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Ek hait Eyia. Ek em frá Rogalandi. Haraldʀ es haitir fagrahár es hinn konungʀ. Ek em hin dóttir Bassą Bersąsonar auk Æsų Eyiolfsdóttur. Minn fáþir es óþalmaþʀ. Mín móþir es kristin auk ek. Konask Wilmund Stóþąson auk wit aigum barnu auk bú. Ek em skald auk sagumaþʀ. Ek kenni hinaʀ hannyrþiʀ auk rúnlistaʀ. Finnst mér gaman at skotą bogą en ek em winną nú ekki.
Norwegian woman born in the late 9th century, soon after Harald, called Fairhair, became king. Daughter of Bassi Bersason and Æsa Eyjólfsdóttir. Lives in home district of Rogaland with husband and children. Skald and musician, and knows the crafts of sewing, nálbinding, tablet weaving, runecraft, and calligraphy, and to bake and cook. Finds enjoyment in shooting the bow but does not participate in archery at the moment. Also has been known to do various translation work in Old Norse.
Current research topics are the period pronunciation of Old Norse, kenning matrices, Viking Age mythology and culture, and Viking Age titles and ranks.
While the probable 10th century pronunciation of my name is (in the International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA) /øyja basado:t:ir/, in English I usually pronounce it as [eɪja basadotɪɹ] (where Eyja rhymes with "heya"), which is mostly based on the Modern Icelandic pronunciation. In runes, my name is spelt ᛅᚢᛁᛅ ᛒᛅᛋᛅᛏᚢᛏᛁᚱ in long branch, and ᛆᚢᛁᛆ ᛓᛆᛌᛆᛐᚢᛐᛁᚱ in short twig of the Younger Futhark. Elder Futhark went extinct about 100 years before my persona's time period.
I've been lightly researching titles, which for some of the lower ranks is not the easiest. In terms of the class term, búandi 'farmer' may be the correct term. Now a couple years ago, I found deigja (a word related to "dough" and "to divide, portion" and the dighe in hlaf-dighe, the Old English ancestor to the word "lady"), which I think should work for the AoA level, and just like other titles, would follow the given name but precede the patronym: Eyja deigja Bassadóttir, (Stefan Brink, "Lord and Lady - Bryti and Deigja: Some historical and etymological aspects on family, patronage and slavery in early Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England"). Possibly another term is matmóðir "meal-mother", found in the Cleasby-Vigfusson dictionary on page 414. There is also an intriguing word found on the Hassmyra runestone in Västmanland (Vs 24), Sweden, spelt <hifrya> which Brink identifies as possibly hefrøya "mistress of a household", which is an East Norse form. The Wikipedia article on the runestone dates it to the second half of the 11th century. My stab at a Western Norse form would be *hífreyja or *hýfreyja (related to the term híbýli or hýbýli "house and home"), and if you look at the entry at the Runic Dictionary, the Eastern form listed is hifrøya and the Western form they list is hýfreyja.
For the GOA level, the hǫldʀ class (manuscript spelling looks to be hælþʀ or hœlþʀ, the vowel is a bit smudged on the linked page) are of a class below hersiʀ/lendiʀmenn 'baron' and above búandi 'farmer' and might be the best fit (Cleasby-Vigfusson, p. 309). It was the law term for those who possessed allodial land, who were also called óðalsmenn 'allodial-men' and óðalskonuʀ 'allodial-women' (singular óðalskona), (ibid, p. 470 under "óðal"). Being a law term, I am not certain as of yet if one would use hǫldʀ in terms of address.
I began playing September of A.S. XXXVIII (2003) with the College of Tor Aerie. I have served as Minister of Arts and Sciences to both Tor Aerie and Nordleigh. I played with the Warwick Consort for several years (bowed psaltery, drum, glockenspiel). I was also Bard of Nordskogen to Baron Ilya Mstislavich and Baroness Saraidh ingen Guairi (Jan 2012-3). I wrote and translated the elevation ceremony of Sefa Farmannsdóttir which was in both English and Early Old Norse. At Warrior and Warlords XXIV in A.S. LII (July 13-17, 2017), I won the bardic competition designed by Her Majesty, Queen Aibhilin Fhionn, and became the kingdom bardic champion. I was the bardic champion of Her Majesty, Queen Jehanette de Provins, during her reign. I am currently serving as the Bard of Nordskogen, since the Twelfth Night in A.S. LIV (Jan. 12, 2020). I was apprenticed to Master Ingus Moen, of the house Gellisheim from January 2012-January 2018, and was asked by Mistress Orlaith Ballach inghen Flainn to be apprentice February 2018. I was placed on vigil for Order of the Laurel by Their Majesties Ciarán and Elis at Their Ethereal Court: All Garbed Up and Nowhere to Go in A.S. LV (Aug. 22, 2020).
Besides the Kingdom awards listed, I have received an Azure Torch for my service to the College of Tor Aerie (my first award ever received; Apr 2005), and a Baton Gules (Jan 2008) for service to the Barony of Nordskogen.
Classes I have taught:
Old Norse Pronunciation
Viking Age Runes
Norse Poetry: The Law of Ancient Words -- Forniðislag
Norse Poetry: The Verse of the Court -- Dróttkvætt
Recommended Resources
Arild Hauge's Rune Page, Dr. Jackson Crawford's YouTube video on Writing Old Norse in Runes, Futhark: The International Journal of Runic Studies.
Old Norse Historical Development
E. V. Gordon's An Introduction to Old Norse, Stefán Karlsson's The Icelandic Language. (Translated by R. McTurk. 2004, repr. 2013. ISBN 978 0 903521 61 1),
The Old Norse above has been adapted to my current research on the language as it hypothetically appeared in 10th century Norway. I have had to adapt the traditional spelling to accommodate the nasalized vowels that appeared in the language at that time. All vowels with an ogonek are nasalized. What is traditionally spelt ę in Old Norse manuscripts will appear as ɛ. It is unknown when exactly the u-mutation of a, traditionally spelt ǫ, occurred and I have not express it above. In my notation it would appear as ɔ. My research is not finished, and it is quite possible I have made errors and it is probable that I will make updates as I learn more. For a good video on the differences, see Dr. Jackson Crawford's "Early and Later Old Norse" video on YouTube.
Brigits Flame, Order of
Geirráðr Kolbeinson


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The NIK collection, killed off by Google, has been resurrected, both in it's previous form, and as integrated into new software.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The upcoming CPA show selections
Dear ImageMakers
The ImageMakers Steering Committee, along with Brian Taylor and Rick Murai, (in their capacities with the CPA) have made the following selections from your submissions for the forthcoming ImageMakers show at the CPA.
The show runs from Feb 25 – April 2, 2017.
Please use a traditional frame, not larger than 24″ on any size, and plexiglass glazing (NOT glass!) is required. Gallery wrapped canvas is acceptable without a frame or glazing.
The final finished product must be 24″ or smaller on the longest side. The CPA reserves the right to disqualify any final image whose print quality does not match what we judged.
Images must be ready to hang. Delivery date has not been specified yet, but I would assume NOT EARLIER than 10 days before the show, and delivered between Feb 15 – 23.
Additional information, if any, will be found on our blog, as will this email.
I will try to answer any questions, but the final determination will lie in the hands of the Directors of the CPA, not me.
I can say this up front: no – you may not substitute another image.
ONE LAST THING – the exhibition catalog.
Please make and upload a jpg of your selected image for the exhibition's catalog.
The specifics required for submission to the exhibition catalog, as stated by the CPA:
7″ long side @ 300PPI – SRGB color space (2100 pixels)
Include: artist name, title, date, medium, sales price. Dimensions are not necessary.
All images MUST be titled – no untitled.
And all caption data will be printed >as submitted< so have everyone PROOF READ their info.
Please get these catalog images and label info to me no later than January 13th, 2017.
Thanks to one and all for participating. Having seen all these images several times now, I can say with certainty that our 2017 show will be really interesting.
Tracy Valleau,
on behalf of the ImageMakers and the Center for Photographic Art
The selections___________________________________________
aiu 2 – gypsy stallion
anselmo 1
becom 1
BIhlenfeld 2
bthomas 1 – flowers
CCouchman 6
chester 2 – Eagle hunter's daughter
connors 4
crary 2
CWeston 6
DGubernick 2
dixie 1
Efujii 6
franco 1
hazeltine 1
hembree 5
hunter 2
J. Messer 3
jacqui turner 6
kasson 4
kauffman 5
lmacchia 1
loveless 1
lovell 6
Lundblad 4
marino 3
mcasanave 4
moore 4
mPrince 6
murai 2
mwainer 6
neilsen 5
nswanson 2
parker 1
parkman 6 – lighthouse
rcannon 1
robinson 3
sHillyard 2
TomSchleich 3
tvalleau 5
wasserbach 6
weeks 1
wei chang 2
Off topic, but useful – using "the Cloud" securely
I realize this isn't strictly photographic, but it still applies to most every one of us – using the internet to store and retrieve information (passwords etc) securely.
Though I'd share my solution. Here's the link to my blog article:
Xmas dinner, 2015
Our annual Xmas dinner will begin at 4PM on Sunday, December 13, at the Bayonet/Blackhorse Restaurant on the former Ft. Ord.
Here are directions and a map.
See you all there!
- Take Hwy 1 North (North of Carmel, Monterey, Sand City and Seaside).
- Take the Light Fighter Drive exit.
- At the third stop light turn right onto General Jim Moore Blvd (formerly known as NORTH SOUTH ROAD).
- Travel on General Jim Moore Blvd for approximately 2 miles. On the right-hand side you will see the main entrance for Bayonet and Blackhorse. (The courses are adjacent to each other and share the same clubhouse).
- Take a right on McClure Way (the entrance to the golf courses).
- Proceed to the parking lot and enjoy your round of golf!
2015 International Juried Exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art
Congratulations to the following ImageMakers whose images were selected for a show juried by Robert Hirsch:
Mary Aiu
Carl Couchman
Oliver Klink
Rick Murai
Chester Ng
Tom Schleich
Tracy Valleau
Steve Zmak
Web Gallery
Martha Casanave
Jack Crary
Matt Connors
Bert Ihlenfeld
Jim Messer
Jack Wasserbach
20% of the images in the 2015 CPA JE are from Imagemakers members
Nice work, folks !
Mac users: tired of paying Adobe for Photoshop?
Well, Affinity Photo is out of development after nearly 5 years of development, and like the award-winning replacement for Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Photo was worth the wait.
Layers; export to PS; vector objects; compatible with PS plug-ins…
Once. Not monthly or yearly. Once.
I've been playing with it a bit, and when things settle down, I'll be playing a lot more. This is a case where for $40, you're getting $400 worth of software quality, IMHO.
If you're a Mac user, and a PhotoShop user, I can't imaging you'd not want this in your toolbox.
4 ImageMakers have a show at the Triton
ImageMakers show at PGAC
"Ashleigh" – a show featuring images of Dixie's granddaughter, a beautiful and rising star in the ballet world, will run July 3 thru August 27 at the Pacific Grove Art Center.
Dixie Dixon, Jerry Ginsburg, Chester Ng, Bob Sadler, Jacqui Turner, Jack Wasserbach and Steve Zmak are the photographers.
The opening is this Friday, July 3, from 7 to 9 PM.
Hope to see you there!
Birthday bash reminder
Annual Birthday Bash!!
Honorees: Richard Garrod, Jack Wasserbach, Steve Mortenson, Fernando
Batista & Brian Taylor
Wednesday, June 10th at Point Lobos.
Meet around 9am at Weston Beach to photograph for approximately 2 hours
Lunch at 11 at the Bird Island picnic area
Please bring a dish to pass
We will provide subs, cake & drinks
Hope you can make it!
April 21 ImageMakers meeting
… the April ImageMakers meeting is our annual image swap. Please bring a matted print if you'd like to participate.

subset: commoncrawl


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In whose Viceroyalty the 'Rowlatt Act' was passed?
- Lord Harding ell
- Lord Reading
- Lord Chelmsfor
- Lord Minto ll
Professor Asked on 4th May 2015 in History.
Best answer
Lord Chelmsfor
The Rowlatt Act was passed in the Vice royalty of Lord Chelmsford. According to this act The Viceroy Government allowed to arrest and jail anyone without trial if they are thought to be plotting against the British. In 1919, British Government passed the Rowlatt Act to give themselves great power over the Indian.


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Sexy Star and Veneno went to a no finish in a mask versus mask match (0:51, whatever)
Prince Puma beat Pentagon Dark to win the Cueto Cup (9:34, 630 senton, good)
Johnny Mundo beat Rey Mysterio to retain the Lucha Underground championship (18:04, fin de mundo, good)
Johnny Mundo is still Lucha Underground champion. Dario Cueto banned all people on the "roster" from participating. The concept of a set "roster" in Lucha Underground is hard to fathom, given the owner didn't even know who Veneno was last week and Matt Striker referenced Super Fly disappearing from the show. In this case, that very special word choice meant Dominic could show up to get some revenge on Mundo before being chased away by security, and that Dario himself pulled out the ref to cost Rey the match. They wasted no time with Rey getting his revenge, but Mysterio landing the 619 on Cueto left him open for a Mundo belt shot, and Mundo landed the find the Mundo a moment later. Striker sold this as a travesty.
Prince Puma defeated Pentagon Jr. in a competitive match to win the Cueto Cup. Vampiro celebrated with Puma after the match, making their private alliance very public. Vampiro rooted for Puma during the match. By virtue of these outcomes, Prince Puma will face Johnny Mundo for the championship as the main event of Ultima Lucha 3.
The Sexy Star/Veneno match barely got going before Joey Ryan ran out, and ripped off Veneno's mask. The announcers focused on Veneno being exposed as Ricky Reyes, and not about a DQ being called. Referee Justin Borden was busy with Sexy Star and didn't see the mask being removed. Borden did appear to very quickly (thru editing) count Reyes out, and that's likely how the result that occured in the building. Striker, in an obviously post edited line for TV, instead said the match was thrown out. His later lines talking about Veneno/Reyes as if he had lost the match and his real identity needed to be announced were left in. Reyes beat up Ryan, but Ryan got in a foul and escaped with the Veneno match.
Lucha Underground usually delivers on big shows. They failed tonight.
The Sexy Star/Veneno segment was outrageously terrible, just a thumb to the eye of the viewer. There was no reason for it to be a mask match, just like there wasn't really any reason for Johnny's whiny heel agent to call Sexy Star's title reign terrible. They know why they did what they did, but it came off like they were still ticked off about the reactions to Sexy Star's title reign and the Sexy Star/Super Fly and decided to take it out on everyone else. They delivered a "mask vs mask" match which was among the most ill considered segments, up there with the Angelico/Ivelisse match. At least with that one, they realized what they had enough to try and tone it down in editing (didn't work). This one could've been fixed easier. It would've been only a few minutes instead of an aggravating bit if they edited out the mask vs mask stipulation, but instead we were treated to a booking tantrum in the place of actually good wrestling.
(This was the first time Dario Cueto was acting way out of character; the Dario Cueto of the last three seasons would've have let a mask/mask match end without a finish, and he would've humiliated Cortez himself. It also made no sense for Joey Ryan to go out of the way disrupt this match when he and Dario were the ones who came up with it. This didn't make any sense.)
Pentagon & Puma was good, and would've been a nice treat as a random match in the middle of the season. They got in a lot of big spots, the crowd was totally into it, and they got a decent amount of time. The match was good, and probably would appreciated even stronger out of context. There were problems with it in context; it didn't feel like a big match, a tournament final at all. Finisher kick outs are over done in general, but this was definitely the time for guys surviving something beyond what they normally do, and what we got instead was the normal build up to a normal finish. Puma winning clean and as fairly as season one with the 630 senton didn't really fit the long and incessant story they've been telling about Puma falling under Vampiro's spell. There needed to be something underhanded, something that compromised him or justified his new outlook, like using the cement block on Mil Muertes, but he instead just won the same way he would've won before the skinny jeans, and the angry man who'd been breaking everyone's arms quietly walked away. It felt wrong.
(Striker and Vampiro had a very bad night, but this also feels like one of those things where complaints only get them to push back harder. Lucha Underground is intensely loyal to people who were with them from the start and I don't expect any change if there's a season 4, but I also think they'd be crazy to keep going with these two.)
The title match was a really solid match between two guys who work together well. Mundo comes off as a champion here and Rey put in a really strong effort for his biggest match on the show so far. It went a bit long; it probably would've helped both matches if they took a few minutes out of the middle of this one and tacked it on the end of the Cueto Cup. The production wasn't at their usual level; both big Mysterio dives were shot in ways where it was hard to see what was going on, at least on the SD version I get. And then that finish.
Nothing about it made sense. Nothing about earlier made sense: why would Johnny Mundo want interference banned when he wins all his matches by interference and none of the técnicos ever interfere in his match? Why would Dario ban Worldwide Underground if he wants Rey to lose? Why would Dario scheduled Rey in the first place in the title match if he didn't want him to win the title, and then wait 15 minutes to cost him it? Why did he lecture Matanza about letting go of his hunger for revenge on Rey and then attack Rey? I'm sure some of those things will be answered in the next few weeks, but I'm guessing not a lot of it will. The answers to those questions are going to have to overwhelmingly satisfying to make up for the very unsatisfying finish to a match that's been built to for months. And it's going to have to make up for the usual heel owner bit, making Dario a lot less interesting in the process. There was nothing they were building towards, nothing they were paying off with this finish, just the usual played out swerve for the sake of doing a swerve.
(And, this is another reason that Sexy Star/Veneno match was so dumb. If you know Mundo/Rey is going to have a disappointing finish, the last thing you need is another terrible ending earlier in the show.)
The storytelling on this show was bad. The work in the matches was generally really good, and people defending this show will point to that work as a reason not to trash this show. There's also the reasoning to wait and see how this will pay off. I'm in no danger of not watching the last handful of episodes here, but we've waiting nearly three months for this and the pay off really wasn't worth it. This show has done a great job of elevating the wrestler's performances with their story telling on other shows, but they let them down on this show.


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The bill is taking all the headlines, but many also question the president's oil deals that appear central to his rule
Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni has officially distanced himself from the noxious anti-homosexuality bill that has resurfaced in the country's parliament, saying that he cannot interfere in the country's democratic process.
This is ironic coming from a man who, after a distinctly sleazy election victory last year, ordered violent crackdowns on peaceful protests at rising food prices and proposed a new crime of "economic sabotage".
It is true that this is a private members' bill, introduced by the now world-famous David Bahati. It is also true that its proposed life-sentence penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" is popular in unashamedly homophobic Uganda. And for that very reason it is a convenient diversion from something that is much closer to the president's heart: oil.
Since 2006, international oil exploration companies have found 2.5bn barrels of recoverable oil reserves in Uganda and significant basins remain to be explored, so the eventual total may be higher. Production has not yet begun and, despite growing clamour from NGOs, civic activists and some MPs, the terms of the agreements between the oil companies and the government have not been made public.
In 2010, UK NGO Platform published a report, based on leaked drafts of the production sharing agreements, claiming that the contracts allowed excessive profits for the oil companies, and left Uganda bearing most of the risks. For the next 18 months, the government and Tullow Oil PLC, the Anglo-Irish company that found the oil, were at loggerheads over disputed tax payments. The government refused to renew licences or allow production to start. Tullow, which has also been experiencing technical difficulties in its Jubilee field in Ghana, saw a billion euro decline in its share prices.
The deadlock was broken a week ago, when the government and Tullow signed new deals on three oil blocks, opening the way for the company to finalise a production partnership with France's Total and China's CNOOC.
Full details of the new deals have not been disclosed but Tullow, under the pressure of its declining stock prices, has evidently made important concessions, including agreeing to an oil refinery in Uganda rather than exporting crude. It is likely that the terms of these deals are more favourable to Uganda than those offered by previous agreements.
But while this seems like a cause for celebration, Ugandan civic activists were outraged by the new deals, claiming that they were not merely lacking in transparency, but actually illegal. In a stormy debate last October, Uganda's parliament passed a resolution ordering a moratorium on all oil contracts until long-awaited petroleum and revenue management bills had been discussed and enacted. MPs also accused Tullow of bribery and demanded prosecution of three government ministers on related corruption charges.
Museveni's National Resistance Movement (NRM) has an overwhelming majority in parliament, which had long been seen as merely rubber-stamping presidential decisions. The parliamentary rebellion in NRM ranks showed, first, that ambitious younger politicians see Museveni as nearing the end of his shelf life and are jockeying for future positions. Second, it showed how deep and ubiquitous the mistrust and suspicion is of the man who has ruled Uganda for 26 years.
Many Ugandan intellectuals believe that Museveni needs oil revenues to sustain the personal patronage system that has increasingly characterised his rule, and that gets increasingly costly over time. The last thing he wants, they say, is transparency over oil agreements or a public debate about oil.
However, oil bills that have already been approved by the president's cabinet will be tabled in the current session of parliament. Their contents have not yet been made public, and civil society activists fear that they will be rushed through without proper debate or public scrutiny by MPs who, last week, were each given ,000 for a new car. The basic pay for MPs in Uganda, where the median income is around 0 per year, is substantially higher than MPs in Britain.
• Follow Comment is free on Twitter @commentisfree


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Ciao tutti! I wanted to share the beautiful Atlanta home tour of our La Fortezza Workshop Artist in Residence Steve McKenzie and his lovely wife, Jill. Steve will be with us for a month in July, working on a very special abstract collection inspired by our region Lunigiana. Check out the Artist in Residence Program here.
We are so thrilled to have him.
The winter issue of Atlanta Magazine's Home features his abode. It's so personal well designed and comfortable. Pick up a copy on newsstands now. Make sure to book your days to study with Steve in July here.
See you in Italy! Steve and I are excited.
All behind the scenes Decor Design Inspiration home fashion home furnishings Meet the Team shelter Uncategorized : Tags: annette joseph, Atlanta Magazine Home, Atlanta Magazine's Home, friends, interior design, interiors, Steve McKenzie, steve mckenzie's


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Kerala Tour
MAGICAL KERALA TOUR - 4 Nights /5 Days
Day 01 - Cochin / Munnar (4 hrs approx)
Pick up from Cochin Railway station/Airport. Proceed to Munnar and check in to hotel. Over night stay at Munnar.
Day 02 - Munnar
Morning breakfast at hotel later sightseeing of Munnar, visiting Tea Plantations, Mattupatty Dam, Boating, Echo-Point, Kundala Lake, Top Station, Rajamallay and return to Munnar. Over night stay at hotel.
Day 03 - Munnar / Thekkady (3.5 hrs approx)
After breakfast Proceed to Thekkady. On the way, You can see Cardamom & Pepper Plantations. Over night at Thekkady.
Day 04 - Thekkady / Kumarakom (3.5 hrs approx)
After breakfast check out from the hotel and proceed to Kumarakom and check in to your resort. Overnight stay at Houseboat.
Day 05 - Kumarakom / Cochin (2.5 hrs approx)
After breakfast, check out from Houseboat and drop at Cochin Railway Station / Airport.


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Minnesota's favorite Crock Pot meat, Porketta, made simple and delicious.
I've bought Porketta from our butcher since I can remember. A pork shoulder rubbed with beautiful spices, tied up and ready to bed in your Crock Pot. From an eight-hour day of cooking emerges a tender meat ready for sandwiches or if we are honest, straight from the cutting board.
I make Porketta several times a year, it is one of Will's very favorite meals. We don't care if the kids eat it, more for us. Unfortunately, they love it too. The scoundrels. We fight for the scraps. The little one stealing pieces from the cutting board says, "Mommy I love it."
Most people would probably be just fine continuing to buy the packaged and seasoned meat. Me, I need to get to the bottom of this Minnesota favorite and figure out how to make my own.
Just like Alice from the Brady Bunch I've started making friends with my neighborhood butchers. I wouldn't call it flirting per se. Well maybe.
"So tell me about these Porkettas." I'd say.
I'd play dumb.
"So what kind of spices do you put on them?" Oh let me check, Miss.
I started gathering intel. Butchers would tell me a few things, Rangers would tell me just a bit more. You don't know Rangers? Rangers or Iron Rangers are people from Minnesota's Iron Range. They are the experts of Porketta, a food of the miners. Again, not much talk on what's in this dish. As I'd talk to the Rangers, I'd say, "I think x, y and z is in it." They'd respond, "that sounds about right." And I knew I was on the right track.
The experts according to many, was Fraboni's. I noticed on their web page, in large font, NEVER put a porketta in a crock pot. Hmmm. Friends, we are going to put this baby in a Crock Pot.
Honestly, I've been scared of this baby. I bought the pork roast and waited. I waited until my husband said, "So what about that Porketta?"
It was a Friday, I woke up early. Many Fridays I am at work by 6 am. This Friday, no meetings, I could sleep in but it was Porketta time. I woke up early and I was finally ready to tackle the beast.
First step is starting out with a Pork Roast also referred to as a pork butt or shoulder. My pork roast had a bone so I had to line up the roast for the right cuts. The first cut was a cut right down the middle of the roast (not through). This cut opens up the roast, peel it back and make a cut on the bottom right to open up the roast then make a similar cut on the bottom left of the roast. Now your roast is butterflied and ready for fun.
Wowsa. You see that beautiful color? That's Porketta. Bronzed with smoked paprika. I like to put mine on a cookie sheet to contain the spice and get it all rubbed in. Now's the fun part.
One of the secret ingredients I've discovered for the Porketta is fresh fennel and garlic cloves. When you get the Porketta rubbed down it's covered inside and out with seasoning, the butterflying is so you can stuff it with fresh garlic and fennel. Now we're going to tie it up and tuck in all that goodness.
We're not done. Settle down. It's hard work but its worth the wait. Time for some browning and then set it gently on top of some potatoes and set that Crock Pot for 8 hours on low. Let it do the work. Relax. Have a cup of coffee, take a nap, or go to work. Whatever. Once it's ready, don't let anyone else in the kitchen. Trust me, you want the first bite.
I make this Porketta into sandwiches. Minnesotans love enjoying Porketta with a creamy mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. I make mine with my Pickled Onions and a creamy horseradish sauce (equal parts Mexican Crema and Horseradish sauce).
Hide this from the children. Hide it from your husband. Seriously. Don't count on leftovers.
- 3-4 lb Pork Butt/Shoulder
- ½ TB Salt, plus 1 tsp for after cooking
- 2 TB Smoked Paprika
- 2 TB Onion Powder
- 2 TB Italian Seasoning
- 1 TB Sugar
- 12 Peeled Garlic Cloves (various sizes, chopped)
- ⅓ cup Fresh Fennel greens (chopped)
- 2 TB Fresh Fennel Bulb (chopped)
- ¼ Vegetable Oil
- Mixed Potatoes
- 1 cup Chicken Broth
- Butterfly Pork Roast by making a vertical slice and then slicing on the left and the right bottom sides to open up roast.
- In a bowl combine salt, paprika, onion powder, Italian seasoning and sugar.
- Rub on all sides of the pork.
- Stuff pork with chopped garlic, fennel greens and fennel bulb. Then tuck up roast and tie with kitchen twine.
- In a large pan heat vegetable oil,
- Brown meat for two minutes on each side.
- Line bottom of Crock Pot with potatoes and chicken broth. Place roast on top.
- Cook on low for 8 hours.
- Salt with remaining 1 tsp of salt after cooking


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Superior Multi-Packaging Ltd. Disposes of Hoover Shanghai Group According to BAC Company Report
26 Jul 2012 • by Natalie Aster
LONDON – Following its announcement on February 14th and 28th 2012, Superior Multi-Packaging (SMPL) declared full disposal of Hoover Shanghai Group effective May 7th 2012. The Hoover Group engages in the business of fabrication and installation of decorative and architectural metalwork for residential and commercial properties and hotels. SMPL decided to dispose of this company according to its strategy of non-core assets divestment. Hoover Singapore Disposal was committed on February 24th 2012.
SMPL is experiencing tough times within current macroeconomic challenges: volatile raw material prices, lower customers demand, high energy and labor costs. As a result, FY 2011 ended weak: revenue declined by 2.6% and amounted SGD 161.4 M, gross profit accounted SGD 17.8 M (11.9% down), operating income lost 57.1% and equaled SGD 2.7 M, and net income fell by 64% to SGD 1.8 M. Among regional markets Singapore and China were flat, while other ASEAN countries improved.
Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Singapore, Superior Multi-Packaging engages in design and production of packaging solutions from metal and plastic materials. The company commits operations in Singapore, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. SMPL offers solutions for can packaging, pail, UN packaging, printed plates, as well as flexible food and electronics wrappings.
Get more details on the company's activities, risk factors, business opportunities and experts' forecasts can be found in the report "Superior Multi-Packaging Ltd. Fundamental Company Report Including Financial, SWOT, Competitors and Industry Analysis" recently published by Market Publishers Ltd.
Report Details:
Superior Multi-Packaging Ltd. Fundamental Company Report Including Financial, SWOT, Competitors and Industry Analysis
Date: Jul, 2012
Pages: 96
More company reports featuring SWOT and financial information, industry and competitors analysis can be found in Company Reports Catalog.
MarketPublishers, Ltd.
Tanya Rezler
Tel: +44 208 144 6009
Fax: +44 207 900 3970
[email protected]


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Analyzing Environmental Trends in Asiaby -
How can the financial community better understand the financial impacts of environmental trends?
Climate change and water scarcity will pose serious threats to countries in South and Southeast Asia over the next several decades. These threats, which range from more extreme weather events (like typhoons, floods, and droughts) to more limited water availability, are likely to have significant impacts on the region's economies and industrial sectors. Gaining a better understanding of how and when environmental risks may impact company performance will help the region's financial community accurately assess corporate value.
To that end, WRI and HSBC partnered to identify and quantify environmental risks facing key sectors in South and Southeast Asia, culminating in the recent release of three reports on the power, food and beverage, and real estate sectors.
Why is it so difficult to analyze the financial impacts of environmental trends in Southeast Asia? Today WRI releases Analyzing Environmental Trends: Taking the Pulse of Asia's Financial Community, a working paper that looks at this question and draws on insights gained from the sector reports, as well as feedback from the region's financial community. The paper frames the key challenges:
A lack of publicly available data relating to both environmental trends (for example, localized water scarcity data) and company-specific exposure to potential environmental risks (for example, the number of corporate facilities in water scarce areas);
Limited contextual analysis –- including examinations of social, economic and political drivers -- for framing the complex connections between environmental trends and their financial impacts;
The highly unpredictable nature of environmental trends which limits analysts' ability to forecast their likelihood and their magnitude.
Lack of Data
The lack of reliable environmental data raises particularly serious concerns in Asia, because this region is predicted to be among the highest impacted by environmental risks such as climate change. There is an urgent need for investors to engage with companies to obtain key data points, such as the specific location of key facilities and the security of a company's access to key resource inputs such as water. Better information in these areas will help investors fully understand the extent to which environmental risk will impact companies.
Contextual Analysis
Data alone are not sufficient if they are not accompanied by contextual analysis. Contextual analysis entails understanding the extent to which a company or its facilities are: (1) exposed and (2) vulnerable to environmental impacts. A company's geographical location (or that of its plants/facilities) determines its exposure to physical environmental trends, while the nature of a company's operations determines its vulnerability to these trends.
To evaluate exposure to environmental trends, the WRI/HSBC research project used geographical information system (GIS) maps. The maps plotted the location of company operations (including facilities and plants) on areas of environmental exposure. In India, for example, 74 GW---over half of existing and planned capacity for major power companies---are located in areas considered to be water scarce or water stressed, which is significant because traditional power plants typically use significant amounts of water.
Thermal Power and Hydropower Plant Locations and Water Stress Level
Modeling Uncertainty
Arguably the most daunting challenge to assessing the financial impacts of environmental trends is the inherent uncertainty in forecasting both the magnitude of environmental risk and the degree of impact that adverse events would have have on companies. This forecasting ability is further complicated by the difficulty in isolating the impacts of environmental trends on company performance.
The WRI/HSBC research project tackled the challenge of uncertainty by initially engaging with environmental experts and companies in the region to establish qualitative connections between environmental risks and financial value. WRI constructed hypothetical but realistic environmental trend scenarios, which HSBC used as a basis to evaluate how companies would be impacted financially using sensitivity analysis. The primary aim of the research was to establish the connections between environmental risks and company value qualitatively, and then prove that they could also be financially material.
What role can the financial community play in improving understanding of environmental trends?
The WRI/HSBC paper suggests actions aimed at improving the quality of environmental data and at enhancing financial analysis methodologies:
1.Engage with companies to publicly disclose relevant environmental data and provide context for interpretation.
Financial analysis requires data (including resource use and dependencies) at the facility (or local) level as well as the company-wide level. Examples of the type of data required include:
- Location of facilities
- Revenue broken down by product and/or facility
2.Seek out environmental data sources from private data providers, academics, and governments.
The financial community can encourage governments to provide better environmental data at a national level, while working with private data providers to access environmental data at a local level. Examples of specific data that the financial community should seek from governments include:
- Resource (e.g. water) availability data at the smallest scale possible
- Data on local climate impact predictions
3.Apply methodologies that simulate financial uncertainties to environmental trends.
For analysts looking to take their environmental analysis one step further, WRI used the following methods to cope with uncertainty in analyzing the power sector:
Sensitivity analysis: For plants dependent on freshwater resources, conduct a plant level sensitivity analysis of Internal Rate of Return (IRR) impacts of outages and load losses. This will reveal which companies have the highest financial risk tied to disruptions.
Scenario analysis: Develop scenarios around water availability at the river basin level for each plant based on future projections (if available) or key risk factors present at the local level. When combined with the sensitivity analysis above, this provides insight into which plants are most at risk from water constraints and the potential magnitude of financial impact.
Management quality analysis: Assess and rank companies based on their strategies for mitigating water risk. (e.g. the extent of their water management strategies; their utilization of advanced technologies, such as air cooling, to reduce water dependency). Use this information to appropriately adjust conclusions from the sensitivity and scenarios analyses detailed above.
The availability and quality of environmental data in South and Southeast Asia remain limited, despite broad consensus that environmental trends are likely to have negative impacts across the region. This situation makes the need for better disclosure and environmental analysis all the more pressing and illustrates the clear role that Asia's financial community can play in addressing this important gap.
The Government of Japan, through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), generously provided funding for this research.


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We had no winner of the Zingo Jackpot in The Gladstone on Thursday. The numbers drawn were 7-6-4-3-1-2-5.
Next week's Jackpot will now be €4,000 and the draw will take place in The Clubhouse on Thursday the 30th of April at 10:30pm.
Feeling lucky, why not play online now at http://www.skerriesharps.ie/zingo. Remember if you're not in you can't win.
New to Online: Why not play for 5 weeks at a cost of a tenner!!!!!
Every euro you spend on the lotto goes into raising vital funds to keep all our juvenile and adult teams on the pitch playing our beloved Gaelic games.
News and Club Notes >


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Policy on Children's Mobile Phones/Electronic Games
Introductory Statement
This policy was drawn up in response to technological advances which have seen a significant increase in hand held electronic 'gadgets' amongst the school population over recent years.
- I Pods, mobile phones, Game Boys, PSPs, MP3s etc. are intrusive and distracting in a school environment
- Strategies need to be in place to reduce the intrusiveness of unauthorized technology in a school situation
- Some electronic devices may be harmful due to frequent use
- Mobile phones may be used to conduct bullying campaigns
Relationship to School Ethos
The use of mobile phones and other electronic games contravenes the provision of a safe and secure school environment conducive to learning, a provision which is central to the ethos of St. Brigid's.
Aim: To lessen intrusions on and distractions to children's learning
Internal School Procedures
The following are the guidelines for mobile phone and electronic games
Where a pupil brings a mobile phone to school, the phone must be kept out of sight in the student's school bag.
It should be switched off during the school day and should not be used, for any purpose, on school premises, grounds or during off-site school activities (such as school swimming or sports activities).
Children who need to contact home during school hours may do so through the school secretary using the school landline phone.
The only exception to this is in an emergency or with the prior approval of the Principal or a member of the school team.
Pupils are not allowed bring electronic games into school
Breaches of this policy
– Pupils who ignore this policy and use a mobile phone on school premises without permission will be required to hand over their phone to a member of the school team and parents will be asked to collect it from the school office. The same holds true for electronic games as they are not allowed.
– If a teacher has any suspicion that a mobile phone has unsuitable material stored on it, pupils will be required to hand over the phone to a teacher and parents will be asked to collect it from the school.
– Where there is a suspicion that the material on the mobile may provide evidence relating to a criminal offence the phone will be handed over to the gardaí for further investigation. Parents will be informed in such circumstances.
– Pupils using mobile phones to bully other pupils or send offensive messages/calls will face disciplinary actions as per the school Code of Behaviour.
– It should be noted that it is a criminal offence to use a mobile phone to menace, harass or offend another person. As with all such incidents, the school may consider it appropriate to involve the gardaí.
– The school will incorporate this policy in the school's discipline policy and will treat breaches as they would treat any other breach of school discipline.
Lost, stolen or damaged phones/electronic games
– The school accepts no responsibility for replacing lost, stolen or damaged mobile phones. The safety and security of mobile phones is wholly a matter for pupils/parents.
– The school accepts no responsibility for pupils who lose or have their mobile phones stolen while travelling to and from school.
– Mobile phones which are found in the school and whose owner cannot be located should be handed to a member of the school team.
– It is strongly advised that pupils use passwords/pin numbers to ensure that unauthorised phone calls cannot be made on their phones (e.g. by other pupils, or if stolen).
Pupils must keep their password/pin numbers confidential. Mobile phone and/or passwords should not be shared.
The school accepts no responsibility for replacing lost, stolen or damaged electronic games as they are not allowed on the premises.
Roles and Responsibilities
All the school team share in the co-ordination and implementation of this policy.
This policy is monitored on an ongoing basis and amendments added as new technology comes on stream.
Ratified by Board of Management
and communicated to the school community.
14th January 2014
School Tour Policy
When this policy was drafted in May 2008 as a response to safeguarding the health and safety of the children, it put in writing the safe practices used by the staff up to that date. This policy was most recently reviewed in September 2014.
The Board of Management has a duty to safeguard the health and safety of pupils when they are engaged in school activities when inside and outside the school.
The formulation of this policy enables out school effectively
- provide for the safety of students and staff
- ensure that adequate arrangements are in place for the planning of school tours and trips outside the school
- have a policy with which all staff are familiar
Roles and Responsibilities
The Board of Management, Principal and staff have a duty of care to the students in the school. This is achieved in co-operation with the parents.
School Ethos
This policy re-enforces the element of the school mission statement which advocates providing a safe and secure learning environment for each child; ensuring a duty of care at all times when the school is in operation.
To develop satisfactory procedures where by the safety and well being of all staff and pupils is safe guarded.
Tours will be arranged at the discretion of the class teacher. School tours should take into account the age and interests of the children and the curriculum being covered. Children go on school tours and trips to learn, to take part in sports and to enjoy themselves.
Over the year there may be opportunities for the children to go to forest areas such as Knocksink (for the infant classes) and Glendalough (for older children), the National Concert Hall, the Zoo, the National Aquatic Centre, the Ark etc.
Permission slips
When a visit is planned outside the immediate local area a letter with permission slip is sent home to be signed. Children cannot travel without these being signed.
Local trips
Local trips are covered by the general permission slip signed by the parent when the child first enters the school. Local trips include those to the church, the North or South Beach, the library, the fire station, local sports facilities. Whether the teacher and class are travelling locally or further afield, the school secretary and principal should be informed.
Supervision and travelling
Adequate supervision is vital. When walking, children should walk in twos or single file depending on the width of the pavement. They should not walk near the edge of the pavement or on the road.
The children should be reminded to show consideration for other people, especially the elderly. The children should walk with care to avoid tripping or walking into lamp posts. Children should also be asked not to pet stray dogs.
An adult should lead and one adult should mind the 'tail end ' of the line, making sure no one falls back behind them. Ideally there should also be an adult in the middle. A whistle can prove useful.
When travelling by private coach, there should be seatbelts. The children have to remain tied in and seated during the journey.
If it is looking like the children are likely to be home later than scheduled please ring the office, so that parents inquiries can be answered.
Safe practices
If walking, the route should be planned in advance. Teachers unfamiliar with the area should check with staff members the safest way to get to the destination.
It is suggested that the teacher try the route in advance first even by car. Teachers should brief the adults who are travelling with them and tell them in advance about anything to watch out for on the route.
The teachers should do their best to ensure that the cost of the tour is reasonable and represents value for money.
Tours should be booked early. Popular venues are can be booked up before Easter. Please sure the date booked does not clash with e.g. Sports Day
Where problems arise either with venue or transport teachers will report back to the transport/tour organiser who will in turn discuss it with the Principal
Conduct on Tours
Pupil's behaviour on tours will comply with the standard set down in the School's Code of Discipline. In certain circumstances parents may be asked to agree to a contract on behaviour.
Where it is felt that a child's conduct would pose a safety risk or inhibit the educational benefit for self or others, the teacher may decide that the child permission to travel. Parents will be advised of this in advance.
Safety and Supervision
Teachers will be extra vigilant when taking children out of the school. Special attention will be paid to:- Road Safety, Behaviour on bus, Risks posed by particular venues (e.g. adventure playgrounds, National Aquatic Centre etc.) Parents accompanying the students are asked to be vigilant too.


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Home » Apps with tag '2D'
Tiptop Review
In what could be the first of a series of games from developer On5, 'Tiptop: the last march.' is a Lemmings-inspired game that's married with pop-culture to create a challenging and (at times) tongue-in-cheek experience that's hard to put down. In order to assist your heroes lines can be drawn on to the level, providing a path for them to walk on or as barriers against enemies. Much like other line-drawing games, you're given a limited amount of 'ink' to use with drawn lines only stay…Watch The Video Review
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Review
With Sonic the Hedgehog being on every electronic device that's in some way wired to the internet (and possibly on some varieties of toasters), it was only a matter of time before the sequel made its debut. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was a landmark title for the Genesis (or Mega Drive for those of you outside the US) that is still one of the consoles highest selling games. Much like the port of Sonic the Hedgehog for the iPhone the controls are simplified with a virtual d-pad for movement a…Watch The Video Review
R.O.S.M ( Revenge of the Summon Monsters ) Review
At first glance, Revenge of the Summon Monsters (ROSM) looks like another typical castle-defense game. Monsters walk in, while you upgrade your defenses to prevent them from destroying your castle. However, ROSM combines the classic castle-defense mechanics with regular tower-defense style monster pathing to come up with something that's new while being familiar to fans of each genre. Summoned monsters of the realm have decided to rise up against those who have enslaved them and being…Watch The Video Review
Monster Trucks Nitro 2 Review
Yeeehaw! I lurves me some Monster Trucks! But in all seriousness, who doesn't get a little bit excited by these oversized vehicular behemoths and their destructive powers? Maybe you've never thought about it, but Monster Trucks Nitro 2 by RedLynx will make a believer of you as you flip, boost and smash your way to first place in this side-scrolling tilt racer. Once you've signed yourself up to a race you're slapped straight down in to a side-on view of your beastly ride. Acceleration…Watch The Video Review
Warpgate Review
Warpgate by Freeverse has already had some time to warm up with its HD release on the iPad earlier this month, but how does it hold up for the iPhone? Following in the footsteps of games like Freelancer, Warpgate is a space trading and combat simulation that's perfectly suited for iDevices. What makes the genre so appealing is its blend of open-world mechanics with quest based objectives to convey an underlying storyline. Being action oriented, combat often represents the most complex…Watch The Video Review
Star Wars: Cantina Review
I guess it was really only a matter of time before the App Store was graced with a Star Wars themed management game. You play as Nia Adea in THQ Wireless' latest game Star Wars: Cantina and being the friendly happy-go-lucky lass that you are, you plunge headlong in to the world of managing a cantina to help your friend. Cantina keeps things simple and only requires tapping to perform actions. To counter this simplicity the game quickly throws you in the deep end, serving up more rowdy…Watch The Video Review
ESPGALUDA II Review
ESPGALUDA II by Cave is the real deal when it comes to 'bullet hell' shooters and despite being five years in the making for this adaption, nothing is lost from the 2005 Arcade original. This is the sort of game that makes regular shooters look like a stroll in the park and despite its fierce looks, this is a game that can be enjoyed by gamers of all levels. ESPGALUDA II opts for several control levels with left and right hand variants to give players a fighting chance to learn the ga…Watch The Video Review
Bounce On 2: Drallo's Demise Review
Barring the excellent return to form of Sonic Rush, SEGA have had troubles recapturing what made Sonic the Hedgehog such a great platformer. It's hard to shake the feeling that Team Phobic have cracked an element of what made Sonic so good and have distilled it in to their latest game Bounce On 2: Drallo's Demise. There are two basic movement controls with the default being tilt based, but for those who are more comfortable with virtual pads buttons are also available. The level of co…Watch The Video Review
The Saboteur™ Review
The Saboteur, released by EA for major consoles was received with mild interest. Set in 1940's occupied France, you play Sean Devlin on his quest for revenge against the Nazis. Hands-On Mobile has just released an iPhone version of the game, but just like its bigger brother on the 360 and PS3 it's a great game that just manages to miss the mark in every way. Sean is controlled from an angled top-down 2D perspective as he runs around causing general amounts of mayhem and destruction. A…Watch The Video Review
ZENONIA® 2 Review
There's really not much to say about Gamevil's latest release of Zenonia 2. If you were a fan of Zenonia or of Action RPGs in any way, then this sequel is immediately worth grabbing thanks to a plethora of tiny upgrades that have made a great RPG even better. For those that still need convincing, read on. Much like the first in the series, gameplay revolves around an Action RPG style that's easy to pick up and play. The virtual pad moves your character, while a large action button per…Watch The Video Review
Flick Bowling 2 Review
If Doc Brown from Back To The Future had a crazy German half-brother, he'd be Baron Von Schtopwatch, the mad professor who hassles Jim and Jen at their local bowling alley. Stay with me on this one because it gets weirder. Your goal is to return to the modern day while challenging figures from history after Von Schtopwatch sends you back to ancient Egypt. Storyline aside, Flick Bowling 2 by Freeverse is a strange beast to handle. The "true to life" physics as the developers put it mak…Watch The Video Review
BioDefense: Zombie Outbreak Review
Let me summarize the story of BioDefense: Zombie Outbreak - A meteor hits Earth; Zombies roam the Earth; Mankind fights for its survival. Now that we have the stock plot requirements in place, lets get back to blasting endless waves of zombies! With its unique mix of RTS and Tower Defense gameplay, this is a huge step forward for developer Resolution Interactive who have previously made their name with the Moto franchise. Gameplay boils down to two main duties of branching out and cap…Watch The Video Review
Castle Fantasy Review
Castle Fantasy by Croquis is a great new release for action-platformers on the App Store. While its controls still leave a lot to be desired, almost everything else is polished and kept simple making this a perfect addition to any hardcore gamer's collection. As with most standard side-scrollers the controls make use of virtual buttons to move side-to-side, jump, attack or shoot. Quirks such as only being about to double-jump while jumping up can throw off experienced platformer fans,…Watch The Video Review
iEscaper!2 -Escape from the Castle of Doom- Review
The escape the room game become popular on the PC as a host of simple flash games emerged trapping the player in an area with some fiendish puzzles and pixel hunting. The genre made an excellent leap to the iphone platform last year with iEscaper - Escape from the Ninja's Lair, and now the sequel is upon us, titled iEscaper 2 - Escape from the Castle of the Doom. As a ninja, you make your way into the Castle of Doom to obtain the Crystal of Dragon, though finding said crystal and getti…Watch The Video Review
Project "Thor" Review
Project Thor by Jury Shortki is a bit of an odd-ball when it comes to classification. Strictly speaking it's another castle-defense game, but replace castle with planet and defense with Arkanoid. If nothing else, Project Thor demands attention for being so genuinely unique. It's hard to describe the gameplay, but it goes a little something like this: While defending a new planet for humanity, you control a giant shield that reflects incoming attacks while building a large temporary "o…Watch The Video Review


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The Phobos Fuzz is a clone of the Colorsound / Sola Sound Tone Bender Mk. III. Using this PCB, you can also build a Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround. Just make sure to read the documentation because there
The Tonebender was sold under a number of different brand names, including Vox and Park Sound. While the official Sola Sound version was just called the "Tone Bender" officially, the Vox version included the "Mark III", and it was the direct successor of the "Mark II" (my Deimos project) so the Mk III designation has come to represent this version. It's also commonly called the 3-Knob Tonebender to distinguish it from versions 1 and 2 that only had two knobs.
David Main from D*A*M has written up a history of the Tone Bender up until Mk II, so you would do well to check out his page on the history for the full background story. His history stops at the release of the Mk III so this is where we're picking up.
In 1968, the Mk II circuit was "updated", which is another way of saying "completely revised and bearing no resemblance to the previous version". The new version had three transistors, with the first two transistors being arranged in a Darlington configuration. This has the advantage of coaxing higher gains (HFe) than germanium transistors are normally capable of, while also being much easier to bias and being tolerant of poor-quality transistors.
The gain control on a Fuzz Face or Tone Bender I / II is a pot off the emitter of one of the transistors, directly controlling the gain of that stage. In contrast, the TB Mk III cranks up the gain to a fixed amount in the first stage and then lets you bleed off the signal before it hits the second stage. In other words, it's a gain cut control wired in reverse, so it has the illusion of increasing it in the same way as other fuzzes or overdrives.
The Mk III also had a tone control, which is something sorely missing from any of its predecessors. It essentially has two fixed passive tone paths at the tail end of the circuit, one that cuts the treble & enhances bass and one that leaves most of the treble intact, and then a potentiometer that pans between them.
The Mk III circuit was also released in a smaller enclosure and called the "Mk IV", although it's the same circuit. The two were sold alongside each other for a period of time before they transitioned completely over to the Mk IV.
Later Tone Benders such as the Supa Tone Bender from 1973 and the Jumbo Tone Bender from 1976 were silicon Big Muff clones and again bore no resemblance to any prior versions. (They're fantastic and worth a look—just not the same circuits.)
The Buzzaround was released sometime between 1965 and 1968 by Baldwin-Burns, the new name of Burns Guitars London after they were bought by the Baldwin Piano Company. They had no affiliation with Sola Sound / Colorsound.The most likely release date was 1967, but so few of these units still exist that there's no way of really knowing. It's an extremely rare effect, having sold for as much as $3,000 on eBay.
Most people think the Buzzaround to be a tweaked clone of the TB Mk III, but actually it's more likely that the reverse is true since the Mk III came a year later in 1968. The Buzzaround was rumored to have been designed by Gary Hurst, the designer of the first four Tone Bender versions (1, 1.5, 2 and 3), but Gary has denied this.[1] The TB Mk III is a little more 'refined', having a true output volume control instead of a bias control that can never get down to zero and only sounds good at certain settings. It's unlikely that a person experimenting with the Tone Bender circuit would try out the Burns method and think of it as an improvement.
So, at the end of the day, the origins of the Buzzaround aren't really known for sure—"probably" is the best we can do. What matters is that they're really easy to build with the Phobos PCB, so you can try one out for significantly less than $3,000.


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'Invisible Empire : Undefined Spaces' is a virtual territory that allows art to propose new ways of societal living in order to escape heavy-handed cultures. It is a virtual arena of tension within our subconscious, our true form of spirit and the uncontrollable sphere of influence. This critical stance embraces interactivity and all forms of virtual partnership within physical and undefined domains.
The term 'no man's land' is generally accepted as an unlimited combat area in between two enemy trenches. It is a space that neither side openly wishes to occupy or take control of due to the fear of being attacked in the process. It is also a term for unoccupied land or more specifically, an area that is under dispute between parties and abandoned due to fear or uncertainty. Metaphorically, the concept of no man's land allows us to explore the perception of this ominous and obtuse phrase. 'Invisible Empire : Undefined Spaces' is a project that inquires into this narrow mental process while questioning governing traditions that structure citizens, lifestyles and beliefs.
Jean-Michel Crapanzano is interested in the 'invisible part of the artist's practice', the preliminary conceptual phases and in particular the moment of creation. The project will promote an open dialogue with artists, curators and audience in order to expose these invisible processes.
'Invisible Empire : Undefined Spaces' is made up of workshops, interviews, exhibitions and events. The workshop will be an experimental period where artists can exchange and share ideas and working practices. The curator/s and a commissioned filmmaker will follow the artists both individually and as a group to document the progress and development of work (and practices) over the course of the project. This self-reflexive and creative process will feed into and become a part of the project as a whole. This platform enables an extension of the individual artistic practice and creates a dynamic process of interaction between artists, curators, audience and documentary forms.
Your-space is a platform of the Van Abbemuseum, for artists, (artist)initiatives, (cultural)activists and others interested in progressive and contemplative expression forms. Your-space reforms and presents identity.
kanaalstraat 8
5611 CT Eindhoven


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Let's say you've converted a vs 2005 asp .net project over to vs 2008 and you have old ajax references like System.Web.Extensions, etc. that you want to get rid of, but they don't show up under the Solution view. The way to remove those references (or add new ones) is to do the following:
No comments posted yet.
Copyright © 2007 Informatif. All Rights Reserved. Designed by Free CSS Templates adapted by timheuer.


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I copied this from a posting by Janice Ian on Facebook:
"Just got my BMI statements, which pay me when songs i write are played. On songs I own 100% of, Amazon Prime paid me $1.22 as the publisher for 6,456 plays. I'm making $0.00018897149 per play.
On "Apple Family", I had 4,334 plays, and got $1.05; that's $0.00024227041 per play. Things are looking up!
Oh, but for "Apple Student" I had 33 plays and made... $0.01. One cent. Really.
Wait! Pandora was huge in my little world - 19,006 plays!! and $2.93 in payment. Pandora Plus, 7,644 plays, and a 91 cent payment.
Spotify, Youtube about the same or less.
Since I wrote all these songs myself (without a co-writer), I should be paid the same amount again as a writer. People played my songs on Apple, Pandora, and Amazon 37,473 times - and at best, I made $3.18."
Further proof that the DRMA was all about saving Mickey Mouse from falling into the public domain and NOT about the artists.
John Kerr


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Baku. 28 February. REPORT.AZ/ Mandate of President of Uruguay Jose Mujica expires today.Report informs referring to TASS, according to the Constitution of the country, the president had no right to run for a second consecutive term.
According to the results of elections in Uruguay, the former president of this country, 74-year-old oncologist Tabaré Vázquez will take the office for the secont time on March 1.
Mujica plans to take a post i the Senate.
Jose Mujica is famous in media as "the poorest president in the world".


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Theory and Practice
Luke/Biggs, PG13, 1100 words.
Kissing. And italics.
Theory and Practice
It started with girls.
About once a week, sometimes twice, Luke could get away from the farm to meet Biggs. When they had fuel to spare, they would race their speeders. When they didn't, which was all too often, they would sit in the shade of Biggs's bedroom and drink the olbrew that Biggs filched from his father's storeroom. It was thin and sour but it went to their heads and made them feel like men.
And they would talk about girls.
Sexy Camie, spunky Lane, scary Nula, giggling Mim, and any other female creatures they could claim to have scraped an acquaintance with. Who was hot (Camie), who was easy (Lane), who they would do (all of them), and how likely it was to ever happen (variable depending on the amount of olbrew consumed).
This particular afternoon the olbrew was plentiful and the mood was mixed: gleeful (Biggs) and sullen (Luke). Only two days before, Biggs and Luke had met up with Camie and Mim at Toshi Station and Camie had taken Luke's hand and pulled him around back of the building. One thing might have led to another, but for some reason, it didn't and Luke had left abruptly, red-faced and heavy on the throttle.
Biggs took a swig of his olbrew. "Mim told me--"
"Shut up." Luke thought he should have known better than to come here so soon after the...incident.
"She told me that Camie told--"
"Shut up!" Luke could feel a blush starting to creep up his neck and he hunched his shoulders.
"--told her that you kissed like--"
"Shut up, you bastard!"
"--like a cleaning droid unclogging a dust vent."
Luke made a rude gesture, then drank morosely. "She said that?"
"She did, my friend." Biggs grinned. "I'm only telling you this for your own good."
Luke scowled. If he had had less olbrew, he would have tackled Biggs at this point and had a mock scrap, which he would have won. If he had had more olbrew, he would have punched Biggs and had a real fight, which he would have lost. But at this precise stage of adolescent inebriation, he was seized by overwhelming self-pity, a morbid sense of his own utter uselessness, and a chilling vision of his eventual destiny: the tedious life of a sad, bitter failure, alone, unwanted, and unloved.
"Well, what am I supposed to do?" he said.
"Kiss better."
"Just...you know. Kiss."
Luke narrowed his eyes. "'You know?' How many girls have you kissed?"
"A few," Biggs said. "You know."
"Girls." Biggs turned away to get another olbrew. He handed one to Luke.
"Sure." Luke opened the olbrew and stared at it. "It's just...how do I know what to do? I thought it would be easy but it's not."
"Ask your uncle. I'm sure he'd have lots of tips for you."
"Shut up."
"It's a problem," Biggs said. "Maybe we could..."
"Could what?"
"Maybe we could practice."
"Practice how?"
"You know," Biggs said. "Practice. On each other."
The olbrew stopped halfway to Luke's mouth and Luke's mouth stopped halfway open. "Each other?"
"It doesn't mean anything," Biggs said. "I don't want to kiss you. It's just...you know."
"Practice," Luke said.
Luke really couldn't tell if this was the most stupid or most brilliant idea Biggs had ever come up with. Probably stupid. He would tell Biggs to forget it. But then Luke remembered Camie pushing him away and laughing in his face.
So long as they didn't want to kiss each other. "All right, then."
Biggs looked surprised. "All right."
Then they just sat there and practiced drinking for a while instead.
"Well?" Luke said finally.
Biggs took one more swig and set down his olbrew. He scooted over. "Uh...here goes." He moved in and his face got bigger and bigger as it got closer to Luke. Luke wanted to close his eyes to block out the sight, but he thought that maybe it would be useful to see what was going on. Finally, Biggs's mouth bumped up against Luke's and they mashed their lips together for a while.
It was pretty bad. Clearly, they both had a lot of work to do.
"Your nose was all squished up against mine," Luke said.
"Your lips are all rubbery," Biggs said. "But you don't really kiss like a cleaning droid."
Luke snorted. "This time, tilt your head so your big nose doesn't get in the way."
"You should open your mouth a bit and move your lips differently."
"You know," Biggs said. He moved in again and this time they both angled their heads. The same way.
"Ow!" Luke rubbed his nose. "Here, let me do it." He grabbed Biggs by the chin to hold him still, then slanted his head for the approach. So far so good. When they made contact, Luke tried to move his lips "differently", whatever that meant. Biggs's lips were sort of firm and partly open and moving in and out a bit. Luke tried to copy him.
That was definitely better. They were more in sync now and it didn't feel like a strange and impossible thing. It felt pretty good, actually. For practice.
Only it kept going on. How did you know when to stop a kiss? There didn't seem to be a good way, so Luke just pulled back finally. He got a good look at Biggs gaping like a fish for a second.
"Better?" Luke said.
"Yeah, not bad." Biggs rubbed the back of his mouth with his hand. "Not so rubbery this time."
Luke socked Biggs in the arm. Biggs socked him back and they tussled until Biggs banged his knee on the bedpost and Luke scraped his elbow on the floor.
"One more time," Biggs said and they were kissing again. Luke opened his mouth wider this time and kissed a little deeper. Biggs's mouth was wet and bitter from the olbrew. Luke swiped his tongue on the inside of Biggs's lip and Biggs put his hand on Luke's arm.
When they finally pulled away, Luke felt a bit funny. A bit embarrassed and ... funny. "All right, then," he said.
"All right." Biggs moved so they weren't touching any longer. "I think we got it."
"I should go." Luke stood. His mouth was tingling and his lips felt puffy.
"See you," Biggs said. He sort of glanced at Luke, then looked away.
The next time Luke saw Camie, he pulled her off where it was private and he kissed her. She seemed to like it.
Luke wasn't so sure he did.


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4 Items
One-fifth of Delaware's population may have had Facebook data exposed : NewsWorks Tonight : Community : WHYY
The personal information of more than 200,000 Delawareans was compromised in the recently disclosed Facebook data breach, according to the state Department of Justice. Attorney General Matt Denn said 902 Facebook users in Delaware installed an app that allowed Global Science Research to access personal information of those users and their friends without their knowledge or permission. Facebook estimated that nearly 201,000 people in Delaware were friends with those on the social media site w...
Are you one of the 200,000 Delawareans with compromised Facebook data? - Technical.ly Delaware
NewsPublication Date: 2018-05-18
State Attorney General Matt Denn — one of 41 attorneys general who signed a March letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stating that they will investigate whether the site's data breach violated state laws — found that more than 200,000 people in Delaware alone may have had their personal data exposed to Cambridge Analytica and other third parties. In a state with only 960,000 people, that's no small number. Assuming every Delawarean had Facebook (and that's not the case), there'd be a roug...
Trump Is Playing Catch-Up In The Data-Driven Ground Game, But Does It
NewsPublication Date: 2016-01-28
With a big mouth, plenty of buzz, and a yuuge media presence, does Donald Trump still need a data-driven get-out-the-vote operation to win in Iowa and New Hampshire? advertisement The real-estate developer has disrupted the presidential campaign like few other candidates in history and has shown an amazing ability–through the sheer forces of his personality and a populist movement receptive to his message–to survive the outrage over some of his offensive statements and to dodge bullets fire...
Not Just the Trump Commission: Political Parties and Data Firms Already Get N.H. Voters' Data | New Hampshire Public Radio
When New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner said he intended to share information from the state's public voter checklists with a newly launched Trump administration commission, plenty of people were quick to decry the move as an "invasion of privacy." But this debate over the decision to turn over voter data to the Trump commission has also highlighted a gap in public awareness around the state's elections: A lot of people don't seem to realize this same information is already being ...


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Charlie Rose spoke to Bill Gates in an hour long interview. The interview discussed several issues such as the Gates Foundation's work agains Malaria, Polio and healthcare, topics like Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. In the interview Bill Gates talked about how they were way ahead their time in tablets and why Apple did a better job. He also blessed the Surface tablet, and according to him this fusion of tablet & PC will help people look at these computing devices differently.
Business Insider has written about the tablet revelations, however, what I found more interesting was Bill Gates' role at Microsoft. Many pundits have on multiple occasions suggested that Bill Gates should come back and replace Steve Ballmer, in the same breath we've all wondered what role does Gates play in Microsoft. As it turns out, he still is active in the company. According to Gates himself he is working some a select fre projects. These projects are staffed and from what Gates mentioned deal with ideas like:
- digital whiteboards
- organizing data such as going down memory lane
- he suggests on new projects
Big Data is a buzzword in the industry much like Web 2.0 was a while back, it is interesting to see Bill Gates is still lending his intellect on solving some consumer technology challenges in addition to his dedication towards solving health problems across the world.


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Antelope 181078 176.1 KB
"Antelope 181078" is an awesome wallpapers presented here by Sharon Ray at the top resolution of 1024x768px and size of 176.1 KB. More of such great image you always can find at the Animals category or with our "Related walls" widget. Upload date - 24 April 2015
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Claret-red leather documents folder designed as a blotter, with gilt tooled interlaced design and scrolling foliage. Interior presented with bellow-shaped holder for mail organizing.
Napoleon III period.
Accidents, tears and losses.
32 x 24 cm (12-1/2 x 9-1/2 in.).
We are including a small rectangular documents folder of boiled cardboard with flowering motifs in mother-of-pearl.
Napoleon III period.
23 x 16 cm (9 x 6-1/4 in.).
And set of hand-written letters, Second half-19th Century.
Provenance :
- 数量 1
- 参照号码 Expertissim : 2012010062


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The main idea that you should keep in mind is that new cars that are just out of the factory are not going to offer you the same advantages as used ones that have been properly maintained. Despite the fact that you might be more inclined to go for the first option, you should know that this is going to be a mistake. You will manage to pay much less on a used vehicle, while being able to enjoy driving it without any trouble.
Another reason why you should rely on a credit union auto buying service Winston Salem NC is the fact that you do not have to do anything other than contact them. The consultants that you come across are going to ask you all the right questions so that they can check your credit score and then recommend vehicles based on what you can afford as well as your preferences. They will take care of all the documentation and even help you get your loan approved so that you can get behind the wheel of your new car sooner rather than later.
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Even if this does not always happen, it is enough to happen once. That is why it would be recommended that you opt for a reliable auto buying service that can guarantee you all the right advantages. Besides the fact that you do not have to worry about putting in too much effort into this whole process, you do not have to worry about investing in a car that is actually a wreck. You benefit from a warranty and can even change your mind if you want to back out of the deal.
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Bots are complicated. They're made to process repetitive actions autonomously and can be fairly easy to build, but they aren't always working on the side of good. Here's what you need to know.
Each year, EContent magazine compiles a list of the 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry.
Voting is now closed. We'll announce the results of the first-ever EContent 100 list chosen by the people!
Jose Castillo
May 16, 2013
"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." -Theodore Roosevelt
It's mid-morning at the office. My coffee has arrived at that perfect 30 second window of drinkability between tongue scorching and iced-coffee. I pause to enjoy that rare moment when something interrupts my bliss. Out of the corner of my eye I spot a window on my second monitor scrolling through text like a piano roll. Something is happening on Twitter. That can't be good news.
I quick scroll through the feed and the news of a nationwide internet outage is unfolding on social media. The nation's third largest telecom provider, CenturyLink, is experiencing outages from Las Vegas to Florida and across my region in Tennessee and North Carolina. On Twitter and Facebook the complaints are piling up about loss of internet and email, and downed websites.
So what should a company do in the face of a massive problem? How do you use the myriad of tools online to effectively communicate with customers and resolve issues? Balancing the internal struggle between public relations and customer service is often complicated. But there are a few simple things that we can all learn from Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. And while social media was not even on the radar screen in the late 1800's, Teddy Roosevelt was a master at preparation and quick response. He is still the only one in history to receive a Medal of Honor and a Nobel Peace Prize. Let's look what Roosevelt can teach us about how to respond online.
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
Companies love to talk to customers loudly about themselves. Marketing can easily turn into a cascade of "Hey look at me!" emails, blog articles, and Facebook posts. While Roosevelt's "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far," quote was related to foreign policy, it applies equally to online relationships. Speak softly and calmly directly to your individual customers. Far too often, brands carry out "big stick" plans that are one-to-many focused. That is an easier and more cost effective approach, but with the power of your company also comes great responsibility to interact with directly with your customers.
Roosevelt described his policy as "the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis." This means you should have a plan long before anything happens. Who is in charge of your social accounts? Are they empowered to make decisions? A recent event organization gave their employees up to $100 each to help their customers and exceed their expectations. Speaking softly to your customers will allow you to just carry your stick as opposed to flinging it wildly in the general area of your problems.
So how can we apply this to a real world situation like the CenturyLink outage? The first issue was the "big stick" approach to damage control. The official @CenturyLink Twitter account had one post stating, "CenturyLink is currently experiencing a service disruption. We are working to restore service and apologize for any inconvenience." And there was a similar post on its Facebook.com/CenturyLink page. There was no official response to any individual about the outage on either of its primary accounts. The company should have moved a team from customer service and responded individually to each request for information on Twitter and Facebook. The responses that eventually began to trickle out on CenturyLink's social accounts was a copy and paste of the original message.
So what are the folks at CenturyLink doing right? After a Twitter search I found an account called @CenturyLinkHelp that is responding to posts aimed at @CenturyLink. It has six photos of real people with names on the background wallpaper that are responding to complaints. After the initial blast of copy and paste messages they started using customer names and carrying on real conversations. They have set up an email firstname.lastname@example.com and a Facebook App comment form to handle customer requests. And even on Facebook there is someone named Patti who has started to respond to wall posts on the CenturyLink page.
We all fail and make mistakes. To quote one of my favorite TV shows, Mythbusters, "Failure is always an option!" We have all had moments in life or business similar to what CenturyLink experienced. Now is the moment when we can all learn from this story. Have a plan in place for total disaster, speak directly, sincerely, and compassionately to your customers, and wield your power with great responsibility hoping you never have to use it. Calm conversations will not only solve problems but turn your clients into advocates.
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." -Theodore Roosevelt


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It's a new book! Here we go!
Novel: Horror
Bryan showed his ID at the barricade. The policeman there ushered him in like a tardy schoolboy and asked something he couldn't hear through his muffled eardrums and the honking of the redirected traffic and the chatter of the crowd he was leaving behind at the caution tape.
Again he wondered why were there always crowds. Was everyone suicidal? Don't they know these things go wrong?
The cop said something else and Bryan nodded to get rid of him. Cops were like gnats once they knew who you were.
The cop clung to him anyway, leading him to Andrade, as if he wouldn't know where she would be. She was there at the front of the commotion, nearest the doors to the hotel, where the cops didn't dare venture. Mr. Cop pointed to her and then stood nearby the two of them – though sufficiently away from the hotel – as if awaiting a thank you or instructions. As if he could be of use.
"You're up," Andrade said. "First one here."
"What?" Bryan shouted.
"I said you're the first one here," she said, louder.
Bryan nodded. "You scope it out?"
"I did. Three of them in there."
"How many?"
"Three. What's with you?"
He pointed to an ear. "Was at a club. Loud band. Terrible band."
"This is why I don't go to clubs."
"This girl likes this band. It's probably a good thing I got called in."
"Such a workaholic."
Andrade sighed in exasperation. "Never mind. Just get in there. 44th floor. THREE of them." She held up three fingers to emphasize.
Bryan nodded and opened his mouth to respond, but a razor thin and razor straight suit of a man stepped out past the line of cops and came up to him.
"Are you the, er…" The suit fidgeted with his hands. "Are you responsible for taking care of these things?"
"That's me," Bryan said.
"Ah, good. I have a request. I'm the manager of this hotel and I would like to ask that you take care of this problem with as little mess as possible."
Bryan wasn't sure he had heard correctly. "Mess?"
"We're a well-respected hotel. We can't have just anybody tearing up the walls and floors." He fluttered a hand in the air to illustrate.
Bryan stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded, then turned to Andrade. "Andrade, how many presumed dead?"
"Current estimate is thirty. But of course it will be higher once everyone is accounted for."
Bryan looked back to the manager.
They finally believe us, and now they want to dictate how we work.
"Thirty people," he said aloud. "I don't give a rat's ass about your floors and walls."
The manager's eyes went wide, but before he could respond Bryan had stormed away and through the glass doors of the hotel. The police lights flashed against the walls, red and blue flickering over every surface. But as the door closed he was finally wrapped in silence, and he could hear the ringing in his ears. He could remember the awful band and Lily asking him why was he laughing. Him saying because the lyrics were shit and does she really listen to these guys. And then she got angry and told him well I don't see you playing any instruments. Yeah but he still knew what music was.
A fight on a first date. Man, he was smooth.
Hussein's voice spoke up in his mind. Don't let the job take over you.
Oh shut up, Bryan snapped back at his memory. It wasn't anything to do with the job. It was a ditz girl and they just hadn't gotten along.
But he had been kind of a jerk.
He watched the numbers climb to 44 above the elevator doors, each number illuminating in turn. He reached into his bag and closed his fingers over the deck of cards. As he took them out he felt his muscles stiffen of their own accord – his jaw clenched, his stomach tightened, his lungs took in a sharp breath. His body knew better than his mind what was coming. His whole body was Pavlov's dog, honed to the appearance of a few playing cards. He opened the package and slid out the top card and, as he still had a couple more floors to go past, he glanced at it. He frowned as he saw it was a joker. He usually took those out, but this one had slipped past him, and it had been too late by the time he had to use it last night. He could feel a faint pulse beneath his fingers, running the surface of the card as if blood ran through the ink. He could skip it. Could use a different card.
It didn't matter. Why the superstition anyway? It didn't change anything.
The thought of his aborted date came back to him like a slap to the face.
No way.
The elevator doors slid open as he slipped three more cards – empty cards, ready for capture – from the deck into his hand. His eyes defied his rational mind and snuck a peek at them: hearts, clubs, diamonds. Then he looked up.
Before him were five bodies, thin, desiccated, as if they had been lying in a desert sun for days instead of a hotel hallway for an hour. They hadn't even had time to start smelling.
He stepped gingerly over them, making sure not step on any limbs lest they break open and spill foul dust into the air. The lights in the hall were flickering almost as bad as the police lights outside, but the view was still clear enough – bodies down the corridor, all green and yellow, huddled with mouths yawned open. They could have been made of paper.
Time to quit stalling. This should have been done in the elevator.
It was a very common mistake in his profession to wait.
He took the joker in both hands and tore it in half. The demon inside it leapt to his body.
His heart set afire. His veins burned with acid. His head split apart. A million needles drove in under his skin. His stomach tried hard to dispel its contents, but he was able to keep it down. You had to concentrate on that part most of all. He cried out and fell to one knee. Then it entered his mind.
The flickering lights flickered darker. A slick dim grime settled over everything, both outside and inside his body. It was as if the universe and everything in it, including him, was fetid and rotten and turning a burnt black.
He forced his head up. Dimly, through the grime, there were two red beings, past the walls, down another corridor or in rooms. He looked up. The third one was above, maybe two floors. He'd take that one last.
It was a struggle to his feet, and a struggle to walk down the hall. The demon was making him feel like a stranger in his own body. Every step was torture, every movement a jolt to his nerves.
But I'm alive, he began his mantra. But I'm alive. He took steps between the corpses. Some of the rooms he passed had had their doors blown or ripped off, and in these he could see more desiccated bodies – men, women, a child here and there. He growled low and continued down the hall, spurred on. There was a long tear in the wallpaper on his right, and he grinned a grin that wasn't really his. There's your walls, Mr. Manager.
The first demon was in the hall, pulsing red and flowing viscous light. It hung amorphous in the air. They always reminded Bryan of the northern lights, though he didn't like the link that created in his mind. Northern lights were a beautiful memory he had once had, now tainted by these things. It wasn't right that they looked so beautiful, for what they were capable of, and what they weren't capable of.
It hadn't noticed him yet; his lifeforce was masked by the other one inside him. He reached out a hand towards it, focusing on the power of the demon inside, thrusting it outwards. The acid pumped through his veins, burning deeper, but he only grit his teeth against it. The light faded entirely from the hallway and there was only the blackness and the northern lights flowing. He envisioned a circle of flames around those lights, and it was there, thrust into existence. The demon screeched like fingernails on a chalkboard and the light wavered and dipped but couldn't escape the circle.
Bryan held up one of the playing cards, and willed the demon in. The light was pulled into the card, screaming all the way, until it only pulsed faintly red over the laminated surface. The fire whisked once around the card and Bryan's fingers, and was gone.
One demon down. And here comes the second.


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After generating a healthy amount of conversation on the Internet with our backcourt rankings the other day, we of course have to complete the task with our look at the league's top frontcourts. Sometimes when we refer to "frontcourt," we're referring to just the big-man positions. But for today, we're referring to the three-position group of center, power forward and small forward.
The list is based on 2013-14 projected WARP as forecast by ATH, my system for generating performance predictions based on trait matching, athletic indicators and aging curves. At the bottom line, WARP is a function of both the quality and quantity of a player's production, so these rankings take into account not just how well ATH thinks a player will play, but how often.
The combined unit WARP for the frontcourts is based on the projections for each team's probable starters at center, power forward and small forward, plus the projected top reserve for the unit.
1. Miami Heat | Combined WARP: 35.3
LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Chris Andersen, Shane Battier
No surprise here. Any ranking for which James is eligible will invariably find him on top. Beyond the MVP, Bosh is an established All-Star willing to sublimate some of his own abilities in service of winning championships. It would be nice to be able to fully quantify that, but Bosh comes out pretty well in projections as it is. Andersen proved his worth during last season's playoffs and is one of the better value players in the NBA right now.
During regular-season play, the Heat are at their best with Battier holding down the 3 position, though his up-and-down play had him briefly exiled from Miami's rotation during the playoffs. This season Battier, nearing the age of 36, won't be supplanted by the amnestied Mike Miller, which could reintroduce Rashard Lewis to a significant role. And beyond all this is Greg Oden. We have no idea what to expect from the former No. 1 overall pick, but we do know he'll be one of the more fascinating players to watch in the coming season.