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This is B.S.
We should have random drug tests of all public servants starting with the White House, his staff, Congress and the Senate, all the way down to dogcatcher in each city.
How about running the cocaine sniffer dogs through the peoples White House . Obama is an employee who keeps forgetting who he works for.
This ´General´ needs to get tossed out on his brass. This is the most ridiculous, unnecessary and invasive thing I have ever heard of. Last I heard, consumption of alcohol is legal in this country.
.01? That must equate to about half a beer.
I,for one, did a lot of drinking while I was in the Navy.
I did a lot of drinking while you were in the Navy too, #7. If we ever meet in person the first five rounds are on me.
Somebody needs to frag that general, and fast.
The military has a long tradition of imbibing, and actually has encouraged it over the years.True story. I was running an EKG on the head chaplain for USAF Europe, at Weisbaden Air Base, (he was a full bird colonel, and I was an E-3.) and after I wired him up, and told him to relax, I asked him what he thought about the air force policy to double liquor allotments during the Christmas season. (The air force ran Class 6 stores, to sell booze.) He blew up as if I had dropped a hand grenade on him. But he never answered the question.(Alcohol is tax free at overseas bases, or was, back in 1959. A 40 ounce bottle of Corby´s or Imperial, cost about $1.50.)
I was a AF Brat. Having not learned my lesson I did a couple of hitches myself.When my father took lunch it was not unusual to have a beer. Forget after hours. I do remember squadron picnics that had keg after keg.When I served a beer was acceptable but discouraged, I myself did not imbibe during the work day.Class 6 sold me my 2 bttl per month while I was overseas.Stateside class 6 prices were about 30% below local retail.The point is once upon a time troops were trusted, now the babysitters have taken over and the MEN are no longer to make a decision.
Gay weddings will be given full military honors on base however.
This same policy should apply to Congress and Presidential appointees and staffers.
Now I know why all those top brass were booted out - to usher in the Peter Principle so Barry can ruin the military once and for allo.


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Gee, I wonder if the Republicans will have the smarts to win this PR battle?
I don´t think they do. They keep playing into their traps.
I have zero confidence in any republicans. They go on talk shows and pussy foot around the fact that Obama wants to go over that fiscal cliff. How about taking the gloves off and saying the unvarnished truth for once, heh republicans? They will get blamed regardless of what happens so they should stand on their principles but at least call out Obama for his obvious decision. In the end I fully expect Beohner to cave and agree to higher taxes.
Just stop it, Johnny. You´ve passed a budget. Walk away and let Harry Reid take it to the floor...or not.
Mr Speaker, allow Two Won to flap his big purple lips in the breeze as he jumps the cliff. Walk away from his blow and prepare to move on. He has nothing to offer You know this to be true, WTP know this to be true. LEAVE IT ALLONE Make the po´boy happy and make the scarecrow do the job he was elected to do in the senate....about time he got a budget passed ....way passed time he started to work for US rather than against US
If we only had a Congress with the knowledge and fortitude to stop the Socialist bloodletting of our America. Stand up to this ego-maniacal windbag! Do it now!
all the dems and libs out there, you got what you paid for
Exactly #4.Obama wants the Republicans to keep negotiating with themselves.I actually say, give them ONLY the top tier tax increases and stop there.It´s nowhere near enough but it´s what Obama has said would fix the problem.
The Grand Old Puppydogs, under the commanding leadership of Boneless, Ditch and Cant-do, will eventually roll over and the WH knows it.Good puppies!
The House should pass the Simpson-Bowles plan and leave it at Harry Read´s feet. Then walk away from the negotiations. Hang the thing around Obama/Read´s neck like the Albatross it is.
"...senior administration officials blustered that Boehner's proposal wasn´t serious enough to merit a counter-proposal."Other than half-bright axel rod, who else in the WH has any clue? Hint - zip, zero, nobody, nada.

subset: commoncrawl


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HERMÈS ON DISPLAY: Visitors to the Saatchi Gallery in London will have a chance to take a close look at the intricate procedures involved in creating Hermès' luxury leather goods at the Festival des Métiers, a seven-day exhibition that will showcase 10 different Hermès crafts.
From May 21-27, Hermès crafts people will be in situ at the gallery, just as they would in their French workshops. Visitors will be able to see the famous Hermès silk scarf printed, and watch as fine jewelry, ties, watches and handbags are made by hand in front of them.
The Festival des Métiers will arrive from in London from China, where it has been exhibited in Beijing and Shenyang. Following London, it will travel to Dusseldorf.
Sign in using your Facebook or Twitter account, or simply type your comment below as a guest by entering your email and name. Your email address will not be shared.Ads by Google


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Our mission is to respond effectively to the most pressing needs of the University's students. It is consistent with the mission of the Division of Student Affairs by providing comprehensive programs to assist University of North Florida's diverse student population in their achievement of maximum health.
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Additionally, the White House Office of Public Engagement has provided an important summary ACA 101: Health Insurance Marketplace Outreach and Enrollment Toolkit for Colleges, Universities, and Community Colleges for your review and dissemination as appropriate. Please also note that under the ACA, college-sponsored student health insurance plans also remain an option for coverage of students.
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Dr. Garas is an Interventional Cardiology Fellow at Emory University, Atlanta, GA. He received his MD in 1995 from the University of Missouri.
Dr. Marshall is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University and the Director of the Catheterization Laboratory at Crawford Long Hospital, Atlanta, GA.
Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. According to the American Heart Association, in 1997 there were 466,101 deaths attributed to coronary artery disease. 1 It constitutes the largest health expenditure in the United States. Around the world, coronary artery disease is quickly becoming the most common cause of morbidity and mortality. The worldwide economic impact of coronary disease is staggering and is on the rise.
Acute coronary events are triggered by rupture or disruption of an atherosclerotic plaque and a subsequent thrombotic process in the coronary artery. Disrupted plaques, which can result in decreased coronary blood flow or obstruction, are a fundamental step in the pathogenesis of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and are found beneath 75% of the thrombi responsible for acute coronary syndromes. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is inherently thrombogenic. Deep vessel wall injury induced by balloon dilatation and stent implantation triggers thrombosis resulting in thrombin generation, platelet activation, and a profound, systemically detectable inflammatory response. This is a complex, multifactorial process that involves simultaneous and interrelated pathways. These pathways are initiated by exposure to substances in damaged cells and ruptured plaque. As the coagulation cascade is initiated by tissue factor and collagen, platelet adhesion, activation, and aggregation occur in a parallel process. Thrombin plays a central role in thrombogenesis through activating platelets, converting fibrinogen to fibrin, amplifying coagulation by activating factors V and VIII, and stabilizing the fibrin clot through activation of factor XIII. Antithrombotic therapy, therefore, is critical in the treatment of ACS and during PCI. Antithrombotic therapy includes antiplatelet agents, anticoagulants, and fibrinolytics. This article will review the antithrombotic agents: unfractionated heparin (UFH), low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs), and direct antithrombins (figure 1).
Unfractionated heparin is the mainstay of therapy for ACS and PCI. It was discovered in 1916 from a liver extract. The name is derived from the Latin word hepar, which means liver. Commercial preparations are a mixture of glycosaminoglycans ranging in molecular weight from 3000 to 30,000 daltons. Only about one-third of all the heparin molecules have the pentasaccharide sequence necessary to attach antithrombin (AT). By attaching to AT, heparin enhances its activity by a thousand times. Thrombin that is already fibrin-bound, however, is protected from this inactivation. Heparin activity can be monitored using activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) or activated clotting time (ACT). It is important to note that there are two devices used to measure ACT: the Hemochron (International Technidyne Corp., Edison, NJ) and HemoTec (Medison Perfusion, Inc., Parker, CO) devices. The Hemochron device tends to yield higher values (30 to 50 sec) for any given level of systemic anticoagulation than the HemoTec device.
UFH in ACS
In unstable angina, heparin has been shown to reduce myocardial infarction (MI) and mortality. 2 Heparin is superior to aspirin alone in preventing recurrent ischemic symptoms in patients with unstable angina. 3 Continuous intravenous (IV) heparin administered in the acute period after unstable coronary artery disease reduces the likelihood and severity of subsequent ischemic events. Heparin is also recommended for all patients presenting with acute MI, if no contraindications exist. 4
UFH in PCI
Since the advent of PCI, heparin has remained the primary antithrombotic therapy for the prevention of periprocedural ischemic complications. There are no large prospective, placebo-controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of heparin during PCI. Two small trials showed improved outcome with heparin therapy in patients presenting with unstable angina due to thrombus containing lesions by angiography. 5,6 While ACT measurements are commonly made during coronary angioplasty to guide heparin dosing, the optimal dosing regimen has never been clearly defined. In a recent study by Chew et al 7 in which they evaluated data from 6 randomized trials encompassing 5216 patients, an ACT in the range of 350 to 375 seconds provided the lowest ischemic event rate.
Conclusions concerning UFH
Heparin remains a very attractive antithrombotic agent; it is relatively inexpensive, most clinicians are very familiar with it, and it has a readily available antidote (protamine sulfate). However, heparin is associated with a number of limitations. Heparin must rely on antithrombin to exert inhibitory effects on thrombin. In some cases, it is difficult to achieve a target ACT in patients who have received prior heparin infusions. The degree of nonspecific binding can vary from patient to patient since the concentration of heparin-binding proteins increases in acute illness, such as ACS. Patients with ACS require higher doses of heparin to achieve target ACT levels during PCI. Platelet factor 4 inhibits heparin, thus reducing its effectiveness, and clot-bound thrombin is not inhibited by the heparin-antithrombin complex. Heparin exhibits nonlinear pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics, with heparin's half-life increasing in a nonlinear fashion as the dose increases. Newer antithrombotic agents have to improve on the pitfalls noted with heparin in order to be helpful and gain widespread acceptance.
Low molecular weight heparins provide more reliable anticoagulation and less need for patient monitoring and dosage adjustment than with standard UFH; therefore, they are well suited for long-term anticoagulation or outpatient therapy. Low molecular weight heparins are gaining acceptance as an alternative to UFH during ACS. Additionally, there are multiple studies under way to elucidate their role in PCI and ST-elevation MI. When compared with UFH, LMWHs have fewer side effects, such as heparin-induced osteopenia and heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT). They also provide consistent bioavailability due to less binding to plasma proteins, platelet factor 4, endothelial cells, and macrophages. In addition, they provide better subcutaneous delivery and longer half-life that permits dosing once or twice daily. 8 In general, these advantages provide for a more predictable response that requires no aPTT monitoring.
Low molecular weight heparin preparations are formed by controlled enzymatic or chemical depolymerization, producing saccharide chains of varying lengths but with a mean molecular weight of approximately 5000 daltons. The LMWHs approved for use in the United States include enoxaparin, dalteparin, nadroparin, and tinzaparin. They all have greater anti-Xa:IIa ratios compared with UFH. In addition, the LMWH preparations used have a varying degree of anti-Xa:IIa activity, which may in part explain the differences observed in their respective outcomes. Consequently, LMWHs should not be considered as a single class of agents.
Approximately 15,000 patients were enrolled in 6 large randomized clinical trials of LMWHs, including enoxaparin, dalteparin, or nadroparin. The results of these trials have been generally very encouraging, especially for enoxaparin. Comparing these trials is difficult because of the differences between agents and trial designs (Table 1).
Two trials of enoxaparin substantiated the role of LMWHs in patients with ACS. 9-11 In the ESSENCE (Efficacy and Safety of Subcutaneous Enoxaparin in Non-Q wave Coronary Events) trial, 3171 patients received either enoxaparin given as 1 mg/kg subcutaneously without a bolus or UFH, in addition to aspirin. Heparin dosage was adjusted to maintain aPTT between 55 and 85 seconds regardless of the reagent used by each institution. Compared with UFH, enoxaparin decreased the composite end point (death, MI, and revascularization) at day 14 (16.6% vs. 19.8%, P = 0.019) and at day 30 (19.8% vs. 23.3%, P = 0.016). The rate of major bleeding was similar between groups; however, enoxaparin was associated with a higher rate of minor bleeding at day 30.
Results of the TIMI-11B (Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction) trial further support a role for enoxaparin in patients with ACS. 10 A total of 3910 patients with unstable angina or non-Q wave MI were randomized to receive enoxaparin 30-mg bolus (IV) followed by 1 mg/kg subcutaneously every 12 hours or UFH 70-U/kg (IV) bolus followed by 15 U/kg/hour continuous infusion. During the short-term phase, UFH was continued for a mean of 3 days and enoxaparin for 4.6 days. The long-term phase consisted of fixed enoxaparin 40 mg every 12 hours for patients weighing <65 kg and 60 mg every 12 hours for those weighing more, or placebo. The primary end point was a composite of death, MI, and recurrent angina requiring urgent revascularization. At 48 hours, day 8, and day 14, patients randomized to enoxaparin showed a significant reduction in the composite end point compared with those treated with UFH (day 14, 12.4% vs. 14.5%, P = 0.048). Notably, only 50% of patients receiving weight-based UFH were within target aPTT range at 24 to 48 hours. In fact, more patients were subtherapeutic (18.9%) at 24 hours than in the ESSENCE trial. At day 43 after continued long-term dosing, no additional benefit was observed; however, enoxaparin was associated with a higher rate of major bleeding (2.9% vs. 1.5%, P = 0.021).
Meta-analysis of the data from both the TIMI-11b and ESSENCE trials showed a 20% reduction in the composite of death or MI at 8 days ( P = 0.02) and persisting at 14 days ( P = 0.02). 11 At 1 year, the rate of death, MI, and urgent revascularization remained significantly lower in enoxaparin-treated patients (23.3% vs. 25.8%, P = 0.008). However, within both studies, there was a modest increase in minor hemorrhage associated with the use of LMWH mostly at injection sites.
Other LMWHs have not fared as well in randomized trials. The FRISC (Fragmin during Instability in Coronary Artery Disease) trial randomized ACS patients to receive dalteparin or placebo. The primary end point of death and MI at 6 days was lowered in patients treated with dalteparin as compared with placebo (1.8% vs. 4.8%). 12 In the subsequent FRISC-2 trial, the use of dalteparin compared with placebo appeared to reduce the rates of death or MI within the first 30 days. However, by 90 days, the curves had converged and the difference was no longer significant. 13 In the FRAXIS (FRAXiparin in the Ischemic Syndromes) study, patients with ACS were randomly assigned to receive either UFH or nadroparin for 2 durations of therapy. There was no difference between the two groups in the primary end point of death, MI, or recurrent angina at 14 days ( P = 0.85). 14
LMWHs in PCI
An increasing number of patients with ACS are being treated with LMWHs prior to coronary angioplasty. The use of LMWH during PCI remains investigational. The FRISC-2 trial is noteworthy in the context of PCI, as it was the first study to demonstrate a benefit for invasive management and revascularization among patients with ACS. Some of the benefit seen is thought to be due to the extended pretreatment with dalteparin. 13 The REDUCE (reduction of restenosis after PTCA, early administration of reviparin in a double-blind unfractionated heparin and placebo-controlled) study randomized 625 patients undergoing elective PCI to receive reviparin or UFH. The study was designed to detect a difference in restenosis and, consequently, the results were negative. Interestingly, during initial hospitalization, there was a significant reduction in the frequency of salvage stent placement among patients treated with reviparin compared with UFH (6% vs. 2%). The occurrence of major clinical events (death, MI, need for reintervention or bypass surgery) was not reduced ( P = 0.707). 15
Several registry studies have been performed recently, including NICE 1, 3, and 4 (the National Investigators Collaborating on Enoxaparin study) as well as a registry of dalteparin in patients undergoing PCI. Several findings from these studies are noteworthy. In NICE 1, enoxaparin was given IV in combination with a GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor. In the dalteparin registry, dalteparin was used at one of several doses, each in combination with abciximab. The registries are notable for relatively low rates of ischemic events, which appeared to be very much in keeping with those observed in previous randomized trials of UFH with GP IIb/IIIa antagonists. The rates of bleeding also appeared to be comparable.
These studies should be interpreted with caution. First, there were no control groups in these registry studies, making comparison with UFH impossible. Second, the rigor with which events are ascertained may differ between registries and randomized controlled trials. Thus, the interpretation is that LMWHs probably can be used during PCI, but whether they are better than or worse than standard therapies involving UFH and GP IIb/IIIa antagonists remains to be determined.
LMWHs in ST-elevation MI
There are several completed and ongoing trials evaluating the use of LMWHs in the setting of ST-elevation MI. The HART-II (Heparin and Aspirin Reperfusion Therapy) trial investigated the use of LMWHs in patients receiving tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for acute MI. This trial showed a trend toward improved coronary patency at 90 minutes in patients receiving LMWH. 16 Another trial, the ASSENT-3 (Assessment of the Safety and Efficacy of a New Thrombolytic Regimen) study, showed that tenecteplase plus enoxaparin reduces the frequency of ischemic complications of an acute MI. 17
Conclusions concerning LMHs
There is convincing evidence that LMWHs, more specifically enoxaparin, can be used effectively in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes. Preliminary data in the settings of PCI and ST-elevation MI are promising and suggest potential roles for the LMWHs. As these data emerge, we may begin to feel more comfortable with the idea of using LMWHs in conjunction with other therapies that currently are regarded as standards of care in patients with CAD. More data are needed, particularly randomized and double-blinded therapy trials to determine whether the LMWHs will become established as the first line of therapy (Table 1).
Direct antithrombins inhibit thrombin without requiring the cofactor antithrombin. They exhibit a concentration-dependent anticoagulant effect. They can block both fluid-phase and clot-bound thrombin, and they are not inactivated by platelet factor 4. These properties of the direct antithrombins provide hope in the pursuit of an ideal anticoagulant, but whether these theoretical benefits will translate into clinical efficacy remains in question.
The prototype of the direct thrombin inhibitors is hirudin, originally isolated from the saliva of the medicinal leech. Lepirudin and desirudin are recombinant agents, and bivalirudin is a synthetic derivative of hirudin. These agents may differ in their pharmacodynamic, pharmacokinetic, and safety profiles, and therefore each of them may produce different clinical outcomes.
Direct antithrombins in ACS
As part of the GUSTO IIb (Global Use of Strategies to Open Occluded Coronary Arteries) study, more than 8000 patients were randomized to treatment with hirudin or UFH. The primary end point of death or MI at 30 days was not notably different between treatment groups (8.3% vs. 9.1%). 18 In the OASIS-1 (Organization to Assess Strategies for Ischemic Syndromes) pilot study, the combined end point of death, MI, or refractory angina occurred in 4.4% of patients treated with low-dose hirudin, 3.0% of patients treated with moderate-dose hirudin, and 6.5% of patients treated with UFH. 19 Consequently, OASIS-2 was performed in which approximately 10,000 patients were randomized to treatment with this moderate dose regimen of hirudin or UFH. The primary end point of death or new MI at 7 days occurred in 3.6% of those treated with hirudin and 4.2% of those treated with heparin ( P = 0.08). The composite end point of death, MI, or refractory angina occurred in 5.6% of those treated with hirudin and 6.7% of those treated with UFH. Major bleeding was more common with hirudin (1.2% vs. 0.7%). 20
There have been 2 major trials of direct antithrombins in patients undergoing PCI, both of which were conducted in an era when stents and GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors were not used. In a comparison study of hirudin with heparin in the prevention of restenosis after coronary angioplasty (HELVETICA), there was a reduction in a composite cardiovascular end point in hirudin versus UFH treated patients at 96 hours, but the differences were no longer apparent at 30 weeks. 21
The Bivalirudin Angioplasty Trial (BAT) was a randomized, double-blind trial of 4312 patients with ACS undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. 22 The final analysis of adjudicated data is based on the intent to treat population of 4312 patients. The clinical efficacy end point was defined as a composite of death, clinical or enzymatically defined MI, or repeat revascularization. All patients were given aspirin in an oral dose of 300 to 325 mg prior to coronary angioplasty and daily thereafter. Patients were randomized to receive either: bivalirudin (a bolus of 1 mg/kg, a 4-hour infusion of 2.5 mg/kg/hr followed by a 0.2-mg/kg/h infusion for up to an additional 20 hours) or UFH (a bolus of 175 U/kg, followed by 18- to 24-hour infusions of 15 U/kg/hr). The composite end point of death, MI, revascularization, or major hemorrhage was significantly reduced in patients treated with bivalirudin ( P <0.001).
The incidence of death, MI, or revascularization was 7.9% for heparin-treated patients and 6.2% for bivalirudin-treated patients ( P = 0.039). The absolute difference was maintained at 90 days ( P = 0.012). Based on these recently adjudicated results, the FDA has granted approval for the use of bivalirudin during PCI. 23
Direct antithrombins in ST-elevation MI
Several large trials have evaluated the utility of direct thrombin inhibitors as adjunctive therapy in patients with ST elevation treated with thrombolytic therapy. After the TIMI 9A, GUSTO IIa, and HIT-3 (Hirudin for Improvement of Thrombolysis) trials were terminated prematurely, the doses of both hirudin and UFH were reduced and the TIMI 9B, 24 GUSTO IIb, 18 and HIT-4 25 trials were undertaken. In the TIMI 9B trial, the composite primary end point occurred in 12.9% of hirudin-treated patients and 11.9% of heparin-treated patients ( P = NS). In the GUSTO IIb trial, death or MI at 30 days occurred in 9.9% of those treated with hirudin and 11.3% of those treated with heparin ( P = 0.06). Taken together, the TIMI 9B and GUSTO IIb findings suggest little, if any, benefit of routinely using hirudin over UFH as an adjunctive therapy in patients treated with thrombolytic therapy and aspirin. Other smaller trials using different agents have produced similar mixed results.
Conclusions concerning direct antithrombins
Direct antithrombins provide significant theoretical advantages over UFH. Initial clinical trial results have been disappointing. More recent data, especially those from the bivalirudin angioplasty trial, provide renewed optimism in this class of agents. Additionally, hirudin has been shown to be a safe alternative to heparin in patients diagnosed with HIT. Further studies are under way to assess the use of direct antithrombins in a number of clinical settings, including a trial to evaluate bivalirudin in the modern PCI era using stents and GP IIb/IIIa receptor blockers (Table 2).
Unfractionated heparin remains the standard antithrombotic agent used in ACS and during PCI. Two newer classes of antithrombotic agents, LMWHs and direct antithrombins, provide promising alternatives. Data are accumulating, especially with enoxaparin and bivalirudin, which may lead to a change in our choices of adjunctive antithrombotic agents in the near future.


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Band Hero
This holiday season, the biggest music event of the year will hit living rooms around the world as family and friends come together to ascend the virtual stage and rock their way to superstardom with Band Hero. Brought to you by the makers of Guitar Hero, one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, Band Hero features the hottest chart-topping hits from everyone's favorite bands including No Doubt, Nelly Furtado, Lily Allen, The All-American Rejects and Jackson 5. Headlined by some of the leading names in music as in-game artists and playable characters, including singer, songwriter and guitarist Taylor Swift and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, Band Hero is the ultimate party game where friends and family can choose to join the band or take five at any time without interrupting the performance, in Party Play mode. Band Hero allows fans to create the band of their dreams, using any combination of vocals and guitar or drum controllers, providing budding pop stars the chance to customize how they interact with and experience their favorite music.
FAQs, Guides, Cheats, and Secrets
We don't have any FAQs posted for this game yet.
If you just want to cheat or find out how to unlock something, our Cheats and Codes page has everything you need. We have 20 cheats for this game.
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And More...
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text:
Is this viable? I'm thinking of taking him mid with a hatchet, shield, and tangos, with a courier from someone else and getting bottle - phase boots/iron shield and then SnY? (frostburn). His ult gives him basically rune monopoly, and his spin lets him push the lane for the runes/get CS/harass the enemy if he comes too close. Is he viable?
Any nuker can abuse the hell out of him, especially with that ridge and fog of war issues.
Against another melee, maybe. Against a ranged, no.
Build a man a fire, and he's warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
well, i can outlane a ranged as pharaoh pretty easily - shouldn't swiftblade be even easier? true, he doesnt have reliable harass with missile (his is a lot more placement dependent), but still
but that bh and swift with hatchets bh can out last hit thats where skill comes into it
Swiftblade is very bad for middle. He has of the lowest base damages in the game(I think he is the weakest melee attacker and is lower than many ranged) and his spin is limited by the short length of the lane.
Swift literally doesn't have anything going for him that would make him a good mid. It's a waste of his earlygame power because it'll be a lot harder for him to get kills as a solo than in a lane with a proper babysitter.
BH would have to watch out for not falling prey to a spin early on, because that could drop him low enough to give swift a monopoly on last hits and denies. If Swift can't get a good spin off, he's dead in mid against a melee.
Against ranged heroes, I don't even know why you would force this matchup.
The Hero-Tracking Changelog! My Strategy Article.
Matches I'm proud of: Match 24216943 Match 22979926 Match 28587142 Match 7776189
Can work if you manage to farm a lifetube fast, before you spend all your tangos


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[Beowulf] The Walmart Compute Node?
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Quoting "Jeffrey B. Layton" <laytonjb at charter.net>, on Sat 10 Nov 2007 08:49:01 AM PST: > andrew holway wrote: >> Sod all this tin pot stuff. >> >> Buying all this crap, sticking it in a rack and stringing it together >> with wire aint difficult. Making the damn software work is the tricky >> bit. >> >> Get loads of ram, vmware-server and BINGO! you have a cluster! >> > > But this isn't a cluster - it's enterprise masturbation. We're talking about > HPC, not running payrolls on a server. It's all about performance. > Running a bunch of VM instances on a server is not really HPC to me. > Of course, it's a GREAT way to learn and I know a bunch of people > who use for testing and development. And, in fact, I contend that it's the grubby aspects of stringing wires, making netboot or sneakernet distribution work and so forth that is what future cluster builders desperately need practice with. If your interest is parallel algorithm design, then multiple VMs is a great way. If your interest is understanding the practicalities of cluster engineering, then a stack of 50 very cheap boxes might be a suitable playground for learning by ordeal. Say you have a class in cluster engineering with, say, 20-30 students. You make up groups of 2-3 bodies (so they can learn social skills, if nothing else), and give each group a crate with 8 boxes with freshly wiped disks plus one head node and a box full of power cords, network cables, VGA cables, keyboards, all thrown in there by last semester's groups. There will, of course, be 9 power cords in some crates and 7 in others. Have them build up a cluster and run some trivial demo. There will be much learning, just getting a bootable image on all 8 machines (some might go the PXEboot route, some might sneakernet). Then, tell them they have to gang all 80 machines into two clusters, each one with 40 machines and install a new OS. Hand configuration management and sneakernet will be painful. Then, have them swap 20 of the machines between clusters, do the same. CM by hand and sneakernet is even MORE painful. Heck, they can start to understand the differences between parallelism on machines and parallelism in bodies (ok, Bob, you put the boot CD in machines 1-5, Fred, you do 6-10, Ann, 11-15, etc.). If they're all running from one networked file server, they'll also learn empirically why you don't want them all to boot from the network simultaneously. If you've given them 5 port cheap switches, they'll also get to learn about multi tier networking toplogies. That'll larn 'em.... (If anyone decides to do this, let me know... I'd love to watch.. I'll even bring suitable frosty beverages for the spectators) Jim...
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NY-20: Don't forget the military. The state board of election did
It looks like Jim Tedisco may have pulled off the victory in NY-20 after all. And there is good reason to think that the remaining absentee ballots should favor Tedisco. That said, there was a serious problem. The state Board of Elections seesm to have deliberately disinfranchised military voters. Heritage's Hans von Spakovsky describes how the Democrats on the Board of Election actually voted to | Read More »


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Current Vacancies | Recruitment | Contact Us | Homepage - Essex County Standard
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting ECS to 80360, or email »
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Receptionist Post no. 1363
4:56pm Thursday 5th December 2013
Closing date 20th December 2013
Trainee Reporter Post no. 1361
1:25pm Monday 2nd December 2013
Closing date: December 13, 2013.


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2014 Preschool Information Night and Directory Featured
Monday, January 27, 2014 will be the 15th annual Preschool Information Night held at Northwood Elementary School from 7:00 - 8:30 PM. (If that date is snowed out, the event will take place on Monday, February 3, 2014.) Parents will have the opportunity to talk to representatives from state licensed area preschools, child care facilities and kindergartens. Also debuting that night will be the 2014 Royal Oak Area Preschool and Child Care Directory which gives information on nearly 50 area facilities that provide services for children ages six and under.
One State, One Children's Book: Michigan Reads!
One-State, One-Children's Book for 2013 is Woolbur written by Leslie Helakoski and illustrated by Lee Harper. Michigan Reads!, presented by the Library of Michigan features a book that promotes early childhood literacy. It encourages family bonding through reading. This year's book selection features Woolbur, a very active lamb who finds original ways to accomplish everyday tasks. The story, the language, the joyfulness of Woolbur's actions makes Woolbur a "go to" book for both children and older readers as they go about their own activities. Woolbur will be featured during our preschool story times during a week in September. A copy of Woolbur will be available to read at the library during September, so take a few moments to pause and share it with your children or grandchildren.
Teachers & Group Leaders
The Royal Oak Public Library, in cooperation with the Royal Oak Neighborhood Schools and the Kiwanis Club of Royal Oak, has been a partner in the national Reading is Fundamental Program for more than 30 years. This Reading is Fundamental Program provides free books to fourth graders during the school year, and to children ages birth through sixth grade during the summer.
For teachers and group leaders we offer:
- scheduled library visits for your preschool, class, scout, or homeschool group.
- assistance in gathering materials for your lesson planning.
- a homework alert service to keep us informed of current assignments for students.
- extended borrowing privileges for Royal Oak School District teachers.
Royal Oak Teachers
Teachers, administrative staff and other professional staff in the Royal Oak School District may register for borrowing privileges at the Royal Oak Public Library whether or not they live in Royal Oak. These extended privileges do not extend to Student Teachers.
In some cases, materials may be kept for longer than the usual loan periods, assuming they might be needed for curricular or classroom development. The current extended loan periods are as follows:
Material | Extended Loan Period | Usual Loan Period | # Renewals Allowed |
Adult/YA/Juvenile Books | 9 Weeks | 3 Weeks | 0 |
Magazines | 2 Weeks | 3 Weeks | 1 |
All other material loan periods and renewal limits are the same as those for all Royal Oak Public Library resident patrons. All usual fines, rental fees and materials replacement fees will also apply.
Assignment Alert
Give the library staff a heads-up about upcoming assignments that may bring a lot of students to the library with the Assignment Alert Form. Download the form and fax it to 248-246-3701. Mary Karshner, Head of Youth and Teen Services, welcomes your questions and comments. Contact Mary Karshner online or by phone at 248-246-3710.
Youth Services
The Youth Services Department is located on the lower level of the library, accessible by stairs or elevator. We serve infants through sixth grade. Librarians who specialize in serving youth are available to help you at all times. Our goal is to make your library visit a successful one. We will do our best to help you find what you need.
What you'll find in the Children's Department:
- A Youth Services Librarian specializing in your child's interests and reading level.
- Year-round programming.
- Computers for all ages.
- Quiet study rooms.
- Educational toys and games.
- Same floor restrooms including a family restroom.
Library Information
Visit us
222 E. Eleven Mile
Royal Oak, MI 48067
Monday | 10:00 - 9:00 |
Tuesday | 12:00 - 9:00 |
Wednesday | 10:00 - 9:00 |
Thursday | 12:00 - 9:00 |
Friday | 10:00 - 6:00 |
Saturday | 10:00 - 6:00 |
Sunday | CLOSED |
Upcoming Events
Walk-In Technology Help
Monday, December 23 05:00 PM
Library Closed
Tuesday, December 24
Walk-In Technology Help
Monday, December 30 05:00 PM
Library Closed
Tuesday, December 31
Toddler Story Times: Ages 18 Months - 3 Years
Monday, January 06 10:15 AM


text: 8 inch fully-articulated, Wendy doll with brown eyes and long, brunette, braids with bangs, wears a red and green plaid, cotton dress over white tights. With her dress she wears a red flock coat, hat and boots that are trimmed with green pom poms and red dotted ribbon. She comes with a letter filled red mailbox that's covered with snow.


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Snowman with Star Ornament
Material List
- Loew-Cornell® American Painter™ Paintbrush, 10 Shader#4300
- Loew-Cornell® American Painter™ Paintbrush, #3 Round #4000
- Loew-Cornell® American Painter™ Paintbrush, #10/0 Spotter #4650
- Decoart® Americana™ Acrylic Paint-
- Snow White
- Mistletoe
- Cadmium Yellow
- Tangelo Orange
- Forster® Woodsies™ Too XXL Triangle- 1
- Forster® Woodsies™ Too XL Triangle- 2
- Forster® Woodsies™ Medium Star- 1
- Forster® Woodsies™ Jumbo Craft Stick- 1
- Forster® Woodsies™ Small Teardrop- 1
- Beacon Adhesives® Kid's Choice™ Glue
- Scissors
- 1/8" Ribbon- Red and Green
- 7mm Wiggle Eyes- 2
- Powder Blush- Pink
- Tiny Gold Jingle Bell
Project Instructions
Step: 1
Trim the wide ends from two craft spoons to create the arms.
Step: 2
Paint both circles, arms and spoon legs Snow White.
Step: 3
Paint star Cadmium Yellow and teardrop Tangelo Orange.
Step: 4
Glue circle head to circle body. Glue legs to back of larger circle.
Step: 5
Glue arms to front and back of body.
Step: 6
Glue a star in one hand.
Step: 7
Rub cheeks with Pink powder blush, then glue eyes and nose on face. Dot mouth Ebony Black.
Step: 8
Glue Red and Green ribbon bows under chin. Glue a jingle bell at center of bow.
Step: 9
Glue a Green ribbon loop hanger at back of head.


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Newegg.com - A great place to buy computers, computer parts, electronics, software, accessories, and DVDs online. With great prices, fast shipping, and top-rated customer service - once you know, you Newegg.
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6mm wide for sizes up to 7.5 and 8mm wide for sizes greater than 7.5. Highly Polished, extremely scratch resistant, Tungsten Carbide ring, comfort fit style, with beveled edges. Worried that you might order the wrong ring size? We have a hassle free exchange policy. If the ring does not fit, simply pay BC Marketplace's low shipping and handling fee, and we will be happy to exchange the ring for the proper size. (assuming new size is in stock and that ring is in a new condition) You can also read sizing recommendations from past customers by clicking on BC Marketplace link above.
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Work of ArtThis review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: Price Cons: Not resizable (obviously) Other Thoughts: For starters, I'd like to say that Rex is an amazing man to deal with. His quick response and amazing service puts him easily on par with Newegg itself. Check out the reviews on his products and his marketplace and you'll see what I mean. He's gotten hundreds of reviews, and they're overwhelmingly 5-star for a darn good reason. If that's not enough to convince you, give him a call and he'll put your mind at ease. Did you find this review helpful? |
Great RingThis review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: I am overnight manager and needed a ring that I could not destroy or scratch. I have smacked it on steel, wood, and more still going strong. My wife like's it allot since I now wearing a ring again. Ripped my weeding ring apart and cost more than the ring to fix. Cons: It's a little heavy at first but not really a con since I have gotten used to the weight. Other Thoughts: Hard to find rings size 14 with out having to have them resized or pay allot extra. Did you find this review helpful? |
Tungsten Carbide RingThis review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: This ring is very comfortable, but keep in mind that it is comfort fit so you may need to order a half size smaller, my usual size was a size 7 so I ordered a size 7 and it fits well, but is a little loose. So far very durable, I have bumped it on walls and tables and no scratches. It came in a little drawstring bag. It has a polished surface, and is slightly heavy. I actually prefer a little heavier ring because you can feel that it is there, and it just feels more durable and strong. I've gotten many compliments on it, very noticable in the sunlight. Inside of the ring says Tungsten Carbide. It has a nickel binder, and overall is a very beautiful, well crafted, durable ring. Also is good for men and women, and is a good ring to wear everyday because it is very durable and won't chip or scratch. I got a size 7 ring so it is 6mm instead of 8mm. I think the width is perfect, not too wide but not too skinny. Great ring! Cons: Not really a con, but if you are one to prefer lighter rings, this may not be for you. Personally I like heavier rings, because you can actually feel the ring on your finger. Other Thoughts: I think it is a fine ring for both women and men, and a great wedding ring if you happen to be on a budget. 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
This review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: Everything they say is true, this ring is tough. I've had it for a couple years now, still not a single scratch on it, and shines bright. Cons: Very heavy, and of course, make sure you size your finger up first. Did you find this review helpful? |
Good everyday ringThis review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: Durable, weighty (almost as dense as gold), good polish, beveled edges give it a nice look. Cons: Not really a con, but the whole ring is polished shiny so if you don't like that look this isn't the ring for you. Other Thoughts: I ordered both a size 7.5 and 8 and prefer the narrower 6 mm band of the 7.5 which is good because it also happens to fit my finger better. Though I could see others preferring the wider 8 mm band on the larger sizes (8 and up). Did you find this review helpful? |
Wonderful ringsThis review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: Strong, durable, & almost unscratchable Cons: Not really a con, but the rings run a size to two sizes larger than normal ring sizing. Other Thoughts: I have bought three of these now. The first two I got the wrong size but support is outstanding. Returned for exchange & very happy. Did you find this review helpful? |
Outstanding !This review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: Tungsten, Shiny , Great Price , and Free Shipping Cons: None so far Other Thoughts: Bought this ring for my Dads and he LOVES IT. Its all flash with little cash. I would highly recommend. I own two myself. One for each hand :) 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you? |
So good that I bought a second oneThis review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: If you're looking for a ring that will not break the bank BUT still give you the quality look of more expensive ones look no further. Do NOT let the low price scare you away. So happy with prior purchase(even with my error,look at cons) that I immediately thought to purchase another one from BC Marketplace. You will be very happy as I am too. Cons: I ordered a ring from BC Marketplace a few weeks ago, but in MY error I purchased a half size too big. My fault NOT BC Marketplace's fault. So make sure that you do know your size for sure. This just comes with ordering anything that needs sizing online. Still five eggs for all the Pros! Other Thoughts: I would order again if needed. I will tell anyone that i know that is looking for jewelry to check out BC Marketplace on newegg first! Very happy customer and thank you again! Did you find this review helpful? |
This review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: Great looking ring!!! Cons: Accidentally chipped my glass table. Did you find this review helpful? |
Good looking, excellent ring but can break if dropped on tile!This review is from: Unisex Tungsten Carbide Ring, Polished, Comfort Fit (Sizes 4-16) Pros: UPDATED REVIEW: An awesome, manly, & elegant looking ring for a man, a woman, or anyone for that fact and it doesn't stain or scratch during use or abuse, at all. The ring is solid and pretty much unbreakable (read Other Thoughts below). It's basically shiny, manly-at least the ring I chose to purchase, but not too blingy; overall it's a VERY nice ring. I really like this ring because it makes a great class ring replacement w/o the expense! I was looking for something to remember graduating college with a bachelor's degree and it was something that I could afford on the remainder of school loans and grant money received for college. This ring was the perfect choice for me because it's beautiful, stylish, and because I don't need an expensive or specialized ring from my graduating class. Besides, it IS really durable from the abuse I had given it until that fateful day (again, see Other Thoughts below) and I would buy this ring again and again or any jewelry from BC Marketplace! Cons: NOT A CON, BUT I NEEDED MORE ROOM TO BRAG! :) I am now a customer for life! The guys at BC Marketplace are excellent with their customer service too, even for an inexpensive but beautiful piece of jewelry, like the ring I got! Why am I so happy? Because BC Marketplace answers the phone directly on the 3rd or 4th ring, by a real person, and even late at night-talk about commitment to customer service, they are definitely committed to customer satisfaction! I am SO happy now because they listened to my story and replaced my ring, FREE OF CHARGE! The egg' didn't even have to help me as BC Marketplace took care of the issue immediately. You guys at BC Marketplace are the BEST and now you have truly created a permanent customer! I WILL be back for more jewelry for me, my sweetheart, and my family! Keep up the good work and thank you so much!! :) Other Thoughts: I had just washed my hands at the kitchen sink when the ring flew off of my finger while opening my refrigerator door for some ice and yes, I was in a big rush. ;) The ring hit the tile floor at high velocity and BROKE INTO TWO LARGE PIECES. :( I was sad that this happened but the guys at BC Marketplace informed me that the same occurrence of hitting a tile floor happened to two other people in the past and that a tile floor is the only common substance found in homes that could do this because tile does not give or absorb shock. If the ring hits a tile floor at an angle and velocity other than a simple drop, the ring MIGHT be a victim like mine was, so be aware. BUT, the guys at BC Marketplace saved the day, and my college memory :) by replacing the ring for free due to this rare occurrence. Thank you BC Marketplace. I'll be back for more jewelry when I earn my master's degree! You guys at BC Marketplace really do make excellent, affordable, and fine looking jewelry! Thanks so much! Did you find this review helpful? |


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Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) June 19, 2012
Surety Solutions Insurance Services (Surety1) is now able to obtain approval on most of Farm Labor Contractor surety bonds within 24 hours, from the time the application is submitted (Monday-Friday) even with poor credit. This type of surety bond is offered for rates as low as 1%*.
A surety bond is required to obtain a Farm Labor Contractor license in the states of Washington, Oregon and California. This type of surety bond guarantees that all farm laborers will receive all the payment they are owed. It also guarantees compliance with the labor codes and the payment for all damages to any person or persons for failure to comply with the labor codes of the state.
The Farm Labor Contractor surety bond has an annual premium as low as $250 and it must be renewed annually.
Surety1 offers a simple and fast online application process. Because of this and our excellent staff, Surety Solutions is capable of receiving a surety bond application in the morning and often has the surety bond approved very the same day. With significant "in house" authority, Surety1 is able to make the underwriting decision without sending the paperwork to the surety market. With this authority, Surety1 is now able to obtain approval for the surety bonds usually within hours of obtaining the necessary underwriting information. Surety1, has eliminated any need to wait for a few days while an application gets approved.
The team members at Surety1 are experts in all surety bonds, including the Farm Labor Contractors surety bond, and are ready and willing to answer any of your surety bond questions.
Surety Solutions Insurance Services, Inc. is an independent insurance agency based in Rancho Cordova, California and licensed in all 50 states. Surety Solutions specializes in the placement of surety bonds and other specialty insurance products.
For more information on obtaining a Farm Labor Contractors surety bond, you can contact Surety Solutions through its website, http://www.surety1.com, by calling toll free, 877-654-2327 or by e-mail, info(at)surety1(dot)com
*subject to underwriting approval


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The sea turtles of Gasparilla Island continue their remarkable recovery from the effects of Tropical Storm Debby. Already, there are more nests known to be on the island than the total number of nests during the 2011 nesting season.
Last year's total was 311 nests. There are currently 359 confirmed nests on the island's beaches. There may be more, since markers were washed out in the high tides of the tropical storm.
Want to know more? Visit the Boca Beacon online to subscribe to our print of e-edition.


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The Federal Government will Become America's Model Employer for the 21st Century.
Recruit, Retain and Honor a World-Class Workforce to Serve the American People.
Find out more about Federal compensation throughout your career and around the world.
Staffing to align with your agency's mission
FSAFEDS can help you save money in 2014, but you must enroll during Open Season.
Answering your questions about Healthcare and Insurance
Congress approved a cost of living increase for Federal retirees.
Manage your retirement online.
Human Resources and Security Specialists should use this tool to determine the correct investigation level for any covered position within the U.S. Federal Government.
OPM's Human Resources Solutions organization can help your agency answer this critically important question.
Developing senior leaders in the U.S. Government through Leadership for a Democratic Society, Custom Programs and Interagency Courses.
Establishment of the Multi-State Plan Program for the Affordable Insurance Exchanges
Visit this federal site to search for our regulatory notices, proposed and final rules.
The Shared Service Center Catalog provides information on the HR LOB approved Federal HR and payroll shared service centers (SSCs) and their service offerings. The catalog is a compilation of SSCs' responses to an HR LOB data call about their organization, business practices, services, and solutions that are available to customers.
Information on the contents of the catalog is provided in the Functional Category and Business Category sections of this page. For more information on individual SSC responses, please refer to the HR LOB Partners page for SSC points of contact.
SSCs have provided information on the solutions offered to customers for the following service components. Solutions are offered through both IT systems and back-office support. Service components are self-contained business capabilities that support business processes and assist agencies to accomplish their missions and performance objectives. For definitions of the service components, please refer to the Service Component Model version 2.
SSCs have provided information about their organization and business practices for financial management, customer support, migrations, performance management, financial management, and alignment to OPM and HR LOB objectives.


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"First of all this care says "Merry Christmas." Secondly it has room for our pictures. I used the green card as it made a better background color for our photos. It was perfect!"
"We could not be more pleased with this card. The paper quality is excellent, the photos look great, and the font and layout are perfect. It is a high quality, beautiful card."
"I can't begin to say how impressed I was with this card & with the fast service & how well they were packaged! The card cost a little more than box retail stores but it was well worth it. They are sturdy & have more of a feel of an actual card than just a photo. The colors were perfect & looked just like they did on my computer. Thank you for a positive experience! I will shop here again!"
"Loved having the personalization and was able to put 3 pictures on the back while labeling them. So included the out-takes of the build up pictures prior to our final Christmas picture. It turned out great"
"Easy to personalize with your choice of print and color design,texture finishes,and style choices and number of photo choices.They have a professional designer email you that they are working on the digital design for us ..then they email when ready to ship and shipped...that's excellent services. Shipping is fast. This is second time I have used them and very satisfied and will continue to do so each Christmas."


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Related Stories - Page 1
Read Story »
BAY CITY -- A colleague of John Launius once figured out they were making about 15 cents an hour. Read Story »
BAY CITY - A substitute teacher charged with making terroristic threats against Bay City school children in December 2010 will ... Read Story »
All it took was one simple question. Read Story »
BAY CITY - Getting an early goal in a soccer match is usually not the catalyst for a heavy defeat. ... Read Story »
BAY CITY - A state official has been recognized by residents of Bay City for keeping the community in the ... Read Story »
BAY CITY - A groundwater conservation district board wants to examine an application to sell groundwater to White Stallion power ... Read Story »
WADSWORTH - A month after South Texas Project Unit 2 reactor automatically shut down due to a main generator issue, ... Read Story »
Smithsonian bird-scientists visit Bay City Read Story »
WEIMAR - Weimar tuned up for the playoffs with a 28-14 non-district win over Van Vleck on Thursday night. Read Story »
BAY CITY - Eddie Nelson coached 53 players who received college scholarships. Matagorda County Judge Nate McDonald was one of ... Read Story »
YORKTOWN - Adam Weise's family emerged from solitude on Friday night to join a community candlelight vigil. Read Story »
Information is on its way for cattlemen throughout the Crossroads area. Read Story »
Bay City will soon have its fourth athletic director and head football coach in seven years. Read Story »
BAY CITY - Six members of a family were found shot at a home in the 2700 block of 10th ... Read Story »
If there is a soccer game in the Victoria area, there is always the possibility of a Tim Eaton sighting. Read Story »
Adrian Awasom prefers to remember Andrew Smith's life and not his death. Read Story »
BAY CITY - Andrea Hawkins was in disbelief. Read Story »
BAY CITY - Dan Burk was hired as Bay City's athletic director and head football coach in January. Read Story »
Victoria will play host to two district championships this weekend, welcoming schools for diving and swimming and wrestling meets on ... Read Story »


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Ramadan, which lasts one month and began Friday, focuses on spirituality and inner reflection, with observers fasting from just before sunrise to sunset.
Two main meals are eaten, often with the family and with friends — "suhoor" before dawn, and "iftar" just after sundown. During the day, observers take in nothing — no food or water — although there are exceptions for people who can't maintain the fast for health or other reasons.
The month ends with Eid-ul-Fitr (eed-ull-fitter), sometimes a big feast and other times a more humble affair, where friends and family often get together to share food and celebrate.
Observant Muslims are required to eat food that is "halal," meaning it meets Islamic dietary guidelines for what is permissible. Other than that, the food served is dictated by culture and preference.One thing just about every Ramadan meal has in common is dates. Most observers break their fast with dates because this is what the prophet Muhammad did. (According to Muslim beliefs, Ramadan is when the Quran, the Muslim scripture, was first revealed to Muhammad.)
Another benefit to dates is they're an excellent way to restore blood sugars.


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Order by 3pm EST 12/21 with 2-Day shipping, receive by 12/24
$4.99 3-day shipping. Need it faster?
This Camo Crew tee from Billabong features an allover camo print and a left chest pocket with an embroidered brand tag!
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Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite
number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.


text: This is one of the best convention centre. Structure wise, the meeting rooms and the green areas. Though security seems too heavy but overall this is one of the best. Foods are excellent and service was on time and satisfactory. Many events, seminars, meetings, conferences are taking place at the same time. I liked the art gallery there.


text: I've never been able to admit this to myself aloud. It's like insulting myself,but at the same time when I do it I'm proud of it. That is,until someone walks into my room. Even though they don't know what I just did. I feel like they can see everything. I just did it again yesterday. I really don't how to stop. I want to now. But during those times I don't want to stop. It all started when I was 5 years old. I use to bang my head on the walk or scratch my face when I was angry with my parents and frustrated with myself. I remember coming home from a wedding reception and I didn't get to do what I want (I was a brat) so I pouted the whole way home and when I got home I banged my head against the wall and scratched my face with my nails. And I would keep doing that whenever I didn't get my way. As I said before I was a brat. I'd cry all the time and I was always getting into physical fights until I was 13. Read more »


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Editor's Note
Editor in chief Paul Doiron on Hope and beyond.
- By: Paul Doiron
Emily Dickinson wrote that "hope is the thing with feathers." Woody Allen responded by titling one of his books Without Feathers.
Myself, I've always been equal parts optimist and pessimist. While I've generally had low expectations for my own life, I tend to look on the bright side when it comes to the world at large. It's hard to argue for optimism at this current moment in history — with jobless rates at highs not seen since the 1980s. Who among us looks forward to opening our 401(k) statements anymore?
But our new president ran on a campaign of hope, and where better to look for it than in the place itself? This issue features a profile of the Maine town by that name. The community of Hope sits amid the Camden Hills between Rockport and Appleton (which jokingly advertises itself as being "beyond Hope"), and when we say it has become one of Maine's hippest places, we mean it. Read Virginia Wright's article [page 50] and decide for yourself what lessons your own town might learn from its can-do example.
At dire moments like this one, nature can also provide inspiration. Spring takes its sweet time returning to Maine, but each year it always lazily finds its way back here. Consider the wildflowers, says wildflower expert Wanda Garland [page 60]. Kim Ridley, who profiled Garland for us, used to be the editor in chief of Hope magazine, a defunct publication dedicated to the concept that the world is full of ordinary heroes — real people addressing real concerns. Hope the magazine might be gone, but its spirit lives on in people like professor Paul Mayewski [page 56], director of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. His predictions about what the future might mean for Maine — more ice storms, rising seas — are nerve-wracking. And yet I take comfort in his own optimism. In this time of crisis he sees an opportunity to repair our relationship with the world through investment in renewable energy and mass transportation.
We must also take pleasure now where we can find it — in the small places and minor occurrences we so often ignore. My wife and I are birders, and nothing says spring to us like the arrival of warblers, orioles, and tanagers. The woods are quiet, and then all at once they fill with color and music. For birders, at least, hope really is a many feathered thing.
Paul Doiron
Editor in Chief
- By: Paul Doiron


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Watery Reflections in Windlight | 2008-02-12 03:53:00 GMT in secondlife by Kami Harbinger |
Windlight, with estate-specific settings, is fantastic. Really fantastic. I was getting 37fps while doing this: |
Lies, Damn Lies, and Virtual World Accounts | 2007-07-20 19:25:00 GMT in mmo by Kami Harbinger |
There's lies, damn lies, and numbers of accounts reported for virtual worlds. Richard Bartle's list of "The five most important people in the virtual world" has this "gem" of statistics: The 8.2 million "Total Residents" is not even remotely "people who have tried Second Life at least once" (it may reasonably be in the 4-6 million range), but that's not the worst of it. But Richard's next statistic is even more wrong. First, according to Wikipedia's article on Lineage, "NCsoft has reported that Lineage had at one point more than three million subscribers". For Lineage II, it says "reporting 610,918 unique users during the month of March 2007"... The Second Life economy page says "Residents Logged-In During Last 30 Days: 889,914". SL is 45% larger than L2. Second, the number of accounts ever created in Lineage are totally meaningless, because Koreans often play on temporary accounts at netcafes. An "account" may only be used for one session. A single player can easily use dozens or hundreds of accounts. That's why there's more accounts than Koreans. User-hours are the only metric that can be reasonably compared between VWs, and most of them won't report them, because they know how bad it makes them look. I had 4 accounts on FFXI (one main, three mules in different cities so I could use their auction houses). But I never spent more than a few minutes a day as the mules, I spent several hours a day for 9 months as my main. I have accounts on Runescape and several others, but I only played them for an hour or so each. Those accounts should only count as a single user-hour, while my FFXI usage was close to 1000 hours. I have a main account and an alt that I use for permissions testing in SL. I log into my alt maybe once a month for a few minutes, check something, and log out. Well, in the sense that they wouldn't be talking to Richard Bartle, I suppose that's true, though he might have ended up another Julian Dibbell or the like. If Rob Trubshaw hadn't built his timesharing system, and Bartle hadn't managed to make MUD commercial, VWs would still have come from PLATO and Habitat, and reporters would be talking to someone else. I played Avatar in the latter years of PLATO, and it's indistinguishable in genre from any modern MMORPG. I never got to play the original Habitat, but I've played Club Caribe, and it's very Second Life-like. Gygax and Arneson introduced the idea of the role-playing game; taking the part of a single hero piece in a game instead of just controlling it from above. They're the originators of the idea. Colossal Cave, Rogue, and PLATO's dnd followed from that, and MMORPGs were inevitably going to follow from those. For earliest appearance, it's Oubliette, not MUD. Richard Bartle repeatedly claims in his blog and on other blogs that Oubliette and Avatar had no persistence, despite the ability to play it and assurances by the original developers that it does, and despite the fact that MUD1 was regularly reset, and therefore wasn't persistent! For most innovative, that's clearly either Avatar or Habitat. MUD was just Colossal Cave for multiple players, but Habitat was weird and yet recognizably comfortable. And for greatest direct influence, DikuMUD is the source of all modern MMORPGs. While it was certainly based on MUD, it threw out much of what MUD or any other derivative had done (which infuriates many of the old-time MUD developers), made the gameplay simple and mechanistic, and it succeeded beyond anyone's expectations. You can't play EverQuest, DaoC, FFXI, WoW, or almost any other MMORPG without playing DikuMUD. |
William Gibson not cool enough for Gibson | 2007-07-10 00:45:00 GMT in secondlife by Kami Harbinger |
William Gibson visited Second Life recently: Ha ha! There is nothing funnier than the self-proclaimed "coiner of the word cyberspace" getting mocked by real cyberpunk virtual world inhabitants for not being cool enough. But he should expect that. He's the archetype of one of his own stock characters: the washed-up old has-been who's out of style, out of touch, and clinging onto the spotlight only through inertia and money... Totally last year, maybe just last season. Admittedly, I'm not Gibson's biggest fan anymore. I was for a few years; reading "Johnny Mnemonic" in OMNI Magazine was one of the most formative influences of my life, and I read Neuromancer over and over and over. But as I read more of his works, and found out why they had their flaws, the shine came off. Back in the '80s, he was a poseur who didn't use the Internet or BBS's or computers, didn't have a computer, wrote on a typewriter, and based his "Matrix" on arcade games. I liked his gritty urban settings and the cybernetics, but the second he started talking about computers, my eyes rolled out of my head. The Matrix never made any sense, but that's because it was written by someone with no idea what he was writing. Most of his '80s short stories were awesome. Neuromancer was still really good as long as you ignored Case's work, and Count Zero was okay, but Mona Lisa Overdrive was weak. Then he started his new, unrelated stories. His artsy things like Agrippa and his movie are not good. Virtual Light was a bad ripoff of Snow Crash (similar characters, similar writing style), and the rest of his books have been worse. I stopped reading halfway through Idoru because it had been done better in REAL LIFE a year or two before, and stopped reading Gibson. So that's, what, 20 years since he wrote anything good? He's sort of tried to catch up to at least the late 20th century in the last few years, but his blog is hideous and unusable and rarely contains anything but him linking to stuff days, months, or years behind the rest of the Internet, and I sure don't expect anything good from his new book. ... So, wait, I'm Cyberpunk Boy #1, and I don't like Gibson? What cyberpunk do I read, you ask? I've always been much more partial to the books of Pat Cadigan; Mindplayers, Fools, and Synners ("Change for the machines! We must all change for the machines!" "If you can't dance with it, fuck it, or eat it, throw it out!") were fantastic, and she continues to write good cyberpunk books; Tea From an Empty Cup and Dervish is Digital use the mechanics of MMO VWs in good murder mysteries, stories that actually make sense and aren't just travelogues. Or Bruce Sterling writes weird stories about uncomfortable people in unpleasant futures (or near-presents, in some cases), and I recommend them all. Schismatrix, Crystal Express, Islands in the Net (if you didn't like it the first time, try re-reading it now, and you'll see why it's brilliant), Globalhead, A Good Old-Fashioned Future, The Difference Engine (half Gibson, still good), even more recently Zeitgeist. Well, okay, Heavy Weather was pretty bad. No excuse for that. Lance Olsen's Tonguing the Zeitgeist is very amusing. Greg Egan is mind-damagingly good. Seriously, read Axiomatic, and you will be broken/fixed for life. All of his books are just as good, but few are that concentrated a dose of life-changing weirdness. John Barnes ranges from heroic Heinlein homage to nightmarish, often in the course of a series. The Century Next Door series and Mother of Storms especially. Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is pretty nifty, and you can get a free download and avoid cutting down trees; but toss him some whuffie, okay? Right now I'm halfway through Charles Stross's Glasshouse, enjoying it immensely, but apparently in the future, everyone will be a sociopath (or Charlie just hates people, which is more likely, as he's a recovering bastard sysadmin from hell). |
The Metaverse and Online Games | 2007-06-25 04:19:00 GMT in secondlife by Kami Harbinger |
Raph Koster just posted a reprint of Whither Online (circa 2005), where he said: Then he goes on to talk a lot about the failed dream of AI and artificial life generating quests that people would like. This is the wrong answer. Putting AI in an MMO is like sitting in a restaurant surrounded by free gourmet food, but wishing you had a McDonald's shitburger. As always, I point at Second Life in answer. Even in 2005, this should have been the obvious answer, but 2 years later, it's not really in question. We already have a metaverse where there are hundreds of thousands of ongoing melodramatic plots created by mostly-intelligent agents. The good kind of agents, real people, not stupid AI NPCs. AI will never work and people don't like NPCs. Programmers tend to like NPCs because they're easy to set up and control, but actual players, even those programmers when they're in the game, despise them, because they're just machines. There is only one NPC I've ever felt any empathy for in 30+ years of playing computer games: Floyd from Planetfall. And I was maybe 12 when I played Planetfall. The use of NPCs is a delusional sickness brought on by spending too much time alone with your computer. I'm not talking here about "monsters", which are merely a mechanical obstacle like a puzzle or a locked door. It's revealing that when MMORPG players talk about killing monsters over and over to get experience and material rewards, they call it "farming", not "hunting". Monsters are psychologically equivalent to plants, not animals or people. An NPC is an artificial person you're expected to interact with and give enough of a shit about (if only for the reward or reputation boost) to carry out a quest. But in MMORPGs, there are no bad consequences for failing to carry out an NPC quest. If I ignore a "sick" NPC and don't bring her medicine, she'll still be there tomorrow. If I do heal her, she'll still be there tomorrow, coughing away for someone else. What do I care? There can be no world-altering alternative, because it doesn't scale past one player. True AI was a boondoggle. When I was younger, I believed it was possible, but as years passed and no progress was made, and I studied the issue more, it became obvious that it will never work, and that any attempt to make it work is doomed to failure. Worse, it's stupidly wasteful, because we already have 6 billion mostly-intelligent humans on this planet. We don't need non-human intelligences to put characters in games. Artificial life looked like a promising field for gaming, initially. But it's too unpredictable, and too fragile. You can set up a field of creatures or plants, and hope that they'll expand fast enough to counter demand, but very quickly the players will plow into them in such numbers that the tipping point is reached, and they go extinct. If you do set them up to reproduce fast enough to counter the number of players, then the slightest lag in harvesting will have them swarm over and destroy everything. It's massively unstable. I'm appalled that Raph still believes in this nonsense; he experienced first-hand the total failure of his first artificial life design for Ultima Online, and apparently learned nothing from it. It wasn't just an economic and ecological catastrophe, it rapidly became boring except for the Player vs. Player element. Real human players provided the only challenge in that world. You cannot have designer-prepared plots or AI-prepared plots for more than one player in a mutable world. It's a logical impossibility. Suppose you get things set up just right so that just one player can try to carry out a specific planned quest; someone else will be disrupting parts of it elsewhere, and the player will fail. The more quests you try to set up and juggle at once, the more chaotic the interactions get, and the more disastrous the failure. There is a way out, though, by accepting that people exist, not fighting it. The plot in Second Life is pretty compelling if you like people at all. It's people going out and having fun (and sometimes having conflicting ideas of what "fun" is), and running businesses and succeeding or failing, and falling in love, and falling out of love. Because it's just real life with fewer consequences, and accelerated to Benny Hill speeds, it has all of the bizarre plot twists of a daytime soap opera, but you get to be the star of your own show. Everyone does. Any RPG quest type has an equivalent, you just have to be more creative. Consider the standard RPG "supply and demand" quest, where someone needs a resource and someone else supplies it. I make good pocket money as a skilled craftsman, the SL equivalent of a small electronics shopkeeper, making gadgets that people ask for. It's not just farming crystals and materials and then clicking a button, either; I have to build prims and write scripts and test my software. It takes actual skill and interest on my part, it's not a repetitive activity. That's been a fun and both personally and financially rewarding quest. If you can't script, you can make clothes or buildings. If you don't want to build (though I think that almost everyone will want to build things eventually), you can run a tour group, or host a fan-club, or strip, or whatever. The artistic urge that everyone has, the drive to have something to do besides just talk, has created, from a blank canvas, a nigh-unlimited range of games and quests and social activities. If you like swordfighting, go to Samurai Island. If you like casual and gambling games, go to a casino/arcade. If you like porn, there's strip clubs. If you want to talk Star Trek fandom, there are Star Trek fan-clubs. If you like live music concerts, there are always multiple performers in SL at any time. If you want to pretend to be a furry, or a vampire, or whatever makes you happy, there are 24/7 roleplay sims for that. If you like exploring, Second Life is crammed full of interesting things people have built. Just pick a direction and start flying, and BlogHUD anything neat you find. Everyone on the planet can't participate in SL quite yet. It needs more servers, and it needs more efficient use of those servers. While the peak concurrency has more than doubled in the last year, it has years to go before even a million people can be in SL at once (circa 2011, at this rate). LL needs to learn how to load-balance and transfer regions across servers; server-bound regions are not a scalable solution. Probably it'll have to wait a couple years until the server can be open-sourced before SL truly becomes the Stephensonian Metaverse. Linden Lab is going to have to transition from sole proprietor to protocol definer, region and user registrar, and banking authority. There's more to do on the user side, as well: more activities, more interesting sims. Wasting time on ideas we know will fail is folly. Working on activities and tools that enable real people to communicate and have fun together, that's what we need now. The Metaverse is here, but that's just the start. |
eXistenZ | 2007-06-24 18:32:00 GMT in secondlife by Kami Harbinger |
Computer games and virtual worlds do something strange to our perception of reality. They bleed over, they tantalize us with more powerful interfaces and additional information we can't acquire in the real world. We're left with the nagging feeling that the "real world" is not real, that this is the imitation sub-reality we don't belong in.
I've been experiencing this effect all my life. I can do near-total immersion into a game, which gives me far better overwatch of the screen (rather than just focusing on a point), faster in-game reaction, etc... But surprises in-game will startle me physically, and it takes a while to wear off. Some traits never left. Driving games like Pole Position and Burnout permanently damaged the way I drive. At least kids these days have Gran Turismo, which isn't so deranged, but my hyper-aggressive "accelerate into, through, and out of curves" type-A driving owes a lot to videogames. Don't worry, I no longer drive in cities, I can't stand to be stuck in traffic. I've never hit anyone, never had a crash, but as a friend put it, "The way you drive, you'll only ever have one crash". Missile Command was the first one I noticed it in. I would see a skyline and look for missiles. If I saw contrails, I'd have a moment of total "which world am I in?". The Atari 800 game Rescue From Fractalus (more screenshots) ate my brain for months. I would dream about sweeping the planet for survivors, getting ambushed by Jaggies. I would always jump when the Jaggies pounded on my screen, even when I knew it was them. Even now, certain mountain ranges look like the mountains of Fractalus, and I get confused for a second. Alternate Reality: The City didn't change my behavior, I think, but I'm still there: I often dream in AR, and hear the music. The life simulation of AR influenced all of my later game design; I've spent my entire life building things similar to Alternate Reality or Ultima. Doom had a profound effect on me. I instinctively check corners when I walk into a room; there could be a demon or another player there. You laugh now, but I'll be the one laughing when a demon's eating your face. Key-cards in secure facilities give me deja vu and trepidation, as I know the game's going to get much harder on the other side. Descent was just plain dangerous. I could barely walk after playing a few hours of it. I had to wait half an hour before I could drive again, or I'd try sideslipping and maneuvering in 3D. The worst Descent experience was walking into a bathroom which was tiled floor to ceiling with tiles exactly like the walls in a Descent level. I could barely stand up for perspective confusion. One afternoon after playing too much Final Fantasy XI, I took a nap. Waking up, I was hungry, and my first thought was that I needed to get my sword, go to the park, hunt cockatrices, then use a fire crystal on them to cook meat mithkabobs... I was halfway across the room to my swords before I realized that was insane... There are no cockatrices in the park, just squirrels! Animal Crossing: Wild World looks cute and harmless, right? Unless you live near a garden full of apple trees, in which case the urge to go steal all their apples every third day is nearly irresistible. Sadly, this doesn't seem to pay the rent as well in RL as it does in AC. I've had many dreams in Yama, my Animal Crossing town. It's such an idyllic world, so easy to live in as long as you do a quick bit of maintenance on the town and your animal friends, that it's hard not to dream there. Second Life is all of those and more. I get annoyed that I can't fly or teleport, or change my avatar quickly, or dance for 4 hours straight. Flight, in particular. The notion that I'm stuck on the ground and have to find stairs or an elevator is confusing and weird, and I'll spend some seconds trying to see the balcony or window I need to get to, before realizing I have to go inside a building to go up. My first thought about how to get somewhere is to grab the map and teleport (Google Maps on my Treo is a partial substitute...). I obsessively observe the construction details of architecture, furniture, and gadgets, because I need to figure out how to build it in the least number of prims. Cell phones are a reasonable substitute for IM, but I pine for my tabbed group chats. I often wish I could turn on name bubbles and mouse over objects for a description. There are positive effects. I've found that I dress better after using SL for a while. My avatar still dresses better than I do, but we're getting close now. I use my avatar's name in a number of non-SL contexts now. Am I really sure which is the avatar and which the "real" person? "Are we still in the game?" |
In Search of Live Music | 2007-06-22 06:00:00 GMT in secondlife by Kami Harbinger |
It's my typist's birthday today, and having lunch with friends for the real-life wake (I don't really "celebrate" getting old), I went out to drink and find music in SL. Fireheart Braver did a great show at Cusack Coliseum; apparently she'll be back next week, check the Events/Live Music listings. Country/rock, lots of sad songs. She has a really good voice. The Sanctuary Rock's always fun, and amid all the metal, played "The Internet is for Porn", which is never more true than at the SR. Still, there's only so much metal I can take, even after my reconversion to metalhead (through watching Metalocalypse) last year. And then the news I'd been hoping for! After two weeks, the Elbow Room (Mare 104,44,56) is back! Low-prim as ever, and rockin' with the best '80s pop:
Spam spam spam spam, spam spam spam spam, lovely spam, wonderful spam! | 2007-06-20 09:24:00 GMT in secondlife by Kami Harbinger |
Apparently the spammers have my email address, which was bound to happen sooner or later; I don't do anything to guard it, because I'd rather that real people be able to reach me, too. But I don't just get any kind of spammers, I get ontologically confused spammers. Spammers who do not quite understand the distinction between reality and Second Life: While the Lair of the Fiendish Dr. Harbinger has a lovely empty-sim seaside view and quite reasonable rent, I think it might be difficult to relocate into from Nigeria, or anywhere on the material plane. Gimme a second with the rez tools, and I'll have some diamonds in SL, too! Heck, stop by Pellucidar, and if you can work the power crystal generator, you can have a spinning, glowing power crystal! Nuts to diamonds! |
American Apparel Doesn't Get It | 2007-06-20 04:06:00 GMT in secondlife by Kami Harbinger |
I'm baffled by what American Apparel thought they were going to get. Putting some mediocre clothing, vastly inferior to what most residents sell, in a small store and then never doing any events, never changing anything... Did they expect to actually make real-world money out of SL sales? Didn't they understand the exchange rate? As a marketing effort, it succeeded initially; like most people, I'd never heard of them before they came to SL, and I went and looked through their shop. But their clothes were unimpressive and uninteresting. I found nothing I would ever wear. They did nothing to hold interest. It's like putting up a bare gray web page with a low-rez picture of a shirt, and expecting to get a lot of sales out of it. Companies who want to use SL for marketing need to make in-world products and events which are interesting in comparison to what is already in SL, and then funnel the results of that interest over to their real world product. Nissan did much better. The SL Sentra is great. It's one of my favorite vehicles in SL, because it was designed to handle well in SL's alleged physics. They've put real effort into their sim; there aren't any regular events to draw me back, so there's room for improvement, but I still tell newbies to go there and get a good car. And when I next buy a new car in RL, they've earned at least a fair comparison from me by doing this. Aloft have a good build, but didn't do any events, either. So the place was a ghost town. It was impossible to visit and not think of the Overlook Hotel from The Shining, which I'm pretty sure was not the marketing message they wanted to send. Maybe they'll learn something with their relaunch? Second Life, to a real-world company, is about marketing your brand. Marketing takes effort, not just one billboard or web page. (And hey, anyone who wants some real, practical help with these things... IM me or send me email and we can discuss rates.) |
Virtual Worlds: First Principles | 2007-05-07 05:21:00 GMT in mmo by Kami Harbinger |
Richard Bartle's asking over at Terra Nova about alternative design ideas for virtual worlds. I'm a big fan of really weird gameplay, and creating new environments, but several of the ideas are way off. They seem to ignore the fact that virtual worlds (VWs) are SOCIAL environments. If you're not building it for people to connect and communicate, you shouldn't be making multi-player VWs, you should stick to 1P games (nothing wrong with that, I like both 1P and MP games). You shouldn't take out direct communication[0], and you can't prevent indirect communication. At the barest minimum level, there's always blockchat (pushing objects, or even just walking, into positions to shape letters or numbers to dial on an external channel). Moreover, unless you have somehow made the greatest environment since sliced bread, people won't put up with heavy obstacles put in their way. Artificial intelligence and NPCs are pretty close to the perfect example of things that shouldn't be in VWs. There are over 6 billion other primates on this planet, of whom 1K to 10M might reasonably be in the same VW as you. Who needs a crappy software agent pretending to be a person? Do you really need a dragon to slay, if you can instead go to a combat zone? Do you really need an NPC shopkeeper, if there's a friendly player who'll make and sell stuff? In FFXI there were three economies: the NPC shops, which had hugely overpriced garbage, but were the only source of certain disposables and unique items; the official auction house system, which tended to have lots of crap at reasonable prices, but not much of the good stuff; and people with packs full of goods set for sale, where you got the good deals, and could often haggle with them, and could buy supplies from wandering merchants. They could easily have eliminated the NPC shops, and possibly even the auction house system, and made the world more social. I like running my little shop in Second Life. My sales boxes are basically vending machines, so it's not a 40-hour-a-week job to run it, but I'm often there to meet people and answer questions, and I sell more when I'm present for a few hours a week than I do all the rest of the time. Why is Second Life full of casinos and nightclubs? Because those environments let lots of people get together in one place and share some experience, and you get to meet lots of people. You could make all sorts of profitable solitary businesses in SL, but few people do, because they want to be with other people. AI is great for 1P games, because otherwise you're all alone. But if you can't get the other players to fill those roles in a multi-player game, you are an incompetent game designer. I don't know how to say that nicely; NPCs in MMOs are absolute proof that you don't know what you're doing. I think Myst Online: Uru Live is a giant empty disaster, but at least in theory they got the right idea: the "NPCs" are role-played by staff at Cyan. Everyone else is another player, and mostly they stay in character. Richard's dead-on about magic being overdone. I'm not without guilt: I've done my own share of Greek alchemy magic systems, but magic is ridiculous and obsolete and, worst of all, boring. Players will demand some kind of powers outside of the mundane, but it doesn't have to be the same-old, same-old D+D crap. I think Second Life has the best magic system ever. Anyone with intelligence and talent can learn to be a sorcerer who can make objects out of nothing and create complex enchantments that animate them; mundanes who can't script, paint, or build are mere consumer scum. If you're making a game instead of a VW, go ahead and give the construction system some fiction, even simplify it more than SL's system (the Lego Mindstorms programming tools might be a good model), but don't do another magic system. The Matrix Online's special abilities were pretty neat, and did something creative with the setting. If you can't be more creative than the Matrix Online, go home. [0] The one possible exception being worlds for children. Frankly, I'd rather that parents acted like responsible adults and just supervised their children, but since they're often dumb enough to think the Internet is just like a TV set and therefore a mindless babysitter, censored VWs for children are going to happen. |
Town Hall: Cory Linden: 1, Open Letter: 0 | 2007-05-04 01:18:00 GMT in secondlife by Kami Harbinger |
Well, the town hall meeting about the whiny open letter is over. A few choice quotes show that at least the Lindens aren't delusional, and aren't going to freak out and change anything because of this:
And a hearty Party on, dudes! to you, too. |
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