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Article 820 covers the distribution of television and radio signals via cable. This is in contrast to Art. 810, which covers the distribution of television and radio signals via antenna.
Any installation involving coaxial cables that connect antennas to any of the following must comply with Art. 820:
Television receiving equipment [810.3].
Radio receiving equipment [810.3].
Community television systems (CATV) [810.4].
In these cable applications, CATV coaxial cable delivers low-energy power from a power-limited power supply to equipment associated with the radio frequency distribution system. This occurs at a maximum of 60V from a power supply that has energy-limiting characteristics. Examples of such supplies include boosters, amplifiers, and some splitters [820.15].
Cable installation basics. Install equipment and cabling in a neat and workmanlike manner [820.24]. You can find the industry practices described in ANSI/NECA/BICSI 568, Standard for Installing Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling.
Exposed cables must be supported by the structural components of the building to prevent cable damage due to normal building use. Secure cables with straps, staples, hangers, or similar fittings designed and installed so as not to damage the cable.
Cables run parallel to framing members or furring strips must be protected where they are likely to be penetrated by nails or screws. To provide this protection, you have two options:
Install the cables at least 1¼ inches from the nearest edge of the framing member or furring strips.
Protect the cable with a 1/16-inch-thick steel plate [300.4(D)].
You must securely fasten raceways that contain coaxial cables in place. Don't use ceiling-support wires or the ceiling grid to support raceways or cables (Fig. 1). You can, however, support raceways and cables with independent support wires attached to the suspended ceiling per 300.11(A).
Remove the accessible portion of cable that isn't terminated at equipment (and not identified for future use with a tag). This rule doesn't require the removal of concealed cables that are abandoned in place. A cable in a raceway is concealed (per the Art. 100 definition). If you run cables through fire-resistant-rated walls, partitions, floors, or ceilings, make sure you firestop them [820.3(A)].
Overhead cables. Don't attach coaxial cables to a mast that encloses or supports power and lighting conductors [820.44(C)]. Separate the coaxial cable at least 4 inches from electric light and power conductors. Where practicable, maintain a separation of at least 6 feet between coaxial cables and lightning protection conductors [820.44(F)(3)].
Underground circuits entering buildings. Underground coaxial cables in a pedestal or handhole enclosure must be in a section permanently separated from exposed electric light, power, or Class 1 circuit conductors by a suitable barrier [820.47].
Run direct-buried coaxial cable at least 12 inches from underground light, power, or Class 1 circuit conductors (Fig. 2). You don't need to separate underground coaxial cables from service conductors, if the service conductors or coaxial cables are installed in a raceway or cable armor. You don't need to separate underground coaxial cables from feeder or branch-circuit power conductors, if the power conductors are installed in a raceway or in metal-sheathed, metal-clad, UF, or USE cables, or the coaxial cables have metal cable armor or are installed in a raceway.
Grounding methods. When grounding the shield of the coaxial cable, use an insulated grounding conductor made of copper or other corrosion-resistant conductive material [820.100]. The conductor can't be smaller than 14 AWG. It doesn't have to be larger than 6 AWG, but it must have a current-carrying capacity equal to that of the outer conductor. Make it as short as practicable, and run it as straight as practicable.
In one- and two-family dwellings, limit the grounding conductor length to 20 feet unless such a limitation just isn't practicable. If you need more than a 20-foot length, then you also have to install a separate ground rod that's at least 8 feet long [820.100(A)(4) Ex.]. Bond the rod to the power grounding electrode system with a minimum 6 AWG conductor [820.100(D)] (Fig. 3). If you don't bond the rod to the main system, you create a difference of potential and a flashover hazard.
If you run the grounding conductor in a metal raceway, bond each end to the raceway. This, like bonding that electrode, eliminates differences of potential.
The grounding conductor must terminate to the nearest accessible point or item from the list below:
Grounding electrode system [250.50].
Interior metal water piping system, within 5 feet from its point of entrance [250.52(A)(1)].
Accessible service bonding means [250.94].
Metallic service raceway.
Service equipment enclosure.
Grounding electrode conductor or associated metal enclosure.
The grounding electrode conductor or grounding electrode of a building disconnecting means that is grounded per 250.32.
Indoor cables. If you run coaxial cables in Chapter 3 raceway, comply with Chapter 3 installation requirements for the wiring method. If you use nonmetallic raceways listed for coaxial cables, comply with 820.182. Never use a raceway as a support for cables. Cables can go in a raceway; they can't be hung from one.
To prevent a fire or shock hazard that could occur from a short between higher-voltage circuits and coaxial cable, keep these conductors and coaxial cable separated. You'll find specific rules and exceptions in 820.133.
Don't install coaxial cables in ducts or plenums [820.3(B)], unless the cables run to equipment used for direct action upon (or sensing of) the contained air. If you do run coaxial cables into ducts or plenums, install them in electrical metallic tubing, intermediate metal conduit, or rigid metal conduit [300.22(B)]. Plenum rated coaxial can never be run in a duct or plenum without one of these metallic raceways.
You can install plenum-rated Type CATVP cables [820.179(A)] above a suspended ceiling or below a raised floor that is used for environmental air [300.22(C)]. Nonplenum-rated Type CATV cables can be installed in these spaces if installed in a metallic raceway type listed in 300.22(C)(1).
If coaxial cables run vertically and penetrate more than one floor, they must be Type CATVR [820.179(B)] or Type CATVP [820.179(A)], unless you run them in metal raceway. You can install Type CATVP, CATVR, and CATV coaxial cables in a cable tray [820.154(C)].
Listings. Are you installing cables in areas that move or transport environmental air? Pay close attention to installation requirements. If these seem confusing, just remember that the NEC is trying to reduce the hazards that arise from the burning of conductor insulation, the jackets of cables, and nonmetallic raceways.
Because listed plenum-rated cables have adequate fire-resistant and low smoke-producing characteristics, you can install them exposed in environmental air spaces. You cannot install exposed cable in ducts or plenums for any reason.
Article 820 provides four designations for listed coaxial cable types [820/179]:
CATV. The letters stand for "Community Antenna Television," and this is your basic, general-purpose cable.
CATVP. The P is for plenum.
CATVR. The R is for riser.
CATVX. This is a limited-use cable for dwellings and in raceway.
Article 820 provides three designations for listed coaxial raceway types [820.182]:
General-purpose coaxial raceway. These can contain CATV, CATVX, CATVR, or CATVP cables.
Plenum coaxial raceway. These are listed for use in other spaces used for environmental air spaces and must contain only Type CATVP cable [820.179(A)]. Plenum coaxial raceways cannot be installed in ducts or plenums [300.22(B)]
Riser coaxial raceway. These are listed as being suitable to be run vertically through more than one floor. If they run vertically and penetrate more than one floor, they can contain only CATVR and CATVP cables [820.179(B)].
Article 820 can seem a bit abstract, especially if you have been working in Chapters 1 through 4 and are just now entering the world of communications installations. But when you examine Art. 820 carefully, you can see that it doesn't tell you anything you don't already know about installation practices. For example, you've got to bond metallic parts to prevent flashover — that's an Art. 250 fundamental. You also need to use the correct cable and raceway, which is something Chapter 3 veterans already know how to do.
Still, Art. 820 does contain some specifics that you should review to make sure you do the job right. If you remember to use the same general concepts you've already been applying in traditional electrical work, these specifics will easily make sense to you.
Sidebar: 820 Tips
- Determine the "point of entrance."
- Ground the incoming cable as close as practicable to the point of entrance.
- If you run cables above a suspended ceiling, route and support them to allow access via ceiling panel removal.
- If you use a separate grounding electrode, bond it to the power grounding system.
- Use the correct cable type and raceway for the application — general, plenum, or riser.


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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A delegation of well known athletes, sporting goods manufacturers, sports retailers, concerned citizens and association leaders will visit Capitol Hill to lobby Congress for continued funding of daily PE classes in our nation's schools for National PE Day on May 3 in Washington, D.C.
This alliance will walk the halls of Congress campaigning for the Carol M. White Physical Education for Progress Bill, which provides grants to local school districts to purchase equipment and hire/train teachers for innovative physical education programs. This consortium is pushing Congress to pass this bill for $70 million to $100 million to continue this program. The group plans meetings with nearly 100 U.S. Senators and Representatives in Washington.
Some of the people in this delegation will include former Heisman Trophy winners Herschel Walker and Tim Brown; NFL Hall of Fame tight end Kellen Winslow and ex-NFL quarterback Archie Manning; and former Boston Celtics superstar center Bill Russell. Other sports celebrities scheduled to appear include current women's tennis pro Jennifer Capriati, George Mason head basketball coach Jim Larranaga, Major League Soccer player Alecko Eskandarian, NFL wide receiver Antwaan Randle-El, U.S. women's national soccer team member Tiffany Roberts, WNBA star Alana Beard (Washington Mystics), boxer Peter Manfredo, Jr. and former WNBA player Jennifer Azzi.
In fiscal year 2001, the PEP Bill was approved for $5 million. In fiscal year 2002, Congress allotted $50 million; $60 million in fiscal year 2003; $70 million in fiscal year 2004; $73.4 million in fiscal year 2005; and $72.7 million in fiscal year 2006. PE4life and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association organized the day.

subset: commoncrawl


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They have attracted 1,000 young men from around the world who are now fighting on their side. This ISIS is metastasizing throughout region, and their goal, as they've stated openly time after time, is the destruction of United States of America. —Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
WASHINGTON — Islamic militants' growing influence in Iraq and Syria is a threat to Americans, lawmakers from both political parties agreed Sunday even as they sharply disagreed on what role the United States should play in trying to crush them.
President Barack Obama last week approved limited airstrikes against Islamic State fighters, whose rapid rise in June plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since the end of 2011, when U.S. troops withdrew from the country at the end of an eight-year unpopular war. Obama said the current military campaign would be a "long-term project" to protect civilians from the deadly and brutal insurgents.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the militants threaten not just Iraqis but also Americans. He said Obama's strikes were insufficient to turn back the militants and were designed "to avoid a bad news story on his watch."
"I think of an American city in flames because of the terrorists' ability to operate in Syria and in Iraq," said Graham, a reliable advocate for using U.S. military force overseas.
"They are coming here," Graham later added about the militants. "This is just not about Baghdad. This is just not about Syria. It is about our homeland."
Graham added that if Islamic State militants attack the United States because Obama "has no strategy to protect us, he will have committed a blunder for the ages."
The rhetoric tracked closely to that used in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, lawmakers from both parties voted to give President George W. Bush the authority to take military action against Iraq in the hopes of combating terrorism.
At the time, many said the United States faced a choice of fighting terrorism on American soil or on foreign soil.
A close White House ally, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said Islamic State fighters are a "growing and troublesome" threat. But he added, "We must not send the troops."
"The big question is: What can the United States do to stop it?" Durbin asked.
American airstrikes have included fighter pilots and drones near Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, as recently as Sunday. The strikes are aimed at limiting Islamic State fighters' advances and helping Iraqi forces regain control. U.S. and Iraqi aircraft also have dropped humanitarian aid for the minority Yazidis, thousands of whom have been stranded on a scorching mountaintop since the Islamic militants seized Sinjar, near the Syrian border, last week.
A breakdown in talks between Washington and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that would have allowed U.S. troops to remain in Iraq collapsed in 2008, and Obama withdrew troops in 2011 after eight years of war.
Al-Maliki now is under mounting pressure to step aside, including from U.S. lawmakers.
"The collapse of Mosul was not a result of lack of equipment or lack of personnel. It was a leadership collapse," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "And so in order to put the situation right, we have to begin at the fundamental core, which is leadership in Baghdad, Iraqi leadership."
Critics say the Shiite leader contributed to the crisis by monopolizing power and pursuing a sectarian agenda that alienated the country's Sunni and Kurdish minorities.
The Islamic State group, which some lawmakers refer to as ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is "getting stronger all the time," warned Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
"They have attracted 1,000 young men from around the world who are now fighting on their side," McCain added. "This ISIS is metastasizing throughout region, and their goal, as they've stated openly time after time, is the destruction of United States of America."
Lawmakers from both parties largely agreed that a war-weary America has little appetite to send military forces back to Iraq.
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said Iraqis need to handle their domestic security.
"There is not a U.S. military solution to this issue," Cardin said.
"We will not become the Iraqi air force," he added. "I don't think we can take out ISIS from a military point of view, from the use of our air strikes."
But Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said popular opinion should not drive national security decisions.
"I am saying we should do whatever we have to do," King said.
Graham and Cardin spoke to "Fox News Sunday." Durbin and King appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." Reed was interviewed on CBS' "Face the Nation." McCain was a guest on CNN's "State of the Union."
Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott


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zh-CN:Thunar Template:Article summary start Template:Article summary text Template:Article summary heading Template:Article summary wiki: Thunar is installed with a nominal installation of xfce4. Template:Article summary text. Template:Article summary end
Thunar is a file manager that is designed to be fast, lightweight, and easy-to-use. A standard installation of xfce4 will contain Thunar, but it can be used with other standalone window managers.
- 1 Installation
- 2 Automounting
- 3 Thunar Volume Manager
- 4 Tips and Tricks
- 5 Other plugins and addons
- 6 Custom actions
- 7 Links and References
Install the thunar package which is available in the official repositories.
If you are running Xfce4, you probably already have Thunar installed.
Thunar uses gvfs for automounting, see GVFS for details on getting it working.
Thunar Volume Manager
While Thunar can support automatic mounting and unmounting of removable media, the Thunar Volume Manager allows extended functionality, such as automatically running commands or automatically opening a Thunar window for mounted media.
Thunar Volume Manager can be installed from the package thunar-volman in the official repositories.
It can also be configured to execute certain actions when cameras and audio players are connected. After installing the plugin:
- Launch Thunar and go to Edit -> Preferences
- Under the 'Advanced' tab, check 'Enable Volume Management'
- Click configure and check the following items:
- Mount removable drives when hot-pluged.
- Mount removable media when inserted.
- Also make desired changes (see the example below)
Here's an example setting for making Amarok play an audio CD.
Multimedia - Audio CDs:
amarok --cdplay %d
Tips and Tricks
Using Thunar to browse remote locations
Since Xfce 4.8 (Thunar 1.2) it is possible to browse remote locations (such as FTP servers or Samba shares) directly in Thunar, similar to the functionality found in GNOME and KDE. The gvfs and gvfs-smb packages are required to enable this functionality. Both packages are available in the official repositories.
After a restart of Xfce an additional "Network" entry is added to Thunar's side bar and remote locations can be opened by using the following URI schemes in the location dialog (opened with Template:Keypress): smb://, ftp://, ssh://
Starting in Daemon Mode
Thunar may be run in daemon mode. This has several advantages, including a faster startup for Thunar, as well as Thunar running in the background and only opening a window when necessary (for instance, when a flash drive is inserted).
One option is to autostart it using
.xinitrc or an autostart script (such as Openbox's
autostart). It is up to you to decide the best way to start it, and this option can be run from a script or run directly as a command in the terminal.
To run Thunar in daemon mode, simply add to your autostart script or run from the terminal:
$ thunar --daemon &
Setting the Icon Theme
When using Thunar outside of Gnome or Xfce, certain packages and configurations that control which icons are used may be missing. Window Managers like Awesome and Xmonad do not come with XSettings managers, which is where Thunar looks first for it's icon setting. It is possible to install and run xfce-mcs-manager from a startup script if many Xfce4 and Gnome applications are going to be used. The gtk-icon-theme-name setting for gtk2 can be set for a user by adding something like the following to
gtk-icon-theme-name = "Tango"
Of course, just installing the gnome-icon-theme package will give Thunar an icon theme to use other than the default paper icon for all items.
# pacman -S gnome-icon-theme
Solving problem with slow cold start
Some people still have problems with Thunar taking a long time to start for the first time. This is due to gvfs checking the network, preventing Thunar from starting until gvfs finishes its operations. To change this behaviour, edit
/usr/share/gvfs/mounts/network.mount and change AutoMount=true to AutoMount=false.
Other plugins and addons
Many of these plugins are part of the xfce4-goodies group, so if you have downloaded it, you will probably have all of these anyway.
Thunar Archive Plugin
The Thunar Archive Plugin is a frontend to file archive software such as File Roller, Ark, or Xarchiver to allow a simple, consistent interface to opening and decompressing archives.
It can be installed by running:
# pacman -S thunar-archive-plugin
Thunar Media Tags Plugin
The media tags plugin will display detailed information about media files. It supports ID3 (the MP3 file format's system) and Ogg/Vorbis tags. It also has a bulk renamer and allows editing of media tags.
It can be installed by running:
# pacman -S thunar-media-tags-plugin
Thunar thumbnails
Thunar relies on an external program called tumbler to generate thumbnails. tumbler can be installed from the official repositories.
# pacman -S tumbler
To generate video thumbnails, you have to install additional programs. There are two options.
First, you can install ffmpegthumbnailer.
# pacman -S ffmpegthumbnailer
Second, you can install gstreamer and gst-libav, just in case ffmpegthumbnailer doesn't work.
# pacman -S gstreamer # pacman -S gst-libav
The Thunar Shares Plugin allows you to quickly share a folder using Samba from Thunar without requiring root access.
Install thunar-shares-plugin package from the AUR.
This marks the named objects for automatic export to the environment of subsequently executed commands:
# export USERSHARES_DIR="/var/lib/samba/usershares" # export USERSHARES_GROUP="sambashare"
This creates the usershares directory in var/lib/samba:
# mkdir -p ${USERSHARES_DIR}
This makes the group sambashare:
# groupadd ${USERSHARES_GROUP}
This changes the owner of the directory and group you just created to root:
# chown root:${USERSHARES_GROUP} ${USERSHARES_DIR}
This changes the permissions of the usershares directory so that users in the group sambashare can read, write and execute files:
# chmod 01770 ${USERSHARES_DIR}
Using your favorite text editor as root, create the file
# joe /etc/samba/smb.conf
Use this
smb.conf configuration file:
##This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the ##smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed ##here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options (perhaps too ##many!) most of which are not shown in this example ## ##For a step to step guide on installing, configuring and using samba, ## read the Samba-HOWTO-Collection. This may be obtained from: ## http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf ## ## Many working examples of smb.conf files can be found in the ## Samba-Guide which is generated daily and can be downloaded from: ## http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-Guide.pdf ## ## Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash) ## is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a # ## for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you ## may wish to enable ## ## NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command "testparm" ## to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors. ## #[global] # workgroup = WORKGROUP # security = share # server string = My Share # load printers = yes # log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log # max log size = 50 # usershare path = /var/lib/samba/usershares # usershare max shares = 100 # usershare allow guests = yes # usershare owner only = False # # # #Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section: # # #WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it's WINS Server #; wins support = yes # ## WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client ## Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both #; wins server = w.x.y.z # ##WINS Proxy - Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on ## behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be ## at least one WINS Server on the network. The default is NO. #; wins proxy = yes
Save the file and then add your user to the group sambashares replacing "your_username" with the name of your user:
# usermod -a -G ${USERSHARES_GROUP} your_username
Restart Samba:
# /etc/rc.d/samba restart
Log out and log back in. You should now be able to right click on any directory and share it on the network.
When the error
You are not the owner of the folder appears, simply try to reboot the system.
To have samba start at boot, add samba to daemons in your
/etc/rc.conf file.
For more information, visit the Samba wiki page.
Custom actions
This section covers useful custom actions which can be accessed through Edit -> Configure custom actions. More examples are listed in the thunar wiki.
Scan for viruses
To use this action you need to have clamav and clamtk installed.
|File patterns
|Appears if selection contains
|Scan for virus
|clamtk %F
|Select all
Link to Dropbox
|File patterns
|Appears if selection contains
|Link to Dropbox
|ln -s %f /path/to/DropboxFolder
|Directories, other files
Please note that when using many custom actions to symlink files and folder to a particular place, it might be useful to put them into the
Send To folder of the context menu to avoid that the menu itself gets bloated. This is fairly easy to achieve and requires a .desktop file in
~/.local/share/Thunar/sendto for each action to perform. Say we want to put the above dropbox symlink action into Send To, we create a
dropbox_folder.desktop with the following content. The new applied action will be active after restarting Thunar.
[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Version=1.0 Encoding=UTF-8 Exec=ln -s %f /path/to/DropboxFolder Icon=/usr/share/icons/dropbox.png Name=Dropbox
Links and References
- Thunar project page.
- Thunar Volume Manager project page.
- Thunar Archive Plugin project page.
- Thunar Media Tags Plugin project page.
- Thunar Shares Plugin project page.
- This list of plugins.


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Lee-similar story. About a year ago I played a down under round with a large group and then got engaged in some enthralling conversation with two people the entire walk back to my car in the main lot. I got in and started to drive off. I got to the Rosedale exit and was waiting to make the right turn onto mission when the alarm went off in my head. Where the F*CK is Sophie?! As I frantically turned around Brian Palmer called my cell and was like "um dude, are you stlll here your dog is wandering around with a bunch of us up top on #7". Having walked up from down under I would have had no idea where to start looking for her had BP not called me, despite the fact I only abandoned her for about 10 minutes. I had no idea if she followed me partially to the car or not at all-she is usually at my heels or nearby. I felt awful. Needless to say everytime I leave the course now I look back in my backseat like three times to make sure she is there. I'm glad this story ended happily, and big props to Jose and BJ for lovin' that cooter! And a big thanks to BP for calling me that day-I'm sure I thanked you but I don't think I expressed how grateful I was/am!
Everyone else who moves the baskets apparently only know how to move them shorter, so I only move them long. Good night for league. Shannon Carson hit an ace then won in a one-hole playoff on the hole he had aced. Pretty sweet.Scores and details later.
Palmer, you could have had a chance to show off all that new found distance you've been talking about!


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This article offers advice on selecting the appropriate digitizing software for your embroidery operation.
By Ed Levy
Digitizing, as it relates to embroidery, is the process of creating or transforming artwork into stitches for use on an embroidery machine. The digitizer scans or imports artwork and is then faced with several important software-related decisions before the artwork can move along to the production stage.
Digitizing software comes in many shapes and sizes and varies according to cost and functionality. Such an assortment of software options often leads to great confusion among prospective buyers and opens up several very important questions. This article will describe what digitizing software does and how it works and will examine important features and the role the software plays in the embroidery workflow.
What is digitizing?
Developing an understanding of the digitizing process is a key part of selecting the right software for your business. We can break digitizing down into five stages.
Stage 1: the thought process The thought process is one of the most important parts of digitizing. It's the stage where the digitizer plans the design elements, color sequence, and travel path. If six different digitizers were to complete this process, you would most likely see six different sets of choices. The design elements include determining what types of stitches to use on the various objects within the design. The color sequence is the order of colors from the start of the design until the end. The travel path determines which objects to sew first and how the machine moves from one shape to the next in the most efficient manner. The travel path is very important because a design without an efficient travel path increases the amount of production time to complete the actual embroidery. The thought process is essentially the creation of a blueprint for the design. Imagine a builder who shows up without any plans and just starts hammering nails into random wood. The end result is far less than desirable. Eliminating the thought process leads to the same undesirable outcome.
Stage 2: scan/import The second stage of digitizing is the scanning or importing phase. The digitizer either places the image in a scanner and creates a digital representation of it on screen or imports a previously scanned or digitally created art image from a file.
Did you enjoy this article? Click here to subscribe to the magazine.


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This is a must-play, so beautiful and so well made! Love the music, the story. This is more a piece of art than a game, everything about it is awesome.
Some snow
This dlc for Cities: skylines adds snow based theme maps to the game. Note that although weather is also added to the game from this, snow only falls on the maps that were released with this game's dlc. On all other maps, only fog and rain will fall. Buy on sale.


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Times Square, Wall Street, the Empire State Building ... and Broadway. All these have helped shape New York City's image as a leader in finance, entertainment, and the arts, but it is the theatres in Broadway and off-Broadway that attract millions every year looking to pursue their passion for acting and the performing arts.
You might envision actors and theatre directors in New York as part of the swirling glitterati -- the rich and famous who go on to land a career in film or perform in stage plays around the world. But the reality is often quite different. As one New York actor put it, prepare yourself to "live in a studio apartment with three roommates, and find work as a waiter."
Education & Training
Formal training in a university or conservatory is typical for actors. Many actors, producers, directors, and theatre managers hold degrees in theatre management, or in arts or nonprofit management.
Some actors and performers go on to pursue a master's degrees in fine arts (MFAs), which would include courses in stage speech and movement, directing, playwriting, and design, and intensive acting workshops. The National Association of Schools of Theatre accredits over 150 programs in theater arts.
Film and Photography schools in New York »


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Nicaragua Travel Guide
Nicaragua Summary
- Lush rainforests
- Beautiful white-sand beaches on both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts
- Diverse wildlife, including howler monkeys and spider monkeys
- Spanish Colonial sights in Leon and Granada
- Mountainous areas with cloud forests, coffee plantations, and cool climate
- Big, beautiful lakes; Lake Nicaragua is massive -- about the same size as the country of Puerto Rico
- Ometepe, an island in Lake Nicaragua with small beach resorts and two volcanic peaks
- Low crime and friendly locals
- Numerous cigar factories, some offering tours
- Handful of luxury resorts in the Rivas region
- Very poor country
- Some roads need improvement
- No non-stop flights to Managua from New York City, Los Angeles, or San Francisco (though there are non-stop flights to Liberia Airport in Costa Rica, a 2-hour drive to Nicaragua's Rivas region)
- Granada: Historic Spanish Colonial city on Lake Nicaragua with notable churches and lively festivals; within a 30-minute drive of Mombacho Volcano
- Leon: Rivals Granada for both Spanish Colonial history and tourist attention; home to the largest cathedral in Central America
- San Juan Del Sur: Popular coastal town with lively nightlife and colossal Christ of Mercy statue; part of the Rivas region, which has numerous excellent white-sand beaches
- Matagalpa: One of Nicaragua's major commercial centers; located in a mountainous region with cool climate, coffee plantations, and eco lodges
- Ometepe: An island in Lake Nicaragua with small beach resorts and two volcanic peaks
- Esteli: Major cigar-producing center
- Masaya: Popular craft market and important producer of Nicaraguan handicrafts (especially ceramics)
- Catarina: Has a great viewpoint overlooking Laguna de Apoyo and Granada; one of the "Pueblos Blancos" (White Towns) in the region, so-called because the buildings and streets were once limestone-white
- Caribbean Coast: Gorgeous beaches and islets, including Pearl Cays and Big Corn Island; more relaxed and less touristed than the Pacific Coast
- Managua: The country's capital, where the airport is located
What It's Like
Nicaragua is still a diamond in the rough. It offers many of the same splendors that draw travelers to its neighbor to the south, Costa Rica -- lush rainforest, beautiful white-sand beaches, volcanoes, and rich wildlife -- but it's a much poorer country and it shows. However, it seems to be on a similar trajectory as Costa Rica was in terms of its growth as a tourism destination: It is already popular with the backpacker and adventure travel crowd, just as Costa Rica was before it saw an explosion of resort development. The handful of luxury resorts in Nicaragua are proof that the upscale travel market here is already emerging, and Mukul, the super-exclusive property that opened in February 2013, is helping to bring the country into the international spotlight.
Those planning a getaway to Central America should note that there are a few advantages to traveling to Nicaragua over Costa Rica. Nicaragua has much more Spanish Colonial history and charm, with historic churches and plazas in the towns of Granada and Leon. Because it is relatively undiscovered compared to Costa Rica, it also offers a more authentic experience -- visitors might see locals riding horses and carts through the streets, fruit stands selling unripe mangoes and jocotes (tart snacks popular among the Nicaraguans), and one of the country's many lively street festivals. Plus, prices for just about everything, including food and transportation, tend to be far cheaper.
Many travelers associate Nicaragua with the Sandinista Revolution and Contra War, and are hesitant to travel to the country because of its violent past. But today, Nicaragua has a warm, welcoming attitude toward tourists and low crime statistics; according to the country's tourism board, it is the safest country in Central America.
Where To Stay
Most tourists will flock the beachfront resorts in the Rivas region of Nicaragua, where the laid-back party town of San Juan Del Sur is located. The Caribbean coast also has impressive beaches but is less developed. Those interested in Spanish Colonial sights and history should consider brief stops in Granada or Leon.


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Nov. 28, 2010-Racing Back to Port Louis
Sailing again
I thought the La Bourdonnais Challenge was just a fun race to a bar in Port Louis, not too much competition, just some fun, like the old days when we raced to Chung Chow Island for lunch with the Discovery Bay Yacht Club in Hong Kong. Perfect for just Judy & I to sail.
So we entered.
But this event was a pretty big deal for the Grand Bay Yacht Club, nearly everyone turned out including the media and the party at the LaBourdonnais Hotel was fantastic. So, by joining, we stumbled into a good thing.
However, on the morning of the race it was soon clear that the racing was going to be very competitive. Aboard each of the race boats crews were switching kevlar for dacon and scrubbing the bottoms. We also found out that the start was going to be tricky being in close quarters inside Grand Bay and also inside the reef where the channel depths only allow us to clear at certain times. At the time of the start we'd have about 6" under our keel.
So we skipped the start, motored out early, then hoisted the sails and joined the fleet at the first mark, and sailed along just for the fun of it; not offically part of the race.
We took it easy, real easy, no spinnaker, no big jib. We didn't need more sail area to get there with the fleet; it was windy, quite gusty actually, and we sailed fast. And even with just a #4 and a main we were busy the whole way. I had my camera on deck but took no photos until we got to the finish and rafted up with the other boats.
For other photos from the photographer, click here to go to pascal mamet photography.
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Rafted with the racing fleet
Nice party on the lawn, nice awards giving like all yacht clubs awards givings, a very nice dinner, and through it all, lots of sailing talk. And even though we didn't get scored with the racers we got some recognition as the "Fred & Judy, on the boat from the US, who were joining today" and a big applause. We enjoyed ourselves.
And it got us back to Port Louis where we will stay for a few weeks.
Until we sail somewhere else.
Click here for more photos from the raft-up
Click here to see the log book pages of our sailing trips in November 2010
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius
Labels: Mauritius, Port Louis, racing


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Indicative Rate * AU$165 to AU$280
Picture yourself sitting in a claw foot bathtub, enjoying the sweet essence of an argan oil infused warm bath, listening to the sounds of nature, indulging in your favourite glass of wine, and looking onto lush green undulating hills.
You've have just imagined yourself at the beautiful Mango Tree Cottage near Pottsville Beach. At the Cottage, you get a mixture of both the peacefulness that is associated with rural life, as well as the coastal small town feel coupled with white sandy beaches and waterways that is a staple in this area. They have everything you need to unwind, relax, and recharge yourself, including complimentary organic personal care products, fluffy bathrobes, bath salts and gel that will make you want to soak for days.
There is a log fire (with wood provided) to use on those cold wintery nights, heaps of DVDs free to watch as well as boardgames should you want to make it a movie/home entertainment night.
There are two bedrooms plus sunroom - 25 minutes to Byron, 20 minutes to Coolangatta Airport, 1.5 hours from Brisbane.
Come and experience it for yourself!
Kids, pet, and wheelchair friendly!
A virtual tour is available on the website.
The master bedroom has sliding doors to the deck and an en suite with claw foot bath. Second bedroom has the option of two king singles or a king size bed. A sofa bed for extra guests is provided in the sunroom. The cottage comes equipped with a washing machine and dryer.
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Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez have a new seat partner on the American Idol judging panel.
E! News can confirm that music producer Dr. Luke has officially signed on as the third judge for the Fox reality show.
Rumors that the musician, real name Lukasz Gottwald, was "close to signing" for the spot began hitting the Internet earlier this week, after it was revealed that Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am turned down the gig.
VIDEO: Ryan Secreast promises the new American Idol judges will be revealed "soon"
It was reported that will.i.am turned down the Idol job to return as a coach on The Voice U.K. for season three.
Regardless, Dr. Luke's got some pretty awesome chart-toppers under his belt, making him a great addition to the show.
The songwriter-producer is responsible for hits such as Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone", Kesha's "Tik Tok" and Katy Perry's "California Gurls."
Are you excited to see Dr. Luke joing the judging panel?!
--Reporting by Marc Malkin
PHOTOS: American Idol: All-Time Greatest Hits


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Everton beat West Brom 2-1 at Goodison, both goals from Leighton Baines
Everton continued their good form after beating West Brom 2-1 at Goodison Park, with two goals from Leighton Baines.
By Follow me @danielstorey85
Last Updated: 30/01/13 10:12pm
Baines was the best player on show as he linked impressively with Steven Pienaar all evening, scoring a rocket from the edge of the area and then converting a penalty before Shane Long pulled one back.
However, Everton held on and have now lost just one of their last 11 games, whilst the Baggies continue their slump and drop to ninth in the table.
The game's first chance came after 16 minutes in bizarre circumstances when Victor Anichebe overran the ball and slid in on the defender, his tackle sending the ball inches over the bar.
Three minutes later Marouane Fellaini, who was operating in a deeper role than recently, hit the post. A long ball was nodded down by Sylvain Distin, and the Belgian turned his man before firing at the angle of post and bar.
By now, Everton were in complete control of the game, but it took a switch in tactics from David Moyes to make the difference. He switched Kevin Mirallas to the right wing, allowing Pienaar to link up with Baines.
It took until just before the half-hour mark before the goal came, Baines powering forward and hitting a rocket into the top corner, which Ben Foster could only get a hand to.
In added time before the break following a serious-looking injury to George Thorne, Everton doubled their lead. Substitute Claudio Yacob bundled over Anichebe in the box, and Baines slotted home the penalty, sending Foster the wrong way.
After a quiet start to the second half Everton had two chances in a minute on the hour. First Mirallas forced Foster into a diving stop, and then from the resultant corner Pienaar shot straight at the England keeper.
Long was introduced by Steve Clarke, and he had an almost instant impact. Romelu Lukaku rounded Tim Howard and his shot was inexplicably mis-controlled by Johnny Heitinga, allowing Long to head home.
Less than three minutes later, West Brom almost equalised when Graham Dorrans hit the bar with a free kick.
Everton felt that they deserved a penalty when Anichebe was tugged down. Pienaar forced Foster to tip over a free kick, and then Leon Osman was guilty of a woeful miss after the ball rebounded off the post from Pienaar's deflected effort but it mattered little when the final whistle came.


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Recent events in South Africa indicate that the former power is already on the well-trodden path that has led numerous African countries into ruin.
For the past one week, poverty-stricken South Africans in the townships have gone on the rampage against immigrants from other African countries. The South Africans blame Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Kenyans for their woes in an environment of high unemployment and violent crime. Though few Kenyans have been affected so far, there are fears that the violence could spiral out of control.
The political leadership in South Africa does not provide much hope. President Thabo Mbeki has become a lame duck president as his presidency comes to a close. The country's social, economic and political institutions are in a state of limbo as the curtains draw to a close after 10 years of Thabo Mbeki leadership. Actually, Mr Mbeki had been the de facto leader of government during Nelson Mandela's presidency between 1994 and 1999. At his age, Mandela had decided not to get too involved in the intricacies of government. Today, Mr Mbeki is seen as tired, authoritarian and out of touch with the realities facing his people.
Thabo Mbeki (left) and Jacob Zuma (right). Pictures by Afrol News (left) and Ligali Corporation.
Next year, the man expected to take over from President Mbeki is the current head of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma. Mr Zuma is currently facing corruption allegations that forced him out of the country's Vice Presidency some few years ago.
Mr Zuma has been acquitted of raping a HIV positive woman who happened to be a family friend. The woman is young enough to be Mr Zuma's daughter. During his trial, Zuma said that the lady had dressing in a manner suggesting that, "she wanted sex." According to Zuma, it was against his Zulu culture to, "leave a woman without satisfying her." The woman denied that she had behaved suggestively.
Questioned on whether he was not afraid of getting infected with HIV, Mr Zuma testified that he took a shower afterwards.
Mr Zuma is a flamboyant, polygamous character who has been known to marry several women within the space of a few months. Mr Zuma is prone to populist statement. After winning the African National Conference (ANC) leadership, Mr Zuma told his supporters to get ready to pick arms to fight for greater opportunity in a South African economy still dominated by whites. The comments were widely criticized but could be responsible for today's blood-letting.
Until the 1990s, South Africa was the leading military and economic power in Africa. The country's intelligence was much feared and ranked alongside Israel's Mossad in efficiency and ruthlessness. South Africa's army and police forces inflicted huge losses on liberation movements throughout the Southern African region. It is reputed that South Africa may have been behind the death of Mozambican President Samora Machel in a plane crash in 1988. President Machel had succeeded in ousting the Portuguese from Mozambique and was a leading figure in the fight against Apartheid in South Africa. By a twist of irony, his wife Graca Machel is now married to South Africa's first black president, Nelson Mandela.
South Africa energy companies distributed power to most of the Southern African countries, including the very countries that supplied the power in the first place! South African businesses can be seen throughout the African continent in the form of retail chains, fast food outlets, newspapers, communications companies and beer manufacturers. South Africa's sea, airports and railways were reputed for their efficiency. South African Airways was number one in Africa. South Africa excelled in sports
South Africa was a leading innovator in Africa. Its SASOL firm converts coal into petroleum. At one time, South Africa was said to be developing nuclear weapons with the help of its ally, Israel.
Today, South Africa's reputation is spoken about in the past tense.
According to the book, "The State of Africa" by Martin Meredith, South Africa continues to face daunting problems. Despite economic growth, unemployment rates stand at more than 40%. The number of job seekers continues to out pace the growth in jobs. In some rural areas, unemployment is as high as 95% with a dozen people surviving on the old age pension of one relative.
Millions of people live in squatter camps or informal settlements, enduring abject poverty with little or no sanitation, clean water or power and no visible means of support. In all, at least 18 million people live without any sanitation; 5 million lack safe water supplies; and 7 million struggle below the national poverty line. Crime for many is the only means to survive resulting in one of the highest crime rates in the world. Less than 10 million South Africans earn a regular wage in the formal economy out of a population of about 46 million. The rest face what Meredith calls, "a precarious existence."
South Africa's military and intelligence services are decaying, its professional ranks diluted by the deluge of fighters from liberation movements. Most of them only had elementary military training but the agreements ending apartheid dictated that they be absorbed in the forces to enhance racial equality. The South Africa of today cannot project its might within its own borders much less across the region.
South Africa can no longer supply enough electricity and power is being rationed. Load shedding programs have plunged entire neighborhoods into darkness for hours at a time in scenarios similar to those of other African countries.
South Africa's people continue to suffer the vagaries of HIV/Aids, with the highest rate of infection in the entire world. Government reaction has however been erratic at best and slow at worst. President Mbeki himself questioned the scientific premise behind HIV/Aids, terming it as a conspiracy against black people. Mbeki said HIV/Aids is not a disease but a symptom of poverty, inadequate diet and lack of healthcare. The South African government refused to provide anti-retrovirals even after drug companies had lowered the costs. Mbeki said that anti-retrovirals are poisons aimed at curbing the growth of the African population.
South Africa's health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has prescribed herbs for the management of HIV/Aids patients. Incidentally, a former assistant minister of health describes Tshabalala-Msimang of being too fond of the bottle. However, Tshabalala-Msimang's friendship with Mbeki goes back to their days in exile while fighting Apartheid and her position in the cabinet is quite secure.
The crisis in Zimbabwe exemplifies South Africa's failure to rise up to the challenge of leadership in Africa. Though South Africa is Zimbabwe's biggest economic and political partner, Mbeki has insisted on "quiet diplomacy" even in the face of massive human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Millions of Zimbabweans have fled to other countries in the region including South Africa and Mbeki cannot claim ignorance of events just a few hundred miles from South Africa's capital city. Critics say that had Mr Mbeki gotten tough on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe years ago, the present misery in Zimbabwe would have been avoided.
Just after the historic 1994 elections that ended Apartheid and brought about black majority rule, South African whites expressed apprehension over the future of the country. "Grass will grow on airport runways," one woman said as an example. Looks like the worst fears of black majority rule are becoming a harsh reality.
Filed under: Analysis, Politics | Tagged: africa, alexandria, apartheid, attacks, cape town, durban, foreigners, jacob, johannesburg, mandela, mbeki, nelson, poverty, south, south africa, thabo, townships, unemployment, violence, xenophobia, xenophobic, zuma | 3 Comments »


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Cheese and mushroom casserole with chicken
This casserole is simple and delicious, and makes a perfect snack during a picnic (bento anyone?)—you should use it as a basic idea for a casserole, since the pasta sauce is the stable and the most important piece of the meal. It's also a very tweak-able recipe! :-)
When you make your own pasta, you will always end up with some scraps, even more if you make ravioli. You can easily recycle this leftover pasta to make maltagliati, meaning "poorly cut" in Italian, which was traditionally meant as food for the poor. We are way past that, and today you can enjoy rich texture and amazing flavor of your pasta without the social stigma ;-)
Fancy tamagoyaki bento
Oh my, this one is both a looker and tastes amazingly! :-) This bento idea is based on the basic tamagoyaki recipe, so feel free to use your favorite ingredients: champignons or chanterelle mushroom, herbs, different kinds of onion, bacon bits, ham shavings etc. Go crazy! :-) It's also a very good side dish!
Marinated beef and pasta bento
Bento is not only rice, but also other ingredients, like... pasta. This recipe came to life when I had some uncooked beef left-overs and just wondered what to do with them. Cooking them as a part of bento was a great idea!
Quick teriyaki beef donburi
You can buy thin beaf slices in some grocery shops or butchers. They may be called minute steaks or quick steaks and are a great ingredient that you can use to make a quick donburi (a rice bowl with meat and vegetable toppings). It's so fast to prepare, that you can do everything in the time it takes to cook the rice!


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In Weight Placement and Pivoting -- Part 2, I wrote:
"If you pivoted on the balls of your feet, you will now be to the left of the line. If you pivoted on your heels, you will now be to the right of the line. Either way, you are no longer on the line. Your body has shifted.I thought of an example to demonstrate this. Imagine that as you step forward (either shifting slightly to the right or left of the line), you hold a spinning gyroscope near your stomach (hara area). If you move straight ahead, you will not feel the gyroscope pulling you either to the left (as you move right) or to the right (as you move left). Remember that the gyroscope resists in the opposite direction of your movement.
Now that is OK if you intended to shift, but if you did not, what happened?
Either way (shifting to the left or right of the line) it took energy to move off the line. It would have been more efficient to move straight on the line."
The gyroscope will also resist your forward movement, but this would happen whether you moved straight ahead, or ahead and from side to side.
If the gyroscope resists side to side movement, your body is obviously subject to some resistance as you do this. It is more efficient to move straight ahead.
There is a saying in bojutsu that you should hide behind your weapon. I first heard this from Sensei Toshihiro Oshiro, but the same applies in weapon arts such as sword and spear. As you face your opponent, the point of your bo (sword or spear) should be aimed directly at his centerline. If he moves toward you, he will be stabbed by the point. To attack your centerline, he will have to deal with your point first.
The same principle applies in empty hand arts (you should hide behind your block or strike). When you move from side to side while advancing, you are changing this line of protection and attack. A skilled opponent could exploit this.
Of course, lateral movement may be used to avoid or slip an attack. If this is the intention, then such a movement makes sense. But you should not move from side to side unless you intend it.
Otherwise, there will be inefficiency and resistance.
Charles C. Goodin


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Bogle: We Need to Fix the Bond Index
Christine Benz: Hi, I'm Christine Benz for Morningstar.com. Investors have been heavily buying equity index funds, but they have been less enthusiastic about indexed bond products. Joining me to discuss role of bond index funds in investor portfolios is John C. Bogle. He is the founder and former chairman of the Vanguard Group.
Jack, thank you so much for being here.
John C. Bogle: It's always fun to be with you, Christine.
Benz: Let's talk about bond indexing, Jack. We've seen performance of [broad market] bond index funds relative to our intermediate-term bond category look a little [volatile] in recent years. So, in 2011 they did great. More recently they haven't looked as good. Active funds have actually done better. What do you think is the underpinning of that performance bifurcation?
Bogle: There is just no doubt about what the underpinning is, and that is the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is very heavily weighted around 70% in U.S. Treasuries and U.S. agencies, government instruments, if you will. And that 70% is working at a very low yield, and the other 30% probably much more resembles what the average bond fund is doing out there, the intermediate-term bond fund, which is the appropriate maturity.
Benz: So, the intermediate-term funds, the active funds, are generally heavily skewed toward corporate bonds?
Bogle: Very, very much so.
Benz: One thing when you look at current yields of say corporate bonds versus the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index, you see that corporate bonds have a big leg up in terms of current yields, 1.2% roughly for the Barclays Aggregate and roughly close to 3.0% for corporate bonds. And given that historically current yields have been a good predictor of future bond market performance, why would anyone hunker down in the Barclays Aggregate given that yield disadvantage?
Bogle: Well, let me first say that the Barclays bond indexes are cost-free. And if you look at the average return of a managed intermediate-term bond fund, their average yield is 1.65%. That's a long way from that almost 3.0% that you just mentioned. And that's because they have an average expense ratio of 90 basis points.
Again, that sales charge is one more cost. That's not taken into account here, and that's another point. So, for a five-year holder of an intermediate-term bond fund, by the time when that corporate index is yielding, say 3%, he loses almost a point, 100 basis points, to expenses and other 100 basis points to sales charges.
So, in the long run, the appropriate index is going to win, and the problem we're dealing with right now is that the Barclays Agg is so heavily loaded with government [bonds] that it's not a fair comparison.
Benz: How should investors than think about constructing their bond portfolios? Should they maybe own a total bond market index fund as an anchor and then augment it with extra corporates, or how should you think about putting together a portfolio that will give you that ballast you need, but also give you a reasonable rate of return?
Bogle: Well, Christine, this answer may surprise you from a dyed-in-the-wool indexer and the creator of the first index bond fund. I think we have to fix the index. And the fact of the matter is in that $16 trillion or so just of Treasuries alone here, what we are dealing with is huge amounts that are held not by U.S. investors, but foreign investors. And if you look at the data, you see that about $5.5 trillion of that $16 trillion is held by China and Japan and a couple of other countries, that's irrelevant to the U.S. investor in my opinion.
So, when you look to what's relevant--how much is in Treasuries--well, it's not $16 trillion, it's more like if you had pension funds and bond funds and individual investors, we are talking $2.7 trillion. That's what should be in the index in terms of the government position in my opinion. When we look at how U.S. investors do, the government position in the index should be about half of what it is maybe a third of what is. So, we've got to fix the index.
Failing that, there are a couple of options. One, this industry really needs a corporate-bond index fund. It doesn't seem to think it does, but that gets to the root of your question and again leaving expenses out. If a corporate-bond index fund could produce the same yield as the [Barclays Aggregate Bond Index], and I'm using a number of 2.8% before costs, you know, that should be the return over the next 10 years for the corporate-bond index.
The yield on the total bond market index is now 1.4%-1.5%, and those numbers, as everybody now knows, are an excellent proxy for the total return you earn on your bonds over the next decade. So, if you earn 1.5%, your total return will be about 20%. And if you earn, let's say 2.8%, you will earn probably 35%, almost doubling compound return.
So, yes, investors should be thinking, "Are we willing in this day when we are starved for income, are we willing to take a little more duration risk? Because the revised index would be a little longer, Treasuries are probably shorter-term, and are we willing to take a little more credit risk?" Corporate bonds are probably in the A area, maybe A, BBB, and the federal government bonds, depending on which rating agency you are looking at, is either AAA or AA, and you have to make your appraisal if that's a reasonable risk spread for that gap in yields.
On the other hand, I wouldn't go all the way to corporates. I'd keep these Treasury positions. So, if we don't have an index fund that accurately reflects the total bond market for U.S. investors, you maybe take half of that and put it in a corporate-bond index fund.
Benz: So, the idea is that the total bond market index funds will tend to hold up better in that sort of true flight to quality, where the equity market tanks and corporates do, as well. So you want to hang on to least some of that Treasury exposure?
Bogle: Well, yes, except, I'm not sure that that flight to quality, which even came up a couple of days ago when the markets fell apart, I'm not sure that flight to quality is durable. And you can't trade it, getting in and out before and after the flight to quality. So, I think it's a net drag almost inevitably, and you see this really more than anything else--you mentioned this I think in the introduction--that you have years like 2008, where the total bond index goes up 5.1%, and the intermediate-term corporate-bond index goes down 4.7%. That's a 10% gap. And, yet, it more than made up with in favor of the intermediate-term bond fund average the next year and a little in 2009. It's double--6% versus almost 14%. And the next year its 6.5% for the bond index and 7.7% for your intermediate-term bond fund. And the next year it turns around again. It's amazing how much difference there is in this, 7.7% versus 5.9%. And then this year is another bit of a turkey, this is the year 2012, I use the term turkey loosely, 4.1% total return for the bond index and 7.0% for the intermediate-term corporate-bond average.
Investors have to be aware of those differences. They have to be aware of the credit difference. They have to be aware of the duration-lengthening that's not long, maybe 1.5 years or something like that, and decide they either want to get that income or not. It comes down to the purpose of the bond fund, which is normally, A, protecting the portfolio in declining markets, and B, to give you extra income. The stock market today is yielding about 2.1%, and many of those bond yields I called off to you are much less than that.
Benz: Jack, you mentioned an intermediate-term corporate-bond index, is that what you would recommend that investors use, if they have that total bond market exposure and they want to emphasize corporates more? Should they just stick with the intermediate duration, or should they maybe stay short?
Bogle: I'd say short and maybe intermediate, and the problem with that is, first of all I'm just going to guess off the top of the head, Christine, 80% or maybe 90% of mutual fund and bond fund investors don't know what "intermediate-term" means. So, you've got to explain it to them, and it's not going to be very different from the total bond market corporate index fund. It's going to be quite similar. But when you say corporate-bond index fund compared with total bond index, including governments, it's an easy explanation. We've made this business of mutual funds awfully complicated. So, I'd strongly lean in favor of creating a new corporate-bond index fund or fixing the index. But you have no idea how difficult it is to change anything that's in place. It's bureaucratic; it involves computer programs. So, I don't think we are going to able to change the Barclays index, but someone ought to be thinking about it.
Benz: And in the meantime, investors can think about maybe changing around their portfolios a little bit.
Bogle: Yeah. In terms of the intermediate-term corporate bonds I would say. And if they're worried about interest-rate risk--which is large today let's make no mistake about that, and further I would not go out long--although the yields are higher, and by the way, this is a perverse business, Christine. If the yield on the long-term bond is higher, say, around 2.8% on the long-term Treasury compared with 1.5%-1.6% maybe on the 10-year Treasury, that is a sign that the long-term Treasury will produce 2.8% a year over the next decade.
The problem with it is, there'll be large fluctuations in value and kind of perverse investor behavior--we hate things when they're going down, we love them when they are high--kicks in. And so it's a self-defeating kind of thing, and anyone that does any of these machinations with their bond funds--I'll be honest, I don't even like to recommend it, because it's complicated, it's frail. I mean will it happen or not? Nobody knows. People have been predicting that bond yields will continue to will go back up and they continue go down.
Benz: That's true.
Bogle: So, it's a hard decision. I think advisors could do a good job by thinking it through a little bit more, but what we should be trying to do for the investor--the investor who we're dedicated to serving, we as an industry or should be dedicated to serving--what we should be trying to do is simplify, simplify, simplify. So, I wish my ultimate hope, if you will, is to have an improved let's say all total bond market index fund for U.S. investors. Call it what you will.
Benz: Jack, well, it's always terrific to hear from you and get your insights. We so appreciate you being here today.
Bogle: Well, have a good bunch of talks about bonds, which are an interesting subject to say the least.
Benz: Thanks for watching. I'm Christine Benz from Morningstar.com.


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In Japan, new Pocket Monster games means new logos. In the West, it does not. And that sucks!
As pointed out by a KnowYourMeme user, here's how the the logos for the Japanese versions and the Western versions of all the Pokémon games compare through the years.
That's right, the Japanese logos continue to evolve and flourish. The Western ones do not. (Perhaps, that is to keep the branding consistent for Western players?)
Chin up, it's not totally depressing. Western Pocket Monster fans will point out, the subtitles of each game do change. For example, check out the subtitles for Crystal, the ones for HeartGold, and the ones for Black. A lot of evolution there!
Evolution of Pokemon Logos [KnowYourMeme]
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.


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Sysinternals SuiteThe entire set of Sysinternals Utilities rolled up into a single download.
AccessChkv5.01 (December 9, 2010)AccessChk is a command-line tool for viewing the effective permissions on files, registry keys, services, processes, kernel objects, and more.
AccessEnumv1.32 (November 1, 2006)This simple yet powerful security tool shows you who has what access to directories, files and Registry keys on your systems. Use it to find holes in your permissions.
AdExplorerv1.42 (July 29, 2010)Active Directory Explorer is an advanced Active Directory (AD) viewer and editor.
AdInsightv1.01 (November 20, 2007)An LDAP (Light-weight Directory Access Protocol) real-time monitoring tool aimed at troubleshooting Active Directory client applications.
AdRestorev1.1 (November 1, 2006)Undelete Server 2003 Active Directory objects.
Autologonv3.01 (February 23, 2011)Bypass password screen during logon.
Autorunsv10.07 (April 13, 2011)See what programs are configured to startup automatically when your system boots and you login. Autoruns also shows you the full list of Registry and file locations where applications can configure auto-start settings.
BgInfov4.16 (October 1, 2009)This fully-configurable program automatically generates desktop backgrounds that include important information about the system including IP addresses, computer name, network adapters, and more.
BlueScreenv3.2 (November 1, 2006)This screen saver not only accurately simulates Blue Screens, but simulated reboots as well (complete with CHKDSK), and works on Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Server 2003 and Windows 9x.
CacheSetv1.0 (November 1, 2006)CacheSet is a program that allows you to control the Cache Manager's working set size using functions provided by NT. It's compatible with all versions of NT.
ClockResv2.0 (June 4, 2009)View the resolution of the system clock, which is also the maximum timer resolution.
Contigv1.6 (February 1, 2011)Wish you could quickly defragment your frequently used files? Use Contig to optimize individual files, or to create new files that are contiguous.
Coreinfov2.11 (May 21, 2010)Coreinfo is a new command-line utility that shows you the mapping between logical processors and the physical processor, NUMA node, and socket on which they reside, as well as the cache's assigned to each logical processor.
Ctrl2capv2.0 (November 1, 2006)This is a kernel-mode driver that demonstrates keyboard input filtering just above the keyboard class driver in order to turn caps-locks into control keys. Filtering at this level allows conversion and hiding of keys before NT even "sees" them. Ctrl2cap also shows how to use NtDisplayString() to print messages to the initialization blue-screen.
DebugViewv4.76 (October 16, 2008)Another first from Sysinternals: This program intercepts calls made to DbgPrint by device drivers and OutputDebugString made by Win32 programs. It allows for viewing and recording of debug session output on your local machine or across the Internet without an active debugger.
Desktopsv1.02 (January 19, 2010)This new utility enables you to create up to four virtual desktops and to use a tray interface or hotkeys to preview what's on each desktop and easily switch between them.
Disk2vhdv1.63 (October 14, 2010)Disk2vhd simplifies the migration of physical systems into virtual machines (p2v).
DiskExtv1.1 (May 14, 2007)Display volume disk-mappings.
Diskmonv2.01 (November 1, 2006)This utility captures all hard disk activity or acts like a software disk activity light in your system tray.
DiskViewv2.4 (March 25, 2010)Graphical disk sector utility.
Disk Usage (DU)v1.34 (May 19, 2010)View disk usage by directory.
EFSDumpv1.02 (November 1, 2006)View information for encrypted files.
Handlev3.46 (May 18, 2011)This handy command-line utility will show you what files are open by which processes, and much more.
Hex2decv1.0 (November 1, 2006)Convert hex numbers to decimal and vice versa.
Junctionv1.06 (September 8, 2010)Create Win2K NTFS symbolic links.
LDMDumpv1.02 (November 1, 2006)Dump the contents of the Logical Disk Manager's on-disk database, which describes the partitioning of Windows 2000 Dynamic disks.
ListDLLsv3.0 (January 17, 2011)List all the DLLs that are currently loaded, including where they are loaded and their version numbers. Version 2.0 prints the full path names of loaded modules.
LiveKdv5.0 (October 14, 2010)Use Microsoft kernel debuggers to examine a live system.
LoadOrderv1.0 (November 1, 2006)See the order in which devices are loaded on your WinNT/2K system.
LogonSessionsv1.21 (May 6, 2010)List the active logon sessions on a system.
MoveFilev1.0 (November 1, 2006)Allows you to schedule move and delete commands for the next reboot.
NTFSInfov1.0 (November 1, 2006)Use NTFSInfo to see detailed information about NTFS volumes, including the size and location of the Master File Table (MFT) and MFT-zone, as well as the sizes of the NTFS meta-data files.
PageDefragv2.32 (November 1, 2006)Defragment your paging files and Registry hives.
PendMovesv1.1 (November 1, 2006)Enumerate the list of file rename and delete commands that will be executed the next boot.
PipeList(November 1, 2006)Displays the named pipes on your system, including the number of maximum instances and active instances for each pipe.
PortMonv3.02 (November 1, 2006)Monitor serial and parallel port activity with this advanced monitoring tool. It knows about all standard serial and parallel IOCTLs and even shows you a portion of the data being sent and received. Version 3.x has powerful new UI enhancements and advanced filtering capabilities.
ProcDumpv3.04 (May 3, 2011)This new command-line utility is aimed at capturing process dumps of otherwise difficult to isolate and reproduce CPU spikes. It also serves as a general process dump creation utility and can also monitor and generate process dumps when a process has a hung window or unhandled exception.
Process Explorerv14.12 (May 18, 2011)Find out what files, registry keys and other objects processes have open, which DLLs they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns each process.
Process Monitorv2.95 (April 13, 2011)Monitor file system, Registry, process, thread and DLL activity in real-time.
ProcFeaturesv1.10 (November 1, 2006)This applet reports processor and Windows support for Physical Address Extensions and No Execute buffer overflow protection.
PsExecv1.98 (April 28, 2010)Execute processes on remote systems.
PsFilev1.02 (December 4, 2006)See what files are opened remotely.
PsGetSidv1.44 (April 28, 2010)Displays the SID of a computer or a user.
PsInfov1.77 (April 28, 2010)Obtain information about a system.
PsKillv1.13 (December 1, 2009)Terminate local or remote processes.
PsListv1.29 (April 28, 2010)Show information about processes and threads.
PsLoggedOnv1.34 (April 28, 2010)Show users logged on to a system.
PsLogListv2.71 (April 28, 2010)Dump event log records.
PsPasswdv1.22 (December 4, 2006)Changes account passwords.
PsServicev2.24 (April 28, 2010)View and control services.
PsShutdownv2.52 (December 4, 2006)Shuts down and optionally reboots a computer.
PsSuspendv1.06 (December 4, 2006)Suspend and resume processes.
PsTools(July 1, 2009)The PsTools suite includes command-line utilities for listing the processes running on local or remote computers, running processes remotely, rebooting computers, dumping event logs, and more.
RAMMapv1.11 (May 18, 2011)An advanced physical memory usage analysis utility that presents usage information in different ways on its several different tabs.
RegDelNullv1.10 (November 1, 2006)Scan for and delete Registry keys that contain embedded null-characters that are otherwise undeleteable by standard Registry-editing tools.
RegJumpv1.01 (November 1, 2006)Jump to the registry path you specify in Regedit.
RootkitRevealerv1.71 (November 1, 2006)Scan your system for rootkit-based malware.
SDeletev1.51 (November 1, 2006)Securely overwrite your sensitive files and cleanse your free space of previously deleted files using this DoD-compliant secure delete program.
ShareEnumv1.6 (November 1, 2006)Scan file shares on your network and view their security settings to close security holes.
ShellRunasv1.01 (February 28, 2008)Launch programs as a different user via a convenient shell context-menu entry.
Sigcheckv1.71 (October 14, 2010)Dump file version information and verify that images on your system are digitally signed.
Streamsv1.56 (April 27, 2007)Reveal NTFS alternate streams.
Stringsv2.41 (March 2, 2009)Search for ANSI and UNICODE strings in binaryimages.
Syncv2.0 (November 1, 2006)Flush cached data to disk.
TCPViewv3.04 (April 13, 2011)Active socket command-line viewer.
VMMapv3.1 (May 18, 2011)VMMap is a process virtual and physical memory analysis utility.
VolumeIdv2.0 (November 1, 2006)Set Volume ID of FAT or NTFS drives.
Whoisv1.01 (November 1, 2006)See who owns an Internet address.
WinObjv2.22 (February 14, 2011)The ultimate Object Manager namespace viewer is here.
ZoomItv4.2 (May 3, 2011)Presentation utility for zooming and drawing on the screen.


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c. 1981
Believe this to be Madonna as Bruna in Stephen Jon Lewicki's A Certain Sacrifice. If so, Washington Square Park.
Gorgeous, nonetheless.
Gorgeous, nonetheless.
Where do you get this stuff???? It's gotta be from ACS. They whole look is from that time period.
Please don't stop Pudd!
I love that movie! I was so excited when I got to buy it at Suncoast!!!ReplyDelete
i love these!!!ReplyDelete
May she never stop!ReplyDelete
She was always a lousy dancer. No plasticity, no expression, no emotion. Robotic, calculated, cold.ReplyDelete
But i think it was circa 1979 not 81ReplyDelete


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text:
February 25, 2012
Why the Climate Skeptics Are Winning
FROM-The Weekly Standard
Steven F. Hayward
March 5, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 24
The forlorn and increasingly desperate climate campaign achieved a new level of ineptitude last week when what had looked like a minor embarrassment for one of its critics—the Chicago-based Heartland Institute—turned out to be a full-fledged catastrophe for itself. A moment's reflection on the root of this episode points to why the climate campaign is out of (greenhouse) gas.
In an obvious attempt to inflict a symmetrical Climategate-style scandal on the skeptic community, someone representing himself as a Heartland Institute insider "leaked" internal documents for Heartland's most recent board of directors meeting to a fringe environmental blog, along with a photocopy of a supposed Heartland "strategy memo" outlining a plan to disseminate a public school curriculum aimed at "dissuading teachers from teaching science."
This ham-handed phrase (one of many) should have been a tipoff to treat the document dump with some . . . skepticism (a trait that has gone missing from much of the climate science community). But more than a few environmental blogs and mainstream news outlets ran with the story of how this "leak" exposed the nefarious "antiscience" Neanderthals of Heartland and their fossil fuel paymasters. But the strategy memo is a fake, probably created because the genuine internal documents are fairly ho-hum. It seems the climate campaign is now taking its tactics from Dan "fake but accurate" Rather.
Why Heartland? And how did the "leaker" get his hands on authentic Heartland board materials that are obviously the source for the faked strategy memo? The Heartland Institute sponsors the most significant annual gathering of climate skeptics, usually in New York, Chicago, or Washington, D.C.—a conference that attracts hundreds of scientists and activists from around the globe, including most of the top skeptical scientists, such as MIT's Richard Lindzen, Yale's Robert Mendelsohn, and career EPA official Alan Carlin. By assembling a critical mass of serious dissenting opinion, the Heartland conference dispels the favorite climate campaign talking point that there's virtually no one of repute, and no arguments of merit, outside the -so-called consensus of imminent climate catastrophe.
The Heartland conferences have been too big for the media to ignore completely, though coverage has been spare and grudging. The conferences are also a morale booster for skeptics, who tend to be isolated and relentlessly assailed in their scattered outposts. It is worth adding that Heartland has always extended invitations to the leading "mainstream" figures to speak or debate at the conference, including Al Gore, NASA's James Hansen, and senior officials from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Heartland typically receives no response from such figures.)
The most likely instigator of an anti-Heartland provocation would be someone from among the political activists of the environmental movement, such as the merry pranksters of Greenpeace, who have been known to paw through the garbage cans of climate skeptics looking for evidence of payoffs from the fossil fuel industry (which, contrary to left-wing paranoia, has tended rather to be a generous funder of the climate catastrophe campaign). But shortly after the document dump, Ross Kaminsky, an unpaid senior fellow and former Heartland board member now with the American Spectator, noticed something odd in the digital fingerprint of the "strategy memo." It had been scanned on an Epson printer/scanner on Monday, February 13, on the West Coast (not in the Midwest, where Heartland is located), just one day before the entire document dump appeared online for the first time. Like the famous little detail of when and how Alger Hiss disposed of his old Ford, this date and location will turn out to be a key piece of evidence unraveling the full story, some of which still remains shrouded.
So how did the official Heartland documents get out? Someone claiming to be a board member emailed an unsuspecting Heartland staffer, asking that a set of board documents be sent to a new email address. This act may have violated California and Illinois criminal statutes prohibiting false representation, and perhaps some federal statutes pertaining to wire fraud as well.
Kaminsky and a second blogger, Steven Mosher, piled up the anomalies: The leaked board documents were not scanned but were original software-produced documents, which moreover have a time stamp from Heartland's Central time zone. Hence the "strategy memo," if authentic, would have had to be obtained by some other channel. These and other clues led both Kaminsky and Mosher to go public with the accusation that the most likely perpetrator was Peter Gleick, a semi-prominent environmental scientist in Oakland, California.
Gleick is known chiefly for his work on water issues, for which he enjoys a deserved reputation for his data-driven research (though he gets the remedies wrong). He has been as well a peripheral but aggressive figure in the climate wars, notable for the angry and politicized tone of his participation. Gleick is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and was, until two weeks ago, the chairman of an American Geophysical Union task force on scientific -ethics. He's also a columnist for Forbes magazine's website and a recipient of one of those MacArthur Foundation "genius" grants that typically go to the trendy and politically correct.
Making a direct accusation as Kaminsky and Mosher did is a strong and potentially libelous move, and the green blogosphere closed ranks quickly around Gleick. One poster wrote: "I hope that Mr. Kaminsky will be prepared [to] fully retract and apologize to Dr. Gleick once he is ruled out as the possible culprit." But then the other shoe dropped: Gleick confessed on Monday, February 20, that he was the person who had deceived Heartland into emailing their board documents. Gleick claimed, though, that he had received the phony strategy memo anonymously early in the year by mail. He explained in a column for the Huffington Post: "I attempted to confirm the accuracy of the information in this document. In an effort to do so, and in a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics, I solicited and received additional materials directly from the Heartland Institute under someone else's name."
Gleick's story doesn't add up, given that many of the details in the phony "strategy memo" could only have been composed by someone with prior access to the complete board materials that Gleick says he subsequently sought out. So far Gleick is the only person known to have had access to the Heartland internal board documents. And he has not been forthcoming about the details of the phony memo. Was there a postmark? Did he keep the envelope and the original document that he scanned? Why does he think he was singled out to receive this information, rather than a reporter? The only thing missing right now to make Gleick's story weaker is an old Woodstock typewriter.
Then there is the content of the memo itself, which tellingly is written in the first person but bears no one's name as an author. One is supposed to presume it came from Heartland's president, Joe Bast, but it is not quite his style. Megan McArdle of the Atlantic sums it up nicely: "It reads like it was written from the secret villain lair in a Batman comic. By an intern." Numerous observers have pointed to items in the memo that are strikingly inauthentic or alien to the conservative think tank world, but one in particular strikes me—a curious passage about the need for "expanded communication":
Efforts at places such as Forbes are especially important now that they have begun to allow high-profile climate scientists (such as Gleick) to post warmist science essays that counter our own. This influential audience has usually been reliably anti-climate and it is important to keep opposing voices out. Efforts might also include cultivating more neutral voices with big audiences (such as [Andrew] Revkin at DotEarth/NYTimes, who has a well-known antipathy for some of the more extreme AGW [anthropogenic global warming] communicators . . .
As curious as the reference to Gleick and Forbes is (Gleick shares space at Forbes with Heartland's James Taylor, which is another interesting circumstance), the reference to Andy Revkin is more intriguing. Revkin is a New York Times science blogger who reports climate issues fairly straight up, though his own sympathies are with the climate campaign. Perhaps because he is basically sympathetic, Revkin's occasional departures from the party line have been a source of annoyance for more ardent climate campaigners; one of the emails from the first cache of leaked Climategate documents in 2009 complained that Revkin wasn't "reliable," and University of Illinois climate alarmist Michael Schlesinger threatened Revkin directly with the "big cutoff" if he didn't mend his ways. Was the language in the phony Heartland memo another attempt to try to shame Revkin into falling in line by suggesting he's not hostile enough towards climate skeptics?
After Gleick's semi-confession, Revkin wrote for the Times that "Gleick's use of deception in pursuit of his cause after years of calling out climate deception has destroyed his credibility and harmed others," and that his actions "surely will sustain suspicion that he created the summary [strategy memo]."
Gleick looks set to be spending a good chunk of his MacArthur genius prize winnings on lawyers; he's retained the same criminal attorney that Andrew Fastow of Enron used for his defense against fraud charges. And Gleick has hired Clinton/Gore crisis manager Chris Lehane. Heartland, for its part, has set up a legal defense fund to pursue a civil case against Gleick, presenting the ultimate irony: -Gleick's attack may well help Heartland raise more money.
More than a few observers have asked why anyone should trust Gleick's scientific judgment if his judgment about how to deal with climate skeptics is so bad. -Gleick's defense of his motives would be laughable if it weren't so pathetic: "My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts—often anonymous, well-funded, and coordinated—to attack climate science and scientists and prevent this debate, and by the lack of transparency of the organizations involved."
Let's take these in order. Anony-mous? True, Heartland's board documents reveal seven-figure contributions for their climate work from one "anonymous donor," but environmental organizations take in many multiples of Heartland's total budget in anonymous donations washed through the left-wing Tides Foundation. The Environmental Defense Fund thanks 141 anonymous donors in one recent report. "Well-funded"? Heartland's total budget for all its issues, which include health care, education, and technology policy, is around $4.4 million, an amount that would disappear into a single line item in the budget for the Natural Resources Defense Council ($99 million in revenues in 2010). Last year, the Wall Street Journal reports, the World Wildlife Fund spent $68.5 million just on "public education."
The dog that didn't bark for the climateers in this story is the great disappointment that Heartland receives only a tiny amount of funding from fossil fuel sources—and none from ExxonMobil, still the bête noire of the climateers. Meanwhile, it was revealed this week that natural gas mogul T. Boone Pickens had given $453,000 to the left-wing Center for American Progress for its "clean energy" projects, and Chesapeake Energy gave the Sierra Club over $25 million (anonymously until it leaked out) for the Club's anti-coal ad campaign. Turns out the greens take in much more money from fossil fuel interests than the skeptics do.
Finally, "coordinated"? Few public policy efforts have ever had the massive institutional and financial coordination that the climate change cause enjoys. That tiny Heartland, with but a single annual conference and a few phone-book-sized reports summarizing the skeptical case, can derange the climate campaign so thoroughly is an indicator of the weakness and thorough politicization of climate alarmism.
The Gleick episode exposes again a movement that disdains arguing with its critics, choosing demonization over persuasion and debate. A confident movement would face and crush its critics if its case were unassailable, as it claims. The climate change fight doesn't even rise to the level of David and Goliath. Heartland is more like a David fighting a hundred Goliaths. Yet the serial ineptitude of the climate campaign shows that a tiny David doesn't need to throw a rock against a Goliath who swings his mighty club and only hits himself square in the forehead.
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The critically-acclaimed chapter of the Resident Evil franchise returns with more content than ever before in Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition. Included is the original best-selling game and all downloadable content, including new playable episodes that take you even deeper into Resident Evil lore.
From the ashes of old conflicts, a new terror arises. The Umbrella Corporation and its crop of lethal viruses have been destroyed and contained. But a new, more dangerous threat has emerged. Years after surviving the events in Raccoon City, Chris Redfield has been fighting the scourge of bio-organic weapons all over the world. Now a member of the Bio-terrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), Chris is sent to Africa to investigate a biological agent that is transforming the populace into aggressive and disturbing creatures. Joined by another local BSAA agent, Sheva Alomar, the two must work together to solve the truth behind the disturbing turn of events. Featuring a revolutionary new co-op mode of gameplay, Resident Evil 5 will let players experience fear together as terror moves out of the shadows and into the light of day.
Contents Include:
Lost in Nightmares - Play as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine and journey back to the infamous Spencer Mansion from the original Resident Evil, try and solve its treacherous puzzles, and search to uncover the secrets of Umbrella Corporation at the source.
Desperate Escape - A fatigued but rescued Jill has collapsed. Awoken by BSAA agent Josh Stone, play through their desperate escape from the Tricell facility, fighting off unrelenting waves of enemies in heart pumping blockbuster action.
4 New Costumes - New costumes feature full playability both in-game and in cutscenes ensure you always fight evil in style
The Mercenaries Reunion - The Mercenaries Reunion brings 8 new playable characters and weapon load outs into the fray, providing players with additional challenges as they aim to shoot down as many enemies as they can within a limited time.
Versus - Take control of Chris, Sheva and other RE5 favorites in online battles of up to 4 players. Fight alone or with a team in 4 different game variations.
Key Features:
If you are a fan of the Resident Evil series, check out the latest game in the series, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Special Edition. Available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
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Rated 9.5 out of 10 by Game Informer.