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The other day at the Woman to Woman Magazine Expo, a woman asked me if countertops can be removed without damage to the surrounding tile splash or adjoining cabinetry. She had a tile backsplash, which she was happy with, set over her laminate countertops and desired to replace her tops with some other countertop material, without having to replace her tile.
The TV shows that so often show remodeling projects underway so often portray the demolition phase as a careless, low-skill phase of the project that anyone can perform to get rid of the old and make way for the new. (The individual is usually equipped with a sledge hammer in hand).
Demolition during remodeling should be performed with a mindset of surgical precision so as to not cause damage to surrounding areas not intended to be repaired or remodeled.
It requires creative and thoroughly detailed steps in order to preserve the remaining portions of the home. Even when this approach is used, unintended negative consequences may still occur.
Just imagine what happens when the demolition phase is approached without this careful approach.
With this thought process in mind, design a way to control the airborne dust that will be generated. Whether you choose to use a shop vacuum or a window fan to create a negative draft to the outside, with dust shields in the doorways, don't skip this step first.
Once the dust control measures are in place, disconnect the plumbing fixtures from the sink faucet and remove the sink. This allows an easy point to begin cutting the old tops away.
Using a Fein tool or similar brand, you can carefully cut across the narrow portion of the top, along the front and back of the sink's cut-out.
Cutting the old top in small sections will allow you to remove it carefully, rather than thinking you have to remove the entire countertop in one piece.
It may be necessary to cut along the old laminate top's backsplash so that the main top can be slid out allowing for the backsplash to slide down and away from the tile.
When sliding the old laminated backsplash away from the tile, use a utility knife with a sharp razor blade to slice away any caulking that may be applied along the bottom of the tile.
Long cuts are best made with another cutting tool such as a reciprocating saw to speed up the process, utilizing the Fein tool at the ends of the long cut in order to control and finesse the process.
Many kitchens have separate sections with no sink cutout. For those pieces, use the reciprocating saw for the long cuts and any cross cuts you may need being careful not to cut through any cabinet frames or supports and finish the front edge and end cuts with the more controlled Fein tool.
Now, if she had only asked how to install the new tops without damage to the surrounding tile and cabinetry … but that's another story.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding projects you are working on and would like addressed, email me at firstname.lastname@example.com.
JD Norris is the owner/operator of DreamMaker Bath&Kitchen and a certified S.C. Master Builder, certified "Aging in Place" Specialist and certified Green Professional.
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5th fight card in Brazil this year and they're wondering why they can't move tickets? Hmmmmmmmm....
I dunno about that finish, he was pretty much out before the RNC, jeezus christ.
I thought Souza looked more impressive in this fight, aside from the TDD issues, but I think Arantes got enough takedowns to win the first and third.
Wow, solid fight and I had Souza taking it with a good third, but I felt he lost that round in the second half by giving up the takedown and eating those shots, however I think he did do some good work knocking Arantes loopy there.
Baugitinov has alot of hype behind him and is favoured pretty big here, but he throws pretty wild and recklessly and he'll be giving up alot of size in this matchup. Hope Baugitinov is up to the challenge, really like seeing the FLW division get deeper.
Mario....was a bit out of position lol.
does anyone have a you know what for this? No cable tv here..
Loved the finish. Can't trust those stupid judges and that's what those idiots get for booing a guy just cuz he's facing a Brazilian.
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3:57 pm
Sat August 25, 2012
Galactic Travels Podcast #6 - A Concert by RMI
By Bill Fox
Galactic Travels Podcast #6 is an interview with Radio Massacre International followed by a radio concert. In June of 2008, Radio Massacre International performed at NEARfest 10. Prior to that, they played a live radio concert from the studios of WDIY on show #585, broadcast on June 19, 2008. The concert was preceded by a short interview. Of special note, this concert debuts Gary's first use of harmonica in concert.
This Podcast is Copyright ©2008 Bill Fox. All Rights Reserved.
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Eight people died on South Carolina roads during the 2012 Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the S.C. Highway Patrol reported on Monday. Five of those deaths were reported Friday through Sunday. None of the deaths occurred in Aiken County, according to Lance Cpl. Judd Jones.
"There was heavy travel on our roadways," Jones said, adding that, while the number of people killed during the Thanksgiving travel period is down from last year, it's "more than we want to have."
The holiday weekend period ran from 6 p.m. Wednesday to midnight Sunday, according to a statement.
During last year's Thanksgiving travel weekend, 11 people died on South Carolina roads, according to the statement.
Preliminary numbers in 2010 showed two people killed on state roads during the Thanksgiving travel period, the lowest number since 1963, according to previous reports.
Authorities on Monday were still looking for a car and driver who struck and killed a pedestrian Saturday night in Lexington County. Troopers said a 48-year-old man was attempting to cross Augusta Highway at Oak Drive when a vehicle traveling north in the southbound lane struck him. The vehicle did not stop.
Authorities are looking for a light-colored Cadillac, possibly early to mid-'90s model, with front end damage and slim tail lights. The vehicle was last seen heading toward West Columbia.
The Highway Patrol was expecting a greater number of travelers on the road this year due to the lower gas prices.
As of Nov. 25, 744 people have died on South Carolina highways compared to 766 highway deaths at the same time period in 2011.
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We do not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click the X that appears in the upper right corner when you hover over a comment. This will send the comment to Facebook for review. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website. Read our full terms and conditions.


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Google uses the "did you mean" feature, which normally corrects misspellings, to illustrate a nerdy joke: defining the word "recursion" using "see recursion" and pointing to the same definition.
"A recursive process is one in which objects are defined in terms of other objects of the same type. Using some sort of recurrence relation, the entire class of objects can then be built up from a few initial values and a small number of rules," explains MathWorld.
For more information, search Google for [recursion].
{ via Google Blogoscoped }
Workin' In A Cocktail Bar
45 minutes ago


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What's Missing in Citigroup's $7 Billion RMBS Deal?
The DOJ cited "the strength of the evidence" warranting Citigroup's $7 billion payment over sales of residential mortgage-backed securities. But there's little evidence to be found in the statement of facts accompanying Monday's deal.
What's being said
Thank you for the fine journalistic service.
In contemplating the reasons behind this evidence-lite mountain of sanction, one might remember that our current Treasury Secretary was senior in the Citi chain of command during the years of blamed activity, and that the immediately prior Secretary was during those years the most directly responsible federal regulator. It might have been difficult to dip into the evidence without taking a selfie.
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Interpretive Handbook
60720 :
Lysozyme (LYZ) Gene, Known Mutation
Clinical Information Discusses physiology, pathophysiology, and general clinical aspects, as they relate to a laboratory test
The systemic amyloidoses are a number of disorders of varying etiology characterized by extracellular protein deposition. The most common form is an acquired amyloidosis secondary to multiple myeloma or monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) in which the amyloid is composed of immunoglobulin light chains. In addition to light chain amyloidosis, there are a number of acquired amyloidoses caused by the misfolding and precipitation of a wide variety of proteins. There are also hereditary forms of amyloidosis.
The hereditary amyloidoses comprise a group of autosomal dominant, late-onset diseases that show variable penetrance. A number of genes have been associated with hereditary forms of amyloidosis including those that encode transthyretin, apolipoprotein AI, apolipoprotein AII, fibrinogen alpha chain, gelsolin, cystatin C and lysozyme. Apolipoprotein AI, apolipoprotein AII, lysozyme, and fibrinogen amyloidosis present as non-neuropathic systemic amyloidosis, with renal dysfunction being the most prevalent manifestation.
LYZ-related familial visceral amyloidosis presents clinically with significant renal impairment. The renal dysfunction occurs at an early age and, in the absence of treatment, results in renal failure. Other manifestations of LYZ-related familial visceral amyloidosis include gastrointestinal involvement, cardiac disease, Sicca syndrome, and propensity towards petechiae, hemorrhage and hematoma, including hepatic hemorrhage. The bleeding tendency associated with LYZ-related familial visceral amyloidosis has included rupture of abdominal lymph nodes. Neuropathy is not a feature of LYZ-related familial visceral amyloidosis.
Due to the clinical overlap between the acquired and hereditary forms, it is imperative to determine the specific type of amyloidosis in order to provide an accurate prognosis and consider appropriate therapeutic interventions. Tissue-based, laser capture tandem mass spectrometry might serve as a useful test preceding gene sequencing to better characterize the etiology of the amyloidosis, particularly in cases that are not clear clinically.
Useful For Suggests clinical disorders or settings where the test may be helpful
Carrier testing of individuals with a family history of lysozyme (LYZ) gene-related familial visceral amyloidosis
Diagnostic confirmation of LYZ-related familial visceral amyloidosis when familial mutations have been previously identified
Interpretation Provides information to assist in interpretation of the test results
An interpretive report will be provided.
Cautions Discusses conditions that may cause diagnostic confusion, including improper specimen collection and handling, inappropriate test selection, and interfering substances
The identification of a disease-causing mutation in an affected family member is necessary before predictive testing for other family members can be offered. If a familial mutation has not been previously identified, order LYZMS / Lysozyme (LYZ) Gene, Full Gene Analysis.
Analysis is performed for the familial mutation(s) provided only. This assay does not rule out the presence of other mutations within this gene or within other genes that may be associated with lysozyme (LYZ) gene-related familial visceral amyloidosis.
We strongly recommend that patients undergoing predictive testing receive genetic counseling both prior to testing and after results are available.
Predictive testing of an asymptomatic child is not recommended.
Test results should be interpreted in the context of clinical findings, family history, and other laboratory data. Any error in the diagnosis or in the pedigree provided to us, including false paternity, could lead to erroneous interpretation of results.
A previous bone marrow transplant from an allogenic donor will interfere with testing. Call Mayo Medical Laboratories for instructions for testing patients who have received a bone marrow transplant.
Reference Values Describes reference intervals and additional information for interpretation of test results. May include intervals based on age and sex when appropriate. Intervals are Mayo-derived, unless otherwise designated. If an interpretive report is provided, the reference value field will state this.
An interpretive report will be provided.
Clinical References Provides recommendations for further in-depth reading of a clinical nature
1. Benson MD: The hereditary amyloidoses. Best Pract Res Clin Rhematol 2003;17:909-927
2. Benson MD: Ostertag revisited: The inherited systemic amyloidoses without neuropathy. Amyloid 2005;12(2):75-87
3. Shiller SM, Dogan A, Highsmith WE: Laboratory Methods for the Diagnosis of Hereditary Amyloidoses. In Amyloidosis-Mechanisms and Prospects for Therapy. Edited by S Sarantseva. InTech, 2011. pp 101-120


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Mind-Body Medicine
College of MBM Energy Medicine Residential Conference: MBM Students Learn about Human Energy Field, and Participate in Chakra Energy Assessment07/16/2012
On June 11, approximately 22 students prepared to attend the residential component of their class on The Human Energy Field and Energy Medicine at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bethesda, MD. That morning the Hyatt suffered a power outage (an "energy crisis") leaving hundreds of guests walking down several flights of stairs and missing some of the comforts that electricity brings, particularly the air conditioning. Unfazed by the lack of electricity Associate Dean Dan Sterenchuk quickly responded and found an alternative location for the class. College Chair Don Moss led a morning meditation and check-in on the mezzanine of the Hyatt, and then students proceeded to the new location and spent the day with Beverly Rubik, PhD, learning about some of the latest advances in Energy Medicine.
The Saybrook Institutional Review Board and your Research07/12/2012
The SIRB and your Research
One aspect of being an ethical professional is that all research should be proposed and approved by an institutional review board, which assures the well-being of any human participants involved in the research. For Saybrook students and faculty, the Saybrook Institutional Review Board (or SIRB) must approve any research project before it is implemented.
Food as Medicine Speaker Suggests Surrounding Homes with Edible Landscapes and Promotes Healthy Internal Landscapes to Fight Cancer: Jeanne M. Wallace, PhD.07/06/2012
PhD students in the Saybrook College of MBM attend the Food as Medicine training program, as part of their Nutrition and Health class. The Food as Medicine program, sponsored by the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, was held this June in Bethesda, MD. One of the highlights of this year's program was Jeanne M. Wallace, PhD, an innovative nutritionists who spoke twice: first on creating an "edible landscape," using healthy foods and herbs in landscape and garden to surround oneself with healthy food options, and second on creating a healthy environment within the body, to inhibit cancer cell growth using nutrition. Jeanne Wallace heads the "Nutritional Solutions Consulting Group," which provides consulting to cancer patients throughout the US and abroad. Wallace is the author of "Holistic Oncology Update."
MBM Instructor Creates Curriculum for Food as Medicine Conference: Kathie Swift, MS, RD, LDN06/27/2012
Kathie Swift is the curriculum designer for the Food as Medicine conference sponsored by the Center for Mind Body Medicine. Follow this link, http://www.cmbm.org/professional-trainings/food-as-medicine/ to learn more about the conference. Be sure to watch the video and listen to Kathie describe, "What's special about Food as Medicine." Listening to Kathie's enthusiasm about the conference will surely peak your curiosity and get you excited to attend the conference at your first opportunity.
The first step to fixing America's health care system is sharing our stories06/25/2012
Are you one of the millions of Americans who have been let down by the medical system?
Dr. Shawn Tassone wants to hear from you for his blog ("The 90 minute check-up") on Psycholoty Today.
A doctoral candidate in Saybroko's Mind-Body Medicine program, Tassone has heard a number of stories from patients disenchanted with the American medical system - and understands why.
The College of Mind-Body Medicine Certificate in Clinical and Applied Hypnosis06/21/2012
Modern hypnosis began with Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). Today hypnosis is an evidence-based practice, widely researched in university research programs, and used clinically in pain management, pre-surgical preparation, anxiety treatment, and a host of other medical and mental health applications.
This Certificate provides a comprehensive introduction to clinical and applied hypnosis, following the clinical training guidelines of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. The Certificate includes five courses, four residential conferences, and a capstone integrative essay.
A Tribute to a Dissertation Chair: Honoring Constance T. Fischer06/17/2012
The relationship between graduate students and University faculty is often a complex and rich one. The dissertation chair plays an especially pivotal role in the final stages of the PhD student's career and in the launching of his or her career. On June 3, I had the opportunity to attend the retirement party for Constance T. Fischer, my own dissertation chair at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. I will share some observations about Connie Fischer's contributions to our understanding of human behavior and just touch on her contributions to my career.
Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Pioneer in Consciousness-Based Health Care, to Provide August 2012 Commencement Address for College of MBM06/14/2012
Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, PhD, will provide the commencement address for the College of Mind-Body Medicine in San Diego on August 14 at 7:30 PM. Saybrook students, faculty, and their friends and families are invited to attend the commencement program.
MBM Doctoral Student Beth Haggett Sheers Sheep and Participates in Master Class for Psychotherapists in France06/08/2012
College of MBM Instructor is Passionate about the Power of Nutrition to Transform Health: Introducing Liz Lipski, PhD, CCN, CHN06/06/2012
Liz Lipski is passionate about the power of nutrition to transform health. Her interest in nutrition began with herbal medicine. Although she enjoyed teaching about the medicinal value of herbs, including how to make herbal tinctures, it occurred to her that although herbs can be used to restore and maintain health, food and nutrition are the foundation for health. This realization led her to pursue a PhD in nutrition from the Union Institute.


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The son of the late Judson Newman Wood and Zola Gordia Thompson Wood, Mr. Wood was born in Macon on Oct. 7, 1957, and had lived in Gray for the past 40 years. He was a graduate of Jonesco Academy and was employed as a mail handler by the United States Postal Service for 35 years. In addition to his parents, Mr. Wood was preceded in death by his beloved sister, Joy W. Tomlinson of Gray.
Mr. Wood is survived by his daughter, Melissa Ann Wood and her fiancé, Trent Purvis, both of Gray; sister, Cheryl Wood Hildreth of Irmo, S.C.; brother-in-law, Larry W. Tomlinson of Gray; granddaughter, Hannah Charlesworth; and by his nieces and their spouses, Dr. Amy N. Hildreth and Herbert Krabel of Winston-Salem, N.C., and Dawn T. and Jay Sikes of Monroe.
Bridges Funeral Home and Crematory in Gray had charge of arrangements. Please visit the online memorial at www.bridgesfh.com.


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Update (Feb.6/07): The Official Google Blog - Google Maps down under
Google Maps has added two valuable features today for users in Australia and New Zealand: Driving Directions and Business Search:
The "Get Directions" feature is available for both Australia and New Zealand roads and streets while "Find Businesses" is available only for Australia.
Google is also releasing Google Maps for Mobile to mobile users in this region today, making the availability of local business search and directions that much more useful while out and about.
News/Blog Coverage:
Sydney Morning Herald:
Here comes Google's maps with the lot
Web deal for Google, News
The Radioactive Yak Blog:
Google Local Australia Live
Related Google Maps Mania posts:
Google Maps Australia is now live
Australian Google Maps Mashup Posts:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
New Zealand Google Maps Mashup Posts:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Google Maps street maps for ALL of Australia and New Zealand!
Also from the Google Maps API Blog (Sep.6/06):
Australia and New Zealand Get Geocoding


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Add instant class and charm with the simple addition of the Townsend accent chair. Who says big updates have to involve big pieces? These fabulous looking accents make stylish statements at a small price.
The Klaussner Living Room Townsend Chair is available from Klaussner Home Furnishings.
Prices subject to home office audit & correction.
Dealer Login >>
Development: MicroD Inc.
Website Powered by ePiphany


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Sleeveless Crop Top
Style # 230746
Ultra wow. Vamp up your look in this tie dyed mesmeric crop top, that features a low V zippered front. Pair with our Boyfriend Jeans and you're haute now!
- 92% Nylon, 8% spandex
- Imported
- Center back to hem: 13" (33 cm)
- Model is 5'10" and wears a US size S
Rated 5 out of 5�by 1 reviewer.
Rated 5 out of 5�by BeachBride Gorgeous Top! This top is soo adorable! The colors are absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to wear it on our upcoming vacation. For reference, I'm 5'2" 115lbs 32B and XS fits perfectly! January 22, 2014
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Saybrook University
Saybrook's Website Has a Facelift - Check It Out12/02/2012
Want to learn more about the new Saybrook and our new academic model focused on specific areas of study and professional outcomes?
Saybrook President Contributing to Huffington Post11/29/2012
Saybrook University President Mark Schulman, PhD, has been invited to join the Pulitzer prize-winning Huffington Post, contributing blog posts to the College News section and sharing Saybrook's unique perspective on education, science and the politics of higher education.
Saybrook University introduces classes held entirely on Facebook11/28/2012
"Project X" reinvents the graduate school experience, using "online education" in new ways.
If you take a class in "Project X" here's what you won't have to do: buy textbooks, drive to class, or sit through a lecture.
Here's what you will have to do: conduct a conversation, over Facebook, with a leading scholar about a subject in his field that's keeping him up at night, and then work with your fellow students to advance our understanding of the issue.
It's a whole new approach to graduate education – and all you need to participate is an internet connection.
Walking the scientific tightrope10/25/2012
A new article on the Huffington Post by Saybrook President Mark Schulman looks at new studies showing the efficacy of acupuncture - and asks why there was such hostility among mainstream medicine to even conducting such experiments.
The problem, Schulman says, is that a legitimate demand for rigorous proof is often taken to the next step - hostility towards anything that doesn't fit our dominant paradigm about what is and isn't legitimate, even when experiments are conducted rigorously.
"This is a problem the scholars at Saybrook University know well," Shulman writes:
It's Easier for Families to Make Money Than it is to Keep it09/27/2012
Many families earn money through businesses and even get rich – but it generally doesn't last. Only a third of family businesses survive being transferred from one generation to another: less than 10 percent survive a second generational transition.
By contrast, a new report by Saybrook University faculty member Dennis Jaffe indicates that the most successful multi-generational families in the world also follow best practices on wealth management, the maintenance of personal relationships, and the development of a next-generation of leaders.
"What does America want an education to do?"09/24/2012
The real crisis in American education has nothing to do with test scores: it is the fact that America has no clear sense of what "an education" ought to accomplish.
That's according to Mark Schulman, a noted expert on progressive education. Schulman is the President o fSaybrook University in San Francisco and the past president of Goddard College in Vermont and Antioch University Southern California, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
"(L)et's say the reformers get what they want," Schulman wrote in a recent column on the Huffington Post. "Even if we get test scores to go up, are we any closer to where we want to be? And where is that exactly?"
How Muslim Youth Use the Internet09/12/2012
A new study shows that freedom of expression online is compatible with Islam – or at least that's what Muslim teenagers think.
Benina Gould, a faculty member at Saybrook University, recently completed a study of the internet habits of Muslim youth in Indonesia – the world's largest Muslim country. The study includes both "conservative" Muslims who would be described as "fundamentalists" in the West, and "modern" Muslim teenagers, who would be described as "progressive." It's published in the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences vol 29, Spring 2012 number 2.
Students surveyed were from 16-19 years old and attended three private pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools), three Islamic madrasahs and one secular school.
Kirk Schneider to Give Keynote Address at Conference on Existential Psychology in Eastern Europe09/11/2012
Saybrook University alumnus and faculty member Kirk Schneider's place as a leading voice in existential psychology has been affirmed repeatedly by American academic organizations including the American Psychological Association.
This month, as he delivers the keynote address to the 7th annual conference of the East European Association for Existential Therapy, Schneider will receive international recognition as well.
Saybrook University Makes Strong Showing at APA Conference08/21/2012
Despite its small size, Saybrook University made an outsize impression though faculty, student and alumni research at the American Psychological Association conference.
The 120th annual conference, held from August 2nd to 5th, in Orlando, Fla., featured internationally known presenters on topics and research currently attracting attention in the field, covering issues such as immigration, racism, eating disorders, clinical practice, social networking and psychotherapy.
Saybrook faculty, alumni, and students presented on such wide-ranging topics as the practice of existential psychology there, the future of positive psychology, the basics of hypnosis and self-hypnosis and how the creative process can promote healing and growth.
"Rethinking Madness": Saybrook Alumni's New Book Presents Strong Evidence That Schizophrenia and Psychosis Are Best Treated Through Therapy08/08/2012
Americans suffering from schizophrenia and psychosis have among the lowest rates of recovery in the world. American medicine also emphasizes medication for these conditions more than most.
Is that a coincidence?
A new book by Saybrook psychology alumnus Paris Williams presents compelling evidence that many mental illnesses we have come to regard as biological problems – brain chemistry gone awry – are in fact psychological issues: desperate attempts by the psyche to preserve a sense of identity or convey crucial messages.


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Maker Faire Orlando
at Orlando Science Center
Saturday & Sunday, September 12 & 13, 2015
Maker Faire Orlando is an annual community-organized, family-friendly celebration featuring local do-it-yourself science and technology, art, rockets, robots, crafts, music, hands-on-activities, and more. It's a place where people show what they are making and share what they are learning.
The individuals behind these exhibits are known as "Makers" and they range from tech-enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers. Makers are of all ages and come from many backgrounds. They all share a love for innovation and creativity, as well as an educational spirit to inspire and encourage new Makers. Maker Faire Orlando features displays and experimentation across the spectrum of science, engineering, art, performance and craft.
For full event information, visit www.makerfaireorlando.com.
Connect & Help Spread the Word
Tell your friends and family that you'll be at Maker Faire Orlando by posting it to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or blog! Connect with Maker Faire Orlando on Facebook or Google+ to get the latest news, such as our themed Maker weekends, being held monthly at Orlando Science Center as Makers build towards the next event.
Free Admission for Members!
Orlando Science Center members will receive free admission to Maker Faire Orlando. If you are not an Orlando Science Center member, now is a great time to join – you can visit Orlando Science Center for an entire year AND attend Maker Faire Orlando for one low price.
17 June 2015
Posted in Maker Faire Orlando
Last year you helped us reach "Featured" Maker Faire status and everyone, even the White House, has noticed how much Orlandoans love Maker Faire Orlando!
Orlando Science Center was invited to the White House to participate in a kick-off event for the National Week of Making. The event included a broad range of participants from government, industry, nonprofits, foundations, and local communities, and highlighted new steps that federal agencies and others are taking in response to President Obama's call to action to create a "Nation of Makers."
Our own Angella van Gelder, director of special events, represented Orlando Science Center at the event as well as attended the National Maker Faire in Washington, D.C.
We were honored to represent local Makers at the White House and can't wait to show you what this year has in store: more exhibits, more crazy creations, and more Makers! Mark your calendars for Maker Faire Orlando 2015 on September 12–13.
Photo Credit: Michael van Gelder


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Celebrating our People
At VMware, we actively attract, engage and celebrate our people from a wide variety of dynamic backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. By doing so, we foster a culture where great people want to work and will thrive long term. This strength propels us towards our common goal of creating and supporting transformative products and services through our collaborative drive to imagine, define and deliver the future of IT. Learn more about our people programs and what fuels our drive.
The VMware Experience
What is it like to work at VMware? We asked some of our employees to share their experiences to provide you with more insight into our company culture and work environment.
"VMware empowers me to succeed because of the flexibility that I'm given to get my job done"
Victoria Reddington, Desktop Partner Director, EMEA, Frimley, United Kingdom
"VMware has allowed me to make an impact by letting me be myself, and encouraging me to celebrate who I am as part of what makes me a great employee"
Felicia Jadczak, Staff Program Manager, Cambridge, Massachusetts
VMware VMwomen is our enterprise-wide initiative to increase the representation of women at every level in every function and region. It is grounded in research showing how greater diversity results in increased innovation that in turn leads to better business outcomes. The long-term goals of our program are to:
- Become an employer of choice for women
- Increase the representation of women globally
- Help women grow into senior leadership roles
- Encourage men to become actively involved
- Increase the pool of female talent choosing to enter technology
In addition to the strategic actions led by our business leaders, there are several enterprise programs that provide additional support, focus and resources – including collaboration with existing grassroots groups like WIReD and Women of Purpose.
WIReD (Women in R&D) functions as a grassroots community group within VMware, run by a network of employee volunteers. WIReD also has an advisory team made up of various leaders within the company. The WIReD program is housed in the Office of the CTO, offering sponsorship and support as a way to further thought leadership around diversity and gender diversity within the company and industry as a whole. Though a variety of programs, including a speaker series, external engagements and external conference sponsorship, the group focuses on:
- Mentoring women at VMware
- Networking/assisting with identifying growth opportunities
- Providing encouragement
- Improving recruitment and training
- Increasing the retention and advancement of women in R&D at VMware
- Sponsoring, nurturing and supporting girls in STEM fields with a focus on developing a pipeline of women in computer science and engineering
Women of Purpose
Another grassroots effort focusing on VMware's Field (sales) organization is Women of Purpose: an employee-led initiative that brings its members together as a community at major events, including VMworld and VMware Partner Exchange, and maintains an active presence on LinkedIn and VMware's internal social network powered by Socialcast. A primary focus for members is to learn about each other, share insights into how to succeed in a male-dominated field, and to identify mutual interests that lead to friendships independent of work.
Over the years, efforts have expanded to include:
- Sponsoring over eight events at Partner Exchange and VMworld. In 2013, over 400 women attended these events.
- Creating a Women of Purpose social network on LinkedIn with 1,000 members
- Partnering with peers to create global diversity and inclusion grassroots efforts
- Starting a Women of Purpose chapter in Austin, Texas
- Holding the first Women of Purpose global event in Europe in 2013
- Being published in CIO.com magazine
Women Connecting Women
The Women Connecting Women (WCW) mentoring program is currently for female interns within the United States. The WCW program gives women working at VMware the chance to become a contact and resource for a female intern during the duration of their internships. The mentoring relationship is centered on professional as well as personal development.
Minority Initiatives
LGBT Employee Group
Our mission is to build a strong community for all VMware employees who are members or allies of the LGBT community, to encourage diversity and raise visibility of the community and to recruit and retain LGBT talent throughout the company.
Chinese Employee Circle
The mission of the Chinese Employee Circle group is to build a strong community for all VMware employees who are affiliated with Chinese culture and to promote cultural awareness. The group supports its members' professional development through a mentoring program and monthly speaker series on technical and leadership topics; enhances cross-departmental communication through networking; strengthens the relationship between VMware operations in the U.S. and China; and assists with recruiting Chinese and Chinese-Americans.
Chinese Employee Circle activities and events include:
- Community Service Learning Day
- China site and Palo Alto site "mixers"
- Meetings with VMware Ambassadors from China
- Assisting with headquarters tours for major Chinese customers
- Summer BBQ & Olympics event with family and interns
- Lunar New Year Celebration
Diwali Bash
Diwali, meaning "Row of Lights", is an Indian festival that is celebrated on the darkest day of the year. Diwali is heralded as the triumph of good over evil. This is a time filled with light and love, a time when Indians all over the world rejoice. VMware people began celebrating Diwali onsite at VMware headquarters in 2008 with an employee-led celebration during one of our weekly Friday Bashes. From Bollywood dancing, singing, a Rangolo competition and mouthwatering authentic Indian food, it's an exciting annual tradition that unites our diverse employee community.
Promoting a dynamic, diverse and resilient workplace at VMware includes a focus on hiring military veterans. Through their training and shared life experiences, veterans often possess certain capabilities and a similar work ethic that lead to contributions that move VMware forward. The program's goals include:
- Increasing the hiring and retention of military candidates
- Engaging in focused attraction and outreach/awareness recruiting activities
- Including best practices in all interviews – managers are knowledgeable about military hiring in VMware and promote positive messages that can propagate in the market
- Ensuring team commitment to participate in military hiring recruiting initiatives and events
- Providing military hiring-focused training to all VMware managers, recruiters and interviewers
Student STEM Initiatives
At VMware, we understand the importance of getting students excited about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) subjects early in their academic careers. We believe that by fostering hands-on experiences with VMware products and interacting with the brightest minds in the industry, we can encourage students to study these areas and become as passionate about the future of technology as we are. Our student outreach efforts include partnership building, collaboration, event participation and sponsorship with the following organizations at the international, national and regional levels:
- American Indian Science and Engineering Society
- Anita Borg Institute and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
- BCS Women Lovelace Colloquium
- Berkeley Foundation for Opportunities in Information Technology
- CATALYST Member
- CodeChix
- First Bytes High School Summer Camp, The University of Texas at Austin Computer Science Department
- Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (Great Minds in STEM)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology's High School Women's Technology Program
- Out for Undergrad Technology Conference
- The Center for Minorities and Students with Disabilities in IT
- Stanford University Clayman Gender Institute Corporate Member
- Women in Technology International (WITI)
Equal Employment Opportunities and E-Verify at VMware
As an equal opportunity employer, VMware is committed to a dynamic and diverse workforce. If you have a disability that hinders your ability to apply for an open job online, please contact Human Resources at (650)-842-9200 or fax a request to: (866)-246-0923. E-Verify Federal law requires VMware to confirm the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States. VMware will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with information for each new employee's Form I-9 to confirm work authorization. See following links provide further details:


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Many athletes face pain and injury from time-to-time. Sadly, it happens. However, Donnay has found the answer to tennis elbow, tennis shoulder, and other tennis related injuries.
Take Ryan Young, from Charleston, as the perfect example. Ryan has been playing tennis since the age of four. By the time he reached the junior level of competition, he was breaking and setting records that seemed nearly unbreakable. Ryan was soon ready for college and took on a Division I challenge at Clemson University. While at Clemson, Ryan was encouraged, by his coach to go pro. Everything seemed to be falling into place.
Ryan Young was a professional tennis player for three years. He was just getting into a comfortable routine as a professional athlete, when he was sidelined due to tennis related injuries. Over the past year he has gone through two surgeries to repair his torn shoulder. Ryan's statistics drastically decreased and the matches that were supposed to be easy wins, turned into challenging losses. Ryan needed a resolution for his tennis injury pain .
Ryan found the solution in the solid core Donnay tennis racquet.
When Ryan started using his Donnay racquet he instantly felt a difference in his performance and his tennis elbow. He was back and ready to get play to his highest level of performance!
Tune in as he shares his Donnay tennis racquet story, below:
Tell Us Your Donnay Tennis Racket Story
"Right away I really liked it! I never felt any vibration in the Donnay racket." – Ryan Young
Do you have a story to share about relieving tennis injury pain by simply switching out your tennis racket? Let it be heard by visiting http://mydonnaystory.com/ to submit your testimonial. Simply click on 'Share Your Story' to provide your contact information and video story URL.
Alternatively, you're always welcome to leave a comment right here on our Safety Blog, and get social with us on Facebook and Twitter.
We're serious about keeping players informed! Don't forget to check out our new Medical View column. Our recent article by Dr. Dines provided excellent insight on forearm pain and 'golfer's elbow. Check it out, here: http://www.donnayusa.com/fore-on-your-forehand.php.


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Hurricane Katrina, a Category 2 storm with winds of 135 mph, made landfall at Empire, La., at about 7 a.m. ET on Aug. 29, 2005.
A mandatory evacuation of New Orleans was ordered in advance of the storm, though some 10,000 refugees sought shelter in the Superdome.
At least 1,836 people were killed in the hurricane and subsequent flooding, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1928.
Total property damage was estimated at $81 billion, nearly triple the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Water more than 12 feet high in some places flooded nearly 80 percent of New Orleans after the levee system failed.
A school bus is submerged in New Orleans East after Hurricane Katrina hit the area.
Refugees of Hurricane Katrina fill the floor of the Astrodome in Houston.
A house in New Orleans is marked with the words "Dead Body Inside" and "Help."
Cats and dogs rescued after being separated from their owners when Hurricane Katrina hit the New Orleans area arrive by chartered jet to Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 19, 2005, in Los Angeles.
Prisoner inmates are held at the end of a sunken highway in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Rescue workers pull a woman from the water who was hanging onto the roof to escape the rising flood waters from Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, in New Orleans.
Residents wait on a roof top to be rescued from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Hurricane Katrina survivors wait outside the Superdome to be evacuated Sept. 2, 2005 in New Orleans. Thousands of troops poured into the city Sept. 2 to help with security and delivery of supplies in the wake of the devastating storm.
Sgt. 1st Class Chris Andrews climbs out of a home as he and a fellow New Mexico National Guard member, Specialist Anthony Bustillos, check for bodies in homes destroyed after Hurricane Katrina passed through Sept. 10, 2005, in Port Sulphur, La.
Holdouts (L-R) Harold Gee, Randall 'Sharon' Kess and Gary Don Massey hang out on Gee's front porch Sept. 8, 2005, in New Orleans. A group of holdouts in the community have banded together following Hurricane Katrina as they vow to remain in New Orleans despite orders to evacuate.
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Document Type
- Preprint (2)
- Doctoral Thesis (1)
- BBGKY hierarchy (1)
- Wigner's function (1)
- renormalization (1)
- scalar field (1)
- BBGKY hierarchy in scalar QFT (2001)
- This work is dedicated to obtaining of analog of Bogoliubov's chain for the case of complex scalar field in QFT and renormalization problem of obtained equations is discussed.
- Baryon kinetic energy loss in the color flux tube model (2007)
- This article generalizes Schwinger's mechanism for particles production in the arbitrary finite field volume. McLerran-Venugopolan(MV) model and iterative solution of DGLAP equation in the double leading log approximation for small x gluon distribution function were used to derive the new formula for initial chromofield energy density. This initial chromofield energy is distributed among color neutral clusters or strings of different length. This strings are stretched by receding nucleus. From the proposed mechanism of string fragmentation or color field decay based on exact solution of Dirac equation in the different finite volume, the new formulae for esimated baryon kinetic energy loss and rapidity spectrum of produced partons were derived.
- Baryon stopping and quark-gluon plasma production at RHIC and LHC (2008)
- Strong chromofields developed at early stages of relativistic heavy-ion collisions give rise to the collective deceleration of net baryons from colliding nuclei. We have solved classical equations of motion for baryonic slabs under the action of time-dependent chromofield. We have studied sensitivity of the slab trajectories and their final rapidities to the initial strength and decay pattern of the chromofield as well as to the back reaction of produced plasma. This mechanism can naturally explain significant baryon stopping observed at RHIC, an average rapidity loss hδyi ≈ 2. Using a Bjorken hydrodynamical model with particle producing source we also study the evolution of partonic plasma produced as the result of chromofield decay. Due to the delayed formation and expansion of plasma its maximum energy density is much lower than the initial energy density of the chromofield. It is shown that the net-baryon and produced parton distributions are strongly correlated in the rapidity space. The shape of net-baryon spectra in midrapidity region found in the BRAHMS experiment cannot be reproduced by only one value of chromofield energy density parameter ǫ0, even if one takes into account novel mechanisms as fluctuations of color charges generated on the slab surface, and weak interaction of baryon-rich matter with produced plasma. The further step to improve our results is to take into account rapidity dependence of saturation momentum as explained in thesis. Different values of parameter ǫ0 has been tried for different variants of chromofield decay to fit BRAHMS data for net-baryon rapidity distribution. In accordance with our analysis, data for fragmentation region correspond to the lower chromofield energy densities than mid-rapidity region. χ2 analysis favors power-law of chromofield decay with corresponding initial chromofield energy density of order ǫf = 30GeV/fm3.


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Baby is in the 70th percentile, I passed my diabetes test (117, yay me!). I have another u/s at 30 weeks, and I start my non stress tests weekly at 32 weeks. If all keeps going well, praying it does, I will have my lil guy on 11/22 at 36 weeks (by there date, 36 weeks 5 days by my date). The mfm feels there is no point in trying to make me go any further then that. I'll get injections for lung development. Figures crossed I make it that far and avoid PE all together. They said my blood flow still looks really good, my blood pressure at the docs office was 128/86 which is higher then it is at home, at home it has been under 110/70 but the docs office always makes me a little nervous. No protein, thank God.
Here are some pictures:
Sticking tongue out and putting finger in mouth.
4d profile
4d face


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Hurray! I cant wait to see a video of a trackpad device running OS6... That homescreen looks terrible though. :x
- Article | 8 hours ago BerryFlow Upstream Podcast - BBMX
- Article | 22 hours ago Get yourself into shape with these health and fitness apps
- Article | 1 day ago Mobile Nations Weekly: Moto X, Windows 10, Teslas, and more!
- Article | 1 day ago Enter to win a BBM prize pack in our BBM 10th birthday contest!
- Article | 1 day ago BlackBerry App Roundup for August 1st, 2015


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Vermont ranks 2nd in kid's well-beingThe Associated Press | June 24,2013MONTPELIER - Improvements in children's health and education have helped Vermont rank second in the country in kids' well-being, according to an annual report, but poverty continues to be a problem.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids Count report released Monday shows Vermont improved in eight areas, including the percentage of children with health insurance and rate of teen births. But it fell slightly in economic factors, such as the percentage of children with parents who lack secure employment - to 29 percent or 36,000 children and the 36 percent of children who lived in households with a high housing cost burden in 2011, up from 33 percent in 2005.
Fifteen percent of Vermont's children lived in poverty in 2011, an amount unchanged from 2005 to 2011.
"This report provides a valuable tool for looking at our state's progress over time and in comparison with the rest of the nation," said Sarah Teel, research associate at Voices for Vermont's Children. "But it is important to recognize where the bar needs to be set, which is that every child has the opportunity to thrive to grow up healthy, safe and economically secure. We are clearly still far from that goal. There is no acceptable level of child poverty."
New Hampshire ranked first followed by Vermont and Massachusetts. Nevada, Mississippi and New Mexico were at the bottom.
Overall, Vermont ranked third in the country in education and family and community and fourth in health. The state had improved in the percentages of fourth graders who were proficient in reading and the percentage of eighth graders proficient in math between 2005 and 2011. And the state saw a drop in the percentage of students who did graduate on time, from 18 percent in 2005-2006 school year to 9 percent in 2009-2010, compared to 22 percent nationwide.
In children's health, just 2 percent of Vermont kids lacked insurance compared to 7 percent nationally. In the family and community measurement, 32 percent of Vermont children lived in single-parent households in 2011 while the rate of teen births dropped slightly to 18 per 1,000 births, compared to 34 per 1,000 nationally.MORE IN This Just InThe family of a Connecticut man who was killed in a car accident on Route 4 last Friday night is... Full StoryAssociated Press Full StoryIt seems like I just started to warm up from last winter and I see back-to-school displays. Full Story
- Most Popular
- Most Emailed
- RICHARD'S POOR ALMANACK: On this day 1739, 'Richard Palmer' identified in prison at York Castle as the notorious outlaw DICK TURPIN; IN 1836, Battle of the Alamo begins near San Antonio de Bexar, Texas; 1896, the Tootsie Roll invented by LEO HIRSCHFELD.
- RICHARD'S POOR ALMANACK: On this day in 1472, Orkney, Shetland islands put up as collateral by Norway to Scotland in lieu of dowry for MARGARET OF DENMARK on her marriage with JAMES III, king of Scotland; 1962, JOHN GLENN first American to orbit Earth.
- TOMORROW'S HEADLINES TODAY: City mayoral candidates debate campaign issues; Hartford, Conn., woman still missing; Neal Goswami reports attempts to legislate suicide; local woman loses 100 pounds through TOPS program.
- RICHARD'S POOR ALMANACK: On this day in 1878, JOHN TUNSTALL murdered near Lincoln, New Mexico, by the outlaw JESSE EVANS; in 1930, ELM FARM OLLIE first cow to fly in aircraft, first to be milked airborne; 1955, nuke test WASP; '79, snow in Sahara.
- TOMORROW'S HEADLINES TODAY: Rutland Herald News Editor Alan J. Keays and staff writer Gordon Dritschilo discuss stories planned for the February 18, 2015, edition of the newspaper: Winter budgets maxed, legal marijuana, Springfield bank job, USPS slowdown
- RICHARD'S POOR ALMANACK: On this day in 1249 AD, ANDRE of LONGJUMEAU is dispatched by LOUIS IX of France to meet the KHAGAN, ruler of the Mongol Empire; in 1804, during 1st Barbary War, STEPHEN DECATUR scuttles the pirate-held USS Philadelphia in Tripoli.


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Bringing Engineering to Life
B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering
Biological Systems Engineering brings engineering to life—by working with living systems using engineering, biology, and mathematics to improve peoples' lives and our world!
This major leads to rewarding careers in Biomedical Engineering, Bioenergy & Food Engineering, and Environmental and Water Resources Engineering. We provide students with a broad, flexible engineering background with a biological emphasis. A high percentage of graduates go to work immediately in well-paid positions. Many of our students go on to professional careers in engineering, law, medicine, food research, and academia.
ABET Accreditation
The B.S. degree in Biological Systems Engineering is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.
Emphasis Areas
Biomedical Engineering
Medical Imaging, surgical tool design, tissue engineering, prosthetic design, and rehabilitation engineering are just a few of the emerging fields in this specialty.
Environmental and Water Resources Engineering
Learn about nonpoint source pollution, restoring streams, lakes, and wetlands, and how water resources engineering plays a role in sustaining our environment.
Bioenergy and Food Engineering
Discover new possibilities for bioproducts and bioenergy: from biodiesel and ethanol to new uses for grain by-products as well as improving food safety and quality.
Recruiting Contacts
Nicole Franta
Assistant Director of Recruitment
(402) 554-3146
Amber Retke
Director of Recruitment
(402) 472-7094


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Lawn Sprinkler LinksIntro to Lawnbelt
How Our System Works
Sprinkler System Cost
No Trenching Reqd
LawnBelt vs PVC
Spray Patterns & Design
Drip Irrigation Systems
New Water Saving System
LawnBelt is proudly
Made in the USA
No Hand Watering
No Trenching
3 Simple Tools
"I was quoted at least $5,000 to install a system. Then, I discovered Lawnbelt! I immediately ordered five custom systems with Orbit rotors to do my large lawn"
Wayne Triplett, North Carolina
"Lawnbelt is really amazing. I use a liquid fertilize my lawn with Lawnbelt too. I've attached a simple backflow valve and a bottle (about $8) directly to my outdoor faucet and voila, I've got a beautiful lawn, thanks to Lawnbelt…."
Mark T., Tacoma, WA» Read more reviews
Tired of watering the lawn and garden by hand? Now you can install your own, automated sprinkler system in one day, without digging up the entire yard.
With Lawn Belt, you can do it yourself. Really!
You don't have to pay thousands for a landscape contractor to install a sprinkler system. And you don't have to rent a trenching machine to get that lush green lawn you've always wanted.
The patented Lawn Belt system makes it easy to design, buy and install your own system for the entire yard and garden. Everything you need is right here.
Here's the difference between Lawn Belt and traditional, in-ground sprinkler systems:
Traditional PVC pipe is rigid, difficult to work with, and prone to breaking in the winter. Plus, you have to dig it in 18 inches. Sprinkler repair costs are also exorbitant with PVC.
Flexible, diamond-shaped "belt" (or conduit) is easy to work with, and withstands even the most extreme winter freezing. Just cut a line in the turf, and step it in.
Installing a PVC system is a huge pain. You have to rent a big, noisy trenching machine and figure out complex piping, back-flow devices, valves and electronics.
A Lawn Belt Sprinkler System is easy. Everything you need is included in a kit weighing less than ten pounds.
If you can handle a 5/16" box wrench and a shovel, you can handle this do-it-yourself sprinkler system. If you have questions we have irrigation system experts standing by to walk you through each step of the project.
Lawn Belt introduces a new, EASIER way to water your lawn or garden.
The only thing worse than moving sprinklers around is the thought of paying for a professionally installed, built-in sprinkler system.
Now there's a realistic, do-it-yourself alternative that is one-tenth the cost.
Lawn Belt saves you time and money, and produces the lush, green lawn that'll make your neighbors jealous.
Lawn Belt installs just under the turf, with just a flat bed shovel.
Traditional PVC systems require trenching at least 18 inches deep.
The patented, diamond shaped water conduit is engineered to install easily, just under the surface of the turf. Simply cut a line with your flat shovel – it doesn't even have to be straight – and step the Lawn Belt into place.
You only have to dig a small hole where each sprinkler head will be located. Compare that to the excavation required to install a PVC system.
Everything you need to put together a worry-free sprinkler system for any yard or garden.
Need to cover every square foot of your big, back yard? We have kits that fit. Want to add a sprinkler system to a narrow, side lawn? No problem.
Concerned about keeping your flowers alive while you're away on vacation? Choose the Lawn Belt drip kit with an auto timer.
You can customize any Lawn Belt sprinkler system, upgrade the sprinkler heads, or buy spare parts.
See how easy it is to set-up your Lawn Belt Sprinkler System.
There are five simple steps to buying and installing your sprinkler system. You can do it all in one, relaxed weekend.
1. Measure your lawn.
2. Test your faucet.
3. Draw your system.
4. Select the right Lawn Belt kit.
5. Install, without digging up the yard.
Click here for more details on each step.


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Sorry to hear that, Jojo.
Long days and pleasant nights
This message board is only an archive. Click here to go to the current message board.
Sorry to hear that, Jojo.
Long days and pleasant nights
Girlfriend only wants to be "friends"
I am ticked off today because my cell phone bill is high again this month because I went over on my texting UGH!!! And in my fit I switched providers before my contract is up and now I am having buyers remorse and hoping I didn't just screw my self!!!
Not meaning to be preachy or anything but .....
There really is NOTHING worth getting ticked off about.
You have a finite time upon this planet and any time you spend being ticked off is actually time that you're stealing from the enjoyment of your own life, so why bother?
Pooh just is.
Right, off the soapbox now.
Long days and pleasant nights


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FCPL Social Media Commenting Policy
Frederick County Public Libraries uses interactive online social media to share information, gather feedback, and create a dialog with our community. We welcome your input and thoughts, but will remove comments or content that include:
- Obscene or racist content
- Personal attacks, insults, or threatening language
- Potentially libelous statements
- Plagiarized material
- Private, personal information published without consent
- Information or links unrelated to the content of the forum
- Commercial promotions or spam
FCPL is not responsible for content posted by any subscriber in any forum; opinions expressed in comments on FCPL social media forums do not necessarily represent those of the library. FCPL reserves the right to republish public comments posted to on our social media accounts on the library website, newsletter, or other materials, with identifying information removed if permission to include it has not been granted.
Approved by the Board of Trustees of Frederick County Public Libraries January 5, 2011.


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Interesting things
People seem to think it would be useful to chain associations in the same way that named scopes work. E.g., post.comments.authors. We might look at providing a patch to do so.
Rspec and Rails 2.2 modifies rails to not rescue exceptions as it normally does. To fix that, add the following to your tests:
describe ThingsController do before(:each) do controller.use_rails_error_handling! end end
- A project was running into a problem on non dev/test environments with rails 2.2 where if we did a db:drop and a subsequent db:create, the migrations were blowing up with an exception on the Rails::Initializer.run line in environment.rb. The models were being loaded before any of the migrations had run, thus failing because the tables didn't exist. To work around this, add config.eager_load_paths = [] in your Rails::Initializer. It was suggested this was either a bug in 2.2.2 and/or a bad interaction with desert.


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Eric Dregni is an associate professor of English and Journalism at CSP and oversees the student newspaper, The Sword. He has taught Intro to Lit, College Writing, Review Writing, Column Writing, Memoir, Travel Writing, and is in charge of internships in the English Department. Occasionally, he'll teach an Italian class and lead a student trip to Italy. In the summer, he is dean of the Italian Concordia Language Village, Lago del Bosco, in Hackensack, Minnesota.
Dregni's written 16 books including Follies of Science: 20th Century Visions of our Fantastic Future, Weird Minnesota, Midwest Marvels, The Scooter Bible, Ads That Put America on Wheels, and Let's Go Bowling! As a Fulbright fellow to Norway, he wrote about the "Norwegian Dream" in In Cod We Trust: Living the Norwegian Dream. Dregni worked in Italy for five years as a travel journalist for a weekly paper and compiled his essays into a book in Italian, which was later translated into English as Never Trust a Thin Cook: and Other Lessons from Italy's Culinary Capital from the U of M Press. His most recent book is Vikings in the Attic: In Search of the Nordic America.
Journalism, creative writing (memoir, essays, travel writing, etc.), literature, Italian, cultural studies
Leading student trips to Italy.
Responsiveto the needs of today's students.Relevantto the skills employers seek.Realpreparation for thoughtful living and service.
Schedule a visit today!
Transfer to CSP
Apply Now
Tuition & Financial Aid


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New here? You can subscribe to our blog via RSS feed and email. Thanks for visiting!
Thank you! We are enjoying this new music!
Looks great! But where do you find the password?
Hi Robbie! It's right there on the image in the post: COMPASSION. Enjoy the music!
Thanks so much! I guess I didn't realize it was case sensitive. Thanks again!
Verry good
[…] International has partnered with Folk Angel to offer 18 free Christmas Songs! Click here to get the music, it's only available until tomorrow (Dec. 22) so act […]
Thank you so much, will enjoy this tomorrow on our road trip


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Welcome to the home for York College Athletics.
Erin Kurtz enters her second season at the helm of the Spartan men's and women's swim program looking to continue the strides made during her first campaign as the head of the program.
Kurtz came to the Spartan program after spending 2011-12 as a volunteer assistant at her alma mater Shippensburg University. Kurtz served as the interim head coach for the Red Raiders during the 2009-2010 season.
Kurtz brings a wealth of experience to the Spartan program. She spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Kutztown University prior to her stint at Shippensburg. Kurtz also has Division I coaching experience as she was a graduate assistant coach at Texas Christian University.
In her time at Kutztown, Kurtz coached two swimmers to NCAA automatic cuts while the Golden Bears broke 13 school records during her tenure.
"I'm very excited about the long-term potential of our program," states Kurtz. "The demand for excellence is very apparent throughout our athletic department, and we are determined to meet those demands in the water."
Kurtz has extensive experience and an impressive track record in the pool. She was a four-year All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) swimmer at Shippensburg while she earned All-American status in the 500, the 1,000, and the 1,650-freestyle in all four of her seasons as a Red Raider. She won the PSAC title in the 1,650-freestyle during her junior year. She picked up seven All-American awards as a sophomore, including four in relay events at the NCAA Championships.
She finished her career with four individual PSAC championships and 16 NCAA Division II All-American awards. Kurtz still holds Shippensburg school records in four of the six freestyle events. All four of those record finishes came during the 2004 NCAA Division II Championships where she finished third in the 1,000-yard freestyle, fourth in both the 200 and 500 freestyle and ninth in the 1,650-yard free.
Kurtz feels the York College swim program is a great place for not only current student-athletes, but also potential swimmers that want an all-around balanced college swimming experience.
"My immediate goal is to impact the current team with tough workouts, a great dry land program and a fantastic academic experience," says Kurtz. "I'm looking forward to continuing to build two programs who will be a strong force within the Capital Athletic Conference. We've got beautiful facilities at York College, and I'm looking forward to giving our students, staff and community new opportunities to gain access to the natatorium."
Kurtz, who is a Reading, Pennsylvania native, is married to Chris Kurtz and they have two children.
Updated: 10/3/2013


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The 2016 workshop proposal form should by online by 08/15/2015. Please e-mail email@example.com if you would like an e-mail reminder when the form is posted.
2016 FGC Gathering Details
Dates : July 3-9, 2016
Theme : Be Humble. Be Faithful. Be Bold.
Location : College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota
Workshop Times : 5 sessions, Monday-Friday, 9:00-11:45 a.m.
Deadline for workshop proposals : September 30, 2015
For 2016, what is the Workshop Committee looking for?
We would like to see an exciting variety of workshops, the familiar and beloved as well as the new and provocative. We hope the workshops will reflect the rich diversity of our faith community. The committee appreciates and respects all ideas and proposals. However, in most years we receive many more than can be offered and need to make difficult choices about which workshops to offer. Not all proposals will be accepted, but they will all be appreciated.
We look for workshops that are :
- interactive and grounded in worship
- may address the Gathering theme
- speak to interests or concerns of Friends including a broad range of topics such as: Quaker history, practice, faith, writing, art, music, movement, diversity, gender, and family issues.
- flexible format that could be held in a lounge or classroom.
- Workshop Times : 5 sessions, Monday-Friday, 9:00-11:45 a.m.
Submitting a proposal
PART I: Your Proposal. The proposal form is due by September 30, 2015. Online webform submission makes the job of reviewing and managing the proposals easier to prepare for publication. The 2016 form will be online by August 15, 2015. Proposals can be downloaded and mailed or emailed to the FGC office (this increases staff processing time). Contact the Gathering Office if you would like a paper form sent to you. Your proposal is welcome in whatever form you choose to submit it.
If you submitted a previous proposal which you want to edit and resubmit for 2016, return here after August 15 for instructions.
PART II: Letter of Support. The letter of support must also be received no later than September 30, 2015. This letter should directly address your skills and current ability for leading the proposed workshop, from the perspective of Friends. This request is made because Friends who serve on the workshop selection committee often do not know people who serve the Religious Society of Friends or who have offered workshops in the past. You may want to request a letter now in order to allow the writer sufficient time to submit the letter to us before September 30.
Leaders of 2014 or 2015 workshops can choose to have their workshop evaluations used in lieu of a letter. Proposals will not be considered without either a letter of support or a workshop leader evaluation summary from the past two years.
Confirming Receipt of Proposals. You will receive an acknowledgment of the receipt of your proposal. Please call the FGC Gathering office if you have not received an e-mail acknowledgment within two hours of electronic submission or a letter by October 1st for paper submissions. You will be notified of the subcommittee's decision no later than December 19th, 2015.
Financial Credits for Workshop Leaders
Workshop leaders are eligible for a reduction in costs equal to 50% of the Basic Fee per workshop as leadership credit. (The Basic Fee is the cost for an adult to attend the Gathering, sleep in the least expensive adult double room, and eat three meals a day.) There is only one credit per workshop, so co-leaders need to decide how to share this credit. Leaders may request additional scholarship support for themselves and their families from FGC (during the spring registration process) or from their meetings.
For more information :
Susan Lee Barton, FGC Conference Associate
firstname.lastname@example.com, 215-561-1700, ext. 3005


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Having a Facebook business page isn't enough, even for a small business: you need to give it a custom look to really get results. Why? First impressions mean everything, especially online, where people's attention spans are easily diverted by cute YouTube videos, Farmville, or the latest quiz on your friends. You need to grab people's [...]
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5 Ways to Gain Fans by Customizing Your Facebook Business Page
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|Home > Tutorials > Getting Started > HTTP Session
Your Struts 2 application may need to access the HTTP session object. Struts 2 provides an interface, SessionAware, that your Action class should implement to obtain a reference to the HTTP session object.
The SessionAware interface has one method, setSession, that your Action class will need to override. In the example application (see above), the HelloWorldAction class implements the SessionAware interface and includes this code:
The Struts 2 framework has an interceptor that will inject the HTTP session object into the Action class by calling the setSession method.
The example application keeps track of how many times the user clicks on a Hello link or submits the hello form. It stores this count in the HTTP session object in the increaseHelloCount method.
When the increaseHelloCount method is called from within the execute method, the userSession object is a reference to the HTTP session object injected by the Struts 2 framework. So any objects stored in the HTTP session can be retrieved using the userSession object and any objects stored in the userSession object will be stored in the HTTP session object.
Struts 2 provides an easy way to get an object stored in the HTTP session from within the view page. In the example application is HelloWorld.jsp with this markup:
The s:property tag's value attribute has a value of #session.helloCount. The "#" before the word session tells the Struts framework to look in the session scope for a key of "helloCount" (which is the value of the String constant HELLO_COUNT referenced in method increaseHelloCount). Struts will get the object mapped to helloCount key and then call that object's toString method to determine what to display in the view page.
Using SessionAware does introduce a potential security vulnerability that you should mitigate by also following these practices in the Action class that implements the SessionAware interface.
This method will be called by the Struts 2 framework for each parameter in the request scope. By returning false if the parameter name contains "session" we are telling the Struts 2 framework to ignore that parameter. This will prevent a malicious user from trying to hack the HTTP session object.
Instead of having each action that implements SessionAware also implement the ParameterNameAware interface you can tell the params interceptor to exclude specific request attributes for all actions in a package. In struts.xml configure the struts-default set of interceptors as follows:
The above code will ensure that every action in the "basicstruts2" package that implements the SessionAware interface will exclude from processing parameters that starts with the strings provided in the params.excludeParams noded.
The example project includes both methods for mitigating the SessionAware security vulnerability.
When your Action class needs to access the HTTP session object implement the SessionAware interface and override the setSession method. Be sure to also implement the ParameterNameAware interface and override the acceptableParameterName method to mitigate a potential security vulnerability. If you have multiple actions that implement SessionAware then consider modifying the params interceptor's excludeParams value as part of your Struts 2 package setup.


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ROSEMONT, Ill.---The Chicago Wolves fell behind 19 seconds into the game but rattled off the next three goals en route to a 5-3 Illinois Lottery Cup victory over the Peoria Rivermen Saturday night at the Allstate Arena.
Forwards Jordan Schroeder (2G), Nathan Longpre, and Tim Miller and defenseman Mark Matheson all scored for Chicago, while center Steve Reinprecht dished out two assists in his team debut.
"We demonstrated our skill tonight," said Wolves head coach Craig MacTavish. "I have been seeing a lot of progress from our players and it has come through the work we have been doing the past few weeks."
Peoria (9-10-1-1) jumped on the scoreboard 19 seconds into the game when center T.J. Hensick held the puck behind the Wolves net and fed it in the slot to right wing Jay Barriball, who snapped a shot over the glove of Chicago netminder Eddie Lack.
Chicago (9-6-0-2) answered 39 seconds later when defenseman Kevin Connauton's shot from the point was knocked down by a Peoria defenseman and the puck landed at the skates of Longpre, who slipped home the rebound past Jake Allen.
The Wolves grabbed a 2-1 lead while on the power play at 18:09 of the opening frame. Reinprecht fed a pass from the point to Matheson in the slot who redirected the pass past Allen.
Chicago inched ahead 3-1 when Miller stripped a Rivermen defenseman at the side of the net and tucked the puck between Allen's pads and the post at 7:12 of the third period.
The Rivermen cut the Wolves lead to 3-2 at 9:42 of the final frame. Defenseman David Shields fired a shot from the point that missed the net, but the puck ricocheted off the back boards to center Phil McRae and he flicked the loose puck past a diving Lack.
Lack (3-4-2) posted 21 saves.
Chicago regained its two-goal lead at 12:58 when Schroeder's shot from the circle was stopped by Allen, but the rebound bounced back to him and he slipped his second attempt through Allen's five-hole.
Allen (1-5-1) thwarted 30 of 34 shots.
The Rivermen closed to within 4-3 at 15:45 of the third period with Barriball's second marker of the night, but Schroeder's empty-net tally at 19:16 sealed the win for the Wolves.
The Wolves and Rivermen square off in an Illinois Lottery Cup rematch at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Allstate Arena.
Peoria 1 0 2 -- 3
Chicago 2 0 3 -- 5
First Period---1, Peoria, Barriball 2 (Hensick, Nesbitt), 0:19; 2, Chicago, Longpre 5 (Connauton, Mancari), 0:58; 3, Chicago, Matheson 2 (Reinprecht, Baumgartner), 18:09 pp. Penalties---Clackson, Chicago (interference), 8:28; Sonne, Peoria (roughing), 16:23.
Second Period---None. Penalties---Peluso, Peoria (fighting), 2:54; Clackson, Chicago (fighting), 2:54; Parent, Chicago (roughing), 8:32; Longpre, Chicago (high-sticking), 11:33; Evans, Peoria (roughing), 16:54.
Third Period---4, Chicago, Miller 3 (unassisted), 7:12; 5, Peoria, McRae 11 (Shields, Cheechoo), 9:42; 6, Chicago, Schroeder 3 (Reinprecht, Rodin), 12:58 pp; 7, Peoria, Barriball 3 (Hensick, Nigro), 15:45; 8, Chicago, Schroeder 4 (Rodin, Sweatt) 19:16 en. Penalties---Evans, Peoria (hooking), 12:40.
Shots on goal---Peoria: 10-5-9--24. Chicago: 9-14-12-35. Power plays---Peoria: 0-3. Chicago: 2-3. Goalies---Peoria, Allen (30-34). Chicago, Lack (21-24). A---7,724. Referee---Graham Skilliter. Linesmen---Mathieu Chenier and Al Stensland.
ROSEMONT, Ill.---The Chicago Wolves fell behind 19 seconds into the game but rattled off the next three goals en route to a 5-3 Illinois Lottery Cup victory over the Peoria Rivermen Saturday night at the Allstate Arena.


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|45 posts found
Depending on your opinion, closed grouping in MMOs is either the best or worst feature in many games. In today's Player Perspectives, MMORPG.com columnist Isabelle Parsley has a few thoughts to share about open grouping and the (in)famous closed grouping in today's MMOs. Check it out and then offer a few comments of your own.
Read more of Isabelle Parsley's Player Perspectives: LFM.
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Hard Core Member
Joined: 1/16/10
I think this is an area were devlopers need to improve. Longevity in an MMO is create by content and by social contract. If there are multiple ways to work together, more people would stay in a particular MMO. When I played WOW, I stayed in it because family and friends were there. We had an opportunity to play together. It did ever last long because the content, especially Cata content, get be gotten through so quickly.
Raising the level cap isn't always the answer to "more social content". I am sure that there is a myriad of "horizontal content" that can be put into MMOs that players want.
EVE, although somewhat restricting, has open group content as well. Fleets can be created and left open by the Fleet Commander so that others can join if they want. Pilots can find the fleets by looking in the fleet window and all available fleets, whether from their corp or not, that they can join will show.
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
I agree with the whole "join at random with other people in the area" kind of thing that Rift employs. I played LOTRO but didn't start until it had been out for 2 years. Consequently, my chars were never "right" for instances and I was rejected more times than my ego could take. I finished the game through the latest updates and have stopped playing for now.
Being able to randomly join has been a balm to my wounded pride. :P
Novice Member
Joined: 3/13/09
Have fun.
This will help put the "massive" back into MMO.
"I am the harbinger of hope. I am the sword of the righteous. And to all who hear my words, I say this: What you give to this Empire, I shall give back unto you."
Novice Member
Joined: 9/08/05
"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks" -- Dorothy Parker
PS -- I don't usually know what the article pix will be till they're in -- and OMG that 4th one! My eyes! They bleed!
Novice Member
Joined: 5/27/09
love the open groups in RIFT they are fun, its easy to join, easy to leave. and same server!
for more formal groups I hate it when it takes 30 minute (or more) yelling in channel "group looking for tank" "Group looking for healer". An alternative to yelling is to register via some game "same server" mechanic, that you are looking for a group, but in my experience people don't use the dialog tool to register availability or know where to look in the UI to see who is available. Or in prior games the tool/dialog didn't seem to work.
Another solution is the dungeon finder tool in wow. For Dungeon Finder the only down side is that you get people who just don't play nice with others, or plan suck..or other issues. And in D.F. people take advantage that there is no real long term penalties for being an @#% hole. Perhaps D.F. needs to be limited to one server so that if you are an @## hole, the server will know about it, and you gain bad rep that follows the character around. One thought I had was to create a way to "report" what the person did via some addon to a database other players can look at. Such as tool takes a screen shot, captures the text in the window, and allows a player to write a description on what the offense was. A gearscore for player behavior if you will :p
Advanced Member
Joined: 4/16/04
Things that have killed a lot of potentially decent games for me: The biggest, which is contradictory to the rest of what I will say....is myself. I don't have 10 hours a day to play MMO's anymore. Sometimes all I get is an hour or two at a time, maybe a couple times a week. This is a lot different than in my DAOC days, when I had the time to spend.
Now, with saying that...the biggest killer of a game for me is soloing. I like to solo. I enjoy it. But the bottom line is...why am I paying $15 a month for a MMO where 9,750 people on the server are playing by themselves standing right next to each other and 250 are in elitist groups doing the pvp and or raiding?
I usually last a month, maybe two, and then move on. Games have learned to cater to the extremes. The people like me who don't have time to run raids or NEEDING to be in a group to complete quests....and the people that want/can spend hours a day in tight knit perfect class combo raiding groups. The Fun part in the middle has been missing for a long time. Games like WoW try to patch that up by doing cross server stuff, which kind of sucks. You might have fun one time, but you don't form any relationships, you can't group in the future...because most of the people are on different servers. You can't hunt down the guy that Pwnd your face in pvp because he's not on your server. There is not much notoriety or fame to really gain.
So you end up with an entire server full of people paying $50 for a box, $15 a month for a subscription, $40 a month for an internet connection....so they can play a single player RPG...online.
Something like RIFT or WAR have done something right with the easy open grouping methods. Everyone you are grouping with is on your server, you show up and leave as you like, and the option for more formal grouping is there. I loved that about WAR....too bad the rest of the game design was either boring or made no sense.....but that's a different conversation from a dissapointed Mythic fanboi.
So with the grouping conundrum out of the way...the next big pet peave. When I played DAOC, I didn't always win, I couldn't always find enough people to do raids, etc...but I knew who many of the players on the server were, I knew my enemies by name if they were notorious enough. I knew the pve guilds, the pvp guilds, the casual guilds and the and the guilds that were just jerks. That is missing these days. There is no community because people are either super elite or so random and into soloing the game because it's faster that way, that no one knows who anyone else is.
Get rid of cross server anything...unless its something like my server raiding your server and Pwning your face....Allow methods for casual grouping, and don't make everything able to be done by one person, or one person and a bot.
p.s. Battlegrounds break immersion and are lame. They don't belong. Add a reason for people to attack each other, or just get rid of it. DAOC Frontiers...enough said.
Novice Member
Joined: 12/10/08
In a way, MMOs started as one big open group - if two people happen to be attacking the same mob, they were effectively an open group. It seems to me that party systems emerged from wanting to restrict who got loot - it wasn't so much bringing people together as it was keeping the unwanted people out. Then as content was scaled to challenge groups and limitations were imposed to avoid bosses being zerged, groups became too competitive, too focused on getting everyone walking through the one right solution to any problem.
The question to me is how do modern open quests avoid sliding down the same design road again?
Novice Member
Joined: 10/09/05
I find it very hard to believe this argument that finding or setting up a group is difficult. It can be frustrating, yes, but think it all comes down to this modern phenomena of wanting something to happen immediately all the time. We're in the realm of microwave dinners and instant presents here....otherwise known as a lack of patience.
I've been playing on Fippy Darkpaw for the last few weeks (The Everquest progression server for those not in the know) and grouping has been fun again. It's rarely painful getting going even though there can be some pain within groups when it comes down to a lack of communication and other things. That's all part of the fun for me though. Norrath has always had more of a real world feel than many of these modern, instant-gratification MMOs and I'd rather have that any day of the week. This is especially so if the alternative is the humdrum of Rift.
If you found yourself in a fantasy world I think you'd meet all manner of different characters and have to accept them for their failings and their abilities. I like to think it's more fun to deal with that in a game too. I play to be immersed after all.
On the other hand, I can not deny that there are times when all you want is a quick group for 30 minutes and you may feel awkward joining one only to leave shortly after. Thing is I've never liked these quick fix, quest-achieveing groups anyway. For me modern MMOs are far too dependent on questing as it is, and that is without making it a reason to remove the PUG.
So give me Everquest and the old mechanic of PUGs any day of the week. A lengthy group deep in the depths of some dungeon and with people you only met two hours ago will always be fun. That is even if the developers of modern MMOs are trying to rid the genre of anything that promotes or requires it. I say let's rid the genre of those developers.
All hail the Pixel, for it is glorious Orange!
Originally posted by Ysharros
I work quite hard to make sure your eyes ble...I mean to find just the right tasteful images to put into your articles. >:)
Advanced Member
Joined: 6/05/09
Open Groups, one of the things Rift got just right.
The content has to be designed for them though, a few AFK or out of their depth players has to not stop the group succeeding.
But a very welcome change from the typical behaviour found in PUGs. Gz to Rift developers for that. This sort of concept is just what is needed to overcome the tendency for everyone to play solo.
Novice Member
Joined: 3/05/10
Being unfamiliar with Rift and WAR, I don't understand the open grouping concept from just the info that was in the article. What's to stop someone from joining the group and then just soaking up experience and loot without contributing? Or worse, someone who makes the group even worse than it was without them (for griefing purposes or just from gross incompetance)?
Novice Member
Joined: 8/10/09
Well the open party system has really made RIFT fun for my wife and I. We DO dislike having to drop out and reform our party, but that's something we've brought up to the developers already so I don't need to say anything more on that. :)
That said, being able to just randomly run up on a site and NOT KILL STEAL is a blessing. I remember people complaining about kill stealing before the whole "tagging" of mobs, and then when tagging became common people would complain about stealing named mobs. That goes away mostly when everyone in the area can just group up, even if you're not directly working together at least you're not hurting one another.
I have to admit RIFT has been the first game in a while, thanks to this system, where I've had regular contact with random players. Cooperative contact I should say. Hell, some of them even talk! :)
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby)
Novice Member
Joined: 9/08/05
"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks" -- Dorothy Parker
@ Disdena -- technically, nothing, though that's behaviour you'll see in formal smaller groups too. It's an issue now and then (more leeching than griefing that I've seen), but on the whole it's not something I remember seeing all that often.
There will always be people who want to cheat or exploit a system. The problem is, when you start shutting down those systems to shut down the cheaters, you're usually also making life much, much more difficult and less fun for the vast majority of non-cheating players.
It's the same in RL, really. One jerk can ruin a good experience... if you let them. We do have a choice how we react to jerks, and these days I choose to blithely ignore them. I suspect I'll live longer and have more fun. ;)
Apprentice Member
Joined: 6/11/08
I think with my heart and move with my head.-Kongos
With rifts, your reward is based on participation. You have to do something. It may or may not be a useful something, but you have to do something. I've actually tested this. The fewer things you hit or the fewer people you heal, the less your reward.
The reward is actually separate from your membership in the group. You could be a member in a group that's at another rift entirely and your reward for what you did would be the same.
I'm not sure about other stuff like regular mob killing or Warfronts. It seems like you can get credit for doing very little, but I haven't done nothing in either of these situations, so I'm not sure.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Advanced Member
Joined: 7/27/04
Originally posted by Disdena
Dunno if Rift is exactly the same but WAR's open groups are the same notion as a closed group just with automatic inviting. If someone joins and the group leader (either the one that formed the open group or randomly assigned if the original leader leaves) doesn't want them there they can still kick them out - but there's nothing preventing the offender from rejoining unless the leader closes the group.
That said, the situations that open grouping is used in don't really lend themselves to anyone caring about the competency of the other group members. In WAR it was either a PQ, which by-and-large was zerg-able (not really requiring any particular skill or coordination) or open PvP, which was pretty fluid anyway and didn't really depend on set piece attacks (again more zerg oriented).
Open grouping doesn't work (in my experience anyway) for typical MMO dungeon content (raid or otherwise) or for small group elements (scenarios in WAR for instance). The grab-bag nature and the lack of permanence tends to torpedo that kind of content if taken by an open group.
Novice Member
Joined: 4/12/06
"humdrum of Rift"?!?!
I played eq1 since kunark released and loved it. That said, I can't play it anymore. It feels SO kludgy and out of date that it's impossible for me to immerse myself in it. I would honestly be better off in a straight up text adventure. When something as simple as mouse look is all messed up (fast right/left motion but horrendously slow vertical), I just can't do it.
And I'm not sure which game YOU played, but it wasn't Rift that's humdrum. It does indeed have elements we've seen before, but the level of polish and the addition of little details makes me go "Why the hell haven't developers been doing THAT this whole time?!"
Anyway, I love the Rift grouping model. Oh look, there's a rift! *button pops up to join the group already in the area* Ok good work everyone! drop group and go about my business. I can even merge my group into that existing group, just can't pull the group back out when we're done. If they had a way to "group leave" to preserve your original membership that would be fantastic.
It also comes in handy when some d-bag is trying to ninja a boss that you had to fight off 10 trash mobs to get to. Click the offending a-hole, merge your "group" (1 player) with his and bam. You get credit too.
Novice Member
Joined: 5/10/09
If Ya Ain't Dyin, Ya Ain't Tryin
Just a brief statement on quality and informativeness (if thats a word).
Isabelle Parsley You Rock. I enjoy your articles more than any other writer's on this site. Keep up the good work and live long and prosper. I especially love how your articles are not self agrandizing ... just informative/funny and a good read.
If Ya Ain't Dyin, Ya Ain't Tryin
Advanced Member
Joined: 4/30/06
For all its faults WAR at least gave us open grouping and public quests which seem to have been taken up and expanded upon in Rifts and GW2's dynamic events. MMO's are starting to feel more like you are fighting and adventuring alongside others now rather than just fighting others for loot, mobs etc.
Novice Member
Joined: 3/05/10
Originally posted by an0maly33
That's the kind of griefing behavior I'm talking about, except you've got it reversed. Someone claims a mob that you feel entitled to, so you force yourself into his group and claim the credit? That's what doesn't sit well with me. Dungeonfinders aside, the dynamic goes like this: one person extends an offer to join the group, the other person accepts. In that way, the game knows that both players have a mutual desire to cooperate. If there's only one side saying "this is a group now", it seems bizarre for the game to assume that cooperation is taking place.


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