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Chris Rankin, Jamie Yeates, and Stanislav Ianevski Attend RingCon Conference
Oct 07, 2008
Last weekend a number of actors from the Harry Potter films were in attendance at RingCon 2008, a large fantasy conference which took place in Germany. Actors Chris Rankin (Percy Weasley), Jamie Yeates (Slytherin Quidditch Captain Marcus Flint), and Stanislav Ianevski (Viktor Krum) made appearances at the Con, speaking on their roles in the Harry Potter films and meeting with fans. The first set of photos are starting to appear online from the conference. Photos of the actors speaking and the surrounding conference can be seen via German fan site HarryPotter-buch here, here, and here. More photos are expected online soon, and we will update you when they become available.
Thanks to Barbara!


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Who killed ITV Digital? Rupert Murdoch - but not the way you think
Snobbery and Tranmere Rovers dunnit, not smartcard pirates
Who killed ONdigital?
A browse through the Reg archive offers enough clues. Here's a PR script for executives we obtained a week before an ONdigital press conference. By early 2000 we called ONdigital "TV's secret service" - even those willing to sign up were frustrated. The broadcaster had a churn rate of 25 per cent.
By that stage, with pay-per-view about to go live, the early technical problems were being fixed - but many still found they couldn't get it at all, or suffered terrible reception. ONdigital had failed to subsidise its boxes on launch, but by 1999 it was matching Sky and bundling them for free, or at very low cost, in special offers.
ONdigital also made some catastrophic errors. It paid £315m for the rights to screen live second-tier Football League games as the jewel in its pay-per-view crown. ONdigital was therefore betting on subscribers digging into their pockets to watch Grimsby Town, Walsall and Tranmere Rovers. This deal ultimately broke the consortium's finances - it was unable to pay the Football League the contractual instalments.
Meanwhile Sky subscribers paid extra to receive digital channels - £11 a channel, up to £18 for three channels. Analyst research from the turn of the millennium showed Sky was using its budget much more shrewdly, with 57 per cent going on programming. Sky merely had to convert existing users to digital rather than sign new ones up - and it boldly dismissed worries about cannibalisation.
"With the mix of channels on offer from ONdigital not straying too far from the choices already on offer through analogue cable and satellite services, the company might have to work hard to build a market," a trade magazine warned the new venture in January 1998. But the ITV grandees from Carlton and Granada were convinced that the UK public loathed Rupert Murdoch, and were too snobbish to fix satellite dishes on their houses. Neither would be a decisive factor.
In short, ONdigital created a poor product, and once it was losing £1m a day it couldn't find any more backers to fund the venture. It failed for very traditional reasons: unexciting content and technical errors. Today we remember it only for the knitted monkey.
Even if counterfeit smart cards hadn't existed, it wouldn't have made any difference to the fate of ONdigital. In its rush to tell a sexy story, Panorama seems to have overlooked this vital fact - the program makers omitted this crucial context. It makes the allegations about hackers and smart cards - and a questionable relationship between NDS and the pirate site - all rather moot. ®

subset: commoncrawl


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Vanessa Hudgens: 24 Hours Play in NYC
Vanessa Hudgens gets the giggles at the The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway after party held at BB King on Monday (November 12) in New York City.
The 23-year-old actress performed in a play titled "Workday" alongside Amber Heard, Emmanuelle Chriqui, and more!
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Vanessa Hudgens
Just last week, Vanessa and boyfriend Austin Butler attended the Victora's Secret Fashion Show before lending a hand at the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fundraiser.
FYI: Vanessa is wearing a Stella & Dot "Rebel" pendent necklace.
15+ pictures inside of Vanessa Hudgens participating in the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway…
Posted to: Vanessa Hudgens


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LONDON (AP) — A British court has rejected a compensation claim by a man wrongly convicted of murdering a prominent television personality.
Two High Court judges ruled that Barry George failed to meet the threshold for compensation because a "reasonable jury" could have found him guilty.
George was convicted in 2001 of shooting BBC presenter Jill Dando through the head on the steps of her London home. He was acquitted in 2008 after a retrial that saw controversial forensic evidence excluded.
George's lawyer said he would appeal.
In a separate case Friday, the judges ordered the government to reconsider denying compensation to Ian Lawless, who spent eight years in jail after confessing to murder. He was released after new evidence revealed Lawless had a "pathological need for attention" and made frequent unreliable confessions.


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MES Cards Birthday Cards Cards for Kids Thank You Cards Halloween Christmas Cards
Free printable card templates for kids; add personalized text, edit and print cards for free.
Printable card with single waterfall, forest, nature, hidden, pool, lagoon, spray, secluded waterfall.
The card makers allow you to add your own title text and personalized message. You can make a birthday card, thank you card, get well soon card, congratulations card or anything you'd like. Add your text, make any changes you'd like to the lettering and layout, and then hit "print".
To print envelopes for this card, use the envelope template. You can make a blank evelope or choose from styles that match this theme.
To print your greeting card, click the "print" button at the top left of the template. That will begin the printing process.
To make a personalized card, click on any of the sample wording and add your own message to the card. You can add text to all but the back cover. There are text fields over the card cover you can add a message to. There is also a spot on the left-inside panel you can use to make a personalized greeting card. Each card template lets you alternate between 7 different fonts, move yourmessage around or just adjust the position slightly, change the font size, and even rotate the text. So, you can make the perfect card with photos of waterfalls, or check the main site for other card templates and ideas: MES Cards.
This is just one of the waterfall card templates, here are some of the other designs from this theme:
Printable Cards Free Printable Birthday Cards Waterfall Cards Rainbow Cards Invitation Templates
|You are free to use any resource from this site as an end user. You may not redistribute, copy, modify, transfer, transmit, repackage, charge for or sell any of the materials from this site. MES Cards reserves the right to terminate or make changes to this agreement for any reason and without notice.
Copyright © 2007 - 2018 MES Cards | Mark Cox | restrictions | privacy | Contact


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TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A Libyan military court looking into the assassination of a rebel commander has summoned the former transitional leader as witness.
The rebel commander, Abdel-Fattah Younis, was killed in July 2011 by his comrades while in custody after he was arrested on suspicion of treason.
The highest profile assassination during Libya's civil war raised fears of revenge attacks, shaking confidence in the rebel forces and exposing disarray among their ranks before the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Younis was interior minister under Gadhafi before defecting to join the rebels.
A court official said judges decided Wednesday to summon the former head of Libya's National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, to testify, because he was in office when other rebels questioned Younis' loyalty. There are 23 defendants in the murder trial in Benghazi.


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The destruction caused by the second US invasion of Falluja in November was met with quiet outrage by Iraqis. Most residents left before the invasion began, and rather than attempt to help the guerrillas inside the city (as happened during the April fighting, when the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, sent aid, arms and soldiers), other Iraqis have helped by absorbing the refugees as best they can. The refugees are spread out across the central part of the country, some staying with relatives, others in bomb shelters, camps, mosques or whatever can be found.
The camp in the courtyard of the mosque at Baghdad University is home to about 900 refugees. Some of the families here stay inside the mosque, but the rest are camped out in tents that provide little shelter from the winter wind that blows across the university. At night, temperatures dip to freezing.
As an Apache helicopter gunship buzzes low overhead, Umm Omar looks on with resignation. Continued fighting in Falluja has left the camp's residents with the feeling that they might be there for some time. Just before the New Year, Umm Omar set up a school for about 160 of the camp's children. Now she is asking the Education Ministry to permit her to administer mid-year exams at the camp. "If they are not able to take their exams, some of these children will lose an entire year of school. Some of them are in their last year of high school, and they want to finish this year," she said.
Riad Hassoun, a father of four who lives with his family in the camp, went back to Falluja in early January. After waiting for hours at the city's outskirts to receive an identification card from the US military (a process that includes a retinal scan and fingerprinting), he and his family stayed overnight but returned to the Baghdad camp the following morning.
"The houses around mine had all been destroyed," Hassoun said. "Our house was full of smoke–it was a mess. We cleaned up the house and spent the night there, but the bombing started at 7 in the evening and lasted until the morning. There were all sorts of bombs. My children couldn't sleep. There is no water; there is no electricity. I saw no reconstruction, just one truck trying to fix the electricity."
Hassoun was lucky–his house was still standing.
"My house was destroyed," said Umm Hussein, whose husband returned to Falluja in January to find their belongings unsalvageable. She cradles her sick son in her arms. "Every house in our neighborhood was destroyed. We have nothing left. How can I take my baby to the hospital?"


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If you own a business, I believe that you have a right to make more money than the rest of your employees. You are taking on a risk, and greater risk should result in greater reward, at least that's how capitalism is supposed to work.
But what about management? Often I see management (meaning directors, VPs, C-level) having different bonus plans than employees. They have different targets, which makes sense, but also different measures. As a result, management often gets bonuses when employees do not.
I think this is a huge mistake. It contributes to a lack of loyalty from employees, they don't trust management, don't see them as leaders, and don't feel they have a reason to support the company.
In times past, in the military, in companies in the late 1800s, workers had much less power and management took advantage of that. Workers don't have much more power today, but they have much greater mobility, especially in the technical world. That means that by not creating a more equitable distribution of incentive pay, or bonuses, you are destroying the goodwill you can build with employees.
If you are running a company that deals more with very unskilled labor, say a retail store, then perhaps it doesn't matter as much. If you have high employee turnover, then perhaps you are not losing much, though I would argue that you could reduce training costs with better retention, and that's what bonuses give.
I'm getting off track here, but I want to provide a basis for building a better bonus plan.
I think management should have different targets they need to achieve, but these targets much be tightly coupled to those targets for employees. In fact, one of the management bonus targets ought to be that employees get their bonuses. If this measure isn't achieved, then how is management succeeding? They must be driving employees, who actually do the work, to do a better job, or at least get the best effort out of them.
Management bonuses should be larger, and you can't do much about the anger there. They take on greater responsibility, arguably greater risk in their career, and should be rewarded, but in determining that reward, it ought to also depend on their subordinates achieving their goals as well.


text: well..to be completely honest.......i dont know what the hell i'm doing here. It all started when my best friend told me about mirc...and then through that I met all sorts of neat people. so here i am...i'm going to check out this site and see what its all about. even though i absolutely know nothing about computers


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The lowest form of GOP humor
In April, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) felt comfortable using his Twitter account to say he believes President Obama is "stupid." Today, the five-term Republican senator added some related thoughts.
Note that this is Grassley's official, verified account. It's not, in other words, some random 12-year-old tweeter or a Democrat hoping to make the Iowan look ridiculous. Unless his account was hacked – and given Grassley's legendary propensity for saying dumb things on Twitter, that seems unlikely – the senator actually published this, on purpose.
Now, I realize it's not worth getting worked up every time some strange politician says something asinine through social media, but there are a few salient angles to keep in mind.
First, teleprompter jokes were stale in 2010, and now they're just lazy and kind of pathetic. Republicans don't have to like President Obama, but to keep insisting he's not smart, because he, like all modern presidents, sometimes uses a teleprompter, is ridiculous. (I've long suspected there's a subtle racism to the right's preoccupation with Obama and teleprompters – as if our first African-American president only seems intelligent because others are putting words in his mouth, and he couldn't possibly be brilliant on his own.)
Second, Grassley's cheap rhetoric is a reminder that elder statesmen no longer exist in any meaningful sense in Republican politics, and that's a genuine shame. The GOP used to cultivate a reputation as the "grown-up" party; now it's the party filled with clownish antics from confused senators like Chuck Grassley. It's a sad development.
Third, Grassley is probably about as observant as he is classy – which is to say, he's neither – but Mitt Romney speaks with a teleprompter all the time.
In fact, it turns out, Romney's picky about his teleprompter.
And here's the kicker : there's nothing wrong with any of this. If Romney has a specific, pre-written message he wants to share with the public, there's no reason he shouldn't be able to read it from a teleprompter. I didn't care that Bush and Cheney used teleprompters; I didn't care that Reagan and Bush used teleprompters. Candidates used to read speeches on paper; now they read them on screens. No one above a junior-high-school level should find this the least bit funny.
Maybe someone of Grassley's staff should take away his social-media access until he grows up?


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Remember that kid in your math class? The one who, in order to pass even the simplest test, had to work and work and work. You could almost see the sweat pouring down his forehead as he tried to solve for x in 17x + 4×2 + 14 = 329. And, if he was really lucky, he got a C+. He's the Maple Leafs. Without every single piston firing, every player working their tail off, they aren't going to win.
Thursday night, v. St. Louis, proved that. The Leafs showed a lot of poise against the Blues. Ya, I know, gassing a 5-2 lead, with fourteen minutes remaining, is not poise. Neither is blowing a 1-0 lead in the first period. But coming back and winning that game is. It is because, typically with this club, once that lead is blown, so is the game. They are not what I'd call a great comeback squad. The opposite, in fact.
This season, once these Leafs trail, or even blow a lead, it's lights out. Phil Kessel slumps his shoulders and shrugs, "Oh well, I'll try the same tired moves on another goaltender tomorrow." The only Leafs' player these days who seems to play all 60, every 60, is Mikhail Grabovski.
By now, you've seen his glorious shootout goal from last night. After the game, Tyler Bozak (who scored the shootout winner) said he'd be "too nervous" to try what Grabovski did. "Too nervous?" Aren't you in the NHL, kid? How about playing like you are? Nervous is for amateurs, not professionals.
But Jonas Gustavsson also looks nervous. I'd be nervous in his skates too. Seems NHL players have figured out his "Drop-instantly-and-pray-to-God-it-hits-me" style. If he doesn't ramp up the mobility factor in his game, he's going to be The Monster Sieve. The way he's playing right now, Gustavsson couldn't solve x + 2 = 12.
I can't help but imagine how good this club would be if about three or four other guys managed to wiggle their way onto the Grabovski train and play with his recent intensity and timeliness. His shootout goal last night was exactly what shootout goals should be – entertaining and successful. Mission accomplished.
And, as usual, this brings me back to the same place. Coaching. If every player had the confidence Grabovski has going right now, this team would be looking down at eighth spot, rather than up.
We'll see how hard they work Friday night in Atlanta in the second half of their two-in-two. If they're going to make anything out of this season, hard work has got to become part of the equation.


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Sir Zeppelin wrote:I tried that and it didn't work. I don't know why; I copied and pasted your exact words (minus the question mark) and it didn't work. I took out the [url] and [image] and it still didn't work. Any idea why? (Thanks for all of your help).
Sir Zeppelin wrote:I am not on a forum. I tried putting in the web adress to cc and the picture's adress (the picture is on my brickshelf gallery) and it didn't work. This is on a free web hoster (webs.com, to be exact). Right now I just have the adress to the site, which doesn't look that bad, but I'd like to put the banner deal on; it looks so much better.

Lamanda2 wrote:What is the name of the site you are trying to publish this to? Maybe if you sent us a link somebody might better understand what's going on, and why you can't seem to get it posted.
wobnam wrote:I guess you're using some kind of content management system to create the links. If so, the method for creating images with links is specific to your CMS.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests


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The Power of a Knowledge Graph
I'd like to paint a scenario that reflects a common occurrence in classrooms nationwide. A student in an introductory algebra class — we'll call him Stu — receives a score of 63%, a D, on his quiz from chapter 13 on adding and subtracting polynomials. The teacher — let's call her Mrs. T — has several decades of experience under her belt and knows that if Stu simply moves on to the next topic without… Read more


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Message Board
Sharon Shea Bossard Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Bossard has written!
Author Bossard's Book Reviews
Finding My Irish
Growing up in the western suburbs of Chicago in the early 1950s, Sharon knew little about the history of her four Irish immigrant grandparents, except that they led terribly sad lives. She embarks on a remarkable journey to find her Irish roots. The first trip to Ireland is planned primarily as a family vacation, but she is soon drawn into the history that caused her grandparents, along with 2.5 million others, to emigrate from Ireland. While the ...


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Your discount will be applied on the billing page
Our vibrant bouquet of roses in a rainbow of colors will create the happiest of birthdays for someone you care about! Paired with a festive balloon, it's sure to make their special day the best one of the year. Add a classic vase, adorable plush bear or festive gift box filled with two Cheryl's buttercream frosted cookies and a $5 Cheryl's Rewards Card your recipient can enjoy after their big day is over!
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Last week, I posted photos of our tomatoes that are fully ripe and more than ready for picking. No problem, I thought! I taught myself how to can five different flavors of homemade jam. I felt as though I'd earned my stripes as a "blanch and peel" pro to remove peach and apricot skins. I figured it would be super easy for me to make a tomato basil soup, from scratch...from our garden.
With great anticipation , I picked tomatoes and I admired my basketful of these beauties. I looked at what I hadn't picked, and I didn't even make a dent. I have a lot of tomatoes left to be picked.
I searched for a recipe, but many of them listed canned tomatoes as an ingredient. Now, why would I want to used canned tomatoes, when I have a glut of these red and juicy orbs just waiting to fill a soup bowl? I have been told that one of my signature dishes is my homemade soups. I think homemade soup is so easy to make-- and I've blogged about a few from last winter and spring. I decided I could make up my own recipe by following a basic "cream of ...." soup.
So, I selected a bowlful of Early Girls (lamenting that I didn't have any romas) and I decided I could make up my own recipe.
But first-- I started a pot of water boiling and blanched the tomatoes for one minute. Then, I shocked them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Just as I had hoped, the skin had cracked and I could just slip it off...wrong! I forgot to core them!! It wasn't easy, mind you. I admit it-- I want to find shortcuts and I was not in the mood to cut stems out of blanched tomatoes. Fine. I'll use one of my many kitchen gadgets!
I have touted the virtues of my beloved OXO food mill several times on this blog. It makes perfect mashed potatoes and I recently discovered that it removed the majority of seeds when I made homemade raspberry jam. So, I figured that tomatoes would be no problem for the food mill to pulverize and I'd be on my way to making soup in no time at all.
Wrong! I ended up with juice and a lot of clumpy tomatoes. This was not going very well...
Next, I dragged out my trusty Cuisinart to break up the tomatoes a bit. Just a few pulses, and I'm liking what I see.
It worked! I put the chopped up tomatoes back into the food mill, and I was left with skins and seeds and it yielded 5 cups of crushed tomatoes. Whew! My kitchen, however, was a disaster area and I was breaking into a sweat. Mark my words-- I have no intention of doing this again. I mean it. While homemade marinara sauce, from garden tomatoes sounds heavenly... it's not for me. This was far too much work!
Now that I had the tomatoes, it was time to make the soup. This was Easy Street, I'll tell you.
In a large pot, I simply sauteed chopped onion with a little olive oil, salt & pepper and I cut fresh herbs from my garden-- thyme, parsley & oregano.
TIP: I save the rubber bands that comes with fresh asparagus or celery and use these tie my "bouquet garni". These are safe to boil.
I also grabbed a box of chicken stock and I was good to go.
I was going to add fresh garlic, but then I realized... I had frozen some basil pesto that I had made a couple of weeks ago, so removed a cube of that from the freezer. Brilliant!
I added the 5 cups of crushed tomatoes, one box of chicken stock, the herbs and about 2 Tablespoons of basil pesto, and about 1 tsp of sugar. I let that simmer, on low, for about 30 minutes.
I turned off the heat and added some heavy cream-- about 1/4 cup...not too much. Served with a dollop of creme fraiche, this was very good. Way too much work, but still it was a great tribute to my husband's dedication in growing our tomatoes. I'm going to try this again, but I'm going to see if roasting tomatoes is going to be a whole lot easier.
Fall is on the way!


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Will you be doing a mileage run for status before year end?
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Now I've been playing for a while and have unlocked quite a lot of dungeons and most of the gods, I've finding it a touch frustrating finding out how to unlock various pieces of contect. Namely the gods that the wiki doesn't list where they are (Binlor and Jehora) and The Witch. I know The Witch appears in the Eastern Tundra...sometimes, but this doesn't seem to unlock her.
Is there a more substantial FAQ about unlocking content somewhere? The wiki has an "unlocking" section, but it's all redlinked.


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LONDON (AP) — Stock markets turned lower on Friday as investors worried that a strong rise in U.S. jobs figures meant the Federal Reserve will stick to its plans to rein in its monetary stimulus.
A U.S. government report showed employers added 195,000 jobs in June and hiring was more robust in the two previous months than earlier estimated. The unemployment rate, however, remained at a relatively high 7.6 percent.
The report suggests growth is increasing in the world's largest economy and that the Federal Reserve would likely begin winding down its monetary stimulus in the autumn.
Some investors took that as good news, having worried that the Fed might act earlier. But it disappointed others who appeared to have hoped the Fed would delay the move until next year.
The program has been behind market gains in recent years and investors have in recent weeks fretted over what will happen as it is wound down.
Harm Bandholz, analyst at UniCredit bank, said the implications of the figures were that the 'tapering' of the Fed stimulus is getting closer. But the lack of a further drop in the unemployment rate means the Fed is unlikely to be aggressive in tightening the money taps.
In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 lost all gains to trade 0.7 percent lower at 6,375.52. Germany's DAX slumped 2.4 percent to 7,806.00 and France's CAC-40 shed 1.5 percent to 3,753.85.
Wall Street traded higher, but mainly because it was catching up with a global rally when it was closed on Thursday for the Independence Day holiday. The Dow rose 0.6 percent to 15,084.18, having been significantly higher on the open. The broader S&P 500 advanced by 0.7 percent to 1,626.16.
Markets jumped higher on Thursday after the European Central Bank and the Bank of England both said their interest rates would remain low for the foreseeable future. That eliminated concerns that they might follow the Fed in tightening their easy money policies this year, triggering a market rally.
Also hurting markets on Friday were fears of a violent escalation in Egypt's crisis. Army troops opened fire Friday on protesters demanding the reinstatement of toppled President Mohammed Morsi.
Instability in Egypt has been pushing oil prices higher. The country is not an oil-producer, but its control of the Suez Canal, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, gives it a crucial role in maintaining energy supplies, particularly to Europe.
Benchmark crude for August delivery was up $1.67 at $102.91 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 closed up 2.1 percent to 14,309.97 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.9 percent to 20,854.67 as investors there caught up with the rally in Europe the previous day.
Taipei's TAIEX jumped 1.4 percent to 8,001.82 while Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 edged up 1 percent to 4,841.70 and China's Shanghai Composite posted a small gain of 0.1 percent to 2,007.29.
Seoul's KOSPI fell 0.3 percent to 1,833.31 after shares of Samsung Electronic dropped nearly 4 percent after its quarterly operating profit failed to meet market expectations. The company estimated April-June earnings at a record high 9.5 trillion won ($8.3 billion) but that was below analysts' forecasts and investors are worried profit growth could slow as smartphone sales in rich nations reach a saturation point.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.2821 from $1.2902. The dollar rose to 100.95 yen from 100.23 yen late Thursday.
Kay Johnson in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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Published by: Ellen Johns
Resolution: 1024x1024px
Category: Chair, More >>
Published at: Thursday, April 12 2018 14:40:24
If you want comfort and relaxation then a Lazyboy chair is certainly one piece of furniture that you should invest in. Often regarded as the ultimate lads chair, the Lazyboy is a highly comfortable chair that is available for both indoor and outdoor. Consider the body type of the person who will use the chair. If you are buying for a good number of employees, make it a point to choose chairs that you think can accommodate most body types even if you are only planning to purchase standard office chairs.
Of course it is not only the Lazyboy that boasts of recliner functionality as there are plenty of other recliner chairs that offer the perfect way to relax at home. Reclining chairs can cost a bit more than regular chair types, though their flexibility means they are worth the extra investment. Some office chairs serve only to make office guests and customers comfortable. But then again, there are also office chairs that are designed and built for those who sit on their desks for the most part of the day and should be very comfortable and user-friendly.


text: Has anyone ever gotten some malware on thier system that even an updated version of norton(or equivalent) couldn't detect? Then have they had to kill it the old fashioned way? This recently happened to me with a program called "biko". I opened it and nothing happened, meaning something was up. So I scanned it with ad-aware and Norton AV, but to no avail. So I tried to delete it but it was being used by wiondoze. Then I killed its process and wiped it over 7 times with random data. Suffice it to say, it was gone. (I also searched for it in Regedit. and deleted all of its entries.) Anyone else have some virus hunter stories to share?


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A new video explores the pros and cons of digital devices vs paper tools for recording and organizing ideas. It's a fun exercise to do. Like: no doubt that with Moleskine notebooks sharing demands a bit more effort. But they are more personal and need no batteries nor cables. No pinch-zoom function available on paper, but note taking can be quicker and more convenient than on a smart phone.
This list of pros and cons could go on forever. Or, is there a way of connecting smart phones to notebooks? Moleskine started to experiment on it, with the Smart Notebook created with Evernote, for augmented notebooking.
Smart Phones vs Moleskine Notebooks?
Have a look at the video and leave your comments about pros and cons of notebooks vs digital devices or on possible ways of connecting the two. Enjoy.


text: When: Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Where: The Hyatt Place-Garland 5101 N. President George Bush Turnpike Theme: Rethink Community Mark your calendars for Garland's 2013 Neighborhood Summit: Rethink Community. The annual Summit invites residents, civic leaders, revitalization practitioners and others to address the issues affecting neighborhood health and stability with a variety of workshops and speakers. The 2013 Summit theme, "Rethink Community"' is an opportunity for Garland and other first tier suburbs to consider the correct next steps as we look at revitalization and redevelopment opportunities. How will we coordinate our discussions about community design, water conservation, neighborhood investment, and engaging diverse cultures? How will we build stakeholder capacity and share our stories? More importantly, as we begin to think differently, how will we act on our visions for vital neighborhoods and successful cities? Register for the 2013 Neighborhood Summit today at GarlandVitalNeighborhoods.org. Registration for Garland stakeholders is $25 ($30 after October 11). Event sponsors are the City of Garland, Garland Power & Light, and the American Planning Association North Central Texas Chapter. Neighborhood Story Contest As part of the 2013 Summit, the City of Garland invites neighborhood groups and individuals to share stories through written essays, testimonials or photography. First and second place awards will be given for individual and organization submissions. Participants and winners will be recognized at the Summit. For more information about the summit, neighborhood story contest, or to inquire about exhibit space, contact the Office of Neighborhood Vitality at 972-205-2445 or email@example.com.


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The Forgotten Miter Box
Once common, the miter box has been relegated to garage sales. Here's why you should find one for your workshop.
By Ron Herman
Pages: 36-39
From the November 2010 issue # 186
Buy this issue now
I build houses for a living, and I have a full array of power equipment at my disposal. Yet, when I trim out a house or construct built-ins, I almost always turn to one of my manual miter boxes.
These nearly forgotten tools are more accurate than power saws. They can handle stock and mouldings that many power saws struggle with. And they are cheap, rugged and are hiding under every rock (if you know where to look).
In fact, miter boxes have always been a staple of my family's construction business, and I think they should be in your workshop as well. So here's an introduction to one of my favorite tools.
Web site: Read about backsaws and other saws on our site.
Web site: Visit the web site of the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association. Join and attend a tool meet.
To buy: Lie-Nielsen Toolworks makes replacement miter box saws in custom sizes.
In our store: "Handtool Essentials" contains lots of great articles on saws and getting started in hand work.
From the November 2010 issue # 186
Buy this issue now


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Your Costa Rica Wedding
…Imagine getting married on the beach and saying "I do" as the sun sets into the ocean. Costa Rica ends each day with a stunning sunset just for you.
…Costa Rica is famous for its waves. Paddle out for a wedding circle or elope on a private surf trip with just you and your bride.
…Commemorate your magic wedding moment in a tropical Costa Rican rainforest. Home to 50 feet waterfalls, rare red frogs, and butterfly gardens
…Sail to a private beach for your wedding ceremony, followed by a reception on a catamaran. Party with your guests out on the wide open sea.
…Exchange vows in front of a private bonfire with a Calypso band drumming in the shadows.
…Take advantage of Costa Rica's clear skies and bright stars. Get married on the beach under a full moon with tiki torches and Marimba music.
…Whatever you imagine, Costa Rica can realize.
Laura Sibley, firstname.lastname@example.com, CR: (506) 8710-1880 USA: (202) 697-9505 | Links


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Last thursday night, a tragic event occurred. My bandmate's Nord Lead 2 synthesizer darted in front of a car and was run over. Crushed, mangled and inoperational.
He brought the wreckage over to my place Friday night. I worked a little synth triage and was able to get it banged out and functioning. Some hammering, superglue, resoldering to a busted power supply and it lives again!
I'm calling it the Nord Bleed. It's completely operational and playable. The high C key was pulverized beyond repair, so I left it off. I need to source some replacement potentiometers and knobs. The are all 100ohm pots, but have an uncommon 4mm D-shaft I haven't found a replacement for yet. Once the bent and snapped pots are replaced it will be 100% tweakable again. I have much respect for the Swedes at Clavia and their roadworthy (literally) engineering.


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A pick of the litter mix of kayaks we just can't help tell you all about
We pride ourselves on our selection and recognize that sometimes it can be overwhelming for our customers when they come face to face with the thousands of products we sell. While we love all of our kayaks, we know that sometimes it helps to feature a few select products based on customer popularity, positive reviews, reputation and our very own on-the-water personal experiences. In this case, we have pulled six kayaks, each from a different category, that we thought were worth highlighting based on said criteria, check it out:
Necky Rip 12 (Category: Sit-Inside)
If there is one thing that manufacturers have learned over the years is that when it comes down to designing a kayak for the masses, you must address three key design features, which include comfort, stability and performance. The Necky Rip has it all and more. It's been a favorite at our Demo Days with enthusiastic comments about its glide and roomy cockpit. On a personal level, I enjoy the performance of the boat, it's quick but does not sacrifice stability for it. I do wish it was a bit lighter for being a Sit-Inside, but at 50lbs it's not too shabby. Click for other details.
Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120 (Category: Sit-on-Top)
There is a reason the Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120 is our best selling Sit-on-Top kayak and that simply because it's a proven product. The Tarpon 120 is a well-balanced and finely tuned kayak that has been a favorite for both recreational and kayak anglers alike. Not only does this boat perform well, it also looks good! When considering tracking, stability, deck features, rigging options and comfort, the Tarpon 120 gets a checkmark for each one. The seat is extremely comfortable with both adjustable back and thigh support but it could use a bit more padding for those long days of fishing. Click for other details.
Ocean Kayak Malibu 2XL (Sit-on-Top Tandem)
Tandems can be a tricky buy especially for those looking to buy a boat that can be used as either a tandem or solo with similar performance you'd find in a single kayak. I have never personally owned a tandem kayak as my wife and I have always preferred the freedom of having two kayaks but the super stable Malibu 2XL is our favorite go-to rental kayak when taking the kids out. I am 6'2" so having the extra space between seats is nice. I do wish there was a bit more bottom and thigh support in the design of the seat areas on the deck but overall this is probably one of the best recreational tandems out there. Click for other details.
Diablo Paddlesports Adios (SUP/Kayak Hybrid)
Chances are, you've probably read a post or two about these boats if you follow our blog or if you are a newsletter subscriber. Believe me when I say it's not just because it's a new to us product but simply because we truly believe in it. The Adios is a winner amongst kayak anglers for its comfort, capacity, stability and rigging options and even more so the ability to stand or sit while paddling with little concern for tipping over. These aren't the fastest boats out there but then again, they're designed for stability not racing. Don't be fooled by thinking it is designed only for fishing though, recreational kayakers enjoy this boat too! Click for other details.
Native Watercraft Mariner (Pedal Driven)
Hobie revolutionized leg and foot powered kayaks and some manufacturers such as Native Watercraft, have followed through with their own designs. Take note though, the Propel system that Native designed is uniquely different than Hobie's technology, utilizing some very familiar mechanics normally found on bicycles. The Mariner is propelled with a circular forward motion of your legs like you would on a bicycle. There is a decent sized propeller that actually gets the boat moving just like that of a trolling motor except that it is human powered as opposed to battery. I have recently noticed many tournament competitors using the Mariners and I can see why. They are hands free so you can concentrate on fishing, and best of all you can go forward or reverse! The price range is abit higher than most kayaks but well worth the money. Click for other details.
Motorized – Ocean Kayak Torque (Sit-on-Top Motorized)
Many manufacturers have tried to design kayaks with motors built into them but often it comes off seeming like an afterthought. Ocean Kayak took a different approach by designing a kayak around the motor from the ground up. The result is a motorized kayak that just feels right. It may not be for everyone but if you need to get somewhere fast or suffer from arm or leg pain, the Torque is your answer. I personally enjoy using it when paddling for long periods of time. It allows for me to fish later than usual knowing that I'll be able to get back to land in no time. Like the Mariner, it certainly is in a whole other category of design and budget but worth every penny if a motorized kayak is what you need. Click for other details.
Putting this list together was tough because we sell so many other kayaks that we truly believe in and enjoy using. We'll have to do another round up soon. In the meantime, browse our full line of kayaks by clicking here.
Have you ever used any of these boats? What was your experience like? Share it by commenting below.
Thanks for reading! – Roland @ACK
5 comments
hi i have annative watercraft mariner peddle drive iam hearing a clink clink as i peddleis this normal 207-655-2608
Hello, that doesn't sound right, should be a smooth glide. Happy to help where we can. I'll have our customer service team contact you.
Pingback: Choosing the Right Kayak « The ACK Blog!
Hi I have converted an unusual looking kayak to motorised using petrol strimmer with shaft straight through it 🙂 all I need is propeller lol 4″left rotation and so far the cost ….freeee I will put it on YouTube (jaycifer6) I have no idea if it will go well lol but it will be interesting ..any input will be welcome 🙂 jaycifer¥


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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – City officials say a costly environment review won't be needed for the proposed new ballpark for the St. Paul Saints.
The city said Tuesday an environmental assessment worksheet has been completed on the $54 million project. That effectively clears the way for construction of the 7,000-seat ballpark in Lowertown.
The report from Braun Intertec determined that a more costly environmental impact statement will not be necessary. The Metropolitan Council also reviewed the assessment and declined to call for further study.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports a parking analysis conducted by the city and the TKDA engineering firm found more than 7,500 parking spaces in walking distance of the proposed ballpark.
Demolition is expected to begin this summer, with the Saints throwing out the opening pitch in spring 2015.


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That would have been the title of _Making Home_ except it is way, way too wordy, but that's the gist of my book – that we don't have a choice but to change our way of life, so we might as well find the best possible way to do it. The long version (and a lot of details about how) is in the book. This is the short one. 😉
I spend much of my life making the case for changing one's life (and not just one's life – for supporting political and social change that is associated with it) in fairly radical ways, very quickly. I spend a lot of my time writing about this, and periodically I get on a train or a bus or something and go stand up in front of people and make the same case. I know this is a diffcult thing for many people, whose infrastructure envelopes them and pushes them powerfully towards a particular way of life, so I try to make good arguments for doing it now. I make moral arguments, about the use of a fair share. I make political arguments about not giving our money to causes we abhore. I make economic arguments. I make the argument that it will probably be a lot easier to adapt later if we have some practice.
But in the last year or two, I've been debating with myself how necessary I think these arguments actually are. Don't get me wrong – I think there are still compelling moral arguments to choose to live in a certain way, and to support certain responses to climate change and depletion. For me personally, these are the most compelling possible reasons for doing this – even if climate change and depletion weren't a reality, the truth is that Americans can only consume as they do if they tell themselves that other people in the world really won't mind if they take more than their share, and of course, we all know that's complete nonsense.
But I also think that the days of being able to choose to live with less are probably over. My prediction for the coming decade is pretty simple – we're headed fairly rapidly into a time past all choosing. If the "aughts" were about the growing recognition that things are going to change, the teens, I think are now about the growing reality of that change – the recognition that none of us have the resources, or the wealth, or the immunity from changing circumstances to resist change for very long. The question is how we will change, not whether we will.
What do I mean by this? I mean that whether it comes from a worldwide economic crisis (begun already, not nearly as resolved as people say, and likely to be ongoing), from the gradual end of growth, from carbon finally being priced appropriately at the mine/well/etc…, from the costs of dealing with a rapidly increasing number of natural disaster linked to our lack of ecological awareness, from actual energy shortages or simply extremely volatile energy prices, from rising poverty and unemployment that absorb more and more of us or from failing infrastructure as we face the costs of not maintaining our sewers, electric greed, soil, water systems…. it is going to be increasingly impossible for most of us to go on as we have been.
It is no accident that the bills come due pretty much all at once in this decade. This is the decade, for example in which we can probably expect to firmly establish our oil peak, and if the promise of shale fails, as it may, our gas peak as well. This is the decade in which we run out of money to pay the Medicare bill (2017) and in which we have really begun to see the growing consequences of climate change – an ice free summer arctic, the first one in which we expect really big waves of climate refugees, etc… This is the decade in which our deferred maintenence will begin to come due as more and more of the things we've left undone come back and bite us in the ass. This is the decade when we begin paying for all the things we were borrowing for in the last few years. How do we know this is true? Well, the most obvious reason is that these things are already happening.
That is, we already can't pay for the increasing number of natural disasters and the repairs that would bring them back. We already have no real plan to save Medicare, and a recovery which may not be any kind of lasting recovery at all. We already see bridges collapsing and water depleting and are spending more money and more resources to compensate, already are struggling to pay the price of more and more big storms and natural disasters. We already are seeing the volatility associated with an oil peak, and the associated economic costs. It is not going out on a limb to predict that these things will continue, and almost certainly accellerate.
All of which adds up to a new reality – we can't use all the energy and resources we want. Either this will be because we suddenly develop some common sense and recognize that future generations might like some oil to make medicines with and that they definitely would prefer to live in a fairly stable climate, or they will change because we are idiots and we have pushed things too far. Either we won't be able to afford the energy or we won't be able to use it for moral reasons – it doesn't really matter, except in the sense that one choice would be more ethical than the other – but the results are the same.
Now comes the question of fun – if you are going to have to use a lot fewer resources, you might as well have a good time at it. And in fact, there's considerable evidence that people can have a good time with a lot less.
How do we know this? Well, first of all, we secretly know that not being born in the first world in the latter half of the 20th century is not actually proof of a life of unmitigated hell. That is, your grandmother probably had fun sometimes – she might even tell you about it if you ask nicely. People who live in other parts of the world now and use half as much, 1/4 as much, 1/10th as much energy also have happy lives – so much so that many people are shocked. Now some of them don't – there are some things that really suck, and it makes a lot of sense to use the energy we can use at the places that would make us miserable, say, not letting kids die of preventable diseases, not having your daughters end up illiterate or getting embroiled in resource wars. The good news is that it is possible to have those things with radically lower energy use – we know this from high-quality of life, low resource use countries. That is, you can have a long lifespan, low infant mortality, education for everyone in places that are quite poor – assuming, of course, you prioritize these things.
The same is true at slightly higher levels of use – not having any heat in a cold climate will make you bloody unhappy all winter. On the other hand, there's no reason why you can't have a lot less heat, and apply it differently and be pretty content – instead of heating a whole house, heat one or two rooms in which you primarily live, or heating your body with warm drinks and objects like hot water bottles that hold warmth where you need it.
What's the difference between misery and contentment here? I think there are two big differences. The first is appropriate infrastructure and knowledge – that is, you have to know how to live well with less energy, and have the basic tools to do it. The difference between the old guy who dies of heat stroke in his apartment during the local heat wave and the one who is checked on regularly by neighbors, and helped to the local cooling station is infrastructure – not necessarily anything costly or difficult, just the infrastructure of a neighborhood where people check in on one another. The difference between a family that is content during a poweroutage and one that is panicked is preparation – having the ability to meet basic needs.
The second is attitude adjustment. This is pretty viable – one proof of this is historian Timothy Breen's observation that during times of privation for a good cause, consumption gets replaced with "rituals of non-consumption" that are just as satisfying to people as consumption was. Thus, while drinking tea might have been a prior source of satisfaction during the American revolution, exchanging recipes for homemade tea substitutes replaces it socially.
I've found that the more people say that they have to have something a particular way, the more they convince themselves. That doesn't mean that attitude adjustment is all there is – if you have been doing something that was a lot easier and have to shift to the hard way, it won't always be fun. However it is possible to convince yourself that this is bearable, or to do an honest evaluation – how much does my happiness depend on this? What can I do to make it tolerable? Can I share the burden? Get help? Try a new tool? Change my relationship to it? When my family began reducing our energy use, we found that things that were hardest to deal with often could be handled – if we could rethink our handling, and our relationship to them.
And this, I think, is the argument for making real and significant cuts right now – that you are giving the grace of making your adaptations while the stakes are low – that is, you aren't figuring out how to keep warm because the utility company has shut you off and you are now freezing, you are doing it while you still have the luxury of turning up the heat if things don't work out. You are making your changes while, ideally, you still have enough time and energy and resources to seek out the necessary tools and learn the necessary skills – you aren't trying to grow your first garden while your hungry family looks on.
My own prediction for the coming decade is this – for that last ten years, we have had warnings and signs and omens, the beginning and the decline. But for that decade most of our choices were just that – choices. We could say "soon" or we could say "now" or we could put the whole thing off. We could hope for technological solutions that might make some of the harder choices no longer necessary. That time is winding down rapidly.
In this decade, we will face the future. It will not look like the past – we will be faced with the reality that this is a more volatile, less wealthy, less resource rich future, and that we have far fewer choices than we once did. But with any luck, many of us will have made our choices while we had them available to us, and have done what was necessary to make sure that we are having fun anyway.


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Hello everyone,
A friend of mine is a pretty die-hard Christian (shock horror, both of his parents are missionaries/vicars) and he often posts little sayings of some kind or another on Facebook, which I usually ignore. However, today he posted something that really irritated me for some reason:
"The more I look at science, the more in awe of God I become."
And just to make that worse, one of his Christian friends commented "Boom" as if he had made some kind of infallible argument. Somehow, I feel as though nothing I say will make any difference because they must be incredibly deluded already to believe that God just "invented" science. Basically, this is the guy who thinks he's a "modern and intelligent" Christian by saying that things like Noah's Ark are "just stories and aren't meant to be taken seriously by Christians". But if that is true, then why take ANY of the Bible seriously and where does he draw the line between stories and (what he believes is) the truth?
In the past I asked him and his friend where the evidence was. He claimed science (yes, seriously) helped prove Christianity and that Christianity was about "opening yourself" to it and believing, and then you "feel God" or whatever. How do you argue with someone like that??
What do you all say to religious people (not necessarily just Christians) who claim that science is just an invention of God? Is there a specific way to argue with someone who twists everything to awkwardly suit modern day thinking?
Views: 5828
Jimminee freaking christmas, Rich, you don't know much about evolution AT ALL. There are fossil transitions and there is not a strain to prove it. It comes from studying the morphology of bones between different creatures. We can see over time the small changes that have occurred within species on scales of millions of years. It also comes from genetic studies and comparisons of living creatures. That's how we know the Red Panda is related more to a raccoon than a bear and that cows and manatees have a common ancestor.
Could a cow give birth to a horse. No, that's just stupid, but after a million years of the right environmental pressures, the ancestor of today's cows could become something more horse-like. Would it be a horse? No, it'd be an entirely new species. It's the same thing that happened to our ape ancestor. Over a few million years, some took to the plains and began to walk upright, others stayed in the trees. So today we have humans and other apes like gorillas, bonobos, chimps, and orangutangs. It's like comparing you to the great-great-great-grand child of your great-great-great-grand father's brother. You are still related, but distantly.
Also, here's a website showing some transitional fossils for humans: http://fourdollarsalmostfive.blogspot.de/2009/05/did-someone-ask-fo...
And here is Answersingenesis.com (a website that you quoted as being a good source) saying that you should avoid this argument, which is one of three that you have used and all three of those should be avoided.
The only reason I'm even arguing this point with you, despite the fact that it's obvious you haven't done your homework and you aren't likely to change your opinion and arguing for that purpose would just be wasting me time, is because the topic here is how to argue against a particular delusion. That the earth was created by a supernatural entity is a delusion. It is natural processes that have formed and shaped the universe as we know it over billions of years. This here is part of my argument against that delusion.
A cow doesn't become a horse
You are trolling now.
RE: "A cow doesn't become a horse, nor an ape a man." - I don't know how to break this to you gently, Richard, but a man IS an ape --
No one said a cow became a horse, but some dinosaurs DID become birds, and I am living proof!
@Sagacious Hawk
I'm an atheist and a believer in evolution, but I recognize that the theory isn't 100% worked as regards every single species.
For example, we have charts showing the evolution of modern man and the modern horse. These are based on fossil skeletons.
Where is the one for the modern cow? the modern pig? The modern camel? Where are the missing fossil skeletons?
We await an explanation for the lack of fossil evidence for the evolution of many species other than man and the horse. Do human and horse skeletons preserve better? Do cow, pig, and camel skeletons decay more easily? So far, there appears to be no answer.
This doesn't disprove evolution, which is certainly a better explanation than "God did it," however the theory remains incomplete.
@ Unseen
As you probably know, but for those who don't, fossilization is a rare process that needs to have certain environmental conditions to occur. Essentially, the body must die somewhere so that it ends up being buried and thus is kept from scavengers who would like nothing more than to crack open some bones for the marrow inside. This process occurs better where animals can be sucked under ground like in peat bogs or the La Brea tar pits, sometimes caves and caverns provide this, too, or places where sedimentation occurs like river beads and flood plains. Or in the case of our history where we purposely began to bury our dead.
To use your example of a camel, we don't have transitional fossils for the camel from about 4 million years ago to present because they did not live in areas conducive to fossilization. Does this explain all instances of why we don't have transitional fossils? Of course not, but it is one of the reasons for why we don't see as many.
It's also the case that we haven't found any pre-chimpanzee fossils either. They don't live in an area amenable to such.
science THEORIES
Not unlike other cultists, you clearly do not know the difference between the everyday use of the word "theory" and a scientific theory, which is not surprising. As a aside note, creationism is a hypothesis. BARELY!
we just have a different idea of how the puzzle fits together.
Smashing on the jigsaw pieces like a chimp on sugar to force them fit isn't "a different idea." You're trying to force science where it doesn't belong: your "holy" books.
Some believe in evolution as God's creative tool
See above. Science has proven religion wrong a thousand times over in every era of history. Every time there are 3 phases:
1. Complete denial by religion. It's a lie and it's blasphemy!
2. Realization that they can no longer ignore the mountain of facts.
3. Pretend like it was always of the religion! "It's been written in our holy book all this time!"
Muslims do this a lot too. Every time something new is discovered they're the first to raise their empty skulls and shout "it was written here in this surah! we already knew about atoms and quantum theory or how the world is round! yeah!"
Since Islam is a cult like yours I chose to take them as an example.
God being the first cause
Now, you've made clear your reading comprehension isn't the best, but gives this a try.
Specifically the "The First-cause Argument" paragraph.
Betrand Russel is easy to follow, and he already owned everything you have brought up here until this point.
Others believe in micro evolution but not macro.
How many more times? I'm not a special needs student counselor, alright? I don't know how to handle you if you behave like this, you got to try a little bit.
See, you come here and babble about god being the first cause, micro and macro evolution. What you don't realize is that these are such OLD and examined topics, you think they're clever but we know them by heart. You coming here saying god was the first cause would be like me going into geology class and saying the earth is flat! And getting laughed out of the room. That's precisely how ridiculous it is at this point. You might as well argue the world is flat or that the universe revolves around the earth.
You're like a 8 year old stumbling into a book club full of adults, and you try to teach them the first letters of the alphabet. And we think it's cute and want to give you milk and cookies because it's amusing.
Science is the study of what God created!!! WOW.and you can't prove He doesn't.
Yup you're trolling at this point. Good one actually, even I thought you were for real at fist. You solicited some pretty long posts out of us.


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'The Cider House Rules' | 1999
Some 14 years before his role in "The Great Gatsby," Tobey Maguire played Homer Wells in "The Cider House Rules." "Cider House Rules," based on the 1985 novel by John Irving, followed Homer's life from his boyhood in an orphanage, where he is raised by the resident physician Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine), to his unwilling training under Dr. Larch as an obstetrician and abortion provider, to his love affair with a war veteran's wife. The film tackled some weighty issues, including abortion and incest, portraying Homer's inner struggle as he witnessed the horrors of botched abortions in an era in which the practice was still illegal. "He learns that the real world is not all so black and white -- it's very gray," producer Richard Gladstein told the L.A. Times in 2000. The film won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay and another for Caine's performance.
Miramax Films
Copyright © 2018, Los Angeles Times


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DUBLIN – Lawmakers have overwhelmingly voted to back Ireland's first bill on abortion, legalizing the practice in exceptional cases where doctors deem the woman's life at risk from her pregnancy.
Exhausted legislators applauded Friday's 127-31 vote. It capped a marathon debate that locked lawmakers in argument until 5 a.m. Thursday and, after a pause for sleep, through midnight Friday.
While the outcome was expected given Prime Minister Enda Kenny's lopsided parliamentary majority, the debate revealed deep-seated fears that Ireland's first legislative step on abortion could put the predominantly Catholic country on a slippery slope to granting wider abortion rights in years to come.
Divisions ran deepest on the bill's rule permitting an abortion for a suicidal woman if a three-doctor panel agrees she would try to kill herself if denied a termination.


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Did exploding stars help life on Earth to thrive?
Research by a Danish physicist suggests that the explosion of massive stars – supernovae – near the Solar System has strongly influenced the development of life. Prof. Henrik Svensmark of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) sets out his novel work in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
When the most massive stars exhaust their available fuel and reach the end of their lives, they explode as supernovae, tremendously powerful explosions that are briefly brighter than an entire galaxy of normal stars. The remnants of these dramatic events also release vast numbers of high-energy charged particles known as galactic cosmic rays (GCR). If a supernova is close enough to the Solar System, the enhanced GCR levels can have a direct impact on the atmosphere of the Earth.
Prof. Svensmark looked back through 500 million years of geological and astronomical data and considered the proximity of the Sun to supernovae as it moves around our Galaxy, the Milky Way. In particular, when the Sun is passing through the spiral arms of the Milky Way, it encounters newly forming clusters of stars. These so-called open clusters, which disperse over time, have a range of ages and sizes and will have started with a small proportion of stars massive enough to explode as supernovae. From the data on open clusters, Prof. Svensmark was able to deduce how the rate at which supernovae exploded near the Solar System varied over time.
Comparing this with the geological record, he found that the changing frequency of nearby supernovae seems to have strongly shaped the conditions for life on Earth. Whenever the Sun and its planets have visited regions of enhanced star formation in the Milky Way Galaxy, where exploding stars are most common, life has prospered. Prof. Svensmark remarks in the paper, "The biosphere seems to contain a reflection of the sky, in that the evolution of life mirrors the evolution of the Galaxy."
In the new work, the diversity of life over the last 500 million years seems remarkably well explained by tectonics affecting the sea-level together with variations in the supernova rate, and virtually nothing else. To obtain this result on the variety of life, or biodiversity, he followed the changing fortunes of the best-recorded fossils. These are from invertebrate animals in the sea, such as shrimps and octopuses, or the extinct trilobites and ammonites.
They tended to be richest in their variety when continents were drifting apart and sea levels were high and less varied when the land masses gathered 250 million years ago into the supercontinent called Pangaea and the sea-level was lower. But this geophysical effect was not the whole story. When it is removed from the record of biodiversity, what remains corresponds closely to the changing rate of nearby stellar explosions, with the variety of life being greatest when supernovae are plentiful. A likely reason, according to Prof. Svensmark, is that the cold climate associated with high supernova rates brings a greater variety of habitats between polar and equatorial regions, while the associated stresses of life prevent the ecosystems becoming too set in their ways.
He also notices that most geological periods seem to begin and end with either an upturn or a downturn in the supernova rate. The changes in typical species that define a period, in the transition from one to the next, could then be the result of a major change in the astrophysical environment.
Life's prosperity, or global bioproductivity, can be tracked by the amount of carbon dioxide in the air at various times in the past as set out in the geological record. When supernova rates were high, carbon dioxide was scarce, suggesting that flourishing microbial and plant life in the oceans consumed it greedily to grow. Support for this idea comes from the fact that microbes and plants dislike carbon dioxide molecules that contain a heavy form of carbon atom, carbon-13. As a result, the ocean water is left enriched by carbon-13. The geological evidence shows high carbon-13 when supernovae were commonest – again pointing to high productivity. As to why this should be, Prof. Svensmark notes that growth is limited by available nutrients, especially phosphorus and nitrogen, and that cold conditions favour the recycling of the nutrients by vigorously mixing the oceans.
Although the new analysis suggests, perhaps surprisingly, that supernovae are on the whole good for life, high supernova rates can bring the cold and changeable climate of prolonged glacial episodes. And they can have nasty shocks in store. Geoscientists have long been puzzled by many relatively brief falls in sea-level by 25 metres or more that show up in seismic soundings as eroded beaches. Prof. Svensmark finds that they are what can be expected when chilling due to very close supernovae causes short-lived glacial episodes. With frozen water temporarily bottled up on land, the sea-level drops.
The data also support the idea of a long-term link between cosmic rays and climate, with these climatic changes underlying the biological effects. And compared with the temperature variations seen on short timescales as a consequence of the Sun's influence on the influx of cosmic rays, the heating and cooling of the Earth due to cosmic rays varying with the prevailing supernova rate have been far larger.
The director of DTU Space, Prof. Eigil Friis-Christensen, comments: "When this enquiry into effects of cosmic rays from supernova remnants began 16 years ago, we never imagined that it would lead us so deep into time, or into so many aspects of the Earth's history. The connection to evolution is a culmination of this work."
Images and captions
Image 1: download from ftp://ftp2.space.dtu.dk/pub/Svensmark/SN_WEBDAclusters_ALROY_R.jpg and ftp://ftp2.space.dtu.dk/pub/Svensmark/SN_WEBDAclusters_ALROY_R.tif
A figure showing the correlation between the rate of nearby supernovae and the diversity of life on Earth. The black curve is the changing rate of supernova explosions in the vicinity of the Solar System over the past 440 million years. The blue curve is the diversity of marine invertebrate animals (number of genera) after subtracting the influence of changing sea-levels. The grey area is an estimate of errors. The scale at the top shows the geological periods (abbreviations for each period are given). Credit: H. Svensmark / DTU Space
Image 2: download from ftp://ftp2.space.dtu.dk/pub/Svensmark/hs-2004-20-a-full_jpg.jpg
An image of the Pleiades (M45), a famous star cluster about 135 million years old. This age means that any massive stars in the cluster would have exploded as supernovae when ammonites were prominent in the sea. According to Henrik Svensmark, the rate of nearby supernovae strongly influenced the diversity of such marine invertebrates. Credit: NASA, ESA and AURA/Caltech
Science Contact
Prof. Henrik Svensmark
Media Contact
Robert Massey
Further information
The new work appears in "Evidence of nearby supernovae affecting life on Earth", H. Svensmark, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in press. The paper can be seen at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.20953.x/abstract and ftp://ftp2.space.dtu.dk/pub/Svensmark/MNRAS_Svensmark2012.pdf
Notes for editors
Prof. Henrik Svensmark leads the Center for Sun-Climate Research at the National Space Institute in the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He has authored or co-authored 20 papers exploring the influence of cosmic rays, which come from supernova remnants, on the Earth's cloudiness.
More information is available on the DTU Sun-Climate website http://www.space.dtu.dk/English/Research/Research_divisions/Sun_Climate.aspx
The Royal Astronomical Society
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS: www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organises scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.


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Gunners close in on Welbeck
Arsenal have agreed a deal in principle to sign Manchester United and England forward Danny Welbeck as talks continue to complete the deal before the close of the transfer window, Press Association Sport understands.
The 23-year-old appears set to be given the opportunity to leave Old Trafford as manager Louis van Gaal continues to build a squad he feels can challenge for honours.
Arsenal's north London rivals Tottenham were also believed to be keen on a move for Welbeck, who has scored 20 goals in 92 Barclays Premier League appearances, but the Manchester-born striker is now in talks with Arsenal.
Manchester United Danny striker Welbeck is understood to be in talks over a move to Arsenal
However, it remains to be seen if a deal can be agreed before the 11pm deadline - with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger at a charity football event in Rome.
Welbeck has appeared as a substitute in two of United's league games so far this season - draws at both Sunderland and Burnley - and started in the remarkable 4-0 Capital Cup exit at the hands of MK Dons.
Having come through the ranks at Old Trafford, Welbeck has also spent time out on loan at Preston and with the Black Cats before establishing himself in Sir Alex Ferguson's first-team squad.
Welbeck has scored eight goals in 26 England caps and has lifted the Barclays Premier League trophy and the League Cup during his time with the Red Devils.
Now he could be set to become Arsenal's fifth summer signing following the arrivals of Alexis Sanchez, Mathieu Debuchy, David Ospina and Calum Chambers and would add to Wenger's options in attack - with Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud both sidelined with injuries.
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