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J.W. von Goethe
Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship
Book I
> Chapter VII
J.W. von Goethe
Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship.
The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction.
Book I
Chapter VII
of youth, as my companions began to increase in number, interfered with this solitary, still enjoyment. I was by turns a hunter, a soldier, a knight, as our games required me; and constantly I had this small advantage above the rest, that I was qualified to furnish them suitably with the necessary equipments. The swords, for example, were generally of my manufacture; I gilded and decorated the scabbards; and a secret instinct allowed me not to stop, till our militia was accoutred according to the antique model. Helmets, with plumes of paper, were got ready; shields, even coats of mail, were provided; undertakings in which such of the servants as had aught of the tailor in them, and the sempstresses of the house, broke many a needle.
A part of my comrades I had now got well equipped; by degrees, the rest were likewise furbished up, though on a thriftier plan; and so a very seemly corps at length was mustered. We marched about the court-yards and gardens; smote fearfully upon each others shields and heads: many flaws of discord rose among us, but none that lasted.
This diversion greatly entertained my fellows; but scarcely had it been twice or thrice repeated, till it ceased to content me. The aspect of so many harnessed figures naturally stimulated in my mind those ideas of chivalry, which, for some time, since I had commenced the reading of old romances, were filling my imagination.
Koppens translation of
Jerusalem Delivered
at length fell into my hands, and gave these wandering thoughts a settled direction. The whole poem, it is true, I could not read; but there were pieces of it which I learned by heart, and the images expressed in these hovered round me. Particularly was I captivated with Clorinda, and all her deeds and bearing. The masculine womanhood, the peaceful completeness of her being, had a greater influence upon my mind, just beginning to unfold itself, than the factitious charms of Armida, though the garden of that enchantress was by no means an object of my contempt.
But a hundred and a hundred times, while walking in the evenings on the balcony which stretches along the front of the house, and looking over the neighbourhood, as the quivering splendour streamed up at the horizon from the departed sun, and the stars came forth, and night pressed forward from every cleft and hollow, and the small shrill tone of the cricket tinkled through the solemn stillness,a hundred and a hundred times have I repeated to myself the history of the mournful duel between Tancred and Clorinda.
However strongly I inclined by nature to the party of the Christians, I could not help declaring for the Paynim heroine with all my heart, when she engaged to set on fire the great tower of the besiegers. And when Tancred in the darkness met the supposed knight, and the strife began between them under that veil of gloom, and the two battled fiercely, I could never pronounce the words,
But now the sure and fated hour is nigh,
Clorindas course is ended, she must die!
without tears rushing into my eyes, which flowed plentifully, when the hapless lover, plunging his sword into her breast, opened the departing warriors helmet, recognised the lady of his heart, and, shuddering, brought water to baptise her.
How did my heart run over, when Tancred struck with his sword that tree in the enchanted wood; when blood flowed from the gash, and a voice sounded in his ears, that now again he was wounding Clorinda; that destiny had marked him out ever unwittingly to injure what he loved beyond all else!
The recital took such hold of my imagination, that the passages I had read of the poem began dimly, in my mind, to conglomerate into a whole; wherewith I was so taken that I could not but propose to have it some way represented. I meant to have Tancred and Rinaldo acted; and for this purpose, two coats of mail, which I had before manufactured, seemed expressly suitable. The one, formed of dark-gray paper with scales, was to serve for the solemn Tancred; the other, of silver-and-gilt paper, for the magnificent Rinaldo. In the vivacity of my anticipations, I told the whole project to my comrades, who felt quite charmed with it, only could not well comprehend how so glorious a thing could be exhibited, and, above all, exhibited by them.
Such scruples I easily set aside. Without hesitation, I took upon me in idea the management of two rooms in the house of a neighbouring playmate; not calculating that his venerable aunt would never give them up, or considering how a theatre could be made of them, whereof I had no settled notion, except that it was to be fixed on beams, to have side-scenes made of parted folding-screens, and on the floor a large piece of cloth. From what quarter these materials and furnishings were to come, I had not determined.
So far as concerned the forest, we fell upon a good expedient. We betook ourselves to an old servant of one of our families, who had now become a woodman, with many entreaties that he would get us a few young firs and birches; which actually arrived more speedily than we had reason to expect. But, in the next place, great was our embarrassment as to how the piece should be got up before the trees were withered. Now was the time for prudent counsel! We had no house, no scenery, no curtains; the folding-screens were all we had.
In this forlorn condition we again applied to the lieutenant, giving him a copious description of all the glorious things we meant to do. Little as he understood us he was very helpful; he piled all the tables he could get in the house or neighbourhood, one above the other, in a little room; to these he fixed our folding-screens; and made a back-view with green curtains, sticking up our trees along with it.
At length the appointed evening came; the candles were lit, the maids and children were sitting in their places, the piece was to go forward, the whole corps of heroes was equipped and dressed,when each for the first time discovered that he knew not what he was to say. In the heat of invention, being quite immersed in present difficulties, I had forgotten the necessity of each understanding what and where he was to speak; nor, in the midst of our bustling preparations had it once occurred to the rest; each believing he could easily enact a hero, easily so speak and bear himself, as became the personage into whose world I had transplanted him. They all stood wonderstruck, asking: What was to come first? I alone, having previously got ready Tancreds part entered
on the scene, and began reciting some verses of the epic. But as the passage soon changed into narrative, and I, while speaking, was at once transformed into a third party, and the bold Godfredo when his turn came would not venture forth, I was at last obliged to take leave of my spectators under peals of laughter; a disaster which cut me to the heart. Thus had our undertaking proved abortive; but the company still kept their places, still wishing to see something. All of us were dressed; I screwed my courage up, and determined, foul or fair, to give them David and Goliath. Some of my companions had before this helped me to exhibit the puppet-play; all of them had often seen it: we shared the characters among us; each promised to do his best; and one small grinning urchin painted a black beard upon his chin, and undertook, if any lacuna should occur, to fill it up with drollery as Harlequin; an arrangement to which, as contradicting the solemnity of the piece, I did not consent without extreme reluctance; and I vowed within myself, that, if once delivered out of this perplexity, I would think long and well before risking the exhibition of another piece.
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STOCKTON - Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones unveiled a new mobile application Tuesday that will give the public unprecedented access to information and services provided by the Stockton Police Department.
STOCKTON - Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones unveiled a new mobile application Tuesday that will give the public unprecedented access to information and services provided by the Stockton Police Department.
The free application allows users to submit anonymous tips to police and offers mobile access to news, crime maps, social media platforms, alerts and scanner traffic, Jones said. The application can be downloaded through the Apple App Store and the Google Play marketplace.
"We want to offer our community the best in technology and access, and that means making the Stockton Police Department's services and information available to mobile users," Jones said. "We're excited to have a partner in MobilePD that really understands the possibilities for mobile applications in law enforcement."
Other features include a link to the Police Department's YouTube channel and a directory that includes phone numbers for the city's graffiti hot line, Crime Stoppers hot line, Animal Services and Code Enforcement, among others.
Jones said the application was designed by MobilePD, a Silicon Valley-based startup company that is developing mobile applications for a number of other police departments across the country. The interface is easy to use and can be used anywhere in the world, Jones said.
MobilePD CEO Kushyar Kasraie said the application will aid the Police Department's efforts to connect with and engage the community.
"We believe that applications like this build bridges between the community and their local government," Kasraie said. "We are excited to play a role in connecting the citizens of Stockton with their Police Department and assuring there are no barriers to access of information."
Contact reporter Jason Anderson at (209) 546-8279 or email@example.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/crimeblog and on Twitter @Stockton911.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sony advertises the PS3 / PS Vita cross-play compatibility as a key feature of certain games, including upcoming title PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and recently released When Vikings Attack, but the feature is far from perfect. The PS3 and PS Vita systems are quite different and run different operating systems, which means not everything works as it should.
Must be a fault on the developers side because invites worked perfect on the beta for PlayStation all stars via crossplay
SMH. I can't believe people are complaining about this. Sony didn't have to add cross play to the vita. Be grateful and give sony some time to fix it.
C'mon.. Seriously..
"Sony didn't have to add cross play to the vita. Be grateful and give sony some time to fix it."
"It might not be perfect but it's at least there."
Is this just because its Sony?
Crossplay has some problems so bite their heads off over it immediately.There is a big difference between jumping at every slight problem and complaining about something wrong. The way I see it people especially Sony people cry about every single thing 24/7. The latest cry topic, they moved the trophies. Oh wow that is such a huge topic. Like everything when it is first implemented it will have some bugs and adjustments to make. But PS3 owners don't know that fact.The first day 'It doesn't work. Kill Sony. Die PS3'.
@ admiralvic. That's dumb. Not every problem in a game can be fixed with a patch. You can't fix plot holes, camera angles, bad character design, bad dialogue, environments etc. The point is that if a game has a few obviously fixable problems why not give them a ten? They do it with Bethesda and COD all the time. They hand them 10/10 even with all the glitches and flubs. You talk as if that is something new or something.


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The spring trout fishing season has started at nearly 50 locations throughout Illinois.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Marc Miller says the season started Saturday. He says it's "always a great time for families to go fishing and catch some tasty trout."
Each spring the department stocks more than 60,000 rainbow trout in bodies of water where fishing is allowed.
Springfield has two locations for trout fishing, the ponds at Washington and Southwind parks. Manners Park in Taylorville also offers trout fishing.
Participants must purchase an Illinois fishing license and inland trout stamp. Licenses and a list of all stocked sites are available on the department's website.


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The journal Science has released its top ten breakthroughs of 2006, and two University of Rochester biology projects on evolution made the list at number seven.
Science's seventh most impressive science breakthrough entry for the year says: It doesn't take much to send an organism down speciation's path. Several studies these past 12 months have uncovered genetic changes that nudge a group of individuals toward becoming a separate species by giving them an edge in a new environment. The year's results speak to the power of genomics in helping evolutionary biologists understand one of biology's most fundamental questions: how biodiversity comes about.
H. Allen Orr, along with graduate student J. P. Masly, were cited for their September Science paper on how gene transposition can cause sterility in hybrids between certain fruit fly species, and Daven Presgraves was noted for his research in Molecular Biology and Evolution to a similar gene that causes hybrid lethality and promotes speciation.
Masly and Orr discovered that an old and relatively unpopular theory about how a single species can split in two turns out to be accurate after all, and acting in nature. Their paper reveals that scientists must reassess the process involved in the origin of species since speciation may be triggered by genes that change their locations in a genome.
The team found that the absence of a certain gene, called JYAlpha, could cause sterility in the hybrids of two species of fly because the gene, which is pivotal for fertility, has changed its location in the genome. The result is that some hybrid male offspring are sterile because they'd receive no copy of this gene at all. Importantly, JYAlpha is one of the same genes that is essential for sperm motility in humans and other mammals as well.
Orr and Masly's work shows a back door through which speciation can start. If the right genes jump around in the genome, a population can begin creating individuals that can't successfully reproduce with the general population. If other speciation pressures, like geographic isolation, are added to the mix, the pressure may be enough to split one species into two new species.
Presgraves authored the second paper recognized by the journal Science. In his paper he also looked at hybrid incompatibility in fruit flies, but with an eye toward how the gene Nup96 changed its function over the generations. His paper appeared in October in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Presgraves outlined how evolution drove the gene to have different functions in two different, but closely related species of fruit fly. In studying five proteins that interact with Nup96, he found that all five had adapted to evolutionary pressures in different ways. The fact that each of these genes showed evidence for adaptive evolution came as a surprise, suggesting that the bouts of adaptation the genes experienced did not happen independently, but rather reflected a shared history of evolution.
Presgraves suggests it's possible that the two species of fly inherited a genetic "conflict" from their mutual ancestor, and essentially took different genetic paths to resolve the conflict. By taking different genetic paths, the two nascent species were no longer reproductively compatible, and thus they were forced to continue to evolve into two completely separate species.
The complete list of Science's top ten science breakthroughs of 2006 can be read here http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5807/1850a.


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By ,
Published January 13, 2015
The Pittsburgh Pirates have signed pitcher Jonathan Sanchez to a minor league contract, the team announced Wednesday. The deal includes an invitation to the club's spring training camp.
Sanchez threw a no-hitter with San Francisco in 2009 and won a personal-best 13 games while posting a 3.0 earned run average and 205 strikeouts for the Giants the subsequent season, helping the franchise capture a World Series title that year. His career has underwent a downturn since, however, and the left-hander is coming off a dreadful 2012 campaign spent with Kansas City and Colorado.
The 30-year-old went just 1-9 with an 8.07 ERA over 15 starts last season and issued 53 walks over a total of 64 2/3 innings pitched. Sanchez was traded by the Royals to the Rockies in July, but started only three games for Colorado before being shelved for the year due to a biceps injury the following month.
Over seven major league seasons with the Giants, Royals and Rockies, Sanchez has compiled a 39-55 overall record with a 4.58 ERA in 189 games (133 starts).


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How is 'through the night?" being defined? 5 hours, 8, 12? once in a while, every night, usually, etc? And what if the toddler wakes, but just to nurse and goes right back to sleep? Does any waking at all create a situation where the child is not "sttn"?
My 6 year old goes to bed at 8 and gets up at 6:30. 10.5 hours. He usually wakes at least once at night to use the toilet and have some water. Sometimes he likes me to come rub his back to get back to sleep, other times he goes back to bed all on his own. Is he sleeping through the night?
My 5 month old usually goes to sleep at around 8 and does not really wake on her own again until 6ish. That's 10 hours! Not in bed though, we keep her with us and hold her, not because we have to, but because we want to... (last baby!) But at 11ish when we go to bed we wake her up (and how) changing her diaper because we usually have to or risk a wetting overnight. And she nurses several times overnight-I do not keep count...maybe 3 or 4? She stirs, I nurse her, she settles. Is she sleeping through the night?
My oldest, now 9, had the shortest sleep stretches as a baby and a toddler. I really don't know when he started regularly sleeping more than 5 hours at a time, not until past his third birthday, several months after his little brother came, but he has never had sleep issues and is wonderful about bedtime and sleeping well all night and has been for years.


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It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
That is something I never did to my used Rover. Tried to loosen that bolt but it did t budge. I have repacked trailer bearings. Don't know what I'll find if and when I get it loose. Going to look for a utube video...
Florida_bound wrote: »I remember my dad repacking the bearings on his boat trailers. Don't remember ever having to do it on a bicycle.
Florida_bound wrote: »I have a question on greasing the wheels. If you don't ride in rain, does the grease last longer? Also, how many miles can you go before the wheels need to be re-greased? Or do you need to measure it by years for less frequent riders?
Ironman1518 wrote: »Have used many different bearing greases since 1970, in cars, motorcycles, bicycles. Have used Castrol, Valvoline, Mobile 1, Quaker State, Finish Line, Park, and found that for my needs and greasing methods, Progold EPX is best.
Been using Progold EPX red grease for over 20 years in all my bikes!! In any brand new bike I've had I take the wheel and BB bearings and removed the rubber covers; removed the old OEM grease and re-pack with EPX. Wheels, rear derailleur pulleys, derailleur pivot points, and
Bottom Bracket bearings. Wheels roll freely forever!! Greatest stuff out there!! But when people ask me "Which is the best?" I always reply:" Some; is better than none". But the EPX is what works best for me.
Just went out to the garage to see what brand of chain lube I had, Rockgold. The normally thin liquid lube is as solid as lard in a unheated garage.
TrikeBirder wrote: »But is "lots" better than "some"?
Ain't that the truth!I think back to when I was young and rode a bike everyday almost year round and the bike sat out in the weather. I probably never lubed or cleaned the chain, may have possible squirted some 3in1 oil on it but i doubt it. Later in life I had a number of dirt and motocross motorcycles and by then learned about chain lube but the products probably were more of a dirt gatherer then a chain lube. We usually took the bikes to a quarter car wash and sprayed them clean to include the chain and possibly reapplied whatever we had around to include 2 stroke motor oil, fork oil, WD40 etc.
Today we're obsessed with chain and bearing lubrication and it has to be the latest and greatest space age product with a fancy name. It cannot be called oil or lube because that isn't space age enough.


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August 19. 2013 12:36AM
Sam Asano's Let's Invent: Combating texting while driving
TERRI GOLTER, an emergency medical technician from the New Castle Fire Department, tells me that "accidents caused by driving and texting far outnumber those caused by DWI these days." This was her response after I told her that a driver who was texting had hit my car.
The other day I joined a line of cars waiting for the green light. I looked up, and through my rearview mirror I saw a car approaching. Strangely the driver was not looking forward. She was looking down. I sensed a hopeless urge to honk. In a fraction of a second, her car hit mine, and the rest is history. Nobody was hurt. Her car was damaged badly, while my car just lost its rear bumper. All together the cost must have been in excess of $5,000.
Suddenly I became aware of this modern phenomenon called driving and texting (texting while driving — TWD or dexting, etc). I have been aware of many people on the phone on the highways in the morning and evening commutes. I also notice that some drivers on the phone are not as agile as those not on the phone. However, the serious risk from texting while driving didn't seem to me as worse than being on the phone.
So this week's column will be dedicated to the potential solutions for the problem of texting while driving, a complex social, psychological and technological phenomenon sweeping the world.
First of all, if you haven't been aware of the serious tragedy brought about by an accident from TWD, please look for various videos available in the Internet. The most intense and effective is
the one produced by Werner Herzog (click here for link)
, a famed German film director.
Now let's think why texting has become so popular among drivers, especially teenagers.
• Texting is much more reliable than a cell phone conversation. It is short, crisp and has no failures despite varying service strength.
• Texting is far more direct than phone conversations. No "Can you hear me now?"
• One can text things he or she normally hesitates to say over the phone.
• It's 24/7, and the user has option of responding or not responding immediately.
• For professional people who rely on fast communication connection, texting is a perfect medium. The attraction and urgency it offers often can far outweigh the potential danger.
• Additionally, texting has become in vogue with young people. It is a strong subculture all by itself.
• Also, small screen displays besides cellphones are on the rise again, and drivers can use them to download music, video, games and other apps, thus distracting them from driving safely.
Now let's discuss the damage TWD causes to this country.
• About 5,000 deaths a year are directly attributable to TWD and this is rising, while the total deaths in traffic accidents in 2011 was 32,367. (AAA Foundation)
• Of the 5.3 million crashes in 2011, 1.3 million involved distraction caused by a cell phone.
Now let's discuss potential remedies:
-- Legal:
Enact strict laws to ban texting while driving. This is easy to say and hard to implement. Some sort of monitoring system has to be developed in cooperation with service providers. They know who is texting, and GPS data locate texters.
-- Motion detection:
Using the built-in GPS in the cell phone, it will disable the texting feature when the car is in motion. It's available already but the app can be disabled easily. Also, people who use public transportation would be inconvenienced.
-- Self-discipline:
Put the cell phone out of your reach in the car when you are driving. Again, it's easy to say but very hard to enforce even by yourself.
-- Develop
an audio interface so that both the call out and call in will be in the form of speech. Text would be read by the computer-voice (not via audio channel) — thus retaining the text's reliability. Thus texting becomes no more distracting than the voice call.
-- Develop
a head-up display so that text will appear on the windshield. This would reduce the degree of distraction.
I am awaiting all readers' suggestions. NO TEXTING while DRIVING!
Shintaro (Sam) Asano of New Castle, who speaks and writes English as a second language, was named by MIT in 2011 as one of the 10 most influential inventors of the 20th century who improved our life. He is a businessman and an inventor in the field of electronics and mechanical systems, who is credited as the original inventor of today's portable fax machine. He also developed a data tablet used in the retail point of sale to capture customer signatures when credit cards are used. Write to him at email@example.com.


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Cut-price laptops coming forth
Spare some change for a computer?
Updated If the now well-known $100 One Laptop per Child project appeals for its cheap-as-chips price, but you're not taken by the garish colour or crank-up handle, then you might consider the Medison Celebrity laptop, which retails for just $50 more.
The Celebrity doesn't pretend to be an Alienware-esque ultimate gaming machine, rather Medison claims the machine is an everyday laptop for "e-mailing, surfing the Web, word processing and working with spreadsheet programmes".
The $150 Medison Celebrity, hardly an A-list price-tag
The preinstalled OS is Linux Fedora from RedHat, presumably to keep the price down. It measures 33 x 24 x 2cm and weighs 2.2Kg - partly due to to the six cell Lithium-lion battery, and the 14in display sports a 1280 x 768 pixel resolution.
A respectable Intel 1.5GHz Celeron CPU hides under the hood, together with 256MB of memory (expandable up to 1GB) and 40GB hard drive. A CD/DVD drive is also included and wireless connectivity is provided over 802.11g.
Medison hasn't skimped on the Celebrity's connectivity interfaces either, with three USB 2.0 ports, one external CRT monitor output, separate headphone and microphone jacks, and one line-in jack, to name just a few.
The Medison Celebrity retails for around $150 (£73/€109) and will be available in Europe over the next four to six weeks.
Last year Chinese OEM ZhongKe Menglan Electronics began shipping a PC with its homegrown Godson CPU, 256MB of DDR memory, up to a 60GB hard drive and with a similar price tag of between $175 and $200.
A laptop for $150? Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? Well, that's certainly what our readers seem to think. We've tried contacting them, but the folks at Medison have remained elusive.
But according to a statement from Medison that one website received, the company claims that the laptop is the real deal.
The statement says that manufacturer is aware of the ongoing debate over the authenticity of the laptop and ominously states that everything will be clarified really soon. The company apparently plans to arrange a press conference in Sweden in the next few days to address any doubts and questions regarding the laptop's authenticity.
Register Hardware is hoping Medison will be passing out a few of the laptops for review after the press conference. In the meantime, you might want to think long and hard before shelling out for the machine.


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Arcfall Legendary Founder's Pack gives you access to additional founder's items in Arcfall only available during the development phase.This package helps the development of Arcfall further. Be one of the first players to claim your land and explore hidden dungeons.
With this package you will receive numerous rewards to aid you in your adventures.
The rewards are listed as follow:
Check out other reward levels to see what they offer.


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A Cabinet-proposed referendum on the fate of the yet-to-be-completed Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is bound to take a toll on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) whether it is passed or not, several members of the KMT Central Standing Committee said recently.
In an about-face of the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) stance on the controversy-plagued plant since 2008, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and his Cabinet proposed earlier this month to put the construction of the plant to a referendum that will ask the public: "Do you agree that the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be halted and that it not become operational?"(你是否同意核四廠停止興建不得運轉).
Jiang has put his premiership on the line on the plebiscite amid growing anti-nuclear sentiment, saying he would resign should the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant be halted, while Ma has yet to openly support the plant, apart from insinuating on several occasions that he is inclined to see the plant completed.
Although the wording of the referendum question has sparked accusations from opposition lawmakers that the KMT is exploiting what is perceived as the high threshold required for a referendum to succeed and of being designed to reduce the momentum of the anti-nuclear movement, several KMT members are concerned that the party could be the ultimate loser of such a referendum.
According to the Referendum Act (公民投票法), a referendum would require mobilizing more than 9.15 million people, or half the eligible voters, to vote and earn at least 4.57 million "yes" votes to pass. The relatively high threshold has meant none of the nation's previous six national referendums have succeeded.
KMT Central Standing Committee member Yao Chiang-lin (姚江臨) said a failure of the plebiscite due to the high threshold could mean political disaster for the KMT, because it would inevitably fuel the public's anti-nuclear sentiment and the momentum of an ongoing movement against nuclear energy.
Because of the high threshold, Yao said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could easily initiate what it said would be a head-on confrontation with the referendum by doing nothing and just letting the referendum fail naturally.
"By then, the rising tide of anti-nuclear momentum in the nation could by no means turn in favor of the KMT. If the DPP is to play along with the momentum, it could steamroller KMT candidates in next year's seven-in-one elections, and even the 2016 presidential election, with ease by playing up the anti-nuclear card," Yao said.
Since it is certain that the majority of people will continue opposing the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant regardless of the proposed referendum, "what kind of an impression would the KMT give the public then if the referendum fails as the result of the high threshold?" Yao asked.
"For the KMT, the best outcome of the proposed referendum would be success, because failure would not be a victory, but rather a disaster for the party," Yao said, adding that anti-nuclear sentiment will only become stronger in the months ahead.
Echoing Yao's views, a KMT Central Standing Committee member, who is also a KMT legislator and who requested anonymity, said both the passage and failure of the referendum would pose a problem for the KMT.
"Because the KMT has been known for its support for nuclear power, the referendum could backfire against the party if it really puts an end to the construction of the plant," the member said. "However, the failure of the referendum would leave the KMT an even bigger problem if the DPP takes advantage of the anti-nuclear momentum."


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When Republicans expanded their majority in 2004, their first target was the trial lawyers, virtual ATM dispensers for Democratic candidates. A new law curbing class-action lawsuits was on the president's desk by mid-February.
Now, Democrats are targeting some of the GOP's strongest corporate allies – Big Oil, big pharmaceutical companies, and, in all likelihood, defense contractors.
In their first 100 legislative hours, Democrats aim to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors, roll back subsidies for oil and gas companies, and reduce the cost of student loans. They're also quickly gearing up to investigate allegations of corruption in war contracting.
"Parties reward their constituency groups, and they go after the other party's constituency groups. Parties are never stronger than in the first few days, so they do it early," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Moreover, it's popular. "You can't find people supporting big drug and oil companies, except the people who work in them," Professor Sabato says. For example, some 85 percent of Americans say the government should negotiate prescription-drug prices for the Medicare program, according to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
When the GOP-controlled Congress passed the Medicare prescription-drug bill in 2003, it included a one-line provision that banned the government from negotiating directly with drug companies to lower prices for seniors, as it now does for veterans. Rep. Billy Tauzin (R) of Louisiana, who drafted that provision, left Congress to become the top lobbyist for the drug industry as president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) – a controversial move that Democrats say they will make less likely with new lobby-reform legislation.
If that ban on price negotiating is lifted, House Democrats say that seniors overall could cut their drug costs by as much as $180 billion over the next 10 years. A study last year by the consumer group Families USA found that 19 of 20 drugs were priced lower through the Veterans Administration than they were for Medicare recipients.
But critics, including the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services, say that drug prices are already falling faster than expected under the 2003 law, and that mandating government to negotiate drug prices could limit the access to drugs for seniors.
Under the current prescription-drug bill, seniors are already saving an average of $1,200 a year on prescription drugs, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And the cost to the Treasury is about $30 billion, instead of $43 billion as anticipated.
The conflict sets up one of the first big battles of the 110th Congress. Since 1990, drug companies have contributed more than $134 million to national candidates, more than two-thirds of that to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The industry doubled its political contributions in the run-up to the 2003 legislation.
"Critics would have you believe that there are no negotiations in how prices for medicine are set. That's simply not true," said Ken Johnson, PhRMA's senior vice president, in a statement after the November elections in anticipation of the Democrats' proposal. "The negotiations are occurring – as they should be – between prescription drug plans, several of which already purchase medicines on behalf of tens of millions of Americans, and pharmaceutical companies. That's the marketplace in action and that's how America's seniors will see true savings without compromising the search for future cures."
But despite broad public support for lifting a ban, Democrats are divided on how to proceed and have yet to release specifics of their proposal. Max Baucus (D) of Montana, incoming Senate Finance Chairman, opposed a bipartisan plan in the 109th Congress that would have required the Department of Health and Human Services to get involved in negotiations between private drug plans and drug companies in some cases. If House Democrats lift the ban, as expected, Senator Baucus says he will conduct hearings on its likely impact. Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has already signaled that if given the opportunity to negotiate lower drug prices, he would not exercise it.
Similarly, Democratic calls to roll back subsidies for Big Oil are also popular, but problematic. In the first days of the new Congress, Democrats are calling for establishing a fund to promote renewable energy and conservation, which they say will be funded by money recovered from oil companies.
"Every oil subsidy will be given the highest level of scrutiny. We've been paying record energy prices at a time when Big Oil is making record profits – and record CEO compensation packages. It's unconscionable," says Drew Hammill, spokesman for incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But even before Congress reworks subsidies provided in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Democrats will take up proposals to recover royalties from oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico. Because of a gaffe in 1998-99 oil leases, negotiated during the Clinton administration, companies have avoided some $10 billion in royalty payments. Republicans in the 109th Congress tried to go after these lost revenues; Democrats say they will push harder.
"The companies have not done anything wrong. We're a nation of law, and contract law is one of the cornerstones of our economy," says Red Cavaney, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry trade group. Under an agreement announced Dec. 14, five companies – BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell Oil, Marathon Oil, and Walter Oil and Gas Corp. – have already reached an agreement with the federal government to pay royalties on production that began on or after Oct. 1, 2006. "Why not let the process continue," he says.
Both the outgoing chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, Rep Thomas Davis (R) of Virginia, and incoming chairman Henry Waxman (D) of California have pledged to go after all lost royalties. Forty-one other companies are currently not paying royalties under the terms of these leases.
Still, the biggest wild card for energy companies such as Halliburton in the 110th Congress isn't energy subsidies, it's the scope of congressional investigations into wartime contracts. House Democrats are reviving an investigative subcommittee that was eliminated when Republicans took back the House in 1995. That panel will target both Defense contractors and White House officials who contracted with them, aides say.


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January 08, 2013
A Love Jar
12 comments:
Like a thankful jar at Thanksgiving, but write down one way you gave or received love each day. I think this is what I will do with my 3 year old. It is so challenging/ fun/ rewarding to teach him theses abstract ideas in concrete ways.ReplyDelete
I think we will throw in some treats and love notes to each other too.
Thanks for the idea!
My first thought was to fill it with ways you have shown love to others (being helpful, kind, service...). After each act of love have the kids fill out a slip of paper with what they did and see how fast it takes them to fill the jar. When the jar is full they get some reward. I like your ideas too. Immediate rewards are great with younger kids and much more delicious! Thanks for sharing. I might have to try something like this with just my two older kids so they will learn to love one another.ReplyDelete
my initial thought was to fill it full of qualities/things you love about each of your family members.ReplyDelete
I've been thinking about doing one with my family as well, but with a little different twist. Every time something memorable happens in 2013, I want to write it down and keep it in the jar. Then at the end of the year, we can go back and read it and laugh or reminisce. :)ReplyDelete
My idea is quite similar to 'The Miller Five'...that 2013 jar idea is super by the way. Somewhere near the jar you could have the 'links of love' - like the paper chain that lots of people use to countdown to Christmas. Everyday a link is torn off and you let the kids write something that makes their family special on that link...and into the jar it goes. Come Valentine's Day the family sits down and reads all of them together. It's always good to share times of encouragement and love as a family. So many great ideas in all of these comments.ReplyDelete
Such a cute idea! I bet your kids are getting super excited about it :) My idea was similar to others' mentioned (but probably for older kids who write independently) - having members of the family drop in encouraging notes about others into the jar, which can be read/shared on Valentine's day :)ReplyDelete
Had my ultrasound today - and it's a girl! My boy is 18 mo. old and didn't really know what was going on but was happily pointing out the baby on the screen :) Excited for your big day on Thurs!Replies
Congrats, Sarah! That is SO, SO exciting! How fun to have both a boy and a girl. Woo-hoo! Congrats again!Delete
What a great idea! I think I need to get one started now and when my girls show love to each other, they can get a Hershey kiss or something else sweet! They are very good sisters, so I have a feeling they will be getting a lot of treats!ReplyDelete
Thank you so much for leaving a comment! If you are asking a question and you do NOT have your profile linked to your email address, I will respond in the comment section, so just come back to check it later. Thanks!


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High Country Zoo Special Edition - Apr. 1
Rep. Rambo proposes more corporate sponsorship
Last fall, Rep. Richard Rambo, R-Calif., proposed that to help balance the federal budget, the National Park Circus should sell corporate naming rights for its visitor centers and trails (HCN, 9/31/05).
Now, Rambo has expanded his plan to allow corporations to purchase naming rights for natural features, including cliffs and lakes. Reaction from park officials has been positive: "Financially, corporations help parks achieve a level of excellence they couldn't reach on their own," says Cap Italistpyg, chief of the National Park Circus' Federal-Corporate Partnership Development Office.
Italistpyg promises the ads will be "done in the same tasteful way museums do it," adding that Pzizzer Corporation has already signed up to buy a "Brought to you by Viager" sign for Yellowstone's Old Faithful geyser.
—Polly Styrene
BLM hastens permit processing — with meth
The federal Bureau of Land Ravagement recently announced that it will cut processing time for oil and gas drilling permits to just 30 days. Overwhelmed by the new requirement, already-overworked field offices have borrowed a card from the industry's deck. BLM spokeswoman Celia Bodacious announced today that methamphetamine will be handed out in controlled doses to employees who process drill permits to help them work more quickly.
The announcement unleashed a firestorm of controversy resembling a pit bull on speed. But Bodacious assured critics that the program will ensure profits for both energy producers and meth manufacturers, who have outpaced chainsaw-carving artists and beef-jerky sellers as the rural West's number-one cottage industry.
She scoffed at the notion that BLM bureaucrats may become toothless, scabby-faced addicts hanging around gas rigs looking for a hit. "This will be solely for occupational use," Bodacious says. "We'll administer doses only during office hours, between 4 a.m. and 11 p.m. daily. We have to do what we can to keep up with the demand for cheap energy, and coffee just doesn't cut it anymore."
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Spurge Burdock
A Million Little Stupid Species, by C.M. Lye. Fighting addictions to alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine that make him annoyingly self-absorbed and testy, the author hikes through the California Desert seeking rare and vulnerable animals and plants. Then he stomps on them and feels much better.
Memoirs of a Grazer, by Angus Holstein. Readers follow the life of Say-moo, a milk cow, from her traumatic origins as an orphaned calf at a corporate dairy to her triumphant transformation into a prize-winning milker. At the hands of The Farmer, Say-moo becomes skilled in the elegant art of the cream ceremony.
In Montana, Gov. Brian Spritzer, D, cautioned the press that his pithy words of Western wisdom are not meant to endear him to Democrats loath to support Hillarious Clintlock as the Democratic nominee for president. "That duck won't dance. A horse in the house is better than one a'roaming," he said to reporter Paul Laramie. "I'm as happy in my current job as a hound dog gnawing the skull of a bison, or something equally bovine," he added.
President George W. Bash announced that he is sending U.S. troops to "immediately invade, secure and subdue the dangerous terrorist haven of Anwar." A few congressional Democrats have nervously pointed out that there is no such country, hinting the president may have it confused with ANWR — the oil- and gas-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Undaunted, Bash plans to forge ahead: "If we don't drill them over there, we'll have to drill them over here."
- —
Farley Fackless
Alert readers have pointed out an error in Bruce O'Losis' story "Terrible Things Are Happening Everywhere" (HCN, every goddamn issue). "Gone to Hell In a Handbasket" is not an official designation under the Endangered Species Act. The ESA recognizes three categories: Threatened, Endangered, and Not Dead Yet But Don't Hold Your Breath. We apologize for the worldwide panic and accidental deaths that resulted from our story entitled "BIRD FLU CATASTROPHE OBLITERATES NEW MEXICO!!!!!" The story should have read "Bird flew, cats up tree; get good rates at the new Texaco." This is the last time we take a story from an untried freelancer in a remote town with a bad cell phone connection.


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Posted by jessica on
Big Names, Big Art: How to See SF's Most Famous Murals for Free
There's art, seemingly, just about everywhere you look in San Francisco: from the Legion of Honor, MOMA, and the DeYoung Museum, to the large-scale street art of the Mission District, this city, you might say, was made to get the creative juices flowing.
But even if your own artistic exploration of SF has taken you to every museum, gallery, and graffiti-coated alley in the city, San Francisco's still got a few masterpieces hidden up its sleeve.
In the 1930s and '40s, a number of famous (and soon-to-be-famous) artists came to San Francisco to paint murals all over the city. Some were commissioned privately; others were funded by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA). A huge number of these murals are still around today, and while most of them are now located in privately owned buildings, you can still go visit many of them free of charge. It's just a question of knowing where to look. Today, we're shining a light on some of our favorite large-scale works by big-name artists in under-the-radar locations.
Diego Rivera's "The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City" at the San Francisco Art Institute
Considered by many to be the greatest Mexican painter of the 20th century, Diego Rivera lived briefly in San Francisco with wife, Frida Kahlo, in the 1930s. And over the course of the '30s and '40s, Rivera graced the city with several murals, each unique in its own way.
The Rivera mural on display at the San Francisco Art Institute, "The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City," is about as complex as its name suggests. Looking at the "fresco within a fresco," which fills one entire wall of the campus's Diego Rivera Gallery, it's almost hard to tell what's part of the painting and what's not. It's like the workers creating the fresco have been frozen in place at their stations: look closely and you'll see depictions of Rivera's real-life colleagues, assistants, and friends measuring, chiseling, and painting away. Sitting in the very center of the mural, with his back to the viewer and a brush in his hand, is Rivera himself. Throw in some "wooden" scaffolding painted right onto the fresco to give the whole thing a three-dimensional, "Magic-Eye" feel, and this definitely isn't your typical mural.
The Pan American Unity Mural at SF City College
Rivera has another mural on display over at San Francisco City College's Phelan Avenue campus. Rivera painted his 22-foot-high, 74-foot-long Pan American Unity mural in 1940 on commission for the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island.
"My mural will picture the fusion between the great past of the Latin American lands, as it is deeply rooted in the soil, and the high mechanical developments of the United States," Rivera said at the time. The mural's central figure is an Aztec goddess who is half-machine, and many other figures – including Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Rivera himself – appear in smaller form.
After the exposition on Treasure Island, the panels of the mural were crated up and stored out of sight for the next decade. But a few years after Rivera's 1957 death, the ten panels of the mural were reassembled at the City College. Today they're free and open for public viewing on weekdays (be sure to check the current schedule before you go). In the months of May and October, you can also get extra insight into the mural on free walking tours through SF City Guides.
"San Francisco Life" by Lucien Labaudt at the Beach Chalet
The Beach Chalet, a swanky restaurant and brewery right on San Francisco's Great Highway, is known primarily for its fine dining and Pacific views. But down in the lobby, there are some pretty spectacular views of an entirely different sort. French-born artist Lucien Labaudt painted a series of large panels here depicting "San Francisco life" in the 1930s – on the beach, at the docks, in the park – as a WPA project, and today they're open to the public and free to view. You don't have to visit the restaurant upstairs to admire the murals, though if you happen to be around during happy hour (3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday-Friday), you can enjoy upscale ambiance on the cheap by grabbing one of the Beach Chalet's signature made-on-site beers for under $5.
Hilaire Hiler Murals at the San Francisco Maritime History Museum
The San Francisco Maritime History Museum is housed inside a sleek, modern building not far from HI-Fisherman's Wharf. Look at it from just the right angle, and the building actually resembles a cruise ship - a nice parallel given that the museum houses artifacts, artworks, photographs, and documents telling the stories of lives made at sea.
The Bath House building, as it's also known, was constructed in the mid-1930s as a joint project between the city of San Francisco and the WPA. And inside the lobby, there are more WPA works of art to be enjoyed. Artist Hilaire Hiler spent two years creating 5,000 square feet of murals on the interior walls of the building's lobby in the late '30s. Today, whimsical, Technicolor representations of sea creatures (both actual and mythical), submerged islands, and even the lost city of Atlantis cover the lobby walls. (Museum is open from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. daily).
"Aspects of California Life" at Coit Tower
Most visitors have done enough research on San Francisco before arriving to know about Coit Tower: the 210-foot-high tower at the top of the city's Telegraph Hill neighborhood has been an iconic local landmark since its construction in 1933. But many may not know what's inside the tower: another series of murals done under the auspices of the WPA. Numerous local artists, largely students and faculty from the California School of Fine Arts, contributed to the project, throwing socialist imagery in alongside scenes of the San Francisco Bay. While admission to climb the tower will set you back $7, you can view most of the murals for free.
"The History of San Francisco" at Rincon Center
At the corner of Mission and Spear Streets, the Rincon Center may seem like a strange home for a set of historic murals. Taking up an entire city block, the center houses shops, offices, restaurants, apartments – and nearly 30 panels painted by WPA artist Anton Refregier in the early 1940s.
It took Refregier, a Russian immigrant to the United States, nearly eight years to complete the project, and it's immediately evident why as soon as you walk in through the door: the entire set takes on the complex theme of "The History of San Francisco." Spanning everything from a 16th-century visit by Sir Francis Drake, to the discovery of gold, to the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, the works are a visual tour of the city's past. And they don't shy away from the heavy subject matter: panels depicting hardships on the infamous Donner Pass, unfair treatment of minorities by early white settlers, and the devastation of the 1906 earthquake are all given their due. When the murals went up, many found Refregier's frank portrayal of California's more controversial moments offensive and tried to have the panels covered up. Luckily for visitors today, those attempts were unsuccessful, and Refregier's masterpieces remain on display, free of charge, for anyone who'd like to see them.
Beneath each mural you'll see a panel explaining its subject matter. You'll also find glass cases full of San Francisco artifacts: Gold Rush-era photos of the city, bits of pottery and roofing that have been dug up over the years, and other archaeological goodies.
But don't worry: the art doesn't stop there! If our mural tour has you ready to see more high-class art on the cheap, be sure to check out our guides to Getting Cultured Without Going Broke in SF and Art Spotting and Antiquing in Sacramento.
If you go: KQED, a local public radio and TV station, has a fantastic free app called "Let's Get Lost" with interactive information on several of the murals mentioned in this story.
Stay at one of our three San Francisco hostels.


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Extended Stay America Philadelphia-Airport- Bartram Ave.
Select your stay dates to check availability
Extended Stay America Philadelphia-Airport- Bartram Ave.
About the hotel
Property Location
With a stay at Extended Stay America Philadelphia-Airport- Bartram Ave. in Philadelphia (Eastwick), you'll be close to Fort Mifflin. This hotel is within the vicinity of Bartram's Garden and Wells Fargo Center.
Make yourself at home in one of the 83 air-conditioned rooms featuring kitchens with full-sized refrigerators/freezers and stovetops. 32-inch flat-screen televisions with cable programming provide entertainment, while complimentary wireless Internet access keeps you connected. Conveniences include desks and microwaves, as well as phones with free local calls.
Take advantage of recreation opportunities such as a fitness center, or other amenities including complimentary wireless Internet access and barbecue grills.
For your convenience, a complimentary breakfast is served daily from 6 AM to 9:30 AM.
Business, Other Amenities
Featured amenities include a 24-hour front desk, luggage storage, and laundry facilities. Self parking (subject to charges) is available onsite.
Hotel Facilities
- Long-term parking (surcharge)
- Year Built 1998
- 24-hour front desk
- Total number of rooms - 83
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Free WiFi
- Luggage storage
- Fitness facilities
- Free breakfast
- Elevator/lift
- Laundry facilities
- Number of floors - 3
- Coffee/tea in common areas
- Smoke-free property
- Barbecue grill(s)
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
Room Facilities
- Kitchen
- Stovetop
- Cable TV service
- In-room climate control (air conditioning)
- Full-sized refrigerator/freezer
- Hair dryer
- Weekly housekeeping provided
- DVD player
- Coffee/tea maker
- Microwave
- Refrigerator
- Air conditioning
- Private bathroom
- Desk
- Flat-panel TV
- Premium TV channels
- Free local calls
- Blackout drapes/curtains
- Shower/tub combination
- Free WiFi
- Iron/ironing board
- Cookware, dishware, and utensils
- Phone
- Free toiletries
Hotel Policy
Know Before You Go
- Children 17 years old and younger stay free when occupying the parent or guardian's room, using existing bedding.
- Guests can arrange to bring pets by contacting the property directly, using the contact information on the booking confirmation (surcharges apply and can be found in the Fees section).
The following fees and deposits are charged by the property at time of service, check-in, or check-out.
- Self parking fee: USD 10 per day
- Pet fee: USD 25 per pet, per day (maximum USD 150 per stay)
- Weekly housekeeping provided; fees apply for additional cleaning
The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change.
Mandatory Fees and Taxes
You'll be asked to pay the following charges at the property:
- Cash deposit: USD 100.00 per stay
We have included all charges provided to us by the property. However, charges can vary, for example, based on length of stay or the room you book.Show all hotel policy Show less hotel policy


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In July 2002, at the first Senate hearing on Iraq, then-Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Joe Biden pledged his allegiance to Bush's war. Ever since, the blunt-spoken Biden has seized every opportunity to dismiss antiwar critics within his own party, vocally denouncing Bush's handling of the war while doggedly supporting the war effort itself. Biden carried this message into the Kerry campaign as the candidate's closest foreign policy confidant, and a few days after announcing his own intention to run for the presidency in 2008, he gave a major speech at the Brookings Institution in which he criticized rising calls for withdrawal as a "gigantic mistake."
The Democrats' speculative front-runner for '08, Hillary Clinton, has offered similarly hawkish rhetoric. "If we were to artificially set a deadline of some sort, that would be like a green light to the terrorists, and we can't afford to do that," Clinton told CBS in February. Instead, she recently proposed enlarging the Army by 80,000 troops "to respond to threats wherever danger lies." Clinton, a member of the Armed Services Committee, appears more comfortable accommodating the President's Iraq policy than opposing it, and her early and sustained support for the war (and frequent photo-ops with the troops) supposedly reinforces her national security credentials.
The prominence of party leaders like Biden and Clinton, and of a slew of other potential prowar candidates who support the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, presents the Democrats with an odd dilemma: At a time when the American people are turning against the Iraq War and favor a withdrawal of US troops, and British and American leaders are publicly discussing a partial pullback, the leading Democratic presidential candidates for '08 are unapologetic war hawks. Nearly 60 percent of Americans now oppose the war, according to recent polling. Sixty-three percent want US troops brought home within the next year. Yet a recent National Journal "insiders poll" found that a similar margin of Democratic members of Congress reject setting any timetable. The possibility that America's military presence in Iraq may be doing more harm than good is considered beyond the pale of "sophisticated" debate.
The continued high standing of the hawks has been made possible by their enablers in the strategic class–the foreign policy advisers, think-tank specialists and pundits. Their presumed expertise gives the strategic class a unique license to speak for the party on national security issues. This group has always been quietly influential, but since 9/11 it has risen in prominence, egging on and underpinning elected officials, crowding out dissenters within its own ranks and becoming increasingly ideologically monolithic. So far its members remain unchallenged. It's more than a little ironic that the people who got Iraq so wrong continue to tell the Democrats how to get it right.
It's helpful to think of the Democratic strategic class as a pyramid. At the top are politicians like Biden and Clinton, forming the most important and visible public face. Just below are high-ranking former government officials, like UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Assistant Secretary of State Jamie Rubin. These are the people who devise and execute foreign policy and frame the substance of the message. Virtually all the top advisers supported the Iraq War; Holbrooke, who's been dubbed the "closest thing the party has to a Kissinger" by one foreign policy analyst, even tacked to Bush's right, arguing in February 2003 that anything less than an invasion of Iraq would undermine international law. Many of the officials held high-ranking positions in the Kerry campaign. Holbrooke, frequently mentioned as a potential Secretary of State, urged Kerry to keep his vision on Iraq "deliberately vague," the New York Observer reported. Rubin appeared on television sixty times in May 2004 alone. Nine days before the election, Holbrooke addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and reiterated Kerry's support for the war and occupation, belittled European negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program and endorsed the Israeli separation wall. Hardly a Dove Among Dems' Brain Trusters, read a headline from the Forward newspaper.


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The continuing evolution of technical analysis software has simplified the creation of computer-automated trading systems. Some systems just generate the signals for the trader to follow, while others place the trades into the market on behalf of the trader. However, being able to program your favorite trading platform is just the beginning. You must have a framework for testing your trading theories to be sure that profitable backtests are not merely because of luck, but are the results of robust modeling of a market's behavior.
This series of articles will present a simplified approach to developing a trading system for the retail forex market. The system development tool we'll use will be MetaTrader 4 (MT4), although the ideas and process presented apply to a wide range of software platforms. The methodology will cover general concepts targeted to the beginning system trader. When we take shortcuts for expediency, we'll refer the reader to additional resources for more in-depth information.
There are five distinct phases in trading system development:
Phase 1: Developing the market model and the basic automated system — the basic automated system implements this model but does not incorporate stop losses or profit targets. The basic system is for the sole purpose of collecting data for statistical analysis used in the later development phases.
Phase 2: Risk management — the initial stop loss (ISL). Using the data gathered in Phase 1 and based on the statistical analysis of that data, we add an ISL to the trading strategy. We use optimization to find a stop loss parameter that suits our needs. We will use walk-forward analysis to test this version of the system.
Phase 3: Profit management — the profit target (PT). As in Phase 2, we will use the statistical analysis of our data to incorporate a profit target into the system. Again, we will use optimization to find an appropriate profit target and then use walk-forward analysis to test this version of the system.
Phase 4: Money management — the trade size algorithm (TSA). This phase does not depend on the data collected in Phase 1. Instead, we will incorporate the popular fixed-fraction trade size method to determine how many lots are allocated to each trade. Popular trade literature is replete with advice to restrict per-trade risk within a range from 1% to 3% of account equity. We will run our optimization using those percentages, and then once again use walk-forward analysis to test this version of the system.
Taken together, Phases 2 through 4 comprise trade management, but there is one more critical step:
Phase 5: Monte Carlo analysis — many traders stop after Phase 4. However, our testing is not complete at that juncture and the system is not ready for deployment (assuming it is profitable). Despite our walk-forward analysis, we cannot be sure that our results are not because of luck. In other words, our model may not describe market behavior accurately; favorable results may have benefited from a market environment whose price action just happened to coincide with our logic. Monte Carlo analysis will help determine whether our model was successful because of luck (randomness) or its ability to identify and exploit a real market pattern.
This article will cover Phase 1; subsequent articles will cover Phases 2 through 5.


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Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival
In the last two decades one of the key questions that has occupied many feminist theorists is how should issues of historical and cultural specificity inform both the analytics and politics of any feminist project. Although this questioning has resulted in serious attempts at integrating issues of sexual, racial, class, and national difference within feminist theory, questions of religious difference have remained relatively unexplored in this scholarship. The vexed relationship between feminism and religious traditions is perhaps most manifest in discussions on Islam. This is due in part to the historically contentious relationship that Islamic societies have had with what has come to be called "the West," but in part to the challenges contemporary Islamic movements pose to secular-liberal politics of which feminism has been an integral (if critical) part. In particular, women's active support for a movement that seems to be inimical to their own interests and agendas, at a historical moment when more emancipatory possibilities would appear to be available to women, raises fresh dilemmas for feminists.
Editorial Footnotes
Cultural Anthropology has published many essays on women and Islam. See, for example, Anne Meneley's "Fashions and Fundamentalism in Fin-de-Siecle Yemen: Chador Barbie and Islamic Socks" (2007); Öykü Potuoğlu-Cook's "Beyond the Glitter: Belly Dance and Neoliberal Gentrification in Istanbul" (2006); and Katherine Pratt Ewing's "Between Cinema and Social Work: Diasporic Women and the (Dis)Pleasures of Hybridity" (2006).
Cultural Anthropology has also published many essays focused specifically on embodiment. These include Charles Hirschkind's "Is There a Secular Body?" (2011); Brad Weiss's "Northwestern Tanzania on a Single Shilling: Sociality, Embodiment, and Valuation" (1997); and Thomas J. Csordas's "Somatic Modes of Attention" (1993).
About the Author
Saba Mahmood teaches anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (2005) that received the Victoria Schuck award from the American Association of Political Science. Most recently she is the co-author of Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech (2009) published by the University of California Press. Mahmood is the recipient of the Carnegie Corporation's Islamic scholars award (2007-08), and the Frederick Burkhardt fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies (2009-10). Mahmood is currently working on a book project entitled "Politics of Religious Freedom: Geopolitics, Sexuality, and the Minority Question" which focuses on the Middle East and Europe. Her broader work centers on issues of secularism, religion, gender, and postcoloniality in Muslim societies.
Additional Work by the Author
Can Secularism be Other-wise? in Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age, edited by Michael Warner, Jonathan VanAntwerpen, and Craig Calhoun, Harvard University Press, 2010.
Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech, edited with Talal Asad, Wendy Brown and Judith Butler. University of California Press, 2009.
"Is Critique Secular?" and "Secular Imperatives?" Public Culture, 20(3): 447-452; 461-465, 2008.
"Feminism, Democracy, and Empire: Islam and the War of Terror, in Women Studies on the Edge, ed., Joan W. Scott, Duke University Press, 2008.
"Secularism, Hermeneutics, Empire: The Politics of Islamic Reformation," Public Culture, 18(2): 323-247, 2006.
Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. (PUP new edition with a new foreword, 2010.) French translation: Politique de la Piété: Le féminisme à l'épreuve du Renouveau islamique, La Décorverte, 2009.
"Ethical Formation and Politics of Individual Autonomy in Contemporary Egypt," Social Research, 70(3):1501-1530, 2003.
"Questioning Liberalism, Too: A Response to 'Islam and the Challenge of Democracy,'" Boston Review: A Political and Literary Forum April/May 2003. Reprinted as "Is Liberalism Islam's Only Answer?" in Islam and the Challenge to Democracy, J. Cohen and D. Chasman, eds. Princeton University Press, 2004.
"Anthropology and the Study of Women in Islamic Cultures." Disciplinary entry on anthropology, in The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, 307-14, 2003. Brill.
"Feminism, the Taliban, and Politics of Counter-Insurgency" (with Charles Hirschkind), Anthropological Quarterly, 75(2):339-354, 2002.
"Rehearsed Spontaneity and the Conventionality of Ritual: Disciplines of Salat," American Ethnologist, 28(4):827-853, 2001.
"Cultural Studies and Ethnic Absolutism: Comments on Stuart Hall's 'Culture, Community, Nation,'" Cultural Studies, 10(1) 1-11, 1996.
Interview with Saba Mahmood
Richard McGrail and Rupa Pillai: Could you provide a brief description of how you understand the term "subaltern"? And, in your view, what distinguishes work on subalternity from other areas of research in anthropology?
Saba Mahmood: While I am familiar with the work of the subaltern school of Indian scholars, it is not a term I use in my own work. The analytical frame of the essay featured in CA for example is not indebted to this term. In my teaching, however, I always discuss the debates within subaltern studies because they address the question of "difference" from a perspective that is different from anthropology but shares some of the anthropology's concerns.
RM and RP: Is there a danger of fetishizing the subaltern--i.e., of casting the term as a knowable and celebrated subject-position--in anthropological research? If so, should we revisit how the term is deployed both in academic work and in everyday, "common-sense" understandings? Have you seen the term used outside academic context?
SM: Yes, of course, like any other term, subaltern can also become fetishized, emptied of its analytical purchase and critical edge. One of the most important critiques of the knowability—or even the desire to know the subaltern—was of course voiced by Spivak in her essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" While my intellectual formation was deeply informed by Spivak's (and other subaternists') arguments, my intent in this article as well as in my book (Politics of Piety) was to think about a slightly different problem. It may be baldly stated as follows: there are forms of life that are rooted in traditions, concepts and practices that may seem repugnant and fundamentally "other" from a liberal secular perspective but that nonetheless require an analysis and understandings of these forms of life on their own terms. My essay here in CA and my book in general tries to provide an insight into this form of life through an analysis of the program of ethical self-cultivation pursued by the pietists of the mosque movement. My point is not that this program of self-cultivation pursued is "good" or conducive to establishing relations of gender equality or that it should be adopted by progressives, liberals, feminists and others. I argue instead that the disciplines of subjectivity pursued by the pietists profoundly parochialize conceptions of the subject, autonomous reason, and objectivity through which the pietists are understood to be lacking in faculties of criticism and reason. If academic knowledge production aims to be something more than an exercise in denunciation and judgment, it must surely think beyond its own naturalized conceptions in order to grasp what other notions of criticism, evaluation, and reasoned deliberation operate in the world. This in turn requires opening up a comparative (and dare I say critical?) study of different forms of subjectivity and concomitant disciplines of ethical self-formation.
RM and RP: What makes a discussion of subaltern studies particularly relevant now?
SM: Many of the insights of the Subaltern Studies have been forgotten by a new generation of scholars, key among them the analysis of postcoloniality and its forms—state, public, gender, legal—that depart from and challenge the reigning theoretical frameworks rooted in European history.
RM and RP: Would you categorize your article as subaltern studies?
SM: Not really. But as I said earlier, my arguments are deeply informed by the puzzles I inherited from the Subaltern Studies debates.
RM and RP: What has inspired your work and in what ways might it contribute to a more thorough understanding of subalternity?
SM: The work of Talal Asad has been a central inspiration to my thinking as I have been formed by the school of feminist anthropologists at Stanford (including Jane Collier, Sylvia Yanagisako, and Shelly Rosaldo). Even though these scholars are quite distinct from each other, I think all of them are deeply committed to thinking critically about difference – not difference as an an exoticized fetishized object of study—but difference as it is lived, produced, and propagated through relations of power. Pace Said, "difference" is not a bad term for these scholars but one that needs to be thought through in an increasingly homogenized world in which the universal language of capitalist aspirations has become the norm.
RM and RP: What advice would you offer researchers pursuing subaltern projects? What ethical responsibilities does the researcher have?
SM: To forget the naïve notion that that they can channel and represent "subaltern voices." To challenge their own presuppositions and analytical lenses that they bring to an object of study and their own pious certitudes.
RM and RP: What are the challenges of teaching concepts related to subalternity? What kinds of teaching strategies and practices have you found effective in the classroom?
Saba Mahmood: I find it necessary particularly in courses focused on postcolonialism and colonialism to start with the seminal insights of the early Subaltern Studies debates. I include in this the debate between Washbrook/O'Hanlon and Gyan Prakash; the earlier work of Partha Chatterjee; the seminal work of Dipesh Chakrabarty particularly his book Provincializing Europe; and Lata Mani's Contentious Traditions.
The Light in Her Eyes (Official Trailer, Syria)
"Young Women Debate at the Mosque," clip from The Light in Her Eyes
Questions for Classroom Discussion
1. How is the relationship between feminism and religious traditions "vexed"?
2. What is the liberal definition of freedom? How is Mahmood critiquing this understanding?
3. What is the difference between feminism as a political project and feminism as an analytic?
4. By thinking of agency as "a capacity of action," how is Mahmood complicating our understanding of agency?
5. What is the relationship between Islam and the Egyptian nation?
6. Describe the relationship between agency and docility as discussed by Mahmood. How does Mahmood's understanding of agency departs from Butler's? How does Butler's paradox of subjectivation fit into this discussion?
7. Discuss/debate the practice of veiling. Does the veil signify a certain identity or does the veil make the self?
Related Readings
2000 "Agency and Pain," Culture and Religion l(l):29-60.
Boddy, Janice
1989 Wombs and Alien Spirits: Men and Women in the Zar Cult in North Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre
1977 Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Butler, Judith
1997a Excitable Speech. A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge.
1997b The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Chakrabarty, Dipesh
1997 "The Time of History and the Times of God." In The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital. Lisa Lowe and David Lloyd, eds. Pp. 36-50. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Das, Veena
1995 "Voice as Birth of Culture." Ethnos 60(3-4): 159-179.
Foucault, Michel
1980 "Truth and Power." In Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Colin Gordon, ed. Pp. 109-133. New York: Pantheon Books.
1983 "Subject and Power." In Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, eds. Pp. 208-226. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lapidus, Ira
1984 "Knowledge, Virtue and Action: The Classical Muslim Conception of Adab and the Nature of Religious Fulfillment in Islam." In Moral Conduct and Authority. Barbara Metcalf, ed. Pp. 38-61. Berkeley. University of California Press.
Strathern, Marilyn
1987 "An Awkward Relationship: The Case of Feminism and Anthropology." Signs 12(2). 276-293.
Editorial Overview
While Muslim women have often been rendered subaltern subjects in scholarship, Saba Mahmood's essay "Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival" is included in the Subaltern Studies collections not for her examination of Muslim women's participation in the Egyptian mosque movement, but for her efforts to "parochialize" our thinking. By "prob[ing] some of the conceptual challenges that women's participation in the Islamic movement poses to feminist theory and gender analyses" Mahmood questions our understanding of agency, freedom, and empowerment. What is freedom? Does agency always require subverting societal norms? How has the analyst's understanding of these concepts hidden the real motivations of the social actors?
To answer these questions, Mahmood turns to her ethnographic research of the urban women's mosque movement in Egypt. Through these ethnographic examples, Mahmood offers an alternative analysis which demontrates how normative notions of agency, the self and autonomy, with their liberal bias, restrict the researcher's ability of recognizing/acknowledging different forms of agency. The researcher must appreciate "that analytical frameworks have historical and cultural moorings" and should consider if these analytics will be relevant for the task at hand. In arguing for this awareness, Mahmood engages Judith Butler's notion of performativity and the paradox of subjectivation as well as concepts of habitus. The result is a refreshing essay which urges researchers to re-examine their politics and questions as they enter the field and write-up.
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- There were a mind- and body-numbing 47 hits delivered by the Vancouver Canucks during Game 1 on Wednesday. Only one of them may resonate all the way into Game 2.
Chicago Blackhawks forward Tomas Kopecky skated all of four shifts before suffering an upper-body injury that knocked him out for the remainder of a 2-0 loss to the Canucks at Rogers Arena. And, somewhat ominously, there was no immediate word on his availability moving forward.
"We'll see how he is (Thursday)," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said after the defeat.
It would be a fairly measurable blow for a club with an already banged-up forward crew, especially given Kopecky's potential to set up camp near the crease and harass Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo, who made 32 saves on Wednesday night.
Hawks center Ryan Johnson also took what appeared to be a knee-to-knee hit from the Canucks' Tanner Glass but will be "fine," according to Quenneville.
Twitter @ChiTribHamilton


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posted by Thom Holwerda on Mon 10th Mar 2008 17:57 UTC, submitted by CIozzio
PCMag compared Ubuntu, Windows, and Mac OS X to one another. "Now that the major OSs all run on Intel chips, the playing field is pretty leveled out. We compared the heavy hitters in an eight-point test to find who wins the OS battle."


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Sometimes you just have to wonder, "What were they thinking?" My wife and I speak on marriage-related topics to variant crowds. We know what we're going to say, but we have no idea what the audience may offer. So, when we speak publicly, before we open the floor to comments or questions (which we welcome), we always preface with a cautionary word not to make any personal or disparaging remarks about one's spouse.
Nobody wants his or her dirty laundry aired out in public. And no one wants the neighbors to be privy to his or her intimate goings-on.
A woman who attended one of my wife's lecture series on enhancing marital harmony serves as a perfect example of the damage a few misplaced comments, delivered at the speed of sound, can cause. This (until then) respected woman aired it out in staccato fashion, spilling enough beans to render a public flogging of her soul mate. My wife cut her off as soon as possible but it was too late; her unexpected comments left the audience, who happened to be neighbors and friends from the community, aghast.
Why do that? Why let the genie out of the bottle? Once he's out, you can't put him back in. And even if you could, it won't help much.
A story is told of the chassidic master, Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. Someone once came to him after having spoken lashon hara (slander). The person asked forgiveness. Reb Levi Yitzchak instructed the penitent to take a down pillow to the town square, open it and shake out all the feathers. The person did so and returned to the rav, who promptly said "Now, go back to the town square and gather up all the feathers." The person asked incredulously, "How can I ever do that?" Reb Levi Yitzchak retorted, "That's what happens when you speak libelously about another. Like you can never gather up all the feathers, you can never repair all the damage."
On a speaking tour in New York, a rabbi related a very sad story of a couple who had previously attended marital counseling. During one of their visits, the psychologist encouraged the husband to open up and share his true feelings with his wife. The husband, fortified by the psychologist's advice, or under his protective wing, told his wife that she was ugly, he never found her attractive and that her lack of beauty has always been a sore spot for him. He finished by telling her that he never really understood how he could have married her. (It was not a case of adding a touch of make-up…)
Needless to say, the wife was devastated. Imagine her hurt. No matter what he says or does in the future, he will never rectify the terrible damage he caused. Does anyone think flowers or chocolates will repair the destruction left in the wake of "just telling it like it is"? With such pain in her heart, will it ever be possible for them to attain true marital harmony? Simply because the therapist encourages a person to "let go" doesn't mean that therapist is correct or that one must listen.
It reminds me of the 45-year-old man who went to a psychologist because he suffered incontinence problems; wetting even during the day, which caused him terrible embarrassment. After six months of counseling, the psychologist proudly announced, "Well, we've successfully cured one problem; you're no longer embarrassed by soiling yourself. Now we only have to work on your incontinence."
When we sit down with a couple, one of the first instructions we give them is the following: "We're here to help but remember, when you walk out that door, it's just the two of you. You're going home with your spouse. You two have to live with the consequences of what you say here. Think before you make any statement and do not deceive yourselves into thinking this is the forum to even scores. Neither cruelty nor unbridled ignorance has any place here. No one comes here to destroy his or her marriage. Your goal and our goal is one; to improve your marriage."
Thinking before speaking is key.


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Nikki Stewart has been hired onto the Auburn Women's Basketball staff as Director of Basketball Operations, head coach Terri Williams-Flournoy announced Tuesday.
As the Director of Basketball Operations, Stewart will be in charge of team travel, game day preparations, monitoring players' academic progress and handling community service for the student-athletes.
"For the Director of Basketball Operations position, you want someone who is more of an administrative-type that understands the business side of running the program and Nikki is that person," said Williams-Flournoy. "Her background in both the sports and corporate worlds make a great mixture and will really help with what we want to get done here."
Stewart is a 2002 graduate of the University of Tennessee where she graduated magna cum laude with her degree in political science. While at UT, she served as a manager for the Lady Vol women's basketball team for two seasons and was promoted to head manager as a senior.
From Knoxville, she moved on to law school at Vanderbilt University, graduating from the VU Law School in 2005. While there she served as chairperson of the Vanderbilt Student Athletic Committee, a group that worked to incorporate the student-athletes into the general undergraduate community.
A native of Atlanta, Ga., Stewart returned to her home area in 2006 and held positions as an Associate Attorney at both Smith & Williams, and Hall, Booth, Smith & Stover law firms.
She spent the 2010-11 season with the Kentucky women's basketball team as a recruiting and operations assistant. While there, she prepared correspondence, maintained the recruiting database and filing system, and provided camp and clinic administration.
She returned to the legal world in 2011 as a project attorney with King & Spalding in Atlanta. She then took a similar position with Alston & Bird.
INFORMATION SOURCE: Auburn Athletics Dept.


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|February 3, 2013, 01:49 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: April 25, 2009
Location: Republic of Texas
Posts: 164
Everyone seems to out and back ordered.
Who has them? This seems to be a future problem, can't reload with them.
If you want to kick the Tiger in it's ass, you'd better have a plan dealing with it's teeth.
|February 3, 2013, 02:49 PM
Join Date: March 4, 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 15,078
Can't reload with them if you don't have them. Primers seem to sell out as fast at they appear, currently. Panic buying is still going on and also ammo component makers have government orders to fill from the end of last year. I hear it's supposed to get better either this month or next, but who knows how the market saturation will play out for sure. If you put some on backorder somewhere that will accept back orders, you'll at least be in line and you'll get them eventually.
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Last edited by Unclenick; February 3, 2013 at 03:18 PM.
|February 3, 2013, 03:07 PM
Junior member
Join Date: December 20, 2012
Location: The "Gunshine State"
Posts: 1,981
Sorry, not being snarky,but you are JUST noticing this now? It has been happening since the beginning of November and escalated even more after the CT shooting. Place your back order and wait is about thebestyoull find, unless you stumble across some in an out of the way gun shop
|February 3, 2013, 03:33 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: July 26, 2006
Location: Southern Minnesota
Posts: 9,333
what I heard... talked to a guy that does commercial reloading for resale... his suppliers told him 4 months before he could expect small pistol primers to ship to him... I'd guess it'll be longer for the mom & pop shops, since this guy reloads commercially... not helping that everyone is out of ammo... the manufacterers are going to make & sell completed ammo, before they release components for resale ( there is more profit margin on loaded ammo )... at this point, I'm holding off on reloading, & just getting all my brass prepped & ready, saving the boxes of primers I have in case I needed something specific, or until I can replace what I have, so I can start loading again...
In life you either make dust or eat dust...
|February 3, 2013, 11:48 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: December 5, 2009
Posts: 1,411
We have a local shop that still has reloading components in stock. The prices are higher than I would normally want to pay. It is convenient when you really need something. You might consider looking for some place like this. The other options are to get on a list for back orders or wait for things to come available again. I do suggest once things settle down to try and slowly increase your on hand stock until you have enough to last a year or two. I'm thinking these shortages are going to start happening more often rather than less in the future.
|February 4, 2013, 12:55 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: June 6, 1999
Location: El Paso, TX
Posts: 1,021
A few places have large pistol and large rifle and shotgun, but essentially nowhere has small pistol or rifle.
New gun, same ol' shot.
|February 4, 2013, 06:43 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: October 14, 2009
Location: Sunshine and Keystone States
Posts: 4,452
I found SPPs at Natchez a couple of weeks ago but they go quickly. Get on their email notifications for types you need.
|February 4, 2013, 07:59 AM
Join Date: April 7, 2011
Posts: 35
I'm just shooting my 1911s and 44 mags more than anything right now. Small pistol primers have been low for a long while. Large pistol primers have been around here and there. So I've got a good stock of them. Just going to take it easy on small pistol primer stuff for a while. I'm sure it will come back around summer time.
|February 4, 2013, 08:39 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: January 28, 2013
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 182
I have been able to find a Tula small pistol primers here and there. I picked up a couple of thousand from Natchez early last week, I went back to order a couple of thousand for a friend about an hour later and they were sold out. I also saw Tula SPP at the gun show in Richmond last weekend so I picked up some more. If you check Midway's page it appears they expect to have the Tula primers back in stock this Friday. I don't know why, but it appears Tula seems to be your best bet if you really need primers. I found them by checking out the major suppliers everyday at lunch just to see if any had arrived, I guess I got lucky.
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DmC doesn't run at 60FPS, it just looks like it does – Capcom claims
DmC: Devil May Cry runs at 30FPS on consoles. It's no secret, but Capcom has teased that Ninja Theory used a number of tricks and technical wizardry to make the game appear as if it does run at 60FPS. It's all rather confusing, but check out what the publisher had to say below.
Speaking with Eurogamer, Capcom's Hideaki Itsuno revealed that Capcom's work on Dragon's Dogma helped it understand how to make games running at 30FPS seem as if they were running at 60FPS.
"During the course of the development of Dragon's Dogma," Itsuno explained, "we did a lot of experimentation and happened upon some techniques for working with Unreal Engine, some fairly elaborate techniques, that allow for a controller responsiveness that gives the player the feel of 60 frames per second."
Itsuno added, "60 frames per second is a speed the brain and the eye can catch up with and understand. But at 30 frames per second there's a technique where you take advantage of the brain's ability to fill in the blanks."
"So even though you have it running at 30 frames per second, you create the motions and the poses in such a way that the brain will naturally fill in what would have been the extra frames. Also, on the players' side, we made some adjustments to the button response and when it's reflected on screen," Itsuno concluded.
Ninja Theory also chipped in to add that while the game does run at 60FPS on PC, the studio plumped for 30FPS on consoles in order to cram in more style and on-screen content, and that after playing a bout of DmC: Devil May Cry, other games would feel sluggish by comparison.
Are they right? Find out when the game launches on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 across Europe from January 15th.


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Jessica Van Sack is the Herald's technology reporter, covering the rich landscape of innovation in the Bay State, the hottest new devices, digital giants like Microsoft and Google and all things social media. An award-winning journalist with a decade of experience on the politics, crime and public safety beats, she is a Boston University grad who lives in the South End with her husband, two dogs and infant son. Keep an eye out for her column, Booting Up, and follow her on Twitter.
Follow on Twitter @jvansack


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STOCKTON - A monthlong celebration of Stockton Gurdwara's 100-year history comes to a close Sunday with a parade unlike any other.
STOCKTON - A monthlong celebration of Stockton Gurdwara's 100-year history comes to a close Sunday with a parade unlike any other.
"This is more symbolic," said Bhajan Singh Bhinder, who has coordinated the temple's centennial activities. "This is more for us, more like a pious walk. We will be appreciating the Sikh pioneers for their suffering and all they went through to make today a better day.
"Those coming will have an inner conversation with themselves about what this parade means to them. They will be walking in the footsteps of the forefathers ... and thinking about all the hard work, the tears, joy and sorrow. Everyone will be reflecting on that."
Bhinder said the parade, even if more introspective, will still have the same enthusiasm on the outside. The traditional Sikh parade held each April is one of the most colorful events of the year in Stockton.
Sunday's parade will start at the same place - 1930 S. Grant St. (to be renamed Sikh Temple Street on Jan. 1)
The coordinator is Harnek Atwal, president of the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society's Gurdwara Sahib Stockton. The society was founded in 1912.
The parade is expected to last its usual three hours. It will wind through the modest south Stockton neighborhood surrounding the temple and into the downtown area.
As usual, free food and drinks will be available along the route.
"In 1915, the Stockton Gurdwara was built specifically to offer food and drink for all in need," said Bhinder, 54, a Lathrop-based insurance agent. "That tradition continues with free distribution of food and drink along the route in remembrance of those first souls."
The parade is the final event on a busy late-September, early October calendar.
On Saturday night, dignitaries representing federal, state and local governments will gather at the temple to honor the long Sikh history in the state.
Two conferences, one from a Western point of view and the other from an Eastern, started the centennial celebration.
"Regarding the Western perspective, close to 700 people attended, and 70 percent of them were young people," Bhinder said. "They walked away with a sense of responsibility to Sikhs in America. They also left with a sense of pride and belonging."
Contact reporter Kevin Parrish at (209) 546-8264 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Dear Fellow Christians, country people, and Comrades, lend me your Eyes. How can you borrow eyes? When you say that you have your fathers eyes, then whose eyes does he have? Such profundity.
We thought my computer would arrive this past Friday, but the brown truck appears to be delivering it on Monday. Another day at the salt mines with my nurses assisting me with computer doodlings. It's not that bad. I'm glad to have their help, even though I have to repeat commands and teach them how to spell. Also directions like left and right,and north and south.


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