text:
Clinique Even Better Clinical Dark Spot Corrector Reviews
Irritated My Skin!I have a smattering of brown spots on one cheek and one hand. I was looking for a product without Hydroquinone to safely remove these discolorations. Not only did they remain when I used this, but my skin was red, raw, and irritated. It took me over a week for it to get back in shape. — 4 years, 3 months agoGigiSD | 1102 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 1 people said helpful
Complete and total waste of money.If it were possible for me to give this busted product less than one star, I would do so. While I like Clinique's makeup selections, I have never had even a bit of success with their skin care products. However, because I have sensitive skin and freckles, I am always on the look out for a gentle product that will help them fade away. I thought that this product was pretty expensive, but I am alway...read mores willing to pay for good results, so I gave it a try. I used it every evening after washing my face with a gentle cleanser and using a toner. Unfortunately for me and my face, I did not receive a good result from this product. It made the skin that I applied the cream to get redder and develop little bumps. The skin became more delicate, and it itched and burned like crazy. Worst of all, to add insult to injury, was that it did not fade a single freckle even the slightest amount. What a terrible waste of time and money. I had to discontinue use of this product and use many soothing moisturizers and healing products just to get it back to the condition it was in before I made the mistake of using this product. I hope that any lady who reads this will take the opportunity to learn from my bad experience and mistake and pass on this product. It will take your money, leave your freckles, and damage and irritate your skin. I would not recommend this product to my very worst enemy, and I can't believe that I was foolish enough to try it on myself. I would estimate that I used this product for two months of continuous use without seeing any hint of a good result, and then it took me two additional months of healing my skin to get it back to where it was before I used this on my face. Don't do it! — 4 years, 7 months agoLittleBunny | 545 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 3 of 3 people said helpful
goodI use the moisturizer version of this, it's nice and thick and so moisturizing, it doesn't cause me to break out and my skin doesn't show any skins of winter dryness. Love it. — 6 years, 6 months agoBon_Bon | 522 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 6 of 12 people said helpful
Awesome for sun spots!I bought this awhile ago and after the first month I noticed my sun spots starting to fade! Several months later, they are hardly noticably! I would highly recommend this to somone with sun spots! — 6 years, 11 months agoladyboarder9669 | 210 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 17 of 25 people said helpful
Good but not greatI've been using this along with the moisturizer for over a month and I have to say that I've noticed my skin getting brighter and it feels smoother. It hasn't done much for the ance marks, which completely defeats the purpose of the product in my opinion. And I hate to sound cheap but between this small bottle and the moisturizer thats $83 I could save and spend on something that might've actually worked. — 6 years, 11 months agomsbrown822 | 229 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 8 of 14 people said helpful
Does NothingAs a Clinique fan, I am not impressed with this. It hasn't lightened anything on my face but it does leave my skin very soft. With that said, I can get soft skin with much cheaper moisturizers and/or serums. I will not be purchasing this again. — 6 years, 3 months agoFeline44mom | 212 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 4 of 7 people said helpful
Not worth it!!!This product is lacking when it comes to having a noticeable difference in the appearance of my scars. The manager at the Sephora store had rave reviews about this product but after finishing a large bottle I was left wanting more results. The product is extremely overpriced for the results you actually get from one bottle. I feel I could go to the derm and get a prescription for less that amount ...read moreincluding the co-pay. It does leave skin feeling soft which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 1. I used this product day and night as suggested in the instructions and still saw no drastic results as advertised. Maybe perhaps if I spend several hundred dollars on several bottles I will see results but who has that kind of patience? I don't... I do not plan to purchase this product again in the future. — 5 years, 1 month agoMzWayne | 74 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 3 of 5 people said helpful
Don't Waste Your Money!This product doesn't work. I mean, it MIGHT lighten the slightest bit, but it definitely had very little impact on lightening for me. I would highly suggest you invest in some Retin-A instead. When I used retin-A, I saw lighter skin so much faster and cheaper (insurance) than I ever did with this Clinque product. — 3 years, 7 months agoposhinprogress | 181 reviews
WoW!This product works wonders and is a miracle in a bottle! I seen results in a week. I'm in love with it. I'm fighting damage I did to skin from tanning beds and this has helped tremendously! — 1 year, 6 months agoivyshade | 27 reviews
Not goodI have some dark spots from my blemish marks. And after I use this product for a month, the dark spots are still there, and it doesn't significantly reduce the dark spots. Regret buying this, it's very expensive. — 2 years, 8 months agoms_fonny | 7 reviews
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My Reasons for Reporting This


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BURNLEY is 'leading the way' in Britain's economic recovery, Business Minist-er Michael Fallon has said.
Mr Fallon addressed the borough's business and political leaders during their 'trade mission' to London, on Wednesday evening.
Burnley Council's chief executive Steve Rumbelow said the event was 'a big succ- ess'.
And Alexandra Jones, chief executive of Centre for Cities think-tank, said Burnley was the 10th best town in the UK for creating private sector jobs.
Mr Rumbelow led a del-egation which included representatives from almost 30 Burnley firms to meet ministers and investors in Westminster.
The trip was arranged on the back of last year's Department for Business, Inn-ovation and Skills award success, when the borough was named the most ent-erprising area in the UK.
Mr Fallon was among those to heap praise on Burnley's economy during a speech at The Royal Society's headquarters, in Carlton House Terrace.
He said: "Burnley has indeed a strong package to offer investors. It has a pro-active and supportive business environment, a good infrastructure, and highly-skilled workforce.
"I think that Burnley is leading the way, where more businesses are being created than are closing down.
"Burnley is a championship town that was once – and we hope will again be – in the Premiership."
Former Lancashire Telegraph reporter Tony Livesey was compère at the event, which included a quiz on the town's heritage.
Mr Rumbelow said: "It seemed to go very, very well.
"We met a number of contacts that we are following up, and one or two of them have already agreed to come to Burnley and see what we can offer.
"That was one of the main objectives.
"It was great to see businesses meeting other bus-inesses. That contact betw- een people is what we want to build on."
Referring to Burnley's private sector jobs numbers, Ms Jones said: "This is an enormous achievement.
"It's an impressive statistic and a real achievement to be up there in the top ten based on national data."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
"Art is My Refuge" is a program we designed to help refugee artists express, be a part of and inspire the American culture. in 2016 we had the honor to show case artists from Iraq,Iran, and Vietnam. and we are building a data base of many other minorities artists whom eager to share their art. we have shows in our gallery and displaying refugee art in other locations.
Negative Space Gallery & Studio


text:
Any beach town worth its salt promises a day basking in the sun, playing in the sand and crashing in the water. But sometimes the difference that really sets one of these destinations apart from another is what happens when it's time to get off the beach.
The landside attractions and the character of the town itself contribute mightily to the measure of a well-rounded getaway.
I knew that the neighboring towns of Biloxi and Ocean Springs would cover the basics, offering beaches within easy day-trip distance of southeast Louisiana. But what was striking about a Saturday I spent shuttling between the two Mississippi towns was how, with their close proximity to each other, they worked like one destination with a dual identity. The added bonus of extraordinary art attractions close by in each town made the outing feel like much more than a day at the beach, too.
Biloxi and Ocean Springs are on two peninsulas linked by the broad, high sweep of the Biloxi Bay Bridge, part of Gulf-hugging U.S. 90. The bridge extends about a mile and a half, though in some ways the towns it connects can seem a world apart.
Just about everything for visitors in Biloxi is on the beach, starting with its collection of nine large casinos. Between the high-dollar sparkle of their hotel towers, gaming floors and parking garages, the waterfront is lined like a sandy midway with mini golf, arcades and restaurants. A gigantic shark's mouth frames the entrance to one sprawling souvenir store painted in coral pink, and it does not look out of place.
Meanwhile, across the bay, a spin through downtown Ocean Springs can feel like a vignette of small town Americana, albeit one inclined toward sandals and seersucker. A highly-walkable cluster of shops and restaurants sits under a deep, shading canopy of oaks and merges block by block into densely-settled neighborhoods before reaching the beach. A stroll through town is just as much a part of this trip as a stretch on the beach.
What these towns do share is easy access to the water. Just a few minutes after exiting the interstate, I had parked directly beside the beach in Biloxi and waded into warm, calm waters sheltered by barrier islands in the near distance.
A squadron of blue herons sailed past overhead, small waves undulated in and a pair of shrimp boats made for their docks with nets flung in the air.
The city streets I'd left that morning felt much farther away than the miles I just logged would suggest.
It was a similar scene in Ocean Springs. Here, a low sea wall traces a curving, scenic path along the Front Beach waterfront, which is whipped into a series of short jetties like a succession of small, discrete booths of beach where families frolicked and larger groups convened for parties.
Finding inspiration
On this bright day, the sand, water, sky and clouds each striped the Ocean Springs vista with their own bands of soft color.
I was dazzled by how these patterns were repeated, and reinterpreted in mesmerizing fashion, inside the Walter Anderson Museum of Art (510 Washington St., Ocean Springs, 228-872-3164; walterandersonmuseum.org), a cool, calming, modern sanctuary downtown.
The museum is devoted to the idiosyncratic local artist Walter Anderson (1903-1965), whose prolific and varied work chronicles the natural splendor of the Gulf Coast.
Known as a recluse in his later years, Anderson would row a small skiff across the Mississippi Sound for prolonged sojourns on Horn Island to live very simply amid the subject that so inspired him.
The museum encompasses mural-sized paintings and smaller watercolors on typing paper, pottery, block prints and other pieces.
A narrow doorway leads to "the Little Room," a chamber transplanted here from the artist's former cottage where he had covered every inch of wall and ceiling with renderings. The museum also connects to the Ocean Springs Community Center, a civic meeting hall where the four walls serve as frames for a mural lushly evoking Anderson's vision of life along the coast through the ages. Experiencing this work so close to its source material just outside the museum's doors made this visit feel especially immersive and intimate.
Across the bridge, the big art attraction in Biloxi initially seemed startlingly foreign, though this impression quickly changed once I began exploring its many parts. Set back just a block from the beach, the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art (386 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, 228-374-5547; georgeohr.org) is a six-building campus designed by acclaimed architect Frank Gehry.
With sinuously curving brickwork, sharp angles and an eye-catching quartet of egg-shaped gallery "pods" sheathed in stainless steel, the main buildings bring to mind Gehry's famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, more than any traditional Gulf Coast design.
First opened in 2010, portions of the museum are still under development (those remarkable pods, officially the John S. and James L. Knight Gallery, should debut this fall). What's open now includes a visitor center and store with a tree fortlike observation tower; an interpretative center on local history told through the lens of one African-American family; a gallery for changing contemporary art exhibits, another devoted to African-American art and a centerpiece showcase on the work of ceramic artist George Ohr (1857-1918).
The self-proclaimed "mad potter of Biloxi," Ohr looked the part with a wild mustache and eccentric flair and created abstract, sculptural pottery that raised eyebrows at the time and is now regarded as groundbreaking. Today, the museum named in his honor (and for local businessman and benefactor Jerry O'Keefe) meanders amid a grove of towering live oaks, timeless local totems that seem to become part of the assertively modern design.
Perking up at sundown
Beach towns can feel busiest at sunset, as the transition from sun worshipping to suppertime puts everything in motion like the set change of a theater production. There are places to go, decisions to be made.
In Ocean Springs, as the beach emptied for the day the downtown hub began to fill in. People pushed baby strollers into the courtyard at Leo's Wood Fired Pizza (1107 Government St., 228-872-7283), settled in for slightly more elegant meals on the patio at Maison de Lu (626 Washington St., 228-875-0032) or grabbed a beer and checked a baseball score at Kwitzky's Dug Out (1025 Government St., 228-875-7827; kwitzkysdugout.com).
I'd already eaten lunch on the beach in Ocean Springs, courtesy of a take-out order of excellent fried shrimp and okra from the Funky Chicken (720 Bellande St., Ocean Springs, 228-217-7197), a colorful walk-up cafe that, I later learned, delivers to the beach. So for dinner I headed across the bridge once more to Biloxi as the casino signs began to illuminate the night sky.
I wound up at Shaggy's (1763 Beach Blvd, Biloxi, 228-432-5005; shaggys.biz), an enormous, very casual beachfront restaurant that extends over a number of buildings, decks and outdoor bars connected by wooden walkways. If the Swiss Family Robinson had gotten into the beach bar business they might've built something like this.
The dinner rush was well underway when I arrived, and there was a wait for seating. But instead of moping around by the hostess stand, people here simply proceeded to the true front of the restaurant, the side that faces the Gulf, and passed the time with another romp through the sand. Some even waded into the shallow water.
It turns out, whatever else might be happening along the waterfront, the elemental appeal of time spent on the beach still holds the strongest draw.
More art in Ocean Springs
Art abounds around Ocean Springs in galleries and shops. Fans of Walter Anderson's work should visit Realizations (1000 Washington St., Ocean Springs, 228-875-0503; walteringlisanderson.com), a store run by the artist's family with products based on his designs.
The Anderson family art legacy is also alive and well at Shearwater Pottery (102 Shearwater Dr., Ocean Springs, 228-875-7320; shearwaterpottery.com), a pottery studio and store founded by Walter's brother Peter Anderson in 1928 and run today by his descendants.
From downtown, the short trip to Shearwater Pottery will take you through town, past a small fishing harbor and along a winding dirt road and makes an interesting excursion in its own right. Don't worry if you miss a turn. Getting lost in this charming town is a good way to experience it too.
Follow Ian McNulty on Twitter @IanMcNultyNOLA.


text:
Washburn WD100DL Dreadnought Mahogany Acoustic Guitar Transparent Wine Red
(Transparent Wine Red)
Sku #H71608000003000
6 String Acoustic Guitars
- Write a Review
FREE SHIPPING on Almost Everything
Excellent value with warm tone and strong volume.
The Washburn WD100DL is a steel string acoustic guitar that features a mahogany top and dreadnought size, making it ideal for both practice and performance.
Mahogany is dark-colored wood that, when used as a guitar soundboard, creates a warm, full tone with a character all its own. The WD100DL also features mahogany back and sides that further help to balance out the powerful low- and high-end inherent to the dreadnought body shape. The result is a sound that's both pleasing and loud enough to be heard in small venue without amplification.
The Washburn WD100DL has a full-length 25-1/2" mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard. Other appointments include a rosewood bridge, vintage style headstock, die-cast tuners, and a gig bag.
*Note: Restock version does not have Washburn flower logo on headstock.
Body Type: Dreadnought
Body Wood: mahogany
Top wood: mahogany
Scale Length: 25.5"
Neck Joint: dovetail
Neck Wood: mahogany
Fretboard: rosewood
Neck Shape: C
# frets: 20
Nut Width: 1.7" (43mm)
Fretboard Radius: 15.75" (400mm)
Bridge: rosewood
Tuners: die-cast
Hardware color: gold
Finish: gloss
Note: Restock version does not have Washburn flower logo on headstock
Includes gig bag
REVIEW SNAPSHOT®by PowerReviews
Reviewed by 1 customer
Comments about Washburn WD100DL Dreadnought Mahogany Acoustic Guitar:
This guitar isn't too bad the action is smooth sounds pretty good. great price for a starter guitar for someone just trying to learn. or if you just need a decent cheap replacement for one that was lost stolen or trashed. i got mine in 09 and its still in good shape and it will have many years to come.


text:
- When:
Add This Event To YourWednesday, April 10, 2013
at 6:30 PM
- Where:
- Holland Hall, 501
- Contact:
- Kristina Medina-Vilariño
"Social functions, market challenges, and the development of new technologies"
The Cuban literary critic and editor, Modesto Milanés-Soria will visit us from Havana to discuss the editorial politics that shape the publishing industry in Cuba, as well as the country ́s efforts to conciliate these politics within the requirements for economic realization. With a brief analysis based on statistics from 2009-2011, Milanés-Soria will discuss the editorial market ́s influence over the consumers behavior and the possible changes in these habits with the advance of new technologies.
(This talk will be in Spanish, but the Q & A session can be translated in English if needed).
< Return to main calendar page


text:
Giga Image of Madurai Meenakshi Temple Gopuram is developed by Leen Thobias of p4panorama.com. Giga Image is based on technology developed by NASA which provides complete detail of an image. The world famous
Sri Madurai Meenakshi Temple
at Madurai in
Tamil Nadu is famous for its Gopuram – monumental entrance tower with thousands
of sculptors.
In the Giga Image, each sculptor on the north, south, east and west Gopurams of
can be viewed in full detail. Madurai
Meenakshi Temple
There are nearly a thousand sculptors on the Gopurams.
|Giga Image of West Gopuram of Madurai Meenakshi Temple
|A sculpture on the West Gopuram as viewed in the Giga Image


text:
Fix Is In? Gold Study Claims Price Manipulation: Bloomberg
Liam Vaughan of Bloomberg News has the scoop on a gold-market study suggesting gold's price may be manipulated.
From Vaughan:
Unusual trading patterns around 3 p.m. in London, when the so-called afternoon fix is set on a private conference call between five of the biggest gold dealers, are a sign of collusive behavior and should be investigated, New York University's Stern School of Business Professor Rosa Abrantes-Metz and Albert Metz, a managing director at Moody's Investors Service, wrote in a draft research paper. ...
From 2004, they observed frequent spikes in spot gold prices during the afternoon call. The moves weren't replicated during the morning call and hadn't happened before 2004, they found. ...
There's no obvious explanation as to why the patterns began in 2004, why they were more prevalent in the afternoon fixing, and why price moves tended to be downwards, Abrantes-Metz said in a telephone interview this week.
In Friday morning ETF trading, SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) are ahead by a fraction. Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X Shares (DUST) and Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shares (NUGT), the three-times leveraged ETFs, are moving about 1% each.
Update 1:31 p.m.: Mr. Metz's employer gets in touch with Barrons.com to stress that, although Mr. Metz works for Moody's, the study isn't authored by the ratings firm. As a spokesman emailed: "The academic paper cited in media reports is not a Moody's research report. The co-author of the paper was writing independent of his position at Moody's and was representing his own research findings and viewpoint."


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I'm just curious what everyone thinks. Was gonna try a poll but in a game like this there were so many choices.
My choice, after thinking about it - the offensive pass interference late in the 1st half on the Pats. They were up 21-3 and just got a 1st down on about the 15. The defense was reeling. It was looking like you'd be down 28-3 and IMO if that had happened, it would have been over. Instead they got nothing on that drive.


text:
Multi-Use Brown Kraft Label with Border, 4 per 4x6 sheet
Avery Blank Templates Microsoft Word
Customize this label for a clean, natural look. Great for canning, food gifts, jams and jellies. Also great for organization projects - just personalize and apply to glass jars, boxes, bins or other storage containers.
Compatible Products:


text:
London Welsh rugby player Ashley Smith has vowed not to stop if he achieves his lifelong goal of playing in the Premiership next season – and aims to make himself a regular fixture on the London
Welsh teamsheet.
Smith, who lives in Coulsdon, is an ex-London Wasps academy player, but only found his feet in the professional game with the Richmond outfit, playing 11 times as the Exiles won the Championship
last term.
The 21-year-old is a fleet-heeled winger who captained his side at the JP Morgan Asset Management Premiership Rugby 7s Series final – where Welsh narrowly failed to make the final – but
couldn't establish himself in the first team last season.
He lost out to the hulking frame of Joe Ajuwa and the 22-year-old Nick Scott, but Smith believes he can turn the tables in the Premiership.
"Joe and Nick were the main wingers last year, but it's definitely my aim to get a starting spot this year," he said.
"We haven't got one of the biggest squads in the Premiership so there's going to be a lot of rotation with the Amlin Cup, LV= Cup – there's so many different competitions so there'll be a lot of
"This is only my second season at the club after moving from Stourbridge in National One and before that I was playing at Loughborough Students, so it's a massive step up.
"But my number one goal is playing in the Premiership and it's great that I've made it because I'm in the Premiership now and it's what I've focused on throughout my career.
"I'm just setting myself higher goals and I need to keep increasing my speed, strength and power, and playing week in, week out will help that."
Having only had two months to prepare for life in the Premiership, London Welsh, on paper, are hot favourites for relegation, but having signed Welsh international stars Gavin Henson and Sonny
Parker, Smith believes they stand a good chance of staying up.
The pair were all involved in Saturday's 40-31 pre-season friendly defeat at Bath, which featured tries from Dan George, Jonah Holmes, Paulica Ion and Smith – plus three conversions
from Henson.
But aside from the marquee signings, Smith is backing Ajuwa as the club's secret weapon after the 17-stone wing scored 12 tries in 28 games last season.
"I think on the platform we're on now Joe will be doing well and he could showcase himself because he's a big athlete," he added.
"Speed, strength, he's got everything and I think he's one to look out for.
"Obviously we've got the guys like Gavin Henson and Sonny Parker pulling the strings so they're going to help him, and us."
Meanwhile, London Welsh will start their Aviva Premiership campaign with new jersey sponsors.
Welsh brewer SA Brain has signed a deal to have Brains Beer on the team's jersey for three years, starting with the season opener against Leicester Tigers on September 2 at the Kassam Stadium.


text:
This article is the second part of a series which started with An Overview of Lexing and Parsing. That article aimed to discuss lexing and parsing in general terms, while trying to minimize the amount on how to actually use Marpa::R2 to do the work. In the end, however, it did have quite a few specifics. This article has yet more detail with regard to working with both a lexer and a parser. BTW, Marpa's blog
(For more information, see the Marpa blog or download the example files for this article.)
Brief Recap: The Two Grammars
Article 1 defined the first sub-grammar as the one which identifies tokens and the second sub-grammar as the one which specifies which combinations of tokens are legal within the target language. As I use these terms, the lexer implements the first sub-grammar and the parser implements the second.
Some Context
Consider this image:
It's actually a copy of the image of a manual page for Graph::Easy. Note: My
module Graph::Easy::Marpa
is a complete re-write of
Graph::Easy. After I offered to take
over maintenance of the latter, I found the code so complex I literally
couldn't understand any of it.
There are three ways (of interest to us) to specify the contents of this image:
- As a Perl program using the GraphViz2 module
This is teamwork.pl:
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use GraphViz2;
# ---------------
my($graph) = GraphViz2 -> new
graph => {rankdir => 'LR'},
edge => {color => 'grey'},
logger => '',
$graph -> default_node(fontsize => '12pt', shape => 'rectangle',
style => 'filled, solid');
$graph -> add_node(name => 'Teamwork', fillcolor => 'red');
$graph -> add_node(name => 'Victory', fillcolor => 'yellow');
# The dir attribute makes the arrowhead appear.
$graph -> add_edge(dir => 'forward', from => 'Teamwork',
to => 'Victory', label => 'is the key to');
my($format) = shift || 'svg';
my($output_file) = shift || "teamwork.$format";
$graph -> run(format => $format, output_file => $output_file);
This approach uses the
Graph::Easy language invented by the author (Tels) of the
Graph::Easy Perl module. Call this teamwork.easy. It's actually input for
graph {rankdir: LR}
node {fontsize: 12pt; shape: rectangle; style: filled, solid}
[Teamwork]{fillcolor: yellow}
-> {label: is the key to}
[Victory]{fillcolor: red}
Note: In some rare cases, the syntax supported by
Graph::Easy::Marpa will not be exactly identical to the syntax supported by the original
Call this teamwork.dot:
digraph Perl
graph [ rankdir="LR" ]
node [ fontsize="12pt" shape="rectangle" style="filled, solid" ]
edge [ color="grey" ]
"Teamwork" [ fillcolor="yellow" ]
"Victory" [ fillcolor="red" ]
"Teamwork" -> "Victory" [ label="is the key to" ]
This article is about using
GraphViz2::Marpa to parse DOT files.
Of course the Graphviz package itself provides a set of programs which parse DOT files in order to render them into many different formats. Why then would someone write a new parser for DOT? One reason is to practice your Marpa skills. Another is, perhaps, to write an on-line editor for Graphviz files.
Alternately you might provide add-on services to the Graphviz package. For instance, some users might want to find all clusters of nodes, where a cluster is a set of nodes connected to each other, but not connected to any nodes outside the cluster. Yet other uses might want to find all paths of a given length emanating from a given node.
I myself have written algorithms which provide these last two features. See the module GraphViz2::Marpa::PathUtils and the PathUtils demo page.
But back to using
Marpa::R2 from within
Scripts for Testing
The code being developed obviously needs to be tested thoroughly, because any such little language has many ways to get things right and a horrendously large number of ways to get things slightly wrong, or worse. Luckily, because graphs specified in DOT can be very brief, it's a simple matter to make up many samples. Further, other more complex samples can be copied from the Graphviz distro's graphs/directed/ and graphs/undirected/ directories.
GraphViz2::Marpa distro I developed includes with 86 data/*.gv (input) files and the 79 corresponding data/*.lex, data/*.parse, data/*.rend, and html/*.svg (output) files. The missing files are due to deliberate errors in the input files, so they do not have output files. The distribution also includes obvious scripts such as lex.pl (lex a file), parse.pl (parse a lexed file), rend.pl (render a parsed file back into DOT), and one named vaguely after the package, g2m.pl, which runs the lexer and the parser.
Why a rend.pl? If the code can't reconstruct the input DOT file, something got lost in translation....
The distribution also includes scripts which operate on a set of files.
- data/*.gv -> dot2lex.pl -> runs lex.pl once per file -> data/*.lex (CSV files).
- data/*.lex -> lex2parse.pl -> runs parse.pl once per file -> data/*.parse (CSV files).
- data/*.parse -> parse2rend.pl -> runs rend.pl once per file -> data/*.rend (dot files).
- data/*.rend -> rend2svg.pl -> html/*.svg.
Finally, generate.demo.pl creates the GraphViz2 Marpa demo page.
Normal users will use g2m.pl exclusively. The other scripts help developers with testing. See the GraphViz2 Marpa scripts documentation for more information.
Some Modules
GraphViz2::Marpa::Lexer::DFA is a wrapper around Set::FA::Element. It has various tasks to do:
- Process the State Transition Table (STT)
- Transform the STT from the input form (spreadsheet/CSV file) into what Set::FA::Element expects
- Set up the logger
- Provide the code for all the functions which handle enter-state and exit-state events
- Run the DFA
- Check the result of that run
The STT comes in via
GraphViz2::Marpa::Lexer, which produced it from within its own source code or an external CSV file. The lexer has already validated the structure of the STT's data.
In truth, it gets this from its caller, GraphViz2::Marpa::Lexer.
This is the code which can apply checking above and beyond what was built into the set of regexps which came from the spreadsheet. For example, I could have used Perl's
\w instead of
/[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*/ to find alphanumeric tokens, and at this point rejected those starting with a digit, because DOT imposes that restriction.
Most importantly, this code stockpiles the tokens themselves with metadata to identify the type of each token (hence the two columns in the upcoming sample data/27.lex just below).
Did the DFA end up in an accepting state? Yes is okay and no is an error.
Here is some sample data which ships with
GraphViz2::Marpa, formatted for maximum clarity:
- A DOT file, data/27.gv, which is input to the lexer:
digraph graph_27
color = red
fontcolor = green
color = green
fontcolor = red
node_27_1 -> node_27_2
strict , "no"
digraph , "yes"
graph_id , "graph_27"
start_scope , "1"
node_id , "node_27_1"
open_bracket , "["
attribute_id , "color"
equals , "="
attribute_value , "red"
attribute_id , "fontcolor"
equals , "="
attribute_value , "green"
close_bracket , "]"
node_id , "node_27_2"
open_bracket , "["
attribute_id , "color"
equals , "="
attribute_value , "green"
attribute_id , "fontcolor"
equals , "="
attribute_value , "red"
close_bracket , "]"
node_id , "node_27_1"
edge_id , "->"
node_id , "node_27_2"
end_scope , "1"
You can see the details on the GraphViz2 Marpa demo page.
Some Notes on the STT
Firstly, note that the code allows whole-line comments (matching
m!^(?:#|//)!. These lines are discarded when the input file is read, and so do not appear in the STT.
Working With An Incomplete BNF
Suppose you've gone to all of the work to find or create a BNF (Backus-Naur Form) grammar for your input language. You might encounter the situation where you can use BNF to specify your language in general, but not precisely in every situation. DOT is one offender.
DOT IDs can be surrounded by double-quotes, and in some case must be surrounded by double-quotes. To be more specific, if we regard an attribute declaration to be of the form
key=value, both the key and the value can be embedded in double-quotes, and sometimes the value must be.
Even worse, IDs can be attributes. For instance, you might want your font color to be green. That appears to be simple, but note: attributes must be attached to some component of the graph, something like
node_27_1 [fontcolor = green].
Here's the pain. In DOT, the thing to which the attribute belongs may be omitted as implied. That is, the name of the thing's owner is optional. For instance, you might want a graph which is six inches square. Here's how you can specify that requirement:
graph [size = "6,6"]
[size = "6,6"]
size = "6,6"
The double-quotes are mandatory in this context.
This also works.
So does this.
But wait, there's more! The value of the attribute can be omitted, if it's true. Hence the distro, and the demo page, have a set of tests, called data/42.*.gv, which test that feature of the code. Grrrr.
All this means is that when the terminator of the attribute declaration (in the input stream) is detected, and we switch states from
within-attribute to
after-attribute, the code which emits output from the lexer has to have some knowledge of what the hell is going on, so that it can pretend it received the first of these three forms even if it received the second or third form. It must output
graph (the graph as a whole) as the owner of the attribute in question.
As you've seen, any attribute declaration can contain a set of attribute
key=value pairs as in
node_27_2 [ color = green fontcolor = red ].
You can't solve this with regexps, unless you have amazing superpowers and don't care if anyone else can maintain your code. Instead, be prepared to add code in two places:
- At switch of state
- After all input has been parsed
Indeed, GraphViz2::Marpa::Lexer::DFA contains a long sub,
_clean_up(), which repeatedly fiddles the array of detected
tokens, fixing up the list before it's fit to inflict on the parser.
Understanding the State Transition Table
I included this diagram in the first article:
DOT's Grammar
| |
strict |
| |
| |
digraph or graph
| |
| |
$id |
| |
A dot file starts with an optional
strict, followed by either
graph or
digraph. (Here
di stands for
directed, meaning edges between nodes have arrowheads on them. Yes, there are
many attributes which can be attached to edges. See http://www.graphviz.org/content/attrs
and look for an
E (edge) in the second column of the table of
attribute names).
/(di|)graph/ is in turn followed by an optional ID.
Line One
From the first non-heading line of the STT, you can see how I ended up with:
- A start state flag =>
- An accept flag =>
- A state name =>
- An event =>
- A next state =>
- An entry function =>
- An exit function =>
- A regexp =>
- An interpretation =>
The state defined on this line is the start state.
Because the initial state can't be an accepting start, this column--in the row--must be empty.
Later STT states have
Yes in this column.
I chose to call it
initial. Other people call it
This--although it might not yet be clear--is actually a regexp,
/(?:strict)/. The DFA adds the do-not-capture prefix
/(?: and suffix
This is the state to which to jump if a match occurs. Here, match means a match between the regexp (event) in the previous column and the head of the input stream.
I don't use it here, but if I did, it would mean to call a particular function when entering the named state.
Similar to the entry function, this says to call a particular function when exiting the named state.
I can save a set of regexps in this column and use spreadsheet formula elsewhere to refer to them.
These are my notes to myself. This one says that regexp in the previous column specifies what an ID must match in the DOT language.
Line Two
The event in the second line,
/(?:graph|digraph)/, indicates what to do if the
strict is absent from the input stream.
To clarify this point, recall that the DFA matches entries in the Event column one at a time, from the first listed against the name of the state--here,
/(?:strict)/--down to the last for the given state--here,
/(?:\s+)/. The first regexp to match wins, in that the first regexp to match will triggersthe exit state logic and that its entry in the Next column specifies the next state to enter, which in turn specifies the (next) state's entry function to call, if any.
strict is not at the head of the input stream, and it can definitely be absent, as is seen in the above diagram, this regexp--
/(?:graph|digraph)/--is the next one tested by the DFA's logic.
Line Three
The hard-to-read regexp
\/\*.*\*\/ says to skip C-language-style multi-line (
/* ... */) comments. The skip takes place because the Next state is
initial, the current state. In other words, discard any text at the head of the input stream which this regexp will gobble.
Why does it get discarded? That's the way
operates. Looping within a state does not trigger the
exit-state and enter-state functions, and so there is no opportunity to
stockpile the matched text. That's good in this case. There's no reason to save
it, because it's a comment.
Think about the implications for a moment. Once the code has discarded a comment (or anything else), you can never recreate the verbatim input stream from the stockpiled text. Hence you should only discard something once you fully understand the consequences. If you're parsing code to execute it (whatever that means), fine. If you're writing a pretty printer or indenter, you cannot discard comments.
Lastly, we can say this regexp is used often, meaning we accept such comments at many places in the input stream.
Line Four
The regexp
\s+ says to skip spaces (in front of or between interesting tokens). As with the previous line, we skip to the very same state.
This state has four regexps attached to it.
More States
Re-examining the STT shows two introductory states, for input with and without a (leading)
strict. I've called these states by the arbitrary names
initial and
If the initial
strict is present, state
initial handles it (in the exit function) and jumps to state
graph to handle what comes next. If, however,
strict is absent, state
initial still handles the input, but then jumps to state
A (repeated) word of warning about
Set::FA::Element. A loop
within a state does not trigger the exit-state and
enter-state functions. Sometimes this can actually be rather unfortunate. You
can see elsewhere in the STT where I have had to use pairs of
almost-identically named states (such as
statement_list_1 and
statement_list_2), and designed the logic to rock the STT back and
forth between them, just to allow the state machine to gobble up certain input
sequences. You may have to use this technique yourself. Be aware of it.
Proceeding in this fashion, driven by the BNF of the input language, eventually you can construct the whole STT. Each time a new enter-state or exit-state function is needed, write the code, then run a small demo to test it. There is no substitute for that testing.
graph State
You reach this state simply by the absence of a leading
strict in the input stream. Apart from not bothering to cater for comments (as did the
initial state), this state is really the same as the
initial state.
A few paragraphs back I warned about a feature designed into Set::FA::Element, looping within a state. That fact is why the
graph state exists. If the
initial state could have looped to itself upon detecting
strict, and executed the exit or entry functions, there would be no need for the
graph state.
graph_id State
Next, look for an optional graph id, at the current head of the input stream (because anything which matched previously is gone).
Here's the first use of a formula: Cell H2 contains
This accepts a double-quoted ID, or an ID quoted with
< and
>, or an alphanumeric (but not starting with a digit) ID, or a
When the code sees such a token, it jumps to the
open_brace state, meaning the very next non-whitespace character had better (barring comments) be a
{, or there's an error, so the code will die. Otherwise, it accepts
{ without an ID and jumps to the
statement_list_1 state, or discards comments and spaces by looping within the
graph_id state.
The Remaining States
What follows in the STT gets complex, but in reality is more of the same. Several things should be clear by now:
- The development of the STT is iterative
- You need lots of tiny but different test data files, to test these steps
- You need quite a lot of patience, which, unfortunately, can't be downloaded from the internet...
Lexer Actions (Callbacks)
Matching something with a DFA only makes sense if you can capture the matched text for processing. Hence the use of state-exit and state-entry callback functions. In these functions, you must decide what text to output for each recognized input token.
To help with this, I use a method called
items(), accessed in each function via
$myself. This method manages an stack (array) of items of type
Set::Array. Each element in this array is a hashref:
count => $integer, # 1 .. N.
name => '', # Unused.
type => $string, # The type of the token.
value => $value, # The value from the input stream.
Whenever a token is recognized, push a new item onto the stack. The value of the
type string is the result of the DFA's work identifying the token. This identification process uses the first of the two sub-grammars mentioned in the first article.
A long Exit-state Function
save_prefix function looks like:
# Warning: This is a function (i.e. not a method).
sub save_prefix
my($dfa) = @_;
my($match) = trim($dfa -> match);
# Upon each call, $match will be 1 of:
# * strict.
# * digraph.
# * graph.
# Note: Because this is a function, $myself is a global alias to $self.
$myself -> log(debug => "save_prefix($match)");
# Input => Output (a new item, i.e. a hashref):
# o strict => {name => strict, value => yes}.
# o digraph => {name => digraph, value => yes}.
# o graph => {name => digraph, value => no}.
if ($match eq 'strict')
$myself -> new_item($match, 'yes');
# If the first token is '(di)graph' (i.e. there was no 'strict'),
# jam a 'strict' into the output stream.
if ($myself -> items -> length == 0) # Output stream is empty.
$myself -> new_item('strict', 'no');
$myself -> new_item('digraph', $match eq 'digraph' ? 'yes' : 'no');
} # End of save_prefix.
A tiny Exit-state Function
Here's one of the shorter exit functions, attached in the STT to the
open_brace and
start_statement states:
sub start_statements
my($dfa) = @_;
$myself -> new_item('open_brace', $myself -> increment_brace_count);
} # End of start_statements.
The code to push a new item onto the stack is just:
sub new_item
my($self, $type, $value) = @_;
$self -> items -> push
count => $self -> increment_item_count,
name => '',
type => $type,
value => $value,
} # End of new_item.
Using Marpa in the Lexer
Yes, you can use Marpa in the lexer, as discussed in the first article. I prefer to use a spreadsheet full of regexps--but enough of the lexer. It's time to discuss the parser.
The Parser's Structure
The parser incorporates the second sub-grammar and uses
Marpa::R2 to validate the output from the lexer against this grammar. The parser's structure is very similar to that of the lexer:
- Initialize using the parameters to
- Declare the grammar
- Run Marpa
- Save the output
Marpa Actions (Callbacks)
As with the lexer, the parser works via callbacks, which are functions named within the grammar and called by
Marpa::R2 whenever the input sequence of lexed items matches some component of the grammar. Consider these four rule descriptors in the grammar declared in
grammar() method:
{ # Prolog stuff.
lhs => 'prolog_definition',
rhs => [qw/strict_definition digraph_definition graph_id_definition/],
lhs => 'strict_definition',
rhs => [qw/strict/],
action => 'strict', # <== Callback.
lhs => 'digraph_definition',
rhs => [qw/digraph/],
action => 'digraph', # <== Callback.
lhs => 'graph_id_definition',
rhs => [qw/graph_id/],
action => 'graph_id', # <== Callback. See sub graph_id() just below.
In each case the
lhs is a name I've chosen so that I can refer to each rule descriptor in other rule descriptors. That's how I chain rules together to make a tree structure. (See the Chains and Trees section of the previous article.)
This grammar fragment expects the input stream of items from the lexer to consist (at the start of the stream, actually) of three components: a strict thingy, a digraph thingy, and a graph_id thingy. Because I wrote the lexer, I can ensure that this is exactly what the lexer produces.
To emphasise, the grammar says that these the items are the only things it will accept at this point in the input stream, and that only if they are in the given order, and that they must literally consist of the three tokens (see
rhs): strict, digraph and graph_id.
These latter three come from the type key in the array of hashrefs built by the lexer. The three corresponding value keys in those hashrefs are
yes or
no for strict,
yes or
no for digraph, and an id or the empty string for graph_id.
As with the lexer, when in incoming token (type) matches expectations,
Marpa::R2 triggers a call to an action, here called (for clarity) the same as the
Consider one of those functions:
sub graph_id
my($stash, $t1, undef, $t2) = @_;
$myself -> new_item('graph_id', $t1);
return $t1;
} # End of graph_id.
The parameter list is courtesy of how
Marpa::R2 manages callbacks.
$t1 is the incoming graph id. In data/27.gv (shown earlier), that is
Marpa does not supply the string
graph_id to this function, because there's no need. I designed the grammar such that this function is only called when the value of the incoming type is
graph_id, so I know precisely under what circumstances this function was called. That's why I could hard-code the string
graph_id in the body of the
graph_id() function.
The Grammar in Practice
Now you might be thinking: Just a second! That code seems to be doing no more than copying the input token to the output stream. Well, you're right, sort of.
True understanding comes when you realize that Marpa calls that code only at the appropriate point precisely because the type
graph_id and its value
graph_27 were at exactly the right place in the input stream. By that I mean that the location of the pair:
(type => value)
('graph_id' => 'graph_27')
in the input stream was exactly where it had to be to satisfy the grammar initialized by
Marpa::R2::Grammar. If it had not been there, Marpa would have thrown an exception, which we would recognize as a syntax error--a syntax error in the input stream fed into the lexer, but which Marpa picked up by testing that input stream against the grammar declared in the parser. The role of the lexer as an intermediary is to simplify the logic of the code as a whole with a divide-and-conquer strategy.
In other words, it's no accident that that function gets called at a particular point in time during the parser's processing of its input stream.
Consider another problem which arises as you build up the set of rule descriptors within the grammar.
Trees Have Leaves
The first article discussed chains and trees (see the
prolog_definition mentioned earlier in this article). Briefly, each rule descriptor must be chained to other rule descriptors.
The astute reader will have already seen a problem: How do you define the meanings of the leaves of this tree when the chain of definitions must end at each leaf?
Here's part of the data/27.lex input file:
strict , "no"
digraph , "yes"
graph_id , "graph_27"
start_scope , "1"
node_id , "node_27_1"
open_bracket , "["
attribute_id , "color"
equals , "="
attribute_value , "red"
attribute_id , "fontcolor"
equals , "="
attribute_value , "green"
close_bracket , "]"
The corresponding rules descriptors look like:
lhs => 'attribute_statement',
rhs => [qw/attribute_key has attribute_val/],
lhs => 'attribute_key',
rhs => [qw/attribute_id/], # <=== This is a terminal.
min => 1,
action => 'attribute_id',
lhs => 'has',
rhs => [qw/equals/],
min => 1,
lhs => 'attribute_val',
rhs => [qw/attribute_value/], # <=== And so is this.
min => 1,
action => 'attribute_value',
The items marked as terminals (standard parsing terminology) have no further definitions, so
attribute_key and
attribute_val are leaves in the tree of rule descriptors. What does that mean? The terminals
attribute_id and
attribute_value must appear literally in the input stream.
Switching between
attribute_key and
attribute_id is a requirement of Marpa to avoid ambiguity in the statement of the grammar. Likewise for
attribute_val and
min makes the attributes mandatory. Not in the sense that nodes and edges must have attributes, they don't, but in the sense that if the input stream has an
attribute_id token, then it must have an
attribute_value token and vice versa.
Remember the earlier section "Working With An Incomplete BNF"? If the original *.gv file used one of:
size = "6,6"
[size = "6,6"]
graph [size = "6,6"]
... then the one chosen really represents the graph attribute:
graph [size = "6,6"]
To make this work, the lexer must force the output to be:
class_id , "graph"
open_bracket , "["
attribute_id , "size"
equals , "="
attribute_value , "6,6"
close_bracket , "]"
This matches the requirements, in that both
attribute_id and
attribute_value are present, is their (so to speak) owner, the object itself, which is identified by the type
All of this should reinforce the point that the design of the lexer is intimately tied to the design of the parser. By taking decisions like this in the lexer you can standardize its output and simplify the work that the parser needs to don.
Where to go from here
The recently released Perl module MarpaX::Simple::Rules
takes a BNF and generates the corresponding grammar in the format expected by
Jeffrey Kegler (author of Marpa) has blogged about MarpaX::Simple::Rules.
This is a very interesting development, because it automates the laborious process of converting a BNF into a set of Marpa's rule descriptors. Consequently, it makes sense for anyone contemplating using
Marpa::R2 to investigate how appropriate it would be to do so via
Wrapping Up and Winding Down
You've seen samples of lexer output and some parts of the grammar which both define the second sub-grammar of what to expect and what should match precisely the input from that lexer. If they don't match, it is in fact the parser which issues the dread syntax error message, because only it (not the lexer) knows which combinations of input tokens are acceptable.
Just like in the lexer, callback functions stockpile items which have passed Marpa::R2's attempt to match up input tokens with rule descriptors. This technique records exactly which rules fired in which order. After Marpa::R2 has run to completion, you have a stack of items whose elements are a (lexed and) parsed version of the original file. Your job is then to output that stack to a file, or await the caller of the parser to ask for the stack as an array reference. From there, the world.
For more details, consult my July 2011 article on Marpa::R2.
The Lexer and the State Transition Table - Revisited
The complexity of the STT in
GraphViz2::Marpa justifies the
decision to split the lexer and the parser into separate modules. Clearly that
will not always be the case. Given a sufficiently simple grammar, the lexer
phase may be redundant. Consider this test data file,
data/sample.1.ged, from Genealogy::Gedcom:
1 SOUR Genealogy::Gedcom
2 NAME Genealogy::Gedcom::Reader
2 CORP Ron Savage
3 ADDR Box 3055
4 STAE Vic
4 CTRY Australia
3 EMAIL email@example.com
3 WWW http://savage.net.au
3 COPR Copyright 2011, Ron Savage
2 CONT This file is based on test data in Paul Johnson's Gedcom.pm
2 CONT Gedcom.pm is Copyright 1999-2009, Paul Johnson (firstname.lastname@example.com)
2 CONT Version 1.16 - 24th April 2009
2 CONT Ron's modules under the Genealogy::Gedcom namespace are free
2 CONT The latest versions of these modules are available from
2 CONT my homepage http://savage.net.au and http://metacpan.org
Each line matches
/^(\d+)\s([A-Z]{3,4})\s(.+)$/: an integer, a
keyword, and a string. In this case I'd skip the lexer, and have the parser
tokenize the input. So, horses for courses. (GEDCOM defines genealogical data;
see the GEDCOM
definition for more details).
Sample Output
I've provided several links of sample output for your perusal.
Happy lexing and parsing!


text:
Andrew Collier, a machinist in the engine department at Hendrick Motorsports, spoke with NASCAR Illustrated recently about the tragic death of his brother, Sean, who was killed during the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
A police officer on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sean Collier was shot and killed on April 18 by the suspects connected to the bombings. Sean will be honored this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, with each of the Hendrick cars carrying a special decal in his memory. Team owner Rick Hendrick also has donated $5,000 of tickets to the race for first responders in the New England area.
Collier's guest column will appear in the September issue of NASCAR Illustrated, which hits newsstands on Aug. 27.
Call to action
My older brother, Sean Collier, was killed on the night of April 18 in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
I scrambled to figure out a way back home that evening and was in Massachusetts the next day with family when someone came running up to me and said, "Jimmie Johnson was just talking about you on TV." I was like, "What are you talking about?"
MORE: Latest on bombing suspect | Photos: Boston Marathon tragedy | N.H. race
Jimmie's remarks during the press conference at Kansas Speedway helped trigger an incredible wave of support. From the drivers here to reporters and tons of condolence letters from fans, I really can't believe the outpouring, but it's a reflection on Sean and what a great guy he was.
Sean was an extremely humble person and I didn't fully realize that until after his death. He would occasionally say to us, "I have to work that day," and while he wasn't going to the MIT police station on those off days, he was working with students and other groups on campus. Always helping someone out, Sean wanted to volunteer at a homeless shelter on the MIT campus because he believed in trying to prevent problems before they occurred.
He didn't tell us any of that; he didn't think it was necessary. Sean just did it because it was the right thing to do and not for any type of recognition. It really showed his true character.
Around Memorial Day, which helps us always remember fallen soldiers and those still serving in the U.S. military, I thought about our first responders. I keep telling people they're not all that much different from soldiers. They're just here in our communities as opposed to battlefields.
I decided to start a petition asking Congress to establish a federal holiday in honor of first responders. My sister Jennifer Lemmerman set up the petition website for me at www.change.org/firstresponders and then we started getting signatures from there. Soon after, I contacted the office of Massachusetts representative Mike Capuano. They took the ball and ran with it and created legislation that will be submitted to the House.
Things have been moving fast and we're at 20,000 signatures and running. My ultimate goal would be around a million. The most recent federal holiday to be passed by Congress was Martin Luther King Day. There were 100,000 signatures on the initial petition to Congress and it failed. After regrouping and gaining the support of some prominent people and celebrities, the petition was resubmitted with more than a million signatures.
I started working at Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 and still can't believe how awesome they've been in our family's time of need. If I need time off, I can have it. If I'm having trouble with something, they're there to help. It's very humbling. They've been absolutely phenomenal and I owe them so much after all this.
Rick Hendrick donated $5,000 worth of race tickets at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for first responders in the New England area. Mr. Hendrick dedicated that donation in the memory of Sean and a decal honoring my brother (will appear) on all four of our cars at New Hampshire.
I'd like to thank everyone that is helping honor Sean's memory in NASCAR and beyond. It means the world to me and my family.
— To view the petition Collier started in the hope of Congress passing a federal holiday in honor of first responders, please go to www.change.org/firstresponders


text:
Narrowest House in New York
Cary Grant's Tiny House Is Back on the Market
Want to live in a house whose previous occupants include Cary Grant and Margaret Mead? If you've got $4.3 million to spend, you can! The famed 75 1/2 Bedford St., which at nine-and-a-half feet wide is the narrowest house in New York, is back on the market, for almost double the price it sold for last year.
The three-bedroom, two-bath home has been renovated since its sale in 2010, and boasts oak floors, marble countertops and backsplash, a clawfoot tub, and, somehow, four wood-burning fireplaces. It also features what I have to admit is a beautiful garden for being located in the middle of the city! But $4.3 million for 990 square feet of living place is pretty steep no matter how you look at it. Take a tour of the house and see the floorplan when you keep reading!


text:
Disease is a normal part of the natural world. Most ecosystems include organisms such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites that cause disease. Healthy wildlife and ecosystems have evolved defenses to fend off most diseases before they have devastating impacts. An ecosystem with lots of variation (genetic diversity and diversity of species) is more resilient to the impacts of disease because there are greater possibilities that some species have evolved resistance, or if a species is lost, there will likely be another species to fill the niche of an extinct species.
Where ecosystems are not healthy, due to a loss in biodiversity and threats such as habitat loss, global warming, pollutants or invasive species, wildlife and ecosystems are more vulnerable to emerging diseases. Diseases caused by or carried by invasive species are particularly threatening, as native wildlife may have no natural immunity to them.
The following are a few of the many diseases threatening U.S. wildlife:
Human Health and Wildlife Health
Wildlife and human health are closely intertwined, as illustrated by recent outbreaks of West Nile virus and avian influenza. We are seeing more wildlife diseases, like SARS, traveling quickly around the planet. As people increase their contact with wildlife, their habitat, and domestic animals, it is more and more likely that diseases will be transmitted between people and wildlife. We need to maintain healthy ecosystems to reduce the risk of wildlife disease for our own health and for the future of America's wildlife.
Many Cures Come From Nature
The natural world is not only a source of diseases; it is also the source of potential cures. Every year we discover more about how to treat disease from compounds we find in nature. We need to safeguard biodiversity to preserve all of the potentially useful compounds that nature is constantly inventing.
National Wildlife Magazine Articles:
Air Sickness
Tasmania's Devil of a Problem
The Deer Slayer
USGS National Wildlife Health Center
Global Wildlife Disease News Map
Emerging Diseases Threaten Conservation (PDF)
Investigating White-nose Syndrome in Bats (USGS)
Wildlife Data Integration Network
Whirling disease (NBII)
Chronic Wasting Disease Overview (NBII)
Chronic Wasting Disease (USGS)
Emerging Infectious Diseases: Bridging the Gap Between Humans and Wildlife
Marine turtles (USGS)
Amphibian chytrid fungus (NPS)
Oil and Gas Methane Pollution Report


text:
Legendary Baylor QB the 10th Bear elected to College Football Hall of Fame
He was Baylor's original Heisman finalist and a groundbreaking passer in an era when most teams ran the ball. Now, legendary Baylor quarterback Don Trull has joined the ranks of college football's immortals with his election into the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this month.
Half a century after he starred at Baylor, Trull's name still appears throughout the program's record books alongside the top passers in BU history. His exploits helped transform college football from a game dominated by the run into the aerial shootouts we see today.
Trull led the nation in passing yardage and touchdowns during his highly decorated senior year (1963), when he finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting, was a first-team All-American and first-team All-Southwest Conference selection, and became Baylor's first National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete.
The Oklahoma City native is Baylor's 10th member of the College Football Hall of Fame, joining such iconic names as Grant Teaff and Mike Singletary. Other Bears in the Hall: former Baylor head coach Morley Jennings and players Barton Koch, Bill Glass, James Ray Smith, Lawrence Elkins, Hayden Fry and Thomas Everett.
Sic 'em, Don Trull!


text:
Where will You Be?
Here's a recording of the Global Gaia "Flash" Meditation, that Openhand led for Lightworkers around the world to come together and support the shift of Gaia into the New Paradigm of Being. It can help you understand the wider shift happening, why it's needed, to process resistances, inspire your own shift, and help Gaia in the process (sharing is around 50 minutes).
Friends, Avalonians, Openhanders, lend me your ears!
Wonderful tribute to our Walking the Path course at the Chalice Well - a song by Openhander Sarah Naughton "You Fire up my Soul". Deeply soul stirring - I was blown away by it. What a 'dark horse' you are Sarah. Just goes to show what we 'ordinary' folk so frequently hide under the veil. A musical delight for heart and soul...
Introducing 'Hiding No More' by Mike
We're blessed to have had Mike travel with us on the journey for over a year now. When Mike is about a good ol' music jam is never far away! 'Hiding No More' is a real soul inspired infusion of energy from one who is really finding the courage to keep unfolding through the challenges of the spiritual awakening. It's a message that invites us to embrace the darkness as a blessing; to take a deep breath when we stumble; to unveil ourselves and step out, no matter what. The soul is calling. I was so moved by his new song...heartfelt thanks to Mike.
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McCarter Lab Fall Festival Features Unstaged Readings by Leading and Emerging US Playwrights, 10/29-11/4
The McCarter Lab Fall Festival 2012 will feature some of the leading and emerging playwrights of the American theater from October 29 through November 4, in a series of unstaged readings and special events in celebration of the artist's work. All events are FREE, but seating is limited and reservations are encouraged. To reserve seats, call (609) 258-2787.
All readings will begin at 7pm in McCarter's Berlind Rehearsal Room. For more information on McCarter Lab, visit www.mccarter.org/lab.
The festival begins with "In The Writer's Voice" on Monday, October 29. This is an extraordinary opportunity to hear writers and composers read and perform excerpts from their own works-in-process. This year's roster will include Pulitzer prize-winner Marsha Norman, and a Princeton favorite, singer-songwriter Sarah Donner.
Thursday, November 1 will feature a reading of "The Noise," a thrilling new play by Rachel Bonds, whose works have been developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, La MaMa, The Flea, Playwrights Horizons, and Williamstown Theater Festival.
Following on Friday, November 2 will be a staged reading of the new McCarter Commission "Smart People," an exploration of the complexities of race, class, friendship and the human brain, written by the fearless and funny Lydia Diamond (Stick Fly).
The McCarter Lab will continue with "Pure," by A. Rey Pamatmat, on Saturday, November 3. British mathematician Alan Turing fathered computer science (and helped defeat the Nazis along the way), but the puzzle of social rules eluded him. "Pure" is an elegant biographical portrait of a great thinker and the people he loved. Playwright A. Rey Pamatmat, is a Truman Capote Literary Fellow and the current Hodder Fellow in Playwriting at Princeton.
The festival will conclude on Sunday, November 4 with McCarter Artistic Director Emily Mann's newest work "Hoodwinked." Inspired by the Ft. Hood shooting and using FBI transcripts and interviews with experts across the spectrum, this provocative new project explores the clash of civilizations, and the dangerous repercussions of Radical Islam. This reading will be followed by a post-show discussion moderated by Nadine Strossen, who served as president of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 through 2008. Currently a professor at New York Law School, Strossen was named one of "The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" by the National Law Journal.
This year, McCarter opened its 2012-13 season with the hilarious and moving comedy, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, by Christopher Durang, which was commissioned by McCarter and developed in the Lab in 2010 and 2011. Since 1990, McCarter has produced more than 50 new plays, musicals, and adaptations from leading and emerging American Playwrights, including Edward Albee, Eric Bogosian, Marina Carr, Steven Dietz, John Guare, Danai Gurira, Beth Henley, Tarell McCraney, Will Power, Theresa Rebeck, and ReGina Taylor, among many others. Its multi-faceted, highly customizable approach has made McCarter one of the foremost theaters in the nation for the development of new plays and musicals.
Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for supporting McCarter Theatre Center.
Play development at McCarter Theatre is sponsored by The Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation, The Geraldine R. Dodge foundation, Edgerton Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, and Theatre Communications Group.
McCarter Theatre Center is conveniently located at 91 University Place in Princeton, NJ.


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Albion AlgebraTrivia brain teasers have some element of trivia in them, but they are not just pure trivia questions.
London - Leeds = 1;
London - Bristol = 4;
Birmingham - Bristol = 5;
Birmingham - Manchester = 6; and
Leeds - Manchester = 62,
London - Birmingham = ?
HintThis is not in the Math category. A map of British cities may be useful.
Answer40. They are the numbers of the motorways linking those cities.
M1: London to Leeds
M4: London to South Wales (via Bristol)
M5: Birmingham to Exeter (via Bristol)
M6: Birmingham to Gretna (via Manchester)
M40: London to Birmingham
M62: Manchester to near Hull (via Leeds)
What Next?
See another brain teaser just like this one...
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SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- What's the next big thing in bulk vending? Believe it or not, it could be MMORPGs with the industry's own avatars and eco-friendly toys powered by the sun. Brand Vending Products reports that it has created the world's first vending-machine-distributed online games site for children. Part of an ongoing integrated marketing campaign for the company's "squishy" bulk vending toy line, the "Sqwishland" program is being previewed at the National Bulk Vendors Association annual trade show in Kissimmee, FL, April 8-10. The Scottsdale, AZ, product supplier also has begun adding solar-powered toys to its bulk assortments.
The Sqwishland program, slated to roll out in June, is a website -- sqwishland.com -- and the rebranding of the company's popular squishy toys, such as Sea Mania and Pet Friends, as the Sqwishland series. Each capsule containing a Sqwishland toy also will have a "fortune-cookie style" secret code that can be used to unlock that particular character in Sqwishland, thereby granting access to games and other interaction, and what the company describes as "a world of fun."
Brand Vending chief executive Dax Logue explained that when the company introduced its first squishy toys in 2006, it had no idea that they would prove so durable. Traditionally, he reported, Brand's novelty items sold around two million pieces a year. "We knew something was different when this figurine series reached the two-year mark and we were still sold out, and backorders continued to grow," he said.
Evidence of what was taking place surfaced in the form of videos showing collections of the squishy toys on YouTube. Having seen that eight-year-olds were taking the initiative to make fairly impressive home movies, Logue noted, it did not require much imagination to think up an Internet game.
Online games for children have become enormously popular, he continued, driven by the large investments made by Disney in Club Penguin, and Ganz in Webkinz. While the substantial cost of developing a quality Internet game system has discouraged most entrepreneurs from attempting to capitalize on the trend, Brand Vending considered the opportunity to make a fundamental change in the way game codes are delivered to children was great enough to warrant the investment and repositioning of the squishies lines.
To help fund the Sqwishland project, which began a year ago, Brand partnered with a New York City game developer, which is said to have its own successful game. A separate company was formed in the Philippines to leverage an inexpensive but talented labor pool. Brand's own design studio, Desert Sky Graphics, is also involved in the project.
Like Club Penguin and Webkinz, Sqwishland is a MMORPG, or massively multiplayer online role-playing game, involving a virtual world of online games, activities and avatars. "It will work because it will be the first time the vending industry will be able to bounce kids back to machines," Logue told VT. Brand plans to place millions of codes in capsules, which the company believes will send young customers to bulk venders.
"We have always relied on operators to distribute our products, so when we set about building Sqwishland, a key focus was on how to drive kids back to vending machines to buy more Sqwishies," Logue emphasized. "In doing so, we knew this would increase sales and further cement the partnerships we enjoy with our operators."
The key difference between traditionally distributed products and Sqwishland is the price point and its broad distribution, the Brand executive explained. "Whereas most 'Web-enriched' toys sell for $15 or more, a Sqwishland collectible retails for just 50¢," he said. "This makes it incredibly affordable to create collections, and provides kids with access to feature-rich gaming and social content for a fraction of the price of other Web-enabled alternatives."
A central feature of the Sqwishland software is a management tool, Sqwishfinder, that allows operators to enter the locations of their vending machines and the various Sqwishland series they are vending. Collectors of Brand squishy toys will be able to review this database of local vending machines in order to find the closest vending location at which to buy their favorite Sqwishland game character and its associated code.
Logue is convinced that kids all over the world will want to play Sqwishland, in view of the well-established distribution network and the desirable collectible figurines.
"Children between the ages of six and 16 now will have a community to go to -- where they can meet and play with other Sqwishland character enthusiasts," Logue said.
For Logue, the biggest challenge in bulk vending is the capsule delivery system. "The capsule has more material than the product in it," he said. "To sell product, I have to create an environmentally unfriendly plastic capsule that will likely outlive the toy in it."
In line with company's commitment to reduce its own carbon footprint, and to offset the capsule challenge, Brand is rolling out a line of motorized, miniature toys that are solar powered. By tapping the solar panel, kids can set the toy in motion. No chemical batteries are needed, just sunlight outdoors or incandescent light indoors.
Initially, the Scottsdale company is offering two solar items, a car and grasshopper, and more are planned. They're now available in Brand's X-Treme and Gonzo bulk vending mixes (see Page 93). X-treme mixes consist of 10 pieces and Gonzo offers 30. Both are designed for 2" round capsules.
"The solar-powered toys complement Brand's green initiatives," said sales manager Craig Goodman. "They also allow us to create higher perceived value in the bulk vending channel. Solar toys are just coming out in retail in limited quantities."
The X-treme line of bulk toys does just that. A solar-powered car joins MP3 players, LCD videogames, FM radios with light and flash memory drives, among other high-end gadgets. (MP3 players require a special license to be sold through bulk vending machines.)
"We didn't invent solar-powered toys," Logue added, "but we're bringing them to bulk vending."
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Disappointed Kershaw to make another rehab start
LOS ANGELES -- Another exhale was permitted around Dodger Stadium on Sunday when rehabbing ace Clayton Kershaw threw his post-start bullpen session and pronounced all systems go.
But it was Kershaw whose exhales were measured following the Dodgers' 6-1 loss to Colorado on Sunday when it became clear that he had lost his spirited fight to rejoin the Dodgers' rotation without another Minor League rehab assignment.
Not long after manager Don Mattingly said Kershaw definitely will make one more Minor League start before rejoining the Dodgers, the Cy Young winner made it clear he does not agree with it.
"Not really," said Kershaw, who lobbied since Friday's start for Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga to make his next start a Major League one. "I did the best I could. But I'm not going to fight the team if everybody doesn't want me to do something."
Mattingly made his thinking clear while talking with reporters before the game.
"In my mind, it really hasn't changed," Mattingly said. "The biggest thing we've talked about is pitch count -- how do you get from 50-some pitches to 90?"
Pitching for Rancho Cucamonga, Kershaw threw 56 pitches Friday. On a five-day rotation, his next start would come Wednesday. The Dodgers are in Minnesota that day; currently, Dan Haren is scheduled to start.
Though the Dodgers purposely did not specify where Kershaw's next start will be, Double-A Chattanooga is at home this week, which means the team's ace could start there and then rejoin the Dodgers on the road in Miami next weekend.
"His next start, we want to get him to the 75-to-80-pitch range," Mattingly said, adding that from there, Kershaw would feel like he would be good for 90 or 95 pitches in his next Dodgers outing.
Kershaw does not think the Dodgers need to be holding the yellow caution flag.
"I feel normal," he said. "That's the hard part, going to pitch another [Minor League] game when I feel healthy."
Mattingly said earlier that Kershaw shared his "two cents" in the debate, but insisted that the Dodgers' final decision in the matter would be made "with some common sense for the whole season."
Scott Miller is a contributor to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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It's been awhile since Sears and the phrase "same store sales increase" were used in the same sentence, but that changed Thursday morning when the recently spun off hometown and outlet division product a 3.1% third quarter increase.
Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores said sales for its third quarter ended October 27, increased 3.3% to $557 million, driven almost entirely by the 3.1% comp increase and to a lesser extent by a net increase of nine stores that grew the total store count to 1,111 units. Profits increased 29% $8.8 million or 29 cents a share.
Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores became a separate publicly traded company during the third quarter following its separation from parent company Sears Holdings. The company is lead by president and CEO Bruce Johnson who shared insights on performance by category.
"The company saw double-digit percentage increases in total sales of appliances, mattresses and apparel," Johnson said. "Multi-channel sales (online, store-to-home, web-to-store and mobile) increased by 28%. Sales of power lawn and garden and consumer electronics declined. The decline of more than 30% in consumer electronics sales is consistent with our strategy to de-emphasize this low-margin business in favor of the aforementioned categories."
Johnson said the company was pleased with the performance because the third quarter is typically the weakest due to the seasonality of merchandise categories offered.
The company's store base consists of 941 Sears Hometown stores that are primarily independently owned stores in smaller communities, 90 Sears Hardware stores and 80 Sears Home Appliance outlet stores.


text: Slim vintage oxford shirt in white Item 36997 Color: WHITE Size: All sizes are US sizes. SMALL MEDIUM Size Charts Quantity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prices do not include taxes. Add to Bag Wishlist Add to Bag Add To Wishlist share: size & fit Slim fit, cut more narrowly through the body and sleeves. Product Details Few shirts age better than an oxford. The frays, the fades—these are the kinds of details we love. We selected this classic white fabric because it can—and will—hang with your old favorites. Cotton oxford. Button-down collar. Machine wash. Import. Item 36997.


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Something we get asked about a lot is copyright. As creators, we want to make sure our work is protected from intellectual property theft, and ensure that we control the publication, distribution and adaptation of what we've created. The problem is that copyright can be confusing and there are a lot of misconceptions about it. Hopefully, I can help clear some things up and give you some resources for more information on copyright if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Please note that this information is focused on copyright in the United States. For more information on International copyrights, please check out the links at the bottom of the post.
What is Copyright?
To begin with, I'm going to get the easy stuff out of the way. With a quick Google search, you can find the basics of what copyright is as well as in-depth discussion and even some analysis. As such, I am going to keep this as simple as possible. Copyright protects the rights of creators of literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. Specifically, it gives the owner of the copyright the exclusive right to, and to authorize others the right to, reproduce, distribute, perform, or display the work. It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the law to copyright holders.
For more information on what copyright entails, check out the US Copyright Office's Copyright Basics.


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New Fall 5% Off Coupon Code Inside!...
ToyWiz.com has thousands of in-stock items. Use the coupon code CANDYCORN and receive 5% off your purchase! Shop from an incredible selection of the newest and most popular action figures, toys, and collectibles including:
* Spook-tacular Halloween Toy BOO-tique: A great selection of Halloween toys, from the gruesome to the adorable, plus special candy for special kids!!
* McFarlane Halo 4 Figures this month!
* HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON is bigger and better than ever!
* Halloween Costumes from all the hottest franchises!
* Disney Frankenweenie Movie Toys, Action Figures & Plush
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* New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles


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Ogden, Utah-based Flying J (now known as FJ Management) has sold nine of its convenience stores in Utah and Idaho to Moyle Petroleum. Moyle Petroleum, which maintains its corporate offices in Rapid City, S.D., now owns and operates 35 Common Cents convenience stores in South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. Of the nine stores
Flying J Sells Nine Stores To Moyle Petroleum
December 7, 2010 CSD Staff : 0 Comments


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Niemann takes open mind to bullpen role
ST. PETERSBURG -- Jeff Niemann, who competed in Spring Training for the No. 5 spot in the Rays' rotation and lost out to Roberto Hernandez, will begin the season in Tampa Bay's bullpen.
The 6-foot-9 right-hander said he doesn't know exactly how he'll be used just yet.
"I don't think that's really come up in conversation," Niemann said. "But we're going down there and treating it like anything else. I've been down there before, so it's not going to be a complete surprise. We're just going down there, getting ourselves ready to pitch every day.
"Looking at the personnel, I would think I'm the long guy, so let's hope I'm not in there for a while."
Many starters relegated to the bullpen have to learn how to get loose in a hurry, as opposed to having the luxury of a prolonged warmup afforded to starting pitchers. Niemann didn't seem too worried about getting acclimated to the bullpen.
"I think they're going to give me adequate time to warm up," Niemann said. "It's just going to be one of those things -- trial and error at first. We'll just see exactly where we need to be and how far we need to go. 'At what point during the day to we need to get warmed up?' and all that kind of stuff.
"So right now, we're just kind of taking it as it comes and getting ready to pitch like it was our day to pitch anyway. That's the best we can do right now, and we'll try and figure it out as we go along."
Bill Chastain is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Abdominal pain is pain that you feel anywhere between your chest and groin. This is often referred to as the stomach region or belly.
Stomach pain; Pain - abdomen; Belly ache; Abdominal cramps; Bellyache; Stomachache
Almost everyone has pain in the abdomen at some point. Most of the time, it is not serious.
How bad your pain is does not always reflect the seriousness of the condition causing the pain.
For example, you might have very bad abdominal pain if you have gas or stomach cramps due to viral gastroenteritis.
However, life-threatening conditions, such as colon cancer or early appendicitis, may only cause mild pain or no pain.
Other ways to describe pain in your abdomen include:
Many different conditions can cause abdominal pain. The key is to know when you need to get immediate medical care. Sometimes you may only need to call a doctor if your symptoms continue.
Less serious causes of abdominal pain include:
Other possible causes include:
Sometimes, abdominal pain may occur due to a problem somewhere else in your body, such as your chest or pelvic area. For example, you may have abdominal pain if you have:
You can try the following home care steps to ease mild abdominal pain:
These additional steps may help prevent some types of abdominal pain:
Get medical help right away or call your local emergency number (such as 911) if you:
Call your doctor if you have:
Your health care provider will perform a physical exam and ask questions about your symptoms and medical history. Your specific symptoms, the location of pain and when it occurs will help your health care provider diagnosis the cause.
Tests that may be done include:
Ebell MH. Diagnosis of appendicitis: part 1. History and physical examination. Am Fam Physician. 2008;77:828-830.
Bundy DG, Byerley JS, Liles EA, Perrin EM, Katznelson J, Rice HE. Does this child have appendicitis? JAMA. 2007;25:438-451.
Millham FH. Acute abdominal pain. In: Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ, eds. Sleisenger & Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2010:chap 10.
Squires RA., Postier RG., Acute abdomen In: Townsend CM Jr, Beauchamp RD, Evers BM, Mattox KL, eds. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery. 19th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2012:chap 47.
Budhram GR, Bengiamin RN., Abdominal pain. In Marx JA, Hockberger RS, Walls RM, et al, eds. Rosen's Emergency Medicine: Concepts and Clinical Practice. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier; 2013:chap 27.


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On the road
Haute-Savoie (74)
Prefecture : Annecy
Sub-prefectures : Bonneville, Saint-Julien-en-Genevois, Thonon-les-Bains
Population : 740,000
Websites : www.cg74.fr
As part of the Duchy of Savoy which only became French in 1860, Haute-Savoie has kept a strong identity fuelled by its close ties with its Swiss and Italian neighbours. A mountainous area with some the highest summits in France, it is also a very active land in the valley along the Lake Geneva and the Annecy lake. Very attractive because of its border position and its economic vitality, Haute Savoie sees its population grow steadily and now boasts more than 740,000 inhabitants.
Savoie (73)
Prefecture : Chambery
Subprefectures : Albertville, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
Population : 415,000
Website : www.savoie-mont-blanc.com
Tourism has been the main economic strength of Savoie for many years. With its 60 ski resorts, its three natural parks : Vanoise, Bauges and Chartreuse, and its six spa towns : Aix-les-Bains, Aix Marlioz, Challes-les-eaux, Brides-les-Bains, la Léchère, Salins-les-Thermes.
The department offers plenty of opportunities to visitors. Metal and energetic industries combined with cross-border exchanges accounft for a low rate of unemployment. Along with its natural beauty, Savoie also has many remains from the prestigious past of the Duchy of Savoy, the Chambery castle being the most remarkable. Savoie hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.
Km 1.5 : Sevrier
Population : 3,900
Sevrier was already known in Roman times when a road between Annecy and Faverges went through it. Human presence is even much older since two of the 111 stilt house villages in the Alps listed as World Heritage sites by UNESCO are on its soil.
The Paccard bell foundry, created in 1796, settled in Sevrier in 1989. Several hundred bells are produced each year and 70 pc are exported. Since the beginning of the company, 80,000 bells were made. On the town hall square stand a big ball of 39.64 tons and three meters in diameter. The granite block was carved by Tiunetti between 1965 and 1968.
Comedian Andre Dussolier, who was born in Annecy, owns a residence in Sevrier.
Palafitte sites
Palafitte sites (from the Italian meaning planted poles) are the vestiges of prehistoric dwellings built on lakes and dating from 5,000 to 500 BC.
In 1856, a Lausanne researcher evoked the possibility of such villages in the lakes of Savoy and Switzerland and searches in the lake of Annecy proved him right. Thanks to the progress of diving, research improved considerably. Some 40 such sites have now been listed around the lake.
Website : www.sevrier.fr
Prefecture: Lyon
Second French region by his size, its economic importance and its population, the Rhone-Alpes region is also ranked 6thin Europe. This huge space with a population of six million inhabitants articulates around four main centres: Lyon, Grenoble, St Etienne and even Geneva which, thanks to its proximity, plays an active part in the region's trade and exchanges. Almost every type of industry can be found in such a vast area, but the region never forgets its tradition of fine wines, excellent fruit and succulent food.
Website : www.rhonealpes.fr
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Topic: New CT scan for John
We got the results of Johns Ct scan today. There has not been any change in the size of the tumors but they think that the tumors that shrunk before have filled in the space with either necrotic tissue or bile. The only way to be sure is to take a biopsy and those are really dangerous cosidering the chance of infection and bleeding.
The Dr. has decided to give John 2 months off of the Chemo he's on now.
If something happens within those 2 months she will try another type of chemo. He just keeps losing weight. In 28 days he lost 10 lbs, in the last week he's lost another 3 lbs. She said the chemo is really beating him down.
Does anyone have any thoughts on whats going on? Any idea of specific blood tests that will give us a better idea if the cancer has returned?
Both the Dr. and I are stumped.
Thanks in advance,


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DETROIT - The FBI crime stats show Detroit in 2012 had more than 15,000 violent crimes including murders, rapes and assaults.
That means 54 of every 100,000 residents were victims. The figure concerns Police Chief James Craig but he sees what he calls a bright light for 2013.
"We are sitting right now at 4 percent reduction in violent crime, but that number that really gets folks' attention is our homicide rate. Right now year-to-date we're at a 10 percent reduction," Craig said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The chief's goal is to continue that trend and restore police morale. He has been receiving a barrage of complaints about 12-hour shifts which began before he became chief.
"They said, 'Please chief, take us out of these hours. They're killing us,'" Craig said.
Details: DPD officers will return to 8-hour shifts
After talking to officers and their union, Chief Craig is putting them back on 8-hour schedules.
"It became increasingly clear to me that if I was going to have an effect on morale we needed to do something about the work schedule, and we've done that," he said.
Returning to 8-hour shifts will renew pressure for overtime. Craig says he is going to lean on the brass below him to keep a lid on overtime.
"With very little accountability, which I've reported out to you in my short time here, that's a foreign word to some. It will not be for long," he said.
Copyright 2013 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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The town of Seattle was a-buzz the weekend of November 19th - 21st as an estimated 1700+ steampunks arrived for the second annual Steamcon convention. This was another event I had to sit out on, sadly, since I was involved with The Anachronism NYC at Webster Hall that same weekend (and you can check out pictures here, here and here.) Staff and attendees from the event, however, volunteered their reports and pictures from the second-annual convention, which rocked the theme "Weird, Weird West."
See what these folks have to say:
The man that needs no introduction, Jake von Slatt, who was one of the Guests of Honor, talks a bit about his experiences, including the panel he co-presented with the awesome mistress of the ExoSkeleton Cabaret Libby Bulloff about Queering Steampunk Fashion. Donna Prior, the Games Chair, talks a bit about the tabletop, miniature, and LARPing adventures that took place this weekend. Staff member Kevin Steil, the Airship Ambassador, already provided a gigantic round-up and review of the SteamCon II media coverage, but also gives an exclusive report about his Steamcon experience. Justin Stanley (aka Emperor Justinian Stanislaus), known to most as the Emperor of the Red Fork Empire, gives an on-the-ground scoop in his attendee report.
Read more on BeyondVictoriana.com


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fig tree wrote:The idea that an "awake one" would in any meaningful sense be reluctant to help out has always seemed very out of place to me.
I have no way of knowing, but my gut reaction has been to suspect that what really happened is that the Buddha described to some of his followers how upon awakening he had reflected on the comfort of awakening, the challenges of leading anybody else to it, and the benefits to the many of deciding to do so in spite of those challenges (with or without a friendly deva to serve as a sounding board), and that the story that has come down to us is a kind of dramatization.
It provides an opportunity to highlight the merits of the gradual path, that benefits people of all levels of nearness to awakening.
Fig Tree
For what it's worth, my reaction to these words was very similar.


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One of the most beautiful and enigmatic of all films is Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet's The Bridegroom, The Comedienne and The Pimp (1968), a 23 minute short film comprised of only eleven shots. As I wrote of this film on IMDb, "three sequences are linked together in this short film by Straub [and Huillet]; the first sequence is a long tracking shot from a car of prostitutes plying their trade on the night-time streets of Germany; the second is a staged play [Ferdinand Bruckner's Krankheit der Jugend], cut down to 10 minutes by Straub [and Huillet], photographed in a single take; the final sequence covers the marriage of James [James Powell] and Lilith, and Lilith's subsequent execution of her pimp, played by Rainer Werner Fassbinder."
This brief description does little justice to the mysterious resonance of the film, composed as it is of such disparate elements; the still above is taken from the final sequence of the film, directly after Lilith (Lilith Ungerer) has shot Fassbinder's pimp, and dispassionately recites some poems of John of the Cross, as the camera tracks past her to come to rest on a shot of a tree in full summer. The best discussion of The Bridegroom, The Comedienne and The Pimp remains Richard Roud's careful consideration of the film in his 1972 book Straub, illustrated with numerous frame blow-ups; sadly, the book is out of print. The film, too, seems to be unavailable in 35mm, 16mm, or digital video, and thus, for the moment, both are phantom texts.