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Helen Mirren knew at a very young age that acting was for her. She also knew that Shakespeare was the way to go. "I saw an amateur production of 'Hamlet' when I was 13 or 14, and it just absolutely blew me away," she says by phone from New York, where she's promoting her new film "Love Ranch," which opens Wednesday.
Helen Mirren knew at a very young age that acting was for her. She also knew that Shakespeare was the way to go.
"I saw an amateur production of 'Hamlet' when I was 13 or 14, and it just absolutely blew me away," she says by phone from New York, where she's promoting her new film "Love Ranch," which opens Wednesday. "Hamlet, and Ophelia going mad and killing herself, and the fights and Horatio and Polonius – the story was just so fantastic. My parents had some funky old complete works of Shakespeare, and I started reading it, although I found it – and I still do find it – very difficult to understand the words." She stops for a moment, as if measuring her own words, then adds, "Of course it helps to see it performed. I slightly feel that Shakespeare shouldn't be taught in schools. That kids should only be taken to see it acted, then maybe afterwards talk about it."
The acting bug bit soon after.
"I loved engaging in the imaginative world and being transported into this other fantastical world," she says. "It was the process of acting that did that for me. I didn't know that I had a talent. All I knew was that I liked doing it and I loved the world of literature that afforded me the ability to do it well."
Yet if Mirren's parents had their way, then she likely would have ended up being a teacher.
"My parents quite rightfully thought acting was not a very good idea," she says. "Because there was no economic way I could train to be an actor. There were no grants or scholarships. I couldn't physically go to drama school, so I went to teacher training college."
But she always found time to act, and her aim was to find a way to continue doing it. Soon after graduation, she joined a repertory company.
"Then I went straight out of the rep into the Royal Shakespeare Company," she recalls. "I was there for four years, and I didn't spend a day out of work."
It was about that time that her parents had a change of heart.
"When they saw that I was earning a living – and I was quite soon earning a very good living – they loved it, and they loved the fact that I was doing Shakespeare as well because it was kind of serious acting." Like so many actresses of her day, Mirren, 64, tried for a transition from the stage to the screen. It wasn't easy.
"I was always on the periphery," she says of the British movie scene in the late-1960s. "There were quite a few much prettier actresses than me who were the ones who got the big roles in the big movies. I got the smaller roles in the art house movies." But she got a lot of notice in early-'70s films such as "Savage Messiah" and "O Lucky Man!" In 1985 she landed a part in "White Nights," which was being directed by Taylor Hackford, who already had "An Officer and a Gentleman" under his belt. A year later they moved in together. They married in 1997. Hackford also directed "Love Ranch," only the second film she's made with him.
"He was easier to work with the first time than the second time," says Mirren, laughing. "A film set was still an intimidating, alien place to me then. So I was very much in his hands, and he was great." There was some thought of working together again over the years, but the right project never came along. Hackford made "Dolores Claiborne" and "Ray"; Mirren did "The Mosquito Coast" and "Gosford Park," and had a terrific run on TV as Detective Jane Tennison on the "Prime Suspect" series, then nabbed a Best Actress Oscar for "The Queen."
"Taylor had been looking for something for us to do together for a few years," she says, "and I had got to a status, in a small way, where he could get a film financed with my name. As soon as that became a possibility, he looked for something we could do together that interested him, and that afforded me an interesting enough role, and he found it in the script for "Love Ranch." She plays Grace Botempo, opposite Joe Pesci as Charlie Botempo, characters based on Joe and Sally Conforte, who founded the Mustang Ranch, the first legal brothel in Nevada.
Mirren is known for doing a bit of research for the roles she takes.
"I met Susan Austin, who runs the Mustang Ranch now," she says. "I just hung out with her. I spent an evening with her, following her as she did her job. She was wonderful: frank and honest and really useful."
Asked why it was more difficult working with her director husband this time, she says, "Oh, only because we were under such stress. It was such a low budget, we were having to work really fast, and it was a project we both really cared about so we wanted it to be good. The first time around there was a luxurious budget. There was plenty of time to do everything he wanted to do, the way he wanted to do it. This was a very different kettle of fish."
Mirren will next be seen in Julie Taymor's production of "The Tempest." It seems that Shakespeare is never far away from her. But this time it will be a little different. There's been some gender switching, and instead of the usual formula of a man playing Prospero, Mirren will be playing Prospera.


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Liang Zi was born in Xi'an, Shanxi Province, China in 1980. He represents tree stumps with bare, sawn-off branches against a pure white background in his paintings. Zi has an impeccable ability to replicate onto canvas the most intricate details visible on the bark of the tree as well as tree rings. His paintings reaches a level of hyper-realism with the precision of his colour tones and brush strokes.
In his paintings, tree stumps are gnarled and barren, building up a feeling of harsh winter; at the same time, Zi is able to maintain the inner warmth and life of the tree, making it seem complete often even without the branches. This represents the gradual isolation and insulation of modern man from family and society in a world of rapid, impersonal communication, symbolized by the loss of tree branches that create a canopy of interconnected relationships.
Read More
"The Scene" Gu Liang's Solo Exhibition , Dafeng Gallery . Beijing.
" Entropy• Landscape " Gu Liang's Solo Exhibition , The Liberty Village Gallery . Beijing.
Collective Exhibitions
"Literature Exhibition of Black and White Realism 2 " Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing.
"AHAF HK 2011" Asia Top Gallery Hotel Art Fair,Hong Kong.
"2010 Art China Exhibition" Huan Tie Times ART,Beijing.
"Exquisite Tower" Art Exhibition, Duffy Gallery, Kunming.
"Unrelated" Art Exhibition, Found Museum, Beijing.
"On The Way Midway" Art Exhibition,Huan Tie Times ART,Beijing.
"ART 2010" Art Exhibition, The Liberty Village Gallery, Beijing.
"Contemporary Art Show", Link Art Space. Shanghai.
"Spring Salon Show", Shanghai.
"Affordable Art Exhibition", Melbourne,Australia.
"Art Coffee Exhibition", Shionoe Gallery, Japan.
"Contemporary Art Show (Autumn) ", Super Brand Mall, Shanghai.
"Biennial Exhibition of Shanghai Artist Village", Shanghai.
"Anniversary Exhibition of Shanghai Artist Village", Shanghai.
"Vogue Art Exhibition", CITIC Fashion Salon, Shanghai.
"Dong Yi Cup Landscape Exhibition", Xi'an.
We ship using DHL.
Estimated delivery time to United States is up to 4 weeks. Please be advised that taxes may be imposed at the country of destination. More info

subset: commoncrawl


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Another change this year is I used a lot more live greenery, the house smells so good! Let's take a look...
I bought the frame in Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago when they were on sale for 50% off and tied a real wreath to it, my mom made the bow for me. I also poked two berry picks in there for a pop of red. The ribbon I bought in AC Moore craft store.
Added an old fashion Santa that I had for years, along with real garland and a few faux Christmas trees.
This is the first year we've had a real tree in here, I love it! Think we just started a new tradition!
It's an 8ft. fraser fir.
No Minimalist Here
French Country Cottage
At The Picket Fence
My Romantic Home
Savvy Southern Style
The Everyday Home


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TechInsights publishes reverse engineering report of Sony IMX400 3-layer stacked image sensor with integrated DRAM, extracted from Xperia XZs phone. According to Sony ISSCC 2017 paper, the pixel array is in the top die, the DRAM array and row drivers are in the middle die, and the remaining blocks are in the bottom ISP die:
"Given that the DRAM die also has the CIS row drivers on it, then it must have been designed as a custom part, and is not one of the TSV-enabled (TSV = through-silicon via) commodity DRAMs that we have seen in recent years. Sony's cross-section also shows that the center die has a thick back oxide and landing pad for TSVs coming down from the CIS above.
We can also see (if the scale bar is accurate), that the CIS and DRAM die substrates have been thinned down to ~2.6 µm, normal for a back-illuminated CIS (BI-CIS), but that's the thinnest DRAM we have ever seen. Our own image (above) confirms that the CIS and DRAM silicon are of the same order in thickness, and the landing pads are also visible.
It seems likely that the CIS/ISP connection could use the DRAM landing pad layer as an interconnect, to avoid the challenge of drilling through two dies after the full stack was formed."
Thanks to RF for the info!


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When your home or business has been damaged by fire, it's essential to enlist the services of fire and smoke damage restoration experts as quickly as possible. That's why we are available to take your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If your home has experienced smoke damage or fire damage, time is of the essence. Don't wait to call your smoke and fire damage remediation professionals now!
Following the initial fire or smoke-related incident, smoke and soot will settle on surfaces creating additional damage to the structure and your contents.
Material in furniture and flooring is often synthetic and when burned, creates chemical reactions. After only a short period of time, items can go from cleanable to unsalvageable. The longer acid or corrosive gasses stay on at-risk surfaces, the worse pitting or etching becomes. We remove soot from aluminum and chrome shelving, marble, tile, and glass, as well as from fabrics in upholstery and carpets.
We are ready to respond to your emergency needs. Our certified smoke and fire damage restoration technicians complete training in fire mitigation, restoration and corrosion control, and undergo continuing education to learn new techniques. Over the years, we've been Restoring Peace of Mind® by providing expert smoke and fire damage restoration.
We provide you with solutions to personal and business property losses, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We provide comprehensive, professional smoke and fire damage restoration services, and other services, such as: water damage restoration, disaster restoration, mold remediation and more. If ever your life is disrupted by fire or smoke damage, turn to us for reliable, smoke and fire damage restoration services you can trust.
Smoke and fire damage restoration requires several phases. We use the latest equipment and procedures in our fire damage restoration process:
Contact ServiceMaster Restore of Chatham-Kent to learn more about smoke and fire damage restoration, now.
Since basements are built partially if not fully below ground, they're prone to flooding. For that reason, a basement floodRead more...
As a leading provider of disaster restoration services for residential, business and industrial clients, our proprietary processes and equipment enable us to respond quickly and effectively. GiRead More


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Associated Press and Sun Staff
LOWELL — National parks, from Yosemite to Gettysburg to Cape Cod to Lowell, are among government services that could endure painful budget reductions if Congress fails to reach a compromise to avoid cuts in government services after March 1.
National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis has asked park superintendents to detail how they'd absorb the 5 percent budgets cuts that could become necessary.
How the Lowell National Historical Park might be affected is not clear. Park administrators could not be reached late Friday.
U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, a Lowell Democrat, said the budget cuts were never intended to go into effect but were designed "as onerously as possible" to force Republicans and Democrats to find a solution to the federal deficit.
"As a result, instead of making thoughtful cuts and prioritizing highly effective programs over less effective ones, the so-called 'sequester' cuts the top off of every eligible program, and the National Park Service is no exception," Tsongas said in a statement. "These cuts will hurt our economy and they will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls."
The Associated Press obtained a National Park Service memo that compiles a list of potential effects at the nation's most beautiful and historic places just as spring vacation season begins.
"We're planning for this to happen and hoping that it doesn't," said Park Service spokesman Jeffrey Olson, who confirmed that the list is authentic and represents cuts the department is considering.
While not all 398 parks had submitted plans by the time the memo was written, a pattern of deep slashes that could harm resources and provide fewer protections for visitors has emerged.
The memo says that in anticipation of the cuts, a hiring freeze is in place and the furloughing of permanent staff is on the table.
"Clear patterns are starting to emerge," the memo said. "In general, parks have very limited financial flexibility to respond to a 5 percent cut in operations."
Most of the Park Service's $2.9 billion budget is for permanent spending such as staff salaries, fuel, utilities and rent payments. Superintendents can use about 10 percent of their budgets on discretionary spending for things ranging from interpretive programs to historic-artifact maintenance to trail repair, and they would lose half of that to the 5 percent cuts.
Tsongas called for a balanced approach to deficit reduction by combining spending cuts with what she called tax reform.
"The reality is that House Republicans haven't brought a single plan to avert these automatic cuts to the Floor of the House for a vote this Congress," she said. "Managing from crisis to crisis every 30 or 60 days is an absurd way to govern. Finding a sensible resolution is both possible and necessary to avoid what we all agree would be a devastating result."
"There's no fat left to trim in the Park Service budget," said John Garder of the nonprofit parks advocacy group the National Park Conservation Association. "In the scope of a year of federal spending, these cuts would be permanently damaging and save 15 minutes of spending."
For years Congress has been cutting funding to the National Park Service, and in today's dollars it is 15 percent less than a decade ago, said John Garder of the nonprofit parks advocacy group the National Park Conservation Association. Park spending amounts to one-fourteenth of 1 percent of the federal budget, he said.
One in five international tourists visits one of America's 398 national parks, research shows, and the parks are one-third of the top 25 domestic travel destinations. If the cuts go though, the memo shows national parks will notice fewer services, shorter hours and the placing of some sensitive areas completely off-limits to visitors when there are too few staff members to protect resources.
The Park Service also writes that communities around parks that depend on tourism to fill their hotels and restaurants would suffer.
Cape Cod National Seashore would close the Province Land Visitor Center, shutting out 260,000 people from May through October. Without monitors to watch over nesting birds, large sections of the Great Beach would close to keep eggs from being trampled.
The cuts will be challenging considering they would be implemented over the next seven months — peak season for national parks. That's especially true in Yellowstone, where the summertime crush of millions of visitors in cars and RVs dwarfs those who venture into the park on snowmobiles during the winter.
More than 3 million people typically visit Yellowstone between May and September, 10 times as many as the park gets the rest of the year.


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Editor's Note Fall 2015
Written onAugust 19 , 2015
I'm writing this in early August, on the heels of Vermont Open Farm Week—seven days during which 75 farms, orchards, vineyards, distilleries, and nurseries opened their doors to the public for a concentrated week of public outreach. Similarly, later this month, Vermont Breakfast on the Farm will launch, bringing visitors to local dairy farms for a tour and a hearty breakfast.
Some of the farms participating in these two initiatives rarely receive visitors. Others see people all the time: when customers come by to pick up CSA shares, purchase raw milk, buy food from the farm stand, or stay overnight as B&B guests.
It's heartening when local food enthusiasts make an effort to see the places where their food comes from. It can certainly be fun to visit a farm, but it also takes a bit of preparation: finding the farm, finding the proper boots to wear, and in some cases even finding the time. Farmers, for their part, tend to be grateful when folks show an interest in their work by stopping by. Farming can be isolating; having guests is a welcome respite from daily chores.
But farm visits can also be challenging for both customers and farmers. If you've never been on a farm before, you might be taken aback by parts of it that don't look so good, by seeing animals in stalls, or by noticing farm machinery when you expected a more pastoral scene. Your visual experience might clash with your longtime notions of what a farm should look like or how it should operate.
And for farmers, having visitors can sometimes be a struggle. On a busy day, they may have to take time to explain to visitors why those animals are in stalls, or what that farm machinery does, or why they haven't had time to tidy out the back of the barn. Visitors might offer to help with chores, not knowing that farm work is often highly specialized, and their offer will have to be rebuffed.Misunderstandings or differing opinions about animal welfare may cause tension.
I once heard a conventional dairy farmer tell an amusing story of a visitor to his farm. The visitor was enjoying what he saw on his tour. But when the farmer began talking about the artificial insemination of his cows, the visitor became angry, saying, "See? This is why so many people are getting cancer! Everything is artificial!
To understand farming, consumers must recognize that certain practices are in place for certain reasons. We should not make assumptions about those practices based on our first visual reaction, but should find out the details before forming an opinion. Farmers, for their part, will hopefully always be grateful for the interest people take in their farms, no matter how unfamiliar people are with farming. Patience and compassion are key. There is no shortcut to understanding, or explaining, an agricultural system.
We do our best at Local Banquet to help foster relationships between eaters and farmers. So enjoy this issue, and then, perhaps, pull out an old pair of boots and go visit a local farm!


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Maxon AD999 Pro Analog Delay
With a Grosh ElectraJet Standard into a Mesa/Boogie Electra-Dyne half stack, I was easily able to coax out some excellent slapback tones that were some of the warmest and most dynamic I've heard in years. The sound definitely took me back to when I had an original Ibanez AD80 (another Maxon design), using it with very small repeat and delay settings to help thicken my rhythm sound. Gradually, I added in each of the three Multi-Head mode switches to create a swashing backdrop of cavernous delay, perfect for wide, ethereal soundscapes. Maxon explains that each switch adds midstream delay signals (which are taken from the middle of the delay circuit), which give the AD999 Pro the ability to emulate fabled tape delays of yore, such as the Roland RE-201 Space Echo. Lovers of digital delay will probably want to look elsewhere, as the AD999 Pro's high end frequencies are rolled off and the overall delay tone has a very fuzzy, unclear flavor to it. For devotees of vintage analog sounds however, the AD999 Pro is a perfect choice. – JW
Buy if...
you're fed up with searching high and low for rare, multi-head tape delay units.
Skip if...
pristine delay tones are a must.
Street $399 - Maxon - maxonfx.com
Electro-Harmonix Memory Boy
The release of the new Memory Boy, EH's new analog delay with modulation, aims to set the bar higher than that of its original Memory Man, with the same organic delay tones and a modulation switch (the effects can be processed in either in triangle or square wave forms) in an even smaller enclosure. With a 1978 Gibson Les Paul Custom plugged into a Mesa/Boogie Electra-Dyne half stack, I was able to dial in classic, dynamic Memory Man tones with ease. While this was very pleasing, I found with a little more tweaking that what the Memory Boy really succeeds at is creating strange, echo-laden textures. Both the chorus and vibrato sections are capable of producing some extremely wild sounds. Coupled with a large backdrop of delay, the chorus section set to square wave yielded one of the creepiest sounding tones that I've ever coaxed out of a guitar—perfect for space-age tonal backdrops and atmospheric compositions. With all of its features, along with true-bypass circuitry and a much sturdier enclosure than the original, the Memory Boy is a no-brainer purchase for the player looking for analog tone with personality on a budget. – JW
Buy if...
you want classic analog tones with a versatile effects section on a budget.
Skip if...
you need delay times longer than 550ms.
Street $98 - Electro-Harmonix - ehx.com
Empress Superdelay
|Download Example 1
|Download Example 2
|Download Example 3
The Loop feature of the pedal provides 6.8 seconds of recording in 24-bit mode, while the 16-bit mode provides 13.6 seconds of recording time. There is a slightly noticeable drop in quality, but not much. And loops cannot be saved to the presets … when you turn it off, the loop is gone. But overdubbing and reverse looping is available with the looper.
Nonetheless, the Super Delay is a highly versatile unit with loads of features that will have you reading the manual to learn all of its possibilities. That doesn't mean it doesn't sound good right out of the box, especially if the user has previous experience with other delay modelers. That said, the Super Delay gives the Eventide Timefactor and Line 6 DL-4 a run for their money. And analog purists need not be afraid, because this pedal is transparent and will not color your tone. – BB
Buy if...
you want an all-in-one, extremely versatile delay.
Skip if...
something simpler is in order.
Street $449 - Empress Effects - empresseffects.com
ModTone MT-AD Vintage Analog Delay
|Download Example 1
Long Delay
|Download Example 2
Starting with the Time knob turned all the way to the left, the Repeat at 10 o'clock, and the Mix at 2 o'clock, the pedal offered up a solid slapback delay. My favorite setting was Time at 11 o'clock, Mix at 1 o'clock, and the Repeat at 2 o'clock, which created the perfect short tape delay. Coupled with a Keeley-modded DS-1, I achieved some soaring echo leads and melodies, and it handled distortion in front of it superbly.
The ModTone Vintage Analog Delay is a well-built little box that offers a few key delay and echo effects that replicate vintage sounds quite well. If you're looking for the tones of old but don't want to break the bank, look no further. – BB
Buy if...
you want a simple-to-use analog delay.
Skip if...
you want more versatility from your delay pedal.
Street $99 - ModTone Effects - modtone-effects.com


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Beast Wars Transformers Iguanus Toy Review
- Beast Mode
- Beast Mode (Side)
- Beast Mode (Back)
- Beast Mode (Angle View)
- Beast Mode (Close up View)
- Robot Mode
- Robot Mode (Side)
- Robot Mode (Back)
- Robot Mode (Close up)
- Robot Mode (Focus on head)
- Robot Mode (Angle View)
- Robot Mode (Holding weapon)
Tech Specs:
Name: Iguanus
Function: Demolitions
A lizard unlike any other, his internal intelligence processors are specifically programmed for combat sabatoge. If Optimus Primal installs an infrared detection dish near a Predacon outpost, Iguanus will alter it to self-destruct when fired. Body scales are actually titanium-plated armor, as is the deflective headplate that shields him from laser fire.
|Strength: 5.0
|Intelligence: 8.0
|Speed: 7.0
|Endurance: 5.0
|Rank: 5.0
|Courage: 7.0
|Firepower: 6.0
|Skill: 6.0
Iguanus was one of the first basic Predacon Beast Wars toys released. For those fans looking at him and making a double take, don't worry, your sanity is intact. Much of the same mold was also used for the basic sized crocodile Megatron figure released the same year.
Beast Mode:
In beast mode, Iguanus is a lizard. Although the frills around his neck indicate that he is a frill necked lizard, his body is a bit too thick to be one. Like Scorponok, this is one beast mode best not analyzed too deeply. His primary color is brown with yellow and orange mixed in for detailing. His beast mode eyes are blue.
In beast mode, Iguanus has seven primary points of articulation. This includes his mouth which can open and close (revealing a red tongue inside). His front legs have three points of articulation each, but the rear legs pretty much are stuck the way they are.
Transformation to Robot Mode:
Iguanus is an example of the "spring loaded" Transformers used for the basic price point in the first year of the Beast Wars line. Simply remove his tail, push up the yellow spinal piece and most of the transformation is taken care of. Fold his rear beast mode legs back, straighten out the robot feet and robot arms. Flip the end of the tail to reveal Iguanus' gun. Place it in his hand and this Predacon is ready to rock.
Robot Mode:
In robot mode, Iguanus looks pretty cool. His robot head is quite "evil" looking and has fiery red eyes. His primary colors from the beast mode remain, but a lot more yellow can be seen. The yellow us used for his upper legs, upper arms, waist and fists. The rest is mostly brown, which is a bit of a downer. A lot of the detailing on his lower legs and his gun are lost when the color is so uniform. Silver detailing may have helped bring out some of the details.
Iguanus has thirteen points of articulation in robot mode. This includes three points of articulation on each arm and leg. One of Ignuanus' most impressive features is his cannon, which is huge compared to his arms. This gives him quite an imposing look as befitting a Predacon warrior.
Overall, this is a fun toy that one can really enjoy. The robot mode looks great and is very posable. Recommended. A


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Clinical Trials
Aging & HIV/AIDS Neurocognitive Sequelae and Functional Consequences
US Department of Veterans Affairs
Information provided by (Responsible Party)
VA Office of Research and Development
First received: May 7, 2008
Last updated: April 29, 2015
Last Verified: April 2015
History of Changes
While the numbers of HIV infected veterans under the age of 50 are declining, the percentage
of HIV infected veterans over the age of 50 is increasing with the largest percentage
increases in the 50-59 age group and the 70+ age group. With increasing incidence rates of
new cases among individuals over 50 years of age and the longer life expectancies of the
current HIV-infected population, it becomes increasingly important to better understand the
impact of the aging process on the clinical and behavioral manifestations of HIV/AIDS.
The project seeks to determine the effect of age on neuropsychological performance in HIV+ persons. This objective seeks to determine the degree to which older age represents an independent risk factor for neuropsychological impairment in HIV infected persons, with a particular emphasis on those cognitive processes that are preferentially impacted by both the normal aging process as well as HIV infection. Additionally, another aim of the study is to determine the impact of neuropsychological decline on everyday functional abilities among older vs. younger HIV+ adults. This objective seeks to determine the effects of advancing age and neuropsychological impairment on the ability of HIV+ persons to discharge more demanding requirements of independent living (e.g., driving, financial management, medication adherence). The project will last for a duration of 5 years.
HIV Infections
|Study Type:
|Study Design:
Observational Model: Case Control
Time Perspective: Prospective
|Official Title:
|Aging & HIV/AIDS Neurocognitive Sequelae and Functional Consequences
Further study details as provided by VA Office of Research and Development:
Primary Outcome Measures
Neuropsychological Status (i.e., Cognitive Functioning)
[ Time Frame: Baseline (Year 1) and 1-year follow-up (Year 2) ]
Neurocognitive functions refer to cognitive abilities, namely learning/memory, motor speed, psychomotor speed, language, attention, visuospatial abilities, & executive function. They are measured using standard clinical neuropsychological test battery that included: HVLT, BVMT-R, Trails A & B, WCST-64, WAIS-Symbol Search/Digit Coding/Letter-Number Sequencing/Block Design, FAS, & Animals. Subgroups of these tasks were combined to create composite scores indicating participants' score on each cognitive domains. To make these cognitive domain composite scores, each participant's raw score on each of these tests was converted into a within-sample standardized score (i.e., z-score), which are normally distributed with a mean of 0 & SD of 1. Then, these standardized scores were summed to create composite scores for each cognitive domain and then averaged to create a global neuropsychological function composite score. A positive composite score represents a better outcome for all variables.
|Study Start Date:
|September 2005
|Study Completion Date:
|February 2011
|Primary Completion Date:
|February 2011 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Group 1
HIV-positive adults 50 and older/ HIV-positive adults 18-40 years old
Group 2
HIV-negative controls 50 and older / HIV-negative controls 18-40 years old
Group 3
HIV-negative controls 50 and older / HIV-negative controls 18-40 years old
Group 4
HIV-negative controls 18-40 years old
Detailed Description:
Over the past several years the HIV epidemic has changed from a disease primarily of younger,
gay/bisexual, Caucasian men to one increasingly affecting people of color, women, and, of
specific relevance to this application, the older adult. Indeed, the number of AIDS cases in
individuals over the age of 50 has more than tripled over the last several years, with the
CDC now estimating that in the United States 15% of all patients with AIDS are over age 50.1
There is reason to believe that the incidence, clinical manifestations and course of
HIV-associated CNS dysfunction may differ as a function of age. Since the mid 1980's VA has
been at the vanguard of institutions engaged in research and clinical care of HIV-infected
adults. With specific regard to the issue of aging and HIV, HIV-infected veterans have tended
to be significantly older than patients drawn from the general community. For example, at the
West Los Angeles VA 303 of the 583 (52%) HIV-infected patients being followed by the
Infectious Disease clinic are over the age of 50. Across the entire VA system, there are
nearly twice as many HIV infected veterans over the age of 70 than under 30 years of age. 2
Yet, the vast majority of research conducted to date has been on younger adults - the degree
to which such data will generalize to the older veteran population is unclear. Also unclear
is whether advancing age confers an independent risk for cognitive impairment in HIV-infected
persons. Additionally, the functional impact (i.e., impact on daily functioning such as
driving ability, financial management, or medication adherence) of cognitive impairment in
this group remains unknown. Exploratory studies performed in the applicants' laboratory have
provided preliminary support for the hypothesis that advancing age will potentiate the
deleterious neurocognitive effects of HIV infection. Given the "graying" of the HIV epidemic,
particularly among the veteran population, research examining neurocognition among older
HIV-infected veterans as well as the functional "real world" impact of such deficits is of
great relevance to the VA mission. The results from this study could provide important
insights into interactions of age and HIV disease, and will identify targets for intervention
in advance of the burgeoning population of older infected persons.
Objective 1. To Determine the Effect of Age on Neuropsychological Performance in HIV+ Persons This objective seeks to determine the degree to which older age represents an independent risk factor for neuropsychological impairment in HIV infected persons, with a particular emphasis on those cognitive processes that are preferentially impacted by both the normal aging process as well as HIV infection.
Hypothesis 1.1 Controlling for potential confounding factors such as substance use and length of infection, there will be an interaction between effects of age and HIV serostatus on neuropsychological performance, and this will be evident both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Specifically, we expect to find that older HIV+ individuals will exhibit greater rates of neuropsychological impairment (using age-corrected test norms) than younger HIV+ persons. Neurocognitive functions subserved by frontal-subcortical systems that are sensitive to the effects of both aging and HIV infection (learning, motor and psychomotor speed, executive function) will be disproportionately affected among the older HIV+ participants. While the synergistic effects of HIV and age will be evident on a cross sectional basis, they will be most pronounced when examined longitudinally over the course of the study.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years and older
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
|Sampling Method:
|Non-Probability Sample
Study PopulationTo be enrolled in the study, participants must be between the ages of 18-40 years (younger groups) or 50 years old and older (older groups). The study population will consist of an ethnically diverse sample of approximately 1/3 Caucasian, 1/3 African American and 1/3 Hispanic. Approximately, 25% of participants will be female. The population will consist of veterans with additional recruitment from the community in order to meet project goals.
Inclusion Criteria:
- To be enrolled in the study, participants must be between the ages of 18-40 years (younger groups) or > 50 years (older groups); our goal is to recruit at least 50% of older HIV+ participants who are > 60 years old.
- Eligible participants must have documented presence or absence of HIV infection (depending on their group assignment), based on serologic testing for HIV antibody (screening ELISA, confirmed by Western blot if positive).
- The documentation of HIV status will be obtained once informed consent has been established.
Exclusion Criteria:
- CNS infection other than HIV (no opportunistic CNS disease)
- CNS neoplasm, neurosyphilis
- traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness greater than 30 minutes
- current diagnosis of seizure disorder, current psychotic spectrum disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder)
- history of drug or alcohol abuse or dependence within the past year.
Contacts and LocationsChoosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision.Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00675766
Locations Show More
|United States, California
|VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, West LA
|West Los Angeles, California, United States, 90073
Sponsors and CollaboratorsUS Department of Veterans Affairs
|Principal Investigator:
|Charles Hinkin, PhD
|VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, West LA
More Information
|Responsible Party:
|US Department of Veterans Affairs
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00675766 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|Study First Received:
|May 7, 2008
|Last Updated:
|April 29, 2015
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
HIV Infections
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this data on May 28, 2020
This information is provided by ClinicalTrials.gov.


text:
Daily Slice: The Muddy Rudder, Portland, Oregon
A different slice profiled each day.
Daily Slice gives a quick snapshot each weekday of a different slice or pie that the folks at the Serious Eats empire have enjoyed lately.
Only in Portland will you find cheap happy hour bar pizza hand-crafted in the artisan style. OK, maybe other forward-thinking cities can boast this same anomaly, but walking in to a dive bar full of glazed-over old couples and shady 'hood denizens surely does not build anticipation for delicious pie. The midday (4pm-6pm) menu at the Muddy Rudder promises a $5 three-cheese personal pizza (in addition to $3 pints of craft beer) and I'd be a shame to the Slice organization to not take the bait.
The pizza arrived on a steel pan with the haute addition of a wooden-handled pie server. The 'makeup on a pig' theory went out the window with bite number one. Saltiness arrived first, playing the perfect second fiddle to my sweet & bitter Green Flash IPA. The crust was puffy with a wafer thin outer crispness that seemed too gentle a nuance for such a burly establishment.
The pie's cheese blend included fresh mozzarella, shredded mozzarella, and Pecorino Romano. Just enough of the drier shredded mozz had browned to create texture and a sweetness to balance the salty, thirst-inducing tomato element. Romano added an umami depth rarely found in bartender-slung pizza, and the melted fresh mozz added a pleasant chew. The outer bread component could have used a touch less exterior flour; some intensely dusted regions left a powder coating in my mouth. The crust also lost a bit of its brittle appeal with time, leaving a slightly unpleasant sponginess. However, this pizza shouldn't have lasted as long as it did—it's meant to be devoured.
I loved the under crust of the pie; intensely charred just short of ashy hole-filled leopard spotting. The squat Blodgett oven tucked behind the Muddy Rudder's bar was surprisingly capable of cranking out something worthy of pizza nerd appreciation. I wouldn't sacrifice a trip to Scholls in favor of the Rudder, but a voyage for tasty adult beverages could easily be capped off with artisan bar pies with a surprising level of care and craft behind them.
The Muddy Rudder Public House
8105 SE 7th Avenue, Portland, Oregon; (map)
503-233-4410; muddyrudderpdx.com
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


text:
Children's Day in São Paulo
Superheroes at work
Children's Day in São Paulo
What's that? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No – it's Superman! And he just happens to be dangling from the façade of the Hospital Sabará Infantil in São Paulo. He's also brought along his friends Batman and Flash from the Marvel Comics universe, and the three of them have come not to rid the world of evil but – to clean the windows. The young patients inside the hospital building cannot believe their eyes. They laugh, they wave and smile incredulously: It's a real-life superhero adventure!
The management staff at Hospital Sabará Infantil came up with the idea to commemorate Children's Day, which is celebrated on October 12th in Brazil and where it is customary for parents to give their children presents. To make this day little easier for the modern hospital's young patients, many of whom are gravely ill, the window washers dressed up as Batman, Captain America & Co. to carry out their risky job and they waved to the kids as they cleaned the glass façade of the building.
"Moments like these help to make their stay in hospital a little easier to bear for the children," explains José Luiz Setubal, Hospital Sabará Infantil. "Little things like this cheer them up and help the children to forget their pain and the treatment."
You can experience the event on YouTube, also.


text:
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
In an interview with FX man Stan Winston about Terminator 3, Stan made some comments about the new Jurassic Park. This is in the latest issue of BOXOFFICE magazine.SW- All I can say at this stage is that it's extremely exciting. If you thought we sent the world into dino-mania back in 1993, hah! You ain't seen nothin' yet. If dinosaurs are big now, they're going to be huge come 2005.
We're told that the film is about the government who has trained dinosaurs to carry weapons and use them for battle purposes.


text:
204 UIS police officers provide assistance to students, community
As UIS expands, the 15 sworn officers on the UIS Police Department are vigilant about keeping people safe – keeping the campus safe. UIS is among the safest university campuses. If you've come to campus, you've probably seen Officer Ross Owens on duty.
Related links:
UIS Police Department
How you can sign up for Emergency Notification System
Posted on November 11, 2013


text:
Risk I/O API
Risk I/O is a vulnerability management platform. Its features allow businesses to keep better assess their risks. Risk I/O centralizes all of the data and metrics businesses wish to have processed for risk assessment. Then it can sort the information according customized benchmarks, prioritization, and more. Risk I/O also offers a bidirectional API for importing manually discovered data and exporting it's the platform's findings. The API is based on a RESTful protocol.


text:
AT&T reported revenue of US $31.5 billion for the third quarter of this year, flat compared to the third quarter of 2011, while net income was up slightly to $3.6 billion.
Revenue in AT&T's wireless division grew 6.6 percent to $16.6 billion but gains there were offset by lower revenue in its wireline division. Voice wireline revenue dropped 10.8 percent from a year ago, from $6.2 billion to $5.7 billion, the company said in a press release.
Excluding numbers from AT&T's advertising solutions business unit, which it sold earlier this year, the company's revenue grew 2.6 percent. Earnings per share were $0.63, beating analyst expectations of $0.60.
Net income attributable to AT&T was up 0.3 percent.
The company had strong smartphone sales and is ahead of schedule for its 4G LTE network construction, Randall Stephenson, AT&T's chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
AT&T's wireless division reported a 4.5 percent increase, to $14.9 billion, in wireless service revenue. Wireless data revenue increased by more than $1 billion -- 18.3 percent -- from the third quarter of 2011.
The company sold 6.1 million smartphones in the third quarter, representing 81 percent of postpaid device sales. During the quarter, AT&T activated 4.7 million Apple iPhones, with 18 percent of those customers new to AT&T. Nearly 64 percent of AT&T mobile customers now have smartphones, up from 53 percent a year earlier.
AT&T reported a net increase of 678,000 in total mobile subscribers in the third quarter to reach 105.9 million.
In its wireline division, AT&T reported revenue of $14.8 billion, down 1.6 percent from a year ago. Revenue from residential customers was $5.4 billion, up 2 percent from the third quarter of 2011. That was AT&T's largest growth in consumer revenue in more than four years, the company said.
The company reported a 17.9 percent year-over-year growth in IP revenues from residential customers, including broadband, U-verse TV and U-verse Voice service.
Total AT&T's U-verse subscribers, including TV and broadband, reached 7.4 million during the quarter. U-verse TV added 198,000 subscribers to reach 4.3 million, and U-verse broadband gained 613,000 subscribers to reach 7.1 million.
"We continue to add [U-verse] subscribers at a rapid clip," John Stephens, AT&T's CFO, said during a conference call.
Including DSL subscriber losses, AT&T wireline broadband connections decreased by 42,000.
Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is email@example.com.


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« first day (526 days earlier)
← previous day
last day (15 days later) »
00:00 - 02:00
02:00 - 20:00
Stack Exchange
Grace Note
has unfrozen this room.
Sonic The Hedgehog
First Comment! :D
Grace Note
Criminy, this really got frozen?
Tim Stone
@GraceNote You didn't actually say anything, so chat refreezes after a day or so.
Grace Note
stretches limbs
Tim Stone
Might make sense for that not to happen when an event is scheduled after the room is unfrozen, but that'd make it possible to keep the room open indefinitely, I suppose.
Thank Frigga you thawed the room.
I was beginning to think my face would stay that way.
It was still showing as frozen for me, so I was wondering how you were magically all typing
I think it's thawing slowing, but I'll keep my sweater on for the moment.
RegDwight АΑA
Wait, did it just say 15 minutes?
I got 15 seconds.
Grace Note
It said 15 seconds
Welcome to the English Language & Usage Town Hall Chat
Sonic The Hedgehog
Wheee. :)
Grace Note
We're just here to get to know the candidates and ask questions regarding the candidates views on moderation that may help in voting.
@J.R. You can arrow up and edit your message.
Grace Note
A few notes about the format:
The format is open, feel free to ask your question(s) unprompted, however please be mindful of whether or not candidates have answered the previous questions so that they don't get behind and start missing questions. Other than that, feel free to jump in.
Thanks, KitFox!
Grace Note
Candidates, be sure to use the reply feature so that questions and their answers are linked together. (Hover your mouse over the left of the message, click the down arrow, click reply)
It's a good idea to bold your questions (use
around it) to make them easier to see. When a question is asked, I'll star it - please star it yourself also to help! Please save stars for the questions so that candidates can refer to the star list to make sure they haven't missed a question.
@TimStone will be creating a
digest version of the town hall chat
after it is completed. This digest will take the form of a question on meta, containing all the questions asked as well as their answers for easier reading.
There's a system message up on the site, so we may get some stragglers joining us if they're still up at this hour.
For candidates among us at the moment, I spy: @J.R., @KitFox, @simchona, and @EvanCarroll.
Sonic The Hedgehog
Now, now, we can't have that. :(
Martha is not here...
Grace Note
Well, with formalities out of the way, let the questioning begin!
Tim Stone
New users often are not accustomed to the Stack Exchange system, and sometimes struggle to present themselves properly, either in the way they use the site or their attitude. How willing are you to work with "problematic" users, and at what point do you decide that someone isn't worth the effort?
Grace Note
@SonicTheHedgehog She said she couldn't make this hour. But she, as well as the other candidates who can't make it (wow, 5 said they could make it, that's why we went with this hour), are free and able to answer all the questions asked after this event at any time
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Grace Ah. :(
Grace Note
I'm just going to steal from the old stars list.
How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?
@TimStone I am very willing to work with new users to help them learn the ropes. If they continue to struggle, I would continue to help. I would only give up on a user if they became abusive and caused an issue on the site for other community members. Then I would involve the other mods for help in dealing with the situation.
@KitFox Great!
Sonic The Hedgehog
...Maybe we should ask one question at a time.
@TimStone I've found that there are some "problematic" users like our new troll, who I have taken aside in a private chat (along with Mahnax) in order to try to help them use the site better. This happened
this troll had posted porn, spam, and exact duplicates of his own question under multiple sock puppets. I am willing to go quite far in helping new users, but I stop at the point where they continue to go forward with bad behaviors.
Tim Stone
@GraceNote Hmm, should we nuke the existing stars? (Well, "we", I don't have...the power!)
@TimStone I think there's a difference between new users and "problematic" users. Users don't become problematic until after they've been guided, and subsequently spurned the correction. I'd be very patient with new users, but, eventually a line can be crossed.
Evan Carroll
You guys are having a pow wow without me?
Grace Note
@EvanCarroll You were sent an email. Start from the pinned message noting the event to catch up
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Evan Eh, it was getting late. So we started.
@J.R. I entirely agree with you.
@GraceNote Reg and I (and others) just had a discussion today over whether to reopen a question about math symbols. It progressed just the way I thought it should. We discussed the pros and cons and we came to an agreement as a community. If it didn't work like that, I would progress to a private chat if I felt strongly about it, then discuss it in mediation with mods in the TL if necessary. But I can't imagine I would ever feel that strongly.
RegDwight АΑA
@GraceNote I have like five or six questions ready and waiting. So I can jump in.
Sonic The Hedgehog
I got few of mine, also.
Grace Note
@RegDwightАΑA Ask as you find and like it
@GraceNote I don't think mods should act alone, nor act without being open to modifying unilateral decisions. I would talk to the other mod and see why they had closed it. There's no reason to get into an open/close/deletion fight.
Evan Carroll
You've got questions: I've got liberty and freedom. Let's get it on.
@simchona I totally disagree with you.
RegDwight АΑA
What is your subjective assessment of how ELU's been progressing in terms of popularity and quality? Do we get more questions than a year ago? Better questions? What about answers? Do we attract new great users? Or is it all Eternal September? What is your recency illusion?
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Carlo ...lol?
Is there anything you would want to change about the way the site is being run at present?
I want more tollerance with new user.
@Carlo_R. To be fair, you have a bit of a bias.
@RegDwightАΑA Can't believe we let you become a mod with such poor chat skills...
@SonicTheHedgehog I don't see any particular glaring issue with the site. I'd like to encourage our high rep users to continue their participation in the site, especially with closing/deleting questions, and setting guidelines through the Meta site.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Kit lol what was that? :)
@GraceNote I don't expect to agree with the decisions of every moderator. Ideally, we should function as a team with different strengths and weaknesses, not as clones. If a question is closed by another moderator, and I don't agree with that, I might speak with the moderator off-line about it - particularly if this happens frequently - but I'd enter into that conversation ready to learn why I might be mistaken, rather than convinced I'm right.
@Mahnax Please, do not insulting again!
@SonicTheHedgehog I stuck a space in by accident.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Carlos Orgy, I mean Order in the court!
Grace Note
@J.R. Questions in bold, not replies, eheh
Evan Carroll
@TimStone There is no such thing as someone "that is not worth the effort." The platform should modified so that it is self-correcting. All people are worth the effort they're willing to put forward, and shy of that all social problems can be handled with technology.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Kit I see.
@SonicTheHedgehog I want ELU better. Simchona is a great problem that has to be removed.
@RegDwightАΑA In terms of question quality, it seems as if the balance has shifted towards more "English as a second language" questions. However, there have been new users recently who have provided great answers, so I think that the user base is improving in terms of answers, but there is some work to be done on questions. I think more questions should be closed, and those question-askers should be helped to ask better questions if possible
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Carlos Uh... are you a troll?
@Carlo_R. That's a little bit rich, coming from you. At any rate, this is not the place for petty arguments.
Sonic The Hedgehog
I mean, Sim was helpful so far...
@RegDwightАΑA I've only been on the site for six months, so my personal history is scant. However, I've noticed a lot of questions coming from non-native speakers, but that problem is already being addressed with the new site in Area 51 for Language Learners.
@SonicTheHedgehog Absolutely NO
@RegDwightАΑA I think the site has been growing in leaps and bounds, which means we will have more questions, both good and bad, and we will have more users, both good and bad. This means we need more moderators and more diligence so that we make sure that the content of the site represents what we want our community to grow into.
I have to leave for a bit, hopefully this will still be going when I get back. Bye!
Evan Carroll
@TimStone So in essence, I'd advocate for welcoming everyone to the site: unban and expire all suspensions. And, find a way to mitigate any social problems through technological tools that don't involve limiting the ability to participate.
@SonicTheHedgehog I would want to empower more high-reputation users to take initiative in cleaning up the site. There are a handful of users who vote to close, or edit questions, but I think that there are more who might be encouraged to take part. I think it's less about changing how the site is run, and more about changing the perception of who "runs" the site
@SonicTheHedgehog I'm serious user trolled by simchona.
Tim Stone
Do you feel like a representative percentage of the community participates in your site's meta? Based on that, how strongly do you think feedback presented on meta should factor into your decision making as a moderator?
Sonic The Hedgehog
What is your favorite word in the English language?
@SonicTheHedgehog Robusto is the best friend of simchona.
@Sonic: Is that a real question?
Grace Note
@J.R. It is a legitimate question
Sonic The Hedgehog
@J.R Important one.
RegDwight АΑA
@SonicTheHedgehog haha, you can't be serious. (Though I think someone asked that the last time around.)
. I have a preference for words that start with v. This one also has an x and ends like
. It doesn't get much better than that.
Evan Carroll
@J.R. So long as they're interested in English I see no reason to differentiate on nebulous qualifiers. I speak English naively, and I'm still learning it! That's why I'm here.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Reg I am channeling Robusto.
Grace Note
Not every question has to necessarily be one about the campaign. It isn't harmful to add a little lightness
Evan Carroll
@SonicTheHedgehog proletariat. Easy.
RegDwight АΑA
@SonicTheHedgehog I was going to do that. But I have a fresh question or three. Hold on.
Grace Note
@RegDwightАΑA It was, in fact, asked last time around
@ Carlo: There is very little I'd like to change about the way the site is run at present. I'm not coming into this with an agenda.
RegDwight АΑA
@GraceNote see, I remember
. I know what you did last summer!
@TimStone I think that there are the same few users who use Meta, but I would encourage more users to do so. However, whatever the representative percentage on Meta, I think feedback is extremely important. I have seen mods pay attention to users on both Meta.SO and Meta.ELU, and I think that's a good approach to take
@TimStone Representative? It's hard to say, but there is a core of users who I respect who put their opinions out on the Meta questions. I would look to Meta first if I were trying to make a decision based on what I thought the community wanted.
@SonicTheHedgehog Bubble.
RegDwight АΑA
A very popular reason for flagging is "very low quality". Everyone seems to have their own notion of what that's supposed to mean; what is yours? How will you handle such flags?
Sonic The Hedgehog
@sim I wish I could upvote. I wish...
Apparently, I'm not leaving just yet.
Evan Carroll
@TimStone No, because meta's on StackExchange all suffer from aura of extreme elitism. If I'm elected moderator, I'll propound a request to Jeff Atwood to make a splash page for EL&U that informs those that our meta is different. It's for the users, and not merely a playground for StackExchange employees.
@simchona No bubble.
@SonicTheHedgehog I didn't mean to imply the question wasn't legitimate. Hmmm... one word? Out of so many? Perhaps
. (I like multi-use words).
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Carlo You are not even a candidate. -_-
@RegDwightАΑA In general, I ignore these flags if the question is answered. I let the community handle it through downvoting or ignoring poor answers. If it's not spam or abuse, I'd let it ride.
@Carlo_R. Please stop talking about things you know nothing about.
Evan Carroll
@RegDwightАΑA Who am I to decide what is "very low quality"? We have algorithms and users that can do that -- no one should have an amplified voice. This isn't chaos, it's discourse: no one needs a megaphone.
Grace Note
Carlo, this is an event for asking candidates questions, not to campaign for or against any of the candidates.
Tim Stone
You strongly disagree with an action taken by a fellow moderator. How do you proceed?
Sorry, it is unclear. Who ask the question here?
Sonic The Hedgehog
What is your favorite book(or rather, Author)?
This is not worthy my time. I'm out.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Robusto Noo... :(
@TimStone I'd talk to the moderator in private chat. If that didn't resolve the issue, I would bring it to the Teacher's Lounge.
@RegDwightАΑA I think some VLQ questions can be expanded on, if the user is willing to do so. My definition of low quality is a question which has little effort, and little effort to change. If there were good answers, like with some NS questions as current mods have done, I would leave it. However, poor questions which detract from the site may need to be removed
Grace Note
@Carlo_R. Anyone can ask questions. Candidates can even ask each other if they have something they feel they should ask
@RegDwightАΑA It depends on several factors. Is the question truly of low quality? And can it be improved? If possible, I'd try to salvage the question before deleting or closing it.
Sonic The Hedgehog
We have displeased our greatest elder. D:
@SonicTheHedgehog Diana Wynne Jones
Evan Carroll
@TimStone I prod him to reveal whatever information I think I can get out of him -- keeping in the back of my mind that my allegiance is to the users. When he has revealed all he's willing to reveal, I turn it over to Wikileaks and make it available on a third party site, and welcome all users to review that moderator's actions.
@SonicTheHedgehog I like so many, but Umberto Eco is my standard answer.
RegDwight АΑA
Ah, I have to be more precise, then. Stupid me.
How do you decide if an answer is "very low quality", and what do you do with it?
@TimStone I think I kind of alluded to this before - I don't expect to agree with every decision made by other moderators, and I certainly woudn't rock the boat.
Sonic The Hedgehog
Alright, reminder: lets give candidates time to finish questions.
@TimStone I would start by talking to them about it. I've seen several good discussions in chat, and so I would definitely feel comfortable bringing it up there and working through it. It can be escalated, if need be, to talk to more mods. However, I think most issues could be solved easily between ELU mods.
Evan Carroll
@RegDwightАΑA I vote it down, just like any other user. Why would I abuse my status to handle something that, we're told, the platform handles find natively?
Grace Note
@SonicTheHedgehog This is actually a bit of a light load for our time progress thus far, I wouldn't worry too much on it.
@RegDwightАΑA pretty much the same thing, first try to salvage it, if possible. If not possible, then delete it. I might just downvote it, too, if I feel like it's bad, but not so bad that it needs to be removed.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Grace I see... But if I were a candidate right now,
I would be a bit overwhelmed.
@RegDwightАΑA If the answer doesn't actually answer the question, it gets moved to a comment or deleted. If it's spam or abusive, it gets deleted. Otherwise, what I said before: In general, I ignore these flags if the question is answered. I let the community handle it through downvoting or ignoring poor answers. If it's not spam or abuse, I'd let it ride.
Evan Carroll
BTW, I think I have answered everyone's questions thus far. If I haven't you're welcome to give me a call personally at 281.901.0011. I'm on call for my people, just don't give the number to Jeff. He makes boring conversation.
RegDwight АΑA
Excluding dupes, our number one close reason is "general reference"; a reason most other SE sites don't even have. 3% of all questions — and 35% of closed questions — are closed as gen-ref. Are we too strict? Too lax? Isn't every question too basic if you know the answer, or where to look? Where do you personally draw the line?
@RegDwightАΑA If the issue can be edited, I would do so. I would also downvote. I would reserve deletion for answers which were possibly just "yes" or "no", without anything else to support it.
Sonic The Hedgehog
English vs American; how do you feel about it?
@SonicTheHedgehog Americans are cool. Brits are posh.
Tyre is right out.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Kit I heavily disagree.
IMO, British have class.
Grace Note
Oi oi
waits to hear answers to Reg's preguntacita
RegDwight АΑA
@GraceNote You trying to mimic Rebecca?
@RegDwightАΑA Gen ref is dictionary reference to me. Or basic grammar (which should be migrated to ELL). I think it is necessary to go on a case by case basis, and some days I think we are a little trigger happy with the gen ref reason. There are so many other happy reasons for closing, after all.
@RegDwightАΑA If the answer is in a dictionary (phrasal verbs, definitions) that is easily accessible, I would consider it general reference. For most etymology, I think it's hard to say "I'll look in a dictionary" unless you happen to have the OED. I think my bottom line is that General Reference questions are those found in a dictionary, or occasionally in a quick Google search if it seems like no research has been done.
Grace Note
@RegDwightАΑA Rebecca does singular "oy"s
RegDwight АΑA
@GraceNote I did say "trying". (-:
Evan Carroll
@RegDwightАΑA Closing questions is a horrible idea anyway: if people want to answer questions that are of "general reference" let them. If we get a good answer, the platform has served to move valuable content into the CC-BY-SA domain, that's a great thing in and of itself!
@SonicTheHedgehog English is a language, and American isn't.
@SonicTheHedgehog I heard Alex Trebek once say, "My favorite book is often the one I'm currently reading." I've read so many good books that I'd have trouble narrowing it down to 5 much less one. I prefer non-fiction for my pleasure reading. I'm currently reading Blue Moon Rising to my teenage daughters (best adventure novel you've probably never heard of). One non-fiction book I've read recently that I very much enjoyed was GO TO by Steve Lohr.
(The story of the math majors, bridge players, engineers, chess wizards, maverick scientists and iconoclasts - the programmers who created the software revolution - that's the subtitle - please forgive the sentence case).
Tim Stone
Why do you want to be a moderator (i.e., as opposed to a user with privs via high rep?)
Grace Note
@RegDwightАΑA Touche, with a little dash atop the e 'twere I more inclined to do so
Sonic The Hedgehog
What is the one thing you'd like to be remembered for during your time here?
I'm collecting stars like in Super Mario Bros.
Could I post a question to candidate?
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Carlo provided it is not stupid.
Grace Note
Yes, but try not to be confrontational
Evan Carroll
@TimStone So I'm privy to that which goes on in the upper closed echelons of the managing junta, and so I can empower all of the people, democratically, with the powers of a moderator.
@TimStone I've been doing a lot of work recently in rooting out our newest persistent troll. Being a mod would help me do that work better, taking care of the problem more quickly--5 heads are better than one. I can delete the user's questions if they're closed, but I can't deduce whether the user is a new one, or just a sock.
RegDwight АΑA
Bah, the porn spammer is on the main site again. BRB.
There is a lot of confusion here.
@TimStone We need more mods, and I think I am a good candidate for it. I would like to be able to help keep abuse off the site, help new users get comfy, and set the tone for the community here.
Do you adhere to Marxism?
I don't undarstand who is asking the question?
@SonicTheHedgehog Although I'd very much like members to remember what a wonderful and funny person I am, I would rather be known for being judicious and fair.
@RegDwightАΑA If I can find the answer in less than two minutes using standard search tools (Google, dictionary, thesaurus), then my opinion is it's general ref. However, that's a tricky one ~ sometimes what seems like general ref actually has some pretty deep conversation underneath it (good example lately is the 'adj form of primate' question), so I wouldn't want to pull the close trigger prematurely
Evan Carroll
@Cerberus Adhere to it? It's a system that certainly makes for a better world.
Grace Note
@Carlo_R. Anyone can ask a question,
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Cerberus ...???
@SonicTheHedgehog I would like to be remembered for my wonderful coffee cake, biting wit, and ability to spot a troll at 100 paces.
@Carlo_R. Matthew 7:7
Evan Carroll
@Cerberus You can't be a Marxist in the closet.. BTW, that is an excellent question. Thanks for asking.
@EvanCarroll I'll take that as a yes.
@Cerberus No.
Sonic The Hedgehog
Marxism is like a status that cannot be reached.
@sim send me one sometimes. I want to taste it.
You receive multiple complaints about an active user, alleging he is waging a personal vendetta against those who've disagreed with him by indiscriminately down-voting their posts, going so far as to create sockpuppet accounts to amplify his voting power. Upon examining the user's history, this suspicion appears plausible. What do you do?
@Cerberus No
@tchrist You know: I entirely ignore you.
@TimStone For the same reason I visit this site daily - to help make it a better place. Truth be told, the privs aren't a motivational factor for me.
@KitFox @simchona I'll take that as a no.
Evan Carroll
@SonicTheHedgehog Who told you that, Atwood? He would, he's sitting pretty good now in retirement.
@Shog9 I ask an experienced mod to look at the evidence I've assembled, ask if there is anything else I should look for, and then ask what to do next.
Sonic The Hedgehog
Do you have any hopes, ideas or plans for improving, involving, or enlarging the EL&U community?
@SonicTheHedgehog That I was helpful and courteous; that I helped make ELU more interesting, informative, and enjoyable.
@Shog9 If there is an active user who is making trouble, the first thing I would do is come to him with facts. If there is a plausible explanation for the results, I would listen. However, if it seems like there is still some doubt I would go to the other current mods. No suspension should be a unilateral decision
Grace Note
Stop starring non-questions, please
Evan Carroll
@Shog9 Wow, great question. I would turn over all of user history immediately to a third party for examination to make sure that wasn't just a frame up by Stack Exchange. But, if all pans out I would request a meeting with the user to discuss his behavior. If, that was not satisfactory I would defer the decision to the community at large, assuming his behavior posed no immediate threat.
@Cerberus Groucho Marxism, yes. (Those are my principles, and if you don't like 'em, well, I have others.)
Evan Carroll
@SonicTheHedgehog Yes, I do. I think we could potentially expand to take on other vernaculars and dialects, like Creole.
@J.R. You're very principled.
@SonicTheHedgehog I would love to see the blog grow. I think that, if it were updated regularly, it could bring in a new audience of users. This could, however, be difficult as it is hard to find new writers. A more attainable goal would be to enrich the current community by encouraging users to come back. Asking one question, then leaving, does not a community make.
RegDwight АΑA
There have been repeated complaints that our front page is chock-full of closed questions. Obviously we can't control what kinds of questions we get. Or can we? Do you have any strategy for making the front page more tidy and welcoming?
@Shog9 To be honest, I'd first confer with other mods who have been doing this for a long time. I'd let them train me on standard procedures for handling such abuses in the system. After I felt sufficiently trained, I'd be able to take some of the load off their shoulders.
@SonicTheHedgehog I would like to see EL&U grow. I think keeping the site tidy and having a welcoming atmosphere and accessible mods will do that.
Grace Note
We're past the halfway mark, just as a reminder
Evan Carroll
@RegDwightАΑA Stop electing moderators that close questions, especially for stupid things like being "general references." The more material on EL&U the better, and perhaps if General References are fun, it'll engage more people.
@RegDwightАΑA If we had some method of helping new users find the FAQ before posting questions...but aside from that, I think responding to new users and helping them frame their questions appropriately as soon as possible will help keep questions from being closed (or staying closed).
@RegDwightАΑA I've thought about doing something like that for some time, maybe creating a web page that says something along the lines of "So, your question got closed...." But I wouldn't do anything unilaterally. I might propose something, but it would have to be adopted by others.
I have a question to candidates.
Why did this question close (
) It seems to me a vandetta against Barrie, due to his idea on this other question
@RegDwightАΑA Questions are often closed as General Reference or Exact Duplicates. I think improving the quality of questions by helping users (in chat, in comments, etc) will reduce the number of closed questions. In addition, having an actual list of common questions might help reduce the duplicates. I think there is a misconception that all closed questions are bad, however--they may simply be a less eloquent way of asking a previously asked question.
What do you think?
Sonic The Hedgehog
What is your native language?
@RegDwightАΑA I do think some more guidance could be offered, but it's a difficult balance to strike. Too little guidance doesn't convey enough information, but too much is overwhelming, and unlikely to be studied thoroughly by the average new users.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Carlo too localized.
@SonicTheHedgehog American English
Evan Carroll
@J.R. Why not ask the users what they want, rather than the moderators. The users are the community that elects you. You serve them!
@SonicTheHedgehog English and Basic. (I don't think it is relevant though.)
@SonicTheHedgehog No it is not too localized.
@Carlo_R. I don't think candidates have time to answer that here.
@SonicTheHedgehog Unfortunately, I only speak one language. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to be bilingual.
How comfortable are you with using the tools for moderation made available to normal (non-diamond-moderator) users? (such as editing, closing, re-opening, flagging, and brass knuckles)
Evan Carroll
@SonicTheHedgehog English.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@J.R. I am bilingual. Its hard. Don't even try it.
@EvanCarroll: Who said I was talking about moderators at the exclusion of other users? I don't think that's what I said or meant.
@Shog9 Brass knuckles? Damn. I didn't know we had those.
@Cerberus OK
@Carlo_R. The close reason is "not constructive", which means the question seems like it's asking for a poll or discussion. It was interesting, but it touched on topics that were far too numerous for one question. However, on your point that it's a vendetta: if you truly believed that, I would hope you posted on Meta or flagged it, to bring it to the attention of the acting mods
@KitFox That's why I gotta ask. Amazing how many folks don't know what they have...
@Shog9 Comfortable? As in, you are OK with their having them? Or familiar with using them yourself?
@Cerberus The latter. Clarified.
Grace Note
@Cerberus I'd assume the latter
@Carlo_R. Without looking through it, the question title sounds like peeving. We close that sort of question quickly.
@Sonic: I've had some many friends from other countries, it would be worth the hardship to talk with them in their mother tongue, more than the handful of words they have taught me.
Sonic The Hedgehog
RegDwight АΑA
There are ongoing efforts to create a spin-off site targeted specifically at English language learners. Regardless of the fate of that proposal, is it a step in the right direction at all? Can such a split help make ELU a better place? Or would it mean our demise?
@Shog9 I feel pretty comfortable with these tools. I have used what has been accessible to me for as long as it has been accessible to me.
@Shog9 I've been using the normal mod tools quite a bit, especially to delete unanswered questions by trolls. It is simply another part of the community voting system.
Evan Carroll
@RegDwightАΑA Friendly forking is great
@RegDwightАΑA ("And would a SWR proposal be a good idea too?")
@Carlo_R. I have a hard time believing this community has a vendetta against Barrie. I think he's one of the more esteemed users on the site.
Evan Carroll
What would you do if you found out that StackExchange was involved in a massive cover up and conspiracy, and you had the smoking gun?
RegDwight АΑA
@Cerberus you are allowed to ask questions here.
Sonic The Hedgehog
What do you plan to do to assist the site outside of responding to flags and standard close/delete maintenance?
@J.R. I agree with you.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Evan a star for "smoking gun".
@RegDwightАΑA I'm trying to use editing tools on you, but apparently I'm not comfortable enough.
@RegDwightАΑA I understand trepidation about the ELL site, but I think it could be very beneficial to EL&U. Moving basic questions there would give some users the answers they need and help maintain a pleasant atmosphere. I think the two sites would complement each other.
@RegDwightАΑA I personally support the proposal, as it will hopefully encourage English learners to ask their questions but also carve out a space for "English enthusiasts" to ask more questions.
@RegDwightАΑA I'm completely in favor of that proposal. I think non-natives should have a place to ask basic questions without fear of retribution or closure.
@EvanCarroll It depends on the nature of what I uncovered.
@J.R. but tchrist, Mitch, Robusto, Jez, cornbread ninja are just the people that will kill this community with the support of simchona
Grace Note
RegDwight АΑA
@EvanCarroll where I'm from we only have mushroom clouds.
@SonicTheHedgehog I would continue to hang out in chat daily in order to be available for help. I would spend extra time leaving comments on new questions and answers to help new people feel more welcomed. I would also increase my involvement in Meta, to help make that a more helpful and welcoming complement to our main site.
@EvanCarroll I thought that, as candidates, we were supposed to be answering the questions, not asking them. Are you withdrawing from the race?
@SonicTheHedgehog I would continue to be available in chat in case users had questions about how to use the site. Recently, some users have been coming to chat with more basic questions, and I think helping them will cultivate a strong community.
Grace Note
@J.R. Candidates are allowed to ask
Anna Lear
@J.R. Candidates are allowed to ask questions as well. No harm.
Grace Note
They should probably answer their own question, too
RegDwight АΑA
Evan Carroll
@J.R. And, here I thought as a candidate I was the only one that could answer them, but as user first and foremost I was equally entitled to ask them..
@J.R. There you go, candidates are allowed to ask questions too -- so stop trying to oppress me.
Wouldn't one who has a smoking gun be fairly motivated to hide it? ;)
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Carlo I would be more careful if I were you. There is 5 Moderators in this room.
Grace Note
@mootinator Not necessarily, which is probably the intent behind the question
Evan Carroll
No. It wouldn't be his smoking gun. He just stumbled upon it -- as the detectives always do in the movies.
RegDwight АΑA
Are you aware of the Summer of Love? If yes, have you noticed any changes in your behavior or that of others?
(If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just say "no", "um", or a custom combination thereof.)
@SonicTheHedgehog I would like to remain an active user. I would like to spend more time explaining why I closed questions, if I closed them - that seems to be something that is perceived as callous sometimes. But, as I've answered in other questions, I don't have an agenda, and I'm not looking to make big changes. I believe the community does a good job policing itself overall, and I'd like to moderate in a delicate fashion.
@RegDwightАΑA Yes. No.
@EvanCarroll It depends on the "conspiracy". Stack Exchange is a private company, and to some extent they have the rights to govern what goes on within the site. If it were, however, along the lines of the mafia, I would act.
You see a very poor question posted. No evidence of research, vague criteria for what answers should address, some evidence that it was passed through Google Translate at least once prior to posting... Obviously it needs attention; what sort of attention do you give it?
goes back to quietly not pretending to not understand figures of speech.
Evan Carroll
I'm reading it now,
Grace Note
We're at the 45 minute mark, might want to consider slowing the pace a bit as we draw nearer to a close.
Evan Carroll
@Shog9 You answer the question if you can, and tag it "probable-homework" so others looking for homework answers can find it.
@Shog9 I leave a comment specifying what needs to be fixed. I allow the community to close it if they wish.
Anna Lear
@SonicTheHedgehog you had a stray leading blank line there :)
Grace Note
@SonicTheHedgehog I already asked this
Sonic The Hedgehog
@anna Thanks.
@Grace you did?
RegDwight АΑA
@SonicTheHedgehog a very slow jinx.
Grace Note
It was the very first question I asked
@RegDwightАΑA I knew that the Summer of Love was going on, and I have noticed a change in my own behavior. I've seen more changes on Stack Overflow, seeing as the Summer of Love has been posted on MSO. I've tried to be more patient and understanding, but I haven't noticed a marked change on ELU. I think ELU tends to be pretty helpful, for the most part.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Grace sorry about that...
@Carlo You are the only troll I see here.
Second warning, @Carlo_R.
Grace Note
@Carlo_R. I kinda asked that we please not campaign for or against candidates here.
Does anyone have an interesting,
question that might give us some insight into where our candidates have very different opinions?
@Cerberus No.
@KitFox That's pretty controversial...
@Shog9 If the user really cannot speak English, I would first direct him to support the proposal for English Language Learners. I would try to edit the question so it were in a more readable form, and leave comments to tease out the true purpose. If the user is unable to understand the comments, then I might close the question as Very Low Quality as it is unlikely to help future users.
@Shog9 As a new moderator, I'd want to spend some time learning about how such situations are best handled.
Sonic The Hedgehog
Never in my life have I seen Shog say "oooh".
@Cerberus I ran out of stars.
Evan Carroll
I think with regard to the Summer of Love problem, that can be solved with a Reputation Reset, or a Reputation Decay algorithm. That's how Ubuntu solved this anyway. Reputation there is constantly decaying. And, personally I think giving your StackExchange character a lifespan of five years and just resetting his EXP is probably an easy system to implement and quite effective. Just strip him of his reputation and require a name change.
@KitFox Haha OK.
RegDwight АΑA
@Cerberus how about this:
Does it even make sense for us to have a blog anymore?
@EvanCarroll Reputation decay could actually be interesting.
@RegDwightАΑA Better.
@Shog9 I'm very comfortable with those tools – so much so, that I think I might miss them in the unlikely event that I get elected.
Evan Carroll
Do you think a Democracy online where every user had the ability to vote on everything by way of referendum could be more successful than a representative democracy that required us to form a hierarchy and classes?
@RegDwightАΑA It doesn't seem like we have a strong enough core group of people to maintain the blog. Good idea, but not feasible right now. So no, the blog has pretty much been abandoned and I don't see any motivation from the membership to get it going again.
@RegDwightАΑA I think that, as a tool to get more people into the site, it might be worth another shot. There are also some questions, like Barrie's, which might be better answered within the blog. However, if the
isn't interested in the idea, I wouldn't push very hard at reviving it.
Grace Note
RegDwight АΑA
@EvanCarroll I don't know: populism is a very serious danger. The only experiment in history that I am aware of damaged society in bad ways, in ancient Athens.
@RegDwightАΑA !
Are you crazy?
@Evan: If every user was a responsible user, that would work just fine.
RegDwight АΑA
@Cerberus I'm talking at Grace. And yes.
Evan Carroll
@Cerberus That was never populism, Athens was notoriously restrictive in who got voting rights.
@EvanCarroll No. It is difficult to rule by committee, and nearly impossible to rule by simple majority. Of course, if you are talking about answering questions on SE, then sure.
You opt to close a poor question, and at 3AM the next morning get a phone call from the author, who has tracked you down and is now loudly damning your terrorist soul to hades. How do you respond?
Evan Carroll
@J.R. So you assume all users are not responsible?
@Shog9 I hang up. I notify SE administration.
@Shog9 Roll over and go back to sleep. A rested mod is a patient mod.
@Evan: You gave a hypothetical question, I gave a hypothetical answer :^)
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Shog I will be using "loudly damning your terrorist soul to hades" line from now on. I'm still chortling.
RegDwight АΑA
@Shog9 call Cerberus, duh. Hades is his specialty.
@EvanCarroll But it was direct democracy. Even with 1/4 of the population voting, the effects were at times disastrous. It was strong populism.
Evan Carroll
@KitFox Who said anything about committee? And, why can't people rule by simple majority? That's who rules on what questions appear on the front page. And, everything on Reddit is decided the way.
@EvanCarroll No--I feel that there are some users who won't know what they're voting on. StackExchange has very low voting restrictions, and I feel that it isn't as hierarchical as one might think
RegDwight АΑA
What's the most recent book you've read, and how long ago did you read it?
Evan Carroll
@Cerberus So you believe in a ruling class? That's a prime difference between me and you.
@Shog9 I'd tell him Cerberus doesn't not consider this "damning" in the technical sense and there'd be nothing to worry about. But I am no candidate.
Grace Note
We're approaching the close, so as to that end,
final thoughts from candidates
Evan Carroll
@RegDwightАΑA Conversations through Consensus. About 2 days at a bar.
Grace Note
(You're still able to ask up until the end of the designated hour)
@RegDwightАΑA I'm currently in the middle of
, and I just finished
Talent is Overrated
I Will Surprise My Friend
by Mo Willems. About 3 hours ago.
Sonic The Hedgehog
Do you have "Fanatic" Badge?
RegDwight АΑA
@SonicTheHedgehog Yes.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@Reg Eh. :( Every mod I feel should have that badge.
Evan Carroll
@GraceNote If you don't vote for Evan Carroll, you're going to get another elitist crony who will treat you like a subject to his rule. Vote freedom, vote Evan Carroll!
@RegDwightАΑA Leaving the Ivory Tower by Lovitts. Finished it earlier this year.
Evan Carroll
I think my vegetable stock is done cooking. I've never made it before, party at my place and everyone is invited.
@EvanCarroll I don't believe in anything, I just want what works. I think some form of democracy is the lesser evil, but it shouldn't become too democratic, or you will get populism. Each of those systems has its problems (and they are serious), but the middle ground seems to perform best based on history.
@GraceNote I would gladly serve as moderator. I will continue to support the community and be friendly, kind, accessible, and just.
RegDwight АΑA
@SonicTheHedgehog I think I have some 60-odd of those. Not that hard to visit once a day. What you do with your time on the site is a different question entirely.
I do have the Fanatic badge, but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I got it on my 100th day.
Sonic The Hedgehog
@reg true.
Evan Carroll
@Cerberus Right, you know what's better than a system that ensures a majority is happy with a decision? A system that doesn't! Good job thinking that one through.
@RegDwightАΑA For my personal reading, it was
Pale Fire
by Nabokov and I finished it last week.
@GraceNote I am not perfect, but I think that I would be a good candidate for mod because I am willing to listen to others. Even when one user called me a "terrorist", "this person totally insane mind" and said that I wasn't "tollerant [sic]", I took a step back and tried not to react right away. I am open to change--I am willing to look at my own actions in order to improve. In addition, whatever the results, I will remain active on ELU. My first priority is to helping the site, mod or not.
@EvanCarroll Indeed: the majority of people does not possess the majority of wisdom.
@SonicTheHedgehog Yes
Evan Carroll
BTW, anyone can friend add me on FB too,
or message on twitter too @TheEvanCarroll
Too little democracy and you will have too much corruption (in the broadest sense). Too much, and you will have instability leading to tyranny. Is it not so?
RegDwight АΑA
@Cerberus you have to phrase it as a question.
@RegDwightАΑA There.
@RegDwightАΑA What is "corruption"?
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It's high time we Chris Rock the vote, which is exactly what happened Friday night on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" when the politically savvy comic made the case that "Barack Obama is the white president you can trust."
It sounds counterintuitive, we know, but check out the huge pool of supporting data Rock has amassed.
Best memes of the 2012 election
Consider that Obama was raised by his blindingly white grandparents, likes to golf, bowl and body surf and that his casual fashion choices tend to favor polo shirts and mom jeans. Not to mention awkwardly dancing on "Ellen." We have to agree, that is pretty darned white!
The absolute crusher? Rock reminds us that for much of his life, Barack was known as Barry, which is "the third whitest name on Earth."
Game, set and match!
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Tools for Thought: How to Understand and Apply the Latest Scientific Techniques of Problem Solving
Basic Books, 1977 - Science - 250 pages
Drawing on general systems theory, operations research, cybernetics, futures research, and catastrophe theory, a distinguished geneticist provides the general reader with tools for perceiving and solving today's complex economic, social, and ecological pr
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actually alternative atoms attractor surface become behaviour better biological C. H. Waddington cells cent chreod Club of Rome complex systems components consider course critical path analysis curve deal described diagram discussed effect epigenetic landscape estimates example experience exploratory forecasting exponential growth fact factors feed-back flats future Games Theory give graph happen homeorhesis human ideas important increase Information Theory input instance interactions involved kind large number living mathematical means measure move natural resources operational research organized particular pay-off table perhaps philosophy pollution population possible practical Prisoner's Dilemma problem processes produce relations relevance tree schismogenesis scientific method scientists sequence shape simple simulation situation sort statistics step strategy structure symmetry techniques Theory things tion turn types U-Boats usually values variables Venn diagram whole
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If You Don't Believe Now, Better Check Your Pulse
Words would just ruin the moment. Here is a photo essay of complied photos from the great AP photographers Mike Carlson / Chris O'Meara and Getty Images Photog J. Meric on the field and deep within the bowels of Tropicana Field tonight. .
Last, but not least, the Home Run trot that began the celebration!
8 Comments
What an awesome feeling you guys are experiencing right now and a great run down the stretch. I heard the same thing last year on the West Coast (about the Padres choking). The Giants put it together in September and baseball fans know what happened in the postseason. Good luck against the Rangers. I have the Rays winning in five!
Rays winning in 3* get it right ;)


text:
Is the NFL Considering Widening the Playing Field?
A former member of the NFL's competition committee thinks the league should consider increasing the width of its football fields to help improve safety. Former Indianapolis Colts' vice-chairman Bill Polian said Sunday that he believes there would be fewer severe collisions if the NFL chose to increase field width from the current 160 feet to the 195 feet used in the Canadian Football League.
"It's a radical idea, but I think it's worth thinking about. You would have more space and perhaps a safer game. I say that based on my CFL experience. There are less collisions of that type in the Canadian game," Polian told National Football Post.
According to NFP, the NFL last looked into widening the field as recently as a year ago.
Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, a former CFL star, agreed with Polian's assertion that there are fewer head-to-head collisions in the Canadian league. Two NFL general managers disagreed with Polian, saying that a wider field could lead to 'more high speed collisions.'
All agreed that such a major change would increase scoring in the NFL by giving offenses more room to work, while giving defenses more field to cover. The league's competition committee is scheduled to meet prior to the NFL Scouting Combine set for February 20 – 26, in Indianapolis.


text:
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Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 146 diseños de 22 diseñadores freelance.
Bivek Brubaker & Prescott LLC
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text:
Crystal Solid Opal Earrings
- Opal Type: Solid Opal
- Origin: Mintabie – Coober Pedy – South Australia
- Sterling Silver 925
- Stone Size: 7*5 mm
The stone name opal comes from the Sanskrit word "Upala" for stone or precious stone.
Solid (cabochon) – Most cutters prefer to produce the opal as a solid cut 'en cabochon' if the gem is sufficiently thick. The opal is left in its natural state and simply shaped and polished on the cutter's wheel.
Opal amplifies traits and brings characteristics to the surface for transformation. It enhances self -worth, confidence and self-esteem, and helps you to understand your full potential. It also brings lightness and spontaneity.
The stone is said to help stimulate originality and dynamic creativity encourages an interest in the arts, and aids in accessing one's true self. Because the stone is absorbent and reflective, it helps you to pick up thoughts and feelings, amplify them, and return them to their source.
A black backing which is made of either black industrial glass, black patch (colourless opal), hard plastic, brown ironstone or sometimes vitrolite.
A thin slice of opal (normally crystal opal or white opal). The thickness of the opal in a doublet can vary, however, it is generally thicker than the opal found in a triplet. The edges of the slice of opal are generally rounded off (if there is enough opal) to give the stone a cabochon (domed top).


text:
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