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The Laws of Online Communities
I went ahead and updated an ancient page called The Laws of Online Communities. It includes some of my observations of online communities over my many years on all sides of the game development fence (player, fansite creator, community relations manager, and designer). I added a few more laws to the mix, and I've mirrored them below.
Law #10: Developer posts are valuable as long as what they post has value. It's great to allow for transparency and open communication between fans and your development team, but it is only valuable as long as what the team posts is useful. The Signal/Noise ratio doesn't only apply to members of the community, it applies to the company as well.
Law #11: Never announce something before you're 100% sure it's going to happen. If it's something very minor, it's often okay to mention that you are thinking about doing it, but always be clear that it isn't a sure thing. If it's something major, don't even go that far, or people will expect it to come to fruition even if you indicate that it may not.
Law #12: Never lie to your community. Honesty is the gateway to trust. It is better not to answer if you aren't sure, and it is better to tell the hard truth even if players aren't going to like it. They will respect you and your company more for your honesty.
Law #13: Never try to mask a negative as a positive. A nerf is a nerf, a buff is a buff. Players are smart. You can't fool them into thinking something is a good thing if it isn't. If something that players perceive overall as negative has positives, feel free to highlight them, but don't pretend that everything is pie and cake if it isn't.
Law #14: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it" – Kay, Men in Black. Build relationships with individuals, and realize that an individual can be reasoned with. People are smart. Treat members of your community as individuals, not just as a faceless crowd.
Law #15: Encourage and reward constructive contributions from community members. Whether positive or negative, acknowledge and thank players who provide constructive feedback, organization, and sanity to your community.
To see the rest, check out the page: http://www.nerfbat.com/laws-communities/


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MERIDIAN TWP - On Monday, March 25, 2013, at 11:45 a.m., Meridian Township Police responded to a report of a bank robbery at Independent Bank in the 2100 block of Hamilton Road. A white male suspect, wearing a dress shirt and tie, sunglasses and a driving cap had entered the bank and approached a teller with a note demanding cash. The teller complied with the note and provided the suspect with an undisclosed amount of money.
The thief fled on foot in an unknown direction. K-9 units from Lansing Police Department and the Michigan State Police tracked the robber to a nearby parking lot, where police dogs lost the track.
The suspect remains at-large. He is described as a white male, mid-twenties, approximately 5'10", thin build, possibly having brown hair. Again, he was smartly dressed; wearing a black driving cap, mirrored sunglasses, a black dress coat, a tie, khaki pants, and white Nike athletic shoes.
Police are seeking assistance from anyone having information regarding this crime. Please contact the Meridian Township Police at (517) 853-4800 or Crime Stoppers at (517) 483-STOP.

subset: commoncrawl


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The shoe definitely must go on
Shoe rationing? What does that mean? I had never heard of shoe rationing before, so I looked it up online. It turns out that during World War II many important consumer products were rationed to help the war effort, including tires, sugar, meat, butter, and gasoline.
Another product that was rationed was shoes. People were allowed to purchase no more than three pairs of shoes per year.
I mentioned this to a colleague at work and she exclaimed, "Only three pairs of shoes per month?!" I said, "No, only three pairs per year."
A half hour later, after the paramedics had revived her, she said softly, "I need to leave work early today."
"Oh, you want to go home and rest after your fainting spell?" I asked.
"No!" she yelled. "I have to go to the mall and buy some shoes. That's the only way I'll feel better!"
My my, how things have changed in this country. Can you imagine if America was involved in another World War? We might be able to manage with reduced quantities of tires, sugar, butter, etc.
But if our citizens were not allowed to buy shoes whenever we wanted, I suspect we would raise the white flag and surrender in less than a week.
If you think about it, Americans already own so many pairs of shoes, we could get by fine even if we never bought another pair for the next ten years. (I'm talking about adults, of course. Kids feet grow so fast they need new shoes on a regular basis - and in my teenage nephew's case, seemingly every four days.)
Surveys indicate the average American man owns 24 different pairs of shoes. The average American women owns 49 different pairs of shoes. No, wait, new information has just come in. Make that 50 pairs. Wait. Now it's 51 pairs.
Back in the mid-1980s, Ferdinand Marcos, the president of the Philippines, and his wife Imelda, had to flee the country during a popular uprising. (Imelda shrieked, "The peasants are revolting!" To which Ferdinand replied, "You said it. They stink on ice!")
It was discovered that Imelda left behind a collection of over 3,000 pairs of shoes. At the time, many people commented that her shoe collection was a disgusting example of greed run amuck. But on the other hand, I do remember that quite a few women seemed rather impressed, and even a bit envious, when photos of Mrs. Marcos' massive shoe closets were shown on TV.
If I had to guess, I'd say I own about 15 pairs of shoes. I just got up from my computer and went through the whole house taking inventory. It turns out I have 27 pairs. (I always knew I was slightly above average.)
I asked my wife how many pairs of shoes she owns. She immediately answered, "Eight."
"Eight?!" I said. "That's not even close. Go count how many."
"My answer is eight," she said firmly, "and I'm sticking to it." Then she said, "Why don't we count up a certain someone's collection of baseball hats?"
"Yup, you're right," I quickly said. "You have exactly eight pairs of shoes."
Well, I don't know about other people, but if we had to ration shoes again because of some national emergency, I could handle it. As long as they never try to ration baseball hats.
Wait, this just in: the average is now 52.
Bill Dunn is a freelance writer who resides in Torrington. He can be reached via his website at: www.boomertrek.com.
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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) � A new report says two-thirds of Mainers live in rural areas but only 13 percent of Maine's dentists live there, confirming that there's a shortage of dental care in rural areas of the state.
The report by MCD Public Health in Augusta was commissioned by the Legislature in 2011 to examine the state of oral health in Maine and make recommendations on how to increase access to dental care.
The report found that 55 percent of MaineCare children go without dental care even though they have insurance, and that 15 of Maine's 16 counties are designated as having a shortage of dental care. The study says more money is spent fixing oral health problems than in preventing them.
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A woman from Frisco died Monday, apparently from natural causes, according to a statement from the Summit County Coroner's Office.
Karen Crawford, a longtime local, was 40 years old.
She was reportedly found in her home by friends, according to unconfirmed sources.
The coroner's office indicated the death was consistent with natural causes and next of kin had been notified.


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0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
A more interesting question: Would a perfect, atomic-level copy of you be you?
If the original Mona Lisa was known to exist at Place X with Value Y, would the copy then also be worth Value Y? Methinks not.
Has DeBeers ever faced any anti-trust actions? If anyone deserves it, it's them.
I purchased a young lady that I know a shiny bauble (in was a gift-giving occasion, not as a reward for services rendered or anything like that). A man-made diamond, in a real gold setting. I made no claim as to the authenticity of the stone, it was simply a shiny thing fit for decoration of a pretty girl in a social setting.She had a jeweler friend look at it, and he said that he knew that it was fake because it was a perfect stone, and perfect stones were too expensive for someone like me to have gifted it.


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UNDG/DOCO is aware of fictitious employment offers being circulated via email or originating from online job boards. Many of these schemes consist of an alleged offer of employment or contract with UNDG/DOCO in return for the payment of fees or providing personal or banking information.
Please note that UNDG/DOCO does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, traveling, processing, training or any other fees).
Such fraudulent correspondence may appear legitimate: they may feature a UN/UNDG logo, they may appear to originate from an official-looking email address or web site or they may be sent by individuals purporting to represent UNDG/DOCO or an entity which includes the word UN in its name. These fraudulent schemes mislead individuals with the purpose to extract money and/or personal information.
UNDG/DOCO advertises its employment and procurement opportunities on its global websites (http://jobs.undp.org; http://procurement-notices.undp.org) or on the websites of its UN Country Teams (a list of which can be consulted here). UNDG/DOCO also utilizes bona fide and established media and newspapers to disseminate its vacancies.
Beware if an offer of employment looks too good to be true. Never divulge personal and banking information or send money if you are unsure of the authenticity of an email or other communication in the name of UNDG/DOCO. If you are in doubt, please contact us for confirmation.
If you did mistakenly provide your information to a suspected fraudster, please report it to local law enforcement authorities or, if one of the two parties is based in the United States, to the Internet Crime Complaint Center for appropriate action.


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A freshman (US), fresher (UK) (or sometimes fish, freshie, prep; slang plural freshmeat, frosh, or froxh) is a first-year student in secondary school, high school, college or university. The term first year can also be used as a noun, to describe the students, themselves or others (e.g. They are first years).
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshman
It seems that I am always in my first year of something. Just when I get to that point where I think I am about to be the top of the heap, the next year comes along and I find myself back at the beginning of something new.
It is not bad. I love learning new things. I'll try to show you some of what I am starting over here.


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Revoking America's Exorbitant Privilege
The ongoing political stalemate in the United States holds two major implications for the international monetary system. The better-known consequence has been deepening uncertainty about the US dollar, the main global reserve currency, and US Treasury securities, supposedly the world's safest financial asset. Not surprisingly, the major investors in US Treasuries, China and Japan, have expressed alarm. Simply put, the global economy has at its center a dysfunctional political regime that generates recurrent threats of default on the world's major reserve asset.
The second implication is further postponement of the International Monetary Fund's 2010 quota and governance reforms, which would double member countries' contributions and modestly increase major emerging economies' voting power. Prior to its approval by the IMF Board in December 2010, the reform, agreed at the G-20 Seoul Summit, had been hailed as a historic breakthrough. But history has stalled without approval by the United States, which has an effective veto over major IMF decisions.
The threat of a US default may well end in a political agreement to raise the US government's debt ceiling, as occurred in 2011. But, whatever the outcome, the latest episode makes it abundantly clear that our globalized world deserves a better international monetary system than the current non-system that evolved in an ad hoc manner after the collapse in the early 1970s of the initial Bretton Woods arrangements.
The need to overhaul the international monetary and financial system was one of the basic lessons of the global financial crisis. While there have been major, albeit incomplete, reforms of international finance, efforts in 2009 and 2010 to reform the international monetary system — including the proposed changes at the IMF — have led to no significant action.
The reform proposals came from diverse quarters: the governor of the People's Bank of China; a commission convened by the United Nations General Assembly on reform of the international monetary and financial system, headed by the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz; and the French Palais Royal Initiative, led by former IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus. There have been myriad academic contributions to the debate as well.
Initial Steps
The first element of reform should be to give a greater role to the only true international money that the world now has: the IMF's Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), created in 1969 as the result of another dollar crisis. The establishment of SDRs was accompanied by a commitment, included in the IMF Articles of Agreement, to "making the special drawing right the principal reserve asset in the international monetary system" (Article VIII, Section 7 and Article XXII). But this commitment has remained a dead letter, except for periodic emissions of SDRs during crises, including the equivalent of $250 billion in 2009.
The IMF Articles of Agreement should be amended to allow more flexible use of SDRs, replicating the way central banks operate. That is, SDRs could be created during global recessions and withdrawn during booms. They should be the major source of IMF financing as well, replacing quota subscriptions or lending to the Fund by member countries (potentially making the IMF a purely SDR-based institution, as proposed decades ago by the late IMF economist Jacques Polak). The simplest approach would be for countries to "deposit" the SDRs that they receive at the IMF, which could then lend them to countries and invest the remainder in sovereign bonds.
This should be combined with a more active role for the IMF — rather than the G-20 — as the true instrument of global macroeconomic policy coordination. One essential (and generally agreed-upon) goal of such coordination should be to reduce global imbalances like those caused in recent years by the European Union's rising external surplus, which has forced many emerging economies to run growing deficits.
Because other global currencies — the dollar, the euro, and increasingly the renminbi — would continue to coexist with the SDRs as global reserve assets, another essential element of global macroeconomic cooperation should be defining the particular obligations of countries (or regions) issuing reserve currencies.
Definitions Matter
Still another element of international monetary reform is better management of the global exchange-rate system (or, again, non-system), which should aim at avoiding currency manipulation — but only after defining precisely what that means. It should also reduce the high levels of exchange-rate volatility — "a tax on international specialization," as the economist Charles Kindleberger once put it — that we have seen in recent years, including among major currencies.
Long-term global-finance discussions have also made clear that, under certain conditions, regulation of capital flows ("capital-flow management measures," in current IMF terminology) are warranted on macroprudential grounds — an understanding accepted by the G-20 at its 2011 Cannes meeting and by the IMF last year.
Last but not least, the international monetary system requires governance reform, which includes giving a stronger voice to emerging and developing countries. Aside from the final adoption of the 2010 reforms and the forthcoming 2014 quota debates, the changes should include those recommended by the Stiglitz Commission, the Palais Royal Initiative, and the 2009 Committee on IMF Governance Reform headed by Trevor Manuel, among others.
One central element of these proposals is to eliminate, once and for all, the veto power of any individual country. With the world waiting anxiously for some of America's political leaders to behave like adults, the cost of maintaining the current non-system has become all too obvious.
José Antonio Ocampo is Professor at Columbia University, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for Economic and Social Affairs, and former Minister of Finance of Colombia.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2013.


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A recent posting at genqueries.com was for Don Raney's book on his ancestor and the first settler in Wood County, Martin Varner.
Don is a friend of the society and has presented programs here for us. He is a genealogist who teaches genealogy classes at a local college where he lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
His book is available for $25.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling by mail to Don Raney, 1506 Comanche Trail, Garland, TX 75043. Make checks to Don Raney.
Varner was an early settler of Indian Territory, Spanish Texas, a member of Austin Colony's "Old 300," a soldier at the Battle of San Jacinto, and, as noted, the first settler in the area that is now Wood County. He died a tragic death after an altercation in an argument over debt with Simon Gonzales of Wood County. Gonzales shot Varner and Varner's son Stephen Austin Varner. The son died instantly and Varner, the elder, a few days later. Varner, with the help of a slave managed to kill Gonzales.
Don Raney's book, 432 hard-bound pages with 27 pages of maps and photographs, is titled: "Martin Varner, Texas Pioneer: 1785-1844 (Brazoria, Lamar, and Wood Co., Texas).


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Council told about plans for Movie Gallery lot
May 9, 2013
Developers are ready to build a 2,900-square-foot restaurant and open an office rental business at the location of the former Movie Gallery near the Seventh, Pike and Greene streets intersection if......
Just drove by the Movie Gallery lot. They are proposing to construct a new restaurant and parking lot between the existing building and the intersection. Doesn't appear to me that there will be enough space. Don't forget that it must be set back from the street on three sides a certain distance and there's going to be a crosswalk there. I don't see how the plan will work from what was written in the article.
2 Agrees | 1 Disagrees | Report Abuse »
Damn- I wanted to make a huge sculpture there as a tourist attraction...
another Burger King type eatery?...will it have a buffet?!
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I know who owns that property. Wouldn't that be good information to include in the story?
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JoshBrown: three most imoportant things in commmercail real estate. One: Location. Two: Location. Three: Location.
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Josh, depending on the restaurant they could have specific design requirements. Example Bob Evans, all pretty much look the same.
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Why are they building when there are lots of vacant buildings in the downtown area?
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Badass Game of Thrones star Sean Bean was arrested for doing something decidedly un-badass: harassing his ex-wife with texts and phone calls. The actor was taken into custody by Scotland Yard for allegedly flooding fourth-wife Georgina Sutcliffe's phone with mean messages.
While this behavior is normally reserved for adolescent girls, there seems to have been a rash of older male celebrities who would benefit from a lesson in phone etiquette: I'm lookin at you Mel and Alec. Sean is now joining a list of dsitinguished 50-something gentlemen who heard it from me first: Alcohol + Phone = Lifetime Embarrassment. Write it down.
[via Daily Mail; image via Getty]


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FOR RELEASE JULY 1, 2013CONTACT: SARAH LAM713-535-3226KIMBERLY firstname.lastname@example.com
The Delightful Romantic Comedy The Merry Widow ReturnsSeptember 19-29
From September 19-29, 2013, Houston Ballet presents Ronald Hynd's comic and enchanting The Merry Widow. Adapted from Franz Lehár's beloved operetta, the internationally-admired British choreographer Ronald Hynd adds a new layer of lavish spectacle and choreography to the original story of The Merry Widow to create an irresistibly charming and intoxicating tale of high jinks, finance, romance, and intrigue. The production features magnificent scenery and costumes by Italian designer Roberta Guidi di Bagno.
The Merry Widow premiered by The Australian Ballet to outstanding success on November 13, 1975 at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne and immediately established itself as a classic of the twentieth century full-length ballet repertoire. Like the operetta which debuted in 1905, the ballet has proven to be very popular and has been adopted into the repertoires of many companies. Houston Ballet first performed Mr. Hynd's The Merry Widow in 1995.
"Mr. Hynd's choreography and concepts rise to another and brilliant level," writes Anna Kisselgoff for The New York Times. The New York Post's Clive Barnes describes The Merry Widow as "A lovely ballet, magically blending nostalgic charm with a seamless swirl of choreography."
Set in Paris in 1905, The Merry Widow is the story of the fictitious Balkan state of Pontevedro and a beautiful and rich widow, Hanna Glawari. With the threat of losing Hanna and her fortune to a foreigner, the nation's dashing Count Danilo reluctantly prepares to woo and win her – and her fortune – thus securing the country's economic status. At the embassy ball in Paris, however, the plan is thwarted as Danilo and Hanna realize they were once young lovers. Fueled by the possibility of rekindled love, the ballet deftly intertwines the plot's political and economic intrigue with the characters' devious and comical undertakings.
Mr. Hynd has a long and rich history spanning three decades with Houston Ballet, having created such full length works as Papillon (1979) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1988) for the company. Born in London, England, Mr. Hynd trained with Marie Rambert and later made his performing debut with Ballet Rambert. In 1951, Mr. Hynd joined the Sadler's Wells Ballet (now Royal Ballet) where he rose to the rank of principal dancer performing an extensive range of classical and dramatic roles. His first ballet, The Fairy's Kiss, was choreographed in 1967 for the Dutch National Ballet and was later taken into the repertoire of London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet). Between two directorships of the Munich Ballet, Mr. Hynd has enjoyed an international career and created many works. Many of his productions have entered the repertoires of such companies as Houston Ballet, The Royal Ballet, PACT Ballet (South Africa), Santiago Ballet of Chile and many other European and American companies to great critical acclaim.
Houston Ballet has seven works in its repertory choreographed by Ronald Hynd: The Merry Widow (created in 1975, performed by Houston Ballet in 1995, 1999, 2007), Papillon (which was created for Houston Ballet in 1979, also performed 1980, 1981, 1984), Dvořák Variations (created in 1980, performed by Houston Ballet in 1980 and 1982), The Seasons (created for Houston Ballet in 1980), Rosalinda (created in 1978, performed by Houston Ballet in 1987, 1988), The Firebird choreographed with Annett Page after Michel Fokine (created for Houston Ballet in 1981) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which was created for Houston Ballet in 1988).
Born in Rome, Roberta Guidi di Bagno enjoys an international reputation as a set and costume designer. She created scenery and costumes for John Cranko's Onegin for Teatro all Scala, and her designs were later taken into the repertoires of Deutsche Oper Barlin, Teatro Colòn Buenos Aires and Opéra de Nice. For English National Ballet, she created designs for two new productions by Derek Deane: Romeo and Juliet (1998) and The Sleeping Beauty (2000) both performed at The Royal Albert Hall in London. In 2000, she also created new sets and costumes for Mr. Hynd's productions of The Nutcracker for Teatro alla Scala and Coppélia for Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 1996, Ms. Guidi di Bagno was commissioned to create new sets and costumes for Mr. Hynd's The Merry Widow for Teatro alla Scala, which was restaged in Seattle by the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Mr. Welch has collaborated with Robert Guidi di Bagno on two of his productions: Ønsket ("The Wish") (1998) and Ander ("The Ghost")(1999) for Royal Danish Ballet.


text: Hi guys, I've lurked on this forum alot and have probably read 90% of the recommendation threads. I am looking for something new to read and haven't found what I am looking for yet. However irrationally, I love the Wheel of Time books. I like the massive scope, that the same story line continues over 13 books, and I like the standard fantasy where poor random farmer becomes a king etc. Any suggestions for something similar would be great My other books I like alot: ASOIF Codex Alera Elantris Enders Game Fallen Dragon Kingkiller Mistborn Night Angel Stormlight Archive The Gentleman Bastard Warbreaker Demon Cycle I don't like Malazan/Black company, I dunno why but I don't. I tend to not like books with dwarves, elves, etc. But would be interested in whatever you guys think I would like. Thanks


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Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson spoke to a packed auditorium Thursday night at Marietta College's Founder's Day celebration.
Robinson, a frequent commentator on MSNBC cable-TV programs such as "Morning Joe" and "The Rachel Maddow Show," talked about growing up in segregated South Carolina and how he reacted the night Barack Obama was first elected president in 2008.
Robinson was on air at MSNBC that night, and when they announced in his ear piece that they would soon call the election for Obama, Robinson called his father and mother, who were 92 and 87 at the time.
Article Photos
The Marietta Times
Author and Washington Post Columnist Eugene Robinson delivers the keynote address at Marietta College's Founder's Day celebration Thursday night.
"I was able to tell them they had lived to see the election of the first African American President of the United States," said Robinson.
He also recalled fond memories of traveling through Ohio as a child.
Robinson's family traveled from their home in Orangeburg, S.C., to Ann Arbor, Mich., and would stop right inside the Ohio border to allow Robinson, a hyper child, to let off some energy.
"That playground had the tallest slides and a huge jungle gym," Robinson recalled.
But what he remembered most about the playground was the simple fact that he was allowed to play there.
"There was a playground in Orangeburg. But I couldn't play on it. It was whites only," said Robinson.
Robinson went to an integrated school before the teachers had gotten their minds around the concept of integration, but he used their discrimination to fuel his academic drive, he said.
"There was a geometry teacher who liked to humiliate black students who got anything wrong," he recalled. "I studied geometry five hours a night. I wasn't ever going to get anything wrong."
Robinson, a former assistant managing editor of The Washington Post, won his 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his columns on the historic significance of Obama's election.
And that significance is still growing, he said.
"When Obama was reelected in 2012...we're not talking about race anymore," he said.
And every time Obama and his family are seen walking across the White House lawn, society sees them less and less as the black First Family, and more as just the First Family, Robinson argued.
"That doesn't mean we've reached some Valhalla of racelessness, but we've gotten somewhere," he said.
Robinson was a perfect fit for the college's theme this year of "Leadership and Social Justice," said Tom Perry, Marietta College's executive director of college relations.
"When you hear his story and what he's done and where he's been in a lifetime, I think it's a really good fit for what we try to teach our students about the value of studying abroad and the value of a liberal arts education," he said.
Marietta resident Carol Lane said she was interested in hearing what Robinson had to say about diversity, a topic which Lane has always stressed the importance of to her daughter, Beth, a senior theater major at Marietta College.
"I've always professed diversity to her and encouraged her to travel. It gives us a better world when we know each other better," she said.
Robinson gives smart, balanced commentary when on television, said Vienna resident Jane Harrington. "It's not everyday a Pulitzer Prize winner comes to the Mid-Ohio Valley," she added.
Marietta College freshman Taylor Hanigosky was part of a small group of journalism students who was able to meet with Robinson before Thursday's event.
"He gave us a lot of insight into the field. He talked about things he would have done differently or would do differently if he was just starting in journalism now," she said.
But her biggest takeaway from meeting with Robinson was that her dream of becoming a journalist is possible, said Hanigosky.
Thursday's celebration marked the 178th anniversary of Marietta College's charter on Feb. 14, 1835.
In addition to Robinson's speech, several faculty members were recognized as part of Thursday's event.


text:
MSI solid capacitor graphic card MSI graphics card products utilities high quality solid capacitor. For the gamers and high-end users, this feature not only means that product has better quality components within, but also provide much stronger support while users want to engage in hard-core tuning.
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Native HDMI Output
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Video Output Function
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Bundle MSI developed driver and utilities
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Get all the video processing power that your digital lifestyle requires. Enhance photos, clean up home videos and post them to Facebook up to 50% faster² with the GeForce 210 or GeForce GT520 GPUs. Convert your video and put it on your iPod in minutes instead of hours³ or make your DVDs look like HD. Does your PC have a CPU powerful enough to playback high definition Blu-Ray Movies? It doesn't matter, the GeForce 210 and GT520 can playback any Blu Ray Movie with any modern CPU4.
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Graphics processing units (GPUs) are an essential element of today's PCs, enabling more visual and more interactive experiences. As a leader in visual computing and the inventor of the GeForce GPU, NVIDIA worked closely with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7 to ensure that its GPUs take full advantage of the great new features and functionality. If you use your PC to enhance photos, watch or edit videos, play games, or if you simply desire a fast and efficient graphical interface, NVIDIA GPUs will surely delight your senses and offer a premium Windows 7 experience.1 Compared to Intel G45. Measured using 3DMark Vantage, Performance Pre-set on a Pentium Dual Core E5200 system with 2GB RAM, Vista SP1.
See NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Cards In Action
2 Compared to E8200 CPU with no GPU. Measured using MotionDSP vReveal on G31 system with 2GB RAM, Vista SP1. 3Comparison made using 30min 720p video clip on a Core2 Duo E8200, G31 system with 2GB RAM, Vista SP1. CPU test run on Apple iTunes. GPU test run on Elemental Technologies Badaboom. 4 Intel Atom CPU or better
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- MSI N210-MD1GD3H/LP graphics card - GF 210 - 1 GB
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Customer reviews
Write a review for the MSI GeForce GT 210 589MHz 1GB PCI-Express HDMI Low Profile here!
Fantastic Value and quick
Reviewed by Mark B. Review Posted 08/09/2014
This is incredible value for money. I've bought two now. After fiddling about installing the card into a small factor PC it launched straight away, Windows 7 finding the driver. I still installed using the disc afterwards.
Installing in two spare slots in the rear of my PC, must be next to each other I add took about 10 mins in total, so no hassle really, it's delivered with a standard size profile for a normal sized PC.
I'm no gaming addict but It runs Pinball FX2 with no lag at all so that's proof of it's capability.
- Overall
- Ease of use
- Value for money
The opinions expressed in this reviews section are those of our customers and not of BT Shop. Nothing contained herein amends BT Shop's terms and conditions.


text: I notice that when audio track is muxed in mkv with delay mencored work correctly (audio is sincronized) while tsmuxer is not sincronized. I'd like know if is possible in debug log see what is delay that mencoder use (set). I don't know software that are able to mostrate delay set after mkv is created. This is important for me because many time i create a new (correct without delay) audio track.


text:
Maria Mak. Burnaby Real Estate Agents . Metro Vancouver Realtors
By Maria Mak - Sut... on August 19, 2012 - 10:11pm
Technology has been a driving force behind the transformation of many industries. While real estate remains a people business, consumers today have access to scores of information that can help them find an property, a REALTOR® and connect all the dots in between.
Purchasing a home will likely be the most important buying decision you'll ever have to make so it is important to do your own research, understand your rights and find professionals that you are most comfortable working with.
If you're deciding whether to buy or sell a home, it's critical that you understand and properly assess your personal and financial circumstances against current housing opportunities.
The REALTORS® of Canada and other real estate professionals have provided a wealth of information online to help you understand what opportunities are out there for you and your family to consider.


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There, under the beneficent gaze of mysterious godlike entities, humans possessed uncanny psychic abilities, and Edeard's were the strongest of all. Equally strong was his determination to bring justice and freedom to a world terrorized by criminal violence and corruption.
Inigo's inspirational dreams, shared by hundreds of millions throughout the galaxy-spanning gaiafield, gave birth to a religion - Living Dream. But when the appearance of a Second Dreamer seemed to trigger the expansion of the Void - an expansion that is devouring everything in its path -the Intersolar Commonwealth was thrown into turmoil. With the adherents of Living Dream determined to set forth on a dangerous pilgrimage into the Void, interstellar war threatens to erupt.
With time running out, the fate of humanity hinges on a handful of people. There is Araminta, only now awakening to the unwelcome fact that she is the mysterious Second Dreamer - and to the dire responsibilities that go with it; Inigo, whose private dreams hint at a darker truth behind Edeard's legendary life; Paula Myo, the ruthless field operative of the Commonwealth, whose search for Araminta and Inigo is about to yield a most unpleasant surprise; and Justine, whose desperate gamble places her within the Void, where the godlike Skylords hold the power to save the universe...or destroy it.
Dream on: listen to the first book, The Dreaming Void.
©2008 Peter F. Hamilton; (P)2009 Tantor
"Fusing elements of hard SF with adventure fantasy tropes, Hamilton has singlehandedly raised the bar for grand-scale speculative storytelling." (Publishers Weekly)
"This second book of a trilogy promises a spectacular finish." (Booklist)
Did you know you can put in a set of Ear-Buds, slap your Hearing Protectors over them, and Mow the lawn, Weed-Eat, etc, without your book being drowned out by engine noise? OR, you can just let the horses in the yard, and THEY'LL mow and weedeat (literally) FOR YOU!
"Escapism? Not Hardly!"
I've had to spend some time in various hospitals lately, and just by luck I found that several different book series I've enjoyed in the 'not so distant' past had more books added to them that I had somehow missed... NOTHING makes you actually ENJOY time spent in the Hospital like knowing you have several Awesome, LONG, books to get through.. the kind of books you can't put down! In the hospital, aside from the occasional test you get wheeled out to, you get to listen to good books as long as you want to without feeling guilty about your horses starving, your dogs needing flea treatments, etc... Nope! Nothing to do but lay there and wish that your well-meaning visitors would go home and let you get back to your book!
You know how it goes when you get near the end of a good series of books... you keep looking at how much time is left, and dreading the time winding down to the finish, because the next book you listen to by another author can't possibly be nearly as good as the book you're about to finish... How can new characters compete with the characters you've come to know and like in your current book? ("I don't want a NEW puppy, I want my old dog back!" ;)
Such was the case as I wound up the last book in "The Subterrene War" series, 'Chimera' by T. C. McCarthy... With heavy heart, I got on here with my laptop, and with IV hoses hanging out of the backs of both hands I typed up my review, and finished it up with, "off to try to find another of those rare books that will leave me sleep deprived"... as luck would have it, with the very next left-click I stumbled right into 'The Void Trilogy'! How I missed it all this time, I don't know, since I really liked "The Commonwealth Saga" and *thought* I had been keeping an eye out for more books in the series!!! Duh!
Near the end of Book 1, "The Dreaming Void", I became afraid I was getting well and the doctors were going to send me home! A few chapters into book 2 here, and my wife accused me of making up new symptoms so I could stay longer! Luckily, she was only one book behind me herself and had a rather decent "Guest Bed" in my private room, so she didn't rat me out to the doctors, knowing they'd make HER leave if *I* left, and she wanted to at least finish the first book before we went home ;)
Seriously though, you can't just "Kinda pay attention" to this series of books, you HAVE to keep up with what's going on, meaning you may have to hit the "Back Up 30 Seconds" icon on your iPhone a few times if you feel like you've missed something. The more attention you pay to what's going on, the more raw enjoyment you get from Hamilton's Books! How he can write novels that are so detailed, technical (yet easily understandable), and far-reaching is way beyond me! By the end of Book 1 he's got so much going on that you feel like there's no way you'll be able to keep up with it all, yet somehow, you do!
...In "The Temporal Void", the author puts even more balls into the air, and you just know there's no way he's going to be able to pull this mass of characters and situations together in a way that you'll enjoy enough to cause you to dive right into the next book in the series... yet somehow, he does!
The series just keeps getting better! Hamilton's novels are HUGE, without being 'cumbersome', and I just keep dreading the end of each book drawing near...
I admit I'm an engineer (please don't tell my sainted mother!), and I love how Hamilton tickles the ragged edge of scientific discoveries, and seems to understand the implications and technology that *could* be possible some day thanks to those discoveries... He has the gift of being able to take your imagination past the dry science, and show you all of the things that *should* be possible once "discovery" turns into "practical applications"! For example, he extends "Social Networking" out to a time where sharing "the actual emotions with each other" is the norm.. Any Emo Kid would give his entire razor blade collection for THAT ability! ;)
A friend of mine (and fellow Sci-Fi buff) came to visit me at home the other day, and looked at my phone to see what I was "reading".. He said "25 hours?!?! That's some serious escapism dude!"..
I replied, "Escapism?? Not Hardly! You know I LOVE my life, and while I'm living it I get to listen to awesome Sci-Fi books like this one!!"
"Make Sure you have read the Dreaming Void"
Another amazing read. I got this series as a gift for my birthday, pure brilliance.
Make sure you've read the first book, as Hamilton does not give any background at the beginning of this book...
Hey Audible, don't raise prices and I promise to buy lots more books.
"Most exciting yet"
While the Void Trilogy is three books, it is only one story. Each of the three could easily have been 2 or even 3 books by themselves. I believe that they were that rich in depth and breadth. I had finished the Commonwealth Saga not too long ago and was blown away by both books. I could not say which I enjoyed more given that again there was a great deal of continuity between the two and I read and reviewed them as one.
Interestingly, the Void Trilogy is set in the same universe 1200 years later (AD 3580) and contains many of the same characters. That's good for those of us who elected to read the story from the beginning but not totally unacceptable for those who chose to pickup the story from from the Void. Having a background about or history on the characters helps. When I first ventured into the trilogy with the Dreaming Void I was a bit disappointed. I thought that it was slow and difficult to figure out. However, I stuck with it and with the Temporal Void (#2 of 3) things really picked up in pace and action. In fact, of all three books I think that the second was the most exciting. This was the brilliance of Peter Hamilton that I remembered from the Commonwealth. Incredibly unique landscapes, characters and creatures. But not to be only bowled over by the senses, these books are heady, contemplative and complex. These are not books to listen to while doing something else. They require, they demand, they deserve our full attention or forget it. Read something lighter.
By the time I got into the last in the series, The Evolutionary Void, my biggest concern was how this epic was going to end. These worlds and stories were so gargantuan and magnificent in almost every respect, how could the conclusion possibly do justice to all that came before. But again, somehow Hamilton pulls it off.
However, I would submit that there is still something missing in Hamilton's characters. While there is incredible opportunity for character development just given the lengths of these books, the characters themselves seem to lack something. I have struggled with this wondering if this is a lack of mature writing on the part of the author or just the way beings are 2500 years into the future. I kind of got attached to some of the characters but then not really. Maybe when you live for a thousand years people just become less concerned about you; less caring.
Two, three, let alone five of these books required an investment in time and energy but it was one hell of a ride. The narrator I have listened to in a great number of books. He was not the best part of this one.
"My new favorite author...."
I'm glad Mr. Hamilton likes to write because this 2nd book in the void trilogy has placed him at the top of my author list.
I love the characters, I hate the characters. I love the plot, I hate the plot. His writing pulls me into the story, creating a world I want to live in with characters I wish were real. And once you care about the characters, you care about the story.
Sci-fi at it's best. Highly recommended.
I exist
"Disappointing Follow Up to the Commonwealth Saga"
I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 preceding books by Hamilton but this trilogy falls flat. The basic structure of the story is split into 2 parts: One part in the same universe as Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained, and one "story within a story" faux-fantasy fable that takes all 3 books to play out.
In itself, this structure makes it hard to immerse oneself in the story. Whenever one side gets going you are suddenly plucked into a completely different universe and timeline. Even with that doubling of content, the entire series story-line could have been easily developed and resolved in a third of the time. In particular the fantasy section is little more than a basic Twilight Zone plot, yet the basic cliche at its center is dragged out over the full series.
The primary story-line retains some of what made the prior books fun, but its events are too fractured by the intrusive story within a story, and also feels unnecessarily stretched out. The whole thing feels like a novella worthy concept artificially stretched to 65 hours. Disappointing.
"Read the Commonwealth series first ."
I was lucky, I did read the Commonwealth series first. They are Pandoras Star and Judas Unchained. If you read them first you will have a much better understanding of the people and the terminology used in this series. You can get even a better insight if you go to the authors (Peter Hamilton) personal website and read the time line of the series. I have thouroughly enjoyed the series and am looking for more.
Driving over 100,000 mile a year since 1983, I got hooked on audible books on tape 30 years back. I now listen from my bicycle 2 hours a day
What a wonderful trip this was. It just kept getting better. Bravo Mr. Hamilton. Your work covers all the bases and illuminates the situations from such diverse points of view. The dangerous dogma of the Dreamers is such an appropriate metaphor for a contemporary equivalent.
"I'm hooked!!"
This series hit just the right note for me - narration, plot, everything. It's all I can do to only listen to it while I'm driving. I'm gonna look into more books by this author and this narrator.
I focus on fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, science, history, politics and read a lot. I try to review everything I read.
"Good but really too much"
The Void series takes a LOT of concentration; it has many threads, timelines, dreamlines, and characters (several with multiple instances). Some of the themes are so wild that they cross from science fiction to fantasy then to philosophy. The author writes very intelligently and many of the characters are interesting and well developed. I enjoyed some of the themes and some of the characters but it is just way too much for three novels. By the end of the series quite a lot of stuff had happened, but due to the abstract nature of some subthemes I found it difficult to really care. This is a talented writer but I really prefer a little less. Judas Unchained was complex, but Judas was simple minded compared to the Void.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Two hours before he and his teammates would tangle with the formidable Green Bay Packers, linebacker Patrick Willis took a couple minutes to chat with a young Richmond man who also knows something about fighting the good fight.
"You ready to watch some football?" Willis asked 22-year-old Felix Vargas, who has been battling cancer since he was 17.
"Yes," replied Vargas, who watched pregame warm-ups from a wheelchair along the sideline.
"All right," Willis said. "Let's get a picture."
Vargas, a lifelong 49ers fan, attended Saturday night's playoff game courtesy of the 49ers and the Santa Barbara-based Dream Foundation, which grants wishes to adults facing life-threatening illnesses. Diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, as a teenager, Vargas also was diagnosed with lung cancer last summer. Recently he has been undergoing treatment every Monday in three-week cycles.
He says he feels good, and as if to prove his point, he rose from his chair and stood beside the hulking Willis. Vargas' friend Karen Viveros, brother David Vargas and brother-in-law Carlos Guerrero also squeezed into the picture.
Nose tackle Ian Williams also stopped by -- "Nice shoes," he told Felix Vargas, who was wearing shiny white athletic shoes with red trim -- as did Dr. John York, team co-chairman.
It was a scene Vargas scarcely could have imagined before his phone rang a week ago.
"The Dream Foundation gave me a call," he said, "and they said it was going to be something fast and quick to organize because it was a playoff game. I was speechless."
On Thursday he was invited to the 49ers' training facility.
"It was amazing," he said. "I got to meet all the players, and the coaches came up to me and said 'Hi.' They were just friendly and fun to be with. I got there around 12:45, and we were there for three hours. I got a tour of the facility, and after that we got to see them practice."
After practice, Vargas and Viveros had lunch with head coach Jim Harbaugh.
"We chatted about how exciting Saturday would be," said Vargas, a Berkeley High graduate, "and we asked him a couple questions. My friend (Viveros) asked him why does he look so serious? Every time we watch him on TV he has a serious face. He said, 'That's just me. I get in a different kind of mode when it comes to football.'"
So does Vargas.
"It gets my mind distracted," he said. "It gives me energy to keep going."
An example was the 49ers' Monday night victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers during the 2011 season. "I was in the hospital," Vargas said. "I was screaming and screaming, and the nurses would come in and say, 'What's wrong?' And I would say, 'Nothing. My 49ers are winning.' That's an unforgettable moment."
Viveros, who said she has been by Vargas' side for the past seven months, has seen firsthand how football and the events of this week have boosted her friend's spirits.
"It's been a good experience for him," she said.
Clad in a 49ers light jacket, knit 49ers cap and red and gold beads, Vargas looked around the stadium in wonder.
"Amazing," he said. "It's inspiring. It looks way bigger in person."
And about the game?
"I'm nervous," he said. "But we're going to get a victory."
Contact Gary Peterson at 925-952-5053. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/garyscribe.


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- Apr 11:
- Walmart melee: Plea delayed, case could be combined with prior gas-station crash
- Apr 4:
- San Jose Wal-Mart melee: Suspect arraigned on attempted murder; former identities revealed
- Apr 3:
- Wal-Mart melee: Neighbors recall suspect's bizarre behavior; previous offenses weren't enough to keep him in jail
- Apr 2:
- Wal-Mart melee: Suspect's prior meth-fueled crash through San Jose gas station preceded latest violence
- Mar 31:
- San Jose: Driver attacks Walmart shoppers after crashing into store, police say
SAN JOSE -- In a story that is racking up national headlines, police say a drug-addled Seaside native crashed his car into an East San Jose Walmart and bludgeoned customers and an employee with a blunt object before he was tackled by onlookers Sunday morning.
Haamid Ade Zaid, 33, was booked into Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run, being under the influence of drugs and resisting arrest, according to the San Jose Police Department. He was identified as a Seaside resident by police, but a relative said he now lives in San Jose.
Zaid is being held without bail in connection with the chaotic attack that rattled an Easter Sunday shopping crowd and ended with four people injured, one seriously. A Walmart employee was among the victims.
Officer Albert Morales said SJPD had no previous contact with Zaid until Sunday. Santa Clara County has a handful of court cases involving Zaid, but the records were not available Monday because the Superior Court observed the Césár Chávez holiday. A records search in Monterey County -- where Seaside is located -- did not reveal any history of violence.
Zaid's mother, Rosemary, told NBC Bay Area that she had no explanation for the actions of her son, a Seaside High School graduate she said runs an auto-restoration shop in San Jose.
"This isn't him, this isn't him, this is not what he's like," Rosemary Zaid told the station. "He's a good man, a business man. He's never done drugs."
The melee began about 11:15 a.m. Sunday when a red two-door Cutlass Salon was seen speeding through the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter at 777 Story Road, hitting two cars before crashing through the pharmacy and market entrance, police said. A witness said the driver's initial attempt was too sharp and got the car caught in cement pylons, so he backed up and tried again, making it into the store before crashing into a beer display.
Once the car stopped, police and witnesses say, the driver got out, picked up a blunt object some described as a metal bar and started attacking people with it. A stockroom employee was hit in the head, according to his daughter, 31-year-old Betsy Rodriguez of San Jose.
Rodriguez said the 61-year-old lifelong San Jose resident had just clocked out for lunch when the Cutlass came barreling through the store. He approached the driver, according to Rodriguez, whose account was corroborated by police.
"He heard people screaming and approached the man. He told the guy 'You don't have to do this,' and the man hit him on the head," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said her father, a five-year employee who asked not to be named out of privacy concerns, is conscious and recovering at a local hospital.
Raymond Raborar was at the store, waiting for his mother to finish Easter Mass at a nearby church and standing near the pharmacy when he heard the crash.
"I was just there to kill time when I heard something really loud," said Raborar, a San Jose-based in-home caregiver. "I see people running and then thought maybe I should run too."
Raborar briefly left the store but returned and started shooting video, which shows the car inside the store, a victim lying on the floor and customers restraining Zaid.
"My heart was beating really fast," he said. "I'm thinking maybe the driver's on drugs, or it could be a terrorist attack."
The melee stopped when onlookers tackled the driver and held him down until police arrived. Zaid was reportedly kicking and screaming as officers took him into custody. Morales said the suspect was "exhibiting objective symptoms of being the under the influence" of drugs.
Rodriguez praised the heroism of the bystanders who jumped into action.
"I want to thank everyone who helped get this attacker," she said.
The bizarre nature of the attack has drawn attention from national media, including "Good Morning America," CNN and news shows in Los Angeles and New York City. It even inspired a fake poll question on the popular online satire website The Onion.
Morales said he couldn't recall anything similar happening in the city.
"In my 18-year career, I have never seen anything like this," Morales said. "After looking at some of the pictures, it's amazing he didn't hit anybody with the vehicle."
Rodriguez's father was hospitalized, and three other victims were treated and released by paramedics at the scene. Zaid was also treated at a hospital before he was jailed.
Following the attack, the store was evacuated, closed and cordoned off by police. More than 70 people gave witness statements to police.
Contact Robert Salonga at 408-920-5002. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.


text: Sociology and Anthropology Department Associate Professor of Sociology On Faculty since 2010 Phone: (630)752-5221 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Education Ph.D., Sociology, Princeton University, 2010 Dissertation titled, "Saving the Market: The Role of Values, Authority, and Networks in International Trade Discourse" M.A., Sociology, Princeton University, 2006. M.P.P., Public Policy, Georgetown University, 2005. A.B., Sociology, Harvard University, 1999 Thesis: Role of Faith and the Black Church in the Lives of Urban Teen Girls in Boston. About Amy Reynolds Dr. Reynolds' research focuses primarily on issues of economic globalization, and the influence of religion and culture within markets. She has a particular interest on Central America, having spent time with World Relief in El Salvador analyzing the coffee sector. She has conducted research throughout Canada, the United States, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Before coming to Wheaton, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Reynolds is currently researching issues surrounding women in leadership within evangelical organizations. Along with Dr. Janel Curry (Provost, Gordon College), she is investigating the different organizational, cultural, and theological aspects of organizations that promote (or hinder) women in leadership positions. Dr. Reynolds is a guest blogger at Black, White and Gray >>, a place where sociologists share research and relate it to issues of Christian faith and practice. Amy Reynolds is married to Dr. Stephen Offutt, a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary. They have three children, Adrianna, Emily, and Gabriella. Courses Taught Introduction to Sociology Gender and Society The Family Sociology of Sexuality Social Change Faith and Globalization Social and Political Movements Contemporary Social Concerns Applied Sociology Membership in Professional Societies American Sociological Association Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Latin American Studies Association Research Interests Sociology of religion Economic sociology International political economy Gender & inequality Central American studies Publications and Presentations Dr. Reynolds' CV Selected Publications Amy Reynolds. "Networks, Ethics, and Economic Values." Latin American Research Review, forthcoming Amy Reynolds and Catherine Crouch. "More Light: Modest Progress on Science and Religion." Review of Elaine Howard Ecklund's Science vs Religion: What Scientists Really Think (Oxford University Press, 2010). Books and Culture, September/October 2010. Rebekah Peoples Massengill and Amy Reynolds. "Moral Discourse in Economic Contexts." In The Handbook of the Sociology of Morality, edited by Steven Hitlin and Stephen Vaisey. Springer. 2010. Becky Hsu, Amy Reynolds, Conrad Hackett, and Jim Gibbon. "Estimating the Religious Composition of All Nations: An Empirical Assessment of the World Christian Database." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47(4): 678-693, 2008. Amy Reynolds and Christopher Winship. "Faith, Practice, and Transformation: A Theory-Based Evaluation of Faith-Based Teen Programs." In Taking Faith Seriously: Engaging and Evaluating Religion in American Democracy, edited by Mary Jo Bane and Brent Coffin, Harvard University Press, 2005. Selected Presentations Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, October 2010. "Religious Organizations and the Power of Multinational Corporations." Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Notre Dame, February 2010. "Catholic and Costa Rican: Bishops' Discourse About Free Trade." American Academy of Religion, November 2009. "Liberating the Economy: A North American Religious Response to Globalization." Boston University, Social Science and Religion Network, March 2009. "Canadian Christians and the Struggle for an Alternative Economic Order." American Sociological Association, August 2008. "Mapping the Religious Landscape: How Religious Organizations Interact with the International Political Economy" Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, October 2006. "Estimating the Religious Composition of All Nations: An Empirical Assessment," co-presented with James Gibbon. International Sociological Association, July 2006. "Religious Beliefs and Economic Attitudes" American Sociological Association, August 2005. "Faith Based Networks and the Central American Coffee Business." Independent Sector, Spring 2003 Research Forum. "Faith, Practice, and Transformation: A Theory-Based Evaluation of Faith-Based Teen Programs." Co-presented with Christopher Winship.


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Man wounded in East Flat Rock gunfight
Published: Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 8:45 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 8:45 a.m.
A fight escalated into the shooting of a 25-year-old man Friday afternoon in East Flat Rock, according to a news release from the Henderson County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies responded to a call about a fight a 1166 Brooklyn Ave. around 5:30 p.m. Friday and found Fabian Serna, 25, with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
Serna was transported to Mission Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery. His condition was not available Saturday morning.
Investigators identified 20-year-old Colby West as the probable shooter, the news release states. After interviews with witnesses, authorities did not charge West, pending further investigation.
Investigators determined that a fight had taken place between four people and escalated to the point of gunfire, according to the release. The investigation is continuing, and the District Attorney's Office will decide whether charges will be brought in relation to the incident.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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George Dyson visits Google on the 60th Oct 31 2005
George Dyson visits Google on the 60th anniversary of John von Neumann's proposal for a digital computer. A quote from a Googler -- "We are not scanning all those books to be read by people. We are scanning them to be read by an AI." -- highlights a quasi-philosophical question about Google Print...if a book is copied but nobody reads it, has it actually been copied? (Or something like that.)


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Investors cheered by a strengthening recovery sent the S&P 500 index above its pre-crash peak of more than five years ago Thursday, as the Dow Jones industrial average finished its best first quarter in 15 years.
Analysts agreed it has been a stunning performance for markets that have been buffeted for a year by global crises and economic and policy worries.
"This past quarter has been stellar," said Quincy Kosby, a market strategist with Prudential Financial. "It's been a market that's been very hard to suppress."
The broad-based Standard & Poor's 500 topped its previous high set in October 2007, before the financial crisis sent stock markets tumbling. It closed at 1,569.19 Thursday, just a hair above the earlier peak of 1,565.15.
The Dow, which surpassed its pre-crash high on March 5, added to its gains, closing at 14,578.54.
For the first three months of the year, the S&P 500 is up 10.3 percent, but still short of its 2012 first-quarter growth of 12 percent. The Dow is up 11.25 percent, the best first-quarter gain since 1998.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted an 8.7 percent increase this quarter, closing at 3,267.52 Thursday. That is still 35.3 percent below its pre-crash peak of March 2000.
It was a mixed bag for Silicon Valley companies in Thursday's trading. eBay (EBAY) was up 4.13 percent, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) rose 1.1 percent, and Cisco Systems (CSCO) rose less than
1 percent. Apple (AAPL) dropped 2.08 percent, and Google (GOOG) was down 1.06 percent.
Analysts were cautiously optimistic that the country's economic fundamentals, supported by Federal Reserve policies, would continue to encourage investors. Corporate earnings season begins in April with a string of key companies set to report.
The gains reflect "an economy that's getting stronger, albeit at a very modest rate," said Prudential's Kosby. "This market has wanted to go up. A market that wants to move higher tends to gloss over issues that could conceivably be problematic in the future."
Analysts agreed that a key factor in lifting the markets is the recovering housing sector, which has seen rising prices on strong demand.
"We're starting to see prices recover and some of that paper wealth come back," said John Roth, who manages two Fidelity funds. "At one point, $5 trillion in paper wealth was destroyed in residential homes."
The United States is also better positioned now to compete globally in manufacturing, he said.
As for tech -- "if we think about where the Nasdaq was in 2000, that was the epicenter of the bubble," Roth said. "It is going to take a while for the Nasdaq to recover, but there's a lot doing well."
Investors seemed unworried by a banking crisis in Cyprus, a recent downturn in consumer confidence and a more-than-anticipated rise in unemployment claims last week.
"The private sector in the U.S. has been surprisingly strong, given all the impediments," said Vanguard Group senior economist Roger Aliaga-Diaz.
Still, he said, "the market is being a little bit optimistic about the growth. We are a bit concerned, given all the fiscal concerns that we are expecting to kick in later this year."
For example, the effects of sequestration -- deep government spending cuts that took effect at the start of the year -- and a payroll tax hike will be felt later in the year, Aliaga-Diaz said.
On the other hand, he said, "Europe is not as bad as in previous years with some volatility recently. There is a sense that the downside risks to the global economy have eased a little bit. "
Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics at IHS Global Insight, said stock market valuations "are still on the low side, with room to grow."
Edelstein said the economy grew 3 percent in the first quarter while consumer spending was up 2.5 percent.
The Federal Reserve has been able to offset some worries, he said. "The markets aren't pricing in too big of an impact from the sequester or payroll tax increases."
Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419. Follow him at Twitter.com/petecarey.


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In the fall of 1975, not long after the release of "Born to Run," I got a call from a publicist at Columbia Records asking if I'd like to interview Bruce Springsteen. It seemed Springsteen had read my rave review of the album in the Washington Star, the paper I worked for at the time, and a couple of my reviews of his live shows. He had put me on the short-list of writers he'd like to talk to.
Of course, at the time, everyone wanted to talk to Springsteen. "Born to Run" had taken off like a rocket, and Springsteen had been on the covers of both Time and Newsweek -- in the same week. My editors told me to drop everything else and get to New York for the interview.
I met Springsteen, who had just turned 26 at the time, in an office in Manhattan. It was late on Friday, and the offices were emptying so that, not long into the interview, he and I were all but alone. It was supposed to last a half-hour or so, but instead went on for a couple of hours with the two of us talking about everything from the impact of those Time and Newsweek covers to the music of Roy Orbison and the guitar work of Duane Eddy.
I would interview Springsteen once more (briefly) and would run into him backstage at a couple of concerts. But within a few years, I switched from writing about music to the news and so simply became a fan of the Boss.
But those few hours in New York have stuck with me. Not that Springsteen had said anything that profound -- although he was as articulate and engaging an interviewee then as now -- but just how downbeat much of the conversation had been. It wasn't so much what he said but the tone with which he said it. When I started to press him on something, he would retreat, not so much becoming elusive as simply not opening up. Even with very good interviewers like Ted Koppel, he seems pretty much the same today.
All of which must have made Peter Ames Carlin's new Springsteen biography, "Bruce," a tough one to pull off. Springsteen cooperated with Carlin, although the author stresses the Boss had no editorial control over it. Much of the best stuff in "Bruce" comes not from Springsteen himself, but from those around him: Steve Van Zandt, Clarence Clemons, former girlfriends, friends from the early days in Jersey. While hardly the artful dodger and revisionist of his own history that Bob Dylan has become, Springsteen doesn't really open up -- a serious disadvantage for a biographer.
But Carlin makes the most out of what he had to work with. For the most part, it is an entertaining work, with some solid insights into what makes the Boss tick. It is filled with the kind of little details and juicy nuggets that you want in a biography. (In the interests of full disclosure, I know Carlin a bit from the days when we both covered television. I admired his writing then and also enjoyed "Catch a Wave," his previous biography on another rock genius, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.)
Carlin nails down the early backstory of Springsteen, from his upbringing in Freehold, N.J., to his first guitar (right after Elvis appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show") to his work in a string of Jersey bar bands, notably Steel Mill. This portion is strewn with good stories that might be tall tales (one involving a dramatic appearance by Clemons at a bar is a beaut) and those nuggets (Janis Joplin had the hots for young Bruce). He does a good job of sketching Springsteen's influences, including the Allman Brothers and James Brown.
Carlin also does a good job of sorting out some of the rougher patches of Springsteen's professional and personal life. He is, for example, far kinder to former Springsteen manager Mike Appel than most accounts. The Appel-Springsteen battle was so epic that it took teams of lawyers to sort it out, a process that kept the E Street Band off the road and out of the studio for months (delaying the recording of "Darkness on the Edge of Town," the follow-up to "Born to Run").
The author's portrait of Springsteen isn't saintly, either. The Boss didn't treat women particularly well through the years. Nor did he treat the original E Street Band members well. He came close to firing Max Weinberg during "The River" and broke off from them for a long period before getting the group back together for "The Rising."
But as cleverly written and insightful as "Bruce" can be, it lacks the real depth one finds in truly great biographies. Precious little is included about Springsteen's current personal life, and Carlin doesn't quite find the essence of Springsteen's work over the years. In fact, at times the author seems to keep his distance from his subject, which is not so good for emotional impact.
Still, "Bruce" is better than earlier Springsteen biographies (notably Marc Dolan's florid "Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'n' Roll," released earlier this year). But the truly defining work, one that captures the true nature of a great American artist, remains to be written.
Follow Charlie McCollum at Twitter.com/charlie_mccollu.
$28, 494 pages


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All hail mighty Wigan. Unbelievable.
This is actually good for football in general , though I doubt you'd get that opinion from the highly paid mercenaries at Citeh.
It happens.
Now give us a Benfica shining moment. Roman be damned.
Sorry , Bobert , don't hate you but I sure do dislike your embezzling gangster Chelskite owner. Hope he crashes his yacht and spills a drink on himself.
Oscar...with u on this Abramovitch has blood on his hands its filthy blood money that has created this Chelski club...his is a VERY INTERESTING STORY from back when he was made Governor of Siberia check it out.


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Program 3 Notes
Guide to Strange Places
Choreographer Ashley Page has a quiet energy about him, like a fountain that's overflowing. Talk to him and you'll find him bubbling with ideas and observations. Watch him in the studio and you'll see him pour textures and tones into the movement he's matching to the dancers ' personalities and physiques. For his first work for San Francisco Ballet, the former Scottish Ballet artistic director created a physical and movement world for 18 dancers in which his ballet roots, modern dance influences, and love of the visual arts are in full view.
Music is "my biggest passion," says Page."Although I love all the art forms—literature, film, visual arts—music's the thing that's been with me the longest and has always been an inspiration." Bay Area composer John Adams' Guide to Strange Places "was one of the first things to pop into my head," he says about his choice of music for this ballet. "I felt it was the right piece for this company, certainly for my first time working with them. I felt confident that I could do something with it with them."
Adams' Guide to Strange Places was inspired by a book he found in a Provence farmhouse, called Guide noir de la Provence mystérieuse (A Black Guide to Mysterious Provence). As quoted in the CD liner notes for a St. Louis Symphony recording of the music (Nonesuch), Adams said, "A chapter was dedicated to paysages insolites—or 'strange places.' . .. It set my imagination off. . . . In a sense, all of my pieces are travel pieces, often through paysages insolites—it's the way I experience musical form." In Guide to Strange Places, that form is driving and explosive, music that makes your heart jackhammer. The ending, says Page, is "incredible, so powerful, like a beast rolling over and dying or the earth splitting. It gets so savage and earthy and organic."Page, who danced with The Royal Ballet, began dabbling in choreography in 1981; his first professional work for that company was in 1984, the same year he was promoted to principal dancer. He cites multiple choreographic influences, such as Richard Alston, whom he calls a mentor and great friend; Frederick Ashton, "with works like Scènes de ballet, Cinderella, and Symphonic Variations— that clutch of works in the late '40s particularly"; and George Balanchine, Trisha Brown, and Merce Cunningham.
But it was stepping outside the confines of The Royal Ballet, Page says, that changed the way he perceived dance and what he wanted to do with it. "What I discovered outside the company was dancing and choreography that seemed to be commenting on the nature of classicism in a very enlightening way, yet it was completely contemporary." Later, he learned about narrative power in choreographing four full-length ballets for Scottish Ballet—dark, revisionist approaches to Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Alice.
For Guide to Strange Places, Page devised a series of duets within an ensemble work. Each duet has a flavor and texture that come partially from the music and partially from the dancers; part of his choreographic process is "responding to those people and choosing the right piece of music to go with what I want to get out of them." One "is quite predatory and savage. She's calling the shots and he's dealing with her," he says. Another is "faster and lighter. It's got a delicacy about it. It's almost like a romantic duet, but it isn't." A third is "very sensual," danced to music that is "quite searing."Much more fun, Page says, is a "mercurial couple" who dance multiple short duets." So they are kind of the link between things."
Working with designer Jon Morrell, Page has incorporated satellite images of a decidedly strange place into the world he has envisioned for his dancers. This visual context, drawn from a place that's partly manmade and partly organic, is the perfect tie-in to Adams' score—and thus to the choreography, which Page calls "a complete response to the music."
Program notes by Cheryl A. Ossola
If you've never heard of a revival harpsichord, choreographer Mark Morris' Beaux will change that. It's "big, clunky, wonderful, and underappreciated," he says. And as the predominant instrument in two harpsichord compositions by Bohuslav Martinů, the music for Beaux, it will make you think twice about what harpsichord music can be. The instrument's sound, says the choreographer, is louder and more aggressive than a traditional harpsichord's. "It's an unusual instrument and not very popular right now," he says. "I think it's fabulous."
Much of the credit for the revival of the harpsichord goes to Polish musician Wanda Landowska. "When she was at her peak, in the '30s, baroque music was played primarily on the piano and there was no such thing as the early music movement, so no one had built new harpsichords in the style of Renaissance and baroque instruments," says Morris."She wanted new music to play that people could hear in a modern concert hall, and so this sort of hybrid instrument came up that now people scorn because it lacks subtlety. You wouldn't play baroque music on that. It's not a baroque instrument playing modern music; it's a modern instrument playing modernist music."
The artistic director of Mark Morris Dance Group since 1980, Morris is known for
his passion for music. Lately, he says, "I've done a lot of scores from
the early 20th century, from the teens, '20s, and '30s, because I like
that point of view of early modernism. The 20th century and the 18th century are my
specialty centuries, as far as music and aesthetics go." In choosing to work
with Martinů's modernist music for harpsichord, Morris manages to encompass
both. One of the pieces he chose, a concerto, is one of a handful of 20th-century
compositions that brought the harpsichord back in a new way; in it, the harpsichord
is paired with piano. "I love the sound of those two together," Morris
says. "A harpsichord's phrasing is always through rubato and timing and
you can't do much with touch, which is why there's also a piano."
Morris has created more than 150 dances in his 31 years as a choreographer, nine of which are in San Francisco Ballet's repertory. (Of those nine, only Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes wasn't created for SF Ballet.) His process for creating a dance hasn't changed over the years, he says. "I study the score as I always do, and then I just make up a dance on the spot with the people who are in it. I plan, but I don't know what the moves are going to be."Working with a ballet company is always a different experience from creating on his own dancers, who "can unfortunately read my mind. For good or ill, they know what's coming," Morris says. "I'm interested in making up dances that are softer and more intimate and gentler, more tender, in execution—not so positional and not so flashy."
Beaux, which made its world premiere during the 2012 Repertory Season, features striking costumes and a large scale backdrop by iconic fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. The presentation is a perfect match for Morris' intent. "I wanted to make up a dance with all the gentlemen that is not just about what men are compelled to do in the ballet industry," he says. "I'm not that interested in the big, hard steps. My work is difficult and virtuosic in a way that isn't exploding in midair; that's something I'm not wild about seeing. I want a wider range of dancing than I often see in the ballet language. And [the men] aren't used to partnering each other, so that makes them crazy, and it's beautiful."
The SF Ballet men, Morris says, are "wonderful and energetic and surprising, and I like to make that part of the dance."
Program notes by Cheryl A. Ossola
Possokhov's The Rite of Spring
One hundred years ago, on May 29,1913, at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris, cultural history took a major step forward. Vaslav Nijinsky's new ballet for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), set to Igor Stravinsky's now-iconic score, shook the foundations and preconceptions of the ballet world so hard that it literally caused a riot. Still today, the shockwaves continue to reverberate. Versions of this ballet, which disappeared from the Ballets Russes repertory quickly after a dozen or so performances, are now performed by ballet and modern-dance companies worldwide. And now, in The Rite of Spring's centenary year, it's San Francisco Ballet's turn. In adding it to the Company's repertory, Artistic Director & Principal Choreographer Helgi Tomasson turned to Choreographer in Residence Yuri Possokhov.
Possokhov was skeptical at first. Compared to making his Firebird (also to a Stravinsky score), he says The Rite of Spring is much more challenging. "It takes time to digest music and idea, because it's not just a fairy tale. It means much more than fairy tales," he says. "And especially after one hundred years of performances of this music, you understand how it's so contemporary." It reflects "what's happening in the world, some dark sides of our society," he says. "For me, this music is so matched to political and social life of the earth."
The Rite of Spring dramatizes the pagan ritual of human sacrifice practiced in ancient Russia, depicting humanity at its most primitive. The subject matter alone was not exactly typical of ballet, and neither was Nijinsky's movement. Depending on whose version of history you read, the turned-in, pounding, grotesque movement was to blame for the rioting at the premiere—or the unimaginably strange music, or both. What's well documented is that the high-society ballet goers and young artists of Paris shouted in protest, yanked hats down over eyes, wielded canes and umbrellas as weapons, and threw punches. Uproar turned to outright brawling, and the police were called. Backstage, shouting above the din, Nijinsky stood on a chair yelling out the counts to his dancers, who couldn't hear the music over the boisterous crowd. And according to Stravinsky, Diaghilev, who enjoyed upsetting the status quo with the innovations of his Paris-based troupe, said of the evening's turn of events: "Exactly what I wanted."
"For me, this music is so matched to political and social life of the earth." Yuri Possokhov, SF Ballet Choreographer in Residence
What Possokhov wants, in creating his own interpretation of this famous ballet, is to avoid the past, meaning his own training in Grigorovich-style movement ("close to folk," he says) as well as the versions of The Rite of Spring he's seen, which include Nijinsky's and Pina Bausch's. "I'm trying to avoid everything that I saw before. I think it's hopeless," he says. "A couple you can't escape from, especially the first version." For him, the first one was Nijinsky's, which he saw when he was 20 or 21, performed by Paris Opera Ballet at the Bolshoi. "It was very shocking inspiration; I loved it so much," Possokhov says. "I was thriving on the [kind of] ballet I never saw; strange, with strange music."
Though its roots are Russian (choreographer, composer, and setting), The Rite of Spring is so universally appealing to choreographers "that it's beyond tradition," Possokhov says. Among the many productions are those by Leonide Massine (1920; with Martha Graham in 1930), Mary Wigman (1957), Maurice Bejart (1959), Sir Kenneth MacMillan (1962), Vladimir Vasiliov and Natalia Kasatkina (1964),Glen Tetley (1973), Pina Bausch (1975), Paul Taylor (1980), Angelin Preljocaj(2001), Adam Hoagland (2009), and Christopher Stowell (2011). The centenary year will be filled with revivals and premieres, including Wayne McGregor's for the Bolshoi.
Although he doesn't see The Rite of Spring as representative of Russia, Possokhov does evoke his native country in his version, both in the movement and in the birch trees that dominate the setting. In rehearsals he emphasizes the down beat, asking for an accent on landings, a downward thrust to the arms. "The Russian way is down; it's earthy," he says."Classics always [accent the] up; here it should be more earthy. In this ballet, everything should be down." The birch trees— "one of the prettiest things in my life," says Possokhov— symbolize beauty. The ugliness in Rite, he says, is in the people, and so he has opted to physically distort the Elders who choose the sacrificial victim. The choice of whom to kill "should come from people who are abnormal," he explains. "So to show this abnormality, I have to find a shape of ugliness." He wants to show the coexistence of beauty and ugliness, that it's "one step from beautiful to ugly."
In pairing his concept and movement with the music, Possokhov says he decided to work with "phrases I can hear myself" rather than relying on the written score. At first this music is hard to understand, he says, but once you do, it has "such harmony. There's a logic to it."
"The score is hard," agrees Music Director& Principal Conductor Martin West, "but it's very satisfying." What listeners find so complicated, he says, isn't so bad for the musicians "because it's so brilliantly written." The difficulty is with the size of the orchestra and the piece's rhythmic drive. "It's very hard to get maybe 80 players—it's a huge orchestra—to lock in on one rhythmic groove," West says."There's this forward energy, which why it's so exciting." Portions of the score (for example, "The Glorification of the Chosen One") are "a conductor's nightmare," West says. "The meter changes every single bar, but with huge venom, so it doesn't take much to shake you off the track, only a slight wobble. And when you're playing in the orchestra, there's always a wobble. It's like driving a car—you're always veering around to correct the camber on the road. So the orchestra is always adjusting itself."
With The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky created "a complete new language," says West. "He even said that he didn't know how to write it down. He knew what it was meant to sound like, but there was no language for it. The rhythms are outlandish."The music is based on folk melodies, but they're deeply buried. So part of what Stravinsky was doing, West says, was trying to re-create the sound of Russian folk instruments. "That's why the bassoon is so high in the beginning," he explains."Nowadays it sounds beautiful. But a hundred years ago bassoonists could barely play it. It was meant to sound horrible."
Possokhov calls working with this rule-defying Russian composer "passing through the school of Stravinsky music"— a necessary part of learning to make what he calls "big ballets." So given the chance to make a The Rite of Spring, he says, "I had to do it." And happily, it's here in San Francisco that he's doing it. In the next year he has plenty of projects that willtake him far from home, including to Russia's Ural region for a new ballet based on Alexander Pushkin's story "The Snow Storm" and to Slovenia to make a full length ballet for his friend Irek Mukhanedov, formerly of the Bolshoi and Royal Ballets, who now heads Slovenian National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana.
The Rite of Spring, says West, creates "a very visceral response." In the "Glorification" movement, "it's like the world is rocking," he says. "The orchestra is just whipping; the maestro is almost throwing it in the air." What Possokhov hears in the music for Rite of Spring is brutality, and his visceral response is "not to be sophisticated with choreography," to make the steps "more rough, more spontaneous." There is deep meaning in this music, he says, and it's up to him to reveal it.
Program notes by Cheryl A. Ossola


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