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Cover of first serial, March 1852 Illustration from the New York Public Library Berg Collection | |
Author | Charles Dickens |
Illustrator | Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) |
Cover artist | Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) |
Country | England |
Language | English |
Series | Monthly: March 1852 – September 1853 |
Genre | Novel, Social criticism |
Publisher | Bradbury & Evans |
Publication date | 1853 |
Cover of first serial, March 1852 Illustration from the New York Public Library Berg Collection | |
Author | Charles Dickens |
Illustrator | Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) |
Cover artist | Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz) |
Country | England |
Language | English |
Series | Monthly: March 1852 – September 1853 |
Genre | Novel, Social criticism |
Publisher | Bradbury & Evans |
Publication date | 1853 |
Bleak House is a novel by Charles Dickens, published in 20 monthly installments between March 1852 and September 1853. It is held to be one of Dickens's finest novels, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon. The story is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by a mostly omniscient narrator. Memorable characters include the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn, the friendly but depressive John Jarndyce, and the childish and disingenuous Harold Skimpole, as well as the likable but imprudent Richard Carstone.
At the novel's core is long-running litigation in England's Court of Chancery, Jarndyce v Jarndyce, which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. This case revolves around a testator who apparently made several wills. The litigation, which already has taken many years and consumed between £60,000 and £70,000 in court costs, is emblematic of the failure of Chancery. Dickens's assault on the flaws of the British judicial system is based in part on his own experiences as a law clerk, and in part on his experiences as a Chancery litigant seeking to enforce copyright on his earlier books. His harsh characterisation of the slow, arcane Chancery law process gave memorable form to pre-existing widespread frustration with the system. Though Chancery lawyers and judges criticised Dickens's portrait of Chancery as exaggerated and unmerited, his novel helped to spur an ongoing movement that culminated in the enactment of legal reform in the 1870s. In fact, Dickens was writing just as Chancery was reforming itself, with the Six Clerks and Masters mentioned in Chapter One abolished in 1842 and 1852 respectively: the need for further reform was being widely debated.[1] These facts raise an issue as to when Bleak House is actually set. Technically it must be before 1842, and at least some of his readers at the time would have been aware of this. However, there is some question as to whether this timeframe is consistent with the themes of the novel. The English legal historian Sir William Holdsworth set the action in 1827.
Sir Leicester Dedlock and Honoria, Lady Dedlock (his junior by more than 20 years) live at his estate of Chesney Wold. Lady Dedlock is a beautiful, haughty woman who is very admired in the social world because of her good looks, fine clothes and regal bearing. Her comings and goings are considered the choicest gossip among the "fashionable intelligence." Unknown to Sir Leicester, Lady Dedlock had a lover, Captain Hawdon, before she married Sir Leicester – and had a child by him, Esther Summerson. Lady Dedlock, believing her daughter is dead, has chosen to live out her days 'bored to death' as a fashionable lady of the world.
Esther is raised by Miss Barbary, Lady Dedlock's spartan sister, who instills a sense of worthlessness in her that Esther will battle throughout the novel. She holds a sort of depressed vigil on Esther's birthday each year, explaining that Esther's birth is no cause for celebration and that she was "her mother's shame." Esther doesn't know that Miss Barbary is her aunt, thinking of her only as her godmother. When Miss Barbary dies, the Chancery lawyer Conversation Kenge takes charge of Esther's future on the instruction of his client, John Jarndyce. Jarndyce becomes Esther's guardian, and after attending school in Reading for six years, Esther moves in with him at Bleak House, along with his wards, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare. Esther is to be Ada's companion.
Esther soon befriends both Ada and Richard, who are cousins. They are beneficiaries in one of the wills at issue in Jarndyce and Jarndyce; their guardian is a beneficiary under another will, and in some undefined way the two wills conflict. No one realizes that Esther (as Lady Dedlock's biological daughter) is also connected to Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Richard and Ada soon fall in love, but though Mr. Jarndyce doesn't oppose the match, he stipulates that Richard (who is inconstant) must first choose a profession. Richard first tries the medical profession, and Esther first meets the newly qualified Dr. Allan Woodcourt at the house of Richard's prospective tutor, Mr. Baynham Badger. When Richard mentions the prospect of gaining from the resolution of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, John Jarndyce beseeches him never to put faith in what he calls "the family curse".
Meanwhile, Lady Dedlock is also a beneficiary under one of the wills in Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Early in the book, while listening to her solicitor, the close-mouthed but shrewd Mr. Tulkinghorn, read an affidavit aloud, she recognises the handwriting on the copy. The sight affects her so much that she almost faints, which Tulkinghorn notes and thinks should be investigated. He traces the copyist who turns out to be a pauper known only as "Nemo" who has recently died. The only person to identify him is a street-sweeper, a poor homeless boy named Jo.
Lady Dedlock also investigates the matter disguised as her French maid, Mademoiselle Hortense. She pays Jo to take her to Nemo's grave. Meanwhile, Tulkinghorn is convinced that Lady Dedlock's secret might threaten the interests of his client, Sir Leicester Dedlock, and watches her constantly, even enlisting the help of the maid, who detests her. He also enlists Inspector Bucket to run Jo out of town, so that there are no loose-ends that might connect Nemo to the Dedlocks.
Esther meets her mother at church and talks with her later at Chesney Wold – though, at first, neither woman recognizes the tie that binds them. Later, Lady Dedlock realises that her abandoned child is not dead and is, in fact, Esther. She waits to confront Esther with this knowledge until Esther survives an unidentified disease (possibly smallpox, as it permanently disfigures her), which she got from the homeless boy Jo after Esther and her maid Charley attempted to nurse him back to health. Though they are happy to be reunited, Lady Dedlock tells Esther that they must never acknowledge their connection again.
Esther recovers, but her beauty is supposedly ruined. She finds that Richard, having failed at several professions, has ignored his guardian and is wasting his resources in pushing Jarndyce and Jarndyce to conclusion (in his and Ada's favour). Further, he has broken with his guardian, under the influence of his lawyer, the odious and crafty Mr. Vholes. In the process of becoming an active litigant, Richard has lost all his money and is breaking his health. In further defiance of John Jarndyce, he and Ada have secretly married, and Ada is carrying Richard's child. Esther experiences her own romance when Dr. Woodcourt returns to England, having survived a shipwreck, and continues to seek her company despite her disfigurement. Unfortunately, Esther has already agreed to marry her guardian, John Jarndyce.
Hortense and Tulkinghorn discover Lady Dedlock's past. After a quiet but desperate confrontation with the lawyer, Lady Dedlock flees her home, leaving a note apologising for her conduct. Tulkinghorn dismisses Hortense, no longer any use to him. Feeling abandoned and betrayed by Lady Dedlock and Tulkinghorn, Hortense kills Tulkinghorn and seeks to frame Lady Dedlock for his murder. Sir Leicester discovers his lawyer's death and his wife's flight, and he suffers a catastrophic stroke but manages to communicate that he forgives his wife and wants her to return to him.
Inspector Bucket, who up to now has investigated several matters on the periphery of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, accepts the commission of the stricken Sir Leicester to find Lady Dedlock. He suspects Lady Dedlock, even after he arrests George Rouncewell (the only other person known to be with Tulkinghorn on the night of the murder and to have quarrelled with him repeatedly). Bucket asks Esther to help search for Lady Dedlock. By this point, Bucket has cleared Lady Dedlock by discovering Hortense's guilt, but Lady Dedlock has no way to know this and wanders the country in cold weather before dying at the cemetery of her former lover Captain Hawdon (Nemo). Esther and Bucket find her there.
Developments in Jarndyce and Jarndyce seem to take a turn for the better when a later will is found which revokes all previous wills and leaves the bulk of the estate to Richard and Ada. Meanwhile, John Jarndyce cancels his engagement to Esther, who becomes engaged to Dr. Woodcourt. They go to Chancery to find Richard and to discover what news there might be of the lawsuit's resolution. To their horror, they learn that the new will has no chance to resolve Jarndyce and Jarndyce, for the costs of litigation have consumed the estate. Richard collapses, and Dr Woodcourt determines that he is in the last stages of tuberculosis. Richard apologises to John Jarndyce and dies, leaving Ada alone with their child, a boy she names Richard. Jarndyce takes in Ada and the child. Esther and Woodcourt marry and live in a Yorkshire house which Jarndyce gives to them. In time, they have two daughters.
Many of this intricate novel's subplots deal with the minor characters and their diverse ties to the main plot. One of these subplots is the hard life and happy though difficult marriage of Caddy Jellyby and Prince Turveydrop. Another focuses on George Rouncewell's rediscovery of his family at Chesney Wold and his reunion with his mother and brother.
As usual, Dickens drew upon many real people and places but imaginatively transformed them in his novel. Hortense is based on the Swiss maid and murderess Maria Manning. The "telescopic philanthropist" Mrs Jellyby, who pursues distant projects at the expense of her duty to her own family, is a criticism of women activists like Caroline Chisholm. The "childlike" but ultimately amoral character Harold Skimpole is commonly regarded as a portrait of Leigh Hunt. "Dickens wrote in a letter of 25 September 1853, 'I suppose he is the most exact portrait that was ever painted in words! ... It is an absolute reproduction of a real man'; and a contemporary critic commented, 'I recognized Skimpole instantaneously; ... and so did every person whom I talked with about it who had ever had Leigh Hunt's acquaintance.'"[2] G. K. Chesterton suggested that Dickens "may never once have had the unfriendly thought, 'Suppose Hunt behaved like a rascal!'; he may have only had the fanciful thought, 'Suppose a rascal behaved like Hunt!'". Mr Jarndyce's friend Mr Boythorn is based on the writer Walter Savage Landor.
The novel also includes one of the first detectives in English fiction, Inspector Bucket. This character is probably based on Inspector Charles Frederick Field of the then recently formed Detective Department at Scotland Yard.[3] Dickens wrote several journalistic pieces about the Inspector and the work of the detectives in Household Words, his weekly periodical in which he also published articles attacking the Chancery system. The Jarndyce and Jarndyce case itself is believed to be have inspired by the long Chancery cases over several real-life wills, including those of Charles Day and William Jennens,[4] and of Charlotte Smith's father-in-law Richard Smith.[5]
Much criticism of Bleak House focuses on its unique narrative structure: it is told both by an unidentified, third-person narrator and a first-person narrator, Esther Summerson. The third-person narrator speaks in the present tense, ranging widely across geographic and social space (from the aristocratic Dedlock estate to the desperately poor Tom-All-Alone's in London), and gives full rein to Dickens's desire to satirise the English chancery system – though this narrator's perceptiveness has limits, stopping at the outside to describe characters' appearances and behaviour without any pretence of grasping or revealing their inner lives. Esther Summerson tells her own story in the past tense (like David in David Copperfield or Pip in Great Expectations), and her narrative voice is characterised by modesty, consciousness of her own limits, and willingness to disclose to us her own thoughts and feelings. These two narrative strands never quite intersect, though they do run in parallel. Nabokov, after describing the ways Esther's voice changes as the novel progresses, concluded that letting Esther tell part of the story was Dickens's "main mistake" in planning the novel[9] Alex Zwerdling, a scholar from Berkeley, after observing that "critics have not been kind to Esther," nevertheless thought Dickens's use of Esther's narrative "one of the triumphs of his art".[10]
Esther's portion of the narrative is an interesting case study of the Victorian ideal of feminine modesty. She introduces herself thus: "I have a great deal of difficulty in beginning to write my portion of these pages, for I know I am not clever" (chap. 3). This claim is almost immediately belied by the astute moral judgement and satiric observation that characterise her pages, and it remains unclear how much knowledge she withholds from her narration, or why someone who has chosen to relate the story of her life should be so coy about her own central place in it. In the same introductory chapter, she writes: "It seems so curious to me to be obliged to write all this about myself! As if this narrative were the narrative of MY life! But my little body will soon fall into the background now" (chap. 3). This does not turn out to be true.
For most readers and scholars, the central concern of Bleak House is its riveting and insistent indictment of the English Chancery court system. Chancery or equity courts were one half of the English civil justice system, existing side-by-side with law courts. Unlike law courts, which heard actions for legal injuries compensable by monetary damages, Chancery courts heard actions having to do with wills and estates, or with the uses of private property. By the mid-nineteenth century, English law reformers had long criticised and mocked the delays of Chancery litigation, and Dickens found the subject a tempting target. (He already had taken a shot at law-courts and that side of the legal profession in his 1837 novel The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club or The Pickwick Papers). The fame and critical success of Bleak House have led many readers and scholars to apply its indictment of Chancery to the entire legal system, and indeed it is the greatest indictment of law, lawyers, and the legal system in the English language.[citation needed] Scholars – such as the English legal historian Sir William Searle Holdsworth, in his 1928 series of lectures Charles Dickens as a Legal Historian published by Yale University Press – have made a plausible case for treating Dickens's novels, and Bleak House in particular, as primary sources illuminating the history of English law.
Dickens claimed in the preface to the book edition of Bleak House (it was initially released in parts) that he had "purposely dwelt upon the romantic side of familiar things". And some remarkable things do happen: One character, Krook, smells of brimstone and eventually dies of spontaneous human combustion, attributed to his evil nature. Using spontaneous human combustion to dispose of Krook in the story was controversial. The nineteenth century saw the increasing triumph of the scientific world-view and of technology rooted in scientific advances. Scientific and technological research and discovery were regarded as among the highest forms of human endeavour. Scientifically inclined writers, as well as medical doctors and scientists, rejected spontaneous human combustion as legend or superstition. When the instalment of Bleak House containing Krook's demise appeared, the literary critic George Henry Lewes criticised Dickens, accusing him of "giving currency to a vulgar error".[11] Dickens vigorously defended the reality of spontaneous human combustion and cited many documented cases, such as those of Mme. Millet of Rheims and of the Countess di Bandi, as well as his own memories of coroners' inquests that he had attended when he had been a reporter. In the preface of the book edition of Bleak House, Dickens wrote: "I shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a considerable Spontaneous Combustion of the testimony on which human occurrences are usually received."
George Gissing and G. K. Chesterton are among those literary critics and writers who consider Bleak House to be the best novel that Charles Dickens wrote. As Chesterton put it: "Bleak House is not certainly Dickens' best book; but perhaps it is his best novel". Harold Bloom, in his book The Western Canon, considers Bleak House to be Dickens's greatest novel. Daniel Burt, in his book The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time, ranks Bleak House number 12.
Bleak House has been cited as "the first novel in which a detective plays a significant role".[12]
Bleak House in Broadstairs (previously called Fort House), on the far northeast tip of Kent adjoining Margate, is where Dickens stayed with his family for at least one month every summer, from 1839 until 1851, when he was becoming established as a successful writer. Fort House, located on top of the cliff on Fort Road, was renamed Bleak House after his death, in his honour.[13]
Dickens locates[citation needed] the fictional Bleak House in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he wrote some of the book. An 18th century house in Folly Lane, St Albans has been identified as the location of the story since the time of the book's publication[citation needed] and was known as Bleak House for many years.[14]
In the late nineteenth century, actress Fanny Janauschek acted in a stage version of Bleak House in which she played both Lady Dedlock and her maid Hortense. The two characters never appear on stage at the same time. In 1876 John Pringle Burnett's play, Jo found success in London with his wife, Jennie Lee playing Jo, the crossing-sweeper.[15] In 1893, Jane Coombs acted in a version of Bleak House.[16]
A 1901 short film, The Death of Poor Joe, is the oldest known surviving film featuring a Charles Dickens character (Jo in Bleak House).[17]
In the silent film era, Bleak House was filmed in 1920 and 1922. The latter version featured Sybil Thorndike as Lady Dedlock.[18]
In 1928, a short film made in the UK in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process starred Bransby Williams as Grandfather Smallweed.[19]
The BBC has produced three television adaptations of Bleak House. The first serial, Bleak House, was broadcast in 1959 in eleven half-hour episodes.[20] The second Bleak House, starring Diana Rigg and Denholm Elliott, aired in 1985 as an eight-part series.[21] In 2005, the third Bleak House was broadcast in fifteen episodes starring Anna Maxwell Martin, Gillian Anderson, Denis Lawson, Charles Dance, and Carey Mulligan.[22] It won a Peabody Award that same year because it "created "appointment viewing," soap-style, for a series that greatly rewarded its many extra viewers."[23]
Charles Jefferys wrote the words for and Charles William Glover wrote the music for songs called Ada Clare and Farewell to the Old House, which are inspired by the novel.
Like most Dickens novels, Bleak House was published in 20 monthly instalments, each containing 32 pages of text and two illustrations by Phiz (the last two being published together as a double issue). Each cost one shilling, except for the final double issue, which cost two shillings.[citation needed]
Instalment | Date of publication | Chapters |
I | March 1852 | 1–4 |
II | April 1852 | 5–7 |
III | May 1852 | 8–10 |
IV | June 1852 | 11–13 |
V | July 1852 | 14–16 |
VI | August 1852 | 17–19 |
VII | September 1852 | 20–22 |
VIII | October 1852 | 23–25 |
IX | November 1852 | 26–29 |
X | December 1852 | 30–32 |
XI | January 1853 | 33–35 |
XII | February 1853 | 36–38 |
XIII | March 1853 | 39–42 |
XIV | April 1853 | 43–46 |
XV | May 1853 | 47–49 |
XVI | June 1853 | 50–53 |
XVII | July 1853 | 54–56 |
XVIII | August 1853 | 57–59 |
XIX–XX | September 1853 | 60–67 |
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bleak House. |
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "article name needed". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.


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Morgan Frazier releases EP with Best Buy
Rising country star Morgan Frazier has announced plans to release a 5-song exclusive with Best Buy. The Sidewalk Records artist's Best Buy EP is available now through bestbuy.com until November 2013. The EP features her debut single "Yellow Brick Road" which she co-wrote with Jim Brown and Steve Clark. The song shares how hard it is to find a good man in an imperfect world by using references from the Wizard of Oz.
Other songs included on the EP are "Cowboy's Ride," written about all the bad cowboys she's dated; "Halo," which is about searching for positives when a man does you wrong; "Part Of My Show," which is about her experiences in trying to forget someone and get over a bad relationship; and "Love Letters," which wasn't written by Morgan, but is a powerful ballad. I'm starting to see a theme here.
About releasing the EP, Morgan said:
"I am very proud of this EP, and I am really excited to debut it exclusively on bestbuy.com. If you get a chance to pick it up you will get insight into my life through my songs. I can only hope that my fans will be able to borrow my music and relate it back to their every-day lives."
Look for Morgan out on tour this summer playing large festivals to headlining dates near you. Have you seen her live yet?
To purchase Morgan's EP, visit http://bit.ly/morganEP
Lydia Picknell
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subset: commoncrawl


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Cristini Lounge Bar |
Monday 10 Jun 2013
In this project the designer, Andrea Lupacchini, has tried to achieve a bar that could accommodate the variety offered during business hours of the day, starting in the morning with breakfast, through to the Lounge Bar at night, always offering the most emotional contribution of architecture while ensuring excellent technical efficiency in services and furnishings.
Three sheets of white and shiny organic form intersect the space offering expansions and compressions. The perspective is enhanced by reflective surfaces (which contribute to the widening of perspectives). They grow horizontally and vertically as white spots on a dark and warm background, bent, cut and deformed only to make room for functional elements, exhibition or technicians.
The enclosure wall was treated with chocolate glaze and it is covered in some places by retro glasses painted the same colour as the walls below. These glasses serve the function of widening the space thanks to the effect of reflection and are placed in correspondence of the most critical points from the perceptual point of view. Corian, in various shapes, reflects the profiles of the slots.
The sheets made of glossy gel coat contain the technical lighting (spotlights), housed in rooms shaped like "craters", obtained in the negative or positive with respect to the surface, and the slots are lit with LED lights, which will call the same three-dimensional effect of the edges, to enhance the deformation of the perimeter of the sheets, in correspondence of functional gaps.
In an environment so articulated from the point of view of the "skin", the counter has been treated as a monolithic element; very regular and essential in shape and elegance.
The light is the element that changes the environment during the day. We go from a strong light, direct and indirect, for the hours of the day, when the work is done primarily as a bar, café and ice cream parlor, lighting effect of the backlights of the pastry and the direct light of the cylindrical lamps for the evening.
The light home automation, complete with different lighting scenarios functions that take place in the room and the light intensity is constantly changing, depending on the weather conditions outside.
Andrea Lupacchini Architetto


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15 Years ago
The Orofino High School boys' wrestling team members are Paul Larsen, Jamie Hubbard, Kelly Waggner, Mike Aarstad, Jim Aarstad, Mike Forest, David Clark, Sam Baumer, Justin Peterson, Stephen Kessinger, Josh Simpson, Cort Anderson, Casey Waggener, Nathan Manfull, Lee Steiner, Chris Steiner, Chris Bennett, Mike Lerch, Lindsay Shriver and Ross Williams.
Tom Freeman for Potlatch Forests Inc. presented a check for $2,700 to Lee Eichert and Barbara Fitzsimons for a pilot project at Orofino Elementary School.
Orofino High School boys' basketball team members are Chad Steinbruecker, Zack Wilson, Josh Wilson, Jon Tomlinson, Ryan McGill, Scotty Tondevold, Brandon Kessinger, Max Geidl, Chris Wait, Josh Steiner and Ryan Bonner.
20 Years Ago
Effective this week the Gift Gallery, located at in the Village Square, will be closed for inventory and will reopen under the ownership of Northwest Value Pharmacy. Ron Hemberry of Lewiston and Mick Hass of Moscow are the owners.
Three Orofino High School students have been selected for the Idaho State Chorus/Band. Kayte Hope and Ben English for choir and Shelly Greene for band.
Orofino High School boys' varsity basketball team members are Tom Eichert, Kirk Kludt, Michael Espinosa, Ryan Platt, David McDade, Phillip Leonard, Chad Eck, Pat Dempsey, Scott Anderson, Ryan Laws and David Lambrechdt.
25 Years Ago
Orofino Chamber of Commerce members met at the county jail this week to absorb some of the atmosphere and partake of food rations. New officers include Keith Hanson, Dennis Thompson and John Lacy.
Currently Dworshak Dam is providing 450 megawatts of power 24 days a week according to Roger Colgan, Dworshak project engineer. He said with that kind of power production, the withdrawal rate from the lake is one foot per day and that the pool elevation is 1509.39. Colgan said if the snowpack and power demands continue as they have started out this year the reservoir will be evacuated to the minimum power pool level of 1445 feet above sea level. Full pool is 16000.
Orofino airplane owners met at the Ponderosa for a seminar on flying safety and presentations of awards to Bill Atkinson, Jim Cochrane, Ralph Lacey, Darold Kludt, Jack Millsap, Dean Plank, Mel Spelde and Vic Walters.
35 Years Ago
The January annual edition of Track and Field News rated former O.H.S. discus thrower Jim McGoldrick as the sixth best discus man in the U. S. for 1974.
Orofino City Council voted to participate in the Federal Flood Insurance program and passed a resolution requiring all new constructions in flood zones to be safe.
40 Years
Dedication of two new high school buildings at Orofino and Timberline are set for February announced Ted Leach, board member.
Navy Lieu James O. Crockett is visiting his family in Orofino enroute from duty change from submarine service in Hawaii to the atomic energy plant at Arco.
45 Years Ago
Corps of Engineers has hired Kewitt and Cummings equipment to do flood control dike building to control waters of Whiskey Creek and Orofino Creek. Disaster headhunters have been set up in the Orofino Armory.
55 Years Ago
Orofino temperatures climbed to a high of 60 degrees to soften the impact of the intermittent rain and snow storms that swept the area.
85 Years Ago
Orofino's new three story brick Helgeson Hotel will be officially opened commencing at six o'clock with a scrumptious banquet followed by a dance and inspection of the building.


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Cyhi Da Prynce Royal Flush
New mixtape from G.O.O.D. music artist Cyhi Da Prynce.
This mixtape is an official release from Cyhi Da Prynce
SILVER! This mixtape was downloaded over 50,000 times
SPONSORED: Downloading this mixtape does NOT require you to be logged in, nor does it count toward your download limit!


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Enjoy our video recap of the 2013 NiteFlite Golf event!
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
The Scottsdale Active 20-30 Club's largest events of the year will be Golf on Friday, October 17th and the Gala on Saturday, October 25th.
The NiteFlite charity golf tournament will be held at Camelback Golf Club on Friday, October 17th at with the award ceremony to follow.
High Street in North Phoenix will serve as the stylish backdrop for the Gala's activities, with all proceeds benefiting The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Scottsdale and other local children's charities.
More Info
Brokers for Kids is a year-long contest involving valley commercial real estate teams in a fundraising drive that culminates with the Brokers for Kids annual event. The coveted Broker's Cup is awarded to the top fundraising team. Teams also compete for the Olympiad Championship battling it out in the quarterback challenge, volleyball, basketball, baggo, and bocce.


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Find us
Contact us
Our Venue
with our breath-taking hilltop views
Our Venue
Business Conferences at Linthwaite House Hotel
Linthwaite House Hotel is set in 14 acres of open grounds and woods overlooking Lake Windermere, in the Lake District, providing that 'get away from it all' feeling that you need for fresh ideas or to raise motivation. We're secluded, providing you with total privacy and confidentiality. Linthwaite's style is 'unstuffy', offering you a friendly, relaxed atmosphere in which to take time out and initiate positive changes. We can host small-scale conferences, seminars, training and team building sessions, incentives and 9 to 5 meetings. You can hire the whole Hotel for Exclusive Use or book just a couple of rooms. You name it, we give you the time and space for it.
Linthwaite Conference Sheet PDF
A recent comment from one of our satisfied customers:
"Lexus traditions are steeped in the provision of complete customer satisfaction, so when choosing a venue to launch our new flagship model we looked long and hard at Linthwaite's ability to live up to expectations of our customers.
From the moment we met the staff in for the pre-event meeting we knew that Linthwaite upheld the same values of customer service and attention to detail. With excellent organisation, wonderful food and personal attention from all the staff, all the attendees of the event had a positive experience. The hotel simply seemed an extension of the Lexus ethos.
Needless to say our event went without a hitch and our customers expectations were not merely matched but exceeded with several planning return trips." - Clive Mattimoe, Dealer Principal at Lexus Bolton
Time out - mix pleasure with your business
For a spot of relaxation, Linthwaite has use of a nearby leisure spa and Windermere Golf Club is one mile away. We can arrange all kinds of events, indoors and out, from hiking, orienteering and mountain-biking in the Lake District for the active, to tours of local historic houses for the less active!
Room for a more personal service
We tailor our breaks to your individual needs, whether you need a few armchairs and coffee on tap, or a full scale boardroom set up with exact timings for breaks and specified equipment. Our Business Co-ordinator will work with you to help plan your break and attend to your every need throughout.
Rates are available on request and are tailored to your particular requirements and the time of year. Please contact our conference co-ordinator on 015394 88600 who will be pleased to discuss your requirements, or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Car: 20 minutes from M6 motorway, Junction 36 1 hour 30 minutes from Manchester and Newcastle, 2 hours 30 minutes from Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh Train: 10 minutes taxi ride from Windermere railway station, 20 minutes from mainline Oxenholme.
We can set up our three function rooms in a variety of layouts to suit your needs. Choose a layout below.
To view our floorplans and room configurations, please click this link
Conference equipment:
OHP and Screen
Flipcharts, pads and pens
DVD player
iPod connection, CD player, amplifier and speakers
PC and inkjet colour printer
Pens, pencils and paper
Telephone/Modem points (in the Boardroom and Mirror Room)
Wi-fi throughout the hotel
We can arrange for any other equipment required, provided that we have enough notice. Of course, refreshments can be catered to your requirements so please just let us know what you would like.


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When I decided to take a break from the corporate world and before I started a work-from-home business, I decided to spend a few years working at my kids' school. I thought it would be a great learning experience to find out what the school system was like and how the teachers related to the kids and such. Boy was it ever a learning experience.
If you ever want to know what your kids are eating at school I would advise you to work in your kid's cafeteria for a week. Your kid MIGHT eat what you pack when you visit but it'll be a real eye opener when you see how most kids eat. You will be amazed.
With school getting ready to start in my district in 2 weeks I thought I would share what I observed.
School Lunch:
School lunch is full of saturated fats, fatty foods and highly processed, packaged foods and sugar. Most of it has no nutritional value at all. I have seen so many types of meals I would never feed my kids. Lots of school districts offer a salad bar but let me tell you what's at the salad bar; salad, fruit, veggies, popsicles (sugary ones), mayo, ranch dressing, catchup, mustard, ice cream.
After witnessing with my own eyes I can tell you that most kids who eat the schools lunch only get the condiments and or popsicle/ice cream. There are some kids who get fruit or vegetables but most of those end up in the trash. All in all, I would estimate of the kids who eat school lunch, 85 percent are not eating a fruit or vegetable and only eat the dessert and a main course like taquitos, nachos with cheese dip, pizza (with ranch slathered on), brunch with tons of syrup, hamburgers or fried chicken.
Some of the kids who eat school lunch are kids who qualify for free lunch and probably don't get much to eat at home. These kids are eating crap and are undernourished. That may be hard to believe with the obesity issue today, but those bodies are filled with hollow calories offering little nutrition.
Packed Lunch:
Lots of parents send their kids to school with a lunch and feel as if their kids are getting a better meal.
While my kids were still in schools, the kitchens began preparing real, fresh foods for the cafeterias. While they weren't gourmet meals, they were appealing enough to make a dent in the junk food purchases (a pizza and a taco chain had stalls in the cafeteria). Observing which students were more likely to patron the pizza and taco stalls, I noticed the leaner kids, and even the "oddly dressed," loved the salad bar. It was most interesting to see, and very telling about what kids will go for.
The schools also eventually banned soda vending machines, replacing the products with bottled water, juices and sports drinks.
August 7, 2009 - 4:35pmI do have to add that my own personal friends have been very respectful with making sure my kids are ok to eat certain foods. They ask what is OK and are mindful not to indulge them when they are visiting.
For that I am truly grateful. I have great friends.
August 7, 2009 - 9:59am


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HOPING FOR A DOWN MARKET?: Should the financial markets take another plunge, Puma is offering market watchers a silver lining: the nearly bare flesh of nubile models. In the Puma Index, a digital video campaign for Puma's new bodywear lines, models wriggle out of their clothes when the market dips, and layer on the outerwear when it improves. (When the markets are closed, the models sleep.)
The campaign was created by Droga5, whose chief executive officer, Andrew Essex, had a long career editing at magazines such as Details and Absolute before jumping the fence to digital advertising. The campaign launched first as an iPhone app and then as a Web site, index.puma.com, and also ran exclusively on The Huffington Post on Tuesday. Downloading the iPhone app also yields a 20 percent discount at Puma stores.
The men's bodywear line launched this month, and women's hits in the spring, but for now, the intended demographic is evident from the fact that the videos feature three female models and just one male model. "It reflects a certain demographic reality of the trading floor," said Essex.


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Have you seen the tablets that just came out?
A slow year for tablets finally kicks into gear. Check out the bad boys that debuted this week.
From concept cars to hot new Porsches to a bevy of electric cars, the annual Los Angeles car showcase is off to a big start.


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Drake - November 18th
November 18th Drake
Some classic Drizzy Drake "So Far Gone" ish for Throwback Thursday! Download the critically acclaimed tape here. Also let us know what you'd like to see as a Throwback Thursday track in the comments!!
Check out November 18th, the latest track from Drake, which dropped on Thursday, November 7th, 2013. Drake's movement grows stronger with each new release, and November 18th has further strengthened that fact. It's a solid addition to the commendable body of work Drake has been creating since stepping foot in the rap game, and we're definitely looking forward to what Drake has on deck.
Check out Drake on We Made It (Freestyle), featuring Soulja Boy. If you're down, make sure to visit Drake's profile page for the newest info, news, songs, and mixtapes.
How does this compare to Drake's previous work?
Quotable Lyrics
"It's the ones that smoke blunts with ya, see ya picture
Now they wanna grab the guns and come and get ya
Yeah, one time for the homie DJ Screw
Already, I'm feeling throwed in this bitch
I'm so high even when I'm coming down
Just met a girl say she from the H-Town
I say my name is Drizzy and ain't nobody realer
Cup inside a cup, smoking Ghostface Killah"


text: Xbox Live Gaming Enroute to iOS and Android Platforms Too? Michael Kwan / Friday, January 6, 2012, 3:36 pm / No CommentsAnd that's also why there is the Xbox Companion App for Windows Phone devices. As it turns out, though, Microsoft wants to expand beyond WP7 with its mobile ambitions. It wants iOS and Android too.more → Posted in: Uncategorized Tagged with: developer, ios xbox, microsoft, rumor, windows phone, windows phone 7, wp7, xbla, xbox live, xbox live arcade


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Online Travel Guide - USA
Mid Atlantic
Manhattan and New York City
Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, NYC and New York City Tourist Attractions and Getaways
New York City Tickets
Things to do / Travel Guide
The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens & Manhattan, NYC Tourist Attractions
The best the urban world has to offer rolled into a convenient package with small pockets of nature thrown in. Museums, architectural wonders, and many transplanted cultures thrive here for all to observe and enjoy. Though there are no real shopping malls, New York City has the most diverse collection of stores and people in the U.S.!
Explore many different cultures as you walk from one neighborhood to another. Explore Brooklyn and Queens for more gentrification, art and cultural diversity and great food.
It's not just that New York City offers world-class culture, architecture and dining; it's that it offers all those things along Broadway, or Columbus Avenue, or 5th Avenue, or 42nd Street, or along many other stretches in this magnificent city. New Yorkers are some of the most in-shape people in the country; they walk everywhere, are eternally jogging in Central Park, and go biking along the Hudson River, rain, shine or important merger to close later in the day.
Manhattan Getaways
A popular Manhattan getaway for locals and visitors alike is, of course, Central Park. This famed park is loaded with tourist attractions and provides a calm sort of paradise without leaving Manhattan. Central Park stretches from Columbus Circle (59th Street) all the way to 110th Street. In the park you'll find the Central Park Zoo, an ice skating rink, a lake for boating, bike trails, running trails, hiking trails, and carriage rides. Keep exploring and you'll find a medieval castle, a memorial to John Lennon at Strawberry Fields, an outdoor theater, and a reservoir.
Other parks in the city provide Manhattanites and tourists alike with peaceful picnic spots, a place to read the paper, to play a pick-up game of chess, to walk, do Tai Chi, and to have playdates. Some of the more popular parks in Manhattan include Riverside Park, Washington Square Park, Morningside Park, and Carl Shurz Park.
Everyone knows how to spell New York, but amazingly enough - Manhatten and Manhatan are among the most commonly place name spelling errors in the United States. All is forgiven as long as you buy an I Love NY T shirt in Times Square.
New York City - NYC Getaways
Another option for tourists who are seeking to get away from the city without actually leaving the city is to visit the NYC spas. These hidden places of serenity are often found in hotels and offer fabulous views of the city. The Four Seasons Hotel, the Peninsula Hotel, and the Trump International Hotel all house elite spa facilities. There's also the Mandarin Oriental Spa available for those in need of luxurious treatment during their NYC getaway.
New York City Tourist Attractions
New York City is a one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world (if not the most popular), and as such is brimming with tourist attractions. From the Empire State Building, to the Lower East Side, to Chinatown, to Spanish Harlem, to the United Nations Headquarters, to Ellis Island, to the Statue of Liberty, to the Museum of Natural History, to Times Square—and everything in between—tourists of all ages, from all backgrounds, and with all interests, will have no trouble finding their niche and planning their itinerary in New York City.
In New York City, almost every bridge is a masterpiece and many can be walked across. In the Bronx you can visit the largest zoo in the United States. In Staten Island you can climb to the highest point on the East Coast (south of Maine). Locals as well as tourists enjoy some of the best hot dogs in the world and the tastiest roasted pecans from well known street venders all over the city.
Brooklyn Tourist Attractions
Just a hop, skip, and jump away from Manhattan you'll find another tourist attraction-packed borough: the trendy borough of Brooklyn, New York. Park Slope, Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Greenpoint, and Prospect Heights—neighborhoods which were once neglected - are now some of the trendiest (and most expensive) neighborhoods in the city. You should definitely take some time to walk around these neighborhoods, popping in for breaks at local coffeehouses, bars, and clubs, as well as visiting some of the major attractions, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and Prospect Park.
Manhattan, NYC and New York City Getaway Planner
If you have to pick one place to live, make it New York. Same if you are looking for an amazing place to visit. It's worth staying here for as long as possible and spending each day seeing the popular sites and walking around the different neighborhoods. Spend a day or two touring the outer boroughs as well.
Manhattan is one of the easiest cities to navigate, numbered streets and avenues places on a grid laid out 200 years ago. A good map of New York City is advisable for travel to the outer boroughs. If you blindly type in a Third Avenue address on your GPS, for example, know that there are five different Third Avenues – one in each borough, so it will be a shame to spend valuable time in traffic just to get to the wrong one.
Tourist Attractions and Highlights in Manhattan and New York City
Sort By:
The Westchester Mall - White Plains, New York
Cross County Mall - Yonkers, New York
The Jersey Boys Musical - August Wilson Theatre - Broadway, New York
Buy Tickets
Wicked the Musical - Gershwin Theatre - Broadway, New York
Buy Tickets
Manhattan Beach - Brooklyn (Coney Island), New York
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum - New York City, NY
Staten Island Mall - New York
The Lion King Musical - Minskoff Theatre - Broadway, New York
Buy Tickets
Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall - Paramus, New Jersey
Willowbrook Mall - Wayne, New Jersey
Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York City, NY
Radio City Music Hall - Manhattan, New York City
Buy Tickets
American Museum of Natural History - New York City, NY
Mama Mia the Musical - Winter Garden Theatre - Broadway, New York
Buy Tickets
Central Park - Manhattan, New York City
Meadowlands Racetrack - East Rutherford, New Jersey
New York City Hall - NYC
The Secaucus Outlet Mall - New Jersey
Statue Of Liberty National Monument - New York
Top of the Rock - Rockefeller Center Observation Deck, NYC
Bronx Zoo - New York City, NY
SoHo - Manhattan, New York City
Children's Museum of Manhattan - New York
The Four Seasons Hotel & Spa - New York City, NY
The Designer Outlet Gallery - Secaucus, New Jersey
Peninsula Hotel & Spa - New York City, NY
Liberty Science Center - Jersey City, New Jersey
Times Square & Theater District - Manhattan, New York City
Powerplay Recreational Center & Rock Climbing Gym - Brooklyn, NY
Orchard Beach - Bronx, New York
Rockaway Beach - Queens, New York
Mandarin Oriental Spa - New York City, NY


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In this course, I am more focused on preparing the student for the specific examination that he or she will take. I do intensive review to the student to make sure that he/she will be well equipped for the examination that he/she will be taking. I make a thorough evaluation on the level of the student, afterwards, I design a review material that suit well the needs of the student.


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Latest › Forums › The Chatterbox › RIP Whitney Houston
This topic contains 8 replies, has 0 voices, and was last updated by JackTsang05 3 years ago.
- AuthorPosts
- February 11, 2012 at 8:10 pm #1643898
LOS ANGELES – Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died Saturday. She was 48.
Beverly Hills police Lt. Mark Rosen told reporters outside the Beverly Hilton that Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. in her room on the fourth floor of the hotel. Her body remained there and Beverly Hills detectives were investigating.
"There were no obvious signs of any criminal intent at this time," Rosen said.
Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the cause of her death was unknown.
Rosen said police received a 911 call from hotel security about Houston at 3:43 p.m. Saturday. Paramedics who were already at the hotel because of a Grammy party unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate the singer, he said.
បានចូលសាលា មានសញ្ញាប្រ័ត មិន ប្រាកដថាមានសមត្ថភាពក្នុងកិច្ចការ នោះទេFebruary 11, 2012 at 8:15 pm #1643899She had a great and powerful singing in voice. I was hoping she would make a comeback. May she rest in peace. Too many artists dying young due to drug and self-destructive behaviors. It certainly confirm the notion that fame and money can't always bring one happiness. First Amy Winehouse now Whitney.
February 11, 2012 at 8:51 pm #1643900I kept hoping she'd make a comeback too.
បានចូលសាលា មានសញ្ញាប្រ័ត មិន ប្រាកដថាមានសមត្ថភាពក្នុងកិច្ចការ នោះទេFebruary 12, 2012 at 1:32 am #1643901I was checking on the causes of American celebrity (early) deaths.
they either died of drug overdose or automobile accident (more in plane crash than car accident).
[Message last modified 02-12-2012 09:34am by Kadin]
បានចូលសាលា មានសញ្ញាប្រ័ត មិន ប្រាកដថាមានសមត្ថភាពក្នុងកិច្ចការ នោះទេFebruary 12, 2012 at 3:02 am #1643902sorry no empathy here. i am the 1 percent.
February 12, 2012 at 3:12 am #1643903understandable.
I once enjoyed her music very much.
it's too bad she killed herself.
[Message last modified 02-12-2012 11:14am by Kadin]
បានចូលសាលា មានសញ្ញាប្រ័ត មិន ប្រាកដថាមានសមត្ថភាពក្នុងកិច្ចការ នោះទេFebruary 12, 2012 at 4:17 am #1643904Her song had been encouraged and motivated for about 20 years. I really like her voice and her song…it is such a waste she killed herself.
February 13, 2012 at 6:29 pm #1643905
Anonymous- Posts: 7768
She killed herself? literally, suicide? or are you guys talking about how her drug addiction gradually killed her?
February 14, 2012 at 2:45 pm #1643906Not sure, but either one wouldnt suprise me.
[i]Originally posted by agent0o5[/i]
She killed herself? literally, suicide? or are you guys talking about how her drug addiction gradually killed her? - AuthorPosts


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Hi All
My 2003 Ford Focus 1.6 Ghia has recently developed an intermittent fault related to the dashboard. Either, the indicator bulbs flash randomly and all the dials flutter madly; or the whole display dies (including the digital mileage lcd) and I have no dashboard display at all. This seems to be worse when the weather is damp, but that might be a red herring. Then all returns to normal, the displays function correctly, the mileage readout is restored.
Having scoured the forum, I note that one or two others have seen similar problems, but as yet no-one seems to have nailed the source of the problem and/or come up with a solution. Does anyone have a working solution to this problem or have any knowledge as to what is causing it please? (Two trips, so far, to my local Ford dealership have come with hefty bills for 'software upgrades' and 'observation' but as yet haven't solved it - costly and very frustrating!)
And given the number of speed cameras I pass on my way to work...
::Ford Focus 03 1.6 Ghia::
::Life's always brighter when the sun shines::


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Islington based brand, Nailgirls are in the middle of a four day sale which sees ALL their polishes being sold at half price for £5 each.
New to Nailgirls? Check out this post I wrote up, when I visited their salon back in April 2010.
There are two days left to shop the sale, so click here and enter voucher code 50%sale at checkout - postage is just £2 for orders under £30 and free for orders over £50.


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Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)Obama officials will face questions on Libya attacks
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
November 8th, 2012 Catholic Online (www.catholic.org) The house is set to hold closed hearings next week on the terrorist attacks in Libya which resulted in the deaths of four Americans. The attacks have revealed a weakness in Obama's foreign policy and are an embarrassment to the administration, which nearly lost reelection in their wake. WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The House Intelligence Committee will conduct the closed hearings on November 15. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director David Petraeus and Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, are listed on the docket.On the same day, the Senate Intelligence Committee will also hold a closed meeting to discuss the attacks. What Americans want to know is just what happened that night, especially in the White House. The timeline of events in Libya is fairly well known by now. What remains a mystery is why Obama did not heed warnings in the moths and days ahead of the attacks. What was Obama's actual response? Why was the administration's response so weak? And why did Obama blame a video and attempt to claim the attacks were simply the product of a protest gone awry rather than a terrorist attack? Most seem to agree that the deaths of the Ambassador and three others were needless. And the insistence of the Obama administration that the attacks sprang from a protest remains baffling. The Obama administration has confessed the true nature of the attacks. Immediate investigation revealed the attacked were coordinated by al-Qaeda operatives and were made to commemorate the 9-11-2001 attacks on the U.S. Republicans accuse the Obama administration of trying to build a false narrative, that al-Qaeda is broken and defeated. Such a narrative, if true, would vindicate Obama's policies in the region. However, the evidence seems to indicate the narrative is false, and Obama's policies have failed. Naturally, this could have upended Obama's chances for reelection, hence the obfuscation of the truth in the wake of the attacks. Following the hearings, if the House Committee has evidence of inappropriate or illegal activity, they may seek further hearings to decide how to proceed with bringing justice to the victims of those attacks. Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org) |


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In a new Education Sector Chart You Can Trust, I show that Washington's motto as "The Evergreen State" applies not just to an abundance of evergreen coniferous trees, but also to the state's school districts, which almost never identify low-performing employees. Across all districts statewide, only a minuscule number of employees were deemed unsatisfactory: 0.92 percent of teachers, 1.42 percenContinue Reading »
Trending toward reform. The American Federation of Teachers' push for a teacher bar exam shouldn't come as surprising; teacher surveys, including Education Sector's report, show that educators are leaning toward reforming how they're prepared, evaluated, and retained. (Class Struggle/Washington Post)
A la carte school. Louisiana, Michigan, Arizona, and Utah are considering an initiative Continue Reading »
What should be on the new administration's "to-do list" under the heading of education? That was the question posed to a panel of education experts Education Sector brought together this week at the event "Should There Be an Undersecretary of MOOCs? A Waiver Watchdog? And Other Questions for the Next Four Years." The experts, all members of Education Sector's K20 Task Force, took onContinue Reading »
Silly question—it might seem. How could someone be expected to teach piano if they do not know how to play themselves? Yet that is what the public schools are about to ask of teachers more generally. In two years, most public schools will administer new student assessments in reading and math, pegged to the higher academic standards of the Common Core. Although performance standards—how high a Continue Reading »
State policies on teacher quality. Sara Mead examines new teacher effectiveness laws in 21 states, including regulations regarding evaluations and personnel decisions like dismissals and retention efforts. The report includes state-by-state summaries. (Bellwether Education)
(Most) everything everyone thinks about education. Three-fourths of Americans believe that the Common Core State StContinue Reading »
Made, not born. More research suggests that good teachers aren't inherently qualified to be a success in the classroom; they're trained to do so. (Slate)
No matter what the law says. Officials in Palm Beach County, Fla., won't allow parents to transfer their students out of low-performing schools, as mandated in No Child Left Behind, because of growing transportation costs and capacity cContinue Reading »
"Under the hood." A new report out today examines 10 of the "most advanced and talked-about" teacher evaluation models. The report does not recommend one model over the other, but instead aims to serve as a resource for states and districts that continue to perfect their own models. (h/t Hechinger Report)
"Oh, you're back?" A Connecticut administrator is forced to change his ways when heContinue Reading »
Last Friday I had the privilege of talking about the future of the teaching profession alongside an amazing cast of teachers, leaders, researchers, and policy folks at EWA's annual conference in Philadelphia. The TED-type format–12 minutes for each of us– was fun and different from the regular panels (kudos to Greg Toppo who was a great MC). And it gave me the chance to walk on stagContinue Reading »
Writing in Forbes, Josh Barro highlights why public sector pension reform is such an important issue — in even the deepest blue of states like California and Illinois. In Illinois, as the chart below shows, pension expenditures have risen from 6 percent of general fund spending in 2008 to a proposed 15 percent of spending in fiscal year 2013.
Illinois did tackle pension refContinue Reading »
More than 12,000 New York City Teacher Data Reports will be released today, after a judge ruled Tuesday against the United Federation of Teachers' argument that disclosing the ratings violates the teachers' privacy rights. The Teacher Data Reports look like this. The ratings are based on value-added scores. They do not include value-added as one of several measures of performance. Although thisContinue Reading »


text: This set of 28 cards includes 50 musical terms. Each card in printed on a sturdy cardboard and printed in yellow on a green background. Some of the terms include The Staff, G Clef or Treble Clef, Measure, F Clef or Bass Clef, double Bar, Repeat, Whole Note, Half Note, Whole Rest, Half Rest, Quarter Note, Sharp, Double Sharp and much more. You can use these cards as either a border or flash cards.~


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The simple fact that you are here on 24 December should be rewarded. But, we're going to have to ask you to do just a little something more for that reward. All we are asking is for you to tell us one little secret.
What can you win?
We are handing out 3x 6 month premium memberships (each worth £40/€60). If you have no idea what we are talking about, we've gathered the features and benefits of a premium membership.
How do you win?
Simple, but also a little evil of us. We want to know what is the coolest Christmas present that you placed (or will place) under the tree. Tell us your secret, gladly as an anonymous user (with a real email address), if you are afraid that the person getting that gift might stop by here on their way to the Christmas tree. You have until tomorrow at 12 noon to tell us!
With that, we have ended our Spreadvent 2010. We hope you enjoyed yourselves and were one of our lucky winners!
UPDATE: Random.org has chosen the winners! From the 17 submissions, we pulled the numbers 4, 5 and 12. Congrats to MrMatt, Andreas and MartYn (Jerome's second post wasn't counted). I'll contact the winners via email


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Thank you, mister pimp, for this. If it weren't for you, I could have gone off to work today, blissfully ignorant of the damage my shoes could have caused to some poor, unsuspecting soul. Oh wait. They aren't Nike's and mine had no warning. Now what?
A Portland pimp is suing Nike for not placing a warning label in their shoes specifying that they could be used as a dangerous weapon — after he was sentenced to 100 years in prison for brutally beating a john with his sneaker. Sirgiorgio Clardy, 26, claims Nike should have placed a warning in the shoes warning consumers that the kicks have the potential to be used as a dangerous weapon, according to The Oregonian newspaper. Clardy is seeking $100 million for what he believes was the shoe manufacturer's oversight.
In June, Clardy repeatedly stomped on the face of a client with his Jordan Nike shoes when the man refused to pay Clardy's prostitute. The man required stitches and plastic surgery after the beating.


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WomensCycling.net |
Race Details / Results Trofeo Lombardia - Cyclocross From the SS Lazio -Ladiospoli press office Marta Vilajosana wins Trofeo Lombardia Marta Vilajosana has won the second running of the Trofeo Lombardia - Memorial Lele Dall'Oste cyclocross event. The event, which took place last Sunday (6th November) was a competitive affair. Vilajosana, who is a Calatan, proved once again that she has good form and a lot of determination. The final two laps of the course saw her involved in a head to head race with Valentina Alesssio, the Italian track champion . "It was a hard race today. The rain and mud made the going slippery. The last two laps were the hardest, but I was happy to have been able to save some energy to get ahead of my rival in the final metres of the race." commented Vilajosana afterwards. Photo
: bettiniphoto.net |


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Plan Your Visit » Cross-Country Skiing
Cross-Country Skiing
Onondaga County Parks offers some of the best opportunities for Cross Country Skiing in the region.
- Highland Forest tops the list with 30 miles of ski trails, 19 of which are groomed daily, and 15 miles of snowshoeing trails. The park offers for rent ski and snowshoe equipment, and provides ski lessons on weekends. For the casual recreation experience the park has horse-drawn sleigh rides, and a cozy lodge with a warm, inviting fireplace.
- Beaver Lake Nature Center's 9 miles of trails make for a perfect ski or snowshoe outing.
- Metropolitan trails, excellent for first time skiers, are at Onondaga Lake Park while Oneida Shores offers the McKinley Ridge trail and lake access.
Click here for up to date Ski Condition Reports and Weather Forecasts »
During your visit to Onondaga County Parks, you may be photographed, videotaped, or filmed by Onondaga County Parks or authorized parties. Your attendance/admission serves as permission for use of these images by Onondaga County Parks. Commercial photography or filming is prohibited without permission of Onondaga County Parks.


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Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit
Last night I went to hear a friend of mine, New Testament scholar Edith Humphrey, speak about her latest book Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit.
Here are some excerpts from her book's introduction:
At some point in the past twenty years, North Americans crossed a Rubicon. Perhaps we were unaware of it at the time, but it is now apparent that there has been a great divide, a sea change in our thinking, which has affected both academy and church.
When I was an undergraduate, the emphasis in class was completely upon "objectivity," "neutral observation," "proving one's point."
Now the spotlight is on "my story," "my response," and "celebrating diversity."
Humphrey rails against the diffuse, generic "spirituality" that has infected everything, including much of modern Christian practice.
"Today many confuse 'spirituality' with 'experience;--the unintentional result being that they actually worship human esoteric moments or points of wonder, without apprehending the fuller reality that God has in store for us. We must not place that One, from whom are all things, and in whom all things converge, in a subordinate position. A study of those who have been intimate with Christ in past age indicats that when the Spirit speaks, he directs us towards the unique and revolutionary Incarnation of God the Son."
"We may feel spiritual, but we need to watch the checks and balances that have been given to us--the Story of Scripture, the witness of the Church through the ages, and the voice of the entire communion today. We may well discover that our age and even our ecclesial community have become tone deaf to some of the most basic spiritual truths."
A thought occurred to me as I was posting some of the egregious outrages against freedom of speech in the post below.
Soon the kind of traditional, Trinitarian, orthodox Christian faith that Humphrey is trying to lead people back to in her book will be illegal.
But, the thought I had was this: when it becomes illegal, then it will become fashionable and attractive again to societies rebels.
Maybe not. Because if you are a rebel at heart you cannot grasp the Truth. As Jesus said in John 7 (NIV).
16 Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.


text: I'm not here to shit on anyone's Target habit, but I imagine most of my readers agree with me that lowing our overall consumption is a good idea. Consuming less lowers our environmental impact. Less consumption usually means less spending, and most folks like having more money or less debt. At a personal level, many [Continue Reading…]


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In an attempt to better serve our viewers and anyone who wants to get into great shape we have begun developing full length Premium Programs. We plan to continue adding goal specific programs soon and currently have added our Official Strength Program. If you are serious about getting into great shape and looking for an awesome program this is a great start for anyone from beginners to advanced athletes! Please take a look at our Premium Program page at the link below or by looking under our "Exercise Programs" tab at the top of our website.
If you have any questions about these programs, want to see if a program is right for you or just have a suggestion for a program you would like us to develop, please e-mail us at email@example.com!


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Transcontinental research team met with 30 adults, selected as a representative sample of iPad users in Quebec, between June and October 2011. In semi-directed sessions, these users were asked about why they bought iPads and how they used them. Here are the main takeaways.
Why they bought an iPad:
- A majority are not Apple die-hard fans. For most users, their iPad was the first or second Apple device in the house.
- Almost all had a clear and definite use in my mind when they bought the device. "It was much of a rationale, clearly thought-of decision, and not an impulsive buy", says Erika Roberts.
- Many buyers were retirees, who had been encouraged to buy an iPad by a younger relative "who works in computing".
- Now, several users plan to buy a second tablet for other members of their family, and/or other Apple products. "The iPad has apparently converted many users to Apple", says Erika Roberts.
How they use their tablet:
- E-mailing on the iPad is a habit for almost all respondents, and many also do social networking. For emailing, though, while most users check their messages on the iPad, some prefer to answer them on a computer. "Many users are still not at ease writing anything on their tablet", says Erika Roberts.
- News consumption is high, but magazines don't benefit from it. Most news readers go to newspaper apps and sites. No user mentioned using the iPad to read a magazine he or she subscribed to. A few, though, mentioned having bought individual issues of the popular and picture-led French magazine Paris-Match.
- Book reading is picking up fast. "Retired people will spend significant time reading on their iPad as soon as they have located a convenient book source", says Erika Roberts. Most respondents searched first in iBooks, where French-language books are still rare. Those who bought books did so also on Amazon, Chapitre.com, or in Canadian online bookstore Chapters, Archambault or Renaud-Bray.
- Recipes have been mentioned by over 80% of users. People bring their iPad into the kitchen. They search for recipes on the web and some also read cooking books on the tablet.
- Game usage is split in two categories. On the one hand, console gamers bought an iPad to play on it, and they later bought console-style games. On the other hand, casual gamers play the same board games they played before – like Crosswords and Scrabble. A few users admit having started playing casual games on iPad, but the "Angy Bird" fever apparently wore off after a few months for several users; and they bought only few low-cost game apps, if any.
- Productivity does not interest most users. Two respondents mentioned DocumentsToGo, two other mentioned Keynote, but most users didn't bother. Still, two respondents, working in sales, said they used their tablet to show presentations and pictures to customers. But these users said the documents had already been designed on a computer, and that the iPad was used only to display them.
- Services are dominated by bank account management – which is already a popular online activity in Canada. Weather, calculators, maps and GPS, and travel—TripAdvisor and travel guides—were also used.
- Video is already part of many users' daily routine. Tou.tv – a free web video and catch-up TV service by state broadcaster Radio-Canada – and ONF (National Film Board), a state-owned documentary service, have been mentioned several times.
- TV: many use their iPad while watching the tube; but most of the time, they don't go to the broadcaster's site or apps, nor chat about what they are watching, nor do any search related to TV programs. Instead they perform other tasks—reading, checking email, Facebooking—that have no relation to what's on television.
- Movies were purchased on iTunes mostly by users who also have an Apple computer.
- Radio listening on the iPad was also mentioned by three users.
Other key findings:
- The device is easy to use, even for older people and consumers who say they didn't like computers. But iTunes and the App store are not so intuitive, especially for people who didn't have an iPhone before.
- Heavy iPad users are not always those who bought the high end devices, with a large memory and/or 3G wireless access. "Those who use their iPad as a mobile—rather than just a portable—device are the true heavy users", says Erika Roberts. "They bring their tablet with them, they have developed an intimate relationship with it, and they are now reluctant to lend it to someone else."
- Roughly half of users gravitate towards apps, while the other half prefers the web. So, it's not as if each individual split usage 50/50 between both. "Some prefer apps because they see content as more fluid in apps and they prefer the app user experience; those who prefer the web say that apps don't bring additional value."
- App users who bought apps typically did so only, or mainly, for the category of products or services they had planned to use their iPad for. "Gamers buy games, readers buy books, news addicts may buy newspaper access, but very few users will spend significant amount on apps outside of their main usage category", says Erika Roberts.
- Most users lend their iPad to their children - even as young as one-year old. When they do so, they also tend to download apps for children. But the iPad does not seem to be a hit among teenagers who apparently prefer the computer + smartphone combination. "Among the two quitters who said they wished to sell their iPad because they no longer used it, one mentioned that her teen had also abandoned it."
Transcontinental plans to continue its survey with two additional phases and to issue a report on the first phase at the end of November 2011.


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Dr. Giedd's research team at the Child Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health seeks to use cutting edge technologies to explore the relationship between genes, brain and behavior in healthy development and in neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood onset. They conduct longitudinal neuropsychological and brain imaging studies of healthy twins and singletons as well as clinical groups such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, childhood-onset schizophrenia, and others. Over the past 20 years they have acquired over 3000 MRI scans making this the largest pediatric neuroimaging project of its kind. The lab also studies sexual dimorphism in the developing brain (especially important in child psychiatry where nearly all disorders have different ages of onsets, prevalence and symptomatology between boys and girls) by exploring clinical populations which have unusual levels of hormones (congenital adrenal hyperplasia, familial precocious puberty) or variations in the sex chromosomes (Klinefelter's syndrome, XYY, XXYY). The lab also conducts studies of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, which are beginning to unravel the relative contributions of genes and environment on a variety of developmental trajectories in the pediatric brain. The group is also involved in the development and application of techniques to analyze brain images and is actively collaborating with other imaging centers throughout the world to advance the image analysis field.
Dr. Giedd received his M.D. from the University of North Dakota in 1986. He received his training in adult psychiatry at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, KS, and his Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training at Duke University in Durham, NC. He is board certified in General, Child and Adolescent, and Geriatric Psychiatry. Currently, he is the Chief of the Unit on Brain Imaging in the Child Psychiatry Branch at the NIMH. His research focuses on the biological basis of cognitive, emotional and behavioral disorders.


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Does Quora Really Have All the Answers?
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Michael Wolfe, who started using Quora when it was in beta, is one of those so-called bureaucrats. He knows he and his fellow volunteers can come off as pedantic. Their lectures about respecting the community, he acknowledges, "drive some people crazy." But he doesn't care. "The community is somewhat unforgiving," he says. "But if the site appealed to the lowest common denominator, it would become a cesspool of crazies—and then a lot more people would get turned off."
A precise and friendly man with short-clipped reddish hair, blue eyes, and a bland expression, Wolfe boasts a résumé that would be extraordinary if he lived anywhere other than the Bay Area. A company called Kana he cofounded in 1999 went public; in 2007, he sold his next company, Vontu, to Symantec for $350 million in cash. Wolfe was working as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Benchmark Capital, a top-tier VC firm, when he got his invitation to Quora. As a married 42-year-old with two kids, his expectations were low. "I'm not a social networking, Meetup, Twitter kind of guy," he says. He logged in to Facebook maybe once a day. But with Quora it was immediately different. "Some days I check my Quora account before my email, I'm embarrassed to admit," he says.
The question Wolfe can't quite answer is exactly why he does it. A good response can take an hour or more to write, he says, and in a year's time, he has posted more than 500 responses—that's more than 12 weeks of full-time work. Given his family responsibilities, his new startup, and a fitness habit that already eats into a large part of his free time—he's been competing in triathlons for 15 years, occasionally taking first place in his age group—he knows Quora is a huge and probably unjustifiable time sink. Wolfe is nothing if not a disciplined person; Quora is clearly, for him, a deliberate decision. He sees it as not only better than watching TV ("it's more engaging, it's more relaxing, and it's obviously more rewarding") but as a benefit to the professional community to which he belongs. "I'm constantly answering questions I wish someone answered for me 10 years ago," he says.
In fact, Wolfe beams when he describes what all of his, and others', answers amount to: nothing less, he believes, than the fullest road map ever drawn for starting a company in Silicon Valley. Maybe contributing to Quora, he says, is like the urge some successful people have to teach a course at a local college. Quora is even better, though, because the experts get to interact with fellow experts and to learn (for better or for worse) how their insights are received.
"This will be a party for the ages," Wolfe says on a cold Saturday evening this past January, shortly before we join roughly 150 other revelers at the Old Pro, a restaurant and sports bar in downtown Palo Alto, for Quora's super-user party. He's wearing a dark sports coat over a plaid pink shirt, and every hair has been groomed into place. A 23-year-old software engineer who has been following Wolfe's posts for the better part of the year (and who wanted nothing more, according to one Quora post, than to become "obscenely rich") comes over, and the two continue a debate they've been having online. Soon, Wolfe gets a solid 15 minutes with D'Angelo, who, in stark contrast to Wolfe, is hosting the affair in programmer-casual attire: T-shirt and light jacket.
A week before the party, TechCrunch bestowed on the company its Crunchie award for best new startup, and the inevitable backlash had already begun. Most of the complaints revolve around the idea that Quora, like Facebook and Twitter before it, had become just another popularity contest, another way for people to promote themselves. The super-users at the party don't buy that critique, though, in part because they know so many of the players personally. "This isn't about job searching," Wolfe says. "It's not about raising money. Most of us who are heavy users can already do that without help. It's a sense of sharing what we know, and it's being part of a community."
Rabois, the superangel, agrees. He hardly needs Quora's help to raise money or attract talent: After stepping off the partner track at a big New York law firm, he has worked at PayPal, LinkedIn, and Slide, and he's currently the number two at Square, a San Francisco startup trying to turn any smartphone into a credit card reader. (Square, in fact, was the runner-up for that Crunchie award.) Rabois logged in to Quora for the first time on New Year's Day 2010 and immediately got hooked. He sees Quora as a rare oasis of intellectualism in a world dominated by the commercial and the superficial.
Not that the utility of Quora's user base has slipped his mind. "Fifty percent of the most talented people in the Valley are here," Rabois remarks as he looks around the party. In only a year, he has made investments in two young startups he'd learned about through Quora and has made one major hire off the site. That happened at the previous Quora gathering, held at a gallery in San Francisco. The guy was so impressive that Rabois immediately ordered him not to talk to anyone else at the party.
Among the super-users, there's one major complaint, and it boils down to declining quality. "So many stupid people are signing up," sniffs Ethan Gahng, the 30-year-old CEO of a company called Lazyfeed. "Their stupid questions push down my questions." Others are less harsh in their choice of words, but they don't disagree. Even worse, all these so-called stupid newcomers are pushing up other people's answers, when those answers are—to Gahng and his fellow super-users—inane or off point.
D'Angelo and Cheever express the same worries a few days later at their offices above an art supply store in downtown Palo Alto. At this point, with Marc Bodnick on board, Quora has 18 employees, and all but the receptionist sit in a single room around a rectangular formation of more than 20 desks. The whole room, at least this afternoon, is pin-drop silent except for the tapping of keyboards and occasional murmuring between neighbors. Meetings happen one story up, on the third floor, where Quora has rented a larger space that includes a half-dozen offices with doors. But for now those rooms sit pretty much unused. "I think we'll get bigger, but we're in no huge rush," Cheever says. These are hardly the days of the first dotcom boom, when everyone seemed to be sprinting after an IPO; now the model is Facebook, which seems hellbent on remaining private (in all senses of that word) for as long as possible.
Both founders acknowledge that the average quality of answers on Quora has ticked down significantly. The site was flooded with so many new members at the start of the year—a fivefold spike in just a month—that at one point in mid-January, half of Quora's users had been on the site for two weeks or less.
Cheever also understands that he needs to ease Quora's focus away from Silicon Valley and toward the wider world. He gives examples of some of the new topics burbling up on the site: Farming. Curling. Romania. "It's been really cool seeing the circle of people growing," he says. But he also doesn't argue too hard with the observation, clear to anyone who spends much time on the site, that the tech scene still vastly overwhelms other areas of discussion. "It's changing slowly," he says. A PR person follows up with a sampling of Quora newcomers, who include a veterinarian, an economist, and a screenwriter. But the list is dominated by tech people and students, which pretty much sums up Quora as it has developed so far.
For now, then, the revolution in human knowledge will proceed at a decidedly modest pace. Cheever, for his part, says he doesn't much care that there are so many gaps in the site's coverage. He mostly wants to keep up with the traffic and maintain the Quora etiquette—everything else seems like noise. Ask D'Angelo where he hopes Quora will be when it celebrates its 10th birthday and he is anything but evasive or modest: "We'd like to get to the point," he says, "and I think this will come in five years, not 10, when any question you pose to Quora will have been answered, and you'll have confidence that it's true." But Cheever, asked the same question, teases back: "We tend to look two weeks out." Ten years is 260 times too far to query.
Gary Rivlin (garyrivlin.com)
is a former writer for The Industry Standard and The New York Times. His most recent book, Broke, USA, is about businesses that exploit the working poor.


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Young professionals welcome! Red Dot gives not only the experienced professionals in the industry but also up-and-coming talents in the international world of communication the chance to present their unique designs. In the Red Dot: Junior Award category, each year students and young creatives can have their work assessed by a respected jury and, if they are very lucky, can win the overall prize money of EUR 10,000 to help them launch their career.
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To take part, you must provide valid proof that you are currently enrolled in a course of studies or provide a degree certificate that is no older than two years. Also, the person registering the work must have created the piece of work. Apart from final projects as part of a course of studies, the work can of course also be a creative entry that was designed outside of the degree. There are absolutely no restrictions on that own creation, as the main criteria used by the jury to judge the work are design quality, originality, emotional quality and conciseness.


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Damon Payne
So, working on my first web app using ASP 2. I had really only messed around with the mobile stuff during the betas. My goal here is to see how robust the built-in controls and frameworks are. On the surface everything seems very nice and configurable but we'll see what things are "toys" and what things are worthy of serious consideration.
Visual Studio installs SQL 2005 express by default. This caused me some woe today since I uninstalled Express and installed Developer Edition instead. Using the site admin tool, my AspNetSqlProvider is not working, and suggests I run aspnet_regsql. Did that, did not fix it although it did create the membership tables in my SQL 2005 database. Hmm, looking at machine.config and did a search for AspNetSqlProvider. A connection string called "LocalSqlServer" is referenced everywhere and the value was...
Well then, that won't work if I just got rid of Express. I suppose there really was no need to un-install express after all if its just an Access replacement and isn't running a service taking up my CPU cycles? I'm just guessing by looking at the connection string here.
At any rate, in your web.config you can do the following
and then it should work for you. More observations as I get time to mess around.
I saw over on Sean's blog that MySQL 5.0 is released. Before I get too into this rant let me say that MySQL is a fine tool in some situations. I'll steal the highlight's of the release from Sean as well:
There's more but this is enough for me to talk about. Take a look at that list. Does anything strike you as odd? If not, let me roll back the clock just a little while to when MySQL added another great new feature. The developer team called this feature "Support for Transactions", I believe it was added in version 3.23. I'm being an ass of course, Transactions had been in every other relational database, including crap like Access, since the dawn of time. The MySQL fans made such a big deal out of this that I had to grin. Transactions! What will they think of next? Pretty soon they'll support sub-selects and ANSI standard JOIN syntax. This is the database I am constantly hearing is "better" than things like Oracle, and UDB, and SQL Server.
Now we have another release with some great new features. I have many complex feelings on this issue, since I do in fact like MySQL. Despite liking it, I think I can sum up my feelings with this press release:
"Kia Releases new Car V2.0. Standard options now include:
I guess the reason I feel inclined to poke at MySQL is that I am always hearing from its fans how it is so much better and faster than big expensive RDBMS's. The speed one I found especially irksome, and my quest to prove or disprove this rumour led me far and wide. I landed at the Transaction Processing Performance Council's web site: http://www.tpc.org/; I was shocked (by shocked I mean utterly un-surprised) to find that MySQL is nowhere on these performance lists. A little digging shows that its somewhat expensive to participate, which may be a barrier for a free product. A little more digging shows that a non-profit company can submit their product for a ridiculously small fee ($500-$1000), now I was shocked to find MySQL not on the lists. A little more digging shows that MySQL just plain isn't standards compliant so cannot participate in the test anyway. I do not have a list of what features are missing but I suspect near the top are various transation isloation settings and things of this nature. Specifically: the type of things you'd want in a big enterprise database where disastor recovery and data integrity are of paramount important, the type of things that slow your database down just a little bit...
I like MySQL, but I doubt its "better" than Oracle or SQL server unless your sole metric for judging value is the fact that its free. "Free" is a loaded term anyway, but the MySQL team is working on making it easier to use and providing good tools. There seems to be an aweful lot of people willing to accept on blind faith that MySQL is better than high-priced alternatives. That's fine if you want to defend your religion, but if you want to convince me that you are better, you have to show me.
This is by no means new:
Palm/Microsoft are going to port WindowsMobile to run on Palm hardware. Microsoft makes very little money off of licensing for WindowsMobile/CE so this move must be an effort to sell more of the things that go along with mobile systems: back end integration, lock people into the WindowsPlatform, etc. Does this mean we may see ActiveSync get some more attention and maybe get ported to more platforms?
Palm has always had great hardware in my opinion and was absolutely an innovator in this field. I believe having their own OS has contributed greatly to their downfall. With Windows CE we have had eVB, eVC, the .NET CF for years. They weren't always great but they were all VERY usable small device development environments. With Palm you have had C++ using CodeWarrior and J2ME using the KVM. I have not looked at J2ME in a couple of years, but I have seen some big names post about it: it's not very good. Maybe I am out of touch with the community, but I've never heard of a big app being written on PalmOS the way I do about windowsmobile stuff. I run into mobile apps all over the place: at the airport, in Kohls or Target, at the rental-car place; every one I've gotten a chance to look at was undoubtedly a Windows CE based device. Big apps being written on these things means companies like DAP, TDS, Symbol, Intermec get orders for hundreds of units at a time, meanwhile Palm has been (as far as I know) relying on individual purchasers to upgrade their units to be able to view their calendar faster or store that extra million contacts they were missing.
Since I may end up evaluating palm units on a future project I'm curious: can anyone else tell of their experience developing for Palm over the past several years?
Yesterday in the middle of compiling some code my computer blue-screened. Subsequent attempts to start it up kept giving "Unmountable boot drive", the hard drive had bit the bullet. Luckily I back things up to an external drive semi-regularly. I went to a friend's work where he builds PCs and got a laptop hard drive. He also had an adapter so that I could hook my crashed HD up to a regular PC's IDE chain and sure enough I could get most of my data off of it and burned onto a DVD so I didn't even need to go to my backups.
If anyone knows a quick way to get the contents of My Documents off of an NTFS drive let me know.
Due to some funky display driver problems I spent 6 hours last night:
Today, I had to stop by the office to get MSDN discs for:
... and on and on and on. Despite having a halfway decent laptop I estimate it will be a total of 12 hours of installation easy. Despite the various advances in hardware and software technology in recent years a couple of things are still sorely missed:
Visual Studio is 50% done, I'm going to go read something.
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Damon Payne is a Microsoft MVP specializing in Smart Client solution architecture.
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