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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Last spring, Angels veteran left-hander C.J. Wilson came across an ESPN The Magazine story about UCLA right-hander Trevor Bauer and his unique long-toss training program. "I was kind of fascinated by hearing about how he was a little bit different because I've always felt I like I was a little different, too," Wilson said. Bauer wound up being selected third overall by the D-backs in the Draft that June, and during the winter Wilson went to Ron Wolforth's Texas Baseball Ranch to work with Bauer and see his routine first hand. The pair worked out together, did drills, watched video and spent hours talking about baseball. The admiration between the two is readily apparent. "We talked about mechanics when he was down there and kind of looked at it together and found a couple of things that he was good at, but could definitely improve at," Bauer said. "He's so aware of his body and you can explain a concept to him one time and he can translate that right away into what he's doing. That's rare to find because a lot of guys it takes them a while to figure out how to take the seeing it and thinking it and turn it into an actual movement pattern and repeat it. He seemed to pick it up real quick." Said Wilson of Bauer, "I see a lot of potential there. He's got a fascinating approach, he's really smart, he's a super sharp guy." Bauer's program involves a lot of throwing, including from very long distances. Before his starts, it is not uncommon to see Bauer playing catch nearly from foul pole to foul pole. Wilson does not throw that far yet, but as a believer in long toss, he is working on doing it for a longer duration and greater distance. Intrigued by Bauer's scientific approach to pitching mechanics, the 31-year-old Wilson has tweaked his as a result. "I'm actually trying to incorporate some of his mechanical approach in using the body rhythm and whipping the ball and stuff in order to get a little more on it," Wilson said. "This spring, my velocity is up just after working two days with him and working with Ron Wolforth. I'm throwing harder at an age when I don't think that typically happens. It's all mechanics, just being more efficient with your body. And he gets the most out of his body, for sure." While Wilson picked Bauer's brain about mechanics and the like, Bauer tried to soak up as much information about what to expect at his first big league Spring Training and regular season. "I'm glad to hear that it was valuable for him, because it was definitely valuable for me to get to know him," Bauer said. "I asked mostly what it's like to go through a whole season, how your body handles it. I asked if he had any tips about how to work out and that kind of stuff. Because that's the one thing I haven't done yet, I haven't gone through the long professional season." The pair had something in common as they both tried to settle into new surroundings, with Wilson coming over to the Angels as a free agent after seven seasons with the Rangers. "We'd just check in and see how things were going," Bauer said. "Obviously, I'll be following him this year and looking to see. Just seeing that work ethic from a guy who's made it was kind of a reminder of, 'Hey this is what it takes. You always have to find a way, don't get complacent.'" Bauer will begin the season at Double-A Mobile, but the D-backs view him as someone who could be in the big leagues sooner rather than later. That would not surprise Wilson. "I think he's still kind of feeling his way through the Major League process and stuff like that," Wilson said. "I think he's going to have a lot of success once he understands how to use all the tools at his disposal."
• Nasonia; • meiosis; • arthropods; • phylogenomics; • arrhenotoky The parasitoid jewel wasp Nasonia vitripennis reproduces by haplodiploidy (arrhenotokous parthenogenesis). In diploid females, meiosis occurs during oogenesis, but in haploid males spermatogenesis is ameiotic and involves a single equational division. Here we describe the phylogenomic distribution of meiotic genes in N. vitripennis and in 10 additional arthropods. Homologues for 39 meiosis-related genes (including seven meiosis-specific genes) were identified in N. vitripennis. The meiotic genes missing from N. vitripennis are also sporadically absent in other arthropods, suggesting that certain meiotic genes are dispensable for meiosis. Among an additional set of 15 genes thought to be specific for male meiosis in Drosophila, two genes (bol and crl) were identified in N. vitripennis and Apis mellifera (both for which canonical meiosis is absent in males) and in other arthropods. The distribution of meiotic genes across arthropods and the impact of gene duplications and reproductive modes on meiotic gene evolution are discussed.
Take the 2-minute tour × Having "completed" my task, I have recently been assigned by my PM to work on a maintenance project by another PM. In this other project, the client wants to add new features and I'm assigned to do a feature. I'm finding my job over my head for various reasons: • code is difficult to understand/read as • not well-documented • standard naming convention is not followed (seems non-existent, and confusing at times because certain words are used in the wrong way) • dead-code • redundant code • code such as (isTrue == true) • temp variables that are not inlined and not prefixed with temp • etc... • visual sourcesafe is used • visual studio 2005 is used, even though they have vs2008 and vs2010. I'm unable to use a plugin for quick navigation (more of an inconvenience) • they just want to get things working, without caring about maintainability. I would love to refactor the code base, and suggest upgrading to svn and a newer version of VS. However, I don't feel that the PM or my new colleagues are amenable to such changes. On top of that, I don't have the confidence of delivering on time (if I'm even able to deliver), and if I do make these suggestions, he may assume that I think I feel that I am superior (not true) and I am competent enough for my assigned task, making it difficult for me to raise issues in the future. I just don't feel I have sufficient experience yet for a project of this complexity, and will likely end up writing copy-and-paste and googled code with lots of unpaid overtime. I will get surface learning without deep learning, and I feel the entire experience will mar my joy of programming, perhaps making me shun it completely. In the meanwhile, if I do nothing about it, I will probably just have to slog it out within the current constraints. To this end, I have borrowed books on brownfield application development and visual sourcesafe as references. What should I do? Should I make my suggestions? How early should I tell him if I don't feel I can deliver? Or should I just slog it out while risking not being able to get my task done? share\|improve this question "I don't feel that the PM or my new colleagues are amenable to such changes"?? Why not? When you asked them, what -- specifically -- did they say? – S.Lott May 17 '11 at 18:38 It's just my feeling that if people don't do something, they are resistant to the idea. (related: see my reply to @DPD below) – blizpasta May 18 '11 at 1:51 add comment 6 Answers up vote 13 down vote accepted Unfortunately more times than not, you're not in the business of writing elegant code, you're in the business of shipping a product. I'd definitely raise your concerns with your PM. Risk mitigation is a major part of project management and risks should be raised as they're encountered. If you don't raise them, then you're signing yourself up for a death march, for which you would have nobody to blame but yourself. If there are clear limitations to the current code base, list them all. Highlight points such as why refactoring certain code blocks is necessary in order to implement new functionality. Chances are, if there are no such limitations, you will find yourself having to live with the code as-is. You might want to look into various techniques of working with legacy code and black boxing it as much as possible (i.e. through an adapter implementation or something of the sort). No matter what happens, you will encounter this type of project numerous times throughout your career (one that makes you pull out your hair). At the end of the day, it only makes you better at what you do. Having the ability to work with horrible legacy code and implement new solutions (using proper techniques) is an invaluable skill and one that many prospective employers look for. share\|improve this answer +1 - but don't spend too much time on the fault list, and remember that some of those faults can often be the least-worst solution. I've worked several places where inconsistent style meant you got to recognise whose style a persons code was in - a useful readability clue if you know how those people think. Another unpleasant fact - big code cleanups have a habit of cleaning away complex and "what-the-hells-that-for" bits of code that turn out to be bugfixes that you need to keep. Especially when using Visual SourceSafe, of course. – Steve314 May 17 '11 at 19:15 @steve314: +1 for mentioning "what-the-hells-that-for" bug fixes.. Have seen that a few too many times myself :) – Demian Brecht May 17 '11 at 19:17 It's always a little unsettling when you remove a small chunk of code, and suddenly everything works as it should. – greyfade May 17 '11 at 20:24 add comment For purposes of illustration let's say you have a schedule of 1 month and you estimate it will take you 2 months with no refactoring. There are a few possible outcomes if you refactor first: • Refactor time + new feature time <= 1 month. Don't ask permission. Just do it. Not to sound too much like Darth Vader, but the refactoring is implied in your mandate. Of course, follow your normal peer review procedures for design changes. • Refactor time + new feature time > 1 month, but < 2 months. Lay out the options for your PM. If they trust you they will go with the refactoring. Make sure you don't take longer than 2 months, or they won't trust you next time. • Refactor time + new feature time > 2 months. Tell your PM how much time you could have saved if it was already refactored, but do it the hard way this time. Push to schedule refactoring after the release when there is less schedule pressure. I just don't feel I have sufficient experience yet for a project of this complexity. This is your only statement that gives me concern. It leads me to believe you are likely underestimating the cleanup effort. You can work around the quirks now, but if you refactor them, you have to understand why they are there in the first place, and make a judgment call about if the original developer made a mistake or if you just don't understand the underlying purpose of the quirk. Don't go with options 1 or 2 if you're not confident about your refactoring estimates. share\|improve this answer Excellent rule of thumb. I agree that he is probaly seriously underestimating the clean up effort and should not try to do major refactoring until he is much more familiar with the project. – HLGEM May 17 '11 at 21:02 +1 for underestimation – Demian Brecht May 17 '11 at 21:07 Clean-up effort, like everything, is always underestimated. The problem is, if it's a mess already, then there are loads of hidden dependencies. Nearly always, if code needs refactoring then expect to have to refactor significant amounts of code to fix even one method. – nicodemus13 Jan 29 '13 at 15:48 add comment When working with a new group the very worst thing you do is come in as a stranger and tell them their code is bad and needs a major refactoring. Who do you think wrote that code? The better way to approach is to gain a reputation for knowing what you are talking about and delivering the product. Then when you bring up the issues, you have credibility. There is nothing in what you said that tells me that you are in over your head (i.e. unable to actually understand it and provide a fix however imperfect), just that you dislike working in inelegant code that is not set up to your personal preference. Consider this, this is a maintenance project - perhaps when it was set up they had no other choice for some of the decisions that they made that you now disagree with. People working with old code tend to forget that choices were made back then with what was available back then and no one has had time to revisit to use newer stuff because that is a lot of work that will cost a lot and insert new bugs for no gain for the user (i.e. no new functionality). In your career, you will often have to do things the way they want you to do them and not how you would like to do them. That's just the way it is. Once you are experienced and have enough credibility to suggest changes (Becasue you have a good reputation within the organization), you will have more success at changing direction and getting changes in how they do business approved. But you won't by any means win them all even once you are the local expert, so you need to be aware there are times when the conditions will be less than optimal. I'm not saying don't try to make things better, I'm saying you may still have to work with this stuff as is even after raising concerns. share\|improve this answer Indeed, I have to be tactful. Most of the existing code is written by the original developers (not here anymore), and the rest by the maintenance team. – blizpasta May 18 '11 at 1:25 +1 for the first paragraph. I'm guilty of having made that mistake as an intern one time, and I made a few enemies. Since then, I use the "humble, confident, gains respect and then proposes enhancements" and it's working miracles. – André Caron Jul 15 '11 at 15:06 add comment If you are going to make suggestions, and they are accepted, chances are high that you will be the one implementing them, not someone else so make sure you are atleast mentally prepared for the task. Going by your comments you dont seem to be ready so dont go ahead. If you want to do it your next problem is that you are giving up even before you have tried: Ask! What's the worst that could happen? They'll say no. Thats it! share\|improve this answer You're right, I shouldn't second-guess what they will say or their reasons for doing things. – blizpasta May 18 '11 at 1:50 add comment Definitely raise the issue with your manager telling him that the code is a mess and it will take you more time than assigned to complete the task. Your manager/PM should get the other PM involved and come up with a plan for the feature. Various decisions could be: 1. Either assigning another developer for the feature 2. Assigning a more senior dev who can handle the task quicker 3. Pushing the date to a later date. 4. A mix of the above 3. Regarding refactoring, you always have to present good arguments to justify large refactoring work, you should come up with a plan and suggest some low hanging fruit code fixes to improve the code quality, this can be done while working on the feature. Once these are done, you can probably push for further refactoring fixes. share\|improve this answer add comment Ask why they're using VS2005 (there may be a good reason for that) and you can try to sell your new colleagues on SVN. You aren't familiar with the codebase, and you're doubting your ability. This is the exact wrong time to try major refactoring. Many of the things you're complaining about are there for reasons. They may be bad reasons, but you're going to have to understand them before you can make major changes. You can try to leave the code better than you found it. That which you touch you can legitimately clean up. Just make sure you aren't changing the behavior, since you don't know what odd things in the code are there because they fix an obscure bug (possibly in a bad way). If you are unfortunate enough to continue to work on this project, you may gain more credibility, and be able to make more changes. If you have reservations on being able to meet the schedule, talk to the PM now. Explain your concerns. The PM needs to know these things. share\|improve this answer add comment Your Answer
Posted: Friday November 30, 2012 4:39PM ; Updated: Saturday December 1, 2012 1:47AM My Sportsman: Bill Snyder Story Highlights In comparison to other college football head coaches, Bill Snyder is boring He's credited with turning the K-State football program into a national power Snyder came out of retirement to put the team on track; he made them No. 1 By Stewart Mandel Decrease font Decrease font Enlarge font Enlarge font Bill Snyder This year head coach Bill Snyder led the Wildcats to their best season since 1998. Getty Images 2012 Sportsman Writer Nominations Celebrity Nominations SI Photos Bill Snyder stood in a narrow hallway outside the visitors' locker room at Oklahoma's Memorial Stadium on Sept. 22, casually sipping a cup of coffee while engulfed by microphones and television cameras. Snyder's underdog Kansas State Wildcats had just stunned the sixth-ranked Sooners 24-19, a team they lost to by 41 points the year before, and the media wanted answers to their most pressing questions. For instance -- how did they do it? "We kept rowing the boat," said the white-haired 73-year-old in his usual quiet voice. OK, then. How important was this win for your program? "All wins are important," he said. "Every coach will tell you and every player will probably tell you the same thing." It would go on like this for about 10 minutes, the most exciting moment coming when an Oklahoma-sized locust flew and landed on the coach's purple Cotton Bowl windbreaker and he flicked it off with the ease of a Collin Klein draw play. In a profession increasingly filled with shameless self-marketers and made-for-television sideline screamers, Snyder is ... well, boring. And that's great. The man who engineered the most remarkable turnaround of a program in major college football history, turning arguably the worst major-conference program in the country in late '80s into a national power by the mid-'90s is back for an improbable second act. In his fourth season at the helm following a three-year retirement, Snyder, formerly K-State's coach from 1989-2005, has led the Wildcats to a No. 2 spot in the BCS standings without doing much of anything differently than the first time around. "Probably because I'm not smart enough to figure out a better way," he told me for a story last year. "It's not a way to quote-unquote turn programs around, I just have a system that's been ingrained in me for a long time as it relates to teaching and coaching. I think my approach has not been any different than it was 22 years ago." Snyder still keeps seemingly inhuman hours, and does not seem to need nourishment to function. (He eats one meal a day, late at night, including but not limited to Taco Bell.) He still thrives with otherwise overlooked recruits like Klein, the star quarterback whose only other suitors were Colorado State, Utah and Air Force. Snyder's arriving players are still handed laminated cards listing the coach's "16 Goals For Success" (Commitment, Unselfishness, Unity, etc.). In the spirit of the "family" mantra Snyder preaches, they walk on and off the field arm-and-arm, including at halftime and the end of games. Snyder drills them on the tiniest details and it shows in their extraordinarily disciplined play. Through nine games, the Wildcats had scored 111 points off turnovers; their opponents: zero. "They come right at you. Try to make you say, 'No mas,'" said TCU coach Gary Patterson. "You've got to get ready for a 3 1/2-hour middle drill to beat them." That Snyder is even back on a sideline would have surprised even him four years ago. After retiring following a pair of down seasons in 2004 and '05, the lifelong workaholic had carved out a more leisurely life serving his community. He served as chairman of a statewide mentoring initiative, served as an advisor to various departments at the university and spent time with his eight grandchildren. "I didn't have that yearning," he said. "It wasn't pulling at my shirt sleeve. I had become so very accustomed to a [new] way of life and I was enjoying it." But the program he built into a national power was struggling without him. It had gone 17-20 under successor Ron Prince, and the fan base was fracturing. So when longtime former K-State president Jon Wefald called, Snyder agreed to return if only to "calm the waters a little bit." Obviously, he far surpassed that modest goal, leading the Wildcats to their greatest heights since his 1998 team started 11-0 and reached No. 1 in the coaches poll. Snyder has said he'll return to retirement when he's confident the program is back on stable ground, so best we appreciate him while we still can. Snyder is my Sportsman of the Year because in 2012, he showed that a coach does not need to be loud or brash to lead a dominant college football program. Nor does he need an ego. He just keeps rowing the boat, trying to get better, taking it one week at a time and doing it as a family. SI CoverRead All ArticlesBuy Cover Reprint
Take the 2-minute tour × I'm using QtCreator and I got two projects, each with an own PRO file. The Viewer is a normal Qt app. The other one, let's call it Utilities, is supposed to be a static library which is used in the Viewer. However when I compile and run the Viewer (everything compiles fine), I get an error message telling me Utilities.dll was not found. This is the first part of the PRO-file for Utilities: QT -= core gui TARGET = Utilities CONFIG += staticlib warn_on $$(QMAKESPEC) Shouldn't it work that way? Why is it compiling the Utilities.a file fine but asking me for the DLL at runtime? It's supposed to be a static library :( Since I did not specify some needed libraries in Utilities.pro, it apparently did not link as you'd expect for a static library. My platform is W7-x64, latest Qt SDK and MingW 4.4 bundled with it. Hope anyone can help :/ share\|improve this question add comment 1 Answer The CONFIG += staticlib request your target library to be a static lib not the entire dependency chain ... I am pretty sure your .a lib will require mingw dlls to run ... If you want to reduce dependencies try the MSVC tool chain (Qt provide pre-compiled package for that) you will end with one or two mandatory dll dependencies. Or you can link again static mingw SDK (you will probably have to build it your-self ...). share\|improve this answer add comment Your Answer
Remove this ad Neko Musume Type: Person Page Views: 2820 Fans: 1 Forum Posts: 0 Wall Posts: 0 Photos Uploaded: 0 Neko Musume It must be noted that the actual title of the original manga is Hakaba Kitarō (墓場鬼太郎, Hakaba Kitarō?), literally meaning "Graveyard Kitaro". "Ge Ge Ge..." only applies to the anime. However, the manga was later republished under the anime title. In January, 2008, the original manga was finally adapted into an anime, running in Fuji TV's Noitamina slot. Source: Wikipedia Extended Information Write an extended description!
#21ExentrykPosted 3/19/2013 2:47:56 AM The Wii U game from SE looks like Deus Ex - If this FF6 remake is indeed true, perhaps it'll get shown at a different event? Veni, Vidi, Dormivi. #22UltimaXOmegaPosted 3/19/2013 3:21:36 AM I swear I will rage if FFX HD for the PS3 and Vita is canceled for a WiiU release. It should stay on PlayStation. Also I want a link or source. #23MajorZeroPosted 3/19/2013 4:28:08 AM Nope sorry just deus ex and hitman, nothing more....(maybe sleeping dogs)... a full on remake of an long big budget game would not re coup the funds on one system alone let alone the WiiU.. #24Rose_of_MayPosted 3/19/2013 5:25:24 AM Should this new info be on the WiiU board? #25iambashoPosted 3/19/2013 5:57:59 AM TC, shut up. Nobody believed you last time, nobody will believe you this time. Give it a rest. #26BIG_C_4_LIFEPosted 3/19/2013 6:30:30 AM Aryllies posted... And yet, 2 of those things ring true. ;) Both you and TC are full of ****. Give it up already #27PainsPerceptionPosted 3/19/2013 6:52:40 AM off topic thread!!!!! but the only way to really learn is to get your ass beat a bunch. Such is Tekken, such is life. - Triguns Vash Official SARDINE of ALL FF boards #28Asd202Posted 3/19/2013 6:56:34 AM(edited) theofficefan99 posted... EscaSyra posted... Bye forever. lol, absolutely none of this sounds even slightly believable. The tri-ace part makes sense they did work on XIII-2 and SE could not have enough people to spare for LR with FF XIV so hearing that LR is mainly developed by Tri-ace makes a lot of sense. Well to be fair the FF VI for WiiU sounds so far fetched that if it's true this guy is really legit :P. #29sirauron15Posted 3/19/2013 7:34:36 AM so not true Where is the sense in all this? Braska believed in yevon's teaching and died for them , Jecht believed in braska and gave his life for him. #30marko7Posted 3/19/2013 7:52:17 AM This was a funny read. Ruler of the FF Agito XIII Boards 2011-2013
Central's Roland on road to recovery after life-threatening illness Everything was dark. It might have been a clear day outside, but no sunlight was splashing through his hospital room. No blue skies could be seen from that bed. It was just the old football coach, lying there with a disease that was eating away at him. "There was a time last fall where I thought I might not live," said Dennis Roland, now preparing for his first season as the head coach at Central Gwinnett. "The battle was to get myself well. As a Christian, I'm prepared for what comes next, but that doesn't mean I'm going to lay down at the bus stop and wait to get on." Some other people in Roland's life - most notably the president of Southeastern Louisiana University, Randy Moffett - apparently thought he already had one foot on the bus. It was May of 2005, just a few months after Roland had left North Gwinnett High to be the head coach at Southeastern, when he was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. And he took it on like he did everything else in his life: head-on. By September he was declared cancer-free by the doctors and was stalking the sidelines of the Lions' football games that fall. But as is the case in almost every horror movie ever made, the bad guy wasn't really dead. He was just lurking. And in the early fall of last year, the non-Hodgkins lymphoma came back with a vengeance. In late October, Roland was forced to take a medical leave of absence from the football team and entered Emory University for treatment. Then, in a move that was almost as crippling to the coach as the cancer itself, Moffett announced in early December that Roland had been reassigned to another position in the athletic department - something called the interim special assistant to the president of athletic affairs. For the first time in almost 30 years, he was not a football coach. "That was probably my low point," Roland said. "I'm still dealing with my health issues and then I'm dealing with my career ... I found out later he thought I wasn't going to make it and decided to move on." In the statement Moffett released in early December of 2006 he said: "No doubt this is a difficult time for Dennis and his family, as well as for Southeastern. We believe this move is in his best interest and allows him and his family to focus on the health challenges he faces. In addition, we believe this move will allow the football program to move forward with some stability and continuity." It's a word that wasn't exactly a part of Roland's life during those months. When he woke up each morning, he didn't know if it was going to be a good day or a bad day - although when he was going through his chemotherapy treatments, he had a pretty good guess. "I lost almost 100 pounds when I first got sick," he said. "The medicine and the chemo plays havoc on your taste buds and on your appetite ... but like my wife said, it's a good thing I had some weight to lose." Diane Roland, the old football coach's wife, is the heroine of this story. When he talks about the role she has played in his ongoing recovery, you can hear the emotion in Roland's voice. The gratitude and the awe are overflowing. "I can't imagine how tough it's been for her," Roland said. "It was tough on me, but I can't imagine how tough it was on her. I saw it on her face. I saw it every day. Not only did she have to worry about me and if I was going to make it, but she had to assume the role of everything - she was my chauffeur, my nurse, my cook - and she fought for me with the doctors to make sure I was getting the right treatment. "I hope God gives her 10 times what he gives me. She's incredible." Not just as a wife, but as a motivational speaker, too. "I don't want to be a widow at 50 years old," she told her husband on one memorable day. "That got my attention," Roland said, "not that I wasn't trying to fight anyway, but it was definitely a motivator." So were his kids, former University of Georgia lineman Dennis Roland, Jr. (now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and daughter Dana. "I tried to keep a lot of things from (my kids), but they're no dummies," Roland said. "It was funny, too. It was almost like a role reversal in a sense. They almost became the parents. They would say, 'Have you eaten today?' And 'how much weight have you gained?' They were very supportive." As was the leadership at Central Gwinnett High School. When Bradley Warren left earlier this year to become the head coach at Gilmer County, athletic director Tally Johnson and principal Valerie Clark approached Roland about the job. He still wasn't 100 percent, not even close actually, and he still had to undergo a complicated stem-cell transplant in April that would keep him hospitalized for three weeks. But on Feb. 8 of this year Roland was named as Warren's successor. Forget that interim special assistant to the president of athletic affairs stuff. Dennis Roland was a football coach again. "There were two things that really attracted me to Central," Roland said. "No. 1 was the leadership from the principal and the administration. You have to have good leadership at the top and Central does. "And the second thing that impressed me was one day when I was over there, I went down and stood outside the locker room and watched the players come down after school. I watched how respectful they were ... and that's why I took the job. It was the caliber of the leadership and the caliber of kids. If you get a group of guys that love each other you can do a lot." Roland can't say enough good things about his new players, from how they've adapted to their coach and the new "Air Raid" offense to how they responded for the three weeks he was in the hospital getting the stem-cell treatment. The head coach remembers that last day of his April stay very well, the one where he got to walk right out the front door. "It was like freedom," he said with a laugh. "Coming out of there and going home was like freedom. But I can't say enough about the people that worked with me down there (at Emory). They were really great. "But there's nothing like finally getting out of the hospital." Except maybe finally getting back on the football field, where Roland recently ran the Black Knights through their spring practice. "I've come a long way," he said. "I still don't have 100 percent of my energy, but that's to be expected ... and I was happy to be back on any sideline. And just to get out on the field again was really a lot of fun." Especially considering where he was a few months ago, and how the word spreading around the coaches' community in Gwinnett County was that he might not live to see 2008. "A lot of people were led to believe I was gone," Roland said. "And I may very well have been close a few times, but it's like what Mark Twain said: the rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." It's June, 2007. Dennis Roland has much less hair and weight than he used to, but he can joke again, he can eat again and he is coaching football again in Gwinnett County. The darkness has indeed lifted. And it seems like every day the sun is shining a little brighter.
Monday 17 March 2014 Yes! The end of the world is nigh. . . again The doomsayers are back but will they get it right this time, wonders Paul Melia And so the end of the world is nigh. Again. Prophets of doom plan a year-long party because come next December, life as we know it will cease to exist. But it won't be climate change, or nuclear apocalypse, or the outbreak of an unknown virus that will kill us all. Instead a rogue planet -- known to the authorities but which is being kept secret from us all -- will crash into Earth, ending humanity's brief time here. How we all die is beautiful in its simplicity, and based on ancient knowledge and discovery. The ancient Sumerians, who lived in southern Iraq, discovered a planet called Nibiru, which is hurtling towards Earth and is due to hit next December. In perfect symmetry, the Mayans -- who came from Central America -- predicted the end of the world on December 21 when its so-called 'Long Count' calendar comes to an end, hailing the 'end of days'. They didn't actually mention the planet Nibiru -- but that hasn't stopped worldwide apocalyptic alarm. And luckily for the doomsayers there are even two fragments of writing found in Mexican ruins which refer to Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation, which probably say (the fragments are broken so are difficult to read): "He will descend from the sky." So that's that then. That was our last Christmas. It's been a while since such a doomsday scenario has captured the popular imagination, with bookseller Amazon currently offering more than 170 titles dealing with the Mayan Long Count. Such was the excitement that NASA was forced to step in last month to counteract the claims, saying if Niburi existed it would now be visible with the naked eye and everyone would know of their impending doom. "Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012", the space agency said. "Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than four billion years and scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012." But conspiracy theorists, doomsayers and other believers have no need for scientific evidence. The end is nigh and that's enough. And their predictions aren't a new phenomenon. Some 20,000 people fled London in January 1524 after astrologers predicted a great flood, while Halley's Comet's arrival in 1910 caused widespread panic that humanity would be wiped out by noxious gases in its tail. In 1919, meteorologist Albert Porta said a rare conjunction of planets would cause magnetic currents "that would pierce the sun, cause great explosions of flaming gas and eventually engulf the Earth". A rogue planet crashing into us, a 'killer' solar flare or geomagnetic reversal -- where Earth spins out of control -- are just some of the ways we might meet our makers, however despite hundreds of years of apocalyptic warnings none has come true. But serious science loves a good doomsday theory. Last September the annual Ig Nobel prizes were awarded in Harvard University's Sanders Theatre to honour scientific achievements "that first make people laugh, then make them think". The winner of the psychology prize was a Norwegian researcher for trying to understand why, in everyday life, people sigh. The mathematics prize for "teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations" was shared by six people who all predicted the end of the world using a mathematical formula -- Dorothy Martin, who was told by aliens the world would end in a great flood in 1954; TV evangelist Pat Robertson, who predicted judgment day in 1982; and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, who reckoned nuclear war would kill everyone in 1990. All were American. Also honoured were Lee Jang Rim of Korea, Credonia Mwerinde of Uganda, and Harold Camping, also of the US. Of course, none turned out to be accurate but it's not the predicted end of days we need to worry about. There's been five major extinction episodes in Earth's history which probably took every living thing on the planet by surprise. They include the Permian extinction about 250 million years ago which finished the dinosaurs and which may have been caused by a meteor crashing to earth. We'll never know, but here's a cheery thought -- we could go at any time. Space is inhabited by millions of asteroids, many in Earth-crossing orbits, and one the size of a house could destroy a city. As Bill Bryson notes in his Short History of Nearly Everything, in 1991 one was spotted after it had missed Earth by just 170,000km -- "in cosmic terms the equivalent of a bullet passing through one's sleeve without touching the arm". And there's hazards on the planet too. Yellowstone National Park in the US, home of geysers and bubbling mud pools, is in fact a 'supervolcano' -- a mighty simmering cauldron of magma almost 70km wide. It erupts about every 600,000 years. It last went 630,000 years ago, showering much of the US and Canada with ash. It's overdue. However, there's no point in worrying. We do have the certainty of knowing the world will end in about four billion years when the sun has depleted its supply of hydrogen and it swells like a balloon. Then Earth will definitely be toast. That's a comforting thought. Also in this Section Now available on Top Stories Most Read Independent Gallery Your photos Send us your weather photos promo Celebrity News
already a subscriber? Register me Subscribe now See my options • We reserve the right to close commenting on specific stories. Discussion guidelines \| Privacy policy \| Terms of use Limit of 2000 characters, 2000 characters remaining Sort by Comment threads per page: 10 \| 20 \| 50 1. Only a cost-effective approach to energy conservation is prudent. Not everything promoted as "green" results in a real cost avoidance or has an ROI making it a worthy investment. One has to wonder how many "energy conservation" contractors and vendors these legislators are looking to deliver for. 2. Perhaps some of the 6200 buildings are not needed and selling them would be better than sinking money into upgrading buildings that needed. They could use the proceeds from the sale of the unnecessary buildings to offset the energy retrofits for the important ones. Beautiful. Keep your eye on the money. 4. From experience---when the state has these "experts" redesign the lighting in the public buildings they should get prices for the replacement bulbs and lighting parts--- energy efficient lighting is not worth the time and effort when bulbs cost $40-60 each, burn out in months and the entire line of bulbs & ballests need to be replaced when the first bulb goes out. Been there--seen it. 5. Come on ,people.Do some reaearch and stop wasting tax money on silliness. Seattle has poured millions of extra dollars to build a greenie library and county administration building and both use more energy than the old ones and are much smaller.San Diego spent millions on solar for schools and it was all a rat hole.There are no savings , just extra expense, almost forever. 6. “......but with high energy prices and 6,200 state buildings, we think that with investing $200 million we’ll make money faster this way,” Hulsey said. I'm not really interested in what poilticians "think" (read: guess) in situations like this. Not only that, $200 million seems to be just an arbitrary number based on the disproven notion that the more you spend on something the better it will be fixed. Base the funding on design-based performance guarantees. Hire a design/contractor willing to put their money where their promises are. Include it in the contract. If a building retrofit "promises" to save X amount of energy dollars/year, hold the contractor responsible for that level of performance. If real-world performance doesn't meet projections, the contractor pays the difference back to the state. If it exceeds them, the contractor is awarded a share of the additional savings (and makes more money on the job). Happens all the time in the private sector, particularly involving advanced control applications in refineries, chem plants, etc.. But then again, the private sector tends to be infinitely more careful with its money. 7. This is a great move. Energy efficiency keeps utility bills DOWN. Energy efficiency cuts waste and saves money for taxpayers and ratepayers. There has been a lot of work done studying the energy efficiency potential in Wisconsin. Wisconsin also has a lot of firms engaged in energy efficiency. Johnson Controls is a leader in the field and a big employer. Yes, the private sector invests in energy efficiency. So, why shouldn't the public sector? Because people like to waste energy and money? Not many! Wisconsin doesn't have any coal, oil or natural gas in the ground so it makes no sense for us to adopt policies in favor of burning more fossil fuels. None! That only sends our dollars out of state. Amazing the things we cannot agree on these days! 8. This could be kept (somewhat) honest if each government department that drew money from this fund either received the surplus if the energy savings were greater than the costs, or had its budget permanently cut by whatever amount the "savings" failed to pay above the cost. Because, "energy savings" is not a bargain if it costs $1 million to save $1,000. per year. The basic problem is, businesses (usually) pay for their financial mistakes, not because they want to but because they must. As a result, a business is (usually) going to look at energy conservation with a hard-headed "show me the money" attitude. But, government need not worry seriously about such things, for if the energy savings fail to repay the debt plus the debt service costs, those who run the departments will just say, "we're so sorry!" and insist their budget cannot be cut as they provide an essential service. So, it is this lack of ultimate accountability that makes taxpayers reasonably suspicious of such grand plans. Because, politics- not the financial bottom line- is and forever will be the "bottom line" of government. 9. I am in this business. Common sense is the biggest saver of energy. The equation is really simple: start with the lights. Upgrade the lighting. New lights are more efficient with wattage consumption and new fixtures get more light the proper direction. You need to avoid the ballast changers as they only get a fraction of the potential savings. You need to avoid the non-standards lighting. LED may be great but there aren't any standards so you need to avoid it to keep future costs in line. Same with proprietary communication. For example: Orion energy? --- not too bad. Proprietary wireless communication? Nope. Constant light control? Nope. Finally, go for the extra 20-35% for constant lighting control. Its worth it. On the HVAC side- not much gain for huge effort. Most go with first cost junk equipment like packaged rooftops which have poor life cycle costs. If you want something good in HVAC think FLUID. This means nicer and higher first cost equipment. The next biggest problem is integration. Most GC's are bad because they split the MEP's (mech/electrical/plumbing) so finding integrated systems and getting operational savings via integration is difficult. Better off pursuing integration on the Architect level and hiring a Systems Integrator or very sharp MEP engineering group to push your lighting, HVAC and other control system designs. 10. I need to clarify on the Orion- they are a lighting company that does primarily switched proprietary communicating lighting systems. The proprietary and switched lighting loses out on extra savings. Probably a bigger savings with DALI.... and it is open protocol so future ballast replacements you can shop around. And, yes, this is probably something the local lighting agents don't want to tell you. 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Israel Will Keep Fighting, General Says A convoy of Israeli tanks. Credit: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit. i i hide captionA convoy of Israeli tanks prepares to enter southern Lebanon near the northern Israeli village of Avivim. Increased diplomatic efforts are unlikely to bring a quick end to the week-old war between Israel and Hezbollah militants. An Israeli general says the fighting could continue at least another week, if not longer. This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm John Ydstie, in for Steve Inskeep. And I'm Renee Montagne. Israeli planes are still bombing areas of Lebanon. Today's attacks killed dozens more Lebanese civilians. And more Hezbollah rockets fell on Haifa in northern Israel. There are increased diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting, but as NPR's Eric Westervelt reports there's little prospect that those efforts will lead to a quick end to this latest conflict in the Middle East. Despite some early diplomatic maneuverings, there are few signs the fighting will stop anytime soon. Israeli Major General Udi Adam, head of the northern command, told Army radio yesterday that the air attacks had significantly degraded Hezbollah's fighting ability. But there's more fighting ahead, he said, adding, I think we should assume that it will take a few more weeks. Shlomo Brom is a retired Brigadier General and the former head of strategic planning for the Israeli Army. He says the air war has inflicted far more damage on Hezbollah, particularly in the south, than is readily apparent. Mr. SHLOMO BROM (Brigadier General, Israeli Defense Forces, Retired): You don't see the damage to Hezbollah. The media cannot see the rocket launching groups that are hunted and killed. And this kind of organization, that is a guerrilla organization, is consistent of many small groups of combatants that have to be intercepted, one by one, and killed. And it takes time. WESTERVELT: The civilian death toll in south Lebanon may be greater than current estimates. Reuters reports that 12 civilians including several children were killed in an overnight air strike in the southern village of Screfa(ph). More than 270 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon so far. Twenty-six people have been killed in Israel, 13 of tem civilians. On the diplomatic front, there are doubts in some corners, that the Lebanese Army is a credible option to enforce any potential ceasefire in the south. Some European Union members in the U.N. are pushing for international peacekeepers, perhaps backed up the Lebanese army. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan Tuesday, said any U.N. force should be larger and have a wider mandate than the current U.N. force, UNIFIL, which has been in south Lebanon since the late 1970s, and has been largely ineffective. Itamar Rabinovich, the former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., says UNIFIL's abysmal track record has turned many in Israel against the idea of any U.N. force. Mr. ITAMAR RABINOVICH (Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States): UNIFIL, I'm afraid, is a joke. They have been there for 26 years. Since then there have been so many skirmishes, so many wars, and, you know, UNIFIL has not been effective, and yet nobody bothered to recall UNIFIL. So, I'm not sure that the magic word of, let's send an international peacekeeping force to south Lebanon and take care of the problem, is going to take care of the problem. WESTERVELT: Potentially, that leaves the Lebanese army as the main stabilization force. Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Tuesday, reiterated that there would be no ceasefire until two captured Israeli soldiers are released, Hezbollah is disarmed, and Lebanese army forces moved in to enforce the disarmament. But Israeli air strikes have also pounded at least Lebanese army bases or outposts, and radar sites, weakening the very force that might be used to disarm Hezbollah. General Brom said Israel is walking a tightrope, trying to take out only those Lebanese forces seen as operationally supporting Hezbollah. Mr. BROM: When some elements of the Lebanese military are being in cahoots with Hezbollah, is cooperating with it - they are punished. WESTERVELT: In addition to its armed wing, Hezbollah is also a political and religious movement, and Itamar Rabinovich says when the fighting stops, Israel's biggest challenge will be dealing with the future of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Mr. RABINOVICH: Extending the real sovereignty of the Lebanese state, all the way to the border, is not going to be easy. Because, you know, you are dealing with the Lebanese government that has two Hezbollah ministers in its ranks. So you need to be sure that the government is solidly behind it and capable of doing that. WESTERVELT: But the continued fighting underscores just how far away those challenges are right now. Yesterday, Israeli military officials said the number of Hezbollah rockets fired was down in the last few days. Just a few hours later, a new barrage hit ten cities and towns across the north. A 37-year-old factory worker in the coastal city of Nahariya had just hurried his family into a bomb shelter, when a Katyusha landed, killing him instantly. This morning, more rockets hit cities across northern Israel, wounding several people. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Jerusalem. Support comes from:
Reasons why guns are allowed Reasons why guns are allowed As I read James Pettican's April 14 guest column, We still live, fearfully, in 'Gunlandia,' I had to shake my head. I can understand the gentleman's concerns, and my heart breaks whenever I read of an innocent victim of gun violence, but the answer is not to ban guns. Mr. Pettican states that "guns have only one function: to fire a projectile that damages or destroys whatever it hits." That's mostly true, but somewhat misleading. Target shooters are certainly destroying the paper target, but the purpose is the sport — the skill and accuracy of the shooter. The same is true of archery competitions, but I don't hear people screaming we should ban bows and arrows. The other primary uses of guns are to damage or kill things. Hunters intend on killing their prey. When used in self-defense, the gun's job is to incapacitate, or kill if necessary, the "bad guy." In either case, there's nothing wrong with that. There's another important use that anti-gun proponents usually don't mention, but it was first in the mind of our founding fathers: to guard against tyranny. They recognized the citizenry needed to be able to protect our nation from internal enemies and a government run amok. Having a gun in the home doesn't mean an innocent victim will find himself or herself at the wrong end. My father always kept a revolver under his pillow. Every week, when I stripped the sheets and remade his bed, I moved it out of the way, carefully replacing it when I was done. Not once was I ever tempted to take it out of its sock sleeve and even look at it, much less play with it. Why? Because when I was 4 years old, my father took me out to the woods, set up a target, and while holding my hands, helped me aim and shoot a handgun. Then when we walked over to the target and saw the damage done, he explained to me about what a gun does, why it can be dangerous, and that it was not a toy. That's all it took. That lesson stayed with me all these many years (I'm now a Grandma). I have four siblings, three of whom are brothers, and I can only assume my father did a similar process with each of them because none of us ever played with any of his guns. Gun ownership does require a heavy dose of common sense. If there's a shadow in your home, you don't just fire. Only an idiot would do that. You call out, saying something like, "Who's there?" or, "Stop or I'll shoot." If the shadow is a family member, they'll certainly let you know. The same is true if there's someone on your doorstep. A responsible gun owner doesn't just open fire. The real problem is too many criminals are on our streets instead of in jail where they belong. Because they're on the street, they can get their hands on weapons and use them against others. If it weren't guns, it would be something else, but let's be honest. If you ban guns from responsible citizens, the bad guys will still get their hands on them. And the rest of us will be unable to defend ourselves, our family, our property, or our nation. Nancy Foster, Clearwater Re: Pipe band chief is booted for inappropriate behavior \| story, April 25, and April 28 letters to the editor Behavior not acceptable It is amazing to me how many people feel Dunedin Pipe Band director Sandy Keith's behavior should be ignored. Don't you think it's time he has been dealt with? Thanks to the city, he has. People are not sticking to the facts. Dunedin City Manager Rob DiSpirito commented in the Times article that the city thanks Keith for his years of service. If this was about one incident, it surely would have been handled differently. What's wrong with people when they say he "gets out of hand" or maybe "he's a little aggressive"? Can we all believe it's okay to use these comments in the same sentence with children? You know that we are all familiar with organized sports, where sometimes there is bad behavior and coaches run thin on patience, but never in the six years my daughter has competed in many sports has there been a coach being aggressive or using bad language. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but not all of us agree with this type of behavior. Bonnie Rowley, Clearwater Much owed to Sandy Keith How could Dunedin City Manager Rob DiSpirito allow two or three people and a teacher who holds a grudge toward piping director Sandy Keith to affect the entire future of the Dunedin Pipe Band that represents our city? Under Sandy Keith's direction, the city's band has earned the No. 1 spot in the world, with individual members receiving the same. Sandy has made the band world-class contenders. Who was wrong here? Not only DiSpirito for caving in to the few, but the dancers and teacher for not being professional by being on time. It's up to the teacher to make sure students understand how important it is to understand the schedule of performing, along with their personal appearance. Is Sandy the most personable person? No, but his credentials and talent far outweigh that. The high school band director has slowly but surely eliminated bagpipes and the Scottish tradition. If anyone has attended the recent football games, they will notice that the pipers are now down to a handful versus the 27 that were there when my son was piping. This is exactly what the high school has waited for — to finally end the tradition. The tattoo, Highland Games and Celtic festival bring in thousands of dollars to the city. This was started by Sandy Keith. People come from around the world because of his reputation. Just try and replace the Scottish man that has brought so much to the city and schools with his rankings and reputation. Good luck! Maybe it's the city manager and band director that need to go! Lyndee Dolan, Dunedin Re: PSTA offers cab ride solution \| story, April 26 Care Ride's on time and reliable This may be the single worst idea in the history of providing transportation for the disabled! No one who has been a DART client would even consider calling Wheelchair Transport instead of Care Ride! I am at a loss to think of how anyone could consider "choice" as a "wonderful option." I have been a DART client for over 10 years. During that time, PSTA contracted with Wheelchair Transport for the DART service. I missed appointments because drivers were consistently late. I missed several trips to St. Petersburg that I had to make every three months because additional pickups were scheduled in 30-minute "windows," a period that is added to our pickup time so the driver can actually arrive up to 30 minutes after the designated time but still be considered on time. The client side of this is that DART is only required to wait 5 minutes for us and can then designate us as a no-show. Wheelchair Transport was unreliable, inadequately trained, unprofessional and in some cases, dangerous. The turnover rate was extremely high, so new drivers didn't stay long enough to become well trained. I made complaints to the owner of the company, the DART liaison at Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and three county commissioners, two of whom were on the PSTA board. Neither of those two commissioners replied. Finally, PSTA gave the contract to another company and in October of 2008, Care Ride began its contract with PSTA. I wondered for years how PSTA could continue to use Wheelchair Transport as I had seen their contract with the specs they were required to meet and they were consistently not meeting them. The service with Care Ride has been outstanding. On time, vans clean, drivers in uniform, pleasant and not stressed as the Wheelchair drivers were. It is everything that Wheelchair Transport was not. I am not stressed out before I go anywhere, wondering if the transportation will be on time, if I will reach my destination on time. It becomes clearer with every article about this matter that the service for disabled people is not the prime idea, but instead, money is. Hopefully, someone will become aware that this service is vital to us, and that it should be run well and safely. Bobbye Blackburn, Clearwater >>your voice counts Reasons why guns are allowed 04/28/09 [Last modified: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:55pm] Join the discussion: Click to view comments, add yours
Our TV Shows Got a Tip? Call TMZ at (888) 847-9869 or Click Here Pageant Official -- Prejean's Suit Is Publicity Stunt 8/31/2009 1:28 PM PDT BY TMZ STAFF Carrle PrejeanTMZ just received the following statement from Miss California USA honcho Keith Lewis, lashing back at the lawsuit Carrie Prejean filed against him this morning for religious discrimination: "It appears that suits from both sides are now inevitable against the other. I would guess Carrie sees it as a chance to get publicity for her upcoming book because in the interviews I have seen, she talks about the suit and the book in the same breath. We have no problem with her selling lots of books - considering in the current situation we could stand to profit from every copy she sells. But it seems like Carrie really has nothing new to talk about or anything new in her life so the impression is she just keeps looking for ways to rehash her position as a victim because of her onstage answer." UPDATE: Keith just added a bit more ... "I guess hell hath no fury like a Miss without her crown. We're all looking forward to a less litigious party when we crown the next Miss California USA November 22." No Avatar Chris G. I think both sides are full of crap, but the pageant people are making themselves look immature and unprofessional when they bash the girl. They should just say "no comment" and "our attorneys are handling the matter". 1659 days ago yer mom's soo effin hot!! if it were up to keith lewis, miss california usa would be marge the massive butch lesbian, wearing a wife beater,showing off chunky biceps with tattoos of pitbulls on em. 1659 days ago yer mom's soo effin hot!! what is it with all these men judging these women contests anyway? it appears more that they are looking for more pointers for flagg- it's, and not in the least interested in the women who participate. what do they do next to judging pageants? 1659 days ago yer mom's soo effin hot!! it puts the lotion on the skin again... 1659 days ago Oh Lewis, shut up - you're still pissed off about her answer and the fact Prop 8 lost in Cali, get over it and go suck your boyfriend. 1659 days ago hahahahah...I LOVE IT!!!! the Miss USA organization STANDS TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF EVERY COPY this slut sells. ahhhhh...poetic justice. don't you love it? this skank should thank Perez Hilton and everyone else involved for giving her publicity like they did. BEFORE this incident she was just some horse-faced skank with t!tty pictures on some obscure soft porn site...NOW she can use those t!tty pix to make guest appearances at conservative/religious gatherings. GTFOH!!! 1659 days ago @#30 - I think the hatred against religion is more vocal, because the hatred religious people seem to have for those who don't practice their religion is more vocal. You can't go around exhibiting the kind of un-Christlike behavior that you see on TV from 'religious' people and expect not to receive the same kind of vitriol in return. As a religious person, I find the actions and attitudes on both sides of this argument disturbing. 1659 days ago Regardless of what Carrie said, thinks or feels, she had no right to renege on her contractual obligations and trample all over the reign of the young woman who actually won. It was petty, small, irresponsible and narcissistic behavior and I don't understand any Christian supporting it. There is nothing remotely Christian in the way Ms. Prejean has conducted herself--from the questionable photos prior to the pageant to the fierce need to press her opinion after the pageant. Whatever happened to Christians living by Christ's example and following Biblical instruction? To pretend this young woman is anything but a vapid, attention-loving, self-aggrandizing ding-a-ling is an offense to common sense. To claim she is doing these things as a 'Christian' following Christ's example is an offense to the being who gave his life for us. 1659 days ago 1659 days ago Hell hath no fury like a D list celeb who has already spent 14:59 minutes of fame 1659 days ago AwesomeDude.. you have your facts wrong. Before Carrie even answered Perez' question she was losing. Even if she had received prefect scores in the remaining categories..she would have lost to Ms North Carolina. Her answer did not effect the outcome whatsoever. Her answer also was poorly structured and awkward.. personal beliefs not withstanding it reflected poorly on her ability to answer a question gracefully and eloquently. Doesn't matter if she said all gays should be put to death she could have structured it better. But even if it was the most eleoquent answer in the history of the pagent and she said that all humans should be given the right to marry if consenting non related adults.. she would have lost. Pure and simple facts. Then she used the situation to cry foul on every channel that would film her and propel herself into "fame" and make herself a Fox News darling and religious martyr. By committing herself to all of the religious organization appearance which were not approved per her contract agreement as Ms California she was in violation of said contract agreement. Also topless photos surfaced which she did not disclose the existence of to pageant officials which was also in violation of her contract agreement. And all her non approved appearances made it so that she missed the appearances she was supposed to be doing officially as Ms. California. All of this combined finally sealed her fate and now she still refuses to take responsibility for any of her actions and wants to sue. Pathetic excuse for a Christian actually.. a woman who surrounds herself in a contest based on vanity, surrounded by gay pageant officials and aides who she uses for hair, makeup, fashion and advice, changed the body God gave her to get larger breasts, posed provocatively to sell items using lust, falsely martyrs herself for self promotion. What a role model. The pageant should counter sue for her breast enhancements back. LOL! Her answer actually allowed her what little notoriety she has gained. She should be thankful otherwise no one would know who the hell she was or buy her book. 1659 days ago God has other things to worry about than who won or lost a silly title due to personal opinion. War, famine, disease come to mind. She should drop her suit, covert to Catholicism and become a nun so she can be close to God all the time. 1659 days ago She needs a NEW crown for being DRAMA QUEEN of the year. 1659 days ago lol wow this whore is grabbing onto any string she can to keep herself relevant, FAIL do the world a fav...go jump off a cliff with all your plastic surgery, the world has enough fake bimbos already how can she write a book, she has probably never even read one, including the bible 1658 days ago You Can Do Better Moakler and Lewis should've kept their yaps shut and allowed Carrie to state her beliefs as she was asked. Since they chose to spill personal details about her medical history, chose to publicly berate her personal beliefs, and chose to put her through the wringer, they should pay up. And learn how to shut up. The MAJORITY in fact, disagrees with their opinion! 1658 days ago Previous 15 Comments \| 1 \| 2 \| 3 Around The Web
CDC Home Volume 13, Number 12—December 2007 Effects of Local Anthropogenic Changes on Potential Malaria Vector Anopheles hyrcanus and West Nile Virus Vector Culex modestus, Camargue, France Nicolas Ponçon, Thomas Balenghien†‡, Céline Toty, Jean Baptiste Ferré§, Cyrille Thomas¶, Alain Dervieux#, Grégory L’Ambert§, Francis Schaffner§*, Olivier Bardin§, and Didier FontenilleComments to Author Author affiliations: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier, France; †École Nationale Vétérinaire de Lyon, Marcy l’Étoile, France; ‡Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement, Montpellier, France; §Entente Interdépartementale pour la Démoustication Méditerranée, Montpellier, France; ¶Centre Français du Riz, Arles, France; #Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Arles, France; University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; Suggested citation for this article Using historical data, we highlight the consequences of anthropogenic ecosystem modifications on the abundance of mosquitoes implicated as the current most important potential malaria vector, Anopheles hyrcanus, and the most important West Nile virus (WNV) vector, Culex modestus, in the Camargue region, France. From World War II to 1971, populations of these species increased as rice cultivation expanded in the region in a political context that supported agriculture. They then fell, likely because of decreased cultivation and increased pesticide use to control a rice pest. The species increased again after 2000 with the advent of more targeted pest-management strategies, mainly the results of European regulations decisions. An intertwined influence of political context, environmental constraints, technical improvements, and social factors led to changes in mosquito abundance that had potential consequences on malaria and WNV transmission. These findings suggest that anthropogenic changes should not be underestimated in vectorborne disease recrudescence. During the past 25 years, there has been a dramatic emergence and resurgence of epidemic vectorborne diseases affecting both humans and domestic animals (1). In most cases, sociodemographic changes, drug resistance, and anthropogenic environmental modifications appear to be the main factors responsible (14). The Camargue, the Rhone River Delta region in southeastern France, is an area relevant to the study of the influence of environmental changes on vector populations because 1) it has witnessed important anthropogenic ecosystem modifications in the past 60 years, 2) it contains a great abundance and diversity of mosquito-breeding sites and thus hosts large mosquito populations, and 3) it is a former zone of endemic malaria and a region of current and regular transmission of West Nile fever. Until the beginning of the 20th century, malaria, mainly transmitted by Anopheles (Anopheles) atroparvus Van Thiel, was endemic in the Camargue and constituted a major health issue there (5,6). The last Plasmodium vivax malaria epidemic occurred in 1943, with ≈400 cases (7). Malaria disappeared from this area after World War II because of improved housing and living conditions and the extensive use of quinine. Among 8 anopheline species recorded in the Camargue, An. atroparvus was recently found to be rare and An. (Anopheles) hyrcanus (Pallas) very abundant with a high human-biting rate (8), findings that suggest that An. hyrcanus is currently the only Culicidae sp. likely to play a role in malaria transmission in the Camargue (8). Moreover, autochthonous transmission was recently suspected on the French Mediterranean Coast in 2006 (9), which also supports the idea that southern France remains suitable for malaria transmission. The first description of West Nile virus (WNV) in France was in the 1960s, with human and equine outbreaks in the Camargue (10). After these episodes, the disease seemed to disappear from this region. However, WNV transmission apparently continued thereafter and was confirmed by serologic studies in the 1970s and 1980s (11,12). Since 2000, WNV-related disease has reappeared in southern France, causing equine outbreaks in 2000 (76 confirmed cases) and 2004 (32 confirmed cases) in the Camargue (hosting 7,000 equids) and sporadic human and/or equine cases in 2003 and 2006 elsewhere along the Mediterranean Coast (1316). Among 7 Culex species recorded in the Camargue (17), Culex (Barraudius) modestus Ficalbi is considered the main WNV vector, based on abundance, feeding behavior, previous WNV isolations, and recent experimental transmission (1820). The aim of this article is to describe the history of the region and to examine the impact of the various anthropogenic environmental changes that have occurred in the Camargue over the past 60 years on 2 mosquito species, An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus. Because rice fields are the quasi-exclusive breeding sites for An. hyrcanus and the most prolific sites for Cx. modestus (5), we focus on changes in rice cultivation, i.e., cultivated surfaces and agronomic practices, including insecticide spraying, related to socioeconomic and agronomic factors. The Study Area Figure 1 Thumbnail of Map of the Camargue, France, indicating areas of rice cultivation as well as mosquito sampling sites, 2001. Figure 1. Map of the Camargue, France, indicating areas of rice cultivation as well as mosquito sampling sites, 2001. The Camargue is the main wetland area in the southeast of France and covers the Rhone River Delta (Figure 1). This area has a Mediterranean climate characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Total annual rainfall is typically 500–700 mm and occurs mainly in autumn; the annual mean temperature is 14°C. Landscapes in the Camargue are strongly affected by the duration of submersion and the salinity of the soils. The landscapes are organized roughly in a south-to-north gradient of salinity, with agricultural land and reed marshes in the north and natural salty ponds and salt marshes in the south. Most agricultural land belongs to a few large farms, which are able to rapidly change their production system (i.e., crop type), depending on the economic context (21,22). Rice is currently the main cultivated crop in the Camargue, which is almost the only French region that produces rice. Paddies are filled in April and May with ≈7 cm of water. From the end of June until the end of August, a depth of ≈20 cm of water is maintained in the paddies, and the rice plants cover their surfaces. The water is then drained and the rice harvested. Data on rice cultivation used in this article were provided by the French National Rice Center. The Mosquito Species A. hyrcanus is a Palearctic mosquito species belonging to the Hyrcanus group. It is distributed from Spain to People’s Republic of China, covering the southern half of Europe, the Mediterranean area, and central Asia. Large populations are found in irrigated rice-growing areas in Turkey, Greece, and France (23,24), and this species was involved in malaria transmission in the north of Afghanistan (25). Cx. modestus is also a Palearctic species, widely distributed from Europe to India, especially in delta areas, where its larvae can be found in semipermanent reed marshes, irrigation canals, and rice fields (5). The involvement of Cx. modestus in WNV transmission was established in the Camargue (20,26), the delta areas of the Caspian and Azov Seas (27,28), and the Volga region of Russia (29) and was suspected in the Danube Delta (30). Appendix Figure Thumbnail of Changes in vector abundance and rice cultivation related to economic and agronomic contexts in the Camargue, France. Ha, hectares. Rice surface, insecticide-sprayed surface, and human mosquito-landing collection data were smoothed with a centered moving average (running mean) of 3 years to filter short-term variations. Insecticide sprayed surface, only insecticides having an effect on mosquito larvae (i.e., fenithrotion, trichlorfon, chlorphenamidine, and alphamethrin) were included; surfaces sprayed with lepidopteron-specific insecticide (i.e., tebufenozide and Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki) were not included. Sprayed surfaces were precisely known from 1972 to 1974 and from 2000 to 2006 and were estimated from 1990 to 1999. ‡Anopheles hyrcanus is the main potential malaria vector, and Culex modestus is the main West Nile virus vector in the Camargue. §No data on sprayings, years 1975–1989, for which no quantitative data on sprayed surfaces were available. For our study, changes in An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus abundance were assessed by using 1) literature data, 2) detailed annual activity reports that describe nuisance caused by mosquito pests and published from 1962 to 1996, and 3) data from regular human mosquito-landing collections conducted since 1969 in 12 sites in the western Camargue (for 15 minutes at sunrise, approximately once a week from June to October). These sites were sampled by using the same methods, thus allowing us to describe changes in An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus abundance over a 38-year period. Collection sites were distributed in the western Camargue, which allowed a sampling of all ecosystems from the north to the south, reflecting mosquito abundance in the entire region (Figure 1). This human mosquito-landing survey did not focus specifically on An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus. Thus, some sites were located some distance from the indicated area under cultivation (even if these areas have changed during the past 60 years) and were probably always negative for An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus. Unfortunately, results of human mosquito-landing collections were not available per sample site. Thus, to avoid overrepresentation of uninformative and consistently negative sites, quantitative abundance of An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus was assessed by the annual mean number of mosquitoes caught by positive collection. Changes in rice cultivation and mosquito populations, shown in the Appendix Figure, were analyzed for 3 periods, described below. Changes in Mosquito Populations and Rice Cultivation since the 1920s 1920s to 1960s: Proliferation of An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus In the Camargue, rice cultivation was rare before World War II, and both An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus were only rarely reported after their first description in the 1920s until World War II (5,3136). The development of rice cultivation started with the rice shortage caused by World War II and was supported by a guaranteed price and funds from the Marshall Plan in 1947 and by the agricultural equipment cooperative established in 1948. Rice cultivation was then mechanized and hugely increased to cover ≈30,000 ha during the 1960s (Appendix Figure). In the 1950s and the 1960s, An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus populations were described as widely distributed and very abundant in the entire Camargue, and these 2 species were included in the group of the 3 most abundant nuisance biters (5). An. hyrcanus was considered a major pest in the western Camargue in 1969 and 1970, and Cx. modestus attacks reached 300 bites per person per hour in reed marshes (26). From 1942 to the 1960s, the increase in An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus populations seemed to follow changes in paddy surface area (Appendix Figure), itself a product of the political consequences of World War II (e.g., agricultural support, mechanization). 1960s to 1999: Near Disappearance of Mosquito Populations Decrease of Area under Rice Cultivation In 1963, the enforcement of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Community caused unfavorable conditions for French rice cultivation, which was confronted by the more competitive Italian rice cultivation. This situation depressed both prices and incomes for French producers, who abandoned rice cultivation and developed alternatives such as hard wheat. The area under rice cultivation started to decrease slowly after 1965 (Appendix Figure). Insecticide Implementation In 1970, the striped rice borer, Chilo suppressalis (Walker), a pest insect that damages rice plants, was introduced into France on young rice plants imported from Spain (37). From 1972, rice producers implemented insecticide sprayings with fenitrothion, trichlorfon, and chlorphenamidine, which were conducted at the end of July each year, to control this pest (Table). The striped rice borer invasion reduced French rice competitiveness and consequently accelerated the decline in rice cultivation to 4,400 ha by 1981. Human mosquito-landing collections showed a drastic drop in An. hyrcanus and a progressive decrease in Cx. modestus populations in 1972 and 1973, after the insecticide sprayings were initiated (Appendix Figure). At the end of July, insecticide, also efficient against mosquito larvae, was sprayed by fixed-wing airplane that used low-volume applications (15 L/hectare); the insecticide reached the water even when rice plants covered the paddy surfaces. At this time of year, An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus larvae usually massively colonize rice fields, which in summer are nearly the only available breeding sites for these species (N. Ponçon, unpub. data) (26). These sprayings likely reduced An. hyrcanus populations considerably, with the removal of water from paddies at the end of August limiting posttreatment population recovery. In September, flooding of reed marshes, which are natural breeding sites for Cx. modestus, allows only a limited maintenance of populations and probably explains the slower decrease of this species than of An. hyrcanus. Indeed, reed marshes cannot maintain important populations, as illustrated by the rareness of Cx. modestus before World War II. Increase of Area under Rice Cultivation and of Insecticide Sprayings In 1981 a French support plan was implemented that led to an increase in rice cultivation, which covered >20,000 ha by the early 1990s. In 1994 the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade limited subsidies, and French rice cultivation, still fairly uncompetitive, experienced difficulties once again. These problems were accentuated by a new demand for perfumed rice varieties that are not produced in the Camargue. Some producers thus replaced rice with hard wheat, which explains the decrease in rice cultivation areas since 1994 (Appendix Figure). In 1988 a new rice variety, Ariete, was introduced into the Camargue and, from 1991 to 2000, it quickly became the most cultivated rice. This variety of rice is very susceptible to the striped rice borer. Consequently, producers sprayed large areas to avoid losses and to ensure high productivity. Sprayings were conducted by using the same methods as before except that alphamethrin, also efficient against mosquito larvae, replaced the former insecticides. The intensive insecticide sprayings against the striped rice borer likely account for the low populations of An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus over this period, despite the increase in the area of rice cultivation. Human mosquito-landing data showed a slight population peak in both species in 1994, when rice cultivation covered a maximum of 24,500 ha (Appendix Figure). From 2000: Increase in Mosquito Populations More recently still, rice producers have developed other cultivations in rotation with rice and have added new activities, such as hunting marshes and tourism, with the aim of diminishing their dependence on rice economics (22). Since 2000, the area under rice cultivation has remained stable at ≈18,000–20,000 ha. Since 2000 the Ariete variety of rice has been progressively replaced by varieties less susceptible to the striped rice borer. Consequently, spraying was conducted over smaller percentages of the rice-cultivated areas: 61% in 2000 to 51% in 2003. Nevertheless, spraying was maintained to ensure the high productivity on which subsidies were based at that time. Since 2004, the terms of rice subsidies have changed yet again, leading to the disinterest in high productivity and to the high decrease in sprayed surfaces in 2004. Finally, controls on insecticide use were strengthened in 2005 (departmental order, Mar 5, 2004) to limit the impact on wild fauna; the use of alphamethrin by airplane was abandoned, and the emphasis now is on lepidopteron-specific insecticides (tebufenozide, Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki 3a/3b). In parallel with the progressive abandon of insecticide, An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus populations have increased continuously from 2000 to the present. Untangling the Components of Anthropogenic Change Before the 1970s, and in the absence of insecticide spraying, An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus abundance followed the increase in the area under rice cultivation. After 1970, insecticide spraying, which was aimed at controlling the striped rice borer, likely influenced the size of the mosquito populations. From 1972 to 1974 and from 2000 to 2006 (surfaces sprayed were precisely known only during these years), the abundance of both mosquito species (human mosquito-landing data) was negatively correlated with the percentage of the rice areas sprayed with mosquito-efficient insecticides (Pearson coefficient r = –0.84, p<0.001 for An. hyrcanus and r = –0.64, p<0.05 for Cx. modestus). Figure 2 Thumbnail of Impact of history, politics, technology, society, and environment on malaria and West Nile fever in the Camargue, France. Figure 2. Impact of history, politics, technology, society, and environment on malaria and West Nile fever in the Camargue, France. This story highlights the intertwined importance of historical, political, environmental, technical, and social factors in explaining agricultural changes in the Camargue that could have directly contributed to variation in the abundance of both An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus populations, with possible consequences for vectorborne diseases (Figure 2). An. hyrcanus is currently considered the main potential malaria vector in the Camargue, whereas the past periods of high Cx. modestus abundance, i.e., the 1960s and the 2000s, were associated with WNV outbreaks in the Camargue. The amount of rice cultivation in this area was determined by national or European decisions, which were influenced by the global historical and political context. Favorable economic conditions for rice cultivation (Marshall Plan, guaranteed prices, and subsidies) were the results of the World War II and the developing Cold War; later economic globalization forced a decrease in this support. The close relationship between political decisions and variations in rice surface area in the Camargue is due to the organization of farming into large units, itself a product of past massive funding investments and environmental constraints; this system allowed a rapid response to the changing economic climate. Currently, rice producers in the Camargue are adding tertiary activities to their historical role as food providers, in response to new social demands concerning leisure such as hunting and nature tourism. The extent and amount of spray applied depends on the presence of rice pests, permissiveness of the rice variety; and the insecticide cost in regard to production costs, sale price, and subsidies (indexed or not on productivity). The choice of rice variety is determined by its adequacy within the food market and its agronomic performance in the production area. What does the future hold for these mosquito populations in the Camargue? On the one hand, the Common Agricultural Policy will face another round of debates about subsidies in 2013. If subsidies are reduced, rice cultivation is expected to decrease; An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus will therefore also likely decrease in abundance and may even become as rare as they were before World War II. Conversely, because rice cultivators are important actors in maintaining the ecosystems of the Camargue, the French government may decide to continue to support rice cultivation there. Without any other disturbance of this ecosystem, An. hyrcanus and Cx. modestus populations might then continue to increase. Climate change is considered by some authors as being responsible for the vectorborne disease recrudescence (38,39). However, as our data indicate, environmental modifications and changes in the economic, social, and cultural environments can have strong and rapid effects on mosquito populations. Dr Ponçon is a veterinarian from the French Ministry of Agriculture pursuing a PhD degree at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement. His main research interests are disease vectors and, in particular, the risk of malaria resurgence in France. We thank the 2 anonymous reviewers for their relevant comments, David Rogers for greatly improving the quality of this article, Annelise Tran for providing the map; Hélène Guis for critical reading, Michel Babinot and Christophe Lagneau for information and data concerning mosquitoes and insecticides, and Alexandre Carron for his advice on statistical analyses. This study was partially funded by EU grant GOCE-2003-010284 EDEN (catalogued by the EDEN Steering Committee as EDEN0056 []). N.P.’s salary was paid by the French Ministry of Agriculture. T.B. received a grant from the ACCIES project (Analyse du Changement Climatique et de ses Impacts sur l’Eau et la Santé) and from the Office national de la chasse et de la faune sauvage (ONC 2002/07/6171). 2. Martens P, Hall L. Malaria on the move: human population movement and malaria transmission. Emerg Infect Dis. 2000;6:1039. DOIPubMed 3. Rogers DJ, Randolph SE. The global spread of malaria in a future, warmer world. Science. 2000;289:17636. DOIPubMed 5. Rioux JA. Les culicidés du midi Méditerranéen. Paris: Editions Paul Lechevalier; 1958. 6. Rodhain F, Charmot G. Risks of reintroduction of malaria in France [in French]. Med Mal Infect. 1982;12:2316. DOI 7. Sautet J. A propos d’une épidémie de paludisme en Camargue. Mars Med. 1944;2:5364. 8. Ponçon N, Toty C, L'Ambert G, Le Goff G, Brengues C, Schaffner F, Biology and dynamics of potential malaria vectors in southern France. Malar J. 2007;6:18. DOIPubMed 9. 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Kaiser A, Jerrentrup H, Samanidou Voyadjoglou A, Becker N. Contribution to the distribution of European mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae): four new country records from northern Greece. Eur Mosq Bull. 2001;10:912. 25. Onori E, Nushin MK, Cullen JE, Yakubi GH, Mohammed K, Christal FA. An epidemiological assessment of the residual effect of DDT on Anopheles hyrcanus sl and An. pulcherrimus (Theobald) in the North eastern region of Afghanistan. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1975;69:23642. DOIPubMed 26. Mouchet J, Rageau J, Laumond C, Hannoun C, Beytout D, Oudar J, Epidemiology of West Nile virus: study of a focus in Camargue. V. The vector: Culex modestus Ficalbi Diptera; Culicidae [in French]. Ann Inst Pasteur (Paris). 1970;118:83955.PubMed 27. Berezin VV. Investigation of the ecology of arboviruses in river deltas of the Caspian and Azov Sea basins [in Russian]. Moska (SSRR): Inst Polio Virus Entsef Akad Nauk; 1971. 28. Detinova TS, Smelova VA. The medical importance of mosquitoes of the fauna of the Soviet Union [in Russian]. Med Parazitol (Mosk). 1973;42:45571.PubMed 29. Fyodorova MV, Savage HM, Lopatina JV, Bulgakova TA, Ivanitsky AV, Platonova OV, Evaluation of potential West Nile virus vectors in Volgograd region, Russia, 2003 (Diptera: Culicidae): species composition, bloodmeal host utilization, and virus infection rates of mosquitoes. J Med Entomol. 2006;43:55263. DOIPubMed 31. Leger L. Moustiques de Camargue. Un anopheliné nouveau pour la faune française, le Myzorhynchus sinensis Wied. Comptes rendus de la Société de Biologie. 1920;83:1609–10. 32. Séguy ME. Notes sur les moustiques de l’Afrique mineure, de l’Egypte et de la Syrie. I. Encyclopédie entomologique – Série B mémoires et notes 2 Diptera. 1925;2(1):13–21. 33. Roman E. Sur quelques arthropodes vulnérants récoltés en Camargue. Bull Soc Entomol Fr. 1937;9:1316. 34. Anophèles de la Camargue TM. Bull Soc Pathol Exot. 1937;30:1369. 35. Sautet J. Contribution à l’étude des culicidés de la région marseillaise et de la Camargue. Mars Med. 1938;75:7584. 36. Treillard M. Anopheles hyrcanus en Provence; morphologie et biologie; gites et refuges. Bull Soc Pathol Exot. 1942;35:148. 37. Feron M. Apparition de la pyrale du riz (Chilo suppressalis) en Camargue. Bulletin d'information des riziculteurs de France. 1973;145:13–5. 38. Haines A, Epstein PR, McMichael AJ. Global health watch: monitoring impacts of environmental change. Lancet. 1993;342:14649. DOIPubMed 39. Patz JA, Epstein PR, Burke TA, Balbus JM. Global climate change and emerging infectious diseases. JAMA. 1996;275:21723. DOIPubMed Suggested citation for this article: Ponçon N, Balenghien T, Toty C, Ferré JB, Thomas C, Dervieux A, et al. Effects of local anthropogenic changes on potential malaria vector Anopheles hyrcanus and West Nile virus vector Culex modestus, Camargue, France. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2007 Dec [date cited]. Available from DOI: 10.3201/eid1312.070730 Top of Page Table of Contents – Volume 13, Number 12—December 2007 Comments to the Authors Didier Fontenille, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501, 34394 Montpellier CEDEX 5, France; characters(s) remaining. Comment submitted successfully, thank you for your feedback. Comments to the EID Editors Please contact the EID Editors via our Contact Form. Past Issues Select a Past Issue: Art in Science - Selections from Emerging Infectious Diseases Now available for order
No encontramos iTunes en este ordenador. Para usar vista previa y comprar música de How to Raise an Ox de Zu vs. Mats Gustafsson, descarga iTunes ya. Yo tengo iTunes Descarga gratis iTunes para Mac y PC How to Raise an Ox Zu vs. Mats Gustafsson Abre iTunes para escuchar un fragmento, comprar y descargar música. Reseña de álbum This is truly frightening music. Zu are an Italian trio famous for their collaborations with Eugene Chadbourne and Spaceways Incorporated. They play a gritty, aggressive meld of free jazz, rock, and funk. Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson is known for his signature bleating tone, his compositions, and his ability to play with almost anybody. Put them together and what you have is a romp, something so wild, wooly, and downright spine-tingling, you'd think you were in a sonic no-man's-land that was equal parts heaven and hell. Recorded in a Roman studio, this set of nine confrontations — because that's indeed what they are — features a pair of baritone saxophonists, electric bass, and drums; there is little free jazz, little free improvisation noodling. If it shows up at all, as it does at the end of "Eating the Landscape," and the beginning of "The King Devours His Sons," it's short-lived and used merely as a way of breaking into something wholly other, wholly ugly, wholly terrifying. This is bleating, kill-your-ox-slowly music; it kicks, screams, punches, and fights to the death, exhausting both players and listeners alike. Never has such an ugly beauty of a free-for-all sounded so appealing, so dynamic, so completely, mind-numbingly delightful. How to Raise an Ox should have been called "How to Kill and Torture Your Ox Without Mercy." Since there has been nothing like it since Last Exit, it's irresistible, addictive, and perhaps even evil! Nacido(a): 29 de octubre de 1964 en Umea, Sweden Género: Jazz Años de actividad: '90s, '00s, '10s Swedish reeds player and improviser Mats Gustafsson's extended saxophone techniques draw equally from the fiery free jazz blowing tradition and the European microtonal schools. Born in 1964 in the culturally rich area of Umeå, he was exposed at a young age to various Swedish improvisers such as saxophonist Lars Göran Ulander and pianist Per Henrik Wallin. His first instrument was the flute, but by his early teens Gustafsson was playing saxophone as well. Around the age of 14, he put his saxophone... Biografía completa How to Raise an Ox, Mats Gustafsson Ver en iTunes Valoraciones de clientes
Suggesting the use of StandardError as base of error Exceptions. Antoon Pardon apardon at Mon Mar 6 11:08:17 CET 2006 In a number of cases I have a program that looks like the following. for case in all_cases: except Exception, ErrInfo: The idea is to get as much information as possible when something goes wrong but at the same time treat as many cases as possible. Then one day things broke. The reason was that in some circumstances treat would decide that things were beyond control and called sys.exit However sys.exit doesn't return to the O.S. immediately but raises SystemExit, which was caugth by the code and the loop continued. I then took a look at which describes the exception heirarchy as follows: +-- SystemExit +-- StopIteration +-- StandardError \| + \| + All kind of error exceptions \| + + All kind of warnings and came to the conclusion, that it would be better to write my code as follows: for case in all_cases: except StandardError, ErrInfo: Unfortunatly this doesn't work either because a lot of the error exceptions in the stdlib (if not all) inherit directly from Exception instead of from StandardError. The documentation also seems to suggest this use for users exception. Now I was wondering if it wouldn't be better that for exception that indicate some error condition that these would inherit from StandardError and that this would be indicated in the documentation and reflected in the stdlib? Would it break much code to make this change? My first impression would be no, but I could be missing something. Antoon Pardon More information about the Python-list mailing list
Take the 2-minute tour × I'm thinking about buying a moka pot. I have a blade grinder. Will a blade grinder grind coffee beans fine enough for a moka pot? I can't really afford an expensive grinder and I don't want to use pre-ground coffee, because I heard it loses quality quickly. share\|improve this question 2 Answers 2 up vote 4 down vote accepted Yes, you can, as long as it's a decent quality blade grinder. It's how I fill my moka pot, which I've been using 5 days a week for the last 4 years. You can't do actual espresso in a blade grinder (it's not possible to get the grind consistent and fine enough). But moka pots are a lot more flexible in the grind of coffee that they will accept. Just grind it almost as fine as you can -- this takes about 30-40 seconds of grinding in mine -- and put it in the basket. share\|improve this answer Yes, a (decent quality) blade grinder can do an acceptable job at a fine grind. Blade grinders don't do well at coarse grinds: if you try you generally get a very uneven grind. But for find grind, you run it longer and generally get a sufficiently even grind. You don't have the same degree of control over the grind as with a burr grinder, however. You have to experiment with how long to run your grinder for a given quantity of beans. You also have to be careful not to run it too long and overheat the beans. I like to drip coffee and use a blade grinder because it was cheap and I don't mind if the taste is somewhat more bitter than it would be with a coarser grind. I use about an ounce of beans and grind it for 12-15 seconds. share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Procedural default From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Procedural default is a concept in American federal courts law that requires a state prisoner seeking a writ of Habeas Corpus in federal court to have "present[ed] his federal law argument to the state courts in compliance with state procedural rules. Failure to do so will bar any attempt to present that argument to the federal courts on collateral review. A petitioner may evade this bar only by showing 'cause' and 'prejudice' for the default -- that is, by stating a good reason for not presenting the federal claim to the state courts, and by showing that the federal error worked to the petitioner's 'actual and substantial disadvantage.'" [1] 1. ^ Ernest Young, Institutional Settlement in a Globalizing Judicial System, 54 Duke L. J. 1143, 1166 (2005) (footnotes omitted).
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Skeletal formula with numbering convention Ball-and-stick molecular model Space-filling molecular model CAS number 120-73-0 YesY PubChem 1044 ChemSpider 1015 YesY KEGG C15587 YesY MeSH Purine ChEBI CHEBI:17258 YesY Jmol-3D images Image 1 Molecular formula C5H4N4 Molar mass 120.11 g mol−1 Melting point 214 °C (417 °F; 487 K) Infobox references A purine is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound. It consists of a pyrimidine ring fused to an imidazole ring. Purines, which include substituted purines and their tautomers, are the most widely occurring nitrogen-containing heterocycle in nature.[1] Purines and pyrimidines make up the two groups of nitrogenous bases, including the two groups of nucleotide bases. Two of the four deoxyribonucleotides and two of the four ribonucleotides, the respective building-blocks of DNA and RNA, are purines. Notable purines[edit] There are many naturally occurring purines. Two of the five bases in nucleic acids, adenine (2) and guanine (3), are purines. In DNA, these bases form hydrogen bonds with their complementary pyrimidines thymine and cytosine, respectively. This is called complementary base pairing. In RNA, the complement of adenine is uracil instead of thymine. Other notable purines are hypoxanthine (4), xanthine (5), theobromine (6), caffeine (7), uric acid (8) and isoguanine (9). The main purine-derived nucleobases. Aside from the crucial roles of purines (adenine and guanine) in DNA and RNA, purines are also significant components in a number of other important biomolecules, such as ATP, GTP, cyclic AMP, NADH, and coenzyme A. Purine (1) itself, has not been found in nature, but it can be produced by organic synthesis. They may also function directly as neurotransmitters, acting upon purinergic receptors. Adenosine activates adenosine receptors. The word purine (pure urine)[2] was coined by the German chemist Emil Fischer in 1884. He synthesized it for the first time in 1899.[3] The starting material for the reaction sequence was uric acid (8), which had been isolated from kidney stones by Scheele in 1776.[4] Uric acid (8) was reacted with PCl5 to give 2,6,8-trichloropurine (10), which was converted with HI and PH4I to give 2,6-diiodopurine (11). The product was reduced to purine (1) using zinc-dust. Main article: Purine metabolism Many organisms have metabolic pathways to synthesize and break down purines. Purines are biologically synthesized as nucleosides (bases attached to ribose). Accumulation of modified purine nucleotides is defective to various cellular processes, especially those involving DNA and RNA. To be viable, organisms possess a number of (deoxy)purine phosphohydrolases, which hydrolyze these purine derivatives removing them from the active NTP and dNTP pools. Deamination of purine bases can result in accumulation of such nucleotides as ITP, dITP, XTP and dXTP.[5] Defects in enzymes that control purine production and breakdown can severely alter a cell’s DNA sequences, which may explain why people who carry certain genetic variants of purine metabolic enzymes have a higher risk for some types of cancer. Purine Sources[edit] Purines are found in high concentration in meat and meat products, especially internal organs such as liver and kidney. In general, plant-based diets are low in purines.[6] Examples of high-purine sources include: sweetbreads, anchovies, sardines, liver, beef kidneys, brains, meat extracts (e.g., Oxo, Bovril), herring, mackerel, scallops, game meats, beer (from the yeast) and gravy. A moderate amount of purine is also contained in beef, pork, poultry, other fish and seafood, asparagus, cauliflower, spinach, mushrooms, green peas, lentils, dried peas, beans, oatmeal, wheat bran, wheat germ, and hawthorn.[7] Higher levels of meat and seafood consumption are associated with an increased risk of gout, whereas a higher level of consumption of dairy products is associated with a decreased risk. Moderate intake of purine-rich vegetables or protein is not associated with an increased risk of gout.[8][9] Laboratory synthesis[edit] In addition to in vivo synthesis of purines in purine metabolism, purine can also be created artificially. Purine (1) is obtained in good yield when formamide is heated in an open vessel at 170 °C for 28 hours.[10] This remarkable reaction and others like it have been discussed in the context of the origin of life.[11] Oro, Orgel and co-workers have shown that four molecules of HCN tetramerize to form diaminomaleodinitrile (12), which can be converted into almost all natural-occurring purines.[12][13][14][15][16] For example, five molecules of HCN condense in an exothermic reaction to make Adenine, especially in the presence of ammonia. The Traube purine synthesis (1900) is a classic reaction (named after Wilhelm Traube) between an amine-substituted pyrimidine and formic acid.[17] Traube purine synthesis See also[edit] 1. ^ Rosemeyer, H. Chemistry & Biodiversity 2004, 1, 361. 2. ^ McGuigan, Hugh (1921). An Introduction To Chemical Pharmacology. P. Blakiston's Sons & Co. p. 283. Retrieved July 18, 2012. 3. ^ Fischer, E. Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft 1899, 32, 2550. 4. ^ Scheele, V. Q. Examen Chemicum Calculi Urinari, Opuscula, 1776, 2, 73. 5. ^ Davies O, Mendes P, Smallbone K, Malys N (2012). "Characterisation of multiple substrate-specific (d)ITP/(d)XTPase and modelling of deaminated purine nucleotide metabolism". BMB Reports 45 (4): 259–64. doi:10.5483/BMBRep.2012.45.4.259. PMID 22531138. 6. ^ http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/purine-food.php 7. ^ Gout Diet: Limit High Purine Foods 8. ^ NEJM - Purine-Rich Foods, Dairy and Protein Intake, and the Risk of Gout in Men 9. ^ [1], USDA on bone health 10. ^ Yamada, H.; Okamoto, T. (1972). "A One-step Synthesis of Purine Ring from Formamide". Chemical & Pharmaceutical Bulletin 20 (3): 623. doi:10.1248/cpb.20.623. 11. ^ Saladino et al.; Crestini, Claudia; Ciciriello, Fabiana; Costanzo, Giovanna; Mauro, Ernesto (2006). "About a Formamide-Based Origin of Informational Polymers: Syntheses of Nucleobases and Favourable Thermodynamic Niches for Early Polymers". Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres 36 (5–6): 523–531. Bibcode:2006OLEB...36..523S. doi:10.1007/s11084-006-9053-2. PMID 17136429. 12. ^ Sanchez, R. A.; Ferris, J. P.; Orgel, L. E. (1967). "Studies in prebiotic synthesis. II. Synthesis of purine precursors and amino acids from aqueous hydrogen cyanide". Journal of Molecular Biology 30 (2): 223–53. PMID 4297187. 13. ^ Ferris, J. P.; Orgel, L. E. (1966). Journal of the American Chemical Society 88 (5): 1074. doi:10.1021/ja00957a050. 14. ^ Ferris, J. P.; Kuder, J. E.; Catalano, O. W.; Kuder; Catalano (1969). "Photochemical Reactions and the Chemical Evolution of Purines and Nicotinamide Derivatives". Science 166 (3906): 765–6. Bibcode:1969Sci...166..765F. doi:10.1126/science.166.3906.765. PMID 4241847. 15. ^ Oro, J.; Kamat, J. S.; Kamat (1961). "Amino-acid Synthesis from Hydrogen Cyanide under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions". Nature 190 (4774): 442–3. Bibcode:1961Natur.190..442O. doi:10.1038/190442a0. PMID 13731262. 16. ^ Houben-Weyl, Vol . E5, p. 1547[full citation needed] 17. ^ Hassner, Alfred; Stumer, C. (2002). Organic Syntheses Based on Name Reactions (2nd ed.). Elsevier. ISBN 0-08-043259-X. External links[edit]
Freese is Cards' winner of Heart and Hustle Award Freese is Cards' winner of Heart and Hustle Award Freese is Cards' winner of Heart and Hustle Award ST. LOUIS -- Third baseman David Freese has been named the winner of the Heart and Hustle Award for the Cardinals, which is handed out to a player from each of the 30 Major League clubs by the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association (MLBPAA). Thirty committees are formed by the MLBPAA, comprised of alumni players with established relationships to each team. One player from each Major League team is chosen by the committees based on the passion, desire and work ethic demonstrated both on and off the field. "I think when you're out on the field you want to play hard and do what you can," Freese said. "You don't strive for getting these awards because that's not what it's all about. But when you get recognized, you're very appreciative." The award will be presented to Freese by alumni Major Leaguer John Mabry, who spent eight of his 14 years in the big leagues with St. Louis and now serves as the Cardinals' assistant hitting coach. "The way he went about it, being successful but his work ethic and being a good teammate, that's what people remember," Freese said of Mabry. Freese was named to his first All-Star team this season after winning the National League Final Vote. The 2011 World Series MVP entered Wednesday batting .306 with 56 RBIs and was hitting .409 since June 21. As the season draws to a close, fans, all alumni and active players will vote to select the final winner from the 30 team winners. The previous overall winners are Craig Biggio (2006, 2007), Grady Sizemore (2008), Albert Pujols (2009), Roy Halladay (2010), and Torii Hunter (2011). The final winner will be announced Tuesday, Nov. 13, at the 13th annual Legends for Youth Dinner in New York City.
fake christian Fred Phelps is probably the quintessential fristian. What a jerk! av Submitter of Words 2. august 2011 A right wing Republican Christian wacko who can make medical diagnosis from watching video tape of someone thousands of miles away, and able to see inside a “blind trust.” Also, one must hate gays and brown skinned people. Republican Senator Bill Frist, a Fristian used his Jesus powers to diagnose Terri Schiavo as not being in a persistent vegetative state. Frist stated, "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." av FrankieWVU 2. juni 2006 Gratis daglig nyhetsbrev
GOP Chairwoman Explains No Confidence Vote in Lawmakers Due to Common Core GOP Chairwoman Explains No Confidence Vote in Lawmakers Due to Common Core April 16, 2014 Joy Pullmann Editor's note: The following open letter from Janet Reabe, chairwoman of the Green Lake County Republicans in Wisconsin, explains why their sixth district GOP caucus recently gave a vote of "no confidence" in the state's Republican lawmakers who chair the state Senate and Assembly education committees. The vote condemned the lawmakers' refusal to support legislation rejecting Common Core national testing and curriculum mandates. Calling the 6th District resolution of no support for Luther Olsen (and Steve Kestell) a joke fit for the newspaper’s comic section is to employ that well used Alinskyite tactic of the Left—ridicule and sarcasm. Standing on principle is not a joke. Standing for preserving and protecting our rights and freedoms, standing up for our US Constitution, is not comic relief. Holding an elected representative accountable to his/her constituents and responsibilities, and to the values of his/her party, is not funny. Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Green Bay) has insistently and stubbornly defended his position on Common Core curriculum, and other policy issues such as the ethanol mandate, that are more in line with positions of our political opponents. Why? What does it mean to be an elected Republican representative on monumental issues like this? Do our elected representatives pursue policies which honor and respect the authority and protections of the US Constitution? And what does it mean for US as leaders in the Republican Party if we do not have the courage of our convictions to confront our elected officials WHO REPRESENT US, when their official actions do NOT represent us? Cancer vs. Common Cold The Ripon paper thinks this is all about proportion, and whether or not it’s justified to criticize him on this one issue when Olsen has been on board with other Republican issues a fair percentage of the time. That’s reducing the education conflict to the level of importance of such things as funding for building a highway or creating another park, sort of like equating the seriousness of lung cancer to the same level of concern as the common cold. Some arguments and disagreements transcend the ordinary, and CC does that. Olsen constantly contends that It’s all about high standards, and why would anyone be against raising standards in education? No one is, but those of us who oppose CC recognize it as a Trojan horse to accomplish FAR MORE to change our country’s educational system, and every element of that effort causes us great fear and concern. CC is a serious, transcendent issue which far surpasses most others in impact and importance. There are 3 main efforts afoot in our country today to gain control of our people—to change our thinking and attitudes, change our decision making, change our values, change the principles on which we stand, and change our resultant behavior, how we vote, how we raise our families. Those efforts are--the environmental movement (based on totally fake and corrupt “science”), education, and health care. Look at where we are in our country right now! Have the above 3 movements brought about “fundamental change” yet? All tyrants thruout history recognized that in order to control the people under them, if they could control what the children are taught, they would be able to control the direction of their country for years to come. Experts who have thoroly studied CC are exposing and telling us where it’s values come from, what they are, and what CC hopes to accomplish. As a mom, grandma, and former teacher, I DON’T WANT THAT FOR MY GRANDKIDS AND FOR THE KIDS OF OUR COUNTRY! CC places GREAT EMPHASIS on teaching VALUES! It places GREAT EMPHASIS on children becoming WORLD CITIZENS. It places GREAT EMPHASIS on EQUATING our culture with ALL OTHER CULTURES of the world, regardless of their values and human rights track records! An HONEST historical assessment of all cultures makes very clear that it is the JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ethic which values the rights, freedom and self-determination of the individual, which honors the role and dignity of women, which protects children, which created the most fair system of laws in the history of the world (the US Constitution). But CC materials actively work to diminish our past, where we come from, why we’re here, the great contributions of our Founders. In other words, traditional American values that we hold dear are being replaced with something else! All the documented arguments about our concerns are available from other sources in other places (such as Dr. Duke Pesta, Dr. Sandra Stotsky, among others, also Karen Schroeder and Advocates for Academic Freedom), which refute the distortions and lies that pro-CC people have put out there. My point is, there are VERY SERIOUS CONCERNS about FORCING this on our school districts. THIS IS A MONSTER—LIKE OBAMACARE FOR EDUCATION!!! It is an enormous violation of the US Constitution for the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO FORCE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS in what they must teach, using grant money and test content as the bribe/hammer. Wisconsin holds sacred parental/local control of what children are taught in school, and protects that in law. CC destroys that. Not the Fringe Calling the 6th District resolution a joke also diminishes those people who did everything right to voice their disagreement—only to be slapped down by Olsen (and Kestell) and/or his office one way or another—some of them waiting for hours to speak at the last hearing while the educrats who were bussed in were given preferential treatment. The people relating their experiences at the caucus were not “fringe” people. They were people who have been active Republicans for years—I’ve seen most of them at meetings and conferences repeatedly over the years! They followed the rules! AND THEY WERE IGNORED!!! Our Declaration of Independence states that governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED—THAT WHENEVER ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS, IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT! There has been a long, slow 100 plus year effort, often operating below the surface, to destroy what our Founders established. It’s not a joke! IT’S HAPPENING RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR EYES TODAY, IT’S REAL, IT’S DANGEROUS, AND IT CALLS FOR ACTION—FROM US! Our government, at every level, is allowed to exist because WE ALLOW IT! Our elected representatives are elected TO REPRESENT US, NOT TO RULE! So we need to take action to get their attention, to hold them accountable, to drag them back to the Constitution and it’s PROTECTION OF OUR RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS! The Constitution does NOT empower gov’t—it LIMITS gov’t. The only way that will happen is if we, the people, DEMAND IT! It’s time to step outside the box, stick our heads above the foxhole, take a risk. Don’t worry about the editorial pages—most are an arm of the Democrat Party. If we stand on the principles of freedom and do the right thing, we can hold our heads high! Thank God our Founders didn’t decide that making the king mad would prevent them from acting! Thank God they didn’t decide that fighting for freedom was too hard! Thank God they worried that this day would come when we would need to repel gov’t intrusion into every area of our lives, and they warned us about it! We owe it to them to do what needs to be done to reclaim and preserve the precious gift of freedom that they passed on to us! Janet Reabe, chair, Green Lake Co. Republicans. (That’s who I am in this discussion. This does NOT reflect an official position of our county party in this matter. We have not had a board meeting since the district caucus.) Image by Joy Pullmann
Bimillenial Facepalm – 11.2.1 Cubs "losing" a bunch of players to free agency/waivers Team MVP Shawn Camp was the only officially official free agent on the roster, but a few other players have opted for free agency after being kicked off the Cubs 40-man roster. Apparently they don't realize that "cut from the Cubs roster" is not going to be a net positive for them in future negotiations. So far, the team has "lost" the following players to free agency/other organizations As Aisley pointed out, given Mather's -1.5 fWAR last year he's probably going to have to pay some team $15m to play for them next year (laughing) Brenly Replacement Search Continues Dan Plesac has joined Eric Karros as a candidate for the position. Please, no Plesac. I'm really hoping to hear that Doug Glanville is actually being considered, rather than just being wishcast by various fans. Thoyer Conference call with season ticket holders Brett has a paraphrased transcript over at Bleacher Nation. Nothing too earth-shattering there. They admit that they inherited some really shitty pitching depth and mentioned that they're not planning to bullpen Arodys Vizcaino, which is great news. They also said they're not interested in doing any deals like the Cubs did with Carlos Pena that defers a huge chunk of money. But there's no real reason for them to do that right now anyway because they have so little payroll. Javier Baez Update Baez broke the tip of his left thumb, but it was a non-displaced fracture so it sounds like it's relatively not a big deal. It will end his AFL season, however. Logan Watkins was given his spot for the rest of the league's short season. Cubs float a balloon about bringing back Ryan Dempster In that same article, Carrie Muskat mentioned that Hoyer has been in contact with Dempster's agent. Hoyer was quick to down-play this, and said it was more of a "I bumped into him" kind of situation. Though it's hard to accidentally bump into someone when you pick up your phone and call them. Maybe he and Demp's agent were just discussing candlesticks as wedding gifts for a mutual friend of theirs. Vague trade rumor of the moment Bruce Levine mentioned last week that the salary-dumping Marlins have approached the Cubs about trading Josh Johnson. If (almost) all he costs is money, it's something I think that Thoyer would be interested in. He turns 29 in January, but has surprisingly little mileage on his arm. Of course, that's due to an injury or two… The Cubs should strike while the iron is hot here, because if the Marlins secure the funds for a new ballpark they might keep Johnson and go on another spending spree. (That's probably a top ten all-time Onion article) Additional vague trade rumor of the moment The Cubs are interested in Dan Haren, and according to Heyman they have been involved in "talks". The Angels have to decide today if they're going to pick up his option. I would be shocked if a deal gets done here though. The Angels don't have a ton of leverage. Minor league coaching hires The Cubs have hired Anthony Iapoce as the new minor league hitting coordinator. He was previously an instructor in the Blue Jays system, and a career minor leaguer with the Brewers and Marlins before that. The Cubs also grabbed Vandy pitching coach Derek Johnson as the new minor league pitching coordinator. Vandy went to the College World Series in 2011, and eight of their pitchers were drafted (two in the first round), and he also worked with David Price before he was drafted. Is there a Cubs game today? Off-topic comments thread I recently enjoyed There was much discussion of board and role-playing games in the comments yesterday, as well as arguments for and against plastic cutting boards. Needless to say, it's been our busiest day in weeks here at OV. The 2013 Cubs, everyone! About berselius We're gonna make it.
Forgot your password? Comment: Re:Practical certs like GIAC help and hold value (Score 1) 317 by Minupla (#48552261) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Are Any Certifications Worth Going For? +1 to CISSP, I had essentially the same experience as the OP, and decided that IS manager tedious. I went and wrote my CISSP, got 'lucky' a couple of times with breach issues and poof, 5 yrs later I'm a Sr Infosec Manager. While it doesn't have a practical component, I've met very few people who honestly say they left the exam knowing if they passed or failed. Most nerve wracking test I've ever sat for anyways. And most of infosec (absent specialties such as pentest, and even then arguably) is 90% thinking anyways. Very seldom is it important to know what command to type. Much more important to know the theory like the back of your hand. All that having been said, if you don't like handling people, infosec is likely a poor fit. You'll top out soon if you can't have a coherent argument with someone that doesn't degenerate into "Because I said so". Comment: I've hired people with misdemeanors before (Score 4, Informative) 720 by Minupla (#48542609) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT? I've hired people with misdemeanors before. Be honest about the crime, don't have it be a surprise that I find out during the background check part of the hiring process. I also know other managers who've done the same. Its tough to find good people. A drug offense 5 yrs ago, with proof of a completed drug treatment program for instance isn't going to stop me from hiring a good IT worker. Comment: Re: Check your local community first (Score 1) 112 by Minupla (#48395405) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Who's the Doctors Without Borders of Technology? I did YKnet around the same era then, out of Whitehorse. Set up an 8 line dial up pop in Old Crow, using bound analog sat channels. I also did a stint down in the Eastern Carribean. I remember the bribes, favors, etc required to get a UPS from the dock to our building, and members of our team blocking off the main drag in town while we used the (borrowed) cargo forklift from the docks to lift the UPS up the side of the building. While we were discussing how to get it in the window the forklift driver disappeared, leaving the UPS balancing on top of a power pole. Driver was asleep under the lift. Waiting for the ex-pats to make up their minds. Cricket games were something else too! + - Silk Road 2.0 Seized By FBI, Alleged Founder Arrested In San Francisco Submitted by blottsie blottsie (3618811) writes "The FBI has arrested the online persona "Defcon," identified as Blake Benthall, a 26-year-old in San Francisco, who the agency claims ran the massive online black market Silk Road 2.0. Benthall's FBI arrest comes a year after that of Ross Ulbricht, also from San Francisco, who's alleged mastermind of the original Silk Road and still awaiting trial. The largest of those reported down is Silk Road 2.0. But a host of smaller markets also seized by law enforcement include Appaca, BlueSky, Cloud9, Hydra, Onionshop, Pandora, and TheHub." Comment: Re:Just ask your bank to send you (Score 2) 126 by Minupla (#48306573) Attached to: Flaw in New Visa Cards Would Let Hackers Steal $1M Per Card proper Faraday cage has to have no gaps, Acutally not quite accurate - a faraday cage that blocks at all wavelengths would need to have a very small mesh. Rule of thumb is you want your mesh to be less then 1/4(c/freq) m. Since freq in the case of NFC is 13.56 MHz, that will yield us with 22/4=5.5 meters (excuse the rounding, you get the point) so anything you can wrap around your wallet is going to do the trick. Google NFC blocking wallets for some selections. Source: I attend hacker conferences. All my credit cards are NFC enabled. I don't want to have conversations with my CC company that starts with "I was at Defcon when..." - those don't end well! Comment: Re:Good luck with that. (Score 5, Interesting) 558 by Minupla (#48238167) Attached to: Rite Aid and CVS Block Apple Pay and Google Wallet Actually, post Chip+Pin (and RFID interact flash for that matter) this sort of attack isn't possible. That's because the chip inside the card creates a unique one time approval for the transaction. The approval is un-replayable, At worst, attack wise, you might be able to perform a turnstile attack on it (Interac flash reader, taped to a turnstile say), but transactions over Interac flash are capped at under 100$ and every 5 transactions you have to re-auth with a full chip and pin, so the banks' risk is pretty limited there. Disclaimer: I've not done an indepth analysis of the security controls myself. I know there were some weaknesses in the Euro implementation around not signing the list of allowable transaction verification mechanisms or somesuch (look up the blackhat talk if you need to know) but it's a LOT more difficult these days then inserting a skimmer on the terminal and video recording the pin. (Interac was always two factor, until interac flash). Comment: Re:Until we upgrade the dumb bunnies (Score 1) 384 by Minupla (#48202743) Attached to: Ebola Does Not Require an "Ebola Czar," Nor Calling Up the National Guard World wide 2013 air crash fatalities: 29 World wide 2010 traffic crash fatalities 1,250,000 (est) So unless you're going to argue that I'm 4310300% more likely to walk away from a fatal car crash, we're better off spending money there, looking at it from an objective point of view. Fear drives us to make poor decisions. I fly a lot, but I understand that I'm just as dead from making an error at 70 mph as I would be asleep in my seat when the back end falls off my 737. Just 4310300% more likely to experience the former then the latter. *disclaimer: Yes, I know, I mixed statistics from 2013 and 2010 above. I was too lazy to go back and find 2010 air crash statistics, but I seriously doubt it impacts the statistical analysis any more then the rounding error in the world wide traffic fatality stat. by Minupla (#48202647) Attached to: Ebola Does Not Require an "Ebola Czar," Nor Calling Up the National Guard On traffic safety, agreed, long term, autonomous cars are the way to go. Some of the answer there is time and market forces, but I suspect a billion or two from the war on terrorism could move that along nicely. Faster technology evaluation and approval pipeline, more money for NSF funded core research, etc. But nearer term there are technologies that exist in high end cars that would lower traffic fatalities tomorrow if available in all cars. Blindspot object detection, lane departure alerts, etc. If the concern is about an objective attempt to lower the number of people who die each year, a dollar spent in this area is going to save more people than a dollar spent in airport security. On diseases, if you're talking about a billion dollars to paradrop a few thousand doctors into africa to do contact tracing, then you have my support. If on the other hand you're discussing mobilizing the national guard to protect North America from Ebola, not so much, spend the money on the flu, which kills many more people world wide. If we do the right things in Africa, Ebola will never be more then a hideous way for a couple of people to die in the US. This is one of those situations where the "Protect the Homeland" mantra is worse then useless. Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.
Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed Forgot your password? Comment: Re:Life form? (Score 1) 389 by nine-times (#48641253) Attached to: The Dominant Life Form In the Cosmos Is Probably Superintelligent Robots So I would think that if the dominant "form of life" in the universe were robots, it seems like a reasonable guess that they'd have learned to self-replicate. If they're really so smart and able to dominate the universe, one might suppose that they would accomplish this through master of nanoscale engineering, creating robots that are able to grow copies of itself. It'd seem likely that such a process would include having a machine made up of organic molecules, able to take in and absorb matter, both for the material and for energy. Little by little, imagining the scenario based on what we know of science, it becomes increasingly likely that these "robots" would be life pretty much as we know it. Maybe not quite the chemical bonds that we're used to, and maybe not in the shape of things that we're used to, but something that eats "food", excretes waste, is made of chemicals comparable to proteins, DNA, and whatever else. Able to "get pregnant" and "have children". Perhaps as different from us as we are from exotic deep-sea fish, perhaps even more different, but still recognizably "life". So I guess what I'm wondering is, what do we mean if we say that the dominant life form In the cosmos are "robots"? I we imagining something with microchips, circuit boards, and metallic gears? I could think that super-intelligent machines would be less crude. Comment: Re: Science, bitches, that's how it works! (Score 4, Informative) 195 by nine-times (#48635473) Attached to: Quantum Physics Just Got Less Complicated Newtonian physics looks kind of logical. It's completely wrong... No, it's not completely wrong. It's a model that approximates what happens within an acceptable degree of precision for many, many circumstances. We have another model that adds to it and modifies it, and that model is used for situations where that precision is not sufficient. It's not clear that science is capable of providing certainty of "right" or "wrong" beyond determining whether a model approximates what happens within an acceptable degree of precision. Comment: Re:Not a Real Question (Score 1) 280 by nine-times (#48628153) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Should a Liberal Arts Major Get Into STEM? Still, when talking about a "Liberal Arts education," you're talking about a generalized and broad education in a variety of topics, including subjects related to math and science. That's what the term means. No, that doesn't mean that you will study literally every subject, but it's not claiming to be about any particular subject. STEM, meanwhile, seems to be trying to claim to be a valid classification of a particular type of study, distinct from that kind of "broad, well rounded education." If you say you want to get a Liberal Arts degree, you're telling me, "I'm not going to college for job training in a specific career. I'm going for a general education." If you say you want to get a BS in CompSci, you're basically telling me, "I'm going to college to get training for a career in software development," or something along those lines. Already that's kind of vague, because there are a number of different career paths that involve computer science, and computer science is already a fairly broad field. But if you tell me, "I want a STEM degree," you're telling me, "I have no idea why I'm going to school. I guess I want an education in sciencey stuff that will focus in on a particular field for career training, but I don't actually have any understanding of what field I want to study." I'm struggling to come up with a good analogy, but it's like if you said, "I really want to travel!" and I asked, "Are you just interested in travelling generally and seeing the world? Or is there a particular place that you want to go?" and you respond, "No, there's a very specific place that I want to go." So then I ask, "Where's that?" and you say, "Europe or Asia." Now, I point out, "You're not narrowing it down very much there, you know." And you respond, "Well you weren't narrowing it down much either, when you asked me if I wanted to see the world!" And you're not wrong, but it's also a bit of a silly argument now, since the point of talking about "the world" was to be broad and cover everything. Liberal Arts covers everything. I guess that STEM is supposed to be "everything, minus that faggy art stuff, and stuff that makes you think about things." Comment: Re:What if there is a third party? (Score 1) 137 That was one of my thoughts, as well. I think I understand the concept, and it seems like an interesting and possibly useful approach. However, it doesn't seem like it will necessarily give us causal links in a very certain way, since many real-life situations have many factors with complex relationships. Like: Z causes X and Y, but perhaps it always causes X and only makes Y more likely. Or: A, B, and C all independently increase the chances of E, but only when an unknown factor D is present. So I'd guess that this isn't going to be anything like a magic bullet, but I don't know that the people who came up with it expected it to be. It might just be another useful tool for analysis. Comment: Re:been there, done that (Score 1) 280 by nine-times (#48626663) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Should a Liberal Arts Major Get Into STEM? Teaching jobs and various educational administrative jobs, marketing jobs, customer service jobs (not all of which include fries) and office worker jobs. Lawyers and associated jobs (paralegal). Sales jobs. Political positions. I think the point here is there are loads and loads of jobs out there that don't require specific technical knowledge, or even many that make use a of broad education. The idea that there are no good jobs aside from technical/engineering jobs is pretty senseless and dumb. But again, you miss the point entirely. If you were correct, it would be appropriate to use the line from The Big Lebowski, "You're not wrong. You're just an asshole." But you happen to be wrong too. The larger issue here is that even if a certain education would lead you exclusively into the service industry, it would not excuse you being insufferably condescending about the prospects of having a job in the service industry. That's if a liberal arts degree were to make you unsuitable for any career other than food service, which I don't accept other than for the sake of argument. Maybe if you had gotten a real education instead of merely vocational training, you'd be capable of understanding the distinctions being made. As it is, I encourage you to go back to being a code monkey and let the adults talk. Comment: Re:seems a lot like human vision to me (Score 1) 130 by nine-times (#48626065) Attached to: Research Highlights How AI Sees and How It Knows What It's Looking At I think I understand... vaguely. To simplify, you're saying it's been trained on a specific dataset, and it chooses whichever image in the dataset the input is most like. It doesn't really have the ability to choose "unknown" and must choose an image from the dataset that it's most like. Its "confidence" in the choice is not really based on similarity to the image it has chosen, but instead based on dissimilarity to any of the other images. Therefore, when you give it garbage, it chooses the image that it's most similar to, and it gives a high confidence rating because it doesn't resemble anything else. Is that about the gist? I'm probably not going to understand things about higher dimensions without a lot of additional information. But if I'm on the right track on that, do you foresee a possible solution being reached by feeding it a very large dataset? Or is there basically no possibility of it handling a dataset big enough? Like if you gave it enough computing power and fed it all of Google images, would that help to solve the issue? I ask because, though I understand computers, I'm not remotely an expert in current AI approaches and theory, but I do know a fair bit about philosophy and psychology, and I suspect that the idea of optical illusions and biases are going to be really import AI image recognition, and not just as "an obstacle to be overcome". I think people misunderstand and think that the optical illusions are examples of our vision and perception "being dumb" because we're seeing things incorrectly, but on the contrary, it's often caused by our perception being very smart/efficient at seeing particular things. Our image processing is (loosely speaking) built to see the things that were important to our survival and to disregard things that don't matter. That's how it works. So I would suspect that in "training" an image recognition system, it would be important to think about what the AI is looking for. Because, you know, when we see a school bus, we don't simply associate the image with the words "school bus". We also recognize it as a method of transportation, as a possible source of danger (if you're standing in front of it when it's moving), and we might associate it with various memories and feelings that we had regarding school during our formative years. When we see a painting of a school bus, we understand it not only as an image of a school bus, but a painting, a work of expression which might have meaning beyond its literal content. Maybe it seems like I'm going off on a complete tangent here, but I think it's worth understanding that seeing and understanding images, and linking them to meaning, might be more complicated than being able to accurately compare it to other images and find correlation of shape and color. Comment: Do we have reason to believe... (Score 3, Interesting) 586 by nine-times (#48621935) Attached to: Top Five Theaters Won't Show "The Interview" Sony Cancels Release Do we have reason to believe that this group is actually capable of or prepared to carry out the attacks that they're threatening? If theaters around the country showed the movie, can these terrorists bomb them all? Or did all these companies simply buckle to a random threat without anything behind it? Because, yeah, I guess if someone calls in a bomb threat to the local high school, you might have to go evacuate the school while the police check it out, but you should have some plan for keeping the kids from calling in new threats every day and shutting the school down permanently. Comment: Re:Not a Real Question (Score 1) 280 by nine-times (#48621865) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Should a Liberal Arts Major Get Into STEM? When people talk about getting a "Liberal Arts education", they're usually talking about getting an education that is supposed to be 'well rounded', giving exposure to subjects like philosophy, literature, art, and even various branches of math and science. So you ask, "Do you mean sculpture, writing, philosophy, music, or whatever?" And I answer, "Yes." Comment: Re:been there, done that (Score 1) 280 by nine-times (#48621823) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Should a Liberal Arts Major Get Into STEM? I think you're missing the point that grcumb was making, which I think was a good one. I don't believe he was arguing anything like, "If you want to optimize your chances of success, drop out of school and don't get a diploma." He was responding directly to the quote, "most of the jobs with a liberal arts degree involve asking 'Do you want fries with that?'" I think what he was saying is something more like, "You have no ground to be so glib about other people's lives." People who work in service industry jobs deserve some measure of dignity. People who never got a degree can still go on to do amazing things. There are people who have no connection to "STEM" fields who have made huge contributions to your life without developing software. And finally, liberal arts degrees do actually have a use. There are no guarantees that you will be successful in any case, and there's always a vanishingly small slice of the human population that makes it to the top of their field. But who said that was the point? If you want to make movies for example, you could pursue that. Maybe you'll be a complete failure. Maybe you'll make something great that's a commercial failure. Maybe you'll make an absolute piece of crap movie that's a commercial success. There's a very small chance that you'll ever be rich and famous as a result. If you want to make software, you could pursue that. Maybe you'll be a complete failure. Maybe you'll make something great that's a commercial failure. Maybe you'll make an absolute piece of crap application that's a commercial success. There's a very small chance that you'll ever be rich and famous as a result. And so what? Pursue what you want to pursue. If you just want to make money and live a comfortable life, then do some research and figure out whatever career provides that, and be prepared if demand for that job dries up, because that can happen to any job. But in any case, there's really no reason to be a glib, condescending asshole about other people's lives. There are a lot of good, hard working people out there who are making good use of their liberal arts educations. Some may even have a job that involves asking the question, "Do you want fries with that?" If you're ready to condemn them all as 'losers' because they don't write software for a living, then you're an asshole. Comment: Re:seems a lot like human vision to me (Score 2) 130 by nine-times (#48621357) Attached to: Research Highlights How AI Sees and How It Knows What It's Looking At When people don't know exactly what they are looking at, the brain just puts in it's best guess. people certainly see faces and other familiar objects in tv static. They see bigfoot in a collection of shadows or a strange angle on a bear. Yes, I think it's very interesting when you look at Figure 4 here. They almost look like they could be an artist's interpretation of the things they're supposed to be, or a similarity that a person might pick up on subconsciously. The ones that look like static may just be the AI "being stupid", but I think the comparison to human optical illusions is an interesting one. We see faces because we have a bias to see them. Faces are very important to participating in social activities, since they give many cues to another person's emotions and intentions. It's a whole form of communication. A lot of other sensory biases and reactions are related to things like finding food, avoiding predators, and understanding potentially dangerous obstacles (e.g. if I step here, am I going to fall down?). So if these are optical illusions for computers, what are the computer's biases based on? The computer isn't trying to find food or avoid predators, so what is it "trying to do" when it "sees"? Comment: Re:Doesn't seem simple (Score 1) 137 by nine-times (#48621199) Attached to: Microsoft Gets Industry Support Against US Search Of Data In Ireland The fact is that over the next 100 years border will practically disappear. Even if national borders were to become meaningless, I'm not sure that jurisdiction stops being relevant. Which law enforcement agency will pursue the crime, and which court will it be tried in? Comment: Re:Doesn't seem simple (Score 1) 137 by nine-times (#48616557) Attached to: Microsoft Gets Industry Support Against US Search Of Data In Ireland The fact here is that the individual(s) are refusing to provide access to the data voluntarily which requires the authorities to obtain it by force. This tells me there's something incriminating in the data which is why they didn't just hand it over. This sounds suspiciously like, "If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear." I'm not on board with that idea. Just so I've said it, my comment wasn't intended to be in favor of law enforcement being able to search anything without a warrant, or without proper procedure. I'm just pointing out that the issue, as it's stated in the summary, is a legal argument about whether data lies in a particular jurisdiction. I meant to point out that, with the ephemeral quality of data and the ease with which it can move through countries-- even unintentionally, it might not be the best policy to make it as simple as "data is under the jurisdiction of wherever the physical hardware is that happens to hold it at the moment." However, it might need to be that rule, because I'm not sure there's a workable alternative. All data is automatically under the jurisdiction of the location where it was created? Under the jurisdiction of the creator's primary place of residence? Under the jurisdiction of the primary location where it is most often accessed? I'm not sure I see how any of those policies would be enforceable. Whichever jurisdiction it is decided to be under, law enforcement should be required to follow the laws of that jurisdiction. Comment: Re:Not a Real Question (Score 2) 280 by nine-times (#48613023) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Should a Liberal Arts Major Get Into STEM? I'm with you on this. STEM is a term that's being pushed on us by political/media types for who-knows-what reasons. It reminds me of people talking about "ya". I saw that thrown around a lot as a genre of books, apparently meaning "Young Adult (literature)", and it took me a while to figure out what the hell people were talking about. It's not really even a genre, but a classification of the target audience. It's pretty dumb use of jargon. Back to STEM. Science, technology, engineering, and math. As though those are the same things. As though astrophysicists and programmers and marine biologists are all doing the same thing, and their expertise is interchangeable. Whoever lumped all that stuff together either has an agenda, or has no idea what they're talking about. In the contexts I see it being used, I assume that the intention is either: (a) Companies that rely on software developers complaining about the lack of people with "STEM degrees", in an attempt to justify more H-1B visas; or (b) Dimwitted programmers who want to lump all kinds of people into a subculture of "science people" to make themselves feel important. Like, "I'm a STEM person, just like Einstein, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Carl Sagan. I'm just like those guys, because we're all STEM, unlike the filthy common people who like reading fiction and looking at art." I mean, I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to take away from the whole STEM thing. Nobody talked about it 10 years ago. Having a lot of biologists does not help with developing software. Having lots of people capable of making iPhone apps does not push particle physics forward. I really think we need to drop the whole classification of "STEM" as a thing. And the whole "preferably within the space industry"... what space industry does this guy mean? Does he want to work for NASA designing probes, or Boeing trying to design a space plane? Or is there some other "space industry". It'd be great to know, because it would really help narrow down what he'd need to do to accomplish that goal. But doing something related to space would probably mean, yes, you need to go back to school and get a undergrad in that particular field. Go find out what schools have the best Aerospace Engineering departments, and work your ass off, because that's going to get competitive. Comment: Re:Implementation not the technology. (Score 1) 153 by nine-times (#48612825) Attached to: In IT, Beware of Fad Versus Functional I would say that it's not just the implementation, but choosing which thing to implement in the first place. A lot of these fads, whether it's "big data" or "cloud computing" or "agile development", have become popular because they're extremely useful in some cases. The mistake, sometimes, is in thinking that you've found a single solution to solve all problems, and applying it everywhere will fix everything. Someone else here used the example of the language "Ruby" as a fad that was useless because Ruby is "awful". That doesn't seem right to me. In my experience, which is admittedly a bit limited (I'm not actually a programmer), it seems like different programming languages have their own strengths and weaknesses, so you may want to choose a specific language for a specific goal. However, realistically, in the projects that I've managed, it always made the more sense to take into account (a) the language any current code is written in; and (b) the languages my team is most comfortable working with. If you have a bunch of PHP programmers who only know PHP well, working to revise a web application written in PHP, then Ruby is probably a terrible choice. But then, Perl and C++ would also be terrible choices. Those aren't bad languages. They're just not the best choice for that particular project. I don't want to start a shit-storm by talking about languages, since as I said, I'm not a programmer, but I think that example is simple enough. Similarly, "cloud storage" like Dropbox can be great for small teams working from different locations on small office documents. On the other hand, if you're a big company with tons of people working in a central office, editing video files that are multiple gigabytes each, then you're going to want some kind of internal storage. The issue isn't about implementing your Dropbox well, but making an appropriate choice for your needs. Comment: Re:Doesn't seem simple (Score 1) 137 by nine-times (#48612639) Attached to: Microsoft Gets Industry Support Against US Search Of Data In Ireland Jesus Christ, is that so hard to understand? Because you're being belligerent, and frankly, kind of dumb. That's "the reason why you shouldn't put things in the cloud". If it were the reason, then it could be easily fixed by having cloud providers give assurances that your data will be stored in a specific jurisdiction, and then you would have absolutely no reason not to put things "in the cloud". But really my post is meant to indicate that there are some things about digital storage and transmission that needs to be considered, and the law might need to be revised to address any unclear points. In my mind, it's a bit like having copyright laws saying that you can't make any copies of copyrighted materials, ignoring (a) the possible need to make backups; and (b) the fact that, technically, copies might be made in various caches whenever you transmit or playback the digital file. And by that comparison, I mean to point out that some things don't simply translate between the digital world and the physical world, so the rules have to be considered carefully. There may be issues that need to be worked out and clarified, even if it's only a common-sense judgement. If you asked me to give a simple "yes" or "no" answer, right this minute, as to whether Microsoft is on the right side of things here, I'd say "yes". I'm just pointing out that it might not be something that you can decide simply without any unintended legal ramifications. Is that so hard to understand? Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.
Take the 2-minute tour × I have so many errors in spelling ang grammer in my document. But when I click on ABC button, it says that apelling check is complete and returns no errors. I have full installation of Microsoft Office 2007 on vista. What is the problem? share\|improve this question 4 Answers 4 Try this: Your office profile might be corrupted. Try this following soluton: You need to make some changes in your Windows registry in order to fix the issue: 1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0 AND/OR 2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\ApplicationName(Word, Outlook, Exel, etc.) Rename these keys by going to Start->Run, regedit, in registry editor navigate to the following keys and rename (right click) them to: 1. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0old 2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlookold (example for Outlook spell check) OR HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Wordold (for Word spell check) Reboot Windows and restart Office. MS Office will recreate the keys automatically. Notes: Creating a new profile does the same thing. If your spell check works under a new profile, your current_user registry is corrupted, and this fix should work fine. share\|improve this answer First, click the Microsoft Office Button, close it, and see if spell check begins to work. (Believe it or not, there's a slight bug with spell check and the Microsoft Office Button, you need to click it once for it to start working. Note that this only applies to new installations and it will only happen once.) If that doesn't work then if no custom spell checker have been installed on the computer, exit Word, and then backup and delete the following registry key: This key will be rebuilt the next time you start Word. share\|improve this answer I dont have Override\en-US. But I have 2 entries inside 1.0: Custom dictionaries, Office. What should I do? – pineapple Dec 4 '09 at 2:02 obviously, you DO have custom dictionaries installed, then DON'T delete this key. – Molly7244 Dec 4 '09 at 2:26 Then what should I do to make my spelling check work? – pineapple Dec 4 '09 at 2:27 do you have the MSO Installation disk? then run a repair installation. – Molly7244 Dec 4 '09 at 2:28 It could be that the text language is not set to English. In Word text has a language, just like it has a font and a color and a font size. Select the entire document (Ctrl+A), then go to Review and choose Set Language from the "Proofing" toolbar. Set the language to English. share\|improve this answer up vote 0 down vote accepted My problem got solved after I installed full version. Earlier I installed by customization. share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Padres to break in new fences starting Tuesday SAN DIEGO (AP) - Padres manager Bud Black, general manager Josh Byrnes and assistant G.M. A.J. Hinch spent several minutes throwing baseballs off the new fence in right field at Petco Park on Monday, trying to get a crash course in how they might play starting with the home opener Tuesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The big hope, of course, is that more balls will fly over the fence. From the right-field porch to the right-center gap, the fence was moved in from 402 feet to 391 feet and lowered to just under 8 feet, matching the rest of the outfield wall. In left-center, the fence came in from 402 feet to 390 feet. In a safety-related move, that allowed the visiting team's bullpen to be relocated from right-field foul territory to behind the home bullpen. The dimensions remain the same down the left-field line (336 feet), right-field line (322) and straightaway center (396). While Petco is expected to remain a pitchers' park, the Padres hope that players who crush a ball end up with a homer rather than a frustrating long out, the kind that have left sluggers angst-ridden since the downtown ballyard opened in 2004. "Those balls that you really hit well, you're going to get rewarded for them," said Padres third baseman Chase Headley, whose breakout season of 2012 included 31 homers and an NL-best 115 RBIs, as well as his first Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards. "And then the confidence you take from those swings - it's tough when you're going really bad and you hit a ball that in most places is a home run or a double and it turns into an out. Confidence for this game is huge. It's frustrating when you do everything right and you don't get rewarded for it." Headley won't get his shot at the new fences for a while after breaking his left thumb in spring training. When he's back, though, he'll try to continue to be aggressive in attacking the big outfield. Without Headley, the Padres went 1-5 with just one homer in their season-opening trip through New York and Colorado. While the Padres stand to benefit, so too will the visiting team. While many visiting players have hit impressive homers at Petco, they don't have to play 81 games a year there. As much as anything, moving in the fences will give the Padres a psychological boost. When Petco Park opened in 2004, then-general manager Kevin Towers joked that the Padres had made it Barry Bonds-proof, since the San Francisco Giants slugger always tormented San Diego. Bonds later quipped that the Padres had made Petco Park "baseball-proof." Bonds hit his 755th homer at Petco Park on Aug. 4, 2007, tying Hank Aaron with an opposite-field shot to left-center. During the 2004 season, sluggers Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko groused about how they'd crush a ball that would be a homer in other parks, only to watch it fall into an outfielder's glove. Nevin once hit a ball that he thought would be a homer, but it stayed in the park for a double. After pulling into second base, he gestured angrily toward Towers' box. The two later had words in the clubhouse. The Padres did bring in the fence in right-center by 10 feet a year later, but avoided making major changes until this offseason. "I don't think it's going to turn it into a hitter's ballpark by any means but I think the balls that are really hit well are going to turn into home runs," Headley said. "I also think there are going to be a lot more doubles, with the outfielders having to worry about the wall rather than turn and start running. "It's fairer but I think if you look at the dimensions for what they would consider an average major league field, it's still probably bigger than that. I think that it'll be a little more neutral than it was before." Josh Stein, San Diego's director of baseball operations, said the Padres looked at video of every ball hit since 2010 before moving in the fences. "We wanted to move away from the extreme nature but not change the fundamental nature of the park," Stein said Monday. While home runs are expected to go up, Stein doesn't want to predict how many more will be hit. He said the team will get a better idea over the next three seasons how the park will play with the new fences. Triples are expected to decline - some of those balls will clear the fence - and runs are expected to increase. For the fans, the changes might result in fewer boring games, although Stein expects the Padres to continue to play close games. Lowering the fence in right could lead to something else. "We've never seen a home run robbed in right field," Stein said. With the space gained by bringing in the fences in right field, the Padres added 56 seats in the Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Deck. However, the seats are far enough back that fans won't be able to reach over the fence and interfere with play. The factor the Padres can't control is the weather. Stein said San Diego has one of the coldest average game-time temperatures in the big leagues - seemingly odd, but it doesn't get as hot in San Diego as in other cities during the summer - and the game-time humidity also is among the highest in the majors. Having played with the Padres from 2006-2010, Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is interested to see how Petco will play. "Day games were OK, but night games were tough," Gonzalez said. "The first couple of innings you had a chance, but after that the ball would hang up in the air quite a bit because everybody knows about the marine layer." The old dimensions "probably made the pitchers more aggressive in the strike zone, knowing that even if you hit a ball decent, it's probably going to get caught," Gonzalez said. "So it's good that they brought them in a few feet - any number helps. They just did it because they want to make it as even as possible for both sides and not have it be a place that's not considered such a one-dimensional ballpark." Padres lefty Clayton Richard (0-1, 14.54 ERA), who is scheduled to start Tuesday's game, said he hasn't thought much about the new fences. "I don't think it's going to change anybody's approach. If you start changing your approach, that's where you get in trouble," Richard said. The Dodgers' scheduled starter is Josh Beckett (0-1, 4.50). Follow Bernie Wilson on Twitter at AP Sports Writers Ronald Blum and Howie Rumberg in New York contributed to this report. Biggest Stories CBSSports Facebook Google Plus Conversation powered by Livefyre Most Popular Shop
Skip to main content Yemeni VP admits security situation is deteriorating By Nic Robertson,, CNN Senior International Correspondent Click to play Yemeni VP unsure about Saleh's return • NEW: "There's not a military answer anywhere," says Adm. Mullen • Yemen's vice president says President Ali Abdullah Saleh will return • VP Abdu Rabu Mansoor Hadi says two types of U.S. drones targeting al Qaeda • Saleh's injuries are so severe that it's unclear when he will return, Hadi says Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- The Yemeni government has lost control over five provinces, and security in the country is deteriorating, the nation's acting president told CNN in an exclusive interview Wednesday. In his first interview with a Western TV network, Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansoor Hadi detailed how U.S. drones are using voice recognition to target al Qaeda leaders and help the government win back control. Hadi has been Yemen's acting president since June 3, when President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded in an attack on the mosque at the presidential palace. During Wednesday's hour-long meeting, Hadi said Saleh's wounds from what he described as an assassination attempt were so severe that he has no idea when the president will return from medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Yemeni VP: Saleh is part of the solution Yemen's capital: City on the edge • Yemen • War and Conflict • Terrorism Hadi said he saw Saleh immediately after the bomb attack. The 68-year-old ruler's chest had been pierce by a piece of wood and his face, arms and upper body had been burned, Hadi said. But, he added, the president's health was improving daily. The interview in the sprawling and heavily defended defense ministry underlined the many challenges facing the vice president, who many in the opposition consider to be a weak placeholder until the president returns from Saudi Arabia. He acknowledges that his house is surrounded by opposing forces, but he challenges claims that he is unable to use the presidential palace. Hadi says he calls Saleh's son, commander of the powerful Republican Guard at the palace, whenever he wants to give him orders. He countered opposition accusations that he has no power, saying he has been given full authority to sign a new, U.N.-sponsored peace proposal. He outlined plans that are even less favorable to Saleh's opponents than a Gulf Cooperation Council initiative he has already turned down. Hadi said the new deal would have Saleh stepping down only when a new president has been elected, a far cry from the Gulf Council proposal that would have Saleh handing power to Hadi after 30 days with new elections within 60 days. At times, Hadi -- who lived in Britain during the 1960s -- shifted uncomfortably in his seat, even joking at the end of the interview that he felt he'd been through an interrogation. Nevertheless, he gave a robust defense of Saleh, challenging the widely held view that the embattled leader is now part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. Saleh still has 3 million supporters, Hadi said. "He is part of the political balance here in Yemen. He has been an expert in dealing with all differences, and with all political and tribal differences," Hadi said. When asked how al Qaeda may have been taking advantage of deteriorating security, Hadi said government forces were targeting them aggressively. He detailed an ongoing operation in the southern Abyan province, where the capital recently fell to al Qaeda. He also gave an account of how U.S. spy planes eavesdrop on al Qaeda conversations, running voice recognition analysis that is shared with Yemeni authorities, the CIA and the FBI before targets are attacked. Hadi said there are two types of drones. "One is taking pictures and collecting information, and the other one is carrying missiles. Drones carrying missiles, actually these missiles could not be fired ... unless the voice of the enemy himself is recorded," he said. Often, he said, the United States provides the targeting information and Yemeni military forces carry out the attacks. Hadi offered few insights into how he plans to end Yemen's spiraling economic hardships, growing fuel and power shortages and rising food prices -- issues that have sparked massive anti-government protests over the past several months and have worsened sharply since the president left for treatment in Saudi Arabia. But he said he expected Saleh to make a speech to the nation in the coming hours that will help change the situation. And he said the U.N.-sponsored peace proposal will create a new, parliamentary political system in Yemen, "so it will wipe out or vanish any grievances, any complaints." Saleh went to Saudi Arabia for treatment after doctors examined him shortly after the attack in early June. They recommended he get attention from specialists, including an eye doctor. Since arriving there, he said, the president had been improving and fully intends to return. But when asked when that would be, he said he did not know. "It could be months. This is a decision up to the doctors. ... I have no idea about the exact date when he is coming," Hadi said. In Washington, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said the chaos in Yemen has been a source of concern to the United States for years. "Al Qaeda, the federated group that's in Yemen, is an incredibly dangerous group that has taken full advantage of the chaos that has been in that country," he told the National Press Club. But, he added, the military cannot provide the whole answer. "The security piece is a necessary condition, but it is insufficient in and of itself and it's taken us a long time to figure that out." 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Sources: VW Vortex, Autoblog Comments Threshold RE: Nice upgrade By Aikouka on 4/4/2012 11:14:28 AM , Rating: 2 I own a 2007 Altima 3.5SL, and it's certainly a nice car. The only negative aspect that I've seen about the CVT is that other cars don't have them! ;) Your smooth acceleration means nothing when the car in front of you has that slight lull from shifting! It's not uncommon for me to have to lift off the accelerator slightly when accelerating behind a car from a stop. I do definitely understand your opinion on the gas mileage, and I don't blame you in the least bit. I usually get around 18-20 MPG, and that's with a lot of city driving. Before I moved, the majority of my driving involved no stops and was between 45-55 MPH. I would usually average between 25 and 27 MPG. Although, I think I would miss that extra power from the V6. It does come in handy around here far more often than it should. I think what I like the most about this new model is actually the styling. It reminds me a lot of the newer Maxima, which seems a lot more aggressive. The current generation has that weird multi-layer headlight look, which is just... odd.
Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login Reply #165: Sorry, I did see that one. Yes, it does look like it's exploding, but. [View All] Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread Home » Discuss » Topic Forums » September 11 Donate to DU Flatulo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM \| Profile \| Ignore Thu Sep-15-11 03:12 AM Response to Reply #164 165. Sorry, I did see that one. Yes, it does look like it's exploding, but. Edited on Thu Sep-15-11 03:27 AM by Flatulo it looks more like it's being crushed downwards and the guts are being blown outwards. If it were exploding, I think I would expect to see all four faces blowing outwards at the same time top and bottom. This looks like there's a wave travelling downwards. Frankly, it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. There's no place else for stuff to go but outwards. It can't go up or down, because there's still floors in the way above and below. Also, I've never seen a 110 story tower fail before, so I don't know what it should look like. Further, I don't get the significance of the narrator commenting that some of the ejecta has been clocked at 120 mph. How fast should it be ejecting if the tower was not falling in the manner in which AE911Truth claims? This video, like all the others I've seen, have only incredulity for evidence. I've been a mechanical engineer for 35 years, and I need to see the math. Bazant did the math. NIST did the math. Where is AE911Truth's math? I can't find it. Where's their proof that bombs were placed? All I see is conjecture that elevator workers could have placed bombs. Or thermite. Or thermit bombs. Do you see my problem? I need to see something more objective than just questions as to how this or that could have happened. AE911Truth doesn't provide any empirical work to support their claims. And buddy, to claim that someone murdered 3,000 people without really fucking solid proof is a dangerous thing to do. Now Bush and Cheney were really bad guys (Cheney more so) but if you want to accuse him of murder, you'll need something that you can take to a judge and a jury. Why hasn't AE911Truth done that? But I will thank you for engaging with me in a more mature way than taunts. I respect your viewpoints. Now I think I'll go mix some narcotics with my Scotch. Good night. Printer Friendly \| Permalink \| Reply \| Top Home » Discuss » Topic Forums » September 11 Donate to DU Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators Home \| Discussion Forums \| Journals \| Store \| Donate About DU \| Contact Us \| Privacy Policy © 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC
thumbnail Hello, The London club went out of the FA Cup with Wayne Rooney leading his side to a 1-0 victory, but the Hammers manager fumed over contentious handball decisions at either end Sam Allardyce accused officials of being biased towards Manchester United at Old Trafford after his West Ham side narrowly went out of the FA Cup in a 1-0 defeat which included two contentious penalty incidents. Rafael appeared to handle the ball in his own area but the visitors' claims for a spot kick were waved away by referee Phil Dowd, while Wayne Rooney skied a late spot kick after Jordan Spence used his arm to block a Ryan Giggs cross. Despite neither incident resulting in a goal - with Rooney settling the tie after being set up by Chicharito after nine minutes - the Hammers manager feels the league leaders get preferential treatment at home. "There's no doubt whatsoever about the difference between Rafael's handball and Jordan Spence's - Jordan Spence plays for West Ham away against Man United and Rafael plays at home at Old Trafford; it's got to be that simple when you see it," he told ITV after the game. "Phil Dowd [was in] a perfect position, [it's] arm to ball, [and Rafael] pushes the ball away with his left arm. "You go the other end, Jordan Spence's arm comes up, [the] ball hits his hand, [Dowd] gives the penalty; if you're gonna give one you've got to give them both." When pressed on whether United get the majority of the decisions when playing at home, Allardyce left it in no doubt that he thinks Sir Alex Ferguson's team get the benefit of the doubt at Old Trafford. "Well, you've seen it for yourself, haven't you? you look at the replays as many times as you want. You look at the referee's position." The 58-year-old cannot fathom how Dowd failed to spot the Brazilian defender's use of the hand, but then decided to give United a penalty when his view appeared to be worse for the next crucial incident. "I've looked at [Dowd's] position and it's perfect, straight in line with it and straight in front of it. He had a worse position than Jordan Spence's to see that one than he did on Rafael's." From the web
Adventure Banner Making The Books Come True Chapter 18 Several quiet weeks slipped by. Berande, after such an unusual run of visiting vessels, drifted back into her old solitude. Sheldon went on with the daily round, clearing bush, planting cocoanuts, smoking copra, building bridges, and riding about his work on the horses Joan had bought. News of her he had none. Recruiting vessels on Malaita left the Poonga-Poonga coast severely alone; and the Clansman, a Samoan recruiter, dropping anchor one sunset for billiards and gossip, reported rumours amongst the Sio natives that there had been fighting at Poonga-Poonga. As this news would have had to travel right across the big island, little dependence was to be placed on it. The steamer from Sydney, the Kammambo, broke the quietude of Berande for an hour, while landing mail, supplies, and the trees and seeds Joan had ordered. The Minerva, bound for Cape Marsh, brought the two cows from Nogi. And the Apostle, hurrying back to Tulagi to connect with the Sydney steamer, sent a boat ashore with the orange and lime trees from Ulava. And these several weeks marked a period of perfect weather. There were days on end when sleek calms ruled the breathless sea, and days when vagrant wisps of air fanned for several hours from one direction or another. The land-breezes at night alone proved regular, and it was at night that the occasional cutters and ketches slipped by, too eager to take advantage of the light winds to drop anchor for an hour. Then came the long-expected nor'wester. For eight days it raged, lulling at times to short durations of calm, then shifting a point or two and raging with renewed violence. Sheldon kept a precautionary eye on the buildings, while the Balesuna, in flood, so savagely attacked the high bank Joan had warned him about, that he told off all the gangs to battle with the river. It was in the good weather that followed, that he left the blacks at work, one morning, and with a shot-gun across his pommel rode off after pigeons. Two hours later, one of the house-boys, breathless and scratched ran him down with the news that the Martha, the Flibberty-Gibbet, and the Emily were heading in for the anchorage. Coming into the compound from the rear, Sheldon could see nothing until he rode around the corner of the bungalow. Then he saw everything at once--first, a glimpse at the sea, where the Martha floated huge alongside the cutter and the ketch which had rescued her; and, next, the ground in front of the veranda steps, where a great crowd of fresh-caught cannibals stood at attention. From the fact that each was attired in a new, snow-white lava-lava, Sheldon knew that they were recruits. Part way up the steps, one of them was just backing down into the crowd, while another, called out by name, was coming up. It was Joan's voice that had called him, and Sheldon reined in his horse and watched. She sat at the head of the steps, behind a table, between Munster and his white mate, the three of them checking long lists, Joan asking the questions and writing the answers in the big, red-covered, Berande labour- journal. "What name?" she demanded of the black man on the steps. "Tagari," came the answer, accompanied by a grin and a rolling of curious eyes; for it was the first white-man's house the black had ever seen. "What place b'long you?" No one had noticed Sheldon, and he continued to sit his horse and watch. There was a discrepancy between the answer and the record in the recruiting books, and a consequent discussion, until Munster solved the difficulty. "Bangoora?" he said. "That's the little beach at the head of the bay out of Latta. He's down as a Latta-man--see, there it is, 'Tagari, Latta.'" "What place you go you finish along white marster?" Joan asked. "Bangoora," the man replied; and Joan wrote it down. "Ogu!" Joan called. The black stepped down, and another mounted to take his place. But Tagari, just before he reached the bottom step, caught sight of Sheldon. It was the first horse the fellow had ever seen, and he let out a frightened screech and dashed madly up the steps. At the same moment the great mass of blacks surged away panic-stricken from Sheldon's vicinity. The grinning house-boys shouted encouragement and explanation, and the stampede was checked, the new-caught head-hunters huddling closely together and staring dubiously at the fearful monster. "Hello!" Joan called out. "What do you mean by frightening all my boys? Come on up." "What do you think of them?" she asked, when they had shaken hands. "And what do you think of her?"--with a wave of the hand toward the Martha. "I thought you'd deserted the plantation, and that I might as well go ahead and get the men into barracks. Aren't they beauties? Do you see that one with the split nose? He's the only man who doesn't hail from the Poonga-Poonga coast; and they said the Poonga-Poonga natives wouldn't recruit. Just look at them and congratulate me. There are no kiddies and half-grown youths among them. They're men, every last one of them. I have such a long story I don't know where to begin, and I won't begin anyway till we're through with this and until you have told me that you are not angry with me." "Ogu--what place b'long you?" she went on with her catechism. But Ogu was a bushman, lacking knowledge of the almost universal beche-de-mer English, and half a dozen of his fellows wrangled to explain. "There are only two or three more," Joan said to Sheldon, "and then we're done. But you haven't told me that you are not angry." Sheldon looked into her clear eyes as she favoured him with a direct, untroubled gaze that threatened, he knew from experience, to turn teasingly defiant on an instant's notice. And as he looked at her it came to him that he had never half-anticipated the gladness her return would bring to him. "I was angry," he said deliberately. "I am still angry, very angry--" he noted the glint of defiance in her eyes and thrilled-- "but I forgave, and I now forgive all over again. Though I still insist--" "That I should have a guardian," she interrupted. "But that day will never come. Thank goodness I'm of legal age and able to transact business in my own right. And speaking of business, how do you like my forceful American methods?" "Mr. Raff, from what I hear, doesn't take kindly to them," he temporized, "and you've certainly set the dry bones rattling for many a day. But what I want to know is if other American women are as successful in business ventures?" "Luck, 'most all luck," she disclaimed modestly, though her eyes lighted with sudden pleasure; and he knew her boy's vanity had been touched by his trifle of tempered praise. "Luck be blowed!" broke out the long mate, Sparrowhawk, his face shining with admiration. "It was hard work, that's what it was. We earned our pay. She worked us till we dropped. And we were down with fever half the time. So was she, for that matter, only she wouldn't stay down, and she wouldn't let us stay down. My word, she's a slave-driver--'Just one more heave, Mr. Sparrowhawk, and then you can go to bed for a week',--she to me, and me staggerin' 'round like a dead man, with bilious-green lights flashing inside my head, an' my head just bustin'. I was all in, but I gave that heave right O--and then it was, 'Another heave now, Mr. Sparrowhawk, just another heave.' An' the Lord lumme, the way she made love to old Kina-Kina!" He shook his head reproachfully, while the laughter died down in his throat to long-drawn chuckles. "He was older than Telepasse and dirtier," she assured Sheldon, "and I am sure much wickeder. But this isn't work. Let us get through with these lists." She turned to the waiting black on the steps, - "Ogu, you finish along big marster belong white man, you go Not- Not.--Here you, Tangari, you speak 'm along that fella Ogu. He finish he walk about Not-Not. Have you got that, Mr. Munster?" "But you've broken the recruiting laws," Sheldon said, when the new recruits had marched away to the barracks. "The licenses for the Flibberty and the Emily don't allow for one hundred and fifty. What did Burnett say?" "He passed them, all of them," she answered. "Captain Munster will tell you what he said--something about being blowed, or words to that effect. Now I must run and wash up. Did the Sydney orders arrive?" "Yours are in your quarters," Sheldon said. "Hurry, for breakfast is waiting. Let me have your hat and belt. Do, please, allow me. There's only one hook for them, and I know where it is." She gave him a quick scrutiny that was almost woman-like, then sighed with relief as she unbuckled the heavy belt and passed it to him. "I doubt if I ever want to see another revolver," she complained. "That one has worn a hole in me, I'm sure. I never dreamed I could get so weary of one." Sheldon watched her to the foot of the steps, where she turned and called back, - "My! I can't tell you how good it is to be home again." And as his gaze continued to follow her across the compound to the tiny grass house, the realization came to him crushingly that Berande and that little grass house was the only place in the world she could call "home." "And Burnett said, 'Well, I'll be damned--I beg your pardon, Miss Lackland, but you have wantonly broken the recruiting laws and you know it,'" Captain Munster narrated, as they sat over their whisky, waiting for Joan to come back. "And says she to him, 'Mr. Burnett, can you show me any law against taking the passengers off a vessel that's on a reef?' 'That is not the point,' says he. 'It's the very, precise, particular point,' says she and you bear it in mind and go ahead and pass my recruits. You can report me to the Lord High Commissioner if you want, but I have three vessels here waiting on your convenience, and if you delay them much longer there'll be another report go in to the Lord High Commissioner.' "'I'll hold you responsible, Captain Munster,' says he to me, mad enough to eat scrap-iron. 'No, you won't,' says she; 'I'm the charterer of the Emily, and Captain Munster has acted under my orders.' "What could Burnett do? He passed the whole hundred and fifty, though the Emily was only licensed for forty, and the Flibberty- Gibbet for thirty-five." "But I don't understand," Sheldon said. "This is the way she worked it. When the Martha was floated, we had to beach her right away at the head of the bay, and whilst repairs were going on, a new rudder being made, sails bent, gear recovered from the niggers, and so forth, Miss Lackland borrows Sparrowhawk to run the Flibberty along with Curtis, lends me Brahms to take Sparrowhawk's place, and starts both craft off recruiting. My word, the niggers came easy. It was virgin ground. Since the Scottish Chiefs, no recruiter had ever even tried to work the coast; and we'd already put the fear of God into the niggers' hearts till the whole coast was quiet as lambs. When we filled up, we came back to see how the Martha was progressing." "And thinking we was going home with our recruits," Sparrowhawk slipped in. "Lord lumme, that Miss Lackland ain't never satisfied. 'I'll take 'em on the Martha,' says she, 'and you can go back and fill up again.'" "But I told her it couldn't be done," Munster went on. "I told her the Martha hadn't a license for recruiting. 'Oh,' she said, 'it can't be done, eh?' and she stood and thought a few minutes." "And I'd seen her think before," cried Sparrowhawk, "and I knew at wunst that the thing was as good as done." Munster lighted his cigarette and resumed. "'You see that spit,' she says to me, 'with the little ripple breaking around it? There's a current sets right across it and on it. And you see them bafflin' little cat's-paws? It's good weather and a falling tide. You just start to beat out, the two of you, and all you have to do is miss stays in the same baffling puff and the current will set you nicely aground.'" "'That little wash of sea won't more than start a sheet or two of copper,' says she, when Munster kicked," Sparrowhawk explained. "Oh, she's no green un, that girl." "'Then I'll rescue your recruits and sail away--simple, ain't it?' says she," Munster continued. "'You hang up one tide,' says she; 'the next is the big high water. Then you kedge off and go after more recruits. There's no law against recruiting when you're empty.' 'But there is against starving 'em,' I said; 'you know yourself there ain't any kai-kai to speak of aboard of us, and there ain't a crumb on the Martha.'" "We'd all been pretty well on native kai-kai, as it was," said Sparrowhawk. "'Don't let the kai-kai worry you, Captain Munster,' says she; 'if I can find grub for eighty-four mouths on the Martha, the two of you can do as much by your two vessels. Now go ahead and get aground before a steady breeze comes up and spoils the manoeuvre. I'll send my boats the moment you strike. And now, good-day, gentlemen.'" "And we went and did it," Sparrowhawk said solemnly, and then emitted a series of chuckling noises. "We laid over, starboard tack, and I pinched the Emily against the spit. 'Go about,' Captain Munster yells at me; 'go about, or you'll have me aground!' He yelled other things, much worse. But I didn't mind. I missed stays, pretty as you please, and the Flibberty drifted down on him and fouled him, and we went ashore together in as nice a mess as you ever want to see. Miss Lackland transferred the recruits, and the trick was done." "But where was she during the nor'wester?" Sheldon asked. "At Langa-Langa. Ran up there as it was coming on, and laid there the whole week and traded for grub with the niggers. When we got to Tulagi, there she was waiting for us and scrapping with Burnett. I tell you, Mr. Sheldon, she's a wonder, that girl, a perfect wonder." Munster refilled his glass, and while Sheldon glanced across at Joan's house, anxious for her coming, Sparrowhawk took up the tale. "Gritty! She's the grittiest thing, man or woman, that ever blew into the Solomons. You should have seen Poonga-Poonga the morning we arrived--Sniders popping on the beach and in the mangroves, war- drums booming in the bush, and signal-smokes raising everywhere. 'It's all up,' says Captain Munster." "Yes, that's what I said," declared that mariner. "Of course it was all up. You could see it with half an eye and hear it with one ear." "'Up your granny,' she says to him," Sparrowhawk went on. "'Why, we haven't arrived yet, much less got started. Wait till the anchor's down before you get afraid.'" "That's what she said to me," Munster proclaimed. "And of course it made me mad so that I didn't care what happened. We tried to send a boat ashore for a pow-wow, but it was fired upon. And every once and a while some nigger'd take a long shot at us out of the mangroves." "They was only a quarter of a mile off," Sparrowhawk explained, "and it was damned nasty. 'Don't shoot unless they try to board,' was Miss Lackland's orders; but the dirty niggers wouldn't board. They just lay off in the bush and plugged away. That night we held a council of war in the Flibberty's cabin. 'What we want,' says Miss Lackland, 'is a hostage.'" "'That's what they do in books,' I said, thinking to laugh her away from her folly," Munster interrupted. "'True,' says she, 'and have you never seen the books come true?' I shook my head. 'Then you're not too old to learn,' says she. 'I'll tell you one thing right now,' says I, 'and that is I'll be blowed if you catch me ashore in the night-time stealing niggers in a place like this.'" "You didn't say blowed," Sparrowhawk corrected. "You said you'd be damned." "That's what I did, and I meant it, too." "'Nobody asked you to go ashore,' says she, quick as lightning," Sparrowhawk grinned. "And she said more. She said, 'And if I catch you going ashore without orders there'll be trouble-- understand, Captain Munster?'" "Who in hell's telling this, you or me?" the skipper demanded wrathfully. "Well, she did, didn't she?" insisted the mate. "Yes, she did, if you want to make so sure of it. And while you're about it, you might as well repeat what she said to you when you said you wouldn't recruit on the Poonga-Poonga coast for twice your screw." Sparrowhawk's sun-reddened face flamed redder, though he tried to pass the situation off by divers laughings and chucklings and face- twistings. "Go on, go on," Sheldon urged; and Munster resumed the narrative. "'What we need,' says she, 'is the strong hand. It's the only way to handle them; and we've got to take hold firm right at the beginning. I'm going ashore to-night to fetch Kina-Kina himself on board, and I'm not asking who's game to go for I've got every man's work arranged with me for him. I'm taking my sailors with me, and one white man.' 'Of course, I'm that white man,' I said; for by that time I was mad enough to go to hell and back again. 'Of course you're not,' says she. 'You'll have charge of the covering boat. Curtis stands by the landing boat. Fowler goes with me. Brahms takes charge of the Flibberty, and Sparrowhawk of the Emily. And we start at one o'clock.' "My word, it was a tough job lying there in the covering boat. I never thought doing nothing could be such hard work. We stopped about fifty fathoms off, and watched the other boat go in. It was so dark under the mangroves we couldn't see a thing of it. D'ye know that little, monkey-looking nigger, Sheldon, on the Flibberty- -the cook, I mean? Well, he was cabin-boy twenty years ago on the Scottish Chiefs, and after she was cut off he was a slave there at Poonga-Poonga. And Miss Lackland had discovered the fact. So he was the guide. She gave him half a case of tobacco for that night's work--" "And scared him fit to die before she could get him to come along," Sparrowhawk observed. "Well, I never saw anything so black as the mangroves. I stared at them till my eyes were ready to burst. And then I'd look at the stars, and listen to the surf sighing along the reef. And there was a dog that barked. Remember that dog, Sparrowhawk? The brute nearly gave me heart-failure when he first began. After a while he stopped--wasn't barking at the landing party at all; and then the silence was harder than ever, and the mangroves grew blacker, and it was all I could do to keep from calling out to Curtis in there in the landing boat, just to make sure that I wasn't the only white man left alive. "Of course there was a row. It had to come, and I knew it; but it startled me just the same. I never heard such screeching and yelling in my life. The niggers must have just dived for the bush without looking to see what was up, while her Tahitians let loose, shooting in the air and yelling to hurry 'em on. And then, just as sudden, came the silence again--all except for some small kiddie that had got dropped in the stampede and that kept crying in the bush for its mother. "And then I heard them coming through the mangroves, and an oar strike on a gunwale, and Miss Lackland laugh, and I knew everything was all right. We pulled on board without a shot being fired. And, by God! she had made the books come true, for there was old Kina-Kina himself being hoisted over the rail, shivering and chattering like an ape. The rest was easy. Kina-Kina's word was law, and he was scared to death. And we kept him on board issuing proclamations all the time we were in Poonga-Poonga. "It was a good move, too, in other ways. She made Kina-Kina order his people to return all the gear they'd stripped from the Martha. And back it came, day after day, steering compasses, blocks and tackles, sails, coils of rope, medicine chests, ensigns, signal flags--everything, in fact, except the trade goods and supplies which had already been kai-kai'd. Of course, she gave them a few sticks of tobacco to keep them in good humour." "Sure she did," Sparrowhawk broke forth. "She gave the beggars five fathoms of calico for the big mainsail, two sticks of tobacco for the chronometer, and a sheath-knife worth elevenpence ha'penny for a hundred fathoms of brand new five-inch manila. She got old Kina-Kina with that strong hand on the go off, and she kept him going all the time. She--here she comes now." It was with a shock of surprise that Sheldon greeted her appearance. All the time, while the tale of happening at Poonga- Poonga had been going on, he had pictured her as the woman he had always known, clad roughly, skirt made out of window-curtain stuff, an undersized man's shirt for a blouse, straw sandals for foot covering, with the Stetson hat and the eternal revolver completing her costume. The ready-made clothes from Sydney had transformed her. A simple skirt and shirt-waist of some sort of wash-goods set off her trim figure with a hint of elegant womanhood that was new to him. Brown slippers peeped out as she crossed the compound, and he once caught a glimpse to the ankle of brown open-work stockings. Somehow, she had been made many times the woman by these mere extraneous trappings; and in his mind these wild Arabian Nights adventures of hers seemed thrice as wonderful. As they went in to breakfast he became aware that Munster and Sparrowhawk had received a similar shock. All their air of camaraderie was dissipated, and they had become abruptly and immensely respectful. "I've opened up a new field," she said, as she began pouring the coffee. "Old Kina-Kina will never forget me, I'm sure, and I can recruit there whenever I want. I saw Morgan at Guvutu. He's willing to contract for a thousand boys at forty shillings per head. Did I tell you that I'd taken out a recruiting license for the Martha? I did, and the Martha can sign eighty boys every trip. Sheldon smiled a trifle bitterly to himself. The wonderful woman who had tripped across the compound in her Sydney clothes was gone, and he was listening to the boy come back again. « « To table of contents Go Back To Chapter 19 For Copyright and Terms of Service Instructions - click here
Photographs of Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel celebrating his team's Cotton Bowl victory are drawing lots of comments online. Manziel, who is 20 years old, is seen holding a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne at the Avenu Lounge in Dallas in the photos posted by TMZ. The nightclub states on its website that patrons must be 21 and older to get in, which is the legal drinking age in Texas. On Sunday, the Heisman Trophy winner responded to his life in the spotlight, saying: It's tough knowing that everything you do is watched pretty closely, because I'm doing the same stuff I've always done. It's just now people actually care what I do. Read or Share this story:
Community Syndicate content lostn'foundagain's picture Not in school..... I just had to give a power point presentation about suicide and mental illnesses.... i had 5 minutes left of class when I started, so I ended up running out of time. But you know what? My teacher said if anyone wished to stay and let me finish, they could. Only 2 or 3 people left, the rest stayed to listen.... I don't think anyone could realize how much that meant to me.... When I started the presentation, I also started tearing up a little, because, this is shit that happens to so many people! this is shit that just usually gets swept under the rug at schools.... and the fact that almost all of my class wanted to stay and listen to this important information, it made me really emotional...... I thank every last person in that class that showed they cared about the lives of people who don't feel strong enough to survive.....'s picture cosmetologist aka a hairstylist I haven't logged onto my MCR account in over a year, and oh boy do I hate my username with a passion haha. I hope you're all doing well, paying attention and doing your absolute best in school (or whatever y'all do). Anyway, I took my State Board Cosmetology exam about a week ago and I passed. I am now a licensed Cosmetologist. I'm very proud of myself, it's a stepping stone into my life. I hope to be able to accomplish a lot within this career choice. I'm still going to go back to College, I'll be attenting my local CC for the spring semester and I hope to god I do great and I won't procrastinate as I used to in high school. Acid Kandy's picture Sorry Guys Sorry about my inactivity over the last 2 weeks or so! I've had loads of school stuff and other shit to do. Anyway how is everybody? Looking forward to Christmas? (I'm not) Danny3.O's picture 2 months clean!! (And 1 day) So as you guys can probably tell from the title, I'm celebrating my 2 month..cleanliness, I guess? I don't know, man. 2 months was marked yesterday making today 2 months and 1 day, but I was having an uber craptastic day yesterday so I couldnt really celebrate. But hopefully today will be better.... What are you guys up to? Amanda3's picture Every Snowflake is like U Since i'm into Christmas soooo much I saw this vid on youtube when MCR went on yo gabba gabba, the song is catchy but the clothes not sooo cool, I was Laughing thru the whole video, then there's Ray's face all the time he was makin different funny faces, but at the end I love Mikey's little smirk, i might've laughed at it, but i'm this cheesy person watchin it over and over, doesn't that happens to guys? Anyway keep loving MCR FOREVER AND EVER IN A NEVERENDING LAND, (ok i just made that up) keep Running! mcrhannah's picture hey my strong killjoys. but do any of you just have one of those days where you wake up and just wander why mcr broke up and you end up thinking about it all day cus that is all I have been thinking about. I don't know why. I just wish with all my heart that they will get back together but knowing my luck they wont. but I just have days where all I think about is mcr and for some reason I had thank you for the venom stuck in my head so people were like what the hell are you singing but who cares what they think. anyway if you ever want to talk im always here. luv u all. stay strong! xxxxx HANNAH sidtastic007's picture My God....I just danced like that girl in Chandelier music video! O.O; So, after I finished recording an audio of my cover of A Sky Full of Stars, I listened to it a couple of times to know the flaws of it so I can do a video recording soon. And I started imagining of two partners dancing together in such a dazzling blue, beautiful, wild, violent way. Kind of like Chandlier by Sia, Try by P!NK, and yeah. And my God, I can't believe I just danced to it in such a violent way. I wouldn't call it dancing to be honest (it's like I'm being possessed by the spirit of the red shoes...except that I didn't wear any shoes upon dancing) but I did, okay? And it was super exhausting but I felt incredibly good. It felt better than singing to the original song, I swear. Then, I thought about it: should I make a music video of me dancing to the cover?? MCR_rulessomuch's picture I Hate Love it was and ordinary saturaday when it happen. i was talk to my boyfriend on facebook like i normally would but then he told that he had something to tell me. He then started to say that he would tell me on monday but i was like noway you tell me now. so he did! He dumped me!!! luckly i didnt do anything stupid due me being suicidal! allison_ross's picture so today was great. i had fun in choir and dance. my friend was having an emotional break down in 4th today. but i helped her get through it. weve been through so much together. i cant believe its our senior year already. i really don't want high school to end :( skellington01's picture guess who got taps!!!! Okay, well, technically, they aren't mine to keep. I talked to the lady who owns the dance studio and who will be instructing me, and she had like this frickin' HUGE tub of used dance shoes that she let me rummage through to see if I could find a pair that fit. Once I start taking lessons and see if I really like tap enough to continue it for more than a month, I'll buy my own shoes and I have to give the used ones back to her. I found some, the aren't super snug but the only other ones that would remotely fit me hurt like hell so I mean, why would I wear those? So yeah. I finally have tap shoes and I'M SO SUPER EXCITED!!!!!!!1 Amanda3's picture Hello There! Ok so ALL I want to say is Christmas is Awesome, And ALL I Want for Christmas is for u my deers is too Enjoy, Laugh, Scream, Dance, Jump and get Loud n Crazy, be URSELFS ESPECIALLY LOVE URSELFS!! Christmas is about Joy, so DEERS HAVE FUN!! If I could i would send to ALL OF KANDY KANES W/ FACES OF MCR GUYS PAINTED ON THEM, good idea right? Anyhow plz be CHEERIOUSLY, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS.... STILL THINKIN, OK BYE SUPER KILLJOYS Killjoy_Wolfblade's picture So is anyone a fan of sword Art Online? lostn'foundagain's picture Need to get this off my chest HE FINALLY told me he never loved me... thanks asshole, always a great feeling. THIS was the EXACT reason I never wanted him to say "I 'Love' you"... cause I KNEW he didn't. ALL he wanted was sex. which he got cause I'm such a fucking dumbass huh? then he asks if we can be friends... hmmm... lemme see... You fuck my friends, fuck me, tell them they should kill themselves, do nothing but play mindgames with me. guilt trip me constantly. make me feel like I"m the one ruining your life when you're out there fucking every girl you meet, doing drugs, just being a fucking idiot.. telling me you never loved me, causing over 80+ scars on my legs... hmm.... i wonder, are we 'friends'?? HAHAHAHAHHA!!!!!! YOU'RE TOO FUCKING FUNNY!!!!! XD XD XD XD NO!! You hurt me time after time after time, and I let you hurt me even more.... so no.. we can NEVER be "friends". Kismesis, maybe? but NEVER "friends".... and please, let "Goodbye" be forever. because I never want to see you again.... lostn'foundagain's picture Heyo /(^~^)\ Got ma hair done!!!! FINALLY XD it was a pretty rad weekend. I was out of internet range at my grandparents house the whole time. BAKING!!!! ^~^ made peanut brittle, pecan brittle, fudge, it was awesome.... Missed a bunch of drama on facebook thank god! haha XD and guess what!! I GOT A PART IN THE SPRING PLAY!!!!!!!! XD XD I'm so excited!! even if i only get to be a dead body, it's super awesome! XD I actually get to be two different dead bodies XD I can't wait!! shar-deenie's picture hey guys i'm back. I'll just say this, after a long year out of life I finally came back. I've missed you all and I hope y'all are alive and well xxx killjoys forever
@techreport{NBERw13642, title = "Open-Access Losses and Delay in the Assignment of Property Rights", author = "Gary D. Libecap", institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research", type = "Working Paper", series = "Working Paper Series", number = "13642", year = "2007", month = "November", doi = {10.3386/w13642}, URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w13642", abstract = {Even though formal property rights are the theoretical response to open access involving natural and environmental resources, they typically are adopted late after considerable waste has been endured. Instead, the usual response in local, national, and international settings is to rely upon uniform rules and standards as a means of constraining behavior. While providing some relief, these do not close the externality and excessive exploitation along unregulated margins continues. As external costs and resource values rise, there finally is a resort to property rights of some type. Transfers and other concessions to address distributional concerns affect the ability of the rights arrangement to mitigate open-access losses. This paper outlines the reasons why this pattern exists and presents three empirical examples of overfishing, over extraction from oil and gas reservoirs, and excessive air pollution to illustrate the main points.}, }
Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks Perl-Sensitive Sunglasses Methods for Asynchronous IPC by athomason (Curate) on Feb 02, 2001 at 10:53 UTC ( #55958=perlquestion: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help?? athomason has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question: I haven't had need for Unix IPC in a while, so I think there's some easy way to what I need that I'm overlooking. So anything that works is great, but especially clever solutions as always, get bonus points. I have a load-testing script that makes a specific web request repeatedly until a stop condition is satisfied (the server is supposed to eventually get fed up and stop sending the normal response when too many requests come in from the same IP... and yes, I know that's a terrible way to fend off a DoS). I'd like to be able to run many copies of the script in parallel without actually opening ten xterms and running the script in each. This is easy with fork as long as the children and parent don't need to communicate, but I'd like to have each child report back to the parent periodically saying how many requests it's made so far. The parent would then sum up the requests made from the children and report to stdout on how many requests had been made in total. Execution order of the children isn't relevant. Looking at perlipc and answers to older questions, I'm thinking about something in the neighborhood of this: # ... setup code my $NUM_CHILDREN = 10; my $total_count; my @pids; for (my $i = 0; $i < $NUM_CHILDREN; $i++) { $pids[$i] = open(CHILD, "-\|"); if ($pids[$i]) { next; } elsif (defined $pid) { # child handler, $pid=0 my $count = 0; my $done = 0; while (!$done) { # make web request; set $done somewhere $count++; } } else { die "Fork failed at number $i: $!\n"; } } As written, the parent process spawns all the children and exits, which 1) doesn't print hit counts like I want, and 2) doesn't allow me to cancel all the children at once, which I'd like to do. I'm unsure of where and how to send $count up to the parent from the children, and how the parent would make use of that. I'm also not quite sure how to have the parent kill the children when it dies abnormally. Any clues? Comment on Methods for Asynchronous IPC Select or Download Code Re: Methods for Asynchronous IPC by AgentM (Curate) on Feb 02, 2001 at 11:01 UTC You'll need to look into pipes or -if you're pumped- IPC::Shareable. It's nice that you're storing the pids but you don't seem to do anything with them yet. If you're afraid of zombies (who isn't eh?) then you should be waitpidding the kiddies while managing them with your kill directive (infanticide really). A quick and easy hack to make sure these kids go down with the parent is to issue SIGHUP which the programs aren't setup to catch and will thus bombshell. In fact, this is automatically issued when you logout. Wait a sec! Is it just me or is this looking like something that LWP::Parallel is supossed to do? Re: Methods for Asynchronous IPC by Gloom (Monk) on Feb 02, 2001 at 16:19 UTC It can be clever to use Light Weigth Processes ( LWP ). LWP allow you to execute child processes in the same address space than their parents. In order to make this, you have to use the clone() syscall. This kind of processes can be called "Threads". By the way, I don't know how perl implements neither the use of threads ( if it does ) nor the clone syscall. I ask the monks : did perl allow multithreaded programmation ? Update : There is a module called "Thread" that provide you basis functions to implement a parallel processing and shared variables management ( Semaphores... ). Main process share global vars with the childs. Each of it can thus freely store a report, and main thread can process it. You may also use signal IPC to inform main process of its child's state. Hope this helps ( and I'm not too boring :) As far as I know Thread support is still considered as experimental in Perl Perl's threading model is unstable, differs with every major release, and Perl 6 (which is projected to be stable) will undoubtably have yet another model. In short you don't really want to use it. Beyond that, the clone() call is very, very much Linux specific. Nobody else does things that way, and if you wish to write portable code in C you won't either. Besides which, threaded code is definitely a mixed blessing. There are definitely times when multi-threading is the right thing to do. But I get very wary when I see people pulling it out as an answer everywhere. See Threads vs Forking (Java vs Perl) for further discussion on why. Linking by ID seems to be broken at the moment. The missing thing to try for further discussion is Threads vs Forking (Java vs Perl)... Very interesting node. I see clearer now : thread is not in the "perl" spirit :) So I only discover perl and some old c uses reapers sometime ! Thank's for this answer. Log In? What's my password? Create A New User Node Status? node history Node Type: perlquestion [id://55958] Approved by root and the web crawler heard nothing... How do I use this? \| Other CB clients Other Users? 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Newletters and Alerts Buy now from Random House • The Shadow Man • Written by Mary Gordon • Format: Trade Paperback \| ISBN: 9780679749318 • Our Price: $13.95 • Quantity: See more online stores - The Shadow Man The Shadow Man A Daughter's Search for Her Father Written by Mary GordonAuthor Alerts: Random House will alert you to new works by Mary Gordon The Shadow Man Cover Share & Shelve: • Add This - The Shadow Man • Email this page - The Shadow Man • Print this page - The Shadow Man In The Shadow Man, the bestselling author of Final Payments and The Company of Women elevates the memoir into an uncompromising and unforgettable art form as she seeks to learn the truth about her lost father. 20 photos. The night of my father's heart attack, January 14, 1957, my mother and I went to my aunt's house to watch television, as we always did on Friday nights. We watched shows about silly crackbrained girls: My Little Margie, My Friend Irma. Then the prizefights started. The women and the children disappeared. We played or talked somewhere else: we could hear the bell signaling a knockout or the end of a round, but it seemed terribly far away, in some country that had nothing to do with us. My uncles drank beer out of glasses that I believed had come from Germany. They frightened me; the war hadn't been over many years, and I had visions of women with their heads shaved, made to stand naked in town squares, shot by Nazis. Or children starving, heroic, with one chocolate coin between them, which they ran a wet finger over each day, licking their finger, making the chocolate last for a month. I got the idea of women with shaved heads from television: Playhouse 90, a show my aunt and my mother were watching one night while the uncles were out at a basketball game. It was a show I wasn't supposed to watch. All the children were meant to be asleep, and my cousins were, but I crept down and watched the television from a stairwell, where the women didn't see me. I'd stolen a box of chocolate stars and shoved them hypnotically into my mouth as the television spoke about the woman with her shaved head. I was sick with guilt and sugar. But I always was when I went to my aunt's house. We were always allowed to eat too much, too many things that were bad for us. We ate potato chips and cheap sweets and drank all the Cokes in the refrigerator; we laughed too much and were warned that that kind of laughing would always end up in tears. Sometimes it did, but not always, and it made us distrust our mothers because we knew they believed it always would. My cousins and I fought because we all wanted to be the mother-except occasionally one cousin would agree to be the child if she could be spanked on her bare bottom, hard. Afterward, I'd lie in my bed, feeling I'd just escaped something modern and dangerous. That night, after I'd fallen asleep, the phone rang. It was Bellevue Hospital: my father had had a heart attack in the Forty-second Street library. There is a sound of disaster, and a quiet after it, when the universe becomes still from shock, the wind stops, the light is colorless, and humans have no words because no words fit the enormity. Then a hum enters the air, and normal activity begins again, but slowly, as if everyone were underwater. People move, pick things up in their hands, walk from place to place, but the hum supports each action. You can mark the time when the disaster is complete and something else-the rest of life-begins. You know this because the hum no longer supports each act. I have never been in an earthquake, or the aftermath of battle, but I know their sound: the shocked sound of proximity to death. I heard it when my mother hung up the phone and said, "Your father's had a heart attack." For thirty days, my mother drove to the hospital each evening to see my father. I wasn't allowed to go. I stayed with my grandmother. I slept in her dark room with the frightening pictures: the brown replica of the Shroud of Turin, a picture of Christ with long, smooth, girlish hair, pointing to his Sacred Heart, the size and shape of a pimento or a tongue. Most mysterious: a picture made of slats. You turned your head one way: it was the Scourging at the Pillar. Another turn of the head produced Jesus Crowned with Thorns. If you looked absolutely straight ahead, you saw the Agony in the Garden. I was kept awake by these pictures and by the room's bitter smells: lavender, ammonia, hair oil, liniment. Pine Sol always at the bottom of the commode: a green pool reminding you inevitably of the corruption that you, as a human, had no right pretending you could rise above. One Monday night, I woke for nothing. It was nearly midnight. I went into the living room. My mother let me sit on the couch beside her and watch television. We watched Jack Paar. Ten minutes later, the phone rang. It was the hospital. My father had just died. It was then that my life split in two, into the part when my father was alive and the part when he was not. Since the first part lasted only seven years, my life has always felt unbalanced. The part of my life after his death kept growing; there was no way to stop it, except by my own death. There was no way to lengthen the other, to have more time with my father as a living man. I understood what had come to an end. My mother and I moved out of our apartment into my grandmother's house. I never saw the apartment again, and I never saw most of the things I'd had there. I don't know what happened to it all. The furniture, the lamps, the cheerful dishes. And my toys: my windup Cinderella, my tin dollhouse, the Alice in Wonderland rug. They were banished. Were they burned, sold, put upstairs in the attic? I was afraid to ask. My aunt who lived with my grandmother, with whom I would now live, said I had to remember there was very little room in the house. I understood. But nobody said anything to me about what had happened to my things. Everything was simply gone, no longer on earth. It had disappeared, as my father's body, for no better reason, had disappeared. My mother bought twin beds and flowered cardboard dressers. We moved into an empty room in my grandmother's house. My mother impressed upon me that my aunt and grandmother were doing us a big favor in letting us live with them, that we mustn't seem to be in the way. I saw that she was happy. She had come back home. She wouldn't have to work so hard; she wouldn't have to come home from the office and cook the supper and do the washing and the ironing. But she seemed to have forgotten what we'd had. She didn't miss our apartment, which was clearly much more like the movies than my grandmother's house. She didn't miss the Pyrex dishes in Technicolor shades, her wedding china with its playful patterning of unnaturally colored fruits. She didn't miss our trips to the movies, or listening to the radio (we'd had no television; my father wouldn't allow it). She didn't miss the songs we sang from musicals, our imitations of Irish priests and Italian barbers. She didn't miss going out to eat. She seemed to prefer my grandmother's dark living room, the lamps with golden handles and maroon bases and pictures of men and women with flowing hair and hats with feathers. The bust of Christ crowned with thorns, the tears flowing down his cheeks, which I enjoyed touching, feeling I'd stolen grace. And beside the head of Christ, a thin black stork riding on a turtle's back. It was said to be bronze, but no one believed that. Next to the stork there was a clump of peat, wedge-shaped and porous, that my grandmother had brought from Ireland. She wasn't frightened, as I was, of the bathroom upstairs with its blueblack linoleum and its pitcher full of overripe philodendron, whose stems I could imagine rotting in the yellowish water in which they stood. She didn't seem to miss my father. There was no trace of him in my grandmother's house, and he was talked about only if I brought him up. I understood that if he was to be remembered, it would be up to me. For a while, I thought he would come back. At night, I'd climb the dark stairs, certain that when I lit the light in the bedroom, he'd be there waiting. Sometimes I wasn't sure whether or not I too had died. Often when I was near the edge of sleep, or ill, or cold, or when I became hypnotized by a repetitive physical event-the water going down the bathtub drain, a record spinning on the turntable-I would be caught up in a frightening spiral of language. I would hear a voice, my own, but speaking from so far away that it was barely recognizable. The voice was saying, "What does it mean to be alive?" And the words had no meaning. Particularly the two important ones: "mean" and "alive." I was looking down at myself like a spirit peering at a corpse. And yet neither the spirit nor the corpse had any connection with each other or with me, the thing once comprehensibly known as "I" but now something else, something I couldn't name. I had to allow for the possibility that I might be only an idea-but in the mind of whom? Or what? Not God, certainly. I knew it wasn't God; at that moment God was only one more instance of failed language. I longed for someone to rescue me, but I didn't know what would be rescued or what rescue would entail. The past was blotted out and memory obliterated. I inhabited a sickening present without words. Without, therefore, a future. If I was dead, I must always have been, and I would always be. The region I inhabited wasn't one where I would be reunited with my father. What was my father? Only another word I didn't understand. A figure in a mist, stirring no impulse of recognition or recall. After a few minutes, a few hours, a few days (time had become unmeasurable), I would return to a place where I could use words without terror, that is to say, use them without questioning their meaning as I spoke. I could understand, be understood. I still felt unrooted, but at least I knew what I was about. I had a task. I was looking for the place where my father and I once were and where we could be once again. I peered through fog for a glimpse of a man who could not be touched or joined. I knew I wouldn't see my father's face again, or feel his breath, or hear his voice, but if I was journeying back in memory to places we had been together, I was engaged in a quest that was not only admirable but, most important, meaningful. But this search wasn't my only job. I had another one, only partially connected with my father: I was trying to obey the law. A law that was not monochrome and flat but complex, full of color and gradation and interlocking design. Law like a peacock's tail that spread and spread and could repay endless attention. At the center of the fan, in the densest, most vivid place, were the Ten Commandments; then lighter, less crucial, the Six Commandments of the Church, related to the rules of worship. There were the Seven Deadly Sins; and then, farther out, more remote, and opposite them, their reverse, the Virtues, Theological, Cardinal, Moral; and the Works of Mercy, Corporal and Spiritual. But the law I continually broke was one of the most basic. My specialized knowledge did me no good. Every few days found me in a state of mortal sin. Impurity was its name. My experience of mortal sin wasn't like the ones I've read about in semicomic memoirs. I wasn't afraid of going to hell. Knowing the law so well, I knew that even if I were hit by a car, there would be one moment of consciousness that would allow me to say the word "sorry," even the syllable "sor," and that would be enough. Perhaps I would have years and years of Purgatory, but Purgatory was, in its way, desirable. Yes, the agonies would be real, but all the fine people, the interesting sinners, would be there, undergoing a process of chastening or burnishing that in its communal aspects seemed noble. So it wasn't eternal damnation that I feared; it wasn't even fear that moved me. It was shame, a sense of my defilement in relation to the infinite purity of God's love. A filthiness that seemed as if it should be public, made worse because in the public eye, in fact, I was perceived to be exceptionally good. The nuns in school who chose me as class monitor, the slow or unruly children who were made to sit next to me and look up to me as an example of probity and industry-what would they think if they knew the degradation that was the truth of my inner life? I went to confession every three or four days, always confessing the same sin in the same words: "I was impure with myself." The worst moments occurred before I spoke, when I could see the priest's shadow on the screen that separated us, and imagine his chastisement, which mostly never came. The priests wanted me out quickly; they were probably more embarrassed than I. But the words of self-accusation, once spoken, were the gate that led to my exaltation. Only by saying them could I earn absolution and the most perfect sentence I have ever yet heard spoken: "Go in peace." Since I came to life, or a kind of incorporeal life, in these moments of exaltation, it was natural that I should try to do my job-remembering my father-by enclosing my understanding of his life and death in one of the shining vessels that the Church provided. Ecclesiastical language is full of names for vessels: chalice, ciborium, monstrance, pyx; there must be containers to enclose, keep safe, keep intact, keep protected from the world's contamination the sacred matter-the Body and Blood of Christ-in the form of the natural and the ordinary-bread and wine. This transformation of the ordinary into the sacred is called transubstantiation, and that was what I needed for my father's history. I needed to think of it as only appearing to be ordinary-like the host and the wine-so I could bring myself to life, or back to life, so I could save myself or resurrect myself. His history was my lifeblood, as the Eucharist was the lifeblood of the Church. And so I contained my father's life and death in one of the forms the Church provided, as it provided the containers of precious metals for the Host, the wine. The mysteries of the faith were held in sacred stories. And I wrote my father's history as one of the Lives of the Saints. By doing this, I could see my father's death not as something that could have happened to anybody, an expected consequence of living, and therefore without meaning. Loss, absence, the half-life of my life, weren't ordinary or purposeless. My father's life and death became part of something grand, enormous. And so mine did, too. Mary Gordon About Mary Gordon Mary Gordon - The Shadow Man Photo © Christopher Greenleaf MARY GORDON's most recent work is The Liar's Wife, a collection of four novellas, published by Pantheon in August 2014. She is the author of six novels, including Final Payments, Pearl, and The Love of My Youth; the memoirs The Shadow Man and Circling My Mother; and The Stories of Mary Gordon, which was awarded the Story Prize. She has received numerous other honors, including a Lila Wallace-Reader′s Digest Writers′ Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She teaches at Barnard College and lives in New York City. Reader's Guide\|About the Book\|Author Biography\|Discussion Questions About the Book Every memoir is particular to the writer's life experience; after reading more than one memoir, however, we frequently find ourselves confronted with the same questions. The questions, discussion topics, and biographies, that follow are intended to enhance your reading and discussion of Mary Gordon's The Shadow Man. This book tells a unique story, but touches upon similar themes common to the writing of all memoirs. About the Guide "My father died when I was seven years old. I've always thought that was the most important thing anyone could know about me," writes Mary Gordon, and for many years the beloved, romantic image of her father continued to define her life. But who was David Gordon, really? His daughter remembers him as a dashing figure, a brilliant journalist and scholar. But at midlife, by now herself a writer and scholar, Mary Gordon began to question these memories and go in search of "the shadow man" whose reality had always haunted and eluded her. This memoir, searing, passionate, and original, recounts the startling discoveries she made and gives new insights into the dark side of one immigrant's encounter with the American Dream. About the Author Mary Gordon is the author of four bestselling novels: Final Payments, The Company of Women, Men and Angels, and The Other Side. She has also published a book of novellas, The Rest of Life; a collection of stories, Temporary Shelter; and a book of essays, Good Boys and Dead Girls. She is the recipient of a Lila Acheson Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award and a Guggenheim fellowship. Ms. Gordon lives in New York and is a professor of English at Barnard College. Discussion Guides 1. Why did the adult Mary continue to feel that her father's death was the single most significant part of her life? Do you think this is a common feeling in people who have lost a parent early? 2. Mary Gordon remembers her father as handsome, "but when I look now at pictures of him," she says, "he doesn't look at all handsome" [p. xv]. The Shadow Man proves that memory, certainly childhood memory, is subjective and inaccurate, an unreliable guide to the past. What other examples does the book offer of faulty memory? Why could memory be stable or unreliable? Gordon says that memory is composed of "invention and interpretation" [p. 38]. Do you agree with that statement? 3. What does Gordon mean when she says that her father--surely an unusual individual--was "a man of his place and time" [p. xxiii]? She calls The Shadow Man "a book about America" [p. xxiii]. What does she mean by this? What does the memoir say about America and the immigrant experience? 4. Gordon asks: "Does the fact that he is, by every standard, a failure, relieve me of the responsibility of exposing him?" [p. 95] Do you agree with Gordon that she had a "responsibility to expose him?" 5. "Why is it that I was undisturbed by the news that my father lied about a sister and a wife but am shaken that he lied about his place of birth? And particularly, that he first spoke another language?" [p. 117] Why does Gordon find it easy to accept some of her father's lies, difficult to confront others? 6. "My desire, my need, to punish my mother is very great. I am conscious of no need to punish my father" [p. 220]. Can you explain Gordon's hostility toward her mother? What does she see her mother as standing for? Why does she feel she has no need to punish her father? 7. When Gordon considers wearing a mantilla at her father's disinterment, a friend says, "I guess it's the closest you can come to a bridal veil" [p. 266]. Do you believe that there are sexual overtones in Mary Gordon's feelings for her father? How else, and where else, are they expressed? Your E-Mail Address send me a copy Recipient's E-Mail Address (multiple addresses may be separated by commas) A personal message:
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Radical Compassion 21.2K views \| +3 today Scooped by Jim Manske onto Radical Compassion LivingNonviolence: Sunshine LivingNonviolence: Sunshine \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Every once in a while I come across something that gives me hope for our energy future. It cries out, "people are smarter than we seem." The latest example comes from an article in "Sierra" magazine. Jong Bok Kim, a researcher in chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University, was sitting outside his office thinking about his research subject. He was asking, what is the most productive and efficient skin for a solar cell: pyramids, strips, mirrors? As Kim gazed at a nearby shrub he realized he was looking at the answer. A leaf is covered with transparent cells that act like magnifying lenses and there are millions of ridges that guide the light deeper into the inner workings of the shrub. When Kim created a solar skin like a leaf, he discovered it absorbed six times the light of a flat surface. Did you know how researchers at MIT discovered the best arrangement for a concentrated solar plant? They arrange solar mirrors around a central tower in such a way that the light is reflected to the tower's tip. They learned this design from a sunflower, one of the best and most efficient conductors of solar energy. Or, a scientist in China made a solar cell arranged like the tail of a swallowtail butterfly. The butterfly's wings have ridges and valleys that deliver maximum warmth when the wings are spread wide. Rather than use his butterfly solar cell to create electricity, this scientist used it to create hydrogen, a clean burning fuel that could power cars of the future. All of these discoveries reminded me of a visit I made to a house in my hometown of Brookings with a built in passive solar system. The thing that most impressed me was the design of the roof. It was constructed in such a way that when the sun was in the southern sky in the winter, it entered the house under the roof line. When the sun was high in the sky in the summer, the roof line shaded the house. At the time I remember thinking, how bright! Such a simple recognition of how nature operates saves on heat and air conditioning. It begins with observation of how the world operates and adapts human operations to nature. What a difference to the typical Western attitude, where we say this is what we want to do and if nature can adapt fine, if not, nature be damned! As if we weren't part and parcel of nature! Exxon Mobil or not, solar power is coming. Solar installations in the U.S. more than doubled from the second quarter of 2011 to the second quarter of 2012. In California, utility scale solar production last year matched that of a large coal burner or nuclear plant. In the meantime, the rooftop solar production in the state reached a comparable level, plus 20%. At West Oakland's Peoples Grocery, 70 community members financed an 8.6 kilowatt solar project on the store roof that will save $32,000 over ten years, just one of several projects enabled by Mosaic, a solar start up. St. Vincent de Paul, serving a thousand meals a day, found 80 supporters for a rooftop project that saves them about $1,200 a month. It's estimated that the rooftop potential in the U.S. is about a fifth of the electricity demand we had nationally in 2011. And solar costs are coming down. Expectations are that in two or three years, New York and California will have "grid parity," when power from the sun is no more expensive than normal electricity for one's home. 41% of building permits in Hawaii now include requests for installing solar. Then there's Germany. On May 26 of last year, rooftop solar in that country produced half their electricity demand. In a country that's not known for sunniness, the investment in solar bodes well for their future. And the costs of installing solar in Germany are half what we would pay in the states, partly as a result of less red tape. You would think it would be a no brainer. Sunshine is free! It's the free gift of the creator to power the growth of flowers and trees, butterflies and bees, and you and me. But there's the rub! It's free! In a world of our creating, someone has to "own" the sunshine, or the wind, or the water, or the heat of the earth, in order to satisfy the "green frog skin" of Lame Deer fame. Instead of choosing a vision where we live in harmony with the creation, too many continue to choose a path of exploitation and profit, pitting one person or one country against another. Our living room has several large windows, facing south. The sun in the winter comes streaming through those windows with warmth and cheer. They say sun on the back of your neck is good for depression so if I'm feeling down I sit on the couch, set just right, so the sun hits the back of my neck. And then I read about smart people, mostly young, who are looking at the world and realizing how we might fit in better. The sun and their intelligence, give me hope. Carl Kline No comment yet. Radical Compassion News that feeds your aspirations and inspirations Curated by Jim Manske Your new post is loading... Your new post is loading... Scooped by Jim Manske Photo: Police officer and young demonstrator share hug during Ferguson rally in Portland Photo: Police officer and young demonstrator share hug during Ferguson rally in Portland \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it As thousands gathered to make their voices heard during a rally earlier this week, one officer and a young man paused to hear each other out. This image, shot by freelance photographer Johnny Nguyen, shows Portland Police Sgt. Bret Barnum hugging 12-year-old Devonte Hart during the Ferguson demonstration in Portland on Nov. 25, 2014. According to Sgt. Barnum, the interaction took place at the beginning of the rally. With emotions running high as speakers were addressing the crowd, he noticed a young man with tears in his eyes holding a "Free Hugs" sign among a group of people. Sgt. Barnum motioned him over and the two started talking about the demonstration, school, art and life. As the conversation ended, Sgt. Barnum pointed to his sign and asked, "Do I get one of those?" The moment following his question was captured in the photo above, which shows Devonte's eyes welling up with tears once again as he embraces the officer. Devonte, it turns out, has a life story that's almost as big as his heart. After the exchange, Devonte rejoined his family and friends participating in the rally and Sgt. Barnum, a 21-year-veteran, went back about his duties. Jim Manske's insight: I want a greater than 3:1 ratio of hugs to violence! A bow of gratitude to Sgt Barnum for expanding our view of what is possible. A bow of gratitude to Devonte Hart for reminding us of the strength in vulnerability. Please, Sgt Barnum, keep protecting Devonte and all of Us. JOYful Compass's curator insight, November 29, 10:50 AM I think we all (adults) forget that children watch what we do AND kids are traumatized by violence. If the eyes are the mirror of the soul, is this the impact the protesters, looters, and anarchists wanted on the next generation? Thank God for the children. Sarah O'Leary's comment, December 6, 1:39 AM This is a powerful image. With so much negative exposure and attention, it's instances like these that can pull people back to reality, and show them that police and citizens are not at war, that we are all normal people and that we all can and should embrace each other to make a change instead of coming up in arms. Scooped by Jim Manske Emotional Intelligence Can Boost Income Emotional Intelligence Can Boost Income \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Researchers have discovered that emotional sensitivity toward employees and colleagues may be the ticket to earning more money. No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske 9 Good Reminders that Will Change the Way You Think 9 Good Reminders that Will Change the Way You Think \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it ― Albert Einstein Jim Manske's insight: How can we use the power of our mind to support our well-being? No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Why war? It's a question Americans should be asking. Why war? It's a question Americans should be asking. \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it As the United States charges once more into war, little debate has centered on the actual utility of war. Instead, policymakers and pundits have focused their comments on combating the latest danger to our nation and its interests as posed by Islamic State militants. Jim Manske's insight: Ever since childhood, the "utility" of war has puzzled me. It seemed to me that every war we studied in school eventually subsided into relative peace. I wondered, given that, why not go for the peace sooner rather than later... Now, we have become conditioned to accept a constant war-footing...sending young men and women into harm's way at great expense of individual and collective well-being... In the world I want to live in, the military would be solely for implementing the protective use of force, and used only after all attempts at connection, understanding and mutuality have been exhausted. Oy vey. No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Fringe Benefits of Appreciating Beauty and Excellence: Sherri Fisher Fringe Benefits of Appreciating Beauty and Excellence: Sherri Fisher \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Today, as I do on most mornings, I pop my earbuds in and take a brisk walk along a route in my neighborhood. I’m moving to the beat of an excellent playlist of my own choosing. The stiff damp wind is out of the east. Though I live more than fifteen miles from the nearest beach, from the scent of the blowing mist I can imagine that the surf is crashing in just a few blocks away. It is still early, and the lead-gray sky is made darker in the places where the fog is still thick. By most people’s standards it is not a beautiful day. None of the other walkers, runners or bike riders greets me with, “Gorgeous day, isn’t it?” Even the usually perky Puggle dog on my block sits quietly on his front steps among the first colored leaves that have fallen from a hundred year-old maple tree. Its ancient roots push up through the stone fence at the edge of the property. Just the same, I feel pleasantly filled up by the beautiful things I see, hear, smell, and feel around me. Appreciation of Beauty in Action It may be possible to take this same walk every day and not experience anything new and uplifting. But because I have the strength of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, I cannot help but notice everything from the bees buzzing in to find their place in the huge flowers of the butterfly bush to the smell of fall on the breeze to the easiness of the stride of the runner who has just passed me. In the now overgrown front garden of the next house along my walk is a tall stalk with several green milkweed pods not yet ready to pop open. Food for next year’s gorgeous Monarch butterflies, I imagine. Continuing along my usual route I come to the bank parking lot where the damp wind is blowing the scent of “eau de dumpster” my way. I pick my pace up to a jog. Another quarter of a mile down the road an antique house has the windows boarded up. A developer has uprooted all of the trees and scraped off the grass and topsoil from the property. Not long ago two families lived here with their small children and dogs. I watched them water the potted plants on stone front steps that are now missing. Who let them do this? “Who let them do this?” I ask myself with my beauty and excellence voice. As with all strengths, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence feels natural and right to the person who has it. I know that I have this strength because things that are not either beautiful or excellent (admittedly to me) push this strengths button. I remember to say to myself, “I’m having a B and E moment” when I start to feel the “ick” of disgust (the opposite of elevation) rising within me. I even have a friend who shares the strength with me, and we regularly text each other with pictures or commentary about our moments. Sources of Awe and Wonder As a strength, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence is more than just our preferences in dumpster location or local property development. According to Peterson and Seligman’s Character Strengths and Virtues, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence is “the human tendency to feel powerful self-transcendent emotions.” Awe, wonder, and elevation are elicited by the perception and contemplation of beauty and excellence. An additional way to consider Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence is to think of the pleasurable openness and awe we feel when enjoying the highly developed skills and virtues of others. This awe may be experienced in the incredible “Wow!” of watching a basketball free-throw shot go through the net without even touching the rim or the seemingly impossible leap of the soccer goalkeeper making a save. It could be the almost dumbstruck quality we feel after watching a film that has elicited so much emotion that we have nothing to say about it at first. It could be the wonder we feel when reading an author’s clarity of thought presented in a few artfully chosen words. It could be the deep admiration we feel when hearing someone thank the firefighter who rescued people and pets from a brightly burning building. A Heart Strength Unlike a more cognitive strength like curiosity, Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence has a strong set of emotions connected to it. You know that you have this strength because you feel it strongly, not just because you think, “Isn’t that lovely? I wonder who created it?” It is more than astonishment. Researchers including Ekman and Keltner have identified certain bodily responses and facial expressions such as wide-open eyes, an open mouth, goose bumps, tears, and a lump in the throat that typically accompany beauty and excellence experiences. Emmons and McCullough have found that after an elevating experience of beauty and excellence, a sense of grateful admiration wells up. In addition to things like music, art, architecture, sport, and nature, religious and spiritual experiences are often connected to Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence. This strength is a pathway for moral and spiritual advancement. A sense of the power of the divine is intimately connected with awe. The profound gratitude one feels for both the beauties of creation and the powers of the natural world are evidence of this strength. Transcending Fear and Other Benefits How do you respond to a thunderstorm? Some people might be scared by a thunderstorm while others might be awed. In those moments, the person with the strength of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence is able to transcend ego and instead be moved to an awareness of the vastness and amazement that the world has to offer. Time slows down. In such moments a person may feel drawn to future opportunities for using the strength. Developing the strength of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence gives us some added bonuses. We are more likely to feel expansive, positive, and grateful. We can savor enjoyment without feeling a need to do anything right then. Any compelling action tendencies may be delayed. As we know from Fredrickson, positive emotions broaden the possible scope of action. Those positive emotions also build a range of psychological resources. In addition, Haidt has found that elevation mediates ethical behavior. When we demonstrate elevating behavior, people that follow our actions are more likely to exhibit interpersonal fairness and self-sacrifice. An Example of Beauty and Excellence I believe that the late Chris Peterson had the strength of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence. When I was a graduate student at Penn he was my teacher and advisor. I remember hearing about the city’s Mural Arts Program from him on a chilly walk through Philadelphia while he pointed out his favorite paintings. This is their mission statement: Our process empowers artists to be change agents, stimulates dialogue about critical issues, and builds bridges of connection and understanding. Our work is created in service of a larger movement that values equity, fairness and progress across all of society. We listen with empathetic ears to understand the aspirations of our partners and participants. And through beautiful collaborative art, we provide people with the inspiration and tools to seize their own future. That feeling you now have? It is elevation, courtesy of Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence. Jim Manske's insight: Aloha, I regret not publishing to Scoop.it lately! I've been focusing on preparations for our upcoming trip to Asia, teaching NVC in Korea and Japan for the month of October. May your day be filled with Awe and Wonder! No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske The freedom found in restorative justice: The John Lash story The freedom found in restorative justice: The John Lash story \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Two things contributed to John Lash’s purpose in life as a counselor: his time in prison and restorative justice. John Lash was born in Louisiana and grew up in Valdosta, Ga. His troubled youth led to his incarceration. He had spent almost 25 years in prison after being arrested at the age of 18. Lash was introduced to the practice of Buddhism, non-violent communication and restorative justice while in prison and quickly latched onto them. “I was a very angry young man, which directly played into my crime,” said Lash. “The changes I made through mindfulness practice were a lot about recognizing how my own story and what is going on in the world often doesn't match up with reality.” Lash learned about the impact that language has in the internal world and its impact on others. He found solace in these practices and felt a need to share them with the other inmates, teaching them the non-violent skills that he was learning. In December 2009, Lash was released from prison. Upon his release, he wanted to complete his education in a field that utilized non-violent communication as well as restorative justice. Lash pursued a bachelor’s degree from Mercer University and a master’s degree in conflict management from Kennesaw State University. After some time, Lash decided to move to Athens, Ga. He wanted to bring his expertise and knowledge to his new home, so he Googled “Athens conflict” and stumbled upon the Georgia Conflict Center, where he applied to be an intern for the organization. Lash quickly progressed and became the executive director in 2013, taking over the position from former Athens Mayor Gwen O’Looney, who assumed the role in 2011 from the founder Elizabeth Loescher. Elizabeth Loescher founded the center in 1987 in Denver, Co. After 15 years of managing the organization, she decided to relocate to Athens to continue aiding in bringing peace to the city. The Georgia Conflict Center has various programs for all ages including the Peacemakers group. This group meets for eight weeks at a time to discuss nonviolent communication skills. The center also offers this group to the Athens Diversion Center, a work release center that houses nonviolent and minimum-security inmates. The center mainly focuses on restorative justice, which is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by immoral behavior. It focuses on the needs of the victim as well as the offender as an approach to justice. “We are looking to induce an empathetic understanding between the person who has caused harm and the person who they have harmed,” said Lash. “We want to work with people, since they are the experts in their own conflicts. Usually people are trying to fix others or to punish them somehow. ” Lash counsels many people who battle issues with communication. Annice Ritter was a participant in the recent Peacemakers group and Lash was able to help Ritter overcome a personal issue in her life by seeing the importance of nonviolent communication. “In the times we are living in, we need more non-violent communication,” said Ritter. Nonviolent communication is a conflict-resolution process that has benefits for both parties in a conversation. Self-empathy, empathy for others, and honest self-expression are the three aspects of communication that create harmony among people. The Georgia Conflict Center has volunteer opportunities and encourages university students to get involved to help its members. “Conflict exists in every aspect of a community - in schools, at work, at home,” said Leslie Jones, University of Georgia student and volunteer. “The Georgia Conflict Center has brought something to Athens that not many communities focus on, but all of them experience it on a daily basis. It provides members of our community with a safe space to explore conflict and discover new strategies of addressing it.” Lash believes that the Georgia Conflict Center has the ability to make Athens a better place. “We empower people to take responsibility for themselves and their conflicts by connecting with their own power of choice and responsibility for their well-being,” said Lash. We also offer support to those in conflict that isn't aimed at ‘fixing’ anyone, but instead seeks to bolster their inherent ability to express and understand meaning in the least intrusive way.” Looking back on his life, Lash is reminded that prison and restorative justice had a great impact on him and the course of his life. “I look at my life and it’s pretty miraculous,” said Lash. No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Do gut bacteria control your mind? \| KurzweilAI Do gut bacteria control your mind? \| KurzweilAI \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Bacteria within you — which outnumber your own cells about 100 times — may be affecting both your cravings and moods to get you to eat what they want, and may be driving you toward obesity. That’s the conclusion of an article published this week in the journal BioEssays by researchers from UC San Francisco,Arizona State University and University of New Mexico from a review of the recent scientific literature. How your gut microbiome may control you The diverse community of microbes, collectively known as the gut microbiome, influence human eating behavior and dietary choices to favor consumption of the particular nutrients they grow best on, rather than simply passively living off whatever nutrients we choose to send their way.Some bacterial species prefer fat, and others sugar, for instance. They vie with each other for food and to retain a niche within their ecosystem — your digestive tract — and they also often have different aims than you do when it comes to your own actions.Bacteria may influence your decisions by releasing signaling molecules into your gut. Because the gut is linked to the immune system, the endocrine system, and the nervous system, those signals could influence your physiologic and behavioral responses — and health.Bacteria may be acting through the vagus nerve, which connects 100 million nerve cells from the digestive tract to the base of the brain, changing taste receptors, producing toxins to make you feel bad, and releasing chemical rewards to make you feel good.Certain strains of bacteria increase anxious behavior (in mice).Some strains of bacteria cause stomach cancer and perhaps other cancers. What you can do (with medical guidance) Make changes in what you eat. There are measurable changes in the microbiome within 24 hours of diet change, evolving on the time scale of minutes.Take appropriate probiotics. One study showed a drink containing Lactobacillus casei improved mood in those who were feeling the lowest.Kill targeted species with specific antibiotics.Acquire specialized bacteria that digest your favorite foods. (Bacteria that digest seaweed are found in humans in Japan, where seaweed is popular in the diet.)See previous KurzweilAI posts on gut bacteria The co-authors’ study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Bonnie D. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. Jim Manske's insight: On our trip to Korea two years ago, I started eating Kimchi regularly. (There are hundreds of varieties of Kimchi consumed there other than the cabbage Kimchi commonly found in some US grocery stores.) I noticed an almost immediate positive effect on my digestive process as I increased the probiotic supply. Now, I wonder what other effects the members of my "biome" may be influencing. And I am grateful that we have learned to make our own kimchi, and our refrigerator has an abundance in the moment! No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske » Three Tips to Teach Your Child Emotional Intelligence - Jonice Webb, PhD » Three Tips to Teach Your Child Emotional Intelligence - Jonice Webb, PhD \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Emotional Intelligence is a larger factor in adult life success than general intelligence. Here are three clear guidelines for raising a child with high EI. Three Parenting Tips to Maximize Your Child’s Emotional Intelligence: Pay attention. Work hard to see your child’s true nature. What does your child like, dislike, get angry about, feel afraid of, or struggle with? Feed these observations back to your child in a non-judgmental way so that your child can see herself through your eyes, and so that she can feel how well you know her. Life Advantage: Your child will see herself reflected in your eyes, and she will know who she is. This will give her confidence in her life choices and will make her resilient to life’s challenges. Feel an emotional connection to your child. Strive to feel what your child is feeling (empathy), whether you agree with it or not. When you feel your child’s emotion, he will feel an instant bond with you. Life Advantage: Your child will learn empathy and will have healthier relationships throughout his life. Respond competently to your child’s emotional need. Do not judge your child’s feeling as right or wrong. Look beyond the feeling, to the source. Help your child name her emotion. Help her manage the emotion. Life Advantage: Your child will have a healthy relationship with his own emotions. He will naturally know that his feelings are important and how to put them into words and manage them. No parent can follow these tips perfectly, of course. This is not about perfection; it’s about making the effort. Effort in itself shows love and care. When your child sees you trying to understand his feelings or feel his feelings, whether you succeed or not, he receives a powerful message: Your feelings matter to me. And what your child will hear: You matter. No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Play Doesn't End With Childhood: Why Adults Need Recess Too Play Doesn't End With Childhood: Why Adults Need Recess Too \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Play among children is vital for their social development. So what's in it for adults? Jim Manske's insight: Marshall once said something like, "Don't do it if it isn't play." And as Wes Taylor says, "Play on!" No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske The Happiness Equation: It Can Predict How Good You Will Feel Moment-by-Moment — PsyBlog The Happiness Equation: It Can Predict How Good You Will Feel Moment-by-Moment — PsyBlog \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it The vital role expectations play in our happiness is revealed by data collected from 18,420 people worldwide. Jim Manske's insight: This confirms my direct experience...my expectations matter! Furthermore, my happiness can be enhance when I am willing to reveal my expectations in a vulnerable way AND empathize with the unexpressed expectations of others! No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Jews and Arabs Refuse to Be Enemies: A Compassionate Response to War - ELISHA GOLDSTEIN, PH.D. Jews and Arabs Refuse to Be Enemies: A Compassionate Response to War - ELISHA GOLDSTEIN, PH.D. \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” At some point in our development we learn to see others through a lens of fear and hate. Because the brain is so malleable in our younger years these beliefs become that much more ingrained and as we grow older the skew of our lens becomes hardened. When it comes to the Middle East, it seems there is a collective lens that’s been hardened through history that Arabs and Jews have an irreconcilable relationship. There seems to be a social construction of hopelessness that we’re all entranced in. But if hate and ignorance are learned, is it possible they can be unlearned? The reality is nobody has “the answer” to this conflict and the historical trauma on both sides runs deep. When safety feels threatened, as is a continual reality there, it’s a natural survival reaction to close down the mind and heart in order to protect against vulnerability and default to a fight or flight response. If someone was shooting arrows at you, you’d put up your shield and either run or eventually shoot back. At the same time, I know there are many people on both sides, if not the majority, that see the common humanity between each other, want deeply to feel safe and protected, and long to live in peace. From thoughts come actions and from actions comes consequences. Read through the intentions below in the following “Compassionate Peace Practice.” Set your judgments aside for a moment and see if you can bring them into your heart and mind when considering all those who are suffering in this war. A Compassionate Peace Practice (Share Generously): “May all those who have suffered violence and all those who have committed violence feel safe and protected from inner and outer harm (because if they did feel safe they’d be less like to commit violent acts).” “May all those in conflict be awakened to their common humanity.” “May all those in conflict be free from hatred and the delusion of separateness.” “May all people with hate in their hearts release this burden and learn to forgive.” “May we all be free from the fear that keeps us stuck in destructive cycles of conflict.” “May we all live in peace.” Almost everyone is touched by this conflict and it is often and emotionally stirring subject to even bring up. Please share your intentions, thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interaction creates a living wisdom for us all to benefit from. No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Pay It Back and Pay It Forward~Glen Geher, Ph.D. Pay It Back and Pay It Forward~Glen Geher, Ph.D. \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it One of the single greatest advances in the evolutionary behavioral sciences in the past several decades can be described as the intellectual bursting of the “selfishness” dam. In 1976, renowned biologist, thinker, and writer, Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene (by Oxford University Press). This book is, essentially, a highly accessible and powerful summary of Darwin’s ideas on evolution — applied largely (but not fully) to several classes of animal behavior (such as the mating habits of the praying mantis, the murderous nature of emperor penguins, and the helpful nature of vampire bats). This book is truly awesome and you should put it near the top of your list if you have any interest in the world around you and haven’t yet read this significant work. One intellectual consequence of Dawkins’ provocative title was a focus on the many connotations of the term selfish. Dawkins meant this term in a very specific sense, literally meaning that a “selfish gene” is a gene that codes for qualities of an organism that increase the likelihood of survival and/or reproductive success. In short, replicating genes out-exist non-replicating (or poorly replicating) genes in the future of a species. This is really all he meant. But folks who followed his work elaborated. It made sense to many to think of an animal such as a human, then, as a primarily selfish being. After all, the reasoning goes, if genes that exist are selfish, then products of genes, such as humans, must be too. And this fallacious reasoning drove much in the way of (a) how evolutionary science has progressed since the publication of The Selfish Gene and (b) how evolution (now seen by many as espousing a “red in tooth and claw” take on our kind), has taken on something of a cold angle on what it means to be any kind of organism, including a human. There is good news and bad news that follow up on The Selfish Gene. The bad news is that this misinterpretation (or overly applied extension) of Darwin’s metaphor has not helped work in the evolutionary sciences with PR issues. People from the outside looking in often think, “Oh, that evolution stuff, isn’t that the stuff that says we are animals and that we all want to kill each other for our own selfish gain?” Not so pleasant a portrait. I can see why someone might not like that! The good news follows: An amazing thing about this field in the past several decades has been the landslide of research that sheds light on the positives of human nature from an evolutionary perspective (SeeGeher, 2014). We can almost think of this as the dawn of a potential field we could call Positive Evolutionary Psychology (yup, PEP!). Here are just a few directions that the science in evolutionary psychology has taken which paints humans as loving, helpful, and self-sacrificing: 1. Paying It Back: Or giving back to others who have given to you in some important way, is hugely significant from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. Trivers’ (1971) landmark work on the topic of reciprocal altruism demonstrated in relatively long-lived species such as our own, the tendency for altruism among-non kin may evolve, such as people helping others, even strangers. Sometimes this kind of help is “paying it back,” or reciprocating altruistic acts that have come to new altruists in a small-social community. Not paying back altruism is socially dangerous — in your social ecosystem, my social ecosystem, and in the social ecosystems of pre-agrarian humans all around the globe. We’ve evolved to pay it back. 2. Paying It Forward: This is a term that’s been thrown around a lot in recent years, and I love it! It essentially says to give to others — not to reciprocate them for having helped you in the past, but to help them proactively so that they are on good footing moving forward. Maybe they will help you in the future. Maybe they will help others close to you (kin, friends, etc.), in the future. Maybe they will help the broader community in the future. Your helping them proactively sets the stage for any of these outcomes, all of which have potential to positively influence you and your kin and your social network. Paying it forward is seen positively in social communities; it helps people develop reputations as altruists or helpers or, more simply, as folks whom can be relied upon. And, without question, such a reputation is adaptive and leads to be positive outcomes (even if indirectly) for the individual who chooses to pay it forward. Think of joining a Big Brother, Big Sister program when you’re in your mid-20s (as I did when I was a graduate student in NH). In these kinds of programs, you find a young child (usually around 7 years old) who just needs a little boost, a little help, some older figure to lean on and talk to. For instance, when I lived in NH in the 1990s, I met regularly with 7-year-old Jacob. Great kid, dad not so much in the picture, benefited from having some kind of young adult male role model. We did what he wanted to do — movies, sledding, mini-golf, swimming, etc. We talked and we’ve stay in touch still. He’s now a graduate of the University of Vermont and is an ace at computers; for him, the sky is the limit. My helping him when he was young was paying it forward; and when I see how well he’s done, I’m pretty darn glad that I put my time in to get to know Jacob. 3. Loving Selflessly: An enormous body of work on the evolutionary psychology of love that has recently come out (e.g., Fisher, 1993) has demonstrated how strong our love for another can be. And this kind of love can be selfless. Further, this kind of love is an important part of our evolutionary heritage. Human offspring are altricial (helpless), and acquiring help from multiple adults (think monogamous pair of adults) is hugely beneficial to successful development. And when the adults in that pair are fully aligned in their vision of family, which benefits from them being truly in love with one another, parenting will thrive. Love, an inherently selfless act, is a foundational part of the human evolutionary story. Did Dawkin’s juggernaut of a term, Selfish Gene, imply that all features of all organisms are selfish in the colloquial sense? Absolutely not. He simply meant that qualities of organisms that lead to gene replication are likely, mathematically, to out-exist qualities that do not facilitate such replication. In complex, socially oriented, and long-lived critters like us, it’s very often the case that selfless, other-oriented behaviors (such as paying it back, paying it forward, or loving another in a selfless manner) are exactly the highly evolved things that make us human and these are the qualities we share with humans in all corners of the globe. To some extent, selfish genes have, in the case of humans, created altruistic apes who focus largely on what they can do to help others and to build strong and positive communities. This sounds a little like positive evolutionary psychology* to me! No comment yet. Rescooped by Jim Manske from Empathy and Compassion Three Ways Leaders Can Listen with More Empathy Three Ways Leaders Can Listen with More Empathy \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Study after study has shown that listening is critical to leadership effectiveness. So, why are so few leaders good at it? Too often, leaders seek to take command, direct conversations, talk too much, or worry about what they will say next in defense or rebuttal. The ability and willingness to listen with empathy is often what sets a leader apart. Hearing words is not adequate; the leader truly needs to work at understanding the position and perspective of the others involved in the conversation. In a recent interview, Paul Bennett, Chief Creative Officer at IDEO, advises leaders to listen more and ask the right question. Bennett shared that “for most of my twenties I assumed that the world was more interested in me than I was in it, so I spent most of my time talking, usually in a quite uninformed way, about whatever I thought, rushing to be clever, thinking about what I was going to say to someone rather than listening to what they were saying to me.” by John Coleman Via Edwin Rutsch Chris Brown's curator insight, July 16, 3:38 PM A nice article that discusses three behaviors in empathic listening. Each of these are areas that we should focus on to improve our connection through communications. Recognize verbal and non-verbal cues. Process what you hear/see Respond thoughtfully Be sure to link to the article for more in depth information. Well worth the time to read. donhornsby's curator insight, July 16, 6:12 PM (From the article): Overall, it is important for leaders to recognize the multidimensionality of empathetic listening and engage in all forms of behaviors. Among its benefits, empathic listening builds trust and respect, enables people to reveal their emotions–including tensions, facilitates openness of information sharing, and creates an environment that encourages collaborative problem-solving. Deborah Orlowski, Ph.D.'s curator insight, July 17, 12:11 PM Coleman suggests 3 simple ways anyone can be a more effective listener. They seem self-evident but I wonder how often we actually do them? Why not try them for yourself. If you think you're already practicing them, check yourself to make sure you really are, not just thinking you are! Scooped by Jim Manske Compassion is painful. That’s how you know it’s working. \| The Bloggess Compassion is painful. That’s how you know it’s working. \| The Bloggess \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it I’m sad about last night for a lot of reasons. And if you are human, and allow yourself to be so, then you probably are too. Maybe it’s the verdict that upset you, or the destruction afterwards, or the long and difficult path that has led us here and has shown us we have so much further to go before we get to the place where we want to be…a place where kindness and compassion and vulnerability are the things which can be lauded and seen and encouraged and felt. Or maybe, like me, you’re upset about all of those things and you feel too defeated to want to care anymore. But if you’re like me, you can’t switch those emotions off. It’s so much easier to turn those feelings of vulnerability and hurt into a shield of rage. Rage feels powerful and strong. It feels good. And rage isimportant. But not at the cost of compassion. If, like me, today you woke up weary and wanting to become numb, or turn away, or lash out angrily at everyone involved then I feel you. But I encourage you to keep compassion at the forefront. Remember humanity. Remember that your words and actions make a difference. Remember that the majority of us are so much better than the worse things we see in the news, and that so many of us are leading a quiet revolution to be kind, and compassionate, and to listen to the hurt, and amplify the things that will make a positive difference in our world. It’s a quiet revolution that will never be covered on CNN. It’s a movement of people who redirect anger to kindness. Who listen even when it’s painful. Who take the hurt of others on ourselves and feel it so that we can become better people. Who wade into horrible online threads and inject compassion and reason because we know that it can become contagious if done the right way. Who hope that reason and empathy will somehow lead to a place which is safer for our children and grandchildren. Jim Manske's insight: May we all listen and respond to the alarm bells ringing. May we all wake up and treat each other as one. As Marshall reminded us, "Independence is an illusion." No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske German village plays prank on neo-Nazis German village plays prank on neo-Nazis \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it News, World News: Residents of Wunsiedel, where Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess is buried, are tired of yearly invasion of neo Nazis to their village, so they decide neo-Nazis can march for a good cause. Jim Manske's insight: Sounds like stealthy social change. ;) No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Is It Possible to Parent Without Threats or Coercion? Is It Possible to Parent Without Threats or Coercion? \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Filmmaker Ana Joanes talks about her new film, Taking Our Places Jim Manske's insight: Yay! Celebrating some global coverage of NVC-based parenting! Looking forward to reconnecting with the parents of Maui on Tuesday, November 11 at 6 pm at Kalama School! No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Scientists Mapped 8,000 Galaxies Surrounding Us And Found This Amazing Discovery Jim Manske's insight: I am happy to share a common address (Laniakea) with you! No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske People’s Suprising Empathy With The Pain of Their Enemies — PsyBlog People’s Suprising Empathy With The Pain of Their Enemies — PsyBlog \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it The part of the brain that is involved in empathising with the pain of others is more highly activated by seeing the suffering of hateful people than those we like, a recent study finds. While we might imagine we would empathise more with the suffering of those we like, we may focus on the hateful person’s pain because we need to monitor our enemies carefully. Dr. Lisa Aziz-Zadeh, who led the study, said: “When you watch an action movie and the bad guy appears to be defeated, the moment of his demise draws our focus intensely. We watch him closely to see whether he’s really down for the count, because it’s critical for predicting his potential for retribution in the future.” The brain imaging study examined how the brain’s ‘pain matrix’ reacts to seeing people’s suffering (Fox et al., 2013). The ‘pain matrix’ refers to a network of structures in the brain — including the insula cortex and the anterior cingulate — which activate when we see another person suffer. It is thought that the pain matrix relates to how we empathise with others. For the study, the researchers specifically chose Jewish participants and showed them videos of anti-Semitic individuals in pain, as well as videos of non-racist, more likeable individuals in pain. Their brains were scanned using fMRI to measure the activity of the pain matrix. The results revealed that the Jewish participants’ pain matrices were activated more when they saw the anti-Semitic individuals in pain. At the same time, however, the reward centres of the brain were more active for participants when they saw the anti-Semites in pain. This suggests they were probably experiencing a little schadenfreude(pleasure derived from the pain of others). The study’s authors conclude: “These results highlight a deep and disquieting aspect of the human experience…we see evidence supporting the notion that viewing threatening, hateful people in pain elicits elevated attention to the person in pain in addition to an element of pleasure which keeps your friend’s pain close, but your enemy’s closer.” No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Curiosity Is as Important as Intelligence Curiosity Is as Important as Intelligence \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it There seems to be wide support for the idea that we are living in an “age of complexity”, which implies that the world has never been more intricate. This idea is based on the rapid pace of technological changes, and the vast amount of information that we are generating (the two are related). Yet consider that philosophers like Leibniz (17th century) and Diderot (18th century) were already complaining about information overload. The “horrible mass of books” they referred to may have represented only a tiny portion of what we know today, but much of what we know today will be equally insignificant to future generations. In any event, the relative complexity of different eras is of little matter to the person who is simply struggling to cope with it in everyday life. So perhaps the right question is not “Is this era more complex?” but “Why are some people more able to manage complexity?” Although complexity is context-dependent, it is also determined by a person’s disposition. In particular, there are three key psychological qualities that enhance our ability to manage complexity: 1. IQ: As most people know, IQ stands for intellectual quotient and refers to mental ability. What fewer people know, or like to accept, is that IQ does affect a wide range of real-world outcomes, such as job performance and objective career success. The main reason is that higher levels of IQ enable people to learn and solve novel problems faster. At face value, IQ tests seem quite abstract, mathematical, and disconnected from everyday life problems, yet they are a powerful tool to predict our ability to manage complexity. In fact, IQ is a much stronger predictor of performance on complex tasks than on simple ones. Complex environments are richer in information, which creates more cognitive load and demands more brainpower or deliberate thinking from us; we cannot navigate them in autopilot (or Kahneman’s system 1 thinking). IQ is a measure of that brainpower, just like megabytes or processing speed are a measure of the operations a computer can perform, and at what speed. Unsurprisingly, there is a substantial correlation between IQ and working memory, our mental capacity for handling multiple pieces of temporary information at once. Try memorizing a phone number while asking someone for directions and remembering your shopping list, and you will get a good sense of your IQ. (Unfortunately, research shows that working memory training does not enhance our long-term ability to deal with complexity, though some evidence suggests that it delays mental decline in older people, as per the “use it or lose it” theory.) 2) EQ: EQ stands for emotional quotient and concerns our ability to perceive, control, and express emotions. EQ relates to complexity management in three main ways. First, individuals with higher EQ are less susceptible to stress and anxiety. Since complex situations are resourceful and demanding, they are likely to induce pressure and stress, but high EQ acts as a buffer. Second, EQ is a key ingredient of interpersonal skills, which means that people with higher EQ are better equipped to navigate complex organizational politics and advance in their careers. Indeed, even in today’s hyper-connected world what most employers look for is not technical expertise, but soft skills, especially when it comes to management and leadership roles. Third, people with higher EQ tend to be more entrepreneurial, so they are more proactive at exploiting opportunities, taking risks, and turning creative ideas into actual innovations. All this makes EQ an important quality for adapting to uncertain, unpredictable, and complex environments. 3) CQ: CQ stands for curiosity quotient and concerns having a hungry mind. People with higher CQ are more inquisitive and open to new experiences. They find novelty exciting and are quickly bored with routine. They tend to generate many original ideas and are counter-conformist. It has not been as deeply studied as EQ and IQ, but there’s some evidence to suggest it is just as important when it comes to managing complexity in two major ways. First, individuals with higher CQ are generally more tolerant of ambiguity. This nuanced, sophisticated, subtle thinking style defines the very essence of complexity. Second, CQ leads to higher levels of intellectual investment and knowledge acquisition over time, especially in formal domains of education, such as science and art (note: this is of course different from IQ’s measurement of raw intellectual horsepower). Knowledge and expertise, much like experience, translate complex situations into familiar ones, so CQ is the ultimate tool to produce simple solutions for complex problems. Although IQ is hard to coach, EQ and CQ can be developed. As Albert Einstein famously said: ““I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske The Land of Empathy and Wonder The Land of Empathy and Wonder \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it The only thing important in my imagined land is a person's heart. And his empathy. And his ability to find wonder.... Jim Manske's insight: Please consider joining us on Saturday, 4 pm PT for a Taste of Compassionate Leadership, our free monthly teleclass We will focus on "Be the Change!". To register: http://myaccount.maestroconference.com/conference/register/MRUM54RW0HC2PWT No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Sweden celebrates 200 years of peace - Solveig Rundquist Sweden celebrates 200 years of peace - Solveig Rundquist \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Precisely 200 years ago, on August 15th, 1814, Sweden entered a new era of peace. The last battle took its final breath on August 14th after the signing of the Convention of Moss, ending a brief war with Norway sparked by the nation declaring its independence. The war would be Sweden's last. "Sweden as a nation has not participated in war for 200 years," Peter Wallensteen, senior professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, told The Local. How has Sweden managed to stayed out of war for two entire centuries? "Primarily by luck," Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told The Local on Friday. Wallensteen pointed out that Sweden has contributed forces to UN peacekeeping operations, has an active military and a thriving arms industry, and that the definition of peace is debatable. Nor does avoiding war mean that Sweden is officially neutral. Sweden left its policy of neutrality when it joined the EU in 1995, opting instead for "non-alignment". "But there is an absence of the use of political violence in the country, no international wars, no civil wars, and no military coups," Wallensteen explained. Due to Switzerland's unfortunate civil war in 1847, Wallensteen said, Sweden's tally even beats the capital of neutrality. All of the Scandinavian nations had a chance at taking the prize longest reign of peace, Wallensteen said, since they stayed out of the first world war. It was during World War II that things started falling apart. Sweden never officially took a side in World War II - but the nation has received harsh international criticism for letting the Nazis use Swedish railways to travel to and from Germany and Finland from invaded neighbour Norway, questioning the image of neutrality and indeed casting a light of shame and cowardice upon the country. But historians say Sweden did not favour Germany. Rather, Sweden took the most non-confrontational stance it could. During the war posters were hung on building walls with a yellow and blue tiger, and the words "en svensk tiger" - translating both as "a Swedish tiger" and "a Swede keeps his mouth shut". According to Wallensteen, this attitude is not native, but learned. "Politicians realized as far back as 1905, after the treaty with Norway, that war creates lasting animosity. But solutions create lasting cooperation where everybody benefits." Today Swedes have a reputation for being reserved and non-confrontational. How did the war-faring Vikings and mighty kings of the late Empire of Sweden transform into humble striped cats? "I think that Swedes have learned it doesn't pay to engage in violent conflict," Wallensteen told The Local. "There is an attitude of strong conflict awareness. There is a willingness to find solutions that work, solutions that are pragmatic, practical, and rational." The Swedish climate of compromise, Wallensteen said, grew from experience. "People do take a stand, but they do not take a stand so incompatible with others that discussion becomes impossible. Due to long historical experience, Swedes are willing to open up to negotiation." Wallensteen said that the paradigm shift made a difference not just on the international scale and in peace-keeping issues, but also on the domestic front. "I think there was a cultural shift away from viewing war as honourable and great to a much more civilian understanding of what is good in society," Wallensteen said. "And in the Swedish case that means work hard, develop new industries, build welfare, be involved in national affairs... These kinds of values have gradually become more important than being engaged in military operations." But will the "peace" - or simply war avoidance - continue? "Peace must be created, secured, and continuously nurtured by dialogue and diplomacy," Bildt told The Local. "Prediction is difficult," Wallensteen said after brief hesitation. "But I hope so. There is an atmosphere of inclusivity, a willingness in Sweden to integrate everyone and build a tolerant society." Sweden's terror threat level has remained "high" since a botched suicide bombing in Stockholm in 2010. Reverberations from the riots of 2013 are still being felt. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, and an increasing number of Swedes are engaging in violent extremism abroad. "All that was happening before as well," Wallensteen remarked. "The important thing is how society as a whole reacts to it - and society is clearly against it and tries to make counter moves. In the riots, for instance, counter moves include integration projects instead of sending in police. It's a classical Swedish way of dealing with things." Wallensteen said it would be interesting to see how the extremist Swedes fighting abroad would be handled. "But again, I think the solution is to think about it in terms of prevention, what went wrong, and what we need to do better." Foreign Minister Carl Bildt stressed that peace in Sweden is not the only priority in the globalized society of today, however - and Sweden cannot float on the status quo, but must engage actively to continue peace."Let's not forget that peace is far away in many places," Bildt told The Local. "Europe is in the most difficult strategic times that I can remember. The situation is extremely fragile to the east and to the south. The Syrian war has created a massive humanitarian disaster, and the recent developments in Iraq are also alarming." "In this respect, let's hope the coming 200 years will be more successful for the world than the previous ones." No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske New Scientific Study: Being Honest Improved Health~Anita Kelly, Ph.D. New Scientific Study: Being Honest Improved Health~Anita Kelly, Ph.D. \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Eighteen hours ago, I gave a presentation at the national convention of the American Psychological Association here in Washington DC. It was on the results from the newest study from my Science of Honesty project with co-author Lijuan Wang. She too is a professor at the University of Notre Dame. The design of the study, which we just finished last week, was simple. Seventy-two healthy adults (average age of 41 years) were recruited through newspapers in the South Bend community. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a Sincerity group and a Control group. Both groups came to my laboratory at the University of Notre Dame every week for 5 weeks to complete polygraph tests and anonymous health measures. Whereas the Control group was told nothing of the following, the Sincerity group was told: "Throughout every day of the next 5 weeks, you must speak honestly, truthfully, and sincerely -- not only about the big things, but also about the small things, such as why you were late. You must always mean what you say in situations where your statements are to be taken seriously, as opposed to when joking or obviously exaggerating. While you certainly can choose not to answer questions, you must always mean what you say.” What was so amazing is that in the 5th and final week, the Sincerity group reported significantly fewer physical health complaints than did the Control group. Specifically, they had experienced 7 fewer symptoms such as sore throats, headaches, nausea that week. Because the only difference between the two groups was the sincerity instructions, we can conclude that these instructions actually caused the health benefit. Ever since the fall, I too have been following these instructions. Normally get 8 hours of sleep and have 5-7 colds in a winter. Now at only 3 hours of sleep, I have been sick zero times since the fall. Thus, I could not hold off on telling you about the results. The impact is so compelling that I urge you to try it. It might not be easy to “always mean what you say”. You might find that you have to go back and correct some of the things that pop out of your mouth. But don’t let that discourage you. Being sincere is a process. You will get there with some practice. And when you do, you will see that you are becoming more humble, more open to learning, and less sensitive to rejection. Being sincere brings you closer to the decent people you know, pushes away the nay sayers, and allows you to feel a certain hopefulness about the world. To the extent that you experience these, I believe you too will have profound health benefits. You are more than welcome to post your progress in the comments here. I would love to read them; and I believe it will help inspire other readers to stay the course with you. Jim Manske's insight: Telling the truth frees me from having to keep track of deceptions! IT frees my heart from the thought that there is an "other" to hide from. I also enjoy the acknowledgment of autonomy...I do not "have to" tell anybody anything, AND I can cultivate openness and willingness to say the truth, choosing to speak the truth in the service of connection and love. No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Happiness Equation Reveals Key to Cheery Life Happiness Equation Reveals Key to Cheery Life \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it By studying how people respond to recent events in their lives, researchers have developed a mathematical formula that can predict individuals' happiness. Jim Manske's insight: Amazing how we humans love to quantify even the unQuantifiable! No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske A Restorative Response to MH17 \| Charles Eisenstein A Restorative Response to MH17 \| Charles Eisenstein \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it Aren’t they awful? Aren’t they appalling? How could they? They must be monstrous, evil, inhuman. The only way to deal with such people is to stand up to them, destroy them, send them a message, take a stand, deter them, show them it isn’t acceptable, hold them to account. Any other response is soft, weak, naïve. How many times have we heard this narrative repeated? A horrible event occurs: the downing of a jetliner, the murder of three Israeli teenagers, the destruction of the twin towers, gas attacks in Syria… and immediately the press and political classes pump up the narrative that whoever committed this atrocity did so because they are bad people – bad people who implicate a whole class of bad people that must be overcome with force. The diagnosis is simple – evil – and the solution is straightforward – force and the threat of force. In the case of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, we see the usual formula in action. They shot down a jetliner! They knew what they were doing! Then they covered it up! And they’ve taken the flight recorders! The rebels are destroying the evidence! Putin bears direct responsibility! One gets the impression of a band of gibbering fiends, rubbing their hands together in glee as they celebrate mass murder. That the MH17 narrative outlined above suits U.S. geopolitical ambitions is no secret (see Patrick Smith’s forthright and brave article for a taste, as well as this item-by-item account of the propaganda efforts to construct that narrative). Beyond that, it also conforms to a deeper, less obvious mythology that divides the world into good and evil (always putting oneself and one’s in-group on the side of good) and that seeks to improve the world by conquering evil. This is a kind of empire-justifying meta-narrative that we see all the time, for example in the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, in discourse about criminal justice and immigration, in the militarization of police, in the justification for mass surveillance… the world is a place of danger and threat, and that security and well-being comes through being in control. (We see it as well, for that matter, in our dominant systems of medicine, education, and agriculture.) Fail to go along with that view, and you are named soft, naïve, unrealistic, a liberal, a dupe. Should you question it publicly, you are also an impediment to a foreign policy that sees America as Good and any opposition to “U.S. interests” as proof of evil. There is an alternative view that doesn’t dehumanize the perpetrators of atrocities and render them into cartoonish villains of the type that appear in James Bond movies. It says that evil is not an elemental aspect of the human psyche, but is the product of context. It therefore seeks first to understand. What is the context? What were the circumstances from which it seemed right for a human being to launch the missile? Ultimately it comes down to the question, “What would it take for me to have made the same choice, were I in that person’s shoes?” That is what I mean by understanding, or compassion. Of course, sometimes it may elude us, and sometimes even achieving it, we may not see the possibility of anything but a force-based response. Nonetheless, to see violence as arising from context invites a different first reaction: rather than to find the one to blame, it is to seek understanding. Barely mentioned in most of the articles in the mainstream media is the information that the missile crew thought they were downing a Ukranian military transport plane. It was similar to the American downing of Iranian Airlines Flight 655 in 1988, resulting in nearly identical loss of life. That incident was “deeply regretted” by the United States, but nowhere was it treated as a casus belli or cause for sanctions against the U.S. It was understood that in tense military situations, horrible things happen. Does it sound like I am excusing the act? Am I saying we should do nothing about it? Only if one equates “doing something” with punishment. Ah, but if we don’t punish, then nothing will deter such acts in the future, right? Well, that is true if the reason for such acts is that the perpetrators are just evil. But if they are not, if in fact they are acting as human beings in such circumstances act, then another kind of response might be warranted. After all, the dehumanization of the perpetrator is of a kind with the dehumanization of the enemy, of the Other, that motivates and justifies war in the first place. We have been fighting wars to overcome evil for a very long time. This year is the 100th anniversary of World War One, the “war to end all wars.” Given the legacy of that failure, by now one would think we would try another approach. In that spirit, let me offer a modest proposal for how to deal with the MH17 tragedy. First, announce that those responsible for launching the missile will be immune to any prosecution or punishment if they agree to participate in a Restorative Circle process. Then, gather them together with families of the victims, representatives of the warring sides, and observers from around the world. In the Restorative Circle, each involved party tells his or her story, and agrees to listen to the stories of everyone else. Each has a chance to show their feelings and have their feelings witnessed. This proposal applies equally if the airliner downing were the doing of elements in the Ukrainian government (while there are some indications of this, I am skeptical – most conspiracy theories underestimate the power of human bureaucratic incompetence and folly.) If that is the case, we might be tempted to turn the same tactics of demonization toward the perpetrators of the tragedy, and not see that they, too, were acting from a story in which what they did seemed justified for the sake of a greater good. Ancient circle practices for addressing conflict, revived today by people like Dominic Barter, breaks the cycle of violence, judgement, dehumanization, and retribution. It is a very powerful experience. Wait, you might say, the perpetrators haven’t been punished! True, they have not. But what is the goal of punishment? One is to stop them from doing it again, but confronting the agony of the victims’ families in a circle held with non-judgmental compassion is life-changing. The second goal of punishment is to deter others from committing similar crimes. But that goal depends mostly on the supposed evil of the criminal, who is assumed to be making some kind of self-interested calculation before committing the crime. Come on, really? Is anyone going to think, “Well, I’d sure like to shoot down this jetliner, but I might get executed so I’d better not?” I think a far better deterrent to violence is to see, up close, the humanity of those we have dehumanized. Witnessing a Restorative Circle accomplishes that. If you discard this proposal as naïve, you are surely in good company. Consider though: what have been the results of thousands of years of war and punishment? Have we ever tried this before for an incident of geopolitical importance? Imagine the effect on the world if we paused from battle and,with the whole world watching, created a space for shared grief, forgiveness, and repentance? It would be an audacious experiment. I can’t guarantee it would “work,” but we’ve been trying the alternative – the war on evil – for thousands of years. The hope is that someday we might win the war on evil and the world will finally be a better place. To do that, we have to be more vigilant, more efficient… for example, we can collect data on every human being on the planet, constantly monitor their whereabouts, and develop the capacity to kill them with the press of a button. That way, evil will have no chance. At the same time, we can educate evil out of people as much as possible and lock up the incorrigible. A good plan. Unfortunately, as even those who implement it know, the war on evil will never succeed. We soldier on with the weary knowledge that the best we can do is stem the tide through a ceaseless and unwinnable struggle. This is just the way the world is; it is the human condition. Is it though? Occasionally we catch glimpses of a different possibility: moments of unexpected forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, or a change of heart in situations where no one could reasonably expect anything but the same old cycles of violence. Are we to dismiss these as anomalies? Exceptions to human nature? Or could it be that they point to something real, a more beautiful world, if only we would accept their invitation? There is no formula for how to do that, or rather, there are many formulas, processes, and practices. All of them start with a perception: that we all share fundamental needs; that evil is a product of circumstances; that if I were in the totality of your circumstances, my brother, I would do as you do; that we are all in this together. I do not, of course, expect any government leader to read this article and say, Hey, let’s give it a try. My purpose is to insinuate this way of thinking a little more deeply into the minds of whoever reads it, because its time will come. After thousands of years, we are growing tired of the war on the Other in all its permutations. The time of no enemies is coming, when we realize that we are all in this together and that each one of us is capable of any act. No comment yet. Scooped by Jim Manske Can Narcissists Learn Empathy? ~Mike Bunderant Can Narcissists Learn Empathy? ~Mike Bunderant \| Radical Compassion \| Scoop.it In a recent study, researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Surrey have attempted to find out whether patients suffering from narcissism can learn to show empathy for another person’s suffering. Their study, which is being published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, has shown that it may be possible. One of the main hallmarks of narcissism is a lack of empathy for others. This has a negative effect on their personal relationships, social interaction, and social behaviors. In most cases, this is because their lack of empathy means that they are unconcerned with the effect their actions have on others. For this study, researchers chose to focus on patients who exhibit subclinical narcissism. This diagnosis is given to patients who are psychologically healthy while still exhibiting some narcissistic traits. This form of narcissism is more common than narcissistic personality disorder. To examine whether narcissists could be capable of empathizing with another person’s suffering, they asked study participants to read an excerpt describing the break up of a relationship. No matter how severe the hypothetical scenario was, high-narcissists did not show any empathy for the subject. This was true even in situations where the subject of the excerpt suffered overwhelming depression. Researchers then asked study participants to take the perspective of the target person. For example, female participants were shown a short documentary that described another woman’s experience with domestic violence. The participants were asked to imagine feeling the emotions of the woman while watching the video. In this case, high-narcissists reported much higher empathy for the woman. Finally, participants were tested to see if they could be moved physiologically as well as emotionally. In previous studies it has been noted that increases in heart rate indicate an empathic response. Researchers found that while high-narcissists usually showed a significantly lower heart rate when exposed to another person’s distress, during the perspective-taking exercise they responded with the same level of increased heart rate as low-narcissists. This indicates that it may be possible for narcissists to empathize with others in the correct circumstances. They key is encouraging them to consider the situations from another point of view. Are you living with a narcissist? If so, it is important to encourage him or her to adopt a different perspective before expecting empathy. Within his or her default point of view, empathy cannot flow. The challenge is how to get the narcissistic individual to adopt a new perspective. Yet, you can help any self-centered individual to imagine another person in his or her mind’s eye. Then ask the subject to imagine becoming that other person, feeling what you imagine they are feeling. These kinds of direct interventions have been common in NLP training for decades. If you cannot encourage your narcissistic partner to take a new perspective, but demand empathy anyway, then you can count on feeling dismissed or rejected. We learn from the above-mentioned study that consciously identifying with another person is the critical key to empathy. And this is true for all of us. Many people identify with the perspective of others naturally. Narcissistic individuals do not do it at all. It’s a tool that they probably don’t even know they have. No comment yet.
Dead tunes, by Karl Cross (Page 1 of 18) Rate this Story (5 best) SUMMARY: The crazy old bartender. The average joe who hit it lucky. A writer with a strange secret. A story set in a world of disturbing proportions with villians that don't entirely want to die. Johnny laughed a forced little cackle, not fake, far from it in fact. It was forced in the sense that it had came from nowhere, a little madness of the moment as he sped around the corner in his brand new BMW ZM4 roadster. It's silver paint job sparkled in the moon light while Johnny cracked open the last beer from the now completely consumed six packs that had been with him at the beginning of his journey. The brand was a good one: wizer's smooth. And that wasn't just any old beer. That was a boutique beer. The taste testified to its cost magnificently as did its effect. Johnny had never felt so tanked up in his life although in fairness not all of it was due to the beer. A few weeks ago Johnny had a little wind fall; three hundred million to be precise. He never thought in his wildest dreams that his weekly lottery tickets would ever amount to something but then who does? The first thing Johnny did when he found out was drink, that had been three weeks ago and he still hadn't stopped. As far as Johnny was concerned life was now his own personal party. Madness was the word that perfectly described the scene he was caught in at that moment the laugh escaped him, reckless would have been another. That's how he'd got here. Four day's ago he'd brought the roadster to take his son out (There's nothing quite like driving up to your ex wife's house in a brand new car reeking of money) and a few hours ago he'd decided to take a little drive. A little drive had turned into a road trip, then in to a cross country drinking spree. Johnny had left all he knew a few hours ago and was in the middle of nowhere. If Johnny had not been so drunk perhaps common sense or his own deep rooted primal fears would have turned his course back homeward. He had never ventured far from Edmonton with its neatly arranged streets and plainly identical houses. Johnny was used to streets brimming with people and a sky you'd only notice if you could be bothered to crane your head upwards. Green fields and long lonesome country roads were myths far from normal thought like barely coherent war stories from your granddad that you knew may be true but didn't much want to hear about. So Johnny felt uneasy stuck in the mostly green expanse that was vastly indifferent to his presence. That is too say he would felt uneasy if he had been in control of his wits and not floating in a beer stained sea of half finished thoughts and laughable grandeur. All around him were fields and farm houses. It never occurred to him to turn back, not even once. What did occur to him was the idea that maybe if he drove far enough maybe he'd find somewhere he recognised. Maybe. When Johnny did finally stop it was out of necessity not desire. The car had run out of fuel and so had he. The country side had faded a little now, given way to a small town that was called "Blues air". The name had been printed across a dark blue sign that hung from two rusty chains attached to a pole. A typical sign post apart from its newly painted sheen. Unlike the rest of the hum drum town that looked dusty and reeked of recycled air it looked brand new. Next Page
Sporting News Michael Jordan at 50: Twenty-three impressive stats from No. 23 Michael Jordan is widely considered the single greatest player in NBA history. That's lofty praise with the potential to turn foggy, because such a title is often tolled out in a subjective manner. This doesn't mean those in Jordan's corner necessarily favor him over another former great. But we're all human, and it's hard to rate what you haven't seen first-hand. Jordan played in a more visible era than any of those before him, a time when endorsement deals and highlight reels promoted the myth. Numbers, though to varying degrees, have been available to basketball followers at any time in the NBA's history. One can quantify Jordan's greatness against those in the past through records, presenting an objective, if somewhat flawed, measuring stick. With his 50th birthday coming this Sunday, here are 23 stats to support Jordan's place atop history. Michael Jordan: magical moments by the master. (AP Photo) PHOTOS: Michael Jordan's 50 greatest moments 1. In his final three seasons with the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan helped the Bulls reach a 203-43 regular-season record, which includes the 72-win 1995-96 season, still tops in the NBA. 2. Jordan averaged 37.1 points per games in 40 minutes as a third-year player in 1986-87 season. It was the first of seven consecutive seasons in which Jordan averaged at least 30 points per game. 3. Of his 15 NBA seasons, Jordan played all 82 games nine times, the most impressive of which came in his final season as he turned 40 years old. 4. Jordan has 109 games of 30 points or more, and 38 of 40 or more points. He rarely dipped below 20, posting 926 games of 20 or more. VIDEO: Michael Jordan's best under-the-rim plays 5. Jordan played with talents such as Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc, but he was often top dog. One stat shows that clearly: Jordan was the Bulls’ leading scorer (including ties) 867 times. He played 1,072 career games. 6. If justice were served, Jordan would have won Most Valuable Player every year, and his all-time leading MVP shares is an indication of that. Jordan, who won five MVP awards, has a 8.138 MVP share rate. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is closest at 6.203. LeBron James leads active players at 4.389. 7. Known for coming up big in clutch moments, Jordan failed to score 20 points only six times in 179 playoff games. 8. In his first year with the Bulls, Jordan became the second player to average 20 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists for a season. Oscar Robertson was first, and LeBron James and Tyreke Evans have since joined the list. 9. Consistency is what defines Jordan, and, in the 1986-87 season, he scored big numbers every night. Jordan became one of two players to record more than 3,000 points in a season with an average of 37.1 points per game. Only Wilt Chamberlain completed the feat. 10. In six NBA Finals appearances, Michael Jordan has played 35 games and never scored fewer than 20 points. Rick Barry can claim to have surpassed 20 points in every finals game he participated in — all 10 of them. 11. Jordan made 19 consecutive free throws in a game against the New Jersey Nets on February 26, 1987, a record at the time. Dominique Wilkins would break the record on Dec. 8, 1992 with 23 straight. 12. The shrug was necessary. Jordan set a record when he hit six 3 pointers in a half against the Blazers in the NBA Finals on June 3, 1992. Vince Carter later broke Jordan's record in 2011. 13. Jordan led the NBA in scoring on 10 separation occasions, his highest scoring season being 37.1 points per game in 1987 and the lowest being 28.7 in his final season with the Bulls in 1998. 14. In a rare NBA accomplishment, Jordan posted 15 triple-doubles during the 1988-89 season, including a streak of 10 in 11 games. 15. Jordan, the No. 1s: MVP shares (8.138), Points per game for a career (30.1 ppg), PER (27.9), Usage percentage (33.1), Win shares per 48 minutes (.250) – significant because he only played 13 seasons. 16. Jordan has the best PER of any single player in NBA history with a career rate at 27.91. LeBron James closely trails at 27.49. Two surprises: Magic Johnson (13) and Larry Bird (17) aren’t in the top 10. 17. Wearing No. 45, after more than a year away from basketball, Jordan scored 55 on John Starks at MSG in his comeback games on March 29, 1995. 18. Jordan didn't only dominant at a young age, he became the oldest player to score 40 points against the Nets in 2003, with 43 points on 18-of-30 shooting, which was complemented by 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals. 19. Fifty days shy of his 39th birthday, Jordan became the oldest player to score 50 points in 2002 against the Hornets. His stat line: 51 points on 21-of-38 shooting, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals. 20. The man known for big games had his largest on March 28, 1990, when he put up 69 points, 18 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, one block against the Cavaliers. 21. Jordan and Scottie Pippen teamed up to become the first group of teammates to post triple-doubles in the same game. Jason Kidd and Vince Carter completed the feat in 2007. 22. Jordan has 32,292 career points. He reached the mark in 1,072 games played, some 400 fewer than Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabarr, the only two players ahead of him on the all-time list. Of those to reach 30,000 points, only Wilt Chamberlain (1,045) used fewer games. 23. Jordan averaged 41.0 points per game in the Chicago Bulls' 1993 NBA Finals, eclipsing Rick Barry's 1967 standard of 40.8. Around the Web
A girl who cares for everyone and puts them before herself, wants everyone to be happy and will push her own problems aside for people she loves, sometimes even people she doesn't know. She's a great best friend to go through the good times and bad, she'll always be there no matter what, most of the time she'll be there on Social Networking sites because she doesn't talk much in real life but has so much to say when she types. Would make an amazing girlfriend and give you all her time and attention, but would never neglect her friends. Her life is complicated but she gets through, no matter how hard it becomes she never fails. She goes with the flow because thinking too far ahead can get your hopes up. Guy 1: Who's your friend over there on her phone? Guy 2: Haha, oh that's Mevish. by Boyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyd December 25, 2012 the most hardcore dankest drug ever. Its a mixture of speedball, meth,acid and crack. It gives you MEGA MUNCHIES if you dont die first. Here are the symptoms: 1.) Heavy Breathing 2.) Mega Munchies 3.) Yoose like want a torta and arroz SOOO BAD. 4.) Passed out if chu weak. 5.) Illusions, and crazy things. 6.) Hair growing out of your mouf. 7.) Green Kimchi Ice cream tastes deliciously and suspicioly dank. 8.) Waking up Orland Bloom's Bedroom only with chonies on. 9.) No one has lived farther to find out more. Damn that girl be smoking mevish, so much she as a swamp donkey. Yoose an ugly mevish. Pass me a mevish sandwich. Hey Little Torta. Delatorre eats mevish sandiwiches :/ Free Daily Email
Established Member Posts: 16 Registered: ‎09-07-2012 late payment on score watch, but no flag? I have 2 30 day lates, 1 60 day late, and 1 90 day late listed on an account from 2009 for citifinancial. There is no flag by the account on score watch. I recently sent a good will letter to citifinancial and they just responded saying they would remove them. There was a 36 month good payment history prior and the loan was paid off early. I'm wondering why there isn't a red flag next to the account. Wouldn't the lates be affecting my score? I'm 17 points shy of the 640 I need to buy a home. Waiting for 3 things to update on my credit report and hoping I'll get the boost I need. Moderator Emeritus Posts: 32,869 Registered: ‎08-04-2007 Re: late payment on score watch, but no flag? Look closely. Is there a dispute comment showing? (often added by some OCs after receiving a GW).
Take the 2-minute tour × A piece of clothing requires Tzitzit to be placed on it if it has four corners. The Sifrei (234) states: כסותך, פרט לטגא ולתובלא ולתיבלטירים לתקרקים לבורסים לבורדסים לפי שאינם מרובעים:‏ "Thy clothing" (Deut. 22:12): to exclude a Taga, a Tuvla, a Tiblatirin, a Tikrakim, a Borsim and a Bordsim [I assume those are types of clothing] for they aren't square. The Beit Yosef (OC 10) quotes Mahari Abuhov similarly: אלו הארבע כנפים לדברי הכל צריך שיהיו מרובעות לא שיהיו עגולות All agree these four corners must be square not circular. Does anyone discuss how sharp a corner it has to be in order to be obligated in Tzitzit? What if it is an obtuse angle? What if it is slightly rounded so as not to be pointy? (Note I'm asking the question from the positive side: one can say a bracha on tzitzit of what kind of corner? not: what kind of corner does one no longer need to worry about putting tzitzit on?) share\|improve this question There's probably some better way to formulate the question math-wise. Any ideas how to quantify corner sharpness mathematically? – Double AA Feb 10 '13 at 19:58 A side note about the clothing: טגא appears to be the Roman toga (which actually was shaped like a half-moon), תובלא possibly the tebenna (another kind of toga), תיבלטירים possibly a corruption for פיבלטירים, i.e. fibulatorium (an outer cloak fastened at the shoulder with a brooch), תקרקים unclear, but some suggest saga nervica, another type of traveling cloak, בורסים the birrus (a thick woolen cloak) and בורדסים a Brundisian cloak. Apparently the Sifre is discouraging Jews from adopting Hellenistic dress; see, e.g., here: books.google.ca/… – Noam Sienna Feb 11 '13 at 1:49 1 Answer 1 Beur Halacha (10 "velo") questions this. Aruch Hashulchan (10:4) writes that the roundness needs to extend for 3 tefachim. The Yavetz writes that it needs to extend 3 etzbaos on each side, and others say as long as it appears to the eye as round it is not obligates in tzitzis (last two opinions brought in Piskey Teshuvos 10:9). share\|improve this answer What does roundness's extending for a certain length mean? – msh210 Feb 10 '13 at 20:39 @msh210 I assume that it means that the adjoining edges of the garment are visibly non-perpendicular when evaluated at points more than a given distance from the axis of symmetry. – Fred Feb 10 '13 at 23:07 @Fred Hmmm I kinda of thought it meant length of the curve between the points where it is straight (ie between points where second derivative is zero). – Double AA Feb 11 '13 at 0:18 @DoubleAA If that's true, then the necessary distance from one "straight" point to another changes with the shape of the curve. – Fred Feb 11 '13 at 3:49 @DoubleAA My guess is as good as anyone else's. My answer is just a translation of the sources that speak about the question. – Michoel Feb 11 '13 at 5:21 Your Answer
Take the 2-minute tour × This is probably well-known, but... Define the $n$-dimensional hypercube graph $H_n$ as having for vertices the integers between 0 and $2^n-1$, and edges between integers differing by a power of 2. The characteristic polynomial of $H_n$ is then $\prod_{k=0}^n(x-n+2k)^{\frac {n!}{k!(n-k)!}}$, i.e. $(x-3)(x-1)^3(x+1)^3(x+3)$ for a cube, $(x-4)(x-2)^4x^6(x+2)^4(x+4)$ for a tesseract, etc. Is there a graph-theoretic proof of this result? share\|improve this question 3 Answers 3 up vote 4 down vote accepted View the vertices as elements of $\mathbb{Z}^n$. If $a\in\mathbb{Z}^n$, define a function $f_a$ on the vertices by $$ f_a(x) = (-1)^{a^Tx}. $$ This function is an eigenvectors and if $a$ has weight $w$, the eigenvalue is $n-2w$. I can make this look more combinatorial by viewing vertices (and $a$) as subsets of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ and noting that $f_a(x)$ is determined by the parity of $a \cap x$ (abusing notation). Different choices of $a$ give linearly independent eigenvectors, so we get the multiplicities as well as the eigenvalues. The actual difficulty with this question is in deciding what you mean by a "graph theoretical proof". From where I write, linear algebra is a standard and fundamental tool in graph theory. Comment response: (too long for a comment box). OK. The $n$-cube is the Cartesian product of $n$ copies of $K_2$. The eigenvalues of the Cartesian product of two graphs $G$ and $H$ are the sums of the eigenvalues of $G$ with the eigenvalues of $H$. (The simplest way to see this is to note that the eigenvectors of the product are the Kronecker products of the eigenvectors of the factors.) Applying this $n$ times to $K_2$ gives the desired result. There are formulas for the effect on the characteristic polynomial adding edges or vertices, but they are not all simple, and I cannot see how to use them to get the eigenvalues of the $n$-cube. share\|improve this answer Well, actually, I am looking for things like calculations of the characteristic polynomial by manipulations of the graph (addig edges or vertices, product of graphes, ans so on), and trying to get some intuition by using well-known families of graphs. But I may be completely on the wrong track – Feldmann Denis Nov 10 '12 at 22:34 My comment to this was a bit too long, so I've added it to my answer. – Chris Godsil Nov 10 '12 at 22:48 A related remark: since $H_n$ is regular, an explicit formula for the number of trees follows from knowing the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix. It was an open problem to find a combinatorial proof of this formula. Such a proof was recently given by Olivier Bernardi, front.math.ucdavis.edu/1207.0896. – Richard Stanley Nov 11 '12 at 2:23 The hypercube graph is a Cayley graph. The Hamming graph $H(n,r)$ is the Cayley graph $Cay(\Bbb Z_r^n,S)$ where $S$ is the set of all elements of $\Bbb Z_r^n$ with exactly one nozero coordinate. In particular, the Hamming graph $H(n,2)$ is the familiar $n$-dimensional hypercube. Since $\Bbb Z_r^n$ is abelian, $\sum_{s\in S}\chi(s)$ where $\chi$ is an irreducible representation of $\Bbb Z_r^n$ is an eigenvalue of $H(n,r)$. The eigenvectors of the adjacency matrix $A$ of $H(n,r)$ are the vectors $\{u_x\}$, $x\in\Bbb Z_r^n$, where its $y$th coordinate is $\omega_r^{-\sum_{i=1}^nx_iy_i}$, $y\in\Bbb Z_r^n$ and $\omega_r=e^{\frac{2\pi i}{r}}$. Let $\lambda_x$ be the corresponding eigenvalue of $u_x$. If we dnote by $\omega_H(x)$ the number of nonzero coordinates in $x$, we have $\lambda_x=(r-1)n-r\omega_H(x)$. Now it is enough to put $r=2$. For more details on the spectrum of Cayley graphs see "Spectra of Cayley graphs, L. Babai, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B 27, (1979) 180-189. share\|improve this answer It is interesting, worthwhile, and not very difficult to understand the situation for the Cartesian product of two or more arbitrary graphs. However here is a simplified answer which applies to this case: Let $G$ be a graph with $n$ vertices and $H$ the $2n$ vertex graph made by taking two copies of $G$ and joining corresponding vertices with an edge. If the (possibly not distinct) eigenvelaues of $G$ are $\theta_1,\theta_2,\cdots,\theta_n$ then the $2n$ eigenvalues of $H$ are $\theta_1\pm 1,\theta_2\pm 1,\cdots,\theta_n\pm 1.$ (Note that $H$ is just the Cartesian product $G \times K_2$.) Here is why: Let $A$ be the adjacency matrix of $G$ and $\mathbf{x}_1,\cdots,\mathbf{x}_n$ a basis of eigenvectors with $A\mathbf{x}_i=\theta_i\mathbf{x}_i.$ Then the $2n \times 2n$ adjacency matrix of $H$ is $\left( \begin{array}{cc} A & I \\\ I & A \\\ \end{array}\right)$ and it is easy to confirm that $\left( \begin{array}{c}\mathbf{x}_i \\\ \mathbf{x}_i \\\ \end{array}\right)$ and $\left( \begin{array}{c}\mathbf{x}_i \\\ -\mathbf{x}_i \\\ \end{array}\right)$ are eigenvectors for $\theta_i+1$ and $\theta_i-1.$ share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Here's an airline fee I hadn't heard of before I've heard of -- and sometimes paid -- all kinds of airline fees, but paying $14 for the pleasure of buying a ticket over the phone or online? That's a new one on me. And not a welcome one for someone who would have to make a two-hour round trip to buy one at the airport if I didn't want to pay it. Which I'm almost ornery enough to do. Here's hoping this is one idea that won't catch on! Please or Register to post comments. What's face2face? Blog Archive Sponsored Introduction Continue on to (or wait seconds) ×
What is meta? × I've been stalking through the Unanswered Questions category on SO looking for reasonable questions that have slipped through the cracks, and have run into a lot of questions that look like reasonable questions with 0 answers, but turn out to have a bunch of discussion as comments on the question, ending with "thanks, so-and-so, I figured out my problem". Is there anything I can do besides downvoting them to help weed those questions out from the ones that are just tough nuts to crack? EDIT: Here are some examples: share\|improve this question Hopefully this isn't a duplicate. I saw several other questions asking about marking my own question as solved when there's not a great answer, or tagging answers as not being constructive, but not this exactly. – Mu Mind May 6 '11 at 3:07 May you provide a link to a couple of those questions? – kiamlaluno May 6 '11 at 3:07 @kiamlaluno, examples provided! – Mu Mind May 6 '11 at 3:10 BTW, I mentioned downvoting thinking of some particular questions that didn't get answered bc they were poorly asked / barely questions, such as this: stackoverflow.com/questions/2108438/python-openid-library-usage (and somehow still had a positive score?). I wouldn't downvote a question purely because it's not properly answered, but as a side-effect I think it helps to see at a glance: "poor question, no answers". – Mu Mind May 6 '11 at 10:32 @Mu Mind Even in that case, I would first leave a comment, before to down vote a question for that reason. I would rather down vote a question that is a duplicate of another one, if both the questions use a similar title; yet, it's not always OPs' fault, if they ask a question already asked: there are some questions with a title completely unrelated with what the question is. – kiamlaluno May 6 '11 at 12:28 Can you answer your own question in a way that would help others? If you do, you can select yours as the correct answer. It may seem strange, but it is preferred way to handle situations like this. – Won't May 6 '11 at 14:40 @Will you mean this question itself? The questions I'm referring to in this question would all be other people's questions. – Mu Mind May 6 '11 at 14:46 @MuMind: That's the comment I put on questions like the ones you are asking about. Feel free to copypaste it. – Won't May 6 '11 at 14:51 possible duplicate of Mark a comment as answer to a question – Fish Below the Ice Oct 30 at 16:44 3 Answers 3 up vote 1 down vote accepted If the comments combine to lead to an answer, I'd summarise them into an answer, and probably flag to get the redundant comments cleaned up. If it's been a dead end for 'a while', then I'd flag for deletion. There's a fine line (that moves) on when a comment is or isn't an answer, and you can't please everyone - if you don't want to risk a rep-hit for a small answer, you can always mark as cw (or you don't feel good about earning rep from someone else's answers) share\|improve this answer In Selenium in Python, one of the comment should have been an answer, as (basing on what reported by the OP) the suggestion reported in that comment worked. In How to create complex data-bindings for webpage <select> boxes?, the OP reported (using other words) that he was asking the wrong question. In such a case, if I would have asked that question, I would have deleted it, or answered to my question and accepted that as answer, if I would have thought somebody could have been interested to the answer. In python makemessages errors Unknown encoding "utf8", a user asked a question to better understand the situation, but then gave an hint about the error message. Probably that user should have answered the question, pointing out what the OP should have done, instead of adding a comment to give a hint to the OP. Talking of what you can do in that situations, you can add a comment suggesting that what reported in the comment is really an answer, and as such should be written. I would use comments to ask a clarification on the question, as I did with this question when I asked you to add some links to the questions you were referring to. I don't think that down voting the questions is correct; they are real questions. If the OP asks a question, and after 5 minutes he reports he found the answer, or that he is asking the wrong question, then I would think that he could have waited 5 minutes more before to ask the question, but that is a different topic. share\|improve this answer If you find a question where a comment should'be been an answer, you can also post it as an answer yourself and harvest the delicious rep points. – Anna Lear May 6 '11 at 3:49 @Anna Lear It would be unfair, if I don't understand what reported in the comment, or I don't agree with what reported in that comment. Even in that case, I generally prefer to expand what reported in the comment, when possible. (Of course this is what I prefer to do, and it doesn't mean I am correct :-).) – kiamlaluno May 6 '11 at 3:53 @kiamlaluno Okay, point. :) I meant more in the case where the answer is actually correct and you're familiar with the subject matter. – Anna Lear May 6 '11 at 3:54 @Anna Lear We can say we agree, in this case, differently from the topic "it is off-topic to ask about function names on EL&U." – kiamlaluno May 6 '11 at 3:56 @Anna (and Kiamlaluno, but you'll get to see this without me addressing you): The answer can be posted 'Community Wiki'; that way, you don't get the undeserved rep for someone else's answer, but the question does get the answer it deserves. Then you have to hope the user accepts that answer! – Jonathan Leffler May 6 '11 at 4:00 @Jonathan Leffler That is a good point; in that way, if somebody wants to add some details more, s/he can do it. This would be of benefit for the question, and who reads it. – kiamlaluno May 6 '11 at 4:12 @kiamlaluno Excellent. So next time we speak we should disagree about something to keep the pattern going. :) – Anna Lear May 6 '11 at 5:13 @Anna Lear I disagree on that. ;-) – kiamlaluno May 6 '11 at 5:17 @kiamlaluno I..uh...agree? Disagree? brain explodes ;) – Anna Lear May 6 '11 at 5:21 Post a comment to inform the OP that s/he is eligible to post the answer as a real answer instead of a comment, if necessary along with a link to Should I not answer my own questions? In absence of feedback (or when the OP is such an unregistered user who hasn't visited the site for long according the profile), I would choose between voting for close as Too Localized or to post the answer myself if it has really community value, depending on how really valuable it is for the community. share\|improve this answer You must log in to answer this question. Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .
[an error occurred while processing this directive] BBC News watch One-Minute World News Last Updated: Sunday, 7 November, 2004, 14:39 GMT 'I thought I was going to die' Jonathon Stace, 21, from London, Mr Stace feels lucky to have escaped One passenger being treated at the Royal Berkshire Hospital for lacerations to his arm and back has spoken about his narrow escape. Jonathon Stace, 21, from London, was on his way to a party in Newbury when the accident happened. He told how he had caught the train "by chance" as he had been on an earlier service but got off at Reading in order to travel with his three friends. Mr Stace, who is a student at the London College of Communication, studying graphic design, described his terror as the tragedy unfolded. "The noise was terrifying," he said, "because it suddenly went from us being, sort of, rowdy, well not rowdy but having a good time on the train to, as soon as the lights went out, everyone was in a state of shock. "All I could hear was the banging of the rails and the screeching and smashing of all the cars and then the sound of it running along on the gravel and the dirt as well and the glass smashing. I felt my arm going through the window because the glass wasn't there, I felt my head as well but I managed to pull it in, my arm got dragged along "And then the smell of diesel when we finally got out, it was quite overwhelming." He told how the friends had been on the train only a short time when the accident happened and had each opened a can for a drink as they felt the first jolt. He told how they had been laughing at one of their friends who had his drink spilt on him. He said: "His drink had spilt on him, because we felt a judder, we all had a bit of a joke, we thought that it was a blip on the track but we felt the lights go out, then the next thing the train was on the side, it was rolling over." He continued: "The lights went out, I felt like we spun over and after that I could feel bodies going on top of me and being thrown different places. First reaction "I felt my arm going through the window because the glass wasn't there, I felt my head as well but I managed to pull it in, my arm got dragged along, that's why it's got the lacerations." He added: "When it happened, it was pitch-black. We couldn't see anything, the lights went out and you could just make silhouettes out of people, fortunately people found some glowsticks from the train. "It was quite clever, everyone managed to use their phone as torches." He told how his first reaction had been to make sure that his friends were still okay and how they managed to get out of the carriage. But he continued: "We managed to get out and I went back because my arm at this time didn't feel too bad." 'Blood everywhere' He told how they managed to get one woman out of the train but how another could not be moved. He then went back in a second time again to see if he could help. "At the time I didn't feel as though I was too badly injured. I think I wanted to make sure everyone else was out, I didn't really think about it, it was just a knee-jerk reaction." He told how it was only after helping others that he realised the full extent of his injuries. Speaking of his arm, he said: "It was blood everywhere. My jacket I was wearing got ripped, it went from a blue jacket to a red one." See images from the scene of the crash The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific
Take the 2-minute tour × Anyone tinkering with Python long enough has been bitten (or torn to pieces) by the following issue: def foo(a=[]): return a Python novices would expect this function to always return a list with only one element: [5]. The result is instead very different, and very astonishing (for a novice): >>> foo() >>> foo() [5, 5] >>> foo() [5, 5, 5] >>> foo() [5, 5, 5, 5] >>> foo() A manager of mine once had his first encountered with this feature, and called it "a dramatic design flaw" of the language. I replied that the behavior had an underlying explanation, and it is indeed very puzzling and unexpected if you don't understand the internals. However, I was not able to answer (to myself) the following question: what is the reason for binding the default argument at function definition, and not at function execution? I doubt the experienced behavior has a practical use (who really used static variables in C, without breeding bugs ?) Baczek made an interesting example. Together with most of your comments and Utaal's in particular, I elaborated further: >>> def a(): ... print "a executed" ... return [] >>> def b(x=a()): ... x.append(5) ... print x a executed >>> b() >>> b() [5, 5] To me, it seems that the design decision was relative to where to put the scope of parameters: inside the function or "together" with it? Doing the binding inside the function would mean that x is effectively bound to the specified default when the function is called, not defined, something that would present a deep flaw: the def line would be "hybrid" in the sense that part of the binding (of the function object) would happen at definition, and part (assignment of default parameters) at function invocation time. The actual behavior is more consistent: everything of that line gets evaluated when that line is executed, meaning at function definition. Guido is a fantastic designer. I reread all the very interesting and good answers you provided, and it was hard to assign a "correct tickmark", as everyone had good points in the answer. I marked Roberto's answer as correct because it was simpler and revealing, so that newcomers browsing this question can start from his answer and then delve into remaining more complex (but very insightful) answers. share\|improve this question The real issue is the scope of the variable. No answer has yet discussed this, or addressed why a parameter to a function would have its default parameters globally scoped. It's certainly contrary to all other languages I've worked with. – Kieveli Jul 15 '09 at 19:03 @Kieveli: It's not globally scoped. It's tied to the function object itself. When the function is instantiated (when the declaration is executed), the default parameter expression is evaluated (in the example above, a list literal), and the resulting object is bound to the created function object. If you place that function definition inside of another function and return it from the outer function, you will obtain a new function object each time the outer function is called, and each one will have its own default a list. They are not globally shared. – Miles Jul 15 '09 at 23:32 Ahm, but for a global function, they are globally scoped, which is what he meant. Just as for a function defined in the function, the scope is the first function. So you are both right. @Kieveli: Well, it's a natural effect of the fact that Python is interpreted, dynamic and uses references for everything. What other languages have you used that fits that bill? Can't be that many. :-) – Lennart Regebro Jul 16 '09 at 11:45 I may never get tired of posting this link to explain the difference between variable and names in python, tho I just learned about it: python.net/~goodger/projects/pycon/2007/idiomatic/… - This is for your first edit. Note how a from the first example and x from the second are just naming the same (mutable) object. – Cawas Apr 14 '10 at 19:33 Complementary question - Good uses for mutable default arguments – Jonathan Feb 6 '12 at 20:54 21 Answers 21 up vote 659 down vote accepted Actually, this is not a design flaw, and it is not because of internals, or performance. It comes simply from the fact that functions in Python are first-class objects, and not only a piece of code. As soon as you get to think into this way, then it completely makes sense: a function is an object being evaluated on its definition; default parameters are kind of "member data" and therefore their state may change from one call to the other - exactly as in any other object. In any case, Effbot has a very nice explanation of the reasons for this behavior in Default Parameter Values in Python. I found it very clear, and I really suggest reading it for a better knowledge of how function objects work. share\|improve this answer Good answer, but I still think that it is a design flaw – Casebash May 15 '10 at 12:33 To anyone reading the above answer, I strongly recommend you take the time to read through the linked Effbot article. As well as all the other useful info, the part on how this language feature can be used for result caching/memoisation is very handy to know! – Cam Jackson Oct 14 '11 at 0:05 Even if it's a first-class object, one might still envision a design where the code for each default value is stored along with the object and re-evaluated each time the function is called. I'm not saying that would be better, just that functions being first-class objects does not fully preclude it. – gerrit Jan 11 '13 at 10:55 Sorry, but anything considered "The biggest WTF in Python" is most definitely a design flaw. This is a source of bugs for everyone at some point, because no one expects that behavior at first - which means it should not have been designed that way to begin with. I don't care what hoops they had to jump through, they should have designed Python so that default arguments are non-static. – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jun 7 '13 at 21:28 Whether or not it's a design flaw, your answer seems to imply that this behaviour is somehow necessary, natural and obvious given that functions are first-class objects, and that simply isn't the case. Python has closures. If you replace the default argument with an assignment on the first line of the function, it evaluates the expression each call (potentially using names declared in an enclosing scope). There is no reason at all that it wouldn't be possible or reasonable to have default arguments evaluated each time the function is called in exactly the same way. – Mark Amery Jan 8 at 22:16 Suppose you have the following code fruits = ("apples", "bannanas", "loganberries") def eat(food=fruits): When I see the declaration of eat, the least astonishing thing is to think that if the first parameter is not given, that it will be equal to the tuple ("apples", "bannanas", "loganberries") However, supposed later on in the code, I do something like def some_random_function(): global fruits fruits = ("blueberries", "mangos") then if default parameters were bound at function execution rather than function declaration then I would be astonished (in a very bad way) to discover that fruits had been changed. This would be more astonishing IMO than discovering that your foo function above was mutating the list. The real problem lies with mutable variables, and all languages have this problem to some extent. Here's a question: suppose in Java I have the following code: StringBuffer s = new StringBuffer("Hello World!"); Map<StringBuffer,Integer> counts = new HashMap<StringBuffer,Integer>(); counts.put(s, 5); System.out.println( counts.get(s) ); // does this work? Now, does my map use the value of the StringBuffer key when it was placed into the map, or does it store the key by reference? Either way, someone is astonished; either the person who tried to get the object out of the Map using a value identical to the one they put it in with, or the person who can't seem to retrieve their ovject even though the key they're using is literally the same object that was used to put it into the map. (This is actually why Python doesn't allow its mutable builtin data types to be used as dictionary keys.) Your example is a good one of a case where Python newcomers will be surprised and bitten. But I'd argue that if we "fixed" this, then that would only create a different situation where they'd be bitten instead, and that one would be even less intuitive. Moreover, this is always the case when dealing with mutable variables; you always run into cases where someone could intuitively expect one or the opposite behavior depending on what code they're writing. I personally like Python's current approach: default function arguments are evaluated when the function is defined and that object is always the default. I suppose they could special-case using an empty list, but that kind of special casing would cause even more astonishment, not to mention be backwards incompatible. share\|improve this answer I think it's a matter of debate. You are acting on a global variable. Any evaluation performed anywhere in your code involving your global variable will now (correctly) refer to ("blueberries", "mangos"). the default parameter could just be like any other case. – Stefano Borini Jul 15 '09 at 18:16 Actually, I don't think I agree with your first example. I'm not sure I like the idea of modifying an initializer like that in the first place, but if I did, I'd expect it to behave exactly as you describe — changing the default value to ("blueberries", "mangos"). – Ben Blank Jul 15 '09 at 18:26 The default parameter is like any other case. What is unexpected is that the parameter is a global variable, and not a local one. Which in turn is because the code is executed at function definition, not call. Once you get that, and that the same goes for classes, it's perfectly clear. – Lennart Regebro Jul 15 '09 at 18:59 Brilliant counterexample, +1 – IfLoop Dec 5 '10 at 1:52 I have no idea what to expect in that first code example. It really shouldn't be legal code to begin with (I seriously hope it isn't) – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jun 7 '13 at 21:30 AFAICS no one has yet posted the relevant part of the documentation: Default parameter values are evaluated when the function definition is executed. This means that the expression is evaluated once, when the function is defined, and that the same “pre-computed” value is used for each call. This is especially important to understand when a default parameter is a mutable object, such as a list or a dictionary: if the function modifies the object (e.g. by appending an item to a list), the default value is in effect modified. This is generally not what was intended. A way around this is to use None as the default, and explicitly test for it in the body of the function [...] share\|improve this answer The phrases "this is not generally what was intended" and "a way around this is" smell like they're documenting a design flaw. – bukzor May 3 at 20:53 Documentation at last! +1! @bukzor: see the link in Liffredo's answer. The 'automatic' caching ability is amazing. – Matthew Jun 18 at 18:11 @Matthew: I'm well aware, but it's not worth the pitfall. You'll generally see style guides and linters unconditionally flag mutable default values as wrong for this reason. The explicit way to do the same thing is to stuff an attribute onto the function (function.data = []) or better yet, make an object. – bukzor Jun 19 at 3:59 @bukzor: Pitfalls need to be noted and documented, which is why this question is good and has received so many upvotes. At the same time, pitfalls don't necessarily need to be removed. How many Python beginners have passed a list to a function that modified it, and were shocked to see the changes show up in the original variable? Yet mutable object types are wonderful, when you understand how to use them. I guess it just boils down to opinion on this particular pitfall. – Matthew Jun 19 at 17:54 @bukzor it is well documented behavior. It is a documentation flaw, not a design flaw. – miraculixx Nov 15 at 9:44 I know nothing about the Python interpreter inner workings (and I'm not an expert in compilers and interpreters either) so don't blame me if I propose anything unsensible or impossible. Provided that python objects are mutable I think that this should be taken into account when designing the default arguments stuff. When you instantiate a list: a = [] you expect to get a new list referenced by a. Why should the a=[] in def x(a=[]): instantiate a new list on function definition and not on invocation? It's just like you're asking "if the user doesn't provide the argument then instantiate a new list and use it as if it was produced by the caller". I think this is ambiguous instead: def x(a=datetime.datetime.now()): user, do you want a to default to the datetime corresponding to when you're defining or executing x? In this case, as in the previous one, I'll keep the same behaviour as if the default argument "assignment" was the first instruction of the function (datetime.now() called on function invocation). On the other hand, if the user wanted the definition-time mapping he could write: b = datetime.datetime.now() def x(a=b): I know, I know: that's a closure. Alternatively Python might provide a keyword to force definition-time binding: def x(static a=b): share\|improve this answer You could do: def x(a=None): And then, if a is None, set a=datetime.datetime.now() – Anon Jul 16 '09 at 0:18 I know, that was just an example to explain why I would prefer execution-time binding. – Utaal Jul 16 '09 at 9:01 Thank you for this. I couldn't really put my finger on why this irks me to no end. You have done it beautifully with a minimum of fuzz and confusion. As someone comming from systems programming in C++ and sometimes naively "translating" language features, this false friend kicked me in the in the soft of the head big time, just like class attributes. I understand why things are this way, but I cannot help but dislike it, no matter what positive might come of it. At least it is so contrary to my experience, that I'll probably (hopefully) never forget it... – AndreasT Apr 22 '11 at 9:33 @Andreas once you use Python for long enough, you begin to see how logical it is for Python to interpret things as class attributes the way it does - it is only because of the particular quirks and limitations of languages like C++ (and Java, and C#...) that it makes any sense for contents of the class {} block to be interpreted as belonging to the instances :) But when classes are first-class objects, obviously the natural thing is for their contents (in memory) to reflect their contents (in code). – Karl Knechtel Jul 22 '11 at 19:55 Normative structure is no quirk or limitation in my book. I know it can be clumsy and ugly, but you can call it a "definition" of something. The dynamic languages seem a bit like anarchists to me: Sure everybody is free, but you need structure to get someone to empty the trash and pave the road. Guess I'm old... :) – AndreasT Jul 26 '11 at 8:54 Well, the reason is quite simply that bindings are done when code is executed, and the function definition is executed, well... when the functions is defined. Compare this: class BananaBunch: bananas = [] def addBanana(self, banana): This code suffers from the exact same unexpected happenstance. bananas is a class attribute, and hence, when you add things to it, it's added to all instances of that class. The reason is exactly the same. It's just "How It Works", and making it work differently in the function case would probably be complicated, and in the class case likely impossible, or at least slow down object instantiation a lot, as you would have to keep the class code around and execute it when objects are created. Yes, it is unexpected. But once the penny drops, it fits in perfectly with how Python works in general. In fact, it's a good teaching aid, and once you understand why this happens, you'll grok python much better. That said it should feature prominently in any good Python tutorial. Because as you mention, everyone runs into this problem sooner or later. share\|improve this answer How do you define a class attribute that is different for each instance of a class? – Kieveli Jul 15 '09 at 19:04 If it's different for each instance it's not a class attribute. Class attributes are attributes on the CLASS. Hence the name. Hence they are the same for all instances. – Lennart Regebro Jul 15 '09 at 19:17 He wasn't asking for a description of Python's behavior, he was asking for the rationale. Nothing in Python is just "How It Works"; it all does what it does for a reason. – Glenn Maynard Jul 15 '09 at 20:20 And I gave the rationale. – Lennart Regebro Jul 15 '09 at 21:56 I wouldn't say that this "it's a good teaching aid", because it's not. – Geo Jul 16 '09 at 13:20 I used to think that creating the objects at runtime would be the better approach. I'm less certain now, since you do lose some useful features, though it may be worth it regardless simply to prevent newbie confusion. The disadvantages of doing so are: 1. Performance def foo(arg=something_expensive_to_compute())): If call-time evaluation is used, then the expensive function is called every time your function is used without an argument. You'd either pay an expensive price on each call, or need to manually cache the value externally, polluting your namespace and adding verbosity. 2. Forcing bound parameters A useful trick is to bind parameters of a lambda to the current binding of a variable when the lambda is created. For example: funcs = [ lambda i=i: i for i in range(10)] This returns a list of functions that return 0,1,2,3... respectively. If the behaviour is changed, they will instead bind i to the call-time value of i, so you would get a list of functions that all returned 9. The only way to implement this otherwise would be to create a further closure with the i bound, ie: def make_func(i): return lambda: i funcs = [make_func(i) for i in range(10)] 3. Introspection Consider the code: def foo(a='test', b=100, c=[]): print a,b,c We can get information about the arguments and defaults using the inspect module, which >>> inspect.getargspec(foo) (['a', 'b', 'c'], None, None, ('test', 100, [])) This information is very useful for things like document generation, metaprogramming, decorators etc. Now, suppose the behaviour of defaults could be changed so that this is the equivalent of: _undefined = object() # sentinel value def foo(a=_undefined, b=_undefined, c=_undefined) if a is _undefined: a='test' if b is _undefined: b=100 if c is _undefined: c=[] However, we've lost the ability to introspect, and see what the default arguments are. Because the objects haven't been constructed, we can't ever get hold of them without actually calling the function. The best we could do is to store off the source code and return that as a string. share\|improve this answer you could achieve introspection also if for each there was a function to create the default argument instead of a value. the inspect module will just call that function. – yairchu Jul 16 '09 at 10:24 @SilentGhost: I'm talking about if the behaviour was changed to recreate it - creating it once is the current behaviour, and why the mutable default problem exists. – Brian Jul 16 '09 at 10:59 @yairchu: That assumes the construction is safe to so (ie has no side effects). Introspecting the args shouldn't do anything, but evaluating arbitrary code could well end up having an effect. – Brian Jul 16 '09 at 11:02 A different language design often just means writing things differently. Your first example could easily be written as: _expensive = expensive(); def foo(arg=_expensive), if you specifically don't want it reevaluated. – Glenn Maynard Jul 16 '09 at 18:23 @Glenn - that's what I was referring to with "cache the variable externally" - it is a bit more verbose, and you end up with extra variables in your namespace though. – Brian Jul 16 '09 at 19:04 This behavior is easy explained by: 1. function (class etc.) declaration is executed only once, creating all default value objects 2. everything is passed by reference def x(a=0, b=[], c=[], d=0): a = a + 1 b = b + [1] print a, b, c 1. a doesn't change - every assignment call creates new int object - new object is printed 2. b doesn't change - new array is build from default value and printed 3. c changes - operation is performed on same object - and it is printed share\|improve this answer Your #4 could be confusing to people, since integers are immutable and so that "if" is not true. For instance, with d set to 0, d.__add__(1) would return 1, but d would still be 0. – Anon Jul 15 '09 at 23:45 (Actually, add is a bad example, but integers being immutable still is my main point.) – Anon Jul 15 '09 at 23:54 yes, that wasn't good example – ymv Jul 15 '09 at 23:57 Realized it to my chagrin after checking to see that, with b set to [], b.__add__([1]) returns [1] but also leaves b still [] even though lists are mutable. My bad. – Anon Jul 16 '09 at 0:03 @ANon: there is __iadd__, but it doesn't work with int. Of course. :-) – Veky May 8 at 13:16 This actually has nothing to do with default values, other than that it often comes up as an unexpected behaviour when you write functions with mutable default values. >>> def foo(a): print a >>> a = [5] >>> foo(a) [5, 5] >>> foo(a) [5, 5, 5] >>> foo(a) [5, 5, 5, 5] >>> foo(a) [5, 5, 5, 5, 5] No default values in sight in this code, but you get exactly the same problem. The problem is that foo is modifying a mutable variable passed in from the caller, when the caller doesn't expect this. Code like this would be fine if the function was called something like append_5; then the caller would be calling the function in order to modify the value they pass in, and the behaviour would be expected. But such a function would be very unlikely to take a default argument, and probably wouldn't return the list (since the caller already has a reference to that list; the one it just passed in). Your original foo, with a default argument, shouldn't be modifying a whether it was explicitly passed in or got the default value. Your code should leave mutable arguments alone unless it is clear from the context/name/documentation that the arguments are supposed to be modified. Using mutable values passed in as arguments as local temporaries is an extremely bad idea, whether we're in Python or not and whether there are default arguments involved or not. If you need to destructively manipulate a local temporary in the course of computing something, and you need to start your manipulation from an argument value, you need to make a copy. share\|improve this answer Although related, I think this is distinct behaviour (as we expect append to change a "in-place"). That a default mutable is not re-instantiated on each call is the "unexpected" bit... at least for me. :) – Andy Hayden Aug 24 '12 at 12:27 What you're asking is why this: def func(a=[], b = 2): isn't internally equivalent to this: def func(a=None, b = None): a_default = lambda: [] b_default = lambda: 2 def actual_func(a=None, b=None): if a is None: a = a_default() if b is None: b = b_default() return actual_func func = func() except for the case of explicitly calling func(None, None), which we'll ignore. In other words, instead of evaluating default parameters, why not store each of them, and evaluate them when the function is called? One answer is probably right there--it would effectively turn every function with default parameters into a closure. Even if it's all hidden away in the interpreter and not a full-blown closure, the data's got to be stored somewhere. It'd be slower and use more memory. share\|improve this answer It wouldn't need to be a closure - a better way to think of it would simply to make the bytecode creating defaults the first line of code - after all you're compiling the body at that point anyway - there's no real difference between code in the arguments and code in the body. – Brian Jul 16 '09 at 9:39 True, but it would still slow Python down, and it would actually be quite surprising, unless you do the same for class definitions, which would make it stupidly slow as you would have to re-run the whole class definition each time you instantiate a class. As mentioned, the fix would be more surprising than the problem. – Lennart Regebro Jul 16 '09 at 11:49 Agreed with Lennart. As Guido is fond of saying, for every language feature or standard library, there's someone out there using it. – Jason Baker Jul 16 '09 at 13:21 Changing it now would be insanity--we're just exploring why it is the way it is. If it did late default evaluation to begin with, it wouldn't necessarily be surprising. It's definitely true that such a core a difference of parsing would have sweeping, and probably many obscure, effects on the language as a whole. – Glenn Maynard Jul 16 '09 at 18:10 It's a performance optimization. As a result of this functionality, which of these two function calls do you think is faster? def print_tuple(some_tuple=(1,2,3)): print some_tuple print_tuple() #1 print_tuple((1,2,3)) #2 I'll give you a hint. Here's the disassembly (see http://docs.python.org/library/dis.html): 0 LOAD_GLOBAL 0 (print_tuple) 3 CALL_FUNCTION 0 7 LOAD_CONST 0 (None) 0 LOAD_GLOBAL 0 (print_tuple) 3 LOAD_CONST 4 ((1, 2, 3)) 6 CALL_FUNCTION 1 10 LOAD_CONST 0 (None) As you can see, there is a performance benefit when using immutable default arguments. This can make a difference if it's a frequently called function or the default argument takes a long time to construct. Also, bear in mind that Python isn't C. In C you have constants that are pretty much free. In Python you don't have this benefit. share\|improve this answer how do you obtain the dissasembly? – Geo Jul 16 '09 at 13:21 Use the dis module: docs.python.org/library/dis.html – Jason Baker Jul 16 '09 at 15:20 How much of a difference could 3 LOAD_CONST 4 ((1, 2, 3)) make over even millions of iterations? ^0^. Maybe I'll profile and report back... – dimadima Mar 31 '13 at 16:39 1) The so-called problem of "Mutable Default Argument" is in general a special example demonstrating that: "All functions with this problem suffer also from similar side effect problem on the actual parameter," That is against the rules of functional programming, usually undesiderable and should be fixed both together. def foo(a=[]): # the same problematic function return a >>> somevar = [1, 2] # an example without a default parameter >>> foo(somevar) [1, 2, 5] >>> somevar [1, 2, 5] # usually expected [1, 2] Solution: a copy An absolutely safe solution is to copy or deepcopy the input object first and then to do whatever with the copy. def foo(a=[]): a = a[:] # a copy return a # or everything safe by one line: "return a + [5]" Many builtin mutable types have a copy method like some_dict.copy() or some_set.copy() or can be copied easy like somelist[:] or list(some_list). Every object can be also copied by copy.copy(any_object) or more thorough by copy.deepcopy() (the latter useful if the mutable object is composed from mutable objects). Some objects are fundamentally based on side effects like "file" object and can not be meaningfully reproduced by copy. copying Example problem for a similar SO question class Test(object): # the original problematic class def __init__(self, var1=[]): self._var1 = var1 t1 = Test(somevar) t2 = Test(somevar) print somevar # [1, 2, [1]] but usually expected [1, 2] print t2._var1 # [1, 2, [1]] but usually expected [1, 2] It shouldn't be neither saved in any public attribute of an instance returned by this function. (Assuming that private attributes of instance should not be modified from outside of this class or subclasses by convention. i.e. _var1 is a private attribute ) Input parameters objects shouldn't be modified in place (mutated) nor they should not be binded into an object returned by the function. (If we prefere programming without side effects which is strongly recommended. see Wiki about "side effect" (The first two paragraphs are relevent in this context.) .) Only if the side effect on the actual parameter is required but unwanted on the default parameter then the useful solution is def ...(var1=None): if var1 is None: var1 = [] More.. 3) In some cases is the mutable behavior of default parameters useful. share\|improve this answer I hope you're aware that Python is not a functional programming language. – Veky May 8 at 13:18 Yes, Python is a multi-paragigm language with some functional features. ("Don't make every problem look like a nail just because you have a hammer.") Many of them are in Python best practicies. Python has an interesting HOWTO Functional Programming Other features are closures and currying, not mentioned here. – hynekcer May 8 at 15:54 the shortest answer would probably be "definition is execution", therefore the whole argument makes no strict sense. as a more contrived example, you may cite this: def a(): return [] def b(x=a()): print x hopefully it's enough to show that not executing the default argument expressions at the execution time of the def statement isn't easy or doesn't make sense, or both. i agree it's a gotcha when you try to use default constructors, though. share\|improve this answer You can get round this by replacing the object (and therefore the tie with the scope): def foo(a=[]): a = list(a) return a Ugly, but it works. share\|improve this answer This is a nice solution in cases where you're using automatic documentation generation software to document the types of arguments expected by the function. Putting a=None and then setting a to [] if a is None doesn't help a reader understand at a glance what is expected. – Michael Scott Cuthbert Jan 20 '13 at 6:55 Better to use a docstring. – Aaron Hall Nov 25 at 23:23 This behavior is not surprising if you take the following into consideration: 1. The behavior of read-only class attributes upon assignment attempts, and that 2. Functions are objects (explained well in the accepted answer). The role of (2) has been covered extensively in this thread. (1) is likely the astonishment causing factor, as this behavior is not "intuitive" when coming from other languages. (1) is described in the Python tutorial on classes. In an attempt to assign a value to a read-only class attribute: ...all variables found outside of the innermost scope are read-only (an attempt to write to such a variable will simply create a new local variable in the innermost scope, leaving the identically named outer variable unchanged). Look back to the original example and consider the above points: def foo(a=[]): return a Here foo is an object and a is an attribute of foo (available at foo.func_defs[0]). Since a is a list, a is mutable and is thus a read-write attribute of foo. It is initialized to the empty list as specified by the signature when the function is instantiated, and is available for reading and writing as long as the function object exists. Calling foo without overriding a default uses that default's value from foo.func_defs. In this case, foo.func_defs[0] is used for a within function object's code scope. Changes to a change foo.func_defs[0], which is part of the foo object and persists between execution of the code in foo. Now, compare this to the example from the documentation on emulating the default argument behavior of other languages, such that the function signature defaults are used every time the function is executed: def foo(a, L=None): if L is None: L = [] return L Taking (1) and (2) into account, one can see why this accomplishes the the desired behavior: • When the foo function object is instantiated, foo.func_defs[0] is set to None, an immutable object. • When the function is executed with defaults (with no parameter specified for L in the function call), foo.func_defs[0] (None) is available in the local scope as L. • Upon L = [], the assignment cannot succeed at foo.func_defs[0], because that attribute is read-only. • Per (1), a new local variable also named L is created in the local scope and used for the remainder of the function call. foo.func_defs[0] thus remains unchanged for future invocations of foo. share\|improve this answer A simple workaround using None >>> def bar(b, data=None): ... data = data or [] ... data.append(b) ... return data >>> bar(3) >>> bar(3) >>> bar(3) >>> bar(3, [34]) [34, 3] >>> bar(3, [34]) [34, 3] share\|improve this answer The solutions here are: 1. Use None as your default value (or a nonce object), and switch on that to create your values at runtime; or 2. Use a lambda as your default parameter, and call it within a try block to get the default value (this is the sort of thing that lambda abstraction is for). The second option is nice because users of the function can pass in a callable, which may be already existing (such as a type) share\|improve this answer It may be true that: 1. Someone is using every language/library feature, and 2. Switching the behavior here would be ill-advised, but it is entirely consistent to hold to both of the features above and still make another point: 1. It is a confusing feature and it is unfortunate in Python. The other answers, or at least some of them either make points 1 and 2 but not 3, or make point 3 and downplay points 1 and 2. But all three are true. It may be true that switching horses in midstream here would be asking for significant breakage, and that there could be more problems created by changing Python to intuitively handle Stefano's opening snippet. And it may be true that someone who knew Python internals well could explain a minefield of consequences. However, The existing behavior is not Pythonic, and Python is successful because very little about the language violates the principle of least astonishment anywhere near this badly. It is a real problem, whether or not it would be wise to uproot it. It is a design flaw. If you understand the language much better by trying to trace out the behavior, I can say that C++ does all of this and more; you learn a lot by navigating, for instance, subtle pointer errors. But this is not Pythonic: people who care about Python enough to persevere in the face of this behavior are people who are drawn to the language because Python has far fewer surprises than other language. Dabblers and the curious become Pythonistas when they are astonished at how little time it takes to get something working--not because of a design fl--I mean, hidden logic puzzle--that cuts against the intuitions of programmers who are drawn to Python because it Just Works. share\|improve this answer -1 Although a defensible perspective, this not an answer, and I disagree with it. Too many special exceptions beget their own corner cases. – Marcin Jul 7 '12 at 19:24 "The existing behavior is not Pythonic" is an amazingly ignorant thing to say about something so fundamental to Python, and betrays a woeful under-appreciation of its object model. – Matthew Trevor Dec 27 '12 at 10:13 So then, it is "amazingly ignorant" to say that in Python it would make more sense for a default argument of [] to remain [] every time the function is called? – JonathanHayward Dec 27 '12 at 22:09 And it is ignorant to consider as an unfortunate idiom setting a default argument to None, and then in the body of the body of the function setting if argument == None: argument = []? Is it ignorant to consider this idiom unfortunate as often people want what a naive newcomer would expect, that if you assign f(argument = []), argument will automatically default to a value of []? – JonathanHayward Dec 27 '12 at 22:11 But in Python, part of the spirit of the language is that you don't have to take too many deep dives; array.sort() works, and works regardless of how little you understand about sorting, big-O, and constants. The beauty of Python in the array sorting mechanism, to give one of innumerable examples, is that you are not required to take a deep dive into internals. And to say it differently, the beauty of Python is that one is not ordinarily required to take a deep dive into implementation to get something that Just Works. And there is a workaround (...if argument == None: argument = []), FAIL. – JonathanHayward Dec 27 '12 at 22:41 This "bug" gave me a lot of overtime work hours! But I'm beginning to see a potential use of it (but I would have liked it to be at the execution time, still) I'm gonna give you what I see as a useful example. def example(errors=[]): # statements # Something went wrong mistake = True if mistake: # Didn't work.. let's try again # This time it worked return errors def tryToFixIt(err): err.append('Attempt to fix it') def tryToFixItAnotherway(err): err.append('Attempt to fix it by another way') def main(): for item in range(2): errors = example() print '\n'.join(errors) prints the following Attempt to fix it Attempt to fix it by another way Attempt to fix it Attempt to fix it by another way share\|improve this answer >>> def a(): >>> print "a executed" >>> return [] >>> x =a() a executed >>> def b(m=[]): >>> m.append(5) >>> print m >>> b(x) >>> b(x) [5, 5] share\|improve this answer @AustinHenley lack of explanation what's going on? – Tshepang Feb 24 '13 at 13:20 When we do this: def foo(a=[]): ... we assign the argument a to an unnamed list, if the caller does not pass the value of a. To make things simpler for this discussion, let's temporarily give the unnamed list a name. How about pavlo ? def foo(a=pavlo): At any time, if the caller doesn't tell us what a is, we reuse pavlo. If pavlo is mutable (modifiable), and foo ends up modifying it, an effect we notice the next time foo is called without specifying a. So this is what you see (Remember, pavlo is initialized to []): >>> foo() Now, pavlo is [5]. Calling foo() again modifies pavlo again: >>> foo() [5, 5] Specifying a when calling foo() ensures pavlo is not touched. >>> ivan = [1, 2, 3, 4] >>> foo(a=ivan) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] >>> ivan [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] So, pavlo is still [5, 5]. >>> foo() [5, 5, 5] share\|improve this answer I think the answer to this question lies in how python pass data to parameter (pass by value or by reference), not mutability or how python handle the "def" statement. A brief introduction. First, there are two type of data types in python, one is simple elementary data type, like numbers, and another data type is objects. Second, when passing data to parameters, python pass elementary data type by value, i.e., make a local copy of the value to a local variable, but pass object by reference, i.e., pointers to the object. Admitting the above two points, let's explain what happened to the python code. It's only because of passing by reference for objects, but has nothing to do with mutable/immutable, or arguably the fact that "def" statement is executed only once when it is defined. [] is an object, so python pass the reference of [] to a, i.e., a is only a pointer to [] which lies in memory as an object. There is only one copy of [] with, however, many references to it. For the first foo(), the list [] is changed to 1 by append method. But Note that there is only one copy of the list object and this object now becomes 1. When running the second foo(), what effbot webpage says (items is not evaluated any more) is wrong. a is evaluated to be the list object, although now the content of the object is 1. This is the effect of passing by reference! The result of foo(3) can be easily derived in the same way. To further validate my answer, let's take a look at two additional codes. ====== No. 2 ======== def foo(x, items=None): if items is None: items = [] return items foo(1) #return [1] foo(2) #return [2] foo(3) #return [3] [] is an object, so is None (the former is mutable while the latter is immutable. But the mutability has nothing to do with the question). None is somewhere in the space but we know it's there and there is only one copy of None there. So every time foo is invoked, items is evaluated (as opposed to some answer that it is only evaluated once) to be None, to be clear, the reference (or the address) of None. Then in the foo, item is changed to [], i.e., points to another object which has a different address. ====== No. 3 ======= def foo(x, items=[]): return items foo(1) # returns [1] foo(2,[]) # returns [2] foo(3) # returns [1,3] The invocation of foo(1) make items point to a list object [] with an address, say, 11111111. the content of the list is changed to 1 in the foo function in the sequel, but the address is not changed, still 11111111. Then foo(2,[]) is coming. Although the [] in foo(2,[]) has the same content as the default parameter [] when calling foo(1), their address are different! Since we provide the parameter explicitly, items has to take the address of this new [], say 2222222, and return it after making some change. Now foo(3) is executed. since only x is provided, items has to take its default value again. What's the default value? It is set when defining the foo function: the list object located in 11111111. So the items is evaluated to be the address 11111111 having an element 1. The list located at 2222222 also contains one element 2, but it is not pointed by items any more. Consequently, An append of 3 will make items [1,3]. From the above explanations, we can see that the effbot webpage recommended in the accepted answer failed to give a relevant answer to this question. What is more, I think a point in the effbot webpage is wrong. I think the code regarding the UI.Button is correct: for i in range(10): def callback(): print "clicked button", i UI.Button("button %s" % i, callback) Each button can hold a distinct callback function which will display different value of i. I can provide an example to show this: for i in range(10): def callback(): If we execute x[7]() we'll get 7 as expected, and x[9]() will gives 9, another value of i. share\|improve this answer Your last point is wrong. Try it and you'll see that x[7]() is 9. – Duncan Oct 2 '13 at 13:29 "python pass elementary data type by value, i.e., make a local copy of the value to a local variable" is completely incorrect. I am astonished that someone can obviously know Python very well, yet have such horrible misunderstanding of fundamentals. :-( – Veky Nov 19 at 9:07 Was the -1 because of the tone, or do you think what I'm saying is wrong? – Veky Nov 29 at 5:38 protected by ThiefMaster Jan 13 '12 at 16:13 Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
Take the 2-minute tour × I am using CraueFormFlowBundle to have a multiple page form, and am trying to do some validation on some of the fields but can't figure out how to do this. The object that needs to be validated isn't an Entity, which is causing me trouble. I tried adding a collectionConstraint in the getDefaultOption function of my form type class, but this doesn't work as I get the "Expected argument of type array or Traversable and ArrayAccess" error. I tried with annotations in my object class, but they don't seem to be taken into account. Are annotations taken into account if the class isn't an entity? (i set enable_annotations to true) Anyway, what is the proper way to do this? Basically, I just want to validate that "age" is an integer... class PoemDataCollectorFormType extends AbstractType { public function buildForm(FormBuilder $builder, array $options) { switch ($options['flowStep']) { case 6: $builder->add('msgCategory', 'hidden', array( $builder->add('msgFIB','text', array( 'required' => false, $builder->add('age', 'integer', array( 'required' => false, public function getDefaultOptions(array $options) $options = parent::getDefaultOptions($options); $options['flowStep'] = 1; $options['data_class'] = 'YOP\YourOwnPoetBundle\PoemBuilder\PoemDataCollector'; $options['intention'] = 'my_secret_key'; return $options; EDIT: add code, handle validation with annotations As Cyprian, I was pretty sure that using annotations should work, however it doesn't... Here is how I try: In my Controller: public function collectPoemDataAction() { $collector = $this->get('yop.poem.datacollector'); $flow = $this->get('yop.form.flow.poemDataCollector'); $form = $flow->createForm($collector); if ($flow->isValid($form)) { In my PoemDataCollector class, which is my data class (service yop.poem.datacollector): class PoemDataCollector * @Assert\Type(type="integer", message="Age should be a number") private $age; Here is the services implementation: The data class (PoemDataCollector) seems to be linked to the flow class and not to the form.. Is that why there is no validation? <service id="yop.poem.datacollector" class="YOP\YourOwnPoetBundle\PoemBuilder\PoemDataCollector"> <service id="yop.form.poemDataCollector" <tag name="form.type" alias="poemDataCollector" /> <service id="yop.form.flow.poemDataCollector" <call method="setFormType"> <argument type="service" id="yop.form.poemDataCollector" /> How can I do the validation while respecting the craueFormFlowBundle guidelines? The guidelines state: Validation groups To validate the form data class a step-based validation group is passed to the form type. By default, if getName() of the form type returns registerUser, such a group is named flow_registerUser_step1 for the first step. Where should I state my constraint to use those validation groups..? I tried: - MinLength: { limit: 5, message: "Your name must have at least {{ limit }} characters.", groups: [flow_poemDataCollector_step1] } - Type: type: integer message: Please input a number groups: [flow_poemDataCollector_step6] But it is not taken into acount. OK, much better, validation on name seems to be working with: * @Assert\MinLength(limit=5, groups={"flow_poemDataCollector_step1"}, message="Your name must have at least {{ limit }} characters.") private $name; Although the message doesn't appear... I have put {{ form_errors(form.name) }} and {{ form_errors(form) }} in my template... Why doesn't it show? * @Assert\Type(type="integer", groups={"flow_poemDataCollector_step6"}, message="Age should be a number") private $age; isn't working at all... Allright, I managed to have my validation working now.. But I can't find a way to display the error messages. Aren't they supposed to show when using: {{ form_errors(form.name) }} {{ form_errors(form) }} in my template? In my case, when validation fails, i return to the same step in my form but no error message is shown. Besides, $form->getErrors() returns an empty array! How to handle errors? share\|improve this question 3 Answers 3 up vote 0 down vote accepted So here is what was happening: i wasn't rendering the same instance of the form as the one being validated... I was rendering my page with 'form' => $flow->createForm($collector)->createView(), changing it to 'form' => $form->createView() solved my issue: error messages are now rendered. share\|improve this answer You should define constrains in class related to the form. This class doesn't have to be an entity. An example which should work: // your data class: use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert; class DataClass * @Assert\Type(type="integer", message="Age should be an integer") public $age; Moreover you need pass your data class object to form. Eg. $dataClassObject = new DataClass(); $form = $this->createForm(new SomeType(), $dataClassObject); // here is place where you put your data class object into form // now validation should work if ($form->isValid()) { share\|improve this answer Yes I tried this and was pretty sure that it should work! However it doesn't... I edited my question with some more code to show how i did this – Marronsuisse Sep 19 '12 at 1:55 as far as I can't see your services implementation, I've posted some more abstract example. All in all i guess the problem is that because you didn't pass data class object to your form. – Cyprian Sep 19 '12 at 7:15 I will edit my post with the service implementation. I am using this CraueFormFlowBundle so I have to follow their guidelines in the Controller..(link in my post) They are talking about step based validation but I can't understand how it works and can't find examples... – Marronsuisse Sep 20 '12 at 2:44 1) class PoemDataCollector shouldn't be a service, because it's a resource (this is your data class). 2) Are you sure that you specified right group name: "flow_poemDataCollector_step6" ? Pay attention on "six" at the end of name. In my understanding - this constraint should work in sixth step only then, right? Is it your intention? – Cyprian Sep 20 '12 at 7:08 1)I replaced the $collector = $this->get('yop.poem.datacollector'); with $collector = new PoemDataCollector();. I have to keep the service in services.xml though as other services use this one as argument. 2) Yes this constraint should apply in step 6. I'm still wondering why the MaxLength, MinLength constraints are working but not the Type one. Besides, still can't have the messages to display. – Marronsuisse Oct 22 '12 at 3:18 I haven't tested this so I'm not sure if it'll work, but you may be able to do something like the following inside your buildForm method. $builder->addValidator(new \Symfony\Component\Form\CallbackValidator(function(FormInterface $form) { $data = $form->getData(); if (!is_int($data['age'])) { $form->addError(new \Symfony\Component\Form\FormError('Age must be an integer')); share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Take the 2-minute tour × There is a subversion server working with Apache as it's frontend. I turned on custom logging in my VirtualHost section: CustomLog /var/log/svn/webdav.log "%t %u repo:%{SVN-REPOS-NAME}e action:%{SVN-ACTION}e (%B Bytes in %T Sec)" env=SVN-ACTION When I use an SVN client, I can see the following operations in webdav.log: But if I use a web-browser to browse repositories nothing is logged. And in the access log there are only standard GET requests even if I request a precise revision via ?p=revision_number (which means I'm certainly dealing with dav_svn Apache module) Why is that happening? What is the difference between using svn-client and plain browser behaviors? share\|improve this question 1 Answer 1 up vote 2 down vote accepted The SVN Client is talking WebDAV to your Server: He sents PROPFIND, PROPGET etc. messages to retrieve a lot of informations from the SVN repo: last changed revision, last author, etc. The Browser is just asking a GET-HTTP command. This is strictly speaking not a real SVN action. You just looking at some part of the repository. You can download a single file or list a directory. But you cannot do anything meaningful in terms of SVN. So this is not going into the log file, because there is no SVN Action corresponding to that. share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Take the 2-minute tour × I am supposed to compute the standard deviation function in some monte carlo simulations. The formula is this one: enter image description here I think my results are way off what they should be. My function uses tuples from the boost library and it looks like this: double add_square(double prev_sum, double new_val) return prev_sum + new_valnew_val; template <typename V> double vec_add_squares(const V<double>& v) return std::accumulate(v.begin(), v.end(), 0.0, add_square); template <class T> boost::tuple<double,double> get_std_dev_and_error(const vector<T>& input, double r, double N) double M = double(input.size()); double sum = std::accumulate(input.begin(),input.end(),0.0); double Squared_sum = vec_add_squares(input); std::cout << "sum " << Squared_sum << endl; // Calls Sum double term1 = Squared_sum - (sum/M)sum; double SD = (sqrt(term1) * exp(-2.0 * r N))/(M-1) ; double SE = SD/sqrt(M); std::cout << "SD = " << SD << endl; std::cout << "SE = " << SE << endl; return boost::tuple<double,double>(SD, SE) ; 1. Can anyone see any mistakes here? 2. also, there is the "accumulate" funciton in the STL library - does there exist an accumulate squared (members of the container)? share\|improve this question For accumulate you can write your own functor – PSIAlt Nov 15 '12 at 19:14 Thanks for the answer PSIA. I did write my own as in the code above but I get incorrect results, so it must be wrong or wrongly implemented in the program. – Mathias Nov 15 '12 at 19:57 Fyi, the error indicator's own error can be pretty huge. Getting confidence intervals for a monte-carlo simulation is harder than usually believed. – Alexandre C. Nov 15 '12 at 22:02 Yes, it's quite big... the reason I know it's wrong is because I was told the results. – Mathias Nov 15 '12 at 22:30 Maybe stats.stackexchange.com is a good place to ask about the computational formula? – Riga Nov 16 '12 at 20:36 1 Answer 1 Just use Boost.Accumulators (as you already use boost): #include <boost/accumulators/accumulators.hpp> #include <boost/accumulators/statistics.hpp> #include <boost/range/algorithm.hpp> #include <iostream> #include <ostream> using namespace boost; using namespace boost::accumulators; using namespace std; int main() accumulator_set<double, stats<tag::sum , tag::variance, tag::mean > > acc; double data[] = {1., 2., 3.}; acc = for_each(data, acc); cout << "sum = " << sum(acc) << endl; cout << "variance = " << variance(acc) << endl; cout << "sqrt(variance()) = " << sqrt(variance(acc)) << endl; cout << "mean = " << mean(acc) << endl; Output is: sum = 6 variance = 0.666667 sqrt(variance()) = 0.816497 mean = 2 share\|improve this answer I really like Boost.Accumulators - I was a bit too fast about the standard deviation, it's not part of Accumulators (unfortunately)... I will add a picture of the formula – Mathias Nov 15 '12 at 21:47 @Mathias: you have the variance available in boost::accumulators. Just take its square root (don't forget your extra factor exp (-2rT) / (M - 1)). Anyway, don't use the formula you posted -- it is terribly instable in many cases (boost uses a stable on-line fomula for the variance). – Alexandre C. Nov 15 '12 at 22:01 When I try to re-write the equations from boost.org/doc/libs/1_52_0/doc/html/boost/accumulators/impl/… I still can't get the same formula as posted above (except for the exp(-2Tr) ) – Mathias Nov 15 '12 at 22:29 @AlexandreC. sorry forgot to tag you – Mathias Nov 15 '12 at 22:46 @Mathias: Your formula reads approx. SD = sqrt (variance) exp (-2rT) / sqrt(M - 1). There should be M /(M - 1) in front of the first sum, and the denominator ought to be M instead of M - 1 to be exactly the standard stdev estimator that you would get out of boost::accumulators. This should not change much the result however; – Alexandre C. Nov 15 '12 at 23:22 Your Answer
Take the 2-minute tour × How can I remove a substring from a string using Perl? For example, $URL contains http://xyz.com/Main#abcd.aspx And I want to check and strip out 'Main#' from $URL Can anyone help me out? Well first I need to check that whether the string Main# exist or not. If it exists, then strip it; otherwise nothing needs to be done. So only an if statement. share\|improve this question Next time, don't community wiki the question. Thats not what it is for. – Kent Fredric Jun 14 '09 at 21:47 I am sorry! didnt knew that! – Subho Halder Jun 14 '09 at 21:55 @KentFredric this seems I was right making this a community wiki question, since this is a basic question, viewed by millions now !! – Subho Halder Aug 13 at 16:30 No. SO editors can still edit any question they have permission to. Lots of viewers doesn't mean anything in terms of "is it wikiable". It is a finite question, and there are finite, non-subjective right answers. Thus, it is not really "wiki" material. "I'll make this a wiki" was a bit of an "I'm new here, this sounds like a good idea" newbie mistake in 2009. – Kent Fredric Aug 14 at 7:40 4 Answers 4 up vote 5 down vote accepted use strict; use warnings; use URI::Split qw( uri_split uri_join ); my $str = "http://xyz.com/Main#abc.aspx" my ($scheme, $auth, $path, $query, $frag) = uri_split( $str ); That will give you the URI as a series of tokens, but beyond that, the specifics of what you want to do are a bit unclear. 1. Are you trying to extract the Path so you can use it? 2. Are you trying to recompose the URI without a path? 3. Are you trying to extract only a specific node in the path? 4. Are you trying to recompose the URI without a specific node in the path 5. Are you trying to filter out only the literal string 'Main' , not anything else? Well first i need to check that whether the string #Main exist or not, if it exist then strip it otherwise nothing to be done, so only an if statement if( $str =~ /#Main/ ){ $str =~ s/#Main//g; This will remove the literal string '#Main' from anywhere in the url if it exists. This could also just be written as $str =~ s/#Main//g; Because if it doesn't exist, no replacements will be done. Notable Complications If you are trying to retrieve a URI from a web-client, as in, it is a request string, you'll likely find the #.* part, also known as the document fragment, is already removed from the URI when you get it. This is how in my experience web-clients behave. I'm pretty sure there's an RFC somewhere specifying this to behave like this, but lazyness-- share\|improve this answer $URL =~ s/Main#//; Which is a no-op if "Main#" isn't present. share\|improve this answer 'perldoc perlop' -- look in the s/// section 'perldoc perlre'' -- read the entire document share\|improve this answer $URL =~ s/Main#//; will strip out the first instance of Main#. Adding g after the last / will make it strip out all instances. Stripping out the last instance is less trivial; here are a couple of ways: $URL = reverse($URL); $URL =~ s/#niaM//; $URL = reverse($URL); $URL =~ s/^(.*)Main#/$1/; my $index = rindex( $URL, 'Main#' ); if ($index >= 0) { substr( $URL, $index, 5, '' ) } If you want to do more complex things (like strip out "com" everywhere except in the hostname) you may want to parse the URI with the URI or URI::Split modules. share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Diseases of the esophagus (Proceedings) Diseases of the esophagus (Proceedings) Apr 01, 2008 Esophagitis may be caused by chemical injury from ingested substances, gastroesophageal reflux (secondary to general anesthesia, hiatal defects, persistent vomiting, malpositioned nasoesophageal/pharyngostomy tubes), or esophageal foreign bodies. Disturbances in esophageal motility may accompany esophagitis regardless of the cause. The reported prevalence of acute esophagitis is low; however, this is likely an underestimation due the subtlety of clinical signs and radiographic findings associated with this disorder. Clinical signs vary as to the type of chemical injury, severity of inflammation, and extent of esophageal involvement. Esophagitis is an endoscopic diagnosis that does not require mucosal biopsy. Mucosal abnormalities that may be observed include increased erythema, erosions, and alterations in mucosal texture. Lesions are usually evident in the distal esophagus, adjacent to and including the LES. Treatment - Mild esophagitis frequently resolves with minimal treatment other than dietary management. Provide frequent, smaller-sized meals of a low-fat, high-protein content to enhance LES tone and to minimize reflux. Animals having more severe esophagitis will require drug therapy and gastrostomy tube feeding. Sulcralfate suspension (0.5-1.0 g PO TID) is the most beneficial and specific therapy for reflux esophagitis. Administer metoclopramide (0.1-0.2 mg/lb per os, SC, TID) or cisapride (0.05-0.25 mg/lb per os BID) to decrease esophageal reflux (by increasing LES pressure) and to promote gastric emptying. Gastric acid secretory inhibitors (ranitidine 0.5 -1.0 mg/lb PO or IV BID; famotidine 0.25-0.5 mg/lb PO SID; omeprazole 0.35 mg/lb PO SID) should be given to decrease acidity of gastric juice. The duration of drug therapy is empirical and varies with severity of signs and endoscopic lesions. Mild lesions are treated for 5-7 days; moderate-to-severe esophagitis is treated for 2-3 weeks. The prognosis in most cases of esophagitis is good with appropriate medical therapy. Animals having severe disease warrant a guarded prognosis as stricture or segmental or generalized hypomotility may occur. Esophageal Foreign Bodies Foreign bodies are a common cause for esophageal dysphagia in the dog but are rare in cats. They usually lodge at points of minimal esophageal distension including the thoracic inlet, at the base of the heart, or at the diaphragmatic hiatus. The most common objects ingested are bones, fish hooks, needles, sticks, and play toys. Retained foreign bodies cause partial or complete mechanical obstruction. Muscle spasm and tissue edema occur around the foreign body making passage of the object down the esophagus more difficult. Mucosal abrasion, laceration, and perforation may occur with sharp or angular objects which are lodged intraluminally. The severity of clinical signs is related to the size of the foreign body and duration of esophageal obstruction. Most dogs and cats with large esophageal foreign bodies are presented for evaluation of acute onset of regurgitation, dysphagia, odynophagia, gagging, and excessive salivation. Survey and contrast radiology show the presence of the foreign material, aspiration pneumonia and/or evidence of perforation. Esophagoscopy should be performed to confirm the diagnosis and to assess secondary mucosal damage. Treatment - Esophageal foreign bodies are medical emergencies and should be promptly removed. Endoscopic removal of foreign bodies using a flexible instrument which accommodates a variety of retrieval (grasping) instruments is usually successful. Thoroughly evaluate the esophageal mucosa following foreign body extraction for hemorrhage, lacerations, and perforations. Obtain post-procedural thoracic radiographs to access for pneumomediastinum/pneumothorax. Restrict food or water for 24 hours depending on the extent of esophageal trauma. Animals with severe mucosal damage will require complete esophageal rest and gastrostomy tube feedings. Initiate medical therapy for esophagitis. Esophageal perforations are successfully treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics such as ampicillin (11 mg/lb SC, IM, IV TID). The prognosis after endoscopic foreign body removal is generally excellent. Significant esophageal trauma or large perforation carries a guarded prognosis.
General Question tacres's avatar If you collide with someone while your car is parking itself who is responsible? Asked by tacres (549 points ) May 10th, 2012 Personally I think vehicles already do way to many annoying things for us but I am curious if you have a vehicle that parallel parks itself & it backs into another car who is responsible? I mean obviously you as the driver are responsible but it would make an interesting test case against a manufacturer. Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0 7 Answers ragingloli's avatar You are. And chances are the manufacturers AGB already excluded any liability for damages resulting from the use of the device, so the probability of a successful lawsuit are slim at best. sinscriven's avatar It’s called parking assist for that reason. There is no guarantee that it will do it for you, and do it correctly. You still are fully responsible for what happens. Ron_C's avatar There may be a robot conspiracy to crash cars but barring that you are responsible, I would ask for warranty service but there is no way that the manufacturer is going to cover a crash. Response moderated (Unhelpful) MollyMcGuire's avatar You would be liable just as if you were doing it manually. I can’t imagine owning a car that talks to you and parks for you. All of that would stay turned off or disconnected. I hope that when I need a new car I can find a basic car that runs on gasoline, has a standard transmission, and hand-crank windows. Response moderated (Unhelpful) jax1311's avatar I think how the courts handle this issue when it ends up in litigation will have a significant impact on the future of car development. I recently read an article in which google was claiming that its “self-driving car” would be commercially available in less than 10 years, and based on the success that their test cars are currently having, that doesn’t seem too far fetched. However, one of the keys to determining whether mass market adoption of such a revolutionary technology is feasible will understanding how that tech will affect car manufacturers’ liability. If the courts hold that the manufacturer is liable for damage done by a car using park assist tech, then I would think the manufacturer would be pretty hesitant to adopt tech (such as self-driving cars) that would create liability risks that are exponentially higher than the potential park-assist liability. Personally, I think that it would depend on the cause of the accident. In other words, if it could in any way be attributed to driver error, then it likely would be. However, if the accident is the result of a computer malfunction, then the manufacturer would likely be liable. It all depends on the facts of the case. Answer this question to answer. Your answer will be saved while you login or join. Have a question? Ask Fluther! What do you know more about? Knowledge Networking @ Fluther
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"No Title Required" (2006) "No Title Required," 2006 Enamel on wood. 10 panels, overall dimensions: 55 x 688 inches; individual panels range from 50 x 50 inches to 55 x 55 inches Courtesy The Pace Gallery, New York "In a sense, the paintings move outward aesthetically. They go out into the space of the room. They’re involved in that space and certainly they involve the wall itself. So if you have something else next to the painting- if the painting were on a brick wall- that would not be good. You would have a lot of visual activity going on along the wall, and that would dilute the painting." - Robert Ryman
Exercise key to stopping cancer relapse Simple Science Last updated 08:23 30/10/2012 Relevant offers OPINION: A saying often used by fitness gurus is: "If you think exercise takes too much of your time, try having a heart attack". We frequently hear that exercise is the key to a happier, healthier, longer life. Recent research proves this is true and provides an intriguing reason why. A German television documentary called Escaping Illness recently examined the benefits of exercise; some of the issues it addressed are summarised in what follows. It should be no surprise that exercise is good for us. After all, our bodies evolved to be capable of tracking and chasing our food over long distances. In the animal kingdom, according to Professor Klaus Michael Braumann of Hamburg University, humans are the gold medal winners for endurance. There are African tribes that literally track and follow their prey to death. It is a reasonable assumption that modern living with its avoidance of exercise is going to result in health issues. Typically, we move from A to B in our cars, sit at office desks all day and lounge about in the evening. Lack of exercise is a huge contributor to heart attacks, diabetes, neurological disorders and inflammation related diseases. Each of us should be burning 8400 joules of energy per day in exercise alone. That is equivalent to three hours a week of gentle jogging or four hours a week walking. Inactivity is a killer because energy reserves accumulate and fat cells are then distributed throughout the body. Bigger, stronger muscles produce anti-inflammatory substances and it is known that inflammation plays a significant role in a wide range of diseases. Big muscles mean more blood vessels which are the highways to transport energy to the consumers. The more blood vessels, the more efficient is the disposal of energy. Regular exercise is also good for ensuring the joints and organs function properly. Two-thirds of people over 60 have to stop whilst walking up three storeys of stairs. A hundred years ago the average person walked about 20 kilometres per day. Compare that with the largely sedentary lifestyle of most people today who on average walk only 1km a day. Exercise increases the heart's ability to pump blood, achieving results unattainable through medicines. Professor Marion Kiechle from a women's clinic in Munich says that diet and exercise play a crucial role in determining the probability of relapse of cancer in her patients. Her study showed that diet reduces the probability of relapse by one-third and exercise reduces the probability by a half. So compelling are the results of this research that many German hospitals even coax weak, immediate post operation cancer patients onto treadmills for gentle walking exercise. Ad Feedback Clues as to why exercise is so good for you were reported earlier this year in The Economist. Beth Levine of the University of Texas in an article in the prestigious journal Nature reported that she had demonstrated "autophagy" is the key. This is the mechanism by which surplus and worn out proteins and other cellular components are broken up for scrap and recycled. Autophagy evolved to help the body survive when nutrients were scarce. Autophagosomes are molecules that assist in the breaking-up and recycling process. Dr Levine showed that exercising laboratory mice on a treadmill increased the number of autophagosomes in their muscles. Significantly, autophagosomes also increased the uptake of sugar from their bloodstream (a key symptom of diabetes is high blood sugar levels). Many studies report that near starvation diets can increase lifespan. Such diets stress the cells and cause the production of autophagosomes. The theory is that these molecules destroy the mitochondria of cells; mitochondria are the cells' power stations. In the mitochondrion, glucose and oxygen react producing energy, but this process also generates free radicals which play a key role in disrupting DNA and hence accelerating the ageing process. This includes the disruption of neurological processes (leading to dementia and the like). The good news is that regular, mild exercise has a similar effect to stringent dieting. The moral of this tale is that a little exercise goes a long way. If you have a medical condition then consult your doctor before exercising. For anyone not used to exercising there are a few golden rules to follow: Don't be over ambitious; stick to within your limits, and get into an exercise habit. You'll be hugely rewarded by feeling much healthier and happier. There is no excuse to avoid doing regular exercise. After all, a heart attack is so much more inconvenient. - Taranaki Daily News Special offers Opinion poll Do you own or rent your home? Own, mortgage free Own, but still paying mortgage Rent, by choice Rent as can't afford to buy Vote Result Related story: Renting no joke for older flatmates Featured Promotions Sponsored Content TDN rachel stewart Riding Shotgun with Rachel Stewart Matt Rilkoff's perspective of comtempory life The Rilkoff Files Matt Rilkoff's perspective of contemporary life tdn kathryn collumn Under the Sky Tower With Kathryn Calvert Gordon Burnside Gordon Burnside TDN The Weekend The Weekend with Glenn McLean
1. Home» 2. Sport» 3. Football» 4. Teams» 5. Chelsea Failing to get best out of Torres - Where AVB went wrong at Chelsea Despite costing the club £50m, Fernando Torres has still scored more goals against Chelsea than he has for them. His problems did not begin with Villas-Boas' arrival but the Portuguese was unable to resurrect his career. Indeed, the Spaniard looked as lost as ever and bereft of confidence. Villas-Boas said the right things in public, but was unable to get inside the head of this country's most expensive signing, or create an attacking shape which suited him. Image 2 of 6 Follow Telegraph pics on Twitter Follow TelegraphPics on Twitter Receive updates every time we produce a new picture gallery
Categories: All entries John de Rosier 2 Responses 1. Myra says: Want a job line also requires that you know the right PEOPLES. 2. flteach says: Nope…just take a test, get one of the top three scores, sign canvass letters as they come in, and go for interviews as you get called. You will get hired if you follow all three steps.
Everyone's Gone Baby Crazy In The Season's Best Grimm Wow. Who knew how good this show could be when it skipped the standard Wesen-'o-the-week storylines, focused solely on the season's biggest storyarc, and brought all its players together for one purpose? Well, I think we all did, actually. It's a shame this doesn't happen more often. But that doesn't take away from the fact that "The Law of Sacrifice" was a terrific episode of TV, period. Adalind and her baby (who is eventually named Diana) are at Renard's, and not only is Renard instantly protective of his child, he and Adalind quickly form a family unit, one dedicated to protecting the baby. When Nick arrives, Renard's completely ready to shoot him in case he or his mother want to spirit Diana away. But Nick and his mother just want to protect the baby as well, and they don't object to Adalind staying with Renard. Well, at least until Viktor calls his Verrat asset in Portland, an FBI agent named Steward, along with a few Verrat agents to seize the baby at any cost. Of course, there are not one but two Grimms currently at Renard's apartment, so they incapacitate Steward and kill the two Verrat quickly. The only place left to hide the baby? You guessed it, Munroe and Rosalee's. You know I hate when Grimm repeats information to characters that the audience already knows, but Nick's call to Munroe where he has to explain all the people who are coming over to his house, who slept with who, who murdered who's family members, and everything else, is delightful, mostly because Munroe and Rosalee are wonderfully and appropriately flabbergasted. This gives Nick, Renard and the others time to think up a plan. After learning from Steward that Viktor is on his way to Portland, they have Steward send the prince a message to meet them at a secluded warehouse. Instead Viktor stops by the precinct and says that if Renard doesn't give him the baby, he'll have him, Adalind and Renard's mother killed. Suddenly at Monroe's house, Nick's mom gets arrested, in front of Adalind, for the murder of Adalind's mom. Shortly, Adalind is brought to the station to answer questions about her mother but is instead confronted by Nick's mom, and while she's distracted, Renard gives Viktor the baby. It's not hard to guess that there's a method somewhere in this madness, but the episode moves so quickly that it's still kind of unexpected when five masked members of the Resistance drive up to Viktor's plane, hold everybody at gun point, steal the baby, and drive off in Viktor's limo. Of course, these five are really Nick, Nick's mom, Hank, Monroe and Renard, who hope that by blaming the Resistance, Viktor will leave them alone. Just in case, though, Renard sends little Diana off with Nick's mom, who leaves Portland with a used truck and baby with purple eyes. I'm not how much this plan really makes sense — the Resistance protected Adalind and the baby and brought her to Renard in Portland in the first place, surely Viktor realizes there a connection between Renard and the Resistence, and could keep threatening his cousin to force the Resistance to give the baby back — but it's such an exciting, well-paced episode, who cares? And now we've got so much to look forward to! Adalind super super-pissed that Renard stole her baby! Adalind might not even know Viktor doesn't have it! Viktor's in town and also likely super-pissed! There's so much potential here now that everyone's together and all caught up — and next week a new, young, hotheaded, hell-raising Grimm comes to town! I don't know if Grimm can keep this momentum up for the rest of the reason, but I'd sure like to watch them try. Everyone's Gone Baby Crazy In The Season's Best Grimm Assorted Musings: • Holy shit, someone remembered the key! Nick's mom and Renard have a little conversation about it at Monroe's house. They don't explain anything about it, of course, but at least people remember it exists. • If Viktor doesn't stick around in Portland I'm going to be super pissed myself. This show desperately need a bad guy who sticks around and directly interacts with the heroes, and Alexis Denisof is having a ball. • When Viktor lands at the airport, Hank is surreptitiously taking photos in his car, which is hanging out alone on the tarmac, about 50 feet away. It's kind of hilarious. • Some pretty good acting by Claire Coffee when it dawns on her that Renard is giving up Diana. I hope someone remembers to tell her that the baby ended up with Nick's mom and not Viktor, though. • Diana's crazy baby powers: having purple eyes, making things levitate, fucking with Munroe's clocks. She also turns the coffee in Viktor cup into a floating skull, which would be awesomely creepy if the coffee hadn't looked exactly like turds on the way up.
For $5,500 In Loonies, This Is The Car With The Walmart Tattoo People like to accessorize themselves, a habit that goes all the way back to humanity's formative days. Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Volvo S40 is decked out like it's a Suicide Girls pin-up, but is its price one adornment that's too much? Wow, two Volvos in a row, that must be some kind of record. Yesterday's 1979 262C garnered an hearty 67% win for its price, and praise for its not a single fuck given presentation. In stark contrast to that customized Swede, today's candidate trades additional cylinders for maor bling! The S40, in its original iteration was the result of Volvo's partnership with Mitsubishi to develop a small FWD sedan and wagon. Sold by the Japanese company as the Carisma - an aspirational name if there ever was one - the cars were built at the NedCar plant in the Netherlands, a former DAF factory. Mitsubishi's claims aside, neither the Carisma nor the S40 offered styling worth avoiding a moose in, and in fact the little Volvo lacks even the ironic dullness of its bigger, boxier brethren. If you want to make the car stand out then your only options are to either drive it naked, or bling it out like a boss. This 2001, 220,000 kilometer edition has been just so biblically blinged. Factory painted canary yellow, it now sports so many stick-on, pop-up, light-up accouterments that it's a wonder it's not scraping the tops of its Ferrari-logo alloys from the sheer weight. Those wheels are also blingtastic, and the seller says that the car comes not only with the prancing pony rims, but also a set of winter boots, this being Canada and all. The inside looks a little more tame, the black leather trim being offset only by a red and black steering wheel cover freed from the accessory aisle at Khapco and a seat riser in back that pretty much guarantees it smells of fruit by the foot and crayola. Mechanically, there doesn't appear to be much other than wheels that has seen change, plus the turbo 1.9 and Aisin-Warner 5-speed automatic isn't exactly a drivetrain that is typically fooled with. There's also no AWD here, nor is it a wagon, the tastiest of Volvo cakes in the opinion of many. So what does this S40 have going for it? Well, not a lot other than all that crap that adorns it and probably causes enough wind noise to make driving with the heavily tinted windows down nearly impossible. Speaking of noise, there appears to be a pair of extra trumpets under the hood, so you can honk if you're horny. There are also neon lights under the body, stripes and another Ferrari badge (jonesing much?) on the roof, and stick-on chrome crap not just on the body, but on the glass as well. It really requires a minute or two to take it all in. Now, the seller is asking $5,500 Canadian for the car, which works out to about $5,500 American - stupid economy - and I really am not expecting you to vote on whether that price is nice or if the seller is on crack for asking so much based on this being a plebeian Volvo S40, they just ain't worth that much no matter what the currency. No, I want to know whether you think this car may be worth that based on its merit as either a work of art, or as an ironic gesture. It is after all just a few bling shy of being one of those art cars like the ones covered in pennies, or floppy disks, or hemp. So what do you think, keeping its nature in mind, of that $5,500 price? Is that something that would make you want to bring home the bling? Or, would that be better spent on eye bleach? You decide! Kijiji Toronto or go here if the ad disappears. H/T to zuey10 and Scooter_from_the_hills for the hookup!
What is meta? × I have started revising some of my old answers. For some questions I'm finding much better answers. I'm torn on whether I should leave my original answer, which is correct but not the best answer, and just append the new better answer. Or, should I completely replace my old answer with the better answer. I suspect leaving old correct answers, even if they are not the best, betters the community more than if I were to remove it entirely. What should be best practice in this instance? share\|improve this question 1 Answer 1 up vote 4 down vote accepted Keep it. Basically, do one of two things: 1. Clean-up your answer and let it go. You aren't always going to have the best answer, but if it's right then it's good. 2. Do what you said, and make your answer better. Don't copy the other answer, but if you can add something that he/she didn't include than go for it! share\|improve this answer Yeah, it's definitely not helpful to more or less copy another answer. Who knows, your own answer might be more applicable to someone. Several technically sound ways of solving the same problem can never hurt. – Tim Post Dec 29 '12 at 4:17 Re: #2, what if I cite an answer from another similar or duplicate question and append it to my original answer? – JSuar Dec 31 '12 at 2:26 @Jsuar that'd be fine. – Dynamic Dec 31 '12 at 3:13 You must log in to answer this question. Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .
What is meta? × Short tags that are substrings of other tags are difficult to find in autocomplete lists. Here is a recent example of a user having problems with this. Putting an exact text input match to the top of the list is already implemented on the tag search page: alt text but not in any autocomplete list. Interesting/ignored tags: alt text Ask Question/edit page: alt text To make it easier to find short tags, I would like the same behaviour from the tag search page implemented in the autocomplete lists. EDIT: Sorry for the misunderstanding. I realize the autocomplete lists order descending by popularity and the search page orders by name. I think that part should stay the same. All I want is the exact match functionality added to the autocomplete lists. share\|improve this question I would like the exact tag match to be available on auto-complete as you request, but I'd prefer the rest of the behavior be kept the unchanged. Tag page is listed in something alphabetical, while the auto-complete is done by volume, and I think that the metric in the latter is useful for it. – Grace Note Sep 10 '10 at 17:10 @Grace: Good idea, but you can do both (keep shown items in popularity order plus show exact match) by bumping the last item if the exact match is lower. – Gnome Sep 10 '10 at 19:35 @Gnome That's exactly the solution I would like. – Grace Note Sep 10 '10 at 19:42 Yeah, sorry guys. I've updated my post. @Grace – Jon Seigel Sep 10 '10 at 21:43 1 Answer 1 up vote 2 down vote accepted Fixed it up, will be deployed later today share\|improve this answer You must log in to answer this question. Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .
• News Feeds How much should teenagers drink? Children aged under 15 should never be given alcohol, even in small quantities, England's chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson is set to say. Reporter Stephen Chittenden speaks to 14 and 15-year-olds in Cambridge about their attitude to alcohol and Sir Liam explains why the guidelines have become necessary. Story Tools BBC navigation Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific
Comment: Wonder how many times they find drugs (See in situ) Wonder how many times they find drugs And yes, all drugs should be legal as it is better for the person to damage themselves on drugs (God forbid) than be damaged by those who hurt her looking for drugs in the name of the public. Apparently hiding drugs in body parts is common and why they do these kind of searches, but it's gone too far (based on what little I know about what's on this post).. the government should conceed that they have lost the war when they need to go this far on ALL people, even those on who they found drugs hidden in body parts.
SANAA - Yemeni security forces killed three militant leaders on Tuesday when they stormed a house used by al-Qaida for making bombs, the interior and defense ministries said. "A large amount of various explosives was found in most of the rooms in addition to booby-trapped gas cylinders and cars ready to be used in suicide attacks and weapons including a rocket and explosive belts," the Defense Ministry website quoted a security source as saying. Yemen, which borders top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and lies on major world shipping lanes, is home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a group viewed by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the militant network established by Osama bin Laden. Please LIKE our Facebook page - it makes us stronger
Tech + Engineering Using Quantum Mechanics To Spot Internet Snoops In 2006, years before Edward Snowden leaked government secrets, a retired AT&T communications technician blew the lid on an NSA spying program. As a part of a class action lawsuit filed against his former employer by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mark Klein, the technician, reported that a secret room overseen by the NSA was being built next to the international telephone switches at an AT&T facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco. “While doing my job, I learned that fiber optic cables from the secret room were tapping into the Worldnet (AT&T’s internet service) circuits by splitting off a portion of the light signal,” Klein wrote in a statement. By tapping into the fiber optic backbone of AT&T’s network, the NSA could snoop on every packet of data being sent through the switches next door. Unencrypted data would be plainly visible, and encrypted data thought to be secure could be saved and possibly decrypted at a later time. All data that went through that room was saved and copies were sent to the NSA. Until Klein came forward, none of AT&T’s customers—or people who corresponded with those customers—likely knew about the NSA’s efforts to eavesdrop on their data and communications. But in the near future, if a new technique published in the journal Nature this week pans out, people like you and me will known when the NSA—or anyone else—is listening in. A transmitter used in quantum key distribution Decoding encrypted messages is dependent on a key. If you don’t have the key, decoding the data can be incredibly difficult, if not practically impossible, depending on the cryptographic technique. Encrypted communications begin by two users exchanging this key. The breakthrough isn’t a new encryption method, but a way to alert both parties that their key exchange is being snooped on. Here’s John Markoff, writing for the New York Times: The key exchange is usually protected by the use of mathematical formulas based on the challenge of factoring large numbers. In recent years public key cryptographic systems have been improved by lengthening the factored numbers used in the formula. That, in principle, would require vastly more computing resources to break into the system. Quantum cryptography relies instead on encoding the key in a stream of quantum information — photons that are specially polarized. If a third party eavesdrops on the communication, the fact will be immediately obvious to the parties of the secret communication. The technique, known as quantum key distribution, relies on the fact that measuring a photon can change its orientation. If specific photon orientations are a part of key exchanges, the receiver of a key can easily detect any abnormalities and the key can be discarded before any encrypted information is sent. Learn more about quantum cryptography Quantum key distribution has been expensive to implement because the equipment it relies on isn’t cheap. But this new method devised by researchers at Toshiba’s Quantum Information Group in England allows up to 64 users to share the equipment, significantly lowering costs. Today, only banks, government institutions, and other sensitive organizations can afford to use quantum key distribution and other quantum cryptographic techniques. But someday soon, even your computer may be able to spot a snoop before it’s too late.
A primer on the new state testing in schools -A A +A By Todd Martin All students in Kentucky are now aligned to take five tests, although not each test each year, that are part of the state accountability tests. Juniors take the ACT college entrance test, sophomores take the PLAN test that measures college-readiness in English, math, reading and science, eighth-graders take the EXPLORE test, which also measures college readiness in the same areas. Then there are the two new areas of testing with the new standards: End-of-course exams and the Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP). What are End-of-course exams? End-of-course exams included for state accountability are given in high school in English II, Algebra II, Biology and U.S. History, and in Shelby County they currently count as 10 percent of the student’s final grade. The state suggested 20 percent, and Shelby County’s plan is to gradually work the percentage up to 20. The exams include multiple choice, short answer and open response. Each section has between 35 and 38 multiple-choice questions that can be administered in two 45-minute sessions. The short answer and open response question will consist of 1-3 questions that can be administered in 45 minutes. The exams provide alignment to state and national college readiness and common core and show the progress of a student, school and district. What is K-PREP like? These new tests are given in grades 3-8 to gauge proficiency in reading, math, science, social studies and writing. The tests provide the ability to compare students to each other and to determine how well students have learned the skills. In Shelby County, the focus is on mastery of skills. Part of the tests are purchased and built to be used to compare nationally, while the other portion of the test is customized for Kentucky. The assessments will consist of multiple choice, short answer and open response questions. The tests align with common core standards and show the progress of a student, school and district. When are the tests? The EXPLORE and PLAN tests are still given in the fall and the ACT test remains in March for juniors. K-PREP tests are administered during the final 14 days of the school year, and end-of-course exams occur when the material has been covered. In Shelby County, end-of-course exams began this week and, along with students taking Advanced Placement tests, end on the last day of school. K-PREP tests start for elementary schools on Monday and end Friday and middle and high school testing is May 21-29. Will there be writing tests? Yes, for grades 5-6, 8, and 10-11. Those tests will include on-demand writing and editing/mechanics. How will results be reported? Each school will receive individual student and school-based reports. Those reports will include national percentile scores from that portion of the test, and a ranking of novice, apprentice, proficient or distinguished from a combination of the national and Kentucky-specific portions of the test. End-of-course assessments, which are provided by ACT, can link performance to national results.
Add review Sushi Park Critics' pick West Hollywood Located on the second floor of a nondescript plaza on Sunset Strip, Sushi Park is where Angelenos in the know (and the occasional Hollywood celeb) get their sushi fix. Grab a seat at the sushi bar for so-fresh-you-can-taste-the-Pacific omakase where the chef will take you through multiple courses of sushi, sashimi—sorry, no rolls here—and small plates for a hefty price. Note the limited opening hours for lunch and dinner (Saturday seats evening diners only). Venue name: Sushi Park Address: 8539 Sunset Blvd Los Angeles Venue phone: 310-652-0523 Opening hours: Mon-Fri noon-1:45pm, 5:30-9:45pm; Sat 5:30-9:45pm 1 person listening
Take the 2-minute tour × In multiplayer, when you reach SR-130, can you change the specialization name displayed below your Spartan? For example, if you choose Stalker as your last specialization, will it be set to "Stalker" forever or can you freely switch it to another specialization name? share\|improve this question 3 Answers 3 up vote 2 down vote accepted After some of the more recent patches (CSR patch I think) it will now display Mastery as the specialization for anyone who has finished all specializations and hit the SR-130 rank share\|improve this answer +1 and updated to correct answer – turbo May 25 '13 at 21:20 As of February 26th, at the latest, the space where specialization names appear is blank when you reach SR-130. I noticed this while playing last night. According to this article, you can't: After reaching the maximum SR level in Halo 4, Deuce does have a couple of suggestions. For starters, let whatever Specialization title you want to be the the last one you play before reaching the cap. He discovered that you cannot change your title once you've reach the cap and he is now stuck as a Pathfinder. This article was posted back in November, so perhaps it's been updated since then. If anyone is SR-130 and can provide evidence proving otherwise I will accept that answer instead. share\|improve this answer From what I've heard in the community it is not possible to change the name once you hit SR130. What you choose as your last specialization is what shows up on your playercard. So yes it will say "Stalker" forever unless they release a patch that changes that, but from my knowledge there hasn't been any patch, and I've heard this from people that know others that are SR130 and were complaining about that feature. share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Subject: re: misc/6882: /var/spool/news should be owned by To: Geoff Wing <> From: matthew green <> List: netbsd-bugs Date: 01/27/1999 21:25:32 You don't have to with INN because it will make them for you in the "make install" process. I suspect news servers others are similar. sorry, but how the hell does `make install' know to create local spool directories? if (for some insane moment) i decided to install to create /var/spool/news/eterna manually! there is a problem here, for sure. i don't know exactly what it is, but you're analysis seems to be missing somethings.
Take the 2-minute tour × I put "exit" in my .bashrc file. I don't have physical access to the machine so to connect to it I use ssh. I don't have root privileges. Every time I connect to the server, the connection automatically closes. So far, I've tried: • Overwriting .bashrc with scp and sftp. The connection closes before I can do anything. • Using a few different GUI programs to access ssh (connection closes) • Overwriting the file with ftp. (can't use ftp) • From my home computer • $ ssh host "bash --noprofile --norc" (connection closes) • $ ssh host "mv .bashrc bashrc_temp" (connection closes) • $ ssh host "rm .bashrc" (same thing) • $ ssh host -t (connection closes) Is there anything I can do to disable .bashrc or maybe overwrite the file before .bashrc is sourced? I tried your suggestion, but no luck. The bashrc file still runs first. Another thing I tried was logging in with another account and sudo editing the .bashrc, but I don't have sudo privileges on this account. I guess I'll contact the admin. I can't believe it, but this approach worked! Even though "exit" occurs within the first few lines (composed only of a few if blocks and export statements) in the .bashrc file, I still managed to Ctrl-c interrupt it successfully within twenty tries (took about 3 minutes). I removed the offending line in the .bashrc and everything is in working order again. share\|improve this question migrated from stackoverflow.com Nov 27 '10 at 15:07 This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers. darwinawards.com you should have (temporary) an access as a user who can overwrite your .bashrc file, or change your default shell to something else. "Ask your system Administrator" as MS says. – khachik Nov 27 '10 at 9:05 man 8 sshd says that it 9. Runs user's shell or command. as the ninth step... :-/ – khachik Nov 27 '10 at 9:17 scp will also stop working because the shell still gets opened and .bashrc gets called – Aleksandr Levchuk Nov 28 '10 at 2:51 7 Answers 7 up vote 25 down vote accepted you can try to abort (ctrl+C) before the exit part of your .bashrc is executed. I tried by adding the following at the top of a testuser's bashrc, it works, it's just a matter of timing. Very easy in my case: sleep 3 echo "Too late... bye" exit 0 share\|improve this answer +1, because it's probably the only solution that doesn't require help from the system administrator. However, a lot of luck is required to have correct timing (ssh -v host might help a bit). – JooMing Nov 27 '10 at 20:38 Actually the ctrl+C did work. Even without the sleep. I placed "exit" into my bashrc and was able to recover with a quick ctrl+C after about 4 tries. Please make some edit the answer so I can change the "-1" to "+1". – Aleksandr Levchuk Nov 28 '10 at 2:49 @Aleksandr Levchuk done – shellholic Nov 28 '10 at 2:54 Unbelievable, this works! – Dongsheng Cai Dec 1 '12 at 12:52 I very much appreciate the combination of pathetically ridiculous low-tech and brutal effectiveness here. – unixtippse Jun 11 '13 at 16:06 I managed to mess up my .bashrc file too on a new cluster I've been given trial access to. Not wanting to seem like a noob, the last thing I wanted to do was ask for help from the admins, and I couldn't get a well-timed ^+C to work. What did work however, was to send an 'rm' command as a final argument to ssh. i.e. ssh -tv user@host rm .bashrc I couldn't get a 'mv' command to work (tried before without -t), so I think the -t option must have done it, but you can test that if you want. I've now recovered from the .bashrc~ file (made by vim) everything but the dodgy line in question and everything is right in the world! =D share\|improve this answer If you can log in as a different user, try this: su user -s /bin/sh You'll need your password, of course. share\|improve this answer you could try different, not sh based shell: ksh or csh – Hubert Kario Nov 27 '10 at 17:41 If I recall some bad experiences I have had like this, the ssh, scp, sftp do seem to run the initialization files. My suggestion is to use simple FTP and then delete or rename file bad file on the FTP command line after logging in. I'm assumming that your system will allow you FTP access. In such a case, be sure to change your password (securely) when you have finished repair. share\|improve this answer Connect via SCP or SFTP and edit/rename/delete your .bashrc file that way. Edit - D'oh, I see you said you tried that. Oh well. share\|improve this answer I've had the same problem, and somehow was able to solve it. I used ssh to access the system, and pressed and held Ctrl+c as soon as I logged into the system. Then, ~/.bashrc was not read, and I was able to modify it. share\|improve this answer Exact duplicate of the most upvoted answer here – pauska Feb 18 '11 at 22:57 From man ssh (for OpenSSH_5.6p1 at least, not sure when it was added), page for more information. ..which means you can create ~/.ssh/rc containing the following: mv ~/.bashrc ~/bak.bashrc Then when you ssh in, the problematic bashrc will be moved out the way, before your login shell is started - you can then obviously fix the bak.bashrc and move it back into place share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Take the 2-minute tour × • I want to use jQTouch to build iPhone app for large website. When searched for it, I understood that I must edit my HTML code for website to be Suitable to my app, how I can do this without conflict with the style for my website? • Also, what is the basic steps to using jQTouch ? just Add scripts and Initialize as here : http://code.google.com/p/jqtouch/wiki/GettingStarted . help me with many thanks. share\|improve this question 3 Answers 3 up vote 0 down vote accepted A pretty good idea is to detect the iPhone server-side and then send different HTML with all the jQTouch goodness included and your original style excluded. share\|improve this answer mr.Jakub Hampl, would you please explain more about this? how I can do it ? any simple tutorial for this solution? – Rona May 15 '10 at 17:38 my website eabia.com what do you think ? can I use jQTouch? – Rona May 15 '10 at 18:04 What I mean is that you seem to have a dynamic site. Is it php? So do a check on the User Agent string and if it's an iPhone just render a different file that gives the proper jQTouch html. – Jakub Hampl May 15 '10 at 18:27 and all two file connect with same DataBase, right? because I want to do the same functions from website and iPhone. – Rona May 15 '10 at 18:38 Yep you got it. – Jakub Hampl May 15 '10 at 18:40 Unless you are extremely lucky, you won't be able to use the same markup for both your normal and jqTouch sites. Your site is likely not a single page application based off of hashed urls. To get started using jqTouch I'd suggest loading up the demo and editing things in and out of the demo. That will give you the best jump-start into how everything works. share\|improve this answer Most Certainly not with that markup. – Alex Sexton May 29 '10 at 5:28 What Jakub suggests is the best answer for you without getting into making an iPhone App. But from experience I also suggest you think about the nature of your application. Basically decide whether your service is something that mentally as soon as the user thinks about it makes them want to open safari. If not I would suggest you need to consider making a proper app rather than a jQtouch enabled website. This is mainly because people always prefer the short way to achieve tasks. And if you have competitors they will just simply make an app after you release and steal your customers. share\|improve this answer As I said before what Jakub is directing you towards is perfectly possible development wise. But that is not what I am trying to point out. From the Human interaction point of view when you want to release an announcement board, probably the neatest way to get maximum users for your app is not to do a jqtouch version of the site. But I think you should make a proper iphone app with the option to alert subscribers of a particular announcement about new posts etc. You can do all this with iPhone App API. However this is just my opinion. – XGreen May 15 '10 at 18:50 Your Answer
10 Reasons 'Real Housewives' Kyle Richards Makes Us All Crazy Jealous Hot List 20 Kyle Richards Real HousewivesThere is only one Real Housewives show I can stomach right now, but it's a doozy: The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. If there is a better one, I don't want to know! Most of this is because of Kyle Richards. Perfect, perfect Kyle Richards. It's not enough that she has long, gorgeous hair even in her 40s and that she looks about 29, she also has a rocking bod, a killer marriage, and really well-behaved, sweet children. Sigh. The reality is, we all kinda sorta want to be Kyle. Of the women on the show, she is the one who never fights (except with her sister Kim who usually starts it anyway) and rarely becomes tabloid fodder. Here are the top 10 reasons we all are jealous of Kyle: 1. Her Hair: Long, shiny, perfect black hair. She breaks every rule about women over 40 and long hair, but with hair like that, who cares? 2. Her Way With Women: Seriously, does ANYONE dislike Kyle? She seems to just be friends with everyone. This is contrary to pretty much every other real housewife in the history of the show. 3. Her Splits: She can DO THE SPLITS, people. I couldn't do that since I was 5! 4. Her Husband: As far as husbands go, Mauricio Umansky is outstanding. He's hot. He's grounded. He's supportive. And he is worth a reported $100 million. 5. Her Kids: Seriously, how are they ALL so sweet and well-behaved? Can't one be a wild child? 6. Her Mother-in-Law: Yes, she even loves her mother-in-law. And her mother-in-law loves her. JEALOUS. 7. Her Clothing: Maybe having four daughters makes your clothing better? Whatever the reason, mama can dress! She always looks perfect, age appropriate, classy, AND sexy. 8. Her Rockin' Bod: She has expressed discomfort with her body in the past, but she looks AMAZING. Forty-three never looked so hot. 9. Her House: Come on. That shite is gorgeous, right? 10. Her Car: It's a gorgeous Maserati. Plus it has a convertible top, something we East Coasters can only imagine. Are you envious of Kyle? Or does another Housewife make you swoon? Image via Bravo real housewives
James Henry Greathead James Henry Greathead, engraving after a photo, 1896.The Mansell Collection/Art Resource, New York James Henry Greathead, (born Aug. 6, 1844Grahamstown, S.Af.—died Oct. 21, 1896London, Eng.), British civil engineer who improved the tunneling shield, the basic tool of underwater tunneling, essentially to its modern form. Greathead arrived in 1859 in England, where he studied with the noted civil engineer Peter W. Barlow between 1864 and 1867. The tunneling shield invented by Marc Isambard Brunel and used to build the Thames Tunnel was large and unwieldy. Barlow designed a smaller shield, circular in cross section, which Greathead modified to complete the Tower Subway (1869) under the River Thames near the Tower of London. As the shield was pushed forward by screw jacks, the tunnel behind it was lined with cast-iron rings. In 1886 Greathead began work to carry the City and South London Railway under the Thames near London Bridge, using a larger version of his shield, with which he bored twin tunnels about 10 feet (3 metres) in diameter. In this project he pioneered the use of compressed air in conjunction with the circular shield. His shield, compressed air, and the cast-iron rings used to line the tunnels came to be adopted generally in tunnel construction.
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Shine Fights Matchmaker Ron Foster Shares Thoughts On Ricardo Mayorga Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories Shine Fights Matchmaker Ron Foster Shares Thoughts On Ricardo Mayorga Many gifted athletes have found a home with MMA by crossing over from various sports. MMA has proven to be an exciting alternative for athletes looking to make a change. Many high profile sports have seen their ranks lose competitors to the calling of this rapidly growing sport. With all the crossover type athletes dipping their toes in the waters of MMA, and the success some of them have found, it was only a matter of time before big names started to trickle over. The biggest catch for the sport has to be Brock Lesner. Lesnar has re-written the heavyweight story in the UFC and found himself standing high atop the mountain as the most successful transplant of all. The foundation for Brock's success story was built on what he brought to the table when he arrived at MMA's doorstep. He already had a strong tool set to build on in the realm of combat sports, being world class wrester with the strength that accompanies that type of talent. It was his ace in the hole as an aspiring mixed martial artist. Another very exciting, more recent crossover addition to the MMA family is world class pugilist and world renowned warrior Ricardo Mayorga. Mayorga has been signed by the upstart, Florida based, MMA promotion, Shine Fights. Shine has landed a very game fighter with a style that offers a high ceiling within the sport. Like Lesnar, Mayorga steps up to the plate and immediately brings to the table with him a world class talent in combat sports. His boxing and the absolute heart of a warrior that he has honed in the sweet science over 16 years is what will set him apart from many other competitors. MMA watch out. "Ricardo, he’s a very very interesting guy. You have guys like Ray Mercer and Herschel Walker switching from different sports to MMA, but I think we have the most compelling one." states Foster. "Mayorga is still in his mid thirties, he has fought consistently the best fighters in the world. He’s never been the most technical boxer. People always look at him and say this guy's a wild man he's a brawler, blah blah blah. I think with that mentality, that hard nosed style that MMA is going to fit him just fine." Mayorga is confident about the transition. Foster shared this perspective on Mayorga's thoughts. "Talking to Mayorga, he says he thinks MMA is going to be easier because less rules, he can throw elbows, knee people in the face. In his mind, he thinks he's a champion. He's taking it very seriously. He’s not overlooking anybody." "It's going to be interesting because egos will clash, and there is a lot of people out there that think their stand up is just as good as a pro boxers stand up and some guys are going to get their chance. If they try to stand and box with him I think someone is going to get knocked out." For a fighter who has only known one thing his entire life, the transition to a sport that leads him from four points of contact to sixteen, also throw in take downs, Mayorga has a lot on his plate preparing for his first fight. Foster had this to offer on the differences Mayorga is preparing for. "I know he is training, he's taking it very seriously. He's working a lot on his cardio because boxing cardio is a little bit different than MMA cardio. Number one, there are five minute rounds, in boxing there are three minute rounds." Foster is confident in Mayorga's preparation, which is important for a matchmaker. "Without releasing too much information, you know the guy is taking it seriously and he will be ready. He does understand this is a mixed martial arts fight so there is a possibility of his opponent taking him to the ground. He understands that and has prepared properly for that." Otherwise they are selling their chance of victory short, and increasing the odds that they are made an example of by a man who is no stranger to inflicting pain and walking through obstacles that would make most fighters cringe. Mayorga is an extremely dangerous wild card, Shine is fortunate to have him on board. Load More Stories Follow B/R on Facebook Out of Bounds Subscribe Now We will never share your email address Thanks for signing up.
HOME > Chowhound > Washington DC & Baltimore > Three Fun Family Dinners in DC We're coming to DC next week and I am looking for three great family dinners. The kids are 12, 10, and 7. Upscale is not a problem but they are not particularly adventurous eaters -- they don't need a kids menu but they do need some good basic options like a burger or steak, caesar salad, pasta, or something fried ;-). I'm thinking that our best bets would be American, Italian, seafood, and maybe bistro. In doing my research, the following sounded good: Central, Matchbox, Ella's, Hank's Oyster Bar, Westend Bistro, Clyde's, Old Ebbitt's Grill, Paolo's, Pizzeria Paradiso. I think Jaleo seems fun but I don't know if it's too adventurous for the kids. I'd like experiences that feel very DC, either because of the ambience or because it's one of the city's best and/or most popular. Here's the itinerary, location-wise: First night should be near the hotel, since we'll probably be tired. We're at the Embassy Suites Downtown, on 22nd. I have Firefly booked right now but am open to suggestion. Night 2 we were thinking of eating in and exploring Georgetown. On night 3, two of our group are going to a concert at the Verizon Center, while the other three may try to catch a movie. We need something convenient for both, either near the concert venue (or a convenient Metro stop) and close to a nearby cineplex. 1. Click to Upload a photo (10 MB limit) 1. My children are very close in age to yours and my recommendations for Georgetown would be Pizzeria Paradiso or Clydes. I would not recommend Paolo's. For dessert, a real treat would be a visit to Kafe Leopold. 1. On Night 3, I'd recommend Jaleo for tapas...I know you said they were not adverturous eaters, but mine aren't either and they love this place. Most other kids I know really like it too. 3 Replies 1. re: marleymom What sorts of things will they eat there? What kind of wait can we expect around 6 pm on a Saturday? 1. re: jaschultze you can check out the menu at Jaleo.com. There are a lot of choices to chose from and some are exotic and others very rustic spanish style cooking. they do not accept reservations but the place is large and seats a lot of people. the biggest problem on Saturday night will be that the Caps play the Rangers tonite with gametime at 7:05PM so all restaurants in the Chinatown/Verizon Center/Penns Quarter area are going to be busy and how long of a wait is going to be a roll of the dice. 1. re: dining with doc Close to Georgetown is a new restaurant called Founding Farmers that is environmentally friendly and serves local food. i went last weekend, and I really enjoyed it. It would be perfect for kids. I started w/ the bacon "lollipops", had grilled cheese w/ tomato soup for my main, and chocolate pudding for dessert- all excellent. They have an extensive menu including short ribs, salads, gourmet flatbreads, even deviled eggs and kettle korn! 2. Central and Matchbox are definitely great choices. For pizza though, I would go to Two Amy's instead of Ella's or Pizzeria Paradiso - IMO Two Amy's has the best pizza in d.c. and also delicious appetizers. While Clyde's and Old Ebbitt are basic American and will definitely have items for your children to enjoy, if you are looking for great food you will be disappointed. Every time I've been to either the food just doesn't taste fresh... Some other places you might want to look into would be Brassiere Beck, Creme Cafe, and Marvin. 1 Reply 1. re: dcfoodie13 I second Creme (be sure to get the mushroom appetizer and warm coconut cake for dessert), Matchbox (be sure to get the amazing mini-burgers w/ crispy onions) and Central and 2 Amy's! 2. The original comment has been removed 1. The original comment has been removed
Movie Making Manual/Colour Grading From Wikibooks, open books for an open world < Movie Making Manual Jump to: navigation, search Colour grading is the process of manipulating each shot in a film in order to achieve a certain 'look'. The producer/director will require that the whole movie has the same range of colour saturation, contrast, highlights and shadows. The colour treatment is very important in conveying an emotional context that is consistent with and complements the action, sound design and musical treatment of the movie. Simple, but extreme examples are Bollywood extravaganzas that use strong lighting and clear saturated colors to complement a simple story. In contrast, art movies may use low contrast lighting, a palette of soft colours and subtle tones to convey a subtle nuanced story. The Lighting Cameraman or Director of Photography will be shooting to create the desired look, but colour grading is always necessary to fine tune the raw footage. The job of colour grading is usually done by the editor, in lower budget work, or in higher budget productions the task falls to a specialist referred to as the colourist. Professional colourists can use sophisticated digital finishing units such as the Davinci 2k system. Grading normally starts with analysis and colour correction of each shot to fix problems such as unwanted colour casts. Next, the colourist can use a myriad of techniques to colour the scene to reflect the artistic preference of the producer/director (for example, reducing saturation can give the scene a bleak look). Once a look is decided upon the grading process for the rest of that scene (or even the whole film) is generally routine, as the colourist aims to provide consistency between shots.
You are viewing this Species as classified by: Read full entry Neon tetra The neon tetra (Paracheirodon innesi) is a freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes. The type species of its genus, it is native to blackwater or clearwater streams in southeastern Colombia, eastern Peru, and western Brazil, including the tributaries of the Solimões where the water is between 20 and 26°C (68 and 79°F).[2] It is not found in the whitewater rivers of Andean origin. Its bright colouring makes the fish visible to conspecifics in the dark blackwater streams,[3] and is also the main reason for its popularity among tropical fish hobbyists. The neon tetra has a light-blue back over a silver-white abdomen. The fish is characterized by an iridescent blue horizontal stripe along each side of the fish from its nose to the base of the adipose fin, and an iridescent red stripe that begins at the middle of the body and extends posteriorly to the base of the caudal fin. Most, if not all, will develop an olive-green sheen lining their backs. The fish is completely transparent (including fins) except for these markings. During the night, the blue and red become silver as the fish rests—it reactivates once it becomes active in the morning. It grows to approximately 3 cm (1.2 in) in overall length. Sexual dimorphism is slight, with the female having a slightly larger belly, and a bent iridescent stripe rather than the male's straight stripe. They have recently become available in a long-fin variety. The neon tetra was first imported from South America and was described by renowned ichthyologist Dr. George S. Myers in 1936, and named after Dr. William T. Innes. P. innesi is one of the most popular aquarium fish, having been bred in tremendous numbers for the trade. Most neon tetras available in the United States are imported from Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand, where they are farm-raised, or to a lesser extent (<5%) from Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, where they are collected from the wild. During a single month, an average of 1.8 million neon tetras with an estimated value of $175,000 are imported into the United States for the aquarium trade.[4] With the exception of home aquarists and a few commercial farms that breed neon tetras experimentally, captive breeding on a commercial scale is nonexistent in the United States. In the aquarium[edit] A community of neon tetras in a home aquarium While commercially bred neon tetras have adapted well to a wide range of water conditions, in the wild they inhabit very soft, acidic waters that are usually cooler than the 25°C (77°F) at which most tropical aquaria are maintained.[2] They can have a lifespan of up to ten years, or normally about five in an aquarium. Neon tetras are considered easy to keep in a community aquarium at least 60 cm (24 inches) long,[citation needed] with a pH of 6.0 to 7.8 and a KH of 1.0 to 2.0. However, they will die if traumatized by dramatic changes to their environments. They tend to be timid and, because of their small size, should not be kept with large or aggressive fish which may bully or simply eat them. Fish that mix well in an aquarium are guppies, other types of tetras, such as the rummy-nose tetra, cardinal tetra, and glowlight tetra, and other community fish that live well in an ideal tetra water condition. Mid-level feeders, they are best kept in schools of six or more, for the shoaling effect when they move around the tank. They shoal naturally in the wild and are thus more brightly colored and more active when kept as a shoal as opposed to singly. The color and the iridescent stripe of this fish may become dim at night, and can be virtually invisible after a period of darkness. The color may also fade during a period of stress, such as human intervention into the tank. Neons are best kept in a densely planted tank with subdued light and an ideal temperature of 21–27°C (70–81°F) to resemble their native Amazon environments. Neon tetras are omnivores and will accept most flake foods, if sufficiently small, but should also have some small foods such as brine shrimp, daphnia, freeze-dried bloodworms, tubifex, which can be stuck to the side of the aquarium, and micropellet food to supplement their diets. A tropical sinking pellet is ideal, as most brands of these include natural color enhancers that bring out the color in neon tetras. Some frozen foods, including frozen blood worms, add variety to their diets. Neon tetra The male is slender, and the blue line is straighter. The female is rounder, producing a bent blue line. Some aquarists say the females look plumper when viewed from above. However, the straightness of the line and the plumpness of the female might occasionally be due to the eggs she is carrying. A neon tetra can appear slightly plump in the belly due to having overeaten.[5] To breed neon tetras, hobbyists place a pair of the species in a breeding tank without any light, and gradually increase the lighting until spawning occurs. Other inducers include mosquito larvae and a hardness of less than 4 dGH. Some also recommend letting the level of nitrates rise, then doing at least a 50% water change to simulate the fresh rain the tetras get in their natural habitat in the Amazon. Everything placed in the aquarium is sterilized, as is the aquarium top. Because the adults, and other fishes if a breeding tank is not used, will often eat newly hatched fry, it is common to remove the eggs as soon as they have been laid. The eggs are especially sensitive to light, and hatch within 24 hours of the laying. Fry can be fed infusoria, especially rotifers and egg yolk for one to four weeks, followed by nauplii of brine shrimp, shaved cattle liver, and formulated diets. Fry achieve their adult coloration at about one month of age. Adults can spawn every two weeks. Neon tetras are occasionally afflicted by the so-called "neon tetra disease" (NTD) or pleistophora disease, a sporozoan disease caused by Pleistophora hyphessobryconis. Despite being a well-known condition, it is currently incurable and often fatal to the fish. The disease cycle begins when microsporidian parasite spores enter the fish after it consumes infected material, such as the bodies of a dead fish, or live food such as tubifex, which may serve as intermediate hosts. The disease is most likely passed by newly acquired fish, which have not been quarantined. Symptoms include restlessness, loss of coloration, lumps on the body as cysts develop, difficulty swimming, curved spines as the disease progresses, and secondary infections, such as fin rot and bloating. A so-called "false neon disease", which is bacterial, shows very similar symptoms. It is impossible for the home aquarist to determine for certain the difference between NTD and false NTD on the basis of visible symptoms alone, without laboratory backup. This disease has also been confused with columnaris (mouth rot, mouth fungus, 'flex'). To date, no cure is known; the only 'treatment' is the immediate removal of diseased fish to preserve the remaining fish. The use of a diatom filter, which can reduce the number of free parasites in the water, may help. Related species and other "neon tetras"[edit] The green neon tetra (P. simulans) and black neon tetra (Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi) are distinct species—the latter belongs to an altogether different genus—and not color varieties. The cardinal tetra (P. axelrodi)—also sometimes called the red neon—is a very similar species, and is often confused with the true neon tetra. In a domestic aquarium, the two species will school together, especially if numbers of one of the species are insufficient to form a school. The neon tetra will also school with P. simulans if there are only a few of each. The cardinal tetra's larger size and greater extent of red coloring distinguishes it from the neon tetra. The term Hyphessobrycon innesi is an obsolete synonym for P. innesi, the neon tetra itself. See also[edit] 1. ^ "Paracheirodon innesi". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 2. ^ a b Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2008). "Paracheirodon innesi" in FishBase. July 2008 version. 3. ^ Ikeda, Takehide; Kohshima Shiro (2009). Why is the neon tetra so bright? Coloration for mirror-image projection to confuse predators? "Mirror-image decoy" hypothesis. Environmental Biology of Fishes, Volume 86, Number 3, 427-441, doi:10.1007/s10641-009-9543-y 4. ^ Chapman, F. A.; et al. (1997). "United States of America trade in ornamental fish". Journal of the World Aquaculture Society 28: 1‒10. doi:10.1111/j.1749-7345.1997.tb00955.x. 5. ^ Feeding and diseases: Further reading[edit] Source: Wikipedia Belongs to 0 communities This taxon hasn't been featured in any communities yet. Learn more about Communities
Hey, this is pretty cool! Here's inventor Bram Knaapen's Arduino-powered Equinox Clock, which ditches the traditional hands interface in favor of customizable LED displays. Inside, a video that demonstrates the Equinox Clock's main features, and an overview of its specs. Here's the demo video: And, courtesy Knaapen's web site, here are some specs: For people interested in how the Equinox clock was made a short description: The most important parts: Arduino Mini Pro USB-Serial converter 12x TLC5940PWP (SMD) Led drivers DS1307 + battery to keep track of time Loads of circuitboards (12 black ones and 60 white ones) The clock works like this: In the bottom of the clock (behind the infinity symbol) is an arduino mini Pro. The Arduino is connected to the first of a total of 12 black circuitboards. These black circuitboards all have a TLC5940PWP led driver. By using Molex picoflex cables and connectors I daisy-chained 12 of these led drivers. Every black circuitboard has 5 connectors for the white LED circuitboards. Behind the infinity symbol is a touch sensitive wire (capacitive) that enables to cycle through different colors or turn it off. That's roughly it for the electronics! The body was laser cut, assembled and spray painted, the plexiglass blocks were sandblasted. The software is pretty straight forward. The arduino receives the current time from the DS1307 and calculates the color palette according to the time of day using HSV color space. [The Daily What]
A 14-year-old conservative talk show host with a substantial following is gaining even more attention in the aftermath of a virulently anti-gay rant he delivered during a recent broadcast. The titular teen behind the West Virginia-based Caiden Cowger Program spent several long minutes excoriating homosexuals and their supporters — namely President Obama and Lady Gaga. "Homosexuality is a belief...it'ss not mandatory in that person. That person is not born that way, no matter what Lady Gaga says," asserts Cowger. He goes on to claim that there are "about 30 teenagers in this county that I'm at that are homosexuals," a "fact" that he finds "sickening," not the least because he once considered some of them to be his friends. "They were not homosexuals. They just decided all of a sudden, 'you know, I think I'm going to be gay'." Cowger, who regards Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as role models, places the blame for these teens' extemporaneous "change of heart" on "indoctrinating" campaigns such as Dan Savage's It Gets Better project, and on encouragement from President Barack Obama and VP Joe Biden. "President Obama, Vice President Biden is [sic] making kids gay," Cowger declares. "If you're encouraging you're making kids gay. You are saying that it is all right to follow this belief, it is completely natural, there's nothing wrong with it, it's not immoral." In a follow up to his May 26th broadcast, Cowger backs up his argument by quoting scripture. He maintains that those who claim that he "speaking bigotry" are blaspheming against the bible by saying that the bible "is full of bigotry." [video via STFU, Conservatives]
Take the 2-minute tour × On a dedicated server we use the shell is setup differently between accounts, which is quite irritating. When I ssh into most users I get: [user@machine some_dir]$ However, with some accounts I get: I keep a lot of shells open to various machines, and there are a lot of different accounts. I have the ability to either make everyone have the same ~/.bashrc, but I also believe there is a global config somewhere in /etc What's the fastest way to make sure I get the same shell whenever I ssh? share\|improve this question 2 Answers 2 up vote 1 down vote accepted Your best bet is a mix of the two approaches. Bash will always load ~/.bashrc. You should place a standard file in /etc/skel/.bashrc and ~/.bashrc that in turn sources something like /etc/bash.bashrc. (The version in skel will get used for new user accounts.) Put your defaults in the latter file. Example user .bashrc: # this line activates the system-wide default settings . /etc/bash.bashrc # users can add any custom .bashrc settings here Example /etc/bash.bashrc based on my prompt: PS1='\A \['$G'\]\u@\h \['$Y'\]\w\['$N'\] \$ ' With this setup, you can later change the system-wide prompt and add other settings without having to edit everybody's .bashrc file. Hope that helps. share\|improve this answer This would be horrible to maintain. If you wanted to change system-wide performance later, you would have to modify each individual .bashrc in the user's home directory. You're also recreating existing native performance. Finally, .bashrc is for non-login shells. .bash_profile is for login shells. See INVOCATION in the manpage. – Warner Jul 6 '10 at 21:05 Where can I find the settings that are being used for other accounts? – Kristopher Ives Jul 6 '10 at 21:14 Warner: No, it wouldn't be a problem to maintain. I specifically set it up so that you can just edit /etc/bash.bashrc after you are done to change system-wide behavior. Also, I know about the login vs. non-login issue and chose bashrc specifically; if you set the prompt in .bash_profile, it will not apply to non-login xterms, because they don't have any login shell in the parent processes. Ideally, .bash_profile or /etc/profile should source ~/.bashrc so that the prompt settings apply to all interactive shells. – Walter Mundt Jul 6 '10 at 23:48 @Krisropher: I don't understand your question. Every account works the same: Non-login interactive shells (xterms, shells in GNU screen, etc.) read ~/.bashrc. Login shells (SSH or terminal logins) will instead read /etc/profile and then the first of ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login or ~/.profile that exists; oftentimes one of those will source the user's ~/.bashrc so that settings in .bashrc apply to all interactive shells as I mention in my previous comment. – Walter Mundt Jul 6 '10 at 23:58 @Warner: One more point, in reply to your statement that I am recreating existing native functions. AFAIK, there is no system-wide file that all interactive shells read on startup. Login shells read /etc/profile but non-login interactive shells only read ~/.bashrc, so everything important has to go in the latter in my experience, or that file has to include something system-wide. – Walter Mundt Jul 7 '10 at 0:08 /etc/profile is the standard location for the system-wide bash configuration on most systems. From the bash manpage: When executing interactively, bash displays the primary prompt PS1 when needs more input to complete a command. share\|improve this answer /etc/profile is the best place to put this for login shells, use /etc/bash.bashrc as well for nonlogin shells. – theotherreceive Jul 7 '10 at 9:34 Your Answer
Take the 2-minute tour × I am currently working a setup for in-app billing on one of my applications. Is there a way to set up purchases without a product list on the Android Market side? Essentially, I want to do what I am allowed to do in most other merchant APIs, send the product name/id/PRICE/etc to the merchant and get back a response from them if the payment went through or not. I have too many products to manually add each item to the Android Market Publishing area and want to send the user to the in app market request with a custom title, description, and price (most important), and have Android handle that. Any ideas? share\|improve this question It sucks right now, It will give you very hard time. Give them time to screw those guys who are project leads of in-app billing because doc is very very vague. They describe every thing about the inner architecture (which usually we don't want to know) and they don't bother to tell the very important information about how it works. They provided an example that really sucks and is very very complicated. They put all the classes under one head Service... and it really sucks in debugging. – AZ_ Jun 2 '11 at 16:44 1 Answer 1 up vote 6 down vote accepted No you can't. The reason for this is security. Someone could hack your app and add a new product/ change your product prices, but defining them on the market; they would have to hack your app and have your login for the android market. share\|improve this answer Your Answer
Take the 2-minute tour × We are trying to solve what we perceive as a problem with the behavior of our Samba server. Please understand we are not claiming this is a bug in Samba. It is simply different from the behavior we want. Our Samba server is version 3.5.4 (release 68.el6) and runs under CentOS 6.0 (x86_64). We happen to use Active Directory (AD) to authenticate, but I’m not convinced this behavior is specific to AD. What follows is a generalized statement of the undesirable behavior, with the context provided first as a sequence of events: 1. A CIFS client establishes (and maintains) a connection to a CIFS share on our Samba server. 2. After that connection has been established, a configuration change is made (examples provided as bullets below) which we think should immediately revoke the CIFS client's access to the connected CIFS share. For example: • The Active Directory user is deleted from the domain (via the Active Directory Administrative Center on the domain controller). • The Active Directory user is removed from the CIFS share's list of permitted users (on the Samba server host). • The CIFS share is deleted (on the Samba server host). Here’s the undesirable behavior. As long as the CIFS client maintains the existing connection to the CIFS share, access to that share is not revoked. That is, the user continues to have the same access to the share as they did when the connection was first established. FWIW, we believe this behavior is by design. The desired behavior is for access to be revoked as soon as “the configuration change” pertinent to access rights is finalized. Disconnecting the affected client session(s) is acceptable and appropriate, but disconnecting other sessions is undesirable. I would like to get your ideas toward an approach that will yield the desired behavior. Perhaps this is as simple as changing our Samba server’s configuration; we have not found any configuration parameters that appear relevant to this behavior. It appears the art of detecting that access has been revoked is the most difficult part of all this. share\|improve this question 1 Answer 1 I'm pretty sure this isn't possible at the moment, at least not using the functionality built into Samba itself. A workaround could be something like a cronjob which regularly checks that all the smbd processes on a machine are from valid users, by parsing the output of the smbstatus utility to check what users are logged on and what processes are serving them, and verifying those processes against the users in AD. You can then use that information to kill any processes for users who are no longer valid. share\|improve this answer Your Answer
home \| glossary \| about eucalypts \| about EUCLID \| browse species More about eucalypts Inflorescences, buds and flowers Looking beyond the leaves, the researcher then seeks the floral structures. These traditionally hold the defining aspects of species. There are numerous characters associated with them. Basically there are two contrasting forms of floral architecture, the individual flower buds or flowers, and then their arrangement on the branchlets. In most species of eucalypts, the buds occur in clusters on single stalks in the axils of the leaves. The flowers are mostly small and whitish and are not conspicuous in the crown. A very few species have the inflorescences in complex clusters in the axils, e.g. E. michaeliana or on elongated axillary shoots as in E. tessellaris. Four species from south-eastern Australia, E. fastigata, E. pachycalyx, E. regnans and E. squamosa, form their buds consistently in twin clusters in each axil of the leaf. In contrast, several large groups, the bloodwoods, some of the boxes and some of the ironbarks, form the individual bud clusters in large groups at the ends of the branchlets, with few or no leaves. These result in conspicuous sprays of flowers on the outside of the crown in certain seasons. A prominent example is the yellow bloodwood (E. eximia) of the sandstone regions of central eastern New South Wales. The creamy white flower clusters stand out in the forest. In the south-west of Western Australia the widespread marri (E. calophylla) exhibits the same prolific flowering effect, although the red-flowering gum (E. ficifolia), of very restricted distribution east of Walpole, is the most spectacular of the flowering eucalypts. One species, E. cladocalyx, has ramiflorus inflorescences, with the buds formed on the leafless part of the branchlets well inside the crown. Very useful diagnostic information can be derived from these inflorescence patterns, although the structures can be modified by various external factors including predation. A common modification of the basic axillary inflorescence of the eucalypts can be seen in many "box" and "ironbark" species. In these, bud clusters are formed in the usual way in the axils of developing leaves towards the ends of the annual growth of a branchlet. The arrangement of these leaves and floral primordia is initially decussate and subsequent uneven elongation of the axis gives the appearance of alternation. Each branchlet terminates with a vegetative bud. In many "box" and "ironbark" species, this terminal vegetative bud aborts and the now apparently alternate leaf primordia cease their development. The floral primordia however, continues to develop, resulting in a "leafless" compound inflorescence, terminating the branchlet. A good example of this is E. paniculata, the common grey ironbark of south-eastern Australia. The individual bud clusters in most eucalypts can be seen on close inspection to be in symmetrical patterns. A few species have a single bud in the inflorescence, e.g. E. globulus and E. macrocarpa but the basic numbers are 3 or 7. In a 3-budded inflorescence there is a central erect bud and two subtending side buds, all in a plane at right angles to the stem forming a "cross". A 7-budded inflorescence has a central erect bud, two subtending side buds plus two buds each subtending the side buds. Higher bud numbers form by the addition of further pairs of subtending buds, and the number of buds in an intact inflorescence is always odd (never an even number), although very high bud numbers may occur in an obscured pattern. Also, in inflorescences with high numbers, one of a pair of subtending buds may be suppressed, probably by compression in the very young inflorescence which is tightly held within bracts which are soon deciduous. When assessing bud numbers, it is important to take into account the fact that during inflorescence development, individual buds may be lost. This is particularly the case by the fruiting stage when the structures under examination have been exposed for a whole season and subject to various traumas including predation and simple death of individual buds. Angophora flowers Inner opercula Operculum scars Inner bud anatomy The eucalypts as recognised in EUCLID comprise the traditional eucalypts and the genus Angophora. Angophora species are readily distinguished from Eucalyptus species in the flowers, by the presence of petals that have a green keel and white margin, and by persistent hard, woody, green sepals. Most of the traditional Eucalyptus species of south-eastern Australia do not have separate sepals (two exceptions are E. baileyana, which has very small calyx lobes fused to the petals near the top of the bud and E. microcorys, which has, in early bud developement, very small calyx lobes formed at the top of the hypanthium but which fall early and are seldom seen). In Western Australia the subgenus Eudesmia is widespread and consists of several species, the most famous of which is the glaucous, juvenile-leaved Tallerack (E. pleurocarpa). In this and related species, the calyx is formed of distinct separate sepals which are usually evident as four small teeth at the top of the hypanthium and usually persist to the fruiting stage. Another group of eudesmids have their sepals more or less fused to the corolla right at the apex of the bud. Some species of red bloodwood have the inner or petaline operculum partially or almost completely divided into overlapping petals, a feature that can only be seen in carefully dissected buds. A longitudinal section through an almost mature bud can reveal whether or not the inner operculum is divided at all. Similarly, removing the outer operculum but leaving the inner operculum intact can also show whether the inner operculum is partially divided or not. Some examples are E. ficifolia, E. zygophylla and E. deserticola. Angophora species and some of the northern bloodwoods have hairs and bristle glands somewhere on the inflorescence, peduncle, pedicel, and often on the bud. The buds of most Eucalyptus species are glabrous for their whole life cycle. The flower buds of Angophora are all very similar within the group and, apart from size, contain very few discernible characters that distinguish the species. The individual flower buds of the traditional eucalypts, however, contain a great deal of vital information, from the external superficial nature of the wall of the bud to the characters of much higher reliability contained within. One character of absolute reliability (no exceptions have ever been found) is the number of opercula, although this requires experience to assess. The eucalypt flower lacks showy petals. The petals are in fact united very early in bud development to form a cap or a cone-shaped structure that covers the stamens and ovary during their development. This is the inner operculum, which sheds just before flowering when the stamens expand and are almost ready to shed their pollen. (There is a delay in pollen ripening and dispersal to lessen the chance of self-fertilisation and consequent inbreeding). The outer whorl of the floral parts is the sepals which, likewise, unite to form an operculum in most eucalypt species. In the majority of species, this, the outer operculum sheds early in bud development. In doing so the tissue around the approximate middle of the bud, i.e. where the outer operculum attaches to the base of the bud, dies and results in the detachment of the operculum. This leaves a scar around the middle of the bud which can sometimes be seen with the naked eye but is best seen with a lens. A few hundred species, comprising the subgenus Eucalyptus (the monocalypts), have lost the outer operculum altogether in the evolution of the group. Therefore, throughout the development of the bud in these species there is no scar, and the side of the bud is smooth. Some species have two opercula that are fused giving the superficial impression that only a single operculum is present, e.g. E. ochrophloia. The boxes and ironbarks show parallel development in operculum characters. Both groups divide into one in which the outer operculum sheds early leaving a scar, e.g. the box species, E. behriana and the ironbark species, E. paniculata, and another in which the outer operculum is held to bud maturity, e.g. the box species, E. microcarpa and the ironbark, E. sideroxylon. In Western Australia, the retention of the outer operculum in a box species occurs only in E. petraea. The double opercula and their retention to bud maturity is a diagnostic feature of all the red bloodwoods in both eastern Australia (e.g. E. gummifera) and Western Australia (e.g. E. calophylla, E. ficifolia and E. haematoxylon of south-western Western Australia and all the desert bloodwoods, e.g. E. lenziana). Stamens have various forms of orientation in the unopened bud. Some species have their stamens wholly erect. Others have them uniformly inflexed, while others have irregular orientation. Again, the extremes of positioning, i.e. complete inflexion or complete erection, are easy to assess. There will be "in-between" species in which the character is difficult to categorise. The attachment of the anther on the summit of the staminal filament is useful diagnostically. Some anthers are basifixed, with the tip of the filament attached rigidly at the base of the anther. This character is seen in the boxes and ironbarks but at its most extreme in E. leptophylla, E. foecunda and related species. In the majority of eucalypts the anthers are dorsifixed, by attachment loosely to the back of the anther, such that it can swivel, i.e. versatile. Some eucalypts have flowers with staminodes, where the outer stamens lack anthers or have non-functional anthers, e.g. E. calycogona. The openings of the anther for pollen shed (dehiscence) is also an important diagnostic character. Most eucalypts have their anthers either opening by well separated longitudinal slits for the more or less cuboid anther, or, as in the monocalypts with their more or less kidney-shaped anthers, have the openings oblique and touching near the apex, finally forming confluent slits. The cuboid, freely dorsifixed anther occurs in many western species but the kidney-shaped anther with confluent slits is rare in western monocalypts but is seen in Jarrah (E. marginata) and a few related species. The butterfly-shaped anther in E. guilfoylei is unique in the genus. In a considerable number of species, particularly mallees, e.g. E. oleosa, the anthers are subversatile and open by small roundish pores, either at the sides or the top of the anther. Within the base of the bud is the ovary and this contains characters of high diagnostic reliability. The most useful is the number of vertical rows of ovules. These can only be seen by dissection and is best done under a microscope but can be done in the field and seen with a 10× lens. Most eucalypts have ovule rows with 4 or 6 vertical rows. Another group has ovule rows consistently in 2s (the monocalypts), while others have rows of 3 or 5, or irregular patterns (bloodwoods and ghost gums). The top of the ovary is surmounted by the style which terminates in the stigma. The style is usually erect in all but a few species but can be spiral in some e.g. E. albida, making it a useful diagnostic character. In the great majority of species the style arises from the narrowed summit of the ovary. In some bloodwoods, in series Melliodorae and some species of series Loxophlebae the style narrows at the base and is inserted into the roof of the ovary. The style is subsequently articulate, not rigid. The pollen is transported to the stigma from another flower by wind, insects, small birds or mammals. On germination of the pollen grains, the contents including the vital nuclei migrate by means of a pollen tube down the stigma shaft to the ovary itself where several ovules at the base of the placentae are fertilised. The fertilised ovules mature into the seeds. The ovular structures on the upper part of the placentae are infertile or unfertilised and 'mature' into sterile particles smaller than the seeds known as the chaff.
Belfast Telegraph Friday 26 December 2014 A clerical collar shouldn’t keep these vile abusers out of prison The revelations of clerical abuse just keep on coming. And some of the stories are so harrowing and heartbreaking it's hard to contemplate how the survivors lived to tell the tale. Many victims took their own lives. We will probably never know if any of the victims actually lost their lives during an attack. That's a possibility few are willing to suggest, but I think we must assume that out of many, many thousands of attacks on poor and defenceless children, at least a small number of children may have died. I'm not really interested in what the Catholic Church, or anyone in it, has to say about clerical abuse any more. If the Church was going to do anything to protect children, it would have done it by now. Therefore, I can only assume that the hierarchy does not intend to modernise the organisation in any way. I think we can safely assume that married men and women will never be ordained into the Church, nor will independent investigators be allowed access to Church archives. As far as I am aware, not a single cleric worldwide has handed himself in to police and made a full confession of his crimes. If any of the governments in any of the countries where children were abused had any courage whatsoever, all and any clerics concerned would be under arrest today. And so would any of the clerics who deliberately concealed what was happening from the public. I include the current leader of the Church in that number. Just because these men wear priestly outfits doesn't mean they are above the law. If that were the case, then any secular paedophile in the world could set up their own religion and go on to abuse children at will. They could also demand weekly donations from anyone living in their catchment area and use some of that money to silence whistleblowers. This sounds like a ridiculous scenario, but that's basically what happened within the Catholic Church. Clerical abuse has been going on for decades; perhaps for many centuries. Perhaps the entire religion was conceived as a way to wield power and control over lay people. And in recent years they added insult to injury by collecting money every Sunday in tiny pastel envelopes. If the Church really cared about children it would have stamped out child abuse a long, long time ago. It would have vetted everyone in the Church, ordained married men and women into its ranks, made sure young children were never left alone with clerics and handed abusers over to the police immediately. Some commentators from within the Church are suggesting that the vow of celibacy may have contributed to the problem; and that any religion that is presided over by an all-male, celibate elite is bound to struggle to relate emotionally to its flock. I'm sorry, but I don't accept that idea at all. Millions of women across the globe were widowed in two world wars and they didn't abuse children. They did their best to struggle on amid their grief and loneliness. And they did it without a house, a car and a housekeeper all paid for by the Church. Millions of people in the world today are single, divorced, bereaved, gravely ill, seriously depressed or otherwise unable to enter into a physical relationship. They don't become child abusers; again they live their lives to the best of their ability. They have friends for emotional support. They spend their spare time doing housework, on hobbies, or pottering in the garden.They satisfy any sudden sexual urges with a little bit of thoroughly healthy self-pleasuring. They do not resort to recreational rape and they do not threaten small children with excommunication and everlasting hellfire. How could any child possibly have the maturity to sign an oath of secrecy? And what does it matter if one is excommunicated for breaking the oath? Just join another religion, for heaven's sake. One that doesn't have a hopelessly outdated stance on birth-control, divorce, remarriage, female ordination, gay rights and the concealment of crimes against humanity. I can't be the only person who is absolutely terrified that many seriously disturbed individuals may still be at large in various religious communities throughout the world. I have no idea what causes a person to become an abuser of children, but experts tell us such people can never be fully cured. Therefore they must be locked up or otherwise prevented from abusing another child. The very least the Vatican can do now is accept full responsibility for what happened and compensate all of the survivors without further delay. Latest News Latest Sport Latest Showbiz
Just what is VisionEck? From the looks of this teaser trailer, it's hard to say. A new post on the PlayStation Blog says it's "technically an FPS" and that it's very "mathematically exact." It also apparently bears little resemblance to a traditional FPS, where you typically are a human being (or something) armed with some sort of weapon that you use to shoot at other human beings (or whatever). With VisionEck, you can apparently hide in plain sight since you are a cube. It's unclear right now whether this is some weird hyper-clean take on a geometric Assassin's Creed multiplayer or what, and the teaser trailer doesn't provide much in the way of answers. But once again, you can color us intrigued by this strange PS4 game. You'll probably be, too. [Via Youtube
Editorial Google may be ready for wearable cameras, but what about you Summer in Paris -- you can't walk a block on Champs-Élysées without locking eyes with at least one camera-equipped tourist. But Steve Mann's shooter wasn't dangling from his shoulder and neck; it was mounted on his head, with a design strikingly similar to Google's Project Glass. Unlike that mainstream Mountain View product, however, Mann's version has reportedly been around in one form or another for 34 years, and was designed with the objective of aiding vision, rather than capturing stills and video or providing a bounty of database-aided readouts. It's also street-ready today. While on vacation with his family, the Ontario-based "father of wearable computing" was sporting his EyeTap as he walked down the aforementioned French avenue, eventually entering a McDonald's to refuel after a busy day of sightseeing. He left without his ranch wrap, but with seriously damaged hardware. What allegedly occurred inside the restaurant is no doubt a result of the increasing presence and subsequent awareness of connected cameras, ranging from consumer gear to professional surveillance equipment. As Mann sat to eat, he writes that a stranger approached him then attempted to pull off his glasses, which, oddly, are permanently affixed to his skull. The man, at that point joined by one other patron and someone that appeared to be a McDonald's employee, then pushed Mann out of the store and onto the street. As a result of the attack, the eyewear malfunctioned, resulting in the three men being photographed. It wouldn't be terribly difficult for police to identify those involved, but this encounter may have greater implications. McDonalds has since launched an investigation into the matter and seems to be denying most of the claims, but it'll be some time yet before the full truth is uncovered. Still, the whole ordeal got us at Engadget thinking -- is the planet ready for humans to wear video recorders, and will it ever shake a general unease related to the threat of a world filled with omnipresent cameras? Join us past the break for our take. Tim Stevens Classroom bullies don't stop us from wearing normal glasses. A couple of French bullies in McDonald's should not make us doubt the future of projects like Google Glass. We have to be careful when looking at Steve Mann's story and pondering questions like "is the world ready for X?" We can't let the actions of a few close-minded bullies force us to hit the brakes on a progression of technology that many of you are obviously excited about. Classroom bullies don't stop us from wearing normal glasses. A couple of French bullies in McDonald's should not make us doubt the future of projects like Google Glass. That said, we cannot let their Luddite antics color what is a genuine privacy concern amongst much of the populace. Recording (and publishing) private conversations is a dubious thing legally, and while we've seen Google having some success at changing legislation to suit its future-minded goals, this is a rather different proposition. Until the world has developed some sort of Laughing Man-like technology for dynamically obscuring faces and blocking conversation recording, it's clear that the world is not quite ready to release projects such as Google Glass upon the streets. But, the world very definitely needs to start having conversations about how it's going to handle technology like this because it's coming -- and soon. For once, it'd be nice if society were actually ready for it. Zach Honig It was just shy of four months ago that Google first grabbed our attention with Project Glass, launching a mock-up demo video on YouTube to show us what the company had in store. Calendar appointments, text messages, walking directions and even subway alerts popped up as a man went about his day -- the implications were certainly promising, from a convenience perspective. But then, at the end of the demonstration, the wearer hopped in a video call, sharing a live feed of a sunset through the same eyewear that was mounted to his head for the entire day. Project Glass wasn't just about accessing Google services hands-free -- it was about sharing your life with others as it happened, with the people you encountered indoors and out being broadcast around the world in realtime. Privacy? Forget about it. Even in your own home. Google Glass may now have a name, but we've known to expect something like it. One day. Which also happens to be the title of Mountain View's harmless YouTube intro -- Google Glass: One day... But just a few weeks after our first glimpse at Glass, we learned that day could come in 2013. Google I/O attendees had an opportunity to pre-order a Glass Explorer Edition for $1,500. Beginning next year, several thousand people could be streaming video and photos to their Google+ profiles while walking down city streets, through airport checkpoints, from tables at a restaurant, lecture halls on campus, even business meetings. That's not to suggest that these individuals will be reckless with their newfound live streaming abilities, but the potential exists. And so will the fear. No shirt. No shoes. Project Glass. No service. Constant monitoring puts anyone on edge, and even if some subjects and strangers are disciplined enough to avoid lashing out, not all will be. Glass attacks will stream live to the web alongside birthday parties, shopping sprees, graduation ceremonies, copyrighted Hollywood flicks at the theater. If your eyes can see it now, Project Glass will see it, too. One day... I touched on it when I was spouting off about Google's revelations at I/O, but I'm 100 percent convinced that the world just isn't ready for Project Glass. Or, anything similar to it. I've seen privacy advocates explode for things much, much less invasive, and while we're gradually becoming okay with security cameras in places like fuel stations and street corners, there are still those that cry "Big Brother!" whenever possible. And therein lies the crux of the argument. Who here is to say that Project Glass is okay, but CCTV is not? Who is the final judge on drawing that line in the sand? Do we have the proper legal infrastructure to make these decisions, or is it ever possible to truly rule correctly on what is and isn't okay to film? My guess is that it'll be ambiguous for as long as humans roam this planet, and it'll never make us entirely comfortable. One of the bigger issues Google (and whoever else tries this) will have is education. There's a zero percent chance Google itself can truly educate the world on Glass, and that it's not always recording. There's no conceivable way the TSA lets a baggage handler at DTW wear these to work. It's just a matter of time before that "No Smoking" sign at your favorite eatery is amended to say "No Wearable Cameras." Something tells me Glass will only ever be welcomed in places where wearable cameras already are; we've no qualms seeing a head-mounted GoPro on the slopes or the racetrack, but take one into a public washroom and you'll probably get some disconcerting looks. Google seems to think it'll change the way the world works by letting us wear a camera that can record whatever we want. Something tells me reality will force those dreams back a few notches, making it more of a GoPro competitor than a portal to the future. I won't say that I'm happy or sad about it, but I'm pretty sure humanity isn't ready for anything more significant. I can't deny that the prospect of playing with a pair of big G's specs excites me. I imagine strolling around a museum or gallery, artifacts in one eye, Wikipedia in the other. OK, maybe that example's a bit poetic, but it's tame given the possibilities. We're in the smartphone age now, and wearable computers are the natural, complementary progression of the always-on lifestyle. But, just because I get it doesn't mean I want it. It's not because of the worldwide CCTV argument -- it's what effect such integrated hardware will have on us, the consumer. I just can't see life-streaming to an absent audience taking off, leaving us nothing more than a conveniently located camera. Especially one that will likely be of lower quality than your average point-and-shoot, just as obvious and with on-board storage for those paranoid about pumping to the cloud. There are endless ways to determine where I am right now. From the IP of this very computer and the cameras in this building, to the GPS on my phone and the Oyster turnstile at the tube station across the way. Head-mounted computers won't revolutionize global surveillance -- it's just a visual cue to the ugly reality. It's not the camera that worries me, it's the uncooked data. Besides, it's not the camera that worries me, it's the uncooked data. I'm sure my Google profile is terrifying enough, and forever hungry. It's a bit unsettling, and more accurate than I'd want to admit, to think that my experiences in life are increasingly a service tailored by some giant, faceless corporation. The scenarios are endless. Could Glass enhance my time in a new city? Or will I be getting the 'Google knows best' version. Am I stopping at this restaurant because I want to, or because Yelp is pushing me through the doors based on my habits, location and user reviews? I can't escape connectivity running my life. I rarely get event invites outside Facebook, big G itself runs my calendar and falling out of sync is a growing concern. But I still like my games with a controller, my streaming through Ethernet cabling and prefer Lo-Fi photography to Instragram filters. I want to play, but I'm just not ready to experience RL through information feeds and AR-tinted lenses. I couldn't have been more conspicuous. I was an official photographer for a huge state fair, walking the grounds and capturing images of general merriment. I was armed with my largest and most professional gear, a clipboard full of photo release forms and a badge that essentially said "I'm not a creepy dude, I swear." Signs were posted at all entrances notifying everyone that photo and video crews may be capturing visuals for marketing purposes. Yet, one day, when I snapped a fairly routine shot of two kids enjoying a science display, their father jumped in between, Batman-style, and politely (but firmly) asked what I was doing. He accepted my explanation, but declined to allow his children to be photographed for marketing purposes and requested the photos I had taken be deleted. It was a rather peaceful conclusion that could have easily turned as violent as the one in Paris. And that was with me being Mr. Obvious Photographer Guy. This is the world EyeTap and Project Glass are trying to enter. I'm not quite sure we're ready for the aftermath. If I had to guess, I'd give the general public about two weeks after Project Glass' launch to start raising privacy concerns. That could lead to news reports and enough of those could lead to congressional hearings. In the end, I fully expect a government mandate requiring devices like these to have "recording" lights, or some other way of easily determining when it's capturing or not. Heck, I could see a market for devices for those looking to avoid the Glass' gaze – devices (perhaps GPS-based) that prevent nearby wearable cameras from capturing images at a certain location. And I expect court cases. Lots and lots of court cases. This is the world Project Glass and similar products are trying to enter. I'm sure Google had nothing but the best of intentions when it set out to create a camera to record everything. I'm just afraid the company may not like what it eventually sees. Jon Fingas The defining moment for Project Glass, in my mind, wasn't the jump from a blimp -- it was when Google showed a mother playing with her child and recording the moment for posterity. The effects of that scene on the child weren't exactly traumatic, but the footage represents the fundamental disconnect between Google's thinking and ... well, the rest of us. Google thinks you'll want to record much of your life's private moments and keep that constant connection to the internet; as of today, I and most of the people I know would balk at the idea. While I certainly wouldn't advocate mangling someone over wearing video-capable glasses, that collective aversion mentioned earlier no doubt manifested itself in the EyeTap incident. Some of us just don't like the idea of being recorded in public, even if it's a casual phone photo or snapshot. Imagine how it would feel to know that there's a real chance people are recording you at any moment you leave home, and that it would be hard to tell if they were. You'd be slightly paranoid, wouldn't you? Yes, the novelty still has people on edge to start with, but that reasonable expectation of privacy could persist well into the future, even in CCTV-dominated countries like the UK. You'd be slightly paranoid, wouldn't you? It's one thing to conduct personal experiments. As potentially intrusive as they can be, they're singular events. Project Glass is intended as an (eventually) mainstream product, however, and I just can't see that widespread adoption happening without something short of a sea change in society's values regarding openness. Google likes the idea of an always-worn internet connection for the sake of its business; that doesn't mean it's right for the common good. There's no doubt that what happened to Steve Mann at that McDonald's on the Champs-Élysées is wrong -- assault is wrong -- but it reinforces my belief that most people aren't ready for something like Project Glass. Major cultural differences are at play here, in terms of understanding privacy and technology. I grew up in France (I'm a French citizen), spent half my adult life in English Canada (I'm also a Canadian citizen) and the other half in the US. Culturally, the French are extremely sensitive about privacy and tend to distrust anyone (person, company, government) that's perceived as threatening privacy -- sometimes with violent results as witnessed here. This is reflected in France's strict privacy laws. In my experience, folks in North America are more easily willing to give up some privacy for the sake of convenience. As a result it's going to more difficult for tech like Project Glass to be accepted in some cultures than in others. To the average, non tech-savvy person, something like Project Glass is indistinguishable from magic. But there's also another divide at play here beyond privacy -- one I've touched upon in the mobile podcast recently -- and that's people's understanding of technology. Most folks have no clue what happens under the hood of their car yet alone how their smartphone works. I'd argue that to the average, non tech-savvy person, something like Project Glass is indistinguishable from magic. This fosters one of two reactions: curiosity or fear -- and in the wise words of Yoda "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate and hate leads to suffering." I think we're likely to see more violent behavior around tech like Project Glass before we see acceptance. Personally, I'm willing to give Project Glass a try -- I've always wanted to be a cyborg after all, so bring it on. My only concern is the Google-only tie-in. I'd be more comfortable with a device that's more open.
1. ITV Report Tuesday morning in the NW - the latest. Mossley, Tameside. Photo: Arnold Ellis Monday night's rain may linger in the far south of the region between 6 and 8am on Tuesday morning. It should clear by 9-10am. Turning drier afterwards with bright spells, winds from the west so scope for a spit or spot in the wind, especially across Lancashire and Cumbria. Throughout Tuesday afternoon, mostly dry and bright, some sun at times. Winds ease, but temperatures still hold up well, 16-17c, sea temperatures 15-16c. Feeling fairly warm in any sunshine with a few brighter spells across the Isle of Man. Odd light shower in the SW of the ITV Granada region. Tuesday night's temperatures of 11c slide to 5-6c on Wednesday and Thursday night. On Wednesday, more light, patchy rain sinking southwards. Feeling much colder. Thursday, fresh to locally strong northerly winds, feeling bitterly cold, the wind chill making 12-14c feel like 8-9c. Coastal showers. On Friday, we lose the coastal showers. We have more of a NE'erly feed and this pushes any showers further westwards on the keen winds. Brighter the further west you are. A chilly, frosty weekend in prospect.
Smart Cards and Biometrics: Your Key to PKI The cool way to make secure transactions. Secure Key Storage A few possibilities exist for key storage. Remember that these keys are long bit strings and memorizing them is out of the question. There are three storage possibilities: hard disk, floppy disk and smart card. Hard disk storage provides a low-cost solution. The user's key pair is stored directly on the user's machine. The user authenticates with a shared-secret password to unlock their private key for signing. This solution does not allow for easy mobility in a desktop environment, and it put constraints on terminal applications. A user cannot easily use another machine without offloading the information to the machine they are trying to use. Problems also arise if a user tries to log in to another machine and the network is unavailable. Hard disk storage also lends itself to physical attacks, such as theft of the terminal or hard drive, both of which can be used for leisurely password cracking. Floppy disk storage addresses the mobility problem. Now the user has a quite inexpensive and portable way of using mobile digital credentials. Someone could use another machine simply by inserting the floppy and using a traditional shared secret password for authentication. However, floppy disks are not well known for long term, robust data retention, particularly when carried around. Floppy disks are susceptible to magnetic fields (airport security stations, for example) and do not fit conveniently into your pocket or wallet. Smart card storage presents the best scenario. Smart cards have been used for many years in Europe for a variety of applications. These credit-card-sized computers have a rugged and familiar form that fits nicely into a wallet or pocket and can take lots of physical stress. Some modern processor-based smart cards even have on-board cryptographic co-processors that allow signing and key generation to be done entirely on the card, so the private key might never need to be revealed or offloaded. The microprocessor gives the smart card a big advantage over magnetic or optical media storage. A smart-card-based PKI might be very secure indeed, eliminating any possibility of the key pair being snooped out during creation and transmittal. The initial expense is higher, since smart cards require a reader. But this additional cost is offset by much higher security for the private key and by convenient porting. Secure Authentication with Biometrics All three storage methods—hard disk, floppy or smart card—could use symmetric encryption (shared-secret password or PIN) to secure the private key. This accommodates single sign-on, since once a user authenticates to the key store, cryptographic protocols can be used for subsequent authentication to different applications. This would be good from an administrative point of view, but makes the security situation much worse. Now, if a cracker gains access to the shared secret password or PIN that secures the cryptographic keys, he also gains access to every cryptographically protected application or data element available to the authorized user. What we need is an authentication method to which only the authorized party has access. Enter biometrics. The word biometrics comes from the Greek words bio and metric, meaning “life measurement”. By measuring something unique about an individual and using that to identify them, we can achieve a dramatic improvement in security of the key store. Newer biometric measurements include DNA from tissue samples, voice pattern, face pattern or even the arrangement of blood vessels in the retina or pattern of coloration in the cornea of the eye. The oldest and most widely accepted biometric is the fingerprint. The tip of every finger has a characteristic called “friction ridges”. While generally similar, no two friction ridges are exactly the same. By imaging the ridges of the fingertips, we get the fingerprint. Most implementations of fingerprint biometrics create a template from the original image, which is a fraction of the size of the original fingerprint image. This template can be used only to compare the fingerprint against other templates, and it cannot be used to recreate the original image. Template implementations of biometrics fit well with smart cards for two reasons. First, they usually range from 100 to 600 bytes in size and can easily fit on a smart card. Second, you don't have to worry about an attacker reproducing your fingerprints from your templates and using them to impersonate you. Biometrics can aid authentication. Here is a rough outline of the procedure for authenticating yourself to a computer application: 1. Insert your smart card into a reader. The smart card contains your cryptographic keys and biometric fingerprint data. 2. Enter your shared-secret PIN (or password), in order to unlock the digital representation of your fingerprint. In the trade, this is known as the minutia data. 3. Place your finger on the scanner. The scanned fingerprint is compared to the fingerprint data on the smart card. 4. If the data matches, the smart-card fingerprint data is converted into a number and combined with the smart-card secret PIN (retrieved in Step 2) and used as a symmetric cryptographic key to decrypt the private key. 5. A nonce (random number) is passed from the computer application to the smart card. 6. The private key on the smart card is used to encrypt the nonce and pass it back to the application. 7. The application verifies that a certified public key obtained from the network-based directory service or from the card does, in fact, decrypt the encrypted message from the card and reveal the same nonce that was originally passed to the card. This process irrefutably authenticates the person presenting the card as the same person to whom the cryptographic keys belong and provides the necessary tight binding between the cryptographic key storage and the authorized user of the cryptographic keys. By this time, you are probably asking, “Just how well do these biometrics work? What is the margin for error?” Two terms describe the functionality of biometrics. The false acceptance rate (FAR) is the probability that an intruder is accepted with a measurement that does not belong to the enrolled user. The false rejection rate (FRR) is the probability that an enrolled user is not recognized. Good biometrics have low FAR and low FRR, but unfortunately few standardized tests are available to determine these results, as each biometric read takes measurements in a slightly different way. Thus, third-party verification is very important when evaluating any biometric. As a rule, there is usually a trade-off between security and convenience. Biometrics are no exception. In general, the better their security (the lower the FAR), the more inconvenience there is to the user, because more false rejections occur. Similarly, the more convenient the system is to use, the poorer the security is. Good biometric systems allow the user to choose from a wide range of possible FAR/FRR levels, so that convenience can be maximized for the desired level of security. Exposure to a few detective movies can cause the average person to ask the macabre but pertinent question, “How can these devices ensure that the finger is alive?” Attempts have been made to solve this problem. Some vendors measure the heat of the finger to ensure that it is at body temperature, which makes the system difficult to use in cold climates or with people who are predisposed to cold hands. Other vendors measure the conductivity of the finger to prevent forged fingerprints (for example, silicone castings). This does not address the dead finger issue, but it is worth noting that conductivity measurements can be fooled with a bit of saline solution on the silicone casting. The best solutions spectroscopically measure the amount of oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood, as this measurement is the most difficult to fool and is radically different for live and dead fingers, but again there is a trade-off between price and necessity. Are you authenticating yourself to a space shuttle launch or the garage door? Figure 3. One of the best products to merge smart-card technology and biometrics is the BioMouse Plus from American Biometric Company ( The BioMouse Plus is an integrated smart-card reader and fingerprint scanner. A Linux toolkit is provided for developers, with documentation on how to create biometric and smart-card aware applications. The toolkit is complete with examples, sample source code, drivers and libraries. In fact, over 13 platforms are supported, including most flavors of UNIX, Windows and MS-DOS. Comment viewing options Smart cards and Biometrics based Public Distribution Systems Anonymous's picture Hey can anyone suggest what wil b d modules in a Smart cards and Biometrics based Public Distribution Systems(PDS). dude how the hell do i get Anonymous's picture dude how the hell do i get the dam source code for this project...? Heh, I always thought Anonymous's picture Heh, I always thought biometrics couldn't be used as keying material, I thought the devices using it would be like, "oh your fingerprint matches! here you go have this plaintext from my hdd!". Good to know that's not true. Re: Smart Cards and Biometrics: Your Key to PKI mahadevan_keyan's picture Have you guys looked at key generation from Biometrics. That will solve the problem of key management. We can look at applications like e-voting which is currently a hot topic Learn More Sponsored by Bit9 Linux Backup and Recovery Webinar Learn More Sponsored by Storix
Cathedral in the Sea 1. How much of their own body weight do sea otters have to eat per day to stay warm in the cold California waters? 10 percent 20 percent 30 percent 40 percent 2. Kelp can grow from a holdfast attached to the bottom in water how deep? 30 feet 50 feet 75 feet 100 feet 3. Who cleans, maintains and defends the Garibaldi nest when it contains eggs? the male the female 4. How deep can harbor seals dive to feed on squid? 100 feet 200 feet 500 feet 1,000 feet 5. What reef creature is a potential predator on the Garibaldi's eggs? sea anemone sea urchin sea star 6. What do mantis shrimp use to feed on mussels? parrot-like beak large pinchers hammer-like claw poisonous tentacles 7. A male bat ray tells a female bat ray he is ready to mate by rubbing her: 8. What cleans the parasites off ocean sunfish or Mola mola? kelp bass halfmoon perch kelp rockfish Sea Dwellers \| In The School \| Producer's Secrets \| Secrets Quiz On The Air \| Screen Saver \| Secrets Products
This much I know Jamie Oliver, chef, 34, London Jamie Oliver holding hat Jamie Oliver, August 2009. Photograph: Suki Dhanda Tony Blair invested some money in school dinners, but you would have got better value for money if I'd spent it myself. I get zero say in my children's names. If I had a boy I'd like to call him Elvis, but my wife would like to call him Honeydew or something. What's wrong with Elvis Oliver? You'd want to shag him and you'd want to be his mate. I don't endorse swearing. Idiots do it, and I happen to do it because I can't express myself better. Ministry of Food was particularly emotional and a lot of stuff upset me. We only got complaints after the papers picked up on it, then Wogan chimes in. It's not Blankety Blank; you go up to Rotherham, spend four or five months there and try to make a difference and I'll get a few "fucks" out of you, Terry. But if I did it now I'd edit it all out. When my grandad's brother died, I found out I was sixth-generation Sudanese. I need to go on Who Do You Think You Are? and find out more, but Channel 4 wouldn't be very pleased. If you're comfortable you're doing no good for anyone. I wrote to the News of the World and asked to write for them. If I wrote for this mag, I'd be preaching to the converted. There's been three CEOs while I've been with Sainsbury's. Some things, like chicken, took them by surprise a bit. I wouldn't employ me, frankly. When I was 14 I thought I'd like to run a pub in an Essex village, like my dad. Not cooking birthday dinners for Brad Pitt and being his mate. I could make you a millionaire. Our national dish is fish and chips, but how many good chippies are there? I could show you in a day, how to make home-made batter, fantastic tartare sauce, source the best fish - it's so easy. It's not about posh, it's just about good grub. Nice people have a healthy relationship with food, and miserable people don't. Having a healthy attitude towards cooking and food is really good for the soul. I'm not wrong. I shot an alligator in Louisiana. They're not endangered, but they are a pest - they live in the rice fields and are mauling up rice farmers. I'm sure someone will whinge about it - like when I cut the throat of the lamb in Italy. Frankly, it's not supposed to be nice, or pretty, it's supposed to be bloody and gory, and if more people saw that they might wonder what they are eating every time they go to the supermarket. The last time I slid down a bannister was two weeks ago, at Stansted airport. It did chafe a bit. The way to anyone's heart is through their stomach. Chickens and pigs have been treated like shite for years. You could argue that it's been about making food affordable to the masses, but ultimately it saves people cash that they spend on a load of old crap, like widescreen TVs. Meat shouldn't be cheap - it's a life. It's a long time since I had a Big Mac. But even the likes of McDonald's are doing quite radical things, they're doing more than a lot of posh restaurants - they sell more organic milk and free range eggs than anyone else in the industry. I can't even believe I'm sticking up for them. I could have retired 10 years ago, at 24. But while I'm young and fit, if I'm clever enough and embrace good people, we can do some really good stuff. You've got to keep creating. I'm a professional shit-stirrer. Jamie's America is published by Penguin, £26
Health knowledge made personal Join this community! › Share page: Search posts: Burn 1,000 Calories An Hour! Posted Jul 05 2009 9:46pm You've seen the workout program ads: in between shots of glistening, contracting abdominals and hyper smiling people who only sweat in socially acceptable places - your amped up cleavage if you are a woman, your shaved pecs if you are a man - comes the promise. What, you ask, can a DVD workout/exercise book/smiling B-list celeb promise me when it comes to cardio other than a perfect body, chiclet teeth and a spray tan so authentic that real sunshine is jealous? Why, the promise of amazing ultra-high superbad caloric burn of course! I was reminded of this the other day as the Gym Buddies and I were sweating away on the elliptical machines (not our go-to workout but they were refinishing all the floors in the studios so it's what we were left with) and one of those ubiquitous exercise program infomercials came on. While we were giggling about watching people on TV exercise while actually exercising, large letters flashed up on the screen. "BURN up to 1,000 CALORIES AN HOUR!" flashed over all those heaving chests - the "up to" in conveniently small type of course. This infomercial - may Billy Mays rest in peace - is not unique. All fitness programs, televised and otherwise, seem to make some kind of caloric promise. But how accurate are these claims? And does knowing the potential calorie burn of a workout help you make a better choice on how to sweat? Can You Really Burn 1,000 Calories An Hour? Anecdotal evidence first: According to my overly generous heartrate monitor of which I was once so attached to that I would turn around and go home to get the chest strap if I accidentally forgot it despite the fact that being small chested meant that it looked as if I was wearing some kind of strange back brace, I have burned over 1,000 calories in a single workout. The scene was "Holiday Turbokick" a special brand of torture that Turbo Jennie likes to put us through on occassions like the day before Thanksgiving, where we do 8 "turbos" (a high-intensity inverval lasting between 30 seconds and 2 minutes) interspersed with 4 finales or some such craziness. By the end I am turboing in a puddle of my own filth and can wring out my tank top like a Shamwow. It's enough to make a girl puke up her turkey before she even eats it, is what I'm saying. But by the time we hit cool down, I had burned just over 1,000 calories. So it would seem possible - although unlikely (who wants to work out so hard you vomit every day?) - to attain that magic number. Except for two problems. 1) My heart rate monitor isn't terribly accurate. While I trust it's ability to read my actual beats per minute, its calorie burn function is apparently calculated based off a 6'6" male Russian Ice Swimmer. To prove this, I switched heart rate monitors with Gym Buddy Allison, who wears a Polar, and racked up 200-400 less calories per hour than my watch gave me. 2) Even the venerable Polar can't really tell you your caloric burn as metabolism is so individual as to render any mathematical formula at least slightly inaccurate. The research in this area is more prolific than one might think. Companies that make a living off of guaranteeing a good workout have invested a lot of energy into trying to figure out what number of calories people can expect to expend using their machines or programs. What they have discovered however is that while they can predict how many calories an individual, say Michael Phelps, is burning, those results are very difficult to generalize. In addition to individual metabolisms there are simply too many other variables. Therefore, the honest companies will give you a range of calories. The disingenuous ones will use that sneaky little phrase "up to" and then give you a Michael Phelpsian number. Why Does it Matter How Many Calories You Burn? Every fitness expert will tell you that weight loss, gain or maintenance comes down to simple math. It's all about the calories you take in through food in relation to those you expend through daily life and exercise. This over simplified truism often leads people to think things like, "If the treadmill says I burned 250 calories, then that means I can eat a 200 calorie muffin and still come out losing!" This, in turn, has made calorie burn the gold standard in assessing a fitness program's worth. But dig a little deeper and you will realize that not only is calorie burn not the best indicator of a workout's power, it actually distracts you from other benefits of exercise. For instance, weight lifting typically doesn't burn comparatively as many calories as cardio for the same amount of time and yet it has many advantages like increased strength, muscle mass and overall functionality. Similarly, HIIT (high intensity interval training) burns a smaller amount of calories during the actual workout but causes a much greater spike in HGH (human growth hormone) than twice the amount of traditional medium-intensity cardio. Lastly cardio exercise is good for many things like increasing your oxygen utilization and building endurance, besides just burning off last night's dessert. Is It A Good Thing To Burn 1,000 Calories An Hour? Ignoring for a moment whether or not it's even possible to burn that many calories, one must ask if it is even a worthwhile fitness goal to strive to burn a particular high number of calories. To get that kind of calorie burn, one would have to push very hard in a high intensity type of cardio. Much has been said - and ignored - about the dangers of too much aerobic exercise in the highest heart rate zones. It elevates the stress hormone cortisol, causes systemic inflammation, necesitates longer recovery and increases your risk of injury, just to give you the short version. In addition, an often overlooked fact by dieters and diet purveyors alike is that the more you exercise, the hungrier you get. From my personal experience the more calories I burn, the more my body wants to replace them - and fast. What's the quickest source of glycogen for our depleted muscular system? Sugar. I have found that after a long training run, it's almost impossible for me to stay away from the Jelly Bellies and other simple carbs for the rest of the day. However, when I strength train and/or keep my training volume low my sugar cravings diminish significantly (unless I'm PMSing but that's a different story entirely). Research backs me up by showing that dieters who create a calorie deficit purely from exercise don't lose weight - because their bodies eat to adjust. So, what's the point in burning (up to) 1,000 calories if my body is immediately going to want to replace (at least) 1,000 calories with whatever food is easiest for me to scarf down? Calorie burn doesn't matter. First, chances are that unless you are an Olympic swimmer, you're not burning what they say you are burning. Second, it's probably not giving you the result you are looking for. If you are exercising for weight loss, then you aren't doing yourself any favors by torching excessive calories and signalling your body to go into eat mode. And if you're exercising for fun and/or weight maintenance then calorie burn is just another number. All of which is not to say that exercise - even an occasional session of long, intense cardio - shouldn't be done. Ask any triathlete, marathon runner or Iron(wo)man if their race was worth it and most of them will give you an enthusiastic yes. But it isn't because they burned 3,000 calories, it's because they were having fun and it gave them a sense of accomplishment. Does it mean that I don't get a great workout from Holiday Turbokick if I don't burn quadruple-digit calories? No! I'm still increasing my endurance and having a lot of fun to boot. My point: When we are evaluating the merit of a particular fitness program, there are a lot of better factors to consider than supposed maximum calorie burn. But enough about what I think! What do you think about the calorie-burn claims of fitness programs/machines/gurus? Anyone else ever get obsessed with their heart rate monitors? Anyone have a particular fitness infomercial that they just can't stop watching?? Possibly the best workout video I have ever seen. "Eurotrain!!!" is going to be my new motto. Post a comment Write a comment: Related Searches
The Veiled Virgin From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search The Veiled Virgin Veiled virgin 400.jpg Artist Giovanni Strazza Year year unknown Type Carrara Marble Dimensions 48 cm (19 in) Location Presentation Convent, St. John's The Veiled Virgin is a Carrara marble statue carved in Rome by Italian sculptor Giovanni Strazza, depicting the bust of a veiled Blessed Virgin Mary. The exact date of the statue's completion is unknown. The statue was transported to Newfoundland in 1856, as recorded on December 4 in the diary of Bishop John Thomas Mullock: The Veiled Virgin was then kept at the Episcopal Palace next to the Roman Catholic Cathedral in St. John's until 1862, when Bishop Mullock presented it to Mother Mary Magdalene O'Shaughnessy, the Superior of Presentation Convent. The bust has since remained under the care of Presentation Sisters, in Cathedral Square, St. John's. Italian nationalism was on the rise in the mid-19th century. Strazza's Veiled Virgin is a prime example of the Italian nationalist art movement called Risorgimento. The image of the veiled woman was intended to symbolize Italy just as Britannia symbolized Britain, Hibernia symbolized Ireland, and Lady Liberty symbolized the United States. Pietro Rossi and Raffaelle Monti were the most important Italian contemporaries of Strazza who also sculpted veiled women.
Take the 2-minute tour × I have searched around quite a bit but have not solved my problem. I have a video tag running as follows: src="{{ page \| video_url }}" poster="{{ page \| video_poster_image_url }}" I am using Jekyll for the urls. They work fine. The site is live at swtizerlandllc.com. Click any video in FF and it shows an image and an X. Chrome and other browsers work fine. If you grab the source of a video and load it in a new tab it plays fine. At least it does for me. I have added: AddType video/ogg .ogv AddType video/mp4 .mp4 AddType video/webm .webm to my htaccess file. I suspect that I don't need the .ogv or .webm I don't understand why loading the video url will play the videos fine but loading the video into a video tag fails. any ideas? share\|improve this question 3 Answers 3 up vote 24 down vote accepted Firefox does not support the MP4 format within its video tag. The main reason why is the royalty fee attached to the mp4 format. Check out Media formats supported by the audio and video elements directly from the Mozilla crew or the following blog post for more information: share\|improve this answer Direct from the source: developer.mozilla.org/En/… – Sam Dufel May 7 '12 at 20:41 Thanks, I updated my answer with the link! – Josh Mein May 7 '12 at 20:45 I have seen this answer around but then why does the video play if you load the path in a new tab? – TJ Sherrill May 7 '12 at 20:55 I assume the issue is that in order to support mp4 in their video tag, the Firefox crew would have to pay for a license. Whereas, if the user just puts the link in the browser, they dont have to pay anything. – Josh Mein May 7 '12 at 21:01 @TJSherrill, it is probably playing because of a Firefox plugin (like Quicktime). This doesn't mean it will work in a <video> element. – MPD May 7 '12 at 21:24 Firefox 21 supports MP4 H.264 by default. Yay! Just try this video test - http://www.quirksmode.org/html5/tests/video.html EDIT: FF21+ only on windows 7+ apparently. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/HTML/Supported_media_formats share\|improve this answer I can confirm that mp4 just will not work in the video tag. No matter how much you try to mess with the type tag and the codec and the mime types from the server. Crazy, because for the same exact video, on the same test page, the old embed tag for an mp4 works just fine in firefox. I spent all yesterday messing with this. Firefox is like IE all of a sudden, hours and hours of time, not billable. Yay. Speaking of IE, it fails FAR MORE gracefully on this. When it can't match up the format it falls to the content between the tags, so it is possible to just put video around object around embed and everything works great. Firefox, nope, despite failing, it puts up the poster image (greyed out so that isn't even useful as a fallback) with an error message smack in the middle. So now the options are put in browser recognition code (meaning we've gained nothing on embedding videos in the last ten years) or ditch html5. share\|improve this answer +1 "Firefox is like IE all of a sudden, hours and hours of time, not billable." – Geo Nov 6 '13 at 22:11 Which video type works? OGG, or WEBM? – Jackson_Sandland Nov 16 at 23:44 Your Answer
Freddie Sears and Gavin Massey secure Colchester United deals Colchester United have extended the loan of West Ham's Freddie Sears until the end of the season and re-signed Gavin Massey from Watford for a month. Striker Massey, 19, played three times for the U's during a spell in January and February. And fellow frontman Sears, 22, has spent a month at the U's, featuring four times, but is yet to find the net. "Staying until the end of the season is what I intended to do when I signed," he told BBC Essex. "It's been good and the boys are on fire at the moment." Colchester have lost just one of their last seven games, but former England Under-21 international Sears has only started three of those matches. "I can't have any complaints, the boys have been flying," he said. "You obviously want to play but at the minute I'm biding my time and waiting for a chance." Boss John Ward is confident of keeping hold of Sears, despite the forward's lack of games so far. "West Ham are fine. We're going to extend the loan," he said. "As a football manager you're always trying to prepare for the unexpected and if I get an injury somewhere I know I've got a good squad." Meanwhile, keeper Ben Williams has said he is considering the offer of a new contract. "I spoke to the manager at the start of January with a view to what the club would be offering if they were offering a contract," said the 29-year-old. "The manager's come back now, with the chairman, and it's a matter of looking over that and deciding where we go from here. "I've expressed a desire that I'd like to stay. It's just whether everything stacks up. I'm at a period in my career now where it's not just about me, it's also about my young family."
Generating Entities as a Markov-Modulated Poisson Process This example shows how to generate entities using a Markov-modulated Poisson process, which is a Poisson process whose rate depends on the state of a Markov chain. In particular, the process is an interrupted Poisson process because the "off" state prevents entity generation. The model includes three independent on-off modulated Markov sources so you can see how their behavior depends on the rate of the Poisson process when the Markov chain is in the "on" state. The Path Combiner block aggregates the outputs of all the On-Off Modulated Markov Source subsystems. Each of the On-Off Modulated Markov Source subsystems behaves as follows: • The Time-Based Entity Generator block models the Markov chain by generating an entity each time the chain changes state. • The Entity Departure Event to Function-Call Event conveys the state change to the Create Generator Selection Variable subsystem, whose output changes from 0 to 1 or vice versa. • The block labeled Generator 1 models the Poisson process by generating entities that attempt to depart from this On-Off Modulated Markov Source subsystem. (By contrast, the entities that represent the state changes of the Markov chain do not depart from this subsystem.) • The Enabled Gate block regulates departures from the subsystem. If the state of the Markov chain is "off", the gate is closed and entities cannot depart. Results and Displays Average Time between On-Off Points = 5 and Average Intergeneration Time = 1 Average Time between On-Off Points = 15 and Average Intergeneration Time = 4 Average Time between On-Off Points = 50 and Average Intergeneration Time = 10 Related Examples
Standard view Full view of . Look up keyword Like this 0 of . Results for: No results containing your search query P. 1 Pooja Document Pooja Document Ratings: (0)\|Views: 20 \|Likes: Published by Arun Pathania kjlnc vkvk;nkn;dk kjlnc vkvk;nkn;dk More info: Categories:Types, Reviews, Art Published by: Arun Pathania on Nov 18, 2010 Copyright:Attribution Non-commercial Read on Scribd mobile: iPhone, iPad and Android. download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd See more See less Action Race: Adjectival Action: T writes on the board an activity like "bush your teeth." She/He picks onestudent, they come to the front of the class. The T then shows the S a card with an adjectivewritten on it like "slowly" or whatever. The chosen student then does the activity in the way of theadjective. The other S have to guess the adjective. The one who guesses right gets a point andmimes the next action which the teacher writes on the board. To help them you can give them alist of options, if you think they need some help. (Submitted by Libby McArthur) Airplane competition: First, have your Ss make some paper airplanes. Stand the Ss in a lineand let them test fly their planes. For the competition, assign different classroom objects points(e.g. table 5 points, door 10 points, trashcan 20 points). Ask a S a question and if s/he answerscorrectly then s/he can throw and try to hit one of the target objects to win points. This works wellas a team game. Apple Pass: Have all Ss sit in a circle. Use a fake apple and toss it to one S. But you must sayone English word as you pass. The S then throws to another S and says a different Englishword. If the student you threw it to drops it, he/she is out. And the game keeps going until youhave one winner. It can be played with different categories, such as Food, Animals, Etc. Mystudents love it! (Submitted by Kim.S.). Art Gallery: This is a great activity for reviewing vocab. Draw enough squares on the board for each S to be able to draw in. Have the Ss write their names above their squares. T calls out aword and the Ss draw it (could be simple nouns e.g. "dog, bookcase, train", verb structures e.g."draw a man running, eating cake, sleeping") or adjectives ("draw a big elephant, an angry lion,an expensive diamond ring"). For each S give a score for his/her picture, and then move on tothe next picture. The S with the highest score at the end is the winner. Call out commands such as: Attention, salute, march in place...stop, sit down, standup, walk in a circle, clap your hands...stop, run in place...stop, jumping jacks...stop, swim inplace....stop, etc. At first students will copy you but later they should be able to do the commandswithout you. (Submitted by Tania Bibbo). Backs to the Board Game: This one is good for higher level kids. Make two teams and standone S from each team in front of the board, facing away from it. Write a word or draw a pictureon the board (e.g. "hamburger") and the Ss have to explain that word to their team member (e.g.you can buy it in McDonalds, it's got cheese and ketchup in it). The first S out of the two standingin front of the board to guess the word wins a point for his/her team. Good for reviewing target vocabulary (words or communicative expressions). Set a"court" into the classroom by placing a skip-rope tied up to two chairs. Make two small teams (theother Ss can be the crowd and or challengers). Give each S a flyswatter ("Racket"). Inflate aballoon (this will be the ball). Remember: the younger the Ss, the bigger the balloon must be(slower). Decides who serves and for every point one team scores, have the opposite team call out the flashcard or picture card by the T shown. Lots of fun! (NOTE: For very active Ss becareful since they might hit the others' faces when playing). (submitted by Salvador Domingo) Banana Race: Children just love this! It is basically a QUIZ game in which you ask childrenquestions (Target Vocabulary) like: "What's this? What fruit is red and round? How many chairsare there in the classroom?" or the T simply draws items on the board, makes animal noises sothat they guess. You can work with Ss or split the class into small groups/teams if you have alarge class. The T draws on the board a race track and each team or S will be a BANANAwaiting at the Starting Line. They will approach the Goal line as they answer each question.Each right answer equals a step towards the Goal Line. The BANANA who arrives there first,WINS! (Submitted by Salvador Domingo). Materials: Small peiced of paper, shoe box or coffee can. Write words on pieces of paper and fold them in half (sight words, vocab, blends etc.). Also add a few cards that say "BANG!".Ss take turns picking cards and if they read the word correctly they get to keep the word. If theydraw a BANG! card they yell BANG! and then return all their cards (except the BANG! card) to thecan/box. Very simple but the kids love it and there are many variations for the game! (Submittedby Heather Gilbert). Ss take a shot at the trashcan/box/etc. First ask a question to S1. If s/he answerscorrectly then s/he can have a shot at the basket. If the S gets the ball in the basket then s/hewins 2 points. If the S hits the basket without going inside then s/he wins 1 point. The personwho gets the most points is the winner. This can also be played in teams. Bet you can't: This game can be played in millions and millions of different ways, and essentiallyit's just this: go to the toy store and buy toy money. Give each student the same amount of money at the start. Have the students bet each other that they can't do something - like this:make each S stand up and walk around. Have them say, "I bet you can't (e.g. count to 20, runaround the room 5 times, sing the ABC song. etc.)". Get the Ss to bet using the toy money.You'd be surprised how much even adult students enjoy this game. Can be played with numbers, letters, pictures or even words. The winner is the first toeither get a line or or full house. Blind Toss: Have Ss sit down in a circle. Place a mat on the floor with numbers and a flashcard(target vocabulary) on each number. Taking turns, each S gets blindfolded and tosses abeanbag so as to hit a number. S/he must call out that word the same number of times as thenumber indicates. For example: 4-dog, then "Dog, Dog, Dog, Dog! and the S gets the equalpoints (4). At the end, the S with the most points wins! Good for memorizing vocabulary sincethey are repeating words. (Submitted by Salvador Domingo). Blindfold Course: Make an obstacle course in your classroom (use desks, chairs, etc.), put ablindfold on a S and help guide him/her through the course by giving instructions (e.g. walkforward 2 steps, turn left, take on small step, etc.). This is a good pair game. Blindfold Guess: Blindfold a S and give him/her an object to feel. The S must guess what theobject is. This works well with plastic animals as the are a little challenging to guess (I alwaysthrow in a dinosaur to spice things up!). Blindfold Questions: Put Ss in a circle, with one student, blindfolded standing in the middle.Turn the S around a few times. Tell the S to point at the person in front of him/her and ask aquestion (e.g. "How old are you?", "What's your favorite food?, etc.). After the reply theblindfolded S must guess the name of the S s/he is talking to. Board Scramble: T puts the whole alphabet on the blackboard in a scramble of letters here andthere, but low enough that the Ss can reach it. Have two teams and call out a letter. The personthat is able to find and circle it first wins a point for their team. To make things harder havecapitol and small letters. Even more challenging- have four teams all looking for the same letter.The kids just love it. You can do it with numbers and also words. (Submitted by Susie). The Crucial Need for Building Language Arts Skills Building language arts skills is fundamental for students, particularly during elementaryschool. A foundation for communication and lifelong learning, language arts are a vitaleducational component of a student's successful future. While some students may enjoythese studies, other children may struggle with the subject area.With this in mind, discovering ways to make language arts fun is important on manylevels – from keeping students who already like the subject challenged and engaged tomaking the subject more interesting and easier to comprehend for those who struggle. Language Arts Games for the Classroom Teachers can easily supplement theircurriculumwith fun language arts games in theclassroom. Obtain language arts game ideas from teacher forums or educational sites, oralter the format of a standard lesson to transform it into a fun game. Here are a fewexamples: Dictionary Race: Great for elementary students to build vocabulary and familiarizethemselves with using the dictionary, this game requires that the classroom hasenough dictionaries for each student. The teacher gives a difficult word, and thestudents must race to find the definition. This game can be modified in manyways, such as giving points to students and having a final standoff among the topcontenders or testing the students to see how well they remember the definitions. Alphabetical Order Race: Divide the class into two teams. Give each team a groupof identical index cards with words that need to be placed in alphabetical order,allowing one card for each person. As a team, have the students place the cardsin alphabetical order. The team that finishes first wins. Think Pink: This is a fun language arts game for students to practice usingsynonyms and adjectives. Students take turns, saying "think pink" for singlevowel words or "thinky pinky" for words with two vowel sounds prior to their wordchoices. Other students must guess the correct set of words. For example: Hint:(Think Pink): Angry Father. Answer: Mad Dad. This game is also known as "StinkPink," and an online version can be found atHighHopes.com. Name that Part of Speech: Either as a class game or in small groups, studentsmust identify as quickly as possible a given part of speech, whether verb, noun,pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposition, or interjection. Missing Punctuation: Divide the class into two teams. Read a sentence aloud andhave one child from each team write the sentence on the board including thecorrect punctuation. The team who writes it correctly first earns a point. The teamwith the most points wins. You're Reading a Free Preview

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