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In 2008, two Greenpeace activists from Japan exposed a major corruption scandal in the whaling industry. Prime cuts of whale meat were being smuggled ashore by the crew of the Japanese whaling factory ship, Nisshin Maru, for illegal trade and personal gain, at the Japanese taxpayer's expense. Although the public prosecutor initially investigated the allegations of theft and corruption, it was the two Greenpeace campaigners who were eventually arrested, charged with theft of the whale meat they intercepted as evidence of the corruption, and threatened with ten years in jail.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission ruled that Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki's human rights had been breached during their 26-day detention, 23 days of which was spent without being charged and frequently tied to a chair while being interrogated. The prosecution continued despite the UNHRC ruling and more than 500,000 emails requested the real thieves be prosecuted.
During the nearly three years it took for the case to be completed, Japanese media, human rights and environmental groups as well as politicians inside and outside Japan became increasingly convinced of the corruption within the industry. An extensive dossier outlining the investigation, containing interviews with whistleblowers from the whaling industry and documentation proving the embezzlement was presented to prosecutors and officials. Junichi and Toru's principle defence was that taking the whale meat as evidence of the corruption was a reasonable action in order to carry out an investigation in good faith and in the public interest – as the whaling programme is funded by tax-payers money. You can read the key facts of the trial here. In the days prior to the sentence being given, leading Japanese newspapers such as Tokyo Shimbun and Kyodo filed stories with headlines including "the trial of whale meat theft exposes horrifying realities" and "Scientific Whaling is diverting to illegal channels after all". Public opinion had begun to turn.
Despite that, after the lengthy and drawn out case, Junichi and Toru's defence under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was denied and they were given a one year suspended sentence, despite the judges admitting there were clearly questionable practises in the whaling industry.
Only a few months later, the Fisheries Agency finally admitted that at least 5 officials had been involved in the scandal and ordered 2 top officials to take its responsibility. None was charged, although the authorities claim they were disciplined.
The case of the Tokyo Two has changed the way many officials, journalists and the public in Japan view the whaling industry. It was the start of a campaign to end whaling in Japan with the support of the Japanese people. The campaign continues.
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Dumb people support dumb movies
Ashton Kutcher attended his first movie premiere since being publicly exposed as an unfaithful moron of a husband, now single. Here's Ashton last night on the carpet with Lea Michele for New Year's Eve. He and Lea are paired together in the movie. So it was her duty to pose with him like they're friends, like they enjoy each other's company. I know Lea is annoying and that we love to hate her. But my choice here is to assume that this is a professional obligation for her, a subtle order by the studio, if you will, to be nice to him so that we can begin the process of healing his reputation, and then his career.
It won't take long.
Just look at all those goddamn fans. Those idiots lined up screaming at him for his autograph. If you passed by a crowd of people clamouring for Ashton Kutcher's autograph, would you keep walking, or would you stop and join in, like it's free food and you can't leave without getting some?
MORE people would stop for Ashton. Why? Because...
He's famous.
That's, like, the only reason you need these days.
He's famous.
He's a f-cking dickhead but... he's famous.
I want to be able to say I got Ashton Kutcher's autograph. I want to be able to put his picture up on my Facebook...why? So all your friends will know you were waiting around for that loser at his movie premiere?
You can't blame movie studios, television executives, fashion magazines, clothing designers, agents, Anna Wintour, and the government for this sh-t. It's Us. It's We. We're Them. We're DUMB.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Martin Van Buren and Slavery
Van Buren's father owned six slaves in Kinderhook, New York. Van Buren himself owned a slave named "Tom." Tom escaped and was caught ten years later. When he was caught, Van Buren simply sold him to the captor for $50.
Later Van Buren would call slavery "an evil of the first magnitude," but while running for President, he said he wouldn't interfere with local politics – meaning slavery – and would protect slave-owners' property rights.
It was after his defeat in 1840 that Van Buren became a "Free Soiler" and this was because he believed that white labor couldn't compete with enslaved black labor, which I found very interesting as it paints a much different picture than simply being slavery was wrong because you shouldn't own other human beings.
This piece certainly paints an interesting picture of Van Buren as someone who obviously played many sides of this controversial field during his life.
2 comments:
- Scott said...
Why should it surprise you that a career politician acts like a politician?
While many of your posts are good, there is a superficial nature to them. Most posts discuss the presidents and their spouses in the context of their presidency. However, most of these old men had a significant political career before becoming president. As someone who grew up in public school on Long Island, I learned about how Martin Van Buren, a former governor, would change his opinions based on the crowd he was standing in front of.
When MVB ran for governor and, subsequently, senator, he was well known for giving one speech upstate and another downstate and sometimes a third in Tamany Hall.
But MVB was typical for his day. Since communications was very slow, people would not learn the differences until much later. It wouldn't be until "national" publications like Harpers or Saturday Evening Post picked up the stories and published some very cunning cartoons about the pols.
Nineteenth century politics can be seen as a rogues gallery of politicians. It's amazing how this country survived that century!
Wow, what an interesting post. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Martin Van Buren since I had to do a report about him in the 5th grade. "The Little Magician" certainly did know how to play all sides against the middle.
So often history turns out to be more complex than we learn back in our school days. Your post reminded me of my surprise when I learned that Margaret Sanger and much of the birth control movement were motivated not by women's health but by anti-immigrant sentiment. Less inspirational but more interesting.


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Cyberlocker Responds To MPAA Lawsuit Which Tries To Give Hollywood A Veto On Tech It Doesn't Like
from the it-shouldn't-be deptEver since the Supreme Court's Grokster decision, in which it made up a non-legislative "inducement" standard for copyright infringement (a standard, it should be noted, that Congress had a chance to put into law, but declined), the entertainment industry has tried to expand what "inducement" actually means. In the entertainment industry's general definition, it appears to mean "anything we don't like" or "anything that challenges our existing legacy business models." Case in point: cyberlockers. The MPAA has been screaming about "cyberlockers" as this new horrible piracy scheme for a couple years now, ignoring (of course) that cyberlockers serve important and useful legitimate functions in allowing people to share large legal digital files. Like many people, I've used cyberlockers to share PowerPoint presentations, photos and videos I've taken. They're incredibly useful and have significant non-infringing purposes.
However, obviously, those tools can (and perhaps frequently are) used for infringement as well. But, we already have laws to deal with that. The DMCA's notice-and-takedown provision allows copyright holders to alert service providers, who then need to takedown the content. A couple months ago, however, the MPAA went after Hotfile, one of the larger cyberlockers out there, with what struck me as a surprisingly weak case. It was as if whoever wrote the filing didn't quite understand how cyberlockers work, made a bunch of (mostly really bad) assumptions, and then twisted the facts in the most ridiculous possible way to make a case that Hotfile "induces" infringement.
For example, the MPAA claimed that because Hotfile charges fees for premium service, that's a sign of inducement. But that makes no sense. Plenty of online services charge for premium accounts, and since there are real marginal costs here, it makes basic economic sense for cyberlockers to charge premium users for additional services. That has nothing to do with infringement. Separately, the MPAA tries to spin the fact that Hotfile encourages people to use it to share widely, claiming that no legitimate "backup" service would do that. But, the MPAA is (incorrectly) assuming that Hotfile is a backup service. It's not. It's a tool for sharing digital files. None of that adds up to inducement.
The Supreme Court tried to dance around the earlier Betamax ruling, in which it allowed the VCR to exist because it had "substantial non-infringing uses," by creating a specific "standard" for inducement, which (as standards go) is pretty vague:
"[O]ne who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties . . . [but] mere knowledge of infringing potential or of actual infringing uses would not be enough here to subject a distributor to liability. Nor would ordinary acts incident to product distribution, such as offering customers technical support or product updates, support liability in themselves. The inducement rule, instead, premises liability on purposeful, culpable expression and conduct . . . ."Basically, the Supreme Court says that you have to do something to specifically purposely encourage infringement. Just because your service is used for infringement, that doesn't cut it. Grokster and others lost because there were signs that they advertised or marketed their services specifically for infringement. In the Hotfile case, the MPAA didn't seem to be able to show that at all.
So it's not surprising that Hotfile is fighting back pretty hard on the lawsuit, pointing out that (1) it meets the Betamax standard of significant non-infringing uses, but (2) doesn't come anywhere near the inducement standard of purposefully inducing infringement. The company notes that it promptly responds to DMCA notices and is quick to take down content, once made aware that it's infringing. It notes that providing a legitimate data storage business is not against the law, and it doesn't appreciate the MPAA's insinuations. It goes through the specifics of the Grokster ruling, which clearly don't apply to Hotfile. In fact, they note that one of the reasons Grokster ran into trouble was because it didn't receive revenue directly from users -- and now the MPAA is trying to use the exact opposite argument (that Hotfile does get money from users) to argue it's the same as Grokster?
Similarly, it points out how the fact that Grokster, Isohunt, Limewire and others have had a search function has been one of the key points used against those services to "prove" inducement. The courts have reasoned that since they allow searches for any file, they're "inducing" infringement. Yet, with Hotfile, there's no search. That should settle the issue... but this is the MPAA we're talking about, and so they twist the lack of a search engine into a charge that Hotfile "concealed" the content its users uploaded.
Sued if you do. Sued if you don't.
This seems like a pretty strong filing in response to a clear attempt by the MPAA to twist and extend "inducement" theory way beyond what was intended by the Supreme Court. Hopefully the courts recognize this, but you never know when it comes to these kinds of cases. As Professor Eric Goldman is fond of pointing out, there's regular copyright law, and then there's file sharing copyright law, in which the judges creatively reintepret the law to make activities they don't like illegal, rather than following the actual law.
Either way, this case could become important in determining the boundaries of what really is "inducement." If the MPAA gets its way, it will effectively erase the Supreme Court's Betamax ruling, because it will mean that even if you have substantial non-infringing uses, if there are a lot of people using it for infringement, even if you did not push them to use your service for that particular reason, you automatically become liable. This is a complete fabrication by the MPAA who appears to effectively want to overturn the Betamax ruling here by suggesting that if enough people are infringing, you're automatically guilty of inducement, because any action you do (have a search engine? yes! don't have a search engine? yes!) is interpreted as inducement.
Filed Under: copyright, cyberlockers, inducement, infringement
Companies: hotfile, mpaa


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Murphy, C. Young miss Mets' opener
NEW YORK -- With so much speculation surrounding the Opening Day lineup, two circumstances beyond the team's control changed things dramatically on Monday at Citi Field.
Second baseman Daniel Murphy left the team on Sunday to be with his wife, Tori, who went into labor with the couple's first child. Murphy is expected back on Wednesday; Eric Young played second base and batted leadoff against the Nationals.
The Mets also played without outfielder Chris Young, who suffered a mild right quad strain over the weekend in Montreal. Though Young said that he felt well enough to pinch-hit or pinch-run if needed, he explained that Tuesday's off-day would essentially give him three full days of rest to make sure the muscle heals correctly.
"It's going to be tough to not go out there with my teammates today," Young said. "Especially with how spring was, we've been playing well at the back end of Spring Training. There were just a lot of high hopes and positivity coming into today, so I wish I could be part of it. But you have to do what's best for the team, and today this is what it is."
In Young's absence, Juan Lagares started in center field and Andrew Brown played left, with Curtis Granderson in right.


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Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Get Well Soon Cookies
8 comments:
- AnonymousJuly 1, 2014 at 9:18 AM
Hope your daughter is doing better. Love the cookies. Each platter is fantastic. KathyReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you so much Kathy! Mellissa is doing much better! Hugs!Delete
- Joni RousselJuly 1, 2014 at 8:44 PM
wow....What unique cookies! I love 'em, but more importantly, I'm happy to hear that your daughter came through surgery successfully & I hope her recovery is speedyReplyDeleteReplies
Aww thank you so much Joni. Yes, Mellissa is doing much better. I'm going to go see her and the babies tomorrow and see what I can do to help. Thank you for the kind words :-)Delete
- AnonymousJuly 3, 2014 at 7:43 AM
Glad your daughter is doing well! That sperm cookie cracked me up. Love it! :)ReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks Melissa! :-)Delete
Quite a fun and comprehensive collection of cookies! I hope that your daughter has a full and quick recovery from her surgery. I'm sure she is very glad that you are around to help her out.ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you sweet Paula! Mellissa is healing well and I've enjoyed some extra time with the grandbabies :-)Delete


text: onsdag 20. juli 2005, 08:24, skrev Michael Krufky: > I have tested both of your patches 1 & 2, and they do not break my > hardware. Since they were successfully in producing the desired results > with your tuner, I have split up the patches and committed them to the > video4linux and dvb-kernel trees. I have noted in the commit messages > and v4l changelog that this series of patches spans both trees. Hey, just noticed, you added the Signed-Off-By line for Mac, but that's intended to be a sign off by the _author_! You can't just add that line and assume everyting is in order! Kenneth


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Multnomah welcomes any whose citizenship is in a country other than the United States. Some international students may find our way of life much like theirs at home and need very little help in adjusting to the new surroundings. Others will find new and strange circumstances and have many questions. The Registrar is also the International Student Advisor and will gladly work with international students in answering questions, solving problems, defining procedures and explaining immigration forms. You may also direct questions regarding immigration regulations to the United States Office of Immigration & Naturalization Service. Their address and phone number are available in the Registrar's Office.
As an international student at Multnomah, your programs and activities will be very similar to those of any other student. However, unlike other students, you will need to understand and observe certain specific United States government regulations and procedures. The following definitions and explanations will enable you to be aware of these and adhere to them:
F-1 student
This student is an alien who has entered the United States on an "F-1 visa" to be enrolled in a full-time educational program, but they have no intention of remaining in the United States. They are also known as "non-immigrant students."
This is a certificate of eligibility for non-immigrant (F-1) student status, issued by the Registrar, to be used by the international student to apply for an F-1 visa to the United States. The institution indicates acceptance of the applicant as a full-time student and states the conditions of this acceptance including required English proficiency, needed financial resources, and dates of expected arrival. The Registrar must endorse the I-20 when a student first enrolls. The I-20 is used also for program extension. During the school year, a properly endorsed Form I-20 will be required for re-entry to the United States after a brief departure.
This is an entry permit. The form is issued to the international student at the port of entry giving him/her permission to enter the United States. Record of date of arrival is kept on this form, which is normally stapled to a page in the passport.
Duration of stay
As an F-1 student, you are authorized to be in the United States for the period of time known as "duration of status" (marked as D/S on your visa). This period includes the time a student is pursuing a full course of study and making satisfactory progress in an educational program. After completing the program, a student has 60 days to leave the country.
Extension of stay
As an F-1 student, you do not have to apply for an extension of stay as long as you maintain status and make normal progress toward a complete education objective as indicated on your Form I-20. If you cannot meet the expected completion date, and you program is satisfactory, you must apply to the Registrar for a program extension in the 30-day period before that date.
On-campus employment
If this is available, on-campus employment by F-1 students is permitted as long as the student works no more than 20 hours per week while school is in session. Students may be employed full-time during vacations and recess periods, so long as they intend to register for the next term.
Off-campus employment
This may be available as determined by INS based on economic hardship. You must be in good academic standing and have been in F-1 status for at least one academic year. Details regarding requirements for off-campus employment are available from the Registrar.
Immigrant student
This is a student who has entered the United States with a permanent resident visa. The student is permitted to stay indefinitely, may work at will, may or may not enroll in college, may become a citizen, and is subject to selective service. The immigrant student operates under normal legal and institution regulations rather than those governing the non-immigrant student.
All international students are required to have personal health insurance. This must be purchased prior to the first day of class each semester. Verification of adequate insurance coverage must be provided at that time. Insurance information is available at the Health Center during the school year and at the Registrar's Office during the summer.
This is the travel document issued by an individual's country of citizenship that permits him/her to depart from and return to his/her own country. Passports are generally valid for a limited period of time only. However, here in the United States they can normally be renewed at the Foreign Consulate or Embassy of an individual's country of citizenship. Canadians do not receive this document if entering the United States as non-immigrant students.
Re-entering the United States
An international student must be particularly careful to carry the correct documents for re-entry when leaving the United States at any time. During the school year, a properly endorsed Form I-20 will be required for re-entry. Be sure to request this form from the Registrar in advance before your departure.


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Customer Service 2.0: Clients become brand managersThursday, May 29th, 2008
By Heather Havenstein
From article in Computerworld.com
Full article at: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9090398
May 28, 2008 (Computerworld) Comcast Corp. scored a public relations coup in April when an executive responded within 20 minutes to complaints about a cable outage posted by a prominent blogger on a microblogging site.
Michael Arrington said that a top official from the Philadelphia-based cable company responded to his post and made sure that a technician was dispatched to fix the 36-hour outage.
Comcast is one of several large companies that have recently started using Web 2.0 tools to monitor blogs and social networks to discover user concerns. The companies are also using such tools to communicate with and learn from customers, according to analysts and executives.
Arrington said that he first notified Comcast of the outage by a more traditional means -- the telephone help desk -- but technicians there had no idea when the widespread outage could be corrected.
Granted, Arrington's stature in the blogosphere may have hastened the response to his complaint, but it did come in the midst of a months-long program, called Comcast Cares, started by the company to monitor Twitter and respond to customer concerns posted there.
In October, 2007, prior to Comcast's launch of the Web 2.0 effort, magazine columnist and radio personality Bob Garfield created a blog called "Comcast Must Die.". Garfield's goal was to help Comcast customers publicly air complaints about the cable company. At about the same time, a 76-year-old woman made national news by taking a hammer to a keyboard in a Comcast office after becoming frustrated with Comcast's customer-service response.
A cursory check of Comcast Cares on May 22 found multiple examples of employees responding -- often in less than 15 minutes -- to complaints that customers posted on Twitter, where users can create 140-character "miniblogs." Comcast employees mostly apologized for the problems and requested the information needed to solve them.
A Comcast spokeswoman said the company created the program to proactively address customer concerns. She said the company can now engage its customers wherever they are most comfortable.
Most early corporate Web 2.0 efforts included internal blogs, social networks and online communities that focused on improving communication among workers. The growing popularity of such tools among consumers has led to the launch of products that fit into what some companies are calling "Customer Service 2.0," which monitors what customers say in online forums.
In late April, New York Life Insurance Co. began a move to Customer Service 2.0 by providing a platform for customer feedback on articles and other content in its Web site. The company also added links to various social networking sites so users can bookmark and share information across the Web.
Ken Hittel, vice president of corporate Internet development at the insurance company, said the initial version of the site is designed to first give customers a way to "talk" to New York Life. The feedback program is a first step in a plan to make better use the company's Web site to gain insight into customer needs, he added.
The next step will be to allow employees to actively respond to the customer comments on the site.
The New York-based insurer, like many other companies, took the first step toward Customer Service 2.0 with some trepidation, Hittel said.
He noted that some executives worried about what customers would say about the company once the "barn doors" were opened. "In fact, if there is some particularly bad thing that people want to say about us, it's better that we find out about it," Hittel maintained.
"People are talking about us on the Internet just like they are talking about everyone else. This gives people a chance to talk about us directly to us as opposed to behind our back," he added.
Therein lies the key reason why IDC analyst Rachel Happe criticized companies that are reluctant to embrace the new form of customer service because they fear negative feedback. She called such concerns a "red herring."
Customers have always been in control of the brands they use, she noted. Now, however, they can arm themselves with virtual megaphones and shout their concerns throughout the blogosphere. It's only common sense to at least listen to what these users say, Happe said.
In many cases, just acknowledging a problem can help ease criticism on the Web, she noted.
For example, Dell Inc.'s public admission that some critics of its support programs were correct has led to a slow shifting of the company's image. Since its admission, the tone of some initially critical bloggers has become neutral or even positive, she said.
Meanwhile, SAP AG's online social community for developers and business process managers now includes more than 1 million users, she added. Many small and midsize companies are using SAP-sponsored online communities to gain access to a network of peers to discuss questions and concerns about SAP products.
The SAP program is improving the lot of users, who can get quick answers from fellow customers. It's also cutting SAP's support costs as fewer questions make it to help desk personnel.
"Customers are actually starting to feel like they can ask questions, which is good because they are engaging and they are getting more satisfaction -- at a lower cost to the company," she added.
In addition, company executives can use the customer input as they make strategic business decisions.
For example, The Artful Home, which sells art and other home decorating items, significantly changed the content on its Web site based on user suggestions.
The Artful Home site is run by The Guild Inc., a Madison, Wisc.-based art dealer that links artists with potential buyers of their goods.
By monitoring the number of customers participating in specific discussion topics and analyzing the content they posted, the company found that they are mostly interested in how to use the products they buy in design and decorating projects.
"That was a pretty resounding answer to a very big question for us," said Toni Sikes, the founder and artistic adviser at The Guild.
The user needs surprised the company because some executives thought that bolstering information about individual artists and their artistic motivation would most benefit customers, Sikes said. Others had maintained that it was most important to tell customers how products were made.
Read full article at: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9090398


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15 Common Mistakes Thanksgiving Guests Make
Most people aren't used to going to a lot of dinner parties these days. The idea of dressing up and going to a loved one's home for a meal is a vintage one, right up there with poodle skirts and sock hops. But there is one day a year where you have to dust off your social skills and be a gracious guest: Thanksgiving.
If you're not used to being in pleasant company or you're going to enter a situation that's mildly uncomfortable, you need to know how to behave yourself this holiday season. There are a lot of secrets to being the best party guest ever, and most of them just amount to basic human decency. That means you should arrive on time with a small gift and with no unexpected guests. But it also means that you should know when to help, when to step back and how to stay in your lane. It sounds hard, but it's really quite easy.
But no matter if you're going to a family member's home or a friend's house this Thanksgiving, be sure that you are kind and don't make these coming Thanksgiving guest mistakes.iStock
RSVPing Late (or Not at All)
Listen, sometimes you wait until the last minute to book Thanksgiving travel. No judgment! But if you're invited to someone's home for the holiday, it's important to RSVP as soon as possible. Thanksgiving is a meal, after all, so your host needs to know how much turkey to buy and how many table settings they need. RSVPing at the last minute or, you know, just showing up without asking is a major mistake.iStock
Forgetting to Divulge Allergies or Dietary Needs
When you RSVP (on time!), be sure to share any dietary restrictions or allergies with your host. Are you on the keto diet? Are you vegetarian? Are you allergic to gluten? Thanksgiving is full of allergens and meat, so be sure to be honest with your host so they prepare something special for you to enjoy.iStock
Not Asking If You Should Bring a Side
Cooking an entire Thanksgiving feast is a lot of work. Help your host out and bring along a side dish. Of course, you shouldn't just show up with a pot full of mashed potatoes. Ask your host how you can help and know that some sides can easily be made in advance and transported!Shutterstock
Arriving Empty-Handed
Want to know one of the ways you're being a terrible party guest? Showing up without a small gift for your host. Bring along a small seasonal gift, like a wreath or a candle or a festive bottle of wine to serve with dinner. A little token of appreciation can go a long way.iStock
Arriving Super Early (or Late)
If your host asks you to arrive at 5 p.m., make it your business to be there around 5 p.m. If you show up at 4, they may still be in the throes of making dinner. If you get there at 6:30, you may miss your meal! Either is not ideal, so just be on time.iStock
Bringing an Unannounced Plus-One
The only thing worse than arriving empty-handed or arriving late is arriving with a surprise someone. Yes, we know you're smitten with your brand-new boyfriend and we feel bad for your co-worker who was going to be alone on Thanksgiving. But if you're bringing someone with you, clear it with your host before you show up.iStock
Not Asking to Help in the Kitchen
Like we said, cooking up a whole Thanksgiving dinner isn't easy. So if your host didn't ask you to bring anything (or even if they did), you should still be sure you ask to assist them in the kitchen. Even if you just set a timer or grab a box of chicken stock out of the fridge, you're doing more than you think you are.iStock
Crowding the Kitchen
But just because you're helping out your host in the kitchen doesn't mean you need to be a backseat chef. Don't criticize their knife skills, don't start salting the stuffing without being asked and definitely don't touch the turkey. Give your host space and let them lead you in the kitchen.
Ruling the Remote
Thanksgiving is almost just as much about TV as it is about family and food. From parades to the dog show to football, there is a lot of special programming on for this holiday. Don't change the channel without asking your fellow guests and definitely don't override everyone and turn on the big game when your family wants to watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special.iStock
Dominating the Conversation
The television isn't the only thing that you shouldn't dominate on Thanksgiving. You want to keep the conversation light, flowing and equal among guests. While we're sure you're very fascinating, the other guests don't need to hear every detail of your life. Let others talk too! It's all a part of knowing how to make small talk like a pro.iStock
Getting Intoxicated
Thanksgiving may seem like it's all about overindulgence. You stuff your face and you can fill your belly with delicious wines and pumpkin beers. But try to refrain from getting drunk on Thanksgiving. Nothing good can come from that.iStock
Starting Drama
Thanksgiving can be... a lot. You never know who you may be sitting next to at the table. But no matter what you do, don't start drama or family fights. Avoid divisive topics like politics, don't bring up past family scandals and dismiss any snide remarks just by walking away and being the bigger person. Holidays with the family don't have to be a battle.iStock
Dining and Dashing
We get it. You want to head out to the mall and get a jump start on Black Friday shopping. If there's one secret shopping malls don't want you to know, it's that the best deals are not on Black Friday. So don't dine and dash - it's the ultimate rude action. Be sure to enjoy the company you're with for at least a little while after your meal.iStock
Overstaying Your Welcome
But just because you shouldn't dine and dash, that doesn't mean you're in the clear to stay for as long as you want. If the coffee has been served and your welcoming host is looking a little sleepy, that means it's time to head out.iStock
Taking Leftovers Home Without Asking
No holiday season is complete without a delicious leftover sandwich, but that doesn't mean all of that green bean casserole and stuffing that's left is free game. A gracious host will offer you some of their leftovers, so don't just grab a bowl of sweet potatoes and head out the door. But no matter what mistakes you may make as a guest this Halloween, it's nothing compared to the mistakes a Thanksgiving host can make.
More From The Active Times:
The Absolute Best Places to Spend Thanksgiving in the U.S.
Must-Visit Small Towns This Thanksgiving Holiday
25 Tips to Make Thanksgiving Travel a Real Breeze
What Nutritionists Won't Ever Eat on Thanksgiving
The Ultimate Holiday Airport Survival GuideiStock


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PHOENIX is a general-purpose state-of-the-art stellar and planetary atmosphere code. It can calculate atmospheres and spectra of stars all across the HR-diagram including main sequence stars, giants, white dwarfs, stars with winds, TTauri stars, novae, supernovae, brown dwarfs and extrasolar giant planets. Our own research concentrates on:
- Novae
- Supernovae
- Cool stars
- Substellar objects
- Radiation transport
- Algorithms
- Support for the GAIA mission
PHOENIX is developed within the theory group of the Hamburg Observatory.


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Dr. Irving P. McPhail
Irving Pressley McPhail was named the sixth president and Chief Executive Officer of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME) on September 1, 2009 (www.nacme.org). He joined NACME in 2007 as executive vice president and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, he founded and served as principal of The McPhail Group LLC. He served 15 years as a college president or chancellor at The Community College of Baltimore County, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, and LeMoyne-Owen College. Dr. McPhail also served as Chief Operating Officer of the Baltimore City Public Schools. He has held tenured full professorships at three colleges and universities, and served as an affiliate or visiting professor at the University of Maryland at College Park, the University of Pennsylvania, and Morgan State University. Working at the nexus of practice, policy, and research in literacy education, post-secondary student success, community college leadership, and STEM education, Dr. McPhail is the co-editor of Teaching African American Learners to Read: Perspectives and Practices, published by the International Reading Association in 2005, and the author of more than 50 journal articles, chapters, monographs, and technical reports. He earned a bachelor's degree in development sociology at Cornell University and a master's degree in reading at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He earned the doctorate in reading/language arts at the University of Pennsylvania as a National Fellowships Fund Fellow. He was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree at the 155th Commencement of Polytechnic Institute of New York University on May 18, 2010. Dr. McPhail was an American Council on Education Fellow in Academic Administration at The Johns Hopkins University, and he completed the Presidents Academy Summer Institute at the American Association of Community Colleges and the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University. Dr. McPhail serves on the board of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Education Foundation and the National Council on Black American Affairs/ Northeast Region [an affiliate council of the American Association of Community Colleges].
National Academy of Engineering 500 Fifth Street, NW | Washington, DC 20001 | T. 202.334.3200 | F. 202.334.2290


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California's public schools are falling behind -- by giving their students less.
As the state makes budget cut after budget cut to education, local school districts are shortening the school year. This is particularly true in Los Angeles, where L.A. Unified has already taken a week out of the school year, putting the total number of school days at lower than 180 a year. At the same time, according to today's Los Angeles Times, local Catholic schools are adding 20 school days to their school year, giving them 200 days a year.
Why does this matter? Because studies have shown that additional instruction time is one way to improve student achievement. Other countries that surpass the United States in achievement typically have longer school years and more instruction time. And some of the most successful charter school operations in the U.S. have made more and longer school days a central piece of their program. The Los Angeles archdiocese has cited the need to make students more competitive as the reason for the expansion of their school year.


text:
Spot Welding Systems
Industrial solution
Spot Welding Systems
The core of this system are the MOTOMAN robots specialised on spot welding applications (MOTOMAN VS100, MS80 II, MS165, MS210), with servo motors built in-house.
Mounted on a new positioner, they are saving space up to 40 % and provide better accessibility and high cycle times.
Key benefits:
- Compact solution, save space up to 40 %
- Improved accessibility to the parts to be welded
- Easy to move, consists of a single block
- Easy to install, no re-teach on site
- Reduced set-up by the customer, no re-teach on site
- Easy to program, ergonomic position for the operator
- Flexible concept – high versatility from one product to another
- "Robot on board" in frontal position, easily unloading of the item without interference
- Faster than ever, save cycle time


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Santa is pretty complicated in the TVCU. Santa was a real person, but his legend got so big, that the power of belief turned him into something else. He became a tulpa, whose very existence is powered by belief, as is his home, and those associated with him there. And the power extends beyond the one man. Others can be called to become Santa, and have over time, and then there are those who wear the suit, and just by pretending to be Santa in front of kids who believe, find themselves feeling a spark of the Christmas spirit.
1 Million B.C.--FLINTSTONES--"Christmas Flintstones"--In the Looniverse, they celebrated the birth of Christ a million years before the birth of Christ.
Once Upon a Time--BABES IN TOYLAND--Ollu and Buzsla know the real Bo Peep, from whom the later toy is based off of. The Toy Maker is another incarnation of Santa Claus. Later, Tom and Jerry would visit "Toyland", which is also revealed to be connected to THE NUTCRACKER.
1550--BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER--"The Body"--According to Anya, the being that becomes known as Santa starts around this time, complete with the reindeer and coming down the chimney. Of course, he'd rather disembowel kids than bring them presents...
Circa 1800 to Circa 2003--The Rankin-Bass Universe Interconnected Tales Timeline--See the separate timeline created by Gordon Long.
1930s--THE LITTLE RASCALS' CHRISTMAS SPECIAL--Santa appears in this special. This show takes place during the era of the original Rascals. Spanky even refers to the depression. So this 70s cartoon special shouldn't be confused with the 80s Saturday morning cartoon which is of a next generation modernized Rascals.
December 1940--A CHRISTMAS STORY--Santa appears in this story of a child and a dream. This is in because it has crossed with WAREHOUSE 13. It then further pulls in PREP AND LANDING and BLACK XMAS.
December 1948--BEWITCHED--"A Vision of Sugar Plums"--Samantha takes an orphan to the North Pole to visit the real Santa Claus. Santa has made numerous appearances in the TVCU. Sometimes his origin and mythology seems to conflict other appearances.
Late 1940s--PREP AND LANDING--Wayne gets a new rookie partner, Lanny, after his previous partner got the promotion he wanted. Lanny has to remind Wayne of the Spirit of Christmas and the importance of being an elf in Santa's Prep and Landing elite unit.
late 1940s--Prep and Landing: Naughty vs. Nice--James Bojaciuk reports: I'm watching Prep and Landing: Naughty vs. Nice on tv right now. A little girl who tried to get herself on the "nice" list by hacking Santa's database had a flashback to visiting Santa at the mall. Behind her in line were Ralphie and the kid in the leather helmet from A Christmas Story. Despite the modern technology seen, the story would have to take place in the late 1940s.
Late 1940s--PREP AND LANDING STOCKING STUFFER: OPERATION: SECRET SANTA--The film begins with Mrs. Claus asking the elves, Prep & Landing, to help her steal something from Santa's workshop. It's odd that neither of them question this and spend much of the cartoon trying to sneak past a sleeping Santa. But there wasn't much in the humor department nor was there much in the way of the story. Not bad, but easy to skip.
December 1951--BEWITCHED--"Humbug Not To Be Spoken Here"--Samantha takes a "Scrooge" like client of Darrin's to the North Pole to meet Santa.
December 1951--I LOVE LUCY--"Drafted"--Santa makes a brief appearance.
December 24 to 25, 1952--TRUE BOO--Casper writes a letter to Santa for a friend, but his uncles (the Ghostly Trio) steal the letter. Casper decides to go find one himself and meets Billy. (It's almost always a Billy.) He pretends to be Santa and spends Christmas with Billy and his mother.
December 1953--BEWITCHED--"SANTA COMES TO VISIT AND STAYS AND STAYS"--Esmerelda accidentally summons Santa from the North Pole, and can't undo the spell, that literally keeps Santa trapped in the house. With Christmas impending, Samantha brings the elves to her home to build the toys there.
December 25, 1956--I LOVE LUCY--"1956 Christmas Show"--Lucy and the gang meet Santa, who pops in in Christmas morning.
December 1957--JACK BENNY PROGRAM--"Christmas Shopping Show"--Santa briefly appears.
Late 1950s--LAVERNE & SHIRLEY--"O Come All Ye Bums"--Santa appears.
December 24, 1959--Merlin comes to Santa's aid when the devil tries to prevent Christmas from happening.
December 1960--JACK BENNY PROGRAM--"Christmas Show"--Santa shows up again.
December 1966--BATMAN--"The Duo is Slumming"--Batman and Robin encounter Santa when climbing up the side of a wall in Gotham.
1966--ADDAMS FAMILY--Santa pops in for a scene similar to that in the classic I LOVE LUCY episode.
December 1969--BRADY BUNCH--"The Voice of Christmas"--Santa briefly appears in this story where Carol loses her voice before she's supposed to sing in a Christmas show. This is one of the few episodes to specifically be referenced with a flashback in the later Brady Bunch reunion movies.
December 1970--ADAM-12--"Log 46: Pilgrimage"--Santa briefly appears.
December 1976--MCCLOUD--"The Fight Before Christmas"--Santa appears in this Christmas episode.
December 1977--LOU GRANT--"Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 1978--Benji's Very Own Christmas Story--Benji's Very Own Christmas Story supports my theory regarding holiday figures such as Santa in the TVCU. In this story, Santa changes depending on what part of the world he is in, in order to fit to the cultural beliefs of the region regarding the Santa legend. His village also incorporates all the legends, and has to change whenever the legend may change. I believe that although real figures may have once been the inspirations for these legends, the magic of belief has turned these figures into tulpas. Rudolph is also mentioned.
December 1978--ALL IN THE FAMILY--"Bogus Bills"--Santa appears.
December 24, 1978--FRIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS--LOONIVERSE--Taz is in a crate on a plane and falls out over the North Pole. He lands in Santa's village, gets into a Santa Suit, gets on Santa's slay, and the reindeer assume it's Santa and take off. They stop at Bugs' house (he does own several properties despite also living in holes still as well all over the world.) Bugs is there with his nephew, Clyde. Since Santa seems to be a tulpa living in a pocket dimension attached to the TVCU, and the Looniverse is a tulpa pocket dimension attached to the TVCU, I don't see why Santa of the TVCU isn't the same Santa who visits the Looniverse.
Late 1970s--THAT 70S SHOW--"An Eric Foreman Christmas/Who Needs You"--Santa appears.
December 24 - 25, 1979--YOGI'S FIRST CHRISTMAS--Yogi tries to stay up for Christmas. Santa appears.
December 1979--ALICE--"Mel, the Magi"--Santa appears.
December 1979--A FAMILY CIRCUS CHRISTMAS--Family Circus is in the Bongo Anomaly, as seen in FAMILY GUY. Santa makes an appearance in this special.
December 23 to 25, 1979--BUGS BUNNY'S LOONEY CHRISTMAS TALES--Basically a clip show of older cartoons featuring Bugs, Sam, Porky, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe le Pew, Tweety, Sylvester, Taz, the Light Company Man, airplane pilots, Santa Claus, Elmer, and Mrs. Claus.
December 24 - 25, 1979--CASPER'S FIRST CHRISTMAS--Despite the title, this isn't his first Christmas. Casper is living in a haunted house with Hairy Scary (from CASPER AND THE ANGELS), when YOGI BEAR, BOO BOO, HUCKLEBERRY HOUND, SNAGGLEPUSS, QUICK DRAW MCGRAW, AUGIE DOGGIE and DOGGIE DADDY show up after getting lost. The song they sing in this special, "Coming Up Christmas Time" is later used in YOGI'S FIRST CHRISTMAS, but since Yogi celebrates here, Yogi's First Christmas must happen before this one. Santa shows up at the end of the tale.
December 1981--A CHIPMUNK CHRISTMAS--Spin-off special from the Saturday cartoon in which Santa appears.
December 1982--DIFF'RENT STROKES--"Santa's Helper"--Santa appears.
December 1982--GLORIA--"Miracle at Fox Ridge"--Santa appears.
December 1983--T.J. HOOKER--"Slay Ride" Santa appears.
December 1984--NIGHT COURT--"Santa Goes Downtown"--Santa appears.
July 1985--KINGDOM HEARTS II--Santa participates in the Crisis.
December 1985--FALL GUY--"Escape Claus"--Colt and crew encounter a guy whose a bit of a nut who thinks he's Santa, only later he seems to be the real deal when he displays his powers.
December 1985--ST. ELSEWHERE--"Santa Claus is Dead"--Santa appears.
December 1986--REAL GHOSTBUSTERS--"X-Mas Marks the Spot"--Santa appears.
December 1986--GOLDEN GIRLS--"'Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 1987--FACTS OF LIFE--"It's a Wonderful Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 1987--CHEERS--"Christmas Cheers"--Santa appears.
December 1987--NIGHT COURT--"Let It Snow"--Santa appears.
December 1987--THE CHARMINGS--"Yes, Lillian, There is a Santa Claus"--Santa appears.
December 1987--3-2-1--"Christmas Special 1987"--Santa appears.
December 1987--SANTA BARBARA--Santa appears.
December 1988--CHRISTMAS AT PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE--Santa appears.
December 1988--ERNEST SAVES CHRISTMAS--Santa appears.
December 1988--SCROOGED--Santa appears. (Coming tomorrow will be a blog about the Christmas ghosts of Past, Present, and Future in the TVCU.)
December 1988--A VERY BRADY CHRISTMAS--Santa appears, and there is also a flashback to the first Brady Bunch Christmas episode mentioned earlier in this blog.
December 1988--SANTA BARBARA--Santa appears.
December 1989--MACGYVER--"The Madonna"--Santa appears.
December 1989--MARRIED WITH CHILDREN--"It's a Bundyful Life"--Santa appears.
1990--HOME ALONE--When a man dressed as Santa Claus gets a traffic ticket, he says "What's next? Rabies shots for the Easter Bunny?"
December 1990--A DIFFERENT WORLD--"I'm Dreaming of a Wayne Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 1990--EASTENDERS--Santa appears.
December 1991--KNOTS LANDING--"Holiday on Ice"--Santa appears.
December 1991--BEVERLY HILLS, 90210--"A Walsh Family Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 1992--INSPECTOR GADGET SAVES CHRISTMAS--Santa appears.
December 1992--MARTIN--"I Saw Gina Kissing Santa Claus"--Santa appears.
December 1992--MARRIED WITH CHILDREN--"Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 1992--EASTENDERS--Santa appears.
December 1993--HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET--"The Night of the Dead Living"--Santa appears.
December 1993--BONKERS--"Miracle on 34th Precinct"--Santa appears.
December 1993--PICKET FENCES--"Cross Examination"--Santa appears.
December 1993--FAMILY MATTERS--"Christmas Is Where the Heart Is"--Santa appears.
December 1993--THE NANNY--"Christmas Episode"--Santa appears.
1994--THE SANTA CLAUSE--Scott Calvin accidentally causes Santa's death, puts on his suit, and is transformed into the new Santa.
December 1994--THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR--"Reality Bites"--Santa appears.
December 1994--MURPHY BROWN--"Brown in Toyland"--Santa appears.
December 1994--BEVERLY HILLS, 90210--"Christmas Comes This Time Each Year"--Santa appears.
December 1994--ER--"The Gift"--Santa appears.
December 1995--A.J.'S TIME TRAVELERS--"Santa Claus"--The Time Travelers meet Santa.
December 1995--MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS--Santa appears. The U.S. version of the Power Rangers may exist in the TVCU2, but since I haven't fully tackled that topic yet, I'm leaving that decision open for now.
December 1995--THE TICK--"The Tick Loves Santa!"--The real Santa appears in a story featuring evil Santa duplicates.
December 1996--MRS. SANTA CLAUS--Santa here is played by Charles Durning, which means that it is the same version of Santa appearing in both this tale, and also ELMO SAVES CHRISTMAS during the same Christmas.
December 1996--ELMO SAVES CHRISTMAS--Santa is played by Charles Durning, who will go on to play him three more times. I consider same actor/same character to be a valid crossover, and since this time he meets Elmo, who is in the TVCU, the other appearances of Santa played by Durning are in.
December 1996--SONIC CHRISTMAS BLAST!--Santa appears.
December 1996--CAROLINE IN THE CITY--"Caroline and the Red Sauce"--Santa appears.
December 1996--3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN--"Jolly Old St. Dick"--Santa appears.
December 1996--ROSEANNE--"Home for the Holidays"--Santa appears.
December 1996--THE DREW CAREY SHOW--"Lisa Gets Married"--Santa appears.
December 1996--EARLY EDITION--"Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 1997--STEP BY STEP--"Too Many Santas"--Santa appears.
December 1997--SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH--"Sabrina Claus"--Santa appears.
December 1997--JOHNNY BRAVO--"I Used to Be Funny/My Fair Dork/'Twas the Night"--Santa appears.
December 1997--SPIN CITY--"Miracle Near 34th Street"--Santa appears.
December 1997--SOUTH PARK--"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo"--Santa appears.
December 1998--SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH--"Christmas Amnesia"--Santa appears.
December 1998--THE NEW ADDAMS FAMILY--"Christmas with the Addams Family"--Santa appears. See my Addams Family blog for how this series fits in the TVCU. Santa also appeared in a Munsters Christmas special, which I'm not sure how to make work with the TVCU as I have the Munsters set up now in the TVCU. A Munsters blog will be forthcoming in 2013.
December 1998--RECESS--"Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave"--This might actually be in the TVCU, rather than the Looniverse, and that might mean the date I offer here is incorrect. Regardless, Santa appears.
December 1999--BARNEY'S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS--Barney and friends use a magic snowglobe to visit Santa at the North Pole.
December 1999--BECKER--"Santa on Ice"--Santa appears.
December 1999--SOUTH PARK--"Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics"--Santa appears.
December 2000--FRASIER--"Mary Christmas"--Larry is the man dressed as Santa in this episode (played by Donovan Scott.) [You can see the full episode here.]
December 2000--SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS--"Christmas Who?"--Santa appears.
December 2000--PROVIDENCE--"The Gift"--Santa appears.
December 2000--THE SIMPSONS--"Skinner's Sense of Snow"--Santa appears.
December 2001--RECESS CHRISTMAS: MIRACLE ON 3RD STREET--Santa appears. See my comments earlier in the blog on Recess and dating.
December 2001--BIG WOLF ON CAMPUS--"Anti-Claus is Coming to Town"--Santa appears.
December 2001--JOHNNY BRAVO--"A Johnny Bravo Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 2001--SPIN CITY--"An Office and a Gentleman"--Santa appears.
December 2001--ER--"I'll Be Home for Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 2001--FAIRLY ODDPARENTS--Santa appears. If Jimmy Neutron is in the Looniverse (and he is, due to certain cartoon crossovers), then Timmy Turner must not be, as when they meet, they clearly notice they are from different realities with different properties. Fairly Oddparents is a cartoon that has had live action sequels in which Timmy has aged. Though I don't have any clear crossover evidence, I'd say Fairly Oddparents is in the TVCU, which means that dating of the cartoon for now is not accurate.
December 2002--MR. ST. NICK--Santa is played by Charles Durning. This film's inclusion would seem to contradict the inclusion of the THE SANTA CLAUSE 2, as both can't be happening at the same time. However, being that the North Pole is an other dimensional realm of Tulpas, we must concede that at varying times, there are multiple "north poles" phasing in and out of reality, and each of these have Santas, and at some times, there may be more than one version of Santa in coexistence at the same time in the TVCU. They all have the right to claim they are the real Santa, and in fact, they all are. They are all an aspect of a singular being, who is very powerful, yet whose existence is constantly transformed by the beliefs of children. I'm not sure if these multiple Santa's all know of each other. It seems that some Santas are older than others, and some are more aware of who and what they are than others.
2002--THE SANTA CLAUSE 2: THE MRS. CLAUSE--Scott Calvin learns he needs to get married in order to maintain his Santa gig. The Easter Bunny appears in THE SANTA CLAUSE 2 and THE SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE.
December 2002--EASTENDERS--Santa appears.
December 2002--THE POWERPUFF GIRLS: 'TWAS THE FIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS--Santa appears.
December 2002--RUGRATS--"Babies in Toyland"--Santa appears. The date here is highly questionable considering the sequel ALL GROWN UP plus crossovers with WILD THORNBERRIES. This may be in the TVCU.
December 2002--JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES--"A Jolly J-Team X-Mas"--Santa appears.
December 2002--BECKER--"Chris-Mess"--Santa appears.
December 2002--FAIRLY ODDPARENTS--"Boys in the Band/Hex Games"--Santa appears.
December 2002--SOUTH PARK--"Red Sleigh Down"--When an attempt to bring Christmas to Iraq turns disastrous, the boys head to Iraq with Jesus and Mr. Hankey to save Santa from terrorists.
December 2003--HEBREW HAMMER--One of the other dimensional tulpa variants of Santa is killed by his evil son, who wants to destroy Chanukah. The Jewish Justice League (not to be confused with that other Justice League) sends the Hebrew Hammer to save Chanukah. The Hammer's office is down the hall from Mike Hammer's, though probably not the original Mike Hammer but a relative. Also, Santa's son has an evil henchman who appears to be young Tiny Tim from Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL all grown up, and not such a good person.
December 2003--MOBY PRESENTS: ALIEN SEX PARTY--Santa appears, as does Dante Hicks from CLERKS.
December 2003--STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE: BERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS--Santa appears. Shortcake's people seem to have a more sinister cousin race as seen in DRAWN TOGETHER.
December 2003--THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY NEUTRON: BOY GENIUS--Santa appears. Jimmy Neutron lives in the Looniverse.
December 2004--A BOYFRIEND FOR CHRISTMAS--Santa is played by Charles Durning.
December 2004--AQUA UNIT PATROL SQUAD 1--"T-Shirt of the Living Dead"--Santa appears.
December 2004--MICKEY'S TWICE UPON A CHRISTMAS--Santa appears.
December 2004--SEED OF CHUCKY--Santa appears.
December 2004--LAX--"Secret Santa"--Santa appears.
December 2004--SOUTH PARK--"Woodland Critter Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 2005--THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF BILLY & MANDY--"Billy and Mandy Save Christmas"--Santa appears.
December 2005--ER--"All About Christmas Eve"--Santa appears.
December 2005--THE SIMPSONS--"Bonfire of the Manatees"--Santa appears.
December 2005--THE SIMPSONS--"Simpsons Christmas Stories"--Santa appears.
2006--THE SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE--Jack Frost tricks Calvin into giving up his Santa powers. The two travel back to 1994 where Jack puts on Santa's coat, creating an alternate timeline. Eventually Scott is able to restore the original timeline and his Santa powers. Note that Rudolph is mentioned in this one, placing a connection to the Rankin-Bass timeline.
December 2006--BLACK CHRISTMAS--Sana appears. This film seems to be connected to the original version of Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, and Warehouse 13 due to a certain lamp in the house, certainly a "major award", and from Italy, as it's "Fragile". The lamp was broken in the 40s, but somehow restored, and relocated to two houses involved in very similar sets of murders. It's no wonder eventually it wound up in Warehouse 13.
December 2006--MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE--"Mickey Saves Santa"--Santa gets stuck in the mountains, so Mickey, Donald, Goofy, ect. come to the rescue.
Summer 2007--PHINEAS AND FERB (Episodes 1 - 104)--Phineas and Ferb are extremely intelligent 10 year old step brothers who constantly seek out a new adventure each afternoon of the summer. The fact that their parents are ignorant of the weirdness around them is an annoyance to their 15 year old sister. Meanwhile, their pet platypus is only pretending to be normal as he really is a secret agent, constantly thwarting an evil scientists plans every afternoon. The brobots of "I, Brobot" originally appeared in an episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Jimmy Neutron probably takes place in the Looniverse, though. Santa Claus is also in this episode. At the end of "Wizard of Odd", Isabella instructs Abraham Lincoln, Santa Claus, an astronaut and Pinocchio to follow the yellow sidewalk, among others.
October 2007--SOUTH PARK--"Imaginationland"--The boys discover Imaginationland. This is actually simply a portion of the Looniverse where Anomaly sometimes teleports real beings from the multiverse due to the nature of the Looniverse and it's Tulpa state. Thus, we can consider this a major crossover event. In Imaginationland, one of the good guys is Santa Claus.
December 2007--BONES--"The Santa in the Slush"--After his bad experience in Seattle, Larry must have moved to Washington, D.C. where he still played Santa. (Played again by Donovan Scott.)
December 2007--POOH'S SUPER SLEUTH CHRISTMAS MOVIE--Santa appears.
December 2007--ELMO'S CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN--Santa appears.
December 2008--LEVERAGE--"The Six Days of Christmas Job"--John Drake, now under the name of Drake Rafferty, is a department store Santa.
December 2008--A MUPPETS CHRISTMAS: LETTERS TO SANTA--Three letters to Santa accidentally end up in Gonzo's hands, so he gets his friends to help him get them to the North Pole. Of course they meet Santa. Santa Claus has many appearances in the TVCU.
December 2008--A COLBERT CHRISTMAS: THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL!--Santa appears.
December 2008--FAIRLY ODDPARENTS--"Merry Wishmas"--Santa appears.
December 2008--BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD--"Invasion of the Secret Santas!"--Santa appears. This takes place in a divergent Looniverse reality labeled by Bat-Mite as Earth-23.
December 2008--HANNAH MONTANA--"Killing Me Softly With His Height"--Santa appears.
Early December 2009--THE MIDDLE--"Christmas"--After the bad experience in D.C., Larry (Donovan) moves to Orson, Indiana, thinking it a better place to play Santa.
Mid December 2009--IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA--"Charlie vs. Santa Claus"--Santa Larry was almost driven insane by one child, and must have fled town immediately, thinking Philly would be better. (After all, it's always sunny.) Watch here to find out how wrong he was.
December 2009--MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE--"Choo Choo Express"--Santa appears.
December 2009--CSI: NY--"Second Chances"--Santa appears.
December 2009--FAMILY GUY--"Stew-Roids"--Santa appears.
April 2010--SOUTH PARK--"201"--Santa appears.
2010--THE THREE GIFTS--"Santa Larry" seems to have transcended from store Santa to the real deal, and uses his powers initially in a ruse to bring the Christmas spirit to three troubled teens.
October 2010--FAMILY GUY--"Excellence in Broadcasting"--Rush Limbaugh and John McCain's mystery cutaway is a parody of Scooby-Doo, Where are You?. The guest appearance by the Harlem Globetrotters is a reference to The New Scooby-Doo Movies, which in fact, had the Globetrotters guest star three times. This is the third time that American Dad! crossed over with Family Guy. Stan Smith, the main protagonist from the show, makes a brief cameo appearance. With this episode, Barack Obama joins Jesus Christ as the only characters to appear in all three of Seth MacFarlane's shows. Brian Griffin and Santa Claus would appear later on American Dad! to become the third and fourth members respectively.
December 2010--AMERICAN DAD!--"For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls"--Santa is seen floating in a tank of fluid similar to the tank of Bacta where Luke Skywalker recovers in Echo Base' medical lab.
December 2010--KAYS--Santa Larry helps a guy pick out a gift.
December 2010--THE GAME--Santa Larry begins delivering gifts, and has a bad encounter.
December 2010 (and the 44th Century and 1952)--DOCTOR WHO--"Christmas Special"--The Doctor calls Father Christmas "Jeff". If there's one Santa for the Looniverse and TVCU, then likely he is the same guy over in the Whoniverse, being one of the very few really magical beings able to exist there.
December 2010--30 ROCK--"Chain Reaction of Mental Anguish"--Santa appears.
December 2010--FAMILY GUY--"Road to the North Pole"--Santa appears.
December 2012--IT'S A SPONGEBOB CHRISTMAS--Santa appears.
December 2012--A FAIRLY ODD CHRISTMAS--Santa appears.
The Not to Distant Future--MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000--"Santa Claus"--The gang poke fun at the long-standing adversarial relationship between Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
2801--Futurama--"Xmas Story"--Robot Santa is built.
The Far Future--RED DWARF--"Meltdown"--Santa appears.
CINEVERSE--There are lots of movies with either the real Santa or someone wearing the suit. See this list from IMDB.
TVCU2--Santa appears on Lois and Clark in the episode "Season's Greetings".
Note that all the TV shows listed with a comment simply of "Santa appears" are listed because that particular show has already been shown to exist in the TVCU. Santa is multiversal and so is not a connector. Santa doesn't bring anything in, but if Santa appears on a show that's already in the TVCU, then that appearance of Santa is in the TVCU.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Ho Ho Ho! The Santa Blog
Posted by Robert E. "Robyn" Wronski, Jr. at 4:12 PM
Labels: Animation, Character Name In Title, Christmas, Comedy, Drama, Family, Family Relationships, Santa Claus
2 comments:
Interesting stuff, Robert! Glad you could work Santa Larry into it with your own twist. I like Donovan Scott as Santa......ReplyDelete
Thanks for sharing useful information article to us keep sharing the upadtes.ReplyDelete
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text:
Regular price
You have something unique to offer to this world. Something that only you can do, make, or simply be that will leave this place more beautiful than it was before. What is that fire in your heart? What is your passion or gift that only you can give to make the world around you more beautiful?
The I am... collection reminds us of that something we must not hold back from sharing. The world is a better place when we do.
So fill in the blank. I am....
I am... No. 12
Acrylic on paper
8x10 inches


text:
I have a MacBook Air mid 2012 with i7 CPU. The one with Ivy Bridge.
I have connectivity problems with wifi running Arch Linux which I keep updated regularily. Throughput and response time performance decrease a lot when I move away from the AP (tried several networks with similar results).
Strangely I don't experience the same issues with OS X. I have tried switching between Mountain Lion and Arch Linux while staying in the exact same position. OS X performs perfectly while Linux can't even ping the router.
Are there any settings that I am missing? Should I use some particular driver?
lspci gives me
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)
Trying to change power with iwconfig gives me:
-> % sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off
Error for wireless request "Set Power Management" (8B2C) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Operation not supported.
Addition: I installed the broadcom-wl driver. The connection seams to be a little bit more stable. But there is still a long way to go compared to OS X.
lspci now reports
02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43224 802.11a/b/g/n (rev 01)
Subsystem: Apple Inc. Device 00e9
Kernel driver in use: wl


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Swisher's struggles don't concern Francona
CLEVELAND -- The last thing Indians manager Terry Francona is going to do is make too much of a slump roughly two weeks into the season. That is especially true when it comes to a veteran player such as Nick Swisher.
Heading into Friday's game with the Blue Jays, Swisher was hitting just .164 (10-for-61) with two home runs, one double and seven RBIs in 15 games. The switch-hitter had 14 strikeouts compared to eight walks to go along with a .261 on-base percentage and .279 slugging percentage.
"For whatever reason, some players get off to a cold start," Francona said. "It always happens, and you dont have a remedy, or a pill to take. You have to ride it out and work hard. The good part is, you look at the back of their baseball card.
"I'm telling you, they're going to get to their level, the guys that are struggling. As hard as it is now, when they get hot, they're going to get real hot."
For his career, Swisher has turned in a .255/.358/.462 slash line over 1,354 games, with at least 20 home runs in nine consecutive seasons. He had a prolonged cold spell to open last season, when he hit .229 over the first 65 games. When the season ended, Swisher turned in a .246/.341/.423 line with 22 homers, 27 doubles, 63 RBIs and 77 walks in 145 games.
Francona said he has been pleased to this point that Swisher has not let the early struggles affect his attitude.
"I just think Swish wants so bad for us to be good," Francona said. "That's probably the biggest [thing]. Even [on Thursday], he was having a pretty tough day at the plate and, when we were showing signs of getting that tying run on or trying to get the tying run to the plate, he was about as loud as anybody.
"He wants to win. I've never seen Swish, on a personal bad day, not be excited when we win. And I mean that about as complimentary as you can say it."


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The e-learning course is designed for content administrators with no previous experience with Kentico CMS/EMS who work with websites built on Portal Engine. You will learn how to add, structure, and maintain content on your site and perform the most common web editor tasks.
This e-learning course is intended for non-technical users with only basic computer skills who have little or no previous experience with Kentico. No programming skills are required. This course is estimated to take 6 - 7 hours.
You only need a web browser, an Internet connection, and an environment conducive to studying.
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Hi everyone,
This build transitions our latest work on the experimental branch to the stable branch – the new Storage system. In case you missed our rundown of the new feature in the experimental patch notes, the mechanics are very simple and fast – if you're looking at a container, press [Tab] to open it to display a similar radial style menu as the backpack inventory. The basic radial mechanics are the same as the inventory, except now you will see a small backpack at the bottom that you can click on to toggle between your backpack and the storage container and vice-versa. Clicking on items in either 'container' will transfer the item to the other container. Most containers will be able to be picked up, but containers cannot store other containers.
Every couple of months we pause to revaluate the project to make sure we're on the right track, listen to feedback and address outstanding bugs. We've made some adjustments in this build based on player feedback. A few players have requested the option to choose between toggling the new radial menus open vs. the existing 'rocker' functionality so we've added an option for that in the input settings. We've improved the Charging mechanic for projectile-based weapons so you can now stop charging a weapon without needing to wait for the charging animation to complete. It seems like a small tweak but all helps to add polish. The new Crafting menu now also keeps a bit more of a memory. Individual crafting category tabs will keep a memory of their last subcategory and scroll position until you change category. This should help speed up things like building in particular where you might use the same tab and combination multiple times. One of the bigger changes is that we've removed the polarizing Discovery Fog feature which you can read more details on in the patch notes below. We're also actively working on bringing back the old Infinite Procedural Generation. Please bear with us while we work on integrating this system with the Cartographer. The Cartographer will still remain, providing a small starting world or 'archipelago' to start in. From there you can venture further out from the starting world and it will be infinite in any direction. We're also working on an end game scenario which will require you to find rare items and put down roots on an island to piece together your recue.
We've noticed a lot of support emails coming in regarding missing subcategories in the new Crafting menu. 9.9/10 this is fixed by verifying the game files in Steam. It appears to be a problem with Steam's version control between the updates as the problem is solved by verifying the files.
Have fun!
Stay Alive!
:: Beam Team
– Added reminder to craft a Shelter to Save in pause menu.
– Added option for Radial Menus to choose between toggle and rocker behaviour.
– Added ability to interrupt charging sequence for projectile weapons.
– Added edit and delete buttons to custom maps in the Cartographer.
– Added tooltip to view details of maps placed in the world when hovered over.
– Added Building rotation with new key-bindings.
– Added Billboard Density quality setting.
– Changed Inventory to show slot quantity permanently.
– Changed Crafting menu to remember last subcategory and scroll position.
– Changed to not freeze movement when opening inventory.
– Increased Fibrous Leave's inventory stack capacity.
– Fixed Dragging not using current clicked position making dragging more difficult than it should be.
– Fixed animal Ragdoll bones only saving position not physics related data, ie: stop Sharks flying when loaded. This fix is not retroactive but will take effect after your next save.
– Fixed projectiles interfering with Ragdoll physics when killed.
– Fixed floating Containers when loading a Custom Map.
– New Storage Menu!
– New Building Mechanic!
Building has been expanded and broken down. Most building pieces now have 2 different stages of construction. Once the initial building piece has been placed you use your Hammer on the piece to finish off constructing it. This new mechanic will tie into player and weather effects in a future update. Incomplete walls and floors won't protect you as well from the elements as completed pieces. Likewise, lower tiers will offer less protection from sun and rain than higher tiers. Weather effects will also deteriorate building pieces so you will have to repair your structures as they're damaged. This provides a purpose and motivation to find better building materials that offer better protection and resistance to weather. The new system has been integrated with the Wood, Plank and Corrugated tiers. Driftwood and Steel are yet to be completed as we're re-evaluating and finalizing the base and highest tiers. Existing building pieces also have additional LOD's.
– New Loot Containers!
Added new Wood Crate, Small Locker, Large Locker and Console models. Added these new containers to Shipwreck and Sea Fort generation. Locker and Console containers are fixed and cannot be moved like Wood Crates. We will also be expanding these with craftable storage like woven baskets and a few more types of containers that you can find by exploring now that the new Storage system is completed.
– Removed Discovery Fog.
The Discovery Fog has been a polarizing feature. Some players liked it, others disliked it, others didn't mind it and it just plain confused the rest. It did serve a technical purpose to hide un-generated islands and their billboards suddenly popping in. It also helped performance by having less billboards on-screen, however once you've discovered the islands in the area around you they all end up being drawn anyway. In any case, the feature has been removed. Now we generate the billboards as soon as a zone is visible and we've also added a Billboard Density setting to control the quality and amount of billboards generated for a zone for different systems. Further optimizations to this will be coming with our work on bringing back the infinite generation.


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State Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby, speaking Tuesday in Taunton, said he hasn't decided what the commission will consider when evaluating the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe's chances of getting its federal land-in-trust application approved. Without federal approval, the tribe could not pursue a casino under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has not yet determined what criteria it will use to make a decision that could have a major impact on the casino landscape in southeastern Massachusetts.
State Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby, speaking Tuesday in Taunton, said he hasn't decided what the commission will consider when evaluating the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe's chances of getting its federal land-in-trust application approved. Without federal approval, the tribe could not pursue a casino under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
"It's so far away from where we are, we just haven't talked about that," Crosby said.
Under the state law that legalized casino gambling, a federally recognized American Indian tribe has an exclusive first shot at the one casino allowed in southeastern Massachusetts. If the Gaming Commission, however, determines that the tribe's federal land issues are too significant to overcome, it has the authority to solicit bids from commercial entities for the casino license.
The Mashpee, whose casino proposal won support from Taunton voters in a recent referendum, are currently negotiating a compact with the governor. If the state legislature doesn't approve a compact between the state and the tribe by July 31, that would also open the process to commercial bidders.
"If a compact is reached and approved by the legislature, as long as the commission believes there's a reasonable chance that land-in-trust will happen, it will not issue a commercial license," Crosby said, adding that such a compact could be completed within the next week or two.
Crosby was the guest speaker at a forum the Taunton Area Chamber of Commerce and Pro-Home Inc. hosted at Benjamin's Restaurant.
State Rep. Keiko Orrall, R-Lakeville, was among those in attendance who asked questions during the Q&A portion of the forum. When she asked Crosby how long after July 31 the commission would wait to determine whether the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe's land-in-trust application has a shot at federal approval, he said it was difficult to pin down a specific amount of time.
"I think too terribly long would be some number of years," Crosby said.
The state law, he said, is intended to allow up to one casino in each of three designated regions of Massachusetts, including the Southeast. The provision that allows the Gaming Commission to open the bids up to commercial entities if it determines the tribe's chances of getting land-in-trust are unreasonable, he explained, is designed to prevent the region from languishing in casino limbo if the federal-tribal process stalls.
"The legislation was designed to make sure southeastern Massachusetts would have an opportunity for a casino," he said.
Another factor in the process could be a 2009 Supreme Court decision that the Department of the Interior can only take land into trust for tribes under federal jurisdiction before the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. Some observers say that decision makes the process all but insurmountable for the Mashpee, although Mashpee leaders have said for months that they believe they will overcome that obstacle.
Crosby also discussed the state's rationale for giving an American Indian tribe the first shot at the southeastern Massachusetts market. If the state were to issue a license for a commercial casino in southeastern Massachusetts, the Mashpee could still pursue a tribal casino in the region under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. If that happened there would be four casinos in Massachusetts. The state law allows for three casinos because that's the number state officials decided Massachusetts could sustain without the market getting oversaturated.
"There was always going to be the possibility that a Native American tribe could have a casino by federal rights," Crosby said. "This gives some high degree of certainty that there would just be one (casino in southeastern Massachusetts)."
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is holding a scoping meeting Wednesday night in Taunton to solicit public comments as it prepares an environmental impact statement on the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe's land-in-trust application.
At Tuesday's forum, Crosby also spent some time discussing the portion of the gambling law that allows for one slot machine parlor in Massachusetts. Raynham Park owner George Carney has long expressed interest in getting slots at his facility. Crosby said the Gaming Commission hasn't yet discussed which locations, relative to a casino site, would be best for suited for a slots parlor.
"Whether you want the, close together or you don't want them close together, we haven't discussed yet," he said. "The legislation says nothing about the siting of a slots parlor."
Contact Gerry Tuoti at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Included in this purchase are the mp3 track, wav stems and 100% royalty-free rights.
This track will be sold to one customer only and then removed from the website.
Put your own lyrics and vocals onto this track now before it gets bought by someone else!
What is included with this purchase?
You will receive the master track in MP3 format, the stem files in WAV format, and 100% royalty-free rights.
Can I get the master track in MP3 format?
In order to save storage space on our server, the master track is only saved in MP3 format. However if you open the stems in your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) such as Ableton and Logic Pro X, you will be able to create another master track in WAV format by saving all the stem files into one file.
What are stems?
Stems, also known as construction loops and packs, are groups of audio tracks that are combined to create the final master track. For example, if the track contains drum, piano and violin, you would have 3 stem files: 1 for the drum, 1 for the piano and 1 for the violin.
How many times will this track be sold?
This track will be sold to one customer only and then removed from the website. So if you want it, buy it now before someone else does!
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Once you have purchased this track, the full copyright ownership will be transferred to you.
Who was this track composed by?
All our composers are leading experts in the musical industry. Many of their works have been on commerical radios and films.
Can you give me the exact name and/or contact details of the composer?
In order to protect our composers (some of them are contracted by major publishing labels and are forbidden to do any outside work) and prevent customers from privately contacting them, we have made all our composers anonymous.
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Please contact us.


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BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 will bring significant enhancements to the Documents To Go® suite, as well as the addition of a brand new application: Print To Go. The Docs To Go office suite has a history of being a staple for working while on the go, allowing you to create, edit, and share Microsoft® Office documents. Print To Go makes it quick and easy to transfer in electronic format, any content that you could print from your PC to the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, instead of printing a hardcopy. Together these solutions offer you a productive and familiar way to work with files and reference important data.
For those that are unfamiliar with Docs To Go, it is a powerful mobile office suite that allows you to view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel®, and PowerPoint® files and attachments on BlackBerry® smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. You also have the ability to present PowerPoint documents from your BlackBerry PlayBook by plugging into a projector or TV via an HDMI connection. While in presenter mode, speaking notes are visible on your PlayBook, while your presentation itself is visible from the projector or TV. Updates to BlackBerry® Bridge™ in PlayBook OS 2.0 further enhance this feature by allowing you to control "back" and "next" functionality using your BlackBerry smartphone.
Feature Improvements to the Docs To Go Suite
- Editing text within Microsoft PowerPoint documents is now supported
- The suite now supports BlackBerry® Balance™ for keeping corporate documents and data secure
- Find & Replace functionality has been added to the Microsoft Word and Excel feature list
- Bluetooth® keyboards and keyboard-shortcuts are now supported
- You can now clear files from the "Recently Used Files" list
- Password-protected Office 2010 files can now be accessed
- When presenting, you can now use your BlackBerry smartphone with BlackBerry Bridge as a remote control to move forward and backward through your presentation
Specific enhancements have been implemented for individual applications within the suite.
- While editing Microsoft Word documents, you'll have the ability to create and edit both bulleted and numbered lists.
- Editing Microsoft Excel files includes functionality which allows you to copy, paste, and resize cells, rows, and columns. Additionally, you may view and update embedded charts and chart sheets. Lastly, a new formula wizard has been added for easy entry of over 110 supported functions.
- Working with Microsoft PowerPoint files will include editing of text in in both .ppt and .pptx file formats, and also allows you to hide/show slides with basic HDMI presenter-mode optimizations. Lastly, viewing of charts within PowerPoint .pptx files has also been improved.
Introducing Print To Go version 1.0
Print To Go eliminates the hassle of mountains of paper files by wireless printing from your laptop or PC directly to your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with the simple click of a "print" button. With an easy-to-install Microsoft® Windows® application, Print To Go is added as a printer to your system. You can view, sort, and manage digital printouts from various sources like web pages, documents, emails, or other applications – all within a very slick and intuitive user interface that mimics physical sheets of paper, which was inspired by our friends over at The Astonishing Tribe (TAT).
For example, before jumping on a plane to attend CES 2012 in Las Vegas, I printed all of the planning documents and schedules that I had kept on my PC, right to my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which allowed me to reference these files while en route. I did the same with a map of the city, as well as my flight and hotel booking information. In the office, I have the ability to quickly transfer a document to my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet for use in a meeting or a coffee shop conversation with a colleague. Taking your work on the go is quick and functional with PlayBook OS 2.0 and the Print To Go application. For solutions that allow you to print documents from your PlayBook tablet to a physical printer, look no further than BlackBerry App World™.
On to the specifics!
Print To Go version 1.0 includes the following:
- A Microsoft® Windows® application that installs a virtual "Print To Go" printer onto your computer that can be accessed from any application that allows printing (e.g. Microsoft Office, web pages, image viewers, and more)
- Secure wireless peer-to-peer printing from your PC to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet over Wi-Fi®, including end-to-end encryption of the documents
- If you have BlackBerry Balance in use on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, all printouts are automatically sent to the secure "Work" partition
- Secure printing using your BlackBerry ID
- Notifications on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet when new printouts arrive
- A Print To Go app on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet that allows you to view, sort, and manage printouts as if they were physical stacks of paper on a desktop
- A virtual paper shredder for deleting the digital printouts from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
These enhancements to the Docs To Go office suite, as well as the addition of Print To Go, will truly push the abilities of mobile work far forward. Working from your tablet, especially when using a Bluetooth keyboard or an HDMI monitor connection, now provides a higher level of functionality and capability when creating, editing, presenting or sharing documents. We hope that Print To Go will not only save paper, but also help you to unclutter your work life by keeping your desk clean and allowing you to use your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as a resource for handling printed documents.
How will you use Print To Go in your daily work? Share in the comments below.


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Poll: US support of gambling at high
Americans' support of legalized gambling is at all-time high, according to a new poll prepared for the casino industry's main trade group.
The report for the American Gaming Association also supports an assertion the gambling industry has long held: that casinos should be treated like any other business and not subjected to vastly higher taxes.
The poll finds 57 percent favor casino gambling, and 87 percent say gambling in general is an acceptable activity.
The survey, released Tuesday, shows that three-quarters of casino visitors set a budget, with more than half limiting themselves to $200.
The telephone poll of 1,000 voters, done last month by Democratic pollster Mark Mellman and Republican Glen Bolger, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.


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I am so happy to be part of the celebration and look forward to hearing all about beautiful baby Violet and her debut on December 7th:)
I know that Meaghan is as crazy about cookies (and other treats) on-a-stick as I am, so I thought this would be the perfect sweet treat to bring to the shower. I mean really, what is a celebration without balloons, especially cookie balloon pops! The bright, rainbow colors just lend themselves to the joyful occasion.
The pink heart balloon smack dab in the middle was made just for the new baby girl, and since I found out (after I had readied the post)) the baby's name is Violet, the balloon on the far left is especially for her too:)
Congratulations Meaghan, on your little pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! With love and best wishes to your family of four! XO! I hope you have a speedy recovery! Wish I was next door so I could bring you a casserole:)
Rainbow Sugar Cookie Balloons {on-a-stick}
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients and add to butter mixture.
Mix well. Use right away or place in refrigerator.
Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes (Roll them on the thicker side to make into cookie pops). Place on the cookie sheet, but leave room for the sticks. Insert stick gently, but firmly. I usually press down gently on the cookie with my left hand, while I insert the stick with my right hand. You may even want to make a small slit with a sharp, small knife to make insertion easier.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes* or just until beginning to turn brown around the edges.
Let cool on the cookie sheet for about 15 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack (place spatula under the spot where the cookie and stick meet, for support, as you transfer them).
Let cool completely.
Decorate with a variety of colors of royal icing. Let dry completely.
Tie curly ribbon at the top of each stick, and curl.
*My cookies seem to take about 15-18 minutes to bake. It may be because of their size, or my oven. Start timing on the low end because you can always add more time...just keep an eye on your cookies to achieve desired doneness.
Royal Icing
3 3/4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
3 T meringue powder (I buy it at Michael's)
6 T warm water
Beat 4-5 minutes, until smooth
If you want it thicker(to outline) add a little more sugar. If you need it thinner (flow consistency) to "fill in," add a little bit more water. Trial and error. Experience will help:)
I put my icing into separate bowls and add food coloring (I use AmeriColor and Wilton gel) to make a variety of colors:)
After you outline the borders of your cookies, you need to allow them to dry before you fill them in. I usually allow at least 15 minutes. Then you can fill them in...I icing bags. Let them dry at least an hour before adding any details. I usually let them dry overnight after this step, just to make sure that they are good and dry! Yep, it's time consuming, but worth it! After they are completely dry, they can be stacked (to store) or packaged:) Hope these tips help out!
One last tip: If you are having a problem with your cookies holding their shape, it helps a lot if you put them in the freezer on the baking sheet for about 15 minutes before you bake them.
Here's a link to all the partygoers and their rainbow treats:
1. Vanilla Bean Baker - Baby's First Christmas
2. Not Your Momma's Cookie - Rainbow Swaddled Baby Cookies
3. Crazy for Crust - Rainbow Peanut Butter Cookie Cups
4. Dollhouse Bake Shoppe - Rainbow Sprinkle Sugar Cookies
5. Creative Food - Rainbow Pancakes
6. Hoosier Homemade - Rainbow Jar Cupcakes
7. Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons - Rainbow Smores Pops
8. Pink Little Cake - Baby at the End of the Rainbow Cake
9. Love From the Oven - Rainbow Cake Pop Cupcakes
10. Munchkin Munchies - Rainbow Balloon Cookies
11. The Baked Equation - Rainbow Baby Shower Cookies
12. Sweetology - Marshmallow Baby Pops
13. Sugar Swings - Rainbow Madeleines
14. Pint Sized Baker - Rainbow Meringue Tarts
15. Bird on a Cake - Rainbow Petal Cake
16. Haniela's - Rainbow Centerpiece
17. Miss Candiquik - Marshmallow Baby Bottles
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