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Outdoor Sport Wool Sock
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Seamless toe creates a more comfortable fit on the foot, and prevents blisters from forming where the seam would be.
Total Easy Care (TEC) Merino apparel is designed for today's busy lifestyle. Total Easy Care Merino garments are all machine-washable, and are suitable for tumble drying. Even after frequent laundering they retain an 'as new' appearance. They won't shrink, lose their shape, fade or color-bleed. They remain soft and comfortable for the life of the garment. TEC is a textile innovation used by Minus33 that was developed by the Woolmark Company.
Minus33 Merino Wool regulates the amount of moisture on your skin by absorbing any moisture or sweat on your body. Then, the absorbed moisture evaporates out of the fabric into the atmosphere. Wool is a classic natural insulator, but is just as effective in warmer weather due to its rapid moisture wicking ability. Learn more about wool properties.
With less moisture comes less odor. Minus33 Merino Wool resists against microbes and odor, so foot fungus and smelly odor will NOT be a problem while wearing our products. Merino Wool fibers naturally reject any bacteria in moisture or sweat as it is wicked away. This means you don't have to wash wool as often. Less laundry means less water being used, benefiting our planet. Learn more about wool properties.
Wool will absorb up to 30% of its weight in moisture without feeling wet or clammy. If you do get wet, whether it be from sweat, weather, or water bodies, wool will insulate you better than cotton or polyester materials. This is especially important if you are in a survival situation, and can help prevent or delay hypothermia depending on the conditions. Learn more about wool properties.
Merino Wool insulates against high temperatures and does not readily catch fire. If it does, it self-extinguishes. When Merino burns, it doesn't melt and stick to the skin like synthetic fabrics do. For this reason, merino is popular among military, firefighting, and law enforcement communities. Learn more about wool properties.
Don't worry about sunburn on a sunny day summiting a peak. Lightweight layers have a UPF rating of 25. Midweight and Expedition have a UPF rating of 50+. Learn more about wool properties.
Socks cut at the ankle for a low or no-show style.


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Lindsay Lohan says no to plea deal in grand theft case
Actress Lindsay Lohan will not seek a plea bargain that could have landed her in jail for 90 days -- and will instead take her chances with a preliminary hearing to see if there is enough evidence to try her on a grand theft charge.
Lohan's attorney, Shawn Holley, informed prosecutors Wednesday that Lohan would not accept a plea bargain, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Danette Meyers.
Sources have told The Times that Lohan mulled over an offer from Judge Keith Schwartz that would have resulted in no more than 90 days in jail if she pleaded guilty to grand theft of a $2,500 necklace from a Venice jeweler in January. If she wanted to accept the deal, she would have had to inform the court by Wednesday.
The actress has refused to consider any time in jail and has insisted she never took anything intentionally.
Schwartz told the "Mean Girls" actress she could show up on that date and accept a plea deal that would include some jail time. Or, she could set a date for a preliminary hearing before Judge Stephanie Sautner. The hearing would determine whether there was sufficient evidence to try the case.
Schwartz warned Lohan that Sautner would hear the jewelry theft case while also considering that Lohan had violated terms of her probation on a 2007 misdemeanor drunk-driving conviction.
Sautner could jail Lohan on the probation violation even before a trial on the Jan. 22 alleged necklace theft.
Schwartz had made it clear to Lohan that if she made the deal in his courtroom, it would definitely involve time behind bars. He also said she would need to enter court-supervised therapy and have a 12-step program sponsor independent of her family and friends.
Michael Lohan charged with misdemeanor domestic violence
Lindsay Lohan: Time running out to accept plea deal in necklace theft case
-- Richard Winton
Photo: Lindsay Lohan leaves Bowlmore bowling lanes in New York City's Times Square last Friday. Credit: Charles Sykes / Associated Press

subset: commoncrawl


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Ron And Rand Paul: Net Neutrality And The Public Domain Are Really Evil Collectivist Plots
from the seriously,-now? deptI tend to be a pretty big supporter of free market capitalism and the importance of real property rights (not imaginary property rights). As such, I've always been intrigued by Ron Paul's libertarian stance against big government and excessive regulation. I think that position is pretty clearly staked out in my writing over the years. However, I'm perplexed by the new "internet freedom" manifesto from Ron Paul and Rand Paul, which seems like a hodgepodge of poorly thought out concepts -- some of which make sense, and some of which do not. While I agree about keeping the government out of internet regulations, the document seems to attack many of those who actually agree with the Pauls by setting up ridiculous strawmen. In particular, the Pauls come out vehemently against both net neutrality as a concept and any effort to expand the public domain -- even though both are really about limiting big government.
In fact, in a bizarre twist, the Pauls seem to be supporting massive government subsidies and handouts in this document, even as they insist they're not.
Now, I agree that the whole "net neutrality" debate has been muddled over the years, but it is entirely possible to be for the end-to-end principles of the internet (which is what most people mean by net neutrality) and against bad regulations trying to "force" neutrality on the internet. But not in the world of the Pauls. To them, any support of a neutral internet must be about "coercive state actions" and "collective rule" over "privately owned broadband high-speed infrastructure." This makes me curious if the Pauls spoke out against the billions and billions in subsidies and rights of way grants that the government provided the telcos and cable providers to build their networks. Once again, I am against regulating net neutrality -- because it's obvious that the telcos will control that process and the regulations will favor them against the public -- but pretending that broadband infrastructure is really "privately owned" when so much of it involved tax-payer-funded subsidies and rights of way is being in denial.
Then there's the following, where they claim that these evil "collectivists" want to limit "private property rights on the internet" and are saying that "what is considered to be in the public domain should be greatly expanded." Considering the Pauls were both instrumental in the fight against SOPA and PIPA, you would think that the two of them understood how copyright law is massively abused and how beneficial the public domain is. But apparently not. To them it's all part of this "collectivist" plot. Earth to the Pauls: copyright is a massive government-granted monopoly privilege. That's the kind of thing we thought you were against, not for. In this document, you seem to be arguing for one of the largest programs in the world of a centralized government handing out private monopoly privileges.
There are a few other whoppers in there, including the claim that the groups talking about a "right to privacy" rarely care about it when it comes to government snooping -- and, in fact, support government surveillance and collection of private citizens' internet data. That's funny, because the very groups that the Pauls appear to be slamming... happen to be the same ones who were central in the fight against CISPA, which was all about the government snooping on our internet activity.
Frankly, this document is a joke from two people who should know better. There are some good points in there about limiting government regulation of innovative companies, but when they're supportive of two of the biggest government handouts around -- telco subsidies and copyright -- it's hard to take them seriously when they claim they're for smaller government and about getting the government out of the internet.
Filed Under: net neutrality, privacy, public domain, rand paul, regulation, ron paul, telco subsidies


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Home of Queensland Boulder Opal, Opalton lies 124 kilometres from Winton. Opal was first discovered here by George Cragg in 1888 and the first mine was worked in 1894. By the end of the decade there was a bustling township of 600 and Opalton became known for the enormous volume and quality of its opal. In 1899 the largest piece of opal ever recorded was mined from Opalton, a pipe opal more than three metres long.
Now home to a much smaller community, Opalton boasts one shop where you are likely to meet all the locals when the mail is delivered every Thursday. Try your luck in the public fossicking area. There are camping facilities at the bush park and basic cabins are available.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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Amarantus BioScience Announces Publication of Independent Peer-Reviewed Data for Receptor and Secretion Pathways related to MANF
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Amarantus BioScience, Inc. (OTCQB: AMBS), a biotechnology company discovering and developing treatments and diagnostics for diseases associated with protein misfolding and apoptosis centered around its patented therapeutic protein Mesencephalic Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor (MANF), today announced that an independent peer-reviewed research paper entitled Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) secretion and cell surface binding are modulated by KDEL receptors was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The research paper concludes "These findings provide insight into the mechanisms of MANF neuroprotection, and may be applicable to understanding its functions in other secretory tissues."
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is the part of the cell where unfolded proteins are properly folded and then exported into different parts of the cell, or secreted out of the cell, so that they can perform their normal biological functions. When the ER becomes stressed, protein folding is compromised, and cells can become dysfunctional. Apoptosis, also known as Programmed Cell Death, is one of the main side effects of protein misfolding due to ER stress, and several independent peer-reviewed research papers have demonstrated that MANF plays a critical role in reducing protein misfolding and apoptosis. MANF has been shown to be upregulated inside the cell, and subsequently secreted out of the cell, with data demonstrating that MANF ultimately reduces apoptosis in the cells in which it originates, the cells it interacts with once secreted out of the cell, as well as when manufactured MANF is administered to various parts of the body undergoing ER stress. Amarantus is seeking to administer manufactured MANF to areas in the body where ER-stress occurs due to injury or disease, giving the body additional quantities of MANF during times of stress in order to reduce apoptosis and improve cellular function. The Company believes that if cellular function can be improved, overall system recovery is likely in many therapeutic indications. ER-stress and protein misfolding appear to be a key component of Parkinson's disease biology. Amarantus' Chief Scientist originally discovered MANF, and the Company was awarded composition of matter patents on MANF in Europe in 2010 and in the United States in 2011. The Company also recently won a court challenge to its composition of matter patents in Europe. The Company also owns worldwide patent applications covering various methods of using MANF as it relates to neurological conditions.
In this research paper, the authors describe the process by which MANF's intracellular activity (autocrine) may be regulated through MANF binding to the canonical ER-specific retention receptors with the amino acid sequence 'KDEL', known as 'KDELRs' (KDEL Receptors). Researchers expressed, or blocked, a key amino acid sequence on the MANF molecule known as 'RTDL,' which is a highly-conserved amino acid sequence that was shown in this research paper to be required for retention of MANF in the ER, or for secretion of MANF out of the ER, with signal activation through the KDELRs. Further, the research paper goes on to suggest that certain KDELRs are resident on the cell surface membrane, and that MANF's extracellular activity (paracrine) is regulated, at least in part, via cell-surface KDELRs. Interestingly, the paper suggests that following ER stress, there is an increase in expression of KDELRs on the cell surface membrane, opening the possibility that MANF's paracrine activity may be more potent or broad in times of ER stress.
"This publication provides further insight into the biological profile of MANF and the proteins it interacts with in both an autocrine and paracrine fashion," said Gerald E. Commissiong, President & CEO of Amarantus. "As we learn more about its biological functions, we believe the Company is likely to find additional avenues to commercially exploit MANF's breakthrough biology, and bring new meaningful treatments to patients in a variety of indications, including orphan indications."
About Mesencephalic-Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor (MANF)
MANF (Mesencephalic-Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor) is a protein that corrects protein misfolding, one of the major causes of apoptosis (Programmed Cell Death). Mesencephalic-Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor (MANF) is believed to have broad potential because it is a naturally-occurring protein produced by the body for the purpose of reducing and preventing apoptosis (in response to injury or disease), via the unfolded protein response. By manufacturing MANF and administering it to the body, Amarantus is seeking to use a regenerative medicine approach to assist the body with higher quantities of MANF when needed. Amarantus is the front-runner and primary holder of intellectual property (IP) around MANF, and is initially focusing on the development of MANF-based protein therapeutics. MANF's current lead indication is Parkinson's disease with additional focus on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI. Future indications may include myocardial infarction and certain rare and ultra-rare orphan diseases where MANF is currently being evaluated.
The Company also owns an inventory of 88 cell lines referred to as "PhenoGuard Cell Lines." MANF was the first therapeutic protein discovered from a PhenoGuard Cell Line, and it is anticipated that additional therapeutic proteins useful for various therapeutic approaches to the Central Nervous System will be identified from the Company's inventory of PhenoGuard Cell Lines.
About Amarantus BioScience, Inc.
Amarantus BioScience, Inc. is a development-stage biotechnology company founded in January 2008. The Company has a focus on developing certain biologics surrounding the intellectual property and proprietary technologies it owns to treat and/or diagnose Parkinson's disease, Traumatic Brain Injury and other human diseases. The Company owns the intellectual property rights to a therapeutic protein known as Mesencephalic-Astrocyte-derived Neurotrophic Factor ("MANF") and is developing MANF-based products as treatments for brain disorders. The Company also is a Founding Member of the Coalition for Concussion Treatment (#C4CT), a movement initiated in collaboration with Brewer Sports International seeking to raise awareness of new treatments in development for concussions and nervous-system disorders. For further information please visit www.Amarantus.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the possible benefits of MANF therapeutic applications and/or advantages presented by Amarantus' PhenoGuard technology, as well as statements about expectations, plans and prospects of the development of Amarantus' new product candidates. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the risks that the anticipated benefits of the therapeutic drug candidates or discovery platforms, as well as the risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to the development of Amarantus' new product candidates, including those identified under "Risk Factors" in Amarantus' most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and in other filings Amarantus periodically makes with the SEC. Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements Amarantus does not undertake to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or events or circumstances that occur after the date of this presentation.
Amarantus Bioscience, Inc.
(408) 737-2734
Investor/Media Contact:
IR Sense, LLC
Remy Bernarda
SOURCE Amarantus BioScience, Inc.


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When it comes to the heart, vitamin D can be a double-edged sword.
Scientists have long known that low levels of the nutrient can hurt the heart, but new research shows that higher than normal levels can make it beat too fast and out of rhythm, a condition called atrial fibrillation, according to a report presented at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association.
The study, which followed 132,000 patients at a Utah based medical center, found that the risk of newly developed atrial fibrillation jumped almost three-fold when blood levels of vitamin D were high.
Most people get at least some of their daily needs of vitamin D from sunlight. But in cold northern climates where everyone bundles up for the winter -- inadvertently blocking rays that raise the body's vitamin D levels -- people are often encouraged to take supplements to boost levels of the nutrient to protect the bones and heart, said the study's lead author, Dr. Jared Bunch, director of electrophysiology research at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.
However, because everyone absorbs these supplements differently, blood levels need to be tested to make sure they're in the safe range, Bunch explained.
High levels of vitamin D only occur when people take supplements, Bunch said. Because consumers assume supplements sold over the counter are safe, they may not realize the danger of taking too much vitamin D, he added.
"People are looking toward therapies considered to be natural to treat a broad variety of disease states and as a means of prevention," Bunch said. "We see patients who take a tremendous amount of vitamin supplements."
Bunch said the normal range for vitamin D was 41 to 80 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dl). Patients in the study were designated as having excessive vitamin D had had readings above 100 ng/dl.
The recommended daily intake of vitamin D for people from 1 year to age 70 is 600 IUs, or international units a day, based on what is sufficient for bone health, according to the National Institutes of Health. There are few natural food sources of vitamin D, although oily fish such as tuna or salmon are among the best. For example, 3 ounces of cooked salmon contains 447 IUs of vitamin D per serving. Small amounts are also found in cheese and egg yolks. The Department of Agriculture provides a comprehensive list of foods containing vitamin D.
Bunch advised people who have recently been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and are taking vitamin D supplements to make sure their doctors check blood levels of the nutrient.
He suspects that the effects of high vitamin D on heart rhythms are reversible.
"If the levels are excessive, I would hope that when they're cut back the arrhythmias would improve as well," Bunch said.
Pale people need vitamin D supplements, researchers say
© 2013 msnbc.com. Reprints


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Experienced and creative, our dedicated team of professional travel agents is always ready to assist you in planning your journey. We offer a wide variety of programs and products including sightseeing tours and cruises.
Hong Kong is a place where ancient traditions thrive within and ultra-modern city. From busy street markets to modern skyscraper and historic heritages. Hong Kong truly offers a varied and ever-changing visual experience. Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region of People Republic of China on 1st July 1997. Under the Basic Law, the existing economic, legal and social systems will be maintained for 50 years that HKSAR enjoys a high degree of autonomy except in defence and foreign affairs.


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State-of-the-art websites with all bells and whistles at a very low price
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
Order threads in...
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The whole point of Planetside 2 is that it's a big shooter. Even by Battlefield or ArmA II standards, it's enormous. Big maps, even bigger battles. To give you an idea of just how big, take a look at this amazing video.
This is apparently 100% "organic", in that none of the actions were staged or manipulated in any way. It's just one of the game's big battles shot rather nicely, then uploaded so we can all enjoy.
We (and you!) had an interview with Planetside 2's senior art director Tramell Isaac and creative director Matt Higby earlier today, which you can check out here.
A fly on the wall [YouTube]


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SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. is giving people with regular cell phones access to the same kinds of programs that smart phone owners have embraced.
Microsoft's OneApp software, announced Monday, is aimed at developing countries where so-called "feature phones" and prepaid systems are prevalent.
(Msnbc.com is a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture.)
Microsoft's first partner is Blue Label Telecoms Group of South Africa, which sells prepaid cell phone minutes. In a few weeks, Blue Label customers will be able to download OneApp just as they would getting a new ringtone. OneApp will come with a preselected set of about a dozen programs — or "apps," in current slang — including Facebook, Twitter and the software maker's own Windows Live Messenger.
Because many phones have limited storage, OneApp stores some information on central servers rather than the device and sends it out only when necessary.
Future wireless partners will be able to pick different programs to distribute with OneApp, Microsoft said. In that sense, OneApp isn't quite an "app store," a central shop for mobile users to pick and choose which apps they download. Such stores have become popular since one for Apple Inc.'s iPhone became a big reason to buy the pricey gizmos.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft did not disclose the financial arrangements with Blue Label and Amit Mital, a Microsoft corporate vice president, would not say how OneApp plans to make money.
Mital said OneApp would give people a way to obtain new software, and makers of such programs might subsidize cellular network access needed to make them run.
Most feature phones already can run games and other programs, and many wireless carriers have marketplaces to sell them. Microsoft said OneApp will reduce the workload for software programmers who currently have to tweak and test applications on hundreds of feature phone models. The software maker said carriers, too, are interested in OneApp because it could boost data usage in emerging markets.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Browsing Conference papers by Author "Ulslev Pedersen, Rasmus"
Now showing items 1-2 of 2
A Design Science Approach to Interactive Greenhouse Climate Control using Lego Mindstorms for Sensor- Intensive PrototypingUlslev Pedersen, Rasmus; Clemmensen, Torkil (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper we present a case study of early prototyping work performed within a Danish advanced technology project. We specifically investigate the problems and issues related to throw-away prototypes in sensor-intensive systems. An important criterion is to record and perhaps later reproduce the identified contributions of the throw-away prototypes, and to this end we use the educational version of Lego Mindstorms NXT. To achieve methodological rigor we have used the Design Science Framework by Hevner et. al. It allows us to focus on the prototyping effort (called the design cycle) without letting go of either the relevance or rigor related to the project. We relate the case study to a Human Work Interaction Design (HWID) framework for the use of interactive, sensor-intensive prototypes to develop interactive greenhouse climate management systems. By applying guidelines suggested in design science to the case studied, we identify a number of interactive prototypes that successively address core issues in this particular setting. Finally, the problems and issues pertaining to this setting is presented and identified. The main contribution of this paper is that it, by pointing out problems and issues related throw-away prototyping with sensor-intensive systems, extends the design cycle of the original design science framework. This is determined to be a necessary step in order to address the inherent multi-disciplinarily of sensor-intensive HWID systems. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8601
Files in this item: 1Ulslev_Clemmensen.pdf (581.3Kb)
A Human Work Interaction Design (HWID) Perspective on Internet - and Sensor Based ICT Systems for Climate ManagementNordiCHI Workshop on Crisis management training: design and use of online worlds, Reykjavik, Iceland, 16 October 2010Clemmensen, Torkil; Ulslev Pedersen, Rasmus (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Internet- and sensor based ICT systems for climate management in greenhouses presents challenges for the understanding of how technology mediates the interaction between humans and specific work contexts, which is the topic of the field of Human Work Interaction Design (HWID). In this paper, we will analyze and discuss how to combine empirical work analysis with interaction design techniques, with a focus on sensor-based prototypes. The proposed method is action research that will use a combination of theory from usability, work analysis, and prototyping techniques. We wish to investigate possibilities for designing, using and evaluating interactive sensor based prototypes for designing systems, learning key skills, and enhancing current training methods, all of this in a work context. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8232
Files in this item: 1Clemmensen__Pedersen_2010.pdf (130.2Kb)
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Western Michigan University Make a Difference awards are reserved for Staff Compensation System, AFSCME, MSEA and POA employees. If you know of a coworker or staff member who deserves to be honored for outstanding service to WMU, use one of the options below to nominate him or her for a semiannual award.
- Fill out the online semiannual nomination form.
- Email nominations to email@example.com.
- Fill out the printable semiannual nomination form.
A committee of peers will select award recipients based on your comments, not on the individual's reputation, title or position. Provide specific information and use descriptive examples in support of your nominee to assure this person gets the full consideration deserved. For selection criteria and detailed program information, view the program guidelines.
To ensure unbiased selection, your nominee will remain anonymous to the committee throughout the selection process. Therefore, please do not use her or his name in your comments.
Each year, fall nominations are due Oct. 31 and spring nominations are due Feb. 28.


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Called the Old Bear, Lord Mormont was once Lord of Bear Island in the North until he chose to take the black, leaving his seat and lands to his son, Jorah Mormont. A grizzled old man with a large, bald head and shaggy grey beard, the Old Bear is now Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. He commands it from Castle Black, the chief of the three castles the Watch still maintains along the length of the Wall. He is often accompanied by a pet raven. He has in his possession the Mormont ancestral weapon, the Valyrian steel bastard sword Longclaw, although his son's disgrace has led him to keep it locked away in a chest.
The actor cast in the role is neither bald nor so bearded, but otherwise seems to match very well.


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Chocolate Turtle Cake
Total TimePrep: 3 hours Bake: 20 min. + cooling
Makes16 servings
- 1 cup dark baking cocoa
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2-1/4 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided
- 1/2 cup dark corn syrup
- 6 tablespoons butter, cubed
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon dark baking cocoa
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Chocolate curls or other decorations
- Dissolve cocoa in boiling water; cool. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk and cocoa mixture, beating well after each addition.
- Pour into three greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
- For caramel layer: Line a 9-in. round pan with foil and grease the foil with butter. Sprinkle with pecans; set aside.
- In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, brown sugar, 1/2 cup cream, corn syrup and butter. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir until smooth and blended, about 5 minutes. Gradually stir in remaining cream. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until a candy thermometer reads 238° (soft-ball stage), about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the heat. Quickly pour into prepared pan (do not scrape saucepan). Cool.
- For ganache layer: Line a 9-in. round pan with foil and grease the foil with 1 teaspoon butter. Sprinkle with pecans; set aside. Place chocolate chips in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Pour over pecans. Cool to room temperature; chill until set.
- For frosting: In a microwave, melt unsweetened chocolate and chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. In a large bowl, beat the confectioners' sugar, butter, milk, cocoa and vanilla until smooth; beat in melted chocolate.
- To assemble cake: Place one cake layer on a serving plate; remove foil from caramel and place on top. Top with another cake layer; remove foil from ganache and place on top. Top with remaining cake layer. Frost top and sides of cake. Garnish as desired.
Nutrition Facts1 slice: 1138 calories, 59g fat (32g saturated fat), 153mg cholesterol, 483mg sodium, 152g carbohydrate (118g sugars, 4g fiber), 10g protein.
Recommended Video
Jan 11, 2020
Inhad so much fun making this cake and tasting everything. The icingbis amazing. I can wait to give this to my friend for her birthday.
Apr 17, 2014
I have made this cake several times. I place the Caramel in the fridge to set harden a little before I put it on the cake. I also use smaller cake pan for the caramel so it slightly smaller and edge the cake with frosting so the caramel want come out.
Mar 8, 2012
I have made this cake twice, and I agree with the others it is very time consuming. It took me several hours to make and the caramel does ooze, but you just scrape it off the sides and frost it. The frosting holds it all in. This was everyone's favorite layer! I dont know if the above person did something wrong when making the cake but both times I have made this cake everyone said it was the most delicious chocolate cake they have ever had. I feel this cake serves more people than it states. I served 12 and still had half a cake left. I think it is very rich and a small serving does the job, and with so many calories per piece its a good idea to maybe cut back a little. :) I will make this cake again but only on special occasions its to time consuming.
Nov 14, 2011
While this is a time consuming cake, I think the efforts were worth it. It is extremely good, but not too sweet. I made 2 cakes for a birthday (the other was a white cake with a creamy custard filling and buttercream frosting), this was by far the favored cake. The only complaint I have is that the caramel layer did not completely set and I had to scrape it off of the foil...it ended up oozing out of the sides of the cake...not very pretty for presentation, but still tasted good. The caramel layer is very good, though. Make sure your candy thermometer is accurate and possibly chill the caramel layer as well as the ganache layer.
Jan 8, 2011
It took me much longer to make this cake than the time listed in the recipe. I spent most of the day on it. I won't make it again. The caramel was weird and the cake wasn't all that good. I'd rather spend half as much time and make a really good basic chocolate cake.


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When I woke up yesterday morning, I knew very little about the 3rd Transformers movie besides the title (Transformers: Dark of the Moon). However, due to spending 3 hours with Michael Bay and the fact that he was willing to show us the teaser trailer, a montage of footage from the entire movie, and then he took the visiting journalists into his private editing suite and showed a huge chuck of footage from the final 3rd of the film, I know a tremendous amount about what's almost certainly his last Transformers film. And if it really is his last one, I think he's going to go out with a huge home-run.
So here's what you need to know: while Bay asked us not to reveal any of the spoilers we learned while visiting his editing room, he talked to us for over two hours over lunch and he discussed making the movie, why he used 3D cameras, what made him cast Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Megan Fox's replacement, editing in 3D, how much was shot in 3D and how much will be post converted, and so much more. If you're a fan of the Transformers franchise, you really should hit the jump:
Before going any further, one of the people I went to the editing room with was Jeremy Smith (Mr. Beaks) from AICN. After we got back to my apartment, we recorded a video blog about what we saw and learned while at Bay films. While I'll be writing about it further down the page, if you'd like to hear us talk about what we did and what we thought, here's the video:
The other thing that you should probably watch is the just released teaser trailer. I think this is a hell of a teaser and it does a great job letting you know they have a much stronger story than the second film.
Anyway…about my visit to Bay films. The day started with a small group of reporters and some executives from Paramount entering a 15 person screening room. Almost immediately after sitting down, Bay showed us the teaser trailer and we did an informal Q&A. After a few questions, he showed us what I called a sizzle reel (but it was more a montage of shots and footage from the entire film) and then he talked to us for about 5 or 10 minutes. After some questions, we rewatched the teaser and montage.
Once the footage was over, we all jumped into two cars and traveled to Bay Films. As you might imagine, the walls were covered with his movie posters and we saw a few props in the lobby. While the screening room had a lot of executives, when we sat down at Bay Films for a more in depth interview, he was alone. He'd actually asked for the execs to leave us and he did the interview without any publicists or handlers (which was very cool). For a guy who doesn't do a lot of press, it was great to just sit around with one of the biggest filmmakers in the world and just talk shop.
At this point, we talked for at least an hour and we covered many subjects (everything is further down the page). Some of what he said was off the record, which is why I can't offer the audio files from today. After eating some food, he then asked us if we wanted to see some more footage. Needless to say, I said yes as soon as he finished asking us the question!
Bay then walked us across the parking lot and took us into a small building which housed his editing suites. Once inside, we all sat down in a small room and Bay proceeded to control an Avid like a DJ would control a turntable. While he asked us not to reveal what we saw in the footage…even though he's only been editing for 3 weeks, what I saw floored me. I could tell from the way he was fast forwarding the footage that he already had a solid rough cut of the movie and it had background music consisting of the previous Transformers movies and the Inception score (which is what everyone is using to edit with right now). While I can't say what he showed us, I can say the footage looked fraking awesome. The 3rd film has huge scope and some ridiculously awesome action set pieces. I saw some stuff that I have never seen in any movie. And even though it was rough and not even close to done, I was blown away at how easy it was to follow the action.
While some of you might criticize Bay and not like his movies, the one thing you've got to give him is he knows how to frame his action scenes. Everything he showed us today was easy to follow and I know the story is so much stronger than the second film. While I'd love to get into specifics, for now you'll just have to trust me. And just to make sure you know how I feel about the first two films…loved the first film. Have serious issues with the second.
Anyway, enough about my thoughts. After all, you can watch the video blog I did with Beaks for a more in depth recap of what we saw and learned while there. Also, since the interview with Bay is about 9 pages in Word….
Since a lot of you won't have the time to read everything Bay said to us, here's a few highlights:
- After talking to Buzz Aldrin (who is involved in the movie), he thinks they really went to the Moon in the 60's
- The teaser trailer has no final effects footage. He wouldn't even call any shot close to 80% done
- He says you've got to massage every 3D shot
- They're ahead in the editing right now because he's putting a lot of pressure on himself to do pristine 3D
- Says "if you want to do proper 3D it's a $30 million price tag." Also "if you want to do dual eye-rendered robots, you got another 30% charge, because you got two eyes now, two different visual effects that have got to be blended. There's more work on the visual effects shots."
- Did 5 months of research trying to decide between post conversion and shooting in 3D. Tested everything.
- Says they will have shot 70% or so in 3D and they'll post convert the rest
- He has 3 full time editors working on the film due to how much has to get done in such a short period of time
- Spends an hour and a half everyday talking to ILM via video conferencing to talk about the effects. Goes up there all the time to talk individually with the animators. Says 25% of the CG work is being done at Digital Domain and the rest at ILM
- Regarding what they shot in 2D, says "we shot most of my close-ups with faces with anamorphic film, cause that stuff's easier to convert and it's just more beautiful than the digital."
Bay acknowledged the second movie had issues and is very excited for the 3rd:
"We tried to learn from the second movie. On the second movie we got burned. We had a writers strike, we had to agree on a story in three weeks, and then we knew they were going on strike. It was a fucked scenario all the way around, it wasn't fair to the writer, it wasn't fair to me, it wasn't fair to anybody. It was still an entertaining movie, but I think we failed on certain aspects. What we did with this movie is I think we have a much better script, and we got back to basics. I think there's some really cool action on this movie, there's some very cool conspiracy, there's great robot stuff in this that people were missing in the second one, you've got great robot conflict. So I'm excited about this movie. It's more serious. I got rid of the dorky comedy, I mean we've got two little characters, that's it, but the dorkiness is not there. Dork-free Transformers. It's much more serious. It's still entertaining, it's big looking."
- Rosie Huntington-Whiteley talk. Says she speaks with an English accent and reveals how she got cast.
- They will have filmed in China, Los Angeles, Florida, Washington DC, Chicago, Detroit, Africa and maybe Russia. They film some stuff in Africa next month.
- Principal photography lasted 6 months
Regarding the action set pieces, Bay describes them as:
"My take on this movie was that I wanted to make the fighting a lot more personal. In the past two movies the cavalry has always came in, this time the cavalry isn't coming. It's black hawk down, a small group; they're fucked. It makes it more intimate."
- We're not going to see sand in this movie. Bay made a list of things he wanted to see in the 3rd film and wanted to make sure this film was a lot different.
- Bay made it seem that this was his final Transformers movie. At the end of the day I asked him what he might do next and he said he still wants to do the smaller film he's been talking about for years. When I asked what smaller meant, he said 20 million dollars. He said it's a real life Pulp Fiction story.
And with that…here's some highlights from almost two hours of talking with Michael Bay. I really wish I could share the audio…but it's filled with spoilers and stuff that was off the record. Finally, a HUGE thank you to Michael Bay, Paramount, and everyone who made today happen. As a huge fan of Michael Bay, today was something I'll always remember. Thank you for inviting me.
Bay: People were going on the Internet, saying we didn't do any 3D and there's all this talk, so we're just trying to set the record straight, you know? So… I don't know… I'm sure you guys will have questions.
(Bay shows us the teaser trailer)
Bay: What do you guys think of that?
It's a good sales pitch.
Bay: Is it? I'm just trying to spin it a little bit. We have a more serious story this time and I'm trying to make up for movie 2. (Laughter)
What do you think Neil Armstrong is going to have to say, or…
Bay: Well, Buzz, he's involved in the picture.
In the modern day?
Bay: Yeah. If you can get through his stories while he pitches his books, you know, once you get past the two-hour sales pitch for me to direct this movie. I definitely know they landed on the moon now, because the way that old guy – don't call him this – but he is a stud of all studs to go up there. I said, because I wanted to know exactly about the Hasselblad cameras. And I said, 'When you brought back the cameras…' And he was, 'Brought back the cameras? We didn't bring shit back, we had to throw it all out! It's a junkyard up on the moon. We could barely get off!' So I knew it was real, just by studying actors. So anyway… It was cool to have him involved.
Can you talk a little bit about how involved were you in cutting that teaser? Was it Paramount marketing?
Bay: We had an idea, what we were going to do. Was I involved? I wasn't that involved, because I was in the thick of shooting. But now that I'm back, I'll be much more involved in the teaser aspect and stuff. But I think it's just good to get the name out there, that we're coming.
You also mentioned this is an announcement piece, but for most of us, we consider this like a teaser trailer. Why is it so important to you that we call it an announcement piece?
Bay: Because usually a teaser… We're going to have a couple of teasers. It teases you… It's just not… Is it exciting? I don't know. When I look at it, I think it's cool, but is it exciting? I don't think it's exciting.
It's intriguing…
Bay: What? It's intriguing. It's good – it's doing its job, I think.
Is this movie footage, or is it just for the piece?
Bay: No, it's movie footage. I mean, when you do effects, we still have "turkey" shots in there. That's what we call them, because they've got a long way to go. But you've got to get them to a certain point, you've got to get them out on the air.
Are any of those shots what you consider to be final? Or even 80%?
Bay: No…. Well, some of them are, like the one where it's a helicopter shot, them walking on the Moon? That's still a turkey shot. Meaning it's not… The effect isn't blended enough. The inside of the ship is not blended enough, the character that we find is not a fully done model of that character yet We're still doing changes and so those shots will change, but I think they're good enough for use right now.
How did you find the 3D experience? You seem really invigorated right now.
Bay: Well, I'll tell you about it. We'll go and have lunch at my place right now and we'll talk without all of these people watching me talk and make it more intimate with just you guys. Do we have a couple of 3D shots? These aren't the wow shots of the movie, these are just to give you a tiny little sample of us shooting with 3D and to talk about all those "problems" they say we have on the Internet, right? (Laughs) It actually was a great experience. But what you have to do is hire a lot of 3D experts. Like Cory over here, he's a 3D expert here. Every shot that you shoot in 3D, it's not perfectly, perfectly, perfectly aligned, it's just, as Cory says, it's from either the stress of the crane bringing the two cameras, because it's a big metal rig and when you look at it, it needs a lot more tweaking, but it's good enough. And then what we're able to do is, you've got to massage every 3D shot. Give an example, Cory…
Cory (Bay's 3D guy): We'll go in when you shoot it, and we get the plates back and there'll be a slight vertical adjustment that'll need to happen, so we'll just align it vertically so highlights in the eyes sync up. So that when you're looking at one of the actors' eyes, it's comfortable and feels natural. Or we'll do just a subtle rotation. It's simple tweaks like that, just to massage the images so that the alignment is most comfortable for the viewer.
Bay: So I think in here there are a couple of effects shots where you'll see broken comps… I'm three weeks into the edit. This is really early to be bringing people in, and normally I wouldn't bring people in until, like, next spring. But since I've been so quiet on this movie, it's just good to let you guys have a little peek. You'll see some broken renderings here, you'll see some characters that are just starting to be put in, where we haven't massaged the 3D of how the arms can really work and how you can change the animation and make the arm come further out to you, you can be more aggressive or conservative, at this stage right now, but it just gives you a tiny sense of the… You'll see, like a dual eye-rendered Bumblebee, but it's not lit. But you'll see how full these characters can be, which I think is kinda cool.
(Bay shows us a montage of clips from the entire film)
Bay: It just shows you a little taste. You see how the 3D can vibrate a little, like the feet, that's got to be fixed and tweaked and massaged and all that stuff, but…
I definitely have to ask: this is obviously your first time doing a 3D movie and we're into the beginning of December, you have a July 1st release date. Is there any stress about making that release with adding 3D to the editing?
Bay: Yeah, it's a whole new animal and so that's why I'm so tired today because I've had a portable Avid system at every residence. I go home from the edit room and I'll work sometimes until two at night, picking selects, going through, because I'm trying to jump on this movie like a motherfucker. Just for that reason. I'm trying to treat this post, hit it really hard before Christmas so that we can be ahead of the curve. When we average, compared to what our shot count turnover was from the last movie, where we are in terms of cutting time down, we're well ahead. So I'm putting the pressure on myself so that we can really do pristine 3D. So, but yeah – it's a new animal, you know. Jim had… There was a lot of figuring out with his movie and he had a lot of time to do it, but the equipment has gotten better since then and I think facilities have learned more.
A lot of times people say it's up to the director, and how involved they are with the shots…
Bay: Well, the good thing is, we have, if you're talking for a conversion stuff… We'll talk about how these studios are rushing through their 3D. There is a right way to do it and a wrong way. I think, personally. If you want to do proper 3D it's a $30 million price tag. You don't to admit it, but that's what it really is to do proper 3D. Studios will sometimes do it or $10 million, or $12 million. $30 million, in terms of the equipment, the crew. That camera equipment is really expensive to rent. And if you want to do dual eye-rendered robots, you got another 30% charge, because you got two eyes now, two different visual effects that have got to be blended. There's more work on the visual effects shots. Does that make sense? We spent about seven months or eight months before the movie investigating all the conversion companies. We gave each one test footage to do and, like Warner Brothers, I kind of knew that the Harry Potter would fall apart, that was just because they were working with a company that just didn't have the firepower. This was supposed to come out on Harry Potter 3D, but that obviously didn't work out, so. When we have lunch, I'll tell you why I chose to do things the way I did it.
(After watching the teaser trailer for a second time and then the montage of footage from the entire film, we travel to Bay's office and sit down for some lunch and a lot more conversation)
Bay: Depth, you can't really appreciate 3D because you need like 3 or 4 seconds, most people do, to really feel 3D. You can't really appreciate it when you're seeing like a quick teaser. Cause the shot is kind of, teaser cut length. But it's actually changed my style on this movie—I've got many more wides, the camera's not wild. So it does change my style a bit.
So why did you decide to use 3D on Transformers 3?
Bay: Contrary to opinion, the studio did not force me to do anything. They suggested, "Would you be interested in 3D" and I'm like "huh." I don't know, I've had (Jeffrey) Katzenberg call me all the time, Jim (Cameron) call me all the time—"You've gotta do 3D, you've gotta do 3D, you've gotta do 3D." I visited Jim on Avatar and I just saw all the blue screen and the big cameras and I'm like, "This is so not me," so it's kinda scary alright? Especially 'cause I do real world stuff, [as opposed to] the blue screen stage where it's all air-conditioned, no dust and you can manufacture so much and you've got these big rigs that go with the umbilical cord into a lot of this brain power stuff. So we first investigated conversion companies, it took about 5 months of investigation, I mean literally breaking it down. We had them all come pitch to us, how they would do it, and so thought, "Okay, well what if we spent a lot of time on conversion?" You can do really successful conversion, but it just takes a lot of time. And then I kept thinking, "God I've gotta try these cameras" and we got Jim's space, his camera systems out there. And this is really hard for me 'cause I'm a die-hard film guy, anamorphic old school lenses, and there's just nothing more beautiful than anamorphic lenses to me. So going digital was like, "umpf", it's just kinda crass for me and in close-up it's terrible—just for me, that's for my taste. So we brought the camera systems out, and you hear horror stories on all these movies, they would do 20 shots, 10 shots a day, and I usually do 40-50 shots a day, and I'm like "Well this is bad on a, you know, $200 million movie, this is gonna just exponentially increase the shooting days, it's a disaster."
So I went out there, with my guys and their guys, we had the Avatar guys—I wanted really seasoned guys, cause it's like either you work with the best or you're screwed—I had the same guys that did Avatar and have a lot of experience with that system, but they'd never done what we've done. We put it through a rigorous test. We strapped a camera on a skydiver, you know that doesn't really happen much. We put it on systems that it's never been on before. So that day of testing, I was testing with film cameras and 3D cameras, and I was trying to keep the pace and timing. I was pretending like this is a real shoot, and I'm throwing curveballs to them saying "Alright let's change this lens, do this lens" and I'm trying to time them, seeing how it would affect my day. And they were scrambling a bit, so I'm like "Ugh, it could be a disaster, but maybe we can train them better, I mean it's first day you know, they gotta set the rigs up the way I like them. But it was fun to put those glasses on and go right around to the TV, it's kinda cool." And as Jim told me, finally he says "Mike, we've done everything, it's just a new toy for us" (laughs). And that was when I finally said "Alright, you know what I'm gonna try it." Originally I was gonna do 4-5 weeks of photography, and the rest we were gonna do conversion. Cause they had done really hard shots from Transformers, we picked our company. We gave 'em shots that had the dust and the debris and the facial stuff, and some was quite surprising and then I saw some stuff that ILM was doing with dual-eye rendered robots, so it's two eyes putting it into a plate, and we figured we could be very successful doing that.
Our first day, I kinda secretly told my line producer, "We're gonna keep that [3D] camera the whole show, the studio just doesn't know it yet. We're gonna take our conversion money, we're gonna put it towards our camera money, so keep that crew the whole show." I didn't wanna spill the beans to the studio, you gotta sucker punch 'em when they least expect it (laughs). You get 'em invested. And then they came down the first two days, they put the glasses on, and I'm like "hook line and sinker, they're sold."
What I decided to do, in terms of my 3D, the only way I was gonna make a 3D schedule—what I did when I did my test is I shot film alongside video. We shot most of my close-ups with faces with anamorphic film, cause that stuff's easier to convert and it's just more beautiful than the digital. And then there's stuff where it's just not ready for primetime: it can't really do slow-motion, it can't be around giant dustballs, I mean you're dealing with electronics here.
But we were able to put it in so many circumstances that it's never been in before. The problem is it's too heavy for certain systems. We put it on the Porche Cayenne…the Porche with the crane on it and it just doesn't like that when you're going 60mph, and it's shut off. We were able to get enough, but it's not hand-holdable. We've got a little handheld one, but the image quality is a little less than what you're gonna get on the big rig. But we were still able to strap that onto a skydiver, I mean this guy's goin' with wingsuits through the city at 150mph in between buildings. I mean you put that thing on his head and it's a neckbreaker.
I figured the rate of converting stuff is about 30-35% when I average all my native shots to conversion shots. So we think we've found a happy medium where we're able to keep it looking really sharp and make it promising 3D.
How'd the cast like working with 3D?
Bay: They loved it. Cause you can keep the tape rolling. The actors like it cause you can do take after take and just keep the camera rolling. So you get in a rhythm, which is helpful. It just makes your memory storage go way up and all that.
I actually really enjoyed it. I was very curious how engaging or less engaging a dialogue scene would be. There's stuff where it's subtle stuff with Shia talking, and it's just kinda cool, I mean you see a little thing but you're still focusing on him. I think it's good for a third movie. We tried to learn from the second movie. On the second movie we got burned. We had a writers strike, we had to agree on a story in three weeks, and then we knew they were going on strike. It was a fucked scenario all the way around, it wasn't fair to the writer, it wasn't fair to me, it wasn't fair to anybody. It was still an entertaining movie, but I think we failed on certain aspects. What we did with this movie is I think we have a much better script, and we got back to basics. I think there's some really cool action on this movie, there's some very cool conspiracy, there's great robot stuff in this that people were missing in the second one, you've got great robot conflict. So I'm excited about this movie.
It's more serious. I got rid of the dorky comedy, I mean we've got two little characters, that's it, but the dorkiness is not there. Dork-free Transformers. It's much more serious. It's still entertaining, it's big looking. I think it's much more compelling, what we did, how we funneled our action, what we've got our characters doing, they've got a lot more to do.
How's the color-correcting and adjusting play into the 3D?
Bay: HD is always continually trying to look like film, and it just can't…When you're shooting a bright sky, it can't hold this and that bright sky, it will start to deteriorate quickly. So in certain shots where you've got a lot of sky, we started shooting film here and there… there's times where it's kinda 2D and it goes back. The stuff when you really feel, is when you're flying, like in Avatar when those things are flying around, you really feel the 3D. We have moments like that where, this is gonna be our "huge 3D moment, huge 3D moment" you know what I'm saying? You can't keep it at 10 the whole time. There's not a lot of wanky moves, it has to be slower, it has to be more steady, you've gotta watch your strobing cause it can't keep up.
So did you feel constrained?
Bay: No I actually enjoyed it, I really did. I thought it was a kick.
Did you find yourself thinking about things, or did you have time to think about things on set that sometimes you didn't feel like you maybe had a chance to in the past?
Bay: Well I like to shoot 12-hour days. I like to keep them pretty full days…You gotta keep a pace, otherwise it's dreadful, it's so boring on a movie set. If you've been on a slow movie-set you wanna shoot yourself.
Can you talk a little about the casting of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and a little about her character and her name.
Bay: I would never hire a model. It wouldn't cross my mind really to be an actress. I've shot plenty of the Victoria's Secret stuff and they've been good clients of mine for years. She was very spunky and she has this cute English accent. She has a great head on her shoulders in terms of smart, intelligent, and well-spoken. And I just said to her "have you ever been interested in being an actress?" and she goes "yea." She's had an interesting life growing up, and literally when we were looking for this role there were 500 women that had auditioned around the world. We had casting people from France and London and on and on. And I wrote her an email because she's always working because she's a businesswoman, and I said "this might sound a little crazy but this could be a life-changing thing. It doesn't really happen much, but would you ever be interested in being in this movie?" And she basically was going to turn it down, but somehow she went to the audition and the casting-woman came back with 20 of the top women. We went through, and they were very good actresses, but there was something about replacing Megan; and it was more interesting to go with something brand new and fresh. When it's brand new it's kind of a brand new experience for the audience too. And [the casting woman] came in, and she said, "I gotta tell you Michael…this girl can be a star." So we looked at the tape, and showed Steven [Spielberg] the tape and everyone was really intrigued. We brought her on set with Shia [LaBeouf] and the crew, and we shot with her for six hours. We put her with an acting coach and I kept telling her to be herself. She did really well in the tests and Shia really liked her and she did a really good job. I saw her really improve, and she's so sweet. It was good; I think it was a good change.
Can you tell us about her character?
Bay: She was in school, she now lives in Washington D.C. She worked for the English embassy as kind of an assistant. And [Sam Witwicky] has been dumped, and I'm not going to tell you how they meet.
Whats Rosie's character's name?
Bay: Carly. And [Sam] is living with her, she pays the rent because Sam is looking for his first job.
Is she using an American accent or her English accent?
Bay: We were embracing the whole English thing. I love her English accent.
What about John Malkovich, his character is a little out there right?
Bay: He's Shia's boss. Its funny, I was talking to Shia and we were talking about character. He's like, I was the one who saved the world, and I should be set up. And I'm like, Shia, there's people who do heroic things all over the country, and they're not set up, they're back to their mundane life. And he's like, no; I'd be working for the government. And I said, well let's just say you're not working for the government. Let's just go back to real people. Big seminal moments in life are just getting your first car, going into high school, graduating from high school, going to college and trying to get your first job. Do you remember when we were all terrified at our first jobs? You think your gonna fuck up if you pick the wrong thing. And I said, "Shia, you don't understand that because you made money as a kid, but people are terrified when they graduate college." But it's funny because you have to explain that to someone who has no real concept of that.
Could you talk about where you actually filmed this movie?
Bay: We're shooting in Africa, we're shooting in China, we're shooting in Washington D.C., Florida, Chicago, Los Angeles. It's a lot of places. We were going to go to Russia, and it's still a possibility.
What did your crew say when you said "hey let's put a 3D camera on a skydiver?"
Bay: I was worried about the skydiver. These wing suits; for every foot they fall they go two feet. They can slow themselves to about 150 miles per hour, and they're very nimble, and can literally turn very quick. So I got five guys and we wrote this scene around them. We had them going through the alleys and buildings of Chicago, going around buildings. How did the city allow any of that, I have no idea? I've never heard of a city approving anything like that.
Bay: They jumped over three and a half weekends, and did six jumps a day. But I was more worried about the base-jumping. Each guy has to pull off a different elevation so they don't crash into each other. And they're going off the Trump, and in one of the scenes [Sam] is eating his breakfast in his underwear and he sees four guys fall right past his window.
You were filming for a very long time. Was the shooting schedule always that long, or did things change because of the 3D, or because of whatever additions?
Bay: It was just so ambitious; we had some very ambitious set pieces. For that building thing, it's not easy to shoot. You have to plan where everyone goes and make sure that they don't bang into each other. You have to make sure that the furniture in there doesn't cave in on anyone when you're tipping the thing. There's a lot of planning involved.
Would you say that the action set pieces are the biggest of your career?
Bay: My take on this movie was that I wanted to make the fighting a lot more personal. In the past two movies the cavalry has always came in, this time the cavalry isn't coming. It's black hawk down, a small group; they're fucked. It makes it more intimate. It's just different.
The government played a large role in the first two movies, now that transformers are out there and everyone knows about them, does the government still play a large role?
Bay: You feel it but you won't see it as much. There's a national security advisor, but we don't spend a lot of time with that.
With Tyrese [Gibson] and Josh [Duhamel]'s characters, are they still as prevalent in this story as they were in the past installments?
Bay: Yea, but in different respects now. Tyrese has a different character.
Can you say how many Autobots and Decepticons are on each team now?
Bay: No, but we have ones that we are highlighting now.
Did you have a favorite new car that you're going to introduce?
Bay: I think the Ferrari is interesting. I call him the Dreadbox. I don't know what the toys are going to be called; I have my own name for these things. They're pretty cool; they're Decepticons. We have a new character, an Autobot, who can invent shit and fix stuff.
Will Ferrari have an Italian accent?
Bay: Yes. And Ferrari will have to approve the voice. They just want it to be not cheesy Italian. They want it to be something that fits the car.
Does this movie seem to bring the story to a close?
Bay: There's a couple of things that are left open. I think you'll see some finality to this, you know we've made it very clear that when things die they die now. They're not magically being brought back.
It's been an unexpected career ride for you. I know Transformers isn't something you've sprung up to do. It's been such a large chapter of your career.
Bay: I got a very nice call from Cameron, he called me after Christmas and he goes, "Mike you know I've seen these movies, they're spectacles in the theaters. You don't understand these movies until you see them with your kids. I saw them back to back with my kids, this is like Star Wars for these kids." It's just kinda cool. It's a good compliment to get from a guy like that.
Did that sort of reenergize you for the third film?
Bay: I was energized for the film. I was gonna do my small movie I keep talking about, and the studio just said—the true story is, they took me to Vegas, they wanted to celebrate it breaking $400 million domestic, they gave me a martini, they gave me another one, I don't really drink two martinis, they go "We're here to talk to you Mike, we're fucked if you don't do Transformers 3 right now" (laughs). The studio guy laid it out, I'm friends with him, he says, "We need a tentpole." And it's hard to pull a tentpole for a studio when you've got a window of two years or whatever, cause they're at a point where if they don't pull it by September, I think we were in August, if they don't start pullin' by September or October, it's hard to get it together for that following year. These guys are under tremendous pressure, so I'm like "Ugh (pause) It's gonna cost you but yeah" (laughs). Because it's literally like workin' 5 solid years, or 6 years. And our economy was so bad, and it's still so bad. The nice thing about it is that automatically you give 5,000 people that are making toys for that movie job, you give 2,500 people for this movie that are doin' this, you just give jobs so that's what's good about it.
If Paramount takes you to Vegas again, is there a chance that you could do a fourth?
Bay: I think this has gotta be it. I think someone else will take the torch from here.
Spielberg have a different role this time?
Bay: Ehren Kruger, who I really liked working with, very smart writer, he cracked the story and he was very open on where we would go and you know I work on images and stuff that I wanna see, action stuff, how we're gonna make this different. Cause I gotta think, "How are we gonna change this up? How are you gonna take it to the next level? What have we not done in this franchise? How do you make it more personal?" So you talk about everything you don't like, "I don't wanna see sand, we're not gonna see sand in this movie." And so we just started making a list. And he had a great hook that I loved. And I think that hook came from the studio, cause I think Goodman said, "Bay is fascinated with space."
By the end of the movie, can you say how much of the conspiracy has been unraveled? Is there enough room to continue to explore that?
Bay: The nice thing about Transformers is that you've got so many stories to tell, you've got Cybertron. It's just that I don't think you could do it again with Shia and everybody, I think it's time to move on.


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Headline - Special Edition
Any questions about the solidarity and resolve of the California State University faculty were answered resoundingly Wednesday by the results of the vote authorizing the California Faculty Association to hold a first-ever system-wide strike.
A powerful 95% of the voters agreed that the CSU's instructional faculty, librarians, counselors and coaches should initiate rolling walkouts if the CSU administration continues to demand concessions.
Equally as impressive was the turnout, with 70% of CFA members voting to send an unmistakable message to Chancellor Charles B. Reed.
The results were announced Wednesday at a packed news conference at Cal State Long Beach. Throngs of media attended from throughout the Los Angeles region and dozens more listened to the proceedings via conference call.
Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association, said, "Today, the faculty has spoken loud and clear – we have had enough of the way in which they are being treated by the CSU administration."
Taiz continued, "Enough of executives putting themselves above the needs of the students, and of the public university. Enough of managers using budget cuts as an excuse to destroy the quality of students' education. The message to Chancellor Reed is absolutely clear.
"The CSU faculty have run out of patience. It is time to address seriously the issues before us so that our faculty can get back to the business of providing quality higher education to the students of California."
CFA President Taiz, Bargaining Team Chair Andy Merrifield, and CFA Secretary John Halcón made the announcement to the assembled media and dozens of cheering faculty who turned out to voice their support.
Wednesday's announcement sets in motion a series of events that could result in school not reopening this fall for some 400,000 CSU students due to a massive series of strikes.
The two sides will meet Thursday to explore getting the talks back on track. If that meeting fails, the process will move to fact-finding, the final step in the legal process to get a contract in public higher education.
The landslide strike authorization vote and our one-day strikes last fall leave no doubt that faculty have the capacity to shut down the university if an agreement cannot be reached, said CFA Vice President Kim Geron.
"There will be hundreds of faculty and supporters from other unions on the picket lines," predicted Geron, a leader of CFA's field operations, "and they will be joined by students and staff who are as fed up as we are."
Merrifield, chair of the faculty union's Bargaining Team and a professor of Political Science at Sonoma State University, said Wednesday's announcement should serve as a wake up call for CSU Chancellor Charles Reed.
"We have said all along that we want to reach a settlement at the bargaining table. We call on the Chancellor to get serious about negotiating an agreement that works for everyone involved. If he refuses, then he forces us to proceed with a strike. That is not what we want and it's not what the CSU needs."


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Kealakehe High School wins Hawaii Ocean Science BowlUniversity of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology
This educational program was developed to stimulate interest in the ocean sciences among high school students and demonstrate to the public the importance of the oceans in our daily lives. One of the long-term goals of the program is to foster the next generation of marine scientists, educators and policy makers for the ocean sciences.
During the competition, students were asked three types of questions: toss-up, bonus and team-challenge. Toss-up and bonus questions are in a multiple-choice or short-answer format. The team-challenge question is written out and handed to both teams at the half time of each round. These questions require higher cognitive skills, often use visual aids such as charts, maps, and graphs and the students work together to earn as many points as possible, which may make the difference between winning or losing the round of competition. Question difficulty increases as the competition progresses.
This competition is operated through the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is generously supported by U.S. government agencies through the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) as well as by corporations, foundations and other non-governmental organizations.
For more information contact:
Tara Hicks Johnson, SOEST Outreach Specialist, 956-3151, 429-7007 (cell) firstname.lastname@example.com
Information about the bowl can be found at
Coach for Kealakehe High School Team Sharon Chern
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
The School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) was established by the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii in 1988. SOEST brings together in a single focused ocean, earth sciences and technology group, some of the nation's highest quality academic departments, research institutes, federal cooperative programs, and support facilities to meet challenges in the ocean and earth sciences. Scientists at SOEST are supported by both state and federal funds as they endeavor to understand the subtle and complex interrelations of the seas, the atmosphere, and the earth.


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On the Bill Bennett Show this morning I made a spontaneous offhand reference to Malcolm Muggeridge's classic essay from the 1970s, "The Great Liberal Death Wish," and was surprised that Bill was unfamiliar with it. I can only guess that he missed it those many years ago because he was still a liberal then. Anyway, Muggeridge published several versions of the essay over the years—it became sort of his blues-jazz standard, so to speak. The version included in the "Picks" section on our home page is not perhaps the best one out there, but it gives a good flavor of the piece.
A better version in my mind is collected in the Penguin Portable Library's Conservative Reader. Here's an excerpt:
Previous civilizations have been overthrown from without by the incursion of barbarian hordes; ours has dreamed up its own dissolution in the minds of own intellectual elite. It has carefully nurtured its own barbarians—all reared on the best Dr. Spock lines, sent to progressive schools and colleges, fitted with contraceptives or fed birth pills at puberty; mixing D.H. Lawrence with their Coca-Cola, and imbibing the headier stuff (Marcuse, Chairman Mao, Malcolm X) in evening libations of hot chocolate. Not Bolshevism, which Stalin liquidated along with all the old Bolsheviks; not Nazism, which perished along with Hitler in his Berlin bunker; not Fascism, which was left hanging upside down, along with Mussolini and his mistress, from a lamp-post—none of these, history will record, was responsible for bringing down the darkness on our civilization, but liberalism. A solvent rather than a precipitate, a sedative rather than a stimulant, a slough rather than a precipice; blurring the edges of truth, the definition of virtue, the shape of beauty; a cracked bell, a mist, a death wish.
Perhaps I'll share more from this essay in a future post. Alas, I have to rush off to the office now for a long day of meetings.


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Gerresheimer is a leading global partner to the pharma and healthcare industry. With our specialty glass and plastic products, we contribute to health and well-being. We have worldwide operations and about 10,000 employees manufacture our products in local markets, close to our customers. With our plants in Europe, North America, South America and Asia, we generate revenues of approximately EUR 1.4 billion. The comprehensive product portfolio includes pharmaceutical packaging and products for the safe, simple administration of medicines: Insulin pens, inhalers, micro pumps, prefillable syringes, injection vials, ampoules, bottles and containers for liquid and solid medicines with closure and safety systems as well as packaging for the cosmetics industry.
The Gerresheimer Group had about 10.000 employees as of the end of the financial year 2018.
Our international business is split into three divisions, to which our individual Group companies are allocated:
The product portfolio of the Plastics & Devices Division includes complex, customer-specific products for the simple and safe administration of medicines, such as insulin pens, inhalers and prefillable syringes. Also included are diagnostics and medical technology products such as lancets and test systems, as well as pharmaceutical plastic containers for liquid and solid medicines with closure and safety systems. For the North American prescription retail market a complete line of regulatory compliant prescription containers for medication dispensing is available.
The Primary Packaging Glass Division produces glass primary packaging for medicines and cosmetics, such as pharma jars, ampoules, injection vials, cartridges, perfume flacons and cream jars.
With the acquisition of the Swiss technology company Sensile Medical, we have laid the groundwork for our new division, which will be dedicated to developing and producing intelligent drug delivery systems.
We offer systems like these complete with state-of-the-art digital and electronic technologies to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Our current portfolio encompasses patented micro pumps for self-treating diabetes or heart disease, for example.
You can find out more about our product range here.


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Okay, here's the latest on my type inference algorithm: (1) it rocks, (2) it is still having trouble with generalization. My current example is the following (using ML-style reference syntax):
fix \f x { x := !x + 1; if 10 < !x then x else f x }
That fix business is how you implement recursion under the hood. Now, the correct type of this function is:
^a ^b (b -> b) [ b <: Ref a ] [ Int <: a <: Num ]
This type may not even be obvious to type theorists. Let me explain: the caret (^) means "the greatest lower bound over", which can be read roughly as "for all". The form of such a type is ^variable (type_involving_variable) [constraints_for_variable]. That circumfix syntax is awkward, since the constraints for a are way at the end of the expression. Still, let's try to read it: for all a, for all b, the type is a function which takes a b and returns a b, as long as b is a subtype of a reference to an a, as long as a is at least an Int and at most a Num. Yowch, that's a mouthfull. The paraphrase of that is, this function takes any reference to a number (at least an integer; i.e. no "just even number" subtypes or anything) and returns that reference (in this case, changing its contents first). You can see that that is correct given the code.
I manually entered the equations for that expression into my type inferencer (it doesn't do AST traversal yet, but that part is trivial). I looked over the two-odd pages of output for the reduced equations, and they were right on. That's the (1) it rocks part. Then it tried to generalize those equations, and this is what it came up with:
^a ^b (b -> b) [ b <: Ref Int, b <: Ref a ] [ Int <: a <: Num ]
It looks pretty close. There's just this pesky little b <: Ref Int clause, which is wrong! It says that whatever you pass this function has to be a subtype of Ref Int. But a Ref Num is not a subtype of a Ref Int; in fact, Ref x is only a subtype of Ref Int when x is itself Int. Some type checkers would actually type it this way, saying that the function's type is Ref Int -> Ref Int, but for mine, that is not acceptable. So what's going wrong with the algorithm?
Okay, so the generalization algorithm is given a bunch of equations involving type variables and other types. For each variable, the algorithm wants to find either (a) a direct substitution, where you can safely replace that variable with another type, or (b) a minimal set of constraints on that variable which must form acyclic dependencies (cyclic dependencies would lead to an infinite loop when we generalize over those variables).
It currently does this by finding all constraints on each variable, and then gradually reducing them. That is, it looks through every equation, and when it sees an equation that looks like a <: v, where v is a variable, it adds a as a "lower bound", and when it sees v <: a, then it adds a as an 'upper bound". What you end up with is a mapping from variables to their bounds, like, say: a = { Int | Num }, b = { a | c }, c = { Ref b | a, Num, Str }, etc. Then it reduces them by eliminating any lower bounds which are lower than other lower bounds. That is, if you had a = { Int, Num | }, it would eliminate Int, because Num being a lower bound already implies that Int is. It will do this for variables and other types, consulting the equations to see what is a subtype of what.
After that, it looks for substitutions. That is, if you have a constraint that looks like a = { b | } or a = { | b } or a = { b | b }, then we say "okay, just bind a to b" and we substitute b for a everywhere (including in the other constraints). Then it goes back to the reduction phase. It alternates between these two phases until there is nothing left to do. You end up with a substitution and constraints that meet the requirements.
But I think the fact that it creates substitutions out of a = { b | } and a = { | b }is wrong. a = { b | b } is correct; that means that a and b are the same type. But a = { b | } says that a could be b, or any supertype of b, so making a substitution out of that is wrong. But I can't just take out those two rules, because then we end up generalizing over every variable we solved for (the types end up looking like ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ^i ...).
Something that I have noticed that I haven't figured out how to incorporate yet is some reductions you can make based on what kind of generalization you are doing (greatest lower bound, whch is typical, and least upper bound, which is quite uncommon but still supported). For example, ^a (a) [ Int <: a ]. the greatest lower bound of all types which are supertypes of Int, is obviously just Int. I'm wondering if I can take that idea and run with it to get a good generalization. However, it is not entirely simple, because ^a (a -> a) [ Int <: a ] does not reduce to Int -> Int; in fact it is not an arrow type at all, which means it must be written as a greatest lower bound! I proved something similar back when I was first exploring this calculus.
So I suppose I could say when you try to generalize over a variable, look at the type in which it is used. If it only appears in covariant position (on the right of an arrow, or not involved in an arrow), then substitute its greatest lower bound if it has one. If it only appears in contravariant position (on the left of an arrow), substitute its least upper bound if it has one. If it appears in both positions (appearing as an argument to eg. Ref counts as both positions) then you cannot substitute it, so just generalize. Let's take our example from above. I'll be working from this dump of my algorithm's thought process, namely the equations section at the beginning.
We are trying to generalize to the greatest lower bound of 20 (that is the variable I assigned the result). 20 is only directly involved in one equation: 107 <: 20, so we can safely replace 20 by 107. Now we are trying to find the greatest lower bound of 107. 107 has several upper bounds, but we don't care about those (unless it had no lower bounds, then we would). It only has one lower bound, namely (10 -> 19). Now here's where it gets tricky. I have implemented it (several times, followed by a head slap and delete) where it just tries to find the least upper bound of 10 and the greatest lower bound of 19, but that doesn't work, because, say, 19 could depend on 10. Only after you're sure that they're independent can you do that. So… what do we do now?


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From the Associated Press
North Carolina lawmakers, school leaders and parents are considering whether teachers can be better rewarded for performance through a statewide incentives package.
The General Assembly scheduled the first meeting Tuesday of the Educator Effectiveness and Compensation Task Force. Legislators authorized the panel to make recommendations by mid-April.
Finding a better way to link teacher and administrator performance to salaries has been a hot topic since Republicans took over the legislature in 2011. Teachers used to get bonuses based on student scores on standardized tests.
The discussion comes as North Carolina school teachers have received one raise since 2008. Gov. Pat McCrory and legislative leaders this month pledged to raise salaries of the least-experienced teachers. McCrory said that pay change is a first step.


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All eyes on Denver
October 1, 2007
Stopped in the clubhouse this morning on the way to the office. When I left that place last evening, the carpet was covered with bubbly and ice. Crews shampooed the rug last night and were going to do it again this afternoon.
Players were told to report here at 11:30 for the noon Rally Monday at City Hall. We had a police escort to get us there on time.
WOW. What a turn out. It looked like the red sea. No doubt, this town has caught Phillies fever. All along the bus route to and from the event, fans applauded, pumped their first, waived rally towels and cheered. It was really cool, second only to the 1980 World Series parade.
Riding up there, I'm sure the players didn't know what to think. They knew what to think when they got there.
More fever, the Cira Centre building in the city will illuminate a Phillies 'P' beginning tonight through the conclusion of our postseason.
There's a new pennant hanging above Citizens Bank Park, a white one with blue lettering "2007." It joins other Phillies teams who have won the Division, 1976, 1977, 1978. Blue with white lettering represents the pennant winners and the red one with white lettering that is displayed in center field represents the 1980 World Champions.
TV Big Time
Yesterday's clinching game on CW Philly 57 drew a 16.8 household rating/36 share, that's 493,000 households or 734,000 viewers.
For those in the CW Philly viewing area, the game will be rebroadcast at 10 o'clock tonight.
Just more Phillies fever.
Tonight, all eyes will be on Coors Field and the Padres/Rockies.
Some interesting comments were offered to last night's blog. Heartwarming to read about the fan with Parkinson's disease and a chronic back problem. "I was able to forget about my health problems and enjoy me team winning a championship." Hopefully, we can keep up with that medicine.
And, thanks to a classy Mets fan congratulating us on a Phanatastic season. Thanks, too, to your comments about me.
2 Comments
Hey idiot, look at the top of the page, this is a Phillies blog. Go post on the Mets one if it hasn't been shut down yet. No body gives a **** what you have to say. If winning 13 of 16 doesn't count as earning a playoff spot, then nothing does. And hey, we would have gladly "earned" it on Monday by spanking you at Citizen's Bank, if you would have been able to win when it actually mattered. Better luck next year.
can someone please explain to me how the phillies get stuck playing two at three during the week at 3 in the afternoon? Some of us work how is that possible. The yankees don't have a scheduled before 5pm not one. Its bad enough that half of the commercials for the playoffs feature the yankees and even the Mets but come on how about a little fairness in the scheduling. A chance to see a night game in october is rare. I guess the MLB schedule gods must be yankee fans.


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This car has an awesome amount of room in it. It is comfortable and economical to travel in. I would rate this car a 90 or higher. The 3.4 has remarkable power for the size. Transmission can be weak and not engage completely at stop signs. This has not been a problem for the car's dependability.
Chevrolet Impala Ratings, Reviews and Analysis
Ratings & Reviews
Visors.are basic.. I would like them to be larger and block more sun. Our car did not have the back seat that folds down and that would be nice. As you can read we like this car and find very little to fault.
This car is very reliable i bought it to travel to work and it has over done its job but i only buy chevy so to me all are reliable. Chevy is undergoing a change so we will have to be patient and give them a chance.
Surprisingly, it has been hanging in there even with the repair issues I come across, although I do not wish to invest any more money into it. It is a little boaty in size and every once in a while something else breaks down, so I need something smaller and more reliable.
I purchased black but now live in Las Vegas and black is a negative on the extremely hot days when we have them. Fine otherwise all year otherwise. Get one of these before they are extinct. You won't have regrets.


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The Labor Day weekend featured the Fire at Toyota Park on Saturday afternoon September 3, 2010 for a match up against Western Conference leaders LA Galaxy. In what was an excellent showcase for the "MLS 2.0" edition (post World Cup and new signings) the teams battled into extra time and drew one all.
The result deprived a Fire team that played well with 10 men most of the game (red card to Segaras in the 20th minute) and with their star midfielder Freddie Ljungberg out from the start from three points at home. The Fire took the lead in the 88th minute only to see LA tie the game a minute later. Another packed house at Toyota Park left disappointed but not unsatisfied. The quality of play throughout the day was top notch and featured Fire rookie goal keeper Sean Johnson stop Landon Donovan on a penalty kick. A rare feat indeed.
For Fire fans the bottom line was the one point at home after two road defeats including a heartbreaking last minute defeat a week earlier to Seattle. No matter how much the Fire's new additions have improved the team and the insertion of Sean Johnson in the net have helped the Fire, they are still far from a playoff spot with only 10 games remaining in this season. With the top two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference beyond the reach of Chicago it comes down to the Fire reaching 8th place in the overall league standings to qualify for the post-season. As we are well aware of from last season just making the playoffs is the important thing. The MLS title will be open to any of the final eight teams and home field advantage in the early rounds does not seem critical to a Fire team that historically has played well on the road.
Currently the Fire are in 11th place overall in the MLS table. They total 25 points and Toronto, Kansas City, and San Jose are all ahead of them in the playoff race. New England is only a point behind the Fire, and Houston is a point behind the Revs with 23 points. The Fire have the advantage of games in hand over most of the MLS field having played only 20 games on the season. Most notably San Jose however have only played 20 games. Games in hand only become an edge if you win them and nothing about the Fire's ultimate performance the last few weeks would make wins expected.
Please Fire fans don't get me wrong, but with only one point in the last 3 games we can expect nothing from this team no matter how improved. I have been greatly impressed by the improved quality of the Fire with the recent signings as well as the entire league since the new signings have come on board. Yet the bottom line for the Fire right now is winning games and making the playoffs and the likes of Castillo and Ljungberg have not made the bottom line look any better. Sellout crowds (at least on the weekends) come to see the home team win and that is just not happening. That does not mean I am discontented nor should other fans be. In fact I am ready to do the early renewal plan for my season tickets for next year and encourage all MLS fans to get their tickets early for the 2011 season which should be a memorable season with new teams in the league.
Taking each game one at a time is an old sports adage and clearly is true for the Fire. They have a must win home game this very week against Toronto. Three points have to be earned. This will be no easy feat with steady midfielder Marco Pappa not expected to play and defender Gonzalo Segares lost due to a red card in the Galaxy game. Freddie Ljungberg should be back to assume his midfield role and Nery Castillo appears finally to be ready to play a full game for the Fire after his late July signing. Sean Johnson continues to improve in goal and can certainly claim a confidence boost from his penalty kick stop on Landon Donovan. Having to win midweek and then travel to play the Union on the weekend is a tall order and the Fire have to fill it. It would be a shame if Brian McBride's final season ended with his hometown team being on the sidelines come playoff time.