text:
- Written by MiddleEasy @MiddleEasy
The Top Ten MMA Organizations That We Really, Really, Really Miss A Lot
Take a voyage through time and space (and then realize halfway through your journey that you left the oven on). After weeks of starting, stopping, slamming my laptop against the wall and telling my functional alcoholic neighbor that I can't babysit her cats this week (or ever) 'The Top Ten Organizations That We Really, Really, Really Miss Alot' list is finally up and now I can finally get back to the finishing off the second season of The Golden Girls (they taught me what a 'confidante' was). A massive amount of work went into composing this list but I do realize that when you spend until 4am culling the internet for extinct websites and impossible to find press releases, things can get a little muddy. If you see an error or would like to add something to this list, feel free to contact me and drop some knowledge my way.
Check out 'The Top Ten Organizations That We Really, Really, Really Miss Alot' only on MiddleEasy.com - Because MMA is Everything.
Caged Fury Fighting Championship otherwise known as 'that organization where you can see that Youtube guy fight'. Before there was EliteXC and The Ultimate Fighter: Season 10; CFFC was the first promotion to extend an invitation to Kimbo Slice when he was still taking out neighborhood bullies in the backyards of Florida. Back when his old high school frend "Icey Mike" was holding a camcorder screaming 'Get 'em Ferg!'. This was vintage Kimbo, back when you thought that not even Galactus could knock him out (leave it to Seth Petruzelli to urinate on that illusion).
CFFC premiered June 30th 2006 in New Jersey and featured a 13 fight card headlined by undefeated Carmelo "The Fury" (after defeating Cheick Kongo at UFC 64 he then went on to a 10-4 record with his most recent loss coming in the Vendetta Fighting Championship in Aruba. Probably more information than you even wanted but hey, knowing is half the battle). Besides guys like Tamdan McCory and Dan Lauzon making the occasional appearance, CFFC just couldn't quite climb over the other side of the talent hill like that other organizations (refer from 9-1) enjoyed. Screw it, the CFFC prowled on Youtube and found a dude that appeared to be born on the Planet Kypton: Kimbo Slice.
At the time I lived in Europe (yeah, I really did have a life) and I would get drunk and show my French roommates Youtube clips of Kimbo pounding on some dude in a backyard and then spend roughly about 45 minutes telling them the various ways in which America could kick France's ass in a grappling match. When CFFC announced that Kimbo Slice would be banging away on Ray Mercer in a sanctioned MMA event (later changed to a MMA exhibition match), people were doing synchronized back-flips in anticipation for this match. Sure it wasn't top level competition (for some reason everyone on Youtube wanted Kimbo to fight Paul Buentello) but it was something inside a cage with 4oz gloves that vaguely resembled MMA. It was good enough for us. CFFC 5 went down, Kimbo came out to 'This is why I'm hot' and within a couple of minutes he submitted Ray Mercer with a guillotine. Yeah, submitted Ray Mercer. Granted Mercer isn't known for his Brazilian jiu-jitsu but the MMA world was surprised Kimbo even knew how to execute any submission. Fight was over in the first round, Kimbo jumps on top of the cage and points to the crowd and then friggin Tank Abbot comes out of nowhere and sort of calls Kimbo out. Boom. The CFFC promoter's head just flew to the ceiling and they instantly had their next headliner for CFFC 6.
CFFC announced Kimbo Slice vs. Tank Abbot was going to headline CFFC 6 in October 12th 2007. I started working overtime at the European 80s club that I bartended at (it was an interesting time in my life) just to gather enough loot to snatch a cheap planet ticket to make it to Atlantic City for this bout. I just couldn't miss this. Late September I book my ticket, October 4th rolls and I hop on my 12 hour flight back to the US. Eventually I arrive at my destination (MiddleEasy interviewer, Dick 'Starscream' Grayson's parent's basement), I check the CFFC's site to map out the venue on Google and I'm smacked in the testicles by this:
The entire collapse of an organization all while I was 30,000 feet in the air listening to some guy tell me how he makes industrial cameras and sells them to some German brothel. I would give him a plug but I'm afraid he'll track me down and tell me about camera apertures and sexually transmitted diseases for nine more hours. It was over, CFFC was done and so was the point of my $890 plane ticket. Unfortunately this will not be the last time I was financially screwed by an MMA organization (refer to #2). No one really knew the true story on the collapse of CFFC, some even claim the promoters had severe gambling debts and they used the promotion as a means to pay back a few East coast bookies who really needed their loot. Two years after the collapse all we have is speculation (and nonrefundable plane tickets) but don't listen to me, let two guys from Jersey talk about how the CFFC went down.
Some of you may remember how Club Rubber completely dominated Las Vegas around 2001-2003 with their cleverly titled 'Pimps n Ho' parties. I know I remember it because my friend, let's just call him 'Crackhead Brian', tried to drag me along to that orgasm of spiked hair, vampire eye contacts, guys with Cadillac tattoos and cracked glow-sticks. If you didn't come up for breath every once in a while you would drown in testosterone. Created by John Huntington of Club Rubber, the World Fighting Alliance operated by their slogan 'Where the fight club meets the night club'. DJ Beej spun after every fight along with Las Vegas strippers (temporarily turned go-go dancers) hopping in the cage and doing what they do best (take my last $20). Actually, the WFA was probably 80% scantily clad chicks and 20% MMA. They literally had chicks dancing everywhere, on the ceiling, in the cage, by the cage posing in the audience, backstage, coming off the steps, in bathrooms, on ladders. A couple of events even featured girls dangling from the ceiling in cages and to top it all off…Ice-T even performed during a fight. It was more like 'Where the fight club meets the $30.00 cover Las Vegas Strip Club' (they even press released their own after-fight parties).
The first sanctioned fight was November 2001 held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino which featured an impressive line-up including Frank Trigg, Antonio McKee, Rich Franklin, Marvin Eastman and Shaolin Riberio (even had Bruce Buffer announcing). The rules were pretty much the same as every MMA organization at the time...but, you know the whole 'hot chicks everywhere thing'.
Here's an excerpt from their old website about their second MMA event:
"Wherever one turned, there was no chance of missing the action that was about to unfold. As the lights dimmed, spectators were enticed with a mesmerizing scene of psychedelic images, backed up by a spectacular light and laser show overhead. The WFA's in-house DJ, microphone in hand, got the festivities going with a march down the center aisle to the cage. Armed with a fresh rhyme and deadly beat, no one was impervious to its power- the standing-room only crowd was quickly grooving to the music. Followed by a bevy of delicious beauties and Master of Ceremonies Bruce Buffer, the DJ took his place at the turntables, spinning the hottest tunes and sounds well into the night. Gorgeous go-go dancers twisted and gyrated on raised platforms alongside and over the cage as more scantily-clad goddesses mingled their way through audience."
"With two fully-stocked bars at the back of each side of the house and ravishing cocktail waitresses roaming the floor, one did not have to go far for libations to wet the palette. Spectators upstairs in the WFA VIP Lounge, gazed down through a web of green and orange neon light to the commotion below. From their perch above, they could take in all the action from plush sofas or private tables- equipped with over a dozen private viewing screens in addition to a private bar. There truly wasn't a bad seat in the house."
With chicks flooding the venue, comedians making regular appearances at events and a friggin snakeskin lined championship belt; the WFA seemed to be on it's way of being the premiere destination for strippers, MMA fans and guys that have an extreme longing to spike their hair with gel. There was only one blatant problem: The WFA focused entirely too much on the night club aspect and not enough on the whole 'fight club' thing (bet you didn't see that one coming). John Huntington and his financial partner decided to transfer ownership of the organization to two attorneys from the Las Vegas area, Louis Palazzo and Ross Goodman. These guys eyed the potential of WFA like some prophetic MMA cyclops and they started to sign the goliaths at that time like Rampage Jackson, Matt Lindland, Bas Rutten, Ricco Rodriguez and even some up and comers like Lyoto Machida, Mayhem Miller and Martin Kampman...all of which participated in the WFA's forth (and final) event: WFA King of the Streets which was held July 22nd 2006.
Everything was kosher, even Dana White admitted that the two owners "were working towards building a strong promotion". Of course Dana White said that just before ZUFFA purchased the World Fighting Alliance and acquired a stable of promising fighters including Rampage Jackson (ZUFFA would later lose Quinton to The A-Team. That's wild). On December 16th 2006, the WFA closed it's door for good and left an army of strippers out on the streets (and they pretty much stayed there to this day).
Alright, turn your oven off, close your eyes and imagine the world is about to come to an end. Now imagine the world made an exclusive deal with Japan and told them if they could come up with a single MMA event to rock the entire planet, the world would change it's mind and postpone the apocalypse. That's a pretty accurate summary of what went down late in 2007 and that one MMA event that saved the world was called: Yarennoka!
After we all wiped the snot from our nose after Pride FC collapsed, former Pride FC executives pitched an idea to FEG (Fighting Entertainment Group, the guys who own K-1) to promote just one big friggin MMA event jammed with an ample amount of rawesomite sticks and detonated on Japanese PPV (and HDNet in America for free). FEG dug the idea and Yarennoka! was born and billed as a farewell show to all Pride fans. Granted, Yarennoka! was more of a one time event and less of an actual organization but when everything was being assembled, the entire MMA world truly thought that Yarennoka! would be the substitute teacher equivalent of Pride FC. We all believed this was the resurrection of Pride. To make the card truly legit, Fedor Emelianenko was added and was slated to face a Korean behemoth (who was completely unknown at the time) Hong Man Choi (or Choi Hong Man if you're dyslexic...or from Korea). In an attempt to save the world (and MMA), Yarennoka! added Ricardo Arona, Joachim Hansen, Shinya Aoki, Gilbert Melendez, Mach Sakurai, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Yoshihiro Sexyama and Kawajiri all of which could have easily been main events (Hansen and Arona were later removed from Yarennoka!, Joachim sustained an injury and Ricardo Arona was too busy surfing). The former Pride execs, FEG and M-1 Global dumped tons of money into making this the biggest thing to hit Japan since Mechazilla (or Gameboy).
New Years Eve 2007 rolled around and it was time to do some Yarrennokian. There were no undercards, just eight eloquently assembled and equally impressive fights all leading up to a massive New Years party that would be held entirely inside the Saitama Super Arena. Yarennoka pulled a record attendance of over 27,000 and gave the MMA community one of the most photochopped pictures on the internet: The Fedor Armbar over Hong Man Choi (which has been replicated and posted on every MMA message board out there). It was an absolute success, such a success in fact that the former Pride executives and FEG held hands and jumped into a think tank. When they eventually hopped out, Dream was their cute little offspring.
This was a good one. Internet gambling extraordinaire, Calvin Ayre, started the Bodog Fight sector of his already insanely popular Bodog brand (they even sponsored the Scarface game that came out a couple years ago). Bodog Fight had a pretty interesting formula to present fights to the public. Every fight was accompanied with sort of a cross between The Ultimate Fighter, The Real World and that HBO special 24/7. The pre-production was surprisingly high (perhaps the highest at that time for any MMA organization) and in an attempt smack everyone with a 'Look what we can do and you can't' glove; nearly every fight went down at some exotic location. In fact, in there 12 fight history only one event even took place on American soil (and it was in New Jersey which is about 90% armpit, 10% America...you know it's the truth). What's that you're mumbling over there in your Wal-Mart discount desk chair (don't worry I have one too), 12 fights in a year? Yeah. Bodog friggin pulled off 12 fully stacked events in one year. Calvin Ayre was at the top of his game from 2006-2007. Dude organized a card in Costa Rica that was so huge, that Bodog had to split their thirty scheduled fights into three consecutive days. If you lived in Costa Rica from February 16th-18th then we hoped you used protection in that orgy of MMA that was Bodog Fight - Costa Rica Combat. Eddie Alvarez, Trevor Prangley, Big Country Roy Nelson, Chael Sonnen, Rosi Sexton, Jake Shields, Nick Thompson, Tara LaRosa, Shayna Baszler...the cards were more stacked than [insert Michael Schiavello metaphor here]. Besides be adorned with ridunkulous looking ring card girls, chicks just hung around to get rear naked choked by Chael Sonnen. If you ever wanted to know what happens when you get a hot chick in a step-over armbar, Bodog Fight has you covered. Hot chick arm barred from the guard? Don't worry, that can be instantly arranged. Need a new wallpaper to fill that landfill of mess you call your desktop? Blam. You just got Bodogized. In short, Bodog Fight made being a heterosexual guy almost effortless (even though you rocked your box set of Sex in the City like Conan the Barbarian rocked a double handed battle-axe). Of course, wherever there's another rising MMA organization expect Dana White to be firmly resting in the cut practicing his verbal kung-fu. White had a new target, and his name was Calvin Ayre. Check out this excerpt from a press release from Bodog regarding Dana's comments towards Ayre:
White's unfortunate public diatribe included slanderous comments about the Canadian billionaire, referring to the online gaming mogul as a "criminal". The notoriously bald UFC promoter goes on to liken Mr. Ayre to a Richard Pryor character, stating "he's like that guy in Brewster's Millions who is trying to spend all his money in 48 hours."
Leave it up to a guy that owns 9,000,000 online casinos to come up with an offer that Dana White 'couldn't refuse'...but eventually did anyway:
"Sources tell me Dana's a big Bodog Fight fan," said Ayre. "He must be. He can't stop talking about us. Personally, I love it when he keeps mentioning my organization in the media. He doesn't seem to realize that each time he does, it only makes me more money, which is why I want to repay him by allowing him to experience the luxurious lifestyle I am fortunate to enjoy for 48 hours."
"Since, regrettably, I am unable to attend the upcoming Bodog Fight event in New Jersey, I will offer to send my private jet - complete with an assortment of beautiful Bodog Girls - to pick up Mr. White, wherever he may be. I will then fly him to the east coast where he will enjoy a front row seat to our next event, followed by a VIP evening including a comfortable five-star overnight stay in a nearby Atlantic City hotel. After hitting the poker tables, Mr. White can retire to his lavish suite, sip the finest champagne and relax in the knowledge that all amenities and services are complimentary as my way of saying 'thank-you' for all the money he keeps making me."
Despite putting on a PPV show with The Last Emperor headlining the card, being a premiere destination for women's MMA and even sponsoring a Strikeforce card inside The Playboy Mansion...things were never the same when 100 Costa Rican police raided the 3.5 million dollar mansion of billionaire Calvin Ayre during the filming of the Bodog Fight reality show. Note: If you ever have a mansion in a third world country, always remember to pay off authorities...or they'll just ninja it up inside your house and take your stuff. A few hundred employees were laid off at Bodog and literally overnight, Bodog Fight collapsed in 2008 after losing an estimated $37,000,000 in 2007. That's huge. If I lost $37 million the first presser I would release to the media would be titled 'Why the hell didn't you tell me I had $37 million?'. Calvin Ayre is still a billionaire doing what billionare's do and somewhere in this entire debacle, Matt Lindland still claims Bodog owes him loot from his fight with Fedor. Bummer.
So it was pretty cool that Cage Rage housed a stable of studs like Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort, Masakazu Imanari, Shaolin Riberio, Semtex, Michael Bisping and Bigfoot Silva. And it was pretty sweet how Proelite (the same company who owned EliteXC) bought them out in 2007 making them somewhat of a (short lived) force in international markets. But the real reason why Cage Rage placed #6 on MiddleEasy's 'Top Ten MMA Organizations we really, really, really miss alot' is for one primary reason. One fight that unequivocally is the greatest slugfest in MMA history. If you're at a bar and you happen to see John 'the compulsive liar' and his Frank Shamrock tattoo and he tells you the best MMA fight in the history of MMA fights (don't worry, he'll probably say UFC since he doesn't know anything about MMA) was Stephan Bonnar vs. Forrest Griffin; you snatch his pink laminated card that proclaims he's a blackbelt in muay thai and tell him that Melvin Manhoef vs. Evangelista Santos is hands down the greatest, dirtiest and sloppiest slugfest in history. It's like these dudes met back in 5th grade and Melvin said 'Look man, screw you for stealing my last Lunchable today. Don't worry, 15 years from now all debts, grudges, smack-talk, bs and stolen property will be settled on February 4th 2006 in London, England...and you better replace your chin with a solid piece of adamantium'. Manhoef has the highest KO ratio in all of mixed martial arts. There's a reason why people call him the Dutch Mike Tyson (and it's not because he stars in a hilariously funny movie about Las Vegas). Since I've hyped this fight to mythical proportions, I feel obligated to show you guys what the first nuclear detonation in London, England looked like:
Cage Rage was a solid organization and undoubtedly the UK's biggest promotion to date (they press released a movie based on the organization). They also had something called 'The Open Guard Rule' which was a pretty sweet addition. To prevent guys flopping on their backs in hopes of baiting their opponent into open-guard (Thales Leites style at UFC 97), Cage Rage instituted a rule that if an opponent was on his back and at least a meter from the cage/net, the referee could raise his arms and announce 'open guard' which would allow the guy standing up to use soccer kicks to the head, head stomps and flying knees straight to the skull. Essentially, 'The Open Guard Rule' really means 'Ok, you can pretend like you're in Pride FC for a little bit'. It was a pretty unique twist but it really never changed the outcome of any fight but hey...soccer kicks are always a good thing. Just ask Alistair Overeem.
On September 6th 2007, Proelite (sort of like the American FEG. They owned EliteXC, Spirit MC, Icon Sport, KOTC and Rumble on the Rock) announced they have gobbled up yet another organization: British behemoth Cage Rage. They would use this acquisition to share fighters with their new alliance with FEG. Everything looked good on paper, British fighters coming to America, American fighters being swapped with Japanese guys. It was like some weird multi-cultural lego set. Except, Proelite never really completed the purchase of Cage Rage.
The plot thickens in the ProElite debacle with a new slant on the situation not yet revealed… a conversation with Andy Geer following the inaugural Ultimate Challenge show this past weekend revealed that although Cage Rage had been purchased by ProElite, they hadn't actually paid for it before going under.
Geer explains the situation, "To all intents and purposes, ProElite had entered into an agreement to purchase Cage Rage. A deal was struck with a deposit accepted. Then they had a cut-off date to make a balloon payment; they never completed the purchase."
Yeah, if your name was Andy Geer (promoter of Cage Rage) then your life pretty much started to suck at the end of 2008. Dude tried to get ownership of his organization back from Proelite but by this time, Proelite collapsed and all that's left on Proelite.com is one giant image of what the site would have looked liked if it were still functional. Creepy stuff. Last year marked the end of the only premiere MMA organization left in the UK. Bummer...or as they would say in the UK: Gutted. There is a Scottish promotion entitled 'Cage Rage' that just had their third event sometime in late September of 2009 but the two organizations are unrelated, or are they...
Egh, just a coincidence, or is it...
Yeah probably.
Or as everyone knows it by: Pride FC Lite. Where else could you see Lyoto Machida vs. BJ Penn, Joachim Hansen vs. Caol Uno, Genki Sudo vs. Ramon Dekker, Sam Greco vs. Heath Herring, Jerome LeBanner vs. Sexyama (with Bob Sapp, Gary Goodridge and Valentijn Overeem riding shotgun) all on one friggin card. At Hero's 1 (which was actually Hero's 2), Jerome LeBanner was nearly 100lbs heavier than Yoshihiro Akiyama but it's Japan, and they gave us Mothra vs. Godzilla so sometimes you just have to let stuff slide. Akiyama did and LeBanner served up Yoshihiro's only lost in his MMA career. But if Jerome LeBanner vs. Sexyama was the measuring stick for freakshow matches then Genki Sudo vs. Butterbean sort of took the entire freakshow match metric system, urinated on it and then repackaged it and put it back on the shelf.
Heroe's first show titled 'K-1 Hero's Premium Dynamite 2003!!' (which won the award that year for 'MMA event most likely to pass off as a level in Super Contra') was a blend of kickboxing (friggin Ernesto Hoost was in the house) and mixed martial arts. Just for the hell of it, Genki Sudo accepted a fight against Butterbean. If Butterbean is an accurate depiction of genetically modified vegetables...then we're screwed. Besides having a 260lb weight advantage over Genki Sudo, Butterbean was known for his...oh wait, it was the dude's first MMA fight. Genki cleaned him up with a heel hook in the second round and went back to knitting his 'We are all one' quilt.
The matches produced in Hero's represented what most consider the golden age of MMA. Dudes were in their prime and they were willing to just completely wild out. Maybe I'm having some serotonin re-uptake inhibitor flashback (thank you Earthdance 2005) but things just seemed magical back then. UFC wasn't the frate trane (UG shout-out) that it is today. Kid Yamamoto vs. Caol Uno, Bobby Olgon vs. Akebono, Heath Herring vs. Gary Goodridge, Semmy Schlit vs. Min Soo Kim, Calvancante vs. Nam Phan, Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie, Sergei Kharitonov vs. Alistair Overeem, Sexyama vs. Dennis Kang, Zuluzinho vs. Minowaman...even Brock Lesnar was doing his thing in Hero's. Every event was like some MMA grab bag and it always was on point.
Hero's was another sacrifice to the leviathan known as FEG. They decided to can Hero's (as they did with Pride and Yarrenko!) and merge them all into the MMA Frankenstein we've all come to known and love: Dream. Still, with Hero's and Pride FC operating independently we could expect well over 10 fights a year...but hey, we'll take what we can get. RIP Hero's.
The International Fight League. The only place that Jay Hieron was never entirely screwed at. The IFL was started by the founder of Wizard Magazine, Gareb Shamus, after he watched 'The Smashing Machine' which is actually a crazy interesting documentary on the life of Mark Kerr. Shamus partnered with real-estate developer Kurt Otto and the International Fight League was magically formed on January 7th 2006.
Instead of the fight to fight paychecks most fighters were getting at the time, every IFL athlete was on salary and the organization provided fighters with a pretty beneficial health package. We asked Jay Hieron about the IFL and the dude has some pretty positive things to say about it:
"It was actually good. They definitely treated the fighters right. It was a little different, they had the team concept. I was on salary with them so I was getting a check every month which was great for being a fighter because you fight pay check to pay check when you fight so that definitely keeps your mind at ease that you know you got money coming in it makes everything smooth with training, you get your bills paid and stuff. They were always professional. They definitely treated us right. They may not have made the best business decisions but they always treated the fighters good."
The IFL revolved around a team concept (sort of like the M-1 Global Challenge) which pitted a five on five fighter format (not at the same time, that would just be way too cool). The initial teams were the San Jose Razorclaws, Toronto Dragons, Tokyo Sabres, Los Angeles Anacondas, Southern California Condors, Nevada Lions, Chicago Red Bears New York Pitbulls, Quad City Silverbacks, Portland Wolfpack, Tucson Scorpions (coached by Don Frye) and the Seattle Tiger Sharks (if your team wasn't represented in the above mentioned list then we suggest you take it up with, oh yeah...the IFL is friggin dead. Necrophilia ftw.) You can still nab some authentic IFL fight jerseys on eBay if have absolutely nothing to do on a Tuesday afternoon. In 2008 the team format was later replaced with camp vs. camp and the 5 vs. 5 matches were reduced to 3 on 3 (the equivalent of an MMA half-court game).
The IFL can also claim they won the sweepstakes to be the first MMA organization to be regularly broadcasted on a major television network. In 2007 they made a deal with Fox Sports Net and MyNetworkTV (formally known as The WB and UPN) and IFL Battleground premiered March 12th 2007 on Fox with just about 1.2 million viewers (which was a MyNetworkTV record high for the 18-34 male demographic). Roughly a year after their network premiere, the IFL signed a deal with HDNet to air the first three episodes of their 2008 season live and, to no one's surprise, Fox pulled out of the their television deal with IFL.
I know what you're probably wondering: Where the hell was Dana White during all the IFL festivities. Well he was busy threatening to sue Fox if they inked a deal with the International Fight League, or at least that's the reason why the IFL sued the UFC.
The IFL alleges that it was about to sign a major deal with Fox Sports to televise its fight league when White and the UFC baselessly threatened to sue Fox Sports if the TV network inked a deal with the IFL.
According to the IFL, Fox balked when threatened with the lawsuit and chose to put the deal on "hold." The IFL, alleging that White and the UFC set out on a course to "crush" the fledgling company, said the UFC also threatened major fight managers that if they dealt with the IFL their fighters would be barred from the UFC.
But, as you probably expected, the UFC had a little countersuit up their sleeve:
The Las Vegas-based promoter alleges that problems with the IFL started when the IFL illegally hired away a UFC employee, Keith Evans, and a former UFC employee, Steven Tornabene. Tornabene had, according to the UFC, signed a non-competition agreement when he left the company despite the fact that he previously had a relationship with the IFL.
The UFC alleges that Evans and Tornabene took valuable confidential information and trade secrets belonging to the UFC and gave them to the IFL. Moreover, the UFC contends before Tornabene left the UFC he fraudulently obtained all-access passes to UFC 55 and gave Shamus and Otto those passes to scope out the UFC production truck and get even more proprietary UFC information.
The UFC claims that the IFL has been using the misappropriated confidential information and trade secrets to illegally compete against it.
Despite having all the comic book money in the world, the IFL couldn't financially get it together and by June 2008 rumors of an impending bankruptcy was already looming over the International Fight League and on July 31st 2008 the organization officially went bankrupt. So what do you do when your MMA organization is financially hanging off a cliff by a little piece of skin attached to it's eyelid? You try to get the company that allegedly contributed to your bankruptcy to buy you out and save your ass...ets. Still to this day we really don't know who or what owns the IFL. They're still a publicly traded company (if you act fast you can buy a share of their stock for $0.01) and we do know the UFC started using their clips last year but recently stopped and if you visit HD Net's site you can buy official IFL DVDs (which sort of means HD Net acquired the IFL or at least a portion of it). The loser in all of this is the guy on eBay that has like 800 IFL posters he just can't seem to sell.
Elite X friggin C. Damn. You guys have no idea how bad the MMA world wanted you to survive. EliteXC was voltroned into existence December 14th 2006 through a unique alliance with the Showtime Network and the MMA conglomeration known as Proelite (now defunct of course).
Their first event was held in the MMA hotbed of Southaven, Mississippi. EliteXC caught everyone's attention with their unexpectedly stacked card featuring Las Vegas ODB impersonator, Krazy Horse vs. KJ Noons (which actually surprised the hell out of everyone and is a blatant lesson on why should not call out your opponent during a press conference), Joey Villasenor vs. David Loiseau, Gina Carano vs. Julie Kedzie and Renzo Gracie vs. Frank Shamrock headlining EliteXC: Destiny (Bigfoot Silva , Mike Pyle and Bo Cantrell were also thrown in the undercard mix). Oh, and Vanessa Wade was an EliteXC ring card girl. Matter of fact, the EliteXC ring card girls were kind of money. Between fights they wouldn't just sit down, these chicks would get up on the podium and dance until the next fight started...and nothing is wrong with that.
Within months, Showtime announced that it would partner with Elite XC to broadcast a challenger series entitled 'ShoXC' live on their network (after EliteXC's collapse this transformed into ShoMMA and then eventually manifested into it's current incarnation 'Showtime Challengers'). It took EliteXC less than a year to nail out a contract with CBS that enabled them to broadcast a live MMA event every other month in a primetime slot on a Saturday night. At the helm of all of this MMA goodness was former boxing promoter (and soon to be reality show star) Gary Shaw. When the CBS deal with down, Gary Shaw stated:
"The sport of MMA airing on CBS is the single biggest thing to happen to the sport,"
"I've said all along I think the UFC is great."
"I like the Fertittas and Marc Ratner (UFC vice president of regulatory affairs) is like a brother to me. But the problem is no fighter can be bigger than Dana White or the UFC. For us, the fighters will always be the biggest stars."
Little did Gary Shaw know that he just entered The Dana White Zone (whatever that's supposed to mean). Here is how Dana reacted to Shaw's comments:
"Gary Shaw is (an expletive) loser...We beat our pay-per-view numbers from last year. Do you hear that? We beat our pay-per-view numbers from last year. We just don't brag about it because we don't talk about our business in the public."
"And if we were getting competition, it's not coming from EliteXC and both of the people who are watching their shows. This guy is a low-level bottom feeder. He didn't like MMA a few years ago, but when he finally couldn't make money at boxing any more, he came over to this sport to try to leech money out of it."
Things just went from worse to 'wtf?' when Gary Shaw responded to Dana White's comments:
"Dana white is a jerkoff. That's what Dana White is, he's a f—ing idiot, and you can quote me. If he cared about mixed martial arts as a sport instead of caring about his swimming pool and his own personal gains …"
While words were being exchanged, EliteXC chose to a dip in the Youtube talent pool and came out with the only dude in MMA that can simultaneously rock a santa clause beard and gold teeth: Kimbo Slice. Trained by Bas Rutten (at least we think), Kimbo was mowing through competition at EliteXC. Dude submitted Bo Cantrell in 19 seconds with a flurry of fists aimed directly to his brain. His next fight only took 43 seconds to KO UFC legend Tank Abbot. Kimbo's third fight went all the way into the third round before Slice popped that alien creature James Thompson called an 'ear'. Everything was good in EliteXC land until that fateful day on October 4th 2008.
Originally, EliteXC scheduled a match between Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice. Just 5 hours before the fight was about to go down, Ken Shamrock claimed an injury he sustained in training would keep him out of his much-hyped bout with Kimbo Slice. EliteXC scrambled to find a replacement and they grabbed Smoothie King operator, Seth Petruzelli. Seth was an ex-UFC guy that went 0-2 in the octagon. Bell rung and within 14 seconds, Seth Petruzelli knocked out Kimbo Slice. The world was stunned...and so was Seth. Petruzelli later told reporters that he was instructed to stand-up with Kimbo Slice and not shoot for the takedown. This resulted in perhaps the most entertaining video Dana White has ever made:
And that was a wrap. EliteXC never fully recovered from having their golden boy knocked out by a no-namer with pink hair. Investors pulled out, sponsors didnt want to drop the kind of cash they once were and on October 20th 2008, just 16 days after the fight, EliteXC closed their doors for good.
What a friggin Greek tragedy...for all of us. Affliction was a long time sponsor of the UFC. Everyone rocked their threads (even Dana White) and the universe was perfectly in order. Tom Atencio (CEO of Affliction) decided that he wanted to check off the 'promotion box' on the resume of his already wildly successful clothing line. Dana White gave Affliction the ultimate ultimatum: if they created their own promotion, Affliction Clothing will be banned from the UFC. A light bulb appeared over Atencio's head (from some dimensional portal the creates lightbulbs just above eye-level) and a few weeks later Affliction: Banned was announced (accompanied with a 'thank you' email sent to Dana White for naming Affliction's first MMA event).
Affliction: Banned was an absolute friggin MMA spectacle. Funded by Golden Boy Promotions, Affliction Clothing, Mark Cuban and Donald Trump; Affliction flexed it's fiscal muscle by doing things no other MMA organization ever dreamed of at the time. Fighter payrolls topping $3.3 million (Andrei Arlovski pocketed $750,000), Megadeth performing live in front of a crowd of 14,382, Mike Buffer announcing, confetti dropping from ceilings...it was like the New Year's office party that you always thought you would go to after you landed your first job right out of college. Fedor KOd the former UFC Heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in 31 seconds and he was crowned the first WAMMA Heavyweight. Affliction pulled over $2,100,000 at the gate alone (with PPV buys being well over 100,000). It was considered a monumental success.
Affliction Entertainment's second fight, Day of Reckoning, went down January 24th and many still consider it to be the most stacked card of 2009. Fedor, Arlovski, Barnett, Gilbert Yvel, Lindland, Vitor Belfort, Babalu, Sokoudjou, Buentello, Kirill 'Baby Fedor' Sidelnikov, Dan Lauzon, Matyushenko, Lil Nog, LC Davis, Jay Hieron, Jason High and Brett Cooper all flown first class to Anaheim and under the dome of the Honda Center. Advertising was amped up, production quality was dipped in sexy, and even Vadim Finkelstein (president of M-1 Global) invited Dana White to attend Affliction: Day of Reckoning but that meant Dana had to take time out of his day from ripping into Affliction. The fight went down, Fedor pulled off another spectacular knock out on behalf of Andrei Arlovski (who made a record $1.5 million for the fight) and Affliction's second card was in the history books. And then there was Affliction: Trilogy...
Late in May of 2009 it was announced that Affliction would have it's third card titled 'Trilogy'. Immediately everyone put up their 'wtf?' flags claiming that anything named trilogy usually denotes the end of something (except if you're George Lucas, in which trilogy means you can make three movies that will completely ruin your franchise). But Affliction assured us that this would not be their last card and there indeed will be more. Fights started to shape up like Mousasi vs. Babalu, Buentello vs. Tim Sylvia (later replaced by Gilbert Yvel after he got KOd by Ray Mercer), Chris Horodecki vs. Dan Lauzon, Jay Hieron vs. Semtex and of course the most anticipated heavyweight bout in MMA history: #2 ranked heavyweight Josh Barnett vs. #1 ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko. Tickets went on sale to the end of the world June 4th, a LOT of trash talk flew between Tom Atencio and Dana White and even Joost Raymond, the CEO of of M-1 Global challenged the UFC to watch Affliction: Trilogy to "come watch a real championship fight." Everything was going as planned, MiddleEasy even scored press credentials for the event and...everything just sort of collapsed.
The CSAC caught Josh Barnett with anabolic steroids from a drug test he completed in June of 2009. Even though he appealed the CSAC decision, dude was tentatively out of the fight. CEO of Affliction, Tom Atencio, began the frantic process of finding a replacement to take on the best fighter in the entire world with only two weeks notice. Everyone threw up their 'Possible Barnett Replacement' lists and Brett Rogers seemed to be the collective front runner...even Fedor's camp wanted a piece of The Grim. It was reported that Rogers would take the fight but wanted a cool $800,000. Rumors were flying everywhere, smacked a few people in the face, caused a couple concussions and then out of nowhere; BJPenn.com confirms Vitor Belfort will be fighting Fedor in Affliction: Trilogy. Yes, a middleweight stepping up two weight classes to fight the best heavyweight in the galaxy. Something wasn't right. After a couple of frantic conference calls with Tom Atencio, Affliction Entertainment collapsed Friday, July 24th at 1:27 ET and instantly made a deal to become an official clothing sponsor at UFC once again. It's like some dysfunctional loop that left a lot of fighters with bills to pay. Thank you Josh Barnett. The day he was scheduled to fight Fedor, dude read a comic book instead.
Get the tissues out dude, get the friggin tissues out man. I don't even want to do this so I'll keep this very brief. Talking about Pride FC is like talking about your ex-girlfriend that gave you the most amazing sex but died in a freak motorcycle accident. Everything that you ever wanted to know about MMA already happened here. Seriously. Pride FC will go down as the best MMA organization that ever was and ever will be. Pride FC will also go down as the organization with the most shady behind the scenes dealings. We had a conversation with Bas Boon a few weeks ago and the dude allegedly claims a lot of stuff about Pride FC:
"Cro Cop was paid to not fight on NYE at the [Inoki] Bom Baye show (Pride arranged this he was paid to get injured) and this was the reason for me trying to save the show by getting Fedor to fight even with an injured hand. I had no other options left in Japan. I arranged for him to fight a pro-wrestler at almost 4 times more money than he ever made with Pride. The contract was for four fights."
"We were unlucky with the "war" in Japan as all three promotions/ companies K-1, Pride and Bom Baye were doing a New Years Eve show at the same time (this never happened before). Behind the scenes in Kobe, Japan that 2003 NYE fight night I had many Yakuza threats as well as Miro Mijatovic. Finally the Yakuza was pressing [Seiya] Kawamata [the promoter] to pay one million [We're assuming US Dollars] for Fedor to fight in Pride and another million to the Yakuza."
"The result was that the promoter, Kawamata, left Japan and took whatever money he could get with him mainly because of the Yakuza threats."
Could the Yakuza collapse the greatest MMA organization in history, yeah they could. Did they? Who knows man, all that we have are relics in the form of Youtube clips and late night/mid morning memories of live PPV events. That's it. That's all we have. I'm stopping right here, there's no way I'm going to cry on MiddleEasy...again.
Everyone pour a little sake out tonight for Pride. RIP Pride FC. You will forever be missed.


text:
"What's going on?" Peter asked.
"It's Mary. She says that she has seen and talked to Jesus," John said. "She said she thought that she was talking to the gardener there at the tombs, but when he spoke to her, she realized it was Jesus."
"What do you think?" Peter said.
This story appears in the print edition of The Tribune. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.
All content copyright ©2015 The Tribune, a division of Home News Enterprises unless otherwise noted.
All rights reserved. Click here to read our privacy policy.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
MP for Hornsey and Wood Green
Vince Cable MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Treasury Spokesperson, will be visiting Haringey on 26 November to give a talk on the current economic crisis.
The event will be open to non-party members and will be held at Christ Church Hall, Waldeck Road, Tottenham, N15 3EP
Lynne Featherstone MP comments:
"Vince has been calm and prophetic voice through these rough times. As many local people start to feel the pinch, I am sure they will be as interested as I have been to hear his views on how we got into crisis – and more importantly how we get out.
"I have often sought Vince's expect advice, particularly with the recent Icelandic banks collapse and Haringey Council's lost millions. I have no doubt it will be in interesting evening."
Published and promoted by and on behalf of Liberal Democrats, 62 High Street, Hornsey, N8 7NX.
Site produced by Puffbox in association with Harrisment.
This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.


text:
Python has certainly distinguished itself as a go-anywhere, do-anything language. As a language for desktop application development, it can be found behind the Resolver One spreadsheet. As an embedded script language, it's inside the highly respected Blender graphics package and the Rhythmbox media player. It is the binding glue of the Sage open source math package and the Portage package management system of Gentoo Linux. On the Web, it powers the highly popular Zope, TurboGears, and Django frameworks. The list goes on, as any quick Google search will show.
Object-oriented and dynamic, Python encourages rapid, iterative, and almost exploratory development. But good Python development starts with a good Python IDE. In this roundup, I examine nine Python development environments, many open source, but some commercial. They are Boa Constructor, Eric, ActiveState's Komodo, Oracle's NetBeans, Aptana's Pydev, PyScripter, SPE, Spyder, and WingWare's Wing IDE.
Of course, there's also IDLE, the IDE supplied with Python itself. Written using the Tkinter GUI toolkit, IDLE opens instantly into an interactive console. It has no notion of a project, nor is there an included GUI builder. Its configuration is minimal, dealing mainly with fonts, colors, and shortcut keys.
Its debugger is bare bones too, but it gets the job done. Activate the debugger, and when you run an application it starts up immediately. Buttons let you single-step, step over, or step out; also, you can set breakpoints by right-clicking the line in the text editor. While debugging, IDLE provides a view of the current stack and locals. You can activate views for source and globals; from the source view, IDLE will highlight the line that is the current execution point. IDLE is a no-nonsense IDE for editing and debugging Python modules and files as single entities. Many Python developers need more.
Nine fine Python development tools: Boa Constructor
Boa Constructor is a free IDE written in Python that its creators describe as a wxPython GUI builder. By no means new, the first release of Boa Constructor debuted in the year 2000. The version I tested, 0.2.3, supports 2.x versions of Python from 2.1 to 2.6; I tested it with my 2.6 installation. The IDE's author says it should also support version 2.7. It does not work with any 3.x Python releases, partly because wxPython (on which it depends) does not yet have a 3.x-compatible version, and partly because Boa Constructor's author is not yet prepared to support two code bases. Boa Constructor supports neither Jython nor IronPython.
Boa Constructor's user interface consists of a set of frames -- separate windows that you employ in concert to create and debug Python applications. Those windows are:
- Palette, a toolbar and multitabbed pane. Each pane opens into yet another toolbar. Click the New tab and Boa Constructor presents tool selections for creating a new Python package, module, and so on. Other tabs reveal toolbars for accessing visual controls -- menus, buttons, and more -- that are placed in the GUI designer.
- Inspector, a window for viewing and modifying properties of currently selected objects.
- Editor, Boa Constructor's primary workspace. The editor provides different views, depending on what's open in it. Open a Python module, for example, and it is displayed in the source view. Begin GUI development on a form, and the designer view opens. The editor also has an explorer view, which displays a tree control of the code's components, including classes, methods, functions.
- Explorer, in which you can navigate a variety of data sources: the file system, ZIP archives, CVS repositories, FTP, Zope objects, and more.
- Debugger, which offers a self-explanatory view of all the fundamental debugging capabilities. It can debug multithreaded applications, and it has special support for debugging Zope scripts. You can also debug a remote application by importing debug server code into the target and adding a call that turns on the tracer. (You must also ensure that paths to source files are identical on both host and target.) Also, when you turn on the debugger, Boa Constructor opens an interactive console in the context of the debug target.
Boa Constructor does not have the concept of a "project," as in having a project file that carries meta information about the other files that comprise the final application. Instead, when you create a wxPython application in Boa Constructor, the IDE builds a base Application.py file. If you open that file in the editor, an Application View tab appears that displays the other files within the application. However, if you open any other Python source file, no Application view tab appears because Boa Constructor recognizes that you're working with a stand-alone module.
The layout of Boa Costructor's IDE is unusual and takes some getting used to. In addition, the process of creating a wxPython application -- knowing which button you must push or dialog you must conjure and from what pane in the IDE and when -- is not obvious. Luckily, there are tutorials that guide you through the basics. Without those, I would've been lost my first time through the process. Even so, more tutorials would certainly be beneficial. Otherwise, the documentation is moderately good, and it includes both a reference guide and a Getting Started section.
Nine fine Python development tools: Eric
The Eric IDE comes in two editions: Eric4 supports Python 2.x, and Eric5 supports Python 3.x. I tested Eric 4.4.6 using Python 2.6. Before you can use Eric, you must first download and install a number of other tools and libraries. According to the Readme file, those tools must be installed in a specific order. (I botched things the first time I installed Eric, but wiping everything out and re-installing cleared the matter up.) Happily, Eric's installation script will check all dependencies when you're done.
Eric is built on the cross-platform development framework Qt. For example, Eric's editor is built on QScintilla, a port of Scintilla to Qt. The IDE has excellent plug-in management support; its Plugin Management Window will show you all currently available plug-ins. Select a plug-in, download it, and when you close the plug-in management window, you are guided through the process of unpacking and installing it. The whole process is a good combination of automation and guidance. The one downside is -- as with Eric in general -- the lack of thorough documentation for individual plug-ins.
Eric has an extensive configuration/preferences system. Its size makes it daunting, but it's worth exploring; if something doesn't appear to be working, there's a chance you haven't configured it correctly. For example, when I first tried Eric's integrated browser, images were not shown for any of the Web pages. It turns out that loading images in the Web browser is a preference setting.
Eric lets you organize your work into projects. In fact, Eric has a multiproject viewer similar to Eclipse. You can add several projects to the multiproject viewer, and each is available at a glance. Though nice, it's a bit clunky; you cannot simply drag a project into the viewer. You have to open a project, give it a name and description, and then you can put it in the viewer.
You can think of Eric as container for a number of development tools. These include the Qt Designer for building Qt GUI applications, the Qt Linguist tools for localizing applications built in the Designer, and a UI Previewer that gives you a static view of the user interface that you've built in the Designer. There's a Translations previewer, which is similar to the UI previewer except that it shows how Qt Forms will appear when different translations are used, plus a couple of diff tools, an SQL browser, an Icon editor, and more.
Nine fine Python development tools: Komodo IDE
ActiveState's Komodo -- from the purveyors of ActivePython and other Active languages -- is available in two editions, the Komodo IDE ($295 for one user license) and the free Komodo Edit version. The free edition is more or less an editor with some additional tools. It does not have a debugger, code browser, or interactive shells. It is missing other capabilities; the details can be found in the comparative features table on the ActiveState website.
Komodo is a multilanguage IDE, supporting Ruby, Perl, PHP, and Python. I tested version 5.2.4 and did a bit of work with the beta of version 6, which became available while this article was underway.
When you first launch Komodo, you'll notice that the initial start time is quite long. This is because it is reading modules and constructing its Code Intelligence database. Subsequent launches are as quick as the other IDEs tested.
Komodo's source editor provides both auto-completion and call tips. You can extend auto completion to any module by setting the pythonExtraDirs preference; Komodo will scan the specified directories for Python modules and read them to fill its code intelligence database. When you type in a function, Komodo's call tips will show both function prototype and docstrings.
Beside the editor window you'll find source and object browsers. The source browser shows (and allows navigation in) the files that comprise the project, while the object view lets you browse and view the project's classes, methods, functions, and more. The source editor also lets you quickly turn a piece of code into a snippet (template). Simply select a block of text in the editor and drag it into the Project pane; the new snippet will appear as a separate entity in the project tree, ready for reuse.
Nine fine Python development tools: NetBeans
Oracle's NetBeans, like Eclipse, is an open source, plug-in-based IDE originally built for Java development, but extended to other languages. I tested version 6.8, with what was described as an "early access" version of the Python plug-in. (Because plug-ins are community-driven projects, Oracle could not provide a likely release date.) I tested NetBeans with Jython 2.5.1, though the plug-in claimed that it would also work with the Python 2.6 and 3.1 installations I had.
If you've already used NetBeans for development in one of the other languages it supports -- Java, Ruby, Groovy, PHP, JavaScript, C/C++, and Fortran -- then you'll have no problems finding your way around a Python project. NetBeans' multipaned layout places Project, File, and Service view tabs on the left. The first two are what you'd expect. The third includes databases and Web services, depending on what plug-in you load, of course; I had installed Java plug-ins so that the services tab also included a Hudson Builders entry, Hudson being a Java-based build automation system. The database services tab was pre-installed with JDB-ODBC bridge, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. Beneath this is an object navigator pane, which gives a tree view for the current source file, showing each class, its methods, and instance variables.
NetBeans' editor supports code completion. Enter an object followed by
. (a period) and the available methods and object attributes appear in a pop-up list. Select a method and -- if documentation is available for the method -- that is displayed in another popup window. To accelerate development, NetBeans has templates for both Python files and code snippets. At the time of this writing, there were only three file templates, but numerous code snippet templates. Not all of the niceties of NetBeans are active for the Python plug-in, however. For example, the only two refactoring commands available were "find usages" and "rename."
NetBeans has all the debugging features you'll need: breakpoint, watches, stack trace, and so on. It can handle multithreaded Python applications, and you can configure the debugger so that the file stops on the first line of execution. When you launch the debugger, it also opens an interactive console, from which you can enter Python commands in the context of the application being debugged. What is missing is remote debugging, which is not yet supported.
Beyond Python-related features, NetBeans also provides a diff tool, with rudimentary merge capability (that you should experiment with before attempting in the field). The base IDE has support for the version control systems CVS, Subversion, and Mercurial. NetBeans also provides a "local history" feature. This keeps track of modifications you've made to files, so you can step back in time to previous editions. You can even restore deleted files. By default, versions for the last seven days are tracked, though you can modify this duration in the preferences.
Nine fine Python development tools: Pydev
Aptana's Pydev is an Eclipse plug-in that supports development in Python, CPython, Jython, or IronPython. I tested version 1.5.9, running in a Galileo release of the Eclipse IDE. The version I explored will work with both the new Python 3.x as well as the earlier Python 2.x.
Installation is easy with the help of the Eclipse update mechanism. Just connect to the proper repository, select the Pydev install, and Eclipse does the rest for you. If you're already familiar with Eclipse, you'll have no trouble getting Pydev installed or finding your way around the capabilities Pydev includes.
Eclipse refers to a particular configuration of windows as a perspective. Two perspectives are important to Python developers: the Pydev perspective and the Debug perspective. You do your editing in the former; the latter is for running and debugging the application. When you install Pydev, you install three new project types: Pydev, Google Apps, and Django.
A Pydev project is merely a standard Python project; Google Apps and Django projects are created with special features and attributes appropriate for those two development frameworks. For example, if you create a Django application, Pydev automates a number of actions. You can launch a Python shell in the Django environment, issue a custom command, synchronize the Django database, and -- if you happen to be working with the Jython variant of Django -- create a WAR file.
As is standard for Eclipse, Pydev provides plenty of source editing customization features. For example, you can configure code folding so that it operates on
while statements but leaves
try statements unfolded. You can configure hovering so that placing the cursor over a method name displays docstrings. You can define similar customizations for the debugger (such as hovering over an in-context variable in the debugger will display its value in a pop-up). Pydev also installs plenty of templates and associates them with hotkeys. For example, select a function line in your code, click Ctrl+1, and a docstrings template is poured into the editor.
Nine fine Python development tools: PyScripter
PyScripter is the creation of Kiriakos Vlahos. It was originally designed to be a scripting solution for Delphi applications. In fact, PyScripter is built with Delphi (with additional components created by Python for Delphi), and it is noticeably more responsive than the IDEs written in Python. On the downside, PyScripter's Delphi roots limit it to the Windows platform. I tested version 126.96.36.199, which claimed to have support for most of the 2.x Python variants, as well as Python 3.1. I tested PyScripter with Python 2.6.
PyScripter's interface is uncluttered and easy to navigate. Its editor supports code completion, as well as call tips, and will perform syntax checking on the fly as you type. You can create both code snippet and file templates for quickly pouring boilerplate code into an application's source. And templates can be programmed to do more than paste in static source, thanks to PyScripter's custom parameters, which let you script the behavior of templates. Custom parameters can be used, for example, to fetch system values -- date, current directory, Python version -- and write them into the source code when the template is employed. You can also define custom parameters that prompt the user for input and paste the response into the code. You can extend the IDE in a fashion: Any application that can be invoked from the command line can be added to PyScripter's Tools menu.
PyScripter's File Explorer window has a handy, graphical display of the Pythonpath, which you can update with drag-and-drop ease. The Project Explorer lets you create multiple run and debug configurations; each can have its own runtime parameters, working directory, local/remote Python executable selection, and more.
The Project Explorer also lets you configure whether or not the Python runtime is re-initialized before subsequent runs. Without this, if you run an application, stop it to examine something or make changes, and restart it, classes and globals might be retained from the preceding run, which can result in difficult-to-diagnose problems. This feature can be particularly useful when debugging GUI-based applications.
PyScripter uses the standard Python debugger, which supports watches, call stack viewing, breakpoints, and a locals window. You can do remote debugging via one of four remote engines, all making use of RPyC (Remote Python Call), which is bundled with the latest version of PyScripter.
Nine fine Python development tools: SPE
SPE stands for Stani's Python Editor, after the IDE's author. SPE is another free IDE written in Python, and it requires at least Python 2.6 to run, which is the version of Python I used. I tested SPE version 0.8.4. SPE will not work with a 3.x release of Python because it uses the wxPython windowing toolkit, which as of this writing is not yet available for a 3.x Python.
SPE does not install itself in your system menu (on Windows); you start it from the command line. If you have trouble with it (I did not), you can start it in debug mode (by appending a
--debug parameter to the command line) and send the debug output to Stani for help. The IDE is arranged in a classic three-paned format: explorer, navigating, and browsing tools on the left; a large editor pane on the right; and output, interactive shell, and miscellaneous utilities at the bottom. Each pane in the three sections is tabbed. For example, the editor pane has a tab for source editing, a tab that displays a UML diagram of the code being edited, and a tab that provides a browsable PyDoc-generated view of the code's documentation.
The lower pane's interactive shell also provides a locals tab, which shows currently active objects. The session tab records past scripts that you either executed by hand or dragged and dropped into the shell. (This allows rewinding into the past.) The lower pane also has a search utility that can target either source files in the IDE or files within a specified file path.
In the explorer pane, you'll find a list of imports, classes, and method definitions in the current file, arranged in the order they appear in the source. A handier search tab in that same pane is the index tab, which lists all named items, organized alphabetically. From the nearby file browser tab, you can launch files of known extension. (If the file type can be handled by the SPE editor, the file will open in the editor; otherwise it will launch in its appropriate application.)
However, you cannot use the explorer for dragging and dropping files from one folder to another. Nor does right-clicking provide a menu for, say, deleting files. SPE does not have the concept of project (you work with files as individual entities), but it does have the concept of a workspace. A workspace lets you save open scripts, recent files, notes, and so on, into a single file. A workspace is really just a way of saving project preferences.
Nine fine Python development tools: Spyder
Spyder is another Python IDE written in Python. It has been verified to run on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Spyder is really a kind of numerical package that just happens to use Python as its scripting language. In fact, Spyder's creator, Pierre Raybaut, purposefully incorporated features in Spyder to make its behavior similar to MATLAB's and designed the Spyder workspace to look like MATLAB. Spyder requires PyQt, and at least PyQt4. To use Spyder as it is really intended, you should also download and install pylint, NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib.
The version I tested was 1.0.3. I used Python 2.6 in my testing, though Spyder's creator informed me that Spyder should work with Python 3.1, and he had reports of users running Spyder in a 3.x-level Python. However, he indicated that, for scientific and mathematical users, there is little different between Python 2.x and Python 3.x. In addition, as of this writing, NumPy and SciPy had not been ported to Python 3. (The development version of NumPy supports Python 3, and a release version is expected in the fall.)
Spyder has three startup levels: All, Basics, and Light. The startup level controls which components are imported when the IDE loads. All imports everything: the math libraries, os, sys, re, time, and os.path. Basics imports the math libraries only, and Light turns off all the add-ons. If you start the Light version, Spyder will not have access to NumPy, SciPy, and matplotlib, though you can manually import those libraries via Spyder's interactive console at a later time.
Spyder's interactive console opens automatically in a pane on the right-hand side of the IDE. Not only can you enter Python code, but the console will accept shell commands if you precede an entry line with
!. For example, to get a local directory, enter
!dir. The console also provides a history log of past commands, available within a separate tab. Select the tab, and you can cut and paste entries from the past.
Nine fine Python development tools: Wing IDE
Wingware's Wing IDE is available in three editions: Professional, Personal, and Wing IDE 101. All versions will run on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and all support the 2.x versions of Python, as well as Python 3.0 and 3.1. (I tested with Python 2.6.) The Professional version is the most expensive and of course the most feature-rich. The Personal Edition, for noncommercial and educational uses, has slightly fewer features but is low-priced. The free edition, being free, does not include features like autocompletion, multithreaded debugging, or remote debugging. (A feature comparison chart is available at the Wingware website.) I tested the Professional edition, version 3.2.9-1 using the IDE's 30-day trial period.
The Wing IDE layout is straightforward, with the editor window being its central fixture. Supporting panes -- source browser, runtime output and debug panes, and so on -- are arranged on the periphery. In the lower right is the eminently useful Source Assistant pane, the Wing IDE's answer to call tips. Begin typing, say, a function call, and the prototype and docstrings information for the corresponding functions are displayed in the Source Assistant. Continue typing, and the likely matches are appropriately reduced. Also, when you click a function name anywhere in the editor (whether at a definition point or a reference point), the function's information is displayed in the Source Assistant. If you select a method, and that method has overridden a parent class method, the Source Assistant displays a clickable link for the location of the overridden method.
Wingware's debugger is highly configurable. For example, you can set the debugger to stop when an exception is raised, but before the except or finally clauses have run; or you can configure the debugger to let those clauses run and then halt execution. Also, you can configure the debugger's watch system to display an object's content only when that object is in context, or hold a reference to the object and show its contents regardless of the current context.
The debugger can handle multithreaded applications; when debugging the target application is halted by, say, a breakpoint, by default the debugger stops all threads and indicates which thread caused the suspension. However, this is configurable so that, if one thread hits a breakpoint, the others can continue to run.
The Wing debugger also supports remote debugging. You have to import a debugging module at the beginning of the target application; the import loads code that provides the target side of the host/target communication. This is a snap if you're remotely debugging an application on the local system. To debug on a separate machine, you must first install a debugger "core" file. Also, you have to define File Location Maps in the IDE. These maps are the means by which the debugger can match paths to source files on the local machine with paths to corresponding files on the target. Luckily, this process is well documented.
Nine fine Python development tools at a glance
|Python support
|Boa Constructor 0.2.3
|Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
|Python 2.1 through 2.6
|Eric 4.4.6
|Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
|Python 2.x (Eric4), Python 3.x (Eric5)
|Komodo 5.2.4
|Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
|Python 2.x; Python 3.x support added in Komodo 6.0 beta
|$295 for a single-user license; Komodo Edit is free, but it is really just an editor
|NetBeans 6.8
|Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
|Python 2.x, Jython
|Pydev 1.5.9
|Python 2.x, 3.x, CPython, Jython, IronPython
|PyScripter 126.96.36.199
|Python 2.x and 3.1
|Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
|Python 2.6 and later 2.x
|Free; documentation requires a €5 (about $6) donation
|Spyder 1.0.3
|Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
|Python 2.x
|Wing IDE 3.2.9-1
|Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
|Python 2.x, 3.x
|$179 for Professional edition; Personal ($35) and free versions available
Also on InfoWorld:
- InfoWorld preview: Visual Studio LightSwitch chases app dev Holy Grail
- InfoWorld review: Microsoft Silverlight 4 vs. Adobe Flash 10.1
- Top five scripting languages on the JVM
- InfoWorld review: Tools for rapid Web development
- InfoWorld review: Eight PHP power tools
- Lab test: Climb aboard Ruby on Rails
This article, "InfoWorld review: Nine fine Python development tools," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest news in software development and Python at InfoWorld.com.


text:
We love the bright hue and playful silhouette of Carven's sky-blue taffeta dress. Team this lightly structured style with neon heels and a holographic clutch for a spring-fresh party look.
Sky-blue taffetaTie-fastening shoulder straps, darted bodice, gathered trim at pleated waist, concealed side slit pockets partially linedHook and zip fastening along back100% polyester; lining: 65% acetate, 35% viscoseDry cleanDesigner color: Turquoise
Product code: 334565 - Need help? Contact us


text:
MTV Video Music Awards: Fashion And Best Outfits
Of course, on the red carpet you have to present the best outfits you can get because there is a moment at the arrival when everyone present there will be on the spotlights. And as you can imagine, every star tried to impress with his or hers clothing style. But, who actually managed to look great at the MTV Video Music Awards? Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, or maybe Kanye West?
Well, we must begin with Lady Gaga because she always manages to make her presence felt, no matter the event. And of course, she must do something controversial every time she makes an appearance and so she did this time on Sunday Night MTV Video Music Awards show. The new almost crowned queen of pop, Lady Gaga presented on the red carpet an outfit that was behind all expectations. This time her dress created by the late Alexander McQueen, had a flowing regal design with royal shades of gold, dark reds and deep greens. However, the outfit had a military and political component as Gaga arrived with some military protectors.
Well, if the outfit wasn't clear enough to make everyone understand the message she was willing to transmit, she made things a little bit clearer in her red carpet interview. She expressed her support for SDN.org, an organization formed about 17 years ago in reaction to DADT policies.
But this is not all. Gaga made everyone think about her "Alejandro" video where she combines some military elements with religious things. Maybe this time the religious element of the dress wasn't that visible, as it was in the video, but it was present there, her dress reminding the Renaissance era and the religious paintings. So what do you think about Gaga's dress?
However, maybe Lady Gaga is the most controversial character, no matter the place, but she is not the only one that should be mentioned when it comes to fashion moments at the night of the events. So, on the red carpet you could also see the "Jersey Shore" cast, of course, tanned and styli. When did Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, Pauly D, Nicole Polizzi alias Snooki and Jwoww alias Jenny become so popular? Doesn't matter, they were there on the red carpet besides famous names in the music industry, as Jay Z, Eminem or Beyonce Knowles. And they really looked great. Mike "The Situation" was the one to show again his personal style, but in a more elegant way, while Pauly opted for a suit. But, the most shocking outfit was the one worn by Snooki. She opted for a one-shoulder mini dress with loud swirling turquoise patterns. And we have to admit that this is quite a change. She looked more elegant the she ever did and her hair also had a style more reserved, but don't worry, this doesn't mean that she lost all her party style.
Compared o what we are used to see from the Jersey Shore cast this was definitely a nice change. But the ladies from "The Hills" can always give them some style lessons, although their reality show on MTV is now over. On the other hand, Katy Perry opted for an ice skater-inspired outfit. Well, poor Katy was ill, but still she looked great. "I'm sick as a dog," she said on the red carpet, but this was no reason for her to stay at home and miss the awards night. However, Katy couldn't stay at home because she had to show her new nails polished with her fiance face.
But, from all the people present at the MTV Video Music Awards probably the one most looked by the cameras was Kanye West. Because of the last year's events when the singer jumped on the stage when Taylor Swift was receiving her award to say that she didn't deserved it, taking the microphone from her hands and ruining her moment and her night, everyone expected Kanye to have "a moment" this year also. But, the singer behaved himself this time.
Well, if he didn't ruin someone's night, it doesn't mean that Kanye did nothing. He almost turned the night in his own show by debuting with a new song. Kanye opted for a fire-engine-red suit and gold chains, so you could not miss him. What did you think about his performance?11


text:
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
© Copyright 2015 Gwinnett Daily Post
LILBURN -- On Sept. 20, construction crews and sewage plant workers were preparing to test new influent pumps that would bring sewage to the Yellow River Water Resources Facility for treatment.
The next day, they did more than test the new pumps. When rains deluged the area and the nearby river crested, the old pump station building was under water.
When the river receded about a foot from the new pump station, workers were able to turn it on and minimize the plant's sewage spill into the river.
"We are much more prepared for rainfall than we were a year ago," plant supervisor Ben Bagwell said as Water and Sewerage Authority members toured the plant Monday. "It definitely helps us."
Before construction began on the plant's expansion, Bagwell said only about 3 million gallons of sewage could be stored before treatment. With two 20-million-gallon tanks newly constructed, operators were allowed to store 36 million gallons during the September floods.
The expansion will allow the plant to treat an average of 22 million gallons a day, doubling the plant's capacity and allowing smaller, less efficient plants to close in southern Gwinnett.
The $250 million construction project began in January 2007, and about 55 to 60 percent of the project is complete, officials said.
By the end of the week, Bagwell said sewage will begin running through a brand new preliminary primary treatment building, where much of the larger particles that end up in sewage pipes, including sludge and scum, are filtered out before the water is treated.
While the construction contract concludes at the end of 2012, Bagwell said the secondary treatment facility should be complete in a year.
Michael Sullivan, the chairman of the Water and Sewerage Authority who lives very close to the plant, said nearby residents haven't been impacted by the process.
"I think it's a great neighbor," he said, amazed that operators continue to treat sewage during the construction period.
"It's amazing all the work that has been done while it's still (operating). That's some serious multitasking."
Construction is ahead of schedule for the major expansion at the Yellow River.
More like this story
- $245 million sewage plant upgrades nearly complete ( August 17, 2012 )
- Sewer plant upgrade to begin soon ( January 7, 2006 )
- Smaller plants to close when expansion ends ( December 13, 2006 )
- Sewer plant expansion considered ( December 12, 2006 )
- Crew spills sewage into river ( February 23, 2007 )


text:
MicroRNAs were ignored as meaningless genetic material for a long time because they are too small to make proteins that can do anything important. In the last 10 years, these tiny molecules once dismissed as "genetic junk," have catapulted to occupy a central position in biology. Through the pioneering work of many researchers, microRNAs have been found to control 60 percent of the protein-coding genes in our genome.
"The power of microRNAs come from the fact that just one microRNA can bind, capture and silence hundreds of genes and, therefore, influence entire networks of genes," said Gunaratne, who has been at the forefront of this research.
The TCGA study found that 96 percent of the more than 300 ovarian cancer tumors analyzed had mutated TP53 genes, which normally are tumor suppressors. Even though this particular cancer has few other genes that are mutated, the structural changes were frequent. In the absence of the watchful eye of p53, these structural changes set the stage for the formation of aggressive tumors.
"This landmark study is producing impressive insights into the biology of this type of cancer," said NIH director Dr. Francis Collins. "It will significantly empower the cancer research community to make additional discoveries that will help us treat women with this deadly disease. It also illustrates the power of what's to come from our investment in The Cancer Genome Atlas."
Gunaratne's team benefitted from the 2008 acquisition of a $1 million genome sequencer, a state-of-the-art device that made UH a major player in this pioneering research.
"I feel very lucky to have has access to the Illumi
|Contact: Laura Tolley
University of Houston


text:
Newbald Bed and Breakfast
|(clasificación propia) G
North Newbald nestles on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds and is popular with both walkers and cyclists. This lovely village is home to one of the oldest and most historic churches in the area and is clustered around a quaint village green which it shares with two traditional pubs serving good ales and food.
The Anvil is a great place to stay for just one night or a whole week. The Wolds are one of the great undiscovered quiet corners of England and North Newbald is an ideal base to explore them on foot or cycle. By car or bus you are within easy reach of the historic city of York (30 minutes) the port of Hull (20 minutes) or the Yorkshire Moors and Coast (1 hour). With many other attractions in the area its certainly worth stopping here a while.


text:
It was his parents' worst nightmare – their son disappeared while walking home from summer day camp.
Sadly for the family of nine-year-old Brooklyn boy Leiby Kletzky, the combined efforts of the Borough Park community and the authorities over two days had a horrific ending.
Leiby's dismembered body was found in a red suitcase wrapped in a black trash bag in a dumpster near an autobody shop and also in a refrigerator in the home of a man already in police custody.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that surveillance camera footage showed Levi Aron, a building supply store employee, followed his victim. When cops confronted the suspected monster in his Kensington home and asked about Leiby, Aron pointed to his kitchen. Upon inspection, detectives found blood on the refrigerator door handle and some of Kletzky's body parts, a cutting board and knives.
Ironically, Leiby, the second oldest of five siblings, had never walked home alone. In fact, his parents were waiting at a halfway point for him the day he disappeared.
The monster who abducted Leiby had no history of past crimes against children, according to Kelly. Kelly said that Aron noticed leaflets with the boy's face plastered around the neighborhood; "he saw the fliers, panicked and killed the boy."
According to The Jewish Daily Forward, Leiby's father Nachman has called for more security cameras in his predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Borough Park.
We agree with Kletzky and the area politicians. More cameras might have saved Leiby and will reduce future crime in that area. If you have done nothing, you have nothing to hide.
By Queens Courier Staff | Follow
It was his parents' worst nightmare – their son disappeared while walking home from summer day camp.