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Top Control Engineering articles, December 2012
The most-visited articles at www.controleng.com during December 2012 included the following topics: best products, fixing PID, mobile apps, System Integrator of the Year winners and prior winners, System Integrator Giants, feedback controllers, VFD selection, HART communication, level control, and lean manufacturing, among others.
Most-read Control Engineering online articles for December 2012 at www.controleng.com included these topics: Control Engineering Engineers' Choice Award finalists, how to fix PID, Apps for Engineers, System Integrator of the Year winners and prior winners, System Integrator Giants, feedback controllers, VFD selection, HART communication, level control, lean manufacturing, and flowmeter selection, among others. (Note that we post fresh control engineering content each business day, so some articles posted later in the month don't get as much time for exposure as those posted earlier.) More about each article and links follow.
2013 Engineers' Choice Awards - Finalists
Control Engineering Engineers' Choice Awards highlight some of the best new control, instrumentation and automation products as chosen by Control Engineering's print and online subscribers. Subscribers to the North American print and digital editions are asked to select the best products based on technological advancement, service to the industry, and market impact. Winners will be announced in February.
Proportional-Integral-Derivative controllers may be ubiquitous, but they're not perfect.
Product Exclusive: CFE Media's Apps for Engineers software is an "app of apps," providing an interactive directory of approximately 60 mobile engineering-related software applications useful for Control Engineering, Plant Engineering, and Consulting-Specifying Engineer areas of coverage.
System Integrators of the Year for 2013
Automation Integrator Guide cover story: Control Engineering recognizes the best system integrators in the industrial automation business. The winners are...
System Integrator Giants of 2012
These 100 firms represent the largest system integrators of 2012, from among 2,334 in the Control Engineering Automation Integrator Guide.
Control Engineering System Integrator Hall of Fame
Each year, a panel of Control Engineering editors and industry expert judges select the System Integrator of the Year Award winners in three categories (based on the size of the organization). Three general criteria are considered for the selection of winners: business skills, technical competence, and customer satisfaction. Winners are then inducted into our System Integrator Hall of Fame. This page was updated in December 2012 with the class of 2013.
Feedback controllers do their best
But meeting a specific performance measure is harder than it looks.
How to select a VFD - These guidelines dispel the confusion about matching variable frequency drives (VFD) and motors to fans and pumps that are typically encountered in commercial building applications. While the motivation to increase energy efficiency could be financial (reduced energy costs) or ethical (reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with power production), it is taken for granted that VFDs are an easy way to improve energy efficiency in a motor application. And with these noble intentions in mind, the engineer will specify a VFD for his client. Oftentimes, that isn't the end of the story for the engineer.
HART-enabled process instrumentation is everywhere, but how does it communicate? New chip designs support this time-tested protocol.
Optimizing strategy for boiler drum level control
Avoid trips and maximize steam output by reviewing your control equipment, strategy, and tuning.
Successful lean manufacturing implementation: 5 fundamental jigsaw pieces
Implementing lean manufacturing requires participants to review job environment and satisfaction, motivate participation, demand leadership responsibility, develop new behavior patterns, and insist on lean methods and tools.
Optimizing flowmeter selection
Using a best-in-class flowmeter selection methodology can help users avoid surprises and reduce lifecycle costs by identifying the optimal flow meter for virtually any flow application.
Additional highly read articles online during December follow, below.
Disturbance-Rejection vs. Setpoint-Tracking Controllers - Designing a feedback control loop starts with understanding its objective as well as the process's behavior.
Robotic bird flies at Pack Expo 2012 - Festo Corp.'s SmartBird, a bionic, lifelike herring gull replica capable of autonomous flight via remote control, was demonstrated a Pack Expo 2012, continuing the company's work that emulates nature to help advance industrial automation products.
Substation automation and automation of the control house - In place of hardwired control panels of the past, some sort of a human machine interface is being installed in substations.
How close are we to a truly Smart Grid? There are still hurdles to overcome, at least in the U.S., before the Smart Grid becomes reality.
Large touchscreen HMI offers full PLC capability - PLC built into 12.1-in. HMI from Unitronics can support 24 loops and 1,000 I/O points.
UML use cases, sequence diagrams: easily converted into executable code - Engineering and IT Insight: UML (Unified Modeling Language) is the language of software engineering, and State Models in UML are used to define internal logic. When state diagrams, use case diagrams, and sequence diagrams are combined with UML class diagrams they define a system, can be easily understood by non-programmers, and can be rapidly converted into executable code.
Industrial RFID trends - Factory automation RFID technology trends differ from those of logistics or commercial RFID systems. Factory floor RFID components are more industrial and hardened for less downtime, with faster data acquisition.
A look at the Smart Grid's demand side - Automation industry exec says this is where users can "Do something now" while waiting for the Smart Grid to take shape.
Pages: Most popular Control Engineering pages follow
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- Compiled by Mark T. Hoske, CFE Media, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com.
Coming soon: Top Control Engineering articles of 2012.
Also see: Top Control Engineering articles of 2011 and best read of prior months, below.
Engineering interaction: Which articles did you find to be most useful and why? Leave a comment below.
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Global Warming on Google Maps
Each week NASA's State of Flux website features images of different locations, showing the effects of climate change, urbanization, or natural hazards such as fires and floods.
If you select the 'map view' option you can view a Google Map of all the locations so far covered. If you then select a marker on the map you can view two images of the location that have been taken at different times.
If you scroll to the bottom of the page you can also find a number of links to browse the images by different categories, such as 'extreme events', 'human impacts' and 'top picks'.
Posted by Keir Clarke at 1:56 PM
Labels: environment
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subset: commoncrawl


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NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partners. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Kalmar, DMD, PhD
Clinical Professor of Pathology
Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology and Radiology
College of Dentistry
The Ohio State University
Dr. John R. Kalmar is a Professor in the Section of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Pathology and Anesthesiology at The Ohio State University, College of Dentistry. Dr. Kalmar completed his dental training at Southern Illinois University in 1979. After a residency in hospital dentistry at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, he received specialty training in oral and maxillofacial pathology at Emory University and later earned a PhD in Pathology at Emory. Dr. Kalmar served as Clinic Director for the School of Postgraduate Dentistry at Emory from 1989-1992. In 1992, he joined the faculties of the Eastman Dental Center and the Department of Pathology at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY and developed a successful oral biopsy service and clinical practice. In 1999, Dr. Kalmar accepted his current position at OSU. He has numerous teaching responsibilities at both the pre-doctoral and post-graduate levels and has been director of the graduate program in oral and maxillofacial pathology since 2000.
Dr. Kalmar became a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology in 1991. He currently serves on the editorial Board of Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology and Endodontics. He participates in an active oral biopsy service that receives surgical specimens from across the United States and provides clinical consultations to patients with a variety of oral diseases.


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Dear Med Wet Executives,
I have a concept vehicle I would like you to consider for your fleet. I feel that it would be a fine addition and could be very useful for roadside assistance and publicity at rallies.
This is a 1998 Harley Sportster 1200 that has only 10,000 miles.It is excellent shape.We bought it,took it to the shop and removed the rear rim,tire and shocks.We made a subframe that bolts up in that area. I built this to use as a rental item for Party Gator and it has been a huge sucess at ourdoor parties,bars, Nascar races.This was professionally built nothing is cobbeled on this unit.It has 4 blender bottles on the rear deck,also has a hookup for draft beer,and a pump system for dispensing alcohol.It is fully selfcontained when you start the motor and put into gear it turns the blender bottles on the back. This is a one of a kind unit and attracts alot of attention.I have receipts for $8500.00 but we are asking $5300.00 for it.
original ad:


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Serenity (US - BD)
Gabe will get back to you later, he's watching Morena Baccarin in 1080p...
By now I'm guessing that most of the folks reading this review already know the tragic tale of Firefly, and the perhaps even more tragic tale of Serenity, so I'll run through my own point of view in a speedy fashion. And by 'speedy fashion' I mean in a 'long and rambling fashion'.
I was introduced to Firefly in (probably) 2004, kicking and screaming, by a group of friends. I like science fiction, but made for TV science fiction was, at the time, not very good. Star Trek's glory days were a galaxy far, far behind them, and every other show I could think of ( Babylon 5 for example) was really just Star Trek: The Next Generation-lite. I mean that in a bad way. TV Sci-Fi was cheap, staged like a sit-com, and all too often without humour.
'But it's written by Joss Whedon.', they said, as if it meant anything to me.
'Who?', I implored, doing my best to appear as if I actually cared.
'The guy that wrote Buffy: The Vampire Slayer', they replied, again, as if that meant anything to me.
Despite having no working knowledge of Whedon (beyond his script doctoring on various movies like Alien Resurrection, X-Men, and Toy Story), and no love for TV Sci-Fi, I let my pushy friends push me into watching the show. As the episodes ran I finally stopped pretending to enjoy myself, and actually did. Firefly was dynamically shot, looked pretty pricey, and was wickedly funny. More importantly I liked the storyline, and wanted to see where it was going. There was just one problem, I was in formed later—the show had been cancelled after only half a season.
But soon later I found out that the clouds in heaven had parted. Firefly had been picked up for a theatrical adaptation, and the second season was going to be crammed into a single feature film. Fan lobbying had ignited interest with Universal Studios, who decided to take a medium budget chance on the property, which given a different set of circumstance (perhaps an alternate dimension?), really could've panned out with popular audiences. I followed the making and release of the film pretty closely. If Serenity is remembered in another thirty years, it'll be for this origin story, unfortunately, not its accomplishments on screen, because the tale is far too unique, and the film itself was rather unpopular. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I saw the film first day, with a packed audience of fans who all reacted perfectly to the material, me included. Serenity is an unmistakably exciting movie. It has displays obvious monetary advantages over the original series, and its swagger and wit are hard to resist. The experience was electrifying. If I'd written a review that night it would've been a 10/10. From this high horse I sat with the series' other fans, and the fall over the next week would be a hard. Serenity didn't make money, and was considered a flop, despite some excellent reviews. It was at this point that a second tragedy began to set in.
I got over my sadness pretty quickly simply because I wasn't fully emotionally invested in seeing the rest of the story, but there were a lot of hard feelings among the hard-core fans that had helped get the movie made. The attitude of these valiant cornered animals quickly turned so toxic I was hesitant to even talk about the movie in mixed company. I took the time to see it again while on vacation, but there was a bad aftertaste in my mouth walking into the theatre, and realized that my initial reaction was probably a little ravenously driven. More to the point, I kind of hated vast expanses of the third act. Sobered by time, and not packed into a fan-tastic (and somewhat vocal) audience, I wasn't hooked by the high of not knowing what was going to happen next.
(These next two paragraphs contain a huge spoiler, so skip ahead if you haven't seen the film)
My duelling opinions concerning the film both hinged on a single scene. It's actually not even a full scene, it's about a minute of film at the tail of the space battle, just before the crew has their Rio Bravo moment—the part where Wash is unceremoniously killed. The first time the sudden death came as such a violent shock it coloured the next thirty or so minutes of film. If Whedon could kill Wash, he could kill anyone, all bets were off, etc. I had the perfect visceral reaction. It helped that a lack of third act (hero) death had been my biggest complaint regarding Return of the Jedi, and that the deaths in The Matrix: Revolutions (which was still on our tongues) had struck me as phony and drawn-out.
The second time I saw Serenity I knew Wash was going to be speared, so the scene lost much of its drama, and the following scenes were no longer dulled intellectually by the impact. What had been the linchpin of the entire film now felt more like a cheap shot. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Wash was the most expendable character in the situation, because he served little purpose in a fight (as any fan of the series knows), and because he would be missed by the audience as the harmless nice guy. The threatened deaths that follow in the Rio Bravo sequence are cheapened as well, not to mention the fact that I then noticed that the film had a Rio Bravo sequence. Another Rio Bravo sequence!
So how do I feel about the film now, after an even bigger buffer of years? I'm stuck between my first two opinions. For every new thing I find to love (a bit of banter I'd missed, a really beautiful shot) I find something new to dislike (a bit too much talking, frankly). Serenity is still better than most movies pooped out of the Hollywood factory every year, and I recommend it to any and everyone that expresses interest, but it's not as fresh as it was that all important first time, and that's not a sign of a perfect film.
Ultimately Serenity should've been a stepping stone. In a perfect world the film should've led to more and better Firefly films (can you imagine Whedon's Empire Strikes Back or Wrath of Khan?), and it should've led to successful careers for all its major participants. People forget that Whedon was a first time movie director. If this is what he can do the first time out, what could he do with lessons learned intact and a bigger budget. He almost directed X-Men 3, they based the movie on his comic, but instead we got a much more popular director—Brett Ratner (okay, to be fair Whedon turned the gig down for Wonder Woman, which of course was never made).
Then there's the outstanding cast—that talent group of people that can actually speak Whedon's dialogue without sounding like the awkward teenagers with really expensive thesauruses on hand. I'm not saying the cast's careers are dead, but when's the last time you saw Sean Maher, Jewel Staite, Morena Barccarin, or Gina Torres in a leading role on the big screen, or even a decent supporting role? Sure, Adam Baldwin's remained busy (and typecast), Alan Tudyk has moved from one stealing supporting role to another, and Summer Glau has that (boring) Terminator show, but what about Nathan Fillion? On screen Fillion is a bundled mass of Harrison Ford, Bruce Campbell, and Clark Gabel, but his luck in Hollywood has been sketchy at best. I see his lack of super-stardom as the whole ordeal's biggest tragedy.
This is my first look at Serenity in high definition. I actually owned a six dollar copy of the film on HD DVD (some of those sales were too hard to resist), but I never watched it, so I'm not going to do any comparison there. Basically speaking, I'm very impressed with this transfer. Whedon overdoes his comic book colouring a bit (in my opinion James Cameron and Steven Spielberg have all but killed solid cool colours for modern Sci-Fi, and the warm colours are often a little too Star Wars prequel-y), but they're a great arena for hi-def possibilities. I saw the film twice in theatres—once in a good one, and once in a really bad one—then watched it a few times on DVD, but I've never seen the colours this bright, this full, or this clean.
I've also never seen it this black. The black levels on this disc are almost unbelievably deep, and there could've been some major detail loss, but shockingly there is none. In fact, for such a stylized and varied production (including several different stocks, over-modulation, soft focus, heavy grain, etc.) this is an incredibly detailed transfer. I never noticed the scars on Chiwetel Ejiofor's head, even on a two story screen. The story goes both ways though, because now some of the digital animation set against real footage doesn't look quite as convincing as it once was, and Mal's chest scares look a lot like, well, make-up appliances.
It seems that Whedon and crew actually got so into the more theatrical scale they even went out of their way to find excuses to break their (scientifically accurate) no sound in space rules by setting the big space battle in an ion cloud. There's plenty of big and blustery audio moments in the film (which is often a good way to disguise a less than gigantic budget), and the DTS-HD Master Audio track is the best way to experience this effective mix at home so far. Not that I don't consider Serenity as a whole an audio tour de force, but the best scene to impress your friends comes pretty early on in the film. The chase with the Reavers that introduces the amped action to the television audiences is full of duelling sound effects, overlapping, chunky bass sources, swashbuckling music, and a whole lot of spatial movement. Check it out.
The Blu-ray disc is a slight upgrade from the HD disc in terms of extras, but there's not much for those with the special edition DVD to get excited about. The HD release was a port from the original DVD release, this is a port of the special edition, plus a little added U-Control input.
Things start with Joss Whedon's solo commentary, which is still pretty good. Whedon is a little awkward, but is much more prepared than most directors in his position, running down his universe, talking about what might have been, and admitting to almost all his good natured theft. My favourite bits are the ones where Whedon describes his cost cutting measures, which is much more interesting than in depth discussions of masses of faceless computer techs. The second track, featuring Whedon and actors Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Ron Glass and Summer Glau, is from the later edition DVD, so the idea exchange is a more retrospective discussion. Having the actors around leads to more humour, and those with profile 1.1 and up players can have the added joy of watching the commentators as they speak.
'Alliance Database' is, I believe, the only Blu-ray exclusive extra (except the U-Control extras). This is a hard to navigate, but undeniably pretty looking, interactive hi-def endeavour. Here fans can explore the planets, history and characters of Whedon's universe. The facts are minimal, but the interface is pretty cool (though you can get generally the same information out of the 'Mr. Universe's Compendium' U-Control Extra).
There are nine deleted scenes, four extended scenes, and a group of outtakes on the disc. The deleted scenes, which run about fourteen minutes, have a 'play all' option, are presented in non-anamorphic standard definition, and feature commentary from Whedon. Many of these represent my favourite kind of deleted scene—one which shouldn't have been included in the final feature, but aren't entirely extraneous either, so they're fun to watch. It's also interesting to see the scenes in their raw form, minus all the post-production colour tinkering. The extended scene, which run about six minutes, aren't as rough as the deleted ones, but still aren't totally finished, and are non-anamorphic SD. The outtakes are expectedly amusing.
Next up is a selection of featurettes, starting with 'Future History: The Story of the Earth that Was', a minor exploration of the hows and whys of the Serenity universe (only four minutes). It runs through the genesis of the story, and fills in a few gaps for non-series fans. 'What's In a Firefly' is a six-and-a-half minute look at the filming of the big special effects scenes, including pre-vis, location filming, and special effects. 'Re-Lighting Firefly' is a pretty fluffy look at the show's Phoenix-like ash rising, featuring cast and crew interviews, and Comic-Con footage set to schmaltzy music. It runs about ten minutes. 'Take a Walk on Serenity' is a brief four minute walk-through the ship set with Whedon and the cast. 'The Green Clan' is a three minute look at cinematographer Jack Green's work on the film.
'A Filmmaker's Journey' is the most substantial featurette, exploring many aspects of the making-of process over a period of almost twenty minutes. The funny thing is the title, because the majority of focus is upon the actors.
The final extras are a series of five web featurettes which give insight into River Tam (running eight minutes). Not carried over from the special edition DVD is a made for Sci-Fi channel featurette, and a pretend candy commercial.
Not only is this review a little on the late side (I promise, I'm getting caught up on all my back reviews), but I'm sure fans would've bought it even without my advice. I hope you enjoyed my little story anyway. I'm sorry I'm unable to make a comparison between the HD DVD release and the Blu-Ray release A/V-wise, but I imagine there is an advantage to the DTS Master Audio track. The additional extras aren't too much to get excited about, unless you're a really big fan of PiP options.
* Note: The above images are taken from the Blu-ray release and resized for the page.
Review by Gabriel Powers
watcher517 Member Join Date: November 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 92
Definitely one of my top 10 favorite movies.
I got Firefly on Blu-Ray today, I might get Serenity when the price goes down.
I got Firefly on Blu-Ray today, I might get Serenity when the price goes down.
Harker Studios Member Join Date: November 2005 Location: Canada Posts: 174
Just a thanks for seeing this on the main page. Made me smile. Firefly is my favourite TV show & I loved how Serenity finished off a show deserving of a much longer airtime...
cdoors Member Join Date: January 2009 Location: United States Posts: 10
Nice review, although I disagree with you you on a few big points. Mainly, the big "third act" thing you you mentioned gets the same reaction out of me every time. The whole movie, for that matter, is just as enjoyable to me every time I watch it (if I had to guess, I've watched it at least a dozen times).
I'm looking forward to when I can afford a Blu-ray player...
I'm looking forward to when I can afford a Blu-ray player...
David Blackwell Senior Member Join Date: February 2004 Location: United States Posts: 2,826
I wish they continued through made for DVD movies. I love this film.
Blue-Kal-El Member Join Date: October 2006 Location: United States Posts: 602
Great review, excellent movie...I wish we can get Serenity 2 down the line, even a 'lower' budget one, as long as it has a good story...
JackJackMN Member Join Date: January 2006 Location: United States Posts: 629
Watching SERENITY on Blu now, looks amazing. Great transfer. Nice review.
pitdeadite Member Join Date: August 2006 Location: United States Posts: 662
Jewel Staite is smmm--oking hot.
Lincoln6Echo Member Join Date: August 2004 Location: United States Posts: 1,125
pitdeadite wrote:
Jewel Staite is smmm--oking hot.
Eh?....I'll take Summer Glau.
Jewel Staite is smmm--oking hot.
Eh?....I'll take Summer Glau.
llama Member Join Date: February 2008 Location: United States Posts: 503
That last pic is of one of the coolest shots in cinematic history. Well, in my opinion. I remember everyone in the theater cheering when we saw that part...and the rest of the movie as well. I've gotta watch this again....
Worst Nightmare Senior Member Join Date: July 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 6,716
Lincoln6Echo wrote: pitdeadite wrote:
Jewel Staite is smmm--oking hot.
Eh?....I'll take Summer Glau.
Why argue? Just take both!
Jewel Staite is smmm--oking hot.
Eh?....I'll take Summer Glau.
Why argue? Just take both!
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13
Disc Details
Release Date: 30th December 2008
Discs: 1
Disc Type: Blu-ray Disc
RCE: No
Video: 1080p
Aspect: 2.35:1
Anamorphic: No
Colour: Yes
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English, Dolby Digital Surround English, Dolby Digital Surround Spanish, Dolby Digital 5.1 French
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Japanese, and Portugues
Extras: Director Commentary, Director/Cast Commentary, U-Control Extras, Deleted Senes, Outtakes, Extended Scenes, 'Future History', 'Re-Lighting Firefly', 'What's in a Firefly', 'Take a Walk on Serenity', 'A Filmmaker's Journey', 'Session 416'
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Joss Whedon
Cast: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Chiwtel Ejiofor, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy and Sci-Fi
Length: 119 minutes
8Review Guide
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Local Churches
Churches in the Anderson Area
Below is a listing of churches in the city of Anderson that maintain a web site. Please contact the AU Web team, if you would like to have a link to your local church website added to this list.
Church of God
Additional Area Churches


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Despite several weeks of protests attended by both sex workers and local residents leading up to 18 June, 2014; the Surabaya City Administration, West Java, Indonesia, officially closed the Dolly and Jarak red-light districts, effectively impacting on the incomes of both sex workers and local small business owners.
Since the 1970's, when the Dolly area was established as a collection of Gangs (or narrow alleyways), the industrious sex industry has erected over 60 sex industry venues in the forms of Karaoke bars and brothels. However, equally industrious small business people have also established their homes and services along the warrens of Gang Dolly, now one of South East Asia's most concentrated sex work areas.
Anissa, from Indonesia's Independent Youth Community (KOPI) organisation, a local NGO who work with the children of all Gang Dolly's residents and workers, said, "Dolly has provided ample income for many of the residents, allowing them to raise their children and provide for their families. It's estimated that more than 14,000 people across the region rely on income earned from red-light districts like Dolly. Thousands of children depend on their parents who earn money from this area. The local government didn't talk to any of the sex workers or the residents here before deciding to shut this place down - it will impact everyone who lives here."
Saputra, a local resident and activist, says the shutdown will damage the incomes of everyone in the area, and the residents and workers will continue to protest the closure of Gang Dolly."We will block the streets and we won't let them in to stop what we are doing here."
However, despite protests from a motley assembly of sex workers, street stall vendors, motor-bike taxi drivers, seamstresses, bar cleaners, brothel receptionists, buskers, illicit petrol sellers, door-to-door make-up vendors, flower sellers and a plethora of other non-formal business owners whose incomes are directly related to the Gang Dolly sex industry; the Surabaya City Administration officially closed the Dolly and Jarak red-light districts in a "ceremony" attended by Social Affairs Minister, Salim Segaf Al Jufri; East Java Governor, Soekarwo; Surabaya Mayor, Tri Rismaharini; members of the Surabaya Legislative Council; the East Java Police chief; and bitter Dolly residents and sex workers.
Social Affairs Minister, Salim Al-Jufri, expressed his appreciation to officials who made the closure of Dolly possible and said the Social Affairs Ministry will work with the city administration to overcome the problem. "We only have to maintain something positive, if it's not positive, then there's no need to keep it," he said.
Meanwhile, Governor Soekarwo, said that "people have to look for decent jobs to make a living". "This is a humanity program, that's why we approved the mayor's request to close down Dolly. The government will not ignore its people. It's true that their income used to be bigger and it's lesser now because of the closure," he said.
According to a government plan, sex workers will be returned to their original hometowns and the administration has coordinated with the District Heads and Mayors in their respective provinces to expect an influx of sex workers. These Provincial Governments have been allocated a regional budget to help sex workers get a new job or to start up a small business.
The Ministry of Social Affairs offered social aid of Rp 7 billion ($580,000 USD) and Governor Soekarwo offered Rp 1.5 billion be distributed to the sex workers and local residents affected by the closure of the red-light district. The city also reportedly provided 650 sex workers with training in cooking, hairdressing and other skills between 2010 and 2013 and claimed that some sex workers even received a capital of Rp 3 million ($300USD) to start small business.
However, despite incentives to leave, sex workers and Gang Dolly's residents are adamant they are not going to move away and that their way of lives will not be stopped. A sex worker who chose to remain anonymous stated that "All these schemes to pay us to leave won't end up in our pockets; they will be just another "bonus" for the local administration, especially just before Ramadan- this year their families will get some nice gifts. In 6 months Dolly will be open again. In the past politicians have actually tried to buy our votes, such is the size of our community- we make up the majority of a political constituency. They forget that now, but we have helped to make them retain their power or lose it altogether." Meanwhile, militant activist, Saputra, said "We will keep going. No-one can stop us. Even if they stop us it will only be for one month - during the fasting month of Ramadan. We stop at that time anyway every year. Once the fasting month is over, we'll be back in operation again. No-one can stop Gang Dolly."


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Meet Karen Reinoehl
Karen Reinoehl graduated from Carroll High School, where her favorite class was astronomy.
Studying in the school's planetarium provided a great opportunity to learn about space. Growing up, she was actively involved with many community service activities.
Her undergraduate coursework was completed at Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, where she received an A.S. in organizational leadership and supervision and a B.A. in general studies. Her academic advisers had a significant influence over her decision to pursue a career in higher education.
She pursued a master of arts at Ball State University, with a dual major in adult and community education and executive development for public service. In addition, she is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Theta Kappa, and Omicron national honor societies.
Coffee shops, especially Starbucks, are her favorite places to meet friends. Unquestionably, her favorite food is pizza. Besides spending time with family and friends, she enjoys reading and traveling.
"Trine University has an exciting history, and I am looking forward to being a part of the institution's future."
Karen Reinoehl
Director of Transfer Admission


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Tansur Hero The Trend Friday 14/09/2012, 06:44
There really needs to be a more reliable way to tell when there is a DT ongoing when using the iphone app. Kate very rarely tells you your score (indicating a DT is ongoing), and when she does she slows you down getting to the next fight. I don't want to have to check the website each time. It's feels clunky.
All you need is a little icon on the room when you're selecting rooms...anything.


text:
Plenty of intrigue on NBA's Christmas schedule
The NBA's hottest team will be playing at home in Los Angeles,
and it's the Clippers, not the Lakers. There's a finals rematch in
Miami, a holiday matinee in Brooklyn, Kobe vs. the Knicks and the
20th anniversary of one of Michael Jordan's most memorable games in
Welcome to Christmas, NBA style.
A five-game slate makes up the NBA's Christmas schedule, which
this year comes with the additional bonus of not being the first
day back after a lockout forced the cancellation of the opening
portion of last season.
Schedule-makers set the matchups long ago, and the league always
tries to get some marquee meetings.
This year, they pretty much struck gold.
The Clippers are riding a franchise-record 13-game winning
streak. The New York Knicks will face their former coach, Mike
D'Antoni, when they play the Lakers. Miami and Oklahoma City will
be bringing the best records in their respective conferences into
their first matchup since the Heat won the title. And Brooklyn and
Boston face off, a few weeks after the teams started shoving one
another and firing off some insults afterward.
"I don't know how much bad blood is still there," Nets guard
Deron Williams told reporters Monday. "We beat them twice this
year. I know they're aware of that and they'll come in ready to
On Christmas, that's the case with everybody.
"There's nothing like playing on Christmas," Knicks star
Carmelo Anthony said.
Los Angeles will be the center of the league's Christmas bash,
with two games at Staples Center on the same day, including an
opener that features two teams which got off to surprising starts
in very different ways.
The Knicks – with an Eastern Conference-leading 20 wins so far –
venture out to play Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, who
reworked their roster over the summer and reworked their coaching
staff after a slow early start, firing Mike Brown and bringing in
It's the 48th time playing on Christmas for the Knicks, but only
the eighth time on the road.
"When we were younger, watching the Christmas Day games was
always special," Knicks forward Steve Novak said in a video posted
to the team's website. "We know we can't play basketball forever,
so for this time in our life, to be away from our families and be
able to play on TV on Christmas Day is really special."
Finish that game, clear the court, and basketball fans in Los
Angeles then get a second present – the NBA's best team of
The Clippers, winners of a franchise-record 13 straight, close
the five-pack of games against the Denver Nuggets. For the
Clippers, it will be only the fourth Christmas home game in
franchise history. For comparison's sake, Bryant will be playing on
the holiday for the 15th time, and this will be his 12th time doing
so at home.
"It will be a good challenge for us," Denver forward Danilo
Gallinari told reporters when asked about facing the Clippers.
"And we'll be ready for them."
So after Boston-Brooklyn, Knicks-Lakers and Thunder-Heat comes
the fourth game of the day when Houston goes to Chicago, exactly 20
years after Jordan put up a Christmas show of his own with a
42-point, eight-rebound effort to lift the Bulls over New York
Derrick Rose remains out for the Bulls, of course, but there is
one reunion to take note of – it'll be Omer Asik's first time
playing in Chicago since he joined the Rockets this past
And that sets the table for the nightcap, when the Nuggets meet
the Clippers.
Maybe the best matchup of all comes in Miami, where the Thunder
meet the Heat in what's sure to be an emotionally charged day.
First, it's a finals rematch. Secondly, the teams will also pay
tribute to military families by handing out gifts to children on
the court immediately before the game, and both clubs will wear
ribbons to honor those who were killed in the school shooting in
Newtown, Conn., earlier this month.
Several Heat players, including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade,
said that playing on Christmas is difficult because of their desire
for family time.
At the same time, both also said it's an honor – especially so
as the league's reigning champions.
"I think it's great for the fans, having those games," James
said. "But for us, as family men, Christmas is a day that we would
love to spend with our family and be home with our family. I have
no problem with the game as scheduled. I love to play the game, I
love to play basketball so I'm going to be out there and I'm going
to be excited for it."


text:
Multiplay Bicycle Game with Sensor
Budget $450-500 USD
A two play bicycle game. Players can play together with split screen. Speed and control are from hardware sensors which is attached to a exercise bicycle. Equipped with VR ready.
Awarded to:
hi Relevant Skills and Experience unity Proposed Milestones $500 USD - bicycleGame
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text:
Giganta Premieres "This Goes On" Video
Gearing up for her Force EP dropping on Werkdiscs / Ninja Tune in a couple of weeks' time, Giganta shares an insight into her mind's eye with an interview and new "This Goes On" video on Inverted Audio.
The athens-based artist and Red Bull Music Academy alumni describes the notion behind her moniker, "Giganta is a super-villain; she has the power to become a Giantess when needed. She is my fantasy character, so I felt the need to make her an image that reflects her strength and power", meanwhile exploring her need to deliver music and visual in tandem.
Her debut release also features the infectious "Can't Stop Playing" and the digital version comes equipped with bonus track "Is Ma Beat" - order your copy from the Ninjashop, iTunes and Amazon.


text:
CyberCorps(R) Scholarship for Service (SFS)
|Victor P. Piotrowski
|(703) 292-5141
PROGRAM GUIDELINESSolicitation 17-556
Important Information for Proposers
ATTENTION: Proposers using the Collaborators and Other Affiliations template for more than 10 senior project personnel will encounter proposal print preview issues. Please see the Collaborators and Other Affiliations Information website for updated guidance.
A revised version of the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 18-1), is effective for proposals submitted, or due, on or after January 29, 2018. Please be advised that, depending on the specified due date, the guidelines contained in NSF 18-1 may apply to proposals submitted in response to this funding opportunity.
Waiting for New Publication
Cyberspace has transformed the daily lives of people. The rush to embrace cyberspace, however, has exposed its fragility and vulnerabilities: corporations, agencies, national infrastructure and individuals have been victims of cyber-attacks. In December 2011, the National Science and Technology Council with the cooperation of NSF advanced a broad, coordinated Federal strategic plan for cybersecurity research and education to "change the game," examine the misuses of cyber technology, bolster education and training in cybersecurity, establish a science of cybersecurity, and transition promising cybersecurity research into practice. To achieve this strategic plan, the Nation requires an innovative and efficient cybersecurity education system that results in an unrivaled cybersecurity workforce and citizenry capable of advancing America's economic prosperity and national security in the 21st century. The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-274) authorizes the National Science Foundation, in coordination with the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Homeland Security, to offer a scholarship program to recruit and train the next generation of information technology professionals, industry control system security professionals and security managers.
The CyberCorps(R): Scholarship for Service (SFS) program seeks proposals that address cybersecurity education and workforce development. The Scholarship Track provides funding to award scholarships to students in cybersecurity. All scholarship recipients must work after graduation for a Federal, State, Local, or Tribal Government organization in a position related to cybersecurity for a period equal to the length of the scholarship. A proposing institution must provide clearly documented evidence of a strong existing academic program in cybersecurity. Such evidence can include: designation by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education/Cyber Defense (CAE IA/CD), in Cyber Operations or in Research (CAE-R); a specialized designation by a nationally recognized organization (for example, in forensics); or equivalent evidence documenting a strong program in cybersecurity.
The Capacity Track seeks innovative proposals leading to an increase in the ability of the United States higher education enterprise to produce cybersecurity professionals. Proposals are encouraged that contribute to the expansion of existing educational opportunities and resources in cybersecurity and focus on efforts such as research on the teaching and learning of cybersecurity, including research on materials, methods and interventions; curricula recommendations for new courses, degree programs, and educational pathways with plans for wide adoption nationally; teaching and learning effectiveness of cybersecurity curricular programs and courses; integration of cybersecurity topics into computer science, data science, information technology, engineering and other existing degree programs with plans for pervasive adoption; and partnerships between institutions of higher education, government, and relevant employment sectors leading to improved models for the integration of applied research experiences into cybersecurity degree programs.
This program provides educational opportunities for Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students. This program provides indirect funding for students at this level or focuses on educational developments for this group such as curricula development, training or retention. To inquire about possible funding opportunities not directly from NSF, please look at the active awards for this program.
What Has Been Funded (Recent Awards Made Through This Program, with Abstracts)
Map of Recent Awards Made Through This Program


text:
The USDA is revising its sudden oak death quarantine regulations for shipment of nursery stock in a way that reduces the burden on nurseries that pose a minimal risk and focuses resources on high-risk nurseries.
"This is a big win for the Oregon nursery industry because it puts everybody on a level playing field and reaffirms the fact that this state has great quality plants and ships clean plants," said Jeff Stone, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries.
"It focuses our attention on the few folks that have a problem," he said.
The revisions make permanent several facets of an interim order that has been in place for three years; expands the order to nurseries in states other than Oregon, California and Washington; and provides an "off-ramp" for nurseries that have in the past been found to move infected plant material.
"You can get off the list," Stone said. "Once upon a time, if you were ever on the list, you never got off, even if you changed your production methods."
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service order, which kicks in March 31, stipulates that nurseries where sudden oak death, or P. ramorum, has been detected must be inspected, sampled and certified before they can ship P. ramorum host material. Nurseries that have tested positive for P. ramorum in the three years prior to the order also must agree to test plant material and institute mitigation measures at all critical control points identified by APHIS.
If samples test negative for three years from March 31, the nursery is relieved of all federal regulatory requirements for interstate shipment of P. ramorum host materials, according to the announcement.
Nurseries that have not tested positive for P. ramorum since March 31, 2011, are not subject to the requirements and are no longer required to be inspected, sampled and certified to ship regulated host plants interstate, according to the announcement.
APHIS stated in its announcement that the revisions "will allow both APHIS and state regulatory agencies to focus their resources on high-risk nurseries where P. ramorum has been detected, while reducing the burden on nurseries that post minimal risk for moving the pathogen through shipments of regulated, restricted, or associated articles."
Sudden oak death was first found in Oregon in the forests of Curry County in 2001. Curry County remains the only county in Oregon where the disease is present in the wild. In parts of California, the disease is also present in the wild.
The disease was first found in an Oregon nursery in 2003, and APHIS began regulating interstate movement of Oregon nursery stock in 2005.
The APHIS initiated a pre-notification rule in 2011 that required nurseries in counties where sudden oak death had been found to pre-notify states when shipping sudden oak death host material. The order resulted in state departments of agriculture getting swamped in paperwork, Stone said, and the USDA later relaxed the requirement under an interim rule.
"(State departments of agriculture) were getting faxes and emails to such a degree that they were buried in paperwork and their email systems crashed," Stone said. "They didn't realize how many trucks leave the state of Oregon."
Stone said the prenotification requirement also put a stigma on nursery shipments from the West Coast.
"One of the reasons our folks are relieved is we had states that wanted our market share and would use this federal order as a way to say, 'Look, be careful about plants coming from these three states,'" Stone said.
"What we were saying is that is the wrong thing to try to do. What we want to try to do is solve the problem of shipping infected plants and getting nurseries clean," Stone said. "And the fact is 99 percent of Oregon nurseries do it the right way.
"So let's reward people for doing the right thing, help folks who are having a problem, and have a regulatory environment that is fair," Stone said.
SOD was found on 10 Oregon nurseries in 2013, down from 12 in 2012.


text:
June 30, 2011
BOSTON -- James "Whitey" Bulger will have a taxpayer-funded attorney, and won't be facing a racketeering indictment levied against him in 1994.
That's the word after back-to-back hearings on Thursday that gave the public their first glimpse of the former mob boss since he was escorted back to Boston by federal agents last week.
Judge Mark Wolf granted a bid by prosecutors to dismiss a 1994 racketeering indictment against former mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger so they can focus on a later indictment charging him with participating in 19 murders.
He said prosecutors were within their rights to dismiss the case and rejected a claim by Bulger's lawyer that prosecutors were "judge shopping."
During a second hearing, Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler on Thursday determined that Bulger is indigent and meets the requirements for a court-appointed attorney. She appointed J.W. Carney Jr. to represent Bulger.
Bulger's provisional lawyer, Peter Krupp, had argued that his client could not pay for his defense. He said the government has seized Bulger's assets, including more than $800,000 in cash found in his Santa Monica, Calif., apartment when he was captured last week after 16 years on the run.
Prosecutors argued that Bulger had family members who could help him pay for his attorney.
Bulger, the former leader of the notorious Winter Hill Gang, was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., last week after 16 years on the run. He fled Boston just before the first indictment was made public in January 1995.
Bulger's provisional attorney, Peter Krupp, had argued in court that prosecutors decided to charge his client in connection with the murders in a new indictment because they were trying to avoid having Wolf hear the case.
Wolf was a pivotal figure in the Bulger case. He held a series of hearings in the 1990s that exposed the corrupt relationship between Bulger and the Boston FBI. Bulger was an FBI information who fed his handlers dirt on his gang's main rival, the New England Mob.
"It looks like they are trying to avoid this court as the judicial officer and that's judge shopping, in my view," Krupp said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr. said the later indictment, which includes the murder charges, is the government's "best and strongest case."
The families of the 19 murder victims have been waiting for years for justice, Wyshak said.
The prosecutor also blasted Bulger for trying to seek a tactical advantage in court after spending years in hiding.
"He's the one who has been a fugitive for 16 years. He's the one who ran away ... He shouldn't be able to gain a tactical advantage for that at this point," Wyshak said.
Sign-up for WGBH News updates, WGBH promotions, and previews of what's coming up on WGBH TV.


text:
The Dropbox tool enables you to submit assignments through the Learning Environment, eliminating the need to mail, fax, or email assignments. Simply upload your assignment to the appropriate folder.
You can set up folders that users can submit their assignments to. This eliminates the need to collect assignments and helps you track when assignments are submitted.
The Dropbox tool allows you to see users' submission times, download assignments to your computer, view submissions with the document viewer on the Leave Feedback page, associate dropbox folders to rubrics and competencies, and return submissions with grades and feedback.
You can set up separate dropbox folders for each assignment and restrict access to the folders by date and time, group membership, or special access permissions. Each dropbox folder's search and filter options enable you to find users' submitted files by username, submission history, and amount of feedback they have received.
Click the Dropbox link on your course navigation bar.


text:
20 Apr 2010 05:55:14 AM
Volcanic Ash Gives Ryan Thomas Second Shot at Bellator Welterweight Tourney
(The choke in question goes down around 2:40.)
Ben Askren's technical submission win over UFC vet Ryan Thomas at Bellator XIV drew some controversy last week, as referee Dave Smith called a halt to the welterweight quarterfinal when it appeared that Thomas had been put out by a guillotine choke — then caught an earful from Thomas who didn't seem to be unconscious after all. In the ref's defense, when a guy is caught in a nasty choke and isn't moving his arms and legs around, and isn't responding to your questions, you have to assume that he might be sleeping. But regardless of what would have happened if the fight was allowed to continue, Ryan Thomas was bounced out of Bellator's 170-pound tournament just as quickly as he arrived.
And this Thursday, he'll get a chance to redeem himself. Bellator sent out a press release last night announcing that due to the apocalyptic ash cloud floating above Europe, welterweight GP participant "Judo" Jim Wallhead will be unable to travel from England to the Bellator XV show in Uncasville, Connecticut. Said Bjorn Rebney:Read More DIGG THIS


text:
2011 was a pretty good year for the Xbox 360. The system saw some tremendous sales, including the best week in its history this past Thanksgiving and some great sales for both cross-platform and first-party exclusives. However, as we move into 2012, there are some major issues on the horizon for Microsoft's console. From a lack of exclusives to a problematic dashboard, there is a real need for a course change in the system's strategy. Here are some things that the Xbox 360 needs to come out on top in 2012.
"2011 was a pretty good year for the Xbox 360"
"The system saw a sizable chunk of titles from its biggest franchises"
Are people just blind, how can you say the 360 had a good year as a gamer, fair enough if your a shareholder and your looking at sales/profits left, right and center but how did they do well in 2011. It was Microsofts worst year, why do people feel the need to give them a pat of the back for not giving a crap about us.
Microsoft does nothing to appeal to the core gamers, focuses on shovelware/the casual audience, dosen't even try to make an effort with core gamers, then lies about it, lies about core games for Kinect, didn't learn there lesson from 2010 with a casual/Kinect focused E3 and so on...yet they get a free pass
Sony does the opposite and towards core gamers all they've done is give and give. Listening to feedback and acting on it with the PSV (Price, launch games, developer friendly etc) and they get hated on, nitpicked to death over the smallest things and recently all the doom and gloom PSV has failed articles.
I mean seriously....WTF
I'm not a fanboy, just a average gamer who can't see the logic behind this.
True. The Xbox 360 had no games that the PS3 didn't have. This year was ruled by multiplats. Gears 3 and Forza 4 are the only exclusives. That's pretty much it. Its exclusive line-up was really weak.
If 2011 was a "pretty good year" for Xbox 360, then I guess it was an EPIC year for PS3 since it had all those AAA multiplats + tons of AAA exclusives.
is that hard to comprehend?
exclusives games matter for gaming console cause thats more game it has than its competition.
The "nothing for core gamers" argument is just vapid. Yes, I bought 3 PS3 exclusives (Killzone 3, Resistance 3, Uncharted 3) and only one 360 exclusive (Gears 3...holy crap every exclusive I bought was a part 3!) in the last year, but despite that, I ended up playing both consoles about equally.
You have to look at the whole picture. Downloadable titles like Bastion and Shadow Planet were a lot of fun, and there were a number of multiplats that I preferred to get for the 360.
I do hope that MS invests in more exclusive games when their next console rolls around, but I don't regret owning a 360 in 2011.
The only game I remember buying on PS3 this year is Splinter Cell Trilogy, Mass Effect 2 and Dead Space 2.
I have access to Uncharted 3 and KZ3 in the household as my brother plays on his PS3 exclusively.
That said, I have a fat backlog of Xbox 360 games and I still only play one game the last several months for the most part. Gears of War 3!
That game is so sickeningly good online!!! :D
With the new dashboard update and beacons, I find more friends that want to play it as it connects us. So the problem is even worsened!
I definitely do not regret owning an Xbox 360.
Microsoft as a company is important to the US.
US sites will always fully support them.
not only Us, all ms partners all over the world, it's a big part of their viral marketing.
by the way, [email protected] the spin from xfanboyz :
2006 "lololol xbox is taking all playstation exclusives, yoou'll see, in 2 years, not a single game would be exclusives, and the ps3'll die"
2011 "exclusives don't matter" (since xbox don't have any)
Next thing you know, the conspiracy theorists will be blaming Microsoft for 9/11...
...oh... you DON'T know how silly you look flinging conspiracy theories like that everywhere. I'm sorry... I thought N4G might have turned into a rational place.
What was I thinking...
Look at the forum posts count:
PS3 288k
Xbox 360 73k
PC 32k
Wii 13k
source: http://forums.n4g.com/defau...
Yet somehow, there is some kind of conspiracy to the benefit of the Xbox 360.
I say, the community here if anything is biased and therefore the "news" here isn't representative of the general public/gamer.
The reality was in 2011, Multi-platform games made the most impression.
MS does need more exclusives, but its not a deal breaker for many.
The reality is over 85% of games released in a calender year are multi-platform games.
Made the most impression on the 360 maybe but the PS3 had like 10 or more great exclusives. The only one I didn't feel was as good as it could've been was Resistance 3 (and it was still good). The rest were all great.
Exclusives do matter, even when your system of choice isn't getting many. It's real convenient to say they don't make an impression when you aren't getting many.
I agree , single console owners get to play most of the top games of 2011, this is a good thing, would you prefer Sony/MS to pay off studios to make games not available on the other console? How's that good for gaming?
"The reality is over 85% of games released in a calender year are multi-platform games."
and the reality is most of those are garbage. The lowest rated games on meta and poorest selling on vgchartz for 2011 are multiplats.
LBP2, UC3, MLB11TheShow, Gears3, Forza4, ICO/SOTC, Zelda SkywardSword, Minecraft etc scored better than hyped multiplats like DeusEx, Dark Souls, LA Noire, MW3, BF3, Crysis2, Rage, Bulletstorm, AC Revelations, Child of Eden, Shadows of the Damned, Catherine, Duke Nukem, DragonAge2, Driver, Dead Space2, Dead Island etc. Without Portal in the 1st half of '11 and Batman/Skyrim in the final quarter, it'd be an impression alright.
For all the flack Resistance 3 got for not selling a million in week1 -even though it's almost there now anyways- why did GOTY multiplat followup Dark Souls barely scratch 300,000 on the 360 in the same release window? Yakuza 4 sold more than twice as much on the PS3 and that's pure niche. Perhaps 360 gamers were more interested in exclusives like Gears, Forza, Halo Anniversary too?
Hey... leave Dark Souls out of this argument. Despite the metacritic score, Dark Souls was a better game than most of those exclusives you've mentioned.
I agree just because Portal 2 was my GOTY and Skyrim was close behind(on 360). I liked exclusives like Gears 3 and Uncharted 3 but I had a better time with certain multiplats this year.
Long story short: Only fanboys who want to win internet arguments care about exclusives and winning "points" for their side.
The rest of us play what we want and decide for ourselves.
And right now... I'm playing Skyrim on my Xbox... and I'm glad I didn't choose the PS3 copy.
Wait...how did I get done for trolling above
What the hell was trollish about that comment, honestly. That wasn't done by the N4G community that was a mod who did that. Seriously the mods don't have a clue what a troll is most of the time if we go by their logic....."Oh a long well manner response...........TROLL" /s
Honestly the way things are run on here make you laugh
I once had 6 bubbles I earned over the course of 2 years and I lost 3 bubbles in a short span of a week for being labeled NOT A REPLY (when it was clearly a direct reply to someone I replied to with links to prove my point). I also got labeled with TROLL for a ridiculously unknown reason to my non-TROLL comment.
You 'joined' 2 days ago and are already making trouble.
Really....thats me casying trouble, don't be silly. I think the only reason your commenting me on here is because I told you you to leave that other user alone in the last article when you told him to go away, even though it's a comment site for commenting
I remember when you used to have 5 bubbles, how the mighty fall
I really dislike making lists to prove a point, but below are 33 games that were released on the Xbox 360 in 2011. Yes, many of these games are multiplatform, but in response to all the people on this website who say, "I feel sorry for Xbox 360 owners because they have no games to play," here is a list of 33 games that are pretty decent by most review scores. Now, I don't know about most of you. If you people all happen to be crippled from the waist down and unemployed, then I can imagine why you would think 33 decent games are not enough to pass through a miserable year.
Some of the games on the list below, including Dark Souls and Skyrim, can take hundreds of hours to beat.
I don't know how many of you there are that are able to get through more than 33 games in a year, that you would argue the 360 has no games. No exclusives? Still wrong. There are exclusives on the Xbox 360. Yes, there aren't many. But how does that factor into the argument of "360 players have no games to play"?
Are multiplatform titles no longer good, no longer acknowledged? Do you people honestly believe that outside of this website, anybody really gives a crap about which console has the most exclusives? Do you think anybody truly gives that much of a crap?
For those of us who have jobs and have college and have lives outside of the gaming sphere, 33 games are overkill, 22 are overkill, 10 are overkill, and even 5 may be too many. I might play 3 games a year.
I am completely unaffected by this whole "hardcore versus casual" situation. I'm going to assume that "hardcore" gamers are people with stained shirts, expansive waists, oily skin, greased hands, untidy bedrooms, disappointed parents, part-time delivery jobs, and no future prospects outside of leveling up.
I mean, seriously. 33 games that I selectively chose among many more crap titles and it's not enough. There are 883 games for the Xbox 360. 129 of them are exclusives. 79 of them are only available on Xbox 360 and PC, and 671 of them are multiplatform.
Why would someone with an Xbox 360 care that the games he likes to play are also on PS3? If he barely has time to play the games he's playing now, why would he care that the PS3 has games he cannot play? My point is, I just don't think that people care as much about exclusives as some people on this site do, and I don't think most people care which games are multiplatform and which aren't.
If that's not enough for you, then you need to reevaluate your lives.
Forza Motorsport 4 (MC 91)
Gears of War 3 (MC 91)
Child of Eden (MC 84)
Battlefield 3 (MC 84)
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (MC 88)
Crysis 2 (MC 84)
Dark Souls (MC 89)
Dead Island (MC 71)
Dead Space 2 (MC 90)
Deus Ex Human Revolution (MC 89)
Dirt 3 (MC 87)
Dragon Age II (MC 79)
Driver San Francisco (MC 80)
El Shaddai: Ascension of Metatron (MC 75)
Fifa 12 (MC 90)
Fight Night Champion (MC 86)
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (MC 82)
LA Noire (MC 89)
Madden NFL 12 (MC 78)
Marvel vs Campcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (MC 85)
Metal Gear Solid HD collection (MC 91)
Mortal Kombat (MC 86)
Portal 2 (MC 95)
Saints Row The Third (MC 84)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (the most playable console version) (MC 96)
The King of Fighters XIII [MC 79)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (MC 76)
Top Spin 4 (MC 84)
Assassin's Creed: Revelations (MC 80)
To be fair, this IGN article has the lack of exclusives as their #1 concern, so it's not just an N4G thing.
Hopper says he wants "more new and original experiences" and "great, high quality" ones. I don't think that's an unreasonable, oily skinned request. One can ignore the "no games to play" rebuttals, but wanting more quality games to choose from isn't in itself a bad thing imo.
Eg. Warhammer 40000 Space Marine. While it may have brought a reasonable facsimile of the chainsaw gun to the PS3, no one will mistake it quality wise for the exclusive Gears 3. Same with Quantum Theory. Despite the obvious Gears influence, it just ain't the same.
Listing NBA 2K12 or Top Spin 4 as multiplat alternatives doesn't really factor in either if you don't like basketball or tennis. Odds are F1 2011 won't scratch that Zelda itch.
Forza meanwhile filled a GranTurismo gap in the 360 lineup that no multiplat could fill, and I know a lot of players are happier for it. I was personally quite happy to finally be able to play Mass Effect 1, Splinter Cell Conviction and Alan Wake when I got my 360 five months ago. Even happier when I liked 'em. Exclusives justified my purchase of another console. This bundle was simply too good to pass up http://www.joystiq.com/2011... .
People are talking about exclusives.. You can't boast about multiplats that can be played on a competing platform with a larger catalog of high profile exclusives.. Once again you are trying to explain away microsofts short comings while sony is martyred for every little thing they do... It's a sad reality that the 360's fanbase don't hold microsoft to a higher standard...
Well you could have played them on PS3..
And not paid the price of a game for online access,
had a free blu-ray player,
spent the 60 bucks saved on a huge standard hard drive or ANOTHER brand new AAA game,
had cheaper HD movie rentals ($5 vs 8.50+) and DLC because you don't have to use MS points,
had a better media player for netflix, mp3 and downloaded vids,
And had even more game options.
Or I could stick to using my Xbox and;
Pay $60 a year an keep all of my discounted purchases if I decide to cancel, unlike PS+
Use Netflix, HBO Go, Epix, Crackle, SyFy etc for movies.
I used that $60 to buy a new game since my 360 came with a $60 gift card, 2 games, and 3 months of XBL.
Movie rentals are the same price dude.
Vuze can stream every bit of digital content to my 360. Movies, music, pictures etc. I can also stream music while playing games unlike on PS3.
And even more like party chat, using a YouTube app instead of a broken web browser etc.
Well said Kaveti616 +bubz
I've made a similiar point recently when this keeps coming up.
I own all consoles and bought 20+ for my 360 alone.
If you only owned the 360 in the last tweo years you got ALL of the top exclusives franchises released all gen on the 360.
IGN isn't fooling anybody. They will say the 360 should have released more exclusives this year, but last year they could have cared less.
At the end of last year they spent most of their time pondering whether Kinect was a success and adding that Alan Wake was good 'but did not sell'.
So who cares if they make a bogus list in 2012.
I still laugh at the whole indie thing on the dashboard. As SOON as that story, I checked to see how hard it was and it took 2 minutes., and IMO the indie games look way more enticing for new buys now with the huge boxes and better way to sort, than a $1 game ever did.
At the end, of the day, the 360 sold great numbers. People pretend sales don't matter, until you don't sell to expectations. Ask Nindendo and Sony what kind of headlines theyt have had with 3DS and Vita.
Again, they released their big exclusives, Kinect had another great holiday, and they improved Live.
Bottomline, MS did what they could in their 6th year and it payed off. Online, Nintendo literally got a get of jail free pass with only releasing Zelda and Just Dance 3. But, Nintendo Wii owners never got Dead Space 2, Skyrim, LA Noire, Portal 2, or Batman: Arkham City.
Fans of ALL consoles had easily one of the best years..period..All the back seat driving won't change a thing.
you pretty much nailed in your description what "hardcore" gamers are. these same gamers will call you a troll for choosing one gaming system over another. this day and age i consider myself a casual gamer as my hardcore days were left behind in the 16bit era.
although exclusives are what tends to sell a new console initially, it's not what sustains it (ask sega)...
i for one can live without another halo game and it wouldn't change my liking towards a particular gaming system. i like games that are still fun to play after the fact that you have finished/unlocked everything. having major exclusives that i get bored with after a week means diddily squat to me...
as for the article; keep in mind that it's the UK IGN and they tend to have a different taste in games then we do in the States...his gripe on the dashboard is puzzling to me as i have yet to find the advertising obtrusive, (i barely notice them) it's not like they force you to watch it when selecting through the menus.
his games on demand argument is somewhat pointless as most of the current games on there are overpriced compared to (used) retail version.
as far as kinect goes this guy seems to be impatient. why would microsoft make the kinect open source if it wasn't planning to do bigger and better things with it? just take a look around youtube and see what people have done with it and i'm pretty sure microsoft is taking notes.
i do agree with support for the current 360 once the new one comes out as i have no intention of buying anything that's over $250 bucks.
"People are talking about exclusives.. You can't boast about multiplats...."
You people are talking about exclusives. Most people outside of this website do not care. And I wasn't boasting. Your mindset is Microsoft versus Sony, 360 versus PS3, so I understand why you view what I say as an argument against PS3. I am only saying that people who own 360s only aren't suffering like some would think.
@ Venjense
Well, I could have had a PC
And not paid 65 dollars for any game
and watch HD movies in 2005 without the need of a Blu-Ray player
and had a huge standard hard drive without having to buy it after market.
and could have had netflix much sooner than the PS3 got it so I'd never need to rent films from the Sony store
and could have had the best media player for netflix (rather than just this PS3)
And had even more game options that can be played at much higher resolutions with mod support and almost full backwards compatibility with games made years ago.
Obviously for some of us "hardcore" it was a normal year with nothing special, but the Kinect did sell well, and Microsoft did sell a ton of consoles as well now 6-7 years into its lifespan.
As for the article all I want is games. Games and more games. And good games. That is all
Hmmm lets see. I got to play:
Dead Space 2
L.A. Noire
Portal 2
Dark Souls
Battlefield 3
Dead Island
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Gears 3
Forza 4
Batman Arkham City
plus MANY other games in 2011. It was a good year for my Xbox last year. I don't care what you, my neighbor, or anyone else on the planet can play. I care what I can play, and I was able to play those plus more. To be honest, exclusives don't appeal to me much. On neither PS3 or 360. There's a few on each I'd LOVE to play, and have played. Such as Gears, Heavy Rain, LBP etc. But I wouldn't die without them.
I've always looked forward to multiplatform titles more than exclusives. In 2012, I'm really looking forward to GTA IV (Hopefully), Borderlands 2, and Max Payne 3 the most. I don't need something PS3/PC gamers CAN'T play to be happy. I'm happy with what I can play.
I think more GOOD exclusive games is the most important one.
More exclusives not shovelware stuff.
just support the gamers that made them successful.
More exclusives, the fans of the other console seem to want them badly
Well, personally i'm fine with not having more than gears and forza in 2011. There was plenty of multiplats bf3 saints row skyrim portal 2 arkham city and even COD. I'll be damned if i was going to miss out on those. But yes, we do need more exclusives. Halo 4 this year ;p Hopefully microsoft has a decent lineup this year at E3.
I agree. I think exclusives are minor this late into the generation. I really do hope Microsoft has some brand new exclusives up their sleeves for their next gen console. I see exclusives as important selling points for new consoles.
New games and IPs would be nice.Food for thought.
There are tons of great games on XBLA that people don't look at. Befor saying xbox has no exclusives look at all the downloadable games it has. A game doesn't have to be on a disk to be good. Dungeons of Dredmor is a 5$ game and is better than half the games of 2011.
Here are great console exclusive XBLA games.
Toy Soldiers: Cold War
Orcs Must Die!
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Radiant Silvergun
Iron Brigade (Trenched)
The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile
Ms. Splosion Man
A couple of those are on pc. Also it shows that they are cheap and want to spend less money for their bigger titles and developers so they rely on small indie devs.
My personal gaming experience last year:
360 - Gears 3, Forza 4, Skyrim, Dead island, BF3, LA Noire, Portal 2.
PS3 - Catherine, Uncharted 3
Yup most of my gaming took place last quarter of the year, but what a last quarter it was!!
So nothing to complain at all about 360. A lot of exclusives are mediocre anyway, and conversely a lot of multiplats are great. I still have to get Batman and Saints Row from last year!
Guess what I played dead island, bf3, la noire, and portal 2 on my ps3.. I wish you all would quit using multiplats as a reason to justify the lack lustre year the 360 had...
You don't seem to get the point. Sure you played those games on PS3 too, and that's the thing, the great experiences are on both platforms, what's there to complain? If 80% of great games can be played across platforms, you are gonna overlook that?
Honest truth is that apart from Gears, Forza, Uncharted and maybe God of War, I don't think there are that many exclusives on either platform that I feel are must buys. There have however been many must buy multiplatforms.
So maybe you shouldn't over emphasize a handful of exclusives.
Besides, I spent more than 100 great hours on Gears 3 and Forza 4. I spent 10 great hours on Uncharted. That seems to me to be a lot more gaming joy I'm getting from 360 exclusives so, really, no complaints.
The thing I want the most from MS is to eliminate MS points. They make everything so expensive in Canada.
Frankly, it's pathetic to see a company scraping for a little extra change so blatantly. The small added revenue they receive is probably offset by the damage to their brand, maybe not immediately but MS it's finally setting in that MS is the rip-off console.
There's really no lack of exclusives on the horizon for 360, look it up IGN! Tell your readers!
My Kinect certainly wasn't underused in 2011 but I agree that this year is a key one for the device - the article mentions a few games that will use it as an add-on but, as if daintily dodgeing blade traps in Rise of Nightmares, manages to steer itself around the big stand-alone releases.
It seems to be the gaming media's business to keep quiet about those!
I think his comment about ads is pointless. Do the ads really ruin the experience? It's like not watching TV because of commercials. We pay for cable, so why do we have to watch the commercials? It's the same thing. The ads keep the cost of the price down in the long run while being able to add more content at the same price point. I think the new dashboard is great and he is stretching with that argument.
totally agree about the ad business. I am not bothered at all by the corner ad space... its never front and center. Any "ad" appearing in the middle areas is for currently released games or content...aka things I might be interested in as a gamer. Honestly this new dashboard is a huge improvement over the old one. Heck...now your console launches right to the window for play the game in your drive. One button push and you are gaming.


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Hello all, am new to this site, my little girl is 14 weeks old and I have been mixed feeding her. When she was born I fully breasted for about 2 weeks and I really did not know all the things she was doing were normal - really the cluster feeding was the issue. She would feed non stop unless I went out in the car with her, I hadn't lay down to sleep for that 2 weeks and slept sitting up feeding her. I just assumed co-sleeping was dangerous and not to be done. She didn't lose any weight and gained weight well. She was born small at 5.5lbs but had no issues and nursed great from the first minutes being born. By the second week she had already put on over 1.5lbs and this should have been enough to reassure me really! But the nights and lack of sleep was taking its toll on myself and hubby who was at a loss how to help. So we made the decision to get an electric pump and I would express and feed this as well as still breast feed and give formula at night. Well it worked for a while and then the expressing started to take over so since about 9 weeks I've been nursing about twice a day and formula the rest. So while I'm still happy that she is getting some breast milk I don't even know if its enough to do any good.
What I really want to know is is there any point now in trying to nurse more, would it be hell trying to get my supply back up? I don,t really want to go down the pumping route as I find it so stressful. I want to know all the info first really. I don't really have so much support anymore from hubby as he thinks the way things are are perfect as she gets some of my milk and is also a much happier baby in general now. He had enough of me always talking about it. She is now a good sized baby and thriving between 25 and 50th centiles so I don't want to effect this - quite good from starting at the 0.4th! I know I'm not happy with the decisions iVe made as I constantly look things up and read forums etc. I know I'm not even sounding like I know what I want now, but I find myself saying sorry to her all the time and getting upset. I feel jealous when I see nursing mums. Anyway my little girl has a good latch and loves feeding in the mornings when we lay on our sides I wish midwife could have suggested this those early days! Has anyone been in this situation and felt like this? Thank you for reading such a long post!


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September 02. 2013 8:48PM
Students warned: 'This drug can cause death'
By DAN SEUFERT and NANCY BEAN FOSTER
Union Leader Correspondents
Keene State to conduct substance abuse research
Plymouth State University has programs in place to educate its students on the dangers of abusing drugs, including the form of ecstasy called "Molly" that authorities believe killed sophomore Brittany Flannigan, 19, of Derry,
(see obituary, Page A5)
at a Boston club, and in a separate incident at a New York concert, University of New Hampshire junior Olivia Rotondo.
"I can't say for a fact that it has or hasn't been on campus," said Jim Hundreiser, PSU's vice president for enrollment and student affairs. "It's a national trend; we certainly understand that this is happening on other campuses in the country."
Flannigan, he said, was a sophomore studying business "who was a valued member of the Plymouth State community."
"We need to make students understand that this drug can cause death in someone else," he said.
With no disrespect meant to Flannigan's family, Hundreiser said, "I'm sure (Flannigan) thought it was going to be a fine night out, but it turned tragic"
Flannigan died Wednesday at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of three people who police say overdosed at a performance by German DJ Zedd at the House of Blues in Boston.
UNH's Olivia Rotondo, 20, a communications major, was among two people who died Saturday after being stricken at the Electric Zoo music festival at Randall's Island in New York City. Four others were hospitalized in critical condition.
"University of New Hampshire officials were greatly saddened to learn of the recent death of Olivia Rotondo, a junior from Rhode Island," said a statement issued by spokeswoman Erika Mantz. "We extend our deepest sympathies to her family and friends during this difficult time, and are focused on providing support and resources to our campus community."
A statement released by the office of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the deaths "appear to have involved the drug MDMA (ecstasy, or Molly)."
As Plymouth State University students moved into the campus of 2,200 students Monday, most said they had heard of "Molly."
"From what I've heard, it seems to be like a celebrity drug; people think it's cool to take," said Kevin Driscoll of Holderness, a senior.
A group of 10 students asked about where they had heard about Molly all answered: "Rap music."
They said several recent rap songs glorify Molly as safe to use and as "an unbelievable high," one student said, repeating one of the lyrics he had heard.
"I've heard it's very pure," another said.
"I've heard the rap songs, but it's not safe. I've heard it's equivalent to removing a chunk from your brain," one of the students said.
"Molly" is a powder or crystalline form of MDMA. A recent New York Times article describes it as "Ecstasy re-branded as a gentler, more approachable drug."
At New England College in Henniker, senior Parica Mason said she doesn't associate with people who use drugs like Molly.
Her fellow student, Mel Mower, said that drugs just don't seem to be a big part of life on campus.
"You never see people strung out on drugs here," she said. "The parties tend to be more alcohol-based than drug-based, so you rarely hear about drug-related things on campus."
For NEC student Trevor Barnard, who has heard of Molly but never seen it, drugs don't fit in with the social structure of the campus, which he said includes many athletes and clubs with strict rules for participation.
"Why would you want to throw away everything you've been working for?" asked Barnard.
Chris Cotta is a junior at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge.
"I went to a party recently and somebody said, 'Hey, you know, Molly's in town,' and I was like, 'Who's Molly?'" Cotta said.
Cotta said that while the use of alcohol and marijuana are relatively common by students, other drugs tend to remain on the fringes.
"It is a college campus, so things do find their way here," he said, "but I've seen people on Molly and I'm not interested."
Sarah Moore, a senior at Franklin Pierce, had never heard of Molly, and though Courtney Carton, a junior, said she had heard of people using the drug, her friends don't touch it.
"Every weekend people smoke pot or go out and drink," said Moore, "and I imagine there are people doing other drugs, but I don't hang around with them."
Calling hours for Brittany Flannigan will be today from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. at Brookside Chapel & Funeral Home, 116 Main St., Route 121A, Plaistow.
The funeral will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, in St. Anne's Church, 26 Emerson Ave., Hampstead.
Union Leader Correspondent Hunter McGee contributed to this report.


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Fun Stuff
Celebrate the joy of reading and writing with our daily children's literature quiz, reading adventure packs, colorful bilingual doorhangers and other fun printables, e-cards, quotable quotes, and web widgets. You'll also find links to our writing contests.
Reading Adventure Packs
Our Reading Adventure Packs encourage hands-on fun and learning centered around paired fiction and nonfiction books. Selected packs available in English and Spanish.
Writing Contests
Check out the writing prompts from previous contests and celebrate the creative work of past winners.


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Natural Outlook, 2011
Schertz Event Marks Fourth and Final Environmental Summit for 2011.
Download PDF.
Developing strategies and outreach for proper disposal
Download PDF.
The TCEQ ramped up efforts in March to extend water supplies during this year's exceptional drought.
Download PDF.
Unanimous vote signals approval of TCEQ's performance and future direction.
Download PDF.
Download PDF: Natural Outlook, Winter/Spring 2011
The TCEQ plays an essential role in international flood response.
Our e-mail and website addresses are changing.
Free environmental-compliance assistance is just a phone call away.
Environmental summits empower local communities to take action.
Background and update of the sunset review process.
The TCEQ plays a part in reintroducing the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow.
The TCEQ's Biennial Report to the 82nd Legislature is now available on our website.


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The DVD±RW formats have become very popular, mostly because they offer a convenient way to transport large amounts of information from one PC to another, on a single disc at low cost in comparison to other media such as USB flash disks which as yet don't offer the same capacities. Rewritable discs also allow for experimenting when creating master discs for duplication. In this case, the same RW disc can be used again and again, something that is not possible with ±R media where a new disc would be required each time. Moreover most standalone CD/DVD recorder owners choose the rewritable formats because they can author/edit their movies on the same disc, even after recording has finished, as with VR mode for example.
The cost of rewritable media is higher in comparison to plain recordable media. And there have been quite a few occassions where we have been asked by our readers "how many times can I rewrite on my RW" or "how is the writing quality affected after several burnings". For this reason we decided to run some basic tests, rewriting CD and DVD RW media "a lot of times" while at the same time measuring the writing quality.
We wrote our own utility which is capable of writing one file or several files/directories over and over again on the same disc, performing either a quick, full format, or a combination of both between rewrites of a continuous batch of burnings, in order to find out when RW media begins to degrade and at what point it will become useless. We set our utility to perform continuous cycles of single burnings with a quick erase between each burn. After a specific number of burnings (1, 5, 10, 50 and 100), we took quality measurements with Plextools and CDSpeed. The recording project for the CD-RW was an audio file of 650MB capacity and for the DVDRW a movie file of 4.21GB capacity.
Our first goal was to burn and reburn all the media until they were no longer writeable. However, after the first tests we did, we decided to perform only up to 100 burns since the time needed, especially for the DVDRW formats was too much. According to Verbatim, their RW media can perform up to 1000 burns while other media at least 500. If we try to estimate that a full DVDRW burn needs approximately 14 minutes, then the time for the whole project would take months to complete (each DVD RW disc would need around 230 hours at 1000 burns, each 14 minutes long).
The ID codes of the media we used for our tests are presented in the following tables:
For our tests, Pioneer had kindly supplied us with 10 DVR-108 burners. We would like to add that each disc needed over 24 hours of continuous recording and none of the Pioneer drives reported any problems during the tests which revealed the reliability of the Pioneer drives, even under such gruelling conditions.
In the two cases of 6X DVD-RW media from Traxadata and Mitsubishi Chemicals, we used the Pioneer DVD-109instead of the DVD-108, due to its 6X supported writing speed for the DVD-RW format.
- DVD Writing Quality Measurements Method
In order to test the writing quality and readability of the burned media after the 1st, 5th, 10th, 50th and 100th burns, we used two readers with two software applications:
In general, a "perfect" disc should have a smooth reading curve, very low PIE/POE and zero (0) POF error rates. Most times however, even though a disc has very low PIE/POE error rates, the reading curve may not be smooth containing dropoffs. Due to the fact that we oversped the reading capabilities of the LiteON SOHD-167T, such drops are expected, especially near the outer area of the disc.
The measurements in the following pages should be taken not as the absolute criteria of the burning quality, but as an indication level.
- CD Writing Quality Measurements Method
For checking the writing quality of the CD media, we used the Plextools C1/C2 Test. The reader was once again Plextor PX-712A
- Testing software
More information about our test PC is included in the table below:


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Race Day: Cup Takes First Road Trip Of Season
By Jim Pedley | Managing Editor
More and more drivers seem to be spending less and less time getting grouchy about having to compete in the two road races on the Sprint Cup schedule. Some still are not thrilled, but all have come to accept them.
The series holds its first road race of the season today – the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway.
Opinions about racing the twisties were not hard to solicit this week. Here is what a couple of drivers had to say about a couple of topics:
Mark Martin, when asked how he learned to drive in road races: "It just came naturally. I grew up in the rural areas of Arkansas. I drove a lot of dirt country roads that were curvy and hilly and I drove fast. It's the same thing. It's no different. Remember me saying staying out of the ditch? I started road racing when I was very young on the dirt roads in Arkansas. I went as fast as I could and stayed out of the ditch and that's all this is to me. It came very natural."
Jimmie Johnson, when asked if road races have a big effect on the championship: "Yes, it could affect the championship and I think the effort has been made for these teams to be better at road course racing. We have a younger generation of drivers that have some type of road course racing background or interest in their minds. Maybe they didn't grow up in the cars, but I think it is a different generation. The older generation was just get out of here and move on, didn't care. I think this younger generation enjoys road course racing. It means more to us."
Tony Stewart, when asked if he would like to have a road race included in the Chase: "I'm still trying to get them to add a dirt race to the Chase. That is going to be my focus before I worry about getting a road course in the Chase. I would be in favor of getting a dirt race first. I don't care, it doesn't matter."
Fast facts
What: Toyota/Save Mart 350
Where: Infineon Raceway; Sonoma, Calif.
When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET
TV: TNT, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN/Sirius Satellite Ch. 128
Track layout: 1.99-mile road course
Race distance: 110 laps/350 kilometers
Estimated pit window: 30-32 laps
2009 winner: Kasey Kahne
2009 polesitter: Brian Vickers
Today's polesitter: Kasey Kahne
First race at Infineon: 1989, The Banquet Frozen Foods 300
First race polesitter: Rusty Wallace
First race winner: Ricky Rudd
Trivia time
Infineon races have been won from the pole five times. Who was the first driver to win a race from the pole at Infineon?
Lending a hand
Bill Elliott is not entered in today's race, but he was on hand this weekend. Elliott helped practice and set up the cars of Carl Edwards and Paul Menard, who raced at Road America in Wisconsin in the Nationwide Series.
Said Elliott, "When Sammy (Johns) asked me to come out here and do this it was like, 'I like Sonoma.' I love this race track, for whatever reason, and I like road racing, but just to come out here and get in somebody else's car and just do practice is tough. For me, it's just trying to help them information-wise with things like fuel mileage and other stuff that you don't have to run killer lap times to understand. You just go out there and run a pace, and that's what we're trying to do.
"That's what I told Slugger (Labbe). I said, 'I'm gonna go out there and I'll run as hard as I can and we'll just try to figure things out.' I wasn't gonna try to bonsai anything because I'm a little rusty at road racing, but I'm more than happy to do it. These guys work hard and I'm just trying to give them a good effort. I enjoy it and I'm just having a good time with this stuff."
Track tidbits
Most victories – Five, by Jeff Gordon
Most poles – Five, by Jeff Gordon
Most top-five finishes – 10, by Jeff Gordon and Ricky Rudd
Most top-10 finishes – 13, by Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin
Most lead changes – 11, in 2007
Fewest lead changes – 3, in 1989
Most cautions – 9, twice
Fewest cautions – 3, three times
Most wins by a manufacture – 9, by Chevrolet
Closest margin of victory – .197 seconds, in 1999
Largest margin of victory – 9.56 seconds, in 1994
The Burton 500
Jeff Burton will start his 500th Sprint Cup race today.
His thoughts: "I didn't even know that until at some point, somebody told me that. I love what I do and I did see, or someone told me that (Ricky) Rudd was 800 and something and I quickly did the math in my head as to how many years I would have to race to do that and I don't think I am going to make that. Think about that, that is like seven or eight more years of racing which I might be able to do, I don't know. I love what I do. I am proud to do it in the series I do it in and I think it is the best racing in the world as far as major series go. Feel fortunate to be able to do it for as long as I've been able to do it."
Trivia answer
Ernie Irvan was the first to win a race at Infineon from the pole. That was in 1994.
Quote of the day
Juan Pablo Montoya, when asked if he would like to include Road America, site of Saturday's Nationwide race, on the Cup schedule:
"I would rather run in Road America than here, to be honest. That's a real circuit."
Up next
The Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It is schedule for a 1 p.m. start on Sunday.
It will be the 19th race on the schedule. Joey Logano is the defending champion. Pole qualifying was rained out there last season.
– Jim Pedley can be reached at email@example.com Comment