text:
The Vestibular/Balance Research Laboratory is located on the Mountain Home VAMC campus. The Vestibular/Balance Research Laboratory receives support from the Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Service, Department of Veteran Affairs.
Faith W. Akin, Ph.D.
Director, Vestibular Section
Dr. Akin received her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1997. She joined the audiology service at the Mountain Home VAMC in 1997 and developed the Vestibular Balance Laboratory in 2000 through funding from the Department of Veteran Affairs Rehabilitation Research & Development. Dr. Akin's research emphasis has been on the clinical use of otolith organ function to supplement the traditional vestibular test battery. Specifically, she and Dr. Murnane have examined cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential, the ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential, and the subjective visual vertical tests as tests of vestibular function. Currently, she is using tests of vestibular function and experimental imaging techniques to investigate the vestibular consequences of blast-related mild traumatic injury.
Courtney Hall, Ph.D.
Director, Balance Section
Dr. Hall received her Ph.D. in Kinesiology from the University of Texas at Austin. She joined the Vestibular/Balance Research Laboratory in October 2011 as the director of the balance section of the laboratory. Dr. Hall's research has focused on clinical questions that will provide knowledge to develop novel, effective exercise interventions to reduce impairments related to dizziness and imbalance. Dr. Hall's research program is aimed at better understanding age-related (both normal and pathological) changes in balance control and how best to intervene therapeutically to prevent loss of mobility and falls. She has been studying various risk factors impacting mobility and falls for a number of years. Her research to this point has examined the contributions of motor (lower extremity strength and power), sensory (visual and vestibular), and cognitive function to balance control in older adults. Dr. Hall is has two ongoing lines of research. One line of research is how best to intervene to improve the ability to allocate attention to balance and gait under dual-task conditions. The other line of research is to determine whether the addition of vestibular-specific gaze stability exercises reduces symptoms and fall risk in older adults with non-vestibular dizziness.
Owen Murnane, Ph.D.
Investigator/ACOS for Research
Dr. Murnane received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University and was an original member of the Vestibular and Balance Laboratory with Dr. Akin. Dr. Murnane's research has been funded the VA Rehabilitation Research & Development service. Dr. Murnane's research within the laboratory has focused on clinical applications of measures of human vestibular and auditory physiology. Much of Dr. Murnane and Dr. Akin's work over the last decade has focused on ocular and vestibular evoked myogenic potentials. Currently, Dr. Murnane continues to study aging effects of the ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potentials as well as research studying the response characteristics of the video head impulse test and the clinical application of the video head impulse test.
Kristal M. Riska, Au.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Riska received her Ph.D. from East Carolina University in 2011. She joined the Vestibular Balance Laboratory in the summer of 2012. Dr. Riska is currently applying for career development funding through the VA Rehabilitation Research & Development service to develop cost and time efficient mechanisms to screen and evaluate individuals with vestibular dysfunction. Dr. Riska's research interests are clinically focused. Specifically, she is interested in improving evidence based clinical practice in the evaluation of dizziness and imbalance. Currently, she is studying epidemiological aspects of dizziness in Veterans as well as conducting research towards developing an effective vestibular screening instrument.
Stephanie Byrd, Au.D.
Project Coordinator
Dr. Byrd received her Au.D from Missouri State University in 2008. She joined the Vestibular Balance Laboratory in the spring of 2009. Dr. Byrd has served as a project coordinator for several VA funded research studies since joining the lab. She currently serves as the project coordinator for Dr. Hall's "Vestibular Rehabilitation and Dizziness in Geriatric Patients" research grant. Although clinically trained, Dr. Byrd enjoys working in the research setting as she has been able to expand her expertise in regards to vestibular assessment, become more effective clinically and directly impact those individuals with dizziness and balance concerns through research.
Department of Veterans Affairs
Current Projects
Cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials as a test of otolith function (VA RR&D CDA I, CDA II, PI: Akin).
Over the past several years, research in the Vestibular/Balance Laboratory at Mountain Home has focused on the cVEMP as a clinical test of saccule/inferior vestibular nerve function. At that time, the cVEMP was not a commercially available vestibular test, so instrumentation and protocols were developed in our laboratory to measure the response (Akin and Murnane, 2001). Sustained contraction of the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle is required during cVEMP acquisition and the SCM muscle is activated by either turning the head laterally while sitting or supine (unilateral activation) or raising the head from supine (bilateral activation). The AC cVEMP is typically obtained by presenting either monaural (unilateral SCM activation) or binaural (bilateral SCM activation) 500 Hz tone bursts (~120 dB peak SPL) via an earphone. Because cVEMP amplitude is influenced by the degree of sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle activation, a procedure was developed to control for the effects of tonic electromyography (EMG) level on the cVEMP (Akin and Murnane, 2001). A two-channel EMG recording was obtained simultaneously with the evoked potential recordings. During head rotation to one side, the subjects were provided visual feedback of their EMG amplitude via the computer monitor. Using this recording technique, a series of parametric experiments were conducted to determine the effects of stimulus parameters on cVEMP latency, amplitude, and threshold (Akin et al., 2003).
Effects of aging and noise on the cVEMP (VA RR&D Merit Review E3367R, PI: Akin)
To determine the effect of aging on the cVEMP we measured the tonic EMG level of the SCM muscle during the cVEMP recording. Previous studies on the effect of aging on the cVEMP had not measured directly the tonic EMG level of the SCM muscle during the cVEMP recording. The findings of our study suggested that the decrement in cVEMP amplitude is related to both age-related changes in the vestibular system and age-related changes in the sternocleidomastoid muscle.
To determine the effect of noise on the cVEMP, we recorded cVEMPs in individuals with asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss consistent with a history of noise exposure greater in one ear than the other, and cVEMPs were recorded in age-matched controls. cVEMPS were abnormal in a third of the individuals with noise-induced hearing loss. Furthermore, cVEMP threshold was higher in the NE group than in the control group, and the cVEMP inter-aural asymmetry ratio correlated significantly with the high frequency pure tone average of the ear with the greater noise-induced hearing loss (Akin et al., 2012). These findings demonstrate effects of noise exposure on the cVEMP and suggest that the sacculo-collic pathway may be susceptible to noise-related damage.
Subjective visual vertical during centrifugation as a test of otolith function (VA RR&D Merit Review C6241R; PI: Akin).
Recently, we have examined the clinical utility and obtained normative data for the subjective visual vertical (SVV) test using static and dynamic stimulus conditions. Normative data were obtained in 24 young healthy adults using static and dynamic (unilateral centrifugation) test conditions. Participants were positioned in a darkened rotary chair booth and instructed to indicate the SVV during four test conditions: static, on-axis, off-axis right, and off-axis left. The results revealed that the SVV was < 2° for static and on-axis rotation, and shifted up to 11° during unilateral centrifugation. Test-retest reliability of the SVV was good for all test conditions (Akin et al., 2011b). These normative findings are consistent with other studies using unilateral centrifugation in normal individuals (e.g., Clarke et al., 2001). We have recently completed data collection on experiments designed to determine the effect of age and unilateral vestibular loss on the SVV during centrifugation.
Preliminary evidence of otolith dysfunction related to mTBI/Blast Exposure (VA RR&D Merit Review C6663R, PI: Akin).
Dizziness and balance disorders are common symptoms associated with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or head injury. Numerous studies have provided significant evidence that mTBI or head injury can cause damage to the vestibular system; however, most have limited the vestibular evaluation to assessment of hSCC function. In an ongoing clinical trial, we are collecting data to determine the effect of mTBI and blast exposure on (1) peripheral vestibular system function (specifically, hSCC function, and otolith organ function), (2) central vestibular/CNS function, (3) postural stability, and (4) dizziness-related quality of life. Four subject groups include Veterans complaining of dizziness/imbalance with (1) a history of blast exposure, (2) a history of mTBI, (3) a history of blast exposure and mTBI, and (4) a control group. Each subject is undergoing tests of hSCC function (caloric and rotary chair), tests of otolith function (cVEMPs, oVEMPs, SVV during centrifugation), central vestibular function/CNS function (ocular motor tests, diffusion tensor and susceptibility weighting imaging), gait and balance testing (SOT, Motor Control Test, Dynamic Gait Index), and the Dizziness Handicap Inventory.
Cognitive Training and Dual-task Ability in Older Adults (VA RR&D, VA Merit Pilot grant E7614R, PI: Hall)
The purpose of this project is to determine whether cognitive training provides added benefit to dual-task ability. Historically, therapy has focused on ameliorating impairments of the motor and/or sensory systems; however recent evidence suggests that an impaired ability to allocate attentional (i.e., cognitive) resources to balance during dual-task situations is a powerful predictor of falls. The first aim of the study is to examine whether the inclusion of dual-task practice in balance rehabilitation results in greater benefits to dual-task ability. Participants will receive either standard physical therapy for balance rehabilitation (standard PT) or standard PT plus dual-task practice. The second aim of the study is to examine the extent to which cognitive training to improve cognitive abilities will result in additional benefits to dual-task ability. After completion of PT, participants will complete computerized cognitive training ("brain games").
Vestibular rehabilitation and dizziness in geriatric patients (VA RR&D, VA Merit Review E7613R, PI: Hall)
The goal of this study is to develop novel, effective exercise intervention for older adults with dizziness unrelated to vestibular pathology. The first aim of this study is to examine the extent to which vestibular exercises enhance rehabilitation outcomes (symptoms, balance and fall risk) in older adults with dizziness without vestibular pathology. Older adults with dizziness and normal vestibular function will receive either vestibular-specific gaze stability exercises or placebo eye movement exercises, in additional to balance rehabilitation. The second aim is to determine the degree to which symptom improvement and fall risk reduction are retained after the intervention is completed.
The reproducibility of the video head impulse test (vHIT )(PI: Murnane)
The intra- and inter-examiner reliability of the vHIT will be assessed using two examiners, two test sessions, and two different vHIT devices (Otometrics and Synapsys) in 5 groups of participants: (1) young normal adults, (2) older normal adults, (3) patients with total unilateral vestibular losses, (4) patients with partial unilateral vestibular losses, and (5) patients with bilateral vestibular losses. Based on our preliminary data, we hypothesize that both intra- and inter-examiner reliability of the vHIT for both devices will be good (intra-class correlation coefficients >.80) for all participant groups.
The effect of aging on the video head impulse test (vHIT ) (PI: Murnane)
The vHIT results obtained from the young normal adults will be compared to the results obtained from the older normal adults for each of the two vHIT devices. We hypothesize that the average VOR gain will be significantly lower and that the variability will be significantly greater for the older adults than for the young adults.
Establishment of normal reference intervals for the video head impulse test (vHIT ) (PI: Murnane)
The 95% prediction interval for the distribution of each outcome for normal subjects will be examined, and the reference range will be determined to include 95% of participants. Follow-up analysis will include a comparison of the established normal reference intervals with the range of values for the participants with vestibular loss.
The sensitivity and specificity) of the video head impulse test (vHIT ) (PI: Murnane)
The results of the vHIT will be compared with the results of the reference tests (caloric test for unilateral vestibular losses and rotary chair test for bilateral vestibular losses) in a series of patients referred for vestibular assessment in the Vestibular/Balance Clinic at the Mountain Home VAMC
The use of natural language processing as a mechanism to explore the epidemiology of dizziness within the Veteran population (PI: Riska)
This project utilizes natural language processing to explore the incidence of dizziness within the VA population and to explore the health characteristics of Veteran's complaints of dizziness. Natural language processing is a new technique that allows one to take non-structured data in clinical notes within an electronic medical record and process the data into structured data for analysis. In this way, the study will allow for exploration of characteristics of patients with dizziness.
Current students in the lab are working on research studies involving the video head impulse device, rotary chair, and chart reviews evaluating the efficacy of current clinical evaluation paradigms.
Laura Williams, B.A. Audiology Doctoral Student
Laura is currently a fourth year audiology doctoral student at ETSU. She is completing her capstone project within the Vestibular Balance research laboratory. Laura's capstone project is examining the effectiveness of a triage clinic for patients with BPPV. Laura enjoys the work that she does within the research laboratory as she believes the skills she has developed will lead to her being a better clinician.
Emma Barnard, B.S. Audiology Doctoral Student
Emma is currently a third year audiology doctoral student at ETSU and is beginning work on her capstone project developing normative data for various rotary chair test protocols. Emma enjoys working in the laboratory as she is able to learn more about new and exciting techniques to evaluate vestibular function.
Listed below are previous student projects completed in the Vestibular/Balance Laboratory.
Our lab is located at the Mountain Home VA Medical Center. The Vestibular/Balance Laboratory is well equipped to fully investigate all 5 vestibular end-organs in addition to balance and gait.
The Vestibular/Balance Laboratory is equipped with two ICS computerized CHARTR videonystagmography (VNG) systems with water and air caloric stimulators. Two stand-alone video eye movement recorders (RealEyes Monocular, Micromedical Technologies) are used for recording nystagmus in patients with BPPV. There are two rotational chair systems: (1) System 2000 Rotational Vestibular Chair system with micro-centrifuge and subjective visual vertical option (Micromedical Technologies) and (2) I-Portal Neuro-Otologic Test Center (Rotary Chair System) with unilateral centrifugation, off-vertical axis rotation (OVAR), and SVV testing options (Neurokinetics Inc.). Both systems have digital video-oculography for measurement of eye movement. Several video head impulse devices are also available.
The evoked potential section of the the laboratory is equipped with several commercial evoked potential instruments including two Otometrics EP200 systems, a Nicolet Spirit 2000 evoked potential system, and a Bio-Logic multichannel auditory evoked potential and otoacoustic emission systems. In addition, the laboratory contains a Bruel and Kjaer Mini-Shaker, a Bruel and Kjaer power amplifier, a two-channel portable EMG unit (Delsys Bagnoli-2 EMG System), an eight-channel portable EMG unit, (DelSys, Inc., Bagnoli-8), an artificial mastoid (Bruel and Kjaer) and a sound level meter. In addition, the lab has 2 miniature triaxial accelerometers.
The new Gait/Balance section of the laboratory is equipped with a computerized dynamic posturography system (Smart Equitest, NeuroCom) and Long Forceplate attachment with electromyography for balance assessment. The Smart Equitest is also equipped with inVision Dynamic Visual Acuity Test and the Gaze Stabilization Test. In addition, the lab has recently acquired a GaitRite system for gait assessment. The 26-foot GAITRite® system is an electronic walkway to quantify spatiotemporal parameters of gait.
Faith Akin, Ph.D.:
Akin, FA, Murnane OD, Tampas JW, Clinard C (in revision). The effect of age on the cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential. Ear and Hearing
Akin FA, Murnane OD (in press). Head Injury and Blast Exposure. Otolaryngology Clinics of North America
Akin FW, Barker F (2009) Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials: Why is monitoring of the EMG important? Insights in Practice, Otometrics.
Akin FW, Murnane OD (2009) The Subjective Visual Vertical Test. Seminars in Hearing, 30(4): 281- 286.
Murnane OD, Akin FW (2009) Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials. Seminars in Hearing, 30(4): 267-280.
Akin FW, Murnane OD (2009) ASHA Perspectives: Clinical Assessment of Otolith Function 13: 29-39.
Akin, F. W. & Murnane, O. D. (2009, February 10). Clinical Assessment of Otolith Function. The ASHA Leader.
Wilson RH, King R, Akin FW. (2009) Unilateral transitory sensorineural hearing loss following a dental procedure. J Am Acad Audiol.;20(3):216-8.
Murnane OD, Akin FW, Lynn SG, Cyr DG (2009) Monothermal caloric screening test performance: a relative operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, Ear & Hearing. 30; 313–319.
Akin FW and Murnane OD (2008) Vestibular evoked myogenic potentials, in Balance Function Assessment and Management, Jacobson and Shepard (eds.), Plural Publishing.
Faith Akin, Ph.D.:
Murnane OD, Akin FW, Kelly JK, Tampas J (2009) Ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials: Preliminary Observations, American Academy of Audiology Convention, Dallas, TX.
Pearson A, Akin FW, Murnane OD, Kelly JK (2009) Normative data of the subjective visual vertical test for vestibular assessment, American Academy of Audiology Convention, Dallas, TX.
Murnane OD, Akin FW, Kelly JK, Tampas J (2009) Ocular Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials, American Balance Society Meeting, Phoenix AZ
Murnane OD, Akin FW, Lynn SG, Cyr DG (2009) Monothermal caloric screening test performance: a relative operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, American Auditory Society, Phoenix, AZ.


text:
NC State Lands 230 on ACC Academic Honor Roll
ACC Players of the Year Andrew Colley and Nick Gwiazdowski are among the honorees
Pack Tops SCAD, Falls to UGA
NC State split a double dual meet, by defeating SCAD and falling to UGA
No. 23 NC State Men's Swimming And Diving Defeats No. 13 UNC
No. 23 NC State men's swimming and diving defeats No. 13 UNC, women topped by No. 16 Tar Heels
Swimming And Diving Sweeps Clemson
The NC State men's and women's swimming and diving teams swept Clemson at home on Friday night.
2013-14 (Senior): Finished with a season-best time of 56.21 in the 100 butterfly at the Bulldog Invitational.
2012-13 (Junior): Swam the fifth-best time on the team in the 100 butterfly (57.55)
2011-12 (Sophomore): Competed in the backstroke, butterfly, and sprint freestyle events during the season.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Tyra Banks has kept a promise she made to hundreds of aspiring models, who were caught in a sidewalk stampede last month – another chance to audition for America's Next Top Model.
And, the second casting went off without a hitch.
"This is amazing. We know where to stand. We know we will be seen. There are lines and checkpoints and police around. I couldn't be happier," Regina Villano, 21, of New Jersey, told the New York Daily News.
Villano had feared for her life during the March mayhem, which resulted in several injuries outside New York's Park Central Hotel. At least three people face charges of disorderly conduct, and within days Banks issued a statement promising all the hopeful models would get another chance to audition.
During that episode the NYPD had no prior knowledge of the expected crowd size, but Saturday's event corralled would-be models through several checkpoints outside the Penn Plaza Pavilion.
But there was one thing Banks couldn't promise to deliver: Good weather. An early morning downpour and steady rain throughout Saturday drenched dozens of contestants.
"Great, now I look like a freakin' crack addict," Heather Car, 22, told the newspaper about her smeared blue eye makeup. "It took all night to make myself up and in two minutes I look like a zombie."
America's Next Top Model Auditions in N.Y.C. Go Smoothly


text:
This is a potential security issue, you are being redirected to http://nvd.nist.gov
Last updated: 7/30/2015 4:04:47 AM
CVE Publication rate: 22.33
NVD provides four mailing lists to the public. For information and subscription instructions please visit
NVD Mailing Lists
The ocfs2_prepare_page_for_write function in fs/ocfs2/aops.c in the Oracle Cluster File System 2 (OCFS2) subsystem in the Linux kernel before 2.6.39-rc1 does not properly handle holes that cross page boundaries, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information from uninitialized disk locations by reading a file.
By selecting these links, you will be leaving NIST webspace. We have provided these links to other web sites because
they may have information that would be of interest to you. No inferences should be drawn on account of other sites
being referenced, or not, from this page. There may be other web sites that are more appropriate for your purpose.
NIST does not necessarily endorse the views expressed, or concur with the facts presented on these sites. Further,
NIST does not endorse any commercial products that may be mentioned on these sites. Please address comments about
this page to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Disclaimer Notice
& Privacy Statement / Security Notice
Send comments or suggestions to email@example.com
NIST is an Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce
Full vulnerability listing


text:
Kevin O'Brien
Department Chair & Professor
Baker Hall 209
Ph.D., Economics, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
M.S., Economics, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
B.S., Economics and Political Science, University of Illinois-Chicago
I have been a faculty member in the Department of Economics at Bradley University since 1992. Prior to Bradley University, I taught at Texas Tech University and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I am currently chair and professor of economics in the Foster College of Business Administration. I am also the executive director of the Center for Economic Education, a position I have held for the last ten years.
I have taught a number of courses at Bradley University including Introduction to Economics, Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, Public Expenditure and Finance, Labor Problems and The Economics and Finance of Healthcare (an MBA course). I received the Order of Omega, Professor of the Semester Award in 1999 and the Foster College of Business Administration Midwest Grains Teaching Award in 1998.
Courses Currently Teaching
- ECO 100 Introduction to Economics
- ECO 310 Labor Problems
My original research steam focused on public sector labor markets with a concentration on police and firefighter collective bargaining. A more recent research interest has been the determinants of online auction outcomes on eBay. Going forward, I am investigating budget outcomes for municipalities, specifically how institutional factors influence such budgets.
Published Intellectual Contributions
Refereed Journal Articles
- Highfill, J. K., O'Brien, K. M. (2009). The Effect of Alternative e-Prices on eBay Book Auctions. Atlantic Economic Journal, 37, 383-395.
- Highfill, J. K., O'Brien, K. M. (2009). The Determinants of Sales on eBay: The Case of Baseball Cards. Applied Economics Letters, 16(14), 1421-1424.
- O'Brien, K. M. (2009). Union Wage, Nonwage and Political Effects on Protective Service Budgets. Applied Economics, 41(7-9), 1175-1182, DB.
- Highfill, J. K., O'Brien, K. M. (2008). Do Price Guides Guide eBay Prices? The Market for Individual Baseball Cards. American Economist, 52(1), 58-65, DB.
- Highfill, J. K., O'Brien, K. M. (2007). Bidding and Prices for Online Art Auctions: Sofa Art or Investment. Journal of Cultural Economics, 31(4), 279-292.
- Goitein, B. J., Iyer, R., O'Brien, K. M., Pasko, D. (2009). Occupational Demand/Supply Analyses and Market Assessment of Union Construction Contractors. Peoria, Illinois: Center for Business and Economic Research, Bradley University.
Presentations Given
- Bond, E. U., Gretz, R. T., O'Brien, K. M., International Atlantic Economic Conference, "Play in Peoria? Empirical Examination of An Entrepreneurship Center's Services", Internationa Atlantic Economics Association, Charleston, SC, DB. (October, 2010).
- Bond, E. U., Gretz, R. T., O'Brien, K. M., Missouri Valley Economics Association, "Will it Play in Peoria? Empirical Examination of an Entrepreneurship Center's Services", Missouri Valley Economics Association, St. Louis, MO, DB. (October, 2010).
- Highfill, J. K., O'Brien, K. M., Gretz, R. T., International Atlantic Economic Conference, "The Election Prediction Market Effect On EBay Outcomes: Obama and McCain Memorabilia," International Atlantic Economic Society, Prague. (March 2010).
- Highfill, J. K., O'Brien, K. M., Missouri Valley Economics Association, "The Determinants of eBay Auction Outcomes: The Case of 2008 Presidential Campaign Items," Kansas City, MO. (October 2009).
- Highfill, J. K., O'Brien, K. M., Missouri Valley Economics Association, "The Effect of Reference Prices on Auction Outcomes: The Case of eBay Book Auctions", St. Louis, MO, DB. (October, 2008).
- O'Brien, K. M., Missouri Valley Economics Association Meetings, "Was Government Reinvented? Evidence from Municipal Governments", Kansas City, Missouri, DB. (October, 2007).
Research in Progress
- "EBay Auctions for Obama and McCain Campaign Memorabilia: The Election Prediction Market Effect on Bids and Prices"
- "Was Government Reinvented? Evidence from Municipal Governments"
- "Networked Entrepreneurship", grant awarded by Tekes: The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, co-investigator
Foster College of Business Administration
- Executive Director for Center for Economic Education
Department of Economics
- Faculty Advisor, Omicron Delta Epsilon
- Associate Editor, Journal of Economics
Bradley University
- Treasurer, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
- Intellectual and Cultural Activities Committee


text:
Angels lefty C.J. Wilson recently spoke to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times about his recovery from an October surgery that removed bone spurs from throwing elbow.
Wilson is optimistic about his chances about a complete recovery by the beginning of the 2013 season. The southpaw, who has been long tossing since just before Christmas, claims that he has "normal extension again".
There's another promising sign. "The numbers tell the story. In the last three years, I've thrown something like 630 innings. It takes a toll on a body." When Wilson was at his best in 2012, he was brilliant. Through the end of June, Wilson had posted a 2.36 ERA over 99.1 innings. In the second half, Wilson struggled with command, and posted a 5.24 ERA across 103 innings.
If Wilson can stay healthy, the Angels could have a dominant #2 starter.


text:
Think tank's task a tall order
A lot of smart people are starting work on an ambitious project for North Carolina public schools that aims to assess and track the personal and educational development of children in kindergarten through third grade.
But they want to do it without hindering teachers and without making it yet another high-stakes test.
It's a worthy goal, funded by $70 million in federal Race to the Top grant money. If successful, it would make North Carolina one of just a few states in the nation that report and track results of kindergarten readiness assessments.
On Friday, North Carolina schools Superintendent June Atkinson rallied a group of scholars and scientists at Duke University as they kicked off their six-month voluntary enterprise.
"We have to make sure that the assessments we use take children to a better place, not hold them back," she said.
We don't envy these think tank members the job ahead of them. Whatever they develop is expected to gather useful data without turning into a stressful time sink for teachers and students alike.
However, with a group that includes strong thinkers from universities across the state, we're confident that they're up to the task set before them by Atkinson and the think tank's co-chairs, John Pruett of the state Department of Public Instruction and Kenneth Dodge of Duke University.
It is especially heartening to know that, going in, the group's leaders already are well aware that they don't face a simple task in trying to elegantly assess a child's reading and math skills, as well as their physical well being, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, language development, and cognition and general knowledge.
That's a lot to measure.
"We know if we're not successful in that task, we'll create something that won't be helpful, might be harmful, or won't be used at all," Pruett said.
In six months, the think tank is expected to present their ideas for the assessment to the state Board of Education.
We're intrigued to see what they propose.


text:
July 29, 2015
The 49th Annual Robertson County Fair runs through March 31.
2014 Robertson County Fair Queen, Caitlin Fulton, was on BVTM Monday to talk about the event that features livestock shows, arts and crafts, a carnival, a pet show, and more.
There is something for everyone.
Come out and join us for food, fun and lots of activities for the family.
The fairgrounds are located on FM 485 west of Highway 6.
For more information visit rcfatx.org or call (979) 279-3000.
To comment, the following rules must be followed:
Comments may be monitored for inappropriate content, but the station is under no legal obligation to do so.
If you believe a comment violates the above rules, please use the Flagging Tool to alert a Moderator.
Flagging does not guarantee removal.
Multiple violations may result in account suspension.
Decisions to suspend or unsuspend accounts are made by Station Moderators.
Questions may be sent to email@example.com. Please provide detailed information.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or email@example.com.


text:
Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account.
See more about comments here.
State of the Debate
Extention of remarks: The Count My Vote deal ...
— Count My Vote compromise is good for everyone — Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
"Utah's political leaders have apparently cooked up a compromise that would allow the state's political parties to keep their antiquated and exclusionary caucus-and-convention system on the books, while creating a way for the public at large to have a say in the nominating process while their say still matters.
"It is a good deal. The Legislature should approve it. The governor should sign it. The people should use it. ..."
— Count My Vote deal gets roughed up, but advances — Robert Gehrke | The Salt Lake Tribune
"Defenders of Utah's caucus system for nominating candidates pummeled a deal struck over the weekend between legislators and organizers of the Count My Vote ballot initiative, calling it an unconstitutional affront to the First Amendment and comparing it to bloodshed in the streets of Kiev. ..."
— House Committee Advances Caucus Compromise Bill — Bryan Schott | Utah Policy
"Begrudgingly. Hesitantly. Squeamishly. That's the way forward for many Utah lawmakers as they consider the new version of SB 54, which crafts a compromise to keep Utah's caucus system while also allowing a direct primary path to the ballot. ..."
[These next two pieces refer to the original version of SB54, which was introducted to thwart Count My Vote, not compromise with it.]
— In defense of SB54 and the Utah caucus system — State Sen. Lyle Hillyard | For The Logan Herald-Journal
" ... I would like to speak in defense of the caucus system. This process of people gathering to discuss issues and elect neighborhood representatives who best represent the values of a specific political platform creates both a vetting and an accountability system that does not exist in a direct primary. ..."
— SB 54 is an Abuse of Power — Kim Burningham | For Utah Policy
" ... Unfortunately, some legislators seem jealous of the public's right to intervene; 'We know best; the power is ours only,' they seem to be saying. ..."
— Elections in Utah: Opponents in the Boxing Ring — Pamela Openshaw | For The Provo Daily Herald
" ... Regardless of what Count My Vote tells you — the exaggerated faults of the caucus system, the lauded but unsupportable "bennies" of Count My Vote, the endorsements of people you thought you trusted — remember that CMV means you vote against delegation. You vote either for countless hours of your personal time, or blindness in the voting booth. ..."
— Another alternative for caucus system — Todd Seifert | The St. George Spectrum
"I get a kick out of both sides as they lay out their argument for or against the Count My Vote campaign. Both sides see themselves as battling against people who have more influence. ..."
— Caucuses vs. Primaries — On The Level | Box Elder News Journal
" .. It doesn't matter whether you agree with or even like the petition. The citizen-driven process has begun and the heavy hand of the government should not stand in the way of the people. It is my position that the question should be asked of the voters and not skated around by politicians before the people's voice can even be heard. ..."


text:
Beginning on June 6th the Webster County Library is proud to offer you best-selling and classic eAudiobooks and eBooks available 24/7. You can browse the collection, place holds, and check out using your library card. Then you can transfer the titles to your computer and many mobile devices.
This new service, powered by OverDrive, is free with your Webster County Library card. Don't forget that the service is not live yet, but June 6th is only a week away!
We will announce more information on our website, Facebook page, in the library, and through local media.


text:
Topic: Should Chelsea sell Drogba as well?
Shanghai Shenhua confirms interest in Chelsea striker Drogba
Nicolas Anelka's new club, Shanghai Shenhua, have confirmed they are keen on signing Chelsea striker Didier Drogba.
Read more: http://www.ontheminute.com/news/news.php?news=35765
Chelsea have already agreed a deal to sell Nicolas Anelka to Chinese side Shanhai Shenhua. Now the Chinese side wants Drogba.
Should Chelsea sell Drogba as well? Or does Drogba still play a key role at Stamford Bridge?
Have your say!


text:
Hang tight!
Recipe by Domestic Goddess
"This is an unusual kind of gravy with sliced wieners that is served over mashed potatoes. The first time I had this was at my sister-in-laws over twenty years ago. I've changed the ingredients just a bit, but since then it's been among our family's favorite. Now our daughter Jenny prepares it for her family."
Hmm. None of these ingredients are on sale today.
Show ingredients on sale
Sort stores by
Save money at local stores when ingredients are on sale!
Watch video tips and tricks
5 3/4 cups
cold water
onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
gingersnap cookies, crushed
1 1/2 cups
distilled white vinegar
2 pounds
frankfurters, sliced
I wanted to edit my recipe, but since I am not able to do so under my previous name, I found I am able to under my new name. When making this dish, I highly suggest using the following gingersnaps... Rippin Good or the Stauffer's brand. The Rippin Good Ginger Snaps can be found at Festival Foods, it comes in a 16-oz. box, and the Stauffer's Ginger Snaps can be found at Walgreens Drug Store, it comes in a 14 oz. bag. Also, since the gingersnap cookies seem smaller in size, I now add 32-33 cookies. I also find it's best to use a good quality brand of all-beef wieners (rather than hot dogs or fanks). I now prepare this dish in my chicken fryer, and cook this over high heat, until it comes to a boil and the gravy has thickened up (in about 10 minutes) and after that, I lower the heat to a simmer, and cook/simmer the dish just a bit longer, for another 10-15 minutes. One more thing I wanted to add... for recipe use a small to a medium size onion. This recipe actually yields: 12-14 servings.
We did not like this. Sorry.
3 Ratings
This is great! I've also used the gravy on fresh pasta! It gets rave reviews from my gourmet friends! *****
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Sour Wiener Gravy
Serving Size: 1/15 of a recipe
Servings Per Recipe: 15
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 262
Calories from Fat: 181
Hard to believe, but many kids will be back in school at the end of the month. Get ready.
You won't believe all the things you can do with cauliflower. It's a great low-carb option.
Delicious recipes, party ideas, and cooking tips! Get a year of Allrecipes magazine for $7.99!
See how to make a delicious sausage gravy.
See how to make a simple sweet-and-sour peach sauce.
See how to make shrimp and grits.


text:
รูปแบบประโยคในภาษาอังกฤษ (Types of English Sentence)
เรื่องที่ 1 ชนิดของประโยคภาษาอังกฤษที่ใช้ในการสื่อสาร (Types of Sentence for Communication)
Exercise 1
1. Q : Shall I meet you tonight?
N : I shan't meet you tonight.
2. Q : Did he plant flowers of different kinds?
N : He didn't plant flowers of different kinds.
3. Q : Did she keep her secret very well?
N : She didn't keep her secret very well.
4. Q : Did they sing and play the guitar?
N : They didn't sing and play the guitar.
5. Q : Did he borrow books from the library?
N : He didn't borrow books from the library.
6. Q : Can she speak English?
N : She can't speak English.
7. Q : Had the World Trade building collapsed?
N : The World Trade building hadn't collapsed.
8. Q : Is the boy sneezing?
N : The boy isn't sneezing.
9. Q : Does he work hard everyday?
N : He doesn't work hard everyday.
10. Q : Must Pom invite Toom to her party?
N : Pom must not invite Toom to her party.
Exercise 2
1. Work harder.
2. Don't close the door.
3. Read loudly.
4. Don't smoke in this room.
5. Shut the window.
6. Visit your parent.
7. Do your homework.
8. Give me that pencil.
9. Cook Thai salad.
10. Turn the light off.
Exercise 3
1. What a clever man you are! หรือ How clever you are!
2. What an inteligent girl she is! หรือ How intelligent she is!
3. What a talkative man he is! หรือ How talkative he is!
4. What wise men we are! หรือ How wise we are!
5. What a lazy man you are! หรือ How lazy you are!
6. What a fearful animal it is! หรือ How fearful it is!
7. What funny men they are! หรือ How funny they are!
8. What a lovely man I am! หรือ How lovely I am!
9. What a happy man he is! หรือ How happy he is!
10. What a nice girl she is! หรือ How nice she is!
เรื่องที่ 2 ประโยคความรวม (Compound Sentence)
Exercise 1
1. d 2. c 3. a 4. a 5. c
6. d 7. d 8. a 9. a 10. c
Exercise 2
1. I met Toom and Obb in the restaurant.
2. They are talkative, but they are friendly.
3. You can enroll Mathemetics or English according to your choice.
4. Pom ate both fried chicken and french fried.
5. Either Liverpool or Manchester United will win.
6. She is not only ugly but also silly.
7. He bought both a car and washing machine.
8. She has been very sad because her mother died.
9. I was very tried so I stayed at home.
10. Today is neither Tuesday nor Friday.


text:
Oregon Supreme Court( 9 summaries )
Opinions Filed in November 2012
State v. Bray
Appellate Procedure: Placing evidence on the record as a sealed exhibit for appellate review does not qualify as discovery.
(Filing Date: 11-30-2012)
Hope Presbyterian Church of Rogue River v. Presbyterian Church USA
Property Law: Under the neutral principles approach to church property, an church affiliate holds its property in an irrevocable trust for the national organization when the national organization's constitution and the affiliate's own documents declare their intent that the property is held in trust.
(Filing Date: 11-29-2012)
PSU Association of University Professors v. PSU
Employment Law: Pursuant to ORS 659A.030(1)(f), a public university may not discontinue employee grievance procedures when a public employee's contract mandates such procedures, even when the employee seeks statutory discrimination relief.
(Filing Date: 11-29-2012)
State v. Lawson
Evidence: The Classen Test of eyewitness testimony has been revised. The state must show that the eyewitness has personal knowledge of all the facts to which he will testify, and prove that the identification was rationally based on the witness' first hand perceptions and will be helpful to the trier of fact.
(Filing Date: 11-29-2012)
State v. Sanchez-Alfonso
Evidence: Whether evidence is sufficiently reliable to admit under OEC 702 requires an expert to explain what his or her expertise is, how the information is gathered, how the information is used in reaching his or her conclusion, and what scientific basis supports each step of that process.
(Filing Date: 11-29-2012)
Gunderson, LLC, v. City of Portland, et al.,
Land Use: Requiring industrial landowners in the "North Reach" area of the Willamette River to submit development plans for approval by a River Review process to ensure the goals of the 1973 Willamette River Greenway plan is within the power of the City of Portland.
(Filing Date: 11-08-2012)
State v. Leistiko
Appellate Procedure: On a petition for reconsideration, the Supreme Court may decline to address an issue if the issue was not raised in a lower court.
(Filing Date: 11-08-2012)
State v. Lewis
Criminal Law: Criminal negligence does not require that a defendant's conduct be seriously blameworthy, rather, it requires that a defendant fail to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk which constitutes a gross deviation from a reasonable standard of care under the circumstances.
(Filing Date: 11-08-2012)
State v. Sarich
Evidence: Under OEC 601, an inquiry regarding whether an individual is competent enough to testify involves gathering whether that person has the ability to perceive, recollect, and communicate in a worthwhile manner.
(Filing Date: 11-01-2012)


text:
"...the staff at Sunrise were the best... prompt and professional"
Last updated 3 years ago
- on Yahoo! Local
We were in Las Vegas the weekend of Sept 28. My 11 month old granddaughter became ill. We searched the phone book and found Sunrise Childrens Hospital was only a few blocks away. I am in the medical field myself and I must say t hat the staff at Sunrise were the best. From the Triage Desk to the nurses in the back were prompt and professional. A big THANK YOU to all who helped.
- Loading comments...
Use iTriage®'s New iNotify Feature
Tell our ER staff in advance that you are on your way to Sunrise Children's Hospital


text:
Akron Chiropractor Dr. Matthew Pramik
Welcomes You to Fairlawn Family Chiropractic
What's the best way to choose a chiropractor in Fairlawn?
You're doing it! Spend some time here exploring our chiropractic philosophy and our patients-centered focus.
Select a chiropractor who compassionately listens and is willing to explain everything in advance.
Not all chiropractors are alike! Ask questions and expect clear answers.
After you tour our website designed for Fairlawn-area residents searching for a chiropractor, give Fairlawn Family Chiropractic a call. I'd love to meet you and explain our unique approach to today's chiropractic.


text:
A manifest is created that represents a created work in electronic form. The manifest may reference multiple digital resources that together make up the good, as well as related resources not originally a part of the good. For example, an electronic version of a music album may include image files for the cover art, audio files for the songs, and text files for the lyrics. The manifest may include structured meta-data to facilitate finding, obtaining, exchanging the digital content. The manifest and referenced content may have associated meta-data describing, for example, manifest contents or distribution rules. A receiver of the manifest may apply global and/or user rules or policies to meta-data to determine what portions of the manifest, if any, comply thereto, and to edit or delete the manifest accordingly.
1. A method to electronically represent a work, comprising:
storing in a manifest a first reference to a first digital resource, and a first metadata describing the first digital resource;
storing in the manifest a second reference to a second digital resource, and a second meta-data describing the second digital resource; and
storing in the manifest a structural relationship between said first and second digital resources;
wherein the manifest comprises structure corresponding to the work.
2. The method of
3. The method of
storing within the manifest selected ones of: purchasing data for the work, purchasing data for said digital resources, intended audience ratings for said digital resources, content ratings for said digital resources, and processing rules describing how a machine is to process the manifest.
4. A method for defining a manifest for a specific digital representation of a work, comprising:
storing in the manifest a first reference to a first digital resource;
storing in the manifest a first meta-data describing selected ones of the manifest and the first digital resource; and
making the first manifest available for receiving by a receiver; and
associating the first reference and the first meta-data so that the manifest comprises structure corresponding to a physical good.
5. The method of
6. The method of
7. The method of
storing purchasing data for the first digital resource in the manifest to facilitate a purchase decision by a receiver of the manifest.
8. The method of
storing in the manifest a second reference to a second digital resource, said first and second digital resource encoding an original resource with differing encoding quality; and
setting prices in the purchasing data for said first and second resources based at least in part on said encoding quality.
9. The method of
storing in the manifest a second reference to a second digital resource related to but not included in the physical good.
10. The method of
storing in the manifest a second reference to a second digital resource, said first and second digital resource encoding an original resource with differing encoding quality; and
setting prices in the purchasing data for said first and second resources based at least in part on said encoding quality.
11. The method of
storing content ratings information within the manifest so that the receiver can filter content according to said content ratings.
12. The method of
storing digital rights management information within the manifest.
13. The method of
storing authentication information within the manifest.
14. The method of
storing in the manifest a second reference to a second digital resource, said first and second digital resources encoding an original resource with differing encoding quality.
15. The method of
encoding the manifest with a hierarchical tag based markup language; and
structuring the manifest with respect to a rules-based grammar.
16. A method for processing a collection of digital content received by a receiver having at least one policy affecting receipt of collections, comprising:
receiving a manifest for a work comprising a description of data stored by the collection, a reference to a first digital resource, and meta-data describing the first digital content, wherein the manifest comprises a relationship between the reference and said meta-data so that the manifest includes structure corresponding to the work;
testing compliance of the description with the policy;
determining if the manifest can be edited to comply with the policy; and
if not, disposing of the manifest.
17. The method of
providing a search query for locating digital content to a search agent; and
receiving the manifest in response to the search query.
18. The method of
the manifest further comprising a second reference to second digital content, second meta-data describing the second digital content, and purchasing data for said first and second digital content;
deciding to obtain the collection;
determining the first digital content was not previously obtained;
determining the second digital content has been previously been obtained; and
purchasing only the first digital content in accord with said purchasing data.
19. The method of
the manifest further comprising a second reference to second digital content, second meta-data describing the second digital content;
deciding to obtain the first collection;
determining the second digital content has been previously been obtained, said determining being based on the second digital content already being present in a selected one of: a cache, another collection, or a local storage device; and
obtaining only the first digital content.
20. A digital content management system, comprising:
a storage for storing digital content collections, wherein a collection comprises a link reference to digital content, and meta-data describing selected ones of said digital content and the collection;
a communication agent communicatively coupled to the storage;
a receiver communicatively coupled to the communication agent, said receiver configured to inspect said meta-data and process the collection accordingly; and
a transmitter communicatively coupled to the communication agent, said transmitter configured to inspect the reference to digital content to confirm retrievability of the digital content, and to make the collection available to other digital content management systems.
21. The system of
a creation tool for creating the collection; and
a user interface communicatively coupled to the creation tool, said user interface having a first interface tool to facilitate selection of the digital content, and a second interface tool to facilitate entering said meta-data.
22. The system of
a search agent configured to receive a search criteria and search for digital content collections satisfying said search criteria; and
a commerce agent comprising a purchasing tool configured to determine purchasing requirements for received digital content collections, and a payment tool configured to purchase digital content in accord with said purchasing requirements.
23. The system of
24. The system of
a policy checker configured to check digital content collections received by the communication agent against a policy of the receiver;
a digital content collection editor, communicatively coupled to the policy checker, said editor configured to change digital content collections to comply with the policy; and
a digital content collection rejecter, communicatively coupled to said editor, said rejecter configured to reject received digital content collections.
25. The system of
26. The system of
a search agent configured to locate digital content satisfying a search criteria, said locating including searching the storage for satisfying digital content.
27. The system of
28. A method for collecting and managing digital content, comprising:
determining a first digital resource to include in a collection;
storing a first reference to the first resource in the collection;
determining a first meta-data of the first resource;
storing said associated first meta-data in the collection;
storing the collection in a storage accessible by a receiver;
inspecting, by the receiver, of the first meta-data description; and
determining, based at least on said inspecting, whether to obtain the first resource according to the first reference.
29. The method of
associating security data with the collection to facilitate detecting alterations to the collection.
30. The method of
determining compliance of the collection with a receiver policy;
editing the collection to conform the collection to the receiver policy; and
revising, by the receiver, said associated security in accordance with said editing.
31. The method of
32. The method of
logically structuring the collection to correspond to a physical good.
33. A sales method utilizing a collection description describing a seller collection, comprising:
assigning a category to the collection description to facilitate management of the seller collection according to the category;
determining a first resource to be sold with the seller collection;
determining a first meta-data describing the first resource;
storing the first meta-data in the collection description;
storing at least one reference to the first resource in the collection description, where plural references may be used to provide the first resource to the buyer at different quality levels;
associating pricing data with each reference to the first resource; and
storing said pricing data in the collection description.
34. The method of
providing the collection description to a buyer agent;
identifying buyer access of the resource; and
charging the buyer according to pricing data associated with the resource.
35. The method of
36. A rules-based method for declaring a decision tree for a manifest for a work, comprising:
storing a first choice within the manifest;
associating first meta-data with the first choice;
association a first selection with the first choice;
wherein a portion of the manifest is dependent on the first selection.
37. The method of
storing a second selection within the manifest;
wherein said dependency for the portion of the manifest is predicated on said first and second selections.
38. The method of
associating second meta-data with the selection.
39. The method of
40. An article comprising a machine accessible medium having instruction encoded thereon for collecting and managing digital content, said instructions, which when executed by a machine, are capable of directing the machine to perform the operations of
41. The article of
42. An article comprising a machine accessible medium having instructions encoded thereon for defining a manifest for digital content, said instructions, which when executed by a machine, are capable of directing the machine to perform the operations of
43. The article of
44. The article of
45. An article comprising a machine accessible medium having instructions encoded thereon for processing a collection of digital content received by a receiver having at least one policy affecting receipt of collections, said instructions, which when executed by a machine, are capable of directing the machine to perform the operations of
46. The article of
47. The article of
48. The article of
49. An article comprising a machine accessible medium having instruction encoded thereon for collecting and managing digital content, said instructions, which when executed by a machine, are capable of directing the machine to perform the operations of
50. The article of
51. An article comprising a machine accessible medium having instruction encoded thereon for collecting and managing digital content, said instructions, which when executed by a machine, are capable of directing the machine to perform the operations of
52. The article of
[0001] The invention generally relates to distribution of digital content, and more particularly to creating, a manifest having structure, meta-data describing digital content, and references to digital resources, where the manifest facilitates finding, obtaining, organizing, collecting, and sharing the digital content.
[0002] Computing devices, such as a personal computer, typically employ a folder/document metaphor for storing and organizing content. While such a metaphor is well suited to an office environment, where content is typically in the form of documents, it is not effective when applied to the use and management of arbitrary digital content. For example, a digital photo album may be defined to correspond to a physical photo album. Thus, certain photos and/or textures may be identified as corresponding to front and back covers for the photo album, and other photos identified as being internal to the album. All content within the album would be stored in a folder or hierarchy of folders. Unfortunately, such a hierarchy lacks cohesion or inherent structure found in a physical photo album. Thus, while a real photo album can be easily organized, shared, etc., there is no standard method for doing so with the hierarchy for the digital photo album.
[0003] One solution has been to apply an encapsulating structure (e.g. zip or tar file) to the hierarchy and thus create an archive containing all of the digital content. This archive can then be exchanged, sold, etc. A significant drawback to such an archive is that it is monolithic, e.g., it contains all data within the album. This reduces the transferability of the album, and restricts selective transfer of only some album contents. In addition, an archive generally lacks data describing the context and contents of the photo album (e.g., meta-data), thus making it difficult to organize and search/find digital content, and to avoid having duplicative digital content. For example, once the archive it received, it needs to be re-created in a folder structure corresponding to the original hierarchy structure, or risk internal references to files being lost. This prevents or restricts moving, organizing, and re-organizing digital content.
[0004] In addition, assuming the user can maintain the proper structure of the content, also lacking to such an archive is an easy, robust, and widely-supported method for searching digital content. For example, for music data, without excessive redundancy, folder organization techniques cannot help if you want to locate a song played based on multiple criteria, such as mood and music type, since music would generally fall into multiple categories and thus require entry in multiple folders.
[0005] Similarly, one cannot select a video starring a certain actor and start viewing at a particular scene, hum a bar of a tune and have the system find it for you, or find all photos taken at an event last year. These tasks cannot be performed because mere hierarchical storage of digital content lacks associative or context data, such as captions, dates, places, copyrights, artist, author, genre, etc. to allow identification of digital content based on such search criteria.
[0006] Assuming the digital content can be located, exchanging the digital content is difficult due to a lack of open and flexible standard to do so. Existing digital content packaging schemes are proprietary and tailored to specific content types, such as for electronic books or music. Currently there is no technology for uniformly packaging, in electronic form, a wide variety of digital content in a way that qualifies the content as what the entertainment industry calls a "title."
[0007] The features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention in which:
[0008]FIG. 1 illustrates a generalized network environment according to one embodiment of the invention.
[0009]FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a manifest for representing digital content corresponding to a music album.
[0010]FIG. 3 illustrates, according to one embodiment of the invention, portions of an XML skeleton for implementing the FIG. 2 manifest.
[0011]FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating, according to one embodiment of the invention, creating digital content for use by a receiver.
[0012]FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating, according to one embodiment of the invention, receiving a manifest or manifests from an agent, such as in response to a search query.
[0013]FIG. 6 illustrates a suitable computing environment in which certain aspects of the invention may be implemented.
[0014] To address limitations in management and distribution of digital content, a system may be used for uniform electronic packaging of digital content independent of content type, along with automated distribution of digital content to desired recipients. The phrase "digital content" refers to digital representations of created works, such as multimedia items including photo albums, music albums, novels, magazines, and the like, as well as entirely new forms of content that may emerge in the electronic realm. The phrase "electronic package" means an instance of digital content that exists in some computer accessible medium, such as on a wire, in computer memory, on a storage device, etc.
[0015] The illustrated embodiments of the invention may represent, or package, abstract created works in a concrete electronic digital form, as well as provide an electronic analog to traditional physical goods. For example, a CD-ROM or vinyl album is simply a physical representation of the abstract concept "music album"; a book is simply a physical representation of the abstract concept "novel." But, it will be appreciated that these exemplary album and novel concepts have been largely defined with respect to the limitations of their physical representations. And, these abstract forms can be faithfully represented in an electronic form. However, it should be appreciated that since a non-physical electronic realm lacks limitations of physical objects, and therefore abstract forms of created works can morph and evolve in ways unpredictable, and perhaps not physically possible.
[0016] Thus, an electronic package may be structured to correspond to, or mimic, a physical good. For example, an electronic package corresponding to a music compact disc (CD) can be defined as having packaging, cover illustrations, organization, etc., corresponding to a physical CD. However, unlike the physical good, in an electronic realm, the electronic package may also include meta-data describing the parts, and/or context of the packaged digital content, rules controlling distribution of the digital content, as well as references to content related to but not part of the physical good.
[0017] In one embodiment, an electronic package of digital content is represented by a "manifest" (see FIG. 2) that appears as a single unit, or item, to a user/receiver of the manifest. The manifest comprises "component" definitions corresponding to components of the digital content, each component definition specifying a reference to a digital resource.
[0018]FIG. 1 illustrates a general computing environment according to one embodiment of the invention. As illustrated, a manifest for an electronic package is created or transmitted by an originator 100-104, and received by a receiver 106, 108. It will be appreciated that the terms "receiver" and "originator" are arbitrary, in that one may also perform the operations of the other. Agents 110, 112 facilitate transfer of manifests from originators to receivers. Originators, receivers, and agents are in communication with each other over a network 114 such as an intranet, the Internet, or other network. There may be other networks, not illustrated, providing alternate or direct connections between the agents, originators, and/or receivers.
[0019] Agents include, for example, search engines used by a receiver to locate digital content of interest to the receiver, order processing systems for responding to and fulfilling purchase requests, and systems that customize content en route for specific locales. Agents can incorporate arbitrary "intelligence" that facilitate buying, selling, trading, bartering, lending, etc. of digital content. In one embodiment, originators and receivers may also perform the functions of an agent.
[0020] Thus, receiver 1 106 may contact Agent 1 110, and indicate interest in obtaining a certain classical music CD as digital content. If Agent 2 cannot directly provide the requested digital content, Agent 1 contacts Agent 2 112 over the network 114, and request the desired digital content. Assuming Agent 2 can fulfill the request, Agent 2 sends Agent 1 a manifest corresponding to the requested digital content.
[0021] It will be appreciated that typical content distribution services, such as Universal Music Group's bluematter and BMG (both online music providers), and Flycode (a peer-to-peer short film distribution network), already allow one to obtain digital content over a network. (Please note that all marks herein are the property of their respective owners.) However, a significant limitation of such services is that received content is a monolithic encapsulation, it contains all parts of the digital content whether one wishes to receive it or not. Thus, for a music album, the receiver would receive all data for all songs within the album, which may potentially include multiple encodings of each song, etc. This contrasts distribution by way of a manifest, which may only contain references to digital resources, allowing advance determination of which parts, if any, of the content to obtain before expending resources to receive it.
[0022] Another limitation of prior art techniques is that the content is rigidly structured. For example, bluematter and BMG can provide a "song," or an "album," but these are content forms that cannot be easily extended to include other types of content, such as video clips, discount coupons, etc. Such content is also inflexible in the types of metadata that can be included. For example, fixed file formats (e.g., MP3, WMA, etc.) typically used in such services have specific notions of what constitutes appropriate metadata for a music album or an individual song. This results in limitations in what data may be represented, and how, thus limiting general applicability of the file format. Such systems are tightly bound with specific encoding formats, and are difficult to upgrade when technological improvements are made.
[0023]FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a manifest 200 for representing digital content corresponding to an abstract music album. It will be appreciated, however, that a manifest may also be used to electronically represent particular physical implementations of the abstract idea, e.g., to represent compact discs, vinyl albums, etc. It is assumed the manifest is created with an appropriate manifest generation/authoring tool. The manifest binds together various types of resources in their original authored formats. In one embodiment, the manifest only references data that can be created with well known or standard data authoring tools, such as MP3 generators, video editing software, etc.
[0024] As illustrated, the manifest 200 itself corresponds to a top, or outer, level. Within the illustrated manifest are six item declarations corresponding to two songs 202, 216, two videos 230, 236, cover art graphics 242 and meta-data 244. The meta-data 244 may contain distribution rules, requirements, or policies (hereafter "rules or policies") regarding handling of the manifest, or the digital content described by the manifest.
[0025] Items (and sub-items) can have sub-items. For example, as illustrated, song 1 202 contains references 204, 206 to different encodings of song 1, meta-data 208 describing song 1, a reference 210 to lyrics for song 1, a reference 212 to a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) encoding of song 1. The references 204, 206 to the different encodings allow providing different encodings of a song, such as a high bit rate version and a low bit rate version, allowing a receiver 106, 108 (FIG. 1) to elect a version based on certain criteria. For example, a receiver may elect a version based on communication data rates available to the receiver. The meta-data 208 for song 1 202 may include song data such as playing time, composer, recording date, copyright information, and the like.
[0026] The meta-data for song 1 202 may also contain pricing information for each song encoding, e.g., the high bit rate encoding 206 for song 1 may cost more than the low bit rate 204 encoding. The meta-data may also include other data such as content ratings, intended audience ratings, e.g., an indicator the song is intended for kids, teenagers, adults, etc., song genre, geographic distribution rules, e.g., different geographic regions receive different song versions, parental controls, etc. The manifest primarily contains references to digital resources, rather than directly embedding the resources. The meta-data may be used to determine how to handle digital resources referenced by the manifest (see FIG. 5). The meta-data can also be inspected to prevent duplicative retrieval of digital resources already be present in a cache or local storage, e.g., saved to disk or a collection. Duplicative retrievals unnecessarily burden networks and increase purchase costs and delivery times.
[0027] The illustrated manifest 200 also includes videos sections 230, 236 having references 232, 238 to video clips of concerts, music videos, or other video data related to the physical good described by the manifest. As with the songs, 202, 216, the video sections 230, 236 may have associated meta-data 234, 240, such as title, running time, content ratings, and other such data as discussed above for song data. It will be appreciated that video data is not ordinarily part of a music CD distribution. However, since the manifest contains references to digital resources, rather than the resources themselves, it is easy to extend the manifest to include varied data typically associated with the music CD, even though such an inclusion would be impractical or cost ineffective to distribute along with the physical CD, or obtain along with a traditional monolithic download.
[0028] As illustrated, the manifest may also include a reference 242 to a graphics file, such as for a graphics encoding of the cover art for the music CD. Such graphics data facilitates presenting, by way of a user interface, a visual representation, such a picture of the cover of an album, or other representative view, of the created work being represented by the manifest.
[0029] It is assumed that an appropriate user interface, such as a text-based or graphical-based interface is used to identify digital resources to include in the manifest, and to create the manifest accordingly. In one embodiment, the same user interface is used to process received manifests. In one embodiment, the graphical user interface is based on an Internet browser. In one embodiment, the manifest includes security provisions to detect unauthorized tampering with the manifest. In one embodiment, the manifest is cryptographically signed. In another embodiment, some or all of the manifest is encrypted with a private and/or known public cryptographic systems. See, e.g., Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C by Bruce Schneier.
[0030]FIG. 3 illustrates, according to one embodiment of the invention, portions of an XML skeleton 300 for implementing the FIG. 2 manifest 200. The extensible Markup Language (XML) is used due to its widespread industry support and structures for organizing data. XML allows creation of custom tags, which enables defining, validating, and interpreting transmitted manifests. It will be appreciated, however, that other languages, such as tag based languages, or scripting languages, may also be used. In addition, in one embodiment, a binary data standard (e.g., cross-platform readable) may be used to encode a manifest. In general, any data format that allows data sets to be named, and hierarchically structured, can be used.
[0031] A first tag 302 indicates the beginning of a music package definition, or container, for the digital content defined by the manifest. The package has multiple defined items. A first item 304 contains information about the "digital item" (in this case, an electronic version of a music album) described by the manifest, and configuration options regarding handling the contents of the package, e.g., how to prompt a receiver regarding processing songs and other digital content referenced by the manifest.
[0032] Each defined item, and the manifest itself, may have arbitrary meta-data to allow associating real-world context with an item. Meta-data is introduced with descriptor tags 320, 322 having definitions 324. A descriptor tag NAME attribute indicates the metadata attribute being defined, and the VALUE attribute supplies an appropriate value. The first item 304 includes a choice tag 306 identified with an ID 308 to allow a receiver of the manifest to choose how to receive songs referenced by the manifest. A selection tag 310, e.g., "pick songs," provides an option for selecting songs individually. It will be appreciated that other selection options, or no options, may be provided.
[0033] A subsequent choice tag 312 indicates available songs, e.g., SONG1, SONG2, from which to choose. Note that the choice tag 312 has a condition tag 314 requiring the above "pick songs" selection tag 310. This condition must be satisfied before this choice 312 is acted upon, and it operates in the context of the previous choice tag 306. In such fashion, manifests may be structured to provide choices based on previous selections. Subsequent selection tags 316 define songs that may be individually selected.
[0034] A following tag 318 indicates a start of a manifest section for selecting a desired bit rate desired for selected songs. As above with song selection, bit rate selection options (not illustrated) may be included to operate with respect to the method employed for song selection. For example, if an election is made to individually pick songs, then one may be prompted for each song to select a desired bit-rate.
[0035] Other choice tags may also be defined to control delivery of the digital content to another party, e.g., to include an address book to facilitate sale or transfer of digital content to another receiver. Tags may also be defined to prompt a receiver to identify a computing platform receiving the manifest, e.g., desktop computer, portable, hand-held device, personal digital assistant (PDA), as each such device may have different format requirements, storage capacities and interface capabilities.
[0036] Tags may also be defined to indicate the operating system in use by the receiving device, and to control whether to obtain extra content, such as related videos 230, 236, cover art and related package graphics, lyrics, press reviews, etc. Tags may also be defined to indicate data format preferences, e.g., graphics images should be converted (if necessary) into Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format images, or videos should be in a particular format.
[0037] Following various choice tags, are descriptor tags 322 that are at the same hierarchical level as the first item 304 definition, e.g., a music compact disc, and therefore define 324 typical characteristics for the disc. Exemplary illustrated characteristics include the type of music disc defined by the item 304 (an album), an audience rating, album title, creator, contributor, album publisher, and album rights (e.g., copyright information). As discussed above, any of these attributes can be used to control or facilitate organization, content filtering, and re-distribution of digital content.
[0038] This description assumes the receiver is a person using an application program or device configured to receive and/or process the manifest, and display choices accordingly. However, note that the receiver may be another application program or device, such as one operating to automatically apply local policies or rules to received manifests, before a manifest is received by a person. In particular, there may be local policies, such as parental controls, and these policies may be used to cause a rewriting of the manifest, e.g., per XML rewriting rules, so that the manifest excludes references to undesirable content.
[0039] It will be appreciated that the exemplary FIG. 3 skeleton may be constructed with content and features to free a user from tedious download processes, and from the need to know or understand file formats or plug-ins (e.g., application program enhancements designed to process a particular data format) when receiving content from network originators 100-104 (FIG. 1). Through use of agents 110, 112, or direct network connections, the user can place an order for digital content, and then continue with other tasks. The order is fulfilled in the background, without user intervention. Delivery can be robust such that if a network connection is broken, a data transfer continues automatically when the network connection is reestablished. When content has been received, and its manifest accepted, modified or rejected according to user and local-system rules and/or policies, the user can be notified accordingly.
[0040]FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating, according to one embodiment of the invention, creating an electronic package of digital content for use by a receiver. As illustrated, a first operation is to package digital content 400 for distribution to receivers; as discussed above, in one embodiment, a manifest is used to package the content. A packaging program is used to identify content to be packaged and generate a corresponding manifest. Individual digital resources can be identified by way of traditional file selection dialogs, or with Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) type drag and drop operations, or through other selection techniques.
[0041] When created, the manifest contains references to identified resources, and if desired, a virtual structure corresponding to a physical good, e.g., a music CD. Thus, a receiving program for a music CD manifest would present a user interface displaying the virtual representation of the physical good. In the CD example, this might include rendering a CD jewel box with appropriate cover art and song listings as defined within the manifest.
[0042] A created manifest is sent 402 to an agent for distribution, which in turn stores 404 the manifest in a public storage. Note that the storage need not be publicly accessible, however public access is assumed so that search engines, agents, and other location applications are able to mine and/or index stored manifests. It is assumed that the agent stores the manifest in a database. The digital resources identified by the manifest are stored 406 as well. The digital resources may be stored in public or private storage locations depending on intellectual property rights for the digital resources.
[0043] Once the manifest has been created and stored, an agent can receive 408 a search query, e.g., purchase request, database look-up request, etc. The agent searches 410 through the database for manifests corresponding to the query. Assuming manifests are XML based, it will be appreciated that different query languages may be used depending on manifest formatting and database technology used to store the manifests. For example, the agent may use XML Query Language (XQL) queries, Stanford University's Lore query language, or other query languages.
[0044] Manifests matching the received 408 query are returned 412 to a requester. This may result in a request to purchase digital content identified by a manifest. Towards this end, the agent would confirm payment for digital content as required by a manifest, and make digital content available to a purchaser. Various known techniques may be employed to provide purchased digital content in a secure fashion so as to reduce possibility of illicit appropriation of the digital content, e.g., temporary names and locations for the digital resources included in the content, creation of secure communications channels or tunnels between the agent and purchases, or the like.
[0045]FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating, according to one embodiment of the invention, receiving 500 a manifest or manifests from an agent, such as in response to a search query. It is assumed the manifest is received by an application program, operating system extension, or the like, before a user/person is granted access to the manifest or allowed to take action on (e.g., purchase) the digital content referenced by the manifest.
[0046] When the manifest is received, a receiver 106, 108 (FIG. 1) applies 502, 506 rules or policies to the meta-data 208, 222, 234, 240, 244 (FIG. 2) to determine how to process the digital content, such as whether to reject some or all of the manifest. For example, a receiver may have local rules controlling whether to include supplemental content such as the videos 230, 236, (FIG. 2) MIDI encodings 212, 226 (FIG. 2), or other data not traditionally part of an original physical good, e.g., the music CD. A user preference may be set to cause discarding of any such supplemental manifest portions.
[0047] In one embodiment, there may be different rules or policies 506 for each user of the receiving device, e.g., the receiving device may be a multiple-user computer, in addition to global rules or policies that are applied 502 to all users of the computing device. For example, parental controls may be used to globally restrict the type of content that any user may receive, or content known to be incompatible with the receiver may be automatically edited out of a manifest. In one embodiment, a received manifest is rewritten 504, if necessary, to comply with the global rules or policies. Note that a remote management system can be used to set or change rules or policies.
[0048] After checking the manifest against global rules or policies, user rules or policies are then applied 506 to the manifest, and the manifest again rewritten 508, if necessary, to comply with the user rules or policies. In one embodiment, the process of "rewriting" a manifest is done in a rigorous manner. The rules controlling the rewriting are expressed in declarative form within the manifest itself within <choice> and <selection> tags, and their corresponding <condition> tags. This makes the rewriting process robust, and ensures the resulting rewritten manifest is valid. Once a received manifest has cleared both global and user rules or policies, the resultant manifest is executed or interpreted 510 by the receiver. As discussed above with respect to FIG. 3, such processing may cause a user interface to be displayed to allow a user selection among different choices provided by the manifest for buying or obtaining 512 digital content accordingly.
[0049] In one embodiment, manifests are encoded according to a rules based grammar comprising the following exemplary rules:
[0050] (1) container ::=container* item* meta-data
[0051] (2) item ::=(item|component)+ choice* meta-data* condition*
[0052] (3) component ::=resource meta-data* anchor* condition*
[0053] (4) meta-data ::=meta-data* (component|statement) condition*
[0054] (5) anchor ::=reference meta-data* condition*
[0055] (6) choice ::=selection+ meta-data* condition*
[0056] (7) selection ::=predicate meta-data* condition*
[0057] (8) condition ::=predicate+
[0058] Where: a container may be a hierarchical structure allowing items to be grouped to form logical packages that may be transported, exchanged, sold, stored, etc. An item is a grouping of sub-items and/or components associated with relevant meta-data about the item. Items may contain choices for customizing and/or configuring the item, and may be conditioned on predicates asserted by selections defined in the choices. A resource is a collection of data, such as an audio clip, image file, text document, or other data. A component is an association between a resource and all of its relevant meta-data; component meta-data will typically contain control or structural information about a resource, e.g., bit rate, media type, character set, encryption information, etc. A reference designates a portion of a resource, such as a specific location or range within the resource. A "statement" comprises a value and an associated domain for that value. And, a predicate is a non-substitutable token, and in one embodiment, has a true, false, or undecided value.
[0059]FIG. 6 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which certain aspects of the illustrated invention may be implemented.
[0060] An exemplary system for implementing the invention includes a computing device 600 having system bus 602 for coupling various computing device components. Typically, attached to the bus are non-programmable and programmable processors 604, a memory 606 (e.g., RAM, ROM), storage devices 608, a video interface 610, and input/output interface ports 612. Storage devices include hard-drives, floppy-disks, optical storage, magnetic cassettes, tapes, flash memory cards, memory sticks, digital video disks, and the like.
[0061] The invention may be described by reference to different high-level program modules and/or low-level hardware contexts. Those skilled in the art will realize that program modules can be interchanged with low-level hardware instructions. Program modules include procedures, functions, programs, components, data structures, and the like, for performing particular tasks or implementing particular abstract data types. Modules may be incorporated into single and multi-processor computing devices, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones, and the like. Thus, the storage systems and associated media can store data and executable instructions for the computing device.
[0062] As discussed above with respect to FIG. 1, the computing device is expected to operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computing devices 614, 616 through a network interface 618, modem 620, or other communication pathway. Computing devices may be interconnected by way of a network 622 such as an intranet, the Internet, or other network. Modules may be implemented in a single computing device, or processed in a distributed network environment, and stored in both local and remote memory. Thus, for example, with respect to the illustrated embodiments, assuming computing device 600 is a computing device operated by a user searching for music in a particular genre, then remote devices 614, 616 may respectively be first and second agents that receive and respond to search issued by computing device 600.
[0063] It will be appreciated that remote computing devices 614, 616 may be configured like computing device 600, and therefore include many or all of the elements discussed for computing device. It should also be appreciated that computing devices 600, 614, 616 may be embodied in a single device, or separate communicatively-coupled components, and may include or be embodied in routers, bridges, peer devices, web servers, and application programs utilizing network application protocols such as the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and the like.
[0064] Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention with reference to illustrated embodiments, it will be recognized that the illustrated embodiments can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles.
[0065] And, even though the foregoing discussion has focused on particular embodiments, it is understood that other configurations are contemplated. In particular, even though expressions such as "in one embodiment," "in another embodiment," or the like are used herein, these phrases are meant to generally reference embodiment possibilities, and are not intended to limit the invention to particular embodiment configurations. As used herein, these terms may reference the same or different embodiments, and unless implicitly or expressly indicated otherwise, embodiments are combinable into other embodiments. Consequently, in view of the wide variety of permutations to the above-described embodiments, the detailed description is intended to be illustrative only, and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention.
[0066] What is claimed as the invention, therefore, is all such modifications as may come in the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereto.
Patent Citations
Referenced by
Legal Events
Original Image


text:
Why Do Mexis Like Wrought-Iron Fences?
By Gustavo Arellano
By R. Scott Moxley
By Alfonso Delgado
Women For: OC are Stitching and Bitching
By Courtney Hamilton
Santa Ana River Ready for Its Renaissance
By Joel Beers
By Peter Maguire
Can Tech Ruin the Kim Pham Murder Trial?
By Charles Lam
MLG Anaheim: This eSporting Life
By Charles Lam
Then came Kerr's phone call, which inspired Jones to recommit to Douchebag. So did e-mails from Stidham, who is credited as a writer along with Doremus, Dickler and producer Jonathan Schwartz—although she was the only one who put anything on paper. As the line producer, Stidham also scouted all the filming locations.
"Lindsay would end her e-mails with, 'P.S. This is my passion project. Let's not let it fall through the cracks,'" Jones says. "It's been my passion ever since."
After a long photo shoot, Jones and Doremus pour themselves into lounge chairs, share warm Newcastle Browns and trade funny stories about their fathers.
"Both our dads are going to be there in Sundance opening night," Doremus says. "They are huge fans and supporters. My dad has always been supportive of me."
The Shirt, the first short film Doremus made after AFI, was about a guy who can't find the perfect shirt, so he ultimately goes without one. "At the premiere, my dad took off his shirt," Doremus says.
He says Douchebag is more in the spirit of The Shirt than Spooner was. Starring Matthew Lillard (Scooby-Doo, SLC Punk!), who attended Tustin schools from first grade through high-school graduation, Spooner was about a guy who had no interest in growing up until love came along. It was based on a story idea, Doremus says, while the darker Douchebag "is way more personal."
"We use the name of my fifth-grade girlfriend, my best friend is one of the stars, and my film editor from Spooner is the other," he says.
"It's extremely personal," Jones concurs. "And I think working with you, there's an escape there. It's not all about the camera. With so many movies, you can feel the camera, you can feel the crew. I hope that comes through."
Maybe it's the warm English beer talking, but the usually optimistic Doremus is growing increasingly somber.
"I know some people are going to hate it," he says of Douchebag. "But if you add up the amount of people who will see it at Sundance, more people will have eventually seen it than any of my other films. Not enough people saw Spooner to hate it."
"But the name is Douchebag," Jones offers, trying to keep his friend's spirits up.
"People will find it."
They agree the name was a stroke of genius, courtesy of Schwartz. After some initial doubts, the title grew on everyone, until all agreed the picture could be called nothing else.
"It has some very sweet moments," Doremus says, as if trying to convince himself.
"It has a lot of humanity in it," Jones agrees, "and I think people will get it."
Doremus is already jittery about walking into the Sundance buzz saw, and now the PR people there are playing up the scheduled attendance of Mary Barger—the real one, with whom Doremus reconnected and who is flying in for the premiere.
"I'll be nervous Friday night," Doremus says. "It'll be the first time anyone has seen it. The LA Times will be there. It's so nerve-wracking. It's not like Slamdance, where you're showing the film to 100 people. This is the biggest stage for movies in the world besides Cannes."
He starts fretting about all those seats Douchebag will have to try to fill in Park City and Salt Lake City—3,445 at six showings, not counting the press-only screening.
The beer is not working.
BING BAR. PARK CITY, UTAH. Friday, JAN. 22, 7 P.M.
Snow flurries have fallen all day on this former mining town. It's pretty to look at—from inside a toasty room. Thankfully for sun-spoiled Southern Californians, the Absolut Douchebag Party—in deference to the official beverage sponsor, of course—is indoors.
For the invite-only slurp fest, the Main Street watering hole's front doors are locked, and entry is only possible through a door marked "Exit" once you clear a large bouncer with a guest list in his mitts at the top of the steps.
Inside, the Bing is packed—and oozing with schmooze-itude. The 2010 incarnation of Twiggy is telling a slightly sneering Jason Schwartzman look-alike how she's known Doremus for years and years.
The director of the hour holds court in the next room alongside Jones, Dickler, Stidham, Schwartz, co-producer Marius Markevicius and actress Amy Ferguson, who has a supporting role in the film. Decked out in their Sundance best, Team Douchebag cracks up as photographers snap them against a festival backdrop.
Beaming with pride between the camera lenses is Jones' father, Wellington Stroud Jones.
The younger Jones leans over and says, "Time to go, Dad."
Sponsor Content