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Money 101 (Multimedia)
News & Events
Painted on a window in Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School are the words: "We believe it's our responsibility to prepare students for work and life in the 21st Century."
Despite that goal, if you asked students what it takes to buy a house, save for a car, pay for college, know their credit score, plan for retirement or explain why they should be saving money now, just as at any high school, you might be faced with blank stares.
"In school, you don't learn these kinds of things," admits Tesslyn Arrighi, 17, a junior from Bridgewater.
Tesslyn is one of 107 students who enrolled in the Financial Literacy and Giving (FLAG) Program, a seminar offered by Bridgewater State University and Bridgewater Credit Union to teach students financial life skills.
Begun for BSU students in 2010, the program has been extended to the high school for the first time. Administrators expected about 50 students might show an interest, but the response was overwhelming – there even is a waiting list – and the timing was perfect for the high school.
"We are graduating students, unfortunately, that are financially illiterate, instead of being [financially] literate," said Angela Watson, the high school's principal.
She said she wanted to fix this problem, but the school district didn't have the money to teach financial literacy. The FLAG program became the perfect solution, coordinated between Ms. Watson and Susan McCombe, BSU's director of University and Community Partnerships.
"The response was wonderful. I couldn't believe how many students signed up," said Dr. Margaret Brooks, professor of economics, who runs the program at BSU and at the high school. "A lot of what we teach is not just knowledge, but a skill."
Dr. Brooks has scheduled business people from the area, along with BSU professors, to teach the weekly seminar.
"We've been providing a financial literacy program, non-credit, to our students, and about 30 students per semester have come through our program," she said. "It's really valuable to students who don't ever take economics classes or finance classes necessarily, but who can benefit from the life skills that are provided in the seminar."
Tesslyn and fellow junior, Nicholas Whittemore, 17, also of Bridgewater, admit that they don't get much basic financial help even from their own parents. It's typically not a topic of discussion at home, as they are encouraged to worry more about school. But the program has taught them the importance of getting a handle on their finances.
"I feel like I need to know the things that are being taught," said Nicholas. He said he didn't know when he'd ever be able to take this kind of course. So far, he said, the seminar's emphasis on saving money has had the most effect.
"You want 20 percent of your income to be saved and not touched and that's a good goal to work toward, and we just saw a stat where if I started saving money right now and put away $200, by the time I'm 67, ready to retire, I'll have $1 million. That was pretty eye-opening for me."
Recent speakers have included Jane McCarthy, a broker/Realtor with Wheel House Real Estate of East Bridgewater, who explained about interest rates, credit reports and gave an enlightening look at what it takes to buy a house. Also Dr. Shannon Donovan, a BSU accounting and finance professor, advised students on the importance of paying themselves first as they start to earn income.
Other teachers in the program include BSU economics professor Dr. Ilter Bakkal and Katie Vågen from BSU's Career Services; and from Bridgewater Credit Union: Kevin Burns, senior vice president, David Wolohojian, vice president, and John Himmel, vice president, all of whom will address banking issues.
In addition to lectures from guest speakers, students have broken into smaller groups. On April 17, the final day of this year's program, their groups will present skits, demonstrating randomly selected financial topics, said Dr. Brooks, who has taught at BSU since 1984 and heads the Center for Economic Education.
Bridgewater Credit Union, which provides the program with $10,000 in addition to the BSU Foundation's $5,000, started getting involved in 2011, after recognizing a need for young people to better understand finances, said Theresa Heffernan, BCU's marketing coordinator. Lack of basic financial knowledge is a nationwide problem, she said, adding that the program might have a trickle-up effect as they take the information home.
"I know every time I get to sit in on one of the classes with Professor Brooks, I always take away something from it that I didn't know before, and I work in the industry," Heffernan said. "... It's mostly the number of questions students ask that let you know it's important to them. It's stuff they're experiencing every day and have a lot of questions about."
Dr. Brooks says she is encouraged by the response and hopes eventually that the program will be expanded. "There's a lot of excitement there," she said, "so I'm looking forward to work with the students."
Tesslyn Arrighi said that if she learns one thing from the course, it would be this: "How to manage my money. How to manage it well, so I don't go broke and so I can have a good future." (Story, photos and video by Steve Ide, University News)


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A TEAM of intrepid cyclists in their 60s has completed a 10-day charity bike ride through Vietnam and Cambodia.
Kendal surveyor Andrew Peill and friends Timothy Thompson, of Burneside, John Clark, from Kendal, and John Cawood, from the Wirral, cycled 310 miles to raise around £10,000 for Parkinson's UK.
The men were part of a 31-strong British cycling expedition which raised around £125,000 to help the charity fund research into the degenerative disorder.
Before beginning his ride, Mr Peill had already collected £3,500. Although not an avid cyclist, he said he decided to take on the challenge to support his wife, who was diagnosed with the disease.
The route began in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with the team travelling through teeming cities and rural countryside until the trip finshed in Beng Mealea, Cambodia.
Mr Peill said: "The trip was hard going but fabulous and we saw some wonderful sights. On three days, we rode up to 65 miles each day and probably around half that on the other days. It was so hot that we were sweating from the moment we set off at 7am to finishing at 6pm. But it was all worth it for such a worthy cause.
"The abiding memory to me was all the kids coming out to greet us when we rode through their villages. They all had smiles on their faces which went on forever. It created a lasting impression."
To donate to their effort, email email@example.com or visit the JustGiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/Andrew-Peill

subset: commoncrawl


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it would be so awesome to just be some guy with knowledge majors and a good education then see a job request from a huge company and fit all the large order qualifications then get the job and go from nobody to millionaire or even just a 6 digit income would be a ton!
You guys are retarded. Seriously the grammar crap is getting old. Whatever happened to stay on topic?


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Westwego — More trouble is brewing at Westwego's senior center, as city officials question why donations that were dedicated to the center were instead funneled to another organization.
The Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office already has been asked to investigate the issue, and the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's Office could soon be involved as well.
Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch Sr. said he doubts that any criminal activity occurred at the center, but he's passing his department's findings on to the district attorney so that an outside agency can have a look.
"I don't see that there's been any criminal activity here," Munch said. "It would be an accounting issue, not a criminal issue."
The investigation is examining how the city handled the expenditure and allocation of private donations to the senior center. City Accountant James Butler said that he learned in November that when individuals made donations to the center, director Ted Bergeron Jr. would deposit that money into an account set aside for "senior excursions." Often seniors at the center will take trips during the week, and the fund was used to reimburse Bergeron for costs he incurred on those trips, or for other gifts he purchased for seniors to encourage participation in activities, Butler said.
However, when Butler learned of the practice, he quickly recognized a problem. Louisiana law prohibits governmental agencies from purchasing gifts or things of value for private citizens with public money. Once Bergeron deposited donations into the city's accounts, they became city funds and had to follow state rules, Butler said.
"Once it gets into a city account, it can't be used to buy gifts," he said.
With the approval of Mayor Johnny Shaddinger, Butler and Bergeron decided that the city would transfer the balance of the fund, roughly $4,300, to Louisiana Kids Inc., a non-profit for which Bergeron serves as one of the directors. As a nonprofit, Louisiana Kids would have no problem purchasing items for seniors. Then in January, Butler said the city decided to move the funds from Louisiana Kids to the Jefferson Council on Aging, although that transfer is still waiting approval of a new cooperative endeavor agreement between the JCOA and Westwego. Shaddinger acknowledged that the situation is somewhat unorthodox, but said there is nothing unethical or illegal about it.
"We don't believe that anything was done improper," Shaddinger said, adding that Bergeron is a tireless advocate for seniors. "At no time, at no point, did anyone do anything that was immoral or illegal. If a mistake was made, it was a communication issue."
However, the unusual arrangement has piqued the interest of several Westwego City Council members who question why the money needed to be moved from city accounts to an account that Bergeron manages independently. Westwego formerly had a nonprofit dedicated to managing donations to the senior center, but that entity became dormant after the city took over the management of the center from the JCOA, Butler said.
Councilman Glenn Green wants the legislative auditor to examine the city's books to be certain that everything is acceptable, he said. Several residents have contacted Green about the issue, and he said he wants an independent examination to satisfy them.
"We did not want it to look political because it's election time, but it's city money. It's public money," Green said. "It looks serious to me. … If what I'm seeing is what happened, then I want to know why."
Councilman Ivy Rogers said he's asked Bergeron to come to the council's March 11 meeting to discuss the center and its funding. He added that it seems strange to see money used for city purposes funneled through private organizations, although he said the issue could be overblown.
"A lot of things get blown out of proportion, especially when it's election time," Rogers said.
However, Councilman Larry Warino said that not only is the handling of the money strange, but some of the reimbursements Bergeron requested when the city still managed the account concerned him.
He noted one instance where Bergeron took about 60 seniors to a restaurant in 2012 for a free meal and later requested reimbursement for a $200 tip. Warino said the entire situation has some unusual wrinkles.
"A lot of it just doesn't pass the smell test," Warino noted.
Westwego is already in discussions with the JCOA on how the senior center should be managed, and Bergeron's management style has been a source of concern for the JCOA. Westwego has managed the center independently since 2008 through a cooperative endeavor agreement with JCOA, but that agreement has expired, and the JCOA wants some changes in how the center is run before it agrees to a new one.
In particular, JCOA director Al Robichaux has expressed concern over the way senior field trips are handled and a perceived lack of communication from Bergeron. Westwego spends about $200,000 to operate the center but receives $40,000 from JCOA along with meals for seniors and travel reimbursements.


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CamWest/Toll Bros. returned to the Queen Anne Community Council's Land Use Review Board (LURC) with more updates on its development for the former Seattle Children's Home site (901 W. McGraw St.) on April 28.
The developer is turning the large site into town- and row houses with a few pocket parks. It was approved to move on to the Master Use Permit application process at the last Design Review Board (DRB) meeting in March. Despite that approval, the developers had made some changes and wanted to return to LURC again, said LURC chair Marty Kaplan.
"I really agree with the commitment you've made to keep advancing the plan," Kaplan said. "It's evident it keeps getting better."
When the developers received that approval in March, the development had 62 units, with its central plans being to keep the historic McGraw cottage, keep the site's exceptional trees and add a hill climb on the site.
Now, Toll Bros. has removed three units and pulled some of the units away from the street to open up the space even more.
CamWest/Toll Bros. plans to submit for the Master Use Permit "as soon as we're ready," which CamWest's Andrew Miller hopes is within the next 30 days. After it submits, the city must comment back, but the city is behind on projects, he said. The developer then must respond and apply for a Design Review Board (DRB) meeting. Miller expects the meeting to be in August or September.
Changes in the plan
On Ninth Avenue West, the developer has pulled the homes about 14 to 15 feet to give the trees room, developer Eric Campbell said. It also widened the openings along the street and took out a few units. The total number of homes is down to 59 from 62.
"We pulled back and made some units smaller, [which gives] the separation the neighborhood wanted," Miller said.
The company also added a street to divide the middle cluster of homes, "which brings in more light and air," Miller said.
All of the homes will be 4-Star Built Green, Campbell said.
Campbell said they are looking for suggestions from LURC and the community regarding the pavement treatment, brick and shingle styles. He said they would return to LURC to discuss those plans in the future.
The site only has one entrance, something neighbors have fought throughout the development process. The developer plans to create a narrow entrance that pedestrians and vehicles can use. The design is Scandinavian, and the idea is that "small streets slow down speed," Campbell explained. One board member cautioned against this type of street, saying he's seen it abused in Seattle.
The developer had requested and was approved to have a departure narrowing the driveways from the required 24 feet to 20 feet. This was so "pedestrians can cross quicker and…the narrower the street, the slower the cars go," Miller said.
Neighbors at the meeting continued to offer suggestions, asking for architecture that isn't too modern and would blend into the streetscape on 10th Avenue West. Another neighbor requested double handrails on the hill climb. The hill climb will be a public easement, Campbell said.
Controversial elements
Landscaping is the next big adventure for the project, Miller said. The city doesn't want the developer to plant street trees along Ninth Avenue West because there are already so many trees there and new trees could interrupt the root structure of those existing trees.
Trees have always been a point of controversy for this development. One neighbor requested the developers continue to look at drip lines and make sure the trees will not be harmed. Another requested the developer save four elm trees on the property.
Parking has been another hot topic. The city doesn't want to see cars in an LR-1 zone, Miller said. That's why the developer has tried to include as many two-car garages as possible, to free up the street for guest parking.
Campbell reminded the crowd, "You'd be surprised what we're paying for the property," noting the money was going to a good cause.
"We're not trying to be deceptive," he said. "It's going to be starting in the [$600,000 range] and going way up from there."
To comment on this story, write to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Help Contemplative Poor Clare Sisters in Mexico
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Project Code: 230-06-79
"It is with great joy that we are able to inform you that, thanks to the grace of God and the generosity of people such as you, work is now almost finished on the construction of our convent of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the diocese of Cuauhtémoc-Madera. … Many, many thanks to the benefactors of ACN! May God reward them!" So runs the letter from the prioress of the Poor Clares, Sister Elena Salas Nieto, thanking ACN for supporting the construction of this convent, a task begun in 2005 and which is expected to be finally completed this year.
For 27 years the Sisters lived in an old building, until ACN agreed to help them for the construction of a new convent. Over the past years one section has been built at a time: convent enclosure, refectory, dayroom and chapel, and now the guesthouse is the last thing to be completed. Still needed here are the kitchen and two communal rooms.The Sisters are eagerly looking forward to the completion of their convent. It is of great importance, not only for them but also for the entire local area, since their presence helps to create a "climate of solitude and silence" which is indispensable for the contemplative style of living, as Sister Elena explains. "It is also very important for priests, religious and ordinary laypeople who are searching for an intimate personal encounter with God," she adds. Once the guesthouse is completed, visitors can be welcomed who are searching for God and for meaning in their lives. Already the convent is a place of sanctuary, sought out by many people who come here with their "everyday concerns, such as hunger, war, prison, persecution, personal unhappiness, sickness, unemployment, injustice and lack of faith," the prioress continues. The Sisters help them wherever they can and also bring their cares and concerns before Almighty God, "with the certainty of being heard." Again and again they see people who are on the edge of the abyss, and endeavour to put them back on their feet again, sometimes quite literally, with the help of their outpatient clinic and food kitchen.In order to complete the final stage, however, the Sisters need one last bit of help. Quite recently, two Sisters had to be admitted to hospital, and the last reserves of cash were spent on operations for them. So it will not be possible to complete the final work on their convent without the generous support of our benefactors once more. ACN is proposing to help them with $7,500. Will you now help support these good Sisters in Mexico? Aid to the Church in Need commits to invest your funds where they will have the greatest impact for the Church that we serve. Funds donated to Aid to the Church in Need's projects will be used towards the greatest need in our programs to help keep the Faith alive.
to Projects in Need


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The Rush to Bitcoin ASICs: Ravi Iyengar launches CoinTerraby Ian Cutress on 8/27/2013 5:15 PM EST
51 Comments
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Chillin1248 - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - linkDuring the gold rush, it was the guys who sold the shovels who made the real money.
The fact that they are selling these systems instead of using the machines themselves is very telling. Reply
Crono - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - linkIn an arms race, you can either be the one stockpiling weapons or be the one selling them.
Perhaps the only winning move is not to play. ;) Reply
beginner99 - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkgood point. but then you could say it's also about risk. the $14'000 they get for sure, the return not. Reply
martyrant - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkI want to know who's buying anything from them, period. The most widely used tool for calculating your investment's return has had Cointerra poised to run red even at these new prices...
Great talent, but I think they're foolish if they think they can capture any of the market with even their "new" pricing model. Reply
Flunk - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkBitcoin isn't about being rational. Most people who are mining Bitcoin right now have either made very little or are in the red. ASICs are expensive and the difficulty keeps increasing exponentially. If Cointerra does drop these $14,000 behemoths it will make all lesser products obsolete nearly immediately.
Anyway, I don't recommend anyone get into Bitcoin now it's just too volatile. I wouldn't be surprised if someone launches a 100TH ASIC next year. Reply
martyrant - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkObviously you don't know much about Bitcoin, either. These $14,000 "behemoths" are per GH/s stupidly priced and would not make anything obsolete. They are coming so late to the game, I'm curious if they're going to gain any noticeable market share without some seriously aggressive pricing (which they certainly aren't doing with 2TH/s for $14k).
While some people may be making very little or are in the red, there are plenty of savvy users and even business professionals that are cornering this mostly untapped market and making good money whether it be in mining or services. The fools who see it as a "get rich quick scheme" who bought either vaporware or over priced miners that will never ROI seem to be the ones you are talking about, who generally have done little to no research on the Bitcoin market. Reply
ithinker - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkASICMINER does both: they sell hardware AND they mine, so it really depends on the outfit. Some specialize, some diversify and some fail! Reply
ganeshts - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - linkEven big companies like Intel, AMD and NVIDIA don't sell A0 steppings of their silicon.
Irrespective of the complexity of the design, if this company thinks their A0 stepping will be good enough to ship to customers, I would be pleasantly surprised. December seems to be very very optimistic if they are still in the physical design stage.
It is pretty strange that a 15-year silicon industry veteran is talking up their product when they are still doing layouts and yet to tapeout. Usually, the industry only talks about upcoming chips if they already have the initial steppings out and lab debug is going on. Exactly the reason why companies like Butterfly Labs have earned the ire of many of their prospective customers. Reply
Ungo - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkIt's possible for A0 to be a perfectly good stepping if it's not a complex device. I've worked on a project where we could've in principle sold A0 to some customers, and A1 was the final version -- and this was a very complex SoC with a lot of new IP.
These Bitcoin ASICs are large, yet at the same time, from the design perspective they're the stupidest simple chips you can imagine: nothing but an array of identical hashing engines and a tiny bit of logic to manage them. No CPU cores, no complex clocking, few or no asynchronous domain crossings, little I/O. The design and design validation efforts should both be pretty trivial.
For a good team, that is. Butterfly Labs showed signs of being inexperienced and terrible all along. If these guys actually are as experienced as claimed, it should not be hard for them. The only seriously challenging issues are power density and power distribution. However, depending on how the contract with their fab partner is structured, that might be partially or completely the other party's responsibility.
People who want to buy these should put in some serious thought about what intrinsic value there is to bitcoins (hint: none, it's a tulip bubble in progress) before jumping in. There's a reason why these guys aren't just going to mine for themselves, and it's not any of the "don't scare away the customers" reasons Ravi Iyengar gave in the interview. Reply
SunLord - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkA0 steppings are sold all the time they just almost never exist in the retail channel. If you want to find an A0 stepping look into OEM chips for example I have a few OEM LSI SAS controllers that have A0 stepping chips which were never used or shipped on any LSI branded product. A0 stepping are usually fully functional but might not hit a few key performance metric Reply
Dentons - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - linkIyengar was clearly trying to duck the following question:
Butterfly Labs have announced a similar 28nm product shipping around the same time frame in a PCIe card type-form factor. Are they reselling your product?
Why would he not answer that question? The most likely answer is that Butterfly is indeed reselling their product, perhaps even an investor. Reply
QFH1 - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - link"There is sometimes a difference compared to PR and what happens – I was under the impression that BFL would be shipping around February."
He didn't dodge the question. He basically said you shouldn't believe BFLs press releases because they have a track record of failing to live up to them. " Reply
Dentons - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkHe absolutely dodged the question.
All he had to say was yes or no. He didn't. Maybe he didn't mean to dodge it, maybe he screwed up, but he certainly didn't provide an answer to the question.
If he didn't intend to dodge the question, why does the second part of his answer completely change the topic?
Answering a question that wasn't asked is the definition of "dodging the question". Reply
Flunk - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkButterfly Labs' reputation is so bad I think he doesn't want to be associated with them. Being more than a year behind on pre-orders will do that for you. Reply
Dentons - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkWhich is probably why he so blatantly ducked the question.
It suggests Butterfly Labs has a contractual reseller agreement with CoinTerra, they may even be investors. Clearly, the interviewee doesn't want the association with Butterfly. He realized that were he to admit the truth, the lede story across many tech sites could be, "CoinTerra associated with Butterfly Labs" or worse, "CoinTerra a re-branding of Butterfly Labs?"
So what does he do? He takes a minor shot at Butterfly, then completely ducks and dodges the question by answering a completely different, unasked question.
The obvious conclusion to be drawn is yes, Butterfly Labs does have a reseller agreement with CoinTerra, and may even be investors. Reply
Cyrax89721 - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - linkThis seems like one of those "too good to be true" scenario's. This is my first time hearing about the machine, but is it really as simple a consumer spending $14,000 on this thing and making four times the return in a month? Reply
madmilk - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - linkFrom this: "CoinTerra plan to drop 2000 TH/s of power in December, despite the global hashrate of only 500 TH/s now" we can expect difficulty to increase by about 400%. That would mean that the return on investment would fall to ~20% of its current value... which means you're actually losing money based on current rates.
On the other hand, without this device you're completely sunk. GPU mining is dead; this thing is a four thousand times faster than a 7970, and costs less than 50 times more. Even older ASICs will have trouble keeping up.
If CoinTerra really thought these boxes would be profitable, they wouldn't sell them. Reply
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - linkYour math is wrong on the returns. If difficulty increases by a factor of 4x, all that means is your rate of production drops to 1/4. So instead of recuperating your costs in one week it would take four weeks.
Good luck getting the money out of BTC, though! And this of course is assuming it actually ships any time soon. BFL is still shipping "soon" for many of their poor customers. Reply
Madpacket - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - linkAs an owner of several BFL ASIC machines currently mining around 125GH, Cointerra is the first company that looks to have something to really shake up the market but we can't forget about KNC or Bitfury (not mentioned in the article for some reason?). They should have solutions selling well before Cointerra or BFL's 28nm super ASIC chips arrive driving the difficulty up to insane levels. Also despite what people think of BFL (I hate them) they are shipping at much faster rates which currently contributing the massive difficulty increases as of late.
The future of Bitcoin mining machines will need to be sold at seriously reduced prices, the cost of the current hardware is astronomical compared to the returns expected adjusting for difficulty. The only the thing to offset this will be the price of BTC, if it can double or triple in value it will work out good for the miners but this is hard to predict.
For anyone getting into BTC mining now, good luck. It's been a fun couple of years for my own adventures but the future looks pretty pointless if you're expecting any sort of large returns.
Have a look at this calculator to get an idea of the returns expected for many of the popular ASIC brands arriving in the next quarter(s). Pretty depressing TBFH.
Good luck all! Reply
Nagorak - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkIf you've made out well, now might be the time to consider transitioning your gains, or "winnings" or whatever out. That would be my suggestion anyway. Reply
QFH1 - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkIyengar wants to sell his company to a big player in a few years for hundred of millions of dollars.
He doesn't care about grabbing a cut of the relatively much smaller value of newly mined coins. Reply
jwcalla - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkWho are these 150 people that can drop $14k so whimsically? Reply
Nagorak - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkPerhaps those who have been mining BitCoins hard from the start. If someone had the money to just drop a few $100K a few years back on mining equipment, they may have managed to make a substantial amount of money. On paper it looked like it could work, but it was also very risky. If you come in with a large investment, and too many others do as well, the return utterly dries up.
On top of that, you'd have to worry about whether BTCs would simply lose favor, leaving you holding a bag of useless virtual particles. They have no inherent value so they can go to zero or close to zero if people's sentiment changes. It doesn't even exist physically, like gold, or have the backing of a country/economy behind it.
However, if some did come in big like that, they may now have the resources to keep buying better equipment. They're still fighting against everyone else out there who can do the same thing, though.
My honest opinion is that at some point the party is going to end, and many of those who think they've made out well, will end up with pretty much nothing. It actually wouldn't surprise me if the transition to where the average person can't mine anymore, due to GPUs being too slow compared to ASICs, ends up being the death knell of people's interest in BTCs. Reply
Daniel Egger - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkActually those things might be usable for massive password cracking or computation for rainbow tables as well... Reply
Ammaross - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkSeems you missed what "ASIC" actually means: it does one thing really really well, in this case, the SPECIFIC hashing used for bitcoins. Reply
extide - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkYeah, they are good at computing SHA hashes. That ability could be used for other things in the hands of the right people... (not you) Reply
Flunk - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkMaybe the Winklevoss Twins bought them all? Reply
dishayu - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkPardon my ignorance, but does the "mining" process lead to some actual, useful computation work in the background or is it just an electronic equivalent of mining for gold? Reply
Nagorak - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkIt's mostly just wasted power. I briefly considered BitCoin farming a few years ago. On the face of it, it appeared profitable, and maybe it would have been. But the sheer power consumed caused me to turn away from the idea. We're talking about absolutely insane amounts of power, for what is really a very questionable use.
And you'd be constantly stuck climbing a down escalator. It's basically a race to get a more and more powerful mining setup to stay ahead of your competitors. If someone came in and dropped a lot of money early on, they could have basically cornered the market, but there was substantial risk involved. And getting all those profits back out of BTCs would be another problem.
Personally, I expect the whole thing to implode at some point, like the Ponzi scheme it is. Reply
nathanddrews - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkNot a Ponzi scheme, just a standard economic bubble ("tulip bubble" as Ungo called it). Not everything that has risk is a Ponzi scheme or a bad investment.
From the outside looking in, not having even attempted mining, it sure seems like the gold rush is over for the common man. Now instead of needing only a shovel and a pan, he needs Dynamite and an army of loaders, trucks, chemical separators, etc. I was excited to see BTC drive some level of CPU/GPU compute innovation, not churn out single-use ASICs.
For all I know, this is just the beginning of a second wave of the gold rush and in two years I'll be kicking myself for not buying four of these CoinTerra machines. Hmm... nope, I think I'll stick with boring ol' 401K and IRAs. Reply
Abdussamad - Sunday, September 22, 2013 - linkMining is how bitcoin transactions are verified by the global community of bitcoin users. It is integral to the bitcoin economy. Reply
chubbypanda - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - link"... silicon is expected to arrive for system building in December and ship the same month."
I know nothing about ASICs development, so I'll assume his estimates are reasonable. Thought the whole process doesn't stop with finished ASIC, once they get ahold of functional ASIC, they'd need to assemble logic board and spend time there: hw debugging, validation, second PCB revision, reliability & performance testing (on system level), and at some point start manufacturing in order to ship. All this within a month?! Extremely ambitious! Reply
Daniel Egger - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkActually since the interconnect will be SPI it should connect and scale easily (i.e. without the device needing hundreds of I/Os like current CPUs do) and they might even simulate a smaller version of their chip using an FPGA and test their PCB with that. The only really nasty thing about the PCB and the chips will be power planes and the cooling that will have to be massive...
NB: Companies have designed far more complex PCBs than that in only one or two iterations. Reply
Krysto - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkWhen the ASIC's saturate the market, just like CPU's did in the Bitcoin land, then GPU's then FPGA's - what's next? D-Wave quantum computers? Or is there another mid-ground for an order of magnitude more powerful computing hardware? Reply
extide - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkThere is no 'next' thing. ASIC's are the end game. The only thing left is more powerful ASIC's. Reply
James5mith - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkOne thing I don't understand... (Which might answer Krysto's question too):
How close are we to being done with the mining phase? Bitcoins have an inherent limit of something like 20 million bitcoins, right? It was designed into the system all along. Once that limit hits, no new ones are created. They are just shuffled between people. All of this hardware will be dead weight once the 20 millionth coin is mined. What is the long term strategy here? Reply
IanCutress - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkThe reward for finding a block cuts in half every 4-5 years or so, meaning coins will continue to be generated until 2140. At that point, the reward for finding a block will be the sum of all the transaction fees in that block. Reply
Rick83 - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkI wonder how useful these things are to do some brute force cryptanalysis.
Especially generating rainbow tables for a large number of IVs should become quite cost-effective, with this kind of hashing power. Reply
maximumGPU - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkInteresting article.
However i have to lean on the "too good to be true" side.
I don't know that much about bitcoin mining, but It certainly looks like arbitrage opportunities in the financial markets. Only the very first and quickest will profit from it, and that action by itsef makes the opportunity disapear.
Seems that a few will have some reward from these machines, but most will end up with useless junk with no resale value. Reply
Rocket321 - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkYou should have asked Ravi, "but can it run Crysis?"
At least with a high-end CPU/GPU, you end up with a nice desktop to play games on. :) Reply
heliot - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkYou should have asked Ravi, "will it blend?"
Fixed. Reply
kwrzesien - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkI'm going to laugh real hard, or maybe even cry, when we find out this entire bitcoin hashing thing is really just an NSA cover for a distributed cracking system to read our encrypted emails. Reply
Guspaz - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkThis is a dead-end business... or at least the window is very narrow. The difficulty to mine bitcoins goes up exponentially, so it's a game of diminishing returns. Already half of all possible BitCoins have been mined, and in just four years, three quarters of all BitCoins will be mined. There's no long-term future for a business making mining equipment.... Reply
heliot - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkYou seem to implicitly assume that the actual trade value of Bitcoin is fixed. In such a scenario, mining Bitcoin is a fool's game, particularly for those who don't get in while the getting's good. However, given that increased acceptance and prevalence of this currency, I simply cannot fathom anyone believing that Bitcoin in coming years will be worth what it is now - it will be worth much, much more.... Reply
Daniel Egger - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkWhen the amount of currency is fixed but the total value increases the individual value also needs to increase. So basically it's not only a betting against the computation power but also against the future value of BTC.
Interestingly if someone had the spare money to mine a few coins and keep them instead of selling them right away if Bitcoin really succeeds they will be rich as hell. I can only recommend always having a few coins stashed. ;) Reply
BFSB - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkPlease correct your article. Bitfury ASIC has demostrated COP of 0.5J / GHash. Bitfury ASIC is a shipping product and available from bitfurystrikesback.com Reply
heliot - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkThe BFL misinformation makes it look like this article was written by the bitcointalk forum trolls. BFL wasn't a year late, they were six months late which is the same as AMD's latest video card release delay. The pain as a result of that delay is what has caused so much venom. They were always upfront about their selling pre-orders. Either way, they've been delivering lots of hardware for several months now and that's why the network difficulty is going up. I would conservatively estimate that they already represent 150TH/s of the network - and they're not even done! If they'd done so earlier, the difficulty would be out of control now and there wouldn't be any room for any of these ASIC alternatives and would-be upstart competitors. Cointerra looks like a good option, to be sure, but honestly it's somewhat alarming to see all these quick & dirty competitors come in with promises of a short timeline for the production of a finished product. I mean, there's got to be proof that they can actually do what they claim they'll do. Without prior efforts demonstrating that they've gone through the needful R&D steps to produce a product, it is rather unclear that they will be able to do what they say they will do. Reply
michal1980 - Wednesday, August 28, 2013 - linkSorry this article sounds like a fluff bullshit piece. If the author follows bitcoin, he would know that diffculity has been sky rocketing. Going up ~20% every 12 days. If got the unit in December 1st. Your earning potential for the first 2 weeks would already be about 1/3rd of the 54,000 dollars. ie about 8thosand the first two weeks. and only goes down from there Reply
ShieTar - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkSure, but remember that the value of bitcoin is defined by the interest of people in them. Everybody who owns bitcoin right now has a personal interest in getting the rest of the world interested in investing into them, because once the interest is fading, their value will quickly drop to 0$. Reply
MadAd - Thursday, September 05, 2013 - linkagreed, I plugged in the cointerra machine with a very conservative 100% (conservative considering 1 month to date actually saw ~130% rise) per month difficulty increase and even from december a buyer wouldnt break even on the machine+power cost Reply
Dustinthewind - Thursday, August 29, 2013 - linkThankfully scypt based coins like Feathercoin and Litecoin as somewhat immune to ASICs. Reply


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Faculty of Humanities
The Faculty of Humanities at NTNU is both a Faculty within the tradition of human sciences and a Faculty that is a humanistic force within the main profile of technology and natural sciences specific for NTNU.
As part of a university with Technology and Natural Sciences as its main profile, the Faculty of Humanities aims to contribute with the humanistic perspectives necessary for the understanding of the role of Technology in society and of technology as a product of culture.
Through the Humanities' emphasis on reflection and critical thinking, the Faculty's aim is to contribute to NTNU's development of its role as an educational and research institution, in close dialogue with society, culture, industry and commerce.
The Faculty is responsible for teaching and research within a broad range of subjects in the Humanities: Language and Communication, History, Culture, Religion, Philosophy, Literature and Art.
Furthermore, as a result of the university's main profile the Faculty aims to develop existing programmes of study in the intersection between technology and the Humanities, such as music technology and language technology and also to establish new study programmes with an interdisciplinary focus.
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Professor Anne Kristine Børresen, firstname.lastname@example.com
Academic staff members: Approximately 400
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A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy impaled his foot on a seesaw in Dunster this afternoon (August 6).
Fire crews from Minehead and an ambulance attended the incident at Mill Lane after receiving the call at 3.05pm.
On arrival, the boy had been released from the seesaw.
He had impaled his foot on a large nail and sustained a deep wound.
The child was taken to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton after the crews treated him.


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de Eva Kutscheid
Acerca del libro
Written and beautifully illustrated by Evamaria R. Kutscheid. "These illustrations are a result of addressing my cancer journey at MD Anderson and tracking the development of imagery as I underwent whole-brain radiation treatment for left-brain lesions. It is sad, yet interesting, that these strong and narrative images now come to a conclusion. The treatments were effective but not conclusive, and the fight continues. I continue not to be cancer free and have lesions on both sides of my body. There was no beginning or end — things just happened. And now they just continue. It just is. It continues. No end in sight, no beginning. It just is, it just was, it just is." Designed by Tim Bolt.
Inicia sesión o crea una cuenta para publicar un comentario.


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Natalie Toro, Julia Murney and More Join Cheyenne Jackson and Laura Osnes in BROADWAY UNPLUGGED, 12/3
Producer Scott Siegel announced this morning that joining the previously announced Cheyenne Jackson (The Performers) and Laura Osnes (Cinderella) as stars of BROADWAY UNPLUGGED on Monday, December 3rd at Town Hall will be a second wave of big-voiced talent.
Natalie Toro (A Tale of Two Cities), Julia Murney (Falling), ORFEH (Legally Blonde), Andy Karl (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), William Michals (South Pacific, Man of La Mancha), Jeffry Denman (The Holiday Guys), Bill Daugherty (Brother, Can You Spare a Dime), and more stars soon to be announced!
Tickets are currently on sale at The Town Hall box office (123 W. 43rd Street) and via TicketMaster for the 9th Annual BROADWAY UNPLUGGED concert in which today's Broadway stars sing like the stars of yesteryear: without microphones! Unplugged! In this age of head-splitting, over-amplifcation the sound of the pure human voice soaring through the orchestra and then sailing up into the balcony of an acoustically pure concert hall is to hear Broadway show music at its most thrilling.
Tickets are exactly the same price as they have been every year since the first Broadway Unplugged: Orchestra and Loge: $75; Front Balcony: $50; Rear Balcony: $25.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.


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snake oil
NOUN: 1. A worthless preparation fraudulently peddled as a cure for many ills. 2. Speech or writing intended to deceive; humbug.
I've associated this with the American Old West, but perhaps the second definition originated in the really old, old west...
Spell May Comprise Oldest Semitic Text
Believing that some snakes spoke the Semitic language of the Canaanites, Egyptians included the magic spells in inscriptions on two sides of the sarcophagus in an effort to ward them off.
"Come, come to my house," reads one section in the Semitic language that is supposed to be the snake's mother speaking, trying to lure him out of the tomb. In another passage, the snake is addressed as if he is a lover with "Turn aside, O my beloved."
The text includes words that have the same meaning as in Hebrew, like "yad" for hand, "ari" for lion, and "beit" for house, he said.
Hmmm, did JK Rowling mine even the KMT for her snake charmers?


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Lush Soap
Lush Soap Reviews
One of The Best SoapsI discovered the Lush boutique, and I am in love with their products, which are all organic and hand made. I bought the "Karma" soap. It smells incredible, softens my skin, lathers well, and the fragrance really lasts! Layered with the Karma Kream, the fragrance is wonderful. People have actually stopped me to ask what fragrance I am wearing! I highly recommend this product. — 4 years, 3 months agoCaroleVonAllten | 1401 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 1 of 2 people said helpful
over priced.You'll either love or hate Lush soaps. Most of the scents are very insense-like, which turns off many people. The soap is basically glycerin based, so it's inexpensive to make, yet they charge top prices, which is a bummer. They also give you issues if you ask them to cut smaller, more affordable pieces. I've only found one nice scent, Sexy Peel, which fills my bathroom with fresh lemon scent. The...read moreir frag is very strong, so expect your adjacent room to smell like it too. The cleansing and foaming is as expected of glycerin soaps, which is pretty good with no residues. — 7 years, 8 months agoMakeupGuru | 444 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 5 of 8 people said helpful
great!Long lasting, gentle but thorough cleaning..love it! — 8 years, 3 months agobrassa | 447 reviews
This review is: Helpful | Not helpful | Inappropriate | 0 of 3 people said helpful
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Pumpkin Shortage of 2011 Hits the Northeastby FN Dish Editor in News, October 8th, 2011
If you haven't seen the usual mounds of pumpkins lined up in fields or canned pumpkin stocked to the ceiling at your local supermarket, it's because there's a pumpkin shortage in the Northeast. Due to heavy rains and the destruction left in the wake of Hurricane Irene, many farmers say they've lost thousands of pumpkins, some their entire crop.
"Wholesale prices have doubled in some places as farmers nurse their surviving pumpkin plants toward a late harvest. Some farmers are trying to buy pumpkins from other regions to cover orders," said The Associated Press.
Due to the difficult season, Food Network Kitchens stocked up early. "We heard that the pumpkin crop may be scarce due to the weather this year, so we (purchasing team) went to the farmers' markets early in the season to buy a plethora of sugar pumpkins for a piece we are working on for Food Network Magazine," said Jacob Schiffman.
If you come across pumpkins, don't hesitate to pick them up. It's easy to make pumpkin puree and it freezes well. And if you're lucky enough to get a hold of a canned pumpkin, check out Food Network's 5 Best Recipes for Pumpkin Cheesecake.


text: you tube [ Two Awesome American Idol Performances [VIDEO] By Gary Guida May 8, 2014 So, have you've been watching season 13 of American Idol? Read More Category: Entertainment, Videos Tags: American Idol, Caleb Johnson, Can't Help Falling in Love, Jena Irene, Maybe I'm Amazed Send to a friend! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Pin it! Reddit This! Share on Tumblr!


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Pointed lace up flat.
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For shoes or ankle boots to look and feel sensational they need to fit you perfectly. We offer different width fittings - to help find a perfect fit that feels amazing to wear.
- Place a fabric tape measure on the floor cm side down.
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- On the Shoes or Ankle Boots page select your foot size and then choose your corresponding width fitting; 'narrow', 'standard' or 'wide'. E.g. if you are a foot size 37 and your feet measure 21.5cm, then you would be 'narrow'.
For a more details on finding your perfect fit see our Fit Guide page
We're passionate about finding the perfect pair for you; so we're on hand to help with measuring, fitting and styling. Just give us a call on 1 877 270 9274 to chat to one of our expert fitters, or drop us an email here.
Ted&Muffy Heritage brings together an edited selection of customer favourites from over 10 years of expertise in boot-making. A celebration of English design and European craftsmanship, these tried and tested classics are loved for their versatility and made to stand the test of time. The ultimate in timeless fitted boots, available in up to 21 calf sizes.Find out more Shop the collection


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CES Gear - What's in Brian's Bagby Brian Klug on 1/6/2013 9:08 PM EST
- Posted in
- camera
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Trade Shows
- That's Not My Bag
17 Comments
Back to Article
tipoo - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - linkI always feel confined by 13" displays. I think lighter 15 inch laptops with no optical drives should take off. That should bring the weight to about the same as a 14" with an optical drive. Reply
Ryan Smith - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - linkBrian, the solution to your problems to start up a Sherpa service at CES. With someone else doing the carrying, that would free you up to take photos and save your back in the process. Reply
Paulman - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - linkCorrect me if I'm wrong, but I kind of assumed that Brian was just serving as Anand's sherpa? Except that Brian doesn't just carry the gear, he has to operate it, too :P Reply
fabarati - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - linkI volunteer! Reply
twotwotwo - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - linkBrilliant--you could probably get someone to lug a bag just to get in and see whatever Brian's photographing with all those cameras. :) Reply
Paulman - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - link"This way I have a device in my pocket on all the major carriers save Sprint at the show."
Two things:
1) WHY would you even want that? Ha ha (I assume it's just for curiosity's sake, to have first hand experience on how the different networks perform in a real life large event setting)
2) I prefer wireless "operator" rather than "carrier", due to the namespace collision ("carrier" is also used to refer to frequency band).
Hee hee hee (for those not in the know, #2 is actually what Brian himself says these days - now I'm just throwing it back in his face because he slipped up and reverted to "carrier" instead of "operator" in the article, ha ha :D). Reply
Eggrenade - Monday, January 07, 2013 - link"Operator" sounds weird to me. I would say wireless "provider," but I could just be a little weird myself. Reply
Brian Klug - Monday, January 07, 2013 - link1) At CES every wireless operator pretty much dies at one point or another. It's something none of the *operators* (you caught me) are immune to, so I want a device on each one just in case the others fail, otherwise it's impossible to post or do anything.
2) You got me, fixed, lol.
-Brian Reply
randomlinh - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - link"Because the SD card slot on my 2011 MBP has never worked properly with most of my SD cards"
What cards? Not a mac owner, but I've always found that to be a perk that borders on necessity. Reply
Malih - Monday, January 07, 2013 - linkI don't know about SD cards, but I have lots of different brand of microSD and they all work fine with my 2011 MBP, I mostly use microSD with adapters instead of straight SD. Reply
CalaverasGrande - Monday, January 07, 2013 - linkthe SD card slot is a known issue with MBPs. My 2010 MBP has this problem as well. In my case my higher capacity SD cards are more finicky than the 512mb and 1gb cards I still have laying about.
I wonder if it doenst have something to do with the odd "half in" mechanism of the card reader. Reply
Brian Klug - Monday, January 07, 2013 - linkMy SD card slot just has always had issues reading every SD card I throw at it. Patriot, SanDisk, micro->full size adapters, the Eye-Fi card, it doesn't matter. I have to jam it in and tilt it at an extreme angle to make it work at all.
-Brian Reply
tipoo - Monday, January 07, 2013 - linkAny idea if that's still a problem in the 2012 MBP? I seem to recall an article section on that but I don't remember which. Reply
Aikouka - Sunday, January 06, 2013 - linkI've pretty much been on the look out for a new laptop bag ever since my Christmas trip. Given that I head up north, I almost always get screwed over by mother nature in some fashion, which tends to involve more time spent in an airport than intended. I also had TSA flag an item (that weighed 2lb) in my checked baggage, which meant I had to put it in my laptop bag. Well, all of this added up to giving me some rather worn out shoulders from my messenger-style laptop bag.
The Rampaging Mob (medium or large) ought to be a nice (yet pricey) solution! Reply
dishayu - Monday, January 07, 2013 - linkWhy carry 2 USB modems when you can just tether from one of the phones? Reply
mrdude - Monday, January 07, 2013 - linkNo Chesty?
Although it seems like it would be convenient for carrying around your camera at the ready, you can't help but feel a tad disappointed that there's no place to put your bag of Cheetos. Reply
DAM27 - Monday, January 07, 2013 - linkI wonder if you'd try a wrist cuff as an alternative camera strap? I've nearly funded one on kickstarter that is meant to stay on as a cuff all day while your camera can clip in and out for when you're shooting. Would love to know what you think if you get a minute: http://kck.st/12zAuBW Reply


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HOUSTON - Hurricane hunters took off from Ellington Field in Southeast Houston Monday morning to fly into Tropical Storm Isaac.
It was the first of several flights leaving Ellington Field and heading into the Gulf of Mexico to get a better look and handle on Isaac.
Monday's flight into the storm will take about 10 to 12 hours.
Hurricane hunters will drop two types of instruments out of the reconnaissance plane to record and measure the atmosphere and Gulf waters.
Crews who were evacuated from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, where Tropical Storm, soon to be Hurricane, Isaac is expected to wreak havoc.
About five crews, along with six C-130 J airplanes, were evacuated.
"When we go up, we're looking for maximum speeds at the surface, as well as the wind speeds of whatever flight level we might be flying at, whether it's 10,000 or 5,000 feet. We're also trying to find the exact center of the storms," Hurricane Hunter Captain Kyle Larson said.
This will be Capt. Larson's 16th trip into the eye of a storm. He says every trip is different and hurricane hunters must prepare for the unexpected. The information they gather on wind speed, intensity and movement will help forecasters predict where Isaac will make landfall.
"Ultimately, it's about safety and making sure the people who need to be warned are warned and not evacuate more people than absolutely necessary. Keeping the roads free for people who actually have to leave town," Capt. Larson said.
Crews will be in the sky a total of 12 hours. While experienced at this type of mission, the hurricane hunters try to fly above hail and lightning to guarantee the safety of the plane and her crew.
"You don't really -- I wouldn't say -- get scared, but you're always concentrating on your mission. Making sure you're doing it safely," Capt. Larson said.
Copyright 2012 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Topic: The Northwestern - Deadliest Catch boat
Yesterday me, my daughter, and her fiance went to see the Northwestern, which was docked in Ballard. We weren't sure exactly where the boat was docked, but found it after driving around the shore for about 15 mintues. We walked down to the dock, passing some big warehouse-like boat repair facilities, and went right up to the boat.
We were on the dock and heard voices on the boat, so Jason (Jessica's fiance) went on the ladder and poked his head up and asked if we could tour the boat. Edgar remembered me from the book signing, and had us come up on deck. We shook hands with Edgar and Jake Anderson, and they let us into the boat. We saw the galley, the mess, the bunkrooms, and then went up to the bridge. I got to sit in the captain's seat! It was awesome. We then went down and talked to the guys for about 5 minutes. Jake and Edgar are great guys, down to earth, and not into the celebrity thing at all. It was pretty cool to met them.
I will post my pics on Facebook.
One thing off the bucket list!


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|Kaiser Consolidation Report (January 11, 2011)
Hawaii Department of Education
Kaiser Consolidation Report (January 11, 2011)
|© Hawaii State Department of Education, P.O. Box 2360, Honolulu, HI 96804; Physical address: 1390 Miller St, Honolulu, HI 96813; phone: 808-586-3230; fax: 808-586-3234. All rights reserved. For problems/questions concerning this web site, please email the webmaster. Links to other web sites should not be considered an endorsement. DOE is not responsible for the content of external web sites.


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If this is your first time on BYC, we suggest you start with one of these three options:
If you're already a member of our community, click here to login & click here to learn what's new!
How do I know which hens are laying?
Discussion in 'Chicken Behaviors and Egglaying' started by mthro2, Jun 13, 2011.


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Q. Has anyone experienced titanium anode baskets dissolving in a nickel sulfamate plating bath with a pH of 2.5 and no current flowing? I am wondering if the baskets I have purchased are of inferior quality compared to the older baskets I am replacing. These new baskets tend to dissolve even in alkaline cyanide plating baths, although not as quickly as in the nickel bath. Do you have any ideas as to what is going on? B.J.
A. If you purchased the new titanium baskets from a reputable manufacturer, it is not likely that the titanium used in the baskets is inferior to that which was used in your previous set of baskets.
Corrosion of the titanium baskets in your alkaline cyanide plating bath should not occur if the baskets are completely filled with a good-quality copper. Oxygen-free high thermal conductivity (OFHC) copper is recommended. Corrosion of the baskets has been reported with other grades of copper anodes.
Titanium is attacked by fluorides and, to a lesser degree, by chlorides. High concentrations of sulfate (in excess of 20 percent), usually from sulfuric acid, will corrode titanium at a fairly high rate. Titanium forms an oxide layer on the surface that protects the underlying titanium from damage. If the titanium anodes are subject to a voltage higher than 25 V DC this oxide layer starts to dissolve. This might be your problem. Another possibility is that your titanium anode baskets are not completely filled, so that the entire basket makes contact with nickel and localized corrosion is taking place. Titanium baskets that are too close to the size of the plating tank also have been known to corrode. Inadequate agitation may lead to corrosion as well.
Some platers have solved this problem by switching to zirconium anode baskets, which are available commercially. Find vendors by searching PFOnline.com.


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Results 1 to 20 of 83
Thread: Spec Ops - Not Crossing the Line
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
- Posts
- 2,429
Spec Ops - Not Crossing the Line
So I finished Spec Ops in a single sit down. Five hours. What follows is something I hope will foster discussion on not only this game, but on narrative and player agency in gaming.
Warning: Spoilers ahead. And this is even more important than usual. There is absolutely no reason other than narrative/story to play this game. Reading this thread before you do so will absolutely destroy the experience to the point where you will have wasted the $10 you just spent on the game in the Steam sale.
Right then.
Spec Ops the line would have been a far better experience had the developers remembered they were making a game and not a movie. That's the short version and some of you clever folks will doubtless glean the entire point of this rambling post from that single sentence. Call it a Thesis then, for this post.
The longer version, as I wrote on my blog just today, goes something like this (I won't paste the entire blog, no worries):
I didn't kill Dubai. Despite the game's insistence to the contrary, it was not me, but Captain Walker, that destroyed what remained of the city. I know the developers intended for me to feel this emotional gut punch at the end of the game. I think I even wanted to feel it. But I never did. It simply never manifested. Finding out why took me a few minutes of careful consideration.
In the end, I figured it out: There was no emotional gut punch, because I didn't make the decisions. Walker did. Like Adams and Lugo I was just along for the ride. A reluctant accomplice to madness, perhaps, but its source. I didn't make the decision to burn civilians with white phosphorous or kill a soldier where he dangled from an overpass. I didn't even decide to push into the city when I had no need. And I didn't decide to show boat in a helicopter until other choppers arrived to pursue us, leading to Lugo's death. None of these decisions was mine, and therefore, the emotional fist in the stomach Walker doubtless felt in the end...that wasn't mine, either.
Which is not to say I did not appreciate the narrative. I did. And I believe pushing through the whole thing on Easy is the right way to play this. The only challenge you are going to receive is letter-perfect generic game play copied and pasted from every 3rd person shooter ever made, complete with clunky, half broken cover system that leaves you in the open far too often. Getting through the exhausting day and a half or so of Walker's life at the pace the writer intended is far more important than trying to find a challenge here. I really believe that and highly recommend it. In order to fully appreciate the ending of Spec Ops the beginning must still be fresh in your mind.
And I liked the ending. I also liked playing a game which does not hesitate to reveal the horrors of turning modern soldiers loose in modern cities. Bruce Willis says in "Under Siege" that the Army is a Broadsword, not a scalpel. Walker single-handedly wields that Broadsword here in spectacular fashion, to horrifying effect. And those horrors are each one on display. They are not thrown in your face to the detriment of the narrative; they belong here as much as Walker does, because they are his horrors. His penance, of a sort. They are his, but they are not yours.
And this is, I feel, where Spec Ops comes up short. I wanted to feel that punch in the gut. To be part of the madness. Because this is a game, and games are interactive media. Interactive. I wanted to face down choices: bombing the camp, or sneaking around. Shooting the soldier, the civilian or the ropes and fighting off the snipers. Stealing the water supply, or helping to secure it. Killing everything in sight, or fighting armed insurgents and the rogue 33rd in order to go get real help for Dubai. Had I faced those decisions, and made those choices myself - had I been able to sit here and tell you I chose to bomb the camp because it was easier than sneaking around, and only then learned the truth of the horror I had inflicted - I would still be reeling from the fist in my gut some 24 hours later. But I'm not. Because somewhere along the line, as great a game as Spec Ops was and as much as the military shooter genre needed this, the developers and the writers failed to remember they were making a game, not a movie.
Could Dubai have been saved, if someone had made different choices? Could help have made it in, if escorted by Delta operatives who knew the truth? Could securing the water have bought the time needed for a real rescue? Could killing the radio man and broadcasting messages of peace and hope helped things? We won't ever know, because we never got to make those choices. To make any choices, really.
I did not make the choice to kill Dubai.
And oddly enough, in this context, that saddens me a little.
You did in the sense that, as the game repeatedly told you, you didn't walk away. You chose to keep playing, just like Walker chose to keep advancing.
But that is kind of the point of the game. You could have chosen to walk away at any time. And maybe different choices could have saved everyone, or maybe something else could have been done to make the world a happy place. But "you" were there, and "you" made those choices. Walker felt he had no choice because he was just reacting to the voices in his head. That Walker could only choose from the options in front of him. You felt you had no choice because you were just playing a game. That you could only choose from the options in front of you.
It sounds like you are more annoyed that there wasn't a happy ending. You feel that without the ability to succeed, you can't be blamed for the failure. You wanted to "be the hero" who snuck around and avoided hurting anyone. And that is one of the things I love about the game: You could never succeed if you were the hero. Instead, you tried to be the hero, and just made things worse.
From the moment "you" chose to be the hero, Dubai was damned. And YOU chose to be the hero by playing the game. Because nobody plays games like this to NOT be the hero. Even OFP/ArmA puts in quite a few "one man to win the war" spec ops missions to appeal to that.
Is it the best story in the world? No. But it is definitely something to make you think and presents an experience unlike basically any other video game.
To quote Batman speaking to a distraught Tim Drake: Sometimes, there are no happy endings.
And that is the kind of game Spec Ops is.Steam: Gundato
PSN: Gundato
If you want me on either service, I suggest PMing me here first to let me know who you are.
This and this make most of the points I would try to say here. You should check the videos out if you haven't particularly the second video.
I don't feel the comment to Walker at the end was meant as "You the player have chosen to destroy Dubai" but rather them saying "Isn't it a bit sad that you came here to play a game that would make you feel like a hero? Well in this game you don't play a hero". Also, you couldn't get the same experience with it as a movie. Dear god let's not let this descend into that conversation again, but because you play as Walker you're more attached to him.
But why does it sadden you that you didn't male the choice? The story wasn't about you making that choice, it was always going to be the ending to the story. The choices you got to make just add to the experience.
To agree with Gundato,
Shooting the soldier, the civilian or the ropes and fighting off the snipers.
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I did feel that there were other points in the game where - thanks in large part to Lugo sticking his nose in - the game was offering me a somewhat-honest choice between stopping (and quitting) or continuing. (The use of white phosphorus for example.)
I think the game, particularly with the somewhat weak handling of the ending, did come a bit too close to a "You'll do anything to advance in a video game, won't you?! AHHHHHH! PUSH THE RAPE BUTTON!" message (which I don't think is a good use of the rest of the game). I still think it managed to reflect meaningfully on what it is to engage in military adventures - both in real life and what we expect from entertaining depictions of them.
I felt that the limited self-contained choices that you do make in the game (most obviously the overpass, but also how you deal with the crowd) did set it apart from simply being a movie. There's basically no mechanical (extrinsic?) consequences of those choices for the player or even visible outcomes later on in the world.
I think that normally I would be tempted to say that makes them meaningless but in this case - and I appreciate that this turns in large part as to how effectively you thought the game presented those choices - I felt that the choices had an (intrinsic? Ish.) moral value to them. I made a meaningful moral choice at the overpass (and really I wouldn't want to make it again).
However the view that this made Spec Ops more of an (interactive?) movie than a 'game' seems perfectly reasonable to me. Which brings us back to how effectively you felt those moments of interaction were presented.
Something of a tangent - conversely I often find it difficult engage with RPG's properly (that is, as I want to) because I end up treating them purely as games, as systems rather than something telling me a story. (See This post by someone else for vaguely similar thoughts but about other players in MMOs.) I usually know that the choices I make will usually have, frankly, crude mechanical effects that can benefit me in different ways (and damn those wikis and my weakness for them). Spec Ops freed me a little in that respect.
Last edited by Zetetic; 03-01-2013 at 02:34 AM.
I didn't really like the ending twist. It not only struck me as kind of implausible (for a number of reasons), but it also just struck me as kind of unoriginal. I actually wondered at one point right before the end, "I wonder if they are setting up a 'Fight Club' style twist here?" but I dismissed the idea as silly. But then we get an ending taken straight from "Fight Club."
As much as the game is lauded for its story, I think its story's a bit weak. I did think the civilian bombing moment was effective and that did surprise me. I also liked the fact that, after the bombing, it seemed that they were setting you up as the villain in various ways, so I was expecting some sort of a reveal. I just thought the "Fight Club" thing was too silly, implausible, and a way too on the nose of a way of making that point. I think they could have done it in a more subtle fashion (especially since, as I said, the game was already making that point perfectly fine on its own, without having to spell it out so literally via the "main character is crazy!" reveal).
Still, I find it hard to criticize just because it's so rare that a big budget game even tries something like this that I think it's a nice step in the right direction. So I don't regret playing it or anything and I'd actually recommend people play it just because there really isn't anything else like it out there right now. And I think it at least gestures towards the potential of games, even if it doesn't fully accomplish everything it tries to.
Plus, even when the plot falters towards the end, I think it nails an effective and consistent "tone" throughout. It's very good at creating a growing sense of horror and dread as the game progresses, which I admired a great deal as "tone" isn't something that most games seem to worry too much about.
Last edited by Juan Carlo; 03-01-2013 at 02:59 AM.
There is a choice in the mortar scene, but it's futile. You can't progress if you try to shoot the enemy. Using the mortar is the reasonable choice, and that's what the main character understands. If he wants to fix things, then he has to do it.
Then the game points out that reasonable choices can go awfully wrong. The main character wants to be a hero and makes a choice that is reasonable for his goal but turns out really bad for everyone else.
It calls out the assumption that progress is good because you're the hero. There is no redemption and things can't be fixed by such carnage.
You can't divorce the main character's goal from the narrative just because there's no choice X. There are predetermined outcomes to all choices you make in life. Just because the degree of predetermination is more limited in that scene than what you would like it to be doesn't mean it's not valid. Complete agency does not exist.
I find this moment sort of similar to Ryan's golf club scene in Bioshock. The point of Bioshock was the lack of choice. In order to make that point, that scene was very limited. It's not even playable. The point would fall apart if the game allowed any other action (think of Bioshock 2's decisions). The mortar scene of Spec Ops allows a secondary choice - and if you go full meta and drop the controller, a third. The game is designed to make the primary choice reasonable given the context, but it does not provide a satisfying outcome like pretty much every other game does.
As I've said before, the only way to win with Spec Ops is not to play it at all. That's also the cheapest route to take.
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This argument would hold some water if the game was some kind of abstract puzzle with no story to it whatsoever. And free to play.
Spec Ops is, in a way, a mystery. What happened in the city? Why the general dude went rogue? Who are those people shooting at me and why are they shooting at me? If you followed the game even a bit before release, chances are you'd want to know to find these out even before you started the game. And unless you really don't give a fuck about anything but shooting guys you would want to find these out as soon as you started it.
The entire assumption of the devs - that people play the vieogames to "be a hero"(hero in the morally positive aspect, not as in "the guy the story's about") - is complete bullshit. It's like saying people play economy games to feel like a CEO or god games to feel like a god. It makes this much sense. As in, fucking none.
This isn't my story. I am not Walker. Argument "Well you could have stopped playing" is nonsensical; I'm playing to see what happens to Walker himself; I'm playing to see what happened to the city, to the general; maybe I'm playing because I just find the gameplay to be fun. Saying "Well you could have stopped playing" is like saying "Well you could have walked out of Batman Begins when Batman goes to fucking Tibet to train with the secret tibetan monks".
Yeah, that was retarded beyond belief. But maybe the story can still be saved. Maybe there will be more of Scarecrow, who was the coolest character in the movie. Maybe they'll show Katie Holmes' nipples. Maybe who the fuck cares, I already paid for it so might as well sit through to the end, the chair's qutie comfy and I have popcorn.
A proper way to do a game like this would be some kind of team-based tactics game in a mercenary setting where you can pick your missions and also make decisions during missions. Then have x missions where you can try and be a hero. And every time the player tries to be a hero, slap him in the face: ooops, you just accidentally killed like 50 civilians. Ooops, you just destroyed this small village's only well. Ooops, your dumb ass just ended killing half of your team and you still didn't achieve the objective.
But anyway... to sum it up, Spec Ops: The Line isn't a great commentary about how people play games and shit because its basic premise couldn't be more flawed("people play the games to feel like a hero"). And it doesn't work even as a single story because it doesn't give the player (almost) any choices to guilt him about later - and "you could stop playing" is not a viable choice, it's nonsense. And it definitely isn't some stepping stone in shooter history and "every FPS released after it should be ashamed" as some douchebag pointed out(Wasn't it Yahtzee?). Hey idiots: before Walker makes even single bad decision, he already kills like 50 people with his regenerating health powers. Yeah I can see this is the fucking end of the line for the entire genre already
I wonder how the game would be received if devs didn't make the fuss about the whole hero thing. Would anyone even care? Would anyone make the conclusions they are making now? Or would the game be just received as a game about a man who makes several bad decisions and goes crazy, the end? You know, which is what this game actually is about?
03-01-2013, 08:31 AM #10I am once again writing a blog, vaguely about playing games the wrong way
XCØM2 LØNG WAR CØØP Campaign Long War novices Welcome, now with 100% more laser guns!
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The game even sets things up so that a large part of the story has already happened when you start the game (which doesn't seem to make much sense at all considering the premise).
And the game is in third person. First person might have created slightly less of that disconnect.
For me, I think the only time I felt I did something bad, that could have been avoided, was [spoiler] when using a zip line and knocking a soldier down at the end of the ride [/spoiler]. While he was down, I just automatically hit the 'execute' button which resulted in Walker beating the guy's brains out with the butt of his rifle. His team mates get kind of shocked at that, and, whether the game allows another action or not (I don't know if there's a choice where you don't kill the soldier), I felt I'd gone too far into the 'kill everything' mindset.
That bit worked for me, perhaps mainly because there was no set up for the scene, it just happened without warning.
There's another bit which I think was supposed to be the same way, with a civilian woman who suddenly comes running at you in the middle of a battle. I'm guessing you were meant to shoot her by accident, but I never even came close the two times I played that mission.
I don't think the developer's premise for the game works (as others have said, I don't play games to be the hero either. In fact, it's a relief the few times I'm allowed not to be one), but it was worth playing anyway and I'm glad they at least tried something a bit different.
Though, it's possible I might have felt a bit differently if I'd paid full price for it and not gotten it in GMG's sale.
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Is it really 5 hours long because i stopped playing the game after 5 hours,couldn't stand gameplay any more.
in something like abramovic's rhythm 0, watching her get stabbed, burned, injured, violated, etc. makes you complicit (as you're a member of the audience that's perpetrating the harm), and removing yourself then from the audience is a meaningful choice, as is staying and saying nothing (or participating).
but in spec ops, the "social experiment" only matters as long as you're paying attention; it's an experience aimed at a single person, relying on that single person to be its co-creator. chasing off your lone audience member is pretty much a critical failure, and allowing for it as the no in your binary choice system is a fundamental betrayal of the art form, whatever the art form may be.
Thoughts behind the creation of the game are rather imcomprehensible. Were they really trying to critize shootybangs by doing a shootybang?
Spec Ops fails for me becuase it relies on the conceit that makes fundamentally all FPS games completley unbelievable. In most games you, a supposed mortal, kill hundreds at least while you never die once, and you can never truly die anyway. The majority of game mechanics force you into the role of a hero in terms of your abilities if not behaviour or intent. It doesnt come down to ability, because mechanic are available to you which prevent you from dying at the point all your enemies do. You are literally endowed with powers which make you superior by default. Your foes dont have bandages or painkiller or food(?!) or whatever contrived idea that fixes them up from being shot in the face six times. Of course, Spec Ops doesnt change this either.
Games which recognise this tend to be more coherent gaming experiences in my opinion than ones which try to play it straight. Quite simply, the whole notion of partaking in and winning a firelight against five times as many opponents as yourself is so ludicrous that its always going to feel broken unless it takes part in a knowingly fantastical context.
The real way to challenge violence and death in video games is to make the protagonist feel its consequences to the same degree without it being a short or shitty game. Not even HL Miami mangaes this becuase you are immortal for all your fraility. Maybe there needs to be more of a Risk: Legacy or Iroman approach in terms of the finality of death. Obviously thats incredibly hard to do.
The only genre that gets remotely close to this I think is strategy, in that lives tend to be cheap and require that they be lain down repeatedly for you to get anywhere. If a vertern unit dies in a good strategy game, or a powerful leader, I feel that loss more keenly than I ever do when I just die in a FPS skirmish.
Last edited by sonson; 03-01-2013 at 11:31 AM.
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* - which as we all know is a blatant lie since COODY is an on-rails shooter
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Gotta be quick - work this morning.
Firstly, I'm honestly not annoyed at the lack of a happy ending. In fact I was relived to play a game that shows the horrors of war. Especially urban war, in a modern setting, with modern weapons. I was relieved, as someone else said, to not be the hero for once.
My annoyance came with not feeling the emotional gut punch. That punch was what this game was developed to deliver. And because none of the choices Walker made were mine, I felt nothing. Well, maybe regret for him. Maybe I felt a little sorry that his own Hero or Power Fantasy lead him so badly astray. But I felt nothing of an emotional sort myself. Why should I feel an emotional burden for someone else's bad decisions? I've got enough of my own to worry over, thanks.
That said: I did enjoy the game...well, ok, the narrative. Not the game. And I am glad someone had the guts to make it. The shooter genre needed something like this. What it did not need were more turret systems, another clunky cover system...all the same old genre tropes woven into yet another story. But all in all, I am glad I played it. I would do it again, even knowing.
But I am sorry they did not capitalize on the medium. It would have been perhaps an all time classic had they done so.
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I have to say that the whole "well you are responsible because could just stop playing the game" argument is possibly the most idiotic argument I have ever heard in gaming.Irrelevant on further examination of the rest of the thread.


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The A4 Bath Road near Corsham is currently closed while fire crews work to rescue two elderly women trapped after a car crash.
Police officers were called to the scene by the ambulance service at 3.53pm, after a Citroen Saxo collided with a silver Rover near the junction with Cross Keys Road.
A fire crew is also in attendance, with firefighters working to remove the roof of the Citroen to free the two elderly passengers.
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Religion & Spirituality, ChristianityFollow
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The Village Church exists to bring glory to God by making disciples through gospel-centered worship, gospel-centered community, gospel-centered service and gospel-centered multiplication.
April 27th, 2014
Episode 15 of 298 episodes
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Welcome to the Brain Training Podcast, the daily audio workout for your head. In this podcast we have two games for you, each with three rounds which get progressively harder. To enjoy the full experience, relax, and avoid distractions whilst you listen.


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408 Motoryacht — By Capt. Ken Kreisler
— May 2003
A Case For Space
|Roominess and comfort abound aboard a new aft-cabin cruiser from a new boat company.
Maximizing room and comfort aboard is a daunting task for designers and builders. Big boats obviously have big space to work with, but when you get down around 40 feet, just a few feet--and in some cases even inches--can make a world of difference. So just how much space can you build into a 40-foot aft-cabin cruiser? In the case of Meridian's 408, the answer is plenty.
The 408 is the first really new model from newly created (last summer) Meridian Yachts, part of the Brunswick Boat Group, which includes such familiar brands as Sea Ray and Bayliner. With relatives like those, buyers are bound to expect generous helpings of room and comfort, and they won't be disappointed.
Take the galley-down setup, for example. Here I found lots of workspace for food preparation atop the Karadon counters, along with enough cabinet and drawer stowage for a week's worth of stores. Standard appliances include a three-burner stovetop, Sharp microwave, Princess convection oven, and Norcold refrigerator/freezer. The sole is Pergo, a laminate that looks like wood and is both durable and easy to maintain. However, it was the headroom here that most impressed me and made the area seem larger than it is. I measured eight and a half feet from sole to overhead.
Another nice touch that illustrates the judicious use of space aboard is the optional Splendide combo washer/dryer that's neatly tucked in a compartment under the steps that lead from the saloon to the galley. The steps lift easily via a gas-assisted ram, and a pair of lights in the compartment illuminates the interior space.
It doesn't stop there. The saloon, with 6'8" of headroom, has large, two-tiered windows on both sides to make the room light and airy. The Mirage leather couch to port is actually a trio of reclining sectionals, and as I found out, a gentle tug on a leather strap on each effortlessly transforms it into a comfortable lounger.
A J-shape couch to port, which has stowage beneath it and also converts to a berth, provides additional seating. A hi-lo coffee table adjoins it. Additional stowage areas include a pair of end tables and, on the end of the aft-most recliner, a slide-out cabinet for holding magazines or books. An entertainment center is aft and to port and features both a Sony 24-inch TV and DVD player.
The two-stateroom, two-head layout also exemplifies a good combination of space and comfort. The forepeak has a centerline queen berth with stowage in three drawers in the berth's base and two closets. My test boat also had the optional 13-inch TV and DVD installed here. There's an entrance to the day head from these quarters--there's also one opposite the galley--and a large hatch overhead with screen and blackout slide provides light and air to the sleeping space.
This article originally appeared in the April 2003 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.


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Preventionista Travel Log: NSAC in Chicago
What a pleasure it was to spend last week at the National Sexual Assault Conference in beautiful Chicago! It was a busy time, starting with the RPE Grantee meeting early in the week and then the NSAC. I was so inspired by the keynote message from Cassandra Thomas of the Houston Area Women's Center, who spoke about the need to revive our anger about sexual violence and make a serious commitment to its prevention. After being inspired by Cassandra, I then had the pleasure of attending a workshop on The Evolution of Prevention led by our partners at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, and Pittsburgh Action Against Rape. It was refreshing to see the strides we have made as a movement towards eliminating sexual violence.
And it was inspiring to see so much of our prevention work tied together. Early in the week I delivered a presentation to RPE Grantees on the NSVRC's Innovations in Prevention report. When I heard both the keynote and workshop presentations, I couldn't help but notice how much they echoed the key findings from that report. Cassandra talked about really needing to put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. Organizations need to care as much about prevention as intervention, and that should be reflected in their budgets as well. The interviews that were done with innovative programs clearly stated that very same thing. Those programs are successful because there is a deep commitment, including a deep fiscal commitment, to keeping prevention at the core of what they do. In the workshop, it was mentioned that sometimes you have to sit through a lot of community and school meetings about issues that are not related to sexual violence, in order to get your foot in the door and build those relationships. You may have to sit through an entire meeting about the school's bake sale policy, but the key is that you are there. Doing community mobilization work sometimes means taking the time to be a participant in the community. Again, this tied in so well with the findings in our Innovations report. One thing that was clear for those programs was that community mobilization is about serving other's needs - attending meetings of other organizations, supporting other organizations efforts on their own issues, and infusing prevention thinking in the work of others.
There were so many other snippets seen and heard last week that really helped to reassure me that we are on the right track as we move prevention forward. I hope to share other lessons learned over the next few weeks. In the meantime, I encourage you to read the Innovations report if you have not already. Then, use the comment box below to share the innovative ways that you or your agency are approaching sexual violence prevention work.


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