text:
Witness testimony in the trial for a Fairfield woman accused of plotting the beating and gunshot slaying of a Fairfield man in 2011 came from the suspect's daughter on Thursday in Solano County Superior Court.
On trial for the beating and execution-style death of Keith Erick Osby Jr., 27, murder defendant Ryan S. Bigoski Odom, 32, watched as her daughter described the events of May 12, 2011. On that day, Osby was called over to Odom's San Andreas Street home, where he was reportedly going to be confronted about some alleged thefts from the residence.
Crystal Odom was 17 at the time of the incident and testified that Osby arrived at the home that afternoon. Not charged in connection with the case, the teenager testified under a grant of immunity from prosecutors.
She testified that a co-defendant in the case, Jennifer Whittington, 19, directed Osby inside one of the bedrooms, where her mother and co-defendants Frank P. Bigoski IV, 27, Khalil Askari-Roberts, 30, Janiel D. Miller, 40, Tina Odom, 18, and Damarcus V. Armstrong, 20, were already located.
"I told him not to go into the bedroom because my mom was still mad about the PlayStation and thinks you stole it," Crystal testified.
The door was shut and she heard a "thumping" noise.
Later, she saw Osby in the laundry room with his hands bound behind his back and tape around his head, covering his mouth. He looked like he'd been beat up and was crying, Crystal testified.
Odom said that she worried about Osby retaliating if they let him go, and soon left with Askari-Roberts, who worked for a cab company, Crystal testified.
She added that she later saw Armstrong return to the home with a cab. Bigoski and Armstrong then loaded Osby into the back and Armstrong drove away alone.
During the loading of Osby's body, Crystal testified that she saw a gun in Armstrong's pocket, which he called "Stella."
Osby was found the following day in the parking lot of the Springbrook Masonic Temple in Vallejo wearing a blindfold. He had suffered a bullet wound to his head and his arms were bound behind his back with tape, according to witness testimony.
Odom's defense counsel, Suisun City criminal defense attorney Leslie Prince, has refuted claims by prosecutors that the beating and gunshot slaying was planned. Further, she has indicated that Odom only slapped and kicked Osby during the assault, but she left the room when Osby was being bound with tape.
Odom is not a violent person, according to Crystal's testimony, and she was unaware of any plans that Odom had made to harm Osby.
The trial is set to continue at 10 a.m. today in the Fairfield courtroom of Judge Wendy G. Getty.
Odom has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and torture and remains in Solano County Jail without bail.
Follow Staff Writer Ryan Chalk at Twitter.com/RyanChalk1883.


text:
BECOME A PREFERRED SUBSCRIBER+ Get 15% off Your Next Order
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Heavy-duty pump dispenses up to 15 gpm
This explosion-proof, Fill-Rite fuel pump features a 12V, 1/4 HP motor with a permanent magnet and powdered iron rotor with bronze or acetal vanes for a greater flow rate and trouble-free performance. A ceramic carbon seal reduces wear and repair expense making this pump a real workhorse. Pump may be padlocked for security. 2" NPT threaded base for tank openings. This pump includes a corrosion-proof adjustable suction pipe, 12'L x 3/4"-dia. hose and an 18'L power cord. 1" inlet, 3/4" outlet size. Optional flow meter. UL/cUL listed. 15 gpm. USA made.
Note: Horsepower and materials of construction vary with model.
See all fuel transfer equipment and accessories
2017 Reference Guide: Page 523

subset: commoncrawl


text:
On the Hill video ski report: Conditions improving at Vail
December 24, 2012
Brought to you by The Steadman Clinic and the Steadman Philippon Research Institute.
Vail official report: 0″ new snow
Liftline status: No line at Chair 6
Weather: A little warmer today and very sunny
Run of the day: Cappuccino
Breakdown: With temperatures rising, conditions are improving at Vail, and the few inches of recent snow we've received seemed to have changed from the chalky consistency we saw during the below-zero temperatures to a nice fluffy feel. There's soft snow and powder to be found in the Chair 22 area and out Ptarmigan Ridge way, and as usual, the groomers are fantastic. The hill's in good shape right now! Get out and enjoy it.
Recommended Stories For You
Snowcast: We're dry for at least a week, but something could roll in starting next Thursday.
On the Hill is shot with a GoPro HERO3 Silver Edition.


text:
Please let me know by PM.
I don't live in Indiana anymore, but I would like to come back for the game. I thought maybe with the matchup not being teams Indy fans care that much about, someone might be willing to bow out.
I'd be willing to pay a going rate, though perhaps not full stubhub / ebay re-sale prices.


text:
Hey Len, this is a present to you, from Hardi. I like when u smile.LennyeTran wrote:(((Edu))) wrote:Give flowers to her. If she no smile, give money
You can surely make my smile with money. I hate receiving flowers.
Dixie wrote:Oriani wrote:Dixie, this is for you
Aren't you sweet!!!!!!! Come here!!!!
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text:
§ 416.923. Multiple impairments.
In determining whether your physical or mental impairment or impairments are of a sufficient medical severity that such impairment or impairments could be the basis of eligibility under the law, we will consider the combined effect of all of your impairments without regard to whether any such impairment, if considered separately, would be of sufficient severity. If we do find a medically severe combination of impairments, the combined impact of the impairments will be considered throughout the disability determination process. If we do not find that you have a medically severe combination of impairments, we will determine that you are not disabled (see §§ 416.920 and 416.924).
[50 FR 8729, Mar. 5, 1985, as amended at 56 FR 5554, Feb. 11, 1991]


text:
So you've just spent hours painstakingly backing up every last scrap of data on your PC to a second hard drive and a tall stack of CDs swaying swiftly in the aircon breeze. Well done. Then your house catches fire. Everything is gone. Not so well done.
Unlikely, but possible nonetheless, and no amount of disc cloning, incremental backups and external hard
drives is going to defend your data against it. Online backup is the alternative: you pays yer money, you gets yer storage space on a secure private server. Genie offers many of the features that its offline peers do, such as file compression, incremental and differential backup, scheduled tasks and encryption.
Additionally, an array of optional plugins will back up settings, histories and customisations to common programs such as MSN Messenger and Windows Media Player.
Because the average UK broadband connection doesn't offer more than 40k/second upstreams, taking a backup of your PC will take days. Even 100Mb will take the best part of an hour, although incremental backups only updating, say, new Word files in My Documents, won't take long at all.
Given that 8Gb of storage space will cost you almost £200 a year, you're not going to be uploading much
anyway. The $50 500Mb or $80 1Gb account is the more likely option and given that you get more space than that for free with Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo mail, it's also a bit of a gip.
You're paying for the knowledge that your scant few megabytes are safe, but burning your offline backup to DVD and giving it to a friend to look after is quicker and cheaper. In theory, online backup makes sense; in practice, it's more suited to business with money to burn and fat pipes to upload from than it is for us average Joes.


text:
XLARGE, launched in 1991 in Los Angeles, offers a streetwear collection that includes tee shirts, tank tops, buttondowns, hoodies, hats, and other apparel and accessories. Created by Eli Bonerz and Adam Silverman, with help from Mike D. from the Beastie Boys, XLARGE aims to mix skateboard, art, and music cultures to create an original fashion style. From its humble beginnings as a single shop in downtown L.A., XLARGE has expanded to become a worldwide leader for streetwear, and can now be found from New York to Tokyo, and everywhere in between. XLARGE is often considered a less-expensive alternative to A Bathing Ape (BAPE), since both brands are known for using a gorilla or monkey logo on their shirts.
No products match your selections. Try clearing your filters.


text: This news item expired on 10/15/2013, so the information below could be outdated or incorrect. Black Mountain Mystery Book Club: The Informationist Tuesday, October 15 at 7pm Black Mountain Library 105 Dougherty Street 250-4756 The book to be discussed is "The Informationist" by Taylor Stevens. All interested readers are welcome to attend.


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TUCSON, Ariz. – Like most New England Revolution fans, head coach Jay Heaps was left frustrated by Wednesday night's late collapse against Real Salt Lake. Carrying a 2-1 lead into the closing stages, the Revs conceded twice in the final three minutes as victory swiftly turned to defeat.
But Heaps will be much more disappointed if a similar scenario plays out in the regular season, especially now that the Revs have had a chance to learn from their preseason mistakes.
"Last night I thought we did a few good things and to have it erased in a negative connotation because of the result is pretty disappointing," said Heaps. "With that said, I like having those experiences now, to be honest with you, so we can talk about it and we can work on it. The players that think of themselves as leaders and players I think of as leaders, they need to do better there."
Leadership is a vital aspect of closing games. It's in those pressure-packed moments when younger players turn to their more experienced teammates for guidance, and when leaders need to take control.
The Revs made a conscious effort to add more veteran leadership this past offseason – signing experienced Europeans Kalifa Cisse, Andy Dorman and Jose Goncalves – in part to help in those exact situations. But with the Revs limiting minutes on Wednesday night, both Cisse and Goncalves weren't on the field for the closing stages.
In the regular season, those players will be relied upon to help close games, whether it's by communicating with a teammate, slowing the pace or simply making the smartest and safest play.
"It's instinct," said Heaps. "If it's 2-2 and there's 30 seconds left and you give the ball away, maybe that pass doesn't go to that guy; maybe it goes over into the corner. Maybe it's your ball on a throw-in and it's a conversation you have to slow the game down. They're intangibles.
"Those are what leadership and experience are all about. Take a knee, talk to a guy, play quicker, make the right play, kick the ball out of bounds or talk to your goalkeeper during a goal kick. We used to do all of it and we need more of it."
After playing the first half against RSL, Goncalves could only watch from the bench as the Revs saw their late lead slip away in the final three minutes. But once the regular season gets underway, the 27-year-old veteran of Switzerland, Germany and Scotland hopes to help the Revs avoid any more late collapses.
"It's very frustrating to lose the game in the last few minutes," Goncalves said. "We got back into the game, we were doing well, moving the ball, creating some chances, and in the end we did it for nothing. They score two goals in [three] minutes. That can't happen again. We must be very clever; much more clever than that."


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SB: NC State splits Saturday DH in Tempe
Posted February 9, 2014
Tempe, Ariz. — The NC State softball team concluded play in the Kajikawa Classic on Saturday, with a win in the first game of the day against Boise State, 6-1, before suffering a 5-0 loss against No. 8 Oregon in the final game of the night.
Junior Emily Weiman had a great day in the circle for the Wolfpack (1-5), combining for 22 strikeouts on the afternoon with 11 in each contest. She also pitched all seven innings of both games and stuck out the side twice against Boise State (1-2).
Scout Albertson, a senior from Archdale, N.C., ignited the Wolfpack's offense against the Broncos in the third inning with a double to right center. Classmate Kirsty Grant followed with a single to center field, advancing Albertson over to third base. Lana Van Dyken ripped another single for the Pack, scoring Albertson on the play.
A groundout to the second baseman by Renada Davis drove in the second run of the game for NC State and Chelsea Tate hit a sacrifice fly to center field to plate the final run of the inning.
With a 3-1 lead heading into the top of the seventh, the Pack was not satisfied with its two run lead and started looking for insurance runs. Leah Jones led off the inning with a single and freshman Tyler Ross followed with her a first collegiate home run, a shot over the left field fence.
After a flyout, Grant singled prior to Davis smacking a double to left center, scoring Grant on the play. Boise State plated its lone run of the contest in the first inning, after the leadoff hitter reached on a bunt single and later scored.
Grant and Van Dyken paced the Wolfpack at the plate, batting 2-for-3, while Albertson, Davis, Jones and Ross each had one hit. Davis and Ross each collected two RBI in the contest, while Tate and Van Dyken drove in the other two runs.
NC State did a great job of keeping the eighth-ranked Oregon (3-1) offense at bay in the second game of the day, as the Ducks only had one inning in which it scored more than one run in the frame. Weiman escaped a couple of bases loaded jams in the game, retiring most of the hitters to end the inning by strikeout.
The Pack put several hard hit balls in play on offense, but only one fell in for a hit as Van Dyken singled to left field.
NC State will be next be in action on Friday, Feb. 14, when it takes the field against St. Johns in the University of Arkansas Invitational. First pitch of that contest is slated for 10:30 a.m. EST.


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A YOUNG Rovers fan will see his heroes fight for promotion to the Premier League for free next season - after being handed a golden season ticket by manager Gary Bowyer.
Matthew Spencer was given the ticket as he walked through the town centre with his mum yesterday morning.
The nine-year-old, of Knowles Street, Rishton, is the first of 20 lucky fans who will receive free tickets to celebrate 20 years since the club won the Premier League title.
The St Charles' Primary School pupil was walking with his mum, Bernadette, outside the club shop, wearing his Rovers shirt, when Mr Bowyer approached. "I said to my mum, 'that's Gary Bowyer', but she said, 'it can't be'. Then he walked up to us and gave me the ticket. I was really surprised. I'm really happy, and my friends will be jealous."
Matthew, who lives with his mum and dad, Scott, already travels to see Rovers home and away, and has been a club mascot in the past.
Mr Bowyer said: "It's a fantastic idea from the club to celebrate 20 years since winning the Premier League. To come into town and find this young lad was a tremendous feeling."
Bernadette added: "His dad Scott was at work, but he will be ecstatic. We always wave at Gary from the Jack Walker Stand, and we go and watch the team train too."
Outside, a Rovers' staff member was given his own special ticket - a parking fine - much to the amusement of Mr Bowyer, who left at around 10am.
The 19 remaining tickets will be given away over the course of the pre-season, although the club has yet to reveal how it will do it.


text:
Topic: Tumor effacing the common bile duct
The MRI show that a tumor is effacing the common bile duct the onc told me today that its mean the tumor is pressing on the common bile duct and that is what is causing jaundice and itching not a need for decompression of the bile duct but the position of the tumor is bad have anyone have this case ? He transferred us to a surgical oncologist tomorrow to know if something can be done with that tumor pressing on the bile duct maybe a surgery ?? I'm really confused have anyone been in this case ? A stent is not possible coz of the tumor being on the common bile duct that sound weird a bit I'm sure there is a solution for that with a surgical procedure it cannot be left like that any suggestion would be kind of you all . Hope for you all the best


text:
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text:
Mail: Southern statues symbolize suppession
Mail: Thanks for helping Aiden
More opinion
Fall: Good time to spray musk thistle in rosette stage
Robertson and Delsing re-elected chair, vice chair of NWB
More Ag News
The students of North Platte Community College music instructor Elizabeth Peters will present a vocal recital at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 27, in the McDonald-Belton Theater on the south college campus.
There will be a variety of solo performances including arias, art songs, and musical theater selections. The concert will conclude with guest artist Wayd Odle performing his original composition of Memories of Christmas.
Students from NPCC include Victoria Daly, Ellen Duggan-Bailey, Erik Geilenkirchen, Dana Gibson, Benjamin Hill, Amariah Hodgen, Hannah Hokanson, Sonie Kuhlman, Rascal Martinez, Jacob McNeel, Stacia Nutter, Andrea Rivera, Florence Todd, Kayla Turner and Meshka Waya.
North Platte High School students include Maggie Bianco, Dalton Carlson, Kathleen Cullinan, Bailey Lehmkuhler and Michael Odle.
The recital is free and open to the public. A reception will be held in the fireplace area following the recital.
Flatrock Publishing, Inc.
1300 E 4th St., Suite F
North Platte, NE 69101


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Harold and Ted resin figure releasing October 1st...
For a great selection of action figures and collectibles, check out BigBadToyStore.com, Urban-Collector.com, DollsAmerica.com, ClarkToys.com, ToyWiz.com, BriansToys.com, VNCToys.com, PastGenerationToys.com, MonkeyDepot.com, RPMDiecast.com, HobbyLinkJapan.com, YesAnimation.com, and SuperheroToys.com.
For a great selection of pop culture t-shirts and apparel, check out TShirtGurus.com and 80sTees.com.
As previously reported, designer collectibles company Blamo is launching its new website - blamotoys.com - on October 1st. To promote the launch they are releasing their very first resin figure: Harold and Ted.
This first "gray-scale edition" of Harold and Ted will be a Blamo webstore exclusive and limited to only 20 pieces in this colorway. 1 in 20 is a super special, hand-painted "silver edition" that comes with its own unique silver screened box.
Harold and Ted will be released October 1st at 12 noon pacific time and will cost $50.
To celebrate the new Harold and Ted Blamoville character, Blamo will also be releasing a hand cast brass Harold necklace. It will be released at the same time as the figure, and will cost $22.


text:
A Stress Link to Lupus
September 20, 2017,
Pantothenic acid and biotin are types of B vitamins. They are water-soluble, which means that the body can't store them. If the body can't use all of the vitamin, the extra leaves the body through the urine. These vitamins must be replaced in the body every day.
Pantothenic acid; Pantethine; Vitamin B5
Pantothenic acid and biotin are essential for growth. They help the body break down and use food. This is called metabolism.
Pantothenic acid also plays a role in the production of hormones and cholesterol.
Biotin is found in foods that are good sources of B vitamins, including:
Pantothenic acid is found in foods that are good sources of B vitamins, including the following:
There are no known deficiencies of either pantothenic acid or biotin.
Large doses of pantothenic acid do not cause symptoms, other than (possibly) diarrhea. There are no known toxic symptoms from biotin.
Reference Intakes
Recommendations for pantothenic acid and biotin, as well as other nutrients, are provided in the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) developed by the Food and Nutrition Board at the Institute of Medicine. DRI is a term for a set of reference intakes that are used to plan and assess the nutrient intakes of healthy people. These values, which vary by age and gender, include:
Dietary Reference INtakes for pantothenic acid:
*Adequate Intake (AI)
*Adequate Intake (AI)
The best way to get the daily requirement of essential vitamins is to eat a balanced diet that contains a variety of foods.
Specific recommendations depend on age, gender, and other factors (such as pregnancy). Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding need higher amounts. Ask your health care provider which amount is best for you.
Escott-Stump S, ed. Nutrition and Diagnosis-Related Care . 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2008.
Sarubin Fragaakis A, Thomson C. The Health Professional's Guide to Popular Dietary Supplements . 3rd ed. Chicago, Il: American Dietetic Association;2007.
Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes: Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Carotenoids. National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 2000.


text:
Hot Collectibles From The Hit HBO Series...
Dark Horse continues to support HBO's hit fantasy series Game of Thrones with a wide selection of collectible novelty items as well as a line of high-end resin sculptures. On display at New York Toy Fair were numerous stunning entries in the latter category, including a set of cool Direwolf bookends (in stores now, MSRP $79.99), a statue of the clever dwarf Tyrion (in stores this month, MSRP $199.99), majestic mini replica of the show's namesake, the Iron Throne (March release, MSRP $59.99) and an eye-grabbing sculpture of Jon Snow and Ghost statue due out this June (Pictured Above, MSRP $349.99). Dark Horse had another amazing sculpture on display, but we weren't allowed to photograph it due to it not being approved yet. A paint-master, the piece depicts a White Walker from the waist up clutching an ice spear. The limited edition bust was digitally sculpted and will feature straw wrappings on the spear, a cool translucent resin "icicle" spear tip and electronic light-up blue eyes! The piece will appropriately be called The White Walker.
Pictured: A White Walker as seen on HBO's Game of Thrones
Fans that recall way back to when Dark Horse received the Game of Thrones license (see our late 2011 story HERE) will remember that action figures were part of that deal. We spoke to Dark Horse about that at Toy Fair and they were pleased to say that figures are still on the way. Dark Horse is simply making sure everything is in place and perfected before showing them off; the line to fully embrace all the major characters of the show. Unfortunately fans will just have to hang tight a little bit longer - right now 2014 is being strongly eyed as the launch date.
To insure your action figure collection, get in touch with Collectibles Insurance, the official insurance company of the Figures.com network. Say "Figures.com" to get 5% off your first term premiums.
To buy action figures, take a look at BigBadToyStore.com, Toynk.com, BriansToys.com, ToyWiz.com, and MonkeyDepot.com.


text:
Not too long ago, I found out that Guinness — those guys that determine the world's tallest person, longest fingernails, and the most t-shirts ever worn at one time, were coming out with a new book that shares videogame records. While it's not the first time Guinness has recorded videogame records, it's their first book devoted completely to games. To help create the book, Guinness worked with Twin Galaxies, who have been recording pinball and videogame records for years.
The book, Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, just recently went on sale (I got my copy in the mail two days ago), and it even features two pages on the Elder Scrolls series. I won't spoil the whole book (soon to be a staple in my bathroom library), but here's a few tidbits I thought I'd share:
- Daggerfall has the largest land-based game area at 63,125 square miles.
- Daggerfall is also listed as having the most NPCs (non-player characters) in any RPG with 750,000.
- The fastest play-through of Morrowind was done by Vladimir "Knu" Semenov at 7 minutes, 30 seconds. Kudos to Freddo for pointing this out a month ago.
Who knows, maybe there's a record out there waiting for you to break it. My new goal is to beat Brian Sulpher's record for highest margin of victory over an AI opponent in a basketball videogame. In Tecmo Super NBA Basketball for SNES, he beat the computer by 331 points. If the Pistons could score 186 points in a real-life NBA game, maybe I can pull off my own magic with their virtual counterpart.


text:
Hey hey,
I'm new at all this, and while I understand everything quite well in theory, I'm not too good with verbiage yet. I.e., conceptually, I really understand all the bits and pieces. However, if I use such labels as "pipeline" a bit out of place, forgive. Also, I don't know if the following Q will sound odd, but I really do know what I'm doing with it, and I'd like to be able to pull it off. So...
I'm tinkering around with polygons and such on the rendering pipeline, and I wanted to know how you could go about manipulating the individual vectors from coordinate to coordinate that form the polygon faces. What I'd like to do is have the polygon matrices all lined up (i.e., the world all the way to the projection, the final "2D" image if you will) and then mess around with the polygons vectors in between the vertices. Actually, I would like to mess around with the vector lines before that stage in the pipeline if that's possible.
Basically, I would like to find out how to interface with the lines drawn between vertices on any stage of the pipeline, do my own math on them real-time, and also manipulate the art styles of the vertex-to-vertex vectors as well.
Thanks for any help out there!
I'm having a hard time understanding what you're talking about. Maybe some kind of a mocked-up screenshot would help communicate what you're trying to do?
Perhaps this is a better explanation...
Say you take the vertices 4,3 and, say, 2,1 of a square and the vector line drawn between them. Is there a way to say to the engine, "take these vertices, place one more in between them that I will give to you by this mathematical function, and draw two vectors in lieu of one"? And, is there a way to add artistic "adjustments" to vectors drawn between coordinates, not just using the polygon edges as placeholders, if you will, for the spaces they describe?
Hmm. It sounds like what you want to do is along the lines of subdividing a mesh - cutting up its polygons (or in your case, apparently, cutting up lines) into smaller ones and then applying displacements to the new vertices generated by this. There are a lot of ways to do this; which is the best way will depend on what you're trying to do. One way is to do it all on the CPU and include all the subdivided, displaced vertices in the vertex buffer you submit to the GPU. If the geometry must be animated, you would use a dynamic vertex buffer that's refilled each frame. Alternatively, you might use a geometry shader on the GPU, or even the hardware tesselation shaders if you have quite recent video hardware.
I still don't know what you mean by "artistic adjustments to vectors" (I think by vectors you really mean line segments) or "placeholders for the spaces they describe".
Thanks Reedbeta, def going in the right direction. Excellent. Really appreciate your great help and advice. I'm getting the gist of what you're saying, and I think that's pretty much what I'm getting at. Half of my problem is figuring out the exact terminology and classifications of what I'm seeking to do, which is very defined and thought-out conceptually in my mind and on paper.
I'm looking to do quite a lot with what must be called "displaced vertices" and such; basically a lot of math somewhere directly prior to the actual frame display. The thing is, I want as few polygons as possible, but I'd like to do adjustments to the polygons somewhere along the render pipeline (and where is something I'm trying to figure out). One of the things I'm struggling with is dealing with what are inherently "structural" things and not actual display things. I.e., usually, the line segments (sorry! That's what I meant by "vectors", learning the correct lingo here) of meshes exist in the undisplayed mesh matrix world of the engine, but not in the actual frame on the screen, where they're "colored over" and not necessarily used as lines themselves.
Firstly, I'd like to use certain line segments ("outline" ones, basically") to draw comic-book style "ink" lines. This would obviously vary frame to frame and require (I'm assuming) algorithms to determine which polygon vertices and line segments are actually the current outline ones. It would also mean, of course, that I'm seeking to directly use the usually non-displayed polygon vertices as art tools themselves (black lines), and that I'm seeking to have artistic control over how they're displayed (what I meant by artistic adjustment to vectors). I'd also have to develop algorithms of some sort to "color in" the spaces made by the outlines (what I meant by placeholders basically), and I'd like to use the polygon points in between the "outline" line segments to determine the shading and such, as those points would obviously contain info about how far various portions of the in-between-the-lines segments protrude inwards or outwards in the mesh in that particular frame. I'm also seeking to figure out how to dynamically create polygon "points" that would generate temporary polygons over a certain area of a mesh. I.e., if for a brief moment a mesh needs to bend or morph in a certain section of its body, I want to be able to create said "points" and have either shading data and/or literal polygons and vertices be created, if only temporarily for the movement.
Hope that all makes sense...? If it doesn't, let me know and I'll go at it again; I know exactly what I'm going at, but I don't know if it's coming across very clearly... Thanks so much for your help! I'm really appreciating devmaster.net and the forums; by far the best dev forum I've been on. Thanks again. Great stuff here.
Ahh, outlining. Something you may want to google is "non-photorealistic rendering" or NPR. There's actually a good amount of research out there about rendering in artistic styles, making images look painted, inked and so forth.
One pretty simple way to do outlining is to draw two copies of the mesh; one is drawn normally, with full color, lighting shading, and the second copy is drawn all in black, with backface culling reversed (so that it draws back faces but not front faces) and is slightly expanded by pushing the vertices outward along their normal vectors. This offsetting can be done dynamically in the vertex shader quite easily. The result is that since the front faces of the second draw are missing, it doesn't occlude the surfaces from the first draw, but at the edges you can see a bit of the back side of the expanded mesh.
Doing it this way, the outline would automatically update based on camera position and movement of the object. You could alter the color and thickness of the outline per-vertex as well, if that's what you wanted to do. I think you would need pretty highly tesselated meshes to make this look good from all angles, though.
Another option for outlines is to run an image-space postprocess that detects edges using a Sobel filter and darkens them. That can also be done in a pixel shader using what's called a full-screen pass.
Ah ha, thanks a bunch Reedbeta. That's terrific stuff to chew on. Def going to track all that stuff down. I hadn't thought about approaching my aims with those techniques. I'm still curious, is there a way to "draw" line segments themselves? Use them as art lines, if you will, themselves, and manipulate the art? I gather that's not necessarily a common aim, but I do figure that there's a way to do it.
PS--in reference to your above post, I'm assuming that those are essentially the core techniques of the art of a game like Borderlands? That game is fairly close to the look I want. I just want a few additional abilities regarding line segments and art control.
Yes, the GPU can draw line segments directly and even run pixel shaders on the lines. I don't know specifically how Borderlands works but after doing a google search and reading some forum posts, it seems that people think it is being done as a postprocess. I did not find anyone from the company explaining how it's done, though, so people could be mistaken.
Thanks for the research Reedbeta, appreciate it. It seems that you are indeed affirming what I've hoped for, that I can use the line segments are art lines (like "brush strokes"), and that I can do some art on them too. That, combined with the other techniques you've mentioned, give me a lot to work with. Do you have any idea with sort of functions in APIs deal directly with line segments? Or do you just take vertex and line segment data from polygon data and..I dunno, write your own quasi-wrappers...algorithms...whatever?
Thanks again for all your help. This place is great.
Well, making lines look like brush strokes is going to be challenging. When I say GPUs can draw lines, I mean that they basically give you what the line tool does in MSPaint. They're a fixed width and you have to give a list of vertices which the lines will traverse, connect-the-dots style, and each line is basically a long, thin rectangle. While you can run a pixel shader to generate different colors along the length of the line, it doesn't sound like that's enough to do what you want - although it's hard to judge without seeing something concrete, like a Photoshop mockup of the kind of image you hope to create. You might have to do your brush-strokes by drawing quad strips and mapping a texture along the strip, or something like that. Basically, literal points and lines are second-class citizens in the GPU world, and you get the greatest flexibility by using polygons, which is what it's really designed for.
Before going too much further with your project, I'd strongly suggest that you roll up your sleeves and dive into the NeHe tutorials and work through those until you have a more concrete idea about how 3D graphics APIs work. There's just so many details and concepts that I won't be able to explain in the space of a forum post, and which you'll learn much faster by trying out and doing yourself than by reading about them in generalities.
It's been a while since I touched cell shading techniques and felt like whipping up a quick demo illustrating sobel edge detection. You can view the shader source here (nothing special really). Both rendering techniques, post-process edge detection and back-face rendering, have flaws though. Accurate edge detection requires and image with high contrast. If your image lacks contrast, you can end up with some less than desirable results. In my particular demo, I rendered the first pass using full ambient lighting, which is why only the silhouette edges are rendered and not the interior edges. Had I included lighting in the first pass, some of the 3D models with low polygons would end up looking like wireframes once the edges are rendered. It just requires some careful maths to get around. Rendering the edges with back-face polygons is another technique that works well all-around, but you can run into problems with low detail models or viewing models at certain angles.
I think it's possible to do clean looking brush strokes if you can render the edges as lines instead of reverse engineering that from models or images. You can view a couple neat brush algorithms on Mr. Doob's Harmony web app.
Reedbeta: I see. Yeah, that's basically what I'm trying to do. I simply want to have total access to line segments so I can take the data and write a heck of a lot of my own shaders to do a bunch of things to them. And yes, I'm looking into those NeHe tutorials. They look awesome, planning to rip through most of them shortly.
T.N.: Wowzers, thanks! That's a lot of great info to take in. Ideally, I'd like to do what you said, take some algorithms a la Mr. Doob's example there and apply them to outline line segments in order to achieve a comic pen/ink/brush look with slight imperfections and variable width.
PS--how do I uploaded images to a post here from my comp? I'm trying to load a few images from my comics... In the meantime, my reference styles, very close to my own, are the B&W linework from Calvin and Hobbes (i.e., what I'd like to develop line segment shader algorithms for) and, as regards the coloration, both the watercolor images Bill Watterson did in his books and the matte coloration found in the Tintin comics. Sort of a medium between the two.
You can upload your images to ImageShack or another free image host, and then insert them in a forum post using that URL (there's an image button on the toolbar here).
I'd recommend to use imgur.com. It works better than the others, with less hassle.
Sweet, thanks.


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Marga Cacho, member of Regnum Christi, brought many souls closer to Christ with her smile, enthusiasm and charity.
I still remember the first day of the mission November
6, 2002. We were in the car on the way
to see the village near Malvar in the Philippines for
the first time and I remember thinking, "Is this for
real? Am I really going to be knocking on
doors of complete strangers and asking them if I could
come in and talk to them for a while about
God?" I really did not think I was the right
person for this. When we got there, each group was
assigned a specific row of houses to cover. And then...
the adventure began. We would go inside a house, read
a bible passage, pray and talk to the people about
their life and concerns they had. At first some of
the people were a bit apprehensive. They did not understand
exactly why we were really there. But I think after
the first day the news about us spread around the
village. But as time went on many of the families
would invite us into their homes even before we could
ask them.The people there were very hospitable and generous. I
remember on my second day I saw this baby goat
on the road and so I started playing with it.
And before I knew it the people were offering it
to me and telling me to take it. Gestures like
these really touched me: knowing that these people really had
nothing much to give, but they would offer the little
they had.I remember in particular the visit we paid to
an old lady. We were talking to her and trying
to invite her for confession that afternoon. She was telling
us that before she was active in Church but she
hadn´t been able to go to Church for quite some
time. The reason was that she had two strokes which
left her more or less paralyzed from the waist down.
We told her that we would try to ask the
priest to see her but we were not really sure
if it was possible. Luckily, the priest was available at
that time and did visit her. I heard after that
he could really see the happiness shining in her eyes.From
this experience I´ve realized that the joy of helping other
people is indeed the greatest happiness one can achieve. The
fulfillment I felt cannot be replaced by any material possession
or anything else for that matter. I hope the Movement
can continue to grow even more here in the Philippines
so that future missionaries could experience what I have.(April
1, 2003)
1, 2003)


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text:
To put it as plainly as possible, the last Metallica album, 1996's Load, made me angry: To see a band that I had always valued for its integrity change its music for what appeared to be commercial reasons was deeply frustrating. But after catching the quartet in concert earlier this year, I was able to listen to Reload with fresh ears--and after doing so, I appreciated the decent band Metallica is rather than pining for the really good band it used to be. Make no mistake--the speed-metal days are a thing of the past for these guys, replaced by boogie tempos, cleaner riffs, and vocals from James Hetfield that only occasionally growl. Hetfield's new style of singing can be disconcerting at times: He actually croons the opening section of "The Unforgiven II," which sounds for all the world like Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)"; executes an unexpectedly accurate Robin Zander impression in the Beatles-by-way-of-Cheap-Trick middle section of "Carpe Diem Baby"; and willingly gives himself over to the Alice in Chains harmonies that mark "Where the Wild Things Are." But in the tidy sonic environment created by producer Bob Rock, this approach is not only apropos--it's notably effective. Although a few nods are made toward Metallica's once-relentless style, most of them are purposely brief, like the Lurch tones that accent the hook line of the otherwise standard-issue rock of "Better Than You." However, the playing of Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Jason Newsted remains slashing and concise, and there's still passion in their professionalism. If you're waiting for another Master of Puppets from this foursome, disappointment will be your only friend. But considering how little of today's heavy rock is worth its weight in beans, Reload is well above average. So live with it or move on.
Various Artists
Tibetan Freedom Concert
(Grand Royal/Capitol)
Had these events, which took place on June 15 and 16, 1996, in San Francisco, and on June 7 and 8, 1997, in New York City, been put together by, say, Sting, a three-CD commemoration of them would have been sheer agony. But fortunately, the man behind the fundraisers was Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, who has good, eclectic musical taste and isn't afraid to put it on display. Hence, the package is both a good way to learn about the oppressive situation in Tibet without paying attention to Richard Gere and confirmation that disparate forms of music can and should co-exist. The chanted prayers that lead off the first two discs are present mainly for show, but the juxtaposition on the initial platter of cuts by vocalist Yngchen Lhamo ("Om Mani Padme Hung"), Patti Smith ("About a Boy"), Radiohead ("Fake Plastic Trees") and A Tribe Called Quest ("Oh My God") is extremely purposeful: It symbolizes a shared humanity that goes beyond skin color, national origin, religious preference and the fondness for or dislike of power chords. My teeth ached while listening to Alanis Morissette's "Wake Up," and I could have done without "Electrolite," in which Michael Stipe and Mike Mills are backed up by a rinky-dink rhythm track; given drummer Bill Berry's recent departure from R.E.M., the song does not bode well for the band's future. But although efforts by Noel Gallagher and Porno for Pyros ("Cast No Shadow" and "Meija," on disc one), Pavement and Bjsrk ("Type Slowly" and "Hyper-Ballad," on disc two), and Cibo Matto and De La Soul ("Birthday Cake" and "Me, Myself & I," on disc three) fall short of classic status, they are more than spirited enough to get by. Because good-cause albums tend to be listened to once and then shelved for all eternity (see the blurb below), I usually approach them with trepidation--which makes the amount of enjoyment I derived from Tibetan Freedom Concert even more surprising. But I'm still not going to see Red Corner.
Various Artists
The Bridge School Concerts, Vol. One
Some of the same artists who appear on Tibetan Freedom Concert (specifically Patti Smith, Beck and Eddie Vedder) also turn up on this CD, which benefits an innovative California institution dedicated to children with what the liner describes as "severe speech and physical impairments." But the celebratory feel that marks Freedom is largely absent on Vol. One, replaced by the sort of singer-songwriter earnestness that can turn these projects into chores. The focus is on acoustic presentations, and in capitulating to this concept, the performers slow everything down to a speed closely resembling stasis. You don't expect Tracy Chapman to rock, so the fact that her "All That You Have Is Your Soul" doesn't comes as no surprise. But Ministry's version of the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil" is so somnambulant that even Jerry Garcia might have been bored by it. Elsewhere, David Bowie's "Heroes" falls flatter than Kate Moss's chest, and Smith's "People Have the Power" suffers from an unexpected energy crisis. A couple of tunes hold up: Tom Petty, who offers "Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)," manages to make the languid setting work for him, Bonnie Raitt's "The Road's My Middle Name" recalls the wonderfully spare blues of her early days, and the Heart spinoff called the Lovemongers does a nice job reproducing "Battle of Evermore" (even Robert Plant can't sound as much like Robert Plant as Ann Wilson does these days). But when even Neil Young, the impetus behind the album, can't light a fire under "I Am a Child," you know you're in trouble. The Bridge School, which can be reached at www.bridgeschool.org, is a great cause, but this record is a bridge not nearly far enough.
The Verve
Urban Hymns
There's something exciting about a veteran band suddenly making its best record; it gives you hope that groups that have been treading water for ages will enchant and surprise you again. Not that England's Verve is ancient--the combo was founded in 1990. But its previous work, which has long existed in the shadows cast by competitors Oasis, Blur and Pulp, was mere prelude to Urban Hymns. By contemporary Brit-pop standards, the disc doesn't really rock in the usual sense of the word ("The Rolling People" and "Catching the Butterfly" probably come closest). Instead, vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe and their brethren knit a dense psychedelic sound that has something in common with the recordings of the Doors and Echo and the Bunnymen, but with a hallucinatory darkness all its own. It's a delicate amalgamation, like sweet-smelling smoke that might drift off at any moment, and producers Chris Potter and Youth deserve plaudits for capturing its essence without blowing it away. But the lion's share of the laurels is owed to the musicians, who are confident enough in the quality of their material to let it build slowly, intoxicatingly. "Bitter Sweet Symphony," which features a riff cribbed from the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra (following a legal scrap, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were listed as songwriters), is a fitting introduction: "Sonnet," "Space and Time," "Lucky Man" and "One Day," in particular, use its sweeping, stately feel as a taking-off point for journeys that are as moving as they are radiant. The album reminded me a bit of Big Star's wondrously odd Sister Lovers, but even that analogy isn't quite right. In the end, Urban Hymns is one of a kind.
Paul Simon
Songs From the Capeman
(Warner Bros.)
Simon has always been a bookish sort: His early compositions have overwritten lyrics that call to mind high-school essays put together by the most sensitive boy in class, and many of his mature works (such as Hearts and Bones) are so carefully assembled that there's little juice left in them. His forays into the music of other cultures have frequently been just as academic: A disc like The Rhythm of the Saints, for instance, utilizes the music of Brazil so austerely that it feels less like an album than an assignment. Simon is clearly a major talent--a fine singer and melodist who's come up with more memorable turns of phrase than practically any pop-rock veteran this side of Randy Newman. But 1972's Paul Simon and 1973's There Goes Rhymin' Simon prove that he's best when he loosens up a little. On The Capeman, Simon's first Broadway musical, some of his self-consciousness lingers, but he takes a step in the right direction. The saga of Salvador Agron, a sixteen-year-old gang member who stabbed two teens to death during the late Fifties, gives Simon the opportunity to explore musical styles--doo wop and Latin music, specifically--that he experienced firsthand long before he became an amateur musical anthropologist. For that reason alone, songs like the pleasantly shaggy "Virgil" and the loping "Killer Wants to Go to College II" are warmer and more immediately accessible than anything he's come up with in years. And even though the structures here aren't all that compact (numbers are stretched out to accommodate numerous characters), they never lack for vocal or instrumental hooks. The words, though, are more erratic. Simon is most effective when he shoots for simplicity. Witness the evocative couplet "I want you to be my movie/I am Sal Mineo and I need you so," from the tuneful "Bernadette." But his stabs at profundity, epitomized by the lines "Correctional facility/That's what they call this place/But look around and you will see/The politics of race," from "Time Is an Ocean," are much too obvious. He also has difficulty fully getting into Agron's character. When he says "I ain't giving you my fucking money" in "The Vampires," his delivery apologizes for the profanity; he's like Little Lord Fauntleroy trying to teach himself how to curse. Of course, this last problem will be eliminated on the stage, when actors will be singing the parts. Perhaps they'll be willing to let down the hair that Simon seems determined to keep up.
Garth Brooks
That booklet that accompanies Brooks's latest includes several laughable photos of the show's star, but my favorites are a cover shot of the slimmed-down singer modeling a tight white T-shirt and resting his thumb on his belt buckle (take note, Freudian psychologists) and one on the liner's back page that mates an image of a glowering, tough-guy Garth with the announcement "This one is for our moms." Conveniently, the songs are poses, too. When he exhibits sensitivity, as on "You Move Me," "She's Gonna Make It" and "When There's No One Around" (co-written by Denver-scene graduate Tim O'Brien), Brooks gives little indication that he's actually feeling the emotions he's portraying; rather, he's using them for melodramatic effect. He trots out his ersatz sincerity on a slew of other numbers as well, including "I Don't Have to Wonder," a soppy narrative about a rejected suitor reacting to the marriage of his beloved; "Fit for a King," about the only homeless street-corner preacher who's not pathologically insane; "Belleau Wood," which casts Garth as (seriously) a soldier during World War I; and "In Another's Eyes," a duet with Trisha Yearwood that makes "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" seem restrained by comparison. But as Brooks understands, restraint doesn't sell--and sales are his primary focus. (Why else would he delay the release of this disc until the new executives at his record company verified their fealty to him?) Allen Reynolds's overproduction and Brooks's allergy to finesse, epitomized by a voice that breaks more often than Alfalfa's ever did, may seem like transparent manipulation to pointy-headed intellectuals, but the average American slurps it up--which is why the damn thing is the smash of the season. Nevertheless, the song I liked best on Sevens was "Longneck Bottle," a brief, spirited throwaway that's entirely without pretensions. I knew you could do it if you tried, buddy.
Green Day
As this recording spun, I couldn't help but think of the Knack--you know, the proto-new wave act that put out an incredibly popular major-label debut (Get the Knack), a much less successful sequel (...but the Little Girls Understand) and a desperate attempt to establish some artistic credibility (Round Trip) that was followed immediately by the group's dissolution. Green Day hasn't broken up yet, so perhaps this model will not prove to be accurate. But nimrod., the trio's third CD for Reprise after one huge record and one stiff, suggests some correlations. In addition to the trio's usual melodic punk, of which "Nice Guys Finish Last" and "Platypus (I Hate You)" are only two examples, Billie Joe, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt offer a couple of mid-tempo pop turns ("Redundant" and "Worry Rock") that conjure up thoughts of the Brill Building, a deliberate, tremolo-drenched rock instrumental ("Last Ride In"), a de facto tribute to the Who ("Haushinka"), a bit of rock sensitivity ("Walking Alone"), and an honest-to-goodness ballad ("Good Riddance [Time of Your Life]"). Because Billie Joe is a gent who knows a good hook when he hears one, the album has its share of catchy segments, and although his lyrics sometimes mistake drippiness for depth (e.g., "I've got some scattered pictures lying on my bedroom floor/Reminds me of the times we shared/ Makes me wish that you were here," from "Scattered"), he more frequently is pithy and profane: In "The Grouch," about a punk grown old, he barks, "The world owes me/So fuck you" in the full knowledge that the knife cuts both ways. In short, this is not a bad record--but it's all over for Green Day anyhow. Goodbye.
Barbra Streisand
Higher Ground
In some ways, Streisand has too much skill: Her gifts are so enormous that she thinks she can do anything. She's a fabulous Broadway-style chanteuse with a rare aptitude for comedy; when she's in a light mood, you can literally hear the smile in her voice. But because these pursuits are so easy for her, she's moved away from them in search of new worlds to conquer--and more often than not, she's pulverized them instead. Her most recent long-player finds her eschewing entertainment for soul enrichment: In the liner, she writes, "I believe it is incumbent upon each of us to put positive thoughts out there in the universe, where they can be free to do their good work. The power of prayer is extraordinary. These songs, to me, are like prayers." This ambition sentences listeners to sledding that goes so far beyond heavy that Higher Ground may be the first CD that's actually fattening. Each of the numbers here is a ballad that the various producers, including Arif Mardin and David Foster, weigh down with a symphony's worth of instrumentation. Predictably, Streisand is seldom buried by this accompaniment; she's capable of out-wailing a police siren. There's some interest, therefore, in the way that she mows over every sonic obstacle in her path. (Her last note in "On Holy Ground," which dwarfs the exertions of an oversized gospel choir, is staggering.) But the material is samey and sometimes hackneyed (why, oh why, didn't someone stop her before she cut "You'll Never Walk Alone," the song with which Jerry Lewis ends all of his Labor Day telethons?), and the constant focus on spiritual uplift eventually becomes exhausting. If she were the star of Touched by an Angel, a new title would be in order: Having the Hell Beaten Out of You by an Angel might do nicely. Higher Ground is obviously a deeply felt piece of work, but in the end, it left me with a hankering to hear some show tunes.
Celine Dion
Let's Talk About Love
(550 Music/Epic)
Dion's album shares one track with Streisand's--"Tell Him," in which the up-and-coming songstress and the definitive prima donna pair their pipes. It's not really a fair fight: Streisand's belting has so much body, vigor and character that Dion's big but comparatively flavorless voice is left to flit around her partner's like a piglet unable to muscle her siblings away from mom's nipples at feeding time. Bloodied but unbowed, Dion subsequently challenges Luciano Pavarotti on her own turf in "I Hate You Then I Love You," and although his formidable tenor pounds her trilling into submission, he sounds so ridiculous turning his accent loose on soap-operatic lyrics such as "No matter what you do you drive me crazy" that you can't help snickering. And so it goes on Love, an album in which shlock is given top-drawer treatment. To her credit, Dion tries on several hats, and every so often, one fits her: She does a decent job with "Immortality," a Bee Gees composition on which the brothers Gibb guest. But "Treat Her Like a Lady," a faux-dancehall stomper that she actually tries to rap, is a laugh riot, and her mimicry of soul on "Love Is on the Way" left me hungry for the real thing. As for her rendition of "My Heart Will Go On," subtitled "Love Theme From Titanic," it proved that Dion is not the next Streisand but the next Maureen (The Poseidon Adventure) McGovern. If anyone ever makes another movie about a big boat that sinks, he'd do well to give her a call.
The current theory on boxed sets is that they are primarily purchased by loyal fans of the act in question--and since such folks already own all the band's releases, leftovers from the vaults must be used to induce them to lay out their folding green. For the most part, Bonfire follows this formula closely. Aside from the inexplicable inclusion of 1980's Back in Black, probably the most widely owned AC/DC album in existence, it is made up of unissued live recordings and studio flotsam that hadn't been judged good enough for sale in the first place. Completists will probably be pleased by the lineup, and although it's hard to imagine that dudes who were into Highway to Hell when they were seventeen fit this description, some must. But for anyone seriously interested in re-evaluating these mad Aussies, Bonfire is an expensive way to do it. The first CD, a live-in-the-studio album made for a radio show in 1977, has some of the tunes that made the band's reputation, including "High Voltage," but they aren't really produced in the usual sense; when all of the instruments drop out, leaving only Angus Young's guitar, a palpable emptiness seeps in. The sound is crisp, and singer Bon Scott, who died in 1980, yowls as energetically as ever, but the versions aren't revelatory. Ditto for CDs two and three, recorded in Paris in 1979 and used as the soundtrack for a 1981 concert flick, Let There Be Rock. There's no shortage of song duplication: "Live Wire," "Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be," "The Jack," "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "Rocker" all appear for a second time. And although the production is fuller on the latter session, it's also more sodden, less immediate. AC/DC's idea of nuance is to bludgeon you slowly rather than double-time it, and while these raveups don't seem notably weakened as a result, neither will they blow you out of your seat. Finally, the fourth CD, subtitled Volts, deals out rarities that aren't that rare--like "Dirty Eyes," which is nothing more than "Rosie" with different lyrics, and "Back Seat Confidential," an early version of "Beatin' Around the Bush"--along with songs from TNT, High Voltage and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Even so, Bonfire provided me with a good time. Because I never much liked the strangulated screeching of Bon Scott and his successor, Brian Johnson, and because the people I knew who were into the band during its late-Seventies/early-Eighties heyday were absolute morons, I never really gave AC/DC a fair shake. But after listening to this set, I was able to appreciate the group as a spiritual cousin of the Ramones--unsophisticated, dopey, impressively one-dimensional and, most of all, louder than Ethel Merman on crank. Then again, I got my copy of Bonfire for free. Had I not, I probably would have selected a single AC/DC album from the bargain bin and left it at that.
Janet Jackson
The Velvet Rope
Jackson's last album, 1993's janet., contained her finest moments on wax; it was confident, sexually frank and thematically consistent. But with The Velvet Rope, she seems to be suffering from one of brother Michael's many maladies--a desire to be all things to all people. The album finds her trying on more personas than Sybil, including hip-hop hep cat, soulful mama, adult-contemporary crooner and social commentator, but she spreads herself far too thin. In contrast to the effortless flow of janet., Rope is herky-jerky, directionless. The worst moment is the single "Got 'Til It's Gone," which contains perhaps the single most aggravating use of a sample yet accomplished by professional musicians (Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" is the victim), but it's not alone on the lower end of the scale. Jackson's decision to tinker with the lyrics of Rod Stewart's dreadful "Tonight's the Night" doesn't justify her remake of it, and the several seducers that follow it (even "Rope Burn," in which she pleads to be tied up and dripped with hot candle wax) are so musically nondescript that they bleed anonymously into one another. "Free Xone," a Princey plea for greater tolerance of homosexuality, is livelier (co-producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis can still get nasty), but it doesn't add up to much, and "What About" is a sonic mutt; its funky groove and angry words ("What about the times you said you didn't fuck her/She only gave you head/What about that?") are repeatedly interrupted by the sound of waves lapping on a beach and, of all things, a mellow Spanish guitar. Janet would do far better in the future if she would focus her energies on something specific rather than trying to top her boy-diddling big bro. One Jackson like that is more than enough.
Jane's Addiction
Kettle Whistle
(Warner Bros.)
The individuals who art-designed this disc's liner were up front about Kettle Whistle; they placed an admission in plain view that only four of the recording's fifteen tunes are new. But it's still something of a disappointment to discover that the disc is dominated by odds and ends--live tracks, demos and outtakes. The alternate versions of "Ocean Size," Had a Dad," "Jane Says," "Mountain Song," "Been Caught Stealing" and other familiar Addiction fare are okay--how could they not be, given what good songs they are?--but they aren't so radically different as to give you greatly enhanced insight into them. Moreover, two of the "virgin" tracks have been around the block a time or two: "Slow Divers" and "My Cat's Name Is Maceo" were initially laid down in 1986 and 1987, respectively, before being fooled with in the studio again this year. But the other pair of unused compositions (featuring original members Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins, with supplementary bass playing by the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea) deserve your attention. Because it spends a lot of time meandering in an often gentle way, the title cut isn't all that different from much of Farrell's work in Porno for Pyros, but its occasional instrumental flareups spark more flames than usual. Better still is "So What!" a propulsive live workout that sheds the Porno malaise in a burst of crazed guitar gymnastics and vocal exorcism. Whether Farrell has any interest in finally trying to fulfill the act's promise is an open question: In interviews, he's implied that the Jane's reunion was merely a ploy to gain attention for several of his loopy projects. But "So What!" demonstrates that he has a strong foundation on which to build. Kettle Whistle isn't what you'd call the bargain of the season, but if it helps Jane's Addiction become a going concern again, it will have been worth it.
Slip Stich and Pass
To get a handle on the aesthetic of choice on Phish's latest recording, cut live in Germany earlier this year, you need only listen to the first track, a cover of the Talking Heads' "Cities." As David Byrne boosters know, the song is among the jitteriest and most intense in the Heads' oeuvre, but guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman and keyboardist Page McConnell slow it down until it becomes positively relaxed, then ride it for more than five minutes. "Jesus Just Left Chicago," from the ZZ Top library, gets the same treatment--gutbucket blues it ain't--and "Mike's Song," in spite of the slightly distorted Anastasio lick that leads it off, ambles along at a casual gait that probably didn't require anyone dancing to it to break a sweat. But just when you're ready to repudiate the last ditty as filler, Anastasio offers a brief parody of Jim Morrison's "The End" ("Father," he says, "I want the keys to the car") that reminds you that these guys are smart, witty and knowledgeable about their rock history. (So, too, does "Weekapaug Groove," an energetic jam that concludes with some riffing that references the Rolling Stones circa Sticky Fingers.) No new ground is broken here, and the package is so laid-back that the demanding among you may find yourself wishing that a few more curveballs had been thrown. Slip is meant not as a bold artistic statement, but as a memento aimed at true believers. And on the latter count, it succeeds.
Harlem World
(Bad Boy)
You've got to wonder: Can Sean "Puffy" Combs make anyone a star? That's the way it seems right now. Most people who listen to Puff Daddy's recordings for more than a couple of minutes come away with two discoveries--that Combs is among the weakest rappers of all time, and that his production acumen begins and ends with his willingness to sample more blatantly than any of his peers. And yet Mase, a Combs protege whose flow is only moderately more convincing than that of his mentor, is the latest member of the Bad Boy stable to break out big. (Harlem World entered the Billboard charts at No. 1 a few weeks back.) It makes sense on some level: "Feel So Good," the most popular rap single in the land at press time, is certainly engaging, thanks to the extremely liberal use of "Hollywood Swinging," an old Kool & the Gang song. But time and again, artists in cameo roles (Lil' Kim, Billy Lawrence, Eightball & MJG, Busta Rhymes, Lil' Cease & Jay-Z) make stronger impressions than the man whose name is on the marquee. Virtually the only guest Mase out-rhymes on a consistent basis is Combs, and that's not much of a challenge: If he were still among the breathing, I'll bet Lou Costello could have taken Puffy, too. Mase's best performance is on "Niggaz Wanna Act," because he seems to connect to it more than to, for instance, "Wanna Hurt Mase?" which is inspired by that hip-hop exemplar, Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me." On "Act," about those jealous of his success, Mase concedes, "Niggaz say they love me/They don't love me/I know deep down they want to slug me." That knowledge will serve him well, because when Combs's ride ends, he'll be left high and dry. So sock those profits away while you can, Mase. You're going to have to make them last a long time.
The 18th Letter/The Book of Life
Everything that Mase is not as a rapper, Rakim is. It's not hyperbole to say that he is one of the five finest vocal presences ever in hip-hop, and in conjunction with Eric B., he made several great albums that still stand up: If you don't already own Paid in Full and Don't Sweat the Technique, do yourself a favor and pick them up, pronto. But Rakim's return, delivered several years after his split from Eric B., is not the bold salvo for which a lot of us have been hoping. Part of the problem is that Rakim's words are so overly concerned with reintroducing himself ("It's Been a Long Time" and "Guess Who's Back" aren't titles chosen at random) that he doesn't get a chance to display the full range of his prowess. Given his verbal facility, this isn't a fatal flaw: He sounds so strong flipping a boast like "They said I changed the times/From the rhymes that I thought of" that you can't do anything more than agree. But more damaging is the inability of the assembled producers to key into Rakim musically with the ease that Eric B. exhibited. I liked "The Saga Begins," helmed by Pete Rock, "Stay Awhile," put together in conjunction with DJ Clark Kent, and the DJ Premier-directed "New York (Ya' Out There)," but these high points border too much filler, including a couple of alternate mixes that are only present to make the album seem more generous than it is. But if The 18th Letter is spotty, The Book of Life, a companion disc, is a beauty--fifteen Eric B. & Rakim gems, including "Eric B. Is President," "Casualties of War" and "Lyrics of Fury." Rakim may not be all the way back yet, but if his past victories are any indication, he'll get there before long. And when he does, watch out.
Mariah Carey
Like it or not, you've got to give Carey some props: It would have been easy for her to do a Whitney Houston and drift off toward the middle of the road, but she's made an effort to remain contemporary. Too bad her choice of collaborators is a bit suspect. She practically hands "Honey" over to the ubiquitous Sean Combs, and on "Breakdown," rappers Wish Bone and Krayzie Bone, under Combs's direction, don't exactly lift the tune to another level. But more problematic is Carey's insistence upon tonal smoothness. Although she's got a voice that can cut glass, she generally keeps it under wraps on Butterfly, choosing instead to coo her leads or quaver in the background as harmony singers handle the hooks. Furthermore, the instruments and the vocal contributors are layered so thickly that the songs themselves seem like glass figures packed in an oversized shipping crate jammed with Styrofoam. It's all quite comely, and sometimes it's more than that: "The Roof" sports a penetrating groove that pulls you deeper and deeper into one of Carey's typically lush lyrics ("Every time I feel the need I envision you caressing me/And go back in time/To relive the splendor of you and I/On the rooftop that rainy night"), and "Babydoll" is a lavish exploration of horniness. But most of these muted lovefests are indistinguishable from one another, ultimately causing the album to sink into a pile of fluff. Like Babyface, Carey has rounded off every edge of her music in order to make it utterly unobjectionable. If only she'd stopped before there was nothing left.
It's rather poignant how desperate Gavin Rossdale and his minions are for respect. For the act's previous package, Razorblade Suitcase, they hired producer Steve Albini, a man who even Kurt Cobain felt was too extreme at times. Now, on Deconstructed, the lads have lined up every hotshot studio jockey on the A-list to make their iffy tunes as current as trip-hop. Since the first step toward a strong mix is strong material, this task was a difficult one, but a few dial-twisters were able to come up with some intriguing concoctions anyhow--especially those who took the quite logical step of tossing out as much of the songs as they could. "Swallowed" becomes a moody but still danceable sonic slab after being overhauled by Goldie and Rob Playford; "In a Lonely Place" is infused with creepiness by Tricky; and "Everything Zen" is completely subsumed in beats and beeps cooked up by Derek DeLarge. (A second, far-less drastic variation on "Everything Zen," refurbished by Greg Brimson and Pete Coyte, leads off the disc.) But despite such exertions, this undertaking remains a waste of time--the sort of thing record companies put out for no other reason than to assuage bruised egos. Why? Because people who actually like Bush are apt to hate the changes, and people who don't like Bush will see Deconstructed as the vanity project it is and leave it on the store shelves. Coming soon to a cut-out bin near you.
The Replacements
All for Nothing/Nothing for All
The Replacements' story is a cautionary tale about believing your own press. The band, led by master songwriter Paul Westerberg, was formed in 1980, and an argument can be made that its first releases (1981's Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash and the 1982 EP The Replacements Stink) are too silly--although I wouldn't make it myself. By the time of 1983's Hootenany, however, Westerberg had found a way to write serious songs in the context of drunken, primordial rock and roll. What followed were three exceptional albums--1984's Let It Be (the peak, in my opinion), 1985's Tim and 1987's Pleased to Meet Me--and oodles of mainstream critical accolades that started coloring Westerberg's work. He began to moan in interviews about feeling hemmed in by the band's slatternly reputation and told the public about his love for the catalogue of Joni Mitchell. These were danger signs, but Westerberg ignored them, and as a result, 1989's Don't Tell a Soul and the 1990 swan song All Shook Down were severe disappointments--not bad, really, but hollow, studied, and wholly lacking in the spontaneity that had characterized the Replacements in their prime. This progression can be traced on both disc one, a compilation of the quartet's studio creations beginning in 1985, and disc two, a roundup of unreleased oddities. The first half of All for Nothing contains only one truly raucous Replacements moment ("Bastards of Young") and a fistful of more sensitive numbers of the sort that first got journalists' attention ("Here Comes a Regular," "Skyway") before segueing into the "respectable" tracks that signaled the beginning of the end. Similarly, Nothing for All kicks off promisingly with the likes of "Beer for Breakfast" ("All I want to eat is those barbecue chips!"), "Till We're Nude," "Jungle Rock" and the Chris Mars declaration "All He Wants to Do Is Fish." But following a wonderful demolition of Disney's "Cruella DeVille," Westerberg steps to the fore with "We Know the Night," "Portland" and other literary excursions that are easier to respect than they are to enjoy. "Like a Rolling Pin," based on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," is the last truly sloppy moment, but its pedigree shows how much Westerberg had changed: In the old days, he would cover KISS. How much you enjoy this set, then, will depend on which Westerberg you like best. Fans of Westerberg-the-misunderstood-artist will find plenty to love, but aficionados of the Replacements' indie-smartass period will probably wind up feeling depressed. I know I did.
(Go! Beat/London)
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Portishead's first album, Dummy, and its lead single, "Sour Times," left me feeling a bit underwhelmed: I decided that they were forced and affected, and I left it at that. But in retrospect, I think that their ultra-stylized sounds baffled me. Now, on Portishead, I get it. The doomy programming favored by Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and Beth Gibbons--thudding beats and synthesized fanfares sprinkled sparingly over a landscape that's otherwise almost barren--may be theatrical, but its restraint prevents the atmosphere from growing banal. Likewise, Gibbons's vocals are terrifying in their blankness; she sounds as if she's gone beyond fear and pain into a unknown realm that's simultaneously desolate and clinical. Her relentlessly dour worldview can be suffocating: After hearing Gibbons battling more demons than there are in both houses of Congress during "Over," many people will want to peruse the obituaries to make sure she didn't climb into a steaming tub and slash her wrists. But any band that can render the James Bondy "All Mine," the harrowing "Seven Months" and the otherworldly "Elysium" on the same disc is one that demands attention. Easy listening it's not, but Portishead's ability to create an alternative universe as logical and vast as the one in which you live is a striking achievement--a vital repudiation of the Prozac nation.
Spice Girls
As the Girls prepare to go down for the last time (in a career sense), consider this CD for what it is--not an album, really, but an intriguing artifact from the tail end of the second millennium after Christ. On it, despite the social progress that has supposedly marked the American century, the archetypes that have haunted Western civilization for decades remain firmly in place. For example, a woman of African descent is allowed to be part of the Spice Girl sorority, but she's made to conform to hoary jungle cliches (she's Scary Spice). Her four Caucasian sisters are mired in stereotypes of their own: The blond member is infantilized (she's Baby Spice), the redhead is sexualized (she's Sexy Spice), and the two brunettes are relegated to secondary roles (they're Posh Spice and Sporty Spice). These male-fantasy characters were created, appropriately enough, by a male, Simon Fuller--and because the Girls sacked him on the eve of the Spiceworld movie, its impending failure will further reinforce the outmoded belief that women can't really do it for themselves. Spiceworld's lyrics, meanwhile, pretend to be about empowerment (for substantiation, turn an ear toward the lines "Keep your head up high/Don't you know you are the superfly/And that ain't no lie," from "Saturday Night Divas"). But these bold statements are undercut by meager harmonies and the fact that all the tunes are largely written by dudes. (The Girls get co-writing recognition, but Elvis did, too, and you and I both know how many tunes he really composed.) And the music? It's like a cross between second-rate Bananarama and the musical interludes on The New Mickey Mouse Club. But that doesn't mean that Spiceworld is worthless, because it's not. I won't be listening to my copy anytime soon, but I plan to keep it in a very safe place. And fifty years from now, when I want to remember what it was like way back in 1997, I'll be very happy I did.


text:
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in Evaluating Cerebral Glucose Metabolism and Functional Change for Patients With Spinal Cord Injury
Recruitment status was: Recruiting
- Full Text View
- Tabular View
- No Study Results Posted
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in dysfunction of motor and sensory system and the hormonal secretion. Not only the change of peripheral hormonal organs, the central neurotransmitters were also affected. We consider there are some changes in cerebral physiology, anatomy or function after SCI.
Objective: Use PET imaging to investigate the brain functional difference among the SCI and control group.
|Spinal Cord Injury
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
|Observational Model: Case Control
Time Perspective: Prospective
|Official Title:
|PET in Evaluating Cerebral Glucose Metabolism and Functional Change for Patients With Spinal Cord Injury
|Estimated Enrollment:
|Study Start Date:
|August 2007
|Estimated Study Completion Date:
|December 2011
|Estimated Primary Completion Date:
|August 2011 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
|spinal cord injury 1
|spinal cord injury 2
|spinal cord injury 3
|normal control
Detailed Description:
Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in dysfunction of motor and sensory system and the hormonal secretion. Not only the change of peripheral hormonal organs, the central neurotransmitters were also affected. We consider there are some changes in cerebral physiology, anatomy or function after SCI. Transcranial magnetic stimulation, magnetic coil or EEG were used to study the phenomenon of cortical reorganization in post-injury of spinal cord. Now functional imaging render the researcher easier to understand adaptive changes of cerebral cortex in patients with SCI. Due to the development of positron emission tomography (PET) and adequate supply of 18-F-deoxyglucose (FDG), the cerebral glucose metabolism and blood flow were approached in easier way. PET was used in patients with cervical compressive myelopathy to evaluate the glucose metabolic rate. Standardized uptake value of FDG and its association with neurological status of pre- and post-operation had been studied. PET was also used to assess the effect of a transverse cord lesion on cerebral energy metabolism in view of sensorimotor reorganization. In addition to FDG, 15O-H2O was applied to evaluate the activation adaptation of post-SCI cerebrum. 13N-NH3 was also used to study the cerebral blood flow by its concentration in brain tissue. Recently the alteration of regional cerebral blood flow was visualized by brain SPECT. We want to know the impact of spinal lesion and function impairment on brain activation in patients with SCI. 6-[18F]fluorodopa (18F-FDOPA) is indicator of brain presynaptic dopaminergic function, which can be used to evaluate the changes of brain dopamine. WE will use 18F-FDOPA-PET to investigate its difference among the SCI and control group.
In our three-year study, 40 men with SCI will be recruited each year, 40 age-matched men as control. In the first year study, FDG-PET will be used to assess the cerebral metabolism, then the glucose metabolic rate of cerebrum and spinal cord will be analyzed. The mechanism of cerebral adaptation after SCI may be clarified. 13N-NH3 will be used in the second year to evaluate the cerebral blood flow in the period of attempted and true action, then their difference will be analyzed by statistical parametric mapping. The picture of activated brain area will be compared between study and control group to investigate the reorganization of cerebral cortex after SCI. In the third year, we will use 18F-FDOPA to evaluate the brain presynaptic dopaminergic function among SCI and control group. Thus, we will delineate the effect of SCI on cerebral function by PET.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 80 Years (Adult, Senior)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
|Sampling Method:
|Non-Probability Sample
Inclusion Criteria:
- age above 18 years old
- spinal cord injury for over 1 year
Exclusion Criteria:
- epilepsy
- psychiatric disorder
- history of central neurologic system infection
- Parkinson's disease
- Alcoholic disease
- vitamine deficiency
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00929422
|Contact: Yen-Ho Wang, MD
|886-2-23123456 ext 67293
|National Taiwan University Hospital
|Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, 100
|Contact: Yen-Ho Wang, MD 886-2-23123456 ext 67293 firstname.lastname@example.com
|Principal Investigator:
|Yen-Ho Wang, M.D
|National Taiwan University Hospital
|Responsible Party:
|Wang YH, National Taiwan University Hospital
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00929422 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|June 26, 2009
|Last Updated:
|November 30, 2010
Keywords provided by National Taiwan University Hospital:
spinal cord injury
cerebral function
cortical reorganization
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Wounds and Injuries
Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal Cord Diseases
Central Nervous System Diseases
Nervous System Diseases
Trauma, Nervous System
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 21, 2017


text:
The Murali Cup and cricket in Sri Lanka
Submitted by Hilal on August 30, 2011 - 19:30
Submitted by Stuart (not verified) on August 31, 2011 - 09:35.
We recently went on cricket tour with Red Dot Tours, the company mentioned above. Superb trip to a beautiful country. The cricket was of an incredible standard. Visit www.reddottours.com for more info.
@Stuart: You (Marmalade Productions Ltd) made this video for Red Dot Tours, yeah? Enjoyed the video, thanks!
@Hilal: the link for the Murali Cup video is now available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl51inF7rZw
Thanks, Archie. I gave it a look and it's the same video posted above, correct?
Same video - different location. Thanks Hilal.


text: Oral sex accusation part of conspiracy, Logan man says By Zac Taylor October 10, 2012 Story Share CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A Logan County home confinement officer said that a woman accused him of repeatedly forcing her to have oral sex with him as part of a conspiracy to get a cash award in a civil lawsuit.John Phillip Reed, 73, is on trial this week in federal court in Charleston on allegations that he coerced April Tomblin Chafin to have oral sex with him in his office and threatened to take steps to send her to jail if she refused.Chafin sued Reed and the Logan County Commission last year. She alleged that the county's failure to properly train Reed contributed to her being assaulted. "This case is a case about clearing the name of a good man," Reed's lawyer, Billie Jo Streyle, said Wednesday. "Justice in this case is to give this man his name back."In April 2009, while she was on home confinement on charges of attempted grand larceny, Chafin reportedly stepped out of range of her ankle monitor to drink beer with a neighbor, according to court records.The next morning, Reed called Chafin into his office and told her to close and lock his office door. No other employees were at the office at the time, said Chafin's lawyer, Kerry Nessle.Reed questioned Chafin about stepping out of range and then told her that "if you would give me [oral sex], then I won't send you to jail," court records state.Chafin reluctantly complied. Afterward, she did not report the incident to police because she had a pending charge against her and she believed she would go to jail for leaving her home. Reed, who wore a badge and a service weapon, also intimidated her, Nessle said. The next month, Reed helped Chafin get a job at a local market and asked her to come back to the office to fill out paperwork. Reed told her that she "owed" him, Nessle said, and again forced her to perform oral sex.Once again, the following month, Reed called Chafin to the home confinement office for a drug screening, and allegedly told the woman that he had control over whether she went to jail or not."This is all up to me," Reed said, according to court records. "I can get you released on home confinement [or], you know, I can give you a bad report and have you sent to jail."He beckoned Chafin behind the table with him, unzipped his pants and once again forced her to have oral sex, court records state. Reed, the first witness to take the stand Wednesday, repeatedly denied having inappropriate sexual contact with any enrollee on home confinement. He said that Chafin's lawsuit is part of a conspiracy that she, Jeananne Gilco and Sherry Frye came up with while they were housed together in a regional jail.Streyle pointed out that Gilco and Frye also hired Nessle to target Reed in sexual assault lawsuits. Gilco's case is awaiting trial. Frye's lawsuit would not stick because the statute of limitations ran out, Streyle said.Reed, after Nessle pointed out that Chafin and Frye had met each other just a few days ago, admitted that he did not have any evidence that the women conspired while in jail. "If I could prove it, I wouldn't be here," he said.In April 2009, the same month when Reed allegedly assaulted Chafin, Gilco was placed on home confinement on charges stemming from the death of a woman who was stabbed while in her home, court records state.The next month, she drove to the home confinement office and parked her car in the garage. Reed saw her exit the vehicle and questioned her about whether she had a license. When she said that she did not, Reed led her back to her vehicle and told her to give him oral sex, court records state.Marie Belcher, who works in the home confinement office, described Reed as a father figure to her and said that she never saw him close his door with a client in the room, or make sexually inappropriate advances or comments toward anyone."He's just a really good guy," she said.Belcher also pointed out that the walls in the office are paper-thin and the staffers would have overheard any sexual activity through Reed's door. "I really feel they are all just false accusations," she said. "I really hate that we're here today."Reach Zac Taylor at firstname.lastname@example.com or 304-348-5189. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 Derek Redd: Marshall thinks outside the cable box for broadcasts 2 New leaders begin to emerge for Marshall football 3 Former State Police captain now chief in Winfield 4 Philanthropist Betty Schoenbaum of Shoney's fortune turns 100 5 Rod Run and Doo Wop brings classic cars, music to Boulevard for 12th year Businesses, schools partner to develop workers Previous Story Alpha Foundation aims for big mine safety projects Next Story


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