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Subject: Re: NetBSD: Certified mom-ready.
To: Paul Newhouse <>
From: Dave McGuire <>
List: current-users
Date: 04/19/1999 13:09:17
Warning: My message below contains little more than flamage. If you're not in
the mood for that, act accordingly.
On Mon, 19 Apr 1999, Paul Newhouse wrote:
>It mentioned Linux 6 times and NetBSD once. While it's nice that NetBSD
>got mentioned, it is a Linux article by weight of numbers.
>It stinks but, that's how it is. *8^(((
[flame on]
Indeed. Though not entirely shocking, given the rate at which we're losing
members of 'core'.
them put it, "well, their leaders are..." Now Herb has resigned, and I'm
almost dreading going into the office today!
What the hell is going on? It seems from my [admittedly rather isolated]
point of view, my favorite which I've been evangelizing and selling
people on since the 0.9 folding in on itself due to petty political
bickering, massive ego problems, and an apparent lack of
tranquilizers/beer/prozac/whatever it would take to keep people from yelling
and screaming at each other like children. Is this really what's happening?
If so, why? Is that even an answerable question?
[flame off]
-Dave McGuire | dclm-gs1-004490000 |
pkgsrc-Changes archive
CVS commit: pkgsrc/devel/mercurial
Module Name: pkgsrc
Committed By: wiz
Date: Sat Aug 7 06:24:05 UTC 2010
Modified Files:
pkgsrc/devel/mercurial: Makefile distinfo
Log Message:
Update to 1.6.2:
1.6.2 (2010-08-02)
This release addresses a regression in the color extension.
* color: pass write/write_err to win32print correctly (issue2312)
* convert/progress: use plural and avoid retrieving
* color: call correct superclass method in write_err
1.6.1 (2010-08-01)
This is a scheduled monthly minor bugfix release.
* alias: ensure checksignature() is applied directly to the command
* bash/zsh completion: use HGPLAIN when invoking hg (issue2297)
* bookmarks: don't allow name to contain whitespaces only
* bookmarks: ensure current bookmark is updated when specified with -r .
* bundle: lookup revisions after addbranchrevs
* color/progress: subclass ui instead of using wrapfunction (issue2096)
* commit: only warn when reopening the workdir's branch
* dispatch: give better error message when cwd doesn't exist (issue2293)
* doc: make sure we use our own code for generating man pages
* filelog: cmp: don't read data if hashes are identical (issue2273)
* filelog: test behaviour for data starting with "\1\n"
* hg.clone: fix branch value when passing a repo object (issue2267)
* hgweb.wsgi: add a URL to the corresponding wiki documentation
* hgwebdir: allow pure relative globs in paths
* hgwebdir: use template paths configured in the hgrc (issue2281)
* init: create target directory recursively
* inotify: check all components of filenames against hgignore (issue884)
* keyword: move collecting of [keyword] patterns to reposetup (issue2303)
* log: fix missing diff output for hg log -p in subdirectory
* log: follow filenames through renames (issue647)
* mail: ensure that Python2.4 to 2.7 use the same header format
mercurial.spec: rename docutils to python-docutils in BuildRequires
* mq: clarify the fact that qimport is trying to read a file
* mq: cleanup status if applied mq is stripped (issue1881)
* mq: fixed ENOENT when qrename to new/directory.patch
* mq: reset self.added after the mq transaction instead of inside qimport
* qpush --move: move the right patch even with comment lines
* rebase: re-add patches to mq repo after rebase
* revert: rename original to .orig instead of copying (issue2282)
* revset: fix ancestor subset handling (issue2298)
* runrst: try to be more helpful if docutils is not installed
* tag: do not allow tag names to consist solely of whitespace (issue2307)
* transplant: crash if repo.commit() finds nothing to commit
To generate a diff of this commit:
cvs rdiff -u -r1.44 -r1.45 pkgsrc/devel/mercurial/Makefile
cvs rdiff -u -r1.33 -r1.34 pkgsrc/devel/mercurial/distinfo
copyright notices on the relevant files.
Home | Main Index | Thread Index | Old Index | dclm-gs1-004500000 |
Subject: GENERIC and ALPHA configurations
To: None <>
From: Pavel Cahyna <>
List: port-alpha
Date: 09/28/2006 15:13:52
there are GENERIC and ALPHA configurations in sys/arch/alpha/conf. A
comment in GENERIC says:
"The generic kernel on NetBSD/alpha does enough to get booted, etc., but
not much more. For a more complete kernel see the ALPHA machine
description file."
"If you add stuff to this, please add it to the ALPHA configuration, too."
This seem strange. Shouldn't GENERIC itself be a reasonably complete
Also, the request to add stuff to ALPHA was ignored several times, leading
to a situation whre ALPHA is no longer a superset of GENERIC.
Could I just merge the two and remove ALPHA? | dclm-gs1-004510000 |
Subject: Re: dependence on logical service vs. package name
To: None <>
From: Marton Fabo <>
List: tech-pkg
Date: 09/06/2002 15:33:33
Are there so many groups of packages that provide the same service,
which is accessible using the same interface (so that they can be just
replaced by each other) that making this mechanism work even worths the
I realize the exim/sendmail/postfix stuff, are there others? | dclm-gs1-004520000 |
Social Media
SONR is a Terrible, Terrible Idea That Simply Won't Work
I seem to be going through a love-hate relationship with web apps at the moment. I wasn't going to post about this one, but I just spotted a post by Richard MacManus on the subject and I think he got it very, very wrong. The service in question is SONR, a frankly under-baked service that (allegedly) allows you to track your podcast statistics. Richard writes:
I get a lot of product pitches by email every day, but few of them are really compelling enough to grab my attention. But this one did, perhaps because it is a product that promises a much-needed media tracking solution. In this case, podcasting statistics (and later video-blogging). From the SONR homepage:
"SONR (Sonar) is a media tracking tool for content providers. Specifically geared towards podcasters (and later, publishers of video content), SONR's goal is to provide detailed information on how listeners interact with your content. Currently, most podcasters only know when a listener has downloaded their content, but with SONR's media player, providers can now track how much of their podcast was listened to and what the user did while listening."
...This is something that has been needed in podcasting for a long time - ways to put metadata into your podcast AND track usage. I know Marc Canter for one is going to be very pleased about that!
Well, the second I heard the words "podcast tracking", I was interested. Those who have been following this blog for a while (yep, all three of you!) will know that podcast tracking is a thorny problem, largely because the MP3 format isn't suited to tracking. Services like Fruitcast and Podtrac can track downloads, but nothing more. Only Audible has a tracking service that actually delivers accurate statistics, but it gets around the issue by using a format that isn't MP3. In fact, back in November 2005 Dave Winer, Mitch Ratcliffe, Greg Yardley, Jeff Jarvis, Om Malik, Doc Searls and a whole load of other smart folks had a fascinating debate on podcast metrics and Audible's efforts in this space. It's a well-understood topic, and one that has been discussed at length. So here's my beef: SONR will be virtually useless when it comes to the podcast tracking issue.
Here's the huge, huge catch that Richard mentions only briefly: to use SONR tracking, your listeners need to use the SONR media player on a website. Which raises the obvious question: what use is that to anybody? Isn't the whole point of podcasting that it's portable and time-shifted? If you're listening to an audio file on your PC without subscribing to an RSS feed, is that even a podcast? How the heck is this supposed to fix the podcast tracking issue? As far as I'm concerned, SONR is next to useless. It's a completely unneccessary diversion that will take us no closer to accurate podcast statistics. But maybe I'm mistaken - am I missing something here?
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What's Hot | dclm-gs1-004530000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
1. A link says:
Any type of algebraic structure on subsets of $S$ that is defined purely in terms of closure properties will be preserved under intersection. Examples are σ-algebras, π-systems, λ-systems, or monotone classes of subsets.
Note however, this does not apply to semi-algebras, because the semi-algebras is not defined purely in terms of closure properties (the condition on $A^c$ is not a closure property).
$S$ is said to be a semi-algebra if it is closed under intersection and if complements can be written as finite, disjoint unions:
• If $A,B∈S$ then $A∩B∈S$.
• If $A∈S$ then there exists a finite, disjoint collection $\{B_i:i∈I\}⊆S$ such that $A^c=⋃_{i∈I} B_i$.
In "the condition on $A^c$ is not a closure property",
• what does "the condition on a set operation such as taking complement is not a closure property" mean?
• What is the meaning of "closure properties"?
How do you see the family of semi-algebras (aka semi-rings) of sets isn't closed under intersection?
2. Michael Greinecker also commented: The family of semi-rings on a set are not closed under intersections.
BTW, if I am correct, the concept of a semi-algebra of sets is the same as semi-ring of sets in Wikipedia.
Thanks and regards!
share|improve this question
The family of all bounded intervals is a semi-ring on $\mathbb{R}$ but not a semi-algebra (since the complement is unbounded and hence not a finite union of bounded sets). – Michael Greinecker Jan 6 '13 at 0:47
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1 Answer
up vote 2 down vote accepted
Closure properties can be formulated in terms of concepts from universal algebra. Let $X$ be the underlying set (in our examples, $X$ is a famly of sets itself). Let $I$ be an index set, $(\kappa_i)_{i\in I}$ be a family of cardinal numbers and $(f_i)_{i\in I}$ a family of function satisfying $f_i:X^{\kappa_i}\to X$ for all $i$. We say that $C\subseteq X$ is closed under $(f_i)_{i\in I}$ if we have for all $i\in I$ that $f_i(x)\in C$ for all $x\in C^{\kappa_i}$. One can show that the family of sets closed under $(f_i)_{i\in I}$ forms a Moore collection.
Let's look an an example: Let $U$ be a set and $X\subseteq 2^U$. We let $I=\{s,c,u\}$, $\kappa_s=0$, $\kappa_c=1$, and $\kappa_u=\omega$. We identify constants and nullary functions, so we can let $f_s=U$. We let $f_c(A)=A^C$ for all $A\in X$, and we let $f_u(A_0,A_1,\ldots)=\bigcup_n A_n$. That $X$ is closed under these three functions means simply that it contains $X$, is closed under complements and countable unions- it is a $\sigma$-algebra.
Now, one cannot write down semi-algebras this way, since there is no unique decomposition of the complement into disjoint sets. If $\mathcal{S}$ is a semi-algebra and $A\in\mathcal{S}$, then there exists a number $n$ and sets $B_1,\ldots,B_n\in\mathcal{S}$ that are disjoint and such that $A_c=B_1\cup\ldots\cup B_n$. Now if there exists a unique such family and if this family only depended on $A$, we could write down this property as closure under some functions in the following way: We let $f_{c_1}=B_1,\ldots, f_{c_n}=B_n$, and for $m>n$ we let $f_{c_m}=f_{c_n}$. We use the last condition because we have no a priori bound on how many sets are needed. But these sets are not a function of $A$, so this property can not be viewed as a closure property.
Here is an explicit example (taken from Alprantis & Border) that shows that the intersection of sem-algebras might fail to be a semi-algebra: Let $X=\{0,1,2\}$, $\mathcal{S}_1=\big\{\emptyset, X,\{0\},\{1\},\{2\}\big\}$, $\mathcal{S}_2=\big\{\emptyset, X,\{0\},\{1,2\}\big\}$, and $A=\{0\}$. We have $\mathcal{S}_1\cap\mathcal{S}_2=\big\{X,\emptyset,\{0\}\big\}$, and $A^C=\{0\}^C=\{1,2\}$ is not the disjoint union of elements of this intersection.
share|improve this answer
Thanks! (1) How is $C\subseteq X$ closed under $(f_i: X^{\kappa_i} \to X)_{i \in I}$ related to the example for semi-algebras? (2) For semi-algebras, why do "there do no unique decomposition of the complement into disjoint sets (even then, one would need a hack)" and "a function can have only one value" matter? What is "a function"? – Tim Jan 6 '13 at 14:33
@Tim I've edited it and hope have clarified these issues. – Michael Greinecker Jan 6 '13 at 22:19
Thanks! I edited some places I thought were typos. Feel free to edit again if I am wrong. I was wondering if the definition of a set operation having closure property comes from some references? – Tim Jan 7 '13 at 14:02
@Tim All things closure operations I learned from the Handbook of Analysis and its Foundations by E. Schechter. – Michael Greinecker Jan 7 '13 at 14:13
Thanks! Besides the two books, what other books in analysis do you recommend? – Tim Jan 11 '13 at 21:36
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| dclm-gs1-004540000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
In laymen's terms, as much as possible: What is the Riemann-Zeta function, and why does it come up so often with relation to prime numbers?
share|improve this question
A good example of a question that is asked by someone genuinely interested in math but is looking for an accessible way into more advanced number theory that he would otherwise have no other means of finding. – Justin L. Jul 23 '10 at 6:47
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5 Answers
up vote 49 down vote accepted
Suppose you want to put a probability distribution on the natural numbers for the purpose of doing number theory. What properties might you want such a distribution to have? Well, if you're doing number theory then you want to think of the prime numbers as acting "independently": knowing that a number is divisible by $p$ should give you no information about whether it's divisible by $q$.
That quickly leads you to the following realization: you should choose the exponent of each prime in the prime factorization independently. So how should you choose these? It turns out that the probability distribution on the non-negative integers with maximum entropy and a given mean is a geometric distribution, as explained for example by Keith Conrad here. So let's take the probability that the exponent of $p$ is $k$ to be equal to $(1 - r_p) r_p^k$ for some constant $r_p$.
This gives the probability that a positive integer $n = p_1^{e_1} ... p_k^{e_k}$ occurs as
$\displaystyle C \prod_{i=1}^{k} r_p^{e_i}$
where $C = \prod_p (1 - r_p)$. So we need to choose $r_p$ such that this product converges. Now, we'd like the probability that $n$ occurs to be monotonically decreasing as a function of $n$. It turns out (and this is a nice exercise) that this is true if and only if $r_p = p^{-s}$ for some $s > 1$ (since $C$ has to converge), which gives the probability that $n$ occurs as
$\frac{ \frac{1}{n^s} }{ \zeta(s)}$
where $\zeta(s)$ is the zeta function.
One way of thinking about this argument is that $\zeta(s)$ is the partition function of a statistical-mechanical system called the Riemann gas. As $s$ gets closer to $1$, the temperature of this system increases until it would require infinite energy to make $s$ equal to $1$. But this limit is extremely important to understand: it is the limit in which the probability distribution above gets closer and closer to uniform. So it's not surprising that you can deduce statistical information about the primes by studying the behavior as $s \to 1$ of this distribution.
Let me mention two other reasons to care about the limit as $s \to 1$ of the above distribution. First, the basic reason to think of the primes as acting independently is the Chinese Remainder Theorem. Second, a natural reason to look at a distribution where the probability that a number has exactly $k$ factors of $p$ is $(1 - p^{-1}) p^{-k}$ is that this is precisely the distribution you get on the residues $\bmod p^n$ for $k < n$. In fact, I believe this can be upgraded to the corresponding statement about Haar measure on the $p$-adic integers.
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Off-topic: What is $$ (with respect to latex formatting)? – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jul 27 '10 at 22:30
It's basically \displaystyle and centering. – Qiaochu Yuan Jul 27 '10 at 22:40
That is why one should not use $$ in real latex but \\[ and \\] :) – Mariano Suárez-Alvarez Jul 29 '10 at 21:05
I feel like I've just been let in on a mathematical secret. – I. J. Kennedy Oct 27 '10 at 4:48
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Giving an explanation in layman's terms is always going to be challenging, given that the Riemann-Zeta function (and related hypothesis) inevitably lies in the domain of abstract mathematics, but I shall do my best.
The Riemann-Zeta function is a complex function that tells us many things about the theory of numbers. Its mystery is increased by the fact it has no closed form - i.e. it can't be expressed a single formula that contains other standard (elementary) functions.
Although there are many different ways of expressing the Riemann-Zeta function (the Wikipedia article gives several), it can ultimately be derived from the following simple series of real numbers:
by extending it into the complex plane.
The reason this strange and esoteric function is so famous and actively discussed in mathematics is due to the Riemann hypothesis - proposedi n 1859 by the by the great Bernhard Riemann and still unsolved. The Wiki article states the problem in quite simple terms:
The Riemann zeta-function ζ(s) is defined for all complex numbers s ≠ 1. It has zeros at the negative even integers (i.e. at s = −2, −4, −6, ...). These are called the trivial zeros. The Riemann hypothesis is concerned with the non-trivial zeros, and states that:
The real part of any non-trivial zero of the Riemann zeta function is 1/2.
Thus the non-trivial zeros should lie on the critical line, 1/2 + it, where t is a real number and i is the imaginary unit.
Although the conjecture (it is only that at the moment) has many consequences for mathematics (number theory in particular), the primary one, at least the one Riemann originally proposed, is about the distribution of prime numbers. In other words, it tells us with great precision what the average gaps between primes are as we move to greater and greater numbers. Many of the other implications are rather more esoteric, though perhaps equally important for pure mathematicians.
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Here there is another attempt at an explanation.
We know that the sum of the inverse of the positive numbers, $1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + \cdots$, diverges. Euler shown that the sum of the inverse of the squares, $1/(1^2) + 1/(2^2) + 1/(3^2) + \cdots$, has a finite sum, namely $\pi^2/6$. Mathematicians love to generalize things, so they thought at the function
$\displaystyle f(x)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty\dfrac1{n^x}$
which is defined for $x \gt 1$. But this was not enough: they decided that the variable could be a complex number and not a real one. There is a standard tecnique (Analytic continuation) which allows us to extend the function to nearly all the complex plane. So we now have a function which formally is
$\displaystyle \zeta(s)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty\dfrac1{n^s}$
(the variable being $s$ and not $x$ to show that we are dealing with complex numbers) but is not computed in this way. Just to make an example, $\zeta(0)=1/2$, and sum of an infinity of ones is not $1/2$. :-)
It may be shown that for $s = -2n$ ($n$ positive integer) $\zeta(s) = 0$. But there are infinite other point s'=(x,y) where ζ(s') = 0. For all of these points, 0 < x < 1; Riemann's hypothesis says that for all such points $x = 1/2$. If it were true, we could have the best asymptotic expression to count π(n), that is the number of primes below n.
Why does the function pop up when we talk about primes? I don't know, but in the case of integer values Euler proved that
sum of 1/(n^s) = product over all primes of 1/(1-p^s)
Maybe this could be a good start.
share|improve this answer
The product formula is valid for all $s$ with $\Re(s)>1$; it's of great importance as to why the zeta-function (and its cousins the L-functions) relates to the distribution of prime numbers. – Akhil Mathew Jul 23 '10 at 11:45
Correction: zeta(0) is -1/2, not 1/2. Also, I think it is misleading to say analytic continuation is a "standard technique" to extend the zeta-function. Whether a function has an analytic continuation to some larger region is a property, but checking where that property works often depends on special aspects of the particular function under consideration. – KCd Feb 3 '11 at 3:45
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The key point is that the Riemann zeta function is a function whose properties encode properties about the prime numbers. As mentioned by Noldorin, in order to fully understand the Riemann zeta function you need to "analytically continue it to the complex plane" which is a tricky process which takes serious study. Fortunately for some easier properties of the primes you can just use the definition of the zeta function for real s.
Claim (due to Euler): The fact that $\zeta(s)$ goes to infinity as s->1 tells you that there are infinitely many primes.
Sketch of proof: Use the "Euler factorization" mentioned by mau (expand the RHS as a geometric series and then multiply it out using unique factorization into primes):
$\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1} {n^s} = \prod_{p prime} \frac{1} {1-p^-s}$
Now take log of both sides to get: $\log \zeta(s) = \sum_{p prime} \log \frac{1} {1-p^-s}.$
Now use the taylor series for \log and send s to one. You'll get that the left hand side goes to infinity (http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/255/), while the right hand side looks like $\sum 1/p$ + bounded terms. So there must be infinitely many primes.
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Noah: in the last paragraph, you want to send s to 1, not zero. – KCd Feb 3 '11 at 3:47
Indeed, thanks. – Noah Snyder Feb 4 '11 at 18:00
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The above answers give excellent explanations about why the zeta function has close connections to number theory, but I thought I'd mention something about why the Riemann Hypothesis should matter so much.
By taking the logarithm and then differentiating the zeta function, one gets the formula $$\frac{\zeta'(s)}{\zeta(s)}=\sum_{n=1}^\infty\frac{\Lambda(n)}{n^s}$$
for $\Re(s)>1$, where $\Lambda(n)$ is the von Mangoldt function which takes the value $\log p$ at powers of primes $p$, and is 0 everywhere else. Think of it as a weighted way of counting the primes (the prime number theorem tells us that $\log p$ is the natural weight to choose).
Much of analytic number theory proceeds by choosing a weight of the set we wish to consider (often the primes), and then encoding this weighting in a so-called Dirichlet series (an infinite sum of the form above). We can then use analysis to study this series and get lots of useful information.
In this case, then, the function we need to study to get information about the primes is $\frac{\zeta'(s)}{\zeta(s)}$, which we can study using complex analysis.
In complex analysis, a good slogan is 'the only things that matter are zeros and poles' (effectively points where the function shoots off to infinity).
Hence to understand the prime numbers, we just need to understand the zeros and poles of $\frac{\zeta'(s)}{\zeta(s)}$ - we know about the simple pole at $s=1$, we know there aren't any other zeros where it counts, and we also know that the only other poles are at zeros of $\zeta(s)$ (roughly because dividing by zero causes infinity).
In other words, if we knew where these zeros are (i.e. the Riemann hypothesis) we can work with $\frac{\zeta'(s)}{\zeta(s)}$ in all kinds of clever ways to get good results on the prime numbers.
More specifically, in the usual contour proof of the prime number theorem, knowing that there aren't any other zeros in $\Re(s)>1/2$ would allow us to shift the contour further to the left, reducing the error term in the result to (roughly) $O(\sqrt{x})$.
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protected by Marvis May 14 '12 at 1:11
| dclm-gs1-004550000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
If $(m, 10) = 1$, choose $b$ so that $10 b \equiv 1 \pmod m$. Then $n \equiv 0 \pmod m$ if and only if $n' + ba_0 \equiv 0 \pmod m$, where $a_0$ is the unit's digit of $n$, and $n'=(n-a_0)/10$. First generalize this and tell me how to extend this theorem to general divisibility tests of other numbers by a single formula or method or procedure.
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What are n' and $a_0$? – user7530 Oct 4 '11 at 7:23
I suspect that $a_0$ is the last (one’s) digit of $n$ and that $n'=(n-a_0)/10$, the number that you get when you erase the last digit of $n$; is that correct? – Brian M. Scott Oct 4 '11 at 7:49
@Brain M. Scott! Your suspected one is very right. The last digit is $a_0$. – gandhi Oct 4 '11 at 8:09
Edited to include Brian's interpretations. – Gerry Myerson Oct 4 '11 at 12:11
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2 Answers
I suppose a generalization would be, if $\gcd(m,r)=1$, choose $b$ so that $rb\equiv1\pmod m$. Then $n\equiv0\pmod m$ if and only if $n'+ba_0\equiv0\pmod m$, where $a_0$ is the unit's digit of $n$ when $n$ is written in base $r$, and $n'=(n-a_0)/r$.
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Can you go little further from your consideration. – gandhi Oct 4 '11 at 17:49
Can you be a little more specific in your request? – Gerry Myerson Oct 4 '11 at 21:44
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HINT $\ $ In radix $\rm\:d:\ \ n'\:d + a_0 \equiv 0\ \iff n' + a_0/d \equiv 0\pmod{m}\ \:$ when $\rm\:\ (d,m) = 1\:. $
This amounts to "simplifying" an equation by cancelling some unit factor $\rm\:d\:.\:$ Because $\rm\:d\:$ is a unit (i.e. invertible), this is an invertible transformation, i.e. $\rm\:d\:x\equiv d\:y\iff\ x\equiv y\:.$ One encounters such simplifications (or normalizations) quite frequently, e.g. normalizing polynomial equations to be monic, i.e. scaling them so that the leading coefficient $= 1\:.$
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Good. Thank you sir. – gandhi Oct 4 '11 at 17:48
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Your Answer
| dclm-gs1-004560000 |
Dear forum members,
I am currently doing a maths project and as a part of this project I am trying to prove a certain conjecture about the divisibility of numbers.
First of all, could someone please take a look at the proof given in this document on page 4, solution 2.
I do not understand how does Euclid's lemma relate to the proof given, and I'd be grateful if someone could explain this to me.
Second, if I was trying to prove a certain thing about the divisibility of two integers, call them a and b, by a number x, and if I knew that the difference of these integers, a-b, is divisible by x, could I use the congruence theorem of modular arithmetic to prove that both a and b are divisible by x?
I am really lost in the world of proofs and do not understand them at all. So if someone could please help me, I would be very grateful.
Thank you! | dclm-gs1-004570000 |
I've noticed a very popular Area 51 site proposal: Myanmar IT Pro
At the moment it is the second most followed proposal with well over 100 following users. The problem is that most of these users are new, with no previous experience with the Stack Overflow network and with no understanding of the goals of site-definition phase.
As a result the whole proposal is filled with „meh” questions and the users who are not aware that this is „meta”-question stage are more than eager to use comments to discuss the questions as if it were on an active site, not a site proposal. Since the questions were „meh” in the first place, those comments quickly devolve into pointless chit-chat and even minor political flames.
• How do we educate those new users? They probably aren't really bad users; they just don't understand the concepts behind Area 51 site proposals. It's just another web forum for them.
• Should we radically clean-up proposals such as this (possibly discouraging users by deleting most of their contributions)?
• Maybe we should just leave it alone, since it will not get a critical mass of experienced users and will be discarded after a while?
share|improve this question
It's not just them. I have to resist answering questions too. – waiwai933 Jun 6 '10 at 15:51
Indeed. It's happening for Persian IT proposal too. Most users following the proposal have never used the trilogy. – LeakyCode Jun 6 '10 at 21:30
The popularity of that proposal is probably caused by the link to it on the main page of myanmaritpro.com, "Need your support! Support Q&A site for Myanmar IT professionals" – Peter Mortensen Jun 7 '10 at 1:29
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2 Answers
Remember the definition phase is just the beginning.
The commitment phase (not this week, unfortunately, but early next week) will rely pretty heavily on users having some level of reputation in our ecosystem.
It will be extremely difficult to reach the commitment threshold without substantial amount of aggregate multi-site reputation.
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Is there something to prevent a couple thousand clueless users with 51 rep (earned from verifying email) to reach the threshold? If that's not the case, from what I'm seeing on the proposals, it can become a disaster. – LeakyCode Jun 6 '10 at 21:35
@meh (sic), what I understand is that you will need reputation on other sites in the trilogy – jmfsg Jun 6 '10 at 23:41
@Mehrdad: There were plans to count not only pure rep, but also badges. For example a proposal needs commitment from 10 "Taxonomists", 20 "Strunk & Whites", 5 "Civic Duties" etc. – Tadeusz A. Kadłubowski Jun 7 '10 at 5:59
@Tadeusz: Taxonomist strikes me as a particularly bad requirement; S&W and Civic Duty look useful, maybe even Electorate, but I don't see any others. Requiring a certain number of "Nice/Good/Great" type badges doesn't appear useful. Do you have a Meta link about this? – Gnome Jun 7 '10 at 14:59
@The Cat: The actual numbers aren't decided yet, but the general idea was mentioned by Joel in the original SE 2.0 blog post: „For instance (and I’m making these numbers up), we might require that a site get at least 100 commitments from people with the Teacher badge, at least 20 from people with the Enthusiast badge, and at least 50 from people with a reputation of 1000 or more on some of our sites.” – Tadeusz A. Kadłubowski Jun 7 '10 at 16:53
@the we aren't using badges initially, we convinced Joel that would be a micro-optimization at this early stage – Jeff Atwood Jun 7 '10 at 21:13
Considering it again: S&W and CD just repeat the rep requirements. You have to have 2k to edit for S&W, and the 300 votes for CD is hard to legitimately achieve without already participating. – Gnome Jun 7 '10 at 21:29
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Familiarity with at least one established SE site seems to make all the difference in the quality of example questions. (Counting SOFU/Trilogy as SE sites.)
The issue you point out will only get worse as Area 51 moves gets out of public beta and wider, more diverse audiences are attracted, too.
I've been thinking about it the past day or so, and the only idea that's stuck around as viable is to require some familiarity with an existing SE site. Something like a longer new user introduction, no matter how short it actually is, will just be a wall-o-text they quickly click through to get to the stuff they want to see.
That familiarity can be measured in terms of rep, maybe something low like 100-500, and will be much easier to get once there are more diverse SE sites (i.e. right now you have to get it on SOFU). The rep requirement could be fulfilled across multiple sites, too. For example, 100 SO + 400 SU = 500 and meets the requirement.
In addition, requiring an account of a certain age (e.g. 30 days) may be better. A low limit like a month really isn't that long to wait, and I get the idea that Area 51 is intended for—or at least works best with—a select audience who are more committed to their proposals than the average visitor of the established site.
However, it will preclude users that don't speak a language currently used on any site, which could hurt proposals like Persian IT. Given its popularity, it seems inevitable that foreign language Area 51 proposals will be accepted, possibly even the norm. Perhaps there can be enough bilingual users to reach a low rep limit on other SE sites?
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GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- With each outing this spring, it seems more difficult to imagine that the Reds' front office would conclude camp in nearly three weeks by telling Aroldis Chapman he's not the best person to take their rotation's fifth spot.
"We still have a ways to go before we have to make that determination," Reds manager Dusty Baker said.
Baker was given another reason to be impressed on Wednesday vs. the Brewers. In his third outing, but first start of spring, Chapman pitched three innings and allowed one run and one hit with one walk and five strikeouts. Cincinnati lost the game, 5-2.
Of the 45 pitches Chapman threw, 29 were strikes and he reached three-ball counts three times. After he reached 100 mph in each of his first two appearances, he topped out at 98 mph multiple times, according to the radar guns of a few scouts behind home plate.
Most importantly, he was throwing strikes.
"For the most part, I felt really good about the command of my pitches today," Chapman said, with Class A Dayton pitching coach Tony Fossas translating. "Some of them were a little bit away. I threw a lot more sliders and fastballs today. I felt good with it today. There were less changeups."
Chapman also showed he was just as capable of paying for a bad pitch. His first batter of the game, Rickie Weeks, launched a 3-1 fastball well over the left-center-field fence for a home run. It was the first time anyone had taken Chapman deep during Spring Training.
"I just made a mistake, a [3-1] pitch down the middle," Chapman said.
"Of course he has life on his fastball, and I saw a slider and changeup from him and I don't think he was able to get the offspeed over for strikes a lot," Weeks said. "I don't really pay attention [to the hype]. He's a pitcher. He's going out and doing his job. The hype about him? The guy throws 100 mph, so what do you expect?"
Weeks was the only batter that eluded Chapman when he also walked in the top of the third. The Milwaukee hitters otherwise had their hands full trying to get a handle on the hard-throwing 22-year-old Cuban lefty.
Following Weeks' homer, Chapman retired eight in a row, including a stretch of five out of six with strikeouts. The first inning concluded with Ryan Braun called out on strikes by a 90-mph hard slider. Corey Hart fanned on a 97-mph fastball for the third out.
In an impressive sequence in the third inning, Chapman threw four pitches to strike out George Kottaras that were clocked at 95, 96, 97 and 97 mph.
"It's very funky," Hart said. "Everything he threw was moving. Nothing was the same."
Over three outings this spring, Chapman has given up one earned run and four hits with two walks and a team-leading 10 strikeouts. He is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA.
The Reds made a splash when they signed Chapman in January to a six-year, $30.25 million contract despite him largely being an unknown entity. He defected from Cuba in July and had no professional experience.
To this point on the mound, Chapman has mostly backed up the bold investment.
"He looked outstanding," Baker said. "The more I looked at him, he started to remind me of a guy I faced and a guy I played in Puerto Rico with -- [former Red Sox tall and skinny left-hander] Rogelio Moret. He had a nasty sinker today, a two-seamer, that we didn't even know he had. He's slowly but surely adding to his repertoire of pitches. He's feeling more comfortable and more confident."
Chapman demonstrated less command with his fastball and slider in his previous outing vs. the Dodgers on Friday. But he has been nowhere nearly as wild and raw as scouting reports indicated before camp began.
Part of the reason is because Chapman focused on improvements since signing and has learned quickly.
"I am staying taller and finishing up my pitches better and not dropping my elbow," he said. "I was always opening up too much and I've made those corrections."
Chapman is making a bid for the fifth spot in the Cincinnati rotation against several other candidates -- including Micah Owings, Travis Wood, Justin Lehr and Matt Maloney. One pitcher no longer in the race is Mike Lincoln, who was informed Wednesday morning that he would be headed back to his regular bullpen role. It wasn't a stunner since Lincoln had a 11.37 ERA in three starts.
The only fifth-starter candidates having anywhere close to Chapman's success are two other prospects that had outside chances, at best, coming in -- Wood and 2009 first-round Draft pick Mike Leake.
"We're starting to narrow it down," Baker said. "We're going back to have some meetings and try and determine who is who. It'll probably go down to the wire, even if we have to use Minor League games or 'B' games and things like that. As long as we get these guys their innings for endurance sake."
Since the Reds tell their pitchers exactly when they'll be coming out of the bullpen, the club didn't view Chapman's first start as a different type of test from his previous relief appearances. What made this outing different was some hitters saw him a second time around, but Baker even downplayed that significance.
"Initially, how to pitch them goes to the catcher," Baker said. "Where to pitch them goes to the catcher. How you get it there is up to him."
So far, Chapman has done his part by mostly getting it there well. The decision of whether he's big league-ready falls on the Reds. | dclm-gs1-004600000 |
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BBC News
watch One-Minute World News
Last Updated: Wednesday, 23 February, 2005, 13:56 GMT
Royal Navy right to promote gay rights?
Royal Navy HMS Scott
The Royal Navy has joined the Stonewall's Diversity Champions Programme to promote gay rights.
Royal Navy spokesman Anton Hanney said the force's existing no-sex policy will remain in place on ships and at naval bases.
Stonewall's chief executive Ben Summerskill said he was optimistic that the Army and the RAF would follow suit. He said the forces staff had become so sophisticated and highly-trained that they could no longer afford to lose them due to prejudice.
Is the Royal Navy right to promote gay rights? Should the Army and the RAF do likewise?
Yet another example of the 'liberal' totalitarians getting their way over common sense. I'm married and straight and would not feel comfortable in close quarters with other women or gay men - does that make me a bigot or is it as I suspect the way the majority feel if not say?
Paul, London, UK
There is legislation protecting gay employment issues. The armed forces should be no different. Its about time!
Craig, Sheffield
I also served in the Royal Navy as a sea-going wren and I know that sharing your living space with 30+ other women is not easy. I have no problem with homosexuals but I'd like to stand up for the rights of heterosexual people. If gay personnel are to serve in the forces why not make it all mixed living quarters where men and women can live together. It would by prejudice to say that a man and woman were more likely to have a sexual relationship than two gay people.
SH, Cardiff
I would like to point out that the Navy is not exercising gay rights - but is exercising equal rights. And who can argue with that?
D, Kent, UK
I think a lot of the points made here will become obsolete as the older entrenched views die off and are simply replaced by younger, more enlightened people who wonder what all the fuss is about.
Aidan, London
As a gay person I really love the support of some of you out there, though some others on here should be ashamed, it is because of the narrow mindedness of people like you that we need a programme like this. Because you are gay does not mean you fancy ever other male you see, catch a grip on reality! Thanks again for those of you voicing your support!
Roy, Belfast, UK
The RN should be applauded for taking this step
Corporal A J K (Ret), Canada
I think the RN should be applauded for taking this step. Canada's Armed Forces have the same policy that the RN is trying to introduce and it's worked for us for years. I even served along several openly gay soldiers.
Corporal A J K (Ret), Canada
Why do so many people, who are probably male, making the assumption that a gay man will be staring at them in the shower? You will probably find that a great many of them will be in a relationship with someone they care a great deal about, they will not sign up to the armed forces, renowned for its homophobic attitudes in the past, just to eyeball other men!
Jo, Chester, UK
I was in the forces for 5 years and as employees we were considered apolitical and asexual. As long as you can do your job, that was all that mattered. The forces really suffer when they try to conform to civilian standards. They run fine on their own.
Jim, London
It amazes me how many people take the attitude that straight men couldn't share a room with gay men. Do they think that they are all sex-mad? Any decent person is quite capable of sharing a room with their preferred sex and controlling themselves. People who think it is "unacceptable" should grow up and come into the 21st century.
Annie, UK
An utter waste of money and resources
Greg Marriott, Saffron Walden, Essex
This is an utter waste of money and resources. At a time when our armed forces are being more and more overstretched, is this really worth any attention at all?
Greg Marriott, Saffron Walden, Essex
Some people feel that the Navy shouldn't be singling out one minority for this attention. When you consider that this very issue was considered illegal only a few years ago then yes, it's important enough to be made an issue of. To Greg Marriot:- It's not a waste of money and resources. To lose highly trained personnel simply because of their sexual orientation is wasteful.
James Robson, Scotland
I'm gay and have served in the RN for the past 3 years. My fellow crew mates know I am and none of them have a problem with it. Partly because they know that I don't let anything interfere with my job and partly because I was honest about it from the start. Honesty, loyalty and doing your job well is far more important to my crew mates and most of the rest of the RN personnel that I have met than who you sleep with. There are the odd one or two individuals but there are in any job.
Greg, UK
But the Royal Navy ISN'T promoting gay rights, it is simply treating everyone equally. Which is the only sensible way to treat a group of people who are going to risk their lives as a team.
John, Fleet, UK
Sorry John, Fleet, UK but the Navy IS promoting gay rights and encouraging gay recruitment. That is the purpose of the policy. Hopefully, it will result in everybody being treated equally and sexual orientation will become a non-issue.
Ken, England UK
Just treat all people as equals
Ieuan Johns, Port Talbot, UK
No public body should actively promote the rights of any group, minority or otherwise. Just treat all people as equals and stop trying to gain free publicity for retracting what was a terrible injustice in the first place. If there is truly any feeling of remorse then compensation should be given to those dishonourable dischargees from all forces over the past 50 years. I can't see that, can you?
Ieuan Johns, Port Talbot, UK
Having served for 5 years in the RN, I can speak from first hand experience. We had exactly the same prejudices when women were allowed to serve on board. Look at them now, it was as if they have been on board for centuries. The same will happen for gay service personnel also.
Neil, Norwich, UK
Are we to believe that there are absolutely NO gay people already currently serving in the armed forces/navy? Let's get real here! Seems to me to be a legalisation of an existing situation...so, what's the problem?
Dee, Ballycastle, N.I.
The new policy will be fine in the future
Ted, retired RN officer
In the past sexuality in the armed forces generally only became an 'issue' when inappropriate behaviour undermined discipline in some way. The new policy will be fine in the future just so long as sexuality does not become more important than competence in judging personnel.
Ted, retired RN officer
Hopefully it is actually a minority of people in the UK that hold some of the views here, including the religious nonsense which has been the causation of so many of the world's ills. Well done to the Navy and this comes from someone who's family has served many generations, and can tell a tale or two!
Phil, Harrogate, UK
We all heard the same arguments for not letting women into the armed forces, but they have been proven wrong. Homosexuals served in British forces in WWII and women on the front lines helped Russia turn the tide against the Nazis.
Chris Knell, London
It should pursue a policy of 'don't ask, don't tell' and retain the status quo
Anthony Metcalf, Dubai
The Navy shouldn't actively promote gay rights, just like it shouldn't actively promote the rights of any group who make a lifestyle choice. It should pursue a policy of 'don't ask, don't tell' and retain the status quo.
Anthony Metcalf, Dubai
I am openly gay at work, my colleagues accept me for what I am and my work. I was open about my sexuality when I was employed and told that I was being judged on my ability and qualifications. I find the comments about sharing showers, quarters on ships etc the classic response. How do these people know that they are not already sharing with closeted homosexuals who fear being themselves for fear of the repercussions and treatment that they could receive? Most gay guys I know are aware of the impact their actions have at work and maintain a professional approach.
Jason, Sunbury, UK
Females are not expected to share rooms or showers at the same time as men so why should heterosexual men be expected to share with homosexuals?
Anon, UK
Once again the feelings of the majority are to be ignored for the rights of a minority. I spent six months in the Falklands in 1982. The room I slept in with three others was 6ft wide x 10ft long and in Bosnia a six man Portocabin was 8ft wide x 15ft long. Showers are shared, amongst other places, so where are my rights and thousands like me when we don't want to have to share our time without some one looking at us when we change and shower.
Females are not expected to share rooms or showers at the same time as men so why should heterosexual men be expected to share with homosexuals? Everyone forgets this side of military life when they talk about homosexuals in the armed forces and before the accusations come fast and thick you don't have to be homophobic to think like this.
Anon, UK
To Anon - It appears you don't like gay people very much, and you have the right to this opinion. However, you don't have the right to spend your entire life in a permanent "gay-free zone" - any more than you have the right not to be fancied by ugly women. You also seem to assume that gay men are all uncontrollable nymphomaniacs who would be constantly lusting after their heterosexual colleagues in any combat situation. This may be a common prejudice, but it is complete rubbish.
I have no issue with gays but for their own sakes I don't think they should serve in the armed forces and profess their sexuality openly. Not many members of the armed forces are tolerant to the point where they would gladly accept gays. I do not condone that attitude as I've served in the Army and I believe in the freedom of expression afforded to us in this country and those freedoms are extended to everyone.
Colin S, London
Ah, how predictable, homophobes coming out to play whenever they get the chance. What I wonder would their reaction be upon being reminded that the greatest general in western history, Alexander the Great, was of an orientation they despise. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with someone's competence to carry out a given task. The military should be based on ability and skill nothing else.
Kevin Farrell, Edinburgh
The Royal Navy is wrong to promote gay rights. They should not be involved in people's sex lives. Military personnel are there to do a job. Any fraternisation should incur immediate dismissal from military service, regardless of sexual orientation.
John, North London, UK
Yes, it is long overdue. The Royal Navy is right to promote equal rights. In itself discrimination is a violation of a person's human rights. Prejudice, discrimination, the de-humanization of individuals and groups based on a real or perceived identity continues to be a source of serious human rights abuses. All human beings, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity or sexual identity have the right to be afforded equal treatment and dignity in line with international humanitarian and human rights law.
Paul, London, UK
As usual, the liberal extremists make a big song and dance about their fight for equality when in fact everyone else is just getting on with things
Bill, Bristol
As usual, the liberal extremists make a big song and dance about their fight for equality when in fact everyone else is just getting on with things. If anything people like Stonewall are now perpetuating any discrimination rather than assisting in resolving anything and the sooner they disappear and allow the tolerant majority to get on with life, the better.
Bill, Bristol
At last - if homosexuality wasn't an issue in times of war (WWII) - it shouldn't be a problem in times of peace.
Mark Tidmarsh, Brighton, England
The Royal Navy is not kicking and screaming but moves faster than many corporate businesses with reforms
Sam, London
It has been said before and remains true that life in the military is very different from civilian life. There are not many places where 50 men are expected to sleep in the same mess in close proximity. I am however in favour of the RN's move to promote equality for homosexuals. Furthermore the Royal Navy is not kicking and screaming but moves faster than many corporate businesses with reforms. All this without workers unions! An example to other companies I hope.
Sam, London
As an ex Royal Navy rating who has been to sea on a warship and slept and lived in a mess with 40 some men I can say that a homosexual is a difficult thing to come to terms with. It's all very nice for people who have never been in this situation to say "It's about time" and "What does a person's sexual orientation have to do with it" but to spend nine months cooped up like chickens, sleeping three feet above or below you and not feel awkward is not normal. Let them serve if that is their wish, but please do not publicise your sexuality.
James Jeffrey, expat in US
It's very welcome that the Navy is promoting and accepting gay rights, because although things are far better these days... we have very little in the way of rights. The bigoted comments I see on here reflect the fact that some people cannot see past the sex thing. Love is love people... as long as you uphold the law, do your job/duty well, and don't abuse anyone in life, then does it matter what gender you are attracted to? Gay people have served the country for years in many ways. Wake up to the modern world folks.
Melissa, Heathfield, E Sussex
I think that this is an utter disgrace!
Ian, Belfast
The Royal Navy has nothing to lose and everything to gain. It's can only be a positive move on their part.
Mike Woodcock, Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Why do so many people seem to assume that homosexuals will fancy anyone of the same sex? Do straight people fancy every member of the opposite sex? Someone's sexuality does not effect how they perform their job, and I for one am pleased that the Royal Navy is leading the way towards and end to discrimination in the military.
Alex P, N Ireland
Would we be having this discussion if it was about black people? To me, it's not different. Everyone deserves the right to contribute to their country.
Tony, UK
Any sexual activity between serving men and women (especially between those who are in the same unit/ship) is extremely damaging to discipline and moral and should not be allowed. Hence the reluctance to accept women in combat (and in my opinion and many like me they are not suited for it anyway) or to allow homosexuality. Have all these people who are so readily willing to allow it actually served in any of the forces? I would be willing to bet that most if not all have not.
Gordon (Late RE and Light Division), Staffs, UK
This is wrong. By singling out social groups the Navy are proving that they are treating them differently, whereas your colour/race/religion/sex should have nothing to do with why you are accepted into the Navy.
Dan, Leeds
If straight men and women can work together without sexuality becoming an issue, why should there be a problem with straight and gay members of the same sex working as a team? It is now unacceptable in the military to discriminate due to ethnicity or gender (and rightly so), so why should there still be this entrenched culture of homophobia? If you're willing to die to defend your country and are up to the job, what else really matters?
Michael, Cheltenham, UK
Frankly the services aren't ready for this
Anon, London
I agree that gay men and women can do a perfectly good job in the armed forces - I should know, I used to be one of them. However, I disagree with gay men and women in the armed forces because the majority around them will not accept or tolerate it and that will have a damaging affect on the services and the standard of the job they do. Frankly the services aren't ready for this. One day though and I hope in the not to distant future they will.
Anon, London
Why is this an issue at all? The very fact the forces have chosen to make this an issue suggests they still have some sort of hidden problem getting with the times!
The right to join the forces is not down to the ability to do the job. The fact is, men and women are separated on the ships (different cabins), and if this is to go ahead then the gays should have separate cabins also. If a man and woman cannot share a cabin I do not see why a gay person should be able to share with a straight man. If the rights are going to be 'equal' then make them equal!
Mark, UK
Gay or straight, if you're under fire the last thing you're going to think about is whether you want to have sex with the person next to you. I fail to see the problem with having gays in the military. Being gay is not a disability and doesn't affect their ability to do the job in any way.
Alex, Aylesbury, UK
I think the Navy is right to promote gay-rights. Who a person sleeps with does not affect their ability to do a job, as well as the fact that it is nobody else's business anyway.
About time. Homosexuals served their country alongside their straight comrades in both world wars with honour, why can they not do so now?
Helen Greenhalgh, Edinburgh, UK
As a committed Christian I find the notion of homosexuality and lesbianism abhorrent and against the fundamental will of God. Should the Royal Navy promote gay rights? In a word, no.
Ed, UK
To Ed, UK: The Royal Navy is not a vehicle for the forwarding of Christian beliefs, it is a service for the protection of all British citizens and interests. As such, it is fitting that it is welcoming the skills of all capable Brits. A welcome move.
Rob, UK
To Rob, UK: Your point is void insofar as you seem to forget that the commander in chief of all our armed forces is HM Queen. Forgive me if I am wrong but she took an oath that says that she is Defender of the Faith. Allowing homosexuals into the Royal Navy is discrediting our constitutional monarchy and its relationship with the Royal Navy.
Ed, UK
To Ed, UK: The Queen is the head of the Church of England, not some evangelical branch. The Church of England has gay priests. So why can't the Royal Navy?
A Legge, Leeds, UK
I think it is long overdue! About time that we recognise difference, yet are treated all the same.
Dave, Stockport, Cheshire
This is quite a bold move by the Navy, and I applaud them for it. However, it should not be viewed on as just a lip service policy. Acceptance of a person's sexuality is a whole lot different to condoning homosexual relations aboard battle ships. I am pleased this has been clarified by the Navy.
Dan C, Shropshire
Sexuality, like skin colour, is part of who you are, but it is not who you are
Robb Dunphy, Dublin
Why ever not? Does sexuality really affect their duties? No. Sexuality, like skin colour, is part of who you are, but it is not who you are. In this day and age equality is the by-word, and race, religion, gender or sexuality, has nothing to do with how you perform your job unless you let it.
Robb Dunphy, Dublin, Ireland
It never ceases to amaze me how much time and money this country spends trying to appease what is actually a tiny minority of people. There are much larger social issues going unmanaged.
Luke Briner, Weymouth, UK
To Luke Briner, UK: Firstly, this programme is funded by Stonewall, a voluntary organisation financed by private donations. Secondly, there are around four million gay people in Britain, which is more than the entire population of Ireland - so this can hardly be described as a tiny minority.
Tim, London
As long as they respect the discipline, don't scream for special privileges, and are prepared to go and die alongside their colleagues, then fine.
Mark H, UK
No, it should not. It shouldn't have been legalised in the forces at all.
Matt, Coventry, England
The British armed services are just starting to come to terms with sexual diversity. Destroying the myths about homosexuality in the military means recruitment can focus on what is important, without being influenced by archaic belief systems. It's about time this happened in the UK, since it has worked well elsewhere.
Dan, London, England
It is entirely right and decent to allow homosexuals into our armed forces and that they have equal rights, however that is as far as we need to go. Positive discrimination is still discrimination.
Oliver, UK
About time too. Why should the armed forces be allowed to break the law and discriminate against gays and lesbians. They have always had archaic rules and it is good to see them being dragged, albeit kicking and screaming into the 21st century. There is no room for bigots in this country and that includes the military.
Karen Smith, London, UK
Of course the Navy is right in doing this. If you are deemed good enough to join the armed services because of the aptitude and skills you have what difference does it make if you're gay? If it in some way made you less able then how have some gay people managed to join the services just by keeping quiet about their sexual preferences?
Dave, Nottingham, UK
A sensational headline to promote what is normal employment practice. The armed services need quality employees, what they do behind closed doors and in their own time as long as it is legal, is not an issue.
Gavin, Hull, UK
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In his keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo, Tim O'Reilly sets off the punditocracy by insisting that the "war of the Web" is heating up again. Did it ever cool off?
Those ubiquitous URL-shortening toolbars are throwing Web addresses behind a cloak of invisibility, O'Reilly said, and they "don't let you navigate freely like the Web used to work." With Google's Chrome hurling itself into the mix, the browser and operating-system wars are starting to look less "Mean Girls" and more "Aliens vs. Predator."
But O'Reilly's attitude isn't "bring it on, and get me a large popcorn with extra butter, while you're at it." Rather, he hinted that at least in some cases, he's willing to embrace Google as a big, cuddly, benevolent dictator in the midst of it all. It's "a monopoly that's a service of value to users," he said, adding that generally, when Google makes a product with the primary goal of one-upping the competition--Knol vs. Wikipedia, Checkout vs. PayPal--it's not a success.
That's probably because, at least right now, among all the giant robots stomping about the series of tubes, Google is the one that most resembles O'Reilly's vision of the "open Web." In a blog post prior to his speech, he predicted that Microsoft could take over this role. Or not. Either way, he insisted that "it's time for developers to take a stand."
Setting off this kind of electric shock in the Web's punditocracy is a great way to drum up attention and newsworthiness that doesn't have anything to do with philosophizing about the recession, extolling the possibilities of the real-time streaming Web, or predicting which dot-com figurehead is going to be the most plastered at South by Southwest this year. Thank goodness! That stuff was getting so boring!
And O'Reilly's rallying cry has already gathered reactions. Barbarian Group executive Rick Webb, for one, posted a colorful retaliatory blog post, in which he said that "setting aside the 'boo hoo, the Internet is becoming a bunch of walled gardens' arguments, when rational people have conversations about how to make the Web actually usable and not 95 percent piracy, spam, and fraud, almost every discussion starts with the proposition that there is no other realistic option but to chuck the whole thing and start over."
Of course, the Web should be in a state of "war." When have things been any different? It's a hub of innovation, competition, and constant change, and I think we all knew that already. The barrier to entry is low enough so that if there's a glaring problem with something, users will flock to whoever can create a better alternative. In fact, O'Reilly brought that up on Tuesday, when he talked about expensive in-car GPS navigation systems.
"The turn-by-turn directions from TeleAtlas cost $99 [on the iPhone], but Google is giving it away for free. This is a natural kind of extension for Google. I don't think Google is being evil here by being disruptive," O'Reilly said. "That's a massive user win, even though it is incredibly damaging to some existing companies and some existing business models. When Google offers free speech recognition, [that would be] an amazing win."
Is that legitimate innovation? Yes. But let's hope the "win" doesn't stop there. If Google manages to throw a sucker punch to Apple, Microsoft, or whoever else by offering something once-pricey for free, I should hope that the rest of the industry makes sure that it doesn't grow too complacent.
So let's get this straight: monopolies are bad, unless they're "nice" ones on behalf of companies that extol the virtues of Razor scooters, wheatgrass smoothies, and lava lamps. Competition is great, as long as everybody's nice to each other.
Doesn't quite make sense to me. But, hey, it's his show.
Tech to make part of your St. Patty's Day festivities
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HSG debt no hassle for A-League gun Heskey
Date: December 18 2012
Rob Forsaith
The Hunter Sports Group (HSG) wheeled out the big guns to appease Knights stakeholders on Monday night, but for those involved with Newcastle's A-League franchise the wait continues.
Wayne Bennett, one of the biggest names in the NRL, successfully implored members to stay the journey with embattled owner Nathan Tinkler.
Given the $20 million bank guarantee written into Tinkler's takeover, the NRL can breathe relatively easy about their problem child.
It also helps the coal baron is enamoured with rugby league.
In contrast, Tinkler butted heads with Football Federation Australia (FFA) in April and declared he was ready to hand back the Jets A-League licence.
Newcastle marquee striker Emile Heskey, who signed a one-season deal, will start negotiations with the club in January.
HSG insists a tax bill of virtually $3.2 million will be paid long before then, but failure to do so could potentially be a sticking point in those talks.
The English star insisted on Tuesday he's giving it little thought.
"Not really. From January we'll sit down and discuss it, I doubt that will have any impact on anything," Heskey said ahead of a crunch clash with Sydney FC.
"I'm sure that off-field stuff will sort itself out over a period of time, but there's nothing that we can actually do about it.
"I'm enjoying the town and enjoying everything about it."
The Australian Taxation Office's move to liquidate the Jets last week created unwanted UK headlines for a league attempting to enrich its status overseas.
Aside from the embarrassment of having Heskey go homeless, the FFA's recent TV deal featured five matches a week and that's a promise essentially dependant on a 10-team competition.
FFA chief executive David Gallop recently dismissed rumours that HSG was considering sacrificing the Jets to save the Knights.
Jets chief executive Robbie Middleby is also upbeat the saga will be over soon, but the former North Queensland operations manager was equally buoyant prior to FFA's axe falling on the Fury.
Panni Nikas, a former National Youth League player of the year who was one of many left in the lurch by the Fury's jarring exit, felt for the Jets players soaking up the speculation.
"I've got no idea what's happening up there (in Newcastle) with Tinkler, but when it was up in the air at the Fury you never really understood how we'd be affected.
"You were never too sure ... every time you came in and asked for an update. They were telling us one thing and another thing was happening.
"I think the FFA should do everything in its power to keep them (Newcastle) in if they have to, but hopefully it won't come to that."
[ SMH | Text-only index] | dclm-gs1-004630000 |
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Can you create a story that would describe the movement of the man shown on these graphs? Use the interactivity to try out our ideas.
Take Your Dog for a Walk
Congratulations to those of you who correctly answered this problem. Holly from Stoke by Nayland Middle School sent in this solution:
If the man gets closer to his house then the graph line gets lower and lower.
The slower the man walks the more curvy the line gets, if the man goes away from the house really slowly and then really slowly towards the house then you can make a curvy line.
To make it steeper you have to make him go faster and then when you are on the bend you stay still for a bit to make it smoother.
Dominic gives a concise answer:
To curve steeper you would have to walk faster and to curve shallower you would have to walk slower. | dclm-gs1-004640000 |
O.J. is innocent: book
Celebrity private eye William Dear doesn’t think O.J. Simpson got away with murder.
The real killer is the gridiron great’s troubled oldest son, Jason, theorizes the Texas gumshoe in his latest book, “O.J. Is Innocent and I Can Prove It.”
Dear has spent 17 years de-constructing the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman on the night of June 12, 1994.
Digging through his prime suspect’s trash and abandoned storage locker, Dear says a treasure trove of circumstantial evidence points to the 41-year-old son.
According to Dear, among the items he found in the locker were a hunting knife, owned by the “overlooked suspect,” that forensic experts believe is the murder weapon never found by investigators and photos of Jason wearing knit caps similar to one at the crime scene that failed to be linked to his dad.
Dear questions why his suspect was never interviewed by police nor his fingerprints or DNA compared to unidentified ones at the crime scene.
Jason battled with “intermittent rage disorder” and assaulted his girlfriend two months prior to the murders, Dear claims.
He also contends that Jason confesses to having a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality and heavy drug use and cryptically declares “that this is the year of the knife for me” in his diary.
Jason Simpson, a chef who lives in Miami, couldn’t be reached for comment. His phone was disconnected.
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In a sharply higher estimate than just a month ago, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is saying it will lose $100 million this year from fare-beaters on buses and subway lines.
The estimate Monday from the MTA's transit division chief comes even as the New York Police Department has stepped up efforts to arrest passengers who skip out on paying fares.
The NYPD's patrol services bureau arrested 1,228 people for fare-beating between Jan. 1 and June 24, an MTA spokesman said on Monday, compared with 609 arrests in the same period last year. That represents a 102% jump in fare-beating arrests, which have risen in every borough except Brooklyn.
Speaking to the MTA's Transit Committee ahead of the authority's monthly board meeting, New York City Transit President Thomas Prendergast said projected losses from unpaid fares had increased sharply. An MTA official later said the new estimate was $100 million a year.
The MTA was recently publicly estimating its losses at $14 million a year.
Adam Lisberg, the authority's chief spokesman, didn't explain why the estimate rose so sharply. Representatives of the MTA have been in the field recently, observing passengers on city buses and subways. From those anecdotal findings, the MTA extrapolates the total amount of fare avoidance city-wide, Mr. Lisberg said.
Fare-evasion arrests on buses alone have risen 72% in the current year, the NYPD announced Monday. In a statement, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the added arrests were due in part to the deployment of uniformed "impact officers" on city bus routes.
"Officers throughout the city assigned to Impact are conducting regular checks of city buses during their tours," Mr. Kelly said. "This increased uniformed police presence on buses has resulted in additional fare evasion arrest[s] and we believe deters other crimes in transit."
In addition, the NYPD uses plainclothes officers to deter crime in the city's transit system, including fare evasion.
Despite the high price tag, fare-beaters still represent a small fraction of the MTA's annual ridership of 1.6 billion, Mr. Lisberg noted. But the costs are significant. For instance, the revenue lost by riders ducking turnstiles and bus fareboxes exceeds $93 million—the annual savings the MTA reaped with a controversial round of subway and bus service reductions in 2010.
Write to Ted Mann at | dclm-gs1-004660000 |
SINGAPORE—Singapore authorities said Friday that the Singaporean man allegedly leading a global soccer match-fixing syndicate has been cooperating with police investigations.
Dan Tan Seet Eng "is currently assisting Singapore authorities in their investigations," Singapore police said in response to queries. It didn't elaborate on how Mr. Tan is assisting police or whether he has been detained.
European investigators say they believe Mr. Tan is the leader and financier of a crime syndicate allegedly responsible for fixing hundreds of soccer matches around the globe. Mr. Tan couldn't be reached for comment.
Singapore's announcement came as Italian police arrested a Slovenian man suspected to be a member of this crime syndicate. Admir Suljic, who turns 32 years old on Saturday, surrendered to police at Malpensa international Airport west of Milan early Thursday, Italian police said.
This month, Europol, a coordinating group for European police forces, said had evidence that 680 soccer matches played around the world—including in some of the sport's biggest tournaments—may have been fixed. Some 425 soccer and team officials, players and others are suspected of being involved, and dozens have been arrested.
Europol said it uncovered more than $10.9 million in alleged betting profit and at least $2.7 million in corrupt payments to people involved in the matches believed to be have been fixed. A Europol official said Mr. Tan was one of the people being investigated in this probe.
Write to Chun Han Wong at | dclm-gs1-004670000 |
Population control
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Population control is the practice of limiting population increase, usually by reducing the birth rate. The practice has sometimes been voluntary, as a response to poverty, or out of religious ideology, but in some times and places it has been government-mandated. This is generally conducted to improve quality of life for a society or to prevent a "Malthusian catastrophe." "Population control" has also been conducted in the name of eugenics, racism, and the economic self-interest of corporations to exploit citizens of poor countries. Given the nature of human reproductive biology, controlling the birth rate generally implies one or more of the following practices: sexual abstinence, contraception, same-sex relations, sterilization, abortion, or infanticide.
Orthodox Christian ethics
Contemporary concern about population growth would appear to be a direct contradiction between the Orthodox Christian ethical imperative to "be fruitful and multiply." In the fourth century St. John Chrysostom noted the population question and related it to the need that the sexual drive be fulfilled in marriage. "It was for two reasons that marriage was introduced; so that we may live in chastity (sophrosyne) and so that we might become parents. Of these the most important is chastity...especially today when the whole inhabited world (he oikoumene) is full of our race." Chrysostom's argument is equally relevant today. Humanity has been obedient to the divine command and has been "fruitful" and has "multiplied" and "has filled the earth" (Gen. 1:28). This raises the question for Orthodox ethics regarding the appropriate means for population control. Coercion of the individual couple's choices regarding their obligation to procreate does not seem ethically appropriate. Also, Orthodox ethics opposes the use of abortion as a birth control method. Advocating widespread abstinence from sexual relations by huge numbers of married people without contraception control methods violates some of the purposes of marriage as understood in the Orthodox Church. The use of contraceptives within marriages to space and limit offspring seems to be the appropriate ethical response. Persuasion and education are appropriate means to encourage smaller families. All Orthodox ethicists, however, would hold that respect for the freedom of each couple to decide must be considered an important and significant factor of population control policy.
United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA)
President Ronald Reagan gave his position on international population policies in the following remarks to Right to Life activists (1987):
These days the population bomb hysteria that was all the rage in the 1960s and 1970s has largely subsided. Every prediction of massive starvation, eco-catastrophe of biblical proportions, and $100 a barrel oil has been discredited by the global economic and environmental progress of the past quarter century. Intellectually, the "Malthusian limits to growth" menace is stone dead. But within the Clinton State Department, "Malthusianism" flourished. The Clinton administration allocated almost $300 million a year to international population control—or what is euphemistically described these days as "family planning." In countries ranging from India to Mexico to Nigeria to Brazil, the basic human right of couples to control their own fertility and determine their own family size has been trampled upon by the state, thanks in large part to flows of dollars and deluges of false limits-to-growth propaganda supplied by the American government. The UNFPA, however, has had a particularly demon-like presence in developing nations. Back in the Reagan years, Congress sensibly pulled out of the UNFPA because of its complicity in some of the most inhumane forms of population containment. Today the UNFPA maintains the fiction that the agency has fought coercive policies. How does one explain, then, that UNFPA once gave an award to the Chinese government for the effectiveness of its genocidal one child per couple policy? To this day no one knows precisely how many babies and women have died at the hands of the population control officials in China. What we do know is that this program will go down in history as one of the greatest abuses of human rights in the 20th century. The Chinese government's ongoing birth control policy has already claimed an estimated 5-10 million victims. An estimated 80-90 percent of the victims have been girls. UNFPA still spends millions each year on population control programs in China.
Sheldon Richmond wrote:4
But are those programs really necessary, let alone ethical? Are there really too many people? Famine, deepening poverty, disease, environmental degradation, and resource depletion are adduced as the symptoms of overpopulation. Yet on no count does the evidence support the anti-population lobby's case. On the contrary, the long-term trend for each factor is positive and points to an even better future.
Television pictures of starving, emaciated Africans are heartbreaking, but they are not evidence of overpopulation. Since 1985 we have witnessed famines in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and elsewhere. Those nations have one thing in common: they are among the least densely populated areas on earth. Although their populations are growing, the people are not hungry because the world can't produce enough food. They are hungry because civil war and primitive economies keep food them from producing food. In the 20th century there has been no famine that has not been caused by civil war, irrational economic policies, deliberate retribution, or natural disasters. Moreover, the number of people affected by famine compared to the number affected during the late 19th century has fallen—not just as a percentage of the world's population but in absolute numbers.
How the new demography of depopulation will shape our future
Newt Gingrich, in his review, wrote:5
[Ben Wattenberg's Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future] reports conclusively that the world will have far fewer people than was expected even a decade ago, that in numbers and age and gender patterns this smaller population will be distributed in ways that will be significant, and that the implications for the environment, the economy and national security will be quite profound.
The biggest news is that in sheer numbers the human race is now likely to peak at 8.5 billion people, rather than at the earlier United Nations' projection of 11.5 billion. Even the U.N. demographers now agree that the population explosion will never reach the numbers they had once projected.
Mr. Wattenberg makes so many fascinating points in this thin book that it is impossible to cover them all in a review. However, a few deserve to be singled out.
Mr. Wattenberg highlights the intellectual dishonesty of [...] environmentalists and their factual mistakes over the last generation. Mr. [Paul] Ehrlich had predicted famines beginning in the 1970s. They simply haven't happened. The global warming projections all assumed a population of 11.5 billion. If the human race peaks at only 8.5 billion people—3 billion fewer than predicted—and then starts a long-term decline, human environmental impact will be much reduced.
He concludes by noting that the less developed countries could in fact experience a "demographic dividend." He notes that poor countries with falling fertility rates are growing wealthier quicker than are the rich modern nations. In the meantime the New Demography is bad for most Western nations. Thus the need to spread the vision of freedom and democracy around the world, lest non- (or anti-) democratic nations (Islamic states for example) win by default, by simply taking over due to sheer force of numbers. No one really knows where these trends will take us. Much of Mr. Wattenberg's book could be called speculative, but it is important that good minds pay close attention to these changes.
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
A little bit of background information: I'm planning to write a little booklet or web page about CPU/computer architecture, basically for my own education, because we didn't cover it in depth in college. I feel like I should be learning a lot more about the fundamentals about how computers work, if I want to be a better programmer.
The idea is to present the workings of a CPU by describing it from the ground up. Starting at simple electrical circuits, then semiconductors, transistors etc. From my school physics class I remember that I was very often left with a lot of gaps about how different concepts are linked together. I want to avoid this.
So here's my question: How does an electrical field really work? How come that an electron can exert a force on another electron without physical contact? What is it in an electron that creates the field, where does the energy for doing the work come from?
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If it is the case that the electric field and the electron are fundamental constituents of nature, is it possible to describe "how they work"? If they are truly fundamental, in what "more fundamental" terms could they be described? – Alfred Centauri Dec 24 '12 at 1:46
Just for Fun, I googled Feynman electricity and got a pretty good answer to your question. (I later looked at the link in Dave's answer but I prefer the one I stumbled on). Part of Feynman's genius was that he understood (from his father I think) that giving things a name didn't explain them. He could answer these sorts of questions without saying "it happens because of so-and-so's law". – RedGrittyBrick Dec 24 '12 at 22:00
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2 Answers
up vote 2 down vote accepted
How does an electrical field really work?
There are two formulations that describe the known data on electric and magnetic fields.
a) The classical electromagnetic theory ruled by Maxwell's equations . This works well in describing the macroscopic data, of which the electric field is a component.
b)The quantum mechanical formulation that leads to an explanation of how fields are built up, which is necessary to explain effects like the "photelectric effect", the behavior of atoms and molecules, the internals of atoms and molecules.
For a) the electric field is a fundamental component of the behavior of matter.
For b) the electric field is built up coherently by innumerable virtual particle exchanges, mainly virtual photons, between the generators of the field and the detectors of its existence, so it is not fundamental. Charge is fundamental in this framework, and charge is quantized (+/-1/3, +/-2/3,+/-1)in absolute value electron charge units. That is why it is a quantized theory of the world.
For a) it is an action at a distance , the field of the electron exerts a force on other charged matter; similar to classical newtonian gravity, where the masses exert a force on each other.
It is the charge of the electron. When we are talking of electrons we are really in the realm of b), quantum mechanics, because its size is of the size where quantum mechanics has to be used to understand the data.
In QM language the electron, when looked at individually, is continually exchanging virtual photons with the boundaries of its containment. Virtual means that energy and momentum are not conserved because nothing real is exchanged with the other electrons/ions except an information "I am here". When many electrons are involved, the surface of a charged metal sphere for example, the collective electric field is built up out of those exchanges.
The energy was supplied in this case by the experimenter who provided work to separate the electrons from the rest of the molecules, turning them into ions.Either by the triboelectric effect or the classical generators of electricity, using magnetic fields and providing a current of electrons in metals. Ultimately it is kinetic energy turned into electric energy. ( actually sun energy stored in fuels or water works, turned into kinetic energy ...)
Now magnetic fields, used to generate most of our electricity, are a bit of a different story, but similar and again needing quantum mechanics to be understood. In scenario a) they also are fundamental.
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v nice summary. – Art Brown Dec 24 '12 at 5:30
Thanks for this elaborate answer. – alexraasch Dec 24 '12 at 14:18
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I'm going to paraphrase a response by Feynmann who was asked to explain electromagnetic forces. He (correctly) interpreted the questioners intent as "explain E&M in terms of the force between your behind and the chair." The problem is that E&M just is a fundamental interaction between particles and it is the fundamental microscopic description of most of the macroscopic forces that we deal with on a day to day basis.
I suggest reading QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Dr. Feynmann and see if you can condense it to meet your requirements.
share|improve this answer
If anyone has the corresponding link w/o the ICP references please let me know. – Dave Dec 24 '12 at 1:48
So are you saying that there is no more fundamental explanation or that we don't know yet? – alexraasch Dec 24 '12 at 2:09
@Dave Without the added ICP bits: youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM – Nathaniel Dec 24 '12 at 2:15
@alexraasch I'd say that any "more fundamental" description would get well outside of the question's stated scope, requiring getting into quantum field theory, the gauge symmetry model of forces and so on. – Dave Dec 24 '12 at 2:43
Well, if I have to dive into that I will. There's no rush. The level of electronics that they teach you in computer science is rather superficial. I've always been dissatisfied with that.In that video of Feynman, he actually doesn't say that it's fundamental and that there is no deeper explanation. He just says that he can't explain it to an ordinary person. That's a lot different from what you told me. – alexraasch Dec 24 '12 at 2:49
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Local Doctor Explains Duchess Kate’s Morning Sickness Condition
While Britain is celebrating the news that Will and Kate are expecting, there are also concerns that the Duchess of Cambridge - born a commoner - is suffering a relatively uncommon complication with her pregnancy. In short, it's the mother of all morning sickness; KDKA's Mary Robb Jackson reports. | dclm-gs1-004710000 |
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Video: Jimmy Kimmel has ideas to fill time on NBA TV
Nov 19, 2011, 12:30 PM EDT
Jimmy Kimmel has some ideas to fill all that air time, and we thought we’d pass them along. They should go with them, we’ll watch anything Jack Nicholson does.
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Using the seek function to go to a certian byte range
ReddyfireReddyfire Posts: 3Member
So I'm trying to use the seek function to seek a couple of lines of the file without going to the end of the file. Just trying to stay within a certain byte range. Here is my code.
print "content-type: text/html
open (FILE, "< file.txt") or die("File not found");
seek FILE, 21,0;
What would I need to do to only stay within a certain byte range and display the text only in that byte range without going to the end of the file. I have looked all over but can't seem to figure out how to do this without going to the end of the file.
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One Man's Disaster Relief Is Another Man's Pork
In all the attention paid to the drama over the fiscal cliff, most people momentarily forgot that there were a few other important things the 112th Congress was supposed to take care of before its ignominious term came to an end. But yesterday, thanks to a couple of prominent politicians criticizing their own party—something always guaranteed to garner plenty of media attention—everybody remembered that states in the Northeast, particularly New York and New Jersey, are still waiting on federal disaster aid. First New Jersey governor Chris Christie came out and gave a blistering press conference in which he blasted House Republicans for not taking up the relief bill, saying, "There is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House majority and their speaker, John Boehner." Christie also said he called Boehner multiple times, but Boehner wouldn't return his calls. Then Representative Peter King, a Republican from New York, delivered a rather extraordinary statement on Fox News, not only urging people in New York and New Jersey not to donate to members of his party, but referring to them as "these Republicans," as though they were from a group of which he was not a part. "These Republicans have no problem finding New York when they're out raising millions of dollars," King said. "I'm saying right now, anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to Congressional Republicans is out of their minds. Because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace." Yow!
Obviously, it's good politics to plead on behalf of the folks back home, but King seemed genuinely pissed off (it's harder to tell with Christie, since pissed off is pretty much his default mood). And the GOP is about as popular as syphilis right now, so criticizing them is also good politics. That will always be true for Christie, which could complicate his potential 2016 presidential run—he can't look too close to the national party or his popularity at home will suffer, but he can't be too antagonistic if he's going to win over Republican primary voters. (King won his last election without too much trouble, but his district has plenty of Democrats). But this is a good reminder that one man's absolutely necessary emergency government expenditure is another man's pork.
This mini-revolt also reminds us just how far south the center of gravity within the Republican party has moved. New Jersey, which has an independent commission draw its congressional districts, will have a 6-6 split in its delegation in the new Congress. But head north, and it's tough to find a Republican. Only six of New York's 27 members are Republicans, and there are a grand total of zero Republican representatives from the New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Christie and King are criticizing a party in which they as Northeasterners are a vanishing breed.
The fact that Sandy hit a couple of states that many members of the House GOP caucus would just as soon see go straight to hell anyway went a long way to mitigate their enthusiasm for disaster relief. This problem is both regional and ideological. The time is gone when most or all members of Congress saw Americans suffering from a natural disaster, no matter what part of the country it occurred in, and said, "Of course the federal government will help." After all, the fact that people are looking for help from the federal government just shows that they're 47-percenters who deserve nothing but contempt.
All that being said, there's only so much pressure an embattled Speaker can take. After emerging battered and bruised from the fiscal cliff debacle, by the end of the day yesterday Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor basically sued Christie for peace, declaring that the new Congress will take up a Sandy relief bill on the first day of its session.
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5 Reasons To Watch ‘The Watch’
These are the people keeping the peace. One (Ben Stiller) started a neighborhood watch so he could make friends. Another (Vince Vaughn) joined so he could spy on his teenage daughter’s dates. And the other two (Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade) are just bored. But when they uncover an alien invasion, it’s up to them to save the world. Here are five more reasons to check out the comedy The Watch.
1. They’ve had smaller roles in Starsky & Hutch and Anchorman, but The Watch marks the first time Stiller and Vaughn have starred in a movie together since 2004′s hilarious Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
2. The movie was penned by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the duo behind Superbad and Pineapple Express.
3. We’re due for a good alien-invasion comedy. Sure, there was MIB 3, but that hardly makes up for Mars Attacks! or Battlefield Earth. (That was a comedy, right?)
4. Director Akiva Schaffer is one-third of Lonely Island, the comedy team that made SNL‘s digital shorts (“Lazy Sunday”) and whose last album, Turtleneck & Chain, featured songs like “I Just Had Sex” and “Jack Sparrow.”
5. A movie must be good if someone rejects Quentin Tarantino to star in it. Jonah Hill turned down a major role for a much smaller one in the upcoming Django Unchained to do The Watch.
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Wednesday, February 19th, 2014
4:50 pm
Aquel no era yo
[No real spoilers here—it looks like I'm telling the ending, but the ending is shown in flashforwards right at the beginning.]
I went to a showing of the Oscar-nominated short live-action fiction films at the ICA over the weekend. "Aquel no era yo (That wasn't Me)" seems a shoe-in for the Oscar, 'cause it seems like it was taken directly from the "How to Win an Oscar" guidebook. A child soldier from Africa (no country ever named, but, you know, Africa—one of those bad ones) rehabilitated by The West after having been rescued by a beautiful young do-gooder white woman. Chock full of harrowing violence, focused mostly on the violence against the white people, but socially relevant harrowing violence, so you can feel virtuous for watching it, along with horrified and thrilled.
Though it was quite accomplished. It felt like a feature film that happened to be short (24 min)—which is also at least partly a criticism. Contrast it with "Just Before Losing Everything," about a woman leaving her abusive husband, which I think really makes use of the short-film form. Its 30 minutes shows events that take place over an hour or so, a short time out of a much longer story. She's taken her kids to the supermarket where she works, where she can use the phone and meet her sister; we see that a few people at work know her plan without having seen them discuss it, we see that everyone at work knows she has an abusive husband without having seen them ask "how did you get that black eye," we see that she doesn't get along with one of her coworkers without seeing what led to it. And it ends, not exactly abruptly or with a cliffhanger, but unexpectedly and with not much resolved. It's a much more daring use of the medium, using the fact that it's short to do interesting things—definitely not a short feature film, not a sitcom like "Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?" not a comedy sketch like "The Voorman Problem" (other nominees). Making a short feature film is another play out of the "How to Win an Oscar" playbook—the people who vote for Oscars know feature films, and feel comfortable with them. A 24-minute feature film isn't going to unsettle them.
Sunday, July 1st, 2012
10:51 pm
Iced Chai
It took a while, because I don't make it all that often, but I finally converged on a recipe I like for chai. In particular, it took me a while to figure out that the right amount of coriander, found in many recipes, is none.
• 14 2.5″ cinnamon sticks
• 2.5 Tbs whole decorticated cardamon seeds
• 2.5 Tbs whole allspice
• 2 Tbs whole cloves
• 1.5 tsp whole black pepper, lightly crushed
• 8 cups cold water
Bring to boil, turn down to simmer, and simmer covered 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and add
• zest of 1 orange (use a vegetable peeler; much less if grated)
• 1.5 Tbs grated fresh ginger
• 4 Tbs roasted chicory*
• 1/3 cup honey
and let sit 15 minutes, covered. Strain through fine mesh and let cool, covered; chill.
This makes fairly strong chai, for adding quite a bit of milk to.
*Instead of chicory, which gives a definite roasted/coffee-like flavor, I've also used tea, which is more traditional. I strongly recommend teabags, because the tea should go in as soon as it comes off heat, but should only steep 4 minutes: 4 teabags. I've more often used Celestial Seasonings "Caffeine Free Herbal Tea" (which is not decaffeinated black tea, but an herbal tea that tastes somewhat like black tea), 4 bags steeped only 90 seconds.
Monday, February 6th, 2012
6:28 pm
LCFD Winter Weekend recipes
I headed up the kitchen at LCFD's Winter Weekend at Senexet House last weekend, my first time heading up a kitchen cooking for a crowd. A few people asked for a few recipes—under the cut.
Spinach-feta egg bakeCollapse )
Blueberry-peach flummeryCollapse )
Red lentil bisqueCollapse )
Black bean spreadCollapse )
Cheddar-corn egg bakeCollapse )
Black bean stewCollapse )
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
9:36 pm
Thanksgiving meal
I've made a pretty set Thanksgiving meal when I've cooked for myself for a while now, seasonal for this part of the world. I like all of these individually, and really like them as a menu. A pretty plate, too.
To whatever extent succotash is authentically Indian, it'd be made with dried corn and dried beans.
Soak 2 c lima beans (I like large ones) in 8 c water with 4-1/2 tsp salt overnight. Drain; bring to boil in water to cover, cover pot, and transfer to 300° oven for 30 min to 2 hrs (depending partly on how old they are) until just tender. Drain and quickly cool to stop cooking.
Soak 1-1/2 c dried posole (mote) in water overnight. Drain and cook in water to cover 1-2 hrs (depending partly on how old they are) until cooked through, adding 3/4 tsp salt toward the end; they won't get tender, but they'll stop being mealy. Drain. (This can be difficult to find in some places. It's often labeled mote pelado in Spanish; I believe anything labeled mote or posole will be right. "Hominy" may or may not be the same thing; maíz trillado isn't the same, nor is regular dried corn. Canned hominy would be the closest substitute.)
Cook 2 onions, diced, 2 green peppers, diced, 3-4 Tbs oil, 1/2 tsp salt over med-high heat until well browned. Add a little water to deglaze the pan, along with 3-4 Tbs almond butter, and enough additional water to make a sauce. Stir in the posole, then fold in the beans. Taste for salt (or tamari) and pepper.
From The Second Seasonal Political Palate with small variation.
Growing up, my babysitter was a very good cook of typical midwestern food. Her butterbeans (large lima beans) were one of my favorites. I'm sure hers was made with saltpork, which I don't eat now, but almond butter adds a richness and savoriness that is reminiscent. Here's remembering Hazel.
Butternut squash with ginger and garlic
Peel 2 lbs butternut down to the orange flesh, and scoop out seeds; cut into 1/2" dice. Add to pot with water to not quite cover, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 Tbs butter. Simmer, covered, until just tender, 4-10 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid, and spread out to quickly cool. Return liquid to pot along with 2 Tbs grated ginger, 2 Tbs pressed garlic, and 1 more Tbs butter. Boil down quickly until most of liquid is gone and it's syrupy-thick. Toss with the cooked squash. Best if it sits at least an hour for flavors to soak in before reheating.
From Julia Child & More Company with small variation.
Cranberry-orange relish
Roughly chop 1 whole orange. Pulse in food processor until finely chopped but not pureed. (You may want to go through it to pull out larger chunks to add to next step.) Sort 12 oz cranberries and pulse in food processor until finely chopped but not pureed. Add to chopped orange along with 1/3-1/2 c honey and 1/4 tsp salt Best either immediately or after a day.
Adapted from Joy of Cooking.
Even a little salt interferes with the perception of bitterness; the salt greatly mellows this. I'm surprised the Joy recipe doesn't include it.
Wilted cabbage salad
Finely shred 2-1/4 lb red cabbage (quarter longitudinally, core, slice crosswise). Toss with 1 Tbs salt and let sit at least 6 hours, tossing occasionally. Rinse in two changes of water (add water to the bowl and drain in colander twice, don't just rinse in colander) and thoroughly dry (a salad spinner in several batches works well). Combine with about 1/6 onion, thinly sliced, 3-4 Tbs cider vinegar to taste, 2 Tbs dried dill, maybe more salt.
Red cabbage behaves like litmus paper, changing color dramatically depending on acid/alkali. With the cider vinegar, it's very red/purple.
This is new to my Thanksgiving menu; I happened to have some leftovers. But it's certainly seasonal, and its refreshingness works well with this menu.
Variation: cumin instead of dill plus a little garlic is good too.
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
3:53 pm
Drained yogurt
I haven't posted this earlier because it seems more like an ingredient than a recipe, but I do have a couple uses for it. I've started making well-drained yogurt and like it. Put a quart of full-fat yogurt (it doesn't seem to have to be great yogurt—I'm using my grocer's house brand—but full-fat definitely makes a big difference) in a dish towel in a colander and let drain (in the fridge) 6-10 hours; then put a saucer on top and a 1.5-2 lb weight on top of that and drain another couple hours. The result is thick enough to come off the towel in a few chunks. The whey that drains out can be used as yogurt or buttermilk in most baking, or makes a decent (if odd looking) lassi. Makes about 2.5 c drained yogurt and 1.5 c whey.
What to do with it:
The result is a kind of über-yogurt: really thick and rich; approaching cream cheese in texture but without cream cheese's heaviness. Toppings of various kinds work well. I've tried toasted pecans with maple syrup and rum, which was pretty good (though the tanginess of the yogurt wasn't quite right with that); orange juice concentrate is also nice. My favorite is a pineapple-ginger syrup: finely grate 1–1.5" fresh ginger and squeeze the juice into a cup, and add 12 oz pineapple juice concentrate (the frozen stuff, thawed). 3-4 spoonfuls of that over 2/3 cup of the drained yogurt, as desert or breakfast, is pretty spectacular.
You can also use it where you might use sour cream. I'm not one of those people who thinks you can substitute yogurt for sour cream, but you can substitute this stuff for sour cream, and the result is even richer. (I don't know that I'd do it where the sour cream is standing nearly alone, the taste isn't the same, but if it's doctored up the mouthfeel makes it great.) I've made a topping for steamed or boiled potatoes with this yogurt, with mustard, garlic, and shoyu, that I like very much. (A bit less than half the fat of sour cream, if that matters to you.) I heated it in something and it didn't break, as sour cream can, though I should experiment with it more before making that a strong claim.
That pineapple-ginger syrup, by the way, is pretty good other ways too. A fair amount added to seltzer makes a very nice soda, or a little added to iced tea, or spooned over fruit. I used it in a Thai-ish curry and liked it that way too.
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
11:46 pm
Savory biscotti
Made for a friend's birthday, and for the Boston gender-free English country dance anniversary dance; a requested recipe.
1¼ c all-purpose flour
1½ c barley flour (or whole wheat pastry flour, but then you need to be careful not to overwork the dough)
1 t coarsely ground black pepper
1½ t salt
1 t baking powder
¾ c grated romano cheese
½ c toasted pistachios (prettier if left whole)
½ t dried thyme
½ t dried oregano
¾ t dried basil
2 Tbs (packed) minced fresh parsley
¼ c julienned marinated sun-dried tomatoes*
2-3 T minced canned chipotle (1½ to 3 with adobo)—the higher amount is quite spicy
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
¼ c olive oil, plus extra for brushing
1/3 c vermouth or white wine or water [perhaps less; it's a pretty sticky dough, though not that difficult to roll out]
paprika (preferably smoked)
Preheat oven to 350F. Place two baking sheets together (for insulation) and line the top sheet with parchment paper.
In large mixing bowl, whisk together flours, black pepper, salt, and baking powder. Add cheese, nuts, thyme, oregano, and basil, and stir together.
Separately combine eggs, ¼ c oil, wine/water, chipotles, tomatoes, and parsley. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; add the wet and stir to make a soft dough. Let sit a few minutes to firm up.
Roll to shape into a log about 3" diameter (about 10" long). Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Brush with olive oil and dust with paprika.
Bake 25-30 minutes until golden and slightly puffy. Remove from oven and set on rack to cool completely.
Set oven to 325F. Slice cooled log on the bias into slices a bit wider than 1/4". Place flat on baking sheets and bake 12 minutes; turn each slice over and bake another 10 minutes, until barely colored.
Transfer slices to cooling racks. Lower oven to 175F and crisp the biscotti on the racks, about 45 minutes. (They should not color further.)
I think these are bit dry to eat by themselves, but they're very nice buttered, and they should be good with soup.
*America's Test Kitchen likes Trader Joe's; best to get the halves and julienne them yourself.
Friday, December 4th, 2009
2:33 pm
Freshly baked bran muffins
Freshly baked because you can keep the batter in the fridge for a couple weeks, and bake them as wanted. Traditional in a lot of ways, though the apple juice concentrate (in place of buttermilk and sugar or honey) is my idea.
Various people have told me they don't like bran muffins but they like these.
Combine and allow to cool
1 c boiling water
1 c bran
Whisk together
2-1/2 c whole wheat flour
2-1/2 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
Separately mix together (use a pretty large bowl: it can expand quite a bit when you add the other ingredients)
2 eggs
1/2 c oil
2-1/4 c apple juice concentrate
(the frozen stuff, thawed)
Measure out
2 (additional) c bran
1-1/2 c raisins
Stir the cooled bran into the wet mixture. Add the flour mixture; before completely mixed, fold in the dry bran and raisins. Cover and keep refrigerated.
To make:
Do not stir the batter—most of the rising has happened in the bowl, and stirring will deflate it. Fill greased muffin tins almost full (again, most of the rising has already happened), and bake at 400° about 20 minutes (start checking a little earlier), until springy. If you're not using all the cups in the tin, put a little water in the empty ones, for more even cooking and to avoid warping the tin.
Makes about 40
The above is more traditional, but I now replace the raisins with diced crystallized ginger (1 – 1-1/2 c, depending on how strong it is). "Baker's cut" is already diced, though difficult to find. I assume you could use other fruit juice concentrates or other dried fruit.
I've used melted butter in place of the oil, and barely notice a difference—I now stick with oil.
Sunday, June 8th, 2008
1:57 pm
Two bits of cleverness
I cooked at Farm and Wilderness camp for a few days this week; Sam Arfer is head cook there and he invited me up for "skills week," cooking for 130 adults (with 6 cooks). They do real cooking there, no heating up frozen lasagna, and very good food. I had two while-cooking ideas I'm pleased with.
I made scrambled tofu for breakfast, and I'd pressed (and crumbled) the tofu the night before so it wouldn't end up soupy. But by the time it had started to brown it was really too dry, even with a ton of caramelized onions—it'd be difficult to eat with a fork without it all falling off. I thought, with the help of one of the other cooks' suggestion of hummus, of tahini. Not enough to really be noticeable of itself, not enough to be in any way creamy, but enough to definitely improve the texture. Something I'd probably do at home too.
The other bit of cleverness was in a coconut-milk sauce for stir-fry. I was looking for something sweet to add to it, and was considering applesauce. I was looking around the walk-in cooler for leftover applesauce and saw leftover canned pumpkin. It worked very well—a little sweetness, some earthiness, ideal amount of thickening. (This along with a bunch of other seasonings.) Definitely something I'll use the next time I make my quick-curry chickpeas. About 2 parts coconut milk to 1 part pumpkin puree.
Friday, January 4th, 2008
12:17 am
Several snack-like things
I found an interesting bowl as a holiday present for my brother and sister-in-law, and filled it with several different snacks:
Candied pecans
The candied pecans from below. (I ended up making 3 [double] batches, because I slightly burnt the first one, and needed an extra gift. I lost my nerve and undercooked the next two batches. This can be partially remedied by putting them in a low oven for quite a long time. They'll get un-sticky, but they'll never get crisp.)
Chocolate peanut brittle
This turned out quite different from what I intended, though I wasn't unhappy with it. It was supposed to be a thin layer of brittle with cocoa nibs floating in it and peanuts sticking up through it. But it's been too long since I've made peanut brittle and I didn't remember that the candy cools and seizes up after you add the room-temperature ingredients, so if you want it to pour you have to get it fully hot again. Also, I'd never done anything with cocoa nibs before, and I didn't know that they'll at least partially melt. Also, I used so many cocoa nibs that they were never going to be individually visible anyway. The result looked like a disaster—such large chunks that you'd surely damage your teeth trying to eat it. But the cocoa nibs acted like shortening in biscuits, making the brittle much less hard. (The brittle was nearly black from the nibs, which was not unattractive.) The result wasn't bad at all. I don't offer this as a recipe so much as an idea—using cocoa nibs in nut brittle, either just as an ingredient, or to "tenderize" it (not quite sure what to call it—the result is still entirely crisp/crunchy/brittle, just less hard).
Candied orange peel & candied ginger
I cheated on the candied ginger and bought it from Trader Joe's, then sliced it (knife dipped in hot water—you'll need to set the ginger aside to dry afterwards) to be about the same size as the orange peel. It'd been years since I made candied citrus peel too, so I forgot that it has to age for at least a couple weeks before you eat it, or you'll get a pretty objectionable and long-lasting bitter aftertaste.
3 (organic, or at least unwaxed) oranges
2 c sugar
3 Tbs light corn syrup
3/4 c water
Cut the oranges into quarters and cut out most of the flesh (you don't have to be too obsessive at this point). Cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain, cover with fresh cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer until tender (about 15 minutes). Drain and dump into cold water. Remove the softer remaining innards with a spoon. Cut into 1/4" or so strips (and to a length that's similar to the ginger).
Combine 1 cup of the sugar with the corn syrup and the water in a heavy pan. Stir over low heat until dissolved, then either a) brush down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in hot water, or b) cover the pan and simmer a few minutes so condensing water will wash down the pan sides (this option is a bit less reliable) (you're doing this to make sure there are no stray sugar crystals that might make the whole thing crystalize as it becomes supersaturated). Add the orange peel and cook over low heat, carefully stirring occasionally, until most of the syrup is absorbed. Cover and let stand overnight. Bring to a simmer again.
On several layers of paper towels, spread the remaining cup of sugar. With a slotted spoon (if there's still syrup remaining), remove the peel and roll in the sugar. Transfer to a sheet of wax or parchment paper and let dry for several hours, turning occasionally.
Either put this (mixed with about 2/3 the amount of candied ginger) in single layers separated by wax or parchment paper, or toss both with about 1-1/2 tsp cornstarch or arrowroot. Store in an airtight container. Set aside for at least 2 weeks to mellow.
(Taken with minimal alteration from 1997 Joy of Cooking.)
Thai curried sliced almonds
2-3 tsp Thai curry paste (I used red, Thai Kitchen*)
3/4 tsp salt
4-1/2 tsp oil
2 c sliced almonds
Lightly cook the first 3 ingredients in a saucepan. Put the almonds in a bowl and pour the spice mixture over; stir to combine. Spread out on a cookie sheet and bake, stirring occasionally, at 275° for 30 minutes. (If you start out with toasted sliced almonds, you can cut the time to about 15 minutes; if you use whole almonds bake at 300°.)
The higher amount of curry paste is probably too spicy for snacking, but I meant them to go on salad, fish, etc. Even 2 tsp may be too spicy for eating out of hand.
*Thai Kitchen is quite strong, which you really need for this recipe; a mild one will require so much that it'll do odd things to the texture. I've since used green to good effect as well.)
Curried pecans
2-1/2 Tbs olive oil
1-1/2 Tbs curry powder (Anyone have a recommended one that's reasonably easy to find? Mine is Frontier Herbs, which is okay.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp chipotle powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1-1/2 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 c pecans
Heat the first 5 ingredients in a small saucepan and cook gently for a couple minutes. Take off heat and add the Worcestershire. Pour over the pecans and stir to combine.
Line a cookie sheet with several layers of paper towels or brown paper. Spread the pecans on the paper, and bake at 275° for 10 minutes. Transfer to fresh paper and bake another 10 minutes. Raise heat to 300°, transfer to fresh paper, and bake 4 minutes; stir and bake for 3 more minutes. Let cool.
I'm sure you could use half a pureed canned chipotle instead of the powdered, or cayenne plus more smoked paprika.
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008
10:40 pm
New Year's meal
I have a pretty set meal that I've been cooking on New Year's Day for a long time now.
I tend to shop for groceries several times a week (partly from spending my early adulthood without a car), and to expect to go the grocery store if I need something for that day's meal. A couple of days before New Year's many years ago I realized I'd have to decide ahead of time since the stores would be closed. I hadn't had black-eyed peas in a long time and decided on them, not remembering that they were traditional for New Year's Day—when I looked up some recipes, one mentioned the tradition, and I've stuck with it since.
Of these three recipes, only the cornbread is even a little unusual, but I'll include all of them for completeness.
Black-eyed peas and rice
1-1/2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 c olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
7 cups water
1-1/2 tsp salt
1-3/4 c black-eyed peas (dried)
1-1/4 c brown rice
Saute the onions in the olive oil until lightly browned; add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook a few minutes more. Add the water and bring to a boil, then add the black-eyed peas and rice. Cook 45-55 minutes till tender.
It's worth getting the peas from a store with a decent turnover; very old ones will take a lot longer to cook. Reasonably new ones will cook in about the same time as brown rice.
1-1/2 medium onions, chopped
1/4 c olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes
3 lbs greens* (weight includes stems)
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs shoyu
Saute the onions in the olive oil until lightly browned; add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook a few minutes more. In the meantime, stem, wash, and coarsely chop the greens. Add the greens to the onions along with the salt and shoyu, and water to cover. It's fine to have plenty of water, it's good mixed with the peas & rice and the cornbread. Simmer 60-90 minutes, until very tender. Taste for shoyu/salt.
Note that curly greens like kale take up a lot more room until they wilt. Just keep adding them to your pot (along with a smallish amount of water) and stirring until there's room for the next couple handfuls. Don't add water to cover till it's wilted.
*Greens: I like kale. Supermarket collards are overwhelmed by the taste of the onions, chard gets too soft when cooked long, and the bitterness of mustard is the wrong symbolism for New Year's.
Some years I've added some kind of smoky veggie "meat" to one or the other of these. (One year I added it to both, and they tasted too similar to one another). This year I added "sausage" to the greens after they'd finished cooking, so the greens still tasted of themselves—a better choice than adding it at the beginning.
I don't know why I tried this recipe—everything about it suggests dry cornbread (not much fat, all cornmeal, hot pan) which I don't like. But it doesn't come out dry, and it's my favorite recipe. And the fact that it's all-cornmeal gives lots of taste.
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs olive oil
1 c buttermilk*
1 c cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 425°, and put an 8- or 9-inch cast iron skillet in the oven; let it heat for at least 15 minutes. (If you don't have a cast iron skillet you can use an 8-inch square or 9-inch round pan, but you won't get much crust.)
Beat together the egg, salt, and 1 tablespoon of the oil, then add the buttermilk. Whisk together the cornmeal and baking soda. Add the buttermilk mixture and quickly whisk to combine. Remove the pan, add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the hot pan and swirl it around, and pour in the batter. Return to oven for 12-15 minutes, until springy in the middle.
*Buttermilk is best, but plain yogurt is an okay substitute.
The black-eyed peas & rice and the greens recipe are slightly modified from The Political Palate, Bloodroot Collective, 1980 Sanguinaria. The cornbread recipe is slightly modified from Vegetarian Express Lane Cookbook, Sarah Fritschner, 1996 Houghton Mifflin.
Sunday, January 7th, 2007
9:32 pm
Kimchee salad
A little less unseasonably warm today, but I'm still thinking warm-weather food. Any number of variants here, but one I just made that I'm quite happy with:
1 lb kimchee
1 lb coleslaw mix
1 bunch scallions
1 c peas or snow peas or snap peas
1 c roasted peanuts
Baked tofu:
14 oz tofu
3 Tbs shoyu
1 Tbs sesame oil
1 tsp dried ginger
2 Tbs water
Slice the kimchee so it's about the same shape as the coleslaw (I used nappa kimchee, but radish should be good too). Slice the scallions. Lightly cook the peas (if you use frozen English peas, you just need to run them under hot water) and slice if you use snow or snap peas. Press and bake the tofu as in the green bean recipe; cut into small strips; bake in a large shallow pan till it firms up. Mix all ingredients and taste. Don't use up all of an ingredient to start with in case you want to adjust proportions.
With the tofu it works as a main dish, without it works as a salad.
Sunday, July 9th, 2006
12:25 pm
Cold avocado soup
Yet another requested recipe. Everything is pretty approximate.
Serves 2.
1 avocado
1/2 c sour cream
1 to 1-1/2 c ice water
1 Tbs good soy sauce
1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt
2 medium globe tomatoes or about 2/3 of a pint of grape tomatoes
2 to 3 scallions
Puree the avocado and sour cream along with a little of the water in a blender or food processor. Add the soy sauce, salt, and the rest of the water to your desired consistency. Taste for salt; it will need to be quite salty for the tomatoes. Dice the tomatoes and add to the soup; cut the scallions lengthwise and then slice thinly and add to the soup.
You want this well chilled, but it should be served soon after making it--I suggest chilling it over ice water so it'll be quick, or I imagine you could use a few ice cubes in place of some of the water if you're using a blender. If you make this fairly thick, there will be enough air incorporated into the soup that even if you press plastic wrap onto the surface it will discolor and get old tasting if it sits a while; this is less of a problem if the soup is thin.
The soy sauce is basically to add a rich/meaty character--I imagine you could use a mix of chicken (or vegetable) stock and water instead of soy sauce and water. One-third stock, two-thirds water would be my guess.
I've made this with frozen avocados when fresh weren't available and it works, though there's enough citric & ascorbic acid added to them (to prevent browning) to be tasteable.
Saturday, July 1st, 2006
9:41 pm
Glorious vichyssoise
First, the 's' is pronounced. "Mayonnaise" isn't <may·oh·nay>, "hollandaise" isn't <hol·un·day>, and "vichyssoise" isn't <veesh·ee·swah>. The next waiter who incorrectly corrects me on this gets a fork in his thigh.
Not that I order vichyssoise in restaurants any more--I've never had a proper vichyssoise in a restaurant. Which baffles me, it's about the easiest soup there is to make. The problem is, I'm not good at planning ahead unless I'm cooking for guests, and this is a soup that has to be chilled after cooking--so it's been a long time since I've made it.
3 cups sliced leeks, thoroughly cleaned (or a mix of leek and onion)
4 cups red potatoes, peeled and diced
8 cups water (some of this could be chicken stock, but even if I ate chicken I'd use water)
1 Tbs salt
3/4 - 1 c heavy cream
chives, snipped
Put the first 4 ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, and simmer, partially covered, 50 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Purée--a fine food mill is best for this, a blender or stick blender is next; don't use a food processor, it'll turn glue-y. Taste for salt--because it's chilled it needs to be a little saltier than you'd think. Chill. Check the texture, you may want to add more cold water. Add the cream before serving and garnish with snipped chives. Glorious.
Wednesday, June 21st, 2006
7:55 pm
Local vegetables!
The farmers' markets have been open since the beginning of June here in Boston, but until this week they just had leafy things, which in the spring aren't enough different from the supermarket to get excited about (though they're great after the first frost), and rhubarb, which was rather pale. But I got local snap peas today! Snap peas are almost always good, but picked today (or maybe yesterday) they're one of my favorite foods. Here's how I made them, for me and a friend tonight:
Snap peas, snapped
A little oil
A little salt
Preheat oven to 550F (yes, really 550F). Toss the peas with the oil and salt in a roasting pan (single layer), and roast them till some of them have gotten a tiny bit brown, stirring once or twice--probably 3-5 minutes total. For maximum crispness, serve immediately, but they're also good cold. If not eating right away, cover them once cool--they tend to dry out.
If your snap peas are a bit wan, you'll want to cook them a little longer at 500F. Farm fresh don't really need to be cooked at all, so brief in a really hot oven works fine. Older ones will be better a little more cooked.
I cook green beans (especially early ones, later in the season they can be too tough for this method) and asparagus this way too.
This I served with
Cold shrimp soup
2/3 lb shrimp (frozen is fine)
3/4 to 1 seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped
1/8 sweet onion, chopped (maybe start with less)
1-1/2 Tbs dijon mustard
2 tsp dry dill weed (if serving immediately, you'll probably want more)
1 tsp sweetener
1-1/2 to 2 c buttermilk
1/3 c tart white wine, or a bit of lemon juice
All measurements are quite approximate. If your shrimp are still frozen, run them through the food processor first till finely chopped, then add the next 5 ingredients and process till finely chopped. Add the buttermilk & wine and process again; taste for seasoning. Since almost all the ingredients start out cold you can serve it immediately, or it'll keep a day or so chilled. Serves 2 as a main course.
A very good combination, the slight sweetness of both the shrimp and the snap peas, with the contrasting texture.
Sunday, June 11th, 2006
12:08 pm
Cinnamon-Date Skones
Not "scones," as the flavoring is about as authentic as blueberry bagels. But tasty. Another requested recipe.
4 c whole wheat pastry flour (you could certainly try white, though I suspect the flavor would be a bit insipid; I've used barley flour and they taste good, but they're a bit crumbly)
1/4 c dry sweetener (I use dried cane juice; if you use brown sugar you may want to mix it with the wet ingredients)
1/4 c baking powder (yes, really that much)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 lb butter (frozen or chilled, see below)
1-1/3 c chopped dates, packed
1-1/3 c chopped pecans
1-3/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c dark rum
4 eggs
Mix the first 5 ingredients.
Cut in the butter however you normally would, then add the dates & pecans
Add the dates to the dry ingredients and break up the clumps (the dates do tend to clump when you pack them), then add the pecans, and grate in the frozen butter (this is my preferred way of "cutting in" butter).
Mix together the cream, rum, and eggs, and briefly stir them into the dry ingredients. Allow that to sit for a few minutes to firm up.
Divide into 4 pieces, and shape each into a round 1-1/2" high; cut each round into fourths; place on a lightly greased baking sheet. This will keep, covered closely with plastic wrap, overnight in the fridge.
Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes (that's a rough guess), till lightly brown and minimally springy. Rich enough to serve plain, or with processor-whipped cream (which is much thicker than other-whipped cream) or clotted cream or butter.
Wednesday, May 10th, 2006
8:13 pm
Chipotle-sweet potato soup
I had a request for this one too. Perhaps the highest ratio of goodness to effort of anything I make.
1 medium onion, chopped
olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp dried ginger
3 very large sweet potatoes, the redder the better, peeled and diced
1 canned chipotle, minced, with adobo
vegetable stock to just cover
1 cup or so milk/soy milk [edit: a can of coconut milk is really good]
tamari to taste
1 large (approx 22 oz) can black beans, rinsed
Saute the onion in the olive oil with the salt over medium-low heat till well softened. Add the garlic and ginger, and saute a few minutes more. And the sweet potatoes, chipotle, and vegetable stock. Simmer, partially covered, till the potatoes are very tender. Puree (a stick blender is easiest) and add milk to thin as you like. Taste for salt/tamari & heat (you can finely mince more chipotle or just use the adobo if you want more heat). Stir in the black beans and heat through.
The extra canned chipotles: I put individual chipotles on plastic wrap and spoon their adobo over, and then freeze hard. Once they're frozen I wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and store in the freezer.
Sunday, March 26th, 2006
1:00 am
Polenta with chiles
A friend asked for the recipe, so I figured I'd post it here.
3 mild chiles (can certainly use more if you like).
Bring to a boil
2 c milk
1/4 c water
(use liquid from canned corn)
1/2 tsp salt (a bit more if you don't use the canned corn liquid).
Once that's boiling, combine (don't let it sit long)
3/4 c cornmeal
3/4 c cold water
(use liquid from canned corn)
and stir into the boiling milk. Stir continuously until it comes back to simmer and thickens; turn heat down and simmer 15 minutes (or longer), covered, stirring occasionally. (If you let the polenta cool it will solidify, so have everything else ready before you take it off the heat. It won't be harmed by cooking longer.) Just before taking it off heat, stir in
1/2 c parmesan (or a bit more).
Meanwhile, peel, seed, and chop the roasted chiles; chop
2-3 canned chipotles (more if they're mild)
and mix with the chiles.
Layer in a greased casserole:
polenta, chiles, and
1 c corn (or a bit more)
2/3 c chopped cilantro
1/2 lb (2 c) shredded jack cheese
1/2 c heavy cream
(The layers I use, from the bottom up:
a bit less than half of the polenta
a bit more than half of the cheese
a bit less than half of the cream
the rest of the polenta
the rest of the cheese
the rest of the cream.)
Bake 400° for 30 min, until well browned.
The advantage of canned corn over frozen (I've tried both) is that the liquid is a good addition to the taste of the polenta. (You won't have a full cup, just use what you have and water for the rest.)
I haven't described how to roast chiles here—I assume there are plenty of places on the web that will tell you how if you need it.
I bet diced nopales would be a good substitute for the chiles—haven't tried it.
An update: If you want this to come out at all solid, you'll need to let it cool (or chill) before you bake it. If you bake it immediately it'll come out very soupy. Still tasty, but a very different result.
Another update: The cilantro really doesn't add much, as it loses almost all taste when cooked; I've been asked if it was spinach. Culantro would work, but I can rarely get it. Cilantro stems do keep some taste, but it's a lot of work to get enough. I know cilantro root stands up to cooking, but I wonder about the texture.
Yet another update: I've realized there's more advantage to canned corn than just the juice—it's bred and processed to remain crisp with more cooking, especially if you choose one with 'crisp' in the label. Frozen corn tends to toughen in anything that gets baked.
Saturday, January 28th, 2006
12:58 pm
Cheese pancakes
I just made these; I'm amazed at how good they are. Another recipe that is even better than it looks. Only slightly modified from the current Gourmet.
3/4 c chopped onion
1/4 tsp salt
olive oil
1-1/2 c whole-milk cottage cheese (preferably small-curd)
4 Tbs butter, melted
1/4 tsp pepper
3 eggs
6 Tbs flour
Cook the onion with the salt in olive oil over med-low heat till browned. Combine with remaining ingredients.
Using a well-seasoned cast-iron or non-stick skillet and a bit of olive oil, cook 1/8-cup scoops of batter till somewhat browned on both sides.
These have a nice slight crispness when served immediately, but unless you can serve them instantly they should keep in a warming oven as you finish cooking the batch.
Along with a fruit salad, serves two hungry people or three more reasonable appetites.
Monday, November 28th, 2005
10:48 pm
Candied pecans
I haven't made these in a while, but I was just talking about them. I always make a double recipe.
1 c pecans
1/4 c dark rum
1/4 c maple syrup
2 Tbs butter
1/8 tsp (or a bit more) salt
Steep the pecans in the rum for at least 20 minutes.
Combine pecans & rum, maple syrup, and butter. Cook over high heat about 10 minutes (if you have a light-weight pan, you'll probably have to user lower heat for longer to avoid burning), stirring frequently and then constantly, until liquid is gone and butter starts to be noticeably separate, and the syrup just starts to form threads between the nuts—this is a bit nerve wracking, as overdoing it will burn the butter or nuts, but undercooking will leave them gooey. (If you've cooked out the liquid, they will be dry once they cool.)
Spread out onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (the more you spread them out, the less you'll have to break them apart after they cool), and sprinkle with salt while still hot (I like fairly salty with the sweet). Let cool completely before packing in an air-tight container.
Slightly modified from The Common Ground Dessert Cookbook.
Monday, November 7th, 2005
6:05 pm
Tofu with green beans and coconut sauce
This is remarkably good—better than the sum of its parts. As I was tasting the sauce, etc., I thought I was going to be disappointed. I think it also gets better the next day (though it loses a lot of color).
On first reading, this may look time consuming. But there's a lot of meanwhile time—while the tofu is pressing, while it's baking, while the onions are sweating.
Press 16 oz firm tofu (put on a plate, cover with another plate, and weight with about 4 lbs [½ gallon container] for 20-30 minutes). Cut the tofu into cubes.
Preheat oven to 375°. Combine 1 Tbs sesame oil, 2 Tbs shoyu, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp dry ginger, a few dashes hot sauce, 2 Tbs water. Grease a shallow baking dish. Add the tofu, pour the shoyu mixture over, and gently stir to coat. Bake, gently stirring occasionally (a silicone spatula works well), until liquid is mostly gone, about 25 minutes.
Thinly slice 1 smallish onion. Cook in oil over low heat with ¼ tsp salt until thoroughly soft, 10-15 minutes—you may want to cook it covered, as you don't want it to dry and brown. (A wide skillet works best for this, for reducing later on.)
Trim 1 lb green beans and cut into 2" pieces; slice 1 red bell pepper and cut into 2" pieces.
Once the onions are soft (but not brown), turn heat up to medium and add 1 Tbs grated ginger, 1 Tbs minced garlic, ¼ tsp chili flakes; sauté a couple minutes.
Add 1 can (14-15 oz) coconut milk, additional ½ tsp salt, 1 Tbs shoyu; bring to a boil. Add the green beans and quickly bring back to boil; simmer 2-3 minutes. Add the peppers and simmer another 6 minutes or so, until beans are just cooked through.
Remove the beans and peppers with a slotted spoon, and quickly boil down the sauce till slightly thickened, reduced to about ¾ cup. Stir in about 1 Tbs lime juice; you may want to add a bit of sweetener or more salt.
Serve the beans over the tofu, pour the sauce over that, and top with cilantro and chopped salted toasted cashews.
You could serve this over rice noodles or rice, though it's not very strongly flavored—I liked it by itself.
It's difficult to keep the green beans bright green; cooking them quickly and serving as soon as possible after they're cooked will help.
Modified from Gourmet, Sept 2005
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For people who are near retirement or in retirement a daunting problem is replacing income. Gone for the foreseeable future are the 4-5% yields from CDs or U.S. Treasuries. The bond markets offer little assistance as they are in their last legs of a 30 year bull market, after a 50 year bear market. Given the projected slow growth (or worse) global economy one can hardly count on exceptional earnings growth. One of the only strategies for investors to get ready to replace income, stay ahead of inflation and capture growth is the "dividend growth strategy". In particular, my 4,5,8 dividend growth program. The numbers stand for:
• 4% yield
• 5% dividend growth
• 8% earnings (or cash flow growth in the case of MLPs and REITs)
This strategy covers the 4 most critical objectives for investors in or nearing retirement. Income, income growth over inflation, capital appreciation, and the incentive not to time the market. Let's take these points one by one:
The 4% yield is 350 basis points over the risk free return from a 12 month Treasury bill, a historically high premium. For Retirement Accounts 4% is also is also the magic withdrawal number. Assuming that a retirement account is large enough, a stretch considering that less than half of people between 55- 64 years of age have a $100,000 balance or more in their 401k, If one is receiving a reasonably secure 4% plus from a diversified stock portfolio they can draw down on the dividends and have less need to hit principal by selling stocks, thus less incentive to over trade.
There are plenty of stocks yielding close to 4% which would allow us to construct a portfolio with a net yield of over 4%.
Dividend Growth
To construct a yield-based portfolio without equally focusing on those companies with a solid dividend growth history and the likelihood of increasing that distribution at a rate of 5% would be foolish. Inflation is a silent killer. Even with an inflation rate of 2%, it would not take too many years before there would be a forced scaling down of your lifestyle. One of our objectives for an investor near or in retirement is to have dividend income growth above the rate of inflation. There are plenty of companies with are likely to increase their dividend over 5%. Corporate cash levels are at record highs and a number of sectors such as MLPs and REITs are mandated to pay 90% of their free cash flow to investors.
There are two ways that dividends can increase, higher corporate earnings or increasing the payout ratio. In order to make this strategy as simple as possible I tend to discount the increasing of payout ratio for stocks paying 4% or more, just too unpredictable. The only exception is if a company announces that their policy on payout ratios has been changed in a material way and that is typically for companies paying lower than 3%. I want to make this a dividend growth strategy one which will minimize the opportunity which the customer has to make a mistake.
A true wild card would be if the Federal Government would have the foresight to have a "tax compromise" which would allow mature companies with considerable cash on their balance sheet, but off shore, to bring that cash on shore but not at the current prohibitive tax rates. This was done before and would bring billions back of dollars back in the United States. for mature companies who already pay dividends and could pay more. Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco (CSCO), Intel (INTC), Apple (AAPL) (though not a mature company) are just a few examples. Tie it onto a domestic job creation bill. Write your Congressman yesterday on this matter!
Earnings Growth
To state the obvious, no company can increase their distribution unless they have more cash to distribute. Therefore, the third leg of my dividend growth strategy is an 8% or more EPS growth. MLPs and REITs trade and their payments are based upon cash flow. With just a little bit of research focusing on REITs, MLPs and Fortune 500 companies with a global business you should be able to put together a diversified portfolio. Here are a few names.
Atlas Pipeline (APL, 7.2% yield)
DCP Pipelines (DPM, 6.8% yield)
Eli Lilly (LLY, 4.0% yield)
Colony Financial (CLNY, 7.1% yield)
Bristol Meyers (BMY, 4.3% yield)
Kimco (KIM, 4.3% yield)
McDonald's (MCD, 3.5% yield), ok not 4% but as part of a dividend growth portfolio a great name to have
LinnCo (LNCO, 7.7% yield)
I also question anyone's ability to time the market. Thus putting together a portfolio and only selling when there are news events which would change the company's fundamental ability to grow earnings at the 8% rate and the dividend at 5% puts time on your side, as you are collecting a 4% yield while you wait, again trying to make the account replicate a pension plan. Indeed a disciplined investor would be less inclined to sell during a general market decline and will be more likely to buy on dips, thus strategically increasing your cash flow. The overwhelming data on how many investors liquidated their equity positions at the markets lows in the first quarter of 2009 (and never came back) make the dividend growth strategy critical to preventing investors from selling and ruining any chance of retiring.
To conclude, investors need to look past the headlines and focus exclusively on your goals while not playing the market. Have a plan that you feel comfortable with and one you can live with through the ups and downs of the markets. Have a disciplined, relatively easy to follow strategy to make their retirement funds resemble a defined contribution pension plan, one that you can draw income while not being forced to sell stocks. Obviously people need to save money to have a significant pool of capital to employ their strategy, but if done, the beauty of this strategy is that there are many different ways to customize this strategy and achieve your returns and simplified your life.
Source: Replacing Income: The 4, 5, 8 Dividend Growth Program | dclm-gs1-004770000 |
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There is a new move afoot in Washington to limit the tax advantages of municipal bonds.
We have warned of this on several prior occasions over the past couple of years. While the probability of success of such efforts was low before the U.S. found itself it such a messy fiscal state, the chances of muni-bond holders "sharing the pain" and paying their "fair share" has risen substantially.
In today's Bloomberg, we find this:
Obama Proposes Limits on Tax-Breaks for Municipal-Bond Investors
Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama proposed curbing the amount of interest from municipal bonds that top earners can exclude from their taxable income, a step that may diminish demand for state and local-government securities.
The president’s $447 billion job-creation plan would pare the tax break for municipal-bond interest to 28 percent for couples earning more than $250,000 a year. Such tax-exempt interest is currently worth 35 percent for earners in the top tax bracket …
The impact of such tax changes would probably be:
1. market value of current muni-bond holdings would fall;
2. the interest rate on new purchases to be higher to compensate for lost exemption;
3. states and local municipalities would face higher costs of financing via tax exempt bonds; and
4. the federal government would expand Build America bonds (taxable muni bonds) which further expands federal control over state and local decisions.
The article did not state how the President's proposal would impact property-casualty insurance companies. They are the second largest holders of municipal bonds after individuals.
If they also lost tax benefits, the effects of the tax change on the muni-bond market would be amplified.
Some short-term extra volatility might be introduced into insurance company stock prices while portfolios are adjusted, and as investors filter through company financials to ascertain the impact on a per company basis.
Disclosure: QVM does not have positions in any mentioned security as of the creation date of this article (September 13, 2011).
Source: Muni-Bond Tax Exemption At Risk In Obama Jobs Proposal | dclm-gs1-004780000 |
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• VistaGen Therapeutics (VSTA): A Hidden Stem Cell Opportunity 0 comments
Feb 27, 2012 2:02 PM | about stocks: VSTA
When it comes to modern medicine, stem cells are seen as playing a role unmatched by anything else. Used in a growing number of cell therapies for certain cancers, various diseases related to the immune system, and other treatment applications, in addition to cell research, stem cell technology is opening an increasing number of doors for medical researchers and practitioners. Today it's a market rapidly closing in on $1 billion, and, in spite of controversy surrounding some aspects of stem cell use, the funding for stem cell research continues to grow.
Stem cells, including pluripotent stem cells (non-embryonic adult cells that are artificially reprogrammed to mimic embryonic stem cells), are unique in their ability to differentiate into specialized cells, such as heart or muscle or nerve cells. As a result, they provide an important tool for medical research, treatment, and drug development.
For example, stem cells can play a substantial role in the discovery of new medicines that are more effective and safer for patients. They can also be used in the field of regenerative medicine, where various tissues and organs can be generated to replace damaged ones, for application to spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and perhaps even Alzheimer's. In addition, given their ability to duplicate the functions of a whole host of other cells, stem cells are becoming important in all types of advanced biomedical research, helping us understand the most basic workings of the human cell and human body.
But one of the lesser known, though potentially huge applications of stem cell technology, involves the early stage testing of drug candidates. The pharmaceutical industry can spend vast amounts of money developing and introducing a new drug, only to find out later that it has negative effects on the heart, liver, or other organs. As a result, the drug must be limited or withdrawn, greatly reducing, or even eliminating, the anticipated profit potential. The numbers involved are telling. It can cost over $1 billion to bring a new drug to market, and it can all be lost if the drug is later found to have toxicity issues, such as causing heart problems. In addition to the time and money spent on developing and marketing, companies can face a long string of associated lawsuits.
In the case of Avandia, an anti-diabetic drug produced by GlaxoSmithKline, concerns that the drug may lead to an increased risk of heart attack, even though not firmly established at the time, still led to a major reduction in sales, and a slew of lawsuits. Given that the drug had been bringing in over $2 billion in annual sales prior to the trouble, it was a significant blow, and gives an idea of how much big pharma might be willing to pay for a workable solution.
It's a problem for which California based VistaGen Therapeutics believes it has the answer, and it all revolves around stem cells. Using advanced stem cell technology, VistaGen has produced functional human cardiac cells that can be used early on in the drug development process to test for cardiotoxicity. Cardiotoxicity has been a factor in over 30% of drug withdrawals, and addressing it is seen as a major market. The use of real human heart cells in pre-clinical testing offers important advantages over traditional testing methods, such as animal testing.
First of all, it can be performed at the earliest stages of development, reducing the risks of developing the wrong drug. It's also more accurate, since traditional testing involving animals can fail to detect potential risks in humans. And it's far easier than the large number of patients and lengthy testing required in human trials. By identifying cardiotoxicity issues early in the process, drug developers can take steps to rescue the drug candidate, developing variants that are both functional and safe. Given that stem cells, including non-embryonic stem cells, can be pointed in many different directions, their potential to transform drug development has no clear limit.
But VistaGen is only now beginning to show up on many investors' radar screens. Its recent strategic drug rescue-related collaboration agreements with Synterys, a medicinal chemistry and drug discovery services company, and Cato Research Ltd., a leading contract research and development organization, were further indications of the recognition VistaGen has earned for the exciting potential of its stem cell technology-based drug rescue initiatives.
The collaborations are intended to help develop safer drug rescue variants by leveraging VistaGen's drug rescue initiatives with Synterys' medicinal chemistry expertise and Cato Research's drug development and regulatory capabilities. In the case of its key collaboration with Synterys, the idea is to combine VistaGen's human pluripotent stem cell technology platform, called Human Clinical Trials in a Test TubeTM, with modern medicinal chemistry, to generate new safer variants of once-promising drug candidates discontinued in development due to heart toxicity concerns.
VistaGen sees itself as essentially transforming drug development by bring human biology to the front end of the process, attacking cardiotoxicity issues early in the cost curve, and removing much of the risk and uncertainty typically involved in bringing new drugs to market. Perhaps more importantly, it lessens the chance that patients will be asked to play the role of unsuspecting guinea pig, taking drugs that may cause them far more harm than good.
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• Small Company Update: A Hot Piece of SAAS
Money McBags wanted to finally get to SAAS today because he has mentioned it a fuckton but has just never found time to cover it in full detail (likely because he has spent way too much time covering this in full detail) and it deserves it's own break out. This is one of Money McBags' favorite names right now (he likes the name even more than he likes the names Madz Negro, Dick Blewitt, and the soon to be immortalized Harry Baals) so it's time to roll up the sleeves, break out the excel, the thesaurus, and the urban dictionary, and get down to business:
What the fuck do they do? inContact is the actual name of the company (and Money McBags would love to be in contact with Jayme Langford, but that's a different story), and they have two basic businesses. One sucks more dick right now than Tori Black in A Shot to the Mouth and is more irrelevant in the long-run than something called Lady Antebellum (or the entire Grammy Awards show) and the other is more awesome than a Mickey Mantle letter.
The crappy business is their legacy telephony business which basically aggregates and provides telecommunications services to companies and that might be one the least interesting and most irrelevant businesses other than providing computer repairs for the Amish. They basically go to Verizon, Qwest, and Global Crossing and then act as the middle man (the telephony Lucky Pierre if you will) and resell those companies' various telecommunication services and products in a bundled offering to their own clients. This is and has been the majority of their business and is the main reason no one has given a fuck about this company because frankly, it's just not going anywhere. As technology gets better and long distance telephony becomes more competitive, reselling other companies' plans has a future about as bright as that of JOEZ jeans, so a big fucking yawn.
That said, the sizzle to this steak or the extra F in the MFF scene is their cloud computing, software as a service (and yes those two terms are mostly redundant but the more Money McBags types them the harder his dick gets because those usually result in premium mulitples applied to a stock) call center business. This business basically takes all of the big legacy equipment out of the call centers, optimizes the call routing, and allows for call center employees to work at home. Their 10K has the gory details, but in their words their software:
"includes automatic call distribution (“ACD”) with skills-based routing, interactive voice response (“IVR”) with speech recognition, computer telephony integration (“CTI”) capabilities, reporting, work force optimization, e-learning, call center agent hiring and customer feedback measurement toolsTaken together, the inContact solution creates an integrated solution for call centers, including those with distributed workforces – either at-home or multi-site."
In Money McBags' words, their software is full of fucking awesomeness because it cuts the costs out of an unneeded business expense that traditionally has relied on big upfront equipment spend and ongoing real estate and maintenance costs, while also better optimizing the whole fucking process. Seriously, Money McBags dreams about businesses like this (such as CNQR, KITD, and fleshlights) because they are scalable, take the place of more expensive alternatives, and automate the process.
So now that we know what this company does, here are the interesting points (though not as interesting as these points):
1. Their software business is growing ridonkulously fast, even faster than Sofia Vergara's son's reputation on "Take your Mom to School" day. Since 2006 the software business has grown annually at 240%, 48%, 46%, and probably ~20% in 2010 which is spanktastic. They are penetrating a market that has yet to take advantage of this kind of software and their business has gone from $4MM in revenue to $35MM in four years and they are both winning new customers (~35 per Q) and also upselling old customers (by adding 22 upsold contracts in Q3 2010). The obvious question though is what the fuck happened in 2010 that the growth rate was cut in half (in Q3 they said the lost two large customers of ~$225k in revenue), because seriously, that is more concerning than finding pants that fit is for a polyorchid.
Normally, when Money McBags sees a growth rate falling like that huge red flags shoot up faster than a heroin addict trying to get rid of the DTs, and those flags did shoot up, but Money McBags talked to one of SAAS' biggest investors a couple of months ago and was told that the declining revenue growth rate was from an internal sales fuck up (Money McBags has not confirmed this with the company so he is relating information from a third party, and as always, Money McBags is just some random guy on the internet with a predilection for dick jokes and Alice Eve, so take all of this for what it is worth).
The story Money McBags was told is that SAAS tried to launch the next version of their software before it was completely finished and that version didn't have some of the capabilities that the old version had, so customers basically said "fuck you very much" and decided to wait for SAAS to work out the kinks before upgrading or buying the new version. This caused sales to get pushed out and as a result SAAS told the new version of the software to go fuck itself, stopped trying to sell it before it was ready, and went back to selling the shit that works until the new version is 100%. As a result, their sales should start to pick up again because the sales force isn't going out with some confusing message about two versions of a software. It passes Money McBags' sniff test (unlike Paris Hilton's vagina or asparagus urine), though it does raise questions as to management's capabilities.
2. Their revenue and earnings look deceptively shitty: Without looking at their two businesses separately, their revenue has basically been flat since 2005 at ~$82MM, they have had negative EPS, and negative cash flow from operations until this past year, so um, seriously? At first glance, Money McBags would run further away from this company than the lovely Meredith Whitney seems to be running away from congress or Gary Busey seems to be running away from sanity, and that is why this company is still under the fucking radar.
Their shitty legacy telephony business has gone from ~$75MM to ~$48MM in revenue and that is masking the growth of their cockriffic software business. Not just that, and this is really one of the two key points to this whole story, management is OVERINVESTING IN THE SOFTWARE BUSINESS right now because they want revenues to rapidly grow in order to get scale. Their software marketing costs were up 28% last Q which is outpacing revenues and obviously not a way to run this business in the long-run. At $100MM in software revenues, this business becomes hella fucking attractive to a CSCO or whoever else has tried and failed with this kind of solution so management is stepping on the pedal to try to ramp up revenues as fast as possible. Shit, if you strip out that unnecessary marketing costs, the software business would be profitable today. In 2010, the software business will have lost ~$6.25MM in income while their legacy telephony business will have earned ~$6.10MM in income (EBITDA has been positive for the last 9 quarters). They are using their shitty legacy run off business basically to fund growth, it's a great strategy, but hidden in their financials which causes fund managers to overlook them when running screens.
3. The market opportunity is ginormous and scalable, like Kim Kardashian's ass, (though if you are going to try to scale Kim Kardashian's ass, make sure you have an experienced belayer). In their latest presentation the company estimates this is ultimately an ~$8B global opportunity and again they currently have only ~$35MM in sales so Money McBags will address that opportunity with a "hell fucking yeah" (though throwing that $8B number out is a bit preposterous as it is more divorced from current reality than Lindsay Lohan, but whatever. Money McBags is sure this is a big opportunity, shit maybe it's only 1/2 of what they think, but if so, that's still a $4B market and they are only ~1% of that right now). They estimate there are ~3MM call center reps in the US and 72% of them are in enterprise sized contact centers that would be able to use their services which is their current market focus.
4. Their competition sucks. They have two competitors, legacy premise based businesses and other software based models. Compared to premise based call center providers, SAAS offers better service, at cheaper prices, with more flexibility, scalability, and security. It's like going from a palm pilot to an iPhone or dating 2005 Heidi Montag to dating 2010 Heidi Montag.
As for other software solutions, as far as Money McBags can tell no one has yet matched what SAAS can provide in terms of functionality (shit like ACD, IVR, CTI, WFO, and JIZZ solutions. And only one of those is made up). Money McBags knows and CSCO have tried to compete with SAAS but as of now, SAAS still has the best technology (though CSCO should buy them to combine their sales force with SAAS' software in a marriage that would be as cocktacular as peanut butter and chocolate or strings and bikinis, but alas SAAS seems too small for CSCO to care about right now even if the potential market is huge). SAAS is the only cloud based solution that can offer "telecommunications services with contact handling and performance management optimization."
5. It fits a need in the market and trends are in their favor. SAAS' software is basically a cost save to enterprise companies. It allows people to work from home, it cuts hardware costs, and it increases efficiencies which equates to a 28% cost save for companies with 25 seats all the way up to a 45% cost save for a company with 400 seats. Now Money McBags is not sure what percent of a company's total cost is typically related to call centers, but a 45% savings in anything is nothing at which to sneeze. With margins soon to be compressed across the globe as input costs rise, companies need to continue outsourcing and becoming more nimble, and this is one easy way to do that. Plus SAAS offers the first solution for the middle market that is affordable.
But it's not just the cost save as the trends are all pointing towards solid growth. Cloud based computing is becoming trendier than Power Balance bracelets or NSFW muff guessing. With more people already out of work, working from home is becoming an easier option and SAAS allows call center reps to stay the fuck at home and thus not have to be functioning members of society. Most importantly, CRMs/ERPs/whatever acronym you want use are looking for this kind of bolt on type offering.
6. There exists a place in this country called Sacopee. Yep, Sacopee, Maine, its mascot is the fighting colonoscopy bag (or the Hawks, potato-puhtato) and it is located just south of Mouthnipple, Canada. This of course has nothing to do with SAAS, but it is something Money McBags thought you would all be curious to know.
7. SAAS is a SAAS model which is the best revenue model in the world. SAAS is software as a service and it basically means companies sell the software on an ongoing basis and thus the revenues are recurring and stickier than the pages of an old Juggs magazine. This model is much preferred to the traditional software model (though not preferred to the traditional runway model) where you actually sell the software in a one-time transaction and then maybe get some maintenance fees because this doesn't lead to the lumpy quarter problem and it is easier to predict revenues. The point is, Money McBags loves this kind of recurring revenue model and SAAS has 92% retention rates (which is actually a bit low, but given the ponzeconomy™ it is possible that they saw an inordinate amount of customers going out of business).
8. There are a lot of fucking issues: They are unprofitable and have had to raise funds in the last year, there are bigger companies out there who have more resources to eventually do this better, their management team took way too long to put all of this shit together, their legacy business blows, there is some sort of issue at the playboy mansion causing people to get sick (perhaps Pauly Shore went skinny dipping in the grotto), sales in their software business are slowing (but again, Money McBags hears their management team just cocked up the sales pipeline in the last few Qs to try to push out a new version of the software, so that should be getting better, but one never knows), they lost two large customers last Q (~$225k in revenue), and margins fell.
Valuation: Valuation gets a bit tricky because the company is overspending on marketing right now to ramp up quickly. That said, lets look at a reasonable upside scenario,. Say their legacy telephony business stays flat...TO READ THE REST GO TO THE AWARD WINNING WHEN GENIUS PREVAILED....
Tags: SAAS
Feb 15 9:36 AM | Link | Comment!
• Economic Update: Lies, Damn Lies, and The B(L)S Jobs Report
Wow. Just f*cking wow. Even with stability in the Middle East more fragile than an osteoporosis sufferer's boney coccyx as Egyptian government officials join in the protests against their own government (which is a bit like Alan Greenspan protesting against fiat currency or Camille Crimson protesting against hummers) and Jordan contemplates reforms to lessen the monarchy's power (and newsflash King Abdullah, you might want to do some reading on Czar Alexander II because once you let Pandora out of the box, she's not going back in, it's called entropy (though if it were Brooklyn Decker's box that she were let out of, perhaps she would go back in)), with the jobs report not just relatively awful by missing guesses by a f*ckton, but absolutely awful by showing fewer jobs are being created than in Whoopi Goldberg's pants (and Money McBags is not entirely sure what that means), and with propoganda being spread to impressionable of age females that a rise in cancers are linked to oral sex, the market still went up. Unf*ckingbelievable. As the market seems to care about geopolitical unrest, a national depression, and anything tangible about as much as Mark Sanford cares about family values, all we can do is buy the f*cking rip.
The big news was obviously the B(L)S jobs report which headlines lauded as a fantastic report as the unemployment rate dropped to 9.0% in a mathematical sleight of hand that would make Fibbonaci proud and Bernie Madoff's dick hard, the private sector added 50k jobs which would have been more if not for that frisky weather (and um, the f*cking depression), and the last two months of data were revised upwards by 20k each month (apparently the checks got lost in the mail).
So while analysts try to spin this number as positive (even though it was more disappointing than the book Cooking with Pooh is for coprophiliacs who order it sight unseen) as it was way below their guesses of 145k and way f*cking below the whisper number of 180k (and as always, Money McBags only cares about whisper numbers if Kelly Brook is doing the whispering and the number is 69), Money McBags will break it down for you and show why it was so ugly that not even Bill Clinton would sleep with it. So below are Money McBags' thoughts on the B(L)S employment situation report and the Street's reaction to it:
1. Using the weather as an excuse for the ginormous miss is just f*cking absurd. Honestly, the weather has now been blamed for everything from lower retail sales (except retail sales were actually decent), to the Protests in Egypt, to the Fat Boys breaking up. Analysts point out that a big reason for the miss was that construction jobs were down 38k and transportation jobs were down 32k and those two sectors are most levered to bad weather (construction is also most levered to the glut of foreclosed homes available and the crash of home prices, but that's not important). That said even if we add back the 70k jobs that were "weather related," the jobs report number would still be 25k below guesses. But that is not the most important point here.
The most important point is that these numbers are SEASONALLY F*CKING ADJUSTED (bolding intentional, because, yes Money McBags is yelling) which means that they should TAKE IN TO ACCOUNT THE WEATHER because, you know, THAT IS THE WHOLE F*CKING POINT OF SEASONALLY ADJUSTING SOMETHING. Now look, Money McBags is no Willard Scott (and not just because he doesn't have a GMILF fetish), but as far as he can tell, the weather this past January wasn't any kind of anomaly (like Carrot Top's career), it was just kind of an average January, or at least within one standard deviation of a normal January. So given that, the seasonal adjustment should have seasonally adjusted for the f*cking weather and thus this huge miss shouldn't have been caused by a little snow.
2. The economy didn't really add 50k jobs, it only added 36k because the government cut 14k jobs which is a trend that promises to get worse than Rick Rolling or promise rings. That said, there were 11k fewer temporary jobs which took away from the numbers, so one could say 47k permanent net jobs were added to the ponzeconomy™. Either way, you need to keep your eye on these government numbers because they are only going to get worse (more importantly though, you need to keep your eye on these numbers).
3. The 9% unemployment rate is more misleading than Citigroup's corporate derivatives team and it only takes third grad math to figure it out. Just think about it. All else being equal, if only 36k jobs were added and ~150k people enter the workforce every month, right off the f*cking bat we have ~100k more unemployed people going in to the population, and using the theory of something called Mathematics, that should cause the unemployment rate to increase, not decrease. Of course the actual calculation has more moving parts than a Rube Goldberg machine or the Octomom's vagina, so it's not quite that clear cut (though it should be), but the point is that just using the headline numbers and saying unemployment dropped by .4% is intellectually bankrupt.
Here is a simpler, logical way to think about it. The unemployment rate went from 9.4% to 9.0% with the addition of 36k jobs, so that would imply that for every 9k jobs added, the rate goes down by .1%, holding everything else equal (and Money McBags would like to hold these equal). So, using basic math, for a 1% drop in the unemployment rate, the ponzeconomy™ just needs to add 90k jobs and thus to get the rate down from 9%, to a cockposterous 0% full employment, never been reached before level, the ponzeconomy™ just needs to add 810k jobs. Ok, sounds simple enough, but here is the part where our minds get blown (and please let it be Alice Eve doing the blowing, and it not be our minds), according to B(L)S' report, there are 13.9MM unemployed people, so if 810k jobs get added (and thus take unemployment to absolute zero, according to our calculations above), we'll still have 13.1MM people unemployed. That's right, using the B(L)S' math, 13.1MM unemployed people equals a 0% unemployment rate which only makes sense in the land of Make Believe or Art Laffer's head. Perhaps it's a derivative of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, we'll call it the Hildasolis uncertainty principle where the more you know the unemployment rate the less you know the number of unemployed. So just step back from the numbers and think about this for a second (and then step back from that and think about this for a few hours).
Anyway, the real reason unemployment dropped by .4% was that more people simply dropped the f*ck out of the workforce and thus the labor force participation fell from 64.3% to a record low 64.2%. If the labor force participation rate had stayed at 64.3%, an extra ~300k people would have been added back to the unemployed bucket and back in to the labor force, boosting the 13.9k unemployed to ~14.2k and yielding an unemployment rate ~9.3%, which is pretty much flat with last month's number (though there is still some fudging in there that would bring the rate higher, but whatever).
In all honesty, this remains the most brilliant government strategy since giving Marilyn Monroe a key to the back door. Last month Money McBags called it the "F*ck off" strategy because simply telling the unemployed to f*ck off, and thus kicking them out of the labor force, is the quickest and easiest way to get the unemployment rate down. Sure it doesn't make the economy better, and sure it is a bit heartless, but remember, the important thing isn't the numbers, but it is the perception of the numbers, and a 0% unemployment rate would be perceived as something as awesome as Tolstoy's War and Peace or Malene Espensen's t*ts. So if you all elect Money McBags to office in the next round of elections when he heads up the BOGUS party, he promises you in his his first afternoon of work he will cut unemployment to 0% with just the stroke of a few keys. Now that is some f*cking change we can believe in (and apparently another change we can believe in is ending sentences with prepositions, as somewhere the great William Safire rolls over in his grave).
4. Just some quick stats: 6.2MM of the 13.9MM unemployed (which is 42%) are long-term unemployed, with the other 7.7MM being pre-long-term unemployed. 2.8MM were considered marginally attached to the workforce (up from 2.5MM) and they are as marginally attached to the work force as Egyptians are marginaly attached to Mubarak or Taco Bell is marginally attached to beef. Of those not counted in the labor force, 1MM of them are "discouraged", which means the other 1.8MM are "f*cking discouraged."
5. The U6 unemployment rate was 16.1%, unless you want it seasonally adjusted (and the seasons Money McBags likes in his adjustment are cayenne pepper and stripper juice), then it was 17.3%. And since the U6 rate is a better measure of all employment because it includes the discouraged, the perplexed, and Mickey Rourke, and since it also negates the effect of the "f*ck off strategy," it is more bizarre that we don't refer to this when talking about unemployment than it is that trying to grow meat in a lab is so f*cking hard (because really, if you want to grow meat, just look at a picture of Sofia Vergara).
6. Whatever this meinmyplace thing is, it is deliciously awesome (though unclear why it takes so long to load). And yes, this has nothing to do with the jobs report, but one can only look at made up numbers for so long without a break.
7. The last 2 months were revised up by 40k lifting job creation in November to 93k from 71k and in December to 121k from 103k, while dropping the B(L)S' credibility from none to Lindsay Lohan. And this brings us to our most important point:
8. ALL OF THESE NUMBERS ARE FULL OF SH*T ANYWAY (even moreso than Manuel Uribe's colonoscopy bag): The B(L)S manipulates the numbers more by using seasonal adjustments, the fictitious Birth/Death goal seek model, benchmark revisions, and telling numbers it won't love them anymore if they don't do what it says. It is these benchmark revisions which shoot down any credibility the No Labor Department might have had. For instance, the 2.3MM job losses from April 2009 to March 2010 were just revised up to 2.6MM. Come again? And if you are Jennifer Metcalfe, then by all means, please come again. But seriously, how the f*ck can they change numbers from over a year ago? Sh*t, if tomorrow the NFL awarded the Arizona Cardinals the 2009 Super Bowl or the AVN awarded Kelly Madison 2010 MILF of the Year, don't you think those fine organizations would lose credibility (even if the lovely Ms. Madison deserved it)? So why did Money McBags just waste all of his time analyzing this sh*t if it will just be a different number next month, next year, sh*t even next f*cking decade?
Here is an example of how ridiculous these numbers are: The Birth/death model black box model (and as always, the only model with a bigger black box is Nyomi Banxxx) had all of its numbers from the past year changed in the benchmark revisions. No really, the numbers which were completely made up anyway, are now a different set of completely made up numbers so any analysis done with them (and Money McBags always shows the preposterousness of them) was all for f*cking naught. Money McBags was so perplexed by these numbers having changed and by the birth/death model number for January coming in at an unheard of -339k (which is so far out of the norm that not it is not even within a Kim Kardashian fat tail of the mean), that he emailed some guy named Mish to see if he had any f*cking clue (and Mish got all down and dirty with it so Money McBags wouldn't have to, so enjoy, and if you need something to wake up after reading that, enjoy this). So the 36k jobs added include a non-seasonally adjusted 339k somehow mashed in there. Sounds credible to Money McBags.
9. Ok, Money Mcbags has harped on the math plenty so far, but there is one more thing he is having trouble understanding (other than people who watch American Idol and how Minnie Driver has a career), so bear with him. Last month, there were 14.485MM people unemployed, this month there were 13.9MM, for a difference of 585k. So if 36k got new jobs, and the labor force was reduced by 504k (though the people not in the labor force only went up by 319k, so um, explain that, oh right, the total population fell by 185k somehow, must have been a breakout of that terrible "rounding error" disease), where did the other 45k to 230k people go?
December Unemployed 14,485 Reduction in Labor Force (504) Jobs Added (36) ???? (45) January Unemployed 13,900
December Unemployed 14,485 Increase in "Not in Labor Force" (319) Jobs Added (36) ???? (230) January Unemployed 13,900
Perhaps the unaccounted for are the new "Lost Generation."
As usual, if you care about the made up numbers that are going to change anyway, here are the details from Table B:
January Change in Jobs # Government Jobs
Govt Full Time (14,000) Total Govt (14,000)
Permanent Private Sector Jobs
Financial Servives (10,000) Other 5,000 Professional Services 42,400 Information (1,000) Transportation (38,000) Retail trade 27,500 Wholesale Trade 9,200 Education and Healthcare 13,000 Leisure and Hospitaility (3,000) Mining 1,000 Manufacturing 49,000 Construction (32,000) Plug (1,700) Total Permanent Private Sector 61,400
Temporary Private Sector Jobs (11,400)
Total Permanent Jobs # 36,000
Birth/Death Model Plug An anomalous -339,000
Actual Jobs # Go F*ck Yourself
So now that we have established that the jobs report was not just awful, but manipulatedly gibberish and likely to be changed later anyway, you should all write your news reporters/columnists/prevaricators when they hype up how great the drop in the unemployment rate was. Sh*t, even Bloomberg ate a dick on this one as they reported:
"The improvement underlying the drop in the unemployment rate is in sync with reports that show the economy is gathering momentum, which in turn would bolster job growth in coming months."
Umm, Bloomberg, please read the above 2k words to see THAT THERE WAS NO F*CKING IMPROVEMENT UNDERLYING ANY JOBS REPORT (except for 36k more jobs which will do as much for fixing the economy as a kleenex will do for Barbra Streisand when she sneezes).
Anyway, Money McBags always has more at THE AWARD WINNING WHEN GENIUS PREVAILED. And if you need your Money McBags fix during the day, he is known to frequent the Twitter, the Facebook, and the Rick's Cabaret where he is not just a shareholder (who happens to be up 13% in a month since buying back), but he's also a client.
Feb 08 10:08 AM | Link | Comment!
• Surely You Can't Like CRUS. Money McBags Does Like CRUS, and Don't Call Him Shirley.
Money McBags did a quick analysis of CRUS yesterday and today he was able to go through their transcript and he has to say, he was actually pretty f*cking surprised by how positive management sounded so perhaps there is still nice upside here. Below are Money McBags' takeaways from the call.
1. This company is still driven by AAPL, but sh*t, if you're going to be driven by something other than Malene Espensen, then why the f*ck not AAPL? 54% of revenues came from AAPL and they "are engaged with them on multiple new developments" their relationship continues to be "outstanding," visibility "remains excellent" and they expect to grow revenue with AAPL "substantially this year." And yes, for any CRUS shareholder that should have made their dicks hard (or for female shareholders, their pedicures dry quickly). As the AAPL relationship goes, so goes this company and while AAPL has a reputation for not letting suppliers get any kind of bargaining power over them, CRUS is still just one little f*cking socket in what AAPL does, like a tick on a whale, or a mole on Gabourey Sidibe. In theory, AAPL likes CRUS because their audio chips kick the sh*t out of the competition and there is supposedly a pretty wide gap between CRUS and their competition (though not as wide as the gap between the hotness of Mark Sanford's mistress and his cheated on wife, which explains why he eschewed his BS family values schtick like all good politicians). So as long as AAPL is concerned about quality, there is no reason for this relationship to end any time soon, that said, Money McBags does worry about pricing power even if guidance is for that to be steady.
2. There is now a tablet opportunity for their chip and this could be really exciting, like an invitation to Charlie Sheen's new house. Management was kind of coy about this on the call saying: "It is one of the ones you would want to be in. I'm not going -- we're not in all of the ones I would like to see us in the long-term but at the same time, it is definitely in one of the better names. It has got a pretty good channel. A customer we've currently got a reasonable amount of business with as well." So, umm, it certainly could be the iPad and if so, that could be a f*cking huge boost to earnings because iPads continue to sell faster than money or tickets to an Alice Eve taint tickling booth. This bears keeping an eye on (while this bears keeping two eyes on).
3. There could be some upside in the energy business, but who the f*ck really knows. This Q was hurt by their seismic business which they said on the call is always hard to forecast but picked back up at the end of the Q. They also seem to remain bullish on their power meter business, that said, they talked about a really f*cking interesting potential opportunity with their LED business. Now look, Money McBags is no engineer (though he is always happy to be first in line to run a train if need be), and he's not 100% sure of what this LED market opportunity really is, but on the call management said about the LED potential: "if you look at the landscape in the market place, sometime between now and 2015, you go from a $40 million unit kind of a market, $40 millionish to $1 or $2 billion, and so you know, we're probably not going to get 100% of that market but I don't mind splitting a billion units." So um, who doesn't like a market that is going to grow from nothing to f*cking something really interesting in four to five years. Money McBags wouldn't forecast anything from this in his numbers, but it is definitely something that could provide upside.
4. Management is kind of a bit douchey. Ok, Money McBags is sure this sounded better than it read, but CRUS' CEO said "Our biggest problems are that our largest customer is the best company in the world" and "It will be a challenge to hire enough engineers that meet our standards in order to staff everything we want to do going forward." First of all, Vivid Video is not their largest customer, so the first statement is false, but secondly, hey good for them that they are all up in AAPL's dilznik right now (and that may be an overly technical term, but whatever), but that statement reeks of the beginning of hubris and this company has nothing about which to be cocky since they have almost no control over their sales. Yeah, it was a meaningless and kind of flippant comment, but Money McBags knows the second you start getting cocky about sh*t like that and take your eye off the ball, you figuratively and literally get a dick in the face. This is what Money McBags would have liked to have heard "our biggest problem is that even though out largest customer is the best company in the world, it means we have to try even harder to diversify our revenue base and continue to raise our standards to meet that large customer's needsFinding the talent to keep doing that will be challenging, but our goal is to continue to find success for the long-term." Was that so f*cking hard? And trust Money McBags, if he is the one coaching you on CEO-speak, you may want to take that extra management class.
5. NOLs are coming (and not just because they recently found the work of Riley Steele). This isn't that big of a deal, but it should make their GAAP financials look a bit different from now on. They are going to take a $100MM non-cash income benefit in Q4 in order to properly value their deferred tax asset and then use a 35% non-cash tax rate for.....READ THE REST AT THE AWARD WINNING WHEN GENIUS PREVAILED
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Feb 01 9:37 AM | Link | Comment!
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Keeping Cool May Be the Key To Longevity 224
Posted by Zonk
from the everybody-be-cool-you-be-cool dept.
merryprankster writes "New Scientist reports that Scripps Research Institute scientists have found that lowering the body temperature of mice by just 0.5C extends their lifespan by around 15%. Until now the only proven way of increasing longevity has been calorie restriction — but as this also causes a lowering of body temperature the researchers speculate that this cooling may be the underlying mechanism retarding aging. In this study mice with a defect in their lateral hypothalamus, which has the side effect of cooling body temperature, not only lived longer but also ate normal amounts."
Keeping Cool May Be the Key To Longevity
Comments Filter:
• Sweet! (Score:3, Funny)
by Aadain2001 (684036) on Friday November 03, 2006 @04:16PM (#16707981) Journal
Alaska, here I come!
• Confusing title (Score:3, Insightful)
by Gregory Cox (997625)
Despite the title, and all the comments talking about living in a low-temperature environment, I hope people realise that turning down the thermostat or moving to Alaska is not going to make a difference.
I'm sure most people remember, but just in case, internal body temperature is carefully regulated by your brain, and won't change unless you catch a fever, or start freezing, in which case you have other problems to worry about.
As for the results of this study, lab mice are not humans, and correlation does
• by Ruff_ilb (769396)
Eh, I wouldn't necessarily say that it would have some negative effect on chances of survival. Remember, it only has to do with living long enough to have lots of babies. After that, you don't really matter to evolution.
Also, keep in mind that we have plenty of former defense mechanisms (storing lots of excess energy as fat, anyone?) that aren't very useful to us now.
• Re:Confusing title (Score:5, Interesting)
by radtea (464814) on Friday November 03, 2006 @05:11PM (#16708819)
That is probably not true for humans.
Humans are creatures of culture: accumulated, collectively held knowledge. The people who transmit culture are elders--in modern society, grandparents. They remember how they raised you, and when you have kids they provide guidance that effectively transmits traditions, habits and beliefs across generations. You, on the other hand, don't remember how you were raised, certainly not at a very early age.
This may explain why humans live twice as long as they "should". One way of normalizing lifespan across species is to measure it in heartbeats. All mammals except humans live about one billion heartbeats. The range is around 0.7 to 1.1 billion. Humans live over two billion heartbeats, far outside the range of all other mammals. One plausible reason for this is that human groups that had more elders were more effectively able to accumulate knowledge across generations, and therefore were more successful. Not everyone would have to survive into old age to make this effective, but everyone would have to have the capacity to survive into old age to make it likely that a few members of each generation would.
Ergo, until mouse model results are proven in humans--which so far as I know CR etc has not been--they are interesting, but not nearly so promising as one might naively think. We may already be so heavily optimized for long life that the simple tricks that work well for other species are considerably less effective for us.
• When we developed fire, evolution stopped because the pressure had been removed. When we first evolved, it was 1 billion heartbeats. Technology made medicine and better nutrition, which improved our lifespan significantly. It's not evolutionary, it's technology.
• After that, you don't really matter to evolution.
Untrue. We are social creatures. There is strong evidence to suggest that having grandparents around turned out to be a huge advantage to humans. By having experience in the society, parenting improved., and shared child rearing improved survival rates.
Parent post is an example of way oversimplified evolutionary theory.
• by BigDogCH (760290)
Yup, having grandparents was probably important back several thousand years ago, now we just stick them in an old-folks-home. Now they are a hindrance!
• by drinkypoo (153816)
Actually, we store excess fat and carbohydrates as fat. We don't get energy until we convert 'em to glucose (or ketones!) and then burn them. If we would back off on the carbohydrates, and most importantly stop eating more calories than we burn while we sit on our asses, then we wouldn't get fat.
Besides, the ability to store energy is still potentially useful when civilization crashes due to the time_t bug :)
Seriously though, the thing that's not helping us today isn't that we store fat - that's stil
• by thc69 (98798)
For instance, you're definitely burning fat reserves when you run a marathon.
Actually, if you catch me running a marathon, then I'm already burning in hell.
• After that, you don't really matter to evolution.
I've heard people post this before, and it's really a bizarre notion. And easily proven wrong -- I have two groups of people. One group evolves the behavior that anyone over child-bearing age gets a overwheming desire to sacrifice their life at any cost to protect a child. The other group evolves a behavior that once you get beyond child-bearing age, you have an overwhelming desire to kill children. Which group is going thrive better? By your logic, it sh
• Re: (Score:3, Funny)
by Intron (870560)
How about when anyone past child-bearing age gets an overwhelming desire to tell you how you're getting fat, how well your siblings are doing compared to you and how you married the wrong person?
Worker bees and worker ants don't have babies by definition. Don't bees and ants evolve sophisticated worker traits? How can the workers not "matter to evolution"?
• They are talking about core body temperature, not your cubicle temperature.
So, the question is this - If "they" can offer you a gene-splice "cure" for aging that involves you looking like a crocodile or turtle for the next 200 years, do you want it?
What if you could double your lifespan, but think twice as slow?
• Both good questions, but they need to be followed up with further questions.
1) does the gene-cure include a tweak that makes crocoturtle people seem more attractive too?
2) (assuming "twice as slow" means, "half as fast") slow as in IQ-70? or slow as in the handicapped genius kid from "Malcolm in the Middle?"
• I wonder what implications this has for those humans whose *normal* body temperature is BELOW the standard 98.6F??
Frex, mine is typically around 97.5F or even a little lower; at 98.6F, I'm actually running enough of a fever to *notice* that I don't feel well.
[Consults thermometer known to be accurate] At the moment, it's 96.9F, which starts to border on a feeling of "I could use a hot cuppa," but I'm not yet really chilled.
A friend also has naturally low body temp, and the other things we have in common is
• Alaska, here I come!
That seems to be working for Ted 'Internet Tubes' Stevens.
That guy is seriously old.
• Thermostat (Score:4, Funny)
by Apocalypse111 (597674) on Friday November 03, 2006 @04:18PM (#16707997) Journal
So when my dad kept yelling at me not to touch the thermostat, to keep it at 60 degrees, he was really trying to help me live longer?
Thanks Dad!
• by Ana10g (966013)
Wait, so does this mean that when Grandma keeps the thermostat at 150F at the nursing home, she's actually trying to kill herself? WHY GRANDMA, WHY?
• Re: (Score:3, Funny)
by Apocalypse111 (597674)
No, she only turns it up when you're around. She can't afford to keep giving you holiday presents on her fixed income, and decided the best solution was to remove you from the picture. For your own safety, I suggest you bribe the nursing staff to put her on heavy sedatives, and get her an electric blanket on her next birthday - that way she'll be too sleepy and comfortable to resume plotting your demise, and you will have effectively turned the tables on the murderous old bag. Old people try to do these
• Oh crap (Score:2, Funny)
by FhnuZoag (875558)
Then with global warming, we'd be truly screwed, eh?
• It did extend the life by 12-20%, but what will happen in case there is an infection?
Wouldnt this force us to have relatively poor immunity to diseases ?
In the end, would this even out?
• Last I checked, that's what fevers were for.
• As a close friend with a degree in Foods and Nutrition points out:
The rodent calorie-restriction longevity increase only shows up in laboratory settings, where the rodents are protected from exposure to infectious agents. When they are allowed such exposure, they prove to be much more susceptable to them, becoming ill more easily and dying form it ditto. So calorie restriction in ordinary environments REDUCES lifespan from this effect alone (i.e. not counting competitive disadvantages of underfeeding).
• So now we need to compare experimental scientists on a calorie-restricted diet with theoretical scientists. If the experimental scientists live longer we know that it's because they eat fewer calories AND spend most of their time in a lab, and that the rest of us need to do more lab time.
• by AxelBoldt (1490)
That's a very interesting result, do you happen to have a pointer to the paper?
• Global warming is bad for your health.
• Ice cream! (Score:4, Funny)
by Rob T Firefly (844560) on Friday November 03, 2006 @04:22PM (#16708069) Homepage Journal
Excuse me, I'm off to 31 Flavors. My very life depends on it!
• Excuse me, I'm off to 31 Flavors. My very life depends on it!
Actually, I remember seeing something on TV once (was it on Supersize Me?) that the founders of Baskin Robbins died young of heart disease... explain that one science!
• by drinkypoo (153816)
Well, it's worth mentioning that the inventor of the Atkins diet actually had a congenital heart defect but ended up dying because he slipped on some ice outside his house and hit his poor old head. (No signs of cardiac arrest, besides the fact that you can tell when someone's dead because their heart isn't beating.) No idea about the B-R people but eating a bunch of ice cream all the time is generally considered to be an unhealthy activity.
• by robpoe (578975)
it was on supersize me .. and something about they died early or at least had bypasses at an early age
• The glorious Air Conditioner!
• They ran commercials years ago showing people from the frigid north somewhere (Russia maybe)? eating Dannon yogurt and living to 100 years old.
This is nothing new.
• Live 80 years or so compfortable and warm, than freezing for 90 years or so!
This is a line from the computergame Aqua Nox.
• So when people complain that I'm weird for liking a data center cold enough in which to hang meat, I'll have the last laugh? Enjoy your warm, short life in those cozy, tropical getaways, suckers! I'll be here configuring a new web appliance in one of my racks, freezing my ass off and barely able to type with my cold, stiff hands. Hah! I win!
• Huh, I thought those guys in the server room looked a bit young for their age...
• Let's see... .5C for 15% extension of life... so 150C decrease in temperature should yeild a 3000% extension....
Freeze me!
• I for one welcome our 15% longer living, micro-cryo-frozen mutantmice!
• This has been discussed many times with the folk-science of elders in colder climates around the world for centuries. If the landscape wasn't violent as well as cold, people up North just seem to live longer.
• Interesting question. The article says:
This may be because the body burns less fuel when it is at a lower temperature, which results in the production of fewer free-radical compounds that damage cells and promote the wear and tear of ageing.
So is there an evolutionary advantage with having a lower body temperature in colder climates? Maybe there is. Since having a lower bodytemperature means having a lower basal metabolism you'd be able to make do with less food than someone with a high basal metabolism
• The opposite may be true. Lower external temperature means your body will have to generate more heat for homeostasis - to maintain your body's internal temperature. That means more chemical reactions need to occur which means it will burn more fuel.
• And a individual with a need for a higher internal temperature would therefor be at a double disadvantage in the local (lower-temperature) biotope: they would need more fuel and they would have more, possibly harmful, chemical reactions. So, if (and only if) the proposed free-radical theory holds then it would seem to me that in a warmer biotope nothing stops the free-radical reactions while in a colder biotope there could be a advantage with a lower body temperature.
And one could add to that fact that i
• While it's great that this research was carried out and has provided some reasoning behind caloric restriction, it's not a very shocking finding at all. The aging process is just a series of chemical reactions, some that we understand, some that we do not. Most organic reactions are slowed down significantly by relatively small decreases in ambient energy (lowering temp). Hence aging process should be expected to slow down as well.
• So, if your woman is frigid, will she live longer?
• ...will we live longer? No, really! I have a bodytemp that's about 36.5 C / 97.7 F.
Not so cool otherwise I guess.
• I was kind of thinking the opposite for myself. I have a high metabolism and thus a high body temp. Plus I live in Texas. Guess I'm screwed.
• by blackbear (587044)
Ha! Got you beat. Mine typically varies between 97.4-97.6F. The last time I gave blood (double unit of red cells) it was 97.1F on a nice warm day. (Body temp measured before the blood draw.)
The thing is, I've never heard of anyone else having an average body temprature a full degree below the human average. Perhaps it's not that uncommon.
• by DCheesi (150068)
I'm another one that's about a degree low; I usually read between 97.5 and 98.0. I'm not sure exactly because none of my thermometers have been that accurate, but I do know that I've never read out at 98.5 or above unless I was sick. Speaking of which, I should point out that AFAICT I don't get sick any more often than the average person (maybe less often). Which should serve as at least anecdotal evidence agianst the people claiming this would weaken the immune system...
• by smchris (464899)
The occasional childhood problem was making people believe I felt lousy. Some viruses can make you feel pretty crummy with only a degree or so of fever.
As a down side I wonder if that is a contributing factor to my borderline obesity. I do feel noticeably and unpleasantly cold when I am hungry. And I hate with a passion levels of office air conditioning that others seem to find tolerable.
Since we are taking names, probably the most famous low temperature person?
George W. Bush
President Bush Sails Thro
• of course! (Score:4, Funny)
by GrumpySimon (707671) <[email protected]> on Friday November 03, 2006 @04:35PM (#16708309) Homepage
The Fonz will NEVER die!
Oh, wrong 'cool'. My bad.
• My body temp is usually a little high, around 99 f. Nice knowing you guys.
• So looks like the UK Govt has an excuse to stop paying winter fuel top-ups to OAPs then.
• As a member of the calorie restriction society I have one thing to say:
Ohhhh my god give me a sandwich!
• by kthejoker (931838) on Friday November 03, 2006 @05:29PM (#16709107)
Lest we be fooled, lowering your body temperature as a warm-blooded person is impossible. What the researchers actually did was artificially inject a protein that when unfolding generated higher amounts of heat than normal proteins into the hypothalamus. This tricked the mouse's brain into lowering its internal thermostat.
This is more like holding a match to a thermometer which can trigger a fire alarm. It's fooling a local sensor to simulate a global sensation.
So you can't eat ice cream, or live in Antarctica, or whatever to fool it. You have to trick your brain. Even better, at this tricked out brain level, you need less calories to survive because your brain doesn't turn on its "must store fat" warning level as quickly. So this might be a good cure for obesity in the future.
But seriously, how cool is it that they can use a heat-generating protein to trick a mouse's brain? I love how neurology proves how gullible we are.
• by ceoyoyo (59147)
Impossible hey? Come here, I have a nice semi-frozen pond to show you. Bet you $1000 I can lower your body temperature with just one push.
Agreed. In fact, cooling your core body temperature by environmental means would actually cause you to burn more calories to maintain homeostasis.
• by Oxen (879661)
First of all, they didn't inject a protein, the genetically engineered the mouse to express a protein in the brain.
Second of all, it is certainly possible to lower the temperature of a warm blooded animal, you just have to add some hydrogen sulfide. http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/ [slashdot.org]
• Do people in Finland, Russia, Alaska, Canada, etc... live on average %15 longer than people who live in warmer climates?
Okay... those in warmer climates who die of old age, not starvation, disease, war, etc...
• Scandinavia (note, not the Nordic countries, so this excludes Finland) has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, IIRC. I think it's more to do with universal access to healthcare, some of the best in the world, high standards of living, etc. The cold can't hurt either, apparently!
• I don't have time to read the article, but this kind of makes sense. Especially from a nerd point of view. The hotter something is, the more energy it uses. For humans this requires more fuel which means more calories. It stands to reason that we're on borrowed time and just wearing out our parts. Take care of them and you live longer.
• I gotta be cold, hungry and drink red wine in moderation while eating fish and vegetables if I want to live longer. And apparently become a Super Villian. As long as I don't have to have that fake Austrian accent.
Man, and what's up with all the stuff I now have to do to write a comment? Geez.
• Actually, if you follow the link from the blurb, you will find the idea of calorie restriction increasing longevity is contraversial.
A rat will eat itself to death, that doesn't mean that starving yourself makes you live longer.
• The biophysical mechanism in the article makes sense. Reactive oxygen species (i.e., the "free radicals", like superoxide and hydrogen peroxide) are generated in the mitochondria during metabolism. The bulk of the ROS's are scavenged before they can cause harm, but those that aren't neutralized can damage biological molecules (e.g., proteins, lipids, and DNA). On a slightly unrelated note that might make this a bit more concrete, UV rays generate ROS's when they strike biological moleculues in the skin. Th
• Does this mean you stay younger longer, or older longer?
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Comment: Re:Wow, this generation sucks. (Score 3) 134
by Beriaru (#39619309) Attached to: America's Secret Underground Ice Fortresses
It also says that after getting it running, the necessity of better shielding was discovered. Oh, and do not forget that the reactor discharged its radioactive liquid waste (47,078 gallons in total for 33 months) directly into the icecap. One has to wonder why they discontinued that type of portable reactors *rollseyes*.
Comment: Re:Computers are too reliable (Score 1) 403
by Beriaru (#38096066) Attached to: Why Do Companies Backup So Infrequently?
Because for them, as any other industry with a few decades of history, TI is nothing but a replacement of paper, ink and mail.
Drawings, memos, invoices... all of these were paper 30 years ago, and they got stacked in a warehouse. A fire was a real threat, but what can you do? The original was the original, and a copy of an invoice doesn't have the same valor than the true original (you can see the culture of the original in all its glory in courts, where I've seen a judge ask for the true original email sent to prove the copy wasn't tampered).
Nowadays people still work the same ways. Tradition has a lot of inertia, and doing backups is not part of that tradition.
Comment: Re:I smiled for a moment... (Score 4, Informative) 229
by Beriaru (#34650742) Attached to: Spanish Congress Rejects Internet Censorship Law
Yep, they worry about soccer.
You're not spanish, or if you are, you're in denial. Spain had our laws and constitution stomped a week ago and nobody gave a damn. Had our worker rights ripped apart and nobody gave a damn. Our politics are a wealthy elite and the crisis don't touch them, but nobody-give-a-damn!
BUT, if you touch a local soccer team or closes music or video downloads, hell breaks loose.
This is Spain, and that's the reality in Spain.
by Beriaru (#34650052) Attached to: Spanish Congress Rejects Internet Censorship Law
The citizen awareness was high because the sharing webpages closed showing the notice of the intent of the government of passing the law as a 'petty topic' so it could approve it without public discussion.
That raised protest, a DDoS attack to the web pages of ALL politic groups, a flood of emails and calls to the politics, and so on. That incidents produced some notices in national media that raised more the awareness of the public opinion.
At last, the politic groups was intimidated. The situation in Spain is critical, with a 20% of unemployment and a brutal credit crunch. So a high unpopular law as that could 'spark' some unrest.
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Comment: What is a "vocational school?" (Score 1) 141
by westlake (#46475171) Attached to: Is the New "Common Core SAT" Bill Gates' Doing?
Many of the most successful countries with test results, have a school system where only the best continue on to more schooling the rest go to vocational schools.
I am not sure what a "vocational school" is in a post-industrial environment. I am not even sure any more what "best" means in this context.
Comment: Re:Becuz (Score 3, Interesting) 141
by Marxist Hacker 42 (#46475129) Attached to: Is the New "Common Core SAT" Bill Gates' Doing?
Where to begin? Denial of reading the classics. The elimination of poetry and Shakespeare. Replacement with texts designed to limit vocabulary and more importantly, limit thinking. The almost assured dropout rate of at least 34% as the kids too stupid to achieve common core drop out from frustration and the kids too smart for common core drop out from boredom.
It's likely great for the 68% of the kids in the middle of the bell curve, but universal literacy is not going to be accomplished under it anymore.
Comment: Re:I went back to corporate America because Obamac (Score 1) 400
by operagost (#46473953) Attached to: White House: Get ACA Insurance Coverage, Launch Start-Ups
Because $6,700 is real chump change. I know families where both parents work for at least 40 hours a week, and they have outstanding medical bills of just a few thousand dollars that they can't pay. Racking up $6,700 a year, plus the few hundred a month, is only going to make things worse.
This is absolutely NOT helping the people who the administration claimed it would.
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Bethesda Criticized Over Buggy Releases 397
Posted by Soulskill
Fatal System Error 104
Posted by samzenpus
from the read-all-about-it dept.
brothke writes "As computing and technology has evolved, so too have the security threats correspondingly evolved. The classic Yankee Doodle virus of 1989 did minimal damage, all while playing a patriotic, albeit monotone song. In 2010, aggressive malware now executes in stealth mode, running in the background with an oblivious end-user, and antivirus software that can’t detect it." Read on for the rest of Ben's review.
Comment: Good for technology != Good for Art (Score 2) 296
by Darth Dave (#1529306) Attached to: Copyright!
I started reading this article from the perspective of someone who has personally witnessed RIAA scare tactics and the damage they can do. By the time I was halfway through, I realized the article was written by one of the people who give the RIAA their excuses to abuse the powers they've been granted.
The open source philosophy is a wonderful thing. If you're reading slashdot, you know all about how it can increase colaboration, speed up development time, and contribute to creating a more functional product. But this philosophy simply doesn't apply to art. The element that makes art such a beautiful thing is its unique expression of an individual's viewpoint. In art, collaboration is unnecessary (and potenetially harmful), devel time is irrelevant, and "a more functional product" equals the Backstreet Boys.
Sure, it sucks that most recording artists only receive a few pennies for every CD they sell and that "big, evil corporations" seem to control the record industry; that's what makes online distribution such a revolutionary thing. The Artist (FKAP) can sell albums directly from his website (either as MP3, another format, or by mail) and receive all the profit in return. Is there something wrong with that? Is there some reason that you, me, or anyone else should have the right (after 5 years or any other amount of time) to take his art and modify and distribute it as we see fit? Let Disney keep Mickey as long as they want; it's by far the lesser of two evils.
Don't give the RIAA an excuse to bully people who have done nothing wrong (see what happened to the Smashing Pumpkins Audio Archive for a case study), or to force out MP3's in favor of a format they can control. Respect the rights of artists - they don't owe you anything, but if you take pleasure in what they've created, you owe them a debt you'll probably never be able to repay.
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Comment: Slashdot Libertarians... (Score 1) 245
by Lendrick (#46284017) Attached to: White House Responds To Net Neutrality Petition
I love how all the Slashdot Libertarians who are all about Internet Corporate Freedom (that is, against any laws the actually protect consumers from selective throttling and other anti-neutrality bullshit) are suddenly in favor of net neutrality now that the Obama administration has said that they're not going to do anything about it.
Comment: It was like this a deacde ago, too. (Score 4, Interesting) 282
by Lendrick (#45977669) Attached to: Intel Dev: GTK's Biggest Problem, and What Qt Does Better
Comment: Re:News for Nerds? (Score 1) 265
by Lendrick (#45956435) Attached to: Engineers: Traffic Studies Use Simulation Software, Not Lane Closings
I know, right? You look all over the place for credible reports of Democrats being this shady, and all you get are unconfirmed internet comments about unnamed Democratic governors closing down DMVs, without a source or even the name of the state it supposedly happened in. Then the liberal media doesn't report it, for lame reasons like "it didn't really happen".
Fairness in reporting demands that they report on Democratic scandals too. And if they can't find one, they need to make one up.
Comment: I really hope the closed ecosystem fails hard. (Score 1) 1009
by Lendrick (#45942085) Attached to: Windows 9 Already? Apparently, Yes.
Conceptually I don't have a problem with an app store or a tablet interface (provided they don't take away my fucking start menu), but I *do* have a problem with the fact that they're trying to pull an iOS and phase in a closed ecosystem where the only way to get apps is to go through their app store. From a competition standpoint, no good can come of it. It's pushing us more toward expensive, locked down appliances and away from general purpose computers.
That said, I have to speculate that part of the reason people don't know how badly Windows 8 is doing is that Microsoft likely learned from their Vista failure and has hired marketing firms to canvas the internet with positive comments about it so that people don't realize how unpopular it actually is.
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Comment: Re:Not imposing common carrier status (Score 1) 235
by RLaager (#46290017) Attached to: FCC Planning Rule Changes To Restore US Net Neutrality
I'm pretty sure if you try to disrupt the telephone network, the phone company has every right to disconnect you or take other measures. I don't see how the ISP side should be any different. FWIW, I work for a small, rural, independent telephone company that also provides Internet.
Comment: Re:Good. We can stop relying on people who... (Score 1) 731
by RLaager (#46218669) Attached to: Death Hovers Politely For Americans' Swipe-and-Sign Credit Cards
They should have checked your ID since the card was unsigned. Also, Visa does more-or-less prohibit the checking of IDs; from the guidelines, "merchants cannot as part of their regular card acceptance procedures refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID": http://usa.visa.com/download/m...
Comment: Re:What is their obligation to you? (Score 3, Interesting) 376
by RLaager (#41667335) Attached to: FCC To Allow Cable Companies To Encrypt Over-the-Air Channels
Cable companies...generally don't PAY for [local channels]. So they don't get to CHARGE for them since the originator of the programming gets nothing from them.
For what it's worth, this used to be the case, but is not any more. Many local channels have switched from "must-carry", where the cable company has to carry them, but doesn't have to pay, to "retransmission consent" where they can charge the cable company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Must-carry#United_States
Comment: Re:File under "No shit Sherlock" (Score 1) 228
by RLaager (#40942145) Attached to: ISPs Throttling BitTorrent Traffic, Study Finds
Would you also unblock the file and print sharing ports on request?
It's never come up and we don't expect it to, so we don't have a formal policy on those ports. At our size, we can deal case-by-case. If someone had a legal use case, we'd make sure their needs were met; this may or may not involve unblocking the port(s). Using the port 25 blocking as an example... if someone says, "I can't send email from my Gmail address using Outlook.", we say, "Use port 587. Here's how...". This limits the number of exceptions and maintains as much of the security as is possible. However, if they say, "I use Linux and want a proper MTA setup.", we say "We'll unblock port 25. Please make sure to secure your mail server so it can't be use to send spam."
Comment: Re:File under "No shit Sherlock" (Score 2) 228
by RLaager (#40940743) Attached to: ISPs Throttling BitTorrent Traffic, Study Finds
I work for a small, rural ISP. When we advertise X Mbps, a properly working (i.e. not virus laden or too old to get X Mbps on its own) computer will actually get X Mbps to our speed test. In other words, we overprovision the customer's service to account for not just access technology overhead (e.g. ATM for ADSL), but TCP/IP (+HTTP) overhead as well. Our speed test is from Ookla (a popular speed test vendor) and is not doctored in any way; we just can't guarantee speeds to random speed test servers on the Internet. Congestion within our network or on our upstream links would be considered a serious outage. However, if, for example in the case of DSL, your line is simply too long to get X Mbps, you won't; most customers in that position are grateful for whatever they can get. But if you felt we cheated you, canceled your service, and demanded a refund for that first month, you'd get it. (We only require contracts on one type of Internet service--terrestial, fixed location wireless--because of the cost of the equipment and the install, but we'd waive the contract term in such a case.)
Aside from enforcing the speed purchased, we don't shape, throttle, or do evil things to traffic on customer Internet connections, except by customer request. (We offer an *optional*, opt-in service that blocks porn sites using an HTTP proxy.) We don't prioritize or de-prioritize particular packets on customer Internet connections by source, destination, or anything else.
However, for security reasons, we block the Microsoft file and print sharing ports (which nobody should use directly over the Internet anyway) and outgoing port 25 (SMTP) traffic. The latter makes a huge difference in blocking spam from infected customer computers. If you ask for port 25 to be unblocked on your connection, we will unblock it.
Personally, I think this is exactly how ISPs should behave. Anything I should do differently? Is this an "Internet connection", or does the port blocking disqualify it?
Other random details: Our DNS servers verify DNSSEC, but accept expired signatures to avoid customer complaints every time an otherwise working domain forgets to rollover their keys. We unfortunately do not yet sign our own domains and don't yet support IPv6 everywhere, but are working on both. (We only finally got redundant IPv6 upstreams earlier this year after making significant changes to which networks we buy from because one upstream has ignored literally years of IPv6 requests from us.)
Comment: Re:Why Not Include Recovery Media Instead? (Score 1) 133
by RLaager (#37654616) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Create Custom Recovery Partitions With FOSS?
I wish that manufacturers would internally install an SD card or flash drive with the hardware write-protect switch set. This provides all the advantages of optical recovery media (write-protected and separate from the hard drive) plus the advantage of a recovery partition (it's not separate, so it can't get misplaced).
Comment: Re:Let me be the first to say (Score 2) 102
by RLaager (#37348566) Attached to: Russian Space Agency Determines Cause of Soyuz Crash
This isn't about spaceflight, so it isn't directly applicable here, but... I was always curious about a $1 bid, so I asked someone in the construction industry. He said that one of the requirements on every job is a "completion bond". This is a bond from an insurance company that will pay to have the project completed to the requirements if the bidder fails to do so themselves. So, if you get an insurance company to underwrite a bond on your $1 bid, the buyer doesn't care. If you don't build it, your insurance company will pay someone else to do so. Either way, they get what they requested for your bid of $1. If you don't get the bond, they'll never accept your bid in the first place.
How does the buyer ensure you're meeting the requirements? They have inspectors. As with any contract dispute, if you say you completed the project to requirements and the buyer says you didn't, ultimately a court will have to decide who's right.
Comment: Re:Power should cost more during day time. (Score 1) 325
by RLaager (#36315228) Attached to: Using Flywheels to Meet Peak Power Grid Demands
To the majority of us, "off-peak" means those times which we are either at work or asleep. Do you propose people wake up at 3 a.m. to wash their clothes? Run home during lunch to take a shower?
My dishwasher has a timer delay feature. I use it already even though I don't have time-of-use billing because I can shift the noise to a time when I'm not near it.
If my washer had a timer, I could wash one load of clothes during the day and/or one during the night, depending on when the off-peak hours were. Likewise for drying. A given load could take up to two days to get washed and dried, but that's not a huge problem. In fact, I already prefer doing one (full) load at a time more often than batching it up and doing laundry all day.
Comment: Re:Misleading... (Score 1) 389
by RLaager (#35227910) Attached to: Lawmaker Reintroduces WikiLeaks Prosecution Bill
How would you define "ex post facto law"? As it turns out, my definition seems to match Calder v. Bull, which is apparently the relevant precedent in the U.S.:
-- Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. 386 (1798)
Comment: Re:Misleading... (Score 5, Insightful) 389
by RLaager (#35226864) Attached to: Lawmaker Reintroduces WikiLeaks Prosecution Bill
Retroactively granting someone immunity (which is a limited form of retroactively making something legal) is very different from making something retroactively illegal. For example, if Congress were to repeal the prohibitions on marijuana and apply that retroactively, people could be released from jail. On the other hand, if Congress made possession of ibuprofen illegal retroactively, the fact that someone owned Advil (and took it all) last year could land them in jail. I'm not a lawyer, but it seems that making something legal retroactively would not run afoul of the constitutional prohibition on ex post facto laws.
I'm not taking a position, in this post, on the wiretapping immunity law itself, the legality of said wiretapping, or the legality of Congress granting such immunity.
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+ - Universities Hold Transcripts Hostage Over Loans
Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Comment: Re:It can be a blurry line (Score 1) 129
by omgwtfroflbbqwasd (#31604488) Attached to: Who Should Own Your Smartphone?
First things first. Is "company data" - email, contacts, files - accessible from your phone? If so, they have a vested interest in making sure that data is not compromised when your phone is lost or stolen. As a result, PIN/password requirements, encryption, antivirus, and remote wipe capabilities are generally required. In some cases where devices have a tunnel to the corporate network (Blackberry), they will possibly want to control what apps you install to prevent malicious ones from accessing the corporate network via your BES server.
Most laypeople don't have any clue about protecting company data on a regular basis, they just want their data instantly and aren't concerned with what happens in a worst-case scenario. "Oops, it got stolen. Guess I need to get the latest model now!"
Comment: Still not protected. (Score 2, Informative) 129
by gillbates (#31604338) Attached to: Who Should Own Your Smartphone?
Anything of yours can be subpoenaed in a lawsuit. Northwest Airlines subpoenaed the *personal* computers of their employees when they suspected their employees were getting too uppity^H^H^H^H^H^H, I mean, striking by calling in sick.
It hardly matters if you use encryption, etc... the legal discovery process can violate whatever privacy you thought you had. It only takes a credible allegation of wrongdoing - not even "beyond a reasonable doubt" - to discover all of your personal files, etc... and, because only money is involved, the plaintiff needs only show guilt by a "preponderance of the evidence", or more succinctly, that it is likely that you did it. If you think you can get smart by encrypting your files, it's likely you'll be held in contempt of court, and have a summary judgment entered against you.
The only thing paying for the hardware means is that you'll eventually get it back, usually.
Comment: Re:GPL freaks (Score 1) 131
by misiu_mp (#31604288) Attached to: DarkPlaces Dev Forest Hale Corrects <em>Nexuiz</em> GPL Stance
So they should give all their rights up in return for a promise? How about you sign a job contract binding you to work 80 hours a week for 5$ an hour in return for a promise of really big bonuses. Promises dont count. Contracts and licenses do. Besides, llfonic's representative clearly stated they had no plans to contribute anything back.
Operating Systems
+ - Adobe to move all its apps to run on the web->
Submitted by
Link to Original Source
+ - The 150 mpg Toyota Prius
Submitted by Anonymous Coward
Data Storage
+ - Hard drive imports may be banned->
Submitted by
Link to Original Source
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+ - City Caller ID hit with Patent Infringement 3
Submitted by pyr02k1
pyr02k1 writes "The developer of a free Android application that looks up a callers city location by the phone number is being threatened with Patent Infringement by Cequint. The software in question does a simple lookup by the incoming numbers zip code to tell where the caller is located. Cequint claims to hold 2 patents on the ability to perform the action in question, despite the information in question being freely available information. The City Caller ID application has since been pulled from the Android Marketplace. The Developers post is located at http://techdirt.com/blog.php?company=cequint&edition=techdirt and the patents are http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=ZWUKAAAAEBAJ&dq=6353664 and http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=QIR_AAAAEBAJ&dq=7200212 ... when something like this happens, where can a small developer turn?"
Comment: Re:Woohoo GOOGLE! (Score 4, Insightful) 218
by pyr02k1 (#31197330) Attached to: Google Gets US Approval To Buy and Sell Energy
Comment: Re:Standard Calculus (Score 3, Informative) 369
by pyr02k1 (#30013416) Attached to: Radar Beats GPS In Court — Or Does It?
i only caught the part on the pressdemocrat link. missed a whole other link :D take one thing into account now, the rough 0-60 speed of a car, that can do 0-60 in 6.8 seconds. it would travel around 300 ft if the speed was exactly the same the whole distance to 60. thats the other part we need in this equation and we're golden. if it took him 300 ft to get to 60 at 6.8 seconds. he has 23.2 seconds to continue 1700 ft. so he'd of been doing, 73 :D now figure in his car was really slower then that, but 65 would be about right in the end result. no matter the year of celica, i doubt it was doing 0-60 in 6.8, unless mommy and daddy paid a load of cash to make it go faster... he sped. i think if gps proved he wasnt speeding, it'd of been nice. but they spent all this time fighting a case, where he was speeding anyways. oy vey
Comment: Re:Standard Calculus (Score 5, Informative) 369
by pyr02k1 (#30013342) Attached to: Radar Beats GPS In Court — Or Does It?
The problem of this calculus you mention wasnt the speed at the end, nor even the beginning. we're missing a piece of information to properly go through this. distance. it says at a stop light, he was 0, then the next ping was 45. but the problem becomes distance covered in that 30 seconds. tie in the math, etc. if it says 45 on the ping, thats worthless. we need to know how far he traveled in 35 seconds to get an average speed, and, for the sake of argument, his vehicles 0-60 speed as well to get the stats on how quickly he could have possibly gone up to 60, nearly where they "clocked" him. obviously, his average speeds worthless, and his speed 30 seconds after his initial of 0 is worthless. we need the distance traveled in that 30 seconds. And TFA says "virtually" the same location. For all we know, he spotted the cop, hit his brakes and was doing 45 when he was pinged. Distance is key ... notice how TFA forgets that wonderful detail. And, I'm sure as a teenager, with a GPS, he knew that if he hit 70, theyd get an email alert. Heck, he probably knew that if he wanted to, he could go 69, wait for a ping, if he had timed them right, speed up to 100 and brake to 69 again, all before the second ping... I guess the parents forgot that Teenager + Technology is generally > Parents + technology
Comment: It's surprising really... (Score 3, Interesting) 294
by pyr02k1 (#29940099) Attached to: The Golden Age of Infinite Music
When you get down to it, it is quite surprising the kinds of music my generation will listen to when given the chance. As was stated in another comment, in the past it was limited to what they wanted you to hear. You would be limited to the selection on the radio and nothing more. Now, with piracy galore and plenty of music services, such as Pandora, you get a taste of other varieties and artists you would never have heard before. I can go from listening to Heavy Metal to Techno to Country and then into Classical. My taste is open, simply because of piracy and the free services available. As time progresses, it'll be interesting to see how this shapes. Mainly because of how much the various MAFIAAs are trying to kill piracy in its whole, without an alternative, and yet refuse to decrease the price of a media that costs 1/50th to produce and distribute as they charge for it in a retail store. They continue to push and shove for people who pirate music to pay hugely outrageous fines, and yet they dont make it available at a reasonable price. Imagine having to go to a store and pay $15 for a loaf of bread, simply because they can charge that much and get away for it. It's a matter of time until fat people galore go running out of the store with 8 loaves stuffed in their pants. It stuns many of the people I talk to when they ask how I can go from one genre to another without being phased, and enjoy it all just the same, and I answer that without being forced to listen to only popular media and having the ability to open my horizons more then most, I can find more music and movies to enjoy then most people would ever dream... well, except everyone here. Not that any of us would ever pirate anything in our lives... of course not. Yayyyy Piracy! I mean ... ehh, heck with it
Comment: Re:Suits me just fine. (Score 1) 313
by pyr02k1 (#29805939) Attached to: No Dedicated Servers For <em>CoD: Modern Warfare 2</em>
And dont forget, it's also a problem with the hosting users hardware at that. I know of 9 CoD4 and 5 servers (4 of those at 48 players nearly 24hrs a day), running on one dedicated box, that can handle said abuse, running around 8-35% cpu depending on time of day, and constantly pushing around 10mbit/s but as high as 50 when all the servers were loaded up. Top that with 4GB ram used just on those 9 servers. Thats on an 8 core server w/ 8GB ram on a 100mbit line. (Purchased with intent of using the left over ram on CoD5 servers) Now imagine this on the whim of a 15 year old who cant afford to get anything better then mommys 5 year old hp media center pc... Consoles have one thing, consistency. We lack it as we prefer to build our own pc or buy a premade one from some no name manf. This will be hell on hosting a "session" for other people if your computer cant handle it, much less network. I know that of the people I'm 100% positive who have canceled their pre orders, myself included, 12 of which could handle it system wise, 8 of those 12 could do it network wise. 8 people couldnt do it system wise at all. 20 people they arent getting money from in just one small group. I know of about 5 people who, despite hating no dedicated support, will still pay for the game. As a side note to Aim Here. CoD4 and 5 dont require excessively huge amounts of bandwidth to host a simple multiplayer dedicated. Operation Flashpoint 2, requires FIVE TIMES the amount of bandwidth as CoD4 or 5. Am I saying most home users could do 32, or even 10 player sessions ... no. But, a FIOS, or higher end cable or DSL plan, could do it. In the US, it'd be a pain to accomplish since many users are on simple 768kbit dsl or cable plans. 50 a month (around the cost of cable internet usually, and 10-15 more then a verizon dsl) will get you around 20-25 players. 65 would get you around 60 as a maximum, but higher is very possible.
+ - Major bug in snow leopard deletes all user data->
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inglishmayjer writes "From the article:
The issue is caused by logging into a guest account, the user finds "that their account has been fully reset with all data wiped and lost — the account is like a brand new one."
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| dclm-gs1-004880000 |
USDA’s projected average U.S. corn yield of 152.8 bushes per acre could fall by a couple of bushels before all is said and done, according to Al Kluis, Northland Commodities, LLC, speaking at a Minneapolis Grain Exchange press briefing on USDA’s Aug. 10 supply and demand estimates.
The higher estimated yield was due to record stalk counts and pushed estimated U.S. corn production to 13.1 billion bushels.
“One thing to keep in mind is the report is based on conditions as of Aug. 1. If the information were gathered today, we would not see the same potential for corn. My projection is for average yields of 149 bushels to 150 bushels.”
Kluis’ projection would drop projected production back to 12.7 billion to 12.8 billion bushels, essentially unchanged from last month.
Projected corn usage is better than expected as USDA increased exports and ethanol use. A lower dollar value is part of the reason for the higher exports, according to Kluis. “We’re probably the cheapest source of wheat and corn in the world. So people will be turning to the United States.”
Corn ending stocks are expected to increase from 1.13 billion bushels for 2006-07 to 1.5 billion bushels for 2007-08.
Despite the huge corn crop, “we’re going to consume it and that certainly is positive,” Kluis said. “So is the fact that global stocks of corn, soybeans and wheat are down from last month, which shows that longer-term, we’ll see a lot of competition for acreage and higher prices. But we haven’t seen any price rationing kick in.”
A short-term negative could be the stunning 375-point drop in the Dow on Aug. 9, according to Kluis. “A couple of hedge funds are probably in red ink today (Aug. 10). They are carrying a lot of long ag futures positions and there is a lot of false selling pressure. Long-term prices will bounce back.”
USDA also projected a U.S. soybean yield for this season of 41.5 bushels per acre, which would produce a crop of 2.63 billion bushels. Ending stocks dropped to 575 million bushels for 2006-07 and is forecast to drop again to 220 million bushels in 2007-08. | dclm-gs1-004900000 |
Posted: Sat December 8, 2012 7:43PM; Updated: Sat December 8, 2012 7:42PM
Lucas eager to expand IndyCar reach
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- With all due respect to the rest of the world, Forrest Lucas is glad American Ryan Hunter-Reay won the IndyCar championship.
"I think it's very important that we have American names out there again,'' Lucas said. "We still need to have a little Formula One and some of that atmosphere to it, but it needs to be an American company for people here to root for it because people are watching to see their guy win.''
Lucas spoke during the "Lunch with Lucas'' program during the International Motorsports Industry Show on Friday.
Part of the program focused on Lucas' patriotism. The U.S. flag has been a part of the Lucas Oil shield since it was created in 1989 and the company's branding statement is "American Real.'' Lucas hopes he can play a part in bringing U.S. fans back to IndyCar racing.
"I think Indy racing kind of got off track years ago,'' he said. "Americans stopped watching Indy racing. They started watching NASCAR and NHRA and things like that, so I think it's very important that we have the Americans back in it, and it's extremely important that we're getting a lot of traction here.''
"In a time when motorsports are a little down, we are going forward just full bore,'' Lucas Oil spokesman Stuart Rowlands said.
Lucas explained that television is facing an uncertain future.
"There's a huge flux in television,'' he said. "Nobody really knows where it's going. Everybody's guessing and betting, and there's going to be a lot of people with their handhelds.''
Rowlands said Lucas Oil Network would immediately increase the company's reach.
"They're trying as hard as they can and this is the obvious way to do it,'' he said. "If we can't build the racetracks over there and there's no local television or cable networks, hey, if you can show your product on the internet, you can watch it on the computer.''
"I wish everybody could watch television, but so many people are going to quit watching television and start watching internet television,'' he said. "We're trying to cover all bases. We're not abandoning standard television, we're just trying to get out there and get the rest of it because we are a worldwide company and we want to get more worldwide. We're just trying to be good businessmen.''
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Take the 2-minute tour ×
I work in the technical group at a large Architecture firm. While there are a number of people here that are very proficient at various programing and scripting languages, it's far from the environment of the development environment of a software company. Rarely are there ever more then one or two people working on a development project, most of which are just automation scripts. There's no source control, or version control setup or anything like that.
My academic background is engineering but not CS or CE. So I've taking a number of programing classes in school, and actually tinkered a lot with VB back when I was a little kid. Yet it wasn't until this past year at my current job have I really had the opportunity to do any real development outside of homework problems in school. In the past year I've transitions from making simple automation scripts to full blow plug-in applications in C#.NET.
I have family and friends that are CS or CE majors, and work for companies whose main product is software. While have no interest in actually working for a software company, but it seems like they do have a major advantage over me. At their work they have people with more experience that can look over their should and give them suggestions to improve their code or logic. Sites like Stack Overflow are great for solving bugs and getting advice, but only when you know you need the advice. I'm sure there are many times when I'm taking the completely wrong approach to something.
What are some of the best ways to improve these real life programing skills? Is there a way to find open source projects (preferably .Net based) that I can help work on, so I can gain some experience working with other (more experienced) programmers? I've also been looking into design patterns, but have a hard time recognizing when to use certain patterns.
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In your comments on answers you point out that the problem is you don't have anyone to review your code. You should update your question to reflect this problem. – Robert S. Jul 2 '09 at 20:25
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closed as off topic by Servy, Peter O., Jerry Coffin, R. Martinho Fernandes, DuckMaestro Feb 2 '13 at 6:54
8 Answers
up vote 6 down vote accepted
Find a coding hobby project that interests you. If you find it interesting you will spend way more time working on the code than if you are doing it simply to learn.
As far as
go to SourceForge and find something that looks interesting to you and get involved. Again emphasis on interesting. Don't worry too much about how practical it is.
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codeplex.com has a lot of .Net projects to work on. – jle Jul 2 '09 at 20:02
actually my projects at work are pretty interesting I just need more people to work with. Thanks I'll check out codeplex – Eric Anastas Jul 2 '09 at 20:03
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I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that you write some code.
Read Code Complete. Look at other questions about this topic here at StackOverflow. Find an open source project and contribute to it. Start your own pet project that focuses on the skills you're interested in.
When to use Design patterns
How to get into C# Open Source projects
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Well obviously I need to write code, but I think my issue is more with not having anyone to tell me how and where my otherwise functioning code could be improved. – Eric Anastas Jul 2 '09 at 20:06
Don't worry too much about how your code can be improved. Instead you should learn how to do more things with code. Nobody's code is ever perfect. – Robert S. Jul 2 '09 at 20:25
Code Complete's a great book if you want to improve your code quality - one of the classics. – Rory MacLeod Feb 27 '10 at 3:33
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Real world programming skills: something you could do for a living, in a professional environment.
Come up with an idea, it doesn't need to be the GREATEST idea ever... then write it. Write it in a professional manner. Use version control, even for a personal project. Have a ticket system, even for a personal project. Get used to doing things in the manner a professional does them, even for a personal project. Otherwise, you're just learning bad habits.
I would even go so far as to ask some of those friends or family who have jobs in the industry to help you out with an impromptu code review. Buy them dinner, I bet they'll do it.
The only way to learn anything is to actually start doing it. Expect that your first code will be awkward, and will be re-written several times as part of your growing process.
Then, if your personal project might have any interest for others... ship. Put it out there. Get user feedback. It will be brutal, and an educational experience that you could not buy at any price. You'll be a better programmer for it.
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There is a very high profile C# open source software project that can always use more help.
It's called the Mono Project.
I would recommend contributing to the Mono Project over others because they use a very transparent and open development model, and they are high profile so being a "Mono contributor" has some extra prestige in my opinion then many random C# open software projects. Plus Miguel de Icaza (head of the Mono Project) is an awesome and funny guy.
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What I do in my free time is find something that interests me, build it, and learn in the process. For example, instead of taking a canned forum or CMS, I would build my own and learn from my own mistakes. Granted this wont give you knowledge about source control etc since you would most likely be the only developer but learning tricks and better coding style is certainly worth the effort. Perhaps you can get involved in an open source project as well! :)
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Find experienced developers who are willing to do informal design / code reviews with you periodically on some of the projects you have already done (since you know them well) so they can explain the pros / cons and possible different approaches to solving those same problems.
The more different opinions you can get on how experienced developers would solve the problems you are familiar with, the more options you'll have for solving the next problem. Expect each developers approach to be radically different, yet still enlightening. :-)
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You can do a lot of things. These come to mind:
• Particpate in an open source project.
• Read StackOverflow a lot
• Ask a lot of questions on StackOverflow
• Read good books
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Also, try answering questions here. Especially ones that mean you have to try things out. – Richard Jul 3 '09 at 9:43
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Adding a bit to William' answer: find an interesting open-source project and become an active contributor. This will not only give you a chance to do hands-on coding, but an opportunity to see other peoples' code. There is a lot to learn from code written by other programmers.
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| dclm-gs1-004920000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I m developing a c program using libcurl.
when I build my program I can use different version of libcurl.
When I change from version to other (of libcurl) I have to change some blocks in my source code to adapt it to the libcurl version.
I'm looking to add macro in my code which will check the libcurl version and then determine which block of source code to use automatically
Are there a macro function or constant in libcurl which return the libcurl version?
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2 Answers
up vote 1 down vote accepted
See curl/curlver.h (which is included when you #include <curl/curl.h>).
You have the following numbers to play.
#define LIBCURL_VERSION_NUM 0x071a00
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I would not recommend using that, I recommend curl_version_info() instead as in my separate answer. – Daniel Stenberg Jun 3 '12 at 11:36
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Even better is to use curl_version_info() since it will return information about the library actually (dynamically) in use and not the version number that was available when your application was compiled.
libcurl gets updated fairly often and after a couple of months/years it is likely or at least possible that your application might run with a later version than what it was compiled against.
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| dclm-gs1-004930000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I bet this has probably been asked before, but since reference (int& name) is taken the same as reference counting by searchers, couldn't find a single thing.
Why isn't there ever mention of references as alternates to smart pointers? Is it just for the null case, or is there something else? What advantages/disadvantages are there to using either?
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To the random drive-by downvoter: That was rude. No comment? Don't down vote without a comment, and don't down vote things that seem like dumb questions to you. The questioner is confused between references, reference counts, and other things. We were all novices at once. Instead of down-voting a dumb question, provide an answer. I'm up-voting just to offset the stupid down-vote. – David Hammen Aug 25 '12 at 7:30
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1 Answer
up vote 5 down vote accepted
I think you have your terminology mixed up. A reference and the term reference counting aren't really talking about the same thing.
References and smart pointers, or even pointers for that matter are very different and not interchangeable.
A reference cannot be reseated. Meaning that once you have a reference, it can only refer to the thing it initially referred to. A reference is merely a memory address.
A pointer on the other hand, points to a memory address; it can be changed to point to different memory addresses.
When someone says a smart pointer does reference counting, they mean the smart pointer is keeping count of how many objects are referring to the memory the smart pointer is pointing at. This is different from a reference.
I hope that helps.
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I know well that reference and reference counting aren't the same. It's the searchers, like Google and the one here, who can't see the difference (context) and show me sites that relate to reference counting and smart pointers, instead of reference and smart pointers – efaj Aug 25 '12 at 6:28
But, I didn't know references couldn't be switched/swapped or made to reference something else. Now with that... it's obvious why they don't replace smart pointers. – efaj Aug 25 '12 at 6:32
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| dclm-gs1-004940000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Part of my code:
curl_multi_exec($mh, $running);
$done = curl_multi_info_read($mh);
while($running > 0);
This code results warning Warning: curl_getinfo(): supplied argument is not a valid cURL handle resource and i don't understand why. When i doing var_dump($done['handle']); it's return resource(7) of type (curl). Please, help me find the error.
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I think you should just look at good examples at php.net/manual/en/function.curl-multi-exec.php .. your code has major errors ... – Baba Sep 12 '12 at 12:10
Thanks!) You are right. First example solve my problem. – bbyby Sep 12 '12 at 12:18
You are welcome .... – Baba Sep 12 '12 at 12:19
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Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question. | dclm-gs1-004950000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Turns out this seems to be a complex subject, please tell me if my approach is too simple.
Basically what i'm trying to do is send an email reminder to a list of users (only when they have a reminder coming up, but that is besides the point) at 7 am every morning. Of course 7 am is at a different time based on the server location for everyone all over the world.
The plan is to collect to GMT offset hour via javascript from the user when they register:
var today = new Date();
var offset = -(today.getTimezoneOffset()/60);
Simple enough, I now know the offset hour and store that in a database along with the rest of the users data. Now server side I have a TimerTask set up that runs every hour. I collect the system hour (say its 5 am), see how far away from my target time that is (in this case 2 (7-5)), get the system offset hour (in this case its -5), then pull all users from the database that have a GMT offset hour of -3 (-5 + 2), then do the email sending etc. At this point im assuming I know its 7 am for everyone whos time zone offset is -3 and I can continue with the process. This will run again the next hour and collect all users with a time zone offset of -4. Is this something that will actually work, or am I missing something?
Calendar systemTime = Calendar.getInstance();
int targetHour = 7;
int currentHour = systemTime.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY); //Its 5 am.
int difference = targetHour - currentHour; //2
int zoneOffset = systemTime.get(Calendar.ZONE_OFFSET) / (1000*60*60); //-5
int targetZone = zoneOffset + difference; //-3
List<User> users = userDAO.findByZoneOffset(targetZone);
for(User user : users) {
//Send email or whatever I want to do with these users.
I understand its possible that the client time zone may be set incorrectly and therefore product an off result, but im willing to take that risk as its not absolutely necessary for the reminders to go out at exactly 7 am, just preferable.
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1 Answer
up vote 0 down vote accepted
That won't be enough to get a time zone consistently. It doesn't take account of daylight saving time. So if the user is anywhere that observes daylight saving time, they'll either get emails at 6am for about half the year, or they'll get emails at 8am for about half the year. You may well be better off guessing their time zone based on IP geolocation + offset.
I have a TimerTask set up that runs every hour.
I would suggest running more often than that. Otherwise, you may well find that you end up waking up just before you would send an email - so you then go back to sleep, and send the email at 7:59 next time... which may be 8:59 with your current scheme, based on client DST changes. At that point you're nearly two hours off your intended send time!
I collect the system hour
Don't do that, either. At this point there are two time zones to take account of - and your server time zone is completely irrelevant. Use UTC until you convert into the client's local time. It's going to make life much simpler. If you're still using Calendar, you can do this simply by setting its time zone.
Looking at your code, it looks like you also could end up missing a bunch of users completely, if you're checking by exact match of hour. If you end up running once at (say) 3:59 and then once at 4:01, you'd miss anyone who had to be run at 4. I would suggest keeping track of when you last sent a mail to each user - or possibly when you last ran - and use that to make sure you always catch everyone.
Finally, I'd strongly advise that you use Joda Time. It's a much cleaner date/time API, which will help you to think about the right concepts to use at the right point in your code.
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I'm a little confused about the whole GMT offset thing in regards to DST. For instance, my time zone in NC is -5, to my knowledge that doesn't change throughout the year does it? If I were to check in spring, would it actually be -4? I figured that by using to system clock it would automatically adjust for DST. Then again, parts of the world don't use DST at all so I guess when the server was in DST it would calculate the incorrect time...err..time zones. – ryandlf Dec 10 '12 at 7:28
@ryandlf: I don't know about North Carolina specifically, but most of the US observes daylight saving time. Do you change your clock every spring and fall? If so, that's changing the UTC offset. Note that the system clock of wherever you happen to run the server may well change DST on different dates to the user. Heck, it could easily change in a different direction (as the southern hemisphere observes DST in the opposite direction, e.g. putting their clocks back an hour in ~March, and putting them forward an hour in ~October). Or other countries have very different DST transitions. – Jon Skeet Dec 10 '12 at 7:31
Do you know of any resources to collect the time zone based on ip geo? I'm having trouble finding any examples. – ryandlf Dec 10 '12 at 7:33
@ryandlf: I suggest you search for "detecting time zone javascript" or something similar. Basically it's a fairly complicated business. Of course, one option is to ask the user. Make a guess, but allow the user to change their settings. – Jon Skeet Dec 10 '12 at 7:35
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| dclm-gs1-004960000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Can anyone suggest any links, ideas or algorithms to generate flowers randomly like the one as my profile pic? The profile pic flower has only a 10 x 10 grid and the algorithm is not truly random. I would also prefer that the new algorithm use a grid of about 500 x 500 or even better, allow the user to pick the size of the grid.
[Plant[][] is declared as int plant[10][10];]
public void generateSimpleSky(){
for(int w2=0;w2<10;w2++)
for(int w3=0;w3<10;w3++)
public void generateSimpleSoil(){
for(int q=0;q<10;q++)
public void generateSimpleStem(){
int ry=rand.nextInt(4);
for(int u=7;u>1;u--){
int yu=rand.nextInt(3);
public void generateSimpleFlower(){
for(int q2=1;q2<4;q2++)
for(int q3=xr-1;q3<=xr+1;q3++)
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What do you mean by truly random? – Jeremy Jan 2 '13 at 3:01
I second @Nile 's comment. You might want to first isolate what about the flower you want to be random. color, petal size, core size/color, stem size, etc. A true randomization of that flower would make for a real messy plant. – brainmurphy1 Jan 2 '13 at 3:06
I mean that the algorithm that i used to generate the flower in my profile pic used an algorithm than only changed the way the stem ooked. The flower still looked the same. So i want to make it "truly randam" i.e. make the enteire procedure random. – Hele Jan 2 '13 at 3:07
@brainmurphy1: I was specifically referring to the difference between a true random number and a psuedorandom number, but I second your comment also. – Jeremy Jan 2 '13 at 3:08
Did you have a look at L-Systems? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-system – Henry Jan 3 '13 at 6:58
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1 Answer
up vote 4 down vote accepted
It sounds like a reasonably simple problem where you just generate 1 parameter at a time, possibly based on the output of the previous variables.
My model of a flower will be: It has just a reasonably upright stem, a perfectly round center, some amount of leaves on the stem on alternating sides, petals perfectly distributed around the center.
random() is just a random number within some chosen bounds, the bounds may be unique for each variable. random(x1, x2, ..., xn) generates a random number within some bounds dependent on the variables x1, x2, ..., xn (as in stemWidth < stemHeight/2, a reasonable assumption).
The Stem
stemXPosition = width / 2
stemHeight = random()
stemWidth = random(stemHeight)
stemColour = randomColour()
stemWidthVariationMax = random(stemWidth, stemHeight)
stemWidthVariationPerPixel = random(stemWidth, stemHeight)
stemWidthVariationMax/-PerPixel are for generating a stem that isn't perfectly straight (if you want to do something that complicated, a low PerPixel is for smoothness). Generate the stem using these as follows:
pixelRelative[y-position][0] := left x-position at that y-position relative to the stem
pixelRelative[y-position][1] := right x-position at that y-position relative to the stem
pixelRelative[0][0] = randomInRange(-stemWidthVariationMax, stemWidthVariationMax)
for each y > 0:
pixelRelative[y-1][0] = max(min(randomInRange(pixel[y] - stemWidthVariationPerPixel,
pixel[y] + stemWidthVariationPerPixel),
//pixelRelative[0][1] and pixelRelative[y-1][1] generated same as pixelRelative[y-1][i]
for each y:
pixelAbsolute[y][0] = width / 2 - stemWidth / 2 + pixelRelative[y][0]
pixelAbsolute[y][1] = width / 2 + stemWidth / 2 + pixelRelative[y][1]
You can also use arcs to simplify things and go more than 1 pixel at a time.
The Top
centerRadius = random(stemHeight)
petalCount = random() // probably >= 3
petalSize = random(centerRadius, petalCount)
It's not too easy to generate the petals, you need to step from 0 to 2*PI with step-size of 2*PI/petalCount and generate arcs around the circle. It requires either a good graphics API or some decent maths.
Here's some nicely generated tops of flowers, though seemingly not open-source. Note that they don't have a center at all. (or centerRadius = 0)
The Leaves
You could probably write an entire paper on this, (like this one) but a simple idea would just be to generate a 1/2 circle and extend lines outward from there to meet at 2*the radius of the circle and to draw parallel lines on the flower.
Once you have a leaf generation algorithm:
leafSize = random(stemHeight) // either all leaves are the same size or generate the size for each randomly
leafStemLength = random(leafSize) // either all leaves have the same stem length or generate for each randomly
leafStemWidth = random(leafStemLength)
leaf[0].YPosition = random(stemHeight)
leaf[0].XSide = randomly either left or right
leaf[0].rotation = random between say 0 and 80 degrees
for each leaf i:
leaf[i].YPosition = random(stemHeight, leaf[i-1]) // only generate new leaves above previous leaves
leaf[i].XSide = opposite of leaf[i].XSide
Last words
The way to determine the bounds of each random would be either to argue it out, or give it some fixed value, generate everything else randomly a few times, keep increasing / decreasing it until it starts to look weird.
10 x 10 versus 500 x 500 would probably require greatly different algorithms, I wouldn't recommend the above for below 100 x 100, maybe generate a bigger image and simply shrink it using averaging or something.
I started writing some Java code, when I realised it may take a bit longer than I would like to spend on this, so I'll show you what I have so far.
// some other code, including these functions to generate random numbers:
float nextFloat(float rangeStart, float rangeEnd);
int nextInt(int rangeStart, int rangeEnd);
// generates a color somewhere between green and brown
Color stemColor = Color.getHSBColor(nextFloat(0.1, 0.2), nextFloat(0.5, 1), nextFloat(0.2, 0.8));
int stemHeight = nextInt(height/2, 3*height/4);
int stemWidth = nextInt(height/20, height/20 + height/5);
Color flowerColor = ??? // I just couldn't use the same method as above to generate bright colors, but I'm sure it's not too difficult
int flowerRadius = nextInt(Math.min(stemHeight, height - stemHeight)/4, 3*Math.min(stemHeight, height - stemHeight)/4);
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To put it simply, You're awesome! – Hele Jan 4 '13 at 15:47
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| dclm-gs1-004970000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
i would like to learn something about embedded development; i think the best thing would be to buy hardware stuff and play with it but i don't' know where to start and, if possible, i would like not to pay to much ....
If you have experience in this field, which would be the best road to follow?
Thank you very much ! Greetings, c.
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Possible duplicate of stackoverflow.com/questions/45247/… – kgiannakakis Jun 4 '10 at 14:38
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5 Answers
up vote 3 down vote accepted
I assume you mean real embedded and not embedded linux or some other operating system thing.
All above are good, sparkfun.com is a GREAT resource for sub $50 cards. Dont buy the embed. The armmite pro is nice, trivial to bypass the high level canned package and load your own binaries (I have a web page on how to do it if interested).
Stellaris is good, the 811 is easy to brick so be careful, the 1968 eval board is not a bad one. The problem with the stellaris boards is almost all of their I/O is consuemed by on board peripherals. The good thing about the stellaris eval boards, based on what you are wanting to do is that all the I/O is consumed by on board peripherals. Lots of peripherals for you to learn how to write embedded code for.
You are going to eventually want a jtag wiggler, I recommend the amontec jtag-tiny, it will open the door to a number of the olimex boards from sparkfun. the sam7 and stm32 header boards are good ones as well.
the lillypad is a good starting place for arduino (sparkfun), same price as the arduino pro mini, but you dont have to do any soldering. get a lillypad and the little usb to serial thing that powers it and gives you serial access to program it. Just like the armmite pro I have a web page on how to erase the as-shipped flash and have a linux programmer that lets you load any binary you want not just ones limited to their sandbox.
avoid PIC and 8051 unless you are interested in a history lesson. the PIC32X, not sure my first one is in the mail, it is a MIPS 32 not a PIC core.
the ez430 msp430 board is a very good one, the msp430 has a very nice architecture, better than the avr.
You can get your feet wet in simulation as well. I have a thumb instruction set emulator, thumbulator.blogspot.com. Thumb is a subset of the arm instruction set and if you learn thumb then you can jump right into a stellaris board or stm32. My sim does not support thumb2, the thumb2 processors also support thumb, the transition to thumb2 from thumb is trivial.
avoid the stm32 primer boards, avoid the stm32 primer boards, avoid the mbed2 boards, avoid the mbed2 boards, avoid the lpcxpresso boards, avoid the lpcxpresso boards!!
I recently found a behavioral model of an arm in verilog that you can simulate your programs, have not played with it much. qemu-arm is probably easier, not a bad place to get your feet wet although it can be frustrating. Which is why I wrote my own.
ARMS own armulator is out there, in the gdb source release for example, easier than qemu-arm to use, but can be frustrating as well.
go to codesourcery for arm gcc tools. use mspgcc4.sf.net for msp430 tools. llvm is rapidly catching and passing gcc, if nothing else I expect it to replace gcc for the universal cross compiler tool. at the moment it is much more stable and portable than gcc when it comes to building for cross compiling (because it is always/only a cross compiler wherever you find or use it). the msp backend for llvm was an afternoon experiment for someone, sadly, I would really like to have that supported. If you use llvm, use clang not llvm-gcc.
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oh yeah, duh, the GBA, GameBoy Advance. Nice platform for learning embedded. – dwelch Jun 5 '10 at 1:24
Out of curiosity, why avoid the mbed, stm32 and lpcxpresso boards? – Ben Gartner Jun 18 '10 at 21:14
mbed and lpcxpresso are like the stm32 primer. They lock you into a specific development platform. These boards are not there for you to learn the processor they are there for you to use the IDE/toolchain. I am not interested in the toolchain and definitely not interested in windows nor a web based thing. I want to learn the chip and will vote with my dollars to buy from some other vendor. – dwelch Jun 20 '10 at 2:51
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If you want to get your feet wet, get a cheap evaluation board like Stellaris LM3S811 Evaluation Kit (EK-LM3S811) which is $50 at Digi-Key then download CodeSourcery G++ which provides free command line tools or the IAR Kickstart Edition which allows you up to 32KB of code.
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Choosing ARM Cortex is a smart move. I would definitely stay away from outdated architectures such as PICmicro or 8051. – Miro Jun 4 '10 at 18:54
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I would suggest starting up with MSP430. The MSP430 launchpad is quiet cheap. Alternatively, you could start up with the Stellaris (ARM Cortex M3) Boards. You can use the already provided libraries first to start developing apps rite away and then start writing your code for configuring and getting things done by referring the data sheet.You also get example codes, relevant documents and Keil 32K limited evaluation version. If you want to do things write from scratch, then get an ARM based board with IO breakout headers and start working. Lot of them are available from vendors like Olimex. One word of caution ARM is difficult to start with if you are working from scratch with little or no idea about embedded. So if you are looking for something easier go for AVR or 8051, but 8051 core is too old. So, Stellaris would be a good option in my opinion with their already available driver libs and codes.
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Well, depending how much money you want to spend, and how much development expertise you have, you could either get an Arduino (arduino.cc) or a FEZ Domino (C# .NET) (tinyclr.com). Both are premade MCUs, with all the tools you need to start developing out of the box.
The Arduino is going to be very simplistic, but probably better for a beginner. The FEZ is a little harder to work with, but FAR more capable. Both have the same physical pinout, so you can use "shields" between them
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If you are a hobbyist, Arduino might be a good choice. However, when you think about embedded programming as a profession, you need to learn to program in C. Understanding some assembly wouldn't hurt either. – Miro Jun 4 '10 at 18:59
On a hardware level Arduino is just Atmel AVR, so you can program it in C, too. – starblue Jun 4 '10 at 21:16
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I would recommend a kickstart kit from iar systems. They're fairly complete and work out of the box.
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| dclm-gs1-004980000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have a file:
#ifndef _variableinclude_h_
#define _variableinclude_h_
AClass* variable1;
int* variable2;
But I include this file in another two different ones:
- atest1.h
- atest2.h
The problem is the following: variable redefinition.
How to avoid that???
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you are getting linker error or a compiler error? – Naveen Oct 1 '10 at 5:04
Note that the include guard is illegally using a reserved prefix (_v). Also, by convention macro's are uppercase. – MSalters Oct 1 '10 at 7:26
@MSalters: Why is this reserved? I thought only double underscores shouldn't be used. – ur. Oct 1 '10 at 7:29
@ur: Double underscores are reserved everywhere in tokens, not just as a prefix. And they're reserved for unspecified use by the implementation. E.g. a compiler may internally define _variableinclude_h_ as soon as you #include <variableinclude.h>. – MSalters Oct 1 '10 at 7:48
Any identifier containing a double underscore is reserved. Anything starting with underscore followed by a capital letter is reserved. Anything else starting with underscore is reserved if it is declared at namespace scope (which your include guard is) – jalf Oct 1 '10 at 9:49
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1 Answer
Welcome to ODR
Make the variables extern in the header file.
extern AClass* variable1; // assuming AClass is declared at this point.
extern int* variable2;
Define them once and only once in any cpp file e.g. in main.cpp at namespace scope.
AClass* variable1 = NULL; // assuming AClass is declared at this point.
int* variable2 = NULL;
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+1 the solution – Mario The Spoon Oct 1 '10 at 5:05
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| dclm-gs1-004990000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
What is the best way to know when I have reached the last object in an array when using fast enumeration? Is there a better way than incrementing an int and then comparing that to the length of the array?
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3 Answers
up vote 6 down vote accepted
If you are starting with an array get out the last element (there's a specific call for that) and compare each element you get in the enumerator against that. Something like:
id lastEl = [myArray lastObject];
for ( id anEl in myArray )
if ( anEl == lastEl )
..... // do the last thing
The comparison cost is the same as with the counter, but then you don't have the cost of incrementing the counter or mistakes that invariably arise when you forget to increment the counter.
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I'd agree with this, but I believe it is "lastObject" not "lastElement". – slycrel Dec 27 '10 at 22:33
Well now you and I agree! That's what I get for not checking the SDK docs for the call. – Kendall Helmstetter Gelner Dec 27 '10 at 22:42
Great answer and just what I was looking for! – Nic Hubbard Dec 27 '10 at 22:44
Not totally robust. As the same object can appear twice in the array, you could incorrectly do your "last thing" twice. Consider that problem when using this solution. Getting the array count before entering the loop and using an index is safer. – Julien Dec 27 '10 at 23:06
That is a good point but generally you would have two distinct instances even if the objects equated to the same thing; but be aware that could be an issue in design. It's still safer from the standpoint of not getting a counter increment wrong in some way, as that is a lot more likely than putting two of the same object into an array. – Kendall Helmstetter Gelner Dec 28 '10 at 0:41
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Typically, fast enumeration means you are not using a counter...
The other form is without a counter is...
NSEnumerator *enumerator = [objectSet objectEnumerator];
id setObject;
while ((setObject = [enumerator nextObject]) != nil)
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I don't believe there's any (simple) way of doing this - it's one of the trade-offs of using fast enumeration. As such, when you need to be aware of the index of the item you're enumerating over, you'll need to create an integer as you suggest.
That said, you'll still benefit from the fact that you can't go out of bounds when using a fast enumerator, etc.
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| dclm-gs1-005000000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
So this is how I set up my project:
git init --bare
Later I learned that if you want to work on a project with multiple users this is how I should have done it:
git init --bare --shared
Now I tried to work like that and luckily we are in the beginning so I could set up git again. I still wonder though when you're in the middle of a project you can't do that. Is there a way that i can change a bare repo to a shared one?
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4 Answers
up vote 17 down vote accepted
Since the --shared option just sets the permissions on everything in the repository to group-writable you could do this manually later:
$ chmod -R g+w the/repo/path
Plus, add
sharedrepository = 1
under the [core] section in .git/config. Shared repos also have the following receive option defined by default (which you may or may not want):
denyNonFastforwards = true
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Aha ok! Good to know, wish I had asked this before. Thanks! – bottleboot Jan 16 '12 at 16:46
Ok, I see! I just read the @jørgensen answer which confirms that. Stackoverflow should have a combined answer button :D! Thank you all a lot that was very enlightening! – bottleboot Jan 16 '12 at 16:53
Didn't work for me. It required chmod -R g+s .... A fresh git init --bare --shared will have the group rights "rws". (Ubuntu 12.04) – Unapiedra Jan 29 at 15:11
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Besides chmod -R g+w, you also need to edit (.git/)config and set core.sharedRepository = .... For ..., there are a handful of values, described in git-init(1).
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Ok! That seems to completes my suspicion that I also needed to change the config. Thanks! – bottleboot Jan 16 '12 at 16:49
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Probably if you try to share an existent repository, you may have lots of different users commits.
1.If you have super user permission, you can go forward and change all permissions by yourself using the step two, in any-other case you will need to ask all users with objects created with their users, use the following command to know who they are:
$ ls -la | awk '{print $3}' | sort -u
<your user_name>
<his user_name>
2.Now you and all file's owner users will have to change those files permission, doing:
$ chmod -R 774 .
3.After that you will need to add a new property that is equivalent to --shared=group done for the new repository, according to the documentation, this make the repository group-writable, do it executing:
$ git config core.sharedRepository group
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If you're trying to share the repository off of the the host it is on, there are additional configuration steps you have to make (ssh stuff).
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I don't think that is what we're doing for this current repo. Thanks though! – bottleboot Jan 16 '12 at 16:46
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| dclm-gs1-005010000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I believe this has been asked before but no concrete answer has been determined.
On my website http://euphoricsoftware.com/ there is a fancy countdown script to automatically take you to the normal site, as opposed to mobile or low bandwidth. The script works in every browser with <body onload="setTimeout(countDown(8),1000);"> (where 8 is the number to start from) except sometimes in Chrome the countdown doesn't move and opening the JS console reveals Uncaught ReferenceError: countDown is not defined.
Also on the page is a button which lets you pause and resume the countdown. Resuming calls the countDown() function, too, and even when the undefined error happens onload, if you click the button twice the countdown will work, so it seems to be something to do with onload.
Here's the code I've been using (SO's code format has stuffed up the spacing a bit):
<!-- ... -->
<script type="text/javascript">
var stopRedirect = false;
var back = 0;
function redirect()
if (!stopRedirect) {window.location = "home.html";}
function countDown(num)
if (!stopRedirect)
back = num-1;
if (num < 10)
if (num > 1)
var t = setTimeout("countDown("+(num-1)+")",1000);
document.getElementById("unit").innerHTML=" second ";
var r = setTimeout("redirect()",1000);
function stop()
if (!stopRedirect)
stopRedirect = true;
function start()
if (stopRedirect)
stopRedirect = false;
var c = setTimeout("countDown("+(back)+")",1000);
<body onLoad="setTimeout(countDown(8),1000);">
<!-- ... -->
and you can see the site in action at http://euphoricsoftware.com/
Does anyone know why this is happening? Thanks
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I can't see why this would not work. I refreshed your page in Chrome about a hundred times and never had a problem or saw an error. – mrtsherman Jan 29 '12 at 4:38
in both Chrome 18.0.1017.2 dev-m and 18.0.1021.0 canary it doesn't seem to work – ProfSmiles Jan 29 '12 at 4:49
Works fine for me in Canary. – mrtsherman Jan 29 '12 at 5:11
I had changed it to nnnnnn's way and I've removed the timeout and it seems to be working fine – ProfSmiles Jan 29 '12 at 5:15
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1 Answer
up vote 1 down vote accepted
I'm not quite sure why you get that error, given that your function is defined in the <head> and you don't try to use it until the onload of the body, but your code does have a problem. This part from your onload="":
will, when the onload occurs and the code is run, call the countDown() function immediately, passing a parameter of 8, and then take whatever that function returns and pass it to setTimeout() to be executed in 1 second's time. In your case your function doesn't return a particular value, so in effect you are passing undefined to setTimeout().
What you want to do is pass setTimeout() either a function reference or a string.
You can't pass a reference to countDown() directly at the same time as passing a parameter for that function (at least, not with a syntax of setTimeout() that will work in IE), so you would need to wrap it in an anonymous function like this:
onload="setTimeout(function() { countDown(8); }, 1000);"
Or you can use the string format similar to within your countDown() function body (using single-quotes since the onload attribute currently uses doubles):
onload="setTimeout('countDown(8);', 1000)"
Note that the string format is generally frowned upon because it is slower and affects the scope.
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the string works perfectly however the anonymous function still comes up with Uncaught ReferenceError: countDown is not defined – ProfSmiles Jan 29 '12 at 4:50
Sorry, like I said in my first sentence I can't explain that error. It doesn't happen for me, but my version of Chrome is 16.something. By the way, I'm not sure that you even need setTimeout in the onload, you could just say onload="countDown(9);". – nnnnnn Jan 29 '12 at 5:12
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Your Answer
| dclm-gs1-005020000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
In Python what is the most efficient way to do this:
my_var = some_var['my_key'] | None
ie. assign some_var['my_key'] to my_var if some_var contains 'my_key', otherwise make my_var be None.
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What do you mean by "if it exists"? May the name some_var be undefined in some cases? – Sven Marnach Feb 14 '12 at 22:22
I just edited it - to clarify - i'm trying to check for the existence of a key in a dictionary essentially – 9-bits Feb 14 '12 at 22:24
I bet this has already been asked... – Oleh Prypin Feb 14 '12 at 22:27
See my answer for the very useful second argument to dict.get() which nobody seems to be mentioning... – Endophage Feb 14 '12 at 22:28
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6 Answers
up vote 3 down vote accepted
Python will throw a NameError if the variable doesn't exist so you can't write your code in quite the same way as your JavaScript. However, if you are operating specifically with dicts as in your example, there is a very nice function mydict.get('key', default) which attempts to get the key from the dictionary and returns the default value if the key doesn't exist.
If you just want to default to be None you don't need to explicitly pass the second argument.
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Assuming some_var is a dictionary, you need dict.get():
my_var = some_var.get('my_key')
This result defaults to None if my_key is missing, but you can supply a different default:
my_var = some_var.get('my_key', default)
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You are looking for the get() method of dict.
my_var = some_var.get('some_key')
The get() method will return the value associated with 'some_key', if such a value exists. If the key is not present, then None will be returned.
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my_var = some_var
my_var = None
But honestly this probably doesn't get to the heart of what you're trying to do... We need more context to more fully answer.
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I just added a clarification - some_var is actually a dictionary and i want to ensure the key exists in it otherwise use None – 9-bits Feb 14 '12 at 22:25
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The great thing about the .get() method is you can actually define a value to return in case the key doesn't exist.
my_dict = { 1: 'one', 2: 'two' }
print my_dict.get(3, 'Undefined key')
would print.
Undefined key
This is very helpful not only for debugging purposes, but also when parsing json (in my experience, at least), and you should prefer using get() over [] as much as possible.
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In python "|" is translated to "or", so:
my_var = some_var or None
Edit: You've edited your initial post. The correct way to do what you want is:
my_var = some_var.get('my_key', None)
share|improve this answer
None is useless, default is None --> docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#typesmapping – user1125315 Feb 14 '12 at 22:44
It's just an example to illustrate the use of dict.get. – user1179901 Feb 15 '12 at 16:59
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Your Answer
| dclm-gs1-005030000 |
View Single Post
Lt. Commander
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 120
# 2
12-04-2011, 08:41 AM
I'm pretty staunchly opposed to sandbox games and someone who LOVES novel grinds and theme park games.
Sandbox games are to MMO snobs what French art films are to film snobs or amazingly pungent foods are to foodies.
There's always this concession in there that sandbox games are less popular with Joe Blow and this assumption that if people ONLY KNEW and UNDERSTOOD what the sandbox enthusiast knows, they would jump ship on their theme park games.
It's just not true.
I think a lot of people are aware of the theme park's hamster wheel/skinner box with light, CRAFTED narrative. If they play it at all at endgame, they are aware of it. And they LIKE it, they just want that endgame to be balanced RIGHT to their tastes and aesthetics and are looking for the game that does that.
But they aren't going to be satisfied with a sandbox.
That's like taking a bus load of costumed Juggalos to a baby shower.
The theme park is always free to borrow ideas from the sandbox but the sandbox game is absolutely NOT more desirable to most people.
There's an inherent fallacy. The number one choice of high culture connoisseur's is almost always wrong for the masses. If you are a high culture/high art connoisseur, your tastes are skewed and you need to be able to put them aside.
A large sized combo from McDonald's with an Apple Pie will cost you as much as a 3 course lunch at a 3.5-4 star restaurant, minus tip. But people buy it? Because they're in a hurry? Some of them are. Many of them like it just as much or better.
Don't try to Eliza Doolittle the general public. | dclm-gs1-005040000 |
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(max. 500 characters) | dclm-gs1-005050000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
in a Linux environment, I need to kill a process which has been started by user2 if I am user1 without being sudoers or using root. Do you know if there is a way of setting that when launching the process? Such as a list of users allowed to kill the process?
The fact is that concurrent instances of the same process can be started from different users, that is why it is not convenient for me to set the group id to the process. Other users that are not in the group will not be able to start a second parallel process.
What I have is a list of users allowed to start the process, defined in the database, before starting the process I check that the current user in the list and, if yes, I start the process with the current user. If a second user allowed to do that wants to kill the process I'd like it to be allowed to do that but I don't want it to be sudoers.
Therefore, I was thinking to create a process running as root which receives the request to kill processes from a user, checks if the user is allowed to start/stop the process and kills the process.
Do you think it could be the best solution?
share|improve this question
Welcome to SO. I don't think this is possible... Anyway, this is more suitable for SO's sister site, serverfault.com. It may get migrated there soon, no need to do anything. – Pekka 웃 May 3 '10 at 12:18
What kind of program are we talking about? It would be difficult in the general case, but in some cases (such as apache or an app that you can modify yourself) it would be easier. – Kim May 3 '10 at 12:23
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migrated from stackoverflow.com May 3 '10 at 16:45
This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.
7 Answers
I'm sorry, but this simply is not possible (that's by design). However, if members of a common group, user1 could write to a file that user2's process checks, indicating to the process that it should terminate.
Or, user2 could run something in the background that checks a file, then sends the appropriate signals. User1 then simply has to write to that file. This may be easier, as it would not require any modification of user2's programs.
Conventionally, no, user1 can not send POSIX signals to user2's process.
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Thanks for your answer. In my case, indeed, I don't use the file but we use a system (dim.web.cern.ch/dim) that can send the appropriate signal, then a process can be called that checks that the user is allowed to stop the process and kills the process. – ATelesca May 3 '10 at 13:31
@ATelesca - I use something very similar to allow underprivileged users to control / start / stop Xen virtual machines across a rather large farm. Basically, the same thing. – Tim Post May 3 '10 at 14:20
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Unless ACLs or SELinux or something else has a better way to do it, the way I've seen this done is with a SetUID script. As you can imagine, they're infamous for being security risks.
Regarding your case, say that procOwner is the username for the process owner, and userA (uid 1000), userB (uid 1201), and userC (uid 1450) are the folks allowed to kill the process.
case ${UID} in
1000|1201|1450) ;;
*) echo "You are not allowed to kill the process."
exit 1;;
kill ${PROCESS_ID}
# PROCESS_ID could also be stored somewhere in /var/run.
Then set the owner and permissions with:
chown procOwner:procGroup killmyproc.bash
chmod 6750 killmyproc.bash
And also put userA, userB, and userC in the group procGroup.
share|improve this answer
I tried this, and it didn't work. The non-owner user got a permission denied on the kill command. – Javid Jamae Oct 5 '11 at 20:47
I would just add, why not let the system control permissions to the kill script? Creating a group out of userA, userB, and userC, then chowning the killscript to that group and chmodding it to g+x seems way tidier to me. – Leonid Shevtsov Sep 3 '12 at 16:29
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Of course, you can write the program in such a way that it gracefully terminates when it receives a certain signal (term used loosely to mean "a pre-determined event", not a POSIX signal) from a certain (list of) users.
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Not conventionally -- having any user come and kill of someone else's processes is the ultimate denial-of-service vulnerability.
It can be done if the target process cooperates. One way would be for it to monitor for an external event (like a file being created in /var/tmp, or a message on a socket), instructing it to kill itself. If you can't write it to do that, you could write a wrapper for it that starts it and then does the monitoring, killing the child process if the event occurs.
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No, you can't.
If you want to share processes with other users, you should start the process under a common user id.
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You can write a suid program that only users in a certain group may execute and which sends the appropriate signal to the process. Not sure wether you meant to exclude suid too though.
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suid bit does not work with bash scripts. imho, the best way is to write some wrapper script "killservice". Suppose, that your service is running as user serviceuser
sudo -u serviceuser /usr/bin/killserviceworker
# addgroup servicekiller
# chown root:servicekiller /usr/bin/killservice
# chmod 750 /usr/bin/killservice
# adduser bob servicekiller
then, you just need to add rule in /etc/sudoers to allow them to run /usr/bin/killserviceworker as user serviceuser without asking a password:
servicekiller ALL = (serviceuser:serviceuser) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/killserviceworker
killserviceworker can look like this:
kill ${cat /run/service.pid}
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Your Answer
| dclm-gs1-005060000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
How can I hide my network connections (the PC with the red X icon on the task bar) when I'm not using a that connection.
Typically, I switch back and forth between wireless and wide connections depending on my location, so I don't want to just simply disable the network device.
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Which version of windows are you using? – BloodPhilia Jun 14 '10 at 16:01
XP, but I imagine the answer should be relatively the same for anything from 2K3, and beyond. – CodeSlave Jun 14 '10 at 17:49
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5 Answers
Go to 'Network Connections' or 'Network and Sharing Center', right click on the connection you want to hide and click on Properties. Then uncheck 'Notify me when this connection..'.
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Does unchecking the box in the properties that says "Notify me when this connection has little or no connectivity" do what you want?
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Nope. The icon remains in either mode. – CodeSlave Jun 14 '10 at 20:55
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Since Tofystedeth's suggestion didn't work, can you convince XP to still "diplay" the icon, but just hide it out of sight instead?
1. Right-click the Start button and choose properties
2. Switch to the Taskbar tab at the top.
3. Tick "Hide Inactive Icons" if it isn't already ticked.
4. Click the "Customise..." button
5. Set the relevant icon to "Always Hide".
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Oddly enough, it doesn't hide that icon (a couple others, but not the network one :-/ ). – CodeSlave Jun 15 '10 at 14:46
To return to Tofystedeth's suggestion again - have you got the corresponding "Show icon in notification area when connected" ticked? If you've got it ticked - what happens if you untick it? (I'm thinking it could be that Windows treats that as some type of override on the other suggested options?) – DMA57361 Jun 15 '10 at 15:12
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Goto 'Network Connections' right click on the connections not in use and click 'disable'.
That will turn off the hardware for the connection and make the taskbar icon disappear.
I typically turn off all of the connections that are not in use because it also has the added benefit of saving power.
Note: If you want to add 'Network Connections' to the 'Start Menu', right click on the 'Start' button, goto 'Properties', and find the option in the menu to add a link to the 'Network Connections' folder in the 'Start Menu'.
SideNote: You can also turn off your cd drive in Control Panel->System->Hardware find it in the menu, right click and disable. It's especially nice if you have a cd drive that is unnecessarily loud/obnoxious.
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As I said; because I switch back and forth between wire and wireless, depending on where I am working, don't want to disable and enable network connections all the time. – CodeSlave Jun 15 '10 at 14:49
Oops, I read your question completely wrong... You could try to check the network properties. Instead of right-clicking and disabling right click and hit properties. Somewhere under the settings menu there should be a checkbox along the lines of 'hide inactive icon'. I'd check myself but I'm on Linux right now. – Evan Plaice Jun 15 '10 at 20:59
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Check out my screenshot in my answer to a different question here. Click the show the tray icon in your case.
Hope this helps.
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| dclm-gs1-005070000 |
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I'm wondering if there is any software or hardware solutions to synced audio or audio and video across multiple computers or devices on a network.
I've seen Sonos, and it might be a good solution, but it's also a very expensive solution.
I'd like to be able to play something with realtime audio output on one PC, but hear it on speakers throughout the house, being it the home theater receiver, or another computer in another room.
I saw a solution using the apple iport express, but the latency was unacceptable for anything other than just music. I'd like to avoid running audio wires with baluns to a bunch of amplifiers scattered all over the place when I have cat5 run everywhere.
Is anyone familiar with using this kind of process for whole home audio? The latency is a big deal for me, if I've got video attached to the sound (e.g. watching a hockey game)
I've since installed several squeezeboxes around the house for music purposes, and hook up a serial controlled Onkyo receiver to my automation system. This gives me a little more flexibility, and in most zones I can get realtime audio from a game by using the multizones on the receiver, and for music I can get the rest of the zones all synced up. The sqeezeboxes will sync with each other (thought there is latency for live events) In the areas where this is a problem (such as watching a hockey game) I've distributed HDMI using a matrix switch to 4 different TV's all which have audio out to an amplifier in that room. Allowing me to have zero latency across rooms for live events that need video.
All in all I appreciate the responses but none of them worked for me. I think the HDMI distribution is by far one of the best for video and audio, and squeezebox is cheaper than sonos for the audio (and there are software players that you can run on any PC with a little tweaking they can sync right up for a many zone home audio solution)
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I really haven't found a good supported solution. I think I'm going to end up purchasing a rs232 controllable multizone audio matrix, and run a bunch of wires from the points I need sound output, sound input. Sucks, but every software option was either unsupported, added lots of latency, or the syncing wasn't begin done when multiple output zones were being used at the same time. I guess I just don't understand why a solution doesn't exist over TCPIP – zimmer62 Nov 23 '09 at 19:38
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up vote 1 down vote accepted
If latency is unacceptable your best bet might be to send the audio around the house through FM or wireless speakers (or even cables) http://superuser.com/questions/29182/how-to-pipe-internet-radio-into-a-tuner/29188
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going to run cables, and get a matrix audio switcher. – zimmer62 Nov 23 '09 at 19:38
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Give Airfoil a try. Yes, it does work best for music, but it can handle any audio output from any application. It does have its own video player app, which will keep the audio/video in sync for video files.
I have speakers scattered around the house attached to either a computer or airport express. I can output sound from any program on any computer in the house, and pick and choose which speakers the sound comes out on. Heck, I've been known to hook up an ipod touch to some portable speakers outdoors during parties too.
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I've tried Airfoil, and my biggest complaint was latency, it was just fine for music, but in my application I'm need as close to no latency as possible. Most music wouldn't matter, but imagine trying to watch a live sporting event if your sound was delayed even by a few hundred milliseconds. – zimmer62 Sep 29 '09 at 14:11
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pulseaudio should do that i believe- least thats what the FAQ says
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"Microsoft Windows binaries can be downloaded from Cendio. Note that these are for 0.9.6, dated November 2007. They work, as long as you use one soundcard only, apparently." It seems that the windows platform isn't very well supported for this software. I remember trying it a year back, and was unsuccessful. – zimmer62 Sep 7 '09 at 13:22
well, last time i tries pulseaudio on windows as part of ubuntu portable, which worked fine. Also you never mentioned what OS you were running. – Journeyman Geek Sep 8 '09 at 7:45
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Sorry for the length of this answer - it represents several weeks of trial-and-error research. I'm afraid the details may matter so I've provided more rather than less. It's focused on audio sharing
Like others on this thread, I've been interested in having synchronized audio distributed throughout the house with spaces where the acoustic environments overlap. Since sound travels at about a foot/millisecond, this requires synchronization at approximately the 10s of millisecond level. I've found a way to make this work with VLC and have it remain in sync for hours without wandering. While I admit that I've looked at the VLC source code to try to understand which clocks are being used, I don't pretend to understand what's going on there. Furthermore, much of what I've done has been empirical. Thus, if the folks who really do understand VLC offer clarification on a better way to do this, I'm most receptive. With those caveats out of the way here's what I've done that seems to work.
I have four areas where I'd like to share audio and a collection of computers of various vintages I'm willing to devote to provide audio. Some of these machines run Linux (Ubuntu 12.04) while others run Windows. Overall, it was easier to sync the Linux boxes than the Windows boxes, but it was possible.
On the Linux boxes, it was necessary to update the pulseaudio drivers using ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev/ppa to get the low latency version. Otherwise, the configuration was vanilla. VLC complained about latency without this upgrade. I'm hoping that when we get the 14.04 this problem will go away.
On the Windows boxes I'm running Windows 7 Pro.
The audio is served from VLC a Linux box that is independent of the playback machines. It's just downstream of the firewall where the network enters the house.
The network is a mixture of gigabit wired and wireless (802.11g).
Things that may not matter
Because I'm a time nut, all the machines are locked together in time at the sub-millisecond level using NTP. On the Linux boxes this is trivial. On the windows box, I'm using the Meinberg implementation of ntp (found at http://www.meinbergglobal.com/english/sw/ntp.htm) The box that is serving the audio is synced to the normal external time servers. However, the playback machines have their time synced exclusively to the audio server and follow it closely. The line from the ntp.config file on the playback machines that does this is
server iburst burst minpoll 4 maxpoll 4 prefer
This ensures that time checks are done every 16 seconds - obviously I'm not concerned about network traffic.
The server is set up to monitor the PulseAudio stream so that anything I play on the server will be fed to the output stream.
The output stream is an rtsp stream serving two channels at 44.1kHz. Again, there are probably things I could do to conserve bandwidth, but I'm more interested in getting the sync right than in minimizing bandwidth.
In the Preferences (Under Tools)
1. In the Simple settings, Audio - ensure that Time-Stretching audio is enabled
For the rest of the settings, click "All" at the bottom of Preferences page
2. Allow real-time priority
3. Network synchronization - Check Network master clock and provide the IP of the Master server (this machine in my case)
4. Audio - enable High quality audio resampling and check Enable time stretching audio
5. Input/Codecs - this one seems to matter the most - scroll down to the bottom of the page
1. Set Network caching to 300ms - you may need to vary this based on the speed and contention of your machines - on mine 300 is enough
2. Clock reference average counter - I found that 1000 worked well - this seems to affect how quickly the synchronization follows small changes in time
3. Enable Clock synchronisation
4. Clock jitter - 30 ms works on my systems
5. Check Network synchronisation
6. I've provided file names for Record directory and Timeshift directory - I don't know if this matters
7. Timeshift granularity - I've set to 1000, again, I'm not sure this matters.
Set up the clients to play the stream your server is providing.
The clients are set up to match the master with a few exceptions - here I'll list just the differences
Windows- Preferences
1. Increase the priority of the process
2. Set the clock source to System time (Dangerous!) - I've tried the other settings and they tend to drift. This seems to work well as long as the NTP is doing it's job. When I turn off NTP, things begin to drift. From looking at the source code, it appears that this option uses GetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime () - on modern systems this is a sub-microsecond timer and appears to be the clock that NTP is managing. I'm sure there's a reason it's marked Dangerous so use at your own risk - it seems to be working for me.
3. In Network Sync - Don't check the Network master clock (this is client after all) Do supply the IP for your master clock.
Otherwise, everything is the same as on the master.
Linux -
1. You don't have a choice on the clock - you do need to provide the IP of the master just as you do for Windows.
Having said all of the above, all of the Linux clients I've set up seem to work well - even a very antique netbook with very little horsepower.
Windows is a different story. I've tried two boxes both with i7 processors - they are relatively new and fast. One, a Lenovo laptop, works with the recipe above. The other, a Shuttle Box, worked to a certain degree but after a few hours would start drift. I finally gave up and set it up to dual boot with Ubuntu. Once I did that, everything just worked. While I'm convinced that Windows can be made to work since I have an existence proof, Linux seems to be closer to a reliable solution. I now have three boxes with the Linux client and they all work flawlessly and stay in sync on time scales of many hours without needing to restart the VLC client.
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Welcome to Super User. Don't be sorry about the length! Long answers are better. Try to avoid the word "thread" here, since this is not a discussion forum, it is just a question and answer. – Kevin Panko 15 hours ago
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It should be possible to use VLC for this purpose.
See e.g. How-To: Stream almost anything using VLC:
"... we are going to show you how to stream any type of media file from your computer to another device on your network ... Using these techniques you could stream video from your office computer to a laptop plugged into the living room TV and control the playlist with your PDA."
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I didn't see anything in that article about synchronizing the playback on multiple computers. I guess I can install it and play with the software to see if I discover any options that will keep the two machine in sync. – zimmer62 Aug 31 '09 at 17:53
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| dclm-gs1-005080000 |
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I want to run multiple scripts simultaneously, but monitoring them or detecting which has died is difficult as they are all listed as wscript.exe in the process list.
How can I change the name of the running process?
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Only way I can think of is to make a copy of wscript.exe for each script you need to have a unique name in process explorer then explicitly call that copy.
For example say you have renamer.vbs create a copy of wscript.exe and call it renamer.exe
Now run your script like:
...\renamer.exe renamer.vbs
You process should show up as renamer.exe
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Cheers, I didn't see this answered on SU and was intending adding the solution as per blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/…. You beat me to it :) – Lunatik Aug 12 '11 at 8:33
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As long as the script is running locally then you can copy wscript.exe, renaming it to whatever you like then call this from a shortcut.
For example, if you wanted to show the process as WorldsBestScript.exe then you would call it like this
WorldsBestScript.exe TheActualScript.vbs
Properties screenshot
The above assumes you've copied wscript.exe to the same folder as the VBS file, if it is anywhere else then you'd obviously have to include the full path to WorldsBestScript.exe
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| dclm-gs1-005090000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I want to repeat the last command that matches foo bar. Using !! doesn't work (it's not the last command I used), and neither does !foo, because my history looks something like
foo bar dee zep
foo boo lee kee
foo bee
If I try to type !foo bar, zsh auto-completes to foo bee (which is the same as !! anyway) as I hit the space. How would I do this?
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up vote 2 down vote accepted
!?foo bar
See http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Doc/Release/Expansion.html#Event-Designators
Edit: No, you must not escape the spaces. If you need to add something that is not part of the history expansion, separate it with another ?, e.g.:
echo hello
echo foo
!?echo hello? world # runs "echo hello world"
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do you need to escape the spaces? – rubixibuc Feb 19 '12 at 3:30
Perhaps I'm unable to do this because I'm using oh-my-zsh; I can't type !?foo bar, because as I hit the ' ' space key, zsh autocompletes to foo bee; I lose the event designator from the prompt, and further ? don't help me replace bee with bar. – simont Feb 29 '12 at 19:22
There's an bindkey in oh-my-zsh, under lib/keybindings.zsh, called magic-space (line 23, approx). It does history expansion on ' '; disabling this bind allowed me to use the !? event designator. Thanks :) – simont Apr 13 '12 at 21:32
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| dclm-gs1-005100000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I have read that it is possible to 'umount' a disk that is otherwise busy by using the 'lazy' option. The manpage has this to say about it:
umount - unmount file systems
-l Lazy unmount. Detach the filesystem from the filesystem hierarchy now, and cleanup all references to the filesystem as soon as it is not busy anymore. This option allows a "busy" filesystem to be unmounted. (Requires kernel 2.4.11 or later.)
But what would be the point in that? I considered why we dismount partitions at all:
1. To remove the hardware
2. To perform operations on the filesystem that would be unsafe to do while mounted
In either of these cases, all a 'lazy' unmount serves IMHO is to make it more difficult to determine if the disk really is dismounted and you can actually proceed with these actions. The only application for umount -l seems to be for inexperienced users to 'feel' like they've achieved something they haven't.
Why would you use a lazy unmount?
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up vote 2 down vote accepted
This is actually implemented to gain more time to do follow-up tasks in administrative tasks.
If further tasks, independent of this one is waiting in the pipeline, then you can lazy-unmount and go on with others in the batch.
Example: Task 1 and Task 2 are two administrative tasks scheduled back to back.
Task 1 Daily backup
This one copies a large number of files from a project partition to a backup partition, say, /mnt/backupProj, which will be mounted on the fly and unmounted at the end of this task.. The copying takes a significant amount of time.
Task 2 Update SQL-views
Performs a series of database view updates on a dedicated server.
Task 2 is obviously completely independent of Task 1, so we can lazy-unmount /mnt/backupProj without waiting for the backup task to complete.
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Can you provide an example? In what situation would it 'gain/save time'? – deed02392 Apr 13 '12 at 16:30
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Because you're lazy - you want to unmount after the disk operations are done.
Here's a plausible scenario:
You're using rsync to perform your backups and walk away. You can umount -l the drive and once it's finished copying and synched, it unmounts, so that when you come back after a break (that you know will take longer than the backup) you can just unplug the drive instead of having to fiddle with the keyboard again.
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If you were lazy, surely you would want to save MORE time by not having to use the argument, because once you got back you knew you could dismount it immediately now the backup has finished? Or make dismounting the drive part of the post-backup operations? – deed02392 Apr 13 '12 at 15:10
Think of it this way: the disk is no longer busy - unmount it now. It's no longer mounted so nothing else can write to it. It's "do this when you can" instead of erroring out. – Broam Apr 13 '12 at 19:07
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I use lazy umount in cases where it was obviously stuck for various reasons (such as nfs server down), also when I need to see the original content of the directory that was mounted over by the mount. In both cases the mount is busy. I think there are other edge cases but these 2 are the most common reasons I used the option.
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USB-drives sometimes get stalled because of hardware failure. Even if you reconnect the drive physically, you get another device-name. The old device-name cannot be unmounted normally. amount -l forced the dead entry to vanish.
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| dclm-gs1-005110000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Somebody knows how to ignore capitalization with regular expression in Notepad++?
From shell it works as follows:
egrep -i '^(FroM|SuBjeCT|DatE): ' filename.txt
Thanks in advance.
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In the Find dialog use the Match case checkbox to choose whether you want case-insensitive searching or not, ie. leave it UNCHECKED to ignore capitalization with NotePad++ regular expressions.
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You can use the ?i modifier.
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| dclm-gs1-005120000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
As I follow it, there's a full installer for .NET 3.5
And a .NET 3.5 SP1 installer
Also as I follow it, the first of those two links is what you use when you have, say, a clean XP machine with no previous versions of .NET on it (or at least nothing past 1.1). The second link is what you use if you have .NET 3.5 already and just need .NET 3.5 SP1 on top of it.
Is there an installer that assumes you have no previous version of .NET on your machine but also has .NET 3.5 SP1 as well? Or am I wrong and that second link does that?
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up vote 2 down vote accepted
I think the second installer will install everything, even if no previous .NET framework exists. (Apart from V1.1)
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Yeah and I have a clean VM in progress to test this, I was just wondering if anyone knew for sure :) – Schnapple Oct 26 '09 at 15:03
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Yes, the second installer link you provided is the full installer for .NET 3.5 SP1. Also do remember to apply the .NET 3.5 SP1 Update too.
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| dclm-gs1-005130000 |
The house was built to maximise the beach views.
The house was built to maximise the beach views.
Evan Gledhill and his wife, Maree, had a goal - to build a holiday house where they could handle the ebb and flow of visiting family. With five children, their five partners and 10 grandchildren, this would not be cheap. Fortunately, Gledhill, who previously headed a construction company, had a few thoughts on how he could build a solution.
In 2005, the couple, based primarily in the Hunter Valley, started hunting for a coastal block to buy. They looked at every beach between The Entrance in the north down as far as Pearl Beach in the south. What they found was a rundown three-bedroom shack on an elevated block in Wamberal. Price tag: $3,065,000.
''At the time, it was a good price,'' Gledhill says. The original property had plumbing issues and was effectively uninhabitable, so the real work was still ahead.
The original dwelling.
The original dwelling.
Digging in
Gledhill quickly realised renovating was out of the question.
''We looked at renovating but with the poor quality of the foundations and the new rules from council, it just wouldn't have been worth it,'' he says.
The new beach house.
The new beach house.
So he enlisted Andrew Vingilis of Corben Architects to draw up plans for a four-bedroom house, split between two pavilions, that would do justice to the beachside block.
With plans in hand, Gledhill took over. He wanted to build the house himself with the help of subcontractors but to do that he would have to be close by.
''I actually lived next door,'' he says. ''The Catholic Church has an old hostel on the beach and they gave me a room in there for the year.''
Evan Gledhill project managed the build.
Evan Gledhill project managed the build.
As indicated by the cost breakdown, the first part of construction was the most expensive and most important aspect. Construction on a sand dune requires substantial digging in, and you can forget the traditional beach tools of a bucket and spade - Gledhill spent $176,000 driving foundations into the ground with a piledriver.
From then on, things went pretty smoothly for the building veteran, who has more than 30 years of experience under his belt.
Sunny days
Floor plan.
Floor plan.
The end product is called ''Nautica'' and it is a fusion of timber and stone that is both elegant and understated.
But as the name suggests, the house is not the star of the show. On an elevated block, the 180-degree ocean views from Forresters Beach to Terrigal Haven will grab your eye long before you notice things such as the designer kitchen, the sandstone fireplace or the 600-bottle cellar.
The finished house has allowed the couple to embrace a new lifestyle involving morning swims, walking their Labrador on the dog-friendly beach, frequenting the cafes of Terrigal and a whole lot of sitting back and looking at the view.
But logistics were also important to the couple, who wanted the house to be enjoyed by the whole family. That is why it is split into two pavilions - you can have two or more families staying in the same house, both in comfort and with a large degree of privacy.
Moving on
Having had their time in the sun, the couple have decided to sell Wamberal and head back to the Hunter Valley permanently - though Gledhill is quick to point out that ''it's not because we don't like Wamberal; we love Wamberal''.
''Our children have moved to Sweden, Victoria and the Hunter Valley, so we don't use the space as much,'' he says.
The property is now listed for sale for more than $4.5 million through McGrath Central Coast.
In a nutshell
Design and council approval: 10 months.
Construction: 12 months.
Land size 816 sq m.
Architect Andrew Vingilis - Corben Architects, 9904 1844.
Builder Owner-builder.
Green points
• Designed to maximise natural light.
• Insulation and automatic aluminium louvres.
• Heat-pump hot-water system with two 3000-litre grey-water tanks servicing the toilets and laundry.
• A 20,000-litre rainwater tank for hosing and irrigation.
• Installation of fixed aluminium louvre blades and New Guinea rosewood shutters on the western elevation windows and a large, sail-covered area.
Favourite feature
Evan Gledhill says: ''The 180-degree views up and down the beach, they are beautiful. Also, the main thing for us was being away from the busy area of Terrigal but still within walking distance of the shops and cafes.''
Insider's tip
Gledhill says: ''Select your architect and builder well. Check that the architect has done similar projects and that the builder has done the quality of work that you are looking for.''
What went right
The build came in on budget.
What went wrong
The market for coastal properties has readjusted since the couple's purchase in 2005.
Insurances $10,000
Architect $62,000
Civil and structural engineer $38,000
Geotechnical engineer $7000
Preliminaries $123,000
Demolition $11,000
Piling $176,000
Excavation $16,000
Concreter/ formwork/reo $198,000
Brick and blockwork $61,000
Structural steel $30,000
Metalwork $36,000
Automatic louvres $38,000
Mount White stonework $32,000
Carpentry $113,000
Joinery $98,000
Windows and doors $121,000
Door and window hardware $17,000
Roofer $108,000
Cement render $24,000
Plasterboard $92,000
Ceramic tiler $41,000
Glazier $6000
Stairs $15,000
Timber floors $31,000
Carpet $6000
Painter $49,000
Landscaping and water tanks $24,000
Plumbing and drainer $61,000
Airconditioning $46,000
Electrical $65,000
Security $6000
Total $1,761,000 | dclm-gs1-005140000 |
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Old November 28, 2009, 08:57 PM #17
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Join Date: October 22, 2006
Posts: 823
Response to 1" per yard standard for a cyl bore bbl.
It's not so much a particular source that it was read from , but rather information that has been accrued over my years shooting a 12 ga. I figure that just as most firearms ,even of the same make and model, tend to have preferences for certain types of ammo, so it goes for the ole shotgun. From experience and discussions with people over that last 20 years. It averages out that a cylinder bore barrel will shoot 1 inch per yard, if it is a good one, and it also helps if it is a more modern one.
In general most shotguns of the riot gun type would actually shoot a little worse than 1" per yard, but if you got one that did you considered yourself lucky. Today they call a barrel cylinder bore when it isn't really a cyl. bore. Typically they even have some constriction and it varys between manufacturers. In all actualality they tend to be more of a fixed modified choke. The real problem is related to the nature of a shotgun barrel being different internally than others. The amount of constriction in one barrel may throw a tighter pattern than another with the same choke, as the amount of constriction isn't the same for every manufacturer. You might get a good 18 pattern with cyl. bore on a new shotgun and then use the same model in say a 1976 cyl. bore riot gun and get 24 at 20 yards. Then you put a modified choke in the older gun and throw a 16 pattern with the choke in it. Then comes back boring in the barrels. Just as was said earlier more shot usually means a little larger pattern in the same shotgun, simply due to more shot getting in each others way to get through that slight bit of constriction provided by a choke system. What back boring will do, especially for a 3.5 inch shotshell is even out the spread and keep it a little tighter than it would without it. The problem with back boring is that it usually prevents the use of slugs, the only reason I can imagine that causes this little drawback is a pressure spike when it hits the chokes and that the thinner walls at the beginning of the barrel can't take it, therefore you are advised, by manufacturers, to not shot slugs out of a back bored barrel. Then there comes a point where your choke can have too much restriction and you patterns can get worse from it being too tight, not to mention in some cases it can be bad for the choke, barrel and potentially the gun and operator.
Suffice it to say, this is the reason people are often told to take a new shotgun and pattern it with different ammuntion and chokes. Find the best that meets your particular need and go with it. Another thing to consider is that people used to and in some cases still do cut a barrel down to the 18 inch riot gun length and then expect them to shoot as tight as a modern made barrel. When their new "custom shotgun" doesn't they go about blaming somthing for the problem, other than considering it is because they now have a true cylinder bore without the countours of a purpose built barrel on their new "tacticool" "shotty". For the best patterns buy a barrel and forget using a hack saw.
As the shotgun becomes more refined by experience and technology, expect them to get a little better than you see them today. Still, you should always know that the closer you get to optimum the more difficult it becomes to eek out more performance. Just like an old muscle car. They can get more powerful and have better handling, they still won't match a modern perfomance car, as the modern tech and knowledge gained from years past allow the purpose built machine to far exceed the origals in the envelope they were designed within. That old musle car can match you if the driver is more skilled and they sure do have a personalty, whereas the new stuff is almost sterile in nature.
There really is an art in the making of a shotgun barrel and getting the proper internal demensions in sync to have a much better patterning gun. Alot of things change and many stay the same. If you do load your own, putting buffer in with the buck shot helps even out the patterns as well. The reason has to do with less deformation of the pellets and hence less scatter and randomness in that spread.
Get your shotgun, load up on the ammo and pattern that sucker. Get to know what she likes and dislikes. Just like a good woman, she'll make you better when you really understand what she wants to be at her best, in turn making you better.
The organic nature of shotgunning has a method all it's own. For the most part this is where the saying, you don't aim a shotgun, you point it comes from. Granted this is more true of a custom bird gun, usually one of those ultra high dollar doubles, that seem to be outrageous in price come in. They are custom fitted and allow the shooter and shotgun to act as one, aiming only slows the process of engaging moving targets. To some degree aiming is a gun a conscious effort and it contadictory to typical shotgun useage. In a sense thinking about shooting and shooting are not conducive to great shotgunning. Even will all that said. It all comes back to the intended purpose of the shotgun you are going to use. A bird gun, slug gun, deer gun, and riot/ combat shotgun all have a slightly different set of standards to be met that will make them good at their job. Get what feels good to you and that which suits your needs the best.
Like most of you guys out there, I tend to like the riot gun for home defence and general purpose use and don't need a field gun for anything other than the occassional clays session or hunting bambi now an again. So it goes back to all that jazz with the lights, sights and the potential fights your partner may be needed in. The best thing to do is shoot, shoot, shoot. At the end of the day you'll find you know what you can, cannot, should and should not do with that boomstick.
Slugthrower is offline
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Economy & Budget
US politicians overestimate America's stability
Food stamp cuts a crime against the poor by politicians
This Friday, Nov. 1, America will learn the latest monthly jobs report news, which will not be good due to the Republican-caused government shutdown.
This Friday, the poorest Americans will learn that their hunger will worsen because their food stamps will be cut unless Congress and the president act.
Bipartisan debt deal should include a major jobs bill
Bipartisan talks to set short- and long-term spending limits should include a substantial job program that would be effective immediately. The immediate crisis in America is jobs, not deficits, which are declining.
Power to tax and destroy
Tax reform is likely to be one of the hot-button topics in the months ahead as politicians on both sides of the aisle grapple with how to make the federal income tax system flatter, fairer and less complicated.
The tax code itself has been altered, fixed, reformed, flattened, expanded and criticized since it was created in 1913 by constitutional amendment. Now it just may be time to get rid of the income tax altogether as a failed, progressive experiment.
Pope Francis, Hillary Clinton, and the Tea Party victory in the shutdown battle
Ernest Hemingway said write one true sentence. Here I write two.
The first is widely known. The recent fiasco increases the odds Democrats can win back control of the House and keep control of the Senate.
The second true sentence is the big secret which you read here first: the Tea Party won a great economic victory in the shutdown battle by forcing President Obama and Democrats to accept more than $70 billion of spending cuts and forcing them to accept continuation of the budget cuts of the sequester.
Financial terrorism continues from House GOP; shutdown must end
The latest offer from those I have called Banana Republicans would keep the government shut down and threaten again to default the nation and crash world markets in a few weeks unless Republicans get their way.
This is financial terrorism, pure and simple.
The deadbeat president
The circular logic of President Obama’s press conference performance on the debt ceiling would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic.
Obama proclaimed he would not negotiate with Congress on raising the debt ceiling, while at the same time explaining that, “There comes a point in which if the Treasury cannot hold auctions to sell Treasury bills, we do not have enough money coming in to pay all our bills on time. It’s very straightforward."
So it seems that Obama by refusing to negotiate is willing to allow this very occurrence if he doesn’t get his way. Yet he attacks his political opponents, who have actually proposed a path forward for both ending the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling, as holding the nation hostage.
Default debacle: Epic crisis or epic opportunity
Congress would be well-advised to solve the crisis that has driven its popularity down to levels of defective dog food. There is a real prospect of a U.S. default that would crash the markets and the economy. If default happens, the people of an angry nation would surround both houses of Congress waving pitchforks and lifting a finger that would not be a thumb pointed upward for victory.
In preparation for my column on Thursday I have been privately canvassing opinion on both sides of the aisle and suggesting my own version of a deal, which will be detailed in my column if and only if I believe there is some prospect of success.
Shutdown and debt-ceiling crises: Tea Party Republicans could crash the world economy
Because of the extremism of their policies and tactics in threatening to shut down the U.S. government within the day and destroy the full faith and credit of the U.S. by denying a debt ceiling increase in mid-October, Republicans in the House of Representatives, dominated by Tea Party fanatics, could crash financial markets around the world this month.
Many of the great financial crashes have historically occurred during October. It could happen again. Let's understand the interplay between the shutdown crisis over spending, which reaches a crescendo today, and the debt-ceiling crisis, which reaches a crash point in mid-October.
Today the House GOP fanaticism would close the Statue of Liberty and undermine the ability to government to function. And then, the debt-ceiling crisis would be a direct attack on the financial integrity of the U.S. The shutdown crisis further erodes what little credibility remains for the Congress. The debt-ceiling crisis would destroy the good faith and credit of the U.S. itself, shattering confidence throughout global markets and probably causing a financial crash. | dclm-gs1-005160000 |
2 weeks ago
Congolese farmer Maria Kahambu carries the day's harvest of soybeans in Kiwanja, a town around 20 kilometres (12 miles) away from the fighting between army troops and rebels, on November 2, 2013. The leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo's M23 rebels has urged his fighters to lay down arms against army troops waging an offensive against them in the country's troubled east. The call came with the rebels on the back foot as DR Congo troops pounded hilltop positions where die-hard fighters have holed up after being forced from their last stronghold this week. AFP PHOTO/JUNIOR D. KANNAHJunior D. Kannah/AFP/Getty Images | dclm-gs1-005170000 |
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Service and thoughfulness are the hallmarks of the Cipriani. High-quality food and clean rooms are a given, so the distinguishing aspects of a stay at the Cipriani become the less-tangible factors. Every staff person seems not only well-trained (they know the procedure manual), but also apparently carefully screened prior to employment for the ability to be helpful and coureteus AS A WAY OF LIFE, and not just to hold into a job, as is usually the case in New York City hotels. That's what makes the Cipriani in a class by itself, akin to the Goring in London. The location doesn't hurt either. Kevin Cunningham Canton, Massachusetts
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Related Issues
| dclm-gs1-005180000 |
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Revision as of 13:12, March 28, 2013 by SPIKE (talk | contribs)
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For those without comedic tastes, the so-called experts at Wikipedia have an article about ?.
edit What's the origin?
Yes, the origin? The question mark began, not when people first started asking questions (a common misconception), but when people started writing questions? It likely began with a Greek philosopher, who asked questions to themselves, which is a bit crazy? It also might have originated from the all mighty retards whom always question everything and there stupidity might have lead to the parents giving them a crayon and them drawing a retarded symbol which is know the QUESTION MARK which symbolizes all dumbasses and their question asking?
edit How do I use it?
Why, you just did! Just slap it on to the end of a sentence that sounds like a confused and yearning plea for knowledge. Accompany this with an upward inflection. Use it rhetorically to make people feel stupid ("Can you ask me a question? I'll have to think about it, asshole). It may also be used for right wing propaganda ("Aren't you an American???"). As well as comic uses like "what the fuck is a caterpillar doing on my wang?"
edit What if there are more than one?
Each additional ? up to three indicates rising levels of anger/excitement. Anything beyond that looks stupid or indicates insanity.
1. What time is it? Peaceful, normal tone.
2. You're pregnant?? Surprise.
3. You're also gay??? Shock, confusion, outrage.
4. You also have AIDS????? Stupid, insane. (WARNING: DO USE A LOT!!!!)
5. WHAT????? shows major stupidity due to the law uf dumbassery.
edit Valley Girls and Other Symbol Abusers
Linguists have violent arguments? about Valley Girls using it at the end of every sentence? and even at random points in between?
Other punctuation criminals include the band members of Panic! at the Disco, who instead abuse the exclamation point, the Robin to ?'s Batman.
Prince first considered changing his name to ?, but was talked out of it by Michael Jackson.
I just Abused it.
edit See Also
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Necro-Deth Cannibals from Hell
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
Revision as of 03:29, February 6, 2013 by SPIKE (talk | contribs)
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Photograph of the lead singer, Napalmphile. It may have been doctored.
“After I listened to their music, my ears hurt.”
~ Captain Obvious on Necro-Deth Cannibals from Hell
“You know, I think they might be kinda hardcore.”
~ Captain Understatement on Necro-Deth Cannibals from Hell
~ Necro-Deth Cannibals from Hell on themselves
Necro-Deth Cannibals from Hell is a death metal band who's members actually come from hell, at least according to the band.[1] The band was formed in 2008, on election day, when the gates of hell flung wide open. Contrary to popular opinion, Satan himself is not part of the band; the Prince of Darkness chooses to remain in the role of manager. Necro-Deth Cannibals from Hell consists of Napalmphile, Pus Blister, Nail Enafronalobe, Stryking Corpse, and Todd.
The band's style has so eluded description that a new word had to be created for the purpose: Horrifucious. Since their sudden emergence, the band has enjoyed moderate success. While most people find their music too horrifucious, an underground movement has swelled of those who feel the music is just horrifucious enough.
As yet only one album has been released, Grief of a Rotting Sadist. This album sold well amongst its loyal fans, but failed to achieve massive success. Three hits were produced from this effort: Broken Dead, Acid Mouth Wash, and Eating Babies Gives Me Bad Breath. After the 2010 Summer Tour, they began working on a split album with fellow death metallers Rectal Prolapse, called Rectal Necro-Deth. It was scheduled for release in 2011, but with the breakup of Rectal Prolapse, the effort has been delayed.
edit History
Fans trying to emulate Necro-Deth's first performance.
They rose to public attention when they spontaneously gave a free concert in New York City's Central Park at midnight November 9, 2008. The effectiveness of this concert has left many puzzled, as there was no stage, electricity, or even an audience. Nevertheless, this concert has been viewed as a holy event by the most devoted of Necro-Deth fans, who put it on the same spiritual level as Woodstock. Immediately after this concert, the band members ran out and ate several homeless people, leading to the inclusion of the word "Cannibals" in their name. This is also viewed as an important event by fans, as without it they would simply be called Necro-Deth from Hell, which, according to one vocal fan, "Just isn't as awesome, you know."
Little is known about the band prior to their emergence on election night. In spite of repeated attempts by reporters to gain interviews with the band, the mouths of all involved remain closed, except for the repeated claim that the band hails from the Fiery Pit.[2] This claim is, as yet, unsubstantiated. Nevertheless, the loyal followers of the group accept it as fact,[3] and since no one has been able to prove otherwise, it has become a virtual fact.
Since their emergence their following has steadily grown until they were finally able to start charging for their concerts.
edit 2010 Summer Concert Tour
One of the fans at the Hell, Michigan tour stop.
The summer tour began on June 6th, 2010, giving the date 6/6/10. The band would have preferred 6/6/06, but they were a little late; and even though Napalmphile very angrily suggested that they go back in time to 2006, no one, not even the Prince of Darkness, can make that happen.
The first stop on the tour was Hell, Michigan, and while the band had not yet released a schedule, it was known that the tour would end in Detroit, Michigan. Some were at first confused by this news, as they thought that Detroit and Hell are the same place. More than half of Hell, Michigan came to see the band; this isn't as impressive as it sounds, as the population of Hell is only around 250 people. It was a particularly tragic event, and by that we're not referring to the music. During the final song of the concert, bassist Pus Blister became very excited and attempted to stage dive into the crowd. He is a very large man, a very very large man. While the actual stage dive was successful, the people caught under his grotesque flabbiness were unable to support his weight. They were crushed, and not figuratively. Pus Blister, however, was just fine, as he had a cushioned landing. When asked if they had any regrets over the loss of these fans, the band replied that this is likely how they would've wanted to die: trying to support the band.
Another stop in a small town near Death Valley, California also led to the deaths of fans in attendance. The tragedy occured as a result of drummer Stryking Corpse's decision to sharpen the tips of his drumsticks to fine points. As the concert drew to a close, Stryking Corpse threw one of the sticks into the crowd, assumedly so a fan could have it for a souvenier. Rather than spin harmlessly into the crowd, however, it soared like a spear into the skulls of three head-bangers who happened to be lined up near each other. It stuck into the back wall of the building, dripping blood. The bodies were found after the concert ended and most of the crowd had dispersed. When asked why he had turned his sticks into deadly projectiles, and if he was sorry about the tragic turn of events, all he would say was that it was cool and laugh uncontrollably.[4]
At another stop, lead guitarist Nail Enafronalobe's guitar burst into flame in the middle of an exceptionally energetic solo. He screamed in surprise, then threw the flaming guitar into the crowd. Several fans caught fire from the flying guitar and burned to death. He later said that he was saddened by the tragic event, marking the first time that a band member lamented the death of a non-member.[5]
As the tour progressed, the turnout at the tour stops steadily decreased. Not surprising, as the fans were figuring out that attending a concert would likely result in their deaths. This trend ended at the final concert in Detroit; the auditorium was filled almost to half capacity, possibly because the people of Detroit are used to people being killed around them. Near the end of the concert, Napalmphile took on a challenge prompted by a fan comment. Some had previously accused Napalmphile of not truly loving napalm, as no one had ever seen him do anything with it.[6] So he took a cup of napalm and tried to drink it. It burned the inside of his mouth, so he spit it into the face of one of the fans and burned a hole in the head of the unfortunate attendee. Napalmphile later said that he would not be taking napalm on tour anymore; the napalm refused to comment.
After the tour was over, the band announced that they would not go on another tour for some time, to allow their fan base to build back up.
edit Deceased Members
edit Serpentine Pedophile
Serpentine Pedophile died in the middle of a concert on November 27, 2009, when his head fell off. Reports say he was head banging in his usual vigorous manner when his neck gave out, unable to handle the strain. The head is, as yet, still missing, since it bounced out into the crowd and was carried away by a fan, who no doubt thought it was a fantastic souvenir. He was replaced on the drums by Stryking Corpse. According to the band, he was sent from Hell as soon as Serpentine Pedophile met his end, and that there are plenty of other "Hell-fiend musicians waiting for their chance to Rock"; presumably, Necro-Deth will never be short a band member.[7] Serpentine Pedophile's memorial service was held on November 30, 2009 to a crowd of dozens; where he was buried has not been disclosed. The only remark that Napalmphile gave was that he returned to Hell.[8] It should be noted that his mouth was very red as he said this.
edit Abysmal Nausea
On January 7, 2010, it was made public that the band's current bass player, Pus Blister, was not the band's original bassist. This role was originally filled by Abysmal Nausea, a denizen of the Infernal Pit who, according to the band, was sacrificed to Satan just days after their emergence on the public scene.[9] The band gave no reason for keeping Abysmal Nausea's death a secret, but of more interest to most was why he was sacrificed in the first place. Several theories exist as to why he was sacrificed, even among band members. The most common theory, which is advanced by Napalmphile, states that Satan explicitly demanded the sacrifice, theatening to cut off their "contract" if they didn't obey. Other theories state that the band killed him because he was a crappy bassist, and they wanted to replace him for their first studio album; that the sacrifice was a publicity stunt meant only to promote their album; and even that he killed himself because he had a "stupid, stupid name". Supporters of the latter view tend to point to a suicide note written in Abysmal Nausea's blood, asking the band to take responsibility for his death.[10] Most fans ignore this view, since the band vehemently denies it.
edit Brainworm
Brainworm died on March 1, 2010, when some of the strings on his guitar broke and caused multiple lacerations across his wrists, thighs and jugular vein. This occurred during a practice session in Brainworm's house, so there were no eyewitnesses, but the band gave a short statement to the press explaining what happened. They said that a replacement guitarist, Nail Enafronalobe, is on his way from Hell.[11] He arrived on March 4 of that year. They refused to comment on why the string lacerations looked so much like knife wounds.
edit Musical Style and Influence
Mario is among the dozens of Necro-Deth fans.[12]
The band's music is, by anyone's standards, unforgettable. Even those who find it too horrifucious claim to have trouble getting the sounds out of their heads, even after hours of therapy.
In perhaps his longest statement yet, Napalmphile has said the band's greatest musical influence is the 1960's British group The Beatles.[13] Everyone, including the faithful, are at a loss to explain this as no one is able to discern anything resembling the music of The Beatles in Necro-Deth's sound. No resemblance at all. Not even a little bit. Paul McCartney has even been recorded as saying there is, in fact, more in common between a pig and a super model.[14]
edit Horrifucious
Horrifucious, the word created to describe Necro-Deth's sound, stands as the fastest word to be created, enter public vocabulary, and get an entry in Webster's Dictionary. Some have protested this word's official inclusion, making the case that the word is meaningless without the band, just as the band is meaningless without the word. The one is meaningless without the other, creating a vicious circle that can only end in insanity. Supporters of the word have said that it is crucial for it to be included. Before the word, when people were asked to describe Necro-Deth Cannibals from Hell, their brains would literally shut down trying to think of a suitable description. This led to a mass epidemic of Necro-Deth induced comas. With the creation of the word horrifucious this condition has been reversed.
edit Band Members
Napalmphile singing Necro-Deth's hit song Acid Mouth Wash.
edit Former Band Members
• Abysmal Nausea: Bass (Unfortunately, had to be sacrificed to the Dark Lord)
• Serpentine Pedophile: Drums (His head fell off as he was head-banging in concert)
• Brainworm: Lead Guitar (Slashed to death by his own guitar strings in a jam session)
edit Discography
• Grief of a Rotting Sadist (2009)
• Rectal Necro-Deth (split w/Rectal Prolapse) (TBA)
edit Footnotes
1. Brainworm, Nov 11, 2008: WE COME FROM HELL!!!
2. Todd, Nov 21, 2008: WE COME FROM HELL!!!
3. Necro-Deth fan, Dec 12, 2008: THEY COME FROM HELL!!!
4. Nov 21, 2010, Journalist: So, Mr. Corpse, why did you sharpen your drumsticks into tiny spears of bloody death? Stryking Corpse: Hey, that's good, I'm gonna write a song about that. Journalist: (after an exasperated sigh) Do you have any regrets about losing those three fans? Stryking Corpse: Are you kidding? That was cool! (laughing uncontrollably)
5. Nov 21, 2010, Journalist: So how are you taking the burning of several fans? Nail Enafronalobe: Pretty hard. I had that guitar ever since I was just a little hellspawn. We did everything together. Everything! How am I going to continue without her?
6. July 11, 2010, Journalist: There are a few fans that have wondered about your name. They wonder if you really love napalm when no one has ever seen you do anything with it. Napalmphile: Of course not on stage, that would cross the line of decency. Journalist: (blank stare) Napalmphile: What? Journalist: You come from Hell. Napalmphile: THAT'S RIGHT!
7. Stryking Corpse, Nov 27, 2009: I was sent by the Dark Lord, Beelzebub, the moment that Serpentine Pedophile WENT TO HELL! When I return home, someone will take my place, as well; there are plenty of Hell-fiend musicians waiting for their chance to rock! Necro-Deth Cannibals from Hell will never die!
8. Interviewer, Nov 30, 2009: How is the band taking this loss? Napalmphile: Well, we take comfort in knowing that HE RETURNED TO HELL! Still, it's hard; he was a very tasty drummer. Interviewer: Wait, did you say tasty? Napalmphile: No. Interviewer: Yes you did, you said "tasty". Napalmphile: ...WE COME FROM HELL!
9. Napalmphile, Press conference on Jan 7, 2010: We feel the need to let everyone know that Pus Blister is not our first bass player. When we emerged after THE GATES OF HELL FLUNG WIDE OPEN!!!! (picks up the podium and uses it to bludgeon a cameraman to death), our bassist was an infernal creature named Abysmal Nausea, one of the most evil creatures to ever roam the Fiery Pit. Unfortunately, we had to sacrifice him to our manager, Satan, or risk losing our... contract.
10. Abysmal Nausea, Suicide note found in Napalmphile's possesssion (The guy who found it was never seen again): Dear Todd, I just ripped myself to shreads with my own hands and painted my hotel room red with my own blood. Don't spend too much time trying to figure out how I did it and then wrote this note, just have the band claim responsibility for my death. The reason for this is nothing short of my stupid, stupid name. I mean, seriously, "Abysmal Nausea"? You've got to be kidding me! What was he smoking when he came up with that pile of crap?! Can you imagine a stupider name than that!?
11. Napalmphile, Press conference on Nov 21, 2010: Brainworm, our lead guitarist, died yesterday in a freak accident. Apparently, his strings broke and cut off most of his limbs and slit his throat. Journalist: Mr. Phile, why do the lacerations on Brainworm look like they were caused by a knife? Napalmphile: Luckily, the Dark Lord has already sent a replacement. His name is Nail Enafronalobe, and he's supposed to be MORE HELLISH than Brainworm.
12. Mario, Dec 26, 2009: This music f***ing rocks! WOO-HOO!
13. Napalmphile, Jan 4, 2009: I think our biggest musical influence is the Beatles. Interviewer: Seriously?! Napalmphile: WE COME FROM HELL!
14. Paul McCartney, Jan 5, 2009: Honestly, I can’t see how they get off saying that! There’s more in common between a pig and a super model! When we were together, I felt like holding a girl’s hand was pushing the line of decency; this Napalm fellow talks about cutting his sister’s head off and raping the severed head! While we’re talking of this, you’ve heard him sing, haven’t you? If you can call that singing! Honestly, he warbles like a stuck pig! And what the bloody is an electric triangle, anyway?!
Personal tools | dclm-gs1-005220000 |
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So I have a crazy project setup (well, it's only 1 file that needs this crazyness). First, I'll explain the setup.
So I have a file on my dropbox. I want to include that file in a Kdevelop project, but the rest of the project source code is located on a virtual machine, as well as the Kdevelop environment itself where I'm working.
So what I've done is in the project directory tree for the kdevelop project, I've put a symlink to the file in my dropbox. To summarize.
host:~$ ls Dropbox/
vm:~$ mount
Dropbox on /home/user/Dropbox/ type vboxsf (uid=1000,gid=1000,rw)
vm:~$ ls Dropbox/
vm:~/projectroot/modules$ ls -la
pxaregsmodule.c -> /home/dknapp/Dropbox/pxaregsmodule.c
vm:~/projectroot/modules$ cat ../.kdev_include_paths
So as you can see. I have a symlink in a subdirectory of kdevelop that's linked outside of the project tree. And I have an include directory at the project root for my include files.
Now the problem is that when I open pxaregsmodule.c in the kdevelop editor, it doesn't recognize the custom include arguments because it thinks it's opening in /home/user/Dropbox. Of course this only affects the editor, where it can't code complete and it thinks it's missing include files. But doesn't have to do with the makefile and compilation.
But is there any way to make kdevelop not dereference symbolic links and think the file is opening in projectroot/modules so it can see the include path? I can't use a hardlink because the file is on my shared partition, which crosses partition boundaries.
Any solutions? Was that clear?
share|improve this question
Starting a bounty, because, why not? =P – Falmarri Jun 22 '11 at 18:20
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1 Answer
In the VM, is the pxaregsmodule.c at /home/user/Dropbox/pxaregsmodule.c or /home/dknapp/Dropbox/pxaregsmodule.c?
It seems to me like the symbolic link pxaregsmodule.c in /projectroot/modules is broken since it points to the wrong directory. What happens if you:
tail ~/projectroot/modules/pxaregsmodule.c
Does any code show up?
If this is the problem, you can fix it this way:
cd ~/projectroot/modules/
rm pxaregsmodule.c
ln -s /home/user/Dropbox/pxaregsmodule.c
(Not using ln -sf, for clarity)
In any case, I would highly recommend using a modern VCS like Mercurial or Git instead, if possible. They will avoid these types of problems, and if you pay for hosting, you get a solution that's accessible from everywhere, with good backup and security. It's also possible to set up your own server, or even put the repository directly in Dropbox and access it from the vm over network on the computer in question, though I would not recommend the latter.
share|improve this answer
The CODE opens fine. I can read the document, and it works just fine. But KDevelop thinks it's at the location the symlink points to, not the location where the symlink is. This is probably just how kdevelop is written. – Falmarri Jun 28 '11 at 21:32
If that is the case, you can avoid this problem by avoiding the combination of KDevelop and symlinks. Stop using either one and your problem should disappear. – Alexander Jun 29 '11 at 14:06
So you're saying since it hurts to breathe, I should stop breaking? =P +1 for trying though =] – Falmarri Jul 7 '11 at 18:01
I didn't get the meaning of "breaking" in "So you're saying since it hurts to breathe, I should stop breaking?", but avoiding symlinks is not an unreasonable solution. Use Git or Mercurial instead. – Alexander Jul 7 '11 at 23:02
I meant breathing =\ – Falmarri Jul 11 '11 at 16:20
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Your Answer
| dclm-gs1-005240000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
I know that previously it was 960 pixels, but lately I have had clients wanting me to push the envelope further and prompted me to do some research on the matter.
share|improve this question
Possible duplicate: Best fixed-width website size. Also generally avoid anyone telling you to "push the envelope" when "push the envelope" means "small screens can't use it and large screens will have paragraph widths far too long" – Ben Brocka Oct 22 '12 at 20:03
There is no standard – DA01 Oct 22 '12 at 21:31
if you rephrase the question a bit, like "most common" it will make more sense, but still will be relative. – PatomaS Oct 23 '12 at 0:54
According to what I understand from the latest Data Monday from Luke Wroblewski, there wouldn't be any standard. The great variety of the recently-released platforms leads to the conclusion that "At this point it should be painfully obvious that any company working on the Web today needs a multi-device design strategy to survive.". So you may need to create your content for multiple widths. – Padrig Oct 29 '12 at 18:10
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7 Answers
The Right Answer is Responsive Design as mentioned earlier. Take a look at some.
Responsive design works because it scales with the available screen size. So, when designing a website or web app you can be sure it will display appropriately when using phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops.
It is still important to see what the ecosystem looks like in the past. If you have Google Analytics take a look at the last year's worth of visitors and sort by screen size. This should tell you more about the dimensions of your users screens and how a change in dimensions is going to effect them.
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Why is responsive design the right answer? – Rahul Oct 22 '12 at 23:10
Please update the answer with this information, don't just tell me in a comment :) – Rahul Oct 23 '12 at 16:10
Using Responsive Design is great for smaller screens, but I'm not sure why you think that it automatically means filling the entire width of any given screen. This site (UX Stack Exchange) has a responsive design, but I don't think that it being wider would make it better. – Django Reinhardt Nov 25 '13 at 18:15
Django You make a good point. Not every site needs to fill the entire width. I think it is content dependent. – designerWhoCodes Nov 26 '13 at 15:51
My thoughts have changed on this over time. @DjangoReinhardt I agree there are very few real use cases for content extending past 1200px. I still see a need for responsive design for a multitude of devices but honestly there is no need to go full page width. I think I should update my answer. – designerWhoCodes Feb 20 at 18:37
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Responsive is great for smaller screen sizes, and to cope with phone and tablet displays. But I'm unconvinced that going wider than 960 (or so) is desperately important.
For example, the setup I use is a 27inch display, +my laptop's panel, and I still find wide layouts irritating. There are a number of reasons for that.
1. I didn't buy a big display, just to display a single website. I bought it so I could view/work on two (or more) things side by side. That's the point of big displays, it makes you more productive by letting you switch between things much faster. I think this is pretty normal for people with large displays.
2. Most websites aren't that wide. I use tabs in the browser, so typically I just cmd-T to open a new tab, put in a search or URL and I'm done. If a site is unusually wide I now have to resize the browser too. Given I have other windows on screen I basically have to rearrange my workspace which is annoying. This may just be my personal style, so it may not generalise though.
3. If the actual content is too wide then line lengths get long, which makes reading difficult. 30-40ems seems like a good width for text, which isn't going to be more than around 650px at standard font-sizes. (If you're going for larger fonts, which I recommend for legibility, then tend towards 30ems, rather than 40). That still gives you width for side nav, or auxiliary content. Long line lengths are well known to be less readable.
Of course, you could still build a responsive design for wider displays, but I'm not convinced it'll get seen very often. And I'd absolutely make sure you have a design point at 960px or so.
In summary, the case for going wider than 960 isn't compelling, if I were the client I'd spend my money elsewhere.
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Responsive is great, but it's time consuming. I'd say stick with 960 (though I'm a fan of the 970 grid) and explain the reasoning. If you explain the upsides, then perhaps they'll realize that it makes sense.
Or, convince them they need responsive, do the extra work and charge the extra billable hours (also, charge a higher hourly fee, since it's more complex work) :D
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A key consideration is: who are your users, and what screen resolution are they likely to have?
Check out the chart in a recent Nielsen Alertbox entitled "Computer Screens are Getting Bigger:" http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen_resolution.html
If your target users are "everyone everywhere in the world," you are best sticking with 960. If your users work at US corporations on tasks they will likely be doing at their desks, it is safe to work much wider. On a recent project we determined that our users would be working at a minimum 1440x900 even when working at home on their laptops, and assumed a browser window width of 1280. If your clients want to push this envelope, perhaps they have made a similar judgment. --Jim
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Yup, the Nielsen article sums it up -- the new average resolution is 1366×768. We're looking at redoing an admin interface in a wider 1200px container. That should be fine for most users, but I'm concerned that it also work for users on laptops and tablets. – RobC Oct 23 '12 at 19:22
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There is no standard. People are accessing the web through a wider range of devices and screen widths than ever before. Smart phones, tablets, mini tablets, notebooks, laptops, desktops, massive desktops etc etc.
You can't pick a width and expect that to do for everyone.
That is why responsive is the answer. It enables you to design for everyone.
There are a range of techniques used to design responsively. I usually design with a flexible grid, with changes to the layout at 2-3 breakpoints - so you could i guess consider those "standard" in order to have some starting points
Bootstrap sets these as:
Phone - 480px Tablet - 767px desktop - 979px Large display - 1200px
Its probably worth looking into using em's and % rather than pixels.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/the-infinite-grid/ http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/
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Although responsive designs are great, I don't think they are the answer you are looking for. I think the root of the problem comes from the width of paragraph text and the fact that you never want to horizontal scroll.
To me, the perfect paragraph is maximum of 600px wide, better around 540px. Add a sidebar of related content and you naturally end up around the 960px mark for the whole thing. Responsive designs can then shrink the paragraph width and hide the sidebar appropriately.
Ultimately the Web is narrow and people will scroll down and look down while browsing. Adding horizontal content may appear to fit more content on your client's crazy sized Apple monitor, but that doesn't mean the real world will actually see it.
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The correct response to your client is to examine your site's analytics. You can then respond:
Choice A) XX Pixels. X% of your users will find the site unusable.
Choice B) YY pixels. Y% of your users will find the site unusable.
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The obvious choice C is responsive design, but jumping from a fixed width site to a responsive site is a big jump. – Brian Oct 22 '12 at 20:25
Your answer is insightful but a bit too cynical. Why not take the comment and put it in the answer? Responsive design is the right answer. – Rahul Oct 22 '12 at 20:47
Clients which are asking for a specific width are probably interested in creating a fixed width design. Clients tend to like fixed width because it provides more control and is more predictable. Artists tend to like fixed width because it is significantly easier to create and show a fixed width mock-up; fixed width is more intuitive. Really, the only people who prefer responsive design are UX professionals (and users). – Brian Oct 22 '12 at 22:24
Why not include that thought in the answer? – Rahul Oct 22 '12 at 23:10
@Rahul: The OP is asking for advice on fixed width designs. I prefer to avoid the over-popular response of "don't use them." – Brian Oct 23 '12 at 12:50
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| dclm-gs1-005250000 |
Startrekweb_2How will we ever get any work done?
NBC and CBS have reached deep into their program vaults and are flooding the web with free streaming offerings of couch-potato classics, including "Star Trek" (the great 79); "Hawaii Five-0" (a personal fave); "Emergency" (Gage and DeSoto rule); "Miami Vice" (love the one where Frank Zappa guest stars); "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (great host); "Kojak" (great Telly); "MacGyver," "Melrose Place," "The A-Team," "Simon & Simon" and the original Lorne Greene-in-a-robe-and-toupe version of "Battlestar Galactica."
There’s especially good news for fans of the Rod Serling oeuvre. CBS is offering the first two seasons of "The Twilight Zone," and and are beaming out "Night Gallery." "NightTwilightzonecrop Gallery," produced by Universal TV for NBC from 1970-1973, is not as consistently mind-blowing as "Twilight Zone," but the best of the episodes, mostly the Serling-penned segs, are very, very good indeed. Steven Spielberg famously made his directorial debut on a "Night Gallery" seg starring Joan Crawford as a blind woman with a very high sense of entitlement.
Hawaii50crop_2Interesting that these separate initiatives from the Eye and the Peacock were announced about a week after the majors inked the new deal with the Writers Guild of America that calls for them to pay scribes 2% of the distributor’s gross on web streaming of library TV shows, library being defined as anything produced after 1977 and streamed more than a year after its initial telecast.
With library product, the 2% of distrib’s gross formula kicks in right away, not in year three of the WGA contract as is the case for contempo programs. So the timing of the majors’ push to offer on-demand access to their libraries is a good thing for scribes, on paper. The real question is, how do you calculateMiamivice the distributor’s gross for online distribution of an old "MacGyver" or "Miami Vice" seg?
In theory it will be based on whatever the license fee that the owner (aka distrib) of the program receives from the exhibitor, aka and But valuation matters get even more complicated when you’re talking about vintage product owned by the same conglomerate that also controls the Internet exhibition. This is the kind of stuff that will keep lawyers for the guild, the studios and top creatives fully employed during the next few years.
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Comments 1 | dclm-gs1-005260000 |
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Before, I could easily join public hangouts. But now, whenever I click on the play button it's opening a Youtube live stream.
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1 Answer
A hangout is indeed a public live stream video that is shown on Youtube, are you mistaking it for something else?
Edit: What you are seeing on that page is called Hangouts on Air. You can't join such hangouts, only watch them. You can, however, join public hangouts that don't do any broadcasting.
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they're suppose to be joinable. – Pineapple Under the Sea Dec 21 '12 at 5:02
Yeah, you can join public hangouts if they are not broadcasting any videos. See support.google.com/plus/bin/… – Hydra Dec 21 '12 at 5:13
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| dclm-gs1-005280000 |
I'd say hc 110 or tmax developer.
If you want to try a staining developer, wd2d+ keeps forever in two bottles. You just mix a bit from each with water when you're ready. Very easy, great results.
All of these produce differing curves and degrees of ability to compensate etc., you'll just have to try them. | dclm-gs1-005290000 |
Hi Guys,
Just bought an awesome 1995 A6 in metallic silver. A couple of questions:
1. Steering wheel is a bit iffy. What wheel will fit so that everything will still work eg. airbag compatible.
2. How about lowering it a bit?
3. Can u fit a bose stereo to it? | dclm-gs1-005300000 |
aura cacia - essential care for the mind, body and spirit
aromatherapy 101
Savvy Students
tell a friend
Can scent enhance study skills? The ancient Greeks and Romans - who wore rosemary wreaths on their heads to enhance memory while studying - certainly thought so. Modern-day research also supports this notion. One study, for example, showed that citrus oils help Japanese data entry workers make fewer mistakes. And in a Cincinnati, Ohio experiment, peppermint oil gave test takers a 28% accuracy edge.
With each inhalation of fragrance, thousands of olfactory nerves in the nostrils send a myriad of messages to the brain. In turn, neurotransmitters - like encephaline, endorphins, serotonin and noradrenaline - are released, each with distinctive effects on the body. In this way, essential oils can dramatically affect physical and mental well being, including the ability to remember, focus and relax. A student might well benefit from practical skills like these.
Study Time
Don't worry, you don't need to wear a wreath to the classroom. Before studying, take a few moments to massage an appropriate oil or oil blend (properly diluted) onto the back of your neck and shoulders. Use an oil diffuser on your desk, or mist the air with an essential oil room spray while you study and inhale deeply. When you're getting ready for school - especially on the day of the exam - place a cotton ball or handkerchief with a drop or two of oil in a small zip-lock plastic bag. Before you take the test, remove the cotton ball and inhale the aroma. Or place the cotton ball on your desk. Use scents that can aid relaxation and memory.
For the Parents
Parents can help their kids in school with aromatherapy too. In a U.K. preschool, an aromatherapist offered special needs children weekly aromatherapy massages to help them prepare for mainstream schools. Many parents say the massages have helped their children feel more at ease and stay healthier.
Massages may not be part of the typical American curriculum, but teenage students can enjoy the benefits of essential oils. Try an aromatherapy massage before school to help calm an anxious youngster. Or send a cotton ball or scented handkerchief to school with your student. The scent can be chosen to be calming, to improve alertness - like after lunch, when mental and physical energy might lag a bit - or for other benefits.
Experiment to find which oils bring enjoyment and success to study sessions and test times. A few to try:
To improve concentration: basil, cardamom, bergamot, cedarwood, lemon, grapefruit, peppermint, rosemary, cypress, ginger
To aid relaxation: lavender, clary sage, geranium, ylang ylang, bergamot, melissa
To strengthen memory: rosemary, basil, peppermint, lemon
Simply Organic Frontier Aura Cacia home My Account Shopping Basket | dclm-gs1-005310000 |
the arts
Civilization (All You Can Eat)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Cobbe, Fri., Feb. 24, 2012
Steamed pork: Jude Hickey as Big Hog
Steamed pork: Jude Hickey as Big Hog
Photo courtesy of Stephen Pruitt
Civilization (All You Can Eat)
Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd., 474-7886
Through March 3
Running time: 1 hr., 30 min.
The first thing you learn about the new Jason Grote play Civilization (All You Can Eat) is that there is a big hog (played by Jude Hickey). He's hungry and he's mad. This big, angry, vengeful animal is in some way representative of the darker aspects of the human experience.
The other characters in the play are all human, living recognizable lives as film directors, actors, waiters, and overeducated freelancers. The promotional material for the play calls it a "parable of the Obama age." The characters wander their way through life's obstacles, for the most part getting tripped up on the way to success and happiness. People put their trust in the wrong places, or in some cases, they simply stumble into a bad situation and do more damage trying to get out than they did in the first place. One of the characters is an academic (played by Michael Joplin) who has turned away from teaching to focus on developing a line of self-help business seminars based around an understanding of chaos theory. Chaos dominates everyone's lives, he insists, and we just have to learn how to plan for and respond to it.
Chaos has also left its mark on the script, alas. After the show, my companion remarked that she thought the stories were neat, but she couldn't figure out what they were supposed to mean when put together. I was tempted to just quote her and run that as my review, although doing so would be disrespectful to the great work of the acting ensemble. The performers demonstrate the intricacies of how people connect and then pull away from each other, like intransigent atoms that aren't sure whether they want to get into that whole molecule thing. It's also a thrill to watch actors who can so completely convince themselves that the world of the play is real.
Across scenes, the most common threads seem to be disappointment and sadness. (Unless you're a big hog.) Some of that is accentuated by the dark lighting (design by Stephen Pruitt), which is dark enough even to obscure some of the emotional content. Big Hog, for example, is little more than a grunting voice, and at some point there's a conversation happening on a pay phone, but what we can see of these scenes is fuzzy in the half-light.
There are good things happening in Civilization, but the production and script both are in need of greater illumination.
write a letter | dclm-gs1-005320000 |
Source: Lexus
Photo Credit: Patrick M. Hoey, Lexus
Also, what about the REAL IS F? I feel like this front end design would definitely compliment the big vents on the sides of that car. I hope they are not discontinuing it.
Love it or hate it, you can't deny that it will certainly turn heads. It doesn't look like anything else on the road. While I'm not a fan of the grille, I can see why people would buy it over the base models. I guess any publicity is good publicity.
The front end looks like it has big, black buckteeth. It's just not doing it for me. I'm sure there's a happy audience for this car but for me, the front end is horribly distorted. Good thing Lexus has quality. luxury and power behind it because on looks alone, this car is terrible.
You know that apple ipad app "photo booth". it looks like they got their inspiration from one of the frames from that app where it distorts the image. the 'squeeze' one for the front end, and the 'stretch' frame for the rear. I've always thought the IS as one of the better looking lexuses, but I'm not feelin this one, at least in the photos. I've been surprised, both pleasantly and horribly, seeing cars in the flesh after seeing them in photos. This could go either way.
Kelego is right. This car is horrid. And at one time I actually harbored some hopes that I'd like one enough to buy one. Not now!
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Speeding Physician Gets Arrested for DUI
William C. Head
Case Conclusion Date:January 12, 2009
Practice Area:DUI / DWI
Outcome:Case Called for Trial, Pre-Trial Motions Conducted
Description:After dinner with another couple, a local physican and his spouse were driving back to their Buckhead area condominium when he was stopped for driving 59 in a 35 mph zone. The State trooper smelled alcohol and and asked him to "exit the vehicle". When field tests were started, the physician started talking about the fact that their condo was 300 yards away, and asked the trooper to let them go home. The trooper declined to allow that, and continued trying to conduct his roadside sobriety evaluations. A video showed the manner of administering the horizontal gaze nystagmus evaluation (eye test) to the suspect, and the evaluation was done incorrectly by the trooper. In addition, the wife tried to step out to see what was happening, because she could hear conversation between the two men and that the trooper was raising his voice to Mr. Head's Client. This "threat" of the wife becoming involved in this investigation led to the trooper calling for back-up, and another trooper soon arrived for purposes of controlling the wife's actions, if she became agitated or tried to interfere. This trooper left his blue lights on during the entire HGN (eye exam), likely affecting this evaluation's reliability. The video also captured the trooper threatening to arrest the physician who was asking questions about the tests being offered, and about his right to call an attorney. Soon, the cuffs were placed on the doctor's wrists and the arrest was made. The suppression motion just prior to trial focused on one issue: the sufficiency of evidence obtained by the trooper prior to making a custodial arrest for DUI. As part of the hearing, the prosecutor conceded that the field sobriety tests would have to be excluded due to the fact that the trooper's wording that threatened arrest constituted "custody" under the holding of a Georgia case, State v. O'Donnell from 1997. When such custody has already been "announced" or started, Georgia case law requires that no voluntary field tests can be administered UNLESS Miranda advisements are given (right to legal counsel, right to remain silent, etc.) Mr. Head only asked 6 questions of the trooper after that point in time before asking the judge to dismiss the entire DUI charge due to lack of sufficient evidence to support the arrest decision. Mr. Head cited several similar appellate cases from the Georgia Court of Appeals, including Handley v. State from 2008, Sanders v. State from 2005 and State v. Gray from 2004. The judge agreed, and granted the suppression motion. That ended the DUI prosecution the same as if the jury had acquitted Client. Then, Mr. Head agreed to enter a guilty plea to the speeding offense, except for a speed lower that the "cutoff" for the case being reported to the Department of Driver Services (no points and no record being posted). The Client paid $100 fine plus $35 in surcharges, which ended the case.
| dclm-gs1-005340000 |
BBC Culture
State of the Art
Leonardo da Vinci’s groundbreaking anatomical sketches
About the author
• Jack of all trades
Leonardo da Vinci's restless curiosity led him to try his hand as a painter, sculptor, engineer, inventor, anatomist, writer, geologist and botanist, among other things. (Corbis)
• Last meal
Leonardo's paintings are among the most famous in art history. The Last Supper (completed 1497) depicts Christ and his disciples at their final meal before the Crucifixon. (Corbis)
• Dig for victory
Leonardo devised machinery for excavating canals (pictured) and a complex system of locks to regulate water flow. (Corbis)
• Under the skin
The great polymath brought together superb draughtsmanship, scientific knowledge and an artist's sensibility in his anatomical drawings. (Royal Collection)
• The beat goes on
He stated firmly that the heart was comprised of four chambers at a time when it was generally understood to be made up of two. (Corbis)
• In a similar vein
Leonardo's work in diverse fields led him to draw comparisons between them. He saw links between the soil and flesh, rivers and blood vessels. (Corbis)
• Show some spine
The work now known as the Anatomical Manuscript A contains some amazing insights, like the first accurate depiction of the human backbone. (Royal Collection)
• All in your head
The drawing A Skull Sectioned from 1489 studies the position of the facial cavities in relation to surface features. (Corbis)
Alastair Sooke looks through the ultimate Renaissance man’s anatomical sketchbooks – scientific masterpieces full of lucid insights into the functioning of the human body.
We tend to think of Leonardo da Vinci as a painter, even though he probably produced no more than 20 pictures before his death in 1519. Yet for long periods of his career, which lasted for nearly half a century, he was engrossed in all sorts of surprising pursuits, from stargazing and designing ingenious weaponry to overseeing a complex system of canals for Ludovico Maria Sforza, the ruling duke of Milan. During the course of his life, Leonardo filled thousands of pages of manuscript with dense doodles, diagrams, and swirling text, probing almost every conceivable topic. Not for nothing, then, is he often considered the archetypal Renaissance man: as the great British art historian Kenneth Clark put it, Leonardo was the most relentlessly curious person in history.
Yet according to Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man, a new exhibition at the Edinburgh International Festival, one area of scientific endeavour piqued Leonardo’s curiosity arguably more than any other: human anatomy.
Leonardo’s interest in anatomy began when he was working for Ludovico in Milan. “On the 2nd day of April 1489”, as he wrote at the head of a page in a new notebook, he sat down to begin his “Book entitled On the Human Figure”. After executing a sequence of stunning drawings of a skull, though, his studies went into abeyance, probably because he lacked access to corpses that he could dissect.
Bodies of evidence
But his ambitions to publish a comprehensive treatise on human anatomy persisted – and around two decades later, he returned to his otherwise unused notebook, which is now known as the Anatomical Manuscript B and is kept at the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. In it he made a number of pen-and-ink drawings recording his observations while dissecting an old man who had died in a hospital in Florence in the winter of 1507-08.
In the years that followed, Leonardo concentrated on human anatomy more systematically than ever before – and by the end of his life he claimed that he had cut up more than 30 corpses. In the winter of 1510-11, while probably collaborating with a young professor of anatomy called Marcantonio della Torre at the University of Pavia, Leonardo compiled a series of 18 mostly double-sided sheets exploding with more than 240 individual drawings and over 13,000 words of notes. Now known as the Anatomical Manuscript A, and also in the Royal Collection, these sheets are full of lucid insights into the functioning anatomy of the human body.
Leonardo made many important discoveries. For instance, he produced the first accurate depiction of the human spine, while his notes documenting his dissection of the Florentine centenarian contain the earliest known description of cirrhosis of the liver. Had he published his treatise, he would be considered more important than the Belgian anatomist Andreas Vesalius, whose influential textbook On the Fabric of the Human Body appeared in 1543. But he never did.
Heart of the matter
Yet arguably Leonardo’s most brilliant scientific insights occurred after Marcantonio’s death from the plague in 1511, when the great polymath fled political turmoil in Milan and took shelter in the family villa of his assistant Francesco Melzi, 15 miles (24km) east of the city. It was here that he became obsessed with understanding the structure of the heart.
The heart surgeon Francis Wells, who works at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge and recently published The Heart of Leonardo, recalls coming across Leonardo’s studies for the first time as a medical student. “I remember thinking that they were far better than anything we had in modern textbooks of anatomy,” he says. “They were beautiful, accurate, absorbing – and there was a liveliness to them that you just don’t find in modern anatomical drawings.”
During his investigations, Leonardo discovered several extraordinary things about the heart. “Up until and after his time, because of course he never published, the heart was believed to be a two-chambered structure,” Wells explains. “But Leonardo firmly stated that the heart has four chambers. Moreover, he discovered that the atria or filling chambers contract together while the pumping chambers or ventricles are relaxing, and vice versa.”
In addition, Leonardo observed the heart’s rotational movement. “If you look at a heart, it is cone-shaped,” says Wells. “But it’s a complex cone in a geometric sense, because it’s a cone with a twist. This is because the heart empties itself with a twisting motion – it wrings itself out, a bit like the wringing out of a towel. In heart failure it loses this twist.”
According to Wells, Leonardo didn’t fully understand the function of cardiac twist. “But everything starts somewhere,” he says. “There’s a passage in which Leonardo describes the slaughter of some pigs on a Tuscan hillside. You or I would probably enjoy a nice glass of red wine while the pork was cooking, but Leonardo was thinking about this at the time. They killed the pigs by pushing little spears through the chest into the heart, and Leonardo noticed the rotational movement of these little spears in the heart. It was totally blue-sky research, of no use to anybody of his time, but it was a correct start along the road to understanding cardiac twist, which is now one of the hottest topics in understanding heart failure.”
Perhaps most impressive of all, though, were Leonardo’s observations about the aortic valve, which he made while experimenting with an ox’s heart. Intrigued by the way that the aortic valve opens and closes to ensure blood flows in one direction, Leonardo set about constructing a model by filling a bovine heart with wax. Once the wax had hardened, he recreated the structure in glass, and then pumped a mixture of grass seeds suspended in water through it. This allowed him to observe little vortices as the seeds swirled around in the widening at the root of the aorta. As a result, Leonardo correctly posited that these vortices helped to close the aortic valve. Yet because he never published his far-sighted research, this remained unknown for centuries.
“This wasn’t understood until the 20th Century,” says Wells, “when it was shown most beautifully in [science journal] Nature in 1968 by two engineers in Oxford. There was only reference to Leonardo da Vinci. There are two extraordinary things about that: first, there was only one reference, and second, the reference was 500 years old.”
So what made Leonardo such a brilliant anatomist? “One mustn’t get carried away claiming that Leonardo was a completely unique figure,” says Martin Clayton, head of prints and drawings in the Royal Collection, and the curator of the Edinburgh exhibition. “There were lots of investigative anatomists around at the time, and there were lots of artists who were interested in anatomy. But Leonardo pushed these two things further than anybody else. He was the supreme example of an anatomist who could also draw, or of an artist who was also a very skilled dissector. It was the union of these two skills in a single figure that made Leonardo unique.”
Alastair Sooke is art critic of The Daily Telegraph.
| dclm-gs1-005350000 |
Mickey's - Miller Brewing Co.
Displayed for educational use only; do not reuse.
819 Ratings
(view ratings)
Ratings: 819
Reviews: 292
rAvg: 2.53
pDev: 30.83%
Brewed by:
Miller Brewing Co. visit their website
Wisconsin, United States
Style | ABV
American Malt Liquor | 5.60% ABV
Availability: Year-round
Notes/Commercial Description:
No notes at this time.
(Beer added by: pezoids on 07-03-2001)
View: Beers (26) | Events
Beer: Ratings & Reviews
Sort by: Latest | High | Low | Top Reviewers | Read the Alström Bros Beer Reviews and Beer Ratings of Mickey's Alström Bros
Ratings: 819 | Reviews: 292 | Show All Ratings:
Photo of UCLABrewN84
3.08/5 rDev +21.7%
Serving type: can
07-30-2011 03:45:45 | More by UCLABrewN84
Photo of BuckeyeNation
2.13/5 rDev -15.8%
"one night frank was on his way home
from work, stopped at the liquor store,
picked up a couple of mickey's big mouths,
drank 'em in the car on his way to the
shell station; he got a gallon of gas in a can.
drove home, doused everything in the
the house, torched it.
parked across the street laughing,
watching it burn, all halloween
orange and chimney red".
That's from the classic song 'Frank's Wild Years' which is on the classic (aren't they all?) Tom Waits album Swordfishtrombones. It was the first time I'd ever heard of Mickey's Big Mouth Malt Liquor. My only regret is that this review will come from a 24 oz. can, not a Big Mouth bottle.
Crystal clear straw yellow beneath a voluminous cap of dirty white froth that displays impressive persistance and lays down a surprising, though still underwhelming, amount of lace. The sweet, corny, grainy nose manages to avoid offending. It ain't much, but then anyone drinking this beer is unlikely to give a shit (I'm conducting research and 'horizon expansion' and wish to be excluded from that group).
It's difficult to distinguish this beer from other macro lagers. Yeah, I know that it's a malt liquor, but it doesn't strike me as that much different from the lower octane beer; maybe because of the low ABV. It's tastes of sweet grain, bitter grain and sour grain (the trifecta!) with a light, verging on watery, body. The beer is slightly skunky, but that seems to be part of its... ahem... charm. At least there's no deterioration with warming. That's an admirable quality, right? Of course, it wouldn't have far to go in a downward direction.
Maybe Mickey's is better from a big mouth bottle (or a chalis?). Maybe it was better before Miller began brewing it. Who knows? Who cares? Don't expect much and I promise you, that's exactly what you'll get.
Serving type: can
09-24-2004 21:48:23 | More by BuckeyeNation
Photo of mikesgroove
South Carolina
2.9/5 rDev +14.6%
huge thanks to the kind trader who realized i was working on this list and sent me this as a great extra. 40oz bottle poured into a tall pilsner glass, this one was consumed on 08/24/2010.
the pour was much better then i am used to coming out of a 40 for sure, dark amber color with a nice head of a finger and a half that lay on top of the glass throughout the session, aroma of wet cardboard, earthy malts, hay, corn, lots of grain, basically the standard here that i was pretty much expecting. nice medium feel was a welcome treat as it did not come across as overally thick, but not too light either. clean taste, although terribly malt heavy with a bit of a sting in the finish. still it was easy to polish off and i would not argue it against some of the others i have had lately.
overall not bad at all, i have had much, much worse an might do this one again on a whim.
Serving type: bottle
08-25-2010 10:53:39 | More by mikesgroove
Photo of womencantsail
2.58/5 rDev +2%
A: The pour is a crystal clear golden yellow color with a fizzy white head.
S: A fair amount of metal and vegetables. Lots of sweet corn and apple juice. There is a bit of grain and skunk in there as well.
T: This is actually quite similar (flavor-wise) to your average adjunct lager (probably why I used to drink it). Sweet grain and corn with a mild skunk.
M: Light in body with a fair amount of fizzy carbonation.
D: Eh, not as easy to drink as it used to be ("back in the day"). Still, there are definitely worse malt liquors out there.
Serving type: bottle
10-16-2010 07:58:08 | More by womencantsail
Photo of ChainGangGuy
2.13/5 rDev -15.8%
Appearance: From out of the glass hand grenade pours a clear, bright gold body with a thinnish, white head.
Smell: Sweetish, basic, bland malts and adjuncts with some faint hints of garden-variety flowers.
Taste: Same with the nose - sweetish, basic, bland malts and adjuncts. There are some faint floral qualities, but there's almost nil when it comes to hop bitterness. Watery, though clean finish.
Mouthfeel: Thin-bodied. Medium-low carbonation.
Drinkability: No thanks. It's a shame they redesigned the container, getting cut by those peel-back metal tabs was part of the fun.
Serving type: bottle
03-20-2009 17:50:03 | More by ChainGangGuy
Photo of TMoney2591
2.48/5 rDev -2%
Served in a snifter.
And, thus, following the good stuff, Swill Fest 1.5 kicks off, complete with a viewing of Human Centipede. This offering pours a clear straw topped by a finger of white foam. The nose comprises wheat, corn, and hay wet with the runoff from some dark, murky bog in the old English countryside, the kind of thing you'd see in some rustic Gothic throwback tale. The taste holds notes of corn, corn syrup, and a heaping helping of bad apple juice. Up until now, I was unaware that apple juice could go bad in this manner. now I think it could be a possibility. The body is a hefty light, with a moderate carbonation and a watery feel. Overall, I think this gives yet another reason for why malt liquors don't get any real respect: They don't really deserve much.
Serving type: can
12-25-2010 03:14:42 | More by TMoney2591
Photo of NeroFiddled
3.1/5 rDev +22.5%
Smells like grain and alcohol with barely a suggestion of hops,
...and it's supposed to taste like that!
Serving type: bottle
05-13-2006 18:46:16 | More by NeroFiddled
Photo of biboergosum
Alberta (Canada)
2.53/5 rDev 0%
Ok, I've seen these around for ever and a day, but never got around to trying one. The bottle is different, kind of like a stubby, but actually more like a mini beer keg, with a large mouth.
This beer pours a clear medium straw colour, with lots of puffy white head, which doesn't stick around for long, leaving spotty lace in its wake. It smells of skunky white grain, and backyard weeds. The taste is cloying corn and rice husk sweetness, and a light vegetal skunkiness. The carbonation is average, the body slick, but generally all right, and it finishes fairly smooth and grainy, the sweetness and skunk becoming one unholy duality.
Packaging kitsch aside, this is one big-assed pass for me. And I don't even get to laugh it off as a cheap throwaway purchase - up here, this beer sells as a "premium import". Jebus.
Serving type: bottle
12-25-2009 06:52:54 | More by biboergosum
Photo of emerge077
2.23/5 rDev -11.9%
Can from a shady liquor store, the one time I don't check the date, the can is old. "NOV14 11" printed on the bottom. I was fooled since it wasn't dusty...
Pale straw gold, urine shade with rapid rising trails of carbonation. Compact white foam biscuit lid up top, slow to settle, leaving some lace in the glass, and an ever present veil of skim on the surface (surprisingly).
Smells like adjunct city, corn and possibly rice, rather sweet with apple notes from the yeast and some metallic, musty dishrag minerality. Wafting notes of misspent college nights and bad judgement.
Sweet taste, pretty astringent as it warms, cereal grain, wet paper, vague fleeting apple. Fizzy but relatively clean. In the malt liquor continuum, Mickey's falls a bit short of center.
Serving type: can
02-07-2012 01:52:41 | More by emerge077
Photo of drabmuh
3.08/5 rDev +21.7%
Bad beer Thursdays -- two for one edition. This is simultaneously a well known "bad beer" but also a top 5 American Malt Liquor, neat. Poured from a green 40 ounce bottle into a Paulaner 1 L dimpled stein.
Beer is yellow and clear, heavily carbonated with a thick head of large white bubbles, actually bubbles of all sizes, no staying power though. It's gone before I know it's there.
It actually smells rather pleasant. Sweet, pilsner, it has a slight odd aroma to it but it definitely doesn't smell bad.
Beer is medium in body and has an odd bitterness at the finish...and here comes the boiled corn aftertaste. Bummer, you really let me down Mickeys. I was hoping for so much more. At least the aftertaste is short lived. I can say that much for it. It's drinkable, more so than the others, just not very good tasting.
Serving type: bottle
02-25-2011 01:16:56 | More by drabmuh
Photo of zeff80
1.95/5 rDev -22.9%
It's been about 3 years since my first and only malt liquor. I thought I'd re-visit the style.
A - Clear, straw-yellow with tons of bubbles. Two-finger, white bubbly head of foam that does not last long nor leave any lace.
S - Not much other than corn and grains.
T - Grains and corn with a spicy alcohol presence - I can't really define it as hops but it was spiced.
M - Best attribute. Crisp, sharp and dry with a light bodied.
D - Still not loving malt liquors. I took my time on this one not to savor it or because of the high ABV - I just wasn't that interested it drinking more of it.
Serving type: can
02-28-2010 01:45:31 | More by zeff80
Photo of Knapp85
3/5 rDev +18.6%
My uncle introduced me to Mickey's a few years ago. One new years eve he got a case and we sat around drinking them trying to figure out the guessing game on the bottle caps. The beer might not be the greatest but at least they give you something to do while drinking it. Anyway it pours just like any other American adjunct lager I've had with a yellow body and A white head. The head fades and leaves us with sweet smelling brew. The beer tastes alright and doesn't have a bad aftertaste at all. It was a drinkable brew thankfully and it helped bring in the new year!
Serving type: bottle
05-14-2011 00:21:49 | More by Knapp85
Photo of jwc215
3.55/5 rDev +40.3%
40 oz. screw-cap bottle:
Pours straw yellow with a thick white head that slowly descends to a lasting wide patch. Some spots of lacing stick.
The smell is more of a macro lager than a malt liquor, but pretty decent within that realm - some grain, but overall quite clean and inoffensive.
The taste is of sweet grain, some cooked corn, a touch of husk and a but of alcohol. Honey sweetness in the finish.
The body is light and pretty slick.
No need to put this one in a paper bag. For this style, it's very inoffensive and very drinkable. A kinder, gentler malt liquor. It has a smoothness to it, and the taste is more than tolerable - a bit too sweet. Not as aggressive as the stinging bee on the label would have it, but very drinkable and inoffensive for the style.
Serving type: bottle
07-28-2008 04:36:01 | More by jwc215
Photo of WVbeergeek
2.03/5 rDev -19.8%
Mickey's hand grenades appears pale golden yellow tone with a large bright white quickly dwindling head leaves even fine lacing around my glass. Aromatics have cereal tones with corn and rice pulling up a chair, and mild herbal grass notes as well. Flavors collide upfront with cooked veggies, herbal notes, mild sweetness, and a somewhat metallic note though it finishes relatively clean after all of that. Mouthfeel is light bodied pretty thin with unnatural carbonation that tickles the throat. Drinkability is one of those ghetto college staples that will always sell with or without a marketing campaign.
Serving type: bottle
02-06-2007 01:45:04 | More by WVbeergeek
Photo of Halcyondays
2.15/5 rDev -15%
12 oz. stubby green bottle,
A: Pours a very pale yellow with a large cap of foam after gushing out of the big mouth bottle into a pint glass. Surprisingly good head retention, light spotty lacing.
S: Very light, some grain malt is all I pick up from this one.
T: Very fusely with a husky grain character and a bit of wheat. Overall, the flavour is very light. Hop character is barely noticable but adds a grungy wet hay aspect to the aftertaste.
M: Low carbonation, very light-bodided, airy.
D: An average malt liquor, but too pricey for the style. I got bored with this beer far to easily. At least it doesn't become undrinkable due to an alcohol character like some others of this style are.
Serving type: bottle
06-21-2008 18:50:03 | More by Halcyondays
Photo of tempest
3.1/5 rDev +22.5%
Drank straight from the wide-mouth, green stubby bottle - as it was meant to be. This beer is surprisingly not bad. I think there's some truth to the bottle's "Fine Malt Liquor" label. Because as far as malt liquor goes, this isn't that far behind Rogue fancy-pants Dad's Little Helper. In terms of flavor, this beer reminds me of a dull PBR. It just has gentle bready malts behind a vague sweetness. Completely drinkable and inoffensive. Worth a try, just because it's Mickey's.
Serving type: bottle
12-23-2008 17:01:37 | More by tempest
Photo of rhoadsrage
2.05/5 rDev -19%
(Served in a nonic)
A- This beer has a straw yellow crystal clear body with a big carbonation of large bubbles and a bubble white head of molten candy.
S- The soft green apple acetaldehyde grows as the beer warms with a light flinty note that is nice but soon overpowered. There is a faint field corn note in the finish.
T- The clean flavor has a slight tartness with a faint corn flavor that comes through on the exhale. The green apple flavor has a jolly rancher candy quality to it that gets stronger with each sip. M- This beer has a light mouthfeel with a watery texture and a fizzy finish.
D- This beer is light but not clean. The tartness and corn and apple flavors are very pronounced and become a bit more obnoxious with each sip.
Serving type: can
07-14-2010 16:48:57 | More by rhoadsrage
Photo of Jason
3.03/5 rDev +19.8%
Presentation: 40 oz green glass bottle, no freshness date. Tough looking flexing green hornet as their mascot. Under the cap is a psuedo-word of the day, cam-a-flu (n) Feigned illness to get out of work or a date. I guess real winners of the world drink this stuff.
Appearance: Pale yellow, crystal clear with a thin white lace with a decent retention. Some of this sample was poured out to get a look at the head retention and true colour.
Smell: Light lager like twang, almost import lager-like. Minimal malt in the nose, quite clean.
Taste: Touch of smoothness within the crisp light bodied mouth feel. Very slim malt character, quick bite of hop bitterness that fades just as quickly as it comes in. Seltzer water feel to this brew with a pretty clean finish though a tag a long astringent flavour stays around for a bit.
Notes: Not much to the brew for flavour, quick and clean to drink. Big time college crowd 40oz brew, a step above Magnum ... the other Miller Brewing produced Malt Liquor. Not a bad web site they put out also
http://www.mickeys.com.
Serving type: bottle
03-23-2002 06:02:25 | More by Jason
Photo of Wasatch
2/5 rDev -20.9%
Serving type: bottle
03-16-2010 00:43:27 | More by Wasatch
Photo of Zorro
2.55/5 rDev +0.8%
Pour a clear yellow beer, pretty much what I expected.
Smell is mildly malty and grainy, no off flavors.
Taste is slightly sweet and is mostly of grain. Not as bad as it could be.
Mouthfeel is thicker than expected.
It is as drinkable as any other macrobrew.
Serving type: can
02-13-2004 02:51:43 | More by Zorro
Photo of woodychandler
3.13/5 rDev +23.7%
M-I-C-K-E-Y, Why? Because I want to bump up my bottle numbers. 'S, it's true, I'm ticking. M-A-L-T L-I-Q-U-O-R R U coming over? I have a 40! D-R-U-N-K. Woody's a fool, Woody's a fool, forever may his banner fly! No, I'm not high. M-I-C-K-E-Y-'-S!
Man, screw that "Back to the Future" action, this is more like "Peggy Sue Got Married"! This is the kind of drinking action that I did in my earliest prime as a teenager thirty years ago, asking random strangers to go into bars and take-aways to score a 40 or two (or more) of beer so that we could get wildly wasted and totally disrespect beer. I was at IHLNC today for the Winter Warmer bash and after a 5.5 hour shift, I did not need any more of that, nor did I want to give up. Queen Garden 6-Pack to the rescue! No better time than the present to get my bottle count up, up, up.
A foamy finger of bone-white head with decent retention, initially. Color was a deep golden-yellow with NE-plus quality clarity, allowing me to look through the walls into the neighbor's doings. Nose was comparably sweet with some of the high ABV offerings of today, but with a none-too-subtle cereal quality mixed in. Mouthfeel was effervescent and scrubbing to the point that I felt like I had a new palate. I kid you not, this was a very pleasant diversion after today's skull-ripping. It was plenty sweet with a lot of adjunct characteristics, but it was also a beer that I felt comfortable sitting with in front of the TV. There was nothing off about it, despite its being in a GREEN (oh, no!) bottle, but either pasteurization or good handling or both kept it that way. YMMV. Finish left me simply craving a Hammond's-brand hard pretzel to cut some of the cloying sweetness. Would I drink this again? Heck, yes! Would it be my first choice? Heck, no! Was it cost-effective/worthy? Yep. What would my back alley homies say? Hey, I've hung out and imbibed with them enough to the point that they call me "Pittsburgh" and don't throw their empties in my yard, instead leaving them hanging in a bag on the fence for me to collect and recycle. They'd applaud me. I applaud you.
Serving type: bottle
12-05-2010 00:09:51 | More by woodychandler
Photo of DoubleJ
2.95/5 rDev +16.6%
Welcome to start of the Brown Paper Bag Invitational! In this short series, I will be tasting malt liquor for the next few days, and this is sure to be fun. The only other malt liquor I've ever had was Olde English, and I was greatly offended. We'll start tonight with a "light" malt liquor, the one with the stinger that looks to be on steroids...Mickey's! On to the beer:
Do you like your body pale? Very pale straw color, the carbonation bubbles providiing some attraction to the eyes, the soapy head providing a solid canopy thus far. The aroma is milled corn, maybe with a trace of the can...run-of-the-mill cheap lager smell.
Heyy....this isn't bad at all! The body is light, but the carbonation is conrolled well, it doesn't bombard your palate. This is quite sweet. Sweet corn upfront, then some mild corn syrup-llike texture and sweetness. The alcohol is there, but hidden in the background with a dull bitterness and kick to it. Semi-dry finish.
For what you get, this is a solid malt liquor without too many flaws. It's also one of the lightest on the market, so it may not be the best pick if you're looking for a quick buzz and nothing more.
I survived the first stage without any major wounds. We'll resume the Brown Paper Bag Invite tomorrow night.
Serving type: can
09-19-2008 03:35:48 | More by DoubleJ
Photo of Beerandraiderfan
1.41/5 rDev -44.3%
Well, I doubt I'm saying anything we don't already know. This stuff is shhhiiity. Nasty yellow appearance leaving nothing in terms of head, lacing or retention. Horrible dumpster 4 day old beer smell.
Taste isn't the worst thing I've drank, but it's close. I guess it gets better the more you drink of it, and it is cheap . . . but all you can taste is the alcohol, which isn't even all that high. Brutal.
Serving type: can
11-26-2009 00:37:53 | More by Beerandraiderfan
Photo of beerthulhu
New Jersey
2.83/5 rDev +11.9%
A: Pours a clear, bright, yellow with a creamy white head that left a spotchy lacing behind. Visible carbonation was soft.
S: The nose was light, with some corn and fresh grains.
T: For flavor there was corn mash, a light malt sweetness and a light herbal hopping. The beer finishes with a sweet corn malting and herbal hop fade. Overall the flavor was fairly clean albeit limited in complexity but did have a noticeable hop presence.
M; light, a tad watery with a decent herbal hopping.
D: Decent for an old-school macro.
Serving type: bottle
03-06-2008 00:27:10 | More by beerthulhu
Photo of Brad007
3.88/5 rDev +53.4%
Pours a pale golden color with a one finger head that quickly fades to nearly nothing.
Aroma is strong with corn/bready malt in the nose. Nothing special here and to be expected.
Taste is strong and sweet with corn, baked bread and a touch of alcohol in the middle.
Mouthfeel is full of the same flavors as above (corn, baked bread) except that they linger. Not harsh or anything. Seems average.
Not bad. I was expecting worse but this really isn't a bad example. It's drinkable for what it is.
Serving type: bottle
03-20-2009 23:59:57 | More by Brad007
Mickey's from Miller Brewing Co.
60 out of 100 based on 819 ratings. | dclm-gs1-005360000 |
Weather Forecast
Here’s why (not) to vote for Romney
Some say the upcoming election for president will offer a monumental choice to us voters and will determine which economic model will prevail for decades to come.
Since most of us are not economists here is a simpler way to figure out how to cast your vote.
Vote for Mitt Romney if:
--You believe creating wealth for the wealthy will benefit the middle class.
--You believe lowering taxes for small businesses will encourage owners to produce more of their product even if there is no demand for it.
--You believe that health care is a privilege for those who can afford health insurance rather than a right of all.
--You agree with Romney that “I am not concerned about the very poor; they have a safety net.”
--You believe that letting Chrysler and General Motors go through bankruptcy would have been better than bailing them out.
--You believe the Clean Air Act should be repealed.
--You believe “corporations are people too.”
--You believe all undocumented workers (illegal aliens) should be deported rather than offer them a pathway to citizenship.
--You believe Mitt Romney would have had the courage to make the call on Osama Bin Laden as well as the other 14 members of Al Qaida that have been killed to date.
--You believe Mitt Romney would have had the courage to “lead from behind” to rid the world of Moammar Gadhafi without losing a single American life.
--You believe in repealing Dodd-Frank, the first significant banking regulation reform since the New Deal. (Oops, now he says we need “some” regulation.
--You believe in pro choice or pro life. (You get to have this one either way since Romney has taken opposing positions on either side of this divisive issue.)
So complexity is reduced to simplicity. If you agree with these positions taken by candidate Romney then the way is clear: Vote for Romney. | dclm-gs1-005370000 |
Proverbs 20 NRS/NIV - Online Parallel Bible
New Revised Standard (NRS) New International Version (NIV)
1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. 1 Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
2 The dread anger of a king is like the growling of a lion; anyone who provokes him to anger forfeits life itself. 2 A king's wrath is like the roar of a lion; he who angers him forfeits his life.
3 It is honorable to refrain from strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel. 3 It is to a man's honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel.
4 The lazy person does not plow in season; harvest comes, and there is nothing to be found. 4 A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.
5 The purposes in the human mind are like deep water, but the intelligent will draw them out. 5 The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.
6 Many proclaim themselves loyal, but who can find one worthy of trust? 6 Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?
7 The righteous walk in integrity— happy are the children who follow them! 7 The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him.
8 A king who sits on the throne of judgment winnows all evil with his eyes. 8 When a king sits on his throne to judge, he winnows out all evil with his eyes.
9 Who can say, "I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin"? 9 Who can say, "I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin"?
10 Diverse weights and diverse measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord. 10 Differing weights and differing measures-- the LORD detests them both.
11 Even children make themselves known by their acts, by whether what they do is pure and right. 11 Even a child is known by his actions, by whether his conduct is pure and right.
12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye— the Lord has made them both. 12 Ears that hear and eyes that see-- the LORD has made them both.
14 "Bad, bad," says the buyer, then goes away and boasts. 14 "It's no good, it's no good!" says the buyer; then off he goes and boasts about his purchase.
15 There is gold, and abundance of costly stones; but the lips informed by knowledge are a precious jewel. 15 Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel.
16 Take the garment of one who has given surety for a stranger; seize the pledge given as surety for foreigners. 16 Take the garment of one who puts up security for a stranger; hold it in pledge if he does it for a wayward woman.
17 Bread gained by deceit is sweet, but afterward the mouth will be full of gravel. 17 Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel.
18 Plans are established by taking advice; wage war by following wise guidance. 18 Make plans by seeking advice; if you wage war, obtain guidance.
19 A gossip reveals secrets; therefore do not associate with a babbler. 19 A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.
20 If you curse father or mother, your lamp will go out in utter darkness. 20 If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.
21 An estate quickly acquired in the beginning will not be blessed in the end. 21 An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.
22 Do not say, "I will repay evil"; wait for the Lord, and he will help you. 22 Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.
23 Differing weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good. 23 The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.
24 All our steps are ordered by the Lord; how then can we understand our own ways? 24 A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?
26 A wise king winnows the wicked, and drives the wheel over them. 26 A wise king winnows out the wicked; he drives the threshing wheel over them.
27 The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord, searching every inmost part. 27 The lamp of the LORD searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being.
28 Loyalty and faithfulness preserve the king, and his throne is upheld by righteousness. 28 Love and faithfulness keep a king safe; through love his throne is made secure.
29 The glory of youths is their strength, but the beauty of the aged is their gray hair. 29 The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.
30 Blows that wound cleanse away evil; beatings make clean the innermost parts. 30 Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being. | dclm-gs1-005380000 |
Sticks and stones and other tales.
Article Type: Report
Subject: Emotions (Research)
Wounds and injuries (Psychological aspects)
Wounds and injuries (Research)
Psychologists (Practice)
Author: Hixson, Ronald
Pub Date: 12/22/2008
Issue: Date: Winter, 2008 Source Volume: 11 Source Issue: 4
Product: Product Code: 8043300 Psychologists NAICS Code: 62133 Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) SIC Code: 8049 Offices of health practitioners, not elsewhere classified
Accession Number: 192800790
This childhood riddle was often used to teach us not to be afraid of bullies or their words. No one likes to be hurt. When we are hit by sticks or stones, we might have broken bones or other physical injuries. This childish rebuff lacks credibility due to its distortion of the truth. Such statements as "words will never hurt me" are no more than a creative misrepresentation of the facts. Most adults would agree that words do, in fact, hurt our feelings. Years later, we are likely to remember situations where we were humiliated by a bully.
Feelings are more than skin deep. For most people, it can be very hard to hold back a harsh response when they feel insulted and disrespected. Many such exchanges have escalated into dangerous relationships that have sent people to the hospital or even the morgue. It should be clear that our world has become harsher, meaner, and a more dangerous place to live and work. One only has to look at all the conflicts or wars being fought in our global communities at any one time. For those corporations who specialize in weapons of destruction, conflicts are a "cash cow," bringing a steady revenue profit that often leads to expansion. There is more incentive to create weapons than to destroy them.
Changing Terms
As we listen to the pundits of economic astuteness, we hear terms such as "capitalism," "entrepreneurism," "economic cycles," "marketplace generators," and the "Market System." Names come and go, often fading with the rise of a more charming term that has a life of its own. Words and phrases begin as a sound bite and grow into a fad before fading. We hear of ownership, welfare giveaway, cost exploitation, price indexes, leverages, and insane oil speculation.
In previous generations, the words were somewhat different: antitrust legislations, restraining the financial community to correct abuses, rationing of gas, the Great Depression, "free enterprise," "socialism," and "Marxism." These zealous scholars of conjecture would like us to believe that the Market System of today creates a society that promotes individual initiatives and freedom of striking for gold or grabbing for the gusto or the gold ring. Then there are the well-trained intellectuals of a rich academic heredity who are managing the marketplace with ardent confidence and dedicated energy for the "good of the market." To these sellers of stocks, bonds, real estate, and futures, they are pushed by their lust for the gain, which is their legal reward of "hard work." But is this cute phrase merely a sound bite that has lost most of its value or a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth?
As we read about frequently, there are those who abuse the system, who misrepresent their products and their actions in order to make more gold. Unfortunately, there is no leader in Corporate America or in government that acknowledges the recognition that deception has an undoubtedly important role in selling to the general public or consumer.
Law enforcement and the judicial systems have a term for acts of deception: fraud. But few members of the corporate offices serve much time in federal prison for such acts. (Enron Corporation was an exception, and not all were prosecuted or sent to prison.) However, the private enterprise corporations are filling the prisons and detention centers of Corporate America while draining the tax dollars from the government. These corporations are legal and are formed to provide services for the government "cheaper."
Many would refer to their services and behavior as "economics of innocent fraud" (Galbraith, 2004). The government agencies legally privatize their services by contracting them out to corporations such as Halliburton (oil, trucking, and military services), GEO (prisons and detention centers), NEC (electronics, education, etc.), Kiewit (border fence construction), and General Dynamics (military services, intelligence, and transportation).
As the buyer drives the demand curve, the economist will point to the power of the consumer. Such is the example of an innocent fraud. Those in power will claim that the consumer has the power of choice, but the consumer's choice may not be his/her first or even second choice.
What really pushes the demand curve, as all marketers will attest to, is the marketing plan and the well-financed advertising. Political campaign managers use this system to push the demand curve in elections. In political campaigns, as in economics, the need for a strategy of mass persuasion using different mechanisms and vehicles of presentation to consumers is vital for the sale of a concept, a product, and a candidate. Shaping the response to market campaigns is the same as shaping the response to political campaigns. Sometimes these campaigns are not about selling a product or the election of a politician. It can be about the sale of a concept, such as the "war on drugs," the "war on terrorism," the justification of invading Iraq, and the selling of health care as an overpriced industry.
Words do make a difference in our lives, so it is important to be as precise as possible in our exchanges. People can easily get confused, misguided, and upset by words and irrational thoughts and unattainable expectations.
Every day we use so many words that we often speak before formulating the words that can be more effective and closer to describing the pictures we are attempting to draw in the head of another person or to a group. Psychotherapists learn that relationships grow in a trusting environment because there is a mutually dependent attachment. Organizations have attempted to learn from this by spending millions to create a climate of mutual support and trust. Effective communication is a byproduct of a healthy organizational climate. Malice, back-stabbing, public confrontations, rumors, and a climate of competition within the office tend to sabotage a healthy communication climate. Various theories of management have been created to support such a healthy climate. Peter Drucker (2001) wrote about management of resources (supplies, equipment, hardware, software, vendors, personnel, etc.). He was a strong leader who promoted the training and health of employees more than building up huge bank accounts and offshore cash hideaways. Today's leaders have public relation experts handling their conversations to the public and assisting them on forming memos and policies that make the company look good rather than using terms that employees and consumers might interpret differently, albeit more realistically.
Perception and Meanings
Words are not killers or weapons of mass destruction; meanings are! And meanings are in people. Meanings are created through the perception of the beholder. Remember when you were little and you walked outdoors and looked around? If you went back to the same house, in the same community, would you expect that your memory would change if you now saw things differently? No. You would have new memories just like the cartoon from years ago that had a father and son standing in snow on their sidewalk. The father turned to the son and said, "When I was your age, the snow was clear up to my neck." As you look at the two, the father is now about 6 feet tall, and the little boy looks about 4 years old and the snow is up to his neck.
Some would argue that we never really come into direct contact with reality because our reality is a product of the interaction between our experiences and our nervous system. When this interaction occurs, there is another element that contributes to our acknowledgement of "reality" or "truth." Motivation is what drives a thought to a behavior. Behavior is caused by a number of things, such as our desire to change a feeling, a behavior in someone else, or to make more money. Behavior is directed by our priorities and is motivated by how strongly we feel about our goals, our needs, our ideas.
When working with my patients, I try to be conscious of what is motivating them to keep their symptoms of pain, frustration, fear, or/and panic. By reducing that motivation and replacing it with a new energy for a new direction or behavior, we take the wind out of their anger, their fears, and suggest new courses or pathways that can help them reach their goals.
Conflict normally doesn't just walk up to you and slap you in the face. Though it can happen like that, normally it creeps up. There is usually time to see it coming and to make a conscious decision to move out of the way. What might interfere with your decision might be a problem with encoding. If we live in isolation, we miss opportunities that are available to others who seek out group work, are living in a larger community, attending church, are being active in the school's PTA, or are joining a local community service agency. The more experiences we have, the more prepared we are for a situation that might present itself at a most unexpected moment.
Drucker, E F. (2001). The essential Drucker. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Galbraith, J. K. (2004). The economics of innocent fraud: Truth for our time. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Ronald Hixson, PhD, BCPC, MBA, LPC, LMFT, DAPA, has been a therapist for more than 25 years. He has a Texas corporation private practice and has founded a non-profit group mental health organization where he serves as President/Executive Director. He has a PhD in Health Administration from Kennedy-Western University, an MBA from Webster University, and graduate degrees from the University of Northern Colorado and the University of California (Sacramento). | dclm-gs1-005390000 |
I hate cash. I’m reminded of this every time I find myself in a cab where the driver claims he won’t accept my credit card, or when I’m at a restaurant that demands to be paid exclusively in paper bills -- incidents that happen far more often than is reasonable in an ostensibly advanced country.
Bloomberg News reports that paying in cash is normal, however, for people in Myanmar, although this is gradually starting to change. Now that sanctions have been eased, companies such as American Express Co., MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. are building the systems needed for electronic payments. (The biggest challenges are unreliable power supplies and a telecommunications network from the 1960s.) This is great news for Myanmar, but it is an unpleasant reminder that there are still vestiges of a backward cash-only society in the U.S. that ought to be stamped out.
Physical currency is dirty, it’s inconvenient and it abets crime. That’s why I stick to electronic payments whenever possible. Those eliminate the need to fumble about for exact change (or get stuck with worthless coins I never have occasion to use), lighten my wallet and make it easy to keep track of my spending. Nowadays even street vendors can accept credit cards thanks to technological innovation.
Americans seem to share my aversion to physical money. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, most U.S. currency by value is actually held in foreign countries. Cash accounts for just $1.8 trillion of transactions each year, while electronic payments, checks (who still uses those?), and cards account for a combined $71.7 trillion -- 40 times as much. Another $1 quadrillion in transactions is attributable to wire transfers, but those are mostly trades by the financial industry rather than anything directly tied to real economic activity.
Some vendors resist accepting cards because of the fees involved. This seems odd. Those fees can be passed on to customers pretty painlessly, which is why almost every civilized business happily accepts Visa and MasterCard. I, for one, would happily pay the few percentage points that vendors are charged to use the major payments networks if it meant not having to worry about whether I had enough of the right pieces of paper in my wallet.
A likelier explanation is that cash-only businesses have an easier time hiding income from the Internal Revenue Service. That also makes them excellent places to shield gains from illegal activities. Anyone who has seen “Breaking Bad” is well aware of how any small business that runs on cash can be converted into a vehicle for “cleaning” drug money. Italian banks have had such a hard time getting Italians to switch to electronic payments in part because, according to Bloomberg News, businesses there “often pay salaries in cash to evade taxes,” particularly in the crime-infested south.
If the government really wanted to push the U.S. toward a cashless society, it could stop printing new paper currency and minting coins. Inflation would erode the value of the existing supply while wear and tear would soon render most of it unusable. This could be complemented by changing the law preventing people from melting coins for their metal content. It wouldn’t be profitable right now, but eventually the prices of those metals may increase enough relative to the fixed value of the coins to encourage the voluntary destruction of my least favorite store of value.
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06:38PM | 07/24/05
Member Since: 07/23/05
1 lifetime posts
I need some advice. We were out all day, today, and when we came home I went to wash my hands in the kitchen sink and saw something move in the corner of the sink. To my horror, it was a BAT! I was frantic at first, and then got a container, covered him, slipped the cover to the container underneath it and then put it outside. I was feeling okay about the whole thing, but I just read someone's comments on here, stating that a bat can bite you while you're sleeping and it could go undetected! I have an 8 year old and now I'm nervous that what if one of us (my husband, child or myself) could have gotten bitten sometime and not known?? We have no idea how long it's been in the house, we just found him tonight! Should we go to the doctor's just as a precaution...?? I'm really alittle scared so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Jim D
12:20AM | 08/01/05
Member Since: 01/06/01
345 lifetime posts
Dawnnie7971 - hi, I understand your concern. I'm guessing what you caught was probably a fruit bat, which eats insects and doesn't bite humans. It may have gotten into the house through a fireplace with an open flue, and then stunned itself by hitting the window pane or something inside the house. They're normally nocturnal and have a very hard time maneuvering in the daylight.
I'd think you'd notice if you'd been bitten, but it wouldn't hurt to check yourselves over from head to toe. It'd be just like checking yourself for ticks after a day in the woods. I wouldn't think a trip to the doctor's was needed unless you found some sort of bite marks you couldn't explain.
This is all just my personal opinion. You can probably do some Google'ing on the web and come up with lots of information about bats, if you haven't already. Good luck! Jim D/West Point, VA
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Full description for Truth Machine
• DNA profiling - commonly known as DNA fingerprinting - is often heralded as unassailable criminal evidence, a veritable "truth machine" that can overturn convictions based on eyewitness testimony, confessions, and other forms of forensic evidence. But DNA evidence is far from infallible. "Truth Machine" traces the controversial history of DNA fingerprinting by looking at court cases in the United States and United Kingdom beginning in the mid-1980s, when the practice was invented, and continuing until the present. Ultimately, "Truth Machine" presents compelling evidence of the obstacles and opportunities at the intersection of science, technology, sociology, and law. | dclm-gs1-005420000 |
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Publisher Houghton Mifflin
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Imagine yourself in 13th-century England. King Edward I has just named the fictitious Kevin le Strange to be the Lord of Aberwyvern--"a rich but rebellious area of Northwest Wales." Lord Kevin's first task is to oversee the construction of a strategically placed castle and town in order to assure that England can "dominate the Welsh once and for all." And a story is born! In the Caldecott Honor Book Castle, David Macaulay--author, illustrator, former architect and teacher--sets his sights on the creation and destiny of Lord Kevin's magnificent castle perched on a bluff overlooking the sea. Brick by brick, tool by tool, worker by worker, we witness the methodical construction of a castle through exquisitely detailed pen-and-ink illustrations. Children who love to know how things work especially appreciate Macaulay's passion for process and engineering. Moats, arrow loops, plumbing, dungeons, and weaponry are all explained in satisfying detail. This talented author also has a keen sense of irony and tragedy, which is played out in the intricacies of the human story: a castle can be built as a fortress, but ultimately it becomes obsolete when humans discover that cooperation works best. (Ages 9 and older) --Gail Hudson [via] | dclm-gs1-005430000 |
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Name: _____________________________ Period: ___________________________
Multiple Choice Questions
1. How long does Ponyboy stay in bed after the rumble?
(a) Two days.
(b) A month.
(c) All weekend.
(d) A week.
2. What does Ponyboy threaten the three Socs at the grocery store with?
(a) A knife.
(b) A gun.
(c) His fists.
(d) A broken Pepsi bottle.
3. Who is present at Ponyboy's hearing?
(a) Everyone in town.
(b) No one.
(c) The people involved in Bob's murder and Ponyboy's doctor.
(d) Just Darry and Soda.
4. How does Ponyboy feel about having to stay in bed after the rumble?
(a) It drives him crazy.
(b) It makes him angry.
(c) He enjoys it.
(d) It makes him sad.
5. What does Cherry tell Ponyboy that the Socs have planned for the rumble?
(a) She says they will fight fair and without weapons.
(b) She says they are going to bring guns.
(c) She says the Socs have warned the police about the rumble.
(d) She says the Socs aren't going to show up.
Short Answer Questions
1. Who does Ponyboy go to the grocery store with in Chapter 12?
2. What does Darry scold Ponyboy for doing in bed after the rumble?
3. What does Two-Bit give Dally in the hospital?
4. Why does Ponyboy have to write a semester theme?
5. Who is delusional about Johnny's death?
(see the answer keys)
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What wedding TV shows to be on?
mandynos Posts : 36 Registered: 3/25/08
Re: What wedding TV shows to be on?
Posted: Jun 24, 2008 2:59 PM Go to message in response to: jennifersmith
There are soo many wedding shows, my favorite is who's wedding is it anyway? Then there's my big redneck wedding, Wedding alterd, bridezillas, rich bride poor bride. then the bulding brides show... I wouldn't want to go on them except to get a the free honeymoon out of it. lol
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"Lately you're the only song I wanna sing, and you're my reason to try, you just get sweeter everyday, the little things you do and say, if only you could see you through my eyes, you just get better all the time.. "
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supernaturalism, a belief in an otherworldly realm or reality that, in one way or another, is commonly associated with all forms of religion.
Evidence of neither the idea of nature nor the experience of a purely natural realm is found among primitive people, who inhabit a wonderworld charged with the sacred power (or mana), spirits, and deities. Primitive man associates whatever is experienced as uncanny or powerful with the presence of a sacred or numinous power; yet he constantly lives in a profane realm that is made comprehensible by a paradigmatic, mythical sacred realm. In the higher religions a gulf usually is created between the sacred and the profane, or the here and the beyond, and it is only with the appearance of this gulf that a distinction becomes drawn between the natural and the supernatural, a distinction that is not found, for example, in the classical religious traditions of Greece and China. Both the Olympian deities of ancient Greece and the Tao (“Way”) of ancient China were apprehended as lying at the centre of what today is commonly known as the natural; yet they were described in language that was imbued with concepts of the sacred. ... (200 of 588 words)
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chopsticks, Chopsticks on a plate.maqs (from Chinese kuai-tzu, “quick ones,” by way of Pidgin chop, “quick”), eating utensils, consisting of a pair of slender sticks held between the thumb and fingers of one hand, that predominate in much of East Asia and are used in conjunction with East Asian-style cuisine worldwide.
Modern mass-produced chopsticks are commonly made of unadorned wood, bamboo, or plastic, although exquisite lacquerwork, inlay, and engraving are still used in the decoration of finer examples. As a general rule, the chopsticks of China are longer and more blunt than those of Japan, which are usually tapered. | dclm-gs1-005480000 |
Plebgate has damaged Met - chief
Plebgate has damaged Met - chief
The head of Scotland Yard admitted his force has been damaged by the Plebgate controversy but defended his own handling of the affair.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan Howe said there was "no doubt some damage had been done".
He also insisted crime statistics were "generally sound" despite investigations into serious allegations that officers are manipulating them to improve performance records.
One officer is being prosecuted and eight face disciplinary action in the wake of the row over claims - which he disputes - that the then cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell called officers "plebs".
Sir Bernard said soon after the incident that his officers "accurately reported what had happened".
Asked whether he now felt he had been right to do that, he told BBC Radio 4's Today he had a responsibility to protect staff morale.
"It's not an unreasonable statement after the person about who the allegation is made ... apologised to the individual involved and then resigned from the Government," he said.
"We all had to make an account at that time.
"What we have since done is have a rigorous inquiry and I think that has been shown that we now have a criminal prosecution against one officer and gross misconduct charges against others."
When it was put to him that the affair had been enormously damaging for the force, he said: "It has. There is no doubt that some damage has been done."
The country's most senior police chief sought to play down disagreement between him a police watchdog that it was "almost certain" that some crime figures were being manipulated.
Chief inspector of constabulary Tom Winsor disputed evidence given by Sir Bernard to MPs that inspectors had lauded statistics as "competent and reliable".
Mr Winsor said he had written to the Scotland Yard chief asking him to explain the disparity between that and the fact that inspectors found "cause for concern" - including 30 out of 244 cases looked at being wrongly closed without a crime being recorded.
Asked if he believed crime figures were accurate, Sir Bernard told Today: "I believe so, generally."
He said he had been "quoting broadly" from the summary of an inspectors' report and insisted that part was not incompatible with there being some specific concerns.
"Generally I am confident. No statistics are 100% perfect," he said.
"There is some evidence - and I do not put it too strongly - that some of the things they are talking about in general have always been a challenge for the police and some are historic.
"What I want to be reassured about is that, in the two and a bit years I've been I charge, are the stats right?
"These are serious allegations and we are investigating."
Sir Bernard said critics - such as Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has called for his resignation over Plebgate - should have "the courage to stand up to me and say it to my face".
"I'm not going to say I've not regretted anything. I'm a human being, for goodness sake, I'm not going to say I'm a perfect person.
"But I'm proud of the people I lead and I'm proud of what we've achieved over the last two years."
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Innovation & Design
Designing the Future of Business
Forget total quality. Forget top-down strategy. Design is the engine that can transform a company into a powerhouse of nonstop innovation
If you've been paying close attention, you don't have to imagine this scenario. You see it forming all around you. The only question is whether you can change your business, your brand, and your thinking fast enough to take full advantage of it.
Designing the Way Forward
Brand and Deliver
A former editor of Windows magazine, Mike Elgan, illustrated the difference between ordinary brands and charismatic brands in two succinct sentences: "Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer is famous for a crazy video in which he yells, "I—love—this—company!" In the case of Apple (AAPL), it's the customers who shout that."
In the previous century, a little brand loyalty went a long way. Often, what passed for loyalty was merely ignorance. If customers didn't know what their options were, they would stick with the devil they knew. Today's Microsoft may be one of the last major companies to profit this way. In the new century, customer ignorance won't be enough to keep competitors at bay.
Agility Beats Ownership
Today, there's no safe ground in business. The old barriers to competition—ownership of factories, access to capital, technology patents, regulatory protection, distribution choke holds, customer ignorance—are rapidly collapsing. In our Darwinian era of perpetual innovation, we're either commoditizing or revolutionizing.
Why does change always have to be crisis-driven? Is it possible to change ahead of the curve? What keeps companies from the continuous transformation needed to keep up with the speed of the market?
A company can't will itself to be agile. Agility is an emergent property that appears when an organization has the right mindset, the right skills, and the ability to multiply those skills through collaboration. To count agility as a core competence, you have to embed it into the culture. You have to encourage an enterprisewide appetite for radical ideas. You have to keep the company in a constant state of inventiveness. It's one thing to inject a company with inventiveness. It's another thing to build a company on inventiveness.
To organize for agility, your company needs to develop a "designful mind." A designful mind confers the ability to invent the widest range of solutions for the wicked problems now facing your company, your industry, and your world.
Next, Eco-Everything
Necessity may well be the mother of invention. But if we continue to manufacture mountains of toxic stuff, invention may soon become the mother of necessity. Our natural resources will disappear and our planet made uninhabitable.
As a thought experiment, imagine a future in which all companies were compelled to take back every product they made. How would that change their behavior? For starters, they would make their products with parts they could salvage and reuse at the end of their lifecycles. This, in turn, would spawn whole industries dedicated to the design of reusable materials. As companies struggled to afford the full cost of manufacturing, the prices of products and services would rise. To keep prices under control, companies would localize their operations to save on transportation costs. Localizing businesses would change the nature of communities, creating a network of quasi-independent economies more akin to the Agricultural Age than to the Industrial Age.
In Germany, Volkswagen (VOWG) is demonstrating that corporate responsibility doesn't end at the loading dock. The company is already selling cars that are 85% recyclable and 95% reusable, and it's building a zero-emissions car that operates on a fuel cell, 12 batteries, and a solar panel instead of fossil fuels.
While eco-sustainability isn't yet top-of-mind for most CEOs, when the tide finally turns, it'll turn fast. There's already a significant migration of talented executives from traditional technology to green technology. As venture capitalist Adam Grosser puts it: "They have had their consciousness energized, and they believe there is a lot of money to be made."
Business is Design Blind
Until a decade or so ago, the public's taste for design had been stunted by the limitations of mass production. Now people have more buying choices, so they're choosing in favor of beauty, simplicity, and the "tribal identity" of their favorite brands.
Yet if design is such a powerful tool, why aren't more practitioners working in corporations? If economic value increasingly derives from such intangibles as knowledge, inspiration, and creativity, why don't we hear the language of design echoing down the corridors?
Unfortunately, most business managers are deaf, dumb, and blind when it comes to the creative process. They learned their chops by rote, through a bounded tradition of spreadsheet-based theory. As one MBA joked, in his world, the language of design is a sound only dogs can hear.
For businesses to bottle the kind of experiences that rivet minds and run away with hearts, not just one time but over and over, they'll need to do more than hire designers. They'll need to be designers. They'll need to think like designers, feel like designers, work like designers. The narrow-gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today's wicked problems. We can no longer play the music as written. Instead, we have to invent a whole new scale.
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: my 1995 Cadillac Eldorado Overheating
05-18-12, 04:00 PM
I bought this car in February 2012. The car ran fine and than it overheated. I took it in and Brake Plus ran a lot of test. The found no leakage from the pressure test. The Fans works and the water pump worked. They found no temperature differences when the ran the test on the radiator. Removed the thermostat replaced it and said i should consider replacing the eater pump belt it has cracks but i was told it was fine for a while. Two days later the car overheated AGAIN. Took it in and was told that oh, it was just air in the radiator that has busted but it shouldnt of been in there because the guy who fixed it should of drove the car to test is. He didnt so Brake Plus told me i will have 20% from future work on car. Shortly after the 2nd time i took it in i started seeing white smoke. Took it back into the shop and was told a gasket was bad. I feel like i should sue brake plus if this is the case because they told me the car was fine? do i have a case? but also i used blue devil gasket sealer car has no over heated but temperature goes up and does go back down to normal temp 196 -205. Is the gasket blown, did the sealer not work? Is there other things i can do to cure this problem? or was i simply sold a lemon???:mad2:
05-18-12, 04:27 PM
Blue Devil and other products like it do not work on NorthStar head gaskets
all the info you need to fix the car properly has been posted here (asked and answered and documented while being fixed) thousands of times
most cadillacs for sale on the used market are for sale because something is wrong ... either the suspension or the engine (both the more expensive repairs these cars can need)
i can't really comment on if you have a case against the shop but it does sound like they either don't know a thing about that car at all or they were lying to you
i'd tend to fall on the side of ignorance and they just don't know (lots of well seasoned mechanics don't know how to diagnose or work on these cars)
others here will probably tell you to confirm that it is the headgaskets on your own with a 'block test' (key words to search for)
i would suggest that you check the 'purge line' first ... another key word to search for
05-18-12, 09:19 PM
do i have a case?
Check with a lawyer. Any legal advice you get here is worth exactly what you pay for it.
was i simply sold a lemon???
Faded Crest
05-18-12, 09:38 PM
Sue them for what? Giving you a wrong diagnosis? :hmm: If you could sue for something like that nobody would open an auto repair business.
Forget about that crap and concentrate on finding out what is wrong with your car. The definitive test is a block test. Check the purge line like Chris said, but don't get your hopes up. You might be a new member of the blown head gasket club.
Just so we are all on the same page, what is the temp. when the car is running hot? Does it say "stop engine" "Overheated" or are you just going by the temp?
bill buttermore
05-19-12, 12:47 AM
The white smoke is a strong indicator that coolant is entering the combustion chamber, most likely through a failed head gasket. | dclm-gs1-005540000 |
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IL-15 Characterization Through Experimental Immunology
Natural killer (NK) cells are large granular lymphocytes that constitute ~10% of total peripheral blood lymphocytes in humans. NK cells are part of the body's innate immune system providing the first line of defense against invading pathogens and likely against certain types of cancer. The recent discovery, in both experimental and several clinical studies, of NK cells' ability to recognize and control the relapse of chemo-resistant acute myeloid leukemia (AML) could significantly improve the clinical outcome of patients with this disease, of which only 30% currently achieve long term disease-free survival.
Despite these advances in the clinical utilization of human NK cells, little is known about their normal development, their different functions, and the extent of their protective and pathologic effects in our bodies. Our laboratory has focused on the role of interleukin 15 (IL-15), one key cytokine (secreted protein) in the symphony of cytokines and immune effector cells that orchestrate the human immune response. Based on our experimental evidence, we originally proposed that IL-15 is critical for NK cell development; this prediction was confirmed by others, who engineered mice with a targeted genetic disruption of the IL-15 gene, resulting in the absence of IL-15 protein and the consequent absence of NK cells. We have since discovered that human NK cells can develop within secondary lymphoid tissue (SLT) such as tonsils and lymph nodes, and that NK cells do require IL-15 for this development. Thus far our work would suggest that hematopoietic progenitor cells migrate from the bone marrow into SLT, where they progress through five different stages toward NK cell maturation before exiting into the peripheral blood. Throughout this process, the NK lineage cells appear to require IL-15, which is provided at least in part from encounters with conventional dendritic cells residing within the SLT. We will now further identify and characterize the progenitor and precursor cells that differentiate into mature human NK cells, and study the role of IL-15 in this process. The more we can understand the interplay between IL-15 and human NK cells, the more we can understand how to manipulate the immune system to prevent and treat diseases such as cancer.
Given its ability to activate both NK cells and memory T lymphocytes, IL-15 might be an ideal immune stimulant for cancer therapy or immune adjuvant for use in cancer vaccines. Indeed, the first production of IL-15 for clinical trials has recently been achieved at the National Cancer Institute. We therefore developed a mouse strain with constitutive over-expression of IL-15, to mimic a clinical IL-15 therapy scenario. As expected, mild over-expression of this cytokine resulted in an expansion of NK cells and memory T cells; importantly, immunity against experimental cancers was improved in vivo in instances where another key immune cytokine, IL-2, was not effective. However, in some instances, prolonged over-expression of IL-15 in the mice resulted in an acute and rapidly fatal T- and NK large granular lymphocytic leukemia (LGLL). Interestingly, human LGLL cells often require IL-15 (or IL-2) to grow in vitro, suggesting that IL-15 may play a role in the development of human LGLL. Our laboratory will pursue the mechanism of this IL-15-induced LGLL in our experimental system and look to develop effective means for its treatment, which could then hopefully be translated into the clinic for this otherwise incurable cancer.
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Accounting Fraud Continues to Plague U.S. Economy
Accounting Fraud Continues to Plague U.S. Economy
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) unveiled his latest financial reform proposal on Monday, and the stakes for the new legislation couldn’t be higher. After consumer groups raised a major ruckus, Dodd has dropped one of his most egregious concessions to the bank lobby—cutting enforcement authority from the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). That’s good news: Without a major regulatory overhaul, the U.S. economy’s destructive boom and bust cycle will start all over again.
We’ve been down this road before. The Enron fiasco should have served as a wake-up call for policymakers, but instead, the weak federal response to Enron’s major fraud helped pave the way for the current economic slump.
What does Enron have to do with the crisis?
As Megan Carpentier emphasizes for The Washington Independent, one of the key “reforms” Congress enacted in the Enron aftermath was a law requiring every CEO to sign-off on their company’s accounting statements—but it has accomplished almost nothing.
Enron collapsed due to accounting fraud. Its executives weren’t stupid or careless—they made their money by engaging in deliberate and coordinated acts of illegal deception. But CEOs of companies like Enron had always been able to deny that they knew about the shenanigans that were playing out in their accounting departments. By forcing CEOs to sign off on their accounting statements, Congress was attempting to “deny them plausible deniability,” as Carpentier puts it.
But accounting fraud has plagued the U.S. economy, even after the Enron scandal. It also plays a major role in the Wall Street crisis. A recent court report from Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy examiner reveals that the company arranged a series of complicated transactions to hide $50 billion in debt, making Lehman appear healthier than it was. By hiding this debt, Lehman was able to make bigger bets on the mortgage market. The defense issued by Lehman CEO Richard Fuld? He apparently didn’t know the accounting hijinks were happening
An epidemic of fraud
Most U.S. policymakers are still having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that our financial system is rife with fraud at almost every level. Writing for AlterNet, Joe Costello reports on a recent Roosevelt Institute conference featuring several major economic luminaries. Costello argues that some of Wall Street’s biggest problems were driven by run-of-the-mill fraud. And a key vehicle for this fraud, Costello notes, was the derivatives market—the same market that allowed Enron to perpetrate its own frauds. Many of the scams aren’t even particularly new or creative. They’re simply the same cons that helped usher in the Great Depression.
“If we’re going to get our economy up and running again, the first thing we’re going to have to do is end the fraud,” Costello writes.
Protecting Whistleblowers
But astonishingly, even after the worst financial crisis in history, bigwig bankers have been able to avoid fraud charges and investigations. Even when the Justice Department went after Swiss banking Giant UBS for a massive tax evasion scheme, they let the company’s U.S. executives off the hook and instead jailed the very whistleblower who told the government about the fraud.
The whistleblower, Bradley Birkenfeld, is by no means innocent of wrongdoing—he even smuggled diamonds in a toothpaste container for a wealthy UBS client. But as Corbin Hiarr notes for Mother Jones, jailing the man who blows the whistle sends exactly the wrong message to anybody in Big Finance who recognizes a problem. Not only will your employer come at you with everything it has, but the government you aid will actually send you to prison. The fraudsters you finger get to retire to the Caymans.
This is part of the reason that successful financial reform is not just what the rules are, but who gets to enforce them. There were many reasonable rules against predatory lending that bank regulators at the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) could have used to thwart the financial crisis early on, but neither agency was interested in doing so. They were more concerned with short-term banking profits, and up until 2007, sketchy accounting was allowing banks to book big gains on the subprime market.
Why we need a CFPA
That’s why all the way back in June of 2009, President Barack Obama proposed establishing a CFPA focused exclusively on defending consumers against banks. With no concerns for bank profitability, CFPA regulators could go after unfair practices and fraud because they were wrong, regardless of what they did for bank balance sheets.
The proposal was watered down significantly in the House, as Kai Wright notes for The Nation, and just a week ago it appeared that Dodd was ready to completely torpedo the new regulator in an effort to craft bipartisan support for a so-called “reform” bill.
He’s backed off since then, but without strong enforcement authority, nothing is gained—the same corrupt regulators will simply continue to look the other way. But Dodd would still house the new agency at the Federal Reserve. Dodd insists the Fed would have no authority over the CPFA, but if that were the case, why would he introduce the provision at all?
“Reform in name alone will be useless to both consumers and politicians,” writes Wright.
Strong financial reform is overwhelmingly popular. While it’s good to see Dodd backing away from some of the gifts he’d previously proposed to bank lobbyists, progressives must keep the pressure high to ensure that financial reform is strengthened as it moves through the Senate.
It’s easy for a corrupt lawmaker to vote against a weak bill: He can always plead that the bill wasn’t good enough and be right. But serious, popular reform is not so easy to oppose. If Dodd and the Democratic leadership make the politicians backed by the bank lobby—that’s literally every Republican, plus a handful of conservative Democrats—stand up and vote against a good bill, many of them will have to choose between their lobbyist friends and their political future.
photo credit: thanks to americans 4 financial reform via flickr
By Zach Carter, Media Consortium blogger
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5:41AM PDT on Aug 5, 2010
I've come to the conclusion that the great American experiment has failed. It has failed. We will either revolt or we will soon become Mexico, absent any middle class... just rich and penniless peasants, begging on the streets and making dolls out of corn husks and happy to clean the wealthy folks toilletes for some corn meal.
At this point, I'm just trying to speed up the inevitable outcome of all of this corporate and government greed... a complete and total collapse of our government and currency. Let's boycott the
credit card machine Let them keep printing more billions to bail out private, for profit entities! Let them continue cutting taxes for the wealthiest folks around. Let's continue buying every last thing on earth from China
4:10PM PDT on Mar 20, 2010
Michael R. : Be careful .. you are walking very close to advocating armed resistance to the "Money Masters". That stance is a very dangerous one. Men who would reduce a proud country to its knees for money would not hesitate to silence a voice raised against them. As a child I read a lot of Taylor Caldwell's books .. she was writing about a "world wide monetary control conspiracy" .. think about that for a while .. look around you .. in the meantime .. be very careful.
2:47PM PDT on Mar 20, 2010
This story reminds me of the old saying, that goes something like this: Those, who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.
10:35AM PDT on Mar 19, 2010
One other thing, protest if the Consumers Protection Financial Agency is placed within the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is NOT a Government Agency but an organization of, by and for banks. It is a private entity to assure the profits of banks. Can you imagine they would let bank credit cards have controls on their usury rates on lending? Christ in the Bible condemned it for those who give authority to the bible for values. If that happens it will be a huge fraud.
CPFA must be within one of our government agencies.
Roosevelt was a traitor to let the Federal Reserve start printing our money. It is a government responsibility and we got sold to the corrupt Bilderberg, Carlisle, the " " Triangle groups. Am sorry for you younger folks. If I was younger I would become an expatriate. No kidding.
Folks, you need to consider someone like Ralph Nader for President, or Dennis Kuchinich both men of integrity. Unless congress is changed, however, they will get nothing done with the vipers protecting the wealthy corporations money.It doesn't look pretty folks.
This was all predicted and the history laid out in a book still available if you Goggle it. "Fourth Reich of the Rich", by Des Griffin.
10:20AM PDT on Mar 19, 2010
This article leaves out the other screwing of American taxpayers, and that was the bailout during the Savings and Loan debacle. It seems every twenty years or so the wealthy need to raid the middle class to keep up their standard of living. There were certified public accountant firms who reviewed them at least twice a year. I know because my ex-husband was one. I called a business department at the Seattle Times, and asked how could all those S & L's crash when they all had accountants. He told me that many were being prosecuted and were in prison. My ex then a Partner in the firm committed suicide later that year, but I always believed they used another body and he escaped to a tropical island. The autopsy didn't get his hair color or eye color right.
Then we had Enron, and then the latest Wall Street Crash. Incidentally, Gov. Spitzer wasn't disgraced because of a prostitute but because of the editorial he wrote to the Washington Post about predatory lending and that George Bush filed a law suit to keep the states' Attorney Generals from enforcing their own Consumer Protection Laws to stop it. He was a whistle blower (paid the prostitute 6K) and they stopped the scandal. G.W.'s brother was involved in the S&L scandal too in Texas, but that was hushed up quickly as well. We have crooks on all corners who think we are fools. Reason my ex is my ex, he said, "If they are dumb enough to let you take it, might as well cause someone else will."
6:33AM PDT on Mar 19, 2010
No Lore E. "I am not sure if this has been used yet, but here goes, "the root of all evil is M O N E Y."
Get it right; The LOVE of money is the root of all evil. It's not having money which constitutes evil it's your lust for it whereby you will eg. stamp all over other people to get it, you'll throw someone out of their home if they're having a hard time rather than give them a break or eg. let them do some work for you in lieu of rent when you can easily afford to do so. You need to not misquote that maxim because doing so is itself ignorance and in effect corrupting the true root cause of the problem.
We are all individually responsible for our own "accounting". For effort, for sharing, for demonstrating both strength NOT to harm others even when they hurt us, for showing compassion.
My fuel supplier has acknowledged in writing that they have £hundreds of my money unassigne dto my account and cont to bully and harass me for fantasy figures whilst at the same time admitting having charged me £25 for am Inspector Visit that they know never happened. Ebay and Paypal are now the biggest crooked companies on the planet,ignoring International Laws right left and centre because compliance with centuries old laws doesnt earn them as much money as ignoring them.
Whilst I try to ensure that I DONT buy any counterfeited goods, those whose rights I protect, eg. Fox Media, ignore my emails asking how to identify the genuine article. There in a nutshell is a reason w
1:17AM PDT on Mar 19, 2010
Watch. As more and more people simply CAN'T pay their credit cards and other debts, the government is going to bring back debtors prison.
MBNA wrote W's bankruptcy legislation!...Don't think they're not thinking up some other ways to squeeze blood out of our stones. We'll be told it's to "punish" bad deadbeats and such and the bourgeoisie idiot masses will support it in the name of "getting tough" or some other such nonsense.
1:03AM PDT on Mar 19, 2010
We the people? Puh...leeze. We are no more powerful than the man in the moon. Corporate money owns EVERYONE at all levels of government and it's only going to get worse with the latest SCOTUS ruling.
America is for all essential purposes already over. It's just one giant sharecroppers farm. A handful in control let the rest of us live here as long as we pay most of what we "earn" to them.
I've come to the conclusion that the great American experiment has failed. It has failed. We will either revolt or we will soon become Mexico, absent any middle class... just SUPER rich and penniless peasants, begging on the streets and making dolls out of corn husks and happy to clean the wealthy folks toilletes for some corn meal.
At this point, I'm just trying to speed up the inevitable outcome of all of this corporate and government greed... a complete and total collapse of our government and currency. Let them keep printing more billions to bail out PRIVATE, FOR PROFIT entities! Let them continue cutting taxes for the wealthiest folks around. Let's continue buying every last thing on earth from China!
When this whole country collapses due to greed... and China just walks right in, scrapes up the sickly remains of our once great nation and puts us in her pocket, I'm going to laugh. After one ruthless capitalist gets its ASS handed to it by an even MORE ruthless and unrestrained capitalist, maybe the world will see that unfettered greed is actually bad. Maybe
7:04PM PDT on Mar 18, 2010
I am not sure if this has been used yet, but here goes, "the root of all evil is M O N E Y. These are sad times, the banks who are our credit card companies, demand 24 percent interest, but you are lucky if you get .000002 percent on your savings account.
4:44PM PDT on Mar 18, 2010
the poor get poorer and the corporate masters become more powerful they have more power and control over your life than any government in our history. They better study history because there are more of us than there are cops or troops,we should consider ALL forms of civil disobediance and methods to resist the new serfdom or as i see it economic slavery, oppression must be fought for the sake of the planet and the people.
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Columns | October 15, 2011 21:44
Non-random Fischer Random
Non-random Fischer Random
The 2009 poster of the Mainz Chess Classic, which doesn't exist anymore. There Chess960/Fischer Random was played every year.
In that blitz game, Nigel Short played the St. George Defense (which usually arises after 1.e4 a6 but now appeared on the board after 1.Nf3 b5 2.e4 a6) and even managed to beat the 13th World Champion (who, admittedly, blundered an exchange in the middle game). He thus created an appropriate echo of another St. George game, in which another British Grandmaster, Tony Miles, managed to beat former World Champion, Anatoly Karpov (at the Skara European Team Championships in 1980).
In fact, Short also beat Kasparov with the now-rare King’s Gambit – and with a rare line within the King’s Gambit at that - providing another argument for those people (and I think I consider myself to be among them) who claim that all it takes to solve boring computer preparation is some creativity in the opening. Is that too much to ask of professional chess players?
Of course, some will say that it’s easy to experiment in blitz, but that one can’t expect the chess elite to actually start studying the King’s Gambit for important tournament games. Playing this dubious gambit in serious competition will cost them serious money! I only partly agree with this argument, because there’s no reason why playing blitz should, in principle, not be as profitable as playing classical chess. (It seems that even Kirsan Ilyumzhinov agrees with me on this point!)
But let’s for a moment assume that it’s impossible to force the King’s Gambit (or the St. George, or any other opening that’s not considered to be ‘main stream’) down professional players’ throat: what if we simply adjusted the starting position a little to help the pros make up their minds? Suppose from now on everybody would needs to start their game with the following position:
PGN string
So much for all Najdorf and Ruy Lopez theory! And that’s just the beginning, of course. All openings would have to be studied anew, because the slight modification will create all sorts of subtle and not so subtle differences. The game would still resemble chess sufficiently not to lose the interest of the general public, but the nuances would be different enough for the insiders to immediately appreciate the complete make-over of “boring” chess opening theory.
Perhaps some will argue that this new beginning position is actually to Black’s advantage, even though it’s still White to move. Well, that might turn out to be true, but how ‘fair’ is the current starting position? Isn’t that considered to be better for White? Even so, to make it a bit fairer maybe we shouldn’t put a black pawn on a6 (which might also makes queenside castling slightly less attractive), but a black knight?
PGN string
Heck, we could even have this position and let White choose whether he wants to play with White or Black. It still would be a much more modest change and thus be much more likely to be accepted by both professionals and laymen. Doesn’t this modest change of the initial position makes the ‘real’ Fischer Random chess look absurdly radical?
We can get rid of all the special regulations of Fischer Random chess, or Chess960 as it seems to be called these days: no more need to create the various starting positions with a special computerized algorithm; no more need for confusing different castling rules. We can simply play the above position for the next, say, 600 years - until theory has evolved so much again that we’re ready for the next step – put a white knight on h3 as well. (And in the mean time, we can enjoy the evolution of completely new chess openings as more and more games are coming in.)
Perhaps even more importantly, the quality of the games will be much higher than those played under the current Fischer Random rules. Why? Simply because Fischer Random opening positions are too unfamiliar and weird even to super-GMs, causing them to blunder in a much higher percentage of the games than in regular chess. Normal pattern recognition is mostly useless in Fischer Random. As Tim Krabbé once said, “Fischer Random puts us back 200 years.”
I suspect Krabbé was even being polite in his estimation. Maybe it puts us back not 200 but 400 years. Remember those games from the 17th century in which even the strongest players in the world used to fall for what we now think of as ‘cheap opening traps’? Well, I recently went to watch the Dutch Fischer Random Championship in my hometown, Amsterdam. I was just in time to witness what everybody felt was the ‘dream final’ - the decisive game between Dutch GM Dennis de Vreugt and Yasser Seirawan, who in regular chess beat many a World Champion in his best days, including Karpov and Kasparov.
I was in for a disappointment: Seirawan blundered a full piece as early as move eight, thus robbing the audience of a thrilling finale (and handing De Vreugt his well-deserved title on a silver platter). I felt bad, not only for Yasser but also for the tournament organizers. Honestly, I think no audience in the world likes to see such ‘drama’.
And that’s hardly the only example from GM-practice in Fischer Random chess. I remember Gata Kamsky blundering on move six a few years ago. I think it was against Aronian – I’d love to show you the game, but unfortunately, because to my knowledge there isn’t any good commercial database storing Fischer Random games, let alone allowing for any kind of simple search functionality (no handy ECO opening codes, sorry!), I can’t. Whereas some people are still debating Lasker-Lasker, New York 1924, any game of Fischer Random or Chess960 seems utterly forgettable.
Why not get rid of this artificial stuff and just move a pawn or piece to a6 in the starting position instead? Even if you think I sound like a Luddite, it’s hard to deny that it’s a lot easier for all.
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Arne Moll's picture
Author: Arne Moll
arkan's picture
Finally possible to comment :)
I don't think this will solve anything at all, a pawn at a6. Randomness should be a factor, maybe something like let the tournament software randomly choose beteen the a2-h2 or a7-h7 pawns before each game?
Also i don't see why chess960 is so bad? It's just not very common yet
Arne Moll's picture
Yes, the comments option was switched off by accident.
Anyway, why should randomness be a factor? Isn't the main goal of this form of chess to avoid any kind of heavily analyzed opening theory? Well, that can also be achieved by simply putting a pawn on a6 in the starting position.
(If the goal is to play a different kind of mind game, then I think the game of Go is a wonderful alternative!)
Macauley's picture
Nyah. Chess 960 is much more interesting to watch than just putting a pawn on a6. In St. Louis last month they didn't even use a computer to select the starting position. It's not hard to follow the rules for setting up a position. Also, doesn't DGT make a clock that will give you the position a the touch of a button then times the game?
Arne Moll's picture
I'm not denying Chess960 is interesting to watch, or fun to play - and watching or playing one game with a pawn on a6 would be equally interesting (or uninteresting, depending on your personal preference).
What would, in my opinion, become more and more interesting after just one single game, is to see this position occur in more games so that opening theory, one of the key 'scientific' properties of chess, actually gets a chance to develop.
This is an aspect that's completely lost in the Chess960 proposal, where each round a new position is chosen (or was this different in St. Louis?). It's this 'reset' principle that, in my view, completely destroys the beauty of opening theory evolution. This, and the 'homework' aspect, are not lost in my proposal, nor would it be hard to collect and distribute games played with this genre in a normal database file and explain its nuances to the general public without having to go through the basics of the starting position each and every time.
thechamp's picture
Sorry, but boring proposals. Capablanca, Fischer and everyone advocating randomness of sorts is trying to kill classical chess. Possibilities are endless in chess - no need for any adjustments to the starting position. Why not leave this old and still vibrant game alone.
Rudy's picture
Moving a black pawn one or two square from it's starting square (at random or not) doesn't give rise to a new kind of chess. E.g., the starting position with a black pawn on a6 is the same position with colours reversed after 1.a3 in a normal game of chess. So, this instead limits one's options. A similar argument holds if black places his knight on a6.
Thus this doesn't look like the way forward for our game of chess.
st32's picture
I would have been the first to mention this if the comments were not switched off :)
Arne Moll's picture
I did realize the situation was the same as after 1.a3 with Black to move: the reason why I kept the pawn on a6 was to preserve the comparison with the St. George Defense.
Not sure how this would limit one's options. That's the same as saying that in Chess960, having a bishop on b1 instead of c1 'limits one's options' because you can't put your bishop the a1-h8 diagonal anymore!
With a black pawn on a6, 1.e4 c5 would surely look like a Sicilian but it would not be the same, thus killing all existing Sicilian theory and providing a new basis for fresh ideas. It might turn out that 2.b3 is now the best move, or that 1.b3 is a better way of dealing with the situation. It would take decades to establish this. It sounds pretty exciting to me.
Rudy's picture
The suggestion of putting a black pawn on a6 limits the number of reachable positions compared to the normal configuration of pieces. Thus, in a sense, the complexity of the game decreases and there is less room for creativity.
But this problably isn't the reason why you suggested the starting position should be adjusted. As I understand it, there are two reasons. In the first place, it renders established opening theory useless (well, not totally, since there still are ways to transpose to known theory). Second, it enhances our understanding of the game. It would be beneficial to know exactly how a different starting position influences winning chances (or drawing chances for some of you out there!) and then use this knowledge in a normal game. Come to think of it, would Adorjan still say that black is OK if the pawn is on a6? In a way, black has lost some of his reactive possibilities. I'm guessing that a hedgehog with a tempo up for black is disastrous, since he can't put the tempo to use (and this may hold for other sicilians as well).
But certainly, i can't disagree it isn't exciting, but it does look a bit artificial.
As for chess960, should we not play chess960, because a GM blundered a piece in the first couple of moves?
adam's picture
interesting proposal; however, imho chess960 is a more promising alternative, it would just need _much_ more support from players, sponsors as well as fans... for instance, although world champions have been crowned multiple times by now, having no database in an age with live rating sites updated several times a day clearly describes the situation
i want to ask something that may be trivial: what is lasker-lasker (1924)?
Levon's picture
adam's picture
thx, very nice game. must have heard about it a long back, but couldn't recall
Kenneth W. Regan's picture
At Hans Bodlaender's, I'm on record as favoring this form of "Fischer Non-random":
With 960-squared possibilities, probably a few thousand really meaningful ones, it would really set back "theory" 200 years!
thechamp's picture
It's interesting that Arne Moll wants to "kill all excisting sicilian theory". The openings - their names and the long tradition of developed theory - is a living cultural treasure. Think again Arne!
Arne Moll's picture
Thechamp, I think you misunderstood me, or maybe I didn't make it clear enough: I love our game as it is and I think there's plenty of room to avoid boring theoretical duels without doing anything to the starting position!
Dan's picture
Arne, I've read chess websites for a decade and never commented because I've never felt strongly enough. But this idea of yours is beautifully brilliant and I think it should be the next step in the evolution of chess. Like many such ideas, it seems destined for a long time to be misunderstood and unappreciated by many, possibly even the majority. Also like many profound ideas, it is deceptively simple, but this is a large part of its brilliance. As you rightly point out, the "minor" alteration becomes increasingly significant as one moves up the rating ladder - to GMs, it's a monumental difference. And yet, unlike F-Random, it preserves the essence of the game. Fischer Random's flaw is that it's too wildly different, as you point out. As its name and creator remind us, it's random (incoherent, meaningless), and therefore disrupts in too violent and shocking a way the inner coherence and logic of chess that is its essence. A game perhaps appropriate only for Bobby Fischer himself, or someone of his inner chaos and insanity. If only we could stop idolizing far-and-away the single most insane and dangerous of chess genius, we may be more receptive to good ideas.
Many amateurs won't appreciate the idea because they won't think it's a major difference. They like Fischer Random for that reason. But the truth is a pawn on a3 or a6 is a monumental difference. Some of those who bemoan the dying of chess by opening theory, in my view, are plain dishonest with themselves. They laud themselves as ultra-creative as a defense mechanism to defend bruised egos. Their problem isn't really with opening theory, it's that they lack comprehension, may be a bit lazy (or frustrated with past attempts) and, yes, may lack creativity compared to better players. Wanting to "invent" from move 1 is not a sign of brilliance or creativity, people! Like some spoiled child who slaps paint on paper and wants to be praised a brilliant artist, they want to be appreciated as creative geniuses without doing any work or respecting the history of the game. In what other field - math?, science? - do we praise people who want to invent everything anew, without absorbing the body of material collected by humanity first? Most theoretical chess opening lines leave us in early mid-game positions that are unclear, with many possibilities reflecting different styles and values. That's where the limitless creativity kicks in, and if you listen to any GM review his or her games you won't help but be filled with an appreciation for his/her creativity. Do some opening lines lead directly to equal endgames? Sure. The exception proves the rule.
I am co-owner and Director of the Chess Club of Fairfield County, With bias but also good reason, I believe we are the best chess club in the world. We are a 4,000 square foot building, newly renovated, dedicated 7 days/week to chess. We do not rely on philanthrophy - our funding is from the chess community. We'd be happy to have a "St. George's" tournament or other event with your idea as the centerpiece. Feel free to contact me at anytime to discuss! Thanks again for the great idea, Arne. Don't be deterred!!
Alfonso's picture
A "pedantic" note: Skara 1980 was not a chess Olympiad, was an European Team Championship. The 1980 Olympiad was at Malta.
Arne Moll's picture
You're right of course, thanks. Corrected.
patyolat's picture
Suppose that Fischer Random was originally invented first. How do you think people would react if someone suggested that 959 possible starting positions should be discarded and only one used from now. They correctly would pont out that whole games could be calculated by a computer than memorized by a player, and "played" it in a tournament. Fischer considered this cheating and he definitely had a point. Unfortunately people as we know like the status quo, and insist to play only that one old boring starting position.
By the way I prefer to call it Fischer Random, since I believe the inventor deserves that his name is attached to his invention. We don't call Rubik's Cube Cube54 or Cube4325200327448985600 either.
Arsen Babayan's picture
"We can simply play the above position for the next, say, 600 years"...
And I think this is the error in author's theory which triggers it totally void. 600 years? Seriously? I agree that it took 600 years for the modern chess theory to emerge and get to where it is now. But do not forget, that all the strategic and tactical theory is still out there and even if we completely disregarded the role of computers in modern-day chess theory, it would take no more than 100 years for the opening theory for a new starting position to grow and overgrow. In this computerized era it would take 5-6 years, let it be 10, to get another starting position analyzed and published in all details, while you would never do that for 960 possible positions of Fischer's chess. Fischer's idea was "show me you can play CHESS". By switching between starting positions you do not fulfill Bobby's desire, and if a super-GM blunders a piece on 10th move playing Chess960, sorry, then there are only two explanations for that: either the guy is a theory-freak or that's just an accident, which happens sometimes and the author's suggestion doesn't solve any of those in any way.
Another major drawback for this is that it's very difficult to find another position in line with author's idea which would not be of big... if not decisive advantage to either side. Black pawn to a6 - and Black is much better, as the author correctly mentioned. But the alternative (knight to a6) is a disaster for black - not only they are deprived of very important defensive piece on c6 or d7, they basically will have to play a piece down most of the game, as 1.d4 will become an automatic first move for white taking c5 square from the knight, let alone all possible captures Bf1xa6 by destroying black's queenside pawn structure.
So briefly, I think this is just another "nice try". In my honest opinion nothing has yet been suggested to even compete with Fischer's idea of revolution.
Mattovsky's picture
The idea is not really new. I can't find the source right now, but Dvoretsky made a very similar suggestion years ago.
chandler's picture
Yes, he made it in his chesscafe column a year or two ago; Arne maybe you should have a look at it. His motivation is also that positions should be understandable, but he explains it better and in more detail. And I think his suggestion is different... moving just a pawn or something like that. Please search for it and give a link :)
GeneM's picture
Dvoretsky discussed FRC-chess960, and his own alternative, on 2008/Jan, in "Polemic Thinking, Part Two", at...
Yes, we need to discard the 'Random' from Fischer Random Chess.
But No, not the way this ChessVibes column says to.
I believe that one of the 959 non-traditional setups should be annointed for the next couple decades, so that grandmasters and amateurs, both armed with Fritz and a creative spirit, could develop a whole broad & deep opening theory for the new setup, to rival the depth and breadth already achieved for the traditional chess1 setup.
Watching that new theory grow from nothing would be facinating. It would also be educational in ways we cannot foresee.
But what should the new setup be? I recommend the following, which after 1. e3 e6 in the traditional setup, can be reached in nine more legal move-pairs:
Importantly, S#549 has no corner bishops, and the two white knights start on the same shade of square. Positions which lack either of these two characteristics should not be considered at this time.
I was redirected here from... , its entry dated 2011/Nov/05.
GeneM (2011/Nov/05)
CastleLong .com
Arne Moll's picture
Sounds like a sensible suggestion. For me, the most important condition is that this position is fixed for at least a couple of decades, allowing theory to develop and games to be analysed properly by a large amount of people, rather than just a few specialists.
GeneM's picture
Fritz_13 has a new cloud-derived collaborative analysis feature named "Let's Check". This feature could have a tremendous effect on the rate of growth for opening "theory" for one new stable reused chess960 position such as S#549. The whole chess playing planet could contribute to a central repository of analyzed variations of all the not-yet-discovered opening systems for S#549.
Seems like the "Let's Check" feature is a significant new reason to consider adding reuse of S#549 to the long existing reuse of the traditional setup S#518.
harryo's picture
I think that the 1.a3 idea is too limiting for the future of chess. What would be really wonderful is to change chess competition so that players play three types of games in equal proportion in the really big global tournaments:
1) A traditional chess portion of competition
2) A fixed inter-generational FIDE assigned Chess960 start position portion of competition
3) A genuinely randomized Chess960 portion of competition
If we give these names it would be:
1) "Classical" portion of competition
2) "Fixed-position" portion of competition
3) "Fischer-random" portion of competition
Each of these three divisions has the following academic advantages:
1) Classical-start -> test of memorization transitioning into the mid-game
2) Fixed-start -> test of good research techniques transitioning into the mid-game
3) Fischer-start -> test of creativity transitioning into the mid-game
The big tournaments of the world would feature the elite players facing up in all these three forms of chess competition. The chess rating system would legitimize and recognize these three forms of play by giving them each an official ratings system.
Then in other parts of the world specialist tournaments would start to show up focusing on one of these disciplines depending on what the regional interest is. For example there are regions of the world right now that are highly focused on traditional chess. There are regions of the world willing to try fixed-start positions and there are regions in the world such as Germany that already have an exciting Chess960 culture.
I appeal to the chess world. Can Chess players of the world finally accept that traditional Chess and Chess960 are not mutually exclusive, but actually complement each other? Please I ask that the chess world lessons it's black and white mentality just for a short time while we rethink the future of chess.
Thanks for listening
woolyworm's picture
Yasser Sierawan's chess variant, where a hawk ( a piece combining the moves of bishop and a knight) and an elephant (a piece combining the powers of a rook and a knight) are introduced on a vacant square on the back rank, maintains the patterns of the classic game while cranking up the voltage. Yasser's game gets exceedingly complex once the new men are placed, but there is no reason why the players can't agree to use the same mechanism to introduce another bishop, say, or any other (or any number of other) pieces during a game. Using this technique preserves the contours of the traditional game and the reliance on opening theory, though valuable, is considerably less so. Try it. You'll like it.
woolyworm's picture
MatsW's picture
You should have a look at this, an alternative to Fischer Random where the pieces are manually (non-randomly) relocated:
MatsW's picture
By the way, I have already suggested a training variant, Chess256, close to Moll's suggestion:
Edwin's picture
From what I can tell watching the recent Tata Steel tournament wherein we saw the best players in the world square off, this talk of the death of chess is as premature now as it was in Capablanca's day. In many of the Tata games the top GMs got in trouble in the openings.
T's picture
Pick 1 960 position and use that for the next 10 years, then pick another and so forth ;)
Honestly I think normal chess has a lot of life still though.
Anthony's picture
I've stumbled across this interesting discussion, and like to add something. First, I should say that I'm not much more than a casual player - I did play for the school team, and I played a bit of club chess later, but if I tell you that I own only two chess books - a 1974 "Ideas Behind the Openings", and Fischer's 60 Memorable Games - you'll know that I'm pretty much a tyro in these computer-driven times. But I do love the game, and I think I agree with those who bemoan the fact that there's so much theory now that you can't even say who just won a game - was it you, or the sound variant you managed to remember move by move from a book? But I also understand why there's such a resistance to Fischer Random and similar variants. It's not "real" chess - it's not "classic" and so on. So here's a suggestion - daft or not, only you really serious players can say. But this suggestion has certain advantages; it's real chess - its' classic, so the purists should be satisfied. But it pretty much wipes out most - not all, and that's important - opening theory. You'd have to start again, which gives you another fifty years to build up theoretical lines! And, finally, I promise two things should any of you try this- and you should try this by playing half-a-dozen games with someone whose game you know well: one, that you'd be as frustrated as hell for the first two or three games - but then, your opponent would be in the same boat. And, two,that it would really test your ability to create - and - as Fischer put it - just play chess. This suggestion isn't even new- in fact, it's several hundred years old!! Let's call it Indian Chess. (Which is where the King's Indian, and Nimzo-Indian get their names of course - which is why I said that not all opening theory gets jettisoned), So what you do is revert to chess - classic chess - as it was played in India. That is, reverse the rule that allows pawns to move two squares from their original position. It was done to "speed up" the game of course, but maybe it's time now to slow it down again! By doing this, nothing about the game as we know it now gets chucked out. But just try this, and think of how little use opening theory is - and yet you're playing real, classic chess. For instance, suppose I happen to hate facing the Ruy Lopez: well, when I see e3 played by white, I can avoid any possibility of that opening by playing a6 straight away. Then my opponent has to think again - and really think again. It would need a mathematician to calculate how many combinations are possible in Indian chess after each player has made, say, two moves each - but whether it's a smaller or larger number than at present hardly matters, because without the book or the computer to do it for you - over the board, that is - you'd have to fall back on your native ability to play the game.
Classic Indian Chess: any takers?
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