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About RBC > Media Newsroom > Speeches > Navigating the Gray Area: The State of Responsible Investing
Gordon Nixon
President & Chief Executive Officer
Royal Bank of Canada
RBC Dexia Investor Services Conference
May 24, 2007
A few weeks ago, I was sent an article about the kind of returns an investor can expect with a portfolio of sin-stockslike tobacco, gambling, alcohol and weapons. It was called "Smoke, Drink and be Merry".
The article described a "sweet-looking elderly woman" at the annual meeting of Rothmans, a Canadian tobacco company. At one point during the proceedings, this lady turned to the man sitting beside her and whispered: "Thank goodness for all those stupid smokers."
You can almost hear the satisfaction in her voice.
But as happy as she was with her returns, she also made a confession to the gentleman beside her. She never, ever discusses this particular investment with her friends in the bridge club. They might not approve.
Investing in tobacco is her guilty little secret.
Welcome to the new world of investing, where guilt and pride are becoming much a part of the mix as ROI.
I have my own confession to make this morning: If you'd asked me a few years ago about "socially responsible" or "responsible" investing, as it's becoming known, I'd probably have predicted that the market wouldn't become mainstream in my lifetime. In fact, I would have struggled with the conflict between fiduciary responsibility and social responsibility.
But times are changing, and quickly. Just as CEOs must be much more focused on its various constituents--not just shareholders, so too must investors be concerned about things other than simply return as well as understanding the relationship between performance and social policies.
That sweet-looking lady might have been content to hold a so-called "sin stock," but her reluctance to talk about it shows that she understands what responsible investing means just as well as anyone who refuses to invest in tobacco.
Now, more than ever, people are willing to put their money where their values are. We see it most clearly at the consumer level, with a growing demand for hybrid vehicles and green products, or in efforts like Bono's Red Label campaign. People want to do better.
I chair the pension committee at Sick Kids Hospital. How do we balance our responsibilities to our pensioners with the issue of our investment managers holding investments in companies that may produce products viewed as detrimental to health.
This is a new issue for us and we see this trend, increasingly, in the investment world. More and more individuals are demonstrating that they are ready to reward companies that behave well and operate sustainably. And they're willing to wash their hands of those that don't.
Today's conference asks the question - are responsible investing and optimal returns mutually exclusive, or vitally linked? More simply put, can investors do well by doing good?
The question isn't new. It's been around since at least the 1960s, when many churches and universities began screening their investments to protest corporate involvement in the Vietnam War. It gained a new face and fresh momentum in the late 1980s with the rise of the first ethical funds and an increased focus on sustainable development.
There is certainly ample research suggesting that corporations with good social records, on the whole, outperform corporations with bad ones. But you can also find data showing that companies with socially 'irresponsible' products can deliver a good return as well.
However, no matter which side of the fence you come down on, the debate may be academic at this point.
Make no mistake: responsible investing is a growth business. It even comes with its own celebrities, like Al Gore and Sir Nicholas Stern. Their voices and others are calling on business to act in a more sustainable manner, and urging investors to support those that do and penalize those that don't. This represents a potentially seismic shift in how people decide to invest their money.
The numbers alone suggest that responsible investing is here to stay.
One of the best illustrations of the changing investment landscape is the rapid growth of the Carbon Disclosure Project, or CDP for short.
In 2002, 35 institutional investors asked some of the world's largest companies to disclose the climate-related risks and opportunities they considered material.
RBC happened to be one of the companies that received the survey. We thought it was an interesting exercise, and ended up being one of about 300 companies who reported, voluntarily, to the CDP. We've continued to report every year since then.
As concerns about climate change have taken deeper root in the public mind, more institutional investors have signed the request at the front end: from just those 35 in 2002, to 284 this year - representing some $41-trillion in assets under management. By signing, these investors declare that climate change issues are a factor in their investment decisions.
I'm pleased to tell you that this year, RBC Asset Management joined the ranks of asset managers to sign the request for information.
I don't want our friends from Dexia to think I'm ignoring them, so I should also mention that Dexia Asset Management has been a signatory to CDP since 2004.
In many ways, you can take the Carbon Disclosure Project - and its exponential growth - as proxy for the responsible investing community as a whole. The same goes for the army of SRI analysts and research specialists that has sprung up to help investors evaluate companies' environmental, social and governance performance...that trinity now known as "ESG".
If you're looking for more information on the growth of responsible investing, I encourage you to read RBC Dexia's latest Special Report.
My point is simply this. Whether you believe in it or not, responsible investing is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with.
But when you drill down on the details, the discussion gets a little more interesting and a fair bit murkier. I think that the terminology itself causes some of the confusion.
If you ask 10 different people what responsible investing is, you'll likely get 10 different answers.
Terms like "socially responsible investing", or "ethical investing" are falling out of favour because they have moral overtones, leftover from the days when investors chose stocks based on religious or ethical criteria, for example. These terms cause grief for mainstream asset managers, who rightly question if it's their job to be a moral compass and how one can reasonably access different companies in this regard.
Responsible investors would say that they're not interested in making feel-good decisions based solely on personal ethics. They're not looking for a moral compass and they are interested in getting a good return.
In short, they believe that companies have 'hidden' assets and liabilities, related to environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities, which matter immensely, but are not traditionally disclosed on a balance sheet. They point to companies like Shell, Nike and Enron as examples of the impact on a company's share price when these factors are not managed well.
That's why you'll now hear the trend described as "responsible investing" or "sustainability investing".
The underlying investment tenet here is that there is a direct link between a company's social and environmental performance and its financial performance-the triple bottom line. Responsible investing is about an intentional examination of all three. And on this basis, the issue of responsible investing has legs and will be increasingly critical to corporations and the investors in those companies.
No matter which term you use, it's fair to say that the responsible investing is changing the way we view companies and how they are addressing the challenges of sustainability. And that is certainly the theme behind this morning's conference.
The strongest driver towards responsible investing has been within the institutional investment community, among pension funds in particular.
In fact, the increase in assets invested in 'responsible' companies is almost entirely due to large pension plans that have adopted specific policies on responsible investment. The same is true in the States.
The launch of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment last year was a significant milestone. Now one year old, the Principles boast 183 signatories globally, representing more than $8-trillion USD in assets under management.
As a financial institution, RBC is an interesting case study because we're not just in the asset management business, we are also a potential stock pick for responsible investors.
Some of our top institutional investors, including the CPP Investment Board, BC Investment Management and OMERS, actively screen their investments for environmental, social and governance factors. I am confident they will continue to see RBC as a good investment not just for our sustainable financial returns but for our approach to sustainability as well.
We're fortunate to have Doug Pearce here today, from the BC Investment Management Corporation. As soon as I'm done, he'll be speaking about how responsible investing is challenging the traditional notions of portfolio management, so I won't go into any more detail.
I will just add that we're definitely seeing a new breed of investor who wants to influence the corporate agenda as much as they want to see a financial return - and are happy to flex their muscles to affect change.
You can gauge the interest in responsible investing simply from the increase in shareholder proposals being filed about ESG issues and the exponential growth in the number of questions being asked by institutional investors, researchers and clients - and as a CEO, I have to make trade offs that may not be in the best short term profit interest of the Bank but are viewed in our best long term interest.
The next complication is figuring out what makes one company responsible and another one irresponsible. Who determines which companies are good and which are better investments? What constitutes a truly responsible company?
In the end, you may turn to socially responsible investment
analysts and research companies for advice.
In early April, Joe Nocera, a business columnist for The New York Times, wrote an interesting article in which he argued that SRI researchers oversimplify the world so that investors will feel that that they're safely invested in 'good' companies. The problem as Nocera sees it, is that no company is either all good or all bad.
He has a point.
In the last two years, RBC was named "Canada's Most Respected Corporation for Social Responsibility", but 44th on a list of Canada's "Best 50 Corporate Citizens." The Dow Jones Sustainability Index ranks us in the middle of the pack of global financial institutions for sustainability, but recently, we were named 'Greenest Company in the World" in Newsweek magazine.
Now, we know why we landed where we did on each, because we pay close attention to the complex methodologies and differences among all of these rankings. And, overall, we tend to fare well, because we pay close attention to the risks and opportunities presented by ESG factors and act on them where we can and we report on them.
But imagine if you were just venturing into the world of responsible investing. How would you make sense of it all?
You'd have to be crystal clear about your own investment philosophy and make sure that your financial advisor understands it too. You might draw upon detailed research or analysis if you're interested in very specific issues such as human rights or governance.
Or, you might choose your stocks from an SRI index created with large-scale investors in mind, or one that doesn't attempt to divide the world into black and white.
In Canada, the Jantzi Social Index falls into this category. Rather than categorizing companies as 'good' or 'bad', the JSI is based on "best-in-sector" approach. It acknowledges companies that are striving to improve their ESG practices compared with their peers.
So, rather than screening out entire sectors like oil and gas because of their environmental impact, the JSI includes the companies that are doing best at sustainability in all sectors.
This makes sense in Canada, where so much of our economy is based on resource extraction - typically an area of interest to environmentalists and human rights activists.
Excluding those sectors would leave slim pickings, and would disregard some of the extraordinary sustainability efforts underway in the resource sectors.
I would argue strongly that some of Canada's largest oil and gas and mining companies are world leaders in environmental stewardship yet they suffer from the perspective of the industry in which they operate - which is why the JSI approach makes good sense.
Using this approach, the JSI has consistently outperformed the S&P/TSX Composite and the S&P/TSX 60 over the last seven years highlighting the coalition between social responsibility and return.
My last point this morning is about the role and responsibility of asset managers. Do they have any fiduciary responsibility when it comes to responsible investing?
This is a question that the law firm Freshfields set out to answer in 2005 in a landmark report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program.
It's worth noting here that Freshfields confirmed that it is not only permissible for fiduciaries to consider ESG factors, but in many jurisdictions it is a breach not to perform due diligence on these factors when they have the potential for material, financial impact.
While the Freshfields report is a coup for the responsible investing community, it remains to be seen how mainstream asset managers will receive it.
At the very least, fiduciaries should recognize that there is a range of expert opinions on their obligations. And they should be prepared to develop a formal point of view on responsible investing, because they'll be asked about it sooner rather than later.
That's the lesson the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation learned. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times broke a story accusing the Gates Foundation of investing in companies that, directly or indirectly, cause a whole host of social and environmental problems. And these are the same problems that the Foundation is committed to fighting through its grants.
A few years ago, Al Gore and David Blood from Goldman Sachs started an investment-management research firm that integrates sustainability factors with fundamental equity analysis. They believe it's just a matter of time until the marriage of financial and non-financial factors goes mainstream.
I'm reluctant to disagree with Mr. Gore (especially when I see what happened when our environment minister tried it a few weeks ago.) He might be right, yet it's too early to come to any conclusions about the degree to which responsible investing will move into the mainstream. Time will tell.
But it is clear that we have entered an era in which more people are devoting more thought to their investment choices, and more scrutiny to the behaviour of companies. There is no going back, and corporate officers ignore this reality at their peril.
It is true that the precise contours of responsibility may be impossible to define for society at large - but more people will be defining these contours for themselves. They'll be deciding for themselves what constitutes a responsible company. And they will be investing their money accordingly.
Millions of investors making millions of decisions - some small, some large - but add them up, and we are going to find the traditional investment terrain changed forever.
As a business executive, investor, politician or NGO nothing
is black and white and we are expected and will be judged
on our ability to navigate in the gray area. Responsible investing
adds to that gray area.
Thank you.


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I never liked Bush on most of his policies, but I did like his attempt at trying to fix the immigration issue. He and several other Republicans are correct – if the Tea Party doesn't get their heads out of their collective butts, anyone related to the "GOP conservative" cause is going to lose out on every Hispanic vote in the country.
That's what's wrong with the Tea Party – they cater to racists, bigots and idiots. There may be sensible people that want to believe the Tea Party can be the grassroots movement that can lift the GOP up out of the hole, but the reality is that they pander to the people with money.
And those people tend to be racists, bigots and idiots.
Heritage Action for America is a load of crap, too. Don't associate with those morons. They're about as racist and horrible as you can get without being Nazis.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cool off with a visit to a Walt Disney World Resort water park. Whether you want to lounge on the beach or take the plunge and try every attraction, you're sure to have a blast!
Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park offers attractions for everyone in your family—from fast waterslides to a children's area with pint–sized raft rides. Catch 6–foot waves in the Surf Pool and snorkel Shark Reef—with real sharks!
Disney's Blizzard Beach water park features one of the world's tallest and fastest free–falling waterslides, as well as slides and rides for the whole family—like a kid–sized, snow-castle fountain play area with scaled-down versions of the more thrilling attractions.
*All tickets are nontransferable and nonrefundable and exclude activities/events separately priced. Water Parks subject to rehabilitation, seasonal and weather closures.
The 1-Day Water Park Ticket with Blockout Dates is subject to summer and early fall blockout dates beyond the current year; blockout dates are subject to change.
*All tickets are nontransferable and nonrefundable and exclude activities/events separately priced.
** Each of our water parks is refurbished annually. These routine maintenance periods are staggered, so our Guests should be able to enjoy at least one water park experience year-round.
Even as the Disney Cast Member guides you around our site, they will be unable to access or view any files or information on your device or anything you type.
To stop the session, click the X in the screen-sharing window at any time. You can remain on the phone with the Cast Member.
Enter the code provided by the Cast Member and Accept to get started.


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Here is a site I am registered on and check periodically. Please support them by visiting.
Note that this domain no longer exists. I leave the link and graphic for historical purposes.
Note, that the internet wayback machine captured the site. Here it is as it was online in 2008.


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P.S. Kudos to Bobby G. (my very own Mad Hatter) who spent so much time (in the heat) taking and retaking photos of me and my menagerie of friends for the party. Kisses :)
Thank you Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist blog for allowing me to be a part of your imagination and this incredibly fun and magical day. For a list of all the participants in the Mad Party just click here and look on her sidebar. It will make you smile, it will make you laugh and it will make your day.


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Sensitive business
The Hasselblad H4D-200MS has a sensitivity range of 50-800 ISO although multishot users will almost certainly keep it on 50 ISO and let the studio lighting do the rest. Admittedly, architectural photographers may dabble with the sensitivity a bit more though. All the features of the H4D camera range, such as True Focus including the new Absolute Position Lock processor, Ultra Focus and Digital Lens Correction are here too.
Studio session with Hasselblad's Nicky West and Catherine Monfils
Still from iPad 8mm HD camera app
The H4D-200MS can also function in three different capture modes to increase versatility. Apart from the 200Mp six-shot setting – intended for detail and accuracy – there's a single-shot mode for portraits or moving subjects with a maximum output resolution of 50Mp. For still life shooting and increased colour accuracy at the same native resolution, the camera can be instead switched to the four-shots capture.
I tried the H4D-200MS for half a day in a third floor studio. The provided set up included Broncolor lighting, with the latest Scoro A2S 1600 J generator, tripod and a studio assistant to build the set and to lend a hand with the camera. Nicky West, Hasselblad's Sales Manager introduced me to the technical workings of the camera and after some experimenting we were ready for the first shot with the camera tethered using FireWire 800 to a MacBook Pro running Hasselblad's Phocus software.
H4D-200MS tethered to a MacBook Pro with FireWire 800
Still from iOS app Hipstamatic
The promised marvels of the 200Mp medium format capture was something I couldn't wait to see. Indeed, the first shots were spectacular and not far from the stunning images of the advertising showreel. Yet, unexpectedly the outcome of the following shots taken proved more of a challenge. In four-shot mode, the results were pretty amazing but when the six-shot capture was activated the images became fuzzy. With the assistant we tried everything we could think of and spent some time retaking the same shots, alas, with similar results.
In need of a break and a clear mind, we switched everything off for a while. Shortly after we realised that the monotone hum that had constantly accompanied our earlier session had suddenly disappeared. And then it dawned on us that the fan of the flash head could be the culprit. The breeze and vibration from this fan, mild as it was, could obviously be picked up by the alignment system guiding the sensor into position therefore upsetting the otherwise razor sharp mechanism and resulting in the blur we observed.
An iPhone 3GS running Phocus Mobile receives previews and camera controls over Wi-Fi
Enlightened, we switched off the modelling lights and proceeded with our shot: a miracle of definition, detail and depth took place right in front of my eyes. The images were not only sharper than sharp but they showed an impossible level of fine detail. Colour reproduction was superb and tonal gradation broad and smooth.
Sponsored: Webcast: Discover and secure all of your attack surface


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Search Constraints
You searched for: Access Public Remove constraint Access: Public Subject Elevation and derived products Remove constraint Subject: Elevation and derived products Institution Princeton Remove constraint Institution: Princeton Place India Remove constraint Place: India Year 1540 Remove constraint Year: 1540
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1. Tabula Asiae X
1540. Sebastian Münster. This is a historical map of the India and part of Bangladesh, created around 1540. Heinrich Petri.
2. Tabula Asiae XI
1540. Sebastian Münster. This is a historical map of India and part of Thailand, created around 1540. Heinrich Petri.


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For those of you just tuning in, late November found me being thankful for the good people at SkinActives, for sponsoring a little contest we had here to choose which of these tattoos that I should get inked to commemorate the holiday (and Hand of Glory's cool Thanksgiving Special).
|Brian Faulk at Hand of Glory, Helping Me Celebrate Thanksgiving Permanently
Why would a skin care company sponsor such an endeavor? Well, they wanted me to sample their Troll Skin Tattoo Aftercare product and I suggested that the best way to do so would be to have a fresh tattoo on which to use their product. The rest, they say is history.
Immediately after the agreement was reached, however, I had some concerns. What if Troll Skin was not something I could positively review? Into what kind of moral conundrum had I wandered? I assured myself that the Troll Skin Aftercare folks wouldn't be sending out samples to an inkblogger if they weren't 100% confident in their product.
Fortunately for me, no such moral dilemma surfaced, for I found the Troll Skin product to do remarkably well. In fact, I am so pleased with it, I intend to use it for all future tattoos.
My most recent tattoos were treated the same way. Aquaphor ointment for the first 72 hours, and then Lubriderm cream until the tattoo had fully healed. This regimen seemed to work for me, but it has its drawbacks. For example, whatever clothing you have that may cover the tattoo that has been treated with Auquaphor, bid it farewell. The spot of clothing near the tattoo absorbs the ointment and is discolored permanently. It is also a thicker, gooier substance.
The Troll Cream instructions indicated I could safely apply the product as part of the initial tattoo treatment. Not only did the recommendation of keeping it in the refrigerator help soothe the new tattoo upon application
of the cream, but it was 90% neater. No gooey mess to confront, and no clothing had to be sacrificed. This is because the product is water-based, so it absorbs better into the skin and less into the fabric around it.
More importantly, the healing process went faster than I remembered it had in the past. I was starting to see the peeling process as early as Saturday, only three days after getting the tattoo. This can be attributed to ingredients like natural oils from jojoba, sesame seed, almond, and avocado, as well as sea kelp extracts, Epidermal Growth Factor and Copper Peptides. This is what it looked like a week out:
|One Week Old, Just a Little Scabbing Remains
|2 Weeks, Healed and Vibrant!
I also like that the Troll Skin Aftercare cream comes in a little round tin, rather than a tube or cap-top bottle, which has the potential to open or break in transit.
The biggest drawback? Perhaps the price. Suggested retail is $27.50. However, considering this is a treatment for protecting a lifelong investment that can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to obtain, it's a veritable bargain. Consider also that my old treatment involved Aquaphor (approximately $8) and Lubriderm (also $8), you're only paying a little bit more, for what I deem to be a superior treatment.
Troll Skin also comes as a serum (MSRP $14) which is recommended for post-healing for "continued skin health and to maintain the vibrancy of the artwork".
Readers of Tattoosday know that I don't generally endorse products here, aside from an occasional book review. However, I would certainly recommend this product for tattoo healing. I know, I know, people are generally overprotective of their new tattoos and don't like to change their healing regimens. Nonetheless, why not embrace a product if it's an improvement to an old process, and why not spend a little more to protect something you will carry proudly for a lifetime?
For more information, visit the Troll Skin website at www.TrollSkin.com and SkinActives Scientific.
Thanks again to the good people at SkinActive for their cooperation with this project!


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About bdhoro
"Stopping it isn't the goal"
Citation Needed
Maybe you should read the title to this article, and reconsider the content of your comment:
http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20120229/03324017910/who-cares-if-piracy- is-wrong-if-stopping-it-is-impossible-innovating-provides-better-solutions.shtml#comments
Who cares if you have the right? Reality does not care.
Ha, its as if I said "This is the only way any artist should try to make money."
I'll tell you this, I would have spent a hell of a lot more money on media if I could pay artists straight up.
And where are you coming up with the idea of a limit on how many sites I'd be willing to seek? All you need is to release something new and I'll be at your site getting it and considering paying.
The question might as well be, how many albums would you buy? Five? Ten? The answer is: as many as I like.
Not making it available in the way the consumer wants could be viewed very similarly to restraint of trade. In business, if I want to buy a product, and I can't get it directly from the manufacturer, it's perfectly reasonable to find another source.
This reminds me of the Costco lawsuit:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111117/03284416803/court-tells-omega-copyright-is-not-s word-rejects-attempt-to-control-grey-market-as-copyright-misuse.shtml
with that watch company that "copyrighted" a logo on the back of the watch, which they sold way cheaper abroad than they would sell it here. So Costco bought it overseas from a divert-er cheaper than they could get it direct from the manufacturer. The watch company sued to try to stop Costco from buying and selling their product (by abusing copyright) but I believe the courts responded by saying your copyright claim is actually restraint of trade, don't try it again.
Very similarly, Red Box said to the movie studios something like "We don't care if you won't sell us movies at the same time you sell it to stores, because we'll just buy it from them (who wouldn't be willing to sell massive amounts of DVD's besides the movie studios?) and you can't stop us." Legally the studios don't have to sell the product to anyone they don't want to have it, but they cannot stop them from getting it somewhere else, that's restraint of trade.
This Game of Thrones discussion is very similar, the product is available in all different ways, but the manufacturer won't sell it to me in the way I want, so, I'll find it somewhere else, and it just so happens that its free! and in a more convenient format - just the way I like it! And if the manufacturer wants to stop that, it sounds like that should be considered restraint of trade.
I'm sorry I meant UM not Sony
This goes very well with what I just wrote about over at Step2. This guy should have his own website where he sells a few things like t-shirts or whatever it is a bumper sticker with a song lyric on it, where anyone of his fans can go and actually support him. We all know where to download the music for free (which he wants us to do) and some of us that do so would love to pay him, we just don't have any opportunity (as from the sound of the article, the songs he wants you to download aren't available for sale yet). If i went and downloaded the songs and liked them and wanted to support him, it sounds like my only option is to wait till Sony releases something and pay them, but I don't want Sony to profit because I don't think they deserve it - I want to pay the artist directly, but he can't sell me the songs because Sony owns them.
Someone needs to solve this dilemma.
I would very much like to see the list of opponents vs supporters of this bill right here.
Mike, I'm sure you have the list, why not just post it up here?
You are trying to present the various opinions on the bill correct?
As much as I hate to hate on people on the internet, out of this whole website, Glyn's posts are just completely off target and this entire site would be better if his posts were ignored completely.
The title alone gets me really angry at the brainless fool writing it.
The truth is tobacco companies care about your health just as much as you care about your own health.
...Ugh I don't even want to continue this argument because it is too obvious why Glyn is completely wrong here...
As a huge manga/anime fan I know first hand how horribly the industry has failed, while the fans have kept the industry thriving by doing for free what people would have paid for had the content providers gotten there first (or within a reasonable amount of time).
There are a few shows I've been watching, which are hit mega popular shows, such as Naruto Shippudden and Bleach, that have been ongoing for many years now, that have only recently within the last year provided translations in a timely manner.
Not only that, but even now that I have a legit source, I've grown to like the fansubs better, they provide better translations, and I don't have to stream the damn show (which gets rough for popular shows that are released only on the internet, server goes down as soon as the shows are available). I've also gotten very used to my favorite fan subs over the years and the content providers are gonna have to beat them in order to get me to pay them.
This makes me wonder whether all the problems with the pharma industry started with government regulation.... If it was my business, and the government basically killed my revenue stream in the name of public health I would be quite annoyed.
Whether you like it or not pharma companies and doctors etc are in business to make money. They aren't charities, but the nature of their business makes people think they should be charities - a doctor should be in it to make people healthy, not just to make money right? Wrong.
A doctor's number one concern should be to make money. The means by which he does that should be by making people more healthy.
And we need it to be that way, because nothing else is sustainable... Unfortunately, charities must be funded - usually by businesses.
I'd place a pretty big bet that the pharma companies have produced more to promote public health than charities and the government combined.
Its tough to walk the fine line that the pharma companies are on and we have to remember that when making policies. Its very easy to say hey its good for public health to give drugs away for free. Its hard to be the one who is "against public health" by actually having to make a living by keeping people living! How horrible those companies are - doing everything they can to stay in the business of making people healthier by demanding they be paid!
If you're really concerned about public health you'd be concerned with making sure the pharma companies can stay in business. Just because they're supposed to be keeping us healthy doesn't mean the economics work any differently.
Hey, the face value of a penny is worth less than the metal it's made of but that hasn't stopped us from using it.
The album living like a Refugee by the Sierra Leone Refugee Allstars says a lot to me about the ability of music to thrive in that environment without strict copyright.
Their ability to compete with Akon is obviously in no way helped by this, they're already touring in America, mostly because people were able to listen to their music in America and make them popular by downloading their albums.
The biggest hurdle in competing with Akon is becoming well known enough to compete with him, not in having the ability to sell songs but in the ability for so many artists to recognize and want to collaborate with talent.
This is almost like that writing has rewired people's memories because now they can write stuff down and don't have to remember it every time, they can read it. WTF
I'm assuming you saw the first episode of the this season of south park a few weeks ago featuring the human cent-iPad. I was very happy as an avid reader of this site and a loyal fan of South Park that the entire plot of the episode was based on the fact that nobody reads itunes EULA.
Basically Steve Jobs wanted to make the most advanced piece of technology possible - an iPad/iPhone that can also read and walk. He sews 3 subjects together from mouth to anus a la The Human Centipede, and attaches an iPhone to the head of the first guy and an iPad on the ass of the last guy.
But still he is unable to get the device to read his EULA.
I know, EULA and privacy policy are completely different but I just lump it in with documents that you're told you must read but aren't expected to.
I guess they must have figured that if no one else is gonna do it, they better do it themselves. And if there's no outside competition, they create competition within the organization in order to increase innovation and redundancy.
I think its brilliant if that is the strategy.
Lets get rid of online gambling... And sell more land to the Native Americans, so they can open up more Casinos. Then instead of people gambling online from the safety of their own homes, they can drive, get incredibly drunk, and establish a single place for all the degenerate gamblers to hang out with each other!
This way society is much better off as a whole.
Like doesn't everybody see that now that there is an iPad and such that all the man hours spent doing things the old, slow way, printing and delivering papers and books etc, are a complete waste and now contribute essentially nothing to society? These industries are becoming dead-weight and the quicker they're gone the better.
Isn't it good when new technology makes old behavior obsolete? Doesn't that free up incredible amounts of man hours for working in jobs that people actually still need?
"In the end... I'm sorta left with the simple question: what kind of system do we have when there's now going to be legal fights over the "Charge!" jingle?"
The same system where nobody is actually allowed to sing "Happy Birthday" because it was bought by Warner even though the Wikipedia entry states the composition and melody were copied from an earlier song. Not only that but the combination of words and melody to make the Happy Birthday Song were printed and likely played in the early 1900's before anybody copyrighted it.
Da da Da da da Happy Birthday!
Yeah thats what I thought too, they kept one eye in the dark at all times to have an advantage below the deck. I really need to test that out one day.


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Claude Elwood Shannon
American mathematician and information theorist
(Redirected from Claude Shannon)
Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American electrical engineer and mathematician, has been called "the father of information theory", and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory.
|This article about a mathematician is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it.
- A few first rate research papers are preferable to a large number that are poorly conceived or half-finished. The latter are no credit to their writers and a waste of time to their readers.
- IRE Transactions on Information Theory (1956), volume 2, issue 1, page 3. Shannon, Claude E. (March 1956), The Bandwagon, 2, doi:10.1109/TIT.1956.1056774 .
- This duality can be pursued further and is related to a duality between past and future and the notions of control and knowledge. Thus we may have knowledge of the past but cannot control it; we may control the future but have no knowledge of it.
- Coding theorems for a discrete source with a fidelity criterion. IRE International Convention Records, volume 7, pp. 142--163, 1959.
- My greatest concern was what to call it. I thought of calling it 'information,' but the word was overly used, so I decided to call it 'uncertainty.' When I discussed it with John von Neumann, he had a better idea. Von Neumann told me, 'You should call it entropy, for two reasons. In the first place your uncertainty function has been used in statistical mechanics under that name, so it already has a name. In the second place, and more important, no one really knows what entropy really is, so in a debate you will always have the advantage.'
- Scientific American (1971), volume 225, page 180.
- Explaining why he named his uncertainty function "entropy".
- Omni: Will robots be complex enough to be friends of people?
Shannon: I think so. I myself could very easily imagine that happening. I see no limit to the capabilities of machines. As microchips get smaller and faster, I can see them getting better than we are. I can visualize a time in the future when we will be to robots as dogs are to humans.
Omni: Do you find it depressing that chess computers are getting so strong?
Shannon: I am not depressed by it. I am rooting for the machines! I have always been on the machines' side. Ha-ha!
- Omni Magazine (1987). (sometimes quoted as "I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans. And I am rooting for the machines.")


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By: Stephen King
Read by: Jessica Hecht
Publisher: Simon and SchusterAudio
Publication Date: September 30, 2014
Format: Audio CD
Source: Publisher
What happens to woman who finds out that the husband she married over 20 years ago is not the person she thought he was. That is what happens to Darcy Anderson in Stephen King's short story, A Good Marriage. But can it be true. Can this man, the father of her children, be a murderer?
From the beginning, King pulls the reader into the mind of Darcy. From her initial reaction to finding a box full of secrets to the final fatal decision she makes to save herself and her children. With a roller coaster of emotions, Darcy faces off with Bob who somehow figured out that his wife learned his deep dark secret and comes home early from his business trip. For Bob, it is a relief and he decides to unburden himself, letting the one person he knows he can trust know every last gruesome detail of each murder.
King really does know how to write a short suspenseful story with characters a reader can believe. These two could be your neighbors or even your relatives. This one was perfect for me to stick in my earplugs and listen to while I worked. Any Stephen King fan who hasn't read or listened to this one yet, should.
DISCLOSURE: I received this audio from the publisher at no charge and in no way influenced my review.


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Choose your pots and pans
Is your kitchen a paradise where you explore and perfect classic recipes? Or is it more of a jungle, where dinner is come by haphazardly, your salmon filet "blackened" on the outside and sushi on the inside? However you cook, you need some reliable pots and pans. And with the right ones, cooking becomes easier and food tastes better. Don't let your cookware sabotage your meals!
Stainless steelStainless steel is very durable and can take the bumps of life in your kitchen. Stainless steel pots and pans without a non-stick coating are dishwasher safe, which makes them easy to maintain. Some of our best pans have an all-over aluminium core between two layers of stainless steel. The aluminium helps to conduct heat evenly through dense foods like stew. Other stainless steel pans feature a three-layer base, which distributes heat evenly and heats up quickly for better control when cooking.
AluminiumAluminium is a light material with excellent heat conducting properties.
But because it is a soft metal, cookware made purely of aluminium can get scratched and discoloured. That's why
we combine aluminium with a non-stick coating in our cookware. This also prevents food from sticking.
Cast ironAlthough heavier than other materials, cast iron cookware is still unbeatable for browning food evenly. It's also ideal for slow-cooking large dishes and casseroles. Cast iron pots and pans improve with age as they gradually absorb cooking fat into their porous surface.
Non-stick coating on pots and pans lets you use less fat to fry, stir-fry and brown food. It's also ideal for cooking omelettes, pancakes and sauces: anything that tends to stick. IKEA cookware uses different levels of non-stick surfaces depending on the cooking requirements.
Teflon®We have four different types of Teflon® non-stick coatings that we use on our pots and pans.
Teflon® Professional is our most hardwearing non-stick coating made for those of you who set high standards and cook often. If correctly cared for, this cookware will last many years. It is used in our FAVORIT and STIL series.
Teflon® Platinum Plus is a very hardwearing non-stick coating made for daily use. It is in our IKEA 365+ and MEDALJ series.
Teflon® Select is a hardwearing non-stick coating perfect to cook with several times a week. It is used in our SKÄNKA series.
Teflon® Classic is a good non-stick coating for use a few times a week. It is in our KAVALKAD series and GRILLA grill pan.
We also have a basic non-stick coating for those of you who like to use non-stick pans occasionally. It is in our PYRA wok and STEKA frying pan.
But even if it's food for one, you'll need a selection of different sizes for cooking different types of food, because if you want to make popcorn and you only have a pot big enough to cook two eggs, you won't have many popped corns in the end. That's not to say that you don't need small pots and pans, because by always choosing the smallest possible size for the amount of food you're cooking, you're always being energy efficient.


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– For days President Obama had been hammered by critics — including Cardinal-designate Edwin F. O'Brien of the Archdiocese of Baltimore — over a regulation in the healthcare law that required religiously affiliated hospitals, charities and universities to provide birth control coverage for female employees even if that conflicted with church teachings.
On Friday Obama tried to end the debate with what he called an "accommodation." The employees still will be offered free birth control coverage. But the benefit will come directly from their insurers, meaning that the religious groups' money will not be used to provide the services and pills.
The question now is whether the maneuver will tamp down the political fire and allow Obama to refocus public attention on the more favorable news coming from the economy.
O'Brien, who had threatened not to offer health insurance rather than offer birth control coverage, chose to remain silent on Obama's proposal. But the president appeared to have made progress, winning over the Catholic hospital association and Catholic Charities – although not the nation's bishops – and reassuring wavering Democrats while keeping the support of groups such as Planned Parenthood.
Stuart Swetland, vice president for Catholic identity and mission at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, said the proposal appeared to be a good compromise, but he wanted to examine the details. "It shows [Obama] and the administration are listening to our concerns and are attempting to address them," Swetland said.
Under the new plan, administration officials believe insurers will comply for free because the coverage may not actually cost them anything. Evidence suggests that providing birth control coverage reduces overall costs for health plans because birth control is much cheaper than pregnancy, according to administration officials and some health industry analysts.
The fact the compromise had not been proposed earlier angered the President, who felt let down by his staff, officials said. Obama waded into the details of the dispute himself this week and personally crafted the solution, according to a Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
From the beginning, the fight over the requirement that all health plans offer free birth control coverage was animated by politics, deeply held beliefs and the personalities of the people involved. Several prominent members of the president's team, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, argued strongly for the president's commitment to make contraceptives available to everyone.
But since November, others in Obama's circle had issued warnings of political trouble ahead. That month, chief of staff, Bill Daley, who is Catholic, asked Obama to sit down with New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, head of the bishops conference, to talk about the coming contraceptives mandate.
According to Democratic officials with knowledge of the conversations, some policy experts and lawyers in the White House felt the administration should not compromise because no birth-control mandate would win the bishops' support.
Obama ultimately agreed with that position and signed off on the rule announced in late January, exempting churches and other houses of worship from the mandate but requiring religiously affiliated employers such as schools and hospitals to make sure their employees had contraceptive coverage. But even as he made calls to Dolan and Sister Carol Keehan, the head of the Catholic Health Association, to explain the initial policy just before it was announced, Obama emphasized that changes could come during the year before the mandate takes effect.
The bishops responded angrily and publicly to the policy, putting the administration on the defensive. Republicans soon joined the chorus, as did some Catholic Democrats in Congress. As the fight grew louder and more threatening over the past week, Obama decided to move quickly to tamp down the problem, a senior administration officials said.
Announcing the change on Friday at the White House, Obama said he had always been sensitive to the concerns about religious liberty, telling reporters that "we live in a pluralistic society where we're not going to agree on every single issue or share every belief."
"That doesn't mean that we have to choose between individual liberty and basic fairness for all Americans," Obama said. "We are unique among nations for having been founded upon both these principles, and our obligation as citizens is to carry them forward. I have complete faith that we can do that."
His words quickly won the support he was looking for. "The framework developed has responded to the issues we identified that needed to be fixed," said Sister Keehan, who supported Obama's effort to pass health reform, but had opposed the birth-control mandate.
Obama also won over a range of prominent Catholics who had criticized the policy, including Douglas W. Kmiec, his former Malta ambassador, and E.J. Dionne, a columnist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Planned Parenthood announced its approval. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the decision showed that "President Obama is firmly committed to protecting women's health."
Others remained opposed or on the sidelines. The bishops have not embraced the plan. A spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry's Washington-based lobbying arm, expressed reservations about the president's proposal, while noting that health plans have long offered contraceptive coverage.
"We are concerned about the precedent this proposed rule would set," said Robert Zirklebach.
The policy shift also showed little sign of satisfying his toughest critics on the right. Republican presidential hopefuls made it clear they plan to keep the pressure on the president, and an aide to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the House will pursue legislative measures to ensure there is no "attack on religious freedom."
But as supporters stepped back into his corner on Friday, Obama felt empowered to turn the political spotlight back on his critics – and to issue a new appeal for support.
"I understand some folks in Washington may want to treat this as another political wedge issue, but it shouldn't be," he said. "I certainly never saw it that way . . . Religious liberty will be protected, and a law that requires free preventive care will not discriminate against women."
Baltimore Sun reporter Andrea K. Walker contributed to this report. Lisa Mascaro also contributed from Washington.
- Health
- Religion and Belief
- Health Insurance
- Politics and Government
- Christianity
- Roman Catholicism
- Family Planning
- Social Issues
- Freedom of Religion
- Insurance
- Jobs and Workplace
- Democratic Party
- Planned Parenthood
- Barack Obama
- White House
- Republican Party
- Valerie Jarrett
- John Boehner
- Kathleen Sebelius
- Timothy M. Dolan


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UPPER MARLBORO, MARYLAND – 17 Jul, 2017 – D.R. Horton's Capital division cordially invites the public to tour Beechtree Estates, its newest luxury townhome community, featuring a furnished model and multiple townhomes now under construction. Please join us for the grand opening celebration Saturday, July 22, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. to explore our brand new community, tour the professionally decorated model home and learn why Beechtree Estates is the perfect blend of comfort, convenience and opulence.
The furnished model home available for viewing displays the Royal floor plan, which offers approximately 2,471 square feet of living space and a multitude of layouts to suit every buyers' distinct needs, preferences and budget. The Royal townhome consists of three finished levels with three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and a two-car garage. The lower level of the Royal home plan is available with unbeatable option packages such as a spacious recreation room and a convenient bedroom/den with an optional fourth full bathroom, ideal for visitors.
All homes feature professionally curated finishes including granite countertops, cherry and maple cabinet options, stylish tile backsplashes, stainless steel kitchen appliances (dishwasher, oven and range, and refrigerator), hardwood flooring and an elegant color scheme. The exterior design of the Royal further impresses, boasting a rich look and character with architecturally distinct elevations in your choice of siding or brick, in addition to asphalt roof shingles, aluminum gutters and downspouts, and a professionally designed landscape package with sodded lawn. There is something for everyone at Beechtree Estates!
All homes are built with high quality and energy efficient materials including low-e glass windows and a high efficiency furnace with a programmable thermostat, as well as being backed by a robust new home warranty that demonstrates D.R. Horton's commitment to excellence in construction and customer satisfaction. See a D.R. Horton sales agent for complete home warranty details.
Located less than 10 miles from four golf courses, Six Flags America, numerous museums and Whitemarsh Park, Beechtree Estates is the perfect recreation destination for everyone. Situated less than five miles from the Marlboro Village Shopping Center, residents can easily enjoy extensive shopping and dining options. Less than an hour from Washington D.C. and Alexandria, VA, Beechtree Estates is also a peaceful suburban oasis with easy access to all the amenities and advantages of a big city.
For more information, please contact community sales representative Akilah Harris at (240) 917-9029 or visit http://www.drhorton.com/Maryland/Maryland/Upper-Marlboro/Beechtree-Estates.
Founded in 1978 in Fort Worth, Texas, D.R. Horton has operations in 78 markets in 26 states in the East, Midwest, Southeast, South Central, Southwest, and West regions of the United States. D.R. Horton has been the largest builder in the United States by volume for fifteen consecutive years. For over 35 years, D.R. Horton has consistently delivered top-quality new homes to homebuyers across the nation. The livable floor plans and robust new home warranty demonstrate our commitment to excellence in construction. D.R. Horton exhibits leadership in residential development through design innovation, superior craftsmanship, and responsiveness to the needs of its customers. The simple vision that began over 35 years ago represents years of value and security when you choose America's Builder to make your dreams come true.
For more information, visit our website at www.drhorton.com/maryland.
Home and community information including pricing, included features, terms, availability, and amenities are subject to change and prior sale at any time without notice or obligation. Square footage dimensions are approximate. Options and upgrades are available at an additional cost and are subject to construction cut-off dates. Buyer should conduct his or her own investigation of the present and future availability of school districts and school assignments. Seller has no control or responsibility for any changes to school districts or school assignments should they occur in the future. See sales agent for complete details including warranty information. MHBR No. 535. D.R. Horton is an equal housing opportunity builder.
Media Contact
Company Name: D.R. Horton, Inc.
Contact Person: Akilah Harris
Email: email@example.com
Phone: 240-917-9029
Country: United States
Website: http://www.drhorton.com/Maryland/Maryland/Upper-Marlboro/Beechtree-Estates


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One-Dish Chicken with Vegetables
Total TimePrep: 15 min. Bake: 30 min.
Makes4 servings
- 1 envelope onion soup mix
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (4 ounces each)
- 4 medium potatoes, cut into chunks
- 4 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- In a small bowl, combine the soup mix, garlic powder and oil. Spoon half into a large resealable plastic bag; add chicken. Seal bag and turn to coat. Spoon the remaining marinade into another large resealable plastic bag; add potatoes and carrots. Seal bag and turn to coat.
- Arrange chicken and vegetables in an ungreased 11x7-in. baking dish. Cover and bake at 425° for 15 minutes. Uncover; bake 15-20 minutes longer or until a thermometer reads 170° and vegetables are tender.
Recommended Video
May 11, 2015
Went together very quickly. I cut the chicken into 2" chunks and dumped everything together in one bag to season (used minced garlic from a jar instead of garlic powder) then dumped it all together into a 13 x 9. Looks pleasant and smells great!
Jul 6, 2014
Jul 13, 2012
This was VERY good! This will go into my recipe box and become a favorite in our weekly rotation!
Aug 12, 2010
OMG what a snap to prepare and FAST cooking time. I will make this again for sure. I cooked it exactly as listed (20 minutes for part II) and the chicken was PERFECT. I noticed my potatoes weren't all thoroughly cooked though; only the ones actually touching the bottom of the baking dish were. so next time I will put the veggies on the bottom and the chicken on the top when baking. Other than that I will be making this again. Perfect for a busy school night!
Apr 16, 2010
Great and easy recipe that everyone loved! Will definitely keep in my workday meal plan. Added sliced onion to the bag as well as used Extra Virgin Olive Oil to make a little healthier. Enjoy!
Dec 8, 2009
I only had garlic-mushroom soup mix, so didn't add the garlic. Was Wonderful & SO easy!
Nov 20, 2009
So easy and my kids loved it.
May 10, 2009
This recipe is great. Fast, easy, and loved by my kids and adults


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So, hey, if you happen to be in the Dunedin, Fla. area tonight, it's the first of those big fun Dunedin Blue Jays promotions inspired by this here Web site. Tonight's festivities: Carl Monday Mustache Night. It's becoming increasingly easy to get in for a reduced $3 admission.
The following fans will recieve a general admission ticket for just $3.
All fans named "Carl" or any form of "Carl" (including Karl, Carla, Carlo, Carlos, etc).
Fans that have any part of their name that happens to also be a day of the week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.
Fans with mustaches, fake mustaches, or drawn on mustaches (no beards)
Fans wearing an Ohio State shirt/sweathsirt.
If a fan fits all four descriptions, they will recieve a general admission ticket for free.
In addition, it's also Ernie Whitt Night at the ballpark. If anybody makes it out there, we obviously would love a photographic record. And just three more days until YWML Thursday. Active week.
Carl Monday Mustache Night [Dunedin Blue Jays]
It's Carl Monday Night At The Ballpark [Deadspin]
(By the way, we've been informed that we are to tell you that YWML T-shirts are 20 percent off this week. So you know.)
(UPDATE: Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. The game was rained out. Mustache Monday is now Mustache Tuesday; the doubleheader starts at 5 p.m.)
(SECOND UPDATE: We're told the 20 percent off promotion was for Monday only. Our fault: Sorry.)


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A Research on the Relationship of Logistics Industry Development and Economic Growth of China
This paper selects Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as referential series of dependent variable, and selects logistics industry value added, total employment of logistics industry, new fixed assets investment, freight volume, freight turnover as compared series of independent variable, uses grey relational analysis method, researches on the relationship between China logistics industry development and national economic increase from two angles of logistics size and logistics efficiency.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
International Business Research ISSN 1913-9004 (Print), ISSN 1913-9012 (Online)
Copyright © Canadian Center of Science and Education
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This first strategic workshop will launch the project 'Innovation Network' on Monday l5 April 2013 in Brussels. The new network will provide an identity and focus for researchers and businesses with an interest in substitution by drawing together a community which contains representatives from different disciplines and sectors with a focus on CRM substitution for the first time.
The workshop is being held at the Diamant Conference complex and is free to attend, however advance registration is required and places are limited. This event will be of interest to all stakeholders in the CRM substitution field.
The workshop will include a general panel discussion to allow all participants to engage in a dialogue about the structure and mission of the network. This will be followed by breakout sessions around strategic sectors such as Energy, Transport and ICT, as well as cross-cutting application areas to allow participants to exchange ideas about the challenges and opportunities in those sectors. The draft agenda and a flyer for the workshop can be accessed here.
What are CRM?
Key EU industrial sectors such as construction, chemicals, automotive, aerospace and machinery provide a total added value of €1 324 billion, employ some 30 million jobs and depend on access to CRM.
For example, rare earth elements are essential to industrial production, particularly for clean energy options such as wind turbines, solar cells, electric vehicles and energy-efficient lighting.
The relative scarcity of CRM, together with their economic importance, makes it necessary to explore new ideas and materials that could act as substitutes to reduce the EU's consumption and decrease the relative dependence on imports of CRM. These new routes, in which sustainable chemistry must play a major role, can only be effectively explored and achieved if coherent collaborative initiatives are in place to coordinate the efforts of the main stakeholders across the CRM value chain in order to define clear goals, strategies and benefit from potential synergies.
SusChem and sustainable chemistry has a key role in developing and producing new and innovative materials for a huge range of value chains across Europe and is fully supporting the CRM_InnoNet project. The current review of the SusChem Materials technology Implementation Action Plan (IAP) will complement and feed into the project.
What is CRM_InnoNet?
Launched earlier this month, this FP7-funded project will act to create an integrated community to drive innovation in the field of critical raw material substitution for the benefit of EU industry.
CRM_InnoNet's main goals are:
- Mapping of CRM substitution initiatives - to deliver a 'top down' sector-based approach and a 'bottom up' raw materials-based approach map of on-going initiatives in the field of substitution of CRM at the EU and Member State level that will allow identification of key champions and synergies.
- Prioritisation methodology - to develop a methodology to establish clear criteria for the prioritisation of applications which are at 'threat' and identify opportunities considering the technological and non-technological needs for substitution of CRM.
- Substitution Roadmap - to propose a roadmap for the substitution of CRM in coordination and cooperation with all stakeholders across the CRM substitution value chain while paying close attention to the specificities of critical industrial sectors as well as possible synergies.
- Pole(s) of Excellence - to create one or more Pole(s) of Excellence in the field of substitution of CRM that will ensure the relevance and usefulness of the project results and constitute a dynamic, open and proactive platform for the entire stakeholder community. To carry out a feasibility study considering the potential models and routes for this Pole(s) to continue after the project termination and decide upon concrete future actions in this respect.
- Policy Recommendations - to prepare recommendations, future initiative ideas and suggested actions for policy makers with the widest possible endorsement and consensus of all stakeholders involved.
The CRM_InnoNet consortium is comprised of recognised and experienced key actors across the value chain of substitution of CRM representing academic, research and industry bodies of relevant sectors that will ensure a wide European coverage and high potential to engage other necessary players across the ERA.
More information?
For more information visit the CRM_InnoNet project website that includes a blog, news and events, down load the project flyer, or contact project coordinator Catherine Joce at CIKTN.


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Throb your knob with this power thrusting head stroker! 2 powerful speeds of super stroking action. Removable textured super stretchy sleeve. Easy to clean. EZ sliding speed control. LED indicator light. Handy grip strap for secure use. ABS (case, switch, dcor ring, strap) TPR (sleeve) Polyester (elastic). 4 AA batteries. 3"x 2.25"/ 7.5 cm x 5.75 cm (chamber). 7.75"x 2.75"/ 19.75 cm x 7 cm (overall).
Ships Everywhere.
If you are avg. or bigger the pump doesn't work.Anonymous - January 4 2015
This product could be better, had to put a hose clamp on to keep the sleeve from coming off. Pain in the ass! !!!Anonymous - June 9 2013


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The NYC Build It Back program allows eligible homeowners to make necessary repairs to their homes, rebuild with the HPD, receive reimbursements for previously made repairs or sell their property to the government.
"This program will provide a new infusion of support to help families, neighborhoods and businesses come back stronger and more resilient than ever before," Bloomberg said of the new program.
Additionally, the state Senate has boosted rebuilding efforts to the town of Breezy Point, a town still in dire need of repair.
"It's time," said Breezy Point Cooperative general manager Arthur Lighthall in a published report this week. "We have homeowners not in their houses. These homes need to be rebuilt."
As it has been over six months since the most destructive storm of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season unleashed its destruction through the boroughs of NYC, the summer is now upon us and repairs are needed more than ever.
Compacted with displaced residents, beachfront towns are still in need or relief to revitalize local commerce as the first of the summer tourist months has approached.
More efforts like the most recent one from the Queens Economic Development Corporation with a "Rockaway Beach" Ramones-themed tourism campaign must be introduced to bring people back to the beaches and generate waterfront revenue.
While it was recently reported that Americans have donated $303 million to the Red Cross to aid victims from the storm and just $110 million has yet to be circulated, it is time that suppressive political rhetoric be cast aside and a "repair now with questions later" approach should to be taken; if not to rebuild our damaged neighborhoods and communities, then to repair the city's morale to help more forward and face the next challenge.


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Suspects had fraudulent profits of more than $500,000, state investigators said
Seventeen persons are accused of running a statewide fraud scheme which netted the suspects profits in excess of $500,000, investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement working with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.
The 17 individuals were charged with with organized scheme to defraud, conspiracy to commit organized scheme to defraud, criminal use of personal identification information, conspiracy to commit criminal use of personal identification information, and criminal use of fictitious or personal identification information, an FDLE news release said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement Orlando Regional Operations Center charged the suspects after a two-year-long investigation of the statewide organized fraud, the release said.
The investigation began in late 2010 in partnership with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. The ring involved an organized group of individuals who commonly used counterfeit checks to buy merchandise from large retail stores throughout Florida. The counterfeit checks displayed fraudulent information and/or stolen account numbers, FDLE and Volusia sheriff's investigators said.
Investigators said fraud suspects used the counterfeit checks along with phony driver's licenses and identification cards to purchase store merchandise. The merchandise would be kept for a short period of time, only to be returned later for cash or gift cards.
In some incidents, members of the group used the counterfeit checks to directly purchase store gift cards then used to buy Visa or American Express gift cards at a sister store. The money cards could be used almost anywhere, investigators said.
Charged in fraud ring are:
D'Angelo Keith Jones, 28, of Orlando
James Edward Cook Jr., 33, of Orlando
Timothy Duval, 23, of Orlando
Christopher Michael Jones, 34, of Orlando
Claudine Antoinette Smith-Jones, 33, of Orlando
Brandon Sanchez Brinson, 24, of Pompano Beach
Roger Sermon Jr., 31, of Altamonte Springs
Gregory Wayne Lowe Jr., 26, of Sanford
Henry Evett Allen, 37, of Orlando
Courtney Boston Scott, 23, of Orlando
Ralph Williams III, 34, of Bradenton
Annette Luvern Siplin, 50, of Sanford
Paul Boyd Jr., 50, of Altamonte Springs
Montrez D. Maye, 33, of Orlando
Edger M. Jenning-Boswell, 30, Ocala
Cenenia Bryant, 30, of Orlando
Chelsy L. Beals, 22, of Edmond, Okla.
A bail of $45,000 has been set for each person charged, the FDLE news release said.


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Need Help?
Click here for help with
the STITCHES Online
Registration System.
Registration is closed for this event...
Friday 04/12/2013, 8:30 am - 11:30 am
Skill LevelEasy
Class Hours3
TeacherGwen Bortner
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Entrelac Basics with Gwen BortnerHave you always wanted to learn entrelac but thought it would be too hard? Whether a beginner or advanced knitter, this class is for you. During this class, each student will have the opportunity to knit a small project to gain hands-on experience in the entrelac technique. Participants will learn the seamless entrelac technique and basic entrelac construction. Hints and tips on the fine points of entrelac, a discussion of other project possibilities and an overview of knitting in both directions will also be included.
Supplies1 oz each of 2 different colors of #4 (worsted-weight) wool (non-machine washable) yarn and set of 5 double pointed needles 5.5mm/US 9 (wood or plastic 6"-8").
HomeworkWith one of the colors, cast on 36 stitches divided evenly between 4 dpns and join without twisting. Purl 3 rounds and leave on needles.


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Vertex Specification
Vertex Specification is the process of setting up the necessary objects for rendering with a particular shader program, as well as the process of using those objects to render.
- 1 Theory
- 2 Building the Stream
- 3 Drawing
- 4 See Also
Submitting vertex data for rendering requires creating a stream of vertices, and then telling OpenGL how to interpret that stream.
Vertex Stream
In order to render at all, you must be using a shader program. This program has a list of expected Vertex Attributes. This set of attributes determines what attribute values you must send in order to properly render with this shader.
For each attribute in the shader, you must provide a list of data for that attribute. All of these lists must have the same number of elements.
The order of vertices in the stream is very important; it determines how OpenGL will render your mesh. The order of the stream can either be the order of data in the arrays, or you can specify a list of indices. The indices control what order the vertices are received in, and indices can specify the same vertex more than once.
Let's say you have the following as your array of 3d position data:
{ {1, 1, 1}, {0, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 1} }
If you simply use this as a stream as is, OpenGL will receive and process these three vertices in order (left-to-right). However, you can also specify a list of indices that will select which vertices to use and in which order.
Let's say we have the following index list:
{2, 1, 0, 2, 1, 2}
If we render with the above attribute array, but selected by the index list, OpenGL will receive the following stream of vertex attribute data:
{ {0, 0, 1}, {0, 0, 0}, {1, 1, 1}, {0, 0, 1}, {0, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 1} }
The index list is a way of reordering the vertex attribute array data without having to actually change it. This is mostly useful as a means of data compression; in most tight meshes, vertices are used multiple times. Being able to store the vertex attributes for that vertex only once is very economical, as a vertex's attribute data is generally around 32 bytes, while indices are usually 2-4 bytes in size.
A vertex stream can of course have multiple attributes. You can take the above position array and augment it with, for example, a texture coordinate array:
{ {0, 0}, {0.5, 0}, {0, 1} }
The vertex stream you get will be as follows:
{ [{0, 0, 1}, {0, 1}], [{0, 0, 0}, {0.5, 0}], [{1, 1, 1}, {0, 0}], [{0, 0, 1}, {0, 1}], [{0, 0, 0}, {0.5, 0}], [{0, 0, 1}, {0, 1}] }
The above stream is not enough to actually get anything; you must tell OpenGL how to interpret this stream in order to get proper rendering. And this means telling OpenGL what kind of primitive to interpret the stream as.
There are many ways for OpenGL to interpret a stream of 12 vertices. It can interpret the vertices as a sequence of triangles, points, or lines. It can even interpret these differently; it can interpret 12 vertices as 4 independent triangles (take every 3 verts as a triangle), as 10 dependent triangles (every group of 3 sequential vertices in the stream is a triangle), and so on.
The main article on this subject has the details.
Building the Stream
Making a vertex stream in OpenGL requires using two kinds of objects: Vertex Array Objects (VAO) and Vertex Buffer Objects (VBO). VBOs store the actual vertex and index arrays, while VAOs store the settings for interpreting the data in those arrays.
The first step is to create a VAO and bind it to the context.
Vertex Format
Each attribute in the VAO has its own binding point with its own parameters. In the Vertex Array Objects article, we used this pseudocode to explain the state that goes into an attribute binding:
struct VertexAttribute
bool bIsEnabled = GL_FALSE;
int iSize = 4; //This is the number of elements in this attribute, 1-4.
unsigned int iStride = 0;
VertexAttribType eType = GL_FLOAT;
bool bIsNormalized = GL_FALSE;
bool bIsIntegral = GL_FALSE;
void * pBufferObjectOffset = 0;
BufferObject * pBufferObj = 0;
Recall that this binding data is set by glVertexAttribPointer; or glVertexAttribIPointer.
Similarly to how pixel transfer operations have an internal format (the format of the image data in the texture or framebuffer) and an external format (the format of the image data in client memory or a buffer object), each attribute has an actual format and the format of the data you are passing.
The actual format is defined by the shading language. So the internal attribute format changes depending on which shader you use the VAO with. Every vertex shader has an expected list of attributes. Each attribute has a particular dimensionality and expected type. The type can be float or integral.
For example, if you define an attribute in GLSL as an ivec3, this means that the dimensionality of the attribute is 3 and the type is integral.
OpenGL is quite flexible in conversions between the data in your buffer objects and what the attribute expects. OpenGL can convert any data from your attribute format to the destination attribute format as long as it has the correct type. If the shader attribute is of integral type, you must use glVertexAttribIPointer to attach the attribute data. The same goes for floating-point attributes and glVertexAttribPointer.
Other than this, OpenGL will make conversions as necessary. Normalized integers are converted on the expected range. Non-normalized integers given to floating-point attributes are converted to floating point values.
If there is a mismatch between the incoming dimensionality and the attribute's dimensionality, OpenGL will satisfy it. If the vertex data has more components than the shader attribute uses, the extra components are ignored. If the vertex data specifies fewer than the shader attribute uses, then the unfilled-in components are 0, except for the 4th component which is set to 1.
Your options for specifying your vertex format are varied.
The iSize value is the dimensionality of the attribute you are sending. It is an integer from 1-4.
The bIsIntegral value specifies whether the value is an integer or float. If it is false, then it is a floating-point value; if it is true, then it is integral. As previously mentioned, this must match with the attribute definition in the shader. This value is set based on which of the attribute functions you use: "IPointer" sets it to true, the regular "Pointer" version sets it to false.
Data Conversion
The eType is the type of the data in the buffer object, not the attribute's type. This value and bIsNormalized define how the value in the buffer is interpreted and converted into the attribute's type in the shader.
The possible values of eType are broken into categories: integer and floating-point.
Integer types allow signed or unsigned forms of bytes, shorts (16-bit), and ints (32-bit). Floating-point types are float (32-bit), double (64-bit), or half (16-bit half float values).
Floating-point buffer types convert to floating-point attribute types directly. Integer types can be converted to floating point types in one of two ways: either directly (convert the number into a float value) or via normalization. Normalization, activated by setting bIsNormalized to true, causes unsigned integers to be converted into floating point values on the range [0, 1], and signed integers are converted to [-1, 1]. An integer value of 0 gives a normalized float value of 0.0. To get a float value of 1.0, you pass in the largest possible integer for that size (unsigned bytes == 255, signed bytes == 127, etc). To get -1, you pass the most negative integer value (signed bytes == -128, signed shorts == -32768, etc).
Stride and Interleaving
The placement of vertex attribute data within the buffer is governed by the eType, iSize, iStride, and pBufferObjectOffset fields. The type and size determine how big an individual value for the attribute is; 2 unsigned bytes takes up, well two bytes. The iStride specifies how many bytes it takes to get from one element to the next.
You might think that this would simply be the size of the attribute data: the type * iSize. However, OpenGL is very flexible in how you can position data in the buffer. The stride field allows you to interleave vertex data within a buffer. That is, you can put the data for multiple attributes in the same buffer.
Let's say that your vertex data is built by a hard-coded C structure:
struct Vertex
float x, y, z;
unsigned char r, g, b, a;
float u, v;
You would like your vertex data in your vertex buffer to simply be an array of such structures. So when you bind your buffer and fill it with data, you give it a Vertex* of some particular length.
The position attribute would have a pBufferObjectOffset value of 0, since it is the first entry. It's size is 3 and type is GL_FLOAT. This means that the position attribute of the first vertex in the array comes from the 0'th byte in the buffer, and OpenGL will pull 12 bytes (sizeof(float) * 3) to get that data. However, you need OpenGL to jump forward 24 bytes, the size of Vertex to get to the next position. You do this by setting the iStride to 24.
The color attribute would have a pBufferObjectOffset value of 12, since they start 3 floats into the struct. The size is 4 and the type is GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE (and it is normalized). The stride is also 24. Remember that stride is the number of bytes from one vertex value to the next. Each attribute has the same stride: 24.
You can compute the stride of any structure that you want to use in a buffer object with the C sizeof feature. If you want to compute the offset of a component within a struct, for the pBufferObjectOffset, you may use the macro offsetof (included in stddef.h header file). This would be done as follows: offsetof(Vertex, r).
A stride value of 0 has a special meaning: it means the attribute data is tightly packed. So a stride of zero always means that the stride is sizeof(eType) * iSize.
It is very possible, and usually desired for performance reasons, to use a single buffer object for all attributes of a mesh's data. Indeed, thanks to the buffer object offset, it is possible to put the data for many meshes in the same buffer object. You simply use glBufferSubData or glMapBufferRange to update different sections of it, and then set the offset when you are building your VAO.
Matrix Attributes
Attributes in GLSL can be of matrix types. However, our attribute binding functions only bind up to a dimensionality of 4. OpenGL solves this problem by converting matrix GLSL attributes into multiple attribute indices.
If you directly assign an attribute index to a matrix type, it implicitly takes up more than one attribute index. How many it takes depends on the height of the matrix: a 2x2 matrix will take 2, while a 2x4 matrix will take 4. The size of each attribute is the width of the matrix.
Each bound attribute in the VAO therefore fills in a single row, starting with the top-most and progressing down. Thus, if you have a 3x3 matrix, and you assign it to attribute index 3, it will naturally take attribute indices 3, 4, and 5. Each of these indices will be 3 elements in size. Attribute 3 is the top row, 4 is the middle, and 5 is the bottom.
If you let GLSL apply attributes manually, and query them with glGetAttribLocation, then OpenGL will allocate locations for matrix attributes contiguously as above. So if you defined a 3x3 matrix, it will return one value, but the next two values are also valid, active attributes.
Index Data
If you intend to use indices for your vertex arrays, you will need an index list. This is simply a buffer object that contains a list of integer values. It is best that this not be the same buffer object you use for attributes.
To attach this to the VAO, simply call glBindBuffer(GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, bufferObj); with your buffer object. Once attached, any indexed drawing calls will pull from this buffer. Attempting to use indexed drawing calls without a buffer bound to GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER is an error.
Finished VAO
At this point, your VAO is finished. You can render with it immediately, or you can bind another VAO and build a new one (or render with it). It's probably a good idea not to change a VAO once you've created it.
Fixed Attribute Values
It is legal to render with a vertex shader and VAO pair that do not match completely in terms of attributes. Any attributes the VAO specifies that the vertex shader does not consume are ignored. Whereas any attributes that the vertex shader needs but the VAO does not provide will be taken from a set of fixed attribute data.
This fixed attribute data is not an array. Therefore, each vertex in the stream will get the same value. The initial value for these is (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0).
To change the value, you use a function of this form:
void glVertexAttrib*(GLuint index, Type values);
The * is the type descriptor, using the traditional OpenGL syntax. There is also a version for setting integral attributes, glVertexAttribI*. The index is the attribute index to change.
Note that the fixed attribute values are not part of the VAO state. Changes to them do not affect the VAO.
Once you have a vertex array object (and the appropriate program object used to draw with it, as well as other rendering state), rendering with it is quite easy.
Regardless of which function you use, you will be required to specify a primitive type. This will be how OpenGL interprets the vertex data for that object.
As previously mentioned, there are two ways to send a stream of vertices: indexed and unindexed. All functions that draw indexd have the form glDraw*Elements*, while functions that draw unindexed have the form glDraw*Arrays*.
Basic Drawing
The basic drawing functions are glDrawArrays and glDrawElements:
void glDrawArrays( GLenum mode, GLint first, GLsizei count ); void glDrawElements( GLenum mode, GLsizei count, GLenum type, void *indices );
The mode parameter is the primitive type. The first and count values in glDrawArrays define the range of elements to be pulled from the buffer.
The count and indices parameters of glDrawElements define the range of indices. Count defines how many indices to use, while indices defines the offset into the index buffer object (bound to GL_ELEMENT_ARRAY_BUFFER, stored in the VAO) to begin reading data. The type field descibes what the type of the indices are: GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT, or GL_UNSIGNED_INT.
The basic drawing functions are all you really need in order to send vertices for rendering. However, there are a number of ways to draw that optimize certain rendering cases.
Rendering with a different VAO from the last rendering command is usually a relatively expensive operation. So many of the optimization mechanisms are based on you storing the data for several meshes in the same buffer objects with the same vertex formats and other VAO data.
Binding a VAO is often an expensive operation. And there are many cases where you want to render a number of distinct meshes with a single draw call. All of the meshes must be in the same VAO, as must all of the index arrays if you are doing indexed rendering. Also, of course, they must use the same shader program with the same uniform values.
To render multiple primitives from a VAO at once, use this:
void glMultiDrawArrays( GLenum mode, GLint *first, GLsizei *count, GLsizei primcount );
This function is conceptually implemented as:
void glMultiDrawArrays( GLenum mode, GLint *first, GLsizei *count, GLsizei primcount )
for (int i = 0; i < primcount; i++)
if (count[i] > 0)
glDrawArrays(mode, first[i], count[i]);
Of course, you could write this function yourself. However, because it all happens in a single OpenGL call, the implementation has the opportunity to optimize this beyond what you could write.
There is an indexed form as well:
void glMultiDrawElements( GLenum mode, GLsizei *count, GLenum type, void **indices, GLsizei primcount );
Similarly, this is implemented conceptually as:
void glMultiDrawElements( GLenum mode, GLsizei *count, GLenum type, void **indices, GLsizei primcount );
for (int i = 0; i < primcount; i++)
if (count[i]) > 0)
glDrawElements(mode, count[i], type, indices[i]);
Multi-draw is useful for circumstances where you know that you are going to draw a lot of separate primitives of the same kind that all use the same shader. Typically, this would be a single conceptual object that you would always draw together in the same way. You simply pack all of the vertex data into the same VAO and buffer objects, using the various offsets to pick and choose between them.
Primitive Restart
Primitive restart functionality allows you to tell OpenGL that a particular index value means, not to source a vertex at that index, but to begin a new primitive of the same type with the next vertex. In essence, it is an alternative to glMultiDrawElements. This allows you to have an element buffer that contains multiple triangle strips or fans (or similar primitives where the start of a primitive has special behavior).
The way it works is with the function glPrimitiveRestartIndex. This function takes an index value. If this index is found in the index array, the system will start the primitive processing again as though a second rendering command had been issued. If you use a BaseVertex drawing function, this test is done before the base vertex is added to the restart. Using this feature also requires using glEnable(GL_PRIMITIVE_RESTART); to activate it, and the corresponding glDisable to turn it off.
Here is an example. Let's say you have an index array as follows:
{ 0 1 2 3 65535 2 3 4 5 }
If you render this as a triangle strip normally, you get 7 triangles. If you render it with glPrimitiveRestartIndex(65535) and the primitive restart enabled, then you will get 4 triangles: {0 1 2}, {1 2 3}, {2 3 4}, {3 4 5}.
Primitive restart works with any of the versions of these functions.
Base Index
All of the glVertexAttribArray calls define the format of the vertices. That is, the way the vertex data is stored in the buffer objects. Changing this format is somewhat expensive in terms of performance.
If you have a number of meshes that all share the same vertex format, it would be useful to be able to put them all in a single set of buffer objects, one after the other. If we have two meshes, A and B, then their data would look like this:
[A00 A01 A02 A03 A04... Ann B00 B01 B02... Bmm]
B's mesh data immediately follows A's mesh data, with no breaks inbetween.
The glDrawArrays call takes a start index. If we are using unindexed rendering, then this is all we need. We call glDrawArrays once with 0 as the start index and nn as the array count. Then we call it again with nn as the start index and mm as the array count.
Indexed rendering is often very useful, both for memory saving and performance. So it would be great if we can preserve this performance saving optimization when using indexed rendering.
In indexed rendering, each mesh also has an index buffers. glDrawElements takes an offset into the index buffer, so we can use the same mechanism to select which sets of indices to use.
The problem is the contents of these indices. The third vertex of mesh B is technically index 02. However, the actual index is determined by the location of that vertex relative to where the format was defined. And since we're trying to avoid redefining the format, the format still points to the start of the buffer. So the third vertex of mesh B is actually at index 02 + nn.
We could in fact store these indices in the index buffer that way. We could go through all of mesh B's indices and add nn to them. But we don't have to.
Instead, we can use this function:
void glDrawElementsBaseVertex( GLenum mode, GLsizei count, GLenum type, void *indices, GLint basevertex );
This works as glDrawElements does, except that basevertex is added to each index before pulling from the vertex data. So for mesh A, we pass a base vertex of 0 (or just use glDrawElements), and for mesh B, we pass a base vertex of nn.
It is often useful to be able to render multiple copies of the same mesh in different locations. If you're doing this with small numbers, like 5-20 or so, multiple draw commands with shader uniform changes between them (to tell which is in which location) is reasonably fast in performance. However, if you're doing this with large numbers of meshes, like 5,000+ or so, then it can be a performance problem.
Instancing is a way to get around this. The idea is that your vertex shader has some internal mechanism for deciding where each instance of the rendered mesh goes based on a single number. Perhaps it has a table (stored in a Texture Buffer) that it indexes with the instance number to get the per-instance data it needs. Or perhaps it has a simple algorithm for computing the location of an instance based on its number.
Regardless of the mechanism, it is based the shader getting an instance number that changes only when it is rendering a new instance. If you want to do instanced rendering, you call:
void glDrawArraysInstanced( GLenum mode, GLint ?rst, GLsizei count, GLsizei primcount ); void glDrawElementsInstanced( GLenum mode, GLsizei count, GLenum type, const void *indices, GLsizei primcount );
It will send the same vertices primcount number of times, as though you called glDrawArrays/Elements in a loop of primcount length. However, the vertex shader is given a special input value: gl_InstanceID. It will receive a value from 0 to primcount-1 based on which instance of the mesh is being rendered. This is the only mechanism the vertex shader has for differentiating between instances; it is up to the shader itself to decide how to use this information.
Implementations of OpenGL can often find it useful to know how much vertex data is being used in a buffer object. For non-indexed rendering, this is pretty easy to determine: the first and count parameters of the Arrays functions gives you appropriate information. For indexed rendering, this is more difficult, as the index buffer can use potentially any index up to its size.
Still for optimization purposes, it is useful for implementations to know the range of indexed rendering data. Implementations may even read index data manually to determine this.
The "Range" series of glDrawElements commands allows the user to specify that this indexed rendering call will never cause indices outside of the given range of values to be sourced. The call works as follows:
void glDrawRangeElements( GLenum mode, GLuint start, GLuint end, GLsizei count, GLenum type, void *indices );
Unlike the "Arrays" functions, the start and end parameters specify the minimum and maximum index values (from the element buffer) that this draw call will use (rather than a first and count-style). If you try to violate this restriction, you will get implementation-behavior (ie: rendering may work fine or you may get garbage).
There is one index that is allowed outside of the area bound by start and end: the primitive restart index. If primitive restart is set and enabled, it does not have to be within the given boundary.
Implementations may have a specific "sweet spot" for the range of indices, such that using indices within this range will have better performance. They expose such values with a pair of glGetIntegerv enumerators. To get the best performance, end - start should be less than or equal to GL_MAX_ELEMENTS_VERTICES, and count (the number of indices to be rendered) should be less than or equal to GL_MAX_ELEMENTS_INDICES.
It is often useful to combine these optimization techniques. Primitive restart can be combined with any of them, so long as they are using indexed rendering. The primitive restart comparison test, in the case of BaseVertex calls, is done before the base index is added to the index from the mesh.
Base vertex can be combined with any one of MultiDraw, Range, or Instancing. These functions are:
void glMultiDrawElementsBaseVertex( GLenum mode, GLsizei *count, GLenum type, void **indices, GLsizei primcount, GLint *basevertex ); void glDrawRangeElementsBaseVertex( GLenum mode, GLuint start, GLuint end, GLsizei count, GLenum type, void *indices, GLint basevertex ); void glDrawElementsInstancedBaseVertex( GLenum mode, GLsizei count, GLenum type, const void *indices, GLsizei primcount, GLint basevertex );
In the case of MultiDraw, the basevertex is an array, so each primitive can have its own base index.
None of the other features can be combined with one another. So Range does not combine with MultiDraw.


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CBS Announces "Large Scale" Renewal for 2012-2013 SeasonMatt Richenthal at .
CBS announced such a "large scale" renewal today - in the words of President Nina Tassler - that it's almost easier to list the shows that did NOT receive a pick-up by the network.
They include such long-running dramas as CSI: NY and CSI: Miami, although no word at the moment does not necessarily mean no renewal.
Now, on to the shows that really do have a reason to celebrate, including three that received the good new a few weeks ago...
2 Broke Girls
The Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
Mike & Molly
Blue Bloods
Criminal Minds
The Good Wife
Hawaii Five-0
The Mentalist
NCIS: Los Angeles
Person of Interest
48 Hours Mystery
60 Minutes
The Amazing Race
Undercover Boss
Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.