text:
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Will it return? Probably. When? Dunno.
Oh For Heaven's Sake
Monday, May 08, 2006
Weekend Hamster Fun
Well, other than the hamsters.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Interview With The Shah's Son
Dolphins Have Names
My dolphin name would be "he who sits in easy chair and types".
Saturday, May 06, 2006
...sheer genius. American Digest presents "The Law of the Blogger", a link-notated reworking of (I believe) a Kipling poem; I thought it was Kipling's "The Gods of the Copybook Headings", but it isn't; it's his "The Law of the Jungle". Either way, it's awesome.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Jeff Goldstein Has a Fundraiser
Thursday, May 04, 2006
"There is nothing good that comes out of that"
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Pro-Choice Vandalism Strikes Another Pro-Life Display
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Ben Affleck to Play Young Kirk?
Want Citizenship? Enlist.
Monday, May 01, 2006
Licensed Torrent Model the Way to Go
Senator McCain: "Clean Government" More Important than First Amendment Rights
Sunday, April 30, 2006
"Are You a Registered Republican?"
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Saturday Puppy Blogging
His widdle paws say "cute"...but his eyes say "I will cut you for putting me in this suit, you son of a *****".
Attack of the Ants
Today I grabbed a sandwich for lunch. A green pepper fell out of it and was on the floor; when I noticed it had fallen, I leaned down to pick it up and recoiled - ants! Dozens of 'em, Mr. Rico!
I prepared to engage when I realized - one or two random ants finding my green pepper, I could see. But it had only been there a few minutes. Where had they come from? I cast my gaze farther afield - and there, swarming in their hundreds, were little ant-mountains on top of the cookie fragments. Ewww!
This is why God invented little handy battery-powered vacuum cleaners, however. A few minutes of cleaning (which the floor needed, anyway) and the little ant raiding party was no more. I'll be engaging in tactical ant-squashing over the next few hours, undoubtedly, as ants-come-lately follow the scent trail to where the cookies used to be. Wish me luck as I commit to battle.
We fight the ant infestation we have, not the ant infestation we'd like to have.
Q. What does my office have in common with the Pink Panther movies?
A. "Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant...deadantdeadantdeadantant"
A small squad of six highly-trained, stealthy ants crept onto the battlefield. Ignoring the corpses of their fallen brothers-in-arms, they ant-handled one last remaining crumb onto their collective shoulders and started maneuvering it out of the conflict zone. They didn't see the shadow looming. They didn't see the pencil descending like the hand of an angry God. All they saw was the carpet suddenly looming large as they were crushed, as though beneath the awful weight of their own crime.
Don't steal my food.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Johnny Cash Kicks A**
I've been listening to Johnny Cash's last "real" album, American IV. If you haven't heard his version of "Hurt" (a song Trent Raznor of NIN wrote), you need to hear it. It may be the most raw and powerfully emotional song I have ever heard. Cash was the rare performer who never stopped developing, but in his case, it's emotional layers that he added, not technical virtuosity. (Well, maybe he developed more virtuosity too, but my uneducated ear is not going to pick up on it.)
Put it another way: as you know, I'm a cold-hearted cynical bastard, but I hear his lifelong pain distilled into that song and I just want to cry and cry (as the little one says when confronted with a tragedy on the order of not getting applesauce with dinner).
Members of Congress Arrested at Darfur Protest
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Circumcision and Monogamy Most Effective Against HIV Transmission
Get The Door...It's Dominoes
Britney Fat-Bashed at Celeb Site
Today In History - the Sultana Disaster
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Let The Iraqi People Vote
Ronald Bailey on Peak Oil
Stop Genocide
I Agree With Ginmar (It Burns!)
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Avoiding The Charge of Rape
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Monday, April 24, 2006
400-odd Page Rough Draft Done
Tomorrow, golf and barbeque and family.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Where's My Omni?
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Threatening Passenger Subdued By Others On Flight
I assume that "subdued" is a polite way to say "got three kinds of **** kicked out of him".
Via Instapundit.
Reproductive Rights Now - As Long As I'm Comfortable With It
Apparently, for at least some of the gals, reproductive rights are an absolute only when they approve.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Scott Crossfield, RIP
Battle of San Jacinto Day
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
A Moment of Bipartisan Cooperation
Mmmm, good.
(Paid for by the Committe to Boost Beef Sales.)
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Angry People Suck?
Tuesday Kitten Blogging
As always, cheerfully stolen from Kitten Wars.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Don't Question My Patriotism - I'm Busy Doing It For You
Appalled Beyond Measure
I don't understand how they're ever going to get a jury trial for this man. I could not be in a room with him. Who could be? I can't imagine the discipline it is taking for the police not to just finish him.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Why, Finland? Why?
Via GNXP.
Happy Easter
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Why "Peak Oil" Is Hooey
Friday, April 14, 2006
I Am Glenn Reynolds' Brother
The pictures of his bro in these snaps are me, to a T.
If you've been wondering what I look like.
I wear better colored t-shirts, though.
Stifling of Dissent at Northern Kentucky University
Highway Thoughts
1) The stretch of I-25 between Denver and Monument is the Ronald Reagan Highway. Every time I enter that stretch of pavement, it seems like the sun shines a little brighter and food tastes a little better.
2) If you're driving 150 miles round-trip, it would be a good idea not to eat a two-pound salad as the snack the night before. Hello, rest stop my old friend; I've come to gross you out again.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Moving Forward on Immigration
First, we index nations on their level of Western cultural attainment. (Britain is high. Russia is medium. Zimbabwe is low.) That index value would become the base score for immigrants. These numbers should range from 0 to 100. Why this ranking? Because people from Zimbabwe are hard to integrate and people from Britain are easy. We're cherry-picking here - and we're doing it to advance our national interest, not the interests of the people who are immigrating.
To that base score, add bonus points for high educational attainment, high economic attainment, and high scientific/cultural attainment. (25 points per category.) Add bonus points for youth and for number of children (5 points total) and a ten point bonus for English fluency. Have a discretionary 10 points that Congress can use to set priorities. (If youll enlist when you get here, we give you 5 points. If youre a nuclear physicist, thats worth a bonus 10. And so on.)
So you can have anywhere from 0 to 200 points. For maximum score, be a British millionaire PhD Nobel laureate, 28 years of age with 4 kids, and possessed of whatever skill or attribute is floating Congress' boat this year. Minimum score is to be a destitute Third Worlder with no education or skills, 70 years old, infertile.
Annually, globally rank every immigration applicant in an ordinal list. Ask Congress how many people to let in this year, X. Admit the first X people on the list.
(Lest the heartlessness quotient be too high, I do support a limited number of refugee/hardship admissions as well. Say, 10% of the total, divided among the countries of the globe on the basis of each nation's existing representation in our population and administered at the discretion of the State Department.)
Under this system, once the inevitable bugs are worked out, I'd support a high level of immigration - say, 4 million people per year, maybe more. They would more than pay for themselves, with their existing wealth and their existing skills and talents. Furthermore, their availability to US companies, and their own entrepreneurial activity, would accelerate our economy tremendously.
Hippie Invasion
(He's so cute!)
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
An Insight Into the Human Psyche
"Stephanie, can you come over here for a minute, please?" said the facilitator. Nothing.
Finally, she looked up. To the world at large she announced, "I don't think I can hear you." And then she returned to her individual play.
I suspect that Stephanie merely vocalized the implicit thought that underlies a great deal of partisan division.
"I don't think I can hear you."
Tuesday Kitten Blogging
Via Kitten War.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Michele Catalano Is Back!
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Not a Cute Widdle Bunny
Why Do Men Run Things?
Romance Novels Gone Horribly Right
Friday, April 07, 2006
The Essential Guide to Flame Warriors
Tip of the hat to A Day in the Life.
Look Upon My Cuteness, and Despair
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Punished for Hugging
Stephanie will hug anyone who'll have her. Damned if I'm going to stop her.
Another Nail in My PC Coffin
If it'll run Oblivion it'll run any PC software I need to run.
This Woman is Interesting
Iraqi Air Force Sought Volunteers for Suicide Mission Against US Interests
In the Name of God the Merciful The Compassionate
Top Secret
The Command of Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base
No 3/6/104
Date 11 March 2001
To all the Units
Subject: Volunteer for Suicide Mission
The top secret letter 2205 of the Military Branch of Al Qadisya on 4/3/2001 announced by the top secret letter 246 from the Command of the military sector of Zi Kar on 8/3/2001 announced to us by the top secret letter 154 from the Command of Ali Military Division on 10/3/2001 we ask to provide that Division with the names of those who desire to volunteer for Suicide Mission to liberate Palestine and to strike American Interests and according what is shown below to please review and inform us.
Air Brigadier General
Abdel Magid Hammod Ali
Commander of Ali Bin Abi Taleb Air Force Base
Air Colonel
Mohamad Majid Mahdi
This document section was translated by jveritas of FreeRepublic.
Lasik at Home?
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Well, That Tears It...
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Katie Who?
Pedophilia Hysteria May Have Contributed to Child's Death
Web Singer Gets Contract
Self-Parking Cars
Let Them Starve
UPDATE: Well, except for the lavish social welfare programs that will keep them alive.
Why Poor Countries Are Poor
Humans Are Viruses
It comes from people's accurate observations of what they say in unguarded moments.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Sexy TV Leads to Sexy Behavior
Although the study bolsters my preconceptions - actually, because the study bolsters my preconceptions - I have to wonder about the direction of the causal arrow. If I am starting to get interested in sex, then I'm going to seek out cultural material that has sexual content, to get information. That has to be accounting for some of the connection.
(Which on closer reading I see the story mentions. So never mind.)
Sunday, April 02, 2006
The Joys of Textual Literalism
"Stephanie, are you digging for gold?"
"No. I'm digging for snot."
Well, OK then.
"Die, Puny Humans"
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Google Romance Just a Joke
Although I don't see why they wouldn't implement such a service. The first line of the joke is empirically true; finding true love really is mostly a search problem. Hooray for the Internets!
Friday, March 31, 2006
Presenting...The Plan!
Ready for
the Deep Fryer Hugs and Cuddles
Stolen, as always, from Kitten War.
UPDATED: Title modification to please one of my hotter readers.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
OK, One More
Via Asymmetrical Information.
OK, I Lied
But it has thousands of must-see images of rock-n-roll idiots. Go. Click. Now.
I'd get a guest blogger, if I had any readers.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
The Death Spiral
There are a number of indicators.
One of the easy ones: when it loses the ability to tolerate internal criticism.
The principal actor here, Tlaloc, is a bit of a jerk. He's also an apparently bona-fide feminist, or at least feminist-friendly, male, with plenty of left-wing chops. In the course of a couple of long threads (you can dig around and find them if you want) he ends up getting into a pissing match with Feministe's new management and eventually is banned.
The main reason seems from here to be that Tlaloc believes the leadership of the feminist movement to be more interested in acquiring power for women than in restructuring society to be more equal. This is a problem that all ideology-based movements have - the desire to use organizational resources to accumulate wealth and/or power, rather than to move forward the agenda of the group. It can be forestalled, in my experience, only by being aware of the possibility, and frankly suspicious of movement leaders and prominent spokespeople. Which, in a movement as dispersed and decentralized as feminism is, means pretty much anyone who gets up on the soapbox and starts talking.
Tlaloc's case could certainly have been made with more diplomacy. But it's somewhat revelatory that the eventual reaction to his criticism isn't "you're wrong, and we've been discussing this for long enough, so we're finished" - but is instead "you're wrong, go away and never come back."
Why Does PayPal Punish Me?
So if I had NO money with them, I could get my new Sonicare 7800e toothbrush immediately. But since they're holding on to a stack of my cash, it will take extra time.
That makes sense.
Save Nazanin
Can't hurt. Might help.
Let's Hear it for the Reconquista
The flagpole at a California high school after immigration protests. Via Michelle Malkin.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
The Next Muslim Nation To Get Nuclear Weapons...
(Shamelessly stolen from this commenter at PW.)
What's The Biggest Economic Fallacy?
RIP Instagrandmother
Online Dating
Sky Wolf to Consume Sun; End of Times Expected
More on Yalie Taliban
(H/T Protein Wisdom.)
Monday, March 27, 2006
Immigration Protesters Step It Up A Notch
Uh oh. They've deployed a Protest Babe.
(H/T that Drudge fellow.)
(Also available at Creative Destruction.)
Scotty: The Next Generation
That's my girl.
The Taliban Yalie and John Fund
Can't blame him; I feel pretty much the same way myself.
Sean Penn Has Ann Coulter Torture Doll
Not a big fan of Ms. Coulter myself, but that isn't material.
People like this have real psychological problems.
Another Step Forward for Airborne Volcano Laser Lancing
I'm not particularly committed to any specific implementation (I have no idea if this is a good weapon program, for example) but the general concept is sound and we should definitely build some of these.
Banned at Feministe
Ah well. The site isn't worth [as] much without Lauren.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
San Diego
No blog for you!
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Small World, But I Wouldn't Want to Paint It
(Ten minutes later - it was Darryl.)
Just as well. He was kind of a jerk.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Kitten of the Day
How busy am I? So busy that this pathetic excuse for a blog post represents WAY more time and energy than I can afford to spend blogging today.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
The Death of France
I mock the French a lot. Because it's fun.
But Gallic civilization is indeed civilization. France used to be a foundation stone of the West. Now she's an unemployed shell, with a youthful underclass that riots when given the economic equivalent of the "soda pop rots your teet" lecture.
If they go down into the night, it bodes ill for the rest of us.
Blog Sadness
Balko on Maye
Maye, you may recall, is the young man currently serving a prison sentence for the shooting of police officer Ron Jones. It appears painfully clear from the evidence that Balko, among others, has collected that Maye was acting reasonably and prudently in self-defense.
Kudos to Balko for continuing to run with this story. Cory Maye should get a new trial.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Florence King Ill
Giant Lego Aircraft Carrier
(Via Vodkapundit, who's been hitting the muscle relaxants lately.)
Mmmm, Hairy Lobster
Undoubtedly delicious, but you'd always have the fur getting stuck in your teeth.
The Wisdom of Jonah Goldberg
Here's some advice, for what it's worth. The way to tell if a liberal — or a conservative — is to be trusted is to see how fairly he or she deals with the other side's arguments. Obviously, you can't give a full airing to the other side's point of view or you'd be spending all your time making the other side's case. And not every column has to be a on the one-hand, on-the-other-hand affair. But, over the long haul, you can tell which liberals actually have the intellectual self-confidence to engage with the other side's best arguments and not just their worst ones. Meanwhile, if you look at, say, Maureen Dowd, there isn't even an attempt to be fair to the other side. It's all bile, snark, and sneer — which would be a good name for a law firm in mordor. Lord knows, I don't mind bile per se, but it can only be a single ingredient, not the whole thing. Dowd's stuff is closer to fiction writing than opinion journalism. I think a lot of rightwingers have a similar problem — and I wouldn't recommend them to liberals trying to get a fair read on the conservative point of view either. That doesn't mean they're not worth reading. But entertainment is not necessarily argument.Boy, is this on-target! Jonah is writing about columnists, but it applies equally to bloggers.
I have found a number of bloggers out there who are really good at presenting their own point of view, while also being intellectually honest about the views of people who disagree with them. There are also a lot of bloggers (of all stripes) who seem to be victims of the Moral/Intellectual Fallacy: the idea that anyone who holds Wrong Views must do so because of personal evil or personal stupidity. You find this a lot on college campuses; it's forgivable there, because the victims are usually people who are engaging in the life of the mind for the first time (and thus are going to fall into a lot of errors), and because part of the point of college is learning to get past the idea that there's only One True Way of looking at things.
The problem with the "you must be stupid or evil" position is that it limits our ability to learn. The extreme complexity of the universe, coupled with our own individual foibles, frailties, and fallibilities, mean that nobody living on Earth has the complete puzzle. We each only have one little piece. Even worse, the piece we have is usually worn and scuffed and chewed and has dog spit on it from when the little rascal got into the box. Through our own efforts, we can improve our piece. We can clean off the spittle, mend the cracks, perhaps polish the scuffs. But we still only have one piece of the puzzle. In order to really expand our understanding, we have to talk to other people.
And some of those other people are going to have very different understandings and worldviews than we do. It's an inevitability; the world is, as noted, complex. Things that work for one person don't work at all for another. There's just no way that a single philosophy or worldview is going to encompass all the truth that is out there.
There are people who are so stupid that their contribution to any possible discourse is limited to "didja catch Idol?" and there are people so evil that anything that has run through their brain needs to be considered toxic and dangerous. But these are a tiny fraction of the minds which we will encounter over the course of our lives. Nearly anyone with the cognitive capacity to boot up a web browser, and the moral integrity to stay out of prison, is going to have something to say that you can learn from - even if they seem to be wrong about many things.
Being intellectually honest about people we disagree with makes us smarter, in the long run, because we learn things that we wouldn't have picked up if we had insisted that those who disagree with us had nothing to contribute. I have definitely noticed in my life that the people who seem to know the most - those who have the most wisdom - are also people who really understand the positions of their political, moral or spiritual adversaries.
Snark is fun, but listening is the path to understanding.
Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog
(H/T Derb at The Corner - who has a great suggestion for any medieval literature specialist looking for a blog niche.)
Futurama To Return!
(H/T Gene Expression.)
Sunday, March 19, 2006
New Group Blog Gig
Feministe Down
Or maybe someone forgot to pay a hosting bill. One of those two, I bet.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Diego Bound
French Protest Laws of Economics
GGP Up 4.3 Percent in 2005
Say No To Public Campaign Finance
However, in the course of ruminating over our exchange, I hit upon the reason that public campaign finance isn't acceptable.
Political campaigns are speech. Paying for speech promotes the speech. Collecting tax revenue and then using it to support political speech which may be deeply repellent to the taxpayer is highly objectionable. Compelling support from the public for figures and views they may find offensive is an across-the-board issue: everyone has candidates who they would be profoundly unwilling to support. I don't want David Duke to get my money. Barry is an opponent of the Slade Gorton for President ticket. And so on.
I can think of few non-corporeal punishments more awful for many people. Give us $20 to pay for Pat Robertson's televised spot on why gay marriage causes global warming, or we'll throw you in jail. If a private citizen did it, it would be extortion.
I can see that there are some real merits to a publicly-funded system. But this objection seems to me insuperable.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Film to Look at Life of Mary
Pentagon Researches Robotic Bugs
I apologize for that.
Headlines Which Say Enough
Don't go to the link. Don't read the story. The headline is perfect the way it is; any additional information will simply detract from the story's utter, eternal, perfection.
Microsoft Remarkets the Ipod
(H/T Vodkapundit.)
Congress Raises Debt Limit to $9 Trillion
Man, I wish it worked that way for me. I'd call up the bank - "Hi! My lending limit has just been raised $10,000. Oh, and I need to borrow $10,000. In small bills, by the door, just like last time. Thanks!"
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Worst Day Ever
Remind me not to complain about having to take out the trash.
(H/T Alabama Improper.)
Want a Job?
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
From Blogger's Status Page
The offending server is being replaced and then shot. We'll let you know when things are back up. Shouldn't be too long.
Bad Christian Chronicles
(Warning: sexual abuse triggers.)
Liberty University Debate Team
Chortling at the hypothetical discomfiture of lefties aside, there's a classic correction at the bottom of the story:
Correction: In the original version of this report, NEWSWEEK misquoted Falwell as referring to "assault ministry." In fact, Falwell was referring to "a salt ministry"—a reference to Matthew 5:13, where Jesus says "Ye are the salt of the earth." We regret the error.
No doubt, no doubt.
A Little Rodent
So cute.
(H/T, i.e., stolen from, here.)
British Judges Rules Boy Can Live
The boy (who is physically troubled but mentally normal) relies on a ventilator to live. His parents wanted him to stay alive. The hospital wanted to let him die.
I cannot imagine living in a country where I had to go to a court and beg a judge to let my son continue to breathe. A good outcome to an absolutely chilling scenario.
Rooftop Tennis
If I were in them, I'd be a little figure in the geometric center of the roof, in the fetal position, rocking back and forth and saying "gib-gib-big" until someone let me back inside.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
I For One Welcome Our New Indian Allies
Go India!
Pickup Lines for Feminists
Signs Politicians Ought Not To Stand Near
Monday, March 13, 2006
The Taliban at Yale
The Personal Supercomputer
(Note to slower loyal minions: sell one kidney, and send the money. Then sign a pre-pay contract to sell the second one, send me the money, and proceed)
No More "Chef" On South Park
Positive Body Image Has Different Impact on Men and Women
(H/T to TangoMan.)
As BG Ends, Sopranos Begins...
BG finale was a shocker, wasn't it?
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Rejected Potty Training Book Titles
2. "Go In The Toilet, Like Our Real Baby Would"
3. "Mommy Drinks Because You Pee"
4. ?
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Is It Just Me...
(Other than the baby of course...who turns one in a few days. Happy birthday, baby!)
Run, Hillary, Run!
Interesting. I would have thought she had more backing than this. Perhaps my Rice-Clinton dream scenario is doomed, not because of the obstacles facing Condi in a Presidential bid, but because Hillary's polling is so bad she might be denied the nomination.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Mars Orbiter Makes Successful Burn
An Equal Protection Argument Against Abortion
(This isn't going to become The Abortion Blog, I promise. I just have been thinking about it a lot recently. At some point we will switch back to pictures of puppies playing with jello. )
Musing about the guy who's suing for the right to terminate his own fatherhood of a child on the grounds that he didn't want it and didn't get an abortion, I wonder if there is a 14th amendment case against abortion, on the following lines:
Once a child is born, both a man and a woman share financial and custodial responsibility for the child. They each have general duties toward the child under the law. This is just and equitable, as far as I know. (Where there are individual exceptional cases, ("that crazy judge gave him full custody!") they are in violation of the basic principles, in the absence of extraordinary circumstances.)
However, women have a power that is not granted to men: the power to abort the child. This is specific, unique to women; it can't be transferred. Unlike financial responsibility, this existential responsibility is assigned, by nature and the state, to one gender only.
It is not the state's place to rule on what nature may or may not do. However, there is no need for the state's action in the matter to conform to that set of facts. To be treated equally under the terms of 14th Amendment, which do not (so far as I am aware) make an exception for cases where only one group can exercise a right, it would seem that the state should bar both sexes from procuring the abortion of a jointly-conceived fetus, or allow both to procure unilaterally.
The latter option is ethically appalling. To grant men the arbitrary power to unilaterally decree an abortion, even in the case of a woman who greatly desired a pregnancy, would be monstrous beyond measure. No man was born to wear that crown of power over a woman, save One, and he is a gentle Lord.
The former seems to genuinely preclude the right of any woman to get an abortion. While in many cases it is likely that this would be an increase in justice, rather than a decrease, the fact that remains for some irreducible portion of pregnancies, such as cases of medical necessity or dire and unrelievable circumstances for the mother, an abortion is the morally right course of action. To deny those abortions is monstrous in and of itself. The measure of harm is, in my personal feeling, less than that imposed in the case of allowing male dictation of abortion. However, it still well exceeds the amount of injustice that can be tolerated under a humane regime of law.
It would seem, therefore, that some kind of compromise is in order. Perfect (i.e., strictly Constitutional) justice cannot be effectively delivered. However, some solution must be reached.
And here I suggest that the appropriate remedy on the part of the judicial system is: withdraw. Remove this element of our national, and personal, lives by making it a political issue instead of a legal issue.
The political system will come up with a messy, patchwork system - or more likely, set of systems. It will evolve in accordance with the efforts and desires of the people in the many communities and governmental entities that make up our society. There will undoubtedly be abuses and excesses; political systems eat efficiency and excrete corruption. But that's often a better thing than rulings by judges. You can't move out from an order of the Supreme Court. But you can leave New York for Utah, if that's what suits you. Or from Nebraska to Nevada, if that's your preference. If states and even towns are setting their own policies, then Americans for whom the issues are important can do the Burkean self-sorting which is the peculiar genius of our political and social culture.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Oh The Shame
There is only one honorable course of action. Execute the American team, to encourage the others, and recruit a new team for a rematch.
Hopefully the prospect of being hung in the event of a loss will focus the American players' minds.
Lost in Translation
Via the Corner.
Non-Reassuring Science
They've got no clue how they did it.
So they do it over and over again to try and figure it out.
I would perhaps be more reassured if they stopped doing it briefly and tried to figure out how without, you know, generating the 5 billion degree heat.
Call me Mr. Cautious.
Liquid Water Found on Moon of Saturn
Stupid Homeowner, Stupid Homeowner's Association
So now everyone is going round and round. Sigh.
If you're going to move into a community that has rules, read the darn rules and decide whether you can live by them or not. Sheesh.
If you're going to have a community with rules, be prepared to make modifications for them under certain circumstances. "Support our Troops" signs are probably a safe exception to the no-signs rules.
This is how despotisms start. Someone gets tired of watching the yammerers yammer, draws a sword, and starts cutting off heads until things are done intelligently.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
How Abortion Ought to End
I want abortion to be stopped through a spiritual awakening on the part of the people who are faced with the decision to have an abortion, or to have a baby.
A large part of the responsibility for laying the groundwork for that awakening lies on men. Men must take responsibility for their sexual behavior. Men must also place their material and non-material resources in escrow every time they unzip their pants; we have to recognize that every act of physical intimacy has the potential for the creation of new life, and be willing to step up and accept the duty (and the joy) of fatherhood. We can't lecture women to pick up a hugely burdensome responsibility and then do nothing to help carry it. Men who can't or won't accept the responsibility of adult sexuality ought either to refrain, or to find outlets which carry no risk of pregnancy. Vasectomies are inexpensive. You might not be able to be a dad; you can certainly refrain from being a cad.
Another part of the groundwork for that change lies in the area of state action. Government policy should encourage childbirth and childrearing, and accept the idea that women who bear children are making a serious economic and personal sacrifice, and men who father children responsibly are making a lesser, but still real, sacrifice. For the majority of the populace whose children are educated by the state, realistic sexual education is a requirement - not only in the mechanics and biology of function, but in the real intimacies and emotional vulnerabilities opened by physical intimacy. Experience is the teacher of last resort, but many of the lessons of experience can be taught in a classroom, and at far lower cost. Among the things which ought to be taught are the biological truths of conception - and an appreciation of the delicate and powerful processes that are taking place from the moment a new human life is formed.
My friends in the religious communities of America must recognize that we can emphasize sexual purity from now until Jesus comes, and many people may live up to those high standards, and that is wonderful - but many others will not, and our ideas and policies have got to reflect the reality on the ground, not the desires of our hearts. People are going to have sex; people who aren't ready for parenthood ought not to be having sex, but some are going to do it anyway, and the only known way to reduce the number of babies conceived in those circumstances is to make birth control readily available.
The hedonistic culture of sexual gratification for its own sake ought to be rejected by the people who participate in it. It's a culture that is underlaid by sadness and abuse and exploitation; a culture where women define their self-worth by their sexual prowess and their willingness to play a fantasy role for whichever man will pretend to validate their "politics" or their "liberation". A huge part of the corrupt and toxic nature of this culture comes in its emphasis of sex as the province of the very young - an absurd and destructive notion. Sexual intimacy is an incredible responsibility and an incredible experience - it is not something that should be pushed at 13 year olds with an implicit message that the only kids not having sex are the losers. Sexuality and love and regard for the humanity of one another ought to become united in the mental conceptions of sex that our children grow up in; the idea of sex without love ought to be regarded, not with horror, but with infinite sadness.
The primary agents of this cultural change must be women. Women have the right - the right de facto, never mind the intricate debates over bodily autonomy and "choice" - to control their own bodies, and they will control them. As with all decisions and control, therefore, it behooves a society which wishes to enshrine positive values of life to encourage the decisions that are compatible with those values. Women who recognize the humanity of the new life within them, who are supported by the men in their life, who are not condemned by the church but who are instead uplifted, who are encouraged in healthy and productive life choices by the state, are women who can make the right choice.
It is very doubtful that we will ever see the "fairy tale", everything-is-perfect utopian version of this culture. People are imperfect and life is messy, and even if everyone in the world has perfectly good intentions (they don't) and everyone in the world makes perfectly good decisions (they won't), there will be pregnancies which are tragic, decisions that are tragic, outcomes that are tragic. This is inevitable but it is a part of the cost of being human and having the ability to make meaningful choices for our lives.
That's pretty much a summary of what I would like to see, although I'm sure I've missed some things and mis-stated the emphasis that ought to be placed on others. There's not much room in there for outlawing things and relying on the coercive power of the state. The usefulness of that power is grossly overemphasized.
(Also posted with minor textual changes as a comment at Pandagon.)
Auto-Flushing Toilets = The Devil
(H/T The Corner.)
Motion Denied...Because You're an Idiot
(H/T Feministe.)
Dana Reeves, RIP
A note of poignancy on an already sad occasion; Ms. Reeves is also survived by her father. I cannot imagine reaching old age and then having my still-young daughter taken away. Sympathies and prayers to the entire family.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Edwards Travels America, Visits 1930s
But there's some hope he might figure it out. He's a good candidate and a charismatic fellow; I'd give him a pretty good shot at the nomination in 2008.
Father of the Year Award
You know, chief, they're going to let you out again for the final checkups and such, after you give the kidney. Why not run then?
They weren't nominated for anything.
I'd say that alone makes the whole thing a farce.
UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers. Kick off your shoes, make yourself at home.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Oscar Nonblogging
Saturday, March 04, 2006
"English-Speaking American" Told to Tone it Down
Art Buchwald Cheerful As He Nears Death
It's been years since I've read anything by him, but I remember being charmed and amused as a boy. When he goes, he will be missed.
Corrupt Congressman Draws Eight-Year Term
Good. Housecleaning is never fun, but is necessary if you want to govern. Republicans have more work to do.
Criminal Probe in Tillman Death
Friday, March 03, 2006
My First PC
Thanks to helpful old alumni friends, I found it here. Lots of other cool computers at that site.
Also, as a boy, I wrote a program designed to be entered on punch cards. (It was a lunar lander simulator.) The cards were not actually physically punched - the campus mainframe where I was taking the computer class had just been outfitted with a state-of-the-art teletype terminal, where you could actually type in code without having to punch the cards. But they still taught us how to do the cards, because it was "a valuable job skill".
Yes, I am old. I am punchcard old, and my temples are white.
When did this happen?
Ginsburg Falls Asleep at Supreme Court
Can't say I blame her. Heck, last time I went to the dentist, they used a wedge to hold my mouth open so I wouldn't have to keep straining my muscles, and I napped through two fillings. Of course, when it comes to sleeping, I don't mess around.
Black History Month, Belatedly
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
The Lego Difference Engine
I Have No Problems
I have no problems.
Can You Pass Eighth-Grade Math?
Isaac Asimov Died of AIDS
Because It's Been a While
Fun With Genetics
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Yes, Your Cellphone Will Crash The Plane
Trivializing Rape
Monday, February 27, 2006
Bring Out Your Dead...
I've never been one to get weepy that a language dies out - people find something better and they work with it, usually. But this is a great idea, for scholarly and cultural purposes.
Microsoft Developing Ultraportable PC
My ideal portable computer would be about 6" by 8" x 1". It could be a clamshell, but it would be better if it was just a block with the screen taking up the whole 48 square inches. A stylus/touchscreen for primary entry, and a connectible separate keyboard for serious text work. Built-in DVD/CD drive. Wireless connectivity, hard drive, a long battery life, and a real operating system would round out the package.
Something like that, I could sit with in a car or a plane and get surfing and light work done, and when I got where I was going I could pull the keyboard out of the suitcase, plug it in, and get down to work.
If Microsoft is thinking along the same lines, they'll have at least one customer.
And yes, I AM supposed to be working. Shut up.
More Fun Lefty Self-Consumption
Dogs Doing Math
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Is Our Potato Chips Learning?
Of course, it would be helpful if the person writing the questions spoke ENGLISH.
Shopping With Stephanie
Took Stephanie (above, collapsing) to the grocery store today. When I was putting her in her carseat in the garage, she said "I can do it! I can do it!" So I let her go, and she clambered up onto the bench and then up into her carseat, just like a little monkey. First time she's done that.
(and the cat's in the cradle...)
At the store she walked along beside me, pointing things out ("this is a purple box!") and chattering away. Which is a joy, frankly. I went down the list and asked her for each item, "should we go get [whatever] now?" and she said "yes, let's go!" And off we'd go to the next aisle.
(...and the silver spoon...)
When we finished our shopping I told her, "OK, now you pick which way to go." She marched up to the front of the cart and started choosing directions like Napoleon. "We go this way!" At each intersection, she said "I'm choosing the paths!" Then she would look back at me and inquire "I still the leader girl?" as I reassured her that yes, she was in charge. And she'd take us up and down another aisle.
(...little boy blue and the man on the moon...)
At the checkout stand she turned to the guy behind us and just BEAMED with pride while she told him "I was the leader girl! I chose the paths!"
I'll be spending the rest of the week sobbing, just so you know.
I Need Me Some Of This
H/T Bill Peschel.
PC Pricing: A Blast From the Past
20-MHz 386 processor
1 MB of RAM
40-meg hard drive
Windows 3.0
The price: $1688, without a monitor.
Frightening but true: my Dad bought this system, or one very like it, from Tandy around that time. It was a decent machine.
That really brings it home, doesn't it? I spent a similar amount last year and got:
3.4 GHz Pentium IV processor (four generations more advanced, 170 times the clock speed)
2 GB physical RAM (2000 times as much)
80-gig hard drive (2000 times as much)
Windows XP
Calling a generation of CPUs a doubling in raw power, which is roughly fair, and ignoring the fact that $1700 was worth more in 1991 than it is today, we're looking at performance/capacity improvements of 1500-2000 fold.
That Moore guy apparently knew something.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Don Knotts and Darren McGavin, RIP
McGavin I barely remember but Don Knotts is one of the underappreciated comedic actors of the 20th century. He was really good, and managed to make you forget just how good he was - too busy laughing. RIP.
(H/T Althouse.)
Interesting Futurist Blog
Abortion Rights Supporters Eat Their Own
In the first thread linked, Traven and later Bill (both pro-choicers) make the case that perhaps abortion-rights campaigners would get better practical results if they focused on the early and mid-term abortions, the right to which command strong popular support, instead of defending hypothetical 9th-month abortions that never really happen anyway. Traven and Bill are met with invitations to expand their description of the strategy and to lay out how this could work to bolster the cause for abortion rights in the long term. (Pause for laughter.) No, of course not; Traven and Bill are traitors to the cause who must DIE.
In the second thread, about whether or not progressives should boycott South Dakota, Sarah gets the love treatment for her temerity in agreeing with the poster, but having the wrong attitude, or something.
There has to be a way to get Amanda Marcotte put in charge of the entire progressive movement.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Red Ken Suspended
As much as it gives me to joy to watch a leftist squirm under the hate-speech-type laws that their ilk so often foment, this is (yet another) example of why freedom of speech is important - and why our system of inalienable constitutional rights is vastly superior to the European model of rights granted by government.
Livingstone is reported to have said "This decision strikes at the heart of democracy. Elected politicians should only be able to be removed by the voters or for breaking the law."
The heart of democracy is the freedom of speech of the citizen, Ken. It isn't your specially privileged job that should give you the right to be a loudmouth jerk - it's your citizenship.
Mom Fights Off 700-Pound Polar Bear
One suspects that this mom will receive less lip from her teenage children than many other moms do.
The Man Who Saved Your Life
(H/T Vodkapundit, who I presume is up late tending babies. I'm up tending websites.)
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Don't Cry, Mr. Dell
I don't know anything about this company or its PC line; I've never even heard of 'em, although they're the third-largest manufacturer in the world, apparently. (Me, out of the loop? Nah.)
Nonetheless, I boldly predict: failure.
Why? Simple - support.
PCs don't work. It's just that straightforward. There's so many options, so many configurations, so many different things that can break or fail to cooperate or just not work right in the first place. Support is critical even for the home market - to say nothing of the small-business, no-IT-department consumers that this Chinese company is specifically targeting. No support, no sale.
The machines start in the $350 range. How do you fit a decent machine and enough margin to cover a reasonable support operation in that price? Easy. You don't. So support is going to suck.
And word will get out. Word always gets out. And sales will head south, and this company will draw back a bloody stump.


text:
On Friday, during my walk-through of the vendor area, I'd seen Spartacus (designers Aaron Dill, John Kovaleski, and Sean Sweigart; artist Charles Woods; publisher Gale Force 9) laid out at the Gale Force 9 booth. In fact, it was the only game that GF9 was selling at PrezCon. The demo at the booth had given me a mistaken first impression: The rep behind the table started talking about the combat mechanics, which seemed good but not great as skirmish mechanics go. He kept saying, "There's a whole lot of other stuff with influence and bribery that's really important, too," but the impression that I left with was that the combat was central and that there was some kind of wagering that went on around it. I just wasn't impressed. That is, until Saturday...
|An enthusiastic demonstration of
Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery
by Gale Force 9
From what I saw in 45 minutes, Spartacus is a brilliant game of manipulation and negotiation, risk and betrayal. I think this game has an exciting future.
|Doug Bass and Tom Snyder crushing me in a five-player
heat of Lords of Waterdeep
Last fall, the convention director, Justin Thompson, had invited ideas for some new game tournaments for PrezCon this year, and my friend Keith Ferguson offered to run Lords of Waterdeep (designers Peter Lee and Rodney Thompson, numerous artists*, publisher Wizards of the Coast). Perhaps the big story of the convention this year was the popularity of the LoW tournament - something like 41 participants by Keith's account (if I remember correctly). This game has a recognizable fantasy role-playing theme, but in fact the mechanics are unmistakably Euro in their execution - worker placement, resource management, building purchase - and all done in an elegant and approachable way.
For me, it was only the second time I'd ever played, and I needed a five-minute rules refresher just before jumping in, but by the second round I remembered how it all worked and was completing quests in no time. My first quest was to recruit a lieutenant, which gave me an additional "worker" to place and therefore an extra action every round. I think I outscored everyone else in the bonus points for my "lord," who gave me four extra points for every quest I completed in the "Arcana" or "Piety" categories, but otherwise my point generation was pretty mediocre. Our friend Tom Snyder won at our table; I think I was a distant third or fourth out of five.
Chicago Express
|(c) Queen Games
Used by permission
I tried very hard to manage the opening auction as I'd learned to do before, but I passed on the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) share when Tom bid $18 for it. I managed to secure the opening shares of both the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) and Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) railroads, and John bought the opening share of the New York Railroad (NYRR), which left Mike without a share at the start of the game.
Tom and I predictably started our respective expansions in a race for the west, while Mike initiated an auction for the second share of PRR, which he secured for a very reasonable price. I tried to expand the B&O fast enough to beat the PRR to Pittsburgh, but Tom built PRR southeast ahead of the B&O and cut off my most direct route through the mountains, forcing the B&O to take a less direct route. Because I'd paid only $14 for the only outstanding share of B&O, the company ran out of capital before reaching Pittsburgh at all.
Then began a series of auctions to try to outmaneuver each other for income. Everyone else ended up with a share of PRR but me. I ended up with two of the four shares of the B&O. Mike had a second share of C&O. And John kept buying up NYRR to maintain his majority position.
And then a strange thing happened. We were in the middle of an auction for the last share of NYRR when Tom said, "Hey, wait, isn't this going to trigger the end of the game?" Sure enough, we'd all been buying up stock so aggressively that we didn't even notice that PRR, B&O, and now NYRR were going to be all sold out of stock. Three sold-out companies ends the game, so Tom stopped bidding, and John ended up paying something like $13 for a share of NYRR that gave him only an additional 5% of the total NYRR final dividend payout (80% instead of 75%) - probably something like $4. When the dust settled after the final dividend was paid, Tom won with $27, Mike was second with $24, and John and I were tied for third with $22. None of us had even made back the $30 we each started with. The PRR hadn't even made it to Chicago before the game was over in about 37 minutes.
I am absolutely crazy about CE. There is a lot to this game. Lee Sensabaugh, who ran the CE tournament, made the point that it is more of a game of negotiation and getting other players to do what you need them to do than it is about investing, and I think he's right. I'm still learning this masterpiece.
|Daniel Solis's Belle of the Ball prototype
Photo by Chris Kirkman
After the quick CE final, I hooked up with Chris Kirkman of Dice Hate Me Games as well as Darrell Louder and T.C. Petty III. While Ben Rosset demonstrated "Brewmasters" [subsequently picked up by DHMG and retitled "Brew Crafters"] to Keith Ferguson at the adjacent table, Chris taught me Daniel Solis's "Belle of the Ball," which I'd seen in passing at UnPub 3 and really wanted to learn. "BotB" has a bit of a Guillotine feel to it; a line of potential party guests appears, and players try to gain social popularity by attracting the most successful guest list (as measured by the compatibility of the invitees). Mixed among the arriving guests are "Belles," cards that give special scoring bonuses or other one-time use abilities.
I got the hang of the game pretty quickly and really enjoyed it. I think the only comment I had was that the Belle cards seemed a little too numerous in proportion to the rest of the guests, but that was just my impression in a single play. After I got home, I downloaded the print-and-play files so that Kathy and I can try it out as one of our cocktail hour games. I look forward to getting some more plays in soon.
|Playing Coup with Ben Rossett (l) and T.C. Petty III (r)
Photo by Chris Kirkman
I'm starting to think that small-format social identity games are a rising phenomenon. Are You a Werewolf? and The Resistance are two examples I've mentioned before. Citadels falls into the category (despite also having a building deck), and Love Letters is a game that really intrigues me but that I can't seem to get my hands on. Along those lines, I learned of the game Coup (designer Rikki Tahta, artist Andrew Higgins, publisher La Mame) from the French blog Gus and Co, which ranked it among the top games of 2012. It is available in the United States from All About Games, a tiny company in Maine.
Well, lucky for me, Chris broke it out over dinner. Darrell, T.C., Ben, and I were joined by Clyde Wright, so we had a six-player session of this terrific little bluffing game. Did I mention that I am terrible at bluffing games? Nevertheless, this little gem is a brilliant work of hidden identity and deduction.
Players each start with two identity cards face down out of a deck of 15. The deck includes three copies each of five possible identities, each of which has a special ability. On his turn, each player takes a single action. Some actions are universally available, some cost money, and some can only be executed by certain characters. Some can only be opposed by certain characters as well. So players will take actions that they may or may not be allowed to take, and other players may challenge their ability to do so. A challenge results in one player or the other losing an identity card depending on whether the challenged player in fact had the identity that he claimed to have. A player who loses both identity cards is out of the game; the last player to have a face-down identity wins the game.
Did I mention that I am terrible at bluffing games? I was completely out of my league with this game in this crowd, and yet I had a terrific time playing it. I was very entertained to watch Ben, though, who, like me, is terrible at bluffing. But he took a very conservative approach and did very well. Coup is tremendous fun and is sheer genius for the social interaction. It is now on my "must have" wish list.
|(c) GMT Games
Used by permission
Formula Motor Racing
I joined Keith, who was running the Lords of Waterdeep semifinal, on the tournament floor along with Brian Greer and Glenn Weeks. I brought a copy of Formula Motor Racing (designer Reiner Knizia, artist Rodger B. MacGowan, publisher GMT) so we could kill time waiting for the LoW tournament to finish. FMR is a light little Knizia card game that I picked up at the GMT booth at PrezCon a few years ago. It's a little bit of a logic puzzle that has players jockeying race cars in relative position to each other in anticipation of making a big move at the end of the race to finish in first.
As it happened, our friend Grant Greffey placed second in the FMR tournament earlier that day. He had the lead going into the final card play, but one of the kids played a "Charge," which allowed him to roll a die and attempt to advance one place in line with each successful result (1-9 on a 12-sided die) but to fall back to the end and stop rolling if he rolls a 10-12. The kid got five consecutive good rolls - a 24% chance of succeeding - to take the lead and win the tournament.
Some people complain about FMR that nothing matters until the last few card plays of the game. I think that's only partly true. Your chances of winning depend in part on your position going into those last few plays, as well as on your ability to avoid a catastrophe early in the race - a fate that Glenn was unable to avoid in our session.
East India Company
I made two changes to "East India Company" since PrezCon. The first was to adjust the prices of tea and spice so that their profit margins were not so generous. The second was to stipulate that the "China produces spice" tile could not be on the board at initial set-up. I introduced these measures specifically to counter-act the "Spicy Craig," a killer strategy that Stephen Craig exposed at UnPub 3 last month. That's what I love about playtesting - when a new player breaks your game and exposes a fatal flaw.
Doug Bass of Meridae Games had expressed an interest in playing "EIC," and after he was eliminated in the LoW semifinal, the opportunity was right for us to give it a try. Doug, Brian, and Glenn were joined by Mike Senzig (of the CE final, above) for a four-player round. I sat out to observe and collect playtesting notes, although it wasn't long before the late hour took its toll, and Glenn had to bow out early. I stepped into Glenn's position for the rest of the game while he caught up on some well-deserved rest.
Doug adopted a very aggressive investment strategy. He borrowed heavily to finance early construction of a large ship, much like the "Spicy Craig" approach. But since there was no spice market on the board yet - nor tea, for that matter - all he could load that would be profitable was ivory. And as it happened, for the first three turns or so of the game, the only available products were ivory and silver. So those markets got saturated early in Europe. I think at one point the price of ivory in Europe dropped close to zero. Doug actually left a ship full of ivory at sea for several turns hoping a colony would open a new ivory market so that he could sell at a profit rather than unload in Europe at a loss. The problem, of course, was that he was paying interest on loans all those turns, so he had a very hard time catching up at that point.
I tested Ben Rossett's premise that the dividend track is not worthwhile. I deliberately did not buy dividends until the last one or two turns of the game, when I really had nothing else to do with my cash. I think Ben's observation has merit. I might improve the marginal bonus point return on dividends above a certain point, so that people who faithfully pay dividends get a worthwhile return on their opportunity cost in the long run.
I ended up winning the game by two coins over Mike, in part because I bought a big ship when the spice tile finally came out and made a couple of runs (although I was never able to buy more than two spices at a time). But I wasn't the only one to buy spice, and I certainly didn't make a killing at it. I paid off part of my loans, but not all. So I am confident that I've pretty much fixed what Chris and I called "the China problem."
Doug asked me afterward if his strategy would have worked if the markets had been different, and that question sparked an important realization for me. Yes, very much so: with a different market environment, heavy borrowing and big shipbuilding is a very good strategy. But it's not a good strategy for all markets, and the revelation dawned on me that that's the hallmark of a good game - that the player has to adopt the strategy to the conditions of the game.
I started thinking about how different players had approached the game over the last dozen playtests: At UnPub, Ben Rossett had invested in multiple small ships and sent them to all different colonies to return to Europe with all different commodities. That approach works well when there are four or five different products available within a reasonable distance of Europe. T.C. Petty had manipulated the tariff auctions to corner the ivory market. Darrell Louder had taken a single medium ship and targeted whatever commodity nobody else was buying. They are all good strategies, but their success depends on the market environment. Each is suited to certain conditions, and none is a guaranteed success.
In thinking about the answer to Doug's question, "would his strategy have worked if the market had been different," I gained a lot of confidence in the soundness of the design of "EIC." It's still got some necessary adjustments to make. The markets are still a little chaotic. But really, the variability of the market environment - and the dynamics of the supply and demand mechanism - really make it work in a way that I think is fun and engaging and challenging. I think I've got something good here.
Near the end of our game of "EIC," I got a text from Keith that said, "You have got to come down here." After he'd finished running the LoW final, he'd gone downstairs to where a big group was playing a social identity game called Two Rooms and a Boom (designers Alan Gerding and Sean McCoy, publisher Tuesday Knight). I had not heard of this game, but I got the impression it was a little like Are You a Werewolf? from the standpoint that people had secret identities and were running around trying to figure out who was who and what to do about it.
Clyde Wright and Emily Pace were running this game for a group of about a dozen people or so. I walked in, and before I knew it, I was given a card and pretty much told, "You'll figure it out." Players are randomly given cards that identify them as being on either the red team or the blue team. The blue team includes one player that is "The President" and the red team includes "The Bomber." Players are then divided into two rooms. The goal of the blue team is to ensure that the President and the Bomber are in different rooms at the end of the game; the goal of the red team is to get the Bomber in the same room as the President at the end of the game.
There are four rounds, during which the players in each room elect a leader and the leader decides whom to send to the other room at the end of the round. Two players from each room switch to the other at the end of the first and second rounds; one player from each room switch at the end of the third and fourth rounds. After the fourth round is over, the President and Bomber reveal themselves to determine which team won.
The nuance of the game comes in deciding whether to reveal your identity to someone else, whom to trust, whom to vote for as leader, and whom to send to the other room. The game gets more crazy as more bizarre roles are introduced. I can't say I got the hang of it, but I certainly had a great time and look forward to playing it again some time.
*boardgamegeek.com lists the following artists for Lords of Waterdeep:

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Striped Skunk is the most common skunk in North America, Like all skunks,they have a natural defense system. Equipped with two glands at the base of their tail,they are able to defend themselves against most predators. After giving an intruder ample warning, a skunk is able to spray a sulphuric-smelling musk,which aimed accurately,is able to cause intense pain & temporary blindness! Skunk musk is also oily & extremely difficult to remove.This natural defense system enables the skunk to ward off with confidence most who dare to challenge them!
|Yipes! Stripes! Beware! Don't make me lift my hind legs!
|Pardon me, but I must go to see my Den Mother!
rats,shrews,mice,squash bugs,potato bugs, & grasshoppers eaten !
|Ewe are un-"Bear"-able! Don't come any closer or I'll have to Shoot!
|I bet ewe didn't know that we were real "Stinkers" growing up!
|Ewe don't have a thing to Fear! I'm right here!
"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us,who can be against us."Romans 8:31


text:
Lego Marvel's Avengers is an upcoming action-adventure Lego video game published by Warner Bros. Intuitive Entertainment and developed by TT Games, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows.
Lego Marvel's Avengers will be released on 26 January, 2016.
Lego Marvel's Avengers release date: January 26, 2016
Lego Marvel's Avengers follows the events of Avengers, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. The game will use most of the audio from the movies, similar to the Lego Jurassic World and Lego Hobbit games. A new feature of the game is team up attacks, for instance when Thor hits Captain Americas shield it will make a sonic attack. Characters transitioning is also improved.
Also read Hitman 2015 preview
Lego Marvel's Avengers 2016 is likely to follow precisely the same format as previous Lego games in the series. Players will take control of a team that includes Lego versions of real-world characters. Each of these Lego characters has a special skill and personal trails that differs from class to class.
Some characters have skills that will allow them to reach inaccessible areas. Some characters like the Hulk for instance, are much stronger than others and are superior at destroying objects in the game world. Other character classes are typically more suitable towards puzzle solving and are gifted with specific skills that guide them in such manner.
Gameplay focuses on third person view mixed action and adventure platforming packed with puzzle elements. Players collect Lego studs in the form of currency that is used to unlock different characters, costumes and even special cheat codes.
The game will feature more than one hundred playable characters, including many returning characters from the previous game. The superheroes that are expected to appear are in Lego Marvel's Avengers include: Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Vision, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Some confirmed characters to appear include: Sam Wilson as Captain America, Crossbones, and Wiccan from Young Avengers, with Detroit Steel and Miss America from A-Force.
Also read about Godzilla
The first Lego Marvel's Avengers Video Game Trailer includes Lego versions of scenes from the New York battle in The Avengers with some new additions like Hulk posing with the Leviathan, but the trailer's theme is more remindful of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the deadly robot supervillain Ultron also shows up at the end of the trailer.
Another trailer of Lego Marvel's Avengers focuses on the rebirth of the first Avengers film in Lego format, with most of the gameplay shown originating from the big finale against the Chitauri invasion. All the familiar faces are also shown including Black Widow and Captain America, as well as the big dragon alien that the Hulk punches in the face.


text:
No.12 Picture Book Show: Winners Announced
Intro: Below are the list of medal and merit winners from our professional show that are reproduced in the 3x3 Illustration Annual No.12. Medal and merit winners must have received a majority of our judge's votes; honorable mention winners must have had half of our judges' votes for their entry. All medal, merit and distinguished merit winners will appear in the Annual print, digital, and online. Honorable mentions will be displayed online with direct links to the artist's site.
Congratulations to all.
* denotes multiple pieces in category
Best of Show
Catarina Sobral, Children's Book Published
Page Tsou, Children's Book Published
Kate Hindley, Children's Book Published
Catarina Sobral, Children's Editorial
Marion Arbona, Children's Book Published
Daniel Bueno, Children's Book Unpublished
Rongyuan Ma, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Distinguished Merit
Marta Monteiro, Young Adult
Kelly Murphy, Children's Illustration Published
John Parra, Children's Book Published
Victoria Antolini, Children's Book Unpublished
Marion Arbona, Children's Book Published
Marion Arbona, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Maria Cecilia Azzali, Children's Book Unpublished
Jan Bielecki, Children's Book Unpublished
Silvia Bonanni, Children's Book Published
Jill Calder, Children's Book Published
Maria Carluccio, Children's Editorial
Maria Carluccio, Children's Miscellaneous
João Vaz De Carvalho, Children's Book Unpublished
Peihsiu Chen, Young Adult
Julien Chung, Children's Book Published
Julien Chung, Children's Illustration Published
Julien Chung, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Sara Corbett, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Nina Cuneo, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Sara Cunha, Children's Illustration Published
Mike Curato, Children's Book Published
Giovanni Da Re, Young Adult
Mai Ly Degnan, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Rob Dunlavey, Children's Book Published
Barry Fitzgerald, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Brian Fitzgerald, Children's Book Published
Jamie Hogan, Children's Book Published
David Hohn, Children's Illustration Unpublished
IC4Design, Children's Book Published
Stacy Innerst, Children's Book Published
Andrea Innocent, Children's Miscellaneous
Tom Jellett, Children's Book Published
John Joven, Young Adult
Eda Kaban, Book Covers
Katja Kamm, Children's Book Published
Angela Keoghan, Children's Miscellaneous
Jaime Kim, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Jean Kim, Children's Book Unpublished
Shahar Kober, Children's Book Published
Gee Eun Lee, Children's Book Published
Huang Ling Hsing, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Marta Madureira*, Children's Book Published
Kathleen Marcotte, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Larvol Marianne, Children's Book Published
Lauren Marriott, Children's Book Published
Sophia Martineck, Young Adult
Jessica Matthews, Children's Book Published
Jennifer E. Morris, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Kelly Murphy, Book Covers
Manica K. Musil, Children's Book Unpublished
John Parra, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Daron Parton, Children's Illustration Published
Valeria Petrone, Children's Editorial
Natalie Pudalov, Children's Book Unpublished
Christine Rösch, Children's Book Published
Isabel Roxas, Children's Illustration Published
Amy Schimler-Safford, Children's Miscellaneous
Cristina Spanò, Young Adult
Binny Talib, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Sue Todd, Children's Educational
Klaas Verplancke, Children's Book Published
Klaas Verplancke, Children's Illustration Published
Chen Ying-Fan, Children's Book Unpublished
Yeji Yun, Children's Illustration Published
Honorable Mention
A.Richard Allen, Children's Book Published
Naama Benziman, Children's Book Unpublished
Orit Bergman, Children's Book Unpublished
Alon Braier, Children's Book Unpublished
Ed Briant, Children's Book Unpublished
Ed Briant, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Neil Brigham, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Marijke Buurlage, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Hsiao-Chi Chang, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Chu-Li Chen, Children's Educational
Sally Wern Comport, Children's Book Published
Christopher Corr, Children's Book Published
Katherine Coulton, Children's Illustration Published
Alessandra De Cristofaro, Children's Illustration Unpublished
David Dean, Book Covers
Evah Fan, Children's Book Unpublished
Tsahi Farber, Children's Book Published
Carolyn Fisher, Children's Book Published
Brian Fitzgerald, Children's Illustration Published
Claudine Gevry, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Liora Grossman, Children's Book Published
Monika Grubizna, Children's Book Published
Amy Hevron, Children's Book Published
Melissa Iwai, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Richard Johnson, Children's Book Published
Raaya Karas, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Terri Fry Kasuba, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Jung Hwa Kim, Book Covers
Daniel Kondo, Children's Book Published
Gabriela Larios, Book Covers
Kathleen Marcotte, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Mirella Mariani, Young Adult
Shane Mcgowan, Children's Book Published
Melda Oncu Yildiz, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Isabel Roxas, Children's Book Unpublished
Amy Schimler-Safford, Children's Miscellaneous
Connie Snoek, Children's Book Unpublished
Gaia Stella, Children's Book Published
Todd Stewart, Children's Illustration Published
Binny Talib, Children's Illustration Unpublished
Binny Talib, Children's Miscellaneous
Steven Van Hasten, Children's Illustration Published
Katia Wish, Children's Book Published
I-Wen Wu, Young Adult


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Beginning on Monday, February 25th, students will be able to print in the library and be charged from their student account. When you print from a computer a dialogue box will open asking you for your student account ID and password. You will then be shown the cost of your print job and be able to send it to our regular printers or to the colour printer.
You may also add money to your student account at the library circulation desk. In addition, users who do not have student accounts can purchase print cards for $2 or $5. These print cards will be good until you use the balance but cannot be replaced if lost.
Finally, the library will be dropping the printing price from 15 cents per page to 10 cents per page. Colour printing will remain at a reasonable 50 cents per page.


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Are you a talented Australian, passionate about this country and with the desire to contribute to its future?
Then you should apply for the Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship, which will give you the opportunity to develop world-class leadership and management skills by undertaking the one-year MBA programme at Cranfield School of Management.
Our Scholarship is the pre-eminent opportunity for outstanding Australians with diverse work, educational and life experiences, who possess the entrepreneurial and business leadership talents to benefit from the learning opportunity and who will then contribute to Australia through their increased knowledge and skills.
Australians with internationally ranked skills in leadership and management will contribute both to the economic welfare of the nation as well as to the values that make Australia unique.
We, the Australian Alumni community, are driven by an ethos of contribution, community and "pay it forward". We have all benefited from our Cranfield experience and we are now helping the next generation of talented Australians, who in their turn will help those who follow them. READ MORE
Donate to our scholarship
How can you support the Scholarship?
Spread the word: Tell friends, family and colleagues who could benefit from the scholarship about this website and encourage them to register.
Link to our website from your corporate intranet
Applications for the 2019 Scholarship have closed.
We are delighted to announce Mahesh Roy as the winner of the 2019 Scholarship.
You can read about Mahesh here.
The Prodigy Loan scheme
The Prodigy Loan Scheme, specifically designed to help fund MBA studies, is now available to allow prospective students to access the financing they need.
Blogs and videos
Read all the blogs for current and past Scholars here
Hear Alumni speak about the "Cranfield Experience"
More on life at Cranfield here.
Welcome to Cranfield School of Management
How to apply
- Register your interest
- Lodge MBA course application and complete admissions interview
- Take the GMAT or CAT
- Fill in the Scholarship application
- Receive offer of place from Cranfield SoM
- Undertake Scholarship selection interview
- Complete Sheffield Harris career feedback process
- Receive notification if winner
- Attend May Award Dinner/Events
Annual Scholarship Timetable
Actual dates will confirmed each year
NOW Register interest for the scholarship
Book for Cranfield Admission Test or GMAT
Feb Melbourne | President's Lunch | Meet the Alumni | CAT Administration Feb Sydney | President's Lunch | Meet the Alumni | CAT Administration April Submit MBA application to Cranfield School of Management
Submit Scholarship one page application
May Last possible date to sit GMAT for current year applicants May Scholarship Selection interviews held in Sydney, day and venue to be confirmed June Scholarship Award Evening
Details will be provided closer to the date.
-5.30pm AGM of the Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Foundation Inc -6.30pm Cranfield Australian Alumni Scholarship Award Cocktail Reception and presentation of the award Sept MBA Programme commences Term dates


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The financial and professional services markets in Asia Pacific continue to out-pace those elsewhere in the world. But with great opportunity can mean great challenge. That's why our local and international clients increasingly rely on our deep, understanding of this critical space to help them maximise commercial opportunity both at home and abroad. Our team's pedigree is second to none, as is our client portfolio. Whether in banking, financial services, law or accountancy, we pride ourselves on our ability to provide outstanding insight into the deep-seated issues that attend each sector.
General Manager
Tel: +82 2 6250 7004


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Kathryn Flett, writer and critic
I must say I found the mass outpouring of Bob-love for Dylan's 70th birthday a bit baffling. Other than 10 years, is there any difference between Bob at 60 and Bob at 70, or are journalists simply so obsessed by an anniversary that that is enough in itself? Surely by now Bob's body of work is an archive?
Musically, Bob Dylan's always been a bit "Morrissey" to me. By which I mean that a) it seems to be (primarily, though in your case obviously not) a bloke thing, and b) a very particular brand of musical Marmite... and if you just don't "get" it you're doomed to go through life, slightly apologetically, saying: "Sorry, not for me." I don't feel as though I should have to apologise for not "getting" Bob, but in some circles it would appear that to be anti-Bob, or even just Bob-meh, is to be anti-life; tantamount to saying" "I don't really like music..." And I do like music, lots of different sorts – but not Bob. I really hate his voice.
But I grew up with a Dylan-obsessive for a dad. My pa is not only a songwriter for whom Bob's lyrics have always been an inspiration but he and my mum saw the "Dylan goes electric" tour at the Albert Hall. They walked out, I believe. My father credits Bob with being one of the very few people (Brian Wilson another) who made him quit advertising and decide to write pop songs for a living. And while I always got the Brian Wilson thing, will there be a similar mass outpouring of media coverage when Brian turns 70 next year? And it's not as if Brian doesn't also have a back catalogue that changed the face of popular music or, come to that, just as varied a back catalogue of drug abuse. Needless to say I don't own a single Dylan CD and do not feel as though my life is culturally impoverished because of that. However, if I was told I had to own one, it would be Blood on the Tracks. I was only 11 when it came out in 1975, but — probably due to exposure; my dad played it constantly — it was the closest I ever came to getting Bob.
Amy Raphael, writer and biographer
You start by saying that you really hate Dylan's voice and yet, by the end, you are naming an album you like. Can I tentatively suggest that you don't dislike him as much as you say? Perhaps you have been verbally bullied by too many male musos who have expected you to be encylopaedic in your knowledge of Bob and who are myopic when it comes to criticism. He's not like a difficult novel that you have to pretend to enjoy, and I personally don't think it makes you a musical leper if you don't get him. It's just a shame because I think you're missing out.
You say you really hate his voice. I love it. David Bowie sang of Dylan having a voice "like sand and glue"; for me it can also be passionate, languorous and sexy as hell. I still get chills listening to "Lay, Lady, Lay" and "I Threw It All Away".
You grew up with a Dylan-obsessive for a dad; so did I. For me it was a good thing. My first proper gig was Bob Dylan at Earls Court in 1978 or 1979 – I concede that a male fan would never be so vague – and even though he had bafflingly converted to Christianity and looked rather grizzly, I was smitten. I embrace the idea of celebrating each Dylan decade, if only because there's a chance a new generation will be introduced to his work each time. And you can always turn off Radio 4 if their blanket coverage is driving you nuts. PS: I love Morrissey too!
KF Interesting. You may be right about the "bullying male musos"! Also in my case, if not yours, when my hormones kicked in I was predisposed to reject anything that had been parentally endorsed. There were a few exceptions — Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life remains my Desert Island long-player and I have a fondness for Elton John's Captain Fantastic, for example — but King Bob didn't make the cut. Tough to be a rebellious teen when your parents have good taste (I wasn't kicking against Des O'Connor, after all). However, punk was anathema to my parents, so... for a teenager from the burbs it was Berlin-era Bowie and the Clash who "spoke" to me, while Bob Zimmerman was just an old fossil from Over There. As far as I was concerned "Blowin' in the Wind" was so much musical tumbleweed.
AR I was 10 in 1977 so just missed out on punk. I wasn't remotely cool when it came to music; an early record was David Soul's sappy "Don't Give Up on Us" and I worshipped Abba. I don't think music should be about cool, but what you actually like, not what you think you should like. There is certainly too much snobbery about Dylan. Music should be about visceral pleasure not about showing off. I would no more want to spend an evening with a Dylan obsessive than you would. The press love Dylan because he remains pretty much a mystery even after all these years and they can speculate endlessly about his literary lyrics.
KF I'm starting to think that maybe it's the blokey Cult of Bob I've been kicking against, rather than Bob himself. I'm with you, too, on notions of cool. Other than for about 10 minutes when I was 15, I don't think I ever really cared about — or had a handle on — musical cool. I just like good music, by anybody. But I also don't have the kind of encyclopaedic and slightly autistic-spectrum knowledge of any artist — much less Dylan — that seems to particularly (and particularly infuriatingly) distinguish the Bob-fans from the also-fans. Now, though, maybe it's time for a grown-up personal reappraisal. It'll be tough getting past not loving his voice but maybe I'll download Blood on the Tracks and take it from there.
AR Perhaps listen to 1969's Nashville Skyline too – where you'll find "Lay, Lady, Lay" and "I Threw It All Away" – as a kind of gentle reintroduction. It's romantic and domestic and a departure from his usual vocal style. I don't suppose Dylan ever set out to make music for men, it's just that some men have ended up taking him very seriously. As have some women.
So let's forget any kind of gender divide, let's forget about competing or being completist and let's just celebrate Dylan for the legend he is. My six-year-old daughter, who goes to sleep every single night listening to "The Times They Are a-Changin'" on her iPod, puts it quite well: "He's just not like other pop stars."


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Subscribe To Mexican Wrestling Star Dies After Freak Accident In Match Updates
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One of the biggest stars in Mexican pro wrestling shockingly passed away last night after a match in Tijuana. Perro Aguayo Jr., the son of one of Mexico's favorite charismatic performers was only 35 years old when something went terribly wrong in the ring leading to the professional wrestler's unexpected death.
According to The Wrestling Observer, who first broke the story Aguayo Jr. and Manik (T.J. Perkins of TNA) where in a match against Rey Mysterio Jr. and Extreme Tiger when the freak accident occurred. Aguayo Jr. entered back into the ring after taking a spinning head scissors when he bumped to the floor and Mysterio Jr. gave him a low dropkick. Soon after, Aguayo Jr. hit the ropes and fell unconscious. The Wrestling Observer explains in the competitive terms:
Mysterio Jr. gave him a low dropkick to the back to set up the 619. It is not clear whether Aguayo Jr. was selling or not when he first hit the ropes to get ready for the 619. He may have already been injured falling on the ropes, or, while selling, and being positioned badly, when Manik fell into the ropes to set up a double 619 spot, that was when the ropes whiplashed him, although it was likely the first spot immediately.
Nobody knew the severity of the hit, whether or not he was selling or he was severely hurt. So, even as he was knocked out, the match continued and when the paramedics arrived to the show, they attempted to revive him until they finally needed to carry him out and rush him to the hospital.
Sources who were at the Hospital del Prado in Tijuana said that the initial cause of death was cervical spine trauma. This is believed to have occurred when the ropes snapped the wrestler's neck. Video footage of the fight has been circulating the internet and the fight does not seem anything outside the ordinary in comparison to other professional wrestling matches. You can watch it here, but obviously it is very difficult to view considering the circumstances.
Aguayo Jr. started wrestling as a young teen and quickly rose to stardom as AAA's top heel performer. He's been a top wrestling star for nearly two decades now, and this comes as a huge loss to his large number of fans. He will be dearly missed.


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Some librarians are excited by the prospect of Second Life. I don't have any strong opinions about it. I've been on a few times, played around with my avatar trying to make it look like me except handsome, and watched other neophytes run into obstacles because they couldn't navigate very well. I can never find any islands with many people on them, but perhaps it's because I don't go in for virtual shopping or virtual sex.
Princeton now has a Second Life island. I had to visit it from home, though. Because I don't have administrative rights on my work machine and we inhabit a culture of distrust when it comes to our computers, I couldn't download the software. (Cultures of trust and distrust could definitely be another post.) Then when I got someone from systems to download it, my computer crashed, possibly because my graphics card wasn't powerful enough. Thus, I visited the Princeton island from home. Very pretty, but not much there. And I felt strange being the only person on campus. It was like one of those end of the world movies. I kept waiting for some horrible space monster to leap out of Nassau Hall.
The Daily Princetonian, our school newspaper, published an editorial about the Princeton Second Life island today entitled Second Life and the Soul. From the very first sentence, you can get an idea of what the writer thinks of Second Life. "You are alive. You are reading this newspaper."
I've noted before that I don't think these kids today are ahead of me technologically, even though I'm getting old enough to be their father, except with less money. I'm not sure I believe the hype about how the "millennials" are all that much different from other generations. The writer for the Prince might agree with me on this, being skeptical about the value of a Princeton on Second Life.
The editorial concludes:
"In fairness, we do not yet know the purpose of this program. Perhaps alumni will be interested in seeing Princeton online and will have fond memories of Chancellor Green. Perhaps perspective students will lie about their age to catch a glimpse of what could be. Maybe if the software is flashier more strangers will download our lectures. To some, these applications may seem trivial, but more importantly they are harmless. Should Second Life begin to intersect or usurp student life, however, this campus will be radically worse off for it."
This seems to me exactly the kind of skeptical attitude one should take toward social software. Try it, perhaps use it, try to adapt it to good uses if possible, be ready to admit if it doesn't work very well, and be aware of the dangers.
And all this from one of the millennials.
(You might also be interested in a more hostile reception of Second Life by a Princeton Student.)
UPDATE: I asked my students in class this morning how many had ever visited second life, and none had. One woman said, "We have real lives."


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We were sitting on the side lines with the Stones cheering on the team. It was Kade's turn for a goal kick. He really gave it all he had.
I was rather impressed with the effort that went into this kick. I had to look at the picture again. Look at that leg extension. Kade sometimes talks of playing football but I usually try to steer him in the direction of something like baseball or tennis. Maybe sticking with soccer would be a good idea. Then maybe he could become a kicker for a football team, if he still wants to play.


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Timpson & Tenaha News (Timpson, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 1, 2002
Description: Weekly newspaper from Timpson, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: August 1, 2002
Creator: Ritch, Nancy
Item Type: Refine your search to only Newspaper
Partner: Timpson Public Library


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Mark Van Buren - Owner/Head Instructor
Mark Van Buren has been promoting health, wellness, and creative arts in his community for over 8 years. His journey began with a passion for music. Mark received an Associate's Degree in Music from Bergen Community College, but also has been in and out of various bands, which have performed at venues such as The Bitter End, Crash Mansion, and Webster Hall. He recently put out a solo album and continues to write and perform his music.
Mark then began pursuing a career in personal training. His studies started with a personal training certification from NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine). He then received a second Associate's Degree in Exercise Science, also from Bergen Community College. Following this degree, Mark furthered his studies with NASM and achieved his Sports Fitness Specialist Certification.
Enjoying health and wellness so much, Mark decided to enroll in massage therapy school. He completed his training at Healing Hands Institute in Westwood, NJ, and began eagerly practicing. Mark specialized in relieving shoulder, hip, and low back discomfort, preventing many of his clients from getting unnecessary surgery.
During his time at massage therapy school, Mark became interested in a new approach to wellness and started studying yoga, meditation and qi gong. He began taking silent meditation retreats at a meditation center in New York State, going on retreats ranging from one to ten days of silent, vigorous meditation training. He also lived at the retreat center for a month for a work study program. This deeper aspect of life interested Mark so much that he decided to go back to school and get a Bachelor's Degree in Religious Studies, taking a variety of religion and philosophy courses.
More recently Mark has become certified in meditation through Yoga Life Society and has completed his 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Juluka Yoga in Hillsdale, NJ. He is now a Mindful Living Trainer and the author of the #1 Amazon Best-Seller in Meditation, Be Your Sh*tty Self: An Honest Approach to a More Peaceful Life. He hopes to use all of his education and experiential learning to teach others how to "Live Free" through his variety of services.


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About Big Apple Fireplaces of New York
Together, Big Apple Fireplace and the Hearth & Home Technologies family of brands (the world's leading producer and installer of hearth products) offers a product line unsurpassed in its breadth, including a full array of gas, electric, and wood burning fireplaces, inserts, stoves, grills, mantels and more. Our Heatilator and Heat & Glo brands are the strongest in the industry, and our products are designed to incorporate the very latest in materials and technology.
Yet, in spite of all the effort we devote to growth and innovation, we never lose sight of our primary mission: Making your house feel more like a home™.
Making your house feel more like a home™
Big Apple Fireplace & Hearth & Home Technologies
Is driven by a burning commitment to quality, function and reliability. That dedication explains why our brands are not only the most well known, but also the most preferred by builders and homeowners alike.Driving the growth of our brands have been two simple but timeless questions: How can we add comfort and convenience to the home? How can we create a safer, healthier environment within the home? Our answers, in the form of innovative products and features, have set increasingly high industry standards and opened new markets.
Our collective vision comes from people so vested in the company's success that we call them members, not employees. It comes from partners who work closely with homeowners and homebuilders. And part of that vision involves recognizing that the next great idea could come from anyone, regardless of job title or location. We also believe that leadership is an action, not a position.
At Big Apple Fireplace & Hearth & Home Technologies,
Innovation is an ongoing endeavor. Today we create excellence in the marketplace, tomorrow we'll redefine it.
Hearth & Home Technologies is a subsidiary of HNI Corporation. HNI Corporation was recognized for the sixth consecutive year as one of the 400 Best Big Companies in America by Forbes magazine in 2004, and one of America's Most Admired Company in the furniture industry by Fortune magazine in 2004.


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Login/Create Account
Check Out the new Remax App
Ask Me Anything
Having been a Realtor since 2005,I have experienced the ups and downs of the market and have learned how to meet the needs of my clients regardless of these conditions. On top of the basic continuing education required of all agents I have gained my Broker/Sales Associate License, The Accredited Buyer Representative designation, and the Short Sale and Foreclosure designation. On multiple occasions I have won the Circle of Excellence Award for production achievement.My business centers around Mountain Lakes, Boonton, Boonton Township, Parsippany, Montville, Denville, Rockaway, and the rest of Morris County.I am active in local fundraising organizations always looking for ways to help strengthen the local communities.Let me help you become a part of the lifestyles of these towns.


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Atkinson Filstop – Overfill Prevention Valve
Designed to act as the fill point on both metal and plastic diesel tanks. The Filstop physically closes the inlet to the tank should the fuel level reach its maximum during delivery. This prevents the tank from being overfilled or bursting and hence reduces the risk of pollution and expensive clean up operation that might arise from such an occurrence.
The unit for plastic tanks comes complete with fitting flange, O ring and Locking Nut (as shown in the picture) so that it can simply be fitted through a 2″ hole cut into the top of the tank. The unit for steel tanks is supplied without fitting flange, O ring nor Locking Nut (as shown in the picture) so that it screws directly into the 2″ BSP Female inlet.


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Skip to main content
AginWhere is derived from fermentation of bifidobacterium. With nutrient-rich composition, it has function of brighten skin colour, reduce skin stain, anti-wrinkles, improve skin microenvionment etc.
View Company Profile
INCI Name: Polyquaternium-10
NatiFlex HF 100/400/3000
NatiFlex HF 400L/3000L
* Ideal Cationization
* Excellent Heat & pH Resistance
* Good Hair S...
INCI Name: Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride
NatiFlex HG 500/1400/1400S
* Excellent Heat & pH Resistance
* Hair Hydrophobicity Improvements
INCI Name: Sodium Hyaluronate
AquaJuve CT/CC/CE/HCE Regular Molecular Weight
AquaJuve 3500/Plus Talor-made Molecular Weight
AquaJuve ...
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WE OFFER: High Quality Screen Printing
The sole purpose as to why we are in business is because our goal is to offer our customers something that we were not offered when we first started. We weren't given a high quality screen printing result when we placed our first order, so immediately after that we got the equipment to do the job ourself. That has been our promise not only to ourselves, but to our customers. In addition, we also offer:
- Free assistance with graphic design
- No setup costs
- Massive selection of apparel
- Literally 24/7 availability
One thing that we notice when people switch over to us from another screen printing company is that their white base layer is visible. This is something that should never be tolerated, because the white base layer should be placed underneath the colors. It's sole purpose is to make the colors on top pop and to remain invisible. The way to fix it is to either do a better job aligning or to fix the way the graphics are color separated. When one of those two fixes is not done it shows that the screen printer either lacks the discipline to offer a quality product or that they do not know how to fix the problem.
We do not take any short cuts when it comes to preparing our graphics and setting up a screen printing job. When we say that we offer high quality screen printing we sincerely mean it. So, you will not see any white base layer (click here for an explanation of what a white base layer is) and you will not even know that an entire layer is printed underneath the colors!
We understand that you may not be familiar with what a white base layer is, so to summarize it quickly, it's basically a white layer that gets printed underneath colors. We highly suggest for you to print this layer when printing on dark colored garments, because if not then the colors will look dim/faded/not bright.
If you take your apparel's appearance seriously then look no further. We guarantee your complete satisfaction, because we are highly confident of our high quality screen printing skills. Plus, our goal is to make you apparel that will sell, because if you are successful then we are successful!


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Golf Course: Score Card
The 7,500 yard, Atchafalaya at Idlewild is open to the public with five sets of tees, huge greens and a complete practice facility. View our score card below for detailed yardages.
Click here to download a score card
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Photo Gallery
View images from around our golf course >>
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