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I want to talk a bit about our level 100 talents, but not in the way you might expect. This post isn't going to be full of numbers, nor is it going to be a comparison of how the talents perform in a raid setting. In fact, there's very little quantitative analysis of the talents in it at all. What I want to talk about is how the talents feel on a purely qualitative level.
Obviously that makes much of this post opinion, rather than fact. So keep that in mind – none of this is based on numbers, it's all based on how I feel about the talents, and most of these opinions were formed well before I started running simulations to figure out how well they perform. You'll get the performance posts soon enough, once I have time to write those up.
Holy Shield
Holy Shield is my favorite of the talents, but I'll admit that I may be unreasonably biased just because of the name. During MoP beta, I campaigned for Shield of the Righteous to be renamed Holy Shield, because Holy Shield is just more iconic. In fact, I'd still love to see the names swapped. I'd love Holy Shield to be our active mitigation and Shield of the Righteous be the talent.
Regardless though, there's a lot to like about this talent. It plays into the "block tank" theme that our kit was ostensibly based around before we lost that niche to warriors and Shield Block. It seems like Warlords is trying to bring a little bit of that back. We have the Improved Block Draenor perk that brings our block value up to 40%, and both of our tier set bonuses center around blocking as well. The two-piece gives us Faith Barricade, increasing our block chance by 50% after casting Avenger's Shield, and the four-piece gives us a chance to proc Defender of the Light every time we block, boosting our block value by 50%.
Not only do we block more often with the talent, but we get the unique ability to block spell damage, which is pretty cool. If that doesn't sound cool to you, consider that with a little mastery-stacking we can reach block cap while Faith Barricade is active, because the buff's effect isn't subject to diminishing returns. So if we save Avenger's Shield for that large incoming magical attack, we can guarantee 40% mitigation of that attack through blocking. And if we're lucky and Defender of the Light is active, we'll mitigate 90% of it.
The damage return is just fun for nostalgic reasons. It brings back a bit of the BC- and Wrath-era "round up all the things" strategy that some of us miss. The damage isn't shabby either, at 50% of your attack power. In an AoE situation, this talent should really shine. The downside is that it obviously doesn't provide any damage output when you're not tanking, but if the coefficient is tuned properly that can still be tweaked to balance it with the other two talents.
So if you couldn't tell, I'm pretty positive on Holy Shield. Unfortunately, I'm not as positive on our other options.
Seraphim is an interesting idea. 50% of the time (15 second duration, 30 second cooldown) you become a giant ball of bad-ass with inflated stats. Seems fun, especially since it comes with a pretty animation. Seems like a great choice for fights with tank swaps, since you can pool up holy power to prepare for the taunt and get higher effective uptime out of the talent.
What really bothers me about this talent, though, is the holy power cost. Five holy power is steep. One of the things that Blizzard finally learned after Cataclysm was that a resource system is sort of meaningless if all you do is build up to the cap and then dump. That's why we got Boundless Conviction in Mists – to turn holy power into a real resource that we could pool and spend, and make meaningful decisions about how and when we do either.
And yet… despite learning that 3-HP ability costs in a 3-HP world were limiting and frustrating, here we have a 5-HP ability in a 5-HP world. Apparently the lesson wasn't taken to heart. I'd much, much rather have a 3-HP version of Seraphim that gave us 800 of each stat for 15 seconds or 1000 of each stat for 12 seconds than the current version. That 5-HP cost is just going to feel awkward when we're used to spending only 3 at a time.
With a 5-HP cost, we're almost guaranteeing that we won't be using Shield of the Righteous in the ~5-6 seconds before Seraphim comes off of cooldown. Otherwise we'll be delaying Seraphim and getting less bang for the buck out of our talent choice. Divine Purpose procs might help with that, and we could perhaps assume that our last SotR will cover the first part of that period. And of course, maybe that period is while we're off-tanking if we're talking about a tank swap scenario. But for regular old steady-state "take it in the face all day erry day" tanking, this is opening us up to a potentially-dangerous spike window. And turning into an invincible angel isn't very effective if you're dead before you get to cast it.
That said, when we get to cast it, it will be nice. We get about 4% reduced damage intake from the versatility rating, about 6% dodge from the critical strike rating, 10% haste, 9% crit, 9% mastery, 15% multistrike, and a fair bit of mitigation and attack power from the bonus armor. And we'll still get one or two SotRs off during that 15 seconds. It really does live up to its billing as a miniature (or not-so-miniature) cooldown. I wouldn't be surprised if it's significantly stronger than Divine Protection, though probably not as good as Guardian of Ancient Kings.
However, it's going to be very, very strange in the first tier of content while holy power income is still limited. You won't, for example, want to take Eternal Flame and Seraphim together because they'll be competing for resources, so Seraphim and Eternal Flame are almost mutually exclusive – they may as well be on the same tier of talents.
There's also the question of "how many cooldowns is too many?" As part of the tank squish, Blizzard toned down cooldowns across the board. Yet we still have three baseline cooldowns (Divine Protection, Guardian of Ancient Kings, and Ardent Defender) and now two talented options (Holy Avenger and Seraphim). I wouldn't be surprised if we end up chaining all of those to be nigh-invincible for minutes on end.
Last but not least, it also adds a button to an already busy spec. Many classes lots a lot of buttons this expansion, but not us. We've lost relatively few. I guess Seraphim can go where Avenging Wrath used to be on my key binds. But I'm a little disappointed that we've gained very little ground in the massive key bind disarmament process, and gaining a new tier of activated abilities isn't helping with that.
So, overall Seraphim is interesting, and could be fun, but I'm a little worried about it feeling awkward and giving us a little too much cooldown coverage. I guess you could say I'm sort of neutral on this talent. Don't hate it, don't really love it either.
Empowered Seals
Empowered Seals is my least favorite talent from a design standpoint. In principle, I'm behind the idea of making seals more interesting. Right now, seals are set-it-and-forget-it buffs for protection. It's not even worth swapping to Righteousness in AoE situations, because in most cases you need the self-healing from Insight to stay alive. And it's not even worth the GCD to swap to Seal of Truth for single-target damage. But while I'd like to see seals be interesting, I'm not a fan of this implementation.
First of all, I really don't like seal twisting. And this talent is advertised as the talent for people who like seal twisting. I'm sure there must be a few people out there who do like seal twisting, but I'm not one of them. Let me explain why.
Empowered Seals may as well be called "Holy Maintenance Buffs." Having one maintenance buff in a spec is fine, in my opinion. As an example, I had no problem with Inquisition, even though many Retribution paladins complained. Maybe it was a bit annoying when the duration was only 30 seconds, but especially in 5.4 with a 1-minute duration, it was really hard to complain about Inquisition. Not that it stopped people from doing so, of course, which eventually led to it being pruned in Warlords.
When I discussed this with Meloree, he was quick to chide me for jumping on the "maintenance buffs suck" bandwagon. And he has a point. Buff maintenance has its strong points. In particular, it tends to be very good at differentiating players by skill. Even if you invoke a macro to take most of the thought out of it, you're still choosing which GCDs to use to refresh those buffs, and that decision making process takes skill. And there are players who really like that play style – likely the same people who love seal twisting.
So I want to make it clear that my distaste for the talent isn't because I hate all maintenance buffs. Having one or two maintenance buffs is perfectly reasonable, and in fact is even desirable. In Mists of Pandaria, we have two buffs that qualify as "maintenance," or at least "actively managed" buffs: Shield of the Righteous and either Sacred Shield or Eternal Flame. And I feel like that game play has worked out rather well for us. It certainly hasn't felt cumbersome to manage those two buffs.
However, juggling multiple maintenance buffs can quickly sap the fun out of a spec. Cataclysm-era subtlety rogue felt a lot like that, when I was fooling around on an alt in sub-par gear. While it was interesting to learn how to effectively keep Slice and Dice, Rupture, Hemorrhage, and Recuperate all up at the same time, it ended up feeling like I never really got to spend those combo points showing the boss the pointy end of my Eviscerate.
The entire seal twisting concept is all about swapping seals every 8-10 seconds. By definition, it's adding up to 3 more maintenance buffs we have to watch and maintain. And those are added to the two maintenance buffs we already have. If you consider that we might be spending up to 3 GCDs every ~20 seconds to cycle seals, and another one on Sacred Shield (I'm cheating here a bit, because I know it's simming ahead of EF) every 30 seconds, you're looking at spending 18%-30% of your GCDs on maintaining buffs.
That just seems excessive to me. Compare that to MoP Retribution, which lost Inquisition in part because it felt like too much of an annoyance to maintain. It only spent 1 GCD every 60 seconds, which is a paltry 2.5% of your GCDs at most, and that was considered too much. How do you think Rets will respond to using even 10% of their GCDs to keep two of those buffs up? How much worse will it feel for a starter prot in low haste gear using almost one third of their GCDs to maintain buffs?
Even if seals were off-GCD (and thus didn't interfere with the rotation), I think I would dislike it, because you'd still be juggling five different maintenance buffs, which is a little more than I think is fun. Ultimately, I think that sort of gameplay ends up in one of two places. It either turns into a game of watching buffs rather than playing your character, or you get an addon or macro to remove the thought from the process. Neither of which are ideal for making a spec feel fun to play.
To add to that, we now have one of the more complex rotations in the game. Many specs lost spells and saw their rotation simplified. We lost only periphery spells; none of our core rotation spells were removed. And our rotation (including off-GCD AM) already involved more buttons than many DPS specs do:
Crusader Strike
Hammer of the Righteous
Avenger's Shield
Holy Wrath
Hammer of Wrath
Execution Sentence or Lights Hammer or Holy Prism
Sacred Shield (possibly)
Shield of the Righteous
Word of Glory or Eternal Flame
Empowered Seals adds three more spells to that list. Even if you already had keybinds for them, we're approaching "John F@#!ing Madden" territory. And that's all assuming you're not doing anything to contribute to raid utility. The developers have said they like leaving a few empty GCDs so players can make use of those utility spells. With Empowered Seals, you can kiss those empty GCDs good-bye.
To me, the whole idea just sort of feels awkward and not very fun, which is the same opinion I had of seal twisting in Wrath. Several people have pointed out that you can use a castsequence macro to do the seal cycling with one button, though that's a gripe unto itself. When the best thing you can say about a talent is, "well, it's not so bad when you create a macro to do most of the thinking for you," I think you need to critically re-evaluate whether that talent is a good design.
There's another problem with Empowered Seals: maintaining balance between the talents. Even without numbers, we can make a philosophical argument for why this will inevitably be a problem. Empowered Seals is situated in a tier with a passive option (Holy Shield). Let's ignore Seraphim for now. By default, Empowered Seals has to be tuned to be noticeably better than Holy Shield. Why?
If the difference in steady-state performance between Empowered Seals and Holy Shield s tiny, why would you bother taking the active option? It would be both more reliable and easier to just take the equivalent passive option in that case. At least with Seraphim, you're comparing an always-on Holy Shield to something that has an on/off cycle, and there can be pros and cons for each. But the buffs from Empowered Seals are essentially "always-on" buffs that cost 3 GCDs every 20 seconds, so you're comparing two static effects, one of which takes more effort.
Likewise, if it takes an enormous amount of concentration to pull off Empowered Seals for a small gain, then why would you bother? At that point, it's just shelved as a bad talent because it's ineffective and few will bother to take it. We have historical precedence for this sort of thing – if you have a few hours (days?), go read Cynwise's excellent set of articles on The Decline and Fall of Warlocks, particularly the third post in the series, which examines the same topic through a different lens. A class, spec, or talent that requires a a large amount more effort or involves a lot more complexity to achieve similar results tends to get marginalized and ignored.
So by design, for it to not be a "bad" talent, it has to provide some noticeable advantage over Holy Shield. And that's really the issue, because that effort/performance breakpoint is different for each player. For a player going into Mythic progression as soon as it opens, that sort of complexity is something we generally just deal with, because we have the skill to perform the rotation even if we don't like it. It really only becomes a choice for players that aren't concerned about min/maxing their performance or don't have the skill to pull it off.
From one perspective, that makes it perfect for a talent. Since the skill threshold varies from player to player, making it a talent allows players to choose it based on whether they actually can pull it off or not. In practice though, it doesn't work that way. We've seen it happen over and over again in WoW, and every time the "passive but weaker under ideal conditions" option was the one that everyone avoided. Even by players who really should have been taking it, because they couldn't handle the complexity of the stronger option. The weaker option was perceived as only for "bad" players, and nobody wants to be bad! Furthermore, I really don't want to see Holy Shield become the "bad players" option. It's too iconic for that sort of fate.
They might be able to tune it so that the margin is "close enough" to make it a valid choice, but it's unlikely for quite a few reasons. One, it's a razor-thin margin they need to hit; two, the target will vary wildly with player skill; three, the target will drift with gear and content. It's somewhat naive to believe that any set of three talents can be balanced perfectly just based on numbers. It's far better if the tier gives three solid but slightly different options that shine in different situations.
For example, the choice between Divine Purpose, Holy Avenger, and Sanctified Wrath is pretty solid. Divine Purpose gave the highest average uptime on SotR and scaled best with gear, but wasn't controllable. Holy Avenger gave lower uptime, but gave it to you in the form of an extra cooldown that you could control. Sanctified Wrath's MoP incarnation was somewhat lacking – it would have been good if it was the high-DPS but middle-of-the-road option, but it ended up being an afterthought instead. It's Warlords implementation looks pretty solid so far though – higher average Holy Power income and lots of extra damage through Holy Wrath. Each has a niche it can fill, and you may pick different ones for different encounters because each favors different encounter mechanics.
I think they *can* make the level-100 tier interesting in a similar fashion. But it will be interesting only if the three talents provide different strengths. For example, if they turned out something like this:
- Holy Shield – Passive, always-on, best average survivability, average damage
- Seraphim – Highest short-term survivability and burst damage (during buff), but slightly lower average survivability and damage (due to the fallow periods).
- Empowered Seals – Most flexible. Lets you swap from high single-target damage mode (SoT) to high AoE damage mode (SoR) to high-survival mode (SoI), but you can't have all at once. Average performance (i.e. cycling SoI while tanking and SoT while off-tanking) should be close to the baseline set by Holy Shield.
You can see the idea here. Rather than picking the "winner" in that tier, you pick the talent that suits your purpose. Empowered Seals might be a 5% DPS increase with SoT up, but a ~5-10% sacrifice in survivability compared to Holy Shield. And vice versa if you're running with SoI. Empowered Seals would give you the flexibility to adapt to the encounter rather than be stuck with the 30-second Seraphim cycle or the passive Holy Shield benefit.
But none of that works if Empowered Seals is effectively a passive effect that costs you 3 GCDs. If you have two passive choices, you pick the one that works best. If sims tell us that it's worth spending those GCDs and losing Seal of Insight procs to keep up the buffs we get from Empowered Seals, then we take that over Holy Shield.
The way to make the talent interesting is to make our seals interesting, but I don't think that seal twisting is the way to do it. Making seal twisting extremely powerful by making each seal grant a very powerful buff is putting lipstick on a pig – it's covering what I feel is bad gameplay by just making the numbers big. I'd rather see Empowered Seals make seals in a substantial way that gives us interesting choices.
So rather than making Empowered Seals a rotational gimmick tied to Judgment, I'd rather see it actually empower our seals. Make SoT do more significant single-target damage. Make SoR do more significant AoE damage. Make Seal of Insight do more significant self-healing.
Better yet, make each of them into a mini cooldown. Maybe the talent gives you an "Empower Seals" spell that actually empowers whatever seal you have active to make it stronger. Using it doubles the effect of your seals for 20 seconds, with a 1 minute cooldown. Now, every minute you get to make an interesting decision.
Do I want single-target damage? Switch to Truth and pop Empower Seals for a burn phase. Do I want AoE damage for picking up and burning down some adds? Switch to Righteousness and pop Empower Seals for 20-seconds of AoE burst. Do I want more survivability? Use ES with SoI active and you have another mini cooldown. This fills a different niche than Seraphim in that you get to choose your benefit every minute, and to be balanced it would give you a bigger boost to that area than Seraphim does.
That's interesting seal game play that actually involves making choices, rather than just mindlessly cycling through maintenance buffs.


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The Band Perry Reveal Their Favorite Part of Touring With Brad Paisley
The Band Perry announced that next month, they will rejoin Brad Paisley for the second part of his Virtual Reality Tour. We're sure that siblings Kimberly, Neil and Reid Perry love hanging out with Paisley, but it sounds like his incredible dinner spreads are the band's favorite part of life on the road.
Frontlady Kimberly Perry admitted that part of Paisley's appeal is the mouth-watering catered pasta bar he offers every single night. As if a gourmet pasta bar isn't enough to make you want to hop on a bus and travel around with him, he has also offered milkshake bars and petting zoos in the past to keep up morale on long runs.
"I don't know what he's comin' up with next, but hopefully it has to do with food," says Reid Perry (quote via Republic Nashville).
The second leg of the Virtual Reality Tour will kick off on May 18 in St. Louis, Mo. The Band Perry will open several of Paisley's tour dates until the end of June, when the sibling threesome will head to Ireland and the UK. Then, it looks like they'll be back on Paisley's tour for a few more dates in August. The Perrys have been pushing their new single, 'Postcard From Paris' during the tour, but we hear that they might start debuting some new material, too.
Check out the band's website for a complete list of live performances to come.

subset: commoncrawl


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"In the more than four decades that I have been reading and writing about the findings of nutritional science, I have come across nothing more intelligent, sensible and simple to follow than the 64 principles outlined in a slender, easy-to-digest new book called Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, by Michael Pollan." –Jane Brody, The New York Times
"The most sensible diet plan ever? We think it's the one that Michael Pollan outlined a few years ago: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." So we're happy that in his little new book, Food Rules, Pollan offers more common-sense rules for eating: 64 of them, in fact, all thought-provoking and some laugh-out-loud funny." —The Houston Chronicle
" It doesn't get much easier than this. Each page has a simple rule, sometimes with a short explanation, sometimes without, that promotes Pollan's back-to-the-basics-of-food (and-food-enjoyment) philosophy." —The Los Angeles Times
"A useful and funny purse-sized manual that could easily replace all the diet books on your bookshelf." –Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times


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Kerry Grens
Fewer than five percent of patients prescribed narcotics to treat chronic pain become addicted to the drugs, according to a new analysis of past research.
The finding suggests that concerns about the risk of becoming addicted to prescription painkillers might be "overblown," said addiction specialist Dr. Michael Fleming at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.
"If you're a person that doesn't have a history of addiction and doesn't have any major psychiatric problems, narcotics are relatively safe as long as your doctor doesn't give you too much and uses the right medication," Fleming, who was not involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.
Some recent research has concluded the same thing, but another expert remained skeptical about the new report because many of the studies it included were not considered the best quality research, and they varied widely in their results.
"I think the jury's still out" on how worrisome prescription opioid addiction is, said Joseph Boscarino of the Geisinger Clinic in Danville, Pennsylvania, who studies pain and addiction.
Opioid painkillers, which include oxycodone, fentanyl and morphine, have only recently become available for patients with chronic pain, said Boscarino, who was not part of the new study.
In the past, the drugs were almost exclusively reserved for cancer patients and people with short-term pain - on the theory that in the first category of patients the need outweighed the risk, and in the second group, short term use was unlikely to lead to long-term addiction.
"They opened up (to chronic pain patients), and since then there's been a wave of addiction, especially in the last five years," Boscarino said.
One recent study found that the number of people diagnosed with a substance abuse problem increased by 70 percent from 2001 to 2009, and doctors suspect the increased popularity of prescription painkillers is a primary driver (see Reuters Health story of October 22, 2012).
Of course, not all these cases reflect patients who are using the drugs as directed - or who even have a prescription to treat chronic pain.
To get a sense of how addictive opioid painkillers are for those patients who do have a prescription, researchers from The Cochrane Collaboration, an independent group that reviews research on medications, collected the results from 17 studies covering more than 88,000 people.
All of the patients had been prescribed opioids to treat chronic pain, and nearly all of them had pain unrelated to cancer.
In 10 of the studies, patients used the painkillers for anywhere from three months to several years, while one study included just short-term use of several days and the others did not report the length of time patients were on the drugs.
Taken together, the studies found that 4.5 percent of people developed a dependency on the painkillers.
"It's a low percentage," said Dr. Silvia Minozzi, lead author of the study and a member of the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group in Rome.
Although 4.5 percent was the most common rate of addiction among the studies, Minozzi pointed out there were large differences in the rates each study found - ranging from zero to 31 percent.
For instance, a study by Boscarino and his colleagues that was included in Minozzi's review found that 25 percent of patients became addicted.
The group of patients Boscarino surveyed had a high rate of alcoholism and illegal drug use, though.
He said the disparities among the various studies could also be a result of how people were surveyed about their behaviors.
"We surveyed the patients about their pain in their homes (where) they were relaxed," he said. "I think they were more inclined not to try to hide their symptoms."
Minozzi's review found that, among the three studies with information on substance abuse, people with a history of drug use were more likely than other patients to develop an addiction to their prescription pain pills.
For most people, addiction "does happen, but it's not very common," Fleming told Reuters Health. "But if you give a big bottle of Percocets to someone who has an addiction history, who may or may not be using cocaine and marijuana at the same time, they have pain and maybe they should be treated, but they're much more likely to get into trouble with that."
Knowing this can help physicians screen patients to judge who might be the most vulnerable to becoming addicted and get them into the appropriate interventions, he said.
Minozzi noted the fact that her review found a "deficiency of good-quality" studies on this subject, "seems to stand in contrast to the widespread concern of doctors and authorities relating to the prescription of opioids for pain."


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In an emergency order, a Chicago judge Thursday awarded temporary physical possession of Dywane Wade's sons, ages 3 and 8, to the Miami Heat guard instead of to the children's mother, Siohvaughn.
The court found that an emergency order was merited because Wade's time for visitation with his children "has been frustrated on an ongoing basis as a result of continual interference" by his estranged wife Siohvaughn. The court cited three instances, one in March and two in May, where Dwyane Wade's visitation schedules were altered, the last happening when his wife allegedly would not open the gate to her home so the boys could be picked up.
Before leaving the courthouse Wade, who just settled a $25 million lawsuit over some South Florida restaurants that were to carry his name, alluded to spending the summer with his sons after that trial ended earlier this week.
U.S. & World
Wade is not only seeking a divorce, but full custody of his sons.
Editor's Note: This article has been corrected to clarify the headline and to remove language that did not meet NBC standards.


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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Felix Frankfurter and the Revolving Door
After graduating from the Harvard Law School in 1906, Frankfurter joined Hornblower, Byrne, Miller and Potter, an eminent Wall Street firm. He quickly tired of the tedious work and irksome obligation to cultivate wealthy clients and therefore jumped at the chance to join the legal staff of Henry L. Stimson. Stimson, a patrician Republican, had himself put aside a corporate practice to become U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York at the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt. When TR's successor, William Howard Taft, appointed Stimson Secretary of War in 1911, Frankfurter went along as law officer in the Bureau of Insular Affairs, even though the received wisdom at the time was that "an able man was as likely to enter a monastery as the ranks of government workers."
While trying to puzzle out some difficulty involving the Panama Canal, Frankfurter wrote to Eugene Wambaugh for readings that might illuminate the problem. Wambaugh had joined the Harvard law faculty in 1892, after having demonstrated his devotion to the case method with missionary service on the law faculty of the University of Iowa. His penchant for the "shrewd and even mordant phrase," the "quizzical paradox," and the "extravagant understatement" had appealed to the brilliant young law student from City College. The two commenced a "bantering companionship," in which, Frankfurter recalled, "praise from him took the form not of approval but of spur."
Wambaugh sent Frankfurter the requested references, but he had an additional piece of advice for his former student in Washington. "Let me not fail to warn you against staying there too long," he wrote. "To serve the Government is a privilege and a duty, if you can afford it; but most young men have a right to have in mind the pecuniary needs of later life, and I regret to say that for men of high ability the Government does not offer a career which in the pecuniary sense is desirable." He closed, "You see it is a professor's duty to take care of his former pupils as well as to think of the public interest."
Frankfurter did not welcome the advice. Yes, the quality of government lawyering was often poor, he replied, but "do you not think there is a decided tendency for betterment of things, and increasing hope for self-respecting permanency" in government service? "In all events," he assured Wambaugh, "I do not think I am yet within the danger of inert fixity."
Frankfurter showed the exchange to his friend Winfred Denison, who had toiled beside him as an assistant U.S. attorney and now worked for another Wall Streeter, Attorney General George Wickersham. "I have been getting quite an accumulation of that line of talk recently," Frankfurter complained. "On the whole, I think it has a very wholesome effect in stiffening the viewpoint sought to be corrected."
But Denison was a step beyond Wambaugh--and even further from Frankfurter's ideal of the government lawyer as British civil servant. "One thing Professor Wambaugh does not consider is the monetary value of a reputation gained in the Government service and the greater opportunity to make a broad reputation there," Denison observed. "I do not believe you, for instance, suffered more than a temporary inconvenience (now not even that), and your possibilities for a large income when you want it are much greater, I should think, than if you had not gone into public service." He dryly concluded: "I am sorry to eliminate the generosity of the service, by this process."
Denison's reaction called to mind such negative examples as James Montgomery Beck (pictured at right), who bolted the Department of Justice for Shearman & Sterling in the middle of a great antitrust case, but Frankfurter chose to find it amusing. "This haven of hope is delicious!" he wrote in the margin of Denison's letter. Frankfurter would be less amused during the waning years of the New Deal, when the "haven" of private practice proved all too real a temptation for the proteges he had hoped would form the nucleus of a permanent and prestigious federal legal service.
2 comments:
- Dean C. Rowan said...
It so happens I'm reading James Chace's recent biography of Dean Acheson, a clerk and lifelong friend of Frankfurter's. Not long before his appointment as Secretary of State by Truman, "Acheson was ready to quit high office and return to the law. He felt he was running out of money after years on a government payroll and he certainly had no expectation that he would ever replace the revered General Marshall." This passage occurs in at the close of a chapter preceding one entitled, "The Habit-Forming Drug of Public Life," wherein, "[a]fter his return to Covington and Burling in the fall, Acheson did indeed find that little if anything was likely to come his way that would equal in importance the issues that he had dealth with as under secretary and often acting secretary of state."
- June 11, 2008 at 12:28:00 PM EDT
- Shag from Brookline said...
I would be interested in a qualitative comparison pre-1945 and post-1945 of the "possibilities for a large income when you want it are much greater ... than if you had not gone into public service." To what extent is an attorney going into public service today primarily a stepping stone to higher income, like former Congressment becoming lobbyists? Is there a revolving door for such attorneys?
- June 11, 2008 at 8:55:00 PM EDT


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Tong Zhengang was born in Xinjiang, China in 1959. He studied at the China PLA Art Academy and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing. His works were selected to be exhibited numerous times at the Moualot Lithoprint Factory and the Lithograph Museum in Paris. He also had solo exhibitions in the Barcelona Contemporary Museum of Art, Spain and in Hong Kong, and the American Embassy in Beijing.
Tong expresses his feelings and understanding of the value and meaning of everyday life by depicting the female in the appearance of portraits, or by placing females together with males in the same environment, so as to establish an interactive relationship between his personal view and the objective view of the male. In Tong's works there is the attainment of an ultimate goal of artistic creation: freedom from issues of harmony in aesthetics, the conversion of art directly into the spirit of human life, and from that into art. The purpose of Tong's works is to serve as criticism, in order to change of the inner mindsets of people.
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Reading Tong Zhengang's paintings from an academic viewpoint, it is undoubtedly essential to have a thorough review and comparison on contemporary art trends. Or else we can just immerse ourselves in the unique atmosphere that he builds in his works and nothing more. It would be prejudicial and limited if we simply define Tong Zhengang as a Chinese traditional ink painter, because his artistic career progressed from seal carving, calligraphy and then ink painting. In his latest creations, Tong Zhengang has broken through the general concept of the creation of Chinese ink painting, no matter in terms of the materials used or the expression of ideas. What does it mean? First of all, let us return to the painting media that is called Chinese painting and its related languages as the starting point of this short article.
As everyone knows, under the background of modern culture, there is a huge controversy which has lasted for a long time over what is Chinese painting. However, I think that in traditional Chinese painting, there are some basic elements that cannot be substituted by other formats of painting such as paper, pigments, the calligraphic brush stroke, poetic atmosphere, integration of poetry, calligraphy, painting and seals, as well as the ways of constructing the interplay of emptiness and substance, white and black, and the artistic conception of viewing vastness in a small painting. When doing research on the development of Chinese ink painting in the past two decades, people have undeniably noticed the transformation of ink painting based on these elements. Specifically speaking, there are Gu Wenda's breakthrough in the concept of calligraphy and painting sharing the same origin, the new Literati paintings' experienced evasion from new trend art, and experimental ink paintings' divorcement and re-union of these basic elements, and so forth.
There is a common understanding by art critics and painters that, compared to oil painting which is an imported art form, so-called Chinese ink painting has encountered much more serious challenge and chaos in recent years. Looking around widely,we can discover that, apart from the main forces of creation from civilian and official traditional painters as before, those who really want to enhance and glorify our national quintessence of Chinese culture in the broader view of present day are under more and more criticism from critic and creation groups.Perhaps, sticking to the bottom line of ink painting represents a voice in this disordered art field. Nevertheless, it is also fruitless to blindly return totradition or set the regulation and standard for tradition in advance. For the creation of artists, ideas are without boundaries, as is technique. Didn't Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, contemporary philosophers in France, said that thought can rove around "thousand highlands"?
Now, let us look at the case of Tong Zhengang see how he breaks through the turmoil to express himself.
It cannot be denied that if we look back on Tong Zhengang'screative progress, his early works are deeply influenced by Chinese traditionalpainting. Yet what is worth noticing is, even in that period his painting hasalready carried vivid characteristics: from the paintings we can clearly seethe impact of composition of seal carving and movement of the knife. Also, wecan see the use of brush tip which contains the forceful feature of calligraphyin Han and Song dynasties, as well as the vigorousness of woodcarving blockprint and clumsiness of inscriptions on metal and stone bells. The most outstanding point is his full composition, which is the pursuit in Chinese painting theory of the so-called "so dense that even not allowing ventilation". His distinctive application of essential factors of traditional Chinese painting, state clearly that Tong Zhengang has already get out of the influence of inheriting relationship of certain painting schools. To all kinds of essential factors that composeChinese painting, he has his own unique feelings and understanding. We are afraid that it's difficult to make clear every small detail of Tong Zhengang's evolution of thoughts, but in today's condition that information is commonly shared and it goes without saying that he is affected by various types of art tides.
Such point possesses significant meaning as regards our understanding of Tong Zhengang's experiments on paper material later on. Due to his comprehension and sensitiveness towards the charm of language of forms, Tong Zhengang was urged to start placing his interest on the breakthrough of traditional painting language at an early stage; afterwards he even boldly made noticeable experiments on painting languages. In the "Transmigration Series"and "Transformation Series" done in 1996, large amounts of acrylic pigment andprinting color were applied in experiments on paper and traditional Chinese medium.
Some art critics believe that, initially when Tong Zhengangwas doing the creation of "New Literati Painting", he was good at showing thevitality of the calligraphic brushstroke, and did not confine himself to theaccuracy of the modeling of figures. This also states that he has alreadyrevealed his predilection towards painting languages in terms of form. Owing tothis special obsession, he accumulated a capability of form languages surpassing the transmission of contents in the following process of hispursuit. This is the reason for the strong visual impact from his recentcreation on paper - "Blue Series".
Regarding Tong Zhengang as partial and sensitive to paintinglanguages of form does not mean he neglects the contents of paintings. Wouldrather saying that, if we over emphasize the symbolic contents of his paintingforms, it will result in the neglect of his experiments and explorations onpainting materials and the aesthetics characters produced. From Tong Zhengang's early and recent paintings, we can really see the elements of classical symbols, such as beautiful ladies, vases, screens and palace lanterns. We canalso see the elements of modern daily life, such as wineglasses with highstands, eyeglasses, and incandescent lamps. It will be too much prejudiced andliterary, if we point out their implied meanings in the painting in detail.
The contemporary meaning of painting lie in its own charm of language forms; it is the outcome of the capacity and extension of visual languages.
In the recent "Blue Series", the arrangement of scenery andfigures becomes more and more simplified. Yet, the use of color has offset themonotone created by such simplification - dark blue color has densely coveredthe sky range upon range, dragging the heavy body, rolling, gushing anddispersing everywhere; light blue mountains are also personified as big wavesgoing on and on. As distant views, they are full of rhythm of life. It is as if the starry starry night created by Vincent Van Gogh reappears on the paper of Chinese painting. Other techniques used to express figures in the foregroundform a vivid comparison to the large-scale blue color: blushes on cheeks andeyelids of figures, rouge on their lips, and also half-opened sleepy eyes.These enable viewers to notice that, in his latest works, as always, Tong Zhengang still maintains his intense attention to the life state of human. The only difference is, the chilly and gorgeous beautiful elements constructed by modern ladies, green vases, window lattices and fan shapes have been replaced by men and women, the old and young clustered round by big flowers.
The sky is so blue, thick and full of variations, filledwith all kinds of transitions. However for those people who are suppressed bythe sky, they appear to be dull, indolent, and even puzzled. This is a contrastcaused by visual form. Undoubtedly, the artist has an inexplicable unconsciousdirection behind such method of creation. At least, we can see that theideology of green porcelain and rouged ladies in his previous paintings hascast shadows on his selection of several colors in recent paintings. Even so,this reappearance has already broken away from the literary traces that hisprevious creations have not eliminated. Only two to three simple color tones and striking compositions already fully illustrate the charm of form languages in paintings, carrying such information that: this is the times when is in vogue of mixed materialism, behind the wealthy life there is still an inexplicable confusion. Different from the previous paintings which through themutual blending of elements of all kinds of characters and patterns depictedthe feeling of feminized indolence; these new paintings emphasize theconciseness and originality of different kinds of elements.
These enable viewers to taste the rich meaning of the images from the simplex and succinct visual images - we are in the time which is full of hopes and confusion,looking at these shocking pictures, everyone's heart must well up with deep feelings. Here, the artist uses his unique way to mold a portrait ofcontemporary people, which reaches their deep anxiety hidden in the innermostsoul. It is hard to achieve such an effect only depending on the reappearanceof the real objects and weaving of various kinds of elements.
The indolence and giddiness under Tong Zhengang's brushesseems contradictory to his own heavy build. However, a number of writers havediscussed his relationship with females; thereby we can have a deeperunderstanding on the feeling of giddiness in his paintings. In fact, employing females as the main themes is merely the juncture that Tong Zhengang involves the secular life through painting. This becomes more and more obvious in hiscreation of painting recently. In other words, Tong Zhengang employs his own style (mostly images of female characters) to express his attention towards contemporary social life, reflecting his individual sensitiveness and understanding of painting vocabularies.
To derive nutrients from traditional art and boldly breakapart, polish, absorb, then add in fresh material, finally transforms hisparticular artistic expression, and enables Tong Zhengang's creation to veerfrom the limitation, contradiction and disputes of the trends of thought ofChinese ink painting in the past two decades. Then he advances to therearrangement of varied painting resources, readjustment of the active andpassive relations, and the feeling of pressing close to the selfhood andreality. Exactly for this meaningful reason, Tong Zhengang's artistic practice has paved a route for the development of people's thoughts on flat-surfaced paintings (here, it is no longer on the original level of Chinese traditional ink painting).
Happiness Index, Ode To Art Gallery, Singapore
Happiness Index, 798 Art District, Beijing
Bliss - Tong Zhengang's Oil Paintings' Yan Club Arts Centre, 798 Art District, Beijing
Life and Power on Paper, 798 Art District, Beijing
My Sky - Exhibition of Tong Zhengang's ContemporaryFIne Works, Yi Jing Xuan Gallery, Beijing
Rhythm -Tong Zhengang's Calligraphy, International Art Gallery, Hong Kong
Expectations - Tong Zhengang's Fan Paintings, International Art Gallery, Hong Kong
Tong Zhengang's World of Red, The American Embassy,Beijing 2002:
Post Expressionism: Tong Zhengang's Paintings, RedSquare Gallery, Beijing
Free of Ailments - Tong Zhengang's Ink World, The Barcelona Contemporary Art Museum, Spain
Sounds of Nature - Lithoprint Art and CalligraphyExhibition, The Lithoprint Museum, Paris
Tong Zhenggang's Fan Painting Exhibition, Painting
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Dig the style of a 1930s coachbuilt concourse winner, but are merely moderately rich and actually want to drive the car on the road? The Delahaye Bugnotti Roadster recreates the timeless look with a modern LS1 V8.
Penned by Chip Foose with the intention of referencing the mid-'30s Delahayes and Bugattis, the Bugnotti Roadster is actually an asymetric design, with chrome skins on the right side pontoons and no skins on the left. Delahaye apparently couldn't decide which look to go with, so it opted for both.
The New Jersey company describes the front pontoons as "chipmunk cheeks," they're extra wide so they can fully enclose the front wheels, yet acommodate what's presumably a reasonable amount of steering lock.
Other than listing the engine as an LS1 and the automatic transmission as a GM 4L60E, there's not a lot of information on what's underneath the composite skin of the Roadster. That's probably not the point though, buyer's aren't going to drop something in the ballpark of a quarter million dollars to drive the Bugnotti fast, they're going to spend that money to pose and, well, look at the damn thing. [Delahaye USA]


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MOVIE REVIEW- Better than Up?: Clooney, Streep make Fox fantastic
The characters may be talking animal puppets, but director Wes Anderson has never made a movie more recognizably his own than Fantastic Mr. Fox. Likewise, though his voice may be coming out of a fox– an extremely dapper fox– George Clooney has never been more himself. Meryl Streep as his wife (they apparently live in a country where foxes are allowed to marry)? Well, you know Streep. She totally becomes Mrs. Fox, and that's okay, too.
Fantastic Mr. Fox is based on a book by Roald Dahl, but his macabre touch is nowhere in evidence, having been replaced by that of Anderson and his writing partner Noah Baumbach.
I can't imagine anyone of any age not being able to enjoy this hilarious mash-up on some level. There's a bit of Chicken Run in the farmers vs. animals plot, everything from Burl Ives and the Beach Boys to Georges Delerue on the soundtrack, and even a quote from Rebel without a Cause for cusses and giggles.
Oh yeah, the word "cuss" is used instead of a bleep in place of strong language. By the time the movie's over, you, too, will be saying, "What the cuss!"
Mr. and Mrs. Fox are in trouble for squab-stealing when Mrs. Fox announces she's pregnant with their first cub, who will be named Ash (Jason Schwartzman). She makes Mr. Fox promise he'll get into a less dangerous line of work.
Two years later ("12 fox-years") Mr. Fox has become a newspaper columnist (talk about endangered species!) and is tired of living in a hole. Even though they're poor, he goes out and buys a tree for the family to live in. Around this time, Cousin Kristofferson (Eric Anderson, the filmmaker's brother) comes for an extended visit and upsets Ash with his natural superiority.
Old habits die hard. Mr. Fox gets the urge again and plans "one last big job." He can't help sounding like Danny Ocean as he goes over the details with his assistant, Kylie the opossum (Wally Wolodarsky). It turns out to be a triple-header, hitting all three hated farmers, "Boggis and Bunce and Bean, one fat, one short, one lean," as the kids sing. (Michael Gambon voices Bean. The others don't have much to say.)
Ocean's– er, Fox's– Two (Three after Kristofferson joins them) are initially successful but get greedy and wind up endangering all the local animals as the farmers declare all-out war. This is when most animated films run into trouble by allowing the action to take over, but Fantastic Mr. Fox keeps its wit about it, remaining creative and funny while not neglecting the family issues that need to be resolved.
Anderson voices Stan Weasel, the realtor, himself, and employs other actors he's worked with before: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Willem Dafoe, in addition to Schwartzman and Wolodarsky. Then there's Jarvis Cocker, whose banjo-pickin' folk song cues a great punch line.
Just as Anderson's live-action films never quite seem real, Fantastic Mr. Fox doesn't quite seem unreal. The stop motion animation can be amazingly smooth and amusingly jerky, seemingly at the same time. If computer animation has got you thinking you'll never see hair again in an animated film, this movie has enough fur to be picketed by PETA, if they can prove what creatures it came from.
You'll remember the rabid beagle, the detachable tail and the game of Whack-Bat, which is like an earthbound Quidditch played with flaming pine cones. You'll remember the eyeballs, the eating, the digging and the diving, the whistling and clicking; but you may not remember the last time you had this much fun at a movie.
I'm a big fan of The Royal Tennenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited, but Fantastic Mr. Fox is easily Anderson's best picture yet. I didn't think Up could have any competition for the year's best animated feature, but this one's got me thinking again.
1 comment
I can't believe this film was made for under 30M. By Hollywood standards, that's quite low budget. Considering how painstaking stop-motion can be and that Wes employed A-listers. Some may argue that the puppets' movement seem jerky and not fluid compared to Coraline, the other stop-mo released this year. But Coraline used CG to enhance, thus the glossy feel of the animation. FMF is out and out, old-school stop-mo reminiscent of the California raisins commercials. The effect is like a storybook or a diorama theater. Imagine the number of frames Wes used to create this.
The animals facial expressions impressed me the most (particularly the sidekick of Mr. Fox). Quite hard to pull off if fur is getting in the way, unlike clay.


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Retaining that No. 1 national ranking has been elusive throughout this wild season in college basketball, and Indiana was the latest to lose at the top - again.
Most important and maybe more challenging for the Hoosiers, however, is holding on to first place in the tough-as-ever Big Ten.
Trevor Mbakwe had 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting and 12 rebounds to help Minnesota take down top-ranked Indiana 77-73 on Tuesday night, the seventh time the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll has lost this season. Three of those losses were by the Hoosiers, who were No. 1 when they fell to Butler and Wisconsin earlier this season. All three opponents were unranked at the time.
Indiana (24-4, 12-3) has held the No. 1 ranking for 10 of the 17 polls by the AP this season, including the last four, and that will likely change next week. But fending off Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin is what's on the minds of the Hoosiers, who'll take a one-game lead in the conference race into Saturday's game against Iowa.
"Winning the Big Ten was going to be tough whether we won today or lost," said star guard Victor Oladipo, who had 16 points. "We knew it was going to be tough from the jump. Now it's even tougher. But I think my team is ready for it. We just have to go back and see what we did wrong and correct it."
Andre Hollins added 16 points for the Gophers (19-9, 7-8), who outrebounded Cody Zeller and the Hoosiers by a whopping 44-30 and solidified their slipping NCAA tournament hopes with an emphatic performance against the conference leader. The fired-up fans swarmed the court as the last seconds ticked off, the first time that's happened here since a 2002 win over Indiana.
"There were just too many times when that first shot went up and they were there before we were because we didn't get into their bodies," Hoosiers coach Tom Crean said. "We weren't physical enough on the glass. That's the bottom line."
Zeller, the second-leading shooter in the Big Ten, went 2 for 9. He had nine points with four turnovers. Minnesota had 40 points in the paint to Indiana's 22.
Mbakwe, a sixth-year senior, had a lot to do with that. While positing his conference-leading seventh double-double of the season, the 24-year-old Mbakwe was a man among boys in many ways in this game, dominating both ends of the court when the Gophers needed him most. He grabbed six of Minnesota's 23 offensive rebounds, two of them to keep a key possession alive. His off-balance put-back drew contact for a three-point play with 7:22 left that gave the Gophers a 55-52 lead.
Mbakwe was called for a loudly questioned blocking foul, his fourth, with 4:39 remaining on Zeller's fast-break layup and free throw that put the Hoosiers up 59-58. But Austin Hollins answered with a pump-fake layup that drew a foul for a three-point play and a two-point advantage for the Gophers.
The Hoosiers didn't lead again, and Joe Coleman's fast-break dunk with 2:35 left gave Minnesota a 68-61 cushion that helped it withstand a couple of 3-pointers by Christian Watford and one by Jordan Hulls in the closing minutes. That was the only basket Hulls made after halftime. He had 17 points.
"Just the way we bounced back is unbelievable. We showed that we can beat one of the best teams in the country. Now we have to build off this," said Mbakwe, whose team lost eight of its previous 11 games starting with an 88-81 loss at Indiana on Jan. 12. The Gophers were ranked eighth then. They didn't even receive a vote in the current poll. That could change next week.
The Hoosiers are still in position for their first outright Big Ten regular-season championship since 1993. With another home game against Ohio State on March 5, Indiana could still clinch the title before the finale at Michigan on March 10.
For now, though, the Hoosiers have to regroup and re-establish their inside game after the trampling in the post they endured here.
"They were relentless on the glass. We just didn't do a great job of boxing them out," Oladipo said.
Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP


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Omega-3s protect the heart, soy and prebiotics lowered LDL cholesterol, and red yeast rice cut LDL in several new studies.
Doctors in an omega-3 study gave 12 healthy men, aged 53 to 65, increasing doses of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) over eight weeks. In two-week cycles, the men took 200 mg of DHA per day, 400 mg, 800 mg, and 1,600 mg per day. With the three lower doses, blood levels of vitamin E increased and signs of oxidative cell damage decreased. Doctors concluded that DHA in doses of 200 mg to 800 mg per day may have antioxidant effects and help prevent cardiovascular disease in healthy people.
In a cholesterol study, 23 men and women, average age 58, with borderline high LDL cholesterol, ate soy or prebiotics separately or combined as part of a low-fat dairy or soy-based diet. After four weeks, while none of the other groups changed significantly, those who ate soy with prebiotics in the soy-based diet had about 5 percent lower LDL cholesterol.
In another cholesterol study, doctors noted that some people with high cholesterol stop taking statin medication due to muscle pain, and wanted to test red yeast rice as an alternative. Forty-three adults with high cholesterol who had stopped taking statin drugs (other than pravastatin) took red yeast rice or 40 mg of pravastatin per day. Participants also enrolled in a lifestyle-change program focusing on nutrition, regular exercise and relaxation techniques. After 12 weeks, a small percentage in each group had dropped out due to muscle pain. LDL cholesterol also decreased in both groups; 27 percent less for the pravastatin group and 30 percent less for those who took red yeast rice.
Atherosclerosis; 2010, Vol. 208, No. 2, 467-72
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586854) is provided courtesy of (Swenson & Ecuyer Realty). The information being provided is for consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.


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Facebook went public this year, forcing it to not only open its financial kimono, but also to mature as a business -- and that maturity continues as it rolls out new features to help businesses better control its social media performance.
Three new features allow brands to have tighter control of who sees what and when.
First there's the timed release of posts. Most brands have been using HootSuite or some other third-party app to keep a steady presence on the platform. Now it's handled within Facebook's interface. Not a huge deal, but a long time coming and a definite efficiency for companies.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
There is one caveat: one cannot unschedule a post if it's within three minutes of going live. (So, you know, think ahead...)
Second there's the admin access control. Used to be if brands wanted a vendor to handle something for them on Facebook, the brand would hand over administrative access from stem to stern, allowing full access to non-employees. Now there are tighter controls around this, allowing for greater security -- another critical advancement.
Finally there's the unpublished posts. (But why, you ask, would anyone waste time preparing a post and not publishing it? Good question...) Mostly, it's so brands can control their marketing message without spamming its users main newsfeed. Segmenting certain posts for certain demographics -- and putting a budget behind it -- is a key feature of Facebook.
This keeps
us brands from getting in users grills too much, which leads to un-follows, which leads to management getting quite concerned.


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Stories of the Victorian Writers
- Author(s)
- Janie Roxburgh Walker
- Format
- Paperback | 132 pages
- Dimensions
- 189 x 246 x 7mm | 249g
- Publication date
- 16 Aug 2010
- Publisher
- Nabu Press
- Publication City/Country
- Charleston SC, United States
- Language
- English
- Illustrations note
- Illustrations, black and white
- 1177303949
- 9781177303941
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.


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REAL ESTATE- ON THE BLOCK- Heritage indeed: 2003 pricing and driving in Fluvanna
Address: 350 Main St.
Neighborhood: Palmyra in Fluvanna County
Asking: $193,000
Assessment: $188,800
Year Built: 1920
Size: 2,112 finished; 400 unfinished
Land: 0.55 acres
Agent: Jim McVay, Roy Wheeler Realty Co., 434-962-3420
Curb Appeal: 8 out of 10
Fluvanna County: Proud of our past, confident in our future," reads one Route 15 sign on the way to Palmyra. If you believe in the future of this burgeoning population center southeast of Charlottesville, you also believe in reasonably priced real estate.
Two weeks ago, we looked at a house under 200K on in Charlottesville. This week, a four-bedroom, picket-fenced house on Main Street in quaint Palmyra is under the microscope.
What you're losing, of course, is walkability. Although Palmyra's town center boasts a gas station, bank, courthouse, and the Old Stone Jail Museum, jobs are thin on the ground. So the home's owner, John Lohman, commuted to his position at Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
There's also community life in Fluvanna. Lohman's next door neighbor and another UVA commuter, holds dinners and open-to-the-public house concerts once a month. (Bill Toms and John Allaire are her guests on June 17— see http://www.reverbnation.com/venue/villageconcerts for more information.)
The home is also a short walk away from the Heritage Rail Trail, located on 1,000 acres of public property along the Rivanna River. Gated Lake Monticello and its restaurants and grocery stores are ten minutes away.
This pale yellow house with blue-green trim is situated to the far right of its half-acre property that boasts two apple trees and flowers in bloom from spring to September. (There's a run-down garden shed, too.)
There are a few oddities to the place, starting with the non-functional picket fence that doesn't serve to keep deer out or dogs in, but creates a dividing line between the road and the wide front porch.
Lohman has made some improvements to the property, which he purchased for the today's asking price in 2003. He tore up the carpet in two upstairs bedrooms as well as the guest bed off of the foyer, exposing oak flooring downstairs and pine above. He stripped much of the wallpaper— some kitschy remnants remain— and installed central air conditioning on the second floor. He says the cool air "cascades down" to the second floor, so he didn't deem a first floor installation necessary.
The large living room hosts a wood-burning fireplace, and there's an adjoining bedroom and a full bath (with an older looking toilet but an adequate shower). On the other side, the living room flows into a spacious dining room, where Lohman used to hold dinners connected to the village concerts run by his neighbor.
After ripping out the wallpaper, Lohman painted the room brick red below the crown molding and white above. The wallpaper is still present in the kitchen– with a country motif of apple baskets and wheat sheaves. There's a gas stove, a built-in microwave. The kitchen floor is white tile, the counters Formica, and the wooden cabinets are in good condition, although the fixtures could be swapped out to modernize the place.
Past the kitchen lie an enclosed pantry and an alcove with washer/dryer hookups. (There's a second set in the unfinished basement as well; stairs to the basement are just past the pantry area.) The kitchen leads out to a large porch, and there's a second balcony off the master suite upstairs, big enough for breakfast.
The master suite is the only area of the house still sporting dingy white carpet (there's no hardwood underneath), but prospective buyers could use the money they save from the house purchase to install alternative flooring.
The layout for the master won't require reconfiguring; the bedroom is large, with a walk-in closet and adjoining laundry room. The master bath, with a jetted tub and frosted glass shower, still has wallpaper (gingham below, baby blue above, with pastel renditions of baths) that smacks of Beatrix Potter.
Although there's room for minor improvements, this house packs some bang in its 193,000 bucks. For a cheaper price, buyers get five times the acreage and more square footage than the Cherry Avenue property. If the drive doesn't faze you, Palmyra could be worth a look.
Each week, a brave local seller invites the Hook to provide an impartial, warts-and-all look at their real estate listing. E-mail yours today!


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Active shooter training held at UNO campus
In the wake of incidents like the Columbine and Newtown school shootings, police departments need to be prepared should the worst ever occur.
That's why Omaha police put on an "active killer" training exercise at the University of Nebraska Omaha on Friday.
-- See more photos from the training exercise
With the help of some student volunteers, officers went through training that can't be taught in a classroom.
"It's another thing to go through the motions and lock doors and physically telling students to barricade themselves and keep safe," said Officer James Shade. "So when you've physically gone through that exercise, it's a tremendous help."
During the drill, classes remained in session, both campuses were locked down and alerts were sent to all students.
Kyle Weber, who played the role of the shooter, said everything seemed to work well.
"(I) wasn't quite sure how comfortable I'd feel being the active shooter," Weber said.
The man calling the shots was also pleased with how the exercise went.
Friday's exercise was the first live training of its kind at UNO. Police will go over the drill to determine whether any adjustments need to be made to their response plan.


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For Western and Indian people.
Refresh Amma's meditation technique in English ! (translation available into European languages and Japanese on request).
You need to have learnt the IAM Technique before to attend this class !
IAM-35 is an advanced meditation technique. It takes only 35 minutes a day and works on a combination of breathing, body stretching and energy consciousness. It releases and relaxes many internal pressures and stresses. It prepares you, using different techniques, to go into a deep, calm meditative state.
The refresher is free of charge. You need to sign up at the IAM Office (Dhyanamandiram building, Amritapuri, everyday from 10 am to 1pm except on Tuesdays). Please contact us for more information : thatscleanmaids.com.
If you plan to stay overnight in the ashram, kindly inform the Indian accomodation (firstname.lastname@example.com) or the International Office if you are not Indian (email@example.com) to ask for accommodation.


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Frank Bruni on the Great Artisanal Pizza Boom
New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni examines the Great Pizza Boom of 2009 in his story "The Cult of Artisanal Pizza." It's a must-read that packs a lot of info. Let's summarize.
The Cliffs Notes Version
- Bruni makes the claim that the artisanal boom started in 2004 with the opening of Franny's and Una Pizza Napoletana within a few months of each other. "Both brought a new kind of cachet (and vanity) to pizza making and pizza eating in this city. Both changed its demographics"
- He purposely focuses on newer pizzerias, leaving out old favorites "because they're products of less self-conscious pizza times." (So no comments here about "Where's Di Fara?" OK?)
- Why the boom? And why are fancy-pants chefs and restaurant moguls getting into the game? It's the economy, stupid. Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr, who's eatsearching for a pizzeria of his own, says, "this seems a lot easier—less money, less pressure. You're concentrating on one thing rather than sous-chefs and pastry chefs" [After the jump, I give negs to Mr. Bruni's rave review of Veloce Pizzeria.]
On Veloce Pizzeria
Frank Bruni sort of forces my hand here on Veloce Pizzeria. I had been waiting to visit a second and third time before saying anything about it, but based on the lunch I had there last week, I disagree with his assessment: "The nicely charred crust—with a dough of potato, durum and fine zero-zero flour—was firm enough to support a generous measure of toppings."
I will say that the sauce on my square Margherita pizza—a thick, cooked-down, tangy and rich tomato concoction—was excellent. And the crisp bits of cheese at the edges were an added bonus. But my slices were sloppy, floppy, and greasy. There was no firmness whatsoever, and I had to eat the four-slice pie with a knife and fork rather than out of hand.
- Bruni believes "by and large that Neapolitan pies—if they can avoid soupiness, as they did at Motorino—are the most appealing"
- Looks can be deceiving, he says—and the prettiest ovens don't always make the best pies. Zero Otto Nove ("insipid") and Kesté ("sausage that could have come from a Jimmy Dean's freezer package"), in particular, receive some serious smackdowns
- "...the wave of ostensibly principled pizza restaurants since 2004 has produced a mixed bag"
- Few places combine a winning atmosphere and perfect pizza. Roberta's and Tonda, for example, have killer ambiance but OK pizza
- Consistency is damn hard to come by
There's a nice series of multimedia audio slideshows that goes along with the main story, with Bruni narrating 30-second snippets over photos of various pizzas from Lucali, Roberta's, Motorino, Co. Company, Franny's, Veloce Pizzeria, Una Pizza Napoletana, and Kesté Pizza & Vino. There's a list of Bruni's top 5 pizzas in the city (UPN, Veloce, Motorino, Co., Franny's), nd there's also a Google map that the Times has compiled and that I am not linking to because it's a total rip off of the Slice Pizza Maps.
For the most part, though, I think Bruni's accurate with his assessments (with the exception of Veloce Pizzeria; see sidebar). He correctly points out that Lucali is good but that its crust is more crisp than crisp-chewy, that Co. Company is maddeningly inconsistent but transcendent at times, that Tonda has pretty run-of-the-mill pizza but an impressive aesthetic.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Hydraulic fluids
Fluids used in hydraulic systems serve multiple functions for the system performance:
- transfer power by flow under pressure acting on moveable parts
- lubricate surfaces in contact and relative motion – hydraulic cylinder components and seals, as well as other system components such as pumps and valves
- prevent corrosion of components
- cool the system, by carrying heat from areas of high load, motion or turbulence and spread it to the entire volume of the system including reservoir tanks and cooling equipment
- clean the system by carrying contaminants and wear particles to filter bodies or settling areas
The fluids used in hydraulic systems come in various chemical compositions and viscosity grades as suited to specific applications.
Viscosity is a measurement of the thickness of a fluid or the resistance to flow. Seal performance is affected by the viscosity of the fluid and changes to the viscosity during use. Most typical hydraulic fluids exhibit decreased viscosity with increasing temperature and increased viscosity with increasing pressure.
The most commonly used media in hydraulic systems are mineral oil based fluids with various additives. However, a variety of alternative fluids may be encountered in special applications. For example, biodegradable fluids such as synthetic (HEES) or natural esters (HETG) and polyalphaolefines (PAO) may be used to reduce environmental impact in the event of accidental spills. Flame retardant fluids based on water or synthetic esters may be safely used in confined spaces or where the hydraulic system is used in close proximity to ignition sources. The data, specifications and recommendations in this section are for common mineral oil fluids. For guidance on specifications of sealing systems for alternative fluids, contact SKF.
The chemical composition of hydraulic fluids can impact the seal life and performance depending on compatibility with the seal material(s). Absorption and reaction of the seal material(s) with non-compatible fluids can cause, for example:
- changes in seal material volume – increased "swelling" or decreased "shrinking" and their respective impacts on seal contact force and friction
- hardening and embrittlement of the seal material
- softening, loss of strength or dissolving of the seal material
- degradation of the polymer chains or crosslinking, causing the material to fatigue or lose resilience
- discoloration of the seal material
Generally, these changes are accelerated by higher temperature. To avoid these changes and the resulting damage to seal function and life, careful consideration should be taken to ensure compatibility between the fluid and all seal materials, as well as the temperature and mechanical loads on the seal material. SKF has a long history and extensive database of test results concerning compatibility of various seal materials and fluids, as well as unparalleled expertise in developing materials to meet customers' needs for chemical resistance of seal materials.
Table 1 summarizes the compatibility rating for the most important fluids and materials used in the fluid power industry. For materials not listed, contact SKF. Table 1 provides general guidelines for new, clean fluids. Fluids vary by manufacturer, additives and contaminant levels. Materials vary by specific compound. The guidelines cannot substitute for testing the compatibility of a seal in the actual fluid and under actual operating conditions. Temperatures higher than specified in table 1 can lead to degradation of the basic fluid or its additives. This can cause deterioration of the seal material. For applications where higher temperatures are required, contact SKF.
In addition to the specified hydraulic fluid, seal materials can be attacked by exposure to other fluids from other parts of the machinery (e.g. greases, fuels, coatings), environmental factors (e.g. humidity or radiation) and degradation and reaction with the fluids, additives and contaminants in the system producing additional chemicals.


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In a recent widely-read column in The Hill (a magazine devoted to covering Congress), Markos Moulitsas warns of impending catastrophe for Democrats in the 2010 midterms. Under the headline "Brutal poll for Dems", Moulitsas cites the results of a recent survey commissioned by his website, The Daily Kos, that reveals a huge disparity in the number of Democrats and Republicans who say they are "definitely" or "probably" likely to vote in the congressional races next year. Moulitsas writes, "Among Republican respondents, 81 percent said they were definitely or probably going to vote, versus only 14 percent who were definitely or not likely to do so. Among independent voters, it was 65-23. Among Democrats? A woeful 56-40: Two out of every five Democrats are currently unlikely to vote." His conclusion? "If these numbers hold for the next year…If base Democratic voters don't turn out, like what happened in New Jersey and Virginia this year, Democrats will suffer at the ballot box."
Moulitsas trumpets these numbers as evidence that the Democratic base is turned off by Obama's and the Democratically-controlled Congress' tepid leadership and failure to pursue the more progressive policies that Moulitsas champions. He may be right. But the poll results he cites (which, by the way, are not actually linked to in the article) don't necessarily support his argument. Here's why.
To begin, the Daily Kos poll surveys all adults, not just likely voters. You've heard me say this before, but it bears repeating: polls of all adults are typically weighted more heavily to Democrats than are polls of likely voters. However, the Kos' "nonpartisan" poll actually includes fewer Democrats and Republicans than many polls because it has separate categories for not only independents, but also categories labeled "other" and "not vote" (the latter presumably refers to people who didn't vote in the last election and thus aren't affiliated with any party.) In fact, if you look at the crosstabs for the actual poll, as I did, you'll find that the respondents break down into 31% Democrats, 22% Republicans, 25% independents, 17% "nonvoters" and 5% other. For comparison purposes, the most recent Gallup poll breaks down the public's partisan affiliation as 35% Democrat, 28% Republican and 35% independent.
Why is that important? Because Moulitsas bases his prediction largely by comparing turnout rates among Democrats and Republicans, who comprise barely more than half of his survey. You wouldn't know this by reading the article which merely references the turnout percentages within each party.
However, for the sake of argument, let us assume that the percentages are an accurate predictor of the actual voting by Democrats and Republicans next November. Doesn't that disparity in likely turnout still mean a bloodbath for Democrats as Moulitsas says? No, but again you need to look at the actual survey to see why not. Moulitsas compares two percentages – the 81% of Republicans in the poll that say they will likely vote versus the "woeful" 56% of Democrats. But it you translate that into actual numbers, that is, if you take the percentage of the actual number of Democrats and Republicans who are surveyed, you might come to a different conclusion. Eighty one percent of 526 Republicans (the number in the sample) equals 426 Republicans likely to vote in 2010 versus the 51% of the 744 Democrats sampled which comes to…. drum roll, please… 417 Democrats likely to vote. That's a difference of 9 likely voters, or less than 1% in a survey with a margin of error of 2%. In other words, given the current partisan composition of the electorate as indicated in the survey, these turnout figures – based on Moulitsas' own logic – suggest a dead heat in 2010 (that is, if we assume straight party voting, and ignore independent and other voters who comprise 47% of the survey).
Now, one can spin these numbers any way one wants. Certainly the lower projected turnout isn't the best news for Democrats. But Moulitsas could have easily (and accurately) headlined his story as follows, "Survey suggests Democrats poised to break even in 2010 midterm congressional elections." Indeed, an equally viable spin is that this survey is exceedingly good news for Democrats, since the party that holds the White House has, with two exceptions, lost seats in Congress during the first midterm dating back to every president since FDR. In 2010, however, Democrats might buck history and break even!
But that spin doesn't serve Moulitsas' purpose, which is to castigate Obama and Democrats for not embracing the Daily Kos worldview. And I don't blame Moulitsas for putting the more pessimistic gloss on the survey. There is a reason liberals and progressives flock to the Daily Kos website in such great numbers (and why I lurk there to see what the left wing is saying, just as I survey conservative websites to get the opposing view.) Moulitsas and his colleagues are skilled preachers. As I noted in an interview with a local reporter, websites like Kos' serve as the equivalent of political churches, where like-minded devotees gather together to read from the same hymnal containing familiar doctrines, and to hear sermons from ministers who share their political convictions. (And where sinners, like those who supported Hillary in 2008, are excommunicated and cast, weeping and gnashing their teeth, into darkness.) The Daily Kos website is comforting and reassuring and a reaffirmation that there is at least one place where people have the correct outlook on life, even if the rest of the world is populated by goose-stepping, bible-thumping, gun-toting fascists that hate Mom, America and Apple Pie. (Upon consideration, it's a lot like living in Vermont. Or teaching at Middlebury College. ) And the conservatives have their own "churches of the blog" as well where actual gun-toting bible thumpers can mingle among their own fascist kind, like bankers and insurance executives.
My point is that these blogs serve an important function, but it isn't to teach you about politics, or even give you the "truth" about political affairs (if by truth one means what can be demonstrated to be factual.) They attract many readers for the same reason that churches attract numerous worshipers. But you don't go to church expecting to learn how to operate heavy machinery – you go to commune with like-minded people (and to save your soul). For the same reason, you shouldn't go to the Daily Kos website, or read Andrew Sullivan, or Michelle Malkin expecting to learn the facts about presidential or national politics. That's not their purpose. And when they do post a column purporting to give you the facts, as Moulitsas does regarding the impending Democratic catastrophe, alarms bells should sound and you should immediately begin checking the details.
Praise the Lord. Pass the Facts. End of Sermon.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misspelled Moulitsas' name – I think I've corrected all references now.


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I've created a GUI application which uses jpcap library. i installed jdk1.6.0_11 in /opt folder and place the libjpcap.so, jpcap.jar files in /opt/jdk1.6.0_11/jre/lib/ext. i've set the JAVA_HOME variable to my /opt/jdk1.6.... in .bashrc file .
Then,I've the built the jar file for my application and placed it in /usr/local/share and created a sh file to run the jar file and placed it in /usr/local/bin. now when i run that sh file from terminal, it works perfectly.
Now i add that jar file to GNOME menu as stated here Howto Add entries in GNOME Menu|Ubuntu Geek. Command i've used is /usr/local/bin/sh_file_name. now when i clicked the application from menu, it shows an exception as No class found jpcap/packetreceiver like that. why it doesn't take the path which i set to JAVA_HOME ? Anyone please clarify me?


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The Truth About Travel
In July 2010, Matt and Tran of Backpack Forever left their settled lives in Houston, Texas to embark on a five-month journey to Central and South America. Their trip led them through Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the Guianas, Brazil, and Argentina. They're back in the U.S. for now and have agreed to share their thoughts on "the truth about travel."


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NCAH necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 61 diseños de 17 diseñadores freelance.
ULearnMoney.com is a new education focussed website whose mission it will be to educate young adults about money, financial principles and investment.
Many young people leave high school knowing very little about financial concepts, managing finances and investments. ULearnMoney.com will provide a range of content and services intended to educate young adults about those financial principles they will need to understand to make fundamental decisions about their finances, their career and their investments.
Young adults aged between 15 and 30. They will be educated, computer literate and keen to educate themselves.
In short the logo needs to establish the domain name as an identifiable brand and also convey the idea of 'money' and 'education' coming together. Also needs to appeal to young adults.
Logo needs to incorporate:
- the domain name: ULearnMoney.com
- a simple and elegant icon or motif the that brings together the ideas of Education and Money AND / OR uses the major letters of the domain name (U and L and / or M)
I generally like simple and elegant logo's.
It's certainly not a requirement but I also like logo's that include some depth or a 3D aspect to them.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Triangle Tangram Puzzle Patterns
What would happen if a tangram was shaped like an triangle and not the typical square? Triangle shaped tangrams are not official puzzles but it is fun to try to apply the tangram rule to different geometrical shapes to see how many different solutions may be created as a result. The triangle tangram is not the traditional design but can be easily fitted with the seven distinctive shapes required in the standard puzzle:
- One Parallelogram (also called rhomboid)
- One Square
- Five Triangles
Use a variety of shapes to create your personalized tangrams to enjoy discovery of the widest range of possibilities of solutions to the popular Chinese puzzle.
Design an triangle tangram yourself. The challenge is to divide the shape into exactly 7 sections or tans using the above mentioned shapes.
Tangram puzzles remind me of the mosaics of Pompei and stained glass window designs. My parents loved to make mosaic designs to rerurface old tables. I remember them both cautioning me to stand back while they broke various colored glass bottles that they had collected from a fun, scavaging day at the old county dump to use as pieces for the table design. I learned glass is very sharp but the rewards of a beautiful mosaic design might is worth the incidental nick or two.
Whimsical and Creative Tangrams
When I created these whimsical, non-traditional tangrams, I'd print each design, cut the pieces out and place the pieces in individually marked envelopes.
These envelopes traveled with me to work, the doctors, dentists offices, on the commute train. Anytime I found a few idle moments, I'd arrange and rearrange these tans to find as many solutions as possible.
It became a sure-fire conversation stearter. I introduced tangram into hospital and dental waiting rooms, at the office, in break rooms and restaurants. People would often watch as I'd try many different angles. Occasionally someone would suggest a move, or declare that the design looked like an animal or bird, etc.
Make Tangram Felt-Board games
- Find stiff cardboard pieces, about 12" x 12" or larger. Old record album (LP) covers are about the right size and work great for making felt-board play surfaces which children can use to build their own puzzle solutions
- Completely cover the square cardboard with a sheet of felt - black, dark blue or green colors provide good contrast to display the puzzle pieces. Affix the felt firmly with glue or tape
- Trace a collection of the various traditional tangram shapes onto different, brightly colored felt or foam sheets.
Colors to use:
- Red
- Yellow
- Light Green
- Light Blue
- Pink
- Orange
- White
- If making multiple boards, separate or divide the tans to give each felt board tangram the same number of shapes and sizes in the various colors
- Enjoy!
Bring along as travel games to keep the children entertained with educational fun. Share at family get-to-gethers, day care centers and school.
Provide pencils and pads of plain paper so children can keep a diary and re-draw and record the different shapes. Solutions not provided here as the purpose of the tangram puzzle is to encourage creativity.
Materials To Keep On Hand
Paper Trivia: Did you know that you can only fold a sheet of printer paper in half seven times? Give it a try. It doesn't matter how thick or thin the paper is, once you get to the seventh fold, the paper will not bend or budge.
Sun catchers. To create a translucent, stained glass ornaments effect, apply a bit of lemon oil to the back sides of paper ornaments to create a.
Hang the ornaments on trees, in windows, anywhere bright colorful decorations are desired.
Construct a large paper-tree for the wall with shades of green construction paper. Draw a large tree on a sheet of easel pad paper to tack onto a wall or other flat surface, then decorate with paper ornaments.
- Types of Paper:
- Construction - many colors
- Copier - many colors
- Tissue
- Crepe
- Cardboard
- Cardstock - many colors
- Tracing
- Water-color
- Drawing
- Onionskin
- Paper tubes - TP tissue, paper towel and gift-wrap
- Foam craft sheets - many colors
- Magnet sheets - Make refrigerator magnets
- Stiff Stencil - Paint repeating patterns on items, embroidery, latch-hook rug patterns
- Felt sheets - Make filled or layered ornaments
- Some Mediums & Tools to keep handy for the creative process.
- Colorful Markers - fine to thick point
- Wax Crayons - stock up around school sales
- Water color sets - and plastic tablecloths
- Chalk - many colors
- Colored pencils - many colors
- Tempura finger paints - primary colors - mixing to discover is half the fun
- Paint brushes - fine tip to standard school size child's brush size at least.
- Straws - paper not plastic
- Tooth picks - age appropriate
- Sponges - cut into shapes or purchase for blotting paint shapes
- Needlepoint, embroidery thread and stretcher hoops
- Puffy paint and glitter - to draw words, images and shapes on cloth
- Wine corks
- Celluclay - A handy pulverized paper product that resembles clay for paper mache'
- Modeling clay - reusable, come in colors, good for making molds
- Pottery clay - Only if you expect to use a kiln
- Silicon molds and release spray
- Wooden shapes - to paint for ornaments and gifts
- Decal sheets for window decals
- Cloth scrap pieces left overs from sewing
- Clay modeling tools - ll sorts, combs, forks, dental picks, anything to make interesting cuts and patterns
- Plain tee shirts