text:
Audit Assistant Manager/Manager - Amsterdam, NL
FPSG, working in close partnership with a globally renowned Firm, have an exceptional Audit Assistant Manager/Manager opportunity to join our client on a full-time permanent basis based out of one of their key Netherlands offices.
As part of sustained success and in line with our clients development plans for 2020, this role offers fantastic career prospects and will see you join what is a highly regarded & industry recognised firm.
Pre-audit scoping and preparation, identifying audit risks and performing preliminary evaluation of client's internal control structure to identify weaknesses and areas for management consideration and improvement
Carry out audit planning procedures including the design of audit tests
Complete audit files
Review client-prepared financial statement and other management reports.
Responsible for on-site management and supervision of junior team members, providing on-the job coaching to support their on-going development
Maintain good client relationships
Act as an ambassador of the firm, building relationships and promoting the firm at every opportunity to facilitate new business opportunities
Ideally you will be a newly or recently qualified accountant looking to progress your career. This position would be an excellent for candidates with the following background/experience:
Understands the role and function of audit for a large range of different entities and has a good understanding of audit techniques including planning, interviewing, documentation, testing, and conclusions and reporting.
Possesses a strong technical knowledge and understanding of current accounting and audit regulations and issues.
Has proven client handling experience and the ability to supervise and motivate more junior members of staff.
Has excellent communication, skills and is able to display initiative and good problem solving ability
Highly PC literate with excellent knowledge of Windows software and accounting systems.
In return, our client is offering a highly competitive package which includes a generous holiday allowance & professional development support.
To apply for this position, please send an updated version of your CV via the "APPLY NOW" link on this page.
For a list of other potential vacancies and to register for future opportunities, please visit:
FPSG is committed to equal opportunities regardless of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age.
We are Disability Confident and neurodiverse aware. If you have a disability, please tell us if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make to assist you in your application or with your recruitment process


text:
Elements Of Style
Design Crush: Nina Farmer Interiors
When I quickly perused the new House Beautiful I stopped when I saw one particular spread. I looked closer and found out that the home I was admiring was not only in Boston's Beacon Hill but the designer was too! Nina Farmer's own home is a really interesting mix of modern, traditional and personal. And when I went on her site to peruse her portfolio I found many, many more examples of her amazing work!
Parts of the HB spread (isn't this first image arresting?)
Ahh, the amazing interior architecture of historic Boston brownstones- such an fabulous canvas on which to work! How I crave high ceilings like this!
I ADORE ADORE this office space in her kitchen- particularly that rug and those coral peonies! Oh my!
I mean…this kitchen. With those windows. And that stove? Can you even?
BAM- yup, that's a skylight with a vintage sputnik light fixture hanging from it.
A closer look. My my my.
Her dramatic and moody bedroom swathed in grasscloth with a Room & Board four poster bed.
See more of her portfolio after the jump!
The floor on the bathroom at left is KILLER. And I'm not sure what the screen is embedded in this wall at right but I love it.
Can you even fathom a closet like this? I can.
DIE. I'm dead. I'm seriously dead over this kitchen entryway. That door? Are you serious???
I spy a little Jill Rosenwald!
A soothing bedroom.
I just LOVE this kid's room- the orange bookshelf interiors with that rug is just perfection.
The exposed widows show off all the intricate woodwork and that deep turquoise sofa creates a wow factor against the other neutral items and wall color.
the kitchen looking into that above living room.
The details.
This is the palette of my new bathroom (minus the brass framed glass door).
Oh Beacon Hill…..
Another bright, beautiful kitchen.
I love the wood interior of this shelving recess and the gorgeous wallpaper right in a powder room.
I have been DYING to use this colored wood grain wallpaper in a kid's room FOREVER. So fun to see it installed!
The coolest, sweetest little girl's room that doesn't employ pink or purple!
Great, right?
A good example of making even the smallest vignettes in your home worth looking at.
A simple bath.
Neutral goodness…
A soothing city garden. Can't wait for SPRING!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
NASA released the first natural-color image of Saturn from space showing the planet, its moons and rings, as well as the planets Earth, Venus and Mars.
The new panoramic image of the Saturn system, taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, shows the view, as human eyes would see it. It was unveiled at the Newseum in Washington Tuesday, according to a news release from NASA.
The spacecraft's imaging team processed 141 wide-angle images to create the single panorama mosaic, which sweeps across 404,880 miles of Saturn and its inner ring system.
U.S. & World
"In this one magnificent view, Cassini has delivered to us a universe of marvels," Carolyn Porco, Cassini's imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., said in the release. "And it did so on a day people all over the world, in unison, smiled in celebration at the sheer joy of being alive on a pale blue dot."
Porco is referencing Cassini's "Wave at Saturn" campaign, when on July 19, people knew in advance that a spacecraft was taking their picture from planetary distances. The space agency encouraged amateur astronomers from across the world to celebrate by finding Saturn in their part of the sky, waving at the ringed planet and sharing their pictures on the Internet.
The spacecraft doesn't attempt to take many pictures of Earth because the sun is so close that an unobstructed view would damage the spacecraft's sensitive detectors.
But on July 19, a good opportunity came when Cassini was able to capture a picture of Earth and its moon with the multi-image, backlit panorama of the Saturn system.
NASA began exploring Saturn's system in 1997 and will continue the mission of collecting many more images of the ringed planet until 2017.


text:
While some businesses with more than 50 employees were relieved to have another year to comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the new deadline could have an unintended effect.
Credit Union Exchange Blueprint, a Birmingham, Ala.-based private exchange for credit unions and members that provides online access to insurance carriers, said it believes the decision to extend the compliance deadline for providing health insurance coverage to employees will cause more companies to drop their group coverage and send staffers to the individual market.
"Large employers will also hurt many of their employees by offering coverage, but they've been 'stuck between a rock and a hard place' since they faced severe penalties of $2,000 per full-time worker if they failed to provide coverage," said EPL, the credit union core processing specialist in Birmingham, Ala., providing the technology behind CUEB.
"With that threat removed, large employers can now make their decision the same way small employers will – based on what's best for the employees," EPL said.
Wayne Benson, CEO of EPL, said there is an opportunity here to educate.
"We know credit unions are looking for answers to help their employer groups and for their own staff insurance needs, too. The changes are important to understand and we can assist," Benson offered.
Earlier this week, the White House announced that it would extend the deadline from 2014 to 2015 to allow employers with 50 or more employers to test the new reporting systems and make any necessary adaptations to their health benefits.
Prior to this announcement, small employers, which are not subject to the mandate, were already trying to decide whether to offer coverage next year or abandon it so that their employees could access the generous government subsidies through public and private exchanges, according to EPL.
With no employer mandate to force them to offer insurance, EPL said small employers are making their decision in part because of cost and in part because offering group health coverage could hurt workers and their family members by blocking them from the government tax credits.
"Employers offer benefits for a variety of reasons," said Josh Hilgers, president of Health Partners America, which has developed private exchange technology to help individuals access the premium tax credits, "but the number one reason is to attract and retain quality employees."
On Oct. 1, the federal government will open up marketplaces, commonly referred to as exchanges, to offer subsidies to the estimated 50 million uninsured Americans who can also start signing up for state-run health insurance programs.


text:
This Aerolite Hardshell luggage bag is the ideal trip/business travel bag, available in a smaller 21″ (Suitable as hand luggage for most airlines), or the larger 25″ or 29″.
A retractable handle for easy manoeuvrability.
4 Wheels make the bag easier to move, push, and pull all whilst standing upright.
The Hard durable tough shell surrounds and protects your belongings.
5 Year guarantee! See 'About Us' for more info
The 21″ model is acceptable as Hand Luggage with most airlines including Ryan air. Please check with your Airline.


text:
I'm a Cyborg, but that's ok
The fact that there has been a month of great cinema on (10 films a night) in Santiago and I have made it to just one of them is testament to my current state of chaos. I've been getting ready to go to Cambridge and Dublin, with stops in London and Oxford, starting tomorrow and have had a great deal of work to get done in the meantime. All good though...
Spanish has also been coming along reasonably, though I will have to take a new direction for it next month. I've learnt around 1000 words of Spanish vocab this month (not that difficult as many are very close to English and/or French) though knowing vocab is vastly different from being able to speak a language. Next month I will cool it on the vocab and attempt to learn 10 or so new, useful phrases a day.
A test of my Spanish vocab came when I took a late evening out to see the film mentioned in the title. I'm a Cyborg, but that's ok, is a Korean film by director Chan Wook-Park (director of the revenge trilogy starting with Old Boy) is a strange but rather beautiful film. Telling the story of a young woman who believes she is a cyborg and is sent to a psychiatric home, the story revolves around her relationshop with another of the patients who believes that he can steal people's souls. This second patient is played by the Korean singer Rain. Anyone who has lived in Asia will probably have seen pictures of Rain showing off his six-pack and prancing around onstage, his voice drowned out by that of his screaming fans. So, I was a little worried that he was going to be a rather hollow actor.
Quite the contrary however, he really is a superb actor and a rather fine yodeler, and moreover, never uses his looks to cover any lack of skill on screen. The performances of the patients are knowingly over the top and play up the various behavioural eccentricities that they display. These eccentricities are in general suitably caricatured for this not to feel exploitative.
As is usual in his films, Wook leaves some loose ends but more for effect than out of carelessness. He wants you to leave the film feeling puzzled as well as satisfied. He also can't help but put in a bit of relatively needless violence for his personal touch and the balletic scenes of the 'cyborg' getting revenge are typically Wook with tongue firmly set in cheek.
The love story which develops is touching and as the film finished the audience was impressed enough to give a round of applause. This is my first time in a Spanish cinema so I don't know how unusual this is, but it felt well deserved on this occasion.
Luckily, the month of solid vocab learning I've put myself through seems to have paid off as I could understand perhaps 80% of the subtitles - not the grammatical subtleties, but at least the general meaning. Having the beautiful tones of the Korean language (which I like a lot) with the Spanish subtitles was rather confusing for the first few minutes, but became decipherable after that.
This success with reading spurs me on to continue the rather tiring effort that I've been trying to keep up so far.
Anyway, if you're a fan of love stories set in psychiatric hospitals then your sure to enjoy this rather curious film from Wook.


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As is described in the Class Enhancement guide below, DataNucleus utilises the common technique of byte-code manipulation to make your normal Java classes "persistable". The mechanism provided by DataNucleus is to use an "enhancer" process to perform this manipulation before you use your classes at runtime. The process is very quick and easy.
How to use the DataNucleus Enhancer depends on what environment you are using. Below are some typical examples.
Maven operates from a series of plugins. There is a DataNucleus plugin for Maven that allows enhancement of classes. Go to the Download section of the website and download this. Once you have the Maven plugin, you then need to set any properties for the plugin in your pom.xml file. Some properties that you may need to change are below
|Name of the persistence-unit to enhance. Mandatory
|Directory to use for enhancement files (classes/mappings) For example, you could set this to ${project.build.testOutputDirectory} when enhancing Maven test classes
|**/*.jdo, **/*.class
|Fileset to include for enhancement (if not using persistence-unit)
|Fileset to exclude for enhancement (if not using persistence-unit)
|Config file location for Log4J (if using it)
|Config file location for JDK1.4 logging (if using it)
|API to enhance to (JDO, JPA). Mandatory : Set this to JPA
|Verbose output?
|No output?
|Where the enhanced classes are written (default is to overwrite them)
|Whether to fork the enhancer process (e.g if you get a command line too long with Windows).
|Generate a PK class (of name {MyClass}_PK) for cases where there are multiple PK fields yet no PK class is defined.
|Generate a default constructor if not defined for the class being enhanced.
|Whether to enhance classes to make use of a detach listener for attempts to access an undetached field.
|Whether to ignore classes that have metadata but are not found
You will need to add (org.datanucleus) datanucleus-api-jpa into the CLASSPATH (of the plugin, or your project) for the enhancer to operate. Similarly persistence-api (but then you almost certainly will have that in your project CLASSPATH anyway).
You then run the Maven DataNucleus plugin, as follows
mvn datanucleus:enhance
This will enhance all classes for the specified persistence-unit. If you want to check the current status of enhancement you can also type
mvn datanucleus:enhance-check
Or alternatively, you could add the following to your POM
<build> ... <plugins> <plugin> <groupId>org.datanucleus</groupId> <artifactId>datanucleus-maven-plugin</artifactId> <version>4.0.0-release</version> <configuration> <api>JPA</api> <persistenceUnitName>MyUnit</persistenceUnitName> <log4jConfiguration>${basedir}/log4j.properties</log4jConfiguration> <verbose>true</verbose> </configuration> <executions> <execution> <phase>process-classes</phase> <goals> <goal>enhance</goal> </goals> </execution> </executions> </plugin> </plugins> ... </build>
So you then get auto-enhancement after each compile. Please refer to the Maven JPA guide for more details.
Ant provides a powerful framework for performing tasks. DataNucleus provides an Ant task to enhance classes. DataNucleus provides an Enhancer in datanucleus-core.jar. You need to make sure that the datanucleus-core.jar, datanucleus-api-jpa.jar, log4j.jar (optional), and persistence-api.jar are in your CLASSPATH. In the DataNucleus Enhancer Ant task, the following parameters are available
|Optional. Defining a directory where enhanced classes will be written. If omitted, the original classes are updated.
|Optional. Whether to ignore classes that have metadata but aren't found
|Defines the API to be used when enhancing
|Set this to JPA
|Defines the "persistence-unit" to enhance.
|Whether to just check the classes for enhancement status. Will respond for each class with "ENHANCED" or "NOT ENHANCED". This will disable the enhancement process and just perform these checks.
|true, false
|Whether to have verbose output.
|true, false
|Whether to have no output.
|true, false
|Whether to generate PK classes as required.
|true, false
|Whether to generate a default constructor as required.
|true, false
|Optional. The name of a property that must be set in order to the Enhancer Ant Task to execute.
The enhancer task extends the Apache Ant Java task, thus all parameters available to the Java task are also available to the enhancer task.
So you could define something like the following, setting up the parameter enhancer.classpath, and log4j.config.file to suit your situation.
<target name="enhance" description="DataNucleus enhancement"> <taskdef name="datanucleusenhancer" classpathref="enhancer.classpath" classname="org.datanucleus.enhancer.EnhancerTask" /> <datanucleusenhancer persistenceUnit="MyUnit" failonerror="true" verbose="true"> <jvmarg line="-Dlog4j.configuration=${log4j.config.file}"/> <classpath> <path refid="enhancer.classpath"/> </classpath> </datanucleusenhancer> </target>
DataNucleus provides an Enhancer in datanucleus-core.jar. If you are building your application manually and want to enhance your classes you follow the instructions in this section. You invoke the enhancer as follows
java -cp classpath org.datanucleus.enhancer.DataNucleusEnhancer [options] where options can be -pu {persistence-unit-name} : Name of a "persistence-unit" to enhance the classes for -d {target-dir-name} : Write the enhanced classes to the specified directory -api {api-name} : Name of the API we are enhancing for (JDO, JPA). Set this to JPA -checkonly : Just check the classes for enhancement status -v : verbose output -q : quiet mode (no output, overrides verbose flag too) -ignoreMetaDataForMissingClasses : ignore classes that have metadata but aren't found -generatePK {flag} : generate any PK classes where needed ({flag} should be true or false - default=true) -generateConstructor {flag} : generate default constructor where needed ({flag} should be true or false - default=true) where "mapping-files" and "class-files" are provided when not enhancing a persistence-unit, and give the paths to the mapping files and class-files that define the classes being enhanced. where classpath must contain the following datanucleus-core.jar datanucleus-api-jpa.jar persistence-api.jar log4j.jar (optional) your classes your meta-data files
The input to the enhancer should be the name of the "persistence-unit" to enhance. To give an example of how you would invoke the enhancer
Linux/Unix : java -cp target/classes:lib/datanucleus-core.jar:lib/datanucleus-api-jpa.jar:lib/persistence-api.jar:lib/log4j.jar -Dlog4j.configuration=file:log4j.properties org.datanucleus.enhancer.DataNucleusEnhancer -api JPA -pu MyUnit Windows : java -cp target\classes;lib\datanucleus-core.jar;lib\datanucleus-api-jpa.jar;lib\persistence-api.jar;lib\log4j.jar -Dlog4j.configuration=file:log4j.properties org.datanucleus.enhancer.DataNucleusEnhancer -api JPA -pu MyUnit [should all be on same line. Shown like this for clarity]
So you pass in the persistence-unit name as the final argument(s) in the list, and include the respective JAR's in the classpath (-cp). The enhancer responds as follows
DataNucleus Enhancer (version 4.0.0.release) for API "JPA" DataNucleus Enhancer : Classpath >> /home/andy/work/myproject//target/classes >> /home/andy/work/myproject/lib/log4j.jar >> /home/andy/work/myproject/lib/persistence-api.jar >> /home/andy/work/myproject/lib/datanucleus-core.jar >> /home/andy/work/myproject/lib/datanucleus-api-jpa.jar ENHANCED (persistable): org.mydomain.mypackage1.Pack ENHANCED (persistable): org.mydomain.mypackage1.Card DataNucleus Enhancer completed with success for 2 classes. Timings : input=422 ms, enhance=490 ms, total=912 ms. ... Consult the log for full details
If you have errors here relating to "Log4J" then you must fix these first. If you receive no output about which class was ENHANCED then you should look in the DataNucleus enhancer log for errors. The enhancer performs much error checking on the validity of the passed MetaData and the majority of errors are caught at this point. You can also use the DataNucleus Enhancer to check whether classes are enhanced. To invoke the enhancer in this mode you specify the checkonly flag. This will return a list of the classes, stating whether each class is enhanced for persistence under JDO or not. The classes need to be in the CLASSPATH (Please note that a CLASSPATH should contain a set of JAR's, and a set of directories. It should NOT explictly include class files, and should NOT include parts of the package names. If in doubt please consult a Java book).
Enhancement of persistent classes at runtime is possible when using JRE 1.5 or superior versions. Runtime Enhancement requires the datanucleus-core jar be in the CLASSPATH but then you'd have that if using DataNucleus.
When operating in a JavaEE environment (JBoss, WebSphere, etc) instead set the persistence property datanucleus.jpa.addClassTransformer to true. Note that this is only for a real JavaEE server that implements the JavaEE parts of the JPA spec.
To enable runtime enhancement in other environments, the javaagent option must be set in the java command line. For example,
java -javaagent:datanucleus-core.jar=-api=JPA Main
The statement above will mean that all classes, when being loaded, will be processed by the ClassFileTransformer (except class in packages "java.*", "javax.*", "org.datanucleus.*"). This means that it can be slow since the MetaData search algorithm will be utilised for each. To speed this up you can specify an argument to that command specifying the names of package(s) that should be processed (and all others will be ignored). Like this
java -javaagent:datanucleus-core.jar=-api=JPA,mydomain.mypackage1,mydomain.mypackage2 Main
so in this case only classes being loaded that are in mydomain.mypackage1 and mydomain.mypackage2 will be attempted to be enhanced.
Please take care over the following when using runtime enhancement
You could alternatively programmatively enhance classes from within your application. This is done as follows.
import org.datanucleus.enhancer.DataNucleusEnhancer; DataNucleusEnhancer enhancer = new DataNucleusEnhancer("JPA", null); enhancer.setVerbose(true); enhancer.addPersistenceUnit("MyPersistenceUnit"); enhancer.enhance();
This will look in META-INF/persistence.xml and enhance all classes defined by that unit. Please note that you will need to load the enhanced version of the class into a different ClassLoader after performing this operation to use them. See this guide
DataNucleus requires that all classes that are persisted implement Persistable. Why should we do this, Hibernate/TopLink dont need it ?. Well that's a simple question really
Why not also read this comparison of bytecode enhancement, and proxies. It gives a clear enough comparison of the relative benefits.
In the DataNucleus bytecode enhancement contract there are 3 categories of classes. These are Entity, PersistenceAware and normal classes. The Meta-Data defines which classes fit into these categories. To give an example, we have 3 classes. The class A is to be persisted in the datastore. The class B directly updates the fields of class A but doesn't need persisting. The class C is not involved in the persistence process. We would define these classes as follows
@Entity public class A { String myField; ... } @org.datanucleus.api.jpa.annotations.PersistenceAware public class B { ... }
So our MetaData is mainly for those classes that are Entity (or MappedSuperclass/Embeddable) and are to be persisted to the datastore. For PersistenceAware classes we simply notate that the class knows about persistence. We don't define MetaData for any class that has no knowledge of persistence.
JPA allows implementations to bytecode enhance persistable classes to implement some interface to provide them with change tracking etc. Users could manually make their classes implement this Persistable interface but this would impose work on them. JPA permits the use of a byte-code enhancer that converts the users normal classes to implement this interface. DataNucleus provides its own byte-code enhancer (in the datanucleus-core.jar). This section describes how to use this enhancer with DataNucleus.
The example above doesn't show all Persistable methods, but demonstrates that all added methods and fields are prefixed with "dn" to distinguish them from the users own methods and fields. Also each persistent field of the class will be given a dnGetXXX, dnSetXXX method so that accesses of these fields are intercepted so that DataNucleus can manage their "dirty" state.
The MetaData defines which classes are required to be persisted, and also defines which aspects of persistence each class requires. With JPA all classes are additionally detachable meaning they can be detached so the class will be enhanced to also implement Detachable
The main thing to know is that the detached state (object id of the datastore object, the version of the datastore object when it was detached, and which fields were detached is stored in "dnDetachedState") is stored in the object when it is detached, and available to be merged later on.
If the MetaData is changed in any way during development, the classes should always be recompiled and re-enhanced afterwards.
Some groups (e.g Hibernate) perpetuated arguments against "byte-code enhancement" saying that it was somehow 'evil'. The most common were :-
So as you can see, there are no valid reasons against byte-code enhancement, and the pluses are that runtime detection of dirty events on objects is much quicker, hence your persistence layer operates faster without any need for iterative reflection-based checks. The fact is that Hibernate itself also now has a mode whereby you can do bytecode enhancement although not the default mode of Hibernate. So maybe it wasn't so evil after all ?
Many people will wonder what actually happens to a class upon bytecode enhancement. In simple terms the necessary methods and fields are added so as to implement Persistable. If you want to check this, just use a Java decompiler such as JD. It has a nice GUI allowing you to just select your class to decompile and shows you the source.


text:
by Kristen
Tangled Rapunzel Costume
Rate this costume:
37 votes
|4 comments · add a comment
Sorry about the bad lighting, it's in my bathroom.
|Costume type:
|Costumes for Women
This homemade costume for women entered our 2011 Halloween Costume Contest.
A word from Sarah, the 'Tangled's Rapunzel' costume creator:
I'm wearing the costume. The hair is two lady Godiva wigs I braided and weaved into my natural hair. People were asking me all day if it was real.
Similar costumes:


text:
Years ago, back in the mid-70s I think it was, my beloved Godmother had a heart attack and flat lined on the table. She miraculously pulled through and lived many more years. She had always been a fragile sort, not much of a fighter, and had many health issues. Without ever saying, I always supposed that John, my robust Godfather, a Lithuanian who could hoist the world upon his shoulders, would long outlive her.
But if there is one thing I know for sure, and I for sure only know one thing, it is this: God decides the number of our days. We knoweth not the hour or the day.
Year's later, after my Godfather had passed away from stomach cancer and my Godmother was in assisted living, we spent an afternoon on her sofa holding hands and just visiting as she drifted in and out of sleep.
In between naps, she told me the story of the day she was on the operating table and how she saw her mother standing in a bright light, calling to her in French, "Rose! Venez! Venez avec nous!" Come! Come be with us!
She said she longed to run to her mother. But she couldn't. "I can't go now Mom," she called, "I've got to take care of John."
As ridiculous and unlikely as that seemed at the time, that Rose would outlive John and would need to care for him, that is exactly how it played out.
My Godmother passed away a number of years ago but it is one of those conversations that I have replayed in my mind many times, particularly of late.
In the past several months, we have had to transition AD's mother and stepfather into assisted living after George got really sick. George has a long and complicated health history, so when he got sick it was not a complete surprise. But then while he was recovering in rehab, Cleo got really sick, which was a surprise, and neither of them could get well enough to live on their own again.
While George was sick, we braced ourselves for the worst believing that what remained of his life could be measured in days. But George has made a full recovery. And as of this writing, it is Cleo whose days seem to be numbered.
When George was sick, I sat by his bed wondering if this would be our last visit. Flat on his back, with his eyes closed, he lay in his bed in a pitiful unshaven and disheveled mess, the picture of a man waiting for that one last clear call.
In a raspy voice, he struggled to tell me how Jesus had come to him in the night and given him permission to let go. He said he had never been so sick in his whole life and he longed for the discomfort to end. "I told him, Lord, if you want me, I am ready," he whispered, "But I need to stay to take care of Cleo." Then a tear escaped and zigzagged through the stubble of whiskers into the pillow.
At that moment, the idea that he would recover to care for Cleo seemed to be a machination of delirium. He was flat on his back and she was ambulatory. But that is exactly how it is playing out.
Yesterday, I spent a good part of the day with George as we sat by Cleo's bedside. She is mostly in a catatonic semi-sleep like state, mumbling and thrashing. At times, she would reach out her hands, to whom? Is God near? Is he giving her permission to let go? Does she feel His breath on her neck? Is her mother calling to her, "Come Cleo! Come be with us!" Does she have a reason to stay?
Throughout the day she would occasionally pop her eyes open and have several minutes of clarity, recognizing Sean and AD. She would chat as best she could with a lazy and thick tongue. In one awakening, she reported that a pilot flew her up to Tulsa, where she lived as a young mother when AD was three. And then just as quickly as she comes into our world she is off again.
Who is this good pilot who takes my beloved mother-in-law joyriding through the days of her life and gently touches down so she can chat for a moment or two before whisking her off again?
And when will he take her off to be with those we too long to see some day?
We knoweth not the hour or the day. But we know Him, the one who numbers our days.
And that's all we need to know.


text:
4 Items
4 Items
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text: Ribbon is an easy way to add style to your projects. Tie it, loop it, wrap it, cut it. We have the styles you love in the colors you want. * Playful, reversible satin ribbon* Coastal Cabana with Granny Apple Green stitching on one side; GrannyApple Green with Coastal Cabana stitching on the other side* 3/8" (1 cm) wide* 10 yards (9.1 m)


text:
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text:
Journalist Tina Shelton joins JABSOM as director of public relationsUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Chancellor's Office
"We're delighted that Tina will bring her outstanding abilities and knowledge to our UH Medical School," said Interim Dean Gary Ostrander. She will be in charge of internal and external communications, community outreach, and government relations for JABSOM.
Shelton has been a news reporter and anchor in Hawai'i for 25 years, and is currently at KHON2. She is a graduate of the UH journalism program (Kapiolani Community College and UH-Manoa) and was recognized as an "Outstanding Young Alumna" in the U.H. Distinguished Alumni Awards in 1989. Her work has been nominated for regional Emmy awards, and she has won several local reporting awards.
"The UH Medical School is a place of tremendous growth in medical research and education, so I'm honored and thrilled at this opportunity to be a part of its service to our community," said Shelton.


text:
Article Tools
Related stories
- Bob Cordaro: A leader falls far and hard
- A.J. Munchak: A partner in government and, feds say, in crime
- Dunmore reacts to Cordaro indictment
- Editorial: How to build a corrupt organization
- After indictments, controller calls for more-open bidding in county government
- Commissioners cancel address in "deference" to federal announcement
Vowing to reform Lackawanna County government by cutting waste and cronyism, Republicans Robert C. Cordaro and A.J. Munchak broke a 20-year Democratic grip on the county commissioners office in 2004, proclaiming the days of old-time politics were over.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors presented Mr. Cordaro and Mr. Munchak in a different light, not as reformers, but modern versions of Boss Tweed, who used the sixth-floor commissioners office in downtown Scranton to run a criminal enterprise that collectively generated at least $475,000 in kickbacks or bribes from vendors looking for county contracts.
The alleged kickbacks came from companies working at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, planning the botched intermodal bus station in downtown Scranton that cost taxpayers almost $1 million and a cell phone tower deal at the county's 911 center.
Besides the cash, there were the perks, including a free trip to Monte Carlo that one contractor, identified as Company #8, paid for Mr. Cordaro in May 2006, and another free trip in 2004 to the Playboy Mansion that was paid for by Charles "Chuckie" Costanzo, who used some of the almost $650,000 he stole from the county's workers compensation fund, a job Mr. Cordaro gave him in a no-bid contract, according to the indictment.
An unspecified portion of the bribe money was intended as contributions to their election campaign committee, Friends of Munchak & Cordaro, contributions they never disclosed on campaign finance reports, according to the indictment.
Dennis C. Pfannenschmidt, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said the federal investigation into Mr. Cordaro and Mr. Munchak started with the government's case against Mr. Costanzo, a longtime friend of Mr. Cordaro from Dunmore. Mr. Costanzo was prosecuted twice: once involving the workers compensation case that sent him to prison for five years and 10 months, the other for a pigeon dung removal project at Lackawanna County Courthouse that prosecutors claimed involved extortion attempts.
The sweeping indictment that could send Mr. Cordaro and Mr. Munchak to prison for the rest of their lives also notes five tickets, worth $250 a piece, that Mr. Cordaro accepted from "a representative of a major league baseball team" that was "seeking or had a contract with the county valued in excess of $5,000." The team is unidentified, but Mr. Cordaro was the county's sole negotiator in a deal that turned over management of the baseball team and stadium to SWB Yankees LLC, a consortium of Mandalay Baseball Properties and the New York Yankees.
Mr. Cordaro spent almost $80,000 of the bribes to buy a 2005 Chrysler sedan and a 2007 GMC Yukon, according to the indictment.
None of the cash, trips and "other things of value" was disclosed by Mr. Cordaro or Mr. Munchak on required financial interest statements filed for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, the indictment states. Mr. Munchak did not disclose them on his 2007 statement. Mr. Cordaro never filed a 2007 statement. Both men never reported the cash on their federal tax returns and never paid federal taxes, according to the indictment.
According to the government's tally of cash and freebies, Mr. Cordaro's take was at least $410,000 compared with Mr. Munchak's $65,000.
In a prepared statement after the indictments, Mr. Munchak said, "The charges filed against me today are without merit and are based on untrue allegations."
"I plan to vigorously defend myself against these allegations, and I am confident that after a full and fair hearing of the facts, the truth will prevail and I will be found innocent. In the meantime, I am asking my constituents for their patience and understanding during the coming months, and I want to assure them that I will continue to serve to the best of my abilities pending the outcome of this case."
Mr. Cordaro's lawyer, William Costopoulos, was unavailable for comment. A woman who answered the door at Mr. Cordaro's house Tuesday evening declined comment.
The 40-count indictment does not identify the vendors who paid the alleged bribes and kickbacks, identifying most by number.
Mr. Cordaro allegedly accepted about $360,000 from Company #2 and another $30,000 from Company #3, the indictment states. Mr. Munchak allegedly pocketed $60,000 from Company #3.
The largest cash payments flowed from Company #2, beginning in January 2005 through January 2008, a three-year period when Mr. Cordaro allegedly accepted about $360,000. On top of that, Mr. Cordaro allegedly pocketed another $30,000 from Company #3, which allegedly also paid Mr. Munchak $60,000.
Company #2 allegedly used a middle man to pass the money from a "principal" of the company to Mr. Cordaro, the indictment states. According to the indictment, the company allegedly issued false tax forms for the years 2005 through 2008 to disguise the payments as "consulting fees." The middleman then allegedly passed the $360,000 to Mr. Cordaro either giving him cash or blank checks, the indictment states.
Company #3, which is apparently the Clarks Summit-based architectural design company Highland Associates, paid to "retain its existing contracts with the county," the indictment states. Company #3, through its three principals, paid Mr. Munchak $60,000 and another $30,000 to Mr. Cordaro.
A spokeswoman for Highland said company officials were in a meeting and not available. Highland lawyers John Appleton and Sal Cognetti were not available.
The 56-page indictment also refers to an alleged $14,000 payment Mr. Cordaro received in 2006 as part of an agreement involving "four individuals" who constructed a cell tower at the Lackawanna County 911 center.
The public corruption indictments were the first to hit Lackawanna County, and federal prosecutors indicated more may be coming. In neighboring Luzerne County, nearly two dozen government officials and contractors have been charged in an ongoing federal corruption probe.
For Mr. Cordaro, who played football at Dunmore High School and later earned a law degree at the University of Pennsylvania, the stakes could not be much higher. If convicted, prosecutors said, Mr. Cordaro, 49, who was once considered for U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, faces up to 364 years in federal prison and a $7.7 million fine. Mr. Munchak, 63, faces up to 193 years in prison and a $3.2 million fine.
At a press conference in the federal building in Scranton, FBI special agent in charge Janice Fedarcyk said Mr. Cordaro and Mr. Munchak "sold the oath of their offices to the highest bidders" and put "their own selfish financial interests" above the people they were elected to serve. She said the FBI has made rooting out public corruption a top priority.
Mr. Pfannenschmidt said the investigation is continuing.
Contact the writer: firstname.lastname@example.com
Robert C. Cordaro
Age: 49
Home: Dunmore
Occupation: Lawyer
Background: Scranton Times All-Scholastic linebacker at Dunmore High School, who graduated in 1979, and was class president; Bachelor of arts degree, history, University of Rochester, 1983; Academic All-American football player at Rochester; juris doctorate, University of Pennsylvania, 1986, once owned five radio stations, former Dunmore Borough solicitor, Lackawanna County Commissioner, 2000-2008.
Charges: 38 counts - 13 counts of honest services mail fraud and mail fraud, one count of simple conspiracy, four counts of theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, one count of conspiracy to commit extortion under color of right, four counts of extortion under color of right, one count of money laundering, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, two counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity, one count of racketeering, one count of racketeering conspiracy, three counts of filing a false tax return, two counts of tax evasion, one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud and mail fraud, one count of forfeiture, one count of forfeiture-money laundering and one count of forfeiture-mail and wire fraud.
Anthony J. Munchak
Age: 63
Home: Scranton
Occupation: Lackawanna County commissioner, 2004-present
Background: Graduate, Scranton Central High School, 1964; bachelor's degree, accounting, University of Scranton, 1970; worked as accountant at now-defunct Arthur Andersen & Co., New York City; former top financial officer at several local firms; once owned his own medical services billing and accounting firms.
Charges: 25 counts - eight counts of honest services mail fraud and mail fraud, one count of simple conspiracy, four counts of theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, one count of conspiracy to commit extortion under color of right, four counts of extortion under color of right, one count of racketeering, one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of filing a false tax return, one count of tax evasion, one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud and mail fraud, one count of forfeiture and one count of forfeiture-mail and wire fraud.


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text:
4 medium carrots, sliced diagonally
3 Spring onions, greens and white, chopped*
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced diagonally
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 inch knob ginger, grated
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Whisk together all of the dressing ingredients. Toss with the rest of the salad ingredients. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.
*I find that occasionally there is a tightly packed and slightly tough little section right where white bulb meets the green. I normally just toss that part and just use the bulb and the upper 3/4 of the greens.


text:
What junk food is this?
Gummy bears are gelatin-based candies approximately 2 centimeters long which come in the shape of a bear. They treat originated in Germany back in 1920. Today, these bears come in a wide variety of flavors, the most popular of which are raspberry, strawberry, lemon and pineapple.


text: A close-up look at NYC education policy, politics,and the people who have been, are now, or will be affected by acts of corruption and fraud. ATR CONNECT assists individuals who suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool and are the "new" rubber roomers, and re-assigned. The terms "rubber room" and "ATR" mean that you or any person has been targeted for removal from your job. A "Rubber Room" is not a place, but a process.


text:
KDE 4.0.2 Brings New Plasma Features
The KDE community has released another update to its cutting edge KDE 4.0 desktop. KDE 4.0.2 has, along with the bugfixes some new features in Plasma. The panel can now be configured to sit somewhere else than at the bottom and UI options for changing its size have been added. Do not let yourself be distracted by those new things, there are also plenty of bugfixes, performance improvements and translation updates in there, among which support for two new languages: Persian and Icelandic. KDE 4.0.2 is thus available in 49 whopping languages, and more are soon to come. More highlights include rendering improvements in KHTML and lots of bugfixes in Okular and Kopete. The KDE community hopes you enjoy this release which should be hitting your favourite packaging system soon. See the changelog for more updates and info page for download options.
Re: When can we expect better usability/configurat
Found the workaround for Switch user issue.
You need to type SESSIONS in krunner. Dunno why it doesn't do this by default.
By Damijan Bec at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: When can we expect better usability/configurat
If you press Switch User it does show "SESSIONS" in krunner for a split second, but only for a split second.
But thanks for the workaround! It's appreciated.
By Jonathan Thomas at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: When can we expect better usability/configurat
No probs. There is also a problem with System tray and kde 3.X applications or non native applications like amsn. Icons don't show up in sys tray but are floating instead.
Workaround. Run as different user (I did it as root) then launch the same application as logged user, close root application and your normal user application is sitting in system tray.
By Damijan Bec at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: When can we expect better usability/configurat
This is fixed on aMSN svn
By weintor at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: When can we expect better usability/configurat
Cheers weintor.
Have compiled from svn and it looks OK. However, the same issue still persist for the 3.X applications like Klineakconfig, kpowersave and Kcheckgmail.
By Damijan Bec at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: When can we expect better usability/configurat
Yes, something strange is going on there. I see this behavior (SESSIONS appears and disappears), but as soon as I restart krunner, e.g. to debug it, it starts to work. So it is very hard to see where is the problem.
By Andras Mantia at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: When can we expect better usability/configurat
> Much of that stuff is there, but missing a GUI
"There, but missing a GUI" is functionally equivalent to "not there" for the vast majority of people.
By Jim at Sat, 2008/03/08 - 6:00am
Re: When can we expect better usability/configurat
Consider allowing that notion for GUI. A GUI that cannot be configured via GUI is not configurable, is it?
By Debian User at Sat, 2008/03/08 - 6:00am
Very good
Im here on OpenSuse System. Looks good. Thanks alot for your Work on KDE.
By blendo at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: Very good
Thanks for the spam, I'd appreciate if you could do without next time.
By Sebastian Kuegler at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
I can understand that
I think one reason might be that many have been disappointed by the new, not-so-perfect kicker implementation. At least I have got the impression that not being able to resize the panel was one of the major complaints, and I can understand that the marketing crew wants to make clear that that is being successfully worked on.
By Mo at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: I can understand that
Sorry, this was supposed to be a reply to PlasmaLover up there.
By Mo at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: I can understand that
Yes, that is the number one reason. A lot of people missed this feature, so it has been addressed and also backported to branch.
By Sebastian Kuegler at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: I can understand that
> Plasma is the only component which has also seen new features (and with those UI changes), so why shouldn't we mention that?
You're right, it should be mentioned. But I think the attitude against mentioning it is that the people responsible for Plasma should be keeping their heads down out of embarrassment rather than calling attention to themselves.
A lot of people were pissed off not just about how much the move to Plasma broke, but how unrepentant certain people were and how they blamed users and reviewers for their failures. Crowing about how they managed to unbreak something just antagonises people further, even if that wasn't the intention.
By Jim at Sat, 2008/03/08 - 6:00am
Train Station Clock (again...)
Hey you guys, i noticed that the train station clock is still not available as plasma applet, at least not in the official 4.0.2 ... when 4.0.0 was coming out i made a tounge in cheek sort of comment about a conspiracy of a bunch of lame people about quietly killing the cool train station clock (previously promoted by Aaron's screencasts and nuno's mocks) and replacing it with a generic clunky one, instead of just beeing a cool Desktop and giving users what a majority of them really liked in the first RCs.
Someone from the devs said "you know, it's actually in playground, just be patient" ... but seeing it not in the release AGAIN just makes me thinking about that lame people's conspiracy all over again... if you can't bring it over you to ignore a few ignorant nay-sayers who supposedly didn't like the train station clock, at least provide it as an alternative please.
By MichaelG at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: Train Station Clock (again...)
Heh, yeah. Maybe a good idea to move it from playground into extragear, so it gets released next time as well. :-)
By Sebastian Kuegler at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
debian packages
Ahh, but will Debian package it, even in experimental, some time this year, instead of sticking to a broken, old mis-packaged version of 4.0? There's the question! ;)
No, I'm not being completely serious. Yes, I respect the debian dev's hard work. Yes, I just thought I'd post this and gently nudge them into doing a little more ;)
By Lee at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: debian packages
Have you even checked the debian repositories. The packages are coming into experimental. The debian kde package team are actually doing an excellent work in packaging. 4.0.1 was available the day it was released, and so is 4.0.2
There are even plans of moving onto 4.1 trunk as it may be included in lenny (at least the development files)
By anon at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: debian packages
Hmm. Quite right, sorry -- my mistake. It seems -t experimental wasn't working for me. Pinning works fine though.
By Lee at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: debian packages
What are you talking about? 4.0.2 is already mostly there in experimental, and 4.0.1 was there before. Works fine for me.
By Leo S at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: debian packages
Yes, you're right. Sorry. My other comment below has a few more details.
By Lee at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: debian packages
I need to agree that Debian packages are quite up-to-date but some packages are still missing for i386 platform:
- kdebindings
Kdeartwork-theme-icon is in conflict with kdelibs-data from 3.5.X which makes this package at the moment pretty useless. Many applications were not ported yet to KDE4, namely Amarok and K3B - both relies on kdelibs-data 3.5.X
I have created deb package for kdebindings (necessary to run programs which depends on Kross like Superkaramba's widgets). It is a stripped down version of debian kdebindings, free of C#/Mono garbage.
You can grab it from here
There is no guaranty that deb package won't conflict with other packages on your system or that it will work at all. It works for me on DEBIAN/sid.
By Damijan Bec at Sun, 2008/03/09 - 6:00am
Remember last statistics
Commits: 2612 by 245 developers, 6750 lines modified, 1558 new files.
Source: http://commit-digest.org/issues/2008-02-24/
There are a lot of open bugs & more are coming as the features extend. But there is plenty of time to fix them. (!?)
By olimpiu at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: Remember last statistics
yea, no worries.
The KDE people are geniuses!!! (at least in my view)
Hopefully all this will be ready in 4.1. Everybody on Facebook is cheering you on!!! Huge worldwide fanbase.
By Max at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: Remember last statistics
Open bugs statistics mean shit with bugzilla. It doesn't really reflect reality, at this point. Most reports are dupes or invalid and whatnot.
Maintaining the bugzilla is often more time consuming than fixing actual bugs, that's the sad truth.
By Mark Kretschmann at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: Remember last statistics
Then perhaps either abandon the current data and start fresh, or ask a team to do a bunch of maintenance trying to confirm/close bugs.
By T. J. Brumfield at Sat, 2008/03/08 - 6:00am
Re: Remember last statistics
This is quite normal as more people start using it. The number of newly opened bugs is little more than an indicator for one or more the following:
- Number of bugs (d'oh!)
And then there are bugs and bugs, some are less relevant to you than others.
There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. :-)
By Sebastian Kuegler at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Desktop effects for 4.1?
Will we get a cool desktop transitioning effect in KDE 4.1?
Like Compiz Cube - or something even much, much cooler?
I can't wait to be blown away. Those effects really help visualize having virtual multiple screens.
By Max at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
Its on the to-do list, but it isnt high on the list. It requires of coures 3D transformations of windows in kwin, and about a week ago there was a proof of concept (cover-flow like window switcher, see here: http://dot.kde.org/1204429306/1204452439/ ) so we know its possible. The KDE developers want to fix bugs, make sure that plasma is essentially usuable, and focus on usuability before they add a lot of bling bling. Be patient-- or if you know C++, you can code it yourself quite easily, just modify the source for the kwin effect I mentioned above.
By Level 1 at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
I do like blings and I miss quite a few things that Compiz-Fusion has but I would prefer to see a feature complete KDE for 4.1 (meaning migration of all or the most of KDE 3.5x programs and functionality to 4.1) and a rock solid Plasma Desktop and Panel. Feature parity and stability should be the main goals for 4.1.
By Bobby at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
That would be nice. 3D effects are cool.. :drool:
By Jon at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
Its actually really easy to write kwin plugins, I wrote wobbly windows in 8 hours. I'm curious what plugins people are most waiting for, any voters?
I wanna do a window animation plugin, but Im not sure if the kwin developers would accept my work. My idea is to break down all window animations into five parts: effects that move the window around the screen (like having it appear from one of the corners), effects that change the opacity of the windows (or color or whatever), effects that scale the window, effects that rotate the window, and effects that break the window into a grid and manipulate it. By combining these 5 effects, I think all window animations could done. Can anyone think of a problem with my solution, or window animations that aren't covered by my wonderful system?
I'll probably start writing my window animations plugin later tonight, maybe I'll have it done next week. I'm excited!
By Level 1 at Fri, 2008/03/07 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
If the code is good and you are willing to maintain it, there are not really any reasons the kwin developers should accept it. Since it's just pluging it's much easier to get accepted too. Depending on it's degree of usefullness it may not be put in the main package, but end up in a addon or extragear package.
Drop a message on the kwin mailinglist, they are a friendly bunch.
By Morty at Fri, 2008/03/07 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
That would be really great!! I'm all for it.
A "magic lamp" type effect for minimizing to taskbar would be great.
Also some cool effect to switch desktops. The compiz cube is nice, but I think there could be other effects, something that would let users visualize a "virtual screen" on either side of their physical monitor. Let your imagination flow.
I would also like an effect that adds "depth" and vibrant color to the desktop. Make the "experience of 3d" somehow. Try to imagine the coolest desktops you've seen in sci-fi or other CSI, NCIS type shows. Think of what you would like the effects to look in 5 years from now.
Maybe we should do a deviant art type competition for coolest look for effects and then see if programmers can incorporate those into reality.
I - like some others - would like to use KDE 4.1 for a CarPC (low resolution 7" touch screen in the car) I would like to see some effects that would look good in a car, but not distract from driving. (Maybe look to Polyphony digital (makers of Gran Turismo) designet auxiliary gauges for the new Nissan GTR)
Can't wait to see what you come up with. :)
By Max at Fri, 2008/03/07 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
If you want a sci-fi desktop, what you want is not desktop effects but qt style and color scheme. If you know C++, can you clone the oxygen or plastique styles and create a new, sci-fi style. Maybe in the future I'll create a qt style to resemble ncurses interfaces-I think that would be cool.
By Level 1 at Fri, 2008/03/07 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
No, no... I don't mean the look, like icons..
I mean animations, things that happen on the screen.
I love oxygen style. I just want my desktop to surprise me and make it a joy to work with.
By Mike at Sat, 2008/03/08 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
I am sure that the most of us /especially those of us who can't code) would greatly appreciate your work.
By Bobby at Sat, 2008/03/08 - 6:00am
Re: Desktop effects for 4.1?
Yea we do!!!
Thanks for coding.
By Mike at Sun, 2008/03/09 - 6:00am
Shouldn't that be....
Shouldn't that be "available in a whopping 49 languages" and not "available in 49 whopping languages?" It is indeed the number that your adjective is stressing, not the languages themselves.
By kde-user at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: Shouldn't that be....
Give Seb a break. He single-handedly represents the KDE e.V. Marketing group and doesn't get much sleep. Plus English isn't his native language.
By ac at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: Shouldn't that be....
Once it's posted to the Dot it's up to people like Riddell to edit it. I do not have such karma (but I do get more sleep than Riddell, I hope. :))
By Sebastian Kuegler at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: Shouldn't that be....
By Jon at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: Shouldn't that be....
Excuse me, what is a "Grammar Nazi KDE User"??
By Sebastian at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: Shouldn't that be....
It's a grammar nazi who also happens to be a kde user
By ninjalj at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am
Re: Shouldn't that be....
In no way affiliated with actual Nazis, I can assure you. And don't take my grammar correction too harshly; just getting you pumped up to strive for perfection as you work on KDE4. ;)
By kdeuser at Fri, 2008/03/07 - 6:00am
Black Icon Background
Why hasn't this bug gotten fixed yet? Sorry to say, but...it looks so ugly! :\
I have stopped using desktop icons with KDE4 just because I can't stand the black background they draw.
Please, someone fix this.
Other than that, KDE4 is a great release! <3
By fish at Wed, 2008/03/05 - 6:00am
Re: Black Icon Background
Full ACK. This is really the worst thing of KDE4 and the reason why I don't use it yet. i just see so many disadvantages and hardly any advantage. Sure, the effects and stuff are nice, but when so many basics are missing which made KDE great I still prefer to stick to KDE3 for the time being. BTW: What I really did hope for with Plasma was a way to draw labeled "boxes" (like Development, Graphics, Network) on your desktop and put multiple auto-arranged icons in it.
By Michael at Fri, 2008/03/07 - 6:00am
Re: Black Icon Background
I think the black boxes are nice. But maybe give users an option to make the box transparent, everybody's happy ;)
By danoyout at Fri, 2008/03/07 - 6:00am
Re: Black Icon Background
I completely agree they're ugly. I submitted a patch that got rid of them and addressed the issue of white text on white background but it was rejected. If you want the patch let me know and I'll email it. I use it daily and I think it makes the look MUCH nicer.
By Christopher Blauvelt at Mon, 2008/03/10 - 5:00am
Has proxy support been fixed yet? This is the only thing that's keeping me from being able to use kde 4. It's kind of useless without internet support, and I have no direct connection at uni.
By Patrick Stewart at Thu, 2008/03/06 - 6:00am


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Music on Main
Location: Horseshoe on Main Street
North Myrtle Beach
Every Thursday starting May 16th 7 pm – 9 pm
Sponsored by CCNB
Sounds of Summer
Location: NMB Park & Sports Complex Amphitheater
Every 3rd Friday starting May 17th 7 pm – 9 pm
Sponsored by Food Lion
2019 Fall Paddle at the Beach Pickleball Tournament
September 16-17, 2019
Tournament will be held at the J. Bryan Floyd Community Center. Limited spaces available!!
Online registration opens April 15th. For tournament details and registration click here.
- Home
- Clothing, Shoes & Accessories
- World & Traditional Clothing
Parks and Recreation
We create community through People, Parks and Programs. The Parks & Recreation department strives to provide all citizens of North Myrtle Beach the highest level of programs, facilities and services that will positively affect our vision of creating community.
The Parks & Recreation maintains 11 parks and over 240 beach accesses. Through our parks and open spaces we provide opportunities for recreation while preserving the environment.
The community recreation center and local parks provide a safe environment for affordable programs and community events. Individuals and families are able to enjoy active lifestyles promoting health, fitness, social interaction and overall wellbeing.
Through our special events and upscale sports facilities, the City of North Myrtle Beach Parks & Recreation department increases tourism and promotes the local economy. Our annual calendar of events and festivals is full of distinctive celebrations offering live music, family fun entertainment and great social settings.


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To truly increase, real estate values must grow faster than inflation plus an owner's effective property tax rate - an average appreciation of about 5 percent in Illinois.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index, the U.S. dollar has experienced an average inflation rate of 2.47 percent annually since 2000.
The average effective property tax rate in Illinois was 2.3 percent in 2017, according to the Illinois Policy Institute.
Here's how Bolingbrook home prices have performed since 2007.
Where sale prices were unavailable, the home's assessed value was substituted.
Powered by BlockShopper.com.


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The 2010-11 Pearson Distinguished Professor was Per Harling, an ordained Lutheran pastor in the Church of Sweden. Harling composes liturgical music and has written several books on worship life, hymns and biographies. In addition to teaching and working with Bethany students, staff and faculty, he gave a public lecture and composed an original morning prayer service for the college.
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Two recalled Colorado lawmakers join Obama gun control effort
WASHINGTON — The latest push by President Barack Obama to change U.S. gun policy includes two Colorado politicians who know firsthand the political risks of a gun control platform: former state Sens. Angela Giron and John Morse.
The two Coloradans joined Obama at the White House on Tuesday when the president unveiled a series of executive actions on firearms that would require more gun dealers to get a license and shore up the process in which federal officials conduct background checks.
Their presence is notable — and may serve as a warning sign for Obama's party — as Giron and Morse, both Democrats, lost recall elections in 2013 following their support of gun control measures in the legislature.
That 2013 election made history; before Giron and Morse were ousted, no other state lawmaker in Colorado had been recalled.
Reached after the White House rollout, Giron applauded what she called a "simple and reasonable" approach to gun safety. She described as "incredible" the experience of hearing an emotional Obama argue for his new executive actions.
"My hope is that now people are going to get motivated," Giron said.
Asked about the political risks in pursuing this approach — and what her own electoral history says about that — she said simply: "Your job is to do whatever you can while you can."


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The political system in the United States divides powers between federal and state governments and among executive, legislative, and judicial branches at both levels. The presidency, part of the executive branch of the federal government, is the institution most capable of providing domestic and foreign policy leadership. The presidency, broadly defined, includes not only the person of the president himself but also the vice president, the First Lady, and other senior advisers in the executive office of the president, as well as members of the Cabinet and heads of other government departments and agencies.
Presidents frequently maintain a low profile with newly identified public health hazards. They often perceive that such concerns offer little political gain and many risks. Gerald Ford's 1976 announcement of the swine flu program was an exception. The response of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush to AIDS fits the more general pattern of presidential caution in addressing public health concerns.
For Reagan, AIDS presented a number of potentially serious political risks. As a presidential candidate, Reagan promised to eliminate the role of the federal government in the limited American welfare state, as well as to raise questions of morality and family in social policy. When AIDS was first reported in 1981, Reagan had recently assumed office and had begun to address the conservative agenda by slashing social programs and cutting taxes and by embracing conservative moral principles. As a result, Reagan never mentioned AIDS publicly until 1987. Most observers contend that AIDS research and public education were not funded adequately in the early years of the epidemic, at a time when research and public education could have saved lives.
In the early 1980s, senior officials from the Department of Health and Human Services pleaded for additional funding behind the scenes while they maintained publicly, for political reasons, that they had enough resources. The Reagan administration treated AIDS as a series of state and local problems rather than as a national problem. This helped to fragment the limited governmental response early in the AIDS epidemic.
AIDS could not have struck at a worse time politically. With the election of Reagan in 1980, the "New Right" in American politics ascended. Many of those who assumed power embraced political and personal beliefs hostile to gay men and lesbians. Health officials, failing to educate about transmission and risk behavior, undermined any chance of an accurate public understanding of AIDS. The new conservatism also engendered hostility toward those with AIDS. People with AIDS (PWAs) were scapegoated and stigmatized. It was widely reported, as well, that New Right groups, such as the Moral Majority, successfully prevented funding for AIDS education programs and counseling services for PWAs. At various points in the epidemic, conservatives called for the quarantining and tattooing of PWAs. Jerry Falwell, the leader of the Moral Majority, was quoted as stating: "AIDS is the wrath of God upon homosexuals."
This larger conservative climate enabled the Reagan administration's indifference toward AIDS. The administration undercut federal efforts to confront AIDS in a meaningful way by refusing to spend the money Congress allocated for AIDS research. In the critical years of 1984 and 1985, according to his White House physician, Reagan thought of AIDS as though "it was measles and it would go away." Reagan's biographer Lou Cannon claims that the president's response to AIDS was "halting and ineffective." It took Rock Hudson's death from AIDS in 1985 to prompt Reagan to change his personal views, although members of his administration were still openly hostile to more aggressive government funding of research and public education. Six years after the onset of the epidemic, Reagan finally mentioned the word "AIDS" publicly at the Third International AIDS Conference held in Washington, D.C. Reagan's only concrete proposal at this time was widespread routine testing.
Reagan and his close political advisers also successfully prevented his surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, from discussing AIDS publicly until Reagan's second term. Congress mandates that the surgeon general's chief responsibility is to promote the health of the American people and to inform the public about the prevention of disease. In the Reagan administration, however, the surgeon general's central role was to promote the administration's conservative social agenda, especially pro-life and family issues.
At a time when the surgeon general could have played an invaluable role in public health education, Koop was prevented from even addressing AIDS publicly. Then, in February 1986, Reagan asked Koop to write a report on the AIDS epidemic. Koop had come to the attention of conservatives in the Reagan administration because of his leading role in the anti-abortion movement. Reagan administration officials fully expected Koop to embrace conservative principles in his report on AIDS.
When the Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was released to the public on October 22, 1986, it was a call for federal action in response to AIDS, and it underscored the importance of a comprehensive AIDS education strategy, beginning in grade school. Koop advocated the widespread distribution of condoms and concluded that mandatory identification of people with HIV or any form of quarantine would be useless in addressing AIDS. As part of Koop's broad federal education strategy, the Public Health Service sent AIDS mailers to 107 million American households. Koop's actions brought him into direct conflict with William Bennett, Reagan's secretary of education. Bennett opposed Koop's recommendations and called for compulsory HIV testing of foreigners applying for immigration visas, for marriage license applicants, for all hospital patients, and for prison inmates.
The Reagan administration did little to prohibit HIV/AIDS discrimination. The administration placed responsibility for addressing AIDS discrimination issues with the states rather than with the federal government. In the face of federal inaction, some states and localities passed laws that prohibited HIV/AIDS discrimination. It took the Supreme Court, in its 1987 School Board of Nassau County, Fla. v. Arline decision, to issue a broad ruling that was widely interpreted as protecting those with HIV or AIDS from discrimination in federal executive agencies, in federally assisted programs or activities, or by businesses with federal contracts.
Reagan did appoint the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic in the summer of 1987; it was later renamed the Watkins Commission, after its chair. With the appointment of this commission, Reagan was able to appease those who demanded a more sustained federal response to AIDS. He also answered the concerns of the New Right by appointing an AIDS commission that included few scientists who had participated in AIDS research and few physicians who had actually treated PWAs. In addition, the commission included outspoken opponents of AIDS education.
In retrospect, it is clear that the commission was created to deflect attention from the administration's own inept policy response to AIDS. The Watkins Commission's final report did recommend a more sustained federal commitment to address AIDS, but this recommendation was largely ignored by both the Reagan and Bush administrations. None of the commissions studying AIDS over the years has recommended a massive federal effort to confront AIDS at all levels of society.
As Reagan's vice president in 1987, Bush nominally headed the AIDS Executive Committee of the National Institutes of Health. Bush also had to balance his roles as Reagan's adviser with his role as a presidential candidate in the 1988 election. In doing so, Bush appealed to the New Right by endorsing policies that would publicly identify people who were HIV-positive and that required mandatory HIV tests when people applied for marriage licenses. On the 1988 presidential campaign trail, Bush argued that HIV testing is more cost-effective than spending money on treatment. After Bush was elected president in 1988, it came as no surprise that he continued most of the policies of the Reagan era. Bush did appear, however, to be more sensitive to the magnitude of the AIDS crisis.
In terms of public policy, the Bush administration continued Reagan's fiscal austerity with respect to AIDS. In addition, Bush embraced mandatory testing to prevent the spread of AIDS. Finally, his administration argued that local officials should design and implement AIDS educational strategies, although federal resources could be used to gather more AIDS information. His surgeon general, Antonia Novello, maintained a low profile on AIDS issues.
It was not until March 30, 1990, almost nine years after AIDS was first identified and over a year into his presidency, that George Bush gave his first speech on AIDS. He praised his administration's efforts in dealing with the AIDS crisis and asked the country to end discrimination against those infected with HIV. At the same time, Bush refused to eliminate a federal policy that placed restrictions on HIV-positive foreigners who wished to enter the United States. The speech was heralded as the strongest public commitment ever articulated by a president, even though most AIDS activists argued that it was the kind of speech that should have been given in the early 1980s. Bush was criticized for not endorsing a comprehensive federal policy for addressing AIDS and for perpetuating discrimination against HIV-positive individuals who wished to enter the United States. However, Bush did sign the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency (CARE) Act into law in 1990, although he consistently opposed funding this legislation to the degree its congressional supporters requested. The legislation was originally designed to provide federal assistance for urban areas that were hardest hit by AIDS.
The election of Bill Clinton and Al Gore to the White House in 1992 created hope that a new administration would offer a sustained and comprehensive federal effort to address AIDS on the magnitude of a Manhattan Project (which produced the first nuclear weapons in the 1940s). Clinton had campaigned actively for gay and lesbian support and had ensured that Bob Hattoy, an openly gay man who had been diagnosed with AIDS, would address the Democratic National Convention in New York in the summer of 1992. Clinton promised that if elected, he would appoint a national AIDS policy director, or "AIDS czar," to coordinate AIDS policy from the White House, and that he would commit more funding to AIDS research and education than had his Republican predecessors. In addition, he ridiculed the Bush administration's retrograde policy banning the immigration of HIV-positive foreigners to the United States.
AIDS activists and PWAs were soon disappointed. Although Clinton discussed AIDS more often than had his predecessors, he failed to propose the kind of comprehensive plan that activists had expected. The Clinton administration argued that only so much could be done, given the deficit they had inherited from the Reagan and Bush administrations. Soon after taking office, Clinton decided not to challenge Congress when it voted to reinforce the Bush policy of preventing HIV-positive foreigners from entering the United States.
It also took the Clinton administration considerable time to settle on an AIDS czar; after much delay, the choice was Kristine Gebbie, a nurse and Washington state health official without extensive policy-making experience. Gebbie departed about a year later in the wake of criticism by AIDS groups. She was replaced by Patricia Fleming, who had served on the staff of former U.S. Representative Ted Weiss of New York, advising him on AIDS issues. Fleming was succeeded in 1997 by Sandy Thurman, the former executive director of an AIDS service organization in Atlanta, Georgia.
Another high-profile Clinton appointee was Arkansas physician and pediatrics professor Joycelyn Elders as surgeon general. Elders's outspoken endorsement of sex education and AIDS-prevention outreach earned her many admirers among AIDS activists and many opponents among conservatives, who derisively dubbed her the "Condom Queen." Following Republican victories in the 1994 congressional elections, Clinton forced Elders's resignation when she angered conservatives by appearing to call for the teaching of masturbation to schoolchildren; in fact, Elders had simply endorsed comprehensive sex education programs.
Clinton again disappointed his supporters in the AIDS activist community when he failed to endorse a promised needle-exchange program to target injecting drug users. Adopting a cautious middle ground, the administration called for a federally funded study on needle exchange and concluded that more research was needed before any needle-exchange policy could be proposed. In addition, in the face of conservative criticism, the Clinton administration eliminated mandatory AIDS education programs for federal workers, much to the dismay of AIDS activists.
In February 1996, President Clinton agreed to sign a defense authorization bill that included a proposal to discharge all HIV-positive personnel from the military. As signed into law, the proposal would have discharged over 1,000 healthy, asymptomatic people with HIV from the military. Clinton issued a public statement that he recognized this provision as both abhorrent and unconstitutional, but that he had to support the full defense authorization measure. He promised that his attorney general would not defend the new policy in court when its constitutionality was challenged. That provision of the law was ultimately rescinded by Congress.
For those concerned about AIDS as a policy issue, however, Clinton's approach represented a significant improvement over the policies of Reagan and Bush. Clinton embraced full funding of the Ryan White CARE Act. He created the National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development, whose goal was to examine how drugs could be released more quickly. Clinton's Department of Justice took action to address discrimination against people who were either HIV-positive or diagnosed with AIDS. In June 1993, the Clinton administration announced that rules governing the ability of people infected with HIV to claim disability benefits would be relaxed considerably. Finally, Clinton's 1992 election meant that more federal money was allocated for AIDS research. For example, in fiscal year 1994, funding for AIDS research increased by 18 percent.
The AIDS issue maintained a low profile in the 1996 presidential elections, although some saw electoral motivation in the Clinton administration's decision to extend Medicaid coverage to include protease inhibitors. Shortly after Clinton's reelection, he outlined a six-point AIDS strategy for his second term. This strategy included the development of a cure and a vaccine, a reduction in new HIV infections, guaranteed care and services for those with HIV, opposition of AIDS-related discrimination, support for international efforts, and effective practical application of advances in scientific knowledge.
Although Clinton was far more attentive to AIDS than his predecessors, many AIDS activists still felt that he and his administration were not doing all that could be done in the face of AIDS, especially given candidate Clinton's promises during the 1992 campaign. Underlying this critique is an assumption that has pervaded the discussion of AIDS since its inception in 1981 -- that, of all the participants in the American political scene, the president is best situated to educate the public and to provide moral and political leadership in the face of a public health disaster.
Related Entries
Congress, U.S.; Court Cases; Legislation; Political Parties, U.S.; Politicians and Policymakers, U.S.; State and Local Government; United States Government Agencies
Key Words
AIDS czar, bureaucracy, executive branch, presidency, surgeon general, Watkins Commission, [individuals by name]
Further Reading
Burkett, E., The Gravest Show on Earth: America in the Age of AIDS, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.
Foreman, Christopher H., Jr., Plagues, Products, and Politics: Emergent Public Health Hazards and National Policymaking, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1994.
Koop. C. Everett, Koop: The Memoirs of America's Family Doctor, New York: Random House, 1991.
Moss, J. Jennings, "The Czar Trip," The Advocate 696 (December 12, 1995), pp. 22-28.
Perrow, Charles, and Mauro F. Guillen, The AIDS Disaster: The Failure of Organizations in New York and the Nation, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1990.
Shilts, Randy, And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, New York: St. Martin's, 1987.
The Encyclopedia of AIDS: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Scientific Record of the HIV Epidemic, Raymond A. Smith, Editor. Copyright © 1998, Raymond A. Smith. Carried by permission of Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.
Encyclopedia of AIDS $25 US/832 pp/Illustrated
For more about this book, or to order, click here.


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Glennis necesitaba un nuevo diseño de camiseta y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 8 diseños de 4 diseñadores freelance.
Gifts By Glennis
I have searched the internet in the hopes of finding artwork...etc. in the zodiac field that would inspire my own line of zodiac artwork to be used on clothing but other merchandise as well. I love color and love artwork that entails alot of color. Examples of artwork I adore can be found on the website of http://www.colorbakery.com. They do feature a zodiac line but I'm not in love with it but I do love their other designs and the color they use. I love whimsical, fun designs. The design I am looking for would be a mixture of whimsical, mystical and fun and of course, very colorful.
The target audience I am going for is anyone interested in astrology. I believe this market is large and to some degree, untouched. As I've stated before I myself have searched the internet for products that display the zodiac in a beautiful way but have found no such products.
I am looking for a zodiac design that features all the zodiac signs in wording and symbols. Eventually, I would like a design for each sign individually.
The artwork must be colorful and whimsical but not cartoony.
Please feel free to look at the artwork featured at http://www.colorbakery.com for examples of my picture of color or view their example designs I have attached.
Any other questions, please feel free to email me @ firstname.lastname@example.com.
Thank You


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Protect your gear while looking great in this new Diamond Plate fabric tonneau cover. Protect your rear seat and cargo area from rain, sun, dust and just about any element you may encounter on the trail or just cruising around town.
Long Beach, California-based Vertically Driven Products makes Jeep accessories for JKs, TJs, CJs and YJs. Their line of Jeep exterior products includes full and brief tops, cab covers and stubby bumper kits and interior ones include sound bars and wedges, locking consoles and storage vaults. VDP accessories have a reputation as affordable, reliable and highly functional and they are known for their off-road capability. Chose from nylon mesh tops with American flag and pirate designs, black neoprene grab handles, tube coolers and a host of other accessories to make wheeling more enjoyable. Shop Vertically Driven Products Now


text: JOANE CROMWELL (1895-1969) A BiographyCatherine Strode, whose pseudonym is Joane Cromwell, was born November 22, 1895, to Dr. William Smith Strode and Julia Brown Strode. The birth took place in the small village of Bernadotte, Illinois, which is located near the county seat of Lewistown, Illinois.Her grandparents were Thomas Strode and Catherine Smith Strode and Samuel Brown, Jr. and Julia Yarnell Brown.She grew up in Lewistown, studying nature from her father, who was a noted naturalist and medical doctor.At the early age of six, Catherine had shown an interest in sketching and drawing. She graduated from school at the age of sixteen and began her art studies at the Chicago Art I ... Displaying 750 of 14957 characters.


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Power Systems offers training equipment and educational programming designed to increase speed, agility, quickness, and strength. Browse this category to find football training equipment and programs necessary to develop the athletic skills fundemental to the sport. Keep your athletes on the winning edge of performance by utilizing our training and conditioning equipment in your football training drills.
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Hypnocoach necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 49 diseños de 20 diseñadores freelance.
'Happy Birthday X' is the brand name for a new self-improvement book and motivational series. The brand has to say fun, but also has to be able to appeal to students and business people alike. there can be a change in colour schemes to suit the range of clients who will use it (normal 21- 45 year olds, students, entrepreneurs) and so each group can have a flavour as long as the main logo is the same throughout. This Logo will be placed on the front of everything and will link to the website etc
Happy Birthday X
I need a all-purpose basic logo for the brand. This should be suggested in difefrent colours but will ultimately be best if one colour scheme fits all. My company is The Life Designers and we have distinct colours and logo. something to complement this would be best utilising the same colours. We stand for innovation and making people become the best that they can be. The 'Happy Birthday X' series of books, CD's and videos should feel like something of authority to people that they want to share but also something cool and sexy in its appeal. The ebooks will start off as a viral distribution and so should catch the eye and make people want more. Think X Men and the sleep lines and colours Marvel use to build up that brand ibncomics and film.
A powerful standout logo like a Pepsi- but NOT Pepsi.
Stylised Taglines for the 4 books using the same writing design.
- 'Happy Birthday X - This is the best present you're ever gonna get.'
- 'Congratulations - Your brilliant new life starts right now.'
- 'The entrepreneurs survival guide.'
- 'Rebel MC - How to hypnotize girls and clients to do anything you want anytime, anyplace, anywhere.'
- bland bright use of fonts and colour.
- one dimensional appeal (eg kids only, corporates only)
- something already done before
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Michael Swaine is a senior contributing editor to Dr. Dobb's and editor of PragPub.
Web technologies like Facebook and Twitter go through stages as they mature. Okay, maybe "mature" is not the word I want. "As they age."
So isn't it reasonable to assume that Chatroulette will go through similar stages? You know about Chatroulette, right? It takes more time to explain it than for you to follow the link, but for those who like some telling along with their showing, it's a website that connects you via webcam with random strangers. Who then either disgust you or reject you. It's really popular. Although your experience may be different from mine. Anyway, I think that the Chatroulette phenomenon is bound to evolve, and I'm betting that the next stage will be Themed Chatroulette. Rather than seeing the same random people everybody else sees doing the same random things, you'll customize your random selection by keying in a theme or phrase. That's not far-fetched; even an iPod Shuffle can provide degrees of randomness. So let's see how this might play out.
As our example theme, I choose "What is cloud computing?" Since this is a text-only article, you'll have to imagine the video. And since we don't yet have Themed Chatroulette, there isn't anything to describe, so I'll have to make it up. What I'll do is, I'll piece it together from found video on the web. That ought to produce a fair test of my theory. Or whatever it is we're doing here. Anyway, here we go.
You click "New game."
You see some guy with a Giant Pac-Man hanging over his head: "Cloud computing is a bit like Liquid Paper."
You click "Next." This is the main attraction of Chatroulette, it seems to me, the ability to dismiss annoying people with the click of a button.
You see Larry Ellison waving his hands and ranting: "What is cloud computing? Take Microsoft Word, change 'internet' to 'cloud', give it back to these nitwits on Sand Hill Road...."
You click "Next." Chatroulette presents you with plenty of annoying people to feed your need to click them away.
You see some guy with a beard thrusting his face into the camera: "You've got Cloud A and you've got Cloud B and there's storms and rain. And then lightning goes between the clouds. Kshhh! And in that bolt of lightning you get one tera peta flops of information!"
You click "Next." Sometimes the people are scary.
You see Rafe Needleman wearing a namebadge so you know who he is: "Yeah, in an airplane. That's cloud computing."
You click "Next."
You see Larry Ellison waving an Evian bottle: "Our industry is so bizarre. You just change a term and they think you've invented technology."
You click "Next."
You see a random rock star: "You're tryin' to trick me. That's one of those catch questions."
You click "Next."
You see an IT guy looking mystified: "I have no idea. That's why I'm asking Wikipedia."
You ask yourself why you're doing this. You click "Next."
You see a gentleman of the redneck persuasion: "It's like a angelic kinda -- thing. It's a experience. It's spirichal."
You click "Next" and say, amen, brother.
You see a folk singer: "LANs and WANs and endless cords...."
You click "Next."
You see Larry Ellison leaning into the camera: "...SalesForce became cloud computing for the same reason Chanel last year was fuschia, this year it's puce."
You click "Next."
You see Matt Mullenweg: "It should be like Care Bears. Perfect. Happy."
You know Matt Mullenweg is somebody, except you don't remember offhand just what he did to get marginally famous. You wait to see if he will elaborate. He doesn't. You click "Next."
You see Adolph Hitler surrounded by his senior officers: "You n00bs! You fell for a bunch of marketing and slick glossies from some tradeshow booth bimbo! You outsourced all our data to a Cloud Computing provider that hosts in Leningrad?"
That one seems staged. You click "Next."
You see Larry Ellison sniffing glue: "Yeah, 'Let's call that cloud.' Sure beats innovation."
You click "Next."
You see Marc Benioff of SalesForce smirking: "...and if you can understand that then you'll know why cloud computing is what it is."
You've had enough. You disconnect.
Well, I think we've all learned something from that experiment.
(All of these snippets can be found, word-for-word, by looking for "cloud computing" on YouTube. Pretty nearly, anyway. The part about Larry Ellison sniffing glue is a total lie.)


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Virginia's Attorney General says two new laws in the state will not need the federal government's OK now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down part of the Voting Rights Act.
The Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965, required nine mostly Southern states to get clearance from the Justice Department before making changes in state voting laws or district lines.
But the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling means the two laws that had been signed into law by Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell earlier this year -- including one which will require voters to have a photo ID at the polls -- do not need federal clearance, said a spokesman for Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's attorney general.
First Read — DMV
A place for insight, analysis and exclusives on the people who shape politics in the District, Maryland and Virginia.
The spokesman said the Court's decision is effective immediately.
The laws are set to go into effect July 14. But the voter ID law will not be implemented at the polls until 2014, and so will not change poll procedures during this fall's state elections.
Earlier Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said that Congress may weigh in with new clearance criteria for the nine Voting Rights states. But in the meantime, the new laws were in limbo.
"I don't think we can send them to the Justice Department because we don't have a law by which to judge if Virginia should be precleared," McDonnell told NBC4's Mark Segraves outside the WTOP studios, where McDonnell had appeared on a radio show.