text: On Mon, Feb 13, 2006 at 06:38:06PM -0700, Marcus R. Epperson alleged: > Today we saw a rank 0 pbs_mom segfault on a large job. Here is the > backtrace: > > #0 0x000000301132e37d in raise () from /lib64/tls/libc.so.6 > #1 0x000000301132faae in abort () from /lib64/tls/libc.so.6 > #2 0x00000000004069af in catch_abort (sig=11) at mom_main.c:2791 > #3 <signal handler called> > #4 0x00000030113688c5 in free () from /lib64/tls/libc.so.6 > #5 0x000000000040d0f1 in arrayfree (array=0x96acf0) at mom_comm.c:984 > #6 0x00000000004129d7 in tm_request (fd=11, version=1) at mom_comm.c:4463 The mom_comm code looks correct to me (though I'm disturbed by the use of assert() to catch failed allocs). It makes me wonder if disrst() scribbled over envp. We do have a history of buggy encoding/decoding of "arst" strings, but I thought I pretty much had that fixed in 2.0.0p5. Would you still have that job's .JB file on server and MOM? I'm wondering if the env var list was broken in some way. envp = (char **)calloc(numele, sizeof(char **)); assert(envp); for (i = 0;;i++) { char *env; env = disrst(fd,&ret); if ((ret != DIS_SUCCESS) && (ret != DIS_EOD)) { arrayfree(argv); arrayfree(envp); <-- line 4463 goto done; } ... envp[i] = env; } ... for (i = 0;array[i];i++) free(array[i]); <-- line 984 free(array); -- Garrick Staples, Linux/HPCC Administrator University of Southern California -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.supercluster.org/pipermail/torquedev/attachments/20060224/c6cb31c2/attachment.bin


text:
England go into the Brisbane clash on the back of three disappointing performances in the competition, in which they have reached the last-four despite an unconvincing 36-22 win against Papua New Guinea, followed by defeats to hosts Australia and the Kiwis in their pool games.
The media in the UK and Australia have since rounded on England and fiercely criticised them, but Smith is urging the players to ignore outside influences and do their talking on the pitch this weekend.
"If you start believing what other people say about you, then you are in trouble," he told BBC Sport.
"We've got a lot of faith in ourselves. We always have. It's only the people outside the group that have any doubt."
He added: "We need to make some adjustments and play better as a squad, which is taking more time than we would have liked.
"But we are in the semi-finals of the World Cup and you've got to produce your best by the end of it. That's what we're hoping to do.
"There are some areas that we need to tidy up. If we do that, it will be very difficult for us to be beaten.
"We stick tight and that's the only way, in a team sport, that you can go ahead.
"What anybody wants to say, that's fine. We're not too bothered about it. Those who lose faith, I'm glad they are not in my team, because the team hasn't lost faith."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
"How do you clean food off of rubberwood? Can water touch the surface without leaving stains?"
The table didn't last long and I was kind of disappointed...
Yarra Dining Table
ITEM#: 80071094Add an elegant and classy look to your dining room with this Yarra table. Made from solid rubberwood, this table will look great after years of use.
- Furniture is made of solid rubberwood
- Dining table has a dark Halifax brown finish
- Table can accommodate up to six people
- Chairs not included
Assembly required. This product ships in 2 boxes.
|Assembly Required
|Furniture Frame Material
|59 in L x35.5 in W x 30 H
|Model Number
|Country of Origin
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Customer Reviews
Most Recent
The table didn't last long and I was kind of disappointedRead More
I didn't buy this item. I just looked at it multiple times because I want those chairs. The table sells separately but not the chairs. Too bad😭Read More
Allison C
great color and size. Very sturdy table. It works well for everyday dining, and polishes well.Read More
Exactly what I was lookinf for.
I wanted to buy a new diningroom table but they were all too expensive. I went online to Overstock and lo and behold I found then exact style, in the exact color for the right price. I'm a happy camper!Read More
Beautiful Table... Minus the Crack
Pluses: sturdy build, beautiful finish, easy to put together Potential minus: the "cheapness" shows in the woodwork underneath, but who among your guests would actually check? ;) My table top arrived with a crack on the surface. I'm trying to get a replacement for it, but currently the item is out of stock. It's a small-enough crack that I could live with I suppose, but it peeves me to get a brand new item that arrives with a defect. (Some quality control needs to be done on the manufacturing end!) Also, from reading the reviews, my fear is that this crack will only get larger/longer over time. I'm hoping to get a notification saying that the item has been restocked soon, and that the replacement itself doesn't have its own issues. If not, Pinterest suggests rubbing a walnut over the crack to hide it. I'll have to try that out. Overall, I'd recommend the product for its looks and ease of assembly. From reading the reviews, it sounds like it's hit or miss with getting a product free of cracks or splits. For the price though, I think it's worth the gamble. Just make a point to save the packaging in case the damage is bad enough to warrant a return... if the product ever gets restocked, I mean.Read More
Most Helpful
Had high hopes for this table with simple design but the rail which attaches to the legs on both sides are splitting. It was cracked from the beginning but didn't want to go through returning and paying for the return and I figured I could stain the cracks to match where open wood was showing but the crack has grown. I hope it doesn't split. Really disappointing. Glad it's sustainable rubber tree wood and nice color but poor craftsmanship and people are not checking what they ship out. Buy something higher end if ordering online or buy local, at least you can see it before you buy or have somewhere local to return it to.Read More
Don't Buy
I purchased this table about 11 months ago, and I loved it. That was until a few months ago when the table started splitting/cracking. When I called Overstock, I was told that I could try to return it, but at best because of the time frame, I could only hope for a partial refund. I am now the proud owner of a large table with two large cracks over a foot long on either side. I'm not satisfied at all. So while I was initially excited, it was not worth the investment for less than a year of use!Read More
Great Value
I ordered this table with the understanding that it is really just for my fiancee and I. It's fitting for the occasional guest, too, but can be kind of a tight squeeze. In any case, it is the perfect size and look for us and our taste. I would say get the measuring tape out and get an idea for it's real size. We did and knew it would be perfect, but the picture seems a little misleading shown with 6 chairs. It's a great find.Read More
Beautiful Piece
I bought this table thinking it came with the chairs (like in the photo) when it arrived I was furious because there were no chairs. When I checked my order again, i realized i made a mistake and really I had to laugh at myself. Anyway, this table is georgeous (minus the little dent that it came with, probably during shipping). Its super easy to assemble, took my boyfriend about 5 mins max. BTW, I had to buy the matching chairs :) (can't wait for them to arrive)Read More
Love it!
Love this table. Its not oversized so its perfect for my space. Took 10 mins to assemble. Unfortunately table top had some damage however customer service sending a replacement.Love the matching chairs too. They were very easy to assemble.Read More
Questions & Answers
You clean food off of rubberwood much the same you would clean food off of hardwood. You can wipe it up with a wet rag and then quickly wipe up the water with a dry towel. The water will not leave a stain as long as it is wiped up quickly.
"What is Rubberwood?"
Rubberwood has the qualities of traditional hardwood and is comparable to teakwood.
"Are chairs included?"
The chairs are not included.
Shopping Tips & Inspiration
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Traditional dining room tables can take up a lot of room, which doesn't work for everyone. Rather than settling for a smaller table, opt for a table that can be extended, allowing more seating when you need it. Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about butterfly leaf tables.
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text:
Fund managers warn that blue chip and defensive stocks which hit record or multi-year highs this week may have seen their strongest gains.
But a brighter global economic outlook has already triggered a rotation into cyclical sectors such as consumer discretionary, while the high valuation of many blue chips has investment firms' strategists advocating caution.
Wilson Asset Management chief investment officer Chris Stott suggested CSL and Ramsay could falter if the rally continued.
"They are defensive businesses that don't outperform in a bull market," he said.
"[While] we see an improved economic outlook, banks are also likely to underperform mining stocks in the next six months."
By contrast, he suggests Telstra and Wesfarmers are not overbought, citing Telstra's strong cost management and steady dividend stream, along with Wesfarmers' turnaround of the Coles supermarkets business.
Telstra's shares at about $4.64 are close to their highest level since mid-2008 while Wesfarmers' stock at about $39.44 was last at similar levels in early 2007.
For major banks, Alphinity principal Andrew Martin noted outperformance by Commonwealth Bank and
The two banks are lenders with relatively little offshore exposure at a time of swirling concerns about the outlook for Europe and America.
As central bank stimulus from the US Federal Reserve and signs of stability in Europe emboldened investors on the outlook,
"People have become more comfortable that dividends the banks are projecting will be quite safe," he said. "That's one reason they could have another push this year as money re-enters market looking for yield."
Others caution that while blue chip and defensive stocks could run higher, any company-specific disappointments will see those which trade on high valuation multiples punished by investors.
He prefers Primary Healthcare over CSL and Ramsay for valuation and backs select utility companies over Telstra and Woolworths over Wesfarmers (the latter two trade on forward earnings of 17.3 times and 19.8 times respectively).
"Telstra and Wesfarmers are expensive relative to their history and offshore competitors," Mr Baker said, noting Telstra traded on forward earnings of about 15 times versus 12 times for offshore competitors.
Monash Investors principal Simon Shields is optimistic on the domestic economic outlook and said bank stocks were likely to grind higher but not outrun the market.
He agreed with Mr Stott that defensive stocks like Ramsay and CSL might see returns moderate if investor sentiment remained buoyant.
The Australian Financial Review


text:
With Yohan Cabaye ruled out now until February, the man who is taking his place in the Newcastle side, and by the stats is the third most creative player at the club right now behind Cabaye and Ben Arfa – is Vurnon Anita, and he now become a really important player in central midfield for Newcastle United.
Vurnon Anita – after scoring wonder goal at Club Brugge
Vurnon had said when he arrived in the summer from Ajax, that he wanted to play as many games as possible for Newcastle this season, and it looks like he'll get his wish.
And it's good to see that the Dutch International is starting to find his feet in English football, and teh 23 year-old has looked so much better in the last few games, that he did at the start of the season.
We'll have to rely on Anita, and Ben Arfa when he returns in a couple of weeks time, to create the chances for strikers like Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba and Shola Ameobi to score the goals that we'll need.
Vurnon is a gifted technical player, and you could see what wonderful technique he has when he rifled in that goal at Club Brugge, and we need some more of that type of shooting from the 5 times capped Dutch international.
How Newcastle fare in the next two or three months will depend a lot on how well Vurnon can adapt as the creative central midfield player for Newcastle in the months ahead.
We have to hope he exceeds expectations and becomes a Newcastle star in the absence of Yohan Cabaye, and if that happens we should be higher up in the league table when Yohan does finally return to the side in February.
Here's hoping. 😀
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text: To get from Trentola-Ducenta to Licata by train you can catch one of the 6 trains that everyday travel between these two cities. The first train to Licata leaves from Trentola-Ducenta at 08:12 and the last train departs at 22:23. If you choose a local train the trip lasts on average 01:21 hours. For your trip from Trentola-Ducenta to Licata by train you can choose to leave from one of Trentola-Ducenta main stations: S. Marcellino-Frignano, Reggio di Calabria Centrale On Wanderio you can compare all schedules, fares and railway companies to Licata and book the best itinerary starting from Trentola-Ducenta.


text:
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/11/2012 (1700 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
TORONTO -- It would appear that labelling a book unfilmable is a sure-fire way to get a filmmaker's attention.
How else to explain the multitude of book-inspired features currently at the multiplex, a good number of them drawn from challenging literary works chock full of the very things popular cinema generally tries to avoid?
Rambling storylines, monumental themes, complex structures, detours into wild fantasy and innumerable characters are proving little impediment to the perennial search for the next big blockbuster.
This week, Yann Martel's long-considered-unfilmable tale Life of Pi appears in theatres as a 3D spectacle, the painstaking work of Oscar-winning director Ang Lee.
It follows the ambitious adaptations of David Mitchell's literary puzzle Cloud Atlas and Salman Rushdie's magical, historical tale Midnight's Children.
And next month, theatres welcome a big screen take on J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy-laden The Hobbit while January will see Jack Kerouac's meandering Beat generation novel On the Road.
As film critic and curator Jesse Wente notes: "A book is only unfilmable until someone makes a movie of it."
Whether that adaptation is a good film or not is another question entirely.
Reaction has been mixed to the cinematic incarnations of the two-hour-and-43-minute Cloud Atlas and the two-and-a-half-hour Midnight's Children -- each elaborate ventures that faced distinct challenges in wrestling their sweeping narratives into script form.
Cloud Atlas co-writer-director Lana Wachowski admits that figuring out a plan often "seemed too impossible."
But her passion for the centuries-spanning book -- really a collection of six tales crossing genres including historical drama, '70s murder mystery, slick sci-fi adventure and dystopian thriller -- instilled an against-all-odds determination she shared with co-writers-directors Larry Wachowski and Tom Tykwer.
"The novel was the most exciting thing we'd read in a long, long time," Wachowski gushed when the film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September.
"Sometimes we'd give up and (Tykwer) would go: 'No, we must keep going!"'
The trio decided early on that getting Mitchell's blessing was key to making the venture work. Then they set about reworking his tale entirely -- chopping it into segments and rearranging the pieces into a single, fully integrated story.
"The book feels a little more like an anthology and it's a little bit more acceptable in literature to write a book like that," says Lana Wachowski.
"But for a movie we thought that it would be too hard to start over or start a new story an hour or so, an hour and a half into it with totally new characters."
Recognizing the different storytelling demands of film and literature is paramount to any adaptation, agrees Rushdie, who wrestled his own 600-page Midnight's Children into a 120-page screenplay.
The Booker Prize-winning writer says he and director Deepa Mehta made it clear from the get-go that the goal was to make a film -- "not just a faithful adaptation of a literary text."
"It required a lot of sometimes very painful editing-out of elements in the book," says Rushdie, who mixes magical realism and period drama in his sweeping take on India's early days of independence.
"Some of the characters in the book that I'm most fond of didn't make it onto the screen. But in the end I thought, I'm enough of a movie person (to let them go).
"I just thought in the end the important thing is to make a film that works as a film. You don't want people to be sitting there constantly saying, 'Where's that bit of the book?' Or, 'I didn't think of this character in this way.' "
While a book can retreat into introspection and philosophical musings, film requires dialogue and action to keep the plot chugging along.
And so sometimes staying true to the spirit of a book means ripping the story apart.
"For years, when I was a kid there was talk that you couldn't do Philip K. Dick novels," notes Wente, film programmer at the Toronto arthouse theatre TIFF Bell Lightbox.
"But Blade Runner is an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel, but only in the loosest sense. The novel is called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It's a different idea (but) both are classics in their own right."
Then there are the demands of Hollywood.
The final instalments of the Twilight saga take bold liberties with the final Stephenie Meyer book -- splitting it in two to double the box office payoff.
And much is being made of a dramatic detour in Breaking Dawn -- Part 2 -- a wham-bam sequence that bloodies up what is otherwise a relatively staid climactic scene in the book to create a finale more befitting of a billion-dollar movie franchise.
Such departures are to be expected when jumping between mediums, says Wente.
"Not all the ideas from the page are going to work on screen and not all the ideas of the screen flow to the page. I think it's the magic that occurs in the middle that makes it," he says.
"Totally filmable books can end up as appalling movies and unfilmable books can win Oscars. And we've seen that."
An explosion of digital movie-making tools has allowed for even more "unfilmable" books -- as well as comic books -- to hit the big screen, he adds.
"All sorts of what we now are calling populist cinema wasn't possible 20 years ago, or at least wasn't possible in the same way and with the same sort of vision," says Wente.
"In the last 15 years there's been a dramatic change because of the digital technology. For many, many years, in fact much of my childhood, The Lord of the Rings was an unfilmable book -- they made it as an animated cartoon, that was the only way that anyone had ever thought of doing it. And yet they're now one of the biggest blockbusters of all time."
The computer generated imagery on display in Life of Pi certainly didn't exist when the book came out in 2001.
It's a big reason its Saskatoon-based author says he had a hard time imagining how a film could be made from his Booker Prize-winning tale, about an Indian boy stranded on a lifeboat with a tiger in the middle of the Pacific.
Plus, so much of the story unfolds through reflection, with the hero Pi struggling with deep philosophical and spiritual questions -- hardly the stuff of box office smashes.
"Those are easy words to write on the page. But how would one bring them to life on the screen?" Martel writes in the forward to the behind-the-scenes book, The Making of Life of Pi.
"The challenge seemed forbidding. Who would be crazy enough to try?"
It took a decade for someone to work out a viable strategy, with would-be directors Alfonso Cuaron, M. Night Shyamalan and Jean-Pierre Jeunet among the casualties.
When Lee took on the project, the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon director brought ambitious plans with him: he would build a massive wave tank to recreate a swelling, open ocean; use real Bengal tigers that would be seamlessly integrated with computer-generated images and shoot it all 3D to simulate the mesmerizing depths of the Pacific.
Lee's choices included going with an entirely international cast of relative unknowns, reportedly replacing Tobey Maguire with Brit TV actor Rafe Spall because the Spider-Man star was too famous.
Picking the wrong actor can torpedo an adaptation, says Erica Wagner, author and literary editor of The Times in London.
Wagner complains of "terrible miscasting" in Anna Karenina, saying the movie didn't work for her because of star Keira Knightley.
"It's hard because everyone is going to have their own Anna, aren't they?" says Wagner.
"It's why something like David Lean's Great Expectations is such a miraculous film. Because to me, that's the one example of a film that's as good as an extraordinary novel. But that's very, very hard to do."
She frets over Baz Luhrmann's upcoming take on The Great Gatsby, and whether she can overlook the blinding star power of Leonardo DiCaprio in his portrayal of the mythical Jay Gatsby.
"Leonardo DiCaprio is a great actor but when someone says 'Oh, that's Gatsby,' you think, 'No, that's Leonardo DiCaprio."'
Although it's the power of the book that will draw curious fans into the theatre, an adaptation can only succeed on its own terms, says Rushdie.
"You want people to be absorbed by the characters and the emotions and the narrative line," he says.
"At the end of the film what you want people to think is, 'Oh, that was a good movie.' "
-- The Canadian Press


text:
This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
A shortcoming of most correlation distance methods based on the composition vectors without alignment developed for phylogenetic analysis using complete genomes is that the "distances" are not proper distance metrics in the strict mathematical sense. In this paper we propose two new correlation-related distance metrics to replace the old one in our dynamical language approach. Four genome datasets are employed to evaluate the effects of this replacement from a biological point of view. We find that the two proper distance metrics yield trees with the same or similar topologies as/to those using the old "distance" and agree with the tree of life based on 16S rRNA in a majority of the basic branches. Hence the two proper correlation-related distance metrics proposed here improve our dynamical language approach for phylogenetic analysis.
Whole genome sequences are generally accepted as excellent tools for studying evolutionary relationships [
A number of methods without sequence alignment for deriving species phylogeny based on overall similarities of complete genomes have been developed. These include fractal analysis [
In the above approaches of SVD, Markov model and dynamical language model, there is a step to calculate the correlation-related distance between two genomes after removing the randomness or noise from the composition vectors. A drawback is that these correlation-related distances are not proper distance metrics in the strict mathematical sense (Professor Bailin Hao, personal communication, 2009; see also [
In this paper, we follow the second way and propose two proper correlation-related distance metrics to replace the pseudo-distance in the dynamical language approach used by Yu
Three kinds of data from the complete genomes can be analysed using the dynamical language approach proposed by Yu
There are a total of
The transformation
Then we use
Then we view the
The distance
To determine a best length of strings (
Each genome can be considered as a point in
A function
The inequality (iii) is called the
If we denote:
The distance defined by
The chord distance is defined on the set of unit vectors in a vector space as the length of the chord constructed from two unit vectors. Mathematically, let
It is seen that
This distance metric is also defined on the set of unit vectors in a vector space. For any two unit vectors
By definition,
We propose to replace the pseudo-distance in the dynamical language approach [
We used the dynamical language approach for Datasets 1 and 2 in [
The whole DNA sequences (including protein-coding and non-coding regions), all protein-coding DNA sequences and the amino acid sequences of all protein-coding genes from genome data are used for phylogenetic analysis. For
There is no significant effect by the normalization of the distances and different values of
We proposed two new mathematically proper distance metrics based on the lengths of the chords constructed from unit vectors and on proportions of the sample correlation function of unit vectors to replace the pseudo-distance in the dynamical language approach [
The authors would like to thank Bailin Hao in T-Life Research Center of Fudan University for pointing out the distance problem and useful discussion. They also wish to thank the Editor and the Reviewers for their insights, comments and suggestions to improve the paper. This research was supported by the Chinese Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University grant NCET-08-0686 and the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation grant 101004 (Z.-G. Yu), the Australian Research Council (grant no. DP0559807) (V. Anh).
The plot of mean value of
Phylogeny of 109 organisms (prokaryotes and eukaryotes) using the dynamical language approach with chord distance in the case
Phylogeny of chloroplast genomes using the dynamical language approach with piecewise distance in the case
The NJ tree of mitochondrial genomes based on the whole DNA sequences using the dynamical language approach with chord distance in the case
Phylogeny of 62 alpha-proteobacteria using the dynamical language approach with chord distance in the cases


text:
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The High-Decibel Alarm is loud enough to alert both you and a potential intruder. Get a professionally monitored security system. ADT offers 24/7 monitoring for alarm systems for your house monitoring for your home is affordable and reliable. This system and service simply cannot be compared to a cheap DIY system. It's time to move away from old window bars and chance which are more dangerous than beneficial. ADT monitored security is available to commercial and residential customers. Get the reliable monitoring service that will help protect your home and family today. ADT is always ready and equipped to help handle any emergency you may have in your home. With $99 customer installation charge and purchase of alarm monitoring. When the technicians professionally install the system in your home, they will make sure all the monitoring functions are on the control panel. ADT will provide customers with their two-way voice package, a special feature that's useful in homes with disabled or elderly.
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Twain Project
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Dr. Drib
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 39,611
Karma: 26870387
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: San Borja (Lima), Peru
Device: Kindle: Oasis 3G, Voyage WiFi;FireHD; Kobo: Aura One, Glo HD
This brings up a lot of issues....most notably...
the "errors" that crop up on PD material itself, such as scan errors, etc. The text itself is being "compromised" in many ways. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but just somethig that (in my opinion) is a consideration when working with Pd material.
I'm working right now on a massive non-fiction piece (in 4 different volumes), and there is no consistency in some of what's on the Contents page.
Also, there are certain other compromises. There was a thread here somewhere on how one company puts its TOC at the
of the book. Someone made a conscious decision to do this. (This is not a criticism, but can you imagine a CONTENTS page at the end of a printed book?)
Additionally, there are the limitations imposed upon the engineering constraints of the Reader itself.
And then
(hahahah - gotta love the CAPS, RWood!), there are ways in which
impose structure on our "transcribing" as we put the books together.
A lot of things to consider...
Originally Posted by
Some object to bold (er,
) and I object to ALL CAPS for no reason. Many of the older works that we convert have chapter titles set that way so it is a constant decision as to should they be modernized to mixed case or remain ALL CAPS.
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text: The Boktai wiki last edited by Deusoma on 09/27/14 03:25PM View full history StorySometime in the future, the natural cycle of life and death has been broken. The undead rise and four powerful demons known as Immortals take up residence in Istrakan. San Miguel, the City of the Sun, has become a place of darkness. The world's most powerful vampire hunter has fallen, and it's up to his son Django, the heir to the Gun del Sol (a solar gun) to finish his father's work. He is accompanied by Master Otenko, a spritely sunflower who gives him advice at special hint panels. GameplayBoktai's core game design could be described as a 1:1 mixture of Zelda and Metal Gear Solid. It takes place from an isometric perspective, giving the player an overview of the surrounding environment. Pressing and holding the R button allows you to look beyond the immediate screen to see if there are enemies in your vicinity. Similar to Solid Snake, Django must use stealth to infiltrate an area, and he has the ability to flatten up against walls and tap them to attract an enemy's attention. Different enemies react to sounds in different ways; Mummies (for example) are very fast and will quickly hone in on a sound's position, but are otherwise completely blind. Undead zombies can be tricked like typical Metal Gear grunts. Django can run, and shoot enemies using the Gun del Sol, which relies on solar-powered batteries for ammunition. The game's areas are presented in a map screen, broken up into small dungeon-like levels in between larger boss dungeons. These are timed and scored similar to Metal Gear, in that you will lose points if you are spotted by an enemy and if you take too long. There are also trap rooms that are somewhat similar to the VR Missions. Dungeons are crawling with enemies and puzzles block the path (such as traditional block-pushing puzzles). A variety of elemental puzzles (ice and lava) also pose unique challenges. Solar SensorUnique to the Boktai series is the built-in solar sensor, which is used throughout the game for a variety of purposes. To begin with, the game asks you to enter your specific time and time zone. The game uses this information to sync with the real world, so it knows if you are playing during daylight hours. This is significant because Django's gun can only be recharged by standing in direct sunlight and holding up his gun, and enemies are generally weaker or in hiding. How quickly your gun charges depends entirely on the amount of sunlight registered by the sensor. A mid-to-low range is best, as too much sunlight will cause the gun to overheat (this is likely to prevent you from getting sun stroke!). Even when you're deep inside a crypt, there may be skylights that allow sunlight to trickle in which can be used mid-dungeon. Bosses in particular cannot be killed until day time (more on bosses below). At night, Django can charge his gun if he uses a solar station, though its power may be limited or costly. Small fireflies (only visible at night) appear which will also slightly refill your solar batteries. Enemies such as the undead become active and begin prowling the corridors, so the game becomes more difficult at night, but it is still possible to get most things done with the exception of eliminating bosses. BossesThe bosses are similar to those in Metal Gear or Zelda, requiring quick pattern recognition skills and unique strategies. True to their name, the Immortals are only weakened after the fight, and become trapped in a coffin. The coffin must then be physically dragged out of the Immortal's lair and into the light of day where the Immortal can actually be killed. If the coffin is left alone, the Immortal inside will rustle inside the coffin, nudging themselves away while attracting the attention of enemies which will drag it back to their resting place. Although dragging the coffin outside may sound like a chore, the level designers have kept this in mind so that on your way out there are often short cuts. Once outside, Django places the coffin the center of the Solar Piledriver. This is a series of mirrors which flip up and focus the sun's rays directly at the coffin. Once the process begins, the Immortal's demonic soul pops out of the coffin and fights back, attempting to flip the mirrors away. Django must dodge their projectile attacks and keep the Solar Piledriver charged up and focused on the Immortal, and eventually the Immortal will die - permanently.Items & Equipment You'll find perishable items such as apples which can restore your health or power up your gun's solar batteries. There are also items like solar flares which cause the sunlight meter to fill up regardless of the time of day. The Gun del Sol is a complex piece of equipment with a variety of customizable pieces. Lenses focus the light into a shot or spread. The bigger the lens, the more powerful the attack. Extra battery tanks allow you to store more solar energy, which means you won't have to recharge as often. Grenades (L button) provide secondary fire. And the gun frame itself can change the type of attack; converting into elemental-type attacks (fire, earth, ice). MultiplayerBoktai features a multiplayer death-match mode for 2-4 players (each player requires their own Boktai cartridge). Battles are timed, and the player with the most kills, the most coins collected, and the least deaths will be ranked on top. Players can also exchange items with one another. Azure Sky Tower Once the player has finished the game, they can visit the Azure Sky Tower, which is somewhat of a throwback to the PS1 Konami title Azure Dreams. The player must climb the tower solving puzzles and killing enemies, until they reach a certain floor where they fight a knight. Killing the knight will unlock one of several emblems. Sequels & Criticism Out of the four Boktai games, only Boktai 3 remained a Japanese exclusive. The 4th game moved the series onto the Nintendo DS, and was retitled Lunar Knights, though it lacked a solar sensor (and thus its functionality). Some players complained that the solar sensor related "gimmicks" were a burden at best and annoying at worst. For best results the game is best played outside. However, Boktai's bosses cannot be defeated at night, forcing players to adhere to a certain play schedule, and the game becomes almost unplayable during bad weather and in the winter in some areas due to the overcast skies.


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Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Roger Brown, Associate Director of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse
A Two-Day Symposium, May 14-15, 2003
William H. Natcher Conference Center, NIH Campus
8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Roger Brown, Ph.D.
Dr. Roger M. Brown joined the National Institute on Drug Abuse with
prior training as both a pharmacist and a research neuropsychopharmacologist, and served a key role in building the foundations of a strong neuroscience research program at NIDA. Roger earned his Ph.D. under Dr. Lewis Seiden at the University of Chicago in 1972 and was especially proud of the research he
accomplished during 2 years of training at the Farmakologiska Institute, Goteborg, Sweden, in the laboratory of Dr. Arvid Carlsson. Upon his return to the states, he joined the neuropsychology laboratory of Dr. Patricia Goldman-Rakic at the NIMH Intramural Research Program as a Senior Staff Fellow, and subsequently moved to NIDA in 1979 as a staff pharmacologist. At NIDA, he served as Program Official (1979-1984), Executive Secretary in the Office of Extramural Review (1981), and Chief of the Neuroscience Research Branch in the Division of Basic Research (1983-2000). In 2000, he began his tenure as the Associate Director for Neuroscience in the Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, a position he held until his death in June of 2002. He was a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Roger was particularly proud of his early role in recognizing the importance of
central dopaminergic systems in drug abuse and in fostering the growth and expansion of cutting-edge research that serves as the foundation of neuroscientific approaches to drug abuse and addiction today. In 2001, he received the J. Michael Morrison Award from the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in recognition of his outstanding administrative skills and leadership.
Sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health


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Vaughan Lighting
My favorite lamp is from Vaughan Lighting. They have classic simple things. There's a solid crystal column lamp with no ornamentation that is fantastic, especially when you use it with a burlap shade. It gives it a twist, which is even better.
Added to my Shopping Guide Holiday Design Gift Guide!Tags: furniture, lamps, lighting, home decor, decorative, house, handmade, light, VermontAdded 6 Years Ago from Artful Home
So much mid-century/tiki Modern appeal! Unbelievable price.
icey hotttt!!! very hip. lee indrieriAdded 10 Years Ago from Aaronrthomas


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Latest Boba Fett News | Archive | Fett Fact Check
About Our NewsBreaking news, fact checking, exclusive interviews, featured fans, and much more reportage about everything Boba Fett.
Daniel Logan ("Young Boba Fett") stopped by the convention floor to say hello to fans and friends.
We stopped by Artists Alley to profile some of our favorite Boba Fett artists:
Stop by Doug Cowan Artwork (Artists Alley DD-10) for this one-of-a-kind framed 4" x 6" oil on canvas Boba Fett. Doug has other Star Wars art with Fett, too, at the booth and also available .
The one and only Tom Hodges is doing commissions at his booth (Artists Alley GG-1) and has this cool $5 sketchbook with a bunch of his Boba Fett and Mandalorian art.
Dan Veesenmeyer (Artists Alley EE-21) also has a convention exclusive LEGO Boba Fett print. He's almost sold out of them as of Saturday morning.
ANOVOS revealed a "Jedi" Boba Fett jetpack and an "Arena" Jango Fett jetpack today. (Photos above by BFFC.)
First seen at the "Star Wars Collectibles Update with Lucasfilm's Brian Merten and Dolly Ahluwalia" panel and later at the ANOVOS booth, no additional information was shared such as price or release date.
The Wookiee Gunner attended the panel and saw some additional information on these packs:
Jango and Boba Fett jetpacks coming to Anovos! #SDCC pic.twitter.com/UovuPiL8nE
— The Wookiee Gunner (@TWGsite) July 21, 2017
According to Art Andrews, founder of The Dented Helmet and The Replica Prop Forum, here's more info about this pack and it's history:
I can't tell you how excited I am about this piece. I remember, years and years ago, when someone at The Dented Helmet obtained ONE generalized measurement from an original pack and how their replica was touted as the "PERFECT" pack due to that single measurement… and here we are, almost a decade later with a pack from ANOVOS that came directly from a 3D scan (thousands and thousands of very precise measurements... thanks, technology!) of the most well-known original pack (no… not the ESB.. stop it). This pack had MINIMAL cleanup meaning much of the original asymmetry and wonkiness still exist in it and is, without a doubt, as close as any of us fans are ever going to come to owning an original. Not only is the pack fantastic, but this is one of the, if not THE most precise paint job of the SE pack we have seen to date (no, I didn't paint it)! Thanks to the opportunities afforded by ANOVOS (and one private collector), I have researched 9 original packs in person, likely more than anyone I know outside Skywalker Ranch, and after all that study, I can tell you with extreme confidence, if you want THE pack… this is the one to get.
ANOVOS also showed off a Sabine helmet. TheWookieeGunner also captured a photo of the panel slide, illustrating what's what.
Gentle Giant may or may not have revealed an upcoming Boba Fett figure. We spoke with their marketing manager, Daniel Pickett, on the first day of SDCC 2017.
He also shows off the new Jango Fett Classic Mini Bust, now available for pre-order on their website. He mentions that, if everything goes well, Jango will begin shipping at the end of this month.
Video by BFFC.
Hasbro has their upcoming Boba Fett and Han Solo two-pack on display. No price or release date listed. How about those guns on Boba, huh?
Stance, who makes three pairs of Boba Fett socks, has an SDCC exclusive that's available today only!
We learned it's an edition size of "less than 600." They're stamped with an SDCC logo and cost $20, which is normal for them.
Sideshow Collectibles has a Hot Toys 1/6 Scale "Holiday Special" Boba Fett re-paint on display!
To be more accurate, the chest armor didn't have the "Kar'ta Beskar" diamond symbol in the middle in the 1978 cartoon. The scalps are also unusual for this.
No word on price or release yet.
Revealed earlier this month in a promo photo, Sideshow brought a display prototype of their upcoming "Jedi" Boba Fett bust!
We let them know the Mythosaur symbol was his "Empire" look in the promo photo and you can see here they fixed it!
No word on price or release yet.
BFFC has arrived for preview night at 2017 San Diego Comic-Con!
EFX has a painted prototype of their "Empire" Boba Fett helmet on display!
Dom Cairoli (aka fett_4_real) did the painting. Alex Alva consulted. Gino, who art directed this piece, went and matched the paint colors at Lucasfilm to the real helmet in the archive.
No date on a release nor price yet.
EFX has previously shown an unpainted version of this, several years in a row at SDCC. Tonight's reveal is a departure and shows the product getting closer to completion.
All photos by Dan Lo for Boba Fett Fan Club.
More about the back-story for this helmet:
For exclusives, talks, and more, see our SDCC 2017 guide.
The 2017 San Diego Comic-Con is coming! Here's your very own checklist to all the Boba Fett merch as we learn about it.
"pop art" style Boba Fett socks to unveil at the convention next month. No word if they're really SDCC exclusive or will also be available elsewhere for their normal $20 price tag. Limited Edition Boba Fett Plush Dog Toy, which actually came out last year. But StarWars.com and Comic-Con.org list it as an exclusive... perhaps incorrectly. It's still $25, like it was in stores before. $2,500 Boba Fett watch at the convention. This came out on Star Wars Day (May 25, 2017) and is definitely not an SDCC exclusive as listed on StarWars.com and Comic-Con.org. It's still a limited edition of 100. Anakin and His Angel. site.
Boba Fett is back! This time the galaxy's most fearsome bounty hunter comes wearing feudal Japan stylized armor based on the Star Wars white-colored prototype armor seen in both Ralph McQuarrie's original concept sketches of the character, and test footage filmed by The Empire Strikes Back art director Joe Johnston. With a Ronin-inspired design by artist Takayuki Takeya, the fully articulated Boba Fett figure stands 170mm tall and features a moveable head scope, detachable mounted armaments, backpack with removable missile, and an arsenal of weaponry to expand your display possibilities. The set includes a blaster rifle, Japanese sword set, weapons set, and interchangeable hands (x4). This exclusive item will see very limited release. Limit 2 per person.
De Korner (Booth 5249) has an exclusive Boba Fett pin, which has a limited edition of 100 and sells for $10
Dan Veesenmeyer (EE-21 in Artist Alley) has a LEGO Boba Fett print, which has a limited edition of 40
Super 7 (Booth 4945) has a Boba Fett shirt exclusive
DKE Toys (Booth 5045) has an impressive 24 Boba Fett cardback bootlegs with art by Jason Chalker (aka Manly Art), each of which are $150; shown here are just the cardbacks without the resin figure yet
There's more, but we can't share with you yet until SDCC begins.


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by Staff Writers
Bratislava (AFP) June 13, 2013
Hungarian President Janos Ader on Thursday accused the European Union of failing to provide immediate aid to countries recently hit by deadly floods that have wrought devastation in central Europe.
"I wonder if we can expect the EU to act as quickly now as it did when the banks and the financial sector needed saving," Ader told journalists after meeting with his central European peers in Bratislava.
"At the moment, the EU has no tool to provide immediate help in case of natural disasters," he said, calling for changes for a more effective system.
"The impact of natural disasters on countries that are going through or recovering from a serious economic crisis could have grave political and social consequences," he added.
The Hungarian capital Budapest on Monday averted the worst of the floods as defences held firm on the Danube river despite water levels reaching a historic high.
Meanwhile, EU powerhouse Germany said Thursday it intends to set up a fund worth about eight billion euros ($11 billion) to help German victims of record floods, which killed some 21 people and forced thousands from their homes across the region.
Germany pledges 8bn-euro fund for flood victims
The accord came at a meeting between Merkel, who has visited water-logged zones four times since the flooding began this month, and premiers of Germany's 16 states on the disaster's impact.
"The federal government and the states will each provide half of the national fund amounting to up to eight billion euros," Merkel told reporters after the meeting.
She dismissed calls to introduce new taxes or special levies to raise money for the relief fund, but said it would require a supplementary budget for this year.
The Bundestag lower house of parliament is to sign off on the financing by July 5, the last session before the summer recess.
No official figure has yet been given for the cost of the damage in Germany from the floods which also deluged other central European countries. The death toll rose to 21 on Thursday after Romania reported two more dead from the flooding.
After the "worst-of-the-century" floods in 2002, a 6.5-billion-euro fund was set up.
Last week Merkel, who is campaigning for a third term in September elections, already pledged immediate aid of 100 million euros.
Reiner Haseloff, premier of Saxony-Anhalt state, which has been badly hit by the flooding, had suggested in the daily Mitteldeutsche Zeitung a temporary increase of a tax levied on all personal income and businesses to help reconstruct former East Germany.
Water levels continued to slowly fall in northern Germany on Thursday and dykes were holding, including in Lauenburg in Schleswig-Holstein and Hitzacker in Lower Saxony, both of which were visited by Merkel on Wednesday.
Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest
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Yes. If you want my reason, visit me at discord.
Did you honestly delete my post.?
hello.....are u free tonight? send me a VM, if u've made an decision. see ya
so tomorrow is wednesday. can i challenge u then?
This is a tournament weekend. I can't really play you until is finish.
hi RDF. up for an match now? pls vm me or sumthin else. see ya


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These are just some of the complaints submitted by people stating they are current or former Terminix employees or spouses of Terminix employees. The information provided is unverified. Judge for yourself if you believe them, as I do.
Tennessee - 12/99. I was employed at Terminix as a technician, quit after being refused a raise (after a year and a half), and was employed at another company in the area for the next seven years, at which time Terminix bought the company. I then am an employee of theirs again. I knew I didnt want to work there again, so I started looking elsewhere and found a company I am currently happy with.
California - 10/99. I worked for Terminix as a commercial pest control technician. After working almost three years, I got rear-ended on the freeway in an accident that was not my fault. Six months later, I was sideswiped by another car in the same work truck, and that was not my fault. My branch manager said, You should get a good lawyer; because the first accident injured you, the second took your job away. Then he held a little meeting and said he could not accommodate me in the branch and fired me while I was still seeing the doctor. He called the work doctor and then told me that I was a liability. I have a work comp case going, and the insurance company just drags it out.
California - 8/99. I was an employee of Terminix. Not by my choice the pest control company I worked for before Terminix bought us out. See below the resignation letter I sent to the branch manager with a copy to CEO Carlos Cantu:
Re: Closure of Satellite Office
Effective Friday, August 20, 1999, I will no longer be an employee of Terminix. The commute of approximately 100 miles round trip daily is not possible with my vehicle, not to mention the expense of purchasing gas. I feel the manner we were told about the closure of our office was very unprofessional. Especially when you said that you were Afraid that the files would go missing. I feel very hurt by this statement. I have worked for this company for over 3 years and never once have I ever thought or been accused of destroying or defacing any company property. Maybe this is how you operate a business, but it is not right. There has been another instance that you handled a matter unprofessionally. For example, the date of July 12, 1999. This was the date you said right to my face that you completed the Subterranean Termite treatment at 490 xxx. I thought this was a little odd since it only took you 15 minutes to do the treatment. Once you arrived at our office after the subterranean treatment, I asked you if you did the treatment. You told me, Yes, I did the treatment. I did question the amount of time it took you to complete the job. You assured me that it did not take long to do the treatment. (15 minutes!??) I then asked if you went by the real estate agents office. You said, No, I did not need to because the front door was wide open. I then said, Really, thats hard to believe Dicks listings are never unlocked. Most of the time he meets repair persons at the listings. Nonetheless, I believed every word you told me. A week later, a person named KB telephoned our office. He said he did not believe anyone had done a subterranean termite treatment at his new home at 490 xxx. I then telephoned you and gave you a heads-up about a telephone call I received from the new owner. You then said, I am going to take that as a compliment. I must have done such a good job he could not tell what I did. Well, you were right. The owner could not tell that you did any work, because on August 2, 1999, we found out that you did not perform any work at all. I cannot believe that you, in your position of being a branch manager, would lie to me to my face, especially when I questioned you on July 12. Not only did you lie to me, you also lied to the homeowner and his agent. You also put our inspectors license on the line, because a completion notice was issued and the work was not even performed. This is very unprofessional!
? - 7/99. I am a pest control technician with Terminix. Please dont blame us. Your complaints that I have read are all very true. The company does not pay us or allow us to do proper work. I personally give every customer my 100%. In some cases, that means I dont get paid for it. Terminix doesnt only cheat the consumer out of millions upon millions of dollars a year, they cheat their employees as well. We are forced to cheat you. Now that sucks. Watch your tech mix his chemicals then ask to see the label and read the ratios. In most cases, you are paying for water. That is why you still have problems as far as re-treats go. Your tech does not get paid for that work, so dont be mad at him or her for no shows. How much of that shi* feeds our families? Blame the managers. Do not let them rest until they personally solve your problem. That is supposed to be their job. Complain to Memphis and dont stop. Be on the phone day and night. Its a free call, 1-800-835-5869. Beware, the salesmen coming to your house is trained to, if not able to find a problem to invent one. Usually termite, because this is the treatments that make Terminix the most money. The Sentricon system for baiting termites takes approximately two years to even begin to produce an effect. This costs the consumers a lot of money and even more importantly a lot of wood damage to their property. Protect your elderly parents/relatives/friends. They are the most victimized. Good luck to all.
Texas - 6/99. After reading everything you had to go through, I thought I would share with you my experience with Terminix. I am a state-certified applicator and was employed with a company for three years before it was purchased by Terminix. Although they promised not to change the company or management, because it was a well run and profitable company, the changes soon followed. Terminix brought in new management and found a way to get rid of all the old managers and supervisors by moving them to other Terminix branches or promoting them. Once their troops were in place, they then began to make cuts to employees pay. They also began to cut back on the amount of time and chemicals used in the treatment of customers properties for pests. The new branch manager was a loyal Terminix Man, and he made the comments that we made too much money for what we did. All the while, he was collecting his six figure salary. One day, I went into his office to talk to him about the changes and problems that were going on. He didnt want to hear it. (On several occasions prior to that day, I tried to talk to him about the pay situation and got vague answers like Ill get back to you.) Well, to make a long story short, I quit that day. I firmly believe that Terminixs philosophy is to get the most money for the least amount of time and effort and to also keep more new accounts coming in the front door than are going out the back. Not only do they wrong the consumers, they also treat their employees poorly. It sounds like in your case that Terminix used underhanded tactics to gain their goals.
California - 7/99. My husband has been employed by them for many years and both of us have gone through so much stress with them. For example, Terminix claims that it pays their employees overtime and time and a half. However, employees salaries appear on the check stub in one lump sum. There is no indication how many dollars one is receiving for overtime and/or time and a half for that two-week period. When my husband approached this issue, Terminix called him into a meeting with a lawyer sitting by and explained that Terminix does indeed pay overtime and time and a half. In actuality, Terminix does not pay overtime and time and a half for commissioned jobs, which make up 98% of what most employees handle. How many companies need a lawyer sitting by when an employee has an employment related question? This is just another of Terminixs intimidation tactics.
Since 1991, my husband has not received one single pay raise. Terminix also does nothing to build employee morale. Besides not giving pay raises, employees are not given yearly performance appraisals, nor are the EVER given a pat on the back or a thank you for doing a good job. Instead, they are told to work harder and longer hours and make the company richer. Terminix employees are told to look honest customers in the eye while they know they are ripping them off by doing insufficient chemical applications. Terminix is a shady little organization, as is ServiceMaster. They are only interested in money had care not at all about their customers or employees. My husband puts in 12 hour days, but the pay he gets from Terminix doing those long hours, he can get in an 8-hour day elsewhere. Terminix is nothing but a nightmare company.
This company is known for hiring employees without checking out their records thoroughly; thereby, they have on several occasions hired folks with past criminal records. One example of this happened six years ago when an employee by the name of Mr. X was working for them. This individual would offer to moonlight as an accountant for several people he was doing exterminator work. Terminix would even recommend him on such a basis and assure these customers that Mr. X was a responsible individual. He would then steal checks worth several thousand dollars from these individuals, one of which happened to be a charity. When these individuals turned their complaints over to Terminix, Terminix did nothing for these individuals and simply shut the door in their faces. Terminix would also not cooperate with the authorities who questioned them about Mr. X. Instead, they came to his defense and kept him on as an employee. This individual then committed identity fraud on several of his co-workers. In one such individuals case, $200,000 worth of merchandise was bought on fraudulent credit cards. Again, Mr. X was not fired. Mr. X was allowed access onto the Terminix property day and night and employee personnel files were kept in an open area where anybody could get to them. When problems with this employee were reported to the branch office as well as the corporate office in Memphis, Tennessee, Terminix refused to take any responsibility for their employees actions. Instead, they turned their backs on the whole situation and did nothing to help their employees. They threatened employees with termination if anyone spoke about this openly. Terminix is an extremely unprofessional company. Their employees are overworked and underpaid and TERMINIX REFUSES TO PAY OVERTIME even though most of the exterminators work 10 to 13 hour days. They also ask that their employees purposely overcharge their customers and perform inadequate extermination duties, but charge the customer anyway. For example, if an outside area needs to be sprayed during a rain storm, it is obvious that the chemical spray will be washed off by the rain. However, the exterminators are instructed to go ahead and spray anyway. Thereby, the customer is screwed out of both money and service. Also, each exterminator is told not to spend more than 10 to 15 minutes at each call, which is realistically impossible to achieve if one were to do a good job. However, if they complain, their jobs are threatened. Terminix is only interested in money and they dont care who they have to step on to get it. They care nothing about their customers or employees and are running an illegitimate operation and getting away with it.
Pennsylvania - 6/99. My husband worked for Terminix for 12 years when they decided they didnt need him anymore. They, without any notice, began transferring him from branch to branch. It wasnt until they cut his pay, again without any warning, that he left and looked for legal counsel.
United Kingdom - 4/99. I worked for Terminix in the U.K. for a few years (they bought out several local companies over here.) I was employed as a pest control technician, and I have to say their training is very poor. All of their training is in house and any exams/tests taken are all marked by an employee of Terminix. (You can appreciate, the pass mark is always very high!) I had a service round of approximately 120 to 150 monthly customers...quality of service was never the key...just volume. I really sympathize with you and your situations. As a footnote, Terminix took over one company in the U.K. and within six months had lost over 70% of their client base!!!
Connecticut - 3/99. Terminix is facing legal actions against them in the states of CT and NY. They are currently suing me for alleged violation of employment agreement. They have made allegations that are not true, and I will be producing witnesses that statements were made about bankrupting me with legal fees, etc. Good luck in your attempts to find justice.
? - 1/99. Your story is all too familiar with me. You see, I was a licensed Branch 1, 2, and 3 termite tech for Terminix for five years; and you wouldnt believe the things I was told to do. Ive seen so many illegal activities take place, I couldnt count them all. Have to admit at times I felt really bad about what they had me do, or not do. I was in charge of fumigations and soil treats. Where to start? Well, from hauling vikain gas illegally, extremely dangerous, to falsifying reports. You name it, and I saw it or did it, under direct supervision of the management team. I was actually encouraged to do such things and was told to keep my mouth shut. I did so many jobs where the people didnt even have termites and were told they had, really sad, it seemed to me. I know for a fact they went after the elderly, and for good reason. They trust and have money or credit. In some respects, you couldnt blame the salespeople involved. They were under tremendous pressure to sell jobs -- bottom line, had to make budgets. I was also given a figure, that is dollar amount to perform each day, from $1,000 to $5,000, in one day. Impossible loads. How to do it? Cut corners; I mean really cut corners. Lets just say we ban-sprayed a lot of homes which is not really legal or ethical. Real estate was a freebie, vacant homes a joke. Im willing to bet at one time 75 percent never had termites, but you wouldnt know it from looking at the reports issued by licensed Terminix employees. Ive seen salesmen do everything from putting termite debris under a house to sprinkling drywood frass in someones attic just to sell a job. Its all about money. They dont care about employees or people. Its the great American scam. I could write a book on the things I saw and did. If you have any questions about Terminix, Ill probably know. I was a dedicated employee, caught up in their system. By the way, I did pest control also; and well, lets just say we had a saying, Splash and dash. If you run out of chemical, shoot water, theyll never know; web the house good; and go.
? - 1/99. I used to be a so-called inspector for Terminix. That was the pleasant name for salesperson they used. I was one of the Top Dogs for awhile, my name was always on the top of the sales board. That was until I started seeing the whole picture. I was promising these people a rose garden that, I came to realize, would never ever bloom! At first, it was one bad incident, then another and so on and so on. It finally came to the point where I was disgusted with myself. I was straight out lying to people. At times, I couldnt even keep a straight face. Even if you put aside the fact that they really did not care about the customers (except getting new ones), their so-called technicians that do the treatments dont have a clue on what theyre doing. Ive even heard of technicians running out of pesticide (because the company was so cheap), so they would just spray water around the house, but the customers wouldnt know the difference. It would amaze me every day how screwed up and unorganized they ran the whole operation. I finally quit and found a great company that takes care of their employees, which is more than I can say for Terminix. Id advise people in need of pest control to stay as far away from Terminix as possible, and I am dead serious!
Missouri - 1/99. Im really sorry that happened to you. Unfortunately, it does not surprise me. I have been an employee (pest tech) for Terminix for 3 years; and I will have to say, they SUCK!!! They certainly dont treat their employees any better. Every month, the threaten their employees with termination. I have seen many cases of such happenings similar to yours, and how the situation gets ignored. That is why Im in search of employment elsewhere, preferably with a company that cares about PEOPLE. I have a family of five to support, and I have been worried every month if the next month Ill still be employed.


text:
Maureen Strall
Student Support Coordinator
Maureen joined the University of Toledo in 1986 as a Registered Nurse at the Student Medical Center on Main Campus assisting student's as a triage and women's health nurse. She also coordinated educational presentations at the Medical Center and in main campus dorms. Maureen was an Ohio College Health Student Advisor and a member on the Ohio College Health Association Board. After 13 years in health care, she turned to academia and worked as a Test Administrator at the Scott Park Campus assisting students taking professional certification, undergraduate and graduate entrance examinations. Five years ago, Maureen joined UT Online as a Student Service Coordinator providing assistance to online students on issues ranging from Blackboard support to off-site test proctoring. She is the proud mother of 3 adult daughters. All of the Strall girls attended UT. One is an alumnus of the UT Rocket Volleyball Team and one is currently playing. Go Rockets!


text:
So…no apocalypse?
I don't know about you, but I was a teeny bit disappointed there was no apocalypse. I had already mapped out which houses on the block to raid, our weapons were ready, food and water stocked, and plenty of crafts to keep me occupied. Then…nothing. Not even a small town taken over by zombies! No aliens or meteors coming from space, no leather-clad gangs roaming on motorcycles, no worldwide plague, no solar flares or mega-storms, volcanoes or mutants.
To console ourselves, Hubby and I watched a string of post-apocalyptic movies, so we could at least survive the wasteland vicariously. We stumbled upon an absolute GEM of a movie, called "The Bed Sitting Room" (in Britain that would be like a studio apartment, I believe).
The movie is from 1969, and it was completely amazing, and not in a terrible B-movie way. The settings are truly post-apocalyptic, and the story is weird and funny. It's not a serious, Mad Max style apocalypse; more like Monty Python, but still incredibly well done. You will even recognize Veruca Salt's father amongst the cast. It's on instant on Netflix, so you really have no excuse not to watch it.
Whip It
I'm aware there has been a big stink up going on regarding Netflix recently announced price increases. I know for a lot of people it will mean a huge (percentage-wise) increase over what they are currently paying (somewhere around an additional $6 per month). I don't think Netflix is being very bright about this whole thing, but it is still WAY BETTER and cheaper than cable. And it's the only thing in my mail box other than junk mail, and I get excited when I see one of those little red envelopes. So that's my take on the whole thing.
The envelope that showed up yesterday contained "Whip It", a movie that was filmed and set here in Austin. That in and of itself makes me want to watch it. It stars and was directed by Drew Barrymore, and it also stars Ellen Page, Juliette Lewis, and Jimmy Fallon among many others. Ellen Page's character, Bliss, lives in a small town near Austin, and secretly attends her first Texas Roller Derby match. When it's over, she is convinced to try out, and of course makes it onto the team, the Hurl Scouts.
Roller Derby is a big deal here in Austin, and I have been to a few matches myself. I freaking love it, and apparently so does Drew Barrymore, which is another reason I was excited about this movie. Overall, it was a good movie. It had funny parts, although it could have been funnier, and there were a few parts that seemed like "Well, this is how a movie plot should go, right?"
One easy improvement to the whole plot would have been to leave out the Bliss's boyfriend plot line. It went nowhere, and was generally a distraction from the good parts of the story. All the cheesy, chagrin-inducing moments occurred in that part of the movie. It was a constant montage of "look how cute and goofy we are together! We sit near Austin landmarks!"
Other than that, it was a good movie. On the Clever Chick scale it gets a "I won't be buying it, but it was worth watching". Drew Barrymore's character is hilarious and I wish she'd been in it more. And yes, there are lots of Austin landmarks for you to point out and shriek to your friends and/or spouse about. I totally did that.
– That Clever Chick
Double Movie Review: Discworld
I love Netflix, not just because it gives me an endless supply of movies and TV shows, but because it suggests things I might like. One of those suggestions was Hogfather.
This movie is set in Terry Pratchett's Discworld. He has written a whole series of books set there, and this movie was made from one of them. This movie is set on the night of Hogswatch, which is similar to our Christmas Eve. Someone is trying to destroy Hogswatch, and Death's granddaughter has to try and save it.
I think the best way to describe the series, is a fantasy series, with lots of humor thrown in. Kind of like the land of Narnia, but with clever, funny bits woven throughout. If you're a fan of Terry Pratchett, or Douglas Adams you'll enjoy this.
If you've already seen this one, or you trust my advice so much that you'll watch anything I tell you, another Discworld movie is available. Horray! It's called The Color of Magic, and it stars Sean Astin and Tim Curry.
Sean Astin plays Discworld's first tourist, and he teams up with the most terrible wizard on the Disc and has hilarious and ridiculous adventures. They even explore beyond the Disc! Tim Curry is actually good in this, rather than horribly distracting as he can be sometimes.
There are some animated movies of Discworld available on Netflix as well. I didn't find those to be as entertaining, but Hubby enjoyed them. I plan on finding some of the Discworld books so I can immerse myself in all the humor and detail. I'll let you know how they are. On the Clever Chick Scale, these both get a "I will recommend these to friends, and eagerly await new ones".
Rules of a Bad Movie
I was privelidged enough last weekend to spend time with my dear friend Black, of Two Tokens, and his family. I have a lot in common with all of them, including their awesome 8 year old, Lil' K (you can pick a new nickname if you don't like that one).
While I was there, we spread out on the couch to watch movies. Through the magic of netflix, we picked some random movies, one of which was awesome, the other of which was terrible. This got us discussing how you can tell if a movie is bad from the outset. The rules (so far) are these:
1) If the movie has super long credits, it's probably bad. According to Mrs.Black (again, you can choose a different nickname), if it's a good movie, they want to get you right into it, rather than have you sit around watching credits.
2) If there's gratuitous nudity early in the movie, it's probably terrible. My reasoning is that the creators are hoping viewers will say, "Ooh, boobs!! Let's stick it out to see if there are more boobs later!"
Both movies we watched this weekend followed these simple rules.
First up: Dance of the Dead. Zombies at prom??? Yes, please!! Awesome premise, and fortunately, awesome movie! It did break a couple rules of zombie movies, but the mistakes were forgivable. So, how it followed the rules:
1) Super short credits. I don't even know if the actors names were listed.
2) The only nudity in the movie is about halfway through, and it's just a male zombie's bum. That means this movie has substance, rather than gimmicks.
The plot is great. The town is near a nuclear power plant, which doesn't bode well for anyone. Of course, since it's a zombie movie, the dead start to rise, but it happens to be on the night of the school prom. This whole movie is filled with humor, great acting, characters, and plot reveals. I loved it. On the Clever Chick scale it gets a "I'll recommend it to tons of my friends, and watch it repeatedly". It's not on the level of Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, but it is damn close.
Next victim: The Funhouse. This movie came out in 1981, and just from the tagline "Pay to get in; Pray to get out!" I was severely tempted to watch it. Let's get right to how it violated the rules of good movies, and just human decency.
1) I swear, 10% of this movie is credits. When you start seeing "Best Boy – Kyle Furthham" and "Dolly Grip – Toby Westhover", you know it's going to be bad.
2) Boobs in the first 2-4 minutes. And it was creepy. The actress is about to get into the shower, so you think to yourself, "I bet they're going to show her nude", but she looks like a twelve year old. I'm not kidding. We all thought the same thing. I think it's because she had her hair down, and a big, fluffy, pink robe on, and a fairly youthful face, but it was disturbing.
Any time movies start using nudity as a crutch, you know it's going to be missing in the plot arena, and this movie was no exception. At one point, we realized there were only 24 minutes left in the movie, and anything interesting had yet to happen.
There were several plot points that were never resolved, or referred back to. For example, they make a point of having the main actress stop and stare at several carnival barkers, who are all played by the same actor, but then nothing happens with that. They basically took a bunch of random occurrences set in a carnival and called it a movie. On the Clever Chick Scale this gets a "It's so bad, you can't even laugh at it. Save yourself 2 hours and avoid, avoid, avoid".
I love movies, and I love cheesy, hokey, attempting-to-be-scary movies, but this one is inexcusable in its awfulness.
It's Rapture-rific!
Even though the Rapture obviously did not occur this weekend, (was there ever any doubt?) I thought I'd do a rapture post. It's a movie AND book review, in one! Ooh-la-la!
First things first: how to out-live zombies. Max Brooks is (un)dead serious about his subject matter, and 100% practical. This book is written as a completely serious guide to survive zombie hordes. He even has historical accounts of when zombies rose in the past, what causes them, and how to survive beyond the complete extinction of humanity. It was very practical and useful. I am presently building a 10-foot-high cinderblock wall around my home, as per his instructions (not literally). On the Clever Chick Scale this earns a "I will keep it on my shelf, possibly loan it out, but probably not re-read it".
The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, is based on the novel "I am Legend". After having seen this one, and the Will Smith version, I really want to read that book. For an older movie (it's from 1964), the plot moves at a decent pace, and the acting is good. There's a twist at the end that I thought was genius, and of course it's Vincent Price, so creepy-awesomeness just exudes from it. On the Clever Chick Scale this gets a "I probably won't rewatch it, but I would recommend it to friends". Plus, it's on instant on Netflix, which is always a bonus.
Well, I hope everyone had fun at the "apocalypse", and didn't do any long-term credit damage, or anything. Save that for December 2012.
Movie Review: The Trotsky
Hubby and I followed one of those internet rabbit holes that pop up sometimes, and discovered this movie. I was watching an Arcade Fire music video, My Body is a Cage, on you tube, and another video of theirs, Intervention, popped up, and Hubby clicked on it.
This video is the song set to the 1925 silent movie "Battleship Potemkin". You may be familiar with the famous "Odessa Staircase" scene, where the Russian soldiers are marching down seemingly-endless stairs massacring civilians. A mother is shot on the stairs, and as she falls down, dead, she accidentally pushes her baby in its carraige down the steps. We then decided to read about the movie on wikipedia, which had a section called "In Popular Culture". That section lists other movies and things that have referenced it.
That's how we stumbled upon the movie "The Trotsky". It's about a high school senior who believes he's the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky. After holding a hunger strike and trying to unionize his father's factory, he is forced to attend public school. He then decides the students deserve to have a union so that the school system has to actually educate them, rather than functioning like a prison system.
Hubby and I both really liked it. It was very funny and clever. The way the main character, Leon, rebels against the school system and administration is very smart, and I wish I'd had as much motivation when I was in high school. Rather than just whining about how stupid the dress code is when some people can't even read at a functional level, he addresses the contradictions inherent in the school system. Students are expected to be as responsible as adults, and yet also to do as they're told, like children.
If I had watched this in high school, I would seriously have tried to stage a walk-out at some point (possibly). We really enjoyed this movie, and some of the one-liners are classics. If you know anything about the history of the Communist movement, it has a whole other level of humor as well. On the Clever Chick scale, this gets a "I will quote it, probably watch it again, and recommend it to friends, but it's for a niche audience".
Movie Review: Westworld
Westworld is kind of an odd movie. It's about a resort people can go to, and choose between a vacation in Romanworld, Medievalworld, or Westworld. It's basically a giant Live Action Role Playing (LARP) game, with robots for the guests to interact with. It stars Yul Brynner as a cowboy, which is my favorite role to see him in. He is a robot cowboy though.
I'm going to tell you right now, do not google the movie trailer on this one. That trailer gives away everything! I try very hard to avoid spoilers, but that was apparently not a consideration back in 1973. Basically, the story follows James, James Brolin and his friend through Westworld. They get to live old-west style, including riding horses, bar fights, and shoot outs.
Considering the age of this movie, the special effects are really spectacular. They hold up remarkably well, and Yul Brynner is menacing as all get-out. There's very little in this movie that makes you think, "Well, it was the 70's. We should cut them some slack".
One interesting fact I found on IMDb's Westworld page, is that it was written and directed by Michael Crichton (yes, the Jurassic Park guy). This guy obviously uses the Stephen King method of writing, only instead of in every story something normally inocuous becomes frightening, his single plot line is "There's a huge technological inovation that somehow goes horribly awry". Seriously, name one book of his that's not like that.
Guess what else the wonderful Internet Movie Database has shown me?? (God, I love that site). There's a remake in the works!! I have ceased to be surprised by Hollywood's constant cannibalization of itself. I can't even keep track of all the remakes enough to be outraged about them! And that gem of a human being Russell Crowe is rumored to be a part of it. I hardly even want to waste the energy to shake my head in disgust. The only thing that would make it cool would be if Josh Brolin was in it, but I doubt that'll happen. I think I'll have to google every movie from now on just to make sure whether or not it's a remake. Is there no creativity left in the world!??!
Movie Review: Auntie Mame
Last year for New Year's, Hubby and I had the idea to watch all of the AFI top 100 movies this year. Somehow, we've only watched a few, though they have been pretty good, for the most part. Yesterday we finally watched Auntie Mame, which has been in our Netflix queue this whole time.
Some older movies can be kind of stiff, or even unintelligible just due to the passage of time. This movie was actually really funny and entertaining the whole way through. It's longer than most current movies, but there weren't any boring parts. Some of the effects were a bit campy, but that's to be expected. Hubby and I both laughed frequently, and completely enjoyed it. Like Bridge on the River Kwai I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe these old movies aren't as stuffy and boring as I always thought? We'll see. I still don't like Citizen Kane.
Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in the West
This movie, Once Upon a Time in the West, is an iconic spaghetti western, with a compelling story. It stars Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda, and was directed by Sergio Leone. Much like other classics, like The Magnificent Seven, this is a tale of justice, and the whole story is completely entrancing. The musical score is haunting, and very distinctive, and I absolutely love it. It adds so much more dimension to the film.
I know what you're probably thinking. I don't seem like the type to enjoy westerns. I do love a good spaghetti western though. This one has that perfect blend of style, story, and characters. There are no weak parts. The entire execution is fantastic, and this is spaghetti western at its best.
With spaghetti westerns and B-movies, you kind of have to filter out the good ones. Fortunately, you guys have me to do all the leg work. See how much I love you little minions? I'm willing to sit on my couch, crafting and watching movie after movie, just so you know what to watch. I accept appreciation in the form of gifts and cash.
Spaghetti westerns and B-movies are low budget, mass produced movies, which is why they can be so hit-or-miss. There are definitely some jewels out there (like obviously The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly series), and this is one of them. Once you have seen it (because this link contains **SPOILERS**), check out this music video someone made from the movie and Arcade Fire's "My Body is a Cage". It's phenomenal (my link tool isn't working right now, so here's the address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyp34v6Lmcc )
Look, one blog post leading to at least TWO HOURS of entertainment. You're welcome, minions!
Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November
In honor of today being the fifth of November, I'm going to write a movie review of one of my favorite movies, "V for Vendetta". For those of you who don't know, V is based on a comic book set in the dystopian future of Great Britain. The movie is apparently somewhat tamer than the comic, but of course the comic doesn't have Natalie Portman, so we'll call it a draw.
If you have not seen this movie yet, go find someone who is a casual acquaintance, who probably doesn't like you very much and has limited understanding of social mores, and get them to slap you. A friend would be too gentle for this situation.
Natalie Portman gives a damn fine performance, crying her giant doe eyes out, and/or looking bad ass the whole time. This movie has the perfect mixture of dark foreboding, some form of twisted romance, and vengeance. The director has gone to fantastic lengths to maintain the mystery of the characters, which goes against the trend in Hollywood. And by "trend" I mean "Mafia-like persuasion from studio executives who know nothing about making good movies".
Hugo Weaving completely kills this role, but you never even think about the fact that he's under that mask. Everyone in the movie fulfills their roles in ways most movies only shadow. There is not a single weak spot in the cast, sets, costumes, effects, design, lighting, directing, or any other part of the film making process. Even the marketing department was on board, and didn't give away the entire plot in the trailers, like most tend to do. I constantly re-love this movie anytime I see it. Today is the fifth of November, the day the movie is centered around, so GO WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!!
It's HALLOWEEN!!
In honor of Halloween, I decided to post my top 5 favorite zombie movies. I would love to post my costume, and stuff like that, but I don't want to reveal it before the big moment. Zombie movies are some of my favorites, and if you haven't seen any of the ones I'm about list, never admit it to anyone. You should be pretty embarrassed.
Zombieland – This movie is hysterical, and I don't think it got nearly enough notice when it came out. Bill Murray cameos, and it is one of the funniest scenes of any movie in the past couple of years.
Planet Terror – This movie came out as a double feature with Death Proof, by Austin's precious Quentin Tarantino. Planet Terror is ridiculous, over-the-top, and epic.
Dawn of the Dead – George A. Romero is the god father of zombie movies. I prefer the 2004 version that he wrote, rather than directed. This one is serious, how-the-hell-will-we-survive-this zombie mayhem. Corn syrup explosions abound!
28 Days Later – I love this one because the characters are really practical, and to encourages people to plan ahead for a zombie apocalypse. I think that's an important lesson to learn.
Shaun of the Dead – This is not only, my very favorite zombie movie, this is one of my favorite movies ever. It is hilarious, clever, and makes me laugh every time I see it.
If watching all those movies made you paranoid, you can always check out the zombie survival guide. It will definitely cheer you up, if nothing else.


text:
LUCY Costello has become the latest member of Warrington Gymnastics Club to achieve national acclaim.
The 14-year-old, who finished third in December's British tournament, has been selected for the Great Britain tumbling team, and will join them for training next month.
She is dedicated to her craft, spending five days per week at Warrington's Evans House gym.
"Lucy's selection is a testament to the hard work and commitment she has shown for the sport and is a well-deserved achievement," said coach Shane Robinson.
Some of the club's younger competitors this week took part in the Cheshire and Merseyside regional grades competition.
Millie Adamson and Elinor Dohery tackled their first four-piece competition, both girls passing at regional grade 14 with a clear 10 marks each.
In grade 12, Charlie Hall, Madison Bailey-Moyes and Beckie Knowles passed with distinction.
Hall was placed fourth overall, while Bailey-Moyes had the highest score on beam.
Paige Cridland, Mollie Benson and Saskia Fiswick succeeded with distinction at grade 11.
Cridland's score of 45.7 put her fourth place overall.
Warrington Gymnastics Club hope this success continues later this month when Izzy Hall, Lucy Swann, Sophie Collier and Jess Adamson compete in the North West Compulsory and National Grades in Wigan.
Meanwhile Wire Gymnastics Club were also celebrating success in Liverpool.
They came away with Beth Giles as grade 13 champion and Olivia Wright as grade 12 champion, while Holly Doherty was third in grade 12.
Savannah Taylor and Kayleigh Perrin gained selection for the Cheshire and Merseyside teams to compete at regional finals later this month.


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Aleeah NaChae Model
Bella MychelleModel Female Athens, Ohio, US
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About MeI have had a couple years of modeling in the past, and loved it. I have had experience in photo shoots, run ways, events and may more, I may be contacted by email or phone. I am up for a little of anything and willing to make a drive. I am very outgoing and fun loving.
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Credit NotesWest Images mm# 1901242
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