text:
Editor: HumanTrainingBot
She's carefully examining us.
Those were my thoughts the moment I made eye contact with the woman in front of me.
The woman had a neutral expression as she gently addressed Halfa-san who still stood at the door behind us,
"Good work, Halfa."
"Yes. Then, I will excuse myself."
After Halfa-san bowed and left the room, my attention returned to this woman known as the Principal… I didn't mean it in a bad way, I was just curious. I wasn't the only one that was curious. Inukami-senpai and Kazuki were also focused on her.
The cheerful grin on the Principal's face seemed mischevious, yet strangely comforting.Welsey-san then stepped forward and spoke in a familiar tone,
"I'm truly sorry for the abrupt visit. It's been a while, Principal Gladis."
"It really has been a while. I'm happy to see you again, Welsey. I wonder if you could introduce me to the children behind you."
"Of course. Then, everyone…"
Were these two acquaintances? Well, Welsey-san was a magic expert so it might've been strange for her to have no relation at all with a school that helps cultivate magic. The three of us introduced ourselves in turn.
"I'm Inukami Suzune, it's an honor to meet you."
"I'm Ryuusen Kazuki."
"I'm Usato Ken."
"….These children are overflowing with talent. My name is Aiela Gladis, Luquis has been entrusted to me and is under my care."
Aiela Gladis-san nodded in admiration towards us during her introduction.
Not only was she the principal of this school but she also governed Luquis. It was an amazing feat considering how young she was… She looked only slightly older than Rose.
"Now then, you didn't come here just to greet me right?"
"Naturally. We came here today to discuss the crisis approaching this continent…"
Welsey-san retrieved a letter from her bosom and carefully handed it over to Gladis-san.
She opened it and silently read it.
I forgot to consider this until now but, this was a school and a place for learning… Although the contents of the letter didn't explicitly request that students fight, we were still asking for their cooperation and assistance. I wonder if Gladis-san would disagree with that. If she thought this letter was requesting for something like conscription, it would be difficult to explain…
After a period of silence, the letter in Gladis-san's hand shook… She sighed lightly, stood up from her chair and left the letter on her desk.
"I see, the Maou army… But I heard that you were victorious in the recent battle?"
"It was a battle that we were supposed to lose. We won only due to the heroes and this healing user. It was also due to the efforts of one more person…"
One more person… She probably meant Amako. If it wasn't for her, it would've been really bad. I really was walking on a dangerous tightrope.
"Haah… To think that Lloyd would send the two heroes over here… He did so because he wanted to express how serious he is, right?"
"Yes, he realized that just sending a letters would have no meaning."
"He really is absurd. Well, that's one of his good points."
Gladis-san seemed to be at a loss as she folded her arms and took another look at Kazuki and Inukami-senpai.
"I can tell that they're the heroes just from looking at them. They're exceptional, as expected of the ones that were selected among many from a different world. Additionally… There's one more young man. Judging at his uniform, he's part of her unit…?"
She was puzzled as she looked at me. I felt like I was out of place here. That was natural since Inukami-senpai and Kazuki had the qualities of a hero. I had healing magic and the differences in our magic power were overwhelming. Halfa-san probably saw that clearly when he looked at us.
"He's a healing magician just like Rose and was summoned from the same world as the heroes. That's why he is present here."
Was Welsey-san worried about what Gladis-san might say? Welsey-san seemed to support my participation as she explained my identity. Gladis-san stared at me in wonder as she listened to the explanation.
"I thought so, but to think it really is the same white uniform as hers… I see. You really can't judge a person by their appearance."
….Wait a moment.
It seems like you know who Rose is, but this felt unfair. Unlike her appearance, Rose is a perverted and sadistic person whose eyebrow wouldn't even flinch at someone suffering. Yet not judging me by my appearance… Actually, how I looked on the outside is exactly what I am. Did she think I'm like Rose?
I felt discontented by her misunderstanding…
Gladis-san had a troubled expression and knit her brows as she continued,
"Could you wait a bit before I give a reply? As expected, I can't just decide on my own for something as big as this… I need time to discuss it. Or are you short on time for your journey?"
"No, we're not. In the end, we're not the ones deciding so we'll stay here and wait for your official decision."
"Then we will arrange housing for your group. You're all guests so it's proper manners."
"Thank you for your kindness."
….The conversation went a lot smoother than I expected. We even had our housing arranged for us. If the letters I deliver are received with the same good will, then it'll be….… Yeah, it won't. The last place I would go to isn't very welcoming to humans after all.
"For now, we just have to wait."
"Yeah, there's not much else to do."
I felt relieved as I whispered back to Kazuki. It would take some time but it seemed to be alright. On top of that, we were even given a place to stay. I was feeling a bit tired now too, I didn't notice how nervous I was until now.
Gladis-san held a jewel in her hand and muttered something to it. In the next instant, Halfa-san entered the room and greeted us again.
"Well then… Halfa. Can you guide them to their lodgings?"
"Leave it to me. Then, everyone follow me."
Halfa-san bowed as he answered and turned around to lead the way. His grey ashen hair, which extended to his shoulders, shook under his light steps as he urged us towards the door. We followed Halfa-san's example and bowed towards Gladis-san. As we were about to turn around, Gladis smiled at us. She seemed to have thought of something.
"Ah, that's right, while we're making the decision… If it's alright with everyone, how about observing some of the lessons here at our school? Individuals such as yourselves possessing excellent powers would be a good stimulus to the students here. Of course, I don't mind if you refuse."
Ah, that kind of proposal was right in the strike zone of a certain someone—
"Is it really okay!?"
Just as I had thought, Senpai took the bite immediately. She was excited and delighted while Kazuki and I forced a smile. Gladis-san was surprised by Senpai's response.
"Hey there, settle down Senpai… Sorry, she's a person who can't hold herself back. Along the way here, she caused many… many… problems…."
"Ah, h-hey! Let go of me Usato-kun! S-so rough… Are you someone who likes doing it forcefully…!?"
"Yeah, yeah."
Seizing Inukami-senpai's arm, I drew her closer to me as I dragged her away. It was the usual occurrence where she was just joking around so there was no reason to think too deeply about it. If we stayed any longer here, she'll expose her true character in front of Gladis-san. It was better to let Gladis-san's first impression of Senpai remain that of a courteous person.
"Well, we'll be on our way."
I said as I pulled on Inukami-senpai's arm. I dragged her with me as Halfa-san led us to our rooms.
….Kazuki and Welsey-san's expressions looked like they witnessed something amazing. Was it my imagination? I was only pulling Senpai out due to my instinct and sincerity after all.


text:
The Islamization of Criminal Law: A Comparative Analysis
Peters discussed hadd punishments under the Islamic Penal Code in Iran, including stoning. He argues that in light of the many restraints put by the shariah on the application of hadd punishments, it is doubtful whether the numerous convictions of stoning were all obtained in conformity with shariah, which stipulates that testimonies and confessions made under duress are not valid.
Peters, Rudolph
Source publication:
Die Welt des Islams, New Series, Vol. 34, Issue 2. (Nov., 1994), pp. 246-274.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Have been outta town last week and didnt have enough time to schedule posts ahead of time!
A girl has to take a break some time doesnt she? :D
Today's mani is a tape mani.
Base: ChG Tantalize Me
On the base once dry I put two triangle shaped cello and painted ChG Dorothy Who near the tips and on the base of nails I put ChG Full spectrum. I like how glittery these two are.
Turned out ok I think...considering its the first time I did a tape mani.


text:
Wind – Breath of Spirit – Inspiration – Divine Communication – Changeability
Communications are all important now.
Send communications of all kinds, verbal and written.
Be spontaneous and adaptable.
Act on inspiration as it comes to you.
The need to communicate accurately and effectively.
Fickle, inconsistent, scattered.
Moving from place to place, and from idea to idea, like the wind.
Being indecisive or non-committal.
Fears about responsibility and obligations.
Miscommunication, disagreements and a need for compromise.
Anger and defensiveness. You or others may feel superior or condescending.


text:
After successfully merging lines (using snapping) with merge_selected_features i got nice result - one merged line. Next thing was to make polygon from created merged line. Result is not nice - it creates multiple polygons connecting ends from separate lines which were merged previously together. Somehow merging geometry is not working for me or i am missing something.
.. Solved. I imported lines in Grass, then i used v.build.polylines and got nice line from which i was able to create correct polygon.


text:
Property ID : R2638532
Available 1,300,000.00 Euros - Commercial
A truly unique opportunity to invest in a thriving beachfront bar and restaurant business which is being sold with an independent refurbished luxury apartment. Ideally located on the New Golden Mile, walking distance from many prestigious beachfront developments and luxury hotels, opened all year around, the restaurant boasts 2 dining rooms with a total seating capacity for 75 covers, a bar area and his and hers toilets. The large commercial kitchen is equipped with stainless work tops, fridges, etc. Accessed from the kitchen and through a hallway, you will find a walk in freezer and refrigerator units, two large storage rooms, a staff room and shower room. The upper level of this property, with an independent entrance encompasses an exquisitely refurbished apartment comprising of 3 large bedrooms, one with ensuite shower room, whilst the other two share a second shower room, a large kitchen and an open plan family room. The refurbishment project currently at a stand still for personall reasons is yet to be completed in the kitchen and family room, hence the reduction in the current price. The lounge and two of the bedrooms lead to the most fantastic terrace on the New Golden Mile, perched above the Mediterranean sea, overlooking Gibraltar, the coastline of Africa, the beach and surrounding coast. This business, not reliant on tourist trade, has an excellent reputation and clientele. A fruitful business and luxury apartment on the beach!! Contact us to view today. Bar and Restaurant, Beachfront, Furnished, Equipped Kitchen, Parking: Ample Parking, Facing: South Views: Beach, Breathtaking, Excellent, Gibraltar, Panoramic. Features 5-10 minutes to Golf Course, 5-10 minutes to shops, Access to Beach, Access to Sea, Accessible all year round, ADSL, Air Conditioning, Alarm System, Area suitable for tourism, Bargain, Beachfront, Built to High Standards, Butane Gas, Central Heating, Close to all Amenities, Commercial Kitchen, Completely Equipped Kitchen, Dining Area, Easy Renting, Electricity, En suite shower room, Excellent Condition, Featured Property, Fitted Kitchen, Fitted Wardrobes, Fully fitted bathroom, Furnished, Good Rental Potential, Immaculate Condition, Independent Apartment, Large Storeroom, Living room with dining area, Luminous, Luxury Fittings, Many Special Features, Near amenities, Near Transport, Newly Fitted Bathroom, Private Terrace, Renovated, Renovated bath, Sea Views, Shower Room, Sought After Area, Sunny terraces, Tastefully Decorated, Toilet, Top Quality, Very Good Access, Walking distance to beach, Walking Distance to Cafés, Walking distance to rest., Well maintained community, Well presented.


text:
- "Developed by series creator Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto V heads to the city of Los Santos and its surrounding hills, countryside and beaches in the largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created."
- ―Rockstar Games[1]
Grand Theft Auto V Main Theme (Oh No - "Welcome to Los Santos")
Grand Theft Auto series
1961 – London 1961
1984 – Vice City Stories
1997 – Grand Theft Auto
1998 – Liberty City Stories
1999 – Grand Theft Auto 2 (Possible)
2000 – Advance
2008 – Grand Theft Auto IV
2013 – Grand Theft Auto 2 (Possible)
2013–present – Grand Theft Auto Online
Grand Theft Auto V (also known as Grand Theft Auto Five, GTA 5 or GTA V) is a video game developed by Rockstar North. It is the fifteenth installment in the Grand Theft Auto series and the successor of Grand Theft Auto IV. The original edition was released on September 17th, 2013 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions were released on November 18th, 2014, and was later released on April 14th, 2015 for the PC.
The original edition was announced on October 25th, 2011, the game's first trailer[2] was released on November 2nd, 2011, at 4:00 PM GMT. The game was initially slated for a Spring 2013 release, but was pushed to September 17th the same year. Then, on July 15th, 2013, Rockstar announced the Japanese release date for the game: October 10th, 2013, almost a month after it was released in the West.[3]The enhanced edition was announced on June 9th, 2014, with pre-orders made available on June 10.
Grand Theft Auto V is set circa 2013 in the city of Los Santos and its surrounding areas and tells the stories of three protagonists: Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, and Trevor Philips. It takes place about five years after the events of Grand Theft Auto IV, and four years after the events of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
As one of the most awaited video game titles to be released in 2013, the game was widely anticipated prior to its release. Grand Theft Auto V was released to universal acclaim, holding scores of 96 and above on MetaCritic and GameRankings, as well as receiving perfect scores from over 30 reviewers. The game sold 11.21 million copies and grossed $800 million on its first day, setting many records, and eventually making $1 billion within 3 days of the game's release.
Grand Theft Auto V evolves nearly every mechanic that was in the previous Grand Theft Auto games. As far as driving goes, the vehicles have been greatly improved, with Rockstar running more complex physics on them. The cars can even hold to the ground slightly better. The driving mechanics feel more like a racing game, particularly the Midnight Club series, compared to Grand Theft Auto IV's rocky, boat-like handling system. The shooting mechanics are better in terms of the feel of the mechanics and larger compared to the melee mechanics in the game, but that doesn't mean that the melee combat won't be fun, as it as been improved over the previous titles as well. Weapon selection has now also been changed. Instead of the old way of selecting through all the weapons, there is now a Weapon Wheel, which is similar to the one featured in Red Dead Redemption, another Rockstar game. Grand Theft Auto V draws inspirations from many different Rockstar titles in the past, including Max Payne 3, Midnight Club, Manhunt, and Red Dead Redemption.
There are many unique features in the game, one of those features is that when the players are playing as one of three protagonists in the game, the other two are living out their daily lives, and you will be surprised by what you find the characters doing when you switch back into them. Another unique feature is that the character swapping feature is executed in a Google Earth-styled manner and was displayed during a Game Informer demo, which was showed to have ran smoothly and without lag. The PC, PS4 and Xbox One versions present an exclusive feature, the first person mode The whole game can be played through the eyes of the protagonist. This gameplay mode presents a whole new way to play the game. Cars have detailed interiors different from one another, shooting is like that of a FPS game.
New activities have been added, such as yoga, triathlons, jet skiing, parachute jumps, tennis, golf, and scuba diving. Random events have also been added to the game and can appear any time, while the player is exploring the map. The mobile phone has returned from Grand Theft Auto IV but is now only used for calling the player's contacts, surfing the web, and quick saving. Giving people the middle finger is another new feature the player can use while in a vehicle (which Rockstar recommended you do in various locations around Los Santos to see the outcome of this effect, depending on where the player is at, they will get different reactions from pedestrians).
Rockstar has also made changes to the pedestrian mechanics; some pedestrians can be seen at the bus stops in East Los Santos, and the same people can reappear in Rockford Hills working on rich peoples' lawns and gardens. Some minor mechanics that help out the environment and looks of Los Santos come on at certain times, such as a sprinklers system coming on in the morning in rich areas like Morningwood.
The map is larger than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Red Dead Redemption combined. After some calculations by members of GawdAlmighty.com, that would equal to around 27.5 square miles/71.2 km2 when land and sea are combined. [3]
Grand Theft Auto V has more vehicles than in any other Grand Theft Auto game to date, with a variety of vehicles, including airplanes, helicopters, cars, utility vehicles, emergency service cars, motorcycles, and jet skis. Players are able to fly planes, which was impossible in Grand Theft Auto IV because of the size of the map, but the feature is now in Grand Theft Auto V because of the much larger map. There are also submarines that players are able to use to explore the Pacific Ocean. The Rhino from previous GTA titles has returned, including a new complex aiming system and a realistic depiction of a tank. A new feature also allows the player to roll-over a vehicle when the car is flipped upside down.
Businesses from Grand Theft Auto IV re-appear. New businesses also appear, such as the Bugstars fumigation company and Up-n-Atom Burger fast food restaurant. The option to eat from restaurants such as Burger Shot is no longer available. Instead, the player can only buy drinks from the various Vending Machines across the map.
The game features a large variety of weapons, like the Norinco Type 56-2 assault rifles with sound suppressors, mounted flashlights, olive drab polymer furniture, and side-folding stocks. There is now the option to mount attachments onto various different guns, each one affecting the performance. Melee weapons like the nightstick and the golf club that weren't present in Grand Theft Auto IV have also returned to Grand Theft Auto V.
Character Customization
In the game, the player has the option to customize the three protagonists' wardrobe and appearance. There is less customisation available compared to that of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (e.g. changing the body mass of the 3 characters isn't available as it was with CJ in San Andreas). The availability of tattoos, haircuts and ability to apply and change facial hair has returned from San Andreas after being missing from previous titles in the HD universe.
Grand Theft Auto V expands the multiplayer feature that was present in Grand Theft Auto IV. The multiplayer is treated as a additional title and is known as Grand Theft Auto Online. In GTA Online, multiplayer crews from Max Payne 3 can be carried over to Grand Theft Auto V. Grand Theft Auto V has multiplayer features linked to Rockstar's Social Club.
Multiplayer holds up to 16 people on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and 30 players in Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC versions.
Downloadable Content
DLCs have been released regularly since the launch of GTA V and GTA Online, adding new vehicles, weapons and other content. They are however more advanced in Online with the availability of jobs and properties along with additional character customization options like tattoos, clothing, masks, hairstyles etc.
Additional content is unlocked if the player buys the Collector's Edition of GTA V. It features a classic hot rod, a sports bike, an electric sports car, a shotgun and a hammer. This is available when the Collector's Edition is installed.
On November 19th, 2013, the first update was released, titled the Beach Bum Update, which featured four beach type vehicles, and two weapons, a pistol and a broken bottle. Since then, there has been five extra DLCs as follows;
On December 24th, 2013, a holiday themed DLC was released, it had limited time masks and featured snow, though the masks and snow were removed from the player's inventory after the update.
On February 13th 2014, a Valentine's Day DLC was released, referencing 1929's Valentine's Day Massacre. It featured a classic Cadillac-style 20's limo and a remake of the M1928A1 Thompson machine gun. Unlike the Beach Bum Update, content in Online was limited edition and was removed on March 3rd, 2014, a day before the next DLC.
On March 4th 2014, a business-style DLC was released. It featured three high end sports vehicles, and a private jet. It also featured two advanced weapons, a Carbine Rifle and a pistol.
On May 13th, 2014, another business-style DLC was released. This featured a hypercar, a sports car, a luxury SUV and a motorbike. It also featured another assault rifle.
On June 17th, 2014, a hipster style DLC was released. This featured six vehicles including two hatchbacks, a supermini, a lowrider, two sedans and an off road truck, an adapted version of an already present SUV. It also featured another pistol and knife.
On July 1st 2014, another special was released, this time in commemoration of Independence Day. It featured a monster truck, motorbike, a classic Musket rifle and a firework launcher. Like Valentine's Day's DLC, it was limited edition. The content was removed on August 3rd 2014.
On August 19th, 2014, a flight-school themed DLC was added to GTA V. This featured four new vehicles : the Swift returning from The Ballad of Gay Tony, the Besra trainer jet, the Miljet military passenger jet, and the Coquette Classic, and introduced the Flight School for Online.
On October 3rd, 2014, The Last Team Standing update was released. It added a shotgun and a sniper rifle, two bikes and a sports car.
On December 18th, 2014 a special holiday themed DLC was re-released. The DLC includes the Vapid Slamvan, returning from The Lost and Damned, a clean variant of the Rat-Loader and "racing" versions of the Massacro and Jester. Two new weapons were introduced, the Proximity Mine and the Homing Rocket Launcher. There was holiday themed clothing released as well as the ability to purchase a third property.
On March 10th, 2015, a long-time Heists Update was released, including a vast range of new heist missions, similar to them of Story Mode, with the highest theoretical gains in GTA Online. The update contained many new vehicles, which are unlocked after playing heists, they include a fast motorcycle, several armed helicopters, a returning jet fighter, several armored vehicles and two large trucks fitted with large machine guns. A motorcycle and a large jeep are unlocked after downloading the DLC. The only weapon added was a Flare Gun. Note that the content was only added to Grand Theft Auto Online, and cannot be accessed in Story Mode.
On June 10th, 2015, a money-orientated Ill-Gotten Gains Part 1 DLC was released. Part of a 2-part content update, the content included a new SMG, a new hyper car, a muscle car, a luxury coupe, a classic sports car and two gold-plated aircraft. Hundreds of new clothing items and accessories were also added to clothing stores across Los Santos.
On July 8th, 2015, the second part of the Ill-Gotten Gains content update, the Ill-Gotten Gains Part 2 DLC was released. The content included two new weapons, an off-road buggy, a muscle sedan, classic sports car, two-door hyper car, a new motorcycle and classic boat.
On September 15th, 2015, the Rockstar Editor came to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 ports of GTA V via the GTA Online-focused Freemode Events Update. It introduced new features, which also arrived to the PC version in the update.
Rockstar has confirmed future DLCs, including GTA V centered DLCs including new assassinations and property both for the older and enhanced editions.
Enhanced Version Content
Special unlockable content is also made available to PS3 and Xbox 360 users who bought the enhanced edition on PS4, Xbox One or PC featuring, a Rail Gun , Hatchet, a Picador-inspired monster truck, two returning muscle cars (the Stallion and the Dukes, the latter of which also comes in an armoured variant), a new Submersible (the Kraken Sub), a modified Blista Compact, and a seaplane.
On November 3rd 2011, Rockstar Games confirmed that the game would take place in Los Santos and the surrounding countryside - and will not feature a recreated rendition of an entire State of San Andreas - in a statement on their Newswire:
- "We are very proud to officially announce that Grand Theft Auto V is in full development."
Developed by series creator Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto V heads to the city of Los Santos and surrounding hills, countryside and beaches in the largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created.
- "A bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer, Grand Theft Auto V focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present day Southern California."
During the Game Informer Grand Theft Auto V Cover Story, the vice president of creativity for Rockstar Games, Dan Houser, has stated that Los Santos this time around is different and a lot more developed (having cities, wilderness, deserts, farmlands, towns, a Mount Chiliad, a military base and a fully detailed ocean floor (including coral beds). The state of San Andreas is also about five times larger than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Red Dead Redemption. After some calculations by members of GawdAlmighty.com, that would equal to around 27.5 square miles/71.2 km2 when land and sea are put together. [4]
Characters and Premise
- Los Santos: a sprawling sun-soaked metropolis full of self-help gurus, starlets and fading celebrities, once the envy of the Western world, now struggling to stay afloat in an era of economic uncertainty and cheap reality TV. Amidst the turmoil, three very different criminals plot their own chances of survival and success: Franklin, a former street gangster, now looking for real opportunities and serious money; Michael, a professional ex-con whose retirement is a lot less rosy than he hoped it would be; and Trevor, a violent maniac driven by the chance of a cheap high and the next big score. Running out of options, the crew risks everything in a series of daring and dangerous heists that could set them up for life.
- - Game's Description
Michael is a retired professional bank robber, who after making a sweet deal with the FIB, returned to the life of crime. Trevor is the loose cannon in this story, and is also a long time best friend of Michael's and a hothead psychopath as well. Last but certainly not least, we have Franklin, a young and grim repossession agent who has a large amount of experience behind the wheel, but no real experience with crime until he meets Michael while he was trying to hustle.
Other main characters include Amanda De Santa, Michael's wife; Jimmy De Santa and Tracey De Santa, Michael's children; Lamar Davis, Franklin's friend; Ron Jakowski, Trevor's paranoid friend; and Lester Crest, an associate of the protagonists.
Although it is not specifically stated when exactly in 2013 the game takes place, the following evidence suggests August - October 2013:
- There's an advertisement on the the side of a strip mall in Davis stating that it's having a "Summer Sale on flat-screen TV's".
- The calendar in Trevor's trailer is open on the month of August.
- When Michael meets Lester to come out of retirement, the calendar in Lester's House shows September.
- After Franklin moves into 3671 Whispymound Drive, a bank statement is opened on his entry sideboard. Close inspection in the enhanced version reveals it is his September statement for transactions in August.
- During the mission "Cleaning out the Bureau", a calendar briefly seen in Harvey Molina's apartment is also open on the month of September.
- Towards the end/completion of the storyline, one of the barbers in Sandy Shores might comment on how it is "October already".
- Some houses have pumpkins on their front porches. Pumpkins are rarely seen at any time of the year other than autumn.
- In the enhanced version, the text message that the creators of Space Monkey 3D send the player after completing Monkey Mosaics state that the film would be coming out in the holiday season, this again suggests that the story would take place in late-summer to fall.
Unique Features
- The map is now one entire landmass, rather than several islands.
- Players can ragdoll by pressing X/Square/SPACE (Xbox/PlayStation/PC) then B/Circle/R (Xbox/Playstation/PC).
- Players can play as animals (enhanced version) unlike any other GTA game.
Editions Comparison
Original Edition
|Standard Edition
|Special Edition
|Collector's Edition
|Game disc
|Printed Map (Los Santos and Blaine County)
|Access to Atomic Blimp
|Steelbook with exclusive artwork
|Slipcover for Steelbook
|Blueprint Map (Los Santos and Blaine County)
|Special Ability Boost
|Stunt Plane Trials
|Bonus Outfits, Tattoos, etc.
|Additional Weapons
|Security Deposit Bag
|Grand Theft Auto V key
|New Era Cap
|Custom Grand Theft Auto Online Characters
|Unique Vehicles and Garage Property
Hobbies and Pastimes
These are all the hobbies and pastimes listed in the Rockstar Social Club page, note that they are not all mandatory to achieve the 100% completion in the game.
- Stunt Plane Time Trials (Only in the Special/Collector's Edition and Enhanced Version)
- Shooting Range
- Street Races
- Tennis
- Golf
- Darts
- Strip Club
- Triathlon
- Offroad Races
- Bail Bond
- Arms Trafficking Air
- Arms Trafficking Ground
- Hunting
- Flight School
- Sea Races
- Yoga
- Parachute Jumps
Next-Gen & PC Versions
|This article or section refers to "enhanced version" content in the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC renditions of Grand Theft Auto V and/or Grand Theft Auto Online, that is absent on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 versions.
For a complete list of the features of the "enhanced" version of Grand Theft Auto V, please see here.
Prior to the announcement of the eighth generation consoles and PC versions, there was wide speculation and anticipation regarding an official announcement from Rockstar. On change.org, there was a petition with 728,000+ signatures asking for a PC version at the time of announcement. Within the comments section of the Rockstar Newswire, and many other GTA related blogs, there were many comments asking for a PC/Next Gen release. After its reveal at E3 2014, the news spread like wildfire, and became one of the most talked-about announcements.
The enhanced version of Grand Theft Auto V was released on November 18, 2014 for the PS4 and Xbox One and was released for PC on April 14, 2015. With the release, there are many improvements and changes compared to the versions released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. No major graphical changes from PS4 and Xbox One are seen in the PC version, other than further Draw Distance and 4K capable quality. The PC version also features 2 exclusive radio stations: The Lab (now available for all consoles from the Ill-Gotten Gains Part 2 update) and Self Radio, and the addition of the Rockstar Editor.
The biggest new feature was a first person view, which is not only available in vehicles, but is also for the first time available on foot. Several other features were added. These include (see edition comparison table for more information):
|Increased reflections on vehicle bodywork, especially in high-key lighting
|New detailed interiors with working speedometers and steering wheels
|New customization options, including underglow.
|Most DLC vehicles from the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions appear in regular traffic
|Modded vehicles can spawn in traffic
|New vehicles — some of which will be exclusive to players who played the original edition of the game — including:
|Special/Collector's Edition vehicles are now available to all players, including:
|Two new weapons exclusive to players who played the original edition:
|New dog breeds, such as:
|New animals, including:
|New weather effects
|Better lighting
|Improved skybox
|Updated Radar with a three-dimensional appearance and new color scheme
|Pause menu Map is now grayscale and in higher resolution
|Longer draw distance
|Higher resolution textures
|1080p on PS4 and Xbox One, multi-monitors and 4K support for the PC version (hardware dependent)
|Gameplay features & other
|First person view & First person hood camera (vehicles only). (found on PC version, Introduced onto XB1/PS4 in the Ill-Gotten Gains Part 1 Update).
|New actions that can be performed while taking a selfie using the Snapmatic.
|New walking animations available to the protagonist in GTA Online.
|New collectibles in the form of Peyote Plants.
|New side missions exclusive to players who played the original edition
|All previous non time-limited DLC
|Improved framerate of 60 FPS (depending on the hardware used, PC only)
|New foliage and environmental details
|Increased traffic and pedestrian density
|New interiors
|Increased Pedestrian-Player and Pedestrian-Pedestrian interaction
|Rockstar Editor (found on PC version, Introduced onto XB1/PS4 in the Freemode Events Update)
|Over 100 new songs for in-game radio stations
|Two new radio stations for PC Version: Self Radio and The Lab, the latter will be introduced to PS4/XB1 in an up-coming DLC
|New sound effects, including cars, car horns, sirens etc.
|New damage effects
|New Cinematic Camera Views
|New 3D mobile phone models (first person view)
|Several new loading screen artworks
- See more, Grand Theft Auto V/Screenshots
- See more, Grand Theft Auto V/Artworks
Controversy and Criticism
Like all previous GTA games, Grand Theft Auto V has courted controversy, though has been viewed by some as significantly more violent and offensive than its predecessors.
Controversy (missions)
A mission which requires the player to torture a target for the government has proven significantly controversial. The mission contains water-boarding, using a wrench on kneecaps and genitals, electrocution and even an action where the player can perform tooth extraction using pliers.
GTA V received criticism both for the game and its Online counterpart. One part was missions, as only three made the player profit, and only one of them topped $1,000,000. Missions were longer, more taxing and low to non-paying. Only seven non heist missions gave a payout; Franklin and Lamar gave the player $250, Nervous Ron gave the player $62,000 and Lester's Assassinations gave the player varying amounts of between $3,000 and $10,000. Further criticism included the recent lack of an actual discounted price of the game during the Steam Summer Sale events for the PC version of GTA V, which retained the price at $60, resulting in a major backlash among other customers.
Copyrighting and Lawsuits
After the game was released, actress Lindsay Lohan claimed that Rockstar had used her likeness without permission for in game celeb Lacey Jonas, which Rockstar denied.
In October 2013 Daz Dillinger claimed Rockstar used two songs from Death Row Records without permission, the songs in question being Kurupt's C-Walk and Tha Dogg Pound's Nothin' But the Cavi Hit featuring Mack 10. However, Dillinger was not signed to Death Row at the time, and had an ongoing feud with Kurupt. The lawsuit was eventually dropped and the songs stayed in the game.
Title Update Notes
To see a list of GTA V's patch notes history, see Grand Theft Auto V/Title Update Notes
- For the first time, certain cars can retract and deploy their soft top/hard top covers. In previous games, convertibles were stuck with the roof they had or didn't have (with the exception of being able to install a permanent cover on low-riders in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas).
- Grand Theft Auto V is the first game in the franchise to feature in-game incidental music (not counting cutscenes, credits and pause menus, as several earlier games had incidental music for these sequences).
- The registration plates have orange stickers on the top right. The same plates are used for 2013 California registration plates. The same was also used in California in 2008.
- Each protagonists' character was made to fit a specific Grand Theft Auto player:
- Michael initially represents the player who has already "beat the game", now living out their life as a successfully retired criminal.
- Trevor is a complete psychopath, representing the type of player who prefers to kill and cause chaos when they free roam.
- Franklin is a small time thug wanting to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld similar to the traditional protagonists that the player controls in previous games.
- Each protagonist seems to represent a different Rockstar game. Michael represents both Max Payne and Red Dead Redemption, seeing as he is a troubled retired middle aged "family man" with a criminal background and bullet-time ability. Franklin represents Midnight Club: Los Angeles, due to him being an ambitious young man with an impressive driving ability. Trevor represents Manhunt, mainly, because of his psychotic personality and reckless behavior that defines his character.
- In addition, the protagonists' personalities can be determined by how long they sleep. Michael sleeps for 6 hours, Franklin sleeps for 8 hours, and Trevor sleeps for 12 hours. This could mean that Franklin is the most "normal" of the characters.
- The game Saints Row IV has a DLC pack of weapons and clothes named GAT V, which is a reference to the initials of Grand Theft Auto V. The publisher, Deep Silver released it for free on PC, mocking GTA V's absence from the platform at the time.
- The script for Grand Theft Auto V is 10,000+ pages long, according to Dan Houser in an interview in 2012.
- The name of the theme song ("Welcome To Los Santos") might be a reference to the first lyrics in Young Maylay's "San Andreas Theme Song" being "Welcome to San Andreas".
- Also, if you listen to the two theme songs simultaneously, the buildup and beats of both songs are very similar. The main difference of course is the use of instruments as the "San Andreas Theme Song" has a much more "gang oriented" feel to it with a heavy reliance on acoustics (electronic piano, chimes), while "Welcome to Los Santos" is infused with more bass and horns in addition to acoustics to give it a much "grander and open" feel (saxophone, trumpet).
- In the game, there is an animation for if the player gets stuck under a vehicle, but it is almost never used.
- The animation is used if the player is stuck under a truck, but if the player is stuck under a car, they will simply teleport next to the car.
- Grand Theft Auto V has similar mission structures to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas such as heists requiring setup, as did the main heist in GTA San Andreas and introducing characters by name. Also many flying missions resembled ones from San Andreas such as Nervous Ron which required dropping equipment from a plane later on in the mission like N.O.E. in San Andreas. Minor Turbulence also had similarities to N.O.E. but also Freefall and Stowaway.
- There is a noticeable similarity between the GTA V logo and the icon on the 1899 five-dollar bill.[5]
- GTA V is the third game in the series to start with a bank robbery, with Grand Theft Auto III and The Ballad of Gay Tony being the first and second respectively. Unlike the previous two games, however, the bank robbery in GTA V is a playable mission instead of just a simple cutscene.
- ↑ GTA V Official Announcement
- ↑ Grand Theft Auto V Official Trailer - rockstargames.com
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ http://9gag.com/gag/azErzzx
External Links
- {{#NewWindowLink: http://www.rockstargames.com/V/videos/video/10998 | Official trailer }}
- {{#NewWindowLink: http://www.rockstargames.com/V | Official website }}


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Despite the best efforts of their marketing departments to abandon their traditional audiences, theatres around Australia remain only occasionally of interest to the bogan. This occurs during the runs of things such as Shane Warne the Musical, Puppetry of the Penis, and the farewell tour of something they once fleetingly liked.
However, there is one type of theatre that the bogan has maintained a hunger for. A theatre whose exterior is so maxtreme that it couldn't possibly contain things that bogans do not like. Theatre restaurants have been present in Australia's capital cities for decades, and also can be found in bogan strongholds such as Newcastle and the Gold Coast.
While theatre restaurants may appear to be particularly bogan, there is a brutal subtext to these venues. The people who theatre restaurants pay to amuse the bogan on stage are very unlikely to be bogans. Generally, they are inner urban uni students or drama graduates who have failed to take Hollywood by storm. As punishment, they are forced to spend the rest of eternity dressed up in corsets and plastic fangs, clumsily overplaying physical comedy so that the bogan knows when to laugh.
Because the actors and hosts at the restaurant all look ridiculous, this gives the bogan the green light to express its own sartorial personality when attending a theatre restaurant. An unfortunate side-effect of this, is that theatre restaurants are popular venues for hens' nights. The boganic bride-to-be, adorned in enough penis-themed products to impregnate a latex sex doll, is in its element at a theatre restaurant.
These actors will cavort around the restaurant, barking into lapel microphones, and involving selected bogans in the hilarity. Meanwhile, the bogan chews its way through a plate of rubbery beef and blackbean, and offers the room unsolicited insight into what's on its mind.
As the bogan gnaws futilely on its rapidly congealing meal, it pauses to consider the entertainment value of the miserable actors on the stage before it in silence. While it finds the entertainment to be awesome in the consistent way that the stars of the show will draw attention to the flaws of various other guests, and the buxom wenches seem to be hovering around its table quite a bit. But then, the host, Count Dracula himself, swaggers towards the bogan, eyeing its Elwood t-shirt and lycra sleeve 'tattoo'…


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I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite. ~ Henry David Thoreau
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In doing some much needed cleaning today I came upon a bag in the bottom and back of a drawer. It was an old grocery bag, the plastic kind, and it was jam packed. I pulled it out wondering what sort of crap I had tossed in there, probably during some move.......and then I opened it.
And saw my whole life tumble out.
It was, essentially, every picture that I ever thought was lost, from grade school through college.
I'll be sharing a lot of these with you because there are moments in these pictures that were lost in time that came zipping back to life today as I sat crying and shaking going throught them, picture by picture. I could remember zoom lenses not working, and what we had been doing when the pictures were taken. There was none of that "Man what was that" in the stack......each moment jumped off the paper and I could remember their sounds and smells and it was heart wrenching and precious all at the same time.
I would like to start with these two. I am 12 in this picture. In my arms are my two treasures, my cat Morris (who lived to be 18) and my brother Matt, who in this picture is just 1. In this picture I have just gotten home from intramural basketball practice (see the shirt). It's Fall and we are sitting outside because it's a pretty warm day and my Aunt Suzie has just come over, she was home for some reason. She took the pictures. Not too long after this picture we went down to the Pizza King for dinner. I had Mello Yello to drink with my pizza. It was a very happy day.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Posted by Gidge Uriza at 9:08 PM
4 comments:
What a wonderful find! My parents rarely took photos of us, so I think it's great that you have this photo of an everyday moment. I can't wait to see more!
I can see why you named your cat Morris! And aw, how cute are you and your baby brother?!
- Sun Dec 03, 11:22:00 PM
You guys are adorable!
- Mon Dec 04, 04:44:00 PM
- christa said...
oh what a treasure! i can't wait to see some of the others!
- Tue Dec 05, 01:14:00 AM
- Becky said...
How incredibly sweet. I was 12 when my baby brother was born too.
- Tue Dec 05, 11:23:00 AM


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We've all seen or heard news about dogs and cats saving their owners' lives, but rabbits?
A year ago, I did a post on a pet rabbit in Alaska who saved its owners from a house fire. Sadly, the rabbit didn't survive.
Now comes another heroic rabbit credited with saving its owners' lives. Happily, this story has a happy ending for the rabbit as well as its people.
Jerry Slavin reports for Skew News that a pet bunny named Blazer saved her human family, Jake and Mary Pruett of Bridgeton, New Jersey, from a deadly gas leak.
Blazer, the hero bunny
Blazer has a litter box, so she is allowed to roam the house like a dog or cat. There are pet steps next to the couple's bed which enable Blazer to get up and down, although the bunny usually comes up during the daytime when the couple is awake and rarely visits the bed during the night.
Mary Pruett recounts that at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Saturday night, Blazer woke her up by "walking on my face and making noises like a horn was stuck in her nose." Once awake, Pruett immediately smelled the gas leak and roused her husband Jake. They quickly got out of their house with Blazer, then called the Bridgeton City fire department.
Fireman Steve Chambers observed that "it is lucky that they got out alive. Leaks like this are often fatal either due to death from toxicity of the gas or an explosion."
According to the Center for Disease Control, there are as many as 500 deaths a year due to gas leaks. Since carbon monoxide causes unconsciousness, victims who are already asleep often die without waking up.
In the case of the Pruetts, the gas leak was due to a faulty stove installation. Firemen were able to stop the gas that same night, and the Pruetts and Blazer returned to their home the next day, Sunday, after the fumes had vented.
H/t FOTM's Joseph.


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Basic information
Summary of topics offered - College of Entrepreneurship and Law
|Type of work:
Bachelor thesis
|Ústavní orgány a jejich vzájemné vztahy
State of topic:
approved (JUDr. David Šmíd, Ph.D. - head of department)
|Thesis supervisor:
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A 'Miracle' No One Died in Chicago Assault-Rifle Shooting
Thirteen injured, including a 3-year-oId boy, in South Side shooting.
Sept. 20, 2013 -- It's a "miracle" no one died in a gang-related shooting that injured 13, including a 3-year-old boy, at a South Side Chicago park Thursday night, Chicago police said today.
The weapon used in the shooting was an assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine, according to police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
"A military-grade weapon on the streets of Chicago is simply unacceptable," he said at a news conference this morning.
The shooting occurred around 10:15 p.m. local time at a basketball court in Cornell Square Park in the city's Back of the Yards neighborhood. Among the shooting victims was 3-year-old Deonta Howard, who is expected to survive, according to McCarthy and a family representative.
"We're not clear on the intended target at this point, but there were a number of gang members on the scene," McCarthy said, adding, "quite obviously, a 3-year-old is not a gang member."
Deonta is at Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to the ear that exited through his mouth, police spokesman Ron Gaines told ABC News.
Four others are in serious condition and the rest are in stable or good condition.
Ages of the victims range from 3 to 41 and include two teenagers, Gaines said. Three of the victims are women.
"It happened so fast," a witness only identified as Jack said. "I was over at the side of the park and I heard the shots. I came over here and there was a lot of people down."
Police superintendent McCarthy said there might have been as many as three shooters involved and authorities were "interviewing a number of people," but no one was in custody.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel canceled events in New Jersey and Washington to travel back to Chicago in the wake of the incident.
The shooting comes nearly three weeks after Chicago saw an outburst of violence Labor Day weekend that ended with eight dead and 20 others injured. The city's Police Department has responded to shootings that have grabbed national headlines by stepping up its crime-fighting efforts, paying overtime to add patrols to some hard-hit neighborhoods, including the Back of the Yards, where Thursday's shooting took place.
McCarthy today noted that authorities have already seized 5,000 guns this year, emphasizing the need to change the gun laws that he said would avoid more deadly shootings.
"It's not just a police problem; there's a structural problem with our laws that facilitates the flow of illegal guns to our streets," he said.
In a February visit to his hometown, President Obama addressed the rising violence. Obama said absent fathers and broken marriages are among the contributing factors in cases of youth poverty, violence and crime. He said one of the solutions is strengthening parental role models.
"There's no more important ingredient for success, nothing that would be more important for us reducing violence than strong, stable families, which means we should do more to promote marriage and encourage fatherhood," Obama said.
South Side teenager Hadiya Pendleton has become a symbol for the tragic loss resulting from gun violence in the city. Pendleton, 15, was gunned down days after performing at Obama's inauguration earlier this year.
First lady Michelle Obama attended Pendleton's funeral.
Police say Pendleton was killed in a shooting blocks from her school on the city's South Side, and about a mile from the Obamas' own neighborhood.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Rae from theNotice shares her skincare secret to flawless, pore-free skin.
Phyrra gives you an exclusive interview with Fyrinnae Cosmetics in February's Indie Spotlight.
Betty's Dragon Fruit Eye Look is now up at Betty Girl Makeup. It's her first tutorial and she's wicked excited!
Arianne at Glitter Geek is absolutely smitten over her new drugstore superhero -- Aveeno Hand Cream.
Krasey Beauty takes New York Fashion Week by storm, and goes backstage with L.A.M.B, MAC, CND, and MoroccanOil.
Lisa Kate attempts her first Konadicure...please help her!
Jellyminx goes shopping again and again and again and again!!
Sarah at I Heart Cosmetics hunted high and low, and finally managed to purchase the Estee Lauder and Michael Kors Very Hollywood Collection.
Thought you found your HG red lipstick? So did Hell Candy Make Up until she discovered this oh so glamorous lippie!
There be lemmings-a-plenty when Lipglossiping shows off NARS Purple Rain this week!
Tarte ReCreate Anti-Aging Foundation just so happens to be the answer to Prime Beauty's prayers.
Melovemakeup shows how gorgeous the eyeshadow in the Trucco Angelface Palette is - duochrome heaven!
Say bye bye to dark circles and hello to bright eyes with Liparazzi!
Maggie gets electrified by L'Oreal HiP's Black Shock.
This week on Get Lippie, Louise goes a little bananas at the makers of "Chemical Free" products and hopes she'll be forgiven.
Lisamarie from Beauty Crazed gets super excited by Chanel's new Fast Track Orient Extreme mini collection!
Interested in joining Beauty Blog Link Love? Check out this information page and give us a shout!


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*excludes weekends and bank holidays
This is a 2ft 9w LED Tube available in 6,500k (daylight). It is an ideal energy saving retrofit for linear fluorescent T8 tubes and comes with a replacement LED starter. It is CE and RoHS compliant with an IP20 rating and a 3 year warranty. It has a rated life of 30,000 hours and a lumen output of 800.
Please Note: the minimum order for this product is a quantity of 6.
LED First Choice products are sourced and manufactured by a highly reputable company based here in the UK. We supply the very latest LED technology at very affordable prices along with a vast stock availability.
Delivery Details
We offer FREE standard delivery on orders over £50. All orders are shipped via one of our Premium Next Working Day or Standard 48 Hour delivery services.* Orders placed before 2:30pm Monday-Friday will be despatched the very same day, subject to stock availability.
Next Day Delivery orders placed before 2:30pm on Friday will be delivered on the following Monday (excluding bank holidays). Items are not despatched on weekends.
*Some items are shipped straight from manufacturer. These are sent via a Next Day Delivery service, usually APC Overnight.
We understand that getting your items delivered safety and on time is paramount whilst also staying cost effective. This is why we have selected the best services available.
Royal Mail 48 Tracked- £2.99
This service provided by Royal Mail is a fully tracked service from the time it is despatched by us to the time it turns up to your door. This service includes an SMS or Email notification prior to delivery to ensure you are in for collection.
DPD Next Working Day 1hr timeslot- £8.33*
Our premium DPD service gives you a 1-hour time slot; you'll also be able to track your parcel from the time your item is despatched till 15 minutes before arrival.
*Price per 10kg
Returns Policy
We offer a 30-day, no-quibble returns or replacement policy. If you are unhappy in any way with your purchase, you can return it for a refund or replacement, as long as you return it in the same condition as it arrived (original/ undamaged packaging and product) within 30 days of receiving it. We will pay for your return postage should your item be faulty as long as you send it using Royal Mail 2nd class recorded delivery and within the 30-days of receiving it.
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Warm White
Warm White is a similar to conventional lighting and has a softer feel. Perfect for areas such as living rooms and bedrooms.
Daylight colour is used to represent 'daylight' indoors. It has neither the softness of warm white or the starkness of cool white.
Cool White
Cool White is a brighter, whiter light. More suited for the bathroom and kitchen.


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Discuss weather forecasts and events in New England and the Northeast.
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
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High and scenic lots available. Some southern exposure and some wooded lots. 12 additional lots available starting at 2.1 acres upto 4.4 acres. Close to town, but you don't have to sacrifice privacy.
Features Lots and Acreage
|Total Acres: 3.4
|Zoning: Res
|Present Zoning: Single family
|Lot Size:
|Lot Description: Corner, Rural - in subdivision
|Taxes: $14
|Elementary School: Monroe
|Middle School: Monroe
|High School: Monroe
|School District: Monroe
|Body of Water:


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Counter Reformation
Counter Reformation, 16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the Protestants' revulsion at the corrupt conditions in the church, there was present none of the tradition breaking that characterized Protestantism. The Counter Reformation was led by conservative forces whose aim was both to reform the church and to secure the its traditions against the innovations of Protestant theology and against the more liberalizing effects of the Renaissance.
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches: General Terms and Concepts


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Yes, this is Oldsmobile's idea of a performance car in the early 1990s. I... I don't know what I'm supposed to say right now.
How can you tell this is the "fast" Achieva? Look at those silver accents! That deep chin spoiler! The 184 horsepower engine! The dives under acceleration!
It's crazy how many times this can be called a hot rod, and it's definitely not your father's Oldsmobile. It's the most potent Olds in ages.
Ok, I need to take a nap now.
(Hat Tip to TestDriveJunkie!)


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Paris Hilton Prosecutor Arrested on Drug Charges
David Charles Schubert allegedly bought crack cocaine as the law looked on
The Las Vegas district attorney who helped prosecute Paris Hilton and Bruno Mars on separate drug charges in 2010 was arrested and booked into jail on drug charges of his own over the weekend.
David Charles Schubert, 47, was booked into jail Saturday on a charge of possession of cocaine, according to jail records. The charge was the same on which Hilton and Mars were initially booked following their arrests last summer. The socialite and the musician both later struck plea deals.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Schubert, a chief deputy district attorney, was arrested after allegedly buying crack cocaine from a street dealer as, unbeknownst to him, a police officer looked on.
Schubert was often assigned to Las Vegas's high-profile and celebrity cases, and is a member of a federal drug task force.
Possession of cocaine is a felony in Nevada.


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The owner of PC World and Currys benefited from the demise of rival Comet today by reporting a bigger-than-expected surge in Christmas sales.
Dixons Retail said like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland were up 8% in the 12 weeks to January 5, despite administrators for the failed retailer holding a clearance sale for the vast bulk of the period.
The group said sales of tablet computers were "phenomenal", with more than a million sold in the UK and Ireland over the period, with five a second in the week before Christmas.
Apple iPads made up a third of tablet sales, but it also had strong demand for the Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus models.
Chief executive Sebastian James believed the group gained many new customers from Comet, prompting it to take on 500 permanent staff from the failed chain.
More than 1,000 of its temporary Christmas staff came from Comet after it went into administration in November.
But the group warned that margins were down 0.5% in the period, with the mark-up on tablet computers lower than on laptops.
However Dixons said it expected underlying profits for the year to be in line with market expectations of between £75m and £85m.


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As I look through the list of nominees for the 66th Golden Globes with the aid of the Family Forest®, the festivities on Sunday night appear like they will be like an extended family reunion.
The Kevin Bacon style six-degrees-of-separation connections in the Family Forest® starting with the five Best Picture finalists will probably surprise almost everyone.
Each of the people I name below, plus Kevin Bacon, are already lineage-linked into the Family Forest®. This was a far more difficult task than it might appear at first glance, since before the end of the last century, the requirement for entry into the Family Forest® is that one must be related by birth, marriage, or adoption to someone who is already included.
Start with Frost/Nixon. Sir David Frost's wife and Richard Nixon both connect into the Royal Channel, which means that David Frost was actually interviewing a distant cousin by marriage.
Then there is Ron Howard-directed The Reader co-star Ralph Fiennes, who also connects into the Royal Channel, which means that he has family ties to both of the two Frost/Nixon main characters. He also shares ancestors with the historical figure he is up for Best Supporting Actor for portraying in The Duchess, Sir William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire (who by the way is an ancestor of a wife of Norman Mailer), as well as being a distant cousin of many of the other characters in the picture.
For his performance in Bernard and Doris Ralph Fiennes is also up for Best Actor in a Mini-series or Motion Picture made for Television. His co-star in Bernard and Doris, Susan Sarandon, is up for Best Actress in a Mini-series or Motion Picture made for Television for her portrayal of Doris Duke, who is also in the Family Forest®.
Another Best Picture nominee is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button starring Brad Pitt, who is up for Best Actor for his performance in this picture. His girlfriend Angelina Jolie is up for Best Actress for her performance in the Clint Eastwood picture The Changeling. Each of these three stars can be connected through six-degrees-of-separation family ties connections to almost everyone already mentioned above.
Other 66th Golden Globes nominees in the Family Forest® are Kyra Sedgwick of The Closer (click here for some of her cousins), Sean Penn for Milk, Tom Cruise for
Tropic Thunder Shirley MacLaine for Coco Chanel, Laura Dern for Recount, and Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock.
The Family Forest® is a unique digital Hollywood resource that picks up where IMdB leaves off in two areas. One is connecting fans through family ties to Hollywood personalities and movie characters, and the other is bringing content and family ties to many of IMdB's character profiles which are now empty or very skeletal. Our earlier blog about John Adams and star Paul Giamatti, another 66th Golden Globes nominee, helps explain why.
Enjoy the show!
P.S. The Family Forest® Project is looking for a celebrity spokesperson. Details available here.


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There are countless markets in China that sell un-branded merchandise that appears to be blatant knock-offs, but there are certain places in every major city in China that sell knock-off and counterfeit goods right in the open.
Located in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, these markets are huge tourist traps. They sell everything from fake designer nail polish to bootleg video games.
Unlike the technology gray markets, these shopping centers are tourist destinations. Everyday there are at least one or two coach buses parked out front, bringing domestic and international tourists alike to these places.
Within the markets, there are individual stall stores. Some stalls sell clothing—everything from unbranded t-shirts with "I Love Beijing" (imitating the "I Love NY" design) to women's underwear. Others sell cheap knick-knacks, such as Buddha lighters and little red Mao books. The electronic stalls sell shanzhai (fake) tablet computers and cell phones to even bootleg Sony Vitas that say "PSP MADE IN JAPAN" on the front. (The irony is that the Vita is made in China!)
How these centers are still operational today is still a legal mystery. The photos above were taken today at the Silk Street Market (秀水街) in Beijing. The Silk Street Market has been the focus of many copyright infringement lawsuits in China over the last decade. Back in 2009, the Silk Street Market and many others like it were hit with copyright infringement lawsuits which led to the closing of 29 stalls.
Despite newer and stronger intellectual property laws in China and stronger law enforcement, places like the Silk Market still persist. Walking through the market today, I saw some products that were blatantly counterfeited, I was also approached by a man in the basement offering to sell me authentic Coach and LV bags for cheap.
Moving up to the fifth floor where they sold electronics, I approached a booth selling Beats by Dre headphones. I asked the lady if her headphones were real, she said they were. I told her I didn't believe her, and she started showing me how the headphones were legit compared to what her neighbor was selling. When I asked her for the price, she told me 500 RMB, or $80 US.
Real Beats costs about 3000 RMB ($475 US) and they don't come in Neon Pink.
Jack Chang, Chairman of the Quality Brands Protection Committee in China, said in an interview in 2008 with China IP Magazine, the reason why the Silk Market persists, is because of the customers.
"Vendors earned 100 Yuan yesterday for selling fake products, but earned nothing today for not selling, therefore their interests are impaired at the beginning of IP protection," he said. "Interest is the root cause for the survival of counterfeit products. Economic incentive leads to the combination of supply and marketing, the buyer is the mother of the seller. From the standpoint of the market's managers, and high rents for stalls induce vendors into selling counterfeit products to make ends meet.
"Therefore all these counterfeit deals are rooted in economic benefits."
It seems like there is indeed a demand for knock-off goods, because business at the Silk Street seems to continue on as normal—legal troubles and all.


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Long before the advent of strawberry-flavored cocaine and the Cosmopolitan cocktail, women were enjoying other adventures in mixing fun flavors with mood-altering substances. According to this news item taken from an old issue of Popular Science, the cosmetics-minded, booze-drinking women of America were painting their lips with lipcolors in flavors of Champagne and Jesus Juice. (And for those with black belts in alcoholism... rye!). Full article after the jump.
Choose Your Flavor In Lipstick [Modern Mechanix]
Related: New Twist In Illicit Drugs: Fruit Flavor [SacramentoBee]


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I'm a little late with this years printable holiday tags... but there's still a week to go... so, if you haven't wrapped and labeled yet - my Santa and his Alligator assistant might help!
• click on the image
- it will open in its own window
at high resolution (300 dpi)
• copy that to your desktop.
• print as many as you'd like in any size you'd like:)
Happy wrapping and labelling:)!
and if you don't think these will do the job... well... check out the previous year's tags:


text:
Krawiec's Confidence Builds Momentum
By John Sturbin | Senior Writer
Eddie Krawiec captured the NHRA's Pro Stock Motorcycle championship in 2008 without winning a race. Should he repeat as Countdown to 1 champion this season, race wins won't be an issue for "Fast Eddie."
Krawiec posted his third national event win of 2009 Sunday in the final of the 30th annual Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway. Advancing to his sixth consecutive final round, Krawiec booked an automatic win when Andrew Hines – Eddie's fellow Screamin' Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson teammate – red-lighted at the start by 0.008-second. Krawiec, meanwhile, covered the quarter-mile in 7.450-seconds at 175.62 mph.
For the record, Krawiec became only the second National Hot Rod Association competitor and first since Top Fueler Rob Bruins in 1979 to secure a championship without winning at least one race. Sunday, Krawiec exited Morrison, Colo., with another "Wally;" an 88-point lead (739-651) over Hines and a mid-season infusion of confidence.
Recall that Krawiec claimed the championship after qualifying seventh on the 10-rider Countdown ladder.
"I think the biggest difference on our team part (compared to 2008) is myself," said Krawiec, who has logged an imposing three wins and three runnerup finishes in the season's first eight Pro Stock Bike races. "Rider confidence is the No. 1 thing in any category, whether it be driver confidence going into race-day, let alone going into qualifying. You need to treat every single pass down that quarter-mile as your final-round task. You want to make it the best run possible, and go to the other end and get the best qualifying position to go into race-day.
"I think coming into mid-part of the '08 season was the time I was just starting to get comfortable on the motorcycle. And luckily enough, we had that great Countdown system that worked for my benefit, you know, and gave hope to all those racers. It actually showed that there is a possibility that if you are in a No. 7 spot, you can go out there and win the championship. So I think the points system, knowing that it works, and to go out there and do that gave me even more confidence coming into this season. I'd say my biggest thing is the mental confidence."
Krawiec and Hines, the three-time Full Throttle Drag Racing Series champion, hooked up in the final for the second consecutive event. Hines had been spot-on all day at the Christmas tree, using an 0.022 light during a first-round win over Jim Underdahl's Suzuki. Hines, the No. 2 qualifier, then nailed lights of 0.000 and 0.004 in respective wins over the Suzukis of Matt Smith and Craig Treble.
"We didn't have the best bikes every single round, but Andrew and I did our jobs as riders and got it done," said Krawiec, a 32-year-old resident of Englishtown, N.J. "I've been to six straight finals, which is something I've never dreamed of. To have two straight all-Harley finals is incredible, and I'm just so happy for our team.
"We broke a throttle cable in the semis at his race last year, and I really thought that was going to be my first win. I love Bandimere, and it was nice to win against Andrew in the final. We're teammates, but we're probably the two most competitive people in the pits. Whether we're walking or cutting the grass, we try to race each other doing it."
Krawiec struggled during time trials in the thin air to qualify fourth, in an event that saw the top four qualifiers advance to the semifinals. But crew chief Matt Hines, a four-time winner of this event as a rider, kept tuning on Krawiec's V-Rod. During eliminations, Krawiec disposed of Mike Berry via a hole shot in the first round with numbers of 7.373-seconds at 179.71 mph. Berry's Buell clocked in at 7.488-seconds and 171.93 mph.
Incredibly, Krawiec's next three opponents – Douglas Horne; No. 1 qualifier Hector Arana and Hines – all fouled at the Christmas tree. Krawiec ran 7.388-seconds at 178.02 mph in the quarterfinals; 7.341-seconds at 180.33 mph in the semis and 7.450/175.62 in the final.
"I'm really confident," said Krawiec, who made his NHRA debut at Englishtown in 2004. "I'm looking forward to actually getting out there and getting on my motorcycle and going into race- day.
"You know, for the way that it turned out last year, I was ecstatic. I wouldn't change a thing. I think that's something that's going to be etched in the history books for a really long time, and honestly, I don't know if it will ever be broken again. But to go out there and capture some wins, and I've been in six straight final rounds, I just hope this momentum carries and I can do it in the second half of the season just like I did (in 2008). I've had a total of the last 13 races entered, I've been in 10 finals. So that's pretty good statistics…75 percent of that has been final-round appearances for me.
"I just want to close my final-round average a little better and take that from 25 percent and bump that up to maybe 75 percent.I would like to win them all. But it's tough competition out there and I'm just glad to be racing with everybody."
Krawiec started racing in the AMA Prostar Series in 1999. He finished a career-best second in the Prostar standings twice (2002-03) while compiling nine wins in 23 career final rounds.
"I'm not really doing anything different; I'm just riding the bike with confidence," said Krawiec, who competed in five NHRA events in 2005, highlighted by the prestigious U.S. Nationals. "You know, Matt Hines has given me an awesome motorcycle. A lot of people out there always compliment their crew chiefs, but if you look at what Matt is doing, he is tuning two bikes and that adds extra pressure on you come race-day.
"As long as I think he gives us a good motorcycle and we are confident that we have a great one under us, that just makes it easier for the driver to do their job."
A winless Krawiec earned an appearance in the NHRA's inaugural Countdown to 4 in 2007 and finished seventh in the final standings. His new-found winning prowess, Krawiec said, will not affect his approach to racing under the revised Countdown format.
"My approach is before I even leave our shop in Brownsburg, (Ind.), I plan on winning the race," Krawiec said. "I go to every race with the intention of winning, just like every driver out there. You don't dream of losing in the final, you dream of winning. That's my approach and that's the way that I go into every single race.
"My main goal is, for the Countdown, it's a little different this year. See, I'm going into it as of right now, I am the No. 1 guy, and the way I looked at it last year was I was No. 7. I didn't have anything really to lose. I had everything to gain. And when you are the points-leader, you have everything to lose, but what you have to gain is you've got to maintain your position.
"So the main thing is 'maintaining,' going out there and racing smart and being consistent and going rounds. I think as long as the driver does their job, and like I said earlier, that you have good equipment under you, that's where that confidence comes in and your team morale is on an upbeat. There shouldn't be any changes going on. I mean, what I've been doing now, it's been working for me. It's obviously shown. I've been pretty consistent on going rounds, so I'm not going to change a thing. I'm just going to go out there and race."
Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) joined Krawiec as winners at Bandimere. The Full Throttle schedule for Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock teams continues next weekend with the second stop on the three-race "Western Swing," the 22nd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals, July 17-19 at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Wash., near Seattle. Pro Stock Bike will rejoin the tour at the 22nd annual Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., July 24-26.
With two months of racing remaining before the Countdown playoffs, Krawiec indicated his points position will allow the Vance & Hines crew to ratchet-up the meticulous preparation that leads to (repeat) championships.
"Well, what we are doing right now is going through our equipment and making sure we have our stuff 100 percent fresh and ready to go," Krawiec said. "Our truck basically is going to leave Brownsburg here and it's going to be out on the road for a couple weeks, and we try to leave and we always try to keep our stuff as fresh as possible. That way, two things: No. 1, failures are at a minimum; and also, you always have good equipment on your truck ready to go. I think the main thing is just keeping up on the maintenance and being ready."
– John Sturbin can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com Comment


text:
Another Rahm Lie
First there was the infamous "500 hundred more street cops" which was just an exercise in double counting.
Then the "hiring is keeping up with retirements" as District numbers dwindled, time off was denied and 1,200 spots were eliminated with the stroke of a pen.
Now comes the "combined Districts will lose no manpower. Rahm and G-Mac promised residents of the affected Districts that not one officer would be lost to cover their neighborhoods. They promised this on numerous occasions at a number of meetings. Yesterday, we pointed out that 002 and 019, both "combination" districts would be losing officers to Area teams, which are being sent all over the place.
Of course, if the residents who were lied to don't seem to care, or they were bought off by Rahm in some way, shape or form, we can't see G-Mac being unhappy to do Rahm tells him to do.
Labels: department issues


text:
Whew, long night. It was worth it in the end though. As Pat Lackey said, the Pirates won a very 2011 Pirates game with pitching, defense and taking advantage of their opponents mistakes.
The rain made the air low and heavy which really kept a lot of balls in play. McCutchen and a few Braves crushed some pitches that would have gone out on other nights.
McDonald's ERA is now under 4 at 3.95. After a terrible April (5 starts, 7.66 ERA, 1.82 WHIP, 15 K in 24.2 IP) he's been really good (15 starts, 2.87 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 79 K in 84.2 IP). If he could go deeper into games he'd be really amazing.
Michael McKenry is fun to watch. Not in a "he's so talented" way but in a "I don't know how he keeps doing this but I'm happy and amazed" way.
Karstens better be on his A game tonight because I think Tommy Hanson will give the Pirates hitters fits. I see a 2-1 win or a 7-1 loss.
Look me up if you'll be at tonight's game. I'll be sitting around here:
Filed under: baseball, Pirates | Tagged: Andrew McCutchen, baseball, James McDonald, Jeff Karstens, Michael McKenry, Pirates, Tommy Hanson, WHYGAVS |


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I recently decided to give the new 7.0 release of FreeBSD a go and was fairly impressed. I did use BSD along time ago on a home server for a few months but pretty much forgot everything about it from back then.
Firstly FreeBSD refers to both a kernel and userspace tools making it a whole operating system (userspace tools being the basic programs like shells and copy/move commands), this is different to Linux which is just a kernel and distros are technically called GNU/Linux to show that it is using the GNU userspace tools. You can install the GNU userspace tools on FreeBSD and you can also get GNU/FreeBSD hybrids such as the Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, and there was work on a Gentoo/FreeBSD but it never went anywhere, although there not really used much. Theres also not a huge point in either since all the userspace tools are based on the original Unix ones and try to mee POSIX standards etc %90 of the functionality is the same. There are some differences, for instance 'ls –color' on FreeBSD is 'ls -G', some commands require the flags to be in the correct order so 'cp /directory /somewhere -rf' won't work as -rf is at the end instead of the start befoure the directories, when hitting the down arrow at the end of a man page it will exit on FreeBSD.
The other important difference between BSD's and Linux is the license they use, Linux uses the GPL and BSD uses the BSD license. The GPL is actually more restrictive but in a way that is designed to guarantee everyones overall freedoms, by enforcing that the source remains open when redistributed. The BSD license basically says you can do whatever you want provided you keep the credits in, including taking the source and closing it or relicensing it. Apple took the FreeBSD userspace tools for OSX (and the Mach microkernel)
The difference in the kernels means that hardware is going to behave differently, device names in /dev/ are diffrent for starters. Ethernet cards have names that match the device model, for instance instead of "/dev/eth0" you might have "/dev/re0". My harddrive is "/dev/ad10s1" instead of "/dev/sda1" There will be differences in the hardware that is supported, wifi is apparently better on FreeBSD although there has been a lot of work in the Linux area recently and some of the drivers have been ported across (leading to some controversy due to the relicensing of BSD code under the GPL, although it has apparently been resolved).
The overall system feels fairly similar to Slackware and Gentoo, except with better package management IMHO.
Installing isn't particularly hard, if you have installed either, its not a Ubuntu style userfriendly distro so you do need to partition and such but it didn't require heaps of planning and was fairly hassle free. There is also the handy FreeBSD handbook which is actually fairly good, normally when I get told to read opensource documentation I find a bunch of out of date or setup in a completely different way by everyone but the guide writers. You can get away with only getting the 1st CD since that contains the basic system and if you don't choose much in the way of packages you won't need the others. If however you do get asked to insert the 2nd or 3rd CDs, at that stage you can just ctrl+c and reboot into a working distro and use 'sysinstall' to make any additional changes. Set the root password with 'passwd' and add a user account with 'adduser'.
One installed you need to setup stuff, once again if your a Gentoo user this is familiar. FreeBSD has binary packages that can be retrieved automatically via ftp by using the 'pkg_add -r ' command. FreeBSD however also can compile packages from source using ports, this is similar to Gentoo's portage which was heavily inspired by ports. Ports seems a simpler and more stable system than portage with which I have had problems maintaining when updating packages can break or lock other packages.
Firstly I had some problems with my USB keyboard, in the end I had to disable USB legacy in the BIOS which was blocking BSD from using it for some reason, this has the unfortunate side effect of disabling the keyboard in the boot loader but its not needed for now.
Ports is the system that FreeBSD uses to get source code for packages, compile and install it. It is similar to Portage as it used ports as inspiration. Compiling from source has advantages over using binary packages. For instance patent issues aren't a problem because its the source code, I am not a lawyer but source code itself cannot be patented as its a blueprint not an actual thing, and compiling the code your self is possibly ok since you can apparently violate patents for personal use (not too sure on that, some talk here, at the very least it means that to enfoce the patent requires going after individuals rather than FreeBSD so home users are unlikly to be at risk (unless patent lawyers frequent your premises), it also allows for people in countries without such laws access to the code), but as I said I'm not a lawyer and haven't bothered to find much in the way sources. Secondly you get more control over what features you want in your program and thirdly you can optimize the program for a specific architecture.
Setting up ports, If you want to grab a new snapshot of ports you will need to run 'portsnap fetch' followed by 'portsnap extract'. If you already have "/usr/ports" perhapses because you chose it when the installer asked you can apparently 'cd /usr/ports' followed by 'make update'. This should use portsnap to update it. The full was about a 50mb download when I did it with 'portsnap fetch'.
Ports has a similar thing to Gentoo's portage useflags called KNOBS, you can see a whole list of them in /usr/ports/KNOBS. I believe you can also set CFLAGS like in Gentoo although I havn't bothered.
If your using it on the desktop you will need to install xorg and a desktop environment, you can "pkg_add -r gnome2" to do that, which should pull in all the dependencies. Alternatively to build from source:
cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome2 && make install clean
If you want to use gdm add gdm_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. If you don't want Gnome you can so whatever other environment you want, Fluxbox, XFCE, KDE, etc… You will need to edit ~/.xinitrc and add "gnome-session", "fluxbox" or whatever. You can then 'startx'. At this point there will be a bunch of programs you need to install either from ports or with pkg_add -r such as firefox, pidgin, vlc (although totem should be in if you did gnome2), music players, etc…
The default shell csh might not be to your liking, a lot of people are experienced with bash which is the choice of most Linux distros although personally I prefer zsh which has better tab completion and fancy prompts included. 'pkg_add -r zsh' or 'pkg_add -r bash' or install them from ports. Then run 'chsh' which will give you a vi window, change the "Shell: /usr/bin/csh" to "Shell: /usr/local/bin/zsh". Bash users will need to change it to bash obviously. If vi is a problem for you, you can probally edit '/etc/passwd' with whatever you want. You will need to setup your shell rc, ~/.zshrc for zsh (although it has a config window on first time login).
You will probably need to enable sound, Theres a handy howto here, but basically 'kldload snd_driver', 'cat /dev/sndstat', look for the driver name right after "kld", add DRIVERNAME_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf
Mount Linux ext3 Drive
Mounting your Linux drive, add the following entry to /etc/fstab:
/dev/ad10s2 /mnt/ubuntu ext2fs rw 0 0 with whatever changes you need for your device name or mount point. You will need to make the mount point to with 'mkdir /mnt/ubuntu'. If you get the error "mount: /dev/ad10s2 : Invalid argument" this could be because your drive is unclean, you will need to install the /usr/ports/sysutils/e2fsprogs/ and run 'fsck.ext3 /dev/ad10s2' (Assuming your using ext3).
NTFS read/write with NTFS-3g
Mounting a NTFS drive with read/write is a bit more work, you need to install '/usr/ports/sysutils/fusefs-ntfs', however it needs the userspace source. You can get this with 'sysinstall' choosing "Configure>Distributions>src>All", this will grab all the source its probably not all required but I couldn't find the specific package and its handy to have the rest around anyway. Once you have that you can 'ntfs-3g /dev/ad10s1 /mnt/windows'. Adding an fstab entry is again a bit problematic. Under 7.0 the mount command has had hardlinks to what it can call, mount_ntfs-3g isn't in that list so you either need to patch mount or rename the current mount_ntfs, and link ntfs-3g in its place. Without that this was throwing an "mount: /dev/ad10s1 : Operation not supported by device" error.
nVidia drivers
The drivers work quite well on FreeBSD 7.0 but only on i386 (64bit is out of luck thanks to closed source nvidia drivers, 64bits OS is mostly useless anyway), the official ones refuse to install for me but the ones in ports work. Firstly you need the kernel source code installed, if you followed the NTFS-3g instructions above you will have the source already. If not you can specify just the base and sys source in sysinstall which is all thats needed for the drivers. Then
cd /usr/ports/x11/nvidia-driver && make install clean Add this to /boot/loader.conf
nvidia_load="YES" Now you need an xorg.conf file, by default BSD just relies on the autoconfig magic in the latest xorg releases so we need to force it to generate one with:
Xorg -configure then copy the newly created xorg.conf.new to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. If you don't want to edit the xorg by hand
cd /usr/ports/x11/nvidia-xconfig && make install clean then
nvidia-xconfig will change the "nv" driver to "nvidia".
Compiz Fusion
Firstly if your on nVidia hardware you need to enable some xorg.conf settings, you can do them with nvidia-xconfig if you installed it above
nvidia-xconfig --composite && nvidia-xconfig --render-accel && nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals -d 24
Now install Compiz with:
cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/compiz-fusion && make install clean When you want to start it use
LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1 compiz --sm-disable --replace ccp and for the Emerald decorations
emerald --replace. I had some problems with emerald not starting right away and drawing no decorations but after a while it loaded fine without me noticing and now starts fine. You will probably want to make Compiz start automatically, there are various guides on Compiz around that give you different ways. The config programs should be in System>Preferences for Compiz and Emerald, otherwise use 'ccsm' and 'emerald-theme-manager'.
For those of you who use 'locate' command to find files, you will probably want to update the database, you might have already noticed that 'updatedb' isn't a command. The actual command is '/usr/libexec/locate.updatedb' but this will give you a warning as running it as root will expose hidden files that only root or specific users should see to the database (not such a problem for single users), you can however run the cron job manually for a safer database with:
One of the main problems with Desktop FreeBSD is that Flash has no native port for FreeBSD thanks to Adobe (Even though there is a Solaris port thanks to Sun working with Adobe, you can have your say on the flash development blog, also an online petition exists for what little use they are with over 5000 signatures(and spam bots)). There has been some talk on the mailing lists of a native FreeBSD port.
The only real solutions seems to be to use Flash 7 or possibly Windows Firefox under Wine ☹ (PC-BSD Apparently ship a Windows Firefox PBI)
If you want to try the Linux version of Flash 9 which freezes for me (and everyone apparently), you need to install the Linux plugin /usr/ports/www/linux-flashplugin9 and the wrapper /usr/ports/www/nspluginwrapper/. Then run
nspluginwrapper -v -a -i to register the plugin. Check in 'about:plugins'. Alternatively you can try Flash7 with a wrapper, there is also another wraooer /usr/ports/www/linuxpluginwrapper but it wouldn't install for me.
ETQW [unsolved]
I though I would give ETQW a go under FreeBSD, unfortunately I ran into problems with the Linux compatibility layer, I'll post the steps here in case its of use to someone trying to do something similar or can offer a solution.
Firstly the installer didn't give the default path but entering one works however it then failed to make the path so you need to make it manually, then it failed to read from the cdrom (although I didn't really look into it since you can just copy the files across manually, possibly manually mounting it manually would have solved it). Copy the correct files into the base directory.
When running the etqw binary I get an error about missing sdl libraries "./etqw.x86: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory", You can fix this with
cd /usr/ports/devel/linux-sdl12/ && make install clean
You will need to brand you etqw binaries as Linux ones, change to your etqw directory and run
brandelf -t linux * also
brandelf -t linux pb/* might be needed.
Then run:
portmaster emulators/linux_base-fc4 to get all the Linux compatibility stuff installed (if using portmaster you need /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portmaster/ installed)
Then there I got "./etqw.x86: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/local/lib/libX11.so.6: ELF file OS ABI invalid", make sure that /usr/ports/x11/linux-xorg-libs/ is installed.
For the error "./etqw.x86: error while loading shared libraries: libjpeg.so.62: ELF file OS ABI invalid", make sure you have "/usr/ports/graphics/linux-jpeg". You can also try 'sysctl kern.fallback_elf_brand=3'. But those didn't work for me, I notice that etqw ships its own libjpeg, I tried replacing that with the /usr/compat/linux/usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62 one it seems to work but now I get another error "./etqw.x86: error while loading shared libraries: /usr/local/lib/libX11.so.6: ELF file OS ABI invalid", possible its loading the ones in /usr/local/lib instead of /usr/compat/linux/usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 but I don't know and thats about all I can think of now.
Also make sure you have linux_enable="YES" in /etc/rc.conf and run '/etc/rc.d/abi restart' to enable the compatibility layer stuff if you didn't already have it done.
Wine works fine under FreeBSD, to install:
cd /usr/ports/emulators/wine && make install clean
Mounting samba shares
Firstly you need to install Samba with
/usr/ports/net/samba3/ && make install clean then you can manually mount it with the following:
mount_smbfs //username@host/share /mnt/mointpoint
the -o options that you use in Linux such as username, password, credentials don't work on FreeBSD's version. If you want to make it automated, edit /etc/fstab and add:
//username@server/share /mnt/mountpoint smbfs rw 0 0 Then edit /etc/nsmb.conf and check the example near the end. Alternatively you can put them in ~/.nsmb.conf for a per user solution.


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Now showing items 1-1 of 1
Causal effects of time-dependent treatments in older patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
(PLoS One, 2015)
BACKGROUND: Treatment selection for elderly patients with lung cancer must balance the benefits of curative/life-prolonging therapy and the risks of increased mortality due to comorbidities. Lung cancer trials generally ...


text:
Team owner Gerard Lopez has snapped at suggestions the recent departure of highly rated technical director James Allison has caused a performance slump at Lotus.
Off the back of a stellar start to the season, Kimi Raikkonen has dropped from second in the world championship to third, following two less impressive outings for the black E21 in Monaco and Canada.
"It hasn't made the world championships any easier for us," Lopez admitted to Finland's Turun Sanomat newspaper, as Lotus also drops to fourth behind Mercedes in the constructors' standings.
"It is clear we cannot afford a third consecutive miserable weekend at Silverstone," he added.
"Monaco is Monaco and we had a bad start to the weekend, off on the wrong foot, but we have now suffered badly in terms of both of the championships (after Canada)," Lopez continued.
"This cannot be accepted. For Silverstone, I expect us to be absolutely as strong as we were before Monaco."
Lopez slammed suggestions Lotus' slump is connected to the recent departure of James Allison.
"It has no effect," he insisted. "He is a good man, but he's not a god."
Lopez also rejected speculation lead driver Raikkonen, amid speculation he has been offered Mark Webber's Red Bull seat for 2014, is growing frustrated with the situation at Lotus.
"Everything is perfectly ok with Kimi," he said.


text: Forget the injuries, forget game 1 and 2. It is on tonight. The Celtics are walking into Madison Square Garden and the Garden is hungry. This is not a friendly place for Boston fans. The refs are not going to bail the Celtics out tonight. It will be close, it may be a long and bloody fight but the Knicks will prevail tonight. This is not my opinion, this IS A FACT!!!