text: Spent 1 day in hospital and took alot of meds for swelling and overall monitoring. The reason I felt up to the challenge is my mentors are 2 80+ yr old men. One wheres a veil and the other one never where a veil. Due to not wearing gloves for a long time and working my hives I felt it was time to go suitless. These old men they buzz around their hives and hardly ever get stung. To add insult to injury when I came home beautiful day bees flying and they opened these hives of mine up and tore them apart.Emmit was stung 1 time on the hand and said it was his fault for smashing the little fellow. As mentors they have taught me alot and I teach them the new. They can't read so I give them my bee mags and family members read to them and sometimes I do and we talk about articles.The lesson learned gloveless only cause I will never put myself thru this ever again.Drs estimated well over 300+ stings. Nurses got 58 stingers out of my head alone.Trust me a armpit sting is the worst.Drs said due to limphnodes being so close to the skin and veins and arteries they were surprised I got no sicker than i did. In talking to Drs. did you know that bee venom is one of the less known venoms in the medical field. They say most of the info. they learn comes from western states where the AHB prosides. It is also the least studied venom out there by our medical schools. Drs talked my ear off asking questions about my experience with bees. They told me they learned a lot and they took notes and even brought in medical students.Everything from how my hearing was affected to sensations I experienced and since I am already on pain meds cause of my back I didn't take any just stuff for swelling and tordall if you ever find yourself eat up like I was does wonders for swelling.Anyways I am alive and lucky not to say the next time I get stung I won't need a Epy pin just have to see. On a good note my mentors have willed me all their hives when they die since no one in their families are interested.LOL My pitbull who tried to save me won't follow me around my bees no more. He lays under the trees and observes and squeels like a little girl when stung. Coward! Still my buddy though.


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The only thing I can find in Google related to this name is:
"The Dagor Dagorath (Sindarin for Battle of Battles) is a fictional battle described in the legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien"
I had no clue about this, I just like the name Dagorath, am infringing on anything here or doing anything that could be construed as unlawful? In other words is there any chance I could be sued?
My game has fantasy characters in it but none from LOTR's except maybe a dragon, it's got a bunch of other fantasy characters I have made up but in no way resembles LOTR...
ps. I guess if I really had to I could name it Dagoreth or Dagorith, but I really do prefer Dagorath for some reason...
Edited by rhuala, 15 November 2012 - 11:06 PM.

subset: commoncrawl


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FORT NELSON TO RING TO THE SOUND OF PARA BAND - Friday, 31 August 2012
An Army band which entertained our troops in Afghanistan takes centre stage at the Fort Nelson Tattoo next Saturday (September 8), led by local man Captain Evin Frost.
Evin – who hails from Horndean – is Director of Music of the Band of the Parachute Regiment and has overall responsibility for the event's musical programme.
Saturday's Tattoo will see the Victorian Fortress come alive with explosive gun firings, rousing military bands, historic re-enactments and breath-taking displays.
Evin's role will include conducting the massed bands of over 130 musicians, pipes and drums in the spectacular finale of both Tattoo performances – as well as leading the military band.
The members of the Para Band are veterans of Afghanistan, and were based at Camp Bastion during Christmas and New Year 2010/11. After entertaining British troops over the festive period, the band moved to Kandahar to partner with both the American and Afghan Army Bands and then to Kabul.
Royal Armouries Museum Director Peter Armstrong said, "We are delighted to be welcoming Captain Frost and his Band to Fort Nelson, and it's particularly fitting as Evin is a Hampshire man and so is coming home."
All Tattoo profits will be shared amongst three Armed Service charities, in recognition of the huge debt we owe our servicemen and women both at home and abroad.
The charities are the ABF The Soldiers' Charity; Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity; and the RAF Benevolent Fund. Other acts include:
- Rose and Thistle Pipe Band
- HMS Sultan Volunteer Band
- British Youth Corps of Drums
- Solent Overlord Executive Military Collectors' Club
- Screaming Eagles Living History Group
- Colonel Robert Hammond's Regiment of Foote (Sealed Knot).
The Tattoo also features a spectacular flypast during the afternoon, with a flypast by a C-47 Dakota from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. The Dakota is one of the world's most famous military transport aircraft and saw widespread use by the Allies during World War Two.It will take to the skies as part of the Fort's World War Two sequence, which highlights the role of the servicemen and women, and local civilians, as Portsmouth came under sustained attack from German bombers.
At the end of the evening performance, the Royal Armouries will light up the darkness, with a dramatic fireworks display, staged by Selstar Fireworks, one of the UK's leading fireworks companies.
Tickets are now on sale and each performance lasts approximately two hours. Grandstand prices range from £18 per adult. A family ticket for the picnic area (two adults and up to three concessions, including registered disabled, plus serving members of HM Armed Forces) costs from £46.
For full details and more prices, visit www.fortnelsontattoo.co.uk or call 0113 220 1887. Alternatively, email firstname.lastname@example.com
To find Fort Nelson, follow the brown Tourist signs from the M27. The Fort is open seven days a week, from 10am to 5pm.
For more information and the latest news about the Royal Armouries:
Royal Armouries website
Royal Armouries newsletter
Follow us on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
Notes to editors
- Royal Armouries is the national museum of arms and armour and has sites in Leeds, HM Tower of London, Fort Nelson and Louisville, Kentucky. It is the first British national museum to open a permanent presence in another country
- Admission to the museum is free. However, there may be a small charge for some special events.
- Open all year daily, 10am-5pm. Closed 24-25 December
- Information Line: 0113 220 1999
- Website: www.royalarmouries.org
- The Royal Armouries Museum should not be confused with Royal Armouries International plc, the private sector corporate hospitality business.
To find Fort Nelson, follow the brown Tourist signs from the M27. The Fort is open seven days a week, from 10am to 5pm.
Download the PDF press release.


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Monday, January 3, 2011
A tip for software companies.
There are many arguments that might be limiting software companies to get into Linux. One is that the GNU/Linux platform market share is too small and not worth getting into. However, because Linux is growing and gaining momentum, in the future you could find yourself left behind while other great software projects will take over your market. It is essential to be there before your competition and get your product out before everyone else. Currently, the Linux market is around 2% on the desktop but that is definitely increasing. Linux is not only growing on the desktop but on netbooks, tablets and hand held devices. The first company into an emerging market usually has the upper hand.
Another argument is that GNU/Linux is open source and there is not much money in software development. It is true that Linux is open source and majority of the applications are free as well. However, Linux runs proprietary software and there are many that are popular. Certain professional applications will probably never be open source but the need is still there and people are willing to pay. Users of Linux have money and are willing to buy software that is of excellent quality and will enable them to create professional projects, because they are still saving money in the long run.
Distributions such as Ubuntu already have a paid section for software in their Ubuntu Software Centre. This allows Ubuntu users to quickly buy software for the Linux platform. Some individuals would rather pay for applications than spend their time looking for free software on the Internet. Plus, with paid software you usually get support and warranty. Creating a place where Linux developers can sell their applications is a great boost for the Linux platform.
In conclusion, the GNU/Linux platform is growing and it is beneficial for large and small software creators to get into the market before their competition does. This will give them an upper hand and a new market to flourish in. Many people who use Linux are willing to purchase proprietary and open source software, especially if it is of good quality and for professional use. Just because the Linux market is only 2%, it should not be overlooked, as it is an emerging market with great growth potential. Many applications have found popularity under GNU/Linux while not being so successful on Windows or the Mac OS platform.
What software companies do you think could get an upper hand or a business advantage if they started creating their software for GNU/Linux? What applications would you want to see and are willing to pay for on Linux?
6 comments:
I never had very specific needs tied to a single app; my needs always fell under an activity rather than one vendor's product (web browsing; document writing; video editing). When I first started with GNU/Linux I was very disappointed to not find specific programs. However, once I spent some time with the alternatives and started reporting bugs and suggestions that made my tasks easier, I couldn't imagine going back to being tied to a specific vendor.ReplyDelete
My point is: if vendors want to get on the GNU/Linux bandwagon, they're losing out more and more the longer they wait. The alternatives are very good and always improving.
- AnonymousJanuary 3, 2011 at 7:11 PM
Pretty good explanation, overall. It would be good to mention, however, that the supposed 2% market share is an unreliable estimate for a variety of reasons. A more appropriate statement would be to note the number of confirmed Linux users (over 100 million), and mention that most home users aren't included in those studies.ReplyDelete
I could give you some resources to make it easier to mention in the future, but other than that small tidbit, very good article. I think if it were any other platform than Linux people would be more willing to jump on, but Linux has built up a reputation with some people who think it's not worth their time. The issue is to erase the negative preconceptions first.
I agree. There are huge advantages to being the first major vender in any given market. Whoever makes the first, say, commercial high-quality finantual program like Quicken for Linux can easily gain and keep 90+ percent of the market. What are the chances of doing that in the Windows world? Very little.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 3, 2011 at 9:37 PM
I believe there are instances where Vendors choose not to develop for Linux out of ideological principles. In those cases they figure their developments should not only provide a profit but also protect "the industry" the cannibalizing effects incurred when better products at better prices eat into partial products that generate a need for newer products at greater prices. Also, there can be an ideological fear-factor seen in large private ventures causing them to stick with "the industry" as if it was a good-ole-boy network, and rather than potentially earning greater profits by selling applications for a project that is essentially public owned [Linux] they allow themselves to get jaded with the idea that it's "wrong" to not support the private establishments. The idea is: benefit from Private Business and then Contribute back to the machine, that is back to Private Industry. Its the same mentality where businesses go out of their way, even incurring extra expense and inconveniences, just so-as support FedEx or UPS ..and only because they are "Private Business", The Ideology of many within Private Business is that supporting Linux is the same as saying that you don't believe in Private Business.ReplyDelete
We the Linux Users need to remind Software Vendors and Hardware Manufacturers how Free Enterprise and Supply and Demand actually works. When applied properly we the consumers get to purchase ever superior products at steadily decreasing prices and in in the process of our decisions over products we become valued consumers from vendors who choose the hardware we like and the software we need. On the other hand, an unhealthy industry featuring Private Businesses that lock out better products at superior prices (Linux etc.) for fear of product price canalization only serves to treat the customer as ..well, NOT a customer but rather as a Beast of Burden.
Consumers, please remind the Vendors that you want Linux compatible hardware and that you need Linux compatible software.. and that you are willing to pay for good products that adheres to the Linux philosophy. We the customers will pay for service and make the Vendors well off and proclaim them the Geniuses they are, ..and eventually, one day, we will all share their marvelous inventions and another Linux software vendor will one day, perhaps years later, utilize their products, save the consumer money, and add another complete layer to the prior system... and make themselves well off and their companies labeled the Geniuses that they are...
Way go Andriod! Amazon Kindle! Barnes and Noble Nook! etc.
There should be a Linux clones of Mac's "time machine," Final Cut Express, GarageBand, and iDVD; that would be cool!!!ReplyDelete
Just look at Roboform, after years in business, ignoring anything but windows, dying. New LastPass, supporting "any" OS, conquered the market.ReplyDelete


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Budget Boondoggle Award
Multi-Millionaire Farmers Reap What the Taxpayer Sows
More than 2,700 farmers with incomes exceeding $2.5 million a year have received farm subsidy payments from the Federal Government, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office [GAO]. It is another example of wasteful government spending – a kind of reverse-Robin-Hood transfer payment – earning the latest Budget Boondoggle Award.
Among the highlights of the GAO report:
Thus, while "wealthy" people earning $250,000 a year may worry about a forthcoming tax hike, they can make up for it by taking up farming. That way they can legally collect taxpayer-funded subsidies while earning up to $2.5 million a year – and even more if the USDA fails to fix this persistent boondoggle.


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COLUMBIA, Mo. - A recent rape has student residents at Aspen Heights fearing for their safety.
The student housing complex has seen a rash of crime, from break-ins to a shooting, but police say this rape is the worst.
A 19-year-old female was chased near the clubhouse, pushed to the ground, and allegedly raped by a man in a mask.
This rape comes after Aspen Heights reportedly increased their safety measures.
But students who live at the complex tell ABC 17 News the gates don't always work to keep people out.
"The gates stay open long enough for two or three cars to pass through," Matthew Preuss, a resident, said. "You can easily get through if you just follow someone with a clicker."
This easy access may be the key to allowing these frequent crimes to keep happening.
Another resident, Carey Nuese, said he and his roommates bought their own cameras and security system to protect themselves.
A spokesperson for Aspen Heights said they are looking into the incident.
The suspect remains on the loose. It is not clear if he is a resident of Aspen Heights.


text:
New Romney web ad: Bill's BBQ couldn't take four years of President Obama
posted at 8:01 pm on November 1, 2012 by Erika Johnsen
Since it's not a web ad featuring a super cool, hipster-celebrity making suggestive analogies about President Obama's oh-so-dreamy and glamorous political qualities, I doubt it will get nearly the same traffic as Team Obama's recent Lena Dunham ad — which is most unfortunate, because rather than a cotton-candy, war-on-women appeal to the youths, we actually see the real-world effect that Obama's policies have had on hardworking, middle-class Americans.
President Obama's policies have been brutal to the business world, and small businesses in particular. An onslaught of red-tape regulations, ObamaCare, the threat of higher taxes, generally poor economic growth — none of these have been kind to entrepreneurs or owners trying to grow their outfits. Despite the Obama administration's several showy moves to come to the aid of small business, their vital signs just haven't picked up, via Bloomberg Businessweek:
The measure estimates employment at independent companies with fewer than 20 employees that use Intuit's online payroll product. Companies with fewer than 20 workers make up nearly 90 percent private employers in the U.S. …
Companies with fewer than 20 employees have actually shed jobs during the economic recovery; the Intuit Small Business Employment Index was 0.9 percent lower in October 2012 than in July 2009. Moreover, since May, the index has moved in the opposite direction from BLS estimates of overall employment, with Intuit reporting a loss of 10,000 small business jobs in each of the last two months alone. …
Compensation and hours are similarly weak. Adjusting for inflation and seasonality, monthly compensation for all employees (including the owners) at businesses with fewer than 20 employees is 10.2 percent lower than when the president took office.
Ouch. As Team Romney showcases here, it's just been too much for some businesses to take.
Related Posts:
Breaking on Hot Air
It's come to this: Half of eighth-grade class refuses to pose for photo with Paul Ryan


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Get To Know Donald E. Westlake
The man behind the Parker novel series was more than a mystery and crime author. Find out more about the prolific novelist and screen writer, Donald E. Westlake.
When an author dies, he leaves behind more than a body of work: he leaves a ripple in the surrounding culture, an imprint cascading across memory, tension building and releasing as it reaches new audiences.
It's the legacy of a storied career, thick as the narratives the author himself wove. In the wake of that life develops a legend, as critics and contemporaries commemorate the author and his work gains new followers. The expansion continues.
Donald E. Westlake was an author who permitted his work to speak louder than he did, but this ethic allowed for no less fascinating an echo. Thing is, Westlake was probably too busy writing to bother enjoying the celebrity his work might have granted him.
Westlake will primarily be remembered as a crime novelist. With the publication of The Hunter in 1962 (under the ominous-sounding pen name Richard Stark), Westlake introduced the world to his most enduring protagonist, the shrewd and brutal career criminal Parker, and launched what would become his most commercially successful series. Densely and audaciously plotted, the series became known for its elaborate heist mechanics and for the power given to what was, for the time, a deeply immoral lead.
Though not an entirely new idea even in 1962, the predominance of these kinds of characters over the last decade or so indicates that the author had his finger on a pulse he all but predicted. Given the cultural firepower of recent titles like Drive, Killing Them Softly and The Sopranos, wherein the dubious morality of the protagonist is presented hand in hand with a sort of idol-making glamor and sensitivity, it's hard to ignore Westlake's foresight.
Listen to Westlake explain his fixation on this type of character, who he deemed more interesting in his disenfranchisement than is a true hero in his privilege.
But his myth runs deeper than a fortuitous preoccupation with the types of characters that would become cultural touchstones for a generation decades on.
Mysteriously and without pomp, the prolific Westlake published well over 100 novels using no fewer than a dozen pseudonyms over the course of five decades in print.
These figures may appear to be little more than statistics, but to a writer—this one, especially, who sometimes struggles to write at all—the figures are awe-inspiring. Not just for the resolve to put the hours into what could amount to four novels in a hyper-busy year, but because he maintained creative integrity throughout. In 1993, the Mystery Writers of America named Westlake a Grand Master of the genre.
But Westlake was not a one-note writer. The man operated on two sides of the same coin, stewing both in the darkness of the criminal underworld he galvanized as a crime writer and in the lightness that same world could produce, through the lens of a humorist.
In 1970, from the pages of what was intended to be another entry in the Parker series—there are 24 in all—sprang the chronically unlucky John Dortmunder, comedic and blundering rather than conniving and bloodthirsty; a sort of Leslie Nielsen counterpoint to the deadly Parker. Westlake published this novel, The Hot Rock, under his own name.
Though he wrote dozens of non-series novels, a slew of short fiction (more than a dozen titles published in the pages of Playboy alone) and several screenplays, Westlake found in the dichotomy of Parker and Dortmunder a sort of balance that would keep his imagination occupied for the remainder of his career, until his death five years and two days ago, at the age of 75. His last five years saw the four Parkers and three Dortmunders go to print.
Though Westlake worked in film as a screenwriter, and the Parker series spawned eight faithful adaptations, no film would bear the name of the source material until now. With action staple Jason Statham in the titular role, the release of Parker later this month is bound to have fans measuring this latest Hollywood adaptation up against the legend of Westlake and his inimitable portrayal of fully developed, flesh-and-blood characters.
What remains to be seen is which Hollywood director will have the prowess to unleash the Dortmunder line onto a new generation of filmgoers, and with what actor in that wayward role. Either way, the echo of Westlake continues to ring.


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Besides that, there is a sports thrill to a skater who hits eight jumping passes, bam, bam, bam, without falling. I find myself keeping count. Is this his sixth jumping pass? Yay! Two more to go! Yay! Last one -- I'm on the edge of my seat! Just skip it, seven is enough! Oh no, I can't look!
Upon second viewing on TV, I think Sorcerer's Apprentice will be a great program for Oda. He needs to bring the energy from that last step sequence to the whole program.
Let's say you have a 90% chance of landing any particular jump. So you start out with only a 43% probability of running the table. It looks like a sucker's bet, right? But then...BAM! you hit that opening quad. Suddenly your odds jump to 48%. BAM! triple Axel. he odds tilt in your favor at 53%. You're on a roll. Triple Lutz-triple toe, 59%. Triple flip, 66! Triple loop, 73! Will he do it? It's still touch and go. Triple Salchow/2T/2Lo (81), second triple Lutz!!!! It's a mere double Axel to go, at 9 to 1 odds in your favor, but the skategods are cruel and there's many a slip twixt cup and lip.
That was what was so cool about Michelle Kwan. She fall didn't fall down, and she saved that second triple Lutz for the very last jump, just for a tease. "Oh, Mathman, you know I wouldn't let you down. Now watch me draw to an inside straight."
Personally I never liked Oda's skating and still dont. I find his skating style immature and unpolished. There is a reason he is the only top Japanese who has never won a World medal, and why he has been bypassed to the point he has at best only a 20% shot to even make their Sochi Olympic team. While everyone knows I am far from a Chan fan and I did think Oda deserved to beat Chan hands down at Skate Canada 2010, I think the result of Chan placing above Oda was fine, as was their PCS comparatively.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if Oda switches to the camp of Orser. Can Brain Orser, Tracy Wilson, Jeffrey Buttle and David Wilson do wonder on Oda's stagnated artistic development?
In the end I can live with a mistake but messy, messy programs NO. Its destroying the sport to let people get away with it because it suggests that actual performance doesn't matter.
Where's the drama if Daisuke skates close to clean and Chan's messy and Chan still wins the free (I'm fine with Chan winning if he has a lead in the short) but really even the free-that was a better performance.
People keep saying its not figure jumping-true but its not figuring falling either. And having to hear Chan fans argue "rotations" Just about did it for me.
Last edited by bekalc; 10-28-2012 at 09:01 PM.
Last edited by Mathman; 10-29-2012 at 12:32 AM. Reason: Fix quote


text: Trade down get a extra 2nd & 3rd 1 Dont'a Hightower, ILB/OLB , Alabama - I'd be moving this kid all over the field 2 CB don't care which one - Stephon Gilmore CB, South Carolina Chase Minnifield, CB/KR, Virginia Jayron Hosley, CB, Virginia Tech Xavier Rhodes*, CB, Florida State 2 OLB Shea McClellin, OLB, Boise State A versatile, explosive athlete with a mighty motor who knows how to reach the quarterback. McClellin possesses a solidly put together frame with a strong upper body which maximizes his length into contact. He plays all over the Boise State defense. He will play with his hand on the ground, can stand up and rush from a two-point stance and will blitz from the inside as well. He exhibits an explosive first step off the ball both with his hand on the ground and standing up. He can also coil up into his stance, stay low initially off the football and threaten the edge with speed. or Chase Thomas,OLB, Stanford Thomas started 2011 on fire, collecting 3.5 sacks, 4.5 tackles for a loss and two forced in the first two games. He has continued to play well throughout the year, which got harder for him after fellow linebacker Shane Skov was lost to a season-ending injury. That caused Thomas to get more blocking attention. He still has been a real presence and consistently pressureing the quarterback. Thomas recorded 51 tackles with 17.5 tackles for a loss, 8.5 sacks and five forced fumbles entering the Bowl showdown with Oklahoma State. He should be a perfect fit as a 3-4 outside linebacker at the next level 3 Senio Kelemete OG, Washington A former defensive lineman who made the move to guard in 09' before switching to left tackle as a junior in 2010. Possesses a naturally strong frame with a thick lower half. Won the teams offensive lineman weight room honor in 2010 and plays up to his weight room numbers. Looks very natural on the move in the run game. Has the range to routinely reach block and seal the edge. Displays impressive range getting out to the second level and can breakdown. Can create leverage for himself off the ball in the run game, doesn't waste much motion into contact and there is a real snap through his hips. You can tell he's a former defensive lineman because of his initial quickness off the ball and pop into contact. Likes to finish, plays with some nasty and gets after it until the whistle. 3 Michael Brewster, C, Ohio State Possesses good awareness and feel inside as well, keeps his head on a swivel, consistently picks up stunts cleanly inside and has the range to re-direct in space, maintain balance and stun a blitzing linebacker with a compact/strong punch. Plays with natural leverage in the run game as well and once he gets his hands on defenders is tough to disengage from, as he can anchor/seal linemen consistently away from the football. Works his legs once engaged and has average natural power when trying to drive defenders off the football 4 Marvin Jones, WR, Cal Displays a good feel vs. zone/off concepts though, will find soft spots underneath and isn't afraid to extend and make plays over the middle. For his size can create after the catch. Again, accelerates well with the ball in his hands, displays the fluidity to side step defenders even at full speed and is a bit more sudden then his size would indicate. Isn't overly physical as a blocker, but gets after it, shows some effort and works hard to stay engaged through the play Chris Owusu, WR, Stanford Robert Turbin, RB, Utah State Brandon Taylor, FS, LSU Josh Norman, CB, Coastal Carolina 5 Dominique Hamilton, DT, Missouri Hamilton is well overlooked and could get a boost from the down defensive line class. Hamilton is intriguing because of his overall body structure, deceptive athleticism, and potential to fill out to play nose tackle. There aren't many players who can excel at nose tackle in the N.F.L. which makes Hamilton a potential rarity and he could see a boost in his stock 6 Brian Linthicum, TE, Michigan State - Chase Ford, TE, Miami - Anthony Miller, TE, Cal 6 Chandler Harnish, QB, Northern Illinois 7 Greg Childs, WR, Arkansas Shaun Powell, P, Florida State Daron Rose, OT, North Alabama J.B. Shugarts, OT, Ohio State


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Tech Watch: Battle for Nuceria
The hit Starz show takes the battle on and offline with this brand new trans-media experience.
In a gaming world that already blurs the lines between truth and fiction, real life and scripted plot, comes a new highlight that's got us excited.
Late last year, premium cable provider Starz introduced Spartacus: Battle for Nuceria, a "trans-media experience" that serves not only as a narrative bridge between seasons two and three of their hit show Spartacus but also as a platform for dishing out rewards—exclusive, unreleased content and behind-the-scenes footage—to the show's rabid fan base.
For fans of narrative-based gaming, Nuceria shades in gray areas and further develops characters viewers have come to know, extending on-screen drama and action to incorporate our own experiences. It also drops a dose of the thrill of gameplay into daily life. There's no real battle, but real-time intelligence updates, video mission dispatches and the sense of community created amongst users allow for a unique gaming experience that borders on augmented reality.
Battle for Nuceria plays out as a series of missions dispatched directly to users—coined "Spartacus' Rebel Army"—using the Encampment website and a custom app, The Hypogeum. Rebel soldiers then complete missions, allowing them to unlock new rewards as the battle wages on toward the January 25th premiere of Spartacus: War of the Damned, the final season of the series. Those who survive will earn the right to view the season premiere first.
But it doesn't stop with rewards; every challenge allows users to accrue points. Greater achievements earn more points. More points means greater potential for prizes. Up for grabs are authentic Spartacus props, free movie tickets and signed memorabilia, but top point earners will be entered to win a trip to Rome. It's not every day a groundbreaking gaming experience also offers straight-up real-life rewards. We're in.
Missions thus far have incorporated everything from video and online gaming to scouting real-life and online locations:
Mission 1: After enlisting in Spartacus' Army, rebels must participate in the Rebel Training Initiation challenge, an online game that tests the user's battle prowess by slaying Roman guards, before being allowed to continue. Pretty standard stuff, but addictive in its simplicity.
Mission 2: Rebel soldiers may have gotten into Spartacus' army, but to stay in they must train. Mission 2 sends users to gyms, department stores, libraries and museums to check in using the Hypogeum app and earn points for working out, procuring supplies and increasing intelligence.
Mission 3: The realities of battle force normal life into perspective, and rebels must prove their appreciation for their freedom by checking in with the Hypogeum at places of leisure: bars, venues, theatres and theme parks. More points in the bank!
Mission 4: This task brings in the Tractus for the first time, a custom browser extension that allows soldiers to take over any web page and leave their mark with rebel graffiti. Rebels must track down Roman-controlled territory on the web and earn points for gaining new ground.
That brings us up to date with Mission 5—our favorite so far—wherein Spartacus himself calls on rebel soldiers to venture out into the wilds of the internet in search of Rebel Marks. Guided by real-time intel dispatches from Spartacus himself, rebels must hunt out and scan the marks with the Hypogeum app.
Skilled soldiers will already have found it, but a careful look around our video section may reveal a Rebel Mark in the midst of Playboy.com itself. We're never scared to get in on a battle, especially when it's breaking down the barriers between gaming and real life.
Mission 6, the last before the new season begins, will challenge rebel soldiers to seek out images and content from War of the Damned and report intelligence back to Spartacus with Hypogeum. It's dangerous in enemy territory, but every new find will earn rebel soldiers new points and spread the good word of Spartacus' Army. The reward for completion: an early screening of the season finale. Not a bad reward for a few days' web surfing.
But the battle doesn't end there. The War of the Damned wages on, and rebel soldiers can expect to receive more missions as metal meets metal, blood sprays and heads fly.


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Reviewed By ALAN B (HUEYSVILLE, KY) Reviewed for a 2001 Chevy Suburban —8/30/2013 5:31 AM
I have a 2001 Chevy Suburban that I bought new and have 240K miles on. These were the 3rd set of shocks I've replaced since new and I now feel as if my Suburban is new again. In fact, I believe it drives better than new... waaaay less body roll than I've ever felt before. Highly recommend!


text: I'm a first year Bee Keeper in Northern Wisconsin. My hive is closed up with Tar Paper, adequately ventilated, etc. I'm wondering if I should periodically (in times of milder fall weather) remove the bottom board insert to clean out the accumulation of dead bees in the bottom or does that place a too great of risk from cooling the hive. The hive was in good shape when I winterized it..a top deep filled with honey, a 10lb sugar cake on top, and ventilation slots/shims placed at strategic places to provide winter ventilation. Entrance reducer closed to 2-3" slot with wire mesh over hive to prevent mice infestation. Any thoughts from you pros out there for a Hick from northern Wisconsin.


text:
David Mermin
THE AGE OF ENTANGLEMENT: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn. Louisa Gilder. xvi + 443 pp. Knopf, 2008. $27.50.
Quantum mechanics is notoriously strange. Starting with Max Planck in 1900, people who
struggled to understand the behavior of matter at the atomic level realized that it defied commonsense understanding. Even after the creation of the quantum theory in its modern form in 1925, the strangeness remained. In recent years, physicists, philosophers and information scientists have focused a lot of attention on the peculiar quantum relationship between physical systems known as entanglement.
Attention was drawn to entanglement by a 1935 critique by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen. They pointed out that, according to the quantum theory, two spatially separated physical systems that had interacted in the past could be so strongly correlated that it would be possible to predict the result of measuring one or the other of two "complementary" properties of the first system from a prior measurement of one or the other of two corresponding properties of the second system.
What makes this peculiar is that the quantum theory refuses to assign joint values to both of two complementary properties, justifying the refusal by the fact that any measurement needed to reveal one of the hypothetical values must necessarily disturb the system enough to alter uncontrollably the other hypothetical value. But in the situation described in the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paper, the measurement acts only on the second system, which no longer interacts with the first. Having thus undermined the rationale for the nonexistence of joint complementary properties, the authors conclude that quantum mechanics offers an incomplete description of physical reality.
Those few quantum physicists who took the time to look away from their amazing experiments and spectacular calculations were generally unimpressed by this metaphysical point. Wolfgang Pauli wrote to Werner Heisenberg that "Einstein has once again expressed himself publicly on quantum mechanics. . . . [T]his is a catastrophe every time it happens." Niels Bohr wrote a paper that almost everybody agreed showed that the EPR paper was wrong, though opinions have differed ever since on what the mistake was that Bohr identified.
Erwin Schrödinger was one of the very few contemporaries immediately to see the power behind the EPR argument, which he expanded on in interesting ways, giving the name entanglement to the strong quantum correlations that the EPR paper had exploited. Nearly 30 years were to pass before John Bell proved clearly, explicitly and unambiguously that the quantum mechanical description of physical reality could not be completed in the manner advocated by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen.
In The Age of Entanglement, Louisa Gilder has produced a highly entertaining story of what led up to these events and of what followed them. Her tale stretches from Einstein's proposal of light quanta three decades before the EPR paper to a conference in Vienna on quantum foundations seven decades after. The book reads like a good novel, and I found it just as hard to put down.
Unlike historians of science, Gilder tells the story of entanglement primarily through the unusual device of imaginary conversations. As she explains in a prefatory note to the reader, she stitched most of these together from the verbatim content of letters, memoirs, reminiscences, biographies or, as the story gets closer to the present, her own interviews with contemporary physicists—all carefully documented in 57 pages of endnotes.
Gilder skillfully blends these disparate sources into entertaining, coherent exchanges, embellishing them with her own vivid imagination. For example: "[Heisenberg] took a bite of cheese and looked over at Wolfgang Pauli, who was lying in the grass like the dead. . . . 'Pass the cheese,' said Pauli, without moving." Or: "Einstein's brow furrowed, and he looked a little teacherly as his glasses slid down his nose." Helped by a little willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader, the result is a surprisingly effective re-creation of some of the most subtle intellectual history of the 20th century.
I was at first a bit put off by this puppeteering of some of the great thinkers of the 20th century, until I realized that if it had been a film—even a "docudrama"—it would have bothered me less. Gilder may have invented a new literary form: the docunovel. Whatever you want to call it, the book is a grippingly readable "history" of science.
And it is not just a lively retelling of an old, familiar story. I was surprised by Gilder's version of the celebrated exchange between Bohr and Einstein at the 1930 Solvay Conference over Einstein's "photon box" experiment. Bohr always viewed this as Einstein's final attack on Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which Bohr famously managed to refute, after many anxious hours, by invoking general relativity against its own creator. This is the prevailing view of the encounter and had always been mine.
Gilder, however, bases her narrative on Don Howard's 1989 analysis of a 1931 letter to Bohr from Paul Ehrenfest. The letter explains that Einstein had no wish to attack the uncertainty principle. Instead, his point was to demonstrate that one or the other of two complementary properties of a distant photon emitted by the box could be learned, by making one or the other of two measurements on the now faraway box: the EPR idea, five years before the article. I looked up Howard's paper (which turned out to be based on a lecture that I had attended and promptly forgotten) and now find it quite convincing.
Gilder's dramatization of Bohr's misunderstanding is a lot of fun. She shows Einstein trying to get through to Bohr, who is rushing off to the misconstrual that shapes the story to this day: "'I grant you the consistency of the uncertainty principle,' Einstein said, laughing a little. 'I'm not done with the experiment, Bohr.'" Then, as Bohr persists in barking up the wrong tree: "'Wait, Bohr,' said Einstein. 'The problem is not yet complete.'" And, still later: "'Bohr! Let me finish.'" Fiction, to be sure, but wonderful to imagine, and with a grain of truth at its center.
I have two reservations. Although Gilder's title makes it clear that this is a history of entanglement, and not of the broader field of quantum physics, readers who don't know much about the subject are likely to get the impression (reinforced by her subtitle) that entanglement is the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow first dimly perceived by Planck (1900), Einstein (1905) and Bohr (1913)—a pot of gold that Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (1935), David Bohm (1951), John Bell (1964) and Alain Aspect (1981) finally revealed for all to see.
But entangled states (not so named) played a central role in the theory of the chemical bond in 1927, less than two years after the appearance of quantum mechanics. And although Gilder portrays Bohr as oblivious to the charms of entanglement, I read Bohr's prompt rejoinder to the EPR paper as saying in part (although not in that language) that a measured system is entangled with the measurement apparatus in just the EPR manner. So in Bohr's view, there is really nothing very new here.
Entanglement (but without the hoopla) has been a central part of quantum mechanics right from its beginning, and there is far more to quantum mechanics than entanglement. The story Gilder tells so charmingly is a Whig history of 20th-century physics, told from the perspective of the 21st-century quantum information community.
My second criticism is not a debatable matter of emphasis. When Gilder gets down to specific points of physics (and to her credit as an expositor it is not often necessary for her to do so), she sometimes gets them wrong. There can be harmless slips, as when she contrasts momentum—"just one number"—with position, which is specified by three numbers. (Momentum also has three components.)
But there can also be serious obstacles to understanding.* A two-page small-print appendix sets forth a version (based on an article by your reviewer, who is otherwise accurately portrayed as a minor character in the late-20th-century story of entanglement) of a wonderful form of Bell's theorem that Daniel Greenberger, Michael Horne and Anton Zeilinger discovered in the late 1980s. The argument considers six hypothetical properties associated with two complementary choices for what to measure on each of three different systems.
Unfortunately Gilder uses only three symbols to represent the values of these six properties, failing to distinguish, for each of the three systems, between the two values associated with the two complementary choices. This renders unintelligible her otherwise excellent explanation of why all six properties cannot have joint values, and it will frustrate the efforts of any reader ambitious enough to try to follow her exposition.
I hope there will be a second edition in which these and some other mistakes are repaired, because Gilder is a fine storyteller who brings to life one of the great scientific adventures of our time.
*Erratum: The next-to-last paragraph of this review states incorrectly that author Louisa Gilder fails to distinguish between two sets of symbols. She does in fact make a distinction, explicitly calling the reader's attention to her use of italics for one set of capital letters and roman type for the other. April 2, 2009
N. David Mermin is Horace White Professor of Physics Emeritus at Cornell University. He is the author of, among other books, Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and It's About Time: Understanding Einstein's Relativity (Princeton University Press, 2005).
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text: Well I added a few little details that added some to the beastly appearance of the 'burb haha: First, I painted the rims and put my bull bar with the two 6" KC's on. The paint was a hell of a lot glossier than I expected, but I like it: http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp266/vato_2009/beastburb3.jpg Here's what it looked like just like 2 day prior: http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp266/vato_2009/newtires3.jpg And then I put a new 3 3/8" tach in and I actually mounted it correctly. I put that in to replace the little like 2" tach that was velcro'd to the dash mat: http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp266/vato_2009/beastburb5.jpg I think it looks much beastlier with the rims and bull bar on lol :glasses: Just thought I'd throw these up here for y'all to see, got another slow boring night here :lol:


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Give him points for being honest. He could have pretended he did not know why your scissors had whiskers stuck to them!
How does he feel when you use his tools? My DH does not mind me using his tools as long as I put them back.
Welcome to the Quilting Board!
Give him points for being honest. He could have pretended he did not know why your scissors had whiskers stuck to them!
How does he feel when you use his tools? My DH does not mind me using his tools as long as I put them back.
I don't think using your scissors to trim his beard was a cardinal sin. I also would give him a pass.
But make sure he gets a new beard trimmer.
lol That's so funny!
I say let him know he is still on your good side.
I agree with Bearisgray........make sure he gets a new beard trimmer.
Everyone is born right handed, only the gifted overcome it.
I have already committed my felonies, so people don't have to worry. (Russell Means)
I swear to you, I am guilty of only being Indian. That's why I am here. (Leonard Peltier)
shouldn't hurt a good pair of scissors.
Freedom is costly and quilting keeps us busy...
LOL would like a picture of that! I agree he gets points for honesty. I make sure that DH & DS have lots of scissors to choose from so they aren't tempted by mine. The junk drawer alone currently has four pairs, although that number fluctuates.
Join the JUNE Pincushion & Needlecase swap:http://www.quiltingboard.com/member-...t-t247379.html
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries A. A. Milne
I'd give him a pass, but I'd also go out and buy scissors for every room in the house.
I might forgive him, but would buy a new pair of scissors just in case. I love it - my family never asks, just goes ahead and uses my things without permission, then never put them back. A half-shorn face might have been interesting. It could be a real fashion statement. LOL.
He gets a pass.
J J (jbj137)
I am a G.R.I.T.
G = girl R =raised I = in T = the S = South
LOL this is why DH has 2 beard trimmers, 2 ear trimmers (one in each bathroom) and house scissors all over the place-the garage, the guest room (yes I said in the guest room!LOL), the kitchen and even in the sheds out back. Got tired of him taking my good scissors and bought some cheapies and put them every where(and yes even replace my good scissors !LOL). Some places have 2 .. LOL
If its the first time, be gentle .. LOL
When Life brings big winds of change that almost blows you over.Hang on tight and Believe.
Words and hearts should be handled with care-for words when spoken and hearts when broken are the hardest things to repair. Author unknown to me
Do what you feel in your heart to be right; for you'll be criticized anyway-Eleanor Roosevelt


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A knife catcher is an idiot investor who buys something while its price is still dropping. Usually refers to someone who bought a house that is 'an incredibly good deal' just before it drops another 10 percent. Called a knife catcher as they are trying to catch a good deal, but will just probably lose their fingers as the knife goes whipping by.
Haw Haw Haw! They said I would never be able to sell my house in Florida in this bad economy, but some knife catcher showed up to take the turkey off my hands!
by AlaskaRon July 14, 2009


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<p>With Kate Upton, Hannah Simone and Genesis Rodriguez coming together in the Gillette commercial, it's time, once again, to point out how hot they are. </p>
Many apoplectic things have been written about the branding of razors: that the whole 10-blades-are-better-than-one movement is simply a ploy, a scheme to keep Schick executives in Lambos and shiny new suits. Those bastards! What exactly are the fifth, sixth and seventh blades doing? And for that matter, the third and fourth? Is there something about facial hair that differs from other hair? Is it so enduring that it requires the might of 13 blades to remove? And if the best shave supposedly comes from a straight razor, a single blade, why are you trying to sell me 17?
These are questions perhaps best left unanswered for now, for fear that Big Razor will catch wind of our naysaying and we'll be forced to disappear completely in the dead of night. We are, after all, not here to debate the science of shaving; we are here to point out gratuitous sex in advertising.
Which shaving companies have, for the most part, done well. Schick in particular stands out by managing to shoehorn sexy girls on treadmills into their advertising for absolutely no reason at all.
But its Gillette's recent assembling of an all-star cast (Kate Upton, Hannah Simone and Genesis Rodriguez) that has really forced our hand here today and made us talk about razors. We'll basically buy however many blades we're told and use them to carve all sorts of crazy patterns into our hides if Hannah Simone tells us to. If Genesis Rodriguez says she wants me as bare as the day I was born, so fucking be it. More blades, more babes…


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I hope Isaac Sinclair doesn't think I'm too forward, when, minutes after meeting him for the first time, I thrust my wrist under his nose.
An hour after dousing myself in my perfume of the moment, I challenge Sinclair - "the nose" from West Auckland - to recognise the scent.
Gently holding my right arm at the elbow and the fingertips, he bends in and sniffs deeply at my wrist; his discerning schnozz almost touching skin.
Each time he inhales, he cocks his head to the side and closes his eyes. After three long whiffs: "It's interesting. It has a sheep and leathery thing going on," he says.
"Is that me or the perfume then?" the farmer's daughter in me laughs nervously. Maybe the master perfumer is confused, having sniffed too much farm air in his latest quest to find the quintessential Kiwi scent.
"It's from the Beautiful Estee Lauder period," he says, going back to my arm for a few more slow and measured inhalations. "Ahh. It's J'Adore."
He nails it, first attempt.
The personality of Christian Dior's J'Adore, he explains, is a floral bouquet, but "it is sheep". On the dry-down - the critical end notes of a fragrance that kick in after a few hours and linger - there's a lot of oak moss; the rich, earthy fungus found in damp mountain forests is the base note in some of the most enduring perfumes of modern times - Miss Dior and Eau Savage, Guerlain's Mitsouko, and Chanel No.19.
Sinclair, the boy from the Waitakeres who grew up on the heady aromas of wild ginger and wet ponga, also knows his bergamot from his patchouli and myrrh. He can, with one inhaled breath, discern the subtle difference between the rose oils of Turkey, France and Bulgaria.
He denies his nose is any more special than mine. "Most people smell the same thing, it's how you process the information you're receiving. I just have a better memory for smells," he says. And yet he can still tell a wisp of a scent even with a cold clogging his nostrils.
One of only 500 perfumers in the world, Sinclair's precision in pinpointing people's perfume may have more to do with his time on a fragrance counter in Auckland's Queen St than years spent in laboratories memorising 2000 different smells.
"When I worked at Smith & Caughey's, I'd have a customer coming in every half an hour, so I would smell all the fragrances in between. I probably get it right most of the time because I was smelling them for so long," he says.
Now, 13 years on, Sinclair has to get it right all the time. He's just created a line of three fragrances for a Brazilian perfume house worth 12 million euros to his employer, Symrise, one of the world's top four fragrance manufacturers.
Sinclair's accent is like the perfumes he likes to create - a complex, seductive blend of Brazilian, Italian, Parisian and West Auckland. Tie-less, in white shirt, black jacket and jeans, he looks like a boyish version of The Mentalist's Patrick Jane.
Now living in Sao Paolo, the world's new perfume capital, Sinclair has been making regular trips home to realise a 13-year ambition - to fashion a fragrance in New Zealand that's all about New Zealand.
On his latest visit home, Sinclair headed north to Dargaville to buy sperm whale vomit - the rare ambergris used in fine perfumes to fix scent to human skin; then to Dunedin to visit his parents, who've bought an old bowling green for his gardening-mad mum to cultivate.
He also went bush as part of his job to create the exclusive new scent for local candlemaker, Ecoya. "They wanted to do a New Zealand fragrance, which hasn't really been done. It's my dream come true, it's crazy," says 32-year-old Sinclair, who has wanted to make a fragrance here since he was a teenager.
He's come up with three contenders, with the chosen one to be launched by Ecoya in a candle mid-year, along with a drier, woodier Australian scent he's also developing.
With the first aspirant, dubbed "Falling Water", Sinclair wanted to recreate the smell of New Zealand's freshwater. It's a complex job.
"Our water has a really unique smell. For years I wondered what it was, so I tracked it down," he says. "It's coming from the pongas, the tree ferns. They fall into the water, float around and the sediment gathers. It's this deep, dark, dry amber smell; but at same time it's water: transparent, fresh and green."
How on earth can you recreate transparency in a smell? "It's a sensation of transparency; you can smell through it somehow."
Perfumers use calone - an enigmatic synthetic compound (distantly related to Valium) that smells like watermelon rind or cucumber, and is used in classics like Davidoff Cool Water and Issey Miyake's L'Eau d'Issey.
His second attempt at a Kiwi scent is "Baie des Iles", based on cherished memories of visiting the Bay of Islands. Rather than replicating the water theme, this one is more about sand, sun and the warmth of the winterless North.
Of course his childhood aromas from the Waitakere Ranges are captured in his third candidate, based on our native bush - "a really aromatic, green, musky fragrance".
He grew up there, in his mother's home at Laingholm, on the rim of the Waitakeres and Manukau Harbour. His "smellscape" memory from childhood is of rimu, ponga and horopito (pepper tree), and flowers like gardenia and wild ginger weed ("it's honeysuckle on speed").
"I became a perfumer as a result of loving to smell things; it wasn't a conscious decision. But in New Zealand it's not really a possibility; you really have to be in Sao Paolo, Paris or New York. So at first I knew if I couldn't make them, the obvious thing was to sell them," he says.
It was behind the fine fragrance counter of Smith & Caughey's that he met visiting Englishman Michael Edwards, who wrote the perfume bible Fragrances Of The World. When Sinclair asked if he would need to study chemistry to be a perfumer, Edwards told him the best place to get the answer was at a conference in Grasse, the epicentre of French fragrance.
Sinclair begged his father for a ticket to Europe and a month later he was sitting among the master perfumers of the world. He was 17.
Gobsmacked that Sinclair took his suggestion literally, Edwards introduced him to Symrise's fine fragrance president, Roger Schmid, who was so impressed by the young Kiwi's determination he gave him a scholarship to attend the School of Five Senses in Milan and an apprenticeship with Symrise in Paris when his studies were completed. Sinclair still works for Schmid today, other than when he gets time off for his projects back at home.
Entrepreneur Geoff Ross found Sinclair - who is the only "nose" from Australasia - when Ecoya decided to develop more sophisticated fragrances.
"Most fragrance companies in this part of the world are happy to take their fragrances off the shelf. We wanted something more interesting, and layered, and you need a nose to create that from scratch," Ross, former chairman of Ecoya, says. "We had no idea that what we were doing was unusual - by sidestepping the suits and going straight to the nose.
"It was a stroke of coincidental genius that we paired up with Isaac. He's a massive asset to us."
Sinclair describes working for Ecoya as being handed a blank page with the freedom to conjure up an original smell. Working for a global supplier like Symrise means working to a brief outlined by a perfume brand, then competing with other manufacturers to win that contract. Only a few labels in the world - like Chanel and Hermes have their own exclusive noses.
"So Ecoya is really cutting-edge. For me, it's like going from working on a Hollywood blockbuster to an indie film. It's far more fulfilling, more creatively stimulating. They [perfume brands] don't want to take risks; Ecoya does," he says.
Both Sinclair and Ross are leaning towards Falling Water. "It's my favourite, but my tastes are a little bit acquired. For the average person, it could be a little over-the-top," Sinclair says.
This is a man who breathes in around 1000 fragrances a day but very rarely wears one himself. In the office, he can't afford to pollute his nose with his own scent but, on a special occasion, he'll wear one of his personal creations.
Last year, he created a new perfume for French fashion designer Vanessa Bruno and, in Brazil, he made men's fragrance "Humour" for Natura, Brazil's leading direct sales cosmetics company (a competitor to Avon). The fragrance described as "jovial and comfortable" has fruity top notes, a floral heart and a dry-down blending musk, sandalwood and vanilla.
"In New Zealand, that would be like creating a Calvin Klein fragrance. It's massive," says Sinclair. Brazil, after all, is now the world's biggest market for perfume - overtaking the United States and fractionally smaller than all of Europe combined.
Sinclair loves making "oriental, floriental" fragrances for a Latino audience, who wear perfume to seduce.
The English and Germans spray it on to smell clean ("let's face it, they say the French invented perfume because they didn't shower," he says) and the Americans are into sporty, citrusy smells. Kiwis are a combination of the two: we apparently like to smell fresh and clean.
"It's definitely more fun working on projects in Sao Paolo and Paris. In New York, I would get so bored. A lot of their new sports fragrances are like, 'c'mon I don't want to smell like my detergent powder'. It's more fun to make the funky, sensual, crazy fragrances than just nice smells, at least from an artistic perspective."
New Zealanders are generous in their application. "People here do use quite a lot of fragrance, but not as much as the Latinos would. But that said, we use much more than in places like China and Japan, where they don't have the culture of using fragrance."
Are we wearing it in the right places? Pulse-points like the wrists and neck are best, he says, where the blood is closest to the skin and it's warm.
But Sinclair wouldn't bother spraying on a sporty scent: "In an hour you can't smell it anymore." He'd be more inclined to wear a fragrance with "devolution" - that changes on the skin.
Can't smell your perfume after 10 minutes? That's probably because it's a monolithic fragrance. "If you brain is constantly exposed to the same smell for more than 10 minutes, it neutralises. Your brain will recognise a fragrance that changes on your skin."
It's a tall story that you shouldn't rub your wrists together; you can't bruise the perfume molecules, Sinclair assures. "And smelling coffee beans to refresh your nose when you're trying on perfume is hogwash too. It's retail psychology to keep you in the store longer," he says.
"And I don't kill virgins," he reassures me, referring to Patrick Suskind's novel, Perfume, in which a perfume apprentice stalks and murders young women in search of the perfect scent.
"It's pure fantasy. We're not weird recluses at all."
In fact, Sinclair revels in the buzzing social life of Sao Paolo. A classically trained musician in flute and piano, he plays drums in a local band, ironically called Dirty Air. "We play Led Zeppelin covers; we've done a few weddings."
The divorcee, whose marriage to a Frenchwoman broke up after three years, also loves to cook for friends. Most perfumers, he says, are fanatics in the kitchen too.
It pays to have a great nose for both, but succeeding as a perfumer in a cut-throat high-fashion industry relies on more than that.
"You have to have a great nose and a great memory, but also be very good at navigating the corporate politics. You must be great with people, your clients. It's not as simple as just creating a fragrance."
Every year, about 400 new fragrances are launched around the world. Within three years only 40 will still be on the shelves and maybe 10 of them after five years. "Time is like a filter. Most disappear after two years, because they were average," Sinclair says. "With fragrances, it's survival of the fittest."
And in the world of perfumers, Sinclair looks like he's a stayer.


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Since I starting writing for GeekMom I've received some really cool things in the mail, but none of have been as cool as my hardcover copy of Avengers vs. X-Men. This edition includes the entire 12 issue mini-series along with the AVX: VS mini-series, the Infinite Comics (first time in print) and Point One and puts them in once place to enjoy for hours of reading. Also included in this edition is a digital copy and, for me, that makes the retail price (around $75) worth it.
I'm still a newbie to the comic book world and Avengers vs. X-Men is my first jump into Marvel comic book storytelling.
The X-Men have been some of my favorite characters since I was a child. I loved watching X-Men (The Animated) series and seeing the relationship between Cyclops and Wolverine. The only character on the Avengers that I was familiar with was Captain America and I mostly liked him because of what he stood for. As for the rest of the Avengers team, I had no clue who they were or what they were about, but I had this feeling from the beginning that I wanted them to win. I was afraid that Wolverine would side with the X-Men and I was happy to see that my favorite Marvel character would be on the team I wanted to root for.
Continue Reading "Make Mine Marvel! How Avengers vs. X-Men Made Me a Fan" »


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Ramset 1516E Box of 100 2-1/2" ACQ Treated Nails
The 1516E includes:
- Box of 100 Ramset 2-1/2" ACQ Treated Nails
- .300 head diameter and . 145 shank diameter
- 100 pins per box
- Fits Ramset, Hilti, Remington and most powder actuated tools that use 22 cal. single shots, 27 cal.10 shot strips and 25 cal. discs
- Designed for use in treated lumber applications
- 2-1/2" shank length
Ramguard Drive Pins For ACQ Pressure Treated Lumber
As many of you know, there have been changes to the regulations affecting pressure treated lumber. The industry standard CCA treated wood is no longer being produced for residential use. Most new pressure treated wood is utilizing Alkaline Copper Quaternary (ACQ) treatment. It has been confirmed that ACQ corrodes steel 2 to 4 times faster than the old CCA treated lumber.
This means that Ramset's standard drive pins are not recommended for use in ACQ treated lumber.
Ramset has developed a coating called Ramguard for use in all pressure treated wood including the new ACQ treated wood. The Ramguard coating offers excellent corrosion resistance that rivals hot dipped galvanized and stainless steel. Washered versions of these pins utilize a Ramguard coated pin and a washer with a G185 coating. This combination was developed to withstand the increased corrosion rate that sometimes occurs when using fasteners in the new treated lumber.
Caution: Always wear eye and ear protection at all times. If you aren't sure which power level to use then start with a lower level and work your way up. And remember that 1" of penetration into concrete is the rule of thumb. And yes, with the proper power level and correct length you can fasten to structural steel. But beware the noise and the recoil.
Fits These Tools:
- Allied: 9004, 90000
- Erico: A375, 301
- Hilti: DX35, DX350, DX36M, DX451
- Jamerco: JT75A, JT100, JT200, JT527
- Masterset: STM1, STM2, STM3
- Phillips: 721, 728
- Pneutek: SA250
- Ramset: D45, 721, 727, 4170, S38, SA270, Viper
- Red Head: 721
- Remington: 476, 481, 482, 456, 489, 491
- Simpson: PTP-27, PTP27A, PTP27AS, PTM22HD, PTM-27, PTM-22, PT-27, PT25S, PT-22, PT22S, PT22R
- Speed: 475
- Steelcon: 327
- Stinger: B27
- Uniset: XL99, U1500, U2000, T2000, U175, U300, M4000
Overall Rating for Ramset 1516E Box of 100 2-1/2" ACQ Treated Nails
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Juventus €25m for Rafinha
Reports are growing that Juventus are prepared to pay €25m for Barcelona midfielder Rafinha, who wants more playing time.
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text: Nothing has changed in my eyes. Anyone else, we are the same team now ,them before the draft, .. Not one rookie has played a pro down, and the chance they contribute in next season, is slim to none, It takes time for guys to learn and change to pro speed and strength from college.I think we have potential in future years, butt as of now i dont think so., remeber we have room for only so many also. Though i em no pro coach scout or analyst its just my humble view of it all. It just seems weird how many people aregetting so hyped up, over some college players that we have no idea how they will transition into the pros. anyone else feel this way.


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Nokia is one strange organisation. Having garnered much praise for the look and feel of the MeeGo-powered N9 – it has decided not to launch it in most major European markets.
So if you live in the UK, France, Spain, Italy or Germany you're unlikely to get your hands on the rather splendid-looking N9. Nokia has announced a list of 23 countries which the N9 will be launched in, and has decided to omit a market of somewhere in the region of 315 million people. The US has also been omitted but considering Nokia's historical lack of market penetration in the States, this is hardly a surprise.
The N9 has a lot of promise, but considering it is set to be Nokia's only MeeGo handset, it's hardly surprising the Finnish outfit is putting little effort into launching it on a large scale. Reports following its launch last week suggested that Nokia would not be making many of these handsets and that you would have to purchase one direct from Nokia if you wanted to buy one at all.
The reason behind Nokia's decision may be explained by the fact that all the major countries not getting the N9 will be precisely the same countries getting the first Nokia Windows Phone when it launches later this year. Whether Nokia felt that releasing both phones, which will look very similar, would confuse customers is unclear, but it's a pity the N9 isn't getting a much wider global launch.
The list of 23 launch countries for the N9 in full, if you're interested, is: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Malaysia, New Zealand, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, and Vietnam.
Source: Nokia via Unwired View


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While reading an interesting Blog I discovered a new treasure: TRESOR, in short TRESOR is a secure implementation of AES which is resistant against cold boot attacks and other attacks on main memory.
If like me you wonder what a cold boot attack is, Princeton University can help us :
Contrary to popular assumption, DRAMs used in most modern computers retain their contents for seconds to minutes after power is lost, even at operating temperatures and even if removed from a motherboard. Although DRAMs become less reliable when they are not refreshed, they are not immediately erased, and their contents persist sufficiently for malicious (or forensic) acquisition of usable full-system memory images. This phenomenon limits the ability of an operating system to protect cryptographic key material from an attacker with physical access. We use cold reboots to mount attacks on popular disk encryption systems — BitLocker, FileVault, dm-crypt, and TrueCrypt — using no special devices or materials. We experimentally characterize the extent and predictability of memory remanence and report that remanence times can be increased dramatically with simple techniques.


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Fox Creek Helicopter Crash Kills 1, Injures 2
FOX CREEK, Alta. — A woman has been killed in a helicopter crash in northern Alberta.
RCMP say the chopper went down Monday afternoon about 20 kilometres southwest of Fox Creek.
Police say another woman and a man were sent to hospital with undetermined injuries.
The helicopter was conducting aerial surveys for Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.
The Transportation Safety Board says it is sending a team of investigators to the crash site. (CHED, CTV Edmonton)
Also on HuffPost:
Police man a roadblock as smoke billows in the background from a wildfire near Fort McMurray, Alta. Displaced residents had a chance to see their burned city for the first time in a convoy that moved evacuees south to reunite with family and friends.
New images of what the neighbourhoods look like now after the wildfire swept through are simply haunting.
Officials said shifting winds were giving the embattled northern Alberta city a break, but they added the fire that forced 80,000 people from their homes remained out of control and was likely to burn for weeks.
The remains of a vehicle sit in a Fort McMurray neighbourhood destroyed by wildfire.
Evacuees from the Fort McMurray wildfires register at the evacuation centre in Lac La Biche, Alta. on May 5, 2016. Premier Rachel Notley said returning home "will not be a matter of days."
Volunteers load water for Fort McMurray evacuees. Labatt Breweries is donating 200,000 cans of water to help firefighters and victims in the area.
More than 1,200 firefighters, 110 helicopters, 295 pieces of heavy equipment and 27 air tankers are battling wildfires, the province announced on Friday.
A truck drives away from the Fort McMurray area. The ever-changing, volatile situation frayes the nerves of residents and officials alike as a massive wildfire continues to bear down on northern Alberta.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced the government will provide cash to help wildfire evacuees with immediate needs.
Evacuees from the Fort McMurray wildfires rest at the evacuation centre in Lac La Biche, Alta. on May 5, 2016.
In some neighbnourhoods, charred foundations of homes and vehicles are all that remain.
The charred remains of a bus sit on the side of a road in Fort McMurray on May 5, 2016. More than 80,000 people have left Fort McMurray, in the heart of Canada's oil sands as a wildfire that has devastated the area exploded in size.
Evacuees leave oilsands camps in a massive convoy of 1,500 vehicles in the early morning of May 6, 2016 after being stranded north due to the wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta.
A Mountie surveys the damage on a Fort McMurray street. Over 1,600 structures in the area have been destroyed by the wildfire.
In just one day, generous Albertans donated over 600 plastic kennels to help transport pets out of the Fort McMurray wildfire evacuation zone. "Thank you to everyone who helped us meet this goal in such a short amount of time," wrote the Calgary Humane Society in a release. "We are truly grateful." Sadly, many Fort McMurray owners were forced to leave their beloved pets behind.
25,000 feet above Fort McMurray on May 3, 2016.
A swing set stands, with the swings burned away in Fort McMurray.
Firefighters take their first break after fighting the Fort McMurray blaze for over 30 hours.
Fort McMurray is obscured under a massive cloud of smoke and ash on May 3, 2016. About 88,000 people are estimated to have been forced out of the Fort McMurray area due to the wildfire.
A family of evacuees from the Fort McMurray wildfires arrive at an evacuation centre in Edmonton.
A police officer wears a mask while controlling a roadblock near a wildfire in Fort McMurray on May 5, 2016.
A wildfire moves towards the town of Anzac from Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016. Alberta declared a state of emergency as crews frantically held back wind-whipped wildfires.
Alberta Wildrose Leader Brian Jean talks with police near the wildfire in Fort McMurray. Jean learned Tuesday he had lost his home in the blaze.
Video captured on a vehicle's dash cameras show the terrifying escape route evacuees faced as an out-of-control wildfire swept through Fort McMurray, Alta.
Michel Chamberland, who recorded the horrifying dash cam footage of his escape from Fort McMurray, is pictured in Edmonton.
An Alberta sheriff sits in a roadblock on Highway 63 as a massive plume of smoke rises over Fort McMurray.
Evacuees watch the wildfire near Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016. The fire has affected many people from the Maritimes who work in northern Alberta.
A bus waits to transfer Fort McMurray evacuees from Anzac to Edmonton.
Cots litter the gym floor at an evacuee reception centre set up and operated by the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo in Anzac, Alta., on May 4, 2016. A wildfire has put the entire region of around 88,000 people under a mandatory evacuation order.
Dan Crane and Elisha Car take refuge in a work truck after being evacuated from Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016. The Alberta government is matching donations to the Red Cross for those affected by the wildfire.
A picture provided by Twitter user @TechDeckSafety shows the wildfire seen from an airplane leaving Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016. Click here for more photos.
A helicopter battles a wildfire in Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016. The wildfire has already torched 1,600 structures in the evacuated oil hub of Fort McMurray and is poised to renew its attack in another day of scorching heat and strong winds.
Social workers at the Edmonton Food Bank fill a vehicle with supplies for Fort McMurray evacuees.
A picture provided by Twitter user @jeromegarot shows burnt trees after a wildfire raged through Fort McMurray on Highway 63 to Edmonton.
An evacuee puts gas in his car on his way out of Fort McMurray, Alberta, as a wildfire burns in the background on May 4, 2016.
A family of evacuees camp out on their van at a beach south of Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016.
Dale Kossey with his three dogs Elmo, Gizmo, and Lacey rests in the pet owners' area of the reception centre at an evacuee reception centre set up and operated by the regional municipality of Wood Buffalo in nearby Anzac, Alta. on May 4, 2016.
Traffic is at a standstill on Highway 63 as people continue to leave Fort McMurray on May 4, 2015.
A picture provided by Twitter user @jeromegarot show the wildfire raging through Fort McMurray on May 3, 2016.
Flames move towards the Sawridge Inn Hotel in Fort McMurray.
A family takes refuge in the back of their boat after evacuation at a rest stop near Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016.
The Fort McMurray hospital managed to safely move all 105 patients, along with patients' families and staff, to Edmonton.
Evacuees from Fort McMurray wait to hear when they will be let back in, at a rest stop near Fort McMurray on May 4, 2016.
Shell Canada shut down production at a nearby oilsands mining operation to allow employees to leave the region safely. The move also makes room for evacuees to stay at the work camp.
Flames burn alongside the highway near the Syncrude oil site on May 3.
A mandatory evacuation order was issued for the city of Fort McMurray, with a population of 70,000, on May 3, 2016, as a wildfire entered city limits.
Heavy smoke rises above Alberta's Highway 63, near Fort McMurray on May 3, 2016.
Amid the chaos of the Fort McMurray fire evacuation, a baby was born at the Noralta Lodge evacuation centre.
Traffic lines the highway as residents leave Fort McMurray on May 3, 2016.
A NASA satellite captured how unbelievably quickly a devastating wildfire spread through Fort McMurray.
Fort McMurray resident Chris Burrows told CBC News he has his neighbour and girlfriend to thank for saving his life. Burrows was asleep when he heard his neighbour at the door. "He said, 'Look out your back window.' [I] looked out the back of the patio, and within 200 metres I saw flames that were 100 metres high," Burrows told CBC.
Videos captured the apocalyptic scene as 80,000 residents fled from Fort McMurray after a massive wildfire entered the city.
A wall of fire rages outside of Fort McMurray, which prompted the evacuation of the entire city.
Evacuees from the wildfires in and around Fort McMurray hug at the evacuation centre at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton on May 4, 2016.
Wildrose Party leader and MLA for Fort McMurray-Conklin Brian Jean confirmed that his house was one of many burned as an out-of-control wildfire entered Fort McMurray.
Days after reopening from a blaze that destroyed the interior of its main location, an Alberta gelato shop pitched in to help those affected by the Fort McMurray wildfire.
The sky above Fort McMurray on May 3.
The view from the Fort McMurray airport on May 2, 2016.
Students from Fort McMurray Composite High School are released early as wildfire burns nearby on May 3, 2016.
An aerial photo of the fire.
On May 1, 2016, a large wildfire was spotted burning just outside of Fort McMurray. Within two days, the wildfire had more than doubled in size to over 2,600 hectares.
A Fort McMurray resident captured this video of the fire from their rooftop.
Air tankers responded to the fire to support the ground crew's effort.
The wildfire is seen from MacDonald Island Park near Fort McMurray, May 3, 2016.
Abandoned vehicles line Highway 63 south of Fort McMurray, Alberta. Evacuees fled with few possessions and often ran out of gas before they could make it to the next town hundreds of kilometres away. The fire has been blazing for seven days and covers more than 150,000 hectares - twice the size of Calgary.
Helicopters carry water bombs from a nearby lake to drop on the wildfire near Fort McMurray. The blaze has grown so big in scale that one firefighter likened the effort to spitting on a campfire.
Crews continue to control the blaze using water bombs near Highway 63, just south of Fort McMurray.


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Starting my studio
Well, I'm taking the dive and going full on into starting my own game dev studio as an indie developer. I'm paying entirely out of pocket and have zero business income. It's got me a bit nervous.
I hired my first 3D artist/animator last week. He was asking for $36k/year, I counter offered a much higher offer @ $50k/year. My reasoning is the following:
1. I can afford to pay someone well.
2. Paying someone well is much better than paying them the bare minimum. You get what you pay for.
3. It makes it harder for them to justify looking for a higher paying job elsewhere. I don't want to be an "in between gig" employer.
4, This gives them the means and power to live a more professional life rather than just scraping by.
5. I also think its more ethical to pay people what they're worth rather than making a race to the bottom. It's the fair, kind way to treat people.
6. I'm not just paying them to work with me, I'm also treating them as an investment. I believe that high quality talent is grown and nurtured over time. It would do me no good to train up high quality talent and then see it leave me for greener pastures. I need to be the green pastures talent flocks to.
I suppose some people could accuse me of being a poor businessman for paying more than I need to. Fair enough. I like to think that I'm getting into business to do two things:
1. Make a high quality commodity which everyone wants (a great, fun video game)
2. Create stable, well paying, sustainable, satisfying, desirable careers at a place people want to work at.
The best time to start doing this is from the very beginning. It's much harder to change course later.
I also made another major decision last week. Instead of focusing all of my attention and effort on building my own game and game engine in C#/XNA, I should use an existing game engine. This sounds like a no-brainer, and I knew I should do this from the beginning when I first started my project, but I was stubborn and a victim of the "Not invented here" syndrome. I spent ten months working on my own engine. It was coming along nicely, but I had this nagging thought in the back of my mind: I'm wasting my time. I could spend years building my own engine, as a team of one or two people, but... what's my end game plan with this? Am I going to sell it? How could I begin to compete with the popular engines out there (Unreal, Crysis, Unity, etc) who each have teams of 50+ engineers who are much smarter than I am? I can't. So, my rationalization was that I'd own my own engine entirely, be 100% familiar with it, and use it to build a game which I'd sell. The money would come from the sales of my game. So, looking at my timeline and pace, ten months of half-assed work and barely a semblance of a game to show for it because I've been focusing on engine design tech and features and getting deep into the weeds on that. Waste. Of. Time. At this point, the only reason I'd continue this pursuit is for my personal ego. I'm convinced I could do it, I'm smart enough that I could make it happen, etc. I've also gotten this far, do I really want to throw out ten months worth of effort? My logical, rational side said I was putting myself into an escalation of commitment situation. The sooner I realize that I'm not going to have reasonably good chances at making a successful game with my own engine, the less expensive it'll be (in terms of time and money). Not to mention, my engine would have to incorporate a production pipeline for team members and support a game editor. Fuck that. I don't want to build more tools. I want to design and build games. That's what I'm here for. So, the obvious decision to make is to choose an existing engine and use it as the platform to build my game on. I see that now and actually believe it.
What engine to choose? Initially, I had been playing around with the Unity3D engine. It's a sexy engine, with an amazing editor. I don't know why I didn't choose it ten months ago. The Crysis 3 engine was released on steam a few weeks ago. It also looked very sexy and offered some amazing capabilities which I could use. It looked attractive until I started reading reviews and digging into the online documentation and tutorials. Their game engine is tailored specifically for building FPS games and the documentation is sketchy at best. If I'm learning something new, I can't be wasting weeks playing the "learn by trial and error" game, nor expect anyone else to. The better alternative is to use the Unreal Engine 4. After looking at their feature set, it's just as good or better than CryEngine, and they have zounds of documentation and online video tutorials. Not to mention, lots of great multi-platform support. So, how does that compare to Unity3d? Aside from the pricing & licensing models, they both have different technical strengths. Unity3D supports C# scripts, which is very sexy and I like that a lot. I didn't like their IDE nearly as much as I like Visual Studio though, so they lost some usability points there. The Unreal Engine 4 has support for "Visual Scripting", or whatever they call it, where you don't even have to be a programmer to create scripted behaviors (great for designers). It also supports compiling C++ code as well for any heavy scripting needs. I'm sure I could have been equally happy with the Unity3D engine as the Unreal Engine 4, but I just picked the UE4 because it seemed more usable and well documented, and supported everything and more that the Unity3D engine supported (including asset market places). Anyways, ten months of work has been put aside in favor of using a game engine. I figure that in a month, I can make up all the progress I've made, learn a new engine, and be years ahead of myself if I had stayed the course with my home brew engine.
There was a third, major decision I made this week: I chose to rent out an office space in downtown Seattle.
For the past ten months, I've been working from an upstairs room in my rented home. It's worked out alright, but not great. While I can work from home, I'm finding it's not my optimal place to work from. There are a bunch of problems which come with that, such as not getting distracted, trying to get into the mood to work, trying to make a distinction between home life and work life, etc. I could continue to do it if I was alone and it would still be sub-optimal. But, since I hired an artist, things have to change. I initially considered having him commute to my home to work with me. My girlfriend isn't happy with that idea and its not a very viable situation. So, I can either continue working from my home office and have my artist work remotely with maybe a weekly meetup, or I can find an external space for us to work out of. Now, working remotely sucks. It's hard to build a team with an organizational culture, keep cohesiveness, communicate, and keep everyone on task (especially me) when everyone is working apart from each other. That means remote work isn't very viable for me and my business goals -- in other words, the benefits of working together in person outweigh the costs of an office space. So, I had to look for an office space as soon as possible. I only have a team of two people and I don't want to spend thousands of dollars per month to rent out a large office flat. It's overkill and way beyond my needs. I found a cool co-operative shared office space with a bunch of other creative types who do video editing, web development, and video production. It would work great for creative cross-discipline pollination. We fit in pretty well with the general vibe of the existing office culture. Not only that, but the office managers have a fully stocked bar with free alcohol, comfy couches, meeting rooms, white boards, candy, coffee, everything you could ask for. It's a very hip office space on the fifth floor. I agreed to rent out two desks for $750 per month. That's almost as much as my share of the rent O_O
This weekend, I'll be building a custom computer for my artist. It's a top of the line specs machine I put together online. On Monday morning, I'll be moving all this equipment into my new office space and beginning work from there. It's a lot of big changes. It's exciting and I'm nervous. I've calculated my new monthly expenses and they come out to about $6,000 per month for me, my employee, offices, etc. This game I'm building had better be great and sell well. I'm betting my life savings on it. There is so much that could go wrong and be totally outside of my control.
I guess the biggest threat to my success is myself though. I've got this bad habit of laziness which I need to kick, and a slight tendency towards making stupid mistakes when I really should know better. I need to work on those personal traits of weakness. A business/organization is a manifestation of the character of the person leading it, and I need to be the best version of myself I can be, for the sake of myself, my employee, and the people who are going to be depending on me. If I can't compel myself to excellence, I can't ever hope to lead others to it either. I've put my money where my mouth is, I've put the logistical works in place to make it happen -- now it's time for the hard part -- to buckle down and get a game built and on the market faster than my money evaporates. Everything is in my control now, so I can only blame myself if failure happens. Let's cross our fingers and hope that doesn't happen and try our best to succeed.