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America! You are on our minds constantly at the moment.
For a welcome reprieve from the election lead up, this month's selection offers strong alternative perspectives. For maximum gloss, check out the clever, successful, shiny people in Jay McInerney's Bright Precious Days. Still uptown but for a different angle on wealthy Manhattanites, there is a sparkling debut from Cameroon born Imbolo Mbue in Behold the Dreamers. Then cross the continent to California, where Ann Patchett's superb new novel Commonwealth is set, and watch as she builds and unbuilds two families whose fates collide with a kiss.
Australian writing welcomes a fresh new voice as Meredith Jaffe makes mischief of the tensions between suburban neighbours in The Fence. Meanwhile, Stephen Amsterdam goes into darker territory with The Easy Way Out, a sharply relevant novel about assisted dying that will really make you think, while Jacinta Halloran explores the bonds between twins in The Science of Appearances.
For a classy cultural note, impress your friends with erudite snippets from Sebastian Smee's engrossing portraits of some of the world's greatest artists who were rivals as well as friends.
On a personal note, this is my last Buzz for Booktopia. I can't say goodbye without thanking you for the privilege of sharing my passion for books with you over the past four years. On your behalf, I've read more than 120 titles a year to pick out the ones that I thought were worthy of your time. Many of the ones that became my favourites - and yours - have been from sparkling new Australian talent, which was immensely satisfying to champion.
I really appreciate your trust and the feedback I've received from you at bus stops, coffee shops and festivals about the titles that connected with you. Now new research shows that the more you read, the longer you live, so at this rate, Booktopia customers and I are going to live forever!
She is a regular contributor to national newspapers and magazines and is in demand as a presenter at arts and literary festivals around the country and overseas.
In May 2012 Caroline was appointed the Editorial Director of Booktopia's online newsletter The Buzz. She also produces promotional book videos for Booktopia through her Book Shots business.
Subscribe to our newsletter and keep up with all the latest news
Judging a literary prize is the one thing that no algorithm, no matter how sophisticated, can do. It is an intensely human and subjective endeavour. Now that the winner of this year's Stella prize has been announced, I can say with complete honesty that this was the hardest prize I have ever judged: partly because of the sheer volume of books that we five judges had to read, in a relatively tight time frame, and partly because the quality of the books made it such a difficult process.
I spent a lot of this summer reading so intensely that on some days, I simply never got dressed. I taped the three criteria to my bedside table -original, excellent and engaging- and repeated them to myself like a mantra whenever I was unsure.
Some books snuck up on me unexpectedly, including a couple I had missed when they came out. One or two had completely failed to appear on my radar, causing me genuine concern: how could it be that I had overlooked them, when my role at Booktopia gives me the opportunity to see everything that's out there? Answer: I'm human. An algorithm could come up with a formula that suggests what I might like based on previous preferences, but it won't necessarily spot the book I failed to notice.
Judging for the Stella introduced me to some voices I will now follow with acute and sustained interest: Sofie Laguna and Biff Ward, I await your next books keenly.
As the process and the summer wore on, emails trickled through in the heat, becoming more urgent as deadlines neared. Oh the relief of realising some of my most fervently held enthusiasms were shared!
I thought of what it takes to do this as a kind of fitness, requiring muscle tone like a long distance athletic challenge. You need reading stamina to stay the course as well as lots of uninterrupted time.
When it came to whittling the longlist down to the shortlist, I read all twelve books again to get to six. There was no way round it. The revelations on re-reading were astounding and sometimes conviction-shaking – which just goes to show how much you miss when you are binge-reading, swallowing a book down without digesting it properly.
Our deliberations, when we finally came together on a warm day in Melbourne, were respectful, polite, fair but intense. Navigating towards the shore of consensus, we avoided the rocks of heated argument, all equally keen to avoid boiling it down to the simple, bald maths of a vote.
Being the first cab off the rank in the sequence of the year's literary prizes is interesting: when the lists appear for prizes like the Miles Franklin it is surprising to see where you overlap and where you don't.
I think it's great for the vigour of the culture if one book does not scoop all the prizes, but it was surprising to see that our winner this year was not even longlisted for The Miles Franklin, given that The Strays certainly ticks the box when it comes to the vexed criterion of depicting an aspect of Australian life.
If Joan London wins it for The Golden Age, that would mean a pair of prestigious wins by two fine women writers who use language with similar precision, delicacy and maturity, despite the fact that one is making her debut, and the other is arguably one of our finest midcareer novelists. Both books about outsiders with heightened sensibilities, and which bring a fresh perspective to complex aspects of our past.
I'd been warned not to expect much. There's not a lot to see, people told me. Basically just a table. But that's the point.
Jane Austen's house at Chawton in Hampshire is a modest affair and it's true that the rooms are few and their furnishings scant. No wonder British Heritage were desperate when American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson outbid Chawton at Sotheby's for a gold ring of Jane's set with a turquoise stone. Last month they raised the required sum to keep the simple band in Britain and it will go on display at the house from Feb 14, 2014, together with a topaz cross and a turquoise bracelet that also belonged to Jane. Hardly the crown jewels but to Janeites, these are priceless treasures.
Until then, there are really just two far more mundane objects to look at: a small circular table, set by a downstairs window, barely larger in circumference than a generous pizza , where Jane wrote every morning.
And upstairs, a patchwork quilt bed cover which she sewed with her sister Cassandra and their mother, the colourful hexagons of dress fabric framed by a cream print punctuated with black polka dots like so many full stops. It is the brightest thing in the house by far, a cheery accent of prettiness, countering the low ceilings and wooden floorboards. The original wallpaper in the rooms has not survived, making it impossible to guess what other colour surrounded them but there is a little bed in the garden devoted to plants used for dyeing, which the frugal Austens used to refresh their wardrobe.
Nothing else in the house is as eloquent of how simply they lived as the table and the quilt except perhaps the tented bed in the room the sisters shared. Even with just one bed the room is cramped and it's hard to imagine how or where they would have placed the second one. Forget privacy. Imagine instead the pillow talk of the young women. Did Jane rehearse scenarios for her novel in bed at night with Cassandra? I like to think so.
As a pilgrimage site, Chawton is low key but there's an honesty its meagre offerings. Jane would no doubt be much amused by the young women snapping selfies in specially provided dress up bonnets in the kitchen or the fact that the family's donkey carriage is on display in the laundry. The simplicity and banality of what's on show here only makes Jane's writing all the more remarkable.
Forget the turquoise ring, the sparkling gems are her words.
Booktopia's Editorial Director Caroline Baum interviewed Donna Tartt for Fairfax papers over the weekend. Here's a glimpse of the wonderful article, don't forget to click below to see the whole thing.
Don't expect to find Donna Tartt on Twitter or Facebook. The author who became a recluse following the hype about her 1992 debut, The Secret History, at the age of 28, remains as private and enigmatic as ever. It's been a decade since she last gave interviews about her second novel, The Little Friend. Websites buzzed with rumours of subject matter and slipped deadlines but Tartt remained off the radar, earning inevitable comparisons to Salinger and Pynchon.
Although she has agreed to a few interviews to promote her new novel, The Goldfinch, Tartt does not enjoy the process any more than when she found herself in the spotlight for her stylish, slightly mannish wardrobe and cool friends (including Bret Easton Ellis, whom she briefly dated) as much as her poised and polished prose.
When we speak by phone Tartt is in Manhattan, though she spends much of her time at her farm in Virginia, where she writes in the company of her Boston terrier, Punch. "Everything is improved by the presence of a dog," she says.
It is 8am but Tartt announces cheerfully she has been up for hours and mentions it is Fashion Week in New York. Clearly her love affair with clothes has not abated. "Vintage is still my thing but it is much harder to find, though I just bought a Japanese embroidered coat at a flea market."
Check out the rest of the article here
I'm going away for the whole month of October and will not be writing the Buzz for November, so you get a break from me. Instead, the Buzz will be in John Purcell's capable hands. So for the first time this year I get to choose the books that are going with me on the basis of pleasure – or at least anticipated pleasure. In case you are interested in what is coming with me here is the list…
If Elizabeth Bennet had the washing of her own petticoats, Sarah thought, she would be more careful not to trudge through muddy fields. It is wash-day for the housemaids at Longbourn House, and Sarah's hands are chapped and bleeding. Domestic life below stairs, ruled tenderly and forcefully by Mrs Hill the housekeeper, is about to be disturbed by the arrival of...read more
We are all storytellers – we make stories to make sense of our lives. But it is not enough to tell tales. There must be someone to listen.
In his work as a practising psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz has spent the last twenty-five years uncovering the hidden feelings behind our most baffling behaviour. The Examined Life distils over 50,000 hours of conversation into pure psychological insight, without the...read more
In this utterly remarkable novel Karl Ove Knausgaard writes with painful honesty about his childhood and teenage years, his infatuation with rock music, his relationship with his loving yet almost invisible mother and his distant and unpredictable father, and his bewilderment and grief on his father's death.
When Karl Ove becomes a father himself, he must balance the...read more
His whole life, Danny Kelly's only wanted one thing: to win Olympic gold. Everything he's ever done-every thought, every dream, every action-takes him closer to that moment of glory, of vindication, when the world will see him for what he is: the fastest, the strongest and the best. His life has been a preparation for that moment.
His parents struggle to send him to the most prestigious private school with the finest swimming program; Danny loathes it there and is...read more
The year is 1977 and Reno - so called because of the place of her birth - has come to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity in the art world - artists have colonised a deserted and industrial SoHo, are squatting in the...read more
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage is an irresistible blend of literature and memoir revealing the big experiences and little moments that shaped Ann Patchett as a daughter, wife, friend and writer. Here, Ann Patchett shares entertaining and moving stories about her tumultuous childhood, her painful early...read more
Good to see Anna Funder settled in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in a street that feels like something out of Henry James. It was used to shoot a TV adaptation of Dickens' A Winter's Tale a few months ago, and they laid down fake snow. Each house has an individual gas lamp in its front yard. I have no idea why, but it certainly creates a special ambiance.
A few days later, I went to Soho to hear current NY It Girl Rachel Kushner talk about her latest novel The Flamethrowers, which is getting rave reviews. In its, she writes about motorcycles, contemporary art and Italian terrorism. Apparently it's a bold ambitious book, and Jonathan Franzen is a fan. There was packed house for this midweek event on a cold night. Standing room only in fact. Kushner, who is droll and cool, was in conversation with fellow author, Joshua Ferris who told such a long personal anecdote to open the event that I thought oh no, he's never going to ask her a question, but eventually, he got round to a few and she had the confidence to go where she wanted to go. So now that book is on my Must Read list.
I went to meet with Elizabeth Strout, who won the Pulitzer for her novel Olive Kitteridge. She lives right down on the Hudson at FDR drive, and her new book The Burgess Boys is all about two brothers from Maine, both of them lawyers, but that's where the similarities end. I'll be writing about her for The Sydney Morning Herald in a month or so.
In San Francisco, I just had to go and see City Lights, the legendary bookshop where Ferlinghetti, Kerouac, Ginsberg and the Beat Generation hung out in the sixties. There, I became entranced by a blonde in a green synthetic fur hat. Her partner wore a headpiece in the shape of Nemo the fish but I could not photograph him unobtrusively whereas she was unaware, sitting and reading amongst the bookcases.
When we set out for Big Sur, we drove along the edge of Steinbeck country, near the town of Salinas, where John Steinbeck grew up and which now houses a scholarly research centre with public displays dedicated to the author's life. The land around Salinas is close to the sea but fertile, a patchwork of fields of peas, strawberries and tall artichokes (Trivia: Marilyn Monroe was once crowned queen at the local artichoke fair.)
Sadly, Steinbeck's house is only open to the public from the month of June onwards so we pushed on to Big Sur, along the majestic wild coast. I had no idea it was a place that many writers had loved, including Hunter S. Thompson, Richard Brautigan and Henry Miller, purveyor of explicit sex in books like Sexus, lover of Anais Nin, and others. The area boasts a Henry Miller Library which is pretty disappointing when you get there, it's just a hippie compound with a bookshop in it, but there's noting authentic about the place. A sign at the door confesses that the house never belonged to Miller.
And so on to LA, where what else would you do to get a flavour of the glamour but go and visit Jackie Collins, which is exactly what I did. She lives in Beverly Hills of course and has a new book out in September, which is when she will be visiting Perth and Sydney, so watch out for that faux leopard! I'll let you know when my interview with her will come out but in the meantime here is a snap of us together in her very smart library.
By way of contrast, I was going to call on poet and novelist Luke Davies, but our schedules got tangled and I ended up sitting on the rocking horse on his porch while he was out doing errands. It was a nice rocking chair, looking out on to a quiet street on the edge of Korea town and lined with those ludicrously tall palm trees, as you can see in this snap. Luke will be back in Australia for SWF 2013 to launch a new collection of his poetry.
Have you noticed how many book covers these days are not so much designed as cut and paste?
They all seem to be afflicted with a common disease: Getty-itis. Everybody is sourcing images from the same ginormous photo library and it's producing a kind of sameness, a lack of aesthetic diversity that is making books hard to tell apart.
Please don't get me wrong: I love the power of photography, its ability to arrest us with an image that can shock or seduce. But let's be honest, this is the cheap option, driven by budgetary concerns. Of course it saves time if you don't have to hire a designer to come up with a concept from scratch. Just choosing an image and adding a title and author's name in a groovy font does not make you stand out from the crowd. It's not the way to demonstrate a distinctive style.
An anecdotal survey of the books on my desk reveals that Getty Images have supplied the photographs for ninety per cent of contemporary fiction titles published here. It's an easy to use source, and the selection on offer is bewilderingly large but somehow that range does not translate into making the books as appealing as they used to be. Remember when covers really caught your eye thanks to talents like Gayna Murphy and Mary Callahan? Publishers like McPhee Gribble really championed books that looked good and forged a distinctive identity in the market place. Today it's really only the exxy coffee table books and cookbooks that get the same amount of care and thought lavished on their design, because their higher price can justify it.
Maybe that's why I noticed a really deliberately designed cover: Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs could so easily have been illustrated with a photograph but it would never have had the same magnetic attraction or echoed the book's artistic theme so eloquently. I love the way the very European looking spiral staircase becomes an eye because observing and seeing are so central to this marvellously punchy, knowing and yes, clear-eyed book. The cover expresses all that perfectly, suggesting the story's mystery and complexity. It amplifies the writer's intentions and really stands out from the crowd, honouring the quality of the writing.
Book design is another area where the internet is clearly having an impact. Some colours looks less appealing on screen (hmm, brown…). Textured embellishments are obviously redundant until the book reaches the customer's actual hands when a bit of embossing can add immeasurably to the pleasure of handling. I want books to be beautiful as well as good to read. I think we all do. What do you think? And what's your favourite book cover?
by Hilary Mantel
What is there left to say? I just wanted to join the chorus of universal admiration for the second volume of Mantel's remarkable feat of embodying Henry Vlll's chief strategist, Thomas Cromwell. Like many, I found it easier to read than Wolf Hall, because the narrative treads more familiar ground (the waning of Anne Boleyn's power and Henry's manoeuvring to rid himself of her) and because the point of view is well established so that being inside Cromwell's head seems entirely comfortable.
My favourite moments in the book are the telling details: Henry recycling jewellery to offer to prospective wife Jane Seymour, careless of whether evidence of the previous owner's initials have been quite erased; Cromwell calculating that the king will want his discarded first wife Catherine's costly ermine furs back on her death. And a brilliant scene in which Henry falls at jousting, is feared dead and Cromwell, like a modern day spin doctor, swings into immediate damage control mode.
Chilling in its portrait of the arbitrary raising and lowering of individual fates and fortunes at Henry's intrigue riddled court, this is a sumptuously entertaining majestic pageant of human ambition. Hurry up Hilary, and write the third volume.
PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR: AN ADVENTURE by Artemis Cooper
If I'd been born a man, this is the kind of life I'd like to have lived. Charming, handsome, debonair (now there's a word no one uses anymore) courageous, witty, bohemian, Fermor was a natural and prodigiously talented writer, as his classic A Time of Gifts demonstrated. An account of his walk across Europe in 1933 it is fresh with adventure and enthusiasm, truffled with anecdotes and characters from a world that has vanished, written in language opulent with imagery and playfulness.
This biography captures the spirit of that journey as the opening chapter of an eventful arc of ridiculously rich experiences. Fermor embraced every kind of social encounter with equal curiosity whether talking to a Greek fisherman or a Transylvanian Countess. Cooper knew Fermor well and her affection for her subject shines on every page of this well researched, lively portrait of one of the true originals of the twentieth century, who deserves to be more widely known. It will make you want to jump on a plane to Greece immediately, in search of the country that Fermor fell in love with and where he eventually made his home after a life of nomadic wanderings.
LIVE BY NIGHT by Denis Lehane
Denis Lehane is the bomb when it comes to gritty American crime fiction. But as well as his work about contemporary America (including his episodes of The Wire) he can summon up the past with equal muscularity.
His latest offering is a sequel to The Given Day but can easily be read as a stand alone. It's the story of Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a top ranking Boston police family, who falls in with the bad guys and develops a taste for a life of crime in the Prohibition era when mobster rule is at its height.
The flamboyant characters in Lehane's gritty world live by night, operating by a different set of rules and values to the rest of society who go about their legitimate business in daylight.
The writing is harsh, brutal and explicitly violent but also full of subtlety, tenderness and humor. It pulsates with the vitality of violence.
The fast-paced action, punctuated by unpredictable double crosses, shifts from Boston to Florida where the steamy locale provides welcome colour. Lehane gives some of his gangsters the swagger and charisma of movie stars but the glamour cannot mask their ugliness forever. Chilling, gripping and full of dark menace.
P.S. if you want to stay in gangster mode, this is the perfect companion to Sutton (reviewed in the November Buzz)
GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn
How well do you know your lover?
Just how well can you ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears.
The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.
So what did really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? And what was left in that half-wrapped box left so casually on their marital bed? In this novel, marriage truly is the art of war.
JERUSALEM by Sami Tamimi
Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are the men behind the bestselling Ottolenghi: The Cookbook. Their chain of restaurants is famous for its innovative flavours, stylish design and superb cooking.
At the heart of Yotam and Sami's food is a shared home city: Jerusalem. Both were born there in the same year, Sami on the Arab east side and Yotam in the Jewish west. The two only met when they worked together in London nearly 30 years later, and discovered they shared a language, a history, and a love of great food.
Jerusalem sets 120 of Yotam and Sami's inspired, accessible recipes within the cultural and religious melting pot of this diverse city. With culinary influences coming from its Muslim, Jewish, Arab, Christian and Armenian communities and with a Mediterranean climate, the range of ingredients and styles is stunning. From soups (frikkeh, chicken with kneidelach), meat and fish (chicken with cardamom rice, sharmula bream with rose petals), vegetables and salads (chargrilled squash with labneh and pickled walnut salsa), pulses and grains (beetroot and saffron rice), to cakes and desserts (fig and arak trifle, clementine and almond cake), there is something new for everyone to discover.
Packed with beautiful food and location photography, thoughtfully designed and inspired by two very different childhoods in the same city, Jerusalem showcases sumptuous Ottolenghi dishes in a dazzling setting.
I just can't do this favourites thing, it's too apples with oranges for me but there are some writers who have helped shape my consciousness over the nearly thirty years since I first came here, mapping the country's interior and exterior contours, helping me navigate its topography, insinuating themselves into my consciousness so that now their language and imagery feel familiar enough to give me a sense of belonging which makes me feel very grateful.
Robert Drewe
I love the corporeal, saline quality of all of Robert Drewe's writing, the way it makes me aware of the body as it propels itself through water and on land, as if he and we were amphibious. You get that in Our Sunshine, his telling of the Ned Kelly story.
Tim Winton
Tim Winton's Cloudstreet introduced me to a voice I would always want to hear, an understanding of humanity that went deep, was complex, loving, generous, humorous and tender, that embraced outsiders and misfits and those on the margins expressed in language that seemed freshly minted. He taught me the word chiack.
Charlotte Wood
When I read Charlotte Wood's The Submerged Cathedral the intensity of emotion compressed into the economy of language was so tension-inducing I think I forgot to breathe and then burst into tears. Every time I re-read it I find new layers to her acute observation of a very poetic, romantic relationship. She gets more astringent in The Children and Animal People, lacing her compassionate observation and intelligence with humour. Don't make me choose. (Full disclosure: Charlotte is a friend.)
Martin Boyd
Martin Boyd is so forgotten now , so unfashionable, but I loved Lucinda Brayford because it was the first Australian fiction I read when I got here and despite being dated and colonial and preoccupied with upper class social niceties. I recognised my own ambivalence about transplanting myself from Britain to Australia in it, but maybe I wouldn't now.
Shirley Hazzard
Shirley Hazzard has such a European sensibility that it's tempting to forget she's Australian but she's an uncompromisingly elegant stylist, quiet, restrained, unshowy but every sentence shines with careful polish. The Transit of Venus deserves its classic status.
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subset: commoncrawl


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A council at the centre of claims that schoolchildren were locked in a padded "time-out" room has not made enough progress in improving the safeguarding of youngsters, two reports are claiming.
The auditor general for Wales, Huw Vaughan Thomas, said Pembrokeshire county council had failed to make enough progress (pdf) in putting in place "robust arrangements to safeguard children".
Thomas said the council had been slow in addressing the use of time-out rooms and the implementation of new procedures concerning them was not being managed effectively.
He said there had been "recent signs of improvement" but called on the Welsh government to step in and provide more help for the authority.
The inspectorate for education in Wales, Estyn, said awareness of safeguarding issues had been raised over the last year but concluded the council had still not made enough progress.
Estyn has made a series of recommendations and told the council to produce an action plan to show how it will implement them as well as informing the Welsh government that it believes the local authority should be placed in special measures.
Concerns over safeguarding in Pembrokeshire were highlighted after claims that children were locked in a pupil referral unit's "time-out" room. Time-out or "sensory" rooms are widely used in special schools – but should not be locked except in the most exceptional circumstances or used as a form of punishment. The leader of Pembrokeshire county council, Jamie Adams, accepted that the two reports – published on Monday – identified "serious issues" that it was committed to resolving.
He said he was signing an agreement with Carmarthenshire county council on Monday to develop a "shared school improvement service" – the first of its kind in Wales – adding: "It will enable us to access the additional capability and capacity we need to improve the provision of education in Pembrokeshire."
Adams said Pembrokeshire had merged its safeguarding and education roles under the leadership of a new director.
He said it was unfortunate that there had been a "long delay" between the fieldwork carried out by the audit office inspectors in the summer and the publication of the report as "so much has been achieved in the intervening months".
Adams said: "I am under no illusions as to the scale of the challenge that faces the authority. Nevertheless I am confident that, with continued support from the Welsh government and the local Estyn inspection team, we will deliver long-lasting improvement."


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This is trash. 5% more damage on a MS equals about 80 more damage if it is applied to the MS bonus of 210 damage. If it is applied to the end result, it can be slightly meatier but it will still only add about 200 damage to a crit from the best weapon currently on live. Not worth the 5 points, getting a slightly more powerful MS in one second earlier will not save you. Go for deathwish and second wind instead.
Matchness 13:06, 17 May 2007 (UTC)


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....great holiday reading please?
Im interested in adventure, escapism, thrillers and will soon be going on holiday. Any ideas that I can buy at WH Smiths etc would be appreciated.
PS If you could add a one sentence summary without the end, I would be most grateful.
Thanks in anticipation!


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Course type: Second follow-up course M2
This course consists of six sessions. Sometimes the course is over one or two weekends, or it is a drop-in concept where you can attend the sessions (modules) you want.
In this course we will discuss further the principles of Acem Meditation and how they may help us change some of the underlying, limiting structures of our personality.
We start each session with 30 min group meditation and each session has a specific topic:
The topics will be discussed on the basis of each group member's personal experience. There are several group meditations during the course, each 30-45 minutes long.
The course is arranged by
Acem Trondheim
Arbeider med utvikling av sikkerhetskritisk programvare. Er ellers glad i friluftsliv og er ivrig amatørfotograf.
Kurslærer i Acem.


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Site Pro 1 – Rigging Tools, Rope Termination Plate for Tower Lifting Operations
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Rigging Rope Termination Plate is offered in the Safety section, Rigging subsection of our website and catalog. Other catagories include Tool and Rope Bags, Cable Grabs, Climber Carabiners, Climbing Harnesses, Harness Accessories, Construction Hard Hat Helmets, Rope and Web Lanyards, Positioning Devices and Equipment, Retracting Climber Lifelines, other Rope Rigging Equipment, Safety and Climbing Rope, Rope Grabs for Fall Stalling Protection and Safety Climb Devices. Hard copy and Pdf catalogs can be ordered or downloaded from our homepage or resources menu at the top of the page.
Our Rigging Plate, Rope Termination Plate, model RCP-12 provides a quick reusable field termination for rope that eliminates the need for knots and factory terminations. RCP-12 is designed for Rope size 7/16″ and 1/2″. Additional connecting hardware may be required.
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"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential." -- Wassily Kandinsky.

In its purest form in Western art, an abstract art is one without a recognizable subject, one which doesn't relate to anything external or try to "look like" something. Instead, the color and form (and often the materials and support) are the subject of the abstract painting. It's completely non-objective or non-representational.

A further distinction tends to be made between abstract art which is geometric, such as the work of Mondrian, and abstract art that is more fluid (and where the apparent spontaneity often belies careful planning and execution), such as the abstract art of Kandinsky or Pollock.

Also generally classified with abstract art are figurative abstractions and paintings which represent things that aren't visual, such an emotion, sound, or spiritual experience. Figurative abstractions are abstractions or simplifications of reality, where detail is eliminated from recognizable objects leaving only the essence or some degree of recognizable form.

In Western art history, the break from the notion that a painting had to represent something happened in the early 20th century. Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and other art movements of the time all contributed by breaking the "rules" of art followed since The Renaissance. Impressionism saw painters not "finishing" their paintings. The Fauvists used color in a non-realistic way. Cubism introduced the idea of painting an object from more than one viewpoint. From all of these, the idea developed that color, line, form, and texture could be the "subject" of the painting.

Abstract Expressionism, which emerged in the 1940s, applied the principles of Expressionism to abstract painting. The action painting of Jackson Pollock, in which paint was dripped, dropped, smeared, spattered, or thrown on the canvas, is a good example.

In 1864 the critic Ernest Chesneau wrote that if the trend the Impressionists were setting continued, paintings would eventually consist of nothing but "two broadly brushed areas of color". What would he have thought of the art being produced 100 years later?


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"Giving Back" recipient for MARCH is Five Town Football!
During the month of March, Rockport Automotive will save $5 from each oil change to award to Five Town Football!
We would like to introduce you to Five Town Football, a local youth football program for boys & girls in grades K-12 (Flag through High School). Established just 9 years ago by a group of passionate adults in our community who noticed that youth football was not available locally or through schools, they formed the nonprofit entity which brings together children from Camden, Rockport, Hope, Lincolnville & Appleton.
Thank you for your support of our Giving Back program. We appreciate your patronage and continue to be honored to give back to our community.
If you know of local organization that would like to be a recipient of Giving Back, please email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Rabbit Earth Eater
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- Frontpaged December 7, 2009
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Author Comments
Rated 5 / 5 stars
really cute :D
Rated 4.5 / 5 stars
This is another really good deranged picture! The only downside is that it is a bit hard to look at with the big hands. I still appreciate you working hard to make a really cool picture that sends a strong message out there. That rabbit looks more like he has human arms coming out his giant body. The muscles make the whole thing so deranged. As I have listened to some weird songs, I can imagine one conjuring up this image.
I can't even tell which part of the rabbit's eyes are sunken in. Maybe it's there to represent the insanity the person in the straitjacket has? I imagine someone in a straitjacket would be like that. I also love how there's this purple glowing aura in the background. It's a very nicely detailed, deranged picture.
Rated 5 / 5 stars
now thats what i call the Easter bunny !!!
Rated 4.5 / 5 stars
is that mental patient imagining that bunny?
that weird art
but its really nice, the bunny has really specific detail and the crazy guys hair is awesome.
Rated 5 / 5 stars
wtf happened to my bunny lol
awesome detail on the crazy bunny


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Parkview Baptist is known for having a physical offense with a powerful running game. And this year is no different. However, there is a new dimension to the Eagles that has not always been there a...
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Lounge around at home in this Steve Alan Tartan Ruffled Panty, $33, and see how pleasantly surprised your boy toy will be upon arrival!
This isn't the first time we're seeing ruffled panties, but what makes these so lust-worthy is the fact that they are a contradiction: the ruffles are beyond girly and the tartan pattern so utterly manly!
If you're not comfortable walking around the house in next-to-nothing, wear it under a mini dress in case you should confront some wind!


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1988 Cadillac DeVille Hood Release CableReview Fitment Notes to Ensure Proper Fit
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Hood Release Cable Reviews - 1988 Cadillac DeVille
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July 24th, 2015 | Posted by 88 cadilac fleet wood


text: At Baierl, we want to make sure you get the vehicle you want and need at a price that fits yoru budget. Whether you lease or buy, we have financial advisors that will help you make the best decision possible. Please watch the the video to the right to learn more about leasing vs. buying your next vehicle at Baierl.


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Red-hot Yellowjackets topple Wolverines
Dave Cresap's Perham Yellowjackets warmed up for post-season action March 1 by routing Wadena-Deer Creek 87-33 on the WDC court.
The Yellowjackets shot the lights out by hitting on 28 of 50 field-goal attempts for a strong 56 percent. The Yellowjackets made 13 of their 27 treys for a 48 percent clip and went 18 of 19 at the foul stripe for a whopping 95 percent average.
Eli Beachy led the Perham attack with 21 points. Also scoring in double figures were Jake Anderson and Jordan Hein with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Matt Laughin was high-point man for the Wolverines with 13. The Wolverines converted on 12 of their 32 floor shots and went seven of 11 from the line. Laughlin dropped in both of WDC's 3-pointers.
The Wolverines hurt themselves with 25 turnovers. The Yellowjackets coughed up the ball 11 times.
Perham ended the regular season with a 19-7 record, and the Wolverines ended the year at 5-20.
Hawley and Crosby-Ironton drew the top seeds in the Section 8AA tournament rankings. Hawley picked up a first-round game Feb. 28 with WDC at Hawley. Ranked behind the Nuggets in the south half of the section are Perham (2), Pelican Rapids (3), Barnesville (4), Breckenridge (5), Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (6), Frazee (7) and WDC (8).
Crosby-Ironton drew a first-round bye. Ranked behind the Rangers are Warroad (2), Crookston (3), Pequot Lakes (4), Park Rapids (5), Bagley (6) and Roseau (7).
The quarterfinals will be held Saturday at Concordia College in Moorhead and Bemidji State. The semifinals are slated for Tuesday at Concordia and Bemidji State. The Section 8AA title game will be held 6:30 p.m. Friday at Concordia.
E. Beachy 21, J. Anderson 13, J. Hein 12, H. Salathe 9, T. Glines 8, S. Muer 4, N. Bahls 3, T. Moberg 2, J. Hietala 1. Totals: 15/13 18-19 87
M. Laughlin 13, D. Dumpprope 6, B. Connell 4, B. Busa 4, J. Goeden 3, K. Paulson 3. Totals: 10/2 7-11 33


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Shari'ah (Islamic Law) is the main source of legislation. The law regulates various aspects of religious education and family life. People are considered equal in human dignity, and citizens theoretically have equal public rights and duties before the law, without discrimination as to race, origin, language, religion or belief. Freedom of conscience is stated to be absolute and the State guarantees the inviolability of places of worship, the freedom to perform religious rites and the right to hold religious processions and meetings, but only in accordance with the customs observed in the country. The Constitution prohibits religious discrimination but there is no law enforcing this, nor any way to file a grievance. Civil unrest in recent months has created an unstable situation in the country, with possible implications for its standards of religious freedom, since the problem relates to tensions between the more powerful Sunnis and the more populous Shi'ites.
The non-foreign citizenry is 99 percent Muslim (Shi'a nearly 70 percent, Sunni 30 percent). The other 1 percent of natives are Christians and other non-Muslims, including Jews, Hindus, and Baha'is. They are free to practice their religion, maintain their own places of worship and may display the symbols of their religion. Bibles and other Christian publications are displayed and sold openly in local bookshops, which also sell Islamic and other religious literature. Some small groups worship in their homes. Proselytizing by non-Muslims is discouraged, anti-Islamic writings are prohibited, and conversions from Islam to other religions, while not illegal, are not well tolerated by society. Although natives are almost all uniform Muslims, 49 percent of the population is comprised of foreigners, mostly from south Asia and other Arab countries; half are Muslim with the other half being Christians (Roman Catholic, Protestant, Syrian Orthodox, and Mar Thoma from South India), Hindus, Baha'is, Buddhists, and Sikhs. All religious groups must register with the government.
Unlike most Islamic states there are no civil laws which target apostasy, blasphemy or proselytizing, although changing religion from Islam to another is frowned upon and converts may lose their position in society or employment and may receive persecution or shunning from neighbors.
Both Sunni and Shi'a sects are subject to governmental control and monitoring. There is an historical struggle between these groups especially with Iran being a Shi'ite-dominated northern neighbor. In 2010, the Government closed mosques and ma'tams (Shi'a community centers) in certain locations to prevent religious leaders from delivering political speeches. According to reports, security forces entered religious facilities and removed communication equipment which were alleged to be used to further political unrest.
The government established an oversight body to review and approve all clerical appointments and program oversight for all citizens studying religion abroad. Public religious events are permitted but are closely watched by the police. The government monitors travel to Iran and scrutinize those who choose to pursue religious study there.
In 2009 the first personal status law (which regulates family matters: inheritance, child custody, marriage, and divorce) was adopted. But it applies only to Sunnis as Shi'a clerics, and lawmakers opposed it because it would require interpretation by a Ja'afari court (Sunni). This law gave protection to women requiring their consent for marriage and allowed a woman to include her conditions in the marriage contract. Shi'ite women do not benefit from this law as their clerics deny the law based on theological disagreement.
Recent unrest in the Middle East has influenced some struggle between the minority Sunni (who tend to be more wealthy) and the Shi'ites (who tend to be of a lower socio-economic class with higher unemployment). Sunnis are reportedly in greater numbers in sensitive positions in the government.
There has been rioting in some Shi'a villages with youth burning tires and at times throwing Molotov cocktails at police. This was due to a perception of unequal treatment by the government and in part due to Shi'a radicals' preaching. In 2011, the rioting spread to the cities and threatened the stability of the regime.
There was some anti-Jewish political commentary and editorial cartoons which were usually linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The government did not respond to them.
2010 U.S. State Department International Religious Freedom Report on Bahrain
Bahrain - New World Encyclopedia


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Gazing straight at the camera, a poised young woman with long brown hair delivered a public service announcement that local officials hope will alert kids to the perils of online pedophiles.
"At the age of 13, I was lured and abducted from my home by a vicious Internet predator, " Alicia Kozakiewicz said, in a video previewed at the San Marcos City Council meeting Tuesday. "On New Years Day, I walked out of my house, on the coldest, iciest night of the year, to meet a monster, whom I thought was my friend."
The video is one of a pair of messages that Councilwomen Rebecca Jones and Kristal Jabara helped develop, along with local law enforcement and other city officials, through a San Diego Association of Governments task force on Internet crimes against children.
Through a pair of videos separately aimed at parents and teens, the task force hopes to provide warning and advice about Internet safety.
"The most important detail is getting the word out by educating parents and kids that though technology has been extremely helpful in access to so much information, it has also eliminated so much of our privacy," Councilwoman Rebecca Jones said in an email.
The task force grew out of SANDAG's public safety committee, which is composed of representatives from the District Attorney's office, Sheriff's Department, the cities of Vista, Solana Beach and San Marcos, along with the Innocent Justice Foundation and Joyful Child Foundation , which combat crimes against children.
Focusing on legislation and education, the task force is promoting Assembly Bill 1871 , which would require commercial computer technicians to report child abuse and neglect, and also recently produced the public service announcements.
"A lot of parents are aware, but don't want to deal with it," Jabara said of the video for parents, which includes a statement by Elizabeth Smart, a Utah woman who was kidnapped and raped when she was a girl.
The teen video, including the narrative from Kozakiewicz, offers a brutally candid account of Internet predation, in order "to have the teenagers understand, from someone other than their parents, what the consequences are."
In 2002, Kozakiewicz was a 13-year-old aspiring model with chiseled features that belied her youth and vulnerability. The Pennsylvania girl became involved with an Internet acquaintance who told her he was a teenage boy. In fact, he was a 38-year-old pedophile, who courted her friendship under a false persona.
"He groomed me by seeming interested in me as a person," Kozakiewicz said. "He held me captive in a basement dungeon, chained by the neck. He tortured and raped me, and filmed his crimes, to share my pain and degradation online."
FBI agents saved her life after receiving a tip on her whereabouts. But in congressional testimony, Kozakiewicz told lawmakers that he killed her childhood. Since her abduction, she has been an advocate for Internet safety, alerting kids to the dangers lurking online.
The same year Kozakiewicz was lured from home, Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City bedroom by a couple who held her captive and sexually abused her for nine months. Although Smart's abduction was not the result of an Internet relationship, she has been an advocate for sexual predator legislation since the incident.
"I went to sleep in my perfect 14-year-old world and woke up in a living hell," Smart said in the video. "Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't have to react to these crimes after they've already happened, but instead prevent them before they ever start?"
Officials said the women agreed to provide testimony for the videos. The Sheriff's Department, along with the Los Angeles company Paydirt Productions, volunteered to film and produce the segments.
San Marcos spokeswoman Jenny Windle, who coordinated the filming and wrote the narrative, said Kozakiewicz in particular didn't spare shocking details.
"Alicia definitely wanted to take a harder-hitting approach, and I think the audience warranted that," she said.
Jabara said officials hope her statement drives home the risk of online indiscretions to teens who might not take the danger seriously.
"You could be the kid chatting with someone who isn't who they say they are," she said. "And the consequence of that is rape, torture, humiliation, death."
The videos also offer tips to parents and teens for avoiding trouble. Parents should keep computers in central locations and teach kids not to reveal private information or meet in person with people they meet online.
Kids should never share provocative comments or photos on the Internet, "which is more public and permanent than it seemed," one video warned. And they should alert a parent or other trusted adult to any uncomfortable Internet experiences.
Officials hope to roll out the videos soon to cities, Boys & Girls Clubs and other community organizations, Jabara said. They'll also be available to television networks, and posted on the San Marcos website, Peterson said.
Although Jabara said she vigilantly screens her own daughter's online activity and film viewing, they watched the video and discussed it together.
"I would rather have that conversation with her, and I'd rather her hear that and see that, than live that," Jabara said.


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Moldovan parliament bans communist symbols
|Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
|Publication Date
|12 July 2012
|Cite as
|Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Moldovan parliament bans communist symbols, 12 July 2012, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/5000254ec.html [accessed 24 November 2017]
|This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
July 12, 2012
Moldova's parliament has banned the use of communist symbols and condemned crimes committed by the communist regime in the former Soviet republic of Moldova.
The move means that the Communist Party will have to replace its Soviet-era hammer and sickle with a new emblem.
The Communist Party – which has 36 deputies in parliament – did not take part in the vote and walked out as a sign of protest.
Communist Party leader Vladimir Voronin said his party would challenge the law in the Constitutional Court.
The move could also complicate efforts to settle the long-running dispute with Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region, which continues to use communist-era symbols.
Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, and Interfax
Link to original story on RFE/RL website


text:
Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Michigan
my house was included in my bankruptcy 2 years ago, I now will have to let it go, am I still responsible if I default on the mortgage?
Asked on 9/28/10, 2:57 pm
1 Answer from Attorneys
Timothy Trichler Timothy R. Trichler - Attorney and Counselor at Law
Greetings; This very situation is happening all too often. The key to the answer in your situation is whether you signed a re-affirmation agreement for the home. If you did not, you will not be liable. If you did, you will be liable for any deficiency after the bank sells the home. Please contact me if you have follow up questions. Atty. Trichler, www.trichler.com; 616-457-5100
Answered on 10/03/10, 3:38 pm
Related Questions & Answers
My husband and I own a business. It is a corporation. We will have to declare... Asked 8/19/10, 1:11 pm in United States Michigan Bankruptcy Law


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Artist description:
Some people may remember my first drawing in this gallery (which had been deleted), a pink siting pony... Yes, this is him!In his human form, of course!
Flash Draw Created Feb 28, 2008 470 x 338px Unless noted Copyright 2008 Morgween.
We encourage you to submit a comment and let the artist know what you think of this drawing. Please log in or join to post a comment.
Post a comment
Aww, he's cute. :3 Love how there are no outlines or lines... looks great. :D
Hi!!! so sweet pony!!! :)


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Sabin: Day 2 objective is clear: finding players who fit new defensive scheme
2005 draft provides model for Cowboys
IRVING — After a strange day at Valley Ranch, during which Dallas traded down 13 picks to grab Wisconsin center Travis Frederick and an additional third-round choice, the Cowboys may want to think about dusting off the blueprints from the 2005 draft, the best the franchise has had in recent memory.
The formula concocted then can be used now as the Cowboys enter Day 2 still needing to address areas of concern on defense.
Eight years ago, the move to a 3-4 scheme gave Dallas direction as it assembled its draft board. A coherent strategy was formulated based on former coach Bill Parcells' desire to supersize the front seven. Parcells wanted large defensive linemen who could occupy and take on multiple blockers.
The Cowboys selected Marcus Spears, Chris Canty and Jay Ratliff. Parcells coveted big linebackers who were quick enough to rush the passer, chase down ball carriers and drop into coverage. Dallas picked DeMarcus Ware and Kevin Burnett.
Eight years later, all five players are still in the league, two became Pro Bowlers, and the Cowboys' 2005 class is regarded as organization's greatest since the dawn of the new millennium.
Asked earlier this week if he expected it to be as good as it turned out to be, Ware said, "I didn't. But Bill Parcells molded the core."
He also gave the Cowboys a clear vision when they needed to retool the defense to execute the new scheme they adopted.
As Dallas begins to transition back to the 4-3 this year, it can use the same approach it did in 2005 and acquire personnel who fit the new system it will employ. By doing so, the Cowboys have the opportunity to carry out a plan with clear objectives that management knows are attainable.
On Monday, team owner Jerry Jones said the principal figures making the decisions in the war room, including assistant director of player personnel Tom Ciskowski, were around Valley Ranch when the Cowboys were still predominantly using four-man fronts.
"We've got a pretty good feel and a good base of our scouts, having been here for years and years, that know what … defensive players look like, absent the fact they're a lot bigger and a lot faster than they were maybe as recently as far back as 10 years ago," Jones said Monday.
That the Cowboys won't be entering uncharted territory bodes well as they go through this process. But it doesn't take a genius or an experienced personnel executive to figure out what the Cowboys need to accommodate the transition to the 4-3 scheme that new coordinator Monte Kiffin runs. Dallas is in the market for players at the defensive tackle and safety spots, two positions that can be filled by a number of decent prospects still left on the board.
The interior of Dallas' line needs an injection of youth. Ratliff is 31 and he's coming off an injury-plagued season in which he appeared in only six games. Jason Hatcher is only a year younger, has built a career on being a 3-4 end, and has a contract that expires after the upcoming season.
The Cowboys' best safeties, meanwhile, are neither battle-tested nor accomplished. Barry Church was a starter for three games last season before suffering a torn right Achilles tendon. Second-year veteran Matt Johnson, plagued by injuries to both hamstrings, hasn't played a meaningful down since being drafted in April 2012.
The Cowboys can conceivably upgrade both positions at the same time they add players to the fold who are suited to play this particular defense.
Six picks remain, and the Cowboys still have plenty of time to follow the plan they carried out in 2005, when they ended up with a collection of front-seven players whose careers still have life eight years later.
Follow Rainer Sabin on Twitter @RainerSabinDMN.


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RYANAIR chief executive Michael O'Leary yesterday conceded that his decision to spend €390m of shareholders' money on a stake in Aer Lingus was "stupid".
The admission came at a wide-ranging media briefing, where Mr O'Leary called on the Government to axe the €5bn metro, the aviation regulator's office and the €10 aviation tax.
Speaking in Dublin, Mr O'Leary also insisted he was "completely serious" about charging for onboard toilets and had already instructed plane-maker Boeing to examine installing a credit card swipe machine on toilet doors.
Mr O'Leary later confirmed he had written to the Transport Minister to express his outrage at the Aviation Regulator's recent decision to ignore a government-commissioned report that said Terminal 2 "may be greatly oversized".
The Ryanair boss's comments on the wisdom of his Aer Lingus investment came after he told journalists that he was "very unlikely" to make another bid for the rival airline and would write his 29pc stake "down to zero" if accounting rules allowed it.
"It was a stupid investment," he added. "At the time, it was the right strategy to go for one combined airline but it [the investment] has now proven to be a disaster."
He added that he'd told shareholders he'd "f***** up" but hadn't apologised.
"I never say sorry, except to my wife who I apologise to all the time," he said.
The briefing was called to unveil Ryanair's tourism strategy, which included the abolition of the metro, the aviation regulator's office and the €10 aviation tax.
Mr O'Leary also called for the abandonment of state subsidies for regional air routes, including the subventions for Ryanair's Dublin/Kerry service, and for a 30pc reduction in charges at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
The Ryanair boss said he had outlined the plans to the Government's Tourism Renewal Group earlier in the day.
Mr O'Leary also told journalists he'd been in talks with Boeing on charging for toilets for several years but the plane-maker couldn't design a slot to accept coins. "We're now looking at credit cards," he added.
Those who won't pay and soil planes will be "fined €100", he said.


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Power Tip #2: Taming a noisy power supply
1 comments post a comment
Focus on the electrical and physical design of the error amp, reference amp, and ramp circuits to minimize problems.
(Editor's Note: To see a linked list of all entries in this series, click here.)A noise-free power supply is not an accident. A good power supply layout in particular is essential to minimize lab time when bringing up a new design. A few hours or even minutes spent looking over the layout can save days of troubleshooting down the road.
Figure 1 shows a block diagram of some main noise-sensitive circuits within a power supply. Here the output voltage is compared against a reference to generate an error signal. The error signal is compared to a ramp to generate a PWM signal that is used to drive the power stage.
Noise can be injected in three major areas: error amplifier input and output, reference, and ramp. Careful electrical and physical design of these nodes can help minimize checkout time. Generally, noise is capacitively coupled into these low-level circuits. A good design makes sure that the low-level circuits are compactly routed away from any switching waveforms. Ground layers can provide shielding also.
The input to the error amplifier is probably the most sensitive node in the power supply as it usually has the most components connected to it. Combine this with the stage's very high gain and high impedance, and you have a recipe for disaster. During the layout process, you must minimize the node length. You need to place feedback and input components as close as physically possible to the error amplifier. If there is a high-frequency integrating capacitor in the feedback network, you should place it close to the amplifier, followed by the other feedback components. Also, the compensation networks may be formed with series resistor-capacitors. For best results, place the resistor toward the error amplifier input so that if a high-frequency signal gets injected into the resistor-capacitor node, it has to work against the high resistor impedancerather than the capacitor.
The ramp is another potential noise problem area. Ramps are usually generated by either charging a capacitor (voltage mode), or derived from a sample of the power switch current (current-mode). Usually voltage-mode ramps are not an issue in that the capacitor presents a low impedance to high-frequency injected signals. The current ramps are much more problematic due to leading-edge spikes, relatively small ramp amplitudes, and parasitics in the power stage.
Figure 2 shows some of the issues with current ramps. The first trace shows the leading edge spike and the following current ramp. The comparator (depending on its speed) has two potential trip points. The result is chaotic control operation, which sounds much like bacon frying.
This problem is best fixed with leading-edge blanking in the control IC, which ignores the very first part of the current waveform. High-frequency filtering of the waveform also helps. Again, place the capacitor as close as physically possible to the control IC. Another common problem is subharmonic oscillation, as illustrated in both waveforms. This wide-narrow drive waveform is indicative of inadequate slope compensation. Adding more voltage ramp to the current ramp will fix this problem.
You've been really careful with your layout. But your prototype is still noisy. What do you do now? First verify your loop response to eliminate instability as the problem. Interestingly, a noise problem may appear to be an instability at the crossover frequency of the power supply. But what's really happening is that the loop is correcting out an injected error as fast as it can respond. Again, the best way to proceed is to recognize that the noise is being injected in one of three areas: error amplifier, reference, or ramp. You simply need to divide and conquer!
The first step is to probe the nodes. See if there is an obvious nonlinearity in the ramp, or a high frequency variation in the error amp output. If you cannot detect anything, take the error amplifier out of the circuit and replace it with a clean voltage source. You should be able to vary the output of the voltage source to smoothly vary the power supply output. If this works, you have narrowed the problem to the reference and error amp.
Sometimes the reference in a control IC is susceptible to switching waveforms, and this condition may be improved with additional (or proper) bypassing. Additionally, slowing the switching waveforms with gate-drive resistors may help. If the problem is the error amplifier, often lowering the impedance of compensation components helps as this reduces the amplitude of the injected signal. If all else fails, remove the error amplifier nodes from the printed circuit board. Air wiring the compensation components can help to identify where the problem is.
Next time, we'll address the first part of two in damping an input filter.
For more information about power solutions, visit www.power.ti.com . If you have any questions about the material in this article, I can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
The Power Tips! series
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Shares of the company, also known as Tepco, opened up more than 6 per cent after the Mainichi newspaper reported that the government planned to inject public funds into the firm, although it is unlikely to take more than a 50 per cent stake.
"It will be a type of injection that will allow the government to have a certain level of (management) involvement," a government official told the paper.
"If the stake goes over 50 per cent, it will be nationalised. But that's not what we are considering."
Three weeks after the plant was severely damaged by a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake, neither the company nor the government have been able to bring the crisis under control.
Tepco has confirmed that groundwater around the plant, 137 miles north of Tokyo, was "highly" contaminated with radiation, at levels 10,000 times the legal limit, and radioactive iodine-131 at 4,385 times the maximum level in sea water just off the facility.
Tepco now faces a colossal bill to cover compensation for all the people and companies impacted by the failure of its Fukushima plant and is still under pressure to provide energy to much of eastern Japan.
It is also battling a public relations nightmare, with allegations of woefully inadequate preparations for a natural disaster on the scale of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, cover-ups over safety standards and poor handling of the situation in the aftermath of the disaster.
"Naturally, there will be a debate on how Tepco should exist or be," Koichiro Gemba, the minister of national strategy, told reporters earlier this week. "But containing the situation is more important than anything else at the moment."
That comment was taken to mean that the government was going to step in to support the stricken firm, sending its stocks sliding 74 per cent since the day of the quake. Tepco's management has stated that it intends to do all it can to remain a private entity, but in private it is possible the board would welcome the intervention.
"There may be resistance, but it will come to the point where they can no longer be seen to be resisting," said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Kyoto's Doshisha University. "Internally, they may well heave a sigh of relief that it is being taken out of their hands and that the government is taking over responsibility for the whole debacle.
"One way or another, nationalisation is the only effective option at this point," she said. "There is a need to keep the energy flowing, there will be questions over money and compensation but the government also has to respond to public anger.
"The general feeling among the public here is was this a cock-up, a conspiracy or a cover-up and that has bred huge frustration in the public.
"There really is the most incredible anger here at the management of Tepco at the same time as the public are hugely impressed by and sympathetic to the emergency workers on the ground who are exposing themselves to radiation as they try to fix this thing," she said.


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Panicing about returning after mat leave - wwyd?(9 Posts)
<waves back>
Thanks. Not sure I can give up nursery space, but I could drop breakfast/after school club on the other two days at first. Not something I had considered....
More thinking required!
If you went back to the retained role for 2 days - but then cut down on childcare costs on the other two days and basically squeezed other work into school hours / evenings, would that ease the financial pressure if you were paying less for after-school club (not sure how your nursery charge and if that would make a difference or not)?
Of course, that adds to the pressure in other ways re your time & losing evenings, but might be a short term compromise whilst you find your feet again...
Thanks for the additional comments and the compliments Punkatheart .
Sorry to hear of your slow month ocean is there anything proactive you can do as a supply? I guess not, there is either a need or not? It is depressing isn't it.
Thanks Wilson pragmatic and helpful as always. I don't have to go into the office for the retained but they would expect me to be working during the day. I do think it is helpful to be there though, there are lots of nuances that I miss by not going in.
Re childcare. Nursery places around here are v competitive. DD was down after the 12 week scan and I don't actually know if she'll get a place. She is on "the waiting list" - the best bit of marketing a nursery does! So I kinda feel I need to make a decision and stick with it initially. I can always drop a day, less easy to acquire one.
The retained role has lots of benefits; really good pay for what I have to do, good location for me, I like going into an office and they are very flex/understanding if I need to juggle days. Plus I also won a proper day rate project through them last year. So in a way I feel I'd be mad to let it go. As you say Wilson it needs to be a short term prop which I can lose once I am incredibly successful and rich, or something like that!
Thanks all. It is helped to write it all down.
Do you have to be physically 'present' for the retained role, or could you squeeze it/do some of it at night, creating some time for business development and other work? I'd be tempted to do that for the first few months, with the baby in nursery for two days. Then, as you start to generate more work/money (which you will) you can fund an additional day of childcare, then another - so slowly working up to the 4 days.
The only disadvantage is when you're ready to add a day nursery might not have a place, so you may have to do some juggling around.
OR do that, generate some more jobs/income then dump the retained role, once you've replaced it with more lucrative work. If you get lucky you may be able to generate enough income in one day to replace both retained days. You could then put the baby in three days a week, so overall working a bit less but for the same money, with reduced cc costs.
I'm a great believer in going back to what you know post-mat leave, I've given that advice often and normally within 6 months people change their circumstances again.
In the same boat-ish.
Sitting here waiting for the phone to ring with work (supply teacher) and yet, have had to pay out for nursery this month already (lovely £400 for 2 days a week!) .
If I get no work, we will be £800 down this month (£400 we're short of meeting the necessities anyway, and the £400 for nursery).
Just to say, you're not on your own!
In your case, I would take a risk, at least maybe for a month or so? See if you can generate enough? You do earn enough with DH to cover the bills. If not, then you can always do the safe option.
Whatever happens. I think you will eventually come out trumps. You have really thought it through and you sound extremely intelligent with lots of initiative. Good luck!
Thanks punka.
There have been quite a few meetings etc at school, but none that were that vital.
We don't really have room for an au pair.
I have spent some time plugging in figures into a spreadsheet. I am thinking that working longer hours within the day at the retained job might help. I think 1) is the favourite at the mo...
Horrible situation for people with bloody childcare costs.
The only suggestions I can make is re Number 4 - are there really lots of daytime school meetings to make? It was rare for me, to be honest when mine was younger.
Also have you considered an au pair?
But I would say that potential is better, although a risk. Otherwise you are on a treadmill...
I am a marketing freelancer, been going 2.5 years. I am due to finish my mat leave at the end of Feb. I have been fairly successful so far before the baby and last financial year I have managed to get back up to my previous senior role salary level.
DH and I have worked out our money from Feb now we have to factor in nursery again and basically it is looking grim if we just take into account his money as we know it is guaranteed.
We can just about cover the bills with DHs money but there isn't much left. We cannot cover 4 full days of nursery and 4 days of breakfast/after school club - for older DS - without me working (obv I wouldn't need that level of childcare if I wasn't working). It adds up to £1300 a month.
I do have a retained role (2 days) I can return to in Mar but the rate is low but the money is guaranteed.
So my options are:
1) Return to retained role and hope I can generate enough cash on other 2 days to cover costs and make it worth it.
2) Work retained role school hours and put DD with a childminder paying just for the hours used (assuming I can find a CM willing to do that). The upside is reduced childcare costs, downside is there is then little chance to generate additonal income.
3) Dump retained role and use all 4 days to try to generate enough money. There will be a lot of pressure to earn enough to cover costs and then some.
4) Get a job. Biggest issues: lack of 4 day a week jobs out there, cannot get to school meetings during the day as I can as a freelancer.
The best guaranteed income senarios are either 2 or 4. I guess it depends if we want security over potential...
Any thoughts?
How have you found going back post mat leave?
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text:
Tropico 3 Xbox 360 Demo is Announced
November 18, 2009
Tropico 3 Xbox 360 Demo is Announced
Two level demo available worldwide
Kalypso Media have today announced that the Xbox 360 demo for the critically acclaimed Tropico 3 will be available to download Worldwide from Xbox LIVE Marketplace on Wednesday 18th November for Gold Subscribers and 25th November for Silver Subscribers.
Prepare to be whisked you away to the Caribbean paradise Island of Tropico where you take up charge as the newly installed 'El Presidente' – after a warm up tutorial you have the chance to show off your Presidential skills with two full missions.
MISSION 1: Bananas
The abdication of the old Presidente of St. Helena provided the perfect opportunity for your rise to power. Now as the head of state it is your job to lead this small island nation to a new age of prosperity.
St. Helena is a modest island with rich and fertile lands, which have attracted the attention of the American food conglomerate Fruitas LTD. You should make use of the gringos to secure the financial future of the island as well as your own Swiss Bank Account.
MISSION 2: Second Chance
The band of rebels led by your twin managed to drive you out of your own island. Taking the entire treasury, you hitched a ride on an old fishing boat, seeking refuge in your summer residence on the island of El Acantilado.
Chased away from their own homes, your most loyal supporters have followed you. Taking the burden of leadership once again you have promised them a fresh start. Your new island is a poor and dry hunk of rock. Several rich iron ore deposits are its only viable resources.....
Developed by Haemimont Games, Tropico 3 sees you take charge of your very own Caribbean island as the newly installed 'El Presidente' across 15 challenging and fun missions. How you run your country is down to you – do you turn Tropico into a vacation paradise, a police state or a modern industrial nation? The choice is yours but whatever your decision you will always have to defend your actions before your people!
Tropico 3 will be available for Xbox 360 in North America in February. For more information go to www.tropico3.com


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The murder that remains unsolved
The murder of Sameer Watts, who was shot in the head from point-blank range at Phase-8 Dussehra Grounds in SAS Nagar on March 12, 2009, and died a week later, continues to be an unsolvable puzzle.punjab Updated: Sep 30, 2013 09:45 IST
The murder of Sameer Watts, who was shot in the head from point-blank range at Phase-8 Dussehra Grounds in SAS Nagar on March 12, 2009, and died a week later, continues to be an unsolvable puzzle.
Though the police conducted a polygraph test on two suspects - Watts' brother-in-law (wife's brother) Sandeep Singh and Achherpal Singh, IT head at Fortis Hospital - in August this year, nothing much came out. The cops, however, continue to maintain that the case would be solved soon.
As the police file a reply about the progress of the blind murder before the Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday, on a petition filed by Watts' father Colonel Surinder Kumar (retd), Hindustan Times tries to piece together the mysterious murder.
Day of the crime
Sameer Watts (35 in 2009), a general manager with Airtel, was in his car, while his brother-in-law Sandeep Singh was 100 metres away, when he was shot in the head on the evening of March 12, 2009. Bleeding profusely and unconscious, Watts was wheeled into Fortis Hospital. On March 19, Watts breathed his last at Fortis, where his wife Simrat was the in-charge of the hospital's patient welfare department. Though the police formed special teams to probe the case, the murder is still a mystery.
Sandeep's version
During his polygraph test at the Directorate of Forensic Science in Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Sandeep revealed that he received a call from Watts on the day he was shot at. Watts told him that he was asked by an unknown person to meet him at Cosmo Hospital in Phase 8, which is located right in the middle of Dussehra Grounds. Watts asked Sandeep to join him. Sandeep said he reached the spot before Watts, who came in his Santro a while later. They stayed in their cars which were parked at a distance from each other's. Sandeep said that Watts had asked him to stay like this over the phone, and that he would signal him when the person arrives by flashing the headlights of his car. After a few minutes, Sandeep phoned Watts and asked him to leave the spot, but Watts insisted that they wait for five minutes. Sandeep phoned again, but Watts did not pick it up. Seconds later, he saw a white car speeding past Watts' Santro, he felt something was amiss, and went to Watts' car. When he knocked on its door, there was no reply.
On a closer look, he found Watts lying unconscious. Sandeep then rushed him to Fortis Hospital. In his test, Sandeep also said that his sister Simrat had a shaky marriage with Sameer and for some time, she had stayed with her parents, but later started living with her husband again.
Polygraph test revelation of Achherpal
Achherpal, a colleague of Simrat, was working as the information technology head of Fortis when Watts was killed. At around 7.45pm that day, he said he got a call from the hospital's security officer, informing him about the shooting. Achherpal was asked to check the extension code of a phone number with Fortis, as the call made to Watts before his murder originated from Fortis. He was also asked to check the recordings of the security camera of the room from where the phone call was made. Though Achherpal divorced his wife in 2012, he said his relationship with Simrat was professional and that he had never met Watts. About the extension code from which the call was made, he said it was a common extension at Fortis and he could not ascertain who phoned Watts. He said his department never accessed Simrat's emails.
Hole in the Probe
During initial investigations, police found that when Watts was alive, Simrat had reportedly got close to an Indian living in Indonesia, who had come to SAS Nagar for his mother's treatment at Fortis. The same person had received a threatening email that generated from the hospital's computer server. Though police suspected that the same person may have eliminated Watts, they never explored the angle.
Will crack the case now: SSP
SAS Nagar senior superintendent of police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said they had got some vital clues in the polygraph report. "We hope to crack the murder soon."
Polygraph test
A polygraph test (better known as a lie-detector test) involves a machine called polygraph in which multiple ('poly') signals from a sensor are recorded on a strip of moving paper ('graph'). The sensors usually record the person's breathing rate, pulse, blood pressure and perspiration. Sometimes, a polygraph will also record arm and leg movement. When a polygraph test starts, the questioner asks a few simple questions to establish norms for the person's signals. Then the real questions are asked. Throughout questioning, all of the person's signals are recorded on moving paper. The polygraph examiner can examine the paper to see if vital signs changed significantly on specific questions. In general, a significant change (such as a faster heart rate, higher blood) indicates that the person is lying.


text: Thank You to All Who Have Served Day 28 – #100HappyDays Challenge Advertisements Share this:TwitterFacebookGoogleLike this:Like Loading... Author: April Journey with me through the next little bit to find the joy hidden just beneath the everyday moments. Let's unearth fun! We can be archeologists of our own lives. Let's spread cheer into the ordinary. Get ready, set, go! View all posts by April


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St. Joseph, Mo. Todd Haley remembers watching Kelly Gregg stuff the Kansas City Chiefs' vaunted rush attack. He has vivid memories of punishing fullback Le'Ron McClain clearing the way for Ray Rice.
So when both players became available during free agency, the Kansas City head coach was on board with signing them. And now, just a few short months after helping the Baltimore Ravens eliminate the Chiefs from the playoffs, the veteran duo is being counted on to help them get back.
"Really, I'm just coming in and doing anything I can to help the team win," said McClain, a two-time Pro Bowl fullback. "If I have to block, I'm going to do that. If I need to run, I'll do that. ... It's not about me, it's about the Chiefs."
That's precisely the attitude Haley expects.
McClain earned a bit of a diva reputation in Baltimore, where he once ran for more than 900 yards but had been relegated almost exclusively to blocking duty the past couple years. That led to him openly campaigning to run the football, and when McClain decided to pursue other options, the Ravens signed a replacement.
The former Alabama star eventually wound up in Kansas City, where McClain will be doing the same kind of work, only this time for the shifty backfield of Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones.
"He's a big, physical fullback that's obviously in the past shown really good run ability in the year he had the chance to carry the ball," Haley said. "But we're very clear: He's coming in to be our fullback first and foremost."
McClain said that's fine with him.
"We're here to win, man, we're here to win. If that's getting Thomas Jones and Jamaal Charles over a thousand yards apiece, that's what I'm here to do," said McClain, who will get a chance to see the Ravens when they play the Chiefs in a preseason game Aug. 19 at Baltimore.
Haley offered similar sentiments for the 34-year-old Gregg, a grizzled 12-year veteran who the Chiefs hope still has something left. Defensive tackle was another of the "must" improve areas and, although there were more high-profile options available, the Chiefs decided to bring in another player with a winning pedigree.
"Kelly Gregg is one of those guys, I've talked about them, probably coming out the odds were stacked against him right out of the gate — not prototypical size and speed and those things," Haley said. "He didn't listen to any of it.
"As an offensive coach and offensive coordinator, he's been a major pain to deal with," Haley added.
The Chiefs lost last starting nose tackle Ron Edwards to Carolina and backup Shaun Smith to Tennessee, so they're gambling that Gregg can plug up the middle for a defense that struggled to stop the run last year.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. We strive to uphold our values for every story published.


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