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Magnetic Fields Set Stage for Birth of New Stars
This image is a blend of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's M33 image and another taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. M33, one of our closest galactic neighbors, is about 2.9 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum, part of what's known as our Local Group of galaxies. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2011) — Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have, for the first time, measured the alignment of magnetic fields in gigantic clouds of gas and dust in a distant galaxy. Their results suggest that such magnetic fields play a key role in channeling matter to form denser clouds, and thus in setting the stage for the birth of new stars.
The work is being published in the journal Nature.
Stars and their planets are born when giant clouds of interstellar gas and dust collapse. You've probably seen the resulting stellar nurseries in beautiful astronomical images: Colorful nebulae, lit by the bright young stars they have brought forth.
Astronomers know quite a bit about these so-called molecular clouds: They consist mainly of hydrogen molecules -- unusual in a cosmos where conditions are rarely right for hydrogen atoms to bond together into molecules. And if one traces the distribution of clouds in a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way galaxy, one finds that they are lined up along the spiral arms.
But how do those clouds come into being? What makes matter congregate in regions a hundred or even a thousand times more dense than the surrounding interstellar gas?
One candidate mechanism involves the galaxy's magnetic fields. Everyone who has seen a magnet act on iron filings in the classic classroom experiment knows that magnetic fields can be used to impose order. Some researchers have argued that something similar goes on in the case of molecular clouds: that galaxies' magnetic fields guide and direct the condensation of interstellar matter to form denser clouds and facilitate their further collapse.
Some astronomer see this as the key mechanism enabling star formation. Others contend that the cloud matter's gravitational attraction and turbulent motion of gas within the cloud are so strong as to cancel any influence of an outside magnetic field.
If we were to restrict attention to our own galaxy, it would be difficult to find out who is right. We would need to see our galaxy's disk from above to make the appropriate measurements; in reality, our Solar System sits within the galactic disk. That is why Hua-bai Li and Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy chose a different target: the Triangulum galaxy, 3 million light-years from Earth and also known as M 33, which is oriented in just the right way (cf. image).
Using a telescope known as the Submillimeter Array (SMA), which is located at Mauna Kea Observatory on Mauna Kea Island, Hawai'i, Li and Henning measured specific properties of radiation received from different regions of the galaxy which are correlated with the orientation of these region's magnetic fields. They found that the magnetic fields associated with the galaxy's six most massive giant molecular clouds were orderly, and well aligned with the galaxy's spiral arms.
If turbulence played a more important role in these clouds than the ordering influence of the galaxy's magnetic field, the magnetic field associated with the cloud would be random and disordered.
Thus, Li and Henning's observations are a strong indication that magnetic fields indeed play an important role when it comes to the formation of dense molecular clouds -- and to setting the stage for the birth of stars and planetary systems like our own.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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Lip Enhancement
Many women desire to increase the size of their lips. Many women desire to increase the size of their lips. This may be to correct a loss in size due to aging or to increase the size of congenitally small lips. Full, sensuous lips are a sign of youth and beauty. Comme nous vieillissons, the red portion of the lip shrinks in size. This thinning decreases the projection of the lip in both the frontal and profile view. Enhancement of this red portion can add tremendous improvement to the smile as well as facial expression. The addition of volume to the lips creates a more sensuous look. This can be accomplished a number of ways. Various filler substances can be injected into both the upper and lower lip to increase fullness. Fat harvested from the patient can be inserted into the lip to create fuller lips.
Multiple surgical techniques can be used to modify the lips to achieve pleasing results in the following examples:
- Lengthen the upper lip to improve the smile and the tooth to lip relationship.
- Shorten the upper lip to improve the smile and the tooth to lip relationship.
- Enhance the outline and the substance of the upper and lower lips to improve the youthful look of the lips and smile.
- Enhance the outline and substance of the lips to increase the area for lip liners and lip stick

subset: commoncrawl


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This Saturday, the Tokyo Hackerspace is hosting a huge workshop/auction/dinner/party. There will be fun stuff happening all day, so if you have meaning to check out the space, this will be a great opportunity!
We're thrilled that our super-catalyst, Mitch Altman, will bring Hackers on a Plane to Japan in November and hold an unusual event and auction fundraiser for TokyoHackerSpace.
You'll meet tinkerers, programmers, crafters, sewingfolk, urban gardeners, database engineers, builders, breakers, writers, teachers, scientists, and many more…But you'll take home more than a great experience. You'll take your very own environmental management device: Make Your Own TV-B-Gone: the environmental management device!
We at TokyoHackerSpace are thrilled that the maker of TV-B-Gone, Mitch Altman, will be coming to Tokyo along with some amazing hackers from around the world!
I'll be there helping out, so be sure to say hi if you see me!
Tokyo Hackerspace fundraiser party
Saturday, November 13, 2010, 1:30pm – 9:30pm
5ä¸ç›®ï¼'1白金å°, Minato Ward, TÅkyÅ Metropolis, Japan
Cost: ¥4500 members/¥5500 non-members
Join Make: Community Today


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This article is more than 1 year old
Drizzle for Christmas - year-end-prediction for MySQL fork
Tightening up changes
A production ready version of the MySQL fork Drizzle could be ready by the end of this year.
Brian Aker, Drizzle lead architect, has said the project will start to look production ready and people can begin production testing in earnest after the next milestone build.
If development and testing goes as hoped that means we could potentially see this light-weight and modular version of MySQL ready by mid December - the date of the next milestone. That's a year and a half since Drizzle was unveiled.
Aker: production-ready goals
"When Bell [the release] is done four months after August, people will be able to start looking at it as a production environment," Aker said in an interview with Dell cloud computing evangelist Barton George recorded at the recent OpenSource World in San Francisco, California, and just posted online.
Aker said the team is still finishing changes that are critical to the database. If you upgrade from one version of Drizzle to the next, for example, you would have to remove the data and dump the database.
He noted most users will be fine using Drizzle as it is right now, and even that some have started using Drizzle in live environments. He's being cautious, though. "We are still making a couple of changes that are critical and I don't want to claim that [Drizzle is production ready] just yet," Aker said.
"When we get to the point of production release you shouldn't be required to do that," Aker said of the current need to replace the database for a new version. "For my mind, what is a production environment means you can upgrade in place."
You can find out about the thinking behind Drizzle and why Aker - MySQL director of technology for Sun - decided to fork MySQL after the Sun acquisition of the popular open-source database, in the rest of George's interview here. ®


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Ships to be Paid to Slow Down in Santa Barbara Channel to Save Whales
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cargo ships will be paid to slow down to avoid hitting whales and cut air pollution, under a new voluntary program being launched off Southern California.
Shipping firms will receive $2,500 incentives for each low-speed trip they complete through the Santa Barbara Channel, a prime feeding area for migrating blue whales, the Los Angeles Times reported Aug. 5.
The speed reduction initiative was developed by federal wildlife officials, environmentalists and air regulators. The incentive currently applies only to vessels in the Santa Barbara Channel.
It is the latest effort to address longstanding concerns over ship strikes that have killed dozens of endangered blue, humpback and fin whales over the last 10 to 15 years and threaten their recovery.
Shippers will be paid $2,500 for each trip completed at 12 knots or slower through a 130-mile stretch from Point Conception to the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex. Normal cruising speed is between 14 and 18 knots.
Lower speeds are expected to reduce the risk of ship strikes that are fatal to whales and could give the giant marine mammals more time to swim away from approaching ships. When ships travel more slowly, there's an added benefit: Their enormous engines emit less air pollution.
"It's a very simple but clever solution: When you slow ships down you provide whale conservation and cleaner air for us to breathe here on shore," said Kristi Birney, marine conservation analyst for the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center, one of the backers of the initiative.
Six global shipping companies are participating in the trial program, which will pay for 16 low-speed trips through the Santa Barbara Channel from July through the end of October.
The season coincides with the peak of blue whale feeding in the channel and the time of year when Southern California sees its highest concentrations of ozone, the lung-damaging ingredient of smog, the Times said.
Last June, large vessels traveling to ports on the California coast began using new traffic lanes developed to move ships away from whales. The new lanes changed the routes of ships using San Francisco Bay, the Santa Barbara Channel and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.


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During the first decade of the 21st century, information and communication technologies (ICTs) came within reach of most of the world's people. As part of World Statistics Day, the United Nations commissioned the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for current data and statistics on ICTs. The resulting report: The World In 2010: ICT Facts and Figures provides an insight into just how phenomenal the growth of ICTs have been over the past few years.
According to the ITU, internet users have grown from under 400 million in the year 2000 to having now surpassed 2 billion. The world now has an estimated 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions, with 90 percent of the world's population having access to a mobile network. Over 6.1 trillion text messages were sent in 2010 – that's 200,000 text messages every second!
The mobile market in the developed world, which the UN commonly refers to as being North America, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, is reaching saturation levels with an average of 116 subscriptions per 100 people. The Asia-Pacific region is experiencing strong growth in mobile subscriptions chiefly due to India and China adding over 300 million subscriptions in 2010. Developing countries are estimated to have 76 percent of the world's mobiles, up from 53 percent at the end of 2005. Of the world's 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions, 17 percent are 3G connections.
Looking at the global picture, one in three of the world's population is now online. The ITU says the number of people online has doubled in the last five years to exceed two billion, of which 60 percent are in developing countries. China has the most internet users with more than 420 million people connected, while 65 percent of Europeans are online compared to 9.6 percent of Africans. The emergence of 3G networks and now next-generation wireless (4G) networks are expected to progressively allow developing countries to access the internet where fixed broadband infrastructure is limited.
The ITU reports that an estimated 1.6 billion people have internet access at home, with an estimated 555 million wired broadband connections globally. Demand for higher speed connections is rising with more and more high bandwidth content and applications available driving further demand. In the developed world, 65 percent of households are online. In some countries, namely South Korea, the Netherlands and Sweden, more than 80 percent of homes have internet access, and virtually all of these connections are broadband. In the developing countries 15.8 percent of households are connected, with 4.4 percent of these connections broadband. In Africa, less than one percent of internet connections are wired broadband.
There are still large differences between countries when talking about broadband affordability, especially those countries with lower per capita incomes, and this is certainly affecting subscriber levels. An entry level wired broadband connection in a developing country costs on average 190 PPP$ per month as opposed to 28 PPP$ per month in developed countries (PPP stands for Purchasing Power Parity and is a is a theory of long-term equilibrium exchange rates based on relative price levels of two countries).
The ITU asserts over 80 countries, including Australia, Afghanistan, Chile and the United States, had adopted or plan to adopt a national broadband strategy. These policies focus on building nationwide broadband infrastructure with the plan to provide public services online, including e-health, e-education and e-government. The ITU claims that over 40 countries now include broadband in their universal service/universal access definitions and a number of countries, including Estonia, Finland and Spain, have already declared access to the internet as a legal right for their citizens.
If you'd like to bury your head in some more mind-boggling facts and figures, The World In 2010: ICT Facts and Figures report is available as a free download from the ICT.


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Lionfish: It's what should be for dinner
Diving in the Florida Keys at the age of 15, Erin Spencer caught a glimpse of a beautiful fish.
The rocky-textured fish swam gracefully in shades of bright orange behind scaly white stripes. Its dramatic spines stretched out from its body as its fins rippled in the water.
This stunning fish, the lionfish, soon proved to be a major threat to the area's marine ecosystems, preying on anything it can swallow.
Soon after her dive, Spencer learned just how much of a threat these fish were to the reef. Lionfish are an invasive species on Florida reefs and a particularly successful one. They can reproduce every four days, and females can produce two million eggs annually. They have no natural predators, and so the lionfish population has been growing exponentially since 2009.
One reason this invasive species continues to thrive is because of its highly effective defense mechanism—large venomous spines with a sting that almost no creature can withstand. It soon became evident that the only solution was to try to manage the population of the invasive species instead of continuing the seemingly futile eradication approach.
"The spines won't kill you, but they'll make you wish you were dead," said Spencer, now a member of the Class of 2014 at William & Mary. When Spencer, an ecology major and marine science minor, began to brainstorm ideas for a senior honors thesis, she knew immediately that she wanted to study lionfish.
Originally from the Indo-Pacific, lionfish are a very popular aquarium fish in the U.S. Spencer said genetic evidence suggests that the invasion began with individual specimens being released from personal aquariums. These fish reproduced rapidly to create the problem the reefs are facing today.
"Imagine having an aquarium and getting stung or putting a lionfish in your tank and having it eat some of your expensive fish. People don't want to kill it but they want to release it," said Spencer.
Funding through William & Mary's Monroe Scholars program, coupled with a research grant from National Geographic allowed Spencer to develop what she came to call the Lionfish Project. The Lionfish Project aims to track local response to the lionfish invasion in the Florida Keys. Spencer explained that although there has been some action taken by the government, Florida natives are now combating the lionfish invasion themselves.
"Their entire livelihood relies on the reefs, and they were starting to see the effects. More people were being stung and divers were seeing the population growth firsthand," said Spencer, "Once they made the connection that these fish are the reason the reef is suffering, people took action."
There is one factor working for the people who are trying to control these invasive fish: The lionfish is good to eat. Local groups are hoping to use the edibility of the fish to get them off the reefs and onto the plates of seafood lovers.
Divers are being encouraged to hunt the species and organizations such as the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) are spreading awareness. Local chefs also have taken lionfish into their kitchens and have turned lionfish management into a new cuisine.
For the Lionfish Project, Spencer interviewed people involved with the issue, particularly those involved in the effort to change the status of lionfish from that of invasive species to the catch of the day. She met with local chefs, REEF personnel, fishermen and divers, distilling what she learned into a web site and blog. (Her National Geographic Explorers Journal blog entry "Top 5 Myths About Lionfish" has been picked up by several diving and travel websites.) In addition, Spencer gave an oral presentation at the 2013 Summer Research Showcase, an annual event that highlights the undergraduate research supported by William & Mary's Charles Center, which administers the Monroe Scholars program.
Spencer found that lionfish are starting to be seen on restaurant menus, but she said that the demand remains low.
She explained that lionfish are difficult to harvest. They live on reefs and therefore can't be netted like open-ocean fish. Spencer found that in recent years, Florida lobstermen find lionfish as an unwanted bycatch in their traps. Spearfishing for lionfish is popular, but not practical on a commercial level.
"A typical day of diving yields less than 20 lionfish per diver," said Spencer, who explained that a large part of the public's reluctance stems from fear that venomous spines might affect the lionfish meat. "You're talking to these fishermen that could be bringing in valuable fish they know people would want and they're getting less money for the lionfish meat."
Spencer believes the next big step is to get the word out to increase demand for lionfish. Residents of the Keys have accepted lionfish as food, but she said a marketing campaign is needed to move the invasive species beyond being a local delicacy. An increased demand in lionfish would increase the need for hunts and help lower the population.
"Any sustainable restaurant can tell their customers they are eating an invasive species and saving the reefs. Once people decide they have a taste for lionfish, researchers are hopeful the demand will increase," said Spencer.
Seafood lovers who haven't had the opportunity to try them won't be disappointed to see lionfish on the menu. Spencer raves that lionfish are some of the best fish she's tasted—and completely safe to eat.
"It's a white flaky filet but a little bit more buttery than similar fish. You can make it any way you would make a flaky filet," said Spencer.


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Cross-posted from the World Resources Institute. This piece was written by WRI Senior Fellow Ruth Greenspan Bell for a WRI series on the EPA regulations.
When the EPA promulgates regulations, industry often expresses concern that the regulations will cause extreme economic hardship. Now this argument is being made regarding EPA regulation of carbon pollution using existing legal authorities like the Clean Air Act.
In fact, there is extensive literature showing that the costs of environmental regulations are more than offset by a broad range of economic, public health, and jobs-related benefits. Additionally, initial cost estimates are consistently found to be exaggerated. Economists and researchers who have compared actual costs with initial projections report that regulations generally end up costing far less than the dire predictions from industry and even, as an RFF study [PDF] shows, below cost projections by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The latest effort to challenge EPA regulations is being led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which expresses "strong concerns about [the regulations'] significant negative impact…on jobs and local economies." Industry claims extend well beyond regulation of greenhouse gases: Two recent industry-backed studies (here and here) [PDF] attempt to show that tougher EPA emissions rules for boilers and a more stringent nationwide ozone standard could put millions of U.S. workers out of their jobs and shrink the nation's economy by upward of $1 trillion [PDF].
How do the benefits of environmental regulations stack up to the costs?
Though costs have always been highlighted by industry — and many policymakers — the fact is that public benefits associated with environmental regulations consistently outweigh the costs. For example, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released its thirteenth annual Report to Congress [PDF], detailing the estimated benefits and costs of federal regulations, finding that:
The estimated annual benefits of major Federal regulations reviewed by OMB from Oct. 1, 1999, to Sept. 30, 2009, for which agencies estimated and monetized both benefits and costs, are in the aggregate between $128 billion and $616 billion, while the estimated annual costs are in the aggregate between $43 billion and $55 billion.
For clean air and water regulations promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the same time period, the estimated aggregate annual costs range from $26 to $29 billion, while benefits range from $82 to $533 billion [PDF].
Does environmental regulation force U.S. firms to relocate elsewhere?
Few firms flee the United States to "pollution havens" in poor countries, despite industry's frequent claims to the contrary. Economics for Equity and the Environment Network [PDF] points out that:
Environmental costs are generally below 2 percent of total business costs [PDF]. Firms that do leave the U.S. generally do so in pursuit of lower labor and health-coverage costs, expenditures that form a much higher percentage of their total costs. Economists searching for evidence [PDF] supporting widespread flight of polluting industries have not found significant effects.
Is environmental regulation a job killer?
Independent researchers who have examined this question say no.
First, looking only at job losses inevitably ignores a larger truth: environmental spending creates jobs that offset losses. Compared to overall spending in the economy, on a per dollar basis, spending on environmental protection and clean-up employs more than twice as many workers in construction [PDF] (11 percent versus four percent) and 25 percent more in manufacturing [PDF] (20 percent versus 16 percent). Plant closings and layoffs in response to environmental regulation are very rare, affecting only 1/10th of one percent of all layoffs nationwide. Over that same 1990-1997 period, 10 million U.S. workers were laid off for non-environmental reasons.
A case in point: opposing the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, a study sponsored by the U.S. Business Roundtable expressed "little doubt that a minimum of 200,000 (plus) jobs will be quickly lost, with plants closing in dozens of states. This number could easily exceed one million jobs — and even two million jobs — at the more extreme assumptions about residual risk." In fact, in the eight year period following the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, less than 7,000 total jobs were lost across the entire United States [PDF] as a direct consequence of the Clean Air Act, and, as noted above, many more jobs were created.
Resources for the Future studied four heavily regulated industries (steel, petroleum, plastics, and pulp and paper) to conclude that the data does not support claims that environmental spending significantly reduces employment in heavily polluting industries.
Most studies examine macro-level (i.e., economy-wide) impacts. But what about local impacts?
Berman and Bui [PDF] tested whether regulation of air pollution in manufacturing plants in the South Coast Los Angeles region reduced employment. In this highly polluted manufacturing area of Los Angeles, they concluded that the most stringent episode of increased industrial air quality regulation did not have a large effect on manufacturing employment. And, they found evidence that increased air quality regulation increased oil refinery productivity. Among their conclusions:
- The data clearly ruled out conclusions that these regulations caused large job losses. Admittedly, the regulations did impose costs on regulated plants, but they had little effect on employment. Some contemporary critics misleadingly discuss job losses that resulted from declining military spending, but this was unrelated to environmental regulations.
- No plants were shut down by environmental regulations, nor were new startups dissuaded by environmental regulations, as measured in the Census of Manufactures.
- The oil industry in the South Coast did not shed any more or less jobs relative to similar facilities in Texas and Louisiana that were not subject to the same level of regulation. Regulated plants actually increased their energy productivity through technological changes, including cogeneration of electricity using waste gases.
Berman and Bui concluded: "This study carefully documents an important case in which [industry cost] projections grossly exaggerated the costs of regulation."
Are the government's own estimates of job losses reliable?
For decades, OMB has required the EPA to estimate the costs and benefits of proposed regulation (Executive Order 12291). Experts [PDF] compared the EPA's pre-regulatory cost estimates of the economic burden with what actually happened (including reduced productivity and lost jobs) when the regulations went into effect. Their conclusion? Even the EPA's (and other agencies') own pre-regulatory estimates of economic burden are overly pessimistic of the total costs. Often, this is because they underestimate the potential that technological change, including innovation and commercialization, minimizes pollution abatement costs.
Why do even the EPA's numbers overestimate the costs of regulation?
There are many reasons why the EPA overestimates costs [PDF]. Here are a few:
- Economists do not own crystal balls to project technological innovation. In the acid rain (SO2) program (the model for climate change cap-and-trade proposals), scrubbing turned out to be more efficient and more reliable than expected. Pre-regulation, analysts assumed that scrubbers operate at 85 percent reliability and remove 80 to 85 percent of the sulfur. In fact, scrubbers typically run in excess of 95 percent reliability, removing 95 percent. The original estimate of opportunities to blend low and high sulfur coal in older boilers was a 5/95 mixture. In fact, industry was able to achieve a much more efficient 40/60 mixture.
- Industry often finds creative ways to meet standards at lower compliance costs, that aren't anticipated in the EPA's pre-regulation estimates. For example, about two million tons of SO2 reductions came from railroad deregulation that allowed industry access to low-sulfur, western coal. After the Occupational Safety and Health Administration set air lead standards, industry complied by putting workers into protective gear to reduce their lead exposure, rather than changing the ambient air conditions; the levels of air lead in plants remained high for years.
- Government estimates sometimes calculate the maximum cost to industry rather than the mean — in other words, the worst rather than the average impact. Why? One reason is that the agency's inventory of installed pollution control equipment may be out-of-date. It may not include the most recent pollution control investments, thereby overestimating the quantity of emissions reductions required to meet a particular goal.
- Industry is frequently the source of the EPA's cost estimates because industry has direct access to the most relevant cost information. Though most regulated industries have an interest in overestimating costs, Agency officials must either refute or accept their estimates at face value; skepticism or mere suspicion of industry numbers is not a legally defensible reason to disregard them during the rulemaking process. Asked "what will it cost?" a firm's analyst may provide an "off-the shelf" compliance technology, when in fact a more considered approach would reveal that substantial cost savings can be achieved through innovation, for example. Sometimes, the EPA has no choice but to ask outside contractors who hire industry experts to develop cost estimates, leaving the agency cost estimates subject to the same biases as those of industry.
The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) reached similar conclusions in a 1995 study [PDF] (one of the last they issued before being eliminated) of occupational health and safety regulation. OTA found that pre-regulatory cost estimates systemically under-predicted innovative responses and over-predicted impacts.
In conclusion, independent experts have demonstrated why initial claims about costs and job losses related to EPA action under the Clean Air Act should not be taken at face value.
The author is a former EPA attorney, with 17 years of experience implementing several environmental laws managed by EPA.


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Tip 10 on meta tags & auto recurring posting – Seach Engine Optimization & Social Media Optimization
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization) are important for search engine rankings, so here are a couple of tips – free on us – compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/
SEO and SMO Tip 10 on meta tags & auto recurring posting: Our SEO tip for you today is to look at the current description of your Web Site in Google. That is usually your meta description html tag if you have one as Google uses other text if you dont have one. Make sure that description is eye catching and make sure the first 75-150 characters count. Meta keywords are not as meaningful by Google but still include them in your web pages for other search engines. Our SMO Tip for you today is to think how inexpensive new WordPress Blog sites are and that you can add them to your advertising campaign and then auto post to 5 or 40 of them in 1 blog click. You can even auto post to these WordPress Blog sites on a recurring basis using a web system like BizRAS Auto Blog Posting.
Click on this auto blog posting link for more information on BizRAS Auto Blog Posting which includes auto recurring posts. Recurring posts can be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or yearly. You can also set up auto posting from your main WordPress blog site to your FaceBook and Twitter accounts.


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Yes, it was kind of game that only the mother of a rivalry could love. Yes, it was a stunning display of football inefficiency.
No, Georgia could care less how it looked, thank you very much.
In a game marred by penalties, turnovers and across-the-board ineptitude, and in which No. 3 Florida could've clinched a spot in the SEC championship game, No. 12 Georgia stunned the unbeaten Gators 17-9 in the 90th/91st edition of the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party in Jacksonville.
While some would call the game a gritty defensive slobberknocker that harkened back to the black-and-white glory days of the sport, there's only one way to describe what was wrought on the college football world: two-bag ugly.
The two teams combined for 24 penalties for 237 yards; 8-for-27 on third down conversions; just 2.6 yards per rush attempt; and nine turnovers -- five interceptions and four fumbles. Six of the turnovers were by Florida, with the last one proving to be a potentially fatal blow for both UF's SEC and BcS aspirations.
With 2:05 left and trailing by eight, Gator tight end Jordan Reed was on the receiving end of a 13-yard Jeff Driskel pass and, just as he was about to cross the goal line for a touchdown, he was stripped of the football by UGA standout Jarvis Jones. The ball tumbled into the end zone for a touchback, with the Bulldogs regaining possession and the Gators literally fumbling the game away.
With the win, UGA sits in the SEC East driver's seat. All that now stands between the Bulldogs and a second consecutive early-December trip to Atlanta are wins over Ole Miss and Auburn the next two weeks.
Should Georgia stumble against either of those two teams, however, Florida could still claim the East crown with a win over Missouri next weekend.
The Gators' best chance for a division title and a shot at a spot in the BcS title game, though, was with a win. Just like the ball for 60 minutes, however, it slipped right out of their hands.


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LarMac Live produces 'Our Greatest Team Rises' show at RAH
The impressiveentertainment line up included Gary Barlow, Will Young, Melanie C, Alfie Boe,Charlie Siem, The Feeling, Kimberly Walsh, BGT winners Spelbound and manyothers, uniting Team GB and ParalympicsGB for both the Olympics and Paralympicsin the run up to the summer Games.
The equallyhigh-profile guest list for the black tie event was topped by TeamGBAmbassadors like Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Kelly Holmes, Denise Lewis OBE and Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Theyjoined over 3000 people for dinner with exquisite gastronomy created byMichelin starred chef, Simon Hulstone, who on the night was mentored by HestonBlumental.
LarMac LIVE werecontracted by Team GB/ParalympicsGB and worked in unison with Fireball, whoco-ordinated all the night's fundraising and FOH operations.
LarMac's JoMacKay (Creative Producer) and Ian Greenway (Producer) were recommended toproduce the show both technically and creatively based on their recent work andextensive knowledge and experience of the venue – in which they have producedseveral other cutting-edge one off and special events.
Jo MacKay tookcare of the show's creative aspects which included originating a productiondesign to set the visuality, look and feel of the stage, and scheduling theartist performance running order. She also conceptualised various content thatwas supplied by sponsor partnerships.
Ian Greenwayoversaw the general technical production, and LML brought in Maggie Mouzakitisto specifically co-ordinate all the technical sub-contractors, including sound,lighting, video, backline, staging, drapes / dressing and rigging and theircrews and technicians.
LarMac Live Ltdworked creatively with the Allstars Collective to facilitate musicalperformances for a key event sponsor as well as other guests artists, and forthe first live performance of the official Our Greatest Team song 'One Vision'with Alfie Boe, Kimberly Walsh and the Youth Music Voices.
With excitementand anticipation ramping up ahead of the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Gamescount-down, it was absolutely crucial for all elements of this event to be spoton. Says MacKay, "We were hugely honoured to be asked to work alongside TeamGB/ParalympicsGB & Fireball on this show, and add our expertise and skillsto the mix".
MacKay's stage design divided the performance space into three interchangeable sections, delineated by moving screens and drapes. The idea was to make the area as dynamic as possible so it matched the stage action, a goal achieved using a Kinesys automation system to give the show a series of rises in keeping with the 'Our Greatest Team Rises' theme.
The most downstage section was masked off at the back by a large blue drape with a high resolution screen in front, eight feet off the floor. This is where hosts Davina McCall and John Bishop introduced presenters, guest speakers, performers and VT links that played out on the screen above.
The second stage look saw the area immediately behind the forestage open as the front screen was raised. This was used as a performance area, still in front of the blue drape. With break up gobos and projection creating movement and depth on the blue velvet backdrop.
Look three revealed the entire stage and choir stalls – including house band the All Stars, positioned upstage – and three large screens in the centre, flanked by four additional columns of screen each side. All the live bands playing and using their own backlines also used this format.
Parts of the RAH's magnificent Willis organ were also revealed in the third stage look behind the semi-transparent upstage screen.
MacKay used the red white and blue Our Greatest Team colour theme for the event, and briefed production lighting designer Andy Hurst on the evening's requirements.
"The idea was that the show should build to a crescendo in keeping with the 'rising' theme of the event." She explains, "It had to have a natural flow and be practical to stage in terms of the number of artists and the nature and style of their performance, all of which took careful advance planning".
LML brought Chris Saunders of OgleHog on-board to manage the screen content and all live video aspects of the event. This included cameras and IMAG mixing and direction, together with formatting of all the VT playback material supplied by the BOA and running the projection system for the silent auction, which was displayed on two side screens left and right of the stage.
The screens and the moving blue drape were all flown on a Kinesys automation system supplied by lighting contractors HSL, who, together with Martin Professional provided the Martin LC-2140, EC-10 and EC-20 screen.
Audio was supervised by Derrick Zieba, with equipment supplied by Britannia Row, comprising an L-Acoustics K-1 system with Midas PRO9 consoles at FOH and onstage. The FOH mix was engineered by Colin Pink and Tom Brown, with monitors looked after by Dan Ungaretti.
LML also brought in many of their other regular suppliers including Music Bank (Backline) and Kevin Monks from Blackout as Head Rigger. Blackout also supplied the drapes and soft goods for the show and the dressing rooms.
LML's own team also included Production Assistants Siobhan Shaw and Matt Smith.
The Floor Manager team comprised Ed Sharpe, Siobhan O'Donnell, & Ceire Deery who facilitated the host movements, live presenter links and the Royal Party arrival in to the room.
Stage manager was Mike Grove, working alongside a Stage Miracles show crew, while Mark Cameron floor managed Olympic Ambassador and presenter Bear Grylls' dramatic abseil down from the RAH roof to dinner.
Spike Allibone called the complicated show with the help of Anya Allibone on script. Autoscript supplied the auto cue and Quantum SFX the pyro for specific show segments. Team 'Brock' led by Carol Brock ensured her team had all artists to the stage on time.
Our Greatest Team Rises was a massive success on all fronts. Ian Greenway sums up, "We enjoyed working on this show enormously. A one-off on this scale and profile is always challenging, but it also evoked some incredible teamwork between all involved to produce a highly memorable and very successful evening".


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Four weeks for in-state laterals, 5 weeks for out-of-state laterals, both to run concurrently.
Show All Answers
This link will take you directly to the LMG website which posts our applications: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/louisvilleky?department[0]=Metro%20Police&sort=PositionTitle%7CAscending&page=1
The link to Police Lateral and Police Recruit applications will be posted on our LMPD website (www.louisville-police.org). It is an open and continuous hiring process.
Class begins when we have enough lateral hires.
4 weeks for PTO phase + 1 week for evaluation = 5 weeks in total
Everything needed
As soon as you get assigned to your patrol division
At this time 4 years, but we are looking to reduce that to 3 years, pending approval by the Police Merit Board.
Pay and vacation accrual will be determined by the sworn experience of the applicant. This compensation will be capped at 10 years. If you have more than 10 years sworn experience, you will be paid as a 10-year ($75,852/annually ($71,552 base pay + $4,300 KLFPF) and 9.31 hours vacation per paycheck).
All laterals will be eligible for a $8,000 hiring incentive, paid over 2 years ($4,000 upon hire, $2,000 upon completion of year 1 and $2,000 upon completion of year 2). Any laterals that have to relocate more than 75 miles from current residence to Jefferson County line boundaries will be paid a $3,000 relocation incentive.
Our current health insurance offers 3 different plans - one of which will incur ZERO paycheck deductions, an HRA card from $1,000 (single plan) to $1,400 (family plan) and a wellness center that will cost $5 per visit and provide medication for free if they have it on site. LMPD just began (July 1, 2021) to offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave for new childbirth for both our male and female officers. We also offer bereavement leave, unlimited sick leave, FMLA leave, just to name a few of our incentives.
Curriculum will be structured more like an In-Service/Professional Development training versus a Basic Academy training. There will be no PAT or POPS Physical Agility Test required for in-state applicants.
Applicants will have a preference, but division assignments will ultimately be decided by the Chief of Police and needs of the department. All laterals will work 12 hour shifts on patrol to start.
After 3 years sworn with LMPD, same as new officers currently.
Yes, for 1 year
All lateral applicants will be required to take a polygraph and medical exam. If a prior suitability/psychological exam can be provided by a previous agency, it will be accepted. New psychological will be required if one can't be provided from your previous agency. All applicants will be required to agree to background investigation and criminal history check. Civil Service written and oral exams are not required for lateral applicants.


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Apex Portable Toilet Rentals
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Apex Portable Toilet Rentals, a leading portable restroom rental company in Glendale AZ, provides top-quality portable loos for outdoor events, construction projects, and other outdoor activities. We offer a range of rental options, including standard portable toilets, deluxe flushable units, and ADA-compliant units to cater to your specific needs. Our team is dedicated to providing reliable, timely, and affordable services to ensure customer satisfaction. Contact us for all your portable toilet needs in Glendale, and the surrounding area.
Glendale () is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, located approximately 9 miles (14 km) northwest of Downtown Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 248,325. == History == In the late 1800s the area that is now Glendale was all desert. William John Murphy, a native of New Hartford, New York, who resided in the town of Flagstaff in what was then the territory of Arizona, was in charge of building the 40-mile-long (64 km) Arizona Canal from Granite Reef to New River for the Arizona Canal Company. In 1885, he completed the canal, which would bring water to the desert land.
55th Neighborhood Association, Acapulco Neighborhoods, Acoma Neighborhood, Arrowhead Phase II, Bell/Greenway Neighborhood, Bethany Heights, Bethany Square Neighborhood, Birds of Paradise Neighbor, Cactus Cove HOA, Camelback Village Estates, Caron Drive Neighborhood, Catlin Court Historic District, Chaparral Ranch I, Cobblefield HOA, Daybreak Neighborhood


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I am a professional wedding photographer based on the Wirral. I Travel to any destination, wherever your special day may be.
Thanks for visiting, photography is my passion and I hope you enjoy my pictures as much as I like taking them.
Browse my work and feel free to leave comments and share with friends anything you like, it's all appreciated :)


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No one expected Roger Federer to hoist that French Open trophy last weekend and it's as if he dressed the part, staying back with a Classic Open Polo in blue and grey while the prince of clay, Rafa Nadal, pranced around in his pink Nike gear.
But a closer look shows us Roger's actual intentions: bright orange accents in his wristband, under his monogrammed placket, and on that faaaabulous gym bag; a white/red warm-up; his sleek Rolex — as if he knew that there'd be a photo opp involving a certain trophy he had yet to see on his mantle… until now.
This guy is sneaky!
Buy: Nike Summer Classic Open Polo, Sterling Blue/Classic Charcoal, $65.
More: A closer look at the outfit — belt, shoes, fur, bag, tuxedo stripe down his shorts — all after the cut…
(images via Getty Images)


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VISUAL DEVELOPMENT • PRODUCTION DESIGN • LECTURER • Animated Films, Games & Commercial • www.facebook.com/armandserrano.artist • Twitter - @ArmandSerrano
Friday, January 13, 2012
Harmony Procedural Drawing Tool
5 comments:
- Logan Pearsall said...
Very fun!
- January 13, 2012 11:24 AM
- Katy Hargrove said...
Have you tried out sketchclub on the ipad? Its got a lot of similarities, but is a much more robust program. Layers and all that good stuff!
http://www.sketchclub.com/help/ - January 14, 2012 1:58 PM
- Annis Naeem said...
- January 16, 2012 3:19 PM
- Peter Oedekoven said...
Great Scetches Armand!!!
- January 17, 2012 2:59 AM
- "TORI CAT" said...
Hi Armand!!
Happy new year to you!
Sorry i haven't dropped by for a long time.
I have been so busy the last year or so especially, i just haven't had much chance to keep up with the blogging.
Like always its a wonderful treat to come to your blog, to get fully inspired by your beautiful work.
I especially like your designs for Arthur Christmas.
I worked on the film for short while at Aardman a few years ago now, designing props.
Unfortunately, i still haven't got round to watching the final film.
Its really nice to see you sharing your experience on the project and to see what you worked on. I wasn't sure if we were aloud to show our work for it yet, but as you have, i'll get in contact with Aardman and make sure that i too can get some of my designs online. :)
I look forward to the day that we can actually work together, (well i guess we kinda have here on AC), but i mean to actually work in a studio together and i can learn from you, and we can work in a team, bouncing ideas off one another. :)
I hope you are keeping busy and well and have an exciting year ahead.
Best wishes and Kind Regards,
Tori - January 21, 2012 7:01 PM


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All of our products are made by husband and wife team, Emily and Justin Reynolds ! We handprint everything on vintage letterpress printers. All of our raw materials, from our paper to our pencils are made in the United States. No exceptions.
Letterpress Greeting Card:


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""So exciting IT MAKES YOU ACHE WITH PLEASURE."" John Lahr, The New Yorker
- Ages
Grammy Award Winning Broadway Smash Hit
Tony Award-winning librettist Arthur Laurents' Broadway direction will be recreated for the tour by David Saint, the Associate Director on Broadway. The original Jerome Robbins choreography is reproduced by Tony Award-nominee Joey McKneely (The Boy from Oz, The Life).
The new Broadway cast album of West Side Story won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album on January 31, 2010. The Bernstein and Sondheim score is considered to be one of Broadway's finest and features such classics of the American musical theatre as "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "America," "I Feel Pretty" and "Somewhere."
The new Broadway production began previews at the Palace Theatre on Broadway Monday, February 23, 2009, opened to critical acclaim breaking box office records at the Palace Theatre on Thursday, March 19, 2009, and recouped its $14 million investment after running only 30 weeks. The Broadway production played its final performance January 2, 2011. The musical played 27 previews and 748 regular performances, making it the longest-running production of the groundbreaking musical in Broadway history. The original production, which had held the record, played 732 performances on Broadway.
West Side Story features scenic designs by James Youmans (Gypsy), costumes by Tony Award nominee David C. Woolard (The Farnsworth Invention, The Who's Tommy), lighting by Tony Award winner Howell Binkley (Gypsy, Jersey Boys), sound design by Tony Award nominee Dan Moses Schreier (Gypsy, A Catered Affair) and hair by Mark Adam Rampmeyer (The Farnsworth Invention).
West Side Story is written by three theatrical luminaries: two-time Tony Award winner Arthur Laurents (book) and multiple Tony and Grammy Award winners Leonard Bernstein (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) in his Broadway debut.
West Side Story is produced by Kevin McCollum, James L. Nederlander, Jeffrey Seller with Terry Allen Kramer, Sander Jacobs, Roy Furman / Jill Furman Willis, Robyn Goodman / Walt Grossman, Hal Luftig, Roy Miller and Broadway Across America.
** Please note that this performance is suggested for ages 13 and up**
Groups 10 + Discount Available
Contact Broadway Across Canada at 1.800.889.8457 or visit http://ottawa.broadway.com/groups/shows/


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With thousands of fastener locations that need to be drilled and filled to complete a plane, drilling and fastening remain the largest areas of opportunity for automated robotics applications in aerospace. New developments are also making robots more attractive than ever in the aerospace and defense space—especially improved rigidity and accuracy in the robots themselves.
There are other benefits, too. Flexible, agile robotic automation also offer substantial cost advantages over huge, fixed "monument" systems that have been used for decades to perform the thousands of drilling and fastening operations on a large airframe structure. Robots are also viewed by some as a way to speed production to alleviate order backlogs.
"Drilling and fastening operations are the most common application in our manufacturing assembly process as a whole, and that is unlikely to change any time soon," said Curtis Richardson, Associate Technical Fellow, Robotics and Automation Technology, Manufacturing Research and Development, Spirit AeroSystems Inc. (Wichita, KS).
Government-funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs conducted in recent years have started to pay off with development of improved, more accurate robotic drilling and fastening systems. Key technology enablers include metrology- and vision-guided drilling and fastening systems, using secondary encoders that help boost robot accuracy, and force control sensors for robotic painting, coating and sanding applications on large airframes.
"One of the strongest technical trends in aerospace automation is the integration of sensor systems; 2D and 3D vision are still the most common sensing systems used, but integration with metrology systems such as laser trackers and scanners is also becoming more prevalent," Richardson said. "Accuracy and quality standards in many aerospace applications are driving integration of metrology even for traditional gantry and Cartesian machines, but we're seeing benefits from metrology integrated with lower-cost automation like robotics as well. Industrial robots themselves have improved to the point that they are now capable of doing some work that 10 or 15 years ago would have required purpose-built machine tools."
Other areas where robotic automation is gaining ground include processes like nondestructive inspection, part trimming, and surface preparation, Richardson said, which are also getting more automation attention due to the proliferation of large composite aircraft structures.
Leading a list of highly automated aircraft programs, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is built by several prime contractors and subcontractors working with Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, MD), employing a great deal of robotic automation including robotic drilling cells installed at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s (NGC; El Segundo, CA) Integrated Assembly Line (IAL) at the Palmdale, CA, manufacturing facility that builds the F-35's center fuselage.
Installed by Kuka Systems Corp. (Sterling Heights, MI), the IAL features an automated workcell for the F-35 Inlet Duct Robotic Drilling (IDRD) project, an SBIR program with the Air Force Research Laboratory that involved automation integrator Comau Aerospace (Southfield, MI) along with partners Variation Reduction Solutions Inc. (VRSI; Plymouth, MI), the Delmia brand of Dassault Systèmes (Auburn Hills, MI), Cenit North America Inc. (Auburn Hills, MI), and Fanuc Robotics America Corp. (Rochester Hills, MI). The F-35 IDRD used a Digital Thread manufacturing concept with software and metrology technology in the Fastener Installation Live Link System (FILLS) that ensures highly accurate automated insertion of the roughly 30,000 fasteners on the F-35 center fuselage.
"The aerospace companies are using robots and automated guided vehicles [AGVs] for automating applications for the same reasons other industries, like automotive, have been using them—improvement in process speed and quality, as well as taking people out of hazardous jobs and making them machine operators instead of manual laborers," said Dave Masinick, account manager, aerospace, Kuka Robotics Corp. (Shelby Township, MI). "The difference is in the business and applications drivers. Aerospace production is a relatively slow, low-volume, high-value process compared to other manufacturing. The 'volume' demand is not the product throughput, but rather the high number of process steps required to complete the plane. The best example of that is drilling and fastening together the frame structures and skins.
"Each plane has many thousands of fastener locations that need to be drilled and filled to complete a plane," Masinick explained. "In addition to replacing manual processes, aerospace manufacturers are looking at robots as replacements for dedicated-purpose machines that are more costly to procure and less flexible than an integrated robot cell or system." Some examples, he added, are robotic fiber and tape placement for composite construction, ultrasonic NDI (nondestructive inspection), mechanical routing and trimming, and abrasive waterjet trimming.
AGVs are being used to transport subassemblies and heavy tooling that requires portability, he said. "The mobile robot platforms keep the factory floor clear of stationary 'monuments' and give the manufacturers the opportunity to move the automation to the work, rather than moving the work past the automation."
Many current aerospace automation projects involve a heavy dose of metrology. While some of the aerospace developments mirror robotic automation in the automotive world, there are distinct differences.
"There are two threads that we've been following for automation," said Michael Kleemann, VRSI's chief engineer-aerospace. "When you look at aerospace, generally you only see automation in either fabrication, more classical machine tools, or in very large, sort of purpose-built automated assembly machines. Assembly-level drilling and fastening has been catching on. But as aerospace primes start to look for greater cost savings and greater quality improvements due to automation, the automation industry needs to provide more flexible solutions."
VRSI has focused on using robotics combined with metrology systems to use measurement to achieve the close tolerances and requirements of aerospace, Kleemann said.
"In aerospace, your production timelines, or your takt time for any given process, is usually measured in days or weeks. In automotive, it's measured in seconds, so you can't have a robot sitting around for a week after it's done its job. It's not going to provide a good business case. A lot of the demand in aerospace is either for large-scale systems that can automate an entire process end-to-end, or smaller-scale systems that are flexible enough so that they can be used for different tasks in a process.
"We've worked on some projects that require very close tolerances, on the order of 0.010″ [0.25 mm] or less," said Kleemann. "For something like that, we've always used the approach of using a coordinate metrology system integrated into the system to provide a second source of measurement of positional accuracy. That's the approach we used in the inlet duct project, as well as subsequent projects, and it gets the job done."
An SBIR Phase II program for the F-35, the Affordable Accurate Robotic Guidance (AARG), teams some of the developers of the earlier FILLS project on the AARG system, which uses metrology-guided drilling technology to automate the F-35's J450 Wing Overlap drilling at Lockheed. VRSI's Brett Bordyn, director of technology, presented a paper describing the project at the Defense Manufacturing Conference 2012 in Orlando, FL. The system is designed to fully automate drilling more than 1500 holes per F-35 aircraft, using FARO Vantage laser trackers and laser pointer beacons, Kuka robots, and a Zagar drilling head, to improve hole quality and process repeatability while lowering costs and increasing throughput. VRSI did development work on the system's integrated inspection capabilities, and in testing, the AARG has drilled holes within a 0.007″ (0.18-mm) radius.
"Another area where we have found that we can bring quality and productivity gains is in integrated feature inspection—not necessarily measuring the positioning of the machine but measuring the feature that the machine creates," Kleemann said. "The AARG system is a new prototype SBIR we're working on that has external metrology for positional guidance, but it also has a laser triangulation scanner and a noncontact bore probe integrated into the end effector. As soon as a hole is drilled, we can scan with the laser scanner, measure the countersink quality and surface characteristics in great detail, then insert the noncontact bore probe and measure hole diameter as well as grip length; it can even do a complete scan and see things like liquid shim blowout or exit burr—that's something that's required by the process."
Newer, more rigid robots like the new Fanuc Robotics M-900iB/700 shown at IMTS 2012 are geared specifically toward aerospace applications. At IMTS, Fanuc demonstrated the system M-900iB/700, which has a 2.83-m horizontal reach and a 700-kg payload, drilling an airframe fuselage panel while monitored by a laser measurement system to show how little deflection occurred during the drilling process.
"We're still working on things like making the robots more accurate and more rigid, but we developed the new M-900 robot primarily because of the demands of the aerospace industry from a drilling perspective," said Chris Blanchette, manager, aerospace integration channels, Fanuc Robotics. "It's a highly rigid robot, and it's also a high-accuracy robot, which is part of the trend of robots moving into more machining-type processes, like drilling and riveting."
At aerospace supplier St. Louis Metallizing (SLM; St. Louis), robotic thermal spray technologies are used to apply metal and ceramic coatings to a variety of OEM and repair parts to minimize corrosion, erosion and wear to the original substrate and extend part life. SLM currently has 17 robots from ABB Robotics (Auburn Hills, MI) integrated into various cells throughout its facility to accommodate large and small configurations used in commercial and military aerospace applications.
"With thermal spray, you're putting a coating on a part that serves as a way to provide a good mechanical bond," said Tom Desloge, SLM director of sales and marketing. "Most of our work is in engine components and landing gear repair. In our process, we'll remove the coating, then apply thermal spray, and then we do machining as well."
The company's thermal spray processes include electric arc, high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF), air plasma, electric wire arc and oxy-fuel flame spray in the wire and powder form, notes Bill Bryant, SLM aerospace sales engineer. "It's a combination of maintenance and repair, and thermal spray is also used a lot on the new OEM side," Bryant said. "Before an engine is put into service or a landing gear is installed on an aircraft, thermal will be used."
One of the trends is the elimination of chrome plating for landing gear, Bryant added. "Even though chrome plating has been a popular method for providing corrosion resistance, thermal spray is being used on an increasing basis. Not only does thermal spray eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals found in chrome plating, it is known to last up to three to five times longer than chrome."
Components from the hot section of jet engines, in particular, need specialized coatings. "That's where your thermal barriers come into play," he said, "to protect precious metals, component alloy types, with a thermal spray coating to prevent heat from penetrating into the base metal, distorting or eroding the original substrate."
SLM also does its own in-house nondestructive testing (NDT) for detecting surface cracks or porosity on coated parts. "We've been using robots since the early 1980s, and we've built up our business on it," said Desloge. "We standardized on ABB robots, because the quality is sky-high. Consistent quality is everything, and rework hurts your reputation."
Force sensing technology from Fanuc helped Aerobotix Inc. (Madison, AL), an authorized Fanuc Robotics integrator, develop and commercialize its robotic sanding solution under the US Air Force Automated Sanding SBIR with the Air Force Research Laboratory for the F-35 program, said Aerobotix President and Owner Kirk McLauchlin. Now in Phase III SBIR status, Aerobotix offers the robotic sanding system to commercial and military customers.
"It's definitely applicable to other projects, and we've had multiple platforms that have shown interest in it," McLauchlin noted. "We've given demonstrations to just about every platform out there—from F/A-18, F-16, F-22 and B-2, as well as the F-35—just about anything where people spray LO [low-observable] coatings on an aircraft, there will almost always be some type of sanding required."
Aerobotix, which was founded in 2005, started using Fanuc's force sensor around late 2008, McLauchlin said, noting the sensor previously had been employed mostly for automotive in assembly or grinding. "Just about everything we do is a nonstandard application of a standard product. As an integrator, our art is to take standard off-the-shelf products and put them together in a unique way to achieve a tool with specific capabilities, then program it for use in advanced manufacturing processes," McLauchlin said.
"Fanuc would typically mount the force sensor to the wrist of the robot and install an assembly tool or something similar on it. We remotely mount the sensor five to six feet from the wrist at the end of a long end-of-arm tool, because we have to reach into narrow, confined areas with the sander, so right away there are challenges in the programming and tuning."
The Aerobotix system uses a Fanuc M-710 robot equipped with the R-30iA control platform and the Fanuc force sensor. "We can set the application force for the sanding tool to 5 kg and hold that, plus or minus 0.5 kg, which for a vibrating, shaking tool, is very good," McLauchlin said. "Once you spray on low-observable coatings, it typically leaves a surface finish that's not acceptable, like an orange peel, for the performance requirements of the coating.
"Between different coatings we may have to sand, just to knock off that rough finish, or there may also be areas where we have to do thickness sanding to remove material that's put on too heavily. The final finish has to be uniform, so we use the sanding tool to smooth out the finish, and prepare it for proper adhesion of a final top coat application." ME
This article was first published in the March 2013 edition of Manufacturing Engineering magazine.
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The below photo of my parents reveals much about their personalities (hers vivacious and outgoing, his withdrawn and closed off), their relationship (little real contact), and also the times (could be captioned Gender Roles in the 1950s: The Bathing Beauty and the Soldier).
The typicality of their lives reveals much about the USA. My mother was a farmer's daughter whose father lost the farm to the banks, and they had to scrabble along in the slums of the big city, St. Louis. All her life she yearned for her bucolic childhood when everything was "nice." My father was a coal miner and the son of a coal miner from West Virginia. He hated the mines so much that after the Second World War he stayed in the military as a professional soldier.
Both were imbued with the all-American drive to get ahead of the pack, to wrest advantage over others. My mother's great-great-grandfather had gotten ahead by owning slaves, using their stolen labor to become wealthy. Although he died decades before she was born, she spoke of him with patriarchal reverence, telling what a good master he had been. His slaves loved him so much that during the Civil War they protected him from Yankee soldiers by hiding him in a well, then hauling him back up when they were gone.
She admitted that not all masters were that kind, though, and she felt slavery wasn't a good thing. But it was the only way for the Negroes to come to America. Most of the Europeans could afford to pay their way over, but the Africans didn't have money, so they signed up to be slaves in order to come here. Deep down my mother knew this wasn't true, but she repeated it as a litany to shore up the family myth that great-great-grandfather had been a good man, hadn't done anything wrong in achieving his success. When slave labor ended, so did the family's advantage. Their fortunes declined, and her father lost the farm in the 1920s before the Depression. But they were still much better off than the descendents of the people whose unpaid work had generated the wealth.
My father managed to become an officer in the Second World War, making the leap from working class to middle class. In the 1950s he was stationed in Colorado as the state coordinator for civil defense. He organized the Ground Observer Corps, groups of citizens who gathered on the roofs of tall buildings to scan the skies with their binoculars. He gave them cards showing silhouettes of Soviet bombers, and if they saw an airplane that resembled those, they were supposed to immediately inform the authorities. He gave presentations on making basement bomb shelters: where the secure corners are, how much food and water to store, how to give first aid for radiation burns. When I eagerly asked him when we would be making our bomb shelter, he said we weren't going to: Basement shelters were useless against atomic weapons. The whole thing was just a scare campaign to convince the public of the need for a strong military to counter the communist threat. He didn't disapprove of the campaign, though. It was his job, providing us with food, clothing, and bombless shelter of considerably higher quality than coal mining would have.
But he chafed under the limited horizons of military life and was always seeking ways to get ahead, to get rich. One of these was through radio stickers. When the communists attacked, all the commercial radio stations were going to stop broadcasting and clear the airwaves for two military stations that would inform the public on civil defense measures. My father invented stickers that people could buy and put on their radio dial at the frequencies of these two stations so they could instantly find them. But the invention was not a great success. Since all the other stations would be off the air, anyone could just spin the dial and find the two military stations.
He also invented a clever display mechanism that would make beer bottles appear to float in the air behind the bar, circling and hovering in front of the eager customers. He journeyed to the headquarters of the major beer companies and presented it to the marketing managers, but none of them recognized its brilliance.
Although fortune eluded him, he found military success in Colorado and was promoted several times. The state was fertile ground for civil defense; the threat of war and annihilation was deeply rooted. The first defenses were forts erected against the Indigenous peoples from whom the Europeans had stolen the land. These forts and their commanders are proudly commemorated today in the names of cities and military bases. Some have been restored as shrines for patriotic indoctrination.
In the 1950s Cheyenne Mountain, a granite colossus towering above Colorado Springs and named after a nearly genocided Native nation, was hollowed out to serve as a military headquarters during the upcoming war. Even if the rest of the country were being incinerated, the commanders could still fire intercontinental ballistic missiles on the Soviets from there. The new Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs was training the next generation of bomber pilots and missile experts. The Rocky Flats Arsenal near Denver produced hydrogen bombs and contaminated the air, land, and water with radioactive poisons. The uranium used to make the bombs was mined in the state under negligent supervision, resulting in toxic residues and increased cancer rates. Denver was also the manufacturing site for the state-of-the-art intercontinental missile, the Titan. Colorado was where the wild-west mentality merged with foreign policy.
All this is madness of course, a monstrous psychosis, and it affects our minds on the subconscious level. The psychotics among us are particularly sensitive to these signals, and they act on them. It's no accident that Denver has been the site of so many mass murders. The first one was in 1955 at the height of the H-bomb terror. A fault line in the collective consciousness cracked under the stress, and a young man put a bomb in his mother's suitcase as she was flying away for a trip. Everyone in the plane died. This was the first time anyone had done anything like that, and the country was aghast. But the man proved to be a pioneer; since then mass murder has become commonplace. The people follow their leaders. The Columbine School shooting in 1999 happened in the same suburb as the Titan missile factory. The Dark Knight shooting in 2012 happened only a few miles from Rocky Flats Arsenal. Colorado is also home to Guantánamo West, the new supermax prison for terrorists. And Colorado Springs has become a center of the evangelical Christian movement, fundamentalists praying to their patriarchal God to spare them from the fires of hell.
My mother was a moderate Christian, sincere in her Presbyterian faith but seeing the institution as a practical arena for getting ahead. As befitting my father's rank, we lived in a lower-middle class suburb of Denver (Aurora, the site of the Dark Knight shooting). As their marriage crumbled, largely on account of father's drinking, mother had the foresight to develop a strategy for advantage. Shunning the local Presbyterian church, she joined one in the old rich section of Denver and hauled her children there every Sunday for services. She became active in the church, and after the divorce she was elected chairperson of the middle-aged singles social group. One of her duties was to welcome new members into the group. When a wealthy older man, recently widowed, joined it, her ample beauty and charm soon won her a new husband. She was a dutiful and attentive wife, and he was happy, not knowing that she never loved him.
His father had owned a rock quarry and amassed a small fortune by paying his workers (miners of a sort, like my father and his father had been) just enough to keep them working. My genteel last name comes from him. I started life as a Schuster.
My mother's leap into the upper-middle class gave her children advantages, enabling my brother and me to attend Ivy League universities. We've been able to get ahead. Now the family fortunes are restored to what they were in the days of slavery. Success!
The American Dream is built on the American Nightmare.


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Bradford Council was left leaderless today as Ian Greenwood lost his Little Horton seat after 17 years preventing Labour from taking overall control for the first time since 1999.
It took four recounts before the Labour leader finally accepted defeat by the tiny margin of just 17 votes to the Respect candidate, Alyas Karmani.
With his seat the last to declare, Labour needed just one more victory to put it in the driving seat.
In the event, it was left with 45 seats – an increase of two – but exactly half of the 90 seats on the Council, meaning that it will have to form an alliance with another party to stay in power.
However, Labour may yet have an ace up its sleeve because Councillor Imdad Hussain – who was not up for re-election this time – was suspended by the Regional Labour Party from his Heaton seat before the election after it emerged he had been disqualified as a company director for seven years after his company went into liquidation last year.
He is currently listed as an "Independent" councillor and the Labour party apparently believes that he will continue to vote with the party whether or not he is reinstated following the current investigation into his situation.
Before yesterday's ballot of one third of the Council, the Green party had held the balance and – if Labour can't rely on Imdad Hussain – may well do again but that will be a decision for whoever the Labour party chooses as its new leader.
Even if they failed to turn George Galloway's "Bradford Spring" into Greenwood's Labour Dawn, the party made enough gains on the back of the national wave of protests against the Coalition's austerity measures to keep Respect from holding the balance of power.
Respect had put up candidates in 12 Bradford seats with George Galloway confidently predicting up to eight gains. In the event, they took just five.
The results meant that Respect's hopes of the Bradford West by-election result bouncing them into a position where they held the balance of power turned as cold as the forecast for the bank holiday weekend weather.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats each finished the night with three fewer seats, on 24 and eight seats respectively, with the Greens remaining on three and five seats in the hands of independents.
Coun Greenwood said: "I am sad to lose obviously but I've been a politican for very many years and some elections you win and some you lose.
"The people can deliver you in to office and they can take that away, and I think all politicians should treat that with the humility that's appropriate.
"From the moment the by-election result was declared it was clear to me that I had a fight on my hands. I've never taken it for granted - I fought a hard campaign and it was unsucessful.
"The issue I have with this situation is that Mr Galloway and his colleagues have made an awful lot of promises, particularly to young people in the district, that I am not convinced they are going to be able to deliver and that bodes ill for the future in my view."
The result saw Respect's Alyas Karmani poll 2,191 votes followed by Coun Greenwood on 2,174.
Elsewhere, the next Lord Mayor of Bradford, Wharfedale Councillor Dale Smith, polled 2,252 votes, with Labour's Dave Allen his closest rival with 694. Coun Smith said: "I am delighted. I had not assumed I would win as there is always a tension in local elections." He said voters in Wharfedale were "anxious" about protecting the green belt from development, adding: "We recognise the need for affordable housing but we are concerned about the connectivity with places where there are jobs in Leeds and Bradford."
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Fla. Police Called On George Zimmerman
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — George Zimmerman's wife has called police to her father's house, saying the former neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted of murder threatened her with a gun.
Lake Mary Police Chief Steve Bracknell says Shellie Zimmerman called police shortly after 2 p.m. Monday.
Bracknell says Zimmerman hasn't been arrested and officers are at the house trying to determine what happened.
Shellie Zimmerman filed for divorce last week.
In the divorce petition, Shellie Zimmerman says she and her husband separated a month after Zimmerman was acquitted of any crime for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin last July.
Zimmerman's acquittal led to protests nationwide.


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The first part of this section gives details of commands associated with marking, while the second provides details of a few commands whose area is limited to a region. Other region specific commands are available but are dealt with in more appropriate sections of this manual. For example, Write Region is dealt with under the File handling as it involves writing a region to a file.
Details of marks are kept in a mark ring so that previously defined marks can be accessed. The mark ring works like a stack, in that marks are pushed onto the ring and can only be popped off on a "last in first out" basis. Each buffer has its own mark ring.
Note that marks may also be set by using the mouse--see Buffers, windows and the mouse--but also note that a region must be defined
by using the mouse
by using editor key sequences, as the region may become unset if a combination of the two is used. For example, using
to set a mark and then using the mouse to go to the start of the required region unsets the mark.


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Level 1
3h 5m
In this course David Tracy from Gensler will explore tools for making organic geometry and for flattening, unwrapping and translating organic geometry.
First you will learn how to work with Curves, Surfaces and Layers to create geometry in Rhino. Then, you will learn how to use these techniques to build a site plan from a reference image, including the floor, roof, columns, walls, and windows. You will then learn how to modify and deform geometry in Rhino. Finally you will learn how to export your model from Rhino and bring it into another program, such as AutoCAD or Adobe Illustrator to edit it further. You will also learn how to use Grasshopper in Rhino to create geometry and orthogonal drawings.
When you are done with this course you will know how to create and manipulate geometry in Rhino, how to apply to an actual site design, and how to bring your finished Rhino model into other design programs.
Choose your subscription


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The Do Team
Office: (714) 234-9600
Email Me Open My App
Fidelity National Title is updating our records and we need your help. Please click the following link and update your contact information and accept our new Limited Liability Agreement. This information will not be shared and is only intended for internal use. Please take a few minutes to complete this by March 31st to ensure you do not experience any disruption in service. If you have logged into Fidelity Passport in the past 30 days, you would have already completed this and can disregard this request. VIEW AND ACCEPT CUSTOMER AGREEMENT We look forward to working with you and support your Title and closing needs. If you have any questions, please let us know and we would be happy to contact you.


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Columbus Eliminated From 2016 Republican National Convention List
< < Back toCleveland and Cincinnati are still in contention as possible sites for the 2016 Republican National Convention after the list was narrowed.
Columbus, the third Ohio city that made a bid, was knocked off Wednesday along with Phoenix as officials cut the list to six. The Republican National Committee says other cities that made the cut were Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas and Kansas City, Mo.
A small Republican team will visit the six cities to scrutinize their financing, convention venues, hotels and media workspace. The selection committee then will decide which cities get official visits from the full Republican National Committee delegation.
Ohio has not hosted a national political convention since 1936, when it had 26 electoral votes as the nation's fourth most populous state.


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Add to a collection, or start a new one with our custom printed promotional snow domes. One of the most timeless promotional items, this custom imprinted magnetic snow globe will really sit well with anyone who receives it. While most snow globes just feature a snowy, wintery scene, here at IASpromotes.com we offer many different types of promotional snow domes! You can choose ones where you can insert a photo or magnetic snow globes where, after shaking it, you can attach it to your refrigerator for everyone to see. Both adults and children will delight in receiving personalized snow globes!
With a nearly endless supply of custom promotional snow globe designs, you can easily find the one you like the most to personalize with your business name and logo. Our price points also mean that you can order a bunch of promotional keychain snow domes as trade show freebies, or give nice, stylish ones to adorn clients' desks.


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by Hena Zuberi, Muslim Link, 24 June 2013
The Northern Virginia community in Alexandria welcomes a new imam for the ICNA masjid. Shaykh Abdool Rahman Khan is a graduate of the Islamic University in Madinah Munawwarah, in the faculty of Shari'ah (Islamic Jurisprudence) specializing in Islamic Inheritance. He attended the university from 1982 to 1989.
His soft accent gives away that he is originally from Guyana, South America. Sh. Abdool Rahman Khan is a father of two daughters and one son. Currently, his son is a student in Madinah University, his elder daughter is attending medical school and the younger one is completely 10th grade in Chicago. "My family will join me here in Virginia after her school year," says Sh. Khan in an interview with the Muslim Link.
He is the former Principal of the Guyana Islamic Institute and also of Al-Rahmah School, Baltimore, MD. He served as the resident scholar and Imam at Masjid Tawheed in Oakbrook Terrace, IL. As the Resident Scholar and Khateeb at Islamic Foundation, Villa Park, Chicago, IL for 13 years, he was outspoken and actively involved in the field of religious dialogue and social issues.
He is also the chairman of the Shari'ah Council of Islamic Circle of North America and a member of the Fiqh Council of North America.
Space is the biggest challenge that the Imam sees at the, even though the facility was just completed, it is already too small for the growing community.
"One positive thing here is that I am very comfortable with the board of directors here," he says. The board has told the imam that he is in charge.
"There is a great difference in how an Imam is treated as a leader of the community rather than [just] an employee," he says. Sh. Khan thinks that a lot more can be done in guiding the community when the imam has more authority, and doesn't have to dance to the tune of the BOD.
The community is more diverse than his congregation in Illinois, which is a great blessing in his eyes. Most of them in Virginia are immigrants. "We learn about Muslims from around the globe and when things aren't right then we have an opportunity to rectify," said Sh. Khan.
The imam has started Aqidah Studies, Tafseer and Hadith classes every Saturday and Sunday morning. Fridays are family nights where issues concerning the family are discussed.
Another program is a potluck breakfast that has helped him get to know the brothers in the community. "[It] gives us a means to socialize and learn about each other's culture and food," says the imam.
He plans on using his experience in Chicago to help the ICNA masjid in Alexandria to do more outreach, joining other interfaith organizations and addressing social issues. "I would like to be the leading effort for the poor and needy; it is a part of our religious obligation," says Sh. Khan.
Shaykh Khan is a sisters friendly imam. "Sisters are an integral part of the community and, they should have the opportunity to have their questions addressed and to be heard. They should not feel intimidated," says Shaykh Khan. He plans on holding classes specifically for the women in the community.
One of the challenges facing the imam is reaching out to disenfranchised Muslims. Concerning the pockets of community that has been alienated or have stopped coming to masjid the imam says that he would like to meet with them. "This is the house of Allah," The imam does not believe in divisions based on madhhab (school of thought) differences. "Once you make madhab an issue then you are shutting down dialogue," says Sh. Khan.
When asked about other community organizations emerging in the area, he says that he likes the idea of help in providing services that the masjid is not equipped to provide or doesn't have the expertise to offer. He would like to have a hand and glove approach with community and youth organizations.
Tolerance and an open door policy are needed to serve as an imam in a diverse masjid. His fingers laced together to emphasize his point, he says "nothing can replace the masjid …no parallel service, the masjid has to be the focal point of a [Muslim] community."
Article Courtesy: Muslim Link
Salaam Alaikum Sheikh Abdool Rahman Khan,
I am so thrilled to read about your placement as Imam of ICNA VA Masjid. Over the last 10+ years I have benefited from so many of your lectures and workshops when I used to live closer to the Islamic Foundation in Villa Park. I wish you and your family all the best in this new chapter of your life. Please remember us in your prayers.
Ashik Ur Rahman


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ELCE 2011 Technical Showcase
Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2011 Technical Showcase
We are happy to be planning a technical showcase again this year at Embedded Linux Conference Europe. This Wiki page will guide you in giving your demonstration. For conference details, please follow this link to the conference website:
The demo session will be on Thursday, October 27th, between 12:00 and 14:30 in the main event hall foyer. See the conference schedule.
The demo room will be available starting at 10:00 am for showcase demo setup.
"Seeing is believing!" Unlike in Desktop or Server applications of Linux, in embedded systems Linux technology is usually unseen. Although it is a challenge, we want to expose Linux software and techniques so that other developers who are interested in this technology can learn, and become potential contributors themselves. We hope that through opening up technical details and projects (in the way of Open Source development), these demonstrations will provide insights that are helpful to developers.
- No purely commercial demonstrations.
- The Embedded Linux Conference Europe should not be used for a pure sales pitch.
- You can show off a product, if there are features or aspects of the product you are displaying that are open source.
- Demonstrations should be of software that is available under GPL or LGPL compatible licenses.
- You will be sharing the hall with sponsors and other paying exhibitors, so your exhibition should be of free and open source technology, tools or techniques.
Tim Bird - Sony Network Entertainment
- e-Mail : tim (dot) bird (a) am (dot) sony (dot) com
- Please replace (a) to "@" and (dot) to "."
What will be prepared by the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation will provide the following FREE OF CHARGE :
- A Demonstration desk, which is half of a table
If you need special arrangements, please contact the coordinator.
- Power supply TBD: EU standard
- Assuming the power is less than 750W. If your demonstration will exceed that, please consult the coordinator.
- A large-format printed poster, based on the file you submit.
- Please note that a dedicated (wired) Internet connection will NOT be prepared. However, wireless Internet may be available via the hotel wireless network. We cannot, however, guarantee Internet access.
- Logistics Support
- Details will be given to the demonstrators
Dimension of the desk
- Please refer to the attached photo.
All demonstrators are requested to prepare a poster to explain the technical outline of the demonstration. You can download the template from this page. CELF will print them out on large size paper. The document should be sent to the coordinator by October 11th.
Caution: Do not change the paper size. It is intentionally set to a big size.
Some tips
The demo consists of a poster (printed by LF), with a few sentences talking about a tool, technology or distribution and a table top where you can place anything from:
- nothing at all, just have a person sitting there to talk to people about what's on the poster, or ...
- something on a laptop - like a program running or a even a static chart showing some result
- something running on a board or a device
- something on an actual CE product
You can also put some flyers there for people to grab, if you'd like.
If you can put charts and graphs on the poster, that's nice but it is NOT required. Neither the poster nor the hardware (if any) needs to be elaborate or require lots of setup. One year I showed up with a camcorder and just talked to people about it's bootup time (which I had worked on).
If you are a presenter, the demo session is a good chance to talk to people one-on-one about your session topic. This gives you more time for interactive Q&A, and a chance to show something hands-on, if that applies to your subject.
How to apply
- Send an e-mail to the coordinator with the following information:
- The contact person, the company name or the project name, the outline of the demonstration.
- The coordinator will acknowledge your application by e-mail.
- Please send all proposals by October 14th, 2011
- Apply early, since space is limited!!
- Prepare the poster and send the data to CELF Office and the demonstration coordinator by October 19th. It will be printed out by the conference organizers on big size paper.
- Prepare the demonstration equipment
- You can bring the equipment yourself, or ship it.
- If you do not have a consignee which will be convenient for you, send them to the following address: Address not available yet
- Q: Is this opportunity limited to CE Workgroup and/or Linux Foundation members?
- A: No. You do not have to be a forum member to have a demo at the conference. However, each demo should be associated with a paid conference attendee.
- Q: Is the demonstrator required to make a presentation at the conference?
- A: No, this is not required. However, we believe there will be many people who will to be interested in details of the technology, so we hope that you can have a session. Please note that the due date for a session proposal is earlier than the due date for demo sign-up.
- Q: Should I assign some dedicated staff to carry on the demonstration?
- A: No, this is not necessary. There will be a keynote talk during the demo session slot, which you may want to attend. You may end your demo at the end of the lunch break (at 13:30) or secure your equipment if you wish to attend the keynote. The showcase will officially end at 14:30, at the end
of the break after the keynote.
- Q: Is there any fee to demo something in this session?
- A: No, it is completely free. However, the session is limited to conference attendees, so please register for the conference if you would not otherwise do so. If you have someone coming who will ONLY run or assist with your demo, and not attend any sessions, then that person may be admitted for free, for just the demo session (and setup and take down). However, each demo should be associated with at least one registered attendee.


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Tremor combines rhythms and sound across genre borders, fitting component parts of varying tradition together in eloquent symmetry. The artist breaks sound barriers across South America and presents their digital folklore tracks to a new, global audience.
Tremor researches folklore traditions by region and bridges generations, geography and genre to produce his signature style. Their sound is equal parts electronic music and native drum and owes as much to anthropology as it does to popular music.
The other two members in Tremor are just as equally sage in their interpretation of local musicology. Camilo Carbajal comes from a family of esteemed Argentine folklore musicians. His role is to keep the legacy alive and he is doing it in modern fashion, by peeling away the layers of time and bringing the bombo leguero to the 21st century with Tremor. In an age of presets and virtual sounds, Gerardo is a master of the analog craft of synth music. As a musician in demand, he often plays with 5 different bands in a typical month in Buenos Aires.
On their last record, Viajante, Tremor executes folklore melody through a digital context. Layers of rhythm are fortified with modern synth loops and paired with timeless Andean flute, strings and drum samples for evocative hybrids. Glitch, IDM, and electronica reinvent classic rhythms for today's listener. For a follow-up LP vinyl on ZZK Records/Crosstalk International Tremor tracks get remixed by Chancha Via Circuito, King Coya, El Remolon and Clorofila - Nortec Collective.
For Martinelli, "creativity is a combination of two improbable parts." He sees musical style as a puzzle or riddle, looking for the best way to put two opposing techniques together in one soundscape.


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Inside zone blocking rules allow linemen to use the movement and attack angles of the defenders against them. Whichever way the defender chooses to go, he is sealed off and the running back is prepared to cut off the block. Nebraska running backs are taught to attack the line-of-scrimmage (LOS) before cutting on inside zone plays. This gives the blocks the needed time to develop. The rule for the I-back is that his feet must replace the feet of the lineman before he can cut.
Inside zone blocking rules are keyed by whether a lineman is covered or uncovered. A covered lineman (one who has a defensive lineman aligned across from him) will execute a "stretch base" technique. This means he will take a short stretch step to the play side (step right on a 44, left on a 46) and attempt to control the playside shoulder of the d-lineman. The purpose of the stretch step is to invite movement by the d-lineman, then immediately engage him.
Uncovered linemen (no d-lineman across from them) execute a "stretch double" technique. Stretch double also calls for a stretch step to playside. The uncovered lineman then attacks the backside shoulder of the same d-lineman, creating double teams on most of the defensive linemen.
NOTE: the linemen operate on a system that moves to playside, NOT toward the hole called. On a 44 dive the play is called to the right guard, but the key is that it is a right side play. The right tackle's and right tight end's playside shoulders are their RIGHT shoulders even though the play was called to the left of them. The 4 hole is to the right side of the center, so right is playside for everyone on the line.
In executing the stretch double technique, the uncovered lineman assists the covered lineman to the playside; i.e., if a center and playside tackle are covered, the playside guard executes the stretch double with the tackle, NOT the center. If side-by-side linemen are both covered, the playside lineman is "on his own," and executes a stretch base block without double team help.
When executing the double team, both linemen follow what some coaches call a four hands-four eyes technique. This means they have four hands on the defensive lineman and four eyes on the linebacker in the area (their zone- which is where the name of the blocking comes from). When that linebacker commits to attacking the LOS one of the linemen chips off the double team and blocks him. The other lineman must be in position by then to take over the block on the lineman by himself. The linebacker is technically the responsibility of the uncovered lineman, but in practice either lineman can chip off and take the linebacker, depending on their position.
The goal of the stretch and stretch double is to create a cutback lane for the running back. When executed correctly, the "stretched" defender has moved in the direction of the call, and the stretch double prevents him from reaching a running back that has "cut back" against the flow of the play. If the double team can prevent the down lineman from making the tackle, and the "chip off" block prevents the playside linebacker from doing the same, the play can quickly get into the secondary.
The beauty of zone blocking is that the defense can pick its poison. Which ever way they choose to attack or stunt, the linemen (if they have perfected the zone blocking teamwork) can account for them. And the running back is trained to watch this block develop and cut off of it, no matter which direction the defenders are moved.
A very important block on an inside zone play is the backside seal block that allows the IB to cut back all the way to the backside TE spot if the whole defense fights to the playside. Depending on the formation used, the backside tackle, tight end, or fullback can be used to block the backside. A sure sign of an inside zone play is when the fullback heads away toward the TE without a fake while the IB goes straight ahead for a handoff. In one-back sets the backside seal cen be done by a wingback in motion. This is one area where big WB Troy Hasselbroek shone at the end of the 1999 season.