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DailyDirt: More Robot Helicopters
from the urls-we-dig-up deptAutonomous vehicles are just plain cool. Sure, there are robot cars that can drive themselves around -- but flying robots are really the bots to watch. In just a few years, little autonomous helicopters will be everywhere... watching your every move. Okay, maybe Big Brother isn't going to use flying cameras, but kids' toys are going to be really impressive soon. OLPC will be nothing compared to the programmable toys that will be in more and more homes. Just imagine a living room filled with blinking 12:00 clocks.... hmm. Anyway, here are a few more autonomous helicopter videos for your amusement.
- MIT has an indoor autonomous helicopter that can go where there's no GPS available. Even in unfamiliar buildings, this bot can map its indoor environment... and it looks like it'd be a great companion in a laser-tag arena. [url]
- At another university, Stanford's autonomous helicopter can go outside and learns how to fly by watching a human pilot. This isn't a quadrotor bot, so it's gotta fly with a bit more skill to perform its aerial stunts. [url]
- The University of Pennsylvania has a quadrotor bot that flips and can jump through hoops. If this bot turns into Skynet, at least it'll be easily overpowered by some Velcro.... [url]
Filed Under: autonomous, helicopters, quadrotors


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By Dr. Matheys, a veterinarian and blogger for cat insurance provider, Pets Best Insurance.
It's that time of year again to be on alert for various "invaders" from the plant world. As temperatures soar and rain is scarce, grasses and weeds dry out and seeds begin to scatter. This can mean trouble, by way of cheat grass, for cats that roam outdoors. Because of this, it's a good idea to consider pet insurance for your cat since cheat grass can be very dangerous and costly to remove.
Cheat grass is one of the more common and invasive weeds found in many parts of North America and especially in the West. It is also known as June grass, Downy Brome, grass awn, foxtail, or by the scientific name, Bromus tectorum.
The danger for cats lies in the invasiveness of the dry seed pods found in late summer and early fall. These pods have one-way microscopic barbs that allow the seed to work its way into fur, skin and mucous membranes, but not work its way back out, much like the one-way movement of a porcupine quill. These annoying and troublesome weeds have been found in the skin, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, rear end, and between the toes; basically anywhere on the body.
Many times they will even migrate deep into tissue. They can even work their way through skin into body cavities such as lungs and abdomen, causing life-threatening infections. Cats are better at grooming and removing them from their coats, so we most commonly see them in their eyes and ears.
We have seen several cheat grass cases in just the past two weeks. One cat patient, without cat insurance, had two grass awns in her eye and suffered severe ulcerations from the barbs scraping against the cornea of the eye. Do not underestimate the potential seriousness of this common problem.
Cats will show signs relating to where the awn has penetrated. Cheat grass in the ear typically causes scratching at the ear and head shaking. Cheat grass in the nose can cause intense sneezing fits and nasal discharge, and awns stuck behind the third eyelid usually cause squinting and rubbing of the eye, sometimes with severe swelling of the inner eyelids. Cats with an infected grass awn penetration will show signs typical of an infection: lethargy, anorexia, pain or signs of drainage. Any time you see your cats showing any of these signs, have them checked by your veterinarian as soon as possible to prevent further damage.
Since most cats that go outside roam freely, it can be difficult to keep them out of grassy fields and roadsides where cheat grass grows. Keep your own yard free of these nasty weeds and try to identify any neighboring areas where they might exist and can be controlled. Keep long haired cats trimmed and free of mats. Check your cats after they have been outdoors. Daily skin and foot inspections plus quick removal will reduce or eliminate potential serious and expensive problems. For more information about pet health and pet insurance, visit www.petsbest.com.
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subset: commoncrawl


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England head coach Trevor Bayliss is optimistic over Jos Buttler's fitness ahead of Friday's World Cup clash with the West Indies.
Buttler hurt his right hip while batting in England's previous match against Bangladesh, hobbling for the remainder of his knock and passing on wicketkeeping duties to Jonny Bairstow for the second innings.
He was scheduled to join his team-mates during a net session at the Hampshire Bowl on Wednesday and Bayliss said: "Yes, he's fine. He'll be taking part in today's practice fully.
"It was a little bit precautionary the other day. He said he could have kept, but he wasn't really sure if he would be able to run after a high catch."
Asked if Buttler might play as a specialist batsman to lighten his workload in the field, Bayliss kept his options open. Test gloveman Bairstow stands by to continue and would slot in with minimal disruption.
"I haven't really thought about it. We'll make that decision in the next day or so," said the Australian.
"We'll see how he pulls up and how he performs at practice. I'm expecting him to play a full part."
Buttler has been in fine form in the competition thus far, with scores of 18, 103 and 64 all coming at punishing strike rates. If England are to succeed in their aim of winning the trophy at Lord's, he will surely have a major role to play, meaning how they protect any fitness niggles represents a balancing act for the selectors.
Should he respond badly to his outing in the nets, or if England merely decide to err on the side of caution with one of their star assets, Hampshire's James Vince would be the likeliest pick in his role as spare batsman.
All-rounder Moeen Ali is also eyeing a return to the XI after sitting out the 106-run victory over the Tigers in Cardiff.
His off-breaks were deemed surplus to requirements in a seam-heavy attack at Sophia Gardens, but he could come back into consideration in Southampton.
Moeen was excused from training on Wednesday after the birth of his new baby daughter Haadiya.
He will rejoin the squad for final preparations on the eve of the game and is available to take on the Windies.
Friday's game will mark a first outing for Barbados-born Jofra Archer against a West Indies side containing several of his Caribbean friends and peers.
The 24-year-old suggested at the weekend he would be treating the game like any other, but Bayliss believes it would only be normal if the stakes were slightly elevated.
Archer was offered a chance to make it in county cricket after being overlooked for the Windies' Under-19 World Cup squad in 2015 and a late bid to bring him back into the fold failed after England's interest became clear.
"He's looking forward to it, obviously knows a few guys in their team," said Bayliss.
"It's always bragging rights: both sides of the argument would like to gain the upper hand in that argument. Let's wait and see.
"It will be the first time he has come up against those guys, but I am sure he is wishing to do well. I am not sure he could be any more confident – he is a confident young man who has fitted into the group very well.
"He is a typical young fast bowler: he wants to bowl fast, he wants to take wickets and that has to be a good thing for England."


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"A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape."
"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."
"As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake."
"Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written."
"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"
"Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish."
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."
"Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it."
"Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven."
"George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie."
"Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times."
"Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person."
"Grief can take care if itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with."
"Humor must not professedly teach and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever."
"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"
"I have been complimented many times and they always embarrass me; I always feel that they have not said enough."
"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."
"In 'Huckleberry Finn,' I have drawn Tom Blankenship exactly as he was. He was ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed; but he had as good a heart as ever any boy had."
"It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."
"It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions."
"It put our energies to sleep and made visionaries of us – dreamers and indolent… It is good to begin life poor; it is good to begin life rich – these are wholesome; but to begin it prospectively rich! The man who has not experienced it cannot imagine the curse of it."
"It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse races."
"Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation."
"Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen."
"Lord save us all from old age and broken health and a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms."
"My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water."
"Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial 'we.'"
"Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside."
"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
"Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."
"The Christian's Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes."
"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning."
"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
"The finest clothing made is a person's own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this."
"The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner."
"The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little."
"The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not."
"There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded."
"There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one – keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy."
"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education."
"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."
"Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."
"What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself."
"What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin."
"What, sir, would the people of the earth be without woman? They would be scarce, sir, almighty scarce."
"When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people."
"When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself."
"When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old."
"Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved."
"Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which, before their union, were not perceived to have any relation."
"Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."


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San Francisco?s Moscone Center was home to Intel?s annual Developer forum this past week. It was fairly low key with a couple of 3.1 Richter Scale announcements. A little peaking under the surface reveals that Intel is repositioning their consumer side to address changing market demands?
Margin Diversification
Intel is a margin driven organization with sales that roughly divide into two categories consisting of corporate [33%] and consumer [66%]. Corporate sales have, for the most part, maintained good volume and margin though the consumer side of the business seems to have suffered from a shift in consumer spending habits. Consumer expenditures for desktops and high end notebooks have shifted to netbooks, nettops, tablets and smart phones, a market segment that?s quickly approaching commodity status along with lower margin expectations. Then again, Intel is all about the volume and in mobile phone business, there is a potential to ship more processors than Intel ships today. Lower margin yes, but if the sales is measured in hundreds of millions, the bottom line would increase from a few hundred million to a few billion dollars extra.
Atom Power
Intel began investing in the mobile segment beginning with the Atom processor development in 2004 in an effort to address the needs of what the company calls the "Mobile Internet Device" market. A not so obvious, but apparent strategy, was the company?s desire to retain and strengthen their hold on the pervasive "Intel Architecture" model within the mobile segment. Intel?s involvement with the ARM processor effectively ended when it sold its XScale acquisition to Marvell [~US$600 million] in 2006 leaving the Atom processor line as their sole roadmap in the segment. Marvell went on to develop an ARM-based processor series now widely used in smartphones.
Although the Atom processor is relatively low power for an x86 architecture processor it requires chipset support driving up power levels above those of competing ARM implementations. Despite this, Intel has captured a wide number of netbook and nettop design wins with the codenamed "Pineview" Atom processor which combines memory and graphics control on chip but requires a Platform Controller Hub [PCH] codenamed "Tiger Point".
Introducing Atom E600 SoC
Intel has been working on the Atom series processor for six years and has yet to field a System-on-Chip [SoC] version fueling speculation of what intention?s the company might have as regards the embedded control marketplace. The E600 announcement permanently put to bed any further speculation of the company?s intentions. This is a larger undertaking than many realize and is one of the more interesting system level development efforts that Intel has ever entertained. The company?s strategy is to bring system level integration costs down while spreading the Intel Architecture into new application areas including in-vehicle infotainment systems for cars, smart grid devices and IP media phones.
Intel Atom E600 "Stellarton" – Intel packs Altera FPGA with an next-gen Atom core
One processor detailed during a keynote is codenamed "Stellarton." It consists of an Atom E600 processor coupled with an Altera FPGA on a multi-chip package that provides additional flexibility for customers who want to incorporate proprietary I/O or acceleration. Although Stellarton provides customers with a fast time-to-market the question remains whether Intel will entertain a full-custom path for high run devices? We suspect this is a trial run for the future integration of processing units from the TeraScale and "many-core architecture" projects – formerly known as Larrabee. We might be wrong, but that integration would be the traditional path that Intel follows.
The E600 represents a fairly significant departure from Intel?s normal business regimen. There?s concern that the company is not well prepared to handle support requirements that a significant number of design wins would have on the company, on the other hand, the company could just as easily spin it off as a separate operating entity. One thing is clear, Intel needs this capability to capture, service and retain top to bottom processor slots at their large OEM customer accounts.
Sandy Bridge
Sandy Bridge is the result of a historically rocky road in Intel?s efforts to achieve market acceptable graphics performance on Intel Architecture silicon. Sandy Bridge is Intel?s mainstream architecture for 2011. It won?t enter the value space till sometime in 2012 with first units shipping in early 2011 [April?].
The graphics engine design was physically "lifted" from supporting chipsets and placed on the CPU for the first time. Known as Intel integrated graphics it has been shipping in a number of notebooks for approximately six years and also shipped in a significant number of PCs sold worldwide. Design win announcements are expected to be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Opher Kahn, Senior Principal Engineer of the Sandy Bridge design team, said "We?re not trying to target the most high-end discrete [standalone] card. We don?t have the bandwidth, we don?t have the power budget. We?re trying to do the best experience for the mobile platform."
Sandy Bridge fits within Intel?s plan not only the mobile space but that it lowers the overall power budget regardless of end use. Intel has engineered a very competitive solution for today?s market requirements and conditions.
Wireless & Security
Intel?s recent acquisitions of Infineon?s wireless group, Texas Instruments cable modem group and McAfee are flashing red indicators of the company?s future intentions in the smartphone market, heightened overall internet connectivity and internet security respectively. This will pit the company against the likes of Qualcomm Inc. and Broadcom Corp. Intel is now executing their vision of the company?s future. It looks fairly Mobile?


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The son of "The Real Housewives of Miami" star Alexia Echevarria was arrested on a simple battery charge Wednesday in connection with an assault on a homeless man that was caught on video, police said.
Peter Rosello, 20, was arrested after turning himself in to Miami Beach Police around 12:20 p.m., according to an arrest affidavit.
According to the affidavit, the video shows Rosello saying he is going to punch the man, identified as 62-year-old Gary Lee Brown, in the genitals.
"[Rosello] is then observed punching Mr. Brown in the groin for no apparent reason while he is sleeping," the affidavit said.
The video shows Rosello running off and entering a vehicle and fleeing the area, the affidavit said.
Brown told NBC 6 South Florida that he had been sleeping in an alley when he felt someone's presence near him.
"I started to wake up, and some guy punched me right in the balls," he said.
After police reviewed the video, they were able to find Brown, who verified he had been punched in the groin while he was sleeping, the affidavit said.
Police were also able to identify Rosello as the offender from the video, the affidavit said.
Echevarria confirmed to NBC 6 last week that it was her son in the video.
"If you know Peter, you know he's not an aggressive person, especially not with the homeless," Echevarria said. "He wasn't himself ... It's not what he is, and it's unfortunate."
Rosello bonded out of the Miami-Dade jail later Wednesday, jail records showed.
U.S. & World
"Well, I've defended cases before where there is video, and sometimes things are not what they seem to be," his attorney Richard Sharpstein said. "So other than that, I can't really comment now."


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data preview:
Apply Skin Tone Corrector Primer 03 (Peach).
Give your complexion an even look by applying the KIKO foundation and concealer best suited to your skin type.
Using the Face 103 brush, blend Bronzer Powder under the cheekbone. Then apply a touch of Soft Touch Blush 108 (Coral Orange) to the cheekbones using Face 103.
Comb eyebrows with Eyebrow Designer. Apply a small amount of Eye Base Primer on the eyelids. Moisten the Eyes 206 brush and apply Water Eyeshadow 228 (Taupe) over the entire lid. Using the Eyes 200 brush, blend Water Eyeshadow 202 (Golden Mauve) close to the sides of the nose and in the eyelid crease.
Dab Water Eyeshadow 208 (Light Gold) in the inner corner of your eye with the Eyes 204 brush. Moisten the Eyes 204 brush and apply Water Eyeshadow 206 (Pearly Coffee) along the upper and lower lash lines. Complete the look by applying Unforgettable Mascara.
Outline the lip contour with Automatic Precision Lip Liner 505 (Red) and blend the line using the Lips 300 brush. Apply Unlimited Stylo 07 (Cherry Red), taking care to fill in the corners accurately.
Apply two layers of Nail Lacquer 239 (Vermilion Red), and set the polish with Gel Look for increased hold and shine.


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Morning in York. A new day. A day doing archaeology. Not that many would recognise it as archaeology. I'll be going through a pile of references on engaging young people in archaeology to help complete a report for the CBA. Do most archaeologists spend most of their time digging? No! We spend most of our time reading.
Just read on the BBC News website that some pot sherds from Xianrendong in China have been dated to 20,000 BP. The oldest pottery yet discovered. That puts British Neolithic pots into perspective.
Also just received a nice photo of an Acheulian hand-axe from Prof. Bae in Korea to help illustrate an article I've written for the Young Archaeologist magazine. The hand-axes at the Jeongok-ri site are made of quartzite. It's very hard and tough to knap – I tried when I was out there last month. I have my poor attempt at a my very own hand-axe on my desk as a paperweight.


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Bringing light to LOPEC: USHIO demo 172nm excimer surface activation
USHIO prepare to impress the printed electronics industry with excimer lamps, in Munich
USHIO prepare to impress the printed electronics industry with excimer lamps, in Munich
From December 2020, Ushio, Inc. will further expand its violet light product portfolio with the production of a new 404 nm
Ushio has announced the release of a new record-breaking version of its Epitex SMBB1050GD 1,050 nm short wavelength infrared (SWIR) LEDs.
In response to increasing demand from the laser show market, Ushio Inc. is beginning production of HL63373HD in October. This 638
As a longstanding manufacturer of LEDs, Ushio Epitex is positioned as a leading producer of optical components for Automatic Number Plate
Oude Meer, the Netherlands (September 2020) – Ushio is proud to announce its inclusion in FORTUNE's annual Change the World list
Ushio Inc. (Head office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Koji Naito, hereinafter "Ushio") hereby announces that Jiro Ushio, Director and Corporate Advisor,
Please note: this article is also available in French, and can be accessed here. Approaching a full year since Ushio Europe
Epitex LEDs comprise the largest available collection of light emitting diodes on the market. Spanning violet (UV), visible, and infrared (IR)
Oude Meer, the Netherlands (September 2020) — Dr. Hiroki Ohge, Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, Hiroshima University Hospital, and a group
Ushio Inc. (Japan) has announced the release of two new violet laser diodes (LDs), HL40113MG and HL40115MG, emitting a wavelength of


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The R-C Morning Report for June 11
A workshop on water and sewer rate increases is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Johnson Lane Volunteer Fire Department on Stephanie Way. County commissioners said at their May 1 meeting that the new rates need to be approved by July 1, so I suspect a special 4:30 p.m. meeting set for June 25 may be to do just that.
While the races for sheriff in Douglas, Carson and a little less in Washoe were landslides, in Lyon County there were only 203 votes between winner Al McNeil and second place Albert Torres. Nevada Highway Patrol Spokesman Trooper Chuck Allen was the top candidate in Washoe County by a pretty good margin. All those races will be back in November.
A red flag warning for extreme fire danger kicks in 1-9 p.m. today as a low pressure system swirls off the California coast, bringing gusty winds and low humidity to Western Nevada. This looks like a two-day event continuing on Thursday.
Lightning lit up the Pine Nuts last night, so that may set a fire or two on the mountain when the winds pick up. On Tuesday five people were arrested for setting off fireworks in Spanish Springs. Don't do that.
Today's weather will be sunny with the west wind increasing to 15-20 mph, gusting to 30 mph. Expect a blustery evening before the wind dies down.


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text:
Welcome to Princess of Coron Resort
Located in Busuanga Island, guests at Princess of Coron can easily reach a variety of area's places of interests such as Sabang Beach, Estrella Falls, and El Nido. This property has 10 well-appointed guestrooms which are stylishly furnished and decorated to give comfortable stay for guests in Palawan. All guestrooms feature amenities including air-conditioner and private bathroom. A swimming pool is available for guests to unwind after a day of sightseeing in Palawan. Princess of Coron is the right place to enjoy quality accommodation and friendly service in a pleasant atmosphere with an affordable price.


text:
Part of the reason I'm not exactly thrilled about the Wii U isn't because of its hardware, it's because of the games. I want to see what a new Zelda game or a new Mario game looks like on the console. And when I say new, I mean new.
So I like what artist Luigi Lucarelli is doing here. This is his idea for "Super Mario Universe", a new Mario game that involves large, open worlds to explore. And, hopefully, some nice cartoon graphics to boot.
Super Mario Universe [DeviantArt, via it 8-bit]


text:
Felicia Day and The Guild were big winners at the IAWTV Awards
Firstly, hearty congratulations to the winners of the IAWTV Awards (the full list is on the IAWTV website). You will forever be the first cohort of IAWTV winners, something to be proud of. Secondly, congratulations to the production team who managed to pull off an impressive evening, no mean feat for a first year. Thirdly, overall I was really pleased with the whole event, thought it was well conceived and executed.
No comparisons
There is little point in trying to compare last night's awards to past events. This is the first awards the IAWTV have hosted and they should be assessed on that basis. I am a member of the IAWTV and this event was a celebration of a community I hold dear. I can't pretend to be a dispassionate observer, because I'm not. I was making screengrabs throughout the show so I'm not going to give a blow-by-blow account. I did enjoy the liveblog of the event by Amanda Walgrove in The Faster Times even though I don't agree with all of her observations. It is likely that the IAWTV Awards will be at CES again next year, so this was a great base to build on and I have no doubt that next year's will be even better.
You can see the screenshots here:
What was good
- There was a clear plan for the evening, and even when things didn't go to plan I never felt concerned that the whole event was going wrong.
- There was obviously a big emphasis on timing, and things did move along quickly. That is a huge achievement.
- Tech always goes wrong, but the show carried on, which is exactly what should happen.
- There was an underlying respect for the occasion, the space and the community. Even though there were cracks about web TV I could have done without hearing from some quarters, the ceremony itself was respectful, dignified and fitting.
- Some of the pre-recorded segments were very good indeed.
- There were no streakers.
Jane Espenson and Bernie Su hosting at the IAWTV Awards
What could have been better
- The stress on timing meant that people were literally running on and off stage and sometimes the stage was empty. This wasn't a major issue in the overall scheme of things but would be an area to look at for next year. I would have preferred the award section hosts to stay on stage at all times and help get people on and off stage and cover for any glitches.
- Sound was an issue all the way through and would be the #1 priority for next time. Levels fluctuated wildly from silence to barely-there to booming and back again. However, anyone who has had to perform in any venue not run by them will tell you that sound is one of the hardest things to get right. Even with well equipped desks and great sound engineers, things can go wrong. Someone should have had a handle on the hot mics, at least, to spare us the unguarded commentary.
- Some of the live segments fell flat, some of the recorded segments were too long, and sometimes meshing the live and recorded together went awry. Again, these are problems all live shows are subject to. Most of the things that could be controlled before the event were, and that's all you can hope for.
- Using YouTube meant that there was effectively no chat room because it was pretty much spammed all the way through.
- I understood the idea behind using Siri – the Awards were at CES! – but it didn't quite work and added another layer of complication that didn't need to be there.
April Grant, Amanda Shockley and Kai Haison hosting at IAWTV Awards
Individual high points
- Grace Helbig – I am not familiar with this young lady or her show 'Daily Grace', but her performance last night was very good so I will investigate further.
- The Indie Intertube ladies – I've known Amanda and April for quite a while and actually met them this year (yay!). They were poised and classy hosts and I was so proud to watch them on stage.
- Felicia's speeches and her stripper heels, Sean Becker's speech, Kim Evey's speech (again, not pretending to be unbiased).
- Elisabeth Flack receiving an award for Exceptional Individual Service. Elisabeth worked behind the scenes tirelessly for the IAWTV and she was incredibly helpful and welcoming to me when I was considering joining the IAWTV. You are an inspiration, Elisabeth, and I was thrilled to see you honoured.
- Jane Espenson
Personal low points
If you were in the IAWTV chat room last night you would know what these were for me. Not sure I'll share them beyond that but there were parts that I thought were ill-conceived, mainly relating to individuals whom I think should know better. Or maybe I just don't get their humour. Lots of people don't share my sense of humour, either, so maybe it's down to a question of taste.
This was a celebration of web TV, the creators and the community and went off without any major problems. I think the infrastructure is building to take advantage of the opportunities that will open up in the coming months. We want people outside our space to take us seriously as professionals. This was a step towards achieving that, and I thank the Academy and everyone who helped make it a success. Have a day off this weekend for once. You deserve it.


text:
Luetge returns to his Texas roots
HOUSTON -- Lucas Luetge grew up about two hours from Minute Maid Park and attended college in Houston, but the reliever's experience in the park was limited to one inning in a game while playing for Rice University in a tournament, until he made the trip with the Mariners for this weekend's series.
"That wasn't really playing here," he said of his brief college experience. "This is the real thing. I always told myself I'd play here one day. This is the place I grew up watching baseball, whether it was here or the Astrodome. So it's kind of where your dreams start.
"You can watch on TV, but until you're there in person you feel like, 'Oh man, I want to play on that field.' It really is a dream come true. Playing in any stadium is exciting, but I'm really excited about this one."
Luetge said he attended numerous Astros games while in college, though when he grew up in Industry, Texas, he wasn't strictly devoted to that club.
"I was a fan of lots of teams. My bedroom wasn't filled with Astros stuff or anything, but this was the closest stadium and we supported them," he said.
Luetge said he bought about 35 tickets for friends and family for Friday's game.


text:
When it comes to keeping your home comfortable, few things are more important than your furnace and air conditioner. With everything working as it should, they are energy efficient, quiet systems that keep you and your family cozy. At their worst, they can be an inconvenience and a money pit. We want to ensure you only experience them at their best.
Cold nights in Falfurrias are nothing to mess around with so if your furnace goes on the fritz, you don't want to be sitting around freezing all night. Likewise, a hot August day without a properly operating air conditioner can be a real nightmare. If you've got a major problem, give the experts at Four Seasons Air Conditioning and Heating LLC a call. We'll get one of our experts out to your home ASAP.
But that doesn't mean you should wait until your systems suffer a major malfunction to think about your furnace and air conditioner. In fact, your furnace and AC need routine service like any other household machine. Staying ahead of potential malfunctions is as easy as getting in touch with the Falfurrias area HVAC pros at Four Seasons AC & Heating LLC to schedule a maintenance appointment.
When you do schedule service, we're confident it will leave you with a great impression. That's because our experts are clean, friendly, and professional. After all, it's the homeowners in Falfurrias that have given us our great reputation for professional service and great results. From the best warranties in the business to energy efficient products, you'll know you've made the right choice.
So whether your AC or furnace has just gone out or it's just time to get them serviced, you know who to get ahold of. The experts at Four Seasons AC & Heating LLC have been serving your friends and neighbors for years. With so many satisfied customers, what are you waiting for? Contact us at 361-214-1203 now and we'll get your problem taken care of as quickly as we can.


text:
Play Pacman for free here. Pacman is an all time classic video game. When it was released in 1980, the popular games were Asteroids and Space Invaders. Pacman broke the mold, appealing to both men and women alike.
Use the arrow keys to move, avoid the ghosts. Get powerups and you can turn around to catch the ghosts. Some of the ghosts move faster than others. Each ghost has different rules for how they track you. Bonus items can help get you extra lives.


text:
When they start working, most Vatel alumni who decide to begin their careers after their Bachelor Vatel, have middle management jobs in hotel chains: Assistant Reception Manager, Head-Waiter, Catering Control, Housekeeping Manager, Sales Assistant, Deputy Housekeeper, Cost-Control, etc.
For those who have a MBA Vatel, on average they have an open ended contract within six months, in a managerial position. Their jobs demand more skills and managerial aptitudes: Reception Manager, Deputy Catering Manager, Marketing Assistant, Deputy Human Resources Manager, Yield Manager, etc.
The true added value that Vateliens have, compared with graduates of another school, resides in the accumulation of professional experiences during schooling: as of their very first day at school until they graduate, our students apply their knowledge, both at school and during their internships.
Many graduates of Vatel schools decide to begin their careers abroad, where it is much easier to climb the corporate ladder. Gross annual salaries are much higher than in Europe, in particular because of the many perks: free housing, food, certain living expenses paid for, insurance, etc.
In addition, they can use the priceless network of 30,000 Vateliens throughout the world and students are often recommended by Vateliens they met during their internships or even directly hired by them.
Helene Myon, a 2011 graduate and the Research and Development Manager at Curty's in Paris
"It's not unusual at Vatel to transform your final internship into your first job."
Click here for her Success Story:
Jean-Baptiste Karsenty, a 1988 graduate who founded his own web communication agency in Meribel, "La Mobylette Jaune»
"When I finished my third year internship, the same hotel hired me and little by little I was promoted until I managed the hotel. A long climb up the corporate ladder when you know I started as an assistant trainee!"
Click here for her Success Story:
Jenna LI, a 2013 alumnus and the Meetings & Special Events Executive at the Dubai Ritz Carlton
"I finished my exams at the end of October, 2012 and then a few days later I took the plane to Dubai and started my internship in the Ritz-Carlton. Three months later, they hired me in the job in which I'm currently employed."
Click here for her Success Story:


text:
Welcome to Doom9's Forum, THE in-place to be for everyone interested in DVD conversion.
Before you start posting please read the forum rules. By posting to this forum you agree to abide by the rules.
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|12th May 2018, 12:25
|#27301 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 576
Is it possible to use Full Backup mode in case of BD3D source (including menus and extras) without reencoding the video (keeping intact)? I just want to throw out unwanted audio streams, reencode the English HD track to AC3 5.1 while keeping an other AC3 5.1 track of the main movie.
Giving thanks to any answer.
|12th May 2018, 12:55
|#27302 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Germany
Posts: 57
There's no problem, I think.
You only have to use the right settings for 3D encoding. Shrinking to BD25 works fine for me. A simple selection of of your fav. audio can 't be a problem in my opinion.
|12th May 2018, 16:28
|#27303 | Link
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 20,727
|12th May 2018, 16:30
|#27304 | Link
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 20,727
|12th May 2018, 19:40
|#27305 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 576
Does anyone here have experience with FrimEncode? My aim to achieve some "visual transparency" while keeping the original menus with extras and throwing out unwanted tracks.
Thanks again for any opinion shared.
Last edited by mparade; 12th May 2018 at 19:45.
|12th May 2018, 23:28
|#27306 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Germany
Posts: 57
I did a lot of 3D movies using Frim. It´s quiet slow, but it works. On my system it´s about 16fps. A normal 2D Encode is about 10x faster... The results are fine on my beamer with a 120" screen.
i can´t say if it would be ok for you with my settings. I never had faulty encodes stay over 55% of the original size.
Make a test and watch the result.
|12th May 2018, 23:58
|#27307 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 576
Thanks. Do you use software decoding/encoding in BD-RB, right? Quality settings is set to default, right?
It seems to be quite difficult to determine a sufficient average bitrate for the VBR encodes because complexity of the source changes from one to an other. ~45% of bitrate saving sounds quite impressive, anyway. On top of it all, I would like to check the result on my small LG C6V 4K HDR (3D TV), so....
Last edited by mparade; 13th May 2018 at 00:00.
|13th May 2018, 01:16
|#27308 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,364
jdobbs, the past couple weeks i've done a full system format (to fix an issue with the windows indexing service among other things) and to move from my Samsung 850 EVO to my Samsung 960 Pro. Naturally i'm using BDRB again and i've decided to go with LAV filters only. Now the instructions don't say if anything needs to be configured in the audio or video splitter. Do they, or are they just fine simply after installing? For the video splitter is it ok to enable nvidia cuvid/quicksync? When doing 3D should i set it to quicksync?
|13th May 2018, 11:36
|#27309 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Germany
Posts: 57
Even the dark scenes looked good and 3D was very impressive.
Finaly you´ll have to test it for your own, if this would fit for you.
|13th May 2018, 17:13
|#27310 | Link
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 20,727
Last edited by jdobbs; 13th May 2018 at 17:16.
|14th May 2018, 14:09
|#27311 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 201
Did you ever decide if you'll work on it? or will it be included or BD-RB or will it be a separate program?
|14th May 2018, 16:14
|#27312 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 201
Not necessarily a bug, but not a feature either.. more of a question..
Usually I rip BD's to HD, then setup a batch of multiple movies (Alt Movie only to MKV) and walk away..
Today I ran into a disc that gave me read errors trying to rip to HD... For gins and smiles, I decided to set the sources in BD-Rebuild as the bluray drive, and proceeded to do the Alt Movie Only... If there were read errors from the disc, would BD-RB have given an error message during the process?
Since it completed without error, is it possible the movie only MKV is actually fine? (I hope to get to watch it later today or tomorrow)
|14th May 2018, 20:31
|#27313 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 296
BTW You could try to copy all files with Windows Explorer to see which file is the culprit and then examine where it belongs to.
|16th May 2018, 01:10
|#27314 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Sweden
Posts: 249
Hi! Getting these errors lately everytime I open a BD source. I have run the inspect with everything ok. Jdobbs maybe you could point me in the right direction for further troubleshooting?
05-16-18 [01:55:37] SourceCheck() 00009 2501
05-16-18 [01:56:23] SourceCheck() 00055 2501
05-16-18 [01:57:17] SourceCheck() 00009 2501
05-16-18 [01:58:54] SourceCheck() 00055 2501
05-16-18 [02:02:36] SourceCheck() 00009 2501
05-16-18 [02:03:07] SourceCheck() 00055 2501
[05-16-18] Checking System Settings
- BD-Rebuilder v0.50.25
- Windows Version: 6.2 [9200]
- Working Path Free Space: 32,40GB
- AVISYNTH Version: 188.8.131.52, Ok
- LAVFILTERS: Ok
- AnyDVD settings check: Ok.
- X264: Ok
- AFTEN: Ok
- FAAC: Ok
- MP4BOX: Ok
- WAVI: Ok
- TSMUXER: Ok
- FRIMEncode: Ok
- FRIMDecode: Ok
[05-16-18] Systems Settings Check complete
|16th May 2018, 09:43
|#27315 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 1,364
Not a 100% sure but think that error means bdrb doesn't have enough free space to work with. You need a lot more than your 32gb to do a full disclosure backup. But can't be sure since you left out half the log.
Sent from my Nexus 6P with Tapatalk
|16th May 2018, 14:58
|#27316 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 11
Hi all.
For the first time, I'm experiencing a target size problem with BD Rebuilder v0.50.25.
From "inspect", everything seems to be correct (gonna paste the log).
The BD I'm trying to shrink is multi-angle and multi-playlist: the resulting shrink is 26.4 GB.
It's a full backup, BD size output setting is BD-25, quality "automatic" and "Quicker encode for extras" is enabled (if disabled, the resulting folder is even bigger).
Languages selected are eng and ita only, audio is converted from dts to ac3.
x264 internal LAVF is used for frame serving.
No "Hidden" option is used.
The system is not overclocked.
Here's the conversion log(s):
Last edited by thecrowler; 16th May 2018 at 18:25. Reason: Multiple grammar errors, my bad
|16th May 2018, 16:02
|#27317 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Sweden
Posts: 249
Edit reason: Scratch that. Seems to be a corrupt source. Sorry for taking up your time.
Last edited by LowDead; 16th May 2018 at 16:05. Reason: corrupt source.
|16th May 2018, 18:11
|#27318 | Link
Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Viersen, Germany
Posts: 270
Hi Together....since BD-Rebuilder has not been updated....maybe because of a lack of need
x264/x265 encoder had further progress. Is there any info available which versions to pick from "http://msystem.waw.pl/x265/" for example ?
|16th May 2018, 19:34
|#27319 | Link
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 20,727
That's a subscript out of range error... which is very odd and makes me think (at first glance) it is a corrupt source. Can you tell me what disc and region you are trying to do?
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text:
Jason Hartke
Vice President, National Policy
U.S. Green Building Council
Cross-posted from GreenSource's The Green Source: A Blog of Sustainable Building
With little yet to celebrate as the talks in Durban continue into the second week, international negotiators and other delegates are hearing from local leaders with stories that defy the intransigency of the status quo.
A Matter of Leadership
I'm reminded today that it was Albert Einstein who I think gave us the right perspective about the power of example. "Setting example is not the main means of influencing another, it's the only means."
Yesterday, in an uplifting session, the World Green Building Council, in partnership with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and UN-Habitat, held up a suite of shining examples as part of its Government Leadership Awards to recognize local policies that are accelerating green building around the world. Award winners included San Francisco (Best Green Building Policy), Mexico City (Climate Action Leadership Award), Birmingham, UK (Urban Retrofit Award), Singapore (Regional Leadership Award), New York City (Industry Transformation Award) and Tokyo (Most Groundbreaking Policy Award).
|From left to right: Jane Henley, CEO, World Green Building Council; Martha Delgado, minister of environment, Mexico City; Nicola Brewer, Birmingham, UK; Yoshio Wagai, senior director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Urban and Global Environment Division; Axumite Gebre-Eqziabher, Division Director, UN-Habitat; David Cadman, President of ICLEI and Vice Mayor of Vancouver, Canada
"These cities have demonstrated that focusing on energy efficiency in the built environment delivers a range of benefits, including operational savings, energy security, health and well-being to building occupants, and provides a much needed boost to the economy," said Jane Henley, CEO of the World Green Building Council.
The theme was simple: green building provides a triple-bottom line opportunity for cities hungry for clean energy solutions. Cities are proving over and over again that green building programs will save energy, help save businesses and residents money, improve health and strengthen the local economy.
For ICLEI, which represents about 1,300 cities around the world, it's about creating a sustainable future. And for buildings the future is now. "Where ever you are, you can build the buildings of the future, today" said David Cadman, President of ICLEI and Vice Mayor of Vancouver, Canada.
Yes We Can
Tokyo, a city with a strong, rich history in green building, won WorldGBC's Most Groundbreaking Policy Award because of its Cap-and-Trade program, which is the first in the world to include buildings.
"Before the earthquake, many Japanese believed that we could not further reduce the energy consumption since Japan was doing the maximum in terms of the energy efficiency," said Yoshio Wagai, senior director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Urban and Global Environment Division.
Despite the doubters, Wagai knew his city would meet the challenge. "But in reality we could do more. Yes, we could!" said Wagai. "Even in such a difficult situation, many buildings in Tokyo succeeded in significantly reducing energy consumption by about 20 percent compared with the previous year without sacrificing their functionality."
In Birmingham, UK, the city's building retrofit program will spur £1.5 billion of green retrofits in more than 200,000 buildings and helping to create 16,000 jobs in the next 15 years.
"It is very difficult to change the pattern of development," said Martha Delgado, minister of environment, who accepted the Climate Action Leadership Award on behalf of Mexico City. "But changing these patterns are a matter of leadership." Through implementing its climate action plan, Mexico City is on course to reduce CO2 emissions by 7 million tons by 2012.
Countries here at Durban can learn a lot from these city leaders, who simply refuse to listen to the naysayers and are taking action now to power a green, prosperous economy from the ground up.


text:
Torre to be honored for Milwaukee baseball ties
Hall of Fame manager began his playing career with the Milwaukee Braves
Joe Torre's eventful summer just keeps adding highlights. Torre, a recent electee to the Hall of Fame, will also be inducted to the Milwaukee Braves Honor Roll next week. Torre, who began his career in Milwaukee, will be honored by the Brewers and the Milwaukee Braves Historical Association on May 8 at Miller Park.
Torre will be reunited with his brother Frank, one of 12 previous honorees to the Milwaukee Braves Honor Roll. The elder Torre was honored in 2011, and the great Hank Aaron -- who broke Babe Ruth's career home run record in 1974 -- was inducted to the Milwaukee Braves Honor Roll in 2012.
Joe Torre signed with Milwaukee in 1959 and played the first six years of his career there, and he played another three years with the Braves after they relocated to Atlanta. Torre batted .294 with 142 home runs and 552 RBIs and made the All-Star team five times during his Braves tenure.
Torre was traded to St. Louis before the 1969 season in exchange for future Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, and he went on to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1971. Torre gained even greater fame as a manager, and he won four World Series championships with the Yankees between 1996-2000.
Torre, who has also managed the Mets, Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers in his decorated career, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Expansion Era Committee late last year. He'll be feted as part of the induction class in Cooperstown in July.


text:
A week in the life of a FLO – Wendy Scott, Leicestershire and Rutland FLO and Rebecca Czechowicz, FLA.
I added records to the database from an elderly long-term finder. We visited him at home last week and recorded objects found many years ago, before the scheme started here. We obtained accurate locations using maps and had a chat about his best find, a small but significant Viking coin hoard –The Thurcaston Hoard.
More inputting (it never stops!). In the run up to the Festival of Archaeology, myself and my manager have a meeting with our press office to plan our press releases. This year we have 73 festival events to promote, including a launch event at Kirby Muxloe Castle with EH (14th July), an event to promote a new Iron age coin hoard going into Harborough museum with coin striking activities (17th July).
We are also plugging two Leicestershire objects being in the final 10 of Britain's Secret Treasures, an ITV programme highlighting the 50 most important finds made by the public (16th-22nd July).
We have help from a volunteer today. James Kirton is helping us to get all the amazing Bosworth Roman objects onto the database. Amongst hundreds of brooches, we have 99 horse and rider brooches! Along with coins and other objects; all found as part of the Bosworth battlefield survey.
We have an appointment at Oakham Museum to meet a finder to record her many objects. Rebecca measures and weighs whilst I photograph and identify all the objects. Handily this co-incides with an invitation to visit Time Team filming at Oakham castle. We met up with Danni, FLO for Devon who works for Time Team, and local detectorist Dr Phil Harding who was detecting the spoil for them, to see what they'd found. A local journalist asked the other Dr Phil Harding if he actually did the digging! He was posing for a photo with a spade at the time, so he replied "What do you think I do with this?"
Downloading and editing photos and researching objects from our recording yesterday, ready to add them to the database. I have spoken to the finder of the IA hoard. We are arranging a photo opportunity for the press next week, prior to the event and I needed a quote for the press release. I also spoke to colleagues about one of our museums purchasing a treasure case, a medieval finger ring, for their collection. In the afternoon we were all distracted from work by a violent thunderstorm, with flash flooding and hail the size of golfballs!
Day of Archaeology! Today I am getting on with recording the objects we identified yesterday. I am also preparing leaflets and flyers for the Festival. Before I leave I will be gathering material for a weekend event. Sunday is the annual open day at Burrough Hill fort, Leicestershire's best Iron Age fort. The University of Leicester are conducting a five year research project there. We will have the latest finds along with other Iron Age and Roman objects from the area found by detecting and field-walking. We have Iron age Warriors, coin making and I will be on hand to record anything that people bring along.
With the exception of Time Team being in my area, this is a pretty average summer week. There are always more objects to record and input, events to organise and promote and people to see. . . . .


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"Come on, that's such a canard, you know that," Oliver Stone said. "'The Greatest Generation?' That was the biggest publishing hoax of all. It's to sell books."
This seemingly sacrosanct term was coined by Tom Brokaw for his 1998 book of the same title, in which he recounted the lives of ordinary, World War II-era Americans.
"I was in Vietnam with the Greatest Generation," Mr. Stone said. "They were master sergeants, generals, colonels. They had arrogance beyond belief. The hubris that allowed Henry Kissinger to say North Vietnam is a fourth-rate power we will break. The hubris of that!"
We were discussing Mr. Stone's latest project, a 10-part Showtime series and a 750-page companion volume called "The Untold History of the United States," which begins with World War I and ends with the first Obama administration. It's an Oliver Stone version of a History Channel documentary, one guaranteed to raise ire on both left and right. From where Mr. Stone sits, World War II begot the Cold War, which landed us in Vietnam, a manifestation of American imperialism, which led inexorably to our current battle in Afghanistan. We have, Mr. Stone says, been sold a fairy tale masquerading as history, and it is so blinding it may ultimately undo us.
"You have to understand what it was like to be a Roman empire and to find some barbarian tribe riding into Rome in 476 A.D.," he said. "It's quite a shock. And that's what will happen to us unless we change our attitude about what our role in the world is."
It was a late September morning, and Mr. Stone was sitting on the terrace of his hotel suite in San Sebastian, Spain, where his latest film, "Savages," was being screened as part of the city's 60-year- old film festival.
At a news conference he gave the day before, he suggested that the former Spanish president, Jose Maria Aznar, should be tried at The Hague on war-crimes charges for his participation in Bush's Coalition of the Willing during the Iraq War. The remark presumably only enhanced his status in San Sebastian, where he was presented with the Donostia, the festival's lifetime achievement award.
It has been more than 25 years since Mr. Stone's greatest critical and commercial success, "Platoon," an autobiographical retelling of his Vietnam experience, which won Oscars for best director and best picture. And now he's at the age where he's considering his legacy. "A lot of people when they get older they write autobiographies or memoirs," said Mr. Stone, who is 66. "But my priority would be to ask, What did the times I lived through mean? And did I understand them?"
Mr. Stone modeled his new series on the landmark 1973-74 BBC series "The World at War," which, at 26 episodes, is considered as exhaustive and authoritative a study of World War II as could be offered on television. Mr. Stone's "Untold History" jams almost 75 years of American history into just 10 hours, so that may kill the exhaustive angle, but he is certainly hoping for the authoritative bit. "This," he pronounced, "is truly the meaning of these events."
Last month, on the afternoon before the premiere of three episodes of "Untold History" at the New York Film Festival, Mr. Stone and Peter Kuznick were bickering in a conference room at Mr. Stone's publicity firm. Mr. Kuznick is the history professor at the American University in Washington who helped write the Showtime series and, even Mr. Stone admits, most of the book.
At 64, Mr. Kuznick is Mr. Stone's contemporary, and the two men in their identical outfits of black jackets and blue oxford shirts might suggest some sort of cosmic parity if their personal backgrounds weren't so dissimilar. Whereas Mr. Kuznick was raised by left-leaning, politically active Jews and joined the N.A.A.C.P. at age 12, Mr. Stone's political evolution has been a gradual but radical departure from his upbringing in the Upper East Side household of Louis Stone, a stockbroker and Eisenhower Republican, who instilled in his son an almost paralyzing fear of Russia's global military and economic ascendancy.
"I remember crying, practically, and saying why aren't we doing anything?" Mr. Stone said. He infuriated his father by dropping out of Yale after his first year, and later joined the Army and served in the infantry in Vietnam.
In a very small way, the challenges of objectively documenting history are made manifest when you ask Mr. Stone and Mr. Kuznick how they came to work together on "Untold History." Mr. Kuznick was a huge fan of Mr. Stone, so much so that in 1996, he started teaching a course called Oliver Stone's America, which attracted, in its first year, a visit from the only guy he considered an indispensable guest lecturer.
Over dinner that evening, Mr. Kuznick regaled him with his take on Henry Wallace, vice president during F.D.R.'s third term, whom Mr. Kuznick considers a brilliant progressive and an unsung hero. During the 1944 Democratic convention, Wallace, instead of being renominated for vice president, was at the last moment tossed aside for Harry Truman, a senator of limited experience who was only briefed that the United States was building the atomic bomb after Roosevelt died. If Wallace rather than Truman had become president, Mr. Kuznick told Mr. Stone, the United States might not have dropped atomic bombs on Japan, and the Cold War might never have started.
Mr. Stone commissioned Mr. Kuznick to write a treatment. Mr. Kuznick, convinced that he'd been ushered into the movie business, got himself an agent, who lobbied for Mr. Kuznick to write the script. But the screenplay suffered the same fate as several of Mr. Stone's pet projects -- the C.I.A.-hunting-Bin-Laden project, the Manuel Noriega project, the My Lai project. That is, it died. And this is where Mr. Kuznick and Mr. Stone's versions of history diverge.
Mr. Stone: "It was a great idea. I'd never heard the story, and I wanted to do a '40s kind of movie. It was perfect. And he (expletive) up the screenplay."
Mr. Kuznick: "Don't believe that, because Oliver told a mutual friend of ours who told me, 'Oliver said it's a work of genius, I'm dying to make it."'
Mr. Stone: "Nooo!"
Mr. Kuznick: "Well, you did. You forgot."
A decade later, Mr. Stone told Mr. Kuznick he wanted his help on a 90-minute documentary about Wallace, Truman and the birth of the atomic bomb. Soon after, the 90-minute documentary morphed into a 10- hour Showtime series that Mr. Kuznick was on the hook to write and research. Both men make the four years it took to put together the series sound about as much fun as the siege of Leningrad. Mr. Stone missed his deadline by two full years, and his foreign distributor almost ditched the project. It was one of the many bumps that didn't go unfelt by Mr. Kuznick.
"Oliver is always good about sharing the pressure," Mr. Kuznick told me. "Whatever pressure Oliver is feeling, I would get a double dose of."
The screening of "Untold History" during the New York Film Festival suggested that Mr. Stone might have a hit. At the end of the third hour, the crowd roared its approval. The cheers got only louder when Mr. Stone sauntered onstage for a post-screening panel discussion. "So much of what I saw today is what we try to do at The Nation," said Katrina vanden Heuvel, the publisher and editor of the left's beloved 147-year-old weekly.
Mr. Stone didn't seem particularly riveted by the conversation at first, but the historian Douglas Brinkley stirred things up. Even though Mr. Brinkley provided the authors a nice blurb, calling the book "a brave revisionist study which shatters many foreign policy myths," he had a few bones to pick with the project.
Mr. Brinkley said he thought the series had gone too far in demonizing Truman. Mr. Brinkley mentioned how Truman presided over the end of World War II, racially integrated American troops and helped create the state of Israel. "The only opening you're giving him is that he was a naif," Mr. Brinkley said. This perked Mr. Stone right up. He shook his head. "If he'd done something noble, believe me, we're not looking to cut it out," Mr. Stone said, earning him a round of applause. "I just don't see any nobleness."
But Mr. Brinkley has a point. If the only thing you ever learned about Truman was from "Untold History," you might conclude he was a virulent racist, mentally unfit for office and suffering from a gender confusion that led to mass murder. While Mr. Stone glancingly acknowledges Stalin's mass murder of his own people, Stalin, compared with Truman, still comes off as heroic, as an honest negotiator who, following F.D.R.'s death, was faced at every turn with Truman's diplomatic perfidy.
If Truman represents the black hat of "The Untold History," the white hats belong to those whose promise was unfulfilled -- F.D.R., who died before he could make peace in Europe and Asia humanely, and Kennedy, cut down before he could stem aggression toward communist elements in Southeast Asia. The biggest hero of all, though, is the man who inspired the whole project: Wallace. In the series, he is treated to reverent orchestral music when his face appears on screen.
Onstage, Mr. Kuznick said that he and Mr. Stone wanted to highlight pivotal moments in history when better decisions could have been made. "We actually came very close to having a very different kind of history," he said. "We want to give people the ability to think in a utopian fashion again."
I asked Mr. Stone what would have happened had Wallace, not Truman, become president. "There would not have been this Cold War," he said. "There would have been the continuation of the Roosevelt- Stalin working out of things. Vietnam wouldn't have happened."
While to his fans Mr. Stone's alternate histories are provocative, his detractors see them as grossly irresponsible cherry- picking. The conservative historian Ronald Radosh, professor emeritus at The City University of New York, said he found himself wanting to do harm to his television while watching the first four episodes, which he reviewed for the right-wing Weekly Standard. Mr. Radosh had been blogging skeptically about the Stone project since its announcement in 2010, but now that he'd actually seen it, he said, it was the historian rather than the conservative in him who was most offended.
According to Mr. Radosh, Mr. Stone and Mr. Kuznick's take on the U.S. role in the Cold War mirrors the argument in "We Can Be Friends," a book published in 1952 by Carl Marzani, who was convicted of concealing his affiliation to the Communist Party when he joined the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the C.I.A. "This Stone-Kuznick film could have been put out in 1955 as Soviet propaganda," Mr. Radosh said. "They use all the old stuff."
Mr. Radosh, who grew up as a Red Diaper baby in New York and only later turned to the right, thinks of himself as intimately familiar with the "old stuff." But fearing he might be dismissed as partisan, he insisted I reach out to Sean Wilentz, a Princeton historian who is regarded as decidedly left-leaning. When I spoke to him, Mr. Wilentz said: "You can't get two historians more unlike each other than me and Ronnie Radosh. But we can agree about this. It's ridiculous."
Mr. Wilentz was in the middle of writing a review of Mr. Stone's book. "Always beware of books that describe themselves as the untold history of anything, because it's usually been told before," he said. "It sets up this thing that there is some sort of mysterious force suppressing the true facts, right? Glenn Beck does this all the time. It's the same thing here, except this is basically a very standard left-wing, C.P., fellow traveler, Wallace-ite vision of what happened in 1945-46."
It's not, Mr. Wilentz continued, that the questions raised aren't worth raising. "Is there a legitimate argument to be made about the origins of our nuclear diplomacy or the decision to build the H- bomb?" he said. "Of course there is. But it's so overloaded with ideological distortion that this question doesn't get raised in an intelligent way."
"Untold History" wants to present itself as the whole truth and nothing but. Yet Mr. Stone has always fared best as a provocateur. "JFK" may not be particularly good history, but so many people believed his 1991 film to be a document of the actual conspiracy, and so many others dismissed it as hooey, that Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act in 1992, which precipitated the release of millions of pages of documents.
We would never discover that former President Lyndon Johnson had a hand in the killing -- as the monologue in the movie by Donald Sutherland's Colonel X would have us believe -- but we did find out that he thought preposterous the Warren Commission's "magic bullet" explanation for how one bullet could have passed through the bodies of Kennedy and John Connally only to emerge pristine.
On Nov. 10, two days before the premiere of "Untold History" on Showtime, Mr. Kuznick was onstage at a local New York event, crowing a bit about the project's reception. (He hadn't yet heard the excoriating opinions of Mr. Wilentz and others.) "It's interesting to see the early reviews," Mr. Kuznick said. "They're all glowing, really. I mean, nobody's challenging anything we're saying, either our facts or our interpretations." Mr. Stone, sitting next to him, gestured with his hands, as if to calm him down. "Well, it's early," he said.


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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Alas, the reigning champ of Twitter vitriol has decided to hang up her boxing gloves.
Courtney Love has closed down her Twitter account just days after her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, went after Ali Lohan -- Lindsay's sister -- on the micro-blogging service. Mother and daughter are both tweet-obsolete for the moment.
The development occurs as Miley Cyrus raps a good-bye ode to Twitter on YouTube and her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, tries to guilt her into staying on Twitter.
Despite its popularity for public figures looking to control the conversation with their fans, Twitter hasn't been all fun and games. Love is dealing with a defamation claim after tweeting disgust at a fashion designer, and Demi Moore and Perez Hilton were also exploring legal action after their war of 140 characters or less with each other last month.
The law on what you can and can't say on Twitter hasn't been refined yet by a court, but assuming it follows the general defamation book, it'll be hard to win a defamation lawsuit. But that won't stop many plaintiffs from trying.


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Recent interaction between WCD ministry and general public tells us a lot about feminism in India.
- Single mothers want more benefits, and yes these are the women nominated for WCD ministry's coveted #100Women program. These are the women who were single mom by choice and want taxpayers to pay for their choice –
- Some single moms are one step ahead. They want similar duration leave as maternity leave even for the adoption of a child. No hassle or pain of childbearing but equal fun. Corporates can flee away –
- …and to all these proud single moms, we have this answer on the timeline. The proud single mother gets the lesson of her life in her old age –
- Some men go overboard without realizing they were digging their own grave.
This gun will be aimed at these men one day.
- We see the reality of gender sensitization –
- Ministry is instilling a sense of guilt in younger boys from the childhood in the name of gender equality.
..and when it comes to speaking equality –
- or about women being more juvenile than real ones –
- Some didn't get any answer from the ministry but their comments tell us a lot –
- It's only about money; honey –
Now, do you realize why women in India are never empowered? Do you realize why we have an ever-increasing rate of 'Crimes Against Women'?


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Fair Labor
The health, welfare and safety of all those who manufacture our gear is critically important to us. This is true whether they are BD employees in one of our owned-and-operated facilities in Salt Lake City, Utah or Zhuhai, China or work for one of our global suppliers. To that end, Black Diamond has gone-and continues to go-to great lengths to ensure all manufacturing facilities where BD equipment is made meet our strict Vendor Code of Conduct.
Black Diamond was a founding member of the Outdoor Industry Association's Fair Labor Working Group and helped draft the OIA's Fair Labor Toolkit, which is used by companies throughout the outdoor industry. Traditionally we have utilized this toolkit and our Vendor Code of Conduct to conduct audits internally, allowing our own CSR representatives to work closely with suppliers to evaluate and improve upon their manufacturing processes. We require our suppliers to certify the integrity of their internal supply chains to ensure compliance to the Black Diamond Vendor Code of conduct along with the rules and regulations in the countries they operate.
Historically, we relied on this Toolkit and our Vendor Code of Conduct to carry out routine social compliance audits of our partners. This has since given way to our current model of unannounced, third-party social audits to check in and review how our partners are performing. These professional audits provide a snapshot of a factory's working conditions, management systems and compliance with local and international labor laws. We use the audit reports to highlight areas for improvement and to create Corrective Action Plans. Like the rest of us, our partners are not perfect; these audits provide specific direction for continuous progress.
Equally as important to monitoring the safety and operational compliance of our partners is to train and inform our own staff of issues such as human trafficking, slavery, environmental degradation, etc., that can often be found. We have created and implemented a training program to inform those closely involved in sourcing and supply chain management to ensure that our development and manufacturing processes are conducted along the highest standards.


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Pimco, the $2 trillion bond manager, will accelerate its diversification into equities this year, according to chief executive Mohamed El-Erian. He compares the situation to building a highway: "Now we are in a position to decide how many cars can run on it."
Despite setbacks in some sectors, Pimco is continuing to augment its massive bond funds with products offering exposures to derivatives, multi-asset, real estate, private equity, real return and emerging markets. But it is still 90% exposed to bonds - a problem if the "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities gathers pace.
El-Erian's 2008 book When Markets Collide illustrated his love of diversification. He said investors should seek a median weighting of 49% in equities, 19% in bonds and 31% in diverse streams of income.
El-Erian sticks to this view, although he stresses the importance of exploiting special situations and derivatives.
In Europe, El-Erian expects to find plenty of investment opportunities this year as banks step up their asset disposals. The European Central Bank is carrying out a series of bank stress tests which could lead some banks to clean out their stables.
El-Erian told Financial News in an interview: "There are likely to be some particularly compelling opportunities to pick up good assets at attractive long-term prices." He added that Pimco can set up private equity funds to invest in opportunities.
Thirty fat years for bond returns mean Pimco is in good shape to withstand a leaner period. The brand managed to improve its status through the crisis because of its strong performance and financial backing from Allianz, the German insurer.
Asset managers often shrink from the media. But Pimco co-founder Bill Gross and El-Erian used it to great effect during the credit crisis to show investors they could see the way ahead.
Gross, who runs Pimco's renowned $247 billion Total Return fund, retains his stellar reputation at the age of 69. Last year, he said he hoped to stave off retirement for another 40 years.
Gross and El-Erian manage Pimco with a style similar to a big boutique, according to Scott Burns, director of fund research at Morningstar. Team investment views are continually cross-checked. The firm is equally cute on marketing, promoting a range of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds to boost fee income from retail investors worried by the crisis.
Last year's sales initiative in Europe was a stunning success, adding to the global total. El-Erian said: "We have gone from $1 trillion to $2 trillion under management more quickly than we ever expected."
According to consultants, a broad range of products attracted clients on the back of strong performance. Gross led the capture of retail business with his Total Return fund, which was the largest mutual fund in the US until it was overtaken by Vanguard's Total Stock Market Index fund last November.
A new generation of bond managers earned greater prominence during the credit crisis, including Daniel Ivascyn (income); Andrew Balls (Europe) and Mark Kiesel (corporate bonds).
Chris Dialynas has been another up-and-coming manager. His $28 billion unconstrained bond fund seeks opportunities across the bond sector. It has lagged the index over one year, but beaten it over three. He surprised analysts by deciding to take a sabbatical in 2014. Gross is running his $28 billion unconstrained fund, for now.
Keeping up
However, investment bankers warn Pimco may not keep up the pace in the years ahead if memories of the credit crisis fade and bond prices drift.
They say El-Erian's diversification initiative needs to deliver better results and suggest a big acquisition. But analysts recall that Pimco bought Oppenheimer Capital, a manager of $48-billion worth of equities, only to see the firm blown off course after the slump of 2000, the year Allianz bought Pimco.
A Pimco affiliate continued to manage equity funds prior to 2004 and ended up being fined by the regulators over an industry-wide trading scandal. Pimco itself was not implicated. Its equities division is now under the Allianz umbrella.
El-Erian confirms Pimco now avoids involvement with separately managed affiliates. He rules out closer liaison with Allianz Global Investors, an asset manager also owned by the German insurer which is principally an equity shop: "We have the Pimco brand and we do not want to put it at risk. Allianz can draw on two separate pillars, and the arrangement works well."
El-Erian says Pimco has looked at acquisition opportunities, but decided against them. He added: "We do not want to be distracted from the interests of our clients."
Diversification is proceeding steadily. El-Erian said: "We are not diversifying out of panic. We are doing it from a position of strength - at a measured pace."
In an interview with Bloomberg, Michael Diekmann, chief executive of Allianz, applauded Pimco's approach. He said: "I'm very happy that they do this in a professional way, and not getting into any kind of acquisition mode."
In a strategy note published last week, Gross said the bond sector still offered a range of opportunities, at the shorter-dated end of the market.
El-Erian said: "The Fed did a much better job preparing markets for a taper in September, and it did so by signalling that its taper was not a tightening."
Gross thinks it is highly likely to keep rates down until 2016.
El-Erian adds the global economy is approaching a T-junction, which will either see it travelling towards a lasting upswing or sliding into a nasty deflationary slump.
In the interim, he says: "We are comfortable with bond positioning in the US at the front end of the yield curve. We are much more cautious on longer-dated bonds."
However, investors pulled $41.1 billion away from Total Return in 2013, breaking the $33 billion record set in 2011, following a negative return of 0.7%. The news was greeted with cries of despair in the media, even though many rivals fared worse and Gross beat the Barclays US Aggregate index over one, three, five and 10 years.
According to Allianz, Pimco funds suffered total outflows of €29 billion in the first nine months of last year. Inflows in Europe have tailed off. True, around 93% of its funds were beating their peers in the three years to September but this is down a fraction on 96% at the start of 2013. El-Erian said Pimco aims for 100% but views 90%-plus as acceptable.
Worsening sentiment towards bonds helps explain the reaction to Total Return's redemptions and El-Erian has taken steps to diversify the group. Several initiatives, particularly real estate, have brought success (see box) but diversification hasn't always been successful.
This year, for example, El-Erian was forced to take direct charge of Pimco's flagship $3.3 billion multi-asset fund, after it only generated an annualised 1.2% over the three years to November, against a 8% target set by Pimco and a 13.7% gain from the MSCI World index. Over 12 months, it lost 6% against 26.3% from the index.
El-Erian confirmed co-manager Saumil Parikh had been taken off the fund, although he still works at Pimco. Parikh was unavailable for comment.
El-Erian says he intends to recruit an external replacement for Parikh. He adds that the multi-asset fund suffered last year through an over-exposure to asset classes hit by last summer's Federal Reserve taper tantrum including emerging markets. He is using more diverse strategies.
Equity initiatives
El-Erian's equity initiatives have also suffered a mixed reception. Allianz' Diekmann conceded in his Bloomberg interview that Pimco's diversification into equities had proved more difficult than expected. Pimco's Pathfinder value equity fund has only produced an annualised 8.2% over the three years to December, against 11.5% for the MSCI World index. Its European equity fund is also a laggard.
Pathfinder is run by Anne Gudefin and Charles Lahr, who quit Franklin Templeton to join Pimco in 2009. The managers were not available for comment, although value strategies have often suffered over the last three years, according to consultants.
Pimco's Dividend and Income Builder fund run by Brad Kinkelaar, who left Thornburg Investment Management to join Pimco in 2011, only returned 17.8% in its first full year to November against 23.4% from the MSCI All Country index. But consultants say it is hard to judge the merits of a strategy after a single year.
For 2014 the market is braced for big equity hires by Virginie Maisonneuve, set to join Pimco as global head of equities from Schroders this month, following the resignation of predecessor Neel Kashkari, a former US Treasury official. Kashkari has said he is interested in running for governor of California for the Republican party.
A Schroders executive says Pimco can expect Maisonneuve to adopt a forthright approach: "She needs to be given her head, or she'll be off in 18 months." In 2010, she told Financial News about her investment style at Schroders: "You need a road map, to make sure a company is not going to be adversely affected by some big trend. So I'm bottom-up. Deep-value investing is boring, I like growing companies."
Maisonneuve was not available for an up-to-date view. But she has a deep fascination with China, which could help shape Pimco's destiny. El-Erian also has a strong interest in emerging markets, which he believes will emerge from their last year's setback at different speeds.
His family hails from Egypt where, he believes, improvements are taking place at grass-roots level despite unrest, which will lead to a "bumpy, multi-year transition."
He says: "We are looking to Virginie to help us implement the next strategic phase. This involves more than recruiting new teams and enhancing the effectiveness of existing ones. We are looking for closer integration and cross-fertilisation with teams in other areas at Pimco."
Diversification is paying off
Despite teething problems for some equity and multi-asset strategies, diversification is paying off for Pimco in many ways. More than $200 billion of its assets are now generated outside the bond sector. Its long/short equity fund, for example, gained 32% last year. It is managed by Geoffrey Johnson, who signed up in 2012 from a boutique called Catamount Capital Management. A long-only emerging markets fund has outperformed the index, on a more marginal basis.
Pimco's emerging market equities fund shrugged off last year's difficulties to beat the MSCI emerging markets index, although it lags since inception.
StocksPlus, run by Bill Gross, has beaten the S&P 500 by an annualised two percentage points over three years and five over five. It uses equity index derivatives and short-dated bonds to generate returns. Pimco wants to develop a liquid alternatives fund which will use a quantitative investment strategy to invest in derivatives linked to interest rates, currencies, mortgages, credit, commodities, equity indices and volatility. The fund will draw on Pimco's existing experiences in managing unconstrained bond funds. In a separate initiative, Pimco has also put together a senior floating rate loan fund, a popular sector with pension scheme investors.
Pimco is broadening its approach within sectors, as well as across them. For instance, it has just decided to broaden the strategy of its global government bond fund into a more diverse mix. El-Erian confirmed the rotation out of government bonds would be an important feature within the great rotation into equities. The firm is an enthusiastic backer of fundamental indices, which rank bonds and equities in terms of their worth, rather than their market value. Pimco associate Rob Arnott, who runs data provider Research Affiliates, has looked after a Pimco strategy fund called All Assets for years.
Last, but not least, El-Erian's new real estate team has enjoyed early success by investing in mortgages and real estate near the bottom of the market. It is led by John Murray and Devin Chen, who used to work at US real estate manager JER Partners and joined Pimco three years ago. Last year, Laurent Luccioni left property firm MGPA, newly acquired by BlackRock, to become head of European real estate.
Pimco has built a portfolio of real estate and mortgages worth $15 billion in the US and, more recently, Europe. Its latest Bravo fund launch targeted $4 billion and El-Erian said: "It has had a very strong capital raise."
Pimco does not disclose its real estate performance but El-Erian confirmed the timing of its launch had been good. The firm has finalised a series of deals in Ireland and analysts expect it to move deeper into the European periphery this year. Real estate will play a central part in Pimco's plans to pick off distressed opportunities in the region this year.
--This article first appeared in the print edition of Financial News dated January 13, 2014


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Hey POPsters!!!
New discovery!!!!!
This is the easiest pancake recipe you will ever find in your LIFE!!!!! And it's 100% made out of natural ingredients. No protein powder, no flour, no sugars…not even almond milk! It's just 2 ingredients!
Check this ingredient list:
– 1 ripe banana
– 2 whole eggs
Bam!!! That's it. Just blend. If you're mixing in a bowl, make sure the banana is all mashed. Then spray your pan with some PAM, EVO), or coconut oil on low to medium heat, scoop some of the batter on there, give it about 20-30 sec, flip, and done! Serve and eat!
So simple I couldn't believe it. I almost died. I must have this again! Here's the instructional video for your enjoyment:
Under 250 calories, nearly 14g of protein! Wowee and no processed anything! These pancakes are gluten free, dairy free, low calorie, and delicious. My fave part is that I am not using any ingredients that are difficult to access in any country. Please try this today and let me know what you think! Maybe you can experiment and add a little cinnamon.
Also, don't forget to try my new POP Pilates workout in front of Big Ben…Pippa's Butt Workout!!
<3 you guys! Have a fabulous Friday!


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The only players who didn't deserve to lose today are Pickford, Jags, Keane, Vlasic and DCL.MotM is Vlasic for sheer determination.
Rooney and Sig were both awful again.
Two more league games for Koeman I think. Arsenal and Leicester. You get the feeling the end is very near for Koeman.
I want him gone. It shouldn't matter that we got the draw. 0-0 wasn't good enough. Getting what was a fortunate penalty to score an actual goal isn't good enough. Very few positives right now.
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