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Wallin-Reed guilty of first-degree murder - Full Story
Dan McDonald
Managing Editor
10/4/2013
On Thursday, Sept. 26, a jury found the 38-year-old Reno man guilty of murder and seven other felonies stemming from a car chase that ended in a hail of bullets from Wallin-Reed’s AR-15 assault rifle.Gregory Chad Wallin-Reed will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for the July 2011 shooting death of Rory McGuire.
After hearing nearly a month of testimony, the jury (10 women and two men) took just three hours to find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder.
The verdict indicated that the jurors didn’t believe Wallin-Reed’s claim that someone in McGuire’s car shot at him during a 7.6-mile car chase on the night of July 2, 2011. The chase began at the defendant’s cabin along the Janesville Grade.
Wallin-Reed chased the six Susanville men — all aged 19 to 20 at the time — after he caught them stealing solar lights from his driveway.
Wallin-Reed started by firing one AR-15 shot from the deck of his cabin. He used a handgun during the first part of the chase and switched back to the assault rifle when McGuire turned around on a dirt road and tried to escape in the opposite direction.
As the car passed Wallin-Reed, he fired nine rounds from the AR-15 from about 50 feet away. One of the shots hit McGuire in the head. Two passengers were shot in the leg.
McGuire died two days later.
Wallin-Reed showed no emotion as the court clerk read the verdict in a hushed courtroom, which included family and friends of both McGuire and Wallin-Reed.
Wallin-Reed is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 21. Because of enhancements for using a firearm and causing great bodily injury, he faces a minimum sentence of 50 years to life.
When Superior Court Judge Ira Kaufman read the instructions to the jurors, they were given the option of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter or not guilty.
The jury chose murder in the first degree.
They also found Wallin-Reed guilty of shooting at an inhabited vehicle, five counts of assault with a firearm and possession of an assault weapon.
McGuire’s parents, Carol Starzer and Dave McGuire, were in the courtroom every day of the trial, which began Sept. 3.
Starzer wept as the court clerk read the jury’s decision.
In an interview the day after the verdict was announced, Starzer said the verdict was “bittersweet.”
“I feel like justice was served,” Starzer said. “The person who did this to these boys will be paying the price until the day he dies — probably even after.
“I hope the five boys who went through this can get whatever help and assistance they need so that it doesn’t come back on them in the future. Something like this never goes away completely.”
Starzer talked extensively about the support she and her family received from District Attorney David Hollister. She said she was “absolutely amazed” by the amount of time and attention he devoted to her family.
“David Hollister is one notch down from God as far as I’m concerned,” Starzer said. “He has just been so good, so kind. And he always kept us informed. Even if the verdict hadn’t turned out the way it did, he left no stone unturned. We never left the courtroom feeling like things were going bad. We were all amazed.”
Hollister, who spent two years preparing for the trial and said he lost 12 pounds during the trial itself, said he was relieved.
“The whole thing was just very much a tragedy; there’s no way around that,” Hollister said. “The fact that we were able to bring some level of justice to the family of that 20-year-old who died means a great deal to me.”
Hollister faced a tag-team defense by Reno attorneys John Ohlson and Richard Young. The prosecution called more than two dozen witnesses over three weeks, while the defense called just four witnesses over a day.
“There were a great many people who felt that this would end up in an acquittal,” Hollister said. “I firmly believed from the very start, without equivocation, that the defendant committed the crime of murder when he did what he did.”
The prosecution’s witnesses — which included deputies, detectives, forensics experts and two of the men who were in the fleeing car — underwent tenacious cross-examination throughout the trial. But, ultimately, the defense failed to prove the men in McGuire’s car had a gun.
“I think (the defense attorneys) are decent guys and good attorneys and they did the best with what they had,” Hollister said.
Ohlson and Young appeared subdued as they left the courtroom where their handcuffed client stood surrounded by sheriff’s deputies.
“We’re disappointed in the verdict, obviously,” Young said softly.
When asked if they intended to file an appeal, Young said, “We are considering an appeal. We are considering a motion for a retrial. But we don’t know yet.”
Important case
The district attorney said the Wallin-Reed case brought out the best in Plumas County’s criminal justice system. He said he was thankful and proud.
“Very much so,” he said. “I am exceptionally proud of the outstanding work of the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office, particularly the detectives division for their work in investigating the case and working it through to a just end.”
Hollister said he was also proud of his staff in prosecuting the case and the way the case was handled through the court process.
“Judge Kaufman and his staff were fair and professional and provided the forum necessary for a fair trial.
“This was an important case for our office and the community in another way,” Hollister said. “I firmly believe it is essential to a good DA’s office and a just community that we are able to try difficult cases and try them effectively. Since I took office, that is a tenet I wanted to firmly establish. I believe this result does a great deal in achieving that goal.” | {
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[RECR] (purple heart avengers) need new heroes in the game:
[RECR] (purple heart avengers) need new heroes in the game:
If your game is strong, no matter what level you are & rep, honor & respect is what your looking
for, then join my guild: must have more wins than losses. right now the only benefits is what
you earn on the battle field kicking butt. so holla back, if you want to join forces with the (knight
spawn). | {
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} |
Royito’s Hot and Zesty Chicken Wings
Whether or not you’re a football fan, the Super Bowl (Superbowl?) can be a good time. As for me, I am far more emotionally invested in what the secret ingredient is going to be on Iron Chef this Sunday than who will win the game, but I’m having a party anyways. Why? Because parties are fun. And I need more excuses to try out my Royito’s recipes on someone besides my cat. He hates everything.
Let me just say I have never really cooked wings before, and there are about a thousand ways to do it (though if you go to Buffalo they will tell you there is only one way, their way. But why would you go to Buffalo?). I’ve been experimenting and have come up with my favorite way to do it- and it’s baked in the oven rather than fried so it’s definitely super nutritious and packed full of anti-oxidants (does butter have anti-oxidants?). You can certainly fry these guys in oil if you want, but I find if you’re cooking for a crowd the oven is always the simplest route.
So even if you’re only tuning in to see Beyoncé reclaim her rightful stake on the soul of every American, invite some people over and give this recipe a shot. (BTW…my computer just automatically changed “Beyonce” to “Beyoncé”…She is watching.)
Alright, let’s get started:
First you get a bag of chicken wings and drumettes marinating in some buttermilk and Royito’s.
I know this doesn’t look super appetizing right now but just bear with me here.
After marinating in the fridge for at least 2 hours, pull them out and put them on a wire rack and pat each one dry with a paper towel. This will help them crisp up better.
Once they are dry, put the wire rack on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and pop them in a 400 degree oven for 12 minutes.
While the wings are in the oven, make the sauce. Heat half a stick of butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, add in Royito’s, followed by cayenne pepper and lemon pepper. You can leave the last two out, but I like it cause it gives that extra heat and zest.
Boom, sauce is done. Turn the heat down to low to keep it warm.
Now I’m doing something different here for the last 8-10 minutes. Turn the BROILER on in your oven and allow the wings to crisp up on each side. Once they have browned nicely on the top (about 4-5 minutes), take them out and flip them over and let them brown on the bottom. This is to get that nice crispy exterior you would get if you fried them. Please note that every oven is different so keep a close eye on these under the broiler! When they are done, they should look like this:
Directions:In a plastic bag or baking dish, pour buttermilk and 1 cup of Royito’s over chicken and mix to evenly coat. Allow this to marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours, the longer the better (up to 24 hours).
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and place them on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Pat the chicken dry on both sides to allow for better crisping. Bake on a rack positioned in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes, skin side up.
While the wings are in the oven, make your sauce. Melt butter in a saucepan and add the other cup of Royito’s. Then add in cayenne and lemon pepper and stir to combine- sauce is done!
After 12 minutes has passed, turn the broiler on to crisp up the outside for another 4-5 minutes. Once they are dark brown and crispy on top, remove them from the oven, flip them, and allow broil them on the other side for another 4-5 minutes until crispy. (Note: every oven/broiler is different so keep a close eye while they are broiling to ensure they do not scorch.)
Remove the wings from the oven, toss them in the sauce, and serve with a blue cheese or ranch dressing. | {
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not that good
Strong Spokes!
bought this kit when I was truing my wheels and happy I did! they have held up great so far, and I have ridden a lot of rough offroad terrain with them. couldn't be happier with how my wheel has held up thanks to these!
Not too bad
I got the rim and spoke combo. The wheels had slight scuffs on the lips out of the box. They seamed to true up really easy so no complaints there. On the down side you spend $334 on a set of wheels and don't get any stickers! I need scratch coverings!! | {
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Use the SByte data type to contain integer values that do not require the full data width of Integer or even the half data width of Short. In some cases the common language runtime might be able to pack your SByte variables closely together and save memory consumption. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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Send Gifts to Jaipur
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"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Solid Wood Flooring Maintenance
It is essential that you try to maintain your floor to help extend the lifespan of it and to stop it from getting damaged. The majority of maintenance involves prevention but some of it involves trying to cure the floor as well. The following general information will prolong the life of your floor.
Scratches
Scratches can be made on the floor through a number of different ways. Dragging furniture, claws of your cat or dog, children’s toys, stiletto heels can all lead to damage occurring to your floor. To help prevent damage occurring putting a rug down in an area for the children to play maybe an idea, self adhesive castors should be applied to the bottom of furniture so that if dragged they do not scrape the floor, animals claws can be trimmed and stiletto’s removed at the front door!
Scratches can also occur if grit or dirt builds up over time. That is why it is important to regularly vacuum, sweep or dry mop your floor. Placing a mat at a doorway to wipe feet on is one method of stopping this grit or dirt getting into your house. In given time when the floor does scratch, scrape and build up a bit too much character, you can sand and reseal it. This will help give you the look of a brand new floor. With the opportunity to do this the same floor can be in your home for decades.
Cleaning
When cleaning your floor it is important not to use too much water. If water gets into the joints of your boards then it is likely to cause them to swell and buckle. If water is left standing on the surface of the board it is also likely to have a negative effect with the board likely to swell and leave you with a hump. Therefore it is essential that any spillages on a solid floor are cleared up quickly and when you are cleaning them try not to do so with too much water.
Sunlight
It is a known fact that wood will fade in colour when exposed to sunlight. While this maybe inevitable, the process can be slowed down. Blinds and curtains should be drawn where possible in spells of bright weather. If part of the room is exposed to the sunlight a mat or rug could be lay there to prevent part of the room being a different shade from the rest. If the whole room is exposed you may wish to put a mat down and move it about evenly to help stop the floor from fading as quick and to also help keep the whole floor the same colour. Although as a result you will have a paler floor all round.
Solid wood floors do require attention and maintenance however, by looking after your floor you will reap rewards and have a top quality floor in your house for years to come. | {
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The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) is an environmental movement that calls . However, he doubts Knight's claim that the last survivors of the human race would have pleasant lives and suspects that . Planet Green Videos. | {
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The Gun Is Civilization
by Major L. Caudill, USMC (Ret)
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat – it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.
People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.
People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation… And that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of Peace.
- Isaiah 52:7 & Romans 10:15
We must be super-conservative in preserving the Orthodox faith, and super-modern in propagating it.
- St. Nikolai Velimirovich
But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. | {
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UK GDP: where economic growth is coming from
What's driving the UK economy, and what's dragging it down? We take a closer
look at the different components of GDP.
When the UK services sector is doing well, the economy as a whole tends to perform strongly. This is because the sector powers more than three-quarters of the economy.
Services, which encompasses everything from hotel workers to bankers and accountants, grew by 0.6pc in the first three months of the year, initial estimates showed on Thursday.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that output in the first quarter increased across the board, with a particularly strong performance in the hotels and restaurants sector, from car sales, when the new "13" number plate was released, and an increase in "legal activities".
Services had grown strongly in the third quarter of 2012, largely due to a big boost from the London 2012 Olympics. Once the effects had worn off in Q4, output remained flat.
Related Articles
CONSTRUCTION
Although construction data are considered notoriously volatile and are often revised, there is one thing that is still clear: the sector has not fared well since the start of the financial crisis.
More recent data had shown that construction, which contributes around 7pc towards total economic output, had started growing again after five consecutive quarters of falls. In the fourth quarter of 2012, construction firms grew by 0.8pc, following a decrease of 1.8pc in the third quarter.
However, Thursday's figures showed that the sector was back in decline, with a 2.5pc fall in output in the first three months of 2013.
INDUSTRY AND MANUFACTURING
The level of industrial production in Britain is now at the lowest level since 1991 and around 15pc below the pre-recession peak.
The recent weak data are largely due to reduced output at Britain's oil and gas fields. The ONS said the poor industrial figures in January were driven by a 4.3pc decline in oil and gas extraction, when production at the North Sea's Schiehallion platform was suspended because of building work.
The platform, which accounts for between 3pc and 6pc of total oil production, could be closed for up to five years.
The 0.3pc GDP contraction in the final three months of last year was also mainly due to fact that the Buzzard oil field, located 55km off the coast of Scotland, was closed for maintenance for much of that period. Buzzard is the North Sea's largest oil field, and the shutdown led to a 10.7pc drop in production over the period.
On Thursday, the ONS said that a recovery in North Sea oil production had helped the sector to eke out 0.2pc growth in the first quarter.
However, manufacturing fell by 0.3pc over the quarter, following a 1.4pc decline in the final three months of 2012.
<noframes>Interactive chart: UK industry held back by North Sea output</noframes> | {
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Summer 2011 Kids' Next List
“In Roth's harsh future, people are divided into five factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite. When you reach the age of 16, you are tested to see where you are best suited and then give a choice. That choice will affect everything, including where you live, what you believe, and whom you will befriend. Beatrice grows up in Abnegation but chooses Dauntless for her future. She has no idea how dangerous that choice is for her, especially as she has tested Divergent -- showing traits of more than one faction. Divergents are wild cards. And wild cards are dangerous. This is a fast-paced all-action page-turner that held me captive from beginning to end.”
— Angela Mann, Kepler's Books & Magazine, Menlo Park, CA
Description
This first book in Veronica Roth's #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy is the novel the inspired the major motion picture starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Kate Winslet. This dystopian series set in a futuristic Chicago has captured the hearts of millions of teen and adult readers. Perfect for fans of the Hunger Games and Maze Runner series, Divergent and its sequels, Insurgent and Allegiant, are the gripping story of a dystopian world transformed by courage, self- sacrifice, and love. Fans of the Divergent movie will find the book packed with just as much emotional depth and exhilarating action as the film, all told in beautiful, rich language. The paperback edition includes exciting bonus materials: an author Q&A, a discussion guide, a Divergent playlist, faction manifestos, quiz questions, writing tips, and a peek of the second book in the trilogy. One choice can transform you. Beatrice Prior's society is divided into five factions-Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Beatrice must choose between staying with her Abnegation family and transferring factions. Her choice will shock her community and herself. But the newly christened Tris also has a secret, one she's determined to keep hidden, because in this world, what makes you different makes you dangerous. | {
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After three weeks of action, things doesn’t look good for the pros
After exhausting three weeks of play between the four pros and the machine, on Monday this challenge is going to reach its conclusion. Currently, latest heads-up bot of the Carnegie Mellon University – Libratus, is ahead with $1,4 million, at blinds of $100/$200.
After the first week of play, humans were able to claw their way back to break even, largely thanks to Dong Kim. However, from then on the power of Libratus is crushing the team on a daily basis.
Yesterday, Kim and his teammate Jason Les answered a few questions about the challenge on Reddit. See some of them below.
How do you think the outcome of this match will affect the future of poker?
Jason: The fact is the AI exists, and it’s extremely tough whether we win or lose. Even if we were to just barely win, it would have been an AI that could beat essentially everyone. This is going to be a problem for internet poker as time goes on.
How excited are you guys to go crush some regular human opponents after trying to grind it out against Skynet? More seriously: how has your strategy improved from facing an opponent like Libratus? Are you gonna start overbetting more frequently you think?
Jason: Once you face Libratus, there’s nothing worse any human could ever do to you. Every human is going to seem like a walk in the park.
Jason + Dong: We are definitely going to start overbetting more frequently. It takes a lot of studying to figure out the right way to do it though. The moment you’re somewhat imbalanced there (bluffing too much, or bluffing too little) then you’re making a huge mistake.
Do you ever tank on every action to let the computer feel some of it’s own medicine?
Dong: Sometimes I have the nuts and bot jams on me and I go get a coffee so I can come back to a good situation. For the most part though, I come back to a really shitty situation.
I play midstakes 6 max, should I just quit poker in light of this? Can I not just assume that I should expect 3 bot assisted Russians per table within 6-8 months?
DONG: good thing for you, its much more complex to solve a ring game. Not only is there actions, betsizes cards etc, but now you have to deal with multiple players. I would march forward
Have you picked up or noticed any patterns/habits? Does this AI remind you of certain player(s)?
Jason: I would say a lot of the basis of the AI’s style reminds me of how Doug Polk plays. But overall I would say the style is unique. Libratus mixes it’s strategy across all sorts of actions and bet sizes so picking up reads on its ranges is very difficult. We have statistics on the frequencies it does different things, but it’s near impossible to come up with anything too concrete.
Rounders.org poker site has a completely informative character and provides you with the best poker deals on the internet. You can not play poker on it and we do not offer paid services. We do not prompt you to play poker and we must let you know that the gambling can affect you negatively and lead to significant financial losses. Before you take advantage of our deals on poker sites, make sure that the laws of the region in which you are is not treating the poker as an infringement. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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Authorities in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta will help farmers expand soybean-rice fields by providing them with financing and training.
In Vietnam, soybean output meets only 10 per cent of demand. More than 1.2 million tonnes of soybean are imported each year, according to the Plant Cultivation Department.
Last year, the Delta cultivated 2,900ha of soybeans, mostly in An Giang, Dong Thap and Vinh Long provinces and Can Tho City, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
Delta farmers plant two crops of soybeans a year, the winter-spring crop and the spring-summer crop.
Soybeans and rice have the same three-month cultivation period.
In Dong Thap Province, the per hectare yield reached 2.3 tonnes of soybeans last year, bringing a profit of 15-20 million VND (714-952 USD) to farmers, while profits on rice totalled 12.5 million VND per hectare.
Speaking at a seminar held in Dong Thap Province this week, Pham Van Du, deputy head of the department, said the Delta had untapped potential in soybean cultivation.
However, seminar participants pointed out that soybean farming in the Delta had declined in recent years, from 8,932ha in 2009 to 2,967ha last year.
Many farmers switched to other crops, like corn, that have higher profit potential.
Phan Thi Yen Nhi, director of the An Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that low prices and unstable outlets for soybeans were the major problems for farmers.
The Plant Cultivation Department said that An Giang Province, which has the country's largest rice cultivation area, should expand its rice-soybean fields.
Dong Thap and Vinh Long provinces, which have planted soybeans for many years, should follow suit, it said.
The department would work with the Delta to develop five to seven large-scale soybean fields this year.
Bui Ba Bong, MARD's deputy minister, asked the Delta provinces and Can Tho to develop detailed policies on soybean farming techniques, plant strains and financing.
He pointed out that large-scale soybean fields in Dong Thap Province had helped guarantee outlets and higher incomes for farmers. -VNA | {
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
VENTURA FINALISTS, FINALLY
It may be stale news, but it was an important show with one of the year’s largest entries. We are talking about last Saturday’s Santa Maria Kennel Club show in Ventura CA. We did tell you that the Scottish Terrier, CH Roundtown Mercedes Of Maryscot took home the BIS and the 2500 points for dogs defeated, but for some unknown reason Jack Bradshaw Dog Show Superintendents and the AKC kept the results secret until today.
CH Thaon`s Mowgli
At a show where group placements were worth as much as BIS at many of the all breed shows elsewhere this past weekend, we think it’s important to recognize the following Group One winners: the Golden Retriever, Gala Of Yoshida Enterprise, the Afghan Hound, CH Thaon`s Mowgli, the Portuguese Water Dog, CH Aviator`s Luck Be A Lady, the Brussels Griffon, CH Cashin`s Walk The Line, the Standard Poodle, CH Monfort Ariel Arietta, and the Bouvier des Flandres, CH Avalon Frontier Sleepnlady Webber.
We are unabashed fans of the big BIS winners, especially our current national leader. After all, we do own a Scottie, but we don’t want anyone to lose sight of the fact that every BIS final (and the majority of group judgings) are packed with quality AKC dogs. Congratulations to all the Santa Maria KC BIS finalists.
NUMBER EIGHT
NUMBER NINE
NUMBER TEN
SHOW INFO
******************
The author has been attending dog shows as a spectator and exhibitor for over 45 years. He is a retired management consultant who has advised multiple organizations affiliated with the AKC and the Cat Fanciers Association on business management, long range planning, customer service, and legislative matters. After 25 years of living in the big cities of New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, he now resides in his hometown of Memphis, TN.
LET US HEAR FROM YOU
We love to get e-mail from our readers. Send us your show reports, photos of your wins, and any other interesting tidbits you want to share with our readers. E-mail us at [email protected] | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Business, international
BREDT SAMARBEJDE OM MULTIMEDIER
Article Abstract:
Several Danish universities and major businesses are to co-operate in an IT project. The aim of the project, which is called InterMedia, is to make Denmark a fore-runner in the multimedia field. The Danish Minister of Industry and Trade, Jan Tr jborg, says several thousand of jobs could be created in this field, provided that great efforts are made in R&D. The project will be based at laboratories in Copenhagen, rhus and Aalborg with advanced equipment, and among the participants are Denmark's Technological University, the universities of Copenhagen, rhus and Aalborg, and corporations such as Bang & Olufsen, Tele Danmark Internet, Danfoss and Lego.
Comment:
Denmark: Universities & major cos will cooperate in IT projects that aims to make Denmark a forerunner in the multimedia field
SAMARBEJDE MELLEM HP OG FORSKERE
Article Abstract:
Hewlett-Packard (HP) co-operates with the University of Aalborg, Denmark. In late 1998, the company will launch a software tool, developed by the university, aimed at enabling users to solve computer problems themselves instead of using hot lines. The next step will be to integrate such a tool into the computer. HP has subsidised the university by DKr 5mn (USD 0.7mn) for R&D in this field.
Comment:
Will launch a software tool, developed by Univ of Aalborg, Denmark, that will allow users to solve computer problems themselves
SWEDEN: MICROSOFT TO ACQUIRE CABLE-TV NETWORK?
Article Abstract:
Microsoft is the most likely buyer of Telia's, the Swedish telecom's, cable-TV network, according to Swedish analysts. Another possible buyer is the Danish media group Egmont. A bid for the network might be valued at about SEK 1bn (USD 135mn), according to conservative estimates. The paper refers to Computerworld and its Swedish fellow subsidiary Computer Sweden. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Discussion: Foss indicated that this related to the streaming of control data (apart from MIDI) over IEEE1394, and that the standard was complete. There was no further discussion relating to this standard.
AES64-R: Review of AES64-2012, AES standard for audio applications of networks - Command, control, and connection management for integrated media
Project scope: This standard specifies:
1. A set of structured Internet Protocol-based messages and a specification of the messages that can be used to control single or groups of parameters, and to monitor these parameters. The parameters are associated either with typical signal processing functionality within audio and other media devices, synchronization between such devices, or connections between such devices.
2. A definition of indexed parameters and a specification of the message format for such messages.
3. A definition of peer-to-peer grouping and master-to-slave grouping of device parameters, and a specification of the messages required to implement such grouping.
4. A definition of modifiers, and a specification of messages required to create and control such modifiers.
5. A definition of desk items as a means to extract graphical user information from a device and allow for the control of the device via the extracted graphical controls.
6. A definition of security levels, and a specification of messages required to set and get such levels.
Discussion: Foss indicated that Secretariat comments on parameters with Global Unit values had been addressed, and that updates related to parameter snapshots and bulk parameter 'pushes' for monitoring purposes would be presented to the working group in the near future.
AES-R10: AES standards project report - Use cases for networks in professional audio
Project Scope: To identify and clarify use cases for networks in professional audio applications for Recording, Live sound, and Installations
Discussion: K. Gross agreed to look at the report, edit it and possibly update it further. He is currently busy with similar work in conjunction with the IETF and other organizations. Anyone else with an interest in this report should contact Gross.
AES67-R Review of AES67-2013 High-performance streaming audio-over-IP interoperability
Project Scope: The goal is to standardize the format for audio data within IP packets. Currently there are a number of ways of transmitting uncompressed audio over IP. There are even a number of ways of transmitting audio using RTP.
Discussion: Gross discussed the goals of the standard. He indicated that there is dependence on a clock source draft standard that is being created by the IETF. This draft has moved out of the working group and is under review. He pointed out that the standard does not require or recommend any particular discovery method.
Gross discussed AES67 project liaisons, and indicated the importance of synchronization standards being in line with SMPTE standards. He spoke of the complimentary nature of ACIP standards and particularly the need to be aware of ACIP2. Gross agreed that he would be the liaison person for SMPTE and IETF, and P. Stevens would be the liaison for ACIP.
Development Projects
AES-X075: Liaison with IEC TC100 for IEC 61883
Project Scope: to prepare recommendations and assist the work of IEC TC100SC-02-12 regarding the development and maintenance of relevant parts of IEC 61883. Any assigned task group shall report project progress to SC-02-12 and shall ask SC-02-12 for its advice on content. Administrative review of the project shall follow AESSC rules.
Discussion: J. Yoshio presented a liaison report that contained an IEC standards update and described work done on TC100 specifications related to SC-02-12.
IEC 61883-6 The revised items for the edition 3.0 are multichannel assignment, copy control information of DTCP+, and editorial corrections. The document is still being edited by J. Fujimori.
IEC 61883-8 (BT. 601) Edition 1.0 Amendment 1 status. The CDV is approved, and editorial comments were solved. The final document was submitted and it will be published. The amended items are copy control information of DTCP+.
TC100 liaison with IEEE1722. There were fruitful discussions, particularly related to car applications, with Aaron Gelter who is the working group editor for IEEE 1722a. Also discussed was the transmission of Dolby E via IEEE1722.
AES-X137: Liaison with 1394 Trade Association (1394 TA)
Discussion: M. Lave, the 1394TA liaison said that the organization was undergoing change and that there had been no recent technical activity in the area of audio. The 1394TA is working out a way for access to the 1394TA documents, and also how the documents can be maintained without work on the part of the 1394TA.
AES-X170B: AES standards report - supplementary information on AES-64.
Project Scope: The objective of this information document is to present additional tutorial information pertaining to particular aspects of the X170 specification, in particular:
1. The origins of the 7-level hierarchy.
2. The creation and processing of X170 messages.
3 Peer to peer grouping and master/slave grouping of device parameters.
4 Modifiers.
5. Deskitems.
Discussion: Foss indicated that there had been no further work on this document.
AES-X210A Open Control Architecture - Framework and object model
Project Scope: To specify a scalable control-protocol architecture for professional media networks. The initial version will address audio aspects only, but it is intended ultimately to expand the scope to video through collaboration with a video-oriented standards body such as SMPTE. Note that OCA is a control protocol only, and does not aspire to provide streaming media transport. It is intended to cooperate with all kinds of media transport architectures.
Discussion: J. Berryman, the task group leader, presented a report on the task group meeting that was held previous to the working group meeting. He indicated that the draft document is complete from the point of view of the task group, and would be brought into the working group. However, this document could not be published as a standalone document, it needed to be published together with three other documents from projects AES-X210B, AES-X210C and AES-X210D. The expecation is that all documents will be complete before the end of 2014.
AES-X210B Open Control Architecture - Class tree
Project Scope: To be confirmed
Discussion: There were a number of updates to the class tree within the OCA Alliance. There would be annual updates to the class tree.
AES-X210D Open Control Architecture - Minimum implementation
Project Scope: To be confirmed
Liaisons:
Liaison with Ethernet AVB: M. Mora, who leads this liaison, was not present at the meeting. Foss indicated that IEEE1722.1 was now a published standard. Gross indicated that there were annexes to indicate how to enable Ethernet AVB and AES67 networks to cooperate, and that there should not be a sense of "AVB versus AES67".
Liaison with MPEG: J. Grant indicated that there is not much happening in MPEG, although MMT (MPEG Media Transport) appears to be moving forward, and there are drafts being voted on. There wasn't anything in the drafts that he needed to bring to the attention of the group. He gave a brief background to MMT.
Liaison with IEC 62379: Grant spoke briefly about 62379 part 5, sub part 2 that is almost finished. This is a signalling protocol for future networks. Stevens reported on part 3 that has gone to ballot this year. Part 2 has not been updated (relevant to audio). Part 7 went through its ballot and is on its way to being published.
New projects
SMPTE/EBU JT-NM
Gross spoke about the SMPTE/EBU joint task force for networked media (JT-NM), who are collecting use cases for networked media, and are asking for responses from network providers. Gross has created a Google doc for AES67 responses. Editing permissions can be obtained from Kevin.
J. Berryman pointed out that there would be a 'gap analysis' following initial submissions, the gap being between what was required and what was currently available.
AES67 interoperability
There was a discussion around a interoperability 'plugfest' for AES67 along the lines of the ACIP and the PTP plugfests. There was an offer from Swedish Radio to host such a plugfest. It was agreed that it would be best to have a venue that had the necessary equipment to test interoperability in a meaningful way. Gross pointed out the need to have AES67 implementations to test. Also required is a clear testing protocol. It was proposed that the current task group reflector be used for generating ideas relating to conformance testing. Kevin, in the first instance, agreed to scope the task group's goals and lead the group, while the secretariat agreed to set up a new project for the group in due course.
Device discovery
Berryman raised the issue of device discovery. Transport and control protocols need a name service. Somewhere, typically, there is a database of names and addresses. Bonjour is a name service that gets populated automatically. Berryman gave a multiple subnet network example to illustrate the issue. He believed that there needs to be a single approach, possibly at the application layer that can allow both transport and control protocols to access a name service. He felt that there should be a standardized interface to the name service.
Gross indicated that the X192 project had explored this issue, and that there was not an easy solution. P. Treleaven indicated that the SMPTE version of control did have a section dealing with discovery. Berryman agreed to determine whether he would be able to initiate and lead a project on this topic.
New business
No new business was proposed.
The next face-to-face meeting will be held in conjunction with the AES 136th Convention, to be held in Berlin, Germany, 26 to 29 April 2014. | {
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How old do you think you look? Sure, your face may seem like it is the one that determines this, but you might be surprised to find out other areas of your body may be giving your age away–or in some cases make you look even older. Two of the most Continue reading | {
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Sean Bovim knows a good thing when he sees one—and in this case he knows that he has a winning formula:
Take one vibrant young dance company, sprinkle liberally with distinctive choreography and season with the music of Queen. Pour over this mix the voices of Cito, Daniel Fisher and Magdalene Minnaar, turn up the heat and voila—you have a crowd pleasing product that has been feeding appreciative audiences since 2004.
Though this ballet is not new, we can relish all the characteristics of Bovim’s dance company and enjoy them all once more. It is a happy thought to know that our talented dancers have an option to perform innovative choreography and not have to join the traditional ballet companies or leave the country to showcase their profession, training and talent.
It was such fun seeing certain key elements combining to enhance each other in this production:
Sean himself who left the mainstream to forge his own company, Cito who is the front man of the legendary rock band WONDERboom and well known for his role as Jesus in JC Superstar, Devon Marshbank whose first forays into movement were in the world of aerobics, Henk Opperman who burst into our consciousness when he won Dans Dans Dans and who hails from Bloemfontein and of course our own Cape Town trained dancers such as James Bradley, Louisa Talbot, Faye Dubinski, Steven Van Wyk et al. We have watched these people hone their craft and take on the stature and confidence of professional performers and we salute them and take great pleasure in their achievements.
Devon and Henk were convincing and sincere in their portrayals and provided a perfect counterfoil for each other with elements of both playfulness and passion.
That said, we have to confess that there were some shaky moments from some of the dancers on opening night and the words of Dame Margot Fonteyn popped into our minds. She said that if a dancer misses one day of class, they notice it, if they miss two days of class, the other dancers notice it and if they miss three days of class, the audience notices it!
And at this level, it was somewhat alarming to note a ballet shoe with ribbons coming undone—a calamity much frowned upon by ballet teachers the world over and one which we do not expect to find on a professional stage.
But these are small qualms: Above all, the Bovim Ballet Company provides an evening of guaranteed entertainment and pleasure with a satisfying mix of intensity and whimsy. These people do not take themselves seriously but a serious about pleasing their audience.
So if you have seen this production before—go and enjoy it like meeting up with a good old friend and if you haven’t yet seen it, brave the winter chill and make a new friend!
And bonus—be sure to buy a program as this very cleverly is incorporated in a calendar so will be useful and will remind you of these gorgeous dancers till the end of 2013. | {
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Unicorns and wizard sleeves
Hammer pants and make believe
Pirate ships sailing off to sea
Well you can party with me in my
Castle, in my castle, in my castle, in my castle
This is for the freaks and for my magicians
Booty clap and lap dancing technicians
Dance parties in the name of Great Britain
And American girls who love a Detroit Piston
Like Dennis Rodman, I got a rod man (awww yeah!)
Long wong-dong in a soft hand
And a ping-pong pink schlong, let's all dance!
From England to Stockholm
I'm wearing a cape just like a poncho
I got a cutie and I'm making a beat on her booty
Like I was at Bonnaroo beating up on a bongo
I got a bottle of Martin at least I'm jumping in
I love anybody that's kicking it in the plateau
And the name was keep tripping, like I'm in a castle
Fuck your condo!
Unicorns and wizard sleeves
Hammer pants and make believe
Pirate ships sailing off to sea
Unicorns and wizard sleeves
Hammer pants and make believe
Pirate ships sailing off to sea
Well you can party with me in my
Castle, in my castle, in my castle, in my castle
You like to party, I am a party-er
You like to wander, I am a wanderer
Your thighs are the closet to Narnia
Is it cool if I go and get lost in that?
I'm the lion, the witch in the wardrobe
Massaging my lap, I have a sore bone
Of course cold on the dance floor
Like an Eskimo's toes in the North Pole
With those toes poking out of the two holes
In the Eskimo socks, I'm hot
Like a cauldron from a warlock
Wearing sweatpants in a sauna
Who's your father? I'm not
I'm motherfuckin' Raven Bowie and here's my cock
Rooster, Cock-a-doodle-doo sir
Take a hit of the hooka, now make it drop
Girl's booty was bigger than the stomach of Rick Ross'
Holy mother mountain of tender tendin' you get lost in
Bounce, bounce, that castle booty, that bottom
Make it wobble, wobbly-wobble 'till my third leg has to hobble
You don't want to look back on this night
And think I should have been freaking on a booty
Freak-freaking on a booty
Unicorns and wizard sleeves
Hammer pants and make believe
Pirate ships sailing off to sea
Well you can party with me in my
Castle, in my castle, in my castle, in my castle
This might be the best night that we have ever had
That-that we have ever had
That-that we have ever had
That-that we have ever had together
Eh, motherfuckin eh
Have you ever killed a coyote in the middle of a party
In the night, in the middle of a party
Have you ever killed a coyote in the middle of the night
In the middle of a party
Brought it home and threw it on the carpet
Sit and kill a coyote, I'm starving
Who wants to eat a coyote?
Who wants to eat a coyote?
Who wants to eat a coyote?
Bring my bagpipe, I grab my flute
Cause drunk King John is still the loo
Get onto the pole in a birthday suit, our suit
With them Jay's, King, and Prince's pants
And Raven has whatever says
Unicorns and wizard sleeves
Hammer pants and make believe
Pirate ships sailing off to sea
Well you can party with me in my
Castle, in my castle, in my castle, in my castle | {
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The P10 Hardware Lottery Exemplifies the Kind of Decision-Making That’s Holding Huawei Back
Cutting corners in a cut-throat market
Any press is good press, or so they say. That’s a phrase often used when a company finds itself in a precarious situation — but as Samsung learned first hand, in a hyperactive segment like this ever changing mobile space, the smallest misstep can turn out to have grave ramifications.
Huawei is learning this first hand with the negative press surrounding its recently-launched P10 and P10 Plus series of devices. They are no stranger to negative press surrounding the quality of their hardware. First came the Nexus 6P build quality debacle with shattering visors and bending devices, and recently the Honor 6Xscreen and build quality issues notched another one in their belt. One would think they would be walking a finer line when it comes to their smartphones, but the latest news surrounding them says otherwise.
As Aamir wrote about in an earlier article, Huawei is in the midst of a controversy due to how it handles its flagships’ components. They have already admitted to sourcing components from various sources, but further investigation is showing that these components feature vastly different technologies and capabilities from RAM speeds to the type of internal memory that is used. Utilizing components from various sources is a very common practice among OEM’s. Samsung does this with its cameras in its flagships known to alternate between its own ISOCELL sensor and a Sony one. Apple does this with its SOC’s alternating between Samsung and TSMC for manufacturing (which has brought its share of negative press) and it is widely known that HTC sources its displays from multiple partners too.
Batteries, displays, cameras, internal storage, and RAM can all be sourced from various partners. This helps supply chain constraints and it can also help with quality assurance… generally, it is perfectly fine. What is not fine is when these components offer vastly differing experiences depending on your luck of the draw, which is what Huawei is offering right now. While many users may never notice a difference between LPDDR3 and LPDDR4 or UFS 2.1 and eMMC 5.1; there is a quantifiable difference, and when you are paying flagship prices every customer deserves the same or at the very least a similar experience. By giving users a random combination of RAM and storage types, their customers aren’t buying a flagship, but a lottery ticket for a chance to earn the full product Huawei advertised.
Unlike other cases of component variety with a smartphone line, a large part of Huawei’s advertising relied entirely on the flagship components a user might have. Huawei, like many other Chinese manufacturers, puts a clear and heavy emphasis on marketing their devices’ power and performance. It’s no surprise, then, that they’d pick the faster RAM and UFS2.1 storage as talking points for their ad campaigns and promotional materials. In fact UFS2.1 was advertised for all markets of the Mate 9 as recently as last week; however, today only a few market pages actually show that specification. Obviously, though, it becomes a problem when a significant portion of P10 customers may not get the UFS 2.1 storage, or the LPDDR4 RAM, or both. People paid for a flagship under the notion that they’d get a flagship, with flagship components throughout. When people pay for a Samsung device, ISOCELL and Sony sensors offer comparable performance with differences that, to my knowledge, haven’t shown significant and quantifiable deltas — there is a mostly-lateral difference between the two. There is a clear hierarchy between LPDDR4 and LPDDR3 RAM, however, and the same goes for UFS 2.1 and eMMC 5.1 storage.
A worrying aspect to much of this is what it means for what Huawei is as a company, and what it’s trying to do. Giving credit where it is due, Huawei devices have come a long way. The Mate 9 and Honor 8 Pro are fantastic phones offering a solid build, vastly-improved software, and an overall appealing package. Huawei is trying hard to break into the large and somewhat stagnant US market and while on the surface they have nearly all the components to succeed, the lack of good decision making from Huawei serves to undermine all that they have accomplished. It’s not just their phones that have this issue either.
Similarly, the Honor 5X was a solid piece of hardware crippled by its software, which can be easily remedied. But instead building on that solid foundation they release its successor – the Honor 6X – which ships with an out of date OS version, crippled build quality, and packs one of the least durable displays on the market. The P10, which we have been speaking about, also ships with no oleophobic coating which is not only a standout in the market (particularly its segment), but is also just dumb. The recent string of decisions from Huawei are troubling seeing as their success in the US market, which can greatly help them in the long run, depends largely on enthusiasts, positive media coverage and word of mouth at this time; and despite my largely positive experiences with the Honor 8 Pro and Mate 9 I am hesitant to recommend them friends and family. The North American market does not appreciate corner cutting, and Huawei is truly not breaking away from the stereotype that troubles Chinese manufacturers in the US so much.
While Huawei’s decision making in these past few months leaves a lot to be desired, there is still time for them to correct their course and get back to improving their offerings. They need to be cautious though, they do not have the clout of a company like Samsung which can fairly easily rebound from total meltdown. There were some who thought Samsung would never come out from what happened with the Note 7, but soon after the S8 announcement they are boasting some of the best preorder numbers yet. Huawei makes a compelling phone with software that is quickly catching up to the competition, they just need to make sure they don’t shoot themselves in the foot by poor decision making because in an ultra-competitive market, someone is always nipping at their heels.
What do you think about the P10’s hardware lottery? Let us know in the comments.
About Author
Co-Host of the XDA/Android Podcast & Android Enthusiast - a.k.a Altimax98 -
I am a husband/father of 2 and a video director/producer as a 9-5. I've had a love for Android since 2009 but will still use an occasional iOS device. While I love rooting and customization, I tend to focus more on living with my devices.
I am always all ears so PM, or Tweet me if you have any questions!
Google Pixel XL - Google Edition (Unlocked)
Samsung Galaxy S8 (T-Mobile) [SM-G950U]
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 (Unlocked) [SM-N920I]
XDA Developers was founded by developers, for developers. It is now a valuable resource for people who want to make the most of their mobile devices, from customizing the look and feel to adding new functionality.Are you a developer? | Terms of Service | {
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Fill up the Stockings with Smiggle this Christmas – Giveaway
It’s not a well kept secret I love Smiggle, I could potentially have an addiction or obsession. You see friends Smiggle is not only for the kids it’s for anyone that loves their stationary with a side of fun! This Christmas Smiggle have really rolled out the red carpet with their range of stocking fillers.
This year they have everything from Gingerbread Men & Santa Wall climbers to Eraser Baubles all at super affordable prices to suit all budgets.
One of my favourite reasons for giving Smiggle to my kids is because I know it will inspire them to be creative. Master 8 loves to write stories and Miss 3 loves her colouring in. More time being creative rather than being in front of the TV or a computer screen makes for happier kids and a very happy Mummy.
This Christmas my kids Santa sacks will be filled with lots of colourful goodies from Smiggle. Would you like to add a little Smiggle to your Christmas ? I have one Smiggle pack to giveaway. Comment below and share with me your favourite Christmas carol. I will choose my favourite answer and announce a winner tomorrow at 9pm.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. My youngest has just discovered she has a nose and she loves squishing it and saying “nose” as I sing the song. It’s so cute which makes me want to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer more and more. | {
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Montana Department of Justice Warns of Holiday Scams [YouTube]
The Montana Department of Justice reminds the public to keep an eye out for online shopping scams, identity theft attempts, and false charity solicitations during the upcoming holiday season.
Spokeswoman Anastasia Burton offered important tips for consumers and for those who want to donate to charitable organizations over the holidays.
“When you’re asked to donate, give wisely,” Burton said. “Ask questions and donate only when you’re satisfied that your money will be used in ways you consider appropriate. Be wary of callers who use high pressure tactics or those who promise you sweepstakes winnings in exchange for your contribution.”
The Office of Consumer Protection at the Montana Department of Justice recommends donors keep the following in mind:
Ask how much of your contribution will go to the charity for its charitable purposes.
Ask solicitors if they are paid fund-raisers. If the solicitors are paid, a portion of your contribution will pay their salary.
Ask solicitors to provide you with written documentation indicating that your donation will be tax deductible.
Don’t give your credit card number to a telephone solicitor or in response to any unsolicited phone call you receive. Pay by check instead. Your cancelled check will help you for tax record purposes. Use the full, official name of the charity on your check.
When it comes to holiday shopping for gifts online, Burton offered helpful suggestions.
“Never use unsecured wireless networks to make an online purchase,” Burton said. “Be careful of emails requesting information. Scammers may attempt to gather information by sending emails requesting that you confirm purchases or account information. Legitimate businesses will not solicit this type of information through email.”
Consumers should also be aware that under Montana law, gift cards and gift certificates from an individual merchant do not expire. “Whether you’re buying gift cards this holiday season, or receive them as gifts, remember that they don’t have to be used right away, even if there’s an expiration date printed on them,” Burton said.
Gift cards that can be used with multiple sellers of goods or services, like those from a Chamber of Commerce or shopping center, or prepaid credit cards are not considered gift certificates in Montana. Additionally, under federal laws, cards usable with multiple merchants and prepaid credit cards are valid for at least five years from the date the card is purchased. Funds added to a prepaid card must also be good for five years.
Montana law also allows gift cards or gift certificates that have less than $5 remaining on them, but were originally valued at over $5, to be redeemed for cash. | {
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Updates on the development of the new Euro-gay comic, 'The Boys of St. Precocious Academy,' featuring Kristophe (aka Kristie, to his friends), and written and drawn by KJ & DDM, who have absolutely no experience at this, whatsoever.
About Me
Friday, March 25, 2011
No Joke...
DDM and myself are winding down a four-year project on March 31st - one which has taken a huge chunk of our time. It was a challenge we loved and now we can focus on our everyday living, comic and my writing. Ah, summer will be special, this year.
To commemorate our new freedom, we will be posting new material to our site before midnight, on April 1st. There will also be an introduction of new characters we have created as well as further good news: with a small story alteration, Paris D'Avignon will now be introduced near the end of our first issue. One should not have to wait for all good things, should one? And, here is the inspiration for our character to entertain you until the 1st:
You can find the intrepid David Paris (Paris D'Avignon) on Facebook. If David is new to you you can trust us when we suggest that you will enjoy the experience. He's a likable lad, and extremely easy on the eyes. | {
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Tag Archives: iterative development
If you do any amount of reading today on current topics in software development you’ll find a growing community for agile development methods in addition to those using the more traditional waterfall development method. Large and/or older corporations tend to use the waterfall approach to software development because that was the standard that grew from process maturity over the last 30 years. Small and/or newer organizations
tend to have some form of an agile method because they must produce software quickly to survive.
We are nimble in our approach
Some people live in an environment that practices waterfall but likes to talk in the terms of agile development. That’s the big corporation. There are lots of stakeholders involved and an established process built through decades of use. While it’s acceptable to talk about process maturity and the consistency that it brings to the software development team, the time it takes to complete release cycle is often ignored. So stakeholders use terms like “agile”, “nimble”, and “iteration” as a way to describe an ideal and make it look like the process is moving on an express route. Those familiar with agile development techniques would consider this a Jedi mind trick for sure.
As I see it, the waterfall method of software development is like a Big Bang approach. Whereas the agile development methods are like an evolution approach. The Big Bang approach to software development is challenged to keep up with B2C software for personal computing devices, mobile devices, and the Internet. The Big Bang approach may work for B2B software where businesses are not as constrained by competitive forces and speed to market. But its the evolution approach to software development with quick bursts and incremental improvements that win-out in the B2C world. Amazon, the leading retailer on the Internet doesn’t release features in a big bang approach once a year. It’s a steady stream of small incremental changes based on what they have learned works and doesn’t work to generate revenue. Need other examples? Check the blogs for Google, LinkedIn, Evernote, etc. and see how they consistently make incremental changes to their products.
The Big Bang approach is useful when the number of competitors are small, when you must receive approval from a large number of users before making changes, or when the users are not part of the market segment of early adopters. This fits many B2B client setups. I’d use terms like mature, risk adverse, and thorough to describe this approach. But let’s be fair. It’s not agile, nimble, or iterative. Those terms are reserved for those that practice a true agile development method in a more evolution like approach. | {
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Friday, March 20, 2009
Taking advice from brides before me...
So after my last post about being bored and having nothing to do, I heard and am LISTENING to advice I was given. I am going to use this "down time" to work on the mundane projects that I would have undoubtedly saved until the last minute.
I'm going to hunt the thrift stores for popcorn containers....
I'm going to spend countless hours taking the paper off of crayons and melting them into my letter molds...
I'm going to search for the perfect baskets for the pashminas and flip flops...
I'm going to weigh the pros and cons of silk vs. real flowers to make pomanders for the flower girls to carry. I really hate hate HATE silk flowers, but I would love to do this project well in advance...
I'm going to search for the perfect mason jars and ribbon for the aisle decorations...
And I'm going to enjoy every bit of it! Hopefully doing this will make the time go by faster!!
i made balls for the flower girls to carry from fake flowers and no one knew the difference. they didnt fall apart (since i made them with hot glue) while they swung them around and twirled all day and they were half the price my florist was going to charge me for silk balls for the girls. i say do it!
Here's a tip - I made the crayon letters. Don't waste your time peeling the paper off the crayons, if you soak them in a bowl of hot water (not boiling hot, just warm-hot) the paper will come off immediately - no peeling or picking required! | {
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Background
Ms. Elisabeth Gurtler-Mauthner serves as the Managing Director and General Manager of Salzburg at Sacher Hotels Betriebsgesellschaft mbH. Ms. Gurtler-Mauthner has been Managing Director of Spanish Riding School in Vienna since 2007. Ms. Gurtler-Mauthner is a Businesswoman. She has been Member of General Council of Oesterreichische Nationalbank since September 9, 2004. Ms. Gurtler-Mauthner served as a Member of Supervisory Board at Erste Group Bank AG from May 26, 1998 ... to May 15, 2012. She serves as Member of the Managing Board of the Austrian Hotel Association. She acquired an outstanding reputation in particular as Manager of the world-famous Sacher Hotels in Vienna and Salzburg. She has been a Director of Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Spruengli AG since 2009. She completed her studies in Commercial Science with a Master degree.
Our data partners will research the update request and update the information on this page if necessary. Research and follow-up could take several weeks. If you have questions, you can contact them at [email protected]. | {
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Remember that you can jump ahead and pick a player if those in front of you already have their version of that player (for example, at this point in the draft, horus_6 could jump ahead of zephyr1949 and bbondsmvp and select his Spahn or Smoltz).
This option will present itself more frequently as we get deeper in the draft. | {
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A HELM FROM OUT OF TIME
People have been arguing about this one for a long time. Just what the heck was that armor at the beginning of Bram Stoker's Dracula even made out of? This ornate looking armor has crazy detailing and obviously a sinister blood-red look.
Folks turn to period lore and state that metal armor was definitely out there but that this would have been insane to try to make. Others are more interested in what it was legit made out of for the film. Well, the devil is in the details, they say, so...
PRODUCT DETAILS
Try this Bram Stoker's Dracula Red Helm Mask for yourself and see just what the big fuss is all about. Now, it isn't made out of metal and leather like the period armor may have been and neither is it fiberglass like the prop was in the film. Instead, it is synthetic materials that make it way more comfortable and with all the great details that you'll be looking for. (Of course, that makes it slightly less useful for real armor...)
THE REAL MASK OF RED DEATH
Feel like the master of undeath and terror when you slip this Red Helmet Mask overhead and step into the role of the enigmatic Dracula from the famous film based on Bram Stoker's novel. It will match nicely with a full set of armor but can even give a nice flare for a red velvet robe! | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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Friday, April 4, 2014
The other day, I was reading ‘The Hindu’ and a specific headline caught my eye. It talks about a survey carried out by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) on various corporate firms. It seems that there is 65% job vacancy in these firms. The reason seems to be lack of skill in job seekers. That’s interesting.
There is so much impetus on getting a job these days that people are willing to get any damn certification, diploma and what not. And still we see a gap in the available skill pool and required skill set. What could be the reasons behind this gap?
I am sure a lot of people know the answer.
This raised a series of fundamental questions - Is the job market opening up opportunities for unknown skills? A special kind that’s not available in today’s education system for potential job seekers to acquire, I guess.
Not really. Right? But this seems to be true from an education system standpoint.
Is the system still encouraging natural growth of curiosity and knowledge that nurture open mindedness? It is actually the opposite. It has narrowed down a lot.
The output of a genuine education system is supposedly knowledgeable and intelligent citizens with social awareness, moral values, broad mindedness and empathy towards society in general. They have a presence of mind that lets them react unobtrusively to any given situation. Their common sense will be at an optimal level where they know when and how to do what. And this is the most basic and important skill found in properly EDUCATED person and this is the skill required in an efficient employee.
But today, we find a fallacy in education system, where only the numbers in the so called progress card matter more than the actual grasp on the subjects. The system is more like a humongous machine creating clones trained to repeat so many sentences and formulae in a stipulated period of time.
Under this system, there is an exponential growth in educational institutes that share the common goal of creating more clones. They function more like clone’ries than schools/colleges. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Right-hander Felipe Paulino is doing well on a rehabilitation assignment with Double-A Northwest Arkansas and could be close to returning. Yost wanted to see how Everett Teaford did as Duffy's stand-in on Friday night against the Twins before making any pitching adjustments or changes.
Teaford lasted just four innings, giving up four runs on eight hits. Yost said after the Royals' 7-6 victory that he had no roster moves to announce.
There could be a change in the order of the rotation.
One possibility is to push back right-hander Luke Hochevar, who normally would pitch on Monday night at Detroit but is favoring a sore ankle. Duffy could slide into Hochevar's spot or start later in the series.
Royals recall Dyson and option Bourgeois
MINNEAPOLIS -- Speedy Jarrod Dyson was recalled from Triple-A Omaha on Friday and zoomed right into the Royals' starting lineup -- in center field and leading off against the Twins.
Cain swapped roster places with outfielder Jason Bourgeois, who was optioned to Omaha. Acquired with catcher Humberto Quintero in a trade with the Astros, Bourgeois appeared in seven games for Kansas City and hit .214 (3-for-14) with a double. He was 1-for-3 in stolen-base attempts.
The Royals had expected to have center fielder Lorenzo Cain back for Friday night's game after recovering from a left groin strain during a rehabilitation assignment with Double-A Northwest Arkansas. However, that plan ended when Cain, while running after a fly ball, suffered a left hip flexor strain, which is likely to keep him out another four to six weeks. He's back in Kansas City undergoing treatment.
"We want Dyson to play, it's as simple as that," manager Ned Yost said. "We were holding out with a platoon of [Mitch] Maier and Bourgeois until Cain came back. We were expecting Cain back today [but] Cain's going to be out for an extended amount of time so we want to look at Dyson, we want to give him a shot."
Yost said that Dyson won't always be in the leadoff spot. He plans to use Chris Getz there when he plays second base with Dyson batting ninth.
After Cain's original injury, Dyson was recalled for a brief stay and started two games in center field, going 2-for-8 with a double and a couple of outfield glitches. He was sent back to Omaha when pitcher Louis Coleman was called up on April 14 and struggled in his first five games, going 2-for-17.
"I had a few bad games when I first got sent back down," Dyson said. "I picked it back up when we got home and, for the most part, I feel like I've been doing OK."
In his last three games, against Nashville at Omaha, Dyson was 7-for-13.
"Getting sent down is not good for anybody," he said. "I guess I had to get my mind right and stop feeling sorry for myself and get back to playing ball."
In 15 games for Omaha, Dyson had a .333 average with three triples, three doubles and seven steals in eight attempts. Now he's determined to show everybody he deserves to be in the Majors.
"It's gonna be exciting to see," he said.
Crown points
According to the Royals, pitcher Tommy Hottovy is the fifth player born in Kansas City, Mo., to play for his hometown team. The others are pitchers David Cone, Steve Mingori and Steve Shifflett and infielder-outfielder Kit Pellow. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
If anyone knows who to send a live set to I would really appreciate it. I have been searching for ever trying to find an email or someone to get a hold of.
I am a 19 year old 2010 graduate that loves all genres of music but specializes in producing and DJ'ing Dubstep/Drumstep and Drum & Bass. I love melody and I love Grimy Bass but my main goal is to get people dancing! I'm from Ashland, Oregon, USA and am trying to build a career. Any support would be much appreciated.
DJ Toast wrote:If anyone knows who to send a live set to I would really appreciate it. I have been searching for ever trying to find an email or someone to get a hold of.
I am a 19 year old 2010 graduate that loves all genres of music but specializes in producing and DJ'ing Dubstep/Drumstep and Drum & Bass. I love melody and I love Grimy Bass but my main goal is to get people dancing! I'm from Ashland, Oregon, USA and am trying to build a career. Any support would be much appreciated.
Well what I can tell you is that this might not be the best place to look. This is a tough crowd for aspiring DJ's and you may not get much help. The best advice I could give you is to buy a ticket (if you haven't already), go to the festival and take it in. From there you might have a better feel for what it takes to spin at BM in the future. If your thought is that someone would want you to come and DJ for them, better get in line. DJ's are a dime a dozen out on the playa. Good luck.
Yup, lots of DJs. Might have been better your first post being in the introduce yourself forum and a few more posts getting to know the group before just asking for something from people you don't even know.
Just saying...
Discussion Board etiquette, you know.
JKhttp://www.mudskippercafe.comWhen I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle.Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.
get to know people befor you start asking to play on their equiptment at BM. Most Djs never stop to think that BM is a different venue then electronic music events. You see when I hire a dj he makes me money based on the people he atracts and that money goes to pay for the wear of my equiptment. At BM the wear on the equiptment is not paid for thru ticket sales its paid for by people who particapate and donate. So get involved make friends and you just might get your 1 hour of fame in the wee hours of the morning when the last thing we want to hear is fucking dubstep. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Select A Team:
Select a Team:
Welcome to Kareem Ibrahim's Page
Thank you for visiting my personal fundraising page for the Jessie Rees Foundation's upcoming Santa Stroll! Join me in raising awareness for childhood cancer. Jessie's wish was to encourage all kids fighting cancer to NEVER EVER GIVE UP! With your help, we can support courageous kids around the world. Best - Kareem | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
New Data Array Layouts in VTK 7.1
ProTip: For an exhaustive and up-to-date description of all improvements described in this blog, consider reading the current wiki page.
With the upcoming release of VTK 7.1 comes significant improvements to the efficiency and interoperability of VTK datasets. This post will guide you through how to use these tools.
VTK datasets store most of their important information in subclasses of vtkDataArray. Vertex locations (vtkPoints::Data), cell topology (vtkCellArray::Ia), and numeric point, cell, and generic attributes (vtkFieldData::Data) are the dataset features accessed most frequently by VTK algorithms, and these all rely on the vtkDataArray API.
Terminology
ValueType: the element type of an array. For instance, vtkFloatArray has a ValueType of float.
ArrayType: subclass of vtkDataArray which specifies ValueType and an array implementation.
Dispatch: a runtime-resolution of a vtkDataArray’s ArrayType which calls a tailored section of executable code. At compile-time, the possible ArrayTypes are determined and a worker code template is generated for each. At run-time, the type of a specific array is determined and the proper worker instantiation is called.
Template explosion is a sharp increase in the size of a compiled binary that results from instantiating a template function or class on many different types.
vtkDataArray
This non-templated base class of the VTK data array type hierarchy is unique in C++. All arrays containing numeric data inherit the common interface vtkDataArray. Without knowing the underlying ValueType stored in a data array, an algorithm or user may resize, reshape, read, and rewrite the array using a generic API that substitutes double-precision floating point numbers for the array’s actual ValueType. For instance, we can write a simple function that computes the magnitudes for a set of vectors in one array and store the results in another using nothing but the typeless vtkDataArray API:
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// 3 component magnitude calculation using the vtkDataArray API.
// Inefficient, but easy to write:
voidcalcMagnitude(vtkDataArray *vectors,vtkDataArray *magnitude)
{
vtkIdType numVectors=vectors->GetNumberOfTuples();
for(vtkIdType tupleIdx=0;tupleIdx<numVectors;++tupleIdx){// What data types are magnitude and vectors using? // We don’t care! These methods all use double. magnitude->SetComponent(tupleIdx, 0,
std::sqrt(vectors->GetComponent(tupleIdx,0)*
vectors->GetComponent(tupleIdx,0)+
vectors->GetComponent(tupleIdx,1)*
vectors->GetComponent(tupleIdx,1)+
vectors->GetComponent(tupleIdx,2)*
vectors->GetComponent(tupleIdx,2));
}
}
The Costs of Flexibility
This flexibility comes at a cost. Accuracy is impacted by ValueTypes that cannot be fully expressed as a double; integers with > 52 bits of precision must be truncated. Performance also takes a hit – vtkDataArray calls must be routed through a run-time resolution of ValueTypes using a C++ virtual override, adding overhead to each API call. This indirection also prevents the compiler from making assumptions about the layout of the data in-memory, which could be used to perform advanced optimizations such as vectorization.
So what options are available for fast, optimized, type-safe access to the data stored in a vtkDataArray?
The Current Solution: vtkTemplateMacro
In the past, this was done using the vtkTemplateMacros construct; this is no longer a best practice due to practical issues with array dispatching. While it is still usable and likely to be encountered in the VTK source code, newer code should use the vtkArrayDispatch mechanism.
Before 7.1, most numeric vtkDataArray objects were subclasses of the vtkDataArrayTemplate class, which implements all documented numeric data arrays such as vtkDoubleArray, vtkIdTypeArray, etc. Tuples are stored in memory as a contiguous array-of-structs (AOS), with the components stored in adjacent memory locations. These are accessed with the vtkTemplateMacro, a series of case statements that call a virtual GetDataType() to determine the array’s ValueType, typedef’d to VTK_TT. This allows developers to write generic type-specific code using VTK_TT as a placeholder for the actual ValueType. To perform an operation on multiple arrays, all arrays must have the same ValueType, or nested vtkTemplateMacros calls must be used to determine the ValueTypes of the additional arrays.
This solution has two problems: First, the worker functions assume the AOS adjacent layout; as VTK moves further into the field of in-situ analysis, this assumption may no longer be valid. Second, the number of required dispatches increases exponentially as the number of arrays to be considered grows. Restricted dispatch is needed to avoid template explosion.
The New Solution: Data Array Changes in VTK 7.1
As of VTK 7.1, the Array-Of-Structs (AOS) memory layout is no longer the only vtkDataArray implementation provided. The Struct-Of-Arrays (SOA) memory layout is now available through the vtkSOADataArrayTemplate class. The SOA layout assumes that the components of an array are stored separately, as in:
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structStructOfArraysBuffer
{
float*x;// Pointer to array containing x components
float*y;// Same for y
float*z;// Same for z
};
The new SOA arrays improve interoperability between VTK and simulation packages for live visualization of in-situ results. Many simulations use the SOA layout for their data, and natively supporting these arrays in VTK allows analysis of live data without explicitly copying it into a VTK data structure.
The legacy GetVoidPointer method, which is typically used with vtkTemplateMacro, must return a pointer to the array data with AOS-ordering. SOA arrays implement this by copying the data into a temporary buffer – this is a waste of both processor time and memory. A replacement mechanism is needed which can abstract storage details while providing performance on-par with raw memory buffer operations, and reduce template explosion by providing more efficient multi-array dispatch.
Best Practices for vtkDataArray Post-7.1
The new tools in VTK 7.1 make managing template instantiations for efficient array access both easy and extensible. These tools replace vtkTemplateMacro by abstracting away things like storage details, while providing performance on-par with raw memory buffer operations. They also give the developer more control over multi-array dispatch, and reduce the template explosion problem. These include:
vtkGenericDataArray The new templated base interface for all numeric vtkDataArray subclasses.
vtkArrayDispatch Collection of code generation tools that allow concise and precise specification of restrictable dispatch for up to 3 arrays simultaneously.
vtkDataArrayAccessor Provides Get and Set methods for efficiently accessing/modifying array data using either a specific ArrayType API, or falling back to the slower generic vtkDataArray API when the ArrayType is unknown.
VTK_ASSUME New abstraction for the compiler __assume directive to provide optimization hints.
Here is the calcMagnitude example implemented using these new tools:
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// 3-component magnitude calculation using new concepts in VTK 7.1:
// A worker functor. The calculation is implemented in the function template
// for operator().
structCalcMagnitudeWorker
{
// The worker accepts VTK array objects, not raw memory buffers.
template
voidoperator()(VectorArray *vectors,MagnitudeArray *magnitude)
{
// This allows the compiler to optimize for the AOS array stride.
VTK_ASSUME(vectors->GetNumberOfComponents()==3);
VTK_ASSUME(magnitude->GetNumberOfComponents()==1);
// These allow this single worker function to be used with both
// the vtkDataArray 'double' API and the more efficient
// vtkGenericDataArray APIs, depending on the template parameters:
vtkDataArrayAccessorv(vectors);
vtkDataArrayAccessorm(magnitude);
vtkIdType numVectors=vectors->GetNumberOfTuples();
for(vtkIdType tupleIdx=0;tupleIdx<numVectors;++tupleIdx)
{
// Set and Get compile to inlined optimizable raw memory accesses for
// vtkGenericDataArray subclasses.
m.Set(tupleIdx,0,std::sqrt(v.Get(tupleIdx,0)*v.Get(tupleIdx,0)+
v.Get(tupleIdx,1)*v.Get(tupleIdx,1)+
v.Get(tupleIdx,2)*v.Get(tupleIdx,2)));
}
}
};
voidcalcMagnitude(vtkDataArray *vectors,vtkDataArray *magnitude)
{
// Create our worker functor:
CalcMagnitudeWorker worker;
// Define our dispatcher. We’ll let vectors have any ValueType, but only
// consider float/double arrays for magnitudes. These combinations will
// unsupported array type. In this case, it’s likely that the magnitude
// array is using an integral type. This is an uncommon case, so we won’t
// generate a fast path for these, but instead call an instantiation of
// CalcMagnitudeWorker::operator()<vtkDataArray, vtkDataArray>.
// Through the use of vtkDataArrayAccessor, this falls back to using the
// vtkDataArray double API:
worker(vectors,magnitude);
}
}
vtkGenericDataArray
The vtkGenericDataArray class template drives the new vtkDataArray class hierarchy. The ValueType is introduced here, both as a template parameter and a class-scope typedef. As a result, writing a typed API doesn’t require conversion to/from a common type. Instead of implementing storage details, it uses the CRTP idiom to forward key method calls to a derived class without a virtual function call. Without this indirection, vtkGenericDataArray can define an efficient interface for the compiler to to see past the method calls and instead optimize the underlying memory accesses.
The two main subclasses of vtkGenericDataArray are vtkAOSDataArrayTemplate and vtkSOADataArrayTemplate. These implement array-of-structs and struct-of-arrays storage, respectively.
vtkTypeList
Type lists are a metaprogramming construct used to generate a list of C++ types, used in VTK to implement restricted array dispatching. vtkArrayDispatch reduces the number of generated template instantiations by enforcing constraints on the arrays used to dispatch. For instance, if one wanted to only generate templated worker implementations for vtkFloatArray and vtkIntArray, a typelist is used to specify this:
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// Create a typelist of 2 types, vtkFloatArray and vtkIntArray:
typedefvtkTypeList_Create_2(vtkFloatArray,vtkIntArray)MyArrays;
Worker someWorker=...;
vtkDataArray *someArray=...;
// Use vtkArrayDispatch to generate code paths for these arrays:
vtkArrayDispatch::DispatchByArray(someArray,someWorker);
There is a set of macros named vtkTypeList_Create_X, where X is the number of types in the created list, and the arguments are the types to place in the list. In the example above, the new type list is bound to a friendlier name using a local typedef, which is a common practice.
The vtkTypeList.h header defines some additional type list operations that may be useful, such as deleting and appending types, looking up indices, etc. vtkArrayDispatch::FilterArraysByValueType may come in handy, too. But for array dispatches, most users will only need to create new ones, or use the predefined vtkTypeLists:
vtkArrayDispatch::Reals — All floating point ValueTypes.
vtkArrayDispatch::Integrals — All integral ValueTypes.
vtkArrayDispatch::AllTypes — Union of Reals and Integrals.
vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays — Default list of ArrayTypes to use in dispatches.
The last one is special — vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays is a type list of ArrayTypes set application-wide when VTK is built. This vtkTypeList of vtkDataArray subclasses is used for unrestricted dispatches, and is the list that gets filtered when restricting a dispatch to specific ValueTypes. This list contains all AOS arrays by default. The CMake option VTK_DISPATCH_SOA_ARRAYS will enable SOA array dispatch as well. More advanced possibilities exist and are described in VTK/CMake/vtkCreateArrayDispatchArrayList.cmake.
vtkArrayDownCast
In VTK, all subclasses of vtkObject support a downcast method called SafeDownCast, similar to the C++ dynamic_cast: given an object, try to cast it to a more derived type; return NULL if the object is not the requested type. SafeDownCast is implemented as a series of string comparisons on the object’s class name, and this can dominate computational resources. Some vtkDataArrays support a specialized FastDownCast method, which lessons the cost of downcasting arrays by replacing common string comparisons with a single virtual call. However, not all array implementations support the FastDownCast method.
vtkArrayDownCast unifies these casting methods by automatically selecting FastDownCast when it is defined for the ArrayType, and otherwise falls back to the slower SafeDownCast.
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template
voidDoSomeAction(vtkAbstractArray *array)
{
ArrayType *myArray=vtkArrayDownCast(array);
if(myArray)
{
// ... (do work with myArray)
}
}
vtkDataArrayAccessor
Array dispatching relies on having templated worker code carry out some operation, such as locating the maximum value in an array. However, because only the arrays in vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays are tested for dispatching, a backup implementation to fall back on the slower vtkDataArray API is needed in case of an unsupported array. Writing the same algorithm twice adds extra debugging, testing, and maintenance.
The vtkDataArrayAccessor removes the need for duplication of effort. It provides component and tuple based Get and Set methods using either the vtkDataArray or vtkGenericDataArray API, depending on the class’s template parameter. It also defines an APIType, which can be used to allocate temporaries, etc. This type is double for vtkDataArrays and vtkGenericDataArray::ValueType for vtkGenericDataArrays.
vtkDataArrayAccessor has a more compact API. The only defined methods are Get and Set, and they’re overloaded to work on tuples and components. Note that non-element access operations such as GetNumberOfTuples should still be called on the array pointer using vtkDataArray API.
Using vtkDataArrayAccessor, we can write a single worker template that works for both vtkDataArray and vtkGenericDataArray, without a loss of performance in the latter case. That worker looks like this:
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// Stores the tuple/component coordinates of the maximum value using vtkDataArrayAccessor:
When we call operator() with, say, ArrayT=vtkFloatArray, we’ll get an optimized, efficient code path. But we can also call this same implementation with ArrayT=vtkDataArray and still get a correct result (assuming that the vtkDataArray’s double API represents the data well enough).
Using the vtkDataArray fallback path is straightforward. At the call site:
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voidsomeFunction(vtkDataArray *array)
{
FindMax maxWorker;
if(!vtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch::Execute(array,maxWorker))
{
maxWorker(array);// Dispatch failed, call vtkDataArray fallback
}
// Do work using maxWorker.Tuple and maxWorker.Component -- now we know
// for sure that they’re initialized!
}
Using the above pattern for calling a worker and always going through vtkDataArrayAccessor to Get/Set array elements ensures that any worker implementation can be its own fallback path.
VTK_ASSUME
The new array classes achieve the same performance as raw memory buffers for most cases, using both AOS and SOA array implementations. In fact, with –ffast-math optimizations on GCC 4.9, the optimizer is able to remove all function calls and apply SIMD vectorized instructions in the dispatched worker, showing that the new array API is thin enough that the compiler can see the algorithm in terms of memory access.
But there was one case where performance suffered. If iterating through an AOS data array with a known number of components using GetTypedComponent, the raw pointer implementation initially outperformed the dispatched array. To understand why, note that the AOS implementation of GetTypedComponent is along the lines of:
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ValueType vtkAOSDataArrayTemplate::GetTypedComponent(vtkIdType tuple,
intcomp)const
{
// AOSData is a ValueType* pointing at the base of the array data.
returnthis->AOSData[tuple *this->NumberOfComponents+comp];
}
Because NumberOfComponents is unknown at compile time, the optimizer cannot assume anything about the stride of the components in the array. This leads to missed optimizations for vectorized read/writes and increased complexity in the instructions used to iterate through the data.
For such cases where the number of components is, in fact, known at compile time (due to a calling function performing some validation, for instance), it is possible to tell the compiler about this fact using VTK_ASSUME.
VTK_ASSUME wraps a compiler-specific __assume statement, which is used to pass such optimization hints. Its argument is an expression of some condition that is guaranteed to always be true. This allows more aggressive optimizations when used correctly, but be forewarned that if the condition is not met at runtime, the results are unpredictable and likely catastrophic.
But if we’re writing a filter that only operates on 3D point sets, we know the number of components in the point array will always be 3. In this case we can write:
VTK_ASSUME(pointsArray->GetNumberOfComponents() == 3);
in the worker function and this instructs the compiler that the array’s internal NumberOfComponents variable will always be 3, and thus the stride of the array is known. Of course, the caller of this worker function should ensure that this is a 3-component array and fail gracefully if it is not.
There are many scenarios where VTK_ASSUME can offer a serious performance boost, the case of known tuple size is a common one that’s really worth remembering.
vtkArrayDispatch
The dispatchers implemented in the vtkArrayDispatch namespace provide array dispatching with customizable restrictions on code generation and a simple syntax that hides the messy details of type resolution and multi-array dispatch. There are several “flavors” of dispatch available that operate on up to three arrays simultaneously.
Components Of A Dispatch
Using the vtkArrayDispatch system requires three elements: the array(s), the worker, and the dispatcher.
The Arrays
All dispatched arrays must be subclasses of vtkDataArray. It is important to identify as many restrictions as possible. Must every ArrayType be considered during dispatch, or is the array’s ValueType (or even the ArrayType itself) restricted? If dispatching multiple arrays at once, are they expected to have the same ValueType? These scenarios are common, and these conditions can be used to reduce the number of instantiations of the worker template.
The Worker
The worker is some generic callable. In C++98, a templated functor is a good choice. In C++14, a generic lambda is a usable option as well. For our purposes, we’ll only consider the functor approach, as C++14 is a long ways off for core VTK code.
At a minimum, the worker functor should define operator() to make it callable. This should be a function template with a template parameter for each array it should handle. For a three array dispatch, it should look something like this:
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structThreeArrayWorker
{
template
voidoperator()(Array1T *array1,Array2T *array2,Array3T *array3)
{
<i>/* Do stuff... */</i>
}
};
At runtime, the dispatcher will call ThreeWayWorker::operator() with a set of Array1T, Array2T, and Array3T that satisfy any dispatch restrictions.
Workers can be stateful, too, as seen in the FindMax worker earlier where the worker simply identified the component and tuple id of the largest value in the array. The functor stored them for the caller to use in further analysis:
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// Example of a stateful dispatch functor:
structFindMax
{
// Functor state, holds results that are accessible to the caller:
vtkIdType Tuple;
intComponent;
// Set initial values:
FindMax():Tuple(-1),Component(-1){}
// Template method to set Tuple and Component ivars:
template
voidoperator()(ArrayT *array)
{
<i>/* Do stuff... */</i>
}
};
The Dispatcher
The dispatcher is the workhorse of the system. It is responsible for applying restrictions, resolving array types, and generating the requested template instantiations. It has responsibilities both at run-time and compile-time.
During compilation, the dispatcher will identify the valid combinations of arrays that can be used according to the restrictions. This is done by starting with a typelist of arrays, either supplied as a template parameter or by defaulting to vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays, and filtering them by ValueType if needed. For multi-array dispatches, additional restrictions may apply, such as forcing the second and third arrays to have the same ValueType as the first. It must then generate the required code for the dispatch — that is, the templated worker implementation must be instantiated for each valid combination of arrays.
At runtime, it tests each of the dispatched arrays to see if they match one of the generated code paths. Runtime type resolution is carried out using vtkArrayDownCast to get the best performance available for the arrays of interest. If it finds a match, it calls the worker’s operator() method with the properly typed arrays. If no match is found, it returns false without executing the worker.
Restrictions: Why They Matter
We’ve made several mentions of using restrictions to reduce the number of template instantiations during a dispatch operation. You may be wondering if it really matters so much. Let’s consider some numbers.
VTK is configured to use 13 ValueTypes for numeric data. These are the standard numeric types float, int, unsigned char, etc. By default, VTK will define vtkArrayDispatch::Arrays to use all 13 types with vtkAOSDataArrayTemplate for the standard set of dispatchable arrays. If enabled during compilation, the SOA data arrays are added to this list for a total of 26 arrays.
Using these 26 arrays in a single, unrestricted dispatch will result in 26 instantiations of the worker template. A double dispatch will generate 676 workers. A triple dispatch with no restrictions creates a whopping 17,576 functions to handle the possible combinations of arrays.
Applying some simple restrictions can reduce this immensely. If the arrays will only contain floats or doubles, the single dispatch drops to 4 instantiations, the double dispatch to 16, and the triple to 64. We could even apply such a restriction to just create some ‘fast-paths’ and let the integral types fallback to using the vtkDataArray API by using vtkDataArrayAccessors.
Another common restriction is that all arrays in a multi-array dispatch have the same ValueType, even if that ValueType is not known at compile time. By specifying this restriction, a double dispatch on all 26 AOS/SOA arrays will only produce 52 worker instantiations, down from 676. The triple dispatch drops to 104 instantiations from 17,576.
Always apply restrictions when they are known, especially for multi-array dispatches. The savings are worth it.
Putting It All Together
Now that we’ve explored the new tools introduced with VTK 7.1 that allow efficient, implementation agnostic array access, let’s look at the calcMagnitude example and identify the key features of the implementation:
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// Modern implementation of calcMagnitude using new concepts in VTK 7.1:
structCalcMagnitudeWorker
{
template
voidoperator()(VectorArray *vectors,MagnitudeArray *magnitude)
{
VTK_ASSUME(vectors->GetNumberOfComponents()==3);
VTK_ASSUME(magnitude->GetNumberOfComponents()==1);
vtkDataArrayAccessorv(vectors);
vtkDataArrayAccessorm(magnitude);
vtkIdType numVectors=vectors->GetNumberOfTuples();
for(vtkIdType tupleIdx=0;tupleIdx<numVectors;++tupleIdx)
{
m.Set(tupleIdx,0,std::sqrt(v.Get(tupleIdx,0)*v.Get(tupleIdx,0)+
v.Get(tupleIdx,1)*v.Get(tupleIdx,1)+
v.Get(tupleIdx,2)*v.Get(tupleIdx,2)));
}
}
};
voidcalcMagnitude(vtkDataArray *vectors,vtkDataArray *magnitude)
{
CalcMagnitudeWorker worker;
typedefvtkArrayDispatch::Dispatch2ByValueType
<vtkArrayDispatch::AllTypes,vtkArrayDispatch::Reals>Dispatcher;
if(!Dispatcher::Execute(vectors,magnitude,worker))
{
worker(vectors,magnitude);// vtkDataArray fallback
}
}
This implementation uses dispatch restrictions to reduce the number of instantiated templated worker functions from down to 104 combinations, where a double-dispatch would create 676 instantiations. When ValueType restrictions aren’t met, the calculation is still carried out at double precision; those other 572 cases won’t have special code generated but can still run if needed. Thanks to vtkDataArrayAccessor, we have a fallback implementation that reuses our templated worker code. In this case, the dispatch is really just a fast-path implementation for floating point output types.
The performance should be identical to iterating through raw memory buffers.The vtkGenericDataArray API is transparent to the compiler. The specialized instantiations of operator() can be heavily optimized since the memory access patterns are known and well-defined. Using VTK_ASSUME tells the compiler that the arrays have known strides, allowing further compile-time optimizations.
Hopefully this has convinced you that the vtkArrayDispatch and related tools are worth using to create flexible, efficient, typesafe implementations for your work with VTK. For information on types of Dispatchers and advanced usage such as accessing memory buffers, check out the wiki. Please direct any additional questions you may have on the subject to the VTK mailing lists.
Yep! Ken has started reworking some of the rendering code to use these new techniques, but there’s still a lot of VTK internals that use the old GetVoidPointer/vtkTemplateMacro approach. If there’s a section of rendering code that’s causing you trouble, feel free to open a bug on the VTK tracker and ping me (@dlonie) and @ken-martin on it. | {
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} |
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Gangsta rap sold tens of millions of albums in the late 80s and early 90s, but the tales of violence, drugs, and sex were too hot for mainstream airwaves. It took two former members of hardcore rap group NWA to give the music a radio-friendly spin (with cleaned up lyrics): one was Dr. Dre—architect of G-Funk and the man responsible for introducing Snoop Dogg to the world—and the other was Ice Cube.
Cube already had a reputation as a compelling and controversial MC when he sat down to begin his third solo album shortly after the LA Riots in 1992. The riots took place on his own home turf so he knew he’d be writing about the ramifications, but—having previously rapped extensively on the subjects of violence and racism—he decided to go in a different direction for the single “It Was A Good Day,” accentuating the positive, eliminating the negative.
Life wasn’t all guns, murders, and drugs in South Central—even for a gangsta—so Cube decided to imagine one perfect day. His lyrics describe him moving through 17 hours in LA as he cruises the streets in his convertible six-four, plays some basketball, enjoys the company of a young lady, indulges in some recreational herbage, watches Yo! MTV Raps, and wins at dominoes and craps. In addition, he doesn’t get pulled over by the police, none of his friends get shot, and he has no need to use his automatic weapon. Radio embraced the kinder, gentler Cube and “It Was A Good Day” became his biggest hit, going Top 20 in early 1993.
Last year, a blogger named Donovan Strain went so far as to figure out which specific day in Ice Cube’s life he was rapping about. Apparently it was January 20, 1992 — the only day which could possibly meet all the criteria of the lyrics. (As always, the internet has way too much time on its hands. And you know this, man!!) | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Calphalon Non-Stick Large Jelly Roll Pan
Calphalon Jelly Roll Pans are made from durable aluminized steel with a reinforced nonstick surface.
Texas Sheet Cake:
2 Cups Flour
2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 Cup Water
4 TB Cocoa
2 Eggs
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 Tsp. Soda
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
Mix flour and sugar in a mixing bowl; set aside. In a saucepan, bring butter, oil, water and cocoa to a boil. Pour over flour mixture and blend well. Stir in eggs, cinnamon, vanilla, baking soda and buttermilk; blend well. Pour into large ungreased jelly roll pan and bake at 350 degrees (F) for 20 minutes. Frost with Texas Sheet Cake Icing while still warm. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
“The Flash Sale price is flight specific”, according to Air India’s Regional Manager, Ms. Vandana Sharma, “but can represent a saving of several hundred dollars per ticket off the current fare on some dates. Customers are advised to check the Air India website or with their travel agent for the best price and seat availability before the November 11th sale deadline.”
In addition to the Flash Sale, Air India also offers attractive Economy Class Super Value Fares throughout the year.
09/11/26 Indian Panorama | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Featured Research
from universities, journals, and other organizations
Laser Beam Believed To Set Record For Intensity
Date:
February 18, 2008
Source:
University of Michigan
Summary:
If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam. The pulsed laser beam lasts just 30 femtoseconds. A femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second. Such intense beams could help scientists develop better proton and electron beams for radiation treatment of cancer, among other applications.
If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory.
Related Articles
"That's the instantaneous intensity we can produce," said Karl Krushelnick, a physics and engineering professor. "I don't know of another place in the universe that would have this intensity of light. We believe this is a record."
The pulsed laser beam lasts just 30 femtoseconds. A femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second.
Such intense beams could help scientists develop better proton and electron beams for radiation treatment of cancer, among other applications.
The record-setting beam measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter. It contains 300 terawatts of power. That's 300 times the capacity of the entire U.S. electricity grid. The laser beam's power is concentrated to a 1.3-micron speck about 100th the diameter of a human hair. A human hair is about 100 microns wide.
This intensity is about two orders of magnitude higher than any other laser in the world can produce, said Victor Yanovsky, a research scientist in the U-M Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science who built the ultra-high power system over the past six years.
The laser can produce this intense beam once every 10 seconds, whereas other powerful lasers can take an hour to recharge.
"We can get such high power by putting a moderate amount of energy into a very, very short time period," Yanovsky said. "We're storing energy and releasing it in a microscopic fraction of a second."
To achieve this beam, the research team added another amplifier to the HERCULES laser system, which previously operated at 50 terawatts.
HERCULES is a titanium-sapphire laser that takes up several rooms at U-M's Center for Ultrafast Optical Science. Light fed into it bounces like a pinball off a series of mirrors and other optical elements. It gets stretched, energized, squeezed and focused along the way.
HERCULES uses the technique of chirped pulse amplification developed by U-M engineering professor emeritus Gerard Mourou in the 1980s. Chirped pulse amplification relies on grooved surfaces called diffraction gratings to stretch a very short duration laser pulse so that it lasts 50,000 times longer. This stretched pulse can then be amplified to much higher energy without damaging the optics in its path. After the beam is amplified to a higher energy by passing through titanium-sapphire crystals, an optical compressor reverses the stretching, squeezing the laser pulse until it's close to its original duration. The beam is then focused to ultra-high intensity.
In addition to medical uses, intense laser beams like these could help researchers explore new frontiers in science. At even more extreme intensities, laser beams could potentially "boil the vacuum," which scientists theorize would generate matter by merely focusing light into empty space. Some scientists also see applications in inertial confinement fusion research, coaxing low-mass atoms to join together into heavier ones and release energy in the process.
A paper on this research, "Ultra-high intensity 300-TW laser at 0.1 Hz repetition rate," is published online in the journal Optics Express.
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ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations. | {
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} |
2014-07-14
Bongjangchui
Matt A:
Wow, this is amazing! Thanks for posting it.
And "Bongjangchui" is definitely 鳳雀吹...
The full "유동초 퉁소 독주 '봉장취'" is "柳東初 洞簫 獨奏 ‘鳳雀吹’"; Han Seongjun 韓成俊 accompanies on the drum. The record is Victor Star KS-2007(KRE186). | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Defending the planet, new partner announced, and an upcoming special event
Defending the Planet
I’m at the 3rd International Academy of Astronautics Planetary Defense Conference in Flagstaff, AZ this week. The conference gathers experts from around the world to discuss our knowledge of asteroids, new efforts to characterize them, and of course discussion on ways to mitigate those that pose a threat to Earth.
It’s always an extremely fun and informative conference, as it focuses entirely on asteroids . . . how often do you get to consider defending the Earth from space rocks?
Yesterday, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver opened the conference, describing NASA’s proposed asteroid retrieval mission, and the potential for private companies, like Planetary Resources, to contribute to the mission.
Lead scientists throughout the day added to our current knowledge of the near-Earth asteroid population. There are about 9 million asteroids the size that impacted Chelyabinsk. While about 95% of 1km+ asteroids have been found, less than 1% of the asteroids smaller than 100m have been found.
The current near Earth object discovery rate is about 1000 per year. As of April 12, we have discovered 861 large (>1 km) NEOs, and 9,770 NEOs overall. There was also much discussion on just how far the science has come in the last 20 years – before 1991 all asteroids were found with magic marker on photographic plates!
My favorite discussions were on the formation history and strength of asteroids. New modeling is showing that rubble-pile asteroids are likely strengthened by the cohesive forces between the smallest grains in their size distributions. This allows some asteroids to remain intact past the point when their spin might normally break them up, and also says that even some very fast spinning “monolith” asteroids could have a coating of asteroid regolith on them. Truly exotic!
And of course, being the Planetary DEFENSE conference, you couldn’t get away without some initial discussions on potential ways to deflect asteroids. One presenter explained how a 10-ton impact vehicle could deflect a 100 to 500 meter near Earth object. There was also some discussion on the use of a nuclear blast near an asteroid to vaporize the surface and create a small thrust force to deflect it.
Bechtel Partners with Planetary Resources for Space Initiative
We’re very excited today to announce that Bechtel has joined our core group of investors and will be a collaborative partner in helping achieve our long-term mission at Planetary Resources. Bechtel is among the most respected engineering, project management, and construction companies in the world. You can read all the details in our full press release here.
Hang out with the Planetary Resources’ team on our one-year Anniversary
We announced Planetary Resources to the world nearly a year ago. Join our team for a special Google Hangout on our one-year anniversary next Wednesday, April 24 at 11:00 a.m. PDT (18:00 UTC). We’ll provide a brief year in review, current status on the development of the Arkyd series of spacecraft, and an outlook to the future of asteroid prospecting, exploration and mining! Be sure to follow our Google+ page to get all the details on the event.
We’ll also be answering a few questions from you – feel free to ask them here, or send them via Google+ or Twitter on the day of the event. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Basically, the “DeepFake” technology uses existing machine learning / deep learning algorithms to create models that can manipulate data in a certain quite predictable way. If you input a headshot photo of a random person, that “model” can make that person look like a very specific person. That sounds very abstract.
An example:
If I take a photo of myself, the “Nicholas Cage” model can make me look like Nicholas Cage!
In the case of those DeepFake videos, an entire video scene was processed by a certain model and basically made the actor look like a very specific different actor. So as a result, you would get a video where the actor looks very different from the one who was shot in the original film.
Real-Time is Key
For quite some years we’ve been working with streaming video for our Sky Drone products, which come in many different flavors. As a result, we have a bit of experience on how to stream video real-time. Then we thought further on how that technology of “deep faking” could work with real-time video chat. As a result, we used all the technology knowledge at hand and created a small web service that allows you to video chat with yourself. Yet, you won’t see your face, but the one of a person you choose to be. This is how it looks like:
The small website is not fancy nor is it easy to use. It just works — if you use it the right way. If you’d like to try it yourself, you can follow the instructions we posted on Reddit.
You can see yourself through the webcam of your computer. That video is being streamed to a cloud computing cluster we operate. On that cluster, the “AI model” for the selected person is being applied. The resulting video is then being streamed back to your computer and shown on the screen. As a result, your face looks quite different from your actual face.
You can try to smile for example, and the model will modify the smile to a smile that celebrity would do. This includes the kind of teeth that celebrity has, the mouth and lip shape, etc.
For example, this is how it looks like when we smile while being Nicolas Cage:
Of course, a photo of a computer screen is not that nice and it does especially not show how movement in the video shows you as a “different person”. Yet, it can at least give you an idea on how that might be. Feel free to give it a try yourself.
The Future
We have some ideas on how this can be used in future – for legitimate purposes, of course. As I don’t want to spoil your thoughts … What do you think this can be used for?
Think job interviews for example. To allow an objective judgement on a person’s qualifications through video by showing their ability to express him or herself and come along with a pleasant appearance without creating prejudice at the interviewer’s side. It still happens too often that people get discriminated by their ethnicity during job interview — even though their abilities are outstanding. If a hiring company can video-interview 20 people for a job all with the same face, the remaining factors to judge them on are more focused around merit.
Think whistleblowers for example or other people who’d rather disguise their identity for security reasons. Yet, there is often a need to publicly speak out in a broadcast kind of way. Putting black bars over the eyes doesn’t really do much. Smudging out the faces is kind of creepy. So swapping their face in real-time would be an option that still allows to show emotion and facial expressions, but without revealing your own identity.
Just two examples out of probably dozens of legal and useful applications. | {
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Deadwood: The Movie
Deadwood, like so many popular serialized television series, stopped airing before the story it was telling had an opportunity to end properly.
In the original series, which ran on HBO from 2004 to 2006, viewers were welcomed into the world of Deadwood in the Dakota Territory during the 1870s. Writer David Milch (whose previous credits include NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues) created a case of characters loosely inspired by real historic figures.
Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant), a brash sheriff who presaged Olyphant’s career-making turn on the later series Justified but whose hot-headed approach to the law continues to resemble no other lawman on television; Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), an iconic bastard who runs a saloon and brothel; Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert), a piss-drunk wanderer who finds her place in unexpected moments of crisis. Although not a history show, Deadwood was a Western that managed to express something true to the idea that has driven the genre in popular imagination for so long. Colorful characters of all kinds trying to make their way on the frontier as “civilization” marches ceaselessly into their lives. Can they stop it? Will it consume their way of life? Alas, HBO canceled the show before that story could come to completion. Thirteen years later, Deadwood: The Movie, available on HBONow and HBOGo, presents a conclusive epilogue.
The question that comes to mind when something like Deadwood: The Movie comes along is whether or not a resumed story will hold up in quality to what exists in our memories. I only caught up with the original show earlier this week, having put it off for a long, long time. To my novice mind, this works as an appropriate sendoff for a number of characters who leapt fully from the screen and into my heart over only 36 episodes of television. It is emotionally and dramatically satisfying. Most importantly, Milch gets to once again write lines for one of the finest ensembles ever gathered on any show or film. Every utterance Milch writes is an absolute pleasure. One, in particular, is the story’s essence and destined to be quoted endlessly:
“We’re
all of us haunted by our own fuckin’ thoughts, so make friends with
the ghost – it ain’t going anywhere.”
A number of now-classic TV series have returned as either miniseries, movies or streaming shows. Deadwood is one of the few to come back in the form of a two-hour movie that could be aired theatrically. Unlike Twin Peaks: The Return (indisputably the best returning program), Deadwood: The Movie can be reasonably viewed without prior knowledge of the show. In the scheme of the Western mythology, it slides right into the final act of the classic arc: Technology is here, and the old guard who resisted it have to live or die with it.
There are a number of ongoing plots at play that weave in and out; it’s only thanks to Milch’s pen that the two-hour runtime does not feel too short, or overstuffed. George Hearst, embodiment of the cruel industrial will of the late 19th century, returns to Deadwood to celebrate South Dakota’s induction into the United States proper. As always, blood follows in his wake. At one point in the movie, a character remarks to him that he’s not “the boss of the fucking future,” to which he replies “Why, I believe I’m its sole inheritor.” Meanwhile, Calamity Jane also returns to town to reunite with her one true love, Joanie Stubbs (Kim Dickens). And, lastly, Trixie (Paula Malcomson) and Sheriff Bullock’s partner, Sol Star (John Hawkes), welcome a child into the world.
Death, love and life. The essential ingredients of a story broken into their raw elements and played together to craft a conclusion that speaks to the human spirit of our characters and the questions they ask themselves about their role in the schemes of things. There is a simplicity to Milch’s script, never hewing too far into the realm of over-the-top retribution or violence. It’s a perfect, patient Western that doesn’t rely too heavily on stylistic flourish or bloodshed to say something about the way we change as the world changes around us. In similar fashion to Twin Peaks: The Return, Deadwood: The Movie succeeds at reviving an old story by leaning into reflexive, thoughtful rumination rather than retreading old plots or making everything nice and tidy. As a Western, it works on its merits, and as an epilogue to a long-form story it works even better. And that final line — magnificent.
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Administrator of Midwest Film Journal. Previously a staff writer for TheFilmYap.com, Evan has been writing film criticism in the Indianapolis area for over half a decade. He is a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. He also reviews Oreos. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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Playing video games can be a fun family affair. According to a recent report about the computer and video game industry in the United States, about 60 percent of parents with kids who are gamers settle down along-side their children to operate device controls. In addition, findings from the same Entertainment Software Association survey show that more than 150 million Americans indulge in this pastime. This is despite many studies focused on negative aspects of people immersing themselves in a variety of virtual realities for several hours each week.
The good news is that a growing body of work by scientists suggests that playing video games can improve how young people think, learn and make decisions as well as build their socialization skills and self-esteem.
In a 2014 report on the benefits of playing video games published by the American Psychological Association, researchers said they recognize the value of studies that have focused on the potential harms of gaming that relate to violence, addiction and depression.
But the scientists also suggested that “a more balanced perspective is needed, one that considers not only the possible negative effects but also the benefits of playing these games.” | {
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} |
Apple Beats combo? the cost of cool
Apple Beats combo? the cost of cool
Apple may be trying to get some street cred if it indeed buys headphone maker Beats Electronic for $3.2 billion, but Wall Street is scratching its head over the reported deal, which would be Apple's biggest. Bobbi Rebell reports. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Your Progressive News Source
Trump Open to Change in GOP Obamacare Replacement, House Members Say
House Republicans battling over their party’s proposed legislation to replace Obamacare say they have been told President Donald Trump is “agnostic” on the details of the plan, suggesting the current draft could face alterations.
The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, a former House member, delivered the message Tuesday that Trump is open to alterations in a meeting with leaders of the Republican Study Committee, a group of 170 House conservatives, according to two House members and an aide in the room.
Trump has also told House Republicans he’s ready to go out on the road to visit holdout lawmakers’ districts, and hold individual calls and meetings with them, to build support for the health-care bill.
“He said, ‘Let me know who I need to talk to, and I’ll talk to them,’” said Dennis Ross of Florida, a member of the House Republican vote-counting team that met with Trump Tuesday.
Trump’s early messaging to Capitol Hill makes it clear that he is most focused on getting the bill done, one way or the other, although it’s unclear what scale of revisions the administration is prepared to accept.
Conservative Backlash
The draft released by House GOP leaders this week has been savaged by conservative lawmakers and outside groups, as well as by organizations that represent doctors and hospitals.
“How do you lose AARP and Club for Growth?” said Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, referring respectively to the group that represent older Americans and a conservative group of deficit hawks. “That’s like a perfect storm.”
Even as two House committees began public consideration of the bill Wednesday, Republicans were lining up their demands for changes to the health-care legislation.
It isn’t clear how well a more free-wheeling negotiating approach fits with Speaker Paul Ryan’s detail-oriented outlook. But even as Trump himself tweeted that the bill introduced Monday was “wonderful,” he added that it was “out for review and negotiation.”
Meetings already are occurring on Capitol Hill between key groups of Republicans and administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence.
Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho said Wednesday that Mulvaney’s message to the House Freedom Caucus during a meeting Tuesday night was, if we can improve the bill, then submit the ideas.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that while the president is always open to negotiations or good ideas, the House bill is what the president is backing and plans to make a case to the American public around.
“He’s in very much of a sell mode,” Spicer told reporters at Wednesday’s press briefing. “The president is very proud of the product we have produced.”
Trump is also reaching out personally to some lawmakers. On Tuesday, he met with a group of House Republican vote counters. Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who attended that meeting, said Trump is “a very positive guy, he expects it to pass.”
‘Bloodbath for Republicans’
“But he did say ‘Look, I think if we don’t pass this, it’ll be a bloodbath for Republicans in the 2018 election,’” Cole added. “I think he’s absolutely right in saying that.”
Representative Dave Brat of Virginia, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday that group expects to meet with the president next week on the health-care bill.
Trump also reached out to Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who joined several House conservatives at a press conference Tuesday to criticize the measure.
“I talked to the president this week and I had a great conversation and he said he was interested in my ideas and interested in conservatives’ ideas,” Paul said in an interview Tuesday. “So I don’t know. I don’t think we have to be that far apart.”
GOP ‘Mandate’
As the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Ways and Means panel began considering the bill Wednesday, Democrats lined up a stack of amendments and made clear that the sessions would be lengthy. But Republicans said they would push through as quickly as possible.
“The country had their say. I’m glad there’s a mandate,” Representative Steve Scalise, the majority whip, said during the Energy and Commerce meeting. “The American people spoke. We’re not going to deny them this opportunity to repeal this law.”
Ryan has set March 22 as his target date for House passage, members said after a closed-door conference on Wednesday. The speaker also said Republican leaders are working “hand in glove” with Trump and the administration to get it done.
Ross said House Republican leaders and vote-counters haven’t yet given the president a list of individual lawmakers he should press or target to get the bill over the finish line.
“I don’t see any other choice for us,” he said. “But in a month from now, we’ll see whether it’s sitting over in the Senate, or we’re licking our wounds and talking about tax-reform lite,” he said.
Tax Credits and Medicaid
House Republicans are still wrestling over some basic foundations of their leaders’ plan. Several conservatives have lashed out at the inclusion of a refundable tax credit to help some people buy insurance, saying it would create a new government entitlement. A Republican Study Committee analysis labeled it “welfare.”
Others have been critical of the legislation’s continuation of Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid. Abortion is an issue for both conservatives, who are concerned about the clarity of language guaranteeing the tax credit money would not be used for abortions, and moderates, who are upset over provisions to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
“We are a long way off,” said Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, who co-chairs a group of House moderates.
Meanwhile, estimates from congressional auditors of the plan’s costs and projections of how many Americans might lose insurance coverage still haven’t been made public.
“We’re not going to let some unelected bureaucrats in Washington stop us from fulfilling our promise to the American people,” Scalise said Wednesday in rejecting complaints about the CBO’s delay.
GOP leaders are counting on pressure Republicans feel to deliver on promises they’ve made to repeal Obamacare ever since the health-care law was passed in 2010.
“We’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do it. Everybody knows we have to do it,” said Representative Daniel Webster of Florida, describing Ryan’s tone in a closed-door meeting Wednesday.
That means the White House’s involvement is expected to only get more intense.
The first book by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady—the five-time Super Bowl champion who is still reaching unimaginable heights of excellence at forty years old—a gorgeously illustrated and deeply practical “athlete’s bible” that reveals Br... read more
“In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I’ve often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I’m letting my guard down.” —Hillary Rodham Clinton, from the introduction of What HappenedFor the first time, Hilla... read more
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERINSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER“Compelling… this book couldn’t be more timely.” – Jill Abramson, New York Times Book Review From the Recipient of the 2017 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in JournalismCalled "disgraceful," "t... read more
The first book by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady—the five-time Super Bowl champion who is still reaching unimaginable heights of excellence at forty years old—a gorgeously illustrated and deeply practical “athlete’s bible” that reveals Br... read more
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • America’s Bitter Pill is Steven Brill’s acclaimed book on how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing—and fai... read more
In this groundbreaking book, health-care attorney Daniel E. Dawes explores the secret backstory of the Affordable Care Act, shedding light on the creation and implementation of the greatest and most sweeping equalizer in the history of American he... read more
The American healthcare system is broken. We rank dead last among advanced industrialized countries in terms of healthcare cost, quality, and access to routine care. The 2010 Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, tried to reform U.S. health... read more
We Read the Law So You Don’t Have To The practical handbook to making good decisions in our changing healthcare marketplace. At over 2,700 pages - with an additional 20,000 pages of regulations -the ObamaCare law is longer than the Bible, with many ... read more
Health care spending in the United States today is approaching 20 percent of GDP, yet levels of U.S. population health have been declining for decades relative to other wealthy and even some developing nations. How is it possible that the United ... read more
ObamaCare is a complex law that will affect every single American. Everyone has an opinion about ObamaCare, but few people actually understand how the Affordable Care Act works. ObamaCare Simplified navigates you through the intricacies of the health... read more
Six years after its enactment, Obamacare remains one of the most controversial, divisive, and enduring political issues in America. In this much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed Unprecedented: The Constitutional Challenge to Obamacar... read more
On January 1, 2014, the most important consumer protections in ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act) go into effect. With both supporters and opponents of the law debating its merits and its controversial rollout, there is a need for "news-you-can-use”... read more
This 3 x 5 foot novelty message flag is made from super polyester that is durable, yet lightweight enough to fly in even the lightest breeze. It has 2 brass grommets firmly attached to heavy canvas on the inner fly side. Bright, vivid colors and colo... read more | {
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Recount strips Ch Nisar of PP-7 victory
taxila - PML-N heavyweight Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan lost the Punjab Assembly seat PP-7 Taxilla to PTI candidate Siddiq Khan after a recount at six polling stations of the constituency on Thursday.The re-counting at six polling stations of PP-7 wiped off PML-N stalwart Ch Nisar Ali Khan by 774 votes from the constituency where he was earlier declared winner with a margin of 516 votes. On the application of Siddiq Khan, the returning officer Saeed Awan conducted the recounting at polling station number 9, 47, 48, 50, 64 and 82 in the presence of candidates and media. Flaws were observed in finalisation and compilation of results. It was discovered that at polling station number 64, Siddiq Khan got 517 votes and Ch Nisar clinched 133 votes but the presiding officer reversed the results and added 517 votes in favour of Ch Nisar while 133 in favour of Siddiq Khan. Same story was repeated at polling station number 82 established in Govt high School Paryail where the presiding officer converted 217 votes of Ch Nisar Ali Khan into 416 and Siddiq Khan’s 415 votes into 280. At polling station number 50 established at Govt high school Chahan, the presiding officer debited 617 votes to Ch Nisar’s account. Thirty-seven votes were found missing and 8 votes were rejected due to different reasons. The returning officer declared previous unofficial results null and void and declared PTI candidate victorious. Results of these six polling stations were not timely submitted by presiding officers and their arrest warrants were issued by the returning officer. The PML is completely eliminated from Wah tehsil as it had already lost one national and one provincial assembly seats from the area. The PTI candidate has already defeated Ch Nisar Ali Khan at NA-53 Rawalpindi and young PTI candidate Taimour Masood in Wah Cantonment PP-8 Rawalpindi-VIII defeated former MPA Umer Farooq.Taimour is a new entrant in politics and the defeat of a seasoned politician from a new face heavily reduced the PML-N influence in the area.Siddiq Khan is the former tehsil nazim and a well-respected figure in his constituency but his victory is termed as quite unexpected. Talking to newsmen, Siddiq Khan said that it was the victory of the masses not of a personality or party. He said that his supporters was confident of his victory, therefore, they have pleaded re-counting of votes at six polling stations. He said that masses were suppressed by bad governance and they answered the PML-N candidates on the polling day.
This news was published in The Nation newspaper. Read complete newspaper of 17-May-2013 here. | {
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Phil out on his own: And is poised to surpass Casper
Phil out on his own: And is poised to surpass Casper With his ninth consecutive appearance in the Ryder Cup, Phil Mickelson (left) now holds the record for most Ryder Cup appearances by an American. Jim Furyk is now tied with Billy Casper, Raymond Floyd and Lanny Wadkins, with eight appearances on the US team.
Phil out on his own: And is poised to surpass Casper
With his ninth consecutive appearance in the Ryder Cup, Phil Mickelson (left) now holds the record for most Ryder Cup appearances by an American. Jim Furyk is now tied with Billy Casper, Raymond Floyd and Lanny Wadkins, with eight appearances on the US team.
Nick Faldo (Europe) holds the all-time Ryder Cup mark for most appearances, with 11 straight from 1977 to 1997.
At Medinah, Mickelson is likely to surpass Casper for most matches played among Americans. Mickelson has competed in 34 matches; Casper competed in 37.
Faldo holds the record for most all-time matches played, with 46. Mickelson also holds the US mark for most fourball matches played, 15.
We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Standards. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment or by filling out this form. New comments are only accepted for 3 days from the date of publication. | {
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King David Teaches Business Ethics
Posted on 11/12/2017 by Marc Michaels in Reviews
Surely God isn’t interested in business. Isn’t religion all about being spiritual and following lots of customs and rituals?
In fact, God does have a business mind and one of his top level executives, better known to us as King David, has left us a person specification - a competency framework if you will - that we would be well served to adopt in today’s business world where, sadly, ethics can be somewhat lacking. There are many fine character traits described in only five short verses of Psalm 15.
I’m a Sofer STa"M (scribe) and designer, but I’m also a Marketing Director and have worked in both the public (on social marketing) and private sector, as client, agency and intermediary for over 30 years. So I decided to blend all my worlds together in an accessible book Tam (Simple) for the lay-person looking at the ethical lessons we can derive from our heritage.
Let”s explore just one half of one of those verses.
... åÀãÉáÅø àÁîÆú בּÄìÀáÈáוֹ:
... v”dover emet bilvavo.
... and speaks the truth in/from his heart.
Different translations of this verse vary between speaking the truth from his heart and the truth in his heart. This is more than mere semantics. Speaking truth from one’s heart is about externalising what one holds to be true and communicating that to one’s fellows. This is a very interesting thought. How many times do people sit in a meeting wanting to contribute some piece of information that is the “truth” but because they are a “junior” member of staff they are scared of the repercussions. Or perhaps it is some very serious information that is being covered up by the organization and someone needs to become the “whistle-blower”. Either way, it requires the courage and strength of conviction to speak the truth as he or she sees it.
Or it could be as simple as being in a meeting where an unfamiliar term or piece of jargon is being used. You have a choice. You can sit there and pretend to understand and nod sagely while internally cursing your ignorance, and worse, curse yourself for not admitting that ignorance for fear of public shame. Or you can “fess-up and tell the truth. You could say that you wouldn’t mind a quick explanation that would help you grasp the entirety of the discussion.
Hands up. Who would have the guts to admit to a lack of knowledge in front of their peers? If you did then you would be “speaking the truth” as King David counsels.
Or, how many times does the agency account manager on learning a piece of information or of a mistake that may be of small import say, “Oh, we needn’t bother the client with that, they probably won’t find out and it’ll get sorted.” Have you heard this before? Worse still, have you said it? Don’t get me wrong, it’s an easy trap to fall into and I hate it every time I’m tempted.
It might get sorted. On the other hand it might be the start of some great unraveling of the project, a first indication of something going wrong. In which case, the client will want to know so they can take proactive and corrective action. A lack of honesty where the defensive shutters come down can lead to disaster.
A truthful approach where the issue is reported along with an understanding of the possible consequences and, more importantly, some suggestion of what might be done to address the issue, prevent it from getting worse is likely to yield better dividends than “radio silence”.
Even in a shop, a cashier might forget to charge you for something or give you too much change. If you notice it (and you might not) then at that point the “truth is in your heart” and when you go up to the cashier and tell them of the error and give them the extra money, then you have “spoken the truth”. This has happened to me a few times and most cashiers are amazed. My son also did this at a cinema, having discovered that they had not charged him for a fizzy drink. He had ordered a large drink and, after reporting the error, they decided to charge him for a regular. I was very proud of him.
How many people would just move on and pocket the excess? No-one would know but you. So what kind of person do you want to be, or have working with you?
Other translations of this phrase say that one should speak the truth in his heart. The opposite of this person who is found in Psalm 12:3 where people who “speak falsehood, each man with his neighbor” are described as speaking with “flattering lips and a double heart”.
A double heart doesn’t mean that one is a Time Lord (though I have learnt many lessons in ethics from Doctor Who too). Instead its modern counterpart would be that one is “two faced”. A good example here might be sucking up to the boss when you are with them, but doing down their abilities or character through gossip (another massive issue in the workplace) when you are with colleagues.
Similarly, we often see this phenomenon with hidden agendas that are guiding a business towards a particular path which might not be best for all those involved and only certain individuals are fully aware of the agenda. A different face is shown to staff who might be completely unaware of what is really going on.
And here we get to the nub of the matter. Truth, aside from its empirical value, leads to trust and trust leads to confidence that the person is a person of their word and will deliver the project on time, to budget, meeting the objectives set. Such people inspire confidence that they won’t let you down or try to cover issues up.
They will tell it as it is.
It seems so very obvious, but so many times people forget this and the trust is lost, possibly never to be regained.
Perhaps the most pointed lesson lies in a midrash about the Hebrew letters of the words for “truth” - àÁîÆú(emet) and “lie” - שׁÆ÷Æø(sheker). Truth rests on a strong foundation and you can build upon it. Lies and falsehoods are just so much puff and you can’t build a thing on that.
Interested in finding out more? Tam (Simple) by Marc Michaels is available in paperback and as an ebook.
Manuscript image (c) British Library Board (Harley MS 5771)
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Speaking of Season one
viper
sorry about the daly NBCVIPER, I have been so busy lately that I havent got around to setting up my computer for capture, I will get the promo and black box very soon, hopfully you still have street pirates,
also, how much of season 4 do you have? I only saw like the first about 6 episodes when scifi stopped airing viper, I would love too see the rest, especially split descision, maybe we can think of stuff to trade...
Such a great fanbase!
I just downloaded "About Face / Der Doppelte Cole" aka "The Double Cole" the Season finale for Season 3 in German, I was wondering does anyone have the English Audio / Script/Subtitles for this? As of now all I could do is lip synch a few things, but Jeff Kaake has had too much plastic surgery himself you don't see the lips move much (pun intended). XD
I'm glad to say that I installed eMule Xtreme MoD like a week ago and I've been downloading the German Viper Episodes, viewing the incomplete files. I think the quality is excellent for the release. (The only reason it's taking long is because I'm on 56K). But desperately enough, I'm going for downloading a few (and when I get high speed, I'm going to download and seed ALL of them). I was going to get a translator (when I find one) to do a favor for me and translate the episodes back to English so I could put subtitles on them myself (without lowering the quality/re-encoding) when I burn my DivX DVDs.
Viper was probably one of my most favorite TV shows. Not many people even remember it sadly or how slick it was. I am disgusted to find out that there hasn't been a official DVD release set (and just now I voted for it) of this fabulously directed TV show.
But, in short, for you all you people out there who want Viper episodes:
I know it's difficult, but until a DVD release (dammit, I'm gonna complain). The only surviving copies outside the studio widely avaliable are the German ones. Best thing you could do is try to get the German ones off of eMule or a similar client on the eDonkey network and get them if your desperate enough. It was worth it for me.. The episodes are good quality DivX that look EXCELLENT on my TV-Out.
As for the German / English episode problem:
I probably don't understand this entire situation fully. But if you all should just invest in a little "Stereo Audio-In" cord to our comps (you don't need a capture card XD).. Rip the English Audio and encode them as Stereo MP3s, put 'em up for simple hosting for people to replace it themselves (there's plenty of tutorials out there for that kinda stuff). Instead of re-encoding the official Engish TV-releases and the whole thing. I don't think it should be that much trouble, even if you have to re-edit. But from what I observe, the issue is Hard Drive space and CPU intensive processing plus time. Since people's computers are limited, we gotta do what we can do, not the impossible/difficult.
If someone would be so kind to reply, thank you freinds!
P.S.
I don't know if that "anyone" is still paying attention to this topic. But when your computer shuts off & restarts automatically if your doing something intensive. Believe me, you just have a low watt power supply, this happend to me before when I was installing more HDDs and CD Drives, it requires more power. Don't be afraid of getting a high watt power supply since it'll be regulated to the level it needs automatically.
Helping with uploading:
I swear, if someone gives me the english audio for the german episodes I'm downloading (but for now, just the "About Face" one). I WILL UPLOAD THIS STUFF TO THE VIPERCOMPLEX SERVER. I have access to high speed internet at work, so I can burn it from my home compy and upload it there (but can't use filesharing programs there).
Another thing I would like to mention that I'm no stranger at using 56K to do big things.. ViperComplex seems to be the place I downloaded my FIRST Viper episode, MIG-89. So if he is providing server space for episode uploads, I think I should help.
Wow?!@
OK, I have said to many times I AM DOING THAT MYSELF! Please READ VERY CAREFULLY! I HAVE SOME ENGLISH EPISODES AND I HAVE THEM FROM THE GERMAN EPISODE VIDEO IN HIGH QUALITY!!!! If however you or anyone else takes my episodes that I captured/capture and put it will the German video and/or to upload and share, the episode train IS OVER! I will retire from posting Viper episodes! Just BE PATIENCE! GEESH!
HoHoHo!
Originally Posted by vipernbc
If however you or anyone else takes my episodes that I captured/capture and put it will the German video and/or to upload and share, the episode train IS OVER! I will retire from posting Viper episodes! Just BE PATIENCE! GEESH!
So, let me get this straight, you want all this glory to yourself? Gee, sensitive on a idea that you haven't "patented"? Such a shame.. I've only seen one you've posted successfully. And who said I was going to take "your stuff"? I never mentioned you specifically.
From what I've observed in this topic's history, the thing is your taking a wee bit too long, I can get these done in less than a week. I just need someone to correspond with collected audio fast enough. So yes, I will be patient, I'll give you your chance. From what I all understand, we're all working toward the same goal, right?
?
Hey look, I have posted about 3-4 episodes on here, not to mention the fact that I gave mine out to some people upon request. Another thing is it will be on DVD soon, I talked with demeo and some other people and paramount will release it soon. | {
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Stormwater management & multipurpose infrastructure networks
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Ann-Ariel Vecchio, thesis looks at natural systems as a key element of how to design for sustainability. As part of these efforts, academics and practitioners have also begun to explore the ways in which the utilization of natural systems can and should change our approach to the design and function of urban areas and of infrastructure itself. As an entry point to explore the topic, this thesis focuses on stormwater management as one basic building block or fundamental component of multipurpose infrastructure development. An increasing number of cities will seek to implement green infrastructure approaches or stormwater best management practices (BMPs) in response to new regulation, desires to improve urban quality of life, and changes in attitudes about sustainability and climate change. However, a variety of urban conditions exist within and between cities, and it is therefore necessary to consider the range of possibilities for designing and implementing green infrastructure strategies in a range of built environments. At the same time, there is also the need to address other environmental, social, and cultural goals, such as creating assets from vacant land, improving the public realm, and creating connectivity through neighborhoods. This creates opportunities to develop multipurpose infrastructure projects that utilize natural systems to address multiple objectives. San Francisco, California; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Cleveland, Ohio represent three different types of urban conditions and serve as test locations to identify the factors that affect the development of multipurpose infrastructure. San Francisco has a dense urban environment, Lincoln expects continued horizontal growth through subdivisions, and Cleveland's decline in population has created a condition of vacancy throughout the city. These conditions present a range of constraints and opportunities and shape the planning, design, and implementation of multipurpose infrastructure based on stormwater management. As a result, they lead to three methods or approaches for planning and design of multipurpose infrastructure: the retrofitting city, the preemptive city, and the repurposing city. These three approaches highlight how stormwater management can serve as a basis to develop multipurpose infrastructure systems that function at a range of scales, serve multiples purposes and create additional value for communities. | {
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Description
The Stein MR100 Mini-Reach retriever is an ingenious tool designed to assist tree climbers in retrieving climbing lines or rigging lines which are out of reach.
The Mini-Reach extends to 1 m in length and collapses to just 18 cm.
At just 90 gms in weight it can easily be attached to your harness by attaching a tool clip carabiner.
Supplied fitted with a SS-1H0031 Tool Clip carabiner.
Specifications:
Length Closed – 180 mm
Length Open – 1.0 m
Sections – 4
Weight – 90 g
Material – Aluminium
WARNING:
DO NOT operate or carry this device near electrical power lines as it conducts electricity. Contact with power lines may result in injury or death. Do Not use in weather where there is a risk of lighting strikes. Not for use as PPE. | {
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Millisecond-Long Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Proteins on a Special-Purpose Machine
David E. Shaw, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, D. E. Shaw Research
David E. Shaw serves as chief scientist of D. E. Shaw Research and as a senior research fellow at the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1980, served on the faculty of the Computer Science Department at Columbia until 1986, and founded the D. E. Shaw group in 1988. Since 2001, Dr. Shaw has devoted most of his time to hands-on research in the field of computational biochemistry. His lab is currently involved in the development of new algorithms and machine architectures for high-speed molecular dynamics simulations of biological macromolecules, and in the application of such simulations to basic scientific research and computer-assisted drug design.
Dr. Shaw was appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology by President Clinton in 1994, and again by President Obama in 2009. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. | {
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Okemo Mountain Resort
A Four-Season Playground For All!
Whether you are looking for a downhill winter wonderland on the fresh, powdered mountains or a beautiful, natural biking and hiking trail in the spring and summertime, Okemo Mountain Resort is the year-round playground for all! Six slope side accommodations make it easy to get the most of Okemo Mountain. Enjoy amenities such as fully equipped kitchens, TVs with DVD players and laundry access. When you get tired of the slopes enjoy access to the fitness center, relaxing at the spa or bringing out that inner child at the arcade. Make sure you bring your appetite! Okemo Mountain Resort has a variety of Taverns and Bars that are sure to quench your hunger and thirst!
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Beat the blues of a hectic life with a fun-filled, family vacation any time of the year! Okemo Mountain Resort offers a variety of wonderful accommodations, fit for families of any size! The abundance of activity and entertainment options is also a wonderful reason to choose Okemo! Inquire for more information and to find out about special packages and deals!
Mountain
The year-round playground of Okemo Mountain not only makes for a bustling active hot spot but also a spectacular view for the eyes. Enjoy everything from skiing and snowboarding to hiking and biking on this natural wonderland. Inquire for more information!
Ski/Snowboard
When booking your next ski vacation, head to Okemo Mountain Resort for amazing ski and stay packages! Inquire for more information!
Wifi
Restaurant Onsite
Pets Allowed
Property Size
76 units
Conference Facility
Kids Allowed
Nearby City Ludlow
Nearby Water N/A
Open Dates
All Year
Nearest Airports
Rutland - Southern Vermont Regional Airport (RUT)
/ 14.6 miles
Lebanon Municipal Airport (LEB)
/ 25.8 miles
Dillant Hopkins Airport (EEN)
/ 41.4 miles
* Not all airports listed here may be open to public use, or service commercial flights | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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Jodi Miller
September 14th, 2019
Love this photo! Hiked there quite a few times. Had to get it when I saw it. Had to add a few other photos to make it complete.
Megan Caldecourt
September 11th, 2019
Hello! I am not going to include a photo this time, but I just wanted to say that I LOVE this picture of the Sequoias. It gives such a sense of what it is like to walk among them, like you are in a sacred cathedral. Thank you for your eye for beauty and for capturing an image that the rest of us can enjoy so much!
Cliff Morgan
September 11th, 2019
This looks so good in our home. We served there for 6 1/2 years. A perfect reminder of our love for our Savior. Thank you Brent for this beautiful painting.
Gregory Melton
September 10th, 2019
Very disappointed with final product. Canvas was stretched over the frame so that it has wrinkles. I expect either a refund or provide a quality replacement.
Julie Wells
September 9th, 2019
Absolutely gorgeous. Love the Blessed Mother so much.
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September 9th, 2019
This art work struck me as soon as I saw it. It's a very well done piece and fits my art room perfectly. I am so very impressed with this piece.
Artist's Description
As I patiently watched and waited for dusk to descend over the lake in Newport News Park, I was rewarded with a rich crimson sunset that cast beautiful reflections of the trees and bridge upon the icy wintry waters.
About Ola Allen
I am a nature and wildlife photographer who traversed the world for two decades before residing in the beautiful state of Virginia to spend my time capturing wonderful images of egrets, blue heron, glorious sunsets and other scenes that touch my heart.
Occasionally, the artist in me applies textures, filters and digital light-room techniques to alter realism into my personal artistic vision, thus resulting in some remarkable abstractions, inspirational prints, cards and posters. My images can be used to decorate your homes, offices, restaurants, hotel lobbies, etc., and can be purchased as framed, canvas, acrylic, metal, posters prints, and greeting cards. Olahs Photography offers a host of framing and matting options, which come with...
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Transportation Safety affects all road users including motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, and transit users. The City is continually investing in infrastructure (sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, intersection improvements, and traffic calming works) to make transportation safer within the City.
Step 2: We identify the problem and collect data relating to the concern. For traffic calming requests, the area must meet the traffic calming criteria as set by the Transportation Safety Policy [PDF - 15.2 MB]. At the end of the review, we will contact you with the result.
Step 4: For Traffic Calming Plans, we will hold a public consultation and conduct a survey of affected residents as well as residents that live in the affected area. At least 40% of the residents in the affected area need to complete the survey and at least 60% of the survey respondents need to be in support of the proposed Traffic Calming Plan. Traffic Calming requests for roads in Elementary School Zones or Playground Zones are exempt from this criterion. Transportation Safety Plans will not go through the public review process unless the plan significantly affects nearby residents.
Step 5: We arrange design and funding. Depending on budget available, we will develop construction plans of the highest priority Transportation Safety and Traffic Calming projects for the current year. The remainder of the projects will be kept on a continuously updated priority list for future consideration. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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Hy2rogen launches Future Trap sound pack for Avenger synthesizer
Impressed with the overall sound and capabilities of this software, we could not help but test it out with some fresh trap, dubstep and bigroom infused sounds.
In order to make things clear you can expect to find wobble and dubstep infused basslines, sub crushing 808s, those massive horns you’ve been looking for, specific vocal bits, a few real instruments (flutes, guitars, pianos), massive leads and reverb-infused pluck sounds that can turn into main hooks in an instant.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase after clicking the link, so this in an opportunity to directly support my work. | {
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3. New BlogI’m almost 25 and I have no idea what my “passion” in life is. No idea. However, I’ve recently been trying to figure out what it is that I genuinely enjoy doing, and writing is one of those things. I’m by no means a fantastic writer, but I think that the more you write, the better you can become (aka what every single person in writing tells you). So in addition to this blog- that I always forget to write in- I’ve started another at morewritingroom.wordpress.com (creative, right?) where I’m going to write more freely with no set genre. Some posts are short and might just be something that I wanted to tweet but 140 characters just wasn’t enough, and some are a little more detailed. It’s basically all over the place. Regardless, I’m hoping that it helps improve my writing and maybe become a “thing.” Who knows.*Note the link to my new blog is located on the right sidebar titled, “My Random Thoughts”
2. Orange is backDon’t act like you’re not excited. I don’t care if you haven’t even seen the first 2 seasons. I know you’re all just as psyched as I am. It’s been a loooong year and waiting for this new season did NOT help, but all will be well on June 12. Netflix will once again be unleashing 14 new episodes that I will try to watching in increments, but will most likely binge-watch in 2 days and then be left hanging, alone again. BUT I did just read an article that Netflix has alreadyconfirmed a 4th season, so all hope is not lost!
3. New MusicI’ve been a little off my music-game for a while, so I’m listening to new albums a little late. Whatever, at least I’m doing it now. So yes, when I finally got around to listening to Drake’s “If You’re Reading This it’s Too Late” in April (it debuted in February, but probably leaked much earlier) I tweeted every lyric like I was the first person to ever discover him. It was magical for me. Thankfully, I was reminded that I need to get my shit together and get on top of all the albums that were/are dropping. Here’s what I’m listening to right now: | {
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} |
Maurice Green, center, an organizer for the Palo Altans to Preserve Neighborhood Zoning, smiles after results start coming in showing a lead for votes against Measure D at a post-election party on November 5, 2013. Photo by Veronica Weber. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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2016-03-20 International Volunteers Workshop
“The International Volunteers Workshop: Opportunities to Help North Koreans” was a tremendous success, in terms of measuring success among events.
A lot of people were there? Check!
Attendees said they enjoyed it? Check!
Most attendees stayed from start to finish? Check!!!
I led the event without upsetting/offending a lot of people? Pending! Still waiting for feedback. 🙂
* * *
I say it was successful in terms of events because holding the event is just part 1. The key is the follow up. We hosted the event hoping that volunteers would find organizations they could assist and that organizations would find people who could help them overcome their budget struggles and lack of manpower.
Session 1: Andrei Lankov delivered the keynote address. He had the challenge that speakers have at not knowing the audience, so I tried to make it a bit easier by finding out how much attendees knew about him. Of the 230 people who registered in advance, 135 (60%) had never heard of him, 95 (40%) had. And I suspect that some who had heard of him had not read many things by him. So I let him know that in advance because that would be an indicator for him about the audience and the approach he should take.
Session 2: Two North Korean refugees gave testimony and a third introduced her organization. By a coincidence that would give a conspiracy theorists or a fortune teller a heart attack, 135 (60%) of those who registered in advance had never met a North Korean refugee, while 95 (40%) had done so.
“Heartbreaking but inspiring” is what one of the attendees wrote to me this morning about what she heard.
* * *
Session 3: Six different representatives of NGOs presented. It was interesting to hear about the different activities. Even though I am aware of some of them, I got to learn about each one of them more deeply. The most shocking thing is that most people stayed to listen to the NGOs, and that people asked many questions even though the entire Workshop lasted more than 5 hours!
Other thoughts:
So many people arrived on time that we were able to start on time. At one point, we were actually ahead of schedule! Unbelievable.
Volunteers at the Workshop were on the ball. Even when I forgot to announce at times when no photographs were allowed, they were monitoring people with cameras. Few details were overlooked, based on the many Kakao messages I was getting during the event reminding me to make various announcements.
We had almost 200 people show up, but according to our team monitoring registration, there were 74 cancellations and no-shows. Wow! Enough of them to have had their own huge event! I will check the final numbers, because crowd counts are always touchy, and sometimes it depends on who does the counting. For example, some people don’t include speakers and volunteers, but some others do.
The best feedback that I got was from a few of our volunteers who said seeing people outside of TNKR introduced to our program made them realize how special our little project is.
We had an extremely diverse crowd. I haven’t sorted out the final numbers yet, but we had people from 46 different countries sign up in advance. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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A profound thinking book in my opinion. I was hesitant at first to read it after reading a few reviews back in the early 2000s. But, after reading several synopsis highlighting interesting events in the book, I know I have to give it a try. Now, I'm very surprised by so many things happening in the book that I'm glad I've read this book. If you're looking for an action/adventure book, this may not be right for you. But, if you are looking for a book that makes you think about many things, then you should try to read this book.
My personal favorite of the Dune sequels. Leto has ruled the entire universe for a few thousand years, just after merging with the sandworms to become a massive half-worm, half-man hybrid. Now that he's built a galactic empire and a religion around himself, he's trying to wind things down. It's probably weirder than it sounds. Good times. | {
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AM3 platform, PhenomII OPN data
Next-generation platform for AMD64 CPUs.
AM3 processors
AM3 processors 65nm SOI
PhenomII X3 of the Triple core processor was released first as AM3 processor series.
The PhenomII has the third cache memory of 6MB shared in each core unlike a past AMD processor. As a result, AMD is assumed to be shortening the access time to data and an improvement of the performance.
Key Architectural Features - AMD PhenomII processors
AMD Balanced Smart Cache
Shared L3 cache (either 6MB or 4MB), 512K L2 cache per core
HyperTransport technology
One 16-bit link at up to 4000MT/s
Up to 8.0GB/s HyperTransport I/O bandwidth; Up to 16GB/s in HyperTransport Generation 3.0 mode
Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500(DDR2-1066MHz) and PC3 10600 (DDR3-1333MHz) AM3
Up to 17.1GB/s memory bandwidth for DDR2 and up to 21GB/s memory bandwidth for DDR3
OPN AM3 processors
AM3 Quad-Core Processor Series [ 45nm SOI ]
Model
OPN(tray)
OPN(Box)
Clock(MHz)
V_CORE
T_C
L2
L3
rev.
Schedule
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad-Core 125W (Deneb)
Phenom II X4 965 BE
HDZ965FBK4DGI
HDZ965FBGIBOX
3400
0.875-1.50V
62
512KB x4
6MB
C2
2009/8, 140W
Phenom II X4 955 BE
HDZ955FBK4DGI
HDZ955FBGIBOX
3200
0.875-1.50V
62
512KB x4
6MB
C2
2009/4
Phenom II X4 945
HDX945FBK4DGI
HDX945FBGIBOX
3000
0.875-1.50V
62
512KB x4
6MB
C2
2009/5
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad-Core 95W (Deneb)
Phenom II X4 945
HDX945WFK4DGI
HDX945WFGIBOX
3000
0.875-1.425V
71
512KB x4
6MB
C2
2009/6
Phenom II X4 925
HDX925WFK4DGI
-
2800
0.875-1.425V
71
512KB x4
6MB
C2
Q1 2009
Phenom II X4 910
HDX910WFK4DGI
N/A
2600
0.875-1.425V
71
512KB x4
6MB
C2
-
Phenom II X4 820
HDX820WFK4FGI
-
2800
-
71
512KB x4
4MB
C2
-
Phenom II X4 810
HDX810WFK4FGI
HDX810WFGIBOX
2600
0.875-1.425V
71
512KB x4
4MB
C2
2009/2
Phenom II X4 805
HDX805WFK4FGI
N/A
2500
0.875-1.425V
71
512KB x4
4MB
C2
2009/2
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad-Core 65W (Deneb)
Phenom II X4 905e
HD905EOCK4DGI
HD905EOGIBOX
2500
0.825-1.25V
70
512KB x4
6MB
C2
2009/6
Phenom II X4 900e
HD900EOCK4DGI
N/A
2400
0.850-1.25V
70
512KB x4
6MB
C2
Q2 2009
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad-Core ??W (Propus)
Athlon II X4 630
ADX630WFK42GI
-
2800
-
--
512KB x4
0
C2
-
Athlon II X4 620
ADX620WFK42GI
-
2600
-
--
512KB x4
0
C2
-
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad-Core 45W (Propus)
Athlon II X4 605e
AD605EHDK42GI
-
2300
-
--
512KB x4
0
C2
Q2 2009
Athlon II X4 600e
AD600EHDK42GI
-
2200
-
--
512KB x4
0
C2
Q2 2009
e: Energy Efficient Processors
AM3 Triple-Core Processor Series [ 45nm SOI ]
Model
OPN(tray)
OPN(Box)
Clock(MHz)
V_CORE
T_C
L2
L3
rev.
Schedule
AMD Phenom II X3 Triple-Core 95W (Heka)
Phenom II X3 740 BE
HDZ740WFK3DGI
HDZ740WFGIBOX
3000
-
73
512KB x3
6MB
C2
-
Phenom II X3 720 BE
HDZ720WFK3DGI
HDZ720WFGIBOX
2800
0.850-1.425V
73
512KB x3
6MB
C2
2009/02
Phenom II X3 710
HDX710WFK3DGI
HDX710WFGIBOX
2600
0.875-1.425V
73
512KB x3
6MB
C2
2009/02
AMD Phenom II X3 Triple-Core 65W (Heka)
Phenom II X3 705e
HD705EOCK3DGI
HD705EOGIBOX
2500
0.80-1.25V
72
512KB x3
6MB
C2
2009/6
Phenom II X3 700e
HD700EOCK3DGI
N/A
2400
0.825-1.25V
72
512KB x3
6MB
C2
Q2 2009
AMD Athlon II X3 Triple-Core 45W (Rana)
Athlon II X3 405e
AD405EHDK32GI
-
2300
-
--
512KB x3
0
C2
Q2 2009
Athlon II X3 400e
AD400EHDK32GI
-
2200
-
--
512KB x3
0
C2
Q2 2009
BE: Black Edition
AM3 Dual-Core Processor Series [ 45nm SOI ]
Model
OPN(tray)
OPN(Box)
Clock(MHz)
V_CORE
T_C
L2
L3
rev.
Schedule
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual-Core 80W(Callisto)
Phenom II X2 550 BE
HDZ550WFK2DGI
HDZ550WGIBOX
3100
0.850-1.425V
70
512KB x2
6MB
C2
2009/6
Phenom II X2 545
HDX545WFK2DGI
HDX545WGIBOX
3000
0.875-1.425V
70
512KB x2
6MB
C2
2009/7
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core 65W(Regor)
Athlon II X2 250
ADX250OCK23GQ
ADX250OCGQBOX
3000
0.85-1.425V
74
1MB x2
0
C2
2009/6
Athlon II X2 245
ADX245OCK23GQ
ADX245OCGQBOX
2900
-
74
1MB x2
0
C2
2009/7
Athlon II X2 240
ADX240OCK23GQ
ADX240OCGQBOX
2800
-
74
1MB x2
0
C2
2009/8
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core 45W(Regor)
Athlon II X2 240e
AD240EHDK23GQ
-
2800
-
-
1MB x2
0
C2
-
Athlon II X2 235e
AD235EHDK23GQ
-
2700
-
-
1MB x2
0
C2
-
AM3 Single-Core Processor Series [ 45nm SOI ]
Model
OPN(tray)
OPN(Box)
Clock(MHz)
V_CORE
T_C
L2
L3
rev.
Schedule
AMD Sempron Single-Core 45W
Sempron 140
SDX140HBK13GQ
SDX140HBGQBOX
2700
-
65
1MB
0
C2
2009/8
Reduces processor energy consumption - AMD PhenomII processors
Cool'n'Quiet 3.0 technology
Enhanced power management features which automatically and instantaneously adjusts performance states and features based on processor performance requirements.
For quieter operation and reduced power requirements
AMD CoolCore Technology
Reduces processor energy consumption by turning off unused parts of the processor. For example, the memory controller can turn off the write logic when reading from memory, helping reduce system power.
Works automatically without the need for drivers or BIOS enablement.
Power can be switched on or off within a single clock cycle, saving energy with no impact to performance. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Trackem Pty Ltd (Track'em), leader in cloud-based tracking solutions in construction, mining and oil and gas, is on a trajectory of solid growth, despite the situation that has evolved around COVID-19. While there is a constant focus on guarding budgets d
Providing a focal point for community and social interaction was a key deliverable of the newly completed Julia Reserve Youth and Community Centre, a multi-use piece of community infrastructure, designed and delivered by MODE’s Sydney studio. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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Child care providers in RI vote to unionize
The Service Employees International Union said Thursday that the vote among providers in the state's Child Care Assistance Program was 390 to 19 in favor of joining District 1199 SEIU New England. There were 539 eligible voters.
The General Assembly this year approved legislation allowing certain child care workers to unionize. The vote will allow the workers to negotiate with the state over pay and benefits.
Voting began Saturday at various locations. Ballots were counted on Thursday at the State Labor Relations Board office in Cranston.
The Child Care Assistance Program pays for some of the costs of child care for children under 13 from low-income working families. | {
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Build your dreams here! #DreamforceLesson2
Build your dreams here! #DreamforceLesson2
Yesterday we have visited TechShop, which is a kind of incubator for makers. I could have thought that this domain is pretty far from mine but actually, it only deals with the ability to turn an idea into reality.
The concept is pretty simple: it allows makers to have the best equipment to create objects. You can find a wide variety of instruments, from laser cutter to 3D printers, …. Since obviously the creation of such a place has cost a lot of money, it asked to appeal to the generosity of all those who wanted to participate to something, and even to « change the world ». In addition to a 150$ a month membership for all those who want to access the space and equipment.
From ideas to reality
Wether you deal with objects or software applications, the main idea is always the same: you’ve got to test your ideas before you invest time and money. The only difference between both is that creating an object can be very expensive.
What is interesting with TechShop is that not only they make available equipment, but also what they call « dream coaches ». The idea is not to execute orders and create things on behalf of potential creators but to learn these very creators to do it themselves! And that’s exactly the role of the dream coaches that are specialized in the use of one or several machines.
Share your ideas and don’t be afraid about being stolen
Another interesting characteristic of TechShop, that can make the difference with other incubators, is that there is no silo between creators. Basically, as soon as someone as an idea about something, he immediately shares it with his neighbors, without being scared that his idea be stolen or not. Why ? Because ideas are everywhere, in a large amount, because there are so many things to do that people probably don’t need and don’t have time to steal other people ideas…. According to me, that’s not such a common mindset.
The other principle underlying this collaborative mindset is that if you help someone someday, he will probably do the same for you another day, so it’s really a win-win situation.
Unlock your creativity
Chris McCoy, the co-founder of You3Dit.com working in the TechShop environment, offers his 3D printing services to anyone has an idea. The concept is very simple: you send a sketch on a file containing your idea and he prints it for you.
He had this idea thinking about his parents that had so many ideas but no mean to turn them into reality. So he decided to free everyone’s energy in creating this service company. What I find particularly interesting here is that we observe a sort of innovation democratization. Yesterday it was digital and now it’s 3D printing but in both cases, you don’t have to be rich or get an incredible network anymore to get a chance to create something and to innovate!
Technology finally helps everyone to turn a problem into an opportunity. The only thing that finally remains is that you’ve got to believe in your potential and your ability to deliver something useful. So be part of this wonderful manufacturing wave and become a maker ;) | {
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Guardian: ‘Measure not your politician by their Christianity’
The last time Cranmer came across an ion was during a riveting discussion involving the exchange of electrons between an aqueous solution and a solid. And he was more enthralled by that tedious process than he is with the puerile level of religio-political comprehension of Mr Ion. His Grace is in the mood for fisking, so here, in negation of Mike Ion, is Cranmer’s cation:
According to the conservativehome website more and more Christians are likely to vote Conservative at the next election. In support of this assertion, it cites the Tory party's pledge to recognise marriage in the tax system, its commitment to move towards 0.7% of GDP being spent on overseas development, support for faith schools and the views of many Tory candidates on the need to restrict the present abortion laws.
It is impossible for Cranmer to take seriously any journalist who manifests sloppy grammar or carelessly deploys the lower case when a word demands capitalisation. Or perhaps the small-c ‘conservative’ was purposeful, and the small-h ‘home’ a tedious emphasis of an alleged insignificance. That aside, it is difficult to grasp Mr Ion’s objection to his list of ‘support’ for the assertion. All of these issues are of varying degrees of concern to Christians of all denominations. It stands to reason that if the Conservative Party is identifying with these priorities that it will attract voters for whom they constitute some degree of importance. Support for faith education and an indication of reducing the time limit for abortion will attract in particular the traditionally Labour-supporting Roman Catholic vote; recognising marriage in the tax system and increasing overseas aid will accord with all Christians who favour the traditional family unit and desire to express compassion to the world’s poorest.
As Tom Harris points out the premise that one party is more "Christian" than any other is both facile and worrying.
The absence of commas is appalling, as is the adulation of Tom Harris who purposely caricatured His Grace’s beliefs and conveniently ignored his riposte and counter-arguments. But neither of these is as appalling as Mr Ion’s facile and worrying inability to reason. If one party supports church schools, favours marriage, seeks to save the child in the womb, feed the poor and house the homeless; while another seeks to close church schools, undermine marriage, promote abortion, maintain levels of poverty and pursues economic policies which increase homelessness, it is perfectly reasonable to assert that the former may be ‘more Christian’ than the latter. One does not need eyes to see or ears to hear that if one church is preaching Christ crucified from its pulpit while another is sacrificing chickens on the altar, that only one is trying to build Jerusalem while the other propagates the dark satanic mills.
Back in 2007 my local Tory MP (Mark Pritchard) initiated a Westminster Hall debate on "Christianophobia" – it was a pity that he couldn't find time to secure a debate about how we can prevent further services transferring from our local hospital in Telford over to Shrewsbury, but obviously he felt this issue was of greater importance to the good people of the Wrekin. During the debate Pritchard argued that the "political correctness brigade" were to blame for fewer schools putting on nativity plays and argued for the need protect our "Christian traditions".
Actually, the liberty to debate services in your local hospital stems from the constitutional liberties guaranteed by the contract between the Monarch and the people, and these liberties are fundamentally those bequeathed and preserved by the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law. The more freedom of speech is hindered; the more freedom of conscience is limited; the more each passing generation is inoculated against the meaning and significance of the nation’s Christian traditions, the more we are diminished. To dismiss this important debate is to dismiss a primary concern of all Christians, and perpetuate the fear that practices not in conformity with the Gospel will be forced upon the unwilling consciences of believers, particularly in the public services. Increasingly it will be the independence of the Christian conscience and those churches that can sustain that independence in spirit and in fact that will come to be seen as the defences of human liberty.
There is a real danger that people use "Christian" as shorthand for "white British" (just as they also often use "Muslim" as shorthand for "British Asian") with the implication that Christianity is seen as synonymous with "Britishness".
Ah, now Cranmer understands. Anyone who expresses concern about the diminution of Christian expression in the public sphere is a closet member of the BNP. Who are these ‘they’, Mr Ion? The Gospel of Christ knows no racial barriers, and Asians may belong to any faith and have done for centuries. Christianity has never been synonymous with Britishness, but ‘Britishness’ (whatever that be) has been Christian in an evolving political character and particular jurisprudence for more than a thousand years. England is Christian, and in that there is no shame. And it is no ‘danger’ that the ‘white British’ may wish to identify themselves as Christian, for the overwhelming majority manifestly do. The danger, Mr Ion, is in those who foment religious strife and who cry ‘danger’ where there is none.
The closer we get to a general election the more I worry that some of our political leaders will simply not be able to resist playing the "faith card" at some stage during the campaign.
The Christian faith is not a card to be played at a moment, but a life-long race to be won. Those who play the ‘faith card’ may be superficial, nominal Christians. But those who live their lives sincerely trying to work out their faith in an increasingly hostile world should not be a cause of worry but of relief. For they are the guardians of conscience, defenders of liberty, and advocates for the right to speak and to think as one wishes. And to accuse such as these of 'playing the faith card' is only to play the anti-faith card.
In 2005 we saw a glimpse of such a move when Michael Howard sought to make abortion an electoral issue.
Hmm... Cranmer must have missed that, though he was somewhat preoccupied. But let His Grace assure Mr Ion that, while Michael Howard might have talked about abortion, he certainly played no ‘faith card’. Such expression would have been antithetical to his essentially secular mindset. He has no understanding of religious conviction, no respect for Christian conscience, no grasp of the Protestant dimension of the Constitution, and no understanding of the symbiosis inherent in the delicate contract that exists between Parliament, Church, Monarch and the people. If Michael Howard mentioned abortion, it was in order to win votes. Any ‘faith card’ he played was simply a joker.
If Britain ends up (heaven forbid) mirroring what happens in the US, candidates seeking the Christian vote in the UK are likely to fall into one of two categories:1. I am a Christian so please give me your vote. I am a good guy/girl, I go to church regularly and I am a person of simple faith just like you. You are a Christian and I am Christian – that's all you need worry about.2. I am Christian and I have a strong moral compass (particularly when it comes to "family" values) so please give me your vote. Not only am I a Christian I am also a married Christian with a family. I think family life is the backbone of Britain; it is what makes our nation a great nation and we need to protect and promote the traditional family unit at all costs.
Cranmer agrees with Mr Ion's sentiment here, but is puzzled by his derision of Gordon Brown, who is manifestly a ‘Category 2’ Christian, obsessed with his ‘moral compass’ and who would certainly equate his ‘values’ with the ‘Britishness’ that he is still trying to define.
Let's be honest here. Category 1 is just silly – you might as well be saying "I voted for Diversity on Britain's Got Talent and so did you, please vote for me." Category 2 is slightly more sinister – "I am normal, just like you are" so vote for me. Does it matter? Well yes. Modern Christianity is in danger of becoming a privatised, pietised and politically compliant servant of the status-quo and the prospect of it ending up becoming the handmaiden of conservative, reactionary politics, similar to what has for so long dominated right of centre thinking in US politics, should worry us all.
This is an appallingly-written and utterly confused paragraph, and Cranmer is relieved that God spared the lovely people of Shrewsbury from having this man as their Member of Parliament at the last general election. To equate the agonising and eternal depths of the Christian faith with something as ephemeral and insignificant as voting for ‘Diversity’ is an insult to all people of all faiths. And note the derogatory ‘simple faith’; the caricature Evangelical salesman. There is a degree of projection here, for the only ‘silly’ reasoning is the crass superficiality of this analysis. And the final sentence reveals an alarming ignorance of the English settlement. The Christian faith has been fused at the heart of government for centuries: the English Church is bound with Parliament, and this expression of Christianity has been, to varying extents in various times, the ‘handmaiden’ of whichever political party has been in power. Through the Tory and Whig era, it has even been ‘reactionary’: the English did it way before the Americans declared their statehood. And let us not ignore the purposeful juxtaposition of ‘right of centre’ thinking which ‘should worry us all’. It is the gospel of the secularist, the false faith of ‘neutrality’ which should worry us all, not the temporal liberty inherent in the politics of the Right or the spiritual liberation offered by the Christian faith.
'Measure not your politician by their Christianity'?
That is the cry of the continuing hostility of this anti-Christian government to the defenders of the faith. What better touchstone can there be than that which measures a man by his honesty, integrity, humility, goodness, kindness, self-control? It is written in Magna Carta that ‘the English Church should be free’. In the context of Labour’s overweening power and onslaughts like this from The Guardian, the precepts of Magna Carta take on an urgent contemporary relevance: they remind us that the Christian Church is the defender of liberty and of conscience against the totalitarian State. It is time for Christians in politics to ‘do God’, for if they are silent, who is left to defend what remains of our liberty and rights of conscience?
39 Comments:
Thank you for this Your Grace. I am off to Leeds today to collect a new car, and it is a three hour journey each way. I was not looking forward to it. I now have a lot to think about, and I feel in a much better frame of mind.
To state that these people do not get it would be a monumental understatement.
Henry VIII was, at least, honest whilst undermining the Church and it's teachings to suit his own ends.
Whilst New Labour lauds multiculturalism, it systematically and 'politically' seeks to undermine the very basis of our Christian civilization as in a 'revolution'.
Surely, the basis of all religeous teaching is 'goodness and humanity'. Blair not only betrayed his people over the Lisbon Treaty, he now wishes to become President of the reportedly corrupt, wasteful and bullying (shown by it's treatment of the Irish) regime.
For Blair to align himself to catholicism in the process, is to use and damage religion in the pursuit of political aims.
In this life and the next 'man is judged on his actions and that which lies in his heart ...'
Blair has reportedly become a multi millionnaire as a 'politician' - his God appears to be money.
Mike Ion regards it slightly sinister to think family life is the backbone of Britain. Well, I would suggest that anyone who cannot sign up to family values has a really sinister agenda. Probably one which lacks any moral compass and one where truth is redefined according to an ideology that doesn't value honesty, integrity, kindness, and self-control. The likes of Mike Ion are not only savaging the Christian position on family life, other religions also have family values based on long and deeply held traditions. He implies that 'Christian' is camouflage for 'racism', but it is easy to detect a Socialist, totalitarian, antichristian emphasis amidst his sloppy reasoning and concern. Political Correctness is under threat from free speech, family values, freedom of conscience and the desire for liberty. Good! May the pressure on it increase by all Christians 'doing God' wherever they are.
Although I freely admit to voting Tory at every previous general election, I can’t help feeling a tad concerned by David Cameron. Correct me, someone, if I am wrong, but I believe he is on record in The Observer as saying “Not for the first time, I found myself thinking that it is mainstream Britain which needs to integrate more with the British (Muslim) Asian way of life, not the other way around.” This doesn’t sound particularly comforting to a Christian, not that all Asians are Muslim, of course. As for Conservative support for faith schools, this most certainly does not mean exclusive support for Church of England and Roman Catholic schools. We can, therefore, expect the proportion of Islamic schools to grow, while Labour’s anti-Christian policies of diluting the Christian intake of CofE and RC schools will, no doubt, continue, not to mention the abolition of Christian assemblies, Easter celebrations and nativity plays in non-faith schools.
As you mention the BNP and Christianity, it appears the British National Party are standing a Reverend Robert West in tomorrow’s Norwich North by-election, not that the media would want to publicise the fact of course -- well, not until his deposit is lost at any rate. Nevertheless, it will be intriguing to see how many votes he gets despite the protestations of the Rt Rev Graham James, Bishop of Norwich (CofE), the Rt Rev Michael Evans, Bishop of East Anglia (RC), the Rev Graham Thompson (Methodist), the Rev Richard Lewis (Baptist), the Rev Paul Whittle (URC) and John Myhill (Quakers) who also like to engage in politics. Now that it appears that the Glasgow North East by-election will not take place until November 5th at the earliest, one can’t help wondering whether the BNP, also contesting the by-election, would be able to swap Rev West for their declared candidate and thus oppose the SNP’s ‘Catholic extremist’ David Kerr, the subject of your previous blog ‘Religion enters the Glasgow North East by-election’. Not only would November 5th be an auspicious date upon which to hold the by-election but David Kerr and Rev West would surely provide for some interesting fireworks!
Your Grace, this is a knee-jerk reaction from the Nu-Lab aparatchiks who suddenly perceive the Christian vote as a threat because it has been publicly embraced by the opposition (intentionally small "o"). Probably because there are more Christians than Muslims and Nu-Lab have spent the last 12 years sucking up to a minority alien culture while p*ssing of the indigenes. How pathetic.
To be honest, to see the Tories pandering so ineptly to the Christian vote is rather pathetic too. I mean, last week it was the Pink vote they were after. What special interest group is it going to be next week? One legged tap dancers?
If it's votes Cameron wants then all he has to do is come out against the EU. Give us an unconditional (none of this wait and see BS) referendum on whether we want in or out and people will be falling over themsleves to vote Tory. I'll be one of them.
It's not rocket science for goodness sake! Or maybe, if your name is David Cameron, it is...
...more and more Christians are likely to vote Conservative at the next election.
If Christians do vote Conservative and a Conservative government is elected, what rewards will those Christians receive? Continued membership of the European Union, which is nothing more than a thinly disguised dictatorship, and the continued Islamization of their country.
A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for the eradication of Christianity in Britain. Assuming that a turkey would not vote for Christmas, turkeys have more sense than Christians who vote Conservative (or Labour, or LibDem).
I would ask Your Grace to look at this article on the BBC website. It speaks of the Coppice district of Oldham, Lancashire. When I last saw Coppice, in the mid-1970’s, it was overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, white and Christian. And now?
I find it disturbing that the so called 'Christians' in Your Grace's post are considering voting for either the Conservatives, Liberal or Labour parties. These parties are, almost without exception, the parties of Government, local and national, for the last 100 years. Just look out of the window and admire what a fine job they have all done. Due to the required swing of voters needed by the the Conservatives to win the next election, and the increasing likelehood that they will get it, it is apparent that, by definition, these swing voters will be mostly ex-Labour voters. These are the very same people who have, despite numerous warnings from those who have eyes to see, repeatedly voted for the liars, thieves, warmongers, whoremongers, homosexuals, pro-abortion, pro-islamic, pro-secular, anti-marriage politicians that form the Labour party. They now appear to think that Blu-Labour will be different. They are wrong. What concord hath Christ with Belial? What fellowship hath the light with the darkness? If you are a Christian you already have a representative, a man seated at the right hand of The Father, The Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot see how someone can possibly be living a life pleasing to God if they wish to be represented by an unregenerate man who will continue in same way his predecessors have. Be not partakers of their sins.
While the term 'Sitz im Leben' is indeed usually capitalised when referred to as an hermeneutical method within inverted commas, when the term appears mid-sentence and unquoted it may be considered as unworthy of capitalisation as talking generally of one's setting in life.
Mr Ion is a typical demonstration of the hatred of Christianity by the Labour party and indeed the liberal-left generally. As for the Tories, while they do have ‘Christian’ policies on supporting marriage in the tax system (will this survive necessary spending cuts?), increasing overseas aid, reducing the abortion time limit and so on, what about the increasingly important issues of freedom of speech and conscience? Will the Conservatives repeal all legislation (even if it comes from Brussels) that limits freedom of speech and freedom of conscience? I’ve yet to hear any such pledge. Mr Cameron’s recent seeking the gay activist vote does not give much hope. Also, his supporting Labour against against freedom of conscience for the RC adoption agencies doesn’t indicate he’s motivated by the Magna Carta declaration that the “English Church should be free”.
I really enjoyed reading your post - it is well written, cogent and clearly much more entertaining than mine.
There is, however a serious point to be made. In my view secularists are wrong when they ask – more often insist – that believers leave their religion at the door before entering into the arena of public debate. The majority of great reformers in British history – from Wilberforce to Keir Hardie - were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. I recognise that democratic engagement will and should make demands of religious believers. It will demand that those who are religiously motivated act to turn their concerns into universal, rather than faith-specific, values. Democratic engagement will also demand that the values espoused by people of faith be subject to argument and debate.
Apologies if you think my article was too partisan - on reflection I think it was.
My apologies, I was perhaps a little quick off the mark. I was showing a German friend the article and he pointed it out. A google search reveals that when used in English, it doesn't matter too much whether it is capitalized or not. I could not find any rules on the usage of German nouns (capitalized in their own language) in English.
@ Anonymous (12:51)—I should imagine the answer is ‘No’. As one of the lucky residents says, ‘We’re all Muslims here’.
You’ll have noticed that the kitchens are designed to comply with halal cuisine, meaning provision to sluice away the blood when an animal has its throat cut while fully conscious. Hey, Cranmer! Another reason to vote Conservative—maximum cruelty to animals. It just gets better and better.
Mr Ion (1330) said, "democratic engagement...will demand that those who are religiously motivated act to turn their concerns into universal, rather than faith-specific, values." I presume this means he's saying, forget the unborn child, forget the undermining of marriage and freedom of speech and conscience (as if these things are not wider than 'faith-specific' concerns)arising from the lib-left 'diversity and equality' agenda. In other words, people of faith, shut up.
Mr Ion says "Democratic engagement will also demand that the values espoused by people of faith be subject to argument and debate." if only the lib-left would allow the same for their ideas - e.g. cp their 'hate speech' or 'harassment' laws that could be used to silence those who hold traditional views on sexual ethics and family.
Rudyard @13,49: Seconded. I don't like the affectation of french phraseology, either. I enjoy a bit of Latin, on the other hand.
Back to the topic - how a Christian is supposed to separate his public self from his private self is a mystery to me! Are the secularists going to enshrine hypocrisy in law? Will it read: YOU WILL ALWAYS, UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, SAY ONE THING AND DO ANOTHER.
@ Anonymous (14:04)—I can’t be certain but I presume that excrement is offensive to Allah so Muslim lavatories must be sited on the side of the house furthest from Mecca. Hey, Cranmer! Yet another reason to vote Conservative—more building regulations. Better and better and better...
Interesting about "the true Profession of the Gospel and the Protestant Reformed Religion Established by Law", because this was instituted in 1688 when the king was orange and not very papist!
Since then the Church of England has received the Catholic Revival (in parts, I grant you) so not all of us are protestants. If we'd stuck with Henry VIII's original beliefs there wouldn't be any protestants to start with.
There was a time when some of my more communist leaning friends in the 8os used to attempt there conversion process with "religion is the opiate of the masses" . such youthfull thinking was all part of rebellion , and I never was really of my own mind enough to challenge it as peer pressure is vital in your social position.
secualrism wasnt even on the horizon , you were either church or agnostic .
Mr Ion is free , free to write , free to hypothesise , free to position , yet as ever with these types of articles that are supportive of non belief as being the stuff of equally enlightend beings , we are posed with a choice , the answers for which are not to do god .
The article assumes early on that god doesnt exist and that Mps who do it should be kept out of any major political thinking and legislating as they are , driven by a mental health condition , as yet undefined and proven .
they always write in the tense of the forthcomming extinction and eradication of Christianity , once the modern logic constructs sweep it away !!
I cannot recall when I last read, an article on christianity , that like the barclay series illumiated a section of the new testament in a more modern discovery aspect. Christianity is utterly absent in its teaching , you want reki , hot stones, crystals and anitageing plant extracts being extoled as having meaningfull and restorative powers , no problem .
Its sometimes as though a lawyer has crept into what we can tell the world as religion , indeed we have legalistic definition of religion , which Christ triumphed over john 7 45-52 is perhaps how it is .
Time to get that book deal in place, Your Grace, time to get it written.
May I chime in from Across The Pond, as Mr. Ion cites us as an example of 'what not to do'.
I speak as a conservative Protestant, who has seen a good deal of the Conservative Evangelical Movement(from about 1980) up close and personal.
There are many, many dear and sincere souls who have gone to great lengths (and at real sacrifice) to participate in the political life of the United States, speaking as firm believers in the Gospel.
There are also a number of cynics here who have preyed upon them for the ends of their own political power. The present leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention and its seminaries comes immediately to mind as an example.
And, there are candidates who cynically tout their 'Christianity' before the electorate, in both parties. Jesse Jackson comes to mind here, as well as this week's poster child, a Tennessee state senator found shagging his office assistant whilst his website proudly displays his wife/family/church affiliations as reasons pious people should support him. Had it not been for the 'shagee's' other boyfriend attempting blackmail, all would have remained respectable and quiet.
All to say--our Lord issued warnings against 'false shepherds', and enjoined us all to be both gentle and wary in our dealings with others. He also spent minimal energy on the political situation of his time, even going into hiding when the crowd wished to make him a secular king!
The absolutely most abysmal, damaging behaviour I have personally experienced has invariably come from 'church people', who somehow believe that God loves them better than others, that ethics don't matter. I have seen so much viciousness cloaked in such piety, that I now automatically assume that when approached with pious language that another agenda is at play.
Your GraceWhy bother to read articles that rile and bug you? Walking whilst taking deep breaths is so much more refreshing. Leave Mr Ion to his daft rants.And don't fret so about capitalisation. You'll only upset yourself
The church just needs to get more assertive, that's all. At the moment its like the nutter that follows behind muttering..'excuse me', excuse me', 'excuse me', 'can you tell me....', 'hello', 'excuse me'.....and everyone thinks...Jesus - fuck off will you!
'Go back to your disease-ridden country!' What the French said to British schoolchildren with swine flu.
Hmm. Well I'm all for keeping our children away from the pernicious french. I mean, if we are disease-ridden surely it's largely due to that Jungle they keep at calais - from which they zhush aliens across to us.
Furthermore - might we not doubt the accuracy and honesty of their own numbers on Porcine Pestilence?
Jim Bartlet: Goodness, did you read the article before it got zapped? I wouldn't have said it was reassuring or likely to reduce any elements of panic!
Unless living in a world where the German secret service deliberately infects us with a man-made virus is more reassuring than one where human greed and stupidity created the conditions where the virus could mutate and transmit.
You pays your money and you takes your choice. Just ask yourself how many truly evil people you have met, and how many stupid or greedy people you have met.
If "hate bill"-obsessed Congress [and Obama] can't protect Christians from "gays" as much as it wants to protect "gays" from Christians, will Congress be surprised if it can't protect itself from most everyone? If "hate bills" are forced on captive Americans, they'll still find ways to sneakily continue to "plant" Biblical messages everywhere. By doing so they'll hasten God's judgment on their oppressors as revealed in Proverbs 19:1. (See related web items including "David Letterman's Hate, Etc.," "Separation of Raunch and State," "Michael the Narc-Angel," "Obama Avoids Bible Verses," and "Tribulation Index becomes Rapture Index.") Since Congress can't seem to legislate "morality," it's making up for it by legislating "immorality"!
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a) Both Conservative and Labour candidates declared they were Christian before the 2005 election;b) The successful Labour candidate declared himself a Jedi during his maiden speech (though reassured everyone afterwards that this was a joke;)c) The Conservative candidate is high up in the Freemasonry which you despise because of your Christian faith and because you know it is officially condemned by all leading Christian denominations;d) Your local Labour MP is an extremely hard-working MP who has a long list of major achievements which he has secured for his constituency;e) The BNP are making mileage out of the lie that the local MP doesn't care about his constituents and is only in politics for his own gain. The Tories are silent in the face of these lies which are destroying our community.f) Your constituency faces urgent economic and social issues which the Labour MP understands and is working brilliantly to address;g) It sounds wierd so say this but because of these urgent social and economic issues you almost don't feel you have the luxury of indulging in debates over your own religious liberty.h) Having met your local MP and talked with him at length you are convinced that he has as much right to carry the "Christian" label as the Tory candidate.
About His Grace:
Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.
Cranmer's Law:
"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”
Follow His Grace on
The cost of His Grace's conviction:
His Grace's bottom line:
Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.
The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961
British Conservatism's greatest:
The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.
I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)
We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC.(Prime Minister 1957-1963)
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)
I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC.(Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)
If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC.(Prime Minister 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902)
I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.Benjamin Disraeli KG, PC, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield.(Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880)
Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.Sir Robert Peel, Bt.(Prime Minister 1834-1835, 1841-1846)
I consider the right of election as a public trust, granted not for the benefit of the individual, but for the public good.Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.(Prime Minister 1812-1827)
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.The Rt Hon. William Pitt, the Younger.(Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806) | {
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15 Replies
Hi
Are you asking about the seal where axle enters transaxle?
Let me know
Thanks for donate
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Sunday, October 24th, 2010 AT 2:44 PM
ROBERTS13
MEMBER
No the one on the motor the seal kit has two different seals
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Sunday, October 24th, 2010 AT 2:55 PM
ROBERTS13
MEMBER
When I removed frist part of seal transmisson fluid ran out
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Sunday, October 24th, 2010 AT 3:06 PM
DOCFIXIT
EXPERT
See diagram shows both axles and seals is this what your doing
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Monday, October 25th, 2010 AT 3:03 PM
ROBERTS13
MEMBER
Im doing the seal that where the left drive shaft connects to the motor
or transmission
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Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 AT 7:34 AM
DOCFIXIT
EXPERT
Seal is driven into trans. Has metal case and lip seal with garter spring to hold tight to axle. Seal can be removed with a seal puller and sometimes a screwdriver. Some fluid will come out. The two seals maybe for left and right sides they are different. Not sure what you mean by first part of seal? Can you post a PIC?
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Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 AT 11:29 AM
ROBERTS13
MEMBER
Its all the one seal but two different peices
is there two clips keeping the part that is driven into the transmission
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Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 AT 5:19 PM
ROBERTS13
MEMBER
This part around the shaft is what i am trying to remove
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Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 AT 2:59 PM
ROBERTS13
MEMBER
This is the new one from new seal kit but this is what i am trying to remove
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Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 AT 3:14 PM
DOCFIXIT
EXPERT
That is the output shaft the clip is what holds axle on. The oil seal goes around and seals on axle trace there is no need to replace clip when replacing seal. What is on table don't know. Was problem oil leak or CV joint problem?
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Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 AT 5:19 PM
ROBERTS13
MEMBER
This is what i need to replace if you know what this is can you please tell me
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Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 AT 7:55 PM
DOCFIXIT
EXPERT
Oil seal is item top left other stuff has nothing to do with axle oil seal. Where did you get? Part number? Name of kit?
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Sunday, October 31st, 2010 AT 1:54 PM
ROBERTS13
MEMBER
Got parts from gm dealership part number 24203910
name seal kit
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Monday, November 1st, 2010 AT 2:24 PM
DOCFIXIT
EXPERT
GM part number for axle seal 24233355. Again what was problem oil leak? CV failure? What?
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Monday, November 1st, 2010 AT 3:29 PM
M3RT3N
MEMBER
That cupped seal is pressed on just ran into that problem taking it to mechanic | {
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Mark Odom, AIA
Which project with Mark Odom Studio are you most proud of?
—
The most recent project that stands out as a proud sense of accomplishment is West 41st Office, which then became the Bumble HQ. Even though it was a very complex adaptive reuse project—full of surprises—our client worked with us to problem solve through the end. They also understood and accepted the collaborative team approach, which included bringing a builder in early to help budget, schedule, and troubleshoot issues in advance. This is the process we love to create with each project.
Hobbies?
Family, outdoors, and surfing every chance I get.
—
Favorite snack?
Toss up between salty chips and french fries.
Where in the world would you like to visit most?
The Maldives.
—
How do you take your coffee or caffeine?
Black and Strong.
What is your favorite thing about working for Mark Odom Studio?
All opinions matter.
—
Can you list one space or structure that inspired you when you were little? | {
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} |
Commentary: Where's the recession?
Recession? What recession? That's what I wondered on Christmas Day around dusk as my son and I drove past the packed 30 acres of parking outside the WinStar World Casino, just north of the Red River on Interstate 35.
Consumers aren't spending? Are you joking? That's what I wondered more than once during December while snarled in traffic in southwest Fort Worth's Cityview area, a bustling corridor where commerce looked pink-cheeked and glowing.
Money crunch? Are you sure? That's what I wondered while joining thousands of other shoppers the day after Christmas at the Columbia Mall Target, a short drive from the University of Missouri.
The only lonely place I found the Saturday morning after Christmas was a Wal-Mart in a new Columbia shopping center, where Keith in the automotive department cheerfully replaced my windshield wipers a mere two minutes before a chilling rainstorm hit.
Over the holidays, I attended college football bowl games in Fort Worth (attendance 41,127) and San Antonio (55,986), and there seemed no shortage of fans willing to plunk down $4, $5, $6 or more for each food and drink item. (Through Monday, official attendance at 32 bowl games was 1,659,370.)
Is it that people don't realize the ailing national economy needs a transfusion? Or are they simply determined to go about their normal business until they simply can't anymore?
Despite the evidence that there are plenty of folks behaving as though they aren't hurting so much, it's impossible to ignore the barrage of bad financial news.
Consumer bankruptcy filings jumped to more than 1 million last year, up 33 percent from 2007.
Reuters reported that the Labor Department expects job losses for 2008 to total 2.5 million when the latest employment figures are released Friday. (But unlike most states, Texas gained 221,000 jobs from November 2007 to November 2008, according to the Texas comptroller's office.)
In the third quarter, 1 in 10 American homeowners was behind on mortgage payments or in foreclosure, according to bloomberg.com.
Nationwide, consumers bought 2.9 million fewer vehicles in the U.S. in 2008 than the year before, though the drop in December business wasn't nearly as bad in Tarrant County as elsewhere, the Star-Telegram reported Tuesday.
I finally opened the third-quarter report on the mutual funds that are supposed to help pay for college tuition starting in 2010, and the bottom line made my heart sink.
I'm anxious to hear more about President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus plan, which he's supposed to elaborate on today.
He says that he and Congress must act quickly and boldly.
But is the solution tax changes that add a few more dollars to each paycheck? Every little bit helps, but will the economy notice whether that money gets spent on groceries or on car payments?
Can tax incentives for businesses reduce temptations to outsource; can they help small firms grow? What kinds of safeguards will prevent manipulation, such as by companies that made extensive layoffs last year and might hire back some replacements and call it job creation?
And just because Republicans like House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio are flat-out hypocritical in suddenly fretting about burying future generations under mountains of debt, that doesn't mean Congress should lightly commit as much as $775 billion over two years without carefully weighing the risks and rewards — or without looking for other places to curtail government waste.
Watching official Washington search for the right solutions can be as unsettling as looking for stability in the stock market these days. We’re chancing that a new administration and Congress can provide rationality and reassurance.
I'm thinking the odds are better than those at WinStar.
I couldn't get figures for Christmas attendance at the casino.
But a spokeswoman told me that the New Year’s Eve crowd broke the 2007 record. A laid-off Bell Helicopter secretary won a million dollars at the casino to ring in 2009.
The rest of us can't just gamble on good luck. We need Congress and the new president to get it right. | {
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} |
The information found in the above links will remain updated as any further changes are made.
Psynister’s Thoughts
With so many patch notes, I’m not about to comment on every single one of them. However, I will talk about some of them below that have particularly caught my eye. Some of these changes I have already discussed and you can find by reading other articles I have posted over the last week or two.
I welcome you all to share your thoughts on the patch here as well. Feel free to comment on the specifics I point out here, or any other portion of the patch notes that I do not specifically cover.
The following points will be broken down into the same category they fall under within the patch notes.
For the individual class notes, there are many classes that I do not have enough experience playing to give an honest opinion on the changes, so I may skip over some of the specific classes. Nearly every class received at least some form of update though, so if you would like to get more details on those changes then I suggest you look at the patch notes yourself for the details.
General
The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and have decided to install a large number of new mailboxes to Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.
This is the only thing I want to point out in the General section that I have not already covered. The lack of mailboxes in many of the towns drives me crazy. Including “a large number of new mailboxes” in cities is an excellent change that I welcome with open arms. Tons of mailboxes and double bank and auction house locations are the one thing that I love about Silvermoon, and the lack thereof is the one thing I hate about everywhere else.
PvP
Players will now be awarded experience for completing objectives and actions that yield honor in Battlegrounds (honorable kills not included).
Players who do not wish to gain experience through PvP can visit Behsten in Stormwind or Slahtz in Orgrimmar – both located near the Battlemasters in either city – and turn off all experience accumulation for the cost of 10 gold.
Disabling experience gains will prevent a player from gaining experience through any means available in the game.
Players with experience gains turned off who compete in Battlegrounds will face off only against other players with experience gains turned off.
Behsten and Slahtz can reinstate experience gains for players, for a 10 gold fee of course. Any experience that would’ve been accumulated if experience gains were not turned off cannot be recovered.
This change holds a lot of potential. Finally we see something from Blizzard aimed directly at twinks. While I’m not a hardcore twink, I do enjoy doing it. Giving players the ability to shut off their experience gain is excellent. You can now power level your twinks to the desired level, turn off their experience gains, and then go farm all the items and achievements you want without having to worry.
It’s also worth noting the 4th bullet there. If you turn off your experience gain, you will only participate in battlegrounds with other players who also have it turned off. So basically we have an opportunity have have twink vs twink and non-twink vs non-twink battlegrounds, so those of use who do like PvP but don’t like going up against players who live solely for that reason might actually stand a chance.
Now, there’s nothing stopping those twinks from turning their experience gain back on before a BG so they can face non-twinks instead, but they have to fork over 10g every time they want to make the change back and forth.
Races: General
Axe Specialization (Orc): The weapon bonus from this effect now applies to fist weapons in addition to axes.
Orcs are now able to apply their racial specialization to fist weapons. Shamans and Rogues are the only classes I ever see using fist weapons, and shamans far more than rogues. Not a big deal in my opinion, but it might bring a little more attention to the orcs.
Items: General
Block Value: The amount of bonus block value on all items has been doubled. This does not affect the base block value on shields or block value derived from strength.
Mana Regeneration: All items that provide “X mana per five seconds” have had the amount of mana they regenerate increased by approximately 25%
Increased bonuses to block value is a pretty big deal. It doesn’t double from the shield itself, nor from your Strength score, but all other equipment that grants you bonus Block will be increased. My Prot Paladin readers should love this one.
After posting this the thought occurred to me to actually look at some gear out there, and after having done that I’m really not entirely sure that this is going to be that big of a deal. There aren’t all that many options for increasing your Block, and the ones that do aren’t necessarily worth taking over other pieces that don’t. For now I’m going to jump over to being neutral on this one until I’ve had a chance to do some more looking. Extra block value is always good, but the change itself might not have all that much impact.
A lot of people threw fits about Mana Regeneration nerfs in the previous patch. I don’t know that this is going to solve any of those opened wounds, but at least we’re seeing a little bit of an increase in mana regen.
Classes: General
Silence, Strangulate, Silencing Shot, and Arcane Torrent: These abilities will also apply a 3 second interrupt effect against non-player controlled targets, making them more versatile against creatures immune to silencing effects.
This change might be nothing, and it might be a life saver. Being able to use them as spell interrupts even against targets that are immune to silence can be a very welcome addition to your arsenal if you happen to play a race/class that has these abilities.
Death Knights
Due to significant talent changes, all death knight talents will be reset for players.
Death Knights are the only class mentioned as receiving all of their talent points refunded. If you have a build that you like and don’t want to forget it then I suggest you copy it down somewhere before the slates are wiped clean.
I make no claims towards being knowledgeable about Death Knights. Since I don’t know how significant the impact of these changes are going to be, I will leave it to others who know more about the subject to give details concerning them.
Mages
Invisibility: Can no longer be interrupted by a hostile action or damage done during the 3 second fade time, however an invisible mage can still be stunned or silenced.
This is the main update that interests me in the mage. There’s nothing worse than knowing that you have to flee in order to survive, popping invisibility, and then immediately finding it disrupted right in the middle from some random hit.
Paladins
Blessing of Sanctuary: This blessing now also increases stamina by 10%. This effect is not cumulative with Blessing of Kings.
Exorcism: Now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can once again be used on players.
Hand of Reckoning: Redesigned. Now does damage only when target does not currently have the caster targeted, but damage done increased to 50% of attack power, occurring after the taunt effect is applied.
Lay on Hands: The buff from this ability now reduces the physical damage taken by the target by 10/20% instead of increasing the target’s armor.
Paladins have the longest list of changes in this patch, and they really covered a lot of different points. All specs are going to feel the effects of this patch in one way or another.
Since I have recently devoted much of the blog to Protection Paladins I am going to discuss more of their points than others.
Blessing of Sanctuary not giving +10% Stamina is HUGE. This effect is in addition to the effect that it already has. Not only are you gaining more hit points, which is always good for a tank, but you are also increasing your spell power (assuming you’ve spent the talents points for it) which in turn will increase the amount of threat that you are able to generate.
I really don’t like the change to Exorcism. I do like that you will be able to use it on players again for when I do happen to need to PvP, but adding a cast time completely removes it as a viable option for being included in my tanking rotation or as a form of taunt to get stray mobs to turn their focus back to me. If there was anything I would be willing to do a little QQ over, it would be this. But, it’s not essential in any way, so overall I dislike it but really don’t care at the same time.
Lay on Hands provided a damage reduction buff rather than bonus armor makes this an even more effective tool for use in grinding and farming, as well as tanking in general.
Rogues
After much quiet contemplation, rogues now possess the ability to learn how to use one-handed axes.
Giving rogues more options for better weapons is sure to thrill the rogues out there. I’m not a huge fan of the class myself, but it seems like a good change to me and I’m sure most rogue players will be pleased with it.
Shamans
A customizable totem bar will now be available for shaman allowing the storing of 4 different totems. These totems can be placed on the ground at once in one global cooldown for the combined mana cost of all 4 totems.
Base health increased by approximately 7% to correct for shamans having lower health than other classes.
The shaman is also receiving quite a few changes in this patch, so I would suggest you go take a look at the full notes if you happen to play one.
The new totem bar options are going to be a huge benefit to shamans everywhere. Being able to drop all four totems at once, on a single cooldown is huge. You have three customizable options for each spec, thus dual spec players can have up to 6, so you can get different groups of totems set up for different occasions.
The increase in base hit points for shamans is something that is definitely overdue. In articles read prior to full patch notes being released an interview revealed that nobody on the current team remembers why shamans had the lowest health pools in the game and that they would fix it in 3.2.
User Interface
Character name auto-completion for the chat frame, pop-ups, and mail interface can be enabled through an interface option in the Development settings.
Character names can now be colorized according to class in the chat frame through an interface option in the Development settings.
Casting bars under a target’s portrait will now indicate whether or not the cast can be interrupted.
Druids will now be able to see their mana bars when shape-shifted.
Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.
Macros and scripts will no longer be able to target totems by name.
Quest creatures and objects will now show on the player’s world map.
The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information.
Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.
I think the most profound impact form this patch is going to be right here in the user interface. Many of these changes are going to do away with the need for existing addons.
The first four items on the list probably hold the least impact, but there are existing mods that provide this same functionality.
Being able to see whether or not it is possible to interrupt a spell will save some players the hassle of wasting their interrupts, or perhaps it might prompt them to use them more frequently depending on the situation.
The Item Comparisons may very well take the place of the RatingsBuster addon as it performs nearly the exact functionality. The one benefit that RB still holds over this is that it does it for you automatically where the new option requires you to hold the Shift key in order to see the information.
Macros/Scripts not being able to target totems is going to make pvp against shamans a bit more of a struggle, which is actually a very good thing for those of us who like playing shamans. Macros that do this completely defeat one of the prime resources that shamans have to offer.
Quest Creatures/Objects showing up on maps, along with the changes to quests in the previous patch almost completely defeats the need for addons such as QuestHelper and Carbonite. Whether the new changes will work as well as these addons still remains to be seen, but there is potential now to see these addons sent to their graves.
Vendor prices listed on items will help you select your quest rewards if you wish only to sell the item instead of using or disenchanting it. I use an addon for this very purpose right now. I don’t remember the name of the one I use right off the top of my head, but it’s another addon being replaced by new in-game options.
Quests
The ravasaur trainer Mor’vek has returned to Un’Goro and will offer to help Horde players raise and train a Venomhide Ravasaur as a mount… if they can survive the creature’s deadly poison.
Since this is mentioned as a “return” I will assume that this is something that was available before I started playing the game as I do not remember ever hearing his name even mentioned. But the addition of another mount, and a horde-only one at that (For the Horde!) is good news in my book.
Professions
There is quite a list of profession changes. I only have a firm grasp on the workings of a few professions, and those happen to be the ones receiving the fewest number of updates.
I will leave the details of these changes for someone else to go over since I know that my own knowledge is lacking. From what I can tell, Jewelcrafting is going to receive the biggest change from this update.
Items
Non-Combat Pets: 8 new pets have been added (not including Argent Tournament rewards). Raptor Hatchlings can be found on rare and elite raptors throughout the game world. In addition, an Obsidian Raptor Hatchling can be purchased from Breanni in Dalaran.
For those pet lovers out there, and you all know who you are, there are now eight more for you to rush out and collect. While I do get a few pets on all of my characters, I’m not really into collecting things that have no real impact on the game itself, so I’m certainly not a pet collector myself.
Similar to professions, there are quite a few updates in the item category, so I suggest you take a look at the information at the actual patch notes if you are interested.
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12 responses to “Patch 3.2: Full Notes Revealed”
Fynralyl
June 18, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Had to check out that JC changes since you mentioned it…. YAY for increased stats from Dragon’s Eye cuts and UBER YAY for getting new epic gems from prospecting titanium… I am so glad I hang onto most of my titanium instead of selling or smelting!
I wasn’t sure if you were going to love them or hate them. I know from reading up on them the last few days that other sites have mentioned Dragon’s Eye is going to require a RED slot instead of a Meta, but I didn’t see it in the notes I’m looking at today. Not sure if they dropped that or if it was just left out. It’s a possibility though.
Confirmed. It wasn’t anywhere in the patch notes, but I’m on the PTR now and Dragon’s Eye’s are no longer prismatic (where you can use them in any color slot – metas are a whole other beast). It’s not just red slots tho. Your Dragon’s Eye matches the color of the stat you’re enhancing. For example: Runed Dragon’s Eye = red, Smooth Dragon’s Eye = yellow, Solid Dragon’s Eye = blue, etc. I’m not sure how I feel about this. While the stat’s themselves are higher and we’re going to have access to other Epic gems, we lose an enormous amount of flexibility it taking advantage of those benefits. There aren’t really any blue cuts that benefit a Holy Pally, or rather other stats are more important. I currently (pre 3.2) fill my blue slots with Dragon’s Eyes so that I can stack Spell Power and Crit, instead of wasting an all important gem on something weak like Spirit. Also, the gear on the PTR for a Holy Pally had far more blue slots (5) than either red or yellow (about 3 each). They really are trying to push us towards using our enhancements for mana regen, but this makes our healing spells much weaker. In my mix of Naxx 10/25 gear, my paladin on Blackwing Lair can out heal the sup’d up Ulduar geared, more strongly enchanted, beefed up Dragon’s Eyed character copy I got for the PTR. FAIL. This is where I drop my all time favorite class/spec because it now sucks. Not only did they nerf the need to stack crit (I am, and always have been, a crit healer) but they changed the JC profession so that I can no longer use it to make up for the loss. Sad day fo Fynralyl.
Righteous Fury: No longer has a duration or mana cost, remaining until cancelled or death. Also cancelled when a Paladin activates a different talent specialization.
Hooray – no longer will I forget to re-apply this when it wears off!!
Seal of Vengeance and Seal of Corruption: These seals have been redesigned to deal substantially more damage. Now, once a paladin has 5 copies of the debuff from these seals on his or her target, on each swing the paladin will deal 33% weapon damage as Holy, with critical strikes dealing double damage.
Yeah, I did go ahead and leave some information out and I actually did it intentionally.
Righteous Fury no longer having a duration/cost/etc is nice and all, but I’ve never had a problem with it cancelling out on me to begin with. And if I remember correctly, patch 3.1 was supposed to make our Auras last beyond death and I haven’t seen that happen once. So as far as that portion of it goes I’ll believe it when I see it.
The Seals I won’t speak on because I don’t use them enough to have an opinion of them. I have tried using them from your comments on my previous post about tanking, and I haven’t noticed any real benefit from switching over to what you suggested.
But, I also don’t have any trouble generating more threat than everyone else around me. Probably something I’ll need to look into when I get to 80, but for right now there’s no reason for me to bother with it.
Ardent Defender: Redesigned. Currently, any damage taken by the paladin while at 35% health or below is reduced. Instead, any attack that would reduce the paladin to 35% health or below has its damage reduced. In addition, once every 2 minutes an attack that would have killed the paladin will fail to kill, and instead set the paladin’s health to 10/20/30% of maximum.
This one I actually did mean to comment on, which is why there’s a blank bullet in the paladin list, I just forgot to put it in there.
Ardent Defender needs a name change now to something more along the likes of “Epic Spell of I Can’t Die’edness”.
That talent just went from “Decent” to “HOLY CRAP!!!” on the awesome meter. I never found the talent really necessary when I had a reasonable healer with me, but that’s coming from my straight instance background, no heroics or raids in Northrend. Maybe it gets better as you get into tougher content. With the new change though, I can think of no reason NOT to take this, and several reason why you definitely should.
There are a lot of things I’m very excited about in this upcoming release. I don’t do PvP yet, but those changes are epic. Even I can tell that. I’m really excited for more mailboxes and welcome the UI changes with open arms. Anything that will help me not use so many addons will be a blessing and take a strain off of my computer. I’m also thrilled for the changes that you mentioned in your previous posts, especially the flying mounts at lower levels. You’re right. There are so many things to be excited about in the next patch!
I really think the good far outweigh the bad in this particular patch. I’m looking forward to a lot of them.
Some I’m not quite sure about as far as how significant an impact they might have on current play styles and such, but overall I like what I’m seeing.
Some of the classes that I don’t play at all, or don’t play frequently, might be getting nerfed without me noticing strictly because of my lack of experience with them and thus not noticing the full impact. I know Death Knights are upset, crit-healing paladins are upset, and a lot of feral druids are as well. But, since I’m not overly familiar with any of those I’m just going to leave the discussion of those to the people who can actually shed some light on the subject. | {
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We are thrilled tonight to announce our first Keynote speakers at LeakyCon 2009: John and Hank Green, Nerdfighters extraordinaire, and hosts of the hugely popular YouTube video channel, The Vlogbrothers.
Hank Green is the author of EcoGeek.org, an environmentally conscious blog dedicated to sharing innovations that are working to preserve our planet. His brother John Green is an acclaimed novelist, winner of the Michael L Printz Award and author of several successful young adult novels, such as the recent Paper Towns, An Abundance of Katherines, and the award winning Looking for Alaska which will soon be a motion picture from Paramount. The brothers are well known and proud Nerdfighters, which is the concept it’s much better to be traditionally known and defined as a ‘nerd’ or being someone who is intelligent and active concerning matters in the world around you, than being vapid and passive. John and Hank Green are also hosts of the Vlogbrothers channel on YouTube, one that was born of the idea they would alternate making daily videos to communicate with each other in lieu of normal written communications. Those few early videos quickly turned into a phenomena full of much fun, laughter, serious political news and information, charitable awareness, calls to action, and oh yes, Harry Potter.
Readers will recall in the days leading up to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2007, there was a video of a young man singing about wanting this long-awaited novel in the Harry Potter series. That video, Accio Deathly Hallows, quickly became a video of legend with well over a million views, and helped spur on the ever growing Vlogbrothers channel. Because the Nerdfighter side has cookies too, we now invite you to please join us for the Nosh with The Nerdfighters keynote event, which will take place Friday, May 22nd from 2:00-4:00pm during LeakyCon, our first convention being held in Boston at the historic Boston Park Plaza Hotel.
Books and Music are the good word for the day as 2:00-3:00PM will see the John and Hank Green make their presentation in the Plaza Ballroom, followed by a very special musical release party for DFTBA Volume 1, a special YouTube compilation CD featuring a new song from Hank that will take place from 3:00 to 4:00pm. At a cost of $30.00 (USD), keynote attendees will also be able to nosh on such goodies as Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, White Chocolate with Macadamia nut and Oatmeal raisin cookies or Chocolate Fudge Brownies, plus a choice of beverages including Chocolate, Whole and Skim milk, freshly brewed Starbucks coffee (regular and decaf) and a selection of herbal teas, all in addition to the great discussion and music for the event.
Currently open to those who have registered for LeakyCon, we expect this event to sell out very quickly. Note: If you have already registered for LeakyCon and would like to attend this event, please login via the registration link here, using your email address and confirmation number, choose the “Modify” option, then the “Nosh with The Nerdfighters” option under payments. We regret that, once registered for the Nerdfighters event, you will be unable to cancel.
Finally, an important update regarding the hotel for LeakyCon. The double bed rooms are now FULL at the Boston Park Plaza hotel, with the Queen and King size beds still remaining, however all of these are becoming limited, so we urge to make your reservations soon. | {
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As the midfielder returns to first team training with the German side following injury, the TV pundit has taken a look at the sequence of events which may unravel if Gundogan became interested in an Old Trafford switch.
They key as he sees it is Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa.
Kagawa was originally brought from Borussia Dortmund by former United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and his positive relationship with the club and friends there has always been well maintained and publicised.
Fjortoft suggests that Gundogan would get on the phone and ask him all about life at Manchester United.
So Gündogan will call Kagawa and ask: How is Man UTD? What happened to you? That kind of things happen in Transfers.....
Whether that’s necessarily a good thing for David Moyes’ men is open for debate.
Since Kagawa signed for United in 2012, he’s failed to have the sort of impact at the club that many predicted and would have expected.
His position was changed slightly for Ferguson to get him into the team and there is no major sign that’s changed under Moyes with Kagawa taking up a predominantly left midfield role in United colours.
It’s something that Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp has said breaks his heart in the past and it’s something which could work against United if Gundogan started sniffing around the possibility of a move to the Premier League champions.
Realistically nothing is going to happen any time soon because very few players will want to move this month if they think they have a good chance of going to the World Cup in the summer.
Lewis Doe
Lewis Doe is a freelance writer and editor who seeks to bring you the biggest, smallest and most interesting stories from the football world. Lewis has previously written for some of the biggest football news and opinion sites in the world including FootballFanCast and Goal.com International. Lewis is also experienced writing in the betting industry and aims to deliver his stories with up to date factual and statistical information. He hopes to sum up stories for the site and provide an angle on the issue moving forward.Lewis is HITC Sport's La Liga correspondent. | {
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The single portal on EU finance will help SMEs find much needed financing easily and quickly. One of the key priorities for the Commission is to simplify and reduce the obstacles that business faces. The addition of the EU Structural Funds to the single portal represents an important milestone. At the same time, we also want to encourage Member States and regions to use EU financial instruments since they can enhance the impact of cohesion policy. They are catalysts for crucial investments needed to provide a vital boost to the European economy and create jobs.
From today businesses around Europe will have easier access to much needed finance as the European Commission expands the single portal on EU finance, to include EU Structural Funds: the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the European Social Fund (ESF).
Launched last month, the new single portal on EU finance provides easy, complete and up-to-date information on how entrepreneurs and SMEs can access over €100 billion of EU financing from various 2007-2013 programmes. Today’s additions will double the number of partner banks and funds to over 1 000, further strengthening a vital information source for SME financing through guarantees, loans and venture capital (MEMO/13/606).
Access to finance is one of the most pressing problems facing SMEs in Europe. In the last two years almost one-third of the SMEs applying for bank loans were refused or ended up getting less than requested. This month's European Small Business Finance Outlook confirms that the business environment for European SMEs is getting worse and euro area banks have tightened their credit standards. Information and access to EU funding is more important for businesses than ever before. Structural funds are already providing help for SMEs of around 70 billion euros for the 2007-13 period.
On the occasion of the conference European support for SMEs for the period 2014 – 2020, today in Brussels, European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship and European Commissioner for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn commented: "The single portal on EU finance will help SMEs find much needed financing easily and quickly. One of the key priorities for the Commission is to simplify and reduce the obstacles that business faces. The addition of the EU Structural Funds to the single portal represents an important milestone. At the same time, we also want to encourage Member States and regions to use EU financial instruments since they can enhance the impact of cohesion policy. They are catalysts for crucial investments needed to provide a vital boost to the European economy and create jobs.”
EU financial instruments for SMEs covered by the website include the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), Progress Microfinance, the Risk-Sharing Instrument (FP7), EIB loans for SMEs and now Member States’ national and regional Operational Programmes implementing cohesion policy objectives.
User-friendly website for SMEs
The single portal provides detailed information on how SMEs can apply for finance supported by the EU, via one of approximately 1000 banks and other financial institutions.
The single portal on EU finance enables entrepreneurs and companies to find tailor-made financing according to their specific financial needs such as company size, type of finance and investment focus. The portal is accessible in various EU languages and for all EU and candidate countries.
Access to finance in the regions- Crucial for return to growth
Financial instruments have become an increasingly important delivery tool of EU cohesion policy during 2007-2013. At the end of 2011, more than €3.6 billion has already been invested in enterprises through almost 68 000 loans, guarantee, venture capital/equity and other financial products.
By the end of 2011, a total of 484 specific funds for businesses (loan, guarantee, equity/venture capital and other) were set up in 25 Member States and one cross-border cooperation region. Overall, in the 2007-13 period to date, €69.7 billion of ERDF and ESF went towards SME support - this goes up to at least €95.4 billion respectively if the national co-financing is taken into account. By the end of December 2012, the financial instruments of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework (CIP) Programme mobilised almost €13bn of guarantees and more than €2.3bn of venture capital. Over 220,000 SMEs had already benefited from the programme across Europe. European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani has asked to increase the budget of CIP financial instruments by €19 million to help SMEs having difficulties accessing finance.
Dokumentumok és linkek
The single portal on EU finance will help SMEs find much needed financing easily and quickly. One of the key priorities for the Commission is to simplify and reduce the obstacles that business faces. The addition of the EU Structural Funds to the single portal represents an important milestone. At the same time, we also want to encourage Member States and regions to use EU financial instruments since they can enhance the impact of cohesion policy. They are catalysts for crucial investments needed to provide a vital boost to the European economy and create jobs. | {
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Comments on: Traitors of Connecticut: A complete list of who voted for illegal, unconstitutional gun control in the ‘Constitution state’http://www.prisonplanet.com/traitors-of-connecticut-a-complete-list-of-who-voted-for-illegal-unconstitutional-gun-control-in-the-constitution-state.html
hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6 | {
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EWTN Reality Show Highlights Local La Leche Baby
Eternal Word Television Network’s reality show, Real Life Catholic, explores the lives of ordinary Catholics with extraordinary faith around the world. And Thursday, Nov. 1, Real Life Catholic host and internationally acclaimed author and speaker, Chris Stefanick came to The Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine to hear the story of Rebecca Harkness, a local “La Leche Baby.”
Rebecca Harkness stands in front of the chapel at the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. (photo by Woody Huband)
According to Rebecca’s mother, Lisa Harkness, she and her husband Ted had been trying to conceive since 1995. After years of fertility issues, they decided to move forward with adoption.
“The adoption process was about as big of a rollercoaster ride as the fertility issues were,” she said.
During one particularly emotional holiday season, Lisa went to the shrine and prayed to Our Lady. That night, the couple got a call from their attorney, and two weeks later, Rebecca came home right before Christmas.
“I didn’t conceive her, but she definitely is our La Leche Baby,” said Lisa. “It was an answered prayer, and she was so meant to be our child.”
The Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche has been a place where countless people pray for fertility, conception and safe delivery, which is why babies conceived after intercession from Our Lady often take the name “La Leche Babies.”
The crew of Real Life Catholic film Chris Stefanick as he interviews Rebecca Harkness about the history of the Shrine. (photo by Woody Huband)
Rebecca, now a freshman at Ave Maria University, and her parents have continued to have a strong devotion to Our Lady of La Leche.
“The shrine means the absolute world to me,” said Rebecca. “This place is home. I dedicate my life to Our Lady in thanksgiving for the love and the nurturing she’s given us.”
While filming Real Life Catholic at the shrine, Chris Stefanick spoke with Rebecca about the story of her adoption and interviewed Dr. Mary Soja, vice-postulator for the Cause for the Canonization of La Florida Martyrs and long-time friend of the Harkness family, about the history of the shrine and the image of the Nursing Madonna.
“Honestly, I’m blown away,” said Stefanick. “I didn’t know until I was preparing for this episode the significance of this place for the faith in North America, and I’m so grateful that the cause is open and full-throttle because we need the stories of these saints.”
Photo of Rebecca Harkness as an infant next to her mother, Lisa, in front of the chapel at the Shrine.
Rebecca Harkness tells Chris Stefanick about the history of the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. (photo by Woody Huband)
Rebecca Harkness, Chris Stefanick and the crew of Real Life Catholic. (photo by Woody Huband) | {
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CENTRO DE MILAGROS
Celia Martinez "Sally" - SupervisorMy name is Sally Martinez. I have been working in the field of Early Childhood Education for the past 24 years. I have an AA Degree in Liberal Arts. I am continuing my studies to obtain my Bachelors Degree. I work for California Children’s Academy as the Campus Director of Centro de Milagros. I believe we help and serve the community as professional educators. | {
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The IGF often celebrates these massive, polished indie games that compete with the big triple A titles on consoles – and that’s very cool, but to me that’s only a very small part of what’s exciting about indie games.
The pirate kart represents a different side of indie games, one that I think is far more interesting – and one that’s maybe not so easily represented in the IGF. That’s why I’d love to see a pirate kart enter the festival. Not as a protest, but with complete sincerity. | {
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Ohio State Navbar
In the Lab
A Look at the Cluster Machine
We have built a time-of-flight machine to observe light-cluster interactions. The machine is designed to detect both electrons and ions by switching the polarity of the MCP (microchannel plate) potential. The flight tube length is about 50 cm and the acceptance angle is about +- 1 degree (limited by our MCP size ~18 mm dia). The flight tube is shielded by a Faraday cage and Mu-metal cylinder to block out stray fields. The cluster jet is first skimmed by a hydrodynamic skimmer to reduce the size distribution and only a few clusters see the intense laser light in the interaction zone. Essentially, our primary purpose for this machine is to lead the study of the effect of mid-infrared light on clusters, many atoms bound together through Van der Waals interactions. With a longer wavelength, we can reach a deeper tunneling regime (as opposed to multiphoton regime in shorter wavelength), and effectively elongate the quiver amplitude. By driving electron farther than the cluster size, we hope to observe some interesting phenomena from the multi-body interaction.
191 West Woodruff Avenue Physics Research Building, Ohio State University webmasters: [email protected] | {
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Museums in Yamagata
Located on a hilltop known for its panoramic view of Risshakuji Temple, this museum commemorates the famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho, who visited Yamadera in 1689 on the journey chronicled in his travel journal “Narrow Road to the Deep North”. The exhibits include displays of Basho's original handwritten poems, works by his followers, and Edo-period artworks. A seminar room is available for rent at the museum (from ¥1,500). Ceremonial whisked matcha green tea is offered in the tea house (¥450-600). | {
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RAW VIDEO: Duchess of Cambridge Makes First Public Appearance Since Leaving Hospital
The Duchess of Cambridge meets sports stars in London at her first public appearance since being treated for severe morning sickness.
http://www.kare11.com/video/2040096377001/1/RAW-VIDEO-Duchess-of-Cambridge-Makes-First-Public-Appearance-Since-Leaving-Hospitalhttp://cdn.newslook.com/a5/a53ff575dc0e7fa6ea3d8380f5d4147f/images/frame_0003.jpgRAW VIDEO: Duchess of Cambridge Makes First Public Appearance Since Leaving HospitalThe Duchess of Cambridge meets sports stars in London at her first public appearance since being treated for severe morning sickness.martine wrightbradley wigginsKate MiddletonnewslookJessica Enniskate middleton pregnantUnited KingdomLondonentertainment00:42 | {
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Top Quotes for All Types of Mothers on Mothers Day
A collection of the best quotes about motherhood, birth mothers, and adoptive mothers.
Jeanette Green
May 10, 2015
Check out these quotes on motherhood that are sure to warm your heart. Whether you’re a birth mother or adoptive mother, you are still and always a mother. It is one of the most rewarding opportunities. All mothers deserve a little extra attention and love on this special day.
1. Nothing More Sacred than the Birth of a Child
"Birth mother, there is nothing more sacred than the birth of a child. Something that comes close is the placing of a child into the arms of another." -Terra Cooper
2. Hold Their Hearts Forever
"Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever." -Author Unknown
3. A Mother's Hug
"A mother's hug lasts long after she let's go." -Author Unknown
4. My Mother
"Who ran to help me when I fell, and would some pretty story tell, or kiss the place to make it well? My mother." -Ann Taylor
5. The Strength of Motherhood
"Sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws." -Barbara Kingsolver
6. Brave to be a Mother
"It takes someone brave to be a mother, someone strong to raise a child, and someone special to love someone more than herself." -Author Unknown
7. Unconditional Love For Her Baby
"Adoption is not a birth-mothers rejection but an unconditional love that inspires her to put herself last and do all she can for her baby." -Author Unknown
9. Children and Mothers will Always be Togther
"Children and mothers
never truly part,
bound together
by the beating of
one another's heart."
-Charlotte Gray
10. A Mother is Born Again When a Child is Born
"For when a child is born the mother also is born again." -Gilbert Parker
11. A Mother's Love is Peace
"Mother's love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved." -Erich Fromm
12. Life Began with Waking Up
"Life began with waking up and loving my mother's face." -George Eliot
13. A Man Loves His Mother the Longest
"A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest." -Irish Poverb
14. He Made Mothers
"God could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers." -Jewish Poverb
15. I am a Mom
"Adoptive Mom? I am a Mom. I need no other label or prefix." -Joanne Greco
16. Giving Birth Does Not Make a Mother
"Giving birth does not make a mother....Placing a child for adoption does not make her less of one." -Author Unknown
17. To Be a Mother
"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." -Lin Yutang
18. My Angel Mother
"All I am or can be I owe to my angel mother." -Abraham Lincoln
19. Mother Love
"Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible," -Marion C. Garretty
20. The Payment is Pure Love
"Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs...since the payment is pure love." -Mildred B. Vermont
21. A Patchwork of Love
"A mother's heart is a patchwork of love." -Author Unknown
22. A Mother is Absolutely New
"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." -Rajneesh
23. Being a Mother is an Attitude
"Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation." -Robert A. Heinlein
24. The Love of a Mother
"The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between the heart and the heavenly Father." -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
25. The Needs of Her Child Above the Wants of Her Heart
"A birth mother puts the needs of her child above the wants of her heart." -Skyler Hardwick
26. Children are the Anchors
"Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life." -Sophocles
27. You are the World to One Person
"To the world you might be one person,
but to one person you might just be the world." -Author Unknown
28. A Mother Understands
"A mother understands what a child does not say." -Author Unknown
29. Motherhood is a Miracle
"However motherhood comes to you, it's a miracle." -Valerie Harper
30.
"The sweetest sounds to mortals given are heard in Mother, Home and Heaven." -William Goldsmith Brown
31. Mother is the Name for God
"Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children." -William Makepeace Thackery
32. Working Mothers
"All mothers are working mothers." -Author Unknown
33. Motherhood
"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there." -Robert Browning
Jeanette Green
Jeanette Green is a mother to three beautiful children--two through the blessing of adoption. She is a firm believer that we never walk alone, the sun continues to shine even when we canât feel its rays, and you canât get sick from raw cookie dough. Various life experiences have taught her that life never turns out like we expect. But if weâre patient, we learn that itâs better that way. To learn more about Jeanette and her crew, visit The Green Piece
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Vert's father reappears in Breaking Point during Vert's time away from the Acceledrome. The Major shows disapproval of Vert's association with the Teku and encourages him to leave them.
At the end of the Ultimate Race, we learn that Major Wheeler is one of the Silencerz. He can be observed driving Iridium (and then Magnesium) throughout Breaking Point and in the Acceledrome during the Ultimate Race. Iridium is also one of the first Silencerz vehicles you see in the Metro Realm (in The Speed of Silence) - we can assume its Major Wheeler at the wheel. | {
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Muslim Group Defends March on 9/11 Anniversary
The head of the American Muslim Political Action Committee is defending his group's emotionally-charged decision to hold a "Million Muslim March" on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil.
Isa Hodge, executive director of the organization, said on Newmax TV's "The Steve Malzberg Show" the event is not strictly for Muslims.
"We are memorializing. We have people of different faiths that will be saying a prayer for the victims of 9/11 as well as the families. And also we have a moment of silence before we begin . . . the rally," Hodge said.
"We're doing that as Muslims, standing up to show that we're against terrorism, that we're speaking out against it.
"But, at the same time, we're also against the fear mongering that continues to almost 12 years since that day that has turned the word 'Muslim' synonymous with terrorists," he added.
Organizers say the march Wednesday afternoon — plans for which were stalled in previous years — is being staged to promote the civil rights of Muslims and to stop inaccurate depictions of Islam and Muslims. According to The Huffington Post, organizers were expecting only "hundreds" to show up for the event, not the million they had hoped for.
"This is the third attempt to have a march in Washington, D.C. . . . and it was met with the same rhetoric. So basically I asked everybody the same question, what day is it OK for us as Muslim Americans to exercise our freedom of assembling and freedom of speech?" Hodge told Malzberg.
Hodge said the religion of Islam "is no different than the religion of Christianity or Judaism or Catholicism [in] that the taking of life is prohibited with the exception of self-defense and/or injustice."
The head of the American Muslim Political Action Committee is defending his group's emotionally-charged decision to hold a Million Muslim March on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil. | {
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Want to know the secret to having happiness at work? For one, it has nothing to do with your actual job.
People are spending more time at work and doing overtime. While working longer hours may be financially rewarding, that elusive goal known as “work-life” balance always seems so far out of reach for many of us because of this.
In order to achieve balance in our lives, we try and do whatever we can; squeezing in a walk at lunchtime, taking meditative or deep-breathing breaks between assignments, or even seeking alternate routes to and from work to make life a bit more interesting.
However, a recent study has revealed that the key to our happiness at work has been sitting next to us the whole time; our co-workers.
According to Virgin Pulse’s new Labor of Love Report, workers find happiness in the company they keep from 9-5.
Nearly 40% of respondents named their co-workers as the top reason why they love working for their company, with 66% stating that those positive relationships increase their own productivity and happiness at work, and 55% claiming that their co-workers helped to ease and mitigate their on-the-job stress levels. And with the average Australian spending 38-47.5 hours at the office a week, some workers spend more time with their co-workers than their own friends and family.
“The centrality of social connections to our health and well-being cannot be overstressed,” according to Sonja Lyubomirsky, the author of The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want. Employers are beginning to recognize the importance of these connections in the office and are taking steps to reinvent the workplace to help nurture the positive aspects of employees’ work experiences, reducing burnout and turnover in the process.
Community at work and positive relationships with co-workers has been found that it not only makes for a more happy worker, but a happier and more productive company as a whole.
Our relationships with our co-workers – if positive – is generally what keeps us at our jobs, and what helps ease the monotony of the daily grind. Whether it’s a quick chat about the weekend, sharing lunch, or a mutual dissatisfaction of one’s boss, worker relationships can make us feel happier, more content and productive.
To boost worker engagement, happiness and productivity, employers should look at creating a more positive work-place culture which is centred on healthy employee relationships.
Here are five great tips to boost your relationship with your co-workers with thanks to entrepreneur.com:
1. Encourage workplace friendships.
There’s no doubt American workers spend more time at work than they do at home. In fact, Globoforce discovered 78 percent of people who work 30 to 50 hours a week spend more time with co-workers than with their families.
Employers should encourage workplace friendships because they will boost employee morale. For example, Globoforce discovered 73 percent of the employees surveyed have laughed together and 61 percent have cried with a co-worker. Supportive and trusting relationships help employees stay engaged and maintain a sense of belonging at a company.
Several things, in my opinion, can encourage workplace friendships: Create an office space that encourages conversation. Design an open office or provide a space for employees to hang out in their free time.
Employers can also create social events for employees. Set up bowling tournaments, a company softball team, happy hours, workshops or company retreats. These activities can bring together staff and encourage employees to interact on a personal level.
2. Celebrate together.
According to Globoforce, 74 percent of the employees surveyed who hadn’t celebrated accomplishments with their co-workers said they are more likely to leave their jobs.
To boost employee engagement and happiness, recognize employee accomplishments with the entire company, I advise.This will prevent employee turnover and dissatisfaction in the workplace.
When celebrating an employee’s accomplishments, thank the employee before the whole department or the entire company. Host a celebration or make a company-wide announcement.
3. Create meaningful milestone events.
Milestone events such as employee anniversaries can serve as a time for employees to reflect on their accomplishments and growth. Fifty percent of the employees surveyed view work anniversaries a time of reflection, according to Globoforce.
For milestone events, I advise recognizing employees for their accomplishments and citing memorable activities they shared with the company and co-workers. Create a presentation illustrating an employee’s accomplishments and highlighting some fun memories.
4. Make employee recognition an emotional experience.
When recognizing employees for their hard work and success, tap into their emotions.
According to the survey, 89 percent of the employees surveyed said they took more pride in their work after experiencing an anniversary event that had emotional resonance.
Employee-recognition events can become emotional experiences, I believe, if staffers are praised for their work and they are given moving awards. Remind employees of their value to the company and how much they’re appreciated. These sentiments will motivate employees to keep working hard and remain loyal to the company.
What are some ways your company has created healthy co-worker relationships in the workplace? | {
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‘Baby teachers’ giving lessons
in love to help beat bullying
Action for Children's Roots of Empathy programme is having a significant impact on classroom bullying and aggression. From left, director of children's services Paul Carberry, Mary Gordon and Aileen Campbell MSP, whose son Crawford is being held.
Published:15:00Sunday 20 December 2015
Share this article
Bringing babies into the classroom to give lessons in love is having a dramatic effect on bullying in Scottish schools.
Action for Children Scotland has revealed its ‘baby teachers’ programme is reducing childhood aggression by 76%.
Schools throughout Scotland have been taking part in the Roots of Empathy initiative, which so far has involved more than 600 babies and more than 15,000 schoolchildren.
A study looking at the extent to which the programme changes aggression and empathy in children aged between five and eight showed that aggression was 76% lower in the intervention group than in a control group.
Results suggest that the pupils who benefit most from Roots of Empathy are those who are low in empathy, low in prosocial behaviour and high in aggression.
The programme involves babies and their parents visiting primary classes throughout the school year and works by helping the pupils understand that for brains to develop, they need to be cared for with attention and love.
Action for Children Scotland first brought Roots of Empathy to the UK in 2010.
Aileen Campbell MSP, Minister for Children and Young People, who participated in the Roots of Empathy programme with her son Crawford, said: “This simple and effective programme promotes empathy and kindness and shows, through its baby teachers, the power of loving and nurturing relationships - the report demonstrates Roots of Empathy’s effectiveness.
“I am so proud to have been able to share the developmental milestones of Crawford’s life with the beautiful children of Lanark Primary School and to know that the pupils have gained a lasting benefit from this.”
Internationally-recognised educator, child advocate and parenting expert Mary Gordon, who developed Roots of Empathy, said: “Through the leadership of Action for Children and the support of the Scottish government, we are very proud of the implementation integrity in Scotland and the commitment to research.”
Trending
Alex is diving into a successful career
Meet the Nicest Kids in Town when Hairspray hits the stage in Aberdeen
Transport police take campaign to tackle knife crime on to our railways | {
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Dwyer Instruments LPG3-D8122N
Low Pressure Gage, range 0-15 in H2O, bottom connection
Series LPG3 Low Pressure Gages are designed to be especially sensitive with an elastic element that expands and contracts with very small changes in pressure for ASME Grade A accuracy. This series is meant for the measurement of low pressures of gases and liquids and is ideal for air flow indicators, liquid level indicators and draft gages. Our new low pressure gages are available in 2-1/2" dial with either a bottom or back connection option. | {
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} |
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Tomorrow we should find out the results of our quad screen prenatal test. The quad screen is not a perfect test but it's what we decided to do before making a decision about the amniocentesis.
The amnio. Just thinking of it has been a stress. Unfortunately, being of "advanced maternal age" it's one of those things the doctor has suggested we consider. Apparently that one calendar year makes eggs very sticky and extra chromosomes can get attached where they didn't just a few months before.
That's not necessarily true, of course, but I'm a little bitter about being considered "advanced" when it comes to my age. I am not advanced, I am prime.
Me and my prime self have been really wishy-washy when it comes to making a decision about amniocentesis. I don't relish the idea of someone sticking a needle into my belly and into the sack that holds my unborn child, especially since I struggled so much in my first trimester. I really don't like the possibility of problems happening as a result. But I would hate not knowing if there was a problem with the baby before he/she is born. Then again, what would I do with the information? So many buts and none of them about my prime behind.
This baby, though easily conceived, has been hard won in my opinion. I don't think many women would have voluntarily gone through what I did for a baby, especially a second one, and definitely without knowing if the sickness was ever going to stop. If I had known it was going to be as bad as it was I don't know if I would have gotten pregnant. And that's the hard truth. Ignorance is bliss, but it can bite you in the ass if you're not looking.
And that leads me back to the amnio. If there are no glaring problems in the quad screen I don't know if we'll go ahead with it. My pregnancy has been tough, would I really consider (if you'll excuse my bluntness) aborting the fetus if something seemed to be wrong or will we live in ignorant bliss and see what happens?
It's a hard decision and not one I can make until I'm in the thick of it, which is why I'm waffling on getting the amnio done and waiting for the quad screen results. It has nothing to do with ethics or religious beliefs, I just don't know what I would do if placed in that situation until I was actually faced with hard facts. And I'm not sure I want to put myself there. Especially since I had a very long ultrasound when my doctor thought I was a candidate for the early screen. Can you bond with an image on a television screen?
I think waffling is appropriate. I'm always amazed by people who know what they would do, in a hypothetical situation like that. You can't know unless you're there.
They did change the recommendations on amnio. It's not as risky as it was. But it's still a scary procedure, and one I didn't make myself do. (In retrospect, I wish I had done it...but my perspective is kind of skewed on this one.)
Since I was a young spring chicken when I got myself knocked up, I never had to face the amnio decision. And since I only had one ultrasound at 9 wks to confirm I was still pregnant after a round of spotting, I was clueless about my Bug.
Had I known, I would have likely choose to abort. Because that's who I was. Young (25), two kids already and fairly poor. Not ready to take on a child with special needs.
I would have made the biggest mistake of my life and missed out on by far the most life altering, precious experience of my life and deprived my kids of the same.
Some times it's better to be unaware.
Just saying'.
But I'm not you. Listen to your gut. You won't go wrong...which ever direction you choose to go.
And remember, some little hick up north is thinking of you and cheering you on.
If things looked good, I wouldn't. But what I would do has nothing to do with what YOU should do. If there was a question, like in Catherine's case, I think I would have to. It is too big of an if and I am a preparer. It wouldn't change my mind, but it would help me prepare for the reality.
Do what YOU feel is right for you, and in the end that will be the right decision.
I was under the impression that the quad screen is really quite accurate. I know my doctor would never even have suggested amnio (and I was 35)unless the tests suggested there was a problem...good luck with whatever you decide.
I'm 35 and pregnant, and just had my first appointment with my OB. I asked him if the whole 35 thing was going to be an issue, and he told me that although it used to be, they don't tend to create the same panic that they used to due to whatever technology and experience has taught them. I personally will not have an amnio unless there are other red flags.
I was of "advanced maternal age" for my second pregnancy but I was so terrified of the amnio that I skipped it. However, my quad screen results were very favorable so I felt pretty okay about not doing it. You'll know what to do when the time comes. crossing my fingers for you :)
It's a tough call, that's for sure. Me, I need information. I can't not know. What I'd do with it, I'd decide afterwards, but I'd at least like to know what my options are or what I might be facing.
BUT! LOVING the new banner! And I really, really, REALLY need to know - do you own those shoes? Those are beyond awesome. What are those? See, I really DO need information! (And also your address, please - [email protected] - to send you a card.)
At 35 turning 36 with my second child, I told my doctor I didn't want to have a "routine" amnio. My family doctor, who specializes in obstetrics, say she prefers not to give an amnio unless the patient is 40 or older and has a "positive" from the triple screen. (This can also be problematic given the number of false positives from this fairly inaccurate test.)
In your mid-thirties, your chance of miscarriage from the amnio (1 in 200) is higher than the chance anything is wrong with the fetus.
I guess I wouldn't know what to do if the test results came back with a questionable result, probably have the amnio, but I do know that I wouldn't ever have one just as a matter of routine because of my age.
Best of luck with your decision. I know it must be a hard one for you.
Has your doctor given you the option of the CVS test? It's supposed to be less invasive than amnio (they go in vaginally). I am 41 and 29 weeks along. When I was around 12 weeks they did the higher resolution ultrasound then did the ultrascreen (quadscreen). They didn't recommend going through with CVS or amino since we weren't planning on evasive action if there was an issue.
38NT scan gave in 1 in 2 odds of a trisomy.I did the amnio.Yes the idea of termination after one miscarriage this year made me sick to my stomach, but, 1 in 2. And Trisomy 13 and 18 are pretty devastating diagnoses...Turns out baby was the one with the regular amount of chromosomes.
While CVS can be done earlier (although my amnio was 13 weeks) success (ie: no miscarriage) is a little more related to operator skill. And it's my understanding that they're as stressful and perhaps even more uncomfortable.
Good luck. Know that your false positive rate with that quad screen is pretty high...
If you use the services of Nextiva, the ten digit phone number will be followed by @faxorama.com. You will also drastically decrease paper waste, simplify your work day, and be surprised at the ease in which you can be organized and efficient. It is also very portable since any mobile device such as a cell phone or laptop can be used to do your faxing. And these days, you can find internet connections just everywhere around the globe. Fax cover sheet (Green Gears design)? Microsoft Word Template. Fax cover sheet (Green Gears design)? Microsoft Word Template Author: Admin. The use of images gives it a very professional and impressive look. So. | {
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There were minor minor hiccups over the weekend, mostly due to a concentrated bunch of noisy workunits being pushed through the pipeline. Other than that - no big server issues to mention.
Some people discovered a single BOINC client creating new, redundant hosts at the rate of one every few seconds. In the grand scheme of things this is no big deal. Bob usually checks for such things every so often and removes the zombie hosts to keep our hosts database as trim as possible. This case was slightly unusual due to the creation rate. I contacted the participant in question and we confirmed an old client on a system running Vista was to blame.
- Matt-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude
When I think about zombie computers, I think about botnets (for example, the botnet that the Storm worm built, whose sheer number of zombies is enough to spook even Bruce Schneier), DDoS attacks, open proxies, and spam.
By the way, I remember one piece of malware that installed SETI@home (back before BOINC was even around) on many people's computers without permission to boost his or her stats. The same thing happened with Folding@home. I don't know what happened with the SETI@home cheater, but the Folding@home cheater got his credits zeroed out.
When I think about zombie computers, I think about botnets (for example, the botnet that the Storm worm built, whose sheer number of zombies is enough to spook even Bruce Schneier), DDoS attacks, open proxies, and spam.
By the way, I remember one piece of malware that installed SETI@home (back before BOINC was even around) on many people's computers without permission to boost his or her stats. The same thing happened with Folding@home. I don't know what happened with the SETI@home cheater, but the Folding@home cheater got his credits zeroed out.
We have had a similar experience here and all projects except one cooperated very nicely when it was pointed out to them and deleted the account of the offending user and zeroed the stats.BOINC WIKI | {
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Cymax works hard to ensure you the the service and support you deserve. With a Better Business Bureau rating of A+ on over 2 Million orders since 2004, we our proud to stand behind our product selection.
We know your hard earned money is important to you. At Cymax we are always trying to offer you the best products at the lowest price.
To ensure you can shop with confidence and get the lowest price, we are continually researching competitors prices every hour. Our products are automatically updated through our advanced Active Pricing software, letting you know the price you pay - is one of the best available online!
Cymax works hard to ensure you the the service and support you deserve. With a Better Business Bureau rating of A+ on over 2 Million orders since 2004, we our proud to stand behind our product selection.
We know your hard earned money is important to you. At Cymax we are always trying to offer you the best products at the lowest price.
To ensure you can shop with confidence and get the lowest price, we are continually researching competitors prices every hour. Our products are automatically updated through our advanced Active Pricing software, letting you know the price you pay - is one of the best available online!
Antique Home Bars
The elegant look of a real antique is always popular. However, a real antique home bar is difficult to come by and even when you do find one they are often delicate and expensive. Read More
A home bar with the good looks of a real antique is a popular solution to this common dilemma. Modern design features combine perfectly with timeless style to create a piece that is the perfect accent in your formal living or dining room.
Get the look of a historic built-in bar with a gorgeous antique home bar. Framed front panels with arches and turned support columns create a stunning contrast to the real black granite serving top. A pull out cutting surface offers a place to slice and dice limes and lemons. Cherry veneer and antique brass hardware give this piece classic appeal.
Another wonderful home bar option is a distressed warm cherry antique home bar. It's a great option for a slightly more causal setting yet still retains an Old English feeling. A framed granite top is easy to maintain and creates the perfect bar top for creating your specialty martinis. Store your wine on the middle wine rack as stemware hangs above. Two drawers provide space for your extra napkins and bar tools while cabinets store away those liquor bottles. The brass foot rail around the bottom of the home bar is both functional and adds to the antique inspired charm.
If you are looking to make the most of your space, try a full height antique home bar. Making use of vertical space is one clever way to maximize every inch of your home. Try a home bar with an antique black or white finish. Both are popular neutrals that are extremely easy to incorporate into your design scheme.
Get the Antique Look for Less
Bargain hunting just got easier. Cymax has taken the guess work out of shopping for cheap home and office furniture. We work hard to bring you the best prices on brand name furniture designers such as Pulaski and Howard Miller. On top of low prices, we offer free shipping on most items and no sales tax (some exceptions apply). Browse through our full catalog to see how affordable your home makeover can be.
Beautiful bar. Very sturdy, high quality. Everyone that comes to our house compliments the bar. Beautiful color and design, well
worth the money. We could not believe the quality of the materials for the amount of money that we spent. We do not always have the best of luck ordering on line, we could have never found this in a store. Very little assembly, came in a solid piece, imagine that. Would highly recommend purchasing.
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Montverde Academy Eagles
Head coach - Kevin Sutton, 2nd year, -- years overall
Please note that the entire varsity team has not been selected at this time.
Stephane Bakinde
3 Forward
6'8"
2005
Mark King
2005
Giedriuis Knyssas
2 Guard
6'8"
2005
Luc Mbahamoute
2 Guard
6'8"
2005
Eugene Mubligi
2005
Arminus Urbitus
4 Forward
6'9"
2005
Vytautas Valiulis
1 Guard
6'0"
2005
Tony Brown
2 Guard
6'2"
2006
Luis Colon
5 Center
6'10"
2006
Szymon Lukasiak
4 Forward
6'8"
2006
Frank Patrick Ndongo
3 Forward
6'7"
2006
L.D. Williams
2 Guard
6'5"
2006
Stephan Allegre
1 Guard
5'10"
2007
Ryan Barnes
2007
Ameer Brown
2 Guard
6'3"
2008
Statistical Leaders and Team Notes
Montverde Academy exploded onto the scene in Florida last year. Their schedule was as strong as a 1st year program could be put together
featuring a minimum of 7 would-be Divison I prospects. Well, last year's squad was junior strong. So, Coach Kevin Sutton has several players returning.
They have a squad that 4 year universities could be jealous of. They have 5 kids above 6'7" returning. A national schedule awaits this year.
I hope Coach Sutton and his staff are ready for some travel. Hawaii, Texas, and New Jersey will increase Montverde Academy's frequent flyer miles. | {
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Pages
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Hi all! Yes, yes, I know it's been ages since I've posted anything, and I am very sorry (though I did say at the start of this blog that consistency wasn't really going to be a thing). The last time I posted was November, and the beginning of NaNoWriMo. I'll offer a quick catch-up of the last few months before we get to the actual topic of this post. I didn't accomplish my NaNoWriMo goal this time around. It's okay, though. I've made peace with it. Sort of. Anyway, there are many reasons I didn't complete NaNoWriMo this time, the biggest one probably being that I was straight up burnt out. I'd pushed myself to hard the preceding months re-publishing book one of The Guardians, publishing book two, and finishing the first manuscript of my new series. All while starting a new job in a new city. That's just an itty bitty more than one person should try to handle in such a short time, and it really effected my ability to write (and I'm still bouncing back from it). It's all good now, though. I've taken some down time from writing, and haven't been pushing myself as hard lately.
However, that's not really what I wanted to talk about in this post. Today, I want to talk about something that pretty much every writer who hopes to be active within the publishing industry has or will experience. It's something that I have been experiencing myself recently as I search for an agent to represent me. Rejection. Cold, bitter, soul-crushing rejection. Let's face it, rejection, in all it's forms, sucks. "I like you as just a friend." "You're application is denied." "We just didn't feel you were the best fit for this position." "I wasn't as drawn into the story as I had hoped..." Rejection is the WORST. It cuts at your self-confidence, and can make you feel small and worthless. It doesn't matter if it's not personal. It almost always feels personal.
Having your manuscript rejected by an agent or publisher can be one of the hardest things a writer has to endure. When facing this daunting hurdle, though, it's really important to remember that everyone, and I mean everyone, gets rejected at one point or another. For the vast majority of writers, rejection never happens just once. Even New York Times bestsellers, and classic authors whose works have become staples in the literary world faced multiple (and sometimes straight up rude) rejections.
Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, was rejected by 60 agents before landing representation.
C.S. Lewis faced years of rejection before The Chronicles of Narnia became a worldwide bestseller that has been translated into 47 languages.
Agatha Christie endured 5 years of rejection before landing her first publishing deal, and now the only other literary figure in history whose works have earned more than her is William Shakespeare.
The freaking Diary of Anne Frank was rejected 16 times! How does that even happen?!?
It wasn't until the 13th publisher that J.K. Rowling's Harry Potterwas put into print and became a worldwide sensation. And that was only because the editor's eight-year-old daughter demanded to read the rest of the book!
While this puts it all into greater perspective, knowing that famous bestsellers were turned down multiple times still doesn't completely take away the sting of rejection. It's important to remember, though, that being rejected is not personal. I mentioned above that it almost always feels that way, but the need to reiterate this point is very important. Agents and publishers, for the most part, reject projects that they do not think they can sell, or that will sell well. Never forget, dear readers, writing is an art, but publishing is a business. An extremely difficult one to get into, at that. Publishers and agents spend a lot of time and energy buying, selling, creating, and promoting the projects they invest in, so they aren't going to invest in something they don't completely believe in. And really, that's for the best of everyone involved. Would you really want someone to represent you writing, work you've poured your heart and soul into, who didn't feel passionately about it? Agents want to represent work they love, publishers want to put out work they think will succeed in the market, and writers want the writing they love to have the best chance possible of reaching people.
Here's my point in all of this: the people who are able to break into the publishing industry are those who don't give up. They are persistent, a little stubborn, but are willing to grow and learn through their experiences. Sometimes that means a rewrite. Sometimes it means starting from scratch with a whole new project. Sometimes it means believing so thoroughly in a project that you willing face rejection after rejection because you know somewhere out there is an agent and publisher who will believe in it as much as you. Those authors who manage to snag the attention of an agent and/or publisher are the ones who can get back up when they're knocked down. Sure, they're a little sore, a little bruised, but also wiser and tougher. If being published is what you really, truly want, then a handful of rejections can't discourage you.
It's not easy moving from a mindset of creative artistry to one of savvy business smarts. That's the reality all aspiring authors hoping to have even a little success in the publishing world face, however. So, if you're ready to release your work into this selective industry, or have already started trying, just remember three things: 1. Rejection happens to everyone, 2. It's not personal, and 3. Don't give up. Keep working, keep growing, keep improving, keep going, and someday you could see your book on the shelf. | {
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Pune, India, 26th April: The Indian government’s decision to make NEET entrance exams mandatory for all Indian students who wish to study MBBS in foreign medical institutes has invited mixed reactions from the education industry as well as from students. While the government’s order was aimed at addressing several petitions moved by medical aspirants planning to study medicine in the future, it has also presented grave problems for students already pursuing medical courses abroad.
However, in a public notice dated 23rd April, the MCI (Medical Council of India) with approval of Government of India, Ministry of Health and family welfare, New Delhi, has now granted a one-time exemption for Students who are already abroad with the intention of pursuing medical education in these foreign countries. This comes as an immense relief to these students and their anxious parents.
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Astute Academy’s Dr. Tushar Vinod Deoras said, “The authorities have acted swiftly and decisively in this matter. This would have escalated into a very troublesome situation for Indian students and their parents, but the PMO has helped resolve the issue quickly and satisfactorily.”
Earlier this year, Dr. Tushar Vinod Deoras, a very well respected, Pune-based education and career consultant, took the initiative to a write a letter to the Prime Minister of India. In this letter, Dr. Tushar Vinod Deoras explained the repercussions of the government’s decision in detail, and requested that certain amendments be made within the government’s new order. These amendments were put together after speaking to various stakeholders, as well as considering suggestions from various academicians from across the globe.
Dr. Tushar Vinod Deoras had specifically requested the following:
That NEET exams be made mandatory only for new students going abroad and
Once students clear it, it should be valid for international admissions
Students pursuing BS course abroad in countries like USA, Germany, Philippines should be exempted from giving NEET as they are already out of the country
MCI should issue Conditional Eligibility certificate for students opting for BS+MD program in USA, Philippines, Caribbean Island and many countries having USA-based education while leaving country for BS course only with a rider to get admitted for MD program
All of the above recommendations have been favorably considered by the PMO, and have been brought into effect immediately, thus providing much-needed clarity and respite to the Indian students currently studying abroad who are planning to pursue further education in medicine. | {
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Making Money in a Down Market
Two Minnesota farm families share their risk management strategies. Without a risk management program, the Becker family of Fairmont, MN, admits they wouldn't have made money on hogs in 2008. Put another way, using trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) resulted in a positive cash flow for the three partners, whereas relying on selling on the open cash market would have sunk them in red ink.
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Two Minnesota farm families share their risk management strategies.
Without a risk management program, the Becker family of Fairmont, MN, admits they wouldn't have made money on hogs in 2008.
Put another way, using trades on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) resulted in a positive cash flow for the three partners, whereas relying on selling on the open cash market would have sunk them in red ink.
“The last couple of years, our risk management program has made our production enterprise profitable. Because the cash market for hogs has been so lousy the last couple of winters, and we protected a profitable margin in our hedge account, the hedges more than offset our losses on the production side,” says Lynn Becker, past president of the Minnesota Pork Board.
Lynn manages the physical aspects of the hog operation and calculates the amount of feed and other inputs they will need, plus keeps track of how many hogs they will have on hand to market next week, next month and next year.
Lonny coordinates the risk management duties, charts feed prices and other inputs and projects the potential return on their hogs through marketing.
Larry is nearing retirement, but still helps manage the 1,500 acres of cropland, typically planted to corn. The three-man team meets to finalize the annual plans for the operation, including major purchases.
Lynn says sharing the group decision-making process helps ease the burden and the stress in a family-run business.
“It's been one of our assets in being able to delegate part of the responsibilities to someone else instead of thinking that you have to do it all yourself,” Lynn says.
Making Trades
Being a traditional crop-hog farmer normally has only brought a slight advantage — up until recently, Lynn notes.
The Beckers' risk management program led them to add grain storage capacity so they would have a full year's worth of storage.
“Having the storage to be able to buy all of our corn in the fall of 2007, when we saw prices rising, vs. the summer of 2008, when prices skyrocketed, was a huge advantage ($3 vs $7 corn),” Lynn recalls.
Similarly, the trio has “pulled the trigger” on numerous CME hog trades since 2004, when their Hormel packer contract expired and left them vulnerable to the open cash market.
Lonny figures during the first few years selling hogs on the CME (2004-2006), they left some money on the table, since they didn't hit the top prices offered. But they could still sleep at night knowing they locked in a small profit. That more than balanced out in 2007-2008, when they locked in much better returns on the futures market.
The key is to stay consistent with trades and not be afraid to look farther out to lock in better profit margins, Lynn says. “There are opportunities there. Don't be afraid to take them; what part of black ink don't you like?” he asks.
Trusted Advisors
The Beckers' farm team relies on a number of outside advisors to guide their decisions. The Beckers were one of the first hog farms in the area to sign on with Commodity & Ingredient Hedging (CIH) back in 2004, a consulting service based in Chicago.
The Beckers hedge an average of 70% of their hog sales on the futures market, more in the winter and less in the summer, when cash hog prices typically are higher.
They also buy options on their futures contracts as an insurance policy that locks in any possible gains on their contracts, Lonny says.
Those futures prices are locked in after their costs are established for all three major production factors — corn, soybean meal and hogs. “It is so important to start by knowing what your costs are,” Lonny reminds.
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Lonny says CIH maintains an interactive Web site where he can plug in costs and price basis for their area, providing a tool to calculate profit margins.
Lynn and Lonny also rely on other market advisory services that provide up-to-the-minute price quotes and outlook information for grains, hogs and other factors impacting the global economy and long-term trading opportunities.
Their lender is AgStar Financial; Mark Greenwood, vice president of Agri Business Capital, conducts an annual review of their operation, as well as stays on speed dial on the Beckers' phones and in frequent contact via e-mail.
“Don't be hesitant to find and pay for those services that can help you make better decisions, especially if you are the sole proprietor of your operation,” Lynn urges.
Contact with peers is also important, Lynn says. “Be a sponge and absorb information from other producers.” For example, he visited with fellow southern Minnesota pork producer Kevin Hugoson at a ballgame a year ago about the value of buying fuel in bulk. From that visit, Lynn ended up purchasing two storage facilities for the farm that enabled the Beckers to buy large quantities of gas and diesel in early 2008, ahead of the energy price surge.
In-house recordkeeping, supervised by Lynn's wife, Julie, helps keep close tabs on production and financial figures.
Monthly profit and loss statements are compiled, quarterly cost of production is analyzed and an annual meeting of team members to discuss overall performance is held.
Boosting Herd Health
Changing production flow has been a big part of Kevin Hugoson's efforts to improve risk management. “Our home farm (at East Chain, MN) used to be a continuous-flow, farrow-to-finish farm, and we would end up weaning once a week and commingling groups, increasing health challenges in the nursery,” he says.
Compounding problems is the fact that facilities were built in the '70s and '80s, keeping overhead costs down, but limiting the ability to easily update to improve efficiency.
Ten years ago, the home farm was converted to a 750-sow, breed-to-wean operation. In August 2007, Hugoson started batch farrowing approximately 650 pigs every two weeks.
“By weaning once every two weeks, we get bigger groups that are closer together in age,” he says. “We wean just about as many pigs as we would on a continuous-flow basis, gaining group integrity and significant health benefits.” Weaning age is 19-20 days of age.
Batch farrowing requires more farrowing crates because the sow and litters stay in the farrowing house a little longer. Downtime is extended from 3-4 days to 6-7 days, but Hugoson believes more downtime enhances health as well.
Hugoson also purchased a nearby 1,500-sow, breed-to-wean operation about a year ago, and leases with an option to buy a nearby 2,500-sow, breed-to-wean unit.
The weaned pigs remain as separate flows, with one flowing into a nursery and others into wean-to-finish barns. The contract grower barns and Hugoson's wean-to-finish barns are all within a 15-mile radius.
“Each wean-to-finish site is single-sourced, and that has minimized our health risk in hog-dense Martin County,” he states. Barns are 600-, 1,000- and 1,200-head capacity.
Hugoson has retained ownership of the finished pigs under contract and provides feed and veterinary care as needed. Contract growers get to keep all of the manure produced, and in turn, Hugoson often gets priority access to their corn production.
A sow site in west central Minnesota supplies 20-50-lb. replacement gilts for the three sow farms.
Dealing with PRRS
When the gilts arrive, they are isolated and acclimated for 120 days. “The goal is for the gilts to match sow herd immunity by the time they enter the herd for breeding at 8 months of age,” Hugoson explains. Planned PRRS exposure (PPE) of farm isolates is part of that strategy. Sows receive PPE 30 days postbreeding.
Hugoson regards the introduction of a new PRRS (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome) strain as a real risk to his operation. “That is our biggest health risk. If we can keep the same strain, then we are fine. When we get mutations or a whole different strain of PRRS, it is a killer. That is why we have this type of risk management strategy in place.”
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Plans are to install air filtration systems on the gestation-farrowing barns. “I think it will be a given to do that just to minimize the risk, and I feel the filtration could almost pay for itself by eliminating just one break with a new strain of PRRS,” he says.
Hugoson says maintaining regular vaccinations are especially critical when high feed costs make hogs so valuable. Pigs receive vaccine for circovirus and Mycoplasmal pneumonia at weaning and about 2-3 weeks postweaning.
Early diagnosis of health issues has become vitally important to avoid the big outbreaks that are costly, he asserts.
Marketing Risk
Hugoson used to think that health was the only area of risk until high grain prices escalated marketing risk. He looks at seasonal trends, usually trying to buy as much grain in the fall as possible, because grain prices traditionally are lower then. He buys 75% of his grain, using the futures market, to feed out 100,000 pigs.
Another early CIH customer, Hugoson hedges 25-75% of his hog contracts at times, but not always, and perhaps should have in 2008 when cash markets soured.
“Probably the biggest challenge in futures marketing I've experienced is when grain and hog prices are moving in the wrong direction from the positions I've had, and the psychological part of that can be so overwhelming. I know I don't have all of the answers, so I just turn it over to God and pray for peace and wisdom,” he says.
Don't get too emotional when the futures hog market drops a dollar or two — because if you sit tight, it may soon rebound as it often does in this volatile market, he assures. Hugoson analyzes his marketing plan weekly and quarterly. Risk management advice is also supplied by North Star Commodities of Minneapolis.
Most hogs are sold to Hormel, targeting a 200-lb. carcass, and heavier hogs are shipped to Tyson plants in Iowa.
Selling to Hormel, Hugoson must meet pork quality assurance-plus program standards and have site assessments completed by the end of the year.
“You have to have an excellent protocol, and provide a quality job of pig management and a good environment for the animal,” he comments. So far, inspections have gone well and the biggest change recommended has been to enhance recordkeeping on each site.
More diligence in tracking observations and treatments are planned, providing a paper trail from the barn to the office where his wife Mary and their office manager tabulate production information.
Newly installed software will help provide more information on how pigs are processed, track fluctuating breakeven prices and, in the end, help Hugoson get a better handle on whether his operation is staying competitive.
Hugoson leans on advisors to help with production and marketing decisions. “To me, it is just a necessity for risk management. Sometimes we have to spend money to make money, and that can be one of the hardest things for farmers to accept, especially in the last year and a half when profitable times have been seldom.”
And in the end, he says success wouldn't be possible without the positive contributions from employees, contract growers and the Fairmont (MN) Veterinary Clinic. | {
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26 Agustus 2016
Acquisition of Six New Air Defence Radars Need Retender
26 Agustus 2016
ThalesRaytheon Groundmaster radar (photo : MKFI)A Non-Transparent Radar AcquisitionTEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Suspected irregularities in the procurement of six new sets of radars for the Air Force need to be investigated. These new radars are needed to bring the Air Force closer to the required 32 units, up from the 20 existing installations. The tender process began in April last year, but was annulled the following November because no participant met the criteria. The cancellation, some suspect, was the result of intervention from senior Indonesian Military (TNI) officials who wanted to ensure that the contract was awarded to Thales Raytheon Systems. Based in Paris, France, this producer of defense equipment has supplied radars to the TNI before.
Weibel radar of TNI AU (photo : Kaskus Militer)The tender documents show that other similar companies, including Danish company Weibel Scientific, offered more sophisticated product at lower costs. If Thales wins the tender, it will be very obvious that there was collusion between vendor and buyer. This is why the bidding should be repeated. Even the specification for the radars was changed to match the Thales product.A number of regulations have already been issued to reform the defense equipment procurement mechanism, such as Law No. 16/2012 on the Defense Industry. Among other provisions, this law states that any purchase of military equipment from foreign parties must involve the domestic defense industry, and that there must be technology transfer and local content.The purchase of radars from Thales Raytheon Systems did not comply with those specifications. There was no technology transfer because the Indonesian defense industry and human resources did not have the capacity. See full article Tempo | {
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WHEN we hear Davao City as a destination for food, we usually equate it to either durian or pomelo or bananas. However, in recent years, Davao City has slowly become known as the Chocolate Capital of the Philippines. | {
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This will be my story to tell on my own terms, of fulfilling my lifelong dream of discovering the real history of my family. I do not choose between good and bad. It is what it is. I make no apologies to anyone who reads this.
Monday, August 27, 2012
While exploring my french heritage, I have naturally discovered some of the original french documents that tell the story of the lives of the many french ancestors; both maternal and paternal, that I am tracking. Though it is both wonderful that these documents still exist in archives, and have been discovered and digitized; it presents new hurdles. The first of course, is to be able to become a handwriting expert in order to perfectly read them. Once that is accomplished, then I need to get them properly translated, so that I can do a thorough interpretation of the document. So, being just your average family historian, and a bit lacking in the proper funds to hire all these professionals, I embark on my own personal mission to re-visit learning the french language. Thanks to a wonderful woman who is actually a "genealogical cousin", I have begun that process by using the gift of "The Rosetta Stone". The above image is actually two sides of the book containing the birth registrations from St. Philippe Church located in La Prairie, Quebec, Canada. It spans the years of 1823-1830. The page on the right side lists the birth record for my paternal 2nd Great Grandfather, Bernard Menard, in the 3rd entry down on the page. | {
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Pages
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
NOTD- Models Own 'Beth's Blue'
I am so late hopping on the Models Own bandwagon that the bandwagon has been, gone and left me at the roadside clutching on to my bottle of Beth's Blue for dear life.
Ok, enough of the dramatics Hannah! However, I got my first Models Own polish with my first Groupon purchase and my good God, I am impressed! I have been ever faithful to Barry M Nail Paints for at least a couple of years now, but nothing could prepare me for this: Pastel nail polish that is opaque in ONE coat! Swooon!
I honestly recieved so many compliments over this colour last weekend at work. Some people described it as "blu-tack blue", one particularly inventive friend said that if lilac was blue, instead of purple, it would look just like this! Either way, I think this is the perfect shade for spring, something different yet gorgeous!
Also, worth noting that for only £5 or €7.50 you get a mahoosive 14ml worth of product.
Bravo Models Own! :o)
Stupid question, but have you tried any Models Own polishes? I really want to buy MORE! :o) | {
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Tag Archives: best cruise tips
After the recession, vacation cruise travel made a comeback with Americans.
There were 16.3 million passengers (69 percent from North America) traveling on cruise ships in 2011,
compared to 14.8 million passengers in 2010, according to 2012 figures from Cruise Lines International Association.
For those travelers that love the warmer weather, the opportunity for cruise travel to exotic islands beckons.
Caribbean Sightseeing
Stepping aboard a Caribbean cruise might be the perfect fall getaway for you, with luxe accommodations, amazing sightseeing, social gatherings amid tropical climates. Before booking your trip, read on for five quick tips to help you find great deals on a Caribbean cruise vacation.
Pick The Right Cruise Line
There are numerous companies that offer Caribbean cruises during the fall months, like Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise lines for families, Carnival and many cruise lines in between. Each of these companies offer affordable deals on cruises to cold-climate Americans.
Know the total cost of the cruise, and all that the costs covers, suggests USA Today. Ask if amenities or on-board activities are extra. Look for vacation cruise packages that appeal to your interests, lifestyles and activities. For instance, A young couple might want to choose another cruise line that isn’t entirely family-focused.
Book Your Cruise Early
Once you’ve made your choice, book your trip sooner rather than later, as the cruise cost will likely rise as it gets nearer to the destination date. Booking ahead of time can potentially save hundreds of dollars on your fall getaway to the Caribbean regardless of the cruise line.
While you are booking your cruise trip, consider investing in insurance coverage
through sites like TravelGuard.com cruise insurance for your vacation. For those on specific dates with connecting flights to the port, having travel insurance can provide peace of mind for any cruise trip-related problems (seasickness, anyone?) that might arise.
Save $$$ with a Group
Many cruise lines offer family and group discounts for cruises, so if you can persuade friends, family members and others to join you in booking, you’ll be able to save money overall on total cruise travel costs. The people you include in your travel package do not even have to be close family. In fact, you don’t even have to spend time with them while you are on the trip. All that matters is that you are bringing more travelers with you, which cruise lines naturally like to reward with discounted prices.
Hope for Last Minute Travelers
If you’re not one of those organized travelers that books voyages months in advance to get the best deal, you still may be able to find discounts for last-minute travel. Many cruise lines run their vessels on what they call “repositioning” cruises, in order to transfer a ship from a departure port to an arrival port. Through these instances, discounted deals are available for those spontaneous travelers that are willing to hop aboard for the journey. This is a great opportunity to get an even better deal.
Hold Out For The Best Deals
Contrary to our first tip above, sometimes it makes sense to hold back on booking.
For example, October 17th-23rd is National
Cruise Vacation Week. If you can hold off booking your trip until then, many cruise lines and travel agents offer the best deals during this week for symbolic reasons. | {
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Sale Page
Hilton Grand Vacations Club Waikoloa Beach Resort | UNIT ID: HGVC163
Resort Description
Hilton Grand Vacation Club at Waikoloa Beach Resort is a perfect family vacation destination. Clean and comfortable units are surrounded by 1,350 acres of lush tropical landscaping and preserved cultural sites. This resort features one- and two-bedroom timeshare units complete with a private lanai, fully equipped kitchen, air conditioning, and cable TV.
Enjoy the many amenities at Waikoloa Beach Resort. Two swimming pools offer a refreshing break from the tropical heat of Hawaii. Barbecue grills and picnic areas are scattered throughout the property for a home cooked meal without the mess. Tennis courts, two 18-hole golf courses, exercise facilities, and free shuttle service to area shopping, hotels, restaurants, and the beach are all part of the perks of staying at this resort.
Many pristine, white sand beaches are scattered along the Kona coast. Mild surf, an abundance of tropical fish, and the warm sun make the perfect recipe for a wonderful vacation. Spend an afternoon wandering around Kailua-Kona, shopping, tasting the many fine Hawaiian delicacies, and touring historical monuments. | {
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BlackBerry unveils new Z30 smartphone
NEW YORK -- BlackBerry has unveiled its newest smartphone, the Z30, touting it as the company's biggest, fastest and most advanced device yet.
The all-touch smartphone comes with a 5-inch display and BlackBerry's largest battery so far. BlackBerry says it's designed for people looking for a smartphone geared toward communications, messaging and productivity.
The new BlackBerry Z30 smartphone comes with BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2, which includes hundreds of refinements plus many new features that help you be more productive. Among key features are:
BlackBerry Priority Hub - BlackBerry Hub is the one place to manage all your conversations and notifications. The new BlackBerry Priority Hub can now learn what conversations and what people are important to you making it fast and easy to find the messages and information you need. It collects priority messages across your email, social networking and other accounts and gives you instant access to the conversations most important to you to help you stay organized and focused on the most important tasks.
BBM Now in Any App and Message Previews Everywhere - BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2 continues to refine the unique communications experience of the platform. You can now get a preview of any message as it arrives in whatever app you're using, and immediately dismiss it or tap it to read the full content and respond. If a BBM message arrives, you can instantly reply to the message without even leaving the app you're in. In addition, if your phone is locked, you can tap the various icons on the Lock Screen to see an instant preview of your most recent messages and notifications.
5" Super AMOLED Display - The BlackBerry Z30 smartphone features the latest in display technology with a 5" Super AMOLED display that makes whatever you're running larger, clearer and more vivid. The smartphone also houses many top of the line components, including a 1.7 GHz processor with quadcore graphics that makes browsing web pages faster and games more detailed.
Stereo Audio and BlackBerry Natural Sound - The BlackBerry Z30 smartphone comes with stereo speakers that immerse you in your music, videos, apps and games, and makes conversations sound like you're face-to-face. BlackBerry Natural Sound is new technology exclusive to BlackBerry and part of BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2 that makes BBM Voice and BBM Video chats sound more natural and realistic. BlackBerry Natural Sound lets you hear nuances and variations in tone, making conversations sound like you're in the same room.
New Antenna Technology - The BlackBerry Z30 smartphone features BlackBerry's new generation antenna technology that dynamically tunes reception to give you better connectivity in low signal areas. BlackBerry Paratek Antenna can give you faster data transfers and fewer dropped calls in low signal areas, keeping you connected in more places.
Longer Battery Life - The BlackBerry Z30 smartphone includes a 2880 mAh battery, the largest battery ever built into a BlackBerry smartphone. Combined with the battery enhancements in BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2, you can get up to 25 hours of mixed use to keep you moving from dawn 'til dawn.
The company's full Documents To Go suite comes preinstalled and the phone runs on the latest version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system.
The launch comes as the Canadian smartphone maker continues to ponder a possible sale of the company amid tough competition from fellow smartphone makers like Apple Inc. and Samsung.
BlackBerry's 10.2 operating system will be rolled out to existing Z10, Q10 and Q5 smartphone owners starting in October. Each wireless carrier will determine its exact launch date on their respective networks.
Later in the morning, a Wall Street Journal report surfaced claiming that BlackBerry is poised to lay off 40% of its workforce. The company has been in the process of implementing a cost-reduction and streamlining plan, as the company moves from their old software platform that ran previous smartphones to the new one based on an entirely different platform. | {
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Considering Homeschooling Your Child? Check Out This Article!
Some people lack the money to send their children to private schools, yet they want to see them get a proper education. Homeschooling is one option to do this. When you understand the different methods, you can provide a great education for your children. Read this article for the information you need to get started!
Use life itself as an opportunity to learn. There are things that can be learned every day. Listen to their speech and correct any grammar mistakes that they make. Teach them about measurements and how to convert hem though cooking preparations. Your child will pick up these skills quickly and benefit from this diverse education.
Create a schedule for when the kids are in class and when they’ll get breaks. They can’t learn all day long! You need to adhere to the schedule as tightly as possible to ingrain the routine into everyone’s lives, even yours. The more you stick to the plan, the better the outcome.
The goals you set for your homeschool classroom need to be easy to measure. Write down exactly what you want your child to know at the end of each day, week, month and lesson plan. For example, “I would like John to be able to multiply up to ten” is a great short-term goal. “I would like John to know all about World War II” is a long-term goal. Both should come with positive reinforcement when achieved.
Family vacations are great as a learning tool. When you go on a trip, find places nearby which you can teach your kids about. In any given day on your vacation, you can include a learning opportunity in your itinerary. Your family will enjoy learning and make the schooling a family event.
Skills about life are as important as studying. That is why you should include life skills as part of your lesson plan. While academic skills are pretty obvious, life skills, for example cooking, gardening and learning to drive are extremely important. There are many ways to teach both simultaneously. For example, if you want to teach your child about percentages, you can teach him some financial planning at the same time by explaining how bank accounts work.
Check your local library for resources. This is a free way to get material. Not only are traditional educational books available, you can also look around for other learning material. Find interesting books to share with your children. You will be amazed at how much the library has to offer!
Keep at it even if you feel like throwing in the towel. It takes time to develop a plan that works for both, you and your child. Many new homeschoolers give up too soon because they feel overwhelmed in the beginning, but after a year most homeschooling parents have settled in and enjoy homeschooling their children.
Armed with this information about homeschooling should make you more confident about your abilities. As long as you have the right information, you will be able to do it. Use what you learned here and you can be a wonderful teacher for your children. | {
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