text: Analysis Task Force To Cut Deficit Without Hurting Recovery January 25, 2010 President Obama has endorsed a bipartisan plan to name a special commission that would come up with ways to cut the spiraling deficit. The proposed task force will have a difficult job. They have to recommend ways to cut the deficit without hurting jobs or Wall Street. Listen Loading… 4:33 Download Playlist


text:
I've been playing around with a php class I found on the net called Config Magik that I use to store some info in a INI file but have recently run into some problems when using removeKey. I wanted to know if someone can point me to a similar class that would work as well or better. Or if there is a better way to go about this.
This is my function right now, after playing around with it like crazy, so it is probably very faulty.
$config = new ConfigMagik('config.ini', true, true);
echo 'Could not write to config.ini';
return false;
//if there is no section parameter, we will not do anything.
echo false; return false;
} else {
$section_name = $_GET['section'];
unset($_GET['section']); //Unset section so that we can use the GET variable to manipulate the other parameters in a foreach loop.
if (!empty($_GET)){
foreach ($_GET as $var => $value){
echo $var.'='.$_GET[$var].'
';
//Check if said variable $var exists in the section.
if($config->get($var, $section_name) !== NULL){
//Set variable value.
$config->set($var, $value, $section_name);
echo 'Setting variable '. $var.' to '.$value.' on section '.$section_name;
} catch(Exception $e) {
echo 'Could not set variable '.$var;
echo $e;
return false;
} else {
echo $var.' does not exist
';
$section = $config->get($section_name); //Get the entire section so that we can manipulate it.
echo '
';print_r($section);echo '
';
foreach ($section as $title=>$value){
if(!isset($_GET[$title]) && isset($section[$title])){
$config->removeKey($title, $section_name);
echo ''.$title.': removed
';
} catch(Exception $e){
echo $e;
} catch(Exception $e){
echo $e;
//echo $config->toString('HTML');
echo true;
return true;
} else { RUN SOME HTML }
It basically saves the settings I pass on from the GET parameters and if the parameters are not there it is supposed to delete it. When I get to $config->removeKey($title, $section_name); in the last try catch statement it won't save automatically (as it should), so I tried running $config->save() and I ended up with a ini file that had section = array everywhere. Any advice will be appreciated as I've been learning PHP on the web for the last few weeks so I believe I've got a ways to go.
I have definitely isolated the problem to the $config->save() part, just don't know how to solve it.
Thanks in advance.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Posts Tagged: Cheryl Strayed
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
In the Saturday Essay, Kenny Ng evaluates the groundbreaking show Transparent and its attempt to raise awareness of transgender and genderqueer identities. In the show, Arrested Development's Jeffrey Tambor plays Mort, a lifelong family man who comes out as a transgender women named Maura....more
The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Praying Like Wild, An A-Z Trail Guide
The Numbers Are In
When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg decided to launch a book club, book publishers were hoping the billions of Facebook users would translate into book sales. But the numbers are in, and Zuckerberg is no Oprah: BetaBoston reports that though The End of Power sold out on Amazon, it only sold 13,000 copies....more
Hornby Keeps It Fresh
For the Atlantic, Jennie Rothenberg Gritz interviews Nick Hornby about his new book Funny Girl and his experience adapting Cheryl Strayed's Wild for the big screen. While Hornby says he would not consider writing a screenplay based on his own books, adapting other authors' work has helped him to mix things up and "keep things fresh":
A lot of what Funny Girl is about for me is the experience feeling very happy doing a certain thing with a certain group of people.
The Great American Novel(s)?
This idea — that one person, and only one person, in any given generation can possess the intellectual prowess, creative might, emotional intelligence and writing chops to produce a novel that speaks truth about the disparate American whole — is pure hogwash.
The Language and Experience of Solitude
Many times music and literature can evoke pretty similar feelings. That was the case for Kyle Kramer with Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild and Grouper's latest album Ruins, as Kramer writes in a must-read essay over at Noisey....more
Weekend Rumpus Roundup
First, what if your Christmas tree ornaments could tweet.
Then, in the Saturday film review of Wild—the film adaptation of Dear Sugar columnist Cheryl Strayed's eponymous novel—Kenny Ng praises Strayed's "realness" and "punk aesthetic" while tempering expectations for the film....more
The Saturday Rumpus Review of Wild
Give the Gift of The Rumpus This Holiday Season!
More Sunday Links
Friday was one of those days where it felt like way too many threads had come unraveled from the thrift-store sweater of my life and were just tangled in an heap of wet yarn at my feet. One of those dreary grey days when I could have used some advice, and maybe a gentle voice saying, "It'll be ok, sweet pea." One of those days when I said, to no one in particular, on Twitter, "Do you ever have one of those days when you wish 'Dear Sugar' was still around?"
So imagine my surprise when only a few hours later Cheryl Strayed and (original Sugar) Steve Almond announced they were reviving "Dear Sugar" as a podcast....more
Walking With Cheryl Strayed
Time works strange changes on the world. Some things grow dull, some grow wild, some erode past legibility. After Strayed saved her life, after she told her story, after that story became a best seller, strangers started asking her what she would say if she could go back in time and talk to her mother.
Black Friday Sale and Rumpus Holiday Gifts!
Flynn and Strayed, Together At Last
Cheryl Strayed and Gillian Flynn discuss ladies and likability in their writing:
It never occurred to me, not once, that the book would be read as an inspirational tale. I really have no interest in likability when it comes to characters.
The Big Idea #10: Eula Biss
Kathy Acker, Icon
In today's New York Times Book Review, there's a great essay by Cheryl Strayed responding to the prompt "Is This a Golden Age for Woman Essayists?" She rightly tears the question to shreds. And yet, I'll admit it. I tend to gravitate towards writers who are women, both in terms of what I read and who I befriend....more
The Wide Open (And Increasingly Traveled) Road
For The Kenyon Review "Credo" series, Megan Mayhew Bergman offers some thoughts on "socially-conscious writing":
I'm not sure if it was becoming a mother, or publishing my first book—because these events happened in essentially the same year—but when it comes to my writing career, all I can tell myself is: make it matter.
A Golden Age for Women Essayist?
On the New York Times, Cheryl Strayed and Benjamin Moser discuss whether this is a golden age for the female essayist.
Probably because I'm of the opinion that as long as we still have reason to wedge "women" as a qualifier before "essayist," the age is not exactly golden.
Still Writing Like a Motherfucker
An article published in Flavorwire hails Cheryl Strayed (Rumpus' very own Sugar) as a publishing hero. In Jason Diamond's words, "Strayed is the rare type of writer who is both critically and commercially embraced, but also keeps her feet firmly planted in the literary world." But how did this come to be?...more
Literary Friendships
Rumpus interviews editor Rebecca Rubenstein has an awesome interview with Cheryl Strayed (a.k.a. Dear Sugar), Lidia Yuknavitch, and Suzy Vitello at BuzzFeed Books.
They discuss how they make and sustain amazing and inspiring literary friendships amid the chaos of writing, day-to-day life, and everything else in between....more
New Kickstarter Reward for Happy Baby
There's a new Kickstarter reward for The Happy Baby Post Production fundraiser called The Small Signed Library Award.
It's collection of books signed by their authors including books from Meg Wolitzer, Brian Spears, Nick Flynn, Philipp Meyer, Aimee Bender, Melissa Febos, Anthony Swofford, Rick Moody, Steve Almond, Matthew Zapruder, Claire Bidwell Smith, Jonathan Ames, Susan Orlean, Doug Powell, and Cheryl Strayed....more
Alone in the woods: A New Memoir
Rumpus contributor Micah Perks has a new eBook out on Shebooks called, Alone In The Woods: Cheryl Strayed, my daughter and me.
Micah Perks' candid short memoir takes an insightful look at women and the wild, the wildness she experienced as a child on a commune in the Adirondack wilderness, the ways women and wildness are depicted in movies and books like Cheryl Strayed's bestselling memoir Wild, and the wilderness she discovers inside her own daughter.
Goodbye to…Earth-Shattering Sex?
The Atlantic gave the Rumpus's own Sari Botton, Melissa Febos, Mira Ptacin, and Cheryl Strayed a chance to delve deeper into their contributions to the anthology "Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York."
In a roundtable discussion with Marie-Helene Westgate, they discuss what it's like to leave a city that, as Westgate puts it, "is a human entity unto itself: one capable of offering earth-shattering sex, endlessly stimulating conversation, and eventual transcendence, too."
Hear their takes on questions like: "Is there a sense that leaving New York…constitutes a failure of character?" and more—and be sure to check out our two excerpted chapters from the book, one by Elisa Albert and one by Melissa Febos, right here on the Rumpus....more
Rumpus Writers Help Define Modern Literature
Flavorwire's Jason Diamond has compiled a list of fifty books that defined the past five years of literature.
From the universally acclaimed (Wolf Hall) to the controversial (what purpose did i serve in your life), from the literary heavyweights (Tenth of December) to the pop-culture juggernauts (The Hunger Games), these books "show what is great about literature here and now."
We're psyched to see that the list includes Wild by our Dear Sugar columnist Cheryl Strayed, Ayiti by our essays editor Roxane Gay, When the Only Light is Fire by Rumpus pal Saeed Jones, and a host of other books by Rumpus interviewees, book-club authors, and friends....more
Postpartum depression takes on a recognizable form in Megan Stielstra's Rumpus essay, "Channel B," as she describes her experience of finding solace in watching another mother on a high-tech video baby monitor, a reminder that we are never truly alone....more
Dear Sugar Sparks A Tiny Revolution
In the face of rampant negative body image and self-esteem issues, New York City is launching a campaign to help girls declare, "I'm beautiful the way I am."
Samantha Levine, the Bloomberg aide behind the campaign, cites one of Cheryl Strayed's Dear Sugar columns as an inspiration:
"I think being a woman in this society, it's sort of impossible to not be aware of the pressures there are around appearance, around weight, around trying to always look a certain way," Ms.
Dear Sugar Meets Half-Sister
"She's not a hiker but … that hiking boot on the cover caught her eye. And she was just halfway into chapter one when she said she sat bolt upright in bed and realized that we had the same father."
Cheryl Strayed (aka Dear Sugar) talks to NPR about finding the half-sister she had never met through her memoir Wild and a stroke of random luck....more
The Rumpus Interview with Brian Lindstrom
Dear Sugar, You Are Now Being Played by Reese Witherspoon
Here's an informative little roundup of book news from the New Yorker's book-news blog.
Highlights include a 300-year-old cookbook, a "'new type of fragmentation' in contemporary literature," and oh yeah—Reese Witherspoon is officially going to play our very own Cheryl Strayed in the movie adaptation of of her memoir Wild....more


text:
Area weather cancellations and postponements
Cancellations due to the weather:
Brainerd Community Education evening activities after 6 pm for Tuesday, Feb 28 have been cancelled.
A Brainerd Public Library event where William Kent Krueger was scheduled to visit at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, has been cancelled.
Walkabout Wednesday Hike at Itasca State Park for Wednesday, Feb. 29 cancelled due to weather.
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Located 12 miles south of Buffalo, Clarence is proud to be both a bustling suburb and the oldest town in Erie County. When the Town of Clarence was formed on March 11, 1808, it incorporated six settlements:
During the 200 years since, Clarence has thrived as an agricultural community. Grown from such pioneer families as Van Tine, Harris, Ransom, Eshelman, Parker, and Lapp, Clarence remains home to 30,000 residents and has housed notable personalities like Wilson Greatbatch and Joan Baez. Clarence has featured the businesses of the National Gypsum Company and Greatbatch Industries and proudly boasts historical icons, such as the Spoor Hotel and the Goodrich-Landow Log Cabin.
Join the Authors for a Book Signing!
When: Saturday, November 24 from 12:00-2:00 p.m.
What: Local Authors Day
Where: The Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society
25 Nottingham Court, Buffalo, NY 14216
Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com or
Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America's people and places. Have we done a book on your town? Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.


text:
Contract deadline nears in Detroit Lakes, Frazee-Vergas school districts
FARGO -- It's been a season of all-nighters for Minnesota contract dispute mediators and of heated negotiations cutting close to the state's teacher contract deadline.
As the Friday deadline looms, a divisive round of teacher negotiations in the state is winding down. Most districts in the area have at least tentative agreements, a majority of them offering considerably more modest raises than in previous years.
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Cape Central vs. Jackson District Tennis
October 2, 2012
Cape Central and Jackson at the Class 2 District 1 Tennis Tournament Tuesday, October 2, at the Southeast Missouri State University Tennis Facility.
Order printsTo order prints from this gallery, look for the "Order this photo" link below each photo. You will be able to select photo sizes and pay online using your credit or debit card.
57th annual Poplar Bluff Letter Club Basketball Banquet (03/25/15)
SEMO vs. Saint Louis University baseball (03/24/15)
Chaffee vs. Advance baseball (03/23/15)
SEMO vs. UT Martin baseball - Sunday (03/22/15)
SEMO vs. UT Martin baseball - Saturday (03/21/15)
SEMO vs. UT Martin baseball (03/20/15)
Class 4 third-place basketball game - Notre Dame vs. Bolivar (03/20/15)
Class 4 basketball semifinal - Notre Dame vs. Hillcrest (03/19/15)


text:
Please note that Brasserie Le Pont will be closed from Sunday March 29th - Thursday April 9th while we make some exciting changes to the restaurant.
Our reservations line will monitored during this period should you wish to book for when we re-open.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Phone: 01 669 4600
Brasserie Le Pont is conveniently located in Dublin 2 at the gateway to the Georgian mile, where Fitzwilliam Place meets Leeson Street.
Serving classic French cuisine in an elegant and welcoming setting, Brasserie Le Pont has carved a niche for itself in the market as an exciting, vibrant and popular place to dine. It is a fuss- free restaurant that does not compromise on taste.
Come and unwind with a casual drink at our comfortable wine bar, or on our heated terrace.
You can enjoy a delicious meal in our main restaurant or in one of our private dining rooms. Why not try one of our cosy booths.
Our warm and friendly staff are dedicated to enhancing your dining experience, leaving you to relax, soak up the vibrant brasserie atmosphere and enjoy our delicious food.


text:
Quick Pork
Grilled Pork with Curried Apricots and Napa Cabbage
Katy Sparks loves pairing curry with fruit, as she's done in this unusual recipe for pork with sweet apricots and wilted cabbage. She opts for a mild curry powder instead of the spicier Madras kind, which could overwhelm the other flavors in this dish.
F&W's Mad Genius Tips and More Featured Video
Congratulations to Mei Lin, winner of Top Chef Season 12.


text:
Long time no see...
Here's a small string tricks video with Michal.
Hope you'll like it
March 08, 2015, 04:17:19 pm by Crackers | Views: 592 | Comments: 9
Long time no see...
Here's a small string tricks video with Michal.
Hope you'll like it
March 03, 2015, 12:59:56 pm by Graham Milligan | Views: 503 | Comments: 6
Hibernation... My new video. Showing all the moves I've been working on in the last couple of months. Filmed and Edited 02/03/15
February 25, 2015, 01:33:31 pm by pranay | Views: 565 | Comments: 8
Hey Everyone! I made a little Video during my stay in Monaco.... Some old and some new tricks!
I hope you like it!
Diabolo.ca is a forum and resource for diaboloists. Share and watch diabolo videos, learn from the tutorials, or get advice on gear. Read the forum or join to make a post.
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a long absence... by Chloé F.
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text:
Loved the location. Could walk to my medical appointment. A shuttle was available too. Room was nice but could use a facelift. Wish room service was available after 9 p.m. for late arrivals.
Phone Number:
Location: United States > Texas > Texas Gulf Coast > Houston > Medical Center , University Place
Bar / Lounge Business Center with Internet Access Fitness Center with Gym / Workout Room Free High Speed Internet ( WiFi ) Kitchenette Restaurant Room Service Shuttle Bus service Suites Swimming Pool Wheelchair access
#79 Family Hotel in Houston
#111 Business Hotel in Houston
Price Range (Based on Average Rates): $$
Hotel Class:3.5 star — Wyndham Houston - Medical Center Hotel and Suites 3.5*
Number of rooms: 287
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- Experience the convenience of our Houston hotel near the Texas Medical Center, Reliant Center, George R. Brown Convention Center and Houston Zoo. The Wyndham Houston Medical Center is a full service hotel with friendly services and thoughtful lifestyle amenities for you to visit, work, play, and unwind. Relax in one of our newly renovated rooms or spacious suites with everything you need to feel right at home. Our accommodations offer plush beds, free Wi-Fi, work desk and complimentary morning newspaper. Spread out in our suites with separated living areas, kitchenettes or full sized kitchens. ... more less
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Booking.com, Priceline, Hotels.com, Wyndham, Hotwire, getaroom.com, Despegar.com, Odigeo and Tingo so you can book your Wyndham Houston - Medical Center Hotel and Suites reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.
- Also Known As:
- Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Houston Medical Houston
- Holiday Inn Hotel And Suites Houston Medical Center
- Holiday Inn Houston


text:
- ITV Report
- ITV Report
Find out where you can see a gig
Live updates
- ITV Report
Kendal drummer beats for two days straight
A drummer from Kendal has been drumming for two days to raise money for Cancer Care after it helped him through testicular cancer.Read the full story ›
FULL REPORT: Comedy walk with serious side
A group of comedians have begun walking Hadrian's Wall to raise money for charity. The group are performing gigs en route to raise cash and awareness of ovarian cancer. One of the comics, Matthew Fong from Doncaster, lost his Mum to the disease two years ago.
Hannah McNulty spoke to them as they set off on their walk from Port Carlisle on the Solway Firth in Cumbria.
- ITV Report
Find out where you can see a gig
Comedians from the north of England are walking 84 miles of Hadrian's Wall to raise money for ovarian cancer.Read the full story ›
Have you heard the one about funny men on Hadrian's Wall?
A group of comedians have begun walking the Hadrian's Wall route to raise money for charity.
Organised by Nick Banks from Hartlepool, the group set off from Port Carlisle on Friday morning.
They're performing free gigs along the way with the audience asked to donate money at the end.
One of the comedians, Matthew Fong, lost his mother to ovarian cancer two years ago, and money is being raised for the charity Ovacome.
Beijing biddies left for China this morning
Two intrepid women have set off from Cumbria this morning on an epic fundraising mission.
Edwina Sorkin and Kate Sleath have dubbed themselves the Beijing biddies and set themselves the challenge of driving from Tebay to China in thirty days.
On their journey they will cover an incredible eight and a half thousand miles.
We sent Ryan Dollard to see them off:
Beijing biddy: 'It's the drive that matters not the age'
An epic journey began in Cumbria this morning.
Edwina Sorkin and Kate Sleath are driving from Tebay to China unaided and unsupported. The duo are hoping to raise £150,000 for cancer charities.
The grandmothers, who call themselves the Beijing biddies, aim to complete the challenge in thirty days.
Edwina says it doesn't matter what age you are:
Beijing Biddies' big adventure begins
Edwina Sorkin and Kate Sleath are driving from Tebay to China, unaided and unsupported, to raise £150,000 for cancer charities.
The duo, who call themselves the Beijing biddies, aim to complete the challenge in thirty days.
Edwina and Kate say getting older should be no barrier to taking on big challenges.
They will travel through Holland, Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, right across Russia, and through Mongolia before reaching their destination.
- ITV Report
Hundreds of families attend Brathay Hall fundraiser
Hundreds of people turned up to support a fundraising Easter Bazaar at Brathay Hall near Ambleside. Chapatti in the Park is on all day.Read the full story ›
Hundreds Expected at Brathay Trust Easter Bazaar
Hundreds of people are expected to attend a fun family day on the shores of Windermere.
It's raising money for the Brathay Trust near Ambleside, which gives educational outdoor holidays to young people. It helps around 6000 teenagers from all over the UK.
This year's theme is 'Chapatti in the Park'.
Charity exhibition help for hospice
An exhibition of paintings by the artist Edwin Straker is being held to raise money for a charity, which cared for him before he died.
His daughter has organised the show near Penrith for Hospice at Home, which helps people stay in their own homes near the end of their life, as Alastair Brian reports.


text:
Parents and Daughter Reunited 17 Years After Abduction
It's entirely possible that one day you'll find yourself walking by your long lost sister on a college campus. That's what happened to Zephany Nurse in South Africa. »
It's entirely possible that one day you'll find yourself walking by your long lost sister on a college campus. That's what happened to Zephany Nurse in South Africa. » 2/28/15 6:15pm 2/28/15 6:15pm
Fun news: A Gilmore Girls reunion is happening next year, and a Dawson's Creek reunion is sort of happening, eventually. #TBT in action. » 11/13/14 2:50pm 11/13/14 2:50pm
Hey Dude was my very first favorite show. I'm not counting cartoons and Sesame Street and stuff, because that's just ON when you're a kid and you don't really choose it. Hey Dude's the first show where I remember seeing commercials for it on Nickelodeon, thinking to myself, "Oh, yeah. That is my kind of show," and… » 6/14/14 5:30pm 6/14/14 5:30pm
Well, the Olympics are over and now all that's standing between you and another bittersweet Labor Day weekend is "Shark Week," and maybe a few hurricane scares along the Gulf Coast. Since "Shark Week" will be the same thing every year until James Cameron finally send his submersible deep into the Mariana Trench to… » 8/12/12 8:45pm 8/12/12 8:45pm
Whitney Houston and Ray-J were spotted having dinner together last week in Los Angeles, fueling rumors that the 48-year-old Houston had been planning a comeback in the weeks leading up to her death yesterday afternoon. The BBC's David Willis explained that though some people close to Houston believed she was making a… » 2/12/12 2:01pm 2/12/12 2:01pm
It seems almost impossible that you could be separated from someone for 77 years, and then all of a sudden, with a single lucky phone call, they could be back in your life. But that's exactly what happened to Minka Disbrow. » 1/02/12 5:15pm 1/02/12 5:15pm
As part of Good Morning America's "80s Week," the morning show reunited the cast of The Princess Bride. (The part of the cast that's still living. RIP André the Giant and Peter Falk!) The actors chatted about how often their famously quotable lines come back to haunt them, with Cary Elwes, who played Westley,… » 10/07/11 6:15pm 10/07/11 6:15pm
"I have never been to a reunion. I just really don't feel the need to let anybody know what the hell I am doing because they can pretty much tell what I am doing all day. I really don't care. The people I want to know are there in my life already and if not I can do the Facebook thing that people do, where they upload… » 4/19/11 11:11am 4/19/11 11:11am


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- Basil of Caesarea - ep. 243
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Food For Thought
"The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being."
- St. John Paul II
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"If your work is strong enough for someone to hate you, it's strong enough for someone to love you. The middle is what you should fear."
- Sean McCabe @seanwes
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Because you don't know when you are going to need to move fast or get along without the supermarket…
For your consideration…
"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting."
- C.S. Lewis
Identity theft is a serious problem that you do NOT want to have. I use Lifelock.
And for your cybersecurity…
Wyoming Catholic College!
A great place in Rome…
See my post about the Domus Australia HERE
More food for thought:
"I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history."
Francis Card. George
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"All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void."
- Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 176
Even More Food For Thought
"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests."
- Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 1824. ME 16:73
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Tag Archives: Archbp. Kurtz
USCCB Pres. Archbp. Kurtz comments on Obama Admin's slithery new HHS mandate rules
The Obama Administration's war on religion continues unabated.
From Catholic News Agency:
Obama administration announces new HHS mandate rules
Washington D.C., Aug 22, 2014 / 10:33 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Department of Health and Human Services issued on Friday new rules regarding its … Continue reading
Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Liberals, Our Catholic Identity, Religious Liberty, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Last Acceptable Prejudice Tagged Archbp. Kurtz, contraception, HHS mandate, Hobby Lobby, Obama Administration, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, USCCB 6 Comments
Archbp. Kurtz, as a "moderate", fully supported the Traditional Roman Rite
I hope the libs at the NSR are celebrating Archbp. Kurtz's support, as a "moderate", of the older, traditional form of the Roman Rite.
True "moderates" are also true "traditionalists".
Our long-time reader, friend, benefactor, commentator here Henry Edwards guides the Knoxville … Continue reading
Women-priest fakers allow Protestants to define who Catholics are. There must be consequences.
When anti-Catholic ecumenical atrocities take place, Catholic bishops should act.
Here is an example which calls for consequences.
From WTAX in Kentucky:
Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church [Note either the carelessness or the bias? She was not ordained … Continue reading


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In this video, filmmaker Ann Prum describes how she and her team made a Nature documentary about hummingbirds using high-speed HD cameras and specialized lenses. It's exquisite footage, and reveals surprising truths about the hummingbirds -- like what goes on when one encounters another at a flower (hummingbird fight!), and how scientists study hummingbirds both in the wild and captivity. For example, did you know that hummingbirds catch and eat insects for protein? And did you know it's insanely hard... READ ON
It recently came to my attention that Christopher Walken has a history of doing spoken-word pieces, just reading stuff that sounds weird when he reads it (perhaps everything sounds weird when Walkenized...). The most recent Walken buzz blowing up on the web is a video of his reading of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (see below on this post). But I thought I'd take us back a few years to some of his earlier performances. Enjoy!
"Three Little Pigs"
"Hello children. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll... READ ON
So how's this for awesome: in 1933, animator Roland Crandall singlehandedly animated a seven-minute Betty Boop cartoon (a version of Snow White) in only six months. In 1994, animators voted the piece #19 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time. Wikipedia says (emphasis added):
Crandall received the opportunity to make Snow White on his own as a reward for his several years of devotion to the Fleischer studio, and the resulting film is considered both his masterwork and an important milestone of The... READ ON
Graboids are the fictional creatures featured in the movie Tremors (and its many sequels). In the movie, the graboid is apparently based on the cryptid Mongolian Death Worm, though the short film below proves that graboids are actually landsharks, another dangerous cryptid with mysterious abilities. Let's learn about their habits in the wild:
Monstrous Wildlife from Frank Robnik on Vimeo.
Of course, we all know the real landshark dates back to the... READ ON
Set your DVRs: tonight (July 27) on the Discovery Channel, The Colony airs at 10pm. Read on for a first look!
What separates good reality TV from bad reality TV? For me, good reality TV raises questions -- most importantly, what would you do if you were the person living in the "reality" of the show? In bad reality TV, nobody cares -- it's pure entertainment, watching people goof around and make fools of themselves. But in good reality TV, like Discovery's The Colony, we are repeatedly confronted... READ ON
So this actually happened: on March 17, 2009, the United Nations sponsored a panel discussion that "explored some of the themes that are of importance to both the United Nations and the critically acclaimed television show: human rights; terrorism; children and armed conflict; and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faiths." Yes, that's right, a sci-fi show generated high-level dialog within the U.N. The panel was moderated by Whoopi Goldberg, and the panel members included Edward James... READ ON
Soap operas, "soaps" or "my stories," as many a grandmother has called them, are dramas presented in a serial format on daytime television or radio. Their name comes from a time when old serial dramas broadcast on radio had soap manufacturers (Procter & Gamble and Lever Brothers, to name a few) as sponsors and/or producers. They also, you might have noticed, look really really crappy.
There are two main reasons for this lack of visual quality, both of which are rooted in the problem of soap operas'... READ ON
Have you seen The Price is Right? I watch it at the gym, during the day, because I don't need to hear the sound to figure out what's going on. On the show, people guess prices for merchandise and play little games and eventually win or lose the merchandise. But one man, Terry Kneiss, watched a lot of The Price is Right. And he noticed something: many of the same products were used over and over. So he did his homework, and, in collaboration with his wife, memorized the values of as many items as he... READ ON
I'm embarrassed to admit that I missed this year's Captain Picard Day -- it was one week ago today, on June 16. According to Geeks are Sexy, "Captain Picard Day is celebrated on June 16th because it is the equivalent date to Stardate 47457.1, mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode entitled The Pegasus. In that episode, Captain Picard Day is an occasion for the Enterprise to host schoolchildren and show them what Starfleet is like."
Although Stardate experts disagree on the June 16th... READ ON
In the US, there are game shows and there are variety shows. In Japan, the two are often blurred, as the goal is entertaining the audience more than winning a competition. Even the coolest celebrities are not afraid to look silly. Visuals are very important, which is great for those of us who don't understand the language. You don't need to know what people are saying to enjoy these classic TV clips.
The Bug Race
Just in case the tasks aren't funny enough, these guys have to dress in funny insect... READ ON
There are roughly 70 ingredients in the McRib.


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PC - Windows
Hunting Game for GunHome / PC - Windows /
This page contains Gun Hints for PC - Windows called "Hunting Game" and has been posted or updated on Apr 3, 2007 by mitch60. Let us know what you think of this Hint by thumbs voting.
Boxshot / Details
- Developer: Neversoft Entertainment
- Publisher: Activision
- Genre: Action Adventure
- Release Date: Nov 9, 2005
- ESRB: Mature
- Other Platforms
Hunting Game
If you happen to miss a mark when hunting game, you can always depart for other areas and force the game to respawn the target upon your return. Try not to miss the next time around.
All Hints
From: homerdoh
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From: mitch60
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From: jadejagirish
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Steve Jobs in his own words. The quotes of Steve Jobs from Walter Isaacson's biography.
Some of Hollywood's biggest names who sport words and images all over their bodies.
A selection of images from Apple's World Gallery, featuring amazing images taken with the camera on an iPhone 6.
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Rupert Murdoch practically owns everything!
His holding company, News Corp, owns the New York Post, The Sun, The Wall Street Journal and GQ magazine. The slew of TV networks includes Fox Broadcast Company & Television Station Groups, My Network TV, ITV and many more international properties. And who can mention Murdoch without his mothership studio 20th Century Fox amongst others? Believe me…the list goes on and on.
This news icon has been making headlines lately because his social media company MySpace which is currently hanging on a thread thanks to blow it received from websites like Facebook and Twitter.
At the 2011 Golden Globe awards, Hollyscoop asked Rupert Murdoch his thoughts on Twitter and if it would last in the social scene. "Right now it's something really big and getting bigger, but these things don't last forever," said Murdoch. "Facebook isn't even cool any longer but it's still huge, HUGE."
Twitter has become the portal for information. When asked if Murdoch believes that Twitter has changed the way people receive their news, his response was, "Not very much, not very much, no."
Although MySpace was a $580 million flop, nothing can keep the man who owns everything from trying something new. His latest project is launching the daily iPad newspaper that is rumored to cost $0.99 per day. When asked what we could expect from this project he said, "A lot of interesting things, I am not telling you." Murdoch says the new electronic newspaper starts in three weeks.
In regards to blogs, Rupert Murdoch's wife Wendi Dang is a fan of Hollyscoop.com. She said, "Yeah, I check out everything… your blog, Huffington Post."
And what is a red carpet interview without fashion talk? When noticing Wendi's gorgeous sequin Naeem Khan dress, Hollyscoop had to ask Murdoch if he helped her pick out the outfit. He was quick to respond, "I wouldn't dare, no, she has a better taste."
The dress might have been a lucky charm since Glee was the biggest winner for TV with three awards, including the prize as best comedy or musical series. Glee airs on Fox, which Rupert Murdoch owns…see, I told you he owns everything!
Check out our EXCLUSIVE coverage with Rupert and Wendi below!


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Reference: Gritz, Larry and James K. Hahn, "BMRT: A Global Illumination Implementation of the RenderMan Standard," Journal of Graphics Tools, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 29-47 (1996). BMRT: A Global Illumination Implementation of the RenderMan Standard Larry Gritz† and James K. Hahn The George Washington University* ABSTRACT The RenderMan Interface specification proposed by Pixar is a standard for communication between modeling software and rendering software or devices. This standard has proven very powerful and is extremely popular in production work. Although the standard itself claims not to specify a rendering algorithm, people have speculated RenderMan and global illumination are mutually incompatible. We have implemented a rendering system which fully adheres to the RenderMan Interface and uses global illumination algorithms. Specifically, this implementation supports progressive refinement radiosity and distribution ray tracing in a two-pass approach. This rendering system is widely distributed, very popular, and has been used in production (three properties usually not found in global illumination renderers). We discuss how we overcame problems in mating global illumination algorithms with the RenderMan standard, and make recommendations for future versions of the standard to better accommodate such algorithms. We also present a summary of important lessons we learned by creating and distributing this tool. declare geometric primitives, which are bound to the current graphics state at the time of their declaration. The exact nature of the API calls and RIB protocol are well documented elsewhere [14][1], and will not be described further in this paper. RenderMan allows arbitrarily complex descriptions of surface appearances (including geometric displacements), illumination distributions from light sources, and attenuation by volumes in RenderMan Shading Language (SL) [9][2]. This powerful ability allows the user to extend the surface and light descriptions in a way which is more flexible than generally allowed by rendering systems. The RenderMan standard does not dictate which rendering algorithms a particular implementation should use. Minimally, an implementation must support all of the geometric primitives (including polygons and polyhedra, bilinear and bicubic patches and patch meshes, NURBS, and quadrics), perform hidden surface removal, provide antialiasing and filtering, and support the hierarchical graphics state. In addition, optional capabilities may be supported in a particular implementation, including CSG, motion blur, depth of field, ray tracing, radiosity, displacements, texture and environment mapping, area light sources, and programmable shading in Shading Language. Implementations are not expected to support optional capabilities which are not possible or are impractical given their rendering algorithms. Until recently the only available implementation of the RI standard has been Pixar's PhotoRealistic RenderMan (PRMan). This implementation has become very popular in the production community, arguably becoming the de facto standard in rendering software for feature film work. Several other proprietary implementations of the RI standard no doubt exist, but remain undocumented and are of unknown levels of compliance to the standard (an exception is [13]). PRMan is based on the REYES algorithm [6]. Indeed, it is apparent that this implementation and the standard itself were developed handin-hand. Though it claims to be independent of any particular rendering algorithm, many aspects of the standard seem to rely 1. Introduction The RenderMan® Interface was designed by Pixar to be a standard communication protocol between modeling/animation software and rendering software or devices [14][10]. RenderMan gives a means of describing a photorealistic 3-D scene in terms of what should be rendered, but without dictating which algorithms or rendering methods should be used. The RenderMan Interface has two bindings: a procedural interface consisting of C language function calls, and an ASCII or binary metafile binding known as RenderMan Interface Bytestream (RIB). There exists a nearly one-to-one correspondence between RIB requests and procedural API calls. Individual RenderMan calls either (1) set the options, attributes, and transformations which comprise the graphics state; or (2) † * Author's current address: Pixar, 1001 W. Cutting Blvd., Richmond CA 94804 Dept. of EE&CS, 801 22nd St. NW, Washington DC 20052. Email: email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com 1 on the REYES or similar micropolygon-based algorithms, perhaps contributing to the lack of other implementations. This led people to speculate RenderMan standard and global illumination were incompatible. scanline available that the mutually This allows us to recalculate the direct component again on the second pass, which affords many advantages [12][8]. 6. Once the radiosity pass is completed, distribution ray tracing [7] of the scene is performed. Prior to rendering time, the shader compiler parses the Shading Language code and generates an assembly-like code for a simulated stack-based computer. This allows for fast interpretation of compiled and optimized shader code in a machine-independent manner. When the closest intersection to a ray is found, the displacement shader (if any) and the surface shader for that object are interpreted, resulting in the surface color and opacity of the visible object. Though there is some overhead associated with interpreting the shader (as opposed to having it compiled into the renderer itself), this is minor compared to time spent calculating ray-object intersections, calculating noise values, etc., and affords extra flexibility when designing and implementing shaders. When performing shading calculations on the ray tracing pass, calls to the SL function ambient() return the indirect illumination component of the radiosity calculations performed earlier. The values are returned from the radiosity mesh corresponding to the parametric position at which the ray intersected the object. The renderer also attempts to handle specular-to-diffuse illumination, such as light bouncing off of a mirror. The mechanism for this calculation is documented in [8]. The SL built-in functions which integrate the contributions of light sources1, automatically compute and account for this mode of energy transfer. This paper describes a full implementation of the RenderMan standard, publicly available and known as the Blue Moon Rendering Tools (BMRT). BMRT uses global illumination algorithms, supporting both ray tracing and radiosity in a two-pass technique similar to [15]. This design presented many challenges, both in attempting to support all of the functionality of RenderMan without using REYES, and in trying to use the RenderMan interface as the basis for a global illumination renderer. We will describe our system, discussing these challenges and our solutions. 2. System Overview Our renderer implements a two-pass radiosity / distribution ray tracing scheme. The basic algorithm may be outlined as follows: 1. The input RIB stream, which specifies the scene to be rendered, is parsed. Each RIB directive corresponds to a particular RenderMan procedural API call. These calls change options or attributes, alter transformations, or declare geometry (which binds to the current attribute list). When the WorldEnd directive is reached, indicating that all information necessary to render a particular frame has been transmitted, an automatic bounding hierarchy is constructed to speed up the ray casting, and the rendering calculations begin. If radiosity calculations are desired, the geometry list is meshed. Our system implements a progressive refinement radiosity solution which uses ray casting to calculate form factors and distribute energy directly to element vertices [5][16]. High radiosity gradients may cause geometry to be progressively diced into finer elements. The first energy distributed by the progressive refinement radiosity is the energy which comes from the explicit light sources (i.e. those defined with RiLightSource and RiAreaLightSource). For each element vertex, the appropriate light source shader is invoked in order to calculate how much energy reaches that element vertex. Several samples may be taken from randomly selected points on the geometry comprising each area light source to minimize the error. After the light source list is exhausted, redistribution of reflected energy is performed, including geometry which had been designated as emissive. At each step, the patch with the highest unshot energy has its energy redistributed into the environment. The progressive refinement stops when either a specified maximum number of progressive refinement steps have been reached, or the remaining unshot energy in the entire environment is below a certain threshold. We employ a separate accounting of radiosity coming from direct sources (lights) and indirect sources (reflection from other geometry). 2. 3. 3. Ray Tracing / Radiosity Implementation of RenderMan Certain optional features of the RenderMan interface are easy to perform automatically using distribution ray tracing [7]. These include solid modeling (CSG), bump mapping, motion blur, and depth of field. Other features of RenderMan were obviously put in specifically to accommodate scanline renderers which were not capable of ray tracing, including environment mapping and shadow depth mapping. While there is no reason why these cannot be used by a ray tracer, the functionality of these features (reflection/refraction and shadowing) are generally implicit in ray tracing. Therefore we support both explicit calls to these "fake" functions, and also automatic calculation of these effects. Several RenderMan features do not map in obvious ways to our radiosity/ray tracing paradigm. This section will cover some of these and explain how we approached these problems. 3.1. Interpretation of shaders When it is determined which geometry intersects a ray at the closest point, a "ShaderVariables" record is prepared to The semantics of SL mechanisms for integrating light source contributions, including the built-in functions diffuse() and specular(), is beyond the scope of this paper, but further information may be found in [10][14]. 1 4. 5. 2 contain the variables accessible to the shaders which determine what the point looks like (surface position, normal, derivatives, shading coordinates, etc.). The object class definitions for each geometric primitive type include methods for computing these quantities. When each shader is compiled, a list is automatically made that specifies exactly which shader variables are needed by the shader (for example, maybe it needs N, s, and t, but not dPdu). To avoid unnecessary computation, only the shader variables which are needed will be computed for a particular shading calculation. The shader interpreter is invoked with these variables. 3.2. SL Differential and Area Operators Among the variables accessible by the shaders are the du and dv values. These are defined as the distance in u-v parametric space of the geometric primitive between shading samples and are the basis for differential and area operators in SL. Table 1 lists some differential quantities commonly used in SL. For a REYES implementation, these are trivial to compute, since they are simply the differences of the quantities evaluated at adjacent micropolygons. Ray tracing is fundamentally a point sampling process in screen space and does not use a regular discretization of the geometric primitives, so it is not immediately obvious how these values should be computed. One may reasonably expect that a ray tracer should not need to compute these quantities. But since these variables are essential for analytical antialiasing of textures, we deemed it important to support this facility. We approached this problem as follows: Suppose P represents the point being sampled. Let Pz represent the depth of P in eye (camera) space. Then we can estimate the world space distance between screen samples for this depth as: position between adjacent screen samples (dPdu and dPdv are the partial derivatives of the surface). By inverting, we can solve for estimates of du and dv: du = d est k dPdu u dv = d est k dPdv v Finally, the orientation of the surface is taken into consideration with the additional ku and kv terms. Comparing the view direction to the partial surface derivatives serves to enlarge our estimates of du and/or dv when we are viewing the surface at a glancing angle. The orientation terms are: ku = 1 I ⋅ dPdu 1− I dPdu 2 kv = 1 I ⋅ dPdv 2 1− I dPdv Each geometric primitive class has methods for calculating its partial surface position derivatives, dPdu and dPdv, for a particular surface point. screen space samples eye ds P dest Pz Figure 1: Calculating distance at intersection which corresponds to adjacent screen samples. Many of the functions in Table 1 take arbitrary expressions as arguments. It is impractical to attempt to solve these analytically at compile time, so we generate ShaderVariables records for two auxiliary points on surface S, P+u = S(u+du,v) and P+v = S(u,v+dv), which approximate the step sizes between screen space samples. The shader is evaluated at d est = d s Pz where ds is the distance between screen space samples. This geometric relationship is shown in Figure 1. We are simply computing the distance at that depth which should map to adjacent screen space samples. This is really an estimate for |dPdu*du| and/or |dPdv*dv|, which are the changes in surface Table 1: Some differential quantities. SL built-in variables are in boldface. RenderMan Quantity du, dv dPdu, dPdv Du(x), Dv(x) Du(x) * du area(p) sqrt(area(p)) texture(name, s, t) calculatenormal(p) Interpretation Change in u and v geometric parameters between adjacent shading samples. The partial derivatives of the surface at the point being shaded, i.e. ∂P/∂u and ∂P/∂v. Derivative of expression x with respect to parametric u and v. Estimated change in expression x between adjacent shading samples (along u direction). Estimated differential surface area ≡ length(Du(p)*du ^ Dv(p)*dv) (note: ^ is the SL operator indicating cross product) Estimated change in point value p between adjacent shading samples. Filtered texture area lookup at coordinates (s,t), implicitly takes into account the change of s,t between adjacent shading samples. ≡ Du(p)^Dv(p). If p is the displaced surface position, this returns the new normal. 3 these two points first, caching values passed to Du(), Dv(), area(), and calculatenormal(). Then when the shader is called for P (the point actually being shaded), these functions return the differences between the expression at P and its value at the auxiliary points. For example, perturbed normals. It is also important to retain compatibility with other implementations which do support true displacements. We do not see any inexpensive alternative strategy for using ray tracing and true surface displacements together.2 3.4. Using trace The Shading Language defines a function trace(P,D) which returns the light color impinging on point P from direction D. Scanline renderers normally would not support the trace function (for example, PRMan always returns 0 from trace). Renderers which lack this facility must simulate reflective and refractive effects using environment maps. We continue to support environment maps, since this is still useful as a speedup method, and invaluable when combining CG foreground objects with live action background plates. However, we also support correct implementation of the trace function. We implement the Shading Language trace() function in the obvious wayit directly invokes the ray tracing engine, which may recursively invoke other shaders. In addition, rays traced using this function may implicitly call the interior or exterior volume shaders associated with the object. A sample shader for a reflective metallic surface illustrates how the trace() function can be used (see also Figure 4): surface shiny ( float Ka=.25, Ks=1, Kr = 0.5, roughness = 0.005) { point Nf = faceforward (normalize(N), I); point IN = normalize (I); color env = Kr * trace (P, reflect (IN, Nf)); Ci = Cs * (Ka*ambient() + env + Ks*specular(Nf,-IN,roughness))); } Since trace may spawn rays which cause other objects' shaders to be evaluated, it is necessary for the ray tracing engine to support recursive rays, and for the SL interpreter to be fully reentrant. This would not need to be the case for scanline implementations. Indeed, the RI specification refers to the variables available to the shaders (such as P, N, s, etc.) as global. 3.5. Lights and Shadows During interpretation of the surface shader, the ambient(), diffuse(), specular(), or phong() routines may be called to evaluate the light striking the surface (or an illuminance loop may appear in the shader). In any of these cases, the light source list is traversed, integrating the energy received from all of the nonphysical (LightSource) and physical (AreaLightSource) lights. When automatic shadows are requested (explained in the next section), ray casting is used to determine light visibility. A small change is made to accommodate the radiosity algorithm: Ambient light is really just a trick for simulating interreflective effects which are explicitly calculated by the radiosity pass. When only the ray tracing is performed, Note: since acceptance of this paper, BMRT has been modified to support true displacements, albeit at large memory and time expense. 2 Du( P ) u ,v = ( P u+du, v − P u,v ) / du . In order to prevent evaluating the entire shader three times for each surface point, we utilize several shortcuts. First, area operators on some simple expressions can be determined analytically at compile time. For example, the common construct Du(s) is the rate of change of shading coordinate s with respect to geometric parameter u. This value is fixed for a particular primitive, so the SL compiler recognizes this and can substitute a reference to this value instead of invoking the shader again at (u+du,v). Second, the compiler recognizes which parts of the code contribute to the expressions sent to area operators. When invoking the shader for the auxiliary points P+u and P+v, the shader terminates immediately after the last area operator is executed. Thus, code which is after the last area statement (and therefore cannot contribute to any differential quantities at the main shading location) will not be executed. Finally, certain operators which are expensive and unlikely to have their results used in area expressions are short circuited. For example, diffuse() simply returns 0 for auxiliary points without walking the light list or computing shadows. These shortcuts cause the area operators to be evaluated correctly with very little overhead. 3.3. Displacements An important feature of RenderMan is the ability to use displacement shaders. Similar to bump mapping [3], displacement mapping actually moves surface points as well as changing normals for shading. This allows for very realistic detailing on surfaces and an alternate way to model fine geometric detail while keeping the underlying geometric primitives simple. For a REYES or similar system, displacement shaders can be used to alter the micropolygon vertices prior to hidden surface elimination. Unfortunately, there does not exist a simple method for handling displacements for a ray tracer (short of dicing the primitives and ray tracing the micropolygons themselves, which is very expensive in both time and memory). For our implementation, we make the assumption that all displacements will be small, evaluate the displacement shader at points P+u and P+v in a manner similar to the way we handle area operators. The displaced P variable is compared at all three points and a new normal is computed: N ′ = (P+ u − P) × (P+ v − P ) This performs bump mapping based on the requested displacements. Admittedly, this is an approximation which suffers from several problems: the bumps do not self-occlude (either from the point of view camera or the light sources), object silhouettes are smooth, and other shading artifacts sometimes occur from backwards-facing normals. Even so, this approach is often quite adequate for relatively small displacements (see Figure 2). Our implementation retains the advantage of notational convenience; it is more intuitive to describe surface detailing in terms of surface displacement than in terms of 4 ambient() adds the contributions from all of the ambient light sources in the scene. However, in the cases where radiosity is performed, ambient() does not evaluate the ambient light sources at all, but rather returns the indirect illumination which was calculated during the radiosity pass. Remember that we separated direct and indirect lighting on the first pass. Our ambient() trick only adds the indirect component, since the direct component will be recalculated by the diffuse() function. Separating the two also allows for both higher fidelity in shadow calculation and for additional shading cues due to bump and displacement shading (since the light direction is not lost as it generally is for radiosity computations). This accounting of indirect illumination happens automatically and is completely transparent to the user and the shader author. source and an emitter lies in how they are evaluated on the second pass. Both are treated similarly for the radiosity pass. However, as we mentioned earlier, area light sources are reevaluated on the second (ray tracing) pass. Emitters are not. This distinction allows us to specify that only certain area lights should be recalculated on the second pass, which may save time. The RenderMan interface does not specify how (or whether) lights should cast shadows. With PRMan, if you want a light to be shadowed, you need to use a light source shader which explicitly references a shadow depth map to determine if the light is shadowed from a particular point [11]. The user needs to compute this shadow map ahead of time by rendering the scene as a depth image from the point of view of each light source which casts shadows. Since a ray tracer can easily figure out if a light source is shadowed, we needed a way to specify this on a light-by-light basis. The Shading Language has no way to inquire about whether an unoccluded path exists between two points. We decided to solve this problem by adding an implementationdependent attribute to light sources. The following RIB fragment illustrates our syntax: Attribute "light" "shadows" ["on"] LightSource "pointlight" 1 # this light casts shadows Attribute "light" "shadows" ["off"] LightSource "pointlight" 2 # this one does not In addition, we also provided a mechanism for specifying which geometry can be considered as an occluder on an objectby-object basis. We did this using an implementation-dependent attribute: Attribute "render" "casts_shadows" option In order of increasing computational cost, option is one of: "none", indicating that the object does not occlude; "opaque" indicating that it blocks all light; "Os", indicating that the object has uniform opacity given by the Opacity directive (regardless of what the shader says); or "shader", which indicates that the surface shader should be evaluated for each shadow ray which intersects the object. This allows shaders which specify varying opacities for an object to determine how the object interacts with light as an occluder (Figure 3). This effect, particularly for partial transparency, would be difficult to achieve using shadow maps, which compare only depth. 4.2. Radiosity Information Radiosity is notorious for not being very automatic; often a considerable amount of hand-tweaking is necessary to get an efficient radiosity solution. It is essential to be able to specify meshing rates, reflective and emissive characteristics, and other data on an object-by-object basis. Unfortunately, no standard mechanisms for these data exist in the RenderMan interface. Again, we make liberal use of the Option and Attribute directives. We have defined an attribute to specify the meshing rate for the radiosity solution: Attribute "radiosity" "patchsize" [ps] "elementsize" [es] "minsize" [ms] 4. RenderMan binding for radiosity / ray tracing Approaching the problem from the other side, we note that not all features of radiosity/ray tracing have obvious hooks to the RenderMan Interface. This section will outline our binding, i.e. how we used RenderMan to specify information needed by the radiosity and ray tracing engines. These are implemented using the Attribute and Option directives, the approved methods of specifying implementation-dependent data to the renderer. 4.1. Light Sources and Shadows The standard RenderMan Interface allows specification of light sources through both the LightSource and AreaLightSource directives. Note that PRMan interprets an AreaLightSource call by instantiating a point light source, not an actual area light source. Both our ray tracing and radiosity support both of these types of light sources. Area light sources declared using the AreaLightSource directive are correctly handled in the obvious way. When they are evaluated, Monte Carlo integration over the surface geometry comprising the area light are used to estimate the integral that represents the true light arriving from the surface of the emitter. We allow additional flexibility in declaring area light sources for radiosity by adding an implementation-dependent "emissioncolor" attribute which can be applied to any piece of geometry in the scene using the Attribute directive. For example, AttributeBegin AreaLightSource "arealight" 1 "intensity" [0.75] Cylinder .5 1 2 360 # declare an area light cylinder AttributeEnd Illuminate 1 1 AttributeBegin Attribute "radiosity" "emissioncolor" [ .5 .5 .7 ] Sphere 1 -1 1 360 # this sphere is an bluish emitter AttributeEnd Polygon "P" [ ... ] # this polygon does not emit This RIB example shows the declaration of three pieces of geometry: an area light source, an emitter, and a non-emitter, respectively. The semantic difference between an area light 5 Where ps, es, and ms are floating point values representing the approximate sizes (in world space) of emitting patches and the maximum and minimum sizes of receiving elements, respectively, using a hierarchical radiosity scheme as in [4]. The radiosity engine needs to know the emissivity and reflectivity of each element in the scene. The element may be part of an object bound to a surface shader of arbitrary complexity, and there is no mechanism in the RenderMan Interface to query geometry for its average color, nor is there a predefined way to specify an object's reflectivity. We provide a mechanisms for this as follows. In the absence of any other information, the color given with the Color directive is assumed to be the average reflectivity of the object. This can be overridden by using the nonstandard "averagecolor" attribute: Attribute "radiosity" "averagecolor" [ .4 .4 .7 ] Generally, object reflectivity is implicitly defined as the surface color times the surface's Kd parameter, the renderer checks the shader bound to an object for a variable named "Kd", and uses the value to premultiply the average color. This allows more flexibility and makes changes to the shader parameters (but not the color) accurately change the reflective color that the radiosity calculations use. Emissivity of a patch (different from an area light source, as explained in section 3.5) is conveyed similarly: Attribute "radiosity" "emissivity" [ .4 .4 .7 ] In order to accommodate our renderer's ability to handle specular-to-diffuse reflections, similar attributes exist for specifying "specularcolor", "transmitcolor", and "refractionindex" on an object-by-object basis. Note that these refer to indirect specular reflective/refractive properties, not to the way the surface appears to the viewer (this is handled in the surface shader). Other miscellaneous parameters, such as the number of progressive refinement steps to perform or the error tolerances, can be specified either as nonstandard options using the Option directive, or may be specified as command-line options when invoking the renderer. guess which is which)3. PRMan is typically around 5 times faster than our software, largely due to the greater efficiency of REYES compared to ray tracing (as well as the skillful optimizations by PRMan's authors). However, it is not hard to create pathological examples that either render slightly faster with BMRT or render 10 or more times faster with PRMan. In the process of creating and distributing this software, we have learned a number of important lessons about rendering systems and users' expectations of them. We feel many of these are of general use to creators of rendering tools. First, some observations about global illumination in general: • The popular view of radiosity being prohibitively expensive does not ring true to us. A fairly straightforward radiosity calculation can greatly increase the visual richness of the illumination of a scene. One must watch out for the law of diminishing returns -- typically 90% of the quality is generated by the first 10% of radiosity computation. Careful pruning of the calculations can yield good results for the radiosity pass in a fraction of the time required for the actual scan conversion and shading of the image. Nevertheless, our experience with users shows that choosing good meshing rates, convergence criteria, and other radiosity parameters is not intuitive to users not previously familiar with radiosity. We have found no straightforward heuristics, nor any foolproof way to automate choice of the parameters. • And regarding RenderMan and other high-end standards: • Practically no noncommercial rendering packages (and very few commercial packages) support the variety of geometric primitives, spatial and temporal antialiasing, programmable shading, and other advanced features that are required by the RenderMan Interface. This explains why so few public renderers see production-style use, and implies that standards such as RenderMan "raise the bar" by requiring advanced features that would be of use to professionals. We cannot overemphasize the importance of programmable shading, particularly with support of antialiasing and area operators. We are aware of no other public domain or shareware rendering system that has as flexible a shading system as is required by RI. This makes the task of writing renderers more difficult by requiring understanding of languages and compilers, but it is well worth the price. Our experience has been that many of our users are the same studios who use PRMan. This implies that (1) investment in software and tools that support RIB and SL influence subsequent tool usage (i.e. they're more likely to use BMRT because it is compatible with their primary renderer); and (2) even studios successfully using PRMan for feature film work are interested in at least experimenting with, and possibly actually using, global illumination. • 5. Discussion Though not often admitted by researchers, it is true that for most rendering tasks, global illumination is unnecessary. Particularly for large production tasks, the speed of scanline methods is often more desirable than the accuracy of global illumination methods. Ray tracing is much slower than scanline methods and cannot cheaply utilize true displacements; its nature as a point sampling method makes it more expensive to compute area operations. However, many applications or effects do need these capabilities (Figures 4-6), which include radiosity and diffuse interreflection, volumetric and participating media effects, area light sources, and accurate automatic shadows using ray casting. Compliance with the RI standard has been established by extensive comparisons to PRMan (see figure 7). When rendering scenes which use RI features common to both renderers, the resulting output is nearly indistinguishable (in fact, the authors of both BMRT and PRMan are sometimes unable to correctly • 3 Of course, it is trivial to tell the difference when using features not common to both packages; for example, large displacements only work with PRMan and radiosity only works with BMRT. 6 • It is rarely possible to directly compare different rendering algorithms on identical input. Too frequently, we see papers comparing hand-crafted algorithm A to hackedtogether algorithm B. Results of such tests are rarely meaningful. It would serve the entire graphics community if algorithms could be compared to optimized, proven packages on the same input. High-end standards such as RI help to facilitate this. Comparisons between BMRT and PRMan, simple to perform because they take the same input, have revealed bugs in both packages. This further argues for common formats and standards in rendering. If it were easier to make such direct comparisons of packages, we expect that all of the packages would see great improvements. [2] [3] [4] Apodaca, Anthony A., ed. SIGGRAPH '92 course notes #21 (Writing RenderMan Shaders), 1992. Blinn, Jim. Simulation of Wrinkled Surfaces. Computer Graphics 12(3):286-292, 1978. Cohen, Michael F., Donald P. Greenberg, Dave S. Immel, and Philip J. Brock. An efficient radiosity approach for realistic image synthesis. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 6(3):75-84, March 1986. Cohen, Michael F., Shenchang Eric Chen, John R. Wallace, and Donald P. Greenberg. A progressive refinement approach to fast radiosity image generation. Computer Graphics, 22(3):75-84, 1988. Cook, Robert L., Loren Carpenter, and Edwin Catmull. The Reyes Image Rendering Architecture. Computer Graphics, 21(4):95-102, 1987. Cook, Robert L., Thomas Porter, and Loren Carpenter. Distributed ray tracing. Computer Graphics, 18(3):137145, 1984. Gritz, Larry. Computing Specular-to-Diffuse Illumination for Two-Pass Rendering. Master's Thesis, Dept. of EE&CS, The George Washington University, Washington DC 20052, May 1993. Hanrahan, Pat and Jim Lawson. A language for shading and lighting calculations. Computer Graphics, 24(4):289298, August 1990. • [5] We would certainly like to see continued popularity and development of the RenderMan Interface. Future revisions of the standard could do much to accommodate non-REYES implementations and the global illumination community. It would be very helpful to have standard ways to communicate meshing rates, emissivity, and reflectivity of geometry. A facility should be added to the Shading Language to ask for light visibility information in the absence of shadow maps, as well as to inquire at run time which of the optional capabilities of the standard are available. Surface and light shaders could be modified to allow for specification of physical units, and to give general BRDF's. It may also be desirable to have a means of enforcing physically realistic behaviors of light and surface shaders (for example, ensuring energy conservation). Both access to global illumination renderers and common formats for rendering systems are sorely lacking. The global illumination community would do well to establish such standards. This would serve both to widen use of such renderers and to provide a basis to compare renderers to each other for research purposes. We have shown that the RenderMan Interface Standard is quite capable for global illumination applications, and conversely that ray tracing and radiosity are viable implementation methods for the RenderMan Interface. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Pixar. The RenderMan Interface, version 3.1 specification, September 1989. [11] Reeves, William T., David H. Salesin, and Robert L. Cook. Rendering antialiased shadows with depth maps. Computer Graphics, 21(4):283-291, July 1987. [12] Shirley, Peter S. Physically Based Lighting Calculations for Computer Graphics. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1991. [13] Slusallek, Philipp, Thomas Pflaum, and Hans-Peter Seidel. Implementing RenderManPractice, Problems and Enhancements. Computer Graphics Forum 13(3):443-454 (Proceedings of Eurographics '94, Oslo, Norway, Sep. 1216, 1994), Blackwell Publishers, Oxford (1994). [14] Upstill, Steve. Wesley, 1989. The RenderMan Companion, Addison- Software Availability A home page for the software described in this paper is available from http://www.seas.gwu.edu/student/gritz/bmrt.html. Binaries are available for a variety of Unix platforms and may be found at ftp://ftp.seas.gwu.edu/pub/graphics/BMRT. Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank the many users of BMRT, especially the students at GWU who were among the first guinea pigs. The first author would like to single out Michael B. Johnson and Tony Apodaca for being particularly helpful in our effort to make BMRT available to the world. Rudy Poat and Steve May graciously allowed us to use their images. RenderMan and PhotoRealistic RenderMan are registered trademarks of Pixar. [15] Wallace, John R. and Michael F. Cohen. A two-pass solution to the rendering equation: A synthesis of ray Computer Graphics, tracing and radiosity methods. 21(4):311-320, 1987. [16] Wallace, John R., K. A. Elmquist, and Eric A. Haines. A ray tracing algorithm for progressive radiosity. Computer Graphics, 23(3):315-324, July 1989. References [1] Apodaca, Anthony A., ed. SIGGRAPH '90 course notes #18 (The RenderMan Interface and Shading Language), 1990. 7 Captions for the color plates: Figure 2: "Fake" displacement shading, use of the trace function, and automatic shadows. Figure 3: Ray tracing allows for partially transparent shadowing that would be difficult to achieve with shadow depth maps. Image courtesy of Steve May, Ohio State University ACCAD. Figure 4: "Kitchen Scene" combines radiosity and ray tracing. Figure 5: "Dresser" shows radiosity, procedural textures, specular-to-diffuse illumination. Figure 6: Volumetric and participating media effects using volume shaders and global illumination. Figure 7: Comparison of images from PRMan (left) and BMRT (right) using identical input. The PRMan image used shadow depth and reflection maps, while the BMRT image used automatic shadows and reflections. 8
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The MahabharataPaperback
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- Publisher: PENGUIN CLASSICS
- Format: Paperback | 208 pages
- Dimensions: 128mm x 196mm x 14mm | 181g
- Publication date: 1 January 2009
- Publication City/Country: London
- Illustrations note: line drawings
- Sales rank: 192,910
Product description
"The Mahabharata" is some 3,500 years old and is the longest poem in any language. It is one of the founding epics of Indian culture and, with its mixture of cosmic drama and profound philosophy (one small section forms the Bhaghavad Gita) it holds aunique place in world literature. In this drastically shortened prose rendering, Narayan uses all his extraordinary talents to convey to a modern reader why this is such a great story. Filled with vivid characters, obsessed with the rise and fall of gods, empires and heroes, Narayan's "Mahabharata" is an enormously enjoyable experience and the perfect introduction to the otherwise bewildering Indian cosmology.
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RK NARAYAN's major works are all available in Modern Classics, including THE VENDOR OF SWEETS, TALKATIVE MAN and THE MANEATER OF MALGUDI.
Editorial reviews
In this volume the Indian novelist R. K. Narayan, who has previously produced a prose rendition of the Ramayana, presents an unadorned summary of the tale of the great rivalry between the five Pandava brothers and their evil cousins, the sons of King Dhritarashtra. No unprecedented contribution - creative or scholarly - to the literature dealing with India's great epic will be found here. The book's lack of novelty is compensated for, however, by the simple and straightforward grace of Narayan's retelling, and by his good sense to stick with the frame-story and to ignore entirely the countless digressions of the original. The flow of the narrative is sometimes marred by the author's tendency to interject that "the Mahabharata may be said to be a tale of conflict" or whatever. Such interruptions suggest to the reader a college-outline plot-summary, and noticeably diminish the power of this story of deceit and vengeance. Nonetheless, Narayan's Mahabharata is a fine introduction to the mythology of the epic, particularly for those who have had no previous background in Indian classical literature. The interested reader will find here a painless dose of what may then inspire a true addiction. (Kirkus Reviews)


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- This was bought for our granddaughter's 1st birthday. She hasn't shown much interest in it but perhaps she is a little young for it.
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product code: 137308
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The ELC Activity Pushchair is a sturdy wooden pram with a polka dot fabric chair. Ideal for encouraging your little one to stand, it features a bar for them to pull themselves up, providing them with the confidence to take their first steps.
It has beads to spin, which will develop fine motor skills and will allow your little one to take their favourite dolls and teddies for a ride or push them to and fro to sleep. They can fill the pram with their bricks or cars (sold separately) and transport them around the room.
Quick Facts:
Made with sturdy wood
Bright and colourful
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Dials to spin, great for developing fine motor skills
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This toy helps your child to use their hands for precise movements.
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Mildew on Bamboo
I use rolls of bamboo fencing (not reed) as the shade element for alot of my Shade Structures, but within a year mildew appears.
What I've used to remove it is a deck wash that contains bleach. Just spray it on and rinse, and the mildew is gone.
I was wondering if anyone knew of any other products, or receipes for self-prepared mixtures that work ?
Also, don't suppose there is anything I could apply that would prevent mildew from forming on the bamboo ?
That might help a little, but I was hoping for something with perhaps a mildewcide in it.
Here's some pics of one of the structures. You can see the bamboo when it was new, and then, only a year later it's almost black ! No bueno.
When you get to the Album, click on a pic, then look right and click View > Original Size.
Here is a link that might be useful: 5 Sided Fuyjidana
Bleach, Water, and Lye.
Bleach and Lye is what is in things like the bath cleaner "Tilex"
"Chlorox" or similar mixed half and half with water.
Add 2 tablespoons of lye to the quart.
Spray it on, let it stand and rinse it off.
A scrub brush helps.
Don't even think about this without eye protection and plenty of fresh water for a rinse. Rubber gloves are a good idea.
All the midewcides I know of are pretty nast chemicals but a paint and sundry supply might have something.


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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Poll \Poll\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Polled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Polling}.]
1. To remove the poll or head of; hence, to remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop; to shear; as, to poll the head; to poll a tree.
When he [Absalom] pollled his head. --2 Sam. xiv. 26.
His death did so grieve them that they polled themselves; they clipped off their horse and mule's hairs. --Sir T. North.
2. To cut off; to remove by clipping, shearing, etc.; to mow or crop; -- sometimes with off; as, to poll the hair; to poll wool; to poll grass.
Who, as he polled off his dart's head, so sure he had decreed That all the counsels of their war he would poll off like it. --Chapman.
3. To extort from; to plunder; to strip. [Obs.]
Which polls and pills the poor in piteous wise. --Spenser.
4. To impose a tax upon. [Obs.]
5. To pay as one's personal tax.
The man that polled but twelve pence for his head. --Dryden.
6. To enter, as polls or persons, in a list or register; to enroll, esp. for purposes of taxation; to enumerate one by one.
Polling the reformed churches whether they equalize in number those of his three kingdoms. --Milton.
7. To register or deposit, as a vote; to elicit or call forth, as votes or voters; as, he polled a hundred votes more than his opponent.
And poll for points of faith his trusty vote. --Tickell.
8. (Law) To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation; as, a polled deed. See {Dee? poll}. --Burrill.
{To poll a jury}, to call upon each member of the jury to answer individually as to his concurrence in a verdict which has been rendered.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Polling \Poll"ing\, noun [See {Poll} the head.]
1. The act of topping, lopping, or cropping, as trees or hedges.
2. Plunder, or extortion. [Obs.] --E. Hall.
3. The act of voting, or of registering a vote.
{Polling booth}, a temporary structure where the voting at an election is done; a polling place.
The dictionary definitions are retrieved from a local copy of two of the open source DICT dictionaries. Click here for the database copyright information. DEFINE.COM is registered as an educational NONPROFIT corporation. We aim to please around here. We believe in using positive reinforcement to get things done. We make suggestions that are intended to make life more enjoyable. We think about efficiency, automation, security, PRIVACY, social and ecological responsibility and positive HUMANITARIAN ethics and VALUES. We are benevolent. DO NO HARM is our motto.


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Word of the Day
- The governor of a province or people.
The word 'ethnarch' comes from a Greek word meaning 'ruler of a tribe or nation'.