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The Liberal Media's Donald Sterling Race-baiting
by: selwyn duke | published: 05 12, 2014
Never let a racial crisis go to waste is, I suppose, the credo of the Machiavellian mainstream media. Since the release of the Don Sterling audio, liberals haven't missed a chance to play the race card for all its worth. One of the worst offenders is a New York Daily News columnist named Harry Siegel, who — in a piece of pablum bearing a picture of NBA owners portrayed as Klansmen — bemoans the lack of Diversity™ in league ownership and management. Unfortunately for Siegy, his points, which start with the Klan hoods, only get worse from there.
A man with a conscience (malformed though it is), Siegel laments that the NBA is "a league where three-quarters of the players are black, but fewer than half the coaches and not even a fifth of the league office staff are black, as of October, 2013, and every majority team owner except Michael Jordan is white." But there's an easy remedy.
Institute a quota ensuring that whites, and other races, get proportionate representation among NBA players.
This would make the league approximately 63 percent white, 17 percent Hispanic, 13 percent black and 6 percent Asian. The remaining one percent can be represented by Clint Eastwood's empty chair on the sidelines, and we can throw in a primordial dwarf if it makes the Diversity™ didacts feel better.
And why not? Why should proportionality go only one way? The bias here lies in self-righteously bloviating about Diversity™ when whites dominate an area while acting as if you don't even notice it when blacks do.
Of course, liberals would say that the players have earned their positions. But how do we know the owners haven't? After all, some individuals definitely seem to have a gift for building financial empires. This isn't to say that every rich person makes his fortune through respectable means. Heck, some people even make millions dribbling a ball around.
But it seems that liberals, prejudiced to the core, only have a problem with it when the "wrong" groups succeed. With the contraception con spent, Barack Obama (PBUH) has used his Teleprompter recently to rail against the male/female wage gap — and he wasn't talking about the one where young urban women earn 8 percent more than their male peers (because they're 50 percent more likely to graduate college; I don't think ol' Barry mentions this gap, either). Libs could also cite how NBA owners are inordinately Jewish, but that narrative won't work yet. And the highest-earning religious group in the nation is Hindus, but, last I heard, colleges weren't schooling mush-head kids in "Hindu privilege."
But talking about those things might be "publicly toxic"; you know, in the sense that Siegel said he's sure that Sterling is "not the only owner whose private thoughts are publicly toxic." No doubt. And I'm certain this is limited to rich white NBA owners, or at least white people in general. It also occurs to me, however, that people can develop a tolerance for certain toxins, such as when black ex-basketball players suggest all-black leagues or black civil-rights hustlers call a city "Hymietown." And, in keeping with the toxicological principle "The dose makes the poison," tolerance for toxins disgorged by whites stands at about .010 parts per million.
Then there are the millions, of dollars, that Siegel laments the NBA players are not getting, writing that theirs is a "league where the 360 or so athletes who, in fact, make the game, split its proceeds about 50-50 with ownership." Note that he also dismissed the owners, who allegedly believe they make the game, as "[w]ealthy men…[who] think highly of their own contributions."
Now, some might say that the fans make the game; after all, you earn zilch without a market. But what is Siegel's point? Wouldn't the proceeds split be much the same in the virtually all-white NHL? And how is that different from any corporation or successful business? A person doesn't invest his heart and soul and risk capital in a venture without the carrot of a possibly handsome return; not even liberals such as Little Big Gulp (a.k.a. Michael Bloomberg), Warren Buffet and Donald Sterling do that.
So it sounds as if Siegel is lamenting economic freedom, as if he'd prefer a Marxist model (this certainly would have the upside of not enriching men who dribble balls and pundits who dribble ideas). Of course, nothing is stopping the players from pooling their resources and trying to buy into their team.
But perhaps most telling about Siegel's article is what could be akin to a Freudian slip. A recurrent theme of his is that "we" can feel good about ourselves for taking the principled stand against Sterling, but there is much work yet to do. He writes, "We can all take a moment and pat ourselves on the back for not being as horrible as this appalling old man," and later, "Once we're done feeling good about not being Sterling…," it's time to beat the Diversity™ drum. But he also self-righteously states that Sterling's "obscene behavior…has been well documented" and asks, "how could this have gone on for so long?"
What this gets at is the phoniness of the left. Let's be clear on something: the "we" here isn't me. It's not most of you readers, the Heritage Foundation, Catholic Church or Southern Baptist Convention.
Notoriously liberal Mark Cuban, who now calls Sterling "abhorrent," said in 2009, "I like Donald. He plays by his own rules." (Translation: a lib who becomes a liability to the cause is "abhorrent." A lib who is getting away with it "plays by his own rules.") Black actor Leon Isaac Kennedy called Sterling "a prince among men." The NAACP gave him an award and was set to bestow another. And ex-NBA commissioner David Stern, who some libs now criticize for not only tolerating the owner but even rewarding him, is, like Sterling, a Democrat donor.
You anointed yourselves arbiters and overseers of acceptable racial commentary; "racism" is your hang-up, your defined One Deadly Sin, your great litmus test. Don't blame "society" — upholding your principles is your responsibility.
So most of the lib outrage over "racism" is, when not downright phony, motivated by selectively triggered emotion. It's a ploy used to tear down tradition and traditionalists on specious grounds and win the culture war. It's not for lib-enablers, such as late Senator Robert Byrd, who'd been in the KKK; blacks such a Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton; Bill Clinton with his Obama-coffee remark; or fat cats who make big donations — until it's time to throw them under the bus.
As for Siegel, if he's so concerned about Diversity™, perhaps he could turn his columnist slot over to a minority. After all, the vast majority of columnists are white, Siegy, and you wouldn't want some future writer to have to lament, "how could this have gone on for so long?"
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Which times on a digital clock have a line of symmetry? Which look the same upside-down? You might like to try this investigation and find out!
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Life of a Musician is 5 years old today!
So, I thought I would have a look back through some of the 717 posts and highlight a few that represent a cross section of the last 5 years.
To start with you might like to listen to some of the pieces in the player in the sidebar. If so, this post, 'Stories Behind the Music' tells you a little about each piece.
Also in the sidebar are some of our CDs which can be accessed by clicking the various links.
But apart from the music the whole point of this blog was to look behind the scenes at the life of a musician and to record some memories and thoughts from a career that has spanned more than 40 years...
'Accidents Happen: Part 1' seemed a good place to start.
And then there was, 'Part 2'.
I'm not saying Robin is accident prone but this post tells about the time he split his guitar - during a concert...and this one how he found himself, 'Recording for Teldec with a Sutured Finger'.
Travel obviously forms a huge part of the life of this musician. Generally this is an honour. He visits more countries each year than most people manage in a lifetime. But it isn't without its stresses.
We have had 'lost guitars', and more lost luggage than I care to remember, here's just one example, 'A Case of the Borrowed Tuxedo'.
But fun can be had, especially when live on radio in the US, 'Hill/Wiltschinsky - Pump It or Dump it'.
And you know you've been too New York frequently when this happens!
Occasionally I would add a more technical post such as, 'See the Sound Waves and Improve your Scales', or, 'Music Practice Tips - Classical Guitar'.
Of course many people want to know about being the 'wife' of a musician, which prompted this series of posts: 'The Wife of a Musician - Part 1 - The Music', and 'Part 2 - Travel', and for those really dedicated to the role of the wife of a musician you can find a few more links here.
But sometimes the blog posts just reflect what is happening at the time...how could I resist this one, 'Cabo San Lucas, Hard Rock Cafe and the Tale of an Iguana', or 'Manuel de Falla's, 'Miller's Dance', and the Solar System', or this one, 'Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and the Revolving Stage'.
No blog discussing the guitar would be complete without mentioning, 'Guitarists and Their B***** Nails'...
Finally, a few posts that have been particularly popular over the years, 'Sex, Drugs and Classical Music', 'Alicia de Larrocha, the Ritual Fire Dance and a Maths Exam' and 'Inspire Young Minds with Music'.
However, these are just a handful of the available posts, there are several hundred more, all of which can be found through the archives.
Many thanks to all those who have supported 'Life of a Musician' over the last 5 years and I hope you will continue to do so for many more to come.
'As always, it was sheer pleasure to observe Robin Hill's remarkable fluent technique: everything looks easy when he plays it.' Colin Cooper- Classical Guitar Magazine -----
'Wonderful for their (Hill & Wiltschinsky) precision, touch and clarity of sound... refined virtuosity, the achievement of a long interpretive process.' Il Giornale D'Italia (Rome) -----
'I loved your CD and thought your technique and performance were fabulous...' Rick Wakeman
Monday, July 25, 2011
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When American DJ first came out with its X-Move LED, the innovative DMX moving head was hailed as a landmark dance club effect because it used a powerful white LED, in place of a halogen or discharge source, to shine through color and gobo wheels. The fixture's high-power LED source created stunning patterns and colors, while using much less energy, running at a cooler temperature, and lasting much longer (50,000 hours) than conventional lamps. Now ADJ is continuing its LED revolution with the all-new X-Move LED Plus R, the next-generation version of this popular groundbreaking moving head.
Offering all the amazing features and effects of its predecessor, the new X-Move LED Plus R is 30% brighter than the original, thanks to its cutting-edge 10W CREE white LED source, which incorporates the latest advances in LED technology. What's more, the X-Move LED Plus R takes the term "revolution" quite literally, as another of its exciting new features is the addition of a "revolving" – or rotating – motion to its gobo images (the "Plus R"!). Just beam out its 6 replaceable rotating gobos on the walls, floor or ceiling, and they'll rotate either fast or slow, clockwise or counter-clockwise – whatever you specify -- putting a new spin on the visual experience at clubs and discos!
"The original X-Move LED was truly a technological breakthrough in lighting," said Scott Davies, General Manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. "Early LED beams weren't very powerful, so they couldn't be used as a lamp source to project through color and gobo wheels. Then along came the X-Move LED with a beefed-up LED lamp that projected such bright colors and images, party goes couldn't tell the difference between it and a conventional halogen or discharge moving head. Meanwhile, clubs and entertainment venues benefited from its LED technology, enjoying such advantages as low heat production, longer life and slashed energy costs.
"It's always difficult to enhance such a great product," added Davies. "But we've done it with the X-Move LED Plus R. We've ramped up the brightness by a whopping 30%- you get a whole new level of intensity that's immediately apparent to the eye. Then we added a rotation motion to the gobos for more movement and visual excitement. These improvements, along with the fixture's other great features, make the X-Move LED Plus R an incredible effect for clubs and entertainers."
Along with its 6 rotating replaceable gobos, which measure 23.8mm with 0.2mm of thickness, the X-Move LED Plus R features 8 vibrant dichroic colors plus white. The colors and gobos are on separate wheels, so users can create a wide and varied range of combinations. Still more mind-bending light show possibilities are offered by a Gobo Scroll mode, Gobo Shake Effect, 0-100% Dimming, Manual Focus, and pulse effect that delivers a Random Strobe from slow to fast. High-quality stepper motors with microstepping, a 14° beam angle, and an impressive 540° pan and 270° tilt mean even the farthest point in the club will be covered with smooth-moving lighting effects.
Not only does this visual marvel light up a dance floor, it's simple to use, thanks to built-in lighting programs, which allow you to simply plug in the effect and watch it gyrate to the beat of the music in Sound Active Mode. The X-Move LED Plus R can be run in two other modes as well: DMX-512 (9 channel) and Master/Slave. A four-button menu navigation system with a bright LED display makes it easy to navigate through the fixture's settings. For those who prefer to go "hands off," the X-Move LED Plus R is also compatible with American DJ's UC3 Series of easy-to-use remote controllers (sold separately). Another nifty feature is Auto X-Y repositioning, which allows the fixture to return to its position original position, no matter if it's bumped or thumped.
The X-Move LED Plus R is truly a cool customer -- when the action on the dance floor heats up, it never will. The effect can run all night long with no duty cycles, thanks to its LED technology. That means entertainers can pack up after a gig and leave in a flash, without needing any cooldown time. The LED source is rated at 50,000 hours, so you can say goodbye to the hassle and expense of lamp replacement, too. Power output is an infinitesimal 60W, which is just a tiny fraction of the electrical current required by a halogen lamp.
Weighing a paltry 13 lbs/5.9 kgs., and measuring 8"L x 7.5" W x 12.5" H/ 205 x 190 x 320mm, the X-Move LED is easy to transport and can sneak into even the most snug nooks and crannies. It features a switchable voltage of 115V/60Hz or 230V/50Hz IEC socket. The unit will fit into the Arriba Cases AC-115 padded soft case, which will protect it during transport and keep it clean in storage.
The MSRP of the X-Move LED Plus R is $839.95.


text: Lords of the realm II Strategy FAQ v.1.5 Written by Dr_Asik on January 30th, 2008 Last modified February 5th, 2008 Contact info: Please write all your suggestions to blask_prawdi (at) yahoo (dot) ca (replacing " (at) " by "@" and " (dot) " by "."). Copyright info: All rights reserved. Do not use any of this material without my permission, which I'll probably grant if you kindly ask. The latest version of this FAQ can always be found at GameFAQs. **************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS **************************** I. GENERALITIES 1. What is Lords of the Realm II? 2. Where can I find LotR 2? 3. Is there an expansion or a sequel? 4. Can I run LotR 2 on XP/Vista? II. BASIC GAMEPLAY CONCEPTS 5. How do I get started? III. ADVANCED GAMEPLAY CONCEPTS 6. Why are my wheat fields only a half/quarter of the area? 7. What does it mean if there are 1/2/3 cows per field? 8. What is efficiency and how can I control it? 9. Please give me your enlightened opinion on advanced farming (Expansion only). 10. What about "armies eat"? 11. How do I make the game easier/harder? IV. STRATEGY - ECONOMY 12. What is the fundamental theorem of LotR 2? 13. Should I use Cattle or Wheat? 14. I don't have enough food for my population! What can I do? 15. Why I lose so many fields to floods/droughts? AAARGH! 16. How can I gain more crowns? 17. What is a good level of happiness? 18. Why is Black Death repeatedly striking county X? V. STRATEGY - MILITARY 19. What units should be present in all armies? 20. What about the other units then? 21. Well you still have half of the other units to talk about. 21.1. But dude remember what you said about too much population in Q14/17? 21.2. I don't use pikemen/archers and I r0xorz. 22. How can I become a better general? VI. STRATEGY - EARLY GAME 23. What should I do first? 24. How do I divide my workforce? 25. How do I spend my initial crowns? 26. When do I switch to wheat? VII. STRATEGY - INTERMEDIATE GAME 27. How can I resist the massive waves of troops the AI sends? 28. How can I stop the AI from pillaging my crops? 29. Should I make an alliance with a noble? VIII. STRATEGY - END GAME 30. How do I massacre the puny remaining counties with my 4500+ elite troops? IX. AI DISCUSSION 31. Which of the AI nobles are the best? 32. I'm totally hooked, please go on. 33. What about that curious Baron then? 34. So that leave us with the Knight. **************************** I. GENERALITIES **************************** ------------------------------------------------ 1. What is Lords of the Realm II? ------------------------------------------------ Lords of the Realm II is a strategy game developed by Impression Games and published by Sierra in 1996. Up to five players (lords) are in competition for the domination of a country (realm). LotR 2 is best compared to Medieval: Total War, since it integrates both an economic simulation of the middle ages and real-time tactical battles. Compared to Medieval: TW, LotR focuses more on economy and feature more simple battle mechanics. It is also, IMO, much more interesting and addictive. Lord of the Realm II provides: - A realistic, grim look on medieval life - Real-time battles where smart decisions matter more than numbers - Tactical castle defence and siege - Deep, turn-based economics - Detailed graphics (albeit in 640x480 256 colors) - Some of the most awe-inspiring music in a video game - Excellent voice acting - Many customizations options for various challenges ------------------------------------------------ 2. Where can I find LotR 2? ------------------------------------------------ LotR 2 is not officially abandonware but can still be found for free on the net, with some perseverance, or P2P software. You can probably also find it on eBay for almost nothing. ------------------------------------------------ 3. Is there an expansion or a sequel? ------------------------------------------------ There is an expansion called Siege Pack and I recommend it over the original. It features better AI, new maps and game options, and a skirmish mode. The official sequel, Lords of the Realm III, is a very different game and received mediocre scores. I don't recommend LotR3. ------------------------------------------------ 4. Can I run LotR 2 on XP/Vista? ------------------------------------------------ Probably, but I don't guarantee it, it depends on your hardware. I have seen it work correctly on both XP and Vista; it runs almost flawlessly on my Vista machine with a Geforce 8, widescreen monitor and a Chaintech AV-710 sound card. Problems I've seen: static animations running too fast/irregularly; movies not playing; sound glitches. If you have an old PC with Windows 98 or 95, it's certainly your most compatible machine. ********************************* II. BASIC GAMEPLAY CONCEPTS ********************************* ------------------------------------------------ 5. How do I get started? ------------------------------------------------ In-game tips, the help file and the manual are excellent resources to get you started on the basic concepts of the game. Right-click anywhere on the map or even most interface elements to get quick descriptions, often containing crucial information. Other guides/faqs provide explanation of basic concepts. This is not the point of this FAQ. ********************************** III. ADVANCED GAMEPLAY CONCEPTS ********************************** ------------------------------------------------ 6. Why are my wheat fields only a half/quarter of the area? ------------------------------------------------ This is a sign that harvests will be sub-optimal. Without advanced farming, the only possible cause is that you did not assign enough people to wheat during the year. With advanced farming on, even if you always assign enough people to wheat, your crops can be damaged by bad weather, which is random (storms, droughts). ------------------------------------------------ 7. What does it mean if there are 1/2/3 cows per field? ------------------------------------------------ This represents herd crowding. If you right-click on the field you get a more detailed report of the herd crowding status. Intense crowding means more deaths and less reproduction of the cattle. Overcrowding or even massive overcrowding is not an alarming sign (as long as you don't rely 100% on cattle, but you shouldn't), but it means you reached the maximum amount of cattle for the number of fields you allowed. It will not cause disease or any other adverse effect than the cattle population stabilizing. ------------------------------------------------ 8. What is efficiency and how can I control it? ------------------------------------------------ Obscurely enough, efficiency does not exist without advanced farming on. Thus all my advice concerning it only applies with advanced farming on. If you visit your blacksmith, you'll notice an info such as "30 serfs working at 15% efficiency". You always want your serfs to work at 100% efficiency. To boost it, make sure to always have a couple serfs working there, even if they are not producing a single weapon. Efficiency will slowly rise up. The minute you leave the smithy unattended, efficiency drops back to 15%. This applies to wood, iron and stone production as well, but NOT to castle building or agriculture. ------------------------------------------------ 9. Please give me your enlightened opinion on advanced farming (Expansion only). ------------------------------------------------ Advanced farming makes the game easier by allowing you to systematically produce extremely abundant harvests every year. You simply need to leave about 1/3rd of your fields to fallow. Contrarily to what other FAQs have stated, you do not need to actually switch production in your fields every year, or at all. Crop rotation is a myth. Fertility will remain excellent, and your harvests abundant, as long as you maintain about 1/3rd of crops to fallow; it doesn't matter if it's the same crops as last year. Using more fields will reduce fertility and that will drastically reduce harvests. Don't get greedy. Advanced farming also introduce the somewhat unrelated concept of efficiency in your industry, which is discussed at Q8. The only problem with advanced farming is that it requires you to monitor your workforce much more closely. In autumn, about 95% of your population will be needed for harvests (if fertility is excellent and storms didn't wreck your crops that is). Each season will have its own requirements on how many farmers are needed, so you will be constantly re-adjusting your food/industry slider in all your counties. As your domain grows larger, this can get tedious. ------------------------------------------------ 10. What about "armies eat"? ------------------------------------------------ If you really want to make the game as hard as possible you could always turn this on, personally I never use it. It opens up new tactical possibilities, like ruining an opponent's economy simply by moving a large force in his county. But it also makes it possible that your armies melt like butter, that you're not able to invade a country because of lack of food, etc. Give it a try, if you're fed up with the game being too easy on Impossible playing Crusades and starting out in Jerusalem. ------------------------------------------------ 11. How do I make the game easier/harder? ------------------------------------------------ Besides adjusting the difficulty directly, the main factor is the map you play. In my experience, England is always easy. Germany and France can be hard, and Crusades in Jerusalem is atrociously difficult because you start out in the weakest county surrounded by all the nobles and as such you are their primary target. You can win, but don't expect fast expansion (in fact, this game took me weeks to finish). In other words, for a different experience, try a different map. Reducing your starting resources doesn't make the game harder per say, but it sure makes it much slower to "start". You'll spend years painfully improving your economy, and as the AI gets some obvious bonuses on Impossible, it might indeed make things very challenging. But it's fundamentally a different style of play. If you start with a strong county and a large army, the AI does too and while it's dumb, if you make glaring mistakes it knows how to exploit them. The more AIs, the more likely it is that you'll be threatened early in the game. Two or three nobles on a large map is usually easy because you can make better profit of extra land than they can. ********************************** IV. STRATEGY - ECONOMY ********************************** ------------------------------------------------ 12. What is the fundamental theorem of LotR 2? ------------------------------------------------ The fundamental theorem of LotR 2 is that your power is directly proportional to the skill with which you run your economy. If you have a powerful economy, you could always send throngs of knights and pikemen at your enemies and autocalc battles, and you'd probably win, in most cases. That would be dumb tactically, but it'd work. On the other hand if you're just a 1337 commander from Medieval:TW2 and don't know how to make your population happy and productive, even though you're a fine tactician on the battlefield, you won't have much troops to command and will get owned by the AI on even normal difficulty. ------------------------------------------------ 13. Should I use Cattle or Wheat? ------------------------------------------------ Everyone agrees that you should not use only cattle, because when your population grows in size, you'll be forced to divert a very large portion of it to taking care of the cattle, and your industry will suffer from lack of workforce (especially with advanced farming on). It is also dangerous to rely solely on cattle because as soon as the herd is insufficient to provide dairy for your whole population, then the people start eating the cows. That makes even less dairy next season, so the people eat more cows, until you completely run out of food. Many people think you should switch to 100% wheat as soon as possible, as it require much less workforce and is more reliable. While I prefer 100% wheat over 100% cattle, the best strategy is to keep a small amount of cattle, between 2 and 4 fields (40-120 heads), and leave the rest for wheat. The point is that such a small amount can feed around 300 people easily, and that's a significant relief on your grain stock. The smaller the county, the more useful cattle becomes. In fact, very small counties are safer using 100% cattle. Large counties that keep a small amount of cattle are still less vulnerable to famine. If you need to raise a large army and population drops to a number insufficient to make a good harvest, the cattle will help feed a good portion of this population. ------------------------------------------------ 14. I don't have enough food for my population! What can I do? ------------------------------------------------ Usually this happens when a county has only few usable fields and you've managed to make the populace happy and healthy nonetheless. Unfortunately, to keep a large population healthy, there's no other reliable way than clearing as many fields as possible (all of them, ultimately). Thus you should prioritize clearing up land (and then using it to grow food, of course. Didn't you actually read the manual?!?) But what can you do right now? Reduce rations, and taxes so that people don't become too unhappy. If you have a couple weapons, raise an army to reduce your population to a sustainable number. If a there's a merchant around, buy some grain, or cattle if the county doesn't have any. Small populations can easily live off a small herd, with dairy products. If one of your nearby counties has large stocks of grain or cattle, send some supplies. With perseverance and time (lots of time!), the county will become prosperous again. You just need more fields and that can't be done very fast. ------------------------------------------------ 15. Why do I lose so many fields to floods/droughts? AAARGH! ------------------------------------------------ I totally empathize with you, randomly losing a field is really frustrating because it's so much work to clear them. But, you can't do anything about natural events. Floods happen during winter and spring, while droughts happen during summer. I don't remember losing a field to natural events in autumn, but I suppose a drought could happen. ------------------------------------------------ 16. How can I gain more crowns? ------------------------------------------------ Crowns are really useful and rather than stockpiling them ad vitam eternam, you should invest them wisely throughout the game. Buy ale to make small counties happy, wood/stone to speed up construction of castles, weapons to give you an advantage in the early game. Remember that money is not your most important resource, like in Command in Conquer or many other strategy games. Low funds usually isn't dramatic. To gain more crowns, don't SELL your weapons or resources. It's stupid. Crowns are used to BUY these, and at double the price. First, optimize your taxes: a county in good health (+1 happiness) with normal rations (+1) and 100 happiness can pay 7% taxes (-2) and remain at 100%. At perfect health, they can pay 8%. Next, raise taxes where it matters: in the countries with castles and larger populations. Next, build small castles (like a Motte and Bailey, or Norman Keep if you rather have abundant stone) in all counties. A simple Motte and Bailey boosts taxes by 75%, and a Norman Keep by 100%. Finally, don't raise armies just for the sake of it, and especially mercenaries. There are heaps of good reasons to raise an army, but often you can delay it by a turn or two. That's more crowns into your treasury. ------------------------------------------------ 17. What is a good level of happiness? ------------------------------------------------ Simply put, 100. If your county is not at 100, raise happiness (through lower taxes, better rations or beer). Of course, when a county has few usable crops and thus can't produce much food, then having optimal happiness is less of an issue since you usually want to reduce your population. Another situation where you might want a lower happiness is if one of your nearby counties has very low happiness (as a result of recent conquest); you'd like to prevent massive emigration to your happier county. You'll find out, though, that through good rations, 0% taxes and regular doses of ale, you can quickly make a population happy again so that's not much of an issue. ------------------------------------------------ 18. Why is Black Death repeatedly striking county X? ------------------------------------------------ This happens and is frustrating, but it looks completely random nonetheless and you can't do anything about it. If you have a better theory, please contact me. ********************************** V. STRATEGY - MILITARY ********************************** ------------------------------------------------ 19. What units should be present in all armies? ------------------------------------------------ The backbone of any army meant to fight battles (not one-man armies for slaughtering villagers) is a strong force of pikemen and archers. Pikemen are cheap and have the strongest armour in the game. They can win battles after battles and remain almost unscathed. But, pikes are no good for killing. This is where the archers come in. A single arrow is weak, but archers shoot very fast and have very long range. The army with the largest number of archers can pick off enemies from afar and force them to charge, usually into an impenetrable wall of pikemen. In other words, enemy troops will get massacred by your archers and not kill much of your troops, and that's exactly what we want, right? Pikemen are also the best unit for digging up the motte in a siege. I used to use peasants, but I now consider it waste of population. So, that makes the pikeman the most useful unit, followed closely by his inseparable companion, the archer. ------------------------------------------------ 20. What about the other units then? ------------------------------------------------ The next most useful unit is the maceman. Maces are the cheapest weapon (4 wood/4 iron is nothing), and they produce the most damage after knights. Macemen are, in fact, very similar to knights: they are fast, hard-hitting, but rather vulnerable (yes knights don't have that much armour). They are your cheapo unit of choice for flanking enemy archers or charging through a castle during a siege. The only problem with macemen is that being shock units and vulnerable, they usually suffer massive casualties. ------------------------------------------------ 21. Well you still have half of the other units to talk about. ------------------------------------------------ Yup let's get this done. Ok the next most useful unit is the knight, for the same reasons as the maceman. They are extremely fast and hard hitting. They also have decent armour, although not nearly as much as pikemen. The only problem with knights is that they are very expensive to make and maintain and tend to suffer large casualties, so in the early game, where crucial decisions are made, you will usually get macemen instead. By the time you're rich enough to afford knights, you're already in a comfortable situation. Next you have the arbalester, which would really be the most useful unit if the archers didn't kick his arse all day long. Of course, he can kill armoured units in one shot, but he's slow and expensive, and he has a tendency to get killed by enemy archers. Arbalesters can be deadly in large numbers if fighting highly armoured troops such as pikemen, swordsmen and knights, and if you can manage to get them in range while safe from enemy archers and melee troops (this large number of conditions is the main problem with arbalesters). Anyway you'll mainly fight poorly armoured troops such as peasants and archers, so even used optimally, arbalesters are not often very useful. Next, the swordsman. Swordsmen are "great", "balanced" units, fairly expensive, fairly hard-hitting and not too slow, not too vulnerable either. None of their attributes really stands out so they're just a decent all- purpose fighter, if a bit expensive. They look nice on the battlefield, but I'm more scared of large forces of macemen than swordsmen. Swordsmen will often suffer casualties similar to macemen, not because of a lack of armour, but of a lack of speed. Finally, peasants. Peasants are, simply put, a waste of population and happiness. All they do in battle is getting slaughtered in massive numbers. If however you have a large number of archers and can't afford a decent line of pikemen to defend, peasants could do the trick, but I'd recommend getting less archers and investing on pikemen. The AI likes to send throngs of peasants, but the AI plays like it has population to spare. Unless you do have population to spare (and trust me, you don't), use pikemen instead. ------------------------------------------------ 21.1. But dude remember what you said about too much population in Q14/17? ------------------------------------------------ Yes, but that doesn't mean you should WASTE those people. Raising 50 pikemen + 50 archers right now to relieve food pressure is a good idea; raising 100 peasants is not. If you don't have weapons, buy some; if you don't have the money, keep the people in town, even if they'll be hungry, at least you can get them to chop wood or do something else useful. ------------------------------------------------ 21.2. I don't use pikemen/archers and I r0xorz. ------------------------------------------------ If you're already rich and winning, you can do completely without archers and pikemen, because anyway you have troops to spare. However in the early game where every resource counts, archers and pikemen are simply the most efficient combination because they suffer the least casualties. When you play a very difficult map, this becomes more evident. Whatever the situation, you'd be a fool to defend a castle without archers and pikemen though. Taking a castle with no such defenders is insultingly easy. Just pick off the clueless guys off with your own archers ;) ------------------------------------------------ 22. How can I become a better general? ------------------------------------------------ Don't autocalc battles except in cases of extreme outnumbering or boredom. Use the terrain to your advantage. The AI is stupid. Wait for it to settle in place, and then carefully advance your troops. You can usually flank their archers, or pick them off with your own archers since you have more and you can shield them with your pikemen. Once the ranged attackers are neutralized, rain death on the rest of the army with your archers and wait for it to charge into your pikemen. When they make contact with your pikemen, flank with macemen/knights if you have them, for maximum damage. If taking a Norman Keep or inferior, just make a battering ram, send it alone against the door(s). Once the first door is breached, send in a knight or macemen to spill the enemys oil (just attack the oil barrel and move away quickly). If possible, kill some of the archers before they have the occasion to retreat to the primary keep. If the castle is defended by many archers, wait for both doors to be breached and the battering ram to be dead or out of the way, and then charge with all your macemen/knights. If you don't have them, sorry, but you'll suffer a lot of casualties and be forced to send pikemen, swordsmen and your own archers. Sometimes the AI leaves the flag exposed; in this case, run for it with your fastest unit, repeatedly clicking on the flag until you automatically win the battle (the remaining defenders are lost). If taking a Stone or Royal Castle, make catapults and attack by a side. Use pikemen to dig, only four units at a time, retreating when they spill oil on them. Make a passage at least three units wide, both in the motte and in the wall. Then send in macemen/knights, archers, arbalesters, everyone can give a hand. Taking a Royal Castle will always mean taking substantial casualties if it's decently defended. Using siege towers will usually mean utter chaos and many casualties, I don't recommend them. The units are forced to come in one at a time, making them very vulnerable and disorganized. Don't try to pick off defending archers with your own archers, you are at a disadvantage and will lose many troops. If defending the castle, simply position all your archers so that they can slay attackers, and use your boiling oil to maximize casualties among the enemy troops. Don't let the computer get to the flag by surprise! If you have a secondary keep (in all castles superior to a wooden palisade), retreat your archers there when the enemies breach the first door. When all are breached, a few pikemen can serve as a secondary door and be surprisingly effective at it. The AI is terrible at taking castles and you should never lose a single siege, provided a reasonable number of defenders (and something better than a wooden palisade.) ********************************** VI. STRATEGY - EARLY GAME ********************************** ------------------------------------------------ 23. What should I do first? ------------------------------------------------ There are basically two ways to go about the early game, an expansive and a defensive strategy. The expansive strategy makes for exciting, fast-paced games, but on some very hard maps, it's suicide. Going defensive, you're almost guaranteed a win each time, but it makes games longer and somewhat predictable. I always try playing expansive first, then if I see that it's too hard, I re-start the game playing defensive. _______________________ Here's how you do play expansive: Your first goal is to gather enough troops to take and secure a second county. Securing the county often means taking out the AI nearest to you. Now depending on your starting conditions, achieving this can take more or less time, but you should go as fast as possible, even if that means causing massive discontent or reducing your population to a very low number. To give you an example: I started out in Italy on hard, with "few" weapons, "small" armies and "weak" counties. The army was 25 swordsmen and 25 archers, and I had 25 bows and swords at my disposition. The county had only a few suitable crops, average health, low happiness and 180 population. I immediately recruited the 50 additional troops and headed for the nearby county, which was also adjacent to the Baron's starting location. Yes, that meant reducing population to 130 and putting my county on the brink of revolt, but it was worth it: my 100 men dispatched the nearby countys defense without a single casualty, as well as the 50 troops the Baron sent. Not a single year had elapsed and I sieged the Baron's castle, a Motte and Bailey with, I assumed, few defenders. Building a single battering ram took 5 seasons, but I was then able to defeat the Baron while taking only 30 casualties. Thus I became the first noble with three counties and no immediate threat. Sure, my starting county would remain weak and undefended for a long time, but as the AIs started waging war on each other and ruining each other's economy, my initial advantage would slowly allow me to raise a large military force and then take over the whole realm without much difficulty. This is what happened of course ;) _______________________ Here's how you play defensive: Your first goal is a long-term one: concentrate all your energies on the economic development of your first county, until it's strong enough to provide you with large armies able to take over your adversaries. Build a motte and bailey as soon as possible as well as a small force capable of destroying the enemy pillagers, to ensure your survival. Just be as efficient as you can. Don't let a single serf remain idle. Focus on clearing your fields. Playing with advanced farming on makes it significantly faster to stockpile large amounts of grain. If you can survive the initial few years where your county is weak, you'll turn invulnerable and be almost certain of winning the game. To give you example: I started in Crusades on impossible against the four nobles, in Jerusalem, with "weak" counties, no weapons, 100 crowns, and no army. On impossible the AI gets HUGE growth and production bonuses, so there is no way I could secure a second county before quite some time. Soon the nobles took over every available county and started waging war on each other. I was lucky to be spared in the early game since I would have been simply eradicated. By the time the AIs turned upon me, I had built a motte and bailey and their few attempts to take over it were failures. I had to position a small army of pikemen and archers in my fields to prevent them from pillaging my crops. After many years of patiently building up my economy, I was making 600+ crowns and about 30 weapons per turn in Jerusalem. My population was nearing 2000, in perfect health (I was able to feed them double rations). The county was defended with a stone castle with 200 archers in it. As soon as I got an 800-men army, I went south and took over North Africa, eliminating both the Knight and the Baron. It was then simply a matter of time before the Countess and the Knight would also perish. _______________________ In general: Another useful thing to do in your first 2 turns is to compliment every noble. After two compliments they won't accept them anymore, but you'll be in better terms and that makes them somewhat less likely to attack you (never trust them however). ------------------------------------------------ 24. How do I divide my workforce? ------------------------------------------------ If your population is very small (under 300), it's not very efficient to clear land, so most people should be taking care of cattle/wheat, and the rest be divided equally between your industries. Even when you have very little people, always keep a few serfs in each industry to boost efficiency. When the population grows larger, you can start assigning a good portion on clearing land. This will become your main activity until most of the crops are usable. At this point, you'll have a large population (1000+) and can start to assign more people to industrial activities. Here is a general order of priority: 1. Having some serfs (even 1 is fine) in each industry 2. Taking care of the wheat 3. Taking care of the cattle / clearing up land 4. Industrial activities (smith/wood/iron/stone/castle) ------------------------------------------------ 25. How do I spend my initial crowns? ------------------------------------------------ If your initial counties are small and unhappy, buying ale (just the amount necessary for +5 happiness) is a good investment. Weapons are extremely expensive, but they take so long to produce that buying some can give you a decisive advantage. Remember, if you can massively outnumber your enemy, his troops will be rendered useless. That makes each one of your troops more valuable than that of your enemy. 50 archers will take out 25 archers while taking maybe 10 casualties, not 25. In other words, a 2:1 ratio in number translates to at least a 5:1 ratio in power. With skill and a bit of luck (that happens often with the AI's mistakes) you could take 0 casualties (equivalent to 1:0 ratio - infinite power!). Why is that? Because you are smart and the AI is dumb. On the opposite, even when you are massively outnumbered by the AI, you can often manage a win by playing with much better tactics than him. An advantage in your hands multiplies your power; an advantage in the hands of the AI barely serves him. ------------------------------------------------ 26. When do I switch to wheat? ------------------------------------------------ As I said you should always have around two fields of cattle, so since you start with at least 4 usable fields, you can already seed on the first turn (which is winter). With advanced farming on, remember to leave 1/3rd of the fields unused, however. Progressively add more wheat fields as they are cleared. That's it! If a county has a large amount of cattle, simply assign the fields to wheat when winter comes, leaving only 2-4 fields of cattle. You should go progressively, and try not to lose the cattle too fast, to avoid causing famine. Reducing the number of fields will cause massive overcrowding and the herd will slowly decrease to its new maximum number, by itself. Thus you'll have made the transition from 100% cattle to mainly wheat without too much trouble. ********************************** VII. STRATEGY - INTERMEDIATE GAME ********************************** ------------------------------------------------ 27. How can I resist the massive waves of troops the AI sends? ------------------------------------------------ First, to prevent such things from happening, find which AI is most likely to attack you, and pillage his economy to ruins. Yup he'll be angry at you, but that doesn't make much difference in practical terms. 200 archers in a Norman Keep can fight off literally thousands of AI troops. With your 3 oil barrels you can easily cause 300+ casualties, and your archers can take out the rest. In case they breach the inner door, have a few pikemen defend your archers. If that is not enough, build a stone or royal castle. If you can manage that, then the county will be virtually invulnerable, except for pillagers (expansion only). I've defeated tens of thousands of enemy troops with 600 archers in a royal castle, and the AI never even managed to dig up the motte. Considering that, I suppose a stone castle would have done the job just as well, but I rarely use them, for some reason (maybe because they look bland). In a royal castle you get six oil barrels and that's just death for the AI :P. ------------------------------------------------ 28. How can I stop the AI from pillaging my crops? ------------------------------------------------ Make a few 50-men armies, but with pikemen and archers instead of peasants. You can autocalc most battles with almost no casualties. Send your own peasant armies to pillage the AI economy (yes peasants have a purpose after all ;)). It's cheap and dirty, but it's efficient at weakening them. ------------------------------------------------ 29. Should I make an alliance with a noble? ------------------------------------------------ Yeah, try it, if he is nearby. But that just means he's slightly less inclined to attack you. No AI can be trusted, not even the Baron. AIs will rarely answer requests and will break the alliance for no reason, often to their own disadvantage. So it's not very interesting to make alliances in this game. ********************************** VIII. STRATEGY - END GAME ********************************** ------------------------------------------------ 30. How do I massacre the puny remaining counties with my 4500+ elite troops? ------------------------------------------------ Ok ok, instead of saying "use the left mouse button" I'll actually try and make an interesting point here. First you don't need to conquer every county, you just need to defeat all nobles. Often when you're in power to take over the whole country, a single AI (usually the Countess) is in possession in most of the lands. In this case, try to conquer a county that divides his realm in two parts. On the next turn, the AI will have lost half of his counties because they are separated from the rest of his empire. If you are done clearing all your crops, at some point you'll notice that you are stockpiling huge amounts of grain for nothing. In that case, even if you don't play with advanced farming, switch a couple fields to fallow. That will allow to divert a larger part of your population to industrial activities and will speed up your victory. Alternatively, you could distribute double rations from time to time, allowing you to raise larger armies. Usually population isn't a problem at this point so I'd rather push my industrial production. Since you're probably amassing 2000+ crowns per turn at this point, buy tons of weapons. ********************************** IX. AI DISCUSSION ********************************** ------------------------------------------------ 31. Which of the AI nobles are the best? ------------------------------------------------ The Countess is the strongest AI and should always be watched with a suspicious eye. First, she is the ultimate economist, using a mix of wheat and cattle and always providing enough food for her people. Following the fundamental theorem of LotR 2, that automatically makes her the strongest AI. But while she's also quite expansionist, she is excellent at evaluating the risks she is taking and will not let you take on her easily. Her troops are well-armed, although she does make a little too many peasants. The Countess is supposedly the most "trustworthy" AI, but in my book that concept is inexistent in LotR. If the Countess is your mortal enemy (swords clashing on the diplomacy screen), she will certainly try to pillage your crops. The Countess likes to make a stone castle in her favorite county, but she'll generally stick with a motte and bailey in every other. ------------------------------------------------ 32. I'm totally hooked, please go on. ------------------------------------------------ The second best AI noble is the Bishop, but that is a bit weird because he's the second worst economist. I know this looks like a violation of the FToLoTR (and I know my humor makes you RoTFL), but when I'll talk about the Baron you'll see that it's not. Although the Bishop poorly manages his counties, he is just as expansionist as the Countess and impressively good at raising large armies (composed mainly of peasants though) and building huge castles in minimal time. If you are ever faced with the daunting task of taking over a royal castle filled with archers and swordsmen, it'll probably be one the Bishop's castles. Make sure to bring massive amounts of macemen, knights or swordsmen. The Bishop's armies are very large, but as they are composed mainly of peasants you can defeat them with small forces of pikemen and archers and suffer minimal casualties. When the Countess is not winning (that means she started in the worst county), it's usually the Bishop that takes over. ------------------------------------------------ 33. What about that curious Baron then? ------------------------------------------------ The Baron is my favorite personality, but he usually doesn't live up to his noble ambitions. Like the Countess, the Baron manages his counties with great care, often feeding huge populations (1800+ serfs!) with double rations and perfect health. The fact that he only uses Cattle, though, require most of these mobs to remain dairy maids forever, and thus it takes quite some time before his industry speeds up. The Baron makes, by far, the most powerful armies in the game. In my last game I was again astonished at discovering he had built not one, but two super-armies of doom composed of 800+ knights (yes, KNIGHTS) and 400+ archers, capable of giving even my super-armies of doom a hard time. Unlike every other AI, the Baron will not raise large forces of peasants. So how is it that he is only the third best AI? Well, LotR may be a game where playing builder-style (defensive and conservative) works well, but the Baron pushes that style to the extreme. He'll expand so slowly and precautiously that although his few counties are strong, he'll be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers the Countess or the Bishop are able to muster upon him. By the end of the game, the Baron is typically stuck with his two original counties, unable (or unwilling) to expand, and once you've vanquished his admittedly fearsome armies, he's dead meat. In the rare event that the Baron does expand, he'll become the most dangerous foe in the game, and you'll have to put up a hard fight to vanquish him. ------------------------------------------------ 34. So that leave us with the Knight. ------------------------------------------------ Right. Simply put, the Knight is a terrible AI, and if I can't win easily I'll side with him to wreak havoc on the better AIs, knowing that he'll be easy to take out afterwards. In accordance with the aforementioned theorem, the Knight is a very bad economist and that translates directly into his systematic failure. He only uses Cattle and leaves most of his crops barren. There's not much else to say about him. The proportion of peasants in his armies is superior to that of the Bishop, so that makes them laughably easy to defeat. The Knight likes to defend his counties with wooden palisades (!) and although he might be inclined to build something better if he were sitting on a pile of resources, the sad reality is that I've never seen him get those resources. In other words, if you start out next to the Knight, consider yourself lucky.


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Obama, as Red as It GetsBy Alan Caruba March 28, 2011Isn't it about time that the mainstream media and all others begin to examine the record and conclude that a Communist holds the reins of power in the White House? Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it is often believed that Communism died with it. Not so, Communism is alive and well in China, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. From the days of Harry Truman who discovered that Franklin Roosevelt had given the Soviets Eastern Europe at the WWII Yalta Conference, American presidents have steadfastly done what they believed was required to keep Communism "contained;" some more successfully than others. The Communist Manifesto is well worth reading. Among its planks is the abolition of private property and a government that owns or controls much of the U.S. landmass is antithetical to this keystone of capitalism. The Manifesto calls for "a heavy progressive or graduated income tax." It calls for the centralization of credit in the hands of the state. We have a "Federal Reserve" that is a national bank. It calls for "centralization of the means of communications and transportation." We have a Federal Communications Commission. There's more and you can read about it here. America has never had a Communist President until now. While others have written how obvious it is that Obama is a "Socialist," I think this is a matter of caution in a society that has not seriously used the word "Communist" since the 1950s when entities like the House Un-American Activities Committee actively investigated and exposed how many existed in the government, the unions, and Hollywood. It's not like Barack Hussein Obama has come out and said, "Yes, I'm a Communist," but you don't have to have a PhD in Political Science to connect the dots. The process is made murky by the way Obama has deliberately covered his tracks wherever he could, while dropping broad hints. Obama is the classic "red diaper" baby, the result of a union between his mother, Stanley Dunham and Barack Obama Sr., memorialized in "Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance." However, Jerome Corsi, the author of "Obama Nation" notes that "we are told by Obama outright…that much of the autobiography is not factually true, at least not as written." Indeed, much of what Obama has had to write or say of his life is fiction of one sort or another. His father abandoned his mother, returning to Africa "to live the life of a chronic alcoholic." He was also "a man of the left." Obama's mother remarried and took him off to Indonesia, but other than developing a fondness of Islam, not much is known of that period. A second divorce put Obama in the care of his grandparents in Hawaii and it was there where his most formative development occurred. In his excellent book, "Dupes," historian Dr. Paul Kengor traces the role of the former Soviet Union and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) as it developed both spies and "fellow travelers" devoted to turning the U.S. toward Communism. Toward its end the book traces the most important influences in the life of President Obama. The conclusion that he is a Communist is unavoidable. Obama's grandparents were devoted to socialism, raising their daughter in schools known for it, even attending a church that reflected it. They were close friends with Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the CPUSA and an Afro-American. Dr. Kengor noted that, during the 1970s, the period of Obama's adolescence, "His impact is profound because he mentored a young man who made it all the way to the White House." Among the hints Obama drops in "Dreams of My Father" was a reference to his college years "hanging out with Marxist professors," attending "socialist conferences," and discussing "neocolonialism." Dr. Kengor quotes Dr. John Drew, a contemporary of Obama at Occidental College for whom Obama was "as a fellow Marxist" and said of the President, "Obama was already an ardent Marxist when I met (him) in the fall of 1980." After graduating from Columbia University, long a hotbed of a Leftist faculty and students indoctrinated with a liberal political philosophy, and later Harvard Law School, Obama moved to Chicago where he became close friends with former far-Left Weatherman terrorists of the 1960s, Bill Ayers and his wife Benardine Dohrn. His first venture into politics took place in a fund-raiser in their home. Obama attended a Black Liberation church in Chicago led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright who rarely had a good word for America. Ayers calls himself "a communist with a small 'c'." Among those chosen to be in his administration was Van Jones, "an avowed communist" named as Obama's "green jobs czar." When exposed, he resigned. Another figure of the far Left was Jeff Jones whose consulting firm, the Apollo Alliance, "helped write President Obama's budget-bursting $800 billion 'stimulus' bill passed by Congress shortly into the Obama presidency." For those still in denial, consider an article by Stanislav Mishin that appeared in Pravda, the Russian newspaper that was formerly one of the main organs of the Soviet Union. "It must be said that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed, against the backdrop of a passive, hapless sheep," much of which he attributed to "the election of Barack Obama." That was written before the spontaneous explosion of the quintessentially American Tea Party movement. Since then we have seen the dramatic reversal of power in Congress that occurred as the result of the November 2010 elections. The harm and damage done by our first Communist President will take years to repair, but Americans have wakened to • the socialist menace of the nation's public sector unions, • the centralization of education in the federal government, • the threat of the Environmental Protection Agency's assertion of control over America's energy sector, • the refusal of the Interior Department to grant drilling permits, • the devaluation of the U.S. dollar by the Federal Reserve, • and the incremental efforts of an anti-American government to undermine defense, national security, our economy, and our worldwide reputation as a defender of freedom. Winston Churchill, the former British Prime Minister who led that nation through World War II and coined the term "Iron Curtain," said of Communism, "it is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
Alan Caruba is an American public relations counselor and freelance writer who is a frequent critic of environmentalism, Islam and research on global warming. In the late 1970s Caruba founded the PR firm The Caruba Organization, and in 1990, the National Anxiety Center, which identifies itself as "a clearinghouse for information about 'scare campaigns' designed to influence public policy and opinion" on such subjects as global warming, ozone depletion and DDT. |


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As many as 10 wildfires in northeast B.C. this spring may have been deliberately set.
Environment Minister Mary Polak said Tuesday evidence an apparent string of arsons has been turned over to conservation officers to track the source of the fires.
The B.C. government has tripled the fine for not complying with burning restrictions to $1,150, but deliberately set fires are more serious.
"Arson would result potentially in criminal charges, and if somebody was convicted, they would see jail time," Polak said.
Rapid snow-melt and an early warm spell created high fire hazard in areas of dry grass, sparking forest fires north of Fort St. John that forced hundreds of people to evacuate.
Evacuees were allowed to go home on Sunday after rain and snow slowed the fires. Crews and aircraft in Alberta and B.C. continue to work on the Siphon Creek fire, which grew to more than 40,000 hectares as it crossed he provincial border.


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Attacks on the Press in 2011 - Eritrea
- Document source:
22 February 2012
Key Developments
For 10 consecutive years, nation is the leading jailer of journalists in Africa.
Using ruthless tactics, state maintains absolute control over news coverage.
No independent press has operated in this Red Sea nation since a September 2001 government crackdown on dissent that led to the imprisonment of 11 leading journalists without charge or trial and the enforced closure of their publications. President Isaias Afewerki's administration consistently refused to account for the whereabouts, legal status, or health of the jailed journalists, or even confirm reports that some had died in custody. All of the journalists were held without access to their families or lawyers. The only media allowed to operate in the country were under the control of Information Minister Ali Abdu, who enforced rigid control of information and ideas through intimidation and imprisonment. Even state media journalists braved border guards' shoot-to-kill orders to escape the country. Government agents abroad harassed and intimidated media outlets established by exiled journalists. The government's egregious actions drew condemnation from the European Parliament in September 2011, the latest in a series of international censures.
[Refworld note: The sections that follow represent a best effort to transcribe onto a single page information that appears in tabs on the CPJ's own pages, which also include a number of graphics not readily reproducible here. Refworld researchers are therefore strongly recommended to check against the original report: Attacks on the Press in 2011.]
Most censored nation: 6th
CPJ ranked Eritrea as one of the most censored nations in the world in a 2006 survey. The government's ruthless repression has shielded its leaders from scrutiny.
Imprisoned as of December 1, 2011: 28
Eritrea is Africa's leading jailer of the press and the second worst worldwide, trailing only Iran, according to CPJ research.
World's worst jailers in 2011:
Iran: 42
Eritrea: 28
China: 27
Burma: 12
Vietnam: 9
Independent news media: 0
All print, television, and radio news outlets were directly controlled by the government, CPJ research shows. The government's control over the flow of information was near-total.
An absence of independent news media:
0: Correspondents for international media
0: Locally hosted independent news websites
0: Independent newspapers, television stations, radio stations
In exile, 2001-11: 47
Vast repression has driven dozens of journalists out of the country over the past decade, according to a CPJ study. The study takes into account journalists who flee due to work-related persecution, who remain in exile for at least three months, and whose whereabouts and activities are known to CPJ.
Journalists in Exile, 2001-2011:
79 Ethiopia
68 Somalia
66 Iran
55 Iraq
49 Zimbabwe
47 Eritrea
25 Sri Lanka
25 Cuba
20 Colombia
18 Haiti
18 Rwanda
18 Uzbekistan
17 Gambia
Days Dawit Isaac imprisoned: 3,751
As of December 31, 2011, Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaac had been held for more than 3,700 days in a secret prison without charge or trial. He was among a group of 11 journalists who were taken into custody in 2001 as part of a widespread crackdown that shut the independent press. Isaac was briefly freed in 2005 only to be placed back in prison within two days.
Timeline in the Isaac case:
September 23, 2001: Arrested in crackdown on dissent.
November 19, 2005: Released, called family in Sweden.
November 21, 2005: Imprisoned again without explanation.
January 11, 2009: News reports said he was hospitalized.
May 2009: Afewerki said Isaac would not be given a trial and that he made a "very big mistake."
April 2010: Former prison guard said Isaac was in poor health.
August 1, 2010: Senior official accused Isaac of "very serious crimes" but provided no details.
September 2011: European Parliament resolution called for immediate release of Isaac.
Disclaimer: © Committee to Protect Journalists. All rights reserved. Articles may be reproduced only with permission from CPJ.
This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.


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If you can get past that sticking point, you can code everything into an immense database, produce some amazing-looking charts, and reach conclusions like "Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades." You can then see into the future:
If the Roberts court continues on the course suggested by its first five years, it is likely to allow a greater role for religion in public life, to permit more participation by unions and corporations in elections and to elaborate further on the scope of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms. Abortion rights are likely to be curtailed, as are affirmative action and protections for people accused of crimes.Affirmative action is likely to be curtailed? But you just said decisions favoring employers are conservative, and decisions in favor of persons claiming discrimination are liberal.
IN THE COMMENTS:Paul Zrimsek said:
Almost all judicial decisions can be assigned a molecular weight, too, provided you don't object to talking nonsense.


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[Anything Diane Hofstede is against, I'm for it.] |
Since then, Pedal Pubs have become almost commonplace, proliferating through the Twin Cities like Dutch Elm Disease, appearing in Uptown and St Paul and who knows where else. Until recently, I've never had much reason to question their merit.
[One of the IHPP memes.] |
Who knew so many people harbor hilarious hate in their hearts for the pedal-powered outdoor bars that first debuted in Minneapolis in 2009?But as I read deeper into the page of Pedal Pub hate, I found myself reacting to it like an Coon Rapids bro reacting to Campari. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to start an "I hate the I Hate the Pedal Pub Facebook Page" Facebook page or anything, but in my opinion, hating the Pedal Pub is a symptom of the anti-urban disease that afflicts the Twin Cities. Pedal Pub hate smacks of hipster snobbery like a mix-tape on vinyl.
The page asks nobody in particular to "PLEASE STOP RENTING THE PEDAL PUB AND GO BACK TO THE SUBURBS!"
"The Pedal Pub is a complete waste of money to do something that is essentially free," the page's description says. "On top of that, most of the people that partake are over the top, bar tourists who over work the staff and rarely tip. The people that go to these bars on a regular basis hate you and would like to see the Pedal Pub on fire."
You see, the Pedal Pub is not that bad. The gripes are overblown, and it seems like nobody is thinking about its positive benefits. While it can be trying, overall the Pedal Pub is good for Minneapolis. It's one of the trends that's making our city more urban, more diverse, more exciting and unexpected. It's opening up minds and bodies to new experiences, and providing a bridge between the core and the periphery.
The Specific Gripes: Bad Tips, Noise, and Bad Taste
[The main difference b/w the Stupor Bowl and the Pedal Pub is speed & PBR.] |
Here's a typical Pedal Pub script from a libidinal columnist who happens also to be a bartender:
"What's a good shot?!"I guess the key question here is whether or not pedal pubs are good or bad for business. When I was a server, the best tables appeared in my station, ordered something relatively simple, and disappeared just as quickly while leaving a nice tip. It might seem that Pedal Pubs could fit that model, as the people riding on them seem to like shots and getting the hell out of the bar. There must be a way around this. Why not institute a 20% minimum gratuity for all group vehicles - Pedal Pubs and party buses? Do people running Minneapolis bars really hate getting business? Do they become too crowded? Why not open more bars? It's a good problem to have.
Rumple Minze.
"It's my friend's bachelorette party!"
Sucks to be her.
"What do you do for birthdays?!"
How much do you plan on tipping?
A similar gripe is the noise. Pedal pubs are loud, and doubly so if they are populated by a bridal party. Let's be honest: bachlorette parties have always existed, and will always exist. It used to be that they were confined to places in downtown (the Gay 90's) and Uptown (Williams peanut bar), but somehow the Pedal Pubs have allowed them to break free from their usual haunts, and seek other bars on level ground. (Little known fact: Pedal Pubs cannot go up hills. If you want to be free from them, find a bar on an incline.)
Look, you can hate on bachelorette parties if you want. It can be a nice hobby, like coming up with hipster jokes. But in the end, it lowers you as a person. The thing to do is to show mercy. This is probably the best night of most of their lives. When faced with an obnoxious cart full of Wooo! girls, I try fill my heart with empathy, and a smidgeon of vicarious joy. I feel better for it.
[Jane Jacobs at the Whitehorse Tavern.] |
The craziest part of her story is that, late at night, while she's sleeping in her apartment, she's woken up by some noise on the street.
I'll let her describe it:
Deep in the night, I am almost unaware how many people are on the street unless something calls them together, like the bagpipe. Who the piper was and why he favored our street I have no idea. The bagpipe just skirled out in the February night, and as if it were a signal the random, dwindled movements of the sidewalk took on direction. Swiftly, quietly, almost magically a little crowd was there, a crowd that evolved into a circle with a Highland fling inside it. the crowd could be seen on the shadowy sidewalk, the dancers could be seen, but the bagpiper himself was almost invisible because his bravura was all in his music. He was a very little man in a plain brown overcoat. When he finished and vanished, the dancers and watchers applauded, and applause came from the galleries too, half a dozen of the hundred windows on Hudson Street. Then the windows closed, and the little crowd dissolved into the random movements of the night street.
Picture the moment. Jacobs, and most of her Hudson Street neighbors, are woken up by a bagpiper (!) in the middle of the night in New York City, and greet him not with hate but with applause. People who want to live in neighborhoods resembling cemeteries should live in Plymouth, not Northeast Minneapolis. The recent regulations limiting Pedal Pubs were welcomed by the companies, and will require the pubs to be home by 10:00. That seems perfectly reasonable.
[US craft beer market share is almost as small as Mpls bicycle mode share.] |
Like it or not (in this case, not), most of the USA still thinks that MGD is a good beer. Despite all the progress that foodies and craft beer brewers have made over the past few decades, the vast majority of our nation is still stuck in weak lagerland, and needs to be rescued.
You see, people from the burbs (especially young ones) aren't really very good at knowing how to act in a civilized place like Minneapolis. They grew up in sheltered 2000 sq ft sensory deprivation homes, surrounded by fences and endless lawns where their only access to the outside world was the Jersey Shore on TV. For most of them, an "urban experience" was going to the Metrodome. They don't know how to behave in a real bar, they don't know how to get around the city. (This is one of the reasons why first- and second-year college kids are about the worst neighbors on Planet Earth.)
I think of it as I would someone just learning English, who may have moved to Minnesota from some faraway land. When they go to a bar, the only words that they know are "Michelob" and "Jag Bomb." They literally don't have any other vocabulary, can't think of anything else. Learning to have taste, just like learning how to not be a d-bag, is a skill that takes practice. If you spend all your life going to B-dub or TGIF for kicks, you're not going to know how to speak "Mayslack's" right out of the gate.
The good things about Pedal Pubs: Non-repression, Traffic Calming, and Street Life
[The Pedal Pub is the opposite of the MN State photograph.] |
First, the Pedal Pub flies in the face of the Twin Cities' prudish tradition of blue laws and protestant repression. For too long, the Twin Cities (and Minneapolis in particular) has had a reputation of being a land of Lutheran Protestant reserve, a place ruled by common sense and alarm clocks. Minnesota, to hear some tell it, is a land of Scandinavian practicality. It's a place where, until somewhat recently, most bars closed around midnight. It's a place where you can't buy booze on Sundays, where people don't approve of dancing in the streets, and everyone is expected to go to church weekly to pray for their sins.
Well, the Pedal Pub serves as mud in the eye of those who'd frown on the pleasing nexus of alcohol and bicycles. There's really no way of depicting the Pedal Pub as a non-boozy situation. On top of that, the Pedal Pub is the exact opposite of efficiency. It has so little in common with the typical Minnesotan symbolic palette (e.g. the state seal, the state photograph) that I can't help but be proud that when the contraption emigrated to America, it chose Minneapolis instead of New Orleans or San Antonio or San Francisco or Austin. The Pedal Pub declares that Minneapolis is a place where people party. Our streets aren't all about efficient movement of vehicles. They're places for people, and even our suburban soccer moms will get out of the house once in a while and enjoy an unabashed libation. (No more than one, though.)
[The Pedal Pub on Nicollet Mall.] |
Except that, in one fell burp, the Pedal Pub can appear on Hennepin one day and calm traffic down to reasonable non-fatal speeds. The Pedal Pub is like a giant speed bump, a clunky moving road diet, changing the feel of our streets like the Mayday Parade or a couple of tall bikes. The Pedal Pub is a piece of traffic calming performance art, and for every fuming cursing commuter, there are three semi-comatose drivers who wake with a jolt, and can't help but smile when they see it. The Pedal Pub can single handedly change the tenor of our streets from one of speeding cars, to one of happy people pushing their comfort zone.
I'm sorry, but your Pedal Pub Hate is mostly Misanthropic Snobbery
Like it or not (and the answer is "not"), the Twin Cities is a vast suburban wasteland surrounding a neat little nugget of urban quality. It's like a Regina's dark chocolate truffle stuffed into the hole of a two-day old Supermom's donut. The vast majority of our metro population lives in places with no sidewalks, where all shopping takes place at Target, and where bicycles are strictly for kids. Minneapolis, St Paul, and a few inner ring neighborhoods are an exception to this suburban rule, and as a result, those of us that love our cities guard them jealously, fiercely, like a wild animal stuck in a corner.
Much like Segway Tours, Nice Ride bikes, Food Trucks, Target Field, the cat video festival, or the LRT train, the Pedal Pub is one of the things that's starting to change this dynamic. It's one of the examples of what I like to call "gateway urbanism," experiences and moments that can start to seduce and reshape how the great blob of suburbanites perceive the core city. For people pushing Pedal Pubs, Minneapolis transforms from a place filled with crime, depravity, and broken glass to a place with historic churches across the street from historic bars, a place where you can actually bike down the street at 3 miles per hour without being run over, without having things thrown at you. For every pedal pub experience that ends up with you stepping in vomit, three or four people have ridden on a quasi-bicycle through Minneapolis for the first time, and just realized that West 7th Street has more character and charm on one block than the entire suburb of Apple Valley.
[My most favorite place.] |
The thing to remember is that, no matter how Dutch people feel, Amsterdam is one of the best cities in the world to visit and spend time. It's on every list of cities with the best street life. It's drop dead gorgeous, and its sidewalks are alive. While it might sometimes suck to actually be a Dutch person living there dealing with completely obnoxious British tourists (flying in on Ryan Air for $50 and behaving in ways that would make most TC suburban bachlorette parties look like your great aunt's bridge game), I'd bet that most Amsterdammers who live there love it. I do too.
Living in a real city saturated with street life, means sharing the city even with people you find culturally repulsive. Overall, the Pedal Pub is going to do more good than harm to the streets of Minneapolis. Living with the Pedal Pub is like knowing when not to go to Nye's Polonaise Room. Any great city gets too crowded at times, and the best bars in any great city will have moments (on weekends) when they're overrun with the world's most annoying people. This isn't a sign of the apocalypse, but a sign of progress. A true urban dweller might loathe these people from afar, but will also know the off the beaten track, even divy-er hole in the wall around the block.
The Twin Cities needs more night life and more people going out to have fun. We don't need elitist attitudes about who belongs and who doesn't, based on whether or not Uggs are still popular. If you want to live in a city where everyone has the same hipster taste, where everyone is between the age of 22 and 38, and everyone drinks only craft beer, then move to Portland. (Similarly, if you want to live in a place with no night life, where the streets are empty after seven, and you can get plenty of sleep in your carpeted cocoon, move to Maple Grove or Maplewood.) Unlike Portland, Minneapolis and St Paul are real cities with real demographic and economic diversity, places (unfortunately) regionally dominated by suburbanites. The Pedal Pub is a sign that, after years of hostility, maybe people who work at US Bank and live in White Bear Lake are starting to warm on the idea of urban life. The Pedal Pub is a sign that our city is coming back, and is no longer going to be the asterisk at the end of the freeway. The next time you see one, try and crack a smile. You'll be better off in the end.


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Eucalypt reveals smelly secret
Biologists have uncovered a yellowbox eucalyptus tree that is able to change the smell of its leaves from one side of the tree to the other to protect itself against predation.
The finding, published in the online journal BMC Plant Biology, answers a 20-year-old mystery surrounding a eucalyptus tree in a sheep paddock at Yeoval, New South Wales.
The tree at the centre of the study was almost totally defoliated by insects in 1990, but one branch was left completely untouched.
Lead author Amanda Padovan, a doctoral student at the Australian National University's Research School of Biology, says their study shows the yellowbox Eucalyptus melliodora is able to control which leaves are attacked by predators by alterations in its genes.
Padovan says the tree, which is estimated to be 75 years old, has developed this ability known as "genetic mosaicism" as a survival mechanism.
"If an insect outbreak occurs then a part of the plant won't be eaten and therefore it will still be able to grow and reproduce," she says.
'Cocktail of oils'
The research team collected leaves from both sides of the tree and through gene sequencing found there were 10 genes that contained differences between the leaves from each side.
Padovan says one of the main defences the eucalyptus uses against predation is its distinctive smell, which is the result of a "cocktail of terpene oils", including monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, and formylated phloroglucinol compounds or FPCs that make animals nauseous.
The gene sequencing revealed leaves that were predation-resistant had five fewer monoterpenes and nine fewer sesquiterpenes than the leaves that were "tastier".
However the concentration of FPCs and the remaining monoterpenes was far higher.
As a result, says Padovan, the leaves on the part of the tree that was not eaten had a strong eucalyptus smell whereas the leaves that were attractive to the insects had a stronger florally smell.
Padovan says it appears the impact on vertebrates such as koalas is similar as feeding experiments in the laboratory show koalas reject the same leaves as the insects.
She says although they have searched the area nearby they have only found one yellowbox tree like this, however she suspects the trait "is more common than we know".
"Trees can't get up and walk away from unfavourable conditions and so we believe this genetic mosaicism is a way for trees to survive changing conditions throughout their life," she says.
"We believe all trees have the ability in that they can acquire mutations in their stem cells, however we believe the mutation must be favourable - in this case the mutation led to resistance against feeding ¬- to allow an entire branch to develop."
Padovan is now using gene sequencing on an ironbark eucalyptus Eucalyptus sideroxylon to see if it has similar mosaic properties.


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Liz Ramanand, Loudwire No doubt Machine Head have had massive amounts of success with their 2011 album 'Locust,' but now they are starting to plot out their next disc. On Machine Head's official site , frontman Robb Flynn connects with his fans through his entries called 'The General Journals: Diary of a Frontman…and other Ramblings" and in his latest journal entry, titled 'Where Do We Go Now…?,' Flynn mentions plans for the band to write new material "this week or next." Even though the frontman doesn't give any specifics, he does hint that the new songs may not be the long anthems we heard on 'Locust.' "No one has really sat down and discussed where we'd like to go in depth, but we have talked about shorter songs (LOL). The last Ten Ton Hammer show we did in London really got us thinking about cool, short songs." He goes on to talk about some material he has received from guitarists Phill Demmel and drummer Dave McClain. "Phil has told me he has some riffs, McClain e-mailed some cool riffs, I have some pretty awesome riffs tuned down to F that I'm stoked on… so, who knows where it's all going yet, but it's definitely starting to bubble. Can't really tell where it's all gonna end up, you can't really plan that out, but that's some of what we've been bouncing around." Flynn went on to talk about Machine Head becoming free agents as they wrapped up their recording contract with their long time label Roadrunner Records . "It's an exciting time for us right now, the world is our oyster and we can dictate a lot of fair terms in exchange for our art. There's been a lot of talk as to what we should and/or shouldn't do; the music business has changed dramatically since the last deal we signed for 'Through the Ashes' back in 2003 (let alone our first deal in 1993), and what we're looking for in a deal here in 2013 is different." To read the full post from Robb Flynn's 'The General Journals: Diray of a Frontman…and other Ramblings' go here . [button href="http://loudwire.com/machine-head-metal-video-of-the-year-2012-loudwire-music-awards/" title="Next: Machine Head Win Metal Video of the Year in Loudwire 2012 Music Awards" align="center"]
Read the original:
Machine Head To Begin Work on New Album


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Daikin, the Japanese manufacturer and global leader in the development, manufacturing and installation of HVAC and Refrigerants, in collaboration with Al Motaheda Electrical and Mechanical Works opened its first exclusive showroom last week in Al Ain. The showroom located in Al Ain Town Centre, near the Clock Tower, is the first Daikin's exclusive dealer showroom in the UAE and will feature the complete DX and VRV range. The opening ceremony began with the arrival of chief guest HE Sheikh Salem bin Rakkad al Ameri, a member of UAE Federal National Council, and drew more than 150 key contractors, consultants, and residential owners from Al Ain.
Having been in business since 1992, Al Motaheda Electrical and Mechanical Works is a specialist in air conditioning contracting and consulting. They along with their sister company Al Tatbeqya Trading have been the registered dealers for Daikin since 2013 for Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. Al Motaheda provides a full range of services from design through to the installation of air conditioners, as well as after sales service and maintenance.
Tuna Gulenc, General Manager at Daikin Middle East & Africa, said, "Dealers are Daikin's pillars of success as they are our point of contact with the end users where we want to grow further. Al Motaheda will provide Daikin with excellent visibility in Al Ain, to reach more customers and Increase our installation base. We are keen to invest in creating relationships in the UAE market to ensure that these dealers are well-equipped with the tools necessary to push Daikin's products.
UAE Sales Director, Samer Alawiah said, "In line with the UAE Government's evolving directives and strategies on sustainability as a core theme for future developments, Daikin is committed at developing and introducing state of the art products and solutions, specifically designed for the region, achieving highest efficiencies, performances, and reliabilities.
"We are excited to open our first exclusive showroom in the UAE with our dealer Al Motaheda who is an exemplary partner having gone above and beyond in providing us and our customers with thoughtful and timely service. The new showroom in Al Ain will better facilitate our relationships with our clients who will be able to view and feel our complete DX and VRV ranges, and voice any concerns they may have. Looking to the future, we hope to open more exclusive showrooms across the UAE, as this is one of our strong markets," commented Ranjit Thomas, Head of Sales, UAE Dealers, Daikin.
"Our partnership with Daikin has grown over the past so many years and the opening of this first Daikin showroom is testament to the strength of that relationship. We are thrilled to be involved in this momentous occasion and will continue to provide the services that the market demands through dedication and commitment to delivering the best product solutions to all applications. Our goal is to grow the business," said Ayman Shawar, General Manager, Al Motaheda Electrical and Mechanical Works.
Al Motaheda too has plans to open more showrooms in Al Ain, and Abu Dhabi.
At the end of the programme, Chairman of Daikin Middle East & Africa, Mr. Yuji Miyata added, "HVAC manufacturers have important responsibly to prevent global warming. Therefore we, Daikin as the global leading HVAC-R company will contribute to accomplish "Greener Society" and enrich lives of people in the Middle East, Near East and Africa region by providing the most advanced high efficient products and systems. This is just the beginning. We are happy to investment in order to strengthen Daikin's dealer network with our inverter range products and we believe in our people, technology & partners to be the future of Daikin, we shall continue to be the leading player in the HVAC market. We wish Al Motaheda a prosperous future ahead together.
About Al Motaheda Electrical and Mechanical Works
Founded in 1992, Al Motaheda Electrical and Mechanical Works provides electrical and mechanical contracting and consultancy. The company's headquarters are on the second floor of the Emirates Islamic Bank on Ali Bin Abi Taleb Street.
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First Exclusive Daikin UAE Showroom Opens in Al Ain Feb 13DOCX | 59.80KB
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