This has been quite the week for movie sequel/reboot news. The Independence Day sequel got a new screenwriter, Jurassic World‘s crazy plot details got cleared up, we learned there are people who actually want to reboot Cliffhanger for a fresh audience, and now get get word that Stargate is coming back.
The original team of Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich have been tapped to bring the series back to life with a brand new trilogy. From Variety:
Emmerich is set to direct, with Devlin to produce. The idea is to use the film to kick off a planned trilogy that reboots the 1994 pic.
“We couldn’t be more excited to once again partner with Roland and Dean, the world-class creators of the original ‘Stargate,’ to bring their reinvigorated vision of this wildly popular property to audiences of multiple generations,” MGM chairman-CEO Gary Barber said. “’Stargate’ is one of the biggest titles in MGM’s vast library, and we look forward to adding this great franchise to our slate.”
Now I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Stargate wasn’t a cool movie. The presence of Kurt Russell alone is enough to push it into positive territory and it turns out to be one of his better movies, especially from the 90s.
The idea that we need to reboot it and make it into a trilogy just bores me to tears. The original was a pretty sweet idea with Egyptian imagery, aliens and a mythology that led to a fairly popular television series. But it was original. I remember reading an article a few years back about the lack of new and original characters throughout popular culture.
We’re going into our fourth or fifth iteration of Batman in theaters, Star Wars is being revived, and Star Trek pulled off time travel to bring back old characters for another run. It’s a constant cycle of what worked before and it gets boring.
There are exceptions of course and we drive them into the ground. Also there is a big industry behind the things we know and enjoy. Nostalgia and known quantities can push a lot of green.
So it’s no surprise Stargate is returning, most likely for an entire series. I just think we can do a lot better.
Anyway, here’s an exclusive look at the reboot. I think I smell another hit!Subscribe to UPROXX
(Via Variety / Deadline)


A sporadically engaging martial-arts extravaganza that looks even better compared with its predecessor.
Robyn Wolf helms a small operation at Michael McCarty's Gotham restaurant, where she plans the parties and deals with hairy logistics, last-minute shuffles, peculiar requests and high-profile guests.
Audi is returning to Marvel Studio's superhero franchise for a third time, providing hero cars and marketing dollars to "Iron Man 3."
TNT believes it has a hero in Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
A charming score and a sincere premise buoy "Hero," a new musical set in a Milwaukee comicbook store that explores the distance between superheroic aspirations and everyday reality.
Dwayne Johnson has found his next action role: on TV.
WHAT: Warner Bros "Firewall" preem Thursday WHO: Topliner Harrison Ford, pic's Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen and Robert Patrick
2016-2017 Oscar Predictions


Spinach & Basil "Ricotta" Stuffed Shells
1 lb. firm tofu (not silken), drained & pressed
5 oz. frozen spinach, cooked & squeezed dry
1/3 cup raw pine nuts
1/4 cup lightly packed fresh basil leaves (about a handful)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1-2 tablespoon olive oil, or more if needed
about 22 dried Conchiglioni (jumbo pasta shells)
1 large jar tomato sauce
In a medium size bowl, crumble up the tofu with your hands. Add the lemon juice, garlic, salt, nutmeg and pepper. Continue to work the mixture with your hands, until the ingredients are evenly incorporated. Set aside.
In a small pan over medium-high heat, toast the pine nuts in a single layer, stirring frequently, for 3 - 4 minutes or until they are just lightly browned. Remove from heat.
In a food processor, grind the pine nuts for a few seconds. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and process the pine nuts until smooth, about 1 - 2 minutes. Add the basil leaves and the spinach to the food processor and pulse a few times until finely chopped. Add the tofu ricotta mixture to the food processor, and blend everything to a smooth consistency, scraping the sides often and adding more oil if necessary. Transfer mixture to a separate container, cover, and refrigerate until ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Stir in the conchiglioni, a very generous pinch of salt (optional), and about a tablespoon of olive oil. Cook the pasta al dente, for about 9 - 10 minutes (or according to package directions), stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Drain shells, lay them out on a clean towel and allow them to cool before handling.
Lightly grease a casserole dish and coat the bottom with a layer of tomato sauce. Fill each pasta shell with approximately 2 tablespoons of the tofu ricotta mixture and squeeze each shell gently to seal shut. Place shells in the casserole dish and cover with the remaining sauce.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes. Serve with warm garlic bread and sautéed veggies.


"There's this pause on the Makida every time the current Sandman goes back into the cryotube and before the new one awakes. A certain calm where all is still. The Makida's dull hum is heard, but that is all. No footsteps. No whispers. No music. The ship floats onwards, with a whole world within its walls. If something were to go wrong during those few minutes, a whole species would go extinct." - Author's description
Download it on the 2015 IF Comp site
A vessel the size of Wales, floating through the endless night.
You are the keeper of millions of people.
But what might be happening in Sector 24-R?" - Author's description
Play on itch.io (Browser)
Play on Game Jolt
Why play it? TWEEZER is a hilarious and incredibly odd text-based RPG of sorts that can succesfully mess with you. It also looks properly retro and is well written. - Gnome
Play it here (Browser)


A Parent's Guide to Anime
I'm an 18 year old male. I'm currently enrolled in college and am pursuing a career in education. My favorite titles are Vampire Hunter D, Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, Biohazard, and Ghost in the Shell.
© 1997-2000. All rights reserved. The Animé Café logo and the Crystal Kyoko award are original creations of the Animé Café. Please do not use any of the materials on this site without the expressed written permission of the Animé Café.
Page last modified 2000.11.30


Chevrolet Selects Rote 66 Ad Contest Winner
So chevrolet, much like Doritos, did the whole consumer-created commercial thing this year for the Super Bowl. Launched in September last year, the contest collected 198 entries which were narrowed to 33 in December. This week, Chevrolet announced the winner; Florham Park, NY resident Zach Borst. Borst will receive $25,000 and his commercial will air during the Super Bowl.
Borst, who looks like he's 30, went with the classic high school graduation scenario whereby parents buy a car for their recent grad. But in this case, it's not a new car that was gifted. It was a fridge for the "kid's" dorm room.
Anyway, it's amusing enough. If you can get over the fact these high school grads look like they're well past the quarter life.


Telangana state government has announced about TS DSC 2014 Notification for 16,000 posts. The official message is given by the commisioner and director of shool education, hyderabad Telangana TS DSC 2014 recruitment notification will be released shortly for 16,000 Teacher Posts in the state of Telangana. As Telangana is a newly divided from the state of Andhra pradesh.
There are many vacancies available for the teacher posts. As there are many institution and moreover many schools and institutions are going to be established thus there are huge amount of vacancies available.The candidates interested can apply for this post.
The Telangana state government cheif minister Sri.K.Chandrasekar rao garu has instructed to release the notification to the district selection committee. The telangana state government would announce about the recruitment notification of teachers recruitment. Likely AP Government will be releasing the AP DSC 2014 Notification.
Telangana TS DSC-2014 notification is applicable for the districts Rangareddy, Adilabad,Hyderabad, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Khammam, Karimnagar, Warangal and Nizamabad. More than 1038 Teacher Posts are available in the State Government Primary and Secondary Schools for School Assistant(SA),Secondary Grade Teacher (SGT),Language Pandit (LP),Physical Education Teacher (PET),School Assistant(SA), Physical Education Teacher (PET),School Assistant(SA) and Language Pandit (LP) of the TG DSC 2014.
Telangana Government will shortly release the recruitment notification of TS DSC in the last week of December in its offical website. as well as telangna government announced Telangana Police Constable Recruitment Notification 2015.
Eligible and Interested candidates you can apply online through official website after announced official dates.


Paint Jobs That Last from a Painting Company That Lasts – From Our Family to Yours
MC Painting is family owned and operated. We aren’t a franchise or a big painting company or an individual owner that may not be around two years from now. Owners, Chris and Lindsay Cox manage every aspect of the painting company and have been doing so since 1994! The success of our company is critical to supporting our family, so we focus everything on providing the highest quality work with the best experience for our customers! We want our customers to be customers for life.
It Starts with Our Professional Crews and Top of the Line Products
Our crews are professional painters. They’ve made careers of painting, and are some of the most knowledgeable painters out there. They’ve also been with us for a long time. We know their strengths and assign them to work accordingly. They also know that we expect exceptional quality in the finished product. They’re always saying “not many painters will work for MC because we expect things to be done right! Chris isn’t ok with cutting corners.”
Aside from that, we also use top of the line products that are correct for the surface of your home. Our products offer their own warranties as well, and the companies will stand behind them. Some companies quote with low-grade, name brand paint in order to make the quote less expensive. You may save money up front, but your paint job won’t last. We fix a lot of houses where the wrong product was used. We put the product right on the quote, can answer questions about it, and our professional crews know the best application techniques for your house, which is just one of the reasons that we are the painting contractors that you’re going to want to work with.
Quality Assurance Program & 3 Year Warranty
We offer a 3-year guarantee, while the Columbus market standard is only two. Our warranty is provided to you along with an explanation at the time of the quote. As part of our guarantee, we also provide our Quality Assurance Program on all exterior houses. Even though we use the best crews and products, we still want to take a look at your house when it’s done. An extra, final eye is always helpful, especially when it’s the owner, Chris Cox. Chris has over 20 years in the industry, and he has keen eye to look over every little detail of your painting project. Chris comes out 2 to 8 weeks after the job is completed. He will leave you a note that he’s been there and let you know if we still have a few things to take care of or if the work has met his high expectation level. We believe this shows the quality of workmanship we expect and the level of service and care you can expect from MC Painting throughout your project.
Quality, Experience, Customer Service, Longevity
If you’re interested in scheduling a consultation for a member of the MC Painting contractors team to come out and give you a quote on the paint job that you need, we would be more than happy to! Call our office or contact us today and we can help you set something up.


'Euro Dance & Pop Bundle MIDI PACK ' from Nano Musik Loops is an essential bundle for Dance music production and combines Dance and Pop with catchy progressions and radio-ready melodic hooks. Three products are included in this bundle, allowing you to create chart-ready tracks for a bargain price.
For producers demanding ultimate control you need MIDI loops and you'll them find here! Using the supplied MIDI files you can assign any of the musical phrases found in this pack to your favourite synth or sampler, and integrate them seamlessly with the pre-rendered loops.
All of the loops in this product are 100% Royalty-Free. So, once you have purchased this product you can use these loops in your commercial releases without having to pay any extra.
Euro Pop Vol 1:
• 6 Construction Kits
• 40 MIDI Loops
• MIDI inc Basses, Basslines, Pads, Plucks & Piano
• 130 BPM
Euro Pop Chords:
• 25 Mini Construction Kits
• 51 MIDI Loops (Chords & Bass)
• 128 BPM
Euro Dance & House Chords:
• 100 MIDI files
• Includes 50 Dance & House Riffs with basses


Just Wondering - Poem by Emily James
Do you love me like I love you
just let me hear the words
Show me that you care
is love really just for the birds?
Please just let me hear it
I need it more than ever
Don't let it slip away
never say never.
Just tell me one more time
I need to know if you care
And I'll never bother you again
if it's me you cannot bare
Please just be honest
I think you owe me this
Then I promise I will leave
even though you I will miss.
I only want what's best for you
I want you to be happy
So tell me what it is you want
I give you my word I won't get sappy
All you need is to say the words
let's end this once and for all
Just let me hear the words from your mouth
please Gracie, just call.
Comments about Just Wondering by Emily James
Read this poem in other languages
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
Still I Rise
The Road Not Taken
If You Forget Me
Edgar Allan Poe
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You


Maintaining a Reproducible Database on Political Parties, Elections, and Governments
Werner Krause and Dag Tanneberg
This chapter appears only in the online appendix of the book The Practice of Reproducible Research. Please cite this online version of the book as: Kitzes, J., Turek, D., & Deniz, F. (Eds.). (2018). The Practice of Reproducible Research: Case Studies and Lessons from the Data-Intensive Sciences [Online Version]. Retrieved from http://www.practicereproducibleresearch.org.
Our names are Werner Krause and Dag Tanneberg. We graduated in Political Science with a focus on Comparative Politics. Currently, we are pursuing our doctoral degrees at the research department "Democracy and Democratization" located at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany.
Much of the research at our department revolves around political competition, elections, and the dynamics of democratic government. In the mid-1990s senior fellows of our department decided to set up a permanent infrastructure offering data on elections and governments to all department members in a standardized and easily accessible format. Originally, the data were used to observe and analyze the consolidation processes in the then still young Eastern and Middle European democracies. The project has since grown into a database that includes more than eighty countries around the world between 1945 and today.
The database tracks numerous aspects of political competition. For instance, we code lower house and presidential election results, government duration, cabinet size and composition as well as the ebb and flow of electoral alliances between political parties. Department members may output raw data and digitized copies of our primary sources. Alternatively, summary statistics such as turnout, the effective number of parties, measurements of disproportionality or government stability can be obtained from the database. Unfortunately, the database is not openly accessible yet. However, the plan is to go public by the end of 2017.
Back in 2011 and 2008 we were recruited as research assistants to continue this longstanding project. We introduced several substantive and technological innovations into the database that sum to more streamlined, less error prone coding and data management routines. It was our goal to ensure transparency and reproducibility from the point of coding individual parties in single elections to the moment of generating summary statistics on every election covered between 1945 and today.
Broadly speaking, we define reproducibility as the responsibility to provide sufficient detail on scientific research such that others using the same data and methods will be able to replicate published results. Those may be single statistics, graphs, tables or even entire articles. Results that cannot be reproduced are neither open to critique nor revision - they are unscientific.
In the context of our database reproducibility becomes even more demanding. Since the quality of the data stored in our database affects numerous ongoing projects in and outside of our department every single piece of information should be reproducible. The challenge is thus to make the acquisition and coding of primary data as transparent to others as the standardized output we provide for secondary analyses.
Our team consists of one research assistant, two junior researchers, and one senior fellow. The research assistant is responsible for coding and entering the data. Moreover, she performs some baseline consistency checks. The junior researchers oversee both automated consistency checks and data processing. The senior fellow supervises the project. We confront three basic challenges when collecting, coding, and processing data: a) to reduce coding errors, b) to maintain a high degree of intercoder reliability, and c) to provide transparency on the entire decision-making process. Each is discussed in the following.
Our workflow has four separate steps. First, data have to be acquired and coded manually. Second, codings go through different human supervised and automated consistency checks. Third, the newly generated data are processed before storing them in our back-end database. Finally, information can be outputted from our database. Technically, each step is independent of all others.
First, our research assistant collects information on all upcoming elections and governments in the 82 countries covered by our database. Once a new observation is to be added to the database the assistant will compile sources on party histories, election results and/or government events. At this point it is crucial to critically evaluate the quality of a source. It must be factually correct and should offer information that is as disaggregated as possible. Both requirements are driven by the goal of correct and reliable coding. To ease the burden on the research assistant a list of high quality print and digital sources is included in a detailed codebook that accompanies the database. If high quality sources are unavailable, information from other documents will be accepted on a preliminary basis. Such entries are flagged, however, in order to update them once high quality sources become available. For example, elections will be flagged if results are available as vote and seat shares only rather than absolute numbers. Once a source has been identified it is coded manually following the guidelines of codebook.
Next, the research assistant enters the coded data into a Microsoft Access front end, and she saves a digital copy of the source (including all coding decisions) on a server that is accessible to all users. Access is neither free nor open, but it can be easily maintained and, more importantly, offers a user interface that makes data entry clear and easy. Via forms and reports the Access interface provides a standardized environment that reduces human error and increases intercoder reliability. Moreover, the Access interface performs basic consistency checks which enable the research assistant to evaluate the reliability of the selected sources. One such routine verifies that the sum of absolute votes equals the total number of valid votes as stated in the source. Another routine compares the total seat share of all government parties to the coded type of government. For example, minimum-wining coalitions with less than 50 per cent of the seats in parliament are immediately identified as problematic. Should any consistency check fail new sources have to be consulted in order to reach an almost error-free result.
After the data has been entered it is automatically exported to a PostgreSQL database. The database allows us to store the entire dataset and to put it under version control using Git. Changes to the database are documented on a daily basis and more complex automated consistency checks are performed at the same time. Those make use of the open source statistical software R. Using the R package knitr test results are saved and sent as pdf to one of the junior researchers. Those reports document all new entries, but also all additional changes to the data, and all failed consistency checks. Consequently, the work of our research assistant can be easily monitored and potential coding errors are almost immediately spotted.
The automated reports serve as a basis for a manual classification and documentation of errors. Despite our best efforts to collect data only from high quality sources, certain inconsistencies are unavoidable. For example, sometimes we cannot identify the number of seats in parliament controlled by a coalition government. This happens when government parties competed in different electoral coalitions for which seats won by each party are not reported. R automatically identifies these and other cases more. Due to the wild variety of potential inconsistencies all suspicious entries are flagged and must be documented manually.
Finally, the data are processed in R. An R script joins data from several tables and generates a raw dataset which includes all entries of the database. Additional operations are run on the raw data to generate an extended dataset. This second dataset includes summary statistics such as turnout, the effective number of parties, etc.
After all these steps are finished we make both datasets accessible via Shiny. This interface allows users to browse and download raw as well as processed data. It is also possible to export the entire database including all coding decisions and flags.
Coding and documenting cases that do not fit our pre-defined coding scheme constitute one particular pain point. For example, in many countries political parties and electoral alliances do not resemble the "well-behaved" party systems of Western Europe. Frequently changing electoral alliances, electoral pacts at the local level or the implosion of entire party systems as in Italy in the mid-1990s confront us with serious difficulties. Often identifying, coding, and documenting the electoral performance of political parties on a continuous basis is daunting. Moreover, those problematic cases come in so many variations that it is almost impossible to capture them in a parsimonious set of error codes. Therefore, no explicit rule is given in the codebook, and every individual case needs to be explained separately. The final datasets contain all that information. Hence, deviations from the coding guidelines are at least made transparent to the user.
A second pain point concerns the history of the database and inter coder reliability. Often the current research assistant knows only a limited number of her predecessors. Consequently, there is little guarantee that coding decisions are made consistently across coder generations. Rather, each research assistant acquires highly individualized knowledge of coding decisions and problems which can never be communicated exhaustively between coder generations. In other words, although an extensive codebook exists intercoder reliability is necessarily limited. As a consequence, one recurrent task is to review past codings in order to guarantee that information in our database stays consistent over time.
One central concern of our workflow is to make data collection and processing transparent to the user. While numerous datasets on election results, government formation, and electoral systems exist, none document the coding process down to the level of the original source. In contrast, we provide users with a codebook listing all standardized coding decisions. Individual entries that do not fit those guidelines are highlighted and explained in the database output. Moreover, we offer the user the opportunity to review our original source along with our coding decisions. There are many ways to collect and aggregate data on political parties, elections, and governments. However, only if a researcher is offered sufficient detail on the data and the decisions leading to its creation, will she be able to evaluate how idiosyncrasies of the data impact her results. Our approach combines transparency on sources, coding, and aggregation with different layers of consistency checks, error assessment, and continuous monitoring. It establishes a unique level of reproducibility in the field of Comparative Politics.
The key tool of our workflow is the PostgreSQL database which allows us to efficiently store our data. In contrast to Microsoft Access, which we use as a user interface for data entry, PostgreSQL is an object-relational database management system that comes free of charge. For its compatibility with Microsoft Access, Git, and R it constitutes a very flexible tool. It allows to automatically produce periodic reports on changes to the database and failed consistency checks. Moreover, PostgreSQL enables us to access all versions of the database and the corresponding R scripts via the version control system Git. Hence, earlier versions of the database can quickly be restored allowing for the replication of data used in past analyses. PostgreSQL along with its compatibility with the mentioned tools enables us to ensure high levels of data quality and reproducibility.
The second tool that we want to highlight is the statistical programming package R. In contrast to most other software alternatives R is free. Although R has a steep learning curve, it is an excellent tool for data mining and analysis. Moreover, R enables us to process data and perform consistency checks automatically. Another important feature of R is that existing code can quickly be changed. For instance, additional summary statistics can easily be added to the datasets that we provide. Finally, R packages such as knitr and shiny complement our workflow. These packages allow us to create periodic reports on the dataset and to provide members of our department easy access to the data.
Why do you think that reproducibility in your domain is important?
Political scientists learn from empirical experience. If contributions to our field are not transparent enough to be reproduced, then nothing will be learned from them. However, reproducibility covers both data generation and analysis. The Garbage-In-Garbage-Out principle applies to all studies that fail on either side of the equation.
How or where did you learn about reproducibility?
Some practices we use are standard and should be taught in every introductory methods class. Others we learned from more tech savvy colleagues. Magic happened once we put the two together.
What do you see as the major challenges to doing reproducible research in your domain, and do you have any suggestions?
We see two major pitfalls. First, political scientists often receive strong training in qualitative or quantitative methods, but not in basic data management. It is not unheard of that graduate students merge datasets row by row in Excel. Much would be gained if Political Science curriculae would teach key data management skills. Second, our field rewards productivity, not thoroughness. We finish one project and quickly move on, leaving procedures of data generation and analysis poorly documented. To ensure at least a minimal level of reproducibility the provision of replication packages containing raw data, data management and analysis scripts should be made mandatory.
What do you view as the major incentives for doing reproducible research?
Political scientists learn from experience. Reproducible research establishes a baseline against which to compare future analyses and thus secures scientific progress.
Are there any best practices that you'd recommend for researchers in your field?
Never change your raw data file. Stay away from the GUI. Have at least one notebook detailing the evolution of your analysis. Always comment your code or field notes.


Michigan’s Boat-Building Industry, 1865-2000
An entertaining study of how Michigan put American boat building on the map
Michigan will always be known as the automobile capital of the world, but the Great Lakes State boasts a similarly rich heritage in the development of boat building in America. By the late nineteenth century, Michigan had emerged as the industry’s hub, drawing together the most talented designers, builders, and engine makers to produce some of the fastest and most innovative boats ever created. Within decades, gifted Michigan entrepreneurs like Christopher Columbus Smith, John L. Hacker, and Gar Wood had established some of the nation’s top boat brands and brought the prospect of boat ownership within reach for American consumers from all ranges of income. More than just revolutionizing recreational boating, Michigan boat builders also left their mark on history—from developing the speedy runabouts favored by illicit rum-runners during the Prohibition era to creating the landing craft that carried Allied forces to shores in Europe and the Pacific in WWII. In Making Waves, Scott M. Peters explores this intriguing story of people, processes, and products—of an industry that evolved in Michigan but would change boating across the world.
Praise / Awards
"Complete with photographs, maps, and appendices that provide statistical information on production, employment, and geographic distribution of boat-builders, Making Waves
should have a place in every ship's library."
--Ross Coen, Michigan Historical Review
"Making Waves is certainly an important contribution to Great Lakes maritime research."
"Explores this intriguing story of people, processes, and products - of an industry that evolved in Michigan but would change boating across the world."
--Great Lakes Boating
Named a 2016 Michigan Notable Book
Winner of the 2016 Stuart D. and Vernice M. Gross Award
News, Reviews, Interviews
Available for sale worldwide
Add to Cart
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IRVINE, Calif., March 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) announced today the availability of the EXPRESS Cycle for the STERRAD® 100NX™ System. This is the fastest low-temperature sterilization cycle validated for surface sterilization of da Vinci® 3D endoscopes, rigid telescopes, rechargeable batteries and many other devices. The EXPRESS Cycle rapidly sterilizes instruments without the damage associated with other sterilization modalities.
The EXPRESS Cycle is a feature upgrade that customers can purchase for their new or existing STERRAD® 100NX™ Systems. The 24-minute EXPRESS Cycle joins the 42-minute FLEX and 47-minute STANDARD cycles on the STERRAD® 100NX™ System platform, creating an unrivaled range of sterilization options.
"The addition of the EXPRESS Cycle continues our focus on optimizing our customers' investment in the STERRAD® 100NX™ System," said Karen Borg, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing for ASP. "Our breadth of cycles combined with first-class technical support and clinical education, ensures our customers have the most flexible and long-term sterilization solution."
The STERRAD® 100NX™ System EXPRESS Cycle is now available in the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). For more information, please visit ASP at the 58th AORN Congress in Philadelphia, PA (March 21-23), contact your local ASP representative, call 888-783-7723 or visit www.aspjj.com.
About STERRAD® Sterilization Systems
With thousands of units in use at hospitals and healthcare facilities around the world, STERRAD® Sterilization Systems offers a broad range of solutions for low-temperature sterilization. Engineered using the breakthrough hydrogen peroxide gas plasma technology of ASP, STERRAD® Sterilization Systems sterilize medical devices safely and effectively, without the limitations or risks associated with peracetic acid, steam and ethylene oxide gas systems. STERRAD® Sterilization Systems produce a measurable return on a hospital's investment by reducing instrument repair costs, offering rapid cycles, reducing instrument inventories and enhancing safety.
About Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP)
Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) is a leading developer of innovative instrument sterilization, high level disinfection, and cleaning technologies. The company is dedicated to protecting patients, healthcare workers, and the environment with products that focus as much on safety as they do on efficacy and cost-effectiveness. Utilizing advanced instrument processing technologies, these products help customers to promote positive patient outcomes while controlling costs, increasing productivity, and enhancing safety. The company is based in Irvine, California, USA.
da Vinci is a registered trademark of Intuitive Surgical Inc.
SOURCE Advanced Sterilization Products


BOZEN, Sud-Tirol, Italy, March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Robotics today announced that it recently signed an exclusive distribution agreement for its CytoCare, i.v.STATION, and i.v.SOFT world-leading technologies with Israel-based medical technology leader Gamida MedEquip Ltd. This partnership represents Health Robotics' market entry into its 17th new country over the past 20 months, persisting on its worldwide quest to pervasively provide safe and cost-effective Intravenous (IV) Admixture Compounding Automation to hospitals all over the world.
"Gamida is very pleased to offer Health Robotics' unique technology to Israel's top medical centers, which have been awaiting for quite a long time to benefit from these technology solutions, much like Oncology patients and Pharmacological teams all over the world have been enjoying with Health Robotics' CytoCare since 2007", stated Moshe Reuveni, Gamida MedEquip's Managing Director.
CytoCare is the first and only robotic system proven to work anywhere in the world for the safe and sterile preparation of Hazardous Intravenous Admixtures, including Chemotherapy, Monoclonal Antibody Therapy, and Gene Therapy. With 67 installations currently under contract in 17 countries, CytoCare has long proven its unmatched flexibility to adapt to diverse pharmacy workflows and proprietary IV consumables in 4 continents. While several companies attempted the development of Chemotherapy Robotics as far back as 22 years ago, Cytocare is still the only robot that has been able to break the entry-barrier into the Intravenous Chemotherapy Automation Sector.
"Since I personally witnessed two years ago at Hadassah Medical Center the outstanding charity-based care delivered to both Palestinian and Israeli Cancer patients, it has been a long time coming for Health Robotics to be in a position to finally deliver our unique technology to tertiary healthcare centers in Israel such as Hadassah and Sheba Medical Center, which had both expressed high interest in our world-leading products a couple of years ago. After an unusually arduous and time-consuming process to find a service partner in Israel, thanks to Gamida, finally Health Robotics is able to deliver our products and services in Israel. My final selection of Gamida over Teva, Lapidot, and several other Israeli-based companies that had entered into negotiations for Health Robotics' exclusive distribution rights in Israel puts an end to a 2-year period of waiting by Israel's top medical centers", stated Gaspar DeViedma, Health Robotics' Executive Vice President.
---------------------------------  Am J Hosp Pharm 46(11): 2286-93 1989
About Health Robotics:
Health Robotics is the undisputed global leading supplier of life-critical intra-venous medication robots, providing over 175 hospital installations in 5 continents with robotics technology and software automation solutions deployed utilizing virtual high-availability technology. Its world-leading solutions CytoCare(R) and i.v.STATION(R) ONCO [hazardous IVs], i.v.STATION(R) [non-hazardous IVs], i.v.SOFT(R) [workflow engine for manual compounding], MEDarchiver(R) [life-critical clinical information system], and TPNstation(TM) [totally-automated parenteral nutrition] have and will greatly contribute to ease hospitals' growing pressures to improve patient safety, increase throughput and contain costs. Through the effective and efficient production of sterile, accurate, tamper-evident and ready-to-administer IVs, Health Robotics' solutions help hospitals eliminate life-threatening drug and diluent exchange errors, decrease other medical mistakes and sterility risks, work more efficiently, reduce waste and controlled substances' diversion, and diminish the gap between rising patient volume/acuity and scarce medical, nursing, and pharmacy staff. For more information, please visit: http://www.health-robotics.com
About Gamida Medical Equipment:
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SOURCE Health Robotics


Liz Swain 3:30 p.m., Dec. 12
- Community Blog
- The Mystline
"Amin, I see you as someone incredibly unique. You're not 100% Iraqi, and you're not 100% American," says a good Iraqi friend of mine as we drink tea in front of his restaurant in the Gaslamp. "I feel like you don't know your identity, yet you can control yourself very well in both cultures, it's different."
"I think me not being able to fluently speak the language isn't the problem, habibi," I tell him. "I think if you want to live in America, you have to be American. I just don't want to forget the endeavors my parents have gone through."
We watch the young and drunk people across the street mingle with each other, making little Iraqi quirks and jokes about how this guy probably smells bad or this girl probably didn't change her underwear. At the same time, we question how American culture works, and soon we start opening up to each other about sexual life in America and in Iraq. "Back in Iraq, I had to drive thirty minutes to see my girl friend once a month, and I would only be able to see her for an hour. So in that hour, we would have to do everything. Talk, eat, and foreplay. If someone found out about us, they would force us to get married, or they would leave us both out on the streets," my friend tells me.
"It's not a whole lot different for me growing up here," I tell him. "My parents still restricted me from going out, drinking, and having girlfriends, but after a while I definitely learned the language that I can use to talk to girls here and talk to my parents the same way."
We kind of stand there for a second, and then he finally asks, "What do you mean?"
"Well, in Iraq, we have a beautiful language filled with simple details. If you want to say something is beautiful, then we would have to pick something to describe about that beauty, and put it into our explanation," I say. "We don't just say 'aeyouneha jameela (Her eyes are beautiful)', this is too simple. We have to say 'aeyouneha hadeya min al rabi (Her eyes are a gift from my lord)'. Get it?"
He shakes his head in disagreement, as we both kind of laugh about the concept. At this time there were two girls walking by, and I decided to hail at them in order to put my example into fruition. "Excuse me ladies," I say, showing them a friendly smile and body language for them to be comfortable. "My friends and I are talking about world cultural languages. Let me ask you, in America, what do guys usually say when they think you're pretty?"
The girls look at each other and one of them says what I wanted to hear, "Guys usually just say you're freaking sexy, or some kind of profanity."
"Exactly, that's the cultural language here. If I were to say, 'Your eyes are a gift from my lord', would you think it's weird?" I ask.
The girls looked at each other again, laughed at the saying, and said "Yeah, it's weird, only because we never hear anyone say something like that."
I look at my Iraqi friend and smile, telling him "You see habibi, girls in Iraq wouldn't like to hear 'Your eyes are a gift from my lord', because that's something they always hear, but if I were to use the same concept in American English, then I would garner interest because I say something different."
My friend smiles at me, and we drink our tea. The girls kind of stood there for a little while longer, and we ended up scaring them both off by asking them overly sexual questions that normal perverts would ask. I think we only did this to scare them off, not to get some play.


KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee football home opening game against Indiana State has a time and TV channel.
The home stadium portion of the Vols’ season will kick off at 4 p.m. on Sept. 9 and be broadcast on the SEC Network.
This will be the teams’ first-ever meeting.
The Sycamores, perhaps best known as the alma mater of NBA Hall of Fame basketball player Larry Bird, finished the 2016 season with a 4-7 record, eighth in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Tennessee won its 2016 home opener against Appalachian State, 20-13, in overtime. The Vols went on to a 9-4 record, defeating Nebraska 38-24 in the Music City Bowl to finish the third-consecutive season with a bowl win and the second in a row ranked in the Top 25.
Tennessee’s season opener will be a neutral-site game at 8 p.m. on Sept. 4 against Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta’s new Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
SEC play for the Vols begins on the road against Florida at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 16 (TV: CBS)
Tennessee snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Gators last season with a 38-28 home victory.


Forgive they tell you.
Forget they insist.
After all, the spiritual thinkers believe that forgiveness is key to healing.
How could I doubt them.
How could I ever think that forgiveness is not necessary to heal.
But since I am not a spiritual thinker, or a guru and never will be, I can say that forgiveness is a nice-to-have experience, but not necessary for living a big, full, life.
When my husband died a few things took place that were absolutely unforgivable and of course unforgettable.
Eight years later I still think about those things, but they have no emotional charge.
They don’t impact my life.
Did I forgive them, not really.
Did I forget, not at all.
But it is a non issue.
If I was to go back and go through a forgiveness process, talk to these people about what happened and blah blah blah… I would be turning myself back.
I would be revisiting something that is so behind me.
I don’t forgive or forget, but I see it all from a different vantage point.
I know you want to know how to get there yourself and my answer to that is, knowing yourself. Trusting yourself to know the truth and to stand in it with grace.
For me forgiveness is the ability to have the courage to move past it because I know better.
However, if you have no choice but to have these people in your life there is one thing that I learned recently.
Being able to have humanity towards someone who has done the unforgivable is the key to moving on.
It is the key to healing.
You don’t necessarily forgive or forget, you just have the capacity to still be the human you are towards the people who hurt you.
And then walk away. No emotional charge. No regrets. No revenge. No anger.
Just a simple knowing of who you are and why you show up the way you do.
Forgiveness is overrated.
But holding on to your values especially with people who hurt you is priceless.
I could never forgive certain people in my life, but I can still treat them with respect and smile at them knowing who I was, who I am and who I get to be.
During the holidays if you have to sit next to someone who you can not forgive, look at them from the part of your soul that knows who they are, but most importantly knows who you are. And that is when you give them your biggest most glorious smile.
With many unforgettable smiles,
Image courtesy of rarefrutifan.


About this download
- Date released: 02/12/2011
- Applicable models & File Name:
- STR-DA5500ES: A55E_1031.zip
- Benefits and improvements: Support change of contents distribution method of SHOUTcast Internet radio.
Note: It may not possible to listen to the contents if the delivery service close or the contents transmission system is changed.
- Windows PC with access to the internet
- LAN cable to connect your receiver to the internet
- Supplied CD-ROM
- ES Utility 2.0
- Operating System
- For ES Utility 2.0: Windows Vista Home Basic/ Home Premium/ Business/Ultimate (SP1、32 bit/64 bit)Windows XP Home Edition/ Professional/ Media Center Edition 2005 (SP3、32 bit)
- Minimum Computer requirements:
- CPU: Celeron
- Clock Speed: 1 GHz or higher
- Memory (RAM) (Windows XP): 512 MB or more
- HDD: 20 MB or more free disk space.
280 MB free disk space is required when .NET Framework 2.0 is not installed.
- Display: 1024 × 768, High Color (65536 colors) or higher resolution
- Network: 100Base-TX or higher
How to make sure the update goes smoothly
Updating is usually very simple. Here’s how you can make sure it goes right first time:
- Read the instructions carefully.
- Don’t turn the Receiver off – or disconnect it from the power – while it’s updating.
- Don’t press any buttons, except the ones mentioned in the instructions.
- Turn master volume to -∞ before operation.
- Connect to the network using a wired connection for assured update
The ES Utility software is required to perform the firmware update. Follow the steps below to install the ES Utility software on your computer:
Note: It is not necessary to install the ES Utility if you have previously install this utility.
- Power on your computer and login as administrator or with an account with administrator rights.
- Insert the the supplied ES Utility CD into your CD-ROM drive.
- The installation launcher automatically starts and displays the Software Setup screen.
- If the installation launcher does not start, navigate to the CD-ROM files and double-click the "SetupLauncher.exe" file.
- If you do not have the ES Utility CD, download here the ES Utility application to your computer, open the downloaded folder, and then double-click the "SetupLauncher.exe" file.
- Install the ES Utility application software following the instructions given in the message on the screen.
- At the "Welcome to the Software Setup" screen, read the agreement, then, if you agree, click "I accept the terms of the license agreement", and then click "Next".
- At the "Software Setup" screen, under "Software" click the ES Utility icon.
- At the "Software Setup screen", under ES Utility click Install.
- At the "Welcome to the ES Installer" screen, click Next.
- At the "Setup Type" screen, select Custom, and then click Next.
- At the "Choose a Destination Folder" screen, click Next.
- At the "Add a desktop shortcut" screen, select Add a shortcut to the desktop, and then click Next.
- At the "Install the program" screen, click Install.
- At the "ES Utility was successfully installed" screen, clickFinish.
The software is installed and the ES Utility icon is placed on your desktop.
- Download the firmware file to your Desktop.
- Read and accept the terms and conditions below and click download file
- When prompted, save the file to your Desktop.
- Connect the receiver to network using a LAN cable.
- Ensure the receiver is connected to the TV.
- Power on the receiver and wait 30-50 seconds for the U-com communication.
- On the receiver remote commander press GUI MODE to show GUI MODE ON in the display window.
- Ensure the TV is powered on. The menu is displayed on the TV screen.
Note: If your receiver has already been configured to connect with your home network, please skip to step 11
- On the remote commander, use the up/down arrow buttons to select Settings - Network- Network Setup.
- At the Network Setup menu, select Internet Setup.
- At the Internet Setup screen, select Connect Automatically (DHCP).
The message "Connecting... Please wait." may appear.
- When the receiver has successfully connected to the network, select Finish and press the Enter button.
- By using the Up/Down arrow buttons and enter select Settings -System - System Update on the menu window.
- Select PC update, select Start and press enter.
- The PC update window appear.
- On the computer double-click ES Utility.
- Double-click the Receiver connecting the network.
- At the "ES Utility" screen, move the scroll bar on the left to select System.
- At the "System Settings" screen, to the right of "File Path", click Browse to locate the file you downloaded (A64E_1065.zip or A55E_1031.zip).
- Click Start Update.
- At the "Start Update" screen, click Yes to start the update process. This update takes 15-30 minutes to complete.
Note: The MULTI CHANNEL DECODING lamp on the front panel flashes while updating. After the updating complete, the flashing will disappear.
- After the update completes, click Exit.
- Power off the receiver and disconnect from the computer.
The firmware software update is complete.
See our FAQ's about updating firmware
How can I check the software version in the receiver?
- On the remote commander, press the GUI MODE button to display GUI MODE OFF in the display window of the receiver.
- On the remote commander, press the MENU button, then press the up/down arrow buttons to select System Settings, and then press the enter button.
- Use the up/down arrow buttons to select VERSION x.xxx. This will display the current version information for the receiver.
In case update has not been completed successfully please do the following:
- Verify you have downloaded the corrected file for your receiver.
- Please verify your firewall settings:
- When using firewall of Windows: Add ES Utility in the exception settings of the firewall. (please refer to your computer instructions manual or Windows website for more information).
- When using using generic firewall: Disable the firewall or register the ES Utility as permitted programs.Please refer to the operating instructions or Help option form more information.


`Remember me on this computer` option
Select the `Remember me on this computer` option if you wish to be automatically logged on to the computer in future. Your account will remain active for 45 days. Please do not use the `Remember me` option if using a computer with public access or that is used by more than one person.
View more related products to:
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An executive report is the summary of the results of specific activities and programs that are executed by an entity in a particular period of time. However, there may be times that an executive report may also be used for planning purposes as well. There are different variations of executive report depending on the reporting guidelines being implemented by a company.
This post is a collection of executive reports that may be used as guides by any head, senior official, or chief officers of a company for their reporting duties. Other than our samples of executive report templates, we can also provide you with report summary and annual report templates.
Sample Executive Summary
Monthly Executive Summary
Daily Executive Example
Executive Director Report
Kinds of Executive Reports
An executive report may be created for the following reasons:
- An executive report can be an executive summary that outlines the impact of the projects of the business to the company. It may show graphs and other reporting tools that are needed for the presenter to visually provide information about the effects of the undertakings of the business.
- A monthly executive summary is usually created by the heads or directors of specific departments or divisions that are involved in the company operations. It usually consists of department updates, the present condition of the department, and the needs that they need to continue their programs and activities.
- An executive committee report is a collective report of the entire business operations. It outlines all the items that are created by different areas of management for the stakeholders of the business especially the investors and management heads to be updated by the things and issues that they need to be aware of.
Other than our samples of executive report templates, you may also want to download our samples and templates of Data Analysis Reports from our website.
HR Executive Sample
Executive Report Example
Free Executive Board
Tips in Writing an Executive Summary Report
Keep these guidelines when creating an executive summary report:
- Identify the purpose of creation of the executive summary report. There are executive summary reports that are created to discuss everything about the business operations for the entire year. However, there may also be executive summary reports that are intended to update the management team regarding the procedures being followed by a business area and how is it doing in terms of producing results.
- Always remember that you will present this executive report to professional people. Assure that you will use a professional language in your entire report discussion.
- Create an report outline that will smoothly discuss the items that are needed to be given focus with. Make the discussion chronological from the content creation, data structuring, program implementation, and results. This may still vary depending on the requirements of the executive summary report that you will make.
- Be precise and direct to the point. Only highlight the items that are needed to be known by the people who are expected to receive and review the report.
Aside from our downloadable templates of executive reports, you may also download our samples and templates of daily reports for additional references regarding the creation and usage of this specific kind of report.


MANCHESTER UNITED have are facing the prospect of empty seats for tonight’s Champions League return against Basel.
The Red Devils have been sending texts out to members over the last week in an attempt to flog unwanted stubs for their return to Europe’s premier competition.
While the ground appears to be largely sold out, it appears there has been a scramble for the club to give the tickets the hard sell.
United sent out a text to fans as late as Sunday, seemingly reminding supporters that they are back in the Champions League.
The club have a complicated season ticket policy for fans in cup competitions, with United supporters obligated to purchase Champions League tickets even if they don’t want them.
Basel are the visitors to Old Trafford tonight, with the Swiss club enjoying a fruitful record against the Premier League side.
United won 3-1 at St Jakob Park in 2002, while the two sides drew at Old Trafford in March 2003, before a 3-3 draw in September 2011 and 2-1 defeat for United in December that year.
Most Read in Football
🏆Latest Champions League odds🏆
Jose Mourinho is also keen on finding ways to improve the matchday atmosphere at the 75,000-capacity stadium.
He said after their win over Leicester: "I saw the ball in the net and all the guys jumping around.
"It was the first time I saw the crowd. They were very quiet.
"It was easy to know that was a goal because it was the first time I really understood the stadium was full."
Despite being the UK's largest club ground, the arena has tended to lack the belting atmosphere of certain other stadia.
United's board have created a singing section in the Stretford End, but fans are still not allowed to bring in flags or giant banners as they are at Liverpool.
MOST READ IN SPORT
Ed Woodward announced a ticket price freeze last season, but United weren't in the Champions League as they went on to win the Europa League instead.
He said: "The ticket price freeze that we announced is our policy in regards to the core fans.
"The No1 most important thing is a full stadium, the second most important thing is a noisy stadium."
Champions League ticket prices range from £10 for Under-16s to £58 for non-members in the most expensive non-hospitality seats.


HELP! I'm pretty much sussed on girls names but boys names I can't for the life of me find something I like! I want something quite unusual but not silly!
Any ideas would be amazing!
I am the exact same way!! We are dead set on a girl name but I can't find a boy name that I truly love. We have a few picked out but I am not dead set on any of them. :(
I LOVE Jax but our nephews name is Dax so we can't really choose it.


Migrations are actually found in every major animal group, from birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and even crustaceans! Migrations are relatively long-duration journeys that are often embarked upon because of seasonal climate changes, and a lack of good breeding opportunities or food in one location. They may occur seasonally or once in a lifetime. Animals that fly or swim long distances to migrate are hard to track from land. Because of this, our knowledge of these migrations has been extremely limited. However, new techniques have made it possible to study migrations that we didn’t understand at all before. Here are three stories about how technology has changed what we know about migrations:
Eel migration was a complete mystery for a long time. Eel larvae were first found in the Sargasso Sea in 1904, and grown eels live in North American rivers. Eels live to around the age of 20 before they venture out to the sea to lay eggs. This migration takes so much energy that the eel dies after spawning. The baby eels need to make their way back north on their own. However, in the past hundred years no migrating eels had ever been seen, so nothing was actually known about their migration.
In 2012, Canadian scientists used satellite tags to track adult American eels (Anguilla rostrata) in their migration. They tagged 38 eels with pop-up satellite archival tags; these tracking devices cost between 900$ and 4000$ each. These tags measure water depth, temperature, and geomagnetic field intensity. Each day, the data was transmitted to the a low earth orbiting satellite system. By comparing this data with global ocean circulation models, scientists tracked the locations and migrations of the eels.
Unfortunately, there was a big problem with the tags either not working or the tagged eels being eaten by fish. Eight (of the 38) eels were tracked to the open sea. However, only one tag tracked a female down to the spawning grounds before her tag popped off. She migrated from the coast of Nova Scotia all the way down to the northern edge of the Sargasso Sea, more than 2,400 km (1,500 miles). She swam 49 km (30 miles) a day and when the sun was up descended to depths of 700 m (2,000 feet) to avoid being seen by predators. This predator-avoidance explains why migrating eels have never been seen before.
The eels exhibit a two-phase migration path: first they swim over the continental shelf and its edge through shallow waters. They may depend on salinity or temperature gradients to navigate themselves. Then in deeper waters, the eels turn due south and head directly towards the Sargasso Sea. They may have an inherited bi-dimensional map like salmon and use geomagnetic intensity and inclination angle to orient. However, right now these are just guesses.
Around the world in 133 days
Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) have by the far the longest migration in the world. Although migrating birds are very common (1,800 out of 10,000 bird species migrate), this bird takes it to a whole new level. It breeds in the Arctic and migrates to the Antarctic every year. Yes, you read that right, from pole to pole. This also means that these sneaky birds get two summers and receive more sunlight than any other creature on earth!
Fifty Arctic terns were fitted with geolocators on plastic leg rings to track their exact migration route in 2007. The geolocators were previously too heavy for anything smaller than an albatross, but lighter ones were engineered that were suitable for the 125g (0.3 lbs) Arctic tern. One limitation is that the birds with geolocators need to be recaptured in order to get the information. At least 20 of the birds of the tagged birds were seen but only 11 of the geolocators were retrieved in total.
The birds start at their breeding grounds in Greenland and Iceland and migrate south in two possible routes. One route goes down the coast of Western Europe and Africa and the other follows the continent of South America. The terns take their time going southward and take a break at an oceanic hotspot that was unknown prior to this study. All 11 tracked birds shared the same wintering sites in Antarctica and took the same route back North. The route is a sigmoidal trajectory that crosses the Atlantic ocean by flying around the North Atlantic gyres. The birds went north much quicker, taking only half the time as going South.
In total, a round trip for the Arctic terns is an average of 70,900 km (44,000 miles) long. Before this study, the length of Arctic tern migrations was estimated at 40,000 km (25,000 miles), so this value is actually twice as much! Because Arctic terns live for more than 30 years, they may fly more than 2.4 million km (1.5 million miles) in total. If you need a reference, that is the same as to the moon and back three times!
Ain’t no lady
Everyone has heard of monarch butterflies migrating from the USA to Mexico, but there’s a lesser known butterfly that actually migrates for longer distances. The painted lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) isn’t as dainty as it sounds. After seeing large numbers of painted ladies in the UK, researchers wondered what happens to the butterflies when it gets cold. Some people thought that the butterflies come by accident and then all die in the winter. It turns out that they are smarter than that, and migrate south for the winter.
2009 was a record year for painted ladies, 11 million of them entered the UK in the spring and 26 million left in the fall. UK researchers used this opportunity to study their movement. They used a combination of scientific monitoring, citizen scientist reports of the butterfly, and radar technology. British observers provided over 60,000 painted lady sightings. Radar technology provided information about the density of butterflies, flight altitude, speed, and direction. Radar was used primarily to view high flying butterflies. Researchers identified objects from the radar output that matched size and shape of the butterflies as painted ladies and supplemented this assessment with visual sightings. It turns out that the butterflies travel at altitudes of over 1,000m (620 miles) but descend to take advantage of favourable winds to help them glide along. The butterflies flew at an average height of 500 m (310 miles) on their way south up to 48km/h (30miles/h).
In total, painted lady butterflies make a 14,400 km (9,000 miles) migration from Scandinavia and Great Britain to West Africa. Monarchs only migrate up to 8,000 km (5,000 miles). The painted ladies even cross a sea! They are tough ladies. It turns no single painted lady butterfly makes the whole trip; the entire journey is made by up to six different generations.
New technology has some great applications in learning more about animals that we wouldn’t otherwise know. These recent studies enlightened us on the incredible migrations of a few animals. Which animals will we learn more about next?
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Front in center is the idyllic scene. A new student stands, beaming, next to his new flight instructor. Our hero, the truly "professional" flight instructor is wearing epaulets (with 4 stripes no less), a uniform shirt, and a tie.
The article goes on to expound upon the virtues of basically being the sharpest-dressed guy at the airport so that you can get students. After all, you should "dress the part" even if that means wearing a uniform. Let me just stop you right there and say, "really?" And, God forbid you show up for work in shorts!
I'm all about looking presentable. I tuck my shirt in and I shave every day. But, my "uniform" consists of those Magellan button-up fishing shirts from Academy (they're inexpensive, they're comfortable, and they're practical) tucked into a pair of blue jeans or *gasp* khaki shorts. Then there's my ballcap (complete with company logo) and Red Wing boots.
I DO NOT focus on what may be next. I've mentioned before that I don't know what I want to do when I grow up, and I'm serious about that. The options are innumerable in aviation, especially with the looming pilot shortage, and that's liberating, not frustrating. When it's time, it'll be time. Until then, this is what I do.
The skills I acquire as a flight instructor will serve me well no matter where I end up. So I don't try to fly a 737 final in a 172. I don't checklist the 150 to death like it's a G6. And although federal law does consider me the "captain" of civil aircraft on which I'm serving as pilot in command, I'll leave the epaulets to my friends who are airline pilots.
So, AOPA, if you want to help bail flight instruction out of the hole that it is undeniably in (and I've discussed in earlier blog entries), quit giving bad, antiquated, useless advice. We have much more to worry about than matching our ties to our slacks! And while you're at it---an AOPA wine club? What the f***? Get real. I'm beginning to wonder what it is you're doing with my $49 in annual dues.


Yesterday she looked at her and said" You are taking oosi( injection) medicine?"
Then wisely nodded her head and said" You are a patient?"
None of the three adults in the house have used or explained that word- wonder where she picked it up and the meaning as well.....
This morning the power was cut.
Anush said," Amma - want fan" I said" No baby, current has gone"
And I was corrected by her " Power will come, it has got cut."
Today is "nombu"- a Tamil festival. There were some fruits placed before the idols at home.
The little fruit lover at home questioned me- " Amma , why you keep there? Anushka will eat."


So day one of our trip was actually pretty boring. And we didn't really have all that many pictures - i guess you'll have to use your imagination. (So i guess i could've posted this a long time ago then, eh?) For me, the day really began on Sunday, June 22nd - my birthday! I had to go to work that night. The original intent was for Jen to pick me up from work Monday morning and leave directly from there, but of course things didn't quite work out that way.
We arrived at the packed trailhead sometime between 10 and 11, finally found a parking space and reclined our chairs and tried to sleep (yes, in the car). Of course we hardly slept at all, and a playful Aaron in the middle of the night didn’t help either.
More evidence of the drive-by photographer.
Uh no, that's not a radar detector - it's an XM radio receiver... or something. Some people chose not to sleep on the way. But they were cute, so it was okay.
Distance traveled: Over 650 miles
Time traveled (but not like Back to the Future): Over 10 hours
Total cost so far: $272 (inlcudes lame ballhead)


***ZYNGA IPO UPDATE***
The Zynga IPO, as many of you already know, is already being talked about by some, as the most sought after IPO in the last few years. On a pure interest basis, comparisons are to be Google (GOOG:NYSE) are already being made. Especially with the recent demand for other tech related IPO’s.
As some of our followers know, we make an effort to highlight some high profile public offerings, and we give color on other lesser known investment banking deals as well, but the Zynga IPO is different, much different from other deals.
Recently, some of you have watched tech IPO’s like the LinkedIn IPO (LNKD:NASDAQ) and thePandora IPO (P:NYSE) have huge pops, but only fall back after institutions and IPO flippers came out of their allocations. The reason for the declines of the two stocks mentioned above is pretty simple. Their fundamentals don’t match the market caps for the short term. Short sellers know that even a booster shot buy recommendation from a brokerage firm can only do so much for a stock price. This is why many hedge funds short these deals when borrows become available.
Zynga’s IPO is unique though. Look at a company like Pandora, even the CEO can’t tell you when they are going to be profitable. With Zynga, it’s obviously different. Their presence on Facebook is huge and still growing. The revenues are also off the charts already and it’s not unreasonable for some to say that Zynga could eclipse the$1 billion mark in revs in the next couple of years.
Zynga’s user base is also extremely loyal even in the competitive gaming space. Games like Farmville, Cityville and Frontierville keep users coming back. Zynga’s solid brand and management also has something to do with the present valuation talk being in the $20 billion range. Keep in mind that most experts felt Zynga was valued in the $10 billion range at the time of our initial Zynga IPO profile entry.
So get ready for the hype to begin as the deal is rumored to trade in the fall. Even though Zynga’s IPO offering will be larger than some of it’s recent tech predecessors, shares will be extremely limited for retail accounts. In other words, for a deal of it’s size, Zynga will be oversubscribed to epic proportions. So please don’t be disappointed or mad at your broker if you are shutout.
Original ZYNGA IPO post below:
Zynga IPO Gonna be Hot
San Francisco based social networking game developer Zynga is rumored to file for an IPO in the very near future.I has almost 250 million Facebook users and 4 of its most popular games are City Ville, FarmVille, FrontierVille and Zynga Poker. On Tuesday, Zynga just released it’s new game Empire and Allies. A move that some feel is geared towards creating even more interest in Zynga’s IPO stock offering.
In the past few months we have seen a slew of red hot IPO’s come to market, especially in the social networking space. LinkedIn IPO (LNKD:NASDAQ) was the latest, and despite the fact some are calling for a bubble in the space, it’s probably safe to say that the Zynga IPO will be heavily oversubscribed. Zynga already has roughly 250 million active Facebook users who frequent their games. The company has also been recently valued in the $10 billion range, and is rumored to have Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in the running to be the lead underwriters.
Zynga Already has Profit which should help the Zynga IPO
The difference from Zynga IPO and some other the past social networking IPO’s is that Zynga already did $850 in revenue last year. The number is simply mind boggling. As we have said in the past getting shares of such a hot deal will be next to impossible on a retail basis, and that’s considering that Zynga’s IPO offering size could be considerably larger than many of the more recnt IPO’s in the space. So the best way to play it may be buying other gaming companies in anticipation of the offering. The hype from this deal could potentially move several stocks that range from mid caps all the way down to penny stocks.
So stay tuned, we will try to highlight a few different names and point out others on our stocks to watch list.
Check back for more penny stock news, IPO updates and stock market research.


10 Experts Suggest The Right Steps To Product Iteration
You’ve got your product out in the market. Now’s the time to iterate.
But, it’s usually challenging to assess what’s the right way to go about it – how much of iteration should be that from user feedback versus founder’s vision for the product?
And, how do you also tell the difference between what feedback to incorporate?
We asked some of the industry experts about how do they merge both the aspects and finalize the features of the product.
We also asked them if there is a particular way the iteration process should look like. Here is what they have to say:
#1 Not listening to the user’s feedback at all can be an issue
One of the biggest mistakes that I think is often made by entrepreneurs is that they are so passionate and opinionated about their company/product that they don’t listen to feedback – not just from buyers or customers, but even from others within the company or advisors. This is a problem I see not just with tech entrepreneurs but also on a regular basis with product managers at the B2B companies we work with at SiriusDecisions. If I had to make a blanket statement, it’s that most founders and product managers don’t listen enough to customers or iterate enough based on customer feedback.
However, I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that it’s user feedback “versus” the founder’s vision. Ideally, the founder’s vision should be based on identified customer needs and refined based on feedback. If the founder or product manager has a vision that is based on an interesting idea but isn’t based in data or evidence about what’s going on in the market, it’s probably doomed to fail.
Instead, if the vision comes from a deep understanding of buyers and users and their needs, then it’s not as much about a ratio between feedback versus vision so much as it is at how the vision gets adjusted based on what is learned about the market. The often-cited quote from German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke describes this well: – “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.” It’s great to have a plan, but you need to recognize how that the plan will always need to change.
There’s one other important element to mention, because even though I think that many founders and product managers don’t put enough stock in buyer and customer feedback, there is an opposite problem that can happen, particularly in the early stages of a company or product. Some companies get the ratio wrong and listen way too much to one big current or potential customer. When you’re trying to get product-market fit or scrambling to get some revenue, it’s very tempting when a big potential deal comes along that would provide a big boost – but often those come with some “strings attached” like asking for functionality that may not appeal to any other customers or even redirecting your entire product roadmap in a new direction.
While buyer and customer feedback is important, it’s crucial to make sure that the feedback is representative of a broader market opportunity and won’t point you in the wrong direction when you try to grow and scale.
#2 Unique value proposition should be the major criterion for making decisions
Product strategy should drive all product decisions. Product strategy is a set of core hypotheses, including the unsolved problems we believe exist in the marketplace, the prospective customers we believe will pay to solve them, the channels we believe we can use to reach those customers, and the product’s unique value proposition (which we can determine using a competitive mindshare map). Lean startup practitioners document these sorts of strategic hypotheses in a lean canvas.
As product teams consider features or user stories to implement, experiments to run, and other roadmap items, they should always evaluate and prioritize them in terms of the product strategy. Specifically, and most importantly, they should ask, “To what extent will implementing this item test or support the unique value proposition?”
Feedback from users and prospective customers is useful to:
- Understand whether the product or a feature is, in fact, delivering the unique value proposition.
- Collect suggested features that could support the unique value proposition.
- Determining whether the unique value proposition is, actually, unique and valuable.
But again, the central criterion for prioritizing and making decisions should be the unique value proposition. If experiments, user and customer feedback reveal that the unique value proposition isn’t unique or valuable, then it’s probably time to “pivot” (consider a new unique value proposition).
#3 Let the user feel in control of the product
Many people often cite Steve Jobs’ user-centric design paradigm, where many changes in Apple’s design were made based on user feedback. The only way to truly figure out the ratio between iteration based on feedback and vision is to have a broad vision.
Let’s move away from tech and use the vision to build a profitable and sustainable business in textiles and manufacturing as an example:
Perhaps the manufacturer has been receiving feedback from clients requesting a faster turn-around time to meet their cycle requirements. This is feedback, however, it requires the manufacturer to make changes to their operational strategy. Should they proceed with making those changes?
The vision was to build a profitable and sustainable business in textiles and manufacturing, in order to achieve that end, they will have to pivot.
I believe that user feedback is an essential addition to planned enhancements.
Going back to tech, if there’s no feedback, whatever enhancement that is later added to the product may not be intuitive. The worst case involves founders that are obsessed with minor details; these individuals forget that the user is the one who interacts with the whole product.
When a founder concentrates on certain elements of a product and forsakes others, they can create a product that is “too smart” for users. People still want to feel in control of the product, so founders have to make compromises if they want to survive and keep improving.
The founder’s vision should inform the development life cycle of the product in the beginning until a prototype is developed. From the point of having a usable prototype, or having the product in “beta” and onwards, the product will start taking shape depending on how it’s used.
It may even surprise you how said product’s utility surpasses the initial vision for it!
#4 Focus on the big change to be made
Usually there are big and little types of changes. Big changes are things like what should the thing do. Little changes are like incremental improvements to the existing idea. The founder’s vision should be the big change and use user feedback for the little changes.
#5 Understand the user’s pain point and give the solution
Don’t ask customers what they want, understand what their struggles are and you intelligently craft a solution for it.
We, at Bond.ai follow a Human Centered Design approach where the process starts with identifying the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs. This makes sure that there are minimal iterations while designing the product, as even before designing the product you tend to get the real pulse of the user. This typically boils down to three phases:
In the first phase, we’ll learn directly from the people we’re designing for as we immerse ourselves in their lives by building a deep empathy with the people we’re designing for and come to deeply understand their needs and the their struggles.
In the next phase, we build a bunch of prototypes to address their needs and share them with the people we are designing for and finally implementing the most innovative solution which bonds the most with the user as part of the third phase. You’ll know that your solution will be a success because you’ve kept the very people you’re looking to serve at the heart of the entire process, hence significantly reducing if not preventing the need for any product iterations.
#6 Split focus is a real problem for product clarity
This is a great question, the best-laid feature roadmaps can easily go flying out the window when user testing or due to customers requesting, strike that demanding change. At times it can feel like you’re being pulled in every direction, split focus is a real problem for product clarity.
I’ve been in this position multiple times as a founder but also as a UX expert and it can be a tricky beast to handle.
How you handle this predicament depends on the stage and size of your outfit. Here’s a couple of basic tips I’ve used in the past for good results with growing business and start ups:
- Appreciate that fewer features is most likely better. Don’t turn your product into a bloated behemoth just because Bob reached out on chat and demanded he needed feature X, Y and Z.
- Observe and understand what makes your product special. Use your intuition as a founder to stay true to your vision.
- With the above fresh in your mind, appreciate the value in user testing to remove obvious barriers and pain points but also to take onboard potential future features. Remember these need to be validated, though.
- As a rule of thumb concentrate your time at the top of your sales funnel and move down. This enables you to convert more users as you progress meaning more eyes on the prize as you continue to refine.
- Make sure you really know your audience. Truly knowing their problems lets you see the true direction of your product. Learning to validate your customer assumptions is vitally important and provides a lot of direction.
#7 Identify your market wisely
This is a really great question because it speaks to a core issue that faces product teams – misalignment.
A clear product vision should help influence who your target market is. When that happens, the customers that you attract more or less align with the vision. Customer feature requests are easier to take into account because they shouldn’t swing too far from where a founder wants to take a product.
Things get a little trickier the more specific the founder is in the implementation of the vision. Then there is an opportunity for misalignment if the founder is out of touch with the customer. It’s important to use customer research to backup any decisions that might deviate from specific feature requests from the founder.
Of course you should never completely discount the core vision from the founder and only listen to your customers. I’m reminded of a quote by the CEO of Nokia after they were acquired by Microsoft. He said, “We didn’t do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.” I have no insight into what went on at Nokia but I imagine the feedback they received from their customers wasn’t “you should build a multipurpose touch tablet that acts as a phone, browser and music player.”
#8 Find a market fit for each feature of the product before moving on
Find product/market fit for each launched feature before moving on to new experiences. Often when you first launch a product feature, it fails to resonate with customers the way you anticipated. Because of this it’s important to build in sufficient time into your roadmap to iterate and optimize these features to get them to resonate with customers before moving on to the next big thing. But then when do you move on? When you decide the feature isn’t going to work or you reach product/market fit with the feature. Feature retention is a great way to assess that.
There will always be more tweaks and optimizations to be done even beyond this point, but at least at this point you can move on to the next part of your vision knowing that your existing experiences are stable.
#9 Take constant and incremental step towards the vision
If you have a product vision, I hope it’s big. Because a great product vision isn’t a blueprint or a plan. It’s a worldview, something that you’ll be working towards in different ways, with different people and different technologies as your product grows and matures over time. You can’t make those decisions without user feedback. Feedback from your customers gives you the details you need to execute on your product vision. The product experience? The functionality? The brand & tone of voice? All of this comes from paying close attention to what your customers respond to best. In other words, your vision should be a constant, and the steps you take to get there are careful, incremental ones.
#10 Add new features along with retaining the existing functionality
Balancing a founder’s vision with customer feedback is a tricky one but, for us at Frugl, it’s mainly driven by finances and usefulness. We’re in the process of quite a big refresh based on the fact that we can see a way to make the platform much more profitable while maintaining the existing functionality that our users like. In the past we’ve had to iterate mainly from the demands of our customers who were finding certain aspects of the site hard to navigate and we could see how that was preventing them from wanting to use it. Now that those challenges have been overcome, we’ve taken the lead in the next iteration.


A New Grateful Dead Beer Is on the Way…and It’ll Include Granola
A new Grateful Dead beer is on the way. It's called "American Beauty", and the surviving members of the band worked with the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery to create it. Supposedly.
It's described as, "a bold pale-ale made with 100% U.S.-grown ingredients."
The band and the brewery reached out to fans for ideas on what to include in the recipe, and settled on GRANOLA...a suggestion by a guy named Thomas Butler.
Butler said, "The components of granola...honey, toasted grains, oats...offer a lot from a beer perspective." Other fan ideas that didn't make the cut include: Red grenadine, rose hips and jalapenos.
"American Beauty" will be available on draft and in 750-ml bottles throughout Dogfish Head's 27-state distribution network within a few weeks. (For more info, including a video on the beer, go to Dogfish.com.)
Here's the label:


What difference does it make? So the tomb was empty 2,000 years ago, but that was a long time ago, before cars and highways, before TVs and cell phones and 9-5 jobs. What does that mean to me today?
It means that Jesus was who He said He was. Any crazy person can say they are God, or make up stories about themselves. But when you are dead, all that is over and the truth comes out, as the truth usually does eventually. But Jesus rose from the grave. He was pierced and bloodied and beaten. And He was dead, wrapped in clothes in a tomb. But then He was alive again. Only God, could do such a thing. Jesus was God's Son, and death could not hold Him in its grip.
It means Jesus wasn't a loser who talked a bit too loud and a bit too long, and so the men in power killed Him. It means the words He spoke were truth, filled with power. And in the end, He was the one with the power, not those others who thought they could fool Him and get rid of Him.
It means that Jesus loves me. And you--all of us! He came not just to take over a country at a point in time.
No, that was much to small a task for Him. It means He came to release us from the power of sin, from the power of this world, and to gather us up in His love. He came to save all of us, during all periods of time. He came and paid the price for our sins so we would be restored in relationship with Him and be within Him some day forever.
Jesus is God. His is the power of Life and to Save. Jesus broke the power of sin and death. Jesus loves us.
It means that God came near to us not to take over the world, although He could have. He came to take over our hearts. Like a lover He swoops downs to us to rescue us. He wants nothing more than our love.
And my response is like Mary, to anoint Him with my worship and thanksgiving...
Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume [worth a year’s wages]; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. ~ John 12:3
And my response is like Thomas, to confess Him as Lord...
Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” ~ John 20:26-29
Even then, Jesus spoke of the blessing of those who believe today! I believe the tomb is still empty, that Jesus is worth everything, that He is Lord, and He is Love.


Guide Regarding How To Create High Quality Webpage Design
Would you like to possess a website which is attractive and inviting for visitors? Then this post is for you personally. You will learn tips, tricks and concepts for working on your web design skills. Irrespective of your level of experience, there exists always something totally new to understand.
If you would like your site to focus on the requirements of visitors, it should be user-friendly and straightforward to navigate. Links have to be prominent and straightforward to discover. Menus render your site easier for users to surf. Hyperlink to the primary page from almost every other page from the site to ensure that visitors can simply find information and facts.
Never allow dated or irrelevant content to stay on your own website. In case your webpage features a function that already happened, people will never be thinking about reading much more of your site content. Users are careful using their some time and when they can tell that your website is not updated often, they are going to leave. Set an evaluation schedule to update content and take away items which are no more useful.
Let people cancel any action they have got started. This could include completing forms, browsing your website, or registering for newsletters. Should you not give site users the ability to cancel an action, they are not likely to go back to your website. As time passes, this may negatively impact the sales and site traffic.
Always take outdated information and content away from your site. For instance, in case your webpage is full of advertising for a thing that happened months ago, viewers will turn away. Web users want fresh information from updated and maintained sites, and letting stale content stay up screams carelessness on your side. Set an evaluation schedule to update content and take away items which are no more useful.
You should have a great base of knowledge about web design skills, and you might just be ready to make an effort to carry out some designing of your personal. Providing you carry on improving your expertise in the sector and increasing your skill set, you are going to become an outstanding website designer immediately.


With significant advances in data collection and analytics solutions made by players like Quini, and the expanding capabilities of analytics technology providers like Tableau, Qlik, Sisense and others, here are some of our thoughts on the impact this progress will have on the wine industry over the next three to five years.
1- Embedded BI (Business Intelligence) will put analytics into the hands of people who have never explored data and make it a way of life across business functions.
2- IT (Information Technology) becomes the enabler, working with wine sensory and attitudinal data solution vendors like Quini to deliver out-of-the-box interactive dashboards, with near real-time, customizable analytics, right to the desk of the executive. For Marketing, Brand, Sales, R&D, Training, Finance, the C-Suite and other functions. This access will enable more accurate, faster decisions with data acquired and delivered at lower cost and faster than ever.
3- Traditional research and data acquisition methods will be increasingly replaced by data collection and analysis technology frameworks deployable directly by functional teams to support their particular business goals.
4- Data will be acquired and added to the organization’s data pool by multiple departments including training, marketing, R&D, sales, channels and media, wine clubs and other consumer touch points such as retail channel data acquisition deployments and special events.
5- Wine data quality and scope, combined with interactive analytics, will deliver answers to department and C-Suite questions, in real-time. Including product likability, competitive benchmarking, sensory feedback and new R&D opportunities, purchase intent, price sentiment, and product performance versus market perception.
6- New, rich data will enable the executive to instantly analyze and discover opportunities on a hyper-local, demographic-specific basis.
7- Data acquisition cycles will accelerate, collapsing waiting times from the traditional weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual data clusters, to near zero.
8- Accessible, low cost data acquisition and analytics solutions will level the playing field for wine companies of virtually any size.
9- Wine marketing and product development in medium and large organizations will become fully dependent on data and consumer insight.


Anything but a cash grab
Earlier this week, I broke down the Blue Jays 2010 payroll obligations when it came to positional players. Now that all the contracts on the roster have been settled, we have a better idea of where the money is going this coming season.
There you have it folks: the 2010 payroll for the Toronto Blue Jays is around $63.03 million dollars, give or take a few minor league contracts. This also includes obligations such as $500,000 for both Jesse Litsch and Dustin McGowan, even though they could theoretically spend all of 2010 on the inactive roster.
This does not account for the $6 million dollars sent to the Phillies in the Roy Halladay trade, as well as the $10 million for B.J. Ryan’s contract. Altogether that would bump the 2010 total payroll up to approximately $79.03 million dollars.
Take away the Vernon Wells contract, and the cash flow on this team is fairly evenly dispersed. All but two of the players on the roster are making less than $7 million dollars per season, and that could very easily change if Lyle Overbay is traded prior to Opening Day.
Seeing how all these contracts pile up, it’s surprising that other teams like the Florida Marlins and Minnesota Twins can manage to keep their payroll relatively low while still remaining competitive.
As you can see by the pie graph above, it’s very easy for a couple of huge albatross contracts to propel the entire payroll out of control. Throw in a couple of lame duck contracts and you’re suddenly the 2009 New York Mets paying $145 million dollars to watch the playoffs from the couch.


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