text:
Kia car rental Lyon - Airport [LYS], France
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Car rental in Lyon - Airport [LYS]
Car rental near Lyon - Airport [LYS]
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In her first video statement since she was nearly killed, a Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban remained defiant in arguing for girls' education, saying Monday she would keep up the same campaign that led to her attack.
Speaking clearly but with the left side of her face appearing rigid, 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai said she is "getting better, day by day" after undergoing weeks of treatment at a British hospital.
Related stories:
- Pakistani girl shot by Taliban leaves UK hospital
- Over 2,000 Jews pray for girl shot by Taliban
"I want to serve. I want to serve the people. I want every girl, every child, to be educated. For that reason, we have organized the Malala Fund," she said in the video, made available by a public relations firm.
Malala speaks for first time since attack (Video: AP)
Malala drew the world's attention when she was shot in the head by Taliban militants on Oct. 9 while on her way home from school in northwestern Pakistan. The Islamist group said it targeted her because she promoted girls' education and "Western thinking" and criticized the militant group's behavior when it took over the scenic Swat Valley where she lived.
The shooting sparked outrage in Pakistan and many other countries, and her story has captured global attention for the struggle for women's rights in her homeland. In a sign of her impact, the teen made the shortlist for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2012.
'Getting better, day by day'. Malala Yousufzai (Photo: AP)
"Today you can see that I am alive. I can speak, I can see you, I can see everyone," Malala said. "It's just because of the prayers of people. Because all people - men, women, children - all of them have prayed for me. And because of all these prayers God has given me this new life, a second life."
Malala was airlifted to Britain from Pakistan in October to receive specialized medical care and protection against further Taliban threats. She is expected to remain in the UK for some time as her father, Ziauddin, has secured a post with the Pakistani consulate in the English city of Birmingham.
Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which has been treating the teen, said it successfully operated to reconstruct her skull. Doctors said Malala also had a cochlear implant to restore the hearing in her left ear, which became deaf as a result of the shooting.
Both of those operations were completed Saturday. The public relations firm Edelman said Malala's video statement was shot earlier, on Jan. 22.
Dr. Anwen White, a neurosurgeon who led the operations, said the teen did not suffer any long-lasting cognitive damage. She does not require any further operations and can hopefully return to school soon, White said.
The Malala Fund is a girls' education charity set up in late 2012. It was launched with a $10 million donation from Pakistan.
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Shipping Policy
At SportsBling we guarantee your order will be delivered safely, quickly, and affordably.
Due to the heavy impact of the covid 19 epidemic on the freight sector, our goods will be delivered to our customers later than expected. We are very grateful that you continue to support us during this difficult time. We will try our best to deliver the goods to you as soon as possible. In case you have a delivery delay, or delay in receiving tracking please don't worry, contact us whenever you need assistance, we are always by your side.
We have put a lot of focus on making sure the items get delivered to our customers as quickly as possible.
Please Note: Estimated Ship Timelines Does Not Include Handling/Production Time!
Delivery Time = Handling time + Transit time
( Order cutoff time ) : 11:00 PM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Standard Time (Los Angeles)
All our products are made as ordered and printed on demand just for you, so they will be put through a production process, therefore there will be a Handling Time on them.
All items are shipped out around 3 – 5 Business days (Monday to Friday)after receipt of payment.
** On average, the order is produced and shipped from our facility 3-5 business days after purchase with standard shipping.
Please Note: you will see the handling time on the product page below the cart button.
DHL eCommerce :
Handling time : 3 – 5 Business days (Monday to Friday)
Transit time : 7 – 14 Business days (Monday to Friday)
Our standard shipping cost is $4.99 within the USA but if you spend over $30 we'll ship your item for free!
Please Note: We can send shipments to PO Boxes and Military APO/FPO addresses.
**Please Note Prices May Changes Depending On Products That Are Ordered! (Hoodies, Sweaters, Blankets, Mugs, Towels, Throws, Hats May Be More)
"Business days" are considered to be Monday through Friday, not including holidays or scheduled service interruptions. Please check with your local postal service for all other regional restrictions and observed holidays that may delay receipt of your shipment.
Your order may arrive in multiple packages and shipments. Depending upon the type, quantity and weight of item(s) in your order, we may pack and ship them in multiple packages. You will not be charged for multiple packages and shipments other than the amount that appears at checkout.
Standard Delivery: Offered to Continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, US Protectorates, and APO/FPO Street and PO Box addresses. Standard delivery time will vary from 15 – 20 business days for US Continental, Alaska, and Hawaii Street. We don't ship to US Protectorates/APO/FPO Street and PO Box addresses.
1- Can't wait? There are other options for you!
Expedited Shipping: Offered to Continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, US Protectorates, and APO/FPO Street and PO Box addresses. Standard delivery time will vary from 5 -7 business days for US Continental, Alaska, and Hawaii Street.
2- When will my order be shipped?
Once you have placed your order, your information will undergo a verification process. This is for us to make sure that we have valid and complete shipping information. If not, we will be sending an email to ask for more information so we can update the information that we have on file. Please be kind enough to respond to the email that we are sending, otherwise, your order will be cancelled. We cannot guarantee the arrival of your order if the shipping information is incomplete. The verification process takes 3-5 days and after that, we will be sending an email notice with your tracking number on it.
3- Can I have a tracking number?
Yes, we will send you a tracking number via Email. In some cases, it can take up to 5 days. You can later track your Order by clicking on "Track Your Order" in the Mail Menu.
If you didn't receive an Email, please contact us, so we can provide you with the information, before making a Charge back, in some cases, Emails don't get send automatically.
4- I ordered 2+ items, but only received one… where's my order?
We have a large assortment of products not stocked in the house when you order multiple items at a time, they may be shipped separately so they get to you faster. You may receive one item before the next. So don't panic if you don't receive all of your items at once…they are on the way
5- Why have I not received any order confirmation details?
Most times this is because our customers have accidentally entered their email in wrong. Throughout the process, we send 3-4 emails, including an order confirmation, a fulfillment notice, and a shipping notice. If you believe you may have entered your email wrong please firstname.lastname@example.com and we will fix it for you.
We don't have tax nexus in the Rest of World.
7- Verification?
A confirmation email will be sent to you once the order is authorized and verified. We begin preparing your order immediately after it is verified (With this sort of time frame, it makes it difficult for us to change or cancel your order.)
You can take a look at our Track Order page to see what your shipping status is. If it is over your estimated arrival date, please contact us, and we can take care of this for you.
8- How do I contact you?
If you have any questions that are not on this FAQ page, please email us at
SportsBling is a U.S. based, family-run business that started trading on eBay in 2002 and expanded to the web in 2006.
Fast and Secure Shipping
We want to make your shopping experience simple. When it comes to price, what you see on the product description page is what you pay at checkout. Because of our central location in the U.S., we can offer quick shipping coast-to-coast at a competitive price. We are dedicated to passing that savings along to you, and most of our items arrive within 2-5 days of being shipped. Be sure to pay attention to the item Availability in the product details as some items do require processing or manufacturing time prior to shipping.
Fast One-Page Checkout. No SPAM E-Mails ... Ever.
We don't require you to create an account when you checkout, but give you that option when checking out or you can simply checkout as a guest. Creating an account enables you to checkout more quickly on future purchases. We won't inundate you with marketing e-mails. In fact, the only e-mails you will receive from us will be related to your order, including an order confirmation/receipt email and a shipping confirmation/tracking email. We trust that if you have a good experience with us, you'll bookmark our site and come back again. If you are interested in promotions, you can like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter or Instagram. Because we don't require that you create an account, we can offer you and Express One-Page checkout that lets you order quickly and easily. Want to know the status of an order? No need to log in. Just call or email us. We are happy to help!
Safety and Security That Can't Be Matched.
We have made the safe and secure processing of your information a priority. We don't store any of your personal information for longer than it takes to process your payment. We use the latest encryption technology, validated continually by DigiCert. We have never had a single case of fraud or compromised customer information in our history. We intend to keep it that way.
Top-Notch Customer Satisfaction Ratings.
We have built SportsBling based on the premise that customer satisfaction is the single most important goal we can obtain. We've been heralded by eBay and Amazon for our outstanding service and attention to customer satisfaction. Do we make mistakes? Of course, but rarely, because we use our experience to limit them. Do orders sometimes not arrive as promised or get damaged in transit? Yes, also rarely, but we extend every effort to correct such unusual circumstances quickly and to your total satisfaction. Not satisfied with your purchase? Just let us know. We'll make it right.
Great Prices and Seasonal Promotions. Guaranteed.
We try to give you the best value on the products we carry. If you find the product you looking for cheaper somewhere else, just let us know. We'll try to beat it. We offer seasonal and never-ending promotional codes right here on our website. Just visit our promotion page for coupon codes and seasonal deals.
Thanks for the opportunity to earn you business now and in the future!
Sports Bling


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NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN to the citizens of Forsyth County that a Statewide Presidential General Election will be held Tuesday, November 6, 2012. The purpose of the election will be to elect candidates for the following offices: President; U.S. House of Representatives - District 05 and 12; NC Governor; NC Lieutenant Governor; NC Attorney General; NC Auditor; NC Commissioner of Agriculture; NC Commissioner of Insurance; NC Commissioner of Labor; NC Secretary of State; NC Superintendent of Public Instruction; NC Treasurer; NC State Senate – District 31 and 32; NC State House – District 71, 72, 74, 75 and 79; County Commissioner - District B (three seats); Register of Deeds; Supreme Court Associate Justice (one seat); Court of Appeals Judge (three separate seats); Superior Court Judge – District 21B and 21D; District Court Judge – District 21 (seven separate seats); Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor (one seat); Mayor of High Point; High Point City Council At-Large (two seats); and, High Point City Council Ward 5.
The voting places may be obtained by calling the Forsyth County Board of Elections or viewed on the web site, www.fcvotes.com. The last day of registration for those not previously registered is Friday, October 12, 2012. The last day on which qualified voters who have moved their residence from one precinct to another precinct within Forsyth County may transfer their registration is also Friday, October 12, 2012. Voter registration forms must be received by October 12, 2012 if delivered in person or postmarked by October 12, 2012 if mailed, in order to be valid for the November 6, 2012 General Election. Otherwise, a current Forsyth County registered voter who has moved within the county may transfer their precinct on Election Day according to the provision of G.S. 163-82.15 (e). Registration forms are available from the Board of Elections office, public libraries, various government offices, registration drives, and other public locations. Contact the Forsyth County Board of Elections office for a complete list.
Individuals who are not certain whether they are registered should contact the Forsyth County Board of Elections. The registration records will be available for public inspection by any elector of Forsyth County at the Forsyth County Board of Elections, 201 N. Chestnut St., Winston-Salem, North Carolina, (Monday – Friday, 8-5) or at www.fcvotes.com.
Mail out no excuse absentee ballots will be allowed in this election for all voters. One-Stop, no excuse absentee voting will take place at the Forsyth County Board of Elections office, October 18, 2012 through November 3, 2012. Information on absentee voting procedures and on additional One-Stop locations and times is available by contacting the Forsyth County Board of Elections office at (336) 703-2800 or at www.fcvotes.com.
On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, the date designated for the 2012 General Election, the polls in Forsyth County, North Carolina shall open at the hour of 6:30 AM and shall close at the hour of 7:30 PM.
This is the 20th day of September, 2012.
Signed: Linda J. Sutton, Chair
Forsyth County Board of Elections


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Death by Tartar Sauce: A Travel Writer Encounters Gargantuan Gators, Irksome Offspring, Murderous Mayonnaise, & True Love; by Jules Older, published by Older Unlimited, 146 pages (estimated); e-book available at Amazon.com for a Kindle for $3.47, or directly from the author at https://julesolder.com.
Reviewed by Bethany M. Dunbar
copyright the Chronicle, September 12, 2012
Finally, it's here: the travel writing book all writers have been waiting to read.
Death by Tartar Sauce is a collection of funny stories of things gone wrong, the kind of stories no travel writer is supposed to ever publish. Either Jules Older has decided he's established enough as a travel writer that his potential clients won't mind this book, or he himself just doesn't care and just had to do it.
Whatever his motivation, I will tell you right now it's worth the $3.47 that you will need to spend to download it to your Kindle. If you don't have a Kindle, you can get it electronically from some other website (maybe your favorite local book store) or contact Mr. Older directly through his site. This book is not available on paper, unless you want to supply the paper yourself.
Many of you already know Mr. Older. He lived in Albany for a long time and married an Albany farmer's daughter. Their daughters, Willow and Amber, grew up here. He and his wife, Effin, have traveled the world writing about cool places to go for travel magazines, airlines, and so on. Often these gigs get you fancy accommodations and free trips, with the understanding that you will write something good that will make other people want to travel to Scotland for skiing, for example.
I don't know what Mr. Older wrote for a magazine immediately after his trip skiing in Scotland, but the real story is in this book, and it's one of the best chapters. It's just plain hilarious.
The first hint of what skiing in Scotland is like comes in the brochure:
"If the centre has to close due to adverse weather conditions, a siren will sound and the lifts will stop. Please return to your cars and await instructions from the police…"
This is no ordinary wind. In the book he mentions 85-knot winds, which are 98 miles an hour. These winds make the biting winds on a winter day on the Flyer at Jay Peak (we all fondly call it the Freezer) sound downright balmy.
Sometimes Vermont conditions can be a little icy compared to the western U.S. powder. Still we usually have snow of some sort in the winter. Scotland does not necessarily have any snow. Yet people still go there to ski, or attempt to ski. The ski areas build snow fences in an attempt to catch the small amount of snow that is blowing around so it will pile up on the one trail that might be open.
Undaunted, Mr. Older travels from ski area to ski area in Scotland trying to find one that actually has some snow and where the winds are less than 98 miles per hour. Along the way he meets with lovely PR ladies, all of whom are headed out for vacation to ski in Switzerland.
He finds one ski area where the only way to reach the trail is by dangling in the air in a gondola. He asks the PR lady why that is set up that way, since high winds are often a problem, and she explains that heavy rains can be a worse problem and you need the gondola to get up above the flooded ground.
Despite the horrible conditions, he needs to at least try to ski, so he joins the locals who have decided they are so determined to get up to the T-bar lift (closer to the ground, less vulnerable to wind) that they are basically climbing up there on foot:
I joined several hundred Scottish skiers executing Plan B — climbing to the T-bar. The Great Climb began with a slog through mud so deep and black as to put Vermont's mud season to shame. Then, as the wind increased, the mud gave way to heather-covered arctic tundra. Pushing on through a gale now laced with driving rain and dense fog, we met a covey of instructors skiing down the vegetation. I turned to Colin, a young Scot who had been trudging along beside me. "What do you call that?" I panted.
"Heather hopping."
He remarks to one of the Scots that it seems pretty crazy to ski in these conditions, and the fellow grins and says hey it builds character. Plus, he points out, Mr. Older came from Vermont in order to do this, and he's calling THEM crazy? (Good point.)
Other chapters include one about Mr. Older's penchant to kill off airlines. It seems to be a common occurrence that he sells a story to an airline magazine right before that airline goes belly up.
The Older have explored caves in Puerto Rico, kayaked with whales, enjoyed the Tennessee Williams festival in New Orleans and a "gloriously musical Winter Festival in Newfoundland." They have met fascinating people, including a Tokyo woman who makes her entire living curling eyelashes.
Mr. Older has eaten all kinds of horrible food and came to the conclusion that basic American foods are really pretty good, including a pot roast if it's not overdone, or even breakfast at McDonalds.
Mr. Older is a food writer — these days based in San Francisco — who hates trendy food. He has discovered some Vermont restaurants following some of these trends and wishes they would not:
Raspberries — whole, sliced or in vinaigrette — are among the gastronomic clichés of our time. Just as llamas are yuppie Holsteins, raspberries are yuppie ketchup. No New Age dinner is complete without raspberry in some form or other making an appearance before dessert.
So I say, Chefs of Vermont, lighten up. Climb down. Re-enter. Take deep breaths of Earth's atmosphere. You needn't go back to overdone pot roast, but at least have the decency not to mix it with arugula, radicchio and raspberry-balsam vinaigrette.
Mr. Older enjoys travel writing partly because he gets to meet some really interesting people. But it must be said (in this book at least, if not everywhere) that sometimes you run into some real plain old jerks.
The Olders met one such lady on a bicycle trip in Vermont:
On this tour, Effin and I — good ol' country folk — are surrounded by a group of citified pedalers, the most citified of whom is a medical specialist from New York. Were this a movie, the very words "medical specialist from New York" would guarantee that in Scene Two, Three at the latest, said medical specialist would fall face-first into a prominently placed water trough. Especially if she is forever saying things like, "Oh, he seems so smart for a Vermonter" and "This is just such an adorable state" and "What do you do for friends up here? Isn't everyone kind of, you know, boring?"
Anyway, our 30-something, female, citified cyclist is riding up Route 100 when a little bitty Datsun pickup drives past with a big sign behind the cab. The sign, which is surrounded with flashing lights, contains a three-word message: DANGER. WIDE LOAD.
"Isn't that cute?" she says. "That tiny truck with the big sign — did you see that, Jules and Effin? Jules? Effin? Where are you?"
We did, indeed, see the sign. That's why we did, indeed, race our bikes off the roadway — way off the roadway — and are now cowering behind a very large maple tree. We would have advised our city mouse to follow suit, except for the fact that:
A. She was a little too far ahead of us.
B. Neither of us liked that "adorable" remark, and
C. She is, after all, a medical specialist from New York.
Thirty seconds later, a mega tow truck hauling a triple-wide trailer comes roaring by, the exhaust spewing from its vertical exhaust stacks creating whirlwinds of leaves and dust and road schmutz. As this Monster-Truck-In-Training passes the city doctor, the driver blows its gas-fired, nuclear-powered, mega-strength air-horn, leaving her gasping for breath and weaving around Route 100 like she's in a bicycle ballet.
Still short of breath, she somehow manages to bring her bike to a wobbly stop.
Peggy, our tour leader, sees how shaken our city mouse is by this unexpected event and calls for an instant rest stop. We pull up beside a pasture in which stand the dual symbols of all that is peaceful, serene and bucolic — a mare and her foal. Once our New Yorker stops gasping and resumes normal breathing, she takes in the sight.
Now recovered, she says the customary, "Awwwww," pulls a bunch of long grass and offers it to the foal. As she does, she reaches out to steady herself on the fence.
The wire fence.
The electrified wire fence.
What should we do? On the one hand, it seems downright cruel to let her grab something that experience has long ago taught us is about to administer an unasked-for lesson in the power of watts, amps and volts. On the other, well, it would add some excitement to our, uh, boring bucolic lives.
And we are just country bumpkins.
Aw, the heck with it. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you," I advise her.
"And why not?" she sneers, still reaching for the wire. "Do you think that just because I'm from New York, I'm afraid of a horse?"
I smile and give her the country answer. "Nope."
Chronicle publisher Chris Braithwaite gets a mention in a chapter called "Catamounted," about skiing part of the Catamount Trail, which goes the length of Vermont. Not quite as extreme as Scotland, but still quite difficult mountaintop cross-country skiing to say the least. Mr. Older gets a call from Rolf asking him why doesn't he join them:
Why don't I come? Because I'm afraid, that's why. Because Chris Braithwaite, editor of the Barton Chronicle, wrote of his Catamount experience, "It was all I could do to get out of bed the next day. I was lucky (if not exactly grateful) to be alive."
With that in mind, I said, "Look, Rolf, I'd love to come, but —"
"Great. See you Sunday. Bye."
Lucky for us readers, Mr. Older survives the experience with just a few impressive spills. The next morning — you guessed it — it was all he could do to get out of bed. He felt lucky, if not exactly grateful, to be alive.
The Olders live in California these days. Mr. Older writes medical articles, kids books, travel and humor stores and about San Francisco restaurants and life in New Zealand. His videos can be seen on www.YouTube.com/julesolder.
For more free articles from the Chronicle like this one, see our Reviews pages. For all the Chronicle's stories, pick up a print copy or subscribe, either for print or digital editions.


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- 48K+ of Prooducts
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Delivery Information:
At Furnituredurect uk delivery system for customer orders is simple. Please read the following;
National Deliveries
Furnituredirect uk offers FREE DELIVERY on all orders over £200 across mainland England & Wales regardless of your order value.
Delivery to Ireland, Scotland, Scottish Ireland and remote areas there is additional surcharge.
There is extra charge for room of choice delivery £30.00(this service is only available for mainland England and wales.
Excluded Postcodes & Areas
- We do not delivery to far off postcodes PH, KW, PA, BT, IM, HS and all Scottish Islands.
- We do not deliver to Channel Islands, Shetlands, Isles of Wight, and Isles of Sicily & Orkney Island. However we can deliver up to the nearest port and the customer will have to arrange onwards delivery. For more information feel free to get in touch with us.
How we deliver
Large items are delivered directly to your home in specially equipped furniture vans and are carried in by delivery staff. You will receive a telephone call or an email to agree a time convenient to you at least 48 hours prior to delivery.
Smaller items may be delivered by a courier service
Delivery Charges
FREE DELIVERY to Mainland England and Wales on all orders over £200.
Furnituredirectuk reserves the right to amend the delivery charges at any time
Informing you about Anticipated Delivery Timescale.
Expected delivery times are visible on each and every product page on the website. These times can be used as an indicator for how long it will take to receive the product(s).
Upon receipt of your order, Furnituredirectuk will send you an order confirmation, via e-mail, (or post if e-mail is unavailable).
Where items ordered are stock items, we will deliver the item to you within 7 - 21 days.
The average lead time is 2 - 8 weeks, depending upon the item ordered and the manufacturer.
We will keep customers informed if there is any delay on the expected delivery time of goods that has previously been included within the product page on the website.
All the Scotland delivery will take additional 1 - 2 Weeks extra upon standard delivery time.
Tracking Your Delivery
It may be possible to track your order. Please e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com giving details of your order number and will be able to inform you of the status of your order.
Please note that Furnituredirectuk will only contact you with regards to delivery if;
The product(s) has arrived into our depot / logistics company and is ready for delivery. The product delivery time is delayed longer than mentioned.
Confirming the Delivery Date
Once your item(s) is ready for dispatch either we will contact you or our contracted delivery service will contact you in order to arrange a mutually suitable delivery date
Available Days for Delivery
Available days for delivery are Monday - Friday, between the hours of 8.00am - 6.00pm. Some items can be delivered on a Saturday delivery at an extra surcharge. This surcharge will emulate the exact cost of the delivery. Please email email@example.com with details of your selected item(s) and a representative will be able to inform you whether your item(s) can be dispatched for a Saturday delivery.
Delivery Lead Times
The delivery lead times shown on every product are expected delivery lead times given to us by our manufacturers. Please note they may very slightly depending on the time of the year and where in the world they are manufactured.
Express Next Day Delivery
There are 100's of products listed on our website available on an Express Delivery. These items can be delivered anywhere in ENGLAND within 48 hours from the day of your order.
If you need your furniture as fast as possible then Furnituredirectuk offers Next Day Delivery Furniture just what you've been waiting for. However to avail for next day delivery orders need to be placed one day prior before 11:30 am. We do not offer Express Next Day delivery on Saturday, Sunday, and Bank Holidays.
Orders received after 11.30 am will be processed the following day and will be delivered in 48 hours from the processed date. Orders received between Friday and Sunday will be processed on Monday.
What happens on the day of delivery?
Finally, the day when your order is going to be delivered!
Please make sure that you or someone you trust is available at the property to receive the delivery. If you have offered for the standard FREE Delivery on order(s) the item will be delivered to your door. If your order contains heavy/bulky furniture, then you may be required to assist the driver as most of our standard delivery is done using one man delivery.
What should I do once the item is delivered?
Once the item is delivered please check the item and make sure it's the item you have ordered, also make sure that you check the item for damages, and if you find any damages on the item(s) or the packaging please note the issue down on the delivery note before you sign up for the delivery. This will help us to put our claim forward with our suppliers/delivery company.
Missed Delivery
If a Delivery has been confirmed with the customer and on the day of delivery there is nobody at the address to accept the delivery there will be an additional charge to re-deliver the goods again.
If you need further information please contact us by mail or call us on 0116 2357786.
White Glove Delivery Service:
Its suitable for customer who purchased the large items which is partical assemble
- deliver to room of choice
- unpacking and positioning of furniture
- assembly of furniture if requires *
*if you buying flat pack wardrobe or bedroom set please tick on installation service as on white glove service only covers beds, dining sets,display cabinet, sofa and occasional furniture.
please note we only offer white glove service for England Wales customers
Installation Service:
Suitable for the customer who wish to have full service which will cost 15% of the value of your order it includes
- deliver to room of choice
- unpacking and positioning of furniture
please note: we only offer assembly service if the order value is more than £500.00 on selected brands also this service is only applicable for England Wales customers


text:
- General
- Specific
- Why are values defined with define-foreign-variable or define-constant or define-inline not seen outside of the containing source file?
- How does cond-expand know which features are registered in used units?
- Why are constants defined by define-constant not honoured in case constructs?
- How can I enable case sensitive reading/writing in user code?
- Does CHICKEN support native threads?
- Does CHICKEN support Unicode strings?
- Why are `dynamic-wind' thunks not executed when a thread signals an error?
- Platform specific
- How do I generate a DLL under MS Windows (tm) ?
- How do I generate a GUI application under Windows(tm)?
- When I run csi inside an emacs buffer under Windows, nothing happens.
- On Windows, csc.exe seems to be doing something else entirely.
- On Windows source and/or output filenames with embedded whitespace are not found.
- Customization
- Macros
- Warnings and errors
- Why does my program crash when I use callback functions (from Scheme to C and back to Scheme again)?
- Why does the linker complain about a missing function _C_..._toplevel?
- Why does the linker complain about a missing function _C_toplevel?
- Why does my program crash when I compile a file with -unsafe or unsafe declarations?
- Why don't toplevel-continuations captured in interpreted code work?
- Why does define-reader-ctor not work in my compiled program?
- Why do built-in units, such as srfi-4 and posix fail to load?
- How can I increase the size of the trace shown when runtime errors are detected?
- Optimizations
- How can I obtain smaller executables?
- How can I obtain faster executables?
- Which non-standard procedures are treated specially when the extended-bindings or usual-integrations declaration or compiler option is used?
- What's the difference betweem "block" and "local" mode?
- Can I load compiled code at runtime?
- Why is my program which uses regular expressions so slow?
- Garbage collection
- Interpreter
- Extensions
This is the list of Frequently Asked Questions about CHICKEN Scheme. If you have a question not answered here, feel free to post to the chicken-users mailing list; if you consider your question general enough, feel free to add it to this list.
Why yet another Scheme implementation?
Since Scheme is a relatively simple language, a large number of implementations exist and each has its specific advantages and disadvantages. Some are fast, some provide a rich programming environment. Some are free, others are tailored to specific domains, and so on. The reasons for the existence of CHICKEN are:
- CHICKEN is portable because it generates C code that runs on a large number of platforms.
- CHICKEN is extensible, since its code generation scheme and runtime system/garbage collector fits neatly into a C environment.
- CHICKEN is free and can be freely distributed, including its source code.
- CHICKEN offers better performance than nearly all interpreter based implementations, but still provides full Scheme semantics.
- As far as we know, CHICKEN is the first implementation of Scheme that uses Henry Baker's Cheney on the M.T.A concept.
What should I do if I find a bug?
Fill a ticket at bugs.call-cc.org with some hints about the problem, like version/build of the compiler, platform, system configuration, code that causes the bug, etc.
Why are values defined with define-foreign-variable or define-constant or define-inline not seen outside of the containing source file?
Accesses to foreign variables are translated directly into C constructs that access the variable, so the Scheme name given to that variable does only exist during compile-time. The same goes for constant- and inline-definitions: The name is only there to tell the compiler that this reference is to be replaced with the actual value.
How does cond-expand know which features are registered in used units?
Each unit used via (declare (uses ...)) is registered as a feature and so a symbol with the unit-name can be tested by cond-expand during macro-expansion-time. Features registered using the register-feature! procedure are only available during run-time of the compiled file. You can use the eval-when form to register features at compile time.
Why are constants defined by define-constant not honoured in case constructs?
case expands into a cascaded if expression, where the first item in each arm is treated as a quoted list. So the case macro can not infer whether a symbol is to be treated as a constant-name (defined via define-constant) or a literal symbol.
How can I enable case sensitive reading/writing in user code?
To enable the read procedure to read symbols and identifiers case sensitive, you can set the parameter case-sensitivity to #t.
Does CHICKEN support native threads?
Native threads are not supported for two reasons. One, the runtime system is not reentrant. Two, concurrency implemented properly would require mandatory locking of every object that could be potentially shared between two threads. The garbage-collection algorithm would then become much more complex and inefficient, since the location of every object has to be accessed via a thread synchronization protocol. Such a design would make native threads in CHICKEN essentially equivalent to Unix processes and shared memory.
For a different approach to concurrency, please see the mpi or concurrent-native-callbacks egg.
Does CHICKEN support Unicode strings?
The system does not directly support Unicode, but there is an extension for UTF-8 strings: utf8.
Why are `dynamic-wind' thunks not executed when a thread signals an error?
Here is what Marc Feeley, the author of SRFI-18 has to say about this subject:
>No the default exception handler shouldn't invoke the after > thunks of the current continuation. That's because the > exception handler doesn't "continue" at the initial > continuation of that thread. Here are the relevant words of > SRFI 18: > > Moreover, in this dynamic environment the exception handler > is bound to the "initial exception handler" which is a unary > procedure which causes the (then) current thread to store in > its end-exception field an "uncaught exception" object whose > "reason" is the argument of the handler, abandon all mutexes > it owns, and finally terminate. > >The rationale is that, when an uncaught exception occurs in a >thread the thread is in bad shape and things have gone >sufficiently wrong that there is no universally acceptable way to >continue execution. Executing after thunks could require a >whole lot of processing that the thread is not in a shape to do. >So the safe thing is to terminate the thread. If the programmer >knows how to recover from an exception, then he can capture the >continuation early on, and install an exception handler which >invokes the continuation. When the continuation is invoked the >after thunks will execute.
Platform specific
How do I generate a DLL under MS Windows (tm) ?
Use csc in combination with the -dll option:
C:\> csc foo.scm -dll
How do I generate a GUI application under Windows(tm)?
Invoke csc with the -gui option. In GUI-mode, the runtime system displays error messages in a message box and does some rudimentary command-line parsing.
When I run csi inside an emacs buffer under Windows, nothing happens.
Invoke csi with the -:c runtime option. Under Windows the interpreter thinks it is not running under control of a terminal and doesn't print the prompt and does not flush the output stream properly.
On Windows, csc.exe seems to be doing something else entirely.
The Windows development tools include a C# compiler with the same name. Either invoke csc.exe with a full pathname, or put the directory where you installed CHICKEN in front of the MS development tool path in the PATH environment variable.
On Windows source and/or output filenames with embedded whitespace are not found.
There is no current workaround. Do not use filenames with embedded whitespace for code. However, command names with embedded whitespace will work correctly.
How do I run custom startup code before the runtime-system is invoked?
When you invoke the C compiler for your translated Scheme source program, add the C compiler option -DC_EMBEDDED, or pass -embedded to the csc driver program, so no entry-point function will be generated (main()). When your are finished with your startup processing, invoke:
CHICKEN_main(argc, argv, C_toplevel);
where C_toplevel is the entry-point into the compiled Scheme code. You should add the following declarations at the head of your code:
#include "chicken.h" extern void C_toplevel(C_word,C_word,C_word) C_noret;
Where is define-macro?
In CHICKEN 4 and 5, the macro-expansion subsystem is now hygienic where old Lisp-style low-level macros are not available anymore. define-syntax can define hygienic macros using syntax-rules or low-level macros with user-controlled hygienic with explicit renaming macros. Translating old-style macros into ER-macros isn't that hard, see Macros for more information.
Why are low-level macros defined with define-syntax complaining about unbound variables?
Macro bodies that are defined and used in a compiled source-file are evaluated during compilation and so have no access to anything created with define. Use define-for-syntax instead.
Why isn't load properly loading my library of macros?
During compile-time, macros are only available in the source file in which they are defined. Files included via include are considered part of the containing file.
Warnings and errors
Why does my program crash when I use callback functions (from Scheme to C and back to Scheme again)?
There are two reasons why code involving callbacks can crash out of no apparent reason:
- It is important to use foreign-safe-lambda/foreign-safe-lambda* for the C code that is to call back into Scheme. If this is not done than sooner or later the available stack space will be exhausted.
- If the C code uses a large amount of stack storage, or if Scheme-to-C-to-Scheme calls are nested deeply, then the available nursery space on the stack will run low. To avoid this it might be advisable to run the compiled code with a larger nursery setting, i.e. run the code with -:s... and a larger value than the default (for example -:s300k), or use the -nursery compiler option. Note that this can decrease runtime performance on some platforms.
Why does the linker complain about a missing function _C_..._toplevel?
This message indicates that your program uses a library-unit, but that the object-file or library was not supplied to the linker. If you have the unit foo, which is contained in foo.o than you have to supply it to the linker like this (assuming a GCC environment):
% csc program.scm foo.o -o program
Why does the linker complain about a missing function _C_toplevel?
This means you have compiled a library unit as an application. When a unit-declaration (as in (declare (unit ...))) is given, then this file has a specially named toplevel entry procedure. Just remove the declaration, or compile this file to an object-module and link it to your application code.
Why does my program crash when I compile a file with -unsafe or unsafe declarations?
The compiler option -unsafe or the declaration (declare (unsafe)) disable certain safety-checks to improve performance, so code that would normally trigger an error will work unexpectedly or even crash the running application. It is advisable to develop and debug a program in safe mode (without unsafe declarations) and use this feature only if the application works properly.
Why don't toplevel-continuations captured in interpreted code work?
Consider the following piece of code:
(define k (call-with-current-continuation (lambda (k) k))) (k k)
When compiled, this will loop endlessly. But when interpreted, (k k) will return to the read-eval-print loop! This happens because the continuation captured will eventually read the next toplevel expression from the standard-input (or an input-file if loading from a file). At the moment k was defined, the next expression was (k k). But when k is invoked, the next expression will be whatever follows after (k k). In other words, invoking a captured continuation will not rewind the file-position of the input source. A solution is to wrap the whole code into a (begin ...) expression, so all toplevel expressions will be loaded together.
Why does define-reader-ctor not work in my compiled program?
The following piece of code does not work as expected:
(define-reader-ctor 'integer->char integer->char) (print #,(integer->char 33))
The problem is that the compiler reads the complete source-file before doing any processing on it, so the sharp-comma form is encountered before the reader-ctor is defined. A possible solution is to include the file containing the sharp-comma form, like this:
(define-reader-ctor 'integer->char integer->char) (include "other-file")
;;; other-file.scm: (print #,(integer->char 33))
Why do built-in units, such as srfi-4 and posix fail to load?
When you try to import a built-in unit such as posix (which defines among other things, the (chicken posix) module), you may get the following error:
#;1> (import (chicken posix)) ; loading library posix ... Error: (load-library) unable to load library posix "dlopen(libchicken.dylib, 9): image not found" ;; on a Mac "libchicken.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" ;; Linux
Another symptom is that (require 'posix) will silently fail.
This typically happens because the CHICKEN libraries have been installed in a non-standard location, such as your home directory. The workaround is to explicitly tell the dynamic linker where to look for your libraries:
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/scheme/chicken/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH ;; Mac export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=~/scheme/chicken/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH ;; Linux
How can I increase the size of the trace shown when runtime errors are detected?
When a runtime error is detected, CHICKEN will print the last entries from the trace of functions called (unless your executable was compiled with the -no-trace option. By default, only 16 entries will be shown. To increase this number pass the -:aN runtime option to your executable.
How can I obtain smaller executables?
XXX still valid?
If you don't need eval or the stuff in the extras library unit, you can just use the library unit:
(declare (uses library)) (display "Hello, world!\n")
(Don't forget to compile with the -explicit-use option) Compiled with Visual C++ this generates an executable of around 240 kilobytes. It is theoretically possible to compile something without the library, but a program would have to implement quite a lot of support code on its own.
How can I obtain faster executables?
There are a number of declaration specifiers that should be used to speed up compiled files: declaring (standard-bindings) is mandatory, since this enables most optimizations. Even if some standard procedures should be redefined, you can list untouched bindings in the declaration. Declaring (extended-bindings) lets the compiler choose faster versions of certain internal library functions. This might give another speedup. You can also use the the usual-integrations declaration, which is identical to declaring standard-bindings and extended-bindings (note that usual-integrations is set by default). Declaring (block) tells the compiler that global procedures are not changed outside the current compilation unit, this gives the compiler some more opportunities for optimization. If no floating point arithmetic is required, then declaring (number-type fixnum) can give a big performance improvement, because the compiler can now inline most arithmetic operations. Declaring (unsafe) will switch off most safety checks. If threads are not used, you can declare (disable-interrupts). You should always use maximum optimizations settings for your C compiler. Good GCC compiler options on Pentium (and compatible) hardware are: -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -fno-strict-aliasing Some programs are very sensitive to the setting of the nursery (the first heap-generation). You should experiment with different nursery settings (either by compiling with the -nursery option or by using the -:s... runtime option).
Which non-standard procedures are treated specially when the extended-bindings or usual-integrations declaration or compiler option is used?
The following standard bindings are handled specially, depending on optimization options and compiler settings:
* + - / <= < = >= > abs acos append apply asin assoc assv atan boolean? c...r call-with-current-continuation call-with-values ceiling char->integer char-alphabetic? char-downcase char-lower-case? char-numeric? char-upcae char-upper-case? char-whitespace? char<=? char<? char=? char>=? char>? char? complex? cons cos current-input-port current-output-port eof-object? eq? equal? eqv? even? exact->inexact exact? exp floor for-each gcd inexact->exact inexact? integer->char lcm length list-ref list-tail list? list log make-vector map member memq memv make-polar make-rectangular negative? not null? number->string number? odd? pair? positive? procedure? quotient rational? read-string real? remainder reverse round set-car! set-cdr! sin sqrt string->number string-append string-ci=? string-length string-ref string-set! string=? string? string substring symbol? tan truncate values vector-length vector-ref vector-set! vector? vector write-char zero?
The following extended bindings are handled specially:
add1 any? arithmetic-shift atom? bignum? bit->boolean bitwise-and bitwise-ior bitwise-not bitwise-xor blob-size block-ref block-set! call/cc call-with-input-file call-with-output-file current-error-port current-thread error f32vector->blob/shared f32vector-length f32vector-ref f64vector->blob/shared f64vector-length f64vector-ref finite? fixnum? flonum? flush-output foldl foldr format fp* fp+ fp- fp/ fp<= fp< fp= fp>= fp> fpabs fpacos fpasin fpatan2 fpatan fpceiling fpcos fpexpt fpexp fpfloor fpinteger? fplog fpmax fpmin fpneg fprintf fpround fpsin fpsqrt fptan fptruncate fx*? fx* fx+? fx+ fx-? fx- fx/? fx/ fx= fx>= fx> fxand fxeven? fxior fxmax fxmin fxmod fxneg fxnot fxodd? fxrem fxshl fxshr fxxor identity infinite? list->string list->vector locative->object locative-ref locative-set! locative? make-record-instance nan? number-of-slots o pointer+ pointer->object pointer-f32-ref pointer-f32-set! pointer-f64-ref pointer-f64-set! pointer-s16-ref pointer-s16-set! pointer-s32-ref pointer-s32-set! pointer-s8-ref pointer-s8-set! pointer-u16-ref pointer-u16-set! pointer-u32-ref pointer-u32-set! pointer-u8-ref pointer-u8-set! pointer=? print* printf print s16vector->blob/shared s16vector-length s16vector-ref s16vector-set! s32vector->blob/shared s32vector-length s32vector-ref s32vector-set! s64vector->blob/shared s64vector-length s64vector-ref s64vector-set! s8vector->blob/shared s8vector-length s8vector-ref s8vector-set! signum sprintf string-append string->list sub1 substring substring-ci=? substring-index-ci substring-index substring=? u16vector->blob/shared u16vector-length u16vector-ref u16vector-set! u32vector->blob/shared u32vector-length u32vector-ref u32vector-set! u64vector->blob/shared u64vector-length u64vector-ref u64vector-set! u8vector->blob/shared u8vector-length u8vector-ref u8vector-set! vector->list
What's the difference betweem "block" and "local" mode?
In block mode, the compiler assumes that definitions in the current file are not visible from outside of the current compilation unit, so unused definitions can be removed and calls can be inlined. In local mode, definitions are not hidden, but the compiler assumes that they are not modified from other compilation units (or code evaluated at runtime), and thus allows inlining of them.
Can I load compiled code at runtime?
Yes. You can load compiled at code at runtime with load just as well as you can load Scheme source code. Compiled code will, of course, run faster.
To do this, pass to load a path for a shared object. Use a form such as (load "foo.so") and run csc -shared foo.scm to produce foo.so from foo.scm (at which point foo.scm will no longer be required).
If you have compiled code that contains a module definition, then executing the code will "register" the module to allow importing the bindings provided by the module into a running Scheme process. The information required to use a module is in this case embedded in the compiled code. Compiling another program that uses this (compiled) module is more difficult: the used module will not necessarily be loaded into the compiler, so the registration will not be executed. In this case the information about what bindings the compiled module exports must be separated from the actual code that executes at runtime. To make this possible, compiling a module can be done in such a manner that an "import library" is created. This is a file that contains the binding information of the module and we can use it to compile a file that refers to that module. An example can perhaps make this clearer:
;; my-module.scm (module my-module (...) ...)
;; use-my-module.scm
(import my-module) ...
Compile the module and generate an import library for the "my-module" module:
% csc -s my-module.scm -emit-import-library my-module
Compile the program that uses the module:
% csc use-my-module.scm
Why is my program which uses regular expressions so slow?
The regular expression engine has recently been replaced by alex shinn's excellent irregex library, which is fully implemented in Scheme. Precompiling regular expressions to internal forms is somewhat slower than with the old PCRE-based regex engine. It is advisable to use irregex to precompile regular expressions outside of time-critical loops and use them where performance matters.
Garbage collection
Why does a loop that doesn't cons still trigger garbage collections?
Under CHICKEN's implementation policy, tail recursion is achieved simply by avoiding returns from function calls. Since the programs are CPS converted, a continuous sequence of nested procedure calls is performed. At some stage the stack-space has to run out and the current procedure and its parameters (including the current continuation) are stored somewhere in the runtime system. Now a minor garbage collection occurs and rescues all live data from the stack (the first heap generation) and moves it into the the second heap generation. Then the stack is cleared (using a longjmp) and execution can continue from the saved state. With this method arbitrary recursion (in tail- or non-tail position) can happen, provided the application doesn't run out of heap-space. (The difference between a tail- and a non-tail call is that the tail-call has no live data after it invokes its continuation - and so the amount of heap-space needed stays constant)
Why do finalizers not seem to work in simple cases in the interpeter?
Consider the following interaction in CSI:
#;1> (define x '(1 2 3)) #;2> (define (yammer x) (print x " is dead")) #;3> (set-finalizer! x yammer) (1 2 3) #;4> (gc #t) 157812 #;5> (define x #f) #;6> (gc #t) 157812 #;7>
While you might expect objects to be reclaimed and "(1 2 3) is dead" printed, it won't happen: the literal list gets held in the interpreter history, because it is the result value of the set-finalizer! call. Running this in a normal program will work fine.
When testing finalizers from the interpreter, you might want to define a trivial macro such as
(define-syntax v (syntax-rules () ((_ x) (begin (print x) (void)))))
and wrap calls to set-finalizer! in it.
Does CSI support history and autocompletion?
CSI doesn't support it natively but it can be activated with one of the breadline or linenoise eggs. Of these two, the breadline egg is recommended. After installing it, add the following to your ~/.csirc or equivalent file:
(import breadline) (current-input-port (make-readline-port))
For a more extensive example with autocompletion and history file support, see the .csirc in the breadline egg distribution.
Users of *nix-like systems (including Cygwin), may also want to check out rlwrap. This program lets you "wrap" another process (e.g. rlwrap csi) with the readline library, giving you history, autocompletion, and the ability to set the keystroke set. Vi fans can get vi keystrokes by adding "set editing-mode vi" to their .inputrc file.
Does code loaded with load run compiled or interpreted?
If you compile a file with a call to load, the code will be loaded at runtime and, if the file loaded is a Scheme source code file (instead of a shared object), it will be interpreted (even if the caller program is compiled).
How do I use extended (non-standard) syntax in evaluated code at run-time?
Normally, only standard Scheme syntax is available to the evaluator. To use the extensions provided in the CHICKEN compiler and interpreter, add:
(require-library chicken-syntax)
How can I install CHICKEN eggs to a non-default location?
You can just set the CHICKEN_INSTALL_REPOSITORY and CHICKEN_REPOSITORY_PATH environment variables. They should contain the path where you want eggs to be installed:
$ export CHICKEN_INSTALL_REPOSITORY=~/eggs/lib/chicken/5 $ export CHICKEN_REPOSITORY_PATH=~/eggs/lib/chicken/5 $ chicken-install -init ~/eggs/lib/chicken/5 $ chicken-install -p ~/eggs/ extensionname
In order to make programs (including csi) see these eggs, you should set CHICKEN_REPOSITORY_PATH when you run them. See the Extension tools/Changing repository location section of the manual for more information on that.
Alternatively, you can call the repository-path Scheme procedure before loading the eggs, as in:
(repository-path "/home/azul/eggs") (import format-modular)
Note, however, that using repository-path as above hard-codes the location of your eggs in your source files. While this might not be an issue in your case, it might be safe to keep this configuration outside of the source code (that is, specifying it as an environment variable) to make it easier to maintain.
The repository needs to be initialized before use. See the documentation for the -init option to chicken-install, in Extensions.
Can I install chicken eggs as a non-root user?
Yes, just install them in a directory you can write to by using CHICKEN_INSTALL_REPOSITORY (see above).
Why does downloading an extension via chicken-install fail on Windows Vista?
Possibly the Windows Firewall is active, which prevents chicken-install from opening a TCP connection to the egg repository. Try disabling the firewall temporarily.


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Hi Karen
you asked me why modern characters don't have the lasting appeal of Looney Tunes and Hanna Barbera characters.
You said that even though some of your movies have made money, the characters don't seem to outlast their initial stories. In my opinion, that's because modern movies focus more on "the "arena", the formula animation plot and the special effects but they pay very little heed to character.
Characters that are charismatic, unique and engaging can fit into any "arena". Iconic classic characters appeared in different scenarios all the time, and the audience never questioned it. In fact they looked forward to seeing their favorite characters over and over again. What made these characters iconic?
I'll give you my theories. First of all, there is no one quality that makes an iconic character. There are various ingredients that go into it and not each lasting character has all the ingredients.
One ingredient, I think is the most essential (to a cartoon or film character):
The Look - the individual character design
A character has to have an automatically recognizable and appealing look, even if it has nothing else.You have to want to wear it on a t-shirt, just because it looks so nice.
It should make good toys.
Most of today's characters don't have distinct looks. They are semi-realistic and have no strong visual statement. No conviction to a design.
This stuff looks like it was designed for a 1985 DIC show.
Modern characters are generic to look at - some are even proud of it!
Do these look iconic? Do they make cute toys? If you saw these in the supermarket, would you know who they are? Or would you just say "Oh, there's a lumpy turtle! I'll get it for my niece Tabitha."
The Voice
Having a distinct cartoony voice adds a lot of instant appeal and recognition to a character.
Acting - Baby Bottleneck
Uploaded by chuckchillout8
It used to be an automatic requirement for cartoon characters to have strong distinctive voices. That's why cartoonists went to radio to find stars who made their living on their voices and acting alone.
Uploaded by chuckchillout8
Uploaded by chuckchillout8
Too many of today's cartoons use "star voices" which sound like no one in particular. If a cartoon character sounds like your next door neighbor, then he doesn't sound special or unique.
Here, turn this on, close your eyes and just listen to the voices. Doesn't it sound like your next door neighbors trying to solve a community problem? Can you tell one character from another?
Most characters that have lasted decades had strong distinctive character voices.
The Personality
Strong personalities like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Yogi Bear, Jinks the Cat seem real to an audience and therefore stand a chance of lasting a long time.
WB characters don't have quite as distinct character designs as some other classic cartoons, but they have really distinct voices and personalities.
Compare these personalities to say, Droopy (who is in some great cartoons) or any characters in feature animation today. Modern feature animation characters have completely stock bland personalities. Every movie uses the same characters. The bland lead, the tough feisty woman, the gay villain, the obnoxious sidekick etc... these aren't unique individuals, because you see them all the time.
A unique character has to be surprising, something you don't see every day of the week or has a combination of incongruent traits that add up to magic. They can have some traits you identify with, but can't merely have standard traits if they are to stand out from the tons of forgettable stock animated characters.
This uniqueness should reveal itself on as many levels as possible: the look, voice, personality, and movement.
Many WB characters have all these traits in one character.
The character that is the most unique ever created is Popeye.
He is a bald old man with one eye, no teeth, scrawny except for bulbous forearms and calves. Despite being old and decrepit looking, he is the strongest man in the world and loves to fight. He gets extra strength from spinach. He is ignorant and has a completely unique made up dialect and voice. He is low class yet has great nobility.
In today's environment you could never sell a character this unique with so many odd traits, yet he is one of history's most famous and popular characters; purely American during America's best period.
Character Chemistry With Other Characters
A character doesn't exist by himself. He has to have other distinct characters who together create sparks and chemistry. When you have this type of clear entertaining relationship, the stories write themselves.
So those are some of the ingredients that go into making characters so strong that you can make many stories out of them. They don't have to die after the first blockbuster weekend that doesn't make enough money to pay for the cost of production and marketing. Real star characters go on to make money for decades after their initial introduction. Why? Not because of the "story". But because people love the characters. The stories are written around the characters. This is the opposite thinking of today's "Create an arena and then stuff it full of characters that fit it."
But the most important ingredient in a star character is not the character himself or even any of the parts that go into it. The secret magical ingredient is the creator who understands character and chemistry. This ingredient is the rarest of them all.
I can explain to anyone conceptually what makes a good character, but that won't make it any easier for the listener to go ahead and start creating them.
You could know music theory and still never be able to come up with memorable melodies. It takes a certain kind of talent who can create melodies - not every musician can do it, even if they are virtuosos in other aspects of music.
The same thing applies to creating characters and being able to bring them to life. You have to just naturally have a feeling for character and gripping situations - and you have to have enough experience in your medium to know technically how to pull it off.
In live action, the actors themselves are the characters and they make it easy for the director by bringing their own custom made personalities with them.
In animation, you have to be able to put yourself into the heads and hearts of many characters and that's why it is such a rare talent and not many animators can do it without a good director.
That's why these shorts programs are so crazy. Modern TV execs think that anybody can create characters and it's just a matter of luck until one comes along, so they try out anybody off the street and waste tons of money, instead of finding someone who actually has the talent and letting him develop it with a crew over time.
That's what Leon Schlesinger did at Looney Tunes. He found and nurtured the best cartoon directors in history. He let them experiment; they tried out lots of characters, honed their skills and they ended up creating more popular characters than anybody else....and made a ton of money for Warner Bros. for 60 years.
It's not enough to have great characters; you have to have great directors who know how to bring them to life.
How many horrible Bugs Bunny cartoons have you seen made in the last 25 years? It's not easy to keep characters alive, no matter how great their raw material is. You need the great director who understands character and uniqueness. That's the most important ingredient to lasting characters.


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Filters: Author is Vinyas Harish [Clear All Filters]
An application of redundant sensors for intraoperative electromagnetic tracking error monitoring.
15th Annual Imaging Network Ontario Symposium. Harish2017b.pdf (504.36 KB)
An inexpensive system for competency-based pericardiocentesis training.
14th Annual Imaging Network Ontario Symposium (ImNO). Baksh2016a.pdf (919.93 KB)
(2016). Intraoperative visualization and assessment of electromagnetic tracking error.
SPIE Medical Imaging 2015. 9415, 94152H-94152H-6. Harish2015-manuscript.pdf (5.7 MB) Harish2015-poster.pdf (897.74 KB)
(2015). A low-cost system for image-guided computer-navigated pericardiocentesis training.
30th International Congress & Exhibition on Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS). Int J CARS (2016) 11 (Suppl 1), S112. Harish2016b.pdf (959.69 KB)
(2016). Measurement of electromagnetic tracking error in a navigated breast surgery setup.
SPIE Medical Imaging 2016. 9786, Harish2016a.pdf (4.07 MB)
(2016). Monitoring electromagnetic tracking error in computer-navigated breast cancer surgery.
14th Annual Imaging Network Ontario Symposium (ImNO). Harish2016c.pdf (1.25 MB)
(2016). Monitoring electromagnetic tracking error using redundant sensors.
SPIE Medical Imaging 2017. Harish2017a.pdf (657.31 KB)
(2017). PLUS Model Catalog: A library of 3D-printable models.
15th Annual Imaging Network Ontario Symposiuim. Bibic2017a.pdf (256.64 KB) Bibic2017a-Poster.pptx (6.07 MB)
(2017). Training with Perk Tutor improves ultrasound-guided in-plane needle insertion skill.
SPIE Medical Imaging. 10135, Lia-SPIE2017.pdf (373.32 KB)


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Gary Cahill Front Signed Chelsea 2014-15 Home Shirt
Out of stock
This Chelsea shirt was personally signed by Gary Cahill on the 17th August 2015. It is a limited edition signed shirt that is a must for any Chelsea and England fan.
Categories: Premier League, Chelsea FC, Players, Gary Cahill, All, Under £200, Under £400, Under £1000
Dispatch time: Usually dispatched within 2-3 working days
Product Video
Cahill has been a mainstay in both the England and Chelsea set-ups for several years. Brought to the Chelsea by Andre Villas Boas, his pace and technique on the ball have been key assets for both Chelsea and England ever since. Cahill has formed an unbreakable partnership with John Terry, and maintained his position in the side despite several managerial changes. Like Terry, Cahill also boasts a surprisingly high goal tally for a defender, with 22 goals in his senior club career alone.
A Chelsea hero on that famous night in Munich, Cahill was one of the standout performers in the final against Bayern Munich in the 2012 UEFA Champions League, especially considering that the defender was still recovering from the hamstring injury that had forced him off in just the sixth minute of the Barcelona semi -final. Cahill can also count himself as one of few players to have won every competition in English club football, having won the Premier League and League Cup in 2014–15, the FA Cup in 2011-12, the UEFA Europa League 2012–13 and of course, UEFA Champions League in 2011–12.
Product type(s) | Signed shirts |
Signed by | Gary Cahill |
Presentation type | Unframed |
Bin Number | K10 |
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Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Saturday, 10-11 a.m., Sunday, 11 a.m.-noon
For a wacky and whip-smart approach to the weeks news and newsmakers, listen no further than Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me, the oddly informative news quiz from NPR.
During each fast-paced, irreverent show, host Peter Sagal leads what might be characterized as the news Olympics. Callers, panelists, and guests compete by answering questions about the week's events, identifying impersonations, filling in the blanks at lightening speed, sniffing out fake news items and deciphering limericks.
Listeners vie for a chance to win the most coveted prize in radio: having official judge and scorekeeper Carl Kasell record the outgoing message on their home answering machine.


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What is the easiest way to get ahead in advertising your brand? By imprinting your logo on promotional caps and hats! Out of all giveaway products, promotional apparel is used the most and that includes custom promotional headwear like hats. Our wide selection of miscellaneous custom promotional headwear includes everything from chef hats and other work-related styles to tons of casual styles anyone will love!
When you choose the style that best suits your needs, we can help you personalize it with an imprinted company name, logo or fun slogan. Whenever a client or colleague wears one of these stylish customized promotional hats, they will be doing your advertising for you.


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Synopsis: | It's almost graduation and if Ferris can get away with just one more sick day--it had better be a good one. He sweet talks his best friend into borrowing his dad's antique Ferrari and sneaks his girlfriend out of school to spend a day in Chicago. Their escapades lead to fun, adventure, and almost getting caught. Broderick is charismatic as the notorious Bueller with Grey amusing as his tattle-tale sister doing everything she can to see him get caught. Early Sheen appearance as a juvenile delinquent who pesters Grey. Led to TV series. One of Hughes' more solid efforts. |
Directed by: | John Hughes |
Producer(s): | Paramount Pictures |
Cast: | Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck, Jeffrey Jones, Jennifer Grey, Cindy Pickett, Edie McClurg, Charlie Sheen, Del Close, Virginia Capers, Max Perlich, Louie Anderson, Richard Edson, Lyman Ward, Kristy Swanson, Larry "Flash" Jenkins, Ben Stein |


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Anna Cardwell and Jessica Shannon
Add to Lightbox DownloadEXCLUSIVE: Mama June's children are pictured just before they underwent a dramatic plastic surgery makeover. Anna Cardwell and Jessica Shannon of Gordon, Georgia, were pictured in LA before they went under the knife and had extensive dental work. Anna, 25, who separated from her husband Michael three-years-ago, has had a breast lift and implants with 400cc Allergen Breast Implants and has seen her boob size go from a B to a 36D cup. The $17,000 surgery was performed by Dr Michael K Obeng of Beverly Hills. She also had 16 veneers - eight on the top and eight on the bottom - by Dr Aamir Wahab of Beverly Hills at a cost of $30,000. A source said: "Anna has 2 daughters from her previous relationships, Kaitlyn 7 years old and Kylee 4 years old. Anna has a new man in her life, Eldridge Toney and they reside in Gordon, Georgia with Anna's 2 kids. Anna wanted to re-invent herself to help boost her self esteem, so she flew to California for a Beverly Hills makeover." Jessica, 23, who weighed 239lbs, wanted a curvy body and is said to want to become a plus size model. She underwent the knife with dr Samuel Kashani of Beverly Hills who inserted the Orbera Balloon into her stomach to help with Jessica's weight loss journey. The cost of that surgery was $17,000. Additionally Dr Michael K Obeng also performed 360 liposuction on her abs, flanks, back and bra area as well as a Tummy Tuck. Jessica lost 40lbs just from the $30,000 surgery and will continue to lose over the next few months Jessica also now has a Hollywood smile after having eight veneers fitted to her top teeth and laser whitening on the bottom teeth at a cost of $17,000 fitted by Dr Aamir Wahab of Beverly Hills. A source said:" Jessica is single and ready to meet a man and would love to be a plus size model. Jessica flew to California with her sister Anna and underwent an extensive makeover. Jessica weighed 239lbs and she wanted a curvy body with a flat stomach." photos taken February 20th 2020. 03 Mar
- Filename
- MEGA623288_004.jpg
- Copyright
- The Mega Agency RealTime Images
- Image Size
- 1935x2903 / 898.6KB
- http://TheMegaAgency.com
Anna Cardwell Jessica Shannon of Gordon sister Anna self esteem Mama June's children 239lbs Jessica's weight loss journey husband Michael three-years Orbera Balloon Eldridge Toney new man curvy body previous relationships source Anna Jessica Dr Aamir Wahab of Beverly Hills dramatic plastic surgery makeover dr Samuel Kashani of Beverly Hills Georgia knife Hollywood smile stomach veneers breast lift life top teeth LA implants bottom man cost Gordon 400cc Allergen Breast Implants laser daughters abs Kaitlyn surgery flanks 40lbs kids Dr Michael K Obeng bottom teeth flat stomach boob size Beverly Hills makeover Dr Michael K Obeng of Beverly Hills cost of that surgery bra area
- Contained in galleries
- Mama June's children are pictured just before they underwent plastic surgery makeover - 5 March 2020


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Drinks for every moment
Delivered to your door. How 'bout that.
Drinks for every moment
Delivered to your door. How 'bout that.
(1,267 results)
All about mezcal
Cooking alcohol over a roaring fire doesn't sound like a good idea, but mezcal liquor wouldn't exist without some brave soul who tried it. Originating in Mexico, it has been a local drink for years but is now gaining popularity abroad.
How is it made?
Mezcal comes from the agave plant. The agave core is cut out, placed in a pit and roasted over charcoal and wood, which is where the traditional smoky flavor comes from. Some entrepreneurial distillers now use ovens to make modernized versions. Whichever process is used, the distilled agave liquor is then aged in oak barrels. Different types of mezcal have different aging timeframes. For example, añejo is aged for a minimum of one year, reposado can be aged for up to one year and joven mezcal is aged for a mere two months at most. Either way, you end up with a deliciously smoky liquor that is perfect on its own or in your favorite cocktail recipes.
Is it the same as tequila?
Tequila is classified as mezcal, but mezcal is not tequila. The production and distillation processes are different. For example, agave for tequila is steamed, while agave for mezcal is roasted before it's turned into distilled liquor. More than that, Blue Weber agave is the only acceptable form of agave for tequila production and is grown in a different part of Mexico than the variety used for mezcal.
Absolutely! Mezcal can be created from over 30 varieties of agave, which means it can have different tastes. The most common type of agave used for mezcal is Espadín. Flavor profiles depend on how the agave is cooked but can range from floral to citrus to earthy to fruity. However, all mezcals have a smoky flavor. You'll also notice different flavors based on the age of the mezcal - these all have different names:
- Blanco: aged for up to two months
- Reposado: aged up to 12 months
- Añejo: aged for at least one year
Which type should you drink?
If you've never had mezcal before, don't go into it expecting it to be like tequila. Start with an Espadin variety and drink it slowly. Usually, an orange slice and some salt sit on top in the most traditional form of this alcoholic liquor, but mezcal can also be mixed in a cocktail as the liquor of choice. Mezcal isn't made for drinking quickly so take your time sipping, and let the flavors roll over your palate.
Search for mezcal on Drizly in your city and look for liquor stores on Drizly near you.


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X Server Input Device Grabs
Grabs are a way of forcing devices to only report to a specific client (the grabbing client). There are two different types of grabs: core grabs and device grabs (X input extension).
Core grabs are fairly simple: when a client issues a request (e.g. GrabPointer), the server takes the core pointer and initializes a GrabRec structure to be put in the grab field of the DeviceIntRec. Each time the device now emits an event, it is delivered only to the client that owns the grab. Grabs are resources and thus the owner of the grab can be looked up using the rClient(grab) macro. A typical event flow would be mieqProccessInputEvent -> CoreProcessPointerEvent -> DeliverGrabbedEvent -> TryClientEvents.
Device grabs are the same but require some knowledge about the role of the core pointer. Each time the client issues a GrabDevice request, a grab is initialized in the same way to the core grab. The grab is stored in the device itself.
But here is the important bit about event generation: Each time a device emits an event, it creates a device event and (maybe) a core event. The device event is put on the event queue and processed with a reference to the original device. The core event however is processed with the core pointer. After GetPointerEvents, all core events appear to have originated from the core pointer and all device events from their device.
And suddenly all the bits with grabs fall into place. If we have a core grab, we have it on the core pointer, thus all core events, no matter which device caused them, belong to us. A device grab will only send us the Xi events, while the core events still go wherever they are supposed to. As a result, we can have multiple device grabs but only ever one core grab. This is probably also the reason why the core pointer and core keyboard could not be configured to send Xi events.
There are always two core devices: VirtualCorePointer and VirtualCoreKeyboard were added by Daniel Stone when he wrote InputHotplug. Reason being is that the X server always has to have at least one keyboard and one mouse. But with hotplugging, you should be able to start X without any devices. So the solution was to add virtual devices that aren't connected to real ones and make sure they are always there. That way you can add and remove physical devices without breaking anything. They aren't physical devices! But with the event delivery described above, they still emit core events.
Passive grabs
Passive grabs are a different matter. A client can create multiple passive grabs (GrabButton/GrabKey), and they become active whenever the specified button/key is pressed, until it is released again. The server has two kinds of passive grabs, explicit and implicit ones. Explicit ones are the one requested by the client, they are stored as GrabRec in the window's resource system.
An implicit passive grab is activated only if there is no active grab on the device and no passive grab has been activated either. In this case, the server creates a new grab, fills it with data and sets it on the device. The purpose of the grab is to ensure that a ButtonRelease event is delivered to the same client as the ButtonPress event. This grab is deactivated when the button is released again.
There can only be one grab on a device, so the check for the activation of passive grabs only happens when the first button is pressed. Further buttons are not checked.
A passive grab is only created once, when the client requests it. When it is activated, the grab is copied into the device. Thus modifying a passive grab will not actually modify a grab that is currently active on a device.


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Sedgley Smoothing Plane - No. S4
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CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) -- Apple says it has lowered the price of its 13-inch MacBook Pro laptops by $200 and updated its processors. It also launched new models with faster processors and more memory.
Apple Inc. said Wednesday that the MacBook Pro with "Retina" display and 128 gigabytes of flash memory will now cost $1,499, down from $1,699. A new model with 256 gigabytes of flash will cost $1,699.
The 15-inch model has a faster processor and the same price.
Apple unveiled the new MacBook Pro models last fall. It has flash memory instead of the traditional hard drive, which makes it thinner and lighter.
Apple reported a surprising decline in Mac sales in the final quarter of 2012. It sold 4.1 million of them, down 22 percent from shipments a year earlier.


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Plastic jewel case? Boring. Although it's been part of the scene for years, indie artists are waking up to the potential of unique album packaging – and producing some amazing examples.
If you haven't given in completely to downloading and still own some CDs or vinyl, then chances are they're stacked together on a shelf somewhere. Most of them will have very similar packaging; in the case of CDs, this usually means a hard plastic jewel case with an annoyingly brittle hub that, all being well, holds the disc in place. Some of the albums might be in cardboard digipaks or card wallets. While the music is no doubt excellent and the liner notes beautifully designed, the actual packaging for most CDs is functional at best.
However, for certain artists and record labels, this isn't good enough. They don't just wish to make the music as good as possible, they also want to turn the CD packaging into a piece of art itself: something designed not just to hold a CD or vinyl, but to create a distinct impression and form part of the album's experience, all before a single note is played. Although, this idea has been around since the earliest days of commercial music, it's gained new relevance in the past few years as the industry tries to adapt to a digital world.
Although global music sales increased in 2010 (up by 12% over 2009, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) downloads still hold the upper hand – both legally and illegally. Artists have had to become even more savvy to get their music out in a massively crowded and competitive marketplace. For some, this means turning their entire album into a piece of highly collectible, beautifully designed art.
It also means that talented graphic designers are becoming known not only for their work in other media, but for the unique album packages they create. Brent Rollins first came up with designing logos for films – among them Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing (1989) and Mo Better Blues (1990) – and has since become one of America's most storied graphic designers. He's also made a name for himself as one of the go-to designers for hip-hop albums, able to not only put together a compelling image for an album cover, but to create highly artistic packaging.
"Album cover art really does affect people," says Rollins. "I don't think there has ever been a story about people who really appreciate music who don't have recollections of looking at their favourite album cover art."
Inspired by classic designs like the Talking Heads album Speaking In Tongues (1983) – which had a clear vinyl disc as its centrepiece – Rollins' most recent work includes the album The Stimulus Package (2010). Released by the Minneapolis label Rhymesayers, the album (by Freeway and producer Jake One) is a fantastic example of creative packaging.
The deluxe version of the album arrived in a stylised wallet pre-loaded with oversized dollar bills. The liner notes for the record were printed on the back of the bills. The wallet not only contained the CD, but a fake business card, which provided a download code for the instrumentals. Rollins was the go-to guy on the project, working closely with Rhymesayers to both sketch out the basic idea and work out how to get it printed.
"I was lucky," laughs Rollins. "All I had to do was dream it up, and a company called A To Z had manufacturers to prototype different things. There was a lot of back-and-forth. We had to consider the actual production. Everything is perforated – originally it wasn't, but it made more sense to have [the liner notes] on one sort of long, ticket-style sheet, and folded just for practical purposes. Individual sheets might get lost in the packing process. We knew we had to make a folding tab to close the package, and it would be clinched by the actual money band. It was fun."
The packaging worked. Even before a single track had leaked from the album, a sneaky promotional video from the label had got fans excited about the release. The album had sold 15,000 copies as of February 2010 (according to HipHopDX), a reasonable number in the current climate. "The fan reaction before album release was pretty scary," says Rollins. "It speaks to the lack of packaging – people want something to get excited about."
Rhymesayers make a point of creative album covers. Their flagship act Atmosphere released their album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold (2008) packaged as a CD-sized, cloth-bound, illustrated children's book. Rapper P.O.S dropped Never Better in a clear, flexible plastic case that came with several interchangeable, Velcro-on covers. Rhymesayers can do all this because they aren't a major label, and don't have major-label-sized print runs.
And there lies the irony of bespoke album packaging: the more complex and creative it is, the smaller you need to be in order to do it. Britney Spears couldn't do what Atmosphere did. When Aesthetica interviewed the Kiara Elles in 2009, they enthused about their hand-stencilled-and-stitched wallpaper packaging for their vinyl release, created by the band members and limited to 500 copies. They couldn't have done it if they'd been signed to Sony.
Jeff Harrison knows this well. He's a Vancouver-based designer, and creative director at the Rethink agency. Although designing album packaging isn't all he does, his designs are noted for being bold, large scale and groundbreaking. "Bigger labels are all about the return on the investment," he tells us. "For a group like Vonnegut Dollhouse to go viral and get noticed online, they had to create a bit more noise with the package."
Vonnegut Dollhouse, a now-defunct band that Harrison worked closely with, must be in contention for the most ambitious album packaging. Their album Ornamental Etherworld (2007) came in packaging that folded out into a large, insanely detailed dolls house, complete with stylised cutouts of the band members (and a "shag pile rug" detail CD). The album took the concept of packaging into the stratosphere, producing a highly collectable, stunning piece of artwork that even now remains rare and highly prized (no copies are available on eBay, and Amazon lists a $21 copy as "out of stock").
"They didn't really have a budget," says Harrison. "I actually built the entire set by hand. We had to source all the little bits and pieces – the little guitars, the clothing for the band members, the flooring. We had a miniatures artist help us out with the tiny sausages on the grill, and little bottles of gin around the room." To mass-produce the project (which only amounted to 500 copies), Rethink went with their print partner Hemlock, who are used to unusual projects.
Sometimes, however, the ideas and ambition behind the project exceed the immediate resources. Harrison also designed a cover for the self-titled album of the rock band Splitting Adam. It looks like a standard cardboard CD case, but splits apart to reveal a massively detailed holographic image, a composite of the faces of the band members that morphs to different images depending on the viewing angle. The problem? Harrison couldn't find anybody to do it. Holography as an art form is hardly fashionable, and tracking down someone to get the complexities of it right took some time. "We had to go to Russia!", says Harrison. "It took forever to do it." The hard work paid off – the album was nominated in the Best Packaging category at the Grammy awards in 2009.
Even among the many, many Grammy categories, this is a fairly obscure one. And like the rest of the awards, it's almost always dominated by mainstream releases (Recent nominees include Metallica and Black Sabbath). This highlights another facet of creative album packaging: while it might be a way for smaller bands to make their mark, it's only in rare cases that it gets noticed by the mainstream. Even now, the majors only seem interested in products like commemorative boxsets, which require more inventiveness with the packaging than the standard album.
But as Rollins says, creative packaging cannot only be an artistic statement for a band, but also a business one. "You need something to be a face for the artist," he muses. "You need some sort of [identity]. You want to get something to be excited about, and have a concept to rally around. There'll always be a need for that, for that visual presentation and persona." And nothing, it seems, is better for that than a package that stands out from the crowd.
For more information on Freeway, Jake One, POS and Atmosphere, go to www.rhymesayers.com. Splitting Adam, go to www.myspace.com/splittingadam. Jeff Harrison, go to www.rethinkagency.com and Brent Rollins, go to www.brentrollins.com
Rob Boffard