text:
this wiki
- CJ: "You sold us out, Ryder! You fucked with us all!"
- Ryder: "I'm a motherfucking genius!"
- ― Carl Johnson confronts Ryder, while the latter tries to make his escape
Pier 69 is a mission in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas given to protagonist Carl Johnson from Cesar Vialpando from a rooftop across from Pier 69 in Esplanade North, San Fierro, San Andreas.
After finding out of the next meet between Big Smoke's lieutenant Ryder and the Loco Syndicate through killing Jizzy B., Carl calls Cesar to inform him of this. After him and Cesar meet up on a rooftop across from Pier 69. When Carl gets there Cesar hands him a sniper rifle to gun down the San Fierro Rifa taking guard over the pier. Carl successfully does so before all the Triads are killed. T-Bone shows up a little while after, and so does Ryder. The last to show up is Toreno who arrives by helicopter. Instead of taking them down by surprise attack, everyone gets alerted as Toreno sees the bodies on the rooftops. The two then fight their way through the Pier until they confront T-Bone. The two gun him down, then Carl begins to chase after Ryder. Ryder attempts to escape by a boat, but Carl manages to kill him in a brief chase.
Mission objectives
In order to complete the mission the player must:
- Go upstairs and meet Cesar
- Clear the roof so that the Triads can proceed
- Find and kill T-Bone
- Jump into the water and swim after Ryder
- Get in the boat
- Kill Ryder. You can do a drive-by on his boat
- The reward for completing this is $15000, and increased respect. The mission Toreno's Last Flight is also unlocked.
- T-Bone Mendez - Killed by Carl and Cesar to disband the Loco Syndicate.
- Ryder - Killed by Carl for betraying the Grove Street Families and joining the Ballas.
Tips and tricks
- Instead going through the middle of the pier and killing the Ballas and Rifas, you can utilize the small alleyway in the left (where the Pizza restaurant is), coming directly in T-Bone.
- It is possible to access the roof via the same entrance the Triads used, you'll encounter fewer gunmen this way and you can snipe T-Bone, inflicting minimal damage from his AK-47.
- It is possible to kill Ryder with a sniper rifle from the pier. Or, if you have a rocket launcher, you can shoot one of the boats when Ryder is close to it, and he will most likely die in the explosion.
- Be careful while performing a drive-by on Ryder's boat; when his boat catches on fire, stay back so you don't get caught in the explosion.
- While you cannot gain a wanted level during the mission, you can after the mission, so be sure not to drive too close to any locked areas after killing Ryder.
- Originally, it was going to be Ryder who gets killed on the pier, and T-Bone who swims to the boat. The game contains unused audio files that prove this.
- Whichever submachine gun the player has in their inventory is the one that Carl uses in the cutscene when he and Cesar kill T-Bone. He fires off 5 bullets, even if the clip has less than 5 bullets remaining.
- If the player already has a sniper rifle in their inventory before the mission, they will receive more ammunition from Cesar.
- Cesar's attack won't inflict damage on enemies.
- If you beach Ryder's boat, he will keep operating it in vain until you board it.
- If you blow up both boats, Ryder will swim to the small island nearby and stand still. Strangely, he will not react even if you beat him to death with melee weapons.
- If you board Ryder's boat during the chase, he will bail out and drown.


text:
Your Miami ID is the only card you will need on campus. This one card will give you access to your Residence Hall, Meal Plan, Recreational Sports Center, MUlaa debit account, campus events, library resources, and your MUBucks account. Newly accepted undergraduate students who submit their photo online will receive their Miami ID during Orientation.
WebCardCenter is your resource for managing your Campus ID Card. It is a secure site that you can access using your Miami University UniqueID and password. By logging in to WebCardCenter, you are able to:
- Report a lost card 24 hours a day
- Register your cell phone to open your door with a text message
- View Meal Plan and MUlaa transactions and balance information
- Set your notification preferences
- Find available washers/dryers in the laundry room of your residence hall
Miami University is not responsible for damages resulting from the loss, theft, or misuse of a Miami ID. You should safeguard your ID at all times. Unauthorized use of a Miami ID may result in criminal charges and university disciplinary action.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
On the upside
The U.S. government announced plans to sell its remaining shares of insurer American International Group (NYSE: AIG), recipient of bailout funds.
Shares of Acura Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ACUR) continued to rally for a second day after it launched cold medicine that cannot be converted to illegal methamphetamine.
On the downside
SunCoke Energy (NYSE: SXC) offered 2013 guidance that projected a drop in the price of coal.
Shares of SPX Corporation (NYSE: SPW) fell on word that the company may be looking to buy rival machinery maker Gardner Denver (NYSE: GDI).
Shares of Main Street Capital (NYSE: MAIN) promptly fell after the investment firm announced a public offering of 2.5 million shares at $28 each.
In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of more than 2 to 1 on the NYSE and by more than 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The broader S&P 500 index gained 13 points to 1432.


text:
Whole Foods Market says it is voluntarily recalling some 4-ounce Whole Catch Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon, cold-smoked and sliced, after a sample tested positive for listeria.
The lot code for the recalled smoked salmon is 7425A2298B. The UPC code is 0 99482 40880 0.
Whole Foods says the recalled items were sold in stores in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Utah.
Colorado health officials say no illnesses had been reported as of Monday.
Copyright 2016 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
KKTV firmly believes in freedom of speech for all and we are happy to provide this forum for the community to share opinions and facts. We ask that commenters keep it clean, keep it truthful, stay on topic and be responsible. Comments left here do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of KKTV 11 News.
If you believe that any of the comments on our site are inappropriate or offensive, please tell us by clicking "Report Abuse" and answering the questions that follow. We will review any reported comments promptly.powered by Disqus
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:
Pretty self explanatory is it ^_^ ? Which card and sphere do you Associate yourself with the most and why.
It should be a no brainier which sphere represents me, Refess, However I take a step further and call myself a Refess/Lawita Like the TGC Inquisitor cards. As for which card Represents me the best , well that took a fair amount of time to discern . Initially I considered myself some one along the lines of Aliria or Garath, But my play doesn't quite match up with those two. Safaria came next naturally, But a like the cunning. Naturally Next I thought Auivault surely had to fit me. and again nope.
It wasn't until I took another look at Messaria that I found the unit that best described my play style in its entirety. Sacrificing my unit frantically in order to gain an advantage while supporting my units and putting my enemies in disadvantageous situations.


text:
Charisma® Classic Bath Rug
Overview & Details
- 100% Supima cotton bath rug.
- Soft and absorbent bath rug made with DryFast technology.
- Available in four colors: white, ivory, toast, and water.
- Bath rug comes in two different sizes: 24" x 36" and 30" x 50. "
- Charisma Classic bath rug matches our Charisma bath towel collection.
- Machine wash.
- Imported.
Awaken your senses to the comforting feel of 100% Supima cotton with our Charisma Classic bath rug. An ideal pick to treat your toes to ultimate softness every time you step out of the shower or bath, our luxurious Charisma Cotton bath rugs offer the epitome of comfort, style and quality. Made with the finest American cotton and DryFast technology, this ultra-soft and absorbent bath rug feels great underneath your feet and dries quickly too. It's time to get rid of raggedy old bath mats and indulge in the everyday luxury of our Charisma Classic bath rug.
One of the easiest ways to update your bathroom's décor, the right bath mat can transform the ambiance of your whole bathroom. Our 100% Supima cotton Charisma Classic bath rug features a wide textured border with a smooth interior for a well-crafted look. The bath rug is also available in two sizes, 24" x 36" and 30" x 50", and four versatile colors, white, ivory, toast, and water.
Our Supima cotton Charisma Classic bath rug coordinates with the Charisma bath towel collection. Combine all the bath accessories together for a well-appointed bathroom aesthetic everyone will enjoy. Charisma offers welcoming warmth and softness for every day of the week.
Reviewed by 1 customer
I have been looking for a year for the right color for my master bath rugs. The water color is a very pretty bluish gray, depending on the lighting it looks like a light gray, we really like it. The design is nice but the quality isn't the usual company store quality. We will see how they do over time with a lot of use.


text:
Hi everyone.....sorry if I am not around much this week.
With the end of tax season and getting all the office files packed up, I have been super busy.
Today however, is a wonderful day for our family!
Today is Adoption day for Noah! He officially becomes a legal part of our family! WooHoo!!!!!!!! *woot:vb_chirolp_iei::gogo:
Not too excited or anything! LOL.
Now heading off to the court house and then to celebrate with the family!:wink:


text:
"Got exactly what I ordered, GREAT!" (E10006)
"excellent" (E12911)
"Glad I found this site. The shorts fit and feel smooth. They also arrived in a timely manner.
Once again you have my business and will recommend epic sports to others.
Thank you." (E8650)
Epic Sports
Pea-less Whistle & Matching Lanyard (in 3-Colors) [E7781]


text:
12,920pages on
this wiki
this wiki
Santalune City is the first city that you'll visit in the Kalos region. The city is the home of Gym Leader Viola, the first Gym Leader you will battle. She specializes in Bug-type Pokémon. The player will also meet Viola's big sister Alexa who will guide the player toward the gym. A fountain, which has a metal sculpture of Roselia, can also be found in the upper part of the city. The player will receive the Roller Skates from a skater in front of the Gym if they defeat her in battle.
Places of Interest
Santalune Gym
See Santalune City Gym.
Traıners' School
The Trainers' School is where you will learn about the basics of Pokemon catching and battling, and is also where you will meet a person who will give you X Defenses and X Attacks.


text:
| kids eyewear+ About the Brand
17 items
Ray Ban is the global leader in premium sunglasses range for men, women and kids available in the market, the brand is much known for its celebrity customer base. In 1952, one of the style created by the brand namely Ray-Ban Wayfarer with plastic frames became hugely popular soon after their release. Ten years later, after USA made impact-resistant sunglasses mandatory through the FDA regulations, the year 1962 saw Ray Ban creating impact-resistant sunglasses.
- Filter by:
Sorry, no products are matching your filters.
Hit the "Back" button on your browser to return to your last successful search, or clear one of the filters above.
You can also CLICK HERE TO CLEAR ALL FILTERS and get back to the full brand results.


text:
How to Grill Everything
Learn More
Give the perfect gift. Any occasion, any time.
Shop Now
Natural Handcrafted Wreaths
Up to 50% Off Copper Cookware
20% Off Williams-Sonoma Cutting Boards
Up to 65% Off Wüsthof Gourmet Cutlery
$150 Off Vitamix + Free Shipping
20% Off Williams-Sonoma Bakeware Sets
Top-Shelf Margarita Mixers
20% Off All Table Linens
20% Off Spring Linens
High Heat Nonstick Steel Grill Pans
While Supplies Last!
Did you mean "not free"?


text:
KcJoJoFollow KcJoJo
KcJoJo hasn't gone Contiki yet.
Have a favorite tour?
Following 0 people
Followed by 0 people
Upcoming Contikis
Trips I've Done
Favorite Tours
Egypt & The Nile
1 country \ 8 days \ from US$1319 per person
Travel back in time to the days of the Pharoahs with this action packed trek around Egypt. You'll be guided through the craziness of Cairo with an expert Egyptian Tour Manager, who'll be at your side for the entire tour. See the Great Pyramids & Sphinx in Giza & Valley of the Kings in Luxor. Sail on a traditional Felucca & enjoy shopping in the bazaar! No sitting on a coach for 8 days either ...
Places I'd Like to Visit
- Egypt


text:
By the way...
=) -- Seth Cooper Owl Post 03:21, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
Caretaker: Project Wizard Tales
I can help you to take care on some articles under your Project Wizard Tales because i already having that rollback privilege. ----ÈnŔîčö (Send me an Owl) 03:29, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
- No, i don't want to become a Project Leader. Being a leader to this Project is a big responsibility and i can't make any promises. Just a caretaker is enough to me. Cheers! :) ----ÈnŔîčö (Send me an Owl) 03:46, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
Jobs: Project Wizard Tales
I don't mind being a leader/badger on the project. I have been a farily good project member (I've got the Hardworking badge), I'm able of creating badges and I'm a Rollback. (I'm off to bed. If you want to talk to me I'll respond tomorrow. Bye!) -- Seth Cooper Owl Post 03:37, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
Re:Featured articles?
There really isn't a rush to promote featured articles; we're all the way into 2010. As for the quotes, we are sort of behind on that. If you ever think of any quotes you think should be featured, please nominate them. It would be a big help.--Matoro183 (Talk) 20:28, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
I removed the protected templates from your user page...not quite sure why they were there, your user page isn't protected and never has been.--Matoro183 (Talk) 00:15, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
- Your user page is now semi-protected. New and unregistered users will be unable to edit it. I didn't want to full-protect it because then you would not be able to edit it either.--Matoro183 (Talk) 00:23, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
Re: Director stubs
Well, if there are no more pages in the cat, my best bet would be to tag it for deletion. --Cubs Fan2007 (Message me) 03:38, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
Just wondering...?
I noticed that you used "Gina" in a name of a pic you uploaded. Just wondering... Are you from Brazil? -- Seth Cooper (Owl Post) 02:54, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
- Ah. xD I'm from Portugal myself. I was curious because if you were from Brazil we would both speak portuguese. -- Seth Cooper (Owl Post) 03:29, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
- The end of the sentence is kind of weird but it's easy enough to undersatnd. =) -- Seth Cooper (Owl Post) 03:55, 13 April 2009 (UTC)
Reference or Appearances info. on your articles
Please don't forget to reference or input appearances info. (like what you did in Daisy) if you will create another articles in the future. You just forget that on articles Lovage, Henbane, Ginger, Dandelion and Grugwyn Rufford... Just a friendly reminder. Have a great day! ----ÈnŔîčö (Send me an Owl) 04:16, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
I'm just curious and want to ask you, why you always use the word "againist". For example in National Welsh Gobstones Team article. I first saw this word used in nominating articles to become Featured, but in my all knowledge based on the American English Literature, The word was never used, but i'm not sure about the English (U.K.) literature. Is the word use there in the U.K.? because if it's not. I would suggest that you may stop using that but instead use the appropriate word "against" because we are here in a Online (Wiki) English Encyclopedia. Just another friendly reminder. Have a nice day! ----ÈnŔîčö (Send me an Owl) 04:39, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
Re: Half-blood prince date change
I, myself and a unregistered user with the i.p. address: 220.127.116.11 already updated the Release Date, from July 17 to July 15, 2009. The U.K. were still not concluded because there's no confirmation from Warner Bros., Only in the U.S. has been confirmed. ----ÈnŔîčö (Send me an Owl) 05:59, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
Both Gryffindor spots are open, and you've shown yourself to be an excellent contributor, so it would be great to have you as our first Gryffindor Prefect! But, technically, I'm not the one who decides who gets to be a Prefect. Any active user who's received the Prefect award can become a Prefect if they're willing and there's a spot open. Just thought I'd clear that up. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 07:07, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- I added you to the list. You can add this userbox to your userpage if you want: {{User Gryffindor Prefect}} . ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 07:16, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
Project Wizard Tales: Healer
- Hey, if you still need someone to take up the "Healer" position in Project Wizard Tales, I would be more than happy to help out. Thanks. Margiechocoholic 02:38, 17 April 2009 (UTC)
- The 3 articles I would like to work on for Healer are: The Tales of Beedle the Bard, The Deathly Hallows and The Fountain of Fair Fortune. Thanks. Margiechocoholic 11:50, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
Re:House points
I've sought input from the community regarding my house points draft here. Since no concerns have been brought forward in the past couple of days, I'll go live with the game once I've tied up a few more loose ends. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 06:11, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
- The House Points Game is now up and running. You can find it at Harry Potter Wiki:House points. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 07:17, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
No. of HP Wiki Members
Hello Hellabore!, may i know where did you get the information of the Numbers of Harry Potter Wiki Members?, the info. that you typed in your front page. Thanks! --ÈnŔîčö (Send me an Owl!) 07:09, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks a lot for your response. --ÈnŔîčö (Send me an Owl!) 07:38, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
House points II
I realize I've already informed you about the House Points Game being active, but this is just a template message I'm giving to all Prefects, excepting myself:
This is just a message to let you know that the House Points Game is now up and running at Harry Potter Wiki:House points. As a Prefect, you can begin giving points, as well as encouraging your House and helping to direct its collaborative work at Gryffindor Tower. If you see someone with a Gryffindor userbox on their userpage who hasn't joined the game yet, feel free to drop them a note. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 08:41, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
20 points
I've awarded 20 points to Gryffindor for all your hard work on Project Wizard Tales. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 09:38, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
- Yes, unlike in the books, our Prefects can award points to other Prefects. There wouldn't be many people to give points to right now if this was not allowed. :) I'll mention this in the rules, so that it's clearer. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 10:16, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
- Matoro183 is the one who made the hourglass. If you want to create a custom hourglass for Gryffindor, he may be more able to help out. For now, if you want to add the complete hourglass to your Common Room, you can use the code {{Harry Potter Wiki:House points/Hourglass}}. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 10:38, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
- A Prefects' forum sounds like a good idea. We can use Harry Potter Wiki talk:House points for now. Also, since there's currently no Hufflepuffs besides Cubs Fan2007, I've suggested to Cubs Fan that he consider becoming the second Gryffindor Prefect if no other Hufflepuffs sign up soon (Cubs Fan expressed interest in representing Gryffindor when the idea for the House Points Game was first proposed). I'm telling you this to give you advance notice that you might be working with another Prefect, depending on what Cubs Fan decides. But, personally, I hope that more Hufflepuffs join, because the House Points Game won't seem complete without all four Houses represented. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 11:06, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
House Points
Hey, I would love to join the Gryffindor team for the House Points system. Do I just need to copy the coding for the Gryffindor badge onto my user page? Thanks, Margiechocoholic 11:53, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
Wizard Tales
I just thought I would inform you that I plan to expand the article on the character Death from the Tale of the Three Brothers. I've been meaning to pull my weight as part of Project Wizard Tales, but I've been busy with setting up the House Points Game, as well as real-life stuff. Cheers. :) ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 08:02, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks for the points, but to set the record straight, I wasn't the one who created the article on Tobias Snape. I did clean up and expand the article some months ago. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 09:06, 21 April 2009 (UTC)
15 points
I've awarded 15 points to Gryffindor for your categorization of over 150 images in the past few days. :) ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 00:14, 24 April 2009 (UTC)
- I've given you another 15 points for creating the article Manager of Flourish and Blotts. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 01:02, 24 April 2009 (UTC)
Hey Hellabore, I was wondering if you could please help me with my signature. I've changed it using HTML etc. but it doesn't seem to fit in the box in "Preferences". I checked, and yours is actually longer than mine, so do you know if I can add it in there, or if there's some other way for me to be able to type it quickly using the 4 tildes? Thanks, and I'll copy my signature here: MARGIECHOCOHOLIC (Owl me!)
30 points
I've awarded you 30 points for creating the articles Erumpent tail and Frog brain. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 02:34, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
Two proposals
I've started two discussions at Harry Potter Wiki talk:House points which may be of special interest to Prefects. If you have the time, I'd appreciate your comments. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 12:10, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
Re: GIF
- Uploading GIF is not difficult. It is simple as uploading .JPG files or any other image's format. Unless you are asking on how i created those GIF? I made those images through the help of the software: Adobe Image Ready.
First step, i captured images from the HP movie disc using Cyberlink Power DVD (images one by one; by every movements like drawing a cartoon). Save them to a Folder in your PC, then Open the "Adobe Image Ready" software (you need to install Adobe Photoshop [any version\i preferred ver.5.5], and there's a feature on creating a GIF. --ÈnŔîčö (Send me an Owl!) 09:50, 2 May 2009 (UTC)
Tom Riddle's main image
Hey Hellabore. Were currently holding a vote to decide Tom Riddle's main image. Please vote for your favourite, cheers. Jayce Carver Talk 10:29, 2 May 2009 (UTC)
Hi, I'm Sarah. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Lupin&TonksForever (talk • contribs).
75 Points
I awarded you 75 points for creating several articles recently. Oread (talk) 16:39, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
Fred Weasley Project
Hi Hellabore, it's Timbira. I was wondering if you would want to join the Fred Weasley Project. If you do, here is the link: Fred Weasley Project Keep me posted and best wishes,Timbira. --Timbira 04:11, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
Order of Merlin 2nd class
|Order of Merlin (Second Class)
|The Order of Merlin is awarded to you by Seth Cooper for having over two-thousand edits on the Harry Potter Wiki.
Re:Madam Hooch
Sorry! I thought you were two different people! I need to read userpages more carefully from now. Maybe you should move the note on your Madam Hooch userpage to the very top, above the infoboxes, so that this mix-up doesn't occur again. From now on, if you want to add points, can you do it from your Hellabore account, as that one is the Prefect? ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 06:56, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
- I've also moved your Madam Hooch username on the Participants list and added a note. Technically, you can only play as one person, so all the points earned by Madam Hooch should be given to Hellabore, your main account. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 07:03, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
It is currently the policy of the game that you can only be a member of one House at a time. As all the accounts a user controls are treated as the same person, and your main account, Hellabore, is in Gryffindor, any alternate accounts you use will have to be in Gryffindor too. The only way your HelgaHufflepuff account could become a Hufflepuff Prefect would be if your Hellabore and Madam Hooch accounts both left Gryffindor and joined Hufflepuff instead.
I'll admit that I considered allowing people to join up to two Houses as a way to get Hufflepuff into the game. Points would be split evenly: if someone joined Hufflepuff and Slytherin, then earned 5 points, 2.5 points would be given to both of their Houses. But I figured that all the decimal points would make calculating points totals too difficult.
I've been thinking of allowing Hufflepuff to enter the game without a Prefect. Sure, it would be nice to have a Prefect to lead the Hufflepuff team, but playing without a captain would be better than sitting out this round of the game, I suppose.
Of course, while your HelgaHufflepuff account can't become a Hufflepuff Prefect (at least not while your Hellabore account is a Gryffindor Prefect), it could still act as a kind of a team leader. We could have "founders" or "House ghosts," who could offer advice and organize collaborative tasks on the common room pages, but not give/take points. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 08:11, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
- You can't be counted as an official member of Hufflepuff because you already belong to Gryffindor. However, I'm going to disregard the four-people requirement I set, and allow Hufflepuff to enter the game with three members (IluvSBGORWRG8056, U-No-Poo, and xBloodxLustx). ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 12:14, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
- I've added a new provision to the House Points Game policy, which states that, in the event a House has no active Prefect, a Prefect from another House may step in as an honorary team member known as a Mentor. Mentors act as the leader of their honorary House, but they cannot earn points for it, since a person can only be an official member of one House at a time. I've made your HelgaHufflepuff account a Mentor for Hufflepuff. If Hufflepuff gets its own Prefect, though, then you will no longer be the Mentor of that House. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 14:20, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
Points for new articles
This is a message to let Prefects know that the House Points Game policy page has been updated to include guidelines for how many points to give for article creation. Please consult this when giving points in the future. Thanks! ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 11:26, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
45 Points
I've awarded you 45 points for your recent creation of several wand articles. :) Oread (talk) 19:16, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
- I've awarded you 60 points for creating various articles recently. :) ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 20:44, 13 May 2009 (UTC)
You don't have quite as much experience as the other three users. You haven't even been here two months yet, while they've been here nearly two years. --Matoro183 (Talk) 10:34, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
- My point is that there is alot you still need to learn. Do you know policy backwards and forwards? Can you properly implement it? I have noticed several times when you have gone against policy. Do you know how to warn users? These are things you need to know.--Matoro183 (Talk) 10:53, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
- I can't really stop from nominating yourself to be an admin--Matoro183 (Talk) 11:31, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
- You may be added to the list -- it is an open election. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 15:36, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
- I can't really stop from nominating yourself to be an admin--Matoro183 (Talk) 11:31, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
Hi Hellabore how you doing? It says in the Gryffindor tower(house points game) that in order to take points we must do some things that are listed. One of these things is to create an article. Yesterday I created at least 3 articles if I remember well. So my question is what else have i got to do to earn points for Gryffndor?? 96ken(Talk) 06:25, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
Sorry. The way you worded it made it sound like you wanted the other two to become admins too.--Matoro183 (Talk) 10:45, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
Could you explain it a little more in-depth? Right now it sounds like you just want to duplicate the house competition.--Matoro183 (Talk) 10:59, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
- Sounds good, though I think that instead of just keeping the winning re-write, we keep them all. By the way, do you want me to make Project Fred Wesley an official wiki project?--Matoro183 (Talk) 11:08, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
- I'll be a ref, but I think a prefect should house the draft.--Matoro183 (Talk) 11:20, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
- Actual, now that I think about it, it should be on a page in the Harry Potter Wiki namespace, such as Harry Potter Wiki:House Points/Quidditch.--Matoro183 (Talk) 11:27, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
- I'll be a ref, but I think a prefect should house the draft.--Matoro183 (Talk) 11:20, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
Re: Points
Thanks Hellabore for the points. Now that i haveakes tsese points do i have to write it in the log or will you do?96ken(Talk) 11:48, 16 May 2009 (UTC)
RE: Project Fred Weasley
Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not be the project leader. ShirleyA(The Quibbler) 00:51, 17 May 2009 (UTC)
Admin Election
Just to let you know, you're allowed to vote.--Matoro183 (Talk) 19:58, 17 May 2009 (UTC)
- Its fine to ask users to vote in stuff on HPW:RFP but do not campaign, i.e. do not ask them to vote for you in particular. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 14:16, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
User Talk
Please do not remove comments from other users' talk pages. -- Seth Cooper (Owl Post) 23:59, 18 May 2009 (UTC)
- Ok, no problem. Next time press Alt+V to check the changes you have made to the page. -- Seth Cooper (Owl Post) 00:08, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
It seems good to me. I would like the idea of having a board of referees instead of a single user, though. -- Seth Cooper (Owl Post) 00:17, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
- The new administrators will be picked long before the decision on which draft should win. I think it would be better if all the administrators decided, or all of the prefects, something like that. I'm not a particularly good reviewer :).--Matoro183 (Talk) 01:12, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
Re:New idea
That's a fantastic idea. I'd be glad to help. Give me a shout when your ready to get started. Jayce Carver Talk 07:14, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
Ah, I see. Are me and Starstuff just doing the pitch for Slytherin House? Jayce Carver Talk 07:46, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
Thats cool. I'll wait until Starstuff is available so we can collaborate. Jayce Carver Talk 08:10, 19 May 2009 (UTC)
Well, thanks for the help Hellabore !I have been trying to get into one of the houses for the house points game , but it seems that the internet explorer has a problem displaying the page . Can you find out why ? And I think I am giong to join in project Fred Weasley , it seems good . Thank you !
126.96.36.199 07:30, 19 May 2009 (UTC) Raamapriya
I got into both project Fred Weasley as well as into the Hufflepuff house for the House Points Game . I feel great. Thank You !
Raamapriya 14:56, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
Truth or Dare
Love the idea. Toon Ganondorf (t c)
Okay truth or dare, Toon. -- Hellabore(Deathly Hallows)
I pick Truth. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 21:33, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
How many sickles are to a galleon? (Don't cheat!) -- Hellabore(Deathly Hallows)
Pretty sure its 17 or 19...I'll go with 17. Toon Ganondorf (t c) 12:39, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
Correct. I pick Dare! -- Hellabore(Deathly Hallows)
You cannot just add policy to the wiki. It has to be approved by the members, in addition no one should EVER add a policy tag to a page unless it has been approved. -- DarkJedi613 (Talk) 13:54, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
105 points
I've awarded you 105 points for the articles you've created recently as both Hellabore and Madam Hooch. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 19:16, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
Yeah , maybe , okay ! I have one more question ! I got into a link which gave me a list of red highlighted topics. I created that kettleburn page . I want to create as many pages from the red listed topics , but I am unable to find the link . Please help !
Raamapriya 05:07, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
I have no idea about those links . Sorry !
Raamapriya 08:08, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
Quidditch Cup
I'm still a bit confused about the Quidditch Cup. Will the points earned in the Quidditch competition count strictly toward winning the Quidditch Cup, or will they also be added toward the House Points total, and thus count toward winning the House Cup too? If you intend for the Quidditch Cup to be completely separate from the House Points Game, then perhaps we should use different terminology, like "goals" instead of "points," and a "scoreboard" instead of an "hourglass."
As for editor roles, I think we should follow the books, and have four team captains (one per House) and a single referee. The team captains would serve the same role as Prefects, organizing work and encouraging their teams, while the referee would oversee everything, assigning points/goals and determining which team wins. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 21:41, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
- From a strictly linguistic standpoint, having a panel of "referees" wouldn't make sense, as a game typically only has one referee. I think we should have a panel consisting of four House team captains and one referee who could cast the fifth, tie-breaking vote. The House team captains could be selected from people who are already serving as Prefects. As for Hufflepuff, you could be Hufflepuff Captain, under you HelgaHufflepuff acount, and Cubs Fan could be Gryffindor captain. Just a suggestion. ★ Starstuff (Owl me!) 22:07, 21 May 2009 (UTC)
We don't really need any more bureaucrats. Read this message on my talk page for why.--Matoro183 (Talk) 22:05, 21 May 2009 (UTC)


text:
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh / Vedernikov, Kazakov, Panfilov, etc [2 DVD]
2 DVD Video / Naxos (USA) / 2011-12-13Works: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya
Performers: Gubsky, Mikhail; Gulordava, Marika; Hakobyan, Gevorg; Kazakov, Mikhail; Monogarova, Tatiana; Panfilov, Vitaly
Conductors: Vedernikov, Alexander
Ensemble: Cagliari Theater Chorus; Cagliari Theater Orchestra
The Invisible City of Kitezh, completed in 1905, is a remarkable opera that fuses folklore, mysticism and realism. Its subject is the story of the...continue...
Run Time: 187 min.
Region: All
Picture Format: NTSC, 16:9, Color
Sound Format(s): LPCM Stereo, Dolby 5.0, DTS 5.0
Subtitles: English
read more Login or Create an Account to write a review


text:
This week Correspondent Gerald Kitabu talked to the President of the International Medical and Technological University Students Organization (IMTUSO) Yared Birage Chacha on the agreement reached at the weekend between the student body and the university administration to end students' strike against payment of fees in US dollars. Excerpts:
QUESTION: I understand that IMTUSO and the university management signed an agreement aimed to end the two-month students' strike. What was contained in the agreement?
ANSWER: The agreement is a road map aimed at resolving the stand-off between the university administration and students whereby each party will implement specific conditions including quoting and charging the university fees in Tanzania shillings and not in dollars as it is done now.
Currently, the fees are being paid in dollars instead of the local currency, something which is very expensive because of the daily fluctuation of the shilling.
Q: Who led the mediation?
A: The mediation was led by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training. The agreement involved other parties as well such as the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), High Education Students Loans Board (HESLB), Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and security officers.
Q: Why do you think charging fees in dollars is expensive?
A: You must understand that our shilling is not stable; it fluctuates now and then. For example, students admitted in the 2008/9 academic year, the exchange rate was 1,280/- per one US dollar, which means the tuition fee was 5,760,000/- but students admitted at the university in 2009/10 academic year, the exchange rate was 1,320/- per US dollar - which means the tuition fee went up to 5,940,000/-.
Likewise, during the 2010/11 academic year, the exchange rate was 1,500/- per US dollar -- which means the tuition fees increased to 6,750,000/- and currently in the academic year 2011/12 the exchange rate is 1,600/- -- the fees being 7.2m/-.
Q: You said the university has been instructed to implement specific conditions, which are these conditions?
A: It was agreed that IMTU should consider introducing contractual arrangements in which students will sign a contract on payment of fees at fixed rate throughout the period of study. It was also noted that the charge of tuition fees at 7.2m/- is quite high, hence students proposed the fee to be down to 5.5m/-. However, the decision to reduce the fees would be made on October 26, 2011 after the management consults the trustee of the university.
It was also decided that for the fees charged for supplementary examinations should cater for all examinations. On fees levied for partial transcript, it was agreed that examinations results should be posted on the university website, hence no need for paying fees the partial transcript.
On the issue of sports and games fees, IMTUSO has been instructed to prepare a proposal on how to manage them. The proposal should be submitted to the management and copied to the concerned ministry.
On medical capitation, it was agreed that since the IMTU management has a system in place, that the system should be shared with students and the message be conveyed through the university website and notes boards for IMTUSO comment.
It was further decided that TCU should conduct an academic and management audit of IMTU to address the issues raised. It was also decided that the IMTU management would convene an extra-ordinary council meeting to revisit its decisions made on September 8, 2011. The meeting would be convened on October 27, 2011.
It also decided that the parties would meet again on October 28 to discuss trustees' decision on fees and propose the way forward.
Q: What are fees charged by the management?
A: Well, students are supposed to pay 4,500 US dollars as tuition fees whereas in medical capitation fees, sports and games fees, examination fees, supplementary fees students should pay 100 US dollars each.
Q: What's the problem?
A: As I said earlier, the problem comes in the exchange rate due to fluctuation of our local currency. For example, those who were admitted in the 2008/9 academic year, the exchange rate was 1,280/- and tuition fees were 5,760,000/- but students admitted in the 2009/10 academic year, the exchange rate was 1,320/- while the tuition fees went up to 5,940,000/-.
So, because of the annual variation of the tuition fees, students find it very difficult to afford payment in dollars.
Q: When did you start the class boycott?
A: We started early August this year after all efforts had failed to discuss the problem. Our parliament agreed that the matter should be sent to students' general assembly which was held on August 17, 2011.
Q: Why did you boycott classes?
A: We decided to boycott classes after all our efforts had failed. The university management said that it cannot resolve the problem because it was under the mandate of the owner of the University who signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government of Tanzania and the Vignan Education Foundation (VEF) of Bangalore, India.
So after learning that the university management was not in a position to help us, we decided to see Minister for Education and Vocational Training Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa on August 10, to discuss several issues including the tuition fees.
Q: What did he say?
A: After discussions, he instructed the Director of Higher Education to deal with our problems. The director told us that he was aware of our demands and that it was a genuine case. He promised to work on it but to our surprise nothing took place.
After learning that our demands had been thrown into the dustbin, we decided to make follow-up. To our surprise, he gave us the previous minutes of the meeting saying the matter would be settled down.
Q: You have talked about the Memorandum of Understanding…did you manage to see it?
A: Actually things were done in a secret manner. Just imagine no student had seen it, including the student leaders. After a hard work of searching here and there, we finally found it. We learnt that there were so many issues that had not been fulfilled and even the amount of university fees was not stated anywhere in the MoU provisions.
As we continued with our struggle, we realised later that the office of the Vice-Chancellor had a charter which was issued by President Jakaya Kikwete to the university chancellor in 2010.
Q: What was in the charter?
A: The charter explains very clearly that tuition fee in any institution in the country, be it primary, secondary, college or university should be quoted and charged in Tanzanian shillings.
Upon learning that it was our right to pay in Tanzania shillings and not in dollars, all students were united on the issue. Another inspiration to our struggle came from the government. On August 1, 2011, the Ministry for Education and Vocational Training published in one of the local dailies that all institutions should quote and charge fees in Tanzania shillings.
The permanent Secretary agreed to meet the IMTUSO on October 14 together with other parties involved in the matter. These were TCU, IMTU administration, IMTUSO and the ministry being the mediator.
Unfortunately, the IMTU management did not turn up on the stated date instead we received a letter which said that the management could not attend because the Vice-Chancellor had traveled to America. While negotiations were going on between October 4 and 6, IMTUSO filed a temporary court injunction which was not successful.
Q: Why did you file the court injunction when negotiations were underway?
A: We filed the court injunction after the ministry said that it had no power to stop activities at the university such as registration process and examinations that were to start in the near future.
Q: What is your call?
A: We congratulate the ministry ending the problem. The government bold decision on this matter has restored students' confidence and trust.


text:
- 20 topics
- 1 discussion
Top Mojave Desert Topics See all topics in Mojave Desert »
Mojave Desert
LA to the Bay - 12 to 22 August 2012
Hey! so who all is going on the awesome la to the bay tri...
Wez asked
about USA and Canada arizona bass lake california grand canyon grand canyon national park joshua tree la las vegas los angeles mojave desert national parks nevada party partying phoenix route 66 san diego san francisco sed
wez responded0 Likes4 answers
Want to start a new discussion? You need to be signed in as a Contiki.com Community member first.


text:
Retrieves data from the tables in the database.
where query-expression is:
In ESQL, the SELECT statement may only be used to declare a cursor or as input to a PREPARE statement.
In a Procedural usage context, the SELECT statement may only be used to declare a cursor.
In interactive SQL, the SELECT statement is used for interactive data retrieval. See the Mimer SQL User's Manual, Retrieving Data for more details.
The ORDER BY Clause
The final result table may be ordered according to an ORDER BY clause. Every expression in the ORDER BY clause must contain a reference to a column in a table specified in the FROM clause.
Column labels, created with SELECT AS, may not be part of a complex ORDER BY expression, (i.e. the expression must contain nothing but the column label).
The ORDER BY expressions must not include set functions (i.e. MAX, MIN, AVG, SUM and COUNT), subqueries or NEXT_VALUE OF sequence.
If DISTINCT, GROUP BY or UNION/UNION ALL is specied, only columns from the result set may be specified as ORDER BY expressions.
The names in the first select specification are used in UNION constructions.
The default collation for sorting data is the collation defined for the column being sorted. If you include a COLLATE clause, you can override the default collation by explicitly specifying a different collation. For more information, see the Mimer SQL User's Manual, Collations.
For each column in the ORDER BY clause, the sort order may be specified as ASC (ascending) - the default, or DESC (descending). If more than one column is specified, the result table is ordered first by values in the first specified column, then by values in the second, and so on.
The FOR UPDATE OF Clause
If the SELECT statement defines a cursor for UPDATE CURRENT statements, a FOR UPDATE OF clause may be optionally used to list the columns to be updated. If the FOR UPDATE OF clause is used, it must include all the columns to be updated.
Each column specified in the FOR UPDATE CLAUSE must belong to the table or view named in the FROM clause of the SELECT statement, although the columns in FOR UPDATE OF do not need to be specified in the SELECT clause. No column may be named more than once in the FOR UPDATE OF clause.
Column names in the FOR UPDATE OF clause may not be qualified by the name of the table or view. They are implicitly qualified by the table reference in the FROM clause of the select specification.
FOR UPDATE OF may not be specified if the statement defines a read-only result set, see Updatable Result Sets.
The UNION Operator
If several SELECT statements are connected by UNION or UNION DISTINCT, the result is derived by first merging all result tables specified by the separate SELECT statements, and then eliminating duplicate rows from the merged set. All columns in the result table are significant for the purpose of eliminating duplicates.
The UNION ALL operator on the other hand retains all duplicates. The operator can be viewed as a way to concatenate several queries.
The rules described below apply to both UNION and UNION ALL.
All separate result tables from SELECT statements connected by UNION must have the same number of columns and the data types of columns to be merged must be compatible.
The columns in the result table are named in accordance with the columns in the first SELECT statement of the UNION construction.
Separate SELECT statements may be enclosed in parentheses if desired. This does not affect the result of a UNION operation.
See Result Data Types for a description of how the data type of the UNION result is determined.
SELECT Statements
Simple SELECT statements are built from a select-specification, see The SELECT Specification, optionally followed by either an ORDER BY or a FOR UPDATE OF clause. More complex statements can combine two or more select-specifications with the UNION operator.
Select statements are used in embedded SQL (including procedural usage contexts) to define cursors and as the input to dynamic PREPARE statements.
The embedded SELECT statement is syntactically equivalent to the interactive data retrieval SELECT statement. In embedded contexts however, the statement cannot be used to retrieve data directly but must be implemented through a cursor.
Updatable Result Sets
A result set is only updatable if all of the following conditions are true (otherwise the result set is read-only):
- the keyword DISTINCT is not specified
- all the result columns are specified as column-names and no column-name appears more than once
- the FROM clause specifies exactly one table reference and that table reference refers either to a base table or an updatable view
- the result set is not the product of an explicit INNER or OUTER JOIN
- the GROUP BY clause is not included
- the HAVING clause is not included
- the keyword UNION is not included
- the ORDER BY clause is not included
- it is not the result of a call to a result set procedure.
A cursor which addresses a read-only result table may not be used for DELETE CURRENT or UPDATE CURRENT statements.
ExamplesSELECT format, category_id FROM formats ORDER BY LOWER(format), category_id; SELECT format AS format_name, category FROM formats ORDER BY CASE category WHEN 'ROCK' THEN 1 WHEN 'JAZZ' THEN 2 ELSE 3 END;
Standard Compliance
Mimer Information Technology AB
Voice: +46 18 780 92 00
Fax: +46 18 780 92 40


text:
This park honors Alex Lindower (d. 1965) a community activist in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn. An attorney by profession, Lindower spent much of his time working to make the area a more desirable and livable neighborhood. His efforts are still visible today.
He convinced the City Council to fund stop lights and traffic signals which made the neighborhood's circular streets safer to cross. He successfully lobbied against the construction of a Sanitation Disposal Unit. Lindower also organized many community groups in the area including the Geritson Beach Veterans Association. He was a member of the Grand Street Boys Association, the Brighton Beach Chamber of Commerce, and the Knights of Pythias. Lindower participated in charity work with the Chronic Disease Hospital and the Beth Jacobs Girls Yeshiva and served as the Executive First Vice-President of the Flatbush Parks Civic Association.
- Baseball Fields
- Basketball Courts
- Bathrooms
- Eateries
- Handball Courts
- Outdoor Pools
- Playgrounds
- Spray Showers
Know when to go:
View upcoming athletic area usage in
Lindower Park


text:
URBAN CURRENT[S] is a conceptual framework for the development of the city of Medellin. A river, by definition, refers to movement. Only if we interpret the Medellin River area as a single geographic entity composed of natural elements (fauna and flora) and artificial (history, culture, mobility) do we understand that the opportunity presented by this call goes beyond the area defined for the contest. This is why we consider it important to think of the river territory beyond a simple design of public space. It is the opportunity to re-structure and establish a framework for the future development of Medellín.
Continue reading URBAN CURRENT[S] | Medellin Colombia | Land+Civilization Compositions, Taller 301 & openfabric


text:
Focus Groups
Posted by bonesiii , Apr 30 2008 · 801 views
Today the Bones Blog brings you a short interview with Greg Farshtey on the subject of focus groups, an often-misunderstood concept lately. What are the facts? Bold is for important points. Blue is me, black is Greg.
The Q&A
I've noticed lately that one of the cookie-cutter arguments complainers are using has been the anti-focus groups one. [Someone] just claimed in a topic for example that focus groups just like whatever LEGO throws at them in thanks for being chosen. He also said younger fans buy "anything".
That is a very common misconception of people who have never attended a focus group. Trust me -- I attended the initial groups we did for Dino Attack when the theme was just going to be hunting and trapping dinos -- beautiful sets, and the kids hated every one of them. They wanted the heroes to be attacking the dinos, so they got redone as more aggressive sets and sold great. Same with BIONICLE -- the kids are forced to make choices in these groups, of which sets of the group they like best and why. These are professionally run groups, managed by market research professionals outside of LEGO Company, so a kid who just says, "I like everything!" won't be allowed to get away with that answer.
Why are focus groups important?
Focus groups are important because, with any product, you need to gauge reactions from your primary audience. This is why movie studios do previews and have people fill out comment cards .... this is why TV producers have people watch their shows and turn a dial up or down when they like something or they don't. Every manufactuer just about uses some form of focus group or focus testing, whether they do it themselves or they hire an outside firm to do it. And all those BIONICLE sets everyone on here loved in 2001 and 2002 all came out of focus groups too.
What's the basic process of choosing focus group members?
LEGO contacts our market research firm, tells them what we want to test, how many sessions we want, how many kids in what age range, and what level of enthusiasm we want them to have for the line (heavy users, medium users, light users, and sometimes even rejecters, though not often). They then recruit the kids, so we have nothing to do with the selections directly. They also conduct the groups and present a debrief when they're done, we just observe from another room.
How important are their reactions to the final product compared to other things like past sales or just set designer's instincts or whatnot?
Designer instincts and past sales tend to go into the initial design phase. And they do play a part in that you don't automatically change everything you hear a criticism about -- some things have to stay the same for manufacturing reasons, etc. Also, you pay more attention to comments you hear from multiple groups, not just comments from one or two. If you have, say, 8 or 12 sessions over three days (which is common) with different groups of kids each time, and they all pick the same option or they all hate the same thing, you have to pay attention to that.
Do they like "anything"? It would be pointless to bother with them if they just liked everything, right?
You're right, it would be pointless. But that's not the case. It's pretty easy to spot kids who aren't really into it or aren't thinking about their feedback, and less weight is given to their comments. Most of these kids take their job very seriously and they get pressed to defend their comments. If they like something, or they dislike something, they have to say why. If they think something could be better, they have to say how it could be better. The difference between a focus group and an online forum is that focus groups are pushed to be as constructive as possible in their comments, where online posters can just say, "That stinks!" and no more. Because of that, we get a lot more valuable feedback from the groups.
I would also add that focus groups are not just used for sets -- they are also used for TV ads, magazine redesigns, online and offline game testing, etc.
Are focus groups infallible? No, they're not. But what I see when I see people screaming about them is that they are basically saying, "They should listen to me and not them" -- in other words, the complainers don't object to focus groups, they just want to BE the focus group.
My Thoughts
In my observation, this is more of a "grasping at straws" tactic that some complainers have started using. Some of it might be taste discrimination; implying that the focus groups and thus the tastes of most fans are somehow inferior to the complainer in question, or it might simply be an assumption that the focus groups aren't accurate.
If it's taste discrimination, I've already addressed this fallacious, but somewhat understandable mistake here: Taste Discrimination Fallacy, Equality of Taste.
If it's a question of accuracy, there's some huge problems with that.
1) Complainers don't have magical access to what the majority wants anymore than anybody else. Just because we might wish we were the focus group doesn't mean our tastes would be more accurate to the majority. In fact the opposite is often true; online fans are often very different from most fans, in any franchise.
2) Random sampling is a proven technique for accurate polling in all areas, including political polling and in fact any kind you can think of. Naturally, the majority will most often be the ones picked.
3) Many of the trends in focus group opinions were represented vocally on BZPower before several problems were fixed. Gear unpopularity, and more "violence/darkness" come to mind. The latter fits Greg's example from Dino Attack too -- so before the problem was fixed, the "complainers" basically were the same taste-group as the focus groups.
4) LEGO uses an independant firm, and the system inherently requires intelligent responses. It's not the simplistic "LEGO shows a few kids the prototypes and they all say 'I likey!'" that complainers seem to have in mind.
5) Most importantly, as LEGO has improved sets more and more, listening to focus groups included, sales have gone up.
Either way, I've seen the argument come up seemingly because almost all other illogical complaints have been so thoroughly debunked, while this one hasn't. Those using it display an almost shocking ignorance of what focus groups are exactly and how they work -- ignorance is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but if you're going to propose that something is a problem, you should be familiar with its details. Yet those using it seemingly have made no effort to find out, so it seems more like a convenient excuse to keep complaining.
Hopefully, this entry will help clear up such confusion.
Ultimately, the important lesson is that NO illogical argument should be used to say "I don't like this; LEGO shouldn't have done it." We're all free to dislike sets, but that's a matter of taste, not a matter of what LEGO actually should do. Just because you don't enjoy something doesn't mean it's a "problem" -- because you're not the only fan.
Instead, we should seperate our personal tastes from our opinions about what LEGO should do. So if focus groups' tastes tend to be different from yours, you should be mature enough to say "I wish focus groups and most fans shared my tastes, but this is reality and I can deal with it. I agree LEGO should pay attention to focus group results."
Now, if you can show some problem with focus groups that none of us have thought of, by all means, let's hear it. Otherwise, that argument ain't gonna fly no mo'.
- 0


text:
- Schott Zwiesel Pure Champagne Flutes, Set of 6 $84
- Dorset Ice Bucket $139.95
- Williams-Sonoma Foil Cutter $9.95
- Williams-Sonoma Wine Bottle Stopper $9.95
Valentine's Day Tabletop
Start Valentine's Day off with your favorite coffee or hot tea in our Valentine glasses and mugs. Or toast your loved one in the evening with our Valentine glassware such as our monogrammed champagne flutes. Find Valentines Day mugs and bar glasses online and at your local Williams-Sonoma store.


text:
We believe sustainable success can only be built on a foundation of responsible business practices.
As the world's largest real estate services company, we take the impact we have on our clients, suppliers, employees, communities and stakeholders seriously. It's our goal to be as widely recognized for the way we do business as we are for the quality of the real estate services we provide.
With Advantage Comes Responsibility
CBRE continues to build on our foundation of responsible business pillars. These areas of focus include:
Environmental Sustainability
We have both a responsibility and an opportunity to minimize environmental impact by influencing the way buildings are built, sourced, managed, occupied and sold.
Communities and Giving
We are committed to fulfilling our role as a responsible corporate citizen by supporting and adding value to the communities where our employees live and work, as well as the communities where the need is greatest.
People and Culture
Our employee journey starts with our RISE values—Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence. These are at the heart of our business and serve as the foundation for ensuring CBRE is a great place to work.
Health and Safety
We are recognized internationally for our commitment to the protection of our employees, clients and communities.
Ethics and Compliance
We consistently strive to raise the industry standard for ethics and compliance. Building a business fit for the future starts with a sound ethical foundation.
Our rigorous governance structure ensures we can serve our clients, shareholders and employees with integrity.
We have a heightened focus on our opportunity to use our multi-billion-dollar global supply chain to promote sustainable business practices.
CR Steering Committee
Our global team is committed to continuous improvement of our corporate responsibility programs.
Our annual Corporate Responsibility Report highlights our accomplishments and goals in our seven responsible business pillars.
We welcome your feedback. You may reach us at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Browse by Title
|Title: : 1 of 1
The Streetwalker (formerly Portrait of a Prostitute), 1892-1894
Henri de Toulouse-LautrecFrench, 1864-1901
Oil on cardboard
24-3/4 x 19-1/8 in. (62.8 x 48.6 cm)
Norton Simon Art Foundation
© Norton Simon Art Foundation
On view
Toulouse-Lautrec was friendly with the inhabitants of the brothels in Montmartre, and he made hundreds of paintings and drawings of the women as they relaxed, slept, or were otherwise uninvolved in their profession. The sitter's expression here is ambiguous. Lautrec has achieved a psychological alienation in which the subject and the viewer make no social contact. Depending on the point of view of the spectator, she can be read as a bored, aging, sympathetic prostitute, or a model quietly posing for an artist. Only the unmade bed gives a clue as to the surroundings.
View Provenance
|Title: : 1 of 1


text:
October 8, 2011
Matt Stepp
Deonte Wortham and the Wilmer-Hutchins defense completely shut down the Carrollton Ranchview Wolves Saturday in a 43-7 win. Check out the game recap and audio from THEOLDCOACH! ...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now!
Already a member? Click here to sign in


text:
Saturday, Sept. 29, 2012
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. -- Local agencies partnered with the Drug Enforcement Administration to help remove unwanted prescription medication from circulation on Saturday.
"I was collecting them from my husband. I had a bag for about two years now, so it was about time," said Linda Mabry.
Over 4,000 organizations, including six in the surrounding areas, helped the DEA collected unused medicine for the National Prescription Drug Take-Back.
"I think it's become a national movement because there is so much of an issue now with prescription drugs being misused and abused," said Debbie Black, a DEA diversion investigator.
More than one million pounds have been disposed of since April 28. However, DEA and law enforcement say this kind of drug abuse is a growing problem.
"Before I retired from the DEA, we were projecting that in a decade or two that pharmaceuticals would replace a bunch of the illegal and illicit drugs," said retired DEA Chief Patrick Clayton of the Richmond County Board of Education.
The DEA takes an eco-friendly approach by incinerating the medications collected so their chemical compositions do not contaminate the air or water.
For some people, the end of these is the beginning of a new journey.
"They dropped off some medication with their young child, and they together put it in the disposal. She had been through chemo, was through with chemo, and it was kind of like a celebratory thing for them," said Laura Knotts, a pharmacist at Parks Pharmacy.
For general public inquiries, such as volunteering or finding a collection site, call 1-800-882-9539. Also, Park Pharmacy has listed the proper techniques for disposing of your unwanted medicine at www.parkspharmacy.com.
Have information or an opinion about this story? Click here to contact the newsroom.
Copyright WRDW-TV News 12. All rights reserved. This material may not be republished without express written permission.


text:
BERLIN—A German property developer has rejected calls to halt work to remove one of the last remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall, despite angry protests against the plan.
Maik Uwe Hinkel says work to move a 22-meter (yard) section of the 1.3 kilometer (3/4 mile) section of the wall will resume next week.
On Friday, hundreds of protesters stopped workers from moving the 19 concrete slabs, each about 1.2 meters (4 feet) wide, to make way for an access road to a luxury condominium being built on the banks of the reunited city's Spree river.
Hinkel said in a statement Saturday that his company has all necessary permits to move the mural-covered slabs and the road will also benefit the reconstruction of a bridge destroyed in World War II.
A part of Berlin Wall known as the East Side Gallery is pictured in Berlin, Germany, Friday, March 1, 2013. Construction crews stopped work Friday on removing a small section from one of the few remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall to make way for a condo project after hundreds of protesters blocked their path. ((AP Photo/Markus Schreiber))


text:
The tactics of Propaganda, disseminating lies and creating conflict.
"Some people say" that the sky is blue and Obama wants to make it red because he's a communist, this is "creating controversy" amongst "some groups" why do you think that Obama wants to violate America?" <<<--- typical leading question on fox "news".
Want To See Fox News Lose All Its Credibility In 93 Seconds?
If you ever want to use an argument that has no basis in reality and is horribly short-sighted, simply follow the example set by Fox News. They make "reporting" on the "news" seem "worthwhile." At least, that's what some people say.


text:
Louise Meyer is the Solar Household Energy, Inc. (SHE) Project Manager for EPA's Partnership for Clean Indoor Air's pilot project in Mexico researching solar cookers and smoke inhalation. Ms. Meyer also managed the World Bank's Development Marketplace grant for the SHE "HotPot Initiative" in Mexico.
Her interest in solar cooking began 20 years ago developing small business enterprises in Ivory Coast for the International Labor Organization. She later gained field experience as a volunteer trainer for Solar Cookers International in refugee camps. She co-designed and launched the website http://AfricanCraft.com. Ms. Meyer holds an MA in French and German Language and Literature and spent many years teaching. She obtained a graduate degree in International Development from the African Institute in Geneva, Switzerland.
News and recent developments
- November 2012: Solar Household Energy has again had a busy summer and fall. Louise Meyer provided solar cooking demonstrations, including to the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjaminto, and assisted the Nature Conservancy in Haiti to teach the Integrated Cooking Method as part of its larger reforestation program in the region. It is exciting and encouraging to see organizations such as SHE taking the promotion of solar cooking the next step, to increased global awareness. Read more about their efforts...
- March 2008: Louise Meyer reports on a group of internally displaced persons that are students at the Culinary Institute of Africa. As part of their curriculum they are learning how to solar cook. Meyer sent photographs of several students taking "Masters of Solar Cooking" classes at the Institute's school in Juba, Sudan. Based in Lokichoggio, Kenya, the non-profit Culinary Institute of Africa is a community service division of the AFEX Group, which provides a number of management and catering services to camps throughout Kenya, Sudan, and elsewhere. The Institute began in 2004 when Terry Light, chief operating officer of AFEX, asked Nancy Crooks to train local Turkana with skills that could gain them employment at various camps and other institutions in the region. With technical assistance from Solar Cookers International (SCI), Crooks was able to incorporate solar cooker use and construction into the curriculum. The Institute offers an accredited, professional culinary education leading to a diploma in food production. SCI also provided training services and helped Crooks secure funding from the Lift Up Africa organization for a solar cooker project to teach Turkana women how to make and use solar cookers, heat-retention devices, and Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPIs), as well as start a small solar cooker shop.
Articles in the media
- July 2012: Cooking On The Sunny Side: How Solar Chefs Put Food On The Table - NPR.org
Audio and video
thumb|400px|left|Louise Meyer makes the case for solar cooking in this September, 2011 video.
- July 2011: Video: Solar cooking demonstration at the Dar AlNoor Islamic Community Center in Washington D.C
- May 2008: Hot Times in the Summertime - EarthBeat Radio
|March 2008: Louise Meyer and Patricia McArdle explain how the Solar Cookers work
|September 2007: Louise Meyer narrates this video about the work of SHE in Mexico
- July 2005: Auio interview with Dar Curtis and Louise Meyer]
External links
- January 2008: Audio of Louise Meyer's presentation at the ETHOS Conference in Kirkland, Washington
- July 2007: Conservation Saves More Than the Environment - The Washington Post
- July 2006: An audio interview with Louise Meyer
- July 2006: Working with the World Bank and the US Environmental Protection Agency to Promote Solar Cooking - Louise Meyer
- March 2006: One thousand Mexican families buy solar cookers
See also
- Working with the World Bank and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Promote Solar Cooking
- Solar Household Energy
3327 18th St NW
Washington, DC 20010
Tel: +1 202-328-6834


text:
DWR Exclusive
DWR Exclusive
Nani Marquina studied industrial design at the Massana School in Barcelona and began her career in interior design. When she couldn't find rugs that were in tune with a client's space, she filled the gap with her own creations, which led to a new career as an independent textile designer. Read more >
Be the first to know about DWR special offers, new product launches and Studio events.
Receive free monthly catalogs showcasing
the best in modern design.


text:
May 6, 2016
Greenville Police Chief Hassan Aden met with business and community leaders Tuesday to talk about his plan to make their city safer.
Aden met with the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce and explained his strategic plan to reduce crime over the next two years.
The chief says he plans to divide the city into three precincts each with a commander and officers who work exclusively in those areas.
He says that will allow officers to become more familiar with the needs of the residents and businesses in the those areas and provide faster response times to calls for service.
He also says that a unique center city unit has been created to work in the uptown area. The unit will not only focus on traditional law enforcement, but also in finding ways to contribute to economic development in the area. Aden says, "We recognize that in order to have an area, a community you know, an overlay of a portion of your city that has conditions that encourage people to come in and open up businesses, the police are a big part of that."
Chief Aden says improving traffic safety and reducing collisions is a top priority as well.
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:
May 6, 2016
ARDMORE, OK -- Ardmore Police say they need your help to identify a man who tried to use a stolen debit card.
Police say the man you see in the video used the card at a local bank.
Investigators say the debit card was stolen from a vehicle in Southwest Ardmore the same day. Anyone with any information about the man is urged to contact Ardmore Police.
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:
Crafted in Italy by the Fabriano mill, this soft, white,
The luxuriously soft feel of this mouldmade paper is the perfect surface for pen, pencil, charcoal, pastel, light washes, stamping, rubbings, stenciling, printmaking, letterpress, and inkjet printing. It's also an excellent paper for making books.
Distinctive, traditional Italian packaging.
Fabriano Medioevalis Stationery Sets contain 20 cards and 20 envelopes each. The cards are 260 gsm and the envelopes are 120 gsm.
® Fabriano is a registered trademark.


text:
Before editing, be sure to read the wiki's policies. Please sign your name on Talk and vote pages using four tildes (~~~~) to automatically produce your name and the current date. Be sure to verify your e-mail address in your preferences. Before attempting any major article rewrites please read the layout guide. If you have any questions, check out the policy and help pages (see here for editing help), add a question to the Community portal, view the forum or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome!
-- Cubs Fan2007 (Talk) 00:50, June 24, 2012
Wotcher !!!
Hello Mr.Jiskran
Nice to meet you
Well can I have a little chat with you on wiki chat
Amujoshi11 10:14, June 24, 2012 (UTC)Amujoishi11Amujoshi11 10:14, June 24, 2012 (UTC)
its urgent come on chat quickly no time for reasons
Amujoshi11 11:35, June 24, 2012 (UTC)Amit
Gift for you on your profile
Amujoshi11 11:48, June 24, 2012 (UTC)Amu
Alex keep in touch
if you are online come on chat
Hi Jiskran,
Well my favorite main character is Hermione, because shes strong, smart and stands for what she beleives in. As for the book and film favorites, I said in the chat what I prefer. Bye and I hope we chat later!
-Noa Girls4everish (talk) 16:17, June 26, 2012 (UTC)
Hello! You're quite right; sorry about that. It's not common to edit just a part of a quote, so I (erroneously, I realise now) presumed you were tampering with the quote and vandalising the article and, thus, I reverted your edit fully. I've undid it, and the article is as you changed it now. Again, sorry about that. -- Seth Cooper owl post! 11:10, June 25, 2012 (UTC)
- It's not pedantic at all — the quality of our wiki is shown in these small things. I've fixed it; thank you. -- Seth Cooper owl post! 11:26, June 25, 2012 (UTC)
How's that? --MrSmartyMax 13:32, June 26, 2012 (UTC)
Re: Tense
You mean in the quote at the top? Because that's a direct quote from the book and as such should be copied verbatim, regardless of tense. And all the wiki policies can be found here. --Cubs Fan (Talk to me) 23:04, June 26, 2012 (UTC)
It was a pleasure to talk to you Jiskran, I hope your students found my info about the twins interesting. I hope to chat to you again!
Lunalovegood1999 (talk) 13:01, June 27, 2012 (UTC)
Only Administrators and Bureaucrats are able to delete pages but, alas, it seems like Speedysnitch took care of it before I got there. Thank you for the heads-up, anyway. -- Seth Cooper owl post! 16:31, June 27, 2012 (UTC)
Yes, I know that. But the link to the video game was already there, where it says "PS1 version". -- Seth Cooper owl post! 18:59, June 28, 2012 (UTC)
hey just keep posting i would also talk with you i am still possessing some internet problems Amujoshi11 (talk) 13:20, June 29, 2012 (UTC)Amu
Yes, I know they both are related, but it sets a bad precedent (if we are listing the Flying Ford Anglia incident, why not Brother Benedict's run-in with a Jarvey in the Middle Ages? Or the unusual downpour of shooting stars (magically created, quite possibly by Dedalus Diggle) in Kent the day after the downfall of Lord Voldemort, that was widely reported around Muggle newscasts that day? Or the Prime Minister's predecessor trying to toss Cornelius Fudge out the window? Or the whole incident with the Millennium Bridge and the Dark Mark over London? I'll stop now, but I could go on, and on, and on, and on -- and not just because of this; we don't want unsubstanciated claims cropping up on our articles) and is to be avoided unless the relation between the two things is highly likely and/or reasonably justifiable (i.e. who's to say that the Flying Ford Anglia incident was such a big event to merit inclusion in the book? Who's to say there even was a new edition published after 1972? And, who knows, what if Stalk showed no academic curiosity on the matter at all?) -- Seth Cooper owl post! 20:30, June 30, 2012 (UTC)
hey alex if you are online lets chat Amujoshi11 (talk) 13:32, July 4, 2012 (UTC)
I've placed an invisible note (a note that cannot be seen in the article, but that can only be seen while in editing mode), so that editors will not change it. I don't think the matter is as big as to require a Protection of the page, but if it persists, I will do so. -- Seth Cooper owl post! 15:28, July 8, 2012 (UTC)
Order of Merlin
|Order of Merlin (Third Class)
|The Order of Merlin is awarded to you by Nick O'Demus for having over one-thousand edits on the Harry Potter Wiki.
RE:House Cup
Done. - Nick O'Demus 19:50, July 10, 2012 (UTC)
RE:Unicorn blood
Done. Thanks for reporting. -- Seth Cooper owl post! 21:53, July 24, 2012 (UTC)
RE:In the matter of Mr. Longbottom
Thanks. Most of those are from TVtropes (linked to in the section title on my userpage), I just thought some of them were pretty funny. - Nick O'Demus 08:32, August 27, 2012 (UTC)
Hey Alex
Nice to contact you again but I will also like to talk again


text:
From May 4-11, more than 500,000 people from around the world will travel to Holland, Michigan to experience the 2013 Tulip Time Festival. The festival features Dutch dance performances, concerts, theatre, food, parades and more – all of which take a lot of time and dedication to produce by a team of more than 800 people.
Gwen Auwerda, Executive Director of the festival, gives us a sneak peek at what goes into the making of Tulip Time.
In Holland, Michigan, it rained for 13 days in a row this month and the tulips are loving it! The town is being spruced up from a long winter and the Tulip Time Festival staff and interns are busy with the finishing touches on all the great events, entertainment and parades.
Here are just some of the many things that happen behind-the-scenes in Holland as we prepare for the festival.
Prepping Pigs-in-a-Blanket
500 dozen pigs-in-a-blanket – a traditional Dutch food – were made by a group of volunteers from First United Methodist Church. "Pigs" as we call them are a sausage roll covered with pastry dough and served to thousands of visitors at Dutch Marketplaats lunch in our Civic Center. This is quite a time honored tradition for the church.
Marching Band Practice
Thirty bands are practicing their marching skills and will be marching in the Saturday GMB Muziekparade, the longest parade in Michigan at 2.4 miles. The Columbia Central High School Golden Eagle Marching Band from Brooklyn, Michigan is anticipating its 69th year marching in the Tulip Time Festival GMB Muziekparade! Starting in 1941, this band has traveled nearly 300 miles round trip each year to participate in the Tulip Time Festival parades. Some of the group's favorite memories of the Festival include the inconsistent weather conditions our lovely Lake Michigan provides each year, the thrill of the crowds' response to the band's performances and the seemingly timeless experience the festival provides.
This year, May 11th is the day of the GMB Muziekparade, but also another important day in the lives of CCHS students: it's Prom night! This important celebration of high school is not deterring the band from making its appearance at Tulip Time. Director Joe Folts lends this dedication to tradition and loyalty. He says that "Kids wouldn't think of not going to the festival – it's not a question, it's a treasured tradition."
Some band members are second generation marchers making participating even more important and special for the Golden Eagles.
Dutch Dance Rehearsals
Dutch Dancing is another signature event during the festival. The dancers typically learn the dance in high school and can continue dancing as an "alumni dancer" after graduation. This year, we have over 900 dancers who wear clothing representing the late 1800s and early 1900s. Practices begin in January and the dancers spend 30 hours over the next 4 months learning the dance. This event is a visitor favorite and free!
We couldn't put together an internationally known flower festival without our beloved volunteers. It takes over 800 volunteers over an 8 day period to help with trash pickup, ushering at the shows, set-up, deliver potted tulips to the venues around the city, assist with the Tulip Time run, Queen's Day Bike Criterium and the three parades. It is because of the dedication of these volunteers that our city can invite over 500,000 guests to Join the Dance! We hope to see you in beautiful Holland for the 84th Tulip Time Festival.
Gwen Auwerda is the Executive Director of the Tulip Time Festival in Holland.
Are you heading to Tulip Time this year? Share with us below!


text: Virgin Galactic: Beyond the final frontier Virgin Galactic 02 December 09 by Carl Hoffman Scaled Composites' mother ship WhiteKnightTwoAdrian Gant This article was taken from the January issue of Wired UK magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing onlineFifty thousand feet over the California desert, the world is a vast expanse of blue with a drab carpet of khaki far, far below. Pilot Peter Siebold sets the craft's trim to 18°, pushes the stick forwards and counts down: "Three. Two. One. Release."The mother ship rises above us as we drift downward for a few seconds. Siebold pulls the yoke back and flips a toggle on the centre console. Then: bang! The hybrid rocket motor ignites and we're a missile shooting toward the stars at more than three times the speed of sound. The sky becomes black. Then it gets weirder: Siebold flicks the yoke and the vehicle whips around 180°.We're still heading straight up, but the ship is flying backward. It's like looking out of the windscreen of a car that's floored in reverse, except my view is 2,500km in each direction, from the Sea of Cortez to San Francisco Bay.My attention wanders for a split second and the verisimilitude evaporates - seeing walls and ceiling and my blue jeans jerks me back to reality. I'm not in the sky but in a hangar at the headquarters of Scaled Composites in Mojave, California, sitting in a flight simulator for the firm's latest spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo. If all goes well, SpaceShipTwo will be the commercial version of the radical rocket that won the $10 million X Prize in 2004 after it made two flights to the edge of space in a 14-day period. Richard Branson licensed the technology for Virgin Galactic, his space-tourism gambit, which aims to start regular visits to the thermosphere by 2012.After all of the prize money and media coverage, routine space tourism - this grand flight of human fancy -seems about to happen. SpaceShipTwo will be carried aloft by a mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo, which has been flying for nearly a year. The first SS2 is under construction and slated to begin flight tests in early 2010. Virgin has already sold £35 million in tickets to its first 300 passengers. And a taxpayer-funded spaceport is under construction near Las Cruces, New Mexico.In a year, maybe two - barring any test-flight glitches - people who have the right financial stuff will be rocketing daily into space for a few minutes of sensory overload and ego gratification. It may not be the colonisation of Mars, but as Siebold says, "did the Wright brothers have Boeing 747s in their consciousness when they flew at Kitty Hawk? No, but it just grows from here; what they achieved made that possible."If you spend enough time around the Scaled Composites hangars, it all begins to sound routine, almost banal - just another project for a company that churns out innovative aircraft the way Dyson turns out innovative vacuum cleaners. Ask the team about the technical challenges it has faced assembling these ships and the answer surprises you. "Um, really," Scaled Composites president Doug Shane says, "it's not much of a technical job at all." It's a statement that Virgin's would-be competitors, all years away from putting a commercial system in place, wish they could agree with. And it downplays the biggest challenge of all: how do you take a dangerous and radical one-off prototype and turn it into an everyday vehicle?In 1994, Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen asked Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan a question: would it be possible to beam down broadband internet signals from high above Los Angeles using a plane that the legendary aeronautical engineer was designing? Back then, broadband was basically nonexistent, and Allen was looking to fill the gap. The plane, called Proteus, is a bizarre-looking aircraft capable of loitering at 60,000 feet for up to 14 hours, and it's been used for high-altitude research by everyone from Nasa to universities.While he was working on Proteus, Rutan remembers wondering, "What else could you use it for?" He has been captivated by space ever since he saw Wernher von Braun onWalt Disney's TV show in the 50s. It occurred to Rutan that Proteus might be able to carry a smaller craft under its fuselage and "do a little point-and-shoot" toward the stars. That would eliminate one of the trickiest parts of rocket launching: the massive engines and fuel needed to lift a spacecraft through the lowest, thickest part of the atmosphere and onward into space. By the time Scaled Composites first flew Proteus in 1998, Rutan knew he could design and produce a mother ship capable of launching a 3,000kg payload at 50,000 feet.Over the next few years, Rutan used that knowledge to chase the $10 million X Prize, which had been announced in 1996. As he designed the aircraft, Rutan made a series of decisions that proved nothing short of genius and on which Virgin's plans ride today.For one, he made the systems, components and cockpits of the mother ship and spaceship identical, save for the rocket engine controls on the space ship. For example, SpaceShipOne's feathering actuator - the device that moves the wings into an upright position - was also used to operate the mother ship's landing gear; every test of the mother ship would test parts of the spaceship as well. As pilots learned to glide the mother ship to a landing from high altitude, they would be learning to land the spaceship, too, racking up copious flight hours long before they ever flew the spaceship for real.Rutan's solution for the single most dangerous and technically challenging part of any spaceflight - re-entry into the atmosphere - was equally creative. His so-called shuttlecock design pivots the wings of the spacecraft up for re-entry. "The key is a low ballistic coefficient," Rutan says, referring to the ratio between weight and drag."Think of the difference between a bullet and a feather." A streamlined bullet screams heavy and fast through the atmosphere-it has so little drag that it generates huge amounts of heat. A feather, on the other hand, has a lot of surface area, and it's so light that it floats slowly, lazily through the air. By building the wings of the lightweight carbon-fibre capsule so that they pivot into a 65° angle of attack, Rutan has a very light craft with a lot of drag and low aerodynamic loads - just like a feather. His spaceship can re-enter the atmosphere safely, routinely, without the pilot ever having to touch the stick. Once the ship gets closer to the ground, the wings flatten out again for a gentle glide to the runway.Although there were a couple of dozen competitors for the X Prize, in reality it was no contest - Rutan was solar systems ahead of everyone else. And though he made it look easy, even his own designers doubted that a small private company could blast a manned rocket to suborbital space. "I didn't think we'd see it through," Shane says. "It was just so far out of the realm of what any of us had done. It was radical."When you see WhiteKnightTwo next to WhiteKnightOne, you realise what a leap Scaled Composites has made: it's like seeing a dragonfly next to a housefly. The new mother ship's wingspan is 42 metres, and it weighs 27,500kg.WhiteKnightOne weighs just 8,500kg. Bob Morgan, the plane's designer, takes me for a tour. In his blue jeans and polo shirt, Morgan comes across as an everyday guy - just another sharp mind turned loose by Rutan's dictate to think big and creatively, without fear.We crawl around inside one of the twin fuselages of the mother ship and its spacious cockpit. It's the largest aircraft ever built completely from composite materials, all the way down to the carbon-fibre flight-control cables that don't expand or contract in the extreme temperature changes of flight. With four turbine engines, it's light and powerful, able to operate almost 20,000 feet higher than commercial jetliners.In 2004, the same year as the winning X Prize flights, Virgin licensed Rutan's technology and hired him to design the next generation of vehicles. To accommodate the sort of middle-aged rich people who can afford $200,000 (£120,000) for a flight (Brads and Angelinas, as Scaled Composites' engineers refer to them), the ships had to be bigger, safer, more stable, more robust. SpaceShipOne was a challenge to fly, with a tendency toward extreme rolling. In fact, pilot Mike Melvill could barely control it on his record-breaking flight. That wouldn't do for commercial space travel.To reduce roll, the wings of Space- ShipTwo have been moved below the rocket motor. This enables pilots who aren't veteran test jockeys like Melvill to handle the craft. The systems are now more redundant, and the pilot is backed up by a copilot. "We're not really stretching the technology," Shane says, "so much as trying to make it safe and routine to fly day in and day out. That's not as sexy, but every bit as daunting."Virgin is also reimagining the aesthetics of a spacecraft. There's no cramped, utilitarian cockpit lined with hundreds of toggles and gauges. The fuselage of SpaceShipTwo is spacious - 2.5 metres in diameter - so there will be room for its six passengers to take off their seat belts and float around in zero g. There will likely be no barrier between pilots and passengers, and big round windows dot the ceiling and sides - more windows, it's fair to say, than have ever been on any spacecraft. The whole thing feels light and airy in a way that small aircraft never do - a considerable achievement that has not come cheap. "Winning the X Prize cost about $30million,"says Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic. "We're going to be spending $400 million." The tech is impressive, but the experience? As a proud cynic who has raised three kids in a house that didn't cost much more than a single Virgin Galactic flight, it'd be easy for me to be snarky about the whole thing. You can even imagine a passenger standing on the Tarmac after the event, scratching his head with a bit of flier's remorse: "Did I just spend the annual salary of four teachers on that?" These days, you can buy weightlessness in 30-second bursts on zero-g parabolic flights at one-fortieth the cost. But 300 people have already plonked down the full $200,000 price for their tickets. Several hundred more are "in the pipeline," a Virgin spokesperson says, and 82,000 have registered on the company's website. Space may be cold and empty, but the idea of blasting into it strapped into a rocket clearly gets people's blood pumping. Maybe it's the allure of new worlds, new experiences, the pull of the glittering stars in the night sky, the fascination with a journey to the final frontier fraught with danger and promise. Read page 2 12 Read on one page Latest on wired.co.uk


text:
Baby Monitor & Alarm
by TappyTaps
Download this app if: you want your phone to act as one.
Developer Notes
The easy-to-use Baby Monitor & Alarm's unique features are designed by parents, for parents. Thoroughly tested with our own babies, the Baby Monitor & Alarm is loved by tens-of-thousands of moms and dads worldwide, and is recommended by The Sunday Times, Babble.com and Mashable:
==> Featured in...
Nice idea — Why buy a separate contraption when your smartphone can do pretty much the same thing?


text:
Very good start! I already like your colors choice.
Hello guild! Post apocalyptic universe has always been a passion for me till i discovered the fallout game series. With this month subject i wanted to try a post apocalyptic map with modern size cities destroyed by huge impacts.
Before the end of the 21th Century mankind's civilisation had spread all over the earth, the continuous population growth was a major issue. But before starvation became a threat to civilisation, astronomers discovers that a huge asteroid was pointing earth, a big one, even bigger than the one that ended the dinosaurs era.
Of course science tried to prevent that, space missions with nuclears bombs were sent to destroy the asteroid. But those explosions failed to prevent the collision, the only result was the fragmentation of the asteroid in multiple parts. After that failure it was clear that civilisation was coming to a brutal and unexpected end. A few lucky ones had the chance to take place in atomic shelters, giving them a chance to survive the fall and maybe save mankind from exctinction. The rest of mankind became crazy, insurections and madness go higher and higer as the fall was approaching. During the last days before the fall multiple nuclear missiles were launched, a last scream of hate of condemned nations to each other. Then it was the fall, thousands of asteroid parts hit the planet, each with the energy of nuclear bombs. Almost all life at the surface of earth was instantly destroyed. The remaining survivors then had to face a nuclear winter, the dust raised by the impacts remains in the atmosphere for decades. A century after the fall and the end of the nuclear winter earth was unrecognizable, thousands of craters sprinkle the landscape, the only remaining noise being the wind whispering in the streets of ruined cities.
(sorry if my english sucks)
First i download a digital elevation model of the moon and played with it a bit with QGIS wilbur and photoshop to make an hillshade. I think i'll try to do multiple views of the planet at different scales to show the desolation.
### Latest WIP ###
My Fantasy maps : http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=4205
Website: http://francoisgueydon.jimdo.com/fantasy/
Very good start! I already like your colors choice.
That is just wicked cool!!! Thanks for getting this challenge started!
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
To quote my fellow New Englander.... Wicked cool indeed !!
I am the breath of Dragons...The Song of Mountains...The Stories of Rivers....The Heart of Cities.... I am A Cartographer....
Finished Maps
Kingdom Of Shendenflar Campaign Setting (WIP)
Everything I post is free for use and redistribution under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 licence, except where noted otherwise in the thread.
I agree with the other guys, great start, cool story. Very evocative.
I'm really enjoying all your maps, your skills are running high! I like the style a lot. I'm looking forward to see what you do with the heavily cratered Earth!
My Fantasy maps : http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=4205
Website: http://francoisgueydon.jimdo.com/fantasy/
Whoa! I just realized the epic scale of this! I haven't played a sci-fi game in a long time but this map has got me looking for some post apocalyptic fun! Sorry for so much exclamation!
I really really like it. I'm interested to see what it looks like when you "populate" it. Also, out of curiosity, what is the pixel resolution of the image as you work on it?
Thanks Meshon, it's pleasant to know my project is appreciated! Doing this map makes me want to play again a post apocalyptic game too
About the pixel resolution i'm actually working at 380 DPI, the final map will be a bit larger than this one and maybe i'll allow to zoom a bit more, still not sure about the final format yet.
My Fantasy maps : http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=4205
Website: http://francoisgueydon.jimdo.com/fantasy/
A century after the fall .. the Giants craters left by the fall have been filled with rainwater, and vegetation gradually hide the scars of earth. The sprawling metropolis of the ancients are gradually disappearing under a tangle and inexctricable jungle. Avenues once frequented by millions of vehicles are now covered with a thick carpet of moss, trees inexorably drilling concrete, nature's taking its revenge against the offense of mankind. A century of rain have covered skyscrapers with moisture. The sky who was furrowed by thousands of flying vehicles is now a blank space without any presence, birds already threatened by human pollution have not withstood decades of nuclear winter. Huge herds of wild animals now reign alone on the ruins .. almost. Although the huge size of the ancients city make it pitiful, evidence of human civilization are still visible, man has not been completely obliterated by the fall. However, the survivors do not have all taken the same path to survive the Apocalypse and two distinct civilizations seem to gradually emerge from the ruins of the ancient world ...
### Latest WIP ###
My Fantasy maps : http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=4205
Website: http://francoisgueydon.jimdo.com/fantasy/