text:
Apple's next-generation iPhone 5S is widely expected to feature the same external design as its predecessor, just as previous "S" upgrades have in the past. But looks can be deceiving. While Apple's flagship iPhone for 2013 may appear to be the same as the iPhone 5 on the outside, the phone will feature a significant internal redesign when it launches this fall. BGR has exclusively obtained high-resolution photos of a number of components that will be included in Apple's iPhone 5S, and they help paint a picture of things to come later this year.
Earlier rumors have suggested that the iPhone 5S will include several internal changes such as a faster processor, a better camera and possibly even a fingerprint scanner that makes use of Apple's AuthenTec acquisition. Nothing has been confirmed at this point, but leaked photos of redesigned internal components suggest that Apple is indeed planning an internal overhaul to improve various iPhone features and likely to make room for new components as well.
BGR has obtained high-quality images of several internal iPhone 5S components from a source that asked not to be identified. The parts include the loud-speaker bracket, ear speaker bracket, vibrating motor assembly, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon and SIM card tray from Apple's upcoming seventh-generation iPhone.
The vibrating motor assembly from the iPhone 5S has leaked before, but our source has supplied photos that show the component in greater detail. An earlier analysis pointed out several differences between the vibrating motor from the iPhone 5 and the new component expected to be included in the iPhone 5S.
The next-generation iPhone will also include a redesigned ear speaker bracket and a new loud-speaker bracket, which are pictured successively below:
Also set to be included in the iPhone 5S is a new Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon:
Finally, BGR has obtained photos of two different SIM card trays from Apple's iPhone 5S. The SIM trays, which have been pictured before in leaked low-resolution images, are thinner than the trays from the current-generation iPhone 5. One tray also appears to be golden or beige in color, which could support earlier rumors suggesting that the iPhone 5S will be available in several new colors.
Full-size versions of each of the images above can be viewed in our photo gallery, along with several additional images.
Apple's next-generation iPhone 5S is expected to launch this fall alongside iOS 7, which will reportedly feature a substantial user interface overhaul that does away with most textures in favor of flatter design elements.


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LOS ANGELES – The date-night movies "Think Like a Man" and "The Lucky One" finally have knocked "The Hunger Games" off its No. 1 box-office perch.
"Think Like a Man," based on Steve Harvey's dating-advice best-seller, debuted as the top weekend draw with $33 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. That's almost double what studio executives had expected for the Sony Screen Gems ensemble movie, which features Michael Ealy, Taraji P. Henson and Gabrielle Union.
The Warner Bros. drama "The Lucky One," starring Zac Efron in an adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' romance novel, opened at No. 2 with $22.8 million. It also came in a bit above studio expectations going into the weekend.
"Think Like a Man" was produced for about $13 million and took in nearly that much on opening day Friday alone, with business getting even better on Saturday. Sony executives had figured the movie might pull in about $17 million for the whole weekend.
"It was a wild ride. It just got better and better as the night went on Friday. Then to be up so much on Saturday," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony.
Lionsgate's blockbuster "The Hunger Games" took in $14.5 million, slipping to third-place after four weekends at No. 1. The film raised its domestic total to $356.9 million.
"The Hunger Games" added $13 million overseas, where its total now stands at $215.8 million, for a worldwide haul of $573 million.
Disney's nature documentary "Chimpanzee" opened at No. 4 with $10.2 million.
Despite some healthy newcomers, Hollywood's overall revenues dipped for the second weekend in a row. Domestic receipts totaled $129 million, down 5 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Rio" led with $26.3 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
Revenues likely will decline again next weekend, with no huge newcomers expected to come close to the $86.2 million debut of "Fast Five" over that same weekend last year.
But business should shoot back up after that as the superhero ensemble "The Avengers" launches one of Hollywood's biggest summer lineups ever over the first weekend of May.
"`Fast Five' basically performed to summer box-office numbers in pre-summer last year," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "We're not going to have a `Fast Five' in late April this year, but that's OK, because we've got `Avengers a week later, and that'll more than make up for it."
So far in 2012, domestic revenues are at $3.1 billion, up 16.6 percent from last year's, according to Hollywood.com.
Paramount's 3-D version of James Cameron's blockbuster "Titanic" added $5 million to bring its three-week domestic total to $52.8 million. The film's lifetime domestic haul now stands at $653.6 million.
With $34.3 million more overseas, the 3-D version's international total rose to $225 million, pushing the lifetime worldwide gross of "Titanic" to $2.1 billion.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Think Like a Man," $33 million.
2. "The Lucky One," $22.8 million ($3.8 million international).
3. "The Hunger Games," $14.5 million ($13 million international).
4. "Chimpanzee," $10.2 million.
5. "The Three Stooges," $9.2 million.
6. "The Cabin in the Woods," $7.8 million ($3.3 million international).
7. "American Reunion," $5.2 million ($9.5 million international).
8. "Titanic" in 3-D, $5 million ($34.3 million international).
9. "21 Jump Street," $4.6 million ($3.1 million international).
10. "Mirror Mirror," $4.1 million ($5.8 million international).
Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:
1. "Battleship," $58.4 million.
2. "Titanic" in 3-D, $34.3 million.
3. "The Hunger Games," $13 million.
4. "American Reunion," $9.5 million.
5. "Wrath of the Titans," $8 million.
6. "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," $7.8 million.
7. "Mirror Mirror," $5.8 million.
8. "Dr. Seuss' the Lorax," $5.1 million.
9. "Houba," $4 million.
10. "The Lucky One," $3.8 million.

subset: commoncrawl


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Neo MasteringQ is a discontinued product. Neo MasteringQ is replaced by Neo EQ 2.0. Neo EQ2.0 has included all features of Neo MasteringQ and improved sound quality. Click the link below to enter Neo EQ page.
Based on Sound Magic's Neo EQ technology, Neo MasteringQ is a revolutionary concept in equalizer technology. Totally different from traditional EQ, Neo MasteringQ is able to automatically detect and lock in the most audible/sensitive frequency. This makes the whole EQ process much easier than traditional EQ methods - much more efficient and effective than traditional parametric EQ. In addition, Neo MasteringQ also has many special "weapons" designed for mastering EQ processing.
Mastering Engineers often think it would be perfect if an EQ curve could change as the RMS or peak level changes. With a lot of time and a super precise frequency control, this could be done within the traditional realm. However, with Neo MasteringQ, this process is a whole lot easier. Neo MasteringQ provides a 16 Stage, 32 User Preset Changing Curve for each slider. You can achieve a different boost or cut amount as your dynamics change, giving you meticulous timbre control which will add great depth to your music.
Neo MasteringQ has precision control over dynamic detection parameters (Attack, Hold and Release Time) as dynamic processors. Its slider range is adjusted for lower distortion, which is critical for mastering.
Neo MasteringQ will do a lot of the work that a mastering engineer did in the past. Send an audio signal to Neo MasteringQ and it will analyze that input and find just the right frequencies for you. You won't need to hunt for the right frequency by yourself anymore or worry about whether you can even find the correct one. After Neo MasteringQ finds that perfect frequency, you can adjust the bass, the basic frequency and the harmonic for it. This not only saves a lot of time, it can give you amazing insight on how those with years of training zero in on exactly what needs fixing. And Neo MasteringQ takes the guesswork out of messing with the Bandwidth/Q settings.
Sound Magic has done the research, analyzing over 70 mastering engineer's methods on EQ (with a special focus on frequency furthering skill). This has lead to a special algorithm that Sound Magic has employed within Neo MasteringQ, making the arcane wizardry of professional engineers (and their years of education and experience!) available to the average recording enthusiast.
Neo MasteringQ is REALLY totally dynamic. Common parametric EQ units remain static, even those that are called "dynamic EQ". The cutoff frequency in Neo MasteringQ is always changing as the input audio changes. Because of it's ability to automatically lock up with the right frequency, Neo MasteringQ is more efficient, giving you way more effect with much smaller changes. A 2dB boost sounds similar to an 8dB boost on a common parametric EQ. The bottom line? You end up with much less distortion by increasing the efficiency of the EQ. Less boost/decay and narrower bandwidth makes any distortion far less than traditional EQ. Measurement results prove that Neo MasteringQ only brings around 9% of the distortion of a traditional parametric EQ unit.
Another key feature that Neo MasteringQ provides is that you can analyze a piece of audio first, then hold the frequency characteristics of it and apply that setting to other audio tracks. In this way, you can clone a static EQ setting from one audio track to another easily.
Equipped with the Sound Magic Auto Distortion Correction Peaking Filter Technology, Neo MasteringQ provides the lowest distortion rate ever. This leads to a rich, natural sound - the sort of sound you know you want. Neo MasteringQ is provided as a Windows VST or Add-on for Supreme Piano 2
Innovative pitch detection algorithm special for mastering and multi-instrument mixing, can lock up the right frequency even when there was a lot instruments mixes together.
4 pitch detecters focus on bass, basic frequency and harmonic
Innovative Auto Distortion Correction Peaking Filter Technology brings lowest distortion rate ever
Artificial Intelligence Assisted Bandwidth control based on the behavior modeling on over 70 mastering engineers, included frequency furthering.
Sample and hold fuction enables users to analyze an audio signal first, then hold its harmonic information and apply to another audio track
Different plug-in version to fit for usage on M/S, Sidechain, Mono
Up to 32Bit/384KHz resolution


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BERLIN — The ongoing legal battle between a Berlin farm family and an environmental watchdog group over alleged pollution violations continued this week with a federal judge ruling the defendant's leak of confidential information regarding settlement negotiations did not warrant sanctions.
In March 2010, the Waterkeeper Alliance, along with the Assateague Coastkeeper and the Assateague Coastal Trust, filed suit in U.S. District Court against Perdue and Berlin's Hudson Farm, a contract Perdue factory farm operation of about 80,000 birds. The suit was filed when sampling in ditches adjacent to the property allegedly revealed high levels of harmful bacteria including fecal coliform and E. Coli in concentrations that exceed state limits. The Waterkeeper Alliance filed suit in federal court accusing the Hudson Farm of violating the state's Clean Water Act.
The case has been plodding along through the judicial process on a course for a trial likely sometime later this spring, but following a settlement conference in late August to set the framework for demands, one of the defendants, Alan Hudson, allegedly leaked confidential information during an interview for a magazine article. As a result, the remaining plaintiff in the case, the Waterkeeper Alliance, sent a letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm seeking sanctions against the defendants.
In its letter, the Waterkeeper Alliance alleged the defendants violated the provisions by disclosing the plaintiff's confidential settlement position to the author of an article published in My Maryland magazine, a quarterly magazine distributed by the Maryland Farm Bureau. The article was entitled "Helping the Hudsons: Young Farm Family Continues to Fight."
"Because the plaintiff's settlement position was known only to the parties and the court, the plaintiff concludes the source of the article's information could only have been one or both of the defendants or their representatives," the Waterkeeper Alliance letter requesting sanctions reads. "Accordingly, the plaintiff requests sanctions for this alleged breach of the confidentiality of the settlement negotiations to include a finding of contempt of the court's order, fines and an injunction."
In the letter exchange, the Hudsons' lawyer acknowledged that Alan Hudson gave an interview to the magazine and that the information included in the article was given at that time. The defense counsel told the court he had informed his clients of the rules regarding confidentiality and that he was unaware of the interview until after it had occurred.
However, the Waterkeeper Alliance claims the confidential information given in the interview has, in part, led to a political attack on the plaintiff over the Hudsons' access to legal representation in the case. That political attack boiled to a head several weeks ago when Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley called into question the use of the taxpayer resources for the plaintiffs.
However, the judge ruled in his opinion this week the perceived setback suffered by the plaintiffs in the case over the confidentiality issue did not hold up.
"The plaintiff has not identified any prejudice it has suffered as a result of the lapse in confidentiality beyond the additional time it has been required to devote to responding to media attention relating to this case," the judge's opinion reads. "Because the plaintiff has suffered no specific prejudice as a result of the lapse in confidentiality, I will not award sanctions against the defendant, Hudson Farm."
However, the judge took the opportunity to remind the defendants and their counsel of the importance of the confidentiality clause when it comes to settlement negotiations.
"Having determined that sanctions are not warranted at present, however, in no way should be interpreted by Hudson Farm as an indication the court views its breach of confidentiality as a trivial matter," the opinion reads. "Confidentiality is the very backbone of good faith settlement negotiations."


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It is the early hours of a Sunday in the back streets of Sydney.
Ali Khaled is deep in a loud argument with his girlfriend, Shamiran Benjamin, who is parked in her Nissan Pulsar outside his Wiley Park home.
Their 3am slanging match quickly earns the ire of those in the low-rise red-brick apartments and battered homes around them and one eventually opens a window and yells at the pair to keep it down. But that only angers Khaled more.
The 25-year-old turns his anger on the intervening and the confrontation quickly escalates to the point where Khaled pulls out a small, loaded Glock pistol.
Without hesitation he cocks his gun, points it in the direction of his unit and fires a single shot. The bullet hits just underneath the terrified window.
Khaled then gets in his girlfriend's car and they speed off but only get as far as the M5 motorway before they are stopped by police and arrested.
There are extra patrols out in Sydney's west this January night after a spate of nine shootings in just eight days.
The couple among the first arrested and charged by Operation Spartan, a launched by police in January 2012 to curb the gun violence erupting across the city.
Over the next 12 months, police make another 114 arrests and laid 1114 charges. But the shootings have not stopped.
There has been more than one public every three days in Sydney in that year and the target human life. Among the 135 recorded incidents in the past 12 months, eight men have been shot dead and dozens more injured.
Khaled was recently convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for his hot-headed outburst yet he is part of a growing trend that is alarming police and community leaders in Sydney's west, who have seen bouts of gun violence come and go.
They say young men are now arming with illegal guns to fight the most petty of disputes, driving a spike in public shootings proving difficult to keep under control.
Women, small debts, domestic tensions, road rage, spats, minor property disputes, pride and even wayward glances have triggered in Sydney in the past year.
''We see houses shot at in the dead of night by cowards and people are getting hurt,'' the acting Police Commissioner, Nick Kaldas, told Fairfax Media this week.
''It appears to have become more acceptable to use a gun to settle a difference rather than, say, physical force or a punch. There is definitely an idiot factor in many of these shootings, but just as with shootings involving crime, a person is targeted for whatever reason.''
Public shootings and drive- are not new to Sydney.
It was the late 1990s when the city began to be exposed to ''young men doing things with guns'' that they had not done before, the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research director, Don Weatherburn, says.
Before that, shootings were predominantly carried out by big-time crime bosses or jealous jilted lovers.
The frequency of the incidents fluctuated over the years as new conflicts broke out between rival crime groups or bikie gangs.
Tensions between rival crime groups in the late 1990s fuelled problems around Cabramatta, while drive-bys and shootings hit another peak as gangs around Telopea Street in Punchbowl erupted and the infamous Darwiche and Razzak families fought out bloody gun battles believed to have been sparked by two marriage breakdowns, drug turf and a in a Bankstown cafe.
There were further spikes in 2002 and November 2008.
''Every time it looks like the problem has been knocked on the head, or going down, it comes back up again,'' Weatherburn says. ''That's the pattern. Now we are smack bang in the middle of another rise.''
But this time it is different. Previous shooting spates were attributed to disputes and turf wars between crime families or bikie gangs bent on settling long-running scores.
Now, young men with no affiliations to either are arming themselves with illegal guns to settle feuds as insignificant as a misguided compliment or a fight at a party.
The shootings have become more indiscriminate, making the task more difficult for police trying to crack down on the violence.
Detectives can no longer just target two or three groups, instead they are left investigating a broader, unconnected series of incidents.
One senior police officer says young men will even use a shooting spate as an opportunity to carry out their own, in the belief they will fly under the radar and police will link it to other incidents.
Police call them the ''idiot factor''. A former assistant commissioner, Clive Small, labels them the ''would-be gangsters of the future''.
''They are trying to make a name themselves but increasingly what we are seeing is … family feuds, individual feuds, low-level petty arguments resulting in people pulling a gun,'' Small says. ''It used to all be about territory, drugs, money.''
In the past year, there were shootings triggered by bickering between two housewives in a supermarket, a compliment directed towards another man's wife and an argument in a hairdresser over Syrian politics.
''The community down here is very hot blooded and they don't forget things very easily,'' a Sydney criminal figure says. ''There's a lot of tit-for-tat.''
Despite what the Underbelly series may have people believe, Small said it had become a phenomenon endemic to Sydney.
''If you look at Melbourne you have more of that gangster approach,'' he says. ''You still have a sense of order down there and you have bosses and that, I think, keeps a level of control. Today in Sydney it's every man for themselves.''
The young men turning to guns across and western Sydney are a product of a downtrodden society, their communities say. They are often unemployed, bored, frustrated, discriminated against and highly disaffected, with little else to do.
Albert Darwiche, whose family was involved in an eight-year conflict with the Razzak family that ended with five people dead and numerous houses shot at, says many of those involved in this wave of shootings are second-generation Middle Eastern men.
Their parents' generation lived with strict family hierarchies yet many of these men have been ''Australianised,'' Darwiche says, ''and have lost the custom of listening to and respecting their parents. When conflicts arise, they prefer to sort it out themselves.
''In the old days, it used to be the fathers that would sit down and talk about it but now they hide it all from their parents.''
The president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, Samir Dandan, says the government has left western Sydney behind.
It is a view shared by respected community leader Dr Jamal Rifi who says consecutive governments have allowed the area to languish with little infrastructure, ghetto-like areas and a sense of lawlessness.
Yet the biggest problem, police say, is these disaffected young men can get their hands on a gun so easily. ''Whether it's young men or others in criminal groups, if they are getting access to guns and as long as those guns are out there we are going to see shootings,'' Kaldas says.
About 12 to 14 months ago, police noticed it had become much easier to obtain an illegal handgun in Sydney than it had in the past.
The Commander of the Firearms and Crime Squad, Ken Finch, says, at one stage, there was even a ''glut'' in illegal arms driving down prices on the black market.
Hard work by his squad, including a audit of every licensed firearm owner and significant of importation syndicates, helped to push the price back up to about $15,000, yet he says there are still far too many illegal handguns available.
''Our , particularly during … indicated there are a lot of handguns out there,'' Detective Superintendent Finch says. ''There seemed to be an inordinate number come on to the market very quickly.''
An analysis carried out by police found handguns were used in 88 of gun crimes in the past 12 months. For public-place , that increased to 94 per cent.
At the same time, of the 632 firearms stolen from legal gun owners in NSW over the past year, only 10 per cent were handguns, indicating the guns are coming onto the market by other means.
Last March, three people were charged after Australian and German detectives smashed an international gun-smuggling syndicate that was being run, in part, from a suburban southern Sydney post office.
It is alleged up to 300 Glock pistols were imported over 12 months through the postal system.
A German gun dealer had been duped by the trio, who purported to be gun buyers and ordered individual parts in separate packages and assembled them using found on the internet.
While most of the guns were recovered by police, at least seven have been used in drive-by incidents in Sydney.
Finch says it was difficult for Customs to detect and intercept such packages containing nondescript metal, however the Sylvania Waters Post Office investigation had taught them a lot.
''That case was a lesson for us about how people do things and how we could be better at detecting things,'' he says. ''The reality is that the internet played a large part. You can order them online and they will be dispatched overnight. Some of the weapons we were aware of in February 2012 had only been manufactured in November 2011. That's how quickly they get here.''
Police have continually reassured the public the shootings are targeted rather than indiscriminate hits at the public, but the damage done to the surrounding communities runs deep.
Witnesses distressed and disturbed, much of the Middle Eastern community has been tarnished with the same brush, and families have been left to mourn the loss of their young sons, cousins and fathers.
One poignant line from a mother said it all when Bachir ''Barry'' Arja, a 28-year-old petty criminal with , was shot dead outside his mother's Punchbowl home last month.
''So sad we are losing all our young men,'' she posted on a tribute Facebook page.
says the community was going to ''funeral after funeral'' and were fed up with what it perceived as a wider public view the shootings were not a problem as long as it remained a case of Middle Eastern men killing Middle Eastern men.
''Everyone else has been to our community,'' he says. ''Our young people are being buried at a very young age and we have been going to after funeral. It's getting worse on a day-by-day basis.''
There is widespread discontent within the community police supposedly ''taking a step back''. says officers know who the troublemakers are and police need to give assurances they are out on the street not sitting behind desks and hiding behind media releases.
''The racial profiling every law-abiding citizen in the Middle Eastern community and makes us look like criminals,'' Rifi says.
If the problem is not addressed, one underworld figure in Sydney warns, the gun violence will intensify. He likens Punchbowl and Bankstown to ticking time-bombs that will ''erupt pretty soon''.
assures the public police are working around the clock to stop the shootings. Police seized 6900 guns last financial year and 7100 already this financial year.
He says Operation Spartan and the anti- strike forces Raptor and Kinnarra have made 2136 arrests and laid 5761 charges.
However, he has pleaded with the community for more help.
Police have encountered a ''wall of silence'' since the shootings began, not only from the perpetrators and their families but also the community, who are scared to come forward with evidence, and victims, who are too are involved in their own illegal activities, police say.
In stark contrast, the victim of a shooting in Auburn last Sunday co-operated with police allowing detectives to arrest three men involved within three days.
''My appeal is to those who know where the guns are being kept to let us know where the guns are and we can get those guns out of the hands of those who use them so recklessly,'' Kaldas says.
In Cabramatta, the police eventually won. Social disorder, racism, drug epidemics and shootings gave way to a multicultural community largely at peace. of the crime gangs that the area remain.
''They're either shot dead, in jail or have settled down and are family men trying to earn a living,'' Small says.
Senior police say all it took was one or two brave community members to come forward in Cabramatta and the whole thing unravelled.
Similarly, the Telopea Street gun battles of 1998-2001 eventually settled when key players were imprisoned and the police clawed back with ''in-your-face policing''.
Mohammad Dib, who spent eight years in jail for car rebirthing and his role in trying to cover up his brother Mustapha's role in a murder on Telopea Street, told Fairfax Media late last year of his regret they were just ''young guys misled by older guys''.
''If I worked legitimate like I do now since day one, I'd have more money in the bank than a life of crime,'' he says. ''I've got nothing and jail is the worst place ever. It's not worth it.''
Small says most men involved in gun violence in Sydney's past eventually just grew out of it, however the cycle continues. ''It can be turned around,'' he says. ''But it is always this problem with the first and second generation trying to get a quid.''
Tania, a mother of three, watched as Yehya Amoud, 27, was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in October last year. and his friend Bassam Hijazi were sitting in a silver Mercedes-Benz outside her home on Greenacre Road at 1.20pm when a man opened fire on the pair in an internal gang dispute.
''My kids usually play out there but we were leaving to go out that day. As we walked out the front, my started screaming. I saw smoke coming out of the bonnet of the car and assumed there was just something wrong with the car so I walked right up to him.
''He was kneeling down on the ground in the praying position. I grabbed him by the arm and said 'Hey, hey, you OK? What's wrong, you all right?' The other guy was screaming at him to get back in the car. I'm shaking him saying 'what's wrong' and then his eyes just rolled back and I saw the blood running down his shoulder and I thought 'Oh my god, there is something more to this'. People were running at me from each direction screaming to move away so I called an ambulance. I don't know him personally but I'll never forget him. I've got a boy whose almost his age and I just think it could have been him.
''The police didn't move him until 9.30pm that night in front of kids and families. These kids are enough without having to look outside their window and see a body there.
''I'm getting counselling and I've been on valium for [the] first time in my life. I shake a lot when I think about it. My little kids saw him dying in our front yard. Every time we hear a bang, we freeze and we wonder what it is. Every time the kids look at the news and hear another shooting, they look at me and say, 'are they going to come back to us?'''


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Catch the Holiday Spirit with Leg Lamps, BB Guns & the Cast of A Christmas Story in Rehearsal
Christmas came early this year (on Halloween, to be exact) at Gibney Dance Studios! The Tony-nominated musical A Christmas Story is heading to Boston before returning to New York City for a holiday engagement at Madison Square Garden, and we've got a sneak peek of the cheery cast in rehearsal. Directed by John Rando, the musical adaptation of the 1983 film favorite features some familiar faces from the Broadway production, including Dan Lauria as Jean Shepherd, John Bolton as the Old Man and Erin Dilly as the Mother; and a few new ones, including Newsies alum Jake Lucas as Ralphie and Noah Baird as Randy. Click below to see the cast in action, then ask Santa for tickets to A Christmas Story, playing November 20 through December 8 at Citi Wang Theatre.


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Android Booting
The bootup of an Android system consists of several phases, which are outlined here.
Key bootup components
The first program which runs on any Android system is the bootloader. Technically, the bootloader is outside the realm of Android itself, and is used to do very low-level system initialization, before loading the Linux kernel. The kernel then does the bulk of hardware, driver and file system initialization, before starting up the user-space programs and applications that make up Android.
Often, the first-stage bootloader will provide support for loading recovery images to the system flash, or performing other recovery, update, or debugging tasks.
The bootloader on the ADP1 detects certain keypresses, which can be used to make it load a 'recovery' image (second instance of the kernel and system), or put the phone into a mode where the developer can perform development tasks ('fastboot' mode), such as re-writing flash images, directly downloading and executing an alternate kernel image, etc.
A key component of the Android bootup sequence is the program 'init', which is a specialized program for initializing elements of the Android system. Unlike other Linux systems (embedded or otherwise), Android uses its own initialization program. (Linux desktop systems have historically used some combination of /etc/inittab and sysV init levels - e.g. /etc/rc.d/init.d with symlinks in /etc/rc.d/rc.[2345]). Some embedded Linux systems use simplified forms of these -- such as the init program included in busybox, which processes a limited form of /etc/inittab, or a direct invocation of a shell script or small program to do fixed initialization steps.
The Android 'init' program processes two files, executing the commands it finds in them, called 'init.rc' and 'init.<machine_name>.rc', where <machine_name> is the name of the hardware that Android is running on. (Usually, this is a code word. The name of the HTC1 hardware for the ADP1 is 'trout', and the name of the emulator is 'goldfish'.
The 'init.rc' file is intended to provide the generic initialization instructions, while the 'init.<machine_name>.rc' file is intended to provide the machine-specific initialization instructions.
'init' resources
The syntax for these .rc files is documented in a readme file in the source tree. See the Android init language reference
Or, see also: kandroid copy of old Android PDK
- Note that the old PDK has been retracted from where it used to found below http://source.android.com/porting
- You may be able to reconstruct it though:
- You need a local copy of the AOSP sourcetree, and run the usual build/envsetup.sh preparation
- Use repo init -b to check out the AOSP sourcetree with a tag around 2.3, then make sdk sdk_all
- This worked for me, though I used some tag around 4.0.4. Some links had to be fixed in the resulting html output
- You may be able to reconstruct it though:
See also http://www.androidenea.com/2009/08/init-process-and-initrc.html
Sequence of boot steps on ADP1
- first-stage bootloader runs
- it detects if a special key is held, and can launch the recovery image, or the 'fastboot' bootloader
- eventually, a kernel is loaded into RAM (usually with an initrd)
- normally, this will be the kernel from the 'boot' flash partition.
- the kernel boots
- core kernel initialization
- memory and I/O areas are initialized
- interrupts are started, and the process table is initialized
- driver initialization
- kernel daemons (threads) are started
- root file system is mounted
- the first user-space process is started
- usually /init (note that other Linux systems usually start /sbin/init)
- core kernel initialization
user space
- the kernel runs /init
- /init processes /init.rc and /init.<machine_name>.rc
- dalvik VM is started (zygote). See Android Zygote Startup
- several daemons are started:
- rild - radio interface link daemon
- vold - volume daemon (media volumes, as in file systems - nothing to do with audio volume)
- the system_server starts, and initializes several core services
- See http://www.androidenea.com/2009/07/system-server-in-android.html
- initalization is done in 2 steps:
- 1) a library is loaded to initialize interfaces to native services, then
- 2) java-based core services are initialized in ServerThread::run() in SystemServer.java
- the activity manager starts core applications (which are themselves dalvik applications)
- com.android.phone - phone application
- android.process.acore - home (desktop) and a few core apps.
- other processes are also started by /init, somewhere in there:
- adb
- mediaserver
- dbus-daemon
- akmd
Tools for analyzing Android Bootup
- logcat - see Android Logging System
- try this command: 'adb logcat -d -b events | grep "boot"
01-01 00:00:08.396 I/boot_progress_start( 754): 12559 01-01 00:00:13.716 I/boot_progress_preload_start( 754): 17879 01-01 00:00:24.380 I/boot_progress_preload_end( 754): 28546 01-01 00:00:25.068 I/boot_progress_system_run( 768): 29230 01-01 00:00:25.536 I/boot_progress_pms_start( 768): 29697 01-01 00:00:25.958 I/boot_progress_pms_system_scan_start( 768): 30117 01-01 00:00:40.005 I/boot_progress_pms_data_scan_start( 768): 44171 01-01 00:00:45.841 I/boot_progress_pms_scan_end( 768): 50006 01-01 00:00:46.341 I/boot_progress_pms_ready( 768): 50505 01-01 00:00:49.005 I/boot_progress_ams_ready( 768): 53166 01-01 00:00:52.630 I/boot_progress_enable_screen( 768): 56793
- or this: 'adb logcat -d | grep preload'
10-15 00:00:17.748 I/Zygote ( 535): ...preloaded 1873 classes in 2438ms. 10-15 00:00:17.764 I/Zygote ( 535): ...preloaded 0 resources in 0ms. 10-15 00:00:17.772 I/Zygote ( 535): ...preloaded 15 resources in 7ms.
- Bootchart - see Using Bootchart on Android
- strace is pretty handy also, to see the timings for system calls from a process as it runs
- You can use strace as a wrapper for a program in init.rc, and save the results to a file
- Use -f to follow sub-processes
- Use -tt to get detailed timestamps for syscalls
- Use -o to output the data to a file
Here is an example of using strace to follow the startup of zygote, and the apps that are forked from it.
service zygote /system/bin/app_process -Xzygote /system/bin --zygote --start-system-server
service zygote /system/xbin/strace -f -tt -o /cache/debug/boot.strace /system/bin/app_process -Xzygote /system/bin --zygote --start-system-server
Here is some sample data:
$ head boot.strace 571 00:00:11.389939 execve("/system/bin/app_process", ["/system/bin/app_process", "-Xzygote", "/system/bin", "--zygote", "--start-system-server"], [/* 15 vars */]) = 0 571 00:00:11.658878 brk(0) = 0x804b000 571 00:00:11.659048 mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x77f9a000 571 00:00:11.659169 readlink("/proc/self/exe", "/system/bin/app_process", 4096) = 23 571 00:00:11.659339 access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = 0 571 00:00:11.659440 open("/etc/ld.so.preload", O_RDONLY) = 3 571 00:00:11.659548 fstat64(0x3, 0x7fa76650) = 0 571 00:00:11.659887 mmap2(NULL, 36, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE, 3, 0) = 0x77f99000 571 00:00:11.659970 close(3) = 0 571 00:00:11.660071 open("/lib/libc_sse.so", O_RDONLY) = 3
Please note that writing the strace data takes extra time. For long sequences of very fast syscalls (such as when the timezone file is being read) the overhead of strace itself exaggerates the timings in the trace. Use the timing information with caution.
Notes on the Android startup procedure
See "Android Initialization Process" at: http://blog.chinaunix.net/u2/85805/showart_1421736.html (this address is not work), using http://blog.chinaunix.net/space.php?uid=7788581&do=blog&id=2558375 instead.
Interaction of different processes on application initialization
Talking about Android Process - http://blog.csdn.net/mawl2002/archive/2009/06/24/4295905.aspx
Improving Bootup Time presentation
See Improving Android Boot Time - notes and material for a talk at LinuxCon North America, 2010 by Tim Bird
1-second boot of Android
Ubiquitous Corporation has announced boot of ARM-based Android system in 1 second. Actually, it's more like a suspend and resume than a boot. See http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Ubiquitous-QuickBoot/?kc=LNXDEVNL032410 [March, 2010]


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Three dramatically different experiments on the International Space Station last week show what an amazing and diverse platform we have for technology demonstrations, improving health on Earth and helping us understand our place in the universe.
Last Friday the first operations of a technology demonstration experiment called the Long Duration Sorbent Testbed (LDST) began on the orbiting laboratory. This project is an example of the way we are making the space station a place to quickly test new technologies that are important for future space exploration. It exposes desiccants and CO2 sorbents to the station atmosphere for about a year before returning them to Earth to be analyzed. The effort was completed under an engineering process we call 1E that allows streamlined certifications and rules that keep the station and crew safe, but reduce paperwork, turnaround time and costs. These are a model for ways to better do new experiments and fly new kinds of hardware.
Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi completed an ambient environment session of the ESA Airway Monitoring (Airway Monitoring) experiment. This experiment studies airway inflammation which can be caused by being in a closed environment, and could be much worse someday on future missions to the moon or Mars. A special small monitor measures the nitrous oxide (NO) that is exhaled by each crew member. The European technology built for this experiment is also being used in asthma centers back here on Earth in a device called NIOX MINO™ which helps to measure the level of airway inflammation in patients here on earth.
Word has also come to us from the Meteor project team that they have captured their first observation of a meteor re-entering Earth's atmosphere. The Meteor instrument currently on the space station is the third unit built, as the first two were lost on Orb-3 Cygnus and Space X-7. The first images of re-entering meteors were captured in late July. The METEOR camera has a special filter that allows determining the atomic emission lines of the major elements so not only does it see the flash of light when a meteor re-enters Earth's atmosphere, it can tell scientists what the meteor is made of. Iron, calcium, magnesium or sodium elements can all be detected. Southwest Research Institute collaboratied with the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan to fly the instrument, and we are currently working with the investigators on a English-language press release. See more images at the Japanese image gallery online.


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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The Olympic flame was handed to organizers of the PyeongChang Winter Games on Tuesday, and it will now head off on a 100-day journey across South Korea before the Opening Ceremony on Feb. 9.
PyeongChang organizing committee president Lee Hee-beom said the Games would be an Olympics of "peace and harmony," despite tension between the host and its reclusive nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea.
Dressed as a high priestess, actress Katerina Lehou led the 90-minute ceremony in Athens at the Panathenian Stadium, a horseshoe-shaped marble venue where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.
A cauldron was lit by Greek skier Ioannis Proios following performances by singers, dancers and acrobats from Greece and South Korea. The flame, placed in a lantern, was handed over to Greek Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos, who passed it to Lee.
The South Korean leg of the relay will involve 7,500 torch-bearers and visit 17 cities and provinces across the country.
Preparations for the Feb. 9-25 Winter Games are being held amid escalating tension on the Korean peninsula following nuclear and missile tests by North Korea. Lee has promised the games will be safe, but he made no mention of the crisis in his remarks in Athens.
"We are ready to welcome the world to PyeongChang. The construction of competition and non-competition venues is already complete," Lee said, moments before being handed a white-and-gold torch with the Olympic flame. "PyeongChang 2018 will be an Olympic Games of peace and harmony."
South Korean organizers said two back-up paraffin lanterns were also being used on the flight from Athens to Incheon, South Korea, and were being escorted by three fire wardens.
Tuesday's ceremony was held after the flame was lit in Ancient Olympia on Oct. 23. That was followed by a torch relay around Greece.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!


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Desire is death. Desirelessness is immortality. Desire is an enemy of peace. It cuts at the root of wisdom and knows no satiation. Therefore, cultivate dispassion, discrimination, meditate and enjoy everlasting bliss. Conquer desire and attain self-realisation or knowledge of Atman. Resist. Conquer all worldly attractions through prayer, Japa, meditation and Vichara. Craving for sensation gives pain. Cultivate dispassion and discrimination. Meditate. This craving will die. Peace is the fruit of the death of all emotions, cravings and desires.
Perfect life is attained by liberation from desires. The cause of all pain and sorrow, is rooted in desire. If desire is annihilated all pain and sorrow will vanish. Detach. Control desires. Meditate on Atman. You will attain self-realisation.
The dynamic power of substitution is the safest way to conquer desire. Your longing for objects will disappear if your eyes turn upwards to God. The practice of contentment and meditation leads to a few wants and peace.
Freedom from passion is the truest enjoyment. True serenity dawns by subduing your passions. Vasanas or desires tend towards bondage; but the extinction of them leads to Moksha or salvation.
Vairagya or dispassion is true power. With the development of dispassion and discrimination all pains will cease. You will attain bliss eternal.
Walk in the path of renunciation of desires. Consider as fire or poison all objects which are said to be pleasures. The longing after the stainful material enjoyments, is itself bondage; the renunciation of the same is Moksha or freedom.
Attraction and repulsion towards objects alone is bondage and nothing else. The more you try to get away from sense-objects, the more you get into them. But dispassion, discrimination and meditation will make you free. Detachment comes through discrimination (between the real and the unreal).
Sensual pleasures make you oblivious of the painless blissful Moksha or emancipation. Renunciation of worldly pleasures, is only an effective means to attain God-realisation, but not an end in itself.
Empty your mind, you will be filled with God. Wisdom is a better support than all other possessions. Dispassion is wisdom. Therefore, attain the wisdom of Atman. Make wisdom your provision for the journey from this world to the Absolute or the Domain of eternal bliss.
You must know thoroughly the nature of mind and its activity. Mind constitutes the root of the tree of Samsara or Ajnana (ignorance).
If the baneful root of mind is destroyed, the tree of birth and death will also be destroyed. This body is the seed from which generates the sprout of pleasures and pains, giving rise to the ever-gyrating creeper of Samsara.
The cause of the seed of body is the mind which following the track of desires, is the receptacle of pleasures and pains arising from births and deaths. The mind that is ever hankering after, and involved in, sensual pleasures, is the seed of all Maya.
It is the imagination of the individual that is the cause of his bondage and not the mere existence of the universe as an object of perception.
It is through the mind that the hosts of bodies, which do not exist, though seeming to exist, arise beyond number. It enjoys these bodily objects as in a dream. The mind is brought under control by mental discipline such as Sama, Dama, etc.
The best means of conquering Maya which involves all in pains, is the destruction of mind.
Atman begins to dawn with the destruction of the mind. You should so destroy the mind that it will not afterwards be able to rear up its head at all.
Destroy the mind past all resurrection through Vichara or enquiry and ceaseless meditation on Atman. Annihilate Vasanas and egoism. Now the mind will be emptied. Just as the flame of a lamp is extinguished when the oil and wick are burnt only, so also the mind gets immediately dissolved and becomes one with Brahman when the Vasanas or desires and egoism are destroyed.
The real Samata is the absorption of the mind in the contemplation of Brahman. Destroy the impure mind through your higher mind and get yourself firmly seated in the Supreme Paramatman.
Learn to control desires and emotions. Learn to subdue, to purify, to order all your thoughts. Fight against all negative thoughts and doubts. Let sublime divine thoughts come to you from every side.
Be careful of your thoughts. Whatever you send out of your mind, comes back to you. Every thought you think, is a boomerang. If you hate others, hate will come back to you. If you love others, love will come back to you.
Thoughts of depression, failure, weakness, darkness, doubts, fear, etc., are negative thoughts. Cultivate positive thoughts of strength, confidence, courage, cheerfulness. The negative thoughts will disappear.
Mind is the thief who had robbed the Atmic Jewel, viz., the Self. Slay by the arrow of Viveka the demon of lower, selfish mind whose form covers up the five senses of knowledge and the five senses of action.
Sensation are turned into percepts, and percepts are converted into concepts. It is the life-experience in the sense-universe.
No thought of anything is possible, where neither the eyes have seen nor the ears have heard. The senses do not perceive anything. It is the mind that perceives through the senses. The mind is often directed by the senses.
The Vasanas generate never-ending pains arising from mental actions. Therefore, they should be made to wear themselves away. The great Vasanas are the nets to catch the fishes of Jivas who are worldly-minded.
A mind which is never disturbed with its worries, will reach the Nirvana seat, devoid of actions through the extinction of Vasanas. Power intoxicates. Be careful. Beware. It will bring about your downfall quickly.
Where wealth and power reign, contentment runs away. Even wise men lose all sense of moderation when invested with vast powers. With the growth of Sankalpa (thought, imagination) there will arise the universe; with the extinction of Sankalpa, the world also will disappear.
If after destroying your mind ever surging through the Vasanas of Ajnana in this world of objects replete with its cause and effect, you give up even the Vasanas of the body, then you will attain Brahma-Jnana or the knowledge of the Supreme Self.


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Gibson's acquisition of Epiphone in 1957 presented a tremendous challenge to guitar designers and marketers at the company. One challenge was to design a new solidbody instrument that could be produced at the Kalamazoo factory using existing tooling and production lines. Another was to make it visually distinct from Gibson's Les Pauls.
The answer? The Crestwood, the Wilshire, the Coronet, and the Olympic – all-new solidbodies introduced in 1958.
In these, Gibson was still using leftover parts from the original Epiphone company. But those crafty designers were working overtime, and Gibson's mini-humbucker – a true double-coil pickup the same size and shape as the "New York" pickups used in this line – quickly supplanted the inferior-sounding Epis. The Crestwood was introduced with a sunburst finish, which gave way to cherry in '59 and at first had 1 3/4″ thick bodies just like their Gibson LP Junior and Special kin.
The new Epis were quickly slimmed down to 1 3/8″ for '59, then dubbed Crestwood Custom.
A large white pickguard complemented the Crestwood body design and further distinguished this model as an Epiphone, but also appeared similar in shape to one of the popular Danelectro models of the time. Early headstocks were standard three-on-a-side style.
But the designers weren't done.
Seeking to position the line as a competitor to Fender rather than Gibson, a six-on-a-side headstock design and tuner arrangement debuted in '63. Clever styling provided more differentiation between Epiphone and the Gibson SG, and the new headstock managed to use six-on-a-side tuners without copying Fender. This "batwing" headstock, as it has come to be known, was very different from anything Gibson offered.
Other changes to the line in '63 included three custom-color options (not shared with Gibsons) and the Crestwood Deluxe appeared as the top of the line. The confusing designation with "Custom" as the standard in the line and "Deluxe" and the fancier model differed from the Gibson arrangement. Certainly, the Deluxe model was fancy (marketers at work again) with a bound neck and headstock, three pickups, and a block-inlaid ebony fretboard.
The Crestwood Custom shown here has several attributes that date it mid-'60s: batwing headstock, black knobs, and custom color (Sunset Yellow). This model also has the Epi vibrato – an exclusive offering (those designers at work again) called the "Trem-o-tone" – which worked much better than any devices fitted to Gibsons of the period. In the background is a similar student-grade Epi solidbody called the Olympic. It has plain fittings and Melody Maker pickups.
The '60s Epiphone solidbodies featured the same set-neck design and quality construction as Gibson models and provided Gibson a second outlet for sales. The body style chosen in '57 for the Crestwood foretold of changes to Gibson solidbodies, and market acceptance of the Crestwood and other Epi solidbodies undoubtedly influenced Gibson 's SG model. Epi solidbodies were discontinued in 1970, when all Epiphone models began to be sourced from manufacturers outside the U.S.
This article originally appeared in VG January 1999 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
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Newport county encompasses some of the best of Rhode Island, and those who don't live there try to go there as often as possible. There is much history in this diversely oceanfront area. Words fail to capture the quality and quantity of churches, mills, homes, mansions, cobblestone streets, and other pieces of colonial charm this region maintains. Newport county is home to Salve Regina University, and the U.S. Naval War College. While the county is known for its academic pursuits and thriving naval companies, the area also enjoys a reputation as a summer colony where people from all over the world come to experience its rare beauty. Newport also happens to be a warm and safe community with vast resources for modern living and recreation. The area is graced with all different aspects of ocean character set against the perennial grandeur of the Gilded Age: the bustling fishing ports, the unspoiled sea shores, and even farmlands by the sea.
62 (39.68% )
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Red Hat 8.0 is scheduled to be formally released on Sept. 30 and many in the Linux user community are watching the development of the new "Bluecurve" desktop design very closely.
In the retail edition of Red Hat that's coming out this Monday, the Linux vendor is replacing the traditional GNOME interface with Bluecurve, a Red Hat-created GUI theme combining elements of both GNOME and KDE, the major rival to GNOME (see Figures 1 and 2).
Bluecurve, the controversial new GUI in Red Hat 8.0, looks likely to appear in Red Hat Advanced Server, too, possibly with a few tweaks by Red Hat, but only if it scores points with users of Red Hat 8.0.
Depending on user reaction to 8.0, Red Hat will also consider rolling Bluecurve into the next edition of Advanced Server, set for release some time between May and November of next year, said Erik Troan, Red Hat's director of product marketing.
Red Hat won't need to look too far for user feedback. "The Linux community is vocal," Troan noted. Ultimately, though, 8.0 will face user surveys and focus groups. "We're waiting to see whether customers give [Bluecurve] a 'thumbs up,' or a 'thumbs down.' We'll include a new user interface in Advanced Server whenever it's ready for the enterprise," according to Troan.
Refuting industry speculation that Red Hat is trying to move into the desktop mass market, Troan said he doesn't expect 8.0 to make much of a dent in the overall Windows space, despite its new GUI. According to statistics from IDC, Red Hat's share of the retail pie climbed about 50 percent from 2000 to 2001.
Still, Red Hat's share remains "miniscule" compared to Microsoft's, Troan admitted. The 8.0 edition "won't be for your typical Microsoft Office/AOL user." Red Hat does hope to gain more ground, though, among technical users and other "single users" from both the Unix and Windows sides of the fence. "Single users" of 8.0 might range all the way from call center managers and Lotus Notes administrators to Wall Street analysts and photo editors, he illustrated. "Linux has some really cool photo editing apps."
Red Hat's current research shows that about 34 percent of its retail customers use Red Hat at home, 13 percent use Red Hat at work, and 50 percent use the product in both places.
"So 85 percent are using Red Hat at home, to some degree," Troan pointed out. From that information, the company concludes that many customers are "training themselves on Linux" outside of the work setting.
"We're not trying to create a 'third user interface,'" Troan added, again denying some industry buzz. Instead, 8.0 is aimed at "a consistent look and feel [which is] 'polished' and more '3D.'"
"We didn't want to use just GNOME and get KDE users upset. We didn't want to use just KDE and get GNOME users upset. Instead, we combined the two, and got everyone upset," he quipped.
Red Hat has created a "KDE-like theme for GNOME, and a GNOME-like theme for KDE," said Brian Stevens, Red Hat's senior director of engineering. Users can install either GNOME, KDE, or both GUIs.
With the KDE default configuration, customers will get "mainly KDE apps." With the GNOME default configuration, they'll get "mainly GNOME apps." Customers installing both KDE and GNOME, though, will be able to pick and choose from among all apps included in the package, Stevens said.
"We've also worked on things like the menus and toolbars in GNOME and KDE, to make them more uniform," according to Stevens.


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Trump, Chávez and the Personal Ideology of Showmanship
In four years, a Trump voter will look around at his declining quality of life and blame not Trump but an "economic war" with China or Mexico, aided by treacherous elites in Washington and left wing intellectuals, always eager to sell out the National Interest.
"And, at this point, would anyone be truly surprised if one day Trump shoots an Apprentice two-hour special from the White House?"
from a draft of this post, before it was known that President Trump will still act as Executive Producer for the upcoming season of the Apprentice.
Post-truth is new up North; for us it's old hat.
On November 8th, 2016, many intellectuals were swaffeled across the face by the election results of the U.S. presidential election. Today, a still shellshocked world will watch in astonishment as Donald John Trump takes the oath of office to become the 45th President of the United States of America. As Venezuelans, we stand today alongside intellectuals in other parts of the world who've been here before and warned of the dangers of this kind of leadership; Russian intellectuals such as Gary Kasparov and Masha Gessen, or Italian writers such as Luigi Zingales and Beppi Severgnini. The parallels between Trump's style and that of Putin and Berlusconi have been drawn. Now, as Venezuelans, we feel in our bones we have something to say to our American friends. But what?
For a decade and a half, we've struggled to explain what was going on in Venezuela to our English-speaking interlocutors. Post-truth is new up North; for us it's old hat. The wall of misunderstanding and suspicion from intellectuals both in Europe and the U.S. regarding our distrust of the Bolivarian Revolution had felt like an indictment, at times: how could we stand in the way of Venezuela's progress, of its people's will? How could we be so condescending on the voting public that repeatedly gave Chavez carte blanche to rule the country as he wished?
Today, as Trump is inaugurated, we suppress the urge for an "I told you so," and pivot instead to a "this is what you have to watch out for going forward."
Like Chávez, Trump has built his power on a personal ideology of showmanship, where ideas and facts always take a back-seat to feelings, and to the appearance of ideas. Trump did not win the Republican primaries quoting Hayek, nor did he go into the debates channeling the positive moral posturing of a Ronald Reagan or brandishing a CV full of high-level governing experience. The only idea Trump has consistently championed is Trump. Venezuelans see it and can't help a shudder. Chavez also championed himself above everything else, even above the new constitution that he himself had had tailor-made for his initial years in office.
Chavez and Trump share this obsession for showmanship, spectacle and power —or, more precisely, the arbitrary flaunting of power followed by the equally arbitrary decisions not to follow through their own proposals—, which was at the center of their relationship with their followers. Chavez became a reality television star after becoming President, Trump had been a reality television star before becoming President.
Trump's reality TV catchphrase —"You're fired"— coincides almost verbatim with Chávez's famous, referee-whistling speech on April 7th, 2002 speech purging PDVSA of its top managers.
Firing people on live television, Chavez prefigured the best of Trump's live-on-TV showmanship, the aspiration of the President-as-CEO for whom intelligence briefings are just a nuisance.
To seek to disarm it with facts is useless. In Venezuela, we've witnessed the the way the autocrats' supporters doggedly dig in in the face of facts. Just recently, in the Washington Post, Paul Waldman shows how unprepared U.S. intellectuals are for this, in a piece titled "How long before the white working class realizes Trump was just scamming them?" Waldman argues that once Trump supporters realize how weaker the U.S. is under Trump they'll vote him out of office. It's the type of wishful thinking that Venezuelans will remember well from the early years of our dictatorship.
It's not results that keep a demagogue's supporters in thrall, it's their spell-binding narrative and the self-fulfilling rhetoric of blaming the Other. It is no coincidence that both Chavez and Trump present their great debacles—Chavez's own military mediocrity demonstrated in the 1992 coup attempt and Trump's disastrous brushes with bankruptcy— as some of their biggest achievements. It's no coincidence that they attack their opponents as pathetic and weak, as escualido and apatrida— disqualified not by the strength of their argument, but by their powerlessness.
We in Venezuela know how terrifyingly plausible it is that, in four years, a Trump voter will look around at his declining quality of life and blame not Trump but an "economic war" with China or Mexico, aided by treacherous elites in Washington and left wing intellectuals, always eager to sell out the National Interest.
We know a Trump presidency will not be judged in terms of facts, statistics or results, but on the strength of his emotional connection with his base.
Even if some Trump voters do realize the mistakes and abuses of his government, there is the real possibility, already witnessed by us in Venezuela, that narrative-spurned hate towards the Democrats will make them cross their arms and yell: No volveran!, which is Chavismo all-powerful snake oil, a formula that pimps the fear of change under the appearance of a sound national policy.
Venezuelan have seen it happen. We know a Trump presidency will not be judged in terms of facts, statistics or results, but on the strength of his emotional connection with his base. That his performance will be judged by his performance.
And that once this logic of showmanship colonizes the public sphere, it is remarkably hard to evict. Unwillingly, Venezuelans to this day continue to stand in hour-long lines for a first row seat to the debacle that many did not want to believe could come.
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Jerusalem exhibition is multi-layered immersive e
Belgian-born, US-based filmmaker and artist Chantal Akerman will open her desert-inspired installation De la mer(e) au désert at the Mamuta Art and Media Centre on Tuesday evening at Hansen House, a former leper colony-turned-cultural centre close to the Jerusalem Cinématheque.
Based on a trip to the town of Arad on the border of the Negev and Judean deserts, the multi-layered De la mer(e) au désert installation features several moving tracking shots projected onto the Jerusalem stone walls of the vaulted basement of building.
Interviewed by Screen on the eve of the installation's opening as she was setting up, Akerman described the installation as an immersive experience that is meant to disorientate the visitor, giving them the impression they are travelling through a non-specific desert setting at high speed.
"I wanted to play with this specific space," she said. "It's a very physical experience that I am trying to create. Nothing is still, everything is moving all the time, all the time. There's no narrative. You can't really describe it… it's primordial."
The filmmaker said she first visited the town while shooting her contemplative documentary on Israel, Là-bas, inspired by a sojourn in Tel Aviv.
As part of the inauguration, Akerman will read extracts from her autobiographical work Ma Mére Rit, capturing her relationship with her mother in her final years on Tuesday evening. There will also be regular screenings in the space of her latest, untitled documentary capturing the final years of her mother's life, which she describes as work-in-progress over the coming month.
The installation, put together in collaboration with the Screen Based Arts Department of the Bezelel Art Academy and the support of the Ostrovsky Family Fund, is being held in within the framework of the Jerusalem Film Festival.
The celebrated filmmaker has been a regular guest at the festival since the 1970s. "I think I first came here with Jeanne Dielman," she recalls, alluding to her award winning film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles about a bored housewife. "It's always so brave and daring."


text: The former business manager of Wahlburgers, the Hingham burger joint owned by Mark, Paul, and Donnie Wahlberg , claims he did nothing wrong and the brothers are to blame for any financial problems related to the restaurant. Edward St. Croix , who was accused of "improper conduct, gross mismanagement, and breaches of duties" in a lawsuit filed by the Wahlbergs in October, has responded with a lawsuit of his own. In the suit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, St. Croix alleges that after he was removed from his job last May, the brothers and Wahlburgers CEO Rick Vanzura "fabricated" a claim that St. Croix mismanaged the company's finances. "Contrary to the baseless complaints about St. Croix's performance, it is in fact (Paul) Wahlberg, Vanzura, and Wahlberg's brothers who have engaged in conduct harmful to the success of their joint enterprise," the lawsuit states. That conduct, according to the suit, includes using company money to cover credit card expenses unrelated to the business; paying Paul Wahlberg's wife a salary even though she allegedly didn't do any work at the restaurant; and renting a private jet for Mark Wahlberg and then billing it to Alma Nove, another Hingham restaurant owned by the Wahlbergs. St. Croix, who claims he's been defamed by the Wahlbergs, is seeking damages, as well as reimbursement of unpaid business expenses, and a declaration that he still has an ownership stake in the restaurant. Neither the Wahlbergs' lawyer, Christopher Litterio, nor St. Croix's lawyer, Sean Carnathan, returned calls Monday. It will be interesting to see if the ongoing legal spat becomes part of the reality TV show the Wahlbergs are proposing to make about Wahlburgers. Tuesday, Mark Wahlberg (along with Donnie and Paul) will be at Patriot Cinemas in Hingham to screen his new movie, "Broken City."


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If You Want to Find Ways to Prevent Cancer...Learn About Prevention Clinical Trials
The booklet is for people who are thinking about joining a clinical trial that may help find ways to prevent cancer. Clinical trials are research studies that involve people.
This booklet explains:
- The different types of prevention trials
- How your rights are protected
- The benefits and risks of taking part
- Things to think about when deciding
- Questions for you to think about and discuss with your doctor
Choosing to take part in a cancer prevention trial is just one way you can take care of your health. The booklet can help you talk with your family, friends, and doctor and make a decision that is right for you.
The information in this booklet was last updated in May 2004.


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- Departments R - Z
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- Garbage
- Residential Garbage
Residential Garbage
Collection Guidelines
To find out what day to set out your green garbage cart, visit this link and type in your address. Scroll down to find your trash pick-up day listed under the 'Services' section.
- Don't miss us! Put your container outside by 7 a.m. on your designated collection day.
- Please leave your container out until at least 7 p.m. on your designated collection day.
- Bag your trash to prevent the wind from blowing it out of the container as we dump it and to keep your container clean.
- Keep the lid closed, and do not overfill. Our operators do not pick up bags of trash outside the container.
- Household trash placed outside of the container will not be collected.
- Place containers at your designated collection point - near your driveway, at the front curb or within 3 feet (3') of the alley's edge.
- Position the container with the wheels toward your house.
- Multiple containers should be positioned with 4 feet of space between them.
- Do not place containers near mailboxes, electrical or cable boxes, or other stationary objects such as gas or water meter
- Do not park vehicles in front of containers on collection day.
- Do not place household chemicals and electronics in your garbage cart. Please take them to the Dallas County Home Chemical Collection Center, located at 11234 Plano Road. This service is free for Garland residents.
- Click here for more information on household hazardous waste
- If your container has a broken lid, broken wheels or is damaged beyond use, contact us at 972-205-3500 or use eAssist to request a repair or replacement.
- Cracked carts that are still functional and do not have trash leaking from them are not replaced.
- If you no longer want a container with scratches or cracks, you can request a new cart for a fee of $60.
Waste that is too large for the green container, including tree trimmings, furniture, bags of leaves and grass, or carpeting, should be placed at the front curb no earlier than 6 p.m. the day before scheduled pick up of brush and bulky waste. The exception is tree limbs, which may be placed at the front curb any day of the week. All brush and limbs must be separated from other bulky waste and placed in a separate pile.
Missed Collection
Sanitation crews can work from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.. If it is currently your collection day and you believe you have been missed, please wait until at least the next day to report your missed collection. All residential customers have 24 hours after their collection day to report a missed collection.
To report a missed collection, please use eAssist or contact us at 972-205-3500.
Acquiring Additional Carts
To request additional carts, please contact us via eAssist or call 972-205-3500. You may request up to two additional trash containers, for a total of three (3). You will pay an Additional Container Monthly Service Charge of $7.10 for each additional green trash container.
Additional Information
The City retains ownership of trash carts. Residents who have extra carts should contact Customer Service when they move away or move to another residence within the City so the extra container(s) can be picked up and billing records can be updated. If you are paying for an additional container and want to cancel, call Customer Service to request removal of the additional container(s).
Collections Assistance
City of Garland solid waste customers who are physically or visually impaired and who do not have a household member or employee able to assist in placing the trash or recycling, may qualify for free collections assistance. Please visit Utility Customer Services to see if you qualify.


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My family and I are going on a summer vacation to the west coast of USA (We are from Europe), but I was wondering if it is necessary to book all the hotels before we go, or if it is easy to get a hotel room everywhere?
Were are going in the middle of the summer, week 30-32, to Los Angeles and SF.
I think it could be fun just to drive around California and whenever we are tired go find a hotel room to sleep in, but we do not want to find that all rooms are already booked, and therefore is it very difficult to find anything.
How occupied are the hotels at that time?


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This article is more than 1 year old
Pay monthly punters pr0n filters to be pulled down
Network operator Three is to stop filtering out smut that monthly subscribers are attempting to view on their mobile phones.
"We know this has frustrated many of you," it said.
Punters on PAYG packages will continue to face blocks when they attempt to view certain web sites - and not just rude ones. Three said its filter also limited access to a number of forums, gambling sites - including the National Lottery - and lads' mag sites.
Three set up the filter to ensure youngsters don't view material inappropriate for their age. That's a requirement of the mobile industry's self-imposed mobile content code of conduct (PDF).
Contract phones are handed over only to buyers aged 18 or more, so Three feels it's right to assume the handsets are being used by adults not minors. But, acknowledging that some contract phones are handed to kids by parents, it said the filter can be re-established for a given handset by by texting the word 'Filter' to 33333.
However, parents have only 72 hours from the time the filter is removed to do this. Three said a subscriber's monthly statement will notify them of the switch-off, which it expects to have completed by the end of June. ®


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Florida Man Recovers From Lightning Strike
A Florida man who was critically injured after kitesurfing on a beach is recovering from his injuries.
Falk Weltzien, 39, was on Vilano Beach Monday with his 14-year-old son, Kai, when he was struck, the St. Augustine Record reported.
For a moment, Kai, thought he had lost his father.
"There's like a big white flash," Kai told ABC News. "I dropped my kite and then I looked over and I saw him laying on the ground."
Weltzien, of St. Augustine, had been hit by as much as one billion volts, enough electricity to light up a small town.
"When I looked at him his eyes were open and he was foaming from the mouth," Kai said. "Then I didn't look at him anymore because I was really scared."
An off-duty nurse who was nearby performed CPR.
In a 911 call for the incident, Kai could be heard telling the emergency operator that his father was turning blue.
"Make sure he's breathing," the dispatcher replied, advising that CPR be performed on the stricken man.
Weltzien was taken to Flagler Hospital. After a night in the intensive care unit, he survived with no major injuries.
"I'm feeling very thankful," Falk Weltzien said. "I know I could have been dead."


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- 100% Premium Cotton
- Available in White & Black
- Unisex Fit
- Soft
100% PREMIUM RING-SPUN COTTON: Environmentally-friendly manufactured cotton that gives an ultra-soft quality feel to the t-shirt. Long-lasting garment suitable for everyday use.
Size chart
Size chart
Consult our size chart to find the ideal fit for you. Please note that our shirts are unisex-sized. If you prefer a more fitted look, we recommend sizing down.
Please note that the colors of the product may vary slightly. While we make every effort to capture accurate and lifelike photos, please consider that lighting and individual monitor settings can impact the perceived color.
CLOTHING: Everything in our store is made to order, creating less waste than conventional manufacturing. Once an order is placed, we strive to complete the product within 1-3 business days and distribute it soon after. However, please note that there may be instances where we experience a high volume of orders or if you have placed a special-order garment, which may require additional time for production and distribution. We appreciate your understanding in such cases.
In total please allow:
1-3 weeks for USA
2-4 weeks for INTERNATIONAL orders.
* Although we ship worldwide, please note we are not responsible for any import duties or taxes. These vary per country and are usually very rare with our orders.
Any claims for misprinted, damaged, or defective items must be submitted within 6 weeks of the order placement. It is important to notify us of any issues within this timeframe to ensure prompt resolution. In the case of packages lost in transit, all claims must be submitted no later than 4 weeks after the estimated delivery date. We kindly request that you report any such incidents within this period so that we can assist you in the best possible manner.
We can only provide refunds in specific circumstances.
Refunds and replacements are available if we make a mistake. If you have made a mistake, then we cannot offer a refund or replacement. However, as a small business with on-demand production, we do not have return facilities. We print the exact number of garments, based on the orders that came in, please review your order and size guide carefully before completing your purchase. Contact us immediately if there are any discrepancies or changes needed after placing your order.
If a refund or correction is not feasible for your specific situation, we may be able to offer a discount for you to place a new order with the correct variant. To determine if your circumstances qualify for a refund, please reach out to us and we will gladly assist you.
We cannot provide refunds if:
- You chose the wrong item or size.
- The item isn't damaged.
- The item is late or didn't arrive on time.
- You no longer want the item.
We only offer refunds if:
- Your item arrives damaged.
- You receive the wrong item.
- Your item doesn't arrive after 60 days.
We require photographic of the damaged or defective product, in order to proceed. As soon as we deem that the product is significantly damaged or defective, we will either issue a replacement item or request you to return the item back to us so we can issue you a refund.
Please allow up to 14 working days for funds to process.
Care Instructions
Care Instructions
- Machine wash cold, inside-out, gentle cycle with mild detergent and similar colors. Use non-chlorine bleach, only when necessary. No fabric softeners.
- Do not tumble dry, or hang-dry for longest life.
- Cool iron inside-out if necessary. Do not iron decoration.
- Do not dry clean.


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Frank Urbanowski, who built the MIT Press into one of the world's largest and most successful university publishers during 27 years as its director, has announced his retirement as of Jan. 31, 2003.
Under Urbanowski's leadership, the MIT Press went from a $2.6 million-a-year operation with an annual list of 135 titles and four journals to more than $22 million a year with 220 titles and 37 journals. More than one million copies of books and journals bearing the MIT Press imprint are sold each year, 30 percent to export markets. During his tenure, the press published more than 4,000 original book titles and over 1,000 paperback reprints.
Urbanowski published a range of publications in key areas which reflected MIT's strengths, including architecture/arts, computer science and artificial intelligence, economics/finance, brain and cognitive science, neuroscience and environmental studies. Smaller but also important areas are technology studies, critical theory, social theory, and the history of science and technology.
"My favorite book projects were the first and the last," Urbanowski said. "The first was the 'Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics,' a 6,000-page manuscript roughly translated from the Japanese that was gathering dust in a closet when I came to the press. The last on my list was 'Zen and the Brain,' a seemingly offbeat book which was rejected by many publishers before finding its way to the MIT Press, and which has received high scholarly praise and has become one of our ongoing bestsellers."
Urbanowski brought the MIT Press into the forefront of electronic innovation in the publishing industry. It received a matching grant from the Kresge Foundation in 1979 to create a typesetting operation built around a minicomputer; in the late 1980s, it developed a small desktop publishing operation and later full electronic processes. The MIT Press also brought up the first university press web site and produced the first electronic book, William Mitchell's "City of Bits," in 1994.
Later, the press established its Digital Projects Lab. One outcome of that has been the new electronic communities of CogNet and ArchNet. CogNet is now a fee-based program managed by the MIT Press Journals division and marketed primarily through site licenses. ArchNet, derived from CogNet technology, was designed and developed by the lab for the School of Architecture and Planning and the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture (see MIT Tech Talk, Oct. 2).
Other highlights of Urbanowski's career were opening the MIT Press Bookstore in 1981, expanding the international marketing operation in London and establishing the Japanese office.
Urbanowski, a material science major at Virginia Tech, joined the college division at Macmillan Co. in New York in 1961 as an editor for science and engineering text books. In 1966 he became publisher at Glencoe Press, a new imprint division of Macmillan that focused on texts and curriculum materials for community colleges. After a brief stop at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J., he joined the MIT Press as director in the summer of 1975.
Urbanowski looks forward to moving permanently to Middlebury, Vt., where he and his wife built a house in 1997. In addition to doing a lot of yard work, he'll keep his hand in publishing as a member of the board of directors and consultant for a number of publishers, including the University of California Press, Transaction Publishers, SUNY Press and the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Council.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 9, 2002.


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Contrary to Donald Trump's claims that he understands the tax code "better than anyone," an attorney who worked with the Republican presidential candidate said he had little interest in the laws, NBC News reported.
Jack Mitnick, a former tax advisor for Trump, said Trump had no time nor patience to learn the tax codes during the time he worked with the billionaire, through late 1996. Mitnick oversaw the 1995 tax filing, a portion of which was published by The New York Ties, showing a $916 million loss. He claimed that Trump had no involvement in the filing.
"He was interested in the bottom line, not the detail," Mitnick said on NBC's "Today" show. "Staff under my supervision did his returns - he had no involvement in the preparation."
It is still unclear whether Trump used his 1995 filing to avoid paying any federal income taxes. Mitnick could not comment.


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How would you like a job as a top executive for an American company in a foreign country? Pay could be one and a half to two times your current salary. In addition, you would receive extra cost-of-living pay, a company car with chauffeur, country club membership, paid vacation airfare back to the U.S., and an ample expense budget.
That might be the typical compensation, benefits, and perks package for an expatriate's assignment in a foreign country. Sounds expensive for the company, right? You bet, but it's only part of what it might cost the company.
Most major companies, regardless of industry, already are aware of the expense of paying out-of-country executives higher compensation packages and benefits. What they may not realize is the huge hidden cost of these workers' mistakes while they go up the learning curve abroad.
I know this from personal experience, having followed other expatriates in overseas positions. I was more fortunate in that I already had substantial experience in living abroad, adapting to cultures, learning the languages, and running overseas businesses. My predecessors were not as fortunate, which made my job that much more challenging.
Expatriate workers tend to make their most expensive and damaging business decisions during their first 18 months in a foreign country. Two major causes of their mistakes are communications and cultures.
Often handicapped by a lack of fluency in the local language, expatriates tend to rely on the local manager who speaks the best English. This puts local managers into a position where they can slant information to fit personal agendas. Therefore, experienced out-of-country workers learn to develop broader information sources that help them make better decisions early on.
Many U.S. expatriates have never lived in a foreign country. They don't know how to adapt and maneuver in a foreign environment. Newly arrived, they rarely are aware of the subtleties of local politics, the sources of power and influence, and the quality of the competition, which they tend to underrate.
Underestimating local competition can be a fatal business mistake. Local competitors have learned how to survive in their own environment. They often are capable, agile, aggressive, and not intimidated by large foreign companies with powerful brands. It is a common strategic flaw of major multinational companies to rely mostly on the power of their brands to overwhelm local competition. Powerful brands without appropriate local strategy and support cannot succeed.
Another common corporate mistake is to choose both expatriates and their local successors primarily based on their product knowledge. The fact is that 80% of the challenges they face abroad are people- and market-related.
It takes years, not months, to adapt completely to new cultures and markets. Yet, multinationals continue to send executives abroad on two-year assignments. Just as they learn how to maneuver in the local environment, they return home.
It's not at all surprising that American companies have a reputation for prematurely abandoning potentially good markets. As soon as the local economy softens, inexperienced, short-term focused executives tend to view normal local downward economic cycles as long-range trends. On the other hand, Japanese and European companies usually will stay the course and benefit from the eventual economic upswing.
What is the Alternative?
If a company has no other choice but to send an expatriate, then it should at least choose someone who shows some of the qualities that lead to successful adaptation.
Multicultural and international business training and mentoring prepare employees for the challenges they will face. Unfortunately, most acculturation trainers tend to focus more on academic aspects of local cultures rather than on the skills needed to manage an overseas business successfully. This can be offset by providing executives with an experienced international business mentor, and it will make their learning curve much shorter and far less expensive.
The Best Alternative
The prime mission of expatriate executives should be developing local management leadership. Identifying talented management potential is a demanding task in any environment, much more so in a foreign one. Another challenge is that once local leaders are hired, trained and in place, they immediately become the target of competing firms. Either that or the talented leaders start successful businesses of their own. Nevertheless, developing local managerial talent is still the best alternative; it is essential to long-term success.
What are the perils of hiring local management talent? Although their experience in the local market may be good, their lack of corporate savvy can be a handicap. As previously mentioned, just finding qualified candidates can be a daunting task. Fortunately, today most major U.S. executive search firms have established operations in countries around the world.
According to Alvaro Cadavid, managing director of Spencer Stuart Executive Search in Bogotá, Colombia, U.S.-educated managers are now increasingly available in most countries. Cadavid does point out that U.S.-educated is not the same as U.S.-trained. Many foreign executives have gone to college in the U.S., but never worked in the American corporate environment.
U.S. expatriates are not the only ones exposed to the challenges of decision-making during their learning curve period. Foreign executives coming to work in the U.S., and sometimes referred to as "inpats," face many of the same problems. They, too, often lack a working knowledge of the American business culture. Again, training can make a significant impact by helping them navigate in the new business culture.
Learning curve performance of local managers improves substantially by intensive training at both headquarters and field operations levels. In addition, during and after the foreign managers' stay, senior executives who have experience managing foreign operations should mentor them.
There may be no alternative to sending expatriates to manage operations abroad on a temporary basis. It is important to shorten their learning curve, and to replace them with local management as early as possible. The key to accomplishing both of these objectives is to train them and their local successors for the specific cultural and business challenges of their assignments; it will make all the difference in the world.