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(CNN) -- Elizabeth Taylor, the legendary actress famed for her beauty, her jet-set lifestyle, her charitable endeavors and her many marriages, has died, her publicist told CNN Wednesday. She was 79.
Taylor died "peacefully today in Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles," said a statement from her publicist. She was hospitalized six weeks ago with congestive heart failure, "a condition with which she had struggled for many years. Though she had recently suffered a number of complications, her condition had stabilized and it was hoped that she would be able to return home. Sadly, this was not to be."
Did you meet Elizabeth Taylor? Share your photos, memories
Though a two-time Oscar winner -- for "Butterfield 8" (1960) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966) -- Taylor was more celebrated for simply being Elizabeth Taylor: sexy, glamorous, tempestuous, fragile, always trailing courtiers, media and fans. She wasn't above playing to that image -- she had a fragrance called "White Diamonds" -- or mocking it.
"I am a very committed wife," she once said. "And I should be committed too -- for being married so many times."
She was hailed, in her prime, as the world's most beautiful and desirable woman. Her affair with actor Richard Burton, which began on the set of the film "Cleopatra," fueled a paparazzi rush unrivaled in its time. The two later married -- twice -- providing gossip columns and movie magazines with a wealth of material.
But Taylor could also be an effective and arresting actress. Her harrowing performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (1966), opposite Burton, showed her as shrewish, plain, embittered -- the complete opposite of her real-life image.
Remembering Elizabeth Taylor, the actress
She also gave sharp performances in "Giant" (1956), "Raintree County" (1957), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958) -- three films that helped build her reputation as a worldwide sex symbol -- "The Sandpiper" (1965) and "Reflections in a Golden Eye" (1967).
Taylor was a champion for a number of charitable causes, notably the fight against AIDS. She founded the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation after the death of her friend Rock Hudson, and plowed both her time and money into its work, especially as her acting career waned in the 1980s. The BBC once noted that her charity work had grossed as much as her film career.
Acting and romance
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born February 27, 1932, in London, the daughter of two wealthy American art dealers, Francis and Sara Taylor. Her mother was a former actress who had given up the career when she married but encouraged her daughter in the pursuit. Indeed, Elizabeth Taylor and her mother were to remain extremely close until the latter's death in 1994 at age 99.
Just after World War II began, her parents moved back to the United States and settled in Los Angeles, where Francis Taylor catered to a high-level clientele. Young Elizabeth was noted early on for her looks: According to one perhaps apocryphal story, she was spotted by a talent scout who suggested her for Bonnie Blue Butler in "Gone With the Wind," but the idea was reportedly shot down by her father.
Celebrities remember Elizabeth Taylor
Nevertheless, she eventually made her debut for Universal, which placed her in 1942's "There's One Born Every Minute." Taylor was then signed by MGM, which was to be her home for almost two decades, and made "Lassie Come Home," opposite Roddy McDowall. The actor became a devoted friend.
But it was Taylor's next film, 1944's "National Velvet," that made her a star. The story of a girl in love with her horse earned her public adulation -- and her equine co-star, The Pie. (Her other co-star, Mickey Rooney, was taken.) For the rest of the 1940s, she was an MGM regular, some of her films winners -- the 1949 version of "Little Women" -- and others, quickly forgotten, such as "Julia Misbehaves."
In 1950, Taylor turned 18 and had her first hit as an adult, the classic "Father of the Bride," in which she played Spencer Tracy's soon-to-be-married daughter. Real life mirrored art when Taylor decided to marry hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr., but the marriage wasn't nearly as successful as the film: It lasted just eight months.
Critical acclaim arrived with Taylor's next film, "A Place in the Sun," based on the Theodore Dreiser novel "An American Tragedy." Taylor played the beautiful woman pursued by Montgomery Clift, who kills his pregnant girlfriend (Shelley Winters) while boating. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, but Taylor was shut out.
It wasn't until 1958 that Taylor received her first Oscar nomination for 1957's "Raintree County." By then, she was an even bigger star than before and known as much for her off-screen romances as her on-screen talent.
She married actor Michael Wilding -- 20 years her senior -- in 1952, a marriage that lasted five years and produced two children, and then Hollywood producer Mike Todd a week after her divorce from Wilding. And after some sluggish work in the early '50s, she was appearing in some renowned films, notably 1956's "Giant" opposite James Dean and Rock Hudson. Todd suggested her for the role of Maggie the Cat in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958), and Taylor steamed up the screen, spending a good part of the movie slinking around in a slip.
Todd died in a plane crash in March 1958. Upon his death, Taylor was comforted by Todd's best friend, actor and singer Eddie Fisher. The comforting turned into an affair, complete with bold headlines, which broke apart Fisher's marriage to "America's sweetheart," actress Debbie Reynolds. Taylor was now "the other woman," scorned as a homewrecker -- and, based on box office returns, more popular than ever.
Fisher and Taylor married in 1959 and appeared opposite each other in the next year's "BUtterfield 8," with Taylor cast as a sexually carnivorous party girl. Though she disliked the film, her performance -- and a sudden case of pneumonia that threatened her life -- invited the sympathy of the Motion Picture Academy, and she finally won an Oscar. "I lost to a tracheotomy," fellow nominee Shirley MacLaine quipped.
Liz 'n' Dick
In 1960, now perhaps the most famous actress in the world, Taylor was offered the lead in 20th Century Fox's production of "Cleopatra." Taylor demanded $1 million -- the highest fee demanded by an actress up to that time. Producer Walter Wanger agreed, and the adventure of "Cleopatra" -- which would consume the showbiz world in ways unknown in the early '60s -- began. (Fisher's ex-wife, Reynolds, would become the second woman to make $1 million for a picture.)
The movie seemed gripped by a curse. Taylor's illnesses -- there were more than one -- caused delays, forced casting changes and prompting the production to move from London to Rome. The original director, old Hollywood hand Rouben Mamoulian, was forced out and replaced by Joseph Mankiewicz ("All About Eve"). Weather wiped out days of filming and labor unrest undid more, pushing the budget, which was originally about $5 million, to $44 million -- almost $300 million in 2010 dollars, more than "Avatar."
And then there was one of the new actors, Richard Burton, who was cast as Marc Antony when Stephen Boyd had to leave the production.
Burton, who was already known as much for his philandering ways as his Shakespearean expertise, had initially thought little of Taylor beyond her beauty. But he was quickly smitten: "He tried to end it, but he kept turning around and coming back to her," Mankiewicz's son Tom told Taylor biographer William J. Mann. "He just couldn't help himself. He couldn't get enough of her."
The two were inseparable -- and very publicly so. Pictures of the couple finally prompted Burton's long-suffering wife, Sybil -- who had attempted suicide -- to file for divorce. Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, both friend and foe to Taylor over the years, called her "sick." The Vatican released a message directed at her, saying she was guilty of "erotic vagrancy." A U.S. congresswoman even introduced a bill banning Taylor and Burton -- or "Liz 'n' Dick," as they were becoming known -- from the United States. In response, Taylor asserted, "I will never go back to America."
But America couldn't get enough of "Le Scandale." "Cleopatra" actually did well at the box office -- though not well enough to immediately escape its red ink: it took three years for 20th Century Fox to make its money back, and Taylor and Burton were now the "It" couple of the moment.
The two married in 1964, their every move a headline. Burton bought Taylor jewels, furs, baubles. The two caused near-riots when they appeared in public. Burton's tour of "Hamlet" sold out, and their movies together -- "The V.I.P.s," "The Sandpiper," even the grim, groundbreaking "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" -- were hits, the latter also nominated for 10 Oscars. Taylor received a best actress trophy for her performance as the tempestuous Martha; Burton was nominated for his performance as the emasculated George.
Eventually, however, the moviegoing public tired of the double act. Taylor and Burton made four more films together -- "The Taming of the Shrew," "Doctor Faustus," "The Comedians" and the appropriately titled bomb "Boom!" -- but none had the success of their earlier work. At the same time, a new generation was latching on to a younger group of stars; Taylor, though still in her 30s, seemed part of another time.
Woman of charity
The actress' career continued to languish, as she entered her 40s. Such films as "The Only Game in Town," "X, Y and Zee" and "Ash Wednesday" did nothing for her reputation. Her marriage to Burton also faltered; the two divorced in 1974, and though they remarried the next year, the second attempt ended nine months later.
Indeed, Taylor was starting to become a figure of mockery. During a fund-raising dinner for her sixth husband, U.S. Senator John Warner, R-Virginia, Taylor choked on a chicken bone. The incident, including a bulked-up Taylor, was viciously parodied on "Saturday Night Live," with John Belushi playing Taylor.
But the glamour of being Elizabeth Taylor never faded. She was a "guest" at the much-watched Luke-Laura "General Hospital" wedding in 1983 and launched several perfume lines, starting with Passion later in the decade.
Most notably, however, she devoted herself to charity. In 1985, she organized a benefit dinner to raise money for her friend Rock Hudson, who was dying of AIDS. The project eventually led to the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amFAR); in 1991, she began the Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation.
Taylor did a handful of parts in the '90s and '00s -- most notably a 1992 spot on "The Simpsons," in which she spoke Maggie Simpson's first word -- but generally devoted herself to social and charitable causes. She married one more time in 1991 to a construction worker named Larry Fortensky and defended her friend, pop king Michael Jackson. She had more health woes: a trip to the Betty Ford Clinic in the late '80s -- where she met Fortensky -- as well as a brain tumor and severe back problems. The latter put her in a wheelchair.
But through all of it -- the gossip, the ailments, the loves and losses -- she remained indomitable. She even joined Twitter to send regular updates on her life.
Why not? She was born to the spotlight, and no amount of tittle-tattle was going to take it away.
"Some audience out there, and don't ask me who they are, but there are millions, like scandal. They like filth," she told CNN's Larry King in 2006. "And if they want to hear that I'm dead, sorry, folks, I'm not. And I don't plan on it."


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USB Type-C spec finalized but no word on when it will launch
The USB 3.0 Promoter Group has now finalized the spec for a new connector and cable, USB Type-C, that is much smaller than current USB ports and cables. It is also designed to offer reversible plug and cable orientation, meaning that users will be able to insert a USB Type-C cable in its supported port in either direction.
The port will support USB 3.1, otherwise known as SuperSpeed USB, which will offer data transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps. The port will also support power delivery up to 100W. However, the new connector and cable design does meant that current USB devices will have to use adapters to use the Type-C products.
This news means that at some point, many upcoming smartphones, tablets, notebooks and desktop PCs will have USB Type-C ports, which could make them easier to use for consumers. The only catch is that it may be a little while before the first products are released with USB Type-C connections. Today's announcement gave no indications of a launch date for the new spec.
Source: USB 3.0 Promoter Group
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subset: commoncrawl


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Builder of worlds, Spinner of fates, Creator of a thousand adventures.
Welcome! We, the Anvil of Worlds, salute you!
We are here to provide you with the tools you'll need to bring your game to a
whole new level, and make the lives of your players more dangerous better!
World Anvil caters for hundreds of RPG systems, including all D&D editions, Pathfinder, FATE, Powered by the Apocalypse, Genesys and dozens more. Whatever campaign you're running, we have the tools to help you manage it.
... and with it you can...
Build the complete, living world behind your tabletop RPG games. Create your lore, NPCs, locations, monsters and adventures.
Showcase your world in all its glory and let your players explore and discover the hidden wonders you choose to share.
Keep your notes and ideas safe - in years to come you'll be able to search through and remember them like you wrote them yesterday.
Work by yourself or get your players to help you, expand your lore and their backstories.
Create your campaign, invite your players, manage your sessions and have everything you've created in front of you in a single screen.
Join a community of over 750,000 worldbuilders and Dungeon Masters happy and willing to help you become the best tormentor Dungeon Master you can be!
"Trust me, this platform was built by worldbuilders for worldbuilders. If you need it, World Anvil has it."
In World Anvil, you create a universe and you can run as many campaigns in it as you want! Keep track of every element - from histories to mysteries - and detail every aspect of your campaign.
World Anvil is completely customiseable, and perfect for SciFi, Fantasy and any other genre, and works with any system. Then weave your plots and intrigue your players!
Homebrew your statblocks for NPCs, monsters, spells, magical items and equipment and embed them in your lore and notes.
Give your players access to equipment and item blocks so they can use them in your game! Become a grandmaster and create sheets for your own RPG system - homebrew or original!
Have all your information at your fingertips during your game - PC, NPC and monster statblocks, plots and lore - so you can improvise with ease! Create NPCs and make notes on the fly, track your players' stats and share images with them in real time.
Write lore to detail and keep track of everything in your world! Choose from over 25 templates designed to inspire you with prompts that give depth to your lore! Embed your maps, and include images, music and sound effects, and even secrets and spoiler markers, for you and your players to enjoy
Maps are great, but you know what's really cool? Linking your worldbuilding directly to a map! Or even linking maps to other maps, going from your world map all the way down to the rooms of the dungeon your party is crawling.
The maps feature will inspire you during the worldbuilding process, allowing you to quickly create articles you can flesh out later. Then, your players can explore your world in an interactive way like never before!
Worlds are interconnected, and the rigorous linking system in World Anvil helps you reflect that! You can
You can capture all your ideas, and you'll never lose track of your flashes of inspiration again!
Keep track of everything that's happened in your world with Timelines! Use parallel timelines to track events in your party's history or for a character. Separate your timelines into eras and use a variety of specialized timeline features to display your events the way you want.
When you're writing in flow or mid-game session, you need your information at your fingertips.
World Anvil allows you to search and find everything in your world quicker than ever!
Search your whole world by typing 3 letters in any search bar. Mark your articles with tags to find them even more easily!
Organization is beautiful! Keep your worldbuilding organized with nested categories - and nest articles under articles - and create a stunning table of contents for your world!
Display the most important categories on your world's main page with book-style covers, to help your readers dive into your world.
Control exactly what your players can see - giving them enough information for their campaign without revealing any spoilers.
Add your ideas to our to-do list as they come to you so that you can return and flesh them out later - it's a great way to keep your world evolving.
Need a boost to write that NPC's backstory? Set yourself targets and track progress with World Anvil's word count bar!
Use the mobile-friendly, OneNote-style notebook when inspiration hits on the go!
Set the mood for your campaigns with sound tracks and sound effects - you'll always have the perfect atmosphere for your games.
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- Home
- Your Government
- Departments
- Treasurer
- Auctions
- Property Research
Property Research
Thorough research on all potential purchases is essential. It is important that you complete this research before the day of the sale. There are definite risks when buying tax foreclosure and tax-title properties. Even County-owned surplus sales might present risks. Buying property without doing complete research can result in unwanted and costly surprises.
Warning: Even the most diligent research efforts may not uncover all difficulties or unexpected problems.
The Best Place to Begin
The Treasurer's Office will provide as much information as it has available. Title reports, maps, appraisal sheets, and tax information, are some items that will help you in your research. The Treasurer's Office is only a starting point though. Sometimes the information available is minimal. It is up to the buyer to pursue other resources. Maps, and some other parcel information, may be found by searching for the parcel on our website. Once you have searched, and located the parcel in question, various tabs near the top of the screen will be available to you. These tabs will provide information from our Assessor /Treasurer database.
If you're ready for the auction, proceed to our Property Auction Process page for additional information on the process.
Other Resources
- Building, Zoning, Land Use - Questions on building restrictions, zoning, use restrictions and controls, and others should be reviewed before any purchase. City and County engineering, building and codes, and planning departments are good places to get information.
- Title Insurance - Some title companies will not provide title insurance for up to ten years from the date of sale. Policies vary with each title company. If you are planning to build, title insurance may be important to you.
- Assessments - Many parcels have local improvements or special assessments for which payment will be due. Check to find what districts or associations service the parcel you are researching. Some assessments are collected by the Treasurer's Office and some are not. To avoid expensive surprises, become aware of these before the sale.
- Local Ordinances - Some properties may have easements, use restrictions, zoning or other land use controls. We sell all properties subject to applicable city or county ordinances. The existence of these is the buyer's responsibility to detect.
- Community Association Dues - We sell all properties subject to restrictive covenants, if any allowing for imposition of community association fees.
- Easements - All easements that are 3 years and older, are unaffected by tax foreclosure. Easements are listed on the title search and are on record at the Whatcom County Auditor's Office.
Please be advised: These parcels are privately owned until the conclusion of the auction. Any site inspection of the listed parcels must be done so with the authorization of the current parcel owner. Anyone inspecting these parcels from anywhere other than the public right-of-way does so without the authorization of Whatcom County. Please respect the property rights of the parcel owners. - Physical Inspection - We strongly recommend that you visit the property sites you are researching. Look at exactly what is being offered for sale. Is there access to the parcel? Can you accurately identify property boundaries? Are neighbors using the parcel? These are a few of the questions that you may want to ask.
- Improvements - If there are improvements on the parcel, you should find out if they go with the land and how they are currently being used.


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These 4 little dolls measure just 10cm (4in) and inside each is a sachet of sweetly scented lavender. They can be attached to a length of ribbon and placed on hangers in your wardrobe or amongst linen in drawers and cupboards.
To make them I used a combination of double knitting yarn in mauves, purples, lime green and white. Shown here are the lovely Paintbox yarns that used (they are available from LoveCrafts - more details on the pattern).
You will of course require tiny sachets of lavender which are easy to make (details in the pattern). Dried lavender is easily available from online outlets and a teaspoonful is all that is required for each doll. A 10gm bag will provide you with approximately 7 teaspoons of dried lavender.
If you'd like to knit the little dolls the FREE pattern can be downloaded from the LoveCrafts website . You can also purchase the Paintbox yarn from the same website if required.
Have fun and happy knitting x


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Jenny Erpenbeck – Visitation
Yes, this came out in 2010, but I only got to it in January of 2011. This phenomenal "novel"--much like Jennifer Egan's vastly overrated A Visit from the Goon Squad--is really a series of interconnected short stories about the history of a single piece of land in Germany during the 20th Century. Despite its seemingly weighty subject matter, its gorgeous prose is consistently inventive, and its rounded psychological portraits will appeal to readers of more "conventional" books as well. With this book, Erpenbeck has already become one of my favourite contemporary European writers. Highly recommended.
Goncalo Tavares – Learning to Pray in the Age of Technique
This novel--to my mind--fits in with a larger return to naturalism that appears to be burgeoning at the moment, but what separates Tavares's work is its dark sense of humour and absurdist tendencies. The protagonist, a power hungry, immoral doctor not-so-subtly named Lenz Buchmann is portrayed in a manner that walks a thin line between melodrama and pastiche--and it works brilliantly. This is a phenomenal and satisfying portrait of a despicable character, and one of the most interesting books I've read in 2011. I can't wait for the publication of Tavares's Joseph Walser's Machine in 2012. Oh, and Tavares's earlier novel Jerusalem is also brilliant, if not quite as successful as this one.
Sergio Chejfec – My Two Worlds
This short little novella--Chejfec's first to be translated into English--simply recounts an author walking through a park, but this simple plot presents the basis for a text of exceptional complexity. Although outwardly resembling Peter Handke's Afternoon of a Writer, My Two Worlds is a complicated work that slyly alludes to a variety of stories by Borges and presents--in fictionalized form--Chejfec's own meditations on the relationship between the world, memory and fiction. This book is a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in World Literature.
Peter Sloterdijk – Terror from the Air
There are many reasons for disqualifying this book from consideration for this list: 1) it was published in 2009, and 2) it is a work of theory rather than fiction. Sloterdijk, however, is not only one of Europe's most important contemporary philosophers, but also a philosopher with a truly literary style in the tradition of Nietzsche. Terror from the Air argues for a radical new understanding of modernity in relation to three factors: terrorism, product design and increasing awareness of the fact that humans are situated in atmospheric environments. From this simple starting point, he is able to offer a radically new understanding of the 20th Century. Although the massive tome Bubbles, which is part one of his Spheres trilogy, was published this year, Terror from the Air (which is actually the first section of Spheres III: Foam) is the best introduction to this essential thinker.
"Whosoever has been everywhere and seen everything should last of all pay a visit to Stitchings." So begins Magdalena Tulli's enchanting novella about the ill-fated Polish town of Stichings. Although Tulli uses a technique that might be described as "magical realism," this brief narrative is full of inventive linguistic and formal surprises and a wickedly bleak sense of humour. This is a beautiful book that is also printed in a characteristically lovely edition by Archipelago Press.
Georges Perec – The Art and Craft of Asking Your Boss for a Raise
This weird little book by Perec--which had previously been considered untranslatable--uses a compositional style that is entirely based on an algorithm given to Perec by a computer scientist, resulting in a form completely unlike that of any other novel you've ever read. By turns hysterically funny, frustrating and inventive, David Bellos's wonderful translation brings this strange-but-essential book to life in English.
Bohumil Hrabal – Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age
Though previously available in English, NYRB Books has re-released this classic of 20th Century Czech Literature, which is easily the funniest piece of prose I read this year next to the ultimate section of Evan Dara's The Easy Chain. This one-sentence novel is the monologue of an old man that is full of one-liners and twisted humour that results from the structural semantic ambiguity created by intentionally misplaced modifiers. If you don't know what that means, read it and see for yourself.
Eduoard Leve – Suicide
Ten days after handing his publisher the manuscript of his final novel, Suicide, Eduoard Leve took his own life. This fact haunts this fictional work about the suicide of a young man, which intentionally both encourages and discourages identification with the real-life figure of Leve. This mesmerising short novel is written in a stark prose that only increases its emotional impact, and, except for a formal shift at the end that doesn't quite work, was one of the most affecting novels I read all year.
Claire Lispector – The Hour of the Star
Although long available in English, New Directions has published a new translation of The Hour of the Star, which further highlights Lispector's deeply idiosyncratic prose. Indeed, The Hour of the Star is such a strange book that I am still not completely sure what to make of it--and I have not been so completely unsettled and intrigued by a prose style since reading Robert Walser's The Robber (which is no small compliment). This is a novel I hope to return to soon, and, given that New Directions is publishing at least four more Lispector novels in new translations next year, it's a given that her work will begin to receive greater recognition.
Honourable Mentions: Patrik Ourednik's The Opportune Moment, 1855, Jean Echenoz's Lightning, Ludvik Vakulic's The Guinea Pigs, Gert Jonke's The Distant Sound, Rene Belletto's Coda, Antonio Lobo Antunes's The Land at the End of the World


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From the Past
70 years ago
Clifford Smith, Monticello's leading poultry raiser, is purchasing 1,000 chicks. He has good equipment and has been very successful in his undertaking. This is good news for Monticello, as there is a great shortage of eggs at certain seasons of the year.
60 years ago
Poem by Frank Halls:
"Our Weather"
When the wind starts to howl and it's thirty below,
we feel right at home here in Monticello.
If we crave some warm weather, sunshine's the thing,
You may think we are crazy, devoid of good sense,
to live here with snowdrifts clear over the fence.
But we are real happy and think it is swell,
for there's no place quite like it this side of – heaven.
50 years ago
Edway Redd, San Juan Community Concert Association Vice President, accepts a $100 check from Monticello Lion's Club to be used to purchase a grand piano. • School lunch for students in Monticello and Blanding will be available next year.
40 years ago
Buckaroo mat men take home the Region 6 trophy. They have taken Region 6 South for the past five or six years. Members are Stan Purcell, Spencer Frost, Keele Johnson, Howard Randall, Monte Dalton, Dale Barrell, Danny Cressler, Curtis Redd, Alan Behunin, Craig Halls, Glade Young, and Randy Butler.
30 years ago
After 21 years of concerts, it appears that the San Juan Community Concert Association may die because of lack of community support, according to Association President Pauline Jensen. • A bill which would provide for an election to divide a county was introduced in the Utah State Legislature by State Representative Hardy Redd. The possibility of dividing San Juan County into two separate entities has been discussed by San Juan County Commissioners.
20 years ago
Bad weather did not diminish the enthusiasm of three young men who carved an icy dragon and warrior sculpture out of solid ice. Ron Terry, Eric Skouson, and Adam Francom will spend the $100 first prize they won in the ice sculpture contest to buy electronics and other games for the Gamers Club. Black Oil won second prize for a "cool" rendition of a tanker truck. A farm tractor won third place for Terrill Slade and Shay Lewis.
10 years ago
James Muhlestein, the music director at Monticello High School, is named the Outstanding High School Music Educator in Utah. He received the annual award in St. George from the Utah Music Educator's Association.
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The death of Harambe the gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo, shot to protect a child who had fallen into his cage, has caused outrage. Some of the anger has now turned from "trigger-happy" staff towards zoos in general. Why, some are asking, is an endangered gorilla behind bars in the first place?
In an ideal world, Harambe would live peacefully in Central Africa. There would be no deforestation, no poachers, and no diseases transmitted by humans and our livestock.
But in the real world, fewer than 900 mountain gorillas are left in the wild. And zoos are a necessary and vital part of efforts to conserve them and other endangered animals.
Modern zoos aim to promote animal conservation, educate people, and support further wildlife research. The three are entwined to ensure the animals are housed to the highest possible standards of welfare. Staff are dedicated to providing species-specific housing, appropriate diets and husbandry to ensure that the animals' lives are as natural as possible within captivity.
Anti-zoo and animal rights groups such as CAPS, PETA or the Born Free foundation claim that zoos are inherently cruel. They highlight animals housed in small cages for "our entertainment" and claim all should be released back into the wild.
But zoo design has moved a long way since the bad days of bare, concrete cages, and indeed innovative enclosures these days can closely replicate an animal's wild habitats.
Sam Ward, Author provided
In fact, most zoo animals, including Harambe the gorilla, have been born and bred in captivity. They have never experienced "the wild", which many people assume is a wonderful and safe place, despite destruction of natural habitats for palm oil, threats from climate change or the increase in poaching.
Two ways capturing animals helps conserve them
Zoo conservation work can be "in-situ", where money, expertise and sometimes staff are provided to protect animals and their habitats in the wild.
Large, charismatic animals such as pandas, tigers or elephants draw the crowds. These flagship species help to raise the profile and funds for in-situ conservation efforts for the not so well known species. For example, there aren't many visitors who would be passionate about protecting frogs or other amphibians yet zoos have been instrumental in preventing the loss of a large part of the world's frog fauna.
"Ex-situ" conservation, meanwhile, takes place outside of the animals' natural habitats, usually back at the zoo and often involving international captive breeding programmes. These studbooks can outline suitable genetic matches for breeding, to maintain a sustainable captive population of a certain species and ensure genetic variation.
Species such as the golden lion tamarin, Arabian oryx, Przewalski's horse, the European bison, and even the common dormouse have at some point been reliant upon captive breeding so as not to become as dead as the Dodo.
hofhauser / shutterstock
Education & research
In the UK at least, zoos must have a written education strategy and an active education programme. If you have been to an accredited zoo recently you will have noticed they use games and technology to go way beyond these basic requirements.
Research within zoos often looks at animal behaviour or welfare, helping to ensure the animals are well housed and fed. Other research investigates the impact humans have on the zoo animals, from the visitor effect to the relationships which can be formed between the animals and their keepers. I recently investigated the human-animal relationship between zoo animals and the keepers.
Research also focuses on biological functioning of animals. Much of this is work that cannot be conducted in the wild if the animals live in remote or inhospitable areas. To take one recent example: Italian scientists who wanted to investigate the Vocal Repertoire of the African Penguin made recordings of a captive colony in a Turin zoo.
Overall, zoos provide opportunities to observe and engage with exotic animals, many of which may be threatened with extinction in the wild. Seeing them up close can spark a passion for biology, conservation and the environment.
So next time you decide to visit a zoo, take a deeper look at the animal care and information that is provided for you. You may become a defender of zoos and the vital work they do. But please: don't enter their enclosures.
Samantha Ward, Lecturer Zoo Animal Biology, Nottingham Trent University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.


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New York Giants Return to Practice on Thursday: The Giants did not practice on Wednesday. The next practice is on Thursday from 1:30-3:45PM. For a complete training camp schedule and Giants.com Q&A guide, see the Training Camp section of the website.
Inside Football Q&A With CB Trumaine McBride: Quick Hits with Cornerback Trumaine McBride by Patricia Traina of InsideFootball.com
Article on Giants' Training Camp Battles: Best Giants Camp Battles by Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com
Articles on the Wide Receivers:
- NY Giants Will Be Sunk if Wide Receiver Hakeem Nicks is Hurting by Ralph Vacchiano of The Daily News
- Giants' Receiver Rueben Randle Emerging as Offensive Weapon in Training Camp by Dave Hutchinson of The Star-Ledger
Article on DE Justin Tuck: Critics a Giant Motivator for Tuck by Ralph Vacchiano of The Daily News
Article/Video on the Defensive Backs:
- Former CB Sam Madison Joins Coaching Staff by Michael Eisen of Giants.com
- Giants' Prince Amukamara is Older and Wiser by Art Stapleton of The Bergen Record
- Players to Watch: Ryan Mundy (Video) by Giants.com
- Tyler Sash Trying to Get to Pro Bowl Level by Tom Rock of Newsday
Articles on Bill Parcells' Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony:
- John Mara: Why My Dad Stuck With Parcells After Rocky First Year by John Mara for The New York Post
- Former Giants Captain George Martin Thrilled to Induct Bill Parcells into Pro Football Hall of Fame by Gary Myers of The Daily News


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Cold weather camping - not for the faint-hearted! The key to cold weather camping is staying dry, warm and hydrated. If you need to make a fire to keep warm, then you are not dressed correctly. If you are beginning to feel thirsty, then you are not drinking enough water. Follow these tips to have a safe and fun cold weather camping trip.
Clothing is one of the keys to staying warm and dry. You need to layer your clothes, and be sure they are not too tight. Loose clothing is more insulating and can keep you warmer. Begin with long, thermal polypropylene underwear. If you do not have this, wool is your next best choice. Never wear cotton clothing when camping in the cold. It is not a good insulator, and if wet, will chill you quickly. Wool, gore-tex and polypropylene clothing will wick the moisture away from your body. Begin to layer your clothing, preferably with the types above. Do not use jeans, which are cotton and will become easily wet and cold. Old wool military uniforms can be found at thrift stores, and are good for this type of camping. Again, layer with loose fitting clothing. In an emergency, paper can be placed under clothing as an insulator.
Your choice of coat is important. Be sure it is meant for extreme cold, and is large enough to wear around your layers without being tight. A coat that has a hood will help to keep your body warm, and will keep rain and snow off of your neck.
Always wear a hat. In extreme cold, you may choose a ski mask for extra warmth. 90% of your body heat can be lost through your head. Keep a warm hat on at all times.
Always wear a scarf to keep the cold air off of your neck. Any skin that is unprotected will make your body lose heat. Keep every part of your body covered.
Although you will probably need gloves off and on to tend camp, keeping mittens on is best when possible. This will allow your fingers to touch each other and gain heat from each other.
For your feet, start with thinner wicking socks, and finish with wool socks over them. Any boots or shoes you wear should be waterproof. Do not wear tennis shoes, and do not wear tight leather boots either. Your feet need to be able to move - especially your toes. Big rubber over boots are good to place over shoes, with the socks underneath. Tuck your pants into your boots, and use duck tape to keep them in and snow out. If you are camping in snow, be sure to whisk off your boots before entering your tent.
Never kneel down or touch the ground - rather, use a camp stool. You do not want any moisture from the ground to wet your clothes.
If you are camping in moist cold, change your clothing several times a day.
Immediately before you go to sleep, change your clothing. Never wear clothes to bed that you have walked around in at camp. They have moisture in them and will chill you in your sleeping bag. Always go to sleep with dry, fresh and loose clothing.
Place your tent on higher ground, away from the colder air. Place a moisture-proof tarp or footprint under the tent. Do not let the tarp go past the tent, because if it rains, this will serve as a funnel for water to go under your tent. Place your tent where the sun will shine on it in the morning.
If you are camping in the snow, always keep sunglasses to avoid becoming snow blind.
Drink drink drink water! Plan on at least 2 gallons per day, if not more. If you even begin to think about being thirsty, then you are on your way to becoming dehydrated, which can lead quickly to hypothermia! Never eat snow, which can cool down your body temperature.
Eat complex carbs such as starches. Avoid caffeine and high sugar snacks such as chocolate.
Rely on a camp stove rather than a fire for cooking in cold weather.
Campfires can be built on metal trash can lids to avoid having the fire sink into the snow or wet ground. Again, if you are relying on your fire for heat, you are not dressed properly. Bring dry wood and tinder from home if possible.
Your sleeping bag should be synthetic and rated for cold weather camping. A mummy bag intended for 0 degree weather is good. You can find mummy sleeping bags that are malleable and easy to carry in a stuff sack. When you are back home, store your sleeping bag outside of the stuff sack so you won't compress the stuffing.
Never sleep on a cot in cold weather camping. This allows the cold air to touch every side of you. Purchase an insulated mat that will keep you off of the ground and keep you warm. If your sleeping bag does not have head protection, wear your hat at night. Never breath inside of the bag, which will create moisture and chill you during the night. You may line your bag with a wool blanket for further protection from the cold. Never use a space blanket when sleeping in cold weather - it is a cold conductor and will lower your body temperature.
Before you go to bed, place a hand warmer in the bottom of your sleeping bag. You can also place a container of warm water or drink inside your bag. You may also wish to place an empty bottle with a very tight seal in the bag with you, just in case nature calls during the night.
You may build a wall of sticks, leaves or snow next to your tent to form a wind break.
Air out your tent each day to remove the moisture it accumulated during the night.
If your flashlight batteries appear to be dead, warm them by the fire. Do NOT place them near enough to the fire to ignite them.'


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I need a way to draw resolution independent text in my game. That is, I need to be able to zoom in on text and never see pixel artifacts.
Can anyone make any suggestions on how I could go about it?
I need a way to draw resolution independent text in my game. That is, I need to be able to zoom in on text and never see pixel artifacts.
Can anyone make any suggestions on how I could go about it?
There's three common ways to do it. It's not really about eliminating artifacts entirely - which is impossible, unless you have unlimited memory or processor time - but rather how to minimize them in a way that fits with your existing code and target platforms.
First, just use your font rasterizer - usually FreeType - to rasterize the font at the size you want as you zoom in. This will look great in screenshots, but it is incredibly slow. You can solve the slowness by caching sizes, but then it becomes incredibly memory-hungry. It also does not look great in motion, because making glyphs look good for static display requires scaling them non-uniformly. Still, it's an option if you are on a platform with enough memory (like a PC) and your scales are bounded to some small range, like 10px to 30px. This method also does not admit a lot of eye-candy by itself.
Second, you can store your text as a mesh. Some libraries exist to do this, like GLTT, or you could write your own. Now you no longer have pixel artifacts, but you will have polygonal artifacts if you zoom in very close - just like any other mesh in a 3D game. Mesh text admits a lot of eye candy since vertex shaders can be applied and the mesh can be interleaved with any other world drawing you do. It is reasonably light on memory and CPU, and easy to measure the cost of since it's just a standard mesh. It can be a pain to integrate into a normal sprite-based 2D rendering pipeline.
Third, you can use distance fields in combination with a pixel shader. This is a relatively new technique that is currently popular, using simple shader to sample a premade texture and the "free" bilinear filtering on your video card to scale up glyphs cleanly. It uses little and easily-predictable memory compared to other methods - a 0.5MB to 1MB texture per character set per font. It fits nicely into sprite-based rendering pipelines because it is sprite-based; each glyph is still a textured quad. It does produce pixel artifacts, but very few compared to other methods that scale textures. There is also a fixed-function fallback if pixel shaders are unavailable, but the text ends up very aliased. Because the sampling is done in a pixel shader it admits some eye candy, like outlining and shadowing, for cheap.
There is also a research article from Microsoft Research by Loop and Blinn, on rendering resolution independent curves using shaders. It suggests using the presented technique to render TrueType text in a resolution independent fashion.
You'll need to build your font characters out of a combination of curves and lines, which you then convert to geometry with a suitable level of detail at runtime.
Fortunately most fonts are already built from bezier curves. To get the curve data you just need to use the standard Windows GetGlyphOutline() function to extract them.
I'm not sure if you can get that curve data from C# without PInvoke.
You might want to take a look at freetype. I've no idea if it's available on your platform or if the licence is applicable but it's a rather excellent open source library for rendering true-type and other vector fonts. I believe they had to do some clever lawyer dodging code in order to get fonts to render in an aesthetically pleasing way. The true type way involves byte codes on curves to provide hints to the renderer so that important font features (such as verticals and serifs) don't get blurred away as they would using standard naive anti-aliasing. That technique has a patent on it so the freetype people had to come up with something else that did the job and didn't invoke the terrible lawyer-beast of (I think) Apple. Anyway, pogramming legal aside aside, try looking into freetype http://freetype.sourceforge.net/index2.html


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Carlos Hyde, No. 4 Ohio State top Northwestern for 18th straight win
EVANSTON, Ill. -- No. 4 Ohio State took Northwestern's best shot on a wet and raucous night at Ryan Field, and the Buckeyes' perfect record is still standing.
They can thank Carlos Hyde for that.
Hyde ran for a career-high 168 yards and three touchdowns, and Ohio State rallied to beat No. 16 Northwestern 40-30 Saturday and extend the nation's longest win streak to 18 games.
The Buckeyes (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten) remained undefeated since Urban Meyer took over as coach last year.
On a rain-soaked field and with a prime-time audience watching, they rallied from 10 down in the third quarter to take out a team aiming to show it could beat the best in the conference.
Hyde, who was suspended for the first three games after an alleged conflict with a female in a bar this summer, prevented that. He scored on a 4-yard run late in the third and added two more touchdowns in the final quarter to lift the Buckeyes.
"I go out every game with the mindset that I have to make up for those three games," Hyde said.
And when he was asked what he would think about when he goes to bed, he cleared his throat a few times and placed his fingers on his eyes as he teared up.
"First I'll give thanks to God. That suspension. That ... that suspension really hurt. Being out there with my brothers is the greatest thing," Hyde said, his voice cracking.
He was credited with a 2-yard touchdown after a replay review early in the fourth to put Ohio State ahead 26-23.
Then, after Northwestern's Trevor Siemian connected with Cameron Dickerson on a 12-yard score, Hyde ran it in from the 7 with 5:22 left in the game. That made it 34-30.
"We all make mistakes," Meyer said. "I think this is a game changer for him."
The Wildcats' Kain Colter got stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Ohio State 34 with 2:43 left after he picked up his own fumble, wiping out a late threat. The game ended with Northwestern (4-1, 0-1) lateralling and the Buckeyes recovering the loose ball in the end zone.
Hyde came up big with Jordan Hall nursing a knee injury, and Ohio State pulled this one out even though Braxton Miller had a rough night. He threw for 203 yards but had an interception and fumbled twice after matching a career-high with four touchdown passes against Wisconsin last week. He also ran for 68 yards.
Corey Brown added 127 yards receiving, and the defense delivered five sacks, sending the Buckeyes to their 29th win in their past 30 games with the Wildcats.
Northwestern hasn't beaten a Top-five team since it opened the 1959 season with wins over No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 5 Iowa.
"There's a team getting on the bus going back to Columbus that just got into a fight with (our) football team," coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "That's what I'll take from this game."
And there's a team staying in Evanston that has the Buckeyes' respect.
"Very, very good players. Borderline great players," Meyer said. "And a scheme that's hard to defend."
Siemian threw 245 yards and two touchdowns against a defense missing one of its leaders in safety Christian Bryant. He broke his left ankle late in last week's game and is expected to miss the rest of the regular season.
Colter completed all 12 passes for 98 yards and had a touchdown catch early in the game.
Rashad Lawrence had 149 yards receiving.
Venric Mark ran for 60 yards after missing three games with a lower body injury, but instead of a signature victory, Northwestern came away with a tight loss.
"If we play a complete game, I don't care who we're going up against, we're going to go out there and get that win," linebacker Damien Proby said. "We didn't get to that point, playing all three phases."
Northwestern was leading 23-20 early in the fourth when Doran Grant stepped in front of Lawrence to pick off a pass by Siemian at the 23. He returned it 7 yards to the Northwestern 16, and on third-and-goal at the 2, Hyde reached across the goal line and was credited with the touchdown after a replay review.
That delighted the Buckeyes fans, but the Northwestern crowd had plenty to cheer moments later.
Siemian connected with Lawrence on a 67-yard slant to the 7. Then, with the ball at the 12, a scrambling Siemian found Dickerson in the end zone on third down. Just like that, the Wildcats were back on top, 30-27, but in the end, it was Ohio State's night.
"Everybody got their mind right in the second half," Hyde said.
Game Information
2023 Big Ten Conference Standings
Team | CONF | OVR |
Michigan | 9-0 | 15-0 |
Ohio State | 8-1 | 11-2 |
Penn State | 7-2 | 10-3 |
Maryland | 4-5 | 8-5 |
Rutgers | 3-6 | 7-6 |
Michigan State | 2-7 | 4-8 |
Indiana | 1-8 | 3-9 |


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What's up Doc?
What's the origin of the phrase 'What's up Doc?'?
'Eh, What's up Doc?' joins 'That's All Folks!' as the best-known lines from Tex Avery's Looney Tunes cartoon series. It was delivered by Bugs Bunny, while nonchalantly chewing on a carrot, in most of the cartoons in which the character appeared, beginning with A Wild Hare, 1940. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon, although Bugs wasn't named until the second cartoon - Elmer's Pet Rabbit ('Happy Rabbit', a prototype Bugs Bunny with a somewhat different personality had appeared earlier).
Avery explained how the line became established in the numerous cartoon confrontations between Bugs Bunny and the hapless hunter Elmer Fudd:
"We decided he [Bugs] was going to be a smart-aleck rabbit, but casual about it. That opening line of 'Eh, what's up, Doc?' floored them. They expected the rabbit to scream, or anything but make a casual remark. For here's a guy pointing a gun in his face! It got such a laugh that we said, 'Boy, we'll do that every chance we get.'"
Chuck Jones went on to explain that the demeanour of Bugs when delivering the line was adapted from Clark Gable's performance in It Happened One Night. In that film, Gable's character leans against a fence eating carrots and gives instructions with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. The scene was well-known to audiences at the time who would have been well aware that Bugs was spoofing Clark Gable.
The line has outlived Bugs Bunny and is now commonly used worldwide as a jokey alternative to the straightforward query 'what's up?', that is, 'what's going on?'.


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In a previous post, I covered several of the available SPARK computing systems, so I won't revisit SPARK hardware too extensively in this series. I will share any interesting discoveries I make working with the Create, iRobot's very simple yet comprehensive robot base. In addition, I'll try to include useful technical details. Of course, as much as the mechanical engineer in me loves to spend time designing and building robot parts, the Create is a nicely developed and well documented platform, so this project is primarily focused on software.
I don't have to worry or think about how the parts I machined might or might not fit together, or whether the motor control board I built will overheat and turn into a pile of smoldering mosfets. The Create takes that worry away, and gives me a mobile platform which I can control via a standard RS-232 serial port.
There is a small catch. iRobot designed the Create with an 8-pin mini-din connector and 0-5v serial port voltages. To connect my Create to my iCop computer, I require an adapter. Fortunately, one can be purchased from iRobot at a reasonable price, or you can make your own.
So now I have the cabling to talk to my Create, but I need to know how to configure messages and what to send in order to control the robot.
Continue on to read the full post here.
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Margherita (Camille) and Armando
Dumas' autobiographical play about a Parisian courtesan and her lover
by David Johnson
When his largely autobiographical play, Camille, Alexandre Dumas, Jr., was first performed in 1852, it caused a sensation. Dumas depicted the disreputable side of Parisian society and a offered sympathetic portrayal of a sophisticated courtesan, Margherita Gauthier.
Although she had been mistress to various men, Margherita had never known true love. One night she met Armando Duval, son of a prominent official. Armando and Margherita began to live together in a country house. They were deliriously happy.
When Armando was out of the house, his father appeared and begged Margherita to give up Armando, convinced she was ruining the young man's career. Finally Margherita agreed and returned to her disreputable friends. When Armando came looking for her, Margherita pretended to be another man's mistress. Hurt and furious, Armando insulted her and stormed out.
Margherita meanwhile became seriously ill. Armando's father visited her and realized that she really loved his son. He promised to send Armando to Margherita. But, when Armando appeared, Margherita was dying.
One of literature's saddest love stories, Camille became the basis for Giuseppe Verdi's opera, La Traviata.


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Wild Beasts
When we interviewed you around the release of your last LP, you said, "This record stepped out of the ruins of Smother, chest puffed out, like the hero appearing from beneath the rubble." By extension, what is Boy King to Present Tense?
Hayden Thorpe: It's the villain. It's like the superhero became the villain. Maybe he took some kind of potion... It's definitely a kind of villain record anyway.
We read that Boy King marks a return to you being "p*ssed off," but you sounded quite p*ssed off on Present Tense at times.
Tom Fleming: (Laughs) Well, that's good. I was very wary of music for comfort or to console. I always think you should introduce some aspect of yourself that you try to suppress, and I definitely think this record is about the failure to suppress things. The uglier side of us, or situations, is being celebrated and brought very much to the fore.
The album was recorded in Texas. Did the surrounding political climate have any impact at all?
HT: I think so, yeah, but also we're trying to emphasise it's a party record, a hedonistic record. People come to us and want quite heavy explanations...
TF: ...As if we make records exclusively for context, and then we reverse all our musical ideas into that, whereas it's the other way round.
HT: There is a heaviness and an adultness. Boy King is supposed to be an 18+, rather than a PG production, but the overarching theme is just to f***ing party and revel in the darkness. The political narrative of it is woven in because of who we are and what we're living, rather than it being a fist-clenching statement.
TF: I remember reading about the geopolitical consequences of the situation in Syria, and then just going to Texas and being in the middle of a big continent where people were telling me they didn't really believe in climate change. And Donald Trump ascended to the Republican candidacy while we were out there. It was like, "Wow. Forgive the pun but, we're not in Kansas anymore." So that feeling of being out of place was a really influential one I think.
HT: It's a good point. It became obvious that Trump was gonna be the candidate, and I guess your response to that is either to be crushed and whimper, or think let's make this voice as Technicolor and brilliant as possible to make him look grey by default. I guess it's important not to be self-conscious about these things because, f**k knows, Trump isn't, and the Right isn't.
TF: It's funny in terms of the title of the record. Trump is totally a boy king: he's totally like a Nero figure, playing out juvenile fantasies until suddenly he's in power and he can do what the f**k he likes. That's what the record is kind-of about: putting on a display of manhood to mask a smallness and an emptiness.
It's interesting that you say Boy King is an 18+... Or did you say X-rated?
HT: 18+. It needs to still sell. (Laughs)
As a lyricist, you've always been fascinated by the carnal side of love, but the imagery on Boy King is a lot more blatant in that respect. What's the rationale behind that?
HT: It's less self-conscious. I also think it's a product of the fact that sex in society now is blatant and all guns blazing, If I can say things in a more crude and simplistic way, then of course I'm going to hijack that. Also, it's empowering and fun to be that guy, like, how dare I? It's almost nauseating. And after five records you have to come up with a new methodology to justify why the f**k you're still doing it, and one of those methodologies was to embrace all those things we may have previously fought against. It's only recently that I've realised we've actually become the band that we were actually responding against as kids. We've become those guys.
Who are "those guys"?
HT: The leather jacket-wielding...
TF: ...Lad bands. I think we're using it in a more abstract, and hopefully more interesting and sexier, way. It's not chugga-chugga Status Quo. It's a bit more synthetic and, touch wood, a bit more Prince-y.
On 'Tough Guy' you address the idea of "manning up" and performative masculinity. Is the song intended as a commentary on societal pressures on men?
HT: It's a personal record and I guess we get asked a lot about masculinity. We have things to say about it, but we have things to say about ourselves, and we only have license to speak about hetero men being hetero men. In terms of that "suck it up" mentality, it is taboo to speak about male emotion. It just is. There is not a vehicle with which men are encouraged to express their sense of inability or fragility, and yeah, you suck it up and deal with it internally. That kind of stoicism is the defining atmosphere of the culture we've grown up in. As I've grown older, I've understood that however big all these huge male gestures are, it's only covering up the size of the crack.
Boy King has a more arid sound than previous records. Do you think you absorbed that from your surroundings?
HT: Absolutely. I mean, Texas is a city built out of the desert. It's beautiful, almost pastiche, 80s America to look at: it's just so silver and shiny and big, and I think that kind of environment really affected the record. You feel small there, but to feel small and irrelevant is a good starting point for making a record.
TF: It's probably a cliché but I think we did feel an unbuttoning in Texas. Like, we were taking off the uptight, intellectual, European persona – especially the shy Brit – and engaging with it. We needed to have a bit of swagger, a bit of performance to get anywhere, and [Boy King-producer] John Congleton did a good job of helping us by pushing our buttons a little bit, like, "Come on man, come on – leave that in. What are you worried about?"
HT: I remember John asked me very specifically, "Are you insecure about that?" And I was like, "F**k, that's crushing, John."
Why did you choose to work with John Congleton?
HT: We'd met about a dozen producers, and John always just said the most simple and profound things, normally about following your gut and your heart and being open-minded. It's a given that he's a sonic genius, it was more the psychological effect he had upon us which I think really galvanised us.
TF: Because he's made a lot of music himself, and he's recorded with a lot of artists, he's very good at talking about music, and the feeling and process of making it.
You mentioned Prince was a reference point for this record. What else were you listening to or aspiring to?
HT: Nine Inch Nails had a huge impact on the record.
Which era?
HT: The Downward Spiral. Yeah, it's an important distinction. 'A Warm Place' specifically, blew my mind. I realised it was made in '94 and it sounds post-Burial. It reminded me of the force of that heavy music and the emotional affect it has on you.
TF: It's funny because in our teenage years metal was in the charts. It's impossible to think about now. We can pontificate about post-dubstep music all we want but it's like, f**k it, guitar solo. There was a certain feeling of unburdening yourself of all the journalistic intellectualism, and reacting as musicians. It was very much a reactive record as opposed to something that was built to design.
HT: Made by people whose youth was spent sitting in their bedroom learning the shred solo, because you wouldn't have done it if you didn't have it in your closet. It's not like we could naturally do this; we spent our teenage years...
TF: Learning modes and sh*t, yeah. (Laughs) I find it very hard to listen to new music when we're making a record. My respite from that was to go and listen to these polished metal albums – things like Van Halen and Def Leppard – and that probably did bleed into the record. There was an element of recontextualising those things.
HT: We know the joke is on us. We're the guys in the rock band, the Limey guys in America. So we were trying to reclaim that joke, I guess.
We also read that for Boy King there was a newfound creative fiction between the two of you.
HT: Newfound? (Laughs) It's adult now, I think that's the difference. We've been in the band for 15 years and we're still learning each other and getting to know each other's niches and tricks. The way any long-term relationship stays vibrant and alive and vivid is if you are still discovering that person. Also, profound and preposterous things happen to us in our daily lives, and you don't know how each other is going to respond. But I suppose, creatively, we are all competitors as well as team mates.
TF: You want to be heard don't you? You think you've got something to add so you want to be heard. Importantly, I think we're all pulling in the same direction, we just might disagree about how to get there.
It's interesting that you're still learning things about each other. Have you learned anything about yourselves specifically in the making of this album?
HT: Absolutely. I mean, there are quite a few songs on this record where it's definitely an act first, think later scenario. I've spoken to quite a few songwriters about this, and sometimes you make a song and then it reveals something about you that has changed your opinion on yourself, or people around you, in a way that has a dramatic effect on your life. And I think there are a few songs like that [on Boy King].
How have your motivations and ambitions changed in that time?
TF: I'm not sure they have.
HT: We're terrible careerists. (Laughs) We – and not by design – have always got it horribly wrong as to what's in fashion. And I'm as nauseous and terrified about the response to this record as I was about the first. The sensation of doing the 'Get My Bang' video was almost identical to the sensation of playing our first show. I was like, "F**k, I thought I'd grown out of feeling like this." And then you realise, no, this means you are doing your job because you're holding your nerve doing things that don't feel good in the every day. I came back from the 'Get My Bang' shoot and had a meltdown for a week. Just like, "What the f**k have I inflicted upon myself and the world? I feel so exposed." But that's the job.
TF: The job is to have the front to stand up and do something. You have to believe it's good.
August 2016


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Carnegie Mellon University is sending two small bipedal robots to the RoboCup 2006 World Championship June 14-18 in Bremen, Germany, to provide color commentary for robot soccer matches — a first for humanoid robots.
The walking robots are perfectly capable of kicking a ball, but in this new application they will instead be moving their heads and bodies to track the soccer ball with their electronic eyes. During the championships, they will provide commentary for matches between teams of four-legged robots that were developed by Sony Corporation.
The silver, 2 1/2-foot-tall robots, named Ami and Sango, will receive wireless input from the Game Controller, the same system that communicates the referee's calls to the four-legged robot players.
The sober Sango and emotional Ami will explain rules from a robot's point of view, identify which team is advancing the ball and dissect fouls for spectators using synthesized voices as well as video monitors that display their commentary in both English and German text.
And though they can't match the vigor of Telemundo's Andrés Cantor and his trademark "GO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OALLLLL!" they will celebrate by pumping their arms or making other gestures when either team scores.
Manuela Veloso, the Herbert Simon Professor of Computer Science and head of Carnegie Mellon's RoboCup teams, said creating a pair of robot commentators — entertaining as Ami and Sango might be — is a challenging technical task that, like robot soccer, demands teamwork.
"From a research point of view, we are trying to solve the observation problem," Veloso said. "We need to map the input from their vision sensors, combined with the wireless information from the Game Controller, into a recognition of the events that are occurring. And then that awareness of events has to be translated into language."
Neither robot can see the entire playing field, so Ami and Sango will share what they see as play proceeds. They also need to coordinate what they say, so they don't repeat or contradict each other.
"They don't talk at the same time," Veloso said. "But if one is explaining a rule and a nice goal is made, the other has the ability to interrupt." Finding ways for robots to work together is a major thrust of Veloso's core research laboratory, CORAL, where robots Cooperate, Observe, Reason, Act and Learn.
The commentary itself requires a degree of intelligence. A goal when the score is tied is much more significant, for instance, than a goal by a team already leading a match 4-0.
"It's a difficult problem because of all these dynamics," Veloso said. "And of course we don't know what's going to be happening in the game."
The robots were developed to expect and respond to a large range of situations. But the team has also included a system called Puppet Master, which allows humans to intervene and prompt Ami and Sango to do or say something if they are not able to autonomously perceive an important event.
The Carnegie Mellon researchers have developed new movements and behaviors for the small bipedal robots, which were developed by Sony, and are exploring possible applications for the watching, walking, talking robots.
RoboCup is an international project to promote artificial intelligence, robotics and related fields through robot soccer competitions, with the ultimate goal of developing humanoid robots capable of beating the human world soccer champions by 2050. Veloso is vice president of the RoboCup Federation. Next year's World Championship will be in Atlanta.
The robot commentator team, CMCast, is one of three teams that Carnegie Mellon is sending to RoboCup this year. CMDragons'06, which took first place at this spring's RoboCup U.S. Open in Atlanta, will compete in the small robot league. CMAssist, led by systems scientist Paul Rybski, will participate in RoboCup@Home, a new league that involves robots working with humans to perform household chores.
For more information on RoboCup 2006, which will attract about 350 teams from 40 countries, visit www.robocup2006.org.
Story Source:
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Manicured Church
Giclée print on Hahnemühle Fine Art Photo Pearl
Suggested framing: light wood, matted
For the last seven years, Eichenbaum has documented her cross-country travels, resulting in The Mother Road series. Her photographic work expands on notions of the veneer; The focus on exterior architecture and curated landscape. Specifically the remnants of the American Southwest, which reveal that a well-maintained façade is crucial to societal survival.
Read about Hayley's love for words, growing up in Milwaukee, and how she amassed her 80 thousand followers on Instagram.


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Temporary Absence
§ 416.1149. What is a temporary absence from your living arrangement.
(a) General. A temporary absence may be due to employment, hospitalization, vacations, or visits. The length of time an absence can be temporary varies depending on the reason for your absence. For purposes of valuing in-kind support and maintenance under §§ 416.1130 through 416.1148, we apply the rules in this section. In general, we will find a temporary absence from your permanent living arrangement if you (or you and your eligible spouse)—
(1) Become a resident of a public institution, or a public or private medical treatment facility where you otherwise would be subject to the reduced benefit rate described in § 416.414, and you are eligible for the benefits payable under § 416.212; or
(2) Were in your permanent living arrangement for at least 1 full calendar month prior to the absence and intend to, and do, return to your permanent living arrangement in the same calendar month in which you (or you and your spouse) leave, or in the next month.
(b) Rules we apply during a temporary absence. During a temporary absence, we continue to value your support and maintenance the same way that we did in your permanent living arrangement. For example, if the one-third reduction applies in your permanent living arrangement, we continue to apply the same rule during a temporary absence. However, if you receive in-kind support and maintenance only during a temporary absence we do not count it since you are still responsible for maintaining your permanent quarters during the absence.
(c) Rules for temporary absence in certain circumstances. (1)(i) If you enter a medical treatment facility where you are eligible for the reduced benefits payable under § 416.414 for full months in the facility, and you are not eligible for either benefit payable under § 416.212 (and you have not received such benefits during your current period of confinement) and you intend to return to your prior living arrangement, we consider this a temporary absence regardless of the length of your stay in the facility. We use the rules that apply to your permanent living arrangement to value any food or shelter you receive during the month (for which reduced benefits under § 416.414 are not payable) you enter or leave the facility. During any full calendar month you are in the medical treatment facility, you cannot receive more than the Federal benefit rate described in § 416.414(b)(1). We do not consider food or shelter provided during a medical confinement to be income.
(ii) If you enter a medical treatment facility and you are eligible for either benefit payable under § 416.212, we also consider this a temporary absence from your permanent living arrangement. We use the rules that apply to your permanent living arrangement to value any food or shelter you receive during the month you enter the facility and throughout the period you are eligible for these benefits. We consider your absence to be temporary through the last month benefits under § 416.212 are paid unless you are discharged from the facility in the following month. In that case, we consider your absence to be temporary through the date of discharge.
(2)(i) Generally, if you are a child under age 22, you are temporarily absent while you are away at school, regardless of how long you are away, if you come home on some weekends, lengthy holidays, and vacations (or for extended visits as provided in school regulations).
(ii) However, if you are a child under age 18, and your permanent living arrangement is with an ineligible parent or essential person (§ 416.222), we follow the rules in § 416.1148(b)(2). When you reach age 18, or if you are under age 18 and deeming does not apply, we consider the circumstances of your permanent living arrangement to value any in-kind support and maintenance you receive.
[45 FR 65547, Oct. 3, 1980, as amended at 50 FR 48575, Nov. 26, 1985; 52 FR 8882, Mar. 20, 1987; 61 FR 10279, Mar. 13, 1996; 62 FR 1056, Jan. 8, 1997; 70 FR 6345, Feb. 7, 2005; 72 FR 50874, Sept. 5, 2007]


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Dominaria United Karn, Living Legacy 100+ Deck Box for Magic: The Gathering
The 100+ Deck Box® features vibrant, full-color artwork from Magic: The Gathering and includes a deck divider. Made with archival-safe, non-PVC, rigid polypropylene materials, you can store up to 100 double-sleeved cards with confidence. The self-locking lid keeps your cards securely stored when not in use, while also offering easy access. Sized for standard size trading cards.
- Officially licensed Deck Box® for Magic: The Gathering Dominaria United
- Features exclusive artwork of Karn, Living Legacy by RK Post and Powerstone Token divider by David Auden Nash
- Holds up to 100 standard size cards double-sleeved
- Made with archival-safe, rigid polypropylene materials for safe storage
- Includes one deck divider
Shipping Info
Shipping Policy
Our employees are taking every precaution when handling orders with utmost safety in mind. Under most circumstances orders will be shipped within 1-3 business days, but there may be delays of up to 3-5 days while we comply with EU COVID-19 restrictions. Please keep in mind this additional handling time when choosing expedited shipping options as we are unable to issue refunds for delays due to COVID.
General Shipping Info:
- Orders ship out of Belgium to most countries in the European Union. Contact Ultra PRO if you have any questions about delivery.
Shipping cost:
- Shipping rates for all other orders are displayed at check out.
Order preparation:
- Please allow for one to three (3) business days, starting from the day after the order was made based on Central European Time, for the order to be prepared and shipped.
- Additionally, please note while we do our best to ship orders as fast as possible, expedited services such as UPS Worldwide Express or DHL Express, does not factor in the handling times mentioned above.
- If we are experiencing a high volume of orders, shipments may be delayed by a few days. Please allow additional days in transit for delivery.
- Please also note that larger orders may take additional handling time.
- We do not ship on Saturdays, Sundays, and any holidays observed by our shipping warehouse including:
- All Saints' Day Tuesday, November 1, 2022
- Armistice Day Friday, November 11, 2022
- Christmas Day Sunday, December 25, 2022
- New Year's Eve Saturday, December 31, 2022
- New Year's Day Sunday, January 1, 2023
Customs, duties and taxes:
- We are not responsible for any customs and taxes applied to your order. All fees imposed during or after shipping are the responsibility of the customer (tariffs, taxes, etc.)
- UK Notice: Be advised that most shipments valued at more than £135 will attract VAT on importation from any country, including the EU. We ship out of Belgium. Orders shipped to the UK may incur duties which are the sole responsibility of the customer. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions about this.
Returns & Refunds
To qualify for a return of merchandise, you must follow the return guidelines set forth in this document and request a return within 30 days from the invoice date for this policy to apply. For a return to be accepted, all of the following must be included:
Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number (instructions in procedure below)
Products are in a new, UNOPENED, and re-sellable condition
Products were purchased from shop.ultrapro.com within 30 days of the claim
NOTE: Products that are returned open, unsellable, or without an RMA are not accepted and will be sent back to the customer and a refund will not be provided.
See our full returns & refund policy here.


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Recently I celebrated with a few other contractors my first official year of being a freelance digital marketer. It's been over a year and I've seen some crazy things happen. The largest one being that I intended to be a freelancer, and now I'm running a virtual digital agency. (Connex pays/represents 5 contractors, I happen to be the salesman, account manager and one of the contractors :)
I try to live my life with no regrets, and I do not regret leaving the best job I've ever had, however the road, the journey this first year has not proved to be easy. I've made many mistakes and my failures have become brighter, louder and more annoying to me.
So if you want some background on me quitting my job last year or the second company I started in the past year check those posts out, or the inspiration for this post, but if you want to know a fraction of the lessons I've learned in my first year read on. [Read more…] about The First Year: Freelance and Agency Digital Marketing


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i have a basemap which was created with arcmap and i want to use it for my application with cached. in my viewport in arcmap there is no any Turkish character problem on it but when i cache my work it makes character problem.
how can i accomplish this subject with settings ?


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DJ Khaled Has a Song Ready for Eminem
DJ Khaled assembled an all-star cast for his latest album We the Best Forever, but there's still one collaboration that has escaped him. The Miami DJ has his sights set on a record with Eminem.
"I wanted Eminem," Khaled told Hot 97's Angie Martinez of his desire to work with the in-demand MC. "I really want to make it happen, I think it's gon' happen."
Despite his ability to get everyone from Mary J. Blige to Cee Lo Green on his records, the Cash Money signee has never approached Eminem's camp about a collaboration. "I never really sat down and talked to him," he added. "I'm a fan of him and I'm cool with him, but he doesn't know me like that. I really don't know what route to get him."
Khaled wants the track to come together organically. "I don't just ask people to get on records. I want people to want to do the records and know I'm gonna make a hit record 'cause that's what I do. I've worked with Jay-Z before, I've worked with Kanye before, so I wanted to reach out to Eminem."
When Em is ready, Khaled already has the song picked out. "I actually have a track waiting," he added. "Ya'll A&R that."
Next up, he plans to shoot a video for his album's R&B offering, "Legendary" featuring Chris Brown, Keyshia Cole, and Ne-Yo.


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History as documentation
It's real easy to argue about the utility, style and implementation of source code comments, those good ole' pals of code that try to add supplementary information when the pure code isn't enough.
However, to focus solely on the latest snapshot of any particular source file is to miss a wealth of information that is not inside the file; namely, the history of the file and the genealogy of every line that graces the file. This is not so relevant when you are rapidly prototyping functionality and versions of the file in source control history represent incomplete, half-baked figments of thought, but once a codebase transitions into a more maintenance-oriented workflow, the history takes on a keen and unusual importance. In particular:
- A log of the evolution of the file over time can illustrate what the original intent of the module was, and then how it got retrofitted or extended or hacked up over time. If you have inherited code from someone else that you need to rearchitect, what better way to get in the heads of the original designers than to study the revisions they went through.
- Any particular line may have simply been part of the ambient code present during the initial check-in, or it may have been touched by a highly targeted commit addressing some issue. In this case, the output of git blame is highly relevant for identifying why that particular line might be special, or why a subtly different permutation is incorrect. In the case of delocalized changes, associating a line with a commit can give you the fast pass to understanding how one operation is orchestrated with many others for some global effect.
Developers should be highly encouraged to write impeccably descriptive commit messages (with the diff in hand: never write a commit message without the diff in hand) for the sake of those who may pick through the logs in the future. It's ok to even be a little wordier than you might be in an inline comment, since:
- Log messages never grow old: they are always relevant to the revision they are attached to!
- A good commit message facilitates code review, since it poses an informal specification of what the change does, which an external observer can then take and verify against the code. Otherwise, the reviewer would have to determine both the intended and actual semantics of the code, stylistic issues aside.
Finally, a few words about keeping the history clean and easy to use:
- Logically organized patch sets mean that any given change is immediately relevant to the log message. If you push a big commit which contains lots of semantic changes, the reader has to disambiguate which particular semantic change is associated with which part of the diff. It is certainly worth your time to git add -p to stage hunks individually.
- Make high quality diffs, which avoid touching unnecessary code. High traffic mailing lists such as LKML which receive many patches have published patch submission guidelines in order to make diffs as readable as possible to a possible reviewer. Even if you don't need to convince a temperamental upstream to take your changes, later in time you may care about your diffs.
- Stylistic changes are highly disruptive the git blame output, since they result in a line being marked as changed even though no semantic difference took place. If you must, they should be strictly alone. Infrequent is best.
- Utilize history rewriting to allow for cheap commits which are polished up later for submission.


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