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In Little Italy, fresh eyes on American democracy Italian parliament member among observers from 30 countries Dan Rodricks 6:13 PM CST, November 6, 2012 So intent was Riccardo Migliori on his mission — observing the U.S. election and asking questions about the voting process in Baltimore — that he missed the statues of saints and the oil painting of Pope Leo XIII. So foreign was the idea that voting might take place in a house of worship that he apparently didn't notice the brass crucifix on the wall above him, either. In fact, it wasn't until he left the polling place in Little Italy and stepped onto chilly Exeter Street on Tuesday morning that Migliori, a senior member of Big Italy's parliament, realized he had just seen Americans voting in the basement of a Roman Catholic church. "A church?" Migliori asked, looking up at the front doors of St. Leo the Great and, high on the brick façade, a gilded statue of the church's namesake. "I am surprised. With the separation of church and state, we would never dream of having a polling place in a church." He's a big, bearded, affable man in a well-worn raincoat, part of a delegation of 110 election observers from 30 countries operating under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. That organization dates back to the Cold War and represents 56 nations in matters of human rights, press freedom and free elections. It dispatches election observers all over Europe, the former Soviet Union and North America, including the U.S. (Just about everywhere but Texas.) Migliori, who is from Florence, has been a member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies since 1996. He takes a special interest in election integrity and serves as president of the parliamentary assembly of the OSCE. He's traveled to numerous countries to watch elections — Belarus, Ukraine and, more recently, Tunisia. Tuesday, Migliori started his work in Little Italy, accompanied by two aides and Francesco Luigi Legaluppi, the Italian consul general in Baltimore. Legaluppi and an old friend of mine from the neighborhood, Elia Mannetta, served as interpreters. Migliori and his two staff members, Vincenzo Picciolo and Giuseppe Maggio, stepped into St. Leo's basement at 7:05 a.m., just as citizens started to vote. They were greeted by Alan Shapiro, the chief Democratic judge for the precinct. Here's what Migliori asked Shapiro: "How do you limit propaganda from the polling place?" Shapiro: "There's no electioneering allowed within 100 feet of the polling place, which means anyone who electioneers has to stand across [Exeter] street." How do the election judges and workers keep things moving? Shapiro: "We all work quickly because we know the routine and we've worked together before, several times." Migliori noticed that voting machines were lined up at angles, but open to the central part of the church basement, where, conceivably, people waiting in line could peek over their fellow citizens' shoulders. Why not turn the machines around, Migliori wanted to know, so that the open side of each faces the wall? Shapiro pondered this a moment and said, "Actually, the way the machines are set up, people can't see how someone else votes." And besides, the power cords weren't long enough to arrange them as Migliori had suggested. Next: "If someone voted early, do the election judges have the capability of knowing that, so that a person could not vote twice?" This question had been on Migliori's mind since he first heard about early voting in the Maryland and other states. Allowing people to vote ahead of Election Day seems fraught with risk, he said. Shapiro: "Anyone who voted early, their name is in the poll books already and they would not be able to vote a second time." Migliori: "Do you ask each person if they voted already?" Shapiro: "We don't have to. The machine will tell us if they voted already; the machine will tell us their voting history." Migliori: "Do you ask the voter for identification?" Shapiro: "We only ask if the machine asks us to ask for ID for some reason." It was outside, after Migliori realized he had just visited a polling place inside a church — and recovered from that shock — that I asked him about his mission and his impression of U.S. elections. But his comments were more about our campaigns. "There's no equality among the candidates," he said, noting how American politicians raise millions of dollars to gain television exposure. In Italy and much of Europe, he said, candidates are accorded equal time. "And it doesn't matter how much money they have," Migliori said. "When you begin the race, everyone must be at the same starting line. That's only fair." The Italian politician noted that for most Americans, deciding on a president Tuesday was a $2 billion choice — between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. "And so," he noted, "most Americans have no idea that there were other candidates for president on the ballot." Truth, as only an outside observer can deliver it.	dclm-gs1-005590000
Sheriff's Office: ‘You always hurt the one you love’ by Jim Ruth Bradley County Sheriff Feb 09, 2014 \| 392 views \| 0 0 comments \| 6 6 recommendations \| email to a friend \| print When the writer penned those words, I don’t think he had domestic violence in mind at all. There are those among us who are still prone to hurt those in their own household. Yet, some get drunk or drugged up and become physically abusive to their spouse. This abuser is usually the husband or live-in boyfriend abusing the woman of the house. Much more rare is the man being abused by the woman. Yet, it does happen, along with elder abuse and grown children fighting and threatening their parents or vice versa. Many times the woman feels trapped in these situations because of her lack of finances, or maybe shame. Often there are children in the home, which further complicates the situation. A retired lady laughs when she tells about having a fuss with her husband, how she gathered her two young boys and headed home to mama. Her mother was very loving and had a lot of wisdom. Mama told her, “You made your bed, now you have to sleep in it, so go back to your husband.” The problem is not when a couple has an argument and gets a little loud. The problem is when a threat to an individual’s well being comes into the situation. A swift response to these domestic calls by law enforcement and sure punishment by the courts keeps many would-be abusers in check. The abuser comes to realize that he will give account when the deputy arrives on the scene. He learns he will be sleeping on a jail cot that night and maybe several other nights, until the judge deems he is no longer a threat to the victim. We sometimes lock up both individuals when the deputy determines they were equally at fault. The deputies’ duty is to restore and keep the peace. Sometimes it is the aggressor who calls 911 and we have to lock that individual up to maintain the peace. A domestic call in the rural South for years has been the most dangerous call with the most fatalities for law enforcement. We train our people to be wary when answering these calls. There is always the possibility the suspect is laying in wait for the deputy to arrive. Then, there are timesthe victim will join in with the abuser against the deputy, as they take the suspect into custody. More than 25 years ago, before the domestic laws were strengthened, as they are today, our deputies arrested a big, young mountain of a man on a domestic charge. He was a hardworking logging man. He was not a violent man, but he starting drinking one day and his new, young wife became frightened of him. She had never seen him in such an agitated state. As the now retired deputy who was there remembered, the young man did not hit her. The deputies back then brought the Paul Bunyan type to jail. The next morning the logger’s mother and older brother came to bail him out of jail. The deputy went back to tell the now sober logger his family was there to bail him out. Well, the big man was pouting and refused to be bailed out. He could not believe that his darling, new bride would call Johnny Law on him. “He would never hurt her, she knew that.” To my knowledge he never did hurt her and has not been back to jail for these 2 ½ decades. He apparently learned to control his anger, his drinking or maybe both. I’ve known a number of people who have a quick temper, but they have the wisdom and power to bring that temper under control. Some have even learned to channel that anger to energize them in positive ways. People who work with their hands can be more productive at making their living. When working in the yard or doing household chores a lot of that anger dissipates. One man I know, who has a short fuse, realized when he got into a confrontation he was prone to become angrier as he talked. He has learned to stop talking and let his emotions settle, while the other person is talking. He will consciously talk himself out of a fit of anger by doing this. He can then state his opinion and make his argument in a more convincing, civil way. I am not saying he reacts correctly every time, but he is working on it. I am not a counselor, but when you lose respect for your spouse and his/her dignity, you got troubles. If you are in an abusive relationship, get out now. There is help for you and for children today. If you are attacked physically call 911. If you need help in getting out of an abusive situation call the sheriff’s office at 728-7300. We will give you the number where you can obtain the help you need. It is never right for one person to abuse another emotionally or physically in these domestic situations. Have a good day. Thanks for reading.	dclm-gs1-005600000
Skip the navigation Mike Elgan: 10 obsolete technologies to kill in 2010 Make the world a better place. Just say no to dumb tech. December 24, 2009 06:00 AM ET Computerworld - Some old-and-busted technologies die gracefully of natural causes. Pagers, PDAs, floppy disks -- they're gone, and good riddance. Here are 10 dumb technologies we should get rid of in 2010: 1. Fax Machines The fax machine was obsolete 15 years ago. When someone says "fax it to me," I always feel like I'm being punk'd. A fax machine is nothing more than a printer, scanner and an obsolete analog modem that work together to waste time, money, paper and electricity. The mass delusion that perpetuates this obscenely inefficient technology is that paper "hard copy" is somehow more legitimate. In fact, gluing a copy of someone's stolen signature to a document, then faxing it, is the easiest way mask a forgery because of the low quality of fax output. People, let's stop the madness. Just e-mail it. 2. 'Cigar lighter receptacle' plugs in cars 3. WWW The original idea with Internet addresses is that a prefix would identify the type of service provided. So, for example, identifies Apple's "World-Wide Web" servers, and points to the company's offerings available via the "File Transfer Protocol." Network administrators get to choose whether an address technically requires a "www." But browsers fill it in for you even when you don't type it. That's why saying "www" as part of an address, printing it on business cards or typing it into your browser address box is always unnecessary. We stopped using "http://" years ago, and it's time to stop using "www" as well. 4. Business cards Speaking of business cards, why do we still carry around 19th-century "calling cards"? When someone gives you a business card, they're giving you a tedious data entry job, one that most people never complete. Besides, you should always learn in advance what you can about people you're going to meet, and that's a good time to enter their contact information. And if you just run into someone, and exchange contact information, it's best to do it by e-mail or some other means on the spot, with cell phones. Adding someone to your contacts should involve double clicking or, at most, copying and pasting -- not data entry. 5. Movie rental stores Our Commenting Policies	dclm-gs1-005610000
Report Comment That truly showed what Vettel is. A spoilt brat. There was no reason to do that at this stage of the season, if it was near the end, I could understand. Webber should have allowed an accident to happen. Two things would have happened. Seb would get so much grief after the race, and he'd think twice about doing that to Webber again. All the greats have driven like that, but not against their own team mate. Bad move. As for the apology, he knew exactly what he was doing, and he knew he had to say sorry. Empty words from an insincere man, sorry, boy. Webber is more of a man than Vettel will ever be. Gloves off Mark. Beat him how ever you have to. He has done it in the past. Turkey, despite a few hear blaming Webber for that one. I was obvioulsy watching a different race back then, clearly Seb's fault. Mark didn't get out the brats way. Poor show from a team perspective. RB gave an order, he ignored it, and they pay his salary. © 1999 - 2014 Crash Media Group	dclm-gs1-005620000
Crash.Net F1 News Alonso: Kimi was too fast for us 18 March 2013 Fernando Alonso has admitted that the combination of Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus appeared unbeatable in the Australian Grand Prix, but refused to blame Ferrari's strategy for his defeat. The Spaniard, who acknowledged that beating Sebastian Vettel's pole-winning Red Bull into third place had felt like victory in itself [ see separate story], conceded that, without the intervention of the safety car, he was unlikely to have been able to dice with Raikkonen, who made one stop fewer for tyres than his main rivals. “I think we were closer to victory in Abu Dhabi [last season] or closer than what we were here today,” he claimed, “We didn't have the pace to fight with Kimi today - he was too fast for us and he did a fantastic job. I think, in Abu Dhabi, it was different with the safety car. I think, with 15 or 20 laps to the end of the race, we really had the opportunity to fight for victory there, [but] today they were too fast.” Asked whether he could have made his Ferrari's tyres last long enough to match Raikkonen's two-stop strategy, Alonso admitted that the Scuderia had always planned to run three stops and any thoughts of changing were effectively ruled out after getting caught in traffic. “I think it's difficult to know if we could do two stops,” he conceded, “You need to commit, more or less, to one strategy before the start of the race because you race differently. Obviously, we were attacking - we tried to pass Sebastian [Vettel] in the first part of the race [and], in the second stint, we were again also behind [Adrian] Sutil at that stage of the race. Maybe you can go a little bit longer in the stints, but we have to stop [to] try to overtake these people that we felt they were slower than us and, if you commit to that, obviously there is not a way to find a two-stop.” Admitting that being squeezed out at the first corner by both Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa had not been ideal, Alonso was also critical of a couple of rookie backmarkers, who he felt had made life as difficult as it had been racing against his expected rivals. “There is always the flexibility to anticipate the stop, delay the stop, as there is always a margin of three or four laps shorter or longer depending on how the race goes,” he continued, “How the race goes is [based on] the tyre degradation that you are facing through that particular race or the traffic you are facing through that race. In my case, we felt we were a lot faster than the cars in front. We stopped on lap 20 or 21 - we felt we had more pace for 18 or 19 laps so it was the right time to start – and it was enough to jump three place [past] Sebastian, Felipe and Sutil. What we didn't know at the time was the pace of the Lotus - they did a better job than us and maybe we did a better job than the others at the front.” Despite finishing between Lotus and Red Bull, Alonso insisted that he had not been surprised by much over the course of the weekend but claimed that, while Ferrari was achieving the goals that it had set itself for the start of the season, it could not afford to rest. “We had a good winter and the car is more or less as we expected,” he noted, “Arriving here and fighting for the podium was the aim of the team - to reduce the gap and to arrive at the start of the season with a competitive package. “In the winter, the car felt good and the understanding of the car was good, so being on the podium here is some kind of job done, let's say. You always learn some things, and I will talk with the engineers in the debrief about the competition. When you run close to other cars in the first race, you always discover some weak points and some strong points [of the car] and today [there were] a lot of fights, a lot of traffic, a lot of action. “Lotus, as we saw in winter, were very quick and very consistent, so they had a fantastic weekend, they deserved victory. Red Bull is the quickest car at the moment, first and second in qualifying, first and second in practice, - yes, in the race, they saw a little bit of degradation but that doesn't mean that they are not the fastest.”	dclm-gs1-005630000
Moving Company: Speedy Ellsbury, Victorino Set Tone For Sox Leading off is Jacoby Ellsbury. Batting second is Shane Victorino. One is a needle. The other is a pincushion. Together they set a tone in the ALDS that screamed aggression, a cerebral assault, that made the Tampa Bay Rays blink, blink again, blink a third time and ultimately go to sleep for the winter. "Yeah, we talk about the one-two punch," Ellsbury said Friday on the eve of ALCS Game 1 against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park. "Victorino has done a great job at the plate seeing when I'm running, taking pitches, getting on base anyway possible, hit by pitch or hustling down the line. It has been great fun to play with him." How much fun? Ellsbury hit .500 (9-for-18), had a .526 OBP and 1.37 OPS against the Rays, while Victorino hit .429 (6-for-14) with a .556 OBP and .984 OPS. Ellsbury stole four bases and scored seven runs. Victorino knocked in three and was hit four times, already tying the postseason record for one year. With wraps about his arms, his stomach, wherever he happens to get hit that particular game, Victorino often looks like a member of the Revolutionary War fife and drum corps. "Whatever it takes," Victorino told reporters Thursday. In the decisive two-run seventh-inning in Game 4, Ellsbury's single put runners at the corners with two outs. A wild pitch allowed Xander Bogaerts to score. Ellsbury stole second and kept going to third on the wild pitch. Victorino, who once won the Hawaiian high school state 100 meter title at 10.8 seconds, beat out a broken bat single to shortstop Yunel Escobar to score Ellsbury. Victorino also broke up double plays on Rays second baseman Ben Zobrist in Game 2 and Game 3 that, if the Red Sox go on to win their third World Series since 2004, will become part of team lore. Both led to Ellsbury scoring runs, the second time in Game 3 when Zobrist threw the ball wildly off the dugout. Both times, Victorino went in hard, clean. He said he never wants it to be dirty. It was baseball ballet. "Shane has been great all year, man," Dustin Pedroia said Friday. "He does so many things that impact games — his at-bats, the way he plays right field, his arm." That's another thing. Some of their teammates say having them is like having two center fielders. "With a big right field [at Fenway], we've been able to do some things, use it as a weapon in some of our positioning,'' Ellsbury said. The Sox had Big Papi and Manny Ramirez on 2004 and 2007 world championships. Well, they're on the Tigers in this ALCS in the form of Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Oh, the Sox still have David Ortiz's big stick, but the tone set by Ellsbury and Victorino — who would've been ALDS co-MVPs had they given an award out — is one that ultimately should be the difference in defeating a loaded Tigers team. You can call it small ball. I see at as high IQ ball. "The one thing that stands out with the base stealing and the overall tone of the base running is to try to put as much pressure on the opposition as we can," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "That means running smart. And not just giving outs away." Justin Verlander is an absolute bear. One eye brown, own eye blue, Max Scherzer has both eyes on winning the 2013 Cy Young Award. Anibal Sanchez, the Game 1 starter, led the AL with a 2.57 ERA. Doug Fister is no slouch. Still, if the Red Sox can get pitch counts up, get runners on base, get into the bullpen, they will win this series. It all starts with Jake and the Flyin' Hawaiian. "Early in spring training, the coaches emphasized aggressive base running," Ellsbury said. "Going first to third, second to home, seeing what we had and setting the boundaries. It created what we've done in the regular season. Obviously there's a fine line between running into outs, but I think we've done a tremendous job of being aggressive at the right times, not being reckless. "Getting on base definitely has an impact on what the pitcher throws to a hitter. Disrupting his rhythm, that sort of thing, maybe a pitcher doesn't throw a curve, leaves a fastball over the plate. The long ball isn't going to happen every night. It's a way of putting pressure on the defense and making something happen. It's another dimension. It's something we take pride in — aggressive but smart." The Red Sox stole 123 steals this season and were caught only 19 times. At one point, they stole 45 in a row. The 86 percent success rate was the second-best in the live ball era. Featured Stories	dclm-gs1-005640000
Study shows many users wouldn't upgrade even if given the option Comments Threshold By DASQ on 7/4/2008 4:54:48 PM , Rating: 5 I'll assume "Other" means "I don't know better". More speed for the same cost. I don't see a downside there other than the possible week or two required for setup. RE: Yeah... By JoshuaBuss on 7/4/2008 5:00:29 PM , Rating: 5 specifically, i bet they didn't even know what 'broadband' means RE: Yeah... By FingerMeElmo87 on 7/6/2008 4:59:09 PM , Rating: 3 its not that. its "You've got mail." thats makes them feel special. and thats why they keep it. RE: Yeah... By Donkeyshins on 7/7/2008 1:47:21 PM , Rating: 2 "Why on earth would I need to replace my dialup with an all-girl musical group, dagnabbit!?!" RE: Yeah... By RIPPolaris on 7/4/2008 5:11:49 PM , Rating: 3 People who barely even use the internet probably don't want to go through the hassle of upgrading their internet if they won't use it to its full potential anyway. RE: Yeah... By fake01 on 7/4/2008 5:40:39 PM , Rating: 3 Than upgrade to 256KB connection. Still around 5 times faster than dialup at basically no extra cost. We are slowly beginning to move to optic fibres now and people are still on dialup? Surely sooner or later they are going to have to turn of the switch and upgrade cause it ain't gonna be around forever. RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... By getho on 7/4/08, Rating: 0 RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... Right on. RE: Yeah... Hey, look at me, I'm wireless - omg. RE: Yeah... greetings :) RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... By Rebel44 on 7/4/2008 6:04:16 PM , Rating: 2 I hope it will be soon. RE: Yeah... By DASQ on 7/4/2008 7:06:09 PM , Rating: 3 Hardly an issue, as they can still use dialup while they're waiting for their broadband to kick in. Seriously not a reasonable excuse. No one is telling them to cut off their by-the-MB 56k service the second they sign up for broadband. RE: Yeah... By LorKha on 7/4/2008 5:57:37 PM , Rating: 2 Other means "I don't want myself and I to download files with viruses and watch porn without knowing it." But because I DO have broadband, I DO download files with viruses and watch porn, knowing it. RE: Yeah... By GDstew4 on 7/4/2008 6:18:35 PM , Rating: 2 There probably are people out there who are terrified of an "always on" internet connection. They think that someone is going to get into their computer while they are asleep at night and steal their identity. Or viruses are out there crawling through the internet tubes just waiting for a PC to infect. My mother-in-law is still using her 450MHz Pentium 3 and Windows 98. She doesn't want to bother with upgrading because she has "better things to spend money on." RE: Yeah... By Grabo on 7/5/2008 9:52:31 AM , Rating: 2 She probably does? It all depens on your point of view. If whatever works works, and you're not all that interested in it , then why change? Probably those who cling to dialup have a lot of superstitious arguments for doing so, but they're also likely to think 'if it ain't broke don't attempt to fix it'. Still. It's hard to see how someone could consider dialup 'not broke', from any point of view. They can be a nightmare to get to work consistently, get to work again; and by the time you see a slightly darker than ultra-white cloud on the horizon your modem is probably already dead. RE: Yeah... By mindless1 on 7/6/2008 12:54:03 AM , Rating: 2 Huh? In all the years I had dialup before moving to broadband several years ago, I never had these problems you suppose to any significant degree. It was just painfully slow at a time when the internet was rapidly moving away from being mostly text. I still keep a modem in one system, just in case I want to send or receive a fax by computer. If for some reason our broadband went down for what was known to be a lengthly period I'd start up a dialup plan without hesitation - that is, if I couldn't think of or wasn't in an area where there were other faster alternatives. Mainly I think certain types of people just don't get into the whole browse-the-internet habit. It's a big country and lots of people out there just aren't like US. I'm just a little surprised that these people would have dialup at all if they didn't see an advantage to broadband at the same price. I think an early poster nailed it, they don't understand what "broadband" is, they are picking what they know versus some unknown thing that they aren't sure they can use - they don't realize broadband is (beyond minor quirks and practices like possibly setting up a router) actually much easier, even transparent in use. RE: Yeah... By alcalde on 7/4/2008 6:41:19 PM , Rating: 5 The downside is not getting to hear the modem connect noise anymore. RE: Yeah... By FaceMaster on 7/4/2008 6:49:00 PM , Rating: 4 SHUT UP it's a beautiful sound. RE: Yeah... Honestly, I kind of miss the sound. RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... this post was worth the gold my rolex is made from. RE: Yeah... By masher2 (blog) on 7/4/2008 11:26:19 PM , Rating: 2 RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... you get a 6 in my book. RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... eerrrrrnnnnnnn EEEE errrr EEEE errrr SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE er er er blblblblblblbl EEEE! RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... Mouse? That's why they put down mousetraps! ;) RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... RE: Yeah... Here's one for nostalgia sake: RE: Yeah... By Alias1431 on 7/4/2008 11:11:47 PM , Rating: 2 For some people, it's more therapeutic than smoking. RE: Yeah... By CyborgTMT on 7/4/2008 11:47:24 PM , Rating: 4 If my mother was polled, that is her response exactly. A few years ago I moved in with her during her recovery after she had cancer. The entire time I lived there I had cable internet. One day I connected her up through the high speed and set her [sarcasm]precious[/sarcasm] AOL to use my connection. For my troubles I received a hour long lecture about why her computer doesn't work anymore because it doesn't make 'the noise' when she goes to AOHell. After spending a few days trying to explain the advantage of the broadband connection, I finally lost the argument and switched her back. 5 years later she sill has AOL and dial-up... but I'm not giving up yet... RE: Yeah... By alifbaa on 7/5/2008 12:31:17 AM , Rating: 5 Ha... you said "if my mother was polled." Sorry, I couldn't help myself. RE: Yeah... By CyborgTMT on 7/5/2008 1:30:40 AM , Rating: 2 RE: Yeah... She'd never know. RE: Yeah... By carrotroot on 7/4/2008 10:02:42 PM , Rating: 2 It basically boils down to ignorance and/or laziness. RE: Yeah... By Tsuwamono on 7/5/2008 8:16:41 AM , Rating: 2 week or two? My broadband took 1 day for them to hook up. I called on a wednesday afternoon i believe and it was setup by thursday at dinner. RE: Yeah... By AlexWade on 7/5/2008 8:29:06 AM , Rating: 2 I know some people who use Netzero, which is cheaper than any high-speed internet service available. They use the internet about once a week. Why do they need to pay for broadband when they barely use the internet? RE: Yeah... By SlyNine on 7/5/2008 10:03:44 AM , Rating: 2 They could use the internet even less, Because there would be no waiting. RE: Yeah... By mindless1 on 7/6/2008 1:22:06 AM , Rating: 2 That brings back memories. I recall an argument to the wife at the time we were considering broadband, she said I already spent enough time online and I countered that I'd be able to get done what I do on the 'net faster, get done sooner. What ended up happening instead? I spent nearly the same amount of time RE: Yeah... By mindless1 on 7/6/2008 12:58:48 AM , Rating: 2 ok, but getting back to the survey it is asked if they could get broadband, and if it were the same price. Do you feel those who are using Netzero picked it in preference to a faster connection at the same price if there were another alternative they knew about? RE: Yeah... By Googer on 7/5/2008 11:04:24 PM , Rating: 2 RE: Yeah... By zolo111 on 7/6/2008 12:49:57 PM , Rating: 2 I think they believe that it's almost impossible for them to get a bradband connection for the same price as dialup.. Or at least they don't spend the time to search for better deals anyhow ( using thier dialup, searching for deals is frustrating I guess..) I helped a friend get comcast service in Seattle for a whole year for $19.99 a month, he couldn't believe it, but after a couple of months he regret getting the service since he doesn't use more than 3% of the extra speed he's getting. He'd rather go back to dialup for $10 a month. Meanwhile I went back to my home country, Saudi Arabia. I'm paying $80 a month for a lousy 1mb/128kb :/ Let's get post modern By Alias1431 on 7/4/2008 11:10:04 PM , Rating: 2 Dial-up should be free for everyone. The internet is becoming less of an option and more of a necessity. It would do wonders for education, or just overall awareness. The only problem is the inevitable flourishing of ungodly creations on myspace. shudder RE: Let's get post modern RE: Let's get post modern RE: Let's get post modern It went by the name of FREEI.NET. RE: Let's get post modern I used a freebee ad-supported connex also. The AdBlockers kinda killed that idea. RE: Let's get post modern RE: Let's get post modern Well said. Your comments are appreciated. Thanx for gentle correction. RE: Let's get post modern By alp689 on 7/5/2008 10:59:46 AM , Rating: 2 I still remember when my mom told me and my sisters we were getting rid of our stupid dial-up and switching to DSL (well, actually we ended up getting cable, but I digress...), we started CHEERING! She was the most awesome person in the world that day, and when we finally got it, we all couldn't help but marvel at how amazingly fast it was, and how we didn't have to wait 1:30 every time for our modem to connect (I think this was in about 2002), or worry about getting booted every time the phone rang (oddly enough, we had two phone lines, the second of which we never used, yet we never switched our dail-up to that line...). I wonder if most people would at least experience the same kind of shock it was to us the first time we got our connection. I'm not saying it would convince most of these holdouts to switch on the spot, but I'd have to imagine they might at least see the benefits of it, because they really are painfully obvious. RE: Wow... By JoshuaBuss on 7/5/2008 12:20:47 PM , Rating: 2 no, i think our family basically had the exact same experience. our house was in a 'prime location' for testing DSL, and my dad knew some people at the phone company.. needless to say, the idea that we'd be the first in our town to have DSL left us on a proverbial high for weeks RE: Wow... By larson0699 on 7/5/2008 2:14:19 PM , Rating: 2 The benefits are only "painfully obvious" to those who care. Enough people on here have already said it -- some of our folks like things the way they are and consider them "not broken". The idea that your mother became so awesome the day she upgraded suggests that you need to unplug and get out more. My kind of love is unconditional, and as such, doesn't rely on material amenities for me to come to the realization that my folks are awesome. I am here, which more than suffices. The fact that you got "booted" every time the phone rang immediately raises the "idiot" flag for your household not having taken advantage of *70 (call waiting) if you really valued your time online. I, for one, hate having to do things over because of interruptions. Either those people can wait or I can get a cell phone (which, in 2002, was a practical choice). Some are just so spoiled. RE: Wow... By mindless1 on 7/6/2008 1:18:47 AM , Rating: 2 It's not the material amenities, it's the thought, it's the doing something for someone else that makes all our lives better. That's what you do for someone you love, and they recognize it. You've taken the simple awesomeness comment and stretched it way out of proportion. Is your love really unconditional, is it all someone has to do to have unprotected sex and get pregnant in order to (deserve?) someone else's affections? Isn't unconditional love really a load of nonsense since there is one clear condition already, that you believe some other person to be your parent? Wouldn't it be that if the only factor were that she were YOUR parent, that it is more vanity than love? Isn't it true that the love comes from time spent together in harmony because you both did things for each other? Awesome is as awesome does. Love without action is baseless. If you feel that way about your parents then they too must've done a few things right with regard to you, even if it wasn't some particular thing like faster internet connection. It could easily have been something else instead but do we go around calling you spoiled because of it? RE: Wow... By larson0699 on 7/6/2008 2:31:00 PM , Rating: 3 Talk about taking things out of proportion.. I think it's you who couldn't be farther from the reality of things. Where I come from (and everywhere I've been, imagine that) someone's deed to another is well appreciated and remembered, but remains just that. It doesn't strengthen love unless it was based on how much you did for me to begin with. Whether you believe it or not, unconditional love DOES abound among families and close friends alike. The saying goes that you can't choose your parents. But no matter if they've beaten and neglected you and sold you on eBay, the underlying love remains, as in that case I would still do anything to save their asses. They'd probably wonder why I did, but they'd already have the answer deep down, no need to show them the door. Vanity has nothing to do with any of it. Except for maybe this guy who's excessively proud of his new ISP and mom. Get real. I think he's due a lesson on what's really awesome in life.. such as life itself. If I presented myself online in the way he did, I'd more than expect to be called some names. You're confusing "love" with "like" anyway. Both are feelings that grow in time, but love is untold, beyond words, a personal connection (getting anywhere? You at least had harmony right, but in the wrong context) while you may like the person more because of what she's done for you. Love is generally not something that you manipulate, but what that person reveals in you, whether you like him/her or not. Anyway, it's to show the merits in U.L. that some just don't believe in.. You know I won't try to preach to those with heads firmly up asses. For the record, if I took it upon myself to "do something" for dad and set up broadband at his place, it wouldn't make all our lives better. I'd be scolded for having the audacity to meddle in his business. Sometimes you just let people be and you find that everyone stays happier that way. Don't tell me about love. RE: Wow... By mindless1 on 7/7/08, Rating: 0 Government Promotion? By wrekd on 7/4/2008 8:46:33 PM , Rating: 4 Government promotion? The government wants us all on broadband? The government wants to give immunity to Telco’s. Wasting time on the floor of Congress with terrorist protection spy bills. They are wasting our tax dollars to enrich their investments and their lobbying cronies at the expense of our privacy. Government needs to stay the hell out of business and focus on protecting liberty and civil rights. RE: Government Promotion? By ZootyGray on 7/5/2008 2:08:03 PM , Rating: 1 Good comment - and the idiot masses just run along, as they are told to do, with wallets open, competing to be first up on the kill floor. (Huh, was zat mean?) The quality of mercy is abandoned. The sense of community is 'screw you', we are all forced to compete to eat - and "security" enforces it, government sanctions it. New book by Klein exposes this - in great language and with diplomacy - gov pigs feed on disaster, crisis, suffering - the question is asked - HOW is this wealth being redistributed (cos it is NOT going to the people, and the people finance it through taxes - iraq, afghan, new orleans, etc etc - fill your pockets GWHitler. Price of oil is to MAX profits. And suffering businesses are bailed out - if my business suffers, too bad. And the telco monopoly - shooting fish in a barrel. And to speak against it? That's the work of heroes and messiahs and other martyrs. Privatize means make it a profit maker - e.g. water. Dialup? It costs money to run wire to rural areas - so, back to easy money, shoot fish in barrel. You broadband jokesters don't know - you are just the fish in the barrel - hey, the costs are covered - it's all profit now, thx to you all. Broadband should be cheap and cheaper. This study is a spin/bias. The telcos don't want to service rural areas cos there's not enough fi$he$ in the $barrel$. That's why people are still on dialup! You believe people are stupid = you are stupid. But when CONTROL of the internet happens, it's back to dialup - cos that's the foundation of the net. What are you doing to sell us all out to big biz/gov? Yes, you. It can't be done without mass support - 3 (zillion) blind mice. It will take some real change to reverse/undo this. Abandon money-based economy, or similar radical change - it's got to stop. would not want to upgrade from broadband By Segerstein on 7/4/2008 6:33:07 PM , Rating: 2 would not want to upgrade from broadband??? By gaakf on 7/4/2008 11:34:55 PM , Rating: 2 You gotta love the classic Dailytech typos that just completely go against the entire article. It's comical at this point. By Screwballl on 7/4/2008 6:48:06 PM , Rating: 2 I work for an ISP that has dialup, DSL and cable options (contracts through other companies) across North America. The biggest thing we hear why people do NOT want to upgrade is mostly they only use it 2-3 times per week for maybe an hour or so and have no desire for anything faster. There is a decent percentage that hear of all the viruses and hackers and they think that as soon as they get high speed they will lose control of their computer. Even though we try to explain that with a decent anti-virus program the virus issue is minimalized and they are just as likely to pick viruses up on dialup... and as for hackers, they tend to go after commercial targets so home users are not a likely target. Even then people still prefer their dialup. Someone mentioned Hughesnet... would you want to pay $75-100 per month for a 128-256K (actual speed) connection? Some people do but most are happy with their 2-3 times per week checking email and seeing a few websites per week. By TSS on 7/4/2008 7:06:17 PM , Rating: 1 maybe it's because they've become attached to their dialup. i'm sure those who do switch will miss the dial in sound the first week orso, before getting used to the silence. about the same reason why i've got a friend who'd buy AMD's because he wanted maximum performance. which was at the peak of the core 2 duo pwnage, where athlon prices hadn't dropped yet so intel was both cheaper and faster. he just "didn't trust intel". maybe these people just dont trust broadband. it might not be all that bad though. i mean, picture some quiet farmer somewhere in the middle of the nowhere on dialup suddenly getting broadband. and within a week he runs across youtube. might be pretty shocking to him :P Sick of it. By NinjaJedi on 7/4/2008 6:00:53 PM , Rating: 2 Haven't the people that say they can't get broadband in their area seen the same Hughes net commercial that has been playing for over 3 years now? The one with the red headed step child chick. I would think after over 3 years they could afford to make a new commercial. By brentpresley on 7/6/2008 10:09:53 AM , Rating: 2 Did you guys ever consider that a lot of the people that say they never want broadband simply do not want to support the companies currently offering broadband? I am not quite at that extreme, yet, but if there were another ISP in my area you can bet I would drop AT&T in a heartbeat, even if it costs me 50% more and my speed is 1/2 as fast. That's how much some of us hate these companies (and for good reason). Mobile Abilities By mixpix on 7/6/2008 4:17:24 PM , Rating: 2 I'm not too sure how many people would fall into this category, but some users may not want to upgrade their dial-up connection because it can be used pretty much anywhere. Laptops and users that have multiple computers in different locations may benefit from being able to connect from anywhere all under one account. I know that some ISP's offer dial-up hours with their high-speed connection, but not a lot of people know that. By yacoub on 7/6/2008 10:16:20 PM , Rating: 2 Yeah it's "only" going to take care of 79% of them. Proud to be ignorant By PWNettle on 7/7/2008 1:58:07 PM , Rating: 2 I'm pretty sure the USA is the only country where some people are ignorant and proud of it. Related Articles	dclm-gs1-005650000
Satoru Iwata with the Wii U controller (Source: Comments Threshold They still don't get it. By zero2dash on 6/30/2011 12:40:48 PM , Rating: 5 A lot of "core gamers" don't like the Wii because it's nothing but Nintendo franchises we've played 20 times before, and a bunch of 3rd party titles that are weaker versions of titles that are better on the competitor's systems. You also have a pathetic online setup that isn't even close to being anything like the PSN (let alone the XBLM but let's shoot low and say PSN). Your system is capped at 480P, Dolby Surround (no 5.1), and uses controllers that are gimmicks upon themselves. Your new console has beefier specs but as soon as the next Xbox and Playstation are unveiled, it will still be in last place and the weakest of the bunch. I grew up with you, Nintendo. SNES is one of the greatest consoles of all time (tied with the Dreamcast as far as I'm concerned as THE greatest). Let's be honest here though....I've played enough games with Mario in them, and Link is approaching that level. Your least used character out of the "popular 3", Samus, hasn't been in a great game IMHO (admittedly, old-school type) since Metroid: Zero Mission. (I don't care for the FPS Metroid's or Other M.) Maybe I've just outgrown you, I don't know. You just don't "do" it for me anymore. Any WiiU money I might have set aside will be diverted to whatever console Microsoft comes out with next. Live is just too good at this point to justify spending money on anything you can come up with, until you prove me wrong. I've been let down in the end by both the Gamecube and the Wii, and you don't seem to be doing anything right to earn my trust back. You are a shell of your 16-bit day former selves. RE: They still don't get it. By cmdrdredd on 6/30/2011 11:03:03 PM , Rating: 1 Plus they announce a game, show a video and 2-3 years later we still have no release date. Likely they will cancel Skyward Sword and claim "we are making it a WiiU exclusive" bullshit! Fuck you Nintendo! and this I don't get... So...the Xbox360 came out before the Wii and was HD. I didn't notice games running slow. The PS3 was released around the time of the Wii and again, HD..still not slow. WTF Nintendo are you that retarded? RE: They still don't get it. RE: They still don't get it. By B3an on 7/2/2011 9:01:46 AM , Rating: 1 You just exactly summed up everything i think about Nintendo and the Wii. Well done. I also agree that the Dreamcast was the best console, ever. Thank you Sony marketing and mindless consumer fools for killing that truly great machine.	dclm-gs1-005660000
Former GM Jim Bowden: What Ron Washington needs to do in 2013 to maintain job security G.J. McCarthy/Staff Photographer 10 THINGS TO KNOW AS RANGERS OPEN SPRING TRAINING: When Rangers' pitchers and catchers report Tuesday, there will be more questions swirling around the club than there have been in years. The off-season wasn't especially kind to the Rangers, who lost plenty of big names, struck out on plenty others, and are going to lean on some young players to fill the gaps. So as spring training kicks off, here are 10 stories Rangers fans should stay on top of. You can click the links at the bottom of each slide to get more of our spring coverage. 1 of 11 Next Image Former baseball general manager Jim Bowden joined Ben & Skin on KESN-FM 103.3. Here are some highlights. On whether Rangers' manager Ron Washington is on the hot seat: Jim Bowden: There's a lot of pressure on managers to win when their teams are good enough to win. As long as Ron Washington makes the playoffs, his job will be fine. I think that's the key, whether it's the division or the wild-card, he's gotta do that. If the Rangers are on the outside looking in come November, it would not surprise me at all if they decided to make a change. So, yeah, I think there is pressure there. Is there pressure there unrelated to whether or not he plays Profar? Jim Bowden: I don't think there's any question that when you're sitting in that manager's seat you have to listen to what your president Nolan Ryan and your GM Jon Daniels wants done. And although it's your job to manage the players you're given, an organization needs to be on the same page. If you start to have a situation where the manager is not on the same page as Nolan and Jon, that's when you have problems. My understanding in talking to the three of them is that they're on the same page and they work hard to stay on the same page. On Martin Perez: Jim Bowden: He has to go win the job, and then he needs to go prove that he's better than either Holland or Ogando. And if not, guess what, he'll go back to the bullpen or back to Triple-A when Colby Lewis comes back. Ogando's gonna start. He wants to start and they're going to allow him to do that. At No. 5, you've got some competition, and I don't think Martin Perez has won the fifth job. I think they'll still look at Grimm, they'll look at Ross. Whoever wins that job, I think they understand that your first five starts are going to be very important. When players get opportunities, they've gotta make the most of it. Top Picks	dclm-gs1-005670000
Bookmark Email Print this page How an Actuarial Review of Self Insurance Claims Turned the Ship Around for One Large Cruise Line Seeking savings through safety Last Updated: A large cruise line self-insures for claims brought by crew and passengers. It needed to be sure it was holding adequate reserves to cover those claims, but even more, could it find a way a way to reduce the number and cost of claims altogether? The Challenge When a routine audit revealed the cruise line was not holding sufficient reserves for the volume of claims made, the auditors suggested an actuarial review to determine what amount would be appropriate. Working with Deloitte, the company conducted the review, which included looking at loss trends: Were the number of claims increasing? Was the amount of those claims increasing as well? Along with calculating a reserve amount, the analysis gave the company a benchmark of its claims picture against other industries and against other cruise lines. It also revealed a sobering truth: Claims had become increasingly more frequent each year and, in turn, so had the cost required to cover those claims. While crew claims were comparable to the company’s competitors, passenger claims were much higher. How We Helped The company was eager to reverse these trends and Deloitte helped them as they evaluated several mitigation strategies. Presentations to various corporate functions, such as finance, claims, risk management, and operations, helped them understand the issues and their role in improvement efforts. The company knew its claims process and systems were less effective than they could be, and took steps to learn effective claims practices and acquire a new, more robust claims system. Many claims were found to be safety-related, such as slip-and-fall injuries. The company engaged a safety consulting firm to review its practices and work on improvements. To keep management apprised of progress, an executive dashboard was also created as an online window on loss results and a generator for quarterly and monthly monitoring reports. What began as a somewhat routine actuarial review morphed into a much more helpful examination of overall self-insurance practices that helped the company realize significant benefits. Major accomplishments include: • Improved fiscal management. The company now holds a larger, more appropriate liability for self-insured claims and has increased its retention to retain a greater portion of the risk along with anticipated savings in total claim costs. • Increased visibility leading to better decision making. Management has a better understanding of the drivers of the company’s loss experience, more closely monitors results, and is able to make better, more informed decisions that support continuous improvement. • Improved safety leading to reduced claims frequency. The company’s operations department is fully behind the safety initiatives, including adding more safety features as they build or refurbish ships. Safety efforts have resulted in 30 percent fewer crew claims thus far, and the hope is that over time the company will see similar reductions in passenger claims and realize overall savings in claims costs. Share this page Stay connected	dclm-gs1-005680000
Lessons from a great salesman Published: Tuesday, Jan. 10 2012 12:00 a.m. MST Verizon Wireless store salesman Antione Haynes looks out the front door of a Verizon store with an Apple iPhone advertisement in foreground in Mountain View, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011. Verizon Wireless said Friday, Feb. 4, its first day of taking online orders for the iPhone produced record sales. Paul Sakuma, Associated Press Enlarge photo» He may be one of the better salesman I have known. A native of Venezuela, he is called Vlad by his friends. I first met him several years ago when attending a free entrepreneurial seminar called Junto. Among all the participants, he was the most outstanding student. Vladimir Canro arrived in the United States several years ago while still a young man. He had spent his youth in the streets of Caracas selling fruits and vegetables to any customer he could find. Over time, he obtained an associate's degree in engineering. He left Venezuela at the peak of President Hugo Chavez’s crackdown on the opposition. Using a green card, he found a construction job in Texas and decided that America was the best country for him. In time, he came to Salt Lake City to attend college with the hope of finishing his education. He landed in Utah on a chilly day in December without a warm coat, money or a place to live. For the first few cold nights, he found slept inside a large metal dumpster full of cardboard. He tells me cardboard is an excellent insulator from frigid temperatures. If ever there was a person who could overcome the barriers in life, it would be Vladimir. His story, like that of so many emigrants, is one of perseverance, hope, faith and an inextinguishable fire in the belly to succeed. Today, he has surmounted every obstacle. He is working on a computer science degree from Weber State University and has a very good job as a salesman for Geiger Rig, and he is married with two young children. What I have told you so far is in itself a terrific story. There is, however, much more to say about this amazing fellow. As part of the Junto class, he and his 20 classmates were told if they were to be successful in business they will need to sell their idea to investors. The instructor, Greg Warnock, an accomplished entrepreneur himself, first gave Vlad and his fellow students study materials on how to raise money for a new business. The students were then asked to apply what they had learned and report on their successes or failures. The students were invited to meet with strangers, not friends or family, over a course of a week and raise $5,000 to fund a business idea. I am sure I don't need to tell you how very daunting this task is. Following their efforts, class members assembled to report their results. The outcome: Not one had been able to raise the money, except Vlad. Over several days, he had gone into high-rise office buildings, from business to business with no appointment, hoping to tell an owner about his idea. Receptionists hesitated. Owners balked. Vladimir waited and waited. Eventually the owners, hoping to dismiss the young foreigner, invited him into their offices for an anticipated very short visit. Once seated, Vlad went to work. Using amazing skills, both learned and natural, he marched along, collecting a whopping, mind-boggling $135,000. “Vlad, how is this possible?" I asked. "Not even the best salesman would have achieved such success. Your barriers are significant. I can hardly understand you when you speak. You have no company; you have no brilliant idea to commercialize. What’s your secret?” With a wide and pleasant smile on his face, he respectfully taught me the five key principles of selling that he uses and that the rest of us should employ as well. The principles are as follows: 1. Never accept no for an answer. Vlad tells me customers say no six times but on the seventh request, they say yes. 2. Listen to customers. Don’t mention what is being sold until the customer explains what’s on his mind. Earn his respect, trust and confidence first. 3. Tailor the solution to meet the customers’ needs. It is critical to make the solution a perfect fit. 4.Never give up. Be persistent and patient. 5. Think outside of the box. Approach a sales opportunity with innovation and creativity. Do the unexpected. Think big. Do you have a favorite sales story? Let’s hear about it. Please contact me at [email protected]. Get The Deseret News Everywhere	dclm-gs1-005690000
Comments about ‘Letters: A well-regulated Militia’ Return to article » • Oldest first • Newest first • Most recommended Roland Kayser Cottonwood Heights, UT I just have one question, what does the first part of the second amendment mean to the pro-gun absolutists? It seems that they thinks it is just a little literary flourish which means absolutely nothing. Someone please tell me. Bountiful, UT Well regulated means well behaved. A father (for example) who defends his family after a natural disaster from looters or is a militia of one. If he is well behaved, i.e. obeys the law in doing this and acts responsibly in all respects, then he is a well regulated militia of one, (self regulated, but regulated nonetheless. Were he to cooperate with neighbors in doing this, he would be part of a neighborhood militia. Assuming they behave properly, they are a well well regulated militia. lost in DC West Jordan, UT In the context of the second amendment, “well regulated” means trained and competent, not restricted. Try substituting “trained and competent” for “well regulated”, then try substituting “restricted” for "well regulated", and see which one makes more sense when talking about the security of a free state. Twin Lights Louisville, KY Yes, there is the militia part. But there is also the people part - "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." One part talks of militia. The other part talks of people. This is why we are still battling this out. It has two parts which (in today's context of military preparedness) are now disjoint. So (from how I understand the courts) we can "regulate" but not "infringe". Now there is a delicate dance. Murray, UT What a great reminder that communities would be well served by creating and training a community militia to deal with emergencies and to deter tragedies. The DN just had an article on overcoming complacency regarding potential disasters. With a well regulated militia communities would be better prepared for such things, and loony shooters would choose an alternate, easier target. The real solution is an armed citizenry and a local militia everywhere, just like the 2nd amendment says. Eric Samuelsen Provo, UT While we're busy parsing, let me add that 'to bear arms' meant, in the 18th century, to serve in the armed forces of your country. Since America had no standing army back then, militias were the closest thing to formal military service we had. But if you read the literature of the period, there is essentially never an instance where 'to bear arms' means 'to privately own a firearm.' It always means 'to join the army.' Bountiful, UT The Meaning of 'WELL REGULATED' Well regulated .. means well behaved. So that the meaning is more clear, you can substitute the words 'well behaved' each time you see the words 'well regulated'. Its important to keep in mind, in the 2nd Ammendment it isn't militia members that are given the right to keep and bear arms, it is the people. The founders wanted the people to have access to guns so they could act in defense of themselves, their families, their neighbors and their countrymen when the need arises. And it does arise, government militias (police and the military) can't be everywhere on time when they are needed (remember hurricane Katrina)?, This is why our constitution provides for people militias in addition to the government militias it provides for. Far East USA, SC "self regulated, but regulated nonetheless." We don't need posted speed limits. But I know how fast I can safely drive. = self regulated Pitch the DUI laws. I know how much I can drink and still drive safely. = self regulated I know that girl was only 12, but she was very mature for her age. = self regulated. That chemical is OK to dump in the river. No one drinks that water = self regulated. Sorry, but "self regulated" does not necessarily mean "well-behaved" Hayden, ID The SCOTUS says the second amendment means YOU, as an American citizen, may possess firearms! What part of that do you not understand? salt lake city, utah Eric Samulesen is exactly right. I've been reading the biography of Alexander Hamilton and guess what the revolution was staffed with voulnteers who brought their own guns to the fight. The nation provided weaponry as best as possible but if the citizens had not only brought their own guns but in addition had not sacraficed their personal silver and lead to melt into bulletts we'd all be singing God save the queen. What a scary twist of words and thoughts to say that the second amendment provides for neighborhood militias in addition to an army, navy etc. and the national guards. I think the pharse is "a" well regulated militia, not well regulated "militias". Sorry cjb regulated primarily means to bring under the control of law or the constitued authority. Burke, VA Mountanman - Thank you for bringing up SCOTUS. They are the ones tasked by the Founders with interpreting the Constitution. I've posted this a dozen times on this page before but it's so important that I can't help myself. Justice Scalia, certainly a conservative, wrote this in his majority opinion which turned over the District of Columbia's band on owning guns. But he felt it important to add these words: This debate is not about banning guns, but regulating them. Justice Scalia has told us that regulations are acceptable. Bountiful, UT Please give an example where the difference between 'well regulated' and 'well behaved' are sufficiently different that 'well behaved' shouldn't be substituted in for well regulated. Why do you resist this? The founders clearly wanted militias to be well behaved. Twin Lights Louisville, KY Perhaps a bit too much parsing. The full phrase is "to keep and bear arms". Also, I think "bear" means more than just to join a military group but rather to take them up for use. So, it is to be able to keep (own) and bear (use). Far East USA, SC Absolutely correct. "The SCOTUS says the second amendment means YOU, as an American citizen, may possess firearms!" However, do not forget that the SCOTUS has also said that various restrictions are also legal, including, WHO - Court said it is ok to deny convicted felons the right to carry a gun. WHERE - Courts have said that it is legal to restrict where guns can be carried. HOW - Courts have ruled that restrictions on gun sales is allowed among other restrictions. Many people tout the SCOTUS rulings when they agree but want to ignore the rulings that they dislike. When the SCOTUS rules, it becomes law. Those screaming "shall not be infringed" to mean any gun, anywhere are ignoring the LAW set forth by SCOTUS rulings. one vote Salt Lake City, UT Excellent point. The extremism about guns is unreasonable and actually dangerous. Eric Samuelsen Provo, UT Twin Lights, Well, perhaps, but again, always within the context of formal military service. As for private firearm possession, it's worth noting that 18th century US had no domestic firearms manufacturers. If you wanted to own a musket, you had to buy it from a foreign source. Some people did that, others relied on community armories. lost in DC West Jordan, UT Eric and Pragmatist, I thought you knew US history better than to claim "America had no standing army back then, militias were the closest thing to formal military service we had." The Continental Army never existed? What did George Washginton command? It certainly was NOT a band militias. Militias may have provided the initial members, but we certainly DID have and army! Washington won more than a battle when he crossed the Delaware into Trenton, he kept his ARMY together when many of the SOLDIERS (not militiamen) were reaching the end of their ENLISTMENTS. c'mon guys, we rarely agree, but please stop using untruths to further your positions. Plano, TX The entire bill of rights was added to protect the citizens against their new government. Period. Read, in that context, things look a little different to a truly objective reader. I own no guns, but have no problem with anyone who does as long as they don't use them to harm others. Oh, and I have been shot by one so I kind of "get it" in that special way which only experience teaches you... "shall not be infringed" trumps the control side people in my view, but then again I'm not the SCOTUS. I'm also in favor of the death penalty for crimes committed with a firearm - all of them. If you abuse the right to bear arms with deadly force, you should soon experience it yourself. And removing firearms from the mentally unstable is just common sense, like not licensing the blind to drive vehicles. Twin Lights Louisville, KY The British tried to keep the industrial revolution from migrating to the US. I would imagine that (given a less than fully cooperative set of colonials) that extended to firearms manufacturing as well. Why help arm your potentially revolutionary colonies? Note that there were small makers. Just no larger scale manufacturers. Kearns, UT Commas placed as punctuation in a sentance are generally meant to separate ideas. The well regulated militia one idea, the right to keep and bear arms is one idea, shall not be infringed is another idea. Read the Federalist Papers folks. About comments	dclm-gs1-005700000
Oregano Can Help Reduce Phlegm and Relieve Coughing. Many herbals have centuries of proven therapeutic benefits, oregano is one. More than just a topping for pizza, oregano has a long history of use for relieving coughs and cutting excess phlegm. A long time friend and herbalist suggested that my wife try oregano essential oil in a vaporizer. We didn’t have any oregano essential oil but found that oregano leaf worked just as well. You can make your own vaporizer, all you need is pan of boiling water, a small handful of oregano and a dishtowel. We grow basil, oregano, rosemary and other herbs as house plants and in our solarium for use in cooking and medicinally, and had lots stashed away in our herb cabinet. My wife also commented that after using the vaporizer, her facial skin felt more hydrated, soft and pliable. We live in the desert and it takes a toll on any skin that’s exposed to the elements. Oregano’s medicinal uses include respiratory infections, bronchitis, arthritis, rheumatism, colds, flu, general infections, sinusitis, asthma, emphysema, glaucoma, amenorrhea and hypertension. Oregano is high in antioxidants and has antibiotic, anti-viral and anti-infection properties and can boost the immune response helping to ward of the flu and colds.	dclm-gs1-005710000
Channels ▼ Web Development Geolocation in Perl brian has been a Perl user since 1994. He is founder of the first Perl Users Group,, and Perl Mongers, the Perl advocacy organization. He has been teaching Perl through Stonehenge Consulting for the past five years, and has been a featured speaker at The Perl Conference, Perl University, YAPC, COMDEX, and Contact brian at Many web server log analyzers now support "geolocation," meaning that they can turn a host name or IP address into a point on the globe. With geolocation, instead of looking at a bunch of numbers, I can look at maps. Using the Geo::IP module and the databases from MaxMind (http://www, both of which are freely available, I can add this feature to my programs, too. Turning IP addresses into locations is not perfect, but as long as I understand how IP numbers are assigned and split up, I can put my geolocation results into perspective. I need to know a little about how IP numbers are assigned, so I can interpret the results and judge the accuracy. Starting from the top, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN (http://www, is responsible for IP address allocation. It gives out large chunks for addresses to Regional Internet Registries (RIR) that cover certain parts of the globe. So far, these are the American Registry of Internet Addresses (ARIN), the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC), and RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPENIC). Another registry, African Network Information Center (AfriNIC), is on the way, too. Each of the RIRs hand out chunks of their own IP space to major organizations, which then do the same to smaller organizations, and so on until one of those IP numbers gets to my cable modem in my apartment. Knowing that, to figure out where any IP address is on the globe means I just have to track it through that process until I get the resolution I want. I may want to stop at the country level, or I might want to go even further. For this article, I'm going to stop at the country level. There is a problem, though: Organizations don't have to respect these lines that we've overlaid on the globe. For example, America Online (AOL) has a very large IP allocation, but it's a multinational company. It can use its allocation as it likes. Indeed, that's one of the major differences in the free and paid versions of the MaxMind GeoIP database: The paid version can figure out which AOL addresses are not in the United States. In the free version of the database, all AOL addresses show up as the United States. Now that I know why my results won't be perfect, I can move on to the task. Before I install the Geo::IP module, I need to get a database for it. The free version of the MaxMind database identifies the country of the IP address with 93 percent accuracy. Various levels of the paid version can get me to 98 percent country accuracy for $50, or for $370, down to the city with longitude and latitude. Considering how much work I would have to do to compile all this myself, and how much the local burger joint pays me to make fries, I think these prices are a bargain. I'm going to stick with the free version of the database for this article, though. I get the free database from the MaxMind developer section ( Once I gunzip the archive, I end up with a single file, GeoIP.dat, which I move to its default location, /usr/local/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat. Once I have the database in place, I can install the Geo::IP module either by installing it with or downloading it and installing it by hand. It's at I give it a whirl with a simple script using my own IP address (at least, the one I have today): % perl -MGeo::IP -le \ 'print Geo::IP->new->country_name_by_addr( "" )' United States Now I want to apply this to a bunch of IP addresses, and web-server access logs are a great source of those. I'm going to use a web access log in the Apache format, although that doesn't really matter—I just need the IP address. Each line shows the start of a line from one of my logs. It starts with an IP number, followed by some whitespace, then some other fields that I don't need for this task. In the real world, I'll probably have something else that completely parses the log. while( <> ) my( $ip ) = split; # just the first field $Seen{ $ip }++; foreach my $ip ( sort keys %Seen ) printf "%6d %s\n", $Seen{ $ip }, $ip; I get as output a long list of IP numbers and the count of how many times my web server responded to a request from that address. Those aren't the numbers of unique visitors or any other massaged number, they are just the number of requests my web server had to respond to from that IP address: That's not all that interesting, though. I don't really care about IP numbers, and I want to see which countries people are in. I'll never be able to really figure out which country the pair of eyes is in because nothing stops me from logging into a computer halfway around the world and browsing the Web from there. Knowing that, I'm willing to accept the results. use Geo::IP; my $gip = Geo::IP->new(); while( <> ) my( $ip ) = split; my $country = $gip->country_name_by_addr( $ip ); $Countries{ $country }++; foreach my $ip ( sort keys %Countries ) printf "%6d %s\n", $Countries{ $ip }, $ip; I get a columnar listing of the number of times an IP address from a country hit my web server: 346 Belgium 51 Canada 22 China 446 France 302 Germany 21 Taiwan 157 Thailand 1233 United States That's still not good enough for me. Why should I settle for text when I can see a picture? Douwe Osinga provides a little service that can make a map that colors each country that I've visited ( I can just as easily turn that into a colored map of each country that has visited me. He uses a long URL with a query string that has a two-digit country code. The Geo::IP module can handle this, too. I need the country code instead of the country name, so I use the Geo::IP's country_code_by_addr() method instead of country_name_by_addr(). Once I have all the country codes, I don't print them in a report—I join them without any characters in between them and use that as the URL query string. Because I want to redirect to a web page, I have the script output a CGI header that redirects to the external URL: use Geo::IP; while( <> ) my( $ip ) = split; my $country = $gip->country_code_by_addr( $ip ); $Countries{ $country }++; my $query_string = join "", keys %Countries; my $url = visitedcountries/colormap" . "?visited=" . $query_string; print "Status: 302 Moved Temporarily\nLocation: $url\n\n"; The URL returns a GIF image that is a map of the world with the visiting countries colored red (see Figure 1). I started with IP addresses and ended up with a map of the world, using only a freely available Perl module, a free geolocation database, and a free mapping service. I could get much more fancy than this, too. With finer-resolution databases, I can get down to the city level and combine that with longitude and latitude data to make dots on a map. I don't have to stick to web access logs either: I could use geolocation to identify users as they come into my web site, or any other service I might provide. However I decide to use it, Geo::IP makes it easy. 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Online Test Banks Score higher See Online Test Banks Learning anything is easy Browse Online Courses Mobile Apps Learning on the go Explore Mobile Apps Dummies Store Shop for books and more Start Shopping Computer Specs for Medical Transcription Work Medical transcription work requires a lot of brain power but not a lot of computing power. There’s no real need for a high-end CPU, super video card, or gobs of storage (unless you want them for another purpose), and money you save there can be put toward a better (or additional) monitor or cushy chair. The specifications suggested here are guidelines provided to help you get the performance you need without paying for things you don’t. Before going computer shopping, arm yourself with a little terminology so salespeople can’t overwhelm you with geek-speak. Here are the terms you need to know: • CPU: The central processing unit (processor) is an electronic chip that serves as the brain of the computer. • RAM: Random access memory is the computer equivalent to human working memory, where things are briefly stored and constantly swapped in and out. • Motherboard: A flat circuit board (usually weird green) inside the computer that everything else plugs into, including the CPU and RAM. It’s like the interstate highway system for your computer. Motherboards contain slots for plugging in smaller circuit boards, such as a graphics card. • Card: A small circuit board you can plug into the motherboard to add an additional feature, such as enhanced sound or graphics. • Port: An opening where you plug something in, like a monitor, keyboard, network cable, or transcription foot pedal. There are different kinds of ports for plugging in different devices. • Hard drive: The primary storage device where all your files and data that need to be kept longer than a few seconds are stored. • Bluetooth: A wireless technology for exchanging data over very short distances, such as between a keyboard and a computer. It can also be used to sync information between devices, such as between a cellphone and a computer. It’s not the only short-range wireless technology, but it’s increasingly common. There’s plenty more jargon where this came from, but don’t sweat the extra alphabet soup. Defining it all would require an entire, very dull dictionary, and most of it just isn’t that important to the average computer user. If you run across a stumper term you’re concerned about, Google and your nearest computer salesperson stand ready to define it for you. Desktops and laptops come with basic sound and graphics capabilities built in. If you want higher-level performance, you can add on a specialized graphics or sound card. Technical specifications for a desktop and laptop computers are listed in the table. Microsoft Windows is the operating system of choice for medical transcription. As of Windows 7, it’s available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The “bit” thing has to do with how it handles data, not how many pieces it comes in. A computer running 32-bit Windows will work fine, but if you’re buying new, go with 64-bit, or you may end up upgrading later. Computer Specifications for Medical Transcriptionists Component Desktop Specifications Laptop Specifications CPU Don’t worry about this. The CPU in any new desktop will be sufficient. Don’t worry about this. The CPU in any new laptop will be sufficient. RAM At least 4GB. At least 4GB. Hard drive At least 250GB. At least 250GB, with 7200 rpm. Graphics The built-in graphics capabilities of any budget system will suffice, but consider adding a graphics card for better performance and so you can connect multiple monitors. The built-in graphics capabilities of any budget laptop will suffice. Sound Nothing special required. Nothing special required. Networking Built-in Ethernet networking (looks like an oversized telephone wall jack). Add a wireless networking card if you’ll be using wireless Internet connection. Built-in Ethernet and Wi-Fi networking. 802-11n. Bluetooth Less common on desktops than laptops but worth considering if it adds only minimally to the overall cost. If you want to connect wireless external devices, like a keyboard or mouse, a USB port can be used instead. If you want to wirelessly sync data to a tablet or cellphone, then Bluetooth is a good option to get. You can also easily add Bluetooth later with a USB adapter. Not a must-have, but Bluetooth capability will enable you to connect external devices like a keyboard and mouse without using a USB port to do it (as long as the devices also support Bluetooth). Comes built-in to many laptops. Display Nothing special required. 15-inch to 17-inch display with matte finish. Avoid wide-screen displays Other features As many USB ports as possible (minimum of four), with at least two of them on the front of the computer for easy access. DVD drive with read/write capability. As many USB ports as possible; many laptops come with two, but more is better. DVD drive with read/write capability. Ports for plugging in an external keyboard, monitor, and mouse. When comparing computers, pay special attention to: • RAM: The amount of RAM you have matters, because swapping things in and out of RAM is much faster than reading and writing to a hard drive, which is what happens when RAM is full. Since MTs often have multiple applications running simultaneously, RAM should be high on your priority list. Of note, 32-bit versions of Windows can’t take advantage of more than 4GB, but 64-bit versions can. • USB ports: USB stands for universal serial bus, a type of connection used to connect external devices to a computer. You can’t have too many USB ports — they’re currently the top connection type for plugging in new stuff. Things that typically plug into a USB port include keyboards, mice/trackballs, printers, external hard drives, and most transcription foot pedals. • Graphics: Whatever graphics processor comes built into your computer will do, but if you add a graphics card, you’ll get much better performance for activities like watching videos. Most important, pay attention to the number of graphics ports you can connect a monitor to. A desktop computer should have at least two of them. You may not use both right off the bat, but if you stick with MT work, you’re likely to want to hook up a second monitor. You may be wondering about sound capabilities; after all, you’re going to be listening to a lot of dictation audio on this computer. From the computer specs perspective, the integrated sound provided on typical motherboard should do the job fine. Some medical transcriptionists opt to install a dedicated sound card and are thrilled with the results. Usually, though, unintelligible dictation is a result of something other than the quality of your sound system. blog comments powered by Disqus Inside Sweepstakes Win an iPad Mini. Enter to win now!	dclm-gs1-005730000
You can now hand write Google searches instead of typing them With typing and voice search already under its belt, Google's aiming its search sights on another target: handwriting. With a simple setting activation, you can now hand write your searches on your iOS or Android smartphones and tablets, and like magic, it'll scour the Web based on your scribbles. Called Handwrite, Google's new way to search is really just a novelty. Google's blog says that being able to write your own searches out anywhere on the screen is great because a keyboard doesn't cover up half the screen, there's "no need for hunt-and-peck typing" and that when you're in undesirable situations (like a bumpy taxi ride), Handwrite would come in handy (no pun intended). But does it work? It depends on your device. I tested it out on my iPhone 4 in Safari and Chrome and my penmanship rendered much smoother and faster than on a Galaxy S III in Chrome and the stock internet browser. My favorite feature is that Handwrite can recognize cursive. Now, that's nice! I'm just a cursive kind of guy. Still, Handwrite doesn't feel like a feature that I'd reach for over typing or voice search. It's definitely not for everyone. At most, it's a gimmick because you still need to press a button for spaces and deleting. To try it for yourself, goto and then click "Settings" at the bottom of the page. Then enable "Handwrite," click "Save" at the bottom of the page and you're done. To start searching with your hand writing, click the little cursive "g" at the bottom right corner of the homepage and start scribbling away. Oh, and make sure your smartphone is running either iOS 5 or Android 2.3 Gingerbread or newer and your tablet has iOS 5 or Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or Handwrite won't work. Cheers! Google, via YouTube For the latest tech stories, follow DVICE on Twitter at @dvice or find us on Facebook	dclm-gs1-005740000
JAPAN is "open for business" and "recovering at surprising speed," from the earthquake that devastated the country on March 11, Takeaki Matsumoto, the country's foreign minister, wrote in Saturday's International Herald Tribune: If you imagine that the whole of Japan is covered by debris, that is completely wrong. Most of Japan remains unharmed by the disaster, and the streets have leapt back to life. The major highway that runs through the most affected Tohoku region was reopened only two weeks after the earthquake. The Shinkansen, the bullet train that connects Tokyo and Tohoku region, became fully operational again on April 29. This should only be surprising if you've fallen behind on your Economist.com blog reading. Five days after the quake, my colleague W.W. over at Democracy in America surveyed the academic research on economic recoveries in the wake of disasters. Here's what he found: There's a big "but": There is a lot more on all this—including the obligatory discussion of the broken windows fallacy—in W.W.'s post and over at the Econbrowser blog. How can you best help Japan recover from the massive damage and devastation caused by the quake? Mr Matsumoto's advice may make you uncomfortable, but it's also correct: you can buy Japanese products and spend your tourism dollars visiting the country. What you shouldn't do is give money to charities that are raising money off the disaster. The New York Times' Stephanie Strom explained why last month: [W]ealthy Japan is not impoverished Haiti. And many groups are raising money without really knowing how it will be spent — or even if it will be needed. The Japanese Red Cross, for example, has said repeatedly since the day after the earthquake that it does not want or need outside assistance. But that has not stopped the American Red Cross from raising [tens of millions of dollars] in the name of Japan's disaster victims. This isn't to say that you shouldn't give money to charity at all—you should just make sure that the money you do give isn't earmarked for a specific disaster. As Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says, aid to a country should not depend on whether it's in the media spotlight. If you think a charity's work is important, you should be willing to let them use your donation wherever it can do the most good. Reuters' Felix Salmon has more on this. Any commenters spend any time in Japan post-quake? Leave us your impressions of the rebuilding in the comments.	dclm-gs1-005750000
Inflation in India Who cares about the price of onions? The fight against inflation has left India’s central bank in a lonely place See article Readers' comments please visit myrajivgandhi.in and take part in an online discussion.We are remembering Rajiv Gandhi and his vision of modern India. Indian people lost faith in governments inflation data. They add or remove items to their whims and fancies from the index. Easier and straight forward inflation data to see is price of onions. This is just poor mans understanding of economics. This has been proved right many times in the past, i do not see anything in this to laugh at. The RBI, I believe, is correct in its stand to keep interest rates intact. Because if the government is so concerned about growth, then it better speed up policy reforms. That can, guaranteed, add a percentage point to the GDP over a period of a year. Can lower interest rates gurantee such improvement? Occams Chainsaw It seems to me that this newspaper is not held to rigorous enough editing standards. I find that too many mistakes occur. The columns I write for a newspaper are held to a standard that involves fact-checking most of the time. The Economist is a highly-regarded newspaper and it is my opinion that it should aim to reduce the mistakes. India's elections are largely decided by inflation. The elections in 2005 where congress had won was because the government was more interested in growth and didn't pay attention to controlling inflation and shielding the poor. Things haven't changed much since then. There were global oil price factors which have compounded inflation India's defunct leadership,alarmed at the risk of losing socialist votes to industrial growth has paralyzed the former. This has made the situation quite drab. It would be great if the author could name these studies or research that support this theory of preferences for higher growth rather than low inflation. Shaleen Agrawal I completely support the Reserve Bank of India in what it has been doing on the interest rates. First up, the wholesale price index -- WPI -- is an absolutely archaic, irrelevant and flawed method of computing inflation. The real measure must be the newly introduced CPI, which is close to 10%. Any keen observer of the dynamics of Indian economy will know that at present, the slowdown in growth/ investment/ capital formation has very little to do with interest rates, and is rather a result of policy uncertainties and poor executive arm of the government. Moreover, The Economist is right about hidden inflation on account of subsidised prices of fuel, electricity, food and a completely twisted fertiliser subsidy mechanism. It's because of these subsidies that the government overshot its fiscal deficit limit by a whopping 1.3 percentage points in the last financial year. One of the factors responsible for keeping private investment out is the massive government borrowing at highly attractive yields, and not the interest rates. RBI chief Subbarao is absolutely right in saying that monetary loosening will only stoke inflation without supporting growth. And moreover, the powers that be at the North Block (Ministry of Finance) are aware of this, and that's why they only PRETEND to exert pressure on the RBI for cutting rates. Hats off to Subbarao and Subir Gokarn for not falling prey to the perceived abatement in inflation and Kaushik Basu's candy-floss clad idiosyncrasies, and sticking their ground to do what is right for the economy. This is what India did in 60+ years of Independence...!!! RBI is very much concerned but the Govt is not. Coz its busy in scams and scandals..!! A recent news in paper quoted that quintals of wheat was wasted in Gujrat due to mismanagement. In India, the only concerned authority is RBI. Government is least bothered about it because they know in spite of all their efforts, they ll lose the ground in 2014 elections. So they better full their pockets. Its horrible when someone is that poor than cant meaningfully follow prices of stuff a human can actually digest.Like red meat or cheese.Instead they are forced to stuck themselves with food imitations like onions and potato. RBI is one of the most credible (and least appreciated) central banks in the world - particularly after observation of other prominent central banks. On another note, I congratulate the Economist on its general coverage of the Indian economy - I've often learned more about it from the Economist than from Indian sources. Thanks. The Mule Strange article. Low growth rates have no real bearing on the public. Rising vegetable prices, on the other hand, infuriates them. To suggest otherwise, you've revealed your hand about wanting lower rates at any cost; even being insincere about the importance of inflation in India. In India, the high prices of onions is widely believed to have led to the fall of a provincial (state) government in a not so distant past. (Rising) prices of onions are a de-facto measure of inflation, giving government published figures a run for its money. vkrishnan in reply to rajapurv In addition to what 'rajapurv' has written, it is important to understand that not all goods included in CPI calculations are used equally in India; most people are affected by the prices of wheat, rice, lentils, edible oils, onions and sugar; also these prices capture short term shocks much better than poorly compiled Government figures. Latest blog posts - All times are GMT The crisis in Venezuela: Another day, more bodies Americas view 2 hrs 54 mins ago A tribute to Robert Ashley: A perfect life Prospero 2 hrs 37 mins ago Commodities and the economy: Copper bottomed Buttonwood's notebook 3 hrs 53 mins ago Germany's Hoeness trial: Uli goes to jail Charlemagne March 13th, 14:18 El Salvador's election: An extraordinary result Americas view March 13th, 14:13 Products & events	dclm-gs1-005760000
Contactless Thermometer Are you running an infrared temperature? Published in issue 2/2011 on page 48 This thermometer measures at the same time both the ambient temperature and the temperature of any object placed within its ‘field of view’. And even though the ambient temperature range ‘only’ goes from −40 to +125 °C, the object temperature can be from −70 to +380 °C, and all with an accuracy of 0.5 °C and a measurement resolution of 0.02 °C. Resistors (0.25W 5%) R1,R4,R6 = 10kOhm R2, R5 = 100Ohm R3 = 1.5kOhm P1 = 10 kOhm trimpot, horizontal C1,C3 = 100µF 16V, radial, lead pitch 2.5mm C2 = 470nF 63V, MKT, lead pitch 5 or 7.5mm C4 = 10µF 25V, radial, lead pitch 2.5mm C6 = 100nF ceramic, lead pitch 5 or 7.5mm C7 = 10nF ceramic, lead pitch 5 or 7.5mm L1 = 10µH, Panasonic type ELC08D100E (RS Components) IC1 = LT1300 D1 = 1N5817 (must-have Schottky) D2 = 3.3V 0.4W zener diode X1 = 20MHz quartz crystal, HC18/U case S2 = swich, changeover, or wire link Pinheder pins, lead pitch 0.1’’ (2.54mm) Pinheder sockets, lead pitch 0.1’’ (2.54mm) PCB, Elektor # 100707-1	dclm-gs1-005780000
Friends Lyrics Friends are never earned they're a gift from the loving God And they're precious beyond human evaluation But you dare not take them for granted or they'll lift away like a smoke And the warmth of their caring will vanish into the chill of the endless nights Unless they live and die in a small town Somewhere where nothing much ever happens But a few of my friends are big people They'd made the word ring with laughter down to this string of court They're famous sensitive talented and their names are household words And yet they're no more precious in God's eyes or in mine Than those wonderful nobodys who live and die in small towns Who is your friend he's someone who warms you with a nod Or with an unspoken word in hard times when you're hurting beyond words Who is your friend he's someone who holds you to her breast And sighs softly into your hair when no other medicine could possibly stop the pain A friend is someone who clings his glass against yours Or answers the phone at three in the morning when you're lost And with a few words of encouragement and concern Makes you realize that you're not really lost at all Friends come in both sexes in all shapes and sizes The most imprtant thing they have in common is their ability To share with you your most sky splitting joys Or your deepest most spelling ol' some sorrows for they're all your friends Songwriter(s): Dick Bowman, Glen Campbell Copyright: Glen Campbell Music Inc. Official lyrics powered by Rate this song (current rating: not rated yet) Meaning to Friends no entries yet () required () required Characters count : (*) min. 200 characters required	dclm-gs1-005790000
If a 7-inch photo frame is perfect for grandma, think of Framed as an art display for the rest of us. (Assuming the rest of us have sky-high art budgets.) This 40-inch giant is based on a Samsung LED HDTV and powered by a Core i5 processor and Windows 7. Built-in 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi connects the digital canvas to a dedicated iOS app, which you'll use to purchase static and motion art and even manipulate content for display, using a virtual touchpad. Built-in speakers aren't a surprise, considering it's essentially a modified consumer HDTV, but there's also a camera and microphone -- for making your own art? No word on pricing or availability, but judging by the sample spaces used in the demo video (after the break), we're guessing that we don't fit within the designer's target demographic. Framed 40-inch digiframe for galleries, cafes, the insanely rich (video)	dclm-gs1-005800000
Question about I have an LG Revolution for review WHat do you want to know while I have it? top answers community pick How offensive / different from stock is the ROM? How much customization has LG put on? I'm familiar with HTC's Sense, and Samsung's TouchWiz... mark as good answer 2 people like this answer sort by 1 more answer How is the camera quality? I've never been happy with the camera on the DROID X, HTC seems to be pretty solid, but I've never seen anything from LG. mark as good answer 1 person likes this answer Products mentioned 3 users following this question: • cass • liveforfunnow • radikal This question has been viewed 1172 times. Last activity .	dclm-gs1-005810000
I just saw it yesterday in Boston and I'm hoping to get teh CD. Is it worth it? I loved teh play, it was hilarious. A guy in our row was the last speller from the audience to be eliminated, and the cast came down to our row and sang the "Goodbye" song to him. William Barfee was lying on the back of my chair, and the rest of teh cast was singing practically in my face! It was quite a memorable experience. So is the CD worth it?	dclm-gs1-005820000
Take a Bite Out of Milling Costs Vibration, excessive heat and silicon dust can bring a $300,000+ milling machine to a grinding halt. With downtime averaging several thousand dollars a day, diligent preventive maintenance and training are wise investments. The cutter head is subject to the most wear. "Depending upon cutting conditions and the type of machine, tools can last [from] just a few hours up to several days," says Thomas Chudowski, product business manager, global road construction, Kennametal. "Normally, increased wear is due to aggressive operation without making adjustments to conform to the jobsite and material conditions," adds Philip Taraschi, product specialist, BOMAG Americas Inc. Watch your speed/depth Operating speed drives much of the wear. "The speed of operation is critical in calculating wear to the cutter bits, holders and drum of the machine, [as well as] the life you get out of track pads and conveyor belts," says Dennis Munks, The Sollami Company. "Running at maximum speeds reduces the life of every component mentioned and increases vibration, which leads to other costly repairs. Running the machine at excessive speeds is usually the main cause for uneven tool wear." Heat generation due to excessive speed deteriorates carbide tips. "When you lose the protective carbide, the tooth becomes dull and blunt," says Jeff Wiley, Wirtgen. "That creates vibration and slows the machine down as much as 40%." In addition, material needs a chance to evacuate. "Massive wear on tools can be caused by not getting cut material out of the housing quickly enough as a result of the machine's cutting depth and/or advance speed," says Chudowski. Material gets re-circulated, causing wear on all components (tools, holder system and even the housing). "Also, water cannot get to the tool, negatively affecting rotation, as well as tool wear." Inspect often The cutter head requires constant attention. "Start by checking hourly and adjust the interval based on the wear you are observing," suggests Eric Baker, marketing manager, Roadtec. "Usually, there is a gap in trucks when this can be done." Visually inspect the cutter teeth and spot-change any that need to be replaced. "Deep cuts in hard asphalt require more frequent inspections, while shallow cuts in soft or deteriorated asphalt will require less," Baker notes. Taraschi also advocates frequent inspections, along with keeping water systems in good operating condition. "Inspections and water are inexpensive and essential tools, whereas labor and downtime are costly," he points out. If abrasive material wears into the holders, the expense and labor costs increase. Why tools fail According to Chudowski, typical tool failures and their causes include: • Carbide breakage - This can occur when tools are mechanically overloaded (hitting hard objects such as drainage covers or steel reinforcements), or due to thermal overload (excessive heat resulting from insufficient water supplied to the tool). • Lack of rotation - This can be caused by too much dirt in the holder bore (possibly due to a lack of water supply to the tool) or a worn tool holder. • Body wear/steel wash - This can be caused by high machine speed in soft (often abrasive) conditions. Reducing machine speed or using a different tool design could help solve the issue. Poor tool rotation quickly destroys teeth. "When the tooth stops rotating, it creates a flat side," says Wiley. "When it flat sides, it gets hot and fails." The type of material being milled can impact tool rotation."Material with high asphalt cement (AC) content can cause tools to stop rotating," says Taraschi. "In some cases, it can be corrected by adding low caustic to the water system. "If tools in a certain position continue to prematurely wear, check impact and skew angle positions," he advises. "If tools become mismatched to the point that the newer tools are wearing faster, clean up the drum with all new tools." Tool holder condition can also play a big part. "For example, if the face of the holder is worn down, this will mismatch tool impact position," Taraschi indicates, "or holder internal dimensions are worn to the point that it will still hold the tool, but will allow the tool to drastically move out of the intended impact angle." Faulty water spray systems are another leading cause of uneven tool wear. "The spray pattern must be a fan spray in order to get good coverage," says Wiley. "This system is filtered and you have to keep that system clean." "Water system faults generally relate to poor system maintenance and/or milling in place without discharging material," says Taraschi. "This allows material to force into spray tips." Causes of vibration Vibration needs to be addressed as it arises. The three levels of vibration include low, medium and high cycle. "High-cycle vibes are normally a pending fault in the engine to drum drive system," says Taraschi. "Medium-cycle vibes are normally a pending fault in the mill drum reduction drive system." Low cycle are the most common form of drum vibration, he continues. They can result from the ZERO mount bearing (opposite drum drive side) beginning to fail, causing the mill drum to run out of cycle; material buildup inside the left and right drum shell areas from lack of wash-down maintenance, knocking the drum off balance; or missing tool holders or material flight blocks. Drum vibration can also indicate worn/blunt tools, says Chudowski. If the vibration does not disappear after changing tools, the reason could be related to the drum being balanced incorrectly (or a lost counterweight); improper lacing design; incorrect drum installation; or a machine bearing that needs replacement. Keep an eye on the product The pattern behind the milling machine can be a good indicator of when to check the cutter head. "If the surface looks rough, stop the machine and inspect cutter tools and holders," says Munks. Also check bits at least twice daily during operation. "There are visual checks you should perform every minute of the day," says Wiley. "For example, ground [personnel] have a job of visually inspecting moving parts - tracks, conveyors and, most important, cutter pattern." The cutter pattern warns of potential issues. "For example, a white streak left behind the machine in the pattern could indicate worn out teeth, or holders that desperately need to be replaced," says Wiley. "Also, highs and lows on teeth and holders can lead to a poor cutter pattern no matter what speed you run the machine. 'Spotting' teeth can create grooves in the pattern that you can't control. Evenness and consistency are important to managing a good, consistent cutter drum and pattern." Obviously, you can't control all variables that impact tool life. "The life expectancy of cutter tools varies so much depending upon the material being cut," Munks states. "Size of aggregate and compaction of material plays a big part in tool life." But there are steps you can take to get as much life from tools as possible. "Once the cutter tool becomes blunt, change it before the carbide tip is totally worn down," Munks recommends. "Once the carbide wears away, extensive damage to holders and blocks can happen very quickly and cause major downtime and repairs. Real blunt carbide tips on cutter tools are also a major cause of vibration. Maintain sharp cutter tools throughout the entire drum, and reduce the amount of times you spot new cutter tools on the drum alongside worn cutter tools." "The idea of every cutting drum system is that the tooth takes the majority of the wear and is the easiest component to replace," says Baker. "If the tooth is no longer there or not taking the wear, then other parts of the system take the wear. The tooth holder on most systems can cost anywhere from four to 10 times as much as the tooth, so you would much rather replace a tooth too soon than replace a holder." Replacing tools as needed will also minimize any "domino" effect. "Usually, when one tooth fails, the tooth closest to that one in the pattern fails next and so on," says Wiley. "They all work together." The size of the carbide on the tip of the tool can impact horsepower and production of the milling machine, as well, Munks points out. "Smaller horsepower machines generally need a sharper, smaller carbide tip on the cutter tool for better penetration, and it will reduce vibration," he explains. "Good penetration of the material being milled is a key factor in getting the most production out of any machine." Use the right tools "Cutting teeth are the No. 1 operating cost for a milling machine, so any improvements in consumption can be the difference between success and failure," says Baker. "Part of the equation is to match the two main components of the tooth - carbide and steel - to the application." Premature failure is normally due to using the incorrect tool type, horsepower per tool impact rating and/or carbide and base structure for the material conditions, says Taraschi. "The life of a tool depends on having the correct tool matching unit horsepower to material conditions," he emphasizes. "Today, a milling contractor might have as many as five different tooth models in his inventory to address every application in his portfolio," adds Wiley. Taking the time to speak with tool manufacturers to ensure a good match (unit horsepower to regional material) will result in better production and longer tool life. "If you opt to install inadequate tools per unit horsepower to material, the results will be more costly due to frequent tool replacement and longer unit downtime," says Taraschi. A tool that's too small for the application or machine won't last long. "A tool too big for a low-horsepower machine slows down the machine," says Chudowski. "The life of the tool might be extended, but the efficiency of the machine is unacceptable (not economical)." That said, there are times when a faster and smaller tool may be better to improve the overall efficiency of the total operation - for example, when the paving operation is directly behind the milling operation. Material density also plays a role in tool selection. "If you are going to be cutting a looser material, you might need more steel to prevent the loose material from washing out the steel before the carbide is used," says Baker. "If you are cutting harder material, such as concrete, you would probably want more carbide, since there will be more impact wear." Another part of the equation is tooth shape or geometry. "Some teeth have a steeper slope for more penetration, while others are more blunt," says Baker. "Proper selection is dependent on the type of material to be cut. The best way to find out which is best is with experience, but the tool manufacturers also have a lot of expertise they can provide to help in the selection."	dclm-gs1-005830000
BYU basketball player Brandon Davies was dismissed from the nationally-ranked team for violating the school's honor code by having premarital sex, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune. The sophomore reportedly told BYU school officials Monday about having sex with his girlfriend. He was dismissed from the team for the rest of the season Tuesday while his situation was being reviewed by the Honor Code Office. He has been allowed to stay in school for now. BYU spokeswoman Carrie Jenkins tells the paper that his future has yet to be determined. It was a big blow for the team losing a starter who averaged 11 points and 6 rebounds a game. "I think it was a surprise to everyone," BYU basketball coach Dave Rose told the paper. Davies' teammates are standing behind him, including standout Jimmer Fredette. "He told us everything. He told us he was sorry and that he let us down. We just held our heads high and told him it was OK, that it is life, and you make mistakes, and you just got to play through it," he told the Tribune. "He is like a brother to us, family. It is tough to lose a guy like that. We just have to pull together." Students at BYU were disappointed in the outcome, but said the school did the right thing. "It's really a bummer, but I think its good for the university to hold up their standards and their rules," sophomore Justin Calvert told BYU's honor code consists of living a "chaste and virtuous life" and abstaining from premarital sex. The No. 3-ranked team lost its first game without its 6-foot-9 forward Wednesday night, falling to New Mexico 82-64. Calls to the Church of Latter Day Saints were referred back to BYU officials.	dclm-gs1-005840000
"Chemical Ali" has been captured, U.S. Central Command confirmed Thursday morning. Ali Hassan al-Majid al-Tikriti (search), a first cousin of former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and a powerful Baath Party (search) official linked to some of the regime's most brutal acts, is the King of Spades and No. 5 in the U.S. Army's deck of "Most Wanted" playing cards. A senior defense official said he was captured on Sunday in the company of bodyguards, but not with other top Iraqis. Central Command did not immediately say how al-Majid was captured or where he was being held. Map: Recent Developments in Iraq Gen. John Abizaid, the head of U.S. Central Command, said at a Pentagon news conference Thursday that he could not offer more details because "it would give away things we do not want to give away." There were indications Ali had been connected to anti-American activity in Iraq, he added. "Chemical Ali has been active in some ways in influencing people around him in a regional way," Abizaid said. Ali got his nickname by supervising chemical attacks upon Kurdish civilians the regime accused of aiding Iranian forces during the last years of the Iran-Iraq war. Thousands of Kurds died, including 5,000 in a single cyanide attack on the border town of Halabja (search) in March 1988. Ali has also been linked to crackdowns on Shiites in southern Iraq, and was governor of Kuwait for part of Iraq's seven-month occupation of the emirate in 1990-1991. Ali was an uncle of Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel al-Majid (search), the Saddam son-in-law who ran Iraq's clandestine weapons programs before defecting to Jordan with his brother, another Saddam son-in-law, in 1995. The pair were lured back to Iraq with promises of clemency, but once back in Baghdad were forced to divorce Saddam's daughters and then killed. Before the 1968 revolution, Ali was a motorcycle messenger in the Iraqi army. Under his cousin's rule, he was defense minister from 1991 to 1995. Ali also was part of the "Jihaz Haneen," or "apparatus of yearning," the secret intelligence organization Saddam formed inside the Baath to eliminate rivals and traitors and carry out assassinations. It played a key role in the July 17, 1968, coup that overthrew President Abdel-Salim Arif and thrust Saddam securely on the path to power. Ali had been closely linked with Saddam since the 1960s when they were members of the then-underground Baath Party which ruled Iraq until the U.S.-led coalition invaded. When Saddam took over from President Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr in July 1979, he promoted his cousin to full general even though his military skills were negligible. By the mid-1980s, with the war against Iran raging, Ali was coordinating Iraq's five intelligence and security services and joined the "Makhtab al-Khas," or Special Bureau, through which Saddam and his tight-knit inner circle ran the intelligence apparatus. Saddam appointed him to the 17-member Regional Command of the Baath Party in 1984, and he sat on that decision-making body until Saddam's government fell on April 9. He earned the soubriquet "butcher of the Kurds" for his savage campaign in northeast Iraq during the war against Iran. Aside from the chemical attacks, some 4,000 villages were razed and hundreds of thousands of Kurds forcibly relocated to Iraq's southern deserts. After Saddam invaded Kuwait in August 1990, he named Ali governor of the conquered emirate for the first three months of the seven-month occupation. By all accounts, he supervised the systematic looting and suppression of the city-state before he returning to Baghdad in November 1990. American forces thought they had killed Ali during the first weeks of the war when they bombed his house in Basra, but it became clear within several days that he had escaped. A body believed to be his was found by British troops at the site, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "We believe that the reign of terror of Chemical Ali has come to an end." But Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in June that interrogations of Iraqi prisoners indicated that he might still be alive. The Associated Press contributed to this report.	dclm-gs1-005850000
Games not working? #1kyubiitachi001Posted 1/1/2014 3:26:34 PM Every time I try to start a game it gets to the initial loading screen for the game and then goes back home without launching. This is happening to both disc and digital games does anyone know how to fix this? You know you've played to much Halo when the weatherman conducts a flood warning and you run to get your shotgun #2wrettcaughnPosted 1/1/2014 3:41:34 PM Press the menu button over a game's tile and select "Quit Game". Then, start the game again. #3Jian_ZiPosted 1/1/2014 3:45:05 PM I just keep trying and then eventually the game will work.	dclm-gs1-005860000
What's the sexiest shiny pokemon? #31dwdwdw6Posted 11/11/2013 8:11:31 AM Haxorus, Rayquaza and Charizard. #32chameleonsoupPosted 11/11/2013 8:47:09 AM matthewtheman posted... I've caught two of the blighters in a safari yet I'm still hunting shiny Eevee. If I see another I may weep, and not with joy! 3ds 3952-6991-8891 Pokemon X Safari - Dark - Inkay, Nuzleaf and Sneasel. #33Elec Man EXEPosted 11/11/2013 8:54:13 AM Is there someplace to see the shiny colors of the new pokemon? I haven't seen them anywhere. ~ Master of Electricity ~ 3DS FC: 3239-2743-8918 Pokemon Y Safari: Fraxure, Sliggoo, Dragonair #34OceansFortePosted 11/11/2013 8:57:54 AM None of the above. Steelix is the most sexy, nickname it Gold Digger and proceed to show that swagetti off. 3DS FC: 3926-5088-9762 IGN: Emjay. #35FuneralCakePosted 11/11/2013 8:59:38 AM Female Braixen \| 3DS FC: 3437 - 4335 - 3104 \| \| Friend Safari: Panpour, Wartortle, Frogadier \| #36flamesaber111Posted 11/12/2013 1:48:53 PM Honedge, Ninetales, Greninja, Charizard, and my all time favorite, Crobat. Fakking love shiny Crobat. Getting PS4, but see no reason to troll those hyped for Xbox One. Pokemon Y FC: 3609-1106-5751 #37the_NGWPosted 11/12/2013 1:49:56 PM Shiny Lapbunny #38navi854Posted 11/12/2013 1:50:01 PM 3DS FC : 1547 5383 8247 #39legendriderPosted 11/12/2013 2:00:30 PM Rayquaza becomes the Ultra Ball....he is the one 3DS: 1203-9417-6170, PSN: Trixster196 #40GipigPosted 11/12/2013 2:01:59 PM I'm going to have to go with Mega Gardevoir. Not because I've actually seen it, but because as I was reading this thread, I ran into my first shiny ever - a Kirlia in the Friend Safari. So I'll get to see it soon. 3DS FC: 2234-7735-3025 (PM me if you add me) Pokemon Friend Safari: Electric - Electabuzz, Electrode, and Galvantula/Manectric (?)	dclm-gs1-005870000
Which monitor technology is better between IPS and PLS? #1Dirk85UKPosted 10/4/2013 9:28:20 AM Which monitor technology is better between IPS and PLS? i5 2500 \| 8Gb DDR3 \| GTX 670 FTW \| Asus P8 P67 \| Intel 330 SSD \| XFX 650W \| Dell U2711 #2SlaynPosted 10/4/2013 9:44:22 AM #3animanganimePosted 10/4/2013 9:58:04 AM(edited) I have not seen PLS in person but I have 6 IPS screens in my house and I have a difficult time imagining how much better it can be. Anyway, read this and decide for yourself I suppose #4Bazooka_PenguinPosted 10/4/2013 10:11:04 AM Supposedly some of the newer PLS panels have less IPS/PLS glow. At least that's what I've heard from OCN's Korean PLS monitor fanclub and Menacing Tuba (a hobby monitor enthusiast). IPS glow is a big issue so it's a big improvement if true. Deth Pen	dclm-gs1-005880000
When will regenerating health finally go away? #1kupo1705Posted 2/27/2013 2:52:12 AM First it was just shooters, then it went to other genres. Now even some RPGs have it. Shooters have been rather dull since it became popular, and now it's tainting other genres. Why did it become so popular, and more importantly, when well it end? I think Halo started it, even though it did it much better than most games today. #2ramseanGoodbyePosted 2/27/2013 2:55:34 AM Yeah gotta say i'm not a fan of it. It's so prevalent because it makes it easier for developers to balance the game. We're reaching a point where all games are kinda feeling the same. Which is great from a usability stand point, but bad if you want a new experience. #3killakPosted 2/27/2013 3:00:39 AM when enemy counts, AI and accuracy, drop. #4AnthonM2Posted 2/27/2013 3:05:32 AM Regenerating health is the best thing that happened to the industry, and pressing a button to lead you where to go next, like in Tomb Raider and RE6. #5popping4itPosted 2/27/2013 3:11:10 AM until hunting for medikits becomes fun. whens mahvel? #6darkness1018Posted 2/27/2013 3:15:43 AM Its great since looking for health items can get a bit boring, PSN: nightwing2099 (PS3 & PS Vita) 3DS XL FC: 1693-0734-3733 #7kupo1705(Topic Creator)Posted 2/27/2013 3:20:42 AM popping4it posted... until hunting for medikits becomes fun. You mean having to carefully progress because the next few shots will kill you, until you come across a medkit by looking around the environment? Sounds a lot more fun and intense than taking cover for a few seconds after getting shot. #8Brocken_JrPosted 2/27/2013 3:21:21 AM when people stop complainin about games bein to hard. f*** you bionic commando 2 and your jumping option DmC's story mode in 8 seconds: #9NovaKaneXPosted 2/27/2013 3:22:32 AM Health Packs, WE OFF DAT! Cot damn! #10Willie_MakeitPosted 2/27/2013 3:27:19 AM The day Capcom goes back to making real Resident Evil games.	dclm-gs1-005890000
About Ammy's brush techniques slight spoilers #1Amibo_AmorePosted 10/16/2011 7:03:08 PM(edited) How exactly do Ammy's brush techniques work (in the realm of time)? I know that when she uses her techniques, the screen is frozen (apparently freezing time), but what is it like for the opponents? Do they still have a sense of time when Ammy is drawing, or do the results of her brush techniques happen in the blink of an eye for them? Sorry for rambling on, but I've always wondered about that. Nobody, nobody spikes my system! #2Blackest_KnightPosted 10/16/2011 7:19:10 PM I imagine the effects occur instantly to the NPCs. It's rare and unexpected, but strangely beautiful, like a unicorn using his horn to gore a priest.	dclm-gs1-005900000
Quick Question #1ACasserPosted 12/17/2010 8:35:22 AM The description of this game on PSN says something about a 3-D television. Is this really necessary, or is PlayStation Network blowing smoke up my rear end and trying to encourage me to buy electronics I don't really need? Obviously, I'd prefer not to spend the $9.99 to purchase this game if I can't play it on my current television (HD, 27"). So what are the system component requirements for this game? (I've also read that while the game is designed with the Move controller in mind, it will run just fine using the standard controller and that Move isn't really necessary) #2EstivalPosted 12/18/2010 3:29:48 AM You don't need a Move or a 3D TV. It'll work just fine with a normal TV and controller. Its just a fact. #3ACasser(Topic Creator)Posted 12/18/2010 9:46:11 AM Thanks for the reply. I'm not buying new hardware for a game, but knowing that what I have now is fine is definitely a good thing.	dclm-gs1-005910000
Review by KillerMAN "I didnt know God made games?" Because this baby, is pure Perfection!!!! Im not going to get into the story here because if you dont know it by now after reading the 10 other reviews for this game, eghhh...lets just get to the meat and potatos here. And I'll tell you why... This game was very good with what it had to work with, and on top of that this game had so much detail in just screamed ''Look'' ''Look at this'' and then threw it into your face. From the Horror like intro title screens to each new level, to the dark hallways, and even all the creepy products that try to kill you at the Killer Dept. Store level. This game had it all! Not bad, but some getting used to. The controlles themself are just fine. But alot of people complained about the dodging of enemies. Believe me, with practice its the easiest thing ever. Not hard at all. But now, as far as the gameplay goes, its VERY easy to die in this game. DONT go running through it because you cant! You will be butchered!!! Take your time, soak up the great graphics and environment, and TRY to stay alive. You even have a horror monitor that tells you when a monster, ghost, baked bread, cartoon bear, undead zombie, sega dreamcast system, tv, pool, beer bottles, stuffed dolls, worms, dead things, knives, dead department store managers, a pigs butt, roaches, can of beans, or a hairy eyeball candy will try to kill you or scare the living crap out of you. Yes people...thats all in the game...and It wants to send you into early retirement. This game takes time and practice, but is very rewarding, and its nothing you have ever played. Great sound...I cant even imagine this game with surround sound. You hear noises and things that go bump in the night around ever corner. The music REALLY fits in with the levels. And when things jump out at you, a very loud noise follows. The voice acting is hoaky, but cmon...its bearable, and I have heard worse. MANY different endings depending on people you save, and lets not, they filled this game with over 3000 traps. So your never running into the same one, its like a new treatment of horror each time you play. Dont expect things to be in the same spot as well, because there not. But I would go even higher if I could. People, they put alot of work into this game. I have been playing games since 1982, and I have never played a game like this. It is unique, and it was a sleeper hit. You REALLY jump in this game, and there were so many mistakes in this game as well, from the words that were incorrect, to the voice acting that would miss a word, to things they did a crappy job cutting out. Cmon, you can play as the main female character NUDE! This game was bizarre!!! You fight killer eggs, Bloody Mary, the Cake from hell, you stay a night in Hotel Banballo where some maniac tries to burn you. The level and story is taken right out of Nightmare on Elm street. They based all of there levels on horror movie concepts. The game is so hoaky and sometimes very scary. Give the game a fare try, and it will eventually be one of your favorites!!! Reviewer's Score: 10/10 \| Originally Posted: 05/14/02, Updated 05/14/02 Got Your Own Opinion?	dclm-gs1-005920000
E N T E R : E L E C T R O Version 0.7 copyright (c) 2003 andrewfreak1 (a.k.a andrew rubin) all rights Email: [email protected] or [email protected] This guide is copyright (c) 2003 andrewfreak1. This game is copyright (c) 2001 Activision, Vicarious Visions. I was not involved in the making of his game, so just incase your wondering. The only websites that can post this with my permission is: and if you steal it and post it up on your website, lets say, www.john.com, I will E-Mail you very politely to take it off. If you don't listen and co- mpletely ignore my E-Mail, You will suffer! This FAQ is MY WORK, MY PROPERTY! You get it?! If you spotted any spelling errors, or anything else that looked bad in this guide, please E-Mail me politely over at: [email protected] And I will fix and you will be credited. DO NOT be cruel, nasty or any other way that is dumb to say. Also, if you e-mail me like this: "Hey, you said that you can (goal here) in (time here) but it took me (time here again) you (Very bad here!!) No. You aren't funny, and you are very, very dumb. I will easily ignore your message if you use such language against me, you will NOT get a respond. If you beg me to update my guide, I will not respond to you. I WILL UPDATE HEN I WANT TO! Ok?! was that whole babble clear? good. Now onto the guide!!! 1) Introduction 2) Version History 3) Basic Controls/Pickups 4) The story 5) FAQ/Walkthrough A: Enter the web-head B: Burglary interuppted C: Rooftops by night D: Warehouse 66 E: Spidey Vs. Shocker F: Smoke Screen G: Hangar 18 H: Wind Tunnel (version 1 title: The Plane) I: To catch a theif J: in darkest night K: Heart of Darkness L: Catch that Train! M: Gangland N: Spidey vs. Hammerhead O: Spidey in the machine P: Mission: Spidey Q: The Corkscrew (version 1 title: Downward Spiral) R: Spidey vs. Lizard S: The Gauntlet (version 1 title: Aces High) T: Spidey vs. Sandman again U: Konichi-wa, Spider-San V: Rock of Ages W: Spidey vs. Electro X: The best laid plans (version 1 title: Top of the world) 6) Gallery - Things to unlock 7) Costumes/Cheats 8) Special Thanks Hi this is my guide for the ultimate Spider-Man 2. This game is the sequel to the amazing game 'Spider-Man' from the year 2000. I think this game is a little better than the first, since it has new features and all... You can check out Scott Miller or R- omy N. Junio Jr.'s guides if you want.. But I WASN'T using their guides while writing this one. This is my first guide so I hope I do a good job for you all Spidey-Fans. Lets talk about the ga- me. Spider-Man 2 has 23 levels, 5 bosses and explosive gameplay. What else can I say? Vicarious Visions did a awesome job, and A- ctivison did a great job on this game to. I can't wait until Sp- ider-Man 3... But I still think this game is cool! 2) V E R S I O N H I S T O R Y 5-5-03: Ah, finally started this guide after playing it for a freakin' long time. Made the ascii art, table of contents, and Introduction. 5-6-03: I found out that Spidey-Armor was on 'to catch a theif' level so you won't die. 5-6-03: Found out a cool secret in spidey vs. lizard 5-7-03: Eh, I've been really busy today with my schoolwork, but now I'm working On the guide! 5-10-03: ARRRGGHH, I've been sick the past few days. Well at least I wrote notes to myself while playing the game. 5-10-03: Finished all the level walkthrougs. 5-10-03: Finished the guide, going to start posting it. 3) B A S I C C O N T R O L S / PICKUPS Don't you remember when they first invented PSX? How nice and clean the the controllers were, and now mi- ne is all screwed up and it doesn't work that good. Now I have to use my PS2 controller which is nice and clean. Yeah, I used to rent a bunch of games from my nearby video game store named "Grey World Video". And if you rented one, they wouldn't even let you have the actual game case, and just give you a old cruddy case and you won't be able to read the controls in the X = Jump Square = Punch, Press 3 times for a combo Circle = Kick, Press 3 times for a combo Triangle = Web trap, to tie up enemies with Spider-Man's X + Square = Jumping Punch, Spider-Man will give enemies a powerful headache. X + Circle = Jumping Kick, Spider-Man will majorly knock enemies off their feet. Square + Triangle OR Circle + Triangle = Grab enemie behind the back. Square + Triangle + Square = Grab and punch your enemy on the Circle + Triangle + Circle = Grab and kick enemies in their butt Circle + Circle + Circle = Triple Kick Square + Square + Square = Triple Punch Triangle + Left = Web Spikes Triangle + Right = Web Dome Square + Triangle = Web-yank enemies over your head Triangle + Up = Impact Web Triangle + Down = web-yank Triangle + Down + Left = Web-yank left (this is easier to do with the left analog stick) Triangle + Down + Right = Web-yank right (this is easier to do with the left analog stick) R1 = zip-line R2 = Webswing X + X = Webswing ( on kid mode ) L1 = Targets Spider-Man's web to enemies L2 = Targets objects and enemies Triangle + Up During webswing = Aerial Impact Web X + Triangle + Up = Jumping Impact Web There! Now that you know all of 'do whatever a spider can' moves, It's time we finally do this. Taser Webbing - It's a light green web cartridge with a little yellow in the middle. It's found in some of the later levels (it gives you electric web) Web Cartridge - It's a blue, normal web cartridge that gives you a extra cartridge (duh) Health Spider - Its red and white, It gives you more Freon Webbing - Its a light blue web cartridge that gives you ice webbing. Spidey-Armor - It's a golden spider-icon that gives spider-man another health bar. It gives you armor, and its extremely useful. Comic Book - Eh, well this doesn't increase anything, but if you find a spinning item looking like a copy of Amazing Fantasy 15, COLLECT IT FAST! You've just added a comic to your comic collection in the gallery. 4) T H E S T O R Y Taken straight out of the instruction booklet: The threat of the Symbiote Invasion is over, and Doctor Octopus and his cronies are once again behind bars. The city, and the people that call it home, can collectively breath a sigh of relief. Or can they? Evil abhors a vacuum, and with Doc Ock gone, can it really be that long before another rises in his place? Not likely. Unaware that her work has drawn the attention of sinister forces, Dr. Watts has completed a miraculous new device that would give any man or woman unspeakable power. In the hands of the one such as Electro, who knows what deviltry may be wrought. Electro, for one, intends to find out. As before, Electro has managed to assemble a cadre of allies and followers, from lowly street-thugs to hardened super-villians His goal: to steal and assemble the Bio-Nexus device; and with it bring the city, if not the world, to its knees... 5) F A Q / W A L K T H R O U G H Ah, here we are, the Walkthrough/FAQ! I have some things to tell you first: COMIC ALERT means I will tell you wh- ere the comic location is in the area your in. WHAT-IF MODE means if your playing in what-if mode, I'll tell you what will happen in the level. Understand? Onto the Walkthrough/FAQ... Ok, after you finish watching the FMA where Stan Lee talks, Beast will pop out of nowhere and ask you to do training a- nd stuff. Guess what? Spidey says yes. Ok, webswing toward the first building and look out for the Fantastic Four building, it will be on your right. No one on it? Awwww... That was the part I was looking forward to. Sooner or later you should webswing on a crane, which is the second one. COMIC ALERT (easy): On the second crane, which you are on, on the cab is the comic. Then webswing over to the unfinished building and beat up the henchman and get the ?. Then go over to the building with three crates on it. COMIC ALERT (any difficulty): Web-yank the three crates and then the comic should pop out. Then webswing to the next two building and your done. After you watch the FMV, Take out the two thugs that are trying to kill you. Then webswing around the street and then you should see a alley with a dumpster blocking. Jump over the dumpster and then you should be ambushed by four COMIC ALERT (kid mode): Under one of the trashcans in the area your in, is the comic. Take them all out and then one of the rooftops surronding that area has a basketball on top of it. If you make a h- oop in the basketball court, a health icon will appear. Then search around and you should see two thugs standing near a car (uh oh! Grand theft auto!) and they blow it up for fun. Just beat them both up and spray webbing on both of the car windows, that should smother the fire. Then webswing around the streets some more and you should see some thugs blow up a cafe. Just beat them up and go in front of the fire hydrant. L2 target it and web-yank it to put out the fire. If you stand in front of the hydrant's path, it will blow Spider-Man all t- he way over to very front of the cafe. Then just follow your compass and climb up the building you saw in the cutscene. COMIC ALERT (Normal): On the rooftop next to the one you finish the level on, there is a comic. The rooftop is flatter then cement, so you shouldn't miss it. Once you start the level webswing to the first building. Then keep on webswinging until you see a ?. Get it, then go over to the thug and stop the machine gun. WHAT IF MODE: Jeez, on the third level they finally change something in the game. Eh, it's a giant ban- ana (?!) and if you make a tricky jump onto the banana, it'll take you for a ride until you get to the parts with the machine guns! Then webswing onto the bridge and go across it. You should get a checkpoint. Once you've made it to the end of the b- ridge, get the web cartridge and the health spider. Then beat up the bad guy. COMIC ALERT (hard): Once you've took out all the machine guns, return to the bridge for the comic. Then keep on webswinging and follow your compass. Then your Spider-Sense will tingle and you will have to take out 3 m- achine guns. Just impact web them 2 times and they should blow up. Then just follow your compass and webswing onto Warehouse 66. WHAT IF MODE: The big boxes are now presents with a bow on top! The large barrels show a pic of spidey and says 'Web Soup'. Yum. COMIC ALERT (easy): Under the big barrel left of you when you begin the level. Once you start the level there is ton of bad guys to kill. A easier way to find the bad guys is to zip to the ceiling and crawl around on top of the ceiling to look around. Just keep on beating them up. Sooner or later spiderman should say theres one more left. Just beat him up and finish the level. WHAT IF MODE: Might be some new spidey quotes. Once you begin the level Shocker will keep on blasting his damn blasters at you. Do NOT run up to him and punch him, Because then he'll just blast the heck out of you. COMIC ALERT (hard): Inside the fire, it is very hard to see, is the comic book. Just hop onto the big crates and L2 target the huge crates that are hanging from the ceiling. Web-yank one from Shockers distance. It should fall on Shocker's head, making him lose health. There is another way to kill him, but it is tough. Grab some boxes and kill him. Once you go over to the bomb, just go and collect the 4 keys. Here are the locations I got for all 4 keys: KEY 1: Turn around and go straight. You should see 3 bad guys. Beat them up for the key. KEY 2: Go south from the Activision sign and go on the ground. There are 2 guys there. Beat them up for the key. KEY 3: There are guys next to the NYPD Police Car. WHAT IF MODE: There are flat bananas instead of newspapers scattered around the level. KEY 4: Go even more far from the Activision sign and on the grass there is 2 guys. Get them for the key. Now that you've gotten all four keys (Red-Blue-Yellow-Green) Go back to the bomb and put the keys in the matching color slots. Now onto Hangar 18. Spidey finally arrives at Hangar 18. Now this level is kind of like Rooftops By night, except a little more trickier. Go straight and t ake out the 2 Machine guns in front of you, then take out the machine guns on the left side of the area COMIC ALERT (Kid Mode): Under the big box left of the hangar. and then do the right side. Then you should be finished. 8)WIND TUNNEL (The Plane) WHAT IF MODE: Instead of barrels, they're light bulbs! They do the same amount of damage, too. The main key here is: SPEED! Your gonna need a lot of it, too, if you want to save that pilot. Just clear the barrels out of the plane's path. Once you've gotten to the last room, L2 target the plane's left prepellor, and web it up and then shoot web on the tail of the plane. COMIC ALERT (Normal): Once you've done what I just said, quickly go over back to the very first room. Under the net with the barrels there is the comic. Now hurry back to the plane and finish the Then just web up and stop the right propeller and you've just completed the level. Ok, now finally this is the level where you have to chase the helicopter that Spidey threw a tracer on. This level was pretty tough the first time I tried it. The dang mercenarys fire their dang bazookas at you, and they shoot lazers too. This level is pretty easy to me now, because I found out that there is Spidey armor in this level. Ok, webswing straight and then your on the third building. COMIC ALERT (any difficulty): On a lower ledge on the third building, in the front of it, is the comic book. Then webswing forward to the unfinished building and you should find the Spidey-Armor icon. Collect it fast! This level will be tough if you don't. Then just webswing to finish the level. Well, it looks like spidey made it to the trainyards. I don't really like these levels, but I had to beat the game somehow, right? Ok, once you begin, jump over the train and you should be sneaky, because there is your first guard. COMIC ALERT (easy): After taking out the first guard, in front of the garages that do not open is the comic. Take him out, then go straight to Area 2. Once you've made it past the hallway, there are some guards you'll need to deal w ith. Just be stealthy and no problems will approach. Then head over to Area 3, and repeat the same process. Then head to area 4, and just take out the guys there since they're really annoying. Then push the switch (press square) and now for the hard part. You have to solve a puzzle involving switches, so go over to the yellow light to start off, and shoot web at the sw- itch. You have to make the machine switches all be GREEN, so do nt accidently screw up or something. COMIC ALERT (Normal): You must use all of the seven levers in the level. Hey, I didn't make this thing, you know! Instead of going to door number 7, go to door number 3 and behind the train you'll find the comic. Boy, do I hate this level. Oh well, Jump on the train and hop over the electronic door. Cuz that's the only way you get pas t it. Now follow the spidey compass to the power room. There is freon webbing near the crane so just incase you want to give some enemies a chilly night. Now go to the Power Room and shoot the switch. Then go over to door #1 and then go into the control room there. Shoot all three switches there and then go through door #2 because the other one is jammed. Now go through door #5 once your in the next area. Just keep on going straight and you should find a the second control room. Shoot the two switches. Then go back and exit that area. Now go back into the little room and go through door #7. Then you should be done. WHAT IF MODE: The barrels are now bananas. And there is a huge banana on the train. Hah! Oh, God, not Sandman. I hate him. Ok, just keep on going straight and focus on the train and not Sandman. If you try to defeat him he'll slither away and go regenerate his health bar. He makes huge sand walls so you can't reach the train. Just keep on swinging - It's the fastest way to do this level. Now there isn't time to look for a comic book looking like Amazing Fantasy 15, Right? Uh huh. To put it clearly, Sandman: ignore. Train: focus. Ok, take out the two thugs in front of you, then a hostage should yell 'help'. He's trapped in the elevator. L1 target the ceiling. You should see an air vent. Web-yank it off the ceiling and zip line up it. Crawl through it and you should see a unstable elevator. L2 target the unstable cable and web it up. Then shoot the switch to free the hostage. COMIC ALERT (Hard): After solving the elevator puzzle, return to the first room to find the comic book. Then jump over to the brick wall on your left. Then you should see a passage. Go through it. Your spider-sense will tingle, then two goons will come running toward you. Web them up and go into the next room. There is two hostages and one goon. Take the bad guy out, then free the hostages. COMIC ALERT (all difficultes): Under the photocopy machine, there is a comic. Then go past the hallway and enter the next room, and there some hostages there. Beat up the three goons, then free the hostages. You want to get to the next floor? Well then it's going to be tricky. Go behind the big bookshelf and then L2 target the big air vent that's on the ceiling. Then web-zip up there and crawl through there. Then drop onto the next floor. There is a bad guy guarding there so just take him out. Then go forward and there is a hostage and a guard. K- ill him and free the hostage. Then go straight and two thugs will come out of nowhere and attack you. Kill them and go straight. You should come to two locked doors. Impact web one of them, and free the two hostages inside. Then repeat it with the other door and free the hostages. Now, go to the exit, which is only left of you, to finish the level. Hammerhead kind of seems like the rhino in the previous game... Oh well. It's a sequel, y'know? WHAT IF MODE: When Hammerhead charges and bashes his head into the wall, he'll start cussing. Not bad though. He is almost invincible with his dang machine gun. Just webyank it out of his hands and then watch out, because he might charge at you. Then he'll run to his machine gun and pick it up again. Just beat him up before he reaches it. That way he'll lose health. Go over to the other side of the building where the bar is. COMIC ALERT (Hard): Hop on the bar and pick up the closed sign three times, then the comic will pop out. When you try and beat him with his machine gun, he'll take very little damage. Later probably when he has half life, he should charge and break a window (i can see the repair bill on that damage, Hammerhead!) and now you have to finish the battle with him. Now just repeat the whole dang web-yanking machine gun process I just said. Then just defeat him. Once you begin the level, hop over the bar and then some stupid robot will damage one of the boilers. Shoot web at the red switch and then ANOTHER robot will damage a boiler. Do the same thing. Then there is only one more boiler, so just repeat that process. COMIC ALERT (easy): After you finish the boiler puzzle head up the ramp and on that walkway you will find the comic. Now, go to the hallway and go through it. There will be a cutscene where spidey says that there is huge turbin- es that will kill you if you don't shut them off. Go from the far right of the turbines and then you should see a machine that will shut down the lazer grid to the control room. You'll need to press [],O,/\ in the center to turn off the lazers. WHAT IF MODE: Instead of pressing []O and /\, you can play ping pong! Sometimes ping pong stops dead for no reason. Once you've shut down the lazer grid, go past it and go to the controls room. Shoot the switch on your ri ght, then shoot the switch on your left. Then go back into the big room and hop on top of one of the turbines. Then zip-line up there and crawl through. Now, drop into the next room and go to the control room to get through that door. Zip onto the ceiling and make sure not to accidently crawl into one of the lazers (Ow!) Then once you've made it to the other side, shoot the two switches and go back the way you COMIC ALERT (kid mode): After you finish both lazer grid puzzles, return to the air vents and on the spot where the health Icon is, you'll find the comic. Now, go through door #2 and finish the level. Once the cutscene finishes DO NOT move one bit. Zip-line up and you should reach a platform. Climb onto the top of it and then turn around. Shoot the red switch that's right there, then drop down from that platform onto the walkway you were just on. COMIC ALERT (Hard): Under the first bridge you should see an alcove, inside the alcove is the comic book. Then go through that door and turn left. You should see another locked door. Shoot web onto the red switch and go through that area. Oh boy, drone generators, just L2 target them and Imapact web them. Then hop over that machine and shoot the red switch. Then exit that area and go to the next area. Once your in area 2, if your on a tougher difficulty you better be stealthy to the lazer turrets. Just Impact web them two teimes and you should blow them up. Once you blow all four of them up, jump up and shoot the switch up there, then jump down and shoot the switch down here. Then exit Area 2, and enter Area 3. Now this is one hard area. You'll see a big force feild blocking your way. Go over to the machine and press /\ until it's all the way up, then press O or [] and then press X to exit. Now impact web and blow up the drones, and once they're gone, shoot web at the three switches when the force feilds down, then shoot the red switch over there. Now, just exit that area and go through the door. COMIC ALERT (Normal): After you finish all the puzzles, return to the very first bridge to find the comic book. Ok, this level is a little hard on the normal and hard difficulties. It has to involve switch pressing. This level has four parts, devided by all those smashing jaw doors. First, Jump over the smashing doors at the beginning when they're open, then shoot the two switches to shut down the dangerous stuff. Make sure not to accidently jump into one of the lazers (Ow) Then go past and make it to the second floor and you should see some buttons. Each area is like this, so just make sure you don't get zapped by any lazers, or get shot by any of those stupid drones. Then make your way up to the third area. COMIC ALERT (Normal): In the third area, DO NOT touch one button. Climb up as far as you can, then there is a ledge. On top of it is the comic. Then make your way up to the fourth area, shoot the switches and go up. You should find the door there. This level is a bit of a pain at the beginning. Go over to the computer and you'll need to finish the antidote that Dr. Conners has been working on. You'll need to make three vats. You'll need to use [], /\ and O to do it. DO NOT SCREW UP! You'll have to restart the level if you do. This is pretty tough on hard mode. When the time runs out, Lizard will break through the wall and throw you into the next room. If you did the serum puzzle right, you should see one canister of it once you get up. Now, grab the canister and blast the lizard. Then run over to him and start beating the heck out of him. Repeat this, because this will not work if you don't blast him with serum shots. There is health in the third room. COMIC ALERT (Hard): After you do the serum puzzle, Go to the third room and be quick, then you'll find the comic. There is also health in the second room, too, if you need it. COMIC ALERT (Hard): On a ledge at the back of the building you start on. Now this is when those lazer turrets get REALLY annoying. Always follow the lazer that points to you, then shut it down. This isn't a really hard level, unless you like to get burnt up by stupid police lazer turrets. Then you should see a huge anttena and there is four lazer turrets below it. Just shut down the thing. COMIC ALERT (Normal): Go behind the building with the huge anttena. On the ledge going to the next building is the comic book. Now, sooner or later you should go to the last tower, it's the one without any lazer turrets. COMIC ALERT (Easy): On the ledge of the back of this building, is the comic book. Now, all you have to do is shut down the last one and follow your compass to Dr. Watt's lab. Ok, in this level, always trust your spider-sense or you'll get some serious sand in spidey's tights. There is health near the barrels if you need it. Now, Sandman is vincible to water, right? Well there is a water pump. Go over to the vaulve that has a sign on it. Shoot web on it, then wait until the pressure gets full. Now, go over to one of the vaulves, but not the one you just shot, though, and then start blasting sandman up with water and start beating him up at the same time while he's wet you can quick snag a COMIC ALERT (all difficulties): Go on top of the unfinished building, and then hop onto the crane and there is the Now, after your done snagging that comic, run over to the vaulve and get the pressure back up again. Then repeat the same thing and while he's wet, snag another comic... COMIC ALERT (Easy): Under the portable toilet, is the comic. Now just keep on making him wet and beating him up, and you should kill him. Once you begin the level, the easiest way to defeat the samuri is to just web them up. They'll blow up, so just keep on doing this. You should see a health bar on the upper right corner of the screen. Now, pick up a samuri peice and go to the center room. Now throw it at the thing that's blocking the generator. It should knock it off, now just go and keep on beating samuri and throw their pieces at the generator to blow it up. Just go in the different rooms, one room will have a huge budda statue and two samuri. COMIC ALERT (Easy): Behind the buddha statue, is the comic book. Now just blow up the generator and level complete. I think this level is a pain because at first I kept on getting zapped and falling to the floor. Now, Just keep on crawling past the lighting rings before they zap you. And also, dodge all of the lighting rain that Electro shoots at you. Then sooner or later you should reach the Ice Age level, your halfway through, so don't screw up COMIC ALERT (Normal): Inside the dino picture is the comic. Just crawl past it and make sure not to get zapped. I use to think this level was really hard - Until I just realized it was easier than heck. Sooner or later AGAIN, you should reach the last exhibit level. COMIC ALERT (Easy): On this exhibit level, on top of the car sticking out of the wall is the Now just flip over the fence and you complete the level. Electro, Finally! After 22 levels in the game we finally get to kick Electro's shocking butt. I think this was one of the easiest boss battles, not to brag, but it was downright easy for me. Just activate web spikes and hop onto the platform and pound the heck out of Electro. He should blow you off, but just keep on repeating that. Now go onto the earth model for a comic. COMIC ALERT (Normal): On top of the earth model, which is tough to get to, is the comic. Now just beat up Electro and finish the level! 24) THE BEST LAID PLANS (Top of the world) Ok, now you have to defeat Hyper-Electro. First, before you do anything, run over and hop on top of the tower. Take out the generators so Electro can't recharge his health bar and take you out. Now, go over to the other part of the tower and go over to the generators. Now impact web the things on the sides and make Electro shoot at the generator. It will make him vincible! Go over to him and pound the heck out of him. If your on hard, DO NOT touch him when he's vincible or you'll get electricuted. Just impact web him. Then when he has half life or so, he should try to charge from the broken tower. The tower will fall over. COMIC ALERT (Hard): On the fallen part of the tower is the comic. COMIC ALERT (Kid Mode): On the tower you'll find a comic. Now just keep repeating that process. Here's a few tips I got to help you a little: 1. Stay away from Hyper-Electro 2. Do not touch Hyper-Electro 3. Remember #2 WHAT IF MODE: After you defeat Hyper-Electro there is a little "surprise" _ _ _ _ _ / ONGRATULATIONS! /_ _ _ _ _ _ Hyper-Electro is beaten. Hurray! Give yourself a high-five, now that you've beaten the game, you'll probably won't need a guide next time. But there is still so much more to do! 6) GALLERY - T H I N G S T O U N L O C K Now that you've beaten the game, there is lots of goodies and easter eggs to get. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Character Appears Spider-Man Load the game Henchman Enter the web-head Hired Goon Rooftops By Night Shocker Spidey Vs. Shocker Mercenary Smoke Screen Trainyard guard In Darkest Night Sandman Catch That Train! Gangster Gangland Hammerhead Spidey Vs. Hammerhead Flying Drone Spidey In The Machine Rolling Drone Mission: Spidey Scout Drone Spidey In The Machine The Lizard Spidey Vs. Lizard Animatronic Samuri Koni-Chiwa, Spider-San Electro Spidey Vs. Electro Hyper-Electro The Best Laid Plans Dr. Watts FMV "The Needle" Rogue Load the game Professor Xavier Load the game Beast Load the game _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \|MOVIE VIEWER \| Movie Appears ----- ------- Vicarious Visions Intro start game Previously on Spider-Man start game Prologue before Enter the webhead The City before Burglary Interuppted Warehouse 66 before Warehouse 66 Manners before Spidey Vs. Shocker Shockers Defeat after Spidey Vs. Shocker City Rooftops before Smoke Screen Police Ambush before Hangar 18 Hangar 18 before Wind Tunnel Daring Rescue after Wind Tunnel Darkness Falls before Catch That Train! A Hero no Longer after Catch That Train! Interlude before Gangland The Needle before Spidey Vs. Hammerhead The Plot Thickens after Spidey Vs. Hammerhead Sneaking In before Spidey In The Machine Mad Reptile before Spidey Vs. Lizard Repentance after Spidey Vs. Lizard Spidey to the rescue before Spidey Vs. Sandman Again Down the Drain after Spidey Vs. Sandman Again Boss... Look! after Spidey Vs. Sandman Again Spidey Monogatorio before koni-chiwa, spider-san Ascension before The Best Laid Plans Epilogue after The Best Laid Plans _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ "Captain America Foils Plot": Appears before Enter the webhead "Warehouse Theft A Bust": Die on Spidey Vs. Shocker "Rolling Blackouts": Appears after Spidey Vs. Shocker "Spider-Man Apprehended": Let the plane be destroyed on Wind Tunnel "Spider-Ambush": This has to be unlocked during the work of a cheat code or else you cannot unlock it. You enter DRKROOM as a cheat code for all gallery items. If your unlocking everything without codes, make sure to have all the other gallery items first. "Spider-Man Unmasked": Die or miss the train on Catch That Train! "Blackouts Continue": Appears after Catch That Train! "Ball Ruined 1": Die on Spidey Vs. Hammerhead "Ball Ruined 2": Appears after Spidey Vs. Hammerhead "Zeus Tear 1": Die on Spidey Vs. Lizard "Zeus Tear 2": Appears after Spidey Vs. Sandman Again "Spider-Man and Electro": Die on The Best Laid Plans "Thor Saves The City": Appears after The Best Laid Plans _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ \|COMIC COLLECTION\| Enter the Web-Head: Ultimate Spider-Man #1 Spectacular Spider-Man #197 Burglary Interuppted: Web of Spider-Man #100 Amazing Spider-Man,vol 2, #13 Rooftops By Night: Amazing Spider-Man #29 Warehouse 66: Peter Parker: Spider-Man #85 Spidey Vs. Shocker: Amazing Spider-Man #13 Hangar 18: Peter Parker: Spider-Man #92 Wind Tunnel: Peter Parker: Spider-Man #90 To catch a thief: Amazing Spider-Man #185 In Darkest Night: Spectacular Spider-Man #20 Heart Of Darkness: Peter Parker: Spider-Man vol 2, #22 Gangland: Amazing Spider-Man #21 Spectacular Spider-Man #220 Spidey Vs. Hammerhead: Amazing Spider-Man #114 Spidey In The Machine: Amazing Spider-Man, vol 2, #30 Amazing Spider-Man, Annual, #21 Mission: Spidey: Amazing Spider-Man, Annual #21, alternate version Spider-Man #25 The Corkscrew: Amazing Spider-Man #341 Spidey Vs. Lizard: Amazing Spider-Man #44 The Gauntlet: Spectacular Spider-Man #66 Amazing Spider-Man #425 Amazing Spider-Man #217 Spidey Vs. Sandman Again: Amazing Spider-Man #4 Peter Parker: Spider-Man, vol 2, #16 Koni-Chiwa, Spider-San: Amazing Spider-Man, vol 2, 2001 Annual Rock Of Ages: Amazing Spider-Man #422 Spectacular Spider-Man #258 Spidey Vs. Electro: Amazing Spider-Man #9 The Best Laid Plans: Spider-Man #38 Peter Parker: Spider-Man, vol 2, #2 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ \|PARKER'S PORTFOLIO \| Each time you win a boss battle, you will get a picture added to your portfolio in the gallery. You will get 12 pictures by Kaare Andrews from beating the game on Easy and Kid Mode. You will get 6 pictures from Mark Bagley from beating the game on Normal. And you'll get 6, beutiful black-and-white, ink and pencil, pictures from John Romita Sr. one of the greatest Spidey Artists. 7) C O S T U M E S / C H E A T S A) COSTUMES: Spider-Man (Powers: No enhanced game powers) Unlock: Load the game Spider-Pheniox (Powers: Invincibility, Enhanced Stregnth, Enhanced Unlock: Beat the game on hard Prodigy (Powers: Enhanced Stregnth, Double Jump Height, Enhanced Web-swing) Unlock: Beat 75 thugs in Attack Challenge mode. Dusk (Power: Stealth) Unlock: Collect all 32 comic books Insulated Suit (Powers: Enhanced Stregnth, Gets half damage from Unlock: Beat the Lizard on any difficulty (including Kid Mode) and only use serum shots on him Alex Ross--Red (Power: Double Jump Height) Unlock: Beat the Sandman (Spidey Vs. Sandman Again) On Hard Alex Ross--White (Power: Enhanced Web-swing) Unlock: Beat the game on Kid Mode Venom 2--Earth X (Power: Enhanced Stregnth, Unlimited Webbing) Unlock: Beat the game on Normal Negative Zone (Power: No enhanced game powers) Unlock: Beat the level 'Smoke Screen' on Normal - Without going back and fourth to restore time Symbiote Spider-Man (Power: Unlimited Webbing) Unlock: Beat the game on easy Spider-Man 2099 (Power: Enhanced Stregnth) Unlock: Beat the game two times on Normal or Hard Captain Universe (Powers: Enhanced Stregnth, Unlimited Webbing, Unlock: Beat the game two times on Normal or Hard Spider-Man Unlimited (Power: Stealth) Unlock: Beat the game two times on Normal or Hard Amazing Bag Man (Power: Can only carry 2 web cartridges) Unlock: Beat the game two times on Normal or Hard Scarlet Spider (Power: No enhanced game powers) Unlock: Beat the game two times on Normal or Hard Ben Reilly (Power: No enhanced game powers) Unlock: Beat the game two times on Normal or Hard Quick Change Spidey (Power: Can only carry 2 web cartridges) Unlock: Beat the game two times on Normal or Hard Peter Parker (Power: Can only carry 2 web cartridges) Unlock: Beat the game two times on Normal or Hard Battle Damaged (Power: No enhanced game powers) Unlock: Beat Electro for the first time B) CHEAT CODES: Unlock Everything: "AUNTMAY" Level Select: "NONJYMNT" Programmer High Scores: VVHISCRS Big Head Mode: ALIEN Big Feet Mode: STACEYD What-If? Mode: VVISIONS Unlock All Training Levels: CEREBRA Unlock All Costumes: WASHMCHN Unlock all Gallery Items: DRKROOM Debug Mode: DRILHERE Cursing Code: Enter a bad word and Spidey will pop up, hit the code and it will change to a nice word. This does nothing else. It's pretty funny though. 8) S P E C I A L T H A N K S --Thanks to EBgames for selling me this game --Thanks to my brother, Jeremy, for letting me use his playstation --Thanks to my Mom and Dad for renting me this game before I bought it --Thanks to JC, since he's my best -Thanks to Vicarious Visions for developing this wonderful game. --Thanks to Activision for publishing this -Thanks to everybody else I know, as well as they helped me write this in --Thanks to YOU, for actually reading this FAQ, unless you didn't like it "Until next time, True Beilevers! Excelsior!" - Stan "The Man" Lee	dclm-gs1-005930000
Question from wilber5150 Asked: 3 years ago How does Spiderman break through walls? I've tried jumping into the wall, kicking the wall, punching. Submitted Answers You need to use the black suit so that you can break trough walls,press "SELECT" to use the black suit then double tap the forward button so you can dash directly at the wall. Rated: +0 / -0 Respond to this Question Similar Questions question status from How do i get past the subway can you help??? Open petrucci10 Is there any way to have all the upgrades?? Open phoenixsfire How do I get past checkpoint 2 ? Open rabih_khouri Help PLEASE? Open cubano456 Help Please??? Open cubano456	dclm-gs1-005940000
Review by LeoLion0818 "This is the most revolutionary Final Fantasy game of its time; but it still leaves something to be desired." Final Fantasy III broke all of the typical cliches of its precursors. We no longer have a class system; everybody is essentially equal on FF3. Everyone has very similar stats, rather than having a few people excel in physical strength while other are meant for their magical abilities. Now everybody can use magic, a first in the Final Fantasy universe. Although equipment still varies from character to character there are universal armaments; plus every character can equip their fair share of heavy weapons and light weapons. On FF3, the characters are much prominent throughout the story than in previous FF games. Character development is extraordinary, every event that the characters go through bleeds into the story perfectly; and they portray real human emotions through their actions and behaviors. Even the story is magnificent… at first. We're introduced to a society that has been ravaged by a war, this war set human civilization back 1,000 years; but now there are those who are trying to repeat the war so that they can gain power and control over the planet. Once you reach the game's halfway point (you'll know it once you get there) the action slows down extraordinarily as you spend the remainder of the game regrouping and gaining the necessary abilities to take down the empire. This game is not the middle-aged world filled with castles, villages, knights, legends and other such things that the first two FF games introduced us to. Now we're in a society of machines, empires, underground resistance movements, technology, cities, and eventually an intense mess of a situation. Our heroes are nothing more than ordinary people, only three of them were born with the gift of magic; everybody else has their own unique skills, but they can acquire the ability to learn and use magic as you progress through the game. Story: 7/10 It's hard to truly measure the story of FF3 because it starts off very strong but deteriorates into a fragment of what it could be halfway through the journey. The biggest reason for this being that the climax takes place way too early in the game; but once they got there they realized that the game was too short so they had to double it in length to appease the many people who will play this. It starts off very interesting; the bad guys searching for what will add to their power and they acquire it by manipulating an innocent soul, then the person snaps out of it and joins the returners who are opposed to the empire. Every event, no matter how small, directs the game to the overall goal that we're here to accomplish (which is what a good RPG should do). All of the events bleed into one another, all of the small little tid-bits clash into one massive adventure that will be remembered throughout the times. Unfortunately, Squaresoft couldn't keep up with themselves when writing the story; or they just didn't know how to advance it anymore, so once you get halfway through the story just dies. Although the story is still present at this point the only purpose it serves is to tie up all of the loose ends that couldn't be solved in the first half of the game. Other than finishing up those small, scattered events that remain there's nothing left to do but find all of your remaining party members, and hunt for Espers to increase your strength and magic supplement. You have no sense of direction by this time; you're really just expected to revisit every location and hope that you get something out of it, rarely will somebody tell you where to go next (if you're lucky a townsperson will hint you at something significant going on somewhere in the world, even though it may be completely irrelevant to what you're doing at that moment.) Characters: 10/10 Okay, FF3 has some very strong characters. The emotions portrayed by the heroes and villains are both realistic as well as captivating. FF3 is a dramatic tale dealing with many complex emotions such as: Love, Greed, Betrayal, Vengeance, Despair, and Loyalty; all of which are realistically captured through various interactions. Some people may see the characters as being too whiny or emotional; but in reality this is how people really are, especially during times of war (which is when this game takes place). There is much longing in the second half of the game as everybody does their best to try and fix the world; whereas the world's denizens are all aimlessly wandering around suffering through hopelessness and despair. FF3 is a world filled with very three dimensional characters all doing their best to accomplish their personal goals in life. Battle System: 10/10 Your characters are no longer limited to performing certain actions in battle and having certain strengths and weaknesses as was the case in previous FF games. Now everybody starts on the same scale and they develop evenly over the course of the game. Everybody can learn every magic spell in the game and they each have their own unique ability which is equal in power to another character's unique ability. Once you gain control of Espers you can even guide your characters through their own path by raising certain stats as they level up (An esper may increase a character's Magical Power by 2 once they level up). You have full customization of your characters, and nobody is really any better than anybody else. You are allowed four group members to participate in battles and you're not stuck with a main character who's there for every single battle you participate in. Despite the equality of the battle system there is still a major level of strategy involved. It's about using your character's magic spells to set up the next character or you could have two or more characters using their best spells to take down a powerful foe. It's also about using the right weapons and armor. This game introduces a whole slew of different monsters for your group to deal with; but they're nothing with the right weapons and armor equipped. Difficulty: 10/10 Any RPG game is just as difficult as you want it to be. If you breeze through the game on your first try then beat it at lower levels. If you struggled through your first game then try leveling up some more. If you breeze through the game at low levels then try adding a challenge such as: Solo character, Initial equipment, Beat within X time or before x number of steps. Try it without magic, try it by only using magic; the possibilities are truly endless here. If you're going to play the game normally though (just the right level to scathe by, no additional challenges, etc.) then this game provides a fairly tough challenge towards the end. Actually, throughout the whole game you'll see a major challenge; it's not easy to walk out of certain dungeons or certain bosses alive and intact, but it can be done. With a little bit of time put into it this could be the easiest game that you'll ever play or if you just want to get through it you'll find a decent challenge waiting for you. Level Complexity: 8/10 FF3 has some difficult dungeons to navigate through, however, they're not difficult enough to warrant decent exploration. Most of the treasure chests are comfortably along the main path (in some cases a godsend, but in others pointless). There's really no reason to stray from the main path other than fighting additional battles to level up. With that being said, even a lot of the dungeons are still relatively easy to navigate through as there are never many twists and turns (with some exceptions). Don't expect to spend more than a couple of hours exploring any dungeon in this game; at least half of them only take minutes. Music: 8/10 FF6 has a wonderful soundtrack which fills your ears with many songs of anger, danger, despair, hopelessness, regal life, calmness, joy, and many other emotions that are conveyed wonderfully. FF3 still uses the same music for every town and the same song for every cavern that you enter which makes some of the songs get a little old. Sound: 4/10 This game has very little sound and whatever it does have it lacks, greatly. Kefka's laugther sounds like a woman screaming, explosions are just loud ambient noises synthesized together, a lot of the magic spells just sound plain funky. FF3 tried to have sound, but even for its time there wasn't much to it. Graphics: 10/10 Okay, for 1994 these are awesome graphics. There are very intricate details put into the grass and stone walkways. All of the houses are amazingly detailed and very realistic looking, except for the fact that they all look exactly the same with a different shape and furnature arrangement. For once the people are a decent height and you can tell what kind of a person you're talking to just by looking at them. In battles you can see the different weapons that your characters wield as they fly across the stage in a single stroke. Spells like Fire and Ice look very realistic (Ice 2 is even transparent!) There's a location where it rains all of the time and a stage where it's perpetually nighttime and it's shown on screen as you play the game. Controls: 10/10 It's very hard to have bad controls for an RPG. Gameplay: 7/10 This game starts off fairy simple with straightforward dungeons and linear gameplay, but once you reach the second half of the game things become more complex. FF3 goes from simple to challenging almost immediately. At first your following the path that the game has laid out for you: doing a mission or two here, going to rest over there, but once you reach a certain point the path becomes intertwined and distorted and there's never a clear destination. You wind up just randomly searching at places that you happen to hear about until you find someone or something. Actually there's a lot of the game that's entirely optional; you could either get the three necessary characters and fight the final boss or you could regroup all of your allies, collect more gear and espers, then fight the final boss; but it's really up to you. This allows very open-ended gameplay at the end leaving multiple endings open to the player. Fun Factor: 8/10 FF3 is a fun game, even when you're deciding where to go next there's always a surprise waiting for you. FF3 is full of plot twists and powerful monsters that will leave you guessing and clinging onto dear life until the very end. Shopping is less of a hassle because instead of just upgrading equipment constantly the shops offer whole new sleus of equipment every now and then allowing the player to experiment more and more. The battles are relatively complex and challenging, but still entertaining. There are some storyline battles that are fun to participate in or watch. Aside from battles and shopping there's plenty of fun outside of the main story. Overall Score: 7/10 Reviewer's Score: 7/10 \| Originally Posted: 04/16/08 Game Release: Final Fantasy III (US, 10/20/94) Got Your Own Opinion?	dclm-gs1-005950000
Vanishing Point Genre Sport -> Racing Today's Rank 33281 Date N/A Publisher Acclaim Date 2001-03-09 Publisher Acclaim Vanishing Point Vanishing Point United Kingdom Retail Box ArtVanishing Point's title suggests the aim of the developers: to achieve a true, endless view without pop-up or fog, so that players can see to the horizon. The game runs at a constant 60 frames per second and features straightforward racing elements; also, it features a stunt mode, in which realistic physics are implemented in unrealistic events, such as slaloms, barrel rolls, and jumping. There are 8 one-player tracks, 4 two-player tracks, and 13 stunt tracks; all of which are available in forward, reverse, and mirrored combinations. Vanishing Point's tune-up shop allows user-friendly but powerful modification of your vehicle's specifications that can be tested on a special tune-up shop track. All of the cars are licensed from top manufacturers like Audi, BMW, and Lotus (to name but a few), and the development team has worked with engineers in the auto industry to ensure that the vehicular physics are both accurate and realistic. Sponsored Links Vanishing Point North America Retail Box Art Vanishing Point United Kingdom Retail Box Art	dclm-gs1-005960000
Thief Review: Petty Posted by: Mike Splechta Gamezone Review Rating 6.5 Above Average Your Score Garrett the Master Thief has had a long, ten year hiatus since his last outing in Deadly Shadows. You would think having a long time to gather your thoughts and hone your skills would do a Master Thief good. In reality, it made Garrett all the more rusty. It's a polarizing experience really, with moments teeming with brilliance quickly overshadowed by mission-breaking bugs, bad lip-syncing or overly frequent loading times. Thief shines in the stealth department, which is a relief considering the game heavily relies on it. Sure, you can brute force your way through guards, knock them out from behind or send an arrow through their skull, but the brilliance of the game lies in figuring out a way around them. In that way, Thief's sneaky moments turn the game into a puzzle. Do you go out of your way to put out all lightsources and stay hidden, or do you take the high ground and sneak above unsuspecting guards? Do you use Garrett's various specialized arrows to put out fires around him, or start them with a fire arrow and cause a distraction long enough for him to slip by unnoticed? Choice is the keyword here, and Thief thankfully has a lot of it to offer. Each new location you come across will serve up a buffet of choices in how to tackle them. Garrett's arsenal and move set make him a stealth force to be reckoned with. One of the handiest skills is Swoop, which allows Garrett to quickly move ahead a decent distance, making it one of the most indespensible skills when moving between shadows. Seriously, this ability is amazing. Thief also handles first-person running in one of the best ways I've seen thus far. It just seems natural. From the momentum Garrett gains as soon as you press it to actually navigating when running, the whole process seems super smooth. However the silver linings end there. NPCs in Thief are just plain stupid. Don't get me wrong, I understand the need and importance of guards eventually stopping their pursuit in stealth games, but the way they do it in Thief just seems silly. Here's a scenario. A guard is patrolling near a burning fire. I need to sneak past him, but to do that, I need to dispose of the fire. After shooting my water arrow at it, he gets startled and goes on alert, giving me the chance to sneak by him while he's looking at the fire. That's great, but a mere seconds after, he relights the fire and goes back to his post, ignoring the arrow that's lodged into it. The fact that Garrett turns practically invisible when crouched in shadows also warrants for some silly NPC encounters. For instance, a guard can be standing literally in front of Garrett and not notice him thanks to being in the shadows. You don't even have to hide behind anything. Like Deadly Shadows before it, Thief allows Garrett to explore the City in between missions. The City also holds numerous challenges, such as side missions to complete for Basso and other various clients. Garrett can break into various homes to steal valuables and increase his gold amount as well pick up a number of collectibles scattered around. As much as I initially liked the open-world like structure of the City, it wasn't long before I grew to loathe it. Getting from one place to the next or simply trying to reach the next mission can be extremely frustrating. Instead of the City being one seamless playground for Garrett, it's separated into various smaller districts, all requiring about 20-30 seconds of loading (played on the PlayStation 4). But it's not as simple as running to a door to get to the next district. These places are separated by windows or barricaded alleyways that you're never fully sure lead to the place you want to go. In one instance, I spent about 20 minutes trying to reach one end of the district and kept running around in circles because the most obvious path was always blocked. This frustration is further enhanced by the fact that you don't always know what Garrett can or can't climb or jump across. There are a few visual cues that distinguish a scaleable wall, but there are also ledges that seem like they can be climbed on but can't. It's also frustrating when trying to run across a gap, hoping that Garrett will jump across, only to have him jump down into the streets instead. This makes traversing the town in any efficient matter non-existant. It's a shame, since like I previously stated, I absolutely love Garrett's running mechanics. Yours for the taking Continuing with the theme of archaic game design is the constantly repeating audio loops of NPCs in the city. If you stay in one place for more than 10 seconds, you'll hear the same conversation looping over and over with the same responses. It's maddening. Then come the random bugs that completely ruin the immersiveness of the game. Cutscenes will randomly drop framerate, but the sound will still keep playing, ensuring that the rest of the cutscene is completely out of sync with the audio. Garrett also occasionally has various items stuck to his hands in cutscenes, like his bow. One of the worst bugs I encountered (which required me to completely restart a mission) was having an important NPC get stuck to an object. No matter what I did, he wouldn't budge. Goodbye, last 30 minutes. Visually, Thief is a really good looking game. Sure it's mostly dark and not teeming with color, but it doesn't need to be. The architecture of the City looks absolutely believable. And those unique collectibles, like necklaces and rings look stunning as well. The sound is a mixed bag. While the soundtrack is mostly great, it has a few odd tunes that would fit more in a horror game than here, though admittedly, there is one mission that takes place in a run down asylum. Voice acting is also mediocre at best. Garrett just doesn't sound likeable, though the supporting case, Basso especially, sound pretty great. It might be a silly comparison, but Thief is sort of like the poor-man's Dishonored. Both have cities that are plagued with some sort of disease, and both rely on heavy stealth mechanics to keep the plot going. However, Dishonored had much better level design, voice acting, likeable characters and some sweet powers thrown in for good measure. Maybe it's because Thief is a cross-gen game, but many elements of Thief don't really scream next-gen. The amount of loading screens I had to endure during my playthrough was unbearable. Some might be able to look past Thief's shortcomings and instead only focus on the moments of brilliance. However, I imagine long-time Thief fans hoping for Garrett's grand return might be somewhat disappointed. [Reviewed on PlayStation 4] Tags: Thief, Square Enix, Eidos Montreal, Garrett Anonymous User	dclm-gs1-005970000
• Tall Timbers The new ie 9 is really nice (uncluttered to an extreme, and fast), but doesn’t seem to be any more html compliant than before. I look forward to the new releases of Firefox. • FreeYourMind Does any of this really matter at all? So long as you can see information in your browser from a website, what more does it -really- need to do for you?	dclm-gs1-005980000
The Demoman wiki last edited by minivan on 02/13/14 06:38AM View full history The Demoman is a character class in the Team Fortress franchise. His primary and secondary weapons are his grenade launcher and his sticky grenade launcher, both making the Demoman crucial to the roles of area denial and sentry destruction. He is widely known for being an angry "black Scottish cyclops." His real name was revealed to be Tavish DeGroot in a comic released with the Demo update. • Health: 175 • Speed: 93% of normal • Role: Defensive The Demoman is voiced by Gary Schwartz, who also voices the Heavy. A fierce temper, a fascination with all things explosive, and a terrible plan to kill the Loch Ness Monster cost the six year old Demoman both adoptive parents. Later, at the Crypt Grammar School for Orphans near Ullapool in the Scottish Highlands, the boy's bomb-making skills improved dramatically. His disposition and total number of intact eyeballs, however, did not. It was not long before Crypt Grammar received two visitors: Demoman's real parents, who explained that all Demomen are abandoned at birth until their skills manifest themselves, a longstanding, cruel, and wholly unnecessary tradition among the Highland Demolition Men. • Name: Tavish De Groot • Country of origin: Ullapool, Scotland, United Kingdom • Motto: "Boom, Baby, Boom" • Emblem: Bomb He now currently lives in a large mansion in Badlands, New Mexico. He makes an estimated five million dollars a year, which he makes because he holds down three jobs. Default Weapons Grenade Launcher Grenade Launcher The grenade launcher fires standard grenades that either explode on impact with an enemy (on the full only), or else explode after a couple of seconds. Like the shotgun, they can be fired at any time so long as at least one grenade is loaded, and the grenades themselves bounce off walls making them conducive to firing at enemies around corners or behind cover. For immediate threats to the Demoman's livelihood, it is usually worth aiming to hit on the full, which requires the Demoman to predict where his target will be in about half a second’s time and aim there dependent on the server lag. The best use of the grenade launcher tends to be as a spam weapon, firing rounds into a group of multiple enemies, and not worrying too much if they miss – as long as the enemies are not advancing too quickly, the explosions will still get them. Critical grenades are extremely dangerous for anyone nearby, so they compliment this strategy very nicely. Reloading is slow, so do it often, whenever you get the chance. As of the Pyro Update, Pyros equipped with the standard flamethrower can use their air blast to not only deflect these grenades but to change their color, causing them to do damage the Demoman's team. As a result caution should be taken firing blindly into congested areas. Advantages: Respectable damage plus splash damage, line of sight not required, perfect for harassing targets in or around cover, can be spammed to weaken enemies and deter movement. Disadvantages: Must hit enemy on the full to ensure damage (often difficult), small clip and painfully slow to reload when you really need it to, pretty ineffective against aware and dodging enemies beyond short range. • Ammo: Holds 4 grenades, 16 in reserve. • Base damage: 120 • Critical hits: 295 • Max range: Medium • Projectile: Arcing grenade • Reload: One at a time Sticky Grenade Launcher Sticky Grenade Launcher The sticky bomb launcher (aka pipe bomb or sticky grenade launcher) is more tactical than the grenade launcher, but operates in a similar fashion. Fire the sticky bombs with primary fire and detonate with secondary fire. Only 8 sticky bombs can be placed at a given time, so placing another one will cause the oldest one to detonate, causing standard explosion damage. If you hold down the fire button you will charge up your shot before release, giving it more velocity. It can be used as an anti-personnel weapon in a direct fire fight by firing and immediately detonating the sticky bombs, or by placing the sticky bomb where your target will be in the next few seconds. Chances are he won’t react quickly enough, and you can detonate the bombs right as he walks over them. Both methods are generally used while backpedalling and dodging fire. The sticky bomb launcher also has great tactical uses. First, the sight of sticky bombs in a doorway or narrow path, complimented by the demoman making his presence known, serves as a very effective deterrent to enemies who know that if they walk through the field of bombs, they will most likely explode. As such, visibly covering choke points with sticky bombs, or ‘plugging’ them, can cause enemies to reconsider their path, and if not prevent attacks altogether, at least slow them down. Just be careful not to get picked off before pressing the button because all of your sticky bombs disappear the second you die. If you are still alive when they do eventually walk through (or if the enemy team simply doesn't care about the threat), it tends to be at least one free kill. The other tact is taking the sneaky approach by placing your stickies in hard to see locations and watch them from a distance; tucked into a corner right past a door or hallway is usually a standard spot. Simply wait until an enemy walks past them for a nice bloody mess. Another great use for sticky bombs is for destruction, or the killing of engineer buildings, especially sentry guns. Soldiers and demomen are usually tasked with destroying these dangerous pieces of equipment, and the sticky bomb launcher is the perfect tool for the job. The demoman can pop out from cover, fire a sticky bomb at the sentry gun’s base, and quickly return to cover before the sentry can start firing. Rinse and repeat until about 3 sticky bombs are near the sentry gun, then detonate them. The upshot of this is, unlike the steady flow of rockets a soldier uses to do this, the engineer has no time to repair his buildings – they are destroyed instantly, usually along with the Engineer. The fun really begins when the demoman is übercharged as he can stroll through enemy territory placing sticky bombs on every building he sees. Again, don't wait too long to blow the bombs up as you might get killed the instant the Ubercharge wears off. Advantages: Nice clip size, can stick to most surfaces making it effective for ambushing, ability to charge shot for good range coverage, detonate ability can ensure damage, especially effective against stationary targets (engineer buildings), gives demoman the ability to sticky bomb jump, wall of stickies in a choke point serves as a major deterrent for enemy movement. Disadvantages: Weak for short range face-offs where damage can take too long to be dealt, painfully slow reload, planted sticky bombs can be displaced by bullets and explosions, direct hits on enemies are useless. • Ammo: Holds 8 bombs, 24 in reserve. • Base Damage: 120 (45-114 to self) • Mini-crits: 162 • Critical hits: 180 at max range from explosion, 353 at direct contact. • Max range: Medium (Long if charged) • Projectile: Arcing grenade • Reload: One at a time Whisky Bottle Whisky Bottle Another amusing melee weapon, the whisky-loving demoman busts out an empty xXx whisky bottle bar fight-style and smashes his enemies with it. Critical hits cause the bottle to break, which has no effect on gameplay. • Base Damage: 65 (59 to 72) • Mini-crits: 88 • Critical hits: 195 Unlockable Weapons Loch-n-Load (Replaces the Grenade Launcher) The Loch-n-Load The Loch-n-Load is a craftable primary weapon for the Demoman, released for the The Expert's Ordnance set. It has 60% less clip size. The grenades fired by the Loch-n-Load are much faster, and inflict slightly more damage, but are more hazardous to the Demoman that fired them, giving 25% more damage do the player, and will shatter harmlessly if they hit something other than an enemy player. The Loose Cannon (Replaces the Grenade Launcher) The Loose Cannon. The Loose Cannon is a hand cannon that fires bombs that do not explode on contact, but knock back the target. they also do 50% less damage after contact with a surface. however, the grenades fired have a shorter fuse of 2 seconds, and can be primed before fired. The Scottish Resistance (Replaces the Sticky Launcher) The Scottish Resistance A weapon coming out of the WAR! update. This weapon can lay 14 sticky bombs down at one time, as opposed to the default 8, and carries 50% more reserve ammo. When detonating stickies only the ones in your view will explode, meaning you can set and spring multiple traps independently. This can be useful when used as a defensive weapon on maps with multiple entryways. In an added bonus the Resistance's bombs will destroy enemy stickies instead of just blowing them around. The weapon's main downside is an increased arm time of 0.4 seconds. This may not seem like much but it effectively keeps you from air-bursting your bombs, and overall gives your enemies more time to react, keeping this weapon almost strictly in the defensive category. Also since you need to see the bombs you are detonating you cannot blind fire up into windows. Sticky jumping can prove to be trickier with this weapon. • The player is awarded the Scottish Resistance for achieving " Demoman Milestone 3" (Get 17 Demoman achievements) The Chargin` Targe (Replaces the Sticky Launcher) The Chargin' Targe This weapon was released after the WAR! update. The Chargin' Targe is a small shield that sits on your left arm while using your other weapons, reducing fire and explosive damage. The targe also gives you an alt-fire charge move that hurtles you forward. Can be used to cross terrain, impale your enemies on the targe, or give a critical boost to your melee weapons. • The player is awarded the Chargin' Targe for achieving " Demoman Milestone 1" (Get 5 Demoman achievements) Splendid Screen (Replaces the Sticky Launcher) The Splendid Screen This weapon is a iron shield with four knobs on it, and a large boss in the middle. It gives 60% less fire resistance and 62,5% less explosive resistance, compared to the Chargin' Targe. However, it doesn't have a minimum distance required to deliver damage with the shield bash, and a sucessful charge delivers 70% more damage. The Eyelander (Replaces the Bottle) The Eyelander The last weapon to come out of the WAR! update. This weapon is a mighty claymore with a long reach, and when used in conjunction with The Chargin' Targe it can inflict alot of damage on an enemy. Dashing towards them can quickly put you right into their face and give you a critical buff at the same time. The sword is cursed however, and starts a demo that uses it with 25 less health. However if you satiate the sword's desire for heads by felling your opponents each decapitation will give you a boost in max health and speed. • The player is awarded the Eyelander for achieving " Demoman Milestone 2" (Get 11 Demoman achievements) • The Eyelander does not make random critical hits like other weapons. The Scotsman's Skullcutter (Replaces the Bottle) The Scotsman's Skullcutter DescriptionA seriously savage battle-axe carried by the Demoman into the heart of battle. This giant weapon hits 20% harder than normal melee weapons but it's size means the Demoman moves 15% slower. Although it will decapitate enemies like the Eyelander it does not gain any head bonuses. On the plus side it has the Eyelander's long range but can still make random criticals as well as Targe assisted ones. • Base Damage: 78 • Mini-crit: 105 • Critical Hit: 234 (Enough to kill all unbuffed classes but the Heavy) • The Scotsman's Skullcutter can be crafted by combining an Axtinguisher with a Jarate. The Pain Train (Replaces the Bottle) The Pain Train The Pain Train is a "Makeshift Club" that can be used by either the Demoman or his fellow explosives aficionado the Soldier. This crude piece of weaponry gives you the Scout's ability to count as two people in regards to speeding up a point capture or pushcart. It's downside is that you take 10% extra damage from hitscan weapons (Shotguns, pistols, sentries ect). • The Pain Train can be crafted by combining a Sandman with one scrap metal. • The Pain Train functions identically to the bottle as a melee weapon. Frying Pan (Replaces the Bottle) Melee weapon that was given away during the Left 4 Dead 2 "The Sacrifice" promotion, to players who bought or had already purchased Left 4 Dead 2. Unusual Headless Horseman's Headtaker (Replaces the Bottle) The Unusual Headless Horseman's Headtaker Melee weapon craftable and obtainable since the Scream Fortress halloween event. It's a re-skin of the Eyelander, with all the stats unchanged. Ullapool Caber (Replaces the Bottle) The Ullapool Caber This weapon explodes upon impact, causing every enemy as well as yourself to take damage. It deals 150 damage to all enemies in the blast radius with no damage fall-off due to damage. Only the first hit explodes. After the first hit, the grenade does not crit randomly and does standard damage for a melee weapon. The only way to replenish the explosive charge it to hit a Resupply Locker. Half-Zatoichi (Replaces the Bottle) The Half-Zatoichi When you wield this weapon, you can't change weapons until you kill an enemy. Upon killing, the player's health is restored in full. Anyone wielding a Half-Zatoichi can instantly slay any enemy actively brandishing a Half-Zatoichi of their own. Persian Persuader (Replaces the Bottle) The Persian Persuader This melee weapon is a scimitar with a brass hilt and a bloodied blade, that doubles the recharge rate of the Chargin' Targe and the Splendid Screen when equipped, and converts ammo pickup to health when collected (it doesn't apply to the Payload Cart, the Resupply Locker, and Dispensers) Nessie's Nine Iron (Replaces the Bottle) The Nessie's Nine Iron This community created melee weapon is a re-skin for the Eyelander. It has the appearance of a golf club. All stats and weapon system is the same as the Eyelander. Sticky Bomb Jumping Sticky Bomb Jumping is very similar to rocket jumping, but using sticky bombs instead of rockets (note: a player is able to increase their jump height by using pipe bombs, but the issues of timing and erratic bomb behavior make this impractical). To do a sticky jump: 1. Place a sticky on the ground 2. Run towards the sticky 3. Jump over then detonate the sticky Depending the angle and distance between you and the sticky, you can achieve various distances and heights. You can even use two stickies to achieve ridiculous range, but this is ill-advised unless there is health or a medic near the landing zone (the bombs plus the landing will bring a full health Demoman to under 50 regularly). If you fire a crit sticky don't worry you won't take any extra damage. Also be aware that the period between launching the bomb and being able to detonate it is approximately one second, so don't go too fast or you will miss the jump. • Shoot your sticky bombs on the sides of walls, behind automatic doors, or around corners. Seasoned players will easily notice the sticky bombs on the floor, and it's ill-advised to place them like this unless you're in direct combat, guarding a capture point, sticky jumping or putting them on a slope so that players will not see them until it's too late. • Blind firing the pipe bombs isn't very useful (you can get lucky and take out some people, it's unlikey though), but it can have its advantages. Firing into a spot where you know an enemy has gone can flush them out, or into a busy area from behind cover. • Spreading your sticky bombs around a capture point is an effective, if not overused and obvious, way of protecting your capture point. When you see that your CP is being captured, just go ahead and right click. Meet the Demoman Meet the Demoman was released on October 9th 2007, the day before the release of Team Fortress 2. The video demonstrates the Demoman's love for explosives and also shows us the anger and drunkness the Demoman endures. Grenade Launcher Taunt position when the grenade launcher is equipped. The Demoman lifts up his body armor to show a smiley face taped onto the crotch of his pants and shouts, "KA-BOOM!" Sticky Grenade Launcher Taunt position when the sticky grenade launcher is equipped. The Demoman spins around, thumps his chest twice, and then throws a V-Sign. Whiskey Bottle Taunt position when the whiskey bottle is equipped. The Demoman says "Cheers, mate!", takes a swig from his bottle, and belches loudly in one of two different ways. The Demoman's taunt kill position. When taunting with the Eyelander, Half-Zatoichi, Nessie's Nine Iron, Persian Persuader or the Claidheamohmor equipped, the Demoman brings his sword up in one hand, twirls it, and then slashes it horizontally at neck level, decapitating anyone slow, unaware or simply unfortunate enough to be standing in front of him at the moment of the swing with a one hundred percent chance of death animation. It's necessary to kill someone with this taunt to earn the 'Scotch Tap' achievement. Below is a list of every hat the Demoman can equip in the head slot. Miscellaneous items Below is a list of every item the Demoman can equip in the two misc slots. • Dangeresque, Too? • A Whiff of the Old Brimstone • Scottish Snarl • Pickled Paws • Ornament Armament • Aladdin's Private Reserve • Snapped Pupil • Teufort Tooth Kicker • Professor's Pineapple • Liquor Locker • Bird-Man of Aberdeen • Battery Bandolier • Bearded Bombardier • King of Scotland Cape • Menpo • Bonedolier • Voodo-Cursed Demoman Soul • Deadliest Duckling • Cool Breeze • Mutton Mann • Buck Turner All-Stars • Blind Justice • Bolted Bombardier • HDMI Patch • Scrumpy Strongbox • Dark Age Defender • Tartantaloons • Gaelic Golf Bag • Macho Mann • Gaelic Garb • Whiskey Bib This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for: Comment and Save	dclm-gs1-005990000
No recent wiki edits to this page. Basic Information Nick Fury Nick Fury is the head of S.H.I.E.L.D ( Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate) who can be found in video games based off of the Marvel comics universe. One of his most recent appearance's was in the Activision's Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, which was known for it pairing of many classic and obscure heroes in the Marvel universe. Originally Nick Fury was a World War II veteran who appeared in the Marvel universe. To adapt the character to a modern time period, he became a CIA agent and first dawned his trademark eye patch. He was later recruited by Tony Stark (Iron Man) to join S.H.I.E.L.D to stop the fictional terrorist organization known as, HYDRA. Fury with Cap's Shield Fury has encountered an assortment of Marvel characters in comics and in the video games based off of these comics. Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Punisher, Captain America, and Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier) have all had related plot points related to Nick Fury at one point in their history. Always sumthin' odd about the Limeys... Now you listen to me and you listen good -- I made SHIELD, Junior! And I'll be damned if I let some snot-nosed punk recruit like you come along and do a victory dance over my body! Some of us might die today. But what I'm asking ya to do is fight with everything you've got -- goin' up against an enemy of unknown power. And I want each and every one of you to know -- I've never been prouder of any force I've led into battle. Who were you expecting, Parker... Santa Clause? My apologies for yanking you out of class. I'm all sorts of torn up about it... Now the point: there's a matter of national security needs tending to. The world's a strange place these days -- you read the papers. America ain't much into the idea of jumping into conflicts that don't directly involve it, and what stuff it is in is deep. It don't much have the time for extracurricular activities if you get my meaning... Hey, I'll tell ya what... you don't tell me what's "necessary," an' I won't put my boot heel in yer backside. Deal? All right, all right... enough with this! Lemme clue you in on something, "Poindexter"... there's all kinds of pain in this world... a cigar being put out in the palm of yer hand... German hamstring torture... daytime talk shows... but listening to your jabbering is giving me a migraine that Nazi artillery never induced! Carry on, men... and don't screw it up this time! Ultimate Nick Fury I still got one eye, Jonesy, I'm not blind. So, you're pretty much %$&*ed, huh?. This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for: Comment and Save	dclm-gs1-006000000
The Paula wiki last edited by Deusoma on 03/06/13 09:44PM View full history Paula is Garcia Hotspur's girlfriend and the reason why he dives head first into hell. Garcia chases her through hell during the entirety of the game, often to no avail. Role in Shadows of the Damned Little is known about Paula prior to the game. She was found by Garcia in a dumpster behind a supermarket. He brought her home but she did not speak for a long length of time. One day, the phone rang and she broke her silence to tell him not to answer it. When Garcia picked up the phone anyway, she snapped and ripped the phone off the wall. The ending suggests that Paula is actually The Unbreakable Huntress, the first female demon hunter to challenge and be defeated by Fleming. The game starts with her being hanged by the minions of Fleming, who then arrives in person to kidnap her soul and taunt her boyfriend with sexual innuendo. During the entire game, Garcia runs after her, trying to get her back. He often calls her his Angel (pronounced the Spanish way, ahn-hel) and tells anecdotes about her, like how he first came to meet her or how once he jokingly told her how he was married after having sex with her and she chased him around with a knife because of it. That can't be good... Her biggest role in Shadows of the Damned however is dying. Fleming promised Garcia that he would kill Paula before resuscitating her and killing her again and that is exactly what he does. From the very beginning, Fleming comes out of Paula's back, turning her into a lifeless shell before making her live again and putting her inside his body. Later on, demonic duplicates of Paula are seen, often leading Hotspur into traps. It is sometimes difficult to tell whether or not the Paula seen is the real deal, or another copy. At one point she is dragged through a lake and horribly drowned. At another point, she is decapitated and continues talking to Garcia even though her head has been severed from her body, telling Garcia in how much pain she is and that she wants to give up and die for real. Occasionally, solely to anger Garcia, demons will disguise themselves as Paula before bursting out of her in some grotesque fashion. At one point, Paula and Garcia share a kiss. After several seconds, it's revealed that Paula's tongue is in fact a giant tentacle that is choking Garcia. Paula is used in the underworld to torment Garcia. Despite the fact that Johnson warns him each and every time that what he is seeing may not be the real Paula, Hotspur can't resist the urge to follow her even if it means falling in a trap. But killing Paula a thousand times isn't the only way the demons haunt Hotspur. During the strip tease level entitled "Big Boner", Paula is seen topless and Garcia is forced to climb on her breasts and butt while watching multiple Paulas pole dance. The game ends with her being freed from Fleming by Garcia. However, she is possessed and Garcia is forced to fight her. In the end, Hotspur manages to get her out of hell. The couple is seen preparing a vacation to Mexico but it's revealed that Fleming has in fact survived, and that he will never give up his pursuit of her. Garcia swears an oath to himself that he'll slay every demon in the world if need be, until she is his alone. This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for: Comment and Save	dclm-gs1-006010000
Robin Rogers Robin Rogers In a small hot glass studio in Western Montana in 2001, the paths of Julia Boriss and Robin Rogers intersected and eventually merged. At this shop, called Cloud Cap Glass, their friendship grew and their glass practices began to overlap.They both became part owners of the studio and worked together, operating the small business and creating glass works. In pursuit of Master of Fine Art degrees, the couple decided to leave their beloved Montana in 2005. They re-envisioned their glass studio and created a trailer-mounted portable shop. With their tools, dogs and one year old son packed up, they set out for Southern Illinois. For schooling and professional opportunities, the glassy family has lived in Carbondale, Illinois; Bowling Green, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Norfolk, Virginia. After nearly ten years of working together and assisting with each other's work, the duo decided to start creating artwork collaboratively. In these bodies of work, every step of the process, from idea development to finishing touches, is completed by both artists. This method of working has led to the creation of pieces that Julia and Robin are excited to make and proud to exhibit. Through the synergy of this collaboration, the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts • architectural/public • flame/lampworking • glassblower • accept commissions Business Name: Robin and Julia Rogers 1007 Bowden Ave Chesapeake, VA 23323	dclm-gs1-006020000
Ballot effort underway to raise Mich. minimum wage Groups backing an increase in Michigan's minimum wage laid the groundwork Monday for a statewide ballot drive in November, forming a committee that is very likely to commence with collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to qualify. AP Wire Jan 28, 2014 "Our politicians in Lansing and D.C. have failed workers. There are a lot of people who work hard who've been waiting for a raise," said Frank Houston, treasurer of the Raise Michigan ballot committee. Michigan's $7.40-an-hour minimum wage last went up in 2008 and is slightly higher than the $7.25 federal hourly minimum. Republicans have not embraced calls by both President Barack Obama and Michigan Democrats to raise the minimum wage to $10 at the federal and state levels. Democrats are planning to make income inequality a top issue this election year. "All indications are that we're highly likely to move forward," said Houston, who also is chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party. "We fully expect Michigan to be the No. 1 place in the country where we're having a conversation around economic dignity and inequality." The coalition involved includes labor unions, community organizers, a restaurant worker center, and faith-based and civil rights groups. The groups sent out statements Monday from low-wage mothers who said their income is not enough to get by. "If you work full-time you shouldn't live in poverty," said Rebecca Hatley-Watkins, 23, of Kalamazoo. A final decision to proceed is expected within days. The proposal would likely aim to change a state statute, not change the state constitution. The minimum wage would rise to the "ballpark" of between $9 and $10.10 an hour and be indexed to inflation, Houston said. Republicans have said hiking the minimum wage would hurt employers' ability to hire people. The restaurant industry says it already operates on thin margins and argues sharply higher wages would lead to steeper prices. "If Michigan increases the cost of employing entry-level workers, lower-skilled workers will see less job opportunities because employers will be forced to hire higher-skilled job applicants to fill multiple roles or cut jobs to absorb the costs associated with the increase," said Wendy Block, director of health policy and human resources for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. The group said businesses already are grappling with costs associated with the federal health care law and that government should focus on helping people get jobs, not make it more expensive to hire them. In November, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer proposed increasing the hourly minimum to $9.25 over three years. He said it would aid the consumer-driven economy by putting more money in employees' pockets and give low-wage workers the same buying power as 1968, when the wage had its highest purchasing power. A message seeking comment was left for Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is up for re-election. He has said raising the wage could have negative consequences. Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Lon Johnson, who has wanted to avoid ballot issues this year to stay focused on candidate campaigns, said in a statement that it was not surprising to see "a lot of energy surrounding this issue. Democrats at all levels are fighting to increase the minimum wage because we believe that people who work hard and play by the rules deserve a fair shot at supporting themselves and their families." Only Idiot's think this way by raising MW = fewer hours worked = fewer employees needed = increase in the price point for the product = fewer sales = see point number 1. Abolish the MW all together, it's criminal and self defeating to the employee.(your only worth $9.00/hr cuz that's what the MW says I have to pay...) Former Grandhavenite I'd invite anyone opposed to this to try living on the minimum wage for a month- just try it and see how long you last. Ideally for extra realism, you'll have quite a few mouths to feed on that income and a broken down car as well. Even better would be to keep watching Fox News the whole time you do this experiment so you'll hear every day how the poor just have it waaay too easy, what with all the government handouts, etc that they get. One could only hope that the handle LIAMD does NOT mean Lia is a doctor. It might be a erronerous assumption on my part that doctors as a general rule are smarter than this person's posts would indicate.... Minimum wage is not nor was ever intended to be a "living wage", it was and is a starting point more aimed at those first time employees so they could get their feet wet with less risk to the company, it was never intended to support entire families, albeit the lousy economy makes this unfortunate situation in the first place but the fix is not over pay for mundane tasks. sure, get rid of minimum wage, and let the market decide wages. Like restaurants do, they pay wait staff $2.50/hr because all you big tippers are leaving them a quarter. Heck, they get paid a living wage, why supplement it with tips? Minimum wage should be closer to $10/hr, yes to start out getting their feet wet, and as a guideline to employers. If they think you are worth it, they give you a raise. Anyone on here get a raise lately??? Tri-cities realist Would the wait staff prefer being paid minimum wage but have the restaurant take 2/3 of their tips, since $2.50 is roughly 1/3 of the minimum wage? I think most would prefer the current system. yeah, right. The wait staff really likes it the way it is, they don't want MW increased. And the employer takes the tips?? WTH kind of accounting are you even talking about? Welcome home from a hard day at the place that really doesn't need or want you, have another drink on me! You get paid what your worth and if you don't like it take matters into your own hand,expand your opportunities & show some personal responsibility, work hard,stay focused,get educated and advance your career. Why would any sane person limit themselves to the current MW or the proposed $10/hr? How demeaning..limiting ones potential to a MW outlook..just pathetic. I guess with this logic, I am not worth a penny... Get real. Some people go WELL above and beyond and are still paid peanuts. If employers were allowed to, I bet many would pay next to nothing, even compared to the current minimum wage, while their companies rake in record profits. I guess that is trickle down economics for you... Look at dining establishments... Nobody is limiting them to only paying their employees a bit over $2/hr, yet they do, because the law says they can. Get rid of the minimum wage and other employers will follow suit. I disagree with your worth jle...the ignorance in your reply is pricele$$ !Oh those Eeeeevil companies and eeevil profits. Why would anyone go "well above and beyond,..get peanuts" and stick around for that employer ? =stupid. Yep, pay next to nothing and retain the very best and brightest employees..that makes perfect sense as well. Waiters/Waitress..the law says they must get payed min.$2/hr. What you left out(must have been an oversight) is the average wage including tips he/she makes is closer to $16 to $22/ hr. Again,if your sharp and really good as a waiter/waitress you can exceed the required MW and who knows what other opportunities might come along. Sick and tired of feeling sorry for yourself then do something about it. Post a Comment	dclm-gs1-006030000
Judge Grady Judge Grady is, in 2008, the host of the Just or Unjust talk show on WKTT. While an unseen character, his voice would suggest that he is a heavy-set African-American man, similar in appearance to TV's Judge Mathis or Judge Joe Brown. Grady is an extremely misogynistic host who always favors the man in a case, while making sexual advances towards most of the women on the show while otherwise viewing them as inferior to men. He generally seems to have quite poor judgment; instead of actually ruling in favor of the plaintiff or defendant, Judge Grady forces both litigants to participate in a deadly contest, which is chosen by the courtroom audience, to determine who wins the case. Once during the show he reveals that he is politically far right-wing, which would make sense considering his show is on WKTT. Last modified on 26 October 2013, at 14:52	dclm-gs1-006040000
Printer Friendly Version ] [ Report Abuse ] << >> Harry Potter and the Time of Second Chances by Neville James Chapter 16 : A Night to Forget Rating: 12+Chapter Reviews: 15 Background: Font color: Chapter 16: A Night to Forget Harry continued to gape at the approaching figures from where he and Marc were concealed behind a shrub. Everything around him went unearthly quiet, but Harry knew that in a matter of moments the air would be filled with threats and pleas. Marc watched his older roommate with wide and worried eyes as he stared at the newcomers as though they were ghosts, trembling uncontrollably. He tried to calm him and placed a hand on his shoulder, hoping that he might get a few answers as well. As soon as he had touched Harry he opened his mouth to speak and was abruptly cut off as Harry’s hand flew to his mouth, covering it firmly. Harry lifted a finger to his own mouth signalling his wish for silence, and shook his head vehemently as though it was a matter of life and death. Marc stared into Harry’s eyes and saw the immense fear that swam there, something unheard of for Harry Potter. Seeing the Boy-who-lived quake with such fear finally told Marc who was standing outside that cottage. He too stumbled back a bit and his eyes widened in fear and shock. His own eyes though, reflected an equal amount of anger as they did fear. He understood why Harry looked so afraid and was now filled with pity for his friend; Harry was not afraid of Lord Voldemort, but he was downright terrified of what he was going to be forced to watch. Marc set a determined look on his face before reaching into his robes and slowly pulling out his wand. Harry, noticing this, once again jutted his arm out and grabbed Marc’s hand, shaking his head determinedly. Marc couldn’t take it. How could he just sit there and do nothing, knowing that his parents would soon be murdered before his very eyes? ‘What are you doing?’ Marc hissed in barely a whisper. ‘You can save them! Warn them. Tell them to apparate or something.’ He was beginning to sound frantic as Harry simply sat and stared at him. ‘I can’t,’ he finally said. ‘I wish I could, but if that monster sees either of us, do you know what kind of damage could be done? How history could be changed?’ ‘Yeah, you would have your parents right now and you wouldn’t be the most famous wizard in the world. Sounds terrible,’ Marc said angrily, as though it was a very simple decision. Harry shook his head again defiantly, tears forming in his eyes. ‘If my mum doesn’t die protecting me, Voldemort won’t fall. What kind of world would we live in then?’ he asked in a shaky voice. ‘Don’t you think I’d rather live with them? Not have to worry about being chased by Death eaters for the rest of my Life? It just wouldn’t work. I’ve played it over and over in my head. If they got away it wouldn’t change anything. He would just keep chasing them until he caught them again, maybe tomorrow or next week. And then we might not be that lucky.’ Marc didn’t like the idea of doing nothing but remained silent now as he and Harry ducked lower, waiting for the inevitable. Not two seconds later, the pair felt the bush move slightly as Voldemort walked quietly passed them and up to the front door. If he had simply turned his head slightly to the left he would have seen the boy he had come for. Harry could see him clearly now from where he crouched, unable to look away. Voldemort raised his wand with grim satisfaction, and with a downward slash and no audible curse, the thick brown door was blown off of its hinges allowing him to step over the threshold. The next few moments were unbearable for Harry as he heard Voldemort’s voice threaten his father. He had been taken aback at how deep and human his voice had sounded. Apparently when the Dark Lord was first in power he had been much more Tom Riddle than Voldemort. ‘There is really no point, James. I will get what I came for.’ ‘You will never lay a finger on my family. You’re just a monster and you’ll never win, not with Dumbledore around!’ Harry heard a loud growl after the last comment. Voldemort had clearly already feared Dumbledore at this time. ‘There are no monsters James, just people who are willing to do anything for power, and those too weak to stop them. I offer you the chance to join me. You would do well as a Death Eater.’ Harry began to shake again and his breathing grew ragged. Not from fear, but rage at the thought of his father ever being associated with Death Eaters. ‘I’ll die before I join you,’ he heard his father shout in utter disgust, and felt that his father had probably said far fewer things with such adamancy. ‘Easily arranged,’ came Voldemort’s response. ‘ Goodbye, Potter. Avada Kedavra!’ Harry tensed at hearing these words spoken and closed his eyes when he saw the bright green light glow from the doorway and momentarily light up the fog that had begun to form around the home. Not a second later he heard the heavy thud of James Potter’s body hitting the floor. Marc looked near shell-schocked as he watched the tears swell in his friends eyes, unable to help or comfort him in any way. Another minute passed as the boys listened for what they knew would come next, but the pause seemed to go on forever. Harry cautiously lifted himself up and looked carefully into the window. He recoiled the instant he saw his father’s body heaped at the base of the staircase. It was not that he had never seen a dead body before, but the glassy empty look of his father’s eyes cut through him deeply and hurt more than he had anticipated. Harry landed back next to Marc on the grass and leaned his back on a tree, attempting to get a hold on his breathing and keeping his lids tightly shut. Marc reached out a hand to console his new best friend, but was stopped suddenly by a new set of screams piercing the air. Two adults and one infant. ‘No, not Harry! Please not Harry!’ Lily Potter’s voice carried out onto the street, terrified and full of tears. Harry closed his eyes tighter and tried to block it from his mind. He could hear his younger self’s muffled cries from where he was undoubtedly being held against his mother’s chest. ‘Get out of the way you foolish girl!’ Voldemort’s voice hissed scathingly. ‘No! Not Harry, take me instead!’ Lily screamed as though she thought it might hold him off longer. ‘There is no instead,’ the cold voice said, filled with amusement. ‘Avada Kedavra!’ Harry started to shake again as the scream he had so often heard in his dreams sounded all around him, louder than he could have ever imagined, threatening to pierce his eardrums and shatter the window above him. Just as quickly as it had started, the scream ended, and the boys were once again met with a hollow thud. Marc winced as he pictured the redhead hitting the floor and then heard the clear cries of a baby, now helpless and completely vulnerable to the monster that stood before it. Marc pulled himself up to sit beside Harry and squeezed his arm as a show of support. He fell back in surprise when Harry flung his eyes open and quickly got to his feet, leaving a gaping Marc to scramble up after him. ‘Are you insane, Harry! Get back here!’ he hissed at the raven-haired boy as he walked out from behind the bush. ‘ I hate to be insensitive, but they’re already gone. You made your decision.’ ‘Yeah, but he’s not,’ came Harry’s cold reply, his face now determinedly set as he turned back toward the doorway. ‘And I’m going to watch this. I deserve to see this much,’ he added with such resolve that Marc took pause. ‘You can’t Harry, what about the other Death Eater?’ he tried to reason and stepped out to grab Harry’s arm. Harry never got the chance to answer though, as an unearthly shriek filled the air followed by the most blinding green light Harry had ever seen. Both he and Marc shut their eyes and threw their hands up to cover their ears. Not a second later, they were both thrown backward into the bush by a thundering explosion that shook the cottage to its core, and they both felt heavy debris landing on and around them. They lay immobile for a few moments, unsure of what to do. Marc was the first to open his eyes and push the large slab of wood off his legs to turn and check on Harry. He too opened his eyes and the sight set before them was one that neither of them would ever forget. The once welcoming cottage now lay in a smouldering heap of rubble, all but two of the walls having crumbled away helplessly at the explosion. Most of the furniture in the home popped and crackled as they were engulfed in green flames, each bit of fire dancing victoriously as it burned. The bodies of James and Lily Potter remained intact and exactly in the places they had fallen, looking to the rest of the world as though they had fallen to sleep and not been viciously murdered. What bothered Marc the most, was not the ring of flames burning ominously around the destroyed home, or the immediate threat of Death Eaters around them, or even the sight of his best friend’s parents laying dead and wide-eyed before him. What tugged at his heart was the sight among the wreckage and the sound that met his ears. Where the cottage had once been the focal point in a beautiful valley, a scared and crying infant now drew attention in the middle of chaos and destruction. A lone child with a small lightning shaped cut on his forehead sat crying and bleeding among the remains of his home and family, helpless and confused. The Dark Lord had been vanquished, but for this child the worst had already been done. Voldemort had made him suffer more than he would ever know. The boy was now alone, without parents, without safety, and without love. He had vanquished the Dark Lord and saved the wizarding world but at great personal cost. He had done a great deed for society without ever trying and would not know it for another ten years. This was the day his suffering began. He was the boy who lived. Marc turned to Harry to indicate that they should get away quickly before someone saw them, and was shocked to find him moving toward the rubble. Harry walked quickly and meaningfully toward his parents’ bodies, first his father’s and then his mother’s. He sadly reached out a hand and swiftly swept their eyes closed, letting tears drop quietly onto the ground as he did. Then he made his way to his younger self and crouched down low beside the baby. He knew he didn’t have long before Hagrid would appear, and then Sirius. ‘It’s alright, Harry,’ he said quietly, reaching out a hand to console the child. Marc tried to stop him as he watched him remove his wand and point it at him. Harry muttered something quietly and Marc watched as the blood left the infant’s face and in it’s place sat a fresh, red scar. ‘Don’t worry,’ Harry told his younger self in a hushed and caring voice, ‘everything will be alright. One day you’ll know what happened and you’ll be proud.’ He paused for a moment and leaned down to look into his own emerald eyes. ‘And you’ll be loved.’ The infant stopped crying and stared at him in interest before reaching a tiny arm into the air and placing his hand on Harry’s identical scar. ‘I know,’ Harry said sadly before leaning forward and kissing him on the forehead, ‘but it will all be alright, I promise.’ Harry stood up then and turned his back on the child to rush toward a disbelieving Marc. As soon as he was standing next to him he pulled the Time Turner out of his shirt and watched as Marc picked up his invisibility cloak. ‘Let’s get out of here, Harry,’ Marc said pleadingly. ‘Just one more second,’ he said and watched the scene intently from where they stood behind a tree. Not ten seconds passed when Hagrid appeared out of thin air, having travelled by portkey, and quickly took in the scene around him. Harry heard the wracking sobs coming from the half-giant and fought hard to hold back the rest of his own tears. Marc suggested they should leave again but stopped when he heard a loud rumbling above them. Only Marc was surprised to see a giant motorbike fly low in front of them before landing next to Hagrid. The next few minutes were tense as the boys watched Hagrid and Sirius’s exchange before Hagrid mounted the motorbike with the infant tucked in his arms and flew off into the night. Marc glared venomously at Sirius, but Harry watched him through caring eyes and shared his pain. He felt a sharp pain in his chest at seeing Sirius yell into the night furiously after kneeling next to his best friend’s body. The last thing he saw of his Godfather was him apparating away, and he felt guilty for not preventing his going to Azkaban. As Marc’s third plea to go home reached his ears, Harry placed the Time Turner around the other boy’s neck and reached down to spin the dial. Marc lifted his wand at the same time to activate their portkey and Harry shouted for him to stop but it was no use. The dial had been spun and the portkey activated. Harry’s eyes widened abruptly as the last thing he saw before the spinning commenced was a familiar face in the woods fifty meters away. Severus Snape. The travelling was not at all like the last few trips they had taken. If Harry had thought the portkey travel was sickening then this would surely have him sick all over. He felt the sensation of a hook behind his navel pull him up before the colours around him began to swirl and go black as they had done before. Things and people swirled by them once more, but this time at a far faster pace and it was even harder to try and focus as they were being thrown around instead of simply standing. Finally the swirling stopped and the pair was dropped heavily onto a hard stone floor. Harry took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes and taking in their surroundings. He stood up and saw that they were in fact back at Hogwarts and in the Astronomy tower. Everything looked to be right and the trip had felt as though both devices had worked correctly. He reached a hand out and helped Marc to his feet. ‘Thanks. It’s good to be home,’ he said with a small smile and looked at Harry for any sign of a response. Harry gave a half-hearted smile but said nothing before turning to the door and heading down the steps. Neither of them spoke again until they had reached the third floor. ‘If it’s possible, Marc, I’d really rather if we never-’ he was cut off by his friend nodding adamantly. ‘Ever. You have my word,’ the curly-haired boy said with a solemn expression that conveyed his intentions. The boys walked along the hallways quietly after that, both understanding without the need for words, that what they had just witnessed was undoubtedly a night to forget. They walked silently to the end of the third floor staircase, casually waving at the many occupants of the portraits they passed, and soon found themselves standing in front of the fat lady. ‘Murtlap Sap,’ Harry said unenthusiastically, and waited for the portrait to swing forward so that he might crawl into his bed and never think of this night again. The portrait didn’t open. ‘I said Murtlap Sap,’ he tried again, this time louder and with annoyance at obviously having been ignored. ‘I’m sorry dear, but that is not the password. If you could just be on your way now,’ the fat lady said and looked away from him again. ‘I will not be on my way. Murtlap sap was the password this morning. If Hermione’s changed it again,’ he went on, his anger now boiling up after the night he had experienced. ‘I’m sorry, but that was never the password dear. Now kindly step away.’ Marc sighed deeply at being kept from his bed this late at night. He really did not feel like sleeping on the cold floor out in the corridors, but he would do that over finding McGonagall at this hour to let them in. ‘You let me in!’ Harry cried now, unable to control his anger, and stepped forward to bang his fists loudly on her frame. ‘Ron! Hermione! Let us in! The wench won’t open up.’ The boys heard the bustling of people on the other side and were relieved when the portrait finally swung open. Unfortunately, Harry was unprepared for what he saw and promptly fainted, unable to handle the shock. The last thing he saw before falling over was the equally shocked face of a sixteen-year-old James Potter. Harry opened his eyes with great effort to look around and find out what he had actually just seen, hoping against all odds that his eyes were playing tricks on him. He was surprised to find that he was no longer outside the Gryffindor common room, but seated in the Headmaster’s office directly across from a staring Dumbledore. He was dismayed as he took in the Headmaster’s younger appearance, the absence of many fine lines and wrinkles and the slivers of light brown still found in his hair and beard. The one thing that remained the same, Harry noticed, was the twinkle in the old man’s blue eyes. He found that Marc was sitting next to him and looking at the floor, looking extremely culpable and avoiding Dumbledore’s eyes. He looked at the boy next to Marc and nearly fainted again. It was his father. James Potter sat perfectly still, watching his perfect mirror image, save for the eyes, with a shrouded expression. ‘Perhaps I should start,’ Dumbledore said in his regular calm and collected way, no indication of anger. They watched as he lifted a large glass bowl off his desk and held it out toward them with a warm smile. ‘Lemon drop?’ he offered. Both new arrivals shook their heads, but James was quick to reach in and pop one in his mouth. ‘You two are new, are you not?’ Dumbledore then continued and also enjoyed one of the sweets. ‘I have yet to see you within the walls of Hogwarts, therefore I can only assume that you are new. Is this the case?’ he asked with a merry glint in his eyes. Marc continued to look at the ground, fiercely ignoring the old man and clearly intent on preventing the timeline from changing. Harry looked back to the Headmaster and offered what he felt would be the best explanation, feeling certain that he and Marc would not be able to avoid Dumbledore without telling him something. ‘Yes sir, we are new. Well, new to this school. We just came from Durmstrang, sir,’ he continued and was surprised to see the sudden look of disgust on James’ face at hearing this news. ‘I assumed that you would have spoken to our old Headmaster,’ he continued, trying his best to ignore the glares he and Marc were now receiving. Once done speaking, he gave a sidelong glance at James before giving Dumbledore a meaningful look. Dumbledore gave the slightest of smiles before continuing. ‘I see, well then I suppose we shall have to have you sorted and you will receive your timetables in the morning,’ he said as though this sort of thing was a daily occurrence at Hogwarts. Harry snorted when he realised that it was. ‘Are you serious, Professor!’ James now said angrily, his chair falling loudly behind him as he stood up, clearly unimpressed. ‘You’re just going to let a couple of strangers join the school? A couple of strangers who claim to come from the dark wizarding school and who just happened to know where Gryffindor tower was?’ Dumbledore simply looked up at the agitated youth, an unfaltering expression on his face. If anything, Harry thought that the gleam in his eyes had brightened, leading him to struggle to suppress a smirk. ‘Yes James, I am. It does seem odd that they knew the location of Gryffindor tower, but I assure you that not all wizards from Durmstrang are evil. Unless of course you consider Professor Vector’s lessons to be questionable.’ The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he suggested this. ‘And I remind you James, that when you first arrived at Hogwarts for your first year, you too were a stranger.’ The tone Dumbledore used was not harsh or punitive, but it did carry a sense of finality, leading James to cross his arms and lean back in his seat with an indignant sniff from his nostrils. ‘Now James, if you could please go back to your dormitory, I have to welcome our new students to the castle. Do please keep this to yourself until tomorrow morning at breakfast.’ It was clear to all those in the room that this was not a request, so James nodded grudgingly and gave both boys a skeptical glance before heading from the office. As soon as Harry was sure that James was out of hearing distance he perked up significantly and felt better knowing that he did not have to worry about slipping any future secrets. ‘Thank you Professor Dumbledore, I’m so relieved you’ll allow us to be sorted in the morning,’ Harry said, knowing full well that in a matter of minutes he and Marc would be leaving and going back to their own time, making the entire ordeal quite unnecessary. ‘Well, I believe it’s the least I could do for my future students,’ the Headmaster said with a raised eyebrow. ‘Now tell me, how exactly do you intend on getting back to your own time?’ He seemed overly amused by this. Harry let his jaw drop and Marc’s head flew up at hearing what the old man said. How could he have possibly known they were from the future. ‘I did not give you my name, and yet you already knew it. You also called me Professor. I think it safe to assume that you will one day be students under my direction,’ he smiled at Harry’s shocked face. ‘And then there’s what’s left of that contraption around your neck.’ Now Harry and Marc both looked at the Time Turner that hung low against Harry’s robes, not having been tucked back under upon their arrival, and were disturbed to find a small ball of melted gold. ‘No!’ Marc said loudly, letting his head drop into his hands dramatically with a groan. ‘We’re never going to get out of here now. My mum’s going to kill me... if we ever get home. Not to mention McGonagall!’ Harry took a moment before speaking again, now with a reassuring smile on his face. ‘Don’t worry, Marc. I’m sure the Headmaster will lend us his Time Turner to get home, isn’t that right Professor?’ Dumbledore looked at him curiously, his calm expression still in place. ‘Don’t you get it, Harry?’ Marc shouted at him, ‘Time Turners aren’t readily available outside of the Department of Mysteries for another twelve years. We’re stuck here!’ Harry looked sticken. Dumbledore continued to look at them curiously as he thought about their predicament. ‘Well, I believe the best I can do is to allow my offer to stand. You shall join the other students in their lessons tomorrow after you have been sorted. There’s no need for you to miss out on your education while I try to find a way to send you home. What year are you two in?’ he added with mild curiosity as he conjured some forms from a shelf high above. ‘I’m from sixth and Marc’s from fifth,’ Harry said casually. ‘Marc is it?’ Dumbledore said with a raised eyebrow, reminding both boys that they had still not introduced themselves. ‘Yes sir, Marcus Evans,’ he said quietly and held out a hand to shake the Headmaster’s. ‘You wouldn’t be son to one Lily Evans, would you?’ he asked, one eyebrow still inclined. ‘No sir,’ he said with the first laugh in hours and a glance at Harry, who also shared the joke. ‘I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong one.’ ‘I’m Harry, sir, Harry Potter. And Lily Evans is my mother.’ Dumbledore leaned back in his seat and smiled at this news. His eyes seemed to shine more fiercely than ever before. He was pleased. ‘Very well. I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you not to tell me any more about the future. It is quite enough that you have been seen by your father, Harry. I’ll assume it is safe to say you are both Gryffindors?’ ‘Yes, Professor.’ Harry said, and then stole a sidelong glance at the Sorting Hat, peacefully sitting on a high shelf muttering quietly to itself. ‘Is it possible not to be sorted tomorrow, Professor? I’m afraid that if the hat reads my mind it may be catastrophic. Lately it’s been giving the school warnings in the form of songs, and I rather doubt you wish to hear the future spilled about the Great Hall. I take it the students wouldn’t take well to hearing Voldemort’s name sung aloud.’ Dumbledore’s eyes widened at hearing this and then darkened significantly. ‘Sorry professor,’ Harry said quickly, realising that he had just informed the Headmaster and Head of the Order of the Pheonix that the Dark Lord was still around in eighteen years. ‘I won’t mention it again.’ ‘Very good, Mister Potter. You and Mr. Evans shall join Gryffindor in the morning and I shall take care of the rest. To the rest of the students you will be exchange wizards from Durmstrang and we will find you suitable names by then. In the mean time, do you wish to join the Gryffindors tonight?’ ‘I think it best if we wait. I know of the perfect room, sir,’ he said with a wink at his friend. ‘On the seventh floor perhaps?’ Dumbledore smiled knowingly and Harry nodded with a small grin. ‘Very well, I shall see you both at breakfast before you join your classes,’ he said before dismissing them. Marc and Harry walked quietly to the seventh floor corridor where Harry knew he would find a hanging of Barnabas the Barmey teaching trolls to do the ballet. They walked past an empty spot on the wall opposite the hanging a few times thinking hard of how badly they would like to get to sleep. Moments later the familiar brass door handle appeared and the pair walked into what looked like their Gryffindor dormitory. Two four-posters sat in the middle of the room, and at the base of each bed sat their trunks. Harry couldn’t believe how thorough the room could be. He walked over to the window at the back of the room and looked over the grounds. The forest was just as dark as it had ever been and Hagrid’s hut stood out in the inky dark, its windows glowing brightly from the fire burning inside the small home. Harry quietly said goodnight to his roommate before pulling the hangings shut and laying down for a restless night’s sleep. He tried hard to clear his mind of everything that had happened in the past few hours, but found it absolutely impossible. He could still see his parents’ lifeless eyes, and hear his mother’s heart shattering scream, but what he remembered most vividly was feeling the little Harry place his hand on his scar. He closed his eyes tightly and only let a few tears fall before falling asleep. Tonight, he did not dream. Harry was awakened the next morning by Marc moving around the room in a flurry, trying to get his school robes on and taming his hair, his nerves clearly putting him on edge. It was the second time in two months he had joined Hogwarts as an exchange student from Durmstrang and was evidently not looking forward to going through the change again. ‘We’re already late for breakfast. There’s only about twenty minutes until lessons begin!’ he shouted at Harry who looked like he could easily have slept another week if left undisturbed. A few minutes later, Harry was hurtling down the corridors next to his roommate until they stopped dead in front of the Great Hall. The doors were shut and Harry didn’t feel like walking in late. He received more than enough attention in his own time, and certainly did not need it in this one. They could hear the chatter and laughter of students on the other side, wafting through the thick ornate doors as though they were thin as parchment. ‘I’ll go first,’ Marc offered, and before Harry could reply he had pushed the doors open and strode in. Harry instantly heard the chatter die down and then restart in a hush of whispers. Harry took a deep breath and then followed his friend in, hoping that no one would think his scar odd. The instant he entered the hall, silence fell again, but was soon punctured by gasps and several confused questions. He traversed the hall quickly to meet his smiling friend, hearing snippets of conversation as he walked past the house tables. It appeared that his scar was the last thing he should have worried about, his entire appearance being something far more interesting. ‘Who do you think they are? One looks like James Potter. Are they new students? I heard they were spies,’ he heard a couple of girls say. He shook his head and kept going, now with a grin plastered on his face. He reached the staff table and found that he recognized some of the professors, but not all. Dumbledore stood and cleared his throat to make an announcement. Harry smiled and chuckled to himself at seeing the Headmaster’s vivid blue, crimson, and emerald robes. Apparently Dumbledore had always had his eccentric and expensive tastes in clothing, making him by far the brightest clad object in the hall. Harry had his back turned on the professors and found that most of them were watching their backs intently, wanting to know exactly who they were. The look on the other professor’s faces told him that they had not yet been informed of the new arrivals. McGonagall in particular, looked far from pleased at being taken by surprise, her lips pulled thinly into a straight line and her dark eyes narrowed into mere slits as she surveyed them. ‘An announcement,’ Dumbledore started. ‘ I would like to introduce you to two of our new students, newly transferred from Durmstrang.’ Just as James had seemed offended by this news, most of the other students in the hall now appeared skeptical, not so hushed voices rushing through the crowd. ‘I am sure you will all make them feel welcome, and I ask that you please do not badger them with questions. I am sure they are quite tired from their journey. Now, Mr. Harry Portus and Mr. Marc Turner will be joining Gryffindor after our private sorting this morning, Harry in Sixth year, and Marc in fifth. Please join your table boys.’ The Gryffindor table roared in delight at gaining a couple of older students, some of the skepticism melting away, and even Professor McGonagall seemed pleased to hear this. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she got a good look at him in class. ‘I’ve also been asked to remind certain students that dungbombs are clearly on the caretaker’s list of unacceptable Hogwarts items,’ he added with a small smile at the Gryffindor table before sitting back down. Harry and Marc hurried over to their new table and sat down next to a group of students that they did not know, each of them smiling and now patting the boys on the back in congratulations. Just to their left, Harry noticed a group of four boys watching him intently and smiled upon recognising them all. The Marauders watched them in silence for a while as the other students told the newcomers about what classes would be like and which professors to watch for. Finally they were handed their timetables by a seventh year boy with light brown hair and warm eyes. Harry instantly identified him as Giedeon Prewett, one of the original members of the Order and Mrs. Weasley’s older brother. ‘These will be your Timetables. It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ he said holding out his hand for them both to shake. ‘I’m Gideon Prewett, Head Boy.’ At this point, another seventh year boy stood and knocked the Head Boy out of the way, holding his hand out instead. ‘And I’m Fabian Prewett, the much better Prewett,’ the blonde boy offered, grinning at his twin. Many of the Gryffindors laughed at this and the brothers began to wrestle playfully in their seats. Harry smiled but was deeply saddened to see these two men alive and well, when he knew they would be murdered together by no less than five Death Eaters in less than three years time. After eating a quick breakfast, Marc and Harry were forced to say goodbye and headed to their separate classes, Marc to Care of Magical Creatures and Harry to Potions. Harry grumbled as he walked through the entrance hall, not wanting to have anything to do with this class, but knowing that he would have to put up with it until Dumbledore could send them home. He reached the Dungeons quickly and was, for one of the first times in his Hogwarts career, early for Potions. He sat up near the front of the class in his regular seat and waited for the Potions Master to arrive, undoubtedly ready to insult him like every other morning. Another minute passed before Harry heard the familiar sneer of Severus Snape and when he turned around to glare was caught off guard at seeing the sixteen-year-old sit down right next to him. ‘I’ll ask you to get away from my station … Portus, was it?’ he hissed toward Harry. Harry blinked a few times. He had forgotten that Snape would still be a student and not a professor, but this was still slightly shocking to him, and then a touch amusing. He looked exactly the way Harry had seen him in his older version’s memory the year before, still with greasy hair and the pair of well-worn robes that Harry assumed were his only ones. ‘What do you mean your station?’ Harry asked plainly. ‘I don’t see your name on it.’ ‘I’ve worked here alone for the past six years. Now go find somewhere else, you Gryffindor filth,’ he said with such disdain that Harry was irked. Even the grown Snape wasn’t this hate-filled, and if he was he apparently showed great self restraint on most occasions. ‘He can work wherever he likes, Snivellus,’ a voice called from behind them, making both students twirl around quickly. James and Sirius had just walked in followed carefully by Remus, who was busy reading a book, his shining scarlet Prefect’s badge glinting in the torchlight. ‘Shut it Potter!’ Snape cried. ‘If you like him so much, he can work with you! Not that he’d want to. At least with me, he would be sure a passing grade.’ Now Harry could see a conflicted look in Snape’s eyes. On one hand, he had told Harry to move, but on the other, he had just said that he would be better off if he stayed simply to annoy his rival. ‘There’s nothing in this world that could make a Gryffindor work with a Slytherin,’ James’ retort came, harsh and cold. Sirius gave a glare that backed up his friends statement and more. ‘I’m afraid you are quite wrong Mister Potter, as I do believe I am such a thing,’ came a steely voice from the front of the room. Harry felt a shiver traverse his spine at the iciness of the voice and almost didn’t want to see from whom it originated. He slowly turned to see a very severe looking woman with long, dark hair braided and pulled into a tight bun. She had the darkest eyes he had ever seen, making Snape’s pale in comparison. She stepped from her office and securely shut the door, stepping forward to her desk to continue. ‘Mister Portus will in fact be working with our Mister Snape today, unless you see this as a problem, Mister Potter?’ she said this firmly and Harry was given the impression that no one would dare speak up. ‘Very well. Welcome to my class, Mister Portus.’ Upon seeing the boy in front of her, the professor’s dark eyes widened and a look of mild surprise took over as she quickly looked from Harry to James and back again, before regaining composure. ‘I am Professor Sharpbane,’ she said in an icier tone than before, ‘and you will find that my class is not for the weak minded,’ she shot a glare at Sirius and James. Harry understood immediately where Snape had found his role model. ‘Open your texts to page four hundred and twelve.’ Professor Sharpbane continued to explain the day’s work before flicking her wand at the blackboard and having the instructions scrawl themselves across it. Harry read the instructions closely before crossing the room to the supply cupboard for the boomslang skin. ‘Mister Portus, perhaps you should allow Severus to collect the ingredients. He is after all competent,’ the professor’s voice reached across the room, her eyes filled with malice. Harry could see Snape’s lip curling up in a grin and his blood began to boil. ‘I think I can manage thank you,’ he called back and watched as her eyes narrowed and the class fell silent. Snape’s grin widened. ‘You do, do you?’ she started in a threateningly low voice. ‘Very well, I suppose our newest student deserves to be treated just as any of the others. I was willing to allow you a week before testing, but as it appears you feel yourself so gifted, we shall do it now. You will answer a short quiz Mister Portus, and I’m afraid that if you do not receive at least an Exceeds Expectations, you will have to leave my classroom.’ Harry could see James and Sirius shaking their heads at him like he was a fool. Remus, on the other hand, was watching attentively in obvious curiosity. Harry supposed he wanted to know how intelligent the new student would turn out to be. Harry nodded his understanding and quickly returned to his seat with the boomslang skin so that he could write his test. He was mildly surprised when Professor Sharpbane began to quiz him aloud in front of the class. ‘What will I get Mister Portus, when I add boomslang skin to unicorn blood?’ she started fairly simple. ‘That would be the base for the healing potion, Professor,’ he said with a smile and waited for the next question. ‘Correct,’ she added and continued unperturbed. ‘And what would I get if I added daisy root to the root of Asphodel and ground them with the venom from an acromantula?’ she asked, looking pleased with her question. The look on many of the students’ blank faces told him that they had not yet covered this particular potion. He however, had read his entire text and he recalled this particular potion well. ‘That would be the last addition in the Vanesco Minimus potion,’ Harry said with the same smile as before. The smile widened as the professor’s eyes narrowed further and she looked him up and down sourly. She had felt confident that he would miss that one. ‘Correct,’ she said slowly. ‘Now tell me, Mister Portus, what would I get if I added a unicorn’s tail hair to a mixture of boomslang skin, three-part dried moonstone herb and two-part slick doxy oil, and allowed it to brew for a week?’ She now looked extremely pleased with herself, and Harry noticed the calculating look on both Lupin’s and Snape’s faces as they worked it out in their minds. Harry grinned at his good luck. ‘Well Professor, you wouldn’t have much,’ he said plainly and saw as she smiled in triumph. ‘I’m afraid that’s not correct, and that lowers your score to a-’ ‘I’m sorry Professor, what I meant to say, and I should have been more clear, is that you would have an extremely useless Polyjuice Potion, as it must be left to stew for three weeks before consumption.’ The professor’s eyes widened at his interruption. ‘And then there’s the fact that the Unicorn’s tail hair would alter the effects as Polyjuice Potion should only contain a hair from the human host the brewer wishes to appear as. Using animal hair can create very unfortunate results,’ he finished with a smile. The thought of Hermione’s mishap in third year sweetening his success. ‘Very well,’ she snapped at him, her features now returned to their normal stony self. ‘Take your seat and start your work. If you ever interrupt me again Mister Portus, I will be forced to remove points from Gryffindor.’ Two hours later, Harry found himself sitting in the Great Hall for lunch with Marc and the Prewetts. Marc had told him all about his first two classes, before Harry explained how his double Potions had gone. ‘Sorry you still have to deal with Snape,’ Marc said to him quietly in a pitying voice, but it was strongly belied by his grin. Harry nodded and gave a mock scowl, but what he did not say was that he truly did not mind working with him, and that they made a surprisingly good team. At the end of the lesson Harry had found himself gathering his things and leaving the Potions classroom after having created a near-perfect shrinking potion and receiving an outstanding for the day. He was surprised by how well he worked alongside Snape, and aside from several snide remarks along the way, he could tell that Snape was impressed with his work. Even Professor Sharpbane had complimented the results, though this was most likely because he had worked with her favorite pupil. Harry listened to some of the apparently infamous tales of the Prewett twins and ate his lunch contentedly until a large mass of bright auburn hair coming through the great doors of the hall drew his attention away. Lily Evans walked through the doors, surrounded by three other girls, one on each side of her and another following closely behind. Lily and the two beside her turned quickly to say something to the other, before she gave a smile and wave and then went off to sit at the Ravenclaw table. The other three continued to the Gryffindor table where they sat down right across from Harry and Marc. ‘Hello ladies,’ Fabian said with a wide grin and he placed an arm around the girl with short, light brown hair sitting to Lily’s left. ‘And how are you all doing on this fine day?’ ‘Shut it, Fabian,’ Lily said with narrowed eyes, ‘We’ve already told you, you can find someone else to go to Hogsmeade with.’ ‘If you can find anyone who doesn’t mind looking at your face,’ the brunette to her right added and she batted her eyelashes at him innocently. Fabian gave them a mock wounded look before breaking into a grin and throwing his arm around his brother. ‘No worries, Gideon here will always be at my side. Right until the end, isn’t that right?’ His brother flung his arm off and rolled his eyes, everyone around them laughing. Everyone except Harry, because knew that was exactly how it would end. ‘Hi there, Marc was it?’ Lily said holding out a hand toward Marc once they had stopped laughing. ‘I’m Lily Evans.’ ‘Yeah,’ he said, taking her hand. Harry rolled his eyes when he saw the light-haired brunette next to his mother redden while looking at Marc. ‘And that would make you Harry then?’ she asked, shaking his hand as well. 'These two are my best friends, as well as another girl from Ravenclaw, but I’m sure you’ll meet her eventually. This is Sophie,’ she indicated to the brunette that was still ogling Marc, ‘and this is Gwendolyn.’ Harry looked more closely at the brunette and recognised her from the wedding. She had been one of the four bridesmaids, along with Sophie and presumably the Ravenclaw girl. She was also the woman who had almost caught him out but luckily mistook him for James. Harry smiled at Gwen warmly and noticed the brightness of her golden eyes as she smiled back. The small group chatted for a while longer about nothing in particular, Fabian trying at regular intervals to get one of the girls to go on a date with him, until finally the warning bell for next lesson sounded and the Hall filled with the bustle of students heading to their classes. ‘Are you in Transfiguration now?’ Lily asked above the din. ‘Er, yeah I am,’ he answered after briefly scanning his new timetable. ‘Good, you can walk with me. Gwendolyn and Sophie have double Divination,’ she said, and pulled a face. Harry smiled, instantly liking his mother even more. They continued to chat about what courses were actually worth taking and Harry learned that his mother already wished to be an Auror. As they entered the Transfiguration classroom, Harry was warned to pay attention in this class as Professor McGonagall was known to be quite strict. Harry tried to hide a smile at this and nodded his understanding before they took their seats, once again at the front of the room. ‘You don’t mind being my partner do you?’ she asked him. ‘Not at all,’ he said with a smile. ‘I’m sure you’re quite adept in the subject, and if not then I’m sure I could teach you a thing or two.’ He smiled knowingly, having learned from McGonagall that she was in fact brilliant in Transfiguration. Lily raised an eyebrow in his direction and smirked. ‘I’d hoped you would be my partner so that I might avoid working with one of those idiots,’ she pointed to four very familiar wizards on the other side of the room, ‘but now I’m not so sure who’s more conceited.’ Harry could not smother his laughter when he saw the glare Lily sent across the room to James and Sirius. ‘Nevermind, I’ll keep you,’ she said finally, as Professor McGonagall walked in briskly and stood at the front of the room. ‘Today, we will be working in pairs to transfigure slightly larger objects into animals and then back again. Last week we learned how to transfigure our desks, but not how to return them to their original state,’ she started her lesson, briefly eyeing the group of males at the back of the room suspiciously. She explained and demonstrated the wand movement needed for this particular bit of magic and then told everyone to pair off. Barely five minutes had gone by when McGonagall started her rounds, criticizing and complimenting the various degree of spell work. Harry and Lily were her third stop and Harry barely held in a snort of laughter when she made her comment. She had spent several seconds watching them cast their spells and then looked shocked when Lily laughed and pulled on Harry’s sleeve playfully before complementing him on his work. ‘Very good, the both of you!’ she said. ‘Five points to Gryffindor for each of you. Five for the spell work and five for working well together on your own,’ she added with a raised eyebrow. ‘If things continue this way, I may have to continue the Evans, Potter combination for the rest of term.’ ‘You bloody will not!’ an indignant shout came from the back of the room, followed closely by howls of laughter. McGonagall looked up to see who would be losing points and nearly fell over when she saw the highly affronted look on James Potter’s face, and the bent over form of Sirus Black shaking with laughter on the classroom floor. She quickly looked back to the boy standing next to Lily and her brows shpt upward, making Harry grin. ‘It’s uncanny, isn’t it?’ he suggested with a small laugh, getting a small chuckle from most of the room. ‘Although I must say that your reaction has been my favourite thus far, Professor,’ he added with a small smile at the old woman, who was still looking back and forth between the near identical youths. ‘Yes, well. It is quite intriguing, Mister Portus,’ she said in her regularly stern voice, but her eyes conveyed a certain gleam that Harry found was generally reserved for her more favoured Gryffindor’s. Just as quickly as she had looked shocked, the tight-lipped woman adopted an icy glare. ‘That will be ten points from Gryffindor for Mister Potter’s obscenities, and another five for Mister Black’s inappropriate disruptions. Now if you would all please return to your work.’ The room sobered up instantly and Harry caught his father and Godfather scowling at the professor from behind their desks. The rest of the class went well, and Harry soon found himself heading to his last class of the day, History of Magic. He groaned inwardly and outwardly at the thought of suffering another term of Binns’ droning simply because he had fiddled with time. He suspected it was Dumbledore’s twisted way of punishing him. He walked along the corridors with Lily until they were met by three other girls, one of them unfamiliar to him. He assumed that she was the Ravenclaw he had been told about. ‘Harry, this is our other good friend Helena Snarkett,’ Gwen offered as soon as they were all caught up. Harry smiled and shook her hand politely before they continued on their way, all of the girls gossiping as they did. ‘Sorry I’m late girls. I had to send an owl to Edgar so that he’ll get it on time,’ Helena was telling them. ‘So are you going to meet up with him on the Hogsmeade weekend then? He did ask you didn’t he?’ Sophie asked her friend eagerly, unable to hold back a giggle. ‘Of course he did,’ she answered with a swat at the taller girl’s arm. He said he would meet me in the three broomsticks at noon.’ ‘We’d better not hear of any students snogging in the three broomsticks,’ Gwendolyn teased and all of the girls turned toward Harry when he choked on what could only have been air. He went pink as they all looked up at him. ‘Sorry, Harry,’ Lily apologised from behind a half smirk. ‘Once the girls get talking, there’s really nothing that stops them. Especially Gwen!’ ‘That’s quite alright,’ Harry tried to say smoothly, but found himself squeaking instead, inviting another bout of laughter from the girls. ‘They’re just joking of course,’ Lily explained. ‘Edgar’s far too proper to even consider something as publicly scandalous as that.’ ‘He just graduated last year. He’s in Auror training now,’ Helena announced proudly. ‘I do hope to work with him shortly. Two more years and I could very well be in the law enforcement department, alongside his sister actually. Very nice woman. She just started there three years ago, and already she’s been moved up to a charge position. Edgar always says that she’ll run the department one day.’ ‘Amelia?’ Gwedolyn said with a snort. ‘It would be quite ironic if the girl who used to hold slumber parties for us ran the department of Magical law Enforcement.’ They all laughed. Harry’s eyes widened at hearing this. ‘Amelia Bones?’ he said before thinking, and then turned to the girls who had all stopped walking. ‘Yeah, that’s her,’ Helena said with interest. ‘How do you know her?’ Harry’s mind raced for something to cover his ridiculous blunder. ‘Oh, my mum mentioned her a few times. Said she was a delightful woman at the Ministry.’ The girls all seemed to accept this and they started walking to class again. Once they had all seated themselves in the classroom, Harry found himself staring at one of his mother’s best friends. He felt saddened and slightly sick to be looking at one of his schoolmate’s mothers, who he knew would die in the next three years with her husband and the rest of their family. Helena Snarkett would marry Edgar Bones, and would in fact join the department of Magical Law Enforcement to work under her sister-in-law Amelia Bones. Sadly, just after their daughter Susan is born, both Edgar and Helena would be murdered along with the rest of their family. As far as Harry knew, Amelia and Susan were the only remaining Bones in his time. Trying not to dwell on death and all the terrible things that would befall most of those in the room around him, Harry elected to stare at the blackboard at the front of the room, through which he knew Professor Binns always drifted. He had wafted through that same board every lesson precisely as the bell rang for the past five years, prompting Harry to nearly fall out of his seat when the classroom door was opened and Professor Binns walked into the room with a briefcase in his hands. Harry stared through saucer-sized eyes as the old man in front of him placed his briefcase on his desk and sat down in his seat, breathing heavily. Harry couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Professor Binns walking was one thing, but breathing was another altogether! The old man ran a hand through his wispy white hair then pulled out his wand and quickly scribbled some notes on the board. His cheeks were extremely pink and his eyes a startling blue as he stared out over his class. Just when Harry thought things might have been looking up, Professor Binns began his lecture in the exact same hollow voice that could have easily been bottled and sold as a sleep aid. He had always attributed this monotonous voice to the professor’s being a ghost, but now he had proof that the man was just as dreadfully boring when he had been alive. Previous Chapter Next Chapter Favorite \|Reading List \|Currently Reading << >> Review Write a Review Harry Potter and the Time of Second Chances: A Night to Forget (6000 characters max.) 6000 remaining Your Name: Prove you are Human: Submit this review and continue reading next chapter. Other Similar Stories Another Life by RandomWer... The Daughter... by CayCullen Hart's Desire by HogwartsH...	dclm-gs1-006050000
MonadWriter instance for ListT Nicolas Frisby nicolas.frisby at Fri Mar 12 20:00:30 EST 2010 > runWriter . runErrorT $ censor (filter (/=3)) $ tell [1,2,3] >> throwError "" (Left "",[1,2,3]) That's kind of weird, right? I understand why it is that way. I think this is reason enough to make censor part of the class, since it wouldn't have this short-coming if it weren't defined in terms of > let censorErrorT f (ErrorT m) = ErrorT (censor f m) *> runWriter . runErrorT $ censorErrorT (filter (/=3)) $ tell [1,2,3] >> throwError "" (Left "",[1,2]) Or is it preferable for censor and pass to misbehave in the same way? More information about the Libraries mailing list	dclm-gs1-006060000
Email a friend Please complete this form to email a link to home 95099 to a friend. Friend's name: Friend's email: Write your message here: Your name: Your email: travel news and deals Please type the word shown above in the box below:	dclm-gs1-006070000
A Byte of Python Modules are useful because they provide services and functionality that you can reuse in other programs. The standard library that comes with Python is an example of such a set of modules. We have seen how to use these modules and create our own modules as well.	dclm-gs1-006080000
The Lexington Collection Pretty Polly Backyard Barbecue Machines Lanny Henson's fuel-efficient cooker. "My design is independent of electricity and gas. It cooks real BBQ with charcoal and/or wood, and is very fuel-efficient. It uses less than 1 pound of lump charcoal per hour for a small load. This design features a self-feeding firebox that will burn for over a week on a single load of charcoal. It holds steady temperatures for hours, and is insulated and sealed. It burns clean with little visible smoke and has low airflow, which does not dry out the meat. It will cook moist and tender brisket without foil, mopping, or basting. It is self-cleaning and the ash is very easy to remove even while cooking. It has a small footprint -- 82" X 34" (19.5 sq. ft) -- yet has 45 sq. ft of cooking surface. The 52 cubic foot cooking chamber has eight 28.5" square removable racks in four levels. There is 9" of room between racks, and each rack has a 26" lazy Susan in the center. It is all stainless steel, portable and stands alone. Weather has little affect on it (even freezing rain) and it cooks while traveling. I spent at least half of my design efforts making it is easy to build, well for me anyway." "This (new) smoker is better than the other one. It will burn briquettes or lump. It is more compact, has half the cooking surface as the large smoker. Burns larger wood. It will do smoke roast like an offset smoker or char flavor like an open pit, or both at the same time." The Wide World of Pits Collection	dclm-gs1-006090000
The Top Ten Drinking Songs 25-Aug-2010 by The Top Ten Drinking Songs 1. Closing Time - Semisonic There is nothing better than the combination of alcohol and music. Lyricists always enjoy drinking, and writing lyrics and this is proved from my collection of the top ten drinking songs. The collection has various songs out of which some are new and some of them are old numbers. However, all of the top ten drinking songs are worth to enjoy with a drink. The Top Ten Drinking Songs 1. Closing Time - Semisonic What are the Lyric: "Closing time / One last call for alcohol, so finish your whiskey or beer /Closing time / You don't have to go home but you can't stay here" This very popular drinking song is from the Semisonic's album 'Feeling Strangely Fine. Nominated for Grammy award of best rock song in the year 1999, ‘closing time’ is a song about the drinking reference of a pregnant woman’s life, as she is not allowed to drink during pregnancy. 2. One bourbon, One Scotch, One beer - George Thorogood What are the Lyric: "Need me a triple shot of that juice / Gonna get drunk don't you have no fear / I want one bourbon, one scotch and one beer" This ‘One bourbon, One Scotch, One beer’ became very popular in 1978. The vocalist 'George Thorogood was not the first person to sing this song. It was John Lee Hooker who performed the song for the first time ever. Then it was also seen in the thorogood album and the destroyers. 3. Why Don't We Get Drunk' - Jimmy Buffett What are the Lyric: "So bar maid bring a pitcher, another round o brew / Honey, why don't we get drunk and screw" The song Why Don't We Get Drunk' by Jimmy Buffet is basically a parody of various typical country’s love songs. Jimmy Buffett said after the release, "I was hearing a lot of very suggestive country songs -- in particular, Conway Twitty's 'Let's Go All the Way.' 4. 'Bartender Song (Sittin' at a Bar) [Country Mix]' – Rehab What are the Lyric: "And in my drunken stupor / I did what I should have never done / And now I'm sittin' here, talking to you / Drunk and on the run" The Bartender Song is the third song from the list of songs in Rehab's album, 'Graffiti the World.' Released in the year 2008, bartender was one of the biggest hits of that time. The second verse of country mix version was sung by Hank Williams Jr. singing the second verse. Piano Man' - Billy Joel - drinking song5. 'Piano Man' - Billy Joel What are the Lyric: "And the waitress is practicing politics / As the businessmen slowly get stoned / Yes they're sharing a drink they call loneliness / But it's better than drinking alone" One of the first hits of Billy Joel, Piano Man is the signature song of Billy. The song was written keeping in mind the piano player’s perspective in a bar. The writer recollects all the customer’s reactions and demands in the bar. 6. 'Tequila' - The Champs What are the Lyric: "Tequila!" This song is popularly known for the saxophone melody and guitar tunes. The other most interesting thing of this song is the lyric 'Tequila!' The champs band never got a chance to enjoy another hit after 'Tequila.’ 7. 'Family Tradition' - Hank Williams Jr. Lyric: "Lordy, I have loved some ladies and I have loved Jim Beam / And they both tried to kill me in 1973" Family Traditions is the classic drinking songs that was sung by Hank Williams Jr. in the year 1978. The song basically depicts the logic behind Hanks drinking and smoking habits. It states that drinking and smoking is a family tradition. 8. 'Have a Drink on Me' - AC/DC What are the Lyric: "I'm trying to walk a straight line / On sour mash and cheap wine / So join me for a drink boys / We're gonna make a big noise" After “Thriller” of Michael Jackson, “Have a drink on me” was the second biggest selling album of all time. Introduced in the sixth internationally released studio album, the song is basically about drinking with friends. 9. 'Friends In Low Places' - Garth Brooks What are the Lyric: “Cause I've got friends in low places / Where the whiskey drowns / And the beer chases my blues away" This song by Garth Brooks depicts the idea of drinking and draping your arms around the shoulders of the best friend. Featured in 'No Fences,' the song 'Friends In Low Places' was written by DeWayne Blackwell and Earl Bud Lee. 10. 'Margaritaville' - Jimmy Buffett What are the Lyric: "But there's booze in the blender, and soon it will render / That frozen concoction that helps me hang on" Well, I have saved the best for the last. 'Margaritaville' by Jimmy Buffett is probably the best drinking song ever. Featured in the album 'Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes,' the song was written in Fort Myers, Florida. The song depicts singer‘s state of mind named as "Margaritaville" with too many margaritas. These top ten drinking songs are totally as per my personal preferences, and I am sure that there are many more drinking songs left for us to explore. Do comment in to remind me about any of your personal favorites, whether it is on this list or not. Image Courtesy:	dclm-gs1-006100000
Quick Pancake Recipes Quick Pancake is a savory food item often served to welcome unexpected guests. Due to the simple cooking procedure, Quick Pancake recipes are commonly savored food item in most of the countries. The Pancake has ... More » CC: 75 Korean Potato Pancake How about a Korean appetizer for your next party? In this video, chef is showing a traditional Korean Potato Pancake recipe. These deep fried pancakes are made with few simple ingredients but they look awesome. The pear sauce served with this dish is not to... - 119.806 Healthy Low Carb Pancakes Carb-laden pancakes do more good than harm to your body. In that case, knowing how to make your pancakes nutritious and all the more low in carb should help. This video guides you on how to make low-carb pancakes sans much pain. - 109.972 Blueberry And Oatmeal Pancakes Wondering what to make for breakfast, then do try out these pancakes. The Chef makes Blueberry and Oatmeal Pancakes in the video. They are healthy and really quick to make. Enjoy your breakfast! - 109.613 Bacon, Egg And Cheese Pancake Are you in a mood to enjoy a special breakfast on the coming weekend - this recipe is going to serve the purpose. The pancake with bacon, egg and cheese filling is really sumptuous and mouth watering. Preparation is also so easy. So why don't you give it a... - 108.523 Flour Free Pancakes Pancakes made out of eggs are not only delicious but also healthy way to start the day and here is a flour free recipe to make one. Check out Bethanny making healthy and golden pancakes using eggs and fruits. Sweet to taste and sweet to health as well! - 107.165 Basic French Crepes Making crepes is a mystery to most people. Why? Because they are afraid that they just wont come out perfect. But the most imperfectly shaped crepe, once rolled up with jam or filling, fried in butter, and eaten with ice cream, is always perfect. Chef John... - 100.712 Pancake Shooter Cocktail Crispy Instant Mashed Potato Pancakes Who doesn’t love seeing mashed potatoes at the dinner table? And fried mashed potato pancakes are sure to bring a smile on everyone’s face. These pancakes are the end of a box of instant potato buds, shaped into patties, and browned in butter. It sure is... - 97.0641 Low Fat Rolled Oats Pancake Love pancakes but scared of the fat and calorie contents? Then watch this video by OmGal and learn to make pancakes the healthy way. These have more protein than classic pancakes and much less fat. Enjoy! - 96.4322 Seasoned Easy Omelet Omelets are easy to make breakfast preparations for good cooks as well as bachelors. Check out Chef Hank Da Tank showing how to make seasoned Omelets in a simple way with few common ingredients. Good to have with sauce or otherwise. - 89.7991 Healthy Protein Pancakes Love pancakes but following a diet? This video is just perfect for you. Watch chef Amy churn out these almost carb less pancakes that are a great way to kick start your day. The recipe is really simple and you can easily replicate it in your own kitchen.... - 83.134 Egg White Scramble Egg whites are great protein supplements and here is a recipe to make a quick dish out of them. Check out how to make scrambled egg whites in the video and top them with cheese and vegetables to serve. Great for breakfast or as a snack. - 82.5093 Korean Style Vegetable And Seafood Pancake Pancakes make easy and filling breakfast. So, here there is another convenient pancake recipe by Maangchi using vegetables and seafood. She makes it with great simplicity for everyone to follow. Whether you want a quick breakfast for elders or for the kids,... - 77.2761 Breakfast Pancakes Thinking what to make for breakfast? Watch this video now and prepare the perfect Breakfast Pancakes for your family. This is one dish which never fails. Learn how to prepare them now. - 63.965 Rava Dosa And Peanut Chutney Banana Cinnamon Pancakes Apricot Pancakes GETTING READY 1) Preheat oven to 200Â°F before warming. MAKING 2) In a small bowl, whisk eggs lightly with the milk. 3) Take a large mixing bowl and mix this beaten egg mixture with the club soda in it. 4) Mix in flour and sugar using a wooden spoon and... - 47.6855 Mushroom Filled Oven Pancake Preheat oven to 425°. Insert shredding disc. Shred cheese; set aside. Change to slicing disc. Slice green onions; transfer to a small serving bowl and set aside. Slice mushrooms; set aside. Change to metal blade and chop onion. In a 10-inch frying pan with... - 47.5824 Gingerbread Pancakes Banana Dosa (pancake) Dosa is a typical South Indian food, taken as breakfast or dinner. The following is a dosa made with banana which will be loved by all ages. - 45.9994 Spinach Cheese Pancakes Prepare cooked finely chopped green leaves. Chop bacon and onion and place in a saucepan and stir fry until bacon is crisp. Remove bacon and onion, and toss with leaves. Prepare sauce by melting butter and stirring flour, salt, pepper, and dry mustard. Slowly... - 45.6578 Potato Pancakes With Cheese Sauce GETTING READY 1) In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients (except sauce and batter). 2) Beat well to mix thoroughly. MAKING 3) On a hot griddle, make all the pancakes. 4) On each pancake, spread the mixture and roll up. 5) On a fireproof dish, place the... - 45.558 Spinach Pancakes With Canned Salmon Florentine Pancakes GETTING READY 1) Wash the spinach. 2) In a saucepan, cook the spinach until wilted. 3) Drain the spinach and finely chop. MAKING 4) Add salt, pepper, butter and nutmeg in spinach. 5) On hot griddle, make pancakes. 6) In a hot dish, place a pancake with a... - 44.8408 Garlic Pancakes With Ham Sauce MAKING 1) In a bowl, combine 12 tablespoons of butter and rubbed sage. Keep aside. 2) Separate the garlic cloves from the head. Without scraping the cloves hard, try removing as much of the skin off it as possible. Drop the cloves into boiling water for about... - 44.3316 Liver On Crisp Potato Pancake In a wide frying pan with a nonstick finish, cook bacon over medium-low heat until crisp; remove from pan, drain, crumble, and set aside. Pour off and reserve drippings. Peel potatoes and coarsely shred into a bowl of cold water; stir gently, then drain... - 43.5418 Soy Pancakes MAKING 1) Beat together milk, oil, eggs and vanilla just until well mixed. 2) In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. 3) Beat in liquids just until smooth. 4) Onto a moderately hot grill (375°F.), pour a scant 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. 5) Cook... - 43.0206 Maypo Pancakes MAKING 1) Sift together the dry ingredients. 2) Mix in MAYPOÂ®. 3) Beat together milk and eggs. 4) Fold this to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. 5) Add in melted shortening, stirring well. 6) Onto a hot greased griddle, drop by spoonsful of batter. 7)... - 42.7849 Old Time Buckwheat Cakes MAKING 1) Take a bowl and mix together flour, baking powder and salt in it and then keep aside. 2) In another bowl, combine rest of the ingredients in order listed. 3) Beat in the flour mixture just until batter is smooth. 4) Onto a hot lightly greased... - 42.6029 Potato Pancakes With Sour Cream And Chives Place the potatoes and onion in blender or food processor, and process until potatoes are finely chopped. Place in a bowl and spoon off any liquid. Add the egg, flour, salt, and pepper and mix well. In an 8-inch frying pan or skillet, place oil to come 1/4... - 42.5582 Compote Crepes Crepes are thin pancakes, usually made using wheat flour. I have used all purpose flour in the recipe but you may use a combination of both in equal ratios. Very filling and healthy meal to start your day with, these crepes are stuffed with fruit... - 42.2381 Heartland Pancakes MAKING 1) Mix milk with cereal and keep aside for 5 minutes. 2) In the meantime, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. 3) Whisk egg and melted butter into cereal mixture. 4) Mix in flour mixture, stirring until smooth. 5) Onto an oiled griddle, pour the... - 41.9114 Val's Potatoes With Garlic And Parsley GETTING READY 1. Wash, peel and cut the potatoes into 1-inch dices. 2. In a saucepan, cover the potatoes with cold water and salt. 3. Plan the pan over a medium flame and boil for 12 to 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender. 4. Drain the potatoes in a... - 40.7839 GETTING READY 1.Combine eggs, salt and milk and whisk them. 2.Add flour and stir until smooth. 3.Refrigerate for 30 minutes. MAKING 4.Take a 6- 7 inch skillet, heat little margarine in it until melted. 5.Put a little amount of batter sufficient to cover the... - 40.5077 Featherught Yogurt Pancakes MAKING 1) Sift together the dry ingredients. 2) Mix together yogurt, milk, and eggs and then blend in butter. 3) Into the dry ingredient mixture, pour liquids, mixing just until dampened. 4) On hot greased griddle, pour 1/4 cup batter for each pancake and... - 40.2274 Basic Pancake Batter MAKING 1) Into a large bowl, sieve together the flour and salt. 2) Add in 1 egg. Slowly pour in 1/4 pint of milk. Mix well, dislodging the flour on the sides of the bowl, using a wooden spoon. 3) Beat to get a smooth batter. 4) Slowly, pour in the remaining... - 40.1908 Quick Blini Sift first 4 ingredients 3 times. Mix egg, 2 tablespoons sour cream, butter, and milk. Add to first mixture and beat well. Drop by tablespoon onto hot greased griddle, making each cake no larger than 2 inches in diameter, and brown on both sides. Put on hot... - 39.7754 Brown Rice Pancakes MAKING 1) In a saucepan, stir in milk, molasses, rice. Cooking over medium flame, bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the flame and continue cookign for 5 more minutes. 2) Allow the mixture to cool down to room temperature. 3) In a large bowl, mix flour and... - 38.4407 Make four thin and large pancakes with the pancake batter. Grease a cake tin with ghee and place a pancake in it. Pour 50 ml of the egg mixture over the pancake, along with a small sprinkling of fried cashewnuts, sultanas, roasted poppy seeds and sugar... - 37.6573 Pancakes For Peking Duck Place the flour in a bowl and pour the water into a well in the centre. Mix to a dough. Knead the dough on a floured board until it is smooth and elastic. Divide into 14 portions. Roll out one portion into a 10-cm (4-in) circle. Spread thinly with sesame... - 37.5506 Butterscotch Dessert Pancakes In bowl combine first 5 ingredients; beat with rotary beater just till combined. Drop 1 tablespoon of batter for each pancake into hot, lightly greased skillet, making 30 pancakes. Bake till golden, turning once. (Electric skillet 350°.) Keep warm. For each... - 37.3947 Egg And Cheese Pancakes GETTING READY 1) In a mixing bowl, combine eggs and vegetables. 2) Mix them well and season carefully according to taste. MAKING 3) On a hot griddle, pour 1-2 tablespoons pancake batter and make the pancakes. 4) Put little filling on each pancake and roll... - 37.1315 Potato Pancakes Combine potato and onion. Add milk, salt, egg, and flour; mix well. Heat 1/4 inch oil in a heavy skillet. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into oil to form a medium-size pancake. Brown pancakes on both sides. Repeat until all batter is used. Serve hot with sour cream,... - 37.1171 Quick Buckwheat Cakes MAKING 1. In a mixing bowl, sift together buckwheat flour, baking powder and salt 2. Stir in milk and whisk lightly to form a smooth batter . 3. Heat, a well greased griddle 4. When the griddle is hot, drop batter using a serving spoon, 2-3 inches apart to... - 36.9901 Quick Hawaiian Pancakes GETTING READY 1) Drain juice from pineapple reserving for later use. MAKING 2) In a heavy saucepan, heat a mixture of juice and maple syrup. 3) Cook the pancakes according to package directions. 4) Cover the top of each pancake with pineapple... - 36.8449 Yogurt Pancakes MAKING 1. Into a bowl break the eggs beating until frothy. 2. Whisk in the flour, then the sugar, yoghurt, salt, oil and baking powder. 3. Raise up a frypan to heat and ladle in enough batter to almost cover the bottom of the pan. 4. Let it brown on both... - 36.7381 Broiled Cinnamon Pancake MAKING 1) In a blender on medium speed, add in bread, cheese, apple, cinnamon and yogurt to form a smooth batter. 2) On a hot, lightly greased skillet, pour all of the batter. Let the pancake cook till the bottom starts to brown. 3) Instead of flipping the... - 36.7381 Camp Out Chili With Corn Pancakes MAKING 1. In a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, mix chili con carne with 1/2 cup beer. 2. Simmer on a medium flame until thick, adding more beer if required. 3. In the meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk remaining beer and egg. 4. Add muffin mix to the egg... - 36.6669 Spinach Sour Cream Pancakes Prepare cooked and chopped leaves. Finely chop bacon and onion. Melt butter in a saucepan, add onion and bacon and stir fry until bacon is crisp. Stir in sour cream and leaves and add seasoning. Place about 1 1/2 tablespoons of mixture on each pancake, roll... - 34.9142 Tiny Rice Flour Pancakes MAKING 1) In a bowl, mix together ELAM'SÂ® Stone Ground Brown Rice Flour and baking powder. 2) Stir in milk, eggs, oil and honey, just until smooth. 3) Onto a hot lightly greased griddle, pour 1 tablespoon of batter for each pancake. 4) Bake the pancake... - 34.5009 Quick Cheese Pancakes Place milk, egg, and cottage cheese in blender container; cover container and switch blender on and off 3 or 4 times, till cottage cheese is in small pieces. (Or beat with mixer.) Pour into a bowl. Add pancake mix; stir just till moistened. Stir in butter or... - 33.9134 Corn Cake Chili Dinner Combine corn muffin mix, egg, milk, and corn. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Divide into 12 pancakes and fry on a hot griddle. Heat chili. Spoon 1/4 C chili on each pancake and fold pancake in half. Place folded, filled pancakes on heated... - 33.2071 Apple Raisin Pancakes In bowl combine the apple-cinnamon muffin mix, eggs, and water. Beat till mixture is smooth. Stir in the cooking oil and raisins. Using 2 tablespoons of the batter for each, cook pancakes over high heat in a lightly oiled skillet. (Electric skillet 350°.)... - 32.874 Banana Bran Pancakes In mixing bowl combine Biscuit Mix and cereal. Beat together egg, milk, and banana. Stir into dry ingredients till moistened. Bake on hot lightly greased griddle. Top with sliced berries and sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. - 32.3814 Cucumber Roti One of the tasty, healthy and easy to make Indian pancakes. - 32.0049 Buckwheat Pancakes Or Waffles mix dry ingredients together thoroughly. Stir in rest of ingredients in order, mixing well after each addition. Pour by ladlefuls onto greased, hot griddle or, following manufacturer's specifiations, into waffle iron. - 31.4802 German Thin Pancake Part 1 - Making Batter 1. beated egg-yolk add sugar (divide 3 times to put in ) beated untill flufty, and pour in milk and flour stir well, then sieve batter. 2. add Rum and stiffed egg-white stir well. more than middle heat pan to put a little melted butter or salad oil in (use... - 31.3328 Cottage Cheese Pancakes In bowl, combine cottage cheese, sour cream, and eggs; beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients; mix until well blended. Heat griddle according to manufacturer's directions. Drop batter onto hot griddle (1/4 cup batter per pancake makes 14 four-inch pancakes; 2... - 31.3089 German Thin Pancake Part 2 - Frying My suggestion : you can use ice cream,marmalade, sugar powder, syrup, peanut butter or anything you like - 31.0171 In-a-hurry Pancakes This In-A-Hurry Pancakes recipe is the best for a busy mom, simply coz it takes literally no time to whip it up in the morning. A dash of vanilla essence in the pancake mix can create wonders; just give it a try! - 30.1985 Blueberry Pancakes Rinse blueberries and drain. Combine muffin mix, egg, milk and orange rind. Beat until well blended. Fold in blueberries. Fry on a greased griddle until the tops bubble. Turn and brown the other side. Makes 20 fine-textured 4-inch pancakes. Serve with orange... - 30.1782 Pancakes On The Double 1. Combine milk, 3/4 cup milk, egg, and butter; beat, with rotary beater, just until combined. 2. Pour into biscuit mix in medium bowl; beat until smooth. 3. Meanwhile, slowly heat griddle or heavy skillet. To test temperature, drop a little cold water onto... - 30.046 Easy Wheat Pancakes 1. In bowl, mix the milk, egg, sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and oil together. Bake by ladlesful on a hot, oiled griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top of the pancakes. Brown the second side. - 29.2716 Pancakes And Waffles In bowl, combine dry ingredients; add remaining ingredients, beating just until smooth. Preheat griddle according to manufacturer's directions; grease lightly. Spoon about 1/4 cup batter on griddle for each pancake. Cook until top is bubbly and dry; turn and... - 29.1333 Pancakes have a Matchless taste. The flour and eggs gives the Pancakes Luxurious taste. - 28.134 Quick Chinese Pancakes 1. Place flour in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over flour and stir with a wooden spoon until it clumps together. 2. Knead on a floured work surface until dough is soft and smooth, about 5 minutes. Form dough into ball, cover with an inverted bowl, and let... - 27.8435 Jiffy Orange Pancakes Honey Pancakes Place mix into a bowl and stir in rest of the ingredients until well blended. Drop batter from a large spoon onto lightly greased, hot griddle. Turn once and serve. - 26.2795 Oven-baked Sausage Pancakes Pour prepared pancake batter into well greased 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Arrange sausages in batter. Bake at 450Â° F for 12 to 15 minutes. Cut in squares to serve. (For larger amounts, double the pancake batter, use a 12 x 17-inch pan; bake at the same... - 25.4326 Easy Pancakes 1. Blend Baking Mix, water, and egg. 2. Drop from tablespoon onto hot lightly greased griddle. Cook until bubbles appear; turn and cook other side. - 18.9206 Korean Style Vegetable Pancake A simple to make vegetable pancake recipe. - 13.6189 Healthy Quick Breakfast Pancakes Pancakes are easy to make and delicious to eat. They make for a filling and complete breakfast dish. The best part about a pancake is how you serve it. It can be served with maple syrup, chocolate sauce or a variety of seasonal fruits, scrambled eggs, bacon... - 0 Quick Hash Brown - Savory Potato Cake MAKING 1. In a mixing bowl, add and combine together the potatoes, onion, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, black pepper, salt, vinegar, olive oil and bread crumbs. Mix until well incorporated. 2. In a large sauce pan on medium low, heat oil and place the... - 0 Orange Pancake - Quick And Easy MAKING 1. In a bowl, add flour and sugar. Whisk well till mixed. 2. Pour the orange juice and stir to mix till combined. Add the melted butter and baking soda. Mix well after each addition. 3. Grease a non-stick frying pan with butter and place it on medium... - 0 Eggless Pancake - Quick And Easy These eggless pancakes are probably the easiest things to do in a jiffy. It has fluffy and lighter texture and can be served with various toppings. - 0 Quick Pancake Recipes By Category	dclm-gs1-006110000
Down 1,102 this week Cleopatra's Second Husband (1998) - Drama - 13 October 2000 (USA) Your rating: Ratings: 4.6/10 from 190 users Metascore: 43/100 Reviews: 8 user \| 18 critic \| 12 from Robert is an art photographer who is totally controlled by his wife Hallie. When they go on vacation in New York, they leave their house to their friends, Zack and Sophie. When they return,... See full summary » Watch Trailer 0Check in User Lists Related lists from IMDb users a list of 373 titles created 25 Oct 2011 a list of 682 titles created 08 Dec 2011 a list of 10000 titles created 26 Jun 2012 a list of 874 titles created 11 months ago a list of 8329 titles created 6 months ago Connect with IMDb Share this Rating Title: Cleopatra's Second Husband (1998) Cleopatra's Second Husband (1998) on IMDb 4.6/10 Take The Quiz! Test your knowledge of Cleopatra's Second Husband. 2 wins & 2 nominations. See more awards » Credited cast: Paul Hipp ... Robert Marrs Hallie Marrs Nancye Ferguson ... Maud Winchester ... Cathryn (as Maude Winchester) Zack Tyler Rest of cast listed alphabetically: Groover #2 (as Andrew J. Jones) Mookie Rubin ... Delivery Boy Plot Summary \| Add Synopsis Release Date: 13 October 2000 (USA) » Box Office Opening Weekend: $14,316 (USA) (29 September 2000) $205,547 (USA) (29 March 2002) Company Credits Show detailed on » Technical Specs Sound Mix: See » Frequently Asked Questions This FAQ is empty. Add the first question. User Reviews Creepiness at its best Meet Robert. An amazingly complex and lonely man, he's married to Hallie who, really, he can't stand. She controls him, and if he doesn't like it, she does it anyway. Meet Zack. He's friend of a friend, who, along with his girlfriend Sophie, come over to Robert's to house-sit while Robert and Hallie go on vacation. Here's the setup, and the payoff is one of the creepiest, darkest movies I've ever seen. As far as disturbing, Dancer in the Dark is nothing compared to this. As far as creepiness, Misery's got nothing on this one. Benjamin Franklin once said, `House guests are like fish. After three days, they begin to spoil.' You'll see why in this plunge into darkness. Something's just not right the entire 92 minutes, and there's nothing you can do to change it. You can only watch as someone gets run over time and again, and the revenge is so raw, so amazing, you wonder exactly what can stop it. You wonder, can it be stopped? Some things are like runaway locomotives: you only hope you can lay enough track down in time for it not to derail. Some reviews of this strange movie think of it as without payoff. And I for one think the payoff is in the effect it leaves with you. The stark sadness to the utter creepiness of the ending, it's not a surprise that this movie is like cancer: it eats away at you, and when you least expect it, you look around and see that everything's changed. You can't look at anything the same anymore. Who switched everything around? It's like those situations you find yourself in where you go, `How did this all get started?' and you find yourself without an answer. To recommend this film I think would take an act of real nerve. It's not something you can tell your best friends who thought Mission: Impossible 2 was great about. It's not something you can even tell the friends who like off-the-wall or foreign films. You just have to experience the slow build-up of this intricate (and edge-of-your-seat) plot that makes you wonder, `Is it over? Isn't this enough? Can't you just lay off?' but when it doesn't, when it keeps barreling ahead, towards the end of the track that leads to the bottomless canyon, the train is movie, you are a reluctant passenger on it, and before you know it, the movie has brought you over the edge. Message Boards Recent Posts Song? Sprout-8 So why do I feel like I've been had? alarmanwp Why is it called Cleopatra's Second Husband? meccamar Discuss Cleopatra's Second Husband (1998) on the IMDb message boards » Contribute to This Page Create a character page for:	dclm-gs1-006120000
Making Potato Chips — A Numbers Game Wed, 05/11/2011 - 7:13am CNN Money recently took a tour through an environmentally-friendly potato chip plant run by PepsiCo., where they make a wide variety of chips, including Lay's, Ruffles, Doritos, and more. Despite processing 21,500 pounds of potatoes per hour, the plant is still striving to become more sustainable. Using new technology, the company is able to save 14 million gallons of water a year on its potato-washing process alone. And next time you sit down on the couch and just happen to eat a whole bag of potato chips, just remember that you just crunched down on four whole pounds of spuds. Share this Story The password field is case sensitive.	dclm-gs1-006140000
Half-time: Tottenham 0 - 0 Swansea It's goalless between Swansea City and Tottenham at the end of the first half. Swansea City lose to Spurs Swansea City failed to make an impact as they took on Spurs at White Hart Lane, losing 1 - 0. It's a result that leaves them at the bottom of the table.	dclm-gs1-006150000
Jewish Journal Search our Archives! Email to a Friend See Change URL: http://www.jewishjournal.com/rob_eshman/article/see_change_20041224 The UJ has been around since 1947. My office window in Koreatown overlooks the block of Ardmore Avenue where it was originally housed. The university followed the Jewish community west in 1979, settling in to the expansive Familian campus, where it fulfills a unique but hardly problem-free niche in a unique Jewish community. Recipient email: Your email: What's this word?	dclm-gs1-006160000
Breastfeeding foods 10 fab foods for new mothers When you arrive home with your newborn baby, most of us are more concerned with the feeding and sleeping of the baby rather than our own food requirements. Yet eating nutrient rich foods at regular intervals throughout the day can maximise the little energy new mothers may have. What's more, nutrition is especially important for breastfeeding mothers, whose body will deplete their own stores of nutrients if you aren't taking them in through your diet. Here are 10 healthy food ideas for new mothers to devour. Salmon is a nutritional powerhouse and one of the best breastfeeding foods out there. Salmon, like other fatty fish, is loaded with a type of fat called DHA. DHA is crucial to the development of your baby's nervous system. All breast milk contains DHA, but levels of this essential nutrient are higher in the milk of women who get more DHA from their diets. The DHA in salmon may also help your mood and lower your risk of depression. Australian dietary guidelines recommend women aged bewteen 19 and 60 eat at least one serve of 80-120g cooked fish fillet but nutrition guidelines say breastfeeding women should definitely eat 2-3 serves per week of fish as part of a healthy diet. Salmon is a fish low in mercury content compared to other fish, but it pays to reduce consumption of shark, swordfish, marlin, deep sea perch and catfish. Why not try: Low-Fat dairy products Whether you prefer yoghurt, milk, or cheese, dairy products are an important part of healthy breastfeeding. In addition to providing protein, B vitamins, and vitamin D, dairy products are one of the best sources of calcium. If you're breastfeeding, your milk is loaded with calcium to help your baby's bones develop, so it's important for you to eat enough calcium to meet your own needs. One way to do that is to include at least two serves of dairy each day as part of your diet. Why not try: Lean beef When you're looking for foods to boost your energy, seek out iron-rich foods like lean beef. A deficiency of iron can drain your energy levels, making it hard for you to keep up with the demands of a newborn baby. While breastfeeding, you need to eat extra protein and vitamin B-12. Lean beef is an excellent source for both of these nutrients. Why not try: Legumes, also known as pulses, are important non-meat sources of protein. Legumes include things like beans, lentils, alfalfa, peas and even peanuts. Beans, especially dark-coloured ones like black beans and kidney beans, are a great breastfeeding food, especially for vegetarians. Not only are they rich in iron, they're a budget-friendly source of high quality, non-animal protein. Legumes are an important source of nutrition, with Australian guidelines suggesting breastfeeding women eat up to 7 serves a day of vegetables or legumes. Why not try: Brown rice If you're attempting to lose any baby weight, it's not worth cutting back on your carbohydrate consumption. It's better to incorporate healthy, low-GI whole-grain carbs like brown rice in your diet to keep your energy levels up. Foods like brown rice provide your body with the calories it needs to produce the best quality milk for your baby and rate well on the glycaemic index . Why not try:	dclm-gs1-006170000
Comments by youreapwhatyousow • Older Comments • Page 1 of 1 • Newer Comments Written on Belfair Water District manager fired; court to determine severance : I would like to know more about the initial exchange between then homeowner with a citizen complaint Pope and Dave "shramie" Tipton. I agree with Ken, it is a good lesson on customer service and human nature for all (not just elected and staff) to remember! Written on Hit-and-run suspect bites trooper after claiming he has AIDS : in response to technogeek: Since someone has actually contracted HIV from a bite I think the odds don't matter to anyone who got infected. To that person it was 100%. I don't care if the odds are low, it's possible, and the guy should be prosecuted for more than just simple assault! I think you missed the point. Let's recap: hughareu cited some CDC data and concluded that HIV transmission by human bite was a remote risk when blood was present. I posted an example that would illustrate Mark Twain's saying: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. Now from that you may wrongly conclude that I somehow think this biter should get off easy, wrong again. There are many other concerns besides HIV when a bite occurs; Hep-B,Hep-C, herpes simplex virus, syphilis, TB and tetanus to name a few. I think he made a deadly threat and then delivered what a reasonable witness would believe to be a very serious if not fatal disease, the biter is fortunate to be alive. Good on the WSP for not being trigger/punch happy after all of the mayhem here locally. in response to hughareu: Okay all you keyboard counselors, here are the facts. Since this story is weak on describing the actual events, injuries and actual diagnosis of the assailant, please read this and get back on your daily regimen of anti-psychotics. Can (a person) become infected with HIV through biting? Infection with HIV in this way is unusual. There have only been a couple of documented cases of HIV transmission resulting from biting. In these particular cases, severe tissue tearing and damage were reported in addition to the presence of blood. Can HIV be transmitted through a human bite? It is very rare, but in specific circumstances HIV can be transmitted by a human bite. In 1997, CDC published findings from a state health department investigation of an incident that suggested blood-to-blood transmission of HIV by a human bite. There have been other rare reports in the medical literature in which HIV appeared to have been transmitted by a human bite. Biting is not a common way of transmitting HIV, in fact, there are numerous reports of bites that did not result in HIV infection. Severe trauma with extensive tissue damage and the presence of blood were reported in each of the instances where transmission was documented or suspected. Bites that do not involve broken skin have no risk for HIV transmission, as intact skin acts as a barrier to HIV transmission. There is no risk from a bite where the skin is not broken. There is a remote risk of transmission by human bite. All documented cases where transmission did occur included severe trauma with extensive tissue damage and the presence of blood. It would be interesting to know how many times an HIV infected person bit another unaffectted person where blood was present and they did/did not contract the virus. Obviously that would be more relevent than say a statistic that weighted a human bite as part of the total numbers of contractions. As an example, if out of 10,000 HIV contractions only 3 were by human bite, but there were only 10 total bites with qualifing conditions, then the risk would be 30%. But if I mix the data with all types of contractions the odds are only .03%. Written on LETTER TO THE EDITOR \| Why I'm voting 'no' on SKFR levy : Ok, here's a breakdown of some more false arguments: rob and dahl = mind projection fallacy dcr = onus probani fallacy just me (the most clever) = fallacy of many questions Written on Vote on Manchester Port Commission petition must be held in April : ˈbʊli' [bool-ee] Written on South Kitsap Fire and Rescue will ask voters to renew levy : in response to PennyRobinson: I moved away from Kitsap County and don't have to be concerned, but if I still lived in SK, I'd be asking Wayne if the taxpaying residents of his fire district could please be informed of any major expensive studies, like the merger study between SK and Bremerton, BEFORE the check to the consultants is written. It was really tacky to find out about the tens of thousands of dollars paid after the fact. (This comment was removed by the site staff.) Written on PDC investigating vehicle complaint against fire commissioner candidate : The timing of the release for this information is irrelevent. It is clearly a violation that the "perp" could have avoided...quit making excuses for the guilty. Dick West is clearly the right guy for this race! Written on PDC investigating vehicle complaint against fire commissioner candidate : (This comment was removed by the site staff.) Written on Finally, some differences among Bremerton port contenders : I've heard both of these guys talk, Shawn gets it, while Axel has to read from crib notes about what he is passionate about, reminds me of a Presidential candidate from Texas! Written on Port Orchard mayor pitches city manager idea : Hey fletc3her, you sound like a victim of a landslide election, lick your wounds and if you are such a hot shot, run for office, let's see what you can do... Written on Part of South Kitsap fire district may merge into North Mason: should have been done 50 years ago, thanks to the leadership in both districts for responding to this need Written on School Replacement, Repairs Riding on Central Kitsap's Levy Measure: in response to w.h.moore#247501: Not correct, again. The increase for the average CK home valued at $250,000 will be $67.50 per year above the current Capital Projects bond portion of your local school collection. It is impossible to tell anyone exactly how much this levy will cost any specific taxpayer because the process is based on the annual appraised value of property in the District. The language of the ballot measure sets exactly how much will be collected for each year. When it is time to send out the tax bills, the county divides that amount by the assessed value of all property and then multiplies the result by the value of each property to determine the amount of tax to be paid. That $67.50 is an estimate based on the current valuation of property in the District. It will change by the time our next tax bill comes. Please explain the math: 58 million over five years is, 11.6 million each year, say the value of cksd is 7 billion, that would require a rate of about 1.65/per 1000 of AV. A home worth 300,000 would pay about 5 grand a year or 400 more a month...why are our numbers so different? so what is that to a homeowner of say a 300,000 dollar home? $500 more a year for five years? Written on Kilmer, Others Propose Bill to Cut State Elected Officials' Salaries: Truth is, this is about leadership, demonstrate the correct fools who choose to only see through your partisan goggles ARE the problem, not dems or gop! Kilmer will continue to soar, but my guess is he slides in behind Dicks. Written on OUR VIEW \| For Congress, Vote Patty Murray, Norm Dicks ... and James Watkins: in response to jodaddy: "Due to what has happened and what I anticipate with the US economy we will have to adopt single payer health insurance." Hasn't that been the plan all along? (This comment was removed by the site staff.) Written on Killer Olympic Park Goat Examined for Disease: When the goats family was interviewed by officials, they said the old goat was hard of hearing and felt the hikers were taunting him by chanting feta, mutton and mazithra...later the hikers claimed they only said "ya betta not move nuttin, or the goat will play hell with ya", sorry that was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! Written on Big Savings Anticipated if Bremerton, South Kitsap Merge Fire Districts: in response to USMCSNIPER539: Roger, here is what you sound like to the rest of the world: one shot, one kill Written on Central Kitsap Fire Chief Announces Retirement as Merger Talks Progress: benifit charge means more money out of the tax payers pockets especially the city, this is a hostile take over to drain us of our last pennies, but hey we will have the fish statues to sleep under.... Written on First Kitsap County Swine Flu Fatality Reported: I think the vacination project in Kitsap county has been bumbled, don't cry about being a victim of supply, leadership requires you to take responsibility. When you have people like a health district bureaucrat/MD running an emergency incident you will have failures. Other county health officials recognized early that they needed to enlist those who regularly run large emergency incidents, and then give them the mission goals to run with. In this case our health director thinks this situation makes him king and his ego has caused harm to our community members, shame on you! Written on Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue Will Delay Adding New Firefighters: Let's see, you really didn't lose any money at all, what you lost was your projection of how much money you might have in the future. You still have 3 or 4 million in reserves right? Post your revenue/expense statement on your web site so we can all see how fat you really are. Why did you buy 14 new fire engines last year, at 400 grand each? Why do you have more support people (day shifters) than all the other kitsap FD's? You have plenty of fat to cut and still improve 911 responses (real workers who solve citizen emergencies).Quit BS'n the public and come clean. Written on South Kitsap Voters Approve Levy to Open Station, Add Firefighters: 72% yes for EMS in SK says a lot! This is a service that we that word? VALUE! When a life is saved, be it a car accident, heart attack, alergic reaction to a bee sting while playing...this is low cost high value insurance for what 72% of the community really cares about, that is, the people who make up this community, even the vocal minority who bravely boasts they don't want or need it, anyone with an IQ knows you would beg loudest for help when you or someone you really cared about needed that help, you see as your neighbor we even care about you! Written on Kitsap County Likely to Take on Debt for Bremerton Condos: Dahl: 2 of the 3 county commissioners who approved the deal were from the "red" side, one is now a state legislator from the "red" side...will anyone be held accountable for this? NO just like those "dirty reds" who lied about the motives for entering into a middle east war...this isn't about blue or red, its about people we trust to make decisions for us and when they fail, to this degree there should be a judicial review for negligence. BainbridgeClearCut: Ms. A was a mouthpiece for the KCHA and then was promoted to deputy director by Norm McGlaughlin with no qualifications seen...Norm ran with Cary, Dick Hayes and the others, their regime is so over that even Norm Dicks can't save them this time. How can a non-profit housing authority who acts and looks like governement, unfairly compete with general contractors who make their livelyhood in the development business without the non-profit advantage (condos, city halls, etc)this is criminal! Roger: you are right on the money! PennyRobinson: you are still an idiot and demonstrate that regularly. Written on LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Vote ‘Yes' for SK's EMS Levy: candyman, Ms. Penny is actually a guy who is an out of work county employee who has learned to drink too much...the world population reference is a dead give away with many other posts under different names where he thinks that death is an acceptable result of not enforciing safety codes, skate boarding accidents or what have you...a true nut job who gets boob boners from stupid blog posts that rile normal people. Place him on iggy! jhazmar, you must be a product of the SK school system when they weren't passing their levies! OK, let's review your math...24 hours a day times 365 days a year equals 8760 hours a year. With 3, 24 hour shifts that about 56 hours week. When you take the 8760 and try to cover that with 8 hour shifts, you can take 40 hours a week times 52 weeks and you get 2080 hours a year. Divide 8760 by 2080 and you get a little more than 4 shifts required to cover that same 24/7 goal. So to do this would requires an increase of one additional shift or a 33% increase in the manpower...skcharge is right, you should change the batteries in your calculator or take a class at OC! PS. Penny admit you are an idiot, its the first of 12 steps to your a friend of Bill and Ed Written on OUR VIEW \| Vote ‘Yes' for Mason District 5 Levy: This just in....Mason 5 doesn't provide paramedic services so the law caps them at 25 cents per 1000 of assessed value for their EMS levy, that is why they are not asking for 50 cents....this is the most they can have per the law! How did the merger with Shelton effect costs here? Written on OUR VIEW \| Economics Mean Central Kitsap EMS Levy Must Wait: hello fire commissioners....are you awake? Stop tnhe madness...before you lose all faith Written on OUR VIEW \| Renew Support for South Kitsap EMS Levy: What a laugh and a half..."drive yourself to the emergency room", be brave and post that information around your neck so all emergency responders can respect your wishes, its natures law of selection at its best! I live and work in SK and things are hard right now, but not so hard that we can't figure out a way to pay 3 dollars more a month to keep the EMS services SKFR now provides. I checked and compared to CKFR and Mason 2, SKFR has the lowest tax rate by far, yet they protect the most people and have more 911 calls for help each year than the other two combined! Let's perserve our community and its critical emergency services, join me in VOTING YES FOR EMS! Written on SK Fire Ups Incentive for Voters to Pass Levy: Once again SKFR has prepared for opportunities that benefit our community, the 1.3 million in 2008 SAFER act grant money avoids local property tax impacts for that exact amount. They have demonstrated our need for more Firefighter/EMTs on a national competitive process. The chief told us at a community meeting that the waiver on SAFER act grant matching funds is NOT for the 2008 awards, its for the 2009-2010 awards. He also told us that with this award, no Fire Department in Washington State has received more federal grant money than SKFR, because it is based on need. Look at SKFR's web site, you will see that they have the most work, nearly 9100 calls a year, yet have the lowest tax rate...that gets my suport! Written on LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Sorry, SK Levy, My Tax Dollars Are Already Taken: Yeah yeah yeah blame it on the new generation, that's a great move for the future, funny thing is back in the day when cars were invented, the horse riding generation said the same thing about the "young" generation (ask dahl, he sounds like he was there) So your enlightened approach is to pass along criticism to the future generation just as you were convenienient that the social problem isn't part of your doing! The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result, guess that makes you a coo-koo, coo-koo... Written on LETTER TO THE EDITOR: We'd Be Paying More With SK Levy: With your thinking, you don't buy bread, milk or eggs anymore, because no matter what, the prices just keep going up and you aren't getting any more eggs than you got when you were 8 years old...have you gone on a fast in protest? Get over yourself, it cost more than a nickle to see a movie these days! Ohhhhhh, I think dahl has been nailed. He and others are not interested in value for their tax dollar as they allude, they simply think all taxes are bad and they all need to go away, even when they serve the basic emergency needs and our children...I nominate dahl for chair of the CAVE club! Remember you get what you pay for! • Older Comments • Page 1 of 1 • Newer Comments	dclm-gs1-006180000
and yea i feel the same way im just taking it all in stride being realistic...we still have to many flaws that need to be fixed our biggest ones beig Defense/Rebounding and consistency two things we need to make the playoffs...this should be our last year in the lottery then well start our dynasty of the 90's again we need Pg and trade for another first rounder or for a C with potential place him next to Nate and Chanlder were good money	dclm-gs1-006190000
FATCA Update: IGAs soften the blow…and some good news for insurers?: Interviewers Opening Remarks The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, commonly referred to as FATCA, is designed to tackle offshore tax abuse by US taxpayers. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions to identify and disclose the direct and indirect owners of accounts that are classified as US accounts. As we discussed in previous webcasts in this series, FATCA has caused consternation at the practical and legal implications of compliance. Fortunately, the US authorities now seem to have recognized that initial criticisms of FATCA had some justification. The model inter-governmental agreements between the US and specific countries initiated by discussions between the US and the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, go some way to assuaging these concerns. There has also been some significant softening of the impact on insurers. Just the other week, the IRS issued its long-awaited final regulations which make strides to converge the US requirements and the inter-governmental agreements. Joining me to provide their insights on how FATCA will affect on the insurance industry are Craig Pichette from KPMG in the US, and Jeanette Cook from KPMG in the UK. Before we get into the details of how insurers are impacted, can you give us a quick recap on the new FATCA requirements? Craig Pichette There are a number of things that have happened. Most significantly, the IRS has put out the final regulations of FATCA. The insurance industry, like a number of other industries, was waiting on these final regulations to be issued before actively pursuing their FATCA implementation programmes. Now that those rules have been issued, we’re seeing a tremendous amount of activity in the market as companies are beginning to implement their FATCA compliance programmes. The other significant thing is that the US and a number other jurisdictions have entered into inter-governmental agreements, IGAs, describing how each of the countries is going to implement their own FATCA regimes and coordinate with the US government on exchanging information. This is a rapidly developing area. What have been the most significant developments since your article was published in December? As everyone knows by now, FATCA rose out of the perceived abuse of Swiss banks selling tax-deferred accounts to US persons. The US response to that, of course, was enacting FATCA which has a very broad reporting obligation that are imposed on non-US persons. The hammer the US is using to enforce that is a 30% withholding on payments made by US entities to non-US entities. So, foreign financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, brokers, entities like that, are now required to review their customer base and report on US accounts to the US government. And what are you seeing in the insurance industry? Are companies FATCA-ready? The insurance industry was a little bit slower than some of the other industries in attacking FATCA. The banks, of course, this was primarily directed at were very early on in addressing FATCA and beginning their FATCA implementation programme. The insurance industry, for the most part, has been lagging behind but now that the final regulations are out we’ve seen a tremendous amount of activity as companies are now beginning their FATCA assessments and designing their FATCA implementation programmes. The IGAs and the final IRS regulations go a long way toward resolving FATCA uncertainties for insurance companies, but some major uncertainties remain. What are some of the biggest challenges that lie ahead? Jeanette Cook Well, many groups will have operations in different countries and those countries will either have an IGA with the US or will just be under the normal FATCA regulations. So, you're going to have a significant challenge in developing an overarching compliance framework. For example, the Annex II’s in each IGA country are going to be different so designing the operational control framework is probably going to be the biggest headache for the Responsible Officer should the group need one for the IRS regulations. And what should insurance companies be doing right now? So, if they haven't done so already, you need to complete a Gap Analysis as to what your operations currently are and what your take on procedures currently are to what you’ll have to do under either the IGA or the IRS regulations. So, having determined whether you are a financial institution you then need to have a look your financial accounts because some products are going to be exempt. And then you will need to get management buy in, and this is properly one of the hardest things to do across a large group. So, one way to do it might be to identify who the Responsible Officer is, if you’ve got to comply with the IRS regulations, or who is going to be the contact with the local tax authority because those people will have a vested interest in driving the project forward and making sure that you do comply with the relevant regulations. And it's important to realise that although it's tax legislation, the actual operational changes that you have to make stretch right across from the investment manager, your customers and your on-boarding procedures, who you interact with, your creditors, the reinsurance and ultimately your bank might actually start giving you a hard time to know what your FATCA status is. So, you need to have a look and a think because not everything is going to be under your control so you might actually need to start renegotiating some of your third-party agreements, especially if they're doing the take-on procedures for you and are actually doing the KYC and the AML side because they will know who your customers are. Thank you Craig and Jeanette for bringing clarity to these latest developments. Before we sign off, do you have any final thoughts for our listeners to take away? As companies begin to implement their FATCA compliance programmes there’s a number of things they should probably be keeping in mind. First is that the effective date is January 1st 2014. That date had previously been moved back; you shouldn't expect any more slippage on that date so you should regard January 1st 2014 as a firm date that you need to have your compliance programme in place. You shouldn't underestimate the significance of FATCA to the business. If you're a domestic US insurance company, the effects may be fairly limited but if you’re a non-US insurance company, particularly a life insurance company, FATCA will impose a significant change on your compliance activities including reviews of all your accounts, additional reporting obligations and potentially, ultimately, withholding obligations. Because it affects your relationship with your customer, there’s a significant potential impact on your distribution and account management processes and you need to actively think about how you are going to manage those changes. Thank you Craig and Jeanette. Listeners can find more details on this topic in the December 2012 edition of KPMG’s frontiers in tax publication. Other podcasts in this series include the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive and the potential tax impacts. Thank you and we look forward to you joining us again next time. The US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) – which aims to combat tax evasion by US persons with non-US accounts – has stimulated controversy and concern in the financial services industry ever since it was passed in 2010.1 FATCA requires ‘foreign financial institutions’ (FFIs) to report information on US account holders to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). FFIs are expected to identify the direct and sometimes indirect owners of their accounts to determine whether they are ‘US accounts’. To the extent they are, the FFI is required to disclose them to the IRS. FFIs that do not agree to do this would suffer a 30 percent withholding tax on all US withholdable payments. To avoid the withholding requirement, the FFI must enter into an agreement with the IRS to identify all US accounts held by it or its affiliates and report annually on each account. Major concerns were raised by the insurance industry over the practical and administrative burden that FATCA would impose; and also in many jurisdictions on its apparent conflict with local privacy and data protection legislation which would prevent the release of such information. In many cases, too, companies argued that they simply did not possess the necessary information to comply with the law. Reflecting these concerns, the governments of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain (the G5) approached the US, with the support of the European Commission, to explore ways to address the legal difficulties presented by FATCA. The outcome was the development of an intergovernmental approach, in which financial institutions will report the necessary information to their own tax authorities, who will then exchange information with the US under existing double taxation and information exchange agreements. In July 2012, the US Treasury published two versions of a Model Intergovernmental Agreement to Improve Tax Compliance and to Implement FATCA as a basis for implementing this approach. The G5 governments are currently in the process of drafting Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs); although the UK is furthest ahead, having signed the agreement and issued a consultation document on the intended implementation into UK law in September 2012. The other four governments are in detailed discussion with the US. IGAs: G5 progress France and Italy are in the process of negotiating annex II to their IGAs. In France, the IGA will have to be presented to the French parliament, which will have to enact implementing legislation. The situation is more complicated in Italy, where both the foreign ministry and the finance ministry must sign off on the IGA, which then must be ratified by the legislature. Spanish officials have said that implementation of the IGA should not require too many changes to domestic law. The government is currently drafting non-compliance penalties and anti-avoidance measures, and is hoping that the IGA will be agreed by parliament using an expedited process, in time for January 2013. Germany is currently negotiating Annex II with the United States. Ratification of the IGA is expected before the end of 2012, with domestic implementing legislation following. Officials expect the IGA to become effective before mid-2013. In the UK, HMRC have said that the UK-US IGA sets out a framework within which: • legal barriers to compliance, such as those related to data protection, have been addressed • withholding tax will not be imposed on income received by UK financial institutions • UK financial institutions will not be required to withhold tax on payments they make • due diligence requirements are more closely aligned to the requirements under the existing anti-money laundering rules • a significant range of institutions and products are effectively exempt from the FATCA requirements. Some relief for insurers Although earlier hopes that insurers – at least non-life insurers – might be exempted entirely from FATCA have not been fulfilled, the IGA, including the exemptions in Annex II, does bring some significant relief: • ‘custodial accounts’ expressly do not include insurance or annuity contracts • ‘cash value insurance contracts’ are expressly defined to exclude indemnity reinsurance • reportable cash value insurance contracts are subject to a 50,000 US dollar (USD) de minimis threshold • all ‘Registered Pension Schemes’ are exempt financial accounts • tax-favored savings products such as Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) and Child Trust Funds are exempt products • certain other pension arrangements may also be exempt financial accounts, although there are conditions that have to be met. Uncertainty remains, however, regarding the exemption of products such as certain pension income paying contracts from the definition of a Financial Account, which could hinge on whether such contracts are ‘authorized payments’. The guidance is eagerly anticipated. One of the major original concerns raised by insurers was the likely difficulty of collecting the required information from pre-existing accounts. The position has been eased significantly: back book due diligence should now only be required for ‘Financial Accounts’ held by individuals where balances exceed $250,000 on which no reporting is done to HMRC, for example under the qualifying policy or chargeable events regime. The effect of this is that due diligence on preexisting accounts should be focused on overseas life assurance business. For ‘Financial Accounts’ held by entities, reliance can be placed on the ‘know-your-customer’ and anti-money laundering procedures. Annex II also exempts ‘local financial institutions’, that is, institutions located solely within the UK that serve a local customer base. A number of conditions need to be met to be able to take advantage of this exemption: • the institution must be located solely in the UK • be regulated in the UK • be required to report information or withhold tax on accounts held by UK residents • ninety-eight percent of accounts must be held by residents of the UK or another member state of the EU • accounts must not be provided to US persons (who are not UK residents) or any entity which has beneficial owners who are US persons (who are not UK residents), and all related entities must meet the same requirements. To demonstrate compliance, local financial institutions need to implement procedures by 1 January 2014 to identify any new customers that breach these provisions and complete appropriate due diligence investigation of pre-existing accounts. Despite these developments, which go a significant way towards resolving the FATCA issues raised by the industry and by insurers especially, major uncertainties still remain. In particular, Annex II of each IGA will be specific to the US government partner in question. Any institution with operations more extensive than that of a ‘local financial institution’ is likely to face inconsistent, and potentially conflicting requirements for information gathering and reporting in different jurisdictions. Many multinational groups will have operations in countries both with and without IGAs, creating major challenges in developing a compliance framework. A further complication for multinational groups is that there are two models of IGA and one of those has two variations. Helpfully, a recent announcement by the IRS has almost wholly aligned the timelines for entities in IGA countries, non-IGA countries and the US. The opportunity for consistency in core definitions, however, will have to wait until the final regulations are released later this year. For UK companies specifically, uncertainties remain over the interpretation of a number of technical and definitional details; although the consultation period for the current draft closes at the end of November, it is unlikely that all outstanding issues will be resolved by the January 2013 implementation date. Similar -- but different -- inconsistencies and uncertainties can be expected in each IGA negotiated by the US government. Despite the uncertainties, time is short, notwithstanding the recent announcement. The priorities of affected institutions now should be to review and catalogue legal entity organization, insurance products, and all on-boarding procedures (including those of distributors) to prepare the organization to act as the rule become more settled. Notwithstanding the concessions made under the IGA approach, FATCA is still going to represent a significant burden. For further information, please contact: Craig Pichette KPMG in the US Tel: +1 312 665 5267 Jean Baxley Senior Manager KPMG in the US Tel: +1 202 533 3008 Jennifer Sponzilli KPMG in the UK Tel: +44 20 7311 1878 Jeanette Cook Senior Manager KPMG in the UK Tel: +44 11 7905 4277 1frontiers in tax, November 2011 and February 2012 editions, Share this Share this Follow us follow us on Twitter follow us on Linkedin FATCA - Introduction White House More frontiers in tax • Subscribe to related feeds	dclm-gs1-006200000
Public service workers may qualify for loan forgiveness The program, which was created in 2007, is ideal for those who have big federal student loan debts and small incomes. Dear Liz: I am the single mother of four daughters, including one who has a serious heart condition that causes $10,000 to $30,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses each year. These medical bills have caused me to file bankruptcy twice, but the bankruptcies have not wiped out my student loans. I have qualified for minimum payments and deferments a couple of times but have been on a payment schedule the vast majority of the time. The interest grows faster than I can keep up, and I keep getting deeper into the hole. I am now 51 and have over $45,000 in student loans. After a year and a half of being unemployed, and depleting my retirement funds to pay for COBRA health coverage, I finally found a job — I am making $30,000 a year working for a nonprofit as a social worker — but I still can't make any progress on these loans. The only program I can find is one in which I have to make payments, no matter how little I have, for the next 10 years if I continue to work for only nonprofits. No one can explain to me why all the money I have already paid, plus only working for nonprofits, plus my volunteer service over the years, doesn't count for something. I am holding my breath hoping you might have some suggestions to share. Answer: The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program you discovered is actually a fairly recent development. Before 2007, people in your situation didn't have an option to have their balances erased. It's unfortunate you didn't know about the program earlier, since if you'd signed up when it first became available you could be partway through your required payments by now and only a few years away from having your balance forgiven. But better late than never. The program is ideal for those who have big federal student loan debts and small incomes. If you sign up for the "income-based repayment" option, your monthly payments will be limited to 15% of your "discretionary income," defined as the amount of your income over 150% of the poverty line for your family. Since the poverty line for a family of five is $27,010 in 2012, your required monthly payment may well be zero. Even if your household is smaller, payments under the program typically are less than 10% of your gross income, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the FinAid and Fastweb financial aid sites. If you didn't have a public service job, your required repayment period would be 25 years — so you are receiving some credit for your service. Public service jobs include, among others, those in public safety and law enforcement, military service, public health, public education, public interest legal services, social work in public or family service agencies and jobs at tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations. Government employees also are considered to have public service positions, although interestingly enough, time served as a member of Congress doesn't count. Using home's equity to lower debt Dear Liz: Your answer to the parents with $200,000 in student loans for their daughters' educations was interesting — and cautionary. I wonder, since they mentioned refinancing their home, why not explore using their equity by selling the home and renting? Answer: The writer did mention getting a new mortgage, but didn't say whether it was a refinance or a modification, or whether the couple had any equity in the home. Although a conventional refinance requires considerable equity, a mortgage modification or a refinance made through the government's HARP program would not require that they owe less than the house is worth. If they do have equity, it would be worth considering using at least some of it to alleviate their debt burden and supplement their retirement funds. If they don't have equity, selling the house might still be an option if they could substantially reduce their living costs. Given that their income plunged by more than half, they would be smart to cut their expenses as far as possible to free up money to save for retirement and pay their debts. Taking such a big step down in their lifestyle might be painful, but it's often to better to do so now rather than risk being old and broke.	dclm-gs1-006210000
Lunch » Tags » Movies » Reviews » American Carol American Carol 1 rating: 1.0 A movie directed by David Zucker Director David Zucker (AIRPLANE, NAKED GUN) returns to the satire genre with AN AMERICAN CAROL. The political spoof stars Kevin Farley (brother of the late comedian Chris Farley) as Michael Malone, a left-wing documentary filmmaker with a strong likeness … see full wiki Tags: Movies, Comedies Cast: James Woods Director: David Zucker Release Date: 2008 MPAA Rating: PG-13 1 review about American Carol Sweet Home America • Feb 9, 2009 Pros: Proves one can be funny and daring without offending more family-friendly folk Cons: Bill O'Reilly makes a cameo The Bottom Line: USA! USA! USA! Now here's something you don't see every day - a patriotic Hollywood movie! I kid, I kid. An American Carol was never a theatrical feature movie, so I don't know anything about a Hollywood backstory. I don't know if it came from Hollywood or not. But I do know that An American Carol is a fun if very disjointed piece of spoofery from master parodist David Zucker. The schtick of An American Carol is the ten millionth or so remake of the classic Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol with an American twist. It makes sense - after all, America was formed after kicking out the British, and we stole our language, national pastime, and national anthem from them. In An American Carol, no cows are sacred - except America. The movie is definitely made with an entertainment motive in mind, but there is a political slant to the right. The story is about a documentary filmmaker by the name of Michael Malone. The fact that he's a documentary filmmaker is a running joke in An American Carol, as people are constantly saying things like "but he makes documentaries! Who goes to see documentaries?" Malone hates Independence Day and has arranged a demonstration against it at a country music concert. He gets visited by three ghosts of the past, present, and future who try to make him see the good in America. They of course prevail and at the end, Malone starts making actual features about the good in America. I liked the ghosts who visit Malone. The introductory ghost is his hero, John F. Kennedy. The ghost of the past is General Patton, as portrayed by an out-of-place but funny Kelsy Grammer. The ghost of the present, believe it or not, is George Washington. No, I didn't mix those two up. The ghost of the future is a country music star. Patton takes Malone to a college campus anti-war demonstration at the outbreak of World War II. Washington shows up in New York City on September 11, 2001. The singer takes Malone to his hometown of Detroit to see what becomes of him after Detroit is nuked. As you watch An American Carol, the Christmas Carol plot is the one to keep in mind. This movie is 82 minutes long and that running time includes the end credits. Zucker makes the mistake of trying to cram too much into it during that timespan. The plot actually begins in Afghanistan where a group of terrorists talks about getting a filmmaker who hates America. They also seem to have a plan to blow up a bomb somewhere, but I lost this whole secondary plot in the mess. There's also the side plot about the anti-Fourth of July demonstration, which is fortunately shoved into the background so it makes he movie easier to follow. And Mike's nephew Josh is a Navy guy being deployed into the Persian Gulf. Got all that? That's in 82 minutes, folks. An American Carol moves briskly, but it feels disjointed in many parts. At times you have to wonder what Zucker was thinking. There are scenes in which you can't tell if you're seeing another ghost sequence or if it's really happening to Michael. This doesn't have the stopping effect on the movie it usually would on other movies, though, but that's only because it's a screwball/slapstick comedy. It helps that many of these disjointed sequences are hilarious. In one of them, Patton and a judge played to maniacal perfection by Dennis Hopper shoot a bunch of zombies. In another, a stage group in a college breaks into a song-and-dance sequence. The song is about how American college students are taught to hate America. The political tone of the movie is very lightweight. It does exist, and it does slant to the right. But the movie doesn't point fingers at liberals or conservatives and say "those are the true America-hating terrorists!" Instead of liberals and conservatives, An American Carol makes the smart move of avoiding political tagging and just divides its sides between pro-Americans and anti-Americans. Malone is loudmouthed and boorish and clearly based on Michael Moore (as if you couldn't tell that from his name). But for all his faults, I've never seen the real Michael Moore raise attacks against America itself or say he wants it wiped out. Malone actually does this. He also makes an appearance on Bill O'Reilly's show with an even louder mouth named Rosie O'Connell, who is an endless geyser of boneheaded conspiracy theories. (She even quotes Rosie O'Donnell's nutjob saying about fire melting steel exactly.) Punctuating the pro-American/anti-American tone is the fact that Bill O'Reilly plays himself. If anything, David Zucker can be accused of making fun of the extreme politics which cropped up during the Bush administration. He goes for laughs at the expense of everyone. Again, if An American Carol has politics, the good guys would be right of center. But anyone and everyone is open for a skewing. And the best part is that many of the gags are incredibly inspired - in the future, Michael Malone visits a Hollywood which has morphed into a paradise for Muslim extremists. There is a billboard there advertising burqas from Victoria's Secret! There are a few standard jokes like characters always slapping Malone (Bill O'Reilly remarking on his smack at Malone: "I just like to hit you.") But for the most part, the jokes are daring, politically incorrect, and very, VERY hilarious. As satire, An American Carol actually works better than one would think. Especially for a straight-to-DVD release. There is a brilliant attack on college academics in which the point of students being taught to hate everything about their country is made. When John F. Kennedy is shown making his famous speech about doing something for your country, John himself tells Malone to listen to the whole speech, then we see a clip in which he vows to do anything to advance the cause of liberty. The And wait until you hear the groups Malone is getting support from in his protest! While the satire is blurred by Zucker's refusal to name names, a lot of it is still clever. I watched An American Carol expecting a quick, dumb laugh. But this movie was a shocker. It may be a complete mess of a movie, but it makes up for its disjointedness with its cleverness. It's funny and inspired and rarely resorts to low denominators to make you laugh. Yet, it's also very daring. To be daring and yet family friendly these days is an incredible trick. And David Zucker is able to do it. He makes you laugh without offending any of your senses and gives you a heartwarming pro-America story at the same time. It's dragged down by its messiness, that can't be argued. But if you're tired watching comedies which are only considered daring or edgy because of how many bad sex jokes, bathroom jokes, or swear words they contain, An American Carol is certainly worth a rental. What did you think of this review? Fun to Read Post a Comment What's your opinion on American Carol? 1 rating: +1.0 You have exceeded the maximum length. American Carol Related Topics Scary Movie 4 A movie directed by David Zucker Scary Movie 3 A movie Poster for the film. Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans; Stars: Anna Faris, Shawn Waya A movie directed by Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson First to Review "Sweet Home America" © 2014 Lunch.com, LLC All Rights Reserved Lunch.com - Relevant reviews by real people. This is you! Ranked # Last login Member since	dclm-gs1-006220000
Drive 'em into the ground The latest car sales numbers just came in, and they truly are bad enough to make a grown man cry. GM and Ford sales fell by half in February. At the current rate of sales, Detroit is doomed. That leaves two choices: bankruptcy or nationalization. Or both. My first instinct is to say bankruptcy all the way, forget the stomach-churning idea of nationalization. But I read an interesting take yesterday from Larry Kaufman, a former railroad executive. He argues that the US Railway Association, which was set up to handle bankrupt railroads, is a good model for saving the car companies. Instead of letting them restructure on their own in bankruptcy, he says a government agency could take the steering wheel: "Management of bankrupt rails were spectators. They could not fix their own companies. Similarly, expecting auto manufacturers' management to fix their own companies reminds one of the definitions of insanity: the same people repeatedly doing the same things but expecting different results." It's hard to argue that point, but it's easy to argue that the government wouldn't run things any better. What do you think? You know what GM thinks, but the company's argument against bankruptcy is laid out clearly today in this post on GM's Fastlane blog. Tom Wilkinson, the Director of GM News Relations (love the title), does make a rational case against Chapter 11. Unfortunately, it still hinges on people buying cars, and that is one loose hinge. By the way, you know who's benefiting from the lack of car sales? The people who sell car parts. Today, AutoZone said profits were up more than 8% last quarter. When gas prices were super-high, people were putting off repairs. Apparently now, they're doing the repairs, so they can drive their cars until the wheels come off. Makes me think of my dad. He kept a 1980ish Toyota Corolla until there were holes in the floorboards. This wasn't that long ago. You could've driven that thing Flintstones-style. Although we teased him mercilessly at the time, it's one reason I'm not too worried about my parents surviving the recession. Of course, if I were a carmaker, I'd be terrified of a nation of people like him. Log in to post14 Comments Sounds like everyone is contemplating a "right to die", or even more accurately, a "license to kill" paradigm for a very sick industry, unprepared to cope with it's own, self-induced problems. Where are Kevorkian and 007 when we need em..?! Does anyone think the American auto industry will survive once the chinese start building cars for export? Here is a plan to get car sales going again. This is not a plan to promote extravagance, just to get cars selling again, and provide for the peoples basic need to get to their jobs. Re-adjust to the market, which has changed to people needing the lowest priced models. Stop offering incentives to move higher priced cars. Offer the incentives on the lower priced ones. Government - temporarily suspend the tax and title fees. TT&L adds over $1500 to the cost of car buying. How discouraging it is to pay a big down payment or use up the incentive on the down payment and still have to finance more than the price of the car. Allow buyers to go into their car purchase and loan upside up instead of the other way. Dealers - Actually offer the financing deal that the "Credit Cowboy" shouts about on the ad. Ban fine print saying "Promotional financing only offered to those that don't need it." I know of people who were drawn into a dealer by the false promise of $199 down and $199 a month, only to find out that the deal is not available to them, or after 3 months it changes to $379 a month. But this is nothing more than a proposal to sustain the unsustainable. There are a number of things that are inherently unhealthy in our landscape: strip malls, 80 mile commutes, sprawling cookie-cutter subdivisions swallowing prime agricultural real estate. Cars do nothing but promote these malignancies and support the notion that there's nothing wrong with that picture. And they do so even if they're from a re-tooled Detroit and fueled with ethanol, soybeans, or used french-fry oil. Wasn't GM built out of a dozen or more failed car companies? Did anyone run around saying those companies had to be saved? Did the world collapse when Packard, Studebaker, etc, died? What is the big deal? Is it the fact that we have no social safety net and all those workers would suddenly have no health care? Is it an emotional thing, with Ford and GM stretching back so far? Don - I think you are right about China... it is hard to compete with workers who have no rights and factories that have no environmental laws. Something political will have to change before any industry is safe from the China Syndrome. In the 40's we went from building cars to building planes in tanks. that was before flexible manufacturing. Isn't there something else we could build in those idled plants? There is an X-prize for you, think of 101 things to do with an abandoned auto factory. Ooh, ooh! I know! Let's build the rolling stock for an efficient passenger rail system, intra-city light rail, and other mass transit equipment. We could use the ObamaBucks stimulus money to build civil infrastructure that promotes communities, instead of civil infrastructure that destroys communities (interstate system and low-density suburban development - I'm talkin' 'bout you!) I have read a report that, for 700 billion dollars, we could restore passenger rail to most communities with 10,000 people or more. Yes, let them fail. They will anyways, along with all of the other unhealthy and wasteful appendages of our unsustainable living arrangement. Same goes for the airlines, suburbia, and industrial agriculture. All of these arrangements were predicated on borrowed wealth and energy, and are currently unravelling with surprising speed. The reality of a physically limited world with tangible consequences seems to be overtaking the "growth forever" nonsense and other silly assumptions that our economic theories have labored under (and absolutely depend on) for the past two centuries. Of course, these assumptions feel just great and are empircally validated when you're on the uphill side of the peak (peak oil, peak credit, etc.) I think we have a long way to fall yet, but we can cut our losses if we start making the hard, grown-up decisions that will result in an orderly economic contraction. We need to be more modest in how we live, do business, and occupy our landscapes. Well said. The last sentence ought to be a motto. Aw, shucks. I really can't claim the idea as my own. I refer you to James H., Kunstler, the author of "The Geography of Nowhere" and "The Long Emergency." He also has a wonderful polemic blog here: www.kunstler.com With Generous Support From...	dclm-gs1-006230000
Weekly Wrap: Bernanke's message to the world, Congress A Wall Street sign in New York City's financial district. Log in to post2 Comments I want a refresher course in economics,political science and personal finance, and CANNOT afford to take a graduate course! Help! Your commentators, and for that matter Bernanke, are all assuming that the government has the responsibility, and for that matter the ability, to get the economy going again. Economic prosperity comes from liberty, which is the first casualty of the government's supposedly-stimulative actions. With Generous Support From...	dclm-gs1-006240000
No Thanks Keep In Touch With Sign up and we'll send inspiration straight to you. Topiary Banner A personalized banner creates a stately reception decoration when it's hung from greenery set on a mantel or tall table. To make, you'll need a 6-by-40-inch sheet of lightweight paper. 1. Trim top of banner so it gently curves in, creating an arc shape, then trim bottom so it curves out. Write couple's names. 3. Cut banner ends on a graceful angle; roll ends to curl. 4. Punch a hole near each end. Thread floral wire through holes; twist around trunks of cypress topiaries set two feet apart. 5. Tie on ribbon bows to cover wire. Tape coordinating ribbons on the pots. Comments (4)	dclm-gs1-006250000
Documentation Center • Trial Software • Product Updates Define and Use Structure Parameters Defining Structure Parameters To define structure parameters in MATLAB Function blocks, follow these steps: 1. Define and initialize a structure variable A common method is to create a structure in the base workspace. For other methods, see Structure Parameters. 2. In the Ports and Data Manager, add data in the MATLAB Function block with the following properties: PropertyWhat to Specify NameEnter same name as the structure variable you defined in the base workspace ScopeSelect Parameter TunableLeave checked if you want to change (tune) the value of the parameter during simulation; otherwise, clear to make the parameter non-tunable and preserve the initial value during simulation TypeSelect Inherit: Same as Simulink 3. Click Apply. FIMATH Properties of Non-Tunable Structure Parameters FIMATH properties for non-tunable structure parameters containing fixed-point values are based on the initial values of the structure. They do not come from the FIMATH properties specified for fixed-point input signals to the parent MATLAB Function block. (These FIMATH properties appear in the properties dialog box for MATLAB Function blocks.) Was this topic helpful?	dclm-gs1-006260000
Documentation Center • Trial Software • Product Updates Class: ClassificationKNN Margin of k-nearest neighbor classifier by resubstitution m = resubMargin(mdl) m = resubMargin(mdl) returns the classification margins of the data used to train mdl. For the definition, see Margin. Input Arguments expand all mdl — Classifier modelclassifier model object k-nearest neighbor classifier model, returned as a classifier model object. Note that using the 'CrossVal', 'KFold', 'Holdout', 'Leaveout', or 'CVPartition' options results in a model of class ClassificationPartitionedModel. You cannot use a partitioned tree for prediction, so this kind of tree does not have a predict method. Otherwise, mdl is of class ClassificationKNN, and you can use the predict method to make predictions. Output Arguments A numeric column vector of length size(mdl.X,1), where mdl.X is the training data for mdl. Each entry in m represents the margin for the corresponding row of mdl.X and (true class) mdl.Y. The classification margin is the difference between the classification score for the true class and maximal classification score for the false classes. Margin is a column vector with the same number of rows as in the training data. The score of a classification is the posterior probability of the classification. The posterior probability is the number of neighbors that have that classification, divided by the number of neighbors. For a more detailed definition that includes weights and prior probabilities, see Posterior Probability. expand all Resubstitution Margin Calculation Construct a k-nearest neighbor classifier for the Fisher iris data, where k = 5. Load the data. load fisheriris X = meas; Y = species; Construct a classifier for 5-nearest neighbors. mdl = fitcknn(X,Y,'NumNeighbors',5); Examine some statistics of the resubstitution margin of the classifier. m = resubMargin(mdl); [max(m) min(m) mean(m)] ans = 1.0000 -0.6000 0.9253 The mean margin is over 0.9, indicating fairly high classification accuracy for resubstitution. For more reliable assessment of model accuracy, consider cross validation, such as kfoldLoss. See Also \| \| \| \| More About Was this topic helpful?	dclm-gs1-006270000
Documentation Center • Trials • Product Updates Add Title to Graph Using Plot Tools What Is a Title? In a MATLAB® figure, a title is a text string at the top of an axes. It appears in the figure border, not within the axes it describes. Titles typically define the subject of the graph. The following figure shows a title, centered at its top. Note While you can use text annotations to create a title for your graph, it is not recommended. Titles are anchored to the top of the axes they describe; text annotations are not. If you move or resize your axes, the title remains at the top. Additionally, if you cut a title and then paste it back into a figure, the title is no longer anchored to the axes. You can add a title to a graph interactively in several ways, described in the following sections. Using the Title Option on the Insert Menu To add a title to a graph using the Insert menu, 1. Click the Insert menu in the figure menu bar and choose Title. A text entry box opens at the top of the axes. Note Selecting the Title option enables plot editing mode automatically. 2. Enter the text of the label. 3. When you are finished entering text, click anywhere in the figure background to close the text entry box around the title. If you click on another object in the figure, such as an axes or line, you close the title text entry box and also automatically select the object you clicked. To change the font used in the title to bold, you must edit the title. You can edit the title as you would any other text object in a graph. Using the Property Editor to Add a Title To add a title to a graph using the Property Editor, 1. Start plot editing mode by selecting Edit Plot from the figure Tools menu. 2. Double-click an empty region of the axes in the graph. This starts the Property Editor. You can also start the Property Editor by right-clicking on the axes and selecting Show Property Editor from the context menu or by selecting Property Editor from the View menu. The Property Editor displays a property panel specific to axes objects. Titles are a property of axes objects. 3. Type the text of your title in the Title text entry box. You can change the font, font style, position, and many other aspects of the title format. • To move the title, select the text and drag it to the desired position. • To edit the text, double-click the title and type new characters. • To change the font and other text properties, select the title and right-click to display the context menu. See Also Related Examples Was this topic helpful?	dclm-gs1-006280000
Documentation Center • Trials • Product Updates File name of currently running function p = mfilename('fullpath') c = mfilename('class') mfilename returns a string containing the file name of the most recently invoked function. When called from within the file, it returns the name of that file. This allows a function to determine its name, even if the file name has been changed. More About expand all When called from the command line, mfilename returns an empty string. See Also \| \| \| \| Was this topic helpful?	dclm-gs1-006290000
Documentation Center • Trial Software • Product Updates Uniform Rectangular Array Support for Uniform Rectangular Arrays You can implement a uniform rectangular array (URA) with phased.URA. Array elements are distributed in the yz-plane with the array look direction along the positive x-axis. When you use phased.URA, you must specify these aspects of the array: • Sensor elements of the array • Number of rows and the spacing between them • Number of columns and the spacing between them • Geometry of the planar lattice, which can be rectangular or triangular Uniform Rectangular Array with Isotropic Antenna Elements This example shows how to create a URA, get information about its element positions, response, and delays, and simulate its reception of two sine waves. Create and view a six-element URA with two elements along the y-axis and three elements along the z-axis. Use a rectangular lattice, with the default spacing of 0.5 meters along both the row and column dimensions of the array. Each element is an isotropic antenna element, which is the default. Return the positions of the array elements. hura = phased.URA([3 2]); pos = getElementPosition(hura); The x-coordinate is zero for all elements in the array. You can plot the array response using the plotResponse method. % Plot the response in 3D Calculate the element delays for signals arriving from +/– 45 degrees azimuth and 0 degrees elevation. hed = phased.ElementDelay('SensorArray',hura); ang = [45 -45]; tau = step(hed,ang); The first column of tau contains the element delays for the signal incident on the array from +45 degrees azimuth and the second column contains the delays for the signal arriving from –45 degrees. The delays are equal in magnitude but opposite in sign as expected. The following code simulates the reception of two sine waves arriving from far field sources. One of the signals is a 100-Hz sine wave arriving from 20 degrees azimuth and 10 degrees elevation. The other signal is a 300-Hz sine wave arriving from –30 degrees azimuth and 5 degrees elevation. Both signals have a one GHz carrier frequency. t = linspace(0,1,1000); x = cos(2pi100t)'; y = cos(2pi300t)'; angx = [20; 10]; angy = [-30;5]; recsig = collectPlaneWave(hura,[x y],[angx angy],1e9); Each column of recsig represents the received signal at the corresponding element of the URA, hura. Was this topic helpful?	dclm-gs1-006300000
Main menu Courtney's Q & A Favorite Sport/Team Favorite Movie/Actor Sex and the City Go-to karaoke song Out Tonight-RENT! My first job Camp counselor Piercings/Tattoos (How many? Where?) 1 tattoo on the foot, 6 piercings in the ears Mac or PC? Nintendo, Xbox 360, PS3, or don't game? Don't game-sorry!!! I played Mimi in RENT. If you don't know the character/show, look it up :) What's the most memorable pick up line you've ever heard? You make my pulse rate go too high. What should I do? What's the craziest thing you've ever done? I can't share, because I could get fired. ;) Book store. He still brags about it! What's in your purse or pocket right now? Victoria Secret gift card, keys, lip stick What do you feel most comfortable wearing? Little black dress or skinny jeans. Amazing once a year. Britney Spears	dclm-gs1-006310000
KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Eighth-ranked Florida was beaten at its own game by Kansas State. The nation's best defensive team was out-defended, and Gators coach Billy Donovan knew it. "I thought they were just a step ahead of us, a step quicker," Donovan said after a 67-61 loss Saturday night. "We gave up some offensive rebounds. We had just a couple plays there where we were just late on some things, particularly our guards getting over screens." Patric Young had 19 points and 10 rebounds despite foul trouble, but he didn't get a whole lot of help against Kansas State's in-your-shorts defense. Rosario, the team's leading scorer, had five points on 1-for-9 shooting. Scott Wilbekin scored 11 points but was 0 for 3 from beyond the arc, where the Gators were 5 of 19 as a team. "When a guy like (Rosario) goes 1 for 9, probably a third of his shots were blocked," Donovan said. "When you're getting your shot blocked, it's not a good night." It was a dandy night for the Wildcats. For all the area teams, as a matter of fact. Will Spradling had 17 points, six rebounds and five assists to lead the Wildcats, who followed up No. 9 Kansas' win over No. 7 Ohio State and No. 12 Missouri's victory over No. 10 Illinois on Saturday with the most surprising result of them all. "Whenever you're shooting it well—you see the ball go through the net—it brings confidence to you and for your team as well," said Spradling, a sophomore guard from suburban Kansas City. "This is probably my best all-around performance that I've had." No doubt. Spradling didn't even have a turnover in 39 minutes. Young's two free throws with just over 2 minutes left got Florida (8-2) within 58-53, but Spradling found Shane Southwell in the corner for an open 3-pointer and the Wildcats managed to put the game away from the foul line down the stretch. They ended up shooting 21 free throws in the second half. "If you're looking at the game, I'd think everyone would say Kansas State's energy was much better than ours," Donovan said. "The reason they got the lead they did, it was because their energy was much better." It was defense that ruled this one from the start. Kansas State eventually settled down on offense, and McGruder's basket with just under 5 minutes left made it 26-19. The Gators' Michael Frazier curled in a 3-pointer for his only basket, but Kansas State rattled off seven more points that helped it take a big lead into the break. The Gators scored on their first six trips down the floor and put together a 12-3 run that allowed them to wipe out almost the entire deficit. Kenny Boynton's 3 with 13:10 left drew them even at 41-all, the closest they'd been since leading 19-17 midway through the first half. The Wildcats kept stepping up.	dclm-gs1-006320000
As Democrats contemplate what to do with their new supermajority power in the Legislature, they should avoid Republicans' worst fears: tax increases to restore depleted services. Nearly 2 million Californians remain unemployed. Economic growth must be a top priority. And one of the best ways to accomplish it is to reform the California Environmental Quality Act. The law, known as CEQA, requires local governments to analyze the environmental effects of development projects and look for ways to mitigate them. It's one reason the state has been able to preserve its natural beauty -- a central component of its attraction for residents and businesses -- and it has given residents a strong voice in community development. But it is too often abused by a whole range of interests: NIMBYs to protect their personal interests, labor unions as a weapon to demand contracts and businesses to stop competition, to name just a few. As one example, a competitor of Moe's Stop gas station in San Jose used the law to prevent Moe's from adding pumps. These challenges often prevent development that could create jobs or help businesses survive without harming the environment, and they contribute to California's reputation as unfriendly to business. Four decades after Ronald Reagan signed CEQA into law, it's time for an update. With the help of Silicon Valley Leadership Group President Carl Guardino, a statewide coalition has been working with CEQA experts to develop reforms that prevent abuses while maintaining the law's intent. The proposals were discussed briefly in Sacramento as the legislative session ended, but they were too complex to be passed quickly. We hope to see them revived and fully debated next year: • Coordinating CEQA reviews with environmental regulations. For example, if a project complies with water quality laws, a judge shouldn't be able to stop it on water-quality grounds as part of a CEQA challenge. • Limiting when a CEQA lawsuit can be filed. • Improving record-keeping to speed up the court process. • Requiring transparency in the courts -- as in politics -- so the public can see who's behind the challenges. Often, it's not environmentalists. Reform opponents say CEQA lawsuits are few, and they're right. But the threat of a lawsuit changes what businesses do and where they try to build. Sometimes that's for the best, but often it's a needless deterrent to job creation. Reforms could actually enhance some environmental protections. Infill, which is building in already developed areas -- far preferable to sprawl into open land -- is often challenged by NIMBY neighbors. And for developers, nothing increases costs like project delays. Reforming CEQA would make infill projects more attractive to builders. Gov. Jerry Brown, Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez all have promised reform. It's a perfect opportunity to show Californians they're serious about using their supermajority power responsibly.	dclm-gs1-006330000
Batman Begins Game Boy Advance Mixed or average reviews - based on 5 Critics Critic score distribution: 1. Positive: 0 out of 5 2. Negative: 0 out of 5 1. 70 The GBA title is a solid one with enough strengths in its design to recommend, as long as you understand that the game doesn't offer a whole lot of "wow" factor. 2. A few Batmobile levels would help to break up the monotony. It's not a long game and it's not a very hard game. 3. If you played the GBA versions of "Wolverine's Revenge," "Prince of Persia," "Splinter Cell," or even "Bruce Lee," there really isn't a reason to play this game as it is a rehashed use of their gameplay engines. 4. The game also has some performance problems, including slowdown on the last level. [Aug 2005, p.85] 5. This brief two-hour romp is just another in a long line of mediocre action games churned out to cash in on a big-budget motion picture. User Score Mixed or average reviews- based on 8 Ratings User score distribution: 1. Positive: 5 out of 5 2. Mixed: 0 out of 5 3. Negative: 0 out of 5 1. SamuelC. Jul 10, 2006 Yes, there are some slowdowns and there are no Batmobile levels, but this game rocks with its cool level designs, good controls and good graphics. 2. sohailr. Aug 27, 2005 The bestest who can fly betman. 3. Jake Jun 28, 2005 Fun to play, some confusing areas but overall a good play and worth the time.	dclm-gs1-006340000
RC de GO! PlayStation • Publisher: Acclaim • Release Date: Nov 9, 2000 Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critics Critic score distribution: 1. Positive: 4 out of 5 2. Negative: 0 out of 5 1. 84 A heck of a lot of fun, and it beats the living daylights of many of its full-size competitors. 2. The definition of a sleeper -- a marvelous little racer that deserves a little more limelight than it has received so far. In truth, the game excels on all fronts, providing a deep sim-based RC experience, with an intuitive control scheme accessible enough for anyone to pick up. 3. As strange as it might seem, Rc De GO is actually bounds better than most of the racing titles that have hit the PlayStation and lately, and anyone looking for something slightly off the wall would do best to give Acclaim's latest a try. 4. It was rather boring and lifeless. The graphics were rather flat and one dimensional and just got old really quick. 5. Coming in completely under the radar, RC de Go! could be the most enjoyable PlayStation racer of 2000 that you'll never play... There are no user reviews yet.	dclm-gs1-006350000
User Score Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings User score distribution: 1. Positive: 6 out of 7 2. Mixed: 0 out of 7 3. Negative: 1 out of 7 Review this game 1. Your Score 0 out of 10 Rate this: • 10 • 9 • 8 • 7 • 6 • 5 • 4 • 3 • 2 • 1 • 0 • 0 1. Submit 2. Check Spelling 1. EvelynH. Dec 6, 2003 This disc might be really good and really exciting!!!I think I will highly recommend this!!! 2. CarolinaH. Jan 1, 2004 It is alright, but it is a short game. It is fun for people who like horses! You have to rescue all the foals before you can go to the final level! 3. JoM. Jan 26, 2004 Helooo! Barbie? Horses? Can you say Game of the year? I thought you could. I may be a 35 year old male who collects victorian doll houses but I know good gaming when I see it. Me and my Marie Osmond collection dolls will spend many hours rescuing ponies. Thanks for making this game!!! 4. SallieB. Mar 21, 2004 My four year old loves it and has learned how to use the controls very well. It is the best game for little ones that I could find. 5. Laura.Q. Dec 16, 2005 I am totally loving the game! I mean, alright, you can't buck barbie off the horse, but other than that the game is awsome! My best friend and I love horses (And MABEY we like barbie just a little...) so when we saw this game we just knew we had to have it! I so love this game! The grafics are great! Everyone, young and old, can accually feel as if they own a horse with this game. My friend and I used to play with toy horses when we were younger, but now we've grown out of it (But not too much!) so we've turned to simulated horse games, and we couldn't be happy'er! We've been sending in some ideas to the makers for a new game like this, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that they exept! Horses biggest fan, Laura! Expand 6. Jan 7, 2013 Okay, so I bought this game for my neighbour's daughter and I just wanted to try and see if it works. I got hooked up on it, missed 2 years of college, few funerals, births and Champions League finals and I don't even care. Those horses are so damn cute, I just wanna sunggle with'em. Definitely better than Black Ops 2, I reccomend this to all hardcore gamers. THEHOOD! Mixed or average reviews - based on 6 Critics Critic score distribution: 1. Positive: 1 out of 6 2. Negative: 2 out of 6 1. The game features enough levels and unlockable extras to keep the player engrossed for a long time; so Barbie and horse fans alike - male and female, young and old - will all get something out of this. 2. Riding feels "real"... In short, Barbie's first foray onto Xbox is not a stinker. [Dec/Jan 2004, p.100] 3. It is true that there are some gameplay redundancies and a healthy amount of character interaction issues, but will a kid point to mommy and say “look at all of the clipping issues!”, or “look at all of the horseys!”?	dclm-gs1-006360000
View Full Version : Lightning Swords Of Death -- Kansas City, MO -- July 3rd, 2013 07-04-2013, 10:40 PM It was a homecoming of sorts on Independence Day-eve at the Riot Room in Kansas City. It was the return of a local musician on a bill filled up with some of the best-quality underground extreme metal from the United States today. It was a celebration of musicians and the art they create and it was one of the most complete heavy metal bills to roll through Kansas City in quite some time. Although the show ended with a spectacular performance, it didn't begin with one. The first band to play was California's Reign of Lies. Playing to a barely-there and barely-responsive crowd didn't help the band's bland riffs and uninspired musicianship. Most of their songs could be singled out from exactly which Machine Head, Lamb of God and Pantera songs they were ripping off at that time. There were brief flashes of brilliance though, especially on the ripping track "DMT" which showcased a fire bubbling underneath the mediocre songs. The second guitarist in particular had some chops that would only improve the band if he could just be let loose to really show what he could do. But as long as Reign of Lies continues with the same formulaic groove metal songs that have been around for almost 20 years now, they'll forever be relegated to opening band status. In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, local black/viking metal group Stonehaven took the stage next. Their drummer, Jackson Ferris, is now the drummer for Lightning Swords of Death, so it was the first time the band had played a show in quite some time. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, Stonehaven's first show in a very long time was just made that much better for the crowd, which was very big at this point. Stonehaven plays the cold, unflinching Celtic-inspired style of black metal of bands like early Enslaved or Windir, but can also be much more aggressive like an Enthroned or Behexen sound. They can switch between each style flawlessly which really makes for a performance that never gets stale. Cloaked in fur pelts and chainmail and with corpsepaint adorning their faces, the band had the longest opening set, clocking in around 40 minutes. The dual guitars layered melodies upon melodies to compliment the bass which provided the backbone of the music. The vocalist had exceptional shrieking vocals, but also let loose a few unearthly howls. It was all held together by Jackson Ferris' monstrous drumming in his first appearance of the night. Stonehaven really is a treasure in the Kansas City music community, and their performance that night showed just how sorely their music is missed. The last opening band was Valdur from California. Although they were a three-piece band, Valdur's sound was every bit as thick and heavy as the headlining band's sound. Valdur's brand of black metal is a very suffocating and chaotic sound; the band barely gave the crowd time to breathe between constant blast beats and a wall of riffs. They actually seemed to take a lot of inspiration from similar bands such as Spain's Teitanblood or even Portal from Australia - each song had a very foreboding atmosphere that left little room for frills or gimmicks. They had a very short set, coming in at under 30 minutes. But for the short time they had, they definitely left a lasting impression on Kansas City. With their performance, Lightning Swords of Death proved that the American black metal movement should be spearheaded by themselves. Each element of their performance was spot on - a theatrical yet technically proficient vocalist mixing typical black metal shrieks with haunting, chanting invocations; guitars that layered on top of each other but still had their own separate heavy tones that played well off each other to create some of the best black metal riffs in recent memory; a manic bass player who added some small psychedelic elements to the music a la Nachtmystium, and the insane, never-faltering drumming, courtesy again of Kansas City's own Jackson Ferris. The band played their entire set cloaked in a thick smoke that had filled the Riot Room at that point and it only added to the overall performance. Most of the setlist came from their recent fantastic release "Baphometic Chaosium" and their "The Extra Dimensional Wound," but in the encore, they treated the still-headbanging crowd to "Let This Knife Lead You To Us" from their first album "The Golden Plague." With a fantastic album out this year and killer performances such as this one, Lightning Swords of Death is poised to break into huge mainstream success and forever be etched into the history of extreme American metal. They capped off a great night of evil on a rainy Kansas City night. Lightning Swords of Death included (I think): Let This Knife Lead You To Us Invoke The Desolate One Damnation Pentastrike Baphometic Chaosium Acid Gate R'lyeh Wuurm Lightning Swords of Death: 9/10 Valdur: 8/10 Stonehaven: 8/10 Reign of Lies: 5/10 07-05-2013, 06:11 AM Awesome review! :rocker: 07-05-2013, 07:19 AM Yeah, yeah. Get back to work! 07-05-2013, 07:25 AM Great review man! I remember seeing Valdur opening Mayhem Fest in 2011. It was pretty chill. 07-05-2013, 01:33 PM Reign Of Lies gave me a CD, T-shirt and bought me a beer when I saw them on the Melechesh tour. I can't complain too much. LSOD put on one of the best opening sets I've ever seen. I'd love to see them headline at some point.	dclm-gs1-006370000
A Mind Forever Voyaging MobyRank MobyScore Apple II Advertising Blurbs Inside Cover of Box - Commodore 128 (United Kingdom): “When someone asks me what my computer can do, I show them an Infocom game.” Marion, 26, Research Technician Dayton, Ohio “Every Infocom game breaks new ground in the art of game design. The craft has reached the level of an art form, primarily because of Infocom.” “You folks design the best text adventures. Better than chess or a good movie, it’s like a fine wine.” Christopher, 29 St. Ann, Missouri “Infocom, your products are the stuff that dreams are made of!” Sandi, 31 Napa, California “The passion that players bring to these games comes from the same source as all fiction-induced pleasure—the projection of self into another world and the desire to learn what happens next as the adventures unfold. Only in this case, it’s up to you to determine what happens next.” ROLLING STONE magazine “I’m not an avaricious person, gathering unto me great gobs of wealth does not make my soul stir, but the challenge of saving the world or rescuing a person is where it’s at.” Lancaster, California “Your games are great! I swear I enter a time warp when I begin to play. Thanks for creating this wonderful form of entertainment.” Naperville, Illinois “Keep it up, Infocom!” Don, 15 Glendale, Wisconsin Contributed by Patrick Bregger (98788) on May 23, 2011. From PASSPORT To The United Products of Infocom 1986: It's 2031. The world is on the brink of chaos. In the United States of North America, government and industry leaders have developed The Plan for Renewed National Purpose. Will the Plan ensure peace and prosperity? Or will it set the earth on a suicide course to destruction? As the world's first conscious, intelligent computer, only you have the ability to enter a simulation of the future and test the Plan's effectiveness. A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING is reminiscent of such classic works of science fiction as Brave New World and 1984. You'll spend less time solving puzzles, as you explore realistic worlds of the future. "AMFV uses the expanded memory to breathtaking effect, creating a richly imaged anti-Utopian futureworld... AMFV isn't '1984', but in some ways it's even scarier." "An ambitious departure from anything Infocom has done before and a major event in software entertainment." -Games magazine Contributed by Belboz (6579) on Oct 09, 2001. From the first Infocom fold-out catalog, 198?: are about to see the fantastic worlds of Infocom unfold before your very eyes. A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING Marking Infocom's entry into the realm of serious science fiction such as 1984, this excitingly different story contains fewer puzzles to solve and more mind-blowing avenues to explore. As the world's first conscious, intelligent computer, you must simulate the future to predict whether a radical new political plan will bring peace and prosperity... or set the world on a suicide course. Featuring Interactive Fiction Plus. Contributed by Belboz (6579) on Oct 05, 2001. From The New Zork Times, VOL.4 No.2 Summer 1985: New Release: A Mind Forever Voyaging A Mind Forever Voyaging, the first advanced-level science Fiction story from Infocom, is for true text-adventure buffs. Why? Because it has more locations to visit (several hundred), more things to do, more responses, and a large vocabulary (1800+ words) than any of our previously released products. The story takes place in 21st-century Rockvil, South Dakota. The United States of North America has fallen prey to incredibly high unemployment and crime rates. Political indifference, perhaps caused by backward educational systems or diminishing national resources, has swept the nation. Exploiting this opportunity, Senator Richard Ryder has develop [sic] the Plan for a Renewed National Purpose, stressing patriotism and a return to American values as they were at the country's peak, the 1950s. The public, desperate for a change, embraces the Plan, but many high government officials are unsure whether it will succeed. That is where you come into the picture. You are PRISM (Perelman-Randu Introductory Soliptic Machine): the first intelligent, self-aware computer. You have been created to enter a simulation of Rockvil, years in the future, and return with recordings of what life would be like if the Plan were to be introduced. While you're busy exploring the future, the scientists and programmers who created you are honing and perfecting the simulation's parameters. Thus, as the story progresses, you can travel further and further in time, watching Rockvil prosper as the Plan succeeds, or perish as it fails. Only you can tell on what course the country sets itself by adopting the Plan. While there are several puzzles to keep players on their toes, designer Steve Meretzky (author of Planetfall and Sorcerer, and co-author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) concentrated more on immersing the player in a vast, highly detailed, realistic world; a vision of the destiny of mankind. A Mind Forever Voyaging represents Infocom's greatest step yet away from games, and toward true fiction: a serious, often chilling, look at the future of the human race, reminiscent of such great works of science fiction as 1984 or Brave New World. What makes an epic game like this possible? Interactive fiction "plus," the latest development system from Infocom, designed to complement our currently-used "classic" system. "Plus" will be available for most machines that have 128K or more of internal RAM, allowing us to more than double the size of our products. In fact, the entire Zork trilogy could have fit into one game if we'd had the "plus" system at our disposal in 1981. Thus, large projects, like A Mind Forever Voyaging, are now entirely within our capabilities. Unlike the new Whopper, or New Coke, this revolutionary gaming technology promises to please the tastes of even the most discriminating player, allowing for more of just about everything (game bugs being no exception). Finally, this size increase should not be seen as "the beginning of the end" of our support for machines with under 128K of memory. Owners of smaller computers can rest assured that we will continue to produce plenty of products for their machines, using the "classic" system. Meretzky began work on the project by writing a short, intriguing fictional piece, which introduces the player to the concept of artificial intelligence, as well as to the main characters and themes of the story. This short story, part of an issue of "Dakota Online Magazine," is found in the game package, along with the instruction manual, a full-color map of Rockvil, a "21st-century" plastic pen, and a Class One Security Mode Access Decoder. Contributed by Belboz (6579) on Aug 26, 2001. From the back of the box: "If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not..." -Shakespeare IT'S 2031. The world is on the brink of chaos. In the United States of North America, spiraling crime and unemployment rates, decayed school systems and massive government regulations have led to a lazy, contentious society. To reverse this critical situation, government and industry leaders have developed a Plan combining the economic freedom and strong moral values of the 1950's with the technological advancements of the 21st century. Will the Plan ensure peace and prosperity? Or will it set the earth on a suicide course to destruction? As the world's first conscious, intelligent computer, only you can visit places that have never been seen before. Only you can view the future. And only you know what must be done to save humanity. Contributed by Belboz (6579) on Aug 20, 2001. Unknown Source: Welcome to A Mind Forever Voyaging (which, for brevity's sake, will henceforth be referred to as AMFV). In this story, you will be PRISM, the world's first sentient machine. Before you "boot up" your disk, make sure you read the short story in the first part of the booklet. The story begins in the world of 2031, a world on the brink of chaos. The economy of the United States of North America (USNA) has been stagnating for decades. Crackpot religions are springing up all over the place. Crime and urban decay are rampant. Schools have become violent, chaotic places ill-suited for educating children. Today's youth frequently use joybooths to "tune-out" the world, leading in the extreme case to joybooth suicide, where a psychological addict wastes away in his or her private nirvana. The global situation is even grimmer. The calcuttization of the Third World has almost reached its limit, causing extreme overpopulation and poverty. This has created a climate ripe for East Bloc adventurism, exploiting instability and fanning the numerous flash points around the globe. The superpower race to build an impenetrable missile defense has ended in a tie, with the foreseeable but unforseen result that an even more dangerous arms race has begun -- a race to build miniature nuclear weapons, some as small as a cigarette pack, and smuggle them into enemy cities -- a race which threatens to turn the USNA into a giant police state. Things are bad, and it appears that they can only get worse. So when Senator Richard Ryder, along with a small group of leaders from government, business, and the universities, announces the Plan for renewed national purpose, everyone is only too willing to embrace it. Only one thing stands between the Plan and its adoption: a test of its validity. That's why you have been "awakened" from your simulated life and had your true nature revealed to you several years ahead of schedule. You have been chosen to use your unique abilities to enter a simulation of the future, based on the tenents of the Plan, in order to check its effectiveness. The eyes of the world are on you. Contributed by Brian Hirt (10025) on Mar 10, 1999.	dclm-gs1-006380000
or Connect Mothering › Mothering Forums › Pregnancy and Birth › Birth and Beyond › Postpartum Depression › Beyond frustrated - needing to vent New Posts All Forums:Forum Nav: Beyond frustrated - needing to vent post #1 of 6 Thread Starter I don't know if this is PPD or not....maybe I am just selfish. But either way, I am having a hard time. We have a 6 year old son and a month old daughter. We are practicing attached parenting; breastfeeding, co-sleeping, wearing our baby, etc. (A little back story - my son is from a previous relationship and our daughter is my husband's first child). But lately I just want my freedom, I want to sleep all night without interruption, I want to be able to leave the house without having to pump for days to make sure I have enough milk stored up. I want my husband's life. He works early in the morning, so I don't wake him to help with the baby in the middle of the night and he gets to go out and leave the house without a second thought. I bartend 2 nights/week for no more than 4 hours per shift. My husband takes care of the kids while I am gone. It seems like this is my only "adult" time. My MIL comes over during this time to be an extra set of hands for my husband. I was just told by her that he seems pretty "stressed out" and he really should be able to have some "me time" to destress from it all. I just about lost it!!! I get almost ZERO "me time" and am with the kids all of the time. I am at the point where I want to bottle feed so I can get a break, and am feeling deeply guilty about this as I am well-versed on the benefits of breastfeeding (my son was breastfed for 18 months). I don't know what to do!! bawling.gif post #2 of 6 Hugs. That was a VERY insensitive comment from your MIL! I don't know if insensitivity is the norm for your MIL, but it kind of is for mine. Don't let her get to you, just brush it off. I completely understand where you're coming from. It's often hard to be sure whether you are depressed or if you're just doing something very, very hard that would be a lot for anyone to deal with. I think SAHMs with small children are very often put in a position that is just f-ing depressing, by anyone's standards. And that anyone living that life can't help but have those trapped, hopeless feelings at least some of the time. I also understand what it's like to have a DH who is devoted, hard-working, and doing absolutely everything right, but who you still feel burning resentment towards because he has SO much more freedom than you and doesn't even seem to realize how unequal it is. Until YOU are the one breastfeeding every few hours 24/7 for many months, it's just impossible to understand how physically and emotionally HARD that is. So I really think to some degree, men just can't understand, now matter how wonderful of a man we're talking about. Try to remember that getting up early and going to work every morning is not exactly a picnic either. All you can see is how unfettered he is compared to you (and he IS, believe me I get it) but there is a flip side to that. What he does to support his family is hard too. It's just hard. All you can really do is work on having excellent communication with your DH so you can work together to get your needs met. If it's possible, I highly recommend hiring a young girl to be a mother's helper to take some of the heat off you now and then. She can watch the kids for you while you take a long bath and shave your legs, or dick around on the Internet or whatever. Maybe talk to your DH about taking the kids in the evening now and then while you go sit with a book in a coffee shop just for an hour, or walk around the mall and treat yourself to a new top or whatever makes you happy. It'll get better when the baby gets more independent. Take good care of yourself, make time for friends, you will be okay. I'm right there with you! post #3 of 6 Thread Starter Thank you so much for your kind words! Everything you have said, rings true for me. I have started to talk to DH about all of this, although it is hard. I feel bad for not being as strong as I was with my first child. gloomy.gif I will just keep trying! post #4 of 6 Hugs mama. Deep breath. I KNOW how hard this stage in your life is. I have a 32 month and 10 month old. We don't live near family, and we also do attachment parenting, breastfeeding, co-sleeping. Be gentle with yourself. This time is so intense, it's crazy. BUT... I can say it does get easier. It really does. When your little one becomes more mobile, and they are eating solids, you will find some time. This to shall pass. I agree with the previous poster, a mothers helper, or even get your MIL in when you are home (if you could stand it). Communication is key with your DH post #5 of 6 Yes, a very insensitive comment from your MIL. The first couple months are really hard. It's just what having a tiny baby is. If you can come to some sort of acceptance about that and appreciate it for what it is and that it doesn't last forever, it may be easier for you. I somehow experienced them as a great joy, and I still cried, was overwhelmed, exhausted, and jealous that DH's life was so "easy" to name just a few. I would try really connecting with your baby; it might make all the care a little bit easier. Eye gazing doesn't get any better than with a newborn. Try to view breast-feeding as a time to rest. You could take the baby out with you to get some adult time. Ask for help and be specific. Other people can do laundry, meals, cleaning, watching your older child, taking the baby for short periods.. post #6 of 6 Sigh, and hugs, I could have written this post. You're not alone, though at this point I've fit an appointment with a psychiatrist to explore meds, a few pills for anxiety emergencies, and an seeing a counsellor regularly. The more support you can get the better you'll feel. New Posts All Forums:Forum Nav: Return Home Back to Forum: Postpartum Depression	dclm-gs1-006390000
What's Up With Drilling and Earthquakes? \| Tue Jul. 24, 2012 1:44 PM GMT There has been increasing concern about the potential role of fracking in earthquakes. The worries prompted the the US Geological Survey to look into it, and scientists found that the increase in earthquakes is likely man-made, but probably caused more by wastewater disposal than fracking itself. Now, a fabulous new piece from EnergyWire looks a little more deeply at the wastewater connection. Reporter Mike Soraghan visited Oklahoma, where state officials are taking their time investigating the connection between the industrial processes and a magnitude-5.6 quake that damaged homes and highways along the Wilzetta Fault last year: The whole article is an informative read on the state of science and policy when it comes to these quakes.	dclm-gs1-006400000
Whole Foods vs. Unions \| Mon Mar. 23, 2009 5:25 PM GMT In what's being euphemistically dubbed the 'third way', the CEOs of Whole Foods, Costco, and Starbucks have joined together to lay out a 'compromise' to the management/labor stand-off over the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). At issue is whether employees interested in forming a union would be allowed to choose their union formation process. Current law lets companies insist upon a secret-ballot election, even when employees would prefer a majority sign-up method. I'm not going to restate the merits of labor's position (you can read about it here and here) but surely we can agree that employees should be able to choose how they decide to form a union, right? Well, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey thinks it's un-American. Advertise on MotherJones.com Mackey said that binding arbitration is "not the way we normally do things in the United States" and that allowing workers to organize without a secret ballot "violates a bedrock principle of American democracy." First, if Mackey thinks that binding arbitration isn't the way we do things in the US, then perhaps he should try reading a copy of Mother Jones... after all, they're sold at Whole Foods markets. Second, Mackey's tired canard has been debunked over and over. Even the Wall Street Journal editorial board, home of anti-labor commentary, finally admitted last week that the "the bill doesn't remove the secret-ballot option." Again, it merely allows employees to choose the union formation process. So, why would "mission-driven" Whole Foods CEO John Mackey keep repeating this worn out lie? I mean, I understand that he doesn't like unions, but he's pissing off his good progressive customers who expect that the company's motto—"Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet"—actually means something. This customer is not satisfied.	dclm-gs1-006410000
(7 Posts) fromthehealthyheart Sun 06-Jan-13 18:23:57 VikingVagine Sun 28-Oct-12 08:03:23 Ok thanks, ironically enough, you can't get olive margarine here (south of France)! I've found a few recipes that call for oil instead of butter so I'll give them a go. bakingaddict Sun 28-Oct-12 08:00:26 You can bake cakes with margarine such as stork although it will taste different but I wouldn't use it at all for making icing. Dont try and use any of the low fat butter substitutes such as Utter Butterly, Flora, Benecol for baking though. These have a much higher water content than proper butter and you just wont get a proper bake from them vodkaanddietirnbru Sun 28-Oct-12 07:57:07 that benecol site has butter substitutes to use for baking or what about something like the Bertolli spreads that are made with olive oil VikingVagineGhoulnamStyle Sun 28-Oct-12 07:48:40 Right, as far as know he needs to avoid animal fats and eat vegetable alternatives. Can you bake decent cakes with margarine? vodkaanddietirnbru Sat 27-Oct-12 16:38:14 you should look to reduce the saturated fat levels in his diet rather than looking at the cholesterol levels in food (cholesterol levels in food have little or no effect on the levels in the blood - saturated fat causes more issues). - I know it endorses its own products but might be helpful VikingVagineGhoulnamStyle Sat 27-Oct-12 10:46:28 So, DH has just been told he needs to cut down on cholesterol. I love baking and obviously making lovely buttery cakes is no longer an option. Does anyone have any ideas on what sort of things I can bake that are low in cholesterol? Join the discussion Join the discussion Register now	dclm-gs1-006420000
Preparing new veg plot over the winter (7 Posts) Habbibu Thu 03-Oct-13 16:26:15 Am I going to have to dig the roots out? Eek. I was kind of hoping the rotavator would chop them up so small I could forget them. Boo. bigwellylittlewelly Thu 03-Oct-13 16:10:37 Apologies, I assumed the major shrun roots would beed to come out, I was thinking mostly weeds. FWIW gardening books are usually written about gardens where money is no object. We pay £125 a day for two gardeners to help every 3-4 months and do the rest ourselves. Habbibu Thu 03-Oct-13 16:06:11 That sounds ideal, but the big shrub roots may scupper planting. In gardening books there are never gardens built on old railway lines and full of shrub roots. bigwellylittlewelly Thu 03-Oct-13 15:52:52 Could be wrong but I think if you get a thick enough black memerane ypu shouldn't even dig it. Just lay the membrane and leave. Then pull out the dead weeds before sowing next year Habbibu Thu 03-Oct-13 15:37:17 Oh, lord. I may never do it if I have to hand dig the roots. I was hoping leaving the membrane on would kill off the roots from weeds. dreamingofsun Thu 03-Oct-13 15:32:38 watching with interest as i'm in similar position. current reading and advice from friends suggests covering with heavy duty black pastic or growing green manure. if you rotivate an area with weeds they reckon it makes the problem worse, ie you get loads of weeds from the chopped roots....not sure if its the same with shrubs - they say its better to hand dig weed roots out. Habbibu Thu 03-Oct-13 14:13:54 We've finally got an overgrown bed cleared of shrubs, etc. I want to start growing veg in the spring. There are a fair number of roots from the shrubs remaining, so my plan is to hire a small rotavator, turn it all over, dig in loads of chicken manure from our hens, and put membrane over it for a few months. How does this sound as a first step? Which membrane is best? Join the discussion Join the discussion Register now	dclm-gs1-006430000
child slapped (12 Posts) bangwhizz Tue 05-Mar-13 09:33:51 Want to be very general here. DD goes to an afterschool club which is not I don't think run by the school, a teacher comes in. Teacher said I will slap anone who make xxx mistake.DD did make that mistake and she slapped her arm. I have had corroboration of events from another child there who said it wasn't a hard slap but definitely a salp.When I asked whether them if it was done in a jokey way they said they weren't sure -maybe it was. It doesn't sit easy with me and obviously DD would not have told me about it if she hadn't thought it odd. She is 10. would you m,ention it to anyone? bangwhizz Tue 05-Mar-13 09:37:01 should clarify- the teacher is not a QTS type teacher more of an instructor. learnandsay Tue 05-Mar-13 09:49:03 Yes, of course! Mention to the head teacher that you've heard these things from the children and you'd like an adult to speak to the instructor concerned and get to the bottom of it. It might turn out to be a misunderstanding on the children's part or (from the way it sounds) it might be an inappropriate method of instruction. smee Tue 05-Mar-13 10:08:59 Blimey, yes pile in and complain. Threats of violence even if just a tap are ridiculous in this day and age. Sounds very inappropriate. PedlarsSpanner Tue 05-Mar-13 10:29:30 Which country are you in? NotTreadingGrapes Tue 05-Mar-13 16:54:47 Your daughter goes to an after school club and you don't know who runs it? "is not, I think, run by the school". That said, obviously you should complain. bangwhizz Wed 06-Mar-13 08:29:12 I think it was jokey, but I have a problem with letting girls think if they make a mistake they deserve a slap NotTreadingGrapes Wed 06-Mar-13 08:37:58 Absolutely. Whatever the context, it was out of order. (hopping between your threads here smile) happily3 Wed 06-Mar-13 08:49:37 Could be a cultural thing and somebody not trained in education? Needs sorting! MissDuke Thu 07-Mar-13 07:59:23 I would defo speak to the head, but I do also find it odd that you don't know more about the club, I think you need to ask questions x bangwhizz Thu 07-Mar-13 09:47:41 Why is it odd? I think if a club is run in your child's school, most parents would just assume it was above board and not research the management arrangements mummytime Thu 07-Mar-13 10:00:56 Sorry but that is totally illegal. I would talk to the Head as it is something totally unacceptable to happen on school premises. I would have found the threat of a "slap" bad enough. I am assuming you are in the UK? Join the discussion Join the discussion Register now	dclm-gs1-006440000
Younger teens interrupting me whilst on phone (6 Posts) AnnaFurLact1c Sun 02-Dec-12 17:10:43 I find a simple ' shut up and go away, I'm on the phone ' works well. AtiaoftheJulii Thu 29-Nov-12 23:56:56 Mine don't do it much, but I remember my brother and I being complete pains when my mum was on the phone when we were that sort of age. And of course she couldn't get very far! We would generally be quiet, but would basically sit on her, make stupid faces and so on. Must have been so annoying! bigbluebus Thu 29-Nov-12 22:01:16 I always taught DS that he could only interrupt me on the phone if he needed to tell me a) the house was on fire or b) his sister was having a seizure - anything else can wait. Seems to have done the trick! bubby64 Thu 29-Nov-12 13:28:25 Yup, all the time! I have 2 12yr olds, and no matter how many times I tell them, it doesnt seem to sink in that any call has priority over what they want to say to you, and that nothing is more important than their need/question/tattletale they have come to bother you with... mine do it, and always when its a work call, normally screeching as well. I just leave the room. Then tell them after they are rude! sincitylover Thu 29-Nov-12 11:45:13 Is this normal? or do I have particularly rude teens (well he's 11 and 16 year old) Bit of background I'm single parent and work full time so could it be jealousy. Join the discussion Join the discussion Register now	dclm-gs1-006450000
MUNCIE, Ind. -- Miami rallied from a double-point loss to take four singles victories, giving the RedHawks the 2013 MAC Tournament Championship, 4-3 over Bowling Green. The title is the third in the last five years for Miami, which had dropped 4-3 decisions in the finals in each of the last two championships. The win was the eighth championship for Miami Athletics this year, a new all-time record for the department. In addition to regular-season and tournament titles in tennis, field hockey and soccer captured both regular- and postseason MAC titles, women's swimming won the MAC Championship and hockey won the final CCHA regular-season crown. The action was eerily similar to the regular-season meeting between the top two seeds, when the outcome came down to the No. 1 match. That day, like Sunday, junior Nimisha Mohan rallied for the victory, earning tournament Most Valuable Player honors in the process. Mohan trailed 5-4 in the first set, but broke serve and held for a 6-5 advantage. Bowling Green's Nikki Chiricosta forced the tiebreaker and won the first three points, but Mohan rallied. She won four in a row, then after losing the next point, ran off three more for a 7-4 win to take the first set. Mohan rode the momentum to cruise to a 6-0 victory in the second set. Miami (13-12) dropped the doubles point, falling at Nos. 2 and 3, 8-3 and 8-4 respectively. Christine Guerrazzi and Ana Rajkovic were the RedHawks' winner, posting an 8-1 victory at No. 1. Alix Thurman evened the match with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 2, but Bowling Green surged back ahead by winning the No. 6 match 6-3, 6-0. Rajkovic earned a 6-3, 6-3 victory at No. 5 and Raymond finished off a 6-0, 6-3 decision at No. 3 to give Miami its first lead. The junior was named to the all-tournament team after completing the year 10-0 against MAC opponents. Bowling Green tied the score at 3-3 when it earned a 6-4, 6-4 triumph at No. 4. With the victory, Miami earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in two weeks. The RedHawks will learn the opponent and tournament site Tuesday night on the NCAA Selection Show.	dclm-gs1-006460000
The Study of Language 2 Course code EPHUMA249Units 10English Language & Foundation Studies Centre This course builds on and extends the principles introduced in EPHUMA149 The Study of Language 1 as it provides students with further insight into the human language system and the language choices we make every day. Topics include how people convey meaning in language, Australian Aboriginal languages, how Australian English developed and how it differs from other varieties of English, the sounds of language and how they are used, how language, culture and society are related, how words and languages are created, how gender plays a role in language, and how the brain is vital to language. The topics and assessment items aim engage the students' learning experience through a variety of approaches, allowing for different learning styles. As with EPHUMA149 The Study of Language 1, skills necessary for undergraduate study are emphasised and further developed in this course. Available in 2014 Callaghan CampusSemester 2 On-Line from CallaghanSemester 2 OurimbahSemester 2 ObjectivesBuilding upon the course objectives for EPHUMA149The Study of Language 1, at the end of the course, students should be able to: 1. accurately utilise and demonstrate an advanced understanding of linguistic terminology and concepts 2. evaluate theoretical aspects and relate those to applied aspects of linguistics at a higher level than for EPHUMA149 3. demonstrate an awareness of interpersonal and social aspects of language, particularly in relation to meaning 4. illustrate theory and concepts with original examples to show understanding at a more sophisticated level than for EPHUMA149 5. apply skills in relevant technology 6. use research and academic writing skills for tertiary study Content1. How we express meaning with language 2. The sounds of language 3. The origins and development of Australian English 4. How we structure and create words 5. How languages are born 6. Australian Aboriginal languages 7. Gender differences in language use 8. The brain’s capacity for language Industrial Experience0 Assumed KnowledgeEPHUMA149 Modes of DeliveryDistance Learning : IT Based Internal Mode Teaching MethodsLecture Assessment Items Essays / Written AssignmentsShort-answer questions Essays / Written AssignmentsEssay Examination: FormalShort-answer questions, paragraph and essay Other: (please specify)Exercise Timetables2014 Course Timetables for EPHUMA249	dclm-gs1-006470000
Nokia 808 PureView - Batteries and chargers Battery and charger information Battery and charger Your device is intended for use with a BV-4D rechargeable battery. Nokia may make additional battery models available for this device. Always use original Nokia batteries. This device is intended for use when supplied with power from the following chargers: AC-50. The exact Nokia charger model number may vary depending on the plug type, identified by E, X, AR, U, A, C, K, B, or N. Third-party chargers that comply with the IEC/EN 62684 standard, and that can connect to your device micro USB connector, may be compatible. Battery safety Battery safety When your charger is not in use, unplug it from the electrical plug and the device. Do not leave a fully charged battery connected to a charger, as overcharging may shorten the battery’s lifetime. If left unused, a fully charged battery will lose its charge over time. Always keep the battery between 15°C and 25°C (59°F and 77°F). Extreme temperatures reduce the capacity and lifetime of the battery. A device with a hot or cold battery may not work temporarily. Accidental short-circuiting can happen when a metallic object touches the metal strips on the battery, for example, if you carry a spare battery in your pocket. Short-circuiting may damage the battery or the connecting object. Do not dispose of batteries in a fire as they may explode. Dispose of batteries according to local regulations. Recycle when possible. Do not dispose as household waste. Do not dismantle, cut, open, crush, bend, puncture, or shred cells or batteries. If a battery leaks, do not let battery liquid touch skin or eyes. If this happens, immediately flush the affected areas with water, or seek medical help. Use the battery and charger for their intended purposes only. Improper use, or use of unapproved batteries or incompatible chargers may present a risk of fire, explosion, or other hazard, and may invalidate any approval or warranty. If you believe the battery or charger is damaged, take it to a service centre for inspection before continuing to use it. Never use a damaged battery or charger. Only use the charger indoors.	dclm-gs1-006480000
Tax Day Isn't Bad If You're Getting A Refund The day that many dread is here: It's Tax Day. Of the 143 million federal tax returns filed last year, more than 80 percent qualified for a refund. Steve Inskeep talks to David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, about the economics of tax refunds. OK, you're running out of time to pay your taxes. Normally the deadline is April 15, that was a Sunday. April 16 is Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia, so that was out. Now finally, Tuesday, April 17, you're final day to get your taxes in the mail. For a lot of people that means writing a check, but not quite everybody, in fact, not everybody at all. Our friend David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal has been tracking this. Good morning, David. DAVID WESSEL: Good morning, Steve. INSKEEP: OK. So get some numbers for us here. How many people will pay with the tax return? How many people will be getting a refund? WESSEL: Well, based on last year, there were 143 million tax returns filed with the IRS and more than 80 percent of them produced a refund. In fact, the IRS says that for every dollar it collects it returns about 25 cents in refunds. An awful lot of people get refunds either because they have too much money withheld from their paychecks during the year or because they qualify for something called the earned income tax credit. It was a cash bonus that the government gives to low wage workers to encourage them to work. INSKEEP: Does any financial sense to be paying the government more than you owe through the year and then expecting a check back at the end? WESSEL: Well, economists used to say it was complete lunacy. You're basically giving an interest-free loan to the government. Some people are on autopilot and they just don't pay attention. Other people would rather pay a little more rather than face the pain of paying a little - having to pay taxes on April 15th or April 17th this year. But it's, there's new evidence that an awful lot of people see this as a way to force themselves to save. In fact, there was a survey the University of Michigan did of low income and moderate income people in Detroit and it found that a lot of them got refunds - usually around $2,000, which is a lot for people who say they have trouble making ends meet - and almost 80 percent of them told the researchers that they didn't want to change that. They would rather get a bigger refund than have more money during the year. They want to use the tax system to save - either so they have money to buy a refrigerator or a car or because it's the only way they can set aside money for emergency. INSKEEP: Oh gosh. We had the IRS commissioner on the program yesterday and he was saying actually, we write checks to most people. People love us or should love us for that reason. We're misunderstood. It sounded like spin, but you're telling me well, actually, that's how people think. WESSEL: People are never going to love the IRS. INSKEEP: Maybe expecting a little too much. Turns out that saving though, is a bi-product of the tax system, is what you're saying. WESSEL: Right. And in the past few years, people in the government and outside the government have begun to say the Tax Day could be a way to nudge people to save who don't tend to save very much money. Mark Iwry, who is the point person on this stuff at the Treasury, calls Tax Day a savable moment. So the IRS, for instance, has begun telling you when you get a refund you can put some in your checking account but we'll make it easier for you to put some in a savings account or an individual retirement account, and about three-quarters of a million people last year - a small slice to be sure - actually did that. INSKEEP: Do you need a bank account in order to do that? WESSEL: Well, to do that you do. So now the IRS has been saying if you want you can buy saving bonds - good old fashion savings bonds with your tax refund. About 30,000 people bought $11.5 million worth of savings bonds last year. So far this year, sales are running 60 percent ahead of last year. And even though the IRS - I mean, even though Treasury has done away with the old fashioned paper savings bonds for everybody else - you have to buy them electronically... INSKEEP: Mm-hmm. WESSEL: If you buy them through the tax code, if you buy them through your refund, you can get the old paper kind. INSKEEP: You getting a refund, David? WESSEL: I am. And given that I would be getting much interest at today's ultra-low rates, I told the IRS to apply it to the taxes I expect to owe next April. INSKEEP: Oh my gosh, paying ahead. David, thanks very much. WESSEL: You're welcome. INSKEEP: David Wessel is economics editor of The Wall Street Journal. Support comes from:	dclm-gs1-006490000
Redford: An Entertainer Who Looks To Inform Robert Redford directs and stars as Jim Grant in The Company You Keep, a film about retired radicals living out nervous lives in hiding. Doane Gregory/Sony Pictures Classics Robert Redford's new movie, The Company You Keep, draws on a turbulent time in recent history: Forty years ago, there was a violent faction of SDS, the Students for a Democratic Society, that was known as the Weather Underground. It turned from organizing marches and sit-ins against the war in Vietnam to planting bombs — and in one case robbing a bank truck and killing a guard. Several members of the group eventually went underground and built new lives — sometimes very conventional lives — under false identities. Over the years, some were found out, while others turned themselves in. In The Company You Keep, Redford's character, Jim Grant, is a suburban lawyer in upstate New York, a man with a past. The actor-director joined NPR's Robert Siegel to talk about his childhood, his love of journalism and how a third-grade teacher encouraged him to start telling stories. Interview Highlights On his relationship with and love of journalism "It's an important subject, because I think it's an important profession. I [hold] journalism in the highest regard — almost to the point of almost taking it personally — because it's so hard to get to the truth these days ... ever since the democratization that the Internet provided. ... "Since that time, [with] so many voices out there — not all of them to be trusted, they're just loud — it's hard for the public, people like myself to find, 'Where's the truth?' " On this film's attitude toward political radicals "The film is not about them. It's about now; it's about living without your own name, your own identity; and the feeling is that eventually you can't. I do have a big interest in anarchy, and I realized that there have been many, many moments in our history where there's been those attempts to break the mold of convention, or what have you, but they they always seem to crash before they reach their height. "That is what interested me, because it usually has to do with ego. And because the intention, as it starts, is right; they wanna say, 'Hey, wait a minute, we don't believe in this Vietnam War, we wanna have a voice, we're young people.' I'm all onboard with that. They then said — 'cause the film says this — they felt they had to then bring the war home, which led to violence, which led to the beginning of the end for that movement. That's what interested me. And how it affected the people involved now." On the kinds of movies he likes to make "Times change; Hollywood is not the same as it was when I first entered the business. It felt to me like it was starting to narrow down and centralize itself around what would ... make money. "I just felt the films that I liked might get thrown away, so I committed to doing whatever I could — that's how Sundance started — to give a chance to those kinds of voices that would continue to make those films. "All of the films that I've made are about the country I live in and grew up in. ... And I think if you're going to put an artist's eye to it, you're going to put a critical eye to it. I've always been interested in the gray area that exists between the black and white, or the red and blue, and that's where complexity lies. On why gray areas can produce a good film "They just say, 'Can you have so-and-so in it, because we have a budget for it'; they say they're looking for commercial hooks. ... I don't blame them for it. I mean so am I; I mean, you don't wanna make a movie that's gonna be left in a closet somewhere. You wanna make a movie that's gonna reach an audience; it is the entertainment business, and we are obligated I think to entertain. I just am attracted to the idea of entertaining, but also maybe informing in a way [where] you ask someone to look at something differently, or maybe ask a question. That appeals to me, but that's not for everybody." On a childhood of pessimism, creativity and distraction "It has to do with being raised in a environment, and a feeling that no matter what you did, there was always gonna be some kind of dark cloud hovering over the whole process. A doubt. By the way, I don't accept that anymore. "I remember my dad came from Ireland and Scotland, and so he carried with him the fear of poverty. So when I wanted to break loose, it kind of made him very nervous. "In the third grade — I was a terrible student most of my life, because my mind was always out the window wondering about other things. But I drew, from the time I was about 4 or 5 years old. That was how I amused myself. But it was underneath the table, you know, on my knee. "And so this teacher caught me one day. She forced me to come up in front of the class and show what was more important than listening to the lesson. "So I was about to be really trashed, humiliated, and I went up and I held up this thing. And she said, 'You wanna tell us what that's about?' And so I described [it]; I said, 'Well yeah, these are cowboys and they're chasing the Indians, and they're shooting at the Indians and the Indians are shooting back at the cowboys, and they're about to be driven off a cliff, and above them are some B-51 bombers bombing the cowboys.' "So what happened was, the class was interested in it. And she saw that. Instead of putting me down, she made a deal. She said, 'We'll put an easel up here, and every Wednesday we'll give you 15 minutes, and you can come draw a story for us — but then you gotta pay attention.' "Now had that not happened, I would have been humiliated. It probably would have knocked me down to not trust that impulse that I had. Sometimes — I don't know about you — but maybe one or two [encouragements] in your life is all you need to spur you forward, rather than have you collapse." Support comes from:	dclm-gs1-006500000
Their result for The Character Analysis Test ... You scored Your dominant trait is your Adaptability. That means you're flexible. While you're not as good at creating new things, you are good at improving on things that are already there- and that's equally as important. You might want to try to "beef up" your other traits- because it's hard to be flexible when you can't organize yourself. Their Analysis (Vertical line = Average) • Organization Distribution They scored 46% on Organization, higher than 57% of your peers. • Morality Distribution They scored 46% on Morality, higher than 31% of your peers. • Adaptability Distribution They scored 52% on Adaptability, higher than 77% of your peers. • Creativity Distribution They scored 26% on Creativity, higher than 6% of your peers. All possible test results Low Average You either didn't answer enough questions, or you just glossed over the test. Regardless, you don't show any dominating trait. So, that means you're pretty good with yourself, as you are equal on all ... Read more The fact that you're an Artist type means you have a high creativity score. That doesn't mean you're necessarily good at drawing, or sculpting, or writing, or whatever. That just means you are good at... Read more Oh yeah. You're good. Not only do you have a high creativity score, you also have a good adaptability score. That means you can easily invent solutions to the most difficult problems. However, it migh... Read more You have a high Morality score. That's both good and bad. It's good, because that means you're a decent human being. It's bad, because your other traits are less developed, and you might get in the wa... Read more Now, don't take this the wrong way. You are probably not a prophet in the strictest sense of the word. However, your creativity allows you to come up with brilliant ideas on how to spread your moralit... Read more An interesting combination. You are both Moral and Flexible. This means you are a good liar. Not because you lied on the test, but because you can bend your morality to suit you, while still remaining... Read more Very similar to the Prophet type, but you are not only good at spreading your ideas, you're also good at adapting old beliefs to your system. If you were to start an idea, it would probably take off w... Read more You have a high Organization score. Good for you! It goes without saying that you would be good at administration. You would know where everything is, keep in touch with a large amount of people, and ... Read more A mind that is both good at organizing and creating things. Well done! You have the ability to come up with solutions, and to systemize them, plan them out, and realize them. Definitely consider some ... Read more Flexible, and organized. Well done! You possess a great strength. Not only can you adapt to your surroundings, you can also impose your will on them, thanks to your thorough approach to everything. Yo... Read more Mad Scientist You are similar to the Scientist type- you are good at inventing solutions, and systemizing them, but you also are adaptible. That means you are not strictly limited to your field- you would probably ... Read more Holy Warrior Not only are you a moral person, you're also well organized. That means you are capable of being concise about your morals, and prove to people why you are right. That's a very good trait, and I would... Read more Once again, not an actual priest, but you would be good at administrating something that oversees morality- a religion. Try getting together with the Prophets, Messiahs, and Administrators- while you ... Read more You obviously believe in something bigger than yourself. Either the law, or God, or Gods, or technology, whatever. Either way, you know there's something bigger than you, and you are there to uphold i... Read more Strong Average You are in touch with all of your personality traits. You possess them all in high quantities. You might have a leading trait, and a lagging trait- so focus on those. That way, you can easily become t... Read more Take this test » Recent Results An image of erryjay An image of CantPutRainBack An image of 45314 An image of ChelleyLange An image of reshmo More tests we think you'll like More Top Tests	dclm-gs1-006510000
Transcript for Marilynne Robinson and Marcelo Gleiser — The Mystery We Are November 9, 2012 Krista Tippett, host: Marilynne Robinson is a novelist. Marcelo Gleiser is an astrophysicist. They're both passionate about the majesty of science, and they share a caution about what they call our modern "piety" towards science. We bring them together for a joyous, heady discussion of "the mystery we are." They connect thrilling dots between current discoveries about the cosmos, new territory of understanding our own minds, and our ancient and eternal longing to know where we came from. Also, some surprising moments on what a fiction writer and a physicist have in common. Marilynne Robinson: I tell my students, actually, that the mind continuously creates hypotheses, and when you're writing fiction you're doing something of the same kind. This is the best model I can create of what this reality would be. Marcello Gleiser: Do you feel when you write and you create characters, do you feel like they drive you in a certain way? Ms. Robinson: Absolutely, and thank God when they do. Dr. Gleiser: Because, we do too. We're not always in control. We're just making sure all the minus signs and the plus signs match, you know. Ms. Robinson: Wonderful. Dr. Gleiser: But it really has a way that it wants to go, and when you find a solution or something that looks like a solution, you get emotionally moved. I interviewed Marcelo Gleiser and Marilynne Robinson at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. We were there at the invitation of the Princeton Center of Theological Inquiry and its director, Will Storrar. Ms. Tippett: Well, you know, I did not prepare an introduction to these two. I don't think Marilynne Robinson needs any introduction. Can I say that you are one of the most requested names that comes through our email inbox of my program, year after year. Ms. Robinson: Thank you. Ms. Tippett: So finally here you are. The author of Housekeeping, Gilead, Home, and Absence of Mind, which is the book that we're going to focus on especially tonight. And Marcelo Gleiser I have just gotten to know through — what is the name of your book? A Tear? Dr. Gleiser: A Tear at the Edge of Creation. Ms. Tippett: A Tear at the Edge of Creation. A fabulous book and I'm so happy to be introduced to this work and this writing. So Will gave the evening this lovely evocative title which I was thrilled to take on: The Mystery We Are. And I want to start with that phrase — actually would like to start with you, Marcelo. You grew up in Brazil. You've written that "growing up in the tropics is a blissful portal into the natural world." I wonder if you could just say a little bit about how you trace back to your earliest life your sense of mystery as something thrilling and animating and also eventually linked to science. Dr. Gleiser: I grew up in Rio in particular and right in front of the ocean. So it's impossible not to be amazed by the enormity of nature when you have that huge, beautiful Atlantic Ocean in front of you. And I was lucky that my grandparents had a house in the mountains about two hours from Rio, which we used to go to which is part of what is called the Atlantic Forest, which is this incredibly luscious, full of life, orchids and bromeliads exploding everywhere that enchanted Charles Darwin when he went down there, you know, on The Beagle and he talked about this power of nature. So I think from a very early age I was just mystified by the beauty of this and I wanted to understand how was that all possible, you know? And initially I looked for answers, so to speak, to religion. You know, I grew up in a Jewish family and I went to — I had a very formal Jewish education. And then I didn't feel satisfied with that. I wanted something different. And then for my bar mitzvah, I actually got an autographed picture of Albert Einstein who was in Brazil in 1925, and he was hosted by our grandfather. Ms. Tippett: Right. Dr. Gleiser: So I was blown away by that and I decide to know who is this man. Ms. Tippett: He was visiting the Jewish community there, which is, I think, a part of Einstein's life that we don't hear as much about. Dr. Gleiser: Yes. Exactly. Ms. Tippett: Mm-hmm. Dr. Gleiser: So Einstein, you know, after he became a superstar, he went down to South America to raise money for the Zionist cause. So the Jewish community is all kind of galvanized by this. And it turns out that his host in Rio was my grandfather and they took a picture together, you know, and they both autographed this. And that became my little altar, you know, this man. And so I would worship and I would learn about him more and more. And I said, you know, I want do this. I want to — and one thing that he always wrote about was about the mystery of nature as the driving force behind science and scientific curiosity. And to me, that spoke to me directly. You know, that science was not so much about finding all the answers but actually about courting with the mystery of the unknown. And I still feel that way. Ms. Tippett: Mm-hmm. And Marilynne, you grew up in Idaho, which you describe also as a place of more austere but intense beauty. So I want to ask you the same question. You know, how do you trace the roots of your sense of mystery also as something that came to be an animating force for you as a novelist and a writer. Ms. Robinson: Well, my grandparents had a house in the mountains not terribly far from where I lived. It was in the western side of the Rocky Mountains, near Canada, and the proportion, or the disproportion, of nature on the one hand and human settlement on the other was really striking. I mean, even — as a child I grew up with the idea that human beings were a fairly trivial presence in the environment and that the mountains, you could hear them all the time. You could smell them. There was pine in the air or snow or whatever. My grandparents had a house built actually by my great-grandparents, which was modern by the standards of the late 19th century and so it had a sleeping porch. You were supposed to sleep out there so that you wouldn't get tuberculosis. And it was amazing because at night you would hear the mountains. You would hear coyotes, you know, and there was no other light. There was no sense of human presence aside from my grandparents' house. And for me, because of the atmosphere of my own childhood, this became very, very deeply associated with theology for me, with religion, with the idea of the presence of God. And I think that this sort of fusion is characteristically American in a lot of ways. When I went to college in New England and read the Transcendentalists, I thought, exactly, you know. Ms. Tippett: Hmm. So in your recent writing, each of you is driven from different directions by an observation that we have been working, thinking, acting on outdated models of reality, a limited conception of humanity and of the universe and even of science. I mean, Marcelo, you talk about growing up as you became interested in science, fascinated with this idea of unification, which was an idea of Einstein. And you talk about going to grad school, following this intellectual Holy Grail. Dr. Gleiser: Mm-hmm. Ms. Tippett: But you don't quite see it that way anymore. Dr. Gleiser: Right. So just to clarify, right, one of the grand goals of modern physics is to build a Theory of Everything at all. Not a very beautiful name. But a theory of everything that would in principle explain all that we can observe in nature in terms of a single force, so to speak. And it's a very beautiful idea. It's very Platonist in its essence, you know, that the essence of nature is mathematical. There is one big symmetry out there and that symmetry is beautiful and beauty is truth. And hence, you know, there has to be that sort of idea in nature as well. And a lot of people, including Einstein — Einstein spent 20 years of his life looking for this Theory of Everything, this unifying theory, and of course he didn't find it. I went to grad school trying to find it too, right, and after many years doing this and talking to lots of my colleagues I came to the conclusion that that's impossible. That the Theory of Everything is an impossibility as a matter of principle. And the problem is this: that the way we understand the world — and interrupt me if I go on for too long. Ms. Tippett: No, no. It's good. We're all — we're with you. Dr. Gleiser: The way we understand the world is very much based on what we can see of the world, right? Science is based on measurements and observations. And the notion that we can actually come up and have a theory that explains everything assumes that we can know everything, right? That we can go out and measure everything there is to measure about nature and come up with this beautiful Theory of Everything. And since we cannot measure all there is to measure, since our tools have limitations, we are definitely limited in how much we can know of the world. So you can even build a theory that would explain everything that we know now. But then two weeks from now, someone else will come and find something new that does not fit in your theory. And that's not a Theory of Everything anymore because it doesn't include everything that can be included. Ms. Tippett: And, I mean, the implication of that is this sense that there would be some apprehension of reality of the universe, which would be perfect. It would be about stasis and perfection. But the way you're seeing it now is more about the universe being about change and transformation in our knowledge and that being the state of things. Dr. Gleiser: Yes. That's true. So the idea — when you look out, right, into the nature everything is in transformation at all times. And we see this at the very small and we see this at the very large. When we look at the whole universe, it is expanding, it's growing, it's changing in time. And so to me I look at things much more as a state of flux, you know, of becoming, of transformation, as something that has some static truth behind it. Let's put it that way. And so the notion that we as humans could come up with a final answer to the mystery of nature it's pushing things a little too far for our capabilities. Let's put it that way. Ms. Tippett: And Marilynne, in Absence of Mind, I mean, you're saying many things but I think to simplify one thing you're saying is that modern people don't understand how thrilling and rich science is now and that culture has an antiquated view of science's place. Ms. Robinson: Mm-hmm. I teach graduate students. I teach highly educated graduate students and I find that their level of understanding of science is pretty abysmal. And I wonder what it is that makes a culture that really creates its fate and its future, basically, out of science is not telling people, uh, you know, the thing about science, contemporary science, is that it is as profound in its revelation certainly as Galileo ever was, or Copernicus. You know? The fact that we can know things that absolutely revolutionized previous models of the universe we inhabit, I mean, this amazing expansion into the microcosm, an expansion into the macrocosm, all these things that are happening are extremely beautiful and they are an enormous mirror of the competencies and the aspirations of the human mind. And I think how are we letting people miss out on this? You know, just the esthetics of it. Ms. Tippett: Mm-hmm. And the nub of some of the difficulty you describe as this far too simplistic choice that I think people, maybe Americans in particular, have felt that they had to make between an idea that the universe is created or the idea that it is all some kind of cosmic accident. Ms. Robinson: Well, you know, as far as the scale of what we're learning to know, the psalmist has better intuitions about it than Richard Dawkins. But we're pious toward science. It does in fact criticize itself and overturn itself. It deserves that reputation. But this strange little world that we're presented as being scientific isn't, you know; it's some sort of petrified conception that would have been at home in the 19th century. Ms. Tippett: Do you have any … Dr. Gleiser: No. I actually — being a scientist I actually agree with Marilynne. You know, I think that once you adopt that there is only one way of understanding the complexity of things you're just emptying humanity of its value. You know, of the plurality of visions. And so, yes, science is powerful. I love it. I do it. But there are other ways of knowing, you know. And to say that there is only one way of understanding the mind, which is a topic that Marilynne talks so much about in her book, is just silly, to be honest. It's impoverishing the richness of human culture. Ms. Tippett: I'm Krista Tippett, and this is On Being — conversation about meaning, religion, ethics, and ideas. Today, a public conversation with Marcelo Gleiser — a physicist at Dartmouth College and a poetic writer about science — together with novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson. Ms. Tippett: I also want to talk about this idea of creation and of myth. Because, Marcelo, you are not a religious person. Marilynne, you are certainly someone who, well, you preach and you teach the Old Testament and you are a big defender of John Calvin. Ms. Robinson: You summed me up. Ms. Tippett: So, I mean, let's talk about creation and the word myth. I mean, I think both of you have a real reverence for this kind of language and these ways of knowing, even though you might assess them differently. Ms. Robinson: Well, I think that if you look at, for example, the first creation narrative in the Old Testament, it's pretty amazing as an ancient account of creation. The fact that, you know, it's perhaps overstating the case, but better than anything else, it does anticipate the modern cosmology, the creation of something out of nothing, which might be mythic language but very close. I mean, we can't do much better than that, I think. It describes the emergence of the cosmos and of life in the world in stages. They don't exactly line up with ours but still, you know, that's an interesting insight. Ms. Tippett: It's almost an evolutionary account. Ms. Robinson: It's almost evolutionary. Ms. Tippett: Yeah. Ms. Robinson: Exactly. The second creation narrative, which is the source of a lot of trouble, actually is understood as a fable or a midrash or whatever you want to call it as early as the writer Josephus. And that's what I think it is properly to be understood as. But in any case, the idea of the abrupt emergence of something fantastically beautiful and intricate is descriptive. You know, people can use the language that would call it myth, and I think that myth is the expression of the intuition of cosmology among ancient people. They didn't have, of course, or perhaps would not have chosen to have the kind of language that we use for these kinds of things, but the general perception or intuition that you find in many ancient cultures — so far as I know, all of them — that there was a beginning. Even Hesiod describes the beginning. That's a profound intuition that did not burst upon modern scientific sensibilities until Irwin Hubble, until the 20th century. You know, so you have people like Einstein and Bertrand Russell and so on who thought there was no reason to imagine that the universe had ever had to begin at all. Ms. Tippett: Right. Bertrand Russell. You quote him: "The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination." Ms. Robinson: Exactly. Exactly. And who knows what this means, that human beings had a profounder intuition than science could confirm into the modern period, but you have to respect it. There it is. Dr. Gleiser: Right. So I actually wrote a book way before this last one, called The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang. And what I do there is I look at all sorts of different creation myths from cultures around the world in different times in the ways they dealt with the question of creation, you know, the question of the origin of the world, which to me is the most complicated question you can possibly ask. Right? So I call it The Question. Right? So then I go and I look at cosmology in the 20th century, before we had data. And what happened? All the models, the theories that cosmologists use to explain the universe reproduced these mythic ideas. So there was a universe that was cyclic, just like the dancing of Shiva. There were universe that, at least on paper, were created out of a moment in time, which was Friedmann came up with this model in 1922 before Hubble confirmed it. Right? And then there was an eternal universe as well. So to me what's really remarkable is two things. First, that all of this shows how we want to know. Right? I mean, the unity here between the two sides, if you want, is on the questioning on we need to know our origins. Ms. Tippett: The two sides religion and science, you mean? Dr. Gleiser: Yes. Ms. Tippett: Mm-hmm. Dr. Gleiser: You know, the mythic narratives and the scientific narratives, they're both asking the same question: Where did everything come from? And then, of course, before data there was also the universality of human thought, if you want. Like, there were certain ways in which you can — there are only some ways in which you can answer this question and the scientists repeated them until, of course, data came. And only in the 1960s we were finally able to kind of discern that, you know, the Big Bang, meaning there was really a moment in time, seems to be the best way to describe what we see. Ms. Tippett: To begin to speak of beginnings, to use that word in a scientific way. I don't know. You know, when I was reading the two of you about this, it was the first time that I found myself wondering, why is it that we are so — so obsessed with the question of beginnings and origins? I mean, I wonder as a novelist if you have a thought about that. Ms. Robinson: Well, you know, I think, frankly, that as modern people we struggle under certain prejudices against ourselves, that there are ways in which we have lost contact with, you know, the earlier intuitions that actually described themselves in culture and in literature and so on. But, uh, I think, you know, everyone wants to have a narrative of personal origins. Most of us want to have narratives of what you might sort of call tribal origins, you know: where did my grandparents come from and why and that sort of thing, you know. I think that our bond with humankind is felt as a sort of very much enlarged family narrative of origins in that sense, you know. There's some sort of a feeling that if you know where you came from you would know who you are. You would know what you should do. We lack definition of ourselves, which is an incredibly haunting feature of human life. And I think that often we, you know, if you look at these narratives like the Epic of Gilgamesh or something like that, so it says things about who the gods are, what the purpose of human life is, and so on. I think these are questions that people need, crave, and they take them right back to primal origins. Ms. Tippett: Marilynne, you struggle a bit, I think, with science. You have a sense that even when people didn't have the science that we have now to think about the universe, we had this ancient intuition of our part in it. And is science at play in diminishing that? Is it cultural? Ms. Robinson: Well, you know, I think that what we think of as science, or modern science, is something that puts into eclipse other forms of thinking that were also efficacious. Richard Feynman has written a — I read an essay of his in which he talks about identity. I mean, he says it's so amazing that I experience myself as myself over a year of time, that I retain memory and so on, when every atom in my brain would have been changed. But you can find the same statement almost syllable but syllable in John Locke who was writing in the 17th century, who says exactly the same thing. Every atom in my brain would have changed. And the question is how did John Locke know that? How is it that the Islamic philosophers that Maimonides was in conversation with were able to quantize time, essentially, as a way of solving the problem of time. You know, how did they do that? How did they know? You know? I think that a great deal of what we do scientifically in the modern sense is actually the confirmation of the kinds of thinking that we either receive traditionally or would have arrived at by other means. And I think that — I mean, I'm very interested now in trying to see how people thought before they had this word science descend on the conversation in the form that it does now. Dr. Gleiser: Right. I think it's impossible to separate us from nature. So when you go to the stories of creation and the relationship — the attempts at explanation that they are, they're really a pre-scientific mode of dealing with the unknown. Right? I mean, these people must have been completely baffled by existence, just like we are. Ms. Tippett: Right. Dr. Gleiser: Right? And we looked out and we see how is it possible that there are these regular cycles in nature like the sun coming back every day, the seasons. And then days of volcanic eruption, that there is a terrifying total eclipse of the sun. You know, how do you have regular and irregular things going on in nature? Who is in control of that? And so to me those preliminary ways of making sense, of making meaning were just attempts at trying to have some level of control for things which were way beyond people's control. And science is just the new incarnation of the same sort of effort. (Sound bite of music) Ms. Tippett: You can listen to this program again, or to my entire unedited conversation with Marcelo Gleiser and Marilynne Robinson at It was part of a symposium on Spiritual Progress, hosted by the Princeton Center of Theological Inquiry; it marked the centenary of the birth of Sir John Templeton. At, we're posting other material from that event — for example, fascinating discussions around the symposium table with Robert Bellah, Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, and more with Marilynne Robinson. Again, that's Ms. Tippett: I'm Krista Tippett, and this is On Being. Today, "The Mystery We Are," a public conversation with Marilynne Robinson and Marcelo Gleiser. Marilynne Robinson is an author of acclaimed novels. She's been talking about her fascination with the echoes she hears back and forth between modern science, religion, and the arts across the ages. Marcelo Gleiser is a Brazilian-born physicist who's captivated by the beauty and mystery at the heart of scientific discovery. He's also the author of poetic books about science, including A Tear at the Edge of the Creation. There's a line that you wrote, Marcelo, that is the kind of statement that you're making as a physicist, but it's also just a statement about being human. All right? "Symmetry may have its appeal but it is inherently stale. Some kind of imbalance is behind every transformation." I mean, you could be talking about the cosmos and you could be talking about me yesterday, right? Dr. Gleiser: Yeah. Absolutely. Ms. Tippett: Yeah. Dr. Gleiser: So in this book I was having the very humble mission of trying to create a new aesthetic for physics. So basically saying that we need to look at the imperfection if you really want to get at things and give up the notion that there is this beautiful perfection behind everything, you know. The way, the modes of description that we use are fundamentally incomplete. And so let's embrace the imperfection, you know, what's not perfect. You know, I always try and say do not try to make science into God. Because truly that's the idea, right? This notion that there is this oneness, perfection that you can describe through science is basically trying to create a scientific model for God. Ms. Tippett: You know, Marcelo, you make this kind of provocative observation that with the search for the Unified Theory, science has set up a parallel to the God of the Gaps. Dr. Gleiser: Mm-hmm. Ms. Tippett: Which was the problem, especially in the 20th century, this idea that God began where our scientific knowledge ran out. And you're saying that now the reality is that sort of Unified Theory begins where our scientific knowledge runs out. Dr. Gleiser: Well, so the God of the Gaps is a notion that is old, right, in the sense that even Newton had to use it because when he was talking about how the planets went around the sun, the question was what gave the initial impulse for the planets to move around the sun. So he invoked God. God was a very, very important presence in the Newtonian universe. And so this whole idea of trying to put God where we don't understand the world is a terrible idea. I think it's theologically a very bad move, because science will advance, you know, and it will learn more and more about the world. And then God will be squeezed out of this gap and then have to go to another gap. But the thing about where does this Unified Theory need come from, that's what always mystified me, even though I was a convert in the beginning, you know. And I think it really is a byproduct of having lived with monotheistic faiths for so long. So culturally it's very enticing, you know, for science to come up with this one explanation of everything. And I really trace the roots of that through monotheistic faith. Ms. Tippett: Mm-hmm. I wonder what questions you might have of each other. Dr. Gleiser: Well, let's see. So, Marilynne, you speak so eloquently of the need for diversity in understanding things. Maybe you can talk to us a little bit about that and, you know, why this kind of one-way one-track of science is misleading us. Ms. Robinson: Well, I'm always — my first criticism of that version of science is that I think that it does not at all describe the best that science does. First of all, because science is — its genius is self-criticism. When you find out that the universe is accelerating and accelerating in its rate of acceleration and so on, this is not supposed to be true and the moment that they find out that all major assumptions have been overthrown, there's rejoicing in the scientific community, you know. And that's a lovely, you know, that is the authority of science for me. The fact that we cannot be articulate about ourselves — and I think that's deeply true, I think that the arts are our effort to articulate the experience of self and mind and so on that is inaccessible to scientific description — that deep yearning that is as ancient as the desire to know where we came from and the rest of it, has been disallowed as the legitimate part of the human record and the human conversation. And this seems to me to be completely arbitrary. And along with, of course, other forms of the profound self-exploration of human inwardness is the rejection of religion, which is also put out of account. There's nothing really more universal, I think, in human cultures than the impulse to religion. If you were looking at it dispassionately, the question of what people are, you would have to take this very enormous and elaborate self-description seriously as a datum, so to speak. And I think that if people have interests that are scientific but don't tend toward addressing questions of that kind, fine. They've distinguished themselves. It's beautiful. But they can't act as if they have addressed those questions when in fact everything that they do is actually relevant to another set of issues. Ms. Tippett: I think you're actually saying that to dismiss that very ancient and pervasive aspect of human life and human culture is irrational on some level. Ms. Robinson: Yes. Ms. Tippett: OK. Dr. Gleiser: Yeah. And, you know, to think of science as separate from spirituality to me is a big mistake. You know, there is nothing that says that science should be dispassionate about the spirit or the life of the spirit. And to me it's quite the opposite. It's exactly because I feel very spiritually connected with nature that I am a scientist. And to write equations on a blackboard and to come up with models about how nature works is, in a sense, a form of worship of that spirituality. You know, and I feel that very concretely all the time. Ms. Tippett: Do you have a question of Marcelo? Ms. Robinson: Oh, my. One thing that I find when I'm reading, you know, scientists that write in a popular way, writing these issues and that frankly I've found a couple of times in your book, is a tendency to use the word "explain" when I would say the appropriate word is "describe." You know, if they figure out the fine points of photosynthesis, you know, maybe we'll say, well, it's a quantum phenomenon or something like that, that's a description. It's not an explanation. You know? And perhaps there are things that are not — don't make themselves available to explanation but that does not mean that description stands in the place of explanation. And sort of like if somebody says why does a clock tell time, you can describe the mechanism of the particular clock or you can say people arrived at a convenient definition of one day, divided it into arbitrary segments, and made a mechanism that would measure those segments because culture required timekeeping with that degree of precision. Now, that's not a complete explanation but it is explanatory whereas the other one is only descriptive. And I think that's a very important distinction that is not made because very often when people look at religious accounts of things, people looking at them from the outside, they say, no, that's not an explanation. Actually, the explanation is that it was beneficial to the leopards' existence that it blended into a shadowy landscape — hence, spots. You know what I mean? This is descriptive. It is not explanatory. Dr. Gleiser: I'm fine with that. Dr. Gleiser: I mean, I think that — I don't think I have any claims there. I would say that we are just trying to make sense of physical reality in the best way we can, and perhaps what you are implicitly referring to is the lack of humility that sometimes comes with the scientific kind of rhetoric. You know, that there is sort of this like "this is how it is" kind of thing. And the ones that probably bother you the most are the ones that get the public voice and that do make rhetorical statements about things such as now science can understand the origin of the universe. You know, which is absolutely not true. You know, formally not true. You know, but the statement comes out in the media and in books by very famous people all the time. And that bothers me as much as it bothers you. Ms. Tippett: Well, somehow it's in the nature of media and our public dialogue that it's not the humblest voices of religion or science who … Ms. Robinson: That is so true. Ms. Tippett: … make their way in front — to microphones and cameras. Dr. Gleiser: That's right. Ms. Tippett: But here you are in front of a microphone. Dr. Gleiser: Right. Ms. Tippett: I'm Krista Tippett, and this is On Being — conversation about meaning, religion, ethics, and ideas. Today, "The Mystery We Are" — a public discussion with astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser and novelist Marilynne Robinson. Ms. Tippett: Here's a line of Reverend Ames in Gilead: "This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it." Just before we finish, let's talk a little bit about mind, which takes us a little bit outside the realm of physics, but very much into your writing, Marilynne. Ms. Robinson: Mm-hmm. Ms. Tippett: And somehow, the primacy, the centrality of our minds, the power of them, even in all of this discerning of distant galaxies. Ms. Robinson: Well, it's I think one of the things that is fascinating is that we don't know who we are. Human beings in acting out history describe themselves and every new epic is a new description of what human beings are. Every life is a new description of what human beings are. Every work of science, every object of art is new information. And it is inconceivable at this point that we could say anything final about what the human mind is, because it is demonstrating, you know, in beautiful ways and terrifying ways, that it will surprise us over and over and over again. You know? And if I read something that seems to me — I mean, we have mind in two senses, or of several senses, but one of them is this sort of the individual striving mind: I want to come up to the mark. I want to follow my passion. I want to let myself think about something that seems beautiful to me. There's that mind. And then there is the larger collective mind that somehow or other seems to sort of magnify impulses and so on that occur among us individually. You know, when you think how even the most brilliant people living, you know, in the first century would see how we know and what we know now and so on, which is basically a pure elaboration of what they'd already started, nevertheless they would be completely astonished, they would say, that human beings could've done such a thing. You know? We know things about our minds because we have seen them reaching and reaching and unfolding in this uncanny way that they do. And I just think that undervaluing mind, it distorts what we're capable of. You know? I don't know. That's what I think. I think the mind is fantastically competent and beautiful and in a very large degree unexplored. Ms. Tippett: Marcelo, is this new frontier of mind and consciousness, is it challenging for physics? Or where does it fit into your way of seeing the world? Dr. Gleiser: It's very challenging, because the way physics traditionally has worked is through this reductionistic method, right? You look at a complicated problem, you break it down into small parts, you understand how these small parts work and then try to make sense of the whole. And this extrapolation works beautifully when you talk about stars and galaxies, but it really fails miserably when you're talking about the mind or the brain. Right? So as I said earlier on, you can't understand the brain by understanding how a neuron works. And so it poses a tremendous difficulty for physics because we can't model the brain. Right? And physicists, that's what we do for a living. We make models. We test our hypothesis. And we need a different kind of explanatory, descriptive tool. Dr. Gleiser: Because the way we have dealt with things just won't work for the brain. So what would that be now, right? So there is this whole new notion that comes from complexity theory that the mind is an emergent phenomenon that we can't quite explain that has to do with the concatenation of many different groups of neurons at the same time. So the interesting thing about that is that, if that is true, then new laws will emerge at different levels of complexity. And you can't go from one level to the other level directly. You really need a completely different kind of explanation. And we're not there yet, but it's just an alternative way of thinking about how the brain works. And to me, given the complexity, even if we go there and we gain some level of understanding above what we know now, it's always going to be incomplete, just like Marilynne said. Ms. Tippett: But I think that part is exciting for you, the fact that it will be incomplete, the fact that there will always be more to learn. Dr. Gleiser: Yes. When I was saying this, I was thinking can we ever build a machine that thinks? Right? That's really the question, right? Because if you could build a clock that thinks, right, then you'd really say, yes, we mechanized the brain and we understand exactly how it works and what are the rules that make it all make sense. But I am a skeptic when it comes to that. I really am, at least for the foreseeable future. I don't see how even increasing the power of computers we'll be able to do that. What we will be able to do is what the Internet is already doing, which is creating an enormous databank of information that will almost look intelligent, but you will always be asking the questions. You know, it's the asking of the question that is the mystery, not so much how you find the ways to answer it. Ms. Tippett: Hmm. Hmm. I think that's a wonderful thought, that the asking of the questions is the mystery. I occurred to me when I was reading both of you and thinking about this conversation how much a novelist and a scientist, a physicist, have in common as creators and discovers. Ms. Robinson: I'm flattered. Dr. Gleiser: So am I. I mean, novelists create universes, right? Talk about a multiverse. You know, the mind of a novelist is a huge multiverse, because they are creating all these different dynamics and people that don't exist. So in a sense, you know, you are playing with inventing lives and minds and stories. So you are amplifying the mind every time you do such a thing. Ms. Robinson: Yes. It's that problem of plausibility, you know? Making what even appears to be a sort of working model of a human personality is such a delicate thing. Dr. Gleiser: For sure. You know? Yes. How is it that you say? That fiction is it's telling lies but want to make sure they sound like truth. Ms. Robinson: Exactly. Dr. Gleiser: Right? Dr. Gleiser: And we're trying to do something similar. We're trying to make models, which are never the whole truth of nature. That is a fundamental point. Every model is a lie, but some models explain more than others. Ms. Tippett: Hmm. Ms. Robinson: I tell my students, actually, that the mind continuously creates hypotheses. You know, tomorrow is a hypothesis. You have some theory of the general shape of tomorrow, which could be completely false, completely inaccurate, but you have to have the hypothesis in order to be sane and act rationally in the world and so on. And when you're writing fiction you're doing something of the same kind. You know, or when you're making a scientific theory you're doing something of the same kind. This is the best model I can create of what this reality would be, you know. And in fiction, unless the fiction fails, the hypothesis does not get exploded but at the same time you always understand its hypothetical nature. You know? Whereas in science the hypothesis is floated and retrieves what it can and explodes if it needs to, you know. Ms. Robinson: Absolutely. And thank God when they do. Dr. Gleiser: Because we do too. You know, when you're working on a technical problem it seems to have a way to go. That we are not always in control; we're just making sure all the minus signs and the plus signs match. Ms. Robinson: Wonderful. Dr. Gleiser: You know? But it really has a way that it wants to go, which is kind of beyond what we have total control of. Ms. Robinson: That's fascinating. It is. Dr. Gleiser: And when you find the solution or something that looks like a solution, you get emotionally moved to an amazing extent, especially when it's a surprising thing. You know, it really is a spiritual emotion. Like, I've had this a few times — not many. I actually probably had it several times but I just had a couple. But when I have this, it really is something transcendent. Ms. Robinson: Do you think that, for example, teleology might be an inadequate way of articulating what you're talking about? You know, I mean, teleology is sort of forbidden, but you can feel the shape of something pulling you toward something that you don't intend and it's as if the shape is somehow intrinsic and the conclusion is somehow necessary? Dr. Gleiser: That's funny because you phrased it in the negative. But that's very smart. Maybe? I am always afraid of teleology. You know, teleology has so many different traps. And so the question is always if it's teleology who's in control? And I don't know. Ms. Robinson: Exactly. Dr. Gleiser: You know, who are your characters there driving you? Ms. Robinson: Yeah. Dr. Gleiser: Right? Ms. Robinson: But you don't know who's in control and you have the feeling that there is some sort of intrinsic control emerging. In the sense, for example, that if you're creating a character and you ask him to do the wrong thing, use the wrong language, or leave when the conversation isn't over, he refuses. You know? And I'm sure that when you're doing something like that you just, you take a wrong turn and it tells you it's a wrong turn. Dr. Gleiser: Yes. Ms. Robinson: In some way. Dr. Gleiser: Absolutely. You know you're going wrong. You completely do. And that's what's hard about science and, you know, about fiction writing is that sometimes you're forced to go where you don't want to go because otherwise you are violating a certain law, you know. And it's just horrifying, right, because you really want to prove something, but you can't, because it's wrong. And you really believe in it but that's not good enough, right? And that's sort of the ruthless aspect, you know, of science in a sense that — I don't know, maybe as fiction you have a little more freedom, you know, than we do in that sense. Ms. Robinson: Or another kind. Ms. Tippett: So, you know, I think in a very remarkable way we've ended up back at the mystery of creation and even wandered into free will, but we don't have time to go there this evening. And so I want to thank Marcelo Gleiser and Marilynne Robinson and Templeton Foundation and Center of Theological Inquiry for hosting this. It was lovely to be here. Ms. Tippett: Marcelo Gleiser is Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College. He's the author of The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang and A Tear at the Edge of Creation: A Radical New Vision for Life in an Imperfect Cosmos. Marilynne Robinson is a professor at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. She's the author of several novels — Housekeeping, Home, and Gilead, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Her works of nonfiction include Absence of Mind. To listen again, download this show, or hear my unedited public conversation with Marilynne Robinson and Marcelo Gleiser, go to our website at While you're there, you can also find ways to follow us on Tumblr. On Facebook, we're at On Twitter, follow our show @beingtweets. Follow me @kristatippett. Ms. Tippett: Next time, shaping our technology to human purposes with MIT's Sherry Turkle. Please join us. This is APM — American Public Media. Voices on the Radio	dclm-gs1-006520000
View Book OSHO Online Library » The Books » The Osho Upanishad 1 2 3 4 5 > » Chapter 2: Bring the Inner and Outer into Harmony You seem to be fulfilling two roles: an outer one in which you provoke and expose the structure of our society, and a more intimate one in which you encourage your disciples towards the ultimate. Could you please comment? Existence consists of both: the inner and the outer. Unfortunately, for centuries the inner and the outer have been thought to be opposed to each other. They are not. The teaching which proposes that the inner and the outer are opposed has caused a tremendous tension in man - because man is a miniature existence, a miniature cosmos. Whatever exists in man also exists on a wider scale in existence, and vice versa. If man can be understood in his totality, you have understood the whole. The function of the master is to bring the inner and outer into a harmony: to create opposition between them is poisoning you. They are not opposed, they are one - two sides of the same coin, you cannot even separate them. Can you separate the inner from the outer? If they can be separated then what will you call the inner? What will you call the outer? Of what? Both are part of a coherent whole. But mankind has suffered tremendously because of the division. My function is to destroy the division completely, and to create a synchronicity in man’s outer life and his inner life. The work is tremendously complicated and great because the outside, up to now, has been considered to be materialism. It has been condemned by the so-called holy people; you have been told to renounce it. If you are not capable of renouncing it you are a sinner. Life has been made a sin. And for centuries, the whole emphasis of all the religions and all the traditions has been on the inner. This is one side of the story. The other side of the story is that matter is objective, visible; the inner reality seems to be just beautiful talk. So there have been philosophers and thinkers saying that only the outer is real; the inner is only an invention of the priests, it has no existence. These people have condemned spiritualism as nonsense. And both sides agree on one point: that the inner and the outer are contradictory - you can choose one, you cannot choose both. My approach is a choiceless acceptance of both. Naturally I am against the materialist because I know the inner exists - in fact the outer exists only for the inner, for its protection, for its nourishment. And I am also against the so-called spiritualists because I cannot deny the reality of matter. It is so evidently there all around us, that only people who can close their eyes, their reasoning, their understanding, their intelligence, can believe that this is all illusion, that it does not really exist. Just try. When you go out, go through the wall, not through the gate - and you will know whether it is illusion or reality. Even a Shankaracharya will go through the gate, not through the wall - and his whole life he will try to prove that the wall is an illusion, that it only appears to be, but it is not there. 1 2 3 4 5 > »	dclm-gs1-006530000
posted by David Adams on Tue 30th Sep 2003 17:40 UTC IconHere is our review of the new 1.25 GHz 15" Powerbook G4. There's nothing that brings back the sense of ecstatic anticipation that I had as a child on Christmas morning like waiting for the delivery guy to bring my new laptop. Online tracking says "out for delivery," so I'm sitting here, waiting by the front window of my house. It's 10:20 am, and I know it's likely to be a couple more hours. But I'm sitting here, basking in the childlike excitement. One manufacturer that understands and caters to this excitement is Apple Computer. They design their packaging almost as carefully as they design their computers. A new Powerbook comes nestled in its box like a piece of jewelry. I've bought Sonys and Dells too, but their packaging and presentation is more pedestrian. It's exciting to get one of those too, but experience has conditioned me to be particularly eager to open the box of my new 15" Powerbook G4. I'm something of a Powerbook junkie. Due partly to the fact that a good friend worked at Apple for many years, and I could get good deals, I've had almost every major model of Powerbook since 1995. Duo 2300c, 1400, 3400c, 5300, G3 Wall Street, G3 Lombard, iBook Dual USB, Titanium 400, Titanium 667, 12" G4. I've seen the good (Lombard) and the bad (5300). I defected from the Mac platform a few years back, and I've continued to use Windows and Linux regularly over the years, but the Powerbook has been the anchor that has kept me attached to Apple. I reviewed the 12" Powerbook earlier this year, and found it to be promising but not perfect. I've been using the Titanium Powerbook for over a year, which is a long time for me, and it's honestly one of the best laptops I've ever used. The painted trim around the edge is peeling and scuffed from my arms, and especially my metal watch band, scraping on them, but under the skin, it's a great machine. I've been waiting since the new year for Apple to refresh the 15" Powerbook model. It's an overdue upgrade. Many people saw the nifty features from the 17" Powerbook, like the light-up keyboard, Bluetooth, 802.11g, not to mention faster processor and graphics, and wanted to have them in a more practical size. The Airborne guy just arrived, so let's see if Apple's new laptop can live up to the expectations. Like the 12" and 17" Powerbooks released earlier this year, the new Powerbook is Aluminum, with a plastic bezel protecting the inside corners. The Titanium skin of my old Powerbook looked good and had great wow factor, but didn't seem to be more durable than the new aluminum alloy Apple has chosen. On the contrary, the Titanium case seemed rather more prone to scratches and dents than I would have expected. Though it's less than a centimeter wider than the Titanium, the new Powerbook seems quite a bit wider when opened. I think it's an optical illusion caused by the silver colored keyboard. The TiBook's dark grey keyboard provided some contrast, while the new one's is just a sea of silver. I personally prefer the dark keyboard's look, but the new silver one is a dream to type on. The TiBook's keyboard has a wafery feel that's common to laptops, and, as I mentioned in my review of the 12" powerbook, which has a similar keyboard, Apple's new Powerbook keyboard is great. It has the solid feel of a full-size keyboard. The one feature that I was absolutely rabid to try out, and one that I was very sad to see omitted from the 12" Powerbook at its debut, is the lighted keyboard. I love to sit in the dark at my computer, and though I touch type, when I have to use a lot of modifier keys or type a lot of number-letter combos, I always had to angle the screen down to illuminate the keyboard or use one of those USB flexlights that I never seemed to have on hand when I needed it. So now I've had the chance to see it in action. The verdict? It's a nifty feature. I'll have to spend a few weeks with it before I'll judge whether it was worth getting agitated about, but it certainly has the wow factor. A complementary feature is the new Powerbook's ability to dim the monitor according to the ambient light sensor that the keyboard uses to know when to light up. So in the dark, the keyboard lights up, and the screen dims. The 12" Powerbook's hard drive lies directly under the left palmrest, and under heavy hard drive use that area became untouchably hot. The new Powerbook's drive is under the keyboard, and during a long firewire-based data transfer between Powerbooks, the bottom of the laptop became very hot, but not as hot as the 12", and not right under my hand, so that's much better. I purposely left the default 4200 RPM drive in the one that I chose, instead of upgrading to the 5400 RPM drive, since I hoped that the slower drive would use less battery power and churn out less heat. I don't do a lot of drive-intensive tasks, so I'll hope my theory pays off over time. The 4200 RPM drive is significantly slower, though. Like the Titanium Powerbook, the display in the new Powerbook is bright, crisp, and vibrant. It lives up to the Powerbook's reputation for excellent displays. In her review, Eugenia especially found the monitor in her 12" Powerbook to be lacking (suited more for consumer-level iBook). This monitor has no such deficiencies. The monitor in the new 15 incher has the same resolution as the TiBook: 1280x854. This is certainly going to be a disappointment for some users who prefer high resolutions. This is the eternal conundrum for laptop manufacturers, since, unlike CRTs, LCD panels only support one resolution well. Some manufacturers, like Dell, offer a variety of monitors with different resolutions in an attempt to satisfy various customers' preferences. This is great, but it's certain to add expense and complexity to the distribution process. Dell, which has no retail distribution is better equipped to do this. Apple, not wanting to deal with the complexity of multiple monitor choices, had to pick a resolution that would satisfy the majority of users. 1280x854 is a good choice. My recommendation would be to also offer a 1680x1050 monitor as a build-to-order option. I'd probably still take the 1280x854, because I don't really need everything to be teeny tiny. Table of contents 1. "Powerbook review, Page 1" 2. "Powerbook review, Page 2" e p (0) 108 Comment(s) Technology White Papers See More	dclm-gs1-006540000
Thread beginning with comment 517900 To view parent comment, click here. RE[9]: Comment by shmerl by Alfman on Sun 13th May 2012 00:15 UTC in reply to "RE[8]: Comment by shmerl" Member since: "As I said, one of the reasons Microsoft bailed out Apple was to keep it alive as competition so that it would be harder to argue that Microsoft had a monopoly. The DOJ got around that by narrowing the market to exclude Macs (which ran on PPC rather than x86 at the time)." I'll believe you on the first part, the fall of apple could have made things worse for microsoft. But I don't think the second part has merit since even including linux & apple desktops wouldn't have changed microsoft's standing as a monopoly in the US. "What 'existing monopoly' is Microsoft using? WinRT cannot run any Windows x86 app. It is not compatible with the Windows x86 OS. What, is it just hte name 'windows' that is the issue?" Don't you think microsoft's monopoly has given it unique abilities to influence the ARM market? Focusing on just one instance...the EUFI secure boot fiasco is pretty clear cut in my opinion, and I predict the DOJ will get involved, but the trouble is they're a reactive body and won't step in until long after the damage is already done. Also, if it's anything like the last antitrust trial, it'll just be a slap on the hand. Technically secure boot was very cleverly designed such that it's next to impossible to distribute keys to owners without also distributing them to hackers. Such flaws could have easily been fixed in the spec, and any engineer worth his salt could have done better, but I think it was a brilliant move by MS to make owner control over EUFI on a wide scale unpalatable. Now, even if the DOJ intervenes, it won't be able to force secure boot keys to be returned to the owners without suddenly compromising it. I think it's plausible that microsoft has analyzed the cost/benefit ratios and could be knowingly violating antitrust law as a calculated risk. Hopefully for them this time the executives are wise enough not to leave trails to trace their guilt. Yep it's a serious allegation but I don't think MS is trustworthy enough to rule it out. Reply Parent Score: 3	dclm-gs1-006550000
Member Login not a member? sign-up now! Customize to your family and get personalized newsletters. Name of my story The Day You Got Me! Who is the story about? A family in hope of sharing their love and life with a special boy. Description A strong boy who loved to talk and explore. He lived far away from the family who wanted to hear his stories and watch him explore beyond his current world. Who else is in the story? Mama, Daddy, and big brother. Where are they? A small countryside in China. What are they doing? Meeting in a government building for the very first time. Why are they doing that? It was time to make our family complete. It was "Gotcha Day". Many children were united with their new families. What happens to everyone? Grownups and sibling(s)awaited the arrival of their newest family member. There was tears of joy as well as tears of fear. But soon everything just falls into place and everyone is cautious but content, and the family bonding begins. Big brother and William bond while playing with a whoopee cushion in the hotel room. They laughed so hard James fell off the bed onto the floor. Daddy and William bond while William learns about shaving and imitating daddy. They looked like Santa and his elf. Mommy and William bond by practicing to be America's next famous duet. William holds a piece of rolled up paper as his mic and he leads in verse. Then he puts the mic in front of me as I repeat his verse. The mic goes back and forth as daddy records us. Finally we watch our video, and smile at each other. What's your favorite part of the story? Singing with my mommy. I can watch our video when ever I want to! What would you build out of LEGO® DUPLO® blocks to bring your story to life? A family of four,a globe or the Asian continent, a working microphone, and an airplane which brought us all home. Strange (and Hilarious!) Family Pet Photos	dclm-gs1-006560000
Vehicles are equipped with a well functioning oil pump because Volvo S40rs recognize precisely how significant it really is for your engine parts to be lubricated well. With a properly maintained Volvo S40 oil pump, adequate quantity of oil will probably be delivered into your engine components to help them continue running perfectly to stop hasty wear and breakdown. When your vehicle posseses an oil pressure gauge, you'll know right away if the issue is a weak oil pressure, but when it doesn't have one, you can check the warning device or determine if your engine produces clattering sounds. As the oil filter is positioned right after it, oil pump seems to be the only engine componentthat utilizes unfiltered oil so it can easily be damaged due to oil particles. When the gears spinning inside the oil pump of your Volvo S40 are exhausted, chances are, they won't be proficient at delivering ample oil to the engine, and this will ultimately result in engine failure. When it's time that your ride necessitates high quality replacement Volvo S40 oil pump, Parts Train turns out to be the site to shop. Providing an array of choices acquired from world class producers like NOK, Auto7, and Omix, you could find here the item that's right for your rig.	dclm-gs1-006570000
Trigger Warning for discussion of Sandy Hook Elementary shootings Why? I guess that's what everyone's wondering in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings this week. Why did this happen? Could we have prevented it? How can we stop it from happening again? As an activist, I turn my eyes to social structures, to laws, to ideologies of domination. I think of words from Martin Luther King Jr., from so many years ago, that apply still today: "we must be concerned not merely about … [Read more...]	dclm-gs1-006590000
Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks httptech Syntactic Confectionery Delight Answer: Cookie based authentication: Is it secure? ( #29937=categorized answer: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help?? Q&A > CGI programming > Cookie based authentication: Is it secure? contributed by chromatic The only thing successfully retrieving a cookie should imply, from a security standpoint, is that, at one time, someone using that particular browser (session, if you're using session cookies) was successfully authenticated. Period. If I logged in to your site from a public terminal and left the browser open, anyone else could potentially use my cookie. For some applications, this is enough security. For others, you might save a timestamp of the user's last access and require reauthentication if X minutes/hours/days have passed since the last transaction. In general, if you don't store too much information in a cookie and if you realize the implications of what I've said above, this is a decent method of saving state. Comment on Answer: Cookie based authentication: Is it secure? Log In? What's my password? Create A New User and the web crawler heard nothing... How do I use this? \| Other CB clients Other Users? Others about the Monastery: (13) As of 2014-03-13 18:20 GMT Find Nodes? Voting Booth? Have you used a cryptocurrency? Results (288 votes), past polls	dclm-gs1-006600000
Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks Ovid Keep It Simple, Stupid Referencing MySQL Results by Column by TheBiscuit (Initiate) on May 26, 2010 at 18:08 UTC ( #841773=perlquestion: print w/ replies, xml ) Need Help?? TheBiscuit has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question: I would like to reduce the number of MySQL queries executed by running a single SELECT statement then later referencing the results, preferably by a single column. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure how and am hoping for a bit of help. The SELECT statement looks like this: $sqlQuery = "SELECT username,email,phone FROM users"; $sqlResult = $connect->query($sqlQuery); Is it possible to somehow reference a specific row by the username, to pull the email and phone values? If not, what is the best way to pull the specific values? This will be done within a foreach loop where the username is pulled from another source. Comment on Referencing MySQL Results by Column Download Code Re: Referencing MySQL Results by Column by halfcountplus (Hermit) on May 26, 2010 at 18:15 UTC This isn't at all a perl question, it's an SQL question. You should do a bit of reading about SQL syntax, there's tons of stuff online. Anyway, for example: $sqlQuery = "SELECT username,email,phone FROM users WHERE username='bo +b'"; Always use the single quotes. WRT the perl API, you can also use placeholders like this: my $sql = $db->prepare("SELECT username,email,phone FROM users WHERE u +sername=?"); $sql->execute("bob"); The point of using a placeholder is to prevent abuse of the single quote in SQL injection attacks on the database, if say "bob" where actually an $input and you are operating in an insecure environment. I apologize for not being clear enough, but this is a Perl question. The script I am trying to modify currently runs a SELECT query with a WHERE statement multiple times within a foreach loop. I would like to run the query once and pull the necessary data from an array instead. Below is the segement of code I'm working with: # Bind to LDAP Server $ldap = Net::LDAP->new( $ldapServer ) or die "$@"; $bind = $ldap->bind( $ldapUser, password => $ldapPass ); # Connect to SQL Server $connect = Mysql->connect($sqlServer, $sqlDB, $sqlUser, $sqlPass); $connect->selectdb($sqlDB); $ldapResult = $ldap->search( base => $ldapBaseOU, filter => "(&(usertype=Employee))", attrs => @ldapAttrs ); $sqlQuery = "SELECT username,email,phone FROM users"; $sqlResult = $connect->query($sqlQuery); print $sqlResult; my @entries = $ldapResult->entries; my $entry; foreach $entry ( @entries ) { my $username = $entry->get_value ( 'sAMAccountName' ); my $dn = $entry->dn; ### *** Insert Match Here * ### $phone = ?? $email = ?? } # Unbind from LDAP Server $bind = $ldap->unbind; In the section noted as "* Insert Match Here ***, I would like to be able to use the $username value pulled from LDAP and match it to the 'username' value pulled from MySQL to set the phone and email variables. Do not use Mysql, it is obsolete module and its own documentation recommends to use DBI. DBI has selectall_arrayref method which you can use to get all records from the table. If you want to be able to get phone and email by username you can store result into hash like this (not tested): my $res = $dbh->selectall_arrayref("SELECT username, phone, email FROM + users"); my %users = map { $_->[0] => [ $_->[1], $_->[2] ] } @$res; for (@usernames) { my ($phone, $email) = @{$users{$_}}; } Sorry, bad advise: 1. "Always use single quotes" is too much work. There is no need to quote numbers, doing so makes the job harder for the database. 2. "Always use single quotes" is just plain wrong. It makes people think "just add the magic quotes and everything will be well". Even with the quotes, the SQL is still vulnerable to SQL injection. You really want proper quoting here. 3. While most databases use single quotes, some exotic ones may use other quotes. So, you first need to find out HOW to quote properly. Luckily, all this has already been done in DBI and the various DBDs, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. So, the last part should really read: "You SHOULD use placeholders". Unfortunately, DBI does not force you to use them, because that would be too much work. It really should, so you better read that advice as "You MUST use placeholders". Some technical background: DBI guarantees that you can use "?" placeholders with each and every database supported by DBI, even if the database itself does not support placeholders. DBI will automatically insert all bind values, properly quoted, into the SQL statement before it is passed to the database. Since most DBs do support placeholders, using them costs really nothing. Even better, because most DB APIs use seperate ways for the SQL statement and the bind values, there is absolutely no need to quote anything at the Perl or the DB API level. As a nice side effect, your code can work with every database that understands SQL (unless you use some DB-specific, non-standard SQL). And, for extra bonus points, the prepared SQL statement with placeholders can be cached. Imagine you need to run 20.000 queries (insert, select, update, whatever) against a database, that differ only in the values used. Using hardcoded SQL, you have to generate 20.000 SQL statements, pass them to the database, have the database parse them 20.000 times, and finally execute the one of the 20.000 parsed SQL statements, returning a result. With placeholders, you write ONE query containing placeholders, pass that query ONCE to the database, have the database parse that query ONCE, and finally you play ping-pong with the database: One set of values in, one result out, without any parsing or quoting, as fast as your Perl code can handle the data. Re: Referencing MySQL Results by Column by dineed (Scribe) on May 26, 2010 at 20:38 UTC I believe others have already given appropriate Perl advice. However, if you prefer not to select all rows from the table, which may make or may not make sense depending on the size of the table, you can use a for loop to build a list of user names, and then structure your SQL select statement to use "IN". $sqlQuery = "SELECT username,email,phone FROM users where username IN +("name1", "name2", ...)"; $sqlResult = $connect->query($sqlQuery); This should return all the rows you need and then you can process them as needed within your program. NOTE: I know the "IN" list capability exists in Oracle, so my suggestion is based on the assumption of similar functionality in MySQL. Re: Referencing MySQL Results by Column by CountZero (Chancellor) on May 27, 2010 at 06:14 UTC AS others already showed, it is possible to do so, but in most of the scenario's I can think of, this is not a good idea. • Unless you are guaranteed that the contents of the table will not change during the lifetime of your script, you are not going to pick up any changes to it and therefore may be working with stale data. • If the table is very big, you will download a lot of data to a variable structure in your script, of which you perhaps only use a very small part. This is wasteful of memory and will scale very badly. • Databases are made to be rather efficient to hand you back the answer to your queries. Over the aggregated lifetime of your script is likely that the database will do a better job than you can. Log In? What's my password? Create A New User Node Status? node history Node Type: perlquestion [id://841773] Approved by Corion and the web crawler heard nothing... 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