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Brian Cashman on Johnny Damon: "There's not a clear role for him here"
Dec 23, 2010, 1:17 PM EDT
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman confirmed reports that he's been in touch with Johnny Damon's agent, but called it "just part of our canvassing process" and downplayed the outfielder's chances of returning to New York. "It's something we do with every free agent," Cashman told Wallace Matthews of ESPNNewYork.com. "I can't tell you if anything's…
The City of Oakland decides to flush $750,000 down the toilet
Dec 23, 2010, 1:00 PM EDT
Earlier this month we passed along word that the City of Oakland was developing a ballpark plan for the A's. It was facing a dilemma, however because of Major League Baseball's continued dithering on the whole can-the-A's-play-in-San Jose issue. Should the city spend the money for an environmental impact assessment when it's unclear whether the…
The Tigers are starting an "energy squad"
Dec 23, 2010, 12:30 PM EDT
Corporate marketing and cheerleading! Two things that baseball doesn't need more of, together at last! The Tigers are looking for fun, energetic fans to be part of the DTE Energy Squad — a promotion, entertainment and fan-interaction team. The squad will help rile up the crowd at Comerica Park. Members of the DTE Energy Squad…
Bob Uecker prepping for 41st season after two heart surgeries
Dec 23, 2010, 12:18 PM EDT
Adam McCalvy of MLB.com caught up with legendary Brewers announcer Bob Uecker, who's spending the offseason in Arizona resting up after undergoing two heart surgeries this year and plans to return to the broadcast booth for his 41st season in 2011. At age 75 he "plans to work a full schedule" of games and Uecker…
Looks like the Phillies rotation is going to be "R2C2″ whether we like it or not
Dec 23, 2010, 12:00 PM EDT
I linked the Stan Hochman column in which he solicited ideas for nicknames for the Phillies' rotation the other day (recall that he wanted it to be "Un-Four-gettables"). Well, the mob has spoken and Stan delivers the news: The winner, by a squeaky margin, was R2C2, a spinoff of the smart-aleck "Star Wars" robot. Good…
Russell Martin will be in the best shape of his life
Dec 23, 2010, 11:30 AM EDT
Not even Christmas yet and we've had a bunch of these already: A two-time All-Star and former Gold Glove winner, Martin slipped offensively the last two seasons. He feels a new workout regimen will greatly benefit his hitting. "I'm probably going to be in the best shape of my life going into spring training," said…
Diamondbacks sell Rusty Ryal to Japanese team
Dec 23, 2010, 11:19 AM EDT
Rather than give him a shot to earn a bench job, the Diamondbacks have sold 27-year-old utility man Rusty Ryal to Yomiuri Giants in Japan. He was released last week in preparation for the move. Ryal debuted in 2006 by batting .271 with 11 extra-base hits and a .946 OPS in 68 plate appearances and…
The best Hall of Fame column I've read so far
Dec 23, 2010, 11:00 AM EDT
It's Ken Davidoff's. And while I really like his selections — Roberto Alomar, Jeff Bagwell, Bert Blyleven, Kevin Brown, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Mark McGwire, Tim Raines, Alan Trammell and Larry Walker — I like his reasoning and explanation better. Among many other bits of goodness, Davidoff points out how important the five-year waiting period…
The Nats sign Sean Burnett to a two-year extension
Dec 23, 2010, 10:30 AM EDT
The Nats signed lefty Sean Burnett two a two-year, $3.7 million contract with a $3.5 million mutual option for 2013. The contract covers his final two years of arbitration and the option is for his first year of free agency. He'll make $1.4 million next season and $2.3 million in 2012. Burnett is a really…
Assistant general manager leaves Cardinals for Padres
Dec 23, 2010, 10:15 AM EDT
Assistant general manager John Abbamondi has left the Cardinals to become a vice president with the Padres, making him the second prominent member of St. Louis' front office to depart this winter after manager of professional scouting Matt Carroll took a job with the Braves. Abbamondi had been with the Cardinals for three years, but…
Carl Crawford treats Rays employees to lunch
Dec 23, 2010, 10:01 AM EDT
Carl Crawford is so nice: The four-time All-Star who agreed to a $142 million, seven-year deal with the Red Sox this month picked up the tab Wednesday for lunch at Tropicana Field, where about 150 Rays employees feasted on a barbecue meal the Gold Glove left fielder arranged to have delivered to the home of the…
The Padres are considering Russell Branyan
Dec 23, 2010, 9:37 AM EDT
Buster Olney says that the Padres — the odd men out on Adam LaRoche and Derrek Lee, it seems — are considering signing Russell Branyan and using him in a platoon at first base. Olney mentions Kyle Blanks as a potential platoon partner but he's going to miss a good chunk of next season due…
The Reds are interested in Scott Podsednik
Dec 23, 2010, 9:14 AM EDT
Adrian Beltre and Rafael Soriano are still on the market with only vague interest, but two teams are after Scott Podsednik. Ken Rosenthal reports that the Reds have joined the Angels as a team interested in the limited leadoff man. Podsednik, turns 35 in March. He hit a respectable .297/.342/.382 with six homers and 51 RBI between…
Jack Morris + Mariano Rivera = Bert Blyleven
Dec 23, 2010, 8:46 AM EDT
This is fun: Bill at the Platoon Advantage engaged in a little alternate history exercise. He pretended that, rather than retire, Jack Morris came back in 1995 as a knuckleball-throwing closer and tacked the entire career of Mariano Rivera onto his career stat line. Aside from that being the most awesome thing that would have ever…
You know Yankees fans are kind of nuts when …
Dec 23, 2010, 8:20 AM EDT
… The Daily News actually feels it necessary to get comment from Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik that, no, he does not plan on trading their young, reasonably-priced reigning Cy Young Award winning ace to the Yankees: "I have no interest in trading Felix," Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik told the Daily News Wednesday. "He's a true ace, a…
The Yankees have spoken with Johnny Damon, but it's "unlikely" he'd return to the Bronx
Dec 23, 2010, 6:34 AM EDT
UPDATE: The Daily News is reporting that, despite the contact between Damon and the Yankees, Damon in New York is "unlikely" and that "there just isn't enough playing time" for him in the Bronx. Wednesday, 6:58 PM: Ken Davidoff of New York's Newsday heard from a source Wednesday that the Yankees have spoken with the…
Mariners just about ready to finalize Miguel Olivo deal
Dec 22, 2010, 9:37 PM EDT
The Mariners agreed to a two-year, $7 million contract with catcher Miguel Olivo back on December 9 — almost 14 days ago. For whatever reason, it has taken close to two weeks for the parties involved to take care of all the necessary paperwork that goes along with a free agent signing, including the transferring…
Brewers ink reliever Sean Green to one-year, $875K deal
Dec 22, 2010, 8:23 PM EDT
From MLB.com's Adam McCalvy comes word that the Brewers have agreed to terms on a one-year, $875,000 contract with right-handed reliever Sean Green. Green missed most of the 2010 season while battling a right intercostal muscle strain and allowed eight walks over just 9.1 innings of work when healthy. The Mets non-tendered him earlier this…
The Royals may want to rethink the way they talk about the Greinke trade
Dec 22, 2010, 5:35 PM EDT
Unlike a lot of folks, I'm actually pretty OK with the Zack Greinke trade from the Royals' perspective. No, you don't always "win" a trade when you give up the best player in the deal — indeed, you rarely do — but "Zack Greinke: Kansas City Royal" was just not a viable possibility going forward…
Chipper Jones rehabs knee, dry-heaves on neighbor's lawn
Dec 22, 2010, 5:33 PM EDT
Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com has a really good article today about Chipper Jones' comeback from the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that ended his season in mid-August and attaches plenty of question marks to how he'll fare returning from the injury (and previous talk of retirement) at age 39. Jones told Crasnick…
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HOUSTON — The Houston Texans have re-signed free agent quarterback Ryan Mallett and inside linebacker Jeff Tarpinian.
Mallett, who is the front-runner to start for Houston next season, signed a two-year extension worth $7 million, with $1.75 guaranteed.
He was acquired in a trade from New England in August and started twice in three appearances for Houston before tearing a pectoral muscle and missing the rest of the season.
Mallett wanted to return to Houston and is eager to compete for the starting job. He's still recovering from surgery on his torn pectoral muscle, but should be healthy soon and ready to vie with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tom Savage to start for the Texans.
Tarpinian has appeared in 22 games with three starts for Houston since he was signed in 2013.
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|By Business Wire
Article Rating:
|January 27, 2014 02:00 AM EST
The days of innovative, technology-focused start-ups being the only market disrupters and growing faster than their larger, more established competitors may be coming to an end, according to a new report by Accenture (NYSE:ACN), as large enterprises are starting to take advantage of their size, skills and scale to transform into truly digital businesses.
The Accenture Technology Vision 2014 identifies six technology trends that are enabling large enterprises to join those start-ups previously recognized as market disrupters in pushing the boundaries of innovation and taking advantage of digital technologies for competitive advantage. The report finds leading enterprises are pursuing digital strategies that leverage mobility, analytics, and cloud to improve business processes, take advantage of real-time intelligence, expand the boundaries of traditional workforces, and transform the way data is managed and used.
"We're seeing large enterprises – armed with the resources, scale and drive to reinvent themselves through digital transformation – reasserting leadership in their markets," said Paul Daugherty, chief technology officer, Accenture. "Leading companies are adopting digital to drive their processes more effectively and transform how they go to market, collaborate with partners, engage with customers, and manage transactions. Digital is rapidly becoming part of the fabric of their operating DNA and they are poised to become the digital power brokers of tomorrow."
The six IT trends identified as driving the digital power shift are:
Digital-Physical Blur – Extending intelligence to the edge: The real world is coming online as wearable devices, smart objects and machines provide us with real-time intelligence, changing how we live and how businesses operate. This new layer of connected intelligence augments workforce capabilities, automates processes, and incorporates machines into our lives. For consumers, this provides new levels of empowerment, and for organizations, getting real-time, relevant data means both machines and employees can act and react faster and more intelligently in virtually any situation. In healthcare, for example, Koninklijke Philips N.V. is running a pilot Google Glass™ application that allows physicians wearing the display to simultaneously monitor a patient's vital signs and react to surgical procedural developments, without needing to turn away from the patient or procedure.
From Workforce to Crowdsource – The rise of the borderless enterprise: Picture a workforce that extends beyond its employees, consisting of any willing individual connected to the Internet. Technology now allows organizations to tap into vast pools of resources around the world, just as companies like MasterCard Incorporated and Facebook Inc. do through organizations such as Kaggle Inc., a global network of computer scientists, mathematicians, and data scientists who compete to solve problems ranging from finding the best airline flights to optimizing retail-store locations. Channeling such efforts to achieve business goals is a challenge, but the opportunity is enormous: tapping an immense, agile workforce that is not only well-suited to solving some of today's toughest business problems, but also, in many cases, is motivated enough to do it for free.
Data supply chain – Changing the way data is handled to put information into broader circulation: Data technologies are evolving rapidly, but most have been adopted in a piecemeal fashion. As a result, enterprise data is vastly underutilized. Currently, just one in five organizations integrates data across the enterprise. To truly unlock data's potential value, companies must start treating it more as a supply chain, enabling its easy and useful flow through their entire organizations, and eventually throughout their ecosystems, too. Companies such as Google Inc. and Walgreens Co. have adopted this approach by opening up APIs; more than 800,000 websites now use Google MapsTM data, and third-party developers are able to include the ability to scan barcodes from Walgreens' prescription bottles into their apps to make it easier for people to refill prescriptions.
Harnessing Hyperscale – Hardware is back (and never really went away): The hardware world is now a hotbed of innovation as demand soars for bigger and faster data centers. Advances in areas such as power consumption, processers, solid state memory, and infrastructure architectures are giving enterprises new opportunities to massively scale, increase efficiency, drive down costs, and enable their systems to perform at higher levels than ever before. As companies digitize their businesses, more and more will see hardware as essential to enabling their next wave of growth.
Business of Applications – Software as a core competency in the digital world: Mimicking the shift in the consumer world, enterprises are rapidly adopting apps in a push for greater operational agility. According to Accenture research, 54% of the highest-performing IT teams have already deployed enterprise app stores, facilitating this shift towards simple, modular apps for employees. IT leaders and business leaders must establish who plays what role in app development in their new digital organizations, as pressure for change is driven by the business. They must also transform the app development process itself, in order to take advantage of new technologies quickly, support regular software iterations, and, ultimately accelerate business growth.
Architecting Resilience – "Built to survive failure" is the mantra of the non-stop business: In the digital era, businesses are expected to support the non-stop demands placed on their processes, services and systems. This has ripple effects throughout an organization, especially in the CIO's office where the need for "always on" infrastructure can mean the difference between "business as usual" and the erosion of brand value. Companies such as Netflix, Inc., which uses automated testing tools to deliberately attack its systems as a means to increase resiliency, are among today's IT leaders. These companies ensure that their systems are designed and built for failure, taking advantage of modular technologies and advanced testing processes rather than designing to specifications.
"These key trends build on those we have seen over the past couple of years," continued Daugherty. "Last year, we declared that every business is a digital business, whether its leaders acknowledged that or not. Now, we see that digital technologies run through every facet of the highest-performing businesses. Looking at the shifts in technology and the impact they're having on the strategies and operational priorities of organizations around the world, we believe there are tremendous opportunities for every C-suite executive to be a digital disruptor – to reinvent and redefine their business to create lasting competitive advantage."
For nearly 15 years, Accenture has taken a systematic look across the enterprise landscape to identify emerging IT trends that hold the greatest potential to disrupt businesses and industries. For more information on this year's report please visit www.accenture.com/technologyvision or follow the conversation on Twitter with #TechVision2014.
About the Methodology
Accenture's Technology Vision is developed annually by the Accenture Technology Labs. For the 2014 report, Accenture researchers and scientists developed hypotheses about information technology developments that they expect to have a significant impact on businesses over the next three to five years. Accenture also employed social collaboration techniques and crowdsourcing to solicit input and suggestions from thousands of its own employees. Other sources used for the report include trends identified by industry analysts, themes at conferences, academic literature, and Accenture's original research into the characteristics of high-performing IT organizations.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 281,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world's most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
Copyright © 2014 Accenture
All rights reserved.
Accenture, its logo, and High performance.Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.
This document makes descriptive reference to trademarks that may be owned by others. The use of such trademarks herein is not an assertion of ownership of such trademarks by Accenture and is not intended to represent or imply the existence of an association between Accenture and the lawful owners of such trademarks.
GENBAND has announced that SageNet is leveraging the Nuvia platform to deliver Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) to its large base of retail and enterprise customers. Nuvia's cloud-based solution provides SageNet's customers with a full suite of business communications and collaboration tools. Two large national SageNet retail customers have recently signed up to deploy the Nuvia platform and the company will continue to sell the service to new and existing customers. Nuvia's capabilities include HD voice, video, multimedia messaging, mobility, conferencing, Web collaboration, deskt...
Mar. 29, 2015 01:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,446
The WebRTC Summit 2014 New York, to be held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York, NY, announces that its Call for Papers is open. Topics include all aspects of improving IT delivery by eliminating waste through automated business models leveraging cloud technologies. WebRTC Summit is co-located with 16th International Cloud Expo, @ThingsExpo, Big Data Expo, and DevOps Summit.
Mar. 28, 2015 11:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,537
SYS-CON Media announced today that @WebRTCSummit Blog, the largest WebRTC resource in the world, has been launched. @WebRTCSummit Blog offers top articles, news stories, and blog posts from the world's well-known experts and guarantees better exposure for its authors than any other publication. @WebRTCSummit Blog can be bookmarked ▸ Here @WebRTCSummit conference site can be bookmarked ▸ Here
Mar. 28, 2015 08:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,777
SYS-CON Events announced today that Cisco, the worldwide leader in IT that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, has been named "Gold Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Cisco makes amazing things happen by connecting the unconnected. Cisco has shaped the future of the Internet by becoming the worldwide leader in transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco and our partners are building the platform for the Internet of Everything by connecting the...
Mar. 28, 2015 07:00 PM EDT Reads: 5,181
Temasys has announced senior management additions to its team. Joining are David Holloway as Vice President of Commercial and Nadine Yap as Vice President of Product. Over the past 12 months Temasys has doubled in size as it adds new customers and expands the development of its Skylink platform. Skylink leads the charge to move WebRTC, traditionally seen as a desktop, browser based technology, to become a ubiquitous web communications technology on web and mobile, as well as Internet of Things compatible devices.
Mar. 28, 2015 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,820
SYS-CON Events announced today that robomq.io will exhibit at SYS-CON's @ThingsExpo, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. robomq.io is an interoperable and composable platform that connects any device to any application. It helps systems integrators and the solution providers build new and innovative products and service for industries requiring monitoring or intelligence from devices and sensors.
Mar. 28, 2015 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,453
Wearable technology was dominant at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) , and MWC was no exception to this trend. New versions of favorites, such as the Samsung Gear (three new products were released: the Gear 2, the Gear 2 Neo and the Gear Fit), shared the limelight with new wearables like Pebble Time Steel (the new premium version of the company's previously released smartwatch) and the LG Watch Urbane. The most dramatic difference at MWC was an emphasis on presenting wearables as fashion accessories and moving away from the original clunky technology associated with t...
Mar. 28, 2015 06:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,349
Docker is an excellent platform for organizations interested in running microservices. It offers portability and consistency between development and production environments, quick provisioning times, and a simple way to isolate services. In his session at DevOps Summit at 16th Cloud Expo, Shannon Williams, co-founder of Rancher Labs, will walk through these and other benefits of using Docker to run microservices, and provide an overview of RancherOS, a minimalist distribution of Linux designed expressly to run Docker. He will also discuss Rancher, an orchestration and service discovery platf...
Mar. 28, 2015 04:15 PM EDT Reads: 2,417
SYS-CON Events announced today that Akana, formerly SOA Software, has been named "Bronze Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo® New York, which will take place June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Akana's comprehensive suite of API Management, API Security, Integrated SOA Governance, and Cloud Integration solutions helps businesses accelerate digital transformation by securely extending their reach across multiple channels – mobile, cloud and Internet of Things. Akana enables enterprises to share data as APIs, connect and integrate applications, drive part...
Mar. 28, 2015 04:15 PM EDT Reads: 1,521
SYS-CON Events announced today that Vitria Technology, Inc. will exhibit at SYS-CON's @ThingsExpo, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Vitria will showcase the company's new IoT Analytics Platform through live demonstrations at booth #330. Vitria's IoT Analytics Platform, fully integrated and powered by an operational intelligence engine, enables customers to rapidly build and operationalize advanced analytics to deliver timely business outcomes for use cases across the industrial, enterprise, and consumer segments.
Mar. 28, 2015 03:30 PM EDT Reads: 2,153
SYS-CON Events announced today that Solgenia will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Solgenia is the global market leader in Cloud Collaboration and Cloud Infrastructure software solutions. Designed to "Bridge the Gap" between Personal and Professional Social, Mobile and Cloud user experiences, our solutions help large and medium-sized organizations dr...
Mar. 28, 2015 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 2,785
SYS-CON Events announced today that Liaison Technologies, a leading provider of data management and integration cloud services and solutions, has been named "Silver Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York, NY. Liaison Technologies is a recognized market leader in providing cloud-enabled data integration and data management solutions to break down complex information barriers, enabling enterprises to make smarter decisions, faster.
Mar. 28, 2015 03:00 PM EDT Reads: 3,426
Cloud is not a commodity. And no matter what you call it, computing doesn't come out of the sky. It comes from physical hardware inside brick and mortar facilities connected by hundreds of miles of networking cable. And no two clouds are built the same way. SoftLayer gives you the highest performing cloud infrastructure available. One platform that takes data centers around the world that are full of the widest range of cloud computing options, and then integrates and automates everything. Join SoftLayer on June 9 at 16th Cloud Expo to learn about IBM Cloud's SoftLayer platform, explore se...
Mar. 28, 2015 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,622
@ThingsExpo has been named the Top 5 Most Influential M2M Brand by Onalytica in the 'Machine to Machine: Top 100 Influencers and Brands.' Onalytica analyzed the online debate on M2M by looking at over 85,000 tweets to provide the most influential individuals and brands that drive the discussion. According to Onalytica the "analysis showed a very engaged community with a lot of interactive tweets. The M2M discussion seems to be more fragmented and driven by some of the major brands present in the M2M space. This really allows some room for influential individuals to create more high value inter...
Mar. 28, 2015 12:45 PM EDT Reads: 4,644
The world's leading Cloud event, Cloud Expo has launched Microservices Journal on the SYS-CON.com portal, featuring over 19,000 original articles, news stories, features, and blog entries. DevOps Journal is focused on this critical enterprise IT topic in the world of cloud computing. Microservices Journal offers top articles, news stories, and blog posts from the world's well-known experts and guarantees better exposure for its authors than any other publication. Follow new article posts on Twitter at @MicroservicesE
Mar. 28, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 1,419
SYS-CON Events announced today the IoT Bootcamp – Jumpstart Your IoT Strategy, being held June 9–10, 2015, in conjunction with 16th Cloud Expo and Internet of @ThingsExpo at the Javits Center in New York City. This is your chance to jumpstart your IoT strategy. Combined with real-world scenarios and use cases, the IoT Bootcamp is not just based on presentations but includes hands-on demos and walkthroughs. We will introduce you to a variety of Do-It-Yourself IoT platforms including Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, Spark and Intel Edison. You will also get an overview of cloud technologies s...
Mar. 28, 2015 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 2,045
SYS-CON Events announced today that SafeLogic has been named "Bag Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo® New York, which will take place June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. SafeLogic provides security products for applications in mobile and server/appliance environments. SafeLogic's flagship product CryptoComply is a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic engine designed to secure data on servers, workstations, appliances, mobile devices, and in the Cloud.
Mar. 28, 2015 11:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,383
Containers and microservices have become topics of intense interest throughout the cloud developer and enterprise IT communities. Accordingly, attendees at the upcoming 16th Cloud Expo at the Javits Center in New York June 9-11 will find fresh new content in a new track called PaaS | Containers & Microservices Containers are not being considered for the first time by the cloud community, but a current era of re-consideration has pushed them to the top of the cloud agenda. With the launch of Docker's initial release in March of 2013, interest was revved up several notches. Then late last...
Mar. 28, 2015 09:15 AM EDT Reads: 2,202
SOA Software has changed its name to Akana. With roots in Web Services and SOA Governance, Akana has established itself as a leader in API Management and is expanding into cloud integration as an alternative to the traditional heavyweight enterprise service bus (ESB). The company recently announced that it achieved more than 90% year-over-year growth. As Akana, the company now addresses the evolution and diversification of SOA, unifying security, management, and DevOps across SOA, APIs, microservices, and more.
Mar. 28, 2015 08:30 AM EDT Reads: 2,030
After making a doctor's appointment via your mobile device, you receive a calendar invite. The day of your appointment, you get a reminder with the doctor's location and contact information. As you enter the doctor's exam room, the medical team is equipped with the latest tablet containing your medical history – he or she makes real time updates to your medical file. At the end of your visit, you receive an electronic prescription to your preferred pharmacy and can schedule your next appointment.
Mar. 28, 2015 08:00 AM EDT Reads: 647


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Philly suggestions
> What are the things that first time visitors should not miss here?
Before I, or anyone else, can give any meaningful advice to this question, we MUST know exactly what you hope to experience during your visit. People can (and I'm sure will) give meaningless advice on what THEY would enjoy, but that's no guarantee it would be something YOU would enjoy. Something we would find fascinating might well be something you would find boring.
for general info on attractions (particularly family ones in December) and lodging bargains. If, after studying this and finding things YOU would enjoy, you can ask us specific questions.
> good restaurants/eating places and local fares not to be missed
What's your food preferences? What's your budget? Will you bring your kids? All of these make a HUGE difference.
> Will getting around by public transport be convenient?
You're crazy if you get around in any way except public transport. Parking is either non-existent or expensive, streets are narrow, and drivers are insanely belligerent.
> any hop on/hop off service for visitors?
The Phlash Bus will no longer be running in December.
notes that, in December,27 per adult and10 per child will get you 24 hours to ride the Big Bus AND the Trolley Works tours. These stop running after 4 pm in winter.
notes that25 will allow five people (at least on adult, but no more than two) to ride all SEPTA buses, subways, trolleys, and regional rails for one day -- and these continue till early in the morning.
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Krogman, Wilton Marion, 1903-1987
Krogman, Wilton Marion, 1903-....
Krogman, Wilton M.
Krogman, Wilton Marion, nar. 1903
VIAF ID: 109309898 (Personal)
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ISNI-test: 0000 0000 8462 8786
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- 100 1 _ ‡a Krogman, Wilton Marion, ‡d 1903-1987
- 100 1 _ ‡a Krogman, Wilton M.
- 100 1 _ ‡a Krogman, Wilton Marion ‡d 1903-1987
- 100 1 _ ‡a Krogman, Wilton Marion, ‡d 1903-....
4xx's: Alternate Name Forms (1)
- 400 1 _ ‡a Krogman, Wilton M.
|The Alishar Hüyük : seasons of 1928 and 1929
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|A study of growth changes in the skull and face of anthropoids with reference to man.
|A syllabus in roentgenographic cephalometry


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Tuesday, December 16 2008
The Best Jazz of 2008
More than ever, the best jazz is coming from small labels, and more than ever the best draws a decent slice from the dynamics of rock and pop music without itself being a commercial venture.
Thursday, November 6 2014
Nicholas Payton: Numbers
A kind of concept album that places a void at the center of black American music, a void for you to fill.
Monday, April 21 2008
Nicholas Payton: Into the Blue
The protean trumpeter records a bold quintet date in his native New Orleans, reinventing himself as a mature, romantic modernist.


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@A01: True. I was specifically referring to the ability to transport data between games, which is covered by memory cards, USB drives, etc. NFC Figures are essentially a limited form of such things, but the functionality in Skylanders is admittedly neat. It's technology used in a novel, but imaginative way. Taking what looks like a toy, placing it on a stand, and watching the character depicted by that toy appear, moving, talking, etc. on screen is a magical experience for a child. Is this aspect of the argument purely emotional, yes. Skylanders function, that emotional element, cannot be replicated with a USB Drive or Memory card. Are there issues with the sheer number of Skylanders, steady annual releases, and other methods to make children bleed money into the franchise? Yes, but those games are using the "Toys to Life" concept in a fun way. Let's not attack something for what it's doing right, but certainly some of the issues arising from it. Let's instead focus on the real issue, amiibo, the "Toys to Life" series that's screwing up in every way possible.
User Profile
The Bit Trippin' Retro/JRPG Guy
Male, 16, United States
Nintendolife's nutty and jocular, yet fairly cynical theologian. An joker with an obsession with JRPGs, although a fan of many other genres of games. He's the all-in-one worker at Backway Games, but will anything ever come out its doors.
- Joined:
- Fri 13th January, 2012
Recent Comments
@A01: Actually, they do serve a purpose in Skylanders. All of the levels/stat progression and whatnot are saved to the figures, if I understand correctly. I also doubt that Skylanders would have such a large character roster if not for the figures, the budget is no doubt based on people purchasing them. All of these "Tap-to-unlock" amiibo figures are doing nothing more than restricting content. Would such content have been produced without amiibo? There is no definitive answer. As it stands though, excluding their use in Smash, amiibo are barely serving any functional purpose
@Quorthlon: You post had basically no relevance to the point of my post. My statement, "Splatoon is still built on the fundamentals of other team/squad-based objective based shooters. The ink itself in unique, but otherwise, it's building up on set foundations.", was meant to counter the statement in the article, "Splatoon is to shooting games what Mario Kart is to racing games; it's something that fits in the genre while also managing to be drastically different, and that's exactly what shooters need right now". Plenty of Nintendo games are based on old formulas, formulas which they introduced or polished immensely and that come from an early period in gaming. Splatoon is new, but based on foundations which Nintendo and the game Splatoon itself are not establishing. Splatoon is not the Mario Kart of shooters. Mario Kart took a genre with established ideas and put great emphasis on items. The game is balanced in a way to benefit the people loosing and hinder/slow down the people winning, keeping the group in a relatively tight group, so that weapons/items can remain an important aspect. Mario Kart is considered a separate genre from both Arcade Racers and Simulation Racers, it's called a Kart Racer. Splatoon is still fundamentally a squad-based/objective based shooter. The design of Splatoon makes it an interpretation of the genre, and one which chooses to indicate territorial control in a different manner, conferring certain advantages in the controlled territory. Is it a great design choice and a fantastic addition to the genre? Yes. Is it a revolution for all shooters? No. Heck, this game shouldn't even be compared to deathmatch-based shooters, as people seem to want to do.
Eh. Splatoon is still built on the fundamentals of other team/squad-based objective based shooters. The ink itself in unique, but otherwise, it's building up on set foundations.
...please no Majora's Mask 2... Majora's Mask benefits greatly from its sense of mystery. Leave questions up to speculation. I wouldn't mind seeing the mechanics of Majora's Mask experimented with, but significant differences would be necessary. Just copying the most unique Zelda game would cheapen the original...
I'll try to grab this a soon as I can, I had a lot of fun with the demo and this scratched my turn-based-strategy itch much better than Awakening. Hopefully there's a good future for this game.
Well, the concept is great. I don't think I'll consider grabbing this until reviews though. I want to know how well they execute it.
What have we learned:
Princess Peach really is the "ruler" of the Mushroom Kingdom.
All of Bowser's minions are not worth being called people.
Mario is loyal, but will sacrifice his companion, Yoshi, for an extra jump...
I had to say The Last Story. It isn't a long game, the controls could ranslate fairly well, and it just seems like it would still work on a portable. F-Zero GX, as good as it is, would be terrible on the 3DS. A big screen and high framerate are both important for competent play. Twilight Princess has absolutely no need for a remake/port. Pikmin sounds like a disaster on 3DS, considering the size of the Pikmin relative to the screen alongside the 3DS's low resolution. I haven't played Eternal Darkness, and no basically nothing about it, so I can't make a call there.
Great run. I'm actually surprised to hear the record was beaten by 17 seconds. That's a lot of time in a speed run.
@EvisceratorX: It's actually pretty simple. The money that you withdraw from the bank is not the money that you put in. It isn't resisting time at all. The invisible stamp on Link's hand simply says how much money he put in. The stamp is not altered when traveling through time, since it is on Link's body, so when he goes to the bank, he sees that Link put in however many Rupees according to the stamp, and gives Link the requested amount. I hope this makes since to you.
That is just amazing looking. I'd buy them if NoA had the sense to give consumers options...
What would be neat is a model like this where the timer had a set maximum and minimum. You could pay money to permanently decrease the waiting period by a certain amount. Once you had payed the full price of the game, no more waiting times.
Differences I've Found:
-Trees are present at the top of the cliffs surrounding Colony 9. These trees/bushes are missing in the 3ds version.
-Shoreline in the 3ds version has a dark line going through it, the Wii version does not.
-The water appears far more detailed in the Wii version. (1:15)
-Less detailed textures in the 3ds version. (0:54 shows a clear contrast, but ground textures in general are much less detailed)
-Better smoke and fire effects in the Wii version.
-Some kind of blur in explosions, much less present in the 3ds version (0:57).
-More dust on Metal Face lift off in the Wii version.
The differences are very clearly there and the visuals of the Wii version are stronger, but it's good to see this game release again.
@RadicalYoseph: From my understanding, our universe is destroyed/rewritten and becomes the universe of Xenoblade, which is then changed an becomes a new world.
It's actually hard to determine, or even unlikely that Xenoblade and X are connected. There is an "Earth" in both games. In Xenoblade, I don't recall Earth being directly named, but the game heavily implies that the planet near the end is our Earth. The planet destroyed in X is also our Earth. The presence of the United States and Los Angeles is enough proof. How could the Earth have been destroyed twice?
The acronym BLADE: Beyond the Logos Artificial Destiny Emancipator does seem interesting me though. If only there was a way to know what that was meant to actually stand for...
I wasn't very interested in this game... I can only say that I am now.
As much as I don't like the female character designs, I'm willing to give this game a try. Awakening was a massive disappointment and if the upcoming game equally disappoints, then this may just be where I go.
I still don't understand why Nintendo is manufacturing more of these. It helps customers, it lines their own pockets, it punishes scalpers. What's there to not like?
So, Nintendo is repeating on Youtube what they did with consoles years ago? Remember how well that went? Everyone jumped ship and ran over to the Playstation.
Eh. Couldn't they have allowed the player to toggle fast or slow with a button or something? Locking it to using magic just seems to be a waste.
Cave Story is an incredibly special game to me. I'd love to see a follow up, but it would need to be natural. Pixel doesn't need to create a sequel just because fans are requesting it. The thing that made Cave Story so great was the fact that Pixel belabored over every detail. He doesn't need to do anything but make the game he wants to make, down to the smallest detail. It needs to be a natural progression of ideas, refined and tempered under intense judgement. That's what turned the Cave Story Beta in the Cave Story we played, and it needs to happen again.
Nintendo seems to be having an issue with supply and demand right now. I've been struggling to find some 3DS games anywhere. Make sure you have some copies of the games on your current handheld in Walmart, otherwise you're losing a sale and the customer has to go pay more to get what they want from some scalper.
Well, there's a reason I call the writing in a High School bathroom stall the "Tabloids".
I've taken a break from the first game, since I haven't had much time to play it. I'll probably get this game also.
@invictus4000: I felt the same about the dungeons. I honestly dread them.
I wouldn't mind the TotA one.
Yet this infographic lacks any reference to Xenoblade (or Dunban)?
I wish I could have written my take on Paper Boy, but I'll likely end up reading these at some point.
The big question is why this game makes the track look far more fun...
Anyone notice the coat spasm at 8:14?
Reggie says something with a few brain cells as possible, then Sony replies with a response composed by an equal number of brain cells... Beautiful.
As long as there's a long GTA V concert and no awards are given, count me in!
I see exactly what this guy is saying. I can't stand Mario's jump physics, primarily for the horizontal inertia. Did the game introduce some important control mechanics? Yes it did. Is the inertia out of whack? Completely. SMB was a big step in the right direction for platformers, but that doesn't mean that it holds up by today's standards. Just as Donkey Kong Country is no longer the pinnacle of game graphics, Super Mario Bros isn't the pinnacle of controls. We've learned and progressed, so there's no need to get uptight or attack someone when they point out that a game released over 25 years ago has aged.
I'm taking this study with a grain of salt for now. There isn't enough information from this article to reach any conclusions for or against it.
Seriously, everyone, buy The Swapper immediately.
SMB3 is definitely more influential (and better). Super Mario World is just a continuation of the path SMB3 laid, using newer technology to build on. I'd also say the NSMB seems to follow SMB3 more than World.
Eh, it looks nice, but I'd only want it in a game if it were a natural progression ideas. If they built a game world just around fitting that bike in, I'd be sick. Also, how the heck does the front wheel turn?
@AJ_Lethal: Either you're observing two separate vocal groups or taking that phrase out of its intended context. The Zelda fanbase is incredibly diverse and will want different things from the franchise. One group of people may be wanting change to the formula and a completely separate group may want for the games to remain the same. People are more likely to make a comment about why they like something that why they do. What you see is one group being vocal about an issue they see and then another group being vocal about something they find to be an issue. You're also taking the definition of "formula" out of it's typical context. Typically in formula discussions, people are discussing that the gameplay is too similar. People can want the gameplay of Zelda to undergo a noticeable change, but to keep the roots of the series more intact.
My GC controller is starting to have problems, so I'll have to get this.
The third one wins, hands down...
I'm not all to large of a fan of throwing other Nintendo characters in (betting I'll warm up) and the price seems fair, so I can be happy with this.
Reggie really needs to actually do the ice bucket. Wasn't he supposed to do it within 24 hours of his nomination? This could be a disgrace for the company otherwise.
My teacher did this today, so I'm also looking forward to Reggie doing it (was it within 24 hours?).
Well, I'll be playing Helicopter on my dumb phone.
Heck, even if Link had been wearing another mask, it would have sparked the "OMGOGMHELLVALLEYSKYTREEMAJORASMASKREMAKECONFIRMED1!11!!" reaction. Lighthearted speculation can be fun, but at this point if you can find the letters to spell out "Majora" on one of Nintendo's webpages, then an "OMGMAJORASMASKR3MAKARCONFIRMED!!!1!1!" reaction is bound to happen.
Does this mean "Ask <insert name of NLife employee here>" is coming back!?
After reading @AdmiralThrawn's post, I just realized that the most hyped moment of E3 and most disappointing E3 had only one difference. One involved a game with a fighting robot, the other involved a game with a "SUPER FIGHTING ROBOT!!!"
As for the QoL platform, it doesn't sound appealing at the current moment, but I'm interested to learn what it is. My opinion may change upon the thing's release.
I'm happy to say I contributed to this milestone, unfortunately I haven't gotten to play BD yet.
While I don't necessarily agree with Miyamoto on a number of matters in creating games, he can create a great game with his philosophies. I can see why people might have a problem with his projects, but they're going to continue to evolve. Anyone here think that Super Mario 128 would have made a good game? Probably not, but the concepts it presented evolved into two awesome games, Pikmin and Super Mario Galaxy.
These kinds of policies anger me. Just because one company has a problem with a game, it shouldn't affect everyone. I'd say Watermellon should just skip Xbox, but indie devs need to be on as many platforms as possible.


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Comedy central, the big ball that didn't (yet)
I have one of those big "exercise balls" that everyone at home's had fun with
but me, so far. I don't exercise.
I read Laura's thread about the Quikwall sphere and thought, yay,
time to make that big ball I've always wanted! Something quick and easy,
just what I need!
I called my local box stores for the scrim and drew a negative, oh, well, I'll find
something else, it's gotta be today (yesterday).
I found some loose weave fiberglass cloth left over from a bunch of big signs
we made years ago. Cool, that might work, draped obligingly over
the big ball in the mist/drizzle, resting on a garbage can.
I mixed up a batch of the quikwall stuff and had a fabulous time
spreading it on, thinking all the while what a great idea this quikwall stuff is.
It didn't seem to be curing after several hours, still very soft.
Oh well, go plant some stuff that's been waiting. Then It seemed like
it was getting firmer. I decided to turn the ball and do the other side.
SLOOSH! Like a wet nightie off an upside down girl on a trapeze!
I stood there laughing for a good ten minutes, thinking about America's
funniest home videos.
Then: Dammit, i want a ball! So I got some chicken wire and carefully
formed it around the ball, no more than 1/8" off the surface
and very well attached.
Having had enough of quikwall for the day, I mixed up a batch of
vinyl patching cement I had left over from an earlier (successful) project
and commenced to spread it on (still having a great time!)
First hemisphere done, pretty close to the mesh, I went home after wetting it down.
This morning it looked...odd. I touched it here and there and a few hexagonal
"cookies" fell to the ground. On closer inspection, it was clear that
the concrete was not really touching the ball, there was a layer of air
between it and the surface. It was pretty much cracking along the wire,
in many places. Oh, it must be on too thin, let's turn it and
do the other side thicker. Said and done, cover with plastic, go feed the Koi,
give it a few hours.
A few hours later, still some "cookies" and air under the concrete,
this thing is BREATHING dammit! It was like a p.o.p mask under the throat
where the victim had been swallowing and the p.o.p never set properly.
Meanwhile, layer one, where it was holding together, is getting quite hard.
FINE! You sit there til you're set! I'll re-coat this thing til it's
a ball, one way or another. Maybe I should move it into the garage..
It's definitely moving all the time, must be expanding/contracting with the
I'll use the quikwall yet, on something less volatile, no slur on you, Laura,
you obviously succeded wonderfully with your ball, it's beautiful!
I'm curious now, about these blow-up balls, what ABOUT the expansion as the
temperature changes. It must move. This is a big ball, granted, but even
smaller ones must have some movement while the 'crete's setting.
What's up?
Um,have you given thought to actually using the scrim or detail mesh?And,if no Quikwall,how's about the recipes that Laura and I are using?
The mesh will be found at a masonry store.If they give you the idiot look(them not you!)tell them that the stuff is used for exterior stuccoing.Maybe the lightbulb will go on then.
BTW,I'll be trying the execise ball thing,too.As soon as my wife goes out of town.It IS hers,after all!
Cheers from here
You certainly have a good attitude! Your hilarious comparison to a wet nightie sliding off an upside down girl on a trapeze reminded me of the disbelief I felt when one of my balls lost air and the whole thing jumped off its stand and rolled on the floor. It IS kind of funny the first time. However, after your other attempts I think you are deserving a trophy for good sportsmanship.
I must have been the luckiest person around when I slapped some quickwall on that ball and everything went right. I think it is the mesh that you need to change. I am out of my free scraps and have to find a source. The mesh you need is used in the stucco business. A search for EIFS or stucco mesh should help online.
About the expansion of the ball - My attempt with a one dollar cheap-plastic-feel blow up beach ball was a complete failure. The walmart ball that was 16 inches in diameter with a much thicker-feeling wall made me 3 perfect spheres with no trouble and then failed during sphere number 4. For 2.50 $ I didn't expect it to last forever but it sure is a mess when they fail. So - for 3 sessions there was either no expansion due to temperature changes or the resulting sphere was not effected by whatever tiny expansion there might have been. Our temps here lately have been a very humid 98 during the day and down to 70 at night. I have used Quickwall and a regular portland mix with the mesh and the ball and never had any trouble unless the ball actually sprung a leak during the night and shrunk to nothing.
good luck! get better mesh and try again
ps. how in the world did you get chickenwire to take a ball shape over a ball? I can't get the nasty stuff to do anything I want.
Rick, the masonry store wasn't open, it was Saturday.
It saved me one of those 3-hour shopping trips anyway
("while I'm out, I might as well get the groceries, the hose wand, etc.")
It wasn't the scrim, or lack of it anyway, or the chicken wire/patching cement
would have worked (it still may). I swear it felt like trying to set p.o.p
on a moving object, that odd, soft feel, not the reassuring stillness
of setting concrete.
The size of the ball (28-30") and the weight of the cement, some flexing too,
it's pretty bouncy, must be part of the movement issue.
You can stretch chicken wire towards the "poles", run a wire through it
to hold one side, then pull up the other side, and squeeze the hexagons to
oblong. Fine tune by grabbing the little twisted sections and torque them sideways
and by cutting off any excess.
The trickiest part was not puncturing the ball with the cut-off ends.
I'm off to check on the latest development.
Next time I'll pump up the ball more, too, it's lost some air in 10 years.
Exactly, that's why I don't exercise.
I usually get results though, but his one's eluding me.
I just went up to check on the ball, the chicken wire is now 1/2" from the surface.
It was at 1/8-0" at noon, all around. This ball is breathing!
I may still try the scrim on it, climate controlled.
That ball is out of control! If it can breathe on its own it may be planning to escape once it builds up strength.
Since you have the chickenwire on (and thank you for the great description of how you made that work!!) you now have a firm base to work on. I wonder if that plaster-of-paris impregnated bandage or whatever it is would be worth the money to use as a first coat over the wire. It is packaged and sold as a craft material. (perhaps called rapid set??) It would provide a hard coating over the wire that wouldn't let the concrete smoosh through and would give a scrim layer something to work against. I would be worried that if you tried to scrim right over the wire you would still have to use a remarkable amount of concrete to "round up" the ball and fill in the area between the wire and the ball wall. At the size you are using, that would add up to a lot of weight in a hurry.
Keep us posted!
Laura, that's an excellent idea, I think I'll try that.
I have several rolls of the p.o.p stuff.
I had considered using it directly on the ball, but this sounds better.
The chicken wire will move less than the ball.
I need a little firmness here!
P.o.p tends to mush in contact with wet concrete, I'd better seal it
before doing a thin coat.
Proved beyond doubt, I brought the ball down to the cool garage from full sun
out front. It lost 1 1/2" of diameter in half an hour.
I removed all the "cookies" before they cured completely, inflated the ball
to the chicken wire size and put a roll of p.o.p bandage on it.
The temperature has stayed even all day and there is no change in size.
The plaster is set and I'm doing 'crete next.
The movement was the whole problem. For the next one, I'll try concrete over
scrim if I can find it. only one place over an hour away had it at 78.00
for 30"x150', only. Don't need that much yet.
But now the problem is identified I may just stay with chicken wire
(I have tons) and a fairly thick shell for this size.
Laura, here's a link for the balls. I hope they mean DIAMETER.
I got tricked once, the fine print said "circumference".
One ball blown to bits :-o
Here is a link that might be useful: Exercise ball
Great post! I would have stabbed that ball to bits then kicked it around the yard after the 3rd failure. Then went out and bought another one to try again, feeling stupid.
I can't imagine trying to work chicken wire around a ball, though, my only 'tufa and crete projects have been spheres and half spheres (no, not purposefully, I started half then got sidetracked by my pond, oops!) and they have all worked out great every time, but I'm using the sticky drywall tape.. I wrap the whole ball with the tape connecting 1/4 inch overlaps, got that idea from someone else on this forum and it works very well..
Can't wait to get back to the mud hole when this pond is done..
Remember that chicken wire will bleed thru when it rusts.Unless you've got galvanized.And mesh should be available in a 9.5 inch role,for about 38 dollars(CDN).And,it's light,easy to cut,and doesn't poke you when you're inattentive(damned wire...).
cheers from here
Keep... the... ball... out... of... the... sun!
The air inside will expand when the ball is left in the sun, covered with concrete or not.
This is how we all learn physics! There's nothing like failure to teach a good lesson! (I should be approaching BRILLIANT by now!)
Making a sphere was probably the most challenging thing I have ever tried to make...I certainly can relate to the problems everyone has had! Its only funny later...well, especially if you can get it on video!
I have made a few spheres using a Walmart ball and also a big cheap beach ball. One thing I did that helped was to first wrap the ball in baling twine. This is nylon multi-strand string. I wrapped the ball up like a spider-web. I also taped the string to the ball where ever it started slipping off here and there. I had 3 inch x 24 in strips of lath that I could tuck into the spider web of string. I worked my way around the ball over several days - tucking more strips of lath into the web and patting my mix over that area. The lath never punctured the ball (pure luck) but tucking some mix under the sharp edges of the lath helped too.
The big beach ball lost air every day. I made sure to reinflate it often. That was the hardest part because I was so afraid of exploding the thing! Oh, my big sphere is not quite round but if you roll it right, it looks ok.
Good luck making spheres...I think the exercise ball would work great, I have one too and will try my luck with it soon. If you are brave...Target has a 50 inch diameter playball! = Carol
Here is a link that might be useful: big sphere
You are sure making fast progress! That is what I love about this forum; people from all over have helpful experiences and share them. Just seeing the photos spurs my mind. A 50 inch ball at Target????? I have to go see it. I found the 32 inch sphere amazing. I want to at least think about making a really big ball. I suspect the surface area of a 50 inch ball means lots of yards of mesh. I have to try and remember the formula for figuring surface area of spheres.
After concreting a 32 in ball...I think it would be very hard to do a 50 inch one. You would definately need to have help. The problem would be stabalizing it while you are working on it. It could roll right over you. Thats why I have not tried it for just that reason. Imagine the field day the local newpapers would have! Roll the video!
Christine, I felt pretty stupid myself, refusing to pay attention to what I
learned in grade school. (Duh, just did it again, had to run up and
drag the thing inside, it's going to be cool tonight! It's got concrete on it now.)
And an engineer's daughter to boot, for shame!
Intercourse with reality tends to do that, keeps us young!
Rick, it's all galvanized. I'll try the mesh when I find it. I think chicken wire
may be a good idea for bigger things, but it needs something smaller-meshed too,
tying those "cookies" together.
I've actually considered a geodesic sphere for a really big ball,
but the Target one sounds intriguing, 50", oh my!!
Carol, what have you done!
THANKS PUP! Where were YOU Saturday!?
You know, I always wanted to try one of Bo Atkinson's 5' tire pots,
built on a sand bottom over a truck innertube, beautiful!
He never mentioned anything about the rubber expanding and contracting.
Suppose he figured any dumbo would know that.
Hmm, that would be an interesting base for a 5' ball..
Soo.. are we on the verge of a big ball epidemic?
Come on Laura, what are we waiting for, frost?
Here's a link to Bo's web page about sand molding, the basin is towards the bottom
of the page.
Here is a link that might be useful: Bo Atkinson
For God's sake,don't try to stop a big concrete ball if it starts to roll away from you!At 52 inches....Egads!That's almost 4 1/2 feet in diameter!You could put up the kids in the space;you could re-enact scenes from that classic series"The Prisoner" with Patrick MacGoohan(Sic).
Just loads of fun for you and yours.
cheers from here
I still have dreams of the "big one" but after finding the formula for determining the surface area of a sphere (so I would know how much mesh it would take) I may not be able to save up enough money by frost!
area of surface of sphere = 4 X p X r (squared) (p means pi which =3.14) so for this 52 inch diameter that would be 4 times 3.14 which = 12.56.
r squared is 52 times 52 = 2704 so now we have to multiply 12.56 times 2704 which gets us 33962 sq inches of area on that ball surface.
33962 divided by 1296 (inches in one square yard) = 26 SQUARE YARDS of mesh for one ball. Adding 20 % for overlapping edges means we need 31 square yards of the mesh.
One source sells mesh in my city for $30 for one roll that is 150 feet long by 9 inches wide. That is 12 square yards so I would need 3. If my many calculations are correct I would need to invest $ 90 in mesh for this project. YIKES.
Heeding Rick's warnings about the potential for being run over by the dang thing, I think maybe I will try a 30 inch ball first!!
Just think.. if we ever make the BIG ONE, it won't fit through gates or doorways. I think we better build it about where we want it to stay! Let's see, if I can make a 16 inch sphere that weighs just 9 pounds, how much will a 52 inch sphere have to weigh? I don't think I have the math skills for that calculation - even with help from the internet. wait... I just did the formula above for a 16 inch sphere and the surface of that needs 2 and a half yards compared to the 31 yards for the 52 inch ball. That is 12 times as much. I am not an engineer but something tells me that big ball is going to need a lot thicker coat of concrete too. I think we are in big trouble weight-wise.
sigh, Laura
Surely we could do it for under 300 pounds. I wonder how many concrete leaf makers it takes to move a 300 pound 52 inch concrete orb??? If anyone figures this out be sure to factor in that my yard is on a slope... easy to start but hard to stop .
ooops, diameter isn't radius. Sorry! The above calculations should have been: (hope I'm right this time) about 8 sq yards of mesh for the 52 inch ball surface and less than 1 yard of mesh for my 16 inch ball. Cost wise that is good news.... more like 20 $ for mesh for the big one.
Maybe my dire weight predictions are way off too. Perhaps we could make it so light we could toss it over obstacles in our way.
Laura, that's impossible.
The circumference of a 4.5' dia. circle is about 14'2", 14 FEET,
not even 5 yards. Imagine a 15' long cloth, 7 1/2' wide, that's 112.5 sq feet,
that tube would wrap the ball with a lot of extra to cut off.
divide by 9 = 12.5 sq.yds, with all the extra gussets cut out, should be
a lot less than 10 sq. yards.
Isn't it r squared x pi? R here being 27". I never remember these things when needed,
it's too late for math, but I know cloth and what it covers, I'm a costumer.
I read your "cheap beach ball" post and had a good giggle.
I really like what you made of it!
I'm lucky to have double doors everywhere, no way am I building that
out in the sun!!
How about a dolly, no, a chariot, Helios, you know, driving the sun out
into the pastures of dawn! It IS late. But I like the idea.
Gold leafed.
My off-hand guess is 10 40lb bags of whatever. 400 lbs, so what?
Don't want it to blow away, do we? I have a pair of lions that weigh 1200lbs each,
we moved them with a backhoe, up.
I figure three naked men with fig leaves and laurel wreaths on the level
and five on a slope.
When do we start?
Linnea, I just went to your web site. WHEN in the world do you have time to tufa?? Those costumes are gorgeous and your building and grounds are certainly impressive too!
Now that you have me picturing the naked men in fig leaves and laurel wreaths pushing my ball up the slope I am getting more interested than ever in making a big sphere.
Laura, that was a gross overestimate. I just covered my poor ball with
about 1 40lb bag, figure 1 1/2-2 for the outer, heavier coat.
It's fine now, by the way, point taken Universe, thanks for the consistency,
and thanks for the support, guys!
One of my employees came out and wondered how "the death star" was doing.
I think 5 or 6 bags would be plenty for big boy, say 220lbs. A layer of
diamond mesh might be in order, lapped pieces, like your (still elusive) scrim.
The sphere itself, if the concrete is sound, is full of inherent structural virtues,
I think that's part of its appeal T.E.
Life itself is in love with the sphere, space is crawling with them and
you and I began as little balls.
From soap bubbles to dwarfed stars, versatile, mobile, ubiquitous, what's not to love?
A garden, our own little portrait of the universe, is a natural for homage
to the sphere.
What came first, the chicken or the elongated sphere?
I rather like the squashed ones too, like whatshername's pumpkin (a must-make).
Target, now, around here, has decided outdoor play season is over. Nada.
I found the beast online (California, play season permanent) for 33.00 +sh.
How much was the Target one Carol, are you still with us? You started it!
And chocolate boxes to you for that!
One other thing, I was going to close the "navel", once the ball is out.
Is that a bad idea? Some feature of physics I'm still blind to?
Laura, thank you, I'm gradually weaning my business from me.
I'm lucky to have a very competent and creative daughter and a great staff.
It took over 30 years to get it there.
As for the boys a-playing with the ball, isn't that what they always want anyway?
Here's a link for the marketing division to ponder:
Here is a link that might be useful: Expensive ball
If we don't succeed in making concrete or hypertufa giant balls, you might want to try making one like this for your garden. Just need alot of gal friends.
Here is a link that might be useful: donations anyone?
Quick Braman, to the Bra Cave! BRAMAN! BRAMAN!
An angry braball?
How would you placate it? Would it stalk you and roll over you if you made it mad?
I have visions of the giant bra in the Woody Allen movie Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex... that was brought in to capture the giant roving breast...
(must take medication)
Very strange, very strange. These kinds of people give artistic folks a bad name.
See you again next time Same Bra Time, Same Bra Station....
The braball is amazing. Just when you think you've seen it all huh? Amazing.
The big playball at Target was probably around $30. I just wonder if it could support the weight of the concrete? My original plan was to make several large spheres--34"--and put them out in a pasture. Paint them like pool balls (stripes and solids?) with cattle grazing around them. Someday. I love the pic of the big blue balls along the road. Really impressive.
Definately, do not try to stop a rolling concrete ball. Just grab the kids and hope the damage is otherwise minimal!
Looking at those big blue concrete balls on that slope........ I just know that most people (well, surely a lot) want to go push on them and make them roll down that hill just to see what happens. How in the world would you stabilize those things so the public couldn't start them rolling?
Having taught school, I know just how resourceful and creative young people can be when trying to solve a puzzle of this nature. I am imagining my old fifth graders grown up to be 75 husky college guys with a determination to move one of those blue balls. They have strength, money, lack of regard for the law, access to earth moving equipment....
Can those balls really be safe?
Carol, thanks!
So california it is. You're quite a nut too, bless you;
-pool table pasture, huh.
The subject of context for a sphere is lovely! Wide open.
Did you leave that hole open?
I think once you,ve got a rigid skin on it, gradually reinforcing it
with mesh/lath/chicken wire, 50" should be fine.
The wind was from the north today, first reminder, thought I'd be pleased
after this summer!
And I'll be working 30 hr. weekends all September, drats!
Whatever would we do without google image search!?
I was thrilled to track down the artists for the blue balls - called "Skyball" and ask my question about what keeps people from rolling them down the hills. Here is what he said:
Hi Laura, Your perception has been shared by untold numbers of high
schoolers who've left broken and bent pry bars attempting just what your
imagination suggests. In fact, there is a huge concrete caisson going ten
feet into the ground below each "ball" which has a heavy steel tube that
connects to a cast in structure in the bottom half and continues up to the
top where it indexes into a hole at the very top. Each sphere weighs about
ten thousand pounds. They might as well try to roll a house down the hill.
Thanks for your interest,
Steve Gillman
FIVE TONS each. wow.
This question popped in my mind.
How many pounds of Tufa has everyone done in this group?
I've tried to add mine up.
Almost 3 bags of White portland 230 pounds.
2 bags of Gray 180 pounds.
40 pounds of peat.
160 pounds of of copper slag.
At least 400 pounds of misc sands and rocks.
So far this year I have made around 1000 pounds of Crete stuff and it wasn't that many pieces.
This doesn't include the several cubic feet or perlite and vermiculite.
10' caissons, solid balls, that size, and they look like they just settled,
lightly, after hovering and could take off again any moment.
That's cool!
I decided to, uh, put wings on mine. Just cut one out of lath.
This is an older idea, not sure if it's going to work yet.
All I know is it won't look like an air force emblem.
I found a roll of "pest screen", fiberglass, at Lowes, 8" wide, price ok.
Seems like it's going to work. For me it's just to facilitate application,
the real reinforcement is the chicken wire.
P.o.p gauze appears to be strictly art material these days,
"surgical gauze" is no longer available at our serious pharmacies.
What do they use for fractures?


text:
Tiny parasitic hookworms infect nearly half a billion people worldwide, almost exclusively in developing countries. Researchers say sequencing the genome of a particular species could help develop more effective drugs.
Other hookworm species cause more disease among humans, but Ancylostoma ce... Read More
If advanced biofuels are to replace gasoline, diesel and jet fuel on a gallon-for-gallon basis at competitive pricing, we're going to need a new generation of fuel crops – plants designed specifically to serve as feedstocks for fuels.
Fuels made from the sugars in plants and other forms of bi... Read More
Too little is being done to control the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which has infected 50 people in Saudi Arabia so far this month, the World Health Organization has warned.
The rising number of cases in health-care facilities indicates current infection-control measures are n... Read More
Scientists have discovered a new hormone that fights the weight gain caused by a high-fat Western diet and normalizes the metabolism -- effects commonly associated with exercising. When tested in mice, the hormone blocked the negative health effects of eating a high-fat diet. Read More
Jesse writes:
Doctors TWiP,
I liked the discussion of the interaction of bacteria and Leishmania in sandfly guts; it was very interesting! Here is another suggestion if you need a topic to discuss:
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A dangerous, often deadly, type of bacteria that lives in soil and water has been released from a high-security laboratory at the Tulane National Primate Research Center in Louisiana. Officials say there is no risk to the public. Yet despite weeks of investigation by multiple federal and state a... Read More
An advanced protective suit for health care workers who treat Ebola patients, devised by a Johns Hopkins team, is one of the first five awardees in a federal funding contest aimed at quickly devising new tools to combat the deadly disease.
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The deadly bacterial infection Clostridium difficile is estimated to have afflicted almost half a million Americans and caused 29,000 deaths in 2011, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. The estimate is... Read More
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Click "source" to read more. Read More
This is a Tease Prep stain of the Fungal Rhizopus with Lactophenol Blue. It is seen under a microscopy at total magnification of 1000x. As shown there are pseudohyphae with conidia formed around the cells. It was the first tease prep stain that clearly shows the artistry of the fungal structure.... Read More
The lower estimates of acute phase infectivity suggest that recently infected individuals--who have not had the chance to start antiretroviral treatment--although still more infectious on average than those in the chronic stage of infection, are not as likely to infect others as was previously t... Read More
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An experimental drug causes loss of weight and fat in mice, a new study has found. Known as GC-1, the drug reportedly speeds up metabolism, or burning off, of fat cells.
Click "source" to read more. Read More
Many animals, including humans, acquired essential 'foreign' genes from microorganisms co-habiting their environment in ancient times, according to new research. The study challenges conventional views that animal evolution relies solely on genes passed down through ancestral lines, suggesting t... Read More
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Until now scientists have believed that the variations in traits such as our height, skin color, tendency to gain weight or not, intelligence, tendency to develop certain diseases, etc., all of them traits that exist along a continuum, were a result of both genetic and environmental factors. But... Read More
What do tobacco, food additives, chemical flame retardants and carbon emissions all have in common? The industries associated with them and their ill effects have been remarkably consistent and disturbingly effective at planting doubt in the mind of the public in the teeth of scientific evidence... Read More


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1 ...
For the first time ever, distribution of emergency food boxes in Oregon and southwest Washington topped l million as growing levels of long-term unemployment forced more and more people to fall into poverty and to seek emergency food.
As daunting as the numbers may be, we did it. The Oregon Food Bank Network was able to meet the staggering demand for food due to record levels of USDA commodities and the generosity of the entire community.
The Oregon Food Bank Network of 20 regional food banks and 923 partner agencies provided a record 1,024,000 emergency food boxes- a 12% increase over the previous year- to families in need from July 1, 2010 to June 30,2011. Since the beginning of the Great Recession, food box distribution has increased 30 percent. The OFB Network now distributes almost a quarter-of- a- million more food boxes annually than it did before the recession.
In tough economic times, helping people in need is more important than ever. It will continue to take the support of the entire community to meet the growing demand for food. So, thank you for your continued support in our effort to eliminate hunger and its root causes.
Please note: On October 19, GlobalGiving.org is matching at 30% all online donations up to $1,000 per donor per project! There is $100,000 available in matching funds starting at 12:01 am EDT.
Thank you!
Family economic security in America increased steadily for several decades during the last century. Group participants in a focus group in Portland, Oregon feel like they are increaslingly exposed to harsh risks.
Denise who resides in Portland says, "I've never needed help before. I've been lucky up to this point in my life. But here I am, 15 years before retirement, facing the biggest financial stuggle of my life. We may lose our home."
Denised wanted to share her story with legislators through OFB's focus groups because she is concerned about the direction our state is headed. She once thought her famly's economic future was safe. She owned her home and had retirement savings. "I was an optician and had my own optical shop," she said. "People came to me to get their glasses fixes. We also had a mobile optical service for nursing home residents. I was making a decent living and helped a lot of people on Medicaid and medical assistance. Then I had to close my business when some of my clients couldn't return to me because of changes in the Oregon Health Plan."
"I never thought that I would have to ask for help at this stage in my life," she said. "In the last two years I'vve been laid off from two jobs due to the economy and cutbacks. My husband and I aren't home at the same time, because he worksnights and I am on the go a lot, trying to find employment. I've already had to take money from my 403(k) to pay for bills. I've had to prioritize keeping the lights on over food. So, I'm grateful for help from the food pantry.
"I just want to thank you for listening to my story. "Change can happen if we all pull together, share our concerns and love one another. Change could start right here with us."
This is just one story highlighting the changing face of hunger. It is difficult, however with the help of donors like you, OFB is able to purchase and distribute food, throughout the state, to those in need. Thank you for your support of the community.
It's a catch-22 reality for anyone who is trying to eat healthy on a tight budget: the healthier the food, the higher the cost. According to a 2010 study published in the journal 'Psychological Science,' the cost of healthy food, including fruits and vegetables, has increased almost 200 percent since 1983. The cost of unhealthy foods, on the other hands, has increased at a much slower rate. The issue is challenging food banks across the nation to examine their sources of food and donor dollars to look for economical ways to increase the nutritional value of the food that is made available to clients. With your support we are able to improve the nutritional content of emergency food boxes. Thank you!
In response to this need, Oregon Food Bank is putting strategies and programs in place to bring healthier food to more people- a trend that is echoed by food banks across the nation. These include our Learned Garden and Nutrition Education Cooking Matters classes, community food security outreach and our emphasis on securing more perishable food like fruits and vegetables.
"We are doing everything we can to become experts with the distribution of perishables," says Mike Moran, OFB's food resource development manager. "Thanks to more partnerships with the agricultural community, retailers through out Fresh Alliance program and expanded storage capacity OFB procured and distributed 57 percent more fresh produce to communities throughout Oregon this year. And we want to increase that year-over-year- it's our most aggressive growth goal."
Everyone- regardless of income level- deserves the right to eat a nutritious meal. And with resourceful, strategic thinking by our partners, donors and staff, Oregon Food Bank is working hard to ensure clients have access to food that will nourish their body, as well as their future.


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James Vincent Kelly (Jimmy), son of Pat Kelly who first came to Gippsland in 1872, owned this hut. It was built for him by Denny Connolly and Charlie Howlett in 1934. on the snowy plain .
Outstanding image……Great work!
Great find and capture, love the wildflowers in the foreground!
Super composition and a lovely, fresh, natural image
Love this capture! I can imagine life here in another century…..
'century' from the past….
great image!
What a beauty!
Excellent image Don well composed, I like these old huts.
I love that DOF. everything in focus.


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A playlist for The Girl in the Road.Posted: March 25, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
Indo-Canadian singer Kiran Ahluwalia, who wrote "Awara" (see page 288 of The Girl in the Road). Photo by Fernando Elizalde.
I spend hours at my writing desk with my hands over my eyes, just listening to music and watching the blackness. Here is a list of songs that specifically inspired The Girl in the Road. Individual links and explanations are below (caution: spoilers!), and the full playlist is here on YouTube. Happy listening.
"Michelle Johnson" by Meshell Ndegeocello
On page 1 of The Girl in the Road, Meena leaves home in a terrible hurry. This song is her, already self-justifying, making little admissions ("yeah, sometimes I love too much") and repeating to herself the line: "I'm just a soul on the planet / try to do good, be good, feel good." Meshell Ndegeocello's music was always my guide in expressing Meena's dark, angry, sensual spirit.
"La Fête au Vilage" by Amadou et Mariam
Mariama also leaves home suddenly. Her caravan heads to Senegal, whose music scene is heavily influenced by Malian musicians Amadou & Mariam. I hear this song as they pass through villages on their way to Dakar, and Mariama watches children running and women carrying bundles on their heads by the road, amazed at how much bigger the world is than she ever knew.
"I Will Not Be Sad in this World" by Djivan Gasparyan
I listened to this song on repeat when first writing Meena's scenes on the Trail. The melancholy in this melody is overwhelming, which makes the title ironic; of course, that's also Meena's problem. She's deeply and irrevocably sad. But she doesn't express it in the ways people often recognize. Her sadness is active, reckless, and destructive. This stillness is what lies beneath.
"Fifa" by Angelique Kidjo
I heard this song in my head when writing the scene on page 82: "We were all quiet, all watching. The land was changing." Here, the wonder Mariama feels deepens even further as they cross into true Sahara, and watch the sun rise over the dunes…and as she begins to imprint on Yemaya, the beautiful new stranger who joined their caravan in Dakar.
"Kajra Re" from Bunty Aur Babli, with Alisha Chinai, Shankar Mahadevan, and Javed Al Bunty
I listened to this song on repeat whenever I wanted to conjure Mohini, Meena's lover, who was a connoisseur of classic Bollywood movies. Of course, in 2068, "classic" means what's coming out now, including the film Bunty Aur Babli from 2005. (By the way, this music video illustrates both why Aishwarya Rai is one of the biggest stars on the planet, and why I think India will set global pop culture in the next century. I mean…watch it. I just did again. Four times.)
"Afirika" by Angelique Kidjo
Out of all the Angelique Kidjo songs that Yemaya has on her sirius (a future smartphone), this is the song Mariama loves most. To her it symbolizes the new "family" that she's constructed around her, with Yemaya as her mother and Francis as her father. On page 136, they sing it out loud together on the way to Agadez, and it puts everyone in a good mood.
"Suprabhatam," sung by S. Subbulakshmi
Meena sings this mantra to herself on page 101. To her, it's less of an explicitly religious devotion—she calls herself "a nominal Hindu"—than it is about comforting herself with something familiar. Meena grew up with this recording, specifically, which her Hindu grandfather played every morning.
"Brown is the Color of My True Love's Skin" by Sparlha Swa
On her Live from New York album, Swa talks about how when she was in Cuba, the land "gave" her songs directly. In my head, the connection made a few hops: from Cuba the country, to the practitioners of Yorùbá religion there, to the orisha Yemaya, goddess of the sea. This song always reminded me of my character Yemaya and her tortured soul-searching.
"Afralehu" by Teddy Afro
When I was in Ethiopia to do research in 2009, this was the unescapable single playing on every radio station in the country—in minibuses in Addis, in hotels in Debark, in storefronts in Gonder. I surmise that in 2026, it's an old pop classic, which is why Francis uses it to teach Amharic to Mariama on page 133: "Tey fit ateshigne, afralehu": "Don't turn your back, I am afraid." Though here, "afraid" means something more like "shy" or "nervous." (I think Francis feels exactly that way about Yemaya!)
"Mary Magdalene" by Meshell Ndegeocello
This is one of Meena's love songs for Mohini. It's both tender and deeply problematic, as it exposes ways that Meena fetishizes Mohini in ways she's not entirely conscious of or responsible about: as a "Mary Magdalene" figure to whose beauty she is drawn, and of whose body she is possessive. Tell me I'm the only one.
"Migoten Manyawkal" by Bezunesh Bekele
As an adult in Addis in 2040, Mariama goes to an Ethiopian jazz listening party hosted by her handsome new Indian friend Gabriel, who collects old jazz vinyls. He plays Bezunesh Bekele, a hero of the Ethiopian musical renaissance that flourished just before the Derg took power. This song plays while they eat pakoras and thali on page 244.
"Awara" by Kiran Ahluwalia
This is the song that Gabriel plays on page 288, hence, the chapter title. I can't listen to it without crying, now. To me it's about how the world opens up in first love, and that no matter how tragically it may end ("awara" means "fickle"), nights like that are eternal. See? I'm crying right now, writing this entry. Dammit.
"Hummer" by Smashing Pumpkins
This might seem a strange song to end this playlist. But sometimes inspiration is like that: totally oblique to the source material. I was driving home late one night and how this song made me feel was exactly the feeling I wanted to capture when Mariama meets the woman she thinks is Yemaya, on page 300. As if everything in the world is put to right.
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Drunk at the bacchanal.Posted: March 23, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
TED felt like an alternate dimension.
The abstract was made flesh. Like, you hear about powerful influential figures on the news, and here they are, driving their soft meat-cars around, Al Gore in line for a latté, Jeff Bezos on his smartphone, Bill Gates on the escalator. On the first day, I was confused about my badge status—we science fiction writers were only issued day passes instead of full conference badges, which meant our access to certain parts of the conference (the main hall, the coveted "gift cave") was restricted at first. Which made me feel angry and entitled in a way I wasn't proud of. Even as I knew most men wouldn't hesitate to push for more access, so for that reason alone, I did, too. I imagined the convention center as a Borgesian space of ever-upper-levels, ever-innermore chambers, ever-briefer conversations, ever-higher-status badges, ever-more-exquisite hors d'oeuvres.
It also felt wonderful, like getting drunk and lost in the woods at a bacchanal. I didn't sleep much. Every morning I woke up, it didn't occur to me to do anything but get to TED. See the talks. Meet the people. Eat the food. I walked fast, everywhere, even when I had nowhere to go. Every talk set off neural fireworks in my head; things I needed to consider anew, see anew, write anew, in all of my projects-in-process. Things that are inevitable: sea level rise, 3D printing, animals as people, driverless cars, the redefinition of marriage. Things I needed to incorporate into my reality. Waves already breaking over our heads.
The story that I eventually read on Thursday night, "Blue Nowruz," got a standing ovation. It's about a new form of nonviolent protest—"border picnics"—that originate in Iran and spread to the rest of the world. But in a broader sense, it's about arbitrary designations of power and access, an irony that was not lost on me, given where I was.
I want to go back.
I have much more to say.
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The future in Vancouver.Posted: March 10, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
So this is pretty great news: I'll be speaking at the next TED Conference in Vancouver.
By "speaking" I mean "reading a new story." Neil Gaiman graciously invited me and I said yes, because what on earth else would I say.
My only prompt was that it has to take place in a world ten to fifteen years from now, a world I'd like to live in. The story takes place on the U.S.-Mexico border. That's all I'm saying for now. I've been working on the story for the past three weeks.
And waiting for my custom dress to arrive.
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Virginity: a practicum.Posted: March 10, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
The March 2015 issue of Wired is about sex. They asked me to contribute an anecdote dealing with sex and science, so I immediately thought of how I lost my virginity. (Though I hate putting it that way. Can we say "made my sexual debut"?) HOW it deals with science is something you'll have to see for yourself—scroll to the bottom of the page here.
I love this story because it's about being entirely in control of one's sexuality, something I also owe to my partner at the time, who was patient and gentle. I wish every virgin the same.
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The Girl in the Road is eligible for the Hugo ballot.Posted: March 9, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments
Hugo nominations close at midnight on Tuesday, March 10th!* So here's a loving reminder that The Girl in the Road is eligible for the ballot. So far, it's made the Locus Recommended Reading List and the shortlist for the Kitschie Award. All the crazy good press is here. And if you're a SFWA member, head here to start reading.
Thank you for your consideration. :)
*Sad to say, I'm not eligible for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, as my first pro sale was in 2009.
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Men explain to me how to fix my art.Posted: March 5, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized 3 Comments
Me and Land Arnold arm-wrestling, refereed by Skylar Gudasz. (Land is the wonderful proprietor of Letters Bookshop in Durham, not the man to whom I refer in the following.) Photo by Crystal Dreisbach.
In the signing line at my paperback release, which had gone swimmingly so far, with Prom dresses and Krispy Kreme and singing and reading and arm-wrestling, I had really lovely conversations with each person who sat down. Then, as one man was standing up to go, he said, "I saw your last play and gosh, it had one of the worst third-act problems I've ever seen."
I stared at him.
He explained further, "I mean, it didn't have one. A third act. And it really needed one. You undid everything you were trying to do in the rest of the play."
I think I said, "Huh, okay," and then motioned to the next person in line.
Afterward, when we were cleaning up, I told my co-performer Skylar about it and she nodded. She said that happened to her all the time: strange men coming up to her after performances and giving her "tips." That she should open her eyes when she sings. That she should wear her hair down instead of up. The issue of unsolicited advice by men, following any public appearance, is not new to her or to me.
I don't know what's passing through these guys' minds. Do they think they're being helpful? Are they trying to connect? Do they understand that we're artists who make our own decisions on whether our work is suitable for public presentation, and wouldn't have presented it, otherwise? Does it occur to them that what they're suggesting to us are things that aren't right for us as artists or the work of art in question or we've considered them already and rejected for excellent reason?
Does it even occur to them to just not do that?
Because it never occurs to me to go up to a man I don't know and explain to him how to fix his art. Ever.
Most artists who've had a measure of success are on the receiving end of this, to some extent. But it's an especially acute problem with older men and younger women, and exists within a larger societal context of men feeling free to try to control women in public spaces. Skylar said, "I'm sure women do it, too…it's just…never happened yet."
So I'm just going to say it right now: don't do that. I will not think well of you.
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Liars gonna lie.Posted: March 3, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized 2 Comments
I'm in this month's edition of Cosmopolitan, on page 140, in an excellent article about sexual harassment in work and professional situations. The journalist Michelle Ruiz interviewed me extensively via chat—while I was in the remote Philippines, sitting on my friend's porch to get better reception—about my experiences of sexual harassment in freelancing, theatre, and science journalism, the last of which is long public, and resulted in the offender Bora Zivkovic's resignations from the board of Science Online, as well as his position as blogs editor at Scientific American.
Ms. Ruiz came under fire from some commenters on Twitter because Bora is also quoted in the article, basically denying that any of the situations in question were professional or work-related. I'd go on, but I don't want to spend the energy. I mean, what's there to say? There are screencaps all over the Internet of Bora admitting his own wrongdoing, though many of the original sources have since been deleted. Like here. And here it's pasted below, in case the archive goes down.
And here are the emails he sent me—the first, in response to my initial letter pasted in full here, and then a year later, when I named him in the same post. (Is it legal for me to post them? Yes.)
…and of course, it wasn't an isolated incident. Science journalists Hannah Waters and Kathleen Raven came forward soon after.
So it seems to me that his public and private performances of contrition did not net him the desired result, which was…retaining his positions? his respect in the field? I don't know—so now, his performance instead consists of blanket denial, as we see in the Cosmo article.
My conclusion being: Liars gonna lie. Manipulators gonna manipulate. Shrug and move on.
But as for those going after Ms. Ruiz because she "gave him a platform,"—honestly? She had to do so, as a journalistic duty. That it gives the impression of a "he said, she said situation"? Actually, it's a "he said, he said" situation. Disproving his claims is as easy as batting a whiffle ball. And I have nothing to lose by doing so.
At least, nothing I'd consider worth keeping.
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Models DA30-5 and DA40-5 fit in the 28- and 40-metric-ton class, with payload ratings of 61,729 and 88,185 pounds, respectively.