee, last I checked. Apple reportedly pulls in a whopping $2.3M yearly per employee in revenues alone. (average Apple employees, how much of that do you get paid again?).
WhatsApp just did more and faster with fewer people. That's what makes a great team. I'm sure everyone was amazing. Dysfunctional teams or people barely earn back their salaries, if they survive at all.
The motivation for the deal is not amazing at all, since Facebook desperately needs to connect the very people who don't need Facebook to connect, i.e., the people you see every day. It seemed almost inevitable, given the trends.
No. What is most amazing to me is the powerful principle behind this simple note at right — one of the core principles that apparently made WhatsApp so popular with hundreds of millions of users. I found this via the Sequoia blog post about the sale, and I honestly had no idea.
Jan keeps a note from Brian taped to his desk that reads "No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!" It serves as a daily reminder of their commitment to stay focused on building a pure messaging experience.
It's most amazing to me, and most inspiring, because there are so many professional CEOs and advisors out there who try to convince their startups that they need to collect and hoard as much user data as possible, then sell it surreptitiously, while also pushing ads and wringing every last monetizable cent with games and gimmics to keep people addicted and virally engaged.
Those same fine folks somehow duck out (or get fired) when the users finally complain, defect and disappear. And they apparently never learn from their mistakes. But they do come back, with the same tired story again and again.
WhatsApp proved them wrong and proved it 19 billion times over.
Build value for users. Give them what they want and need, every day. That's the recipe for success. This kind of success is something I can truly appreciate and admire.
P.S. I'd like to think that this is the real reason Facebook bought them, given FB's reliance on those same tired ads, games, etc… Maybe it wasn't for more European and emerging market penetration. Maybe it wasn't merely to disarm a growing competitor. Maybe it's for Facebook to become more like them? Maybe that's why they put Jan on the board. If so, good for them.
When You Fall in Love, This Is What Facebook Sees
When You Fall in Love, This Is What Facebook Sees – Robinson Meyer – The Atlantic.
I've heard that credit card companies know when you're cheating or about to get divorced. I'd imagine things like flowers, gifts and hotels would be a tip off, but general expenses probably approach double once a couple is separated.
This data about facebook posts makes perfect sense too. People using FB will post more flirtatiously until the relationship starts. But after, why post so much? Even in real life, it's rare for couples to make strong public displays of affection once they're together. If they do, it may come more from insecurity about the relationship, or insensitivity to others' feelings, than from some unparalleled eternal flame.
This highlights one of Facebook's core challenges — how to capture sentiments shared between people who spend a lot of time together.
Holographic Phone: Stupidly Brilliant
This Is The Coolest Augmented Reality Idea Yet For Using Your Smartphone | Gizmodo Australia.
This idea reportedly comes from a competition that Meta (Space Glasses) is holding. The idea is to project a holographic image of your phone in space (using said glasses) and let you virtually interact with it, instead of taking the phone out of your pocket to do exactly the same.
Why is it a brilliant idea?
It's simple. People get accustomed to their phone's UIs. Projecting the phone holographically requires not a single new thought and changes nothing about the core experience. Well, it does lose out on touching that sleek and sexy touch-screen, feeling the nicely balanced weight of the phone in your hand, and of course key sensors like accelerometers (to a degree) and cameras (at all) to certain phone experiences.
So I guess that means you couldn't run old augmented reality apps on your holographic phone for a recursive experience. Oh well. There goes a nice photo op.
Why is this a stupid idea?
Your head mounted device can [eventually] paint pixels anywhere you look. It can detect touch anywhere it can see your hands. Why would we limit ourselves to drawing a 4″ screen when we have an infinitely large screen on our head?
It's a lot like saying, "Hey, we got used to small CRT TVs so let's draw a small TV inside our brand new 60″ flat screen TV so people don't have to learn something new."
Interfaces for AR will run the gamut from holographic virtual actors who become your daily assistant, to making every physical surface in the world potentially interactive by touch, sight and sound. Why would we limit ourselves to UI mechanisms that were designed around the limits of small screens and touch?
Just for the experience of not having to take our phone out of our pocket? Are we really that lazy? If so, ask yourself how much you'd be willing to pay to use your phone without taking it out of your pocket. I'd pay maybe $1.
This really comes down to a core question about AR. Is it about being the ultimate hands-free device, principally meant to deliver us from holding our phone in our hands or up to our faces? Or is it about re-imagining the analog world with new digital layer(s) of content on top?
I can see an app like this being very popular, at least in the way the fart app is popular. That's only because people's imaginations are presently too limited. They just haven't seen the best ideas yet.
On the other hand, it's turning out that the most popular interface for your new 60″ flat-screen TV with billions of streaming video options is not some new fancy XBox-like natural UI, but rather just your phone.
So what do I know? People may ultimately find 'stupid' brilliant.
More Magic
The idea that most man-made objects can be represented with sweep surfaces (cylinders, tubes, squares, etc..) isn't that new. Second Life primitives used exactly the same principle, with some interesting extensions for cuts, twists, tapers and so on.
But selecting photographic imagery based on implicit primitives, in-painting (hallucinating) the background and unseen object views, and (occasional) relighting of the object is all extremely clever and very useful. Combine this and a system that can relight virtual objects based on scene shadows and you have a paint program that can revise reality, at least virtually, but in a way that would fool almost anyone.
The end-goal of all this work is something I used to call "parametric 3D video" — which roughly means we take one or more 2D video streams, split out the objects, backgrounds, people into separate and fully adjustable pieces, send them as 3D content vs. pixels, and then re-synthesize the result from any angle at the receiving end, along with any changes you want to make.
3D (color + depth) video capture makes the problem much easier. Techniques like this paper are still needed to finish the job, but they can be much more automatic in terms of finding and cutting objects.
▶ 3-Sweep: Extracting Editable Objects from a Single Photo, SIGGRAPH ASIA 2013 – YouTube.
Verge Article on AWE 2013
Here's a great* Verge article on the AWE 2013 conference that wrapped up last week. I had the honor of speaking, along with a number of my co-workers. Although, as Tish points out, we're not actually doing AR at Syntertainment, we're very passionate about the field as one of several key enabling technologies.
In the shadow of Google Glass, an augmented reality industry revs its engines | The Verge.
* yes, of course mentioning me positively supports my opinion of your article, even if you get my name slightly wrong.
Oculus AR?
I was checking the Oculus VR site today to see when my dev kit will ship (April, apparently) and I noticed this interesting job posting:
- Design and implement techniques for optical flow and structure from motion and camera sensors
Relevant computer vision research (3d optical flow, structure from motion, feature tracking, SLAM)
What this means to me is that Oculus may be trying to solve AR as well as VR.
Now, it's possible they're just trying to use optical flow to create an absolute reference frame for the rendered VR scene. The tiny gyros that track your head rotation tend to drift over time and corresponding magnetometers (basically, compasses) aren't always reliable enough to help. It's also desirable to know your absolute lateral translation at any given time, which onboard accelerometers can only guess at. So some amount of computer vision makes sense for VR, implying there will be cameras mounted on the VR glasses, if not already. (I'd certainly encourage them to put cameras facing your eyes too).
However, "structure from motion" and SLAM would be better suited to 3D tracking such that a video camera could overlay virtual 3D objects on video of real world, like many of the AR demos you see on phones and tablets today. Done well, it gives much more precise 3D transformations than VR might need, and SLAM is quite expensive to compute traditionally.
In fact, if you were doing VR glasses with cameras, tracking your arms and legs would be the first problem I'd solve. Getting 3D input right is very important. Oculus seems to be thinking of that as well. (see this other job posting).
So let's assume AR uses for this SLAM work and see where that leads. The idea is you'd put a camera (or two) on the goggles to capture the real world at a similar field-of-view to the VR display, pipe that video into your 3D renderer with some depth-per-pixel, and you'd theoretically have a better AR solution than Google Glass or similar HUD approaches.
On the plus side, pixels captured from the real world can be correctly occluded by pixels in the virtual scene. That's very hard to do with see-through AR, which is plagued by the ghostly transparent images we've come to call "holograms," for their ethereal qualities. They're transparent because there's currently no solution on the market to stop the natural light that comes from the real world other than to darken the glasses everywhere, so they go from AR to VR anyway…
Of course, latency is the main issue with the camera-based-AR approach. If you turn your head with see-through AR, the real world is visible with zero lag, and the virtual part can be dialed down whenever it would be nauseating. With camera-based AR, you typically have a few frames of latency added to the queue, which can induce nausea and disorientation, especially if the goal is to just walk around with these and not hit or be hit by "things." Latency has to be extremely low, like 4 ms.
There are tricks to avoid this. Cheaper cameras use what's called a "rolling shutter" which means they're effectively only capturing one line of pixels at a time, while that line sweeps across the image at some high rate. This is what causes those funny skewing artifacts when you move your cell phone while taking pictures or video — the picture wasn't all taken at one point in time like an old film camera or high-end capture device.
The challenge is how to couple a rolling shutter to a "beam-chasing" rendering algorithm, which is the same idea applied in reverse — to the visual output instead input. If you do that right (and I'm sure there is a way), then the distance between the camera's "scan line" and the currently rendered "raster line" is your actual latency, which would be measured in low milliseconds instead of full frames. Cool stuff.
But that's not a full solution — the 99% of the scan lines we rendered in the past (this "frame") would be stuck in their old positions while our heads turn. But at least the newest rendered pixels would be more correct, right?
A full solution includes a very low-latency image capture of the physical scene, 3D pose estimation (SLAM or similar) while a high-fidelity render of the virtual scene is conducted, and then a very high-frame-rate (120-240hz) continuous re-rendering of that scene is done based on the latest head rotation and translation measurements from the gyros and accelerometers.
This is indeed a kind of magic. Could Oculus do it? They've seemed to raise enough money. So best of luck to them.
Custom Software Will Produce Every Possible Digital Photograph
Custom Software Will Produce Every Possible Digital Photograph
TLDR; an artist is iterating through every combination of pixels to produce every possible digital photograph so as to explore the concept of infinity.
Some commentary:
This is less interesting to me as an exploration of infinity, since there are a provably finite number of unique combinations of pixels for any given resolution and color depth.
Of course, for any reasonably sized image, say 640×480 at 24bpp, the number is exceedingly large. It's about 2 to the 7 million, in this case, which would take more time than the age of the universe to merely count, given computers that today can typically count to only 2^64 sometime before you die. That's not really that interesting, because counting images is no way to find anything interesting in there.
What's more interesting to me is the underlying idea that every image is just a number. If you see an array of colored pixels as the mere bits they are, then it's more obvious that there is a distinct integer or index matched to each unique image. A paint program, like Photoshop, is not actually helping you "draw" anything, in this sense, but merely changing which of those strings of bits are being displayed at any given time.
Yes, so therefore a paint program is just navigating through a pre-determined space of all possible images of a given size. Painting just one pixel is enough to move a little or a lot in that finite space.
You didn't make that nice piece of art, you merely steered the computer towards it.
But what's even more interesting is the idea that all of those images already and provably exist. That's right, if you know the number, you know the image and vice-versa. Whether anyone's ever seen the funny picture of George W. Bush lighting his hair on fire isn't the point — that image definitely exists, and at 640×480 is going to be very clear. Whether it's a photo of anything real is another story. And since movies are just strings of strings of bits, the same goes for video too.
So, one might ask, what the hell is copyright for digital imagery but a claim of owning a specific number, or set of numbers that represent the same approximate image? This would go for books and music too, btw, but let's not wander.
I was so fascinated by this concept when I was younger that I wrote an April Fools post for an old computer graphics usenet group back in 1993. Thanks to Google usenet archives, I have recovered the text (yes, I really wrote this and posted it anonymously while I worked at Disney):
October 21, 1993 — [Geneva] Two Swiss scientists announced last week their stunning discovery of a method for generating and storing any conceivable picture using ordinary personal computers. Called The Database of Every Picture Imaginable, or DOEPI, their system is currently seeking patent and copyright protection in virtually every industrialized nation, including the United States.
Other image generation and storage technologies have been introduced in the past to help cope with the incredible demands of Multimedia and Video-Dialtone but, according to co-inventor Dr. Francois La Tete, of the Alpine Institute, a well-respected Swiss mathematical society, DOEPI is the first system which is capable of storing literally every image. "Our proprietary algorithm is the first of it's kind," says La Tete, " It can compress every image into such a compact space that the software can run with less than one megabyte of memory."
Indeed, the performance of their system is impressive. Independent experts have confirmed that when fed a "bit-index-code" (a string of 1's and 0's which tell the database how to find the proper image), the database can produce the correct image in less than two seconds.
According to La Tete, the original developer of the software, the technique uses an extremely simple principle but one which obviously has eluded the rest of the world so far. Like many inventors, he came up with the idea indirectly. "I was trying to automate the process of collecting images from various FTP sites," he explains shyly, "when I realized that I could simply create the images myself." From that point on, his personal computer worked day and night to generate the images he desired.
But Alfonso Marzipani, La Tete's business partner and former Human Genome Project director, immediately realized the practical side of the invention. He understood that a technique that could generate any picture could be used to create pictures never before seen. "We used [La Tete's] stuff to make a movie about some scary dinosours," explains Marzipani. "Then we saw the same exact thing in a movie I can't name for legal reasons. I said, 'Frankie,' we're on to something big."
One year later, Marzipani claims the database is complete. The energetic team has, in addition to filing for software patents, filed for blanket copyrights on all of the images stored in the database. "If we make the images first, we should own them, right?" claims Marzipani.
Copyright Offices seem to agree. Nearly twenty countries have already granted blanket copyrights to Marzipani's operating company, La Monde, SpA. Other countries, like the United States are more cautious. According to US Copyright Chairperson Ingrid Dingot, such a broad copyright must be seriously considered. "A blanket copyright might mean that they might own any image anyone else tries to create," says Dingot. "That might have an impact on the US economy."
To conclusively determine if DOEPI actually does contain every image, the USCO has enlisted James Farrel, an independent data retrieval expert. Farrel has begun the laborious process of printing copies of all of the images in the database, one by one. It is estimated that a full dump of the database will require several trillion years and more paper than exists on the planet.
In the mean time, he has used a more direct approach. Seven major entertainment companies have come together to donate their accumulated libraries of images to Farrell's effort in the hopes of proving the DOEPI database incomplete. "If we can find even one image they don't have," says Arturo Nakagawa, CEO of Sony America, "then their claim is false."
So far, Farrel has searched for nearly ten thousand images with complete success. "It's incredible," says Farrel. "After they compute the bit-index from the control image, it takes only a second or two to find the matching image in the database. Every damn time."
But according to La Tete, the software isn't perfect. He admits that the size of the bit-index-code, sometimes in excess of one megabyte, or eight million bits, is overly cumbersome and hints that the next generation of the software will reduce this requirement by a hundred times or more. "At that point," says La Tete, "our software will be used by nearly every person on the planet."
But it appears as if La Tete and Marzipani may have their way before the improved software is ever released. "We may have to grant the copyrights," admits Dingot candidly. "Even the one for sequencing a series of still images as a motion picture." Indeed, the future of ownership of visual imagery seems bleak.
But the battle isn't over. Michael Eisner, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, has countered threat with threat. "If their database contains every image, then it contains Disney property," says Eisner, "Those two owe the Disney Company a large amount of money." This battle may go over to Disney, with a record of success at this kind of clear-cut property claim. But only time will tell who will win the war.
[AP] -end included article. Reprinted without permission.
I had attributed this to some fake users, but now you know.


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Posts tagged: serving size
Ways to Get More Fruits and Vegetables
15 February, 2011
Eating the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables is a surefire way to ensure that you are getting enough nutrients and maintaining a healthy diet. Sometimes it's hard to incorporate all five servings of fruits and veggies, but in this post we serve you ideas on how to make sure you're getting the proper daily dose.
Quick Tips for Reading a Nutrition Label
15 February, 2011
What exactly is all that stuff on the Nutrition label? Sure we can likely read it all, but what exactly does it mean? If you have a hard time making heads or tails of food labels, take our cheat sheet with you the next time you hit the grocery store. Understanding the labels will ensure that you are getting enough daily nutrients, which will help you reach your health and weight-loss goals.


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Experience | |
Industry Recognition | |
Professional Conduct |
Sheryl L .Edgar, a senior partner at A Center for Children Family Law, is a licensed attorney in California and before the United States Supreme Court. She... more
View all photos and/or videosSheryl is professional, wise and patient. She is one of Orange County's premier attorneys and an amazing advocate for children. I endorse this lawyer. more
I endorse this lawyer. Sheryl is an experienced advocate with the utmost in professionalism - all the while she balances advocacy with cooperation to... more


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This deal has ended.
The TMX eXtra Special Edition Tickle Me Elmo is now at eToys for only $19.99. This features all the functions of the original Tickle Me Elmo, as well as new hidden surprises that can only be discovered when kids play, pose, and tickle Elmo in the right sequence. Shipping is free and there's no tax (except CO, MA and VA).
No longer available


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Online Training On-demand training on Embedded Processors and DSPs. |
Webcast: Targeting Analog Devices Blackfin and SHARC processors from MATLAB |
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Bertha at rest: How much will the delays cost?
Poor Bertha. She deserved better. Bertha Knight Landes, that is, Seattle's first and only woman mayor.
In fact, Bertha Knight Landes was the first female mayor of a major American city. She served from 1926 to 1928. Prior to that, she was president of the City Council and involved in many good government organizations in town. She ran because the corrupt city needed a good "housekeeper," and she tried to clean up by cracking down on crooked cops, illegal gambling and bootleggers. After two years, she was beaten for reelection by a newcomer named Frank Edwards, who was a shill for the business community. Bertha's career was halted abruptly by political conditions on the ground in Seattle, a city with a history of being of two minds about vice.
We haven't elected a woman mayor since, but naming the world's largest tunnel-boring machine after her seemed appropriate. "Bertha" is synonymous with "big," which the tunnel project is. Bertha was also supposed to represent enlightened progress in a city whose transportation system needed some good housekeeping. The boring machine would core out the muck and glacial remains under the old waterfront and dig a foundation for Seattle's new face to the world. Traffic would flow smoothly and silently and out of sight, the Berlin Wall of viaducts would be torn down and downtown would flourish. We debated the digging risks and how to pay for them, but for a majority of voters, Bertha seemed the best path forward.
Only now, a year into the project's launch, Bertha the Boring Machine is stuck. She needs major repairs. Until they happen, the big machine is dead in the mud, unable to burrow her way forward. The tunnel diggers have to rescue her by digging an enormous pit so they can access her front end and remove the cutterhead and repair the main bearing that turns her cutters. It cost $80 million to build Bertha; it will cost at least $125 million to rescue her.
Bertha has many moving parts, and once she's dismantled in situ, repair crews will have a much better idea of how to fix her — it could be more than bearing problems that brought her to a standstill last December. At best, she'll be more than a year late finishing the job. At worst, she can't be fixed. Things look so bad that even the state's secretary of transportation will no longer guarantee Bertha will finish the job.
Bertha's crisis has consequences. She's a critical moving part in a massive Seattle makeover. Digging the tunnel allows the Alaskan Way Viaduct to be replaced. That opens up the central waterfront for a redevelopment estimated to cost more than $1 billion. Projects include a new seawall, new surface transportation routes across the waterfront, an expansion of Pike Place Market that connects to an expanded Seattle Aquarium, links to the refurbished Mercer Corridor, plus an eventual makeover of the ferry terminal at Colman Dock. Bertha's progress is key to all of it coming together.
The other Bertha. Credit: WSDOT
It's fair to ask questions in the meantime. How costly will delays be, and will they proliferate throughout the complex web of projects? Have the city and state bitten off more than they can chew? While the cause of Bertha's paralysis is not yet fully known, the costs of her rescue and delay are mounting.
And who will ultimately pay when the bill comes in? Olympia has said that Seattle taxpayers should be on the hook for cost overruns, but the language of the legislation might not be enforceable. In the meantime, the Washington State Department of Transportation and Seattle Tunnel Partners, the contractor, are arguing over blame.
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Posted Fri, Aug 1, 6:55 a.m.
And who will ultimately pay when the bill comes in? Olympia has said that Seattle taxpayers should be on the hook for cost overruns, but the language of the legislation might not be enforceable.
Not quite.
There are 9 (or so) separate projects that together comprise the SR-99 AWV replacement and roadway improvements work. The $1.4 billion contract between WSDOT and Seattle Tunnel Partners is the largest single contract in those related projects.
The state legislature adopted a statute in April, 2009 limiting the state's exposure. The state only will pay $2.8 BLN towards all of those 9 projects.
Who is on the hook for amounts over that $2.8 BLN to complete those 9 projects? That is not certain, although it is certain how any such additional amounts would be obtained. What that 2009 state statute says is that if a LID is formed the Seattle-area property owners benefited by those downtown highway projects can be assessed for WSDOT's costs over the $2.8 BLN cap.
Want some details about that unique statute (technically it was an amendment sponsored by Judy Clibborn to ESSB 5768, at the behest of Frank Chopp)? Months after all the hearings on ESSB 5768, Clibborn's amendment with its cost-shifting provisions was introduced (on April 22, 2009):
Here is that law, as enacted; ESSB 5768 now is codified as RCW 47.01.402(6)(b):
( http://www.apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=47.01.402 ).
A local government with LID-forming authority now is perfectly free to form a LID for the purposes of paying the amounts over $2.8 billion that WSDOT racks up. No vote of the people would be required, and no change in state law would need to be made if, say, the Port of Seattle commissioners decided to form a LID for the purpose of generating money for WSDOT to pay to contractors. The Port commissioners could use the Port's existing statutory authority (RCW 53.08.050) to form a new LID and begin the assessments as soon as WSDOT says it'll need additional money beyond the $2.8 billion cap. Those assessments would start going out to hundreds of property owners, the ones that Lloyd Hara deems have properties that have increased assessed values due to the projects.
It's a highly unconventional megaproject financing scheme. Moreover, it was designed to be as opaque as possible to the public.
Posted Tue, Aug 26, 11:37 a.m.
This is why I now vote against every single levy. It's obvious that the powers that be in Seattle will always, always find the money for what they truly want. Therefore, there's no need to actually vote for any of it.
Posted Mon, Aug 4, 2:31 p.m.
I'd like see a segment on "60 Minutes" about how this really happened.
Posted Thu, Aug 21, 6:34 p.m.
I find this so very interesting. Knute's column of course is designed to spread fear that Bertha cannot be repaired. This is not likely. But of course anything is possible.
Bertha can run at the present time. In fact, she'll have to so she can bore through the pit walls so they can remove the cutterhead and replace the seals and the bearing. They are equipped to repair or replace anything in Bertha including the cutterhead. That would mean a longer repair time, because a new one would have to be made and shipped to Seattle, but it could be done. However no one actually believes the cutterhead has been damaged, in fact,they don't believe that the bearing has been damaged. which would become damaged before the cutterhead.
While it is unfortunate that Bertha's seals have been damaged, it is a good thing that this was caught at this point. Of course anything can go wrong and it's easy to imagine the worst, the reality is that it is very likely that Bertha will be repaired and will be able to finish her tunnel drive.
Posted Fri, Aug 22, 6:50 p.m.
Your reply is designed to try to put a lid on the very real HOPE that Bertha cannot be repaired. Your spin is not working, abc.
Bertha is going to forever be berthed below, stuck.
Posted Tue, Aug 26, 10:33 a.m.
Whether it gets done or not is idle speculation. The important question is how much it costs if it gets done, when it gets done, or if it fails, how much the public eats, which is the cost minus the performance bond, which could easily get close to a billion dollars lost.
The contractor is hardly in it for a job done or money back deal, that is a fact. A huge monetary risk is with the public. For what? To create a transportation tunnel underground to save real estate. The cut and cover was the prudent and responsible choice to risk the public's money on, IMHO.
Posted Sun, Oct 19, 8:26 p.m.
It's funny how the Seattle media fails to point the finger at who really pushed, prodded and promoted the deep bore tunnel, the Discovery Institute in Seattle. I knew when I still lived in Seattle this deep, deep, expensive tunnel was a bad idea. The original cut and cover was probably the way to go.
As Goldy says:
I mean, Jesus H. Christ… what does it take to tarnish the Discovery Institute's reputation? Does Bruce Chapman actually have to strip himself naked and go on a shooting rampage through the Tacoma Mall before our local media and political elite finally accept the fact that he might not be the same reasonable city councilman they remember from the 1970's? Is there nothing he can do or say to destroy his credibility?
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Why Jack Reed doesn't want to be defense secretary
November 24th, 2014 at 12:23 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's NotesBy Ted Nesi
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – It's becoming a familiar cycle in Rhode Island: President Obama needs a defense secretary, and national reporters start speculating that U.S. Sen. Jack Reed could get the job. Yet Reed never actually winds up at the Pentagon.
But why wouldn't Jack Reed – a proud West Point alum and veteran of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division – want to be in charge of the most powerful military force the world has ever known? There are quite a few reasons.


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Play the Catstration Game!
The geniuses over at NoMoreStrays.com, a website designed to raise awareness about the animal-overpopulation epidemic that this country is facing, have come up with what may very well be my favorite Flash-animated castration game of all time. I defy anyone to find a better game than this in the testicle-removal category. Check out the game, and don't forget to spay and neuter your pets (though for God's sake, do it by taking them to the vet—yes, the carny with the cleavers is a metaphor for your friendly local veterinarian).
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This is the perfect kind of game that brings awareness to the issue specifically those that ARE NOT the sensitive type of people already involved in the battle. Huge problems need great ideas like this to spread the word instead of the typical methods like drab brochures that people quickly ignore 3 seconds after they read the info. Brilliant game!
I suggest to erase this kind of game because it gives a false idea about castration. This surgery is much more than just cut eggs and it's very neccessary to keep population instead of letting them multiply and die because of that. I spam or neuter cats I take from the street and this is not a joke this is a very huge problem.
We need help for this in Madrid Spain. We try to neuter cats living in the street we try to avoid their sacrifice when they are caugth by the council of Madrid. We need more help to avoid new kittens this spring. You can help us by donations supporting buying calendars tshirts… We help other people sending dogs to other countries specially galgos.


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Google the term "National Debt" and you will quickly receive the search results for millions of websites.
Most deal with the very serious issues of government overspending and the accumulation of more than two centuries of federal deficits. Yet very few bring up the biggest national debt of them all — that which America owes to her veterans.
Today, Veterans Day, marks the perfect opportunity for us to take an historical audit on just how much this nation owes her heroes.
We continue our fact-or-fiction series with the tale of the Polish priest who accidentally burned down our first church, when he fell asleep smoking his pipe — so it is said.
He was Alexander Grzelachowski (gre-law-how-ski), the first parish priest at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, who came to Las Vegas in 1851. Born in Poland when much of that country was part of Russia, he studied for the priesthood in France, and later immigrated to the United States.
Several years ago, in the pre-911 era, before we needed to open up our world to the TSA, in the name of Homeland Security, we almost missed our flight to Orlando, Fla.
Back then, there were none of those interminable lines of people ordered to remove their shoes or subject themselves to touchy-feelie pinching, patting, probing, poking and prodding. So, though my crew arrived too late to check our bags — we needed to tote them all the way to our destination — we were allowed on the plane, even with our bazookas, pipe bombs and jumbo bottles of lotion.
Time to start thinking about the upcoming holidays — to give thanks, wish for peace on earth and goodwill to all, and maybe get a cool gift or two. Then we'll turn the corner on a new year, with an adios to the old and hola on the new — hoping and praying for a tomorrow that will be even better than the days before.
Here at the Optic, we're planning several things. First, I'll provide an overview, then I'll tell you how you can participate.
• • •
Here's what we have planned:
It was 1976, and Joseph M. Montoya was seeking his third term to the U.S. Senate. The quintessential politician, Montoya was becoming a powerful senator, and had served on the select Senate Watergate Committee which investigated the Nixon White House. (President Richard M. Nixon resigned from office Aug. 9, 1974, the only president in history to do so.)
One of the greatest features of my new toy, my iPad, is the ability to add "apps," that is, applications that do different things. The one I like but can't control is named, simply, "Population."
It resembles a car odometer. It's digital, and the columns showing units and tens run fast. Last Friday, the last time I checked before now, the count was 6,9099,587,471. The time was 5:33 p.m. Watching the counter moving, I timed it for exactly one minute, during which the estimated population climbed by 148 people.
A few hours before a scheduled Luna Community College Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 20, I heard a rumor that the board was about to remove Pete Campos as president. Some board members were not happy about being left out of certain hiring decisions, I was told, and they had the votes to fire Campos.
An old and intriguing legend is that Spanish settlers, pursued by hostile Native Americans, took refuge and starved atop El Cerrito de Bernal, a small butte rising 7,031 feet, about 12 miles southwest of Las Vegas. As a result, since anyone can remember, the small mesa has been called Starvation Peak. (Cerrito means small mountain, and the first written reference to El Cerrito de Bernal was in 1794, in the description of the San Miguel del Bado land grant, which designates the butte as the grant's northeastern boundary.)
Editor's note: This article was originally published on www.YourLifeIsATrip.com, a group blog featuring experiential storytelling and first-person travel narratives.
I had lived in Santa Fe for 23 years before it occurred to me to offer to move back to Las Vegas, where I was raised, to help out my mom.
This week is the best time of the year. Other seasons are great, but nothing beats the first weeks of fall.
Halloween features long nights and short days, and the probability that imaginations become bizarre. Most people like to be scared, and Halloween's a perfect occasion for that.
Here's why this season is great:
Things change. We leave the house early, often needing to scrape our windshields. We don a coat because of the icy car seats, but by the time we arrive at work, it's time to turn on the AC.


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ASCOT, England (AP) - Animal Kingdom is coming a long way to Royal Ascot, chasing one last win.
Not since 1936 has a Kentucky Derby winner competed at Royal Ascot. Owner Graham Motion says it will be a ``huge challenge'' to win in such different conditions, even though Animal Kingdom is the odds-on favorite.
Motion says there are ``so many variables'' that he's not sure he'd make the U.S. horse an odds-on shot, but ``we're not ducking anyone.''
Copyright 2015The Associated PressAll Rights Reserved


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(Adds bond prices in fourth paragraph.)
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Uruguay's credit-rating outlook was raised to positive by Moody's Investors Service, which cited the government's commitment to keeping its budget deficit in check.
Moody's raised the South American country's outlook from stable today, 13 months after lifting the rating to Ba1, or one level below investment grade.
"A steady improvement in Uruguay's sovereign credit profile as a result of a strong and continued commitment by the government to fiscal discipline, a condition that has led to moderate deficits and declining debt metrics," wrote Mauro Leos, a Latin America sovereign credit analyst for Moody's Investors Service, in a report.
Yields on government dollar bonds due in 2022 fell 4 basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 3.94 percent as of 2:53 p.m. New York time, and the extra yield investors demand to hold Uruguayan bonds instead of U.S. Treasuries rose 3 basis points to 210. That's less than some investment-grade countries including Peru, Russia, and Poland.
The Uruguayan government reduced its debt by extending average maturities and decreasing the share of foreign currency- denominated debt, according to the report.
Moody's lowered Uruguay's rating to Ba2, two levels below investment grade, in 2002 as neighboring Argentina struggled in the aftermath of its record default.
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Search: Character Education, Websites
- New Zealand Foundation for Character Education (Cornerstone Values)
"'Building Character through Cornerstone Values' is an indigenous New Zealand approach to the development of character which had its origins at the Waihopai School, Invercargill, following the 1989 reforms known as "Tomorrow's Schools" and the provision f ...
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"Character Education Partnership (CEP) is a national advocate and leader for the character education movement. Based in Washington, DC, we are a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonsectarian coalition of organizations and individuals committed to fostering effecti ...
13 Jul 2010 - 10:25am
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"Resources to build and develop character in youth; supports the core values of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship." ...
13 Jul 2010 - 10:24am
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"The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy in the United States a ...
13 Jul 2010 - 10:06am
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Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center ...
9 Jul 2010 - 11:28am


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The NTEA's Work Truck Show takes place March 5-7 in Indianapolis.
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The commission's report is likely to set off a massive political fight over the future of military compensation. The Defense Department is already bracing for backlash to the legislative proposals, with a special team of high-level officials standing by to review the recommendations and provide feedback to the White House within weeks.
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